You are a married desi living in the NorthEast USA AND
a) has kids OR
b) your parents (or in-laws) visiting (read baby-sitting if a) is true)
and a "long" weekend arrives
I am willing to take a bet that the following places will automatically be in a desi's mind
a) Niagara Falls - I think desis are somehow attracted by Niagara. I would be lying to you if I said that Niagara was not in my list of long weekend visits.
b) Pittsburg temple - Suddenly as a desi I feel "I am loosing my religion" and especially with parents visiting the Pittsburg venkateshwara temple immediately goes to the top of the list.
c) New Jersey /New York - Actually this will be a new york visit -but a visit to a friend/relative in New Jersey would be the event that drives this visit.
d) Washington D.C - Nation's capital
If you are not doing any of these things - you probably are scrambling and calling other messed up desi parents like you asking if their kids want to have a playdate. I want to hear comments from other desi parents as to how close I am in this hypothesis.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Desi rankings for sedans in the 25K-40K range.
We started looking for a new car yesterday. My current car staple is a very desi ( Honda Civic and a Honda Odyssey eh!) standard template . In this blog, I am going to test drive and rank these cars based on what I consider car desisms:
Car Desism 1: Should have good resale value
This desism comes from the fact that as desis we immediately look at things long term. I think this safeguard is just built within us and comes into play automatically. I think it is a very ASIAN thing ( if folks here can actually remember that we are freaking ASIAN too!).
Car Desism 2: Gotta be a 4 door
Gotta be able to move people (read parents that live with you and cater to your babysitting needs - more on this on a different blog and children) - during weekends to the temple or wherever the next high-carb consumption party is happening.
Car Desism 3: Price-Performance should be good.
For god's sake we are plunkering 25K!+ goddamit
Car Desism 4: The Desi Wow! factor
Everyone wants to be this kewl Desi that his desi breathren is not. We hate to admit it - but dont you feel bad when you reach the same conclusion that thousands of Desis reach - that a Toyota or Honda or Acura or Mercedes is the best car in the entire "White" world. I have seen some of my friends not to conform to this - this is that occassional Land Rover desi dude - just to prove a point that desis can think like "ghoras"
Car Desism 5: The Desi Status Symbol Thang!
Gotta drive a Mercedes or Lexus or BMW 5 series.
With these things in mind -I have begun test driving. I am going to update the blog and give a Desism Car ranking on a scale of 1-10 (10 being a definite desi buy).
Volkswagen Passat
We thought this will be a "different' car - no one in our friend circle has it - NOT a HONDA or TOYOTA ( See Car Desism 4). Turns out that Passat is NOT a desi car as Desism 1 and Desism 3 overrides whatever goodness this car is.
Verdict: Passat is NOT a desi car - this is for someone that has this weird affliction to things European.
Updates to this thread follows as I go through testing these cars.
Car Desism 1: Should have good resale value
This desism comes from the fact that as desis we immediately look at things long term. I think this safeguard is just built within us and comes into play automatically. I think it is a very ASIAN thing ( if folks here can actually remember that we are freaking ASIAN too!).
Car Desism 2: Gotta be a 4 door
Gotta be able to move people (read parents that live with you and cater to your babysitting needs - more on this on a different blog and children) - during weekends to the temple or wherever the next high-carb consumption party is happening.
Car Desism 3: Price-Performance should be good.
For god's sake we are plunkering 25K!+ goddamit
Car Desism 4: The Desi Wow! factor
Everyone wants to be this kewl Desi that his desi breathren is not. We hate to admit it - but dont you feel bad when you reach the same conclusion that thousands of Desis reach - that a Toyota or Honda or Acura or Mercedes is the best car in the entire "White" world. I have seen some of my friends not to conform to this - this is that occassional Land Rover desi dude - just to prove a point that desis can think like "ghoras"
Car Desism 5: The Desi Status Symbol Thang!
Gotta drive a Mercedes or Lexus or BMW 5 series.
With these things in mind -I have begun test driving. I am going to update the blog and give a Desism Car ranking on a scale of 1-10 (10 being a definite desi buy).
Volkswagen Passat
We thought this will be a "different' car - no one in our friend circle has it - NOT a HONDA or TOYOTA ( See Car Desism 4). Turns out that Passat is NOT a desi car as Desism 1 and Desism 3 overrides whatever goodness this car is.
Verdict: Passat is NOT a desi car - this is for someone that has this weird affliction to things European.
Updates to this thread follows as I go through testing these cars.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Living in Bay area to living elsewhere in US.
It has been 4 years since I moved to Northern Virginia from the great place that is Silicon Valley. All these 4 years I have been trying to find one darn good reason to feel that NoVA is a better area to live than the valley. I reach the same conclusion when that thought runs through me. Silicon Valley is the best place to live in the entire world (yes I mean it - and I was born and brought up in India !) despite the fact that it sits on top of a set of active fault zones and despite the fact that the housing prices are always out of whack.
I have seen people give reasons as to why they think NoVa is best ( We get to see all 4 seasons! - which is the most bogus bullcrap that any Desi can give IMO) - but the fact that you can have 300 fairly clear sunny days in the valley beats any arguments for any other place. Add to the fact that as an IT professional, I feel like valley hums innovations all the time.
Some of the things that I like about the Bay area:
- If you are a pretend or wannabe health freak - you got the best accessible trails in my mind. I used to live in Fremont and going out to Mission Peak in Fremont every saturday during summer days (and looking at the big house that MC Hammer built and lost )>
- You got the beaches in an hour's drive. Personally like the Santa Cruz beach and the beaches that line up from Santa Cruz out to Half Moon Bay when you drive out to San Francisco on Highway 1.
- You got the mountains and gambling in about 3 hours drive out to Lake Tahoe.
- The place is probably one of the vegetarain friendly place to live outside of India.
More on this later..
I have seen people give reasons as to why they think NoVa is best ( We get to see all 4 seasons! - which is the most bogus bullcrap that any Desi can give IMO) - but the fact that you can have 300 fairly clear sunny days in the valley beats any arguments for any other place. Add to the fact that as an IT professional, I feel like valley hums innovations all the time.
Some of the things that I like about the Bay area:
- If you are a pretend or wannabe health freak - you got the best accessible trails in my mind. I used to live in Fremont and going out to Mission Peak in Fremont every saturday during summer days (and looking at the big house that MC Hammer built and lost )>
- You got the beaches in an hour's drive. Personally like the Santa Cruz beach and the beaches that line up from Santa Cruz out to Half Moon Bay when you drive out to San Francisco on Highway 1.
- You got the mountains and gambling in about 3 hours drive out to Lake Tahoe.
- The place is probably one of the vegetarain friendly place to live outside of India.
Breakfast buffet at Chutney's Indian Vegetarian Restaurant - herndon, VA
This morning I visited Chutney - a South Indian vegetarian restaurant that is out in herndon clock tower area ( Mc Nair Nagar) . Some of my friends had raved about this place. So I was pretty psyched in going to the place. It is a breakfast buffet that Chutney provides on weekend mornings- idli,dosa,pongal (or so I think) and vada. My first impressions on Chutney - Extremely pedestrian. Not worth the $7.50 that you gotta cough up for the breakfast. I think Woodlands weekend lunch buffet is more value (if you are vegetarian - which I am). The amount of carbs that you can eat in one setting is a completely different story!
I came away thinking that I am not going to go back there for a while while.
I came away thinking that I am not going to go back there for a while while.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Height of desi madness - banning the DaVinci Code..
I just read this news item about the State of Punjab banning Davinci code as it offends the minority community feelings. This ban follows the ban acts states of Mizoram,Nagaland etc.
I am simply amazed by the fact that these states are sensitive to the minority - but completely insensitive to what is going on with the "oppressed minority" forward castes with regards to reservation.
I am frankly pissed at these politician asswipes that just cater to their minority votebank. It is interesting to note that even vatican didnt ask the movie to be banned - however all the Catholics in India are suddenly offended by the fact that the movie portrays Jesus as a mere mortal. Offended is one thing -but to curtail free speech is a different beast.
More asswipes to be pissed off about- Tamilnadu, AP and Punjab bans Davinci code as well. All these indian politicians are vermins.
I am simply amazed by the fact that these states are sensitive to the minority - but completely insensitive to what is going on with the "oppressed minority" forward castes with regards to reservation.
I am frankly pissed at these politician asswipes that just cater to their minority votebank. It is interesting to note that even vatican didnt ask the movie to be banned - however all the Catholics in India are suddenly offended by the fact that the movie portrays Jesus as a mere mortal. Offended is one thing -but to curtail free speech is a different beast.
More asswipes to be pissed off about- Tamilnadu, AP and Punjab bans Davinci code as well. All these indian politicians are vermins.
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