I am allergic

I have become allergic to talk shows. The few times I went to a church, I could not stand the screaming, stomping, and pounding of a preacher on a Sunday morning to grill into the heads of those attending that if we did not submit to his “Lord” we would go to hell. I preferred going to hell rather than getting a head ache on a beautiful Sunday morning. At the invitation of some friends, I even went to a “Hare Krishna Temple” a few evenings. But the chanting and jumping and the loud sound of the drums and cymbals gave me a headache. I tolerated it not to offend anyone. Then came the demagoguery of the extreme right, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Rush Limbaugh, and the bunch. So, I turned off my radio. So much for religion and politics! I thought that ought to make my life a little quiet and peaceful. However, at home front I am bombarded on weekend mornings with Kim Commando’s computer talk, Tom Tynan’s home improvement and then there is the talk on health and fitness on the radio as I try to eat my breakfast. These are my wife’s favorite radio talk shows. Indirectly she wants me to learn a few tips too. Personally I find some of them obnoxious, “know-it-all”. I would rather listen to some soothing music in the morning. But I listen to this bunch anyway. I can tolerate an hour of this to make the rest of the weekend sail smoothly.

I think I have developed permanent, incurable, chronic allergy for such talks.

A republic, a democracy, a police state!

Here I am quoting some of the facts from an editorial by Poonam I Kaushish written on India’s 57th republic day along with a few comments of my own.

In a supposedly secular India, a banker will have to take into account the borrower’s religion when writing out a loan check. Nobody has time for the common man’s growing disillusionment with the system which explodes in rage and which is leading to more and more people taking the law into their own hands.

In Kashmir, There are no Barbies and lullabies. Almost eight of ten boys and five out of ten girls celebrated Id with a gun, landmine, rocket or an IED. In the North East, the militants continue to wreck havoc. 15 States are Naxalite-hit and there are 40 Naxalite groups active in India. These are just torchbearers of the rising people’s anger and discontent against the widening disparities sweeping across the country. They have seen through the sham of democracy and have refused to say die. Even the villagers of Nithari, have not spared the Noida police for its failure to find their missing children. Anger will no longer be dormant. And the lathi and gun is the symbol of disillusionment with the government and its politics.

Beneath the hollow pronouncement, “India is shining” lays the filth that is the reality of India, a total urban breakdown and grinding poverty in the midst of glittering wealth. Flaunting of corrupt money, throwing a wedding reception with 1000 invitees in a posh hotel are the norm with the “new” rich and powerful. The government wants to suppress grievances by force. Brown rulers have replaced the white rulers. They are not interested in root cause analysis. A government of the people has become a machinery to swindle the common folks, to play politics of vote bank, to line their own pockets and then have the audacity to defy the court of justice. Is it a willing republic, a true democracy, or a police state? You decide.

Evolution, animal sacrifice, and justification

Somehow a friendly discussion ended up talking about animal sacrifice this afternoon. I am still puzzled. Perhaps no body cares about what I say here. Yet no one is able to convince me of his or her so called righteous justification.

Are species continuing to evolve? Are the unfit becoming extinct or are we, the self proclaimed superior species pushing some to extinction by manipulating the environment or justifying our actions. Some continue to sacrifice animals in the name of religion even after thousands of years. They claim to be religious. Their justification is that if we can kill to eat, what’s wrong with the sacrifice; after all it will be consumed. I have no problem when it is part of a food chain, i.e. big fish eating a little fish or a lion hunting an animal for food. However, I have a problem when we as hypocrites sacrifice one in the name of religion or to receive blessings from God or to go to heaven. Does God create the animals too? If so, does he want to be blamed for killing one of its creation in his name?

Let us not do it in the name of religion or sadistic fun (like bull fight, water buffalo fight, dog fight). If you are hungry and it is your diet, so be it. Don’t kill it in the name of God or religion; let us be honest. Religion, tradition, social practices must evolve with time. Just because we did it in the past does not justify continuing it. Past is dead and gone. Let us reason out our future actions from the past. If something was reasonable in the past because of knowledge of the time (or lack of it such as the Sun going around the earth, worshipping snake, being afraid of eclipse, or trying to please God to avoid his (or her) wrath by sacrificing animal or even human, etc), it may not be reasonable now. In a dynamic world nothing can be static, not religion, not tradition, not social stigma, not superstition. If we claim to be the best of the animal kingdom, we have no right to take the life of a meek animal in a hypocritical way in the name of the creator, if you believe in one.

My project in the GoM

The producer is supposed to bring on the well soon, 70 MMCFD of natural gas and 12000 BPD of oil. I am trying to get my part completed fast, the final details i.e. getting SCADA working, VRU (vapor recovery unit) functioning, communication between two offshore platforms, LACT meter flow computers calculating, and so on. When you think you see the light at the end of the tunnel, “shit happens” as Forrest Gump would say.

The I & E inspector lost his brother yesterday to a massive heart attack at 60. This morning, there was chaos on the platform. Some one was alleging that one of the construction contractor’s hands did drugs. It’s an absolute no. I had to get the person off the platform and had to send a person to the platform to drug test all the construction hands. I was also told that one of the guys’ wife was going out with some one back home while he was working hard offshore to make a few bucks. Weather has not been cooperating either stopping the paint job. I was stuck on the platform a week ago, as helicopters would not fly because of dense fog. Now, helicopters fly sporadically. Sea is rough for supply boat. We have an arctic front. Texas is experiencing ice, sleet, and freezing rain.

However, “we shall overcome”, my mechanical inspector tells me. Such is the life in offshore business. Besides technical issues, dead lines and cost overrun, you have to deal with personal problems, drug problems, weather issues, logistics, and grocery for the crew in the middle of nowhere trying to build a facility sleeping on hard bunk beds away from home.

Just Cause - Lincoln, Gandhi, King

The Emancipation Proclamation
January 1, 1863
By the President of the United States of America:
A Proclamation.

And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.
By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

Mahatma Gandhi
On The Eve Of Historic Dandi March
March 11, 1930

But let there be not a semblance of breach of peace even after all of us have been arrested. We have resolved to utilize all our resources in the pursuit of an exclusively nonviolent struggle. Let no one commit a wrong in anger. This is my hope and prayer. I wish these words of mine reached every nook and corner of the land.
… The history of the world is full of instances of men who rose to leadership, by sheer force of self-confidence, bravery and tenacity. We too, if we sincerely aspire to Swaraj and are impatient to attain it, should have similar self-confidence. Our ranks will swell and our hearts strengthen, as the number of our arrests by the Government increases.
Much can be done in many other ways besides these. The Liquor and foreign cloth shops can be picketed. We can refuse to pay taxes if we have the requisite strength. The lawyers can give up practice. The public can boycott the law courts by refraining from litigation. Government servants can resign their posts. In the midst of the despair reigning all round people quake with fear of losing employment. Such men are unfit for Swaraj.

Martin Luther King
"I have a dream"-speech, aug. 28, 1963

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, that one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exhalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

January

A new year is born. It is the month when our older daughter was born. It is also the month when my niece (“bhagin” who showed up last summer out of the blue) was born. One of the nieces of my wife was also born in this month. Approximately four newborn arrive on this earth every second. (We have 6.5 billion folks in the world and 20 are born for every 1000. You do the math.). Approximately 0.5 billion people have birthdays in January. For many, birthdays don’t mean anything although these are special days in their lives.

I am not good at remembering birthdays etc. So, I wish our daughter, our nieces, and each and everyone whose birthday falls in January, a very Happy B’day. It is also the month of “Bhogali Bihu” (a Bihu to enjoy a feast with near and dear ones after the harvest) and of festivities with bonfires for the folks from the land of the Red River and the Blue Hills. I wish them a Happy Bhogali Bihu in spite of all the turmoil they face. Truly, January is a very special month.

Turmoil on the Red River

The river is on fire again. My heart aches. I was born there, but I am a stranger now. News travels fast. Who do you blame? You cannot clap with one hand. Nothing is created with nothing. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. ULFA happened as a reaction. Someone forgot to diagnose and treat it. More force, more prison, more bullets, AFSPA, do not solve anything. Only understanding and love do. Why do leaders find it difficult to talk, reason, compromise? Is it pride? Is it about winning? Is it about being cleverer to out do the other? It is not a game; it is about life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Innocent people get caught in the crossfire. Fire continues to burn. We add to the list: Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Kashmir, and now the valley of the Red River. It has been burning since July of 1960. Is it frustration, neglect, misunderstanding, colonial treatment, unemployment, disparity, corruption, fear (of losing identity) or a simple movement of the fault line of the socio-political landscape?

Internet is back

If you wondered, I could not post because we have been without Internet for two weeks. Finally we gave up on the previous Internet provider and signed on with a new one. So, here I am.

Personally, it wasn’t too bad without Internet. I was home with time off from work, our daughters came home, and we even had an engagement party on the 23rd. Our older daughter’s fiancé and his parents arrived. Younger daughter’s boy friend and his parents came. We had our usual community members. The margarita machine was humming at the back yard. Champagne and wine flowed. Food was catered. The empty house was buzzing with relatives, old and new. Christmas lights brightened the house inside and out. After the party was over, we opened our presents on Christmas morning. My wife cooked and cooked, and we simply consumed. I even tried out my tennis racket again. Life has been good.

Now it’s time to get back to work. I am flying out to a platform tomorrow morning to check on my project. Wish all of you out there a Happy New Year. Standby for my future posts.