Today is Maha Shivratri, so according to Hindu calendar is also death anniversary for mom. It’s also her birthday too today, along with my wife who shares the bday. And it’s also my in-laws wedding anniversary. So yeah a lot going on today! It was a good call to celebrate the birthday dinner last night instead.
Macro
I cannot in good conscience support Afghanistan cricket team any more sorry. There was a reason why South Africa was banned from International cricket for 22 years. While they may all be great players, but I can’t support a team that represents, ultimately, whether they want or not, Taliban. I hope these players flee their countries and play for someone else.
Dad and Uncle/Aunt have successfully done their dubkis in Ganga river on occasion of Maha-Shivratri and Kumbh Mela. I was worried after seeing and reading so much about crowds there, especially for my aunt who can’t walk much. Two days ago on a different trip, my father-in-law and mother-in-law did the same. Both set of parents came back with same feedback: Good arrangements, everything was convenient. They had people biking you to different locations, and if not you could just take the boat out to the ghat and avoid all walking/rush. All in all they had a convenient experience at Maha Kumbh and glad that they went and it was nothing like what was on media. As usual, another reminder, do not believe everything you see on social media or any media channels. I am glad it went off well for both set of parents and uncle/aunt.
A common friend of ours moved out of USA two years back as part of job rotation in bank and posted to Addis Ababa. Their kid mostly grew up here and thanks to pandemic they skipped multiple posting resulting in kid almost becoming a teenager here. He was on business trip back here and turns out the kid is having a blast growing up in Addis Ababa and swears he has no interest ever to come back to USA! And now the same family is moving to Cambodia for next posting. The kid is in 11th grade and is looking forward to new experiences! I love such stories of young people exploring the world – unlike my kid who thinks the world starts and ends in America and India 🤣
For wife’s bday dinner the kid wants us to go to a steakhouse coz she wants to eat a burger there and neither of us actually like steak at all so we are all going there to eat fish and cauliflower while my kid will eat an expensive burger only to complain that the one she had in McDs tastes better!
Oh look at that! After years of sanewashing him, NYTimes suddenly feels the opposite. You know what I hope he comes after you and shuts your crap organization down so we don’t have to suffer through your low quality journalistic nonsense enabling fascists. I hope he sues you all into oblivion.
🍿 Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) – ★★★★☆
Mission Impossible returns to form finally in movie #5!
All the crowd nonsense aside I find it fascinating how hundreds of years ago someone came up with idea of Kumbh Mela aligned to Jupiter’s movements, and how the Maha Kumbh Mela happening 144 years apart is aligned to all planets being visible in straight line. Like who the heck thought of all this nearly a century ago and how did they do it?
I feel bad for Ukraine. The lack of support from Europe and over reliance on America has put them in an untenable situation at this point. There is no chance that Europe can and will come to their rescue – heck they won’t even be able to protect themselves first at this point. And with current administration, things look rather bleak for Ukraine.
The impact around dc area in federal space is real. Eventually ancillary companies will be impacted too. My wife works in a group that makes solutions for federal space in her company and they have already lost half their pipeline contracts thanks to the morons. Right now she is not impacted but the impact to her company is real so who knows anything! We are in stressful few months.