A met up with her one of her best friends who moved from Bay Area back to India in August to be closer to their aging parents; their kid was only 1 or 2 years into elementary school and the timing felt right. She was telling A that while her husband and the kid adjusted back to India in almost no time she has been having a hard time adjusting to life back there. The kid obviously has already made friends after initially having a hard time, she thought she would adjust back faster and it would be her husband who would have a harder time adjusting back to India – turns out the opposite. The same joys (aka cheap household labor) she was looking forward to are the same things that annoy her now – people constantly going in and out of house, constantly managing their and your schedule, constantly being vigilant of them. It was hilarious A later said that things she really looked forward to assuming delegation would give her more time to herself are the very things eating up her time entire day. No plans of moving back though yet she said, and being closer to either set of parents for them has outweighed all decisions for now.
Macro
My foi/bua’s husband has been in and out of hospital / ICU for almost 2 months now and its taking a toll on my dad because my dad is the one running around with his sis to hospitals, doctors and all. My dad’s brothers are being at a distance (because well my dad is also paying for the entire hospital visits and they want no part of it), and the husband’s own sisters who regularly demand their rakhi gifts are nowhere to be seen. They haven’t even come to the hospital once to even check on him. My foi’s family is not well to do and after pandemic struck neither of them has a proper job and are getting old, so naturally my dad decided to take care of them by sending a monthly allowance much against our wishes because it effectively made them lazy and codependent on my dad – a price for which now my dad is paying because they have no insurance and hospital stays in India are expensive these days. Now I love my foi a lot and grew up in her hands, and life dealt an extremely unfair cards to her – so I decided to help my dad and send some cash too.
This news of course reached other people – I have gotten a range of WhatsApp messages going from “Why did you help? Now you are also on the hook to support her entire life!”, to “it is in your and your dad’s best interest that her husband recovers otherwise further conversations can be tough!”, to “we know you love your foi but think of us also!”, to “set your boundaries on what you can and cannot do otherwise you will end up like your dad”. The last one being the only message that I think was not depressing. Now I am pissed at my dad and foi for making a news item of how I helped them but I can’t yell at them either right now. I guess one of those things I have to shrug under the rug. And yes less said about those other relatives, better.
Trumps approval is lowest it ever been it’s seems. Is this a fucking joke to Americans? He represents you America, and you are right now abhorrent is the message. I don’t care if you didn’t vote for him, enough of you did. Even I did not vote for him but I get to wear the same badge of shame as rest of you and for that you suck.
Fifteen years to the day since mom passed. It feels forever ago and not too long ago at the same time. Time has healed the wounds so to speak. The first few years of her anniversary were hard on me and family, but over time all of us have moved on in many ways. Dad still does his puja and all, but now life just goes on after a quick prayer in the mind wishing her well. A part of me still imagines what would have life been if she was still around.
Rinku Singh’s dad died just 2 days ago. The guy went and came back to the team in no time. This is not something to be celebrated or praised as “duty to country BS”. This is purely an indication of insecurity and feeling that you cannot let go off your back lest someone else take your spot feeling. It’s a terrible. (I know it’s possible he hated his dad and all that, but it’s still setting a terrible example)
So many of my colleagues and acquaintances are now talking about creating a passive income source to hedge against AI taking their jobs. I know folks who started a soccer academy, another colleague wants to open bakery franchise, and a few others looking to real estate rentals for income. I am not sure of any of it though. If AI is going to take away white collar jobs wholesale, people will have no money to spend on any of these. We are staring at a collapsing society if jobs disappear like that and no amount of donuts are going to bring you that needed income. I get the idea of creating a secondary source of income I just don’t know what will click though.
A is in India for a personal trip but she was asked to come to work for a day in Chennai as a big chunk of USA team is also there next week so she was asked if she could come. Now the team of Americans and Indian-Americans are already there and news of Iran war came out. The company issued an advisory that all Americans should stay put in their hotel room until further notice. In Chennai. Obviously the desis didn’t listen coz we know better, but a couple of white people who did travel are locked in their hotel rooms it seems. And all I can think is Americans really do feel that the entire world centers around them and everyone is out to get them. We had a good laugh at this and I was like good , just ask the whites to stay put in hotel entire week and you can just enjoy the fun by yourselves. Grow up, white people, you are not the victims 😂
🍿 Ikkis (2026) – ★★★★☆
Even with inconsistent editing, Ikkis is the anti-war war movie we need today. I watched this only coz of Sriram Raghavan behind the camera and it didn’t disappoint. No jingoism of any kind, and represents Pakistanis as humans with feelings – it’s a surprise that a deeply emphatic movie about people on both sides can get made in India today. The performances are all first rate but bookended by Dharmendra’s bittersweet and endearing last performance. I did not expect an Indian movie to take a tone like this movie did about India Pakistan.
This is the first company I am working that is completely dominated by Asians (non-Indians). Whites and Indians are the minority in this company which is slightly different from all the other places I have worked at before – generally they have been Indian dominated followed by whites and Asians.
Imagine I was 2 million in debt on my already under water house, but I want to buy a house worth 5 million and I go to Bank of America and say give me the best rate possible what do you think they will say? They will kick me out is what they will do. This is exactly what Paramount is doing by trying to buy Warner Bros but banks and lenders are like cool cool it’s ok you take on 85 billion dollars in debt – the American public will bail you out eventually so why worry?