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My dog loves khakra

Went out to play ball with doggo; froze myself. Its 45 but feels way more chillier. Ugh my most hated phase of the year is coming up quickly.

Things are getting worse at work, not specifically for me but the entire org in general. Gonna be interesting few months and already seeing the pressure bring out the worst in people, starting from the very top with the boss of the org and my manager (not specifically intended *at* me, but his actions have crossed the the border of being concerning).

One thing I feel about kids/teens growing up here is how much as parents we don’t know our kid’s friends. Growing up back home there was hardly anybody my parents did not know by name and considered them as their own. We gave a lot of respect towards all parents and often became a secondary or tertiary child to them. My friend’s parents felt like were equally involved and concerned about my life also it felt like, sometimes to my own annoyance. Contrast that to here – “Oh hi, Mr D” and thats the end of convo. They have absolutely no interest nor can we ever develop any such attachment to these kids. The individualistic culture of this country really makes everything so unattached. Anyway random ramblings at 7am and I am not even sure I am expressing what I wanted to in the right way.

On the other hand I must say inspite of being 1994 website the actual application for e-visa for India is simple and fast. I had to switch to PayPal and transaction went smooth. I didn’t have to fill in 10 page novela like the USA tourist visa and then wait more than a year for embassy appointment. In contrast I will hear back from Indian embassy for e-visa within 3 days. Plus it was only 80 bucks a person. We criticize India for a lot of things, but tech aside they are doing better than others. The India visa now asks you if you are Male, Female or Transgender giving an option to Trans. The USA application meanwhile is still Male/Female as an example of small but better inclusivity.

Wow, where the flying fuck did this wind come from? Did we get the Seattle remnants or what. The weather went south in zero time!

Our dog responds to *”Honey?!”* way more than I do. I think he thinks he is Honey now. No honey, its not and she is not calling you!

My god applying for Indian e-visa. After filling up form, you get to confirmation page before you pay. Now, unless you take a screenshot at this stage, there is no way to know what your application ID is. You click pay now, get to credit card page on SBI and it promptly fails and redirects to paypal homepage. Well, do you know if transaction went through? no you do not. Do you get an email that your application was submitted? Haha, no you dont. Do you get any notification that your cc also failed? You must be joking! So now unless I had taken that screenshot (because my Indian brain knows better!), I would never be able to go back to the visa application site to figure out if the application was even submitted or not! Its 2024, but Indian government websites have truly evovlved from 1990 to 1994 in all this while.

Of all things A R Rahman divorcing was not on my Indian celebrity divorce bingo card.

I was fully invested in 2016 and 2020 election year, but I am making a conscious effort not to be so involved in 2024, for my own mental sanity, and more importantly, nothing will fundamentally change about my vote. The issues that I cared about in ’12, ’16’, 20, ’24 are exactly the same and will remain the same in future also and it aligns more closely with democrats than republicans. Why even bother investing time in listening to anything republican candidates or party has to say anymore because the only thing they’ve proven is how they are turning into repulsive humans (if they can be called that) year after year.

So yeah, IDGAF what Vivek or Nikki says, what Trump says/does at this point. I am of firm opinion that the American society is spiraling into a inevitable decay thanks to the rot that republicans have sown into it. My only role (&hope) is to delay this as much as possible by making sure my vote counts in ’24 and canvas/educate others around me (in my own capacity) about perils of voting anyone but democrats anywhere – from school boards, to state elections to national. Thats all I can do, and I will do.