knowmyinterests

These are days of economic downturn and recession. About 10000 jobs have been reported to be lost just last week. But it strikes me as odd that most Americans have adjusted to the new circumstance without much of a fuss. One family did a smart thing - together the husband/wife combination were reportedly making 180000 $ a year. Now with the husband’s paycheck gone, they are on to suporting their family with 2 children with 90000$. They have adjusted to the fact that there would not be any increase in their incomes atleast for some time. So they smartly went on to cut costs . Extra coffee, tea, snacks, going out for eating, shopping at cheaper stores are all gone and has helped them to balance their budget.One family even cut off cable television altogether and started watching their tv shows on their computer instead. Children who were sending thousands of text messages through their cellphones are now asked to go easy on them. Pooling cars to reach offices have increased. President Obama was asking on arab television the other day if the muslim world was any better after Bin Laden launched his terror attacks on 9/11. But Bin Laden did not care about his people when he began the attacks. All he wanted was to cripple the American economy and looks like he has succeeded to an extent. But he better watch out. Americans can fight back and they will for sure.

The mother of the woman who gave birth to 8 children in California the other day has revealed that her daughter was single and that she already has 6 other children. She now has 14 children to take care of. How the hell is she going to take care of all of them? More than a million dollars will be needed in a year just for their basic education, food and housing.

For a long time it was for over caste and religion. Men and women of one caste did not get along with those from the other. Thousands were killed, their properties destroyed and their children orphaned. Now with the IT money flowing freely and the foreign television channels invading most houses of even the otherwise divided families, the situation in India is slowly and steadily getting worse. I am talking about the recent Taliban like incident in a pub in Mangalore. My, my, things have surely changed in Mangalore. I always thought people in Mangalore did fishing to pass their time with their younger relatives working in the Gulf and other places. Even the roads used to be filled up with fish on both sides waiting to be dried. It is a shame that the self appointed moral policemen ( the extent to which our politicians can go) walked into a pub and happily molested a few cheeky females enjoying themselves over a drink there. India has come a long way. Even the girls frequent pubs these days until the wee hours of the morning wining and dining there.

What does the Indian constitutional law say about the incident? I’m sure it does not allow the kind of physical manhandling to protect our women. Shouldn’t the goons of the Ram Sena be put behind bars forever under the social security act violation? Why should bail be offered to them? Let’s hope the coming national elections in India throws a clear one party rule. Fractured verdicts only allow the worst in politicians to come to the open. People like Mayavati, Mulayam and Lallu Prasad are known to shield candidates with legendary criminal records. The Congress is the only party that has the long standing and the will to enforce the rule of law. But to project poor young Rahul as Prime Minister ( I am sure Dr. Manmohan Singh’s days are over) is asking too much from the lad. He seems an affable young man but he has to go through the test of facing national and international issues before he can be given such an awesome responsilbility. Such is the seriousness of the times in India today. Imagine asking Rahul Gandhi as Prime Minister having to take a decision to use the nuclear deterrent in the event of a threat from the roguish Pakistan. Just visiting a few villages alone will be not enough to be chosen as Prime Minister.

Finally, if you are one of those who has relatives living in the United States now, this is the time to visit them. Shopping can be as good as stealing from the malls there in these days of economic downturn and recession. One woman bought a 1000$ suit piece for just 49$! She nearly had a heart attack when she was told of the discounts being offered for paying cash. If you don’t believe ask Diane Sawyer of ABC News. Boy! This woman stilll looks gorgeous. I’m sure she is buying those suits dirty cheap and using them while anchoring Good Morning America everyday. Diane has been one of the women who come to haunt me at night ever since a long time, time when she began doing the anchoring for ABC’s World News Tonight along with Peter Jennings. She was paid a million dollars even then. Calculate how much she gets these days. Hope the Obama administration doesn’t take note of it. They seem to be interfering in everything within a week from taking office. Makes me remember the depression years of 1929 to 1930.

Can you believe a thing like this happening anywhere? He must be the luckiest rogue walking in the world today. He was paid 6 million dollars as talking fees in 2008! What was he talking about that people paid so much money just to listen to him? We know his powers as an orator ( People who listened to his state of the union address regularly will agree) but still there must be more to just his talking skills. Maybe Clinton was revealing his legendary expoits with his women (Monica Lewinsky included). That explains the money. But still this is not to take away anything from his big accomplishments as President. He did so well that he left a big budget surplus when he left. Maybe he will pass on a few of his skills to his wife Hillary.

Obama is trying to make friends everywhere…his interview with an Arab television channel proves it.Here is something strange - a sitting judge in a court in the United States cried regularly when he heard the arguments and testimonies of parties in the hundreds of cases he tried in his courts. Why should the judge cry? Beats me. One doctor who attended on the woman who gave birth to eight children at one time was an Indian named Gupta. The incident is only the second in American history. Talk about medical wonders. I still cannot figure out why they cant find out what happened to the first installment of 350 bn $ Congress gave to Bush before he left. Surely there must be some record. Nancy Pelosi’s crying that nobody knows where the money went is difficult to believe.

In these days of economic downturn and hardship, it is not difficult to believe that you can get anything cheap. But not that cheap as one couple found out recently. They just bought a house for 1.2 million dollars! The palatial house was actually their prize for holding the winning ticket for a raffle. The people who owned the house earlier thought of this ingenious idea when they wanted sell the house and had no buyers for their property when they offered it for 700,000 dollars. So they decided to float a raffle of 23000 tickets of 50$ each. People from all corners of the United States tried their hand and this lucky couple got it. Moral - difficult times can bring the best out of you. I did not know that you could float a lottery just like that. You needed permission from both the state and federal govts for that.

How is Vice-President Joe Biden finding his new role ? It’s more than a week since the new administration took office. We all know the Vice-President sits in all the cabinet meetings and uncle Joe must have too the last few days. Surely we cannot expect him to sit quiet like George Bush in the Reagan administration when Bush was Vice-President then. If you do not believe ask Colin Powell, he was the National Security Advisor then. Biden is hot headed and is notorius for shooting off with his mouth at the slightest provocation. What with Hillary, Holbrooke and Biden poor Obama must be pissed off already. Remember Biden himself wanted to be President not long ago.

Finally, the much talked about freedom for all Americans is over. The Obama administration has sent a show cause notice to Citigroup questioning them for buying a new jet for 50 million dollars. They want to know how the bank could afford the expense when it was asking for a bailout. Citibank has replied that it has sold two of its old airplanes to meet the cost of the new one. Why not just nationalize all the banks in one go? That way everyone will have to go through the standard procedure of sanction and approval.

He has done it. President Rajapakshe has done what no other president was able to do for the last twenty five years. He has almost destroyed single handedly the terror network of the LTTE, the rebel outfit of the tamil tigers in Lanka. Dozens of heads of state, thousands of people had died during this time, billions of dollars of property destroyed and what more can anyone ask. The rebels used terror to demand a separate homeland for the tamils. But the demands were forgotten long ago. All that remained were the killings with suicide bombers and others. Where is all this heading for poor Lanka? Once the land of evergreen mangrove and pine and cocoanut forests it was reduced almost to a rubble - I remember the scenes in that masterpiece from Hollywood…” The Bridge on the River Kwai ” Sir Alec Guiness battling with the Japanese to build a bridge. All of those memorable scenes were shot on the picturesque locales in Lanka. We all want a better deal for the poor tamils living in Lanka, but look how their cause was destroyed by just one man…Prabhakaran! Where is he hiding now that his fighters are all dead?  He is on the run or has ended his life somewhere. What a coward! Imagine yourself hiding while your loyal soldiers were fighting for you. Even Bin Laden was better. Not a single leader in Lanka could tackle the ethnic problem as did Rajapakshe. We salute him. I only hope he starts now a genuine dialogue with the true representatives of the tamils living in Lanka.

  How good is going to be Obama’s stimulus package of 800 billion $  for the economy? We just heard about even microsoft cutting on 5000 jobs, companies like Pfizer, caterpillar and others have also announced job cuts. Will infusing billions of dollars bring more jobs? Where is the guarantee? America is going through a crisis unprecedented in its history. Is it time to look at all this economic liberalization even in third world countries ? maybe the chinese system is the best.

  And finally on a light note why should the Indian cricket team travel to Lanka now to play cricket there? The poor players have to obey or else the greedy cricket board in India would go into losses in crores of rupees.

He has spoken again. Musharaff now says that there are Al-Queda havens in Pakistan and that the United States was justified in killing and destroying their camps operating from Pakistan. What a man. He had a clear plan to sabotage India even when the United States went to war in Afghanistan after 9/11.Part of the Pakistani army that was siding with Taliban then had to side with the United States to fight the Taliban. And they quietly allowed Bin Laden to escape. In the meanwhile Musharaff and his cronies allowed the Lashkar militants to be trained by the same Al-Queda and kill innocent civilians in all over India. For its part the United States cornered the Al-Queda when it killed Americans but only allowed lip service when the dreaded terrorist group killed Indians. Everyone was afraid there would be a nuclear war. Will someone ask Obama/Bush what if the Taliban/Pakistan launch Mumbai type attacks on the streets of New York? Will they stop from attacking Pakistan because of its nuclear capability? What is sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander. All that Musharaff wants is that the U.S. should not isolate Pakistan. He wouldn’t mind if Indians are killed by the Al-Queda.

Are you one of those people that complain that there does not seem to be enough time each day in order to do all that they want to do. Use these simple secrets to manage your time. First wake up a little earlier. You can do so much by  just getting a little earlier.Prepare and arrange   your schedule the night before.  Arrange your clothes, determine your breakfast and lunch items for the next day, get your office materials into your bag well in advance.Remember to do your best concerning your work for the day. Have a plan and stick to it. Regular habit  concerning  this will help you manage your time. Oh, by the way…I just remembered. The Secretary of State in the first
Clinton administration was Warren Christopher. I told you I forgot his name yesterday. He was a dummy.  Holbrooke did all the work. 

Heard yesterday about President Obama’s new team…Richard Holbrooke, George Mitchell as special envoys to Pakistan and Middle East. He also has Eric Holder (Attorney general) and Ron Emmanauel (Chief of Staff). I can understand Holbrooke as a tough man who did wonders in the Balkans for Clinton. Then why Hillary as Secretary of State? Who is going to talk to Zardari and the terrorists in Pakistan, is it Holbrooke or Hillary? I remember the same thing happened in the first Clinton Administration when the then Secretary of State ( I forget his name, an old man) was made to look redundant. Hillary is not going to allow her authority to be used by Holbrooke entirely. Why not include her elsewhere?

The economic downturn has affected everyone so much that you can get even services cheaper. One friend of mine bargained for a lesser tariff on cable television and phone if he took a year’s subscription in advance!Only be not afraid to ask or be embarassed to bargain.

Who is this new American Idol singer (Sanjaya)? He sounds like an Indian. He has even written a book on music.

No expected it to be released at all. The original distributor had backed out in the end. Now it has won not only the Golden Globe but is also nominated for the Oscars! What strikes me as odd is why a British director ( Danny Boyle)decided to make it in the first place.Still, why has it caught the fancy now? What purpose is served in showing the slums of Mumbai? There can only be one answer - the young characters. They are so real that everyone everywhere has started to root for them. Winning the lottery is always exciting. And a poor boy winning the coveted prize in the end as in “Who wants to be a millionaire” has fulfilled the secret desire of everyone. They too have won the prize. We gape in wonder as did the boy in the movie. Finally, that genius of a man - A.R. Rehman. He is definitely going through the golden patch in his amazing career. His technicians employ the sound gimmicks as good as any in Hollywood today. He already has had many catchy numbers this year in Dostana, Ghajini and now Slumdog. His numbers in Slumdog make you feel sitting in a Zubin Mehta or Yanni performance with hundreds of instruments blaring all the time in rhytym. Slumdog will definitely win the Oscars (it has 10 nominations) on Feb 22 mainly because of the music of A.R. Rehman. Congrats to all of them.

I did not expect him to act so swifty. One of his first utterances on foreign policy was for Pakistan to act soon to tackle the existing terrorism in that country. Obama has now corelated the economic aid to Pakistan to toeing the line on terror. But I am sure his administration is already worried. Why do officials from the military announce foreign policy decisions to their counterparts? Only yesterday there was a strong military delegation to Pakistan talking to Pakistan’s arny strongman General Kayani. As expected, the Pakistani army is pissed off. They have almost retaliated by asking the United States to get lost. There is a small stockpile of nuclear warheads which God alone knows who is controlling in Pakistan. There is also a nuclear rogue named Y.Q. Khan roaming around freely in Pakistan as a hero. If he could give the secrets to the terrorists it could get worse. Two members of the Senate, Richard Lugar and Chuck Hagel have already warned Obama about the danger of nuclear warheads being hijacked by the terrorists.

The son and dance after the inauguration is now over. Obama will soon have to sign an executive order (with his left hand) to do something about Pakistan and the rogues sitting hostile inside.