Trans Siberia & Mongolia

A link to my Trans Siberian adventure http://transsiberianandtransmongolian.blogspot.com/

Hindu weddings: An Indian puzzle unraveled or not...

Indian Hindu weddings are particularly lengthy and ritualistic that I have often wondered about the significance behind it all. I have had the privilege of attending a few Muslim, Christian and non denominational weddings and have generally been able to follow what was going and the basic gist of the rationale behind it. I call out Indian Hindu weddings as there are Hindu's elsewhere in the world and seem to practice the faith differently, especially in Indonesia, where I was shocked to find out that it was ok to were shoes in to Hindu temples....an absolute no no in India! Hindu weddings on the other hand had remained a mystery, especially with the many denominations of the religion, combined with the various regions of India and the several intricate flavors exasperating the permutations and combination's. My own wedding was a combination of multiple rituals given Saritha and I come from practitioners of different denominations of the religion from different regions of India. I found it annoying then that one had to participate in something that was a celebration for their union, but with really no understanding of it. I remained circumspect about it all while some of the elders tried to explain it to me…which is amusing in itself that most do not know the significance themselves.

So about a year ago, Saritha & I were invited to a wedding in New Jersey, a long time friend of hers. The bride’s father is a very learned individual and takes pride in sharing his knowledge with anybody who is willing to learn. At that wedding he provided all the invitees a program that also explained the various steps that were going to occur in the wedding. To provide context this was wedding of 2 individuals whose roots trace back to the south of India. I mention this as I believe the steps in weddings in other regions of India, though Hindu in religious affiliation are different.

In my quest to educate others as well as just general wonderment I reproduce those steps;

This is a very noisy event, I say noisy as they play traditional wedding music but it generally sounds like a bunch of teenagers banging away at a new set of drums with no tune. The "Kalyana Mandapa" is the stage where the ceremony will take place and is generally decked up in flowers and other decorations.

This is a fairly private affair with the family as I understand takes place prior to the rituals with the groom.

Similar to the previous "female" event, this one is all about the male.

At this time the groom has only the priest for company. The priest is essentially the master of the ceremony and provides direction to the groom on the rituals. Invariably as in my case, the groom is mindlessly following priestly instructions, without understanding the rationale or purpose, while being stared at by a large audience of strangers.....again a very unique ingredient of Indian weddings, across all religious affiliations. Strangers being acquaintances of ones parents and really distant relatives.

Strangely enough even though guests have been invited to the wedding and have all gathered it is not official until the priest actually confirms that.

In my opinion the actual wedding commences from this point forward. I also know that in many marriages in India, where the parents do the selection, this is possibly the 1st semi view of the bride for the groom...that is assuming she is not wearing veil or the partition slips from the fingers of one of the family members.

The father of the bride I understand officially relinquishes his responsibilities of his daughter. While it is clear what is going on, I still do not understand "why", e.g. Why does the groom have to accept 3 times, why not 6 or once. Is it to ensure that the father gets it and there are no doubts? There are various such rituals where it does not seem very efficient or rationale at all yet it appears to have been passed on over generations.

The even more complicated rituals start here, which is a cross between fireworks and cooking. The fireworks is if this is truly the 1st time the groom and bride are seeing each other, could really go either ways I think. The various colored rices, spices, molasses and more makes me wonder is this is cooking happiness!

As it appears to be custom in most cultures and religions, that the newly wed share something to symbolize the union. In Hindu wedding's the groom generally ties necklace that is almost always upgraded to gold at some point. Not quite clear why it is not done at the same time....I reckon it has to do to allow the wife;s input in to the design.

I guess this is more of the same, i.e. agreements with each other as well as reaching a higher power for protection and guidance. I have often wondered how we would compare the very first wedding with those now in the 21st century. Could we measure? Is there a relationship of the complexity of the ritual with the success of it? Is a grand wedding with all the trimmings vs a less grander affair have any say?

My interpretation of the special prayer to fire is that it represents danger. Since one does not to want to court danger, it is customary to assuage it...pray to it. While many parts of the ritual are not clear and I question the rationale for it, one thing is clear. The Hindu gods have a hierarchy and it is critical to understand that so the right ones are paid the right homage.

The next several steps bears down on the completion of a blessed union.. There are 2 events in particular that are very unique to Hindu weddings, one when the groom and bride walk around the fire seven times. I have heard that is because of the 7 continents,. 7 oceans and lot of things, but do not believe I have heard a true & convincing answer....but that is also true of many of the other rituals. The otheris a bit of fun and frolicking, when the groom and bride fight to get a gold ring buried in rice in an earthen pot. They have to do this with just their hands without the luxury of seeing inside the pot. I wonder what the statistics are around....more brides winning, if so were they allowed to win by the smart grooms and if it has any implications upon the marriage..

The one last ritual I have to comment is when the priest leads the bride & groom outside to show some star. It is rather strange and contrite considering a vast amount of Hindu weddings take place in the day due to when the holy hour of the holy day falls. Given that, how on earth are they ever going to see the star during the wedding. What implications does this have upon the marriage then?

That said, eere is some history to Hindu weddings',

While my intent has not be blasphemous, I have to wonder about these rituals and if the gods are truly sitting somewhere with a check list and scratching off items we do them vs. not and then rewarding us appropriately, especially since the rationale behind these actions are vague and arbitrary at best. I am sure more will be married in this manner, some may question the wisdom of sitting in a really warm area, gawked at by strangers and others may just go through the motions to ensure they dont displease the gods. But one thing is certain....this will continue to evolve...hopefully in to something more practical.

Iran: A plan to resolve the impasse

Amongst the many things that has the world excited is the situation with Iran and their illegitimate president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. While many US governments have swung the pendulum of regime change vs. ignoring regimes from North Korea to Iran through Syria, Lebanon, Libya and others, one thing is almost always clear, some regimes are definitely counter productive to their own people and the world and require adjustment of some sorts. In my book Iran is certainly one of those...without the aid of any media or government spin (ours or others).

Iran's economic health is very good and given a chance to fully participate in the world's business, it will be a thriving force. In reviewing world banks data about Iran and the CIA, I found that;

• Population: 71MM (2008)
• GDP: $258B (2008) with 2.6% (2009) growth
• Unemployment: 11% in 2009
• Per capita income of $13K
• Debt: 19.4% to 7.4% of GDP (data is suspect based on source)
• CO2 emissions higher than their neighbors
• Literacy - 82% of 15yrs or older
• Low mortality of -5 of every 1000

Based on some of these data points and more as well as the assets the nation possess, it does appear that Iran has tremendous upside if its government sheds it current approach to governing its people and relationship with the world. Like Cuba, this country is ripe for significant tourism and connection with its people as soon as the climate improves.

This basic information about Iran in mind, let us understand what the true issues are that drive us to act against it;

1. Nuclear proliferation and the opaque stance of the government - This to me is a serious issue and is exacerbated in the new world we live in where Islamic fundamentalism is perpetuating unprecedented terrorism. This is particularly concerning since Iran's stated driver for their Nuclear program is a the anhiliation of the Zionist state of Israel. That is very unnerving, if I were to live next to the threat.

2. Iran is in violation of the IAEA security standards.

3. Human right violations against its own people - No government should be allowed to treat its people poorly. On that scale and how one would define "poorly", many countries starting with China would stand out. While there are global human rights organization, they are without teeth. The only way for Iranian's to be better treated and given a fair chance of competition with the rest of the world is to have a leadership that is willing to join the world community and open itself up to change.

4. While development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes such as energy generation, medical use is something that should be encouraged, however in the case of Iran, it has been deceitful in its claims of not enriching uranium. It has gone back and forth on its true intention and certainly hidden its development sites from IAEA which raises the level of mis-trust.

So lets talk solution then. Plenty of options that I have heard over the last couple of years that I have weighed upon and think one of those has merits. It has merits only if executed appropriately even if that is stating the obvious. Lets just review the options the world community has to force Iran to change its way;

1. Military action: Iran is a large country with targets spread all over its geography. Last count there were 10 nuclear installations, most of them well underground making them even more difficult to access. A look at the adjoining map gives you an indication to how spread out the installations are. This obviously is not the super secret or latest, which I am sure would be wider and deeper. In addition Iran's military power is not to be sneezed at and would take significant effort and cost to overcome for a US led coalition. Air only incursions as an approach to minimize human life have been analyzed and shed due to the depth of the nuclear installations that even our bunker busters that were used in Afghanistan will be useless. Military experts have essentially agreed to the fact that invasion of Iran is a more costly and fool-hardy approach to resolving this crisis. Further....who really has the money without completely bankrupting themselves, considering any coalition would mean 80% US and 20% other, we are already thinly stretched to venture another adventure.

2. Diplomacy: One of the tenets of diplomacy is a level of trust parties bring to the table. Considering that is an item that has eroded since the Shah was booted out in the 70's and currently is negative, it is unlikely discussions will go forward. The various interlocutors on Iran's behalf are themselves not sure about Iran's intent making it awkward for them to make a case. Iran has had several opportunities to come to the table especially from the start of President Obama's term when he famously quoted at his inguration speech, "...are willing to unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us" as well as eloquent Cairo university speech have clearly not encouraged Iran. Even the efforts of our partners in the EU have not received much hope. While diplomacy is certainly a window keep ajar, our next option is really the key to make the needle move.

3. Sanctions: Historically speaking sanctions are toothless dud's. However if it were to be enforced, in the case of Iran it could yield spectacular results long term while in the short term will hurt its population, a sad collateral damage. To emphasize this let us consider the map here for a moment;

• We own the eastern boundary directly or indirectly in Pakistan and Afghanistan. That said there are a few tactical challenges here but given the terrain of the region and the people's unflinching loyalty to a quick buck. The red lines indicate a tentative relationship with the nations owning those boundaries.
  
• In the south our naval prowess combined with already existing presence in the straits of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf, Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia gives us tremendous influence in the area.
• In the West, our new friends in Iraq and historical enemies of Iran will ensure we will continue to own that border for this purpose.
• In the North Western side, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan are all US allies who want to be part of the NATO or are large US aid recipients. Time to call in those chits. In addition we have bases in the area with strong relationships and hence the green lines.
  
• In the north, the Caspian sea with the help of the Russians, will again be in our column.
• Lastly on the North Eastern side, Turkmenistan is a country we are most likely going to have a base in sooner or later. Right now we have an agreement for the NATO to be a supplier and transit point. We can assume we will have sufficient influence to enforce sanctions from there too.

So the approach to sanctions against Iran would need to be a complete seize of all routes, land, air and water in to the country. Allowing nothing to go in or come out. There are obviously implications to it that are more tactical than strategic. As a result we will be able to ride them out and bend Iran back in the direction of the right.

Let us consider the implications so there is clarity on what they are and how we can mitigate them;

1. Immediate inflation in the country as traders hoard and government rations. This could hurt the majority of the population that is considered lower middle class. However it could also trigger the final assault on a unpopular regime and potentially change it for the better. One can hope.

2. Trade partners will hurt, specifically China, Russia and Dubai. This could be telling to the global financial markets but again I have to think it is temporary as the overall exposure to Iran has been limited for many years for both the EU and US.

3. Oil, most folks would think would be the largest impact. There is more myth than reality here. Reason being there are doubts about the reliability of official OPEC reserves estimates, which are not provided with any form of audit or verification that meet external reporting standards. Further a system of country production quotas was introduced in the 1980s, partly based on reserves levels, and there has been dramatic increases in reported reserves among OPEC producers. While there is no doubt Iran has the 3rd largest known reserves in the world and hence it the 3rd largest producer, with sanctions, OPEC can increase production through its other member states. Bottomline we wont miss Iran's oil for a while....however OPEC has to sign up to ensure oil prices and futures do not sky rocket while ensuring production levels match current levels. I think it can be made possible.

4. There may be a surge of terrorist activities by sympathetic groups to Iran such as the Hezbollah. There is not specific mitigation than what most governments are already engaged in.

It is necessary to help Iran change its mind when the US, Russia and other countries are taking definite steps to reduce nuclear arsenal. Infact it is President Obama's vision to see a world without nuclear weapons. In such a futuristic environment, fortified by the fact that we should be expending resources on human progress not on ways to destroy it. Iran with its intrinsic assets and potential should direct those energies to improve their peoples stock, take a leadership role to help with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, reduce its support of the Hezbollah and terrorism for what ever reasons and join the world's community. We could do with more peace.

So bottomline, I say we need to squeeze Iran...I think 30-90day's from a disciplined and enforced seize from the day it starts should be able to get Iran to;
1. Open the doors to IAEA for a thorough investigation
2. Shutting down of all enrichment plants
3. Change their stance on Israel

This could lead to Iran re-joining of the world community and more one day (hope).

***

The economics of working from home – a proletariat perspective

Over the weekend my buddy and I were chatting about the impacts of working from home and thought I should look at it a little more deeply and paint it from my perspective. Obviously more and more companies are buying in to the “Work @ Home” concept to essentially cut costs and get more productivity.

I started working from home more often than not over the last 6 months when I don’t travel and it has been a revelation. For many years I believed that the notion of working at home was one of the biggest scams perpetuated by the proletariat in corporate America. So much so that I discouraged my team from working from home and those that had to on occasion, I tolerated with a lot of effort. All this has changed for me now that I seem to have begun to enjoy working at home and believe I have become a lot more productive. That said I do want to look at it broadly and objectively from an employee perspective and see what’s in it, if at all for us.

Lets start by looking at the tangible aspects of working from home. At a minimum, the costs of going to a work place every day of the week; Monday to Friday is;

Lunch	$ 40.00
Transportation (Gas, Tolls, Parking, Metro)	$ 50.00
Dry Cleaning/Laundry	$ 10.00
Total	$100.00

Now I am sure different folks have different spending pattern’s such as Starbucks, cigarettes etc etc but this to me captures the basics of a weeks expenditures.

Calculating the costs of working from home, I come up with the following;

Incremental Electricity	$ 15.00
Incremental Heating/Cooling	$ 15.00
Lunch	$ 20.00
Total	$ 50.00

So clearly the cost of working from home is half that of working from home.

Lets look at the intangibles of working from home as often these could lead us one way or the other;

Upsides -

1. More time to exercise
   
2. More time to spend with the kids and families
   
3. Less pollution of the environment
   
4. Less stress of driving through rush hour traffic
5. Getting to eat more healthy since you have control of what's in your pantry
   
6. Lesser work politics….so I hope :~)

Downsides -

1. If there is a non-working spouse at home with kids…forget it
2. No excuse to not exercise
3. Potential to oversleep in; i.e. waking 2 mins before a meeting and pretending to be tired due to being overworked
4. Lower propensity to make friends at the work place

Now some of the pre-requisites for working from home in my opinion are;

• Tremendous discipline to getting your work done; forget about trying to work on your couch or in your pajama’s….wont work long term.
  
• Your work ethic has to be crisp and above any level of debate.
  
• Differentiate work time from home time.

If you can not manage that, working from home is not something you should be attempting since you will get in to trouble….guaranteed!

So what next you ask? My foggy crystal indicates that;

• More and more people will start working from home at the pleasure of their employers. One of those few win wins for employee and employers. It will never be 100% since some people are more productive in a business environment; they require the daily live/non phone interactions with their colleagues or require more supervision.
• Work at home in the right context will work for all levels of people up and down the corporate ladder.
• There will be new legal issues that will be dealt with, for instance, if I trip and fall @ home while working, who is liable?
• With more and more work from home scenario’s and a growing imbalance of businesses to real estate ratio’s we are definitely on the cusp of a commercial real estate bubble ready to pop.

So those of you who work from home….I am happy to be part of this new virtual neighborhood…lets catch up for coffee sometime :~)

Green Planet....who are we kidding?

I stopped by at the local Harris Teeter to pick up some milk this morning and noticed for the 1st time they have parking spaces reserved for “Green” cars….those new fangled low emission, high priced, partial non fossil fueled vehicles. The spots are marked by a green squares on the 1st parking spots across the parking lot, save a few for the handicap, which are required by law. So at 1st I was very amused…amused by the Harris Teeter’s contribution to greening the planet by this gesture. Then I started getting pissed because now I felt discriminated. All of a sudden my 2003 BMW is not good enough to be parked in the 1st spot though it is empty….that if you have a green car, you deserve to walk less? & what if I park in the green spot…can my car be towed away?....just too many questions 1st thing in the morning is not quite the way I like to start. Nevertheless, I got to ponder about it some more and realized that this quest of trying to “green” the planet is fundamentally flawed and will not really get us anywhere

No not cynicism, but a carefully thought through (all of 10 mins in the quiet of my car as I drove home) logic supports my argument;

1. The worlds population is growing at about 1.8%, so we are 6.8B today and clearly growing. More people means more production of goods, products, food grains and so on. More of this needs more energy and despite all hullabaloo, we are not getting away from fossil fuels….simply because there is no viable alternative (Viable = cost effective, mass produced, politically supported etc). More use of fossil fuels means more pollution.

2. Cows emit a massive amount of methane through belching, with a lesser amount through flatulence. Statistics vary regarding how much methane the average dairy cow expels. Some experts say 100 liters to 200 liters a day (or about 26 gallons to about 53 gallons), while others say it's up to 500 liters (about 132 gallons) a day. In any case, that's a lot of methane, an amount comparable to the pollution produced by a car in a day.With growing populations, we will need more meat to feed all these people, which means more belching cows. Here is a statistic; for 6Billion people we have 1.5 Billion cows in the world.

3. We are unable to grow organic food for the growing masses, which takes us on the path of all the hybrids that come with their own set of challenges including fertilizer poisoning, land unfit for cultivation after a few cycles and so on.

4. People in fast growing economies like India, China, Mexico, Brazil with teeming populations have no “real” plans to contract and reduce pollutions while the western 1st world has lost the moral high ground to advise others on reducing their carbon foot print…why most of our states will not even reward folks for wanting to go down the righteous path of solar, wind energy paths. I did a check on getting my house total energized by solar. The cost of that and the savings I would get by weaning myself of the traditional energy source would take me about 35 years to pay off…..i may be dead by then!

There is not a critical mass around the world that I can perceive now or peering in to the future, where by people are making the effort to reduce their carbon foot print. What all this is doing is creating another opportunity for those big bankers to sell and buy carbon options….boy think about buying selling hot air and making money…with no value being created.

So while I can rant some more I feel ridiculed by Harris Teeter’s idea of a green parking spot….what the hell are they thinking about. If they truly want to make a mark, how about a new non fossil fueled energy source to power their operations. Yes make a statement that really matters, not paint a stupid green box.

My niece

I have had the most wonderful experience of spending a little less than a month with my 16 month niece, my baby sisters baby….where did the time go!!!. While as any child that age is like a sponge, just absorbing everything all the time and mirroring all that is learnt at the same time, makes it very entertaining. Any person who has had the opportunity to spend any time with a child can validate that when the crying and pooping is taken out, these midget creatures are quite entertaining. Now in the case of my niece who I must admit, I really adore and love very dearly, and I have over the last several decades have spent time with little children…my baby sister, baby nephews and other assorted kids that I know something about babies ....but never have I seen a kid quite like my niece when she is cranky. I was so convinced that she was the devil child that I actually hunted her head for the 666 mark that I recalled from the movie Omen and no I did not find it thankfully. When she got cranky, she would cry at a frequency that felt like some one had poked through my eyes, crawled up in to my brains and was frying some nasty recipe. We (my mom, my sister, my wife…all my wise women) speculated about the cause in the hope that we could attack the monster hurting our little baby. We thought it could be because she was missing her dad who was on an extended oversees trip, may be she was teething, may be it was the new environment, may be….may be….but no matter what, every so often she would sink in to those moods that her mom threatening her of the quintessential lion in the basement or a few smacks on her diaper wrapped hinny would not help. When she was in a good mood, which was mostly the way she was, she was waddling around my house destroying furniture, fixtures, living those ever so cute hand prints on anything that would reflect, playing with Tupperware, paper or anything garbage happily.….learning to say new words. Thanks to her I have an expanded vocabulary that includes Mumum = Food, Ninni = Water, Babeeeee = Saritha, Nimmy = Any snack, Diapy = Diaper….and she ate non stop and pooped non stop too from amount of diapers that we saw go in to the garbage. When she liked me she would show that by crawling all over and biting my nose with her toothless mouth. What a treat to watch a 16 month old manipulate a houseful older people….from utter joy to complete despondency. She could pit us against each other and make us do what she wanted….how does a 16 month old do that? How does the mind work like that? Why can we not use her against Osama’s evil people?

Well one thing she helped me validate is that my life is so much better off without an adorable dwarf like her…I love her because of who she is and more so because I know I can hand her to mommy when I am done playing with her. Also hoping that when she is a grown woman and ready to have a baby of her own, she reads her old uncles blog and realizes what a rascal baby she was but we still loved her….and yes her baby is welcome in my house too!!!