What caught my attention recently.. #3

Dec 8, 2024

Staycations, Indian politics, Cricket, etc..

The value of stay at home vacations (aka staycations)

Those of us in the US celebrated Thanksgiving recently. Schools were closed the entire week and unlike the recent few years, we didn’t have any vacation plans this time, so the kids were home the entire week. And since my daughter and I caught a cold, we didn’t even make any day trips and ended being home almost entirely. It was the first time we stayed home this long in recent memory with no school, work or any other agenda. We all just slept in, would wake up and have hot ginger chai, chat, watch TV and chill out. It was good to see the kids totally relaxed and made me realize that even school and their regular activities are somewhat stressful, and it is important for them to get such breaks. Although my cold and cough wasn’t severe enough to make me too miserable, it was enough to force me to slow down – sleeping in until 7:30/8 am and hardly doing any exercise the whole week! I joked to my wife that for a habitual early riser and hyperactive person like me, this was an unfamiliar lifestyle 😀.

Whether it is work for adults or school for kids, I think having to stay on a schedule induces as much stress as the activities themselves. As a result, I feel like even vacations aren’t as relaxing since although the activities themselves are fun and sometimes relaxing, you are still on somewhat of a schedule. For example - if you are in a hotel, you have to make sure you wake up before the hotel stops serving breakfast; if you are doing activities, you have to get to your activities at the designated time; and so on. Net net, I don’t think there is anything as relaxing as a ‘staycation’, with nowhere to go and no agenda!

Indian politics

Maharashtra elections

It was entertaining to see the suspense and drama in selecting the Chief Minister after the recent elections! It was also interesting to see the star studded swearing in ceremony. While the Bollywood celebrities, Sachin Tendulkar and the business honchos were expected since it was in Mumbai, it was surprising to see almost the entire top brass of the BJP government including Modi himself, Chief Ministers of other BJP ruled states, as well as BJP’s powerful allies Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar on stage! Was this just about the importance of Maharashtra, India’s 2^nd biggest state and home to Mumbai, or was it a signal of bigger things to come for Devendra Fadanvis in the future, I wondered? Regardless, I am very happy that he won with such a huge majority and has become the Chief Minister once again. The next 5 years are going to be transformational for Mumbai and Maharashtra!

The movie ‘Sabarmati Express’

I watched this movie about the Godhra riots recently and wasn’t impressed with it. I understand the politics of the topic, but it was a very poorly made movie and I find it counterproductive to rake up these old issues. And then I saw pictures of Modi, Shah, almost the entire cabinet and many other BJP MP’s at a special screening of this movie. I am not savvy enough to understand the political nuances, but on the surface it seemed like a colossal waste of time and PR. Jaishankar must have heaved a sigh of relief that he didn’t have to attend, maybe because he is not an MP 😀.

Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli

Sachin and Vinod’s awkward interaction at a recent function went viral with people lamenting at Vinod’s plight and how his trajectory ended up being so different from his high school cricket buddy Sachin. I remember Sachin saying in an interview that what he had achieved wasn’t just his own but his entire ‘team’s’ success. I think he gave an example of an F1 car race. The driver gets all the glory, but however good the driver might be, he cannot succeed unless he also has a great team including the pit crew. Sachin said his family was this team. Unfortunately, Kambli did not have a team like Sachin’s which is why his life took a totally different course, in my opinion.

Simple food

My wife and I were talking over dinner recently and she was amused that I was raving about her simple homemade ‘Maharashtrian’ meal – plain rice, plain daal with some ghee (‘sadha varan aani tuup’ as we Maharashtrians call it), some vegetable cooked with very little oil or spices and plain chapatis (‘phulka’ in Marathi). I don’t think there is any other food that is simpler yet more nutritious, with all major food groups (fiber, protein, carbohydrates) covered and with only a tiny amount of salt, sugar and fat. This is what most of us grew up eating and while many get tired of it and like varied and more interesting food, I realized that I am so fortunate to genuinely like this food, don’t get bored with it, and will trade it any day for other fancier food.

Fatal attack on United Healthcare’s CEO

The CEO of United Healthcare (one of America’s largest health insurance companies) was sadly gunned down in New York recently. Having ran Corporate Security for a major company recently and overseen the security program for senior executives, this incident caught my attention. I thought of my ex-team members who used to be willing to put themselves in harm’s way to protect their clients and reached out to one of them to check in and appreciate them again. Like many frontline workers, it is a thankless job but most of these professionals do it with a smile and I believe they deserve more appreciation.