Goatee....

I decided to get an extreme makeover.. So I started to grow a goatee.. Now I have a 3 week old goatee and the feedback has been mixed. For starters, my wife loves it and my parents hate it. My colleagues said it suited me very well. My close relatives had mixed feelings. Some felt that I looked like a terrorist(the middle-east kind) and some felt that I looked different(Not sure if they liked it or not). My friends have not seen me yet. So not sure what their reactions would be. It was very interesting to observe people observe me and comment on it. What do I think about it when I see myself in the mirror? Well... to be honest, I love it. Its as if I am seeing a new me in myself. I am still getting used to seeing me with a goatee and I am honored to be part of the goatee club. I was curious to know if there were any goatee clubs around and was pleasantly surprised to find 100s of them around. But I was not interested to join any of them for now..
This is the first time in my life I have grown anything close to a beard. I always had this doubt that it might not suit me but decided to try it on when my wife suggested it one day. It was easily reversible and that gave me some motivation to try it. I was pleasantly surprised when I found myslef liking it. Its then I realized that I wanted, for a long time, to see a change in myself and this just facilitated it conveniently. I still have to get the tools to keep it under control. I am tempted to post a picture of my goatee but am holding off on it for now. Its interesting how a bunch of facial hairs could change an outlook of a person so easily.

The american tsunami...

I was debating for 3 days if I should blog this and finally decidedly do it. For starters, my heart goes out to all the people who have been affected by this monster called "Katrina". Yet another reason to thank the California weather. I would never see this as long as I stay put where I am. This really brings to light the natures fury and the effect it has on innocent people.
I am writing this blog as I am watching Anderson cooper 360 on CNN. He just let go of republican leader Trent Lott after a grueling 20 minute phone interview asking questions that people of Katrina's devastation wanted to ask the bush government. I understand that more than half of it was media stunt but what impressed me was the sheer guts of Trent Lott to agree to a phone interview with Anderson in such a situation. I do not recall such a media coverage during the Asian-Indian Tsunami where more than a 100,000 people were affected and there are still people struggling to get out of it. I did not see a single ruling politician trying to justify the aid and efforts provided to the people affetced by the tsunami. I could only see opposition politicians trying to blame the ruling government on how reckless they were in providing aid. If only our Indian media could mobilize such a power as Anderson cooper did today, I am sure we could have mobilized much more aid to tsunami affected victims.
I am reminded of this wonderful proverb in Tamil that goes something like this... "One will know the effect of toothache and headache only if they experience it themselves..". An american tsunami has hit america close to home and the american media is now scrambling to generate as much attention as possible to this natural disaster. I am just amazed and awed at the extent of coverage in channels like CNN where they show live feeds of affected area 24 hours of the day for the past 5 days. It is saddening to note that a country of 1 billion people could not mobilize this kind of media attention for a calamity that was 100 times more destructive than this hurricane.
I am still waiting for an Indian Anderson Cooper who can get the answers for people who were affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami.