Sigh!

We had to go to the friendly neighborhood USCIS office this afternoon for "having our biometrics taken". Which in other words means, we had to give our fingerprints (now we can't escape from a crime without being given away by our fingerprints;) )

We arrived, Subhash's appointment was @ 1PM and mine was @ 2. The guard tried to be a little nasty in asking me to wait one hour and saying he won't let me in @ 1 PM. Which was a little funny considering that the place was empty.

Well anyway, Subhash got done and it was my turn. After all the finger prints, it was the turn of the web camera. I had to get my picture taken. And the most unthinkable of things happened to me. The lady actually asked me to remove my "bottu" (which is another word for vermillion/tilak/bindi). I was infuriated. I asked her if I had to and she was like "yeah, you have to" with a type of I-cannot-help-it-I-am-so-sorry expression.

For a moment there, I had a good mind to walk right out of that place. But I didn't want to over-react. But maybe I wasn't? I have been here ~6.5 years and I have been stared at and asked funny questions (a lady at a Border's Store actually asked me if I was sick and why I was wearing the Tilak, I thought, what a stupid female, and I let it go at that) but I have never been asked to remove it. For me, (you can call me old-fashioned for this), it is an essential part of my attire. I will not lie and say I am the quintessential "Bharat Nari" or anything like that, but I have never gone out without wearing my bindi. If for nothing else, just the fact that I don't like the way I look without it. I have been wearing it for more than 2 decades now and I don't think I can get "un"-used to it at all.

That I had to do this today, infuriated me. Maybe I am over-reacting, but then maybe I am not. Whatever happened to freedom!

And the funniest part was, Subhash had one on his forehead too (a real tiny one) and she never asked him to remove that! Well, there seems to be no end to the weirdness in USCIS and its practices!

A (small?) misunderstanding

I was driving back to work from McCarthy Ranch the other day. I saw this Acura zipping criss cross on the street, ahead of me. We stopped at a light and the sticker on the bumper grabbed my attention. It said something along the lines of "If everyone wanted an eye for an eye, the whole world would be blind" But what was more fascinating is that it had a picture of Gandhi on it and read M.K. Gandhi.

Going by how this guy/gal was driving, it didn't seem like he/she would be anywhere close to "Gandhian". Recklessly and aggressively and even rudely cutting ahead of everyone on a local road that maxed at 40MPH. I was amused. Then I thought, maybe he/she misunderstood what the bumper sticker meant;) Instead of realizing that it was meant to prevent reaction from your own self, maybe this person assumed that it told the world not to react to whatever he/she did? ;)

So instead of learning not to react/honk/respond when someone else was driving bad, it seemed the person was telling everyone around to be Gandhian and not react to his/her "taking an eye".

Well, well.

Aithe

Decided to take my Honda for a spin today. I knew this song was in its CD magazine somewhere. It had been a while since I listened to it. Another good one from Keeravani, a little less popular though. The movie (Aithe) and the song (the lone one in the movie) didn't receive as much kudos as they deserved is what I always felt:) SO much so that the Wikipedia database for Keeravani doesn't show this movie at all. Sigh! I am beginning to doubt if I was mistaken about the music composer for this song...

Anonymous just let me know this:

Kalyani Malik is the one who should be credited with this song.

Ensoi!!