Today is my son’s birthday – he turned four! Happy Birthday Amar 🙂 And for his birthday, what did he want? He wanted a Continental Airplane (die cast, not real) to add to his planes collection. So off we went to the airport and after traveling on the monorail and searching three terminals we came home with a Delta and ATA play set instead. Can someone explain to me how it was impossible to locate a Continental plane at the Newark airport? Isn’t EWR Continental’s main hub?

Anyways, the reason for the blessing was that even though he never got the plane, Amar was still happy with his gifts and told his father and I that he didn’t really need a Continental plane. Gosh! In this day and age to hear a kid not throw a fit for something like this is unbelievable. I thank the heavens above for his blessing. And Amar I promise you’ll get your plane sooner or later 🙂

So, recently we just got back from a great trip to India and I was blown away at the growth and development that has occured. The sidewalks were clean, the people were more western than those in the US (have you ever visited any little India throughout the States?), the food was amazing (no I’m not talking about Indian food but fast food).

Yesterday, Amar insisted that he wanted to go to McDonalds so we went along to please him. His birthday is coming up and unlike most people our kids tend to get a whole weeks worth of wishes, just kidding! So, we get there and Anand asks me: “So, what do you want?”

Uh! What can I get at McDonalds other than fries and salads (and I’m sorry even though I know I should eat the salad I can’t get myself to start eating grass, no offense to the salad eaters of the world , my amazing husband is one too :-)). So, my response to him was “can we go back to India?”

What’s the connection you may ask, well McDonalds in India has a vast variety of vegetarian dishes. Apart from the obvious veggie burger (which might I add was far better than the ones we get here), they offered the McAloo Tikki , Paneer Salsa Wrap, Crispy Chinese, Veg. McCury Pan and the Pizza McPuff. So, I proclaim today that I want to have a reverse globalization! When these MNCs go abroad and create menus for the locals there, I feel we ought to benefit too and I should be able to walk into a McDonalds here and get a better vegetarian selection. I know I’m not the only one who is sick and tired of eating fries! Diversify, McDonalds, diversify there are a huge amount of people like myself who want better vegertarian menus.

Oh and this isn’t just limited to McDonalds, same holds true for the others including KFC where once again the menu held more than just chicken.

I don’t know about you but this year for sure I have a feeling that Mother Nature is steaming mad at us! One disaster after another and the list just doesn’t seem to be ending. Whenever I’ve turned on the news in the past few months all I see is death or destruction that has been initiated by Mother Nature whether it be tsunamis, earthquakes, or hurricanes. A part of me is frustrated and bewildered by this constant state of attack and I can’t help but think what next? But the other half wonders whether we have brought this upon ourselves: Karma!

In this current global environment we have umpteen wars that have been waged, we have umpteen genocides that are currently being enacted, and we have a constant stream of hatred that doesn’t appear to be diminishing. It’s amazing to me, as I lived here in the United States of America “the melting haven of this world” that there are still people who practice acts of hatred against certain races and cultures. I find this completely hard to comprehend, how such vulgar and hatred continues when we surrounded by so much knowledge and knowing that the world is so interconnected today. I speak from personal experience, having been yelled at a few months back in a parking lot because of my appearance. I am of Indian origin and often times have been mistaken by many to be from the Middle East. Now, even if I was from Iraq the kind of ignorance that was being displayed was beyond my grasp.

Why is it that some of us opt to live our life surrounded by hatred? I have always thought myself to be an optimist but recently I too feel that we are all headed for doom and sometimes I wonder if that is necessarily bad. If the world my children are going to inherit is still going to be one that is built on a foundation of hate and intolerance than maybe Mother Nature needs to constantly keep reminding us of how our existence here is really dependent on His will. Maybe these constant flexes of power are to remind us that we are really at her mercy.

Recently I read a brief article talking about how North Korea has set up training schools to teach individuals how to hack computers. These cyber terrorists are probably a representation of warfare yet to come but in my mind they give me hope for a safer war. Yes! I’m totally in favor of wars being fought over the computer especially if it spares lives. Can you imagine how many families would be intact if wars were fought over the computer? Let’s replace guns and bombs with shutdowns and overloads. Seriously, if hacking into the computer and bringing down a nation-states government can fulfill the quest for power I think many children, wives and mothers would be grateful and welcoming of such a change. I personally hope we do go down this path. Maybe it’s impossible to live in a utopia society without war but maybe cyber terrorism can be a solution.

Video games give such satisfaction to individuals and with technology they have become so much more realistic and gruesome. So, why then can’t we just allow nation-states to fight and may the best gamer win. I am definitely not a fan of computer games especially since the simple pacman has been replaced with such horrific games; however, one place where I do see their value would be in simulated warfare between nations. Can you imagine if when we talk about buildings having been blown up it was merely on a computer screen? Gosh! Reporters would have nothing to report! There would be no innocent civilian deaths and the cost of warfare in monetary terms would be a fraction. All that excessive money could then be redirected to actually helping to better societies by providing vaccinations, homes, and education. Our world as a whole would be a lot safer. The fear of guns would be irrelevant since no one would need to carry them. Just challenge your opponent to the nearest computer.

Even if we didn’t create simulated video games to fight wars, the war could be fought in terms of attaining data. Agencies like the CIA invest a tremendous amount of money to have under cover agents go into other nations to attain information to forward their agendas. Could you imagine a society where we could do so without having to leave home? Maybe these hackers could disrupt files and delete data but still this would be a much safer war because for the most part backups could kept. Oh how I wish we could move toward such a society where we didn’t have to worry about real lives being lost, especially those of civilians, but merely computer generated ones.

Sampadhki would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year, one that will hopefully bring peace, unity and tranquility in the world. As we embark on 2005, it seems like we should at least for a moment stop and pay respect to those who may not be as fortunate to celebrate the way we do. As we enjoy our festive celebrations, we must remember that in parts of the world people continue to be bombarded by warfare, poverty and in South Asia recovery efforts. My hope and pray for the upcoming year is that we can work together to hopefully resolve many of these issues. It would so please to live in a world where I can turn on my television and not have to hear about warfares. I know we can’t control Mother Nature but we can at least control the senseless killings that are occurring in various hotspots around the globe.

Sometimes I tend to wonder about the comment “the good ol’ days” and its relationship to warfare. I think the comment, in and of itself, is an oxymoron; however, I have to say that when studying about the past, I was amazed that before capturing a ship a warning was giving so that the people could get away. Today, unfortunately, the wars not only are among those fighting but the many civilian citizens. It boggles my mind why we allow this to occur. Even back in the time the rules of warfare were not to target civilians. Now because of our advancement in weaponry we can wipe out entire villages in a matter of minutes. Well, let us all hope and pray that things can change. Because there is always hope and I have to say with each turn of the year that glimpse of hope is present and alive. It is time for us to demand that change in our governments. Its time to fight for a more humane world, a more loving and caring world one that we can leave for our kids with a heads held high. I would love to say for once in my life “these are the good days and it was never any better than this!”

Once again my wishes to you for a prosperous and peaceful new year!