Restart!

It has been a while since I blogged on any of my blogs. I have been just to busy, putting out version 1.0 of my software, settling the family, and reconnecting with my parents, etc. etc.

But, I think the real reason I have not written is because anything I would write would be colored by a lot of negative emotion. And I don’t believe in negative emotion – it debilitates you and it is best to clean such things out of your system. If something does not make you happy, or does not inspire you or does not excite you, it should not be part of your life! Of course, I am not such a simpleton to believe that one can live in a permanent state of myopic bliss when things around you are going to hell. One has to pay attention to the negatives and then fix them … or move on.

Which brings us back to the negative emotions I just talked about. India is frustrating. There is no sugar coated way I can say that. For someone who has lived 23 years in the US of A it is mind-bogglingly frustrating. It starts when I wake up. In Milwaukee, one of the best parts of my day was a hot-shower in the morning – it wakes me up and energizes me. In Milwaukee, I would step into the shower and turn the faucets on – Ah Nirvana! In India, I fight the faucets for the first 5 minutes (they are loose and the hot and cold streams are unbalanced), getting alternately scalded and frozen. By the time I am all soaped up, the stupid, lousy 3 gallon hot water “geyser” tank is all done. I have to finish up in cold water. I detest cold showers, except in extremely hot weather (which mercifully is only a couple of months here in Pune). Anyway, by the time I am done cursing the “geyser” and longing for the 100 gallon hot water heater in our basement in Milwaukee, I have already got a negative start to the day.

Then there are all the challenges of servants not showing up – including the maid who does the dishes and the driver. We have tried to keep the servant retinue to a minimum, but some are, well, just necessary. If I did not have a driver for example, I would probably have committed multiple homicides every mile. The few times I have driven here I wanted to litter the roads with the corpses of all those maniacal drivers who break every traffic law there is to break and then some! And …. Aaaaaaarrrrggggghhhhhh!

Well you get the picture – I was going to write a nice positive essay to restart my blogging, but it devolved pretty fast there didn’t it? We are only at about 9am and I am contemplating mass murder.

Anyway, like I said in my introduction, this country will frustrate you and challenge and excite you, but never bore you…

I promise I will try to be calmer in my future posts, but be prepared for some criticisms of India and Indian culture. If you can’t handle it, please don’t revisit this blog. And please no flaming – I can’t stand fanatics who can’t take criticism. Of course you will miss all the positive things I say too (and perhaps even some insights).

“A life that is not examined is not worth living” - Socrates