It's The Final Countdown

It's finals time again.

I would like to share with you some words that my father's best friend shared with me:

"For any difficulties in your life, consider it a necessary evil. Just get through it as best you can."

I'll be back in the USA on June 18th. See you all soon!

Galvinize aka the Anti-PDA

MOLESKINE

Another phenomenal article from AoM.

Sick of your PDA? Is it too complicated to use? Not organized or customizable to your needs?

Why not switch back to pen and paper? I plan to integrate this "system" when I get back home.

The Day the World Went Away

Heyooooo!

Well, haven't blogged in a while, so I thought I ought to update.

I am in love.

I am in love with Royal Enfield motorcycles. There are few things more classic or masculine than an iconic Royal Enfield. My sudden passion for these motorcycles began when I noticed that everyone had either a Bajaj, Yamaha, Honda or TVS cycle parked out in front of the dorm (hostel). Then, as I was walking passed all the monotony, my eyes and ears were caught by the medium-low thumping of an engine, powering a stallion among ponies. The engine noise roared past me and I saw the embodiement of beauty: A silver Royal Enfield Bullet 350. I ignored everything; the driver, the people around me, the ringing of my cell phone. All my concentration was all on the way the sun shine hit the silver machine. The sound tugged at my heart strings and caused my hair to stand on end at same time. A dichotomy of ethereal beauty and terror.

Okay enough drooling over a machine (I can't help myself).

Here is a picture thanks to a quick Google search




Thanks to www.uncommonmotorcycles.com for the picture.


If you don't find this vehicle even the least bit of attractive, I would advise you to make an appointment with you optometrist to get your eyes checked.

Other than my new obsession, I recently got a new suit! I love being in India just based on the idea that I can get a suit CUSTOM TAILORED FROM SCRATCH! For about 100 USD, I can get a three piece suit (jacket, trousers and waistcoat) made to my exact dimensions. The reason I required tailoring services is because I will be attending a charity ball on April 18th. I am very excited to show off my suit because I will taking it a bit further in the embellishment of my suit. Now, I need to find a pocket square and I'll be all set. I don't plan on getting a tie clip because I would rather get one in the US (I really don't know where to get one in India, actually).

This love/obsession for more gentlemanly behavior and interests is all because of this website:

www.artofmanliness.com

Take a gander. Some great stuff on how to be a man and do things that men should be doing.

Otherwise, I hope everyone is doing well and please leave me your thoughts on motorcycles, suits and dressing and maybe how you feel about being a man and what it would mean to you or men in your life.

Cheers!

If I only had a brain....

Great video. Not necessarily how I feel, but I know lots of my fellow desis/non-desis feel this way sometimes.

Dinga Dinga Dee

This video is so absurd, but so catchy.




Courtesy of Rafael Israel Defense. Originally posted by StratPost.

Somebody Told Me

I looked at my calendar and realized that I hadn't updated this blog in over a month. Apologies to my readers and the Spanish Inquisition (Monty Python anyone?). Anyway, personally, I went through a rough time in my first midterm, but I came out alive and well.

Recently, my fellow blogger Mr. Nice Guy sent me an article in regards to immigrant children are now more likely to marry within their own culture/race. I read through the article and Mr. Nice Guy and I proceeded to discuss it.

1. I proposed that it is only generations 4 and 5 that tend to start a mass-interracial marrying. The hypothesis is that those generations tend to have a less cultural involvement. This is no fault of the 2nd or 3rd generation, it is simply the integration that occurs the longer a family lives in a newly adopted home.

2. Being a 3rd generation (okay, 2.5, but I round up like the banks) Indian American, I see no problem in interracial marriage based on two ideas

• Interracial marriages theoretically open the gene pool up to new traits and possibly increases the genetic strength of progeny.
• Interracial marriages help rid the existing racism that still exists in our world.
  

As for losing family and cultural traditions, I firmly believe it is the responsibility of the parents to teach and explain their respective cultures. For my potential children, I will try to make it a point to expose them to Indian culture and then explaining the point or reasoning behind certain cultural horizons.

Referring to the article, it states that many young "immigrant Americans" are seeing comfort in marrying people's of similar cultural backgrounds. As excellent as that is, I feel slightly jaded by that notion. I have been around Indians my entire life, and I have no maleficence toward Indian women, but I feel much more drawn to non-Indian women. I can't really explain why, but I will hypothesize that relationships outside of my race and culture will be much more interesting, rewarding and will expose me to whole new facet to my personal horizons.

Yes, marrying within my culture will be easy and may provide for an even easier familial situation. But I always try to bring everyone down to the same level: No one is any better than anyone and therefore, all women will be the same, regardless of race, culture or creed. So, same problems/rewards regardless of skin color and cultural differences.

An interesting fact: Arranged marriage was the dominant form of marriage until the introduction of "modern courtship" introduced by Western culture in the 1900's. The argument still exists: Who gets to choose who I a marry, my parents or me?

As I get older; I'll be 23 years old in a month, I find that I am starting to think about marriage and when I will get to that point. I think about how my father was already married when he was my age. It is slightly incomprehensible how one generation later, I will probably be 5-15 years older than when my father was married! I am not sure if it will arranged or the traditional Western idea of marriage. Even the prospect of marriage is sometimes off putting. I feel as if I haven't dated enough and that there may be something that I am missing if I get married too early. At the same time, I might miss out on something if I get married too late. It's a conundrum that many in my generation have to face.

In conclusion, love, arranged or interracial marriage are enough options to leave any person bewildered and confused. Luckily, we have those options. I think the best option right now is to grow up some more and wait and see. Perhaps increased maturity will make the choice more clear, or just make us even more lost.

Good luck everyone! Hopefully the juice is worth the squeeze.

P.S. If you are a female, with high aspirations in life, I am a 22 year old Aries. I like long walks on the beach, star gazing, trips to the museum and/or art galleries, followed up with a pleasant evening at an interesting restaurant and dancing. I am totally up for most new experiences :) (No, really, just leave me alone with my medical school books. I NEED TO STUDY!)

Let It Rock

As our world changes around us, I have begun to question whether what is new and cutting edge is even worth using. My parents generation and my grandparents generation are not used to technology changing so quickly. For instance, when I tried to convince my parents to get Google mail as opposed to Hotmail or Yahoo, my parents asked, "Why? What makes Google so special?" After a very long and complicated answer stating that Google was the future of communication and productivity, my parents just gave me a blank stare and still, to this day, use Hotmail.

Of course, this was very frustrating to me. Then I realized that my parents lived through so many changes in technology. Black and white to color televisions, record players to the mobile mp3 player, encyclopedias and type writers to the internet and notebook PCs. Even more astounding are the changes my grandparents have seen!

These revelations got me thinking about objects in everyday life that are supposed to make our existence easier. My observations led me to be critical at one point of every process that I conduct in my day. For the most part, technology and progress won. The only outlier/anomaly came to me as a great surprise. This activity has been the bane of every man from the beginning of civilization: Shaving.

My then current razor was of the five + one blade on the back variety and I thought it was the best shave I was ever going to get. Then I stumbled upon a website called www.kinowear.com, a men's lifestyle blog (go ahead, call me vain) that I frequent in between the busy moments of my life. On the website, they claimed that the absolute closest and best shave a man could get did not involve multiple blades. Boy, was I shocked by that statement. The best shave a man could get was in fact a method that my grandfathers and their fathers had used for about fifty years in a time when cars were still made out of metal and you still had to use a card catalog at the library. I'm talking about double edged, safety razors. So, here is one process that I go through in my day that is actually a throwback to older, more gentle days.

I no longer despise my morning shave, but instead, I revel in it. With my brush, a heated soup mug, scented shaving cream and a steady hand, I have this twenty minute moment of Nirvana in the morning. I no longer rush through my shave, but instead steep in the glory of what it means to be a man, taking pride in every stroke of my razor and looking upon a clean shaven face that smells of fresh lime. I have even found communities online that partake in this practice of leaving the new way and returning to our roots of the shaving practice.

I am quite proud of myself for learning a new skill in which I thought there was no other way to master. To me, this is on a path of personal and social refinement that we all seek at some point in our lives. For someone that enjoys the finer things in life and the experiences they grant, shaving is a small commodity that I used to take for granted.

I will end this article by urging my male and yes, even my female readers to give double edge shaving a try. It may look scary and yes, you may even cut yourself a few times before you see results, but a wise man once said, anything that is difficult to attain is probably worth having and never easy to attain. Upon seeing me shave for the first time with this new but tried and tested razor, brush and cream my grandfather marveled at my old multi bladed monstrosity. He smiled, shrugged his shoulders and simply stated, "Old is gold."