Review: Onsite Opportunity

I was sent a copy of this novel by the author.


It is charming, even though it relies heavily on summary and sometimes I feel as though information is just being thrown at me rather than getting immersed in a story. The glimpses of story are often brief and surrounded by a lot of exposition, but it's interesting and light exposition, so it wasn't a big problem.

What I really like about it is that while showing some of the absurdities of modern life in India, it doesn't descend into bitterness or superiority. It lacks the negativity of so many books that I see.

The writing itself is clean and fresh. It bothers me a little bit that there's a lot of explanation along with dialog, which feels weak. That information would be better coming from the words and actions of the characters, rather than the reader just being told, i.e., " 'Give it your best, guys!' The team was excited." I would rather see what the team members are doing to show that excitement. Are they turning to one another and grinning? Are they elbowing one another and joking? It's difficult to visualize the scene when so little is given.

It's a short book and I think that's due to so much summary and more telling than showing, as in the example above. Along with that, it is definitely more character-driven than plot-driven, but Ganga is an enjoyable character to follow. He has an endearing innocence about him.

There's a great part near the beginning where Ganga is proud to present his business card to an important business client, but it causes the client to get angry that only an associate engineer and not someone higher up is there! I like the way Ganga is completely taken aback by this. He was so proud and excited, doing his best to be the height of professional, but it is not taken the way he expects at all.

On the other hand, it's hard for me to feel connected to what's going on in the book. So much of it is focused on Ganga's work life, which is not something that I personally am that interested in (Of course it's clear that's what the book is about! I just don't think I would have picked up the book for myself). Still, it is very informative and an interesting insight into a different life.

I would sum it up with this sentence: a charming and sincere look into the life of an Indian engineer.

Using my Hindi

I am on vacation at the moment visiting my parents and other family. I was delighted to be able to visit a cousin who has moved back from India with her family. Her daughter is a year and a half old and is extremely cute.

I had met her when she was 1 month old, but it was a big difference to see her now.

She speaks both English and Hindi and so I had a great time trying out my Hindi on her. I think the level I've gotten to is about a three year old, so it was perfect! I wish I could spend more time with her.

I was pleased that I understood all her Hindi and she understood mine.

Definitely renewed and refreshed my desire to get fluent and I'm ready to put in some more intensive studying again.

Exhausted

It is so difficult to remain peaceful and calm, with a spirit of serenity when there is so much hatred all around us.

I suppose it should be expected in the Kali Yuga that people become stubborn and ignorant, unwilling to care about anyone beyond his immediate family (and sometimes not even that).

Day after day we hear about random murder and hate crimes.

Why is it so difficult to see the common ground of humanity between ourselves and others?

All of humanity is my family and my heart is aching for the violence we are doing to one another.

Yesterday there was a shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. It appears that perhaps the gunman thought that Sikhs were Muslims and was attempting vigilante revenge for 9/11 on random innocent people. Sikhs are not Muslims and I hate that so many Americans are too dumb to know that. But even if they were, it is not okay. Killing innocent people, no matter their religion or lack of religion, is not okay.

Why does that seem to be such a difficult concept?

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2012/08/05/witnesses_tell_of_hostage_situation_at_sikh_temple

Raksha Bandhan Always Makes Me Wish I Were Home

My timing is good, actually. I'm going to be driving the eight hours to my parents' house this weekend. Each year when Raksha Bandhan comes along, I start thinking about my brother and wishing I had more contact with him.

Though I will be seeing him this weekend, I know that he'd just roll his eyes and refuse to let me if I tried to tie a string on his wrist! :)

"Raksha Bandhan is a regional celebration to celebrate the sacred relation between brothers and sisters. Primarily, this festival belongs to north and western region of India but soon the world has started celebrating this festival with the same verse and spirit. Rakhi has become an integral part of those customs."


Learn more at http://www.raksha-bandhan.com/rakhi-the-thread-of-love.html

Wedding Gowns

Even though I'm not engaged, I LOVE weddings (Hey, I'm a girly girl, what can I say?) I read www.apracticalwedding.com every day and today I saw a post that made me think of you guys.

This is the story of a western woman who converted to Islam and planned to wear a Pakistani wedding outfit, but found that she fell in love with a western style white dress.

http://apracticalwedding.com/2012/07/intercultural-wedding-clothing-pakistani-american/#

This is interesting to me, as I am looking forward to wearing red to my own wedding.

When I was a little girl, that was not my plan. Despite the Hindu philosophy in my upbringing, I knew nothing about Indian culture at that time. (I don't think I was even aware that my Early Life of Krishna comic book was Indian. It was just...mine).

I thought it would be so romantic and wonderful to wear my mother's dress. At eight years old, that was the plan.

That idea has changed a lot. My mother's dress is an ivory gown with full sleeves that is very, very, very dated at this point! (Congrats to my parents on a very long marriage!)

And once I immersed myself in Indian culture and began to blend Indian clothes into my wardrobe on a regular basis, a traditionally Hindu gown became more and more appealing.

For one, I look good in red! That's the one color that every time I wear it, someone compliments me.

Unlike the woman who wrote this post, Indian clothes are a big part of my life. I wear salwar kameez frequently and sari for special occasions.

For another thing, I love bling. I love the sparkly and intricate details of wedding lenghas!

Here are some of the gowns that I've discovered and pinned onto my Pinterest account as, twenty two years after my eight year old self began wedding plotting, I continue to hope for a wedding in my future.

http://www.cbazaar.com/bridesmaid-and-family/lehenga-choli/gorgeous-net-embroidered-lehenga-choli-p-ghsfd9028.html

http://www.utsavfashion.com/store/sarees-large.aspx?icode=LSA3

http://www.cbazaar.com/brides/lehenga-choli/rich-zardosi-art-red-net-lehenga-choli-p-ghdda224.html

{I was watching a Whose Wedding Is It Anyway? show with an Indian wedding on it. I'm glad they finally represented something different than they usually do, but they were clearly out of their element. They kept talking about the things that are done at Indian weddings and I thought: you do know that there's no such thing as a typical Indian wedding, right? There's different rituals and traditions based on both religion and region.}

Reviews for my Book

I just wanted to let you all know that it would mean so much to me if you'd take a minute to leave a review for the book that is based on this blog!

Here's a link to the book on Amazon...



 I would love for the people who stumble across the book to see what a vibrant and rich community this is. Hinduism touches the lives of so many people, both Indian and non! 

Can Androids Have Souls?

This is the sort of question that has come up for me a lot as a religious person surrounded mostly by engineers. At one time I dated a roboticist.

It was his belief that if we continue to develop computers to be more and more like the human brain, we will eventually have a robot who is effectively human.

But what about consciousness?

To him, if the machine could imitate consciousness, then it was conscious. I was not so sure.

Talking about this question with my current guy, he had an interesting way to look at it. He pointed out that I believe that consciousness is one thing that permeates all of reality. His thought was that it is one consciousness everywhere, but there are certain places in which it pools. One of the places that consciousness pools is within individual human beings.

A robot in that theory could be developed to do the same thing. If so, it doesn't feel nearly as sacrilegious as the "building consciousness into a machine" did to me.

But is consciousness the same thing as a soul?