2013 – In Hindsight

To say 2013 went by quickly would be the understatement of the year.

With the communication technology so vastly improved, there has been an overdose of social apps. There is little we don’t know about the connected people in our network, and at times we know a bit more than needed. But, as has been my practice over the past few year, here is a summary of what happened in the year around me.

People we lost in 2011

Nelson Mandela was perhaps the biggest news of the year, and though he had been in & out of the hospital with near death experiences, the news still created a feeling of sadness around the world for having lost one of the last great leaders.

Margaret Thatcher was another one that had impressed me with her leadership skills. The Iron Lady, as she was commonly called, had a great stint as the UK PM for nearly 11 years.

I grew up reading the books written by Tom Clancy, and his death in the year was another big loss.

  

Major news events in 2013 that made headlines, and caught my attention:

• Kumbha Mela in Prayag (Allahabad) in India
• Sachin Tendulkar retired from cricket – for me that was probably the last attraction for Indian Cricket.
• Swami Viveknand’s 150^th birth anniversary was celebrated across the globe
• Barrack Obama took the oath to continue as the USA president for the second term.
• Narendra Modi made a lot of headlines in India and emerged as a leading candidate for post of India’s Prime Minister
• Arvind Kejriwal created the AAP (Aam Aadmi Party – Common Man’s party) which swept the ruling Congress Government from power in Delhi. He seems to have a lot of charisma, and if he can remain honest, he will be able to do wonders for the India Politics.
• Obamacare ran into multiple issues – both political and logical (with the launch causing severe performance issues).

 The Kids

Shivangi is now a senior at University of Southern California (USC), majoring in Industrial Systems Engineering. She graduated earlier in 2011 from Mills College with major in Math. In the summers, she interned at Niagara Water bottling company in Ontario, California and wants to pursue a career in Supply Chain Management. She was elected the Vice President of her sorority at USC, and has built a good network for herself.

Neha, turned 21 on the last day of the year. She is now a senior in St. Mary’s college, majoring in Bio-chemistry, and is thinking about a career in medicine, genetics or pharmacology. She has continued to be very involved in the local Hindu chapter of the Hindu Volunteers Group (HSS) and helps in running its daily activities by helping her mother with the efforts in that area. Her 21^st birthday was a fun event – where Nandita had planned a surprise party for her. We had invited some of her friends, Shivangi’s friends and our close family friends over for lunch on the day, while Nandita took her out to get her nails done. It was fun to surprise her. Earlier, over the weekend, Nandita had arranged for a helicopter ride from San Carlos airport to Half Moon Bay – thanks to her friend, Terri Mead.

Both the girls will graduate in May of 2014.

Nandita and I

Nandita and I turned are inching towards our 50s. We have been married for nearly 27 years now, and have known each other a lot longer (since 1981).

We are so pleased and honored to see so many people feel comfortable visiting our humble abode and staying with us. Between April and Dec, I think there was barely a week when there was no friend/family member visiting us or staying at our place. Some of the folks that visited us were Nandita’s Cousin with her family (Rucha’s parents) from Pune; my College Professor Mrs. Sumedha Nashikkar and her husband, Anil (took me nearly 20+ years of convincing to finally get her to come); my college friend Farhan Pettiwala and his wife, Navya; Our childhood friend Sharmila Dey and her daughter; Alicia and Jeff Sandoval; Tanvi Sinha, and my wife’s neice Priyanka and her mother to name a few. It feels like a good to see people feel at home at our place, and we had some fun times with all our visitors. 

Our jobs

I changed my job last year in November, moving from Bank of America to a start up named Tria Beauty. The company makes laser operated bio-medical devices, which are FDA approved to be used for skin care like at-home Laser Hair Removal, Anti-aging and Acne treatments. I had been keen to move into the start-up sector, and this opportunity just happened to come along at the perfect time, just as both the girls were entering their final year of under-grad education. I am currently the head of IT, and am responsible for eCommerce architecture, ERP and IT Infrastructure. When I look back at what I helped the IT team achieve, I can’t help but feel proud of what the team has done this year (we saved the company nearly $1.5M by sheer negotiations and using better & cheaper options).

Nandita has continued to work as a Director in the Clinical and Technical Affairs at Coagusense, the small start-up company based in Fremont. Coagusense continues to do well, and became profitable this year (its 5^th year of existence) – a huge step for it.

The travels

My business trips took me to Palm Springs, in California, Phoenix in Arizona, Indore and Hyderabad in India. I traveled to Los Angeles as well. During my Indore trip, I got to attend the annual events at Daly College, my Alma Mater, after a few decades. It was very nostalgic and brought back some great memories. I also got to meet some very close friends.

Nandita traveled to Seattle on business trips and Indore to help her brother who was ill.

  

Activities

I continued to be very active as the coordinator for the Contra Costa Chapter of Global Indian Technology Professionals (GITPRO). This year, we had 5 monthly events in our chapter that covered various topics like preparing for an interview, planning your career, Financial and Tax Management, Cloud Technology, Innovation, and Legal aspects of starting your own Venture etc. There is a lot planned for this in 2014.

Nandita and Neha continue to spend their weekends with the Shakha work and supporting the Sewa Project, where the volunteers prepare 75 lunch packages to go and feed the homeless in Berkeley’s People’s Park. Nandita also continued to be involved with her writer’s club, where the members (all ladies group) meet once a month on a Friday evening at someone’s home and read the write-ups that they have prepared. She also contributed a weekly column called Diary of NRI to Daink Bhaskar – a local newspaper published from Bhopal in India.

During my recent India trip, I got to spend a week with my mother. It was a good feeling for both of us, especially after her surgical repair of the thigh bone earlier in Jan 2013. She is doing great, by God’s grace and is able to walk about without the walker. I am hoping to be able to bring her to the US soon.

TV shows and Movies we saw

•   Some mentionable English movies we saw – Man of Steel, Star Trek into Darkness, Thor 2, The Wolverine, Hunger Games – catching Fire, Gravity and Oblivion.
• Hindi Movies –some Hindi movies that we saw (and recommend) – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Yeh Jawaani hai Diwani, OMG. 
• TV Serials we followed –Covert Affairs, Rizzolli and Isles, Bones, NCIS, Big Bang Theory, The Mentalist, Person Of Interest, Necessary Roughness and Sherlock.

Other happenings – Sachin’s retirement from Cricket and being awarded Bharat Ratna, the highest Civilian award in India. 

Looking forward into 2014 – In the first half of the year, I have plans to travel to San Antonio in Texas, Miami in Florida, Seoul in Korea and London in UK . I am also hoping to take a cruise this year and a vacation to Australia/NewZealand as well as take my daughters for a short vacation trip to India. On my work front, I am getting ready to launch a new eShopping website that we designed and built.  Here is hoping that all these can go very smoothly, as planned. I am looking forward to meeting more of my close friends and family in 2014. Cheers!!

If I were the Prime Minister of India

It is never an easy job running an organization of any size – leave alone a country especially if it is as diverse and large as India. Given its history of corruption, misuse of power and lack of foresight amongst its leaders, this would take a very skilled person to run this country and bring it to the path of advancement that the people in India truly deserve.

Here is what I’d do if I were to ever become the Prime Minister of India.

I.                    Constitution:

a.       Form a committee to rewrite the constitution in 2 years. Major changes –

                                                               i.      Mandatory requirement for becoming a MP or hold a public post – person must be born in India, to Indian parents and should NOT have a partner or spouse born in another country.

                                                             ii.      Build a mix of parliamentary and presidential form of government. The parties fighting the election will need to declare a leader beforehand.  No person can hold a post for more than 8 consecutive years, with elections occurring on a fixed date every year and the country electing the full parliament every 4 years. Villages should choose Panchayats and vote for people, not parties. Every town and city will have MLAs and MPs based on population.

                                                            iii.      Ministers will need to be subject matter experts in the field and will be advised by experts in that area. E.g – defense minister will need to be a defense expert with experience of defending the country and will be aided by a council of former chiefs of armed forces.

                                                           iv.      Member of Parliament can only have power to vote yes or nay on the issue in front of them. They can ask or question the reasoning behind the bill and also form parliamentary committees to question anyone on the happening in the country. They can also introduce new bills for the parliament to discuss. They do not get to allocate utilities like gas distributors or fuel stations.

                                                             v.      NO regional parties – only national parties or independents can fight the elections. There will be three national parties. Regional parties only create division of the country.

                                                           vi.      Leaders and people causing factionalism (on basis of cast, creed, and language) will be dealt with severely.

                                                          vii.      Move away from division of states based on language.  States will be made larger, and pool in resources. People will elect their own leaders, based on their personal appeal rather than party guidelines.

b.      Elections will be clean, less noisy and parties will be held accountable for cleaning the banners, slogans etc. with a heavy penalty for noise and graffiti.

c.       Filing of taxes over the age of 18 mandatory. All cash transactions will be tracked and limited to certain value ( 

II.                  Law and Order

a.       Give autonomous status to CBI and EOW to investigate crimes.

b.      Create a committee to revise the criminal law – use experts in criminal law to fill loopholes. Devise a faster mechanism for verdicts. Investigation agencies will spend time to analyze the cases before presenting it to court.

c.       Maintain a full database of every Indian with Biometrics and DNA record. All indivisuals will be required to carry a photo-id at all times (driver’s license or voters card) will be made mandatory.

d.      Install Closed circuit TV on all major roads and crossings of the country.

e.      Civil cases over property which have been in the court for over 10 years will be given 6 months to reach an amicable settlement. After which, the property will be taken over by the government for public use.

f.        Improve road and traffic laws. Implement a new driving license system and everyone will need to reapply. Make person approving the driver’s license responsible for the driving capabilities of the driver -- a track record will be publicly available of who approved most accident prone drivers. Also, during the driver’s test, the approver will need to ride with the person applying for the license.

g.       Implement strict copyright laws and track internet piracy.

h.      Crack down heavily on resources causing riots based on religion.

III.                Anti - Corruption

a.       This is easier said than done. But it needs a strong leader with a strong will power. I’d declare that anyone in the public figure (from a Babu to a leader) willing to acknowledge every having taken any bribe or favors from public will have 30 days to acknowledge and return the money to the Government. No penalties or fines will be assessed on what was declared. However, after the 30 days period, I’d ask the public to file anonymous complaints on the incidents when they had to bribe to get the work done – all they’d need to submit is when, how much, to who and for what. Immediate enquiry will ensue and leaders will be fined by up to 5 times the said amount.

b.      All government employees will be deemed as public figures and what they say or do will be open to public under the right to public information. Only the defense personnel will be excluded from this. What this means is that if you are a minister or a secretary, you’d be under the scanner at all times and your phones, offices, homes and cars will be tapped.

c.       Property taxes will be assessed based on market prices. All transactions will be recorded directly by companies which will research ownership history and provide insurance against legal issues around ownership. Failure to record real prices will result in fines equivalent to twice the difference, and on repeat failures, withdrawal of license to do business. Also, buyers will need to be recorded by biometrics methods (retinal scans, in addition to other means). This will ensure that multiple property owners will be taxed at higher rates.

d.      All MPs will have to declare their property and earning details every year.

e.      Whistle blowers will be eligible for up to 33% of the yield in the raid. Example - Charge of traffic tickets will be distributed 3 way, with the cop getting 33%, 33% going to the state police benefit fund and remaining for the state public benefit fund.
f.    News media will be encouraged to investigate and publish information about scams. Journalists and media providing details about scams will be awarded with a portion of the total amount recovered.
g.   Indian Government will go after money stored in foreign banks, and if the owners can't reveal the source of that money or proves that they had paid taxes on it, the assetts will be confiscated.
h.   Plan for ways to force out the hidden black money in the country -- example, by introducing new currency notes, and mandating registration of property owners using biometrics etc.

IV.                Energy and natural resources

a.       Green energy will be leveraged wherever possible. Focus will be on Solar, wind, and Nuclear power wherever possible.  Reduce reliance on imported fuel.

b.      Every household will need to install water conservation methods. This will include Energy efficient appliances, methods of conserving rain water

c.       Cities will need to plan for rain water conservation – including but not limited to rain gutters on every building, storing rain water, increasing catchment area and marking green belts. Every road should be lined with native trees that have been cut over the years.

d.      Citizens will be encouraged to plan a tree for every year of their age – as a way of giving back to nature.

e.      Clean up rivers, creeks by removing obstructions and deepening the rivers to carry more water. Every major city will mark areas to store water in form of lakes which will be earmarked as picnic areas to generate funds for maintenance.

f.        Encourage use of public transport with incentives. Give tax rebates for using public transport in lieu of gas (petrol/diesel) driven vehicles.

V.                  Employment and Education

a.       Government employees will be the best of the best and will be amongst the highest paid. If people do not understand that government employment means public service, and not personal gains, they shouldn’t join the government service.

b.      All reservations in schools/colleges and jobs will be canceled immediately, as they have only helped in dividing the country. Only the armed forces and tribes from adivasis (aborigines) will be given 10% reservation during admission to higher education each. There will be an extra 10% for women.  For everyone else, the fees structure will be based on their tax returns only. Anyone availing the reservation will be required to serve 3-5 years in the government designated area of their education.

c.       Public schools (meaning schools run by Government) will be made free and will provide quality education. The teachers will be highly qualified and highly paid. Everyone must realize the impact teachers have on the life of students and it is very important that the formative years are well taken care of.

d.      One year of paid mandatory service in the armed forces in a non-border area before the age of 25 years. This could be in paramilitary forces or armed forces and will inculcate the discipline required in all. Continue Short service commissions (5 years’ service). Provide veterans all the help in getting job placements.

e.      Remove teaching of religion from all schools. Schools will instead be required to teach a mandatory subject about true Indian culture and history based on facts and documentary visits to various places of relevance.

f.        Mandatory learning of 3 languages, including English and Hindi. Students will have a choice to learn a language spoken in the country (along with Hindi and English) until the 5^th grade, and then can choose to either continue further studies in it until their tenth grade or pick any language of the world (other than English) to study. Advanced courses in the same languages will be offered beyond the tenth grade too.

g.       Education courses will change to keep up with the advances in tech world. Strong emphasis will be on learning by practice and research. Move away from just theoretical learning.

VI.                Industry and Commerce

a.       Encourage exports. This will mean that quality will need to improve. I’d fine the companies that export sub-par goods, as it tarnishes the name of the country.

b.      Companies importing goods will be encouraged to import goods in knocked-down state. Depending on how much of the items are imported, there will be varying duty. Assembly and QA in India would help get more manufacturing jobs in the country.

Companies opening up manufacturing facilities in India will be given tax rebates.

c.       Make the process of opening and running a business a single window operation – with everything available online or at one window. Minimize red tape.

d.      Encourage R&D and innovation. Companies opening up R&D facilities in India will be given tax rebates.

e.      Small businesses like groceries and cafes in towns get preferences over large scale operations like Walmart or Reliance.

VII.              Agriculture

a.       Build an intricate canal system across the country to drain and store water.

b.      Farmers will be owners of the land.

c.       Form farmers cooperatives to sell directly to users

d.      Government will subsidize the farming equipment and material heavily and provide all assistance to farmers.

VIII.            Defense

a.       India will have the strongest armed forces in the region, with advanced capabilities to attack deep within any country.

b.      Heavy emphasis on R&D to produce indigenous equipment. There will be a farm of Indian satellites in and around the country, strong number of aircrafts, ships, tanks and drones.

c.       We will not attack first, but will reserve to right to go after people or countries that run proxy wars or indulge in terrorist attacks.

d.      Form an alliance with neighboring countries to form a common armed pact – that will induce close collaboration.

e.      No negotiations with terrorists. We will go all out to kill anyone trying to terrorize our population. If the attack is perpetrated outside our country, we will go after the people that planned it outside.

IX.                Culture and religion

a.       People can practice their religion freely – by following the policy of Live and let live – as long as the beliefs don’t hurt the country’s progress or unity or integrity.

b.      Each religion’s place of worship will be brought under a governing body run by the religious heads of that religion. Example- Hindus will have a central body run by the 4 shankar acharyas with the chief position rolling between all four on a quarterly basis. All foreign donations towards religious societies will be distributed by the government across all religious societies. It will be ensured that parties are really doing social welfare work. Religious conversions will be stopped, as there is more than one way to worship.

c.       Promote the historical culture, and natural beauty of India abroad for tourism. Set up infrastructure so that it becomes easier for people to travel to various sites in India and learn the real history of the locations.

d.      National holidays will be limited to a handful – Independence day, Republic day, Veterans day (aka Shahid Divas), Holi, Rakhi, Eid, Gandhi Jayanti, Christmas, and Diwali. For other religious days, people following that religion can take a leave from their allocated days.

e.      Every nationally recognized religion/sect will be asked to declare areas of their religious significance. These will be given federal and state protection and preserved.

f.        No more processions on the major streets. Disrupting traffic will cost heavy fees and/or penalties.

g.       Religious places will not be allowed to create noise. So no more booming loudspeakers sending waves of sound of mantras, shlokas or azzaans. The sounds of the praying places should not leave the walls of the place.

h.      Religious places will be treated as zones of sanctity, and priests will run them with efficiency. Police or armed forces will enter them only to pray or to catch criminals if they take shelter there. Under no circumstances will we allow any religious place to become the hub of criminal activity and if that happens, the authorities running that place of worship will be blamed/penalised.  

X.                  Foreign policy

a.       Remain non aligned, but try to form a close alliance of defense with neighboring countries like Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Shri Lanka, Afganistan and few African countries, on the lines of NATO.

b.      Form a united south east Asian group to promote inter country trade, with subsidies and benefits to member countries.

c.       Encourage Bangladesh and Pakistan to rejoin India. Open invite to the youth of these countries to join India in path to forward march. The invite will be especially extended to mothers and daughters, who are welcome to get away from orthodox shackles on freedom of choice for women.

d.      Establish close ties with Israel, European Union and further strengthen time tested ties with US and Russia.

There is a lot more that I’d like to add here – but I guess this will be a long article. What do you  think would be best for the country if you were to lead it?

A feeling of success

Back in 2000, when I told my relatives and friends that I planned to move to USA, many of them expressed concerns about taking my daughters with me. “You guys will lose your touch with the Indian culture”, or “forget about the Indian values and ethics” were the most common concerns voiced openly by many of my pals. Of course, they were happy for me and the opportunity I was getting, but they were also concerned how I’d bring up my daughters in the "wild" western world.

To be honest, I was equally concerned too. I had heard quite a few wild tales about the western culture, how people especially teenagers lost out on their culture, values and the like. Indians, like folks from most other countries, only delved on what was presented in the movies. One commonly saw depictions of the “modern” society in the west and how all the depravity of materialism crept in. So, with a lot of apprehension, I landed in the US in Nov. of 2000. I still remember the girls – all of 9 years and 8 years old, shivering in the freezing air of San Francisco, waiting for the airport shuttle to come pick us up at the SFO International terminal. Somehow, I just knew that with the blessings of my elders and the affections of my friends, we’d all be fine.

My american life started with me leaving for work at 6.30 AM, after lighting a lamp in front of the shrine I created at home, and sitting in front of the gods with hands folded, eyes shut, murmuring my prayers and seeking their blessings. I returned home around 6 PM after a long day, working hard to prove myself in this new work place. My wife was a stay at home mom for about 2 years initially. She developed a lot of contacts with other families. There weren’t a lot of Indians in San Ramon back then, so we were lucky to get into a network of Indian families – all thanks to Nandita’s networking capabilities. Then in 2001, we heard about the Hindu Sangam, which was the first attempt to bring the Bay Area Indians together under the Umbrella of Hindu Swayamsewak Sangh (HSS), and they had a massive event planned in Milpitas, with Anup Jalota performing Bhajans. My daughters participated in the Ramayana play, performed by the kids from all over the Bay area. The event got all of us hooked into the local chapter of the Hindu Shakha, called as Chanakya Shakha (Shakha means branch of a tree).

I firmly believe that Shakha has been a huge help in keeping my girls firmly engaged in the activities of the Hindu community and learning about the Indian culture and values. It is free for attendees and they conduct yoga, teach Sanskrit Shlokas, and bring in subject-matter-experts to give discourses called as bouddhik (intelligent discussions). They organize events and get together to celebrate Hindu functions and festivals like Ganesh utsav, Diwali, Sankranti, India’s independence and republic days, Guru Parab (when students felicitate a teacher of their choice), Pongal and many more.  I watched as my wife and daughters got involved in the Shakha by helping plan the events, often taking part in the plays, or skits or just being the compere. They picked up the leadership skills required to control a crowd of 100-200 people. I was impressed when Shivangi, my elder daughter, facilitated a planning meeting with extreme efficiency, zero nonsense and kept nudging the participants to the topic under discussion – something I rarely see in many business meetings. And I was honestly surprised by the genuine interest both girls showed in participating in the Shakha activities. They attended their camps, both mini and the annual Sangh Shiksha Varg with enthusiasm; they built close friendships with kids from other shakhas; and were looked up to as leaders and idols by younger kids.

 

Switch forward to 2012. Shivangi turned twenty one years old in Sept. We wanted to do something for the occasion and the girls surprised my wife and I by wanting us to do a Satya Narayan katha at home. I thought they probably meant that we organize a katha and they’d sit in it on the side as attendees, while my wife and I did the pooja. No sir – they wanted to do it themselves. I wasn’t sure if the priest would consider the girls doing the pooja, so I called my regular priest and asked him about it – to my surprise he agreed to let the girls lead us in the prayer. Another surprise was in store, when both of them dressed up in Saris (see picture above) and sat patiently through the entire prayer ceremony, doing all the rituals with full concentration and dedication. The priest was delighted and said he hadn’t seen that in recent years amongst kids of that age. Needless to say that Nandita and I were thrilled.

Then just last week, Neha – my younger daughter who is studying in Saint Mary's college, a Catholic, Lasallian, liberal arts college, rooted in the life and work of Saint John Baptist de La Salle (founder of the Christian Brothers and the patron saint of teachers) – told me that her class was going to visit the Hindu temple in Livermore. Now, though her major is Biochemistry, one of her subjects is Religions of India, which she wanted to study as she thought it would help her learn more about India. I asked if I could tag along to the temple, and she agreed. So, on a Wednesday evening she and her friend, Heather, stopped by to quickly change into Indian clothes, and off we went to the temple. I promised to stay out of their way and do my own thing while they moved along with their class led by Professor Norris. Along the way to the temple, it was such a pleasure hearing Heather and Neha talk about Gita and Indian religions like Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Islam. Even more pleasant was the way Neha conducted herself in the temple. She was the only Hindu girl in the group of students (probably about 50 kids), and she held her own there by doing everything the way it should be done in a temple. She’d enter the deity’s sanctum with her right foot, touch the feet of the idol, come out and do a parikrama and then apply the holy vermillion to her forehead. I got to see all that from a distance as I sat in a corner meditating. Her professor later told me that he was leading a group of 40 students to a tour of Indian Holy cities in January, including a trip to the Holy Prayag (I was surprised that he used that instead of commonly used Allahabad) Kumbha which happens once every 12 years and draws millions of people.

 

Seeing all this, I think I haven’t done too badly in bringing up my kids. Based on what I have seen during my recent trips to India, I feel people outside India are more Indian than many Indians back in India – who unfortunately tend to copy what the movies depict as the real American life, which is a lot different in reality. In our case, the credit goes to my wife, the volunteers in the Shakhas here (who have worked hard to keep the Hindu culture alive in US) and to our friends here who have kept us grounded to our values and culture.

I like to think I have been successful in one of my goals in life at least. Hopefully, my kids will be successful in their careers and life in general too. And above all, I pray that they become good human beings.

New blog on Indian Heritage, culture and Traditions

I decided to open up another blog to write about the extremely rich traditions of India, its heritage and culture. You can find it here.

Sandeep's blog will be more personal and will tell about specific events in my life and express my opinion and write about the Indian touch where ever possible.

Hope you will enjoy both.

Send me your comments and suggestions.

Importance of a thumb and two fingers

We recently purchased a set of Cutco knives from my daughter’s friend, who was selling them to gain some money for her College education starting this year. Boy, are they sharp!! More like surgical knives!

Anyway, to make a long story short, within a week of buying the new knives, my wife cut up fingers up. It was a Saturday and I was away with the kids at the Piano classes when I get this call from my wife. She was panting and asking me how much time would I need to reach home. Well – I was about 20 miles away and the kids were just finishing the lessons, so I assumed about 30 minutes. Then I was informed that she had sliced her fingers with the new knives. I, being my stupid ignorant self – not having learnt from my 20 years of married experience, thought this was a minor cut but then was told that the cuts are deep and there was lot of blood flowing out. Yikes!!!

The knife was new and was as sharp as a surgical knife. Needless to say, the cut was really deep and she was bleeding badly. She tied tourniquets above her elbow and kept her hand raised high up over her head. She squeezed ice cubes to stem the flow of the blood. But after about 40 min of this, the blood was still not stopping and that made her think that she was in trouble.

So I told her to contact our neighbors, who were unfortunately out. Then my wife reached out to our friends, who stay a couple of mile away in the same town. Luckily, Keerti was there and decided to come over right away. She too thought it was a minor thing, until she reached home and saw her hand. I, in the meanwhile, was zooming on the freeway and made it home just in time to see Keerti driving out of my driveway. They told me they were going to the ER.

The ER was a long wait. After almost an hour, a nurse came out to see and told us that she was going to need stitches. It took nearly 2 hours before the doctor could come over. By then the bleeding had kind of tapered down and was no longer gushing out, so he chose to put a kind of bio-glue called as Derma Bond. It seals the skin and the blood vessels. I thought it would be a good thing to sell with the Cutco knives in the future and am going to recommend it to that company. They may have a new market for this product, if they can get the clearance to sell that glue.

Anyway, my wife’s fingers were bandaged heavily and each bandage was about 3 times its size to protect it. By the late after noon, the bleeding was contained, and the pain had stopped.

It has been about 2 weeks to the incident, now as I write this. My wife had trouble doing a lot of work since the two fingers (fore finger and the middle finger) in her left hand were damaged. But this brought a couple of interesting historical things to my mind.

According to a popular myth the two-fingers salute and/or V sign derives from the gestures of long bow men fighting in the English army at the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years' War. The story claims that the British archers were very good and to over come their skills, the French started capturing the suspected British archers and cutting off two fingers on the right hand of captured archers. The thought was that this would prevent them from holding the arrow and shooting accurately. However, as luck would have it, the British still won and to tease the French, they saluted them with two fingers and said Pluck Yew!! The gesture was a sign of defiance by those who were not mutilated. (This false etymology has also given rise to an alternative name for the gesture, which can also be known as flicking an "Archers Salute" or just "Archers" as in "He just flicked me an Archers!".) The website Snopes, however, shows that medieval warriors had no interest in capturing common archers that could not be held for ransom, preferring instead to simply kill such prisoners. Furthermore, mutilating a prisoner to stop them from using a bow wouldn't make sense, since killing them would stop them from ever serving the enemy again. There is also the fact that contemporary accounts of the battle make no references to the French mutilating their prisoners by cutting off fingers from their hands. The first definitive known reference to the V sign is in the works of François Rabelais, a French satirist of the 1500s.

The other historical incident is from the Indian tale of Mahabharata, supposedly about 5000 years ago. For those that are not aware, Mahabharata is the epic of a huge war between the armies of the first cousin brothers – the Pandavas, who were 5 brothers with a common wife, and the Kauravas, who were 100 brothers – all born around the same time using artificial techniques (similar to the test tube available technology today). In the story, when the kids are young, they all study archery from the same Guru, Acharya Drona (Acharya means Professor). Drona liked Arjun and promised to make him the best archer in the world. Now, one of the adivasis (aborigines in India), Eklavya also wants to learn archery from Drona, but Drona declines saying that he will only teach the Princes from the Royal Family. Eklavya is upset but not heart broken – he builds a mud statue of Drona and practices by himself in the forest, soon mastering the art. One day, the princes go out on a hunt into the forest along with some dogs. One of the dogs goes close to where Eklavya is practicing and starts barking. To shut him up, Eklavya shoots 5 arrows into his mouth before the dog can close its mouth, without killing the dog. The dog runs back to the princes who are astonished at the feat. They ask Eklavya who did he learn the art from and he proudly points to the statue of Drona. The princes go back to Drona and Arjun tells him the whole story. He also asks Drona how the Acharya could go back on his promise of making Arjun the best archer in the world. So, Drona tells Arjun not to worry and they decide to go and meet Eklavya. Eklavya is thrilled to meet his Guru and bows to him. Drona tells him that he is glad to see that Eklavya was able to learn from him even by not attending the classes in person. But, since he had used the services of the Guru, he had to pay the Guru his Dakshina (which was a fee the students paid the Guru after their education was completed). Eklavya was more than happy to ask the Guru what he wanted for his Dakshina/fee and to the utter dismay of everyone present, Drona asked for the right thumb of Eklavya. Even more amazing was the fact that Eklavya promptly chopped it off to give it to his guru. The thought behind this request was that if the thumb of the hand that pulls the string and holds the arrow, as it is pulled from the quiver and placed on the string, is not there, the archer will not be able to shoot accurately.

However, Eklavya was still able to master the art using his forefinger and his middle finger, but his efficiency did come down and Arjun did become the best archer in the world.