BabyCenter Moms Panel

I am very excited. Today is a red letter day in my life. Believe it or not, I have been invited to join BabyCenter’s moms panel. I am considering joining the panel. I am sure that when I first contribute to the panel, I will feel the same emotions that Neil Armstrong did on that fateful day in 1969.

For some context, check out the post on my sketchy web history

y web history

Orkut and Indians

There is something fake-sugary, something bad-Meg-Ryan-movie about Orkut.com that makes me want to throw up.

I joined the site recently on account of some peer pressure from my sister and some high school friends. Here are a few reasons why Orkut.com stinks:

a) Who the hell asks people to pick/describe their sense of humor? Consider also how retarded the available “humor types” are (yes, you must pick your personal type of humor from a set of radio buttons. Fun!):

Maybe, it’s just me – but what jackass meets people at a party and goes, “Hi, my name is Bob. I have a friendly sense of humor”?

b) When I sign into orkut, my dashboard serves up a PERSONAL FORTUNE, not unlike a cheap fortune cookie thrown in my face at Jing Jing’s Spicy Schezuan of Palo Alto. Okay, this is just wrong. Chinese food and social networking do NOT mix.

c) Why is every Indo in the subcontinent on orkut.com? Why not a homegrown social network? How did orkut.com reach this “tipping point”? Did they bribe the popular kids in Indian cities with dreams of a life like Shah Rukh Khan (minus the whole closeted-gay, stuttering, ridiculous jackass thing) if they joined? Did they advertise on the side of BEST buses inspite of the expected paan-induced spittle risks?

d) Back to the stupid profile. There is a whole section that expects users to barf along about their “passions”. Now, I know these are just hobbies, but something about the word “passions” conjures images of daytime soaps and the people who watch them. More cheese, anyone?? Here are my passions.

At this stage, you may be wondering – if I hate this thing so much, why am I on it? For the same reason I use Windows and MySpace, of course. Add to that the fact that my sister loves the stupid thing and gets hit on by sweaty Indian dudes with serious BO issues all the time, and it’s my job to regulate.

Crossing California – Book Review

Cruising through Borders in Palo Alto, I recently came across a fantastic little book named “Crossing California”. If you get a chance, read this gem. It’s about a bunch of Jewish teens growing up in West Rogers Park in good ol’ Chi-town. To me, the book is about teenage angst, about the culture of a city at a particular point of time framed against the backdrop of the Iranian hostage crisis.

The title “Crossing California” refers to California Ave which sounds like a 70s, bourgeousie version of infamous 8 Mile Road of Detroit. People on the eastern side of California live in walk-ups, are poor and aspire to “cross” California. Conversely, people living west of the street look down upon their less fortunate neighbors.

The author himself confesses to feeling, as a child growing up in those parts, that everything would be alright once he crossed California. Being non-white myself, I was particularly intrigued by the racist statements made by the Jews in the book. While this sounds counterintuitive, it struck a chord with me, particularly since I’ve heard Indos make some particularly egregious, racist statements over the years (sometimes only jocularly, other times not so much). Racist statements about “Chinamen” and the neighborhood changing “shades” (that is, becoming predominantly Korean) uttered by Jewish grandmothers point to the foolishness of men and the risks of putting down groups – did they forget the persecution of the Jews after they started their new life in America?

The book is also a fun read about high school in the 70s and all the other hijinks that follow therefrom. I highly recommend it.