Sharma Family Journal

Yesterday was Raksha Bandhan. I wore a red kurta. We went to Manthu’s place. Nikhil and Neha were waiting for me. They were also wearing Indian dress. Maave had made delicious food and Ash Gourd Halwa.

Rakhi ceremony was simple. Neha held a thali with a diya, rakhi and sweet. I thought this is like blowing birthday candle and I blew the flame out. There was some confusion and diya was lighted again. It was Nikkianna’s turn first. Then Neha applied a tilak on my forhead. Then she tied a rakhi on my wrist and fed me sweet. I gave her a small gift. Then we posed for a picture.

After dinner, I was being very mischievous. Then Manthu asked me to be quiet. In the true spirit of Raksha Bandhan, Neha came for my protection and said “Don’t bother him, he is my cousin”. We have become better friends now.

I find the whole “debate” about Iran's nukes amusing. Here's a piece of advice for Mr Bush. If he really believes in democracy, he should create a UN where there is one vote each for the Chinese, Indians, “the west” (Sometimes incorrectly referred to as the “international community” in news reports) and the rest of the world.

The current political situation in the world is a hopeless case of gerrymandering, where a small minority in Florida or Ohio (0.5% of the world population?) dictates what happens in the rest of the world.

I worry that as more lethal weapons become accessible to politically disenfranchised regions of the world, the inequality in the distribution of land and natural resources between various regions of the world could result in conflicts that might be much worse than anything mankind has seen before.

Also interesting is how the media reports the political bluster from both sides. Mr Bush talking about “spreading freedom and democracy” vs Ahmedinejad talking about “100 year old colonial mentality”.

Last weekend my mom and dad took me to the Happy Hollow Park in San Jose. I had a wonderful time in the zoo. I saw Lemur, Jaguar and Tortoise. I also petted goats. Then we went to rides area. I sat on merry-go-round and on my favorite Alligator. I also did Peek-a-boo to my mom from the top of this big shoe house. I had lot of fun and I am hoping to go there again.

Many people think Mac OS X runs fancy GUIs on a FreeBSD kernel. That's not right. I saw some numbers that make me wonder why Apple doesn't use the FreeBSD kernel.