Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Time keeps on on slippin'


R called. He was stuck in the traffic on Georgia 400. [Isn't it nice to have friends who call you when they are stuck in traffic?] He told me all white folks of Atlanta want to live on Georgia 400.
"Doesn't everyone want to live in a good neighborhood?" I asked him, suppressing my urge to point out that he too had recently moved there.

At another occasion I had shocked a Desi friend by telling him my observation that most Desis want to live in a neighborhood where they are the only nonwhite people, they want their children to go to schools where their children are the only students with black hair.

Moving to this new place has situated R thirty-five miles from his work. It takes him 45-50 minutes to get to the work, and an hour or so on the way back, he told me. Was there any way he could utilize the time he spends in the commute? [That is, any other way besides using the time to call friends.] He had no clue. I told him about a recent conversation I had with another friend of mine while hiking in the Rancho San Antonio Park. I told him that most of the people we are in contact with in our social circles have similar education and they are all equally smart. So, the only way one person can have an edge over another is by having a better and more productive use of their time. Writing during your toilet time, reading while standing in a line, employing the concept of parallel processing, five minutes utilized here, ten minutes put to use there, that is what will make your 24 hours equal to 36 hours of others' time. R agreed with this philosophy. He said he would ask his wife to check out a few audio books from the local library.

Monday, April 18, 2005

Black smoke, white smoke

May I have my say in the papal elections?
I want to see black smoke coming out of the chimney of the Sistine Chapel. And this black smoke shouldn't mean no Pope was elected. It should instead mean that Cardinal Francis Arinze (of Nigeria) was elected as the next Pope.