Love in the Age of World Domination

Daddies Cool

Here's wishing Happy Father's day to all Dad's out there. I would specifically like to acknowledge two exceptional members of the species known as "DAD"

Mali - new dad of 5 month old Ayushi. Congratulations - thus far she looks totally happy, you look totally relaxed - you must be doing something right.

This one's for you.  "DAUGHTER"

My Dad - the lyrics of this song remind me of you. It reminds me of when I was like 3 and I met you for the first time, and I took apart that doll you had brought me from England.  And then later, through the years.. every time I fell you caught me, every time I fell..

Everything she sees
she says she wants.
Everything she says she wants
I see she gets.
That's my daughter in the water
everything she owns I bought her
Everything she owns.
That's my daughter in the water,
everything she knows I taught her.
Everything she knows.

Everything I say
she takes to heart.
Everything she takes
she takes apart.
That's my daughter in the water
every time she fell I caught her.
Every time she fell.
That's my daughter in the water,
I lost every time I fought her.
I lost every time.

Every time she blinks
she strikes somebody blind.
Everything she thinks
blows her tiny mind.
That's my daughter in the water,
who'd have ever thought her?
Who'd have ever thought?
That's my daughter in the water,
everything she knows I taught her.
Everything she knows

OMG - My Mom is on Facebook!

Hilarious.  We are SO in the 21st century now.

Facebook is the size of a small country - 24 million 'citizens'. Its a serious phenomenon, totally overtaking MySpace and all those other networking sites.

It started as - just for the kids - then the adults got in. But why are parents using it to spy on the kids?? Creepy.

Parents are increasingly visiting social networking websites to ‘spy’ on their children, according to a study by London School of Economics (LSE).

So one thing that came out of my 20-something cousin's visit was that she got me onto this craze, and I have now set up abode on what undergrads all over the world are calling the second most "in" thing ever (the first being iPod and the third being sex).

But here's my question: the Facebook platform is totally open, anyone can sign up, parents included. How is this going to affect the needs of the primary market segment of teens and twentysomethings- for whom privacy is key to sharing emails and pictures with their friends about music, movies, and the latest crush?

In 5 days I have reconnected with all kinds of ex-classmates and old friends. Here's a typical Facebook  event:  Lotta Takala-Greenish (a girl who went to high school in Switz with me) sends a message asking if I'd like to contribute a recipe to a gift book for Priyanka Senadhira's wedding - another friend from high school who also went to LSE with me, and who also happens to be my ex sis-in-law. I also learnt that Nimit Shah and Neel Bhatia who I went to Wharton with are now friends, and that yesterday Pooja Mall threw a sheep at Smriti Jha who later that evening joined "I Was At LSE in the 1900's - LSE Alumni of the Last Millennium".

If globalization made the world smaller, Facebook has made it micro - a tiny tiny little village - where we all know exactly what everyone else is up to.

The Allure of Family Gossip

Its so nice to have family visit. DC being the Nation's Capital and all, its an awesome place for anyone to wonder around and see lots and lots of 'significant stuff'. In addition, being that it was Memorial Day weekend, it was the perfect day to see all the, well, memorials.

Shivanthi loved DC so much that she's threatened to move here and move in with me. Apparently the whole art-gallery-going- starbucks-sipping-web-surfing lifestyle is so, like, her thing.

But the best part was, of course, the gossip. What is it about getting together with a favorite girl cousin, curling up on the sofa with a couple of strong black Ceylon teas and embarking on a mega chit chat about The Family, that is so delicious? Wish I could tell you the half of it..  but what was said in DC will stay in DC.  ;)