RIP Jerry Stiller 🙏

https://www.theringer.com/tv/2020/5/11/21254590/jerry-stiller-dead-seinfeld-frank-costanza-best-moments

Absolutely used to love and hate Frank Costanza on ‘Seinfeld’ – loud, foul-mouthed, always complaining curmudgeon dad of George Costanza played by recently departed great actor Jerry Stiller. Sign of a great acting if you can say “What a dickhead” and let out a loud guffaw at the same time 😂
Apparently a very nice person too based on what his co-actors and those who interacted with him have said 👍
RIP Jerry Stiller 🙏

P.S. Got to youtube and watch the “touching” scene below described in the article:

When George Steinbrenner pays Frank and Estelle Costanza a visit to tell them that he fears their son is dead, Frank is distracted by a bigger, well, grievance. “What the hell did you trade Jay Buhner for?!” he yells at the Yankees owner.

In the midst of very personal grief after hearing about loss of his son, being a devoted sports fan, he still manages to give a piece of his mind to Mr. Steinbrenner 🤣

Had to happen. It did!

Of great concern for me has been my forgetfulness. When I go shopping I sometimes forget to collect all the bags if there are multiple bags. Receipts I have not always remembered to collect. If I pay cash and there is a person helping at the counter at times I forget to collect change from the person. If paying by cash at a self serve counter on occasions I have forgotten to collect the change given out by the machine. While all the above are signs of an absentmindedness that has concerned me it’s not been a big worry. My biggest fear has been shopping and walking out absentmindedly without paying.

Yesterday that fear played out in real time. I went to a shop, bought couple of things. One item was a just in case buy to avoid a repeat trip to the shop. After the purchase I went to the car and realized I did not have the receipt that would be needed for return. I was thinking “Dang, I forgot to collect the receipt” 😡 From the parking lot I walked back to the shop. There was a person ahead of me in the line at the counter I “paid” for the goods I bought. After that person was done I was about to ask for the receipt for my purchase. Turns out person at the counter had been frantically looking for me earlier as I had collected my couple of items of purchase without forgetting 👍 but had not paid for them 😦 👎 I remember using my credit card earlier. In a hurry I must have removed the card without noticing card authorization was still in progress 😀
Went back out again, got the items to re-scan and this time waited till the purchase was authorized, remembered to collect the items and the receipt. Apologized to the person at the counter too. Well done, Raj! 🤣
Phew, that could have been worse 🙏

Mother’s Day special: Falafel pita sandwich

Celebrated Mother’s Day at home today with family and it was fun. To make it special and a little different we decided to go with falafel pita sandwich with the guys (me and son) actually assisting with the falafel pita sandwich making process!

The ingredients: Pita bread (whole wheat and white), hummus (store bought), avocado dip, falafel balls (home made with chickpea flour), cucumber, tomato, zucchini and onion all chopped to small pieces, cilantro cut fine, green chutney.The result: yummy!

Lest you doth protest too much saying “That ain’t no falafel pita sandwich” I say “Hey, if you can slap anything between 2 loaves of bread and can call it a sandwich why I can’t I stuff the pita bread with falafel and other sandwich wannabe ingredients and call it a falafel pita sandwich 😀

P.S. It was a different day in terms of weather too. Was snowing quite hard for more than an hour. Enough for it to stick to the grass for a nice coat and force me to cover the pants or keep them inside the porch. Later when the snow had stopped it was time to unwrap the cover off the plants soon after unwrapping the lid off falafel pita sandwich 🙂

MH370 – No answers yet :(


https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/mh370-malaysia-airlines/590653/

Among the most enduring mysteries in the past few years is the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight# MH370. Will the affected families ever get closure? Will the general ever know what really know what happened?
Sadly at this point the answer is still a No 😦

A long but interesting read on what could have happened

“Can’t take day off” syndrome

Ability to switch off is a blessing one realizes with age. Not everyone is able to do that always, I am one of those. I call it the “Can’t take day off” syndrome. Reason being any thought of taking day off from work is accompanied by concern about the impact to customer deliverables due around that time. I fear someone from my team may need something urgently for completing their task on that day. A few times that fear has translated into reality unfortunately 😦 My “Can’t take day off from work” symptoms are due to 2 main reasons
1) Desire to keep up commitments made to customer and
2) To be able to handle myself the problem I am working on solving and not to delegate it to others
When I take a day off (and I have access to my computer) it takes an effort not to log on or check Emails for anything that may need my attention. In recent times I have been trying to consistently implement the “Don’t power on the office laptop” policy on weekends and days I am not working.
I understand works goes on and nothing is dependent on any single individual. Old habits die hard though 😀

Different walks of life

People come from different walks of life
People go for different walks in life
Some walks, like catching a beautiful sight, are inspirational
Some walks, like walking across a parking lot, are functional
Some walks, like charity walks or a sportsperson walking across a ballpark, are purposeful
Some walks, like seeing a homeless person holding a sign, are learning experience

Few sights are as awe-inspiring as that of a view from top of a hill
Few sights are as colorful as catching glimpse of a perfect rainbow
Few sights are as calming as seeing a body of water
Few sights are as rewarding as seeing perfect sunrise, sunset or clear, azure sky
When I am not visiting a place with family I prefer to walk alone
Gives me opportunity to quietly contemplate and reflect

These days my walks are mostly between my office room at home to kitchen or other rooms
Couple of times in my inter-room trips I may make a detour to the backyard
To catch glimpse of the plants and greet them “Wassup buddy”
Those flowering plants cheerfully bloom
In solitude I bloom!

https://youtu.be/857mPxY5UDI

P.S. Was meant to be more of a photo-essay with just a short intro to display nature unfurling its magnificence for all to behold and enjoy as a picture is said to be worth a thousand words. However, me being me, couldn’t resist 🙂 While words may try to capture the spirit the pictures capture and convey the full essence! Meant to be first watched as a collage and then as montage as each individual picture plays in the attached youtube URL!

A different Spring

Birds are chirping
Flowers are blooming
Temperatures are rising
Yet it’s a different Spring!

Nature likes to give
Humans love nature to give
’tis now human turn to give
For a better chance to live!

Nature did not disappoint us
As usual what we want she gave us
Yet we face a threat very serious
Thanks to pandemic causing virus 😭

Empty are the streets
Save for protesters on the streets
Pity we can’t savor nature’s treats
Gone too are cheerful human greets ☹️

Here is the striking thing
’tis looking more like Arab Spring
Not the usual American spring
Yes it’s a different Spring! 🙏

2020 Raj Farm Update# 1

Did you think Raj has gone to seed? Well, if you did you would have been right actually literally 😀
Yes, Raj Farm is back! The seeds hold mysteries in the center picture with hints on top & the sides!
Will current Raj channel the former Raj to discover back the farmer Raj mojo? 😉 Time will tell!
Is Raj all in? You betcha, he has bet his farm 🙂