Giving Thanks

I could not blog yesterday, and not just because it was busy with the usual Thanksgiving Day busy-ness. All day, I felt restless and disturbed and had a lump in my throat, watching the news coming out of Mumbai. The last time I felt this way was on Sept. 11, 2001. As I chopped onions and stirred and sauteed, my thoughts were with those whose lives had been shrouded in darkness by the grim deeds of young, babyfaced, ruthless killers. The turkey was delicious and so were the pies, but even as I raised my glass and gave thanks for family, friends and loved ones, that old Bengali saying ran through my mind:

Karur poush maash

Karur shorbonaash

(Some celebrate bountiful harvests, others face annihilation)

Waiting For the Other Shoe...

The talk in my friends and family circle is - well, all about the economic downturn. My friends and I represent a range of middle class-ness in terms of socio-economics. Some of my friends are modestly-salaried academics with a great deal of creative freedom and just enough money for their needs, others are hedge fund managers with lots of money but no real freedom to wander, except over to their desks to ponder the data on Bloomberg. K. and I fall somewhere in the middle of this range.

When we go out or have people over, the conversation invariably veers to the dismal state of the economy. Most of our friends in the corporate sector are, understandably, extremely worried about their jobs. As yet (knock on wood) nobody is unemployed. But everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I don't see any discernible impact on the downtown stores of our little town. Are people spending less? Not if you see the women I see, dropping $98 on silk tank tops and dragging their sulky teenage daughters around into upscale shoe stores. I am spending less, but there is no noticeable difference in my lifestyle. Having very young children, we rarely went out anyway (when I go out for dinner, I want to spend more than fifteen minutes gobbling down my meal to the refrain of "go home, wanna go home" and since that won't be likely for another three years at least, I prefer to eat at home). I work part-time and K. is self-employed so we had no work-related social life anyway (on the plus side, we also don't have the added anxiety of being laid off).

But we are nervous too. The nameless dread of waiting...

Bollywood in Bridgeport

It is a sign of our times that what was unthinkable only five years ago is now a possibility. I can watch absolutely trashy, thoroughly enjoyable, utterly escapist Bollywood films at the Showcase Cinemas in Bridgeport. I have watched several films there in the company of friends. Most recently, I watched "Singh is King" with my son. As the film is pitched to the emotional and intellectual maturity of a ten year old, he thoroughly enjoyed it. The feature played to an absolutely empty theater except for us.

This weekend, there is a film festival running at the Westport Town Hall. The website for this festival is www.sulekha.com/gopio-ctfilmfestival . I went alone last night to watch "Loins of Punjab." It is hilarious, with some contrived bits, but for the most part really good fun.

Hmmm...I can watch very good or excruciatingly bad Indian films right here in Fairfield County, Connecticut. I don't need to make the trek into New York City for my dose of masala anymore.

The Blaming of the Shrew

Now that Hillary Clinton and Teresa Heinz Kerry are out of the reckoning, I suppose we must have a new witch in town. Is it too much to just accept the electoral defeat for what it was - a decisive rejection of a tired old agenda of fear mixed with hatred? Failure is never an orphan, despite the saying. It always has a "mother". It is, however, always fatherless.

Reflections on an Election

I wish I could feel as Wordsworth did:

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven! - Oh! times,
In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways
Of custom, law, and statute, took at once
The attraction of a country in romance!

Instead, I find myself...relieved. As though I had been carrying a big boulder on my back these past few years. And now that burden has gone.

November Resolutions

Resolution No. 1: This will be the last U.S. presidential election I will spend as an observer. Next time, I will be in the line with K., waiting for my turn to cast my ballot.

Resolution No. 2: I will cease and desist from raiding my children's Halloween candy trove. Starting as soon as I finish today's loot: 1 M&M bag, 1 small Snickers bar, 1 small Kit-Kat.