Opinion: Sustenance over growth

The problems of maintaining a private yacht, having too little or nothing to eat, maintaining multiple properties, ability to go to a doctor when you are sick, finding eccentric loopholes to avoid paying taxes, or just not being able to save any money at all are situations that you might have faced depending on your position in the economic and geographical axis. However no matter your position in this grid, the goal for most of us remains the same, which is to go up that peak of the economic ladder which leads to more wealth and abundance. That goal has to change collectively, when we emerge out of the COVID pandemic situation and we need to start thinking now about what the new order would look like.

The problems of poverty are well known and understood. According to the UN, there has been a 36% reduction in extreme poverty (under $1.90/day) since 1990 and 16% since 2010. However, due to the on-going COVID crisis, some economists including the World Bank estimate that this trend will be reversed and projects that 40-60 million more people around the world will fall back into the extreme poverty bucket in 2020. So if we are to do right by the people who live on the margins or amidst extreme poverty, data tells us that it is imperative that we focus more on growth for them. But growth cannot mean a one-size fits all solution that has been used all the time, that one box usually focused on education or retraining people to work in tech sectors. If small American farmers are facing a debt crisis because of a reversal of government policies, the growth idea here is to not retrain them and send them into a tech sector. The right thing to do would be to go back to the policies that were working before.

In an interview with the New Yorker, Abigail Disney, granddaughter of one of the founders of the Disney company reflects on the luxuries that her family enjoyed like chartering private planes and mentions that she didn’t know what she had done to deserve that and noticed that it was her family’s way to wall off real problems present in the world. Monetary wealth also directly influences political outcomes. In this paper, the author essentially lays out the straight-forward idea that spending 100 dollars on trying to acquire political influence would be insignificant to an affluent person, where as poor people would need every cent of that money towards essential expenses. In such a world, the affluent person and the poor person don’t necessarily see eye to eye on the pressing issues facing us and those with the influence to bring out change will focus on incentives to increase the bottom line. The ugly underside of this income inequality expresses itself even in the midst of a pandemic. The larger companies which have more political influence got the bulk of the public bailout money compared to small businesses. After giving one round of stimulus checks for 1200 dollars, the administration is debating whether a second round of stimulus checks are still needed as the unemployment numbers keep skyrocketing.

This pandemic has shown me what’s really important. I fell sick at the end of February, the same weekend that the Kirkland nursing home became an epicenter for coronavirus. I had extreme shortness of breath. It took me a month to recover and all I could think about was me not being able to be there for my son. We need to start thinking of sustainable development and make it an integral part of our lives and businesses, both large and small. That means at the very least, paying employees their worth, personal vacation time up to 4 weeks, paid sick leave, comprehensive maternity and paternity leave and increasing taxes on high income earners and large corporations.

Purpose of Life

A lot of philosophers before me and almost every human who has wandered this planet with an adult existence has probably wondered what the purpose of life is. I had this epiphany the other day as I was indulged in the doomsday nature of the news: I may not know the higher purpose of life but I can say certainly claim that the higher purpose of life cannot possibly be just to make money and get rich. Think about it.. As Indian kids growing up in a middle class background, our life's purpose instilled from a very young age is to get an education and become rich. I don't have a problem with getting an education part. If what follows education is just an accumulation of wealth, then that seems to come with its own set of problems. In my own experience, I find myself to feel shitty and alone so many times. I have all the money in the world, but yet I crave things that money cannot fill.

Just to iterate, I didn't need an all - encompassing plague like virus to come to this conclusion. I have been at that point for quite some time now. It's one of the main reasons me and my husband have been planning to move back to India towards the end of this year or early next. But at this moment, everything feels like it has come to a standstill. I want to pause and just stay inside the house with my family and ride it out. I am aware that the coronavirus is just a virus and not as deadly as the other ones. I am aware that it affects older people more and for about 80% of the population, the symptoms are not so severe. Yet, when you live in the epicenter of the outbreak in the US, and when you have a mom brain worrying about your toddler son, you can't help but feel like shutting off everything and everyone for the next decade.. if that's what it takes. But who knew hitting pause on life wasn't a cakewalk? So I force myself to take the next actionable step.. Keep that one foot in front of the other and make a footprint.

I am just beginning to appreciate the frailty of life even more. All the success and progress we have taken for granted can come bearing down by a microscopic organism. We didn't need zombies for an apocalypse after all :)

Remember to just do the things that make you happy and love the people that you want to. Truly, nothing else matters!

Trip report to Arizona and Utah

I was insistent about wanting to do something/go somewhere on the July 4th weekend. You know, holidays are so rare and in between. You shouldn't waste them is my philosophy. My husband had this brilliant idea of suggesting a "road trip" and I was on-board as soon as I heard those two words. So, we began planning a trip that circled around all the major national parks in Arizona and Utah. I wish I could pat myself on the back for planning the logistics of the trip, but hey you can do that!

1. Phoenix, AZ

We started the trip by flying from Seattle to Phoenix. We parked the car at Park n Jet2 (cheap place to park your car for a week). As soon as we landed at Phoenix, the glorious sun welcomed us. I mean, it was 105 F/40 C! We took a bus to the rental car and got our Enterprise formalities out of the way. With a minimum economy Hyundai Veloster(aka the Velociraptor), we were on our way!

Our first stop was at Sedona, AZ. It was a 2 hour drive from Phoenix to Sedona. We read somewhere that Sedona was beautiful and we just HAD TO HAD TO stop there. So, we did. Our first stop was the Red Rock State Park and it stayed true to its name! We got there just an hour before closing time and the park ranger was kind enough to let us in on a discounted ticket price. We did a small walk around the 286-acre park, discovered the Red rocks, took customary photos, felt short of time and walked out :) . We stopped next to "hike" Cathedral Rock.

As you can see, you can't really walk to the top. You need to use all 4-paws to climb and the red-rock is slippery. Wear proper shoes if you ever plan to climb this! Our shoes didn't have enough grip to take us all the way to the top. We hiked up a 1/3rd of the distance but the view from up there was still pretty enjoyable!

2. Flagstaff, AZ

We stayed at Flagstaff, AZ for that night. It was an hour's drive from Sedona. If you think, we went to sleep, you are wrong. We had dinner at an Indian restaurant and headed off to Lowell's observatory. Lowell's observatory is the place where Pluto was discovered :) They had setup 3 telescopes for public viewing - focusing on Mars, Jupiter and Saturn! I had seen Jupiter through a telescope before, so I pretty much saw the same. Though if you see for the first time, you will be mind-blown (because you can see bands on the surface of Jupiter)! I saw Mars, but Mars was too hot and too close and we couldn't make out any features. All we saw was a white ball in the distance. But it was Saturn that took my breath away - so much so that I went back in line to get a second viewing! I really really wish I could have taken a photo of what I saw, but alas some memories are just in your head. I saw it through a 120-year old telescope through which Pluto was discovered (That's magical by itself!). But when I saw, I could clearly see the surface of Saturn and all the colors on it. I could see the space between Saturn and its rings. I could even see two layers of Saturn's rings(inner and outer) and the gap between them!! If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend you to visit the observatory!

3. Grand Canyon South Rim!

Next morning, we drove to Grand Canyon South Rim .. It was close to 2 hours to get there. As soon as you get to the Visitor Center, there is a major view point. You will see expansive views of the canyon and its a major photo op! There is a Rim Trail that you lets you walk along the Rim. As you walk, you see people act crazy and climbing on rocks at the edge. Please avoid doing that for your own safety. Anyway .. we had a ton of fun walking a little bit and just soaking in the scenery of the canyon! We spent a good amount of time just trying to see the canyon from different view points. We used the shuttle inside the Park to get from point to point. Before leaving, we wanted to do a hike. Since we were visiting slap bang in the middle of summer, we were advised to hike after sun-down (4 PM) to avoid getting any heat stroke. There is only one hike that let's you walk inside the canyon!! This was my first canyon hike experience and let me tell you something - you will always climb down to start with!! We thought we could easily hike a mile below and come back up. I was in for a rude shock.. The walk down was trivial, as you might have guessed. As I was walking down, everyone walking up was panting and puffing, stopping to catch a breath. I was scared just looking at them. My confidence kept lowering every minute. We managed to hike down and then the actual hike began! Coming back up AKA exiting the canyon! This is me catching my breath while walking up

I somehow managed to come back up, but it was not easy. But if you are in my place, do the hike. You will huff and puff but you will eventually come out. Just carry lots of water with you!

4. Horseshoe Bend

We stayed at a place called Page, AZ after our visit to the South Rim. Next day, we visited Horseshoe Bend. I have no way of explaining what this place is apart from showing you a picture. It's just one of those natural formations that I was luck enough to witness. You have to park your car and walk a little less than a mile to see the bend. We were seeing this at 9.30 AM. It was such a hot day. There is no shade for a mile and the sun is wearing you down every step. Once we reached the bend, we didn't stay for too long. Tip - Wear white here. Carrying an umbrella would also be useful.

5. Grand Canyon North Rim

We drove to the northern rim after visiting Horseshoe Bend. A lot of people skip visiting the North Rim because it's really hard to get to, but take my advice - Go for it! There were hardly 1/10th the visitors of South Rim here. There is this Bright Angel Point Trail . It's a very short hike (less than a mile) with barely noticeable elevation change. You should do that. The views are magnificent from the edge of the trail. North Rim is much more greener than the South Rim. You get to see the canyons more close up that you would at the South Rim. Here is a picture of the canyon.

We also did the customary evening hike down the canyon :) I was better prepared mentally and I'd like to think that I struggled less on the way back up, though my husband might disagree. Here's the viewpoint after the hike down..

The only way to describe the view was that I felt like it was a painting..

6. Bryce Canyon

After exiting North Rim, we drove more than 2 hours and stayed at a place called Kanab, UT. It was 4th of July! Our hotel manager pointed us to a local park from which we could see fireworks. We drove around the park, but couldn't find parking. We came back to the hotel and saw fireworks from there instead. Next morning, we started driving to Bryce Canyon. The drive was for 2 hours. You can also visit Zion National Park from Kanab. It's around 30 minutes drive to Zion. We skipped Zion because we had seen it before. Bryce Canyon also has a shuttle that drives you around the park. We took the shuttle, fearing parking unavailability inside the park. We first went to Inspiration Point. Viewing the Canyon felt like I was in the midst of ancient civilization ruins. Here's a picture of the canyon.

It almost felt like seeing temple statues. The structures are called Hoodoo's, and we attended a Geology talk conducted by the park ranger to find out the originations for these. Suffice to say, they were trying to narrate a story that happened over millions of years and I could only imagine most of it. Apparently, the whole Colorado Plateau was once a flourishing, thriving plateau with lots of rivers. For some reason, the land arose a billion years ago leading to Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion.. etc. You know what, attend the talk! I can't reproduce it here :) As per our tradition, we walked through the canyons! What's amazing is that it was really windy and cool once we started walking. Below is a picture of the hike.

We also attended a night sky program conducted by the local park rangers. They had setup around 5 telescopes pointed to 3 objects in the sky - Jupiter, a nebula and a star cluster (?). As usual, we ditched the line for Jupiter (I kinda feel bad for the largest gas giant in the solar system :| ). We saw the nebula and the star cluster. The nebula was hazy and we could see a whiff of dust and gas many light years away! The star cluster was pretty awesome. Again, I wish I had photos of the night sky, but some other day. The night sky was amazing.. We saw the milky way! We were told that only 10% of Americans ever see the milky way in their lifetime. We felt pretty lucky that night. The park ranger also told us that Bryce was the 8th best place to see the night sky in the United States. We tried to spot a bunch of constellations (succeeded at spotting the obvious few).. I am a n00b in this enterprise and hats off to my ancestors who did this far better than me!

7. US Scenic Byway Drive 12

Again, the man of the house had another genius idea (Am I praising him too much?).. Our next destination was Arches National Park, and he suggested that we take the Utah scenic byway road instead of the main highway. This would mean that the overall drive time would increase to 6 hours (without any major stops). Apparently, this drive is voted the 2nd most scenic drive in the world! We made a field day of this drive.. The drive had expansive views of the whole valley. More canyons, more formations, more scenery, more everything.. One such picture from the drive.

We really wanted to go to one of the many slot canyons near the area - Willis Creek Slot Canyon or Peek A Boo Canyon, but we were told that we did not have a good car to drive up there. Make sure you rent an SUV or a vehicle with clearance so that you can get there. The Velociraptor was not good enough :( . Oh well, we stopped at Escalante Petrified State Park. It's not as fascinating as it sounds. I feel a little bad about this place because I made the foolish mistake of going on a hike at 1 PM, despite all the warnings I had read about heat stroke.. Ugggh! View of a "petrified tree"

The drive was beautiful, needless to say. There are collectively 18 parks (state, national and other heritage places) just along the drive. So, you can pretty much make a trip just off the Scenic Byway 12. Our next brief stop was at Capitol Reef National Park. Apricots were growing and the nice folks at the visitor center asked us to go pick as many apricots as we wanted, free of cost. A lot of the apricots were still not ripe, so we only plucked a few. Needless to say, our skills of plucking fruits from trees is non-existent (especially the high rising fruits). That's the husband trying to pick apricots.

After this, we were on our way to Arches. We stayed at a nice youth hostel (first time experience), called Lazy Lizard Hostel. It's a good place for budget travelers. The guy at the front desk was helpful and pointed us to a few good spots to see the night sky at Arches. This time, there was no ranger-led tour and we wandered off on our own. Of course, we saw the milky way again :)

8. Arches National Park

Lo behold, this is the next place. Arches is again one of those places which looks like human construction. You see long, thick walls and you wonder how all of this came out of the earth. It seems unreal.

We spent the rest of the day seeing view points and eating food :) Unlike the other national parks, Arches is in a place called Moab in Utah which had a ton of good restaurants! Food is not just a problem, but you are spoilt for choices here :) My husband had it in his mind to hike to this place called the Delicate Arch. I was a little unsure. Mind you, I had been walking for more than 10,000 steps every day for the past week and I was like - "Do we really need to hike?". We had even seen delicate arch from a viewpoint and I was like, "We've seen it! Why do we need to hike?" Lol. He asked me to rest, we just sat under the shade of a canyon for more than an hour. A part of me also wanted to do the hike because I am extremely competitive by nature lol! Don't like no for an answer. So, I pushed myself. At 5.30 PM, after lots of rest and after hydrating myself enough, we drove to the trail head. The hike is 3-miles round trip. There is an uphill part where you walk with no shade, on the rocks. Just carry lots of water. At sun down, the sun is behind you. So, you can manage. This is how the uphill looks, much more punishing looking in real life :) Note - The below picture is from Google images, not my own. I didn't have the energy to click a picture at this time of hike!

It kinda feels like that the climb up is the end of the hike, but you still have to walk quite a bit. The trail narrows at the end (not too much), and turns towards the arch.

The arch is so glorious looking and huge when you see it in person. It's quite amazing! It looks tiny from the viewpoint. This is a picture of me standing under the arch. It's a drop off on the other side!! You have to look a little to find me..

9. Antelope Canyon

We stayed near Arches in a remote town in the middle of nowhere called Blanding in Utah. The next morning, we drove around 3 hours to get to Antelope Canyon in Page, AZ. Due to the time difference, we actually gained an hour entering Arizona and thanks to that extra hour, we were able to visit both Lower and Upper Antelope Canyon! These canyons are just like the many slot canyons in the area, but for some reason they are extremely popular! For that reason, you cannot drive yourself to the canyon, but you have to book a tour. These canyons are not maintained by the federal government, but the Navajo Nation (which I think is a native Indian settlement/government). You can read up more about it if you like. They say that the best time to visit Lower Antelope Canyon is early morning and the best time to visit Upper Antelope Canyon is afternoon. Unfortunately, we couldn't make the best times for both of those. The canyons are still amazing! It gave us a nice slot-canyon experience to end the trip. I would have preferred to go a less commercial slot canyon without booking tours, waiting in line and crowded pathways in the canyon. That's something for the next time when in Utah. Here are some pictures of the canyons.

We ended our trip by driving to Flagstaff and staying at another hostel - Grand Canyon International Hostel. Again, I highly recommend this place for budget travelers. It's placed in the middle of downtown Flagstaff. You can walk around and get to nice restaurants. I would have loved to spend more time in this town.
At the end of the trip, we had driven about 1700 miles in 8 days, visited 4 national parks and had seen canyons, like never before.

Nature

I went for a walk into the woods

I knew little where the road would take me

If I could hold my breath, just for a little

If I could stand still, even for a fleeting second

If I could shut the voices in my head, even for a heartbeat

If I could turn off my devices, just for that instant

I could hear the bumbling bees

I could hear the chirping of birds

I could see the timid deer moving, ever so gracefully

I could see trees growing into the sky

I could see the mammoth intertwined roots on which life stands

I could see leaves, plants, shrubs, bugs, tiny in size but…

I could hear that endless flow of life sustaining water hitting the shores

I could see the limitless wave of ripples that have given birth to life itself

I could feel one with nature, whose child I am

I could experience everything

I was alive and nothing else mattered

Happy New Year!

Happy new year folks! Why am I blogging now? Why does it take me a year to write one paragraph? I realized that of all the things I love to do - Writing is one of those few things. I don't want to attribute this post to a new year resolution. But it hit me that I will be turning 25 in two days time and I can already see my hair graying. If you are still that single extrovert party goer, good for you! You are already burning that energy. But if you are an introvert like me who enjoys the company of a select few, chances are you don't know how to express yourself and in turn - burn that energy (well, as much as you have!). This post is a reminder to keep telling myself to do what I like, what I enjoy and hopefully, be more disciplined about it.

Since I am on a spree and I don't know when I'll write again - I am going to let my thoughts flow this time around. I got married a couple of months back to my boyfriend of almost 7 years. People have been asking me how married life is treating me. I initially thought that it wouldn't be very different - I mean I did know the guy forever! But I did realize that marriage does change some things around you. It might be subtle but you are bound to notice it nevertheless. The most funny change is your parents accepting this relationship with another person to be normal. If you grew up in the western world, you probably don't know what I'm talking about but if you are from India, you can certainly relate to what I'm saying. Before marriage, it was like - "Oh, this guy. Be careful. Blah blah.." and now - all one happy family! L-O-L indeed!

Family aside, life with my husband has been changing gradually. For eg - I am still getting used to the fact that we go to the same gym and I can actually have lunch with him on weekdays. (To put this in perspective, I moved to the same city as him a month ago). We have had the odd disagreement, the odd fight etc. But I am beginning to realize that as much as we live a life with someone, it's very important to not lose your individuality. I'll probably rant a little more about marriage some other time. Right now, I still feel like I am discovering myself and have this urge to practice my hobbies, widen my skills and keep improving. Ain't that a good start to the new year? :) On this optimistic note, I'd like to say "Happy New Year" again and I hope I become a better version of myself this year!

Are we moving away from ourselves?

Have you ever wondered how people lived before the induction of a public education system? How were they 'educated'? How were they earning? One often reads reports about a person's ability/talent to be maximum when they are a child. And in our own personal experience, we realize that we move away from it as we grow older. We no longer think it's important to play outside. We no longer think that mistakes are a part of life. Rather, to quote Sir Ken Robinson from his TED Talk "We are educated out of this". Listening to such talks makes me realize that there was a time in history where people would theorize. They would theorize about our very existence, about why we have days and nights, about why the earth is round etc. Some of these theorists have gone on to make a name that will be etched in history as the "father's" of a certain phenomenon. But that is not what I want to focus on. Since the advent of public education system, I have observed a decline in the creative interests of people all around me. We are all trying to be industry ready to land that job, to get that pay raise and to buy that car. This leads me to believe that each one of us has not discovered themselves enough. This further trickles down to unfulfilled potential in each one of us thereby, resulting in an unhappy tomorrow. So, I am going to urge each one of you to reconnect with your core self, discover and let the journey take you where it may.

Liberation of Auschwitz

Recently, I happened to watch the documentary Liberation of Auschwitz which deals with rescuing prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp by Soviet military forces. It contained real footage of the atrocity of crimes that were inflicted on these people. Should you choose to watch this film, I request you to not watch it on a Friday night like I did. There are a number of things that I learnt after watching this film. The most important thing is that you can read as much as you want about crimes committed by the SS but nothing will impact you as much as the visual scenes. Let me just summarize some of the inhumane things that were carried out by the SS.
- They gased [poisoned by using cyanide] the prisoners in a gas chamber after they became weak and were unable to work.
- The doctors purposely injected diseases like yellow fever into weak patients and carried out medical experiments on them.
- Women who were old and could not work were kept in stables [Yes, you read that right]. They were kept in stables like horses where no sanitation was provided. Upto 5 or 6 women were put into a stable.

What baffles me is this - I can accept that 1 person is mad. But how could he convince an entire army that his vision and actions were right. I have no answers, but I suspect that given the right conditions it is easy to influence people's thoughts drastically. A lot of research has gone into this field and I am sure I cannot add anything of value to this topic. All I can say is that it is good to evaluate yourself periodically, have a neutral perspective, a calm demeanour and spread the joy.

Cheers folks!