The 'sex talk'

I had a great conversation this morning with my mom's youngest brother on the topic of sexual assault/rape and how these topics are dealt with today within the Indian society.

Though it was a good conversation, I was hoping he'd have some opposing thoughts on it so I could argue with him [I really needed a good argument!] but he agreed with me for the most part.

We were discussing how backwards the Indian society has become with respect to the topic of 'sex' and how silly it is that it is so taboo these days. Even the mention of it is not heard of, in both y-1 and y-2 generations.

My uncle was talking about the fact that 1000 years back, we had one of the most open societies. He mentioned some of the temples such as Konark, as well as a couple of similarly older temples, and how mindblowing it is to see the kinds of explicitly erotic sculptures carved on the temple walls for the public to view and worship.

As an idea of what he is talking about, here is a photo of one of the carvings:



We discussed how the Victorian influence of the 1800s, which is entirely prudish, somehow skewed the future generations.

My uncle made the point that even Penthouse and Playboy are nothing compared to some of the carvings in temples such as Konark. We had such a society very, very permissive, in which the King could pay sculptors to sculpt on the temple wall, scenes that porn magazines cannot click today.

It's quite unfortunate that discussing 'sex' in this society today is almost considered a crime. It's almost annoying to see the way topics of sexual assault and rape are handled by society today, and how it is portrayed in such a fashion that makes it uncomfortable for the younger generations to openly discuss these topics with their families, which can result in serious problems later on.

Hopefully it is something that changes in due time.

The cat's 'sixth sense'...?

According to this news article, this cat at a Providence, RI nursing home is able to predict when someone is about to die. The doctors who work there are amazed because after years of medical experience and training, they have been wrong more often than not.

The article states that the cat somehow knows when someone is about to die, and goes and sits in their room, curls up on their bed, and waits.

Do you actually believe that the cat is able to detect it on its own, without following behaviour patterns of visitors and staff? Is there something that is released in the air by someone who is dying and the cat is able to detect those smells or chemicals?

I'm not sure how much of this is based on the cat observing and mimicking patterns of the staff, and how much of this is based on the cat actually able to detect the death of someone on it's own, independent of others' actions.

Bad

Bad news...the Dow is suffering!

And more bad news... NASA claims that a worker cut wires inside a computer designed for use aboard the space station.

Not to mention...we have drunk astronauts going into space. Now there's an idea to make new discoveries!

And isn't this nice...the FBI intentionally withheld evidence of these four men's innocence.

How messed up can things get? Not that any of this isn't expected. Things have been corrupt in so many aspects for so long. Ah, well, it's just interesting sometimes to read about it.

Hinduism and the US Senate...?

So I definitely thought the United States was about separating 'religion' and 'state', but had my doubts upon the stirring of gay rights and the strong opposition of gay marriage.

When I say 'religion', I definitely meant 'Christianity', the dominant religion in the United States and in the government.

Now who would've thought the Senate floor would open with Hindu prayers?

http://www.indolink.com/displayArticleS.php?id=071207093421

I know. I would never have guessed it either.

Costa Rica

The country? Absolutely beautiful. In many ways, it reminded me of Hawaii, mostly because of the vast rainforests, the climate, and the volcanoes/craters/sulfur fumes I got to see once again. However, there were definitely some significant differences between the two places. Hawaii for example, had the ocean in sight every stretch of every drive.

Many people I talked to did not know where Costa Rica was located. It is one of the countries in the Central America strip - the portion of land that connects the United States and South America right under California. The country closest to the United States is Mexico, and the country closest to South America is Panama. The country contiguous to Panama to the north on the Central American strip is Costa Rica. [In reality, I actually dislike geography very much].

Anyway, the flight to Costa Rica was not nearly as long as I had assumed it might be about a week before the trip. It was just a short 5 hours and 15 minutes. The time-difference between the east coast of the United States and Costa Rica was just 2 hours. It was just a bit surprising when I made the realisation that the flight from Newark, NJ to San Jose, CA was between 7 and 8 hours. I tried to sleep on the plane, but that rarely works out in my favour.

We landed in Costa Rica in the most beautiful weather. It was warm and sunny with some clouds, and the humidity reminded me quite a bit of Chennai, India. Even the look of the airport, the people, and the coconut trees made me feel nostalgic for Chennai.

Our hotel was gorgeous. Unfortunately, they did not have any suites available for us, so we were involuntarily crammed into one room for five people. It's amazing we came out of the week without strangling each other.

Throughout the week, travelling through San Jose, Costa Rica's capital, along with the drives through the countryside and more remote areas deeper into the country was interesting. Throw a few cows onto the roads, and a couple more motorcycles, and you've got yourself a mock Chennai. Yes, I realise I have said that more than just once or twice in the past couple of paragraphs, but it was amazing how much the countries resembled each other. The look of the houses - concrete with steel gates in the front, the size, shape, and construction of the windows, the set-up of the shops, the bargaining in the stores, the street vendors, everything just made me miss India incredibly.

We enjoyed the boat rides on the Sarapiqui River which gave us the opportunity to view the wildlife in the rainforests including various species of birds, bats, frogs, monkeys, agouti, coati, crocodiles, and much more. We had the chance to ride horseback into the mountains/rainforest, after which we had the distinct opportunity to swing from tree-to-tree and walk across [or for me, jump across and scare the rest of my family behind me into thinking they were going to fall off] suspension bridges hooked from one tree to another, several hundred feet apart from each other. It was an opportunity that we would not have gotten in many other places, and a great way for us to see the rainforest and experience it from the point of view of the monkeys =)

We went to a couple of the big volcanoes in the country, including the Poas Volcano which was about an hour from San Jose, and the Arenal Volcano area which was a good 3-4 hours away. The Arenal Volcano area was unfortunately visited on a very foggy day, so there were only a couple of times we had the chance to see the top of the volcano. What was disappointing was that I know that it is currently active, and on a clear/visible day, we may have had the chance to see with our own eyes some of that activity. That is something I definitely would have liked to see.

During our visit to the Arenal Volcano area, we also visited the Tabacón Hot Springs resort, a resort that was made in order to take advantage of the naturally hot mineral water that came out of the ground because of the volcanic region. Tabacón Resort’s Hot Springs are 97% rain-based and 3% magma-based. Rainwater enters the earth through fissures on the surface and is then heated by magma found in the earth’s core. Once the water is heated, it then rises to the surface and takes minerals found in the earth. Therefore, the hot springs are filled with minerals. There are several chemical, physical and biological effects of the hot springs, that ultimately improve a human's skin, regulate a person's bloodstream, encourage muscle relaxation, and helps the skin repair itself from otherwise naturally ocurring events such as aging.

We also had the opportunity to visit one of the largest coffee plantations in Costa Rica, where we learned how coffee is grown, processed and ultimately sold/exported. The coffee business, though it used to be Costa Rica's number one source of economic prosperity, it is no longer in the number one spot and is not responsible for about 12% of the Costa Rican economy. Today, the number one source of economy is tourism.

The La Paz Waterfalls were also quite beautiful, and were a nice way to wrap up the 'tourist' part of our trip. They were comprised of 5 main naturally ocurring waterfalls which today are owned by a couple in Miami, Florida.

The last day of our trip was spent lounging around the hotel, me, my brother and my cousin getting on each others' nerves, and ending the day with a gorgeous evening in San Jose and a Middle Eastern dinner.

I can't emphasize enough how much fun I had practicing Spanish. I was actually quite surprised at how much I was able to communicate with native speakers considering we had very little speaking practice when taught in school. Reading and writing is not a problem at all for me, but speaking I always thought would pose as a problem. I was pleasantly surprised! Many natives seemed to think I was a native Spanish-speaker if not a native Costa Rican, which wasn't a shock since I've been mistaken for 'Spanish' in the past as well.

By the end of the trip, it was somewhat strange, because my thoughts were formed this convoluted twist of Spanish, Tamil and English. There were times that I would want to say something in Tamil and accidentally say it in Spanish, and so on.

All-in-all, the trip was fabulous. The following week was spent in California, and now, I'm back to my usual work routine. It had to end sometime =)