#YouKnowYou'reAnIndianChildWhen

A friend of mine on Twitter started a hashtag today. It was basically just her an I, but I thought it was so funny. There are specific things that you experience when you're a kid who has parents that immigrated from India.

Since I'm sure they differ slightly for different types of Indians, I will only generalize from California Bengali's, so you all can understand us just a little bit better.

You Know You're a Southern Californian Bengali Child If:

• Your dad is an engineer, doctor or works for Microsoft.
• Your weekends are booked with 'family get-togethers'.
• You are studying for the S.A.T.'s at the age of 10.
• Your dad smells of tobacco and scotch.
• You have never been to a summer sleep away camp.
• Your mother doesn't or shouldn't be driving on the freeway.
• Everyone is your dada, didi, auntie or uncle.
• Your in math class instead of enjoying summer.
• You are 14 in community college calculus.
• Your school teachers don't even try to pronounce your last name...and you don't need them to.
• You live with your parents to 'save money' at the age of 25.
• Rice is on the menu (every night) with Fish or Chicken curry.
• Your parent's drive a Honda, Toyota or Mercedes.
• You start applying to UCLA, UCSD and UCI as soon as you enter high school.
• You are a computer science, engineering major or pre-med.
• Your parents tell you repeatedly about how Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel prize for literature.
• You don't play outside or swim until 4 pm because your mother is worried you're getting too dark from the sun...
• Your parents use adjectives as nouns, ex: "Don't be a stupid".
• The cashiers at 7-11 look at you intently before asking "Are you Indian?" with absolutely no follow-up.
• Kids at school ask where your red dot is (that's all Indians).
• You either check 'other' or 'Asian' on all official documents.
• You know that Salt Lake refers to a neighborhood in Calcutta and not Utah.
• People don't believe you when you say you're Asian.
• 6 hour flights seem like a picnic compared to the 16 hours it takes to get to India.
• Kids at school mistake you for Mexican.

There's tons that I think of in 'the moment', but these are just a few. Ah, life :)

Random Rant: WHAT IS HAPPENING TO the World?

I feel like something has gone awry with the world amongst so many recent disasters. Not to make light of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, but it feels like that just led to a series of ridiculous situations. What am I referring to?

First - Last night, Nate Dogg passed at 41. What a sad moment. People don't realize how much impact his smooth G-funk sound had on West Coast hip hop. Nate Dogg was featured in 45 albums with 255 popular songs (both solo and collaboration). That's quite an impressive body of work when you realize that most of those songs were great. When you hear almost any rap song that you can sing to in the last decade (not including the past couple of years, that's T-Pain), you can be almost positive Nate Dogg was in it. All of which were staples of West Coast rap, one of the most memorable for most being "Regulators".

Second - WHO is Rebecca Black? Please tell me this is a joke...I have nothing more to say.

On a lighter note (#3)....I was NOT chosen for PC World's Twitter Top 100, which I think was a miscount and a sham. I could have at least been #100. I have a lot to say dammit and it's important.

Fourth - Gas is a hitting a ridiculous $4/gallon, which means it's nearly $70 dollars to fill up my tank. Which also means that it's costing nearly $500 RT to Philadelphia, WHY?????

Fifth - the country's obsession with cracked out alcoholic, Charlie Sheen. WHO CARES? He is really not that entertaining other than the fact that he is so screwed up. Why do people find celebrities that are unraveling and in despair so entertaining?

Last but not least, it's nearing the end of March already. How is the time passing so fast? Did I also mention that apparently Talib Kweli (@RealTalibKweli ) is at SXSW and I'm not.

What else can go wrong? Wait....just kidding, I really don't want to know. There's my random rant for the day.

Fan pages and FB

At first I must admit, I was trying to resist the Facebook evolution. I finally gave in when my company forced everyone to participate in social media. This is also the time when I first began my blog. I know...its all coming together now.

I have grown to find a new love and many uses for Facebook, the one that creeps me out the most is reuniting. My 10 year reunion is a month away and somehow all these people I haven't spoken to in 10 years are rising from the crypt. While a few of them, I do actually wonder about and am interested in finding out what's going on in their life, most of them...well...I could really care less. Its freaks me out when they add me and then most of the time they don't even say anything to me. I hate that. I hate just being a number on someones friend's list. It shouldn't bother me, its cyber space but if we're not friends I'm not the one to pretend about it.

The fan pages are getting a little out of hand, although one day I did become a fan of bacon (before the swine flu). I suppose that's a little nutz, but when friends suggest that you become a friend of 'sarcasm'???? What's that about? huh? My Twittering days have subsided a bit, but I feel that when I have a more socially intense client list then I will probably be back on Twitter as well.

Although computer technology has taken up a lot of jobs in the past ten years, I feel that it has more than exponentially provided opportunity for anyone who is willing to learn and adapt to the universe's changing social nature. Sometimes I hate cell phones, sometimes I love texts, most of the time I hate excel, but it also keeps me organized. What a strange world it is.

Last but not least. Despite of technology's wide reach in our lives, don't forget the little things like the California Sun (of which I am a fan on FB) and walking around outside. :)

Cheers!