Walkie Talkie

Baby has been entertaining in spite of her sickness this week !!





Jr. is having a tough time keeping baby away from her things now! Life will never be the same ....

A special restaurant..

Ever wonder, why there is so much fuss in my posts, about the food items after religious or social ceremonies ?

It is because you dont get to eat them when you crave them. You end up waiting for the events so you can have the food that goes with the events !!

Maybe it was our forefather's perfecting the Pavlov's dog technique.. Associate certain events with certain Yummies and motivate the guys to perform ceremonies ! Not that I am suggesting that I perform the ceremonies so I get to eat the goodies. I perform them because it is tradition and I get some sense of fulfilment.

But wouldnt it be great to have a restaurant where the menu is always this :




At least I would go there often. As often as I crave any of the special festival items !!

If there is some gutsy soul out there who can take this beyond drool stage, please please.. make this restaurant and menu a reality !!

The FCC responds !!

Most of you who read the post on Etiquette (Indian movie theaters not enforcing any entry restriction for violent indian movies), know that I wrote to the FCC (pretty much in strong terms along the lines of the previous post).

I got a reply today.

Since a lot of you have asked me to show you the FCC's response, here it is .

Thank you for contacting the Federal Communications Commission.

The Communications Act of 1934 that established the Federal Communications Commission PROHIBITS the Commission from censoring broadcast matter and taking action that would interfere with free speech in broadcasting, a freedom also guaranteed in our Constitution's First Amendment. THE COMMISSION DOES NOT REGULATE THE MOVIE INDUSTRY; therefore has no say in the matters of movie ratings.

Individual radio and television station licensees are responsible for selecting all broadcast matter and for determining how their stations can best serve their communities. Licensees are responsible for choosing the entertainment programming and the programs concerning the local issues, news, public affairs, religion, sports events and other subjects to be aired by the station. They also decide how their programs, including call in shows, will be conducted and whether or not to edit or reschedule material for broadcasting. To this end the Commission does not substitute its judgment for that of the broadcaster in this process, and it does not act as an advisor to stations on artistic standards, grammar or quality of content.

We recommend listeners and viewers to make their concerns known to the management personnel of the broadcast station involved whenever they believe the station's programming merits it. Such comments help to keep broadcasters informed about audience opinion and can influence programming.

However, Congress has given the Federal Communications Commission the responsibility for administratively enforcing the prohibition to broadcast obscene and/or indecent programming which is set forth at Title 18 United States Code, Section 1464 (18 U.S.C. § 1464).

The Commission's enforcement actions in administratively enforcing the prohibition to broadcast obscene and/or indecent programming are based on documented complaints of indecent or obscene broadcasting received from the public. This does not include cable or satellite channels/stations, only broadcasts from FCC licensed TV and radio stations.

The Commission will act on all documented complaints that may violate FCC rules and regulations governing obscene and/or indecent programming.

For information concerning the FCC's regulation of obscenity, indecency, and profanity, please visit this web site: http://www.fcc.gov/eb/oip/.

Hope this proves helpful.

C.Howell
FCC/Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau
202-418-1569

Go on.. Go to http://www.fcc.gov/eb/oip/

It is going to take me some time to digest what these guys are saying.. Maybe the lawyers out there can condense the jist of the message so laymen like me can understand ?

Until then, I stop watching movies at IMC !!

Etiquette ?

Last weekend I went to the local Indian Movie Complex (IMC) in San Jose. This is my fifth movie watching experience in this theater. The movie was "Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu", in Tamil(Tamizh) starring Kamal Hassan. Considering the star cast it was bound to be an entertainer.

My wife and mother in law watched it Friday night in the same theater, while I babysat the kids and I went sunday afternoon when they watched the kids. This is the usual routine for us. It has been ages since I watched a movie with my wife. Usually I team up with the men and she goes with the women (all families take baby sitting turns), at least all the normal families that I know.

Well, this movie should have gotten an NC-17 rating. There was enough sexual content and Violence that would put Quentin Tarantino's movies to shame. But the real shame was the audience.

There are some morons who come with their kids (infants, toddlers, pre-schoolers, pre-teens, I saw the entire range!). The kids were in the ages of 6 months to 10-11 years old. The worst hit were the pre-school kids. The theater owners made no effort to stop these families from taking their kids inside, knowing that the content of the movie was not suitable for these kids.

The volume soars in the theater as throats are being slashed (in close ups) and the kids start screaming. What do these parents(?) do ? They take turns in the aisle with the kid and try to calm them down. But their focus is still on the screen and the kids are also looking at the screen. The guys or ladies that were walking up and down the aisle made no effort to even turn the kids faces away from the screen !!

This is where I felt that god (or evolution, whichever you chose to believe) has played a cruel trick on us. When they taught me the "survival of the fittest" theory, I thought it had something to do with being fit in the body or mind. Apparently the biology books had a typo. It is "Survival of the Fit-Test". All it takes is something to fit into something and it is enough for these morons to procreate and survive !! If only god had set some minimum IQ standard to make people parents !

What kind of excuse do these guys have to expose their kids to this kind of violence ? Especially the families where they bring the kids and the grand parents along !!!! If your parents are here, why wouldn't you let your kids be with your parents while you watch the movie with your spouse and then let the parents watch the next show ? Why arent your parents telling you not to expose your kids to such movies at that age ? Well that one is obvious, you are just proving you are your parents creation !

But most of all, What the hell is the FCC doing ? This is happening in America. Granted, that for all I know these people could be playing violent video games or watching porn in their houses with their kids sitting next to them and granted the very same kids could end up being in kids classmates a few years down the road and also granted that there is nothing I can do to prevent what goes on inside their house !!

One thing I can do, is save myself of the embarrasment of watching NC-17 movies with 3-10 year olds sitting next to me. I wanted to go and talk to the theater owners. But this is the third or fourth time I am witnessing the kids in the theater in movies which are clearly not for kids. So the least I could do was to send a detailed letter to the FCC commissioner today. Let us see if I get a response and if they actually do something about this!

It is high time they start rating these movies in the US !!

Ganesha's Birthday !!!

Last year, the birthday of lord Ganesha was celebrated ? American style !!

Not this year !! It happened to fall on a sunday. In spite of baby having a hospital visit and daddy going for a movie(more on that disaster later), we managed to celebrate in style.

To sum it up :

Daddy did the prayer(having got only 3 hours of sleep the previous night, thanks to baby keeping us up, with her teething troubles and cold)


I think the elephant god looks quite pleased, don't you ?


And who wouldn't be, with this kind of offering !!! I was extremely pleased with the tasty treats that my mother-in-law managed to make, in spite of losing sleep last night. On a Yumminess scale of 1-10 it was a 10 !



Ps. The movie wasnt bad. It was the experience that was bad. I am planning to write to the FCC to regulate Indian movie theaters!