You are "it", with a piggy twist

Last night we got together with the cousins. We decided to avoid crowded public places and watched a movie at home instead.

Most of the conversation was centered around the flu.

While the adults are seriously worrying about the flu, the kids, safety etc, the kids are apparently playing a game called "swine flu"

One kid is supposed to be "it" and they go chasing all the other kids. When they manage to touch another kid they say "you have the swine flu now!" and now both the kids go tackle the rest..

Interesting perspective from a kid standpoint!

Hopefully it teaches them subconsciously that the more people who have the flu, it is easier for the rest to get it. Then again, these are kids playing "swine flu" without knowing what it really is.

Now don't get me started on the great job the media is doing on this topic. Have lost whatever little respect there was for the few in the media.. (most of it was already lost after they held people accountable and did great investigative reporting during the WMD issue)!

Sad. Very sad.

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Short shorts

How did we ever manage to wear those ill fitting shorts during our difficult years?

Found some black and whites from 1980...

In case of any doubts, the dude on the right is me.

After starring at these photos for some time, started thinking, will Jr. and the little one will ever understand what it means to be poor? You can always start poor and climb up in economic strata, but the other way around is very difficult to deal with. San and me have been promising ourselves to take the kids to local soup kitchens to volunteer and it keeps getting postponed.

Then again, does one have to live in an asbestos shed to understand the concept or is it enough if you watch others living in difficult times?

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Blast from the Past

No. we are not talking about my childhood here. We are skipping a generation.

During the recent India trip, my dad handed me some old photos which I had mailed him 16 years ago. Photos for which there were no negatives left because like an idiot, I had sent the negatives to India also and they were lost.

As a bonus he also handed me something from his shaving box (metal box which was his equivalent to my shoe box) and gave me things which he had preserved. Thought I should have it, because of my being internet and media savvy, this might be preserved in some form somewhere. Felt honored to receive his box!

One of those things in the box, was this old postcard he handed me, the only sample of his father's handwriting in his possesion. A letter written by my grandfather (who I never met! he had passed away when my dad was a teenager) in 1957.

It is tough when you lose your mother at 4 and your dad at 18 and all you have is a photo of your mom! My dad did have a tough hand dealt to him as the youngest of 12 kids but he made it through to lead a good life.

Now, here is the letter..

That is one bad handwriting!

Here is to dad. The letter has been pieced together to the best of my ability and is now digitized.

Tomorrow will be spent in zooming into the letter and trying to read it.

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