Pavansut: The Monkey God

This morning I decided to bake two loaves instead of one, and instead of the regular sourdough breads, I am baking jalapeño bread and basil pesto bread.  The dough starter is the same sourdough starter that I have been growing for several years and have shared with friends.  I understand from a friend that the starter is now being shared across Germany by his sister!    Nothing makes me happier than to hear that the sourdough starter is being enjoyed by Europeans, except perhaps the taste of freshly baked sourdough bread! 

Achooo! I am standing at the passport control office of Zurich Airport in a line that is longer than line to go up Magic Mountain at Disney Resort. Suddenly, I hear a sound of sneeze emanating a good 20-30 meters ahead of me. Then I hear "Bless You" behind me. The sneezer sneezes again, and the gentle person behind me pronounces a blessing again! I am baffled. The sneeze originated a few meters away from us and most likely the poor sneezer did not hear the blessing and is therefore not the beneficiary of the benevolent thought. The only people who heard the blessing were me and a few people around me. What is my responsibility in this? Am I supposed to communicate the blessing to the sneezer? If I don't, do I become the recipient of the blessing? If I were to see a person accidentally dropping a dollar bill on the street, I would most certainly try to return the money, for not doing so would be robbing. In this case I did not approach the sneezer and let

Kashmir is back on top of the news cycle, thanks to the Indian government's decision to revoke  articles 370 and 35 of Indian constitution.  And predictably, the world media has responded with rounds of criticism, focusing on Indian government's right to take such a decision in what is considered a disputed area, and especially their right to do it by Presidential decree and not a public mandate.  The criticism is further focused on the fear that the BJP government, which has Hindu ideological foundation, may have taken this decision in a Muslim dominated area to ethnically cleanse the area of muslims.  While it is understandable that the decision isn't popular amongst all critics, it reflects a sense of paranoia and betrays a lack of understanding of the role of government in the lives of Indians. Let's take the first issue:  Indian government's right and the method of bringing about change.  The central dogma here is that given the autonomy of Kashmir enshri