Pavansut: The Monkey God

A picture is worth thousand words... all I can say, is this was long time overdue. Now we can get back to repairing the damage done by the most dysfunctional administration in US history. Let's hope Biden will leverage his long standing relationships with the Republican Senators, to bring them back to collaborating on our priorities.  

"Make America Great Again"  When I first heard the slogan, I was struck by it's simplicity. It was so to-the-point.  Make my country great again .  I didn't get to witness the "greatness" of America from within - I had only watched it from afar, from a steady diet of Hollywood movies, initially the Western "Dirty Harry" movies that I enjoyed as a kid, and later movies like Rocky, Easy Rider, Midnight Cowboy and The Graduate. Of course everything looked great on silver screen, and if America had problems, Americans seemed well equipped to handle them. America was the utopia, and like many others around the world, I wanted to come to this land of opportunity. I was particularly attracted to the American spirit. Rugged individualism, uncomplaining people who believed in principles, people who took responsibility for their actions, people who bootstrapped themselves out of difficulties. I believed that America was the land of plenty, and one could make

The Joshi Kitchen Garden Folks living in southern United States or in warmer countries, don't have to worry about germinating seeds indoors. But up here in the North, I have no choice but to grow seedlings indoor if I were to expect produce in a reasonable time.  If I were to wait for the right temperature to grow seeds outdoors, it will be the tail end of July before I would be able to get any produce at all. So, I typically start growing seeds indoors in the month of March and often start harvesting vegetables by early June.  This year was no exception - I started my seeds indoor in mid March.   Over the years I have tried various methods of seed germination, planting in seed starter trays, using warming pad, placing them in sun, placing them in plastic tubs to maintain humidity, and placing the tubs in the sun etc etc. But I was having mixed success.  I would get about half the seeds to germinate and some to not germinate at all!  So last year I decided to try something new.   I

Hiking Baldpate Mountain in New Jersey Not more than 8 minute drive from my home, is an open space called, Baldpate Mountain. One lazy Sunday afternoon I stumbled upon this place when I took an unplanned turn onto Fiddlers Creek Road. Spying the lonely parking lot on the left, I wondered - should I, should I not. With only a hard top Jeep to keep it company, the parking lot seemed to be calling my name. Why not, I reasoned, and turned into the lot,  slowly getting out of the Mercedes to stretch my legs. The bulletin board at the end of the lot announced a trail going up to the top of the hill and not having much to do, I started to walk on what seemed like a well trodden trail. 45 minutes later I was at the top peering over the Delaware river into Pennsylvania.  The proximity of broad vistas offered by Baldpate Mountain, to my home, surprised me and I vowed to come here more often. That was in late December when the blanket of winter was well spread and everything looked dismal. It h

Writing as a form of human expression has evolved with our civilization, and so have the writing instruments. Since the earliest days of writing when cuneiform expressions were made on clay tablets by the ancient Sumerians (modern day Iraq) and a quill was used by ancient Indian sages to write hymns on palm leaf, writing instruments have evolved from reed stylus to quill and made its way to the modern day stylus used on iPad and Android devices. Yet nothing is as charming a writing instrument as the good old fountain pen.  A fountain pen is a "thinker's instrument".  Similar to brewing tea, there is a certain degree of meditativeness to using a fountain pen. A fountain pen user eschews the hurried nature of our modern lifestyle and prefers to take time to prepare the writing instrument. (S)he opens the barrel deliberately, fills the pen with ink and wipes down the excess, before putting the nib to paper. There is a certain ritualistic aspect to all this, to be done weekly

Although the 2019 winter was mild, my bees didn't make it through the winter.  I had fed them plenty of sugar syrup, and they had produced more than sufficient honey to make it through the winter. So I know it wasn't starvation. Could it be that despite mild winter, the hive was too exposed to cold winter winds? I'll have to find a way to protect the hive from cold winds next winter. In any case, when I checked the hive in January, the bees were gone, and I decided to install another package as soon as weather turned nice. Jiya holding the package of bees In March, I called Stan Wasitowski of S&F Honey Farms in Flemington, NJ, and placed my order.  Stan spends his winters in Florida and around early April he picks up the honey bee packages from Georgia in his trailer, on his way back to New Jersey.  Alas, COVID-19 has impacted the bee keepers business as well, and around the end of March I got a call from Stan saying that he won't be able to supply the package becau