Almost As Good As Chocolate

If you are thinking about Lasik, read this article in the NY Times first.

Little did I know when I chose Lasik surgery that I would not end up satisfied like the friends and acquaintances who raved about their post-glasses existence. Instead, my days are complicated, since I am dealing with side effects that are far more bothersome than being unfashionably four-eyed.

I explored getting Lasik. Fortunately, I went to a reputable doctor and clinic (at Stanford). My biggest requirement was that if I didn’t qualify for any reason, I wanted to know. And I got my wish.

I was told that my corneas are too thin. In fact, I don’t even qualify for the more conservative PRK procedure. Fabulous, at least I know.

I also learned that Indians are genetically predisposed to having thinner corneas. Apparently at the time they started to do the procedure in India, the corneal measurements weren’t as stringent. But they found that Indians had problems at a rate significantly higher than the rest of the world. That’s when they got stricter about the corneal thickness requirement.

And yes, like the woman in the article, I also know tons of friends who are ecstatic with the results of their procedures.

Stunning Surendran Nair painting at the Saffron Spring Auction.

The rubber ducky makes the painting even cooler!

NY Times:

Some of the Internet chatter on Tuesday suggested that Ms. Wall Spitzer’s silent presence at her husband’s side represented a dark day for feminism, with one writer railing, “Someone needs to tell his wife that ‘stand by your man’ does not apply here!!! … She needs to have some pride.”

But others turned the feminist argument on its head, detecting ample sexism in the notion that Ms. Wall Spitzer was dragged to the podium against her wishes.

“To me, a lot of this commentary seems patronizing to her,” said Suzanne B. Goldberg, a professor of law at Columbia University and director of its Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic. “She might have felt this was the best strategy in a terrible situation for protecting her children or her own reputation. We have no basis for assuming that she’s a mere pawn here.”

I agree with the latter perspective. She’s a strong woman and is likely making what she thinks is the right choice for her family.

This post sums it up nicely:

It is one thing to walk out on your husband privately, another in a public forum.  I give Silda a huge amount of credit for standing up their on the podium with her husband.  Time will tell what decisions she makes for her future and her childrens but I am not sure you can do anything after 25 years but step back and be very methodical.  After all, her husband certainly hadn’t been thinking with his head.  Believe me, I’d leave but it would be so incredibly painful that I am not sure I would be willing to not stand by my man, for my children, at least for the moment.

[Updated] And here’s Charlie’s take on it – LOL!!

Dear Future Wife (Whoever she may be)

If you should discover that, after decades of marriage and a meteoric career, I have spent $80k on high priced hookers, please dump my ass…

…right on the street…

…in public…

…right in the middle of my press conference.

Do not be supportive.  I do not deserve it.

Do not keep my kids around me.  They’d be better off if I wasn’t around.

Tumblr has an incredibly easy user interface. Right from the signup process on, things are very simple . In addition to working great, it looks wonderful – clean and elegant. And there are a number of cool features that make re-blogging something very easy.

For example, the “Share on Tumblr” bookmarklet allows you to quickly share a photo, a quote, a link, chat or a video. And all from the page you are on, without having to log in to your blog at all.

This is a big deal for me. I often see something I’d like to share quickly with a comment attached, but the thought of having to log into my blog, compose, copy and paste the link etc. makes the bar too high for a quick post.

I could move to a Tumblr blog to get this feature, but I really like a lot of the WordPress plugins that I use (and want to keep). So I did a quick search for Tumblr and WordPress and what do I find? A plugin that does the exact same thing as the “Share on” bookmarklet.  Called QuickPost, the plugin looks and works great.

Another reason I love WordPress.

Dearest Shailu Chithi,

Happy Birthday!!

You have had a profound impact on my life. You’ve inspired me, you’ve supported and guided me, you’ve energized me. On your special day, I want to say “THANK YOU!!!”

Thank you for being such an inspiration. I still remember our conversation when I was seven. I was cycling on the gravelly front yard of our house in Madras and you were talking to me about business school! You were telling me how there were these schools called Harvard and Stanford and how you wanted me to attend them. How I could do it – how I could be a leader and make an impact. What an adult conversation to have with a seven year old! It sounded very mysterious and alluring back then. But it left a lasting impression – especially coming from my super-cool aunt.

Thank you for our relationship. You always treated me as an adult. Whether I was seven or seventeen, you gave me the rights and the responsibilities of an adult. Our conversations were so entertaining – you’d ask my opinion on issues and actually listen. You’d challenge my assumptions and expand my world view.

Thank you for your generosity. You were selfless with your time – driving hours to pick me up when I landed on my first solo trip and when you took off from work and drove me to Boston for a weekend. You were so kind with your gifts – the Samsara you bought me was an incredible treat! I loved using that perfume. I still have the bottle. Oh, and that Express jacket that was so incredibly stylish (in black of course 🙂 – it hangs in my closet.

Thank you for your fierce, fierce love. A love that made you want to protect me, a love that made you push me, a love that made you passionately want the best for me.

On your birthday, I seek your blessings as always. And this year, for J and G as well.

You have had such an impact on my life and my choices. And what’s more, your passion and generosity impacted everyone you touched!

I miss you desperately. I love you very much.

Shripriya

In memory of my incredible aunt, Shailu Iyengar, 1955-1996.

Joseph Stiglitz won the 2001 Nobel Prize for his work on the effect of information asymmetries on markets. He used that lens to talk about the current sub-prime mess and its effects globally.

Very illuminating. And quite entertaining as well – with some amusing and pointed digs at Greenspan (considering that Stiglitz was the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton years, you know how he leans).

These Nobel Laureates are sharp cookies.

I was hoping 2008 would be my lucky year…

It has certainly started out that way. A few weeks ago, this blog qualified to join the ranks of Mommy Blogs ¹ when the boys, J and G, arrived.

“Incredible” doesn’t even begin to capture the experience…

And yes, they are really, really adorable!!

1. Despite qualifying, I politely decline the privilege of turning this into a Mommy Blog ↩

In the past 48 hours, the US Primaries have changed dramatically.

Hillary Clinton choked up

Bill Clinton spoke out

Gloria Steinem wrote a thoughtful piece on whether women can ever be front-runners¹:

Gender is probably the most restricting force in American life, whether the question is who must be in the kitchen or who could be in the White House. This country is way down the list of countries electing women and, according to one study, it polarizes gender roles more than the average democracy.

:

So why is the sex barrier not taken as seriously as the racial one? The reasons are as pervasive as the air we breathe: because sexism is still confused with nature as racism once was; because anything that affects males is seen as more serious than anything that affects “only” the female half of the human race; because children are still raised mostly by women (to put it mildly) so men especially tend to feel they are regressing to childhood when dealing with a powerful woman; because racism stereotyped black men as more “masculine” for so long that some white men find their presence to be masculinity-affirming (as long as there aren’t too many of them); and because there is still no “right” way to be a woman in public power without being considered a you-know-what.

And Hillary and McCain both performed come-from-behind Houdini acts.

I am sure the front-runner in both the Republican and Democratic races is going to change often. I just hope we get candidates that, at a minimum, offer us hope of getting out of the complete and utter mess we are in right now.

1. If you think sexism isn’t alive and well, you should read about the guys who stood up at a Hillary campaign event and kept yelling at her to “Iron my shirt!” ↩

It’s been a very mellow start to 2008. And that’s pretty much how I’d like the rest of 2008 to be.

I’m refusing to do any lists including one on resolutions. As I look back on the list I made a year ago, what seemed reasonable and achievable back then didn’t quite pan out that way. Some things I hit, some things I missed by a mile. But… I’m not going to stress about it. 2008 is all about mellowness… just floating along. 00…

Or so I tell myself. Because, after all, the 2007 list seemed reasonable and achievable back then…

This post made me look around and realize how much I adore our bookshelves…

Sometime in 2005, we ran out of bookshelf space. Done. All gone. But there was a small problem – we still had about 30 boxes of books in storage and we had to get them out.

The boxes showed up, we doubled up every shelf in the house – so there are two layers of books on every single shelf – and yes, you can’t see the second layer at all. Even after all that, we still had close to a thousand books and no clue where to put them.

Then we discovered these really cool stand alone bookshelves. In fact, when fully stocked, you can’t even see that it is a bookshelf. It looks like a stack of books rising from the floor. We first got a couple and then, over time, acquired a few more.

Life savers. Space savers. And elegant. These now dot the house. I can’t recommend them more highly. But as much as I love them, R is on a book diet and is also armed with an eBook reader in the hope that we don’t have to buy more of these!