Category: Blog

I’ve been watching October baseball these last few weeks.  Now I will admit that I didn’t grow up playing the game or even watching it; I’m a cricket and soccer kind of guy.  The first time I watched baseball was in 1985. I was in Bahrain and the World Series between the Cardinals and Royals…

How easily we turn people into messiahs.  Steve Jobs was an innovative genius who professed Buddhism yet pursued a relentlessly material career, creating such a fanatical culture in quest of excellence that many Apple employees were estranged from their families.  Here’s what he once said: “You’d be surprised how hard people work around here.  They…

Every so often the debate is revived about the vast amounts of money in college sports, particularly football and basketball, and whether or not college athletes should be paid.  The billions of dollars generated in revenues every year (The University of Texas ostensibly made a profit of $68 million on football alone last year) from…

At what point do we become enablers of a broken system?   Worse, when will we start to realize that “the fault lies not in our stars but in ourselves that we are underlings” being abused by guilt and misguided fealty to a plutocracy masquerading as a democracy?   How long will we continue, like battered spouses,…

One of my dear friends in India Clarissa Fernandes passed away last night, robbed of more possibilities by the sudden outburst of cancer.  Through the numbness in my heart I am suddenly overcome by a lack of knowledge–how do you mourn someone you haven’t seen in 10 years and who lived on the far side…

Really? Is this how we like to spend our evenings (and, for some, much of the day), relishing the humiliation of people on TV? This isn’t Alex Keaton torturing his sister Mallory on Family Ties, although the roots of our fascination with degradation are embedded there also, however couched they may be in apparently innocuous…

Today India celebrates 64 years of Independence from British rule.  I left the subcontinent 27 years ago—hard to believe that I’ve been away for almost half of free India.  This past weekend I met a friend from Bombay (Mumbai now) whom I hadn’t seen in 28 years.  We had started together as rookies in an…

When I lived in Bahrain, oh, those many years ago, every Friday morning they would head out to the beach, but I was never invited. Thursday nights we roistered late, eating grilled Thai satays and all manner of Asian dishes washed down with exotic beverages. On Friday evenings we met again, they with newly-acquired tans and…

All Right!! I’m tired of listening to some people say that soccer is too boring, too long, etc., so here’s my take on the beautiful game, adored by millions the world over. The loveliness of soccer lies in its endless creativity and Americans who hate it because of its low scores just don’t understand its…