Gold and Beautiful

Thanksgiving break this year took us to Puerto Rico. The island is bigger than Big Island in Hawaii, but small enough to cover in 4-5 days time. San Juan and areas near it are pretty busy, while places to the west are slightly less crowded.  Day 1: Old San Juan Old San Juan is a pretty, historic area with colorful houses and cobblestone streets. The balconies, the atmosphere and the friendly people reminded me of French Quarter in New Orleans. The streets are lined with great restaurants, cafes, salsa bars, souvenir shops and market squares. As you can see in the picture below, finding a parking spot in the city is impossible. A couple of public parking places are available though. All kinds of hotels exist in this area. If you like the regular American comforts there is a Sheraton. Most of the historic hotels and apartments (found on vrbo.com) are tiny and may not meet the typical American expectations. For lunch we tried some mofongos and pina coladas (we were on vac...

#Hope2013 was Gulzar's hashtag for the unfortunate Delhi rape case today. For quite some time I avoided commenting on the topic. I would have probably not blogged about it at all hadn't I been in India to observe people's reaction to the inhuman incident. Even in the 21st century, the immediate reaction to such an incident is "The way these girls dress these days". From an autorickshaw driver to educated people, I heard this comment from enough number of people for me to react, for my blood to boil. I am especially outraged at women who have this reaction. First of all, how do you think that such a heinous act can have any kind of excuse? Do you really believe that women in sarees don't get raped in broad daylight in our country? Secondly the explanation is not so simple. There are many different social factors that lead to such incidences. The major factor is this kind of reaction, which questions the victim instead of blaming the perpetrator. To me a lot of...