An Authentic Halloween Story - the Confederate Cellophane lover

This is not one of those traditional ghost stories. I would never have shared this incident, unless it was recorded and reported by the researchers of US Paranormal activities. This one took place in Olustee State Park in Florida.

An Annual Civil War Ball was held in the state park, where a major Civil War battle was fought in the early 1860s, between the Northern Union Army and the Southern Confederates. It attracts Paranormal activity folks who have captured Orbs and Ribbons of light on digital cameras. Unusual Floating orbs have appeared on video recordings in that park.

While enacting mock battle, one enactor recalled getting an eerie feeling, hearing a voice repeating "Have you seen the elephant" - a Civil War euphemism for experiencing combat.

Another enactor strayed deep into the park and saw this guy decked in old "Confederate" garb. This skinny, ragged, tired looking guy was barefoot, sitting next to a tree in a sparsely vegetated area.

This unusual looking man walked to this enactor, addressing him "Howdy" in a strange, croaky voice - Do you have a "chaw", a slang for chewing tobacco. The reenactor pulled a strip of chewing tobacco out of his pocket and handed over to this strange looking person, whom he thought as another fellow enactor.

The guy unwrapped it and popped the tobacco into his mouth, as he held the cellophane up in the air and looked through it. He studied it a bit and asked, "What's this made of ?"

The reenactor replied, "It's cellophane", thinking this stranger is poking fun at him. He again asked, if he can keep the cellophane. The reenactor nodded and continued his trail.

Moments later, when he turned back to wave goodbye to the stranger, the later simply vanished. That area was flat land with sparse shrubs, typical of marshy Florida. The lone tree standing was too short and too thin to block the view. No human could have vanished too fast, too soon.

The reenactor now walked faster, panting and puffing, never bothering to look back. He soon narrated his experience to others. Neither he, nor any one from rest of the enactors saw anyone matching such description.

After reaching home, the reenactor looked up information on cellophane and learned that it wasn't invented until year 1908. The American Civil War took place a good 50 years back. It explained the stranger giving a strange look at the cellophane wrap and kept it as a time warped souvenir.

Ab ke baar Trump Sarkar

Donald Trump spoke a few words in Hindi AB KI BAR, TRUMP SARKAR - meaning, "It's now turn for Trump government". He perhaps speaks better Hindi than our Chief Minister's Odisha speaks Odia.

Indian Americans, the Americans of Indian origin (not to be confused with American Indians or Native - Red Indians who are the original inhabitants of the land) constitute little more than 3 million - nearly 1% of the total population of USA. Though small, they can make a dent in the electorally crucial swing states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Demographically they are 51% Hindu, 18% Christian (many born Hindus are converted influenced by Evangelicals), 14% non-believers (I am veering towards that), 10% Muslims, 5% Sikhs and rest immaterial. So unlike India, where Hindus make 82% of the population, they are just above the halfway mark in US.

Hence, knowing well that 2/3rd of Indians are Democrats or Democratic leaning, and the antagonism of Muslims towards him, Trump is betting on the Hindu audience amongst the Indian Americans. That's the reason he used the occasion of Hindu festival Diwali to target his base amongst Indian Americans.

With time running out and the election tightening over the FBI doing further investigation into Hillary's email, Trump is leaving no stones unturned, as every vote counts - from Indian Americans or otherwise.

Won't be surprised if Hillary Clinton also comes out speaking a word or two in Hindi, though a 2/3rd support is assuring, nothing can ever taken for granted in politics.

Importance of Florida in Election 2016

Exactly one Tuesday from now, just 2 weeks ahead, America is going to decide arguably the most powerful person on earth. DonaldTrump and Hillary Clinton are Campaigning hard in the crucial swing state of Florida, which opened its polling booths for early voting from yesterday.

As voters line up to vote in this warm, Sunshine state - better known for no State Income tax and Tourism, the candidates had several campaign events lined up past few days, including today. Learning from last election of 2012, when Hispanics stood on line for hours mostly voting for Obama, the candidates are leaving no stones unturned to making their supporters turning out to vote.

Why Florida is so crucial ? Because it carries 29 crucial Electoral college votes - next only to California (54), Texas (38), New York (34). With California and New York solidly voting for Hillary and Texas for Trump (though by a lesser margin), Florida is too important a swing state to be ignored.

So stakes are higher for Trump to win Florida - as it is a must win state for him. Without winning Florida, his path to White House is virtually sealed.

North Florida is mostly Republican and South Florida, Democratic as the state's demography is changing fast. It's said the more South you go in Florida, more North it gets, alluding to the baby boomers from North of United States who settle in South Florida post retirement, lured by its warm, salubrious weather. They tend to be mostly Democratic who, along with a sizable number of Hispanics, have changed Florida's political landscape.

The important I-4 corrider, connecting the populous cities of Tampa and Orlando could very well decide the next US President - as this sector is evenly populated with Republicans and Democrats, though of late, it is showing a tilt towards Democrats.

In nutshell - indications are there of this race keeps tightening, the Corrider of I-4 Highway in Florida could very well determine the outcome of this election. Buckle up for a rough ride on the election night.

How Macaca moment changed the political landscape of Virginia

The state of Virginia, which once was a reliably Republican citadel, has now turned Blue. For those uninitiated about American politics - Red is the color of Republicans and Blue the color of Democrats.

Arguably the first breach in this Republican fort, just south of US Capital Washington DC came in the Senate election of 2008 - the credit for which goes to a young Indian American named S R Sidharth.

20 year old Sidharth was filming a campaign by the 2 time sitting Republican Senator George Allen, who was running for his 3rd term. When he saw Sidharth, the senator exclaimed - "Let's give a welcome to the Macaca here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia".

It was clearly a racist comment and was exploited to the hilt by his Democrat opponent. In spite of the prompt apology from George Allen, the poll numbers of the otherwise comfortably leading Republican candidate started to sink, enough for give his Democrat opponent a narrow victory on the election day.

No question Allen's " Macaca moment" led to his downfall, from which he could never recover. Once considered a prospective Presidential candidate, he could never get elected, his racist remark being the last nail on his political Coffin.

No doubt Sidharth was the harbinger of the beginning of the end of Republican dominance of the state of Virginia. Two years later, Barack Obama carried the state - by a Democratic Presidential candidate after 44 years, first time since 1964.

Obama again carried Virginia again in 2012. Now both the Senators, the Governor being Democrats and Hillary leading Trump by double digits, the transformation of the state from a solid Red to a Blue state is complete.

The main reason behind this change - the demography of Virginia is getting more and more the reliably Democrats, as the College educated, immigrants are flooding the northern part of the state of  DC suburbs (same case in Research Triangle area of Raleigh, North Carolina has made it a swing state).

Yet, S R Sidharth will go down in history as the pioneer who opened up the floodgates of Republican levee, letting the Democrats to barge in, by handing George Allen his "Macaca moment" and changing the electoral map of Virginia and America.

Trump's low support amongst women - Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned

Trump is either leading or is pretty competitive with Hillary among most segments of the electorates, except WOMEN where he is now trailing his opponent by 20 points. If only Trump can reduce this gap by half, he will give Hillary fun for money. But it's not likely, as time is the luxury he doesn't have.

It's not unusual in America for husband to vote Republican, while wife votes Democrat. Fair and balanced. Not so in our house. I voted twice for Obama (he didn't win Georgia), whereas Tanujaa being apathetic to politics didn't even bother to vote.

My mother, least inclined towards politics, religiously accompanied my father to the nearest voting booth of BJB College, Bhubaneswar. She would cast her vote in favor of the person my father nods at, except one occasion when she violated the norm.

In the Parliament election held in the year 1984 on the aftermath of Indira Gandhi's assassination, she voted for the Congress Party nominee against my father's instruction to vote for the eventually losing candidate from CPM, Shivaji Patnaik.

My dad voted with his head, while mom voted with her heart - her change of heart was due to the sympathy generated from watching the funeral of a slain woman PM and undisputed leader of India at that time, vividly telecast TV.

I am sure women played a signified role in giving a massive, historic mandate to Congress in that election. Even the Left bastion of Bengal suffered a jolt, as Jyoti Basu opined - Indira dead is powerful than Indira alive.

They then voted Indira Gandhi out of sympathy, they will vote against Trump out of scorn. Either way - the decisive factor are the women, who form the single largest minority. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

Sum hospital tragedy in Bhubaneswar

More than a score died and still more were maimed in an avoidable tragedy in my hometown Bhubaneswar back home. If reports of safety mesures and drill, or rather lack of it, are to be believed, the tragedy of SUM Hospital can be summed up as follows.

Shit happens. Do we take appropriate safety, preventive measures ever, learn from it and plug our lacunae with concrete actions ?

In my workplace, the employees need to go through mandatory Safety drills - with mock fire and tornado evacuations. Every section (there are 4 of them in each floor of our building) has a designated Safety Monitor with backup.

He or she, wearing a identifiable jacket leads the team members to the designated security areas. Elevators are strict no no in case of evacuation, mock or real. Every one MUST take stairs. For fire, one must step out outside the building and for Tornado, the basement area or desigmated Tornado shelters inside the workplace.

Once a burnt popcorn in a microwave triggered the high sensitive, higher pitched, highest shrill Fire Alarm. We got immediate out of the building in a few minutes. Mind it, this is a workplace of healthy individuals. In Hospitals, where we have incapacitated patients, the procedures should be more stringent and properly in place.

But will we ever learn from this ? Public memory is very short, so your guess is as good as mine.

Trump as president is not going to dump Pakistan

It seems many folks back in India are upset with the likely defeat of Trump in the upcoming Presidential election. The reason - in their prism of view, they have construed Trump's anti Muslim rants as his his intention to punish Pakistan, a perennial thorn in the flesh of India.

I am no fan of Hillary. I didn't vote for her twice, both in 2008 and 2016 primaries. But I am sorry, even if Trump makes an unlikely comeback and wins the elections, he will hardly do anything close to satisfy the wish of many back home. Chances are that he could further molly coddle Pakistan at a time US is getting out of Afghanistan.

To all the knowledgeable and not so knowledgeable ones about America - Uncle Sam diligently follows a purely self interest driven foreign policy, principles be damned, whether we like it not. Historically they preach democracy but have no qualms about dealing with sundry dictators from Shah, Marcos, Zia, Musharaf et all.

Post Nuclear deal with Iran, US has signed a $25 Billion Boeing deal with its perennial bette noire. It's the best recent example hoe Uncle Sam is ready to break bread with someone its declared terrorist state for preservation of its self interest.

The other erroneous perception is Republican Presidents are more friendly towards India and less towards Pakistan here is some statistics to chew on :

1. Dwight Eisenhower totally embraced Pakistan at the cost of India.
2. Richard Nixon sent 7th fleet to India during 1971 war and referred to Indira Gandhi as that bi**ch.
3. Ronald Reagan armed Zia's Pakistan to teeth caring a damn about India.
4. George Bush Sr hardly cared about India. His son preferred Musharaf after 9/11, though India offered blank check of help to US.
All the above are Republicans.

So, I have no reason to believe that Trump will be anything different from his predecessors. Business wise India is not China, Japan or EU. Neither strategically it is Syria, Middle East, North Korea or Afghanistan, especially the later where US acknowledges Pakistan being a central factor. Hence don't presume an cataclysmic shift in American position as far as Indo-Pak relationship goes.