Category Archives: My Thoughts

2016 US Presidential Election

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Oct 15th, 2016

We are now just over 3 weeks away from the election. What ever the outcome of this election turns out to be, there will be some significant head scratching following it. There better be some head scratching, some real reflection.

How did we get here?

Oct 23rd, 2015

  • Feb 27th, ’16 – South Carolina (Dem)
  • Feb 23rd, ’16 – Nevada (GOP)
  • Feb 20th, ’16 – Nevada (Dem), South Carolina (GOP)
  • Feb 9th, ’16 – New Hampshire
  • Feb 1st, ’16 – Iowa Caucus
  • Nov 6th, ’15 – Second Democratic Debate (Rock Hill, South Carolina,
  • Oct 23rd, ’15 – Lincoln Chafee drops out of Democratic primary race
  • Oct 20th, ’15 – Jim Webb drops out of Democratic primary race
  • Oct 13th, ’15 – First Democratic Debate (Las Vegas, Nevada, CNN)

– manzoor

  • GOP Primaries
  • Democratic Primaries

Intention

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Intention is important. Doing the “right” thing with the “wrong” intent could be as bad as doing the “wrong” thing. It’s the “intent” that we communicate. And it is in communicating the intent that we lie / deceive.

Playboy today announced that it would no longer be publishing / printing fully nude pictures. Seems like Playboy is doing it for business reasons (which is perfectly fine for an enterprise). If the business reason also means doing the right thing – yay!!!

– manzoor

Kindness of Strangers

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I’d only been in Austin a couple of weeks. I am still getting to know everything. If I am not mistaken it was the very first time I went to get McDonald’s for dinner all by myself. I didn’t know the meal deal. Come to think of it I don’t think I knew that McDonald’s came without fries or a drink. In any case, I did not have enough cash on me to get the meal and was deciding which to NOT get – the drink or the fries. The man behind me, very politely, told me to go ahead and get the meal. He covered the $0.40 or so that I was short.

A more recent event – as recent as Thanks Giving 2014. I was at Whole Foods picking one last item – which turned into a “couple of items” by the time I got the front counter 😦 Since I was planning to get just one item, I of course didn’t have a cart with me. A woman was right behind me and she only had a single item (I forget what it was). I let her get ahead of me while I was fumbling my stuff. To busy / distracted with all my stuff I didn’t notice that she paid for her and mine and had left before the girl at the counter was able to let me know that my things were already paid for. It was close to $30 worth of different cheese, pasta etc.

I did thank the man at the McDonald’s but never got a chance to thank the woman at the Whole Foods. I have thought of both of them many times since and have thanked them for their kindness. They are but just a couple of examples of the millions of very kind people we are all surrounded by.

BTW, this article would be grossly incomplete if I do not mention our neighbour the police officer who came to our door on September 11th and gave us his card with his cell phone and pager number and told us to call him if we ran into anything. We never had to, but the gesture is something that will stay with me for ever.

– manzoor

P.S. I was checking out of H-E-B this morning and saw the latest Reader’s Digest that made me write this today. To be fair, I have been meaning to write this for a very long time.

Couples

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I am assuming that they are a couple but for all I know they could be siblings. They are in their late 50s (maybe early 60s). Having breakfast at La Madeliene – late breakfast at 11am.

The funny thing is that another couple had sat at the same angle from me just a few minutes before this. A bit older too and they, the earlier couple, chose to have lunch – early lunch.

Something about the later couple made me want to write. Actually, they made me want to go up to them and talk to them. But I couldn’t. It was the way they, mostly the woman, was smiling. They seemed so at ease with each other. They weren’t even looking at each other. They both carried and prepared their own food. She put jam on her breads and he put butter. They both had coffee.

When the waiter later brought their plates – he had the sausage and eggs and she seemed to have ham slices and eggs. They were both very neat and organized in the way they ate. They cut small bite sized pieces and ate them. and all along they spoke very softly to each other. They weren’t exactly having a conversation. It was more like they were talking but not on any particular topic. At least not a single topic.

If they are a couple their kids are probably not living with them. If they are siblings, one is visiting the other.

Maybe this is what we want to hear said when we ask – what do you want to be when you grow up? Happy.

Love Wins

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The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision made it a nationwide “right” for Same Sex Marriages. This is huge. I doubt I am completely able to grasp just how big this really is. But I can’t think of too many other things that I would be as happy about that did not positively affect me personally.

As happy as I am, I do find myself wondering a couple of things. First off, I really wish the decision was not 5-4. Maybe not 9-0, but at least 7-2 or 6-3 would have been really awesome.

Also, as big as this is today in time this will not seem as big any more. It might take a while to get there, but we will.

– manzoor

Who am I?

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It was the summer of ’76. I was in London with my family. We were in the downtown office and my dad (Abbu) had called a taxi for us to be going somewhere. The cab was there but my family was not ready yet so I was asked to go out and let the cab driver know that we were on our way. A huge responsibility for a 8~9 year old and I took it very seriously – obviously. When I told the driver he asked me who I was. I responded, “I am my father’s son”. I don’t recall much of that vacation / trip but I remember that statement and the confidence with which I had responded. Someone asked me a straight question and I responded precisely.

Somehow that same question doesn’t seem so very simple today. Or ever since that day I suppose.

I have tried to think how I would respond to that question today. Or, more precisely – how would I respond to the question – “Who is Manzoorul Hassan?” Is it just a collection of roles that I fill on a daily basis or roles that I have played at some point? Is it the collection of relationships I have? Is it the characteristics / traits I have?

While I continue to explore that question, I do realize that different people see me differently. Not that I’m surprised by that revelation, I do see that otters don’t necessarily see / realize that. At least not everyone. First, I am not intentionally trying to portray myself differently. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. But various conditions around my relationship creates the differing variables that causes each to relate to me differently and that let’s them into a only a different tiny bit of me. Not to mention each of them bring their own experiences that also contributes.

I am who I am and at a fundamental level I might never be able to change myself but might be able to tweak how I behave with others or to various situations. Also, intentionally or not I am not the same person I was 15 or maybe 20 years ago. So I have changed which probably proves that I might change some more. Maybe.

– manzoor
Not by Erin Hanson

You are not your age,
Nor the size of clothes you wear,
You are not a weight,
Or the colour of your hair.
You are not your name,
Or the dimples in your cheeks,
You are all the books you read,
And all the words you speak,
You are your croaky morning voice,
And the smiles you try to hide,
You’re the sweetness in your laughter,
And every tear you’ve cried,
You’re the songs you sing so loudly,
When you know you’re all alone,
You’re the places that you’ve been to,
And the one that you call home,
You’re the things that you believe in,
And the people that you love,
You’re the photos in your bedroom,
And the future you dream of,
You’re made of so much beauty,
But it seems that you forgot,
When you decided that you were defined,
By all the things you’re not.

What to Do?

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I ran into 2 different, yet similar, quotes today:

Can you remain unmoving until the right action arises itself

and

If you are facing a challenge and reached a place where you don’t know what to do, do nothing. Get on with your day as best you can. The solution you seek will make itself known to you when the time is right.

I get it. You get to a point when cannot really do anything.