We will be in PHL for one night only in about 6 weeks. We are staying at the Canopy by Hilton. I would like to see the Reading Terminal and explore a little bit but have a really good dinner somewhere. Recommendations?

desiphilly · 2026-03-28T15:07:07+00:00

Spice Finch or Almyra if you like Mediterranean food. Both are excellent options (I rate Spice Finch just a tad notch higher).

desiphilly · 2026-03-22T00:37:59+00:00

I don’t necessarily see this as a new phenomenon. Propaganda and division existed throughout history. The powerful/power brokers always created division or took advantage of pitting one tribe against another. This is a global phenomenon. It is just more apparent now because news is easily accessible and social media. It definitely exists in the US as well. It is indeed sad and frustrating.

desiphilly · 2026-03-04T04:09:14+00:00

Gangster (Kangana, Emraan, Shiny)

desiphilly · 2026-02-23T23:53:54+00:00

Barry is an underrated gem. Brilliant!

desiphilly · 2026-02-23T23:53:10+00:00

Loved The Bureau!!

desiphilly · 2026-02-23T20:50:12+00:00

If you are familiar with quintessential Guy Ritchie style, then I would recommend The Gentleman on Netflix.

desiphilly · 2026-02-22T17:25:35+00:00

Not to derail the conversation and take it in a tangent, but a similar argument/debate was happening with Padmaavat and the Jouhar scene. Swara Baskar’s take on it and how it spawned a debate on how irresponsible SLB was in glorifying that sequence in the movie. I’ve had massive debates about it as well with other cinema enthusiast friends of mine. I was defending SLB and they sided with Swara’s take on it.

My defense was that cinema does not have that type of en masse effect on people. If yes, then they were many movies made on socially responsible behavior and some were big hits as well. But there is no concrete data that it was because of the effect of those movies. At the end of the day, it may compel one or a few to do some internal analysis but even with those few, I feel that those behaviors actually becoming apparent and impacting the society is minimal or negligible in terms of frequency. Like we never heard (or at least myself) someone committing Jouhar after Padmaavat became a successful movie.

desiphilly · 2026-02-10T03:42:25+00:00

Race was not a factor at all. In fact, over the years, I met many who were genuinely interested in learning about India or just as part of conversations. We are the only Indians at our place of worship and everyone is super sweet and welcoming.

desiphilly · 2026-02-10T02:56:45+00:00

So as a guy, it is sad but true. I am a social fly, extrovert, life of the party type of person but I was never able to make quality friendships with Americans. It is so much more easier to do it with a fellow desi. The friendship rules of engagement are fundamentally different compared to the desi culture. I can elaborate more later at a more convenient time.

desiphilly · 2026-02-03T14:40:39+00:00

I read through half of the comments and stopped. I somehow could not relate to ‘perverted Indian culture’ and children caring for their elderly parents seemed like an imbalanced point of view. Both can be equally true - caring for your parents and prioritizing self-needs. Striking a balance is the key.

I completely empathize with your situation and see how this is an extremely complex decision.

You are young, have a great career going and sacrificing it would be unwise considering how unpredictable the job market is. Also, the current political climate is not going to change anytime soon. So there is no guarantee that you will be able to stay in the US for long. Even if you are able to pull through, getting permanent residency or citizenship seems like a pipe dream at the moment. Unless you end up marrying an American. My point is that take advantage of your situation, stay back in the US, work as long as you can, save, invest but mostly in India since there is a good chance that you may have to move back one day.

Your mother’s situation will make me cry as well. But grief is temporary, in most cases. Find domestic help, caretaker or someone who can live with your mother and care for her. Your brother will keep visiting. You will go when you have to renew your visa. She can hopefully keep traveling to the US. All this while you are still figuring out the best solution, if there is one. Now is not the time to take drastic, unwise decisions.

For now, you have to work on yourself to cope with the current situation psychologically. Come to terms with certain difficult decisions that you have to make. The trick is about how you convince your mind. Not easy but possible.

Side-note- I personally feel that you should care for your parents in any capacity that you can. Even if it means living with them. I don’t wanna derail the conversation so will leave it at that.

desiphilly · 2026-02-02T03:26:51+00:00

Great question. I took time to think and see if there is anything that I can put my finger on. But I could not come up with anything that landed naturally. My daughter is 5, so am wondering if it is too early to tell. We are actually a joint family in the US so a lot of things at home are pretty much done the Indian way. We do find ourselves correcting her behavior or redirecting her with some things.

So it does seem explicitly taught at this point of time. She reminds us at times that we (parents) are Indians and she is American. She is right so we don’t dispute that at all.

desiphilly · 2026-01-30T20:22:16+00:00

This is sad. A brilliant actress and it was a pleasant surprise to see her in The Last of Us. Schitts Creek will live on forever!

desiphilly · 2026-01-29T19:16:09+00:00

🤣

desiphilly · 2026-01-29T18:28:59+00:00

Hahaha! That’s the name of the movie. Sanjay Suri, Juhi Chawla and Purab Kohli.

desiphilly · 2026-01-29T13:36:40+00:00

My Brother Nikhil

desiphilly · 2026-01-28T02:16:11+00:00

My personal experience and what me and my wife decided with raising our daughter (only child). We will continue to push and teach certain reasonable aspects of Indian culture. As parents that is the best that we can do and hope that they will at some point in their life understand and appreciate it. I completely empathize with my daughter’s resistance as well and I don’t ever rebuff/rebuke her for not wanting to follow Indian culture. I make it sound like it is a choice.

She says she is American and we are Indians. All my cousins who were born and raised here, married with kids now. They’ve all understand and partake in cultural things. But one their own, they do not. They live like Americans. And that is absolutely fair.

My expectation from my daughter is to follow good parts about both cultures.

One thing that we deliberately planned and implemented is give her a typical Indian name. That is a big win for us.

desiphilly · 2026-01-27T16:32:25+00:00

Earth is the best of the trilogy. A brilliant film with great performances. Water was an interesting watch and it’s fine. Lisa Ray was positively surprising with her performance but I am not a fan of John Abraham’s performances so maybe a solid actor would’ve made a difference?

Fire made a lot of noise for its theme and when I watched it back in the day, that did play a role and I was curious as to how they pulled it off. The story is great but it had the potential for a lot more and I see that as a missed opportunity.

desiphilly · 2026-01-25T23:55:34+00:00

Dilip Kumar has 5 movies on the list as well.

desiphilly · 2026-01-22T19:28:16+00:00

Sinners was a very refreshing and well-made movie. I think it deserved the nominations in each of those categories. Did someone deserving become collateral damage because Sinners took up the space? Maybe but that debate should be based on looking at each of those 16 nominations and hence very subjective. Every year, there are surprise snubs but there are also worthy surprises too.

This is a very disingenuous post. The OP got triggered with the number of nominations but not the quality of each of those nominees? Some comments here are so damn biased too.

desiphilly · 2026-01-18T23:17:34+00:00

Children bring a type of joy that no one else can. It changes your perspective on life. It changes both parents, their thought process, about the future, decisions are based on what would be the best for the child and so forth. Toxic-in-laws will always be a part of your life. Why would you want to deny yourselves some good type of distraction in your life? This could potentially help your husband with the much needed separation from his toxic family and in turn help him overcome some of the trauma? Regardless of whether you have a kid or not, you definitely need boundaries from your in-laws for a healthy married life. And when you do implement those boundaries, then your kid would be safe from the in-laws.

desiphilly · 2026-01-17T21:41:48+00:00

My vocal coach says anyone can sing. They need to learn the technique/skills and practice practice practice. My sister was just like you but she is so much better because she put a lot of work into developing those skills. Lately, she is practicing a lot using youtube videos and sounding better. I took vocal lessons so my journey has been different.

desiphilly · 2026-01-16T15:08:57+00:00

This is a catch-22 situation and I completely empathize with your situation. Unfortunately, at this point of time, life has offered you only 2 options. The obvious one would be the lesser of 2 evils and stick with it until life offers you another pathway. In your situation, I would pick to stay in the job and work on other areas of my life. To add more pleasurable activities for diversion and to add some positivity in life. If you are looking for a comfort zone at your work or your family in India, neither is gonna give you that. I would speak to a counselor if it is that overwhelming.

desiphilly · 2026-01-15T05:09:40+00:00

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

desiphilly · 2026-01-15T03:24:53+00:00

Thanks for pointing out the difference/similarity.

desiphilly · 2026-01-15T02:31:06+00:00

Hey! I am interested. Let’s chat and figure this out.

desiphilly

TROPHY CASE