My father passed away, and I had to leave for India suddenly. I think he really wanted to go and allowed himself to slip away. I can be happy for him that he's liberated from whatever ailed him on the physical and emotional planes. I think he was physically robust enough to fight it, but that was really his personal choice to make. He got what he had seem to want, but maybe not in the happiest way to achieve it.

I'm at the airport in Singapore, waiting to get on my connecting flight to Bangalore. Once I get there, I head straight off to the cremation. This is a little different than for western folks. In the Hindu tradition, me, the oldest (and only) son has to actually light the fire.

I'm also a little uneasy at the travel arrangements. We are supposed to drive in an ambulance with his body. The road trip to the Chitravathi river is about 4 hours. It'll probably be ok. It'll be my last few hours with that physical form, and I'll probably look back on it.

So, for the lighter side of things...

They have free internet terminals here in the Singapore Changi airport. I just landed about half an hour ago.

I was more apprehensive leaving LAX, and I'm feeling more comfortable right now as I'm at Singapore.

I'm going to see about taking a shower and relaxing for a little while. The problem is that it's 1am here, and most stuff is probably closed.

Singapore Airlines has personal on-demand movies to watch. 60 of them. I saw "Anita and Me" which is a good "Bend It Like Beckham" type of story about indians in britain, though a totally different age group.

"50 First Dates" was a sweet movie with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. I can't describe it or I'll give away part of the reason why it's called that. You find out in the first 15 minutes anyway.

"Win a Date With Tad Hunter" was also a cute kind of movie. More predictable, not particularly outstanding.

"Starsky and Hutch" was hilarious. I'd say it was sort of like "Undercover Brother," but without the racially based humor. "UB" wasn't racist, but the humor in that movie was largely a satire of 70's african-american culture. "S&H" was a parody of the TV series, and it did a great job of poking fun at the late 70's. Lots of thumbs up for this one. I think this movie is part of the reason my mood shifted towards a more positive place on this whole trip.

I finally got to see the remaining two-thirds of "Pay it Forward," which at least gives me closure on how that movie progresses. It was a nice movie and all, but I think I got enough out of the first third. Interestingly enough, the little boy in this movie is also the star of the next movie...

I fell asleep during "AI," the Spielberg movie about robots and emotions. I think it was a little creepy -- in the end there are Aliens talking about the human spirit 2000 years after the story initially started (and when I dozed off). Kinda reminds me of the "Land Before Time" story where UFOs and aliens play in, versus the standard conflict between dinos and their environment.

I learned only at the end of my Singapore flight how to use the on-demand feature. I was not able to restart the movies, so I just flipped through and joined movies that seemed interesting.

I'll write again when I'm in India.

See it to believe it!

Optical Camouflage is what they call it. You truly have to see this to believe it. It consists of projecting an image onto reflective material. It took me a while to figure out, but it's for real.