Now n Then

Day-2 - Elephant Seals, Pismo Beach & Ragged Point

2011-06-05T20:56:00.001-07:00

Horseback riding on Pismo Beach:

Ragged Point Inn:

Elephant Seals on Route-1:

Jeep stuck in the dunes at Pismo Beach:

Driving on the beach in Pismo Beach:

Day-1 - Santa Monica Beach & Santa Barbara

2011-06-05T20:52:00.001-07:00

Nacimiento-Fergusson Road

2011-06-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

Driving through this 20-mile single-lane stretch of blind turns was completely crazy and pure adrenaline – towering mountain on one side and a few thousand feet cliff-drop on the other directly to the Pacific waters. A landslide a few miles ahead on our planned route on Day-3 prompted us to circle the mountains, drive through a military base (Ft. Hunter Liggett .. we stopped right in the middle of the base to change the little one's diaper!), splash through two rivers with knee-deep water, and then climb up and down the granite mountains south of Big Sur. A full 4 hour detour across the mountains brought us back to the point on Route 1 where we would have normally been in 10 minutes but for the landslide. I kept questioning whether the (mis)adventure was worth it till a couple of days ago when my wife forwarded this CNN article by another traveler who took the same route and had the good sense to document it. http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/06/01/newnam.big.sur/index.html?hpt=hp_bn12 … well!

iPad

2010-01-27T16:31:00.001-08:00

The Apple iPad finally made its debut earlier today at a glitzy show hosted by Mr. Jobs. With natural curiosity, I was reading all the chatter about the iPad all over the web. My first impressions were that it is a fabulously sleek device, a giant iPod Touch, a KDK (Kindle-DX Killer .. Kindle 2, don't you worry, no threats yet!), and has entered at a great price point (though I can bet twenty that it will drop a good fifty bucks within 4 months of release).

Some initial reactions from around the Web:
"When Apple named their tablet... Did they think of the jokes that could be made? iPad? Really? Make a larger screen & call it the iMaxiPad"

"iTampon | Twitter Users Get Snarky Over Apple iPad Tablet Name"

"The iPad? Also available with wings?"

On a serious note, it is still a fabulous device. Time will tell if this one can help turn around the fortunes of tablet computing+entertainment devices or if it will be another damp squib. But there is not doubt that it has raised the bar for all the other players out there trying to nibble at the tablet+eReader+pocket computing device pie.

KDK - Kindle Development Kit

2010-01-21T14:06:00.000-08:00

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?ie=UTF8&docId=1000476231

Amazon will launch a limited beta version of the Kindle Development Kit - KDK - next month. Currently, given that books & magazines are the only content on the hugely popular e-reader, allowing developers to create active content on the Kindle platform is a move in the right direction. Apps have been the rage on smart-phones over the last couple of years, and Amazon is trying to tap into this market while providing Kindle users more variety on their devices. However, unless a color Kindle is launched and newer features like touch screens are introduced, it will be difficult to gauge how successful Apps on the Kindle will be.

Urgent Care

2010-01-19T21:31:00.000-08:00

So I called up an Urgent Care Center looking for a physician since my 10-month old was running a 101 fever, and the lady at the front desk picks up the phone and says: "Urgent Care Center, can you hold please?" ... I mean, I am looking for urgent care lady!

From an office e-mail ...

2009-12-16T12:00:00.000-08:00

Just needed to vent.

The coffee pot was empty, as always. So I started making a new pot and stood there waiting. Now while the brewing isn’t even half way through, someone came in front of me and took half a cup.

And added some hot water to his cup.

I mean, come on, you knew it’s still brewing, you knew it’s too strong for you, and you don’t mind ruining the rest of the pot.

Renewables

2009-11-30T12:53:00.000-08:00

I gaze out of the oval window next to me. The entire cabin is sleeping though it is just 9 in the morning. DC to Seattle is a long flight, and I recognize a number of faces from the international flight from Dubai last night. They must be exhausted, I think.

Outside, it is crystal clear, a rare sight for late November. Not a single cloud in sight. I look down at the countryside. We are flying at 34000 feet, but I can see the farms and roads clearly. Straight lines, geometrical shapes - squares and rectangles mostly - and the occasional turnabout. I keep staring outside for almost half an hour - the shapes and symmetry appealing to my compulsive sense. Then I notice something - the scene has hardly changed in half an hour. The same plots, agricultural fields, one or two houses per farm - as far as the eye can see. I feel sad for a moment. I muse at how we have taken Mother Earth and drawn lines on her to demarcate areas - yours and mine, his and hers. It doesn't seem fair. But it is just human nature I suppose - to feel power, greed, the need to organize, improve efficiency and learn. I can't make up my mind whether we are better off today or a thousand years ago.

I look down again and see several tiny-looking windmills dotting some of the farms. I am told these are over 200 ft tall, but from up here, they look teeny, blades idly doing their work. I feel better - at least we are using something that is available freely, is clean, renewable, and we don't have to draw lines around to demarcate our shares. Or is it that we just cannot draw lines around wind? I'm certain we would have, if we could!

Back home

2009-11-30T12:46:00.000-08:00

It is not the best place to be first thing in the morning - the last person in a 300 long queue of Non-US Citizens lined up for immigration check and stamping in the nation's capital. At 6 am. Only 3 of the 10 counters staffed (recession took its toll?). The collective bad breath of the crowd blowing towards me by a big fan at the front. I won't blame the 300. They had, after all, endured a gruelling 13 hr trip from Dubai to DC, harassed by the turbulent weather, the trembling 747 and the completely unkind United flight crew (my bar for flight crew mannerisms, professionalism and service has gone sky high after traveling on flights in India - those guys just rock!). Add to this the high probability that I would miss my connection scheduled to leave in an hour and a half, I am on the edge of my nerves already. I badly need some sleep and I'm famished. Just finished reading Chetan Bhagat's first novel - Five Point Someone - good book, amateurish writing (but I guess that's the essence of the book). I feel like I have relived my 4 years in college - I studied at BITS and not at IIT, but the experience was almost identical. Am onto his 3rd novel - The 3 Mistakes of My Life. Hope it is as good a read.

18 lbs and growing

2009-10-15T17:04:00.000-07:00

So they sent him in a box with no-return policy and no a-z guarantee and now he is 18 lbs and growing .. all we do is order diapers .. great business model!

The Morons of McD's

2009-08-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

I don't lose my temper easily, though my wife thinks otherwise ;) .. So, a couple of days ago, when I came across a totally moron-ish McDonald's employee in Auburn, WA, I was forced to give her some advice. I was on my way back from Mt. Rainier (ohh, so magnificent!) with my dad-mom and stopped at this neat-looking McD's to grab a quick bite.

I ordered a veggie sandwich - which is not on their menu and trust me, as simplistic as it may sound, is not easy to order. "Plain cheeseburger, take out the meat, add lettuce, tomato, onions, cheese, pickles, and ketchup". Hah! Wish it had been that simple .. I had to reiterate the order twice through the drive-thru mic and since I realized the waitress (are they waitresses technically? they don't wait on your table, do they? anyway .. ) did not get it, I parked and went in with my party in tow. And ordered again at the counter. "Plain cheeseburger, blah blah" and two Grilled Chicken sandwiches. Smile, swipe, receipt, and I go sit at my table. 2 min, and my order is ready, I'm impressed. My mom opens her sandwich and there is just two halves of the bun and a slice of yellow American cheese in it. I smile, this is not the first time this has happened, there are a lot of such employees around the country's McDs - the same exact thing has happened to us in Scottsdale AZ, San Diego CA, Iselin NJ, Gaithersburg MD and Pittsburgh PA. Next, my dad opens his sandwich and there are two strips of bacon in his chicken sandwich. I ask him to stop (Bacon? Taboo!) and look up at the menu chart on the wall. There are two grilled chicken sandwiches - Club and Classic. I take it back to the counter and ask her what the bacon is doing in my sandwich.
She: "It is a grilled chicken sandwich"
I: "I know, but there is bacon"
She: "We have 2 varieties of grilled chicken - Club and Classic. You asked for ... " ... and immediately realizing her error ... "I should have asked you first which one you want when you asked for a grilled chicken. Okay, sorry, I'll fix it"
Smile, and I get back.
A minute later, she's back with 2 "grilled chicken" sandwiches to our table. I'm impressed - one minute service!
I open mine, dad opens his .. and there, the same two old sandwiches, which are quite cold by now, are sitting smugly - sans the bacon strips. Now I'm pissed, really.

I go back to the counter and ask to speak with her manager. The manager, hearing the commotion has already arrived at the scene and asks what the matter is. I explain the situation and she says I should have specified which variety of grilled chicken I wanted in the first place.
I: "So, if I don't specify, you're going to make the decision for me, huh?"
She: "That's not what I meant"
I (really angry by now): "I know that's not what you meant. But when I asked your people to fix the situation, they instead fixed the sandwich. They pulled out the bacon strips and gave it back to me. Do you think I couldn't have done that myself. I don't eat bacon, it is religious thing. And you know how religious things are. If the bacon touches the chicken, then I don't eat the chicken either. Get it?"
I see that she doesn't get it.
I: "So will I get another sandwich, without the bacon?"
She grumbles something and goes away, and a minute later comes with two hot grilled chicken sandwiches - the "Classic" variety - and thrusts it at me.
I: "Thank you. And what about the veggie sandwich? Will you please fix that?"
She: "See our systems are not set up to handle what's not on the menu ... "

And immediately, I realize the pitfalls of standardization that have plagued this country. In the name of uniformity and standardized customer experience, Walmarts and Targets are laid out the same across the country and Taco Bells are furnished exactly the same everywhere (I understand the branding part of it, but let's pretend to forget that for a moment). There are numerous benefits to this standardization - including scalability, cost effectiveness and ease of training and management. However, I greatly miss the personal touch that is so evident in a customer's shopping experience back home in India. Just the other day, my MIL was telling that Tanishq (a high end jewelry chain in India) in Mumbai has launched a program where they invite customers (women only, please!) to come play bingo at their store once a month. The program is structured in a way that the ladies contribute a sum of money every month for 10 months, and at the end of that period, the store allows them to purchase gold for 11 months' worth of contribution at the price as of the first day of the first contribution. In addition, there are attractive prizes every month for the bingo winners. The math behind it reveals a decent rate of interest, the risk being that the price of gold falls, but it is a decent hedge against rising gold prices and inflation. But what I find most interesting about the program is the personal touch in the shopping experience (the personal attention to each shopper, the coffee/tea/drink offered and so on) which is so lacking in western countries, even in a jewelry store. In the name of cost-cutting, everything is self-service. Expensive labor takes away a variety of privileges that are a given in countries like India. "Customer is King" comes alive, literally, only in Mumbai, never in Manhattan. They say it all comes full-circle. Once customers are bored of this plain vanilla shopping experience and start demanding these services and attention, companies will be forced to cater to their demands, and of course, contain costs in the process. I'm waiting for that day.

Regulation

2008-07-16T20:04:00.000-07:00

"I'm not a big fan of regulation and bureaucracy. But as normal, greedy human beings, we don't seem to learn from our mistakes and those of others and their fathers. It's not the markets that need to be regulated. It is human greed that needs to be contained. And the notion of easy money. Now, since people make the markets, let's start by regulating the markets."

Balls!

2008-07-16T20:02:00.000-07:00

Sen. Jim Bunning, R-KY., scoffed at Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's plan to seek congressional approval to aid Freddie & Fannie. "Where will the money come from if we need to use it?" Bunning asked. "Some of us don't like the idea of an unlimited amount of money. Come January, you will be gone and most of us will be seated here. We have to be responsible to taxpayers for what will be done." !!

Source: The Daily Deal, Wednesday July 16 2008

Little Italy

2008-07-09T20:53:00.000-07:00

Little Italy at 8 pm
A 2001 Chardonnay
Smoked Salmon with Champagne sauce and Strawberries
Mousse
Capuccino
Entertaining conversation with the couple at the next table

Wish she were here ...

2008-07-06T16:34:00.000-07:00

I opened the Times Of India website after a long time. I rarely read news from there (well, where else??) and needless to say, I was disappointed, which is more often the case these days when I read news. All 5 headlines had to do with death in one form of the other. And there was a 'More' button at the end ... !

Foreclosures

2008-06-11T17:09:00.000-07:00

Read this funny quote somewhere ..

"Foreclosures are ruling the headlines. If Britney changed her last name to Foreclosure she may be the single most popular figure on the planet past, present and future."

Shareholder Value

2008-06-11T16:48:00.000-07:00

I'm tired of this phrase "create shareholder value". Every TDH from the CEO of BHP Billiton to my friend who runs a 20 employee startup keeps talking about creating value for shareholders, whether by offering to buy Rio Tinto, or in my friend's case, by taking a piss on the sidewalks of San Mateo. I'm not against creating shareholder value. It is the holy grail of our times, which if not followed or at least uttered a dozen times a day, may put your ass in the firing line the next time your board catches a cold. But trust me, you and I have equally grown tired of this bs. What we need is a new phrase, not a new concept. Something novel, striking, easy-to-say, beautiful and fresh! But it has to create shareholder value, got it?!

The Blue Screen

2008-05-11T17:02:00.000-07:00

I like Windows. In fact, I love it. Under normal circumstances. But today, as I was going through something really urgent - I can't begin to describe how urgent it was - I got the dreaded blue screen. I've seen the monster at times during the last ten years that I've been using computers, and it is an eerie coincidence that every time it appears, you seem to be doing something important or urgent or both. What was most frustrating was that after I restarted computer - a must in these situations - I got this message on a browser window:

Problem report summary
----------------------

Problem type: Windows stop error

Solution available?: No

What does this problem mean: Windows has encountered a problem it cannot recover from and it needs to be restarted

Cause: Unknown

Additional steps for you to take: Please continue to send problem reports so analysts at Microsoft can study and try to correct the problem as quickly as possible

~~~~~~~~~~~

I mean, what kind of error analysis is that? Solution Available - NO; Cause - Unknown! Additional Steps - please keep telling us and we will fix it asap. I HAVE BEEN TELLING YOU GUYS FOR THE LAST 10 YEARS! WHERE IS THE SOLUTION GUYS?!

A few friends were talking the other day when the topic turned to everybody's favorite - Microsoft Bashing! I have and probably will defend the company for all it has done to help humanity - I really mean it - the last couple of decades. Most of my friends honestly feel that MS is losing out in the market because it is such a slow giant that it is losing out on opportunities that other nimble-footed companies are jumping on. This is definitely true to some extent. While the cash cows of MS - Office and Windows - rake in money, it is very important for MS to reinvent itself and bring in products that will change rtomorrow, not yesterday. Innovation and Change are probably the two words that everybody at MS can learn. And personally I think it is not enough if they learn, the need to live Innovation and Change at MS!

More Scrutiny on Wall St?

2008-03-29T23:45:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, when the US Government and the Treasury Secretary, Mr. Henry Paulson, started insisting on greater transparency in Middle and Far Eastern Sovereign Funds, which had lent and in the process averted some part of Wall Street’s collapse, I was ticked off. I understand the motive behind this insistence – to prevent the governments backing these funds to use this as a political weapon or a bargaining tool – but I felt that we were not in a position to dictate terms, not exactly because we were beggars trying to choose, but let’s face it, we were almost there. With nobody at home trusting Wall Street with their money, banks had no other option but to look outside. And look, and lick, they did.

It normally annoys me, and a horde of others who swear by capitalism and the markets’ innate ability to take care of themselves, when the government asks Wall Street to bend over because it deserves a spanking or worse yet … you get the picture. Well, that’s what we are taught day in and day out, or was I dozing in those classes? But then, don’t we also study that kids and minors are not capable of making intelligent decisions and that in the eyes of the law, they aren’t capable of entering into enforceable contracts? Now what do you call a bunch of supposedly well-educated, smart, A+ personalities, who squander away a few hundred billion dollars of investor money? Is it just hard luck or would you call them juvenile idiots? Perhaps for the first time, I am inclined to support Mr. Paulson’s endorsement of more scrutiny of Wall Street’s investment practices. If the government can urge foreign funds to disclose their motives, what prevents them from doing so at home? Especially now, since you and I, US taxpayers, have unwittingly written an insurance policy to these kids playing in their sandboxes?

Senator Obama was right this morning when, speaking on the US economy, he said that instead of encouraging sensible reform that rewarded success and long term sustainable growth, we have too often excused and embraced an ethic of greed and cutting corners. The result is the peril we are seeing today. The government indeed has a role and an obligation to ensure transparency and fair competition, and in times such as these, if that means more scrutiny on Wall St, so be it. The challenge however will be to ensure that the over-enthusiastic lawmakers in Washington don’t take this opportunity to send us back in time to an era of regulation.

One True Love

2008-02-27T08:18:00.000-08:00

A picture of the "boy with the beautiful brown eyes" which Anne Frank calls her "one true love" in the diary she wrote while hiding in Nazi-occupied Netherlands is scheduled to go on display in Amsterdam.

Click Here for the story

Some more Pgh Photos

2007-08-16T14:40:00.001-07:00

Pgh Left!

2007-08-16T14:32:00.000-07:00

A funny quirk about the city I learnt from the locals - Pgh Left. What this means is this: In most cities in the US, when you're standing at a traffic light waiting to turn left, you normally yield to oncoming traffic in the opposite direction. Once the oncoming traffic has eased, you make a left. But in old-style Pittsburgh tradition, when you're trying to take a left and the signal turns green, more often than not, the driver of the car on the opposite side will wave for you to take the left turn first before he starts going straight. In fact this tradition is so common that people take it for granted that you'll let them take a left and just rush in when the signal turns green. The first couple of days I was here, I was pissed that the guy taking a left didn't yield to me, and I had honked my horn in disgust. But now I do understand it :)

Here is a Wiki Entry for this phenomenon: PGH Left.

Pittsburgh!!

2007-08-16T14:23:00.000-07:00

I've fallen in love, yet again! This time it is with this beautiful city. There might be people in the US who beleive that Pittsburgh is dead and is in the middle of nowhere, but I've fallen in love with it, dead or alive! And in particular, with the bridges of Allegheny County. Pittsburgh, as you might know, is in the crossroads of western Pennsylvania's hilly terrain, and naturally, there are a number of bridges and tunnels to ease commute. But, the beauty of these bridges lie in two things: First, the fact that many of these were built over a century ago. And second, you don't realize in most cases that you've gotten onto a bridge and off it! The bridge network is so seamlessly built, especially with the smaller bridges in the interior.

Pgh also has a decent sized downtown, not comparable to the skylines of NYC or LA, but good nevertheless. On the left and below are some pictures I took from across the Allegheny river last weekend.

Memories

2007-08-13T21:35:00.000-07:00

This brought some very old memories ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8i_YPfenqc&mode=related&search

So did this ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seB1XFRjluo&mode=related&search

iPhone mania

2007-06-29T09:31:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how much hype a new gadget on the market can generate. For the last six months, if there has been one thing on every tech-savvy person's lips, it's the iPhone. And finally, today at 6 pm, the wait will be over. From the last 24 hrs, there have been hordes of hungry geeks camped around the flagship Apple store in New York City (image inset). If that's not enough, there are people capitalizing on the iPhone mania that has struck the nation from Silicon Valley to The Village through innovative means. A domain name called www.iphone-usa.com is up for auction on eBay for fifty grand. Real and fake iPhone ad videos are making the rounds on YouTube.

The tons of reviews that have come in this week have all been unanimous on one aspect - that the iPhone, while not the utopia of cellphonedom, has lived up to the hype and expectations quite well. From it's intuitive user interface and rich features to the sleek and ergonomic design, it has Apple's trademark penchant for creativity written all over it. One of the earliest reviews came in Jan 2007. PC Magazine has reserved its comments for now, saying they have to test this 'important phone' further - my feeling is that they're afraid to give a review in the wrong direction ;-) .. It's true that there have been mixed reactions to the iPhone from some corners - some skeptical and some lashing out blanket statements like Apple is Evil! - but the overall response to the phone has been one of a huge welcome.

Amidst all this confusion, I'm just planning to go to the At&T store across the street this evening and check out the phone myself!

The 'i' factor

2007-06-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

I've often wondered why there's no phone in the market without all those teeny-weeny butons. Why wouldn't phone manufacturers just put a touch-screen with only soft buttons? Like my GPS Mio Digiwalker 310

I asked her about this the other day, and she replied that it would probably be difficult to use it because you would inadvertently press the wrong places on the screen which could potentially dial the wrong number and so on. Also, on my current phone, I easily text away under the table in meetings without looking at my phone, which I would probably not be able to do with a touch screen!

All said, here is a phone with no buttons, finally. Here's to the iPhone! Looks like it needed an 'i' to figure out that buttonless phones would really work.

The iPhone!

Painting an Airbus A320!

2007-05-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

I found this video on, where else, YouTube. It is a time lapse imagery of how a humongous Virgin America Airbus A320 is painted. It's a sight to watch!

Painting an Airbus A320!

Monumental Monument

2007-04-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

A view of the Washington Memorial from the Jefferson Memorial across the Tidal Basin. This shot was taken on a sunny afternoon during Spring, 2007.

Snow!

2007-02-14T09:01:00.000-08:00

It's been snowing since two days. There's at least 6-8 inches outside at the moment. Scared to venture out .. I saw this lady this morning trying to pull her car out of the apartment parking lot. There was so much of snow around that her car was going almost sideways! She almost gave up after a few attempts. Then a few good people came and gave her car a nice big push and onto to the main road! I have a video of what happened. Will post it sometime later. I know you must be thinking .. "What an a** .. Taping the car rather than going and helping the lady out!" .. But then, it's way too cold outside. Not me .. Sorry!

Just spoke with my sis-in-law. She was going to work in her bus as usual this morning on I-95 near NYC and lo ... This car from the next lane skids across, turns halfway around and stops in front of her bus! The guy in the car thankfully didn't die of shock .. he just put his face in his hands and shrieked! The bus was going very slow anyway (10 mph on NJTP!) and stopped in time.

My office has shut down for the day. Working (so-called) from home. It's good to be home on Val-day with wifey dear, tickets to "Music and Lyrics" as a surprise for her in the evening, the white clad lawn outside and this big mug of steaming coffee in hand! Ah Heaven!

New Blogger

2007-02-14T08:59:00.000-08:00

Heyy I just upgraded from the Old Blogger to the new version. Yet to explore all its new features. But at first sight, it looks good! Google seems ot have taken care not to screw up any of my template formatting or content. Then, I feel that it's much faster than the previous ones (or is it just my internet connection?). Then the template drag-drops are quite cool. You should check it out ..

Back!

2007-02-14T08:50:00.000-08:00

First things first. There's been a reason for my absence from blogger these past few months .. a good one. I had been studying my a** off for my GMAT and MBA admissions. Two months of hardcore prep for the exam and I managed a pretty cool score. Another two months of introspection, soul-searching or call it just plain bull, and I was pretty much set with my essays and references for the apps. Sent in my apps to four schools - Chicago GSB, CMU, Wharton and Columbia. Already been accepted at CMU. Have interviewed at the GSB. And waiting for the adcom folks at Wharton and Columbia to warm up to my essays!

Now isn't that a good excuse for not being active around here?

Wikimapia

2006-10-13T09:46:00.000-07:00

Here's my home in Mysore!

Here it is!

New logo

2006-09-06T14:14:00.000-07:00

Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport got yet another facelift in the form of a new logo. Note how the logo cleverly embodies the letters CSIA. Smart, huh! A Bangalore based design firm was hired to design it. Can't help but notice that the colour scheme is too close to Bangalore Intl Airport's logo ;-)

For a Song

2006-08-25T10:38:00.000-07:00

My dear sis-in-law forwarded me a mail yesterday. It was some debate about why the national anthem of India "Jana Gana Mana" by Rabindranath Tagore isn't appropriate and does not deserve to be our national anthem. According to the mail (it was an email-chain and had already crossed I wonder how many inboxes), Tagore composed this song in praise of King George V of England when he visited India in 1911.

I was piqued by the suggestion and was reminded of a similar case trying to tamper with the song a year ago.

To me, the issue sounded weirdly interesting. The song may have been written in praise of whoever, though there isn't conclusive proof that it was written in "honour" of the King, but does that warrant renouncing it as our national anthem? Agreed, it was sung for the first time the King visited India by none other than Tagore himself. But it is hard to believe that a poet of Tagore's intellect and calibre would denigrate himself and his country by praising the King over God.

Here's an excerpt from a letter that Tagore wrote to a friend explaining the circumstances:
"A certain high official in His Majesty's service, who was also my friend, had requested that I write a song of felicitation towards the Emperor. The request simply amazed me. It caused a great stir in my heart. In response to that great mental turmoil, I pronounced the victory in Jana Gana Mana of that Bhagya Vidhata (God of Destiny) of India who has from age after age held steadfast the reins of India's chariot through rise and fall, through the straight path and the curved. That Lord of Destiny, that Reader of the Collective Mind of India, that Perennial Guide, could never be George V, George VI, or any other George. Even my official friend understood this about the song. After all, even if his admiration for the crown was excessive, he was not lacking in simple common sense."

I'm personally bothered by this pseudo-national awakening that is growing in our people. The British ruled India for centuries. To clean up their acts would mean not only to rename Bombay to Mumbai and Madras to Chennai, but also to undo the Indian Railways and the numerous hospitals and schools they built. Are we prepared for this? There are thousands of roads and buildings in India named after the British; we simply can't afford to waste time, effort and resources renaming all of them. There are a zillion other urgent tasks that need attention all around us.

Don't you think that we'd do better by giving up this quest to undo what the British did (though I'm no great fan of everything they did), and do what we as Indians can do? If something warrants correction, it needs to be corrected; But what's in a name, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, and so would Bombay!

That said, our national anthem was written by an eminent Indian poet whom all of us hold in very high esteem. Isn't that and the fact that it has been our song for over fifty years not enough to maintain its sanctity? This is the question all of us have to ask ourselves.

Life, Liberty and ...

2006-08-22T08:08:00.000-07:00

Last night we were watching a program on TV. It was about the 9/11 commission and the struggle the brave families of those who lost dear ones in one of the most brutal incidents in modern history were going through to get answers. It was quite a graphic story which showed video footage of some extremenly horrible sights of that fateful day. It left her in tears at the end.

Watching the program and her, I could not help but remark - "If there really is something or somebody called God, and He created the world, I'm sure he didn't intend it to be like this. Did he make a mistake by putting Man in the picture? Has His creation gone beyond control? Has He given up on the world and let us fend for ourselves?"

Most certainly yes. We attribute so many good qualities to God, and I'm quite sure sadism isn't one of them. Then what is the purpose of letting all these deadly incidents happen? Is wanting to be happy too much to ask for? Or is it the "want" itself which is the ugly feeling? Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness - wasn't that the goal of the makers of this country? Did they ask for a wee bit too much? Probably they should have left out the "Pursuit of Happiness" thingie, or was it "Life" itself?

Faiths

2006-08-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

Man will stand up to defend what he believes in. Religion, ideology, belief, faith - call it what you may. Early man was geographically spread across vast areas of land, separated by natural boundaries like mountains and oceans. The birth of ideologies in these distinct populations was naturally peaceful as all people of one geographical area subscribed to one thought, and there was no reason for conflict. With an increase in population, the urge to explore, conquer and rule swelled. This led to the clash of armies first and religions later on. The former was swift and brutal, but the latter wasn't. Because man will hold on to his faith and die rather than give in to an alien one. Because feelings like hunger and survival are physical, but religion and ideology stem from someplace more fundamental than the physical self.

Aug 15th

2006-08-15T08:34:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning earlier than usual. The first thing I did was to log on to the Times of India website. My only concern/instinct/urgency -- to see if something had happened in India. Why, you may ask. It was the 15th of August, Independence Day in India. And there was this lurking feeling that something bad would have happened.

I came to work. My friend, after a while, remembered that it was August 15th. And said "Kuch hua nahin?" .. As an afterthought, he added, "Happy Independence Day".

I've often pondered these last few months on why we are living amidst a cloud of fear. It seems to be constantly feeding on an unseen dread, and growing within us in the process. Many recent terrorizing acts within the country, compounded by the West's continuous brainwash about the War on Terror, seem to have taken a mighty toll on the Indian psyche, the distressing effects of which are instances like the ones above.

This brings me to a more general concern about the state of affairs we are in today. Why is it that suddenly I feel like I'm in the middle of a battlefield, though in reality I couldn't be farther away from it. Why do I hear "War" everywhere? Is it a war for power? Is it a war for religion/beliefs/faiths? Is it just Big Oil? Is it just a modern reincarnation of the Medieval Crusades?

The answer, I'm yet to find.

God!

2006-06-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

I had been debugging an elusive piece of code since morning, struggling to get a grip on its slimy appendages. Every time I made an advance, it would slip away between my fingers. Lousy piece of binary junk! Finally, at noon, as my tummy began to give up on me, I nailed it, bam! A simple reference gone haywire, and my boss was looking at it like it was Watergate in the making!

I shrieked out in relief "Holy Crap!!" .. One of the underwriters from the adjacent cube was probably offended. She came over and said "You don't curse your God like that. Haven't you been taught not to?" I could make out from the stern and hurt look on her face that she was a devout Catholic or somebody of that sort. I gave her some gyan - "Look, I'm an Indian. We have 330 million recognized Gods as of the last census. Nobody has a freakin clue as to how many illegal immigrant Gods are crossing the border every day. So, even if I swear, no God'll mind as I can switch from one to another if somebody's cross with me. You know, Customer is King!"

One of those days

2006-03-28T14:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was like one of "those days". When everything goes the wrong way with laser precision. It all started the previous night when, instead of setting my alarm for 7 am, I accidentally set it to 7 pm. Now, that was the first night I was spending in my new apartment, so I could barely sleep till past midnight, when I surprisingly dozed off into deep slumber.

9:00
As it had to happen, my alarm didn't ring, and I didn't realize the reason when I jerked open my eyes into the glaring sun (Told you, first night, didn't know east from west). It was 9 and I was expected to be at work at 8:30. I ran into the shower with gusto and was scrubbing when I heard my cell ring. I grabbed it and regretted my doing so the moment I pressed the green button. It was from the rental office reminding me I hadn't given them the check. Dammit! I rushed out as fast as I could to the bank nearby, got a cashier's check and dropped it off on my way to work.

9:55
Well, the bad streak continued when I realized I was lost and didn't remember how to get onto 270 N. After a couple of miles, I decided to ask and pulled into a gas station. The lady there sounded a little peeved at my query for no reason (probably she was expecting I'd buy something) and reluctantly showed me the way. I drove off at top speed, only to realize the fuel indicator on my car was hovering below the
E-for-empty mark. I was in a gas station a minute ago dammit! Another exit and 10 minutes wasted in filling up my new baby - a sleek Saturn Coupe.

10:12
I drove the 25 miles to work at the top speed my car could make, thankfully all the cops were on the other side catching cars going in the rush hour traffic (I was going against traffic, the sole reason for living on this side of town rather than that!) ..

10:45
Sliding into the first spot available in the lot, I rushed towards the building, all the while thinking that I should take the entrance farther away from my boss' cube. But it was "the" day, and I had to be a dimwit. So, I took the wrong entrance, and there she was, coffee mug in hand talking to one of my teammates. She smiled. I smiled. She smiled again. And I muttered I got lost on the highway and it was my first day in my new house and there was no gas in my car and I had to drop off a check at my rental office - you know, all the standard reasons that anybody would have given to escape a late entry, except that I gave all of them in one go and that made it look all the more fishy.

10:55
Sweating, I slid into my seat thinking what else could go wrong in an already cracked-up morning, when this cup of coffee landed on my neighbor's table from his hand, spilling half of it on my laptop.

Home

2006-02-15T22:03:00.000-08:00

We made a trip home recently. During Jan-Feb. It had been just 2 months since I visited India, but for my wife, it was a visit after 2 years, to the day.

I was bent upon telling my wife all the time that it would be a rocking-shocking experience. But the optimist that she is, she kept hoping that Mumbai would've been cleared of its slums and Bangalore of its dust. I was secretly hoping the same, but I am normally closer to reality that she is, so I was not disappointed. The slums thrived, the roads choked, the traffic had grown 5 times, and the cricket team had lost 2 matches. But the indomitable Indian spirit showed no sign of waning.

We displayed the usual symptoms upon arrival - scared to drive or cross roads, wary of water, and the like. And we did the usual NewYorkers-VadaPav-Frankie circuit, visited friends, ate at Tendulkar's, attended a party hosted by her mom and then headed to Agra to catch a glimpse of the Taj before someone bombed it.

Down South, the sambar was sizzling and the new bahu was dazzling. My bro tied the knot and flew off to Goa to bask in the sun and spice up with mackarel curry and his new found love. While we kept saying - 3 weeks 2 short!

Before we knew, we were in the dry-cold-claustrophobic confines of a 747 en route to LAX, where an INS officer smiled at us and did not say "aliens", but said "Welcome". A welcome change!

2006-02-15T21:43:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how we "aliens" (the INS thinks Air India flies from Mars) have seen the past two years fly by in an alien land. How we arrived here, how we went from the mundane to the more interesting things life had to offer, how we fell in love, how we said "i do" in chorus, how we greeted every morning with a radiant smile and every evening with a thank you. Is it the land? Is it the people? Or is it just us who cast this magic spell that makes time fly, winters warm and the water sweet? What it is is of no concern. We just feel happy that we have arrived.

Christmas Collage

2005-12-23T16:16:00.000-08:00

Snowman on my XMas Tree!

2005-12-23T15:31:00.000-08:00

X.M.A.S !

2005-12-23T15:29:00.000-08:00

Questions

2005-09-07T14:26:00.000-07:00

When it comes to understanding nature, man has been like a baby all through history. Just the way a baby constantly keeps looking around taking every bit of detail about every little thing around it with wide-eyed amazement, constantly grasping things and feeling them, hearing a multitude of sounds and trying to decipher what each one means, so has man been striving through the ages to comprehend the vastness and depths of nature. From making the wheel to growing paddy to the industrial revolution to the space age and information technology, man has been sitting around, arms stretched out, picking up pebbles and blades of grass with curiosity, understanding what they are and putting them to his use, making gadgets and processes that benefit his kind.

This is amazing, if one considers what a conscious mass of neurons can achieve - right from becoming self-sustaining to making strides in a natural progression towards survival and enhancement. Glitches are a normal part of this progression. Be it colonization, Hiroshima, Chernobyl or clones. But that should not, and believe me, will not, stop this consciousness from marching along a path never seen or imagined before. It is Iraq today, tomorrow when we exhaust the resources around us, it will Mars or beyond. There seems no end to it. This leads us to a number of questions .. From the simple 'Is this the way Life should be?' and 'Is there no end to this?' to a more interesting one - 'Was Life itself a bad idea in the first place?!' .. These are lines along which sages have thought and can think further. There can be arguments, philosophies and schools of thought surrounding these questions, but there will never be answers. Answers which are absolute, steadfast and uncompromisingly complete.

6 hrs

2005-08-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

Hmm .. Finally she's coming. In 6 hours to be precise.

It's been a considerably long month. Newlyweds staying away for a month isn't good for a lot of things ;) ... The arid landscape and prickly cacti didn't help. But finally the wait seems to be over.

The moment I landed in Phx 4 weeks ago, I had this impression of being a bachelor again, in the wild and all on my own. It sounded and felt adventurous to once again be venturing out without any responsibilities and all the confidence of a teen. The feeling lasted for some time. And then it began to wane. On the work front, it was all good and I had begun to like it. Even enjoy it if I might say so. But I had started missing her. It started with sleepless nights initially, and soon took the form of a flight ticket back to her one weekend. Three days flew by unnoticed, and I was on my way back to the desert. But this time, I knew that she would be with me shortly. Having set up a new house and car and all the basic stuff that we would need, I looked forward to meeting her. I killed time working and working out. I watched late night Thai movies trying to keep my mind occupied with anything other than the thought of her not being around. My! It wasn't a good time. But that seems to be a thing of the past now. 6 hrs - nopes, less than that - and she'll be here, with me, and I guess I'll no longer notice the thorns on the cacti but gaze agape at their magnificent height before a red-riot sunset!

Safety

2005-08-16T00:57:00.000-07:00

This country is paranoid to the core, and growing by the minute. It's all about safety. It's all about security. It's always value-for-life. Anything that'll put your life in danger, I, the government, will take you away from it. I'll protect you. I'll put straps and cushions and airbags - front, side, overhead, passenger, up your ass - into your SUV. Why? To save you from having your brains turn into sushi and bowels into spaghetti in case you turtle off a highway cruising at a hundred! But what do these suckers do? They drive to 6 flags round the corner and pay a stash of bills to just be thrown from a 10 storey roller coaster and they call it thrill! I mean, I fail to comprehend! Where's the safety talk gone? People lllike adventure! People know they'll die! People know that if you start strapping NASCAR with a zillion safety features, it'll cease to be NASCAR and become TRAFFIC!

Grow up guys ..

Stockholm

2005-06-24T07:04:00.000-07:00

The eerie silence creeps into me as I sit in the lounge staring at the vast expanse of pure white snow covering much of the landscape. The frigid layer extends as far as the eye can see, looking cold, dry and emotionless, criss-crossed by black tarmac. A couple of flights touchdown. A few take off.

I take in the scene in its entirety. And muse about how closely it mirrors what I'm feeling inside - peaceful, emotionless, strong on one side, while marred with doubts and misgivings about this venture on the other. Is this the right thing to do? Should I have waited a few more days so that I could have all the answers I'm looking for and then flown to the States? Well, that might've never been answered.

I'm in Stockholm, en route to Newark. It's three in the afternoon, but it's already getting dark outside. Too far up in the North this place is. Too silent. Too rich. Too inactive. Too eerie. Most of the off-city limits of Europe are like this. This seems no exception. For us people, who come from crowded, 2000 plus people per square km lands, these places no doubt seem scarily empty!

Why Blog?

2005-06-15T09:50:00.000-07:00

Somebody asked me the other day - Why Blog? He was looking into these pages, and gave me a queer look and asked "Why Blog at all? What does it give you?"

Hmm .. Good question. A wise somebody once told me (was it my previous boss? i don't think so; can't be; he's not that type :) ) the meaning of "Good question" in meetings is an implicit "I don't know!" And he used to use it a whole freakin' lot. Always.

To me blogging provides a simple means of expression. I personally don't care who reads this or why, though I'd like somebody to read it. This kind of creative, dont-give-a-damn-for-anything freedom can be provided only by a medium as open and carefree as the Net, especially when big brother is watching your every move (keystroke?!). In here I sometimes write that I'm very happy I got married. And sometimes I groan about the apathetic attitude of people around, the government notwithstanding. Sometimes I pick wisecracks from other places - newspapers, websites - and paste them here, of course with due credits to the source :) .. At others, I write something that pops up in my mind just to please my wife. All in all, this place is a must visit every now-n-then for me.

Coming back to this somebody's question, it's not that I expect anything out of this. It's a vent to my feelings. It's more of a giving (get ridding?) than expecting, though historically (I mean the last couple of years .. how long has the Net been around anyways!) blogs have been a force to reckon with when it comes to forming and gathering public opinion. I remember reading an article, probably in The TIME Magazine, about how blogs were responsible for hurting President Bush's campaign, and how bloggers have amassed huge wealths by writing their minds out. All that's there, but not for me I suppose. I'm happy I'm writing. And that's pretty much it!

A Guy Thing

2005-06-10T09:22:00.000-07:00

I feel one of my grand gender generalizations coming on, and I can't resist it, so here goes. Guys love to make lists. The assembling and codifying of useless information speaks to our inner math nerd, our rampant nostalgiast. Girls can play Little League baseball now, but the kid in the stands keeping the box score, and tallying individual achievements into season slugging percentages, is very likely to be a boy. Turning our pastimes into numbers is a way not only of quantifying but also of justifying them. They acquire an atomic weight; to rank them is to give them solidity, meaning.

~Richard Corliss, The TIME (www.time.com/time), justifying why they came up with the All TIME 100-Movies list last month. And why they didn't select Gone With The Wind.

Senses

2005-06-02T12:43:00.000-07:00

I kept wondering the other day about my senses. Don't get me wrong, I haven't lost them. But, I kept wondering about them in the literal sense. How mine, and all our senses were created, and have developed and evolved over the ages to adapt to our surroundings. How life, experiencing the various forms of energy, chemicals and reactions around it, created "openings" in its body which were capable of receiving inputs of the chief and most "informative" forms of energy.

If you ever cared to notice, we don't have a sense organ to tell us that a tide is approaching, or that a particular place has high x-ray concentration. These simple examples seem to show two of the prime factors which have influenced the formation of sense organs - one, that senses have developed in response to the most "informative" energy forms and chemicals around us, and two, that they have developed in a very optimal manner, that is to say that there are just enough number of organs to help us understand 90% of our surroundings, thus avoiding an explosion of sensory inputs to an overtaxed brain. In order to get information from the remaining 10% of sources around us, we may have needed a hundred, or perhaps more, organs. But the need for these has been replaced by a more powerful structure - the rationally thinking brain. This brain more than makes up for the tidal, earthquake and x-ray sensors that would otherwise be sticking out of our beautiful bodies! How? By means of enabling animals, men in particular, develop artificial sensors for other forms of energy.

This line of thought leads us to believe that somewhere in the universe where there is life, if there is an abundance of say, gamma rays, than sound, the organisms there would be equipped with gamma ears. Do I believe in this theory? Yes. Have I seen any of those ears? No, obviously not :)

Perspective on life

2005-05-31T07:51:00.000-07:00

The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is
tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of
it? A death. What's that, a bonus?!? I think the life cycle is all
backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you go
live in an old age home. You get kicked out for being too healthy, go
collect your pension, then, when you start work, you get a gold watch
on your first day. You work forty years until you're young enough to
enjoy your retirement. You drink alcohol, you party, and you get ready
for High School. You go to primary school, you become a kid, you play,
you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back,
you spend your last 9 months floating with luxuries like central
heating, spa, room service on tap, then you finish off as an orgasm!!
Amen

The first (fort)night!

2005-05-26T07:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a fortnight now. Two weeks gone like a whiff. Many more will go by this way. With the joys that they'll bring, like they have these past weeks. Bringing a smile onto my face every time I think of the day we met, the weeks we stayed together, the months of longing and belonging, and the years to come through which we'll be one soul.

We married this May 11th. Putting it all in perspective, it seems like a mixed bag. Some smooth rides - the main one being the absolute acceptance of our choice by our parents - and some strained blots, like the job-searches and the time we were settling down here in the US. But the one thing that stands out is the steadfast support we've shown each other during these times. You bet it'll be like this always!

The wedding itself wasn't too much of fanfare, like it is normally in India, with a horde of unknown relatives and friends who swarm the ceremonies, and the dulha-dulhan literally in tears in front of the Agni. Thank God for small mercies! Good sense prevailed and we married here. But the ceremonies and the party in the evening were hardly any different from how they'd be back home. Full scale, without the hundreds of people though. I'll post a link to the pictures sometime.

The aftermath has been quite interesting too. I've seen the transition of my bride from girl to woman and from daughter to dot-in-law. How she's smoothly slipped on the gown of familial responsibility and how her in-laws look upon her as the upholder of the family's traditions and values. At times it is fun to watch their discussions and at times it is interesting. Amidst all these, I sometimes feel I'm the only one yet to grow up. Not that I'm in any hurry!

A thought on Elections

2005-04-13T12:34:00.000-07:00

Elections maintain the illusion of opposing parties exchanging ideas rather than political animals competing for power. Selling voting as the ultimate expression of citizenship serves two purposes: it legitimizes the process that keeps them in control and makes the public docile by enforcing the notion that we rule ourselves.

~Kara Hopkins (http://www.amconmag.com/2004_11_08/cover5.html)

jalebi

2005-04-11T12:39:00.000-07:00

my cube-mate at work returned from a long vacation in india .. he brought with him the customary sweets - burfis, jalebis and the like .. one of my colleagues, an american, ate a jalebi in the morning and liked it .. he came back a while ago asking for the "yellow-orange, gelatinous, pretzel-like thingie" :)

Google and April 1st!

2005-04-01T08:11:00.000-08:00

Anybody keen enough to observe wouldn't have missed the interesting products that Google comes up with every year on Fool's day. Here's a peek at a few of those. Apologies for having missed out a couple of years in between ..

First they came up with MentalPlex^TM in 2000.

MentalPlex^TM

Then came the Pigeon Ranking Technology^TM which got quite a bit of limelight!

PigeonRank^TM

Opened their first offices on the Moon in 2004.

Lunar Office

And today, the all new Google Gulp^TM!

Google Gulp^TM

Watch out next year!

The woods

2005-03-17T07:49:00.000-08:00

The woods are lovely dark and deep
But I have many promises to keep
And lines to code before I sleep ..
And lines to code before I sle ....
And lines to code bef .......

2005-03-15T15:38:00.000-08:00

Ohh forget it
Am not feeling like writing anything .. yaawn :O
Logout
Alt+f4
zzzz

the xalam to xalan!

2005-02-25T11:32:00.000-08:00

heard of xalan.jar?? the java jar file u use alongwith xercesImpl.jar for xml parsing and other stuff .. ever wondered where the weird sounding name came from? here it is .. it originated from the "xalam" - a west african (senegal, to be precise) stringed instrument (http://www.geocities.com/jbenhill/xalam.html) .. just like other jargon in the java world, which includes the word "java" itself (some noteworthy others being apache, xerces, geronimo, jakarta, lenya, struts, batik and so on), this too has some good history behind it .. now why the javagurus choose such weirdo names is a mystery to me .. but it's nice to have some history behind such things .. it takes ur mind off the mundane (read 'coding and designing') and once in a while delve into west african jungles or martian soils!

Valentine!

2005-02-11T15:07:00.000-08:00

Does this always happen? I mean, to everybody who’s in love and is desperately thinking of some sweet nothing to give to his loved one? Well, it’s happened to me, on more than one occasion. Last year same time and this year, now.

Okay, so is it going to be boring 1-800-FLOWERS? Or just go round the corner to QuickChek and pick up something that she’d like? Walk her hand in hand to the lakeside on Valentine’s morning and hand her a bunch of flaming red roses and a warm hug? I think the latter would be welcomed more on these wintry mornings! Alright alright .. What have we here?
- A box of Godiva chocolates with a bunch of red roses? Or ..
- A cuddly teddy and tulips-in-a-vase? Or ..
- Dinner and movie followed by a night of violent lovemaking? Or ..
- All the above?
God save me! Am I bad at these things! Or should I like a dumbass go and ask her what she likes most? Perhaps even give her these choices, just in case she’s one too. At this rate I’ll wake up on the fourteenth to a sweet little kiss and a bye-bye just like any other morning. Well, I’m not complaining about all these mornings. They’re as good as love gets, believe me! But, St.Valentine destined this day to be different, didn’t he?

I’m sure two more days will pass and I still wouldn’t have decided what exactly to do. I’d rather sit back, listen to some light music, and relax. We’re still on the threshold of a life spread anew, king-size, just for us. Looking back on the times we jumped with joy, kissed with passion, and cried with trust. And looking fondly into the future, thinking – of forgotten footsteps by the seaside, of candle-lit dinners atop revolving restaurants, of misty morning walks with Bozo in tow, of across-the-country car drives, of graying hair and the woods, of Salsa and Merengue. All, of course, sitting on my bean-bag with her in my arms. Oh, St.Valentine! Where art thou?!

Musing in Bangkok

2005-01-01T01:24:00.000-08:00

Sitting here at the airport in Bangkok waiting for my connecting flight, I can sense the worry and tension that has gripped the nation as it, alongwith several others, is grappling to contain the destruction that last week's tsunamis caused. Thailand has declared national mourning and it is not at all a good situation here. There is not an ounce of enjoyment or celebration in this otherwise joyous place, where, under normal circumstances, tens of thousands of tourists flock during this time of the year, escaping the severe cold of the north, to luxuriate on the beaches of Phuket or trek along the tough terrain of Cambodia.

I notice that even the Royal Orchids, Thailand's place of pride in the floral kingdom, are wilting away in the duty free shops as there are no buyers. Of course, it is not an occasion to gift someone a flower, says the keeper at King's Duty Free. On the contrary, I believe. This should be as much an occasion to gift someone a flower as any. Don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating insensitiveness. That would be insane. I'm saying that this is the time when people, one and all, need support - moral and financial - more than any other time. So, why not cheer up someone's day with an orchid? And to top it, why not buy flowers if the shop is promising to donate a part of its earnings for relief work?! I buy some, and lay it at the lonely Christmas tree distastefully decorated on the third floor. And say a prayer.

'Distastefully decorated'. Hah! That reminds me of a bunch - a big bunch - of complaints I have against this airport. Including its layout, the services offered to commuters, and a host of other things. I'm glad there is some airport in Asia which is in league with our aamchi airports back home! But then, that's an entirely different story.

I still have four hours left. Wonder what I'll do. Maybe I'll call her up and wish her New Year's again. I just did. But just for the heck of it, I'll do it again. It feels so good talking to her, my inspiration and anchor in life. She's out there partying off to glory. And to top it, she's drunk... Trying to compete with me? Whattagirl!!

Should I get up and go from this table? I've almost finished my coffee and spent over an hour sitting here. That lady at the bar has given me quite a few glares. But who cares. Let her come and say something. I'll show my coffee cup. There's still a little left in it!!

To the spirit of Life!

2004-12-27T03:08:00.000-08:00

I was watching American Beauty last night. Yeah, the same movie in which Kevin Spacey jerks off thinking about his daughter's friend!

On screen was Tobey Maguire showing a video to his girlfriend. He was explaining that it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. There was a little white polythene bag flying in the breeze.Tossing and turning. Making crisp sounds every time it hit the sidewalk. The wind bobbing it up and down and in spirals and in waves. It was a sight to watch! Such a free spirit flying with absolutely no care about the world! With the fallen autumn leaves around it rustling ever so gently with the breeze. The mellow grass on the pavement lovingly spread around like satin bed covers. There was a little puddle of water by the side, twinkling in the twilight. The evening light dancing in all directions as it reflected off its surface, making incoherent patterns, shimmering with a golden-yellow haze like a distant dream. The clip was in black and white, which enhanced the beauty of the scene.

What struck me most was the fact that it was these same forces of nature - wind and water - which, in a bizarre incident yesterday, took millions of people by surprise and killed over ten thousand along the southern and south-east Asian coasts. People taking morning walks on a crisp winter morning, people sleeping in slums abutting the Bay ofBengal, people relaxing on the shore in beachside resorts, fishermen out on a low-tide to earn their bread - it spared none. Within an hour,there was a deadly streak of devastation left behind at all these places. Everybody was caught unawares. They were reduced to helpless victims of a savage mood of nature. I mean, what is one expected to do if one fine morning, Mr.Ocean decides to wish you good morning at yourdoorstep!

Whatever the governments do, how-much-ever aid the international community provides, whatever news our BBC/CNN/NDTV teams telecast, will the gone come back? Will the people who were rudely hit by the tsunami ever regain a firm footing on life? Will man's quest to conquer the forces of nature ever be fulfilled? Will he ever be able to dictate terms to this omnipotent factor pervading everything? These are questions that leave an all-powerful human being dumbfounded.

Yet, despite thousands of such catastrophes and millions of casualties every year, life just goes on. Rescue operations continue on the one hand while the Sensex breaks new records on the other. These things are here today, gone tomorrow. It goes to show the basic essence of life -continuation, endlessness. Call it reproduction, reformation, renaissance. It symbolizes the eternal reincarnation of the spirit that pervades all that is referred to as having Life.

Amen!

2004-12-06T19:00:00.000-08:00

Yo! I'm back in the land of green hills and soft, servile women. Yes, you got it right. Korea! Well, this time I'm not glad I got away from the din of Bangalore. This place is going through its yearly drama of autumn-winter transition and it's taking its toll on me. I've already got my butt pricked by the doctor and have lost count of the number of pills I've swallowed.

But, as usual, it brings back a gloom in me. Didn't we get our independence alongside Korea in the mid-late '40s? I wish the Nehrus and Gandhis had borrowed something from these people. No wonder I don't feel like going back home. I wish I could fly away somewhere. Well, I will. In about a month. I have to go back to see my parents and bid adieu to the land that has nurtured me for these past 25 years. I have no feelings for it. Absolutely.

On second thoughts, it's not the country I don't have feelings for. It's the people. But, a country is made by its people, ain't so?

2004-12-06T18:48:00.000-08:00

Understanding

The years of my youth, my sensual life --

how clearly I see their meaning now.

What needless repentances, how futile....

But I did not understand the meaning then.

In the dissolute life of my youth

the desires of my poetry were being formed,

the scope of my art was being plotted.

This is why my repentances were never stable.

And my resolutions to control myself, to change

lasted for two weeks at the very most.

~Constantine P. Cavafy (1918)

-------------

To the pretty dame who posted this note in my Inbox this morning!

2004-11-11T22:20:00.000-08:00

...And site-seeing we did. The difference was that what we saw was not what we intended to.

My in-laws, minus the bride-to-be, were visiting us and we got out with full enthu to go to Chamundi Hill. Only to be greeted by a deluge of vehicles diverted onto this otherwise deserted road. All because of the Dasara festivities - the Jamboo Savari (elephant procession), which was happening after a gap of three years. Conservative estimates put the number of visitors during this season at over a million. Ain't that good for a normally sleeping town of a few lakh residents?! Chamundi Hill didn't happen finally ...

The sad part though is that the visitors, as usual and just like the rain Gods, are least bothered about maintaining the beauty of the city. A week later, when I visited Mysore, the city had gone back to its state of peaceful slumber, but this time it was in the midst of a pile of dirt - remnants of the festivities. The concerned are still cleaning up the city (cleaning up their act??).

Nevertheless, I'm still in love with this city. It is far behind it's elder sister Bangalore in terms of population, pollution, garbage, sewage, industrialization. And far ahead in terms of culture, values, people (and not population!). I sincerely hope that the Infys and Wipros do not come here (ain't I late?). I have nothing against them. But they invariably bring with them pseudo-development, urbanization, higher prices of everything from house rent to vegetables, and potholes on the roads. We'd rather live in our peaceful state of slumber than be woken up to a rude shock. The Nilekanis and Premjis, do you hear?

2004-10-16T01:29:00.000-07:00

Alright, that was a long break I took. Maafi ho ..

But am I back with a bang! Still typing with one hand, but going strong. Ya, I broke my hand a few weeks ago, thanks to Namma Bengalooru and it's roads. One rainy day, one pothole, one puddle of water, and one thud! I'm at Mallya in the wink of an eye and am packaged off to Mysore for a bout of recovery and rejuvenation. Am grateful to mama for her bedside meals!

It's interesting that I did absolutely-absolute nothing these past 15 days at home. I guess that's what most people do when at home. Laze around and get pampered :-)

Mysore has become so beautiful all of a sudden. Well, it is beautiful always. But, with the onset of Navarathri, the place has started to show it's colourful side. The palace, the hill, the lakes and the streets have a festive mood about themselves and have a mesmerizing effect on the visitor! It is the perfect season for touring the place.

Memories

2004-10-16T01:12:00.000-07:00

Till a few years ago I was a young lad unknowing of the ways of the world and the way they change a person's outlook. I ain't too old now, but I've seen some of it at least and I understand quite a bit.

I was reading some old mails this morning. Some 3-4 years old ones. From college/insead/sape. All from friends. Purrfect nostalgia! It's amazing how old memories and feelings linger on. But the strange thing is how the sweet ones, though they linger, can slide off with the slightest shake. They are like dewdrops on a blade of grass! But the ones that you really like to forget stay on for years to come. Pull 'em, prod 'em, shake 'em. They will not budge! Like cobwebs. Like leeches. Eeks! Ain't that strange?

Seoul - Take 2

2004-08-23T06:46:00.000-07:00

Someone told me the other day that the younger generation of Koreans do not like the big-bro attitude of Uncle Sam (join the band!). The joke on the street is that the Korean President calls up the White House from his Blue House the moment he is elected, even before addressing his nation!

Well, so much for US presence in this country. The influence can be sensed if you visit the Northern parts of Seoul, particularly the areas aroung Itaewon across the Hangnam river, where there is a US army base, and where the prime red light district of Seoul is located. You can spot bands of soldiers (of course in casuals and off duty) drunk and partying in the streets into the wee hours of the morning. Also, you can sense the influence in every aspect of Seoul's life - roads, malls, bridges, amusement parks, gas stations, offices, cars .. you name it! Everything's like it is in the US. One is forced to wonder where are the shy, demure girls and self-respecting men proud of their culture gone?!

There's an OK-Mart for every K-Mart. There's McD's, KFCs and Pizza Huts all over the place. Why, there's even Bennigan's and Outback Steakhouse around the corner from my hotel! Now, that's something!! :) Yet, it is surprising how adamantly these people have refused to learn the English language. I haven't come across one Korean who has not been educated in the US but speaks fluent English. I wonder how they do commerce with the rest of the world without knowing their language! Maybe the way the Japanese do (I haven't understood them either). It's a mighty exercise, albeit funny, hailing a cab and showing the driver a printout of Korean script instructing him to take me to my hotel or to my office or to the nearby bus station! From Anyon-Haseyo to Komap-Sumnida (Hello and Thank you, apparently), it is interesting at times and highly irritating at times to hear the droning of a tongue you're not accustomed to. In the taxi for example, the FM incessantly keeps chattering off in the background, and I'm unable to communicate to the cabbie that he should switch it off! Pity!

Seoul

2004-08-23T06:20:00.000-07:00

If there's one thing I've been most amused by Koreans is their habit of brushing their teeth day in and day out. An average Korean in Seoul brushes his teeth about 4 times a day - after breakfast, after lunch, after dinner and just before sleeping. No wonder most of them have eroded enamel much before their thirties.

It has been a fortnight since I landed in Seoul, and I'm yet to recover from the alienation. Though friendly, Koreans are inherently shy and will not talk to you unless you approach them. Demure, shy girls, lost in themselves. Confident looking men. And a humongous population of teenagers form the majority of Seoul's populace. Almost as advanced as any big American city, Seoul is the hub of South Korea's business and industrial activities. There aren't many natural resources in the country. But they seem to have made the most of what they have and today, after 56 years of being a Republic, they are among the leaders in the consumer electronics, semiconductor and automobile industry. Pretty impressive for a country which was under Japanese occupation for 35 years, partitioned from its northern brethren soon after WW2, invaded from the North 5 years later, and having endured the brunt of the US-USSR Cold War throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s. Much of the development is attributed to US support during this time, when mighty highways were built, infrastructure was overhauled and commerce and innovation were given high priority. But there's no denying the fact that the Koreans as as smart and hard-working when it comes to contributing to their motherland.

The Cable Guys!

2004-07-20T05:51:00.000-07:00

A 7 year old boy died in my city last week. Got electrocuted by a cable tv wire. A million visits by so-called VIPs to the dead boy's house later, nothing seems to have happened. The cables still hang, the rains still wash away wires, and to top it the city is being held at ransom by a bunch of luncatics called cable-tv operators, and officials of the BCC-BMP-Bescom and MLAs.

One look at the following list and you'll understand what's happening:

1. The CM visits the boy's family and announces a cash compensation (Rs.1 lakh??), which they promptly refuse. Fires a couple of officers of Bescom and orders and enquiry from the Secretariat.

2. The Power Minister visits the spot. Fires a couple of more Bescom officers and orders another enquiry from his ministry.

3. The Bescom chief visits. Doesn't fire any of his officials, but announces yet another enquiry!

(What will be the outcome of these politically backed enquiries is anybody's guess.)

4. Bescom annouces that it will cut down all illegal cable wires that are using their electric poles. Incidentally, there are about 400 km of legal cables and 12000 km of illegal ones in this city! Were the Bescom engineers napping when these guys were laying the cables? Or were they feeding their pockets with kickbacks from the operators?

5. Bescom cuts down illegal cable wires arbitrarily overnight. In the process, it cuts down some legal ones also ;-) .. This enrages the cable guys who cut off all cable transmissions in the middle of the Asia Cup cricket tournament .. The people are held at ransom for no fault of theirs!

The enquiries are still happening .. The cable guys are still striking .. The power guys are still blaming them .. The politicians are still milking the issue for political mileage .. The citizens are still gaping in utter confusion .. And everyone is passing the buck!

Indeed I feel sorry for the boy .. But not as much as I feel for the plight the city has come to .. Think about the glory that Bangalore was to become - The next Singapore, huh?! Forget Singapore, we will be the next Bermuda Triangle at this rate .. With so many suckers around!

Ithaca

2004-07-13T02:16:00.000-07:00

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon -- do not fear them:
You will never find such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not set them up before you.

Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many, when,
with such pleasure, with such joy
you will enter ports seen for the first time;
stop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensual perfumes of all kinds,
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
visit many Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from scholars.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would have never set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.

~Constantine P. Cavafy (1911)

Phantom Phone Vibrations

2004-07-07T05:49:00.000-07:00

The phenomenon of experiencing a sensation of vibration in the pocket-region, leading one to believe their cell phone is vibrating. The sensation can be triggered by other vibrations, such as the engine in a car, but can also appear when no external stimuli is present.

Ever happened to you? I swear it has happened to me .. Wonder when we'll start having illusions of phone calls themselves!

Sankey

2004-07-07T04:00:00.000-07:00

So, here I was, fresh like a cuppof coffee and cruising the few miles to Sankey from my home. Everything seemed normal except the time - it was 5 in the morning. Not once in the last i-wonder-how-many years have I seen this unearthly time of the day, except, of course, returning from The Club or elsewhere after a night-out.

I hadn't been sleeping well, in spite of having taken multiple ceterizines to put me into slumber. Traveling across the globe does this to you. So, I was cruising I said. Yeah. Reaching Sankey at that odd hour, I was surprised to see I had company. A handful of people had already started on their morning strolls around the now beautifully made lake and the joggers' track that runs round it. It's a sight to behold on misty mornings. Specks of humans walking along the periphery of the glistening water! The sun's rays through Sadashivnagar's trees crisply touching the surface .. I suppose it's the closest you can get to nature in the midst of the fastest growing city in Asia.

I took a quick jog to the far end of the lake and stopped for breath. By now, a few hundred people had appeared from nowhere and were going about their routine morning walk. No pets allowed here, thankfully. Just stray dogs here and there, marking territory or chasing others of their kin. Jogging back at a lazy pace to the entrance of the park, I did a few fake exercises, all the while eyeing the cheese(!) and admiring the beauty around.

A stone's throw away is the Sadashivnagar Park, a one of its kind park in the city. Aesthetically made up, this park is managed by a body of the locality's residents. It's a pay-and-use facitlity. A pretty nice example of how a little bit of involvement and interest from civilians can make a difference to the city's landscape.

I've been going there regularly now. It's something I look forward to in the mornings. Wonder how long it'll last, the novelty-seeking type that I am. But when it is around, it's almost as good as it can get!

Inimitable La Loo

2004-07-07T03:41:00.000-07:00

Laloo, in his inimatable style yesterday, fended off a reporter's question after having made his maiden Railway Budget speech.
Reporter: Where do you expect to bring in the funds for the sops?
Laloo: Why should I tell you? If I tell you, everybody will be alerted. But, chinta ki koi baat nahin, sab intezaam ho chuka hai. Manmohanji has assured me ...

Heard in the operation theatre ...

2004-06-26T15:31:00.000-07:00

"Could you stop that thing from beating; it's throwing
my concentration off..." !!!

Americans and Gas

2004-06-18T17:09:00.000-07:00

What is it with Americans and Gas? Even at $2 a gallon and covering 100 miles a day, an average American driving one of those gas-guzzling pieces of shit spends about $300 a month. This is a penny of the paycheck he carries back home, compared to a desi who earns about $2500 a year as against a pardesi who earns about $36000 a year in PPP terms.

Give them these statistics, and they will stare at you in disbelief about how such a difference can exist, and drive an extra hundred miles that day due to depression. Remind them that they are so much better off that the rest of the world coz gas is so cheap here, and they'll dance with joy and drive a hundred miles extra - maybe visit imax or walmart for shopping. Tell them that Iraq will no longer be a problem, and they will jump with exhilaration and drive to the gas station because it is a sign of falling gas prices! Do whatever, DRIVE they will. I mean, what is it with these guys and their vehicles? Is it that they are born with a car attached to their umbilical?!

The economy seems to be built around gas and energy. The towns and cities seem to have been planned around a how-to-spend-more-gas strategy! Here in Dallas, places are so far apart that you can't imagine not owning a car. From my residence, my office is 5 miles away, Wal-Mart is 10 miles away, the airport is 20 miles away, and my only friend's house in Dallas is 10 miles away. That's fine, such distances are acceptable. But what is unnatural is the amount of space that is left unused in between these spots. You should visit Dallas to appreciate what I'm saying. Standing at one point, you have to squint your eyes and crane your neck to see the next bunch of buildings. I mean, what is the sheer necessity of building such large and spread-out cities? Stay close. Stay cozy. No, we have to drive. No one can take away that right-o-birth from us. And for that, the places have to be far apart! This seems to be the mindset.

Adding to the problem is a total absence of mass transportation. That's natural dammit! You build a city (they call it a Metroplex here since it is a bunch of 9 cities) 100 miles long and 100 miles wide, and nothing but plain land between any two points A and B in between, how can you expect to provide mass transport?!

No wonder half the cities in the US suffer from smog. No wonder the ozone is punctured like a bullet-ridden sheet. No wonder there are 1.2 million new cases of skin cancer every year. No wonder Iraq is under attack. No wonder ...

Message

2004-06-17T10:56:00.000-07:00

Welcome message on a friend's voicemail:
"Hi this is so-n-so. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you. If you want to leave a fax, buy me a fax machine first"

!!!

.. And Then ..

2004-06-16T10:17:00.000-07:00

Then, around November, she just packed up everything, left her job and pushed off to Mumbai for good. At that time, neither of us was serious about it, so we weren't heartbroken or anything about the parting. But then, I told myself that it was another chapter that just got closed and decided to forget all about her. But she wouldn't let go .. thankfully. And we started competing on who'll pay the higher phone bill every month!

Come February, and she was already in the US, having got her H1-B and landed a few jobs almost as soon as she landed in NJ. This was when I started feeling the distance a little bit. But, fate would not have it. We hiked our phone bills but kept in touch. In fact, it looked like the more fate took us apart, the more we were bent upon being together!

During this time, I had applied for my higher studies at some universities and was hopeful of making it into some of them. But when the results started trickling in, both of us started losing hope. The few that I got admitted into, were short of funds, so I declined them. But then, our optimism bore fruit and I happened to visit the US during this time. Topmost on my priority list was meeting her and making up for lost time. So, I took a week's vacation and visitied her in NJ.

A blast of emotions, the longing, the missing-for-so-much-time feelings all came together when we finally stood there hugging each other in the airport lobby. The next 5 days were a full-fledged holiday with visits to NY, Atlantic City, Cape May and Bear Mountain Park. We had longed for each other so much that we just didn't want to let go of each other. No wonder the week flew by so fast. I had known it all this time, but it was during this week that I realized that I was truly in love. At last ...

How I met her ..

2004-06-16T10:15:00.000-07:00

I met her on a rainy evening in Bangalore. I had gone to meet a friend in her office and got introduced to her. No initial sparks or love-at-first-sight .. In fact, nothing happened for over a month. It was then that my friend started tripping me with her for I wonder what reason. Probably she sensed that this girl liked me or something. Women have this sense of smelling out stuff what even cats can't. Sometimes I wonder if women evolved from felines rather than from the rib .. Well, that's a different story altogether.

So, my friend, I'll call her Appu, started tripping me with this girl. Initially, I sort of enjoyed and sort of felt embarrassed. Obviously! Then I asked Appu to shut her mouth since both me and the girl were feeling odd whenever the 3 of us met. She did. One day we ditched Appu and I took her to a movie - Koi Mil Gaya. Well, I should say that it was a sort of "Koi Mil Gaya" for me. Something inside me told me that this would go far.

We started meeting each more often since then. She's this Punjabi girl from Mumbai. Smart, tall and with a nice sense of humour, she is the epitome of optimism! Amusingly, she calls me "Sonu". You should hear it from her pouting mouth, you'll know why I fell for her. Well, I did fall for her, but then it was after 6 months, and knowing me, that's a long time!

The next two months were a roller-coaster ride of enjoyment for both of us. With the dawn of each day, we discovered more of each other, feeling we were getting more and more attracted, wanting to spend more and more time with each other and such other stuff that happens to people when they are on the verge of falling in love. Neither was sure (she claims she was, i doubt ;) whether we really wanted to take this seriously.

I remeber a few incidents that simply dragged me to her. One was when we went to Nandi Hills on my bike. We started late in the afternoon and reached there about 5 pm. You should see the surroundings from atop there to really appreciate what I'm saying. It's an amazing vista of serenity all round you! So, we reached there and made our way up to a rock high above the noisy tourists. There we stood staring in disbelief at the breathtaking view around, she clinging to me, with just one tear of joy trickling from the corner of her eye. I had a tough time deciding what to look at - her peaceful face or the view around! Well, maybe if it had been now, I would've definitely seen her face :)

Another time I felt very close to her was when we were lying on the sands in Goa gazing up into the night sky. It was Christmas. You should be there at that time of the year to experience the mood! It's purely r.o.m.a.n.t.i.c! All hundred percent. Lying there on the beach hand in hand staring up into the sky colourfully lit by fireworks and listening to the rushing waves at our feet, we felt a feeling of peace like we had never felt before. I can vouch for her feelings because I know her so well!

Will continue in my next post ..... Gotto rush!

Yahoo! Vs GMail

2004-06-15T14:05:00.000-07:00

I got this mail from Yahoo! this morning saying they will start providing a massive 100MB mailbox from Jun 15th. This, clearly, is in response to Google's GMail beta going alpha shortly. I am thrilled to bits! Not because, GMail is here, but there won't be any more headaches of cleaning up every fortnight and wondering which mail got in and which bounced off my ever overflowing Yahoo mailbox :)

Talk of competition!

A couple of reviews on GMail:
"Even in its current, early state, available only to a few thousand testers, Gmail appears destined to become one of the most useful Internet services since Google itself. ... Gmail is infinitely cleaner, faster, more useful, more efficient, less commercial and less limiting than other Web-based e-mail services. Once Gmail goes live, Hotmail and Yahoo won't know what hit them."
~ NY Times - May 13 2004

"I finally got to play around and discover the various features of Gmail. Here's a small list of my findings ...
1.Javascript hacks makes it very fast and easy to use.
2.Trying to navigate out of an unsent message triggers an 'Are you sure you want to discard the message?' alert.
3.E-mail snippet makes it very easy to browse through messages.
4.Keyboard shortcuts are absolutely the best thing Gmail has offered. They ROCK if you are a hardcore unix user.
5.Personal level indicators' feature is a great one, indicating if a message is sent only to you or to a bunch of people.
6.Starring (tagging) messages is fast. Something like what Orkut uses to rank your friends.
7.Wow! The fastest and the most sophisticated email spell checker in the world. It's like running your spell checking application on your machine!"
8.Address completion.

~http://www.anvari.org/log/20040412.2359.html

Top 20 American Obsessions

2004-06-14T13:57:00.000-07:00

1      Iraq
2      Iraq
3      Iraq
4      .
5      .
6      Weather
7      Cars
8      Baseball
9      Sex
10     Basketball
11     Diet-n-exercise
12     Hollywood
13     Hot-Bods
14     The Ozone layer
15     Vampires
16     Cheese-n-Meat (and then burning it)
17     Outsourcing
18     WMDs
19     Credit
20     Wotssup-Howdy-HaveAGoodDay!

The First Smiley :-)

2004-06-14T10:55:00.000-07:00

The smiley :-) and its many variants are an important (and fun!) part of the worldwide online social culture -- allowing emotions to be conveyed in plain text. It has been in widespread use since the early '80s, when it was first proposed. Yet the original message in which the smiley was invented had been lost -- until now. :-) After a significant effort to locate it, on September 10, 2002 the original post made by Scott Fahlman on CMU CS general bboard was retrieved by Jeff Baird from an October 1982 backup tape of the spice vax (cmu-750x). Here is Scott's original post:

19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E Fahlman :-)
From: Scott E Fahlman

I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:

:-)

Read it sideways. Actually, it is probably more economical to mark
things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use

:-(

~ Courtesy: Microsoft Research
http://research.microsoft.com/~mbj/Smiley/Smiley.html

Reagan - take 2

2004-06-14T10:42:00.000-07:00

I was watching this talk show hosted on NBC on Friday. The chap is sort of funny - nowhere close to Jay Leno of course, but he can make some people in the background laugh, if you know what I mean!

So, I was watching this show. He was blabbering off - well, that's what these guys get paid for - about Reagan and his Reign, commenting about how much media exposure the whole issue of Reagan's death was getting. It was a lot of hype that CNN and CBS and a bunch of other news-hungry studios were broadcasting all through the week. About 8 hours of the day were being dedicated to the issue. I wonder if the so-called War on Terror got so much exposure.

He showed a clip of about a hundred people mourning. Funny thing was they were nowhere near the coffin that was on public display. In fact they were nowhere near the city where it was kept. All they were doing was passing solemnly in a line in front of a huge TV in which some channel was covering the mourning ceremony and placing wreaths in front of the TV! Ridiculous! I mean, is there a limit to which these people will not go?!

Reagan

2004-06-09T17:18:00.000-07:00

Former President of the US Ronald Reagan expired last week.

I don't know much about him, except that he was hailed as one of the most able people who headed the US. Actually, I hadn't known that the tragedy had happened. I happened to come to office the next day and noticed that the Stars and Stripes were flying at half mast. Primary school had taught me the reason for such an expression. www.cnn.com. And I knew.

Over the next two days, I realized how much the middle-aged and elderly people of this country loved and respected this man. The grief that they experienced, the bonding which they felt had been torn, the emptiness .. Far more than explains what the man did for his country. Doing things to fulfil an ambition is one thing. But gaining the admiration of hundreds of millions of people in the process and taking them with you in your journey of passion is something very different!

NYC

2004-06-09T16:59:00.000-07:00

Yukk!

That was the one-word reaction from all four of us in the car when we entered Brooklyn. We were headed to explore the Big Apple, after having picked up her cousin at the Hilton somewhere in uptown New York. I mean, all of us have seen far worse places back home, but here, in the middle of the most swanky place on earth .. No, please!

The streets were worse than those in Karol Bagh or Chandni Chowk. She almost freaked out every time she ran her Celica into another bump or hole in the road. After much steering and obscenities, we exited Brooklyn and entered north Manhattan across some river (the Hudson?).

This was a much better place. Cleaner, well-maintained, but nowhere close to New Delhi. We taxied down along 5th Avenue and stopped at Central Park (Perk?!) to take a look at now legendary lawns. I took in a bit of history about the place and we headed further south towards the Empire State. Our destination was Times Square, where I had dreamt of posing before Nasdaq ever since I saw it first in a desi newspaper, flashing an ad of Infosys! That was 4 years ago ..

The place was lit like Diwali night! And we just stood there and admired the power the structures around wielded - Reuters, Nasdaq, NY Times .. the list goes on. I couldn't fulfil my other dream that evening - that of sitting in a cafe on Wall Street and watch people buzz past going about their business. Ah, those Hollywood movies!

Bonding

2004-06-09T16:49:00.000-07:00

Having arrived just the previous day, the adventurous me thought of exploring a bit of the landscape. So I set out in the sunny afternoon. Took a cab to Las Colinas, and went and ate in this swanky Italian restaurant. Good food!

Once I was out, I realized to my horror that I was actually 15 miles from my office and my hotel, I didn't have a phone in my pocket, I didn't have a taxi service number or my teammates' numbers, and I didn't know a goddamned soul around! I felt a chill and some sort of boldness at the same time. I mean, it's the middle of nowhere I told you! So, I loitered around a bit, burnt whatever I had eaten and then not knowing what to do and not finding a pay phone, decided to head back to the restaurant where I had eaten and call up from there. I told the guy at the counter about my situation, and he very friendly offered my a glass of lemonade, allowed me to make a phone call, and in the process even offered to drop me off at my office. I thanked him for his kindness and called up my teammate who picked me up half an hour later ..

A strange feeling of bonding about these people had already sprung up in me. The guy had absolutely no reason to help me, but he had gone out of his way and had done what was possible in his capacity. Very good .. !

Big and bigger!

2004-06-09T10:16:00.000-07:00

To be honest, I had dreamt of coming to this country all my life. I was swept with awe when I first set foot at Atlanta. One thought immediately came to my mind - anything you find in this land will be on a grand scale. The people of the US do not know the beauty of miniaturization, unlike the Japanese. Big roads criss-crossed by bigger flyovers, huge cars flanked by giant trucks, tall buildings with glass facades .. my my! Even the people seem to be of a bigger build. I remember buying a shirt of the smallest size available at Haggar's over the weekend, and unsurprisingly, it was oversized :)

So here I was, in the middle of nowhere - "vast, flat and ugly" - according to my friend who picked me up at the airport in Dallas. I had to agree. All around I could see well-maintained stretches of grass and no trees. It looked so green, yet barren .. A few tall buildings dotting the horizon here and there. Real estate goes a-begging in this part of the country I suppose!

People are good. I mean, friendly, at least. Anybody you run into - on the street, in the park, up the lift (oops, elevator!) - they never fail to give a courteous, and sometimes self-conscious, smile. It is the 'desi' junta that I feel are confused. Most of them fumble around with words or actions or both when they run into others. I haven't been able to fathom what it is which stops them from saying a friendly 'hi' or at least acknowledge one another .. Expecting too much from our people??

Welcummm!

2004-06-08T17:24:00.000-07:00

so there .. a warm toast to the 3 years we've been using wingies97! i just happened to stumble upon this stuff last weekend and found it pretty interesting due to multiple reasons - it's simplicity, it's robustness which is proven by the number of blogs lying around the web, and the very idea of having an open publishing space available on the net so that people can collaborate in teams ..

but what beats me is this --> this blogger stuff was acquired by google recently for a very high undisclosed amount .. that's fine .. but how different is this from egroups? okay, it allows a push-button publishing interface and a few other cool stuff like skins and presentation .. but i don't see the difference! is it adding any other value to web-based publishing or activities? well, not really .. so i ask myself if this is just another egroups? are people still making money by repeating/rewriting napsters? if yes, what the heck are we doing lying around not doing anything??!

~N