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

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

Nacimiento-Fergusson Road

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

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

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

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 ...

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

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

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

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

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

"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!

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

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 ...

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

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

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

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?

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

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

Pgh Left!

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!!

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

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

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

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!

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

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!

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

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!

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

Here's my home in Mysore!



Here it is!

New logo

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

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 ...

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

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

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!

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

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.