Hazaaron khwaishein aisi...............

The Bay area coffee chapter + my car

2012-01-26T09:26:00.000-08:00

Waking up early morning, taking my car and driving up to a coffee place... that has been one of the most pleasant things living in a bay area. My fav cafes have been (in order of preference) -

1. Philz at Loma Verde, Palo Alto.
2. Dana Street Roasting company, Mountain view.
3. Sufi cafe.
4. Peets at Castro.
5. Red rock cafe.
6. Starbucks

What i like about these cafes -
Obviously the coffees. But not that much. But good coffee opens up all the senses.

The diversity of people around me. There are book readers, song writers , ipad readers, people with small cute children with cheese/chocolate on their faces, random activities like board games, crossword solvers, etc etc

The music, oh yes the music.

Just the community aspect of a coffee shop. The locality that comes with it. Those who say that people are not social anymore, those who say that social networks only exists in online world.... they should visit these coffee shops. While they may be true at an overall level, these coffee shops help preserve the humanity in all of us.

Discussions, arbit discussions, overhearing conversations, strangers ......

And most importantly the feel of it. It takes effort to create a feeling and these cafes do it in such a style that it just makes my day.

Today, i think this Bay area coffee chatper is coming to an end. I am going to move back to India (many posts will follow to explain the process). And also i am going to sell my car, my awesome toyota corolla Sports model, the silver colored think tank which was able to understand me and had enough sense to override my traffic sense and sensibilities. The car that took care of itself, that never complained, never cried even when i made a dent in it, the car that never made a sound when i scratched it, the car that ran even when its tire had a puncture and i couldnt see it, the car that took me to all those places, the car that gave me such music to listen, the car which carried all those big luggage bags, the car which never gave me a problem ever, the car that took me to redwood forest, weekend drives to Half Moon Bay, vegas, LA, and everywhere. A great car! A personal car. My car. It is today, Jan 26 ( on India's republic day), we say goodbye.

From

Volunteering at VVEducation

2012-01-26T08:32:00.000-08:00

VVEducation - http://www.vveducation.org/

Somebody at my workplace sent an email that volunteers were needed to build a fence for this NGO - VV Education. I was anyways of thinking for going for a hike on Saturday, so i decided that hike and building a fence will give similar workout but building a fence out in the open would be a unique experience and in the process, atleast some good will come out of it.

From VVEducation (Viva verde) volunteering

VVEducation is a small NGO that offers 2-3 day summer-camp like activities for school children from under-privileged schools. These kids who study in and around bay area, who live 50 miles away from ocean and in California which has such abundant natural beauty have never been to a beach, have never seen a redwood forest and have never been on a summer camp. VVEducation gives them an opportunity to do so in this completely natural setting near Half Moon Way with hills in the background, livestock...it was serenity just being there. VVEducation - the website has more details.

From VVEducation (Viva verde) volunteering

So, overall for me it was just awesome. It was work, some rigorous work and lots of fun and happiness. There were about 15 volunteers, all from different backgrounds and we were here just to build this fence for kids whom we would never meet or never know. Being a sw. engineer and also by being lazy ( i like to believe that both go hand in hand), i have never done proper mechanical work before.... i want to do mechanical work, plough farms, do carpentry, and build fences :) . With the help of this gentleman, he guided me on how to use tools, how to use lever etc etc.. I took out nails, dug holes, screwed in nails, used axe-saw, rolled wire....all in a day. The whole thing was organized very well and being totally a DIY (Do it Yourself) job, there were instructions on how to plant a fence.

VVEducation is doing a great job and i appreciate them for doing it. It has not been easy for them but they are very passionate about their work. Their reward is the smile on children's faces when they see the ocean for first time, when they draw milk from goats or just arrive there.

From VVEducation (Viva verde) volunteering

I also met this person there who is a organic farmer near HMB again.... she learnt this was a 6 month course at UC Santa cruz .... checked out that course and it looks very fascintating.

From VVEducation (Viva verde) volunteering

The complete album link -

VVEducation (Viva verde) volunteering

Life in Nov 27 - Jan 10

2012-01-22T10:34:00.000-08:00

I am writing this Life in series ending on Jan 10 even though today is Jan 22. This is indeed unusual but i think this is an admission of late blogging. But Jan 10 was the date i returned back to US from India trip, so it gives a natural end date and i think combining too much info is not good for a post.

I went to India on Dec3rd, the idea was to work from bangalore for the first two weeks and take next three weeks off as vacation. India trip as always is very exciting and an eventful experience in its own way. The trip coincided with my dad's surgery and it all went well. The last 7 blog posts, cover a few of the big highlights of the trip. Here are the ones that were not covered -

I had a 20 hr stop over at HongKong while coming back. I went back again on to Big Buddha and decided to visit Kahloon island this time. I had mis-timed my sleep so i was tired and sleepy for the entire day, not to mention alone, so i couldn't enjoy as much as before. But i got to see Chungking Mansions, went for a walk inside and it was a great experience. The articles of Chungking Mansions are so true and this small world is indeed a place to see. Wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chungking_Mansions

While i was at home in Dakra, i read many books. Some of them have been documented before on this blog. In addition to them, i reread Lord of the Rings and saw the unedited version of the Peter Jackson movie. I dont think that i have written a review of this book before. Rereading the book for a second time (and that too after watching the movie umpteen times), it was still fun. Tolkien's mastery of dialogue construction and story play is indeed quite amazing. The missing chapters from movie such as The house of healing, and Tom Bombardillo were a delight to read. The uncut movie version has few more scenes which was a delight to watch.

Most of my trips were done on flight but i did take train from Ranchi to Delhi. Here is a perspective shot from train -

On my first night at bangalore, i was hungry at 2 am. I went to Leela and had aloo paratha for 300Rs. It was a good one but 300 rs is quite too much.

Devi Arts foundation. Went to an exhibition that combined choreography and delhi life together at Devi arts foundation. Went with Aarti and thanks to the place suggestion by Parul. I was glad to see that the place like Devi Arts foundation exists, i may not have understood all the short movies but a few of them were definitely catchy. And art definitely requires more time to be understood. Overall a good experience except for the fact that my wallet was stolen at the metro station.

The coming back flight movies were -
(a) The Debt - I liked it. I think i am becoming a fan of Jessica Chastain. Helen Mirren is good as usual and the direction is taught. Good story!
(b) Life in a day - Liked it! A unique creative experimental documentary. People were asked to upload their life on the day of 24 July 2010 and their clips were combined to make a documentary on life on Earth. A good idea and worth watching.
(c) Thor - I started watching this movie to go to sleep and it worked but after i woke up, i had to finish it. Bad movie.

Went bowling with office gang at blore. Got five consecutive straight hits and still came second. I think that was sheer luck.

Met Rana, Aditi and stayed at their place at Blore. Great place and they certainly know how to maintain it. Thanks for their hospitality.

Met Nandini, Nikhil, Rajesh, Parul and later Gurshi on this trip.

Donated blood for the first time. Woohoo!

Often episodes in my life look like future scenes of a Khosla Ka Ghosla movie when i am in India :). It is so true. On that note, i end my this episode of Life in series.

Day trip to Bodh Gaya

2012-01-22T10:03:00.000-08:00

While i was in Dakra, Ranchi, i decided to go and visit Bodh Gaya. I went about a month ago and the only reason that i had not blogged about it is because i had not uploaded the images and videos from my phone (yes, that is my excuse)

The best part of the trip was the road journey from Dakra to Bodh gaya to Nalanda. It takes about 5.5 hrs to reach Nalanda, and the road is quite bad for the first hr or so but it is decent for the rest of the trip. This is the Jharkhand/Bihar part of India and i had not seen this part of India much before. There are many villages along the way. I was glad to see open lands, roads under construction ( a sign of development), agri fields, huts made of hay and a general feeling of calm and serenity on the trip. The villages/small towns grew along the roads which is understandable from localite's perspectives but not good for traffic and road safety. I didn't find any good dhabas which is indeed a big disappointment for me. Since i was not driving, i was able to enjoy it even more, although having a driver makes me totally uncomfortable. Here is a driving perspective -

We went first straight to Nalanda but at Rajgir, we saw the first Visitor information center. I dont know whether i have blogged about this before but here it is how i plan my travel - I never do any planning. I believe that it makes the trip much more enjoyable (since there are no expectations). In US, i just drive to place and go the tourist information center and ask them politely - what should i do or what would you recommend me :) And thats it. So, i rely on experts and it has worked greatly so far. So, seeing the tourist info place at Rajgir totally excited me and i had to go in. Apparently Bihar govt. is investing a lot in tourism and the whole place was under construction but the guy did gave me a list of things that i should do. There was a map of couple of hiking trails, its a shame that i didn't had time to do those hikes.

From India trip - Dec 2012

The Nalanda ruins was not as interesting as the museum next to it which is quite decently maintained. I think a little more of education will go a long way in preserving those artifacts. The actual ruins could have had more restoration efforts as it appeared neglected. The tourist guide was reasonably helpful. I think in its hay days, Nalanda would have been a masterpiece. I think we should build Nalanda 2.0 commemorate the institution. While coming back from Nalanda, i stopped at the Japanese temple and Bramha Kund. Bramha Kund is actually a hot spring but for some reason we like to associate religion to everything natural in this world. As a result there were hundreds of people taking a dip in that totally dirty water. I was totally grossed out, very sad that a natural beauty was so exploited and the local police were just not doing anything. There were scores of beggars, people watching clothes, bathing etc etc. This made me very sad.

We drove back to Bodh gaya, the plan was to stay there for the night but due to holiday season, they had blocked the road a km before the spot. Since i do not like my tourist places to be filled with people (gosh, how would i survive Indian toursim ( i smile as i write this)) i decided to ditch Bodh gaya and get back home. I also had a running cough so that was also a factor in getting back.

Listening to the Cricket commentary on AM while going and listening to local AM stations while coming back in night was quite an highlight. I like the govt. run radio and their mix of programmes. I had the kachori and litti as the local food place at Gaya, it was decent but not that great. Homemade parathe with Karela was a big respite and an awesome delight!

The pics of the day trip and the entire India trip can be found here - https://picasaweb.google.com/104532372595633553382/IndiaTripDec2012#

Travels with Charlie : In search of America

2012-01-22T09:34:00.000-08:00

Travels with Charlie : In search of America
By John Steinbeck.

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travels_with_Charley:_In_Search_of_America
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Travels-Charley-Search-America-Steinbeck/dp/0140053204

Every book that i read is a carefully chosen and has a nice background on why/how i came to read that book. Sometimes my book reading itself is a story (although not as exciting as the book itself). In this blog, i try to document that story while giving my opinion on the book itself.

I came to know about this book while listening to NPR (Thanks NPR!). On that show, the show anchor tried to repeat the same journey as John Steinbeck did in this book. The show anchor wanted to see the world as what John Steinbeck saw and how things have changed since. I think the story can be found here - http://www.npr.org/2010/10/02/130287348/a-half-century-later-steinbeck-s-roads-ride-the-same.
One of the segments in the story both the original and in NPR was about redwood trees and how magnificent they are and how Steinbeck was fascinated and his writings which was read aloud on NPR just blew me away. I think that i can simply attribute this show for my trip to go to Redwood national park in Thanksgiving last year. Had i not heard Steinbeck's lines, i may not have gone. But my story does not end here. I indeed went to the Redwood national park and hiking alone in Redwoods is one of my happiest moments of my life. But before i started my hike, as habitual i am to go to each and every visitor center, i went in and due to habitual sickness, i was looking at the books section when my eyes felt on this wonder. Now, here i am going to begin my 9-10 mile hike and i clearly will not be reading this book and i can buy this book anytime but now i have seen it and i have to buy it. I remember the ranger/cashier telling me - "This is such a good book!". So without reading this book, i hiked with it for about 9 miles carrying this extra 250grams of luggage all over the hills and in between redwoods. Naturally, a sane person would finish the hike, snuggle under a warm blanket and read this book for it was cold that night and the place seemed just right to read it, but not me. I didnt read it that night, i think that the reason would be that i was happy/content that night and i didn't needed anything. So, the book now comes back to Mountain view and then travels with me to India, to Bangalore-delhi-bangalore-delhi-ranchi and it is in the train journey from Ranchi to Delhi that i finally turn to this book. And needless to say, the Ranchi to Delhi train went like a blink and i was smiling most of the time on that train while my fellow passengers were throwing curious glances at me thinking that i am a weirdo. I think that "In search of America" in the title (they could only see the cover as i was reading the book) created a little discomforting scenario.

That was the story of how i read that book, now my opinion on the book.

It is a must read. Highly recommended. Why? I think first and foremost it is because of John Steinbeck's writing and his candid appraisal of his thoughts, actions and world around him. Right from the first para where he talks about his affliction to go on a journey, his journey preparations and vignettes of people whom he meets and conversations, i simply love them. As i have admitted on this blog previously, i am a big fan of journey stories, the slow moving adventure with beautiful landscape in background, it just makes my style. Without ruining the book, i would just like to mention that my favorites are (a) the conversation about roots of humanity, (b) Talking to the stranger family at the picnic stop, (c) Description of Charlie's actions and his thoughts.

I think i can never describe why i liked this book. You just have to read it and figure out. All i can say is that i am so glad that i have read this book.

Movies - Dec 2011

2011-12-31T21:25:00.000-08:00

A series of average/horrible movies characterized the month of december. Several were watched on the flight from SFO to DEL. Since Nov was hectic, there was a desire to watch mindless movies and that can be seen by the list below.
Mission Impossible 4 - Good action, better story/screenplay than MI2/3. But the ending is far fetched.
Dus tola - Good movie. Manjoj Bajoayi is very good. Brings back the local village feel.
Boondock saints II - Very similar to the Boondock Saints 1 in terms of style, writing and direction. But little weak story . Willem Dafoe in 1 was absolutely brilliant and his touch is missing from this flick.
Colombiana Mindless movie. Decent action.
Ra-one Horrible.
overheard HonkKong flick with wire tapping, spying and all elements of a good thriller is present but too much is tried in one movie resulting in a bollywood style story yet direction is good enough to keep it taut.
overheard 2 Same as 1.

Need to improve the selection going forward.

Partition of India: Legend and Reality

2011-12-31T20:20:00.000-08:00

Partition of India: Legend and Reality
By H.M. Seervai

I ordered this book last time when i was in India from flipkart. It was delivered after i had left. But this time, i have read it.

This is an awesome book. For people who love history, for those who want to read under the hood, who want writing to be backed by facts and proof. A writing that is very analytical in approach and where criticisms or inferences are very well backed up. All those and more is there in this book and of particular importance is the subject on which many have strong feelings but few know what exactly happened. This is an eye opening book but the requirement is that you have to read it with an open mind, free from bias and prejudices.

H.M. Seervai has managed a feat in historical account in an age where internet was not that prevalent and finding sources was not that easy. But what helped him a lot was that Britain decided to release all the official documents that they found while they were in India. Relying heavily on the later volumes, Seervai deconstructs the myth and explains reality as it happened. That the partition was a result of poor assumptions made by INC, that the efforts to not go for partition were made a lot by Jinnah and the Muslim league, that Gandhi could have prevented it if he was able to see beyond the obvious, that the Indian leaders where more preoccupied by self government and less by what will happen after that. At some level, i agree with Nehru's philosophy that religion should not be a part of a secular India but he didn't do enough to allay the fears of minority rights. And INC itself was playing religion based politics and there were people like Patel who were quite communal. There are eye opening accounts of people who played a major role - in particular Wavell and Maulana Azad.

What makes this book extra special is that Seervai has read opinions of people who had criticized his book and in his introduction, he deconstructs the arguments of his criticizers showing the fallacy in their arguments or just prejudice. The introduction is to be read after the book. Seervai also has a lot of praise for Maulana Azad and he denotes special section in his book on understanding Azad's book India wins freedom.

Highly recommended that every Indian should read this book.

Hunger games trilogy

2011-12-31T20:05:00.000-08:00

It was Robert Yau who tweeted a link of the Hunger games trailer that told me about this book series by Suzanne Collins. And this is alsy my first Kindle read. It was Barbara who suggested that this book is a nice way to get familiarized with Kindle. Both of them were right. Hunger games trilogy is one of those again masala page turner flicks where you dont have to read between the lines.

Its amazing that my India trip coincides with these trilogies, In the last one i finished the The girl with ... series and this time it was Hunger games. While the concept of Hunger games is new to me (having not seen Battle royale), the writing is as direct as i have ever read. Suzanne Collins writing just pushes the plot forward. There is very little description of the surroundings, of the scenery and very little character development. Everything that is written is written if it helps the plot. While this may be exciting to some, it just becomes too direct and it feels that you are reading a children fiction instead of an adult one. But this does not mean that i am against her plot developments. I think she has a very keen knack on how to push the plot forward and thats what makes one read the trilogy at a non-stop pace. It takes averae about 7 hrs to finish each book and thats why it doesnt hurt to read it. Among the three, i found mockingjay to be the most weird. While keeping Katniss out of action may be a more practical idea, in terms of reading it, it is very boring. The ending with Coin is too cliched. Haymitch is one of the more interesting characters and it is sad that he doesnt get more time in the book. The love triangle is not that great and it is one of the bigger disappointments.

The review above may have more criticisms yet i read the trilogy. This is because Hunger games is like the action flicks such as the fast and furious series. You know its crap but there is still some fun in watching them. After reading Hunger games, there is a serious need to read something more intelligent and having read the Song of ice and fire series so far, Hunger games feels very much for young teens.

The Kindle experience was quite good. Unexpected as i thought that i would never be able to get around the physical books but kindle is actually very well done. Having read one book on my ipad which was a vad experience, i thought that e-reading is not for me. But kindle's light weight and nice intuitive page turners are a delight. The font and screen size was not a problem at all.

Love in the times of cholera

2011-12-31T19:31:00.000-08:00

Finally i finished a Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Long long ago i started 100 years of solitude which i liked reading but for some reason i didnt finish it. This time, i started reading Love in the times of cholera. It took some time to finish it but it was a good reading experience.

I didn't like it as much as i like the Rushdie's books or even Pamuk's writing. But on its own it was quite beautifully written. His character sketch is very deep and his use of instances to draw the sketch is very unique and quite real. I flet that the backdrop of cholera was not as clear as it should have been. However, the character of each of the protagonist is beautifully written. The ending is also quite noteworthy as it atleast made me satisfied. The other interesting aspect is the screenplay on how events unfold. We are told of the husband's death a lot earlier and then the background. This creates an interesting psychological advantage in the mind of reader. Overall a good read.

India diary, Dec 2011

2011-12-31T19:01:00.000-08:00

Yes, the long awaited India trip finally happened. Writing this post while sitting at Dakra, about 80 kms away from Ranchi. The following are a few noteworthy instances which were worth remembering.

1. Bangalore airport entry. I was bringing two macbooks, one personal and one office one, and as per Indian rules you can only bring one laptop. I was prepared to pay the duty that if they ask for it, i will pay the duty. One was in my hand bag and other was checked in. I see that the checked in suitcase has a big X marked on it with chalk. Interesting! I walk out and duely the checked marked suitcase is noted and i am asked to go to the screening section, they screen and whoa there is a laptop. Here is the conversation after that -

Him: How many laptops do you have?
Me: Two.
Him: Ok, please come with me to the next room. (I walk over there)
Him: Please show the two laptops. (I pull out the two laptops)
Him: Only one is allowed as per Indian rules.
Me: Ok, One is office one and other one is personal. I need both here.
Him: (Look at me)
Me: What should we do now?
Him: How old are these laptops?
Me: Office one is three years old, personal one is one year old.
Him: (Again looks) Ok, dont worry about it, you can take these with you.
Me: Thank you sir!

I bet that this would never have happened at the Delhi airport (ask Gurshi who had to pay duty) , only in bangalore is such a thing possible.

2. Wallet got picked up while boarding Delhi metro at Rajiv chowk. Was trying to catch the yellow line and along came a train which was jam packed, and at Rajiv Chowk all those people came out with all the push-pull and there was also a crowd who wanted to go in. And in that moment, my wallet was picked which i realized instantly but whom to catch. Lesson - Carry wallet in front packet. Loss of about 6000 rs but more issue is the painful process to get new cards and stuff.

3. Dilli-walla - In one way Delhi has been totally cosmopotalized/metrolized but there was a time when Delhi was about Dilli-wallahs - people who spoke sweetly, were friendly to others and used to live life happily. It is rare to find Dilli wallahs now a days but one fine Sunday morning, i took an auto rickshaw from Harinagar to District center and the driver was a typical dilliwallah. In those 20 mins, he told me about his childhood, the day his bike was stolen and he was sad but his dad without saying any word bought a new bike, the day he bunked from school etc etc. I think these people need to be sought out .

4. Delhi T3 airport - Quite impressed by the delhi T3 airport. Not because of its size but because of its art, in particularly the mudras depicted on that giant wall when one lands. The Dilli chat in the food court on first floor is also quite impressive.

5. US returned. There was a time when i first landed in US, every dollar amount was back translated into indian rupees to judge its value. It has been only 4 and 1/2 years and now when we come to India, every Indian product's price is back translated into US dollars to judge its value. Inflation has been quite dominant in India but the lack of context of prices four years ago is hurting big time.

Kimya Dawson - Same Shit/Complicated

2011-11-28T10:00:00.001-08:00

I love this song, specially the lyrics. The reason i like Kimya Dawson is because she writes poems just the way i would like to write and she rhymes them as well. Also, her poems are incredibly personal and she does things that i would like to do in my life. This song is from her latest album - Thunder highs. I saw her perform this song live and it was simply awesome.

You were looking down at them, they were looking down at you.
You were starched and press, they were all disheveled.
They were holding hands, they were ragamuffins and
they said "I know we're not fancy, but we're on the same level.
We've got plans, big plans we're gonna change the world.
All you care about is dollars, that doesn't make sense.
All you do is hit snooze, watch the news, buy shoes, drink booze, make money, feel spent.
Day after day after day, it's the same shit.
Day after day after day after day after day."
Then you looked at them without batting an eye and said
"Hey little hippie, let your freak flag fly.
Why don't you go smoke a bowl in your best tie dye,
get a tattoo of a dancing bear holding a peace sign.
You can talk the talk but when it comes to real change,
aren't you and all your little friends exactly the same?
You sit around at potlucks pointing fingers, placing blame,
drinking kombucha, and eating tempeh.
Day after day after day, it's the same shit.
Day after day after day after day after day."
If you are judging them while they are judging you,
and you think that makes them assholes, maybe you're an asshole too.
Do we argue with each other 'til we both turn blue,
or find similarities in what we like and what we do?
Yeah, just because someone does not look like me
doesn't mean that they are a clone or a sheep.
Maybe they like their job and they're living their dream,
and they love their friends and their family.
Some people thrive between nine and five,
and feel like they're choking if their neck's not tied.
And some people feel as if they're gonna die
if their seams aren't straight and their shoes aren't tied.
Some people like business, some people like numbers,
some people grow organic heirloom cucumbers,
and only feel free with their hands in the dirt
in a pair of old jeans and their favorite t-shirt.
Some people feel enslaved when they have a boss,
some people without one feel totally lost.
To make this world work it takes all different kinds.
We have all different tastes, different strengths, different minds,
so it doesn't make sense to generalize
and it doesn't make sense to judge with our eyes.
We need more compassion, we need to be kind
if you open your heart you might like what you find.
'Cause there are some mean bus drivers, but there's some nice bus drivers
and there are some nice cops in Madison, Wisconsin.
And there's some nice teachers, and there's some mean teachers,
just because you have a mean teacher doesn't mean all teachers suck.
and no one is nice all the time, no one is mean all the time
think about what someone's going through that's making them be mean to you
maybe their pet gerbil died and they are really sad inside,
or maybe they got in a fight with someone that they really like,
maybe they are really shy and don't know to socialize
they just want to run and hide, not saying that it's justified
but if we learn to empathize the resentments will vaporize
situations metamorphize before out very eyes.
then the need to stereotype will become outdated when we realize everyone is really complicated.
We are all so complicated.
I am also complicated.
I'm a black mama lactivist, a home-owning punk.
It's been over a decade since the last time I got drunk.
I drive a minivan, I've got junk in the trunk.
I think Danny Devito is a total hunk.
I like revisiting the shit my therapist helps me remember.
Being friends with someone for a long time, still not knowing their gender.
I fight for equal rights and I fight for inner peace.
I pray to the dead for the gratitude I need.
I've got chickens in my backyard and a little garden plot,
I really hate commercials but I got a slap-chop.
I'm a sucker for a remix, let me tell you what,
by the time that I am finished, you're gonna love these nuts.
I'm a little bit pop culture, a lot bit D.I.Y.,
I don't know the definition of T.M.I.
I write poems about my period, post pictures of my log,
if you don't like body functions then you shouldn't read my blog.
My husband's a musician from the mountains in France,
he wrote me a song, we did interpretive dance,
then he knocked me up, now we have the coolest kid,
yeah, hooking up with him's the smartest thing I ever did.
Now I feel like I can fly when I'm on roller skates,
I get a little high when I eat dried dates,

I feel like unloading when i'm loading up the car,

I feel like time exploding when holding my guitar.

I don't understand what numbers have to do with success.

or what sales have to do with happiness,

unless they're the kind of sails that will carry me to sea,

where my grandma and grandpa are waiting for me.

I never thought I'd make it to 25, now I'm 37 and I'm glad that I'm alive.

If I ever need a tour bus I'm still gonna drive,

cause I looking out the windshield as the world goes by,

looking out the windshield as the world goes by.

Now I'm 37 and I'm glad that I'm alive

and I like looking out the windshield as the world goes by.

Perspectives in motion

2011-11-28T09:17:00.001-08:00

I am a big fan of moving shots. Shots in which camera captures motion. Think A Straight story and the video of fields from Mr. Straight's lawm mower as he is driving. With that music, it is awesome. Another example is Kieslowski's bleu/red when there are couple of shoots when you can see the outside view as a person is driving the car. Or think how do you see when you see outside the window from a railway train. I love the feeling of things going past me, places, towns whizzling past me, new things, watching horizons, air hitting your face, trees coming and going, coming and going.

Videos when running are also very cool. So i decided to shoot those. Most of them have me driving except the one at Yellowstone.

Snow covered trees @Yellowstone -

Driving to Philz on Middlefield -

Driving to Redwood national Park on Highway 101N

While hiking -

(The camera is shaking because i am moving...lessons to learn)

Yet another one -

Redwood national park

2011-11-28T08:46:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving weekend was close and everybody was asking - what are your thanksgiving plans? As usual, i had none. So last Sunday, 4 days before thanksgiving, i started googling. Somebody had told me about redwood but driving 7 hrs alone earlier seemed like an ordeal. But now that i am going to leave this place soon, i thought that this would be a nice small road trip + time with nature + hiking. I looked at couple of airbnb place for lodge but since it was expensive, i booked the first highly reviewed lodge - curly redwood lodge and then i had the plan.

Redwood national park

Curly redwoods is a big giant redwood forest full of big giant redwood trees. Here are a few trip highlights

~ Crossed avenue of the giants. I was supposed to run a marathon here in May but i bailed out. But now on driving, i realized that it would have been awesome to run here. Very leveled and very beautiful route.

~Videos. With my new phone+camera, i had began clicking photos but this trip marked the beginning of videos especially moving videos. Will share links below.

~Hiking - Hiked the prarie creek redwood national park. Started with Prarie creek trail, moved to West Rdge trail by Zig zag trail#2, and then turned back to Friendship ridge trail and finally back to trail head from James Irvine trail. Total 13 miles. A very different trail compared to my previous hikes. Most of the trail was covered with fallen leaves or tiny branches, so it was all red in color. Also, it had rained so it was all green and wet. A lot of humidity in air. Since it was not the peak season, for my first 4 hrs of hike, i saw only one person. Hiking alone clears a lot of concepts in life.

~ Room stay. Spacious room. Since i reached thanksgiving night and it was raining, i stayed at room and watched two episodes of dekalogue - VIII, and X. Watching kieslowski just makes life meaningful!

~ Driving - 7 hrs to and 7 hrs fro. Lots of driving. But it was a scenic route. Plus on the road i had downloaded NPR podcasts - top 50 records of last decade, 100 most memorable songs, Stephen Breyer's lectures, so it was awesome.

~ Hot tub - Stopped at Arcata at Finnish country hot tubs and saunas. Took one hr of hot tub time and relaxed there. The hot tub setting is quite natural. According to yelp, it is one of a kind in US.

~ Small town. Crescent city is a very small town. And so was Arcata, Garberville. It was great to see life in small towns. Very slow, easy and relaxed. No traffic, no queues. Saw even a cyber cafe at Garberville which was very interesting. Also, found a lot of Hippie influence especially at Arcata and Garberville. I had forgotten that california was the classic hippie destination. Saw people hitch hiking rides, clothe styles, stores selling indian gods and other eclectic things. Mountain view is a suburb but still the city is close, living in a small town would be very interesting. No matter how small a town is, there is a performing arts center with plays/dances, artists touring, there is a downtown, and local cafes. I wonder how these people see whats happening in this country. I was reminded of Sarah Palin's real America theory.

~Redwoods - They were big, huge giants. They were everywhere. Good to see that they exist.

Hiking video -

Driving perspective -

Music discovery

2011-11-27T10:20:00.001-08:00

For lack of a better title - this post is titled music discovery.
Here is what happened. I have been feeling for quite some time that my music intake has reduced and i was feeling weak (music deficiency). So i started listening to some stuff that made me feel good but it told me how much weak i really was. This blog post just throws links that i have enjoyed or links that needs to be researched because there is whole world of things that i have to listen soon.

For NPR links, listen to the blog post as well as comments, there is a tone of info even in comments -

Songs that make you feel good - http://www.npr.org/2011/08/16/139679654/songs-that-make-you-feel-goodhttp://www.npr.org/2011/08/16/139679654/songs-that-make-you-feel-good

Songs that make you cry - http://www.npr.org/2011/07/19/138511911/cry-baby-cry-songs-that-make-you-weep

More songs that make you cry - http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2011/07/19/138513593/more-songs-that-make-you-cry

Kashmere stage band - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmere_Stage_Band : Basically this is a funk band, so lets see what is funk. Also included is James Brown - known as the originator of funk.

Kimya dawson albums - Alphabutt and Thunder thighs.

NPR - the decade's 50 most important recordings - http://www.npr.org/2009/11/16/120326033/the-decades-50-most-important-recordings

NPR - when new york was on fire - http://www.npr.org/2011/11/22/142550159/when-new-york-was-on-fire-a-mid-70s-musical-revolution This post talks about the origins of many music forms such as hip-hop, rap and repetitive music.

Money ball OST - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTHeZyOL0aw

Life in Oct 23 - Nov 26

2011-11-27T09:35:00.001-08:00

I wrote a 3 page long life in series two days ago and then i dont know what key i pressed, but it closed the window and for some reason blogger didn't auto-save the draft. Alas, here is attempt 2 with 2 more days of update.

Last Life in series installment was little bit sparse, it didn't cover all things that happened to me. Hopefully this one is full of info.

~Boardgames - Yes, i have been a weekly member of office board games (With Maneesh, Brian, Dane, Heather and Sean). We have played Powergrid and other games which i dont remember (sorry about that). It has been a lot of fun and wed evenings were never so interesting before.

~Office move - Yes, our office moved from Mountain view to San Bruno. This meant many things. To start with, it now feels like a big company. Reminds me a lot of trilo days. Large office space, small cubes, less communication and general lack of purpose :) The office move also brought back the commute, so now we (me and Nikesh) take that caltrain and ride the bike from Milbrae. We experimented with multiple time slots, now we take the 5:57 bullet from Mountain view and 4:24 pm on the way back. San Bruno is little hilly so riding the bike there is a decent workout. I am loving riding my bike again, its a great bike.

~Thunder soul (Kashmere stage band) - Thunder soul was the camera cinema club movie for the month. It is a docu based on a high school band who under their prof - Conrad Johnson made funk/jazz albums which won many awards and festivals. The amazing thing is that not only it was a high school band but its a band of all blacks and this was 60s when the civil rights movement was very high. What make these documentary is so special is its sheer timing. What we see is that the band members reunite after 30 yrs to stage a concert to than prof who is close to his deathbed. A few band members have not played for the last 30 yrs, so it makes the whole process very interesting. A very inspiring and emotionally charged documentary. As Tim(club director) rightly said, this is a movie that you would not see on your own if it was released. The discussion with the director was very interesting afterward. This movie is not getting any theatrical release because its opening weekend on a test theater was not as expected. So, even thought it has won many awards, it still is not release worthy which is very frustrating for a director.

~Thunder thighs - From thunder soul to thunder thighs, this is the new album by Kimya Dawson. She was in SF, so i went to see her concert. It was great, i have not heard her new album fully yet but from the songs she performed, it seems that they are really good, it is basically poems set to a song like tune. And her poems have message, strong points of view which i agree to most of them. THere were couple of other performance as well and Aesop was there. Overall a good concert to attend.

~Music - a separate blog post coming soon :)

~Diwali was decent. Had big plans to cook Rasgullas and dahi vada but nothing materialized... was lazy :)

~Crosswords/Nytimes - I wanted to read nytimes on my ipad and they wanted me to buy digital subscription. On researching online, i found out that buying print gives digital for free and print had a 50%off offer. So i bought it and its been great fun reading a physical paper since. Its going to take a long time for humans to adapt :). At the same time, Tom Macke from office told me that he solves crosswords every day and it takes him 5-10 mins to solve it. He even went (actually invited) to the annual crossword competition once and e said that he was no good there. I asked him to solve the crossword in front of me and it was amazing seeing him work. Anyways, so he sends me a crossword daily and even though i am no good at it, i like cracking my head against it. Even with google (used under restraint) i find it difficult. But it is very interesting nevertheless. I spent 4 hrs last sunday at the sunday crossword which is supposedly easy but big. It was lot of fun. The whole community around it is also very interesting, its great to read the analysis of a crossword puzzle like in the Rex parker blog or at nytimes.

~Wordplay - I have been a frequent listener to NPR's wordplay on Sundays with Will shortz. So much that about year and half ago, i even ordered his books but never worked on it. Since my new crossword fascination, i have been trying to boost my learning curve with these additional materials, so i spent the last saturday working on puzzles in that book. So fun :)!

~Film making workshop - I bought a fb deal to attend film making day long workshop at SF school of digital film making. It was about two weeks ago on a saturday and i was in no mood to listen to classes. But still i went there but bunked after half way. It was okay, on the first half they covered roles/terminology directing 101, camera positions and showed us cameras that they use. Things that i missed were lighting, scripting etc. Too many people showed up, it seems that film making is the new craze these days. After skipping the class, i went to Lulu and had an awesome french lunch :)

~Halloween - Halloween at office was less fan fare than usual. I went as a occupy wall street protestor. Also did pumpkin carving at Deepti didi's home with Siddarth and their neighbors.

Stephen Breyer

2011-11-24T20:09:00.001-08:00

I went to the City arts and lecture recording last week. The way it happened was quite interesting. Somebody in office posted tickets to some other lecture. I was not interested in that one but i thought that this is one area which i have not explored and i listen to City arts and lecture whenever i get time and i like it. So, i just went to their site and browsed upcoming lectures, saw a judge's name and description mentioned democracy. I just bought the ticket. Pretty easy, huh? And then the day comes and i go to this lecture. Turns out that the interviewer is Michael Krasny.es, The Michael Krasny, whom i listen on NPR all the time and i like his voice and style. So woot! And then Michael Krasny walks in and there comes the clash with my mental model of Michael Krasny with the real one. He is old, he is human :). But nevertheless, he starts talking and all is well in this world. Now, coming to the main point - Stephen Breyer. What a judge, what a person! You can listen to the recording at -
http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201111141000

Since then, i have listened to another lecture by Stephen (on a podcast) and will be reading his books very soon. In the KQED lecture, Stephen talks about how court works, how the 9 judges vote, how he works with his staff etc. He goes into some history, why courts were created, debates on things that is the court the right system etc. He also shares things that he has learned from being a Supreme court judge - aka to listen. The fact that another Supreme court judge by listening to the same facts can come to an exact opposite conclusion than him makes him question himself even more; he has learnt that an effort is required to see the same thing from another view point and that makes the whole process very interesting. He also shared few books he liked, his memories from his upbringing at SF etc. He mentions few cases, of prominent is the Bush vs Gore case - i would leave you to listen to the podcast recording.

He answered questions very well, in particular the one that i liked was his approach to many things which from what i understood (a) Give time to things, if you dont think that they are correct, find out what is correct and then act , (b) history is filled with bad cases, infact it is a great boon to live in democracy the way we have it now, whether you like it or not. So, do not come to conclusions very quickly, see the other view point and try to get more facts. And there were lot of anecdotes shared. I am going to read his books, may be on this trip to India :)

But a great man. I was very pleased that i went to this lecture. And seeing Michael Krasny, thats a wow!
Wiki page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Breyer

My thoughts on Occupy

2011-11-13T09:01:00.001-08:00

Griftopia book review

2011-11-13T08:45:00.001-08:00

Movies

2011-11-13T08:09:00.001-08:00

Yes, a post on movies was long awaited. Infact my last life-in series also didnt cover all the movies.

1. The Ides Of March - Went with Zoheb to this one. This was a Clooney directed by political drama, (and clooney also made Good night and good luck). So, i had to go for it. Dcent movie. Nothing extraordinary.

2. Delhi Belly. This was almost forced on to me by Gurshi. I didn't like this movie. To be fair, this movie definitely gets full marks for breaking out of Bollywood, an interesting story line, and no-song drama. If a movie contains any of the previous points, that is definitely a fail in my mind (remember Jaane tu yaa jaane na). Anyways, my problem was this movie was that (a) The whole belly arch, its too obscene to watch in a movie. (b) i do not like that Imran khan - too much over acting and ... this movie didnt click with me. If you are making a masala movie, there has to be good humor which was missing and the sound track was also not that good.

3. Anonymous - was Shakespeare real or not? That is the question that this movie addresses and offers an alternative theory which says that Shakespeare's plays were actually written by someone else. Good acting and decently made movie. It could have been more tighter in editing.

4. Raising Arizona - Watched this one yesterday. Considered to be a classic in comedy genre and one of the best Coen brothers films. To me, this was again a decent movie but i would not call it a classic. Nicholas Cage is definitely good to watch and this movie has the typical Coen brothers stamp. I think Coen brothers are such a hip because they always show a different America, an America that is often ignored by others and while showing that, they are true to the subject and understand the local sentiments very well. But to me comedy means something else. Best american comedy for me is Woody Allen's movies like love and death, My cousin Vinny, Charlie Chaplin and others.

5. Agora - I am a big Rachel Weisz fan. So even though this movie was not that appealing, i watched it. It is again a decent movie, and Rachel Weisz is very amazing :). It covers the era in Greece when Christianity was beginning and how it questioned the Greek philosophy of science and mathematics. Truely a sad part of our era, Christians will never believe this version. Even though it may not be historically accurate, i believe that it is also not far from truth as well.

6. The man from nowhere - Wanted to watch a mindless movie, watched this one. Pretty mindless but entertaining.

7. Aagey se right - This was was very interesting. Came from our netflix recommendation. This movie is actually a spoof on bollywood movies and the trouble with spoof movie is that they sometimes become what they are trying to spoof. That is the same issue with this one as well. But this movie has shades of brilliance - The scene when he goes underground to get his gun and when KayKay is talking over webcam. KayKay does a very good job but he should be doing better movies, a lot better movies. Good comic movie. Shreays talpade is also quite good. The ending could have been better but it is not.

8. Dear Zachary - This came from a recommendation from Maneesh. Highly recommended! It is a documentary and one of the very well made documentaries. Lots of love and personal elements put into a movie and made with lots of passion. I cried a lot in the movie. I am not giving any details because thats how this movie must be watched, with no prior information. Must watch. Cant stress enough!!!!!

Saw some movies again - Music from the inside out, Swades.
Need to see Kieslowski again.

Asian food and museum

2011-11-13T07:49:00.001-08:00

I promised a blog post on Asian art museum and the Fremont Thai temple last time i blogged. I try to keep my promises so here it is -

Fremont Thai temple -

From Asian art museum + thai temple

If you search for Fremont That temple on google, the first result is from yelp where yelpers are saying how awesome this food is. And that was exactly my reason to go to this temple. And to explore a Thai temple too... recently after visiting HongKong, i am actually quite impressed by Buddhist temples. The temple was very quiet, neat and spacious. This is how local temples should be, no restrictions, people acting sensibly, no noise. Kudos for maintaining it that way. Every Sunday, outside the temple, there are stalls of different foods. It will me 70% non veg, 30% veg. If you are a thai cuisine fan like me, it is definitely amazing. We tried fried sweet potatoes, fried bananas, pad thai, spicy eggplant, couple of sweets. All of them were very tasty, not the restaurant style, these had a little bit homemade touch to it :)

Asian Art museum -

From Asian art museum + thai temple

This was one of the pending museums in my coverage of SF museums. Gurshi also agreed for this one. We reached there about 3 pm, so 2 hrs to see the entire museum. We took the free tour on South Asian Goddesses where the tour guide introduced us to Parvati, Ganaga along with others ones. The one thing that i felt while visiting the museums was that i had never seen statues of Gods in such detail ever before. I have been to many Indian temples, some with equally similar statues but just because of the crowd, too short of a time to see, and because of scores of Pujaris there, i have never been able to see them. So seeing these statues here, the sculpture work was indeed quite fascinating. Asian art museum typically gets broken statues because they are no longer cared by the temples once they are broken. So, even with their broken shapes it was quite interesting. Most of the museum was dominated by religious statues which was kind of interesting. I really liked the Indonesia's puppet collection and there was also a video of it. The potter collection was also very interesting.

From Asian art museum + thai temple

Life in Sept 19 - Oct 22

2011-10-23T14:52:00.000-07:00

Missa Brevis - Thanks to Modi, i went to a ballet dance by sjDance at San Jose. This was a rendition of Missa Brevis - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missa_Brevis Decent show, most of the choreo was quite abstract and little bit difficult to grasp.

Margin call - Margin call was the film club movie of the month and as before i liked it a lot. Margin call describes the financial crisis, a fictionalized account but this time from the perspective of the actual traders. It takes us inside into the lives of these traders, these young guys making salaries starting at 250K$ without knowing what are they doing. The cast is very very good, the movie is paced as a thriller all set in a time frame of 24 hrs and it all unfolds in a sombre manner. I have new found respect for Zachary Quinto after i realized that he even produced this indie movie. The underlying social commentary is quite awesome. Highly recommended.

I finally got the half moon bay apartment with a month to month lease but had to say no to the leasing agent. A hard decision.

Went to Asian Art museum with Gurshi. Thai temple with Deepti didi, Siddharth and Sneha. More details on another post.

Bought a new macbook pro. 13 inch.

Hackmeet unconference - attended Hackmeet 2011 unconference at SF. http://hackmeet.org/ Very useful conference, got a lot pointers on hacking and activism, meaning of digital activism and electronic civil disobedience. Very impressed by people who came there, some real activists and some of the best hackers. Quite good talks and a lot of supportive group. Got to start doing some hacking and ECD.

Cancelled my vacation plan to India.

Met Aninda and Jatin after a long time. Went to 21st Amendment and Dosa at SF.

Went to Arab film festival - Saw movie - Hawi http://www.hawithemovie.com/ - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1776201/ Decent movie - Liked the shoot of Alexandria. Ok story, liked the fact that not everything was revealed. The title song was good.

Dont judge us

2011-10-15T02:50:00.000-07:00

Don't judge us.
Don't judge us yet.
One century, two centuries is too short of a time.
Leave it for the future historians.

What right do you have to judge us?
We were looted, we were exploited,
like a slave, like a POW.
They came, They saw, They conquered.
Where were you then?
Why don't you judge them?

Yes, ours is a way different from yours.
We still have a long way to improve upon.
We admire and respect your accomplishments.
We still have to fulfill basic human dignity.
We look up to you for inspiration.
But there is a cost even in your way,
a cost that is hidden,
that is either unknown or unacknowledged,
intentionally or unintentionally.
Someone is always paying the price.

What are countries?
Arbitrary lines on a map diving land on this planet.
Lines invented by us to serve what purpose?
To claim superiority of one over another ?
The process of birth is still a scientific miracle,
A randomized function where there is an equal probability
of being born here or being born there.

We may act like arrogant folks
who will discard your ideas as impractical and foreign
But deep down, we are desperately seeking answers.
These problems are more complex than we can handle.
And we are shit scared! afraid even to show it.

Don't judge us.
Don't judge us yet.

Haroun and the sea of stories

2011-10-08T23:16:00.000-07:00

Haroun and the sea of stories
Luka and the fire of life
Author - Salman Rushdie

About 2-3 months ago, i heard an interview of Salman Rushdie on NPR talking about his new book - Luka and the fire of life. He read an excerpt and i was hooked. Luka was a sequel to Haroun and the sea of stories - a book which i had started to read while in undergrad but never crossed 30 pages.
I finished Haroun and the sea of stories in a matter of 4 hrs while sitting on flight from SF to HK. Today, at philz, i finished Luka and the fire of life.

My verdict -
Between the two, i found Haroun and the sea of stories better than Luka and the fire of life. Infact, I loved the Haroun's story, it was one of the finest writings that i have ever read in English language. The way words are played with, the way hindi names are used and how things come together, it is just a delight to read. Luka also has similar elements and on its own, it is a good book but in comparison, it fells shorter than Haroun. Haroun had many more literary elements in it and has a more compelling storyline as compared to Luka. Concepts like P2C2E and M2C2D meaning Processes too complicated to explain and Machines too complicated to describe when read for the first time are simply awesome. Luka also has many such elements like the videogame analogy or three Jos - Jo Gaya, Jo hai and Jo Aiga. Both these books are children books with fantasy and magical creatures filled; it is only time when somebody makes animation movies out of these - a job which is going to be very difficult but it will be very colorful and vivid if done correctly.

Rushdie takes hinglish to a whole new level and it is always a delight to read him. I liked Midnight's children and i like these two as well. I will have to go to his other books as well.

The flight journey

2011-10-06T00:14:00.000-07:00

Like all things in my life, how i get to a place is equally important to me as the place. This is true of when i go to India. This post covers things done from SFO to India and back.

SFO to HongKong
Midnight in Paris - Finally, i got to see the new Woody Allen movie. Initially, it was Owen Wilson, because of whom i was not interested in watching this movie, i thought that Woody Allen has miscalculated again. But, i was wrong. Mr. Wilson, is actually trying to imitate Mr Woody himself but in his own way which is actually good to watch. The movie overall is a good movie, a movie that could only be made by Woody, old artists, new artists, low confidence, insecurities, romance etc, its all there that it is expected in a Woody Allen film.

Beautiful boy - Michael Sheen, yes i watched this movie only because it starred Michael Sheen. There is something in his acting that is very charismatic. The story is quite sad, a young boy shoots people in his college and his parents try to make sense of it. Its a very humane story, showing the strength of marriage and how one person supports another. Good acting!

Thats what i am. A feel good movie, good performances, coming of age story. Liked it.

Haroun and the sea of stories by Salman Rushdie. A different blog post will address this book.

At HongKong - Thanks to Wang and Ankur who had done some planning on things to go at HK, we went to sight see Hongkong. We went to the Giant Buddha statue in the cable car and visited the nearby monastery. It was early in the day, it was great to visit that place. The monastery is in a distant hill away from general population. Highly recommended. Next we took the tram at HongKong station to go to the peak and enjoy the skyline views. Good view.

HK to India - slept entire way.

India to HK - slept entire way

@HK - This time, we (Wang and me) went to see Macau. Macau is an hr away from HK by ferry. Macau is famous for its Casinos, its like Las Vegas of China :) But there are also some old temples there and some nice churches in downtown. Wang suggested that we should definitely buy some cookies there and they were really good. Both Macay and HK are very well developed and even though the population is dense, they are well maintained. People were really more fashion conscious at these places.

HK to SFO - slept the first half, was very tired. Then, watched two movies.
Page One: Inside the New York times - A documentary about the news paper New York times, how it is evolving to keep itself in business when the print media is dying everywhere. A look at how front page news stories are written, efforts taken to keep news correct, non biased and impact of new york times on people. A good documentary.

Senna - A documentary on the life of driver Senna - said to be one of the best F1 drivers ever. I have no idea about F1, yet because this doc was so popular, i decided to watch it. Senna is treated with same respect in Brazil,same as Sachin in India. Good documentary on how money/rich dominate this sport. and how Senna was instrumental in changing some of the crucial rules in F1. Couldnt see the last 2 mins as the plane was landing.

Leela ki leela

2011-10-05T23:46:00.000-07:00

यह पांच स्टार में रहना हमारे जैसे लोग के बस की बात नहीं है
हम तो अपने देश में ही अजनबी हो गए
अपने ही देश में जा के खो गए
देखि हमने लीला की लीला
अपने देश में ही विदेशी हो गए

We stayed at Leela for a week and believe me, even though it was all lavish and rich, it very soon became uncomfortable and unfriendly. Plus the rates, the charges, i was just surprised. We wanted to rent a taxi to explore Bangalore. I asked the front desk , how much it will cost to get a taxi for 4 hrs/40 kms, he checks his computer and comes back with a number - 3700 Rs ($70), i was shocked. I called some external cab companies and got an AC car for about 600 Rs for 4 hrs. Thats less than 1/6th.

I wanted to get a print out, i called the Guest services and they said that it will cost me 27 Rs to print a single page. For 10 pages, i can buy the entire cartridge :). For 27 Rs, you can send them the document to be printed via email and they will take its printout and send someone to deliver it to your room with an envelope around the document. Talk about self service.

I was told that the morning coffee was complimentary and it can be delivered to your room. Next morning, i was up at 5 am, thanks to the jetlag. After an hr of trying to sleep, i gave up and decided to get the south indian filter coffee. I call the Guest services and order a coffee. After 10 mins, there is a knock on the door and i open it, yes, the coffee has come, but instead of filter coffee, it is the brewed coffee. I ask him, why brewed coffee, why not filter coffee? He smiles and says that this is the new trend here.....

Breakfast was complimentary and it was served same as US style only with more varieties and Indian options included. But the sambhar and chutney were so bland, no tamarind, no spiciness. It was as if we were in US itself.

Even though the room charges were in the range of 14K Rs, the internet/wifi was very bad. They could have charged another 1K and given me a personalized web connection.

We also took a tour of Bangalore (Trinity church-Ulsoor lake - Lalbagh - Vidhan Soudha) organized by Leela. The tour was actually contracted to some other company but it was a horrible tour.

From India "official" trip 25 Sept - 2 Oct 2011

The goods -
Leela used to have live Indian classical music downstairs every evening. That was really good. The Leela galleria outside was still very interesting, specially the Barista and Oxford book store. They were big on selling Massages/spa. I got the Leela special massage (3000 Rs) which was basically an oil massage, quite good.

Overall, i will never stay at Leela with my own money. Not only i can't afford it, also its not worth living there.

India "official" trip

2011-10-05T22:08:00.000-07:00

Sept 26 - Oct 3

India "official" trip happened amidst a lot of uncertainties, but it finally happened. A good trip. Adjectives for this trip would be hectic, fun, short, busy and rich. Yes, rich. Since it was official, we were going by the official policy which mandates to fly business class, live in a big hotels and has significant per day expenditure limits to enjoy other meals. Interviews at blore very too many, hectic but a lot of fun to talk to people. Overall, it felt that people were really very smart, the only difference was finally in the exposure. Indian companies, even though may be paying competitive salaries, the exposure to work has still been not that great. I wonder what would have happened to me if i had stayed back there. A thought that often crosses my mind but fails to give any answers.

Trip photos can be found here

Bramin's cafe -
Tired of having the daily rich and formal food at Leela, we decided to visit Brahmin's cafe (The number 1 Idli shop in Blore, Thanks to a recommendation from Abhay). Brahmin's cafe serves Idli, chutney and filter coffee and it was really really good, i think it was the best food i had in my entire stay there. The filter coffee was amazingly strong. We took an auto from Leela to Basvangudi (round trip cost of about 250 rs) just to have this Idli. Thanks to Nikesh for coming with me. We left Leela at 6 am, thanks to the jetlag, this was very easy :)

From India "official" trip 25 Sept - 2 Oct 2011

Business class -
It was great to fly business class, the key advantage is that the seat can go all the way back to an horizontal position, so one can sleep. I also got to sit on the higher deck both while going and coming back, higher deck has nothing special about it. The other advantage of the class is the lounge access at airport which basically gives you food, drinks and alcohol. But the best feature of lounge is access to shower which i heavily used at the HK airport. Since i had about 14 hrs layover each time, having the option to take a bath was very useful. Food was ok, not that great, freshly squeezed juice was awesome.

Kochi -
Went to Kochi for a day (20 hrs to be precise). Going to Kochi is always fun and relaxing. Seeing relatives, naniji brings back spirits. Life in kochi has a different feel than everywhere. Plus the greenery, yes, those trees, it is just soothing. But this time, i saw many many malls. Too much money is coming in. Aapam and egg curry is always a delight along with Payampoori.
Kochi pics can be found at -

Kochin Oct 1, 2011

Life in Aug 15 - Sept 18

2011-09-18T10:17:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the latest session of Life in Series - The latest and greatest happening in the life of yours truly.

Not many posts were written between last session and this one. Strange, but thats how life is sometimes. But that does not mean it was not an interesting time. A mix, a true mix of work and some really good things (See drama streak post before). Here are some highlights -

Modi stayed with me for a month until he found and apartment and now Gurshi is here until he finds one. Home was always buzzing this whole time.

Apartment hunting at Half moon bay. Yes, it got to my head that i have to move to half moon bay. Two-three trips to half moon bay to see which place suits better but none have been finalized. But we went one holiday and stayed at the beach, it was always good to sleep on the sand, under the sun.

Drama streak, hackathon, see previous posts.

Movies -
Bol - A new movie by Shohaib Mansoor (man behing Khuda kay liye and Ankahi). Yes, i had to see this movie. Liked it a lot. A very heavy movie focusing on social issues like Women rights, transgender rights , female infanticide and many things woven in between ofcourse including religious fundamentalism. The movie is quite good, but i think one of the best things that i like out of Shohaib Mansoor is the dialogue delivery style. Remember Ankahi and how the dialogues were delivered in that rich pakistani style, especially from women. This movie brings all those memories back. It is not as well made as Khuda kay liye but in substance it is as powerful. It raises a very important question - If it is a crime to kill a child, why it is not a crime to give birth to a child while knowing that you can not take care of him. A deep question, need to think about it sometime.

Contagion - a good movie with a big cast and an impressive presentation - i mean the juxtaposition of screen and the sound track, makes the soundtrack makes the movie seem like its moving at a good pace while it isnt. An average movie, but not great.

Missed the camera cinema club movie but it was The Debt. Have purchased membership for next year as well.

Movies at home - Thanks to my tv, watching movies at home has been a lot fun. Serendipity has gone up.
Saw The people vs Larry Flynt - A movie based on a true story and responsible for the current free speech right enjoyed by Americans. A break through judgment. A very interesting story, would have been a big fiction, had it not been true.
Watched Motorcycle diairies again and loved it again. Again sent me to think about life. Note to myself - Motorcycle diairies have hints to answers for life's existential questions.

US open on my TV was simply awesome!

Bought a dvd player for 10$ from craigslist.

Went to a concert by a new local band called Eastern Brew. The concert was called Hazarron Khwaishein aisi and anything with that in name, i have to be there. It was a mix of concert and poetry. The band was a little disappointing because basically they were taking best songs from Indian/Pakistani fusion bands and singing them, so it was like an orchestra but to give them credit, they were doing a good job in performing those songs. The whole concert was divided into four segments, each segment began by one person narrating a story. These people were from Naatak theater and the stories were quite good and they delivered in some style. Overall, the concert set the mood and with Coke studio songs like Jugni, it was a good experience.

Drama streak

2011-09-18T09:48:00.000-07:00

Last month i blogged about going to Stanford summer theater here. Combined with Oedipus from SST, i went for three plays in three weeks. This post is a review.

Stuffed and Unstrung -
Website - http://www.stuffedandunstrung.com/home.html
This i got to know through SHN Broadway stream and was quite curious by reading about it. A combination of improv and puppetry, very interesting. Again, i have seen only one or two improve before and so far, i have found it interesting but have realized that i do not have the context (the american slang) to get a more complete experience. But this idea of combining improv with puppetry sounded very interesting and indeed it was. Modi and me went to see it, there are about 100 puppet heads sitting on a stand and there are 6 artists who take different roles for different scenarios. Suggestions for each act come from audience and even though the audience is trying real hard to give cheesy or double entendre like scenarios, the artists handled them very well. Puppets are also very well done and the artists change their voice to match the puppet's character. Highly recommended! May again go again.

Cymbeline
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymbeline
Modi and i were sitting at Philz on this saturday evening. Having worked all day, i was feeling a little bit tired, philz break was always welcome. There we saw this poster of Shakespeare in the park and today it was the Tragedy of Cymbeline. Modi asked - chalna hai? and a play in the park is always interesting, so we went.
It was performed at the park at Cupertino. The setting of the stage was just too good, they built a stage on the water pond and people were sitting on a small grass hill giving it like a amphitheater like get-up. The play was done very well, it was a free play yet the performers were quite professional. It took me some time to understand the accent but after reading the wikipedia page, it all made sense. Since it was all done in open, it became quite cold once it got dark and wearing shorts, sitting on a grass soon got a little uncomfortable, but the play was good enough, we didnt move. Donated some money after the show was over.
A good experience with no planning. Thats the best kind, if you know what i mean :)

The Cofeehouse Investor

2011-09-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

I am playing with stocks now. I have accounts with etrade and optionshouse and am beginning to follow the stock market. I, who had never understood how stocks work; I, who had no intention of buying stocks; I, who was tired of listening from others about stock market discussions. I have now decided to invest 5000$ into stock market. Nothing more, nothing less.

So, after sharing my crappy investment ideas with Nikesh and bitching about that how GOOG has screwed me over (it went to 490 after i bought it at 555), Nikesh recommended this book to me - The Coffeehouse Investor. With just the title alone, i was excited. Being an avid coffee lover, any book that combines coffee and investing, hooyaaah!!

Website - http://www.coffeehouseinvestor.com/
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/New-Coffeehouse-Investor-Wealth-Ignore/dp/159184245X/ref=sr_1_1

Here is my review on the book, it is a good book. It is a very practical book for newbie investors like me. This book goes to the core of stock markets (in a completely non technical manner) and tells us the fundamentals of stock market. It has a no BS approach and ridicules a lot of mutual funds and other stock market constructed tools which mostly work in the favor of wall street.

Basically, the advise can be summed in these steps (a) Invest in stock market as it is essential (b) Invest in index funds because index funds are aggregate and as stock markets rise, index funds will also rise and (c) Dont listen to the BS and wrong marketing messages of wall street jokers

There are many more tips but the last three were the main points that i derived.

The blog on the site looks very interesting, something to follow.

TC Disrupt hackathon 2011

2011-09-18T09:12:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Nikesh for pulling me (almost literally) into this.

Nikesh and me participated in the tech crunch disrupt hackathon this last Saturday. Hackathon details can be found here - http://disrupt.techcrunch.com/SF2011/hackathon/ The idea is that each team has 20 hrs to build some hack and demo to a panel in 60 seconds. The hack should work even though it may work for only one query.

This was my first hackathon.

Our idea was to create a event tracking tool (named Evister by Nikesh short for Event-Register). Through this tool, you can enter events that you want to track and it will send notifications whenever those events are coming or whenever its registration dates are open. We were able to build a pretty sturdy backend, it was able to figure out the event date automatically but we had a pretty bad UI and it took a great deal of time to make that bad UI.

But, overall the experience was a lot fun. We were able to successfully give a demo and got two free tickets to the disrupt conference. After not sleeping for two days, i slept for 14 hrs straight on Sunday.

We went to the actual conference on Wed. As usual the atmosphere was very electrifying, so many startups, so many good ideas. Working in a startup is a very fulfilling experience, one should always go though it. Lots of info and lots of excitement.

Aik Alif - Coke studio3

2011-09-13T09:02:00.000-07:00

There would be thousands of post on web on Aik Alif. This will be another one.

This is my fav coke studio song. It was my first coke studio and no song can beat this one.

The best part of this song is its lyrics(copied below). Listening to this song on any morning just makes the day.

Parh parh ilm te faazil hoya
Te kaday apnay aap nu parhya ee na

(You read to become
all knowledgeable
But you never read yourself)

You read so many books
to know it all,
yet fail to ever read your
heart at all.

Bhaj bhaj warna ay mandir maseeti
Te kaday mann apnay wich warya ee na

(You run to enter temples and mosques
But you never entered your own heart)

You rush to holy shrines to play a part,
Would you dare enter the shrine of your heart

Larna ay roz shaitaan de naal
Te kadi nafs apnay naal larya ee na

(Everyday you fight Satan
But you never fight your own Ego)

You are quick to attack the evil one,
yet pride is a battle you have not won.

Bulleh Shah asmaani ud-deya pharonda ay
Te jera ghar betha unoon pharya ee na

(Bulleh Shah you try grabbing that which is in the sky
But you never get hold of What sits inside you)

You grab for a star you can control,
yet fail to grasp the light in your soul.

Bas kareen o yaar
(Stop it all my friend)

Let the race end, my friend

Ilm-oun bas kareen o yaar
Ik Alif teray darkaar

(Stop seeking all this knowledge my friend
Only an Alif is what you need)

Stop trying to be the one who knows,
for ‘God is One’ you need to know.

Bas kareen o yaar
(Stop it all my friend)

End the race, my friend

Allah Sayyaan Allah Sayyaan
(God is the Master, God is All)

God is All we need! God is All!

Nee main jaanaa Jogi de naal

(I shall follow the Yogi {ascetic/sufi})

Follow the wandering dervish!

Jo naa jaane, Haqq ki taaqat
Rabb naa devey us ko Himmat

(Those who deny the Strength of Truth
Lord does not give them courage)

If you deny the power of all that’s true,
God will not grant strength to you.

Hum Mann ke darya mein doobey
Kaisi nayya? Kya manjhdhaar?

(We have drowned in the river of Self
the boat and the flowing waters do not matter)

We are lost in this river of self,
no boat or streams are of any help.

Bas kareen o yaar
(Stop it all my friend)

End the race, my friend

Ilm-oun bas kareen o yaar
(Stop seeking all this knowledge my friend)

Stop trying to know it all, my friend.

Allah Sayyaan Allah Sayyaan
(God is the Master, God is All)

God is All we need! God is All!

- English Translation and Lyrics originally in Punjabi | English in bracket is approximate literal translation. A more poetic rendering in bold by Naomi.

Lyrics taken from - http://www.koolmuzone.com/forum/music-infonews/bulleh-shah-aik-alif-%28lyrics-translation-history%29/

Laches and Charmides

2011-08-17T00:51:00.000-07:00

Amazon link - http://www.amazon.com/Laches-Charmides-Plato/dp/087220135X

Thanks to Charles Pletcher (Chuck) for generously giving me this book to read. What a delight to read. It took me more than a month to finish this tiny book. It is a great pleasure to read this book, but it is quite heavy material if one wants to see the hidden layer. The best part about the book was how the sentences were constructed and how conversation was written. Here, this is Kudos to Chuck who insisted that translation matters a lot.

This book is a good introduction to Socratic method of understanding a topic. More about the Socratic method can be read here. I need to do more reading in this area to fully understand it. The best part of this book is that it was both philosophical and literary in nature. It was educational without being didactic. A fun to read, definitely to be included in one's summer reading list :)

And i think, one can clearly see the "thass" being applied in practice by none other than one of the masters of thass aka Socrates.

Life in June 13 - Aug 14

2011-08-14T08:09:00.000-07:00

A day before Indian independence day. There is a new rendition of National Anthem with full song of Tagore sahab. You can listen it here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JltFQS9kFXA

Two months, wow a long time. The last 7 updates cover the important things that happened. This post will cover the minor events -

June 14, birthday. Came and went. Took off but there was nothing special about this day. This will change next year.

Lost my wallet at Stanford and later found it. I am indeed lucky. I think this is the karma of returning that 100$ note.

Been very busy at work overall. Very very busy.

Spent 4th of July BBQing at Guy's place. Went to watch fireworks at Dumbarton after that. Pretty good day.

TV Series - Burn notice and White collar. Masala shows but i still watch them.

New board games at office.

Turkey Bowl - Camera cinema club movie of June. A very indie movie which if you hear the plotline sounds boring but its implementation is very interesting. Camera cinema club is getting diverse which makes it more fun. Turkey Bowl needs to be seen just as a lesson in cinema.

Rakhi was yesterday. Spent the day at Deepti didi's house with local family and good food.

Cant remember what else happened. Whenever i think, i only see myself spending time in office.

Movies in Aug 2011

2011-08-13T09:16:00.000-07:00

Movies in Aug were seen in an interesting fashion. Because now i have a tv, the chance of watching good movies serendipitously has gone up. Here is the list

Harry potter and Deathly Hallows Part 2. The final installment was seen at IMAX San Jose and it was a very interesting experiment to see that movie at IMAX. The circular dome screen creates a special effect all in itself. Regarding the movie - There is a 30 min sequence when they try to protect Hogwarts, that is very well done. Every HP movie is better than previous and it is HP, it has to be watched.

The Whistleblower -
Whistleblower was the camera cinema club movie of Aug. It is based on a true story about a woman who tried to expose the sex trade happening under the hood of a UN peace keeping mission. Rachel Weisz plays that part and she delivers a great performance. Its the director's debut. Kudos to her for making this movie.

My Beautiful Laundrette -
This was one of my tv discoveries. On a Sunday morning, i was working on my laptop and as usual the TV was on. After some random channel surfing, i hop on a channel and i see Saeed Jafrey. Since i do not have an Indian channel subscription, i am curios. After reading the description which says that this movie has Daniel Day Lewis and is made by Stephen Frears. That's it, i have to watch it now. And boy! what a movie. Daniel Day Lewis is very young yet his performance is very strong. The story is about racial tension in UK with gay and other subjects explored. Highly recommended if you like DDL or Stephen Frears.

Koran By Heart
An HBO documentary about a competition on who knows Kuran the best and who can recite it with correct pronunciation. Made it in the style of spelling Bee, it follows the life of 3-4 contestants, how they prepare, what they want to do and interviews with their parents. What makes it special (and different than Spelling Bee) is the Koran or the religious aspect. What is the take of organizers of this competition on growing religious fundamentalism, why a father wants his daughter to learn Koran and what all he is willing to do to secure a good education for her. There are many interesting insights into this documentary.

Stanford summer theater

2011-08-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

Links -
Stanford Summer theater - http://www.stanford.edu/group/summertheater/cgi-bin/sst/

This season, SST is having plays on theme Memory. They had two plays and i have seen both of them. Old Times by Harold Pinter and Seneca's Oedipus.

Old Times -
A very interesting play, a play where it takes some momentum to get over the inertia and once its gone, its a delight to watch. I think the story is very well scripted and its sensual nature keeps everyone at the edge. There is so much electricity in the air and no one knows where it is going. The play summary can be read on wikipedia

Oedipus -
Since i had read the book, i was familiar this time with the story line. But everyone knows about the story of Oedipus. The fun lies in how it is going to be narrated because by no means it is no easy to dramatize it. In Oedipus, a big shout out for the protagonist who played Oedipus, he had atleast thousands of lines to remember and speak them as continuous monologues at a high pitched voice and he was just very good at it. One of the big thing in plays is how the set can be used with minimal prop and in this one, it has been done in a very clever manner.

Acting is good in both plays. The plays were quite cheap 20$ a ticket. Looking forward to more of them.

Stanford Tennis

2011-08-13T08:44:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Nikesh, i have now seen a live professional Tennis match. It was Stanford women's annual Tennis tournament and we got to see the final match played between Serena Williams and Bartolli. It was not only my first live Tennis match but first live professional sport anywhere.

I liked it a lot. It was a sunny cool Sunday with clear blue skies and the match was at 12 noon - a time when it is just beautiful to sit outside. We were at the top row which gave us a good top view and enough distance to pass comments at the match. Audience in Tennis match differ a lot by audience in a cricket match. Since audience is so close to the court, there is no loud music or drum rolls going on. Infact the referee had to step in couple of times to ask audience to be quite while the match was in play. And people also don't like others talking while the play is going on.

We liked it so much that we decided to stick around for the doubles finals as well, i do not remember who played. But overall it was a great experience. Watching the play raw and seeing them sweat it out, one realizes is that it is not an easy game. And as audience, it is so easy for us to comment and say that she didn't play well but in reality those players are giving everything there.

From Mixed bag

A song of ice and fire - 2nd post

2011-08-12T07:37:00.000-07:00

Last time when i wrote about A song of ice and fire, i had read only three books. Now, i have read five. There was a brief pause in between 4 and 5. Both 4 and 5 took longer for me to finish than the previous three. Partly i was more busy at work, but partly also because they were not as good as 1,2 and 3.

4th was quite a difficult one to read because there was no Tyrion. 5th had some great parts but i had more expectations from Tyrion. Jon Snow saved a lot in 5. Overall i am not super happy but i will be content if GRRM can now say that he is mostly done with the setup and all that remains now is execution on all sub plots. Here are a few reasons why 4th and 5th are below par -

1. Lots of travelling. All characters are going from Point A to point B and they never reach B and GRRM spends lots and lots of time in the journey. Imagine the Arya Stark chapters in 2 and 3 and now instead of one Arya, there are 7 people (Brienne, Tyrion, Frog, Sam, Jaime, Griff and The Iron King's brother, yeah that is 6) and all of them get lost.

2. Very few killing. Lets face it - 1,2 and 3 were interesting because (a) there were many deaths and (b) Good people died too. In 4 and 5, there are very few deaths and all good people are still alive (with some bits of approximation). Death keeps everybody on their toes and made the novel so much more.

3. Varys and Littlefinger are almost absent. My fav part of the series has been the time when Tyrion is at the Casterly Rock and the conversations that happen between Tyrion and Varys. Littlefinger was always a suspicious character but in 3 and 4, his nature is revealed better and more of it was wanted. He is left out of all fun at the Vale.

4. Many new characters are introduced and every character gets less POV time because of that. We need quality not quantity.

5. The woman with Dragons - WTF are you doing ? The woman with dragon tattoo did more than you.

Things that did work in 4 and 5 -
1. I think, without a doubt Reek in 5 was one of the better reads. GRRM has generated sympathy for a villian by creating a bigger villian. And Jon Snow's chapters were also very well done. People who stayed at a place had a much better story to tell.
2. Bran, more Bran was needed in 5. Atleast one more chapter was required. Same goes for Arya. Both Bran and Arya have atleast temporarily reached a destination from where they dont want to leave. More details would have been better.
3. New constructs such as the drowned God, what is dead can never die, wargs, god with many faces were all interesting constructs and good to read.

A very expensive rug

2011-08-12T07:31:00.000-07:00

From Knitting

A rug made with Alpaca yarn (130$) and size 50 needles (50$). For the size of it, it just took 8-9 hrs to finish it along with drinking sips of coffee and good conversations.

Standing desk

2011-08-12T07:10:00.000-07:00

I have moved to a standing desk at office. Lets do the usual round up of questions?

Why? Were you having back pain?
No, I was not having any back pain. I should not have to wait for back pain to move to a standing desk model. This will be a preventive measure.

Then Why?
There are two reasons - (1) I was never happy with my monitor's height while sitting, i always had to bend my neck. (2) I was just bored of sitting. Two consecutive weekends and all week days included on one chair, it was just too boring to sit and work.

How does it feel now?
Quite good. My feet still hurt when end of day comes. My bar stool option to sit at a height is makeshift and not comfortable. But standing is lot more fun. As more time passes, i am getting more adjusted.

The making of standing desk was quite fun. A genuine standing desk comes at about 700$+ range. I just got an IKEA coffee table and put it over my desk to move to a standing desk model. I also bought a bar stool as my standing option but later found chair in office that can be used as well. My total investment was $20 for the table, $70 for bar stool and $30 for the monitor riser = 120$.

Here is how it looks

SF Moma

2011-08-12T06:59:00.001-07:00

Writing blog after such a long time, a month. And you know the best thing about it, this is coming as an inner call. This blog is the space where my mind wants to release the data so that it can consume more. A data transfer from one hard drive to another :)
So, here we go.

Went to SF Moma almost a month ago. It was my second visit to that museum. I have been just meaning to go there for a long time. There was Getrude Stein exhibition going on which included Matisse, Picasso and many more.

Modern art has always been elusive to me, for the most part the questions lie in two different buckets - (a) What is the artist trying to convey with this portrait and (b) Is this really an art worthy of exhibiting.

Initially whenever i looked at a painting of static objects such as flowers or apples, i used to wonder that it is only an apple, whats so great about it. But then later when i realized how difficult it is for me to draw/paint an apple, i realized that it is not that easy either.

The one section which i enjoy the most at MOMA is their photography exhibition. These are photographs of real people/places captured in a manner that one can stare at it endlessly. The idea that time has been framed, that the emotion is captured makes photography truely a great art and one that atleast i can appreciate.

There was also a friday talk at office by Barbara on the Modern art subject and that fueled me to go to MOMA.

Ponyo - Now 7 months old

2011-07-04T10:36:00.000-07:00

Ponyo is about 7 months old. Ponyo who ?
Ponyo is my fish who was almost understood to be dead when she arrived at my house. But it was only found out later that she was just lazy to move.
Here are some pics of Ponyo

From Ponyo

Ponyo is doing ok now. She moves a lot more than she used to. I on my part have tried to make her life as interesting as fish-ily possible as can be done for a lone pet in a small aquarium. I constantly change her spots in my living room. Currently she is near the television so that she can also enjoy the cool HBO movies :) Previously, she has stayed near my computer, near my kitchen (to enjoy the aroma of my cooking) and near the couch (so that she can watch and learn on how to relax). I have also tried out a different bowl for her aquarium, it was round one. There was no feedback on whether she liked it or not. But i will try the experiment again soon.

She is still afraid as a fish when it comes to changing her tank water. I do that roughly once every two weeks and i wonder when she will get used to it. She has shown no signs of recognition to me. One she and i went to a eye staring contest, the one who blinked first will loose, it was i who had to give up.

Consumers of democracy

2011-07-04T10:29:00.000-07:00

Thass

The kids grow up

2011-07-04T10:27:00.000-07:00

Audio movie review of the film - The kids grow up.

Going back

2011-07-04T10:15:00.000-07:00

[[Ok, whew!! Finally. I had recorded some commentary on my mobile phone. It took me a lot of time to upload it to blogger. These files were recorded in .amr format, so i tried finding players to play .amr but they were hard to get. So, i got an .amr to mp3 converter. Then storing them online is also a pain as blogger does not offer any such service. So, i got a box.net account and lastly, embedding it -- box.net has a right click option on the file. Anyways, here it is.]]

This is a audio podcast on Going back to home, rather Going back to India recorded on June 19. It is a quite auto-biographical. One thing that i find it interesting is how different i sound. The sound is so different when i hear myself and when i hear over the recording, makes me laugh
:)

http://www.box.net/shared/i58gxfyhnqz46ukrngg5

Jhumpa Lahiri

2011-06-17T08:44:00.002-07:00

This morning, i woke up and cleared my mailbox. It has been more than week since the last time. Out came new yorker. Back in my apartment, while flipping pages on my sofa, there is the name - Jhumpa Lahiri. The article is titles - Trading Stories and is under the Reflections section of the magazine. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/06/13/110613fa_fact_lahiri

I start reading the article, and suddenly it all comes back. In terms of literary style and i am no expert in judging it by any means, the style is very simple - an easy to read fiction, the same style of JK Rowling. But, if words from Rowling create the fantasy world, words from Jhumpa is simply like listening to classical music. They are the notes, so soothing to listen, so calming, creating the sense of longing, taking the mind to a place from where it does not want to return. Like Ruskin Bond, Like Gulzaar. It is so good if some one can write about one's own life as a poetry. A poem that is told with such honesty that it would seem to be fiction yet it doesn't seem so.

If Uncle TOm's Cabin is the book to read about that time and slavery, if Grapes of Wrath is the book to read about that time and era, Jhumpa Lahiri's collection of stories is the place to go to understand the dilemma of an immigrant family and the inner struggles witnessed by children who are born here. And in this essay of Trading Stories, Jhumpa reflects on how she got into writing and how her background influenced her stories and if truth be told, this story is no different from Jhumpa's fiction stories and it is her magical ability that she can equate both fiction and non fiction in the same style.

So, Jhumpa, Thank you. For sharing this story.

Yellowstone national park

2011-06-12T21:41:00.000-07:00

A great trip. Took a flight to Seattle, then drove to yellowstone from there. 15 hrs drive one way. Lots of fun. Hot springs, Geysers, Snow falls, waterfalls, bears bison, morning glory, camping, tenting, cooking, and lots of driving. This trip also marks the trip with max photos taken. I have uploaded 100 of them. Please see the album (it has some commentary with it). Yellowstone is a beautiful place. May end is not the best time to visit. Summer (july- aug) is better, but i got to see my first real snowfall. It is very cold but not that cold either. Camoping was ok, thanks to my new sleeping bag which was able to hold the temperature very easily, i slept very cozily. But we camped only one night.
Also got a speeding ticket while driving, what can i say at 6 am in the morning, sleep deprived with friends sleeping next to you, driving in a construction zone, do not, yes do not overtake a cop. Got my ticket near Spokane, WA.

A song of ice and fire

2011-06-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

Series: A song of ice and fire.
Books read so far : Game of Thrones, Clash of Kings and Storm of Swords
Author: George R R Martin.

3 novels, average 900 pages each. I have finished them in 5 weeks. This is the what is called addiction.

A song of ice and fire is a fantasy series set in medieval time frame where there are kings, kingdoms and battle. It is a fantasy series because there is magic but it is very less and as series moves forward, it is coming back. There is a lot of death in the series, lot of killing etc. It is very dark. A song of ice and fire is told by a list of Point of view characters, we get to see what is happening and how the POV character is thinking as events unfold. And George RR Martin has shown that he can write on and on about Westeros (seven kingdoms) and we will not get bored with it because he has that skill in writing. He can take any character in the series and make him a POV character and it will become a unique story in itself. There are lot of reviews out there of the series, here are some points that i have found to be interesting to me -

1. Common points - (a) Excellent character building, the POV characters are fleshed out in great detail and they are very complex as well. (b) No white or black, these are people, they are good and bad at the same time. They do deeds to survive and these deeds are evil for others. People are shades of grey, you sympathize with them and at the same time you sympathize with their enemy as well. You win in both cases and loose at the same time. And good person die the same way a bad person die. This as everyone has noticed on the web, is the biggest fun in reading the series.

2. Sexuality takes a whole new different meaning in this series, women are shown as elements of subjugation at lower level and yet there are women as queens leading the story. There is a free mention of whores, cutting manhoods :) and sex/rape is mentioned everywhere, yet it is the way of their lives, it is not extreme as we come to know it in our day to day lives. Women talk about it in the same way as men and the world is way different than we know. It is very raw but i think GRRM is very clever that it does not end in titillation and is handled in a very mature manner.

3. Story is moving. GRRM's frame is very big and he keeps on painting. There is a bigger story that while he is telling it, there are lots of short stories. what is interesting is that each short story is deftly crafted, with lots of juice and is delivered in a manner that each one of them feels complete to read in itself. So, not only the bigger story is a fun to read, the shorter stories make the journey very smooth.

4. Play of words. In HP series as well, the story was moving. But what GRRM adds is the play of words which was totally not present in HP, this i think he draws from Tolkein. One clear reference is the notion of singers who write songs about wars and events. This is very Tolkeinish. But there are other word plays such as play between dogs and wolves, giant of a lannister for Imp. The symbolic reference in word play is very interesting.

5. Tyrion. Tyrion is my fav character in the series. His lines are full of wit and humor and when GRRM writes his thoughts, ooh, they are just a delight to read. He is a just and righteous person working in a camp that is doing wrong things. Yet he is tied by blood to work with them. His POV stories are eagerly awaited.

6. I have forgotten Tolkein's writing, all i remember is that it was a joy to read him. But GRRM definitely feels like Tolkein in the scope of his vision.

While HP was great with kids and young adults, i think for adults it has to be GRRM that should be the way. I am going to start 4th - feast of crows tonight. The 5th one comes on July 12 after 5 years. There are to be a total of 7, i do not know by when it will finish.

Life in Apr 25 - June 12 : part 2

2011-06-12T20:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, there is one more part. Primarily because i forgot to add things in the previous one. Yes, this one was more.

Trip to walmart store. The .com employees are given a chance to to a store tour where we get to see how a store actually operates, what different items are, how pricing is updated etc etc. An informative visit, we went to Mtn view store. The interesting part was the culture of the company, the walmart cheer, how they greet their managers, overall atmosphere. A very different experience, i did not liked all the things that i saw. But public negativity is not an option in the digital world :) But overall, thankful for the experience.

Watched a play - Wedding album. Directed by Lillete Dubey, written by Girish Karnad. It was an ok play, could have been a lot better. It has all the elements to be a monsoon-wedding level but in the end, it fails to tie all things together.

Bought a groupon for massage. Went for it last week and what a painful experience. I think (i am not sure as it was my first time), i got a deep tissue massage, but what it felt like somebody was punching me strongly with elbows. God, i hope its not that awful all the time.

Partially read books -
Myth of rational markets. Idea that markets are irrational, it goes on to a big rhetoric bashing against financial research people who assume that markets are rational. Got too boring after 100 pages.
Value investing for Dummies- With a new zeal to start investing, i decided to learn about a few terms. Got too boring after few scans.
The gay science : By Fredric Nietzsche. Too abstract and broad. Should give another attempt some time later.

Not so great at work front, not much done. But things are now moving in full flow, lots of stuff to be done.

Life in Apr 25 - June 12

2011-06-12T08:02:00.000-07:00

Wow, i can't believe that i missed the life in series of May. No, it is not that i have not been late in updating this series in past, but so much happened in May and once i was almost thinking of updating life in series when it was just3 weeks past. Anyways, welcome to the current installment of life in series. A very eventful time period in my life.

Went to audium - Sound Sculptured space http://www.audium.org/. The idea is that sound also has a spatial dimension, one that we often ignore. At Audium, a specially crafted room is set (in a spiral setting) with speakers surrounded. Dusing the show, there is total darkness so that one can concentrate only on the sound. Then, the sound comes, sometimes from here, sometimes from there. Overall creating a sound journey through time and space. Unfortunately, i could not achieve that feeling, i went to Audium on a friday night after work and was too exhausted to concentrate. Moreover, the sound were natural sounds instead of music. I didn't enjoy as much i had expected, but overall, a good experiment.

Volunteered at Spruce elementary - As part of wmart now, i volunteered for Junior Achievement program at Spruce Elementary. The idea is to spend a day with kids and teach them about something. Two people are assigned to each class, i was given grade 1 and our task was to teach kids about families, jobs, difference between needs and wants, how families help each other. There was a packet filled with activities for kids (and instructions for us). Activities included putting things over a map, coloring , drawing a need/want object, stickers, and more. My co-teacher for the day was another wmart employee and she was amazing. We took turns in teaching, whenever she was teaching, the whole class was quite and attentive, whenever my turn came, they were noisy, all over the place :). It was an awesome experience to see how schools function here. Things that striked me was that there is a great paucity of funds to these schools, they were struggling to afford markers, which was quite sad. Other thing to note was how well the teaching practices have evolved, there is a gesture to bring silence to the room. No yelling, no loud voices, a small gesture by teacher and everyone is silent with eyes on teacher. And also, how active you have to be to manage these kids, seeing them all the time, giving attention to every kid. It is an amazing job to pull it through.

From Mixed bag.

I bought a new tv. I thought about buying one on a friday and then went and bought it on Saturday. Impulsive buying, the power. Initially i just wanted it to be a a moderately prices, may be second hand tv. But when i went to frys, seeing the models there, i just wanted a bigger one. There was a deal on frys on this one and i just bought it. The link is this.

Yellowstone trip - should go to a different blog post.

A song of ice and fire. Book three done. Should go to a different blog post.

Cooking experiments: Egg weekend. Megan gave me eggs from their home bred chicken. I also had eggs from before. So together, i celebrated an egg weekend.
First, there was spinach, mushroom, cheese, omlette

Then, egg curry with peanuts

And finally, the experiment to do, one of the best snacks on this planet - The Egg PUFF

But the egg puff was a disaster. The coating was bad, or may be i just didn't knew how to use it. But a very eggy weekend.

Finished my stuffed egg in knitting. Since then knitting has been on hold.

Board gaming still goes on every wednesday evening, missed some weekends.

Movies:
Last month's camera club screening was Project Nim - a documentary on a chimp called Nim who was taken by researchers in Columbia University to make him grow in human surroundings. It is made by James Marsh, the man who made Man on the wire. It is only due to the magic in James that this topic can be made into a movie and presented in this way. On its own, i would never have seen this movie, but loved watching it as part of camera cinema club. One of the animal lover who helped Nim a lot was present after the screening, a nice conversation followed. I would recommend you to watch it just because it is so different, but it is not that fun to watch it.

Masala movies - Fast five with Ankur and Varun Krish. X Mel first class. Hanna with Amrinder. Green hornet as a test 3D movie on my tv (horrible movie). A wednesday again.
And now since i have a tv, i am enjoying watching already watched movies again. I don't know why but i am.

Also watched Too big to fail on HBO. Loved it. A great documentary, very very well made on the role of govt to pass the financial bail out, chiefly focussing on Hank Paulson. Highly recommended for people who love documentaries.

Dancer in the dark. Rented from netflix after hearing the awesome song - "I've seen it all" It is a total director's movie. We see what he wants us to see. A very bold cinema experiment and as all Lars films, a difficult to watch movie.

Watching videos daily on JerrySeinfeld.com. everyday he releases 3 clips from his previous recordings, a delight same as Calvin and Hobbes for every morning.

Went for hiking to Mt. Diablo with a meetup group. Small hike of 8 miles. Enjoyed the change of scenery. Need to go again, it is a big mountain.

Gulzaar

2011-05-30T15:18:00.000-07:00

Yoon toh humari kabhi mulakat nahin hui
kabhi haath mila ke handshake nahin kiya
Na kabhi hi hello ki
aur na hi kabhi telephone pe baat kari

Magar, akeli shaant raaton mein
baith kar saath coffee zaroor pi hai
sagar kinare kai bar,
suraj ko doobte hue dekha hai
train ki khidki se,
pahad, pedon ko guzarte hue dekha hai
ek baar,
dentist ke waiting room mein samay bhii bitaya

exam ke dinon mein, kitaab se hatkar
aapke saath man halka kiya hai
ghar se door, kabhi kabhi
aapse guftagu kar ghar pahunche
is daudti hui zindagi mein
chote se break diye aapne

Footpath pe chalte hue,
Chand ko dekhte hue
long drive mein baithe hue
doston ke saath thass marte hue
kitne hi baar aapko yaad kiya

gulzaar sahab, khoob padhi humne aapki rachnaein.

Hot Coffee

2011-05-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

Hot Coffee the Movie
Official Site : http://hotcoffeethemovie.com/
A documentary by Susan Saladoff

Blocking the courthouse door
By Stephanie Mencimer
Amazon link :http://www.amazon.com/Blocking-Courthouse-Door-Republican-Corporate/dp/0743277007

I saw Hot Coffee in this year's San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF). When i came to know about SFIFF, i decided to watch atleast one movie. While i was browsing the movies, since most of them are indie movies and firs time premiers, it was difficult to decide which one to watch. None of the other ones were convincing enough to watch them (and i knew that later one of these movies will be a cult film and i had failed to recognize them when i had a chance). But HotCoffee was something that caught my attention. A documentary on US civil justice system, case studies on old cases. A movie about law, civil law, this is my area of interest, so i decided to go for this one.

Hot Coffee simply put is a great movie, a very eye opening movie. Thanks a lot to Susan for making this movie. It is so good that if anybody wants to see it, i will buy the ticket and will even buy dinner to discuss the movie. I am serious about this offer BTW. Hot coffee starts with the notorious case when a old woman sued McDonalds because she spilled hot coffee on her lap and for which she won 3 million $. Everybody has made fun of this case, including Seinfeld. This is the example cited on frivolous law suits that are crippling this nation. But very few people know about the facts. The facts are that she suffered third degree burns because of that coffee and if you look at those burn images, they are shocking. McDonalds serve their coffee at 90 degree C and there have already been 75 previous cases before this one regarding coffee being too hot. It is also little known that before suing, she normally wrote to McD to reduce temperature and pay 100K$ for medical treatment which McD declined.

The movie then goes beyond this single case and highlights how the judiciary is in such a bad state in US. It explains tort reform (tort means injury) and how corporates are trying hard to prevent people from filing "frivolous lawsuits" and in the procedure, they are actually covering up a lot of malpractices. It also goes into how supreme court elections are also plagued by money and how there are more conservative judges in SC than before. The movie shows a case study to highlight its point.

Stephanie Mincer is interviewed in the movie and thats how i got to know about the book - Blocking the courthouse doors. The book takes a more anti-republican stand and is quite biased in its writing. The book covers the topics in movie and few more. The book covers more cases and can substantiate its claims with more points. But frankly, after watching the movie, the book for the most part is covered and its so much biased writing is a turn off. We need a balanced view here. I am confident that there are definitely frivolous law suits and most of them are thrown directly away but somebody should come clean and write with transparency.

At SFIFF, the director was present for a QnA. Americans where so ashamed of themselves after watching the movie. They were frustrated and CA being a liberal state, the angst against Repub was clearly felt. On what we can do here, Susan, the director, had a very clear answer. (a) Spread the knowledge, bring out the facts. You have been brain washed, it is time to clear our heads. (b) Poke your senators to remove the cap on these tort cases. (c) Fight against these bad practices.

Wow, it certainly is quite terrifying seeing how things are going here. The money gap is increasing in US as well, same as it is in India and it is going to be a big concern here.

Nickel and Dimed

2011-05-14T09:33:00.000-07:00

The jinx has been broken. I have finished a book - Nickel and Dimed: On (not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich (Amazon link)

Over last 4 months, i have started atleast 4 books and not finished a single one of them. But this time, as part of this month's Politically inspired book club, i have finished this one. Although it was a very small book and that helped a lot.

Barbara got curious once that how people who earn the minimum wage in America, how do they live, what is their lifestyle and how it is to be them. She decided to answer these questions by going to three different cities and living their life - meaning taking a job which pays close to minimum wage, trying to live with that much money and surviving using none of her previous knowledge. Her journey is eye opening and quite shocking.

Middle class is totally unaware of how lower class work and high class even have lesser idea. But whenever someone like Barbara does the class jump, so many assumptions are broken. And there is one feeling which just lingers on my head - the feeling of gratefulness, the feeling of thankfulness, to whom? may be destiny. And the very next feeling is frustration, helplessness. We all should do something.

Somehow this is all more relevant now that i am part of Wmart, it is interesting to compare the internal opinion, the corporate side and the public side :). Barbara's third job is in Walmart which makes the story more interesting to read. When i joined Trilogy, my common idea of life was "Escaping Corporatization", it is all coming back again. The rebel in me is kicking me everywhere. But leaving my ego for the moment, i think it is screwed up here, yes even in the most developed nation of the world, it is screwed up. And the middle/upper class has very little idea about it.

About Barbara's writing - it is very interesting. Since she knows that it is only her temp job, she knows that after a month she will be away from here, she has the luxury of having a detached attitude when she wants, she can easily cover the third person perspective. But at the same time she is also able to give first hand knowledge by living their lives. Workwise, she is very professional and gives her 100%. The ability to mix both these narratives makes the reading definitely a light one because the contents in its true seriousness are very heavy.

Scala & Kolacny Brothers

2011-05-07T00:13:00.001-07:00

If i give you a song and ask you to listen to it and now compose it differently, what would you do?
Have you ever tried? I have and have found it to be very difficult.

Recently i stumbled on Scala and Kolacny Brothers (Thanks to a link shared by Vishal Srivastav on Facebook). Wiki page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scala_%26_Kolacny_Brothers

From the songs that i have heard, they have a uniq genre of their own, a very classic genre that is lost now a days - they take songs and compose them in an operatic manner. Scala and Kolcany bothers is a Beligian girls choir. Their music yet has not touched deeply but this post is just to remember their style, a very creative approach and it takes time to understand true creativity.

It is so great to listen to these artists, bands from different countries. Last post was about Bjork who is from Iceland, this band is from Belgium. Enjoy the song Creep by them. Lyrics and video is below. The song was originally composed by Radiohead, you can see the difference.

When you were here before
Couldn't look you in the eye
You're just like an angel
Your skin makes me cry
You float like a feather
In a beautiful world
I wish I was special
You're so fucking special

But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here

I don't care if it hurts
I want to have control
I want a perfect body
I want a perfect soul
I want you to notice when I'm not around
You're so fucking special
I wish I was special

But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell I'm doing here?
I don't belong here

She's running out the door
She's running out
She runs runs runs

Whatever makes you happy
Whatever you want
You're so fucking special
I wish I was special

But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here
I don't belong here

Other songs to try out
Bitter Sweet symphony - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulqsjl1wfDE&feature=related
California Dreamin' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXdqqCegZ-A&feature=related
Every breath you take (Very nicely done) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZICJ2ZPh63Y&feature=related
Smells like teen spirit (Interesting take) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui2a2KTx60s&feature=related

I've seen it all

2011-05-07T00:03:00.001-07:00

Music, after a long time a post about music. There has been a lot of music in last month, i am going to write 3-4 posts about some of the music that has got me hooked.

It starts with I've seen it all. Got to know after watching the trailer of Dancer in the Dark, have not seen the movie yet but soon i will see it. My best source of music has been movie OSTs . Movies is such an amazing artform that can combine both visual and audio.

I've seen is sung my Bjork. I have not heard her other songs but i am going to soon. She has a very unique style of singing the song, quite creative. She makes the words stand out and the lyrics are very very good. Lyrics that make you hear the song again and again. Here is the video and lyrics :

"I've Seen It All"

I've seen it all, I have seen the trees,
I've seen the willow leaves dancing in the breeze
I've seen a man killed by his best friend,
And lives that were over before they were spent.
I've seen what I was - I know what I'll be
I've seen it all - there is no more to see!

You haven't seen elephants, kings or Peru!
I'm happy to say I had better to do
What about China? Have you seen the Great Wall?
All walls are great, if the roof doesn't fall!

And the man you will marry?
The home you will share?
To be honest, I really don't care...

You've never been to Niagara Falls?
I have seen water, its water, that's all...
The Eiffel Tower, the Empire State?
My pulse was as high on my very first date!
Your grandson's hand as he plays with your hair?
To be honest, I really don't care...

I've seen it all, I've seen the dark
I've seen the brightness in one little spark.
I've seen what I chose and I've seen what I need,
And that is enough, to want more would be greed.
I've seen what I was and I know what I'll be
I've seen it all - there is no more to see!

You've seen it all and all you have seen
You can always review on your own little screen
The light and the dark, the big and the small
Just keep in mind - you need no more at all
You've seen what you were and know what you'll be
You've seen it all - there is no more to see!

There are multiple renditions of this song by Bjork but i find the one used in the movie to be the best.

Battlestar Gallactica

2011-05-06T23:44:00.000-07:00

I have finished watching reimagined BSG (2003 series) and have also finished watching The Plan.
And i liked it a lot.

BSG started after i played the board game couple of times at office (Thanks Maneesh!) Curious about the series, i started it. I am not a big fan of sci-fi genre, i find it too escapist for my taste :) (The elitist in me laughs)

But BSG is different, it is a political drama done inside a sci-fi genre. And what a wonderful premise - Humans are attacked by cylons (robot machines) and are wiped out, there are about 50K survivors on the run to look for a planet Earth to survive. It is at the question of extinction of race are bigger issues discussed - what is the meaning of justice, idealism, is it ok to loose some for greater good, what is God in all this. Things like destiny, why we survive, why we exist, purpose etc and GOD are discussed under the umbrella of this series. Also, what is the difference between a machine and a human, what is soul, what is a child, there are many questions. Many satirical references to our society, many string comments, strong suggestions along the way.

BSG in addition has very cleverly managed to solve some of the problems commonly faced by television series. For example, since fuck cannot be used, they use the word frak. If you remember the tv show Heroes, the villian was never killed, they always brought him back under some pretext, here cylons can have multiple copies, so even if you kill one, there are more, this allows them to have some great battle sequences to keep the action going yet they can keep the main cast. Also, there is no effort to explain some of the scientific tools used, they go by some assumptions and always stick to them.

Performances are also very good except the president and the Admiral. A bunch of newbies but they deliver very well. Multiple roles are very nicely handled by Grace Park and Tricia Helfer.

There are some episodes in season 2 and 3, when they are added just to maintain continuity, with very little information added but there are only few. At the end, things make sense (not all) and there is a very nice ending (unlike other series when there is no ending)

The music plays a very important role and it is very good. It is very diverse and has elements of minimalism, western classical, classic rock. Title credits include the Gayantri Mantra which is awesome. One of my fav track is Shape of Things to come. You can hear it at Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tII1DSHPU80

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407362/

I have sold my own soul

2011-05-06T22:55:00.000-07:00

I have sold my own soul

I know i have done it .... lost that mattered the most
I have sold myself .... i have sold my own soul
It is not any secret .... i did it for the money
i do not how this happened .... my pocket has a hole.

What about your principles .... what about your morals?
And what about those aspirations .... all those ideals you once swore
What can i say .... What do you want me to say?
Yes i know i have failed .... i feel like a whore

I-N-J-U-S-T-I-C-E .... C-O-M-P-L-I-C-I-T-Y
To all who suffered .... you have my pity
Why did you give to those .... to those who didn't deserve
I have received money .... for actions that i didn't serve
To nature, to planet Earth .... you owe to the child yet to come
I will pay my debts .... pay it forward in years to come

What do you think will happen .... 25 years later when you look back
when you had the option to keep it .... but you sold it anyway
I do not know .... that is left for time to tell
But do not judge everything about me .... based just on today

Life is a drama .... i wanted me to be perfect
But the script was flawed .... and i just did my role
I know i have done it .... lost that mattered the most
I have sold myself .... i have sold my own soul

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

The above poem was inspired by the song "I've done it all" sung by Bjork and written by Lars Von Trier and Sjon for the movie Dancer in the dark. Here are some links -
Wiki : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I've_Seen_It_All
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9zFt6M_GLo

The poem is written in a way to be sung in the same manner that the song is sung. If it is not clear, the idea is to make it like a dialogue with some confessions.

Pinnacles National Monument

2011-04-25T07:53:00.000-07:00

Pinnacles National Monument
22-23 Apr, 2011

It is no news that people who do not plan generally have to take things as they are thrown at them. Pinnacles National Monument will be partially remembered by me as a lesson in this regard.

I left the office on Friday afternoon at 2pm. I had the campground booked for Friday night. The weekend dates Sat and Sun were booked, i had done my booking only last week. I woke up (it was Wed last week) and started looking for some camping options. Pinnacles was there on my list and after 20 mins of browsing, i just made the call and booked the closest weekend spot.

The visitor center closes at 5pm, my plan was to reach there by 4:30 pm. It was a 2 hr drive, so i had to leave at 2:30 pm. I had to make food, fortunately i had done the shopping earlier. Food was ditched at the last instant, back again with pita bread and hummus :) , i also got pasta from office that was served as part of friday lunch. After packing, i was out of my house at 2:55 pm. Already late!

Pinnacles peak has two entrances, one on east side and one on west side. I had not researched any of that and i was shooting for west side entrance. Turns out that west and east side are not connected and my campground was not on east side - gone are the hopes of reaching visitor center. And it started raining, very little drops and i had not planned for rain at all. But who cares, i started towards the east side. 101 turned into highway 25 and boy! it was so beautiful driving on 25, loved it. Green grass, grass going over small hills, farming, no houses, blue skies, the mistake turns into a blessing.

Found my campground, in my curve of learning camping, this was time to start fire, i had taken firewood and three types of lighters, ultimately it was the matchbox that came to the rescue. Tent setup was easy as the ground was soft. It had stopped raining and the night was quite bright. The stars were awesome, so many stars. Campground was full, people cozily sitting around fire everywhere, chatting, fooding and enjoying. I also sat next to my fire and just stared at the fire. Peace, happiness after such a long time.

The hike in morning was very interesting. I reached the trailhead after packing all my stuff at 8 am. I took the Old Pinnacles Trail, going up to High Peaks trail and then reaching the west entrance, coming back by Balconies cave. What an amazing 9 mile trail, i climbed a rocky hill, went through a tunnel, went through a dark cave with flashlights and walked next to a creek for 4 miles. Very diverse trail, from pure rocky terrain to caves and to walking next to a river bed. The best part was the Balconies cave, it was fun going through them, pitch darkness and rocks everywhere.

I pulled ITB band next to my knees after the half way and then decided to come back after the first hike. The original plan was to do two hikes. It was also getting very hot. Had a big pasta lunch (carboload :) ) and came back on 25.

Pics can be found here -

Life in Mar 19 - Apr 24

2011-04-24T09:59:00.000-07:00

Getting back. When life brings you down, you need to get back to life and even harder. My previous post in "Life in" series was an eye opener, nothing important was going on and i seem to have been wasting my time. It was a bad feeling writing that post. But i am happy to report that it is not the case this time and indeed what a month it has been.

Please see few previous blog posts to see what i have been up to. This post will cover the ones that slid through the cracks.

Played Cosmic encounters on last Wednesday's board games. Enjoyed a lot, as usual.

This month's camera cinema club movie was "These amazing shadows" - a documentary on US National film registry, how it came to existence, the kind of movies it has chosen, how it works etc etc. But more importantly, it was a collage of classic movies, something to feel nostalgic about and reminded us how truly great cinema as an artform is. Well made movie. In the screening before this one, on my feedback form, i had requested that we should have a documentary and this month they picked a docu. Thanks for listening to the feedback.

Books : Started reading the Idiot By Fyodor Dostoevsky. Also, started on The gay science by Neitzche.

MicMacs: Watched the movie MicMacs by Jean Pier Jeunnet - the man behind Amelie and A very long Engagement. Liked it a lot. Definitely not Amelie level but still very high. He has carved his own niche and no one can imitate him. Quite bold in experimentation, highly creative and some great performances. Not to be missed.

Knitting: Now that the rug is complete, i am making a stuffed egg using size 3 needles. A big change from size 50. Going ok so far.
Also, went to Berkeley for Yarn shopping at a store that was closing down with Guy and Christine.

Cooking: Cooking experiments continue. Last one was Chocolate coconut macaroons. Pics can be found here https://picasaweb.google.com/arvindbatra/MyCookingExperiments?feat=directlink

Camping is a joy and so is planning of camping. Very interesting to see an impulse planner thinking two more steps ahead. But quite a lot of shopping - tent, firewood, camping shoes, lighters, lights blah blah.

Audiobooks: Listened to Grapes of Wrath on my way and back from Point Reyes. This audiobook had characters, and seemed abridged, but it had music as well. Overall, i think the story was quite interesting, i think the audio book even though was great while driving, it does not give justice to the book.

India won the world cup: I am very surprised that there are no blog posts from me on this historic news. India Aus match was enjoyed with Amit Rana and Gurshi (who was working). India - Pak match was enjoyed sitting at Gursharan's office with his CEO and some other strangers. India - SL final was enjoyed with Nikesh, Zoheb and Deepak at Deepak's place. (It is very important to document the view venues) . Extremely delighted to see India win. I have more respect for Dhoni than before especially the way he batted in last innings. Overall, i liked Zaheer's agression and not giving up and Munaf Patel's simplicity. Glad to see Gambhir and Virat Kohli in the side. Overall, not impressed by Indian bowlers and even though Yuvraj Singh was man of the series, i still see him as flaky. Kudos to Dhoni for being the brain behind. My personal favorite Indian team was 2003 team which has Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman. Too bad in 2003, we didn't convert. Very happy for Sachin that he has the cup on his accomplishments as well.

Got my bike. Yay!!

Battlestar Galactica : I am hooked into this TV series after playing the board game twice with Manish and others at office. BSG is a very interesting series and its creators have managed to mix the sci-fi genre with political drama in a very nice manner. I am in third season now and even though some episodes are drag, most of them are very well written. The acting is also quite good. The interesting things to note is that BSG has devised some constructs which allows them to escape the conventional limitations. For example they use the word frak instead of fuck which is ok for prime time. By making cylons having multiple copies, they can easily kill them and yet have them too. This is so creative if you think the drama Heroes where the watch maker was dragged on for season after season. There are other small small details that make BSG a delight to watch.

And finally the big news - My company was acquired by Walmart last week. There had been a numbers of rumors of acquisition floating around for last two months. But finally it happened. Personally, Walmart as an employer is not that exciting, its like getting an offer to work for Narendra Modi and you know my views about hi,. But there is a lot of opportunity in the area of social ecommerce and Walmart is also way behind the amazon. But, the most important point is that there is a good number attached to work and looking at that number, it may not be that big for others but for someone from my standpoint, it is too good to be true.

In a better world

2011-04-24T09:34:00.000-07:00

In a better world is a Danish movie that won the foreign language oscar this year. I saw it yesterday night in Aquarious cinema at Palo Alto.

I liked the movie. It is a realist movie. Realist movie to me is a genre where fiction is used to depict a real life situation. The difficult thing or the fine line is to walk the extreme cases, because real life sometimes can be very extreme and some of the real incidents are so shocking that one just shudders to even think about them. In a realist movie, generally it is this extreme case is portrayed or the exaggerated vision is depicted, but the challenge is to do it in a convincing manner.

For some reason, sometime ago, i had stopped watching realist like movies. My reason was that they always left me depressed and saddened by the state of the world. So, i decided to break my silence with in a better world. And i liked it a lot. There are very few movies when i have actually had a physical reaction to an on-screen situation. There was a time in the movie when my hands were up in the air, just by pure dis-belief or they were stretched out in front begging to please stop whatever was happening on the screen. In a better world is able to bring out that kind of emotion. But one good thing is that it has a reasonable happy ending, something that makes it easy to bear after the movie has ended.

The movie revolves around a family, the father is a doctor who goes to Africa to treat refugees there. The elder son is being bullied at school and he has a new friend whose mother just died and he is going through an anger/denial stage. Under the story line, In a better world raises a few very important questions -

1. What is the meaning of courage ? If a person slaps you for no reason, what is the courageous act in response? And what kind of example are you setting up for your children.

2. An evil person needs help, should you help him ? The reason for not helping is very clear,the reason for helping - May be, the help changes his heart, may be he sees the suffering and understands. What is the morality here?

3. Revenge, what is the cost of it ? Everybody wants revenge, but do people have idea on what is the cost of revenge ?

The subtle references to above question happen throughout the movie. And the overall shadow is that how to do parenting in above scenarios. What kind of examples do we need to set so that the young can see and learn. As in a usual foreign lang movie, the acting here is top notch, especially by those young boys. The background score is less but very impactful whenever present.

Come on Indian cinema, pleas wake up from your fantasy world and start making realist cinema.

Board games

2011-04-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

I like playing board games. I like the whole culture and strategy that goes into it. Wi, XBOX, kinect...nah they do not attract me. But board games, playing cards, call me anytime :)

It came all back with playing Battlestar Gallactica at office. Thanks to Maneesh for bringing the board game. I had no idea behind the series but i played the game and it was fun. After that, i have started watching the series and you know how it goes with me and series, once i get hooked, i am an addict. So i have finished two seasons of BSG in two weeks. A note on BSG series may be a subject of another blog post.

Then, i went to a meetup of board games two days ago. I ended up playing five different board games including - Castle lords, Nexus, Carcassone and Kill Dr. lucky. Carcassone, which i am sure i am spelling it wrong is one of the most popular games and i can see why. I liked Nexus and Kill Dr. lucky. Dr. lucky was a very interesting game.

The thing to note about board games is their whole conception process, how to make a board game interesting, not too difficult, interactive, design cards, the whole process, i have no idea about it but it sure looks very interesting. One more meetup and i will find myself owning some of those board games.

So far board gamers have been quite nice, they are always ready to explain rules to new-bees like me and are patient enough to understand the amateurish moves that we make. Like the spirit!!

Hiking alone

2011-04-15T09:43:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, i went hiking/camping alone. I have done a few hikes before and camped twice before. Never done it alone before.
In previous hikes i always found people hiking alone and i had wondered how it would be like to go all alone in a jungle. Well, thanks to US National park services, the trails even inside a jungle are very well maintained and thanks to over enthu junta here, you always see someone else hiking, so in reality you are not alone.

But hiking alone is a lot of fun. All by myself, i can pace myself and take a break whenever i can. Although, to my big surprise, i did not wanted to take break. I wanted to go on even when i was tired. Point Reyes is a beautiful place. I hiked 15 miles on Sunday and 3 miles on Monday while going from campsite to my car. On Sunday, half the distance was spent hiking in mountains or in forest over mountains and other half was a stroll on coastal trail which ran just beside the bay. Tough to choose which one is better but it is great that one can do both kind of hikes at Pt. Reyes.

Next was camping. I had little fear on how to set up a tent, i had never done it before and by the looks of it, it did require some knowledge on how tents work :) Let me state here on record that my tent stood up the entire night with me cozily sleeping inside it. I was dead tired after the hike so i went to my tent pretty early. The sky was still blue when i slept but i woke up several times during night. I used to wake up, see the open sky above me, see stars and then sleep back again. One of the most peaceful sleeps that i can remember. Camping is a great feeling. Some pictures are embedded below -

10 things i know to be true

2011-04-04T19:13:00.000-07:00

1. I know that hard work has always pays.

2. I know that there is a truth and it is universal.

3. I know that there is nothing to fear as long as i am truthful.

4. I know that my writings/poems are mediocre but it feels great to write them.

5. I know that good music can always make me smile.

6. I know that i do not need to drink/dope to experience high.

7. I know that time will change and change is always good.

8. I know that i have limitations.

9. I know that respect has to be earned.

10. I know that there is a joy in giving that can not be felt in any other way.

Inspired by this TED talk -

Update 1: Now, i have watched that video twice. I love the 2nd poem "Hiroshima" that Sarah narrates in the end. It reminds me so much of veer ras in indian kavi sammelan. She sings in that ras. I like it a lot. More videos can be found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJdQHQ6kbv0

My rug is complete

2011-04-03T21:49:00.000-07:00

My knitting rug was finished on Thursday, Mar 31, 2011. It is the first project of mine with size 50 needles. It uses the simplest garter stitch with brown and black yarn. A total 6 balls of yarn were used (3 of each brown and black). In order to add more fun, i have shiny yellowish green silky yarn and some random yarn just to give some randomness to the order.

From Knitting

Weekend Mar 26-27, 2011

2011-04-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

Continuing in the effort to make weekends more productive, here is another story.

It was again a rainy weekend. With rain there is always the question - what to do?

The start was again quite interesting. The food experiment of the week was bread roll. Unfortunately, in the excitement of making them, i forgot to click photos. But they were quite delicious. A little on the darker side of brown after frying but overall it could be termed a success.

Next up was the visit to San Francisco. This time it was Cartoon art museum. A very small museum and quite interesting. It throws glimpse on variety of cartoon art that is around us. Cartoon art is not just the second last page of the newspaper anymore, there is animation, sketch, there are graphic novels, the manga style and also the political cartoon, often satirical. The famous Danish cartoonist making allah comics reference was there. A nice small museum. I was disappointed to see only one image of Calvin and Hobbes strip.

Then the idea was to go to a Bay Area one acts festival. I had no tickets; the plan to go there was made in morning. I went to the place; a very unique part of SF. There were quite a few homeless patrolling the streets, walls had graffiti art on them and it seemed that it was a place where homeless can go at night to sleep. Saw a building with falling furniture. Found it absurd but fitting to the place. After staring at the building for another 10 mins, i began to like it. Especially the chair :)
Images can be found here - http://www.metaphorm.org/works/defenestration/
and http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/3272/san-franciscos-house-of-falling-furniture.html

But the festival was sold out. So i had to leave. Sigh! But it was still a beautiful day. The rain had gone by now. So i went to Treasure island, a place i wanted to go for a long time. Treasure island is an island opposite to SF. You can see both the bay and SF skyline of buildings from there. It generally has very few people and is very peaceful. The idea was to go there and read The idiot. But by the time, i went there it started raining and it became quite cold as it is after all an island.

That was saturday.

Sunday was spent in a non interesting way. Some chores had to be finished.

Corita Kent Rules

2011-03-27T10:21:00.000-07:00

Rules : http://hi-and-low.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/01/a-new-year.html

Rule 1
FIND A PLACE YOU TRUST AND THEN TRY TRUSTING IT FOR A WHILE.

Rule 2
GENERAL DUTIES OF A STUDENT: PULL EVERYTHING OUT OF YOUR TEACHER. PULL EVERYTHING OUT OF YOUR FELLOW STUDENTS.

Rule 3
GENERAL DUTIES OF A TEACHER: PULL EVERYTHING OUT OF YOUR STUDENTS.

Rule 4
CONSIDER EVERYTHING AN EXPERIMENT.

Rule 5
BE SELF DISCIPLINED. THIS MEANS FINDING SOMEONE WISE OR SMART AND CHOOSING TO FOLLOW THEM.
TO BE DISCIPLINED IS TO FOLLOW IN A GOOD WAY.
TO BE SELF DISCIPLINED IS TO FOLLOW IN A BETTER WAY.

Rule 6
NOTHING IS A MISTAKE. THERE'S NO WIN AND NO FAIL. THERE'S ONLY MAKE

Rule 7
THE ONLY RULE IS WORK.
IF YOU WORK IT WILL LEAD TO SOMETHING. IT'S THE PEOPLE WHO DO ALL THE WORK ALL THE TIME WHO EVENTUALLY CATCH ON TO THINGS.

Rule 8
DONT TRY TO CREATE AND ANALYSE AT THE SAME TIME. THEY'RE DIFFERENT PROCESSES.

Rule 9
BE HAPPY WHENEVER YOU CAN MANAGE IT. ENJOY YOURSELF. IT'S LIGHTER THAN YOUR THINK.

Rule 10
"WE'RE BREAKING ALL OF THE RULES. EVEN OUR OWN RULES AND HOW DO WE DO THAT? BY LEAVING PLENTY OF ROOM FOR X QUANTITIES": JOHN CAGE.

HELPFUL HINTS: ALWAYS BE AROUND. COME OR GO TO EVERYTHING. ALWAYS GO TO CLASSED. READY ANYTHING YOU CAN GET YOUR HANDS ON. LOOK AT MOVIES CAREFULLY OFTEN. SAVE EVERYTHING - IT MIGHT COME IN HANDY LATER.

THERE SHOULD BE NEW RULES NEXT WEEK.

Weekend Mar 18-20, 2011

2011-03-27T09:18:00.000-07:00

What a weekend was last weekend. A good enough weekend to make 5 blog posts. But i am lazy :)

So, after writing the last life-in series, i realized that nothing interesting had happened for over a month. On top of that it was raining badly in Bay area and it was going to continue like this. So i decided to act, take my life in my own hands and lets make it a great weekend.

Mar 18, Friday evening, 7pm-
Went to see Peninsula symphony orchestra's performance of Beethoven's Fifth concerto and a virtuoso debut. Link: http://www.yelp.com/events/san-mateo-peninsula-symphony-orchestra-presents-beethovens-fifth . The concert was preceded by a lecture for people like me who had no idea about the technical details of concert. Lecture highlighted on some of the Beethoven's techniques and how one piece ends and how another begins. A very insightful lecture which made the concert more interesting. Btw, Beethoven's fifth is jut awesome!

Mar 19, Saturday morning, 8:30 am.
I woke up early (6 am) and its been 2 hrs plus of mindless net surfing and i was getting hungry. So i decided to do something creative. It was raining outside, and what better thing to make in rain but pakodas. But it has to be something that i have not made it yet. And there it was stuffed bread pakoda. Yes, i have made bread pakoda couple of times in past but stuffed ones were a new height to climb. It took three trials before the besan's liquidity was in correct composition. Any how it was 10 am and the stuffed bread pakoda's were looking the best ever.

Mar 19, Saturday morning 11:30 am.
The mindless surfing between 6 - 8 am was to figure out what to do today. Having lived in SF for 2+ years now, it is quite sad that i had not visited most of the local museums. So it was museum day. After eating the hearty breakfast, i quickly left home to visit the Contemporary Jewish museum. Link: http://www.thecjm.org/ . I arrived at the museum at about 12:45, knowing the fact that there is a tour of museum at 1pm. I have no idea about jewish culture, little knowledge that i have are from films and we all know how truthful films are towards reality. I am the only one for the tour, very few people have turned out on that rainy day and my tour guide is a wonderful retired lady who is volunteering there. She starts be giving an overview of the architecture of the museum which is very interesting as the walls are slanting. The building itself has many hidden symbolisms in its design, had she not told me i would not have even noticed it. The tour was wonderful, it was supposed to be an interactive tour but since i was the only audience, i had little to offer.
The CJM is an awesome museum. Many things fascinated me. There are no permanent exhibits, every exhibit changes with time. Currently they had an exhibit of
(a) The Secret Musical History of Black-Jewish Relations http://www.thecjm.org/index.php?option=com_ccevents&scope=exbt&task=detail&oid=51 The music room was awesome. Some of my fav songs that i listened were - Hava nagila by harry belafonte and Eli eli by john mathis.
(b) Jewish religious text is called Torah and it is considered a very spiritual journey to write a torah. There are many rules on how to write a Torah and one of them is that women can't write it. Being a contemporary jewish museum, they have an exhibit going on where a scribe is writing the Torah and that scribe is a woman. It is called Project 304,805 because Torah has that many characters. It was great to know more about the Torah and the effort needed to write it. They were also showing a small documentary on how the woman scribe learn to write the Torah's language (because women are not allowed in such schools). Nice documentary. The scribe's name is
(c) Classification on Torah. Again going by its Contemporary theme, someone applied a classification on all of Torah's rules. Classification was based on labels such as Rules which apply to man, rules which apply to woman, rules for priests, positive rule, negative rule, rules inside Israel only etc. It was cool to see classification of religious text. Great idea for Indian religious texts.
(d) Participated in People's torah project - http://www.peoplestorah.org where you scan your hand the scanned image is converted to a character in Torah. For my hand it is י (Yud) which is located in Genesis 15:8.

Mar 19, Saturday 3 pm -
After coming out of theCJM, i was feeling hungry. There was a Papa Beard pastry shop right there and i decided to give it a try. Awesome cream puffs and desserts.

Mar 19, Saturday 3:30 pm -
The day was still not over and i had time. There was a teeny museum opposite to theCJM called Museum of craft and folk art. Link: http://www.mocfa.org/ . What a good decision to go that museum. They were having an exhibition by Corita Kent. Corita was a very talented artist and her art works displayed were awesome. She was initially a nun but later on she renounced that and became a full time artist. Her artwork is mostly colorful description of words. A good link to know about her life - http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/programs/2007/03/03/sister_corita.html . She was also a teacher at Immaculate Heart college and this was her rules - http://hi-and-low.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/01/a-new-year.html. There is going to be another blog post on this one. I ended up buying a book by her called Learning by heart. Haven't read it yet.

Mar 20, Sunday, 10 am
After the eventful Saturday, the weekend was only half over and i was in my full spirits. Sunday was the day of this month's camera cinema club screening. How awesome! The movie screened was The Women Chaser. It is a parody of noir genre. The movie was released in 1999 and it was a big flop but it was recently rediscovered by a film critic and since then it is re-released and gathering quite a bit of attention. I didn't like this movie particularly. Parody movies are usually a hard sell on me. But a very different movie overall.

Mar 20, Sunday 2pm.
The rain had stopped momentarily. So i decided to go for a run/walk on Steven's Creek trail behind my house. It was awesome weather, sunlight coming in between clouds, trees loaded with dew and a stream that is overflowing. The trail was closed because water had come over the trail.

Mar 20, Sun 4 pm -
Sufi cafe. Sitting at the back of Sufi cafe listening to Roja's songs, reading The Idiot by Dostoyevsky, enjoying rain and coffee. What could be better than this. A brief thass with Rathi, gurshi. The evening was spent in reading The Idiot. More on that book later.

That was one hell of a weekend to remember. I have clicked photos but while organizing them into an album, i accidentally deleted the album. I have to do the exercise again. So will upload them later.

Life in Feb 5 - Mar 18

2011-03-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

The smallest month of the year is over. The previous line is a fact. I do not have any opinion about that fact.

I feel little bit in this way about this life in series. Overall, the fact is that time passed. And i do not have many opinions about it.

But on a general level, this period was quite sad. Many things that were supposed to happen didn't happen. To start with, my running schedule was broken and that led to all sorts of issues in my life. Very important for me to run these days, else i will get more krankier :)

I didn't had any hiking, so weekend were generally spent in waking up late. Part of the blame goes to Indian Cricket matches happening over weekend which start at 1 am in night.

And my book reading was also non-existent, i need to get back to my books.

But what are the things that did happen ?

Watched the play jisne lahore nahin dekhya woh janmya nahin. See review in previous post.

Cooking, yes from no where cooking came and every weekend has been a new experiment. So far i have made Gol gappe (and yes, they were awesome!), egg curry, Methi palak, sambhar (typical south indian style), seviyan and kadhi at Gurshi's place. In the process somewhere was a burnt carrot cake :)

Knitting continues at full speed, my rug is 70% complete. Also, went to stitches' west in Feb and bought one big yarn for 130$, and spending a total amount of 180$

There was a streak of movies, see previous blog posts.

I was ill for a week in between.

It rained nicely in California. Hurray!

And lets just say, work was both good, bad and sometimes road to nowhere.

jisne lahore nahin dekhya woh janmya hi kya

2011-03-18T06:34:00.000-07:00

Saw the play Jisne Lahore nahin dekhya woh janmya nahin
Link- http://www.artsopolis.com/event/detail/441101705/Jis_Lahore_Nai_Dekhya_O_Jamyai_Nai_Hindi_Play_with_English_Supertitles

Play was by nataak theatre a Sunnyvale based theater company. The play was written by Ashgar Wajahat and i had seen it before at India Habitat Center when it was performed by Naya theatre and Habib Tanvir was alive and in the play. Seen i had seen it before, naturally i was bound to compare but good news is that i do not remember Habib's play in detail (All i remember is that i was blown away by it and i had loved theater since then). But watching this one, it was a wonderful delight.

One things that stood out was people using thet punjabi in the play. Multani punjabi sunne ko bahut kam milti hai. Stage decor was quite good, what was missing was a background score. Habib ji's plays always had music in them. Acting was quite good and it was later only i realized that the actors where actually from a local theater group in Sunnyvale and they were all Indians settled in US. After the play, those very people were speaking english in a manner that they were out of some British movie, quite interesting to watch the contrast.

The theme of play is so strong, the lines are very well written and based on partition, homeland, home and underlying humanity in the play is so good. This play is a timeless classic and there will be many groups performing it. I will not reveal the story here.

The other interesting thing that the organizers did was to organize an informal stage after the play where they invited people from audience to share the stories of partition. Two people came to stage, one was 8 and other was 6 and half when partition happened. Their stories were quite sad and listening to first hand experience was very interesting to me.
As the organizers described their motive behind this - stories about partition are never written in books, they are not told to children, people do not talk about it, slowly and slowly this is fading from the minds of people and the newer generation have very little idea of this tragic incident. This is quite true and indeed sad.

More links -
http://www.naatak.com/current_event.html
http://www.facebook.com/Naatak
http://jis-lahore.blogspot.com/

chhai chappa chhai

2011-03-18T06:19:00.000-07:00

छई छप्पा छई छप्पा के छई
पानियों में छीटें उड़ाती हुई लड़की
देखी है हमने
आती हुई लहरों पे जाती हुई लड़की

छई छप्पा छई छप्पा के छई
कभी कभी बातें तेरी अच्छी लगती है
फिर से कहना
आती हुई लहरों पे जाती हुई लड़की

ढूंडा करेंगे तुम्हें सारी रोंतें हम
रेगते ही पैरों के मोहरे न छोड़ना
नहीं
ढूंडा करेंगे तुम्हें सारी रोंतें हम
रेगते ही पैरों के मोहरे न छोड़ना

सारा दिन लेटे लेटे सोचेगा समुन्दर
आते जाते लोगों से पूछेगा समुन्दर
साहिब रुकिए ज़रा
अरे देखी किसी ने
आती हुई लहरों पे जाती हुई लड़की

छई छप्पा छई छप्पा के छई
कभी कभी बातें तेरी अच्छी लगती है

लिखते रहें हैं तुम्हें रोज़ ही मगर
ख्वाइशों के ख़त कभी भेजे ही नहीं,
नहीं
लिखते रहें हैं तुम्हें रोज़ ही मगर
ख्वाइशों के ख़त कभी भेजे ही नहीं,

ऐनक लगा के कभी पढ़ना वोह छिटियाँ
आँखों के पानी में रखना वोह छिटियाँ
तैरती नज़र आएगी जनाब

ओह देखा
आती हुई लहरों पे जाती हुई लड़की

छई छप्पा छई छप्पा के छई
पानियों में छीटें उड़ाती हुई लड़की
देखी है हमने
आती हुई लहरों पे जाती हुई लड़की

छई छप्पा छई छप्पा के छई
कभी कभी बातें तेरी अच्छी लगती है

Its been a long time since Gulzaar sahab appeared on this blog. I was really missing him. And then yesterday while eating dinner at Chat House, they were playing chhai chappa chaai. And after that, it was humming in my ears for the entire night, even while sleeping. And so here i am, sitting at 6:20 am writing lyrics for this song. Music is by Vishal Bhardwaj and it is somehow very difficult to imagine this song without his music. aur us par lata ji ki shararat waali awaz, she is so playful in this song. And look how cleverly Vishal uses the pause at "nahin" in second and third stanzas. And in between the lyrics, there is the Rahman-ish use of non meaningful words such as lara lara lara.

par jitna bhi bol lo, gaane ke bol ki baat hi kuch aur hai. gaur farmaiye

lete lete sochega samundar
and after listening to this line, mind visualizes the sea and yes woh leta hua hai. and you smile.

aur khwaishon ke khat kabhi bheje hi nahin. kya baat hai! Again in a blog with title Hazarron khwaishien aisi, khwaishon ke khat makes so much sense and gives so much joy to read this line, to listen this line.

Bahut khoob Gulzar sahab!!

The season of movies

2011-02-21T15:04:00.000-08:00

Yes, oscars are going to be held next Sunday. This is the official season of movies.

I am glad that i have seen almost all the important ones that i care about (except the foreign language nominations , for which i am truly sorry). Yes, i have not seen SocialNetwork and i do not intend to watch it. Here is an overview of how i am celebrating this season this year -

1. The music never stopped - This month's Camera cinema club screening. A movie about a mentally handicapped person who when played music from his past suddenly makes him remember his memories. And this music is the music of Greatful dead, Dylan, Beatles etc. An awesome performance by JK Simmons and rest of cast, this movie is a delight to watch because it is so simple and heart warming. Every one cried in that cinema hall in the end. Everyone.

2. The kids are all right - A lot of buzz was created by this movie and i missed all of my chances to see this movie in hall. But i saw it yesterday and i liked it. I am a big fan of Mark Ruffalo and he is great to watch in this movie. That also goes for the young actress Mia something, who was also there as Alice in Alice in wonderland. The cast is very strong, so acting is top notch, story is quite expected given the premise, but still feels new as it unfolds.

3. Dogtooth - Watched it just after the kids are all right. In the kids are all right, the premise is simple and then a pressure cooker situation is developed from an ordinary situation. Dogtooth is simply opposite from this - The premise itself is so complicated, so extra-ordinary that the entire movie to a viewer is just a revelation and after some time the viewer just stops expecting anything and just accepts whatever is presented. Dogtooth is a very scary movie, scary because what if it comes to be true. It reminded me of Dogma productions, like The idiots, like movies made by Lars von tiers. Dogtooth is a bold movie, because it tries to depict a society which does not appear to be that far away but its consequences are disastrous. But without going into the details of story, dogtooth cinematically is quite amazing . The best part is that not a single part of movie is spent in justifying the premise, it just expects you to accept the premise and see the implications of premise. This to me is a sign of good film making. At many instances in film, there is no sound, just visual imagery. Very little background score and even natural sounds such as jumping into a pool are turned off just so that the visual sense can dominate other senses. And then there are some scenes where there is background music and it just stands out then. Dogtooth is nominated in Foreign Lang category. Haven't seen others but this one is quite a force.

Other movies -

1. Extraordinary measures - A feel good movie about how a cure for pompe disease came into production. A good watch on a Sunday evening kind of a movie.

2. The Straight story - I had to watch this movie again, just to get rid of the pain that was reminding me to watch this movie again.

Platonic lambda

2011-02-05T23:59:00.000-08:00

I was going home after watching the movie King's speech. Naturally, i was in a very good mood. Good movie, good music always makes me happy. Roughly halfway, on San Antonio bus stop, i saw a man hitching a ride. No body was stopping. I saw him, he looked harmless (yes, i fear people hitching for rides, don't ask why), but i moved on. 100 metres ahead, i went and then decided - no, i should help him. I took a U - turn and went back to the bus stop. This time, i stopped. He wanted to go to Cubberly field, about mile and half from the bus stop. Not exactly in my way but it was just 1.5 miles. I said sure.

This person was middle-aged, carrying a bag pack. He told me that he is coming from Stanford where is taking poetry classes.
My mind thought - "How exciting!"
He was going to take some class near Cuberly field. He gave me his background - he had a PhD, he had worked a lot earlier but at some point he realized - what he worked on was not what he wanted to do.
My mind thought - "This sounds familiar".
So, he decided to take poetry classes and then he shared with me his today's poem - "Platonic lambda"
Its about the origins of the symbol lambda, Plato suggested it - thats why Platonic lambda. He shared his idea that he has observed for quite some time. Lambda is very similar to golden ratio - Like the way there is golden ratio everywhere, there is lambda everywhere around us. When we walk, in the shape of our nose, when birds fly etc etc.
My mind thought - "huh! He may have a point there. Intriguing! "
He gave a copy of his poem which i can not print as i do not have his permission. He also shared some of his life's experiences, what he has learnt, understood and how much happy he is now. At peace.
We talked for 15 mins at his drop place. I said goodbye. His name was Peter Chou and he runs wisdomportal.com.
My mind thought - "Good site name :)"

Overall, this is what means to be in the spirit of HKA. A random occurrence, a chance created out of nothing, a refreshing and exciting conversation, people sharing random ideas, observing things that are in front of you, things that you always saw and it never occurred to you. That just made my day.

Aanandam!!

Life in Dec4 - Feb 4th

2011-02-05T22:34:00.000-08:00

Happy new year to my life. Welcome to the latest and greatest of me, myself and I. Two months, the longest and the shortest, just like the previous ones. Here were the headlines -

Mummy and papa visited US. Great time, lots of travel, fun travel (See travelogue earlier) and good food, home cooked food. No matter how many times i see the food in making, i can never reproduce it. But overall, one of the best months in US.

Contributed money to NPR. No more guilt in enjoying free radio commentary :)

Started preparing for full marathon.

Started knitting my rug. Needles the size of cricket wicket, come see me on thursday at DSRC, MV.

Bought my bike today. It will be delivered in 2-3 weeks.

Watched a palindrome play - Ouroboros
http://www.artsopolis.com/event/detail/440843151/Ouroboros
A very interesting play - very innovative. Think about it - how can you make a palindrome - the forward being a comedy and reverse being a tragedy. Renegade theatre group - http://www.renegadetheatre.com/ has done a great job in realizing this idea. Quite bold. But once you get the palindrome structure, the rest of the play is average, a lot could have been done. But still, it is quite good. Next season (2011 season) of renegade is also quite interesting - apparently they specialize in alternative theatre.

Ponyo my fish has started to enjoy my company. I think she has wisely looked at all her alternatives (which were none excluding me) and has finally compromised.

Work from Dec to Jan was good, hectic, none, fresh, easy, slacky, busy and then super hectic.

Movies - True Grit, Black swan, kings speech, Rabbit hole.

Tv -shows - Got bugged by Law and order - Criminal intent. Very impressed Vincent D'onfario's character. New season of hustle is quite good and so is House. Stewart and Colbert continue to impress.

Books - sadly, need to get back to them. Too many to read. Started on The Imperfectionists.

Depends...

2011-02-05T22:12:00.001-08:00

On Feb 4th , i finished two years of working post my masters.

Depends...

Two years of working,
Excited? Time to change?
Depends..
how you see it.
One second, it feels like yesterday;
Other, it seems a decade.

So many things accomplished;
so many learnings, achievements, awards,
recognition, self-confidence and happiness.
But, Yet,
Nothing materialized,
all that work for nothing.
was that work after all?
So much to do, learn, understand, build...

Why do i work here?
Somebody told me - "We will change the world".
I believed - "I will change the world", rather -
"I would contribute in changing the world".
Have we changed the world?
Are we changing the world?
Yes and no.
But what about the meta question -
Does the world require this change?
Gandhiji's talisman - think of the poorest man,
Will he see the change?
Depends...

Friends - made and lost.
Friends moved on,
old friendships forgotten,
New friendships based on new interests.
New interests based on new friends.
Are new friends better than old ones?
Are old friends better than new ones?
Depends...

And what happened to your plans?
Motherland, fatherland, place called home?
Hey! it is home where i live.
Carpe diem.
But for how long?
Depends...

Journey movies

2011-01-30T09:21:00.000-08:00

One of things that i just realized is that i love journey movies. Movies in which the protagonist leaves everything for a journey and there are a lot of unknowns. How will the journey end, how will you cope with the dangers of road, food, water, logistics, safety, getting lost, stamina, exhaustion, sleep etc etc. Typically journey movies have these common themes -

1. Stories of life and road - People living in rural places, they have seen life too, a life very different from city life, a life that we can not imagine. These stories make the journey a forever memorable. And you meet so many good people along the way, people whom you will never meet again yet you long for them. In the end you thank them and move on.

2. Beautiful landscape - I have never seen a single road movie where the landscape has not been amazing. Nature is very very beautiful, no matter which country you are in and it always fill you up. Plus the slow moving camera trick, where you mount the camera on a rolling plane and you move it slowly, to give the effect of motion and the beautiful landscape can be seen, passing away slowly. I simply love it!

3. Music - Mainly folk music. Each land has its own music, music changes if you move more than 100 kms, and some of these movies make good use of it.

4. Unknowns - There are always unknowns when you are on road. These are not road journeys with GPS, laptops and other gadgets, these are raw records, people on bikes or motor bikes, or on buses. Bed, food, water are big questions and what happens if it rains. And how will you make money if you do not have much.

So, here are some of my favourite ones -

1. The Straight Story - Directed by David Lynch, a man of 70+ wishes to meet with his brother, so he goes out on a lawn mower and travels about 400 miles. Very beautifully written and directed, the straight story is a delight to watch. And what makes it amazing is that it is based on a true story as well.

2. Central Do Brasil - A woman and a boy give up everything to look for the boy's father. They have to go to Rio and that's all they know. Very good music and road anecdotes are very good.

3. Motorcycle diaries - Based on the true experience of Che Guerera, this road trip happens on motorcycles. And Che didn't had that much money, so they treated patients along the way and made their living. Wonderfully acted by Bernarl Garcia.

4. A bit stretch, but LOTR was also about a journey.

5. The middle of the world - A family of 7 travels on bicycles about 2000 miles so that the father can get a job. See prev blog post.

Have not seen yet, but into the wild looks very good.

The middle of the world

2011-01-30T09:08:00.000-08:00

Movie - The middle of the world.
Imdb - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379199/

Yesterday, i was surfing around to get a glimpse of the movie Central do brasil and netflix showed this movie in its recommendation column.

A family of 7 travel 2000 kms so that the father can get a job. They did it on bicycles. Even though i was very tired, the last two lines were enough for me to browse through the movie. and i ended up watching it completely. First thing, very very impressed by the wife's acting. Rosa, the wife is played by Claudia Abreu and she just was amazing. Kudos to the director/cinematographer for giving us close up shots of her, it just showed her true acting range in a closer look. Had it not been for her, i may not have watched the entire movie. One of the best performances i have seen in recent past (and recently i have seen very good films, see previous blog posts)

But other than a very interesting plot and an awesome performance, the movie was not that appealing. Partly because i found the protagonist, the father Romao, quite deranged. He cared too much for his ambitions, too egoistic to see what the hell his family was going through. And the way he used to rub on his eldest son. True, he also took care of him; I guess it was his style of parenting, his notion of life that i found to be too strange for me to relate to him. And that's why it seems more like fiction than a true story (which it is loosely).

The landscape of Brazil is amazing. The director also does not highlight on road logistics such as water for family, bike tires getting flat etc etc which creates a distance between viewer and actors, we are not with them, we are just watching them. The music is good, especially when the mother and son sing together.

Overall, a very different film, something one should see. If nothing else, watch it for Claudia Abreu.

The non-adventures of Ponyo

2011-01-23T22:44:00.000-08:00

I have a pet fish now - Ponyo.
I got it as part of white elephant gift exchange at office. Its great to have a fish at home.

The non-adventures of Ponyo -

Yes, you read it right, these are non-adventures of Ponyo. I don't know what it is but Ponyo likes to have a very lazy and relaxed lifestyle. For the first 36 hrs of its arrival at my home, as soon as we shifted her to the small aquarium, it was thought to be dead. Yes, it lied without moving for day and a half and we were thinking that may be we should get a new one. It was good that we were lazy in throwing her off, otherwise we were quite confident that she was dead. Yet after two days, as if she was taking a long sleep after a strenuous journey, she woke up and started moving.

Yet, she is Ponyo and she is exactly as her owner (me) - a very lazy fish. It always prefers to lay still at one position and moves very rarely. This is totally contrary to the fish in the movie Ponyo after which i named her. In the movie, Ponyo was seen running on waves. Aah, running! my Ponyo wants a couch and access to television :)

Last week, we were trying to change the water of her aquarium. While shifting her back from a tumbler, for some reason she got excited and jumped from my net. She jumped inside the kitchen drawer where all spoons are kept. I shrieked, totally lost my control and quickly put her back in aquarium with my hands. Not a nice experience at all. Since then she is more terrified of me.

More of her non-adventures will be posted as we get to know her better :)

Blue man group

2011-01-23T22:35:00.000-08:00

We watched a performance of Blue Man Group at Las Vegas on 27 Dec 2010 and it was amazing.
Here are some reasons why ?

1. Very unique - The idea itself that blue man group are not from earth and they react based on audience reaction; looking everything with curiosity ; and being innovative in doing things - yeah thats how shows should be.

2. So much audience participation - Couple of acts included people from audience. a huge paper roll is passed from back to front by audience - no reason why, it is just cool.

3. A lot of physics is involved in the acts - If you rotate statues, it gives an effect of animation, projection, liquid dynamics.

4. Technology - Advanced technology and especially the interaction of technology with blue men.

And lots of satire - they completely ridiculed the rock band concerts, shaving razors, cereals and what not. Truely a delight to watch. One of my favorite acts was when each of the three blue men show big cards one by one at a rate that you can read only one. The mind tries to read all three and in the process fails to read anyone of them. Very clear.

Drum beats and background score was quite good too!

Settlers of Catan

2011-01-23T22:28:00.000-08:00

Oh man, this is so addictive.
Two days ago, Guy invited me to his friend's (Eric) place for a night of board games. I have played board games couple of times at office and always liked it.

We played Settlers of Catan and Puerto Rico. I had never played either of them before. I loved both the games. The interesting part is the design of these games, so much has gone into making them, so many details, all leading to logical end. Too hard to figure out which one was better among the two. Settlers of Catan has more randomization built into it than Puerto Rico.
Very very impressed.

And then today, i woke up at 2:30 am (yes am) and don't know why but i downloaded the Catan app on my iPad. And then from 2:30 am to 12:30 noon, i was just doing this. Playing against computers, it is absolutely amazing. It would be much better playing with people though. But so far, the addiction has not reduced. 23rd of January 2011, if it will be remembered in my life, it will be for Settlers of Catan.

Thanks Guy!!

Movie reviews

2011-01-23T20:13:00.000-08:00

My last three movies have been awesome. This is despite the fact that i missed this month's camera cinema club screening.

True Grit - Directd by Coen Brothers, this movies is a classic western tale and nothing else. Well directed, well acted, the story line keeps you engaged all the time. Movie's pace is relaxed, neither fast nor slow. Camera shots are beautiful as it has been with Coen movies in past.

Black Swan - Daren Aronofsky's dark drama movie. Black Swan is very similar to Wrestler (the previous movie by Daren). I liked wrestler better because it was more emotionally packed and it had more depth to it. Black Swan is more sensual and much more active than wrestler. While in wrestler, the protagonist is almost retired, in black swan it is the story of an actress who is struggling to get attention. So wrestler was the downhill curve, black swan is the uphill part of bell curve. Good performance by Natalie, very surprised to see Mina Kunis there. Mina kunis will always be Jackie from That 70s show and she was quite bad there. The ending is quite impressive especially the picturaization.

The King's speech - Director Tom Hooper's delighful movie is about King George the VI who stammers. The movie is about how an ordinary but extraordinary speech therapist treats him; set during the start of world war II during which George the VI was required to inspire nation by giving speeches. Very well directed, and awesome performance by Geoffery Rush and Colin Firth. Colin Firth is very very good. Tom Hooper is someone to be followed, i loved his last movie - Damned United. It would have been great to see Charlie Sheen too in this movie, but we will wait. Very nice ending - it doesn't make it the usual melodramatic as one would expect; even though the war is going on, the emphasis is on the speech itself and how relieved the king feels. Helena Carter is a delight to watch.

At home -
Ponyo - Directed by Miyazaki, this one is a very light hearted movie about a fish/mermaid called Ponyo. The anime is quite nicely done with good effects. The story was little bit too loosely formed as per me. A good no tension feel good movie.

Watched Inception again.

Travelogue

2011-01-23T18:13:00.000-08:00

How a SEO guy would write his travelogue.

So many places were visited in a month time that very soon i will forget. This travelogue is a set of keywords to remember all the uber set.

Los Angeles -
Disneyland, Universal studios, Rodeo drive, Beverly hills drive, Kodak theatre, Chinese theatre, hollywood walk of fame, Redondo beach, Santa Monica beach sunset, Santa Monica Third street promenade walk, Souplantation, Crepe place.

Las vegas -
Casino - Ceaser's palace, Paris, Venetian, Excalibur, Mandalay bay, Luxor, South point. Eiffel tower ride, Bellagio fountains, Blue man group, Chinese food at food court.

Las Vegas to LA -
Mojave National Preserve, Kelso dunes, Joshua tree, Cima dome, extinct volcanoes and hot cinnamon rolls in cold weather :)

Santa Cruz -
Mystery spot, Roaring camp railroad, Redwood forest, Beautiful redwood trees :), bear camp, Monterey, 17 mile drive, Cypress trees, Lone cypress, white sand beach, Sand city, Restless sea and other points.

San Francisco -
Golden gate, Crooked street, Pier 39, Half moon bay, Poplar beach, Linda Mar beach, Highway 1 drive, Santa Clara Nutcracker ballet, Vasona park Christmas lighting, Great mall, Gilroy outlets, Stanford university, University ave, Castro street MV, Palo alto book sale, Farmers market MV, Century cinemas.
Food -
Zeni's (Ehiopian cuisine), Amarin thai, Bangokok thai, Pasta ?, Dosa palace, Madras cafe, Whole foods salads, Chipotle, Denny's.

New york -
Manhattan, Statue of Liberty, Battery park, Wall street, Raging bull, Times square, Empire State Building, Museum of natural history, Trinity church, Ground zero memorial, Macy's, Tiffinwalla, Jersey city, New Jersey, Mexican restaurant

Washington -
Liberty bell (Philadephia), White house, Capitol building, Library of congress, Botanical garden, Natural history museum, Hope diamond, Memorial - Lincoln, Jefferson etc etc, Treasury building, Supreme court, Washington state memorial.

लास वेगस

2011-01-23T17:53:00.000-08:00

लास वेगस

देखा हमने ऐसा एक शहर
यह शहर नहीं एक मेला है
इंसान तो है ही सही, पूरा शहर ही यह वेला है
जुआं यहाँ का खेला है,
ओ रे लास वेगस, तू अपने आप में एक अकेला है

होटल बने हैं झाकियों के पीछे
न्यू योर्क, अल्लादीन, आइफ्फेल टॉवर,
ग्रीक महल, सहारा डेसर्ट, विक्टोरियन कास्टल
भिन्न भिन्न तरह के डिजाईन
मानो के पूरी दुनिया मिलती हैं इस शहर में

खेलो तो जी जान से
जीतो तो मान से
हारो तो शान से
अरे हारने में शान कैसी जब खेल हो जुआं ?
शान तो है बस शहर की ,
हर कोई है हारा यहाँ पे |

Life in Oct 24- Dec 4

2010-12-04T17:41:00.000-08:00

There are good times and there are bad times. And then there are times when you wonder is it a good time or a bad time? Things could have been worse or things could have been better. What happened in the last 40 days or so?

Came back from a trip from New york. Visited Philadelphia, Washington DC. Showed Manhattan etc to my parents including empire state building, statue of liberty, natural history museum, times square, wall street. Quite impressed by Washington DC. Saw white house, capitol hill building, botanical garden, library of congress (from inside), memorials, washington memorial, natural history museum, hope diamond :). Good fun trip. Lots of places seen. Lots of distance traveled. Good weather, little cold. Good food. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Finished graphic novel - Persepolis while on my way to NY. Good fun read. Nice visualization. But didn't came out to be that great!

Finished watching the anime on netflix - Seirei no moribito (Guardian of the sacred spirit) Liked it a lot. Loved the story, screenplay, characters and the ending. Apparently it is a part of a manga series. Hoping that there are more too.
As a sidenote - i have watched a very few anime series but selectivity has paid a lot. So far, i have been impressed by all of them. My anime list includes Death node, full metal alchemist and now moribito.

Movies -
With camera cinema club : Rabbit hole . Again a very good movie. Camera cinema club is just awesome. A couple having lost their son is dealing with the grief and its their story. Played by Nicole kidman and Aaron Eckhart. Like it when mainstream actors do independent movies. Both of them are quite good.
Inside job - A closed look at what brought the global final meltdown. A very nicely made documentary.

Halloween was well celebrated at office. See previous posts. First time did pumpkin carving. Thanks to Christine!

Dentist appointments - One tooth extracted. More work in coming weeks. Need to take care of remaining. Random method to choose dentist has worked nicely.

Things not so good at workplace with people leaving and company divided etc etc. Gosh! i wonder how we managed to screw it all up. Tough times ahead.

Harry potter and Deathly Hallows Part 1

2010-11-20T10:54:00.000-08:00

Saw Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows part 1 yesterday.

Overall mood after the movie - Not bad, infact i like it.

Every time I watch a harry potter movie, i am just in awe by such an awesome job done by writers/screenplay in LOTR. LOTR book was probably more complicated than Harry potter, more depth and characters but the movies are so nicely done, picking the ones that we care, changing timelines sometimes etc.
Harry Potter series in movies have taken the tone of being true to the book to as much as possible. There is a big dilemma - If you are not true to the book, book fans will kill you and that is a big loss. If you are true to the book, then you have to fit it in 2-3 hrs and that makes it a very big challenge.
The good decision taken for the last part was to split it into two parts. This way they can be true to the book and they have double the time now.

About this film -
The goods -
1. No matter what one says, most of the adults are actually going to see how the children have grown up with the series and how their acting has changed. And people like me who has also grown with them, it is a similar adventure. And it is very evident with every movie. Acting of Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson ranges from mundane to very good. When its very good, you enjoy the movie a lot better. The dance scene which is not in book, is one of the best scenes in movie just because how it starts.
2. Good cinematography - Not very often but sometimes, the camera work is just awesome. I think camera work plays a very big role in these epic style movies, it can tell you the scale of system etc.
3. The film takes a more relaxed pace when they are wandering in jungle. I think the slowness of pace helps a lot in understanding whats happening. The fear, the uncertainties, challenges, all seem likely. When you gloss over one ting over another each in 5 minutes, its like reading the book in tweets :)
4. And yes, the animation in the story of three brothers - very very nicely done. Delighted to see that.

The bads -
1. Oh come on, you killed the intro scene. Harry potter escape from his house was such vividly described in the book. Those 100 pages were the best 100 start pages of any harry potter book and you killed it. And why only focus on harry potter, there were other characters as well.
2. The tension is lacking when they are in the cellar of Malfoys. That could have been done in a nice manner.I would have killed the nagini scene, the cemetery scene to buy time for the above.
3. Score, somehow through out the entire series, the score is something that has been lacking.

But overall, all prepped up for the finale. Looking forward for other movies from Daniel Radcliffe - lets see how he does.

Haloween 2010

2010-11-06T10:09:00.000-07:00

Haloween at my office is always a big fan faire. We take is very seriously, in my opinion, a little too seriously. The pics are always great. No captions this time as i am being lazy.

Halloween 2010

Pumpkin carving

2010-11-06T09:47:00.000-07:00

Christine invited me to her home last weekend for pumkin carving. Thank you very nuch Christine! Also present there were Buck, John, Guy, Megan and Christine's other friends.

My first pumpkin carving ever it was a lot of fun. A very creative exercise done every year on haloween. I really had a great time making it. The pics are from Guy and so are the captions.

Pumpkin Carving 2010

The Great Hangover

2010-10-30T23:50:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Saumil for recommending me this book.

A lot happened last year in the US financial industry and people say that is going to be very historical. There are references that we came very close to Great Depression. Yet beyond the main headlines, i had no idea what really happened, its causes, consequences etc.

The Great Hangover is a collection of about 21 articles covering the Financial meltdown by reporters at Vanity fair. The articles are quite detailed and very very interesting to read. My favorite ones are articles written by Bryan Burrough. Michael Lewis, the ones on Bernie Madoff, again, very interesting read.

Highly recommended - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Hangover-Tales-Recession-Vanity/dp/0061964425

So what is the take away from all this -

I think that the one lesson that clearly emerges is that "there is no such thing as free money". If you are seeing any lucrative offer, a scheme paying higher interest rates than others, or if you are earning money more than you think you deserve, it has to pay off through some means in the end. You may win in the start but later on, there is no free lunch and it is a risky game, gamble actually and you can also loose. And thats what happened.

But it is a gamble with a difference. In a gambling game, only players win or loose, spectators can merely watch and enjoy. But in financial world, this didn't happen. People who took risk failed and it was tax payers money needed to bail them out, so even those who were not directly playing had to pay. The explanation here is that you have paid the cost for seeing something wrong and not doing anything about it. The era of "consumption" of democracy is over, either be active or "be satisfied with what you get". This also sends a wrong signal to the people who took risk because they were able to get away with that, well not all of them but many did.
These people still earn more than what they deserve and are unashamed by the fact that they have their jobs right now because of this massive intervention by the govt. Their unabashed attitude is still a problem.

Oh come on, you take someone's money, claim 2% of the money as your fees and 20% of the margins that you earn on it, don't you think that it is too high. Every bubble has to burst sometime, the whole attitude is to make money before it comes and some succeed and some fail. Those who fail are the most vocal, but they forgot it when they were making money.

There is also a documentary - Inside job that explains this whole mess in a different perspective. It is narrated by Matt Damon and is quite a good watch. Although many people declined to be interviewed for the movie, but for the ones who did, they still do no see anything wrong with the system. Many believe that it was just a happenstance and economy will bounce back.The movie does a great job in interviewing economists and asking them the conflict of interest when these same economists are on the board of these different financial companies.

Manas and i were enjoying this movie, laughing , giggling, making fun etc. But the entire hall was shocked after watching the movie. There were many elders in the hall, many who could feel the pain and see that nothing has changed. For us, we watched the movie from a complete detached perspective, the meltdown had not affected me at all, i have a job and it pays me more than i deserve. One old man sitting one row back to us said "This is the scariest movie i have ever seen". People were shocked - and there was an emotion of helplessness, not knowing what to do - the same emotion that comes when you watch Peepli live, i guess.

I would also recommend this movie, to anyone who did not follow what epic event happened in 2009, anyone who wants to know what the future is in store for us.

Inside job : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645089/

Rally to restore Sanity.

2010-10-30T23:36:00.000-07:00

Today Jon Stewart's rally to restore sanity was held in Washington. I got to see the last 80 mins of it. It was hilarious and touching - awesome! just like his show. Of particular importance to me was his last 10 minute monologue (transcript copied below), in that he gives the analogy of traffic merging from 6 lanes to 1 lane by showing a video and there he says that inspite of our differences, we still share and say - you go, then i will go, there is such simple human co-ordination at play and that comes just because we are human. I found this to be very nice, even more so because i too had thought about it sometime ago, in a slightly different context - mine was stop signs. At an intersection, there are stop signs, no stop lights and people are courteous to let the guy who came first leave first. No one tries to outsmart the others and everyone patiently waits even though the road in front of them is empty. This thing is not just a human courtesy but it is there in the law, basically the law expects this level of decency. This is just awesome! And Jon Stewart thinks too now.

Overall, the rally was amazing. Stephen Colbert and Stewart had some very nice jokes. But with a name like "rally to restore sanity", thats simply going to work.

Here is his transcript -

“I can’t control what people think this was. I can only tell you my intentions. This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith or people of activism or to look down our noses at the heartland or passionate argument or to suggest that times are not difficult and that we have nothing to fear. They are and we do. But we live now in hard times, not end times. And we can have animus and not be enemies.

But unfortunately one of our main tools in delineating the two broke. The country’s 24 hour political pundit perpetual panic conflictinator did not cause our problems but its existence makes solving them that much harder. The press can hold its magnifying up to our problems bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire and then perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden, unexpected dangerous flaming ant epidemic.

If we amplify everything we hear nothing. There are terrorists and racists and Stalinists and theocrats but those are titles that must be earned. You must have the resume. Not being able to distinguish between real racists and Tea Partiers or real bigots and Juan Williams and Rick Sanchez is an insult, not only to those people but to the racists themselves who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate--just as the inability to distinguish terrorists from Muslims makes us less safe not more. The press is our immune system. If we overreact to everything we actually get sicker--and perhaps eczema.

And yet, with that being said, I feel good—strangely, calmly good. Because the image of Americans that is reflected back to us by our political and media process is false. It is us through a fun house mirror, and not the good kind that makes you look slim in the waist and maybe taller, but the kind where you have a giant forehead and an ass shaped like a month old pumpkin and one eyeball.

So, why would we work together? Why would you reach across the aisle to a pumpkin assed forehead eyeball monster? If the picture of us were true, of course, our inability to solve problems would actually be quite sane and reasonable. Why would you work with Marxists actively subverting our Constitution or racists and homophobes who see no one’s humanity but their own? We hear every damn day about how fragile our country is—on the brink of catastrophe—torn by polarizing hate and how it’s a shame that we can’t work together to get things done, but the truth is we do. We work together to get things done every damn day!

The only place we don’t is here or on cable TV. But Americans don’t live here or on cable TV. Where we live our values and principles form the foundations that sustains us while we get things done, not the barriers that prevent us from getting things done. Most Americans don’t live their lives solely as Democrats, Republicans, liberals or conservatives. Americans live their lives more as people that are just a little bit late for something they have to do—often something that they do not want to do—but they do it--impossible things every day that are only made possible by the little reasonable compromises that we all make.

Look on the screen. This is where we are. This is who we are. (points to the Jumbotron screen which show traffic merging into a tunnel). These cars—that’s a schoolteacher who probably thinks his taxes are too high. He’s going to work. There’s another car-a woman with two small kids who can’t really think about anything else right now. There’s another car, swinging, I don’t even know if you can see it—the lady’s in the NRA and she loves Oprah. There’s another car—an investment banker, gay, also likes Oprah. Another car’s a Latino carpenter. Another car a fundamentalist vacuum salesman. Atheist obstetrician. Mormon Jay-Z fan. But this is us. Every one of the cars that you see is filled with individuals of strong belief and principles they hold dear—often principles and beliefs in direct opposition to their fellow travelers.

And yet these millions of cars must somehow find a way to squeeze one by one into a mile long 30 foot wide tunnel carved underneath a mighty river. Carved, by the way, by people who I’m sure had their differences. And they do it. Concession by conscession. You go. Then I’ll go. You go. Then I’ll go. You go then I’ll go. Oh my God, is that an NRA sticker on your car? Is that an Obama sticker on your car? Well, that’s okay—you go and then I’ll go.

And sure, at some point there will be a selfish jerk who zips up the shoulder and cuts in at the last minute, but that individual is rare and he is scorned and not hired as an analyst.

Because we know instinctively as a people that if we are to get through the darkness and back into the light we have to work together. And the truth is, there will always be darkness. And sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t the promised land. Sometimes it’s just New Jersey. But we do it anyway, together.

If you want to know why I’m here and want I want from you, I can only assure you this: you have already given it to me. Your presence was what I wanted.

Sanity will always be and has always been in the eye of the beholder. To see you here today and the kind of people that you are has restored mine. Thank you."

Life in July 26 - Oct 23

2010-10-23T19:17:00.000-07:00

Wow, that long! That long to write status updates on my life. And i had no idea what took it so long. I was not busy, well not busy at work but other things were happening. Lets see what all it was -

The best - Ran the San Jose Half marathon. Feels good, on to next target - full marathon.

Attended Indian Ocean's concert. Good concert, didn't like the fact that we had to sit and attend .... who listens to Indian Ocean while sitting still, no one. But they played Zindagi se darte ho. Jugalbandi was also quite good. They had to get two people to replace Rahul, i liked the new band members.

Went to a hike on Mission peak with Nikesh. Short two hrs hike but enough for me to say - Mission peak conquered.

Abhinav Shantaram stayed with me for a week. Good fun having him here. Went to Stanford with him once.

Nandini has decided to go back to India, atleast somebody amongst us still has some sense left. She came to visit. We went to Hearst castle and drove on highway 1. Drive was good, castle was ok. May not go again, but he (Mr. Heart) had loads of money.

Went to Atlanta for Achin's wedding. Had a great time there. Its always fun in family get togethers especially in wedding occasions.

Watched a play - Superior donuts at mvcpa. The play details can be found on wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_Donuts. Nice warm play with a sad happy ending.

Joined camera cinema club and attended the movie - Conviction. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1244754/ Really liked the movie, cried in the end. Great acting by Hillary Swank and Sam Rockwell. Direction could have been better, the movie lacked polish but such a powerful story. And a true story as well. Thanks for making the movie. Watching movie at camera cinema club, where there is this anticipation, suspense and every time a different emotion so far. i love it.

Got promoted, and got more options. Life at work see-sawed. Currently, it is at the high end. It was tough when it was low. Good times, bad times - they all come and go.

Bought a new laptop. Currently writing from it. Ipad is working fine.

Finished my ipad cover - a beautiful felted cover with threads hanging to show its authenticity :) Working on flap at the moment as the cover shrunk more than i expected. Size 50 needles have arrived, next project - a big rug.

Started a course at Stanford - Its called - The future of energy - The effect of climate change, policy and markets. Website - https://continuingstudies.stanford.edu/courses/course.php?cid=20101_SCI%2035 5 week courses, one class every week. 2 hrs each class. Mainly to get more knowledge of energy and the world we live in.

Team Asha training has ended. Went to last weekday run, only Matt was there. Thanks Team Asha for your help and support.

Watched the movie The Town. Ok movie. Love Rebecaa Hall's performance. Would have been great had Casey Affleck been the protagonist.

Words with Friends on ipad was a fever with me last two months. Megan and Dhruv were regular opponents with others too.

Anatomy of Kerala tourism video

2010-10-07T08:03:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Justin for sharing the video and his interesting post can be read here - http://the-quintessential-justin.blogspot.com/2010/10/kerala-tourism-video.html

I just cant seem to get over the visual imagery in the video. I think its time for me to watch another Kim Ki Duk's film, its been a long time.

A few thoughts before i begin my analysis -
Thanks to the video makers / kerala govt for making this. With the video so surreal, i am not sure how it got approved. This video has some elements that are non-trivial, and they are not visible immediately but they add to the experience. It is videos like these which are made for repeated viewing, mainly to understand how one's brain works. If we like the video, if it clicks to us, then what is it. This post is my attempt to understand this 3 min video.

Start scene - Man fishing. ( 0 to 26 sec)
Firstly, it is an animation but very well done, so my mind is always trying to fiigure out, is this real? This creates intense concentration. Next, the camera is fixed but it is the water that is moving which gives life to the scene (as opposed to a static postcard). The man is still for the first half of this clip, and during that time, the eyes are looking at the imagery which is too good to be true. And then at 11 second mark, the man moves, but just observe his style of movement, and when i see his posture with legs crossed, my facial microexpression says - "yeah! thats correct".

Woman on massage table scene - (27 sec - 57 sec)
Camera is upside down, but that should have been ok, but it is the lateral movement of the camera which keeps us engaged. Since it is handheld, it is not entirely linear, so it gives us a perception that we are looking by our own eyes. And ofcourse the model is very beautiful too! Next, the camera jumps to show her in full, but again the lateral camera motion is still there. The camera just becomes our eyes and we feel as if we are there. And look at the next clip, the camera cuts to her face but this time, the camera is static and the actress is the one who moves, still giving us the same feeling of being physically observing it. The next two scenes just gives us the visual beauty of the landscape and what speaks is the calm, serene, and beautiful backdrop.

Man practicing Kathakali at his home (58 seconds - 1min 18 seconds)
This one is the best as per me. Look at how the video starts - the camera is outside the man's boundary, just above the mud wall, as if it is sneakily peeking to someone's house. It looks like we are the ones who are sneakily peeking, this goes for 6 seconds (just enough time for the brain to register this feeling) and then camera goes to the closeup. In all kathakali / tourist promotion viodeos, we always see the final imagery, man with paintings making facial expressions, but very rarely we have witnessed a man practicing the art, without the makeup, in its pure raw form, and while sitting at his home. We can see what actually happens, beyond the makeup. And then the last part, the camera is now inside the house, just above the wall boundary and we see the lady walking outside. This completes the story here, it was she who was peeking. It took 20 seconds to narrate a complete story and people experiencing atleast 5 different emotions in this time period.

Lady in boat scene (1min 19 seconds - 1 min 39 seconds)
Again, a very deep 20 second clip. What should you do if you are in the most peaceful place in the world - you think, introspect and reflect upon yourself. The 20 second clip describes those three adjectives in that order. It starts with the lady deep in thought and her reflection approaching her. Again, kudos to the way it is done, same clothes, almost same expression. But notice carefully, they two ladies are looking i different directions, it is not entirely a mirror image. And as the boats cross, the lady directly stares in the camera. At this point the viewer is convinced that the two are looking into each other, the camera position just adds that effect so silently. "Reflect upon oneself" if you ever have to portray this idea, how will you do it? Just think about it, its very hard! But the way this scene captures it, :) . Also there is some effect by the fact that the boats are moving, it does give some subconscious signal of time, passing thoughts and the slowness of the boat, just registers the fact that time slows down in this world.

Lady with long hair ( 1min 40 to 1 min 59 seconds)
We start by looking at the lady through a tree's branch. And the camera is moving backwards. I am not sure about the significance of the scene, to me there are two possibilities - on one side, it tells about Kerals's traditional practices portraying the myth and the mysticism in it or the other possibility is that you can be as insane as you want to be here :) . But cut to the next clip, now we are looking in the opposite direction and instantly we see the big tree with its convoluted branches and children sitting on them. The camera, again from this angle, moves backwards. We see the lady coming out of herself and looking at the people.

Dance form scene ( 2min to 2min 13 seconds)
I believe those are different dance forms in Kerala and they are just shown in an artisitic manner. The scene where we see the man arbit lip faces and the lady relaxing enjoying it, its actually the lady looking at the dance and enjoying it. The lip movements are not directed towards her, it is a art trick to show both the player and viewer in the same frame. And there are many things that are beyond my art interpretation, like why there is a dog in the long shot scene in this clip?

Lady and the elephant ( 2min 14 seconds to 2 min 50 seconds)
What is the end feeling that the maker wants us to leave with ? This scene captures that in a very indirect manner. The final emotions are natural beauty, wildlife, peace and being one with yourself and nature. Notice how the camera moves laterally here, just showing that there is so much silence in the backdrop. In the closeup frame, the expression on her face is of peace And in the last part, the camera moves backwards, as if it is leaving the two together .... in inner bliss. In the moment.

Your moment is waiting.
Which moment is talking about? Justin Cherian in his blog writes that it could mean anything but i beg to differ. I believe that there is only one moment that is being referred and that moment is the moment of inner bliss. The same moment with which the camera signs of that visual imagery. Admire the articulation "Your moment is waiting" here - It is not you who is waiting, it is your moment that is waiting. You can achieve the moment, it is within your reach, infact it is waiting for you to come.

Wow! It will take some time to settle it. The application of the whole to Kerala tourism is just a brilliant idea. Kudos!

Lastly, if you liked the video, may i recommend the movie - The vertical ray of Sun

Techcrunch disrupt.

2010-10-03T19:39:00.001-07:00

I attended Techcrunch disrupt second day as part of my company. Techcrunch disrupt is an annual conference where startups come and pitch their products, mainly focussed on some disrupting products.

Liked products such as qwiki (which even won the contest), cloudFair, Gunzoo, Lark ( great idea) , and some others. Some were quite bad which made me wonder - really ? :)

But overall, what i liked was the spirit of conference, great minds gathered under an expo and discussing the next generation of disruptive ideas. This to me was the highest point in technology so far, everyone sitting with their smart devices, sharing ideas on twitter/fb etc, companies demoing on ipad, judges evaluating on ipad, startups everywhere, cloud, social, all buzz words in the air. And everyone excited about it, everyone trying to add their contribution to this ecosystem. Everyone believing in their ideas and working towards it.

A nice experience, a good look into whats happening in Silicon valley. Seriously, if you look here, if you see some things that people are doing here, it is a totally different world. Ways to make information tractable, meaningful etc, these are problems that silicon valley is seeing and silicon valley is solving. Only once the solution is there, then the world will notice it and adopt it, till then we are on an island, trying to make sense of things.

Kishan vs Kanhaiya

2010-10-03T19:31:00.000-07:00

I went to see a Paresh Rawal play - Kishan vs Kanhaiya. I liked it to an extent. It deals with the atheism vs believing God. The good part was that they chose this subject, still and always a favorite. The bad part was that in all such plays, believers always win.

The premise of the play is that Kishan lal's is an atheist whose work gets destroyed due to an earthquake. His insurance company refuses to pay the cost because it was an act of God. So Kishan decides to sue god (Kanhaiya, hence the name Kishan vs Kanhaiya) in court and then wins the case in end.

Paresh Rawal plays the protagonist, this is the kind of role in which he excels and its truly great to watch him. His dialogue delivery and sheer timing makes the play watchable. The supporting cast is quite disappointing as per me, even their direction is straight out of some Bollywood movie.

Some of the dialogues written about atheism, some about value of hard work are quite good. Overall an average play.

Achin's wedding

2010-10-03T19:02:00.000-07:00

Went to Achin's wedding last weekend, It was in Atlanta. Nicely organized ceremony. Among other things, the highlight was meeting Amit, my cousin. During ladies sangeet, we were finding it difficult to find sangeet songs. But Amit came with some awesome Punjabi boliyan.

The best was this punjabi song - billo ji. I have found a youtube video but even it does not do any justice to the way he sang it

The Hawan was done in an innovative style - Panditji was explaining the meaning of those sanskrit mantras in english so that others can follow what is happening during the ceremony. This was much appreciated by everyone.

Also learnt another cards game...... woh shaadi hi kya jismein patte na khele gaye hon :)

But like the last time, and like every other wedding, the best part was the thass that follows after the ceremonies. The never ending thass where we discuss anything and everything and all with good spirit. Another event that we will never forget is the dance of Pant Auntie. Her unique style of dance which was basically dance without emotions,, dance with a straight face was immensely discussed and laughed. But seriously, she must be 55+ and the way she was dancing was amazing, hats off to her. But what followed her dance was people trying to imitate her, people trying to visualize her...awesome!

First half marathon

2010-10-03T17:11:00.000-07:00

Headlines on Oct 4, 2010.

Indian Express -
Arvind Batra finishes half marathon in 2 hrs 58 minutes, 36 seconds.

The Hindu -
Arvind Batra rocked and rolled in San jose Rock-n Roll half marathon.

Times of India
"Every body part hurts" -Arvind Batra

Hindustan Times
Team Asha, cheerleaders and random strangers help Arvind Batra cross the finish line.

Punjab Kesari -
अरविन्द बत्रा के छक्के छक्के छूट गए

NavBharat times
धूप में धमकते नज़र आये अरविन्द बत्रा

Tehelka news
Arvind Batra remembers every junk food eaten in his last mile run at San jose half marathon.

Random blogger
Arvind batra disappointed by fifty year olds finishing ahead of him gets some solace on seeing younger people finishing after him.

on arvindbatra,blogspot.com

Wow, it feels good to reach a milestone, and running a half marathon is. I think it will be one of the best things that i have done this year. Truly enjoyed the experience. I think the biggest highlight of the day to me (other than me finishing the race) was the whole spirit of volunteerism and selfless service. Countless people standing at the sidelines and cheering for you. The school kids who were so eager to give water, cheerleaders who never stopped for the entire three hrs, and random strangers. So many stories

A home at mile 2 mark decided to give bacon to runners to cheer them up.

A stranger ( a man of age 50+) at mile 11 told me - You are almost there and you are looking good, run easy and don't injure yourself.

People at mile 4.5 cheering the top 2 runners who are returning to base. No hard feelings :)

A school kid at a mile 6.6. water station - Please take my water, please take mine!

A local family sprinkling water through their garden hose on people.

Countless families sitting in front of their houses and yelling "Keep going"

A man came out and started playing his guitar to entertain us. A teenager was playing beautiful drums in a rhythm.

Completed marathoners running last two miles again with friends to give them support and help them complete.

The school kids had assembled in morning as early as 6:30 am. Water stops at every 2 miles were such a great help. It was a very humid day. What a validation of selfless service today. And Team Asha people cheering all the way. I could not have finished without you.

My mile chart
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 11.5 12 12.25 12.50 12.75 12.9 13.0 13.1

Running to me is as much a physical effort as it is a mental one. It is very easy to walk 13 miles but to push yourself to run requires a lot of mental strength.

Watch out - next milestone - full marathon in 2011.

25.25

2010-09-14T22:25:00.000-07:00

Hi

Sept 14, 2010
I turned 25.25 today :)
Celebrating 25 was old school, the new gen celebrates 25.25 :)
Quite an accomplishment!

So what should i blog about, i guess things that i would like to do before 30.

1. Go on a 1 - 3 month long hiking in mountains.

2. Run a marathon. (If all goes well, i will be running a half by Oct 3)

3. Weigh 160 p0unds.

4. Work for an NGO for 6 months.

5. Be jobless for 6 months. It may overlap with #4.

6. Be back in India.

7. Have a indian classical music library. (physical library)

8. Know how to make rasogulla and other indian sweets at home. Want to be an expert in that.

9. Have biked 2000 kms/miles.

10. Made more plans ;)

PGDHRL results

2010-08-17T17:55:00.000-07:00

Results for my PG diploma course in Human Rights law is out.

And i have passed (not with flying colors). Here is my marks breakup -

Paper 1: History of Human Rights and Rule of law : 54
Paper 2: Civil and political rights: 70
Paper 3: Economic social and cultural rights: 55.5
Paper 4: Legal Aid and access to justice: 65.5

These results by themselves may not look that impressive but if look at the overall class marks, these are quite good. As usual , i am not the topper and not even in top 5 , probably in top 10 but if you look at the class overall, i am not that bad either.

oh well!

peepli live

2010-08-14T01:41:00.000-07:00

Peepli live
A film by Anusha Rizvi
Co-directed by Mahmood Farooqui

Highly recommended by me.

Why i loved it so much?
1. It had cast by Naya theater. I had met Natha :). Yes, he was in NSIT during my final year as part of Naya theater. I had seen him before during a play (ponga pandit) at Indian Habitat center. It is so great to see him on screen.
2. Raghubeer Yadav. And yes, he is a Yadav, makes sense eh? (caste reference)
3. I did not knew that Des mera had such powerful lyrics. So true song about India. i am in love with that song now. And also about Zindagi se darte ho, see previous post. The local songs were also very good.

The subject matter. There are many important issues in this country. So many documentaries are made about farmer suicides but the idiots like me will never watch them. We are the "bigde hui bachche" of this generation who want everything in an accessible form. Documentaries are too heavy for us, reality of life is too much for us to handle. We prefer our virtual worlds, our facebooks, our blogs, our so-called social network which runs over a network of wires now; How do you make dumb-wits like us to know about farmer suicides, to know what happens in majority of India, to those who are making our food. P.Sainath has written a book (Everybody loves a good drought) and it has got 13 awards, everyone is calling it an excellent achievement, but why should we read it. It is going to be another diatribe about poor villages. Dude, India is shining, duh!!! The truth is that we middle class Indians, in our lives have stopped looking at the those poor people as human beings. They are like a different species, a different race which is also sharing the planet with us and it just happens to be a co-incidence. If you do not agree, just watch this hulu video and if you are able to watch it till the end, my respects to you. Farmers suicide has no relation to my life and there is also no relation between what happens in Kashmir. My life is a struggle in itself, why should i think about others? We belong to that generation who believes that there is no caste system in India, we who never say no to gifts during marriages, who always pretend that we are religious by chanting some mantras, who are ok with salty water in our taps as long as we have levis jeans and reebok shoes; the question is how do you make this generation aware about fundamental problems such as farmer suicide.

The answer to last question is Peepli live. And i thank Anusha Rizvi for making this movie. This movie is a fictional satire on farmer suicide issue. There is so many punch lines, so many rhetorics that you will laugh, you can not escape it. But there is a lot that is happening on the screen that you just can not avoid and that is not laughable at all. Soon, you have to question yourself, what are you laughing at, the movie or the society or is it this the laugh of shame on yourself. This movie is like what Jon Stewart does every weekday, present complex issues, stories in a satirical fashion so that we can understand what's so wrong with the system. My point is that it has to be done through satire, it has to be done by making us laugh. As the saying goes, a great man is one who can laugh at himself. And so it applies to society as well. If only we can laugh on ourselves, then only we can be great. Because behind those laughs, there is a pinch which is internal and the laugh is just the instantaneous gratification of delight but the pinch is long term and it definitely bites. Or may be we have just become such high degree consumers that for us to understand deep concepts, they have to sold to us and the packaging matters. We need Munna bhai to tell us that we should always speak truth, we need Larry Wilmore to address race issues between us. Peepli live does just that.

Moreover it is not just the farmer suicide issue that is dealt here. I love the fact that whenever bollywood decides to make films about indian villages, they always show the wife as a mature, sensible and responsible person as opposed to someone who just sits at home. (Another example - Ishqiya). Bollywood's contribution to women independence is indeed commendable. The movie also shows mother-daughter-in-law relationship where the daughter in law is always abused. It also talks about the liquor problem, caste issues etc.

One interesting thing is that it is also a big satire on Indian media. It is more notably so because the director comes from NDTV. But i did not find it as funny as others here. (Disclosure: As blogged before, i am a fan of Indian media now). I sympathize with Indian media. We laugh about the rat race between news media channels. But i ask, if the rat race was not there, then only one channel would have covered it, shouted about it but no one would have listened. It is because of the rat race, everyone covers the same story and hence it gets such a big attention. Think about it! Yes, rat race brings competition and thus comes the selling points and thus story hunting turns into a scavenger hunt. I am able to accept it as side-effects, but it seems that people are too obsessed with the side effects that they overlook the main advantages.

And it brings two more days of guilt in my life. Two days later, i would have forgotten all about it, i will be in my world again, Natha will be somewhere else, a different planet, a different century. Two days, thats all it takes now a days for me to forget about all this. Sad!

Zindagi se darte ho

2010-08-14T01:24:00.001-07:00

Just came back after watching Peepli live (review in another post). But at the end of the movie, while the casting and other information comes, there is a song performed by Indian ocean - Zondagi se darte ho.
The movie was good but this song in the end. everyone in the theater had left except four people, all listening to this Indian ocean song. I think this is definitely one of the best songs of this year for me. And Indian Ocean is definitely my favorite band now. They are able to bring the raw energy, the passion into these songs, it just makes you stand up and run! Yes run!

The song is written by Noon Meem Rashid.
Wikipedia page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noon_Meem_Rashid

I got the lyrics from this page http://dastangoi.blogspot.com/2010/07/zindagi-se-darte-ho.html

Zindagi se Darte ho

Zindagi se darte ho (4)
Zindagi to tum bhi ho (2)
Zindagi to hum bhi hain
Aadmi se darte ho (2)
Aadmi to tum bhi ho (2)
Aadmi to hum bhi hain
Tum abhi se darte ho

Aadmi zabaan bhi hai
Aadmi bayaan bhi hai (2)

Harf aur maani ke rishta haaye aahan se
Aadmi hai waabasta
Aadmi ke daaman se zindagi hai waabasta
Us se tum nahi darte ho (2)

Ankahi se darte ho
Jo abhi nahi aayi
Us gharri ki aamad ki
Aagahi se darte ho
Tum abhi se darte ho

Pehle bhi to guzre hain (2)
Daur na rassai ke
Be-riya khudaai ke
Phir bhi yeh samajhte ho (2)
Hech aarzumandi
Yeh shab e zubaan bandi
Hai rah e khudaawandi
Tum yehi samajhte ho

Tum mager yeh kya jaano
Lab agar nahi hilte
Haath jaag uthte hain
Haath bol uthte hain
Subh ki azaan ban kar

Roshni se darte ho
Roshni to tum bhi ho
Roshni to hum bhi hain
Tum abhi se darte ho

Raah- e- shauq mein jaise
rahru ka khoon lapke
Ek nayaa junoon lapke
Aadmi chhalak uthe
Aadmi hanse dekho
shaher phir base dekho
Tum abhi se darte ho (4)

ZINDAGI SE DARTE HO-THE SECOND COMING

Afraid of Life, are you
You too are life
We too are life
Afraid of Man, are you
You too are human
We too are human
Afraid already are you

Man is speech
Man is expression too

To the iron bond
Uniting utterance and meaning
Man is joined
Tied to his sleeves is Life
Not afraid of that

Afraid of the unsaid
Afraid of the moment
That has not yet arrived
Afraid of the awareness
Of the coming of that moment
Afraid already

We have seen the times
Before
Of inaccessibility
Of guileless divinity
And yet you believe
To desire is worthless
This night of silenced tongues
Is the path
To divinity

How will you know though
That if lips don’t move
Hands begin to stir
Hands begin to call
Like the Azan at dawn

Afraid of Light
You too are light
We too are light
Afraid of light

As in the journey of love
The traveler’s blood soars
A new passion leaps
Man boils over
Man laughs, look
The city is reborn
Afraid already
-Translated by Mahmood Farooqui with inputs from SR Faruqi

Now some videos

Indian ocean live performance : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0sxapniwqI&feature=related

Sung by Zia Mohi ud Din

And by Noon Meem himself

More research is needed about Noon Meem Rashid.

zindagi se darte ho, zindagi to tum bhi ho, zindagi to hum bhi hain.

kya baat hai! and in the end it says - tum abhi se darte ho!

You are afraid of now!

Hai pyar to musafir

2010-08-04T21:04:00.000-07:00

Music! Yes, music was missing from this blog for a long time and what a way it has chosen to come back. Randomly, i started listening to Shubha mudgal and i came across this song - Hai Pyar to Musafir from the album ab ke saavan. And i was hooked. The lyrics, the way it is sung, the tempo increase. Kya baat hai! And the lyrics...... so many songs about love are there, yet this one finds a unique spot (well it is not ishtehaar level, ek kudi jiska naam muhabbat) but it is definitely at just one level down.

And Shubhaji ji awaaz....kya awaaz hai! FYI, she used to blog too. Her site is http://shubhamudgal.com/

Music can be downloaded from here - http://www.dishant.com/mailsong/8563.html

kab aaye kab jaaye kahan thehre kya khaye
Hai pyar to musafir, marzi se aaye jaaye
naraaz hota hai, ukta jaata hai
kaun jaane kiski baaton mein aata hai
bas uthta hai chala jaata hai
kitna koi roke, kitna samjhaye
Hai pyar to musafir, marzi se aaye jaaye

kab aaye kab jaaye kahan thehre kya khaaye
Hai pyar to musafir, marzi se aaye jaaye
naraaz hota hai ukta jaata hai
kaun jaane kiski baaton mein aata hai
bas uthta hai chala jaata hai
kitna koi roke, kitna samjhaye
Hai pyar to musafir, marzi se aaye jaaye

kabhi umar bhar intezaar karwaaye
kabhi darwaaze pe khada muskuraye
gali gali sheher sheher tehelta rehta hai
na kuch sunta hai, na kuch kehta hai
phir bhi baithe hain sab aas lagaye
kya pata kab kiski rah mein aa jaye
Hai pyar to musafir, marzi se aaye jaaye

Na rupya na paisa jo koi kamaye
na sharbat na paani jo koi bahaye
na dhoop na batti jo koi jalaye
na rekha na kundali jo koi padhaye
na mandir na masjid jo koi banaye
man se hi nikle aur man mein hi samaye
Hain pyar toh musafir, marzi se aaye jaaye
Hain pyar toh musafir, marzi se aaye jaaye

कब आये कब जाए कहाँ ठहरे क्या खाए
है प्यार तो मुसाफिर , मर्ज़ी से आये जाए
नाराज़ होता है , उकता जाता है
कौन जाने किसकी बातों में आता है
बस उठता है चला जाता है
कितना कोई रोके , कितना समझाए
है प्यार तो मुसाफिर , मर्ज़ी से आये जाए

कब आये कब जाए कहाँ ठहरे क्या खाए
है प्यार तो मुसाफिर , मर्ज़ी से आये जाए
नाराज़ होता है उकता जाता है
कौन जाने किसकी बातों में आता है
बस उठता है चला जाता है
कितना कोई रोके , कितना समझाए
है प्यार तो मुसाफिर , मर्ज़ी से आये जाए

कभी उमर भर इंतज़ार करवाए
कभी दरवाज़े पे खड़ा मुस्कुराये
गली गली शहर शहर ठहलता रहता है
न कुछ सुनता है , न कुछ कहता है
फिर भी बैठे हैं सब आस लगाये
क्या पता कब किसकी रह में आ जाये
है प्यार तो मुसाफिर , मर्ज़ी से आये जाए

न रुपया न पैसा जो कोई कमाए
न शरबत न पानी जो कोई बहाए
न धुप न बत्ती जो कोई जलाये
न रेखा न कुंडली जो कोई पढाये
न मंदिर न मस्जिद जो कोई बनाये
मन से ही निकले और मन में ही समाये
है प्यार तो मुसाफिर , मर्ज़ी से आये जाए
है प्यार तो मुसाफिर , मर्ज़ी से आये जाए

India media

2010-07-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

During this India trip, i found a new respect for Indian media. They are actually doing a good job in making the govt. accountable for its actions. It is doing the function of an opposition party.

For example, it brought out issues on Bhopal gas tragedy, honor killings, physical punishments in schools etc. I was very impressed with the local newspaper Prabhat khabar in ranchi which was doing a great job in exposing corruption in ranchi govt. offices. Incidentally its motto is Akhbhar nahin, Aandolan.

The American media, which is either leftist, or right or trying to be both. Often American media has failed to question the govt. decisions, it generally affirms the govt.'s point of view and after reading Manufacturing consent by Noam Chomsky, i agree with him that American media helps the govt. a lot in pushing forward its policies, justifying their actions. So much and so that Jon Stewart's satire show is the source of news for many people here.

Compared to the American media, India media atleast questions the govt. Ofcourse there is a lot more fool hardiness in Indian system but atleast the media is taking a stand. The journalists are risking something for such news. Along with Indian judiciary, i felt grateful for Indian media. Way to go.

But there are many areas for improvisation in Indian media. My main issues is that Indian media is largely driven my middle class issues. It can be understood as most of the journalists and reporters are middle class people and only identify to middle class issues. For example, honor killings is very prevalent in lower sections but it never made headlines until it happened to an industrial family in delhi. The lower class also needs representation at national level media. Ofcourse, the local media does bring up local issues which includes lower sections but it is not enough.

I no longer have any comments on Indian news's idea of sensationalizing every bit of news. Nor do i hate that idolatory attitudes towards celebrities. These are just part of the parcel and they also have to make money. I am sure time will pass and these things will be not a norm.

Life in May 22 - July 25

2010-07-25T19:59:00.000-07:00

2 months of my life in one post. Difficult to sum it all up especially if it includes a trip to India.

Starting with what was missed in last life in series.

I attended an American wedding of a colleague (Christine). I was late by 30 mins and i missed the actual ceremony. The event was at Sonomal golf course, a very well organized event. I was in time for the dinner and post-ceremony celebrations. The highlight was the cake which was based on some game theme which had a symbolism running under it. There were speeches, dances, toasts and good food. This happened on May 1st.

Ok, now about this installment's updates:

India trip - June 4 - July 5. Haha! 1 month. Multiple other posts update. Highlights - meeting parents, Aarti, other relatives and few friends; Studying and giving human rights law exam; traveling; books; movies; and ofcourse eating best food ever :)

Pre - India trip:
Went to a hike to Stanford dish with Nikesh, Pramod, Gurshi and Vamsi. Nice small 5 mile hike. It was also very closeby. The highlight of this hike was the company. I organized the group and hence i was responsible for maps and directions etc. Hehe, little they knew how bad i am at it. So, we went to a randomal hill first and then turned back because the grass touched our waists. It is then they described to me my GPS formula - Arvind aankh band kar ke haath ghoomata hai. Jahan haath jata hai wahin pe chalna shuru kar deta hai. Lots of PJs. But a nice morning hike.

India trip planning, H1 B visa status stamping documentation etc.

Post India trip -

Many things have happened post India trip. Life again became first different, then busy and then non-existent until i sat writing this post.

1. On my first knitting night after coming back, i finished my hat. I didn't knew it would be so soon. Pictures will be taken and posted soon.

2. Bought an ipad. This happened on July 10. Why did i buy it? I do not know. It costs freaking 700$. How did it happen? I went to buy an iphone 4 but they didn't had any in stock. So Gurshi said that now we are here, we have to buy something. And convinced me to buy it. A detailed ipad review post will be done soon. But for now, it suffices to say that it was not a bad decision.

3. Bought furniture. Continuing on my impulsive buying streak, i bought a 3 seater sofa and one lazy boy and one small center table. I am feeling good about this purchase. Apartment now feels like a home now. I can sit here and read book now (previously all book reading was done in coffee shops).

4. Some more shopping done - Bought jeans and jacket. Went to a mall second time after coming to US. First time was to buy the coat for a marriage.

5. Next knitting project started. It is to knit an ipad cover. Have bought the yarn and needles. The pattern is taken from here - http://community.knitpicks.com/profiles/blogs/pattern-for-felted-ipad-tote. But my knitting master, a colleague at office has decided to leave his job and join Google. But he is going to continue on knitting nights. So thats good. He was also a very good mentor to me. But overall mixed emotions from my side. Happy for him though.

5. Yash buaji passed away. Sad. Don't know how to react. A few times, whenever i met her, i always loved her. She was so lively all the time. Full of life. Always got a feeling of warmth and happiness from her, as someone who was internally happy. Very few people give that vibe, really very very few people. May she rest in peace!.

6. Pt. reach beach meetup - Over time, i have realized that i knoe very few other Indians in bay area. I joined a meetup group called Bay area india junction but never went to any one their meetups. Then, i came to know that they are organizing it on Drakes beach in point Reyes. Naturally i signed up because i love Pt. Reyes. I also really wanted Pramod to see the place. It is a very beautiful place. I also sogned up for carpool as a volunteer to take my car. Pavani and Anshul went with me and it was great to know them. At Pt. Reyes, first we went to see the lighthouse which was kinda cool. We climbed down and up about 320 stairs for it. At the beach, we played volleyball and antakshari. Made some good friends and overall it looked like a very good group. I made eqiuty waale paneer ke sandwiches. Overall a good fun saturday.

7. Have again started training with Asha as part of their season 2. Ran 3 miles yesterday. Targetting the half marathon in October.

8. Movies -
Inception - The much awaited movie by Christopher Nolan. Quite good, very innovative. Deserves at least one watching if not more.
Sorcerer's apprentice - Very disappointing. Do not even try.
Kisses - Went to this one as part of camera cinema club. I have signed for membership. Liked the movie. Kisses is an Irish indie movie based on the life of two eleven year olds who run from their home to the city and it shows how they survive in city there. Very good camera work and great performance by the young actors. Camera cinema club is awesome!

9. Desktop tower defense - the game on ipad is now my latest addiction.