The forbidden fruit

Oh, come on! It's not what you are thinking it is! If you thought you would find something sensual or sensational here, you have come to the wrong blog. Go find the 'Close' button in a hurry.

Still don't believe me? Or you are one of those regular visitors whom I can count on one hand (make that half a hand, actually)? OK, then click here to see where I took these pictures.

Yes, this is a real sunset

Somewhere on the St Lucia mountains, California

Pfeiffer Beach, California

Sunset at Hurricane Point, Big Sur

(Sunset pictures are way too common to hold anybody's interest, but this particular spot in St Lucia Mountains that rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean presented some unique views because of its elevation. I took a lot of pictures here which will be posted later into an album to be linked here.)

A small waterfall along the Salmon Creek Hiking Trail near Big Sur

A random picture from last week

Trying to catch up.... and giving up

It's hardly been 3 days since I got totally consumed by a professional event that I had been preparing for over the last 3 months, but the number of blog posts that I haven't read in that time has shot up to 1000+ already!



Will I ever catch up? Of course not! I am sitting here in the cocktail lounge of the hotel to catch breath and unwind from hours of non-stop technical talking/listening/working since Monday, and to prepare for another hectic day of round-tables tomorrow. I took a brief glance at my reading list, and lost breath right away. There is no way I can read all of them.

But I am definitely going to read my friends' blogs on the above list. I may not comment, though. I hope you won't mind this time. :-)

Yet another point in the eternal cycle of Time

Yes, this is the same tree you saw about 6 months ago.

Something about nothing...

Well, there's nothing to write about in this post. Hmm... make that "nothing significant". Actually, there is. A lot. So, make that "nothing concrete". Because of lack of time (and mood?) to give concrete shape to several abstract thoughts.

(Looking at the way this blog is frequented by my friends and other "regular" readers, I don't think anybody missed me here anyway ;). But there are exceptions.)

The other day, a good friend of mine prodded me to update my blog. And I said "sure". I really meant it. But then, well, read the opening paragraph.

I've been really busy with work with so much happening at the same time. Working on multiple projects/initiatives at the same time, and with my work spread across multiple time zones/continents, and now, starting last week, extending to multiple spoken/written languages involving 8 more countries, my time is seriously getting stretched thin. And with an upcoming product launch, and a weeklong conference coming up in November (padded with vacation on either side of it :-) ), I am just loving it. No, seriously!

Last night (Friday), my client, a serious workaholic herself, emails me with a request and says "It's not really urgent. By Monday morning is OK."

:-)

I have vowed to not bring my work into this blog. So I won't elaborate anymore than I already have.

I am suffering this weekend. Seriously. With M$ Windoze, that is. You see, I dropped my Mac off at the local Apple store to get some system library issues resolved. I was supposed to get it back this afternoon. Two calls later, I still don't have it. And, with my luck, I may not get it till Monday morning. That is scaring the living daylights out of me. Not because I have got loads of work to do, but because I have to use this Dell Laptop till then!! I have been using it since last night, and I still can't get used to anything on it! The bulky body, the kludgy keys, the horrible screen, and the "cooling" fan roaring like an industrial fan blowing hot air.... And it is supposed to be a pretty decent laptop! Dual-core 2.2GHz with 2GB RAM is not archaic, I am sure! But then, the very fact that it is running Windows makes it archaic.

GIVE ME MY MAC BACK!!!!

Anyways, Happy Deepavali, folks! Hope you really enjoyed it. And hope you stopped others from harming the environment.


UPDATE (Oct 18, 2009 7:30PM): My Mac is back and is working beautifully again. Normalcy has been restored. Life can resume now.

Saraswati Pooje

Years ago, when my sisters and I were school-going kids, we used to have this secret trick (ok, it was just me; my sisters were too honest). When Saraswati Pooje came around during Dasara, we, like everybody else, used to stack up our books in front of the idols (and a host of wooden, clay, and plastic dolls and such, decorated as part of gombe habba) for worshipping the goddess of Learning. My trick was to stack up the books I didn't want to read, the books that were most important to me for my main occupation at that time. For the remainder of the festival season, nobody could force me to read those books -- I was free to read whatever else I wanted to read. ;)

How things have changed! When I do Saraswati Pooje now, I take care not to stack up technical and other books related to my profession, books that are critical to me for my current occupation.

Come to think of it, have things really changed? Those days, I used to put away books I wasn't too keen on reading. And now? Well, you decide! :P

Cricket, at last!

All these days, I successfully resisted buying Champions Trophy package on Willow TV. You see, for millions of die hard cricket fans like me who have chosen to live in a non-cricketing country like USA, watching cricket is a luxury. Not just because the viewing opportunities are very limited, we have to actually pay extra money to watch cricket. And if you don't have satellite TV like Direct TV or Dish, your choices are even more limited to a few online video streams, some of which are free and of questionable quality.

Over the years, I have been using Willow TV. The quality is pretty decent, and though it used to be quite expensive, it is getting a little justifiable these days.

But, as I said, I resisted buying Champions Trophy (I didn't watch the Compaq Cup in Sri Lanka either). Not because of the money but because of the lack of excitement about this particular tournament. And because I am too busy these days to afford 6 hours a day for cricket. Until this morning, that is. How can I resist it when India is playing Pakistan, especially when Pakistan bats first and puts up a score of 300 setting up a nice stage for India's challenge! And when I saw Gambhir and Tendulkar going at it, I couldn't keep quiet.

There is a downside to watching cricket on Willow, though. It doesn't work on Mac. So, wearily, I fired up my very rarely used Windoze laptop, and while it was booting, launched Willow site on Mac to pay $45. And a pleasant surprise was waiting for me! Just of curiosity, after making the payment, I clicked on "Watch", and voila! It starting playing! On Safari, no less! Look!





Thank you, Willow TV!

Sadly, in the middle of all this, Tendlya departed. Never mind. Just give me two victories: one against Pakistan and another against Australia. I won't ask for anything else.

And if India can go on to win the trophy, it is a bonus prize. And if that doesn't happen, if fate conspires to at least keep the trophy out of reach for Australia and Pakistan, it is a consolation prize. Come to think of it, I am not sure which prize I love more! ;)

In Memoriam....

Some of my most favorite songs:










Why all these today? Because it is Sept 23. The day I think Rajindra Krishan passed away in 1988. His lyrics and Madan Mohan's composition created sheer magic (btw, the last song above was Chitalkar Ramachandra's composition) . So much so that people still hum these songs even today. Like I did today. That is why.

ಹೀಗೊಂದು ಮಾತು...

ಇವತ್ತು ಮೋಕ್ಷಗುಂಡಂ ವಿಶ್ವೇಶ್ವರಯ್ಯನವರ ಜನ್ಮದಿನ ಅನ್ನೋದು ಎಷ್ಟು ಮಂದಿಗೆ ಗೊತ್ತಿದೆಯೋ ಗೊತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ. ಇವತ್ತು ಬೆಳಗ್ಗೆ ನನಗೆ ನೆನಪಾದಾಗ ಏನಾದ್ರೂ ಬರೀಬೇಕು ಅಂತ ಅನ್ನಿಸಿತಾದರೂ ಏನು ಬರೀಬೇಕು ಅಂತ ಮಾತ್ರ ತಕ್ಷಣ ತೋಚಲಿಲ್ಲ. ನಾನು ಅವರ ಬಗೆಗಿನ ಪುಸ್ತಕಗಳನ್ನು ಒಂದಷ್ಟು ಓದಿದ್ದೀನಾದರೂ ಅವರೇ ಬರೆದ ಪುಸ್ತಕಗಳನ್ನು ಅಷ್ಟಾಗಿ ಓದಿಲ್ಲ. ಕೆಲಸದ ಮಧ್ಯೆ ಆಗಾಗ ಯೋಚನೆ ಮಾಡ್ತಿದ್ದಾಗ ಇದ್ದಕ್ಕಿದ್ದಂತೆ ಒಂದು ವಿಷಯ ನೆನಪಾಯ್ತು. ಅದು ಇತ್ತೀಚೆಗೆ ಬಹುಮುಖ 'ಮೇಧಾವಿಗಳ' ಮೇಳವಾಗಿರುವ ನಮ್ಮ (ಭಾರತದ) ಕೇಂದ್ರ ಸರಕಾರದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಒಬ್ಬ ಮಹಾನ್ ಮಂತ್ರಿಯೊಬ್ಬರ ಪ್ರಚಂಡ ತಲೆಯಿಂದ ಉತ್ತೇಜಿತವಾದ ನೆನಪು.

ವಿಶ್ವೇಶ್ವರಯ್ಯನವರು ಮೈಸೂರಿನ ದಿವಾನರಾದ ಮೇಲೆ ಮಾಡಿದ ಮೊದಲನೆ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಕೆಲಸ ಅಂದರೆ Economic Conference ಎಂಬ ಸಂಪದ್ವಿಷಯಕ ಸಂಸತ್ತಿನ ಸ್ಥಾಪನೆ. ಅದರಲ್ಲಿ ಮೂರು ಶಾಖೆಗಳಿದ್ವು: ಯಂತ್ರಪರಿಶ್ರಮ ಮತ್ತು ವಾಣಿಜ್ಯ; ವಿದ್ಯಾವಿಷಯ; ಭೂವ್ಯವಸಾಯ. ಈ ಮೂರೂ ಶಾಖೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಆಯಾ ವಿಷಯಕ್ಕೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಪಟ್ಟ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಅಧಿಕಾರಿಗಳೂ, ವಿಶೇಷ ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರಜ್ಞರೂ, ಅವರೂ-ಇವರೂ ಸದಸ್ಯರಾಗಿದ್ದರು. ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ತಲೆ ಇದ್ದವರೇ. ಈ ಸಮಿತಿಗಳ ಮೂಲಕ ಮೈಸೂರು ಸಂಸ್ಥಾನದಲ್ಲಿ ಕೆಲವಷ್ಟು radical developments ತರಬೇಕು ಅನ್ನುವ ಕನಸನ್ನು ಕಂಡ ವಿಶ್ವೇಶ್ವರಯ್ಯನವರು ಮಾತ್ರ ಕುಚೋದ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಗುರಿಯಾಗಿಬಿಟ್ಟರು -- ಈ ಸಮಿತಿಗಳ ಮೇಧಾವಿಗಳಿಂದಾಗಿ (ಮತ್ತು ಕಳ್ಳರಿಂದಾಗಿ -- ಆಗಿನ ಕಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ ಸರಕಾರಿ ಕಛೇರಿಗಳು ಶುದ್ಧವಾಗಿದ್ವು ಅಂತ ಯಾರಿಗಾದ್ರೂ ಭ್ರಮೆ ಇದ್ರೆ ಆ Economic conference-ನ ಕಾರ್ಯಪದ್ಧತಿಗಳನ್ನು ಓದಿನೋಡಿ ಭ್ರಮೆಯಿಂದ ವಿಮುಕ್ತರಾಗಿ!).

ಈ ಸಮಿತಿಗಳ ಮೇಧಾವಿಗಳಿಂದ ಬಂದ ಅಭಿವೃದ್ಧಿ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮಗಳ proposals-ಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಬಂದ ಒಂದು ಸಲಹೆ ಹೀಗೆ:

"ಮಲೆನಾಡು ಪ್ರಾಂತದ ಕಾಡುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಹುಲ್ಲು ಆಳಾಳುದ್ದ ಬೆಳೆದಿರುತ್ತದೆ. ಒಂದು ನೂರು ಜನ ಕುಯ್ಯುವ ಆಳುಗಳನ್ನು ಗೊತ್ತುಮಾಡಿ, ಅವರು ಪ್ರತಿದಿನವೂ ಈ ಹುಲ್ಲನ್ನು ಕೊಯ್ದು ಪಿಂಡಿಪಿಂಡಿಗಳಾಗಿ ಕಟ್ಟಿ ಆ ಪಿಂಡಿಗಳನ್ನು ಬೇಲುಗಳನ್ನಾಗಿ ಜೋಡಿಸಿ ಆ ಬೇಲುಗಳಿಗೆ ಭದ್ರವಾದ ಕಬ್ಬಿಣದ ಪಟ್ಟಿಗಳನ್ನು ಕಟ್ಟಿ, ಇಂಥ ನೂರಿನ್ನೂರು ಬೇಲುಗಳು ಸಿದ್ಧವಾದಾಗ ಅವನ್ನು ಬಾಬಾಬುಡನ್ ಬೆಟ್ಟದ ಪಶ್ಚಿಮದಿಕ್ಕಿನ ಇಳಿಜಾರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ವರಸೆವರಸೆಯಾಗಿ ಜೋಡಿಸಿ ಅಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಬಲವಾಗಿ ಒದ್ದು ಉರುಳಿಸತಕ್ಕದ್ದು. ಆಗ ಹುಲ್ಲಿನ ಬೇಲುಗಳು ತಾವಾಗಿ, ಯಾವ ಖರ್ಚೂ ಇಲ್ಲದೆ, ಉರುಳುರುಳಿಕೊಂಡು ಸಮುದ್ರತೀರವನ್ನು ಸೇರುತ್ತವೆ. ಅಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಹುಲ್ಲನ್ನು ದೋಣಿಗಳ ಮೇಲೆ ವ್ಯಾಪಾರಸ್ಥಾನಗಳಿಗೆ ಸಾಗಿಸತಕ್ಕದ್ದು."

ಇನ್ನೊಂದು ಸಲಹೆ:

"ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ನಾಟಕಶಾಲೆಗಳು ನಾಲ್ಕಾರಿವೆ. ಒಂದೊಂದರಲ್ಲಿಯೂ ಸಾವಿರ-ಸಾವಿರ ಜನ ಸೇರುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಆ ನಾಟಕಶಾಲೆಗಳ ಸಮೀಪದಲ್ಲಿ ನಾಲ್ಕೈದು ಬೇರೆಬೇರೆ ತೊಟ್ಟಿಗಳನ್ನು ಕಟ್ಟಿಸಿ ಅವುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಮೂತ್ರಸಂಗ್ರಹ ಮಾಡಿ ಅದರಿಂದ ಅಮೋನಿಯಂ ಸಲ್ಫೇಟ್ ತಯಾರಿಸಬಹುದು."

ಇದೆೇ ರೀತಿಯ ಸಲಹೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಕೊರತೆಯಿಲ್ಲದೆ ಇಕನಾಮಿಕ್ ಕಾನ್ಫರೆನ್ಸ್ ನಗೆಪಲಾಯ್ತಂತೆ.

ಇಂಥವರನ್ನು ಕಟ್ಟಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ರೂ ಸಹ ಭದ್ರಾವತಿಯ ಉಕ್ಕು ಕಾರ್ಖಾನೆ, ಮೈಸೂರು ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾನಿಲಯ, ಮೈಸೂರು ಬ್ಯಾಂಕ್ (State Bank of Mysore), ಕೃಷ್ಣರಾಜಸಾಗರ ಜಲಾಶಯ ಇತ್ಯಾದಿಗಳು ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವಕ್ಕೆ ಬರಲು ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಗಿದ್ದು ವಿಶ್ವೇಶ್ವರಯ್ಯನವರ ಸಂಕಲ್ಪಶಕ್ತಿ ಮತ್ತು ಕಾರ್ಯದೃಢತೆಗೆ ಸಾಕ್ಷಿ.

ಹಳ್ಳಿಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಜನಕ್ಕೆ ಸಂಜೆಯ ಹೊತ್ತು ತುಂಬಾ ಸಮಯ ಇದ್ದು ಅದನ್ನು ಹೇಗೆ ಕಳೆಯಬೇಕೆಂದು ಗೊತ್ತಾಗದೆ ಬೆೆೇಗ ಮಲಗುವುದರಿಂದ ಜನಸಂಖ್ಯೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚಾಗ್ತಿದೆ, ಅದನ್ನು ತಡಗಟ್ಟಬೇಕಂದ್ರೆ ಹಳ್ಳಿಹಳ್ಳಿಗಳಿಗೂ ವಿದ್ಯುಚ್ಛತ್ತಿ ಮತ್ತು TV ಸೌಕರ್ಯ ಕೊಟ್ಟು ಜನ ಬೇಗ ಮಲಗದಂತೆ ಮಾಡಬೇಕು ಅನ್ನುವಂಥ ಮಹಾನ್ ಐಡಿಯಾ ಕೊಟ್ಟ 'ಆರೋಗ್ಯ' ಮಂತ್ರಿ ಗುಲಾಂ ನಬೀ ಆಝಾದರಂಥವರನ್ನು ಕಟ್ಟಿಕೊಂಡು ಮೇಧಾವಿ ಮ.ಮೋ.ಸಿಂಗ್ ಏನೋ ಕಡೆದು ಕಟ್ಟೆ ಹಾಕ್ತಾರೆ ಅಂತ ನಾವೇನಾದ್ರೂ ಅಂದ್ಕೊಂಡ್ರೆ ಅದು ನಾವು ನಮ್ಮ ಮೇಧಾಶಕ್ತಿಗೆ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡ ಅವಮಾನ.

PS: ನಾನು ಮೇಲೆ ಉದಾಹರಿಸಿದ ವಿಶ್ವೇಶ್ವರಯ್ಯನವರಿಗೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಪಟ್ಟ ಘಟನೆಗಳ ಮೂಲ: ಡಿ.ವಿ.ಜಿ. ಕೃತಿಶ್ರೇಣಿಯ "ನೆನಪಿನ ಚಿತ್ರಗಳು".

ಶಿకాగో సాహితీ మిత్రులారా!

I hope I'm allowed to put this up on my blog:



If you happen to be in Chicago area and are interested in Telugu literature, this is a good place to be on Sept 20th (next Sunday).

Tongue-in-cheek disclaimer: I haven't read the book yet. So, if you happen to attend the program and end up hating it, don't blame me! ;)

Scars And the Psyche

So another year has passed since the brutal event.

Very late last night (actually well into early morning today), I was preparing a slideshow for our sales team, and as I was doing some screenshots, I suddenly noticed that the date had turned to 9/11 and it showed on one of the application screens I was capturing. I backed out of the application right away, changed the system date to 9/9 and started all over. I just didn't want that date to be on my slideshow!

I once considered requesting a room change as I was checking into a Hotel in San Francisco and saw the room number on my key card. It was 911.

Such is the nature of the scars. And how our behavior is influenced.

Ganesha Revisited

I couldn't believe Ganesha festival came back so fast! It felt like it was only recently that I bought a "Made in China" Ganesha idol, performed the pooja and blogged about it! And here he was, yet a gain, dominating the weekend and the days on either side of it.



This time, I managed to perform the pooja in much more detail. What was even more special was that, for the first time in my life, I attempted something which I believed I would never do -- prepare steamed kaayi kaDubu (ಕಾಯಿ ಕಡುಬು)! It turned out to be pretty tasty, but the appearance was a disaster! I guess I am not sophisticated enough for certain things!



To make up for the disaster, I also prepared Gulab Jamoon which I consider myself pretty adept at (is 3 times in 14 years not enough of an experience?!).



I surprised myself by preparing two types of sweets in a day because, you know, I don't like sweets. I hardly eat any. This was only for naivedya (and others with a sweet tooth) -- so maybe I earned more puNya because of selfless cooking :P

By the way, lamps (and clouds) form in so many interesting ways that sometimes I am amazed by their uncanny resemblance to familiar shapes and forms. But what I saw in this lamp while doing Ganapati pooja simply stunned me! Do you also see what I am seeing?

Blast from the past

Certain days just don’t start right. That is just how it goes. There is not much you can do about it. You could wake up to a harsh scream next door or a loud bang on your door or the unbearable sound of the lawnmower right in the morning of a summer weekday that you chose to sleep in! Or it could be the loud and incessant ringing of a junk call on your landline. Or it could be the sweetest ring tone you chose for your cell phone which, when you reached for it, turned into possibly the most unwelcome voice at the other end. **it happens. Like it did for me this morning.

But then, some beautiful things do happen, almost riding on the back of the ugliest of things. Life has a way of teaching you that the good and the bad appear, almost always, together. It is up to you to take in what you want and leave out what you shouldn’t want.

OK, back to what happened this morning. As soon as I hung up the unwelcome call that woke me up this morning, my BlackBerry beeped again. I was not inclined to reach for it, I wanted to go back to sleep and get some much needed rest as this was the first weekend I was fortunate enough to have just for myself after weeks of crazy work schedule that spanned several time zones across continents.

Reach I did, half willingly, and realized that it was an email. I opened the inbox with droopy eyes.... and my eyes lit up in an instant! I just couldn’t believe my eyes, I thought it was a dream. I had received an email from a long lost friend whom I cherished a lot and tried very hard over the years to find! And he had found me and sent me an email!

This friend, a very very nice guy, was my closest buddy when we lived in Delhi. We did everything together, from roaming the streets of Delhi (and nearby places), visiting the most wonderful and tiny book shops around Chandni Chowk, taking the DTC buses to wherever we felt like going, eating wherever we felt like eating, shopping anywhere from the amazing by-lanes around Janpath to the vegetable market in Mandawali Fazalpur..... and, yeah, discussing career and life plans... and everything under the sun. The innumerable evenings we spent talking both our grandiose plans and utter non-sense sitting on the terrace of his mausi’s house sipping tea and munching various snacks....

I have visited Taj Mahal only once in my life despite living in Delhi and passing by Agra soooo many times. And it was Dinesh who was with me when I saw Taj Mahal. It was also his first time.

The last I saw him was probably in 1994. We kept in touch for quite sometime after that. I moved to US and he moved to Mohali. We had ‘snail mail’ contact after that. He had occasional email access which he rarely used, and as I finished grad school and my email addresses kept changing in the pre-gmail days, we were slowly cut off. I couldn’t reach his parents back in Himachal Pradesh. And this was probably about 1998, before cellphones became common in India. So we lost touch. Completely. Until this morning.

And was I thrilled!! I am so glad he renewed his search and found me. He has a good job, is happily married, and works/lives not too far from his home town. I am so happy for him!

Why am I writing about it here? Of course I am happy and excited about regaining a very good friend. But the bigger reason is to highlight the positive impact internet can have on our lives. That is, only if we allow it to. And only if we use it in a positive way. I have seen people who use internet as a weapon of destruction, to harm others, as a means to satisfy their greed, their hatred, their lust, and to basically extend their evil existence. But you can also use it to unite people, find friends, find and spread happiness, and to basically extend your good existence. What you want to do with it is a reflection of who you are. You choose!

Oh, by the way, I totally forgot about the unwanted call that woke me up. Actually, there was no other choice. A wonderful event had replaced it almost immediately.

A lazy summer afternoon...

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A day to remember

It is one of my most favorite events ever. It happened today. Exactly forty years ago.

Man landed on the moon.

Celebrate!