Back In India...

More specifically Hyderabad, after a gap of 3 years. Felt like Rip-Wan-Winkle waking up from a slumber. Driving was not so much of a pain - I used to drive a manual in the USA, but the traffic is!! Radio Mirchi is doing its bit to lessen the pain.

Getting the house renovated and that is a slow process. Can't apply for a BSNL telephone as there are no more lines available. BSNL is the only one providing broadband there. Tulsi gardens has under ground cables laid out only for BSNL and BSNL does not have any lines available. That is too being bullish on BSNL :) Should talk to Sify and see if they manage to lay the internet cable.

Staying with Boni, saved me a lot of trouble, without his help - accommodation, car,cell and what not, life would have been that much more complicated. But hey, this is the best part of coming back - friends,relations and even unknown people are helpful!!

Kids never felt the jet lag, they got their first dose of immunization administered in the traditional way - Dr Mosquito. They fell sick but then recovered.

More updates later.

Google Reader rocks !!

I am ashamed to have not known this earlier. I always felt the need to keep in touch with my fav blogs but did not find time or rather the effort of going through the bookmarked links, till Raj pointed out the Google Reader. The demo says that is like a mailbox to the internet and it really is; or rather for all those blogs, posts, articles that are RSS based. I hoped that there would be a small google widget that I can put up in igoogle, and then actually searched and found it. Pretty cool.

The perfect birthday gift..

My son was not due until a good 10 days after my birthday but then he decided that he wanted to wish his Dad a happy birthday and came into this world on the same day.

Crying all the way to glory, he came into our life. I was there, very much there by being a part of the whole act of delivering him into this world. I was offered to cut the chord and I did it. I cut the cord to symbolically deliver my son.

I had several nightmares about this,that I would black out or my hand would shiver or I would end up cutting the doctor's finger instead of the chord. But nothing like that happened, I was filled with emotion, adernaline and very much active, I felt super confident when cutting the chord. I am allergic to the sight of blood and have a history of nausea and fainting when some one was drawing my blood. I usually throw up when not faint. No wonder I had all the nightmares. Somehow all this did not happen. May be I was too carried over by emotion that I did not care to give any time to my fears. May be my son magically made my fears and allergies dissapear. But it was great, I was so excited that I was running between the baby and the mother.


Now, that the things have settled down, what are the implications? Will my son be happy that our birthday's coincide? Will he feel let down that his father is sharing his birthday bash? Well, as they say joy gets mulitplied when shared, I hope it is true ;). But seriously, I have long given up on the habit of cutting the cake till, I got married and my wife started the tradition again and from onwards, I might just be forced to continue celebrate mine for sometime to come, thanks to Nitin.

For now, I am busy trying to change my son's sleep cycle. Otherwise he is playing around with my sleep cycle. Today, I woke up at 3 in the afternoon, well past lunch time. Funny, how much a fuzzy bundle of joy can do to your life. Like someone said "Babies are like instant coffee, easy to make but keep you awake all night".

Attitude towards events...

Assume you enter your office cafeteria and find someones food spilled on the ground, what would be your reaction? Oops I should not step over it or Sad someone lost their lunch or who is this stupid guy who carelessly spilled his lunch and did not care to clean it up? What would be your first reaction?

I guess it depends a lot on how you prioritize hunger and cleanthiness. If you understand hunger you would empathize with the unfortunate doer of the act, if you are more leaned towards cleanthiness you would accuse the doer of carelessness.

I was faced with such a situation, with me being the one who lost my lunch, unintentional and not for experimentation. My first reaction was to clean up as much as I can and call the janitor to mop up the remaining. There was a delay, before the janitor turned up and it was really interesting to see what people comming into the cafeteria had to say. I had stepped aside and there was none around when this happened. So, the people comming in had no knowledge about who the culprit was.

There was a kind soul who did place a couple of tissues to warn others to not step on it. There were others who just took it in their stride and walked around stuff. There were others who felt bad that some lost their lunch and then there were these others, who were thinking aloud about how clean the house, of the guy who split the food, would be. People have way too much negative energy ;)

If I had been in a similar situation with the roles reversed, my first reaction would be that the person was careless. But for a change, I got to empathize if all those who lost their lunch. Surprisingly enough, it has been quite some time since I realized hunger.

Remembering Stever Irwin...

When I first watched the several programs on Animal Planet, Crocodile hunter immedietely struck me as something different. I began to follow the program to see what Steve was upto. His enthusiasm was infectous, he came across someone who puts his heart into wildlife and conservation. His program was way ahead of similar programs that started sprouting up. His premature and unfortunate dimise is big loss to this world. Personally, I feel sad that I would not get more of Steve, anymore. I hope his family will find the strength to come out this loss.

Shamu - San Diego

It was hot, muggy and salty. But it was worth it. Shamu made it worthwhile. A trip to San Diego has only one purpose - Shamu the whale.

A half an hour show will make you forget the conditions and will get you immersed, with the flow of the show not to mention the salt water drench, if you are in the "soak zone". Shamu is an Oaker or a killer whale. Most of its kind are very intelligent animals that have learnt to hunt other inhabitants of the sea, especially sperm whale chalves. Infact they keep chansing and pressuring the mother and the chalf. The chalf eventually tries out and gives up. The pod of oakers move in for the kill. But I never heard of humans being attacked, even accidentally but oakers.

But that is the high seas, in here Shamu drives away any inkling of fear with a swish of his tail. He gets the children so much involved, that there is never a dull or silent moment in the entire show. Shamu is an outstanding representative of his kind. The show is pure fun and has to be experienced to belive. It is a well edited, choreographed and marketted performance. Dont miss it if you are in San diego.

The other two, so called attractions, the Wild life Zoo and Park are not that great. They would go well with kids but nothing much to write about other than the fact that they well marketted and advertized. May be its unfair to draw comparisions with Shamu. There are other intersting acts and aqauatic beings in Shamu's home but they are not as popular. One dampner at the San Diego Sea world was the exhorbitant prices of the food and water. Be prepared to get ripped off.

Inspiring story - Mr Subramani..

I came across this posting on rediff, I think it deserves a little more coverage.

http://in.rediff.com/money/2006/apr/27spec.htm

Kerala - God's own country

I thought it was a well marketted punch line, till I criss crossed most of Kerala, myself. The only place I missed was Guruvayoor. I rushed through most of Kerala in about 8 days. I rushed through as if there was no comming back to this beautiful place. The routine was to get up early, catch an early breakfast and drive to the next place by lunch, seeing places enroute as well. Well, we did hire a cab and managed to not get tired, but still I miss the place not that I missed the essense, but that I long for more. I did not know that then, but having been to a lot of other places like Rajasthan, Coorg, Bandipur, Ajanta and Ellora, after my Kerala trip, I miss that tranquility. Not that the other places are of lesser interest, but they are different. Different like Vanilla Gold, Black Current and Butter Scotch ;), each has its own flavor - now you know why my BMI is northbound. Tranquility is Kerala for me. The kind of tranquility that you can get only from nature - the crip fresh morning breeze, the greenery around and breathtaking sceneries - the kind of things that elevate you to a different level of living and peacefulness.

Rajasthan, by contrast is man made, colorfull and vibrant. These two are supposed to be the most sought after tourist destinations in India. I know there are a host of others and some of them yet to be covered by me. But then I will have to wait for some more time for those dreams to be full filled. I almost went to Goa last year but the torrential rains and unpredictable weather upset my plans. I would have still braved it but then I wanted to take my parents along and had to grudgingly bow down to the weather God's whims.

But going back to the Kerala trip; it is surprising to see what Kerala has to offer to the tourist, in such a small area. From the highest peak in South India - Anna mudi, to thick forests of Perriyar (you can go on an exciting night trek into the reserve with armed gaurds), to the hill resort in Munnar (with Tata Tea plantations all over the place), to the beaches of Kovalam, the back waters of Kumarakkom and Allepy, to the Raja Ravi Varam's paintings in Trivandum, to the antique but still operational chineese fishing nets in Ernakulam, to the Onam festivities with the snake boat races (I missed this, but saw it on TV), to the rituals of Guruvayoor, the list goes on. Its been more than two years but my memories are still fresh. Some of the following photos are only a sample of what Kerala has to offer. Some day, I will go back at a much liesure pace....