General fundas

Back In India...

2008-11-10T23:20:00.000-08:00

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 !!

2008-02-22T23:39:00.000-08:00

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..

2006-12-25T19:24:00.000-08:00

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...

2006-12-25T19:07:00.000-08:00

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...

2006-09-09T19:58:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-26T13:21:00.000-07:00

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..

2006-04-30T11:43:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-22T22:58:00.000-07:00

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....

Fish can smile...

2006-04-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

A rare commodity in the now-a-days' fast paced world, where no one has the time to stand and stare, leave alone smile. Cultures transformed to put up an artificial smile, heavily driven by consumerism. The smile is stuck to the face like lipstick. Best potrayed by the air hostess in Meet-the-Parents movie. (click on the picture, to enlarge)

In a world where most of the things are artificial, no warmth, no affection, no happiness, in the smile - I was lucky to have a fish smile at me, luckier to have captured it for ever. I can always look at the fish and smile back. The cute yellow fish was enjoying its swim - I imagine, and was always smiling. I can smile back without fear of having somethng sold to me. I should admit, I am sold to the smile. The cute one lives in the Monterey aquarium. Must be chuckling to itself even now. Just happy to be there. One can learn many things from other life forms and one of the best books I read is Jonathan Livingston Seagull* .
(Copyrights belong to the owners of the website and the author Richard Bach)

But some others like this Sun Fish are grumpy:

Size does matter...

2006-04-13T21:51:00.000-07:00

The funny things in life. I bought my Sonata 06, close to the New Year and less than a couple of months earlier, I was driving the best selling car in India - Maruti 800.

The differences between the two makes me chuckle. While the Sonata is a beast weighing 1.5 tons that sticks to the road well and gives an amazing feel, the Maruti, was almost half in size and weight - always gave me the feeling that it will fly off above 80kmph. Though the higher power of the Sonata allows it to race above 220kmph without a hitch, I could only push it to around 150 - without being ticketted ;). The drive too is exellent, with surprising manuverbility.

But still I miss my Maruti - I could squeeze it between the pillars of my apartment with my eyes closed. The best thing is that I was not really woried about anything happening to it and paying the price. Even Jyothi could handle it. It was a stress free car.

With the beast, I have to be more carefull, always have to watch out. The momentum is huge and even a small contact would result in a dent. The accelerator is very sensitive and even a small touch would sent it zooming. With the Sonata, I have to watch every nook and turn. I went for the bigger car here as it offers more road safety and Sonata is 5* rated car. The mileage is good, but nothing compared to the Maruti. While the Sonata glides like a dream, you could hear the Maruti engine complaining underneath you for small loads. Still both are exellent vehicles for their purposes. It might seem like I am comparing apples and oranges, but then I just had one after the other - cant help the comparision.

Surprisingly enough, the Maruti was white and this - Black.

Quite lonley... for about 250years !

2006-04-02T23:53:00.000-07:00

The lonely Cypress, this tree has seen it all. For 250 years, it has been the sentinel outpost. Standing there and whithering the storms, come what may - sun or rain. With luck the Lonely Cyprus, in the Pebble beach's, 17mile drive, would be there for another 50 odd years. He is lonely because is cut off from the rest of his folk and is left standing on a small rock. Kudos, for his resilience and best of luck for the future.

Other than this, you can get some stunning views of the beach along this lovely drive. Unfortunately for me, it was cloudy and raining. Since it was in the evening, the light was even worse. Had to do with whatever I got today. But still pretty worth the money and the effort.

There he blows !

2006-04-02T23:38:00.000-07:00

Copied from Moby Dick, but I almost felt like a whaler myself, only that I have my camera instead of a harpoon. Location was Monterey Bay,CA - where you can supposedly watch different types of whales round the year. I was lucky to find my humpbacked. This familiar whale, named River, by the marine bilogists, was pretty shy. He has been comming to the bay for a good 15 years, but is still shy. Must be a really closed guy, not the one to open up to his eager audience. He did put up a bit of a show though. Like most of his kind. He gives you 3 most common tricks. First he blows, he blows 3 meters! thats is when he surfaces, every 4 mins or so. This is the give away, so he gives you sometime to adjust your camera. Second trick is he shows the length of his back and lastly and most spectacularly he slaps his tail, before going off into the depths of the sea for another feeding session. This guy showed another trick of his by peeking up a couple of time and showing his teeth and a big mouth. That was fun. It would have been to fun to watch more of these creatures. I heard that, May-Jun should be a good season, especially if you are looking for the killer whales and the big greys. While you are there make good use of the famous Montrey Aqauarium and the good sea food you get on the Fishermans warf.

Lost in San Francisco

2006-03-27T12:06:00.000-08:00

All I wanted was to get under the bridge and it took me close to 2 hours of driving through SFO. Well I got greedy or rather wanted to re-discover primitive ways of navigation. I found out that there good only when you have a lot of time and no cars.

To cut the cheese out, I tried to be adventurous. Did not follow google maps, the whole way. Went to half moon bay, drove along the scenic highway with some really stunning landscapes. I regret that I was holding the wheel, instead of the camera. Somehow managed to entered SFO from the South West corner instead of taking the 101 as suggested by Google, which would have got me into SFO South east .

After entering the chaos and getting over the inital shock, the first thing I was looking for my coordinates in the map. We thought that we found something close to where we were. But actaully we were quite far off. This dawned on me, just after calling up the tour guys to postpone my tour by a couple of hours and some friendly honks. Luckily for me, I stuck to my instincts and followed Highway 1, for I knew I would get to Golden Gate and I can surely find my bearings thereon. But on the way, we discovered my location and from then onwards I had to cut across SFO from left to right, with Jyothi guiding me. Reached the Fishermans Warf.

Finding the tour operator was another nightmare, criss crossed most of the water front streets, felt like back home with no traffic lights and cars moving at snail's pace, the only difference was that the traffic, was in one direction "only". Luckily, the newer inventions of modern technology, the cell phone came in handy. By the time we actually reached the tour operator office 1.30 hrs late, a couple of tours had already left. Who cares, there is tour evey hour.

Goofed around till we got on the bus. It was fun going around on the open top, double decker. Took a zillion snaps of the arhitecture on the buildings. The sun was hot but the wind was cold. The trip lasted about 1.30 hrs, leaving us plenty of time to walk around. Stumbled on the 10$ boat ride that was well worth the money. It covers the Golden Gate and the Alcatras, with some witty commentry.

Finally made one last ditch attempt to get to Golden Gate, by road, I mean. Getting lost seems to be the norm of the day. We have to get lost to get somewhere. I was destined to know the layout and the street names of SFO before I reached Lombard Street. With my navigator, helping me to reach every intersection and not telling me whether to go left or right, I was at liberty to use my sense of direction and the setting sun as tools. We finally reached Lombard and then again we were literally "back on track". I now understand that phrase better. I have deep respect for it now.

Some stunning views of Golden Gate Bridge in the setting sun. Then again after some driving around to find 101 South, we finally managed to get some Cab driver, to reveal us the secrect passage to get onto 101S from Fort Point. We stuck to 101 South, through the maze of streets it lead us through. 101 disguises itself as Lombard and then as Van ness, in trying to shake us of. But I was too tired and too old at the game, now that I have my coordinates and my map. The only tell tale signs that 101 leaves is the sign posts that carry the number. The sign posts are actually more of riddles because the direction of the sign kind of made us, to think of a right turn, dont ever do that! We managed to wade through the traffic and reach the freeway. I now, also have deeper respect for the meaning of Freeway. Still the trip was well worth the effort, not only for what SFO offers to tourist, but also for the challenge it offers to the motorist.

This is the Bay Bridge that is a rival to the Golden Gate. This connects SFO to Oakland.

Some of the other photos of Golden Gate.

The Universe or rather a small part of it..

2006-01-09T12:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I had the oppurtunity to revisit the thought.... the enormity of this Universe. I had my fundas confused. I had to refresh them... Just putting them so that I would not forget them again.

1. Our earth has thin crust of a maximuim of 40miles deep. All your Everests(8.8Km == 6miles) and Marina Trenches are on this.
Earth Cross Section
Earth Cross Section in miles

2. Our Mother earth is a part of the Solar System with the Sun as the center.
Solar System

3. Our Solar system is a small spec in the Galaxy call the Milky Way.
Milky Way
4. The Milky Way belongs to a Cluster of Galaxies called the Local Cluster.

5. Local Cluster is a part of the "Greater Local Cluster"

6. And then there are Billions of Galaxies and Galatical Clusters.
Sky Walker

7. And most probably there are more that we dont know of yet.....

8. Also all this matter is not just tightly packed into one box. There are huge amount of open spaces between each Galaxy. I will find out about the density as post it here. The other thing I leart is that the nearest cousin to our Milky way - the Andromeda is on a collision course with Milky way and is travelling at 186miles/sec (gulp..) towards us. But it would take about 200 billion years to here (hee hee). But the unfortunate thing is that we(homo sapiens) would'nt have left the planet to live for so long. Our Milky Way itself is travelling towards the center of the Local Cluster at 168miles/sec. Well gavity is working ! Always!

9. Our 9minutes of fame and 1 sec of madness! on a Time Scale of the Universe

Some good links..
Discovery School

Taking decisions

2005-10-11T14:45:00.000-07:00

Sept,04: One of those times when we wished we knew what lies ahead. After our project was taken over by the customer company, I had to option of joining the customer's company. Higer pay, security and better roles beckoned me. But something was holding me back, probably the same thing that made me join the company in the first place.

I went on my annual vacation, this time it was to Rajasthan. My imagination could tell me the greatness and the glory of the kings that ruled those magnificient forts. My philosophical sense could tell me, all that greatness and glory is long gone. All that remains is vague memory and the forts. But in Udaypur the situation was different Rana Pratap Singh is very much worshipped for his devotion to motherland and for never bowing down to the Mughals. Even his horse - Chethak is worshipped. The person is long gone but he is still remembered for what he stood for. It is said that he spent 14 years in the forest on a horse back fighting the mughals with an army of Bhil tribesmen. Something that motivated me and confirmed my decision to stick with my "Indian" company. Chauvnistic ? Yes.

Over the period of the last one year, I came to realize that in this software industry, where people ready to switch loyalties with little carrots, loyalty is indeed sought after. I also realized that loyalty and a healthy respect for ideals pay dividends in the long run. Every one of us has priorities and constraints and to what extent I can carry this ideology at the expense of other priorities remains to be seen...

Career Growth

2004-08-06T06:11:00.000-07:00

I never gave a serious thought to this but very recently I bumped into an informal meeting in my office that made me put my thoughts down. There were these guys who were chatting up about what a career path would be for techincal writers. Well, I joined in give my perpective from software engineer point of view. A normal career path would be to go through the rungs of the proffesional ladder. Each rung has a designation to it. We would spend sometine on each of the rung before moving onto the next. Each step has a corresponding responsibility and compensation package. Some climb it faster others at their own pace. Is this what is known as career path? Well may be.

I choose a sligthly different definition for myself. All of us start as beginers, we slowly get to know the trade and then we begin to master it. Once we have mastered in terms of quality, we try to master it in terms of quantity and time.Now we are delivering at 1x, 100% of our capability at that level. Then what? It is then that we move on to the next significant role of a senior, a coach or a manager. Transfer your knowledge to another, bring him( or her) to a level where they can take care of the micro level things and you move to the stage of looking at the macros of an issue. This would also involve assigning, discussing, analyzing and checking what others are doing. The combinged productivity would be >1x. You being the brain behind the activities. The challenge is to maintain the same (if not better) quality of work. If there are 'n' number of people in your project then your cumulative output should be close to 'nx'. Ideally nx.And once you have mastered things at this level, you move onto take much larger issues or a larger chunck of the same task. This was my point of view.

One of the guys pointed out that there could be more creative or talented guys in the team. Are you limiting their ability to 'x'? Hmm.... may yes, may be no. Software is different from tech writing. Software though being creative, ironically requries a lot of discipline. Discipline in planning, designing and coding. Just being creative is not enough, ensuring that implementation is in line with the requirements is mandatory and this requires discipline. And definetly, working with more talented people gives you a better perpective, enabling you to up your original '1x'. The challenge is to continually grow internally, designations are an external validation. For some lucky few oppurtunites, to grow, comeby and they fill into it, others have to make their oppurtunities.
(The image is IP of the owner company that can be obtained by clicking the link)

I thought I was the only one...

2004-08-03T07:30:00.000-07:00

We all think we are unique. Actually we are. But come think of it that in the multitude of people, there would definetely be someone like us. Someone who can really think like us. Some one who has the same ideals same views. Hard to believe ? But certainly there would be someone. Being a chess player I came across several individuals who would think in the same way I do. Agreed that chess has a limited set of rules and a limited set of options in a given scenario, but life ? Can anyone think about life in the same way ? Given the diversity of the background, the education, the environment ? quite unlikely? I dont know. I hear about teams working together as a group of friends towards a common target and experiencing a 'kick' together, may be they are similar. But still would they have similar ideals? May be they have similar goals but not ideals or views on life. But I have not seen or met any such team.

Today, I was pleasantly surprised to meet someone who actually did the things and holds some of the same views on life. Ashamed to admit that this person is far younger to me :). And that I had other priorites at that age !! All the more reason to be surprised becos I consider myself to be more of a heavily bottom line driven, closer to reality type conservative optimist :D with more emphasis towards the character ethic than personality ethic. Phew ! I never thought I could describe myself ;-)

I was reading a book that precisely decribes this and that character ethic in the long run would pay. Its the cake and the personality ethic is the iceing on top of it. Iceing is definetly sweet, but cake fills your belly and leaves you contended. Well, those are words. I did realize the importance of them but did not believe in them completely, but then having this "someone" also in the same line of thought and as a succesfull live example, is definetely making me recollect those lines and more so giving me courage to think differently, be what I am and to think that I am not alone in thinking so ! There are other "heavily bottom line driven, closer to reality type conservative optimists" in this world. Anyone else out there ?

Just as an anti climax, cant refuse this last tidbit
Heard that genetically speaking Chimps are 99.5% close to humans and there is asingle chromosome that sperates them from us :D

Natural Architect

2004-05-19T05:30:00.000-07:00

Longivity is a measure of stability. A system's stability comes from the architecture, how various sub-systems interact and how the balance between various competing interests is maintained. And how long the system can run without getting disrupted.

Study nature and evolution of life on earth, you will understand how a perfectly balanced system it is. One of the most efficient and self sustaining architectures ever created, left alone to itself. Ofcourse, as always it did take time - about 3,000 million years!

Studying specific examples from nature provides pretty good understanding of long sustaining architectures.

Did you know that some female crocs lay upto 100 odd eggs every year? Adult crocs dominate the pool. They are at the top of the food chain and live for relatively long period. What would happen if all the eggs that hatch, make it to adulthood?
The top would become heavy, the entire food chain would crumble due to the weight at the top. Nature predicted this problem and saw that only 3% of the all the eggs make it adulthood. Baby crocs have many predators, including adult crocs, ensuring that only the fittest survive. Harsh to the baby crocs but a simple way of keeping things in balance.

Nature is filled with such examples. Too many elephants would strip the earth of its vegetation. Every day an elephant eats about 150kg of vegetation and drinks up to 83 litres of water. Nature, the supreme architect saw to it that, elephants have a gestation period of 22 months and would have a calf once only, every 4 years.

Lions live in secure families, the probablity of the cubs, usually a litter of 3-4, survivng to adulthood is high. But then lion cubs are invariably killed during a take over by other dominant males every 2 years.

In cases where the longivity is short, like some insects, crustaceans or fish. Sustainance of the species is ensured by numbers. When the rainy season starts on Christmas Island, 120 million land crabs come out of their burrows from the forest.
And 60 million female crabs release their eggs, in to the sea, in just one night.

Nature is a very good architect and a very tough Project Manager. Each species that lives within the system is forced to develop its own way of surviving in the wild. Some like the cheetha specialize others like humans generalize. Humans are the only species known to survive in almost all climates anfd regions. And humans are the only species that are so developed, that they threaten their own existence and other life forms on this earth. As Morpheus puts it: Humans are an anamoly in the system, a mistake the Architect failed to avoid?