Interesting blog to watch

http://www.winesofeast.com/

The Indian wines.

Intelligence vs Hard work

A very eye opening article
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-secret-to-raising-smart-kids&print=true

bdays - still happy?

When do birthdays stop being happy? at 25, 28, 30, 40, 60, never? I can see myself at 18, being happy that I turned 18, though being in India and at school, it did not mean much at that time. I can totally imagine Shayon being extremely happy at his 21st (is it already over), finally he can go to Indian Ocean concerts he has been missing for years. I am kind of happy at 25 too, don't need to pay extra for car insurance anymore! But can you feel the same at 40, oh great! I turned 40. Well, what is so happy about it, other than now you can use the "age defying" makeup, "wrinkle protection" cream and maybe put away your backpacking gear for good. I guess you could be happy to be still alive in this brutal world, and if you are in that position, could be happy about still holding on to good friends, or having a successful career behind you. Still, at 60 when someone says Happy B'day, doesn't one feel like replying, ya, very happy, its beginning of the end, thanks for reminding me! We should pass a law that after 30 you are not allowed to wish anyone happy birthday, that day does not mean anything, its like a normal day of year, and not a reminder of life passing by. I am sure we can find plenty of days to celebrate, except this one reminder of aging process.

Google @ GHC

Grace Hopper Conference 2007 was a great success, and Google had a great presence at the conference. There were almost 50 Googlers at the conference and more than 60 scholarship winners sponsored by Google. I actually met a couple of students flown in all the way from India to Florida to attend the conference. Wherever you go, you could see women dressed in their Google t-shirts. Lot of women from other companies remarked that there were lot of Googlers at the conference, and were surprised to hear that there was no selection process to attend the conference, anyone who wanted to attend could. The Google booth was crowded as usual, recruiters and engineers equally busy taking resumes, talking to potential candidates. On the last day the lines for getting Google t-shirts were really long, and we had t-shirts for everyone. The Google blinky pin was equally popular too.
... more details coming soon!

Getting the big idea

Innovation today is the key to most successes. Think Apple, think Google, think Post-it, they all innovated. This talk though started with examples of not 'real' innovations, but re-innovations, where people took existing ideas, refined them and brought them to public in a revolutionary way. Her examples of apple's mouse, iPod wheel and snow board were surprise to me.
She then moved on to actual strategies to get that idea.
First thing she told was look at competitors, see what they are not good at and leverage that!
Strength, Opportunities, Weakness, Threats is the map to fill.
Look at customers, why do they yell at your customer service. Talk to non-customers. Its relief to know that Google really does that. We as engineers of teams are very much encouraged to closely work with customer support.
Current customer pain, customer losses, new needs, competitive pressure are the things to look for to identify a opportunity.
Identify early influencers who know what can improve a average product and make it great. She gave example of this guy who converted his webcam mounted on rails around the house and he wanted it to move up, down etc. Gave logitech the idea.
"Influencers blog !!!" and they are also slightly wacky, but they have that new idea. You need to go find them and talk to them.
Innovation does not happen when you are going 100 miles an hour. You need reserve, make some white space, keep reserve for thinking.
This was a really good, useful and engaging talk. I am glad I stayed for this session while more people have left. GHC needs to advertise these session more to get people to stay on!

Session 4: Agents of Change

यह पैनल इस साल की ३ अगेंट्स ऑफ़ चंगे महिलाओं का था। इजिप्ट, बहरीन और रूस की इन महिलाओं ने अपने अपने देश की महिलाओं कि मुश्किलें बताई। यह तीनों देश कुछ अलग हैं। बहरीन कड़ी देश है, और अमीर है। मुझे यह जान कर ताज्जुब हुआ कि वहाँ पर महिलाओं का घर से बाहर काम करना आम बात है। ज़्यादातर महिलाऐं आत्मनिर्भर हैं। पर वहाँ तकनीकी क्षेत्र में लोग कम हैं। इसलिए महिलाओं को भी इस क्षेत्र के लिए उत्साहित करना मुश्किल है। इजिप्ट और रूस में लगभग समान दिक्कतें हैं। समाज में महिलाएं घर पर ही रहती हैं। उन पर सदियों पुरानी घर और बच्चों कि ज़िम्मेदारी है।

Session 3 - Latinas in technology

This session requires a special mention. I just chanced upon this session because I did not feel like going anywhere else, and I was going to attend a session in the same room next. And that was one of the best chances I have taken. This was one of the best sessions I heard. One of my aim for this conference was to understand what does it really take to rise in industry. I heard a lot about you need mentor, you need blah blah. But in this session the penalists actually gave a direct How To list on how to get this done. They were so direct, straight forward that its not a bed of roses. You need to work hard, you need to play it smart, you need to manipulate, and that is how you get it done. It was amazing hearing them talk, as if they are talking direct 1:1 to every audiance what she needs to do. It was also great to see the sense of community among latinas, they share the same background, same problems, which are I guess no different from Indians, or any other community. I am feeling totally inspired to start a network for Indians.

Session 2 - How to retain इन high-tech

यह शायद इस सम्मेलन का सबसे मुख्य विषय है। हर जगह आज-कल यही बात चल रही है, कि किस तरह से तकनीकी क्षेत्र में महिलाओं को आगे बढ़ने में मदद कि जाये। मेरे लिए अभी तक यह सवाल है कि क्यों हम आगे नहीं बढ़ पते। भारत में भी जहाँ कंप्यूटर में महिलाओं कि अच्छी संख्या है, हम आ तो जाते हैं, पर बहूत आगे नहीं बढ़ पते। सवाल यह भी है कि क्या सही में वातावरण को बदलने कि ज़रूरत है, या हमें अपने आप को बदलने कि ज़रूरत है। हमें अपना नज़रिया बदलने कि ज़रूरत है। इस टॉक में एक परीक्षण का नतीज़ा दिखाया गया। एक सबसे बड़ा मुद्दा था mentor का, एक गुरु जो तुम्हारे लिए बोल सके। पर क्या पुरुषों के लिए गुरु होते हैं, या उनको ज़रूरत ही नहीं होती। टॉक में कुछ नया तो नहीं था, वही सब मुद्दे, वही बातें.


This is probably one of the main topics of this conference. How to retain and advance women in high-tech companies. These days everywhere people are talking about this, how to help women move forward. I also have this big question, why are we not able to move forward. Even in India where there are larger number of women in computers, we enter, but then we are left much behind other make co-workers in corporate ladder. The question is also if its the environment which needs to change or do we need to change ourselves, our nature and the way we look and do things.In this talk, the speaker showed findings of a study about this.

Session 1 - Making web accessible for people with disabilities

आज का दिन तकनीकी विषयों के लिए है। सबसे पहले हम देखेंगे -
विक्लांग लोगों के लिए वेब पन्ने कैसे बनायें
सबसे पहले स्पीकर ने एक पन्ने को स्वतः पढ़ने वाला सोफ्टवेयर दिखाया। और फिर कुछ और अंधे, बहरे या विक्लंग लोगों को नयी तकनीक कि मदद से कंप्यूटर इस्तेमाल करते हुए दिखाया। सबसे पहले पन्ने के चित्रों पर ध्यान देना चाहिऐ। जो लोग स्वतः रीडर इस्तेमाल करते हैं, चित्र नहीं देख सकते। उनके लिए चित्र कि जगह शब्दों में भी उसको बताना ज़रूरी है।



Today is for technical talks। We will first see how to make web pages for people with दिसाबिलितिएस She started with showing a screen reader which blind people can use to read web pages। Then she showed some more examples of blind, deaf or otherwise disabled people can use computers with the help of modern technology।
alt text of a image
proper html mark up of the headers so that readers can skip through headers properly.
small things like using proper lists instead of table when makes sense again makes it easier for readers.
link text are required for the readers so that they can read up what the link will lead to.
colour contrast, text size etc.
Then she went on to tell about the different guidelines, acts available for accessibility of websites. There is WCAG, Section 508 etc., can be easily googled. Dynamic content calls for more work on these guidelines (WAI-ARIA is a start).
This was a really informative talk. She gave specific tips on things that we all can easily do in html. Then she went on to give more details on how to deep dive into details. We all are grouped here as one of the minority group in computer science. People with disability is another minority group which has always been discriminated against when we with previledges design things. We as carriers of technology and the group which understands the pain and frustration of being denied access, can take great steps to make web accessible to this group with disabilities. The speaker is really compassionate about the topic, and it was great to hear her.
* Give your mouse to the cat, can you navigate your site?
* Turn off images, can you make sense of the page?

Session 5 - RFID

radio frequency identification
यह एक तकनीकी बात थी। स्पीकर ने किताब घर के उदाहरण से शुरुआत की। हर किताब या कोई भी चीज़ पर एक लेबल लगा सकते हैं। इस लेबल में एक चिप होती है, जिसका अलग चिन्ह होता है। यह लेबल पढ़ने के लिए रीडर मशीन कि ज़रूरत होती है। मशीन अपना डाटा एक सर्वर को भेजती है। स्पीकर काफी अच्छी थी। इस टॉक से पहले मुझे इस तकनीक के बारे में कुछ भी नहीं पता था। स्पीकर ने शुरू से समझाया, टॉक में कभी भी यह नहीं लगा की क्या बात कर रहे हैं, समझ नहीं आ रहा।
पूरा दिन लोगों से बात करने, ज़िंदगी कि सलाह लेने, दूसरों की मुश्किलें सुनने के बाद एक तकनीकी विषय पर चर्चा करना बहूत अच्छा लगा। भविष्य कि गोष्ठियों में इस तरह की चर्चा ज़रूर होनी चाहिऐ। एक गोष्ठी जो कि तकनीकी महिलों के लिए है, यह लोगों कि रूचि बनाए रखता है।

The speaker started with a book store example. Every product has a RFID tag, tags are read by the readers which have limited range। There is of course a server which consolidates info from various readers and analyzes them।

Speaker was really good. RFID is not rocket science, but then I can in with no experience other than knowing how to expand the acronym. She started with RFID 101 for us who had no idea. After a day of networking, talking, career advice, listening to a tech talk was a really good changes. After all we are all women in technology and at end of the day we need the feeling that we 'learnt' something technical today :).

रंगीन त्वचा कि महिलों के साथ भोजन

आज दोपहर के खाने का विषय था रंग की महिलाएं। इसमें अफ्रीकी, अफ्रीकी अमरीकी, लातिन और एशिया की कुछ महिलाओं ने भाग लिया। शुरुआत काफी रुचिकर थी। हम सब ने अपने आप को पहले रहन- स्थान के आधार पर बँटा। उसके बाद अपने क्षेत्र के आधार पर बँटा। और अंत में किस तरह से हम अपने आप के बारे में सोचते हैं उस आधार पर। इस समय सभी अपने आप को जहाँ से आये हैं उस आधार पर बँटा। मैं भारत मूल की महिलों के साथ थी। खाने के दौरान हमने अपनी भविष्य योजना और वहाँ पहुचने के लिए क्या मदद चाहिऐ इस बारे में बात की। विषय अच्छा था, और खाना सफल रह।

The topic for today's lunch was networking with women of colour. It started with a interesting exercise where we picked sides on what represents us, e.g. women in industry vs academia, software vs hardware etc. In the end we grouped ourselves based on adjectives we identify ourselves with. No surprise there, the groups were based on race, indian sub-continent, african american, latinos, african and hungry (not the country). Then we sat down for a delicious lunch. During lunch we talked about what we want to do and what help do we need to get there. This was a opportunity to network.

session 3 - Using technology to empower women in developing world

प्रगतिशील देशों में।
सिन्द्रेल्ला या सायेब्रेल्ल - सिन्द्रेल्ला बैठ कर अपने राजकुमार का इंतज़ार करती है जबकि सायेब्रेल्ल खुद अपनी ज़िंदगी बनाती है। इस सम्मेलन में शायद ही कोई सिन्द्रेल्ला मिलेगी। लेकिन सवाल यह है कि क्या हम अपनी कम भाग्यशाली बहनों के लिए कुछ कर सकते हैं? क्या हम विज्ञानं और तकनीक की मदद से उनके हाथ में शक्ति दे सकते हैं। भारत और दुसरे देशों में सायबर कैफे जैसे सामाजिक केन्द्र हैं जहाँ पर महिलाएँ इस प्रगति का फायदा उठा सकती हैं। चिकित्सा एक ऐसा छेत्र है जिसमें इंटरनेट जैसी तकनीक का इस्तेमाल करके शहरों के बडे हस्पतालों के विशेषज्ञों को गावों के छोटे छोटे हस्पतालों से जोड़ने कि कोशिश जारी है। सिधू ने यह सवाल उठाया कि क्यों भारत में इतने सारे छोटे छोटे प्रोजेक्ट हैं, लेकिन उनमे से कोई भी सफलता के साथ बडे स्तर पर लागू नहीं किया गया है। इस पैनल में सिस्को, इंटेल जैसी कंपनियों ने अपने प्रोजेक्ट के बारे में बताया।

Session १ - work and life balance.

ज़िंदगी और काम का संतुलन।

यह एक सवाल हम सब के दिमाग में रहता है। खासकर कि महिलाओं के। आज भी समाज में यह धरना है कि घर और बच्चों कि देखभाल महिलाएं ही कर सकती हैं। ऐसे में कैसे महिलाएं अपने घर और दफ्तर कि ज़िंदगी का संतुलन बनायें।

इस पैनल में ३ महिलाओं ने अपनी ज़िंदगी कि कहानी सुने। तीनों कि ज़िंदगी कि शुरुआत अलग थीं, लेकिन तीनों ने अपने आत्मविश्वास से ज़िंदगी में सफलता पा ली। Robin ने कुछ बहुत ही अच्छी बातें बोली। उसने कहा कि अपनी ज़िंदगी को अपने हाथ में लो, ज़िंदगी के फैसले खुद करो, और फिर उन फैसलों पर अमल करो। अपने आप से ईमानदारी भी बहुत ज़रूरी है।

ससिलिया ने हवाई जहाज उड़ने के क्षेत्र में अपना करिश्मा दिखाया। यह एक बहूत ही मुश्किल है महिलाओं के लिए। पर उसने कर दिखाया अगर फैला कर लो, और आत्मविश्वास हो तो महिलाएं कुछ भी कर सकती हैं। पैनल अच्छा था। सवाल वही पुराना था, लेकिन तीनों की zindagi se हम सब कुछ सीख सकते हैं। एक कि हम अकेले नहीं हैं। बहूत महिलाएं आज इन मुश्किलों से जूझ रही हैं। और बहूत सफलता से उन्हें पार कर चुकी हैं। आज समाज भी कुछ बदल रह है। और फिर आख़िर में अपनी ज़िंदगी, अपनी सफलता अपने हाथ में है। और हमें बिना डर के आगे बढ़ कर उसको हासिल करना चाहिऐ।

Work life balance.

This is one question which is always in minds of everyone। Especially the women। Even today society thinks that only women can take care of hou se and children. In such circumstances how do women keep the work and life balance.

In this panel, there were 3 women who told their life story. All three had different beginning in life, but they all achieved great success with their self-confidence. Robin made some really good points. She said, we need to take our life in our own hands, we need to make our own decisions, and once decided, stand by these decisions. Honesty with self is also very important in life.

Cecilia made her career in aeronautic acrobatics. This is a really male dominated field. Its really difficult for women to succeed here. She showed that if you decide, and if you have self-confidence, you can do anything.

ब्लोग्गिंग grace hopper conference के लिए

तो अक्तूबर में मैं Grace Hopper Conference के लिए जा रही हूँ। और मुझे कोन्फेरेंस के लिए ब्लोग्गिंग करना है और वोह भी हिंदी में. मुझे पता नहीं कि उनको हिंदी में ब्लोग क्यों चाहिऐ, पर मेरे लिए यह एक नया challenge होगा। मेरा पहला ब्लोग जो कि किसी दुसरे कि सीते पर होगा, और काफी लोग उसको पढेंगे, और ऊपर से हिंदी में लिखना होगा। यह अभी भी कितना मुश्किल है, अपनी ही भाषा में लिखना। में सोच रही हूँ कि इसी ब्लोग पर लिखूं, और अंग्रेजी और हिंदी दोनो में लिखूं। आख़िर कितने लोग हिंदी जानते होंगे, और उसमें से कितने अपने कंप्यूटर पर हिंदी पढ़ सकते हिंगो, और फिर शायद मेरे लिए भी आसान होगा पहले अंग्रेजी और फिर हिंदी में लिखना, कितने शर्म कि बात है।

alight, so i have been chosen as official blogger for the Grace Hopper Conference, and guess what I have to write in Hindi. Its going to be interesting, my first official blog and that too in Hindi. I am planning to use this same blog for the posts and write it in both Hindi and english. Afterall, how many people can read Hindi and of that how many will actually be able to read it on their computers, and then for me its going to be easier too ;)

relaxing

T: I really need to relax this weekend, its been so busy at work.
X: ya, I am thinking the same, a very relaxing weekend.
T: I am planning to go for this small 2 day backpack in the Breakneck area, I heard there is a great 2500ft hike, good views.
X: a...., um......, I thought......

hee hee, well, so that happens. How do you relax. When in Seattle, I actually never though relaxing is somthing that you can do on a weekend. Weekends were for fun, go out enjoy. They were usually more hectic and by Thursday I used to be worried how to have more fun this weekend, and did I mention fun. Here the story is totally different. Weekdays are so damn hectic and frustration and stressful that you need to just get away from this mess. I used to hear people say, New Yorkers like to go away on weekends so they leave office early on Friday. And I as like, well if you are going away on weekend, don't you need to stay longer on Friday to finsh work, and what does 'going away' mean anyway. So it was not going away from office, it was going away from the city and the crowd and that means driving through bizarre traffic and spend 5 super stressful hours to go about 100 miles. And now I can see (not that I would ever ever consider myself even remotely a 'New Yorker', and I will probably never speak to you if you called me one), but I can see why you really need to get away. This place just drives you crazy and its so much of craziness that one person can take. So now weekends are for relaxing and relaxing means going away from this place, so far away that you forget you live in hell :).

5K run for the cure

This weekend I did a 5K (3.5 miles) at central park, race for cure (of breast cancer). The race had a huge turnaround. I was quite confident that I will make it, thanks to the Seattle marathon run, and I did. I can't say without breaking a sweat, my t-shirt was drenched! But that was from hot weather. It was amazing to see myself sail through it, and later ready to get going without 30 min of rest and bottle of vitamin water! I have got to keep it up!

Bear Mountain Hike

ok, so finally Bear mountain. Its probably one of the closest hiking trail picnic spot to NYC and accessible by bus. So this weekend we decided to go for the hike. This was a total grab stuff and go hike, no planning, no maps nothing. Once there, first we were little surprised by the area of this place, there is a small lake and picnic spots round it, and there is also large area for more picnic all around. There was absolutely no sign of trail head. Then we spotted someone with hiking poles, kind of ob she was here for hike. Asked her about trils, she showed her map, told about few trails she did, and told about the trail we were looking for, steep hike up to the tower and back in a loop. Then rahul brought some maps from somewhere, and we started applying budhhi and decided on a 6.5 mile trail. The trail head was somewhere hidden between highways, to get to the trail head, we had to cross a bunch of freeways, very adventurous. Somehow we managed to find the trailhead and it was immediately evident that its mostly an abandoned trail. Like most of the trails here, there were good signs to guide, but it was not a maintained trail from Seattle standards. So anyway, we started, it was more like a jungle walk and that made me nervous immediately. Then after a while we started hearing traffic noise and realized that the whole trail is close to the highway, we were never away from sound of the cars which was in a way comforting, but then not what I was looking for. I was quite frustrated for a while, wasting time on walking. Then we reached this junction which seemed to be leading to the Applacian trail. The trail map showed that if we took the diversion, it will take us directly to the tower and back.
Decision point, we had about 3 hours before the last bus back, and no idea how long the trail would be, and its suppose to be a steep hike up and steep down, meaning slow both ways. Somehow we decided to take it. More apprehension. Then we met someone who said yes its far, but its good. Ok, move on. The trail immediately climbed few hundred feet and we were at a good open spot with good view, exactly what I was looking for. Then we hit a paved road and lost the white AT trail marker we were following. Met a few more lost people, looking for the tower. We kept walking, more apprehension about missing the bus, and then finally found the trail again. Later I realized that we had taken a bike path shortcut to cut across the hill and meet the trail which we were suppose to take to go back. Anyway, we headed up, it was a steep climb, but view from the top was worth it all. The top of tower is accessible by car also, so it was very crowded. We sat, had lunch, enjoyed the view, took photos and then started back. The hike back was ok, reached in comfortable time. Must have covered a total of 8 miles or more, and good thing is we hit almost every trail in the area in our little adventure. We still had almost an hour to spare before the bus, spent sitting by the lake and of course dunking feet in the water.

Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix

ah, fianlly watched the movie :) It was a good surprise, after last movie I did not have big expectations from this one. The last director just did not seem to understand the essence of the book and had totally messed up Dumbledore's character. But this one was much better, Umbridge who is sort of the main character here (apart from the kids) has acted well. But as usual for me, snape just steals the show all the time, he is simply the best! Though he has a very small part in this movie, but his just 2 words ("no idea") are amazingly snapily delivered. One point they totally missed in the movie is that he is part of the order, and whatever Harry mumbles to him in Umbridge's office is the message Snape took to the Order and that's how they finally appeared at ministry of magic. Of course with the fast pace of the book it was probably hard to notice. And this movie also had a really sad ending, Black is dead!

Heroes

This TV series by NBC deserves a special mention on the blog :). The first time I heard about it was when some people started a fan club in office. Honestly at that time I thought that its probably some freaky american violent show, maybe full of some stupid scifi theories given that engg were so much interested in it, sort of like the horror movies here. Then suddenly few days back Rahul brought it up and I started to watch the first episode. And then suddenly I see this south Indian guy with that typical acquired english accent saying something and some Indian music in background and then sanskrit shloks started in the background. That totally got me hooked, so its got to do something with Indians! But well, its not, though there is lot of Indian music in background and scenes of chennai, where Indian talk in the same irritating acquired english accent and a street boy who looks like never been to school also speaks flawless english!. Well crapy direction and acting aside, the series is really good. The whole thing is based on theory that random DNA mutations cause some people to get some special powers, and the Indian scientist is working on them trying to find a cause, a cure etc. And there are couple of very cute Japanese guys who can do time travel and keep jumping all over the place. And of course everyone else is American and they are trying to blow up New York. I found it quite ironic that a Japanese guys is giving up his live, trying desperately to save a nuclear bomb from exploding in New York. In all this series totally got us hooked!

NY is green too!

Today I was sorting through my photos, looking for the lush green nature. And guess what, the greenest and most beautiful photos I found were from the recent finger lakes trip, up here in New York! Not in Seattle, not at Rainier, not even in Columbia river gorge. Its surprisingly beautiful how the finger lakes area so close to NY city is so green and beautiful. It can almost compete with the lush tropical green of Western Ghats. In fact now that I have seen what beauty NY can hold, I can see the signs of it being butchered everywhere in the city, mountains cut, forests cleared, and still wherever nature is left alone, it flourishes in NY like the Central Park. This place could have been so beautiful, its such a shame that people here spend their time snapping at each other in the concrete jungle.

Journey to Ikea

This sunday finally I made my trip to IKEA. I wanted just one thing, a big green lead canopy to put over my office desk. In NY, IKEA runs a free shuttle from downtown to its store in Elizabeth, NJ. So I came from my apartment in NJ to NY, then took the shuttle back to NJ, and then back to NY and then went back to  my apartment in NJ :) Interesting journey. The leaf was easy to find once you know that its actually in the kids section. They also had a huge collection of plants, reasonably priced, and I went totally crazy trying to decide what to get. Surprisingly the artificial plastic plants were more expensive than the real ones, have no idea why. With the amount of care and manual labour real plants need, you would expect them to be twice as expensive. But this is america afterall, nothing makes sense here (like why would u eat double cheese burger with diet coke). I finally settled on a tiny real plant and a artificial one (in case the real one died).

मानसून कि बारिश

कल यहाँ बिल्कुल मानसून कि बारिश हो रही थी। एक मिनट में मौसम इतना बदल गया। बहुत तेज़ बारिश और तापमान बिल्कुल गरमी वाला। एइसा Seattle में कभी नहीं होता था। New York में कुछ तो अत्चा है।

summer has arrived

So summer has finally arrived. We have already made a trip, to Niagara Falls and planning for other smaller hiking adventures, whatever are available here to poor carless ppl like us. And we are also spending days and hours on phone planning the "big" trip of the season. And well, its not going to be on any long weekend this time though. Because we are planning to go to this extreme place called Grand Canyon. Not now, not next month, but in October!! And there is a big IF before the trip, not because its so far in advance, we don't know etc. But because everything there already seems to be booked! Can you believe it, people actually plan 6 months or more in advance. Its so hopeless. I don't know where I am going to be tomorrow, how can I tell about 4 months from now. But there got to be something in that place that millions go every year and some hikers seem to go again and again.

--
tuls

http://tulika.blogspot.com

"If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do." - Bertrand Russell

हिंदी का blogger

गूगल ब्लॉगर का नया हिंदी का ब्लॉगर। आज से हम सभी पोस्ट्स हिंदी में लिख सकते हैं। और इससे पता चलता है ही पिछले दस सालों में हिंदी कितनी खराब हो गयी है। एक एक शब्द सोच सोच कर लिखना पड़ता है !! आज से हिंदी का अख़बार पढेंगे और हिंदी में ब्लोग करेंगे।

are we just ghosts of our past

In lot of my interaction which lot of different people about lot of different things, I have been noticing that most of the behaviour and discussion is driven by a person's past experience. On a very simple topic, people will have totally different opinion, just because they have had different experiences in past. So are we just the ghosts of our past? It seems that we always assume that what happens once will get repeated given similar circumstances. Do we always forget to take into account change, that people change, things change, earth changes, nature changes, everything is constantly changing around us. So given the same circumstances, there is no guarantee that same pattern will be repeated. So, at that time, do we cause the same pattern to repeat because we 'think' and 'believe' that it will repeat? I know its really really hard to break away from your past experience and look at the world from a new eye, from a different prospective. And then what will happen to learning from your mistakes, if the patterns get repeated and we forget our past, we may just end up repeating the same mistake again and again. So how does one break out of it, how does one know when to look at everything with a fresh eye and when to recognize the pattern from past and not repeate a mistake. Is that what we call maturing? knowing the difference? So we stop being ghosts of past when we grow up, or we just become deeper ghosts as there is a lot more past from which to draw behaviours from!

--
tuls

http://tulika.blogspot.com

"If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do." - Bertrand Russell

only in India!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/hindi/regionalnews/story/2007/05/070517_rail_pushing.shtml
This is something which can happen only in India. And these are the things which make life fun in India, every day something bizzare will occur, someone drags and leaves a airplane on the road, common people start getting off the train and pushing the train. Can you imagine something like that happening here! people are so dependent on having everything made all prefect and goody goody, all they can think of is cribbing about their perfect lives and stuffing themselves with food to kill time, haa haa haa

--
tuls

http://tulika.blogspot.com

"If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do." - Bertrand Russell

Finally MyMaps!

ok, so I finally decided to use MyMaps and see how easy it is. And wow, its easy!!! Its like putting pins on a wall map, and it will also locate the places for you. Of course so I created the MySeattle and MySanFrancisco maps. This is now my latest weekend projects, create maps and then link them to photos and what not and then print them in big glossy poster paper and use them as wallpaper :)
MySeattle! http://tinyurl.com/22m4wu

--
tuls

http://tulika.blogspot.com

"If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do." - Bertrand Russell

perfect end to a perfectly stupid World Cup

I do not even want to say anything more here, and I also do not doubt that Australia is the best team and probably deserved the cup for the 4th time! But still given the tragic and miraculous history of this world cup, Sri Lanka should have gotten a fair chance at performing a miracle. Instead rain, and a set of technical errors gave Australia a easy win.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/TOIonline/Cricket_/ICC_apologises_for_farcical_final/articleshow/1981473.cms

How to deal with happiness

Couple of days back at lunch we were having this conversation about moving to west coast, CA in particular. So somone mentioned that she cannot move to CA (from NY) as she won't know how to deal with so much happiness. She said anytime you talk to people there, they are so happy, weather is great, people are all nice, there is traffic, but you can still drive the car, and park it without paying an arm and a leg for it. And that is so true. Since I moved here, I have seen the general level of tension rise around me. Most people are always edgy, angry, snap at everything. And same for me, there is this cloud of anger, depression, all negative feelings around me. Why would someone want to live in such a place!!

--
tuls

http://tulika.blogspot.com

"If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do." - Bertrand Russell

ok, so its SL vs AUS again

Its almost final that WC07 final is going to be Sri Lanka vs Australia again, and I have little doubt that Australia is taking the cup for the third time in a row. SL has been doing well, and they certainly have the capability to defeat AUS, but aussies have just been brutal in the whole series. I am just happy that this stupid WC is finally coming to an end. Hopefully ICC will find a way to make the next one interesting.

--
tuls

http://tulika.blogspot.com

"If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do." - Bertrand Russell

World Cup Super 8, just a joke!

World Cup 2007 super 8 is such a joke. No doubt that Bangladesh and Ireland are performing great. Afterall they knocked out India and Pakistan. But as the matches progress, these teams just collapse in one sided totally uninteresting seeming like a practice tour matches.
http://www.cricketworld.com/world_cup_2007/article/?aid=10969
Can you imagine, a WC Super8 match, over in total of 37 overs, not even 50 over played combined!!
I hope for 2011, they get rid if this rediculousness and qualify teams into Super 8 based of at least some consistancy in last 3 years. ( Of course that would again mean that India will be the first team to be thrown out of Super 8!! )

--
tuls

http://tulika.blogspot.com

"If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do." - Bertrand Russell

Another 1/2 marathon?

hmm, so its time to start training for Seattle marathon again. How 1 year just flew by. But alas I am not in Seattle. But NY offeres its own set of oppties, flatter landscape and more predictable weather. So I am thinking, just playing with the idea of running some more, complete another 13.1 miles and add them up to make a full marathon :)

Australia 25th straight WC win

http://www.rediff.com/wc2007/2007/apr/16aus1.htm

Now that is what we call 'form'. Aussies have not lost a single match in the World Cup since their 1999 defeat against Pakistan. However boring it may be, but they definately deserve the cup. The team has again and again shown great team-work, not leaning on any single player, performing great with bat, ball and on the field. If 'may the best team win' is true, then they ARE the best team and will take the cup home for the 4th time!

Top 10 places to visit before EOL

(in no specific order)
1. Peru - Inca Trail
1.5 Hiking in Grand Canyon
2. Italy - Cinque Terra, 1 week in Italy absorbing the langauge, culture.
3. Galapagos
4. Greece- Athens
5. Egypt - the pyramids (of course) (F)
6. France - Paris, South of France, Nice, everyone goes there, got to be something special (F)
7. Hiking / backpacking thru Europe
8. Indonesia for its volcanos
9. Hiking in New Zealand
10. Sydney, Australia, Kangroo


--
tuls

http://tulika.blogspot.com

"If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do." - Bertrand Russell

Dreaming the dream

There is one thing about dreams, if you had a dream for a long time, something big, and when it finally comes true, it just does not seem to mean anything or give the amount of happiness you always thought it would, over all it just looks like a flop show. Its like you hike a really difficult trail, moving as fast as you can, ignoring anything and everything on the trail, and finally when you reach the top, there is absolutely nothing great to see! Well, ok, that's not exactly what I meant by the dream thing, but it was a good analogy to support the fact that you need to enjoy the jouney of life and not go thru life running to achieve something far away. Getting back to dream, I think its like all your life you wanted a BMW, well, that's not that tough, so let's say a ferrari. You want it, but you know that you cannot get it, so you spend lot of time convincing yourself why your stupid boring corolla is so much better than a ferrari (believe me, I can give you arguments for that). And then one day you get a windfall and boom, there is a ferrari parked in your driveway (and its yours). But at that moment, when you always thought would be the happiest of your life, you suddenly realize that its not, its just a normal second, and it just passed, and you are still thinking how surreal it is, and part of your mind is thinking that its just a dream, other part is thinking of the arguments you gave for the corolla and rest of it is thinking of the price you paid to achieve the dream and if its really worth it, and whatever tiny part is left to enjoy the moment is just trying hard to convince the rest of it that you got your dream, and its real, and its here, so shut up and be happy. What's the point. So I think if you had a really ambitious dream like owning a ferrari, or a 6 bed room house on the lake, you should just let it be in the dreams, and do not destroy rest of your life to get it, your corolla or the 2BR apartment is probably going to give as much happiness if your try to concentrate on the happiness part :)

--
tuls

http://tulika.blogspot.com

"If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do." - Bertrand Russell

taking train in reverse

Today morning when we reached the train station as usual, the train was jam packed. Rahul came up with this brilliant idea, that lets take the empty train in reverse direction and then come back. So we hopped on the train sat nicely to the last stop of the train.

Reading too many books!

These days I have just been reading too many books and wanting to read too many books all at the same time. Currently open books are:
1. Early Ayn Rand
2. Rama Revealed
3. Taxomony of Barnacles
4. History of the 2nd world war
5. Best stories of time travel (just couple of pages)
6. The Dilbert Principles (sometimes in office for fun)
7. In an Instant (got it couple of weeks back, read some pages then left on the shelf)
8. Eat Pray and Love (read more than a couple of pages, but never finished, still keep opening)

and of course do not have to mention that none of these have been read to completion and there is lot of confusion going around in the stories, once I manage to read anything, you will find its review here - http://bookreviewsbyus.blogspot.com

woohoo!!

ok, New York is not all that bad and its possible to run here :) (for pleasure and not just as part of daily commute). I finally went out running from office today. Needless to say there was no calm green trail as in Seattle, but at least there was a trail and water. And also were absent the endless hills of Seattle which was good, make it so much easier when you can run for miles on flat ground. We probably ran 2 miles and walked some almost 45 min altogether. Hopefully I would be able to continue this through the summer.

reading books

For almost a month now, I am obcessed with reading books, every moment of free time I get, I just read, and almost all of it is nonsense, useless fiction which has no association with reality what so ever. Of coruse Sci-fi is useful as it tells you what is possible in future, and gives you more ideas. But all those James Patterson's, Michael Chrichton's are simple waste of time. Why do we spend our precious time reading them? Now I have started this big book about WWII, hopefully I would be able to finish it and get some insight into history.

H2G2 - Douglas Adams

What can I say about these books, just read them (with open mind), and then re-read them, and then once more to make any sense out of them, just read them as many times as you can!!

Douglas Adams

So much as Douglas Adams has impressed me with his writing, he definately deserves a mention in my blog. I recently heard the BBC radio series of H2G2, and I am really speachless, blown over after listening to it, its just, lets say out of the world wonderfully entertaining, I think I liked it almost at par with Harry Potter. And everytime I read or hear the books, there is something new and different that you understand, which is like you are reading a totally new book. The first time I read the books, it was like a series of random sentences put together. The second time I read it, I could see the amazing way these random sentences / events are put together that they almost make sense. This time when I heard the series, I noticed that he actaully mentions microsoft and windows, of course making fun of them, absolutely witty. I really wish this is one person I could meet or at least hear speak.

Carless in NYC

and thank God for that. Its been raining / hailing / snowing (make up your mind clouds!) all day today, literally non stop. There is almost 2 inches of snow outside. And while I was waking my 2 blocks on fluffy, velvetty, snowy side walk, I was looking out on the street at all that mud, snow, messy road condition, and if I had to depend on that road to move from one point to another, no, I don't want to think about it. Its such a relief to know that you don't have to drive around anymore, don't have to worry about petrol prices or the blood sucking insurance compaies. So something good did come out of it :). But ya, i do miss getting into that car, which is like a second home, complete will full and empty waterbottles, shoes, a set of clothes, umbrella, sometimes a pillow, bunch of books and what not, putting the car in gear and then driving away at 60 on that almost empty freeway (its clear that I am not talking about 405, or for that matter I5 or 520 either), switching lanes, feeling happy about overtaking that guy in his fancy BMW, switching CDs and then switching it back to Indian Ocean, thinking if its insane or what ! But today I am happy that I don't have a car, and I am inside the 4 walls and nothing of value is outside that I am worried about ( well, of course maybe Rahul, but then he can worry about himself or he is probably also inside some 4 walls, and then India is a safe place anyway, indoors or outdoors ).

Summer is upon us

There was a time when temp in single digit was suppose to be cold, and warm or comfortable would be in 20s. Time have changed, now anything above 0 is classified as warm! After almost a week of sub-zero temperatures in NY, its finally getting above freezing here, inface its getting into double digits not. The wind chill is gone, and sun still feels good. And that reminds me, yesterday when I was sitting, doing nothing (I do that a lot these days), staring out of my window (we are very very lucky that we have a window which looks south and from which we can actaully see a couple of trees and a piece of sky). So when I was staring out of my window, it felt like something was wrong, something is missing (apart from the sun, the moon, the wind, the horizon etc. etc.). And then it hit me, clouds and rain, there is absolutely no sign of rain here, and cloud just come and go, and the sky is mostly blue, and I don't like it much (among the 1000 other things about this place). After spending 2 years in Seattle, if I do not hear the sound of drizzle, cloudy skies, it does feel that something is amiss, the constant sunshine and clear blue skies just look out of place and boring.

Chronicles of .....

Narina or Narnia ?
Do you know that its actually Narnia and not Narina. I
I read the first 2 books of series always assuming and reading that its Narina, maybe because its easier to say, seems like a more natural word. But when started the 3rd one, the name suddenly became Narnia! Well, I of course need to go back and check what the first 2 said, did they make a huge type in the first 2 books, or did Lewis suddenly decided to change the name in 3rd book. Googling for both the names result in proper references to the books with both names! So its not just me, but the whole world is confused.

Rama II by Arthur C Clarke

After a long time I have read a book which made me get back to my blog and write a review for it. Its a really good science fiction book about visitors from outer space. The first book of the series Rendezvous with Rama did not impress me so much, but this book is full of surprises. For me it was a good change after reading lot of Asimov. The two authors are really different in their approach, while Asimov believes in spreading human race everywhere, Clark (at least in this series) confines human race to solar system and created very highly intelligent extra terrestrials. If you are into scifi, its a must read, reading the first book might help understand this, but if you haven't you are not missing much.

41

ok, so what is so fascinating about the number 41 (other than that its sort of beginning of mid-life crisis). I was reading Rama II by Arthur C. Clark and came across this great fact about the number 41. Starting from 41, you can create a series of numbers, 41, 43, 47, 53... which are all consecutive primes. The series ends at square of 41, containing exactly 41 numbers!! Numbers just never fail to surprise you.

views, views, views

This weekend was about views. First we went to Raj's 17th floor apartment with its great view of New York skyline and statue of liberty. Ya, on a summer day or night when you can open all windows, it would be a amazing view, and then the river just below the apartment would make a great place for evening walks in summer.
Sunday I made another excursion to a newport 30th floor apartment. This place had amazing view of New York city streets, you can see the 'new york grid' roads going to infinity. Of course this place did not have a view of the river or manhattan skyline, but it reminded me so much of the view from the SF bus when it would be on top of the hill, looking down at the endless downtown streets.
Its amazing how just a couple of streets down from where we live the view and scenery changes so much. I am looking forward to running in that area in summer.

settling in

well, I can never really use the word "settled" "me" and "new york" in same sentece without a lot of nots and nevers. But anyway, as the fate has thrown me here, I am trying to make the best of it. Went for a walk in the neighbourhood yesterday, not bad, ok place, no Indian store nearby though. Anyway, settling in a bit, at least most of the things are unpacked and I do not have THAT much stuff, it mostly seems to fit in the apartment, given that we don't have any furniture and I don't want to aquire any to save myself trouble of disposing it off when we leave here (wow, what a day that would be). And I also realize that I am a really creative person, using packing boxes to make all sorts of shelves and cabinets etc. Works ok.

Seattle vs New York

and the score is 5000 : 1

uuh, so what did NY do to earn that point, its fabulous, great progress!! Well, it snowed here and life did not stop, roads were not a mess and side walks were walkable, train was running on time. I may be celebrating too early, as we still have a full day of snow to go thru and the story could be really different by EOD. Still, it was nice walking on the snow in the morning, despite the wind and falling wintry mix. Sidewalks were supposedly warmer as there were pipes and trains running under them. That probably made the snow not stick to the ground, but become like a powdery mix, and then there were people clearing the paths in front of their shops, great! The road was ok as it seemed to have been sanded, plus plowed or whatever. It seems that since there was not much snow this winter, all the winter road maintenance crew was charged up to keep the show going thru this storm, at least that's why they said in the news.

No change

in my feelings for NY, still hate it.
Settling down in the apartment has never been more difficult, there is of course just no space to keep everything, I guess everything just needs to sit in boxes till eternity or till I am ready to throw it all out and move back and then start the process of collecting it all again. Ya collecting it all again, so I dispose off everything back in Seattle and now I have to collect everything again or at least some basic things and without car and friends, its just impossible.

still hate it

ok, we found a palce and it looks good, tiny, but ok, there is scope for some light and air sometimes, what more do you want! There is also a closet wow! Now comes the big headache of moving, unpacking. I used to think that unpacking is so much fun, but here, with no space anywhere to keep anything, I am almost dreading taking out my clothes and stuff from the boxes. Maybe this is the time to give everything away that I have been so dearly holding on to.
anyway, so ya, I still hate it here, and even though I am so sick of moving, I sure will be happy to move out of here and back into the dreamland of west coast.
well, after all you do not always get what you want, and sometimes you get it all and just throw it away.
well, what's done is done, there is no point crying over spilled milk, its like another lesson in life for me, never move when you are happy! Now I can just try to make the best of whatever is there, spend the next year or so and look forward to the day when I can leave from here.

something to look fwd to

well, now that we have fixed on the apartment (well, almost, money has not exchanged hands yet), and the apartment has gas stove, I can look fwd to making good rotis on the gas, boil the milk and heat food on the gas which was impossible to do on the electric stoves. neat. Of course I do not have to mention that the apartment is very odly shaped, like a railroad, like you are living in a rail dabba. Kitchen is looong, with little slab space and we might have to keep our shoes in it, or clothes, still deciding on that. Living room is almost unlivable, it will just be a passage to get in and out, its going to need lot of deco skills to make this place nice and to stow away all our belongins in drawers and boxes.

I hate NY

ya, its official, I hate this palce, 1 week of stay and there is not one good thing that I can find here. Its like living in Bombay or Delhi on a low income, without the familiarity of home and convenience of social life and meeting parents, celebrating festivals.

in New York

ya, left Seattle and moved to NY, and its like a dream, a bad one. I agree that NY sort of grows on you, like a fungus, the fast life, running for train, then running to catch the slow elevator, just running running all the time. There is no realization of when one day ends and other starts, because of course you cannot see the sun set or rise, not because its cloudy like Seattle, but because sky is all covered with concrete, sun does not rise in the east, it may show up somewhere overhead if you can get out into a slightly open space and will disappear overhead too. Like fungus I want this to get off me as soon as possible. Given that I just started here, there is a long way to go. I really miss my 'american' life in Seattle, the boring american way of living with car, wall to wall carpet in apartment, dishwasher, microwave, washer and dryer, closets :) Here everything is tiny, old, you need to use all your interior deco skills to stash away your belongings from plain view. The concept of kitchen slab space has not touched this place yet, with so many restaurants, I guess people do not cook here. Microwave, which I thought was as important here as stove, is absent and so is any place to keep it in kithchen. All in all, I still hate it here.

on second thought

Not about leaving Seattle, that would be 100th, but in favour of moving to NY. ya, who am I kidding, I still feel almost the same. But as the clouds of packing tension are clearing, it does not feel that bad, I am almost feeling good about starting out again at a new place, a totally new and different life, and of course living with Rahul again. I think I am sort of done with Seattle, hiked lot of the hikes around here, visited everything drivable from here, even ran the marathon. So now its time to discover the east coast. And I can see dropping of the ball next new year, all the great museums, and Niagara Falls and enjoy some extra sunshine, other bright side, get to wear really good clothes. The way people are dressed on NY streets and even in office, you automatically feel like dressing well. Here it starts seeming pointless after a while. So I can take out all my cute little dresses from box and wear then everyday without feeling over dressed :) And not that I am fond of it, but we can eat out at different place, and good food. After all I loved living and working in SF, so NY should be fun too.

Its time to say goodbye

...to Seattle. Its finally sinkingin that all the fun and masti I had in Seattle is going to be over soon. I always thought myself as a dynamic person who loves to go places and experience different lifestyle. So I should have been super excited to move to a big city, well THE big city. But even after thinking about it for a month and from every angle, I still cannot feel excited about leaving Seattle and living in New York. I had great time here, had almost everything I wanted, car, nice apartment (untill August at least), good friend circle, parties, dancing, hiking, camping blah blah. And to my surprise I am scared to leave it all behind and enter that unknown life like a commoner, no car, crammed living space, no friends, just commute into dirty crowded locals and walks through unsafe streets. At least that is my impression of my future life in New York, and I hope it turns out all wrong. Maybe I am just getting old and resisting the change!! Maybe I just got too comfortable here. Its definitely been one of the best times in my life , and I am going to miss everything about this place, 9 months of rain and cloudy skies, views of Rainier, cascades, olympics, trip to St Helens, 3 months of hiking, camping trips, game nights, pioneer square, saturday night dancing plans, wednesday night salsa plans :), AllGos, marathon, hiking after marathon practice ........ its a long list and probably I am going to miss some of the friends. I consider myself lucky to find good company here for everything I wanted to do, be it running marathon, playing 29, or sneaking off dancing, saturday dinner at temple..... and I don't believe that I am going to get anything even close to this in NY, it just does not happen in this country, people who live in big cities are busy, mean, selfish and what not! Well, the decision is made and I am leaving on Friday, maybe 6 months down the road I will be writing another blog saying how wrong I was, and how much I love NY and I cannot believe I wasted 2 years of my life in Seattle :). Ok that last part is not going to happen, Seattle is going to be my second best city and I am going to miss it for a long time, like I still miss Pune.

The tune of Don

Yesterday finally I watched the new Don. Not that I really wanted to watch it, I am not a fan of remakes and remixes, still the DVD was there and time was also there, so might as well just watch it. The movie was not too good, SRK did not really seem himself. And they tried to copy lot of scenes from the original which did not at all fit in today's context, it really seemed like a patch up work. So now what about the tune, well SRK urf Don stole my cell phone ring tone!!