Dependence on Technology

Our lives are so dependent on technology and yet we are not aware of it. We find out when something is missing or stops working. Case in point, a few days back, the Navigation system in my van started giving an error about unable to read the DVD. But then it would reboot the system and start working. Then within a day or two, it stopped working completely. I tried my best (pushing buttons here and there to make the system start responding) but similar to a donkey, once it made up its mind it just wouldn't work.

Now, the implications of this error.

- Navigation system does not work.
- Radio, DVD entertainment system is all interlinked and therefore does not work
- Bluetooth does not work (so no more calls when driving)
- Cannot listen to my podcasts while driving
- Motor keeps making an irritating noise (constantly)

Now, I realize that even though I did not have any particular favorite radio station, I miss the radio now and the blue tooth and the fact that podcasts are off-limit.

Needless to say, repairs are scheduled for Wednesday. Till then, quietly suffer the stop-n-go traffic to work and back.

Tax Time

All these years, I have always done my own taxes (barring one or two years) and usually I finish it off in a single day. This time I was double minded what to do - given that the taxes this year will be a bit more complicated (given our new investments). Anyway, started doing them yesterday and half way through I am ready to give up. Booked an appointment with H&R Block for tomorrow. Let's see how that goes...

Plenty of rains this year which is quite welcome after several years of continuous droughts. While the rains have been plentiful, the changing weather from day to day has meant lot of sick people around. :(

1.5 years into the new house/city and I have yet to sign up with a PCP. Just too damn busy to find one.

Last note for this post, talked to a couple of CFPs over the past few months and got completely opposite advice. Can't trust anyone these days. :( I guess no substitute for doing your own homework.

Catching up....

Been a long time....

- Moved to SR from SJ back in Jun 2015. It was a weird feeling initially that having lived in SJ for 21 years, I would not be living there any more. Also, spent the last 12 years in the SJ house and now new house.... mixed feelings.

- Nov 2015: changed my job after 3+ years and joined JN. More on the JN experience in subsequent posts.

- At this time (Oct'15) onwards dad was not keeping good health. He had congestive heart failure and he refused surgery option for so long that the consequences of that decision were catching up now. He suddenly couldn't walk as much any more. Several trips to the emergency room in Oct, Nov, Dec... ) :( Dec end, visited his doctor in a desperate attempt to do something for him and was told bluntly he had maybe a month to live. :( Anyway, mid to late Jan, Dad ended up in the ER once again and this time the docs told us bluntly that he would not be leaving the hospital alive. All 3 of his kids were with him and went through a harrowing time, living by the min, day by day and finally on Feb 8th 2016, he left us. What a fighter all his life and even in his last moments, no regrets in his voice, his face or his attitude for anything. No fear. #Respect and #Love for dad. May his soul rest in peace along with Mom in heaven.

- Made a quick trip to India for Asthi Visarjan at Haridwar and his chautha in Karnal, Haryana.

- Once back, the american life took over again. No mercy from work... very cold and businesslike: get down to business. Hardly any mourning time. Lots of urgency at work to move projects along (ironically they took another 6+ months to get approvals).

- Till this day, my parents come in my thoughts, day and night, waking hours and in my dreams... as if they are still near me, around me, interacting with me. There is this huge void and sadness, which I try not to show in my behavior or face but it is so hard. Life feels so meaningless now. More later on this...

- Sold the SJ house finally in Mar'17. Needed the cash for a franchise business we are starting. More later on this...

- Kids growing up fast. Only a few more years before they fly off in search of their dreams, just like my siblings and I left our home in search of ours.

Gotta go... but will be writing again soon.

Ciao

back to blogging...

I can't believe it that my last post was almost 10 months ago. :( Life has been hectic ever since I left my previous company (no surprises) as well as after I transitioned into marketing a couple of years ago. They say "grass is always greener on the other side of the fence". When I was in engineering, I used to wonder how can these product marketing guys be so busy all the time... maybe they have their self inflated egos and what not. Now I know the truth and it is not the self importance or egos... it is actually the truth. Engineering work comes in waves - busy times and quiet times. Marketing work is almost a constant high. If you have free time, you have to wonder whether the product is not interesting or the company is headed down. :) Long story short -- it has been hectic. In my current role, when I joined things were so crazy, it felt like it was fire fighting mode all the time and I was drinking from the fire hose. This continued for the initial several months. Then it got better -- maybe it was me, maybe it was that finally the engineering team got some proper direction, maybe the customer finally got most of their pressing issues addressed - my engineering team (both here and in India) delivered (big time). I have the satisfaction of seeing my product getting deployed in qty of several tens of thousands at multiple customer sites and its a great feeling. Last month or so, however, things have been crazy at work with serious churn in the leadership team and it is distracting. Will see how things turn out. On a personal front, summer break for the kids. Took the kid (s) camping a few times and it was amazing. Planning to take them to east coast for a nice vacation. After that the next school year and the grind starts again. :( thats it for now ...but will be back soon with more.

Why jamba juice just does not get it!!!

As I write this post, I checked Yahoo Finance and Jamba Juice (ticker JMBA) stock price is at $2.39. Compare this to Starbucks whose stock price is at $48.76. Wait a minute... isn't is supposed to be the other way around i.e. in this health conscious society, shouldn't the stock price of the company that offers fresh squeezed healthy fruit and vegetable juices be higher than the stock price of that company that sells harmful-to-health-strong-coffee??? what gives? Well, I am not surprised at all. In the past couple of months, I have gone to Jamba juice a couple of times and come back disappointed. I have noticed stark contrast in my experience at the two rivals (if I may call them). 1. Its the people - I went to Jamba juice and as I paid at the counter for what I wanted, I noticed that there were only two employees in the store and they were both trying to tell each other to go make the juice. Now, this was shocking.... c'mon if your employees feel that their work is a burden and don't want to do the work, what can you say about the company?? Compare that to starbucks, where you are always greeted with a smile and no one is trying to pass on the work to others.... 2. Price - I ordered a simple orange-carrot (medium size) and a single shot of wheatgrass. The bill came out to $8.50 or so. Now for that price, I can have a decent Indian lunch buffet complete with dessert and all... I felt the price was ridiculously high. Ok, starbucks is not cheap either... I know. 3. Time - Just recently when I went to Jamba juice (in the morning on my way to work), I ordered my regular orange carrot juice. There were no people in line. I emerged out of the shop after a good 25 minutes.... whoa!!! and with a drink that I did not originally order. Here's what happened. I ordered my juice and the lady started making it. Within a few seconds I saw her shaking her head. Apparently the orange juice machine malfunctioned. She opened it, took a part out, took it away, cleaned it up, assembled it again and started to juice.... and then the machine got stuck again. She let out a big sigh and this time took a bigger part of the machine out to clean and reassemble. All this while I am watching unsure to pity her or the company. For god's sake, have a backup machine in the store... how much can it cost?? Anyway, the lady came back and re-assembled the machine and just as she started to juice the oranges again, the machine got stuck a third time. As she started to disassemble the machine again, I intervened and put her out of her misery. I just did not have the patience or time to keep on waiting. I told her to give me just carrot juice instead. She said sorry and her co-worker made the carrot juice for me and I left. Now, as I mentioned - the company should have a backup machine in place for situations such as this.... imagine customers going in and being told the juice machine is out of order??? Secondly, if they cared enough about customer satisfaction, they could have offered me the juice for free (for the time I wasted standing there). Not that I wanted free juice, but I am pretty sure if it was starbucks, they would have done something to make up. 4. Product - One time I went to Jamba juice and felt quite lost in their menu. I wanted a fresh squeezed juice and chose something. Turned out to be a frozen/icee juice drink. I took it without complaining since this is what I had chosen. Now, I was trying to sip my juice and each sip would cause extreme brain freeze... gosh, horrible experience. 5. Snacks - Well starbucks carries yummy/unhealthy snacks but then they never claimed to be a health conscious business in the first place. Jamba juice also has unhealthy, calorie rich snacks (talk about confusing marketing message). Just to prove how lost their marketing is, right next to the snacks is a sign that read "Every sip deserves a snack (or bite)". What the heck??? Oh well, they just don't get it. If you are promoting good health, look at trader joe's or whole foods - the messaging and the whole experience is completely aligned. At the very least train your workers (or hire people) who don't run away from work.

A tale of two temples ...

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the two major temples in the Bay Area - The one in Livermore and the other one in Sunnyvale. Here's my impression of the two temples, which I must say has not changed over the last 10+ years. Shiva-Vishnu Temple, Livermore - We went to the temple on a weekend to meet a friend of my wife who was visiting from Canada and the temple seemed the ideal mid-point meeting place between our house and where she was staying. When we reached the temple, I must say the first impression was amazing. The temple looks marvelous, all with its authentic architecture etc and great organization (separate office building, shoe racks, shop for selling the big laddu prasadam etc). Ample space, neat and clean, well designed and constructed. I do not like two things about the temple though. 1. Inside the temple, no carpeting where people can sit. There are 10-15 sub temples inside the temple and it looks a bit chaotic. I mean, make up your mind what you want to have in there. My personal preference is one area for the idols and rest should be seating area where people can sit and relax/meditate/pray etc. The interior has not changed (at best) or more sub-temples have come up inside than before. The priests were quite aloof with no one even available to give prasad to the devotees. Big donation boxes all over the place, screaming out for donations. 2. The food area - surprisingly, this time around there was some food for people to enjoy - not a proper meal. Yogurt rice and some other rice dish. The table was set outside in the open (back side of temple) while the proper community hall was lying unused/vacant (I have seen it used for private parties/functions previously). There were very few tables and chairs (sitting on the floor was not an option since this was outside). The food was spicy and therefore the kids could hardly eat anything. As people sat there, after a little while some people came and started packing up the tables and chairs not bothering that people were still sitting. So, we got up and left. But before leaving, we did buy a few of those Big laddu prasad from the office (ironically, you have to buy the prasad from the temple). Sunnyvale Temple - A few weeks later, it was Janamashtmi (Lord Krishna's birthday). So, we all went to the temple in the evening. Now, this was a very different experience (I think they touched a new low that I haven't experienced in the past). There have been very serious allegations about the temple trustees/management (how they have siphoned off the donations/funds for personal use, how the trustees are life long members and not answerable to anyone etc etc) and I tend to believe that the allegations are to a large extent true. The temple is in a horrible shape. Fortunately, renovation work has started on the barn (that people used to call a temple) and it was closed to public. They have a community hall which was constructed a few years back and is much nicer. The temple idols were all moved to this new location. My first reaction when we reached the temple was a groan since as usual the parking was a nightmare. The place was crowded, parking spaces were too few and too tight. Anyways, fearing the worst, we entered the temple and I was pleasantly surprised. Even though there were 2-3 stations for idols, it wasn't bad and people were actually standing in line patiently waiting for their turn to view the idols and pray. Soon enough our turn came, I grabbed hold of my son and daughter (wife was a little distance behind), told the kids to close their eyes and pray very briefly. Within 10 seconds, a loud rude voice jolted me out of my connection with the almighty. "Keep moving. Do not stand here and pray. There is food outside that you can go and eat". I was SHOCKED!!!! how pathetic can this be...I understand people behind us waiting in line for their turn but 10 seconds and I am told that I am not allowed to pray. jeez. Anyways, without saying anything I moved on to the next station which was not crowded at all (and no lines). Prayed a bit and got some prasad. Met my ex-boss and chatted with him for a few minutes. Next, we went outside for food. Again this was in the open and a very very narrow and congested plate. No seating arrangement, just standing and most peolple were spilling onto the road. Waiting in the line for food, another so called temple administrator walks up and shouts in his typically north indian rude manner (to everyone standing there) "Be careful how many napkins you take. Use what you take. This is not Taco Bell". I mean ouch!!!! no class, no sense, no manners.... very hurtful. Quickly grab some food and eat it while standing. Quite uncomfortable esp. for the kids. After a few minutes, we left for home. Overall, the Livermore temple experience was more satisfying in the sense that the money seems to have been well spent for the temple construction but the connection with god seemed missing. At sunnyvale, the funds with almost 100% certainty have been swindled but I felt I was in a temple....despite all the rudeness all around. Now, my recent visit to both these temples have not altered my prior opinion about these places (rather they have been reinforced). All the more reason to look within one self for those wishing to connect to God.

A month later....

Well, graduation came (June 15th) and done. We all went to LA for the commencement ceremony. It was a grand affair, met some of the friends (possibly for the last time). There was so much excitement in the air - sense of relief on faces and anxiety (about future) on others. Overall good fun. Its been a month and a half since I resigned from Cisco and have sometimes wondered whether I did the right thing. Each time the answer (in my mind) comes back loud and clear - Yes. However, the fact is looking for a job when you don't have one already is 10x more difficult. I have talked to a few companies but I am not super excited. Some of them are doing the same stuff that I was doing before... Well, it will be some time before I get back into the workforce. Meanwhile, I am exploring some startup ideas as well with a few friends. Making some progress but lot more needs to be done. A very close friend of mine (from college days - India) called me yesterday and graciously offered to help with funding my venture. His offer itself meant so much more to me even though I amy or may not take his money. True friends are indeed a gift from god. Son is signed up for summer camp and there he is exploring a startup of his own. He is in a sales role and yesterday he and his team worked on their business plan. Today I will be going to their company fair and listen to him pitch his products and possibly buy some. :) A great exposure for him and his fellow campers - sets them an a completely different plane of thinking. :) While son is away for camp (atleast this week), I take my daughter out for bike rides in the morning. Time is just flying by ... P.S. On a whim, i decided to do some research on wide angle lenses for my Canon SLR camera and boy - are they expensive. At such times, you wish you had a second job so you wouldn't have to think as much about buying expensive things. :)