Halloween...

Time flies...Diwali came and went and now it's halloween time. Kids are all excited. Nalin dressed up as a lion and went to school, Shruti will be dressed as a cowgirl. Both have parties at their respective places (which I plan to attend). Then there will be trick or treating in the evening (if weather co-operates...its been raining on/off since yesterday) and maybe a potluck dinner. All these potlucks lately are making everyone's bellies like pots (maybe thats why they are called potluck). Other than tonight's potluck, there are 2 more planned for this weekend (not to mention the one we had a few days back on Diwali). All this eating and no exercise... make me lazy.

Diwali party

I had a Diwali party at work today- this was at the BU level for the test org. I dressed up in a traditional dress and received quite a few compliments. We had a competition for the best dressed male and I came runners-up although many felt I should have been declared the winner. Anyway it was good fun. The food was good and the entertainment was good too. I won a prize in dumb charades as well. Finally to wrap up the party, someone brought in their Kareoke (sp??) system and a few folks sang some old hindi songs. This party was a good idea to get to know the ASR 1k test team.

work-life balance

With a change in my manager, it has suddenly become a lot more hectic at work. Suddenly, stricter deadlines are being proposed and enforced. The next project is also coming up shortly and the pressure from work is unlikely to ease up in the next 6 months. After that, there will be the clamor to get onto the new platform (all work on the platform I am working on right now is being rapidly transferred to India) and I would be one of the last few to move on. So, there is some apprehension that I would let the leftover tidbits once everyone else had had their picks. On top of all this< i have signed up for a couple of classes at Stanford. The assignments and papers from those classes are adding up their bit of pressure.

At home front, since we let the nanny go, we have had one person come to our house to help with cooking but she left town after 3 weeks. Since then we haven't found anyone that can meet our schedule requirements. Kids are demanding as usual. So makes for one heck of a tiring day for both of us (I didn't mention that it is even more hectic at Ruchi's work).

But, both of us are working as a team and managing things quite well. I have a few things to do over the next month or so and then hopefully things will get better (right during the holidays timeframe).

Nalin sprained his foot today while jumping from our bed. Poor fella was in quite a bit of pain. Fortunately, no fracture... Neighborhood Diwali potluck coming up next weekend. Meanwhile life goes on...

Diwali

Diwali is on tuesday - 4 days from today. In my company we had a celebration involving food, music, dance, cultural show, raffle etc. It was a fun affair. On monday, we have a smaller party at work to celebrate Diwali. As a kid, Diwali used to be a big thing for us. We would buy lots of crackers. In the morning, the whole house would be cleaned up. Mum and Dad would go to every close acquaintance's house to give a box of sweets while other people would come to our house to give sweets. As kids we would eagerly wait for sunset. As the sun would set, we would light the diys and the candles and dad would conduct the puja. After that we would be given sweets to eat - no restrictions, eat what you want and how much you want. And then the green signal.... go and play with the crackers. We would rush out and burst crackers. Anaar, chakri, saap, patake (aloo bamb, ladis etc), rockets... you name it. One time I had a candle in my hand and a small pataka in my hand, and just then a close family friend came... I was telling them that mom-dad were inside and at the same time trying to light the candle to ignite the cracker. I was so distracted that instead of the candle I burst the cracker in my hand. That memory is still imprinted in my mind even though it was some 30 years ago. :) I would be scared of the noise from the crackers and would cover my ears. Next day, we would look in the debris for any unexploded crackers .... what a cool time we used to have on Diwali.

Now it is different. We get some crackers and watch Nalin and Shruti have fun. Hopefully, they are forming memories of their own. As is traditional in Americal (all festivals are celebrated on the nearest weekend), this year too, we will have a party on Nov 1st. Instead of hosting it at our house, this time we will go to a neighbors house. Now Diwali is a few crackers and food.... the excitement is gone. The best part now is to watch the kids having fun with the crackers and playing with their friends. I am sure our parents felt the same way watching us have fun when we were kids.

Happy Diwali to everyone!!!!

Book club

I am starting a book club at work within my extended group. The idea behind it is to sign up interested people, give them fun and interesting books focussed on building soft skills (increasing productivity, time management, etc etc). The books are distributed once a month and everyone reads them in their spare time and once a month we meet up and discuss. The company pays for the books and the participants get to keep them. I have several people showing interest to join but most seem to be hesitant that this might involve more work. Anyway, let's see how it goes... Hopefully after the first month, some positive feedback will spur others to join in as well.

I cam across an interesting idea in the book I am currently reading (not the book club rahter the one I mentioned a few postings back). P-T-F-A-R. All of us are programmed to think a certain way (based on what we saw, felt, experienced while growing up...). This programming leads to thoughts in us, The thoughts lead to feelings and feelings lead to Action. Finally, when we take action, we see results. So whatever state we are in (whether good or bad, financially or emotionally or spiritually), it all depends on how we have been programmed early on in life. It is however possible to change this programming such that we become more successful but I digress... after success is a relative term and it means different things to different people.

Work life is busy as hell. Work is piling up and there don't seem to be enough hours in the day to do it all. But to balance work, there is life outside... which is just whizzing by... day, night, month, year..... Kids are growing up fast too... If only I had the power to hold time still.

Anand....

I recall a discussion I had with my dad several months back (on our way from PA to SJ on a friday evening). Everyone's is looking for happiness (Anand) in life. After all, who wants to be in grief? Different people find or try to find anand or joy or peace (whatever you may want to call it) in different things/ways. Some try to work hard (work is everything), some don't believe in work, some look for it in money and others look for it in fame, and so on. I recall in that discussion, we concluded that the joy or pleasure we seek is/will always be short lived as long as the source of that joy is external to us. We may earn a lot of money and be happy for some time but might lose it soon thereafter and be sad... and so on. If we look for joy/peace/happiness within us, and manage to find it, that joy would be everlasting. No, one does not need to become an introvert, rather he/she simply needs to realize that the happiness obtained from external objects is temporary while the happiness/contentment that originates within us can be permanent.

It's a difficult task to achieve but whenever I am bothered by some news or external events, this discussion comes back to my mind and I try to calm myself thinking that instead of looking outside and reacting to things/events, I should be looking inside and find peace. At times I am successful and other times I am not. :)

Going down memory lane

Finally, I finished watching the movie Sarkar Raj 2. The story line is powerful with exceptional dialogue delivery. As can be expected with successful scripts, the makers of the movie have left the plot open for another sequel. Senior and Junior AB excel and Ash is ready to shine in the next one (her performance is not too bad in this one but she does play third fiddle).

Interest in my blog has been growing and a number of people have called and appreciated it. I feel this is a nice idea to keep your friends and family connected to your life. Who know, when Nalin and Shruti grow a little bigger, they might enjoy reading about their parent's life. ;)

I have been thinking of going down memory lane to the earliest memory I have of my childhood and a few incidents come to mind (listed in chronological order).

1) The earliest memory... I guess I was 1 or 1.5 yr old, it was winters, night time. My dad picked me up and took me to the restroom towards the back of the house and tried to get me to pee. ;) poor dad...it was cold. He went the usual "shuuuuuuuuuu...". Needless to say, I did not oblige and we came back into the house. I guess I was being potty trained. :)

2) I was a little older ... maybe 2-3 year old. I was tucked into a rajai with mom and dad and dad read me the story about "Kutchu and his glasses". The story is about an absent minded person who puts his eye glasses on his head and forgets about it. he goes around looking for it and asking his near and dear one where they are but no one can help him. In the end he finds them on his own head.

3) We had three steps in our backyard patio, leading to the garden. Me and my brother were playing cricket (I was maybe 5-6 years old) and I slipped and fell down the stair and broke a finger nail (right hand middle finger... yeah I remember).

4) I was playing gulli danda with a neighbor's son and my brother. The danda slipped out of my brother's hand and hit me smack on my head and there was intense bleeding. My brother cooked up a story about some passing schoolkids hitting me with a stone. I wonder if my parents bought the story?? Our neighbor's son was not seen at our house though after that incident. :)

5) I was bit older... maybe 6-7 year old. During winters, it would get very cold and we would each snuggle into our beds and my mom would go around and give all the kids kaju, kishmish and badaam and we would happily much them (without worrying about brushing our teeth afterwards).

These and some other incidents are deeply imprinted in my memory. Maybe next family re-union and we can all share our memories from the good ol' days. ;)

Karwa Chauth

Yesterday was Karwa Chauth. As usual, Ruchi kept a fast but this time around she did not eat the "Sergi" early in the morning. I felt bad for her, going thirsty and hungry all day for me. In the evening, both of us came home a bit early, cleaned up the house and hosted a Karwa party at our place. We had a couple of neighbor families come over. The kids had a blast playing together till late. There was that occasional kid crying (lost a game or plain simple too tired) but overall they had fun. They even ran around chasing (trying to catch) Shruti with Shruti running ahead, as fast as her 2 year old legs could carry her. Amazing. :) Nalin, too, could be seen "bossing" around in his own house.

The guys took over the kitchen. While it was a potluck and each family had brought something, we relieved the ladies from the task of making pooris. Me, Manish and Ravi happily made the pooris and served the ladies. Overall, everyone had a good time. For a change, this year it was not cloudy and the moon was sighted without much efforts. We missed a close friend and his family, on this day, who are going through a rough patch.

Millionaire Mind

I have started reading the book "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind" by T. Harv Eker during my morning commute to work. Must says, its a good read. Its too early to pass a verdict on how useful it will be but a couple of ideas already stand out. At one place it quotes Stuart Wilde - "The key to success is to raise your own energy; when you do, people will naturally be attracted to you. And when they show up, bill 'em". Food for thought for sure.

A second thing I liked is that the author mentions that people live in the visible world. Just like in a tree, we observe the branches, flowers and fruits without paying attention to the roots, in the tree of life, we fail to see the invisible that is creating the visible. It's that invisible that we need to focus on. There are many other profound ideas mentioned in the book but it will not be possible to mention them here else I will end up typing the whole book here. If you get a chance grab a copy of the book and read it. I think it will be worth it.

11th Anniversary

It was our 11th wedding anniversary today. What a ride it has been - with the ups and downs. Didn't do anything special today. Both of us were extremely busy at work and I had a class in the evening and therefore came home late. The kids were in bed by the time I reached home (although I reached just in time to wish them good night). Time is flying by....

God and Religion

Many people confuse god and religion to be one and the same thing and frankly this misconception is one of the single biggest reasons for the unrest in the world. Think about it - What is the oldest religion in the world? Doesn't matter what your answer is...but think now :- Did god (your god if it pleases you) exist before your religion came into existence. What??? But don't we hear all the time and believe that god is omnipresent, cannot be born, nor can it die i.e. uncreatable and non-destructible. So, it shows that god existed before any of the religions came to exist. hmmm... think about this for a while since this is profound. Now, if god existed before any religion, then why do people go around claiming "My religion is better than yours" or "My religion represents the true god" and so on. God never tied itself to one particular religion. So, God is above all religions.... but

what is god?

God is a He/She/It/Animate/Inanimate/countable/measureable or a figment of imagination. Human beings associate themselves with physical things e.g. if one has never seen what a car looks like, you can describe the car to the person in great detail but that person will not get it. Show him/her a picture of it and he/she will have an "Aha" moment. So, my theory is that in older days, people were used as a representation (physical) of god so people could understand the concept...and over the years instead of going forward in their thinking about god, they tied themselves down into the physical depiction of god and made it to be the ultimate truth.

So, God is/was not a physical human being. So what is god? Is there a god? Who made this entire creation (Shristi)? What was there before it got created? Why was it created? What role do we have to play in all this? Are we real when we are awake or are we real when we are asleep(in our sub-concious)? Happiness and sadness - are they real or are they percieved? Is there something people call true salvation or Nirvana? Is that our goal or Should that be our goal? These are some of the numerous questions that no one has been able to answer but at some stage in life most of us are confronted with them or we confront them. The answer needs to be found invividually through one's own experiences. Consider a complex mathematical problem and someone gives you the solution. If you don't understand the problem or the solution (or both), the solution itself (although known to you) will not help you. So, the journey to find god is an individual journey and it may or may not go via a church, temple or a mosque.... Human mind is always curious...I am sure one day all of us will find the truth - the reason for our existence. Till then, we continue to exist in this material shape and material world.

We like to move it, move it !!!

I showed Nalin the trailer of Madagascar 2 recently on my IPhone. It has this catchy song in it "We like to move it, move it .... He likes to move it, move it, She likes to move it, move it... MOVE IT!!" which is picturized (atleast in the trailer) on a Lion, a Zebra and a Hippo moving their Butt in a rhythm. He liked the trailer so much that he has been singing this song over and over again... :) The movie is releasing Nov 7th, 2008 and I am sure we'll be taking him there to see it esp. since it has his favorite animal in it - The Lion.

Here's the trailer for your viewing pleasure ... :)

Trailer for Madagascar 2

Am I lucky or what??

It's such a nice feeling to know that you have very good friends. I have been very lucky in this aspect. Right from childhood till now, I have been very lucky to have made some very nice friendships. It continued on in college, then in Bidar, onto clemson and then in my worklife. So much so, I have a very good set of friends in our lane where our house is located. Just came back from a party at one of our neighbor's house (originally from pakistan). Very nice people indeed. We are a group of 6 desi families on our street and whenever any of us throws a party/get together, the guest list is pretty much already made. :) The 6 families on our street are so close that we hardly feel the need to invite our "other" friends. I feel so blessed to have such good friends.
Weather is getting colder and my neighbor wants me and him to start playing tennis again. ;) We had quite a bit of fun playing together last year and even early this year. Let's see when we are able to re-start. I am thinking of getting the windows replaced with dual pane since winters are coming and it is getting colder. It's a bit expensive but I guess it will be all worth it. Stock market tamasha is on with stocks plunging like anything everyday. My company laid off about 220 people just couple of days back. Some tough times ahead...

Feeling of deja vu ...

A couple of days back I had this feeling of deja vu.... A colleague at work (who moved back to India a few months back but still with my company) was engrossed in a keen but aggressive tussle with another colleague of mine. There were emails flying back and forth between the two of them. Apparently, the colleague in India wanted the colleague here to implement his library routine a certain way.... and she was getting a bit too aggressive (in my opinion). Needless to say I jumped in and calmed them down. Many moons ago, I used to be like that - agressive, abrasive, I-am-right-and-I-will-tell-the-world-what-I-think attitude. Over the years, I have learnt my lessons and mellowed down. It's just a job. Relationships (work, home, friends etc) are very important and you can accomplish pretty much the same thing in a better nicer way. The real challenge in the art of negotiation is to go to the other party's position and convince them to come to your point of view. ;)

US presidential debates are going on. I am not sure who I will vote for. Obama has some +ves and -ves. The biggest negative is he is proposing tax hikes for anyone making >$250k/year. I don't agree with the philosphy that the "rich" can be the favorite whipping boys all the time... That's like saying - "You worked hard and made money - now give more of that money back to us" Duh!!! McCain on the other hand has some +ves too but on the -ve side I think he is too much into the military aspect of things. So, overall not sure who will get my vote come Nov 4th.

Meanwhile, stocks, economy, housing market ... everything is tumbling down. For a change oil too ;) and here's a funny pic to sign off for now...

That's life...

Life is strange (haven't we heard that before so many times) :) You love/like someone and that person is going through a rough patch... you want to reach out, you want to lend a helping hand, you want to share their pain/suffering, you want to be there for them but words sound hollow (and often hurtful). you mean something but it comes across as something totally different. The one you hold dear to your heart is most hurt by your attempts to heal. What to do? Give up - not an option. Keep trying - but that hurts the other person. You say a silent prayer that hopefully things take a turn for the better for them --- soon!!! During such times, we should remember that even the toughest of situations will eventually ease. Joy and sorrow are never permanent. Future is a mystery for all of us. Maybe something better is in store for us and it might be sooner rather than later. Always keep an optimistic view about the future. Negative emotions/feelings cause a viscious circle in life - they feed on themselves. So, enjoy your good health and the love/happiness of your near and dear ones (friends and family) and forget the rest. Life is too precious to worry or hold grudges. In the end, it doesn't matter how long you lived - rather it is most important how you have lived. If you are reading this, cheer up. We will get through this phase as well - ever stronger.

This weekend was hectic as usual. With Shruti and Nalin around, there is never a dull moment. They can bring out all sorts of emotions in us in a matter of minutes - happiness, sorrow, anger, amazement, tiredness, frusturation, pride .... Ruchi and I are blessed to have such wonderful kids. ;) We had a friend and his family over for dinner on Saturday. We all had a pretty good time. Ruchi was amazing - the way she had a gourmet meal ready in no time. And I just could not stop myself from taking more and more servings. So even though it was pretty cold outside, I and my friend had to go out and take a half hour walk to get things settled. Sunday morning I went to pick up my brother and his family from the airport. They just returned from a vacation in mexico. In the evening, we took the kids to the park and they had loads of fun.... we should take them there more often. My dad saw the movie Drona and recommends it...will try to get the dvd next time.

Commuting by Train

I have been thinking of using public transit services (VTA Light rail) on and off for some time now. Never really tried it out since I always thought

a) the light rail is too slow
b) Without my car, I am stuck at the office i.e. no mobility

Finally yesterday (and today), I decided to take the light rail to work. The drive to the station from my house is about 10 mins and it takes another 18 minutes on the train to get to work. Needless to say, I was really impressed

a) Neat and clean trains
b) efficient and on time
c) not slow at all
d) most convinient

I am so happy I tried it out since I don't need to sit in back-to-back traffic in the morning/evenings (traffic is crazy here as are the drivers ... but that is another post for some other day), its good for the environment, I save on Gas and my company pays for the annual pass (to travel free on the train). It couldn't get better than this. I plan to use the service maybe 3-4 days a week.

On my second day (today), I saw something interesting. As I got on the train, another man in his mid-late 40s got on. He pulled out a book from his backpack and started reading while I got busy checking the news on my IPhone. :) A few station down the line, the ticket checker got on and what a surprise. This apparently well to do guy, was travelling ticket-less. He got cited (fined). The TT was very polite but firm. Then some more people got on the train and a youngish guy came aboard and sat right behind me. The TT came and asked for his ticket and guess what... ;) I heard him groan and say that he just got cited yesterday!!! yup, he was travelling ticketless too. The TT remarked "looks like you didn't learn the lesson...". In all 3 people got ticketed and then my station came and I got off.

I wonder why people cheat. Ok, time for me to go catch my train home.

Times change !!!

Oh my!!! How do times change... I guess I am always late to adopt new things in life esp. when it comes to social networking. I take time making friends (but to be fair to myself my friends last a lifetime), I never signed up for orkut (even though it's a craze among so many people), just recently opened an account on facebook (find it a bit boring) and now finally have a blogging site. I used to think all these were a waste of time but I guess times change.... :) So, three cheers to start off my journey as a blogger... hopefully, you and I will have a fun time along the way.

I will try and share my thoughts, events and memories as appropriate. So, hang in there and I will be back soon ...