back home from vacation

Whew!!! What a week it was... We all decided to take some time off and take a vacation. The scene:

Dec 21: all day and late into the night/early morning of dec 22, busy packing and last minute travel prep. Go to sleep around 3 am.
Dec 22: wake up at 4 am (1 full hour of sleep), get ready, bundle the sleeping kids into the black beauty and head over to PA where we do a switch to my sis-in-laws SUV and take a ride to the airport. Kids are awake now and beginning to whine. :) We haul 3 huge suitcases to the terminal and check them in and take a flight to San Diego at 7:30 am. Arrived about an hour and a half later at San Diego and it is pouring like anything. Kids are in a good mood and we are looking forward to the vacation in anticipation. After eating some food at the airport, we rush through the pouring rain (kids, luggage and all) to catch a taxi to the pier. After about a half an hour os long lines, we are finally aboard the cruise ship, Carnival Elation. :) Ready to depart on a 5 night cruise to Mexico.

Everyone is in a happy mood. The ship is magnificant. and huge.... Having cruised before a couple of times, we knew our way around and what to expect. Grabbed some lunch on the ship and settled down in the stateroom. Each of the kids got a bunkbed of their own.

Day 2 was at sea with a variety of activities, shows, food and more food. We all had a blast of a time.
Day 3: We reached Cabo San Lucas early in the morning at 8 am. The weather was beautiful and warm. Learning from past mistakes, we had not booked any shore excursion this time. We got ready and went ashore and found plenty of tour operators there at the pier. We took a water taxi from the pier to see the various landmarks and then headed to Medino beach. There after a quick snack, all four of us headed to the ocean. Oh what joy... never seen shruti and nalin have so much fun in the water. Played around in the water for a couple of hours, took a break for lunch and some tequela (sp??) shots and back into the water. Finally headed over to the ship in the evening.
Day 3 night/Day 4 early evening: Shruti developed high fever (probably the water she ingested during water play at the beach). Tylenol and some anxious moments....Day 4 onwards till the end of the cruise, she lost her appetite. Fever went up and down periodically. We visited the discos a couple of times and as I mentioned the shows were great.
Day 5: The ship reached Ensenada at 8 am and we took it easy. Around 1 or 2 pm we went ashore and took a private taxi to the blow hole. It is a shopping area and at the end there is a geyser. Spent a few hours there and made some shopping purchases before heading back to the ship.
Day 6: The ship docked back at san diego at guess what: 8 am. :)
We were off the ship by 9:30 am or so, headed over to the car rental and after some bad screw ups (by the rental company) headed over to the hotel. Shruti was still not 100%. After checking in and grabbing some lunch, we went out and saw a couple of beaches. Later, for dinner we ordered desi food for take out. great food and the kids loved it too.

Day 7: went to legoland and had a great time there. watched a couple of 4-D shows but tll not sure whats the difference between 3-D and 4-D shows.
Day 8: Checked out of the hotel and went to the Wild Animal park in San Diego. Another cool day and Nalin had a great time. Shruti was cranky and clingy. Flew back home in the evening.

Overall a very nice vacation (except for Shruti's illness and lack of appetite). Ironically, she is perfectly fine now that we are home. Today, we are busy unwinding and making preparations for the new year eve party. :)

More later... I better get back to some important pending stuff.

heading south

This weekend was really very hectic - as hectic as it can get. Its 2:50 am in the morning and we are both still awake. Have to go to sleep soon and then wake up in an hour to get ready to leave for our vacaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaation!!!! All I can tell you right now is that we are headed south... towards warmer temperatures. ;) Will post a trip report after coming back.

The last week or two have been quite busy and some of you might have noticed the reduced frequency of my posts. I promise the new year will be much better...I will have more free time (I hope). BTW, we are headed for a vacation but here's a status check: Me: sick; Ruc: sick; Nal: sick; Shru: sick. Wonder what we are going to do there...

alright caio for now!!

PETA

I am now officially a member of PETA (atleast for 2009). I didn't really sign up but I contributed some money for their fund raiser (S is running a half marathon for them and asked for donations) and the next thing I know, PETA starts sending me mails (email and print incl mags) welcoming me as a member. For those still unaware, PETA is an org that is fighting to stop cruelty towards Animals. I believe in the cause but never thought I would sign up as a member. PETA - People for Ethical Treatment of Animals.

For the faint of heart, do not click the link below but for the curious minded... feel free to click and see what is done to make the nice comfy fur coats and jackets by famous designers (in this case Donna Karan aka DKNY)

Check out the site

The pictures are pretty graphic but a reality.

I even fired off an email to Donna protesting this practise. Feel free to do so if you think the same way.

Rains are here...

It's been raining here in the bay area for the last few days. The sky is dark and gloomy. I normally like the rains but more of the Indian monsoon variety.... the weather is hot to the extreme, suddenly the clouds would show up and it would rain proving instant relief... Here, it rains in the winters... But in any case, we can use all the rain we can get, water levels in the reservoirs being as low as they are. The weather has turned so cold that the chill bites you if you step outside. It is supposed to fall to the 30s (fahrenheit) tonight and 20s near the ocean. Also, there is snow on the mountain tops around here.

Keeping my fingers crossed about the weather next week when we go on a long overdue vacation.... the good thing is we are headed southwards... :) more on the vacation later.

Work is as crappy as ever. The De mgr is more worried about why an issue is marked test stopper rather than worrying that with time running out to wrap up the project, critical issues are still cropping up with regular frequency. I am just sick of this project now...sooooooo many issues and now nobody (except me of course) gives a darn.
My boss just wants to know how soon i can finish up ... F*&(*(Y( and when the cap cases come in, these same people will be questioning me why these issues slipped past us. F*&)*)N

ICC night

Ok, I feel guilty about the depressing post (last one) so here's a lighter one. ICC had a fundraiser event today in the evening. They are raising money for expanding the facility (including adding some stuff for the seniors). Ruchi volunteered to do a dance performance on the stage along with a few friends. We dutifully bought our tickets and reached the place by 6 pm. Very few people had arrived by then and the organizers were still testing the mike setting and stuff. A little irritating (adusting the sounds and stuff... this should have been done earlier in the day). Anyways, we are all famished but no food in sight. Suddenly, around 6:30 pm or so, all the guests start coming in (I guess we were there early. The actual seating time was 6:30pm). Anyway, soon the hall is all full (someone said there were 45 tables with 10 seats/table and we had a soldout event). They start off with appetizers which were pretty good (panner tikka, pakodas, french fries, aloo tikki). I gulp down quite a few of them and soon I realize that I am full and no more space to eat dinner. Soon the program starts.2-3 dance performances and then they break for dinner. Midway, during dinner, Ruchi leaves to go to the backstage to get dressed for her performance. Shruti is wailing now... "I want mommy!!!". I am sick in the stomach... If she continues crying, what am I gonna do?? somehow, this idea strikes me... I start feeding her ice cream. As long as she is eating, she is not crying. Soon the ice cream is finished but the organizers are busy with their raffles. With a big roll of my eyes (since shruti has started crying again.. "I want mommy"), I start feeding her chocolate kisses. She is quite again and I am desperate now... "Geez, let the show begin". Ok finally the show starts. The 2nd performance is the performers from Naach (Ruchi's troupe)... wow!!! It is a pretty cool performance and the crowd is really into it... everyone appreciates it. About 15 minutes after her performance, Ruchi comes and joins us and I can breathe again. My daughter is finally happy again. Soon, some live music performances start and people rush forward to the dance floor. I am in no mood to dance (too exhausted). Then DJ Salim comes on and the atmosphere changes completely. Anyone and everyone with 2 feet is on the dance floor. Nalin asks me to take him to the floor to dance and both of us head there. He starts dancing and to give him company, I start dancing too. Now Nalin is totally into it and I am having fun too.... so I put Nalin on the stage where he continues to groove.. :) Ruchi and Shruti join us too and we dance away the night... maybe an hour and a half or so. A nice relaxing night after a long long time. Around 11:00/11:30 or so, we head home. Right now, everyone is asleep and I am blogging away... ;)

Does this make sense?

Normally, I try to keep myself away from criticizing any religion. I believe it is a very personal thing and we must not judge others... but... something has been bothering me the last few days, hence this post.

There was a religious festival of another community last week where millions and millions of animals are slaughtered in the name of god. I find that offensive and downright wrong. So, the next day, I, S and D are in the break room at work having our usual afternoon tea when another colleague SM walks in. He seems to be in a very cheerful mood. Without any warning he kicks off the following conversation.

SM: So, yesterday was our festival and I went and sacrificed a goat.

All of us are shocked.

Me: Really? You actually killed a goat.
SM (boastfully): Yes, I killed it myself. I will get a lot of good credit on judgement day.
S: Why do you do this?

SM goes ahead and and explains the story.

We are all shocked hearing this incident but SM is oblivious of all that.

Now, here is what I find offensive. How can you go and kill/sacrifice a living being in the name of god. A poor helpless animal is killed so that on some judgement day, god will bless you. You got it all wrong dude. Go do something good for a living being (animal, human) and maybe god will be happy with you. And darn it, if you are so hell bent on pleasing god and must sacrifice something, go ahead and sacrifice yourself...not some poor helpless animal.

There, I have it out of my system now. I know I might have seriously offended people of another community but I sincerely believe that humanity and compassion is above all religions. If my religion were to tell me to go take someone's life, I would point blank refuse to do it. Sometimes, we all fail to use common sense.

Mumbai terror attack: Lucky to be alive

Watch the video below - a Charlie rose interview of a couple of survived the terror attack in Mumbai.

Interview with Charlie Rose

My India of the past...

This was India in the past... can it be the same again in the future? Click on the picture below to enlarge.

Speech at Stanford

Tonight I gave a speech at Stanford University. It was meant to be a persuasive speech and the topic I chose was "There is a reason for our existence...". Enjoy the speech and do leave feedback for me about what you thought about it (content, delivery, style etc). Apologise for the low quality video.

Mumbai terror attack...

The events of the last few days have left me dazed. So much has happened, so much has been said and so much has been implied. There are so many things going through my mind that I couldn't get myself to sit down and pen my thoughts on this topic till now.

India is at the crossroads again. It faces the same dilemma once again - to act or not to act, to show some spine or be spineless once again, to show some true political leadership or keep looking at vote bank politics, to unite the nation or keep dividing her for personal gains, to get serious or to keep making a mockery of ourselves. India has faced so many terror attacks, with increasing frequency, yet with each attack, the politicians make the same old beat-up promises, the cops blame the neighboring country and round up some suspects, coerce a confession out of them, and the public moves on with its daily life - watching cricket and movies, hating each other and blaming everyone else for our own problems.

I am outraged at this latest attack due to a number of reasons.

1) Apparently there was intelligence input about these attacks from multiple sources just a few weeks back and no one acted. The intelligence input was as specific as it can get - attacks being planned from the sea at the taj and some other hotels etc etc.

2) The coast guard intercepted the terrorists, checked their fishermen id cards (fake), failed to realize that the cards were fake and let these terrorists through.

3) Maharashtra in general and mumbai in particular has patrol boats for patrolling the coastline but the boats are not used - why? because the politicians do not consider it important enough and that they would rather spend the money on their luxurious foreign junket trips and so forth.

4) The terrorists land on the shore and start shooting at the VT station. The toothless and woefully inadequatedly trained and equipped railway police is helpless and cannot do anything. the result - a massacre of innocent people. The terrorists have all the time in the world to kill thes people.

5) The terrorists move to the hotels and start killing people there around 9:30 pm. Someone is "required" to authorize the NSG commandoes to come in and deal with the terrorists. The authorization itself takes several hours. The commandoes are in delhi without a plane (the organization does not have a plane). A military plan is requested from somewhere else to transport the commandoes who reach the site a good 7 hours after the shooting has started. Terrorists have a free run all this time.

6) No preparation has been done for the commandoes... no layout plans, no one to brief them... they simply attack the hotel as if Rambo has just arrived on the scene. The result - more loss of life.

7) The supposedly elite commandoes don't even have the basic equipment like night vision glasses, gps devices and so on. Why? of course no one thinks there life is of any value.... certainly not the politicians.

8) The media - newsparers, tv crews and so on ar ehappily providing minute by minute updates on what the commandoes are doing - for whose benefit??? the terrorist masterminds are cooly watching these updates and improvising their strategy. The result - more hostages are killed.

9) The NSG commandoes take their time since they haven't really trained to secure safe release of hostages. Case in point Nariman house. The helicopter makes 3 sorties above the house to airdrop the commandoes and then they move floor by floor looking for the terrorists. How long does it take for the terrorists to torture and kill the hostages? No wonder no hostages were saved in Nariman house.

10) Deputy CM of the state says "such small incidents keep occuring in big cities..." maybe he should have been used as a human shield in the combat operation. The CM is still trying to hold on to his gaddi....

The list goes on and on....It is disgusting the way politicians betray the country again and again, the brave men of the uniform needlesslessly have to sacrifice their lives and the public keeps electing these idiots time and gain. The worst part is that the public itself is divided on caste/community/relious grounds and willing to bite off each others head. What does pakistan do - it sits back and has a good laugh.

So, I am outraged. But I know better...so for my bit, here are my suggestions:

1) More NSG units stationed all over the country(major hubs). The response time from them needs to be 30 minutes to an hour at the most.

2) In case of terrorist attack, the orders need to come right away. The NSG chief should have a hotline to all state capitals and the PM office.

3) Co-ordination between intelligence agencies (RAW, CBI, IB, MI). No finger pointing allowed. Ensure redundancy i.e. failure of one agency must not mean the terrorits get through.

4) Educate the people to be tolerant of each other and other communities religious beliefs.

5) Latest equipment and training for the commandoes and the police force. Minimum fitness levels for all security personnel. Rewards for thwarting terror attacks but severe punishment for implicating the innocents.

6) Pro-active thinking and strategising to prevent terror attacks. You need to be several steps ahead of the terrorists rahter than miles behind them. Be pro-active rather than reactive.

7) Infiltrate their organizations.

8) Get pak to destroy the terror camps or take them out unilaterally or bilaterally with US help.

9) If possible capture the terrorists alive. Death is too easy way out for them. They should live to regret the day they were born. Fast track courts to execute the terrorists within 1 year of capture.

10) Take the security decisions out of the politicians hands... i.e. Top security officials answerable to the courts and not the the CMs, deputy CMs or political parties.

As I said earlier, India is at crossroads. Depending on what we decide and how we proceed from here on, a bright future may lie ahead for the country OR people will take matters into their own hands. Either way the consequencies will not be good for the terrorists.

And now a silent prayer for the souls of all the innocents that died in this and prior terrorist incidents.