Happy Holidays

This will be probably one of the last or maybe the last post for 2010. Its been a very interesting journey, complete with lots of ups and downs. As I go into the final week of the year (and shutdown at work), there will be moments for reflection and introspection. What went well, what didn't, what to repeat and what to avoid. The next year will be even more challenging, so this is the time to recoup some energy and say our thanks to friends and family for all the wonderful times and support.

Here's a toast to everyone who touched my life ...

Wishing you a very Happy holiday season, Merry Christmas and a very happy, healthy and prosperous coming new year.

followers

I noticed last night that there are 3 "official" followers of my blog. One person I know (Shai) but the other two I don't - mabelladitan and peggy. Do you guys want to identify yourself?? :) Hopefully, you are someone I know. :) It's fine either ways.

India trip - Part 5 (final)

Several things to note from the India trip.

- Roads in Delhi are still congested and air is still very polluted.
- Traffic is a mess. The mentality "My small car is faster and more capable of squeezing through tight spaces to get ahead of your small car" mentality still pervades.
- people drive by visual senses i.e. they will start moving and hoping the other person (s) driving orthogonally would somehow be sensible enough to stop.
- people roll down the windows of their car while driving (thus inhaling smoke and dust) rather than close the windows and turn on the AC.

Beggars were all around and my kids were very disturbed. They couldn't understand why people (often handicapped) would be walking around with a sad face, in the middle of heavy traffic. Why would they be hungry and not have any money. Why we couldn't help all of them. We tried to explain but largely unsuccessful.

Saw extremes of poverty and wealth during the trip. Not sure how the poor manage to survive.

Less cows but more dogs on the road this time around.

On the positives:

- people are actually happy to meet you.
- Malls are awesome.
- Yummy food and great choices.
- spend the money and you can buy all convenience things.

Final 2-3 days we had wedding functions which went off nicely. The morning of the last day in India, I fell sick. Upset stomach and fever. I suspect some sort of food poisoning the previous night. Didn't eat much that day and at the wedding. The wedding venue was amazing but since it was night time and in the open (at a farm house), it was very cold despite the outdoor heaters. Secondly, since I was not quite well, I didn't eat much. Left with my brother to rest at night at his place. The next morning took my flight at 8 am back to the US. Felt much better on the flight, drank lots of liquids, pampered by the airline staff.... Landed in the US in the evening and next day early morning I was off to LA again for school. Back to the grind again. :)

The trip was short but sweet, rushed but enjoyable never the less. Family came back a week later.

India trip - Part 4

After visiting Guruji's Ashram the next day, we did some more shopping in chd before rushing back to Delhi. The state of the freeway was .... horrible. This particular road (chd - Delhi) called the GT Road has been under construction since 1990 or earlier and it was as horrible as ever. Someone remarked that they (Indians) plan their road upgradation work keeping in mind current traffic needs and by the time they finish, the capacity is already exceeded and they start all over again. It rang so true - the whole 6-7 hour journey (which was promised to be 3-4 hours).

Anyways, the next day we were supposed to fly out to B'lore to meet my BIL. We reached the airport on time and despite some initial hiccups, we managed to check in. While waiting at a cafe in the airport, suddenly there was some commotion. Apparently, a middle aged lady was sitting and screaming her head off at anyone or everyone who came near her (or it appeared that way). A few minutes of patient callous listening to her screaming revealed that she had dozed off while sitting on a chair in the cafe and some crook took advantage and walked away with her camera. As soon as she realized it, she started yelling and screaming. I felt bad for her but couldn't stop wondering what she was hoping to accomplish with her high pitched ranting. She should have been careful in the first place and eventually the only people who could help her would be the security people... but...

About 50 mins before the departure, we decided to go to the boarding area as we were getting bored. To our surprise, as we walked up, we heard them announcing the final boarding call for our flight. Freaked the hell out of us. Apparently, in India they stop the boarding a good 45 mins before the departure (in Comparision, Southwest waits till about 5 mins before departure). Flight was uneventful and we made it to my BILs place after a long drive (on a MERU cab). Same issue with traffic in B'lore. Roads had been dug up for Metro work (although couldn't see anyone doing anything). So traffic was bad. It was good to meet BIL and his family. The air was much cleaner in B'lore. Over the next 2 1/2 days, went to a couple of malls (bad traffic again but inside mall it was good), watched Golmaal 3 at PVR and went to ISKON temple (nearly missed the movie since my BIL wasn't sure of the directions coming back ...). BIL's apartment complex was also quite impressive. Huge multi-story buildings, 24 hr electricity, lush green landscaping. Finally flew back to Delhi on the 29th.

The wedding ceremonies started from the 30th onwards. More coming up ...

India trip - Part 3

While shopping in Chd, an incident happened which troubles me even today. It was afternoon and I and the kids were sitting outside a shop in Sec 17 while my wife was shopping inside a store. I saw two men walk by - laughing and talking. A small girl (about the same age as my son) was walking in front of them, asking for something - I presumed money. But the men kept walking totally ignoring her. I felt bad for the kid - begging at her age, poverty, no schooling and probably nothing much going on in her life. Poor kid. It appeared that the kid was used to being ignored and had developed some sort of stubborn persistence. I approached the girl and tapped her on her shoulder. I gave her Rs. 100. The two men kept walking totally unaware of what was going on. The girl was a little surprised, took a quick look at the money but I did not see any change in expression on her face. I reasoned that maybe she doesn't recognize what a Rs 100 note look like or whatever - but there was no joy on her face. I felt bad and I came back and sat down next to my kids. The girl came by and asked me if I could buy her some food. I was a little surprised and asked her to go buy it herself now that she had the money. But the girl pleaded with me pointing to a food shop some 100 meters away. She even asked me to take the money back - all she wanted was me to buy her some food.

Now, I was in a dilemma. If I went with the little girl to buy her the food and my wife came out in the meantime, she would be looking for us. So, I told the little girl to wait and I took the kids with me and went into the store. There I got entangled with my wife's shopping. After 10-15 minutes when I rushed out, I saw the girl walking away in a distance. I told my wife what had happened and followed the girl (to help her). By the time I reached the corner, she had disappeared. We all felt very bad and waited some more but she never showed up. Who knows what the girl's problem was - maybe the food shopkeepers shun these poor kids away, maybe they snatch there money away and give pennies for the dollar (so to speak), maybe she has an abusive father/mother/uncle... whatever the situation, it was quite apparent that she wanted food more than the money and I failed to help the poor kid. That incident still bothers me quite a bit. It is very easy to look down on these people and rationalize the reasons why we should not help them (why can't they get a job, they are probably serial beggars etc etc) but the pangs of hunger, poverty and helplessness are known only to those who suffer from them and have nothing much going on in their life.

On this trip, I threw out all my reasoning (well most of it) and helped kids and women who came by asking for money. They are the most vulnerable section of out society (I did help another guy who had no legs). In any case, the reason for this post is not to feel proud of the charity I did but to highlight that there is extreme levels of wealth and poverty in India. Most of us are quick to jump to conclusions about other people and their situation rather than stop judging them and helping them out for a change. It is pretty sad to live a life of poverty and hopelessness and the last thing they need is apathy from people like us.

India trip - Part 2

After reaching my in-laws house, had some traditional north indian breakfast - paranthas and fresh home-made white butter. yumm. Cricket match was coming on tv (this is one thing I like abt India... all cricket matches and other sporting events come live on tv in India where as in the US you have to look around and subscribe specially). Watched a little bit of the match. Headed over to the wedding girl's house. Met several folks there after a long time. Very warmly received by the family. Later in the night, there was a surprise birthday cake for me. :) Very thoughtful of them to celebrate my b'day even though with a wedding coming up in a few days, people are generally too tired to think about such things.

Booked plane tkts for b'lore. Quite expensive i must admit. $850 or so for 4 of us. India is not cheap compared to the US. Even otherwise Rs 500 notes fly off as if you are spending Rs 10 or so... Next day didn't do much except consult a specialist doc at Primus Hospital. Booked a taxi for trip to Chd. This time we insisted on the most spacious and comfortable vehicle... ended up with a Innova. The car was decent (like a minivan here) and the driver was competent.

on the morning of the 3rd day in India, left early morning for chd. 1st stop was Karnal and we reached there around 9 am or so. Some of my cousins had already left for school and some were leaving. Met my chacha's and their families. Went to the temple built on our land in memory of my grandmother. Showed the kids what a handpump is. They were really intrigued how water comes out of it. :) Moved on to the 2nd stop Kurukshetra where we met my Bua and family. Had lunch there. Final stop was Ambala where we met more couisins and Mama/Mami. By that time the kids were tired of meeting so many new dada/dadis. :) Reached chd around 8 and straight away went to Sec 17 and 19 for shopping. Shopping is fun in Chd - neat and clean place, I grew up there - so I know my way around and we had a car at our disposal. Fiannly, reached home around 11:30 pm (after dinner at Gopal's) and hit the sack - tired.

India trip - Part 1

I am back after a small break. I was gone for a couple of weeks on a trip to India. I know - two weeks is not enough at all but due to other compulsions, I had to come back soon. Our last trip was about 5 years back and we were all looking forward to this trip. In this and the next few posts, I will recount my experience which some of you may find amusing, interesting, intriguing or been-there-done-that. :)

Prologue to the trip: I was in LA attending school the day before the trip. As it is a few weeks back, the return flight time had changed to 7:45 pm in the evening which meant reaching home at 9:00 or later in the night. That fateful day, the weather was quite bad and after classes we found out that my flight back to SJ was delayed and would start at 9:30 pm. Oh god!!! When we boarded the flight, the attendant announced that due to the bad weather, the flight may be diverted to Sacramento. Oh god+++!!!. Fortunately it was not and I reached home around 11:15 pm in the night. Our flight to India was next morning and we had to leave the house by 9:30 am. Kudos to my wife for managing all the packing, shopping, handling two over-excited kids and not losing her temper. :)

Flight to India: We chose Singapore Airlines. From past experience, we have always had a good time with them and their service was amazing this time as well. The flight(s) passed off comfortably. I even managed to catch a couple of Hindi movies as well. :) Other than a stiff neck (from sleeping on the plane), everything was fine (wish my wife had bought two of those traveling pillows instead of one) :(.

Landed in Delhi in the morning and disappointed not to see clear blue skies. Having heard all the hype about the metro and how the traffic and pollution had eased, I was hoping to see clear blue skies (or at least dull blue) but instead I saw some haze. It was not clear whether it was smog or "dhoondh". Turned out the taxi guy failed to show up at the last minute and my FIL had to scramble to get a taxi at the last minute. He managed to get an old khatara Ambassador improvised with a gas cylinder int he trunk (read almost no luggage space) from the era of 1947 (or so it seemed). My jaw dropped to the ground... but soon I saw 3-4 people gleefully helping load out luggage on the roof of the car. The driver tied up all the pieces of the suitcases with a single thin rope. yes one thin rope. Soon, turned out all the "helpers" were strangers from the airport in search of $$$. Their MO is to (voluntarily) help load luggage and then in turn ask for $$$s. Well too bad, they had to be content with the good old INR this time (although I was more gnerous than I should have been). All the way home, I would keep looking back half expecting our luggage to be lying on the road but fortunately the ride back home was uneventful and we reached safe and sound with all the luggage.

Stay tuned for the next update... coming soon. :)

after 5 years...

... here we come.

Diwali

Another year passes by, another Diwali has come... Diwali and Holi are my two favorite festivals. One is the festival of lights while the other is the festival of colors (not surprisingly, food is common to both). :) Religious significances aside, each has deeper meanings that most people don't think (or care) about. I will leave that for some other time. For the past several days, I have been involuntarily thinking about Diwali celebrations from my childhood in India.

As kids, we used to play Ram lila in our house (me, my brother and my sister). The neighborhood kids used to come and watch. :) One or two of them would get a role too (that of Ravan) and inevitably there would be howls of protest once the news trickled over to the respective parents.... but nobody minded. I recall, for Dusherra, once I and my sister made our own Ravan (filled with fire crackers). When people were coming back after watching the official celebration in Sec 18 grounds, we lighted our own Ravan and people had a blast. Those were fun days.

Diwali day is a national holiday in India. A few days before Diwali, people would be coming over to our house with sweets, there would be greeting cards in the mail from near and far. Everyone was in a happy mood. In the morning on Diwali day, sometimes the maid wouldn't come and my mom would clean the whole house. There was no complaining about the work no matter how tired she was. . Mom and Dad would go to our local relatives and friends and distribute sweets while we, the kids would be playing at home. Somehow, despite the hectic morning activities, mom would still come up with a yummy lunch as if waving a magic wand. Still always smiling. :)

Evening time, the neighborhood would be buzzing with excitement. Last minute Diwali shopping - crackers, more sweets, new utensils, clothes... Markets would be jam packed. I recall numerous occasions going to Sec 7 and 19 markets with my mom (sometimes dad too). I would ask to buy crackers and never saw a "No" from mom or a limit... I would set my limit myself.
Sundown and some folks in the city would jump the gun and we could hear randowm crackers bursting here or there. Dad would give the go ahead and we, the kids would go out and light the diyas outside (front, side and back yards). All the lights in the house would be on. Dad would set up the mandir for the special puja. Around 8 pm or so, we would get the go ahead to burst the crackers. Mom/Dad would sometimes sit outside and watch us but it was mainly the kids (us) bursting the crackers - Anaars, chakri, Aloo crackers, rockets and so on. Once we were done, we would come inside and have dinner. When we were really young, we would have the pooja first and then sweets and dinner. As we grew older, Dad would do the pooja at midnight (laxmi pooja).

No restrictions on food, sweets, fruits. Eat as much and as many times as you want. There was happiness all around. You didn't have to look at the laughing faces...you would feel it in the environment. Sometimes, on Diwali night our close family friends would come over. It seemed like endless celebrations.

Of course the next morning we would witness all the mess we had made the prior night and even then we would be looking for any unburst crackers. :) What a time gone by...

Here's wishing everyone a very Happy Diwali and a prosperous year ahead. God bless.

Electives

With the core courses almost finished, next qtr onwards, the electives start and with them the chaos too. :) Next qtr I have to fly to school for the last remaining core course but for the elective, there is nothing interesting available on Saturday morning. Most good ones are during the week. There are some courses being offered in the bay area (generous of the school) but that means I end up using both Saturday and Sunday for classes. Traditionally, I have used Sundays to recover from M-F work and Sa School. Now this looks like a dream. :(

Like the vendors in India keep squeezing the last possible drops from the sugarcane, looks like there are a few more drops of sweat and hard work still to be squeezed out of me during the next few qtrs. To all those who feel, doing your MBA is the coolest thing... its not a walk in the park. If you have a family and a full time job, your MBA could be the hardest thing you ever do in your life. Welcome to 4 hour sleep cycles.

/exhausted.

The fear of Retribution

As a kid (maybe 10 years old), I read a story titled "The fear of Retribution" and the story has stayed fresh in my mind till now. It is worth sharing and holds important lessons for today's generation. So here it goes (as much as I recall):

There was once a rich farmer, living in the state of Punjab. He had a wife and a son. They were quite a happy family and relatively well to do. The harvest from his agricultural lands was bountiful. The farmer was very fond of his son and took good care of him. As time went by, the son grew older. The time came when the farmer had to decide for his son's higher education. Without hesitation, the farmer mortgaged some of his land in order to raise money to send his son abroad for higher studies.

To support his son's expenses, the farmer sold more and more of his land but never once complained. In a few years his wife passed away and his son finally came back to stay with his father. The farmer's joy knew no bounds. He started preparing for his son's marriage and soon found a good match and married off his son.

For a while, everything was great. There was happiness all around. Soon, the Farmer's son had a son of his own. Unfortunately, with age, the farmer started keeping poor health. His health failing, body not as strong as it used to be, the eyesight weakening with time, the farmer was more and more dependent on his son. Meanwhile, the son's wife started disliking the farmer. The house, which was once spacious enough for them all, suddenly seemed small. Faced with constant bickering from his wife, the farmer's son moved his father to a small dark room in the corner of the house. The farmer and his grandson were however very good friends and would play together for hours at end.

A few more years passed by and the situation grew worse. The son's wife started complaining more and more and a point came where the son, being fed up with the constant stress and urging of his wife, makes a plan. He tells his father that he will be taking him (the farmer) on a pilgrimage. The farmer is very happy and his eyes well up with tears. He thanks God and looks forward to the next day.

Early next day, the son takes his father in the car to a remote jungle and abandons his father there and return home by sunset. His own son is eagerly waiting for their return and when he finds that his grandfather is not there, he is sad and inquires about the grandfather's whereabouts. His father evades a direct reply but the son is determined. Finally, his father confides that he has taken grandpa to the Jungle and left him there in the care of God. The little child does not say anything for a while and then finally asks his father about the exact place he had abandoned his father.

The father asks his son as to why he wants to know the exact place to which the little child replies: "Your father (grandpa) took good care of you and showered you with all the love and attention, spent a fortune on your education and made you as capable as you are. I notice that you love me too and take care of all my wishes. Now that grandpa is old and weak, you have decided to leave him in the care of god, I need to know where you left him so that when I grow up and you are old and weak, I can leave you in the care of god at the same place".

Hearing this, the child's father realizes his mistake and tears flow down his cheeks. He hugs his child and thanks him for opening his eyes. Despite protests from his wife, he rushes back to the forest where he had abandoned his own father, begs for forgiveness and brings him back to his house. He moves the farmer to the best room in the house, gives him the best clothes and food and from then on takes very good care of his needs and wants.

The moral of the story: Treat your parents with love and respect. They have given up their everything for you and in their old age, you need to take care of them.

I have given myself an A...

I recently attended a communication workshop at School and I promised to (e)mail/share my letter with people who I care about. So, folks here it is.... a letter written by me in the future (say 1 year from now).
=======================

I have given myself an A because

- I respect myself much more than I have in the past.
- I became much more positive in my thoughts and my outlook.
- I supported myself and my team in every possible way, believing in their potential and their ability to achieve.
- I didn't listen to the little voice in my head that tried to plant seeds of self doubt in me.
- I believed that the challenges I faced were much smaller than me and I could successfully over come them. I did not get overwhelmed by them.
- I didn't listen to people who doubted my capabilities.
- I surrounded myself with people who were optimists and motivated to go out and make a difference.

Therefore, I have given myself an A since I know I deserve it.

End of summer

As summer draws to a close for me, it is time to get ready for a tough year ahead. Classes start this Saturday. Time for some conjoint Analysis and corporate finance. Plus I will be in a leadership summit this weekend. A cleantech event here in the bay tonight and a smartgrid event on Sep 29 in the city.... In the middle of all this, try to do my work - which has a tight schedule. sigh!!!

Coming back to summer, it was fun. First off, we had 2 breaks. First we got 3 weeks off and then a mini qtr with 1 course on OTM for 5.5 weeks and then another 5 weeks off. Went to sunny Florida and just last week, me and the missi went to Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona. A good time for everyone involved.

Also, over the summer, got the kitchen and 3 baths remodel done. Quite an involved project but glad it is over. House looks so totally awesome.

My darling turned 4. Celebrated in a theme park. Another Indian family buys a house on our street (the house opposite). Have a house warming party at their place and an Eid party the day before at another neighbors house. Good fun if you catch my drift.

Expenses have been spiraling out of control this past summer. Bought a $1k SLR camera without batting an eyelid, Gas Range, Double door steel refrig, over the counter convection microwave/oven... ah!! the list goes on.

India trip coming up in November but I may be able to go only for 2 weeks if at all. If I do, planning on meeting at least a couple of childhood friends. FB is great. :)

All right, better get back to work... hadn't posted in a while, so thought I wud update you guys on whats been happening in my life. Till next time, see ya later, gator!!!

Vacation

Came back last night from a 9 day vacation to Sunny Florida. The vacation was long overdue. Between my Qtr ending and Kids school starting, there was exactly 1 week gap and we decided to go for it. We landed in Fort Lauderdale, FL on a Monday afternoon. Checked into a nice hotel (Hyatt). Went out to the beach for dinner and "wading" in the ocean water (my son's favorite activity). Took a romantic pedicab ride in the moonlight, with the nice cool breeze blowing on our faces... our turkish (student) driver gave us a guided tour of the ocean front points of interests.

Next day we checked out of the hotel (not before using the awesome pool) and went to Orlando. After Checking in (Hilton), went out to downtown Disney and dinner. Next day, we did Magic Kingdom. It was hot and humid like crazy and we were sweating like pigs.... which made the water rides even more fun. We had a fun day until we were too tired to even stand. Took a ferry and bus ride back to the hotel. Next day, we took it easy and went to the Kennedy Space Center. After a very interesting day filled with amazing information and tours, we took a ride in an actual space shuttle simulator.

Then we moved down to Miami (Hyatt). Spent a couple of days there checking out the beaches (loved the warm waters) and other local attractions (Biscayne, JI etc). Valet parking was a nice luxury. :) For the final leg, we moved to the keys. Checked into the Marriott Resort in Key Largo. The pool was amazing there. Sitting in the pool, we had a wonderful view of the ocean (ocean was 200 ft away or so). Very calm and relaxing. The next day we went out into the Atlantic Ocean in a glass bottom boat and checked out the coral reefs and the fishes. Then we went onwards to Key west and Mile 0. Finally flew back to home yesterday.

Very amazing, fun filled and memorable vacation. Took more than 600 photographs with our brand new Cannon SLR camera. Need to upload them to backup storage.... might post some online.

a race against time...

When I am at work, the time is passing by so quickly. It feels like the day just started and how come it is 5 pm already. This week is special though. I have a few deadlines looming at work, that have to be done this week, plus the finals on Saturday and the vacation starting on Monday.

Had an interesting discussion yesterday with a friend at work (SSK). It was an eye opening experience given what he went through in order to achieve what he has achieved. The dude has some commitment.

Wifey's birthday today. Taking her out for lunch date. :) Got her a IPhone 4 a few days back. I think she likes it. Some subtle clues I have observed to support this - have seen her using the phone late into the night, won't let me come anywhere near me, has stopped using the laptop at home or my Mac etc etc. :)

House remodeling project slowly coming to an end. 99% of the work is done. Couple of things need to be fixed properly and then we will be finally done. It's been a long and expensive journey but the end results look stunning.

More later ... ciao

finals and more

Finals coming up in a couple of weeks. Yikes!!! Its been ages since I have been able to relax - at home, work or school. Each of these three places tries to squeeze the maximum out of me (I really feel sorry for myself ever so often). :(

All this makes the upcoming vacation even more special. We already extended our return date by 3 days. It should be good fun. BTW, the remodeling fun doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. After a $18k credit card bill last month, we had just barely taken a deep breath, that last night our old faithful(refrigerator) gave up on us. It simply stopped cooling. I frantically called the repair guy who pronounced the EOL (end-of-life) for the fridge over the phone itself. So, late in the evening, we rushed to Lowes to look for a new one. Gosh these things are expensive. Hopefully we should have a new one delivered within a day or two. (psst... the kitchen wasn't looking good with the old fridge...so in one way this is good... but where's the moolah going to come from). Dang!!!

ok 2am already now. Need to stop this gossiping and go to sleep. ciao.

Rajneeti

Finally found some free time to watch the Hindi movie Rajneeti. Well, overall the movie was good. At several places it appeared that they were taking some ideas from Godfather. Lack of originality is disappointing but unintelligent copying is stupid (IMO). Kat's role could have been much better - I wonder what made her accept this movie. She comes across as so needy and desperate and then settles for other people making her life decisions for her (who to marry, get into politics etc).

Nana Patekar was good but could have been shown in a even more strategic role. I could go on and on but the bottom line: B+ for the movie from my pov.

More Indian families in the neighborhood. The house opposite ours is sold now and our next door Indian neighbors (Renters) bought it. They got a good deal for the house at the price they paid. Sometimes I feel, why MBA - I should have gotten into Real estate business, made a ton of money and moved on.... :)

We had a case study on Cisco in class this Saturday. Very interesting... :)

more later ...

mentoring sessions

I have been fortunate to have met and mentored by two very respected people over the last two weeks. Last to Last Saturday, I met Sue Baumgarten for about an hour at Anderson and got some very practical advice. This mentoring was arranged by the Easton Technology Leadership Program (ETLP) of which I am a member. Just yesterday, I had the opportunity to have a 1:1 mentoring session with Bill Cockrum, the top Entrepreneurship Prof at Anderson and voted the best in the US by Business week. Both sessions were really great. While some of my colleagues are jealous that I am getting these opportunities, I tell them that the opportunity is really out there, they are the ones who need to step up and grab them.

Summer Qtr is a short one - 5 1/2 weeks. We are already midway through the quarter. Looking forward to the florida vacation at the end of the quarter.

Saw Toy Story 3 in 3D with the family today. Awesome movie even though I have not seen Toy Story 1 and 2. The kids had a great time too. It was one of those spur of the moment decisions.

Grearing up for the work week now... meeting a couple of buddies from 10 years ago for lunch tomorrow. :) I have never considered myself to be much of a social animal but somehow people seek me out.

new kids on the block

Around this time of the year, last year I was all excited. I had been accepted into the MBA program at Anderson and we had a mid-summer welcome party. It had felt as if time was going by too slow and we couldn't wait for the classes to begin. Well, this last Saturday, it was the mid-summer welcome party for the new kids on the block - the class of 2013 (and we were invited as special guests). I could see the same excitement on the new faces, exchange of business cards, even binders for leadership foundations that they will be going through in September. It was quite a nostalgic feeling while it lasted. :) Of course we have had our trials by the fire (since then) and have learned to move on.

Anyways, to welcome the new batch from the bay area, a mixer is being planned this week. Looking forward to building some more friendships soon.

KLOK 1170 AM

For the past one year, we have been listening to a new radio station (KLOK 1170 AM) which features primarily desi content (99.9%). Initially, it was quite a novel concept:

- clear signal in the entire bay area
- bollywood songs all the time
- a change from the dull american content (101.3, 106.5, KGO) - yuck

The radio station owners heavily promoted the station, offering people with no experience to come host shows. For a while Ruchi and I were tempted to do our own show too - we even went and got the contract forms etc but later decided not to do it.

Anyway, as time went by, the desi business community took over and we started getting couple of dentists running their dental shows, a few beauty parlor females, and so on. Pretty soon, some dudes from fiji took over a bulk of the time slots. Then came the astrologers and CFA/CPAs. Finally, came the homeopath and Ayurvedic doctors.

The state of affairs now is such that it is painful to the ears to listen to the station. Some of my pet peeves with the presenters/programs on the station:

- Way too many ads. At times it appears that there is less programming and more ads.
- some ads are demeaning to the females e.g. a female will announce that she bought xyz from SJ, abc from Hayward, cde from sunnyvale etc etc. Are they really questioning the audience's intelligence??
- The fiji guys have absolutely no presentation skills. Most of the times, they speak in broken hindi sentences, crack crude jokes and such.
- painful to hear people's dental problems on the radio.
- People call in to the astrologers asking when they will have a kid or get a job and things like that. People get a life, go get some training or education, go work hard.... there are no free lunches and definitely not by wearing stones on your fingers and following the Lal Kitaab.

Now, comes my biggest issue - the alternative healers. The ayurvedic guy is so crude that people call him and ask a simple question and he will point blank ask them to call him at his clinic. It is obvious, he is trying to drum up business (which is fine) but atleast answer the question. If the caller persists, he will get rude and mean. I question, what right this guy has to take over the airwaves and insult people just because he paid a couple of hundred dollars to the radio station. The homeopath is another sad story. I have personal experience with him. I heard him on the radio and was quite impressed. So I setup an appointment with him and saw him. First of all, his office was in the crappiest part of San Jose.... quite literally stinking. The doc is an old guy (which is ok) but he charges an arm and a leg. Not that his medicine did anything for me, on my last visit I was informed that he is going to India for a month. He reduced the dosage of my medicine and charged me double fees because the (same amount of) medicine would last me a month. Goddammit!!!! What a crook.

So, there you have it. I am getting back to suffering my KGO news talk shows.

back to school

Last 10 days have been fun as well as super hectic. At work, boss breathing down my neck to deliver something earlier than committed. Had a friend and family visiting us from the east coast (we hosted them 10 years ago). School started again this past Saturday. but first things first...

The kitchen remodeling project is finished (well almost). They had estimated a week but it took 2 weeks. It was super painful not having a functional kitchen. On top of that, all the dust and debris... nails all over the house and driveway. Once they were done, we took over and painted the ceilings and walls. The end result looks very nice. So, why do I say it is still not done? Well, a spice rack needs to be replaced and a couple of glass pane cabinet doors need to be replaced. But the kitchen looks awesome. During the project, we changed the specs and added the work for a water line and a gas line (happens at work too). :)

Phase 2 of the project is the remodel of the 3 bathrooms. They are estimating 2-3 days for each of them but I doubt it will take that long. Hopefully, they should be able to wrap it all up in 2-3 days. Time will tell.

Once we painted the kitchen, we worked late into the night (Friday morning 4 am) and moved all the stuff back into the kitchen to get it up and running. What was the rush? We had guests coming to stay over on Friday mid-day.

The guests came, we had a good time with them. Took them to Monterrey on the weekend (got a parking ticket there - 3 mins late coming to the meter), drove along the scenic HWY 1 but didn't have the energy to wait for sunset. Next day (Sunday) went to Big Basin and then onto Santa Cruz. It was really crowded and we had a couple of serious medical emergencies even before we could get to the boardwalk. Scary!!!

Guests left for Tahoe on Monday (holiday due to long weekend). Company work took over and Saturday - school started. 8 straight hours of operations. I was dreading the worst but turned out to be pretty good. Prof. is really good and I build a good rapport with him right from the beginning. I was somehow assigned a seat in the first row itself :( I would have preferred the last row. :) Last row is not that bad...since the seating is stadium style. :)
Yesterday, we went to sfo to spend the day with our guests (they are leaving today). Ate lunch at Little Delhi (stuffed myself with appetizers that I didn't even order, that I couldn't eat the lunch I did order). Rode the cable car to Ghirardelli square, standing on the side with Nalin, hanging on for dear life. :) Spent time on the wharf, window shopping. Took a break at starbucks, was feeling a bit overwhelmed when Ruchi came over and we had a small private moment, which was duly caught, noted and bradcasted by out friends (a third family had joined us for the wharf trip). :) Overall, a nice but very tiring day in SFO. Headed back later at night and the rat race begins again today. :)

Have a case discussion tonight with my study group and I have not even read the case, leave alone prepare the answers. Don't know when I will find the time but has to be done. Need to get going now - boss must be wondering where I am goofing off - little does she now that my life couldn't have been more hectic than what it is right now.

restricting access

I am back from my summer hiatus. :) Some ideas going on in my mind. Towards that goal, I plan to restrict access to my blog going forward. If you follow this blog and would like to continue doing so, please drop me an email at umangsaini@gmail.com in the next week or so. At that time, I will set the appropriate permissions and restrict access to this blog. I will explain the reasons for this action at a later time. Ciao

One year later

This last weekend, we had our final exams and I completed the first year of my MBA program. Phew!!! What a journey it has been .... from the heights of Leadership foundation (literally) to the climactic finals on Saturday, it has been one tough ride. It has been a most enjoyable journey so far - made lots of new friends, learned a lot and yet there is so much to do.

For now, I am going to take the next 4 weeks easy before the mini-summer quarter begins. Soon (in 3 days), I will know what a full weekend looks like again. :)

A rare event (for me)...

It happened about a month too soon. Normally, I buy something expensive, it eventually breaks down just after the manufacturer's warranty has expired. So, Saturday night, when I plugged in my IPhone to charge, it gave me an error message: "The charging of this device is not supported with this accessory". I thought, &(^&(^. To cut a long story short, I checked user forums online and a number of suggestions but nothing helped. Last suggestion I followed was "power off the device and then on" and my phone never recovered form this bright idea.

I took it to the Apple store. The associate connected his charger and showed me that it was "charging". I bought a new charger, came home hopeful that the problem was likely resolved. Plugged it in and the same issue i.e. it wouldn't power on (since I had powered it off).

Took it back to the Apple store again today. The associate tried it out and admitted that the phone was having issues. I asked him if it was still under warranty, he checked using my email address and to my utter disbelief, I still had exactly 1 month left on the manufacturer's warranty. The guy asked me to sign one peice of paper, and gave me a brand new phone. :)

Came back and restored the phone. It took 2 freaking hours and after it was done, I found that my apps are not restored. :( But hey, my phone book and photos/videos are restored. Overall experience: Not bad.

groupon

groupon is the latest new kid on the block. Apparently, the service has caught the fancy of quiet a few people so much so that even I (I consider myself to be a late adopter) signed up. A close well wisher (?) who should remain anonymous for now, suggested that I buy this deal from them - A hair cut and straight blade shave for $20 from some fancy barber shop. :) This well wisher said, I should go for a funky hair style and I took her up on the offer. Now I am dreading what hairstyle I should go for. Well, I am safe for atleast a few weeks but the moment of truth has to arrive sooner or later. :)

end of summer

We have always been late planners when it comes to vacations - procrastinating till the very end. But no more - this time, we already booked a vacation to Florida at the end of August. Initially, we thought we would go in June, then dropped the plan to take care of some things, but then that plan got canceled but it was too late to book the vacation. So not taking any chances, we booked for end of August, when I am done from my MBA classes and just before Nalin's challenger school year starts.

Kinda weird but already looking forward to the vacation. :)

BTW, giving credit where it is due, this vacation (atleast the flights) will be courtesy Southwest Airlines Frequent Flyer program. :)

worst fears come true.

Living here in the US, I always knew that one has to turn a blind eye towards how the restaurant industry prepares food here. On one hand, we value purity of everything esp. food. Imagine all these fast food joints throwing away millions of tonnes of perfectly good food away in trash just because it was lying on the shelf for "X" mins. On the other hand, you hear about things like "beef flavoring" on McDonald's fries, gelatin being used everywhere, crushed animal bones used in allopathic medicines and even toothpaste. Yuck.

So, after coming back from LA and resting for a while, we headed out for dinner to a closeby restaurant (PP for short). We sat down, ordered our dishes, enjoyed the complementary bread etc etc. In no time, our dishes come and we start eating. I finished my dish and helped my son eat his dish. My wife ate hers and started helping my daughter finish her. Midway, my wife stopped and called the server and pointed to a piece of chicken in my daughter's vegetarian dish. Here's how the conversation went:

W: There is some chicken in our dish.
S: Let me see. Oh yes, that's chicken.
My wife is looking at her, puzzled.
S: Oh yes, it has happened before. Chicken and Pasta is boiled together.
At this point we are totally shocked. We ask her 2-3 times just to make sure we heard it right and she says yes they are boiled together.

W (a bit upset now): Now, why would you do such a thing?
S (taken aback and tries to recover): Oh, I mean, they are boiled next to each other.
W: Still how does chciken get into the pasta bowl?
S: Umm. I can get a fresh plate.
We: No thanks.

Now, we are totally disgusted and in no mood to finish out food. But we are polite and do not create a scene.

S; I can have the charge for that dish removed from the bill
W: I don't care about the money part, can you guys be careful??

Server leaves (without apologizing). A different lady comes with the bill, says that they haven't charged us for the dish, puts the bill on the table and leaves.

At that point it dawned on us that these folks just don't get it at all. Mistakes can happen and a simple apology would have fixed it.

We paid the bill and left. PP restaurant has lost our business. Aparently this problem is quite common. On our desi mailing list, quite a few people complained about finding beef and chicken in their order of vegetarian dishes at the local MG restaurant. So, Italian restaurants are definitely out for me for the next several months at least.

THIS SUCKS!!!!!

Memorial day!!!

This memorial day weekend, we decided to reclaim our long weekend. :) We decided to drive down to LA on Friday. Accordingly, both of us left work early, packed quickly and left (with the kids) for LA by around 5 pm. Traffic (as expected) was a bit heavy initially, but eased up after a while. Long story short, we reached LA and checked into the hotel by 10:45 pm that night. We had packed plenty of food for the journey, so did not need to stop anywhere for food.

Next day, we all got ready and I dropped the missus and the kids to their favorite theme park and headed over to my classes. This weeks marketing case was a weird one - contact lenses for chicken. :( The information in the case, while not unexpected, highlighted once again the kind of world we live in - one where cruelty to Animals is somehow rationalized and acceptable to most of us. But, then I am digressing...

In the evening, picked up the folks and headed over to an Indian restaurant - "Lal Mirch". The place looked average at best from the outside and as we entered, I could detect some musty smell. We were all hungry and no other good choice nearby, I braced myself for the worst and we ordered the food. In a few mins, I got used/sensitized to the smell and it no longer bothered me. The food came quickly and to our surprise it was quite delicious. A bottle of kingfisher helped (perhaps) but then the kids did not complain either.... so it was good food. :)

The next day, we headed over to the Santa Monica beach. For $10, we got parking for the whole day, right at the beach. It was a beautiful day. We spent the whole day there (liberal doses of sunscreen). It was such a joy to hear the squeals of laughter from the kids. They would keep dragging us into the chilly waters... :) and we didn't mind. Over the years, I have watched kids in our generation become some nerdy that at the back of mind it bothered me. Kids with thick glasses, no social skills, watching dvds all the time, playing video games all the time.... ugh. Whatever happened to going out and running around and having some old fashioned fun. But, at the beach, the sight was completely different. Hundreds of families, with/without kids, just having an amazing time, kids running around having a blast, no one nagging them around - I felt strangely relieved. The future of outdoor fun and play was after all secure. :)

Later in the evening, we all headed back to the hotel and that's when the reality hit us. The kids were so tired (and cranky), then getting them to take a shower was a pain. Anyway, we got everyone cleaned up and around 9:30 we headed out for dinner, barely making it to "The Olive Garden" before they closed. Son, fell asleep right in the middle of dinner. :) But overall, quite enjoyable and relaxing day.

The next day, we headed home. Reached home at a decent time, unloaded the luggage etc and relaxed for a while before heading out for dinner. It was supposed to be relaxing but turned out to be my worst nightmare... topic for a later post. :(

Finally, it arrived....

For more than a couple of years, we have been planning to get rid of our old crappy backyard play set (came with the house) and have something nice for the kids to play. Finally, we decided to make it a birthday gift for Nalin. The new play set came and has finally been installed (it took the contractors slightly more than 2 days). It looks pretty cool and the kids had a blast yesterday. Well worth the money and the wait....

First, here's the old one.



And, now presenting the new fun play structure..... :)

Home delivery

This morning I was WFH waiting for the delivery guys to deliver the washer/dryer. They gave a window of 8:30 am to 10:30 am. I had totally forgotten that I had to deliver a presentation at work at 10:30. Hmm.. what to do. I hoped against hope that the delivery guys would come soon but to no avail. Meanwhile I logged into webex to monitor how the meeting was going and when my turn was going to come.

At 10am, I see the delivery truck stop outside my house. I quickly rush out, greet the people and show them where the stuff needed to be installed. Then I rushed back to my meeting only to find that the presenter before me had not shown up and I was to present next. hmmm. aal izz well. I started presenting (it was supposed to be a short one). Meanwhile, the delivery guys got to work, removing the old stuff etc. As I was wrapping up my preso, one of the participants asked me a question and I was mid-sentence replying to him when the delivery guys yells out "Sir!! Sir!! Hellooo!!!"

I stopped mid-sentence, excused myself, punched the button on the phone (hopefully it was the mute button), yelled from upstairs to the guys below to give me 2 mins and went back to the call to complete my sentence. :) oh boy.... I would have laughed at the situation had I not been so tense. Rest of the presentation went ok, without any further incidents. In hindsight, the timing couldn't have been worse :) but it all turned out ok in the end.

trip to the airport

This week Saturday evening turned out to be quite eventful. :) Our flight time from LA moved out to 7:40 pm from the usual 6:40 pm. So, for a change, my carpool group decided to go out and party with some EMBAs, Full timers and Alumni. We all had a good time... and decided to leave for the airport with just about an hour to spare. We thought we had enough time. First, finding the freeway was a pain but once we got on, we saw heavy traffic. Out came a bunch on IPhones and to our horror, we found out that there was an accident 5 minutes before the airport. As a result, the traffic was clogged up and dealys up to 40 mins were expected. Ours is the last flight out to SJ for the evening and we had a sinking feeling that we were going to miss it.

While our expert driver was driving/weaving in and out of various lanes, a couple of us were coming up with alternate plans/routes. The traffic was painfully slow... and to cut the long story short... there was no way we would be able to make it. Then one of us checked the flight status and found... gasp!!! the flight was late by 20 mins. SW usually has all its flights on time... oh god... were we glad for the flight being late (for a change) :) We dashed into the airport 7:50.... and made the flight.

We could only imagine what our families would have said when we told them that "Our flight leaves one hour late now but we still could not make it to the airport on time" .... shivers :)

Giving up control...

There is this book club initiative I started at work. The sole purpose of this initiative was to help myself and my colleagues to develop critical soft skills and enable them to be successful in their personal and professional life. Well, the initiative is a work in progress and has been partially successful at best. There is a group of 7-8 people who attend regularly while other people came, sat through the meetings (as usual busy on their laptops) and never to return again. It doesn't bother me since,as they say, you can get the horse to the water, but not make it drink it.... anyway their loss. But that's not the purpose of this post.

Senior managers have appreciated this initiative. A few weeks back, a thought stuck me. I decided to divest myself from running this initiative by transferring the leadership role to the group members. So, now each month one of the members takes over the group, comes up with the agenda, runs the meetings, decides the activities etc - total control. Now why would I do such a thing. Most people want to hold on to power, status etc and here I am doing the exact opposite. Well, I believe, if you really want to be successful, empower your team - give them full freedom and power to run their affairs. While I maintain a watchful eye, so that the group does not digress from the main objectives, I have empowered the intended beneficiaries to take control and do what is relevant for them. Now, I don't need to do what I think is right for them - they themselves decided what is right for them and what is it that they want to improve in themselves. Today we had a meeting and needless to say it went quite well. People are gradually opening up and talking about their shortcomings and seeking suggestions on how to overcome them. It is a very collaborative environment and hopefully the end result of my decision turns into a positive outcome for everyone.

Birthday

My dear Nalin turned 7 yesterday. We had decided to invite just his friends over for a party at our house - all 22 of them from our street (sorry, others friends stood no chance of being invited). Rented a jumper, had some good music, ordered pizza, more food and it was time to rock. The kids had a blast.... and at the spur of the moment we decided - what the heck. Let's call the parents over as well (being a weekday, we wanted to keep it a manageable affair).... so in come the adults. I think we had 50+ guests all from our street. :) The party went on till 10:30 pm in the night. The kids were so tired that they did not even look at the gifts.... His biggest surprise gift has arrived in the store (special order) and hopefully will be installed this weekend.

The other part of his birthday treat (yes, another trip to LA) has been postponed till the memorial day weekend (end of the month). Time just flies. It seems it was just a few months ago that we got him as a baby from the hospital and then his first steps, the first time he called "mama" and "papa" and so many memories....

Wish you a very happy birthday Nalin and long, happy and healthy life ahead.

MBA effect...

I guess it had to happen one of these days. This quarter I am going through Marketing course and discussions about Branding, Segmenting and Positioning products. Then, just this past Saturday I attended a Seminar on Branding by Marketing guru Sasha Strauss. All this talk, has really brought into focus how companies market their products and charge a premium from their customers by positioning them a certain way. Now, the side effect of this is that when my wife says, I want to buy this product (xyz) since it is premium quality or more expensive, I am jumping up and down telling her that it is all marketing... :) I see through the company's game plan and while she also realizes that (having done her MBA too), she still wants to go for it. :) Case in point - we were evaluating washer/dryers the last few weeks and each time she would get fixated on the most expensive ones (Electrolux). I saw other brands like Kenmore and Kenmore Elite side by side with apparently no significant difference in feature set but a big difference in price. It is quite interesting how we associate quality with a higher price. In the end both products will do the same thing more or less but a lot of people will shell out lot more money for a "elite" or "premium" sounding/looking product. So, we did end up spending $2.5k for the pair whereas it would have cost us maybe $100 or less to fix our old one. :)

A big girl...

Flash back: Chandigarh, Bhargav Nursing Home. March 1992. A little girl is born and I get to hold her even as she is just a few minutes old. :) Fast forward to today... She is all grown up and will be graduating in a couple of weeks. All ready to go to college and face the world, decide about her career and her future. It seems like only a few years ago this little angel was born and look at her now. :) How we wish time would hold still, we can capture their little smiles, first steps, little mischiefs and tantrums, hugs and kisses and the special moments in our hearts. The little angels grow up and think we have forgotten but trust us - we have not. You are still very dear to us and we miss all the time we missed seeing you growing up but more than that we cherish the moments we did spend together, seeing you grow up.

Here's three cheers to our dear Shaweta!! Wishing you all the best and success in life.

P.S. Thanks for the correction on the two errors in the post. It is 1992 and the spelling of the name.... All this while I never knew it was Sha... !! Cheers!

sleep

Once upon a time, many many moons ago, I used to love my sleep - atleast 8-9 hours every night, no matter what. The came along my kids. Bye bye sleep... I started sleeping in 4-5 hour chunks. Then along came my work, and my total sleep time went down permanently to 7 hours a night. Then finally came my school and together with kids and work, my sleep time has come down to an average of 5 to 6 hours a night.

Last to last night I got 4 hours and last night I got 3 hours for a grand total of 7 hours over 2 full days.... Thats it.. I am gonna sleep late into the morning starting right now... or so I like to kid myself. :(

The debate within...

Work as usual is busy... A conference is coming up on Friday, May 7th in LA. 7th May ironically is also the deadline for my work project. I have been debating now for a few weeks whether to take the day off from work and go attend the conference or stay at work and try to meet my deadline. :) While I am debating, the ticket keeps getting more and more expensive. In essence, the debate boils down to: Think about my future OR think about my present... the dilemma continues... :)

Saturday events

One of the collateral from my MBA program is that I am missing out on a lot of fun social events. :( Almost all desi concerts are organized on Saturday evenings (6pm onwards). Case in point - Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Asha Bhosle, Sukhwinder and so on in the past one month alone. Then, in our friend circle (with spring/summer approaching), most activities - park visits, hikes, bike trips etc, are being planned on Saturday mornings. I am gone all day Saturday and therefore not only I am affected, my family has to adjust to this changed reality as well. Well, I am 1/3 done... so hopefully, I will get my life back soon. :)

For some reason, I feel that there is so much to do and so little time. Its always a race against time. I plan on changing that sooner rather than later.

A little fun...

Came home from work last evening. It has been raining on and off yesterday. Evening it was cloudy and a little chilly. Worked with Nalin on his test prep (evaporation, condensation...). Poor guy wanted to go out and play. :) By the time we went out, the neighborhood kids had gone to their homes.

Suddenly an idea struck me... I pulled out the kites that had been sitting in the garage ever since we bought them several years ago. The weather was perfect - a little bit of wind. :) Soon, the kites were up in the air and Shruti and Nalin were having fun flying their own kites. Our new neighbors also came outside. Fortunately we had a third kite (my kids were in no mood to share) and the neighbors had some fun too. This was one spontaneous fun idea. :)

catching up

So many thing happening around me and involving me, that sometimes I feel dizzy. :) First of all there is work pressure all the time. Second is the school pressure. The family tries to be least demanding on my time but even that adds up. All this is enough to drive any sane person crazy, but aside from this I am involved in several (optional) extracurricular activities. For instance

- I joined TIE and participate actively in their events. They are really awesome and a lot of useful networking as well as learning happens at these events. I am building some good contacts here.

- Another DoJ being organized by me. Today in the afternoon, we will be visiting a local solar power company campus and interacting with their top execs. Its quite interesting how I pulled it off (not knowing anyone at that company).

- A couple of conferences coming up and I have signed up for one of them but not sure if I have the bandwidth to attend the second one.

There is other stuff happening in the background which I will reveal at a more opportune time. But definitely, since joining the program, I am sensing some positive undercurrents which can point only to a more positive future. :)

SoCal trip

Decided to take a couple of days off from work and take a min-vacation to so-cal. We left wednesday night and stayed overnight close to Magic Mountain. It was a good decision since the next day we got ready and headed straight to Disneyland. Oh boy... does it get crowded or what. We are talking Thursday and the first ride we took (Indi Jones), we had to wait an hour. Fortunately, weather this time of the year is awesome. It wasn't cold and it wasn't hot. Everyone had a great time. Later that night, after the fireworks, we asked the kids - "who wants to go on more rides" and both said "Me!!!" :) But they were really tired out. So, we decided to head back to the Hotel.

Next day, I took everyone to my campus and we spent some good time out there. Fortunately there were very few classes going on and hence we didn't disturb people too much. Later we went to the Santa Monica Beach. A very cool sunset and dinner at "Nawab of India" before we called it a night.

Saturday, I dropped of wife and kids at Universal and headed over to my school for first day of classes. I just managed to reach on time. :) Had a lunch with my new study group - awesome peeps.

Sunday we headed home. It was a nice trip and we took plenty of snaps for memory sake. Some day, they will be downloaded on to the computer.

For now, its back to the daily grind.

relaxing weekend

Beautiful weather this weekend. Saturday, we went to the famed "Cal academy of sciences". It is a bit expensive but the planetarium show and the tropical rain forest among other things were amazing experience. We all had a blast.

Sunday morning, finally took care of a few things in the backyard. Since the plants are beginning to get fruits (and the fact that rains are finally over), fixed the drip irrigation system so that the plants get water daily. Also, finally turned on the sprinkler system for the grass. Conserved water for the last few months. :)

Took the kids swimming to the gym in the late morning. Afternoon nap - i had almost forgotten what it is... :) Overall, it was a pretty good weekend.

Still haven't seen Avatar.... looks like the hype has died down now. Work is busy but planning to take a couple of days off and visit disney.. :) and show off my school to family. :)

The depth of Indian politics continues to amaze me (sarcasm intended in case you haven't noticed). I keep promising not to think about it but the bond is as strong as ever. Its true when people say that the country is thriving despite the political class. On the other hand, since I don't really live there, I don't want to comment much about the state of affairs. It should be "none of my business". :(

Week off

Finals were last week and were they brutal or what? Majority of the class was taken by surprise. Oh well... we are enjoying a week off before the next quarter begins. Next quarter promises to be quite interesting. :)

Recently, I got a 360 degree feedback survey (anonymous) done through the ETLP program at school and just last week I got the final analysis. I used a sample size of 24 people(managers, ex-managers, work peers, school friends, family and friends). It's a pretty decent sample size and the resulting 65 page report was quite an eye opener. I was reviewing the report last night and lots of actionable items there. :) I am happy I got this survey done. It underscores my firm belief that it is not only what you think about yourself, you also need to consider what other people think about you and this feedback is best solicited anonymously.

Today, I am one of the hosts for the Anderson alumni mixer. Expecting about 60 people at the event, which promises to be a great fun event. Even last night I was at another event (Panel) about social networking media and where things are headed from here... which reminds me that I need to check out a few things from last night.

Ciao till next time.

Hiking trip

Our group from work went on a Hiking trip to Mission peak last week. It was slightly overcast and windy but it was good fun. We enjoyed the hike and later had lunch at PF Chang. Here are some pics...

Pics from Hiking Trip

Yet another great Holi...

Happy Holi to everyone reading this blog. :) Due to inclement weather all of last week, this year's Holi plans were suspect at best. We had a volunteer to host the block party but it was predicted to rain on that day. So, the backup plan was a dry (gulal) Holi somehow. But when the day came (yesterday), it was bright and sunny.

I was still recovering from my hectic week and equally hectic Saturday at LA, when Ruchi woke me up and informed me that the plans had changed and we would be playing a wet Holi after all. Slowly but surely the news registered in my still groggy state of mind. Then in trooped Nalin and Shruti, announcing that they were ready to play and wanted their clothes changed right that instant.

First things first - I calmed the kids down. We took a stock of our super soaker, super blaster water guns from last year. Only mine had survived. I took pity on Ruchi and kids by quickly heading to Target (still in my nightsuit) to buy them water guns. Nalin tagged along since he wanted a "blue" one. Even the cashier at Target could sense our impatience to get out of the store. :) As we headed back, I recalled having informed our new neighbors Dhanraj/YTamini about the plans for wet holi (I could sense some hesitation in his tone --- heck he said "OMG"). I relished the fact that I had new prey to completely drench in color water. :)

Once home, we quickly changed, got some water balloons ready, picked up the food and promptly marched over to the party venue (neighbors backyard). The hosts had neatly laid out all the food, snacks, deserts etc on the tables but as soon as we reached there, gulal fight broke out. :) The hosts were seen scrambling to cover the food. What followed was 2-3 hours of good clean fun - water fights, gulal , food, music, thandai. People kept pouring in ... :) we all had a blast.

In the end, extremely tired, we walked home (our new Chinese neighbors looked at us in amazement), took a bath and went off to sleep. The tradition was continued this year as well - having a great time. Our Holi and Diwali block parties are always a huge success, each one better than the previous.

Note: After vigorous scrubbing and 2-3 baths later, today I am at work and people look at my face and a smile comes on their face. While I can hardly see the color on my face, they see it right away. :) I guess the residual effects of our party are still spreading smiles all around (indirectly). :)

Note2; This morning DM remarked that they had a lot of fun...he said they didn't play this much even when growing up in India. :)

Note3: Already there are three families volunteering to host the next Holi party at their house. :)

time to party

This week has been especially brutal... midterm, multiple assignments, work, home... Last week's midterm horrors pale in comparison. :) But there is always light at the end of the tunnel. I promised Nalin I will play with him Saturday night (tomorrow), hit the gym on Sunday morning and a nice v-day dinner-dance at ...

V-day Dinner Party

I missed out on a wonderful networking opportunity last night. There was a mixer planned by another dude in my company for all past and current MBA students and that too 5 mins from work... but as I said, the workload this week. :(

Anyway, a couple of cool events coming up over the next week or two.

On the other front, I am going through a 360 degree feedback process right now. Let's see if my perception about myself matches with that of others around me. I chose about 24 people for the feedback which should be a good sample size.

Paani Puri Party

I knew the title would catch your attention. :) well, last night a good friend and neighbor invited us over for a paani puri party. We had intended to meet last week but somehow due to one reason or another it got postponed. So, finally we went to their house yesterday evening after work. After the initial "Hi, Hellos" etc, as we walked into the Family cum dining room, I noticed a large jug full of "Paani Puri" water. Wow!! The kids got involved in watching the "Three idiots" dvd and we all attacked the Paani Puris (or Gol Guppas) as they are called in North India. There were loads of them and wow... we ate to our hearts content. :) Our hostess had graciously kept the chilli on the lower side keeping in mind that the kids would not be able to handle it but since the kids were not eating it anyway, we ended up putting all sorts of chillies and chutneys to make it spicy. That was one fun dinner. :)

rains, quakes and more

Recently Haiti was struck by two deadly earthquakes. Thousands of people died, millions of lives changed for ever. Goes to prove that we all might feel very powerful yet time and again nature reminds us that it still is the final authority. Truly heart breaking scenes and even more so since a lot of people all over the world have moved on with business as usual. We had a couple of minor ones (relatively speaking) - 4.0 or so recently here in the north bay which had most people sitting on the edge of their seats... A big earthquake has been predicted for the state for a very long time. Well, I am not holding my breath for it... hope it never comes.

Last few days it has been raining like crazy here. I think this is really good esp. since the last two years have been drought years and we cannot afford another drought. Hopefully, the latest in the series of storms will help raise the water levels in the reservoirs. Talking about rains, reminds me of my time in India when all the streets would be flooded during the rainy season. :) I don't think much has changed there since those days. It amazes me no ends that a country like India can have floods year after year and no one does anything and then next year there is a drought and no water. Who knows, maybe after my MBA I might even launch a company in India geared towards rain water harvesting. Silly, isn't it that such a basic concept has alluded the "sharp" minds of the Indian govt. for so long (and will continue to do so). Oh, I forgot... they have better things to worry about than this. They worry no ends that a person applying for a permit to ply a taxi in Maharashtra may not know Marathi or might have lived less than 15 years over there.

I better stop before I get too angry with these goddamn idiots who run the country.

club one!!!

This has always been a problem with us (Ruchi and me). We like the idea of being fit, so we end up signing up for expensive club memberships...we might even go there initially once a week or so,..but after a little while procrastination takes over and we end up paying gym membership month over month, without utilizing it. Happened to us with 24 hour, Y, Cisco gym and other places.

Today we decided to tour Club one in search of swim classes for the kids. It was a very pleasant experience. Neat and clean, and quite exclusive in the sense it wasn't crowded. Other places, you would see 100 people crammed into a space meant for 75... this was more like 25 people in a space meant for 100 people. Well the swim classes desk was closed at that time, but we ended up liking the gym so much that we signed up for the membership (Its the thought that counts) :)

This one is closer to our house and open/family swim hours are plenty (unlike the Y! where weekends would be offlimits and open swim would be mostly weekday evenings 5-9 or so).

Long story short, not having learnt from past experiences, we signed up another expensive membership ($300+ in the hole today). Hopefully we will use it this time around.

Ghulam Ali

If you are fortunate enough to have developed a taste for Ghazals, there are amazing singers out there. The urdu language in general and ghazals in particular leave me mesmerized. The poetry just flows as a stream winds around and finds its way, making music in the process. Some of the singers that I listen to are Jagjit Singh, Chitra Singh, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mehandi Hassan etc but the best among them is Ghulam Ali. He is a true legend of our times.

Last night I was listening to his Hungama and you can't help wonder how they come up with each and every word and the style in which he sings... OMG. I could give anything to hear him sing live.

Hungama

Not everyone enjoys ghazals... some don't understand them some don't have the taste, some don't have the patience.... but for people like me, give me an evening of peace and quite, dim lights, company of ghazal loving friends, a glass of wine and that would be heaven on earth.

King and his four wives

A friend sent this to me and normally I don't forward chain mails but the story below is quite true. hence, sharing with you. Enjoy!!!
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Once upon a time there was a King who had four wives. He loved the 4th wife the most and adorned her with rich robes and treated her to the finest of delicacies. He gave her nothing but the best.

He also loved the 3rd wife very much and was always showing her off to neighboring kingdoms. However, he feared that one day she would leave him for another.

He also loved his 2nd wife. She was his confident and was always kind,considerate and patient with him. Whenever the King faced a problem, he could confide in her, and she would help him get through the difficult times.

The King's 1st wife was a very loyal partner and had made great contributions in maintaining his wealth and kingdom. However, he did not love the first wife. Although she loved him deeply, he hardly took notice of her!

One day, the King fell ill and he knew his time was short. He thought of his luxurious life and wondered, "I now have four wives with me, but when I die, I'll be all alone."

Thus, he asked the 4th wife, "I have loved you the most, endowed you with the finest clothing and showered great care over you. Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me company?" "No way!" replied the 4th wife and she walked away without another word. Her answer cut like a sharpknife right into his heart.

The sad King then asked the 3rd wife, "I have loved you all my life. Nowthat I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me company?" "No!", replied the 3rd wife. "Life is too good! When you die, I'm going to remarry!" Hisheart sank and turned cold.

He then asked the 2nd wife, "I have always turned to you for help and you've always been there for me. When I die, will you follow me and keep me company?" "I'm sorry, I can't help you out this time!", replied the 2nd wife. "At the very most, I can only walk with you to your grave." Her answer struck him like a bolt of lightning, and the King was devastated.

Then a voice called out: "I'll go with you. I'll follow you no matter where you go." The King looked up, and there was his first wife. She was very skinny as she suffered from malnutrition and neglect. Greatly grieved, the King said, "I should have taken much better care of you when I had the chance!"

In truth, we all have the 4 wives in our lives:

Our 4th wife is our body. No matter how much time and effort we lavish inmaking it look good, it will leave us when we die.

Our 3rd wife is our possessions, status and wealth. When we die, it will all go to others.

Our 2nd wife is our family and friends. No matter how much they have been there for us, the furthest they can stay by us is up to the grave.

And our 1st wife is our Soul, often neglected in pursuit of wealth, power and pleasures of the world. However, our Soul is the only thing that will follow us wherever we go.Cultivate, strengthen and cherish it now, for it is the only part of us that will follow us to the throne of God and continue with us throughout Eternity.

Remember, when the world pushes you to your knees, you're in the perfect position to pray.

New Year

It was a nice winter break.... 11 days to be precise. This included a 4 day mandatory shutdown at work. Didn't do much and the days just rushed by. The only out of town trip was a 1 day visit to Sacramento and another couple of days in Reno/Tahoe. Tried Soda Springs for the first time and we all had a blast. While we were all busy with tubing and skiing, it started to snow and it was simply wonderful. The soft snow flakes falling all around us. Given that it continued to snow through the night, it could technically be called a snow storm. But it was fun. Then we had to have the mandatory snow fight. :) Later that night, while dad watched the kids, we hit the gambling scene. First, we went to the "Reserve" at Grand Sierra Resort and sampled 5-6 different wines. Amazing concept at the Reserve. Then we hit the slot machines. Ruchi went on to Roulette and had good success (she tripled here seed money). :) Next day, we had some more snow play (sledding etc) before heading home.

Watched 3 idiots at Naaz. Pretty cool movie although the college ragging scenes were a bit over done. And what was the obsession with peeing (multiple scenes). Overall, the movie was quite entertaining and this was the first Hindi movie for the kids. They were awake till 1:30 am in the morning till the end of the show (earlier show was sold out). New Year's eve - we decided not to go out and party this time. Rather we stayed home and watched Rocket Singh over Pizza. :) It was a quite celebration.

Watched a few English movies on Dish HD - Charlie Wilson's war, Clear and Present Danger etc etc.

Now we are finally back to work, the daily madness has returned. School started this week (kids) and starts end of this week (me), work, home... all the chores. Whew!!!

Welcome 2010!!! Lets see whats in store this year.