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Baltika no. 7 beer review

2009-05-16T22:47:00.000-07:00

OK this is obviously going to be short. How much can one wax eloquent about a beer? Well Icould but beers don't lend themselves to fawning and dribbling as do wines and whiskies.

Simple, tasty, no nonsense lager...almost like a pilsner. It's the kind of simply, non-obtrusive pilsner that you enjoy it whether it's your first or the tenth. Not too hoppy, not too fizzy, no discernible fruit or flower tastes,

Rating - 7.5/10

Whiskey tasting - Kilbeggan

2009-03-04T22:49:00.000-08:00

OK so the Kilbeggan I tasted definitely wasn't a 12 or 15 or 18 yr old Irish whiskey.
Somewhat coarse and grainy it had an afterburn that wasn't fun. Earthy and at times even...gritty!
"Bleh" was the first thought that came to my mind.

Rating - 5/10

Whiskey tasting - Tullamore Dew

2009-03-04T21:35:00.001-08:00

A sip on the icy rocks has a spicy taste but not as much burn. With some soda it acquires a much more mellower taste. It doesn't have quite the grainy taste of Scotch. Distinctively milder, smoother and fun to drink. Could detect many other aromas.

Rating - 8/10

First post of the year

2009-01-21T22:37:00.001-08:00

Depressing...the content of my first post of the year, I mean.
Was watching the news - Intel laying off 5000-6000 people. Williams Sonoma laying off 18% of the workforce. 2400 Pfizer and 1000 Roche sales folks out. 800 scientists at PFE and 1500 other employees from Roche out.
Unemployment at ~9%! This is definitely one of the worst times ever on the financial side.

Hopefully the next post will be positive.

First entry of the year

2008-07-09T21:58:00.000-07:00

Weird that my first entry for the year should come more than half way through the year.
A few stresses, that I would write about some day...
Well, they are now behind me and I look to the future with renewed energy and enthusiasm. A new strength. A new vigor.

This is a time for transition...to face new challenges and old fears.
Look forward to more frequent updates...about me and about interesting topics.

The 4-day weekend…woohoo!!

2007-09-09T19:03:00.000-07:00

So this weekend, like last weekend was also spent in the Bay area.

Thursday – The evening came early and I was home by 8:30 or so. It was an evening of much revelry in anticipation of the joy that was to be – a long overdue break. All 4 days of it. It began with some beer. Watched TV and relaxed for the first time in a fairly long time. It seems so far back already, I can’t even remember all the details. Turned in around 1 am.

Friday - Woke up late to a cup of hot tea. Bliss, to do this on a Friday.

Ran some errands, and then I was ready by the time NG drove in to pick me up at 2ish. We drove over to Woodland Hills to pick up the missus. Some time and some process there we were on the road, as was the rest of LA. I don’t really know why all of LA decides to be on the I-5 when I decide to go to Norcal.

So the 405 was clogged and we lost a fair bit of time getting on the 5. We also stopped some point after hitting the 5 to catch some food. No lunch, no breakfast had left me a hungry wreck.

Wolfed down an In N Out double double, animal style. Yummm!

I think I lost a day of my life with those calories, but I guess it was worth it. It better be.

Finallly, we got to the Bay area, uneventfully around 9:30. Maushi started some interesting topics but I extinguished them. Nipped them in the bud. NG and J had to make it to Ashwin’s place because they had a dinner planned. So off they went while BM and I made small talk. We had a lot to catch up on. A few beers and talking with family made my weekend worthwhile…right there.

We both turned in around 1. Me to my Pune book and BM to sleep.

Saturday- Next day dawned slightly late but no worries. BM was already in two minds regarding our trip to Sausolito. When she figured that it was going to be a lot of effort and that I would prefer staying at home, we scratched the plan to travel. Instead we chilled out at home. Bliss it was, save the heat. The heat was oppressive but was easily overlooked. Spoke with Aji Baba and then some with Ma and Dad. Chatted with BM about lot of things, which is usually good fun if she is not distracted. Basically we gossiped and it was a lot of fun. Finally she got distracted and wanted to draw or paint. I let her be. Aunts always have their own way with things.

Later we got out to get stuff for the evening. Went to all the familiar places, including San Antonio TJs. We got home in time to prepare food and shower before the guests came in. Meeting Rashmi maushi is always good fun and so it was this time too. Sudhir kaka and his family came in too.

BM and I sat up after that watching Cheeni Kum. I fell asleep on the couch and made my way to Mihir’s room sometime around 2 am and fell asleep in less than 3 seconds.

It didn’t seem like a lot of activities but Saturday was possibly the most fun day of the weekend.

Sunday - This day seemed to promise a lot. This also was the third day of the four day weekend and hence a depressing day with the work week looming large over the horizon.

I started Omkara early on the in the day. Was fun while it lasted. We had to go fetch Mihir from Berkeley and so we did. It was a warm day and the countryside, if you can call Fremont and Oakland ‘countryside’, seemed to burn under the scorching sun. I’m guessing Berkeley is that sexy place for uber-liberals but given I’m not an uber-liberal, it was just a place with a lot of smart people for me. M’s place is decent enough but I’m not too hot and heavy for those kind of places. After I heard about the price tag I shook my head…I guess only kids of well-to-do folks can afford to live in a place like that during their under-grad. The trip back was uneventful, and sleepy. We got back to a happy tail-wag from Kiwi and after wasting some time headed over to the Stanford mall. Now this is a wonderful place, especially in summer. It smells of money. It definitely looks of money. And it looks good. Wide walkways, fancy storefronts, pretty trellises, and people relaxing and shopping to their hearts content. In short, the grand American dream in t he heart of Silicon Valley. Everything is marked up 20-50% because of its location and because of the stores.

I walked into a Banana Republic store, the clothes screamed ‘preppie’ or ‘metrosexual’ or ‘both’. At 70 bucks for a shirt and 180 bucks for a pair of jeans it was too obscene for me to continue. I ran out. Onwards we walked through GAP (sale-less for once), Armani Exchange, Bloomingdales, L’Occident, and finally into Macys. After killing a good hour or so in Macy's the gang headed homeward still trying to figure if we should go for a family friend’s party. BM wanted to go out for dinner, as a family. So after spending 30-45 mins at Mugdha’s place, we all headed to Il Fornaio, one of those VC joints on University Ave. I have seen it a zillion times, given that it is located across from the office where I interned back in summer of 2005. The food was OK, the beer less than OK. But that’s what the gang wanted to do. So you shake your head, grit your teeth and do it. We got back home to a few more beers (obviously for me) and a PPV movie. For some reason I had seen most of the movies available. That’s weird given I don’t watch a lot of movies. We ended up watching Casino Royale. Let’s face it…any movie looks good on a 71 inch HD TV. And so I watched every little spot and expression on Eva Green’s face. The action scenes were amazing, especially the one where Bond catches the bomb maker in Madagascar. The gang finally turned in late and woke up late. M woke up even later. He couldn’t make up his mind regarding his return to Berkeley. Finally we headed over to Macy’s for some final shopping, got back to hurried packing, some food and left to get over to meet Dole, the missus and to head over to SoCal. The drive was uneventful. The dinner was IHOP. And the fun long weekend was over.

The Bay area trip

2007-08-28T21:52:00.000-07:00

So Fri last was a comp day off...for putting in obscene number of hrs for 2-3-4-5 weeks i got ONE day off. AM was planning to go to the Bay area and I had been dilly dallying about going to BA...for no obvious reason than that I did have some work to get done.
Told BM about the development, she said OK but later she convinced me to shoot off to the BA to meet R and M. I said OK and hopped into the car with AM and K.

AM being AM it was 5 pm by the time we left and midnight by the time we reach the BA. Travel was uneventful...random, music, chat, some zzzzzs. I was looking fwd to patting and petting Kiwi, some home made food, some Bay area weather, and some good beer.
Chatted with BM, while having some of leftovers. The chat was good...slept around 2 am and I was up by 9 or so. M had trashed my room and BM suggested I use M's room but then I wanted my bed. And it was worth the suffering. The sleep was deep and delicious.

The next morning was calm and peaceful, initially dark but later bright and beautiful.
Two cups of tea hit the right spot as we waited for Ro to show up. Until then was easy chatter at home. Oh how I miss easy chatter at home on a Saturday. That done, we got ready and drove over to Fremont to pick Ro up. On the way back we discussed whether to go to Ming's Pavilion or to Windy's, a few million times. Finally, we settled on Windy's on University Ave. Some memories later we were sitting in the restaurant and man!, they had good food. Singapore noodles, some braised eggplant, brown rice and some interesting mahi mahi (fish) came in no time. Divine! Delicious! Subtle!
OK. That felt good. The food was good. Really good. I overate but didn't mind it one bit. Also there was an art exhibition going on in downtown Palo Alto so we walked around for a bit. BM wanted to buy some watercolors. So we stood around and suddenly met Sudhir kaka and his family. Was good catching up with him. He is a good guy.
The afternoon was laidback...and finally we geared up for our evening out at Gordon biersh. The evening was quiet, a few beers, one of the best salads I have ever eaten. We came back and I had one more beer as Ro and M lounged in the family room. The conversation again turned funny and finally I decided to turn in around 1 am.

That Pune book is pretty good. A light read and decent pics.
Next morning dawned at around 9 am for me. Again some tea, some chat, relaxed. Something I haven't been in a long time now. Later, in the morning we went to the farmer's market, and walked around and got some food. There were two desi food stalls! Go figure!
One of the desi food stalls had great stuff, especially the chicken curry and fresh naan from the tandoor.
Came home, stuffed some grub and as usual, I waited for AM to get his shit together and leave.
My 8:30 am meeting and blank slides weighed heavy on my mind. Yet, AM didnt get in till 5 pm yet again. We took multiple stops through the journey, as AM took a nap, or for food and then got delayed due to an accident on the Freeway. I was crapping slides in the back seat, feverishly. The next day, after 3 hrs of sleep, I worked a good 14-15 hr day. Regular shit for me by now.
And yet, today has been a more relaxed day...or evening.

The coming weekend promises to be some more relaxed time.

The Move: A retrospective

2007-08-19T00:15:00.000-07:00

It all began one fateful evening (I refer to 10 pm as evening), when I turned the latchkey and brought my weary body into my apt at 1717 Malcolm, fully expecting my house gang to be asleep. Turns out the gang was awake and in good spirits. AM dropped the bomb. No warning.
'We have an order to vacate the apartment' he said. Always a bit of a sensationalist, this AM. I nearly fainted in my bone weary state.
'When!!!' I asked. 'Well, not right away, anyways, but it is on the cards. I think in a month or two.'

'Whew, so we don't need to vacate it tomorrow or ....today!'.
'No'.
Like I said, sensationalist.
In my nomadic life, a month was an eternity. Time enough to move out of, and settle into, three different homes.

So it dragged on for three months. Finally, we got THE notice. The final notice which suggested that the suspense was over and we really had to find a new abode.
Now that is easier said than done. In LA, in Westwood specifically, a decent apartment stays on the market no more than a few days.

We had a problem.
I wanted to live close to work and my homies, though they wanted to share an apt, wanted to live cheap. Typically desi. I was willing to lay down a big bit more than they were. So to meet proportions, we were going to have to find a crappy place. I told them that I had sworn off crappy places. I worked 12-14 hr days so I could afford better.
Long story short, some strategy, some finance logic, and some serendipity helped us find a decent apt building VERY close to work. I can see the light in the senr VP's office. And it is a half block off the famous Wilshire Blvd and right next to the Westwood Village.
This is what we saw when we entered the apartment.

The view was nice. The apartment had a very homey feel to it. AK and I waffled for all of 7 mins and then ran back to the manager to tell her that we would take it.

The next few weeks were crazy at work and there was a point when in the middle of a catastrophe week, we heard that we couldn't move into the new place because the current (then) tenant could not move out, leaving us in a horrible situation.
It was extremely stressful.
I was going to be homeless for the first time in my life, despite having a lease for a really nice apt in my name. Go figure!
The situation de-escalated, and we were in the last weekend, and I was packing like crazy to get my clothes and stuff in. Frankly, my stuff packed in easy, very easy. The kitchen stuff, common stuff and AM's stuff took the most physical and time bandwidth.
But the boys did do a few things that saved the day.
Note for the future: don't be lazy and hire professional labor to do this shit. I can afford it for sure. Not worth my while breaking my back for this!

The house looked like this: lots of stuff, lots of packing!

The next day, I dare add, was spent doing hard physical labor!
For 8-9 hrs, we did 3 trips from our old apt to the new one, in a hired U Haul moving stuff.
That evening our place looked like a warehouse but finally in a few days everything settled down, as we all did. I settle very easily into new places. No 'new place' anxiety, no sleepless nights.
One of the benefits of working hard.
One is too tired to care...one merely needs a place to call one's own and spread out.
The new place has much to offer...a nice view, a good homey feel due to the hard wood floors, and a spanking rooftop pool and jacuzzi.

You see this:

and this:

and this:

The view from my room is similar to the one above and in addition I see some really pretty houses around like this one:

It need not be stressed that I am fairly happier for the move.
The place is decent (though everything can be better), the location is nice and stuff is gelling.
The move will be memorable, as have been the last 'n' moves.

Wine review: Morro Bay Central Coast Cabernet 2002

2007-08-13T22:58:00.000-07:00

Wine: Morro Bay Central Coast Cabernet 2002
Cheese: Morbier
Pocket hemorrhage: $8.99

The expert/marketing take on it:
Morro Bay Cabernet Sauvignon reflects the vineyards of Californias central coast showing ripe opulent fruit. Delightful cherry, blackberry and currant flavors finish with black-pepper and toast from 9 months of ageing in French and American oak barrels.

My take on it:
Mellow wine with a slightly sharp taste, possibly due to the black pepper. Given the vintage I checked with the boys at home. One of the guys declared 'watery', which told me he meant 'mellow'. I detected the faint aroma of blackberry and I forced myself to smell the currant but I couldn't smell the cherry for the life of me.
Overall, a decent wine.
One for instant consumption, not for that rare event storage.

A time to heal

2007-08-04T18:49:00.000-07:00

After a week of battering work today was a day of healing rest.
I had a good 8 hrs sleep yesterday night. Spent some time reading in the morning. my Saturday morning cuppa tea was fun too. Later spent some time chatting with my ma and then with Rohit. Heard about a fiasco he experienced on his b'day. Too much. The boy is out of control!

Later, I settled in to make a nice lunch of pesto tortellini with a smattering of olive oil, basil & oregano and crabcakes with some spicy horseradish sauce. Was a hearty meal. Later I slept again for 2 odd hrs, and now is the time to clean up and prep to get out of this place. It's been a fair 10 months here. It's time to call another place home.

More later.

A year ago...part III (Festivals galore)

2007-07-29T03:59:00.000-07:00

...it was a wrong time to be in Mumbai. If I had to pick three months to be in Mumbai, they would be Nov through Jan end. Definitely not, July through September. Those are the months to avoid Mumbai. Given the current weather conditions as well as the overall feel for the cities of Mumbai and Pune, it doesn't get better than the end of the year. Nov (or Oct end) brings Diwali, the festival that genuinely bathes Mumbai in a shimmer of bright lights and the sounds of firecrackers. Sure, they are loud but the scene isn't half as bad as Ganpati or Navratri. By Indian standards, it is a quieter festival.

So, when I was in Mumbai there was no major festival. Festivals take off in the end of August, when Ganpati comes into town.

So, the initial weeks and months were free of the usual hindrances introduced by the onset of festivals. I don't remember any of the small, single day events.

I hate the Ganpati season in Mumbai. Don't get me wrong. Ganpati is my personal governing deity. I also love to wake up to Ganesh aarti. What I hate are the crowd, the gulaal, the traffic snarls, and the drunk exuberance that crushes heartfelt worship and melodious aarti.
People have made it a very loud, very vulgar time of the year. I nearly dread the 7th and 10th day of Ganpati when this crowd city seems to come out into the streets, in its entirety. And it does so loudly and obnoxiously.
And before someone says "Oh the boy has suddenly become American." I have disliked this loud part about this festival for a very long time now.

This time I can't say it was all bad for me. I didn't need to go out for work. I really didn't need to go out for food, since the flat was pretty well stocked and I could order from the most convenient place possible. I hibernated those 10 days. I was supposed to meet an acquaintance/friend but he didn't want to risk making it into the city and getting trapped ahead of his flight and I had no intention of getting trapped either.

Those days were spent doing my own thing...writing, reading, hanging out with Rohit, and listening to aartis and Ganeshnaam. No, I didn't play them. The entire city did it for me. All I had to do was not go deaf and I was certain to hear it.

I didn't end up going to anybody's home for aarti except Avi's place and that too because Deepatai was very earnest in her invitation. It was good fun. Remind me that I do enjoy Ganpati aarti. I have just become too jaded. The question 'Why' is to be pondered on at some later date.

At some point dahi handi crept up on me. This, ,again, with my medical background, I see as a major nuisance. Why do people subject themselves to life threatening actions and doctors to sleepless nights?
But, now, as a non practicing doctor, I was able to see the fun side of it. I remember vividly. I wanted to buy a bunch of my favorite Mocha sachets. I was going shop to shop, looking for them. Finally, as I was heading towards Ganga Vihar, towards Sandesh, right off the main road I saw a fairly high dahi handi. It was good fun watching the young boys organize the human pyramid so quickly and with so much agility. The handi had to be lowered, but it is all part of the game. The boys broke the handi and I walked on by in my quest to find my mocha...

A year ago...part II (Food reigned supreme)

2007-07-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

OK, so pop quiz. When a desi in the U.S. is going back home to India for a vacation what is he really looking forward to? Sure, friends, family are all good answers.
But the correct answer is food.
In the U.S. you have a lot of variety - food of every cuisine you can dream of is either available in a restaurant nearby or 'ready in mins' packs are available. But the genuine touch of an experienced desi cook is missing.
The dosa here is a very sorry shadow of its true self. Biryanis and khichadi pass off as the other, no questions asked. Good quality rotis, naan, rumali rotis, parathas are the stuff of dreams. The one that personally moves me to tears is chaat. I mean, come on guys, the Kailash guys at Citylight are not geniuses. They are good at it because they churn out Dahi batata puri, ragda pattice, shev puri, bhel puri day in and day out. Possibly, they experiment.
But they come up with lip smacking, drool producing chaat.
The chaat I have had in the US is so ordinary, it nearly brings tears to my eyes for two reasons:
1) Of the 'N' no. of desi restaurants in Calif, none can really come out with chaat that touches the taste standards of a regular regdi in Mumbai.
2) Like idiots, us chaat crazed fools still rush to these places for something that distantly resembles chaat.

Point is - I was back in Paradise for a lot of the things I miss a lot.
My dreams revolved around dosai, uttapams, fresh idli that dissolves in your mouth, sambar with real drumsticks, Shri Krishna batata wada, Indian Chinese food at Gypsy, some good rumali rotis from Status, dalimbi usal at Aaswad, Goan food from Goa Portuguesa, and a lot lot more.

At the end of the day, I lived most of my food dreams. A few times over.

Trivia - I spent nearly 60-70% of that fairly lavish budget on food and drink.

There was a point when I was ordering food from Gypsy nearly every single day.
Now, for those not in the know, in the regular middle class area of Dadar/Shivaji Park, Gypsy is kinda an upscale restaurant. Not seriously expensive...but not the kind where regular folks just drop in for food when they are too tired of cooking.

The regular Dadar/SP guy who makes it big usually passes through a few phases with Gypsy as a benchmark. As a student and school days, he knows people who went to Gypsy for birthdays. He has heard of people who go there regularly and talks about Gypsy, as if he knows those regulars personally. The first trip to Gypsy is an experience. The guy may not necessarily like the food, but you don't live a dream and come out saying it wasn't as much fun!
Later, as a grad student, he ends up going to Gypsy more often, for birthday parties, farewells, and such. One day, the guy gets a good job or goes to the US and suddenly thinks of Gypsy as a totally regular place to eat.
In some measure, though not accurately so, I am that guy.
This trip, I think, I tried most decent things Gypsy had to offer. Some excellent, some simply did not take off. But frankly, at one point, I got fed up of Gypsy food.

The next on the list was Oven Fresh. This blog has already been witness to me shedding tears to the passing of the Chicken Club sandwich. But love affairs die hard.
In Part I, I mentioned having lunch 500 times with Vik. Given that Oven Fresh is a stone's throw away from where Vik works, we met there quite often. I introduced Vik to an entire new world of Continental food and to his credit Vik took to it with some gusto.
I used to think of it as expensive but everything is relative and contextual. In the changed context, I thought it was total VFM.

I really tried to hunt for a decent Japanese place in Mumbai to see if I could intro some of the boys to sushi, rolls and sashimi. Sadly, Mumbai is still pretty 'behind' on the Japanese food scene.
Now I have to confess that I am not a regular sushi starved guy. But I like it once in a while.
Digressions, digressions, digressions...so Mumbai doesn't really have many Japanese places. Either you go for something that is totally not close to the original. Moreover, I was unwilling to subject myself to eating raw fish in Mumbai, in the monsoon season, unless I was certain the risk was minimal. The other end was Wasabi, the Japanese restaurant at the Taj. They charge Rs. 10,000-12,000 for this sashimi platter.
News flash - I don't like Japanese food THAT much.

Where continental food is concerned, Mumbai has had a long standing love affair with that.
Churchill is an eternal favorite. Small place, so it is a tight squeeze. Come here without reservations at your own risk. Waiting time is 15-20 mins. It has an almost claustrophobic feel so you really want to dig your chops into the good food and get out. It's not very high on the ambience metric but more than makes up for it with quality of food.
Went there with Dole and Nitin. Dole had his chops in some lamb chops before I could coo "Baaa". I'm not too enthusiastic about red meat so I went in for fish cooked in some red wine sauce. The dish was spectacular enough so when we revisited the place a few weeks later, we scanned the entire menu again, but settled for the Ol Faithful.

Next place for mention - Shri Krishna Batata Wada. It is not an undisputed 'best wada place' but for the faithful who flock there for those two luscious globes of batter fried potato filling with marinated green chili, there can be none other. See the crowd there, at any time of the morning, day or night and you figure its a pretty popular place.
I don't care if it is popular, I just love their wadas!
For a wada place it is pretty steep. Rs. 14 for a plate of two wadas. Some people would call it highway robbery. All I do is drool and beg for more.
Made only two trips to SK this time around. Shame shame!

Next stop Aaswad and Prakash
No nonsense, straightforward Marathi snacks.
Aaswad is slightly more flashy (if you call that flashy...) Prakash is stark and devoted to providing simple, high quality food. All other extras - not available. Prakash doesnt vie for your attention. It has a typical Marathi attitude. We give quality, no flash. Don't want to eat here? Your loss.
Each his its own 'best at..'
Aaswad wins hands down with kande pohe and kothimbir wadi. Their misal and mattha misaL are pretty good too. Add daLimbi usal to the list and I could cry for joy. At Rs. 10-15 bucks per item, bliss could hardly come cheaper.
Prakash delivers with its unparalleled sabudaNa wada. Anything else? Kachori!
But in typical Marathi fashion (again!), it's available only on specific days of the week. Why? Sure there must be some reason. Good reason? Who knows? Who cares? They don't!

Went to a few other places, courtesy the Maushi. Jashn, MIG club restaurant.
MIG club restau reminds me of the worst wine I have ever had. It was ridiculous by any metric and I dont care if it costs only Rs 150. Heck, by today's rates, Charles Shaw costs Rs. 82 and it's not bad at all!

The list may never end. The taste will fade away, until it is refreshed by another helping, hopefully not too far in the future. The memories will linger. Words will hopefully make those memories last, that bit longer.

Next...well just watch this space.

A year ago...part I

2007-07-21T13:31:00.000-07:00

A year ago, as of this date, I was in rainy Mumbai, living alone in our Mumbai apt.
13 mths ago, I was in deep distress. Every single day was stressful. I had a good job offer, which I had accepted. I had a half decent signing bonus coming my way. My labor petition for H1 had been approved. On paper, life was perfect. But the lack of a date with the US Consulate, came in the way of this perfection giving me happiness.
I couldn't get a date to have my visa done in India. All dates for 5-6 mths had been booked. Finally, as a good Indian, I figured out the process and got a date in the Kolkata consulate.

I was looking forward to going to India for a longish break before I started work but it was such a wrong time to be in India. In Mumbai, July basically spells disaster these days, what with the heavy rains and flooding. To top it, a day or two, before I was supposed to leave for India, some fucked up terrorists set off huge bombs in Mumbai's crowded suburban trains.

I usually brag about the psyche of the Mumbai citizenry. You pull off 5 blasts, people will still use the trains the next day. They suck it up, and move on.

I am rushing ahead of myself.
I had to go via Heathrow, and that was a disaster waiting to happen. First, British Airways sucks, as a higher end airline. The food is hideous and in extremely small portions so that someone like me, a light eater these days, came out of a meal hungry. The entertainment sucks...no 'on demand' movies...and the movies they showed were so boring I didn't know what to do with myself for the long haul trip.
Heathrow was the disaster it had promised to be. The long lines and security checks almost made me nauseous. The 8 hr transit didn't help any. All in all, the price I had to pay for going to India was in terms of mental stability and my sanity.

Landing in India wasn't really an overpowering experience. I had been there just 6 mths ago. I got out of the security area pretty quickly and got myself a cab. 400 bucks to go from the airport to Mahim. I'd call that fairly steep in the geographical context. Converted to dollars, it was pretty cheap.

Then the miracle happened. During broad daylight, I traveled from the airport to home...an experience that had taken me 2.5 hrs, only 6 mths back, in 25 mins flat. The cab stopped only at two points, the first signal taking the left turn from the Airport road onto the main road and then again while taking the left turn from an inside lane, close to the Mahim-Bandra flyover, to LJ Road.

This is the point I go back to the mention of Mumbai, the resilient city.
This time the city seemed scared. It hadn't taken this last punch very well. The roads were empty, people were staying away from trains and buses. Anniversary of July 26 was looming over the horizon and people were reeling under the left-right of the rains and terrorists.

Anyways, I came home soaked. No, there wasn't any rain. Just my sweat. Mumbai humidity does that to me.
Reached home and hauled my bags to the second floor.
Our building had been painted a fresh coat of some hideous color but I didn't mind it.
Reached home and I had Deepak (mama) to welcome me in before he left quickly to get his work done.
Adheet dropped by for a few mins to say hi. Good times catching up.

Then I did what I ritually do when I land in Mumbai. I cabbed it to Siddhivinayak, took darshan and decided to walk back. It's a pretty short haul back and the afternoon, though humid, wasn't a combination of hot and humid.

On my way back, I completed another ritual. I stopped by at SPG. The security guy had changed. And he didn't recognize me immediately. That was a blow to my ego.
But I knew in some short time, all the security guys at SPG will know me like they know the guy who hands them their paycheck.
The Doc of SPG isn't to be forgotten so easily.

Things seem to be headed in the right direction. Realized I hadn't checked my mail in a long time (36-48 hrs) and went over to the Reliance WebWorld across from Gypsy. My usual trick, these days, is to keep my account alive with 100 bucks on it, and to renew it with 100-250 buck increments when I land in Mumbai. This time, the lady at the counter said that I needed to pay 500 odd bucks for the renewal. That's a load of bull crap!
I was going to get myself a broadband connection. No reason I wanted to put 500 bucks here. 2 missions remained - one) to find myself a cable connection and two) to check mail at some place the same day.
Adheet invited me over for dinner and promised to let me use his laptop to check my mail. Coming from a kokya, I was nearly moved to tears. Ya right!
So I hauled a few beers over like a good American guest, while Adheet and the missus set forth a table full of goodies and teased me for my reduced appetite. But he repaid in kind by helping me select a decent DSL line...good ol MTNL. I was surprised to hear how good it was but then I have seen AG throw a tantrum or two when the net connection speed goes down and interferes with his 'net experience'. So, if it was good enough for him, I was cool with it.

Next day I went to MTNL, to get my modem and connection, money at the ready.
Typical MTNL problem...we can give you connection but it needs a special modem that we lease to you, and that is out of circulation. So we havent had one for quite some time and may not get some more for as much as a month.
Upside was: if I got my own modem, I'd get the connection the very next day.
Here I was the guy from America, with dollars converting to rupees. Ran to Yogesh and Shirish's place, a stone's throw from MTNL office. These guys have got to be the most honest and awesome computer guys I have ever met. They are more personal friends now. One more + to AG's tab. He introed me to these guys many moons back.

Shirish explained that the modem prices had been shooting up in the gray market for the same reason. If you get your hands on one, you get a connection asap.
I wrote him a check without a second thought, and to his word, he had a new modem available for me the next day.
I seem to have the easiest time with bureaucracy in India, these days.
I got in touch with the guy who would configure the connection for me. He promised to come the next day, and set it up for me.
Three days after landing in Mumbai, I had a DSL connection going for me. A record of sorts, I am told.

Connected to the net, 24/7, I was a new man.
Later, the Mumbai humidity was to mess up the keyboard on my laptop so I ended up taking the face caps off the keys to see if I could blow dry the connection and get it going.
Finally, I gave up and bought a crappy 400 buck USB keyboard, which is attached to my computer to this day.
My aging laptop has the monitor of a more youthful computer but is making sounds in weird places, showing its age.

Coming out of the deprived life of a PIGS (Poor Indian Graduate Student - in the US) I set myself a healthy 1000 rupee per day budget - food, travel, gifts, things to buy, household, etc.
I really cut loose on my wallet to the point that Vikrant (henceforth referred to as Vik), who thought me the stingiest bastard in the land, had his eyes bulging and mouth agape when he saw me carry, and spew, 100/500 buck notes.
Though I need add, I never wasted money. If I saw a bus going to SP, I caught a bus a zillion times. I didn't have to always cab it because I had money.
One of the happiest experiences (or bunch thereof) on the trip was the many, many, many long lunches I had with Vik or the hundred times he came over to my place 'for 10 mins' and ended up staying for a solid couple of hrs.
I had landed a good job after a tough 3-4 confidence sapping years. Vik was in full struggle mode. He was handling marriage and increased responsibility the way only Vik can - with complete joy.

Had terrific long conversations with Vik - we talked life, we talked food, we talked money, we talked ambition. Being with Vik transported me to another era, where we did super spontaneous simple things.
Like the time he made me walk in light rain, all the way to Aaswad, for a plate of kande pohe. I begged him to drive or suggested I'd pay for a cab and typically Vik came back that he'd pay me the cab fare equivalent to walk. Obstinate bastard. Usually the pohe would be all gone by the time we reached Aaswad. And then I/we'd nearly collapse laughing.

Vik, with a bruised ego, and an unsatiated appetite for pohe, would force me around from Gypsy corner to N different places in the quest of pohe.

I traveled to Pune some, went to Kolkata for all of one day, met up with cousins and friends.

I intend to make this a series for the next few days...so these memories solidify into words.

"Americas Best Hospitals" 2007 Report

2007-07-14T01:50:00.000-07:00

U.S. News ranking for Hospitals is serious bragging rights...and no little wonder. The entire organization works damn hard at maintaining it.
You see how serious all this is when you walk through the underground tunnel that connects the J Hop OPD area with the J Hop Hospital. The entire long, brightly lit tunnel is adorned with huge blow outs of the Cover pages from U.S. News declaring Hopkins as 'The Best" for the Nth time.

For the 17th consecutive year, The Johns Hopkins Hospital has topped U.S.News & World Report's annual rankings of "America's Best Hospitals." For a complete list and methodology of rankings, please visit www.usnews.com.

In addition to heading the Honor Roll, The Johns Hopkins Hospital ranked in the top 10 in 15 of the 16 specialty categories listed. Here are the rankings:

#1	Ear, Nose & Throat (Otolaryngology)
#1	Gynecology
#1	Rheumatology
#1	Urology
#2	Geriatrics
#2	Neurology/Neurosurgery
#2	Ophthalmology (Wilmer Eye Institute)
#2	Psychiatry
#3	Cancer
#3	Digestive Disorders
#3	Endocrinology
#3	Respiratory Disorders
#4	Heart/Heart Surgery
#5	Orthopedics
#6	Kidney Disease
#21	Rehabilitation

Busy life

2007-06-23T19:30:00.000-07:00

Life is aspeeding. Sometimes weeks fly by without me realizing the swift passage of time. Sunday nights are stressful and before I know it, it is Friday evening.
Days are merging into weeks,and weeks into months...
The last two weeks have been crazy as far as working up to, or beyond, 3 am on 4 separate occasions is involved. Acquisition diligence is painstaking, detailed work and takes its time.
A time for me of details, and for others of models.
It's over now. Or nearly over.
Mon Tues will mark some finals and thence onto a different search...a different case.

BOWLED OUT - Shattered cricket dreams

2007-06-17T01:19:00.000-07:00

For those that know me know that I love cricket with an abiding, haunting, decerebrate kind of love.
There is no logic to it. I just love it. I can't, for the life of me, figure out why I love cricket so much. Why does a bowler running up to the bowling crease see my pulse racing rather than, say, a fast car on the F1 circuit or basketall? Don't know.

Here's one cricket feeling another cricketer's heartache.

End of a young innings

Cricketers who fail to make it to the top are often driven to desperation, writes
Priyanko Sarkar

Early this week, Subhash Dixit jumped to his death. A few years ago this Kanpur lad was captain of India’s Under-15 cricket team. Later, he became captain of UP’s Under-19 team. But when he died, he was jobless, penniless and hopeless. He couldn’t even make it to UP’s Ranji team. He gave up his dreams and tried to get a job, but he failed. It was all over for him. While his family and friends believe that Dixit was a good player who never got a chance at the top level, managers of UPCA say his game was deteriorating.

In this cricket-crazy country, with hundreds of thousands of men dreaming of donning the national colours one day, Dixit’s tragic demise is not a good sign. After all, there is space only for 11 men in the national team. So, what happens to thousands of men whose career fails to progress beyond a point. The coaches and managers know this problem. They know what happens when a young dream dies. Naresh Churi, who is currently coaching Ruparel College, Shardashram Vidyamandir and Deeplo Sports Club at Shivaji Park, believes that a coach must convince his players that despite politics there is always a place for genuine talent.

But that doesn’t always happen. Rajesh Sanil, who coaches at MIG cricket ground in Bandra, says cricketers must learn how to fight the system. Sanil claims that the selection of a player depends on a lot of things apart from talent. Probed a little deeper, Sanil admits that if two players of the same calibre are vying for a place in the team, then the one with he right connections invariably wins. He feels that the system of selecting players is not likely to change anytime soon nor is there any short-term solution to the problem.

It’s a serious problem. The young cricketers are in a hurry these days. They want everything to happen quickly. This often leads to disappointment amongst players who do not have the mental aptitude and required resilience to slog it out for just that little time longer. The commercial aspect of the game also drives many non-players into trying their luck all the time. Players with too much passion risk hurting themselves while staring at disappointment. They often feel betrayed by the game they loved. Unless such a person gets comfort from his parents and coach, cases like Subhash Dixit’s may happen again.

The lack of parameters for selecting a player makes the selector’s decision sacred. Milind Rege, chairman of the Cricket Club of India’s organising committee, says that selection of a player from one level to the other is a subjective choice which varies from selector to selector. Former national chief selector Kiran More says he looks at the physical fitness and mental preparation of a player while assessing him.

But, the players who have been ill-treated by the management blame the selection process for ruining the game and their careers. Nishant Bhatia is one of the many strugglers who is striving to make a mark in the game. He started playing at the age of 12 with Shardashram Vidyamandir, the school which has given the country Sachin Tendulkar. A decade later, Nishant is nowhere close to emulating his idol. Not because he is a bad player, but because he still hasn’t caught any selector’s eye. He has played the Harris Shield, ELF Vengsarkar, Kanga League, Shatkar Trophy, Shalini Bhalekar Trophy and various MCA camp matches where he was also the captain of his team. “The biggest disappointment came when I got a call from the MCA saying I was selected, but I never got to play and was eventually shunted out,” Nishant says. The appointment had come after he had been the third highest scorer in the West Zone knockout league tournament. His frustration is growing with each passing year. In this glorious game of uncertainties, “either you get famous or you’re a stupid person,” Nishant says. Even your own friends begin laughing at you and question your abilities, he adds.

Bhatia’s colleague Paresh Nailwal has almost given up hope of returning to the game. Working in his father’s shop now, Nailwal is planning to do an MBA. He says that sinister things keep happening in the game with or without the player’s knowledge, so it is difficult to gauge what makes the cut for a particular selector. Nailwal claims that a couple of years ago, when the team for Mumbai was selected, almost eight players were subsequently dropped without any reason from the total list of 14 players and till date, no one knows why such a thing happened.

Incidents like this make young players lose faith in the system and themselves. Ratnakar Shetty, BCCI’s CAO, says, “Of 100 outstanding boys who turn up every year, there is space to only for eight to 10 players. The important thing is to get noticed at all levels to be one of them.” Many players all but stumble at this point. Some day soon, the hopes of an entire nation will end in a billion heartaches. TNN

Earning on each level
Under 19 and Under 22 — Between Rs 4,500 to Rs 5,000 per match Shield Matches — On an eightmonth contract, a player gets about Rs 5,000 per month Club Cricket — No money but you get a share if your team wins Ranji Trophy — Around Rs 50,000 per match One Day Internationals — Rs 2 lakh per match Test Match — Rs 2.5 lakh per match

Blogging from Mountainview Caltrain station

2007-05-19T23:30:00.000-07:00

Free internet...Google Wifi.
At the Caltrain station. Can you believe that? I couldnt.
Blew my mind out!
Google rocks!

The Calm after the storm

2007-05-13T22:26:00.000-07:00

The last week was a storm. One of the busiest and most stressful weeks in my life!
Possibly, some weeks must have been as exhausting and as stressful. Maybe I am putting more emphasis on this week because it was more 'corporate stressful'.
But I was exhausted at the end of it all. I realized 3 hrs of sleep per night doesn't work for me.

Yesterday I went to the KGI 10th anniversary. I guess I had expected more. To talk more in depth with some friends...to talk more in depth with some favorite faculty members, to interact with some of the Board of Trustees and even though I felt it was shallow, I did what is supposed to be correct in networking... I worked the room well. Moving from one friend to another, making contact, updating and moving on. Is that how networking works? Sigh!

At my dinner table, one of my juniors was sitting with his parents. We were joined by two members of the BoT and three other people. His father asked each of us to give ONE valuable piece of advice to the new graduate. I said that as a consultant I mostly did things in threes. For me the THREE best pieces of advice are:
1) Never trade long term value for short term dollar
2) The dots dont always connect when you are doing something. But do it anyways. The more you say "I'm never going to need to do this", fate tries to make you look like a fool. The dots connect later. Have faith in this universal principal and just do it.
3) Don't do something because the boom is around the corner. When the bust comes about, you're going to hate your work. Do what you genuinely like. Come boom or bust you'd at least enjoy what you do.

Spent a few miserable hrs. at the Press. There was no seating available, music was too loud and I was miserable. I hate pubs, clubs and bars.

Tomorrow promises to start an interesting week.

Dizzying speed of life

2007-05-06T00:22:00.000-07:00

Takeaway for this post:
Time flies!
As simple as that. On May 15th I'd like to do a quick dekko at the year as it was. But the essence is that time flies.
I have realized that if your work day spans from 9 am to 10 pm, your life is going to speed by in a burst of light and fury, signifying nothing.
But having said that, I have learnt a huge lot on the job. I also learnt that if you can't talk from experience to relationships, restaurants and fun spots, you are going to be pretty much lost in a casual discussion with work peers.
I realized this more recently when we had a party in a fancy lil place with expensive drinks and hot waitresses in small black numbers, and I preferred to stay back in office and finish work.
Some would call it sad, but I just cannot identify with discussion that centers a fair bit around basketball, football, spouses and LA hotspots. I have no interest in any of these things, neither am I able to feign such interest. Sad. Cuz the bunch of guys in my office are really nice folks.

Of Fobs

2007-03-23T22:40:00.000-07:00

I'm a FoB. I will always be a FoB. I mean, one can either be an ABCD or a FoB and I cant be an ABCD, so FoB I shall be.
And Fobs get other fobs, are able to associate with other fobs. They also enjoy Fob stories.

I watched 'Namesake' in the FOX theater tonight. One of those "by invitation only" shows for employees and their F/F. It was a nice movie. It was neither shallow nor too indulgent, neither artsy nor too Bollywood. It is done just right. Good acting all around. Kal Penn has come a long way from 'National Lampoon' and ' Harold and Kumar'.
The big surprise is with Irfan Khan and Tabu. Their acting prowess was never really in question but the ease with which their skills transcend the language barrier is fascinating. Both the actors fit in seamlessly in an English movie setting.

The movie is the juxtaposition of an ABCD and a couple of uber-Fobs. And uber-Fobs of the previous generation were one helluva piece of work. Tabu excels as she did in Chandni Bar. The movie is beautiful because it creates neither heroes nor villians. It only shows us flawed humans and the best stories in the known Universe are made up of flawed humans.

All in all, a good fun experience.

A strange week in Boston

2007-03-17T13:44:00.001-07:00

This was one of the strangest weeks in a long time...by a stretch.
I was in Boston from Sun night through Thur and I stayed at THREE hotels in four nights.
Reached Boston around 10:30. Was supposed to be at the Langham for the 4 days. Disaster struck in the first hour and half in Boston.
The hotel refused to give me the rate I had received while booking on AmEx website. I was pissed as hell but not much you can do when faced with adamant luxury hotel reception. I have a niggling doubt, luxury hotel staff is more snobbish, boorish and harder to bear than some of the patrons in the hotel.
Ended up working until 3 am or so, signed out of the hotel the next morning on Mon 12th and reach work kinda late by 9:30. Worked my ass off the whole day, and then booked into a hotel for a day...in the Bulfinch. Very low key hotel though after the snobbery of Langham and the bad experience there, the relaxed attitude of the hot East European girl at the counter in jeans and casual clothes was actually refreshing. Again worked till 1ish AM from the hotel, woke up around 7:30 am and worked from the hotel till around 10ish when I walked in to the office after checking out...again. The Bulfinch only had the room for the day.

At the end of another long day on Tuesday, I gathered my bags from the Bulfinch and signed in, this time, in one of my comfort hotel...the Millennium Bostonian. Given that I had lived there just 2 mths back and that the firm has a deal with them, I got a pretty nice suite. Not that it made a difference, since the next/last two days were even more crazy and I never came in before 11 pm.

Finally flew back to LA on Thur, with the storm clouds gathering in.
Friday I heard the Boston office was closed at 3 in the afternoon while I was in 55F LA in advance of St. Paddy's day.

Boston gave me a cheery, warm welcome, some hotel experiences sucked, worked my ass off before leaving to a teary farewell.
Got experience dealing with multiple non US markets. Interesting how conditions vary dramatically in various geographies.

Flush with money

2007-02-04T22:15:00.000-08:00

Step- one of the guys in my office...a Harvard MBA to boot...thinks I'm one of the geekiest guys he knows because I spend a fair bit of my weekend reading the Economist.
I have to confess that is true. I am a geek. I read the Economist for pleasure.
Now, feeling light headed from my confession here is a reply to a debate regarding the future of the IMF that was pretty interesting though the poster seems to have digressed a fair bit.
Here goes:

Money is a token that represents scarce resources. But if money is not scarce, it has no value. Could it be that the wonderful new concepts of economics based on gee-whiz faith of the last twenty years, such as the idea that unlimited money supply is the same as unlimited wealth, be catching up with the global economy? I think it has.

What has emerged is a world system with two tiers of money supply. The money supply that exists in the investor tier is unlimited and growing faster than that, as greedy and stupid economists encourage greedy and stupid bankers to break every prudent restraint. The money supply that exists in the consumer or exchange economy is still limited. Thus we have the situation where you can't even give away investment capital at this point. So the IMF is going out of business, since it was peddling money in the investment tier, and there isn't a customer left who can absorb any more investment capital. At this point the most ridiculous and impossible investments are flush with captial, things that have little or no chance of value return, things like Google stock, or YouTube the non-business with the no-business-model. Horrible investments like Chinese banks and businesses are overfed with excessive capital. Now in Chinese culture money is never, ever, ever, returned to investors and it is the basic practice of every business or individual to keep two or three or four sets of books and for capital to disappear in 100 ways like rain through a sieve. The reason for orientals doing business exclusively with relatives is that only relatives can be made to return investments or fairly pay, and that only with much pressure. Yet there are trillions of dollars available to be flushed into that drain without any reasonable hope of return, because investment capital is now available without limit or restraint.

The IMF is being put out of business, because their product, investment capital, has been cheapened.
Posted by sharncedar at February 3, 2007 6:27 PM

Interesting...remind me when I become a VC to be VERY cautious investing Fund money in China.

Our daily bread

2007-01-23T22:50:00.000-08:00

Some things...the weirdest of things...trigger a memory. A random memory.
Like...some dough had gone bad (this is possibly a year back) and guess what memory it triggered? The first or second day of school, back in high school days when the school folks assembled a room full of 100-pg and 200-pg notebooks to be given to students. The smell of the dough going bad was exactly like the smell of the glue used to stick the jute/cloth binder that held the books together. One notebook caused you to wince, a sack full caused you to feel nauseous. A room full of such books caused you to get high and have distinctly horrifying hallucinations. Especially with the Mumbai rain out in full force and the smell of damp clothes and wet socks adding to the attack on the olfactory senses.

Obviously, the school got the notebooks for less in bulk and also avoided the premium, luxury notebooks for rich kids v/s blotting paper notebooks for the poor ones.
So everyone got the blotting paper kind.

Yesterday, I was reading my latest book "Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid" and there was a reference to a Mexican bread company...Bimbo!
Now any desi kid who grew up in India, especially in Mumbai remembers a few specific bread companies that operated back in the day of socialist raj- Wibs, Britannia and....Bimbo.
Each bread had a unique smell...mainly because of the yeast used to make it.
If you could afford it, you went for Britannia. Short on money? Buy Wibs and the days Britannia and Wibs was out, you bought Bimbo.
Still remember the white, blue and orange alternating squared wax paper cover.
We tried to find the loaf that seemed tightly packed. Basically it meant that roaches or lizards could not have made their way into the loaf. There were no coated wire ties or transparent plastic bags with plastic holds in those days.

I used to wait for those Sunday mornings when my grand ma would send me to fetch the premium bread while she cut slices of tomatoes, cucumber and made mint chutney and made awesome sandwiches. If I was lucky my grandma would let me have two sandwiches and half of a third one.
I remember making coffee icecream...basically I 'forgot' my strong milk coffee in the freezer overnight and then I'd wait for the 10 am cartoon show to start. In those days of DD1 and DD2 we didnt have the luxury of having fun shows right through the day. You got to see one...maybe two...interesting shows on a Sunday. I'd make sure that I spaced my sandwiches (or Maggie) right so that the last bite would be a min or two before that fun hr ended.
It was optimization of a simple joy.

In Malegaon, the small town where my folks live, premium bread was very hard to come by, back in the day. So the bread we got was made at the local bakery...simply called "Apni Bakery". It had the best naankatai, khaari biscuits and loose 'Nice' biscuits which he sold by weight. It was fascinating for a young city boy.
The bread wasn't always very tasty and the slices were really small. Possibly 2.5 inch square. Tiny. But the intriguing part was that it didnt come from some faceless corporation. It was made by the guy I spoke to at the counter.

The days have changed and my brain and senses are overwhelmed by a flood of bread choices- white, whole wheat, 5 grain, 7 grain, sourdough, baguettes, foccacia, and what not. But none has an association. Usually, I buy the same brand of bread but I'd be damned if I remember the name.

A simple thing...a simple trigger. A sweet memory.

The week that was

2007-01-20T23:32:00.000-08:00

Seems just like yesterday that I blogged. Turns out it was 5 days ago.
The week was 5 days of good , solid hard work and nothing else really. All the things I plan that I want to do on a day to day basis come to nought. I want to read some every day. I want to write a page or two every day. Just doesn't happen. It takes discipline to do thing you like on a daily basis, especially if you work 9 to 9 or 9 to 10 everyday.

I need to take control of my life. I love the thrill of the chase in business. I love my work on days it is exciting. But I have so much more to offer. So many more skills to develop.
I'm just afraid, someday I might decide to drop it all and become some traveling hippie. Well, that's not REALLY going to happen. But I don't want to tire of this fun at work. I have a short attention span. Thank God consulting love THAT as much as I do.

A fun filled winter afternoon

2007-01-14T21:29:00.000-08:00

So yesterday was tepid. So what? The temperature was close to freezing..or at least its 'LA equivalent'. The regular LA person begins to describe the temperature as "it's freezing" when it falls below 50 or 45F. When it falls to 35ish you know the end of human existence and the next Ice Age is near.
Well today wasn't quite all bad. In fact today was a lot of fun! Unanticipatedly!
Alps has been salivating at BMers and Audis for quite some time now. He is finally out on the market for a BMer. Went out to look for one and I thought I overheard them say that they were going out shooting. I decided to join in.
So visualize this. 4-5 desi guys in a car. One guy gets out...this in a posh neighborhood...goes to another car's boot, takes out a shotgun that looks more like an anti aircraft gun to me, and peacefully examines it on the road. NOT the kind of thing you want to be doing in the street these days. But Jude isn't given to such rational thought.
Went for desi food and it took us so long to get our ration of parathas, chole bhaturas, and lassi that it was well on 4 pm when we got out of there. Place closes at 5pm in the seedy San Fernando valley.
We were reluctant. Altaf was insistent. He won.
So we were on our way there, got there just in time to hear that it was closing.
The lady still let us through. So we got through to the skeet shooting range with Jude's howitzer.
I was freezing my bollocks off even with a thermal combo on. And I'm supposed to be OK with cold.
So we shot 3 shots each of that death-donor gun. That thing is LOUD. As usual, I didnt take ear muffs or ear plugs and though not deafening, each slug makes you wince.
As you'd expect, its damn difficult to hit a skeet with a shotgun slug.
So we were getting a few shots off, when this chunky old Bubba walked up to us in all right ernest and on his way started out loudly that he had 5 issues with us (color wasn't one of them).
The primary one being this wasn't your usual skeet shooting gun but a mother of a...as I have said before...defense shotgun. The kind that you keep under your bed and gives thieves a heart attack when you show it to them.
Net net- We weren't allowed to shoot further.
I'm not sure I'm ready for skeet shooting or for trap shooting just yet.
I prefer indoor or outdoor pistol or air rifle shooting. I prefer the peace and concentration there than the ruckus out in the field with skeet. Next time is going to be some pistol and possible some air rifle. At $40 it isnt too cheap but isnt too exhorbitant either.
So gout out of there early. Came back home by 5:45ish and the gang wanted to do something else.
Decided tennis was it. Went to the local floodlit facility for a few games.
I was rusty initially...the first 15 mins. Havent played in a long time.
But after a few warm-up faux pas...I was ready to serve a few zingers that really whistled out.
I was getting great whip, speed and angle. Jude was standing a clear 5-7 ft behind the baseline to take my serves. Felt hella good.
Played for close on 2-3 hrs. Tomorrow...this is going to hurt a lot. A LOT!
So back home I'm in my room, sitting on my pillow, and blogging my ass off.
It's been a peaceful weekend. An end to 10 slow rested days...were they really so rested? Maybe not.
But one thing is for sure. I'm beginning to do way more interesting things that a) I couldnt afford as a student and b) I possibly never would do in India.
But it's been fun over all.
Next few things in the pipeline
1) Learn golf
2) Learn scuba diving- wanna scuba dive on the great barrier reef one day
3) Sky dive
4) Para-glide
5) BASE jump
6) Snorkle
LAst but not the least 7) SURF BABY!!!!

Hora from Boston

2007-01-10T20:23:00.000-08:00

Boston is a global city. It is an international city. It has a personality. A personality that has come with age and having seen many a blizzard and snow storms. Of having lived through rain and hail and wind. A face leathered by the forces of nature. Of a face with lines. Of a work of art.
They say tell a man by his underwear, a woman by her stockings and a country by the way it treats its old.
In the same vein, tell a city by its downtown.
I'm not sure where Boston downtown is. I'm not sure if I'm in Boston downtown right now.
I'm putting up at a fairly nice hotel (its NOT a Four Seasons or Parker Meridian but hey I'm not a Partner or a VC yet) across from Qunicy'a market.
The place is replete with tradition and stories and history.
The whizzened face of this old city.
I walked around the financial district and along the harbor, as is my wont when I go to a new city. Walking around a city gives one a good feel for the city and its people.
Leaving my cold induced bias against Boston aside I have enjoyed my first few days here.
It has the typical East Coast Old England charm to it.
Add to it the spectacular views from the 39th floor of my office building.
Overall, I came away impressed though not in love.
Like I say about SF-a love affair with SF is a love affair waiting to happen.
The British lilt to the speech of Bostonian women is intriguing...but it is an intrigue more of novelty. Not one designed to make me fall in love for ever and ever.

Med School friends come back into my life

2007-01-02T23:25:00.000-08:00

For a fairly long time I was not in touch with the med school gang.
Lotsa reasons really.
1) They were getting their asses whipped in residency
2) Too busy trying to stand up on their own two feet
3) Trying to work 4 jobs at once to make some money to open a clinic
4) Trying to manage an affair or a marriage at the same time
5) Desi docs are not technophiles

So 4-5 yrs after the dumbest webheads and netheads in India had discovered Orkut my classmates discovered it too. Slowly, they are beginning to trickle in.
My school community which was almost exclusively juniors now has a growing contingent of the oldies who were my super senrs.
Old cricket matches, annual functions, professors, asshole bureaucrats in college, Prithvish, Rangoli, Rajawadi, Kurla Bhabha, locals, bike ride in the rain to college, casulty...everything came down in a mad rush of memories.
When they were happening to me I was unhappy, angry, sad, disappointed with that life. I deserved better. But humans have a way of rationalizing the past. Of romanticizing it. Of glorifying it. Of certain events being enhanced just that little bit with every narration till every day in that past begins to seem like the perfect day in a Paradise. A Paradise that wasn't.

Some friends I don't identify with now. Some folks I didnt care about much back then and dont care much about now. But in that glorified past, even they get tagged as friends. Friends become almost brother like.
Makes one yearn for that past.
It wasnt all bad.
There is good in the world. There was good in my past.
We were co-passengers on a journey to a common destination...or to a common transit point.
Some of these co-passengers stay with us through to the end of life's journey. Some we part with at transit. Hopefully, they were a pleasure for whatever time you spent together.
You may meet them later, at another transit point in life.
Share a few beers, revive memories and move on.
Transits cannot become destinations...don't treat them as such.

Funny one liner by my med prof-1

2007-01-01T11:53:00.000-08:00

Friend: Sir, I have joined a psychiatry residency
Prof: Oh, why did you leave clinical medicine???

BAM! POW!

Prof:1 Psychiatry:0

New Years Eve

2006-12-31T21:29:00.000-08:00

Without friends and family around, NY Eve is just another evening at home.
It would be depressing if I was in Mumbai and sitting at home, even in Baltimore or in the Bay area, maybe. But in LA it aint even depressing.

In defense of capitalism

2006-12-31T12:32:00.000-08:00

A zinger of a last para in an article from 'The Economist'.

"To find the market system wanting because it does not bring joy as well as growth is to place too heavy a burden on it. Capitalism can make you well off. And it also leaves you free to be as unhappy as you choose. To ask any more of it would be asking too much. "

2006-12-31T02:12:00.000-08:00

Stan's the man. Love reading his blog.
It's hella insightful.
Way to goooo Stan-ley!

Why is a man paid well?

2006-12-29T23:17:00.000-08:00

This has been a question that has made many a man go sleepless.
Why does Mr. Jones or Mr. Chen or Mr. Patel next door make more money than I do? Why does that guy, in my jnr. college, whom we all used to think of as the dumbest ass that walked the corridors make more money than I do? I was smarter than him. I should be making more money and having an easier and more comfortable life. But thats not the case!
All he does is spends time counting money...money made without personal effort or any considerable intelligence.
What exactly makes some men more money than others?

Money is a fickle lover. Entices some who had never much thought of it and yet makes its lovers and worshippers pine away for years.

Being more analytical minded (and a consulting type) I had to plot it on a graph...hopefully without the z axis, which would have been more realistic.
So, taking the principle of parsimon(e)y into consideration, let's say money coming to a man (or woman) is directly related to the risk the person is taking and the value he/she is adding.
Sure, in consultant speak, the word value is thrown around more often than anything else.
What does value mean?
In my mind I think I'm clear about the concept and let me put it through to you.

Value is the difference ONE sip of water makes to a parched person compared to the difference it makes to someone who has just had a few pints of the colourless, wet stuff.
Therein lies the essence of value, especially when you can do it for a hell of a lot of people.

What exactly is risk?

Risk is going outdoors in the rainy season without an umbrella in your finest clothes.
Sometimes you have access to a weather report or look at the sky and make a judgment call. Sometimes you don't. What you decide to do depends on your appetite for risk.

But the biggest adjustment here, is adjusting for luck. Lot of individualists don't believe in luck. I do. Why some oil rich sheiks are rich because of oil, something they dont really have a role to play in, can't be explained by risk or value. Why your neighbor won the $75 M lotto while you still live in a trailer home isn't explained by risk or value. It's just good ol darned luck and there ain't a darned sight you can do about that.

OK So let's try to look at the spread of values in the risk/value v/s return graph.
Let's walk through a few random examples of professions that are known to make more (or less) money and their risk value profiles.

1) Doctors- Heck I am one (or was one). Kinda natural that this be the first profile examined.
These guys put in donkey's years getting a degree. Especially, in this day and age you can get into med school wanting to be a cardiologist and come out become a gynecologist or a radiation oncologist or just a pill pushing primary care guy.
You might love the heart but might end up being a nut specialist (that makes you either a psychiatrist or a urologist- take your pick)
So there is a lot of risk, will you get the specialty you like, will you get a lucrative specalty? Will you get a specialty education at all? Or would you be left licking the leftovers at the bottom of the pecking order?
Doctors, make a big chunk of money, in any society because they do take risks...but even more so because they add value.
They actually go about the business of trying to understand the most complicated machine ever, the human body. And then they tinker with it when it is messed up and in ill health and restore your health and vigor.
That's value as value comes.
Ne'er is there been more joy than in robust health.
I believe it is this value, more than the risk, that makes many doctors the kind of returns that we see and hear about.
Even within this group, the ones who work with the riskiest areas, the heart and brain make more money.
Surgeons more than physicians is also based on a very similar risk as well as value proposition.

2) Finance professionals
Now these are the guys that make the big fat pay checks.
In this profession, risk (and risk analysis) is king. More the risk, more the return.
The riskiest of the lot- bond traders, commodity traders, derivatives chaps, leveraged buyout gangs are the guys that make the biggest bucks in this kettle.
They work a good 16 hr day, burn their soul taking risks constantly on trades and either make (or lose) a lot of money. A few others are number crunching machines with a lot of brain horse power. I have seen a few complex risk models and to be truthfully it made me feel woozy in the head looking at it...leave alone trying to make one of my own and make it work!
On the other hand, your friendly neighborhood equity analyst doesn't make as much money while the hedge fund guy does.
This is all risk play and the value is the returns they bring to their investors.
Take the example of the fund managers for the world's largest endowement fund. The Harvard alumni endowement fund. Some $20+ BILLION fund. Most folks, with that kind of money, can make it grow fairly well.
But the Aetna gang seems to make it grow really well and make double digit million packages (or so we heard) as compensation. Lot of people are not very happy. How can managers of a non profit fund make so much money. But the simple fact remains that even after their big fat pay checks, the managers still make better returns for the fund compared to other investors.
Go figure.

3) Businessmen
Whether you sell marriage type ghagra cholis at Manish market or duty free imported smuggled maal at Heera Panna or have a confectioners business or are a high end chip manufacturer, chances are that you make way more money than the avg salaried Joe-Shmoe.
Businessmen take risk-risk of failure of the enterprise, risk of slow downs, risk of increased costs or competition, risk of supply chain issues, risk of labor issues, risk of regulatory and licensing issues, risk of a few hundred thousand different issues that come with handling a P&L.
Businessmen also add value.
They bring products to customers and competition to the market place, which are both lofty achievements in a capitalist set up.
They bring bread to our table, newspaper to our loos, chips with salsa and chips in our computers. They create every single thing we use all through the day, all through our life. From the humblest match box to the mightiest gadgets are made by these risk taking entrepreneurs and old businesses.

4) Government office babu
This 35 hour working, 90 mins lunch break taking, life long one job guy is for me the ultimate symbol of the risk averse man. A fair bit of these guys have no significant expectations from life, save two square meals a day for self and family. Sure, they would love more, and therein lies the reason for the unchecked corruption in the sclerotic babudom but when return for risk and effort is considered, your friendly neighborhood babu wants it as low risk as it comes.
Even better when the Govt provides subsidized housing, an office car with a flashing red light on the top, so their family can use it like a family car, a few more freebies maybe and a foreign junket thrown in, squares it up nicely.
Add to this the fact that the job and its accompanying perks near lifelong.
In short you have a situation of fairly low risk low value high returns. No wonder then that the Civil services are so widely sought after.

5) Joe-Shmoe pen pusher

When this is a 'not so empowered' person...I think it's just life. But when I see an empowered person mired in a 'going nowhere' slow job it rouses the worst of my emotions. Especially when the person is doing the job out of his own free will.
Sure sure I respect the individual freedom that our system bestows upon us to make choices but what I end up not respecting is the choice the person made.
The choice (and its attendant drivers) go against my core values of ambition, individualism, achievement and contribution.
For all the BS people will peddle to you about work life balance and 'there are lot of good people out there'...here's the secret lt out of the bag. There arent enough good people to go around. Good people who would make a significant difference.
They say "With great power comes great responsibility".
If you are smart and have the requisite tools and you decide to cool your heels because you like the slow life...I tend to see it as an abdication of responsibility.
This is the low risk low value low return scenario.
It is a sad story of our society that many people wallow in this category for want of effort or that of ambition.

At the end of the day a lot is unsaid and undiscussed.
A matter for a book maybe.
Why does one person become a Steve Jobs? and another person doesnt?
Why does one bright idea become Google but another idea doesnt?
How are some people able to monetize those ideas and some people cant get a penny for their thoughts?

The Lexus and the Olive tree

2006-12-25T14:53:00.000-08:00

In one line:
One of the best books I have ever read.

Tom Friedman is a genius at using simple examples from life to make a relevant point- even in the complex world of globalization.
I don't always like his habit of "I like to call this phenomenon....". It tags things in too simplistic a manner but he makes up for this by making a ton of very relevant points, which are insightful and instructive in one go.
Lexus and the Olive tree is a simple portrayal of the tug of war that many countries are now facing- culture vs scientific/economic progress. These two need not be, and are not, mutually exclusive but one does come at a significant cost to the other.

Socialism/communism vs capitalism may be likened to two trains.

The former has many people at the control...the direction governed by the intentions of its drivers/motormen. There is no scheduled destination though the hypothetical destination is some Paradise on Earth. There is no specified departure time nor an ETA. "Need to go" will get you a ticket on this train...and the "can pay"s would pay for those who "need to go but can't pay".
The train hardly ever gets to the destination. Hence the passengers are destined to go wherever the motorman pleases to go and hope to God he/they know what they are doing.
In this train there is no luxury or first class car or even a sleeper compartment. The only luxury car is the motorman's cabin.
Everything is "standing only" with no bells and whistle.
And a window seat doesnt count for much since the windows are bolted shut, lest the passenger see outside and figure they are going nowhere...or worse they see the capitalist train.

Capitalism, on the other hand, is a train with no motorman. There is no one in control. But it is a luxury train, mind you. It is run, in large measure by the whims and desires of its passengers. This again, has no specified destination. It's joy is in its journey. And it tries to go through the prettiest, nicest locations possible. But not all locations have tracks on which this train can run well (or in some places run at all).
This train doesn't come within miles of such places.
This train has tons of bay windows, luxury dining cars and parlors...but every joy has a price. There is a second class and even a third class for passengers who can't (or wont) pay the premium price. "Need to go" has to tango with cash (pun intended) to get you a ticket here.
From this train you can see the socialist/communist train, a relic of the past, gasping in the distance.

The appeal of the book also comes from the fact that it is not a rabid proponent of unchecked globalization and evil capitalism.
It talks more of a better, more desirable system- capitalism with a social and global conscience. Of keeping cultures alive. Of allowing uniqueness its right to survive. Of protecting our environment. Of helping neo-capitalists get onto the fast moving capitalist train. Of creating safety nets for those who take the risk and fall. Of empowering those left far behind...so they may be able to board this train as well.

This train will pass through an olive groove and all olive tree huggers, eventually, would have to board this train. How they do it and how they pay for the ticket is the million dollar question.

The quarter that was- prelude

2006-12-24T10:31:00.000-08:00

As per a fairly new start I do quarterly analyses of where my long term plan is headed. A long term plan that should, really, be updated, renewed, refreshed every year.
When I was out job hunting I had to dwell on the constant question : What is your long term plan?
I feel I have at least a blurry vision of that long term plan. If it works, I'd be a visionary. If not, I'd be the bright kid o the block that didn't quite deliver.
Before, I digress widely, the time is here in a few days when I do some introspecting on the quarter that was, assess developmental needs, set goals and prioritize for the quarter and year to come.
But I have a feeling this year is going to come off as a winner.
The last quarter has zoomed by in a blur of late nights in the office working and some weekends spent having some cool fun.

I never did this kind of analysis...the more laidback folks would think this is stretching a good thing a tad bit too much. But I have come to see someone's point of view. Life span is finite and the years of strength and vigor more so. These are the years that make us or break us. If we don't optimize their use it's as good (or bad) as a lifetime lost.
Sure, most folks do SOME informal analysis after a few pegs: What the f%$k am I doing with my life? Where is all this leading to?
But this is not half as good as doing it on paper...and possibly with a live person who can act as a sounding board.

Snow boarding

2006-12-17T22:48:00.000-08:00

Started the transition from the sad, poor student to the joie de vivre kind...in very material terms-splurge and enjoy.
Yesterday, very atypical of me, I decided to go snow boarding, on the spur of the moment.
I like spur of the moment stuff, just havent done that so much lately. So kinda felt doing doing it, but it HURTS.
This was my first experience snow boarding...the first time I was in fairly heavy snowfall in Calif (i.e. I havnt been to Tahoe) and it was hella fun. Took quite a few falls, though I think I got a fair hang of starting up and of moving fast but braking was the problem.
Result- a bruised knee, torn tracks, and painfully stretched muscles...but all in all it was fun.
The drive to Mountain High was hella long, the 10 being really crowded on a weekend close to the holiday season. But it was like being back in college, a drive with desi music, stopping for hot chocolate, snow near LA (how sweet is that?).. I think I'm going to snowboard more...especially if and when I ever move to San Fran and go to Tahoe.

Also got to do a quick detour via Claremont, saw the old place that I have mixed feelings for. Met Senman and his family and his new house. He definitely looks happy there.
Got my carton and quite a bit of stuff from there.
So I'm stocked and ready for a long stay here. Sadly my TT racket wasnt in the carton :(
Wonder where I left the Excalibur.

Suspension of disbelief

2006-08-19T23:30:00.000-07:00

Suspension of disbelief, more recently known as 'Manna of Mahim' is not a new phenomenon.
Some 10 yrs ago when I was in high school or possibly junior college someone figured out that Lord (this is to refer to a God not to a member of the Brit aristocracy) Ganesha idols were drinking milk. Go figure. Mind you. This wasn't limited to illiterate, simple minded folk. You are talking doctors, engineers, lawyers, architects here. You get the picture!

So picture this: Friday night. Three friends sitting in a flat, sipping beer and munching on some finger food, waiting for the delivery boy from a decent local restaurant to deliver food. An order placed at 11 pm comes in nearly at 12:45 am!
When asked about the reason for the delay the boy said, rather animatedly, that the sea water had turned sweet. That's great. I mean...so many ideas spring to mind. You could bottle and sell the miracle water, you have a sea of inventory of sweet water (literally) when the world wide stock of fresh water dies out...figure out the $$ you could make there. The potential for 'miracle tourism'. The opportunities are endless. But I'm missing the point of the excuse here.
But we digress.

Some fisherman realized he had a lousy catch for the day and decided to taste the water. Hmmm not that salty. Heck, it tastes SWEET. Thats it. Th e sea water is sweet. His kid sister backs up his assertion. Cool enough.
'Not educated but smart person' thinks "Hmmm something weird here. Sea water tasting sweet is not regular. I should contact the police or some municipal corp person...they will call in some big guy science man who will figure out WHY it is sweet...or less salty".

Your friendly neighborhood uneducated Indian, Muslim or Hindu or whatever think "Oh my God. God has done this. This is his blessing. He has made the water sweet...a miracle...to wash my sins."

Sweetheart, first thing...that's a LOT of sin to wash. Also, if you have seen the water at the beach at Mahim, Mumbai lately...it's going to take God starting from scratch so it looks like what sea water is supposed to look like. Turning sea water sweet is not on the list of his priorities. He might start with cleaning the trash that you throw in it every single day.so people like me dont think they are going to get gastro just looking at the water. He already got you the miracle, the sea, and you fucked it up biatch.

For those not in the know and thinking, what's this man blabbing about here:
Mahim is a part of Central/West Central Mumbai...pretty unnervingly close to the armpit of Mumbai-Dharavi. At Mahim causeway a river, the Mithi (literally meaning 'sweet', talk about irony), full of industrial effluents and toxic waste flows into the sea. At many different points in Mahim, sewage, whether treated or raw, flows into the sea. To add to this, inhabitants of illegal dwellings and shanties in and around the beach crap their asses out on the beach every single day. Excrement, which is carried to sea by the high tide.

Let go off the breath if you have held it too long, for the revelation of the butler being the culprit is at hand.
It is this water, that people had thought had turned sweet.
From 7:30 pm onwards on Friday, 5000 people from the Mahim dargah 'mostly from a minority community' held up traffic as they jumped into the sea for a taste of 'shifa' (not too hard to figure out what that is).

Scientists reached the spot and tried to take samples...they couldnt make it to the sea front due to the number of devotees. Something about Science being held back by religion and God's creatures. I accept that our current knowledge of science doesnt explain everything...and for this reason we can only think that there is something greater...but this suspension of disbelief is pushing 'something greater' to ridiculous limits.

Think of incidents...terminally ill old people or mentally challenged or physically challenged young kids being given this fucked up water...as miracle cure...talk about adding insult to injury.

The Lord Mayor of the city jumped joyously into the sea...and came out saying that it was nothing short of a miracle. Errr isnt there some law that prohibits the First (or second or third ) citizen of a city like Mumbai from acting like an idiot and setting a BAD example for other citizens to follow?
Evidently not, for in India NOT being able to suspend disbelief in the name of God is the bigger crime.

A scientific mind, tempered by some ethical and even 'larger than thou' considerations makes for an ideal recipe. A hard core scientific mind comes next. An idiot mind with no thoughts of science...only looking for divine intervention...is the most evil and dangerous of all.
In this our education system has failed us.

No God is coming to wash your sins darling...you better learn to wash it yourself.

A Lazy Week in the Laidback city

2006-08-04T22:38:00.000-07:00

For the amount I gush about Mumbai and heckle Pune there is an undeniable truth. Pune weather beats Mumbai's hands down..and its not a small difference for a person like me. I am extremely sensitive to the combination of heat and humidity. People sweat, I leak like a faucet.

Overall good fun though stayed indoors, at home, for way too long.
Beered frequently, watched a movie, finished a chapter and half and overall was pretty relaxed. Too relaxed. Rained way to hard in Pune in the initial part.

2006-06-22T19:36:00.000-07:00

LOL!
Ro looks, awed, horrified, at the collection of beer bottles...the contents of which the YG liver and the livers of a few frirends had endured.
AS you'd see Ro, himself, is somewhat 'tight' ;)

Aftermath of a few parties

2006-06-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

So this was when I was in India in Dec 04...had a few parties at home. And in a week I had more empty 750 ml beer bottles than I needed at the time. So I asked my good friend across from my flat to deal with them and while he was sitting, decently high, I lined them up in his living room.
And took a pic for old times sake.
I can still see Ro's expression when he heard this was a net collection of a few days bottles. LOL

Random update XLVI

2006-06-14T02:03:00.000-07:00

Can a recent writer really suffer from 'writer's block'?
This important chapter seems to be dragging on. It feels like I'm typing all day but when I look at the amount of material I have come up with it...it aint much. Sigh...
An entire 250-300 pg novel. Man...its going to be like a marathon. Just hope I complete it.

LEave you with a few jokes from Snatch
1) Turkish: Fuck me, hold tight. What's that?
Tommy: It's me belt, Turkish.
Turkish: No, Tommy. There's a gun in your trousers. What's a gun doing in your trousers?
Tommy: It's for protection.
Turkish: Protection from what? "Zee Germans"? What's to stop it from blowing your bollocks off every time you sit down?

2) Customs official: Anything to declare?
Avi: Yeah. Don't go to England.

The power of work out

2006-06-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

Most friends in India assume I must still be working out. They don't remember the last time I wasn't a workout fanatic. Most folks I know in Calif haven't seen a time when I didn't look like the Hindenburg, about to tragically crash.
Blame it on access issues.
This sounds like a line classically out a "Health sector reform in Niger" text at J Hop Health Systems.
"Transportation forms an additional barrier to access to healthcare facilities. Due to the centripetal distribution of health centers and resources, those bereft of transportation at the periphery also remain bereft of healthcare provisions. Hence, such a situation might require one of two possible solutions:....."

That, in a nutcase (or is it nutshell) was me. An inaccessible gym further aggravated by a severe paucity of time crippled by an almost Germanisque imbibation of beer led to me looking like a 70 yr old Raj or Shammi Kapoor.

But now that I am in the good Bay with weights and a trendy tread mill at home....I'm back in action. Watching my diet like a hawk...turned down a mouth watering slice of pizza in favor of penang tuna (is that sacrifice or what). Hardly put in more than 1200 calories per day and burn way more with long weights and/or aerobic work out. Feeling the fat melt away, and seeing the cut sleeve, bike riding, bandana-ed Yatz emerge out of a shroud of fat.
Watch out ye all...one of these days I might actually get snapped and put up a recent pic.
Yay yipee yay!

A beautiful day in SF

2006-05-28T00:41:00.000-07:00

To get down to the day. Got out of the house by 9 am and were in the city, with its tricky one-ways by around 9:45 am. Surprisingly, we seemed to be the first gang at the designated spot though others had arrived before us.
The first tour lasted from 10 am to 11:30 am and was about the Gold Rush in 1848-49. The Gold Rush, for all practical reasons, built San Francisco and gave it the personality it has today. A city of opportunities for the risk takers and opportunity seekers.
Dave was a pretty interesting speaker, though he had an intriguing habit of spacing out in the middle of his monologue. I guess I'd need to take pics of Dave from the AK man.
We walked around looking at some of the spots where commerce had set up, including the offices of the Pony Express, the first mint, the center of the city from whence it has sprung, etc.
I'd elaborate on individual components some other day (heck, maybe even tomorrow)

After we were let off at 11:30 it was a short walk to Chinatown and some decent dimsum place. It was more 'homely' and not quite as good as Ton King at Geary, where we ended up in the Spring break for a nice hearty, sumptuous dimsum lunch.

After lunch, we drove over to the City Hall to our second walking tour...the earthquake of 1906. This is the centennial year...so it is kinda special for the city. The lady was in a typical Victorian dress and a hand made bonnet. Walked around the City Hall and some of the streets and alleys in the vicinity. She showed us where the "ham and eggs" fire had begun and approached the area between Market st and Van Ness. Also went through the Public library to see some remarkable old photographs.

One of the highlights of the day was seeing this beautiful vintage car and one of the most expensive ones at that- a 1937 Rolls Royce Phantom III. The chauffeur told me it was the first '100 miles an hr' car. Ain't it a beauty?

Rang De Basanti

2006-05-20T18:02:00.000-07:00

Here is a disclaimer (especially for those who don't know me)- By nature I detest violent approaches to enforce my world view. I didn't really like the approach RDB youth had taken. I don't think killing someone is a solution to anything.

Now I can write further.

The "no excuses" speech in the end made me look at RDB differently. As I read about the reservation firefights I feel a silent rage churning inside me. A lot of factors fuel this rage:

1) Political aspirations and sheer greed of individuals like Arjun Singh can threaten to lay waste a large country like India. It is Macbethian characters like him that are the bane of Indian existence. How many dead bodies of hard-working, smart Indians will he tread over before he stops?

2) The apparent abdication by my ex-idol Manmohan Singh. I revered him for his intelligence and his actions. I was happy that an intellectual of his calibre had decided to get his hands dirty in Indian politics. But now as I see him refusing to acknowledge the anti-reservations protests I am left despondent. He has followed a policy of minimum resistance to his baiters and minimum visibility to those who seek his true views.
Did even Hamlet ever face Dr. Singh's dilemma?

3) The refusal of other parties to join in the anti-reservation debate...no one wants to sit on a gun powder keg, light up a match and see their political prospects blown sky high.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
ToI
Meanwhile, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj beat a hasty retreat from AIIMS after the students asked her to take a clear stand on the reservation issue. Once they realised that no response was coming, they started shouting slogans and forced her to leave the venue.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

4) The lack of willingness on the part of regular, working or studying joes to come out into the street and to join in protests against this shameless act on the part of the government. It mystifies me, infuriates me to wonder...do these guys have no sense of social obligation and an obligation to their future generations? Their refusal to participate may be representative of their declining faith in the system, their personal lack of belief in the strength of their voice and in general a "chalta hai" attitude. Until John Doe becomes a social activist, no good can accrue.

Yet there is hope, I heard engineers are joining in and a batch of accountants joined in the protests in Delhi.

But all this begs a few questions...
1) Why have only doctors been the active participants in this crusade? Aren't MBAs, engineers, accountants or other occupations going to be hit by this piece of legislation?
2) Moreover, on the longer time scale...medical residents, engineers don't have unlimited time being only social activists. Their primary duty is an onerous and time-consuming duty whereas people like Arjun Singh, in the twilight of their life and career, looking back on a life ill-spent, have ample time to claim their one last moment in the spotlight, damn the cost. How do we keep the movement going without compromising our work life?
This certainly isn't going to be a 10-day fest affair. This monster is going to have to be battled longer and stronger.

People like Arjun Singh can push their agenda forward in the firm knowledge of the pacifist nature of people like us...we don't set buses on fire or lynch a minister. He needs to see that we can't be taken for granted and that if he is back to his bull shit...we will raise our voice...loudly!

All it takes for Evil to succeed is for a few good men to do nothing.
Rang De Basanti!

Reservation saga continues

2006-05-20T13:13:00.000-07:00

I have been following the reservation debate in India and it is disgusting what self-serving individuals like Arjun Singh will do for a few votes and to get close to the feet of his "Most Favored Master" in Delhi.

All these protests, all this divisive shit so one guy can further his political ambitions?
Truly disgusting! Are one man's political ambitions enough to endanger the fragile cohesion in a billion strong country? Evidently they are...and his political masters do nothing to rein him in or chuck him out.
Rather than increasing total number of seats in central institutions Manmohan Singh and Sonia should show their commitment by throwing out dolts like Arjun Singh flat and square on his ass.

No data is collected or currently available to understand the socio-economic performance of OBCs in Indian society. It is a self defeating assumption that if the title OBC is associated then he/she must be badly off. Most of the OBC seats seem to be taken not by the poor and worthy but by the "creamy layer" of OBC strata. Such individuals might have taken benefit of such lax reservations for generations on end. There is no mechanism to stop such individuals, who have gained from the system once, to stop mooching off the mammaries of the welfare state again and again.

Certainly, you can see the rationale why many of the truly SC/ST/ VJNTs need some reservations...cut the pie by class or caste and they seem to come out the losers in society. They do need a helping hand...but the helping hand needs to be in the shape of empowerment and not in the shape of alms or crutches.

Reservations by themselves are not very wrong...but doling it out on the basis of caste certainly is. And it is obviously the politicians pandering to the whims and fancies of their caste based vote banks. If reservations have to be fair in nature they need to be based on class or socio economic ability. There are many "higher caste" individuals who have as less a say in the system as some of the SC/STs yet there is no effective mechanism to give them a helping hand yet a rich OBC kid, who goes to school in a chauffeur-driven car can take advantage of reservations, albeit with the small irritance of having to produce a "No creamy layer" certificate.
In India's corruption riddled system, such a document is easily procured.

Further, increasing seats to accomodate new reservations so that the total no. of open merit seats are not reduced is not a sustainable activity. Every seat is tied not only to costs but also to resources a student needs to actually learn something- instructor-to- student ratio, hostel facilities, class rooms, laboratory and computing resources, patient beds (for medical education) are all vital factors.
Randomly increasing seats will only serve in diluting the learning potential for all involved.
Also it will bring out more graduates with the strong credentials (IIT, IIM) but not the skill sets. This will further result in the brand name of these institutions being tarnished...brand name not only in the marketing sense but the true underlying competency assumed to be associated with graduates of these institutions.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ahmedabad: The Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad “cannot increase the number of seats at this juncture”. Institute director Bakul Dholakia said, “It had its plate full.’’ While the Centre has been talking about an increase in intake of students in elite institutes to ensure that general category remained unaffected while implementing the reservation for OBCs, IIM-A feels it is already brimming. “IIM-A has been on a massive expansion drive. From 180 PGP students in 2002, it has in creased its strength to 280 during its 2006 intake, including 30 students in the agri-business management programme. By 2007, the total intake will be 400, including the oneyear executive MBA programme, PGPX, that will increase its intake from the present 60 to 120,’’ said Dholakia. “In 2007, there will be about 800 students on the IIM-A campus, with 500 students in the first and second year post-graduate programme, 60 students in the ABM programme, 120 in the PGPX programme and about 80 in the doctoral programme. Apart from these, there are participants in the numerous management development programmes for executives that range between one week and a month,’’ said Dholakia. “We require hostel facility to accommodate each students studying in the institute. We have plans to start a management course for bureaucrats with the intake of about 50,’’ he added.
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India has no shortage of political Shylocks who will go out of their way to extract their pound of flesh...but there is only so much flesh that a golden-egg-laying-goose has. After 10 Arjun Singhs have doled out 75-80-85% reservations in Parliament, higher level professional education, private sector and public sector jobs...what next?
What will these vultures gnaw, tear and bite at next?
There will be no more freebie left to give out.

But this would have effectively killed merit in the system. At the end of the day you need merit and knowledge to run an enterprise in a global setting, you need merit to understand a medical condition and treat it, you need merit and knowledge to build a 22.5 km bridge through the sea.

The reservation may get you into the seat that is responsible for all these actions...but do I want someone who got 51% in his final medical test and got admission to a Surgical residency on reservation operating on me?
I don't think so. I don't really care if the person was disadvantaged, my life is at stake and I'm not thinking of social equality and opportunity here. i'd be thinking of finding someone who can save my life..I have a feeling so does Arjun Singh. But Arjun Singh with either his horded or inherited wealth can afford to fly off to the US or UK for medical treatment...most of us can't!

Without being casteist just look at the difference between protests by pro- and anti- reservation groups.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ToI 20 May 2006
In Patna, more than a hundred pro-quota agitators marched towards the Dak Bungalow crossing around noon, accusing the media of being biased against them. Two antiriot vehicles and policemen followed them. The protesters went on the rampage and damaged about a dozen cars, including those parked outside The Times of India building. At the Dak Bungalow crossing, they clashed with mediapersons and TV crew, alleging that the media and police were “hand-in-glove’’.

In Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, a candlelight march taken out to protest the reservation policy on Friday night turned ugly when a scuffle erupted between students supporting the quota and those opposing it.
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On the other hand protests against reservations have been uniformly civil across the country.
As far as I know there has been no instance of any violent activity by anti-reservations protestors.

More on this later...

Graduation- A few random thoughts

2006-05-17T15:19:00.000-07:00

I need to figure out why I write so many "random thoughts" on my blog.
Maybe so I don't need to structure them? Hmmm Plausible enough.

The graduation ceremony was decent fun. No family in sight but not their fault :)
Stan gave a terrific speech...one of the best commencement speakers I have heard. Ginger Graham, CEO of Amylin, was a pretty good speaker- succinct and interesting. Compared to the person last year, well she stood head and shoulders above him.
Overall, the ceremony was short, sweet and painless. Usually I hate long drawn out ceremonies, especially the ending ones.
Lotsa pictures were being snapped...I had mine with a select handful who even wanted a pic with me. Kinda felt lost in the crowd surging with families, friends and what have yous. At the end of the program I felt what I felt at Orientation and through most of the program...a misfit!

I got a bunch of knowledge and experience here...but as far as social life and friends were concerned...it was a bullet in the head, a death kneel.

Masters No. 2- (Click) DONE

2006-05-12T19:09:00.000-07:00

Thought it would never get over.
Funny...it did.
More on what I am thinking ...after all "Cognito ergo sum".

Spring springs upon us

2006-04-29T21:24:00.000-07:00

Spring is here and the days are full of a spectacular riot of colors, of pretty flowers, of trees turning green again, of birds chirping and nature in its magnificence showing off why it thinks God chose southern California as its most adored home.

This is a shot of flowers in my front yard. Do tell me what you think about the amateur photographic effort.

Indrayani comes of age

2006-04-28T14:46:00.000-07:00

This is a very interesting picture I saw in the Times of India today.
So for those not in the know Mumbai is the financial capital of India and Pune is another biggish, growing town nearly 160 km (100 miles) from mumbai.
Now many people live in Pune either because the real estate is cheaper or simply because the entire family loves Pune and hates Mumbai...and yet some of these guys work in south Bombay.
This entails a DAILY commute in excess of 200 miles. These aint the kind of people who have cars so they have a monthly pass for the passenger trains from Mumbai to Pune.
The routine usually begins when they leave home at 4:30 or 5 am to go to Pune station, catch a train to go to Bombay, which takes between 3.5-4 hrs. Then they catch a commuter bus outside the main station (CST/VT) in Mumbai and get to their office. Now this is only the beginning of the work day.
Later, they leave office at 4:30-5, catch the same bus back to the station, a 3.5-4 hr train journey back to Pune and then a rickshaw ride back home.
Life is one long travel and they meet people in the train more than the people either at home or in the office. Strong friendships are forged and the journeymen learn to treat the train as a home away from home. People would usually sit in grps either playing cards, singing songs, reading or even having alcohol together. There is a very strong insider sentiment and they wont usually allow a non member to sit with them in the passholders compartment.

So recently, when one of the trains celebrated its 18th anniversary, its daily travellers ordered this huge cake to celebrate the 18th birthday of this train.

Vacuous thoughts-I

2006-04-26T14:23:00.000-07:00

Music: Dola re dola
Probably one of the best of the Indian dance n song routines...goose bumps are a certainty when you see Ash and Madhuri dance to this number.

Today has been busy...though not as crazy.
The wine club was fun yesterday. The Egg and the Freund got some good wines which hit me pretty hard considering I didnt have a bite to eat all day. The movie was...ummm...different. "Dogville" is quite unlike any movie you'd see.
I'm not sure I'm ready for that kind of offbeat movie yet. I'm your regular desi dude...give me a B'n'B with its Kajra re over a Dogville any day.

This evening is going to be bhajiya and cutting. Figures my friends and my roomie are a happy lot. Little wonder that people who can cook are generally a well loved grp...the demand supply equation kinda guarantees that.

I'm totally psyched about the novel idea and have decided to write a few pages everyday.

Of senioritis

2006-04-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

Havent we all experienced that phase in our life when we are about to graduate from a program, finished most of the tests and quizzes...some stuff remains to be done but it is exceptionally hard to drive oneself to get it done.
I'm at that juncture, especially with a job offer and some off-time in sight...kinda finding it pretty tough to get the final edits on some papers done. The motivation has taken a dip.
I'm kinda a Type-A, Type-B personality hybrid...usually very driven and ambitious but give me some time to chill out and I readily become a nice laidback Type-B. I'm just afraid of the Type-A side not kicking in. So I try not to relax too much.

Let's see...this too shall pass.

Got this huge interest of writing a novel. Social commentary garbed in a humor narrative is my favorite genre. Let's see if I can make this work. Buy a copy when it gets published ;)

"The world has no right to change so fast"

2006-04-24T12:18:00.000-07:00

(13:56:56) yatingadgil: i heard three buddhes within a narrow space getting &^%$in hitched(13:57:18) yatingadgil: chaila..i realize that my "single friends" grp is going to take a SIGNIFICANT hit
(13:58:28) sameerds: heheheheehehehehehe
(13:58:35) sameerds: that is true, my friend
(13:59:21) yatingadgil: im getting old and tired of making new friends:(
(13:59:39) yatingadgil: and those that are married...you cant become"new friends" with if ur single
(14:00:08) yatingadgil: it just doesnt work...its like TWO people haveto think ur not completely crazy for it to go from stage "acquaintance"to "friends"
(14:00:17) sameerds: get married, then!
(14:00:41) yatingadgil: dude im like luke...i wont let the dark side overpower me
(14:00:49) yatingadgil: to hell with han!
(14:01:30) sameerds: aah ... so whatever you are too afraid to get involved in, that is defined as the dark side, is it?
(14:02:04) yatingadgil: well that is generally true...but not relevant for this situation
(14:02:43) yatingadgil: i need to find a dedicated "going to remain single" grp to make friends(14:03:00) sameerds: hehee .... this should be of interest to you, then
(14:03:08) yatingadgil: what
(14:03:15) sameerds: hold on
(14:03:40) sameerds: (friend's blog addy revealing news of his upcoming engagement)
(14:06:10) yatingadgil: i am shocked!
(14:06:15) yatingadgil: $%^$ *^*% &#^ &*%&* &^%$
(14:06:47) yatingadgil: the world has no right to change so fast:((
(14:06:58) sameerds: hehehehehehehehe
(14:07:25) yatingadgil: him too?
(14:07:38) yatingadgil: abh usko ladki kaha mil gayi?

Long time no blog

2006-04-13T16:49:00.000-07:00

Last few days have been crazy with a mix of lot of work and some relaxed moments. The consulting offer has been pretty attractive with the one lil sorrow bout geography. But overall I'm enthusiastic bout the offer.
Also, I'm seeing some greenbacks come to me...via my work with a few folks.
Today has been a weird day. but aint it always.
Maybe later tonight I should spend some time and write something nice on this blog...just needed to update it some.

Post spring break

2006-03-21T21:23:00.000-08:00

The spring break was wonderful. I usually embark on a break thinking it is going to be MY time...when I would be able to put my past and present in perspective and look to what I want from my future. And, as usual, I end up vegging out doing nothing in terms of constructive thinking. Though I need add my main man, AK, helped me sort out things in my head.

Overall, it was a decent 9-10 days...began with a quiet Thursday. Went onto a hectic Friday with an interview, a job offer and a party on the back of one another. Saturday was some guests at home and chilling with a few beers Rashmi maushi got for me.
Rest of the week was a whirl of rain and relaxing, good conversation with BM, some work and generally goofing around. I can see that I'd be completely unproductive as a family guy. Thank God I'm single!
Helped BM around the house as she went on her "Revamp 2820" campaign, threw away a bunch of stuff and bought a bunch of stuff...net net the house remains crowded.

Friday the main man AK came back from India...got back a bunch of goodies...especially lot of pics. The Bbay place has turned out fab...the effort and $$s show! The Pune houses are looking good as usual. Hmmm might be interesting to figure how the flight back to Inde might look like.

Coming back was kinda crazy as the rain peaked the day I was leaving and the flight was delayed by a good 2 hrs.

Big takeaways from the spring break:
1) Watched a few movies
2) Got to read a good book
3) Realized the Mac makes for a good pic viewing experience but sucks as far as personal computer use is concerned.
4) A rain interrupted break need not always be bad
5) A break REALLY breaks the momentum for split type A/ type B personality people

Knotty boys- the complaints of a single guy

2006-03-15T00:26:00.000-08:00

Your friend is getting married! Happy or sad...or something in between?
If Wonder Years talks about first falling in love (and then falling in love quite a few times later on) and American Pie talks about, ummm the pie using years, Dil Chahta Hai takes off where American Pie ends. Where DCH ends is where my current post begins. When your friends are done courting (i.e. the first few days when friends around were not only OK or welcome but also sought after because they gave you the excuse and alibi to meet the "object of desire").
An interesting anecdote from personal experience: SPG is by far one of the most fertile ground for "guy meet girl" kinda scenarios. My grp did the usual stuff ppl my age did...talk life, talk school, cars, sport, women and ah yes...ogle at any PYT that passed by. We were officially nerds , so the PYTs did not hang out with us. Some day during my first MBBS the scenario changed and my main man AG seemed to attract many women to our grp. We had a nucleus of 4-5 guys and women and some guys came on n off. Interestingly, 2-3 guys got married to women who came into our grp.
One day I saw an exceedingly handsome woman with my main man. Seeing their comfort with each other I assumed she might be a cousin. Later I realized " he liked liked her"!! Can you imagine that?
I almost certainly felt cheated! At least with one of your best friends you can expect to be involved from the phase of "I like her...should I talk to her or maybe not".
To be told FYI can most certainly be looked on as being cheated out of an important experience. Having said that VS was another good main man. He let me experience the process! It is kinda fun.
You know how you have built a boat out of a good sheet of paper and its raining heavily. You know the boat is a work of art but at the end of the day its destiny is to float away...
Friendship is like that. At 12, at 20 even at 24 your friendships keep you going. They nourish your soul and strengthen your heart. How any relationship can be better than a good friendship is still beyond me...it is a work of art, I say! Yet, its destiny is to be cast away. Some relationships break the boat's contact with the shore...some come out stronger!
The marriage of the first of your closest friends is usually a traumatic experience. It's like sharing a part of your soul with someone you don't know...possibly with someone you never grow to like. If the "other person" hurts your friend...you hate her/him for that. If she makes your friend so happy that your own contribution is marginal (at best)...you can take that badly as well.
An ideal, yet very infrequently encountered situation, where the couple bonds with a special friend so they can truthfully say "We may be a couple and can't share certain things with you...but you have a special place in our joys that even we cant take away".

Once the world knows (read: guy's n girl's parents) the alibis and excuses can be dispensed with. Then, suddenly, the friends are no longer welcome. Heck, if was welcome I wouldnt want to be around a couple newly in love...the crap they talk brings on waves of nausea and revulsion for me. Here's a couple, that met recently, trying to figure what they are going to name their kid or what kind of house they would buy first up. The topic might be normal to the surface but the interaction (where is the soap...helps me deal with the nausea).
Its weird as mush to the power infinity.

As the wedding approaches friends are welcome again...tis the season for communal joy and festivities...not merely of twosomes.

After marriage...now thats a topic all unto itself. I hope to write over this in some depth on a long dreary rainy afternoon.

The topic to explore here (and some more later) is: Where does the "friend" die or fade off and where does the "lover" or "relationship man" arise from? Was it always there in him, like a seed waiting to strike root and grow or is it actually the love of a woman drawing water from stone?

There seems to be more proof for the first hypothesis. But you never saw it! You never knew your friends had it in them to neglect many friendship for the love of one woman. The same person who called you out of the med school library for an arbit game of ping pong or the friend who made you go on a bike ride for gas and ended up driving 25 km in wild rain to have THAT perfect cutting chai in Nerul...is no more. The spontaneity is dead! and what lives of it is reserved for the spouse. Is this innate behavior or do we do this because we see others around us (parents, older siblings, aunts n uncles) do it?
Why is spontaneity with friends the cost of the love of a woman? Does the woman seek this sacrifice of spontaneity as her "pound of flesh" or is this (even more scarily) the way your friend prefers it?

Sam asked a good question: So after all this venting...errr...is this good or bad "friend" to "lover" transition". The answer is contextual...whose point of view are we looking from.

It's obviously good for the woman and possibly for the guy (though the jury is still out on that one). You won't hear these groans and complaints from married men "friends"...for some/most parts the "friend" inside them is replaced by the relationship man. They dont miss it. They can also identify with it. You will hear single friends cry for a boat that floated away too far, out of sight but not out of mind.

Reminds me of this "not so related to the topic" line from Wyatt Earp
Character: Why you doing this for Wyatt? You know its dangerous...you can get killed!
Doc: Cuz Wyatt's my good friend
Character: Heck, I got lotsa good friends!
Doc: I don't...

Drops of rain

2006-02-28T18:29:00.000-08:00

What relevance does the title have to what I am going to write?
Absolutely nothing!
Just that I couldnt think of a title that was better than this one (talk about poverty of ideas huh)

Random thought 1: Time flies by really fast!
I thought I blogged a few days back...I looked at the post date and realized the last post is 8-9 days old (that might as well have been in the Triassic Age).

What have the last few days been like?
Not special...with the feeling fo dread enveloping me like a shroud...at the thought that my Business plan wasnt going to well (or wasnt moving at ALL).
But, now, I have a few interviews in the bag...some real biggies!
By tomorrow the B plan will be a broken arrow...out of my control. All we can do is hope for the presentation to be a winner. Otherwise 5 external VCs and Jon and Molly...yikes! Our asses are going to be crisp toast.

I fly out to the Bay area in a few days for an interview. Should be fun!
AND spring break comes up.

Let's see what the next couple of weeks and months have to bring up in life.

Random thought 2: We are too optimistic that a foreseen joy would gives us more joy (than it really would) and feel a foreseen/unforeseen hit would hurt us more (than it really would).

Is there really a solution to this problem. I'm guessing we could be really happy people if we figure this one out.

Random thought 3: Its raining cats and dogs here in Southern Calif.

So, as you can imagine, there are lots of cats and dogs around...those that landed well are running around...those that had a crash landing...well I dont need to say more, you can imagine.

Random thought 4: I have a craving for some food right now.
The problem is...I dont know which one. Maybe it is a good paratha...or is it a juicy burger. Hmmm maybe that nice big chunky burrito up in the Bay area. Or maybe chaat.
I give up!

Sick as a dawg

2006-02-20T22:52:00.000-08:00

Post- party downs I have heard of. But this is hitting ridiculous depths.
The bug is vicious...I think it has something to do with all the antibiotics people in the US ingest leading to weirdly distorted bugs. I guess that doesnt hold true if its a virus...but whatever it is, sure sucks!

Missed the wine tasting session with the wine grp...but ended up going for the Woody Allen movie. As usual, he was funny, but I wasnt upto any humor (MAN! I must be sick).
Going home early today...hopefully tomorrow, by the time I wake up, the bug might have packed bag baggage and sleeping gear and left for good. Got lotsa work to do.

A great weekend

2006-02-20T01:30:00.000-08:00

So I was over in Diamond Bar Friday evening for Widster's party and then the entire gang proceeded to Anaheim for some family mayhem...and how!

Friday: AM to PM was a chaotic time with lot of work on my report still to get done though I had spent the better part of the night getting it in shape. Had to miss the Clin Pharm lecture for that.
Got into the term sheet negotiation...and that was a bitch!
Vic can be a nut case...but Friday was ridiculous. Not only had the gang come unprepared they had no specific position they were defending. Everything was because "I think so".
So we ended up giving them equity but getting a stranglehold on control. Not sure I liked the company at all...but what the heck!
Ran over home to prep...got into my (by now) favorite silk shirt and jacket. Got my bag ready. Archu maushi's billing guy, Venkat gave me a ride after what seemed an entire eternity. Officer killing delayed proceedings for some time. And it was already 8:00 pm for a party beginning 7:30pm. I'm usually not late...but really cant help it when I have no control over the proceedings whatsoever.
The party was fun cuz of the cousin gang. The guests might just be restrained...but there was an element of (how should I put it) formality. Quite unlike the New Years party, which had no pretenses...most everybody was their real self.
Needless to say, after 31st Dec memories I did not dance...the Diamond Bar residents and Archu maushi's friends dont know they were saved by an act of omission.
We stayed up late that night...all of us and had a great time chatting up and basically being 10 yrs old...which, incidentally, is my mental age when I'm with my younger cousins.

Sat: Kinda did not dawn as early and bright as I would have liked it. Got up kinda late but there was good food to be had with pots of incredible tea and you know thats what an ideal Saturday morning is like.
General messing around followed the food.
Ro wanted to go to Sandigo...we held back cuz it was our good maushi n kaka's 19th wedding anniversary. That evening promised to be sad cuz the gang decided to go to movies and I dont really like going to movies unless something exceptional is showing (which it want).
Luckily, they decided to change the plan to go for a long walk...and so we did. A nice 3-4 mile long walk! I moved around initially with the cousin gang talking up bull and then with the maushi gang listening to them talk about some of the maushis and our trip back in Inde (note: none of it was malicious).
Back from the walk, got read yto go for din din...its a wonder what a long walk can do to your appetite. Went to Benihana...my first experience with Hibachi or Teppan yaki style cooking. It was interesting for sure. Big Ro piled onto my Saporro (as expected). Came back to another late night...slept at 3 am only to wake up 7:30 am. Got packed and left for Claremont by 9:30 or 10 am. Oh ya, gotta mention the breakfast...I had possibly one of the best omlettes I had ever had. It was simply incredible!
Today was a down day...just chilling and finished the report by 1 am and sent it out.
Tomorrow, will be the beginning of another interesting week.

Crazy busy days

2006-02-16T14:20:00.000-08:00

MAN! We need to petition God to increase the no. of hrs in a day. I mean, sure, 24 hrs were OK when people slept around for 10 yrs in neanderthal land and era and WORK meant chasing a deer down for food, or setting up a trap for some other small animal or simply just picking fruit from trees.
Heck, it even worked in a socialist era when you went to work by 9 and before you knew it, were home by 5-6 pm.

But capitalism is a different kettle of fish! If I wake up at 8 and get to school I already feel like I have wasted the day...and this is when I'm in school till...ummm...2 am. So in the interest of development and achievement, God needs to make a ...yes! 30 hr day. Now that could rock!

Well, today is going to be working on the report for my super interesting consulting gig...helps that it is with a VC firm. Tomorrow evening is off to Diamond bar and thence to Anaheim Hills. Tomorrow is going to rock! Hopefully.

Let me leave you with a nice pic of the spectacular view from my gramps place in Pune...can ya believe it, this is in the heart of the city.

Another day

2006-02-15T01:40:00.000-08:00

Do you experience one of those times when every day seems like the one before it...and the one before it...on and on.
Today just has got to be one of those days.
Is this passage of empty, unspectacular days normal? Do we just expect too much out of every day?
The more I think about it, I am convinced we increasingly expect more from life...every second, every day, every year. A moment of pause makes us uneasy and anxious. A sense of depression prevails in such situation. "Carpe diem" goes the rally...seize the day!
Is it really necessary to seize the day? Can we let the day seize us and still go with the flow without feeling the sense of depression prevail over us?

Blog-on it

2006-02-13T21:29:00.000-08:00

OK so I used to blog on n off before I went to India for the break. Came back into a completely chaotic schedule and...as always...a good thing stopped, albeit temporarily.
So I come back to the blog spot, a rejuvenated man...back to tell my tale. Heck, I must have one of the most boring lives around So Cal. WTF!
I come to school around 9-10 am and end up here until....ummmm...2-3 am.
With a life like that, what can you really experience to shove into a blog, HUH huh huh?
Let's take a shot though!
Go off home for a bite and then some random memories from ze Injun trip.

Quiz me no more

2005-05-11T00:14:00.000-07:00

You know how some quizes are? You care so much you live on coffee (and whatever other substance you find to keep you awake) to work days and nights to ace it.
Well, today I gave two quizes of the other kind. Ones where I didn't care an ant's zit worth...
Basically walked into the Pharm Dev and Corporate Finance (this just comes like naturally to me) quizzes cold turkey.

Yesterday I sat down to go through Corp Finance and terms like Pacman, Jonestown defense, Macaroni defense, Green Shoe got me reading...hell these sound either like kiddie games or artsy war type movies...never thought Bankers conversations might be so colorful.

Banker 1: Hey, the shark's on us...we need to do something.
Banker 2: Ya, the Board hates the shark's guts...calling us in for help. I think Pacman would work best.
Banker 1: Nah they can't leverage that much...they got sufficient poison pills in em to keep the shark away...I hear they figured in the Macaroni defense in the last bond issue.

I digress...back to quizzes.
Quizzes/tests at the end of the year are EVIL...the design of Satan I tell you. I mean, your motivation is creating new definitions for the term "rock bottom", a break looms sinfully and alluringly close, internships aint working for you...and then they expect you to go back to material you grew to hate a few months back.
Also, quizzes tend to screw you over when you have busted your behind and then be a cake walk when you don't really care...sigh! "Slings and arrows of outrageous fortune". Today was the cakewalk kind for me.
Hopefully I can repeat the performance and beat the curve (and others on the curve) next week.
After that...quiz me no more!

An empty day

2005-05-09T23:55:00.000-07:00

It's rather incredible isn't it.
People talk about making every day work...or creating a miracle everyday?
Gibberish, I tell you.
Today was one of those DEAD days...like many other in my life. Something like outta a Satyajit Ray movie...slow, dreary and meaningless.
Woke up late...REAL late. not that that matters because most of the classes are outta the way and I'm pretty much rock bottom with motivation. Worried some about my internship over a cuppa coffee...looking around the garbage bin (aka my apt....breaks my heart to call it home).
Followed mail...looked at my position on investopedia simulator...looks the market took a dump on my investments though I'm still at no. 3. Not bad for a guy whoz a pig investing on quick n dirty tips.

Rest of the day was pathetic...hiked my way to school and basically wasted time. The best part was my 2-hr long nap on the couch in 517 comp lab. Right now I'm fucked...two tests tomorrow and I might as well be tossing coins to decide answers.
Ya...the beer's good too...as is in the music in my ears...Bose. Rahman seems to be preparing for concert type stuff.