Sweet Taste Of India

Today i landed at Indira Gandhi International airport at New Delhi after 4 long years. A lady from Greece was sitting next to me on the flight from Munich. "Wow, the architecture of the buildings is so impressive layout of the houses seems so organized" she observed, as we peeked though the window at the landscape down below, squinting into the sun. "Its so much better than Athens" she said.I did feel proud when i heard it looked better than Athens from the sky! but then a city whose architectural foundations are based on Edward Lutyens's blueprints couldn't have looked so bad from the sky after all, i figured. While disembarking from the plane, i had my first whiff of dust, the ramp winded through a dilapitated corridor, with white paint/chuna peeling off from the plastered walls, crimson pan stains in the corners, mangled, exposed wires on the ceiling. There were absolutely no signs guiding people on where to go. I just flowed with the crowd which led me to a jam packed escalator and an adjoining empty staircase. The stairs were faster to walk down, the ecsalator emptied into a stagnant pool of confused people who did not know which immigration line to stand in (there wasn't any line by the way). The crowd was too heavy and was getting backed up onto the escalator. I found it funny, that people still preferred to go down an escalator for a short distance when it was apparent that they couldn't get off of it. Thankfully i got my baggage off the carousel really quick and walked out through the green channel as i pretty much had nothing to declare. I walked out alone and there was this sea of anxious visitors/parents/relatives/taxi drivers on either side held back by a barrier, trying to spot their known ones. Felt pretty much like a member of the Indian cricket team while walking out there into the crowd. My parents ushered me to their vehicle and i missed out on being approached by those "non-prepaid", over-zealous taxi drivers with their amazing 30 sec sales pitches. I think Delhi roads are not world class, but they definitely are among the best in India, the first thing that struck me was, the ride felt so slow! Traffic in India can really take you from merry to melancholy in a heartbeat, though I must admit the city has also done a pretty good job of keeping those ambling bovine beauties off those traffic intersections. There were lanes on the road and there were road signs, but beyond that its pretty much left to you as a driver to figure out a method in that madness. I had really missed this cacophony, people honking for no rhyme or reason, thela-wallahs peddling their wares, kids playing cricket on the streets, people standing around in groups for no apparent purpose or reason. All in all it felt good on the first day, experiencing all that hullabulloo after such a long time! Like they say, "You can take a Man out of India but you can never take India out of a Man" :) right?

The road less travelled..

The lemmings metaphor is by a now a well known myth. I am intrigued by the social ramifications of this urban legend as applicable to us. How often are we willing to step out of the comfort zones of our inner circles and befriend unfamiliar connections? Its true that I hail from a country well known for its diversity of language and traditions but why does this have to make me and my fellow countrymen so parochial? Why do most of us buy Hondas or Toyotas? Why do we conform to trite norms of being engineers, doctors or lawyers? Why do we think and fret so much about relationships and marriages? Isn't it true that the best love affairs are the ones that we've never had? I personally feel that this ubiquitous behavior stems from a deep rooted middle class mentality which mandates walking the crowded street as the best way to get to a successful destination (whatever or wherever it may be). Does this not stiffle the propensity to indulge in your dreams, your passions, to take risks?
I should steer clear from singing to the choir.. but have you ever paused and discerned the right reasons from the real reasons? have you ever walked a road less travelled...

Hey There Delilah

New Set of Wheels

At the fag end of the tumultous month, i decided to leave home early from work and left at 4:00. So i was driving down on 92W at around 60mph and of all the god forsaken things to happen, my front right tire hit a stone and burst. The automatic traction control kicked in but could do little to control my steering from veering to the right on the gradient and into the grass.
So i get out on the grass and look at the remnants of my stock michelin tire splattered over the rim, in disgust. Changing tires while jacking up a car on the grass on a gradient in rush hour traffic, surely features on the list of the 10 worst things to do in life. Limping back home with my donut spare tire, i was dejected that my precious vehicle actually backfired on me for the first time since i'd owned it. Kickstarted my tire research and realized that the stock Michelin Energy tires that come fitted on Pre 2003 hondas actually suck, and my car used slide better than a figure skater on the icy roads in Chicago (but to be gracious enough, dem' Michelins lasted for 60,000 miles ). After a bit of googling and asking around i had a fair idea that i needed Yokohama Avid 4S or Falken Ziex 912 all season tires for my Honda with dimensions P205/60R16. Went to this wheel store and the guy at the counter sucessfully pimped out the Falken to me. Being a typical male my decisiveness and bargaining ability went to the dogs and i blindly accepted the tire talk. So my car was hoisted up and all four tires were replaced, with Falkens. While watching it i guess i had the good sense to measure the tread depth on those ones and saw, that it was just 8" instead of the standard 10" on a fresh set. Thats something to watch out for while you tire shop! So i had this guy remove all of em and replace them with Yokohamas and had them wheel aligned. Yokohamas had 10"/32". Another interesting thing i got done with the Yokohamas, is an inch up adjustment which is extremely useful for fast cornering on curvy exits/entry ramps especially with V6 engines . Any good tire shop worth its name should understand what this is all about. So 4 Tires, Labor and Wheel Alignment included, i spent around 620 greeners, not exactly a bang for the buck, but hey Yokohamas are the top of their class. The handling seemed pretty good later on, and i could test out hydroplaning on the stangnant water pool outside the store at around 45mph. Felt good on the freeway, (kinda hard though probably because the tires hadn't heated up enough?) . Comes with a 60,000 miles warranty (provided you get your tires rotated and wheels aligned every 5000 miles) . Hmm so that took care of my precious car tires, and now the transmission seems like its programmed to groan after 60K miles. Damn these expenses.

Social Networking Rant

Since most of us (in our generation) have had an online prescence for the past 10 years, we have managed to leave a trail of breadcrumbs on the internet, which search engines conveniently pick up and associate back to us. I often wonder about lack of privacy and personal space in this day and age. To borrow from Omid Kordestani's commencement speech at San Jose State University, "If you know a girls name, you can google her up to find out what she's been doing in her life, look her up on orkut or facebook or myspace to see what she looks like, to find out her preferences and what her friends have been saying about her. You can then check her out on linkedin to find out what she has been upto on a career front and when you finally hook up on the first date you pretty much have nothing left to ask! ". It probably is good in a way to know what you are getting into, ( on the flip side, isn't it a much more romantic endeavor to get to know a person of the opposite sex, in person?) . Social Networking sites force us to stay relevant in life, since we are under the online spotlight all the time. I personally feel, it is good and bad in a way because there is a a lot of self similarity in the way human emotions work. We have our occasional larval phases insterspersed between our Social butterfly intervals. Social Networking sites help us stay relevant during our larval phases. At a whole different level, this is a dream for marketing folks, because based on my social profile, my age and other demographics and my likes and dislikes they can target advertisements to me. Well the bottom line, its a whole new online ecosystem and it does implore us to protect our privacy and preferences. So much for blogging :)

Dude, Where's my Conscience..

I was shopping at this typically californian grocery store whose name rhymes with John Doe, when I heard this irritating muffled noise, cross between a yelp and the sound of fingernails screeching on a blackboard. Then I felt someting nibbling at my jeans round the ankles, i looked down and was shocked to see a huge skinny freakin albino rat with long ears and big hazel eyes!! I was outraged, that a store which i revere enough to buy my groceries from would allow rodents to scoot around and would send its customers out with torn pants!! I was just about to shake that thing off and stomp on it, when out of the blue, a humongous UFO in the guise of a woman descended in front of me, spread out its arms and scooped up this critter and put it its purse! On closer observation, it was a woman... the rich, uber types who probably would spend the most productive hours of her day, ruminating about Tai Chi as opposed to Chai Tea with her other bossom buddies. Her better half (or whatever what left of her other half) was standing next to her giving me a sheepish smile. The smile looked like he'd been force fed Wonton Soup with 20 sour lemons squeezed into it. Well anyways the lady apologized to me and scolded her critter (which apparently was a dog, because it barked an acknowledgement) and i could now see its huge circular eyes ,pointy goblin ears and a long pinnochio'ish wet nose and a rodent like tail sticking out of the lady's ornate purse. Then i had an epiphany, it was a chihuahua, (not all Chihuahuas are lucky enough to hang out in Paris Hilton's purse). Hmm so much for dogs that look like rats, i almost wanted to ask the lady if she got the right animals mated, but then i noticed her hubby had an eerie resemblance to the Chihuahua himself, so i decided to keep my thoughts to myself.

California Dreamin

Often times the rustic beauty of Northern California strikes deep. I'd been out with a few of my friends on the 17 mile drive at Monterrey. I normally drive on Hwy 1 past Carmel all the way down till Bixby Bridge and head back and this was the first time i'd been on this stretch. I was totally overawed by the lush green golf courses at Pebble Beach winding along the rugged Monterrey coastline along the azure pacific. We got ourselves a table facing the ocean at Stillwater Bar and Grill and picked out a bottle of Bennessere's 2005 Pinot Grigio. This wine had a crisp taste and pineapple and peach flavors blended in. It was a real peaceful, easy feeling listening to surf beat against the shoreline, soaking in the cold, fresh air and the wine offcourse. I must say we were all pretty tipsy after two bottles. There were lots of old rich folks wearing Greg Norman Shirts and hauling around Calloway clubs on fancy golf carts. There were a few vintage cars parked outside. Bouganvillas in bloom were wrapped around the pillars lining the corridors. It was a great two hours basking in affluence and class. I remorsefully headed back to my Honda Accord and drove back to the gut wrenching reality and mundaneness of everyday life.