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...

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.

Taking Stock- Part Deux

Hmm guess i'm real bored at work and i need to serialize my Day Dreams so that i can bring them to fruition someday.

Things i need to do this year, apart from working for a living.

1) Drive a Formula 1 in Vegas
2) Steer away from bunny slopes and become an Advanced level Skier by the end of this year.
3) Fall off a plane from 14,000 feet (Skydiving?)
4) Learn to Snowboard without killing myself.
5) Do the Half Dome Trek
6) Build a collection of at least 10 Californian red wines.
7) Go to a Broadway and a Circue De Soliel show (and also learn to spell it right).
8) Suck it up, let go of my hippie traits and visit the East Coast (er the real America) once.
9) Go white water rafting in West Virginia
10) Watch a 49'ers game and a Playoff game.

Cursing your luck? Read this.....

Jason exemplifies the traits that British researcher Richard Wiseman ascribed to lucky people in a 2003 article called The Luck Factor: "They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophecies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good."

In one experiment, Wiseman asked two groups of people - one who described themselves as generally lucky and one who said they were usually unlucky - to count the photographs in a newspaper. The unluckies spent several minutes flipping through and counting the photos. The lucky people got it in a few seconds. How? On page 2, Wiseman had inserted a message in giant headline type: "Stop counting - There are 43 photographs in this newspaper."

The lucky people, always on the lookout for unexpected good fortune, spotted it right away. The unlucky people, whose minds are closed to such signs, missed it completely.

(I grokked this from CNN money)

"After a While" -- All Time Favorite

"After a While"


After a while you learn

the subtle difference between

holding a hand and chaining a soul

and you learn

that love doesn't mean leaning

and company doesn't always mean security.

And you begin to learn

that kisses aren't contracts

and presents aren't promises

and you begin to accept your defeats

with your head up and your eyes ahead

with the grace of woman, not the grief of a child

and you learn

to build all your roads on today

because tomorrow's ground is

too uncertain for plans

and futures have a way of falling down

in mid-flight.

After a while you learn

that even sunshine burns

if you get too much

so you plant your own garden

and decorate your own soul

instead of waiting for someone

to bring you flowers.

And you learn that you really can endure

you really are strong

you really do have worth

and you learn

and you learn

with every goodbye, you learn...

© 1971 Veronica A. Shoffstall


(Author's note: This poem has been plagiarized, bastardized, renamed, reworded, redesigned, expanded and reduced. But it is my work, which I wrote at the age of 19 and had published in my college yearbook. Why anyone would want to claim it is beyond me, but for what it's worth, I wrote it, and if I'd known it was going to be this popular, I'd have done a better job of it. - V.S.)

Oriah-Mountain Dreamer : I love this poem

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.
It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your sorrow,
if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own;
if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.

I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself;
if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.

I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore be trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty everyday, and if you can source your life on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon.

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.

I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the children.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

Jet Ski 'ing on Lake Lewisville

Went Jetskiing last weekend at Lake Lewisville in Dallas. It was awesome. A very Windy day lots of waves and traffic on the water and it was the first time i had jet skied. When you are ripping the waves all by yourself on a jetski, you literally bounce off every wave you hit. It gives you a high. Turning has to be done in wide arcs, ( the sequential left brain sort of assumes that you can make turns because you have a handle to do so) you have to get used to the training. Anything with speed thrills especially if its on the water!!! i look forward to doing this on the Ocean.

Taking Stock....

Exciting/ Fun things that i've done in the past 2 years:

1) White water Rafting on the Royal Gorge in Colorado
2) Halloween on the best freakin halloween party in US ofA Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, NC
3) Watched 4th of July celebrations from Brooklyn Bridge in NY.
4) Skiing on Arapahoe Basin near Breckenridge Colorado.
5) Trekking and Camping in Rocky Mountain National Park near Boulder CO.
6) Sat on the vertical drop ride on top of Stratosphere in Vegas.
7) Drag raced against Hemanth's Mustang, touching 110 mph near Dallas.
8) Earned 60$ on my first attempt at Blackjack at MGM Grand in Vegas!
9) Steamer ride to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.
10) Go-Karting 30 Laps at Go-Kart racer in Burlingame CA.
11)Pub-Hopping in San Francisco and getting lost while driving a Ford Winstar.
12) Partied like a Rock star on New Years eve in New Orleans, hangover the next day was a near death experience :)

Things that i want to do this year:

1) Drive down the Pacific coast in a Convertible.
2) Wine tasting in Sonoma Couty
3) Bungee Jumping
4) White water rafting in West Virginia

Jam Topics

JAM (Just a Minute) was a popular event during college fests in Bangalore. Me a my friends were in a nostalgic mood a few days back and were trying to recollect a few popular Jam topics.

A brief history of JAM

Just a Minute was devised by the late Ian Messiter who came up with the idea on the top of a number 13 bus. He suddenly remembered being given the horrible task of speaking for one minute without hesitation or deviation by one of his school masters. The idea is to speak on a random topic for 60 seconds without "deviating",hesitating" or "repeating" ! If a contestant deviates,hesitates(pauses) or repeats then you can raise an objection to the JAM arbitrator and take over the mic. The scoring system is based on the participant's correct or incorrect challenges.

JAM Topics

-Sympathy, Empathy, Venkatachalapati
-Bal Gangadhar Senna said Garage is my birthright!
-Abortion is Love's labor lost, No Foetus can beat us
-My Aunt uses viagra on her face to give herself a facelift
-A psychic midget escaped from prison and the headlines read, small medium at large
-

20 Fun Things to do before you turn 30!

I just came acros a list of 20 fun things to do before turning 30. Really interesting!

1 Visit Copacabana beach in Brazil
2 Take a ride in a Hot Air Balloon
3 Go Base Jumping
4 Travel on the Darjeeling train route
5 Drive down GT Road across India (1600 Miles)
6 Do a cross country drive on a Harley across United States
7 Climb Mount Everest
8 Visit the Edge of the American continental plate, known as the crack in the earth at Pingvellier.
9 Camp in a Rain Forest
10 Take a trek to see Mountain Gorillas in Rwanda
11 Vizit Mozart's Salzburg
12 Go Sky Diving
13 Go Base Jumping in Idaho
14 White water Rafting in the Ganges
15 Go Snorkelling in the Bahamas
16 Fly a Mig 29 in Russia
17 Tango in the Streets of Buenos Aires
18 Go Trekking in Ladakh
19 Visit an Active Volcano
20 Bungee Jumping in Ottawa - The Great Canadian Bungee Jump