This, That and Some More

Here are some pictures of Santa Monica beach on Memorial Day. It seemed that all of California was out on those beautiful beaches and it almost came close to Juhu on a Sunday in Mumbai. Interestingly, I have always loved this song by Sheryl Crow called ‘All I want to do is have some fun’, that is precisely what I did this weekend, but the only difference from Sheryl’s song was that I had fun till the sun set on Santa Monica Boulevard! Memorial Day A tribute to all soldiers, army, navy, marines, coast guards and air force. There was another pillar on the side dedicated to all soldiers who dies in various military operations in the line of duty since 1999. A pretty picture indeed. The Pier Everybody is out to have a great time. Somewhat like a walk down to Haji Ali in Mumbai, musicians playing the guitar or flute, people standing up on benches and trying to entertain the passers by to make some money, the serpentine queues for all the restaurants on the pier, the ancient carousel (se...

I have a boss who works 20 hours so not much opportunity to blog. I plan to do a post on all my culinary experiences but in the meanwhile here is some food for thought. In the numerous meetings I am attending here, a point came up where some government policies had an implication on software design. This country happens to be Spain, it also came up that since Spain is a socialist country, they have such policies in place. The person went on to make a comment - "Socialists are just so stuck" That's USA for you - purely capitalist!

I had this very eventful journey from Mumbai to LA. It started on an incredibly funny note and I would have really laughed if I wasn't so stressed out about everything. I flew Air India and the first announcement I heard was that the flight has been delayed because the crew had not yet arrived. I wondered what if they don’t arrive at all. Is that a very diplomatic statement to make to agitated and stressed passengers who would miss all their connecting flights? What impression must have all the visitors to India formed about India's international carrier? I was shocked at the callousness and utter disregard for any passenger needs after being reasonable well looked after by Lufthansa, Air France, United etc. No water and soap in the toilets further added to discomfort and I found a human hair in my food. I know for sure I will never fly Air India again. On reaching LA a couple of hours late, I found that the apartment I was renting had messed up and I had no keys and generally ...

My boss told me that I have to go to Los Angeles for a month, my first reaction is pleasant, being right in the midst of beautiful beaches and Hollywood was interesting. Then the waves of worry replaced the initial thrill - one month is a long time and everything will be topsy turvy at home. Added to that, my maid's tantrums, my Mother in Law's various ailments, my husband's work related travel plans and my son's vacations, complete despair set in. All of it just because I will be away for a month and the family will be thrown out of gear. The wives manage just fine when the husbands go away for work, why can’t the husbands manage when the wives are away? They behave like helpless babies who need to be given instructions on a daily basis! To ease the pain of my not being around, I have to stock up on groceries which will cover the month, plan the menu with my maid, employ additional domestic help to fill in for the labor that I put in and give my son a few activities an...

Knowing about and exploring different cultures and places has always been a hobby. These days one can do a lot of armchair traveling thanks to the many travel oriented shows on TV and write-ups in magazines but when I was growing up there weren't too many options available except for reading and traveling to the location and exploring for real. Thanks to the uncountable Mills and Boons I consumed in my teen years, I know quite a lot of UK, Australia, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Greece. I wonder why Frenchmen were not preferred as heroes in Mills and Boons - perhaps it is because of the age old rivalry between the English and the French? My other obsession was listening to shortwave radio. During a trip to Amsterdam, my Mother brought me a Sony world receiver where one could do a digital scan of all shortwave frequencies. It is till date the most wonderful gift that anyone has ever given me. Shortwave radio added an entirely new dimension to my learning and also gave me a chance to p...

My Mother recently made this comment under emotional duress - distances and cold climates kill warmth in our hearts. Our personal agendas and our immediate world consume us so totally that we have little care for what else happens around the world or to our extended families. Most Indian families will have at least one relation staying outside the country, sometimes they are very close relations who choose to move away in search of better prospects and incomes. Longer distances from home may mean lesser frequencies of visits back home, at times they come back after years and years and all distances melt away and it seems like as if they had never left. At times it seems that some stranger has come in place of the person we originally knew and it is so hard to make the connection that we were used to. I have watched both these situations up close. In one situation a daughter came to visit her Mother after a period of 20 years, the first time since her Father passed away. This was also t...

Chandalika is a dance drama written by Rabindranath Tagore back in 1933. I was watching it on TV last night and found that it is perhaps as relevant now as it was in 1933. It's a story of a girl named Prakriti, who is ostracized by the society and lives on its edges. She does not understand the consequences of her birth into a family which is regarded as ' untouchable '. She watches wistfully from the shadows as the world passes her by as even her shadow was inauspicious, the sweet meat vendor, the bangle seller and the flower girls all shunned her existence. One day a Buddhist monk appeared and asked her for some water to quench his thirst, he brushed aside her hesitance and said God made all men equal and her origins were inconsequential and proceeded to drink water offered by her. The ' caste system ' sometimes rears its ugly head during matrimonial alliances but otherwise it’s quite forgotten - at least in urban India. Now with the fresh wave of proposed reserv...

One may wonder what a 'bench' is, so for people who are not aware, it means being without work in an IT company. It is also the most dreaded situation to be in, no place to sit, no computer to pass your time and since you are not doing much there are no credit points to add to your annual appraisal. Most people on bench are seen loitering about in the canteen or in the library. The people blessed with more respectable designations do not have to suffer similar indignities but it still feels miserable to be out of the mainstream delivery drama and generally forgotten. The other day I bumped into the CEO at lunch, we exchanged greetings and he asked which project I was associated with and I said that I was on bench, to which he responded "Oh! Finally you found a place to sit!" Well, that’s a lighter way to look at things I suppose! It’s been two loooooooong months since I have been sitting and wondering how to kill all of 8 hours. Talking to others was definitely out as...

I discovered chatting back in 1999 when I started working for a R&D unit of a US based product development company. Like most startups, the work took its own sweet time to flow down, till then we were asked to update our skills and so some self study and send daily reports of what we learnt. The team comprised of three women and each of us was equally innovative, creative and naughty when it came to sending daily timesheets. Needless to say that with the luxury of an ISDN high speed internet connection, all we did was chat. It was like a drug, an addiction which always left us wanting more. I discovered the true meaning of the word 'disconnection' back then. MSN Chat rooms were my favorite haunt (not sure if they exist now); it seemed like my gateway to the world, so many different people from so many different places who were quite eager to exchange views. I met a fireman from New York who had lost his girl friend in a fire, an engineer who specialized in lift doors, I hav...