Merry Christmas

Wish You All Merry Christmas

and

Happy New Year

A national Christmas Tree in Washington DC. Each year this natural spruce tree is lit up, decorated for three weeks to mark christmas celebration.

This photograph was taken back in Dec 2006.

Happy Holidays; and see you all in Jan 2009.

Balboa Island

Balboa Island is just a ferry ride away from the mainland Newport Beach city, Southern California, in the Pacific Ocean. On a sunny afternoon, we drove down about ten miles from home and reached the ferry.I have earlier experienced drive-thru restaurant, drive-thru car wash, but here was a DRIVE-THRU FERRY. It can ferry three cars at a time covering a short distance of about a mile. A bridge can be easily built across, but it’s just another American way of adventure, fun and frolic.

The island has a beautiful Beach with a Fishing Pier. Most of the adventurous young were enjoying swimming, surfing, challenging the gusty sea waves. Few people were strolling along the beach and still many more seated far away from the lashing waves on a beach chair gazing at the wild sea, lost in their own world. One can find little ones busy making sand castles with their own play way tools.

At a short distance was a Fishing Pier. Fishing is legal in Ocean fronts all across United States. People who cannot afford a boat to venture into the sea for sailing and some fishing as well, pier is a good alternative. It is basically a long wooden platform jutting into the sea and one can catch a lot many fish from the pier too.

The sea was boisterous, huge waves were hitting the shore, may be because of high tide. All of a sudden a SEAL appeared along with the waves. It remained on the shore, for a short while, too perplexed to watch so many human beings, none resembling creatures of its own sea world. It gave a picturesque pose to any photographer’s delight and vanished in the sea along with the receding waves.For me it was once in a lifetime, memorable experience, watching a SEAL in its natural habitat.

The pursuit of Happyness

I chanced upon an interview of Christopher Gardener with Glen Beck on CNN Headlines news channel. Remained glued to the television till the end; though having very little inclination for watching television.

Christopher’s life is that of, rags to riches story. A working single parent, homeless in San Francisco. The interview just gave the crux of his entire life story.
After watching the interview, few weeks later I read his autobiography, The pursuit of Happyness, indeed an inspiring true story. Despite all odds; poverty, lack of education, African American lineage and broken family(knew not who his father was); he succeeds in life.

I always keep on hearing and reading everywhere, American phrases like believe in yourself, follow your dreams, your past cannot define your future. All holds true for Christopher Gardener.

The turning point in his life influenced me too and for sure I will always remember it for the rest of my life. Chris observes a man in red ferrari looking for a parking space. He walks up to the man, offers his space as he was moving out. Chris asks him two questions before leaving.

What do you do for a living and how do you do?
“I am a stock broker”, the stranger replied and invited Chris to his office, in response to the second question.

Till date there is no looking back for Chris, today Gardener runs a successful brokerage firm and owns a red ferrari.

A blockbuster Hollywood movie was also released with the same title, starring Will Smith in the lead role.Most of the Hollywood movies are based on best selling books, having record breaking sales, millions cannot have a wrong opinion. No wonder these movies are so meaningful and leave behind a lasting impression.

Nifty Coke

The water was draining somewhat slowly. I had been observing it for quite a few days. Now the time had come to be proactive before the basin got totally choked.

I tried hands on it but the drain cap was reluctant to come off.

Second option was to log a call at rental office. The maintenance staff is rather prompt in service. They knock your door once and getting no response, after sufficient time, barge in; using a duplicate key. This is one of the things I detest being here; one key of the apartment is always with the owner as a federal law and remaining two with the tenant. It is always good to specify while lodging complaint, whether you want the work done in your absence or presence.

If not specified, Murphy’s Law just works fine. When the concern person knocks at your door, you will be either in the restroom or somewhere in between cooking or engross in a task which requires more due attention than responding to the door knock.

As my head was spinning with brilliant ideas my eye caught the solution, a pack of coke cans adorning a quiet corner of the dining space. Of late my hubby has become a huge soda addict. It is on top of the routine grocery list, lest we forget to purchase.

I took one full can and emptied the 355ml coke into the wash basin. The coke vanished in seconds as if the drain was never choked, unlike sluggish water which was taking its own sweet time to drain off.

Later turned on the faucet, of gushing hot water, for five minutes and soon everything was back to normal. Classic coke can do wonders.

At this juncture, I remembered Baba Ramdev’s saying, thanda matlab toilet cleaner; a twisted version of the famous ad line - thanda matlab coca cola. Doctors only might be knowing, what all the cola cleans or rather corrodes inside our body.

On the lighter note I would like to recollect the award winning coke ad – thanda matlab coca cola, created by advertising guru Mr. Prasoon Joshi.The tune to which Aamir Khan and the nepalese kancha dance in the ad, is that of a very popular Uttranchal folk song – “Bedu Paku Baaro maasa”.

Elf Yourself

Elfyourself.com is an interesting site.Upload your photo, create elf and dance to different tunes. Share and download your dance video.Purchase gifts, elves on mugs, mousepad etc.The site powered by OfficeMax is active during christmas season only.

Drinking Fountain

Winners don’t do different things, but do things differently. The quote is perfectly applicable to Americans.

We all know westerners eat food with spoons and forks.But what about water; yes they don’t cup hands as we do for drinking from a tap or faucet as they call it.

At all public places like parks, market place, airports or even at rest areas along the freeway, there is a drinking fountain, another fancy name for tap. But it is not just another ordinary faucet we have in our homes. On pushing the button, the water slowly squirts out like a fountain stream. One has to make a slight angle and the water directly dispenses inside the mouth.

Then down below, there is another push button accessible by foot. It is for adorable dogs and cats. The owner pushes the button and the pet quenches his thirst.

The old technology of, turning on and off taps is replaced by the new more convenient push button technology. There is no more wear and tear of washers which result in leaking taps. There are no dry fountains either. If there is a facility, water will be there.

It is hygienic too, once outdoors our hands touch so many different unclean things around. In aquariums, you will find a sanitizer near certain exhibits, where visitors are allowed to touch few species. A sanitizer is neither soap nor water but is some sort of germ killing gel, which vanishes after solving its purpose.

Living here, I have observed, the whole American research, focuses on, making lifestyle more and more comfortable.The inventions and discoveries I read in books are actually being implemented and extensively used here by one and all.

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls is the ultimate destination for honeymooners. Millions of tourist throng Niagara Falls each year. It is at the international border of America and Canada; enhancing tourism in both countries, besides a rich source of fresh water.Niagara falls comprise of American Fall and Bridal Veil Fall on the American front.The more spectacular, the Horse Shoe Fall is on the Canadian side. Approximately six lakhs gallons of water flowing per sec.No doubt this country is God gifted, it has wealth of natural resources.

American Falls do not have great height but are wide in nature. A boat ride called ‘maid of the mist’ ferries you close to all the three falls. One can feel the misty water drizzling on face, as rest of the body is covered with signature blue Niagara raincoats. It is such an awe inspiring view, water-water everywhere, the huge amount of water eyes will not meet again.

A closer look!!
A short trek route, approaching to almost top of falls

A balloon ride, for hovering over the falls, to catch an aerial glimpse

The gushing rapids transform into falls ahead. Falls are not only majestic but a good source of hydroelectric power too.

Taming Infinity

A must see video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBS_cNHvnBE), on INFINITY by Prof. Manil Suri. Anybody having little knowledge or interest in mathematics will enjoy it. A forewarning, the video is pretty long, unlike familiar short and sweet youtube videos.

A couple of months back I read, The Age of Shiva, by Manil Suri. A good casual read. Inside library, somehow my eyes encounter, Indian titles, Indian authors unintentionally. There is always something to relate to in these books.

Sometimes I re-read, if not the entire book, but few interesting (as per my prudence) excerpts from the book. Once the book is complete, next I learn about the author. Most of the contemporary authors own websites and blogs, if not, wikipedia solves the purpose, giving comprehensive detail about author’s life and work. Thus I stumbled upon this worth watching video.

Canada, By Mistake

It was our first long road trip from Detroit to Niagara Falls. We were all set for the exciting journey and hit the road early morning. It was a real smooth drive for initial fifty miles. As I was acquiring faith in hubby’s driving, my navigating skills and more over our familiarity with US routes, soon we found ourselves on a bridge to Canada. U-turn, seldom an option on a bridge.

At the other end of bridge, was Canada, somewhere close to city of Toronto. At the check post; routine security checking of vehicle and self took place. Here everything is process driven so one needs to follow the procedure. Apprehensively, waiting in queue with other fellow travelers. Entering a foreign nation without valid visa is illegal, though mistakenly. Innocence is bliss, but not always.

Once in front of the immigration officer, with driving directions in hand explaining to the best of ability, how exactly we landed up in Canada without visa. She stamped cancelled on official papers we filled impromptu. Escorted us out, telling the way to get back into the US territory; and the best thing, she acknowledged, it happens with other travelers as well.

Later we did notice Toronto mentioned in accompanying driving directions. But then Toronto can be right here itself. Believe it or not just search for Delhi in weather.com and many Delhi popup in US alone.

Mapquest.com; by default gives the shortest route, which all follow. It holds good for American citizens, who do not require visa to enter Canada. As a matter of fact, this is the beauty of American passport one can travel around the world to several countries, hassle (visa) free; no wonder people crave for the long enduring path to American citizenship.

Once back into US, one of our friends guided us to reach Niagara fall, being in US itself.

Are You proud to be Working in USA

Fridays will be for guest post. My first guest today is Sweta, a dear friend. It is her experience in her own words.

Coming to USA and working here is a dream for most of Indians (especially Software Engineers).

Well till now I am enjoying my work here, Have met lot of Nice people... But are we getting the same Respect as we get in India.

I went for one of the Blood Donation drive and Guess what if u are from India or have recently moved from India, They ask u so many question just because they treat INDIA as one of the Malaria driven country / other spreadable diseases...U have to be in states for almost 3 years n in between there should be no trips to India and then only u can donate blood.

This thing sucks!!!!

There are more people in our country who need more of our Blood , Our help (Financially ) Are we doing anything for them ...

Are we really Proud to be in US.

Healthy Heart

Gone are the days of ancient adage, HEART OF GOLD. The new mantra is, HEART OF NUTS. Scientific evidence suggests, nuts, especially walnut and almonds, as part of a daily diet low in saturated fats, reduce the risk of heart ailments.

The elephant, The tiger And The cell phone

“THE elephant, THE tiger AND THE cell phone” by Shashi Tharoor; centers around India as the emerging super power of twenty first century. For me it has been third in series, books predicting futuristic India based on statistics past and present. The earlier two being ‘Planet India’ by Mira Kamdar, and ‘The world is flat’ by Thomas Friedman.

One really needs to have extraordinary vocabulary while reading Shashi Tharoor. There are far too many words to look up in dictionary. Few interesting excerpts from the book follow.

Sarojini Naidu on Mahatma Gandhi’s frugal lifestyle, one of the great one-liners of independence struggle.
“If only he knew how much it costs us to keep him in poverty”

On renaming of Indian cities like Bombay to Mumbai.
An American businessman who was planning a visit to India after a long absence told me (author) that his associate there “used to live in Madras, but he seems to have moved to some place called Chennai.”
When told that his friend hadn’t moved but Madras is renamed as Chennai. He promptly replied “But cities don’t do that”.

Soap Operas, a new vision of Indian family, teeming with betrayal, infidelity and rivalries of all sort, has gained entry into the living rooms of middle class.

A popular international news magazine reports that the septuagenarian (being seventy years old or between the ages of seventy and eighty; that’s why I mentioned above one will need a dictionary all along while reading this book) wife of then president of India, Shankar Dayal Sharma, instructs her servants to tape every episode of the afternoon serial Swabhiman that her official duties oblige her to miss.

How People Identify Me

Incident 1
I stepped into dry-cleaners cum tailoring shop for altering my Capri pant. I was briefing about required length; the guy was taking measurements and et al. Amidst all this Capri discussion, a question pops - Are you from India??

To this out of context question - I replied, “ Yes, but how do you know?”
Firstly, he said Indians shake their head a lot while talking. Secondly, for affirmative answers also they shake head sideways. It needs to be like this, with proper demonstration, moving his head vertically.
Good and accurate observation.

Incident 2
This incident happened in Rite Aid, a pharmacy store. I was engrossed trying varying lipstick shades on the back of my hand in a serene cool corner. A petite girl arrives and stands next to me. The dumb damsel extends a paper in front of me. I cross read and hand over a five dollar bill. Some sort of fund raising campaign.

She starts reciprocating in a Japanese fashion. Had I counted, it must have been more than ten times, she bend almost at ninety degrees each time. In the end said SHUKRIYA, the first word she spoke. It left me spellbound; next came my reflex question, “how do you know this ?”.
“I have many Indian friends”, she replied casually and left.

It is really amazing how skin color, facial features, behavior reveal our ethnicity. Once abroad, lest we forget, we all are ambassadors of brand India.

Mesothelioma

A frequent television commercial flashes, mesothelioma, a kind of lung cancer caused by exposure to asbestos dust. The advertisement is not by any government agency, hospital or non profit organization but by a law firm.

In the ad two attorneys, literally provoking employees of shipyard and construction company who might have been exposed to asbestos and now victims of mesothelioma; to sue their employers for medical bills and other financial loss.

Americans believe in value of human life. There are laws which need to be strictly adhered to. Filing a law suit is a common practice.

Now coming to the point, where I correlate myself to the topic. I myself have spent; say over two decades in a parental house back in India, having asbestos patio ceiling. I remember spending significant time under the asbestos roof, playing, eating, sleeping, and doing lot many activities along with other family members. All being ignorant about mesothelioma.

I came to know about mesothelioma very recently after moving to California through a TV commercial. It maybe a new research finding. Americans research on anything and everything and very well know how to make a living out of it.

EVOLUTION OF EMC

EMC sounds familiar, can well be related to the age old debate; is time real or relative. I remember learning, theory of relativity, the energy mass relationship E=MC2(read 2 as superscript) during college physics lectures.

Few years ago, I was enlightened about EMC, a storage company with the tag line, EMC2 - where information lives. Dissecting the term IT – information technology one can analyze the drifting trend. Earlier the stress was on technology i.e. hardware and software. But in recent years Information plays the key role. It is well said, “Content is the King”. Hence several storage companies are emerging to securely store zillions of bytes of information.

Couple of months back on the Oprah talk show, the guest was American pop singer Mariah Carey with her new album titled E=MC2.The meaningful title stood for - Emancipation of Mariah Carey to the second power.

All seems interesting. Albert Einstein and his ever evolving formula found diverse usage; the energy mass relationship, IT Storage Company and now a pop album.

CHANDAMAMA

From an educational website (http://educatorslog.in), which I visit often and sometimes contribute resources to, initiated by one of my school alumnus; came to know that CHANDAMAMA a popular Indian children’s magazine, is now available online. It brought about childhood memories a fresh as I explored the site and came across a witty fable, mentioned below…

Once, Hodja invited his friends home, for a meal. He soon found he did not have a cooking pot large enough to make the pilav. His wife suggested that they could borrow it from the neighbor.

So Hodja went to borrow the pot. The neighbour was a little hesitant, but then he gave the pot to him. When the feast was over, Hodja placed a smaller pot inside the cooking pot and gave it to the neighbour. “Why is there a smaller pot inside?” the neighbour asked.

“Oh!” said Hodja casually. “Didn’t you know your pot was pregnant? It gave birth while it was at our house.” The neighbor’s disbelief was overcome by his delight. He happily took both the pots.

About a month later, Hodja wanted to borrow the pot once again from his neighbour. The neighbour gave him the pot willingly.

This time, however, Hodja did not return the pot for a long time. Finally, after many days, the neighbour came asking for it. Hodja pulled a long face and said: “I didn’t know how to break the news to you, but your pot died about a week ago.”

“Died?” shouted the neighbour indignantly. “A cooking pot cannot die!”
“Well, why not?” asked Hodja unanswerably. “You believed that it could give birth, didn’t you? So, why can’t you believe it can also die?”

DON’T FORGET TO VISIT www.chandamama.com

Do It Yourself

We were planning to buy a new sofa for a long time. After doing much research, about different styles, colors and fabrics available, my husband placed an order for a sofa online, from the comfort of home avoiding all the hassles of buying one, from the store alternatively. On the day of Diwali, UPS delivered two packages at our place; it was a sofa, which came like a Diwali gift for both of us.

The big brown boxes were opened with great excitement and anxiety. We were well aware of the fact, that sofa will not be ready for use, rather, the few chunks and pieces, which came along had to be assembled first, for the guest to be comfortably seated; very clearly mentioned on the website when the order was placed.

To our utter surprise, the two packages contained thirty eight wooden pieces, all well numbered with screws, nuts, foam, fabric , pair of gloves and a booklet to guide through the entire assembling process. It really had to be fixed from scratch and took almost three hours, two of us working together, to give the final shape. Though the steps were precisely explained in the manual with pictures. It was more of a jigsaw puzzle to fit all thirty eight wooden parts together and not to mention they really fitted well to build a sturdy sofa which could support forty people’s weight as advertised.

Next came the role of foam and fabric. The fabric was there to thoroughly cover the wooden skeleton as well as seats and cushions. After the foam smoothly slid over the arm rest, seat and cushions were placed aptly. A robust and awesome SOFA was ready.



Assembling the sofa was a wonderful hands on experience of wood work, without having any prior knowledge of carpentry, we were able to manufacture (really!!) a sofa. It was that simple.
I am awestruck and all praises for the person who has so meticulously designed this sofa, which transforms from simple small wooden pieces of all shapes and sizes, for easy shipment and delivery to any corner of the world, into such a robust and comfortable sofa. I do appreciate the designer’s skill and accuracy of measurement, leaving no room for any kind of error and maintaining the best of quality as well.