Thoughts in general

The last few days have been very run of the mill kind of days.  Basically, I have been busy with work.  I want to watch the T20 matches but the matches that start at 6:00pm have been usually quite boring ones with Ireland or Netherlands or Bangladesh or one of the minnows playing.  By 9:50pm, I am too tired to stay up till midnight to watch the second T20 match of the day. Yesterday night, I did watch India stink up the joint against the West Indies.  Dwayne Bravo is in sublime form right now.  Though, I have to say that many Indian batsmen played terrible shots to get out.  Dhoni doesn't seem himself with the bat and watching them struggle against the bowling of Kieron Pollard, Suleiman Benn etc was horrible to see.  Anyhow, we need to win the remaining matches against Egland and South Africa to have a chance to qualify. We have been searching for a house to buy in Marathahalli, Brookefield and Whitefield areas.  We have finally liked one place and are thinking about booking this ...

I think there have been quite a few posts written on it but I seriously feel strongly about a need to drive some sense into the drivers.  Some things I would like to tell the drivers here: Making a right turn does not mean you come into the right lane (blocking oncoming traffic) to make a turn When it says "No Free Left turn", it precisely means that.  When the light is red, you CANNOT make a left turn.  Please do not expect the guy in front of you to move if the light is red no matter how much you honk. When there is a traffic jam, no amount of honking will get you out of it Please be considerate to pedestrians and don't stop you car 1 feet from the pedestrians feet, as if you are the king of the road If you pass a car/truck/bus etc on the left, once in a while please expect to get hit as well Just because the lane for oncoming traffic is empty does not mean you start driving in that lane When making a right turn at light, there is only lane to turn right. ...

It has been blustry and damp since last night.  While coming back from work, we had rain all the way home on Airport Road.  At night, winds started howling and I love the sound of winds blowing through the small crevices in the closed windows.  The wind was and is cold even this morning.  My son finally ordered me to put some socks on for him, something he has not worn in close to 6 months. My son had his second day in nursery at Vibgyor School in Marathahalli yesterday.  The school decided to split kids in his playschool class between 7 sections of nursery.  So, now all the friends of my son are split up.  He hated his 1st day of school.  However, for the second day, a friend of his from our apartment complex got admitted into his section.  I thought that would make a difference!  No way!!  Both were crying incessantly.  It was like triveni sangam of Ganga-Jamuna-Saraswati in full flow from the eyes of the two.  Luckily, an old teacher of DS saw him crying and took him to the class.  ...

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This is an old post that I had written on blogspot about 4 years back when I was in the US.  It is still applicable and I still feel the same way. ********************* I have been meaning to write on this topic for a while. Ever since I arrived to USA for my undergraduate studies, I have heard arguments between Indians born in the US about what is bad about India and Indians living in India who find bad things, or things they can laugh about and point to say that people are the same everywhere. Having been in the US and India almost an equal amount, my thinking is a bit different on this. I am more indian as far as thinking is concerned i.e. more social, less win at all costs etc. type of thinking. So, my thinking follows the perspective of those Indians living in India. My brother(s) waste no time in telling me how this or that is not right in the USA. Admittedly, that is true. You can always find things that are not good in the US. However, one thing we Indians should keep in mind i...

This is a review about the restaurant called Zaica on Brookefield Road which goes towards EPIP.  This is a place which is right above the Nilgiris grocery store. The restaurant ambience is good.  You are greeted warmly by a lady upon your arrival.  The seating space is good and the place is clean.  When it is hot outside, please do not sit near the glass window.  For some reason, the circulation of A/C is horrible there. I have only gone there only for lunch so, we had buffet.  The buffet is quite simple and doesn't contain too many items.  They have couple of soups (veg and non-veg), 2 starters (each for veg and no-veg), some raita/salad. The starters are generally ok.  Their sweet corn soup was quite good (different soup everyday) and this is from a perdson who does not like corn at all. For lunch, they had different varieties of paneer tikka (awadhi, achari, white etc) each occasion I went there plus another appetizer.  They have generally 2 entrees.  I have been there a few tim...

I am not a politician or even a writer. However, I am concerned with what I am seeing in India. There are couple of aspects that really worry me about the country. One is when politicians try to brand themselves as secular/non-communal and others who subscribe to another ideological theory. I have seen the Congress party claim that BJP is communal. Why? Because it has affiliations with RSS, who in turn has affiliations with VHP? However, if you look at the dictionary, ‘communalism’ is defined as follows: Main Entry: com•mu•nal•ism Pronunciation: -n&l-"i-z&m Function: noun 1 : social organization on a communal basis 2 : loyalty to a sociopolitical grouping based on religious or ethnic affiliation - com•mu•nal•ist /-n&l-ist/ noun or adjective If you read the above dictionary meaning of communalism carefully, then Congress itself is guilty of being communal, as they so frequently like to label their opposition. Congress has been in power for greater part since India's...

Next few days I will publish my old posts from blogspot, where I used to maintain the blog in 2006.  Here is one of them.  This is close to my heart and I feel this still applies in 2009 and going forward. *********************************************************************************** Power of Nature It has been seen recently that nature's fury has been striking at various places. Places like Gujarat (earthquake and recent floods), Mumbai (37 inches of rain in a day), Orissa (floods), Tsunami (South Asia), Famine (parts of Africa), floods in Czech republic, heat waves in various parts of the world and now the hurricane and destruction of New Orleans, Biloxi and parts of alabama in the USA. I am not a scientist by any means and don't wish to get into a scientific debate on what is causing this. However, one simple thing I learned long back is that when you hurt or mess with nature, it will strike back with all its fury and wrought destruction, no matter how powerful you th...

Well, my son still continues to suffer from fever.  Everytime he takes paracetamol (Crocin), the temperature comes down and then rises back again.  So, I am back working from home and trying to juggle him with my conference calls and emails :-)  It is fun and I can kind of understand how much work it is to go to work, cook, clean and tend to a child.  I think I would be terrible if I had to do it full time so, full credit to my wife who does it quite seamlessly. While at home, I get to watch all the kiddie show and current favourite of my son is "Chhota Bheem".  It is quite clean and little educational, no where as educational as Dora though.  I enjoyed the Bheem show though and wouldn't mind seeing it again.  We are again hooked to shows on National Geographic and Animal Planet.  It is so much nicer to learn about nature than to watch mindless soaps or slapstick comedy programs. Thinking of Chhota Bheem and Dora, I am reminded about the monkey that is roaming around in o...

I came home yesterday and found that my 3 year old son has fever, though he was in a pretty good spirits.  That is the thing with kids getting sick.  Parents feel more for the kid than the kid themselves.  They are generally in jovial mood unless the temperature goes beyond 100C or if they start feeling lethargic. I finally got to have my favourite fruit- Black Jamuns.  Our driver saw them with some sabziwala so, he bought them for me.  I guess in Tamil it is called "Nagapalam".  Interesting..I learn new things everyday. Additionally, I had worked out early in the morning yesterday and then I worked out again in the afternoon.  Surprisingly, I still feel refreshed.  I did about 50-60 push-ups yesterday.  I don't intend to do that many everyday, but I wanted to find out how far my body can go and looking at how I feel today, it seem I can probably do even more. :)  So, I guess it is all in the mind. I have started doing meditation in the morning around 5:30am.  Although I ...

The one thing that kept me sane in my early years in the US was various songs from old hindi movies.  My father's friend Mr. Harish Bhatt (we lovingly called him Dada) was a big bhakt of K.L.Saigal.  Being in a small town of Porbandar, there was not much to do or see every weekend so, we used to visit Dada quite often and he used to sing K.L. Saigal songs.  Soon, me and my brother started loving it and singing them.  We also got exposed to other great singers in Punkaj Mullick, K C Dey, Khurshid etc from the 30s and 40s. This is not to say that i don't like modern music or even songs from 60s and 70s.  I love them all however songs from late 30s to 50s are probably my favourite.  There was something about them - purity, soothness, innocence - I am not sure. Here are some of my favourites: Duniya Rang Rangili Panghat pe Kanhaiyya Aata Hai More Balapan Ke Saathi Diya Jalao Jag mag Even...

This restaurant is one of my favourite joints in Bangalore.  It is a bit on the expensive side.  It does have a decent selection of food from soups, salads, sizzlers (veg and non veg) and other items.  They serve mainly continental food so, if you are looking for Indian food, this is not a restaurant for you. I honestly go there for nachos.  I miss mexican food from the US, especially from California.  Nachos used to be my favourite along with burritos.  While good burritos are hard to find here, nachos at indi Joe's are quite good.  No baked beans in nachos here though.  They put rajma instead and they also put sprouted moong.  Guacamole and Sour Cream taste the same as in the US.  Overall I have eaten the entire plate while my wife settles with whatever she can manage when I am on the eating spree :-) Their Veg sizzler was quite good.  It had a fairly large sized veggie pattie along with nicely burnt rice (in a good way; aroma is awesome) along with various veggies on the side.  ...

We had been to Bannerghata National Park last weekend.  It is always good to see wild animals in their natural settings.  The place is quite nice but I cringe at the thought of how close the national park are to the human settlement.  If you look at a slight distance away from the jungle, you can actually see some high rise buildings, which is a bit scary. We took the Lion and Tiger safari + Zoo.  The price was Rs. 90/person on a weekend.  Luckily we ended up there only an hour after the opening of the park.  We got lucky and only had to stand in the line for about 1/2 hour before we boarded the swaraj mazda bus.  This bus took us first to the Lion safari.  We saw a couple of lions sleeping as usual.  I heard I think on Animal Planet that it is the 2nd laziest animal on the planet.  It sleeps nearly 20 hrs/day.  From there we proceeded to the tiger sanctuary.  It was amazing that we were going in the bus while tigers/leoprads were in the cage :)  It wasa  bit of anti-climax to say the ...

A great circus that is the Indian Elections are coming to a close.  In fact, IMO, this is the beginning of it.  The hypocrites like Congress, SP, Left etc who seem to change positions like the weather in San francisco are licking their chops trying to prevent BJP from forming the new gocvernment.  These folks are only interested in grabbing power and have the least interest in the country that has given them so much.  The only thing they do is throw bit and pieces of crumbs to people when election times are near.  After that they will promise moon, stars and everything else they can think of.  Good thing God cannot be seen because otherwise they would even trade him for power. I will readily admit that I am a BJP supporter, but you must also know that Congress' thurst and arrogance for power has turned me off from them.  I hate dynasties and do not believe that in a great country like India, votes should begged for on a single surname - Gandhi.  I think Gandhiji's soul must be ...

Finally, I hope this whole PAN card application fiasco is over.  I had applied or a PAN card for my wife.  She is a US citizen but now that we reside here and she wants to work, I thought it prudent to apply for a PAN card for her.  Per guidelines mentioned on the IN site, I sent copies of our OCI card and the US passport for Proof of Identity and Proof of Address.  Since there was no way she could prove her proof of address, they said we need to send proof of address.  Now, in India, they ask for PAN card for any service be it phone, mobile, bank etc and to apply for PAN you need proof of address. Finally, we went to a gazetted officer and got his signature which confirms that she actually lives at the address we mentioned.  Let's see if that is accepted by them. In past couple of weeks, I have taken volvo bus to go back home and I tell you what- I love the buses.  They generally are less crowded, comes almost every 5-10 minutes on Airport Road and are quite well maintained.  I ju...

I have this habit of starting blogs and then shunning it and creating new ones.  However, I am hoping to continue this blog and actually share my daily life in India with everyone. On the other hand, elections in India are almost close to an end.  Last phase of elections is scheduled for May 13rd and thus will end the long and painful election cycle in India.  Me and my friend are all set to sit in front of the TV with our chips and other snacks to watch the election results.  It will be interesting to see thew tamsha that happens once the results are revealed.  By all accounts, it will be a majorly hung parliament and see parties with 2 MPs playing kingmaker will be very interesting to watch. My work life is a bit quiet at the moment with a lull period before it picks up later this week.