Remembering My Father - #1

"My father is K. Hariharan" -

If there is one thing that I can be thankful for, for being born in this world, its merely the privilege of being able to say this statement - "My father is K. Hariharan".

My father is not a celebrity of sorts. Neither is he a popular stateman nor a wealthy business magnet. But to the one thing he cherished the most in his life - his immediate family - for which he toiled hard, for the betterment of which he lived every moment of his life, he is EVERYTHING. period. His demise would be a lacuna that would remain void for us for the rest of our lives. All through his life, his thoughts had always centered around his family, starting with his parents when he was young and all the way to his sons and grandson during the twilight of his life.

Among his many persona, I, as his son, can only provide unquestionable judgement on how good a father he had been. And, that is exactly what I wish to do next. An attempt at a tribute to the most valuable person I had in my life.

My Father - In Memoriam

My previous blog post started with how my father made earnest attempts to inculcate values in us during our childhood. That post was the first post in my blog which threw light on my father's persona as seen by his children (ie us). I can only call it irony because hardly 3 days after that post, I received the dreaded call from my mom back home - the one I knew heart of heart would come some day even though I dreaded receiving it, the one which I know would throw me off my balance no matter how much I had prepared myself mentally for that. My father, Mr. K. Hariharan, breathed his last on November 10th, 2009 6:00PM at Chennai. Life is never going to be the same again for me, my brother and my mother.

The Dark Side of Light

An integral part of my childhood memories include my father's earnest attempts to inculcate some values/principles in us - sometimes getting driven to frustration and anger by my unresponsiveness. One such value was - "switch off lights when leaving a room". A seemingly simple act that has far reaching social implications than just a household energy bill. Much to my surprise these days, not only do I find most of those values reflecting in me subconsciously but also I find myself trying hard to pass it on to the next generation. All is well till now - a great motive, simple act, win-win situation, saves energy, greener planet etc etc.

A recent news footage on SDGE (the utility that provides gas and electric to san diego) literally made me wonder if values such as those I mentioned are for losers and are going to go meaningless. See this article http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local-beat/Critics-Shocked-by-SDGE-Rate-Change-Plan-69180472.html In a nut shell, SDGE is awaiting government approval of a billing plan change which will increase the rates for people who use less energy and vice versa. In other words, if you current energy consumption is less, you will see your utility bill increase. If you are an indifferent citizen who doesnt bother to switch off lights or A/Cs, SDGE will reward you with lesser rates and therefore a reduces bill. I dont even know where to start here. Is it the blatant disregard for the efforts of an average Joe (like my father, like me) who does his part to save energy (albeit for personal interest), or, is it the pathetic state of the silent c middle class majority which is neither wealthy enough to put up a fight nor penury enough to go unaffected, or, is it the brilliant but misguided capitalist minds of the SDGE management (may be some top B-school products) who could deftly draft such a proposal and have the guts to send it for government approval. Tyrants in history like Louis XIV or Hitler would be turning in their graves for not having such brilliant screwed up minds to pen their atrocious policies euphemistically. I am eagerly awaiting how the California Utility Commission is going to respond.

In my mind, the above case of SDG&E's unscrupulous approach draws parallel to the ill-conceived caste-based reservation system in Indian Education and public sector employment. Politicians playing the caste card and increasing quota for the so-called oppressed classes under the expense of the meritorious class only to make the oppressed classes remain oppressed and still think they are benefited. Just a few economically advantaged subset of the "oppressed class" reap the benefits while the real "have-nots" remain so for ever.

I tried being creative for the pic for today's post. Let me know if you cant identify the subject.

Whose Line Is It Anyway ? - #9

The dawn of the reasoning-out phase in my kid's life has thrown up few more interesting moments these days.

• Of late, my son, who is hardly 4, seems greatly interested in his "past" - meaning when he was an infant etc. During one discussion on why his birthday is the day it is, I told it was because thats when he was born. The word "born" drew a blank expression from him. Trying to make it clear, I said that was the day when he came out of mommy's tummy as a small baby. That seemed to have struck a chord as his eyes lit up. Pouncing on this chance to explains his lineage using his reasoning skills, I eagerly questioned - "Do you know where mommy came from him?". I was expecting the word "grandma" somewhere in his answer. He quipped back lifting his shirt and showing off his belly - "mommy came from my tummy".
• Sometimes our kid is extremely conscious of his clothing. Most of the times, (other than when he is super excited during which he runs around like Archimedes-upon-discovery), he doesnt like to remain in his briefs or vests or without both for too long while changing dresses. During the above said discussion along the lines of birthday, birth etc etc., he suddenly got self-conscious and asked about what he was wearing when he was born. We told he was not wearing anything. He dint quite like the fact the he came out of mother's tummy not wearing anything. He refused to accept it and kept telling "No" for a long time.
• A discussion between me and my wife on moving back to India for good led us in to various aspects of the moving etc etc. Ending up with more questions than answers, I was getting contemplative when I noticed my son intently watching us. In an effort to pull his legs by making him think, I just blurted out asking "When you grow up, do you want to be a US citizen or an Indian Citizen?". After bit of thought from his side, he said clearly, "I just want to be Sanjay". As with most responses from kids, a disarming, seemingly-simple yet deep answer.

Today's pic shows my son's this year Halloween costume.

Whose Line Is It Anyway ? - #8

• I wear a ring with the letter "M" (first letter of my name) on it. I was showing this to my son and asking him to read it. When he asked why an "M", I figured that I will use this as a chance to test out his reasoning skills. I questioned back,"How do you spell Appa's name ?". He spelled right, "M-A-G-E-S-H". But dint immediately relate that M to my name. I wasnt too happy to note that he dint make the connection. After a thought, he turned towards his mother and asked why he doesn't wear a ring. My wife faithfully replied that he has one and that he is not wearing it as he is a small boy. Upon persistence, we had to produce the proof - a cute little ring he wore as an infant. He tried it to his satisfaction. Then with a quizzical look retorted back, "Why is my ring not having an "S" ?". The little one indeed had already figured out the name connection.
• Kids in my son's class are in the phase to trying to identify their names when written and spell it. My wife does that too with my kid's name and his friends' name for practice. On the other day, my wife was commenting about how a girl in my son's class had asked her mom to write my son's name when they were practicing spelling at home. True to being a boy's parents in Indian sense, we got a bit macho and for a good laugh, one of us commented to the other slyly that the said girl has "one-eye" on our boy. Our boy, intently listening to this conversation, couldnt figure out the signifance of the term "one-eye" but was quick to correct our mistake, "no, no, she has two eyes too". Time to be careful hereafter...
  
  
  Pic shows my son's cars and other vehicles duly parked in the couch.

A Bet on Obama

Today I came across the most interesting news in recent times. Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009. While I admire Obama for various reasons I mentioned in my earlier posts - (closing of Gitmo, Healthcare Public Option to mention a recent few), his choice for the prize did come to me as a surprise as it did to most of us. Given his policies, while he may be a promising candidate for the accolade sometime in the future for sure, bestowing upon him the honour now (barely 5yrs at National scene and barely a year at International Level) seems bit premature. However, as one new article put it, this news is seen as a "daring bet on the future" by the Prize committee. I surely concur. I only wish they succeed in their bet as Obama lives up to their (our) expectation.
Interesting angle is - the nobel peace prize committee seem to be showering praise upon people inspired by Mahatma, perhaps as a way of compensating the Mahatma for not bestowing the accolade on him while he was alive. I was surprised to learn today that when Mahatma was assassinated in early 1948, he was apparently the forerunner for that year's Peace Nobel and hence the committee declined to give that to another person citing "there is no one alive that deserved that award that year". Very touching. Since then, the "Mahatma Club among Nobel Peace Laureates", as one media calls it, has grown strongly - MLK Jr, Dalai Lama, Aung San Syu Kyi, Nelson Mandela and today, Obama. It would only have been more fitting had they announced this a few days ago on Oct 2, the birthday of the Great Soul. While the rest of the Mahatma Club had strong "resumes" by the time they were hounoured, Obama is starting to build one at international level.

Oddly enough, a line from Harry Potter comes to mind - In his first year, when Harry visits Olivander to purchase his first wand, interestingly, the wand that chose Harry happens to have a feather of a Phoenix while the only other feather given by that same Phoenix found its way into Voldemort's wand. At this, Olivander comments, "I am sure we can expect great things from you, Harry, after all He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things, terrible..but great". Obama is like a first-year Harry expected to do great things in coming years and his Voldemort (Mahatma) is not his nemesis and has achieved greatness in a benign way.
Attached pic for today's post was taken by my cell phone camera at office. Had kept a cup of hot water closed and when I opened it a while later, I saw this nice condensation of the vapor along the sides in an orderly fashion (row/column) and looked beautiful.

Whose Line Is It Anyway? - #7

• The battle of wits between parents and kids is always classy. In our case, we knew, it reached a new height when our toddler disarmed me completly with a unassuming disarming comment recently. These days he has picked up this habit of pulling his lip's dry skin with his fingers. We are trying to get him out of that habit. While driving to school, I decided to implore upon him that he shouldnt do it at school. With a warning tone, I finished that if he did it at school, I will get upset and I dont know what I will do. Our kid is used to such warnings by now which are usually followed by well defined "else" clause. eg. You should not do such-and-such act, else you will not get to color today etc etc. Usually depending on the stakes at hand, he will decide either to go for that act or otherwise. We feel victorious if he backed out. In the case of the above said warning against picking his skin, I deliberately left out the "else" clause undefined as I dint want to sound too harsh. But used to hearing what his stakes are, he got back innocently from the rear seat, "If I do it, what will you do ?" From his view, its a very innocent plain question. He wants to know the outcome. But for a grown up with an ego at that, a question like "what will you do" from a toddler is very unnerving and disarming. To be frank, I dint know what to respond.
• One fortnightly activity for my son is to attend the Balabhavan(kid's school) at our local temple where parent-volunteers try to imbibe concepts about our religion into these young minds. In one such class, they were mentioning about Lord Shiva who also goes by the name Shankar. When the teacher asked "Who is Shankar", our son promptly replied "Shankar is my daddy's friend". Everybody laughed assuming that I had friend by that name. I laughed too while thinking which friend of mine he has got confused with. Only later then we realised how much this young one's memory and mind are alert. Upon our Bay Area trip a month earlier, I met one of my friends by name Shankar. We spent hardly an hour at a hangout place there and I mentioned his name only once to my son. He has remembered it so well that he was able to make the connection while I was searching for a local friend by that name who doesnt exist.

Pic for today's post features our son playing in the white sands of the "World's Most Beautiful 17 mile drive".

On Hunting

When it comes to keeping animals as pets, I have a very strict opinion - Dogs should live with Dogs, and Humans with Humans. I wouldnt want to live amidst a pack of dogs however cozy an environment they may provide. Why would a cat or dog think otherwise? - Kindly note, even Henry Bergh, the founder of ASPCA, dint keep any pets. But then I am not against pet-owners, as at least they love their pets and provide for everything they think is best. No ill-treatment at least.

Having said that, last morning heard a broadcast on NPR about hunting which disturbed me a lot. They were highlighting how the number of women hunters has been increasing over the years. But, in course of the narration, I heard a family woman mentioning about how their family went on Elk hunting for a get-together and how they each shot their own Elk and how that turned out to be one of the memorable family memories for them. I was shocked.

Forget about the species endangerment, extinction or ecological imbalance etc etc that arises because of hunting, the mere act of killing an innocent animal for pleasure is outright disgusting. Just because you are on top of the intellectual chain and an elk or a deer does not know how to use a rifle does not give us humans any moral grounds to go about killing them for pleasure. Most hunters wont even stand a chance against these animals if they were unarmed. In fact, humans seem to be the only living thing that goes about killing members of other species for no good reason. A lion does not hunt a deer unless its hungry - thats nature. A bear wont try to attack you unless you threaten its life. Why would we do that just for the heck of it. What does a person get by hanging a deer's head in his living room? Though unsustainable and debatable, the act of killing animals (chicken etc) for food is atleast understandable - You consume it to live. But killing an innocent creature for no good - thats when you feel ashamed to be a part of the same humanity that these hunters come from too.

The post for today's pic is from San Diego Zoo. The innocent expression in that small monkey's face goes well with the essence of the post while the blurred cage wires adds to the message giving a cornered feeling for these animals.

Whose Line Is It Anyway ? - #6

• While driving one day, me and my wife were rambling about this year's Academy Awards (Oscars) in general, and in particular about how A. R. Rehman was given two Oscars for a score which we felt is definitely not his best and there are a lot more of his scores that were more deserving. Our young man in the back seat was listening intently and the words "two Oscars" caught his attention. He also felt like contributing to the discussion - "Daddy, there is one Oscar in my school as well".

[The following one was told to me by my kid's preschool principal]

• My kid moved from lower Preschool (2yr olds) to Upper Preschool (3yr olds) recently. Most of his classmates are those who moved with from the lower to the upper one. Apparently a new 3yr old had joined his class recently and being to a new school/class, the new kid used to cry a lot almost daily it seems. Our youngman noticed that it was only this new kid thats crying and decided to do the needful. He told his principal, when they crossed paths, that the new kid is crying a lot. The principal, true to her tutelage instincts, decided to make our son see the point. Rhetorically she answered, "Do you remember what you did initially when you joined lower preschool last year ?". Prompt answer came- "I cried a lot". Principal, almost smelling success, "see, you cried a lot like him too..". Before she could finish, came the googly -"But I only cried in a Lower Preschool class". Well what can you say, its going to take bit more explaining. When the principal relayed this story to me, she ended with a note -"Thats a statement to keep and relish". Amen.

The pic for today's post shows a sunflower that we grew at our home - from seed level - gave a great level of satisfaction on seeing this at full bloom.

Whose Line is it anyway ? - #5

• Ever since our baby grew up from being a baby to a toddler, he has his own shopping list when we go to a store. Usually we let him have in his hand, some item he fancies while we shop and when it comes to checking out, we tell the billing clerk that we dont want that item. We dint realise the young one was observing this until recently when we were standing in the line for checkout, he looked at us and showed his item aloft and told "Amma, when you are billing, you should not say "We dont want this item"? okay" - We complied with his request amidst our laughs and me wondering what would be our next strategy in this battle of wits now that our trick has been exposed.

[Typically I have used these "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" posts for my kid's comments. But then you never know where cute/interesting comments can come from. Do you ? Well, here's an example]

• Since I am this major Harry Potter fan, my wife gifted me a 5DVD collection of the first 5 HP movies for my birthday. I leisurely revisit the movies in parts. One night I was watching HP #3 (my favorite of the lot). My wife strutted in to the room while ,on TV, one of the HP character's (Remus Lupin if you care) was turning into a were-wolf. My wife is not a big fan of HP stuffs and thinks its too unreal and of course, at that stroke of night, dint relish the idea of seeing a man turn into an ugly werewolf with an ominous roar. Later on when I very eagerly explained her what interesting event was happening there from a story's point of view, with a relish of disgust, she blurted out - "Why should he turn into a were-wolf ? such a scary animal with that voice. Why not turn into a were-rabbit or, say, a were-puppy ?". What to say - Speechless, I only managed a laugh.

Today's pic is an apt one for the post. Taken at the San Diego Zoo, it shows one of the zoo's pride possession - the Koalas - my wife's favorites. This pics shows an young one comfortable in the presence of its mother and to our luck, both were awake and moving when we went there.

Unsung Heroes

Yesterday was the so-called anniversary of "Lehman Brother's bankruptcy" - yup, it has already become a watershed event. In fact, I myself vividly remember that day when the news broke out and the stock market to a dive of ~7% or so in a day.

Anyways, there was an article about that yesterday. Lets keep aside the far reaching effects of that event in the financial system and the ripple effects of that etc etc. What troubles me most is because of the greed and thoughtless risk-taking of a few in the top of the ladder at LB, their entire work force ended up paying heavily. Think about the low level employees who had no idea/control of what was going on at top, suddenly find themselves in the street, struggling to make ends meet, seeing their hard earned nest egg of 401k (most of which was in LB stock) reduced to little to nothing. In that news article, there was a mention about a coffee cart vendor outside LB's NY head quarters who has been selling coffee to LB employees for 10 yrs now. He was troubled by the state of the employees - his customers - who are just thrown into the streets. More so, the flock of media reporters, insensitive to the entire happening, irritated him a lot when they asked questions like "how it feels to be suddenly out of job etc" to the already-dazzled employees coming out of the door. The infuriated coffee vendor literally put up a sign in his cart saying "no coffee to press/reporters". Sure some reporters were dazzled to see such a courage from a low earning coffee cart vendor. This man could have easily rigged up some cash by making the most of that day as his future was uncertain as well like any LB employee. But it takes courage to stand up to your principles/feelings and put it on top of your livelihood instincts. To me he is an unsung hero.

PS. The article also mentioned how one reporter gifted him $100 on seeing his reaction and how he used it inturn to give some free coffees to his ex-regular customers for one last time.

Why on Earth ....

My ramblings about some unrelated stuffs - each of which I am not able to reason out rationally.

My swimming trunk has 5 pockets just like a Jeans pant. What on earth could a person possibly be carrying in his pockets while swimming that warrants 5 pockets. After a couple of laps do they expect a swimmer to stop and check one of the pockets if his SSN or DL card is still there or if they have drowned to the bottom of the pool, or worst, a cop swimming right behind pulls over a swimmer to the lane side and ask for an ID of some before checking him for SUI (swimming under influence)!!!

If you have been following the various Finance related websites - Google Finance, Yahoo Finance - you would have realised this. These sites typically boast "the most sensational yet utterly useless headline" of all media sites. If the market is open they will say something like "Dow down 100 points" while the graph next to it would convey more news than that. To top it all, they would try to come up with an explanation as if they know what they are talking. Once in a blue moon, an event like Lehman Brother's collapse helps them save their skin when explaining. With the real time updates on the indicies reflected on the websites in no time, the headlines now-a-days look more foolish than ever before trying to keep up. Today Google Finance said "Dow up on consumer confidence" while the realtime quote showed the index down by 30 points. They could use a software script to auto-generate the headline at the same speed the index is being updated so that, however hilarious, atleast it looks in sync with the number.

After 8 long years in America, I am tired of (or rather used to) organizations/businesses using superlative terms to describe themselves - the best, greatest, cheapest, most-this, most-that etc etc. Here are some funny superlative statements I came across -

• SDCCU (San Diego Country Credit Union) claiming that it has been voted as the "BEST credit union in the County by the readers of the San Diego Union Tribune(UT)" - How many credit unions can there be in SD county (not even double digits) and even among them, how much of a circulation does UT have and of that much circulation how much would have taken the pains to participate in such a poll. Is that even a category to claim anything meaningful ?
• Kia, the automaker, in an add recently boasted of an award from JD Power and Associates. Kia.com Ranks HIGHEST Among ManufacturerWeb Sites in Satisfying New-Vehicle Shoppers - When was the last time you or someone you know visited an automaker's website for buying a car as lame as KIA.
• Monterey Bay's - The world's MOST beautiful 17 miles - Drive. This was a total let down. We agree that drive was roughly 17 miles. Other than that, it was anything but beautiful. Our relative warned us but still we wasted 10$ on the entry fee. It was just another innovative way the filthy rich have designed to further rip off the less opulent. The drive had 21 so called "vista" points of which the most hilarious one was Ghost Tree.

J D Power and Associates is a friendly agency to any business. Give them their fee, they will surely find a category so obscure that your business will be the best of that category. Remember the Kia example. It would only be fitting for them if they come up with a "Most Over-rated Tourist Attraction" category and award that to the Monterey Bay 17-mile Drive. See today's pic of the Ghost Tree - one of the so called vista points- in the 17-mile drive.

Freaky Freeways

Living an hour from Los Angeles, the "city of angeles" (aka LA), I dont think I have ever seen any angels flying over there but most drivers on its freeways seem to be flying high for sure. With its myriad number freeways being barely able to cope up with its enourmous traffic appetite, an outsider ,or worst, a first-timer, driving into LA at pretty much at any point of the day is sure to get hit with a shocking number of winding freeways, exiting on either sides at short notice, bumpy with sometimes narrow lanes, bumper-to-bumper traffic going mad at 80 mph, drivers who dont seem to use anything other than steering wheel and gas pedal, reckless truck drivers who join the meelee and to top it all off, the city's penchant for bright hoardings dangerously close to the freeway straining at the already stressed-out drivers' eyes throwing all sense of caution to the air. Throw in the night atmosphere in this mix, well, you will have one memorable experience. Trust me, I have had two in the last as many months.

Incidentally, a considerable chunk of LA traffic doesnt seem to go anywhere within LA. They are just cutting across the city to get to the other side and proceed their own ways. This is particularly true during holiday seasons. This bunch can be easily diverted outside of the city's freeways by having what we call in India as "by-pass" roads. Essentially a national highway enters a major crowded city and the traffic that does not have anything to do with the city just takes a bypass road and circumvents the city to catch the highway on the other end of the city. I dont know why such an idea dint get folded into the well-thought-out-and-executed American Freeway system. Definitely cities like LA stand to benefit from that. I wouldnt mind travelling an extra 30 miles or spending a buck more on the roadside coffee/snack if I can avoid cutting across LA, that too with my family now blissfully asleep in the rear seats.

To prove my point, attached pic shows a speeding pick-up truck (an F150) in front of me at close distance with the blue light from the freeway hoardings reflected off of the road. Picture taken with camera suspended at road level.

Whose Line Is It Anyway ? - #4

• I was attending a call from the auto dealer fixing my car (for damage from an accident I mentioned earlier). I was on the phone and was asking them about my remote keyless entry system which I wanted them to fix as it was not functional. The youngman besides me was grasping every word I am speaking and when he heard the terms "remote - key - car", sprung on his feet and came to me telling "Appa, ask them to repair my remote control car as well. Grandpa broke it earlier". I remembered his remote control car gone bad after a while and we had orchestrated that grandpa actually broke it and our guy is still waiting for insurance to come and repair. I had to promise him a new one to continue attending my phone call.
• On the day of Vinayaka Chathurthi my wife decided to wear a traditional Saree to the temple. I was waiting there for her to appear in the Saree, nervously rehearsing in my mind the appreciative words I would soon tell to save my life. She appeared and before even I could comment, my young son, who woke up dreamy eyed from him midday nap, took one look at his mom in Saree, and his eyes brightened up with a quick comment - "Amma, you look like A grandma". Apparently he remembers only his grandma in a saree attire and thought only she wears that. But for me, he is the only person in the world who can get away unscathed with such a comment about my wife.
• Aug 31st was "back-to-school" day and our young man was moving to a new class - Its a first for all of us. First time he is moving to a new class (upper preschool). Figuring out he may not be needing any major stationaries, my wife, prudently, talked me into getting him bunch of new dresses instead. The one he wore on the first day was a neat sports jersey like Tshirt with the number "22" on it and it said he is the "Team Capt". I wondered out loud if my wife found any number other than "22" at the shop while in my mind trying to relate that number to a sports celebrity in any game. My son, agile as ever, took one look down at his new T-shirt, came out with a cute "Amma, my T-shirt has "55" written on it". He was right though, from where he looked at it, the inverted "22" sure spelled "55". In our hurry, we couldnt get time to explain why its actually 22 and not the 55 he sees.
• I and my wife are in (one of) the difficult stage(s) of parenting - making the kid eat his food by himself. One afternoon, I was spoon-feeding our young man as he refused to do it by himself and got cranky. When he asked for water (which I know he can drink by himself and likes doing so as well), I refused to give him that pleasure saying "if you dont eat your food by yourself, you cant drink your water by yourself either. I will give you some myself". A day later, somehow, I and my wife's stars aligned and our combined patience prevailed our young man's revolts. He was eating his dinner by himself with a spoon while I just stood by his side. When he asked for water, I offered to give him the same myself (thinking that I can give him less so that he doesnt stuff his tummy with water). But I was caught off-guard when he retorted back saying "now I am eating my food myself, so I will drink my water myself too". I had to yield. As I said in my earlier posts, this little one remembers !!!

Back on Track

After 14 long years, I was able to come back to some of the religious aspects of my life that I had enjoyed when I was a child. Thanks to my wife, it felt good and promising. Felt hopeful in more ways than one.

During my child hood, thanks to my parents mainly, I have always enjoyed "Vinayaka Chathurthi" - the morning shopping for Lord Ganesh's clay idol, carrying a wooden plank (palagai) with me to carry it back home, the colored paper umbrella for him, the arugampil for the lord, my father driving the idol vendor mad with his bargaining, decorating the idol at home and more than anything, the amazing "ammini" and "uppu" kozhakattai my mom makes. After I left India, it remained just in memories. At my wife's suggestion, we went to the Shiva Vishnu Temple where kids made the idol themselves from a mould (wife did the major part for us), took it back to the temple a week later on the day of chaturthi with a small paper umbrella over him and my kid did all the ganesh homum/pooja along with other kids, offering akshathai etc to their idol, we brought the idol back home, offered him "sweet" and "ammini" kozhakattai my wife made. To top it all, a grand finale, the "Ganesh Visarjan", immersing the idol into the ocean for good, was held by the two San Diego temples combined at La Jolla shores. Some 150+ motivated San Diegan devotees from across India turned up on that hot day, sang bhajans before taking a procession of the idols into the ocean. The usual beach crowd of sun-bathers and surfers were surprised at this new event and some started photographing as well. The usually cold Pacific was surpringly warm and pleasant with the food and buttermilk after the visarjan finishing it all on a high note.

At my wife's behest, this year, I even went to the temple for the Avani Avittam in traditional dothi and vibuthi instead of doing a half-baked-upakarma at home.

Attached is the photo of Lord Ganesh (idol we made) gracing our home. Also shown is the kozhukattai-es in the second rack.

Reverse Idea Drain

I have heard about Brain Drain back in India (when talented educated minds sought greener western pastures) and also now to some extent we hear "reverse brain drain" - some of those drained brains headed back home.

On a related note, back in India, I have often seen movies inspiried by Hollywood hits - GodFather - for eg. The said "inspiration" has ranged from "being reverential" (eg. RGV's "Sarkar" on the footsteps of GodFather) to outright plagiarism (innumerable). If we call this phenomenon "Idea Drain" from a western world point of view, what I stumbled upon recently, interestingly enough, should be called - for lack of a better word - "Reverse Idea Drain". I came across two movies whose plot is exactly the same as that of two Tamil movies of the 1960-70s era. Both these movies are predominantly British, centered in London and were released in 1998-99 time frame. I dont know how much more are there. Here are the two -

• "The Parent Trap" - 1998 - starring Dennis Quaid, Natasha Richardson and Lindsay Lohan . ( I should credit my wife for bringing this movie to my attention when it was being broadcast on TV). This is an exact westernised replica of "Kuzhanthaiyum Deivamum" - 1965 - starring Jai Shankar, Jamna Rani and Kutti Padmini in the lead respectively. Lindsay Lohan is no where near Kutti Padmini in playing the young twin girls role, Dennis Quaid compensates.


• "Notting Hill" - 1999 - starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. The story line is exactly the same as "Sumathi En Sundari" - 1971 - starring the legendary Sivaji Ganesan and Jayalalitha in the lead. I couldnt stand the stoic expression-less Hugh Grant playing Sivaji's role. But Julia more than compensates for that.


• "Something's Gotta Give" - 2003 - starring Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Keanu Reeves and some other girl in the main characters. The story is along the lines of the Balachander's legendary "Apoorva Raagangal" -1975 - starring Major Sunderrajan, Srividhya, KamalHassan and Jayasudha respectively. While the tamil movie, in which RajniKanth debuted in a cameo role, attempts to explore complex human relationship in a decent way, the copycat is falling short of that ideal and seems like a cheap skin flick (distasteful at that too) just capitalizing on the complex human relation aspect of story. The main cast of the original was beaming with acting talent while the copy cat had to contend with quirky Jack Nicholson while the rest just filled the roles name sake. Keanu Reeves seems elegant but fades in front of talented Kamal Hassan. This, if any, is an insult to the original.

Came across the following piece of advise in a mailing list on photography - "Good photographers make good pictures - equipment is secondary. I'd rather listen to a great guitarist on a cheap guitar than a mediocre guitarist on an expensive guitar. " - How true. Today's pic is of a twins I took in Yosemite Glacier point. I hope to capture the shot with their faces not very visible but still giving the idea of twins by their attire. I dont know why I converted it to B&W

Whose Line is it anyway - #3

• Our young man is in the exciting phase of exploring the world of words in both English and his mother tongue, Tamil. True to our Indian roots and to parenting in general, sometimes we couldnt help ourself shouting at our little one when his acts becoming unmanageable. Suddenly he will cut a cute face, come and embrace you. This time, he wanted to say that we should talk to him softly and not harsh. The word harsh hasnt come under his radar yet. Here he goes - "Appa, you should to me softly. You should not talk to me BIGLY".
• Qualcomm is the name of the company I work for. Our young man had noticed the Qualcomm sign board outside my office building when he sometimes accompanies him mom for dropping me off. He wanted to master the spelling. But incidentally the logo of our company has the ending two "m" entwined to resemble an electrical signal. Our guy was able to make it that there is an "m" there. so he goes, "Q-U-A-L-C-O-M-M-M-M-M-M". See here for our company logo as to why it confused our lad on the number of M's in the end.
• We went in a train ride in Yosemite. The train was pulled by a Steam Engine which greatly attracted our kid's attention with its huge black body and steam bellowing nose. Back home, my wife decided to build on the inspiration and was trying hard to find an equivalent item to demonstrate it. She was contemplating all things from pressure cooker to mimic the steaming part. To our surprise, our man came out telling we already have a steam engine at home. Only when he pointed out to the object, we realised how observant he is and how out-of-touch are we with creativity. The object is none other than - our house humidifier - shown in today's pic - shaped as the cartoon character "Thomas" the engine. And the vapor coming out of its nose exactly resembled a steam engine in motion.

Close AND A Cigar !!

The cigar is hot and smoking. Okay. Peace. This is what happened - Over the weekend I got my cell phone upgraded. Unlike my usual upgrades ( to the costliest FREE phone available ), this time around I was excited about the upgrade for a different reason. I was working on a cellphone chip 5yrs ago which is now available in a commerical cell phone product. Not only that, the feature I was working on in particular (Touch Screen) is the main UI on this phone. I was really excited to receive that albeit it cost me a good $50+tax after the discounts. But the wait was worthwhile. Not many times in your life you will come across this - your work/effort seen in reality that too in a tangible fashion and everybody using it and you able to tell them that you did it. Every time I tap the Touch Screen and it gives a "click", I know exactly whats happening inside - every circuit thats processing my tap. The phone, in case if you guys are curious, is LG Versa from Verizon Wireless. Verizon also sells an accessory to this - a full fledged QWERTY keypad - for the technically challenged. But no thanks, for now, I am more than good.

Is Humanity Becoming Sadistic ?

This post can also be titled "The case for TV show re-runs". Historically art forms are considered a reflection of the society. They are greatly influenced by the broader culture and social outlook of their era. I only wish it does not apply to today's TV if only it can be considered an art form.

I was browsing through some recent hit TV shows here and back home in India as well (which seem to mimic the most-useless-aspects of the western world) - A commonality I was able to gleam in all of them is "Sadistic satisfaction" - a reality or talent show where in the so called celebrity-judges pass caustic, stinging comments about a contestant's performance and the viewers kind of watching it with mouth wide open - some sympathising and many hedonistic of what they are watching. Of course, one can argue that much of this is staged/orchestrated and the listeners should be a better judge of what to watch. I mean why select such a poorly talented contestant in the first place - may be the contestants do it for the money and the few moments of spotlight or its just sensational media culture. If what we watch is true and this is what is popular among people, the sad truth will be we are just become more sadistic society as a whole - drawing pleasure from someone's public stupidity or misery - OR, we are just indifferent and just want to watch some sensational stuffs just to ward off the feeling of living "monotonous mundane lives". Both are not healthy. A few moments of recent TV come to mind -

• "America's Got Talent" - Contestants who should have been filtered off in the screening stages itself making it to the stage only to make a mockery of themselves and to be boo-ed by the audience (elders, youngsters ..) The so called celebrity-judge dismissing the contestant with an audacious "NOT IN A MILLION LIGHT YEARS" - comment. Verbatim. Isnt a light-year an unit of Length and not time...umm...never mind. there are bigger issues here.
• A reality cooking show - showing a chef and his sous-chefs/assitants - in a real kitchen tackling the peak hour pressures etc - think of Apprentice and Donald Trump. The chef tasting one of the dishes and yelling at the sous-chef "Isnt the brussel sprout supposed to be soft/cooked ? What am I - an animal to eat it ?" - I dont know but for sure we are vegetating by watching this show.

You find moments such as these in a lot of other shows as well. My wife often takes me for a ride because I keep watching the re-runs of re-runs of sitcoms like "Everybody Loves Raymond, Seinfeld, Friends, Frasier etc etc". If the new shows (save it for Bill Engval though) are going to be like what I mentioned above, thank God we have re-runs. Make my spectacles more thicker and my hair oily-slick-retro-combed and call me a geek or nerd, I am happy to watch Jeopardy or PBS or C-SPAN for that matter.

Attached photo taken at San Diego Sea Port Village - some newly erected art piece against the backdrop of sunset at the bay.

The (Weak) Case for a Home Theater

Ever since I got hooked on to the NFL games (the only american sport I understand a bit), the desire for a wide screen TV (42" or more) kind of grew wildly. The addition of the Onkyo HTSR800 to my home decor only added more fuel to this. However the situation was well under control.

8th of July was a record of sorts - We (me, wife and kid) went to the theater to watch a movie for the first time. After a 4 year gap I stepping in to a movie theater. The last one for me and wife had been just when our son was conceived. Even this time, theater-movie evaded us for a week or so before we nailed it. The movie was Disney-Pixar's animation UP. This is what I came out with -

• Probably out of touch, me and my wife kind of found the screen toooooooo wide to cover with our two eyes and were missing subtle details of the photography/animation. (may be too old)
• I really missed the comfort of watching movie in a DVD at my home - you can pause, attend to kid or get something to eat, even have dinner.
• I couldnt rewind the movie at the theater to observe the fine details of the animation which I keep doing at home movies. I gravely missed it.
• Our kid started crying in the last 15min and I had to take him out thereby missing the climax.
• Not to mention the cost - ticket + snacks etc etc vs a 5$ DVD rental.
• As far as audio goes, any original DVD with a 5.1 sound track is enough for my Onkyo HT to give a splendid sound rendition.

I guess henceforth I would be contended with watching a movie at the comfort of my home. May be stepping into a theater occasionally. But then, I still need the widescreen....hmmm....

Attached pic shows the wire mesh covering the speaker's driver side.

Yosemite

We spent the last weekend on a relaxed road trip to Yosemite Valley. Beautiful place. Stayed outside at Oakhurst (the closest point to Yosemite where lodging is not costly). The falls had water, could have been better early summer or spring but no complaints. The bus service inside was great. Trekked alone to the Vernal falls. We visited Glacier Point for entire view of the valley. Valley view outside the tunnel was great. All of us trekked for a couple of miles at the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequioas. The Valley is worth a visit for sure. Bass Lake was the downside in the whole trip - not a tourist place. On the way to Yosemite, we crossed the Bakersfield area. For the first time I saw farming and agricultural activities and lush green plain fields in US - farm equipment, John Deere tractors, cows (a lot of them). The greenery and the plains were a welcome change for the eyes and kind of reminded me of the Cauvery delta where I grew up. The highlights of the trip are, in increasing rank, -

• 5 - For capturing the flow of a water falls, I learnt, you dont necessarily need a ND filter. If you are there at the right time of the day (evenings), smaller lens aperture, wide focal length - you are good. I almost bought a ND filter at the valley

• 4 - Got pulled over by a Park Ranger for speeding - my first in the US - I was doing 48 on a 35 mph stretch while descending down from Glacier point. Was lucky to escape with a warning. I even noticed the cop's radar going wild when I passed him at that speed.

• 3 - My wife made the shrewd observation that almost all the public trash cans in the valley are shaped like the "Half Dome" - an iconic granite rock formation that symbolises the whole area. Coincidence or bear-protection, I dont know - An interesting observation for sure.

• 2 - The whole family - a 3yr old and my inlaws - trekked a mile up and a mile down - on a decently steep trail on the Mariposa Grove. The whole time the younger one was very engrossed with the sticks he had in his hands and every so often renewed them for a fresh pair as well.

• 1 - And the oscar goes to - my wife and her mother for "Lunch with Curd Rice and Pickle". This really made the day for all the three days - timely, tasty food right in our car without the worry of queues and junk food.
  

Attached pics show the Yosemite Valley and the Half Dome from Glacier point and other pic shows Merced River seen from Mist Trail after it has fallen through Vernal Falls (This photo proves point 5 above :-) ).

Chaos Theory

I came across this term quite a bit in the past few months starting with a crazy tamil movie I saw a while ago. Then I heard this term kind of used to explain the not-so-obvious aspects of life in the Art Of Living class I mentioned in my earlier post - for eg, how a random act of kindness can cause a chain effect and how even when something bad happens to you when you actually did some good, you have to take into account a bigger picture to tally the equation out. Life is complex.

Well today, I got to experience my own dose of this medicine. Here's a small snippet of what happened. Got up today in a grumpy mood (which, according to my wife, would be saying I got up normally), my mind wandering, and when it came to leaving for office, I was so grumpy that I dint even wait to say good bye to my son as I often do, even though I was 10 min ahead of time I dint wait for him to come from his pee-pee (loo usage) to tell me a goodbye. I had just turned into the road outside my apartment complex and waiting for a green signal, an old truck in front of me, for reasons unknown, decided to backup and his rusted door saw my hood and fender bent in no time. It all happened even before I can reach to my car horn to alert him to stop. Insurance info exchanged, claim filed - seemed like an amicable person.

Now - the question is - if only I had waited for my kid to come from the loo to give me a good bye, --- I would have had my car whole, no insurance mess. Even though its the other drivers liability, still its unpleasant. My grumpy day eventually became an insurance mess for him. ( I am hoping he would also tell the same to his insurance so that its sorted amicably. But if he changes the story, then I am not sure whats going to happen. )

Now its anybody imagination to fill the details on why was I grumpy and whats next for the other driver who had a bad start for his day. Thought this sounds like chaos theory hence.

Attached is a pic of abstraction taken during fire works. Long exposure during fireworks couple with crazy movements of camera to create weird/abstract effects.

AWOL

This AWOL stands for "American Way Of Life" just to rhyme with my earlier post :-) One thing today's economic recession and job losses stand to validate is an observation I made about USA and its life style long time ago. This is a consumerist economy - less and less of production at home, more and more of ravenous consumption of services and goods from all parts of the world. They live of the credit line extended to them by fools who save money from them from the developing world. So in such an economy its the "marketing" that becomes a key player in the profitability. Unfortunately this marketing spree of the capitalist world seems to have caught up with the non-profit outfits here as well. Recently I made a $5 donation to the american cancer foundation (impulsive act). Since then I have gotten about a dozen postal mails from various other organizations asking for donation. Each time they send me this long scroll of address stickers with my name/address as thank-you-gift. If I guestimate the cost of making these stickers in first place, even if they are made in china, it would have come close to $5, my original contribution. There should be a better way. And a smarter way to squeeze money out of the filthy rich capitalists rather than bean-counting pennies from average joes like me.

AOL

This AOL stands for Art of Living. Around april, attended their part-I course and here is my take on the same --

1. Good endeavor to help people realize peace and alleviate stress by breathing techniques.
2. They teach you mainly the "Sudarshan Kriya" (amazing feeling when I did the first time), some subtle yoga exercises. Would need roughly 30-45min per day to practise. But really worth the time and effort.
3. Lot of discussions on introspection, life in general and knowledge points.
4. People repeat the course just to refresh their understanding or to see how different teachers approach aspects of life. But basic material of kriya/yoga remains same I guess.
5. Bit expensive here in US than in India. Not sure how the quality compares.
6. I guess the fundamental requirement of any therapy course is a belief that the therapy will work for you and help you. Same here.

My wife attended the same the last week of June. Her class was young compared to mine. Hoping to start doing the sudarshan kriya regularly. Definitely would recommend this to anybody.

On a tangential note, while things like Art of Living etc give you tips on how to manage stress and control emotion, life keeps giving you events to test it out in the field :-) Here is one -

My wife's I94 was stamped as H1B by mistake by the immigration office at the LA airport. Our immigration attorney found it out and asked us to get it corrected. All's well till this point. What irked us most was the attorney's comment that its our duty to make sure I94 is stamped correctly by the immigration office upon our arrival. Who is supposed to be agile here - a sleep-depreived family that has just flown 36hrs OR a burger-fed officer at home in his A/C office ? Remember art of living. Take a deep breadth, and let it go ....

This post's pic is tangentially related to the subject AOL. It shows a sun (sudharshan) . This is a revolving decoration item and the center sun is still while the periphery shows the nice motion though its in the same focal plane.

Whose Line is it anyway - #2

Our "young man" continues to amaze as with his cute one-liners..Here is some more --

1. My wife always has this nagging feeling that our son will take either the GRE or the IIT entrance exam when he gets to his kindergarten age. True to her feelings, she was furiously trying to make our lad spell out simple words like CAT, DOG etc. She wrote CAT on a piece of paper and read it as "C-A-T" and said "CAT". Our fellow said "CAT" too. Now she asked, "How do you spell CAT ?". Eagerly expecting a "C-A-T" from him, she was astounded when he came out with a cute "meow". Apparently the concept of "spelling" itself was yet to sink in.

2. As I mentioned earlier, as our young man grows up, there is a constant battle of wits going on between him and the adults - constantly trying to out wit each other. One late night our man was put in his bed, lights switched off (so that he wont jump off bed and run out) and was asked to sleep. Somehow he was not in a mood to lie down and at the same time afraid of the dark to get out of bed as well. He desperately wanted to get his grand parents in so that he can figure a way out. He yelled from him bed "Good night, thaatha(grandpa)". When his grandpa from the other side of the room's door yelled back "Good night", our fellow, realizing that he is not going to come in, replied back "I am not able to hear you say "Good night", so come inside and tell me". There are lot of things going on in that little beautiful mind of his. As I remark sometimes, a young velociraptor in the making - constant learning and trying to break and outwit boundaries and rules..

This post's pic was taken at Sea Port Village of San Diego where this amazing guy was creating all cartoon characters with balloons. My son wanted a Nemo and there it is..

Whose line is it anyway ?

Having a toddler at home is a constant battle of wits. Straight forward question and disarming and almost-always-cute comments that can catch the parent off-guard. Here are some from our young man.

1. Once he was given a plant at his preschool to keep at home and watch it grow. The next day when we asked him to water it, he asked why. He was told that it helps the plant grow. Following is his comment while taking bath the next day -
"என் மேல தண்ணி ஊத்து. அப்ப தான் நான் வளருவேன்" (Pour water on me. Only the I will grow).

2. His DVD collection includes one on "Lord Ganesh" where the lord is portrayed small, dynamic,colorful and cute . On our subsequent temple visit, our young man literally refused to believe that the idol there is of Lord Ganesh whom he knew from his DVD. Well the idol was big, stationary and not doing any stunts.:-)

3. Finally he was convinced a few days later that both Lord Ganesh's are same. This time around it was his hindu star birthday and hence the pooja at the temple in him name for Lord Ganesh. My wife asked what he saw. The prompt answer came -
"அந்த மாமா கணபதி மேல Flower தூக்கி போட்டா " (The priest uncle was throwing flowers at Ganesh).

4. When his grandpa came back home after getting a haircut, following was his comment after remembering the complete headshave had in Tirupathi -
" ஏன் தாத்தா இங்க haircut பண்ண. திருப்பதில போய் பண்ணலாம் இல்ல " (Why did you get get your hair cut here, you could have gone to tirupathi right ?")

5. One of his biscuits fell on the couch. One of us offered to eat it so that he doesnt have to do it. some how he thought there was a hair strand that was stuck to that biscuit when it fell on the couch. His comment -
"தலை முடியை ஏன் வாயில போடுண்ட. தலையில தான போட்டுக்கணும்" (Why did you put that hair strand in your mouth? shouldnt you put it in your head ?") Of course, it took a while to convince him there was no hair anywhere.

Pic shows our young man in his tricycle. One way of capturing the feel of motion in the photo is to pan the camera in the same speed as the subject, there by keeping it in focus but the blurred background implies motion sense.

Darkside of the Moon

Taken at 200mm small aperture for about 1/100th of second reveals the craters of the moon to some extent. Couldnt resist the title for the post which is actually a rock album title from Pink Floyd.

Neighbourhood Night Shot

Taken with at 55mm aperture wide open for 8 seconds.

In the foot steps of their father ..

The title adage used to have good feeling to it until recently in India. With the recent elections unleashing a flush of offsprings following their father's path, I wonder how many of them are deserving to get a head start in their political life just because of the initials or last names, as the case may be. It should also be mention that such a question of qualification can often be applied to their popular parent as well.

History has very very few instances where an offspring equalled, if not excelled, his/her accomplished parent. Few names come to mind Alexander the Great, Rajendra Chola (son of Raja Raja Chola) but in theses cases, both generations we illustrious.
Back to India, see the following slide show from Rediff on the young blood infused into parliament this election time. In the name of Father and Grandfather
I do consider the following off spring either outright useless and/or ill-qualified to get a headstart just because their so called "lineage" - Here are my rankings

10. Rahul Gandhi / Sonia&Rajiv - all over India.
9. Agatha Sangma / Purno Sangma from Meghalaya.
8. Scindia Jr. , again with zero experience, from MP
7. Sachin Pilot in footsteps of Rajesh Pilot, with zero experience.
6. Omar Abdullah / Farooq Abdullah of J&K.
5. Supriya/ Sharad Pawar of Maharashtra.
4. Muraleedharan / Karunakaran of Kerala
3. HD Kumaraswamy / DeveGowda - Karnataka.
2. Akilesh Yadav, son of Mulayam Singh Yadav - heard he was a roudy.
1. Leading from the top and beating others hands down is the Karunanidhi clan from my homestate of Tamil Nadu -- his sons Stalin, Azhagiri (both rowdies), daughter kanimozhi, nephew Dayanidhi Maran. Barring Stalin, all the others have not even worked for the party for a decent time when they overshot other party functionaries to ministerial berths.

Of course, the life time achievement award in this category should go to "so called Gandhi" family who have been capitalizing the Gandhi name better than Mahatma's real descendants themselves. While the others in the list have been able to maintain the nepotistic tint only for 2 generations, the "Gandhi" clan is in its successful 5th Generation and still counting (money too in recent years) - Motilal, Jawaharlal, Indira, Rajiv&Sonia, Rahul....

Oh my God, let my country awake.

Dubiously enough, me and my son had to pose for this post. Sepia tone supposedly gives a bit of backdated historic touch to a normal photo.

Horror

During my grad school days, I got a liking for the "X-Files" series and used to get DVDs from local library and watch it around night. Invariably, the haunting music and theme will interfere with my sleep that day but couldnt resist the thrill of the series and finally ended up watching all the volumes my local library had.

After a long time I got a chance to watch another similar creation. This one is a movie in Tamil - titled "yaavarum nalam" - (adapted from a Hindi movie by name "13B"). I felt the same thrill if not more, than what I used to get watching X-Files. Would definitely recommend it if you are have a taste for the paranormal. In addition to the story/screenplay, what stood out and made the film worthwhile was the audio and video. The audio was amazing, using bass to convey much of the horror and to top it all was the video from India's ace cinematographer P C Sreeram. What caught my attention on the videography was unlike regular horror movies, he dint use unable-to-see dim lighting - lighting was perfect plus he used unusual angles of the camera (his forte) to bring out the thrill of the moment. More so, thankfully, again unlike vanilla horror movies, he dint have the camera handheld for most of the time, constantly giving the manual shake to the viewer and creating headache for viewers like me. Different experience after a long time..

Attached pix of a cactus plant taken at Torrey Pines State Reserve, La Jolla, CA.

Making a difference

A family friend of ours informed us about a non-profit social service organization in our state Tamil Nadu in India. Its founded by a friend of his, by name Senthil, who left a lucrative IT job he was enjoying in the US to start this organization back home to make a difference in people's lives. The movement is called "Payir" - a term used to refer agricultural crop. Kindly see his work here at Payir. The individual is driven by Gandhian values of self-reliance of communities and value of truth. Needless to say, in today's world, that path is not going to be rosy. The least a person can do by sitting here in the US would be to donate money and not claim it in his tax deduction. Lets try to do that first and, a second step, take more responsiblity and contribute to movement by spreading word around, lending some time and material to it.

Today's picture is actually a street light captured during an overcast day. I was able to get the extreme ends of dynamic range without clipping.

Detroit runs out of gas

This week the media time is fully dominated by the "swine flu" pandemonium/concern. Over NPR, I heard an interesting fact - the flu virus, christened H1N1, is actually a "HYBRID" of swine, avian and human flu viruses. On hearing this I couldnt help comparing this to the state of auto industry in US. Here are my thoughts.

1. (read this in Jay Leno style) The US automakers are so lagging behind in innovation that even a flu virus was able to beat them to produce a successful "HYBRID" strong enough to make an uproar among humans. Thats how bad the US auto industry is .
2. When the detroit big three went to DC for begging money they flew into DC in their own private jets. Even I know that its a bad idea. And after all these, we still wonder why the auto industry is in doldrums with such pea-brains at the helm.
3. Guess what, after the above fiasco, the private jet industry in kansas reports (quote NPR) that its orders are down because of this bad publicity.
   
4. Steve Breen of the San Diego Union Tribune has this cartoon in his pulitzer prize winning portfolio that nails the coffin on the auto industry bail out stunts. Even the capitalists realize the futility.
5. As a "communist-who-knows-it-wont-work", its disheartening for me when I observe that the auto industry is the only highly "union-ised" industry in an otherwise capitalist country. Not sure if the failure and union-isation are related though.
   

In this post, featured is a 1980 Corvette (my only favorite american car-line) with the pic warmified a bit on redzone to give the period feel of 80's.

Defining Poetry

Poetry is an art. Defining an art in words is tough I guess. However, my personal favorite definition of poetry is the one from Wordsworth - "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings from emotions recollected in tranquility". Here is my attempt to try to define poetry in a poem itself. The following kavithai should be titled "Kavithai enbathu..." Click on the following to enlarge the image.

Today's photograph is again of a "kavithai" which will be 3yrs old soon, written by my wife.

They also serve...

Today's stance is a poem (click on it for bigger font). The feeling/emotion of the poem is original though the flow can be attributed to John Milton in his poem "On His Blindness" I guess from Paradise Lost or Regained. The title of today's post are the starting phrases of the famous last line of the same - "They also serve who only stand and wait". Pic was taken with my Canon P&S when I used to be single and the "model" shown there is me.

Puththaandu Vaazhthukkal

Today is Tamil New Year 's day - first day of the first month per tamil calendar. Hence, to begin with "Iniya Puththandu Nalvazhthukkal" (Happy new year greetings). Two things caught my attention related to that -

1. There is a name to every year per the tamil calendar - 60 of them and they keep rotating. This new year is called "Virodhi" - which means "enemy" in tamil. Odd enough name for a new year. Lets pray for eradicating the term "enemy" altogether from humanity - The more we talk about it and recognize it, I feel, the more we are moving away from civilization and towards animal nature and losing our sixth sense to see reason to co-exist.

2. Interestingly enough, the manipulator of sorts, the tamilnadu politician Karunanidhi has called for celebrating tamil new year on Jan 15th instead of mid april. An utterly useless initiative when there are million deserving things needing a state head's attention. May be an election stunt. This is how I see it - For a moment, lets forget about being religious and also lets forget about a religious edict coming from an athiest aatma. The least thing that having the pongal and tamil new year on separate days has helped for is the feeling on joyousness and being with family on more occasions than one and secondly, even the average joe who is selling flowers, fruits and other pooja items near temples etc is benefited by seeing two profitable days in their otherwise struggle-torn existence.

Let this new year atleast provide a solution to handle such mean-minded folks from becoming way powerful and beyond check.

Note on Pics - given my family/work committments, its becoming increasingly difficult to go out and shoot enough pics to find a relevant one for all posts I pose. Hence trying to decouple them from now on - it will be a still and a stance, may or may not be related.

Reading

I have been able to salvage my reading habit a bit this month after long time. I would consider I do have a decent appetite for reading books. My interests mostly reside in non-fiction and court room drama occasionally spilling onto other genres as well. I will give a list of some of the works I enjoyed towards the end of this point.

The reason and timing for this post couldnt have been better. I have always been a fan of John Grisham's works. Being a lawyer, almost all of his books I have read till now are court room dramas. What attracted me to his works are usually his theme - a typically-broke lawyer "the underdog" takes on a mighty and corrupt business and exposes its corruption in a court. The honest win and the corrupt loose. This somewhat pro-underdog or liberal theme of his works coupled with my socialist sympathy and capitalistic apathy to some extent have always made reading his work very exciting and satisfying.

Finished his book "The Appeal" yesterday after a week -- call it coincidence, the timing could not have been better. It was deviating a bit from his usual theme and it could not have come at a more opportune time when big wigs like AIG etc are bringing the economy to its knees, wasting tax payers dollars, leaving a still-unborn generation with himalayan debts and breaking innocent families' setups. What boiled my temper more was some AIG big heads calling it quits because they cant get bonuses. If millions of people loose jobs for no fault of theirs, forgoing bonus is nothing compared to what these mess-creaters actually owe to the society. Anyways, I can go on ranting on these. Back to my book, its a good read.

Recommendation from what I have read -

1. John Grisham - RainMaker (the best of all), The last Juror, Firm, The partner, The Broker, The Appeal.


2. Jurassic Park - The book by Michael Crichton.


3. Jefferey Archer - First Among Equals, A matter of Honor. (lot of other books are literally fashioned after his Kane and Abel and hence stopped reading him after that).


4. Made in Japan - Akio Morita - Non Fiction


5. All Harry Potter books - 4 and 5 will be bit boring but you have to go through it to enjoy 6 and 7. Seven was amazing to say the least.
   

If you are interested in Tamil, here are is my all time favorite - "Naan Krishnadeva Rayan" - by RKRangarajan. Kalki's works are breath taking as well. Definitely recommend his short stories and "Parthiban Kanavu" (presented by my friend Venky for my wedding). Havent yet gotten to his magnum opus "Sivakamiyin Sabadam".

I asked for my 2.5yr old to pose for a picture for this post. He is not that interested in posing for a camera. When I asked him to sit here, do this etc etc, he let out a sigh and said in his baby-ish accent "paduththal..paduththal" - a term, meaning trouble, that sometimes his maternal grandma uses to refer him as when he creates trouble. It was one cute timely remark.

Clarifying Leadership

Right from the often-dirty grounds of national politics to the closed conference rooms of private companies, "leadership", "leader" are a couple of terms that I found getting abused pretty frequently and obscenely. The most common misconception of this term comes when the speaker should actually be using the word "manager" or "boss" instead of these terms.

Leadership is an innate quality. Leaders are born. Its not an acquired trait. I have seen some folks who even though possessing this quality couldnt express it (society is to be blamed here) out of integrity or other good qualities holding them from doing so. A leader should be inspiring, championing passionately without conflict of interest or at least, not giving into self-interest when it comes in the way. (S)he should be magnanimous, leading by example and not just by preaching alone. Should be able to get to the level of their team and be one of them. Should be able to stand up to their team members and shield them when all they have done is follow his/her orders. In short, a team member in the presence of a leader feels energetic, enthusiastic and eager to achieve or do stuffs - everyone feels the synergy and optimism.

Leaders are not produced by B-schools. B-schools produce managers - really smart people, I admit, who can work their way through corporate culture and make lot of money. Management skill is an acquired trait. I have seen uninspiring people become good managers by observing or even mimicing what fellow managers do. Getting the job done and producing results more often takes precedence over inspiration, integrity, synergy and conscience. One can even get the title of a "great manager" by pitting one's sub-ordiates against each other and getting things done from both sides by maintaining the pressure. In the presence of a "pure" manager, a team player often feels conscious, defensive and sometimes even stressed out. The essence of words like "synergy" and "team spirit" often heard in such groups stops with lips and ears and doesnt get through to the heart and soul.

No complaints from my side - I have been in teams under good leadership (touchwood!!). While its great and gratifying to have a leader, its often difficult being a leader. Uneasy lies the head...you know that.

Pic take with my son's toys - intended to show a leader and couple of followers. The one noticeable thing is the vignetting around the edges when taken at 200mm.