Foggy Christmas Morning

Solitude

Unsung Heroes - #2

I was thinking of a theme to picture a bouquet of flowers. The subject matter of "Unsung Heroes" crossed my mind. Hence tried to shoot with the focus on the small white flowers in the lot rather than the bright, eye-catchy ones. These white ones (see, I dont even know their name!) are there silently adding contrast to the whole bunch to make the "stars" look more prettier and grab more attention than they already have. First one was with 200mm and next 55mm (both with very small DOF possible in my lens). A still shallower DOF at 200mm would have made my point more clear. To enhance effect in the 55mm shot (second one), I had to post process using "Focal B&W" to get the attention to the focussed white ones.

Blame the Victim

Please meditate on the following situations for a moment -

• The government addressing the families of the 9/11 victims and saying that their kin should not have been there in that building that fateful day. There after, the govt moves on to ask common people working in "potential terror targets" to either be prepared to counter attack or switch jobs to less risky places of work.
• A hapless assault victim told by a court that its her fault not to be able to defend herself against a bunch of roudy, powerful assailants. 

Ridiculous,  right ??. Thats basically what will happen if I extrapolate the logic implied in a recent media article I read about "bullying in US schools". It went on to blabber about how the victims of childhood bullying cope up with their lives later on and how it has affected them in various different ways etc. I felt like yelling "What's wrong with this society ?". 

The problem is not the one who got bullied, Idiots. Its the one who did the bullying. I have found it really surprising (read shocking) how indifferent these school systems are to the actual bullies. Talking to them is not going to be of any avail. If they are good at listening to these nice talks about being a good kid, we wont be having them as bullies in the first place. You have to make sure you punish them such that they don't do this. I remember my schooldays where a miscreant (nothing even close to a bully) gets punished right then and there by the teacher whoever is present in the scene. Think about punishments like kneeling down (may be in the sun), running around the ground, or standing on a bench depending on the act and the punisher. Thats what we need to say the least to tackle this bullying scenario. Not counselling or advise to the hapless under-dogs that they shouldn't cross paths with the pitbulls. School is a place for study. Anything that happens within the premises other than learning should be dealt hard. May be the american society in general or its teachers or both should stand up and take these bullies to task. Who knows a generation down the lane - gun violence and gang violence may even reduce.

I personally had a chance to experience this behavior of their school systems. I was a TA in UTDallas during summer of 2003 when one of my duties was to help the kids of Dallas School district with science camp stuff. Outside of the class, one day, one weak kid got bullied (right in the UTDcampus) by one other stronger fellow. Not sure if he was attacked physically. The older brother of the victim was furious and wanted to know the details of the assailant. But the teachers were dodging about how they dont know who did it etc etc. But apparently, the suspected bully dint show up for the class next day onwards. I still considered he was shielded by the system. I couldn't intervene as I was neither a witness nor did I know the exact details. But the "cover up" if you want to call it happened before my eyes. 

Thoughts on Education

My take on few aspects of education in general based on what I heard being discussed in the US Media.

• Quality of Teachers in General is decreasing. (Meaning our kids are not getting that good teachers as we used to get).

• One factor for this notion becomes obvious if you think about where the "cream crop" of a  generation goes out to work for. In the generations of my parents and their parents, teaching was one of the most sought after jobs of the learned. The cream from the top educational institutions voluntarily took up teaching career. It was very well respected and the earning, compared to those days' standards wasn't bad. I come from a family of teachers on both sides. My father, his father, my mother, her sister and brother and the list goes on and on. My mom was a university gold medalist and opted for teaching for good or bad. Now-a-days the "Cream of the crop" from top institutions opt for lucrative greener pastures outside of teaching. I attended a decent undergrad school and my colleagues at work are from good schools. In all of my network, only 2 people I know of my age ventured into teaching line, every one else is in industry - either engineering or management. So, essentially the entire teaching profession is left to the next-in-line for that generation. Don't get me wrong here, there are good teachers. But I am talking about the big picture. Here I am not differentiating school or colleage education.
• Public Schools funding by the states is dwindling (here in the US). 
• I agree that the developed nations boast a "free education for all" social setup. But with the  unprecedented economic situation being faced by states like California (tax revenue dwindling from weak economy and a huge budget deficit), its not too late for them to swallow some pride and re-assesses the situation. Rather than trying to fund a schooling system from an already over-stretched budget and paving way for teacher lay-offs etc, why don't they just make the parents pay some nominal fees for their kids' education. It will do good in lot of ways. Say $10 a month or so per student. Helps a long way in maintaining the teachers jobs, students benefit. Just because the parents are paying out of their pockets, they wont take the system for granted, will want to know what their kids are up to, introduces some accountability and might even reduce the ridiculous school drop out ratio as parents would make sure their kids make use of their money. I don't think this small amount will break any parents' home finance budget. There are about 6 million school kids in CA and right there we have $60 million. and I meant, $10 for starters. 
• High Cost of Text books affecting college students (here in US again)
• This is ridiculous. Even when I was a grad student, I noticed this. The same text book comes in a hard-covered glossy-paper version (available in US) and also in a third-world-edition which is a paperback with a lower grade paper. The cost difference for a typical grad school text book between these two "twins" is astronomical - Usually a 20x price difference. What costs $5 (equivalent) in paper back sells for ~100$ in glossy hardcover. Add it up for all courses in a semester, you get a student's one month living expense at least. The radio show that featured this over air tried reaching the publishers here in US for comment but couldn't reach them.Why would the publisher care when their profits are cushioned by this needless lavishness. 

Whose Line Is It Anyway? #16 - Car Talk

We realized how much the concept of "road trip" had sunk into the mind of my son only when we went for a day visit to LA area. He assumed that we are going to be on road for a few days. While we reached Malibu to visit the temple there (after 2hr drive), he was checking with me whether I have made reservations at the hotel. And went to the extent of cutting a deal that he will wear his watch (which was not comforting him) only till we get to the hotel. For him, the highlight of any road trip is the occasional stops we make to get him his milk during his snack time. Invariably its the flavored milk/cookie snack at some Starbucks location. Hence in today's pic you can see him enjoying his snack next to an unknown person in a high stool in Malibu Starbuck's location along the PCH - all by himself. Taken with my cellphone camera.

My car is a Black Honda V6. I took care of it so well that I would never even let the tank go more than half empty. Some of my friends that time found it amusing too. Then along came my son and my grip on the car's cleanliness started to wane. Plainly speaking couldn't keep up. At present, most times I pretend the rear seats don't exist and not dare to look behind - with everything from toys, crayons, pencils, papers, empty juice cans and so on and so forth strewn across the entire rear seat area - courtesy of you-know-who. One fine day, my son looked at me and , out of the blue, said, "appa, I dont like our car". I know he has a thing for cars (the number of hot wheels toy cars we had bought would near triple digits now). Hoping to hear a name like Mustang or SUV etc, I asked why he thought so. With a matter of fact face, "Its very dirty appa". Now thats what they call "adding insult to injury".

While we are filling up gas at a Costco Gas Station, a Corvette pulled in to the pump next to us. Familiar with Hondas and Toyotas, our son was somewhat intrigued by the Corvette's design. He asked "Whats that funny car, Mom ?". My wife took a look and said, "Its a Corvette". My son thought my mom din't frame the sentence correctly and hence doubled-checked "Are you saying the car is wet ?".  The owner of the famed vehicle was blissfully unaware of whats happening to his famed car's ego in our car near him.

Pixel Poems - #5

Known for a weather bordering fairy-tale-happy-ending type, this week, San Diego expressed some crazy weather to say the least. Have not had a week like this in my 7 years here. To punctuate it all, was a beautiful rainbow show this evening. Tried to capture some in my pixels.

US Penny - Made In China

On a related note: Tonight, co-incidentally, out of the blue, our son asked his mom "Where does Thomas (the tank engine) come from?" While my wife was trying to muster a good reply befitting his age, he muttered hastily with a smile "China". 

A New Way or just a Weird Idea ?

Religion has long been touted as the "opiate of the masses". Events of recent past and until date around the world makes one wonder if that is an understatement and the real religious scenario is more close to addiction than alleviation.

One interesting event unfolding in that regard in the post 9/11 era is the proposed construction of a mosque at or near the ground zero site. There has been support and vehement opposition to the idea with the supporters calling for peace and religious tolerance (should be religious "appreciation") and opponents going to the extent of equating it to a "hitler memorial at auschwitz". Whatever the outcome is going to be, the idea sure is a novel one, not sure if we have precedence in history. If one were to put on a Gandhian hat, its actually a masterstroke and a humbling reponse to the religious extremists from the victims and their survivors - the type even Christianity espouses.

Of course, I being neither a muslim nor an american, can pass any arm-chair criticism or comment. Will my opinion be the same had I been in either's shoes, I don't know.

In the course of this discussion between my wife and I, she commented, albeit on a lighter vein though, that if one were to build a small mosque near all important sites targeted by such religious terrorists would it deter them from committing such heinous acts - after all its a place of worship and all religion mean good its just the true meaning gets lost in translation sometimes. Well, her statement struck to me as a seemingly innocuous but definitely one that has a deeper meaning and one that merits a great deal of thought from every one of us. After all religion is man's creation intended for our own good.

Today's pic is a famous tourist spot - downtown SFO - taken by me from a tourist chopper flying low on the SFO skyline - where such a mosque could add to its safety. Okay, if you havent got it till now - it was just the San Diego Legoland's mini replica of the SFO downtown.

Whose Line Is It Anyway ? - #14

Of late, our young one's mind is over serious matters in life. Here are a few samplers -

• We did not realize that our boy was intently listening to a conversation I and my wife were having one day about marriage in general, until the young one came out with a barrage of questions on marriage - "Can i get married?", a brief pause, "then, what can I name my wife ?", a few seconds later, "where can I live when I get married ?". Boy, he is relating stuffs he is hearing to the extent his overhead processor can handle.
  
• When he was asking us questions about a friend of his having recently got a baby brother or sister, I thought of provoking him a bit and asked, "Did your friend's baby brother came out his mommy's tummy or daddy's ?". Without hesitation came the reply, "He is a boy so its daddy's tummy". Now I retorted back, "Then how come as a boy you came out of mommy's tummy?". Now the young processor overworked a few seconds before he came out with the reply "The first one always come out of mommy's tummy". Okay. !!!
• With the current capabilities of his brain's ALU, the age of a person only progresses like 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5 etc and not any finer yet. Incidentally some of his friends claim they are 4.5 and he is only 4. Our boy just turned 4 a month ago. This worrisome thought took over the better of him one day when he was sitting in the toilet bowl of all places. With a worried look, he asked "Appa, why is it taking me so long to turn 4.5 ?". I tried to explain it takes the same time for a boy to turn from 3.5 to 4, 4 to 4.5 etc. The look on his face left me with a feeling that he just gave up questioning further thinking thats all his dad knows about aging.

Pic: The young trying his had slugging at the YMCA class for toddlers.

Pixel Poems - #4

Today a tree outside our apartment patio abruptly fell just like that neatly uprooted at the base as if cut by a saw. First time I and my wife are seeing something as bizzare as this. No wind, no rain just a sound and its down. Today morning thought of capturing it in pixels. How often do you come across a uprooted tree lying horizontally outside our patio. The tree was kind of old. Hence thought of putting a spin on it by placing a budding potted of ours near that to give a perception of life and how it begins in one and ends in other and keeps going on.

Had to shoot with small aperture to get everything in focus and heavily underexposed and reduced flash compensation to prevent the morning sky getting washed away in the picture while trying to get the tree's bark a bit darker still showing some details. Hence had to use flash for the plants. Albeit a bit harsh, flash conveys the intent of emphasizing on the newly forming life blossoming over the faded old tree giving hope of life. A sun-light-reflector would have given more soft light for the plants.

Pixel Poems - #3

Pixel Poems - #2

I have never bothered to think too much about the non-dairy creamer my office has in the coffee break-rooms excepting that they are a poor substitute to milk and I have put up with that for many years now. Recently when putting creamer into a cup using a plastic spoon, I noticed the creamer leaving a rather fine art in the spoon. Initially I thought it was something engraved in the spoon. But its the creamer powder still sticking to the spoon. Each day it was different. I captured two of them here with my cellphone camera. Notice the fern plant like pattern drawn by the creamer.

Whose Line Is It Anyway ? - #13

My wife started trying to drive on highways recently. And invariably our young man is sitting in his car seat the back and waiting to ask tons of questions while she is driving. To make a point, I told him, "When mom is driving, you should not keep talking to her as she is new to highways". Immediately a question was shot, "if so appa, are you old for highways ?". Being my early thirties, I dont like to hear me categorized as "old for" anything. So, I tried to rephrase it to salvage my pride. I told, "I meant I am experienced for highways and amma is a newbie". The only bee he knows is the actual flying insect. Thinking I was playing with him, with a smirk, he asked "then are an old bee ?". I am done.

In our patio garden, a couple of Dill seeds we planted in a pot got really taller that they were almost touching the ceiling if kept on the patio wall. While his mom was watering them one day, this young lad noticed it and quipped - "Don't put water on those plants. If they grow more bigger they will come in the way of aeroplanes". All this with a matter-of-fact serious face !!!

While I was riding in my car with this inquisitive mind in the car seat, I thought of engaging him in a productive conversation. Here goes the transcript -

"What do you want to be when you grow up ?" - me.

" I want to be big when I grow up"- the reply.

Okay. Let me try another way to make him think along lines of profession etc.

"What does appa do when I go to office daily ?" - me.

"You check mail, eat lunch, sleep, throw away trash, check more mails, come back home". For him sitting before PC is checking mail, and he mixed that with what he does in preschool. I decided to try it again later after I develop a better image for what I do for a living.

Stills: The fighter jet and peeping into library return box pics taken with my cellphone camera. I desperately wanted to capture the library moment when I saw him doing this peeping. I had to use my cellphone camera from inside of my car.

Pixel Poems - #1

Bamboo door and Conifer leaves - symbol of Japan and its local fauna - at Japanese Garden at Balboa Park, San Diego.

Whose Line Is It Anyway ? - #12

• The young man got the idea about "devas" and "asuras" in his balabhavan classes and how one side is good and other side is bad etc etc. On a fine day while we were driving, his curiosity as usual was kindled by a cop car passing by. Amidst my explanation on the same, I mentioned that the police catch only bad people and not us. Out came the prompt question - "you mean they will catch only the Asuras then ??". I couldnt help my laughter imagining a cop car with flashing lights chasing an Asura speeding on a buffalo and pulling him over and the cop with a movie-style-machismo asking him "May I see your rider's license and animal registration sir ?"
• Of late more than his words his emotions are becoming rather adorable. In our recent NYC trip, thanks to NYC government, kids under 4yrs of age don't need tickets for train rides/attractions. Boy, you should see his expression whenever we encounter such things. While I felt happy, he was really put down that he is not been given a ticket. Some convincing was needed that no tickets did not mean no ride.
• We drove overnight to Niagara falls and reached early morning. While my wife and I had a sleepless night, my kid and my mom caught some sleep at the back of the car. My son was fully fresh when we reached the hotel. While decided to stretch ourselves for an hour or two before going to the Falls, our son, who was all fresh and awake, couldnt understand why we all were in bed while its sunny outside. With a really quizzical look, he blurted out - "Are we owls ? Why are we going to sleep when its sunny outside?"
• The earliest time I remember making a statement starting with "My favorite.." was when I was legally eligible to have a kid of my own. Now my kid, hardly into school, is having a favorite in every aspect of his own little world. My favorite car, favorite color, favorite friend etc. While we are surprised by the display of "Generation-Me-ness", some of them outright are funny - A few are - "Appa, its cloudy today but my favorite weather is only sunny",, "Mommy, my favorite color is green. Not blue anymore". Point noted Sir !!

Puppets

Recently I had the honor of attending the "Father's Day" celebration in my son's preschool. It was so cute to see how the kids sat in front of their fathers and along with the teacher sang the song they have been practicing and presented a paper shirt/tie as gift. Very Cute !!!

However, I couldnt help getting the feeling that if these occasions, often, are forced on us by the businesses that have vested interest in the outcome. For eg, Hallmark, Archies etc for Valentine's Day comes to mind. You create a day for something, make it look really important and throw in ideas on people's mind on what to do (gift cards, bouquets, etc etc) and make a business out of it. And people fall for it all the time!!
This is my take - father and mother are some of the closest persons to you. Really special. No replacements possible. If they are truly that special, why should their day be some arbitrary day. Why not it be something unique to them - may be even their birthday.
And second, however cute my 4yr old looked on that day sitting in front of me and singing and hugging me after that (I am really thankful for all those), truth be told he had no idea what it meant. That to me was not perfectly fine. If he had to do something like that, he should feel it and do it. A regular hug from him at home after he gets up or during evening is more meaningful than this.
Please dont get me wrong here - I am not against thanking father or mother here. But let it be as special just like the special persons they really are and let it come from one's heart and not just because everyone else is doing it.
Often times, I have watched my wife growing anxious over my kid, getting tensed on issues related to him, his health etc. And almost in all those times, a flash of thought will pass my mind that this is how my mother would have been when I was that young. And that thought will get itself reflected, not necessarily in words but in spirit, when I call her over phone that day. Now, THAT DAY is truly MY MOTHER's DAY.
More often that not, when I find myself doing little sacrifices of my indulgences (very little compared to my wife) to spend time with my kid and looking at how he likes it, and, when I put in some effort to teach him something - kicking a ball - I get reminded of days when my father was there for me at every major step I could possibly imagine in my life, - I can feel a lump in my throat. Now, THAT DAY is truly MY FATHER's DAY.
As a father, I am all prepared to patiently wait for mine and till then, work towards it !!

Airline Woes

Almost each one of us will have an airline story to tell - be it flight delay or poor food or customer service etc. Incidentally, I for one, should confess that I dont have any bad experience with any of the airlines I have traveled so far in the past 10+ years. I am neither a business traveler nor a holder of any "miles card" with any airline. Each time I pick one based on cost and travel itinerary ease. The closest I came to a bad experience, if you want to call it one, was with Air India when I flew with them during my grad school days. But then it was just a delay and I had all the time in the world so din't care much. AI compensated with good food for me then.

When I say I din't have any bad experience, I should also add, that for no apparent reason, I used to cautiously avoid any European airline however fast the travel is with them. After moving to US west coast, Singapore and Cathay kind of became the norm. Recently in the unfortunate event of my father's demise, we had to travel via Europe in (drums roll !!) Lufthansa - Now I have something to tell for a bad airline experience or rather experiences -

* On our way back to San Diego, we missed our connection at Washington due to immigration delay. We had only 1.5hrs time there to clear immigration/customs. Even after my repeated phone calls to makemytrip.com and Lufthansa in India itself, asking them to change my itinerary to allow more time, they refused. Each one pointed the other and said if the system approves, its good. But then Murphy prevailed and United flight connection miss seemed certain. The Lufthansa staff there talking to us were outright adamant that it was not their problem and that hotel acco was out of the question. When all hopes seemed to end, fortunately to our luck, we found out the connection had actually got delayed too because the UA pilot din't show up in time. Thanks to him we made it SD as planned. I dont know what I would have done with my kid and my elderly mom in Washington winter (thanksgiving day) had the United airline pilot not delayed the connection by showing up late.

* Now after six months later, I was facing the undesirable task of sending my mother , that too alone by herself, in the same Lufthansa airline. The confirmation of elderly wheelchair assistance was consoling. But again Murphy prevailed and that too where it mattered. My mom was told there is not a wheel chair available when she got off at Frankfurt. Somebody directed her towards an elevator and left. Apparently she had no clue where to go. Imagine a first timer, alone, tired and old, in a foreign airport with trouble understanding the staff's english accent too. Apparently, she got the courage to keep going and asked a passenger-cart driver to take her to the next gate and the blue-collared gentlemen/women had obliged to our relief. I couldnt imagine what would have happened had she missed the connection.

All the while my notion about most European airlines was that if not for their vantage position connecting the americas and the east, they would be flying empty. It just got confirmed. There we go then -Now I too have an airline to hate !

Still: Blue Angels captured with D40 during Miramar Air show.

The Hidden Costs of Oil Dependence

Recently we went on a NYC trip with my mother accompanying us. Having visited exotic Maldives earlier, Hawaii has been on my wish list ever since I came to San Diego. So initially I tried to lure them to Hawaii instead of NYC saying we can rest on the beaches etc . But my mother single-handedly vetoed the proposal saying "resting is all she is doing currently and she doesnt have to go to Hawaii to do the same". My wife, the metro-phile that she is, was relieved. Anyways, given my penchant for nature and places that glorify that in pristine form, two pieces of news got my attention recently.

First one of them is disturbing to say the least - the Oil spill from a BP oil rig in Gulf of Mexico - I trust the BP folks are doing their best to stop it. When the effects are so obvious and visible, there is very little they could do to cover it up. They even tried misquoting the barrels of oil leaked per day but truth came out eventually. What troubles me is the sheer damage to nature that this oil leak has wreaked - think about the pollution to the otherwise pristine sea water, habitats of countless aquatic life forms destroyed beyond repair, loss of marine life and its effect on the lower food chain, the oil reaching the shore damaging flora and fauna there. I cant imagine how long will it take before nature recovers from this setback. Nature, in my view is like a good parent - very forgiving. But then I am starting to doubt if we as humans are testing its patience and good nature under the pretext of civilization. This hidden cost, borne out of excess dependence on oil, is not even measurable.

Second one is rather interesting and in a way related to the one above. Recently came across this news . To cut to the chase, an ad agency on behalf of the supporters of clean energy bill sponsored an ad campaign on DC buses that portrayed Iran president Ahmedinajad and the words "Iran makes a KILLING everyday we wait". I thought it was political (US vs Iran stuff) till I read the news fully. The ad sponsors are just trying to get attention of public towards their "clean energy bill measure" by using the political tussle between the nations highlighting how an oil exporting country like Iran, which is US' nemesis on world stage, is benefiting from US' oil dependence. At the outset, very creative ad for a very very noble cause I admit , cleverly designed to capture public attention using the current political climate. But the way in which it tried to grab attention is distasteful and, as you see in the article, has led to ethnic Iranian groups protesting against it.

Still: One of nature's delight, unbridled beauty of Niagara Falls (horse shoe falls). My camera battery was dying and just managed this one shot of the falls from the boat. Taken with Lz8 P&S.

The Olive Branch Legacy

During my school days history classes, a fair bit of importance was given to "the United Nations Organization", UN for short - How it was conceived and, what does it do etc etc. I even remember participating in oratorical contests where in we have to speak about UN and its achievements. My mom being the history professor will dutifully fill me with info on the same and I grew up thinking very high about this world body.

My first shock or setback to that mentality came after I landed in the US - the birthplace of the very UN concept and the home of three of its important organs - General assembly, Secretariat and (drums roll !!!) the "Security Council". I was shocked to see UN not even getting a mention in media that a dumb movie star or a franchise sports player in US get. Back home in India, DoorDarhsan news tends to give headline importance to anything UN related. Then as I matured, it dawned upon me how the super powers merely use it as a "diplomatic tool" to cover their acts while in the background going ahead with their military interests. The Iraq war was the last straw in my confidence that UN would be worth something in the future. Like the rest of the world, I could only watch Kofi Annan (bless his soul) haplessly trying to impart sense into Bush and his puppeteers without much avail. The list goes on. The last known respect, in my view, a super power has given to this world body on a "issue of significance" has been the Cuban Crisis (thanks to some level-heads at the helm of US that time) when US took to this world body to put its case.

Recently when I visited NYC a second time, this time with mom, we decided to visit the UN headquarters in Manhattan. She was interested as history prof and my interest was mixed by now. By now, not surprising to me, UN HQ is not high on any NYC tourists list. Here's some of the things that caught by attention there -

1. Most visitors there were from 3rd world. I was about to conclude that they were the only ones but then a throng of europeans I guess came in as well.

2. An airport style security to the world body's visitor center entrance. In a movie style stunt, I was even asked to drink and show that what I was carrying in my backpack was indeed drinking water.

3. The workers, majority of them, are not Americans. Even the lift operator had an east european accent. Not sure if they have a quota system of sorts.

4. You can take a walking tour to General Assembly hall for $11. I decided a dinner in NYC Saravana Bhavan was worthier.

5. Most displays/posters there were geared towards CTBT and the effect of nuclear race etc. Japan for its part has contributed a section depicting the ills of a nuclear attack. Two posters in all intrigued me -

a. One showed a world map and indicated the nuclear war heads, nuclear tests and test sites each country had. No prize for guessing the winner - US and Russia at top two. I remember a May 1997 news article where US termed India as "a Nuclear Nation" after the Pokhran-II tests. So much for CTBT...

b. The second one is very interesting - In a typical US style of conveying things, this one showed what the effect would have been had the "Hiroshima Bomb" be dropped in today's NYC's Times Square. The hotel we stayed in our trip was near Newark airport, 30 miles from NYC. From the pic, it seemed, we would have been a goner too. Not sure if this poster was Japan's idea or some one else's.

6. The best touch of all - Silk portraits of all the UN Secretary Generals - beautifully done art work, very realistic. Courtesy of - guess who ? - see today's pic for the answer.

Again, I left the visitor center with my idea reinforced. UN is a human creation. Its not going to work unless we respect and... Ok. Never mind.

The Right Fit

During my school days, I have often wondered the rationale behind inviting local police chief as guest of honour (aka chief guest) to our school's sports day festival. One cannot imagine a more uninspiring persona to grace the occasion. These police chiefs (IG, DIG or DSP etc etc) are not the ones you see in police-officer centered movies. They are not anything close to Alex Pandian or Walter Vetrivel personality. Not even IPS cadre. Most of them will have a long and forlorn face with a huge belly. Not any athlete myself I would feel sorry for my friends/classmates getting medals from these average joes. May be my school management had some vested interest inviting these folks. They are just not the right fit for the occasion let alone inspiring young minds. In sharp contrast to that, I should recall one Mr. Avvai Natarajan having graced our school for a couple of occasions. A scholar of top calibre and a good orator I have seen him captivating young minds - be it his chief guest address or handing over the prizes with a smile and a few pleasantries.

Fast Forwarding to the present - one decent program that airs in SUN TV is "Asatha Povathu Yaauru". People doing stand up comedy or mimicry or enactment of skit etc. Lot of talented participants and good humor too. The program invites some popular personality - tinsel world mostly - as their special guest. They just sit there and provide inputs/suggestions on the performance of those participating. What I found out was some so-called popular cinema personalities, though decent in their on-screen acts, outright lack the quality to be the guest of such functions and pass some decent remarks/comments. Here is some of the best and worst in the episodes I watched -

Worst - Many new heroes (who claim high flung titles and super-star-dom even before their first film hits the screen), T. Rajendar (for the usual self-boasting comments and nothing noteworthy to the participant).

Best - Bhagyaraj (as immensely talented he is, told lot of good tips/info in general to the participants).

My favorite of all - Bharathi Bhaskar - yes, the pattimandram speaker. She was this no non-sense chief guest, relating the participant's performance to related events and telling suggestions on what they can work on to improve their content/style. Put her traditional pattimandram rival Raja on the host desk, it was a feast to watch them conversing on the performance - much like their pattimandram duels. Thats what I mean by "the right fit".

Still:

As I mentioned in my earlier post, today's pic was shot with my new Panasonic LZ8 P&S. The colors came out vividly and so was the sharpness. The ambiance was bit cloudy not sure if it helped the pic. The lining of the masks in the pic, each of different design, gels with today's post and title as well.

Bought a Pana..

Recently I added another gadget to my arsenal - A Panasonic P&S - Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ8 - I was looking for a Budget P&S preferably under a $100. Eventhough I was leaning towards a Canon product which are supposed to be having a niche in P&S arena, most canons were in the $150 range. Then I was surprised to find dpreview conducting a comparison of budget P&S involving 2 Canons, a Nikon, a samsung, a sony and this Lz8 for panasonic. And to my surprise, LZ8 aced the list. A quick browse of its price presented another surprise. BeachCamera was carrying it for $99 no tax and free shipping. Bingo ! We have a winner.

I have been using the LZ8 for family outings in the past 3 or so weeks and it has amazing features and capabilities for $99. How much technology has changed since the $200 Powershot A70 I bought 6yrs ago. Now, the price of LZ8 has shot back to $149 if you are able to find one. Obviously a good thing with small price tags is not a seller's favorite !!

The LZ8 uses standard AA batteries - nice thing. Its only 8MP which is what I wanted for a P&S. I have actually set it to use only 7MP so that it spits out 4x6 directly so that I dont have to crop it for print. 5x optical zoom compared to 3x in most top end budget P&S. A display mode that lets you see the LCD even when you are holding the camera high above your head to shoot in front of a crowd or so. etc etc. Now Lo and behold !! it does AEB which my Nikon D40 SLR doesnt do. Of course, it has most bells and whistles of any typical P&S as well. I will upload some pics from that later. One good purchase, and I have even recommended that to one other person already!!

Today's pic was from a mail-list at work. Showed some creative ad photographs. Interestingly the ones I liked were Panasonic Lumix ads. Of course (c) Panasonic implied. The top one was intended to capture your imagination on wide angle P&S (one current Lumix has a 28mm wide end). The second one is supposed to capture your imagination for Panasonic's face recognition technology. I couldnt get the impact of this initially as I looked at the dotted square on the women's face. Then I noticed the little square box on the women's belly. Creativity deserving praise !!

Whose Line Is It Anyway - #11

This post I will start with the pic. Attached pic is a browser screen shot of the front page of the blog maintained by my son's preschool teacher. She has a neat blog for her class and updates with events, photos/videos and has a nice discussion board as well. Lately she has been having a "Featured Child" of the week and puts nice info about each of her students. This week its Sanjay's turn. Hence the pic. You can see some of his favorites etc beneath his photo there.

For today's post,

• My wife as usual goes to great lengths and takes great pain in teaching this kid everything - from words, numbers, songs, spelling etc etc. you name it.. She had already taught him to write and identify numbers upto 100. Now looks like she wanted to find out if he is able to apply the concept of numbering and figure out new numbers by himself. She asked "Do you know how to write 200, 300 etc". An emphatic "yes, I do" really stunned her as she has never attempted to go past 100 with him. When she asked him to write 200 and 300 on a paper, the eager mind obliged with this "2..100 ....3..100". He wrote 2 and a hundred as he heard it. What can you say.
• One day my mom was washing vegetables in the kitchen sink before cooking. The young one who was roaming around there got curious and looked at grandma washing the veggies. He came back to us quizzically - "Are the vegetables taking bath ?"
• A typical trait of people from India is to hang a small figurine of their favorite God (mostly hindus do this) hanging inside their car, preferably from the rear view mirror or have a sticker stuck somewhere in the dashboard etc. We have a small figurine of Lord Ganesh hanging from our rear view mirror. The figurine is a bit cartoonish. One day, I was driving my kid to the temple. Suddenly he asked me "Do we have a God in our car ?". I said "Of course, right here we have Lord Ganesh" and pointed to the cartoonish figurine. He is used to seeing a huge idol of Lord Ganesh at temple. Hence, with a quizzical tone he asked "A Toy God ??". I said yes. After a while, he retorted "Does it work ?". He was not sure how come a toy god function the same way as the real big one. But then the simple question of "does it work" sounded very profound to me which lot of us are trying to get answered and I had to say "I dont know. I am still trying to figure out".

Priorities

After loosing my father, and rather feeling dis-illusioned with life in general, one day by chance, I got to chat online with my long time good friend, Shankar, from Chennai. During the course of the discussion he mentioned the following story. It helped me kind of get things in perspective.

A professor once bought a tall glass jar to his class and asked the student how much space it had. The students said its totally empty. Then he started to put big stones into it. After a few stones, the jar couldnt take anymore. Now he asked how much space was left in the jar. The students said none as the jar was brim with the big stones. Then the professor pulled out some small pebbles from his pocket and dropped them into the jar. A few of them went and filled the gaps left between the big stones. Now he asked how much space was left. The students woke up and still said it was full and hence no space. Now the professor reached his other pocket and pulled out a bag of sand and poured it over the jar. The sand went and filled the space between the pebbles and the stones. Again the question and same answer. This time he reached down and grabbed a glass of water and poured it in the jar. The sand absorbed the water and he was able to pour the entire glass into the jar.

With this the professor looked at his students and said -

"Life is like the tall jar. The big stones stand for one's family. The pebbles represent one's job and hobbies if any. The sand represents one's indulgences. And finally the water, the luxury items in life. As we all just saw, after filling the jar with big stones, we still had space for the pebbles. After the still space for the sand and after that even for the water. But if we reverse the order and start filling the jar with water entirely, we wont have space for any of the other three. And so on.

Hence, even in our life, these things should come in that order - family first, job/hobbies next, followed by indulgences and then luxury. If so, we will be able to accommodate everything. If we dint get this priorities we will be missing big."

Many thanks to Shankar for the timely story - I hope to keep this my Stance in life in general.

Still:

A pano shot of the san diego downtown skyline from Coronado side. Computer stitched images from 6 shots taken with hand without tripod.

From each...to each ...

Stance:

Last month, there was a 9/11 style attack on an Austin IRS center by an American itself. The alleged attacker left an elaborate suicide note on why he was disgruntled with the IRS. A person going to the level of attacking something as uninteresting like an IRS center ready to risk his own life, kind of kindled my curiosity to such an extent that I had to browse through his suicide note. Other than usual disgruntlement with the politicians, political system and how its not standing for common people but biased towards vested interests, the whole note seemed nothing more than a vexed soul pouring out. The final punch or rather only punch, in my view in the whole note was its concluding sentence which succintly and clearly summarized where capitalism is headed. Since I have had my own issues with the capitalistic world, I found the following sentence very interesting and ironically enough, it rhymes with the statement which is considered cornerstone of communism.

"Communism - from each according to his capacity, to each according to his need.

Capitalism - From each according to his guillibility, to each according to his greed."

These words were very well put and really caught my attention in light of how the recent credit crisis put lot of innocent folks life and job in jeopardy while the greedy who should be held responsible (read "execs of failed financial majors") escaped unscathed with a golden severance package parachute.

Again, the bottom line is - no matter which side you are in, unless you respect what you believe in, its going fail.

Now the lighter side of the above story - the family of one of the IRS worker who died in the above said attack is suing the wife of the attacker saying she should have acted responsibly as if she was aware of whats going on in her husband's mind. Loosing a family member in the attack, I can fully empathize. But "suing the wife of the attacker", I dont know how it makes sense.

Still:

Taken at San Diego Zoo obviously, the golden sun making the predator merge with the background and the blurred cage wires adding more meaning.

Why On Earth ....#2

• The fascination of America with whatever American has been legendary for a long time. That narcissistic tendency reaches heights in Baseball.. Oops, my bad, I should have said "Major League Baseball". What is basically a club game between two private sports club is christened "World" Series and the winners of that are "World" Champs. This year's "World" Series was between NewYork and Philadelphia. I am not sure if any other country calls its local franchise club game as "World this" or "World that".
  
  
  The above point was reinforced when I was flipping through the sports pages of our local newspaper "San Diego Union Tribune". Two pages were fully allocated for what they considered "the important sports news of the time" and that is - "How the state of New Jersey is split between whom to support in the above said World Series - New York or Phily." They even went to the extent putting a state map of NJ colored with NY team logo on north and phily team logo on south and interviews from Joes on NJ's streets on why they chose to support one over the other. I felt like saying "come on folks, the world is bigger than that". The only meaning I found in the whole 2 page article was the colors of the NY and Phily team are blue and red which, on NJ map, added a political twist to the case in american sense. (blue=democrats, red=repubs) but there wasnt a single mention of that angle in the article. Probably the newspaper chose caution - better stale than sorry.
  
  
  The photo is that of an innocent colorful duck in SD Zoo. It was patient enough to pose for me quite a bit. This picture of the duck drinking water, however, felt to me as having a bit of narcissistic twist in the sense it looks like admiring its reflection in water if you want to call it. Hence the shot :-) for this article.

All About Food

Ever since I started cooking, my receptiveness to food and related aspects have gone up by manifolds. Despite my obvious hefty appearance, my attention to food has always remained limited to just eating it. It was so bad, that I couldnt tell if a dish had salt in it or not. Of late, I have grown very particular about it and much to my wife's chagrin, I have started asking for this or that dish every day.

In fact, for no good reasons, I have been avoiding some vegetables for the most part of my life till now. Recently, thanks my wife partly, I have started tasting the untasted. Tomatoes, Cauliflower, Brinjal have all been a strict no-no for me till recently. Now, tomatoes seem heavenly. In a way it was a blessing. Thinking about it, we all should restrict our kids to a subset of vegetables till they grow up to be 25 or so and then unleash them to discover and taste the untasted. Its like your life starting all over again with new unexplored things when it comes to eating. Just like when you were kid with a whole world to explore. Only now, you are wise and you know to avoid a chocolate in favor of a vegetable.

I was recently stunned by the amount of health and good ness an Apple can provide. Yes, a raw whole apple, period. See this listing here for what goes in to that seemingly simple fruit http://www.naturalnews.com/025013.html . I have never been a major fruit fan either but then better late than never. Of late, I am starting to wonder if that "free radical, antioxidant" stunt is actually true. You cant go wrong with a bag of apples. Interestingly, the famous saying about apples - "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" -, it turns out, is actually an euphemistic version of an even older saying - "An apple before going to bed makes the doctor beg for his bread". Understandably, sounds bit insulting to the medical community.

I couldnt find a photo of a fruit or an apple looking exotic for today's post. Hence, the photo here was taken way back in 2005. My wife had prepared dinner - awesome and rich paruppu usili and a delicious mor kozhambu to go with it. I was so tempted that I had to capture it before I dived into that.

Whose Line Is It Anyways - #10

It was just before Christmas and we as parents were heavily cashing in on the promised Santa's arrival to get our way with this young man when it comes to making him listen or do stuffs. On one such day, my wife was helping my mom put on her hair dye. The curious mind was watching it intently as my wife used a brush dipped in black dye on the hair. His face got grim and started pacing around sadly. Puzzled we asked why he looked so upset. His forlorn reply came - "Painting paper is good, painting head is bad. Mommy is painting patti's head." and with a warning look at his mom, he finished, "Santa Claus is watching you."

Our young man came to know that what his mom wears in her ears is called "ear ring". With his grandma, ie my mom, with us now, he was one fine day "exploring" her face and stumbled across the "mukuthi"(nose piercing) she was wearing. He hesitated for a moment before jubilantly naming it as her "nose ear-ring".

With his new found knowledge of alphabets and its relationship to making words, our young man also realized that most objects have their name written over them somewhere. His endeavor to read out the names written on objects gave way to some lighter moments too -

• During our stop over at Frankfurt airport, he looks through the window and blurts out "L-U-F-T-H-A-N-S-A" and with a triumphant look at me concludes it as "airplane".
• A car with an overhead sign light should be a pizza delivery car in his view. When we encountered an orange cab aka taxi, he yelled that its a pizza delivery car. We corrected him saying that its a taxi and not all cars with overhead sign light are for pizzas. After a brief reflection, he came back "O-R-A-N-G-E, ...Taxi".
• At a cross road signal, his curiosity got aroused by a bank building and its name sign - "U-N-I-O-N-B-A-N-K, .. Wall"
• I was wearing the Texas Longhorns T-shirt at home and he got excited. "T-E-X-A-S . . . . Dress"

More than the actual spell out, what stood out in the above was the eager looking expression at us expecting our approval for his efforts.

Remembering My Father - #4

To people who know him intimately, any discussion on my father is rather incomplete without talking about his passion for investments/finance. Thats one legacy he would have wanted us to cherish and follow even after his time. My father was a very shrewd investor, albeit very conservative. I am yet to meet a person who has mastered CD laddering to the extent he did. He took atmost care of "our" money as he would like to put it. I still remember him losing his temper at times when his accounts dint tally because we forgot to inform him of an expense we made. Even then he would end it up with a crisp - "Its all our money. And only one fourth of it is mine!" and this was when we were still mere schoolboys. When I left for college, he implemented this neat scheme where quarterly interest from one of his investments was diverted to a bank account in my college which I could withdraw at college. For all four years, thats how I paid my mess bill. His book keeping, as I flip through them today, is an outstanding work of art.

In hind sight, I feel, the retired life of my father should have filled him with mixed feelings. On one hand, I feel, he would have felt having reaped the dividends and returns of his toil and sweat. His "investments" - (me and my brother) - paying off. Being a typical father among his generation folks, I can say for sure, he was delighted at what me and my brother were doing with our lives - our graduation, coming to the US, Master's education, job, marriage and all the way down to my son ie his grandson. To a certain degree one can say, he has seen what one would have wanted him to see. In that sense, his investments paid off and he was there to see them getting paid off.
On the other hand, his health was not letting him enjoy the fruits of his labor fully. 2007 to 2009 are three years that no one in my family will forget. My mother did all she can - fighting with all her might to pull of a miracle and get my father's health back. My father, even with his health failing him, was optimistic to the last minute. My father is an open book who kept no secret of his feelings/emotions most of the time. True to that trait, I could feel him getting reflective on his life and confiding in us what he felt about his life many times. We did our best we could to cheer him up. However, I, for one, would have to live with the painful memory of not being able to be near by father during his ill-health and help him with what I could.

As a son, my father was this dutiful son to his parents - being by their side till the end, taking care of them and uplifting the family after his father retired. He had done his duties to his parents, that too commendably. His scorecard is also complete as a father as I just said. He has basically led a life of no debt.

With I and my brother, our father till the very end remained more a friend than a father. I should say, he more than respected our views and thoughts even when we were mere teenagers. I vividly remember the days when I use to come across investment info during the mid 90s in magazines and whenever I shared such info with him, he listened with utmost earnestness and even implemented my suggestions. Actually, he is the only person I have had who has never said no to anything I have to say. The morale boosting confidence I have often gotten from his unqualified support is something I will sorely miss for the rest of my life.

Dad, you have left really big shoes to fill. Now that I myself am a father, I fully realize how high a bar you have set. As I have told you many times during your last few days, my kid should feel fortunate if I were half as good a father as you had been. Wish me luck, Dad !

Remembering My Father - #3 - Values in Life

For the majority of the time I had spent with my father, I was either an infant, a school kid or an adolescent. Fate made sure that much of my early and late 20-s was spent separated from him. When I started realizing this fact, it was too late to make any sudden changes in my life and before I could react fully it was all over. Hence any values in life that my father tried to inculcate in us based on his life experiences fell in the ears of either a school boy and/or a teenager.

My father was a very energetic person in his hey days and was bit animated too in expressing his feelings - be it that of a colleague who pissed him off at office or a street vendor who dint agree to his bargain. Usually such outbursts would be punctuated by a moral value which he wanted us to remember/realize. True to our age, we received the moral value endings much the same way we enjoyed his animated stories - both in a lighter vein. We couldnt fully empathize with the morals even though it fell in our ears. But instances of such experiences in his life were numerous enough that those very same moral values he summed up actually got imbibed in our subconscious mind which, in hind sight, we were able to recollect and relate to our own life's experiences. Here are a few -

"Life is a balanced equation" - in other words, your balance sheet will be clean. I have heard him use this statement a lot. Even with my life so far, I can feel this being qualitatively true.

"Skills and talents are important. But no matter how talented you are, its worthy only if others recognize you as one" - I guess every one of us might have a story of his/her own to substantiate this. In fact, this aspect - recognition - is something, I guess, he dearly missed in his younger days and hence I could remember him walking the extra mile every possible time to make sure we dont feel that way, not even as school kids.

"Nothing comes for free in the world" - According to my father, money is an integral part of life. He despised being wasteful of anything. He earned his dough through toil and propped up his family after his father. So he wanted us to fall in line as well. But when we actually started doing it, we were living physically separated from him though I made vain attempts to explicitly tell him how much we agree with him at every possible occasion. I only hope he felt happier.

"Are you happy ?" - This was more of a rhetoric from him than a moral statement. And that too, I only remember my father asking me this often more towards the twilight of his life. Probably some realization from his own life and reflection on how he balanced his own happiness and pleasures against his life's duties and obligations. More than pointing at a value this question made me to introspect and ask similar questions about my life. Much to my chagrin, and probably to that of my father had he been alive, the answer I came up with most of the time was in the negative. And no body to blame other than "yours truly", I . In fact, I was so absorbed with life's push-and-pull I almost forgot to notice life's little happiness and signs of hope. I would have almost missed enjoying my kid's infancy because of my worries had it not been for my wife's repeated attempts to turn my attention. So I hope to use this simple yet profound question to steer my life going forward as well.

These are just samples. There are numerous other instances where I can feel his impact on my traits - most of them coming to me involuntarily and subconsciously. What else can one expect - my last name is "Hariharan" after all.

Remembering My Father - #2 - My Childhood

Being a father myself and trying hard to perform the paternal duties to my satisfaction, now I fully realize how high a standard my father had set for us in this regard.

During my child hood days, father was always this person whom we went to for getting anything we wanted - be it a notebook or chocolate. I dont remember him pampering me a lot (partly because I was the older kid). I vividly remember his strictness for various aspects of life - not wasting food, or for that matter, not wasting anything, having healthy reading habits and life style, being prudent when it comes to handling money. Being the truant school boys that we were, me and my brother provided him with ample chances to provoke his temper and there after enforce his principles upon us - right from being tardy in maintaining our bicycles to not switching off the lights after usage. But back then, that seemed perfectly normal. He just wants us to follow certain things in life. So what, No big deal. We, atleast I for one, literally had no clue as to what was getting imbibed into our subconscious mind because of our father's actions. And neither did we know that one day those very same qualities he was trying to grill into our minds would come to define who we are as well.

Whether it was a characteristic trait or a material possession that my father wanted his kids to have, he had only one of the following two reasons for that in his mind -

Either it is something he missed/lacked in himself and hence wanted to ensure we had it,

or, it is something he felt that is needed for our betterment based on his life experiences.

And all the while his goal was simple enough to state too - his kids should have a good childhood and life.

There are lot of instances that immediately flash in my memory which fall into either of the two reasonings I just mentioned. And trust me, not until recently did I fully understood or appreciated my father's intentions and thoughts behind many of his actions.

My father laid great emphasis on education and the need for having a well rounded curriculum. Looking back this is something where me and my brother gave him the least headache. Anything related to school, curriculum or extra currics will be immediately encouraged and adequately funded. But more than funding and encouragement, its the involvement and effort he put in that made the difference. When I visited my school during my college days to meet my teachers, I was pleasantly surprised when one of them enquired about how my father was doing and went on to mention to her colleague how my father was very much involved with our education. To be frank, that was the first incident from when I started realising what my father had indeed accomplished.

I still vividly remember the lengths to which he went to make us learn Hindi. Learning Hindi was something he couldnt achieve because of his family financial constraints. His naive but noble thought had been that Hindi will help us find better prospects outside of our state in India. He literally used to take me to the Hindi class in his bicycle. Since the class standard was bit high for a person of my age then, he wanted to make sure that he is complementing that with added coaching from his side. Though a stranger to Hindi, he would literally ask my teacher on what each book was and write that in English like "Prose", "Poetry", "Drama" etc. As part of one of the exams, we had to pass in a native language paper- Tamil. The syllabi for that included a considerable portion of a great tamil epic - "Vaali Vathai Padalam" for those who care. Typically thats something a college grad tries to master and I was just a sixth grader. My father took the onus to himself and in the weekends of the following six months taught me the entire stuff good enough to get me a good score let alone a passing score. Not only did he start setting standards for me as father, he also sowed seeds for interest in tamil literature in me.

His literary thurst also made him to take me to Kamban Vizha's which are literary discourses of the highest quality. Oblivious of the effects, I used to just accompany him but then I started enjoying whatever I could understand from that.

When it was time for me to attend a weeklong camp for Boy Scouts at a place some 200 km from my home, I was the only student who was not dropped off by his scout master but rather than by his father.

After my college, my father accompanied me on my first trip to Bangalore for my work. Not just that, he even came with me right upto the work place on my first day and started telling about me to my boss. I was like "Dad, please stop". My boss was in all big smiles on seeing my predicament. Even to this day, my ex-boss still remembers the incident in a lighter vein. However embarrassing it was to me then, now years after that, when I leave my son at his preschool and see him sitting with his friends, I can understand the feelings my father would have had on my first-day at work.

The above said are just a sample of what he did that I managed to recollect now. What stands out distinctively is not just his intentions but the extent to which he had spent his time and energy to get his kids a better childhood - be it good education or seeing them recognized and appreciated for their talents.

If you take into account the leverage I have had because of him, these are some feats which leave me wondering if I would ever be able to match up in kind for my kid. Tall orders, for sure.