Happy Holidays and Happy New Year

For those of you checking this blog on the new year's eve, Wish you & your folks a very happy and fulfulling new year. A year is just 365 days, 24 hours - Enjoy every moment of it..

As usual, we have a 10 days winter break. Last 2 years we did not go anywhere and this time. We did not want to break the tradition this time. It's just another 2 more days to go and we have spent all the time at Seattle itself. Except few outings to the local stores and downtown, we are pretty much at home. This holidays was different from last one, my daughter is here to play with this time!. We've had a wonderful family time coupled with meeting my local friends who came over to spend some time with us. Known for my sudden and unplanned trips, few friends called to enquire if we are still at Seattle. My daughter has added few more activities to her list. She now knows where her tongue, head and nose are!. In all, it's been a wonderful relaxing holiday - looking forward to get back to work soon and head out to another holiday break (shh....suspense, you will know shortly)

Over the holidays, few more things accomplished: Sorted some of the paper work and getting rid of old / wanted papers(still in work).

How's your "happy holidays" going?

Music director Pairs of Indian Cinema

I was watching an old kannada movie Kittu-Puttu and the songs were simply superb and I looked up who the music director was. It was the famous Rajan-Nagendra who composed those melodious numbers. For those who are not familiar to Kannada cinema, Rajan-Nagendra is not one person, they are in fact 2 people and they are brothers!. It is quite common in Indian cinema to find such a 2 person team in the music director seat. I am not sure how many such duos exist(ed) in kannada movies but there are a lot in the hindi movies. Just to name a few: Laxmikant-pyrelal, kalyanji-Anandji, Jatin-Lalit, etc. There might be few more additions to the list, I have not kept myself updated on the latest entrants...

Following link provides more information on Rajan-Nagendra. In the earlier days, radio was only popular electronic media and hearing movie songs was one of the favorites for many people. Just before a song is played, they would announce names of the lyricist, music director and the play back singers. Some of the melodious songs were repeated for a long period. Probably, this repeated mention made the music directors get mileage and made them popular. Current day vibrant FM stations are more interactive, play songs on request but do not always provide the information about the people who created that music. However, the good music directors are still in great demand. As melodious numbers are key to any indian movie's success, the popular music directors are in great demand. Their names are now prominently printed on the movie posters and gain significant attention in the premieres, and pre / post release press conferences.

More to come: Indian movie related posts...

My days as a production engineer

One of my posts regarding the early morning commute to work brought back the memories of the days when I was the production engineer

Here are the things I liked with that company;
a)One uniform dress code for all employees including the CEO
b)Once a year allowance to buy new uniform(with free dress material), new pair of shoes, nope no receipt required
c)Daily stand up meetings the managers had with their supervisors discussing the production, rejection and other matters. Display boards in each production area offering production and rejection rates. CEO, in his early morning walk around the plant would stop occasionally at such boards and ask the nearest engineer or manager to explain the numbers!. Managers spent significant time in reporting such metrics and preparing for any surprise questions.
d)Excellent food & snacks at rock bottom prices - Just Rs.1 per day (It is approx. 2 cents (USD) in the present conversion rate!) which included unlimited breakfast, lunch, coffee / tea./snacks during the two breaks. During summer, fresh fruit juices were an additional choice during the break period
e)Yearly gift to the employees – Usually a household item like designer cutlery, refrigerator, etc. The management and the employees chose the gift jointly and this was well appreciated.
f)Drop by car option for managers and engineers during the night shift, provided to those whose homes were far away from the bus stop and for those who missed the bus due to some pressing work.
g)A well-organized family day visit to the manufacturing premises during the Ayudha Pooja day. Welcome package included a full breakfast, sweet box for all the visitors

Some or all of the above might sound ordinary compared to the current scenario where some IT companies take good care of its employees. The point to note is the willingness of such manufacturing companies to provide these things in spite of relatively low profit margins

Remembering Deepavali...

Deepavali (also called Diwali), one of the popular Indian festivals was celebrated early this month. As a kid, this was one of my favorites because this is one festival when we kids got involved completely like in the run up to the festival, which involved purchasing and bursting crackers, eating sweets, meet with friends and family and wait a minute – get a new pair of clothes. Preparations for deepavali would start typically a week or so earlier. We would buy small quantities of firecrackers from the near by shops for the run up. A day or two before the festival, we would buy significant quantity of crackers from Bangalore’s city market wholesale or retail sellers. We always compared our scale of celebrations with our neighbors who some how beat us in the quantity and the variety of firecrackers. Firecracker packing material, left overs made up majority of the roads and the front yards and definitely this was one of the indexes used to measure the level of celebrations!

Over the last few decades, there have been some changes to the firecrackers supply chain and the ways the firecrackers reach common people. After a major fire accident destroyed many firecracker stores in city market area, retail firecracker sales moved to open grounds where vendors set up temporary stalls. These vendors attract budget customers who constitute significant population. As always, the “big” customers have their own sources: some go to the wholesale stores in city market area, some to the TamilNadu bordering town, Hosur. Some even buy crackers directly from the manufacturers at Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu. Firecracker buying associations are common sight in many organizations. People enroll themselves in such associations to gain a) collective discount based on the large base; b) Make monthly contributions towards the firecracker fund to get avoid huge expenditure in one particular month. These associations perform quite well, meet their objectives and offer token gifts to keep their customers happy. Association representatives visit manufacturers well in advance, negotiate prices and the custom packing. In addition, it is common to find businesses, industries distributing sweet boxes to their employees. Deepavali is the major motivator for retail sales in India and is comparable to Thanksgiving or Christmas sale in the USA. Retail stores, popular shopping streets, malls are decked with lights, decoration stuff and the ambience is simply superb.

In Bangalore, I found that the business community spends significant amount of money on firecrackers compared to the salary class. In addition, many big restaurants, apparel shops conduct fireworks display, which are open to common people. Wilson Garden Janata Hotel’s fireworks were a delight to watch and people would flock around the hotel around 11PM on the deepavali night. After cordoning off the roads, the hotel staff would entertain the people with the fireworks display for over 30 minutes.

Off late there is awareness about noise pollution, safety and the child labor used for manufacture of firecrackers. These may eventually reduce the firecrackers sales but cannot take away the spirit of the festival. Deepavali will continue to be one of the most celebrated festivals in India and definitely a great booster for the local economy.

Back to Square One

You have heard "Back to square one" number of times. It makes more sense when one goes through this in the real life. It happened in the last weekend trip to Leavenworth, wa - the bavarian village in Washington state. On the way back, we were looking forward to exploring Stevens pass. At one point on the state highway, there was a left direction to Stevens pass. We turned left and followed other directions got on to a 2 lane highway. The views of the mountains were breathtaking and the fall foliage was simply amazing. We were not sure how far to go and what to expect. I suggested pulling out at the next rest area which was 10 miles away. After about 30 mins ( with breaks for photo shooting), we almost reached the rest area. Just before making the turn, Dinesh said loudly "we've been here just half an hour ago". Me and wife dismissed his claim by telling him all the rest areas in the state look similar. Since there were light showers and my daughter was sleeping, I rushed to the place where they had set up coffee and snacks counter. For reasons that I don't know, some volunteer groups provide free coffee, cookies, etc in the washington state rest areas. Coming back to the story, I thought the 2 elderly gentle men looked very familiar to me. I asked them what to expect in the stevens pass and they took 5 mins and told me all they knew. Something was telling me I've been here before and seen these guys. However, i picked up my coffee and came back to the car. By then, the 2 other passengers in the car had made their analysis and declared we were back to square one. Dinesh submitted his evidences of seeing the same car/truck/sand dunes in the area. On the way back, we saw the same landmarks we had seen 45 mins ago. Actually before turning in to that stevens pass road, we had spent a good half hour in the very same rest area. Also, I had asked those 2 elderly gentlemen, creamer for coffee!. By going back to the same place, we had not only lost 45 mins, we also went 20 miles behind... No more doubts..we understood what "Back to Square One" means! - This is my first & unique experience while driving in the US..have you had similar ones?

Dasara Festival

The ten day dasara festivities in India concluded just last weekend. Given the work schedule and other things, I did not even realize when Dasara started and how it ended. Going back 3 decades, Dasara used to be one of the major festivals at my place. We would place our collection of antique wooden dolls, clay models of various gods & godesses and so many other fancy items. We would also create a small artifical "forest" with lots of plastic animals in them. Most of the traditional dolls were inherited. 2 pairs of couple dolls, made out of rosewood were the center of attraction. I was told they were at least 150-200 years at that time. My grand father was very popular in Mysore for displaying his collection of dolls and paintings during dasara time. Schools recognized Dasara period as a half yearly milestone in the annual calendar. We would finish our half yearly exam just before dasara and enjoy the mid term holidays which co incided with the dasara festival. We also would go around other houses in the neighbourhood to look at their display of dolls. I vividly remember my cousin taking me to one house in Tyagarajanagar, Bangalore where the entire ground floor of the house was full of dolls. They had displayed so many dolls, it almost looked like a doll shop instead of a house!. Half yearly holidays took us either to my grand father's house at Vyalikaval, bangalore or to the Dasara capital of Karnataka - Mysore.

My grand father's house at Vyalikaval would look like a family reunion with my cousins joining in from other locations. Our favourite past time would be taking care of our younger cousin, giving him bath, play with the dog Johnny or head out for long walks to Palace Orchards or Malleswaram or go to one or two movies. Palace Orchards was (still is) home to the famous film stars and politicians. My cousin used to show us around in this area, he some how knew most of the famous houses out there.

Our dasara holidays in Mysore was a different kind of a family reunion. As we descend on our ancestral home, there would be steady stream of visitors. Many of dad's siblings and other relatives lived within 2-3 miles distance and we used to get lot of invitations for breakfast, lunch and dinner. With so many cousins, I personally enjoyed shuffling between various houses, playing various games and enjoying the food specialities of each family. Once, one of my aunts took us once to the Khas darbar at the Palace and we were amazed at the grandeur of the Mysore palace. We watched the darbar from the near distance, the royal throne looked impressive. As we grew, other priorities came in and we gradually scaled down our dasara celebrations.

My early morning walks

This is about my commute to work during the 2 years when I worked as a production engineer at Widia, Bangalore. I worked earlier in the regular business hours and later moved to production department where I worked in weekly shifts of either 6AM-2PM(first shift) or 2PM-10PM(second shift). First shift commute was always a challenge because I lived 20 miles away and the nearest pickup point for my company bus was about 3 miles away.
I used to walk few days or my dad dropped me on his scooter. The last option or backup was traveling by my motor cycle. The bus would arrive at my pickup point around 4:55-5:00 and there was no waiting for any employee. If I missed the bus, the only option was to hitchhike a ride in another company's bus up to the point where I can get public transport or our own company bus in the different route.

On the days I walked to the stop, I would be up by 3:45 AM and leave home around 4:15 to start walking. The roads were empty, sparingly lit. The only company I had during those hours - milk supply guys distributing the milk in the local area and stray dogs! . Some of you might not know, stray dogs are rampant in Bangalore. Step in to any area, you will find scores of dogs on the roadside. Some how in the early hours, these dogs don't like people walking on the roads and bark or sometimes attack people. So while walking 3 miles, I had to be watchful in the 4-5 points where there was major concentration of dogs. May be the dogs are also scared of strangers at that hour. It all used to start with one alert dog blowing the whistle. Rest of the team would gradually join in the barking spirit and the enterprising ones would dare to get up and approach me. Even though we had 2 dogs at home, I am some how scared of stray dogs even to this day. So I would offer all the prayers, lift my 2 hands up and get ready for any onslaught. I knew I should not run to invite more trouble, I simply slowed down or stopped for a brief while and then proceed. But those tense moments would later result in self reflection and I used to think is this job that worth at all? I was not the one who quits for such things, I would dismiss these thoughts and go on with the life.
The other risk of walking at that hour was getting mugged or robbed. At that time Koramangala was a quiet and upcoming suburb and had a fewer population, so walking at early hours was considered risky. So while walking I had to keep an eye on any approaching vehicle(s). Fortunately nothing untoward incident happened except once when a car followed me briefly for about 10 mins.
I was lucky to have a coworker live near by. When our shifts matched, the bus would come very close to my place about less than a mile. That's because he belonged to a different department that worked round the clock and he had bargained long enough to get this transport deal.

Thanks to all those tough days, today I have no problem or no complaints in getting up early. One thing remains that stray dog issue in Bangalore is still not completley resolved. Bangalore dogs still rule the early hours and late nights. Some interim solutions were in force, however a majority of the suggestions are turned down in the name of animal cruelty.

Coming to America - Final Post

This is the concluding post of earlier "Coming to America" post. This post is all about how a typical Indian working in US ( read H1-B or L1) settles down after arriving in the US and how he/she moves on.
"Visibility" of the assignment drives all major purchases. Visibility I mean here is the most likely duration of the customer engagement, employer's location & policies and the individual's long term plans of staying in US. A person coming on a short term assignment would prefer to keep his investment to the minimum. Friends/Colleagues offer immense advice /help in setting up the home, help in moving furniture and complete all other legal / official formalities like getting SSN, updating some federal forms, setting up payroll information/opening bank account, etc. The first few weeks or months goes away in adjusting to the commute/work culture/work time/work pressures.
Some of the common initial milestones or challenges;

• Learning to drive & getting a driver's license, Finding a decent accommodation(preferably with some Indian community around), Get used to public transport modes if car is not feasible
• Initial home setup - As always, Walmart is the favorite
• Work Related - Initial days require lot of interactions with the customer teams. So meeting new people, remembering their names & designations. Lucheon meetings and dinner meetings with the customer teams are common. Vegeteraian Indians feel like fish out of water because it takes a while to understand the veggie options in the menu. Some people are shy to ask for what they want.

Once the individual spends few months, he / she gets used to the local environment and is now ready for travel around USA. Refer to my earlier post, theertayatra in America...so there is a list of must see destinations and friends /family to visit. Meanwhile, some people are blessed with children and most often the grand parents come over from India for offering moral support and help during the initial months. Some individuals pursue the green card option to continue staying in the US. Getting a green card is a major milestone for many people and this will lead to home /upgrading or buying a better car. People who are not in the green card race will eventually move back to India.
Bottom Line: Apart from technical expertise, goodies like communication, presentation, networking & other skills go a long way in making the stay more comfortable, challenging and successful.

Just a Note; The subject of this post is so vast, I've picked only few points to end this post here!.

Beijing Olympic Games 2008!

The count down has already begun and the next Olympic Games are coming up in less than a year from now. Other day the local FM station featured an interview with a US journalist stationed at Beijing. Amongst other things, following caught my attention;

• Chinese federal and state authorities have begun urging people to follow queue system while making getting in to public transport systems, banks, post offices, etc. There will be few volunteers on the street helping people to "fall in line".
• Spitting - Chinese authorities have begun educating people not to spit in the public places and instead use plastic bags or spit in the trash cans
• Cab drivers in Beijing are being encouraged to learn at least 50-100 english phrases like "hi how are you?". A lot of cabbies are seen playing the lessons tapes when they are free.

Way to go Beijing...Check out the Olympic games related details in the following LINK.

Lost & Found

Do you misplace something at home and find it after few days? Well,that happens to me a lot of times. At first it's all funny, later on turning in to frustration & disappointment. It appears some items get misplaced in the hour of their need and to re establish their importance. In my own experience it is usually the small, inexpensive stuff that normally gets misplaced. The above thoughts came to me as I just discovered a misplaced treasure..Remote controls of the TV & the cable TV.
These days sometimes we've gone a day without watching TV. So a day went by with the normal search without yielding any results. Next day,the heat gradually caught on and we finished searching all the other obvious places and it wasn't there. Unfortunately,the cable TV unit was turned off which deprived us of watching at least one channel. Our patience levels reached its limits on the end of day 2..we simply could not figure out where to search for the remote control...we had finished looking in all the closets(just in case they were buried in some other stuff,behind the window blinds,my daughter's toy bag,kitchen, etc. One hope was it was within the house and not disposed off with the trash. On the morning of the day 3, I got this strange feeling that I did not check under the sofa. So some exercise in moving the sofa,bending and looking down did not yield any results. One last elimination point was under the sofa cushions...which again did not help. I decided one last try and literally ran my hand across the tiny space between the sofa seat and the back rest...My hand felt 2 familiar objects and I was way too happy. So there it was...the2 remote controls tucked away in the secret location.

Somehow this is the most hilarious and frustrating lost & found incident in the recent past.I am sure most of us experience similar incidents in our daily lives. It takes sometime to realize that an item is misplaced, some time is spent plainly scanning the normal places and postponing the search. It reaches its zenith when the frustration limits are reached and upon finding the item, there is that moment of relief & celebration!.

Toothbrush!

At my place, me & my wife get a new toothbrush at the same time.Because of this timing,similar model,location(placed in the same holder) it takes me a day or two to get to the correct one. Sometimes this leads to a sort of funny/semi-serious arguments.

Flash black 25-30 years ago, we(I mean my family only) were not changing our tooth brush as often as we do now.That was typical of many Indian middle income families those days. Why? reasons might be many;cost, availability, need, lack of awareness, etc.Those days toothbrush cost considerable amount, even though it was not very expensive. Also to create awareness and demand, there were not so many dentists or many manufacturers in the market. Add to this, there was no TV at our home.Many toothpaste manufacturers also produced or made available their own brand of toothbrush. Some of the toothpaste manufacturers offered free brush along with the toothpaste purchase.

My grand father's place used to be the common meeting point for all cousins during summer holidays. So there used to be a crowd of over 10-12 people during summer and some how we all had a way of identifying our respective tooth brush. One simple way was to put in the the same place every day and not disturbing the position of other brushes. As kids we curiously observed other brushes and each one had a story to tell.Some had their bristles bent left/right or in both directions, some were simply wearing away waiting for retirement.

Today's Toothbrush:Toothbrush industry is well established and offers numerous varieties of toothbrush for kids & adults. Electric tooth brush seems to be selling very well these days.Read the latest developments in the following LINK

My future dream: That day is not far where I just need to go to bathroom, put my chin on/in a device & press a switch. A computer guided toothbrush will go in do all the work. Wow...there could be a combo device which will do tooth brushing and shaving one after & another!

Pharma stores in India & USA

This post provides my perspective of the retail pharmaceutical industry in India and the USA. Even though the ultimate goal is to make medicine available to the end customer, it is done in slightly different ways in the two countries.

Pharma Industry in India
Organized retail pharmacy is still in its infancy. Popularly called pharmacy or medical stores, numerous pop & mom stores dot the busy streets of any city or town. Most of them just sell the packaged medicine in its original packaging and do not make any medicine.

The Business Model
In most the cases, the prescription is not recorded by the physician's office or hospital. Wait a minute, did I say you can go to any medical stores? There is a catch in it. The doctor/hospital, medical stores and pharmaceutical companies operate in a closed loop triangle model. The Pharmaceutical Company first sells the "medicine" idea to the doctor, then to the medical stores who has to invest in stocking the item. If the sales volumes are not met, the pharma sales person will make a "co-ordination" effort to increase the sales otherwise offers alternatives or the competitive products take over. Sometimes the competition in the "special"(read expensive) medicines category is so intense, if you plan to purchase the medicine like 5-10 miles away from doctor's location, you may not find it!. So the pharma sales cycle is customized to city/locality/street(?) level that it has not gained international attention!. Compare to the US, big box retailers are investing millions of dollars
in customizing their outlets suiting to local residents needs and preferences, a concept which is called Customer Centricity. Some medical stores sponsor the prescription stationary for the neighborhood doctors and in the bottom of the prescription is the medical stores address!!.

Some important Observations:
Doctor's Handwriting in Prescription: There exists some encryption logic which only the doctor & the pharmacist can understand. Common people try hard & fail to decipher these cryptic notes. May be the doctors got bored of writing prescriptions all their life or they want just the pharmacists to understand what they write.

Inventory Management:
Mostly manual, occasionally some shops have computerized sale & inventory transactions. Most of the inventory, sale transactions are recorded offline in a notebook or human brain!. It's really amazing how a pharmacist searches for a medicine in the maze of shelves containing numerous medicine packets, small carton boxes, bottles, etc. The prescriptions are filled on a first cum first serve basis and are done in a remarkably less time. Most of these guys do multi-tasking like work with 1 or 2 customers at a time. Vendor's sales representatives also help sometimes in inventory management & replenishment. Wait a minute, this is called Vendor Managed Inventory in the informed world and this concept is followed quietly in Indian pharmacy stores for so many years!

Customer Service: Being a competitive industry, store owners try to build a good relationship, trust and offer value added services like recommending the best OTC, Occasional discounts, product samples, door delivery, etc. A customer with a good rapport can negotiate exchange unused medicine with alternate medicine, soaps or other consumables.

Pharma Industry in USA
Unlike India, Retail Pharmacy is a niche industry and some of the big box retailers like WalMart, Target, WalGreens, CostCo, SamsClub offer OTC (Over the Counter) medicines & pharmacy services. The OTC department is the first stop for picking up medicine for common ailments. The prescription written by the doctor is documented in the physician/hospital records. The pharmacy stores take away the prescription and provide the prescribed quantity of the medicine (for tablets, capsules) in the small plastic bottles. Refills, if required are decided by the doctor, additional refills need to be authorized by the doctor. Pharmacy provides a detailed write up on the medicine which includes constituents, effects, side effects and allergy symptoms. The doctors generally do not oversubscribe to avoid overdose, any risk of wrong treatment or legal implications.

Business Model:
Looks more organized and not much is visible to the common man. I have seen medical representatives dressed in crisp suites calling on doctors towards the end of the morning or evening rush hours. From there on, I have no clue as to how the business model operates!

Customer Service: Professional, Pharmacist works with one customer at a time. Even though they provide excellent customer service, first time prescription filling time is significant because it involves checking the insurance details, recording the sale transaction in the system, preparing the medicine, etc. Refills are relatively easier and faster, however takes at least 10-15 minutes. Refills can also be ordered ahead by phone and picked up later. The OTC medicines offer a wide choice of medicines for common ailments. Branded medicines are expensive and some pharmacies offer alternate generic medicine which is quite economical.

Independent India - After 60 years

I am writing this after India celebrated 60th birthday as an Independent nation. No doubt, India still lacks in many areas, but we need to also appreciate our journey so far. Here I am orchestrating a positive outlook about some of our achievements which in some ways may be similar to the views already expressed or may be different too!

a) Expect less: We are still 60 years old as a independent country and still need a lot of time to put together people, process, technology and common mindset to achieve higher goals. Diverse cultures, languages and regional priorities are few of the large set of things that we need to work with. Bottom Line: Have Patience

b) Remarkable Progress:
Thanks to the public sector undertakings which generated millions of jobs and generated a rich pool of labor force. Some of the talented people from the public sector are today instrumental in running some of the successful private engineering, mechanical companies. Also, an offshoot from the main stream industry resulted in creation of the IT industry, which we know is reaching newer heights by the day. Also significant efforts in agriculture & food packaging have been made.

c) Resource Pool of Qualified People; India has generated(still) a huge resource pool of qualified engineers, doctors, scientists, skilled labor and other specialists. Look around the IT companies in the US, Europe, Australia and the oil industry in the Gulf ..They are all beaming with Indian techies and engineers. Off late the nurses from Kerala are the most sought after people in USA!. Ten years back, who imagined nursing industry had so much potential? However, some changes are inevitable in future to avoid oversupply of resources in few areas like engineering, medicine, etc. Indians need to look beyond IT, Engineering to explore areas like aviation, medical services, life sciences, etc

d) Economic Improvements: Early 90s saw the elimination of some red tape and some radical improvements in the economic front.

e)HealthCare: India has an amazing pool of qualified doctors and the medical staff to cater to the burgeoning population. In the 1970s, most of the middle class and upper middle class population was born in the government hospitals. It is just
that increased population, lack of focus in government hospitals, corruption and the higher affordability levels, which have made govt.hospitals to look like poor cousins. However, please note most of the current day famous doctors ( in the age group of 50 and above) had prior govt.hospital experience where they gained immense experience handling a variety of complex medical cases

g)Infrastructure: Believe it or not, we are not doing that bad. Any city has at least a decent network of at least one mode of public transport. Railways have been innovative enough to make profits and offer strong competition to the emerging aviation industry.

h)Retail Power: Look around any major Indian city and you will realize the increase in the number of shopping malls. Some of the malls in Bangalore have visitors of about 1,00,000 per week. A good retail performance is the indicator of many factors like income & spending levels, also generating the direct & indirect employment in the services and hospitality industry.

Coming to America

Coming to America for Work is a challenging, joyful and the eventful experience. I am sharing my experiences & observations through a series of posts, with the focus on the typical experiences encountered by people who come from India to USA on long term / near-long term work permit (read H1-B or L1). Coming to America is all about the first time traveler's experience in making the trip, this involves typically three phases;

1. Before Travel
2. During Travel, Arrival in USA
3. Initial Days

Before Travel: No doubt, the first step is filing for H1 petition followed by subsequent steps of interview and stamping. Since part of the resource pool is always "visa" ready, the real travel plans take some shape upon finalization of a customer project. Some projects or opportunities show up overnight. Sometimes an unplanned customer interview or skill matching exercise will lead to immediate travel. Most of the companies conduct regular travel briefings to provide travel / visa / other information related to international travel. This overfeed sometimes boosts the confidence of the traveller or makes him or her completely confused. The travel schedule is then broadcast to near & dear ones. Before the travel, some employers provide adequate briefing & training regarding traveling, living & working in the US to their employees. At this time, our first time traveler starts gathering information on his US destination from known sources and internet. The person will be deluged with lots of solicited / unsolicited advices regarding what to carry, how much to carry, how to tackle the typical travel hassels, etc. Planning & Shopping continue till leaving up to boarding the aircraft. It is a common sight in bangalore airport to catch young folks pick up their fav coffee from the coffee day outlet..

During Travel,Arrival in USA; .. The journey kicks off after bidding good bye to the near & dear ones in the airport. The travel briefing details are very much in memory and our first time traveller goes through the formalities as though following a written script. At each checkpoint, care is taken to follow / over follow all the rules. Guys generally look forward to talk to some fellow passengers travelling to the US .In the flight, vegans think they are going through a difficult phase of their life as they suspect every meal to contain chicken, fish or meat. Some how almost all the meals and snacks are consumed. The immigration interview at the US port of entry is taken very seriously and our traveller would have all (additional) the information required to enter the country. Some companies care to provide initial hotel stay, food and conveyance. Later on, peers and internet sources are handy in finding a suitable accommodation. Fighting jet lag and adapting to new work culture, people are a challenge for the first few days or weeks after which things start falling in place.

Still to come: First few months in US, Settle down and Enjoy Life.

Dish Washing Strategy(DWS)

Back in India, dish washing was not a big deal. We had a servant maid and other family members stepped in whenever required. We were introduced to dish washer in the US. However dish washer is rarely used at my place, except during the Get-togethers or parties which leave mountains of dishes. So at our house, dishes are normally hand washed. Even though dishwasher has its own advantages, according to us ( me and wife) it has got its own limitations in terms of loading capacity(need to have sufficient dishes), time involved, energy consumed and the sound it creates.

Now that I made a case for manual washing, here are the main factors which influence manual dish washing;
a) Sink size constraints the number of dishes it can hold. Any overflows land up on the counter tops there by creating clutter and is visually discouraging to see so many of them
b) Size of the dishes and utensils: Yes that matters. Whether you have one big utensil or 10 eating plates?
c) Amount of time you have and your patient level (variable, depending on the day).
d) Some more...just cutting short here..

I have devised myself a Dish Washing Strategy(DSW) to effectively address this requirement;
a)Focus on big oversized utensils and dishes - Once you finish off with them, you get lot of empty sink space
b)While doing (a), pour out ( rinse) the soap water in to the small dishes. This way, conserving water apart, you are directing to your mind to a playful act
c)Pick your fav song and sing aloud...or listen to ipod, mp3, etc
d)Work on the small dishes
e)Having accomplished these steps, simply step out of the kitchen and do something else

What did you notice?
a)At the end of the exercise all the dishes are washed "One at a time", no matter what strategy you adopt: Going from big utensils to small dishes or vice versa. It's just a matter of prioritizing / guiding (or diverting) ourselves to do the important daily chore
b) Why walk out of the kitchen? Because the act of washing dishes is a recurring process and never stops. So take a break until the next batch accumulates for washing!

This works for me...Do you have any better strategy?

Home made Ice Cream!

Today's lunch time discussions took my memory back by 15 years when I and brother attempted to make ice cream at home. Note, these experiments started and ended within first month of buying the refrigerator. The ice cream mix from the store had just about 5 instructions!. Since we felt it was so easy, we immediately set off again to the store, this time to buy milk and other ingredients. However we did not have 2 ingredients and it did'nt bother us much. After making the stuff per instructions, we put that in the freezer for one hour ( as instructed). The stuff remained in the same state for couple of hours and only after 4 hours it still looked like a thick milkshake. We had no patience to wait further...the stuff was consumed in the as is form and who's complaining ...we planned to have ice cream but had a excellent milk shake.

After learning the mistakes, next time we followed all the instructions till mid way. Then we had a small fight upon who should carry out the next preparation steps. It was a hard decision and we argued a lot till we smelt something burning. Milk and other stuff on the stove was gradually burning off and we immediately worked together to complete the other prep steps.. Guess what we landed with this time? The final product looked 50% similar to the store ice cream, however it was smoky!. Having spent over 2 hours in the project, we did not complain. We finished off the stuff within half an hour and closed the ice cream making project forever :)

Real Problems we faced: Standard instructions apart, expert ice cream makers had their own recipe and the list of ingredients would vary depending on who you would talk to. Also, since we did not have a telephone then, we could not connect with "experts" for instant help, instead fix the problem ourselves. Anyway it was a lot of fun experimenting!

Consumer Electronics: Some Thoughts!

The fast paced developments in the consumer electronics is hard to neglect. As always in any industry, few companies and geographic locations lead the market. In Consumer Electronics, USA, Japan, Singapore, some parts of Europe are the launching pads for cutting edge techy products. Market performance in these regions will define its further life in other geographic locations. Some companies are known for their innovation and come up with new products regularly, example: Sony, Canon, Panasonic, Nikon, Dell, Apple, etc. In my opinion, the hot product categories are cameras (including camcorders), portable audio, TV and cell phones. The market changes so fast that what is cutting edge technology today becomes "ordinary" within a short span of time. The new products are always sold at premium targeting heavy purses. After a while, prices normalize and gradually taper off due to market dynamics.

Indians living in America get carried away with the innovative electronics products. It is a status symbol to own & display high end stuff. Also, the urge for peer recognition and “competition” makes a person stretch his budget and get a decent product. Few factors which make Indians go after high tech stuff could be
a) We develop intimate relationship with the electronics products and don’t throw away the stuff even if it breaks. Repair costs in India are cheap compared to investing on the new product b) Innovation Vs Price: Until few years back, Indian electronics marketplace was sluggish and not so very innovative. Even if so, the newly introduced stuff was very expensive.
c) Few years back, some of the electronics stuff like big screen TVs, home theaters, etc did not figure in a common man’s wish list.
d) There could be few more reasons…you let me know

Given the above, when an average Indian comes over to the USA, he/she is awed with the electronics marketplace because of the range of products, availability and the price. It is quite natural for such a person to splurge on something that brings happiness and change to the daily life!

Note: I hear that Indian consumer electronics market has redefined itself in the last couple of years. Products launched in US or Japan become available in India within a short span of time and there is no significant price difference between the Indian make and the imported ones!. Could this mean travel bags to India will get lighter?

Bangalore City Bus: My travel experience

I always liked traveling in the Bangalore city buses. They used to be called BTS ( Bangalore Transport Service). I started traveling from sixth grade from koramangala to my primary school located at Wilson Garden. Mine was the last stop at Koramangala, that meant only few passengers would travel until the last bus stop. During those days, we knew most of the conductors &drivers. One of my friend's uncle was a conductor and he looked like late kannada cinema comedian Narasimharaju. Few bus routes like 171, 163(A),166 connected Koramangala to the outside world. 171 was the most popular and busiest route because it connected the Bangalore City's main bus terminal(Kempegowda Bus Terminus). This apart, there were few long bus routes from the rural areas to the city market area. It was very common to find the Koramangala's rich &famous kids travelling in the buses, side by side with other kids.
I gained more bus travel experience when I went to high school in Jayanagar 4th Block. I had to change buses in Wilson Garden till the BTS introduced a direct route from koramangala to Jay.4th block. Wilson Garden police station stop used to be like a transit center for koramangala kids because most of the educational instutions were located in basavanagudi & jayanagar areas. Boarding koramangala bound buses at Wilson Garden stop was always a challenge. The buses would be already full and the drivers would pull up 50-100 meters ahead of the assigned stop, just to avoid additional passengers. We would chase down the bus all the way and get in. Also bus travel served as a perfect place for networking and we made lot of friends in other schools.
My bus travel continued through my pre-university and degree education. However, sometimes I used to borrow my brother's moped too!. During my degree education, I had flexibility of choosing either the rural or the regular routes. The rural buses ferried lot of villagers while the regular routes had city crowd and some nice looking girls!. Inspite of this attractions, we were forced to take mofussil buses because of the faster commute times. By now, Koramangala had added a lot of residents and businesses. So naturally there were more people in the buses and off course new bus routes were introduced. Bus travel gradually tapered off once I started working. Due to my job requirements and the flexibility with the two wheeler, I gave up full fledged city bus travel. However, whenever possible I've used the city bus to get around in Bangalore. All these years ( even now) I hear Bangalore residents complaining about poor bus facilities in terms of schedules, seating capacities, etc. No doubt, the state run organization is not run like a business, it definetly is a life line for millions of people. Unlike other cities, majority of the Bangalore's middle income group do not travel by bus. Instead of simply blaming the traffic jams, if at least few people switch to bus travel, not only will they save some money but also help reduce the pollution around.

Trip to Leavenworth & Apple Capital of the World

We finally opened our road trip account for this year and with my little daughter around, we decided to try with a 3 hour drive to Leavenworth, see surrounding places & stay at Wenatchee. The interesting part of this trip was the travel through the scenic places like Snoqualmie pass and the Stevens Pass. After driving about 2.5 hours, we were very hungry headed to the first rest area to feed on Puliyogare and Curd rice. Because we were so hungry, food which was supposed to last for a full day was consumed in just one meal!. Rest of the onward journey took us through the scenic mountains and plains and we saw a lot of apple and cherry orchards. We bought some cherries from a road side stand. After cooling off in the hotel room, we briefly explored Leavenworth in the night.

Wenatchee:Apple capital of the world- I knew little about apple connection with Wenatchee. The brochures and other reading material in the hotel told me Wenatchee’s contribution is around 60% of the world's apple produce. That’s way this place is still called Apple capital of the world. Apart from apples, lots of cherries and berries are grown in this region. Some of the famous brands like Fuji, Washington red apple, gala and others come from this place :). According to Internet sources, significant portion of India’s apple imports come from Washington state and Tamil Nadu is the largest importer of apples!

Coming back to the trip, Leavenworth is built in the lines of a old Bavarian village and its layout is typical of any crowded Indian city with the businesses operating out of the cellars, 2nd and 3rd floors. There are so many wineries and gourmet restaurants and one needs a lot of time for detailed exploration. But one thing is evident, there is “German” ambiance everywhere starting with the neon signs, menu descriptions, dress, people and the architecture. One can see lots of floral arrangements in the restaurants and shops.

We visited the near by “Applets and Cotlets” factory. Man, they make one of the most delicious candies in the world. Please try them when you get a chance. The other place we briefly stopped over was “Rocky Reach Dam”. Typical dam attractions apart, this one has a museum in which lots of details / artifacts belonging to the native Indians are displayed.

My post trip research on Wenatchee, worldwide apple fruit market has enough material for a full fledged post – plan to do it shortly.

Time out without Cellphone

It was very warm & sunny last evening and we decided to go and cool off in a near by store. On the way I realized I was not carrying my cell phone! It is something which rarely happens and I resisted the temptation to go back and fetch it. I was curious to see the impact of not carrying the cell phone for one evening.

Flashback: Summer is normally mild in Seattle and the mercury peaks only for few days or weeks. So air conditioners are absent in most of the Seattle area apartments and independent homes.

Coming back to the story- While we enjoyed the evening out, thoughts of missing cell phone kept coming back. Even though I did not expect official calls, you never know when some one needs you. What if any of my friends are trying to reach us? What if my vehicle breaks down and if I have to call for any help? We even thought of visiting a friend’s place and but gave up because we did not know his evening plans or if he was busy. I was bit nervous, anxious till we reached back home. I was relieved and disappointed J to find no missed calls or voice messages. Even though I don’t doubt the benefits of carrying the cell phone everywhere, I felt it’s possible to live without it – at least for a short duration

Flashback – 30 years ago, Place: India - Bangalore: During those days, let alone cell phone, we did not even have a land phone at our house. My dad had access to telephone only during office hours and during this time he was the single point of contact to receive / send emergency information to the external world. Many of our relatives and friends did not have telephone. However in case of emergency, our friends and relatives with telephone would build an improptu channel and pass the information over to the required person or family. During those days, we visited friends and relatives without making prior appointments. Our success rate of finding people in their homes was very high and very rarely encountered locked houses. That’s because we used to plan our visits based on the lifestyle patterns of each family like working couple with kids in school, families active in social work or those having retired / elderly people at home, weekend preferences, etc. It was a status symbol to have a telephone at home. Due to limited penetration of the telephone, there were only few advantages it did not offer significant benefits like today

Current Situation, Place: India – Key decisions are made over land lines and cell phones. People spend more time on the cell phone than personal talking. On a lighter note, our government might introduce a law where every new born child is associated with a unique cell phone number (like Social Security Number in USA). So in future, population census might mean counting cell phone subscribers across various networks. That way our population counts is most update :)

787 Dreamliner Premiere

Being in Seattle, it was difficult to miss the run-up leading to the unveiling of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Over the last couple of weeks, this new flying bird was in news all over the print & electronic media. The premiere at Boeing's plant at Everett was witnessed by over 15,000 people including employees and delegates from all over the world. Another 25,000 employees, retirees and their guests watched this event on the giant screens at Qwest Field, the home of Seattle Seahawkers Football team. This event was broadcast live to over 100 countries in 6 different languages.

We were invited to watch this event at Qwest Field, starting at 3PM. Our plan to meet with other friends at the stadium was not successful because we reached different points of the stadium. There was no time to go about searching each other. We collected the complimentary 787 gliders (2 per person!).Once inside the stadium, we again got in touch with our cell phones and we were seated exactly across the stadium. At last, we were lucky to get one friend & his family who were looking for seats near us!

Unlike a typical event in India, this one was different with the absence of any film stars or a battery of politicians। Qwest field events started off with the band from one of the local schools followed by a brief address of 2-3 mins by the Governor of Washington State. Later on, video clippings of the existing airplane models and their comparison with 787 were shown. The host asked people who worked in each airplane model to stand up when the respective video was played. It was good to see number of elderly people stand up proudly when their respective airplane video came up. 787 video clippings provided lot of information about the airplane, its uniqueness and the partners involved in this process. By this time, the seating areas in the stadium were significantly occupied and the focus shifted to the unfolding events at the Everett plant near Seattle. A number of airline customers, flight attendants had descended on the Everett plant. Being the first to place the order, ANA (All Nippon Airways of Japan) received significant attention in the premiere. After the brief congratulatory notes from some key suppliers & customers, the CEO introduced the new airplane and the leader of the 787 program did the final honors in unveiling the airplane.

In all, it was a wonderful event and we took a lot of pictures. We got an opportunity to be with the Boeing community during this launch. Also, for the first time got a chance to see the football stadium in the USA. Compared to our cricket stadiums back home, this one made the visitor comfortable with abundant car parking space,good seating options, giant screens at either end of the playing area and off course the refreshment stalls and the convenient location of the rest rooms.

787 Dreamliner - My thoughts: With the order book of 677 airplanes as of 07/08, this one's definitely a market winner. Against popular belief, 787 is not the biggest aircraft from the Boeing family. It is a mid size, long haul aircraft set to redefine the intercontinental travel. 787 will reshape our travel itineraries to some extent as it enables non-stop flying from point to point location across continents. As far as India-US travel is concerned, Air India is already planning to start direct flights from cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, etc that would land in Seattle, Houston, etc. Boeing's order book is full until 2013, that does not mean they cannot service new orders. I saw the CEO in the TV mentioning that additional orders will be accommodated through the leasing agencies and also by adding more production capacities. Meanwhile AirBus is bringing in their competitive model, A350 which will fly by 2013. With the addition of these 2 aircrafts, there will be a definite boost in the air travel. Tickets are likely to get competitive and we might see significant increase in the international travel.

It's Holiday Season

Holiday season in US kicks off with July and this time a lot of people are expected to travel around. According to AAA, about 40.3 million people are expected to undertake travel beginning this week and out of this 84% are planning to travel by car. Who said gas prices are high? With the vacation time around, people are fine paying little extra for the gas. This year's number of travellers is up by 2.8 percent. Even though it's a single digit increase, it makes a lot of difference to the American Economy. Travel boots airline, hospitality, hotel and so many other related businesses. Numbers apart, a happy vacation adds lot of value to our stressed lives.

Check out this interesting AAA Link. In the US, it'samazing how they collect the statistics, report and make use of the information.

Those of you in US, Wish you a Happy July 4th Holiday..Hope you have a good one

Apple iphones - post launch

Having followed the iphone launch closely on the internet & TV, I was curious about the market reaction. According to some analysts, iphone sales were anywhere between 3,00,000 & 5,00,000 during the week end. One source felt that the numbers could have been much higher given the amount of publicity and hype that surrounds this product. Another analyst felt Apple might offer to correct prices in the later part of this year.
Check out the following URL for more information: Link

I checked one of the iphone demonstrations in youtube and liked some of the iphone features like touchpad dialing, photos browsing and others.

Apple iphone

I have this habit of tuning in to local radio stations while driving. Yesterday, most of the stations were going after the Apple "iphone" launch scheduled on June 29, 2007 at 6 PM local time. Since I am out of touch with TV these days, this one caught me by surprise. In the ensuing drive of about 30 mins, I came to know all that I wanted to know.I assume most of you would have already heard or read about this iphone launch.

For the uninitiated, Apple is launching a new cell phone which combines the functionality of an ipod, Internet browsing, voice messaging and so many other features. As always, this launch has provided an opportunity for analysts, critics and specialists in the cell phone industry to deliver their thoughts and forecasts. Apple has tied up with AT & T wireless for launching this new phone in the US. They plan to hit Europe in the later part of 2007. Apple built this phone based on their mega success product, ipod. I believe ipod has millions ( I think it's around 200-300 million) of owners in the US alone and most of them fell for it because of its sleekness.very good user interface and very good sound quality. The plan is available only thru AT & T, that means only to the existing 140 million plus existing customer base of AT & T. The new subscribers ( assuming they have service from other providers) will have to break their existing contract and sign up for iphone. The total costs are around $400 - $600 for a 2 year contract with the monthly subscription charges of around $60. In a country whose people quickly embrace top notch tech products & solutions, this kind of highly priced offers might gain good acceptance. Or Apple might make some price corrections based on demand and supply.

This made me recollect the launch of Reliance Infocomm's Cell phone launch in India. Just after launching, they made a presentation at our office to attract corporate subscriptions. They had screwed up their offerings so much that we had difficulty comprehending the plans and total subscription costs. The public feedback in the papers was also in the similar lines. Then the sons of Dhirubai Ambani made a bold decision to temporarily withdraw the offers. Shortly thereafter, they came back with marketing winning offers which offered more choices of cell phones, talk time plans and some customization options. Gradually, Reliance cell phone gained popularity and was able to create an impact in the market. Today Reliance Infocomm offers so many features that are absent in the US cell phone services market.

Going back to the talk on the radio, one observer mentioned life of the first few cell phones launched were approximately 5 years while the current ones have life of just 13-18 months. One drawback I heard about Apple iphone - If the battery goes dead ( expected after 12-14 months), it has to be taken to the dealer and there will be some special charge!!!

Let's wait & see how iphone takes off in the market. If you have any good information about this one, let me know.

What's Cooking?

Saanvi is all set to prepare Bisibellebath for you. She's got the right utensil, serving spoon and the ingredients. This special Bisibellebath takes slightly long time to prepare..about 10-11 years. Hope you come back then...

Theertha Yatra(Pilgrimage) in America

Theertha Yatra(read Pilgrimage) in India typically includes visiting Kashi and other holy places . Have you heard about Indians undertaking Theerta Yatra in US? If not, read on.. Theertha Yatra for the Indians visiting US means visiting some of the famous US cities and attractions.

Tourists apart, students and the resident Indians have some common wish list of places to see and experience. Theerta Yatra in US may involve whirlwind tours covering at least 2-3 places. In my observations so far, I have categorized American Theerta Yatra in to 3 levels. Off course, this categorization might change depending on each person’s purpose of visit, base location in US, employment (or education) status and affordability. These levels are

a) Level 0 – This is the starting level where people explore their home city, state, nearby lakes, forests, mountains, rivers, etc. Indian food and beverages are normally carried along to create the perfect picnic or trip atmosphere.
b) Level 1 – This is the first set of “must see” places
* Niagara Falls, New York City ( Important: Timesq EmpStateBldg, GroundZero & Statue of Liberty) Washington DC, Atlantic City & some NJ locations, Disney land, Universal Studios, ( LA or Orlando), Hollywood, Las Vegas (may be level2 also),San Francisco(especially Golden Gate Bridge & Lombard St)

c) Level 2 – This is the next level of exploration of the US. Some of the favourite choices;
* Las Vegas, Chicago, Grand Canyon, Crater Lake, Yellow Stone National Park, Santa Monica Beach(LA), San Diego, beaches in Virginia and NC, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Wheeling- WV, Lake George – NY, Boston fall colors, Hawaii, Olympic National Park, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, some more national parks

Newly arrived Indians in this country normally plan a tight scheduled theertha yatra of 3-4 days. The objective here will be pick one specific US region(like NorthWest, West or East Coast) and cover as many places as possible. Rather than detailed exploring each city/area, the focus here is “touch” each place and go forward to the next destination. On the first few trips it is very common to see multiple families traveling together.

Also very common is the practice of renting cars to visit places. This is inevitable in case the trip includes air travel. However, this is also beneficial because rental cars are relatively newer and they absorb all the trip mileage, wear & tear and risk factors(breakdown, repairs, etc).
Of all the places, I would Niagara Falls in the number one fav. Travel destination for visiting Indians. I came across an elevator operator in Niagara who is an African-American but has good hindi vocabulary!! Which he picked up from Indian visitors.

I might have missed some more key places, so let me know so that I can update my list.

Food Triangle

This is not the food triangle one comes across in any diet related web sites. Instead this is all about how we have dinner these days. We try to feed our daughter before we have our dinner. But it hardly works that way. Some how my daughter knows our exact dinner time and she is hungry at the same time. So, one of us ( read mostly my wife) would postpone dinner and bottle feed the little one, while the other would have a solitary dinner.

While this worked fine, it always resulted in one person being left out. The recently adopted food triangle approach provides an effective solution. The way it works: Wife bottle feeds little one, I feed my wife and also off-course myself!. The little one is getting naughtier by the day. We have to continuously dodge our spoon movements to avoid “spoon” catch by the little one.

While this whole thing is funny and involves everyone, we are still researching various other options…Stay Tuned

License to drive

This one is about how I got my driver’s license in the USA. Back in Bangalore, one fine morning I came to know of my onsite assignment and had to make immediate travel arrangements. Since the visa was ready, I had to simply pack my bags and address some personal stuff. I never had a driver’s license in Bangalore and could not get one in those 3 days. Since my onsite stay was projected to be 1.5 months, I did not really care to pursue IDP and only carried minimal luggage. I landed in the State of Minnesota without an IDP or a local Indian driving license. To get a driver’s license in the Minnesota State, one has to undergo an online test to get a instruction permit (like learner’s license in India) and get 3 months driving experience (by having a someone who has a license by the side) before appearing for the road test. Myself and another friend were in the same boat and we got in to a catch 22 situation. Driver's license (permanent license) was necessary to buy a car and without owning a car, we had to get 3 months of driving experience with instruction permit. At that time, we could not get insurance with an instruction permit.

We decided to go with a driving school which catered to our requirements. Given the high training costs in the range of $45/per hour, I and my friend took just 3 hours each. Out of that, only 2 hours was the actual training hours and the final one hour was "go-live" test. Yes, that one hour was the actual driver's test which we took in the same vehicle. As predicted by our trainer, both of us failed in the test. I made one single mistake (a major one according to the inspector). I and my friend felt very bad & humiliated (for failing the test). More than us, our respective families were upset because we could not buy a car and without a car we had to depend on friends or cab.

During those days, my brother lived in Wisconsin and he visited us quite frequently in the weekends. During his visits, I briefly practiced in his car and scheduled the re-test. The day before my test, my 2 instructors (read wife and my brother) took me through a pre-evaluation check and cleared me after lot of deliberations. On a cold December morning, both my brother and my wife accompanied me to the test center and this time I drove my brother’s Toyota Camry in the test. I had to take a day off from work and my peers knew I was appearing for a test. It was important to pass the test to save my face and any further embarrassment. I was confident of passing the test, however the previous night snowfall put some kind of doubts. My brother and my wife waited in the small unheated wooden cabin while I headed out to the test. This time, the instructor was very friendly and asked me if I knew how to correct my previous mistake. I replied yes confidently and he quickly completed the test by asking me to perform only few of the usual drills. When the test ended, the instructor signed off some papers and declared I have "passed" the test...I was thrilled!!

Since I was returning to India, I did not buy a car.Instead, Me and my friend rented a car for a brief period. During this period, my friend who was earlier unsuccessful in getting the license, now practiced with this rental car and passed the test! It was a great milestone for him too and he went on to buy a car and enjoy rest of his stay at Minnesota.

This piece of plastic was of immense use in my subsequent trips. It enabled me to drive from day one of landing in the USA and enjoy my stay here. Sometimes when I look at my driver’s license, it brings back all the nostalgic memories

Jai Jai Vittala

What's that Jai Jai Vittala, Jai Panduranga!

Me & My wife chant these lines quite often these days...why? That's my daughter's favourite lulaby and magically makes her go to sleep within 5 minutes.

Background:
When my daughter was around 1-2 months old, she would go to sleep not earlier than 1-2 AM. We had been educated to feed her once every 2-3 hours.It used to take anywhere between 30 mins to one hour to complete one feeding cycle. I had to hang around during this time, even though I had no role to play. So if she takes 30 mins to feed, another 30-60 mins to sleep..we would get very close to the next feeding cycle. There were many occasions when we decided to stay awake instead of going to sleep for less than 30 mins. In order to make my daughter sleep, I used to carry her around the house. Somehow this was not entertaining to me nor her. I somehow hit upon an idea of chanting "Jai Jai Vittala,Jai Panduranga" and imitating a small dance step in the process. This proved to be an instant success and she would fall asleep within 5 mins.

Wait a minute,it's not as simple as you read this one. The exercise includes chanting Jai Jai Vittala..., performing the dance step similar to old time dasas and also taking specific walking routes within the house. These days, I pass through our walk thru kitchen, drawing room and the bedroom. She usually falls asleep after an initial round of "warm-up" where she recognizes some of her favourite objects like fan, clock,TV, her mom, etc. My job is to let her enjoy the first round and then get in to the serious mode of inducing sleep. This has been my most successful lulaby and I need to come up with more..who knows she might get bored with Jai Jai very soon...

I was researching about Vittala in the net and found following link;
http://www.dvaita.org/haridasa/dasas/purandara/p_dasa1.html

Songs of Life

As a kid I used to listen to lot of kannada and english songs in the radio. During those days, TV had still not set its foot in Bangalore and RADIO was the only ruler in the drawing rooms of many people. Regarding English songs, my problem has always been remembering the names of the song(s) and the singer(s). I could only remember few lines or the tunes of the famous 80s and 90s english hit songs.If someone asked me for the song or the singer name, I used to simply blink!

There are some songs which stay close to your heart through out your life or at least for a significant time.Following are such songs which have been my favourite since my childhood / recent past.

These links will take you to YouTube or the music websites;

Country Roads; Link

Buffalo Soldiers; Link

Imagine - John Lennon;Link

Please Forgive Me - Bryan Adams; Link

Kannada - Kuladalli Keelyauvodu; Link
About kulladalli song: This used to be (still is) is the popular dance number from the kannada movies. This song is the favourite of all the orchestra teams and is the concluding song of the program - May be just to retain the crowd till the last minute and also to conclude with a good dance number.

Kannada --Nee Amrithadhare;Link

Kannada - Shubamangala movie - Hoovandu Song;http://www.udbhava.com/udbhava/songs.jsp?id=97

Kannada - Sparsha - Oho Chenne Chenne; Link
Kannada - Funny version of Bhagyada Lakshmi Bharamma; Link

Telugu-Botany Class; Link

Hindi - Lakdi ki Khati; Link

Hindi - Rail Gadi ;Link

Devotional(Telugu)..Mangalam;Link

Tamil - Chinna Chinna Asai ;Link

Above is just a sample, there are still some more and I am limiting the list to save your patience!.Thanks to google videos, I can now watch most of my favourite songs!

Bundle of Joy!

This post is dedicated to my little daughter who stepped in to our life a few months ago. I always longed to post lots of details but could not manage so far!

Well, what can I say about the time she arrived? My daughter arrived at least 2 weeks earlier than we and the doctor thought. Following Pareto's principle, we had postponed 80% of the baby related shopping to the last 2 weeks. In the child birth class, they had asked us to buy the car seat at least 20 -30 days in advance, fix it and get it validated. We did a great job by buying it, however I postponed the final act of fixing it in the car. The box remained in the trunk and travelled with us everywhere. Since we did not want to know it's a boy or a girl, we bought a lot of neutral colored clothes.

On a quiet Sunday morning, my wife woke me early in the morning and told me it's time. It took me sometime to realize what's happening. But we had kept a small suitcase ready to go anytime and out we went with all the luggage including camera and a camcorder. We had to wait for one full day for my daughter to arrive. Till then, I kept myself engaged in the conversations with my wife, hospital staff and internet!!. Yes the hospital offered free wireless connectivity and it was of great help later on to send the pictures to near & dear ones. Our house was in solid mess before we left for the hospital, however couple of friends and their families stepped in, readied the house for the new arrival. When we stepped in to the house, it was so nicely cleaned and organized that we got a doubt if it was our house. In the subsequent days,these friends brought along food,all the other goodies and helped in taking care of the baby!.They even helped us in shopping for the daily essentials!!. Another friend who had a new born himself came over to help us learn the art of giving bath to the little one.

As we were celebrating our daughter's arrival, we faced an extreme family emergency and this time again loads of friends & relatives were with us and we could come out of it gradually due to their help & support. In all we are greatful to all the people who helped us directly or indirectly during my daughter's arrival and for being with us during the difficult times.