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