Satish's blog: A collection of fond memories and thoughts

Theerta Yaatra - Pilgrimage

2012-02-19T02:50:00.004-08:00

During the last rainy season, we went on a pilgrimage trip to the famous places in Karnataka's "dakshina kannda". We made a wise decision of hiring an SUV as it helped navigate through the pothole ridden stretches and navigating through some badly maintained roads. Our initial itenarary was to visit Horanadu, Sringeri, Kollur, Murdeshwara, Udupi, Dharmastala and Kukke Subhramanya. Though time was not the constraint, the enduring rains and the associated mess forced us to curtail the number of places to visit.

We started off from Bangalore around 7 AM and finished off our breakfast on the Tumkur Road, just before the Kunigal cross. The ride until Hassan was a smooth one as the roads are wide and in excellent condition. However, this stretch does not have good restaurants. The rains continued to lash until about 5-6 pm and by that time we had traversed through pockets of coffee rich estate in the chikkamagalur district. We stopped at Kalasa, about 5 kms ahead of Horanadu. This brief stop at the famous shiva temple was quite refreshing. The ancient temple contains some intricate carving and the entire place carries some special kind of aura. We reached the Annapuraneshwari temple at Horanadu around 730 pm. Soon, we witnessed the famous arthi pooja at the temple. Numerous hand lit oil lamps provided an out of place experience. The temple is known for good hospitality and cleanliness. Unlike other places of visit, this place did not have any kind of "commercial" touch. We were served sumptuous dinner by the temple staff. We retired for the day in the nearby Durgamba lodge.

Note: As of August 2012, there were only 2 big hotels for staying at Horanadu. Apart from this, temple management offers good number of rooms and suites but there is no guarantee of hot water supply. So, if you plan to stay for more than one day, better book your stay in advance at any of the above places.

The next day, we had wonderful & a simple breakfast at the temple. After offering prayers, we set out to Sringeri. Though it was drizzling, it was refreshing to drive through the thick foliage and the mountainous Malenadu. Sringeri had changed a lot since my last visit, which was approximately 25 years ago!. The temple complex has added on new buildings, temples, dining halls and yes a new bridge across the river to "Narasimha vana" which houses a temple and living quarters for the swamji and other ashramites.

Sringeri was more crowded than Horanadu. We performed pooja at the temple and set out for lunch. Here again, we were offered a mouth watering lunch. The hospitality here too is admirable as they cater to the continuous flow of the visitors. After spending couple of hours, we set off to Udupi and our goal was to reach there before the sunset. Our driver warned if we did not start early from Sringeri, chances of getting stuck in the dense fog was very high. On the way to Udupi, we made some quick phone calls to my close friend to get recommendations on where to stay and eat at Udupi. My friend hails from that place and offered some good advice and we chose a hotel about 2-3 kms from the famous Krishna Mutt.

It was friday and the inner sanctum was specially prepared for the pooja. The prevailing swamiji performed the aarti for close to 30 minutes. The drum beats by more than 10-12 musicians offered an excellent background for the pooja. Again, the dinner at the Krishna Mutt was awesome and mouth watering. We stayed on at Udupi for another one and half days, visiting the surrounding temples and the famous Malpe beach. Our next destination was Dharmastala which was about 4 hours away. We made a brief stop over at the Durga Parameshwari temple at Kateel. The temple is constructed by the side of a river and some portions of the temple are constructed above the river. The view of the roaring river, temple and the surrounding is breath taking.

We arrived late at Dharmastala, thanks to the pothole ridden roads and the tough hilly terrain. It was 930pm and we quickly had a darshan of lord Manjunatheswara. Continuous drizzling, non availability of accommodation made us rethink of the next steps. We decided to drive to our last destination in the trip, Kukke Subrahmanya. We reached Kukke around 130AM and were fortunate to get accommodation at a good hotel. The next half day was spent in having the darshan of the lord. Though lunch was available at the temple, we had to start immediately to reach Bangalore well before the mid-night. We had lunch at a restaurant, just before reaching Sakaleshpur.

In all, it was a wonderful trip. Some of the things we found common amongst dakshina kannada temples was the great hospitality, excellent food, traditional approach in conducting pooja, and the temple(s) being built around picturesque landscape. One should have ample amount of time & patience to visit all the places of interest.

Some tips for anyone planning to go to the above places;

1. If you are used to mineral water, buy in large towns or cities. Do not buy from road side shacks.

2. Temple food is simple, low in oil and hygienic. In case you do not like temple food, plan ahead because most of the restaurants close down by 8 or 830pm!

3. Udupi is known for some very good restaurants that serve authentic meals and masala dosas. Ask around and you will be surprised with the number of recommendations. Will provide some names in the next couple of days.

4. Stay at Dharmastala needs to be booked. The nearest hotel accommodation is at Ujire.

5. Do not underestimate the driving efforts through the western ghats. I would suggest hiring a car or preferably an SUV. These cabbies make numerous trips to these places through the year. They are well versed with the road conditions and the alternate routes.

Trouser hunt

2011-11-01T10:12:00.001-07:00

Few months ago, I had to attend a conference in a different city. The day before the travel, I had given my suite to our friendly neighborhood 'istry' (ironing) shop. Though the urgency was explained, the ironing folks somehow delivered the jacket but forgot to return the trouser. I returned from work around 8:15 PM and we began enquiring the whereabouts of the ironing folks. None of the shops around had his address nor his contact number. We almost gave up, but a chance meeting with my dentist's assistant gave some hopes. The dentist operates out of the same building and some how his assistant knew where the istry person's house. She sent her son with us and we landed up in the narrow bylanes of the near by locality. We knocked on the door and found a different person living there, the istry person had moved to a new place near by!. The neighbors gave us the directions and the landmark where to look. We again began searching in the near by community. Soon, we 'discovered' at least 5-6 people who lived/operated in that area and none of them had any clue about our guy. Finally after asking some people around, we finally found our guy, who was kind enough to travel 2 kms and hand over my trouser. Though it was an annoying experience in the beginning, it turned out to be an interesting hunt. Not to mention we caught the attention of numerous onlookers in the local community, some of them came up to ask if we are from Police or some investigating agency :)

Pondicherry Trip

2011-10-31T09:16:00.000-07:00

Pondicherry's new name is Puducherry..

We recently visited Puducherry and the kids liked every moment of the trip. For me, it was a slight disappointment, as I had great expectations in looking forward for more attractions. Having visited Goa a number of times, I expected to see a similar "colonial" touch at Pondi. Except for a few streets where one gets the buildings built in the french style, the majority of the city looks like any other Indian city. I liked the walk along the tiled pathway along the Pondi beach. The absence of the vehicles during the evening is a welcome break and one can enjoy the peaceful walk. The Aurobindo ashram is a must see attraction, so is the auroville city. The kids had great time at the auro beach. Strangely, there is hardly any night life at Pondi. Restaurants shut down their shutters around 930 or 10pm. The pubs and the other watering holes close by 1030pm, again a disappointing aspect!.

The drive from Bangalore to Pondi took about 7-8 hours with some breaks in between. We took the most traveled route, ie via Hosur, Krishnagiri, Tiruvanamallai, Gingee and so forth. The stretch from Krishnagiri to Tiruvanamallai was worst, riddled with so many potholes, some competing with the craters on the moon. The return route was quite comfortable, we traveled from Pondi via Kanchipuram and then on the tolled national highway. Enroute we had a brief stop over at Kanchi for lunch. The meals at the famous Saravana Bhavan (hq at Chennai) was quite good. We had a quick darshan of goddess Kamakshi devi and left for Bangalore.

My suggestions to anyone traveling to Pondi;
1. Travel in a SUV or a Mini Van (especially if traveling thru Tiruvanamallai). I am glad we made that decision.
2. Leave Bangalore early morning and try the Kamat Upachar ( between hosur-krishnagiri) for breakfast. Adyar Anand Bhavan is too crowded on a week end/holiday.
3. Accomodation is available in plenty ( if booked in advance). Call the hotel before booking online, sometimes you are better off with the offline booking.

Bangalore-M.G.Road

2011-07-25T07:25:00.000-07:00

We were out on the MGRoad recently. While parking was a non-issue at the utility building, we had to get to a place down the MGRoad, near the big Kids kemp. We decided to walk this short distance, however did not realize the efforts & the risk involved. There is not even 50ft of good walking path in this stretch of MGRoad. You will invariably find the cobble stones lifted, cracked or there is a driveway in to a shopping complex or an office. While expecting a smooth ramp up/down is a distant thought, the height of the curb varies from few inches to about a feet!. In some spots, the curb width narrows down to 2-3 ft!. Worst stretch is the one around the Mayo Hall, which is packed with lots of court houses. We had to make way through the 2 plus feet curb and the parked police vehicles. With the undertrials and convicts staring at you from close distance, it is really a test of your courage and confidence to walk through this stretch. Also, for the first time I came across a 'one way' walking stretch, where there is a line of people on both sides and whoever comes first gets the right of way!

All this is happening right in front of the government offices, the most probable answer is Metro...but as we know Metro is supposed to travel only on the track above, what about the pedestrians below? Added to the above, the motorists add their contribution to the chaos. They don't like 2 legged people walking on the streets and will do anything to push them off the roads either by honking or who knows even knocking them down!. One of the guys on the bike used the curb as a detour to get through a crowded stretch and before we realized what was happening, he was gone!

Very soon, pedestrians might require a head gear to walk on the MG Road... :)

Karnataka Bandh

2011-01-21T21:48:00.000-08:00

Bandh - Complete shut down!

The business, commerical establishments across the Karnataka state is being forcibly shut down by the ruling BJP government to protest against the governor's proposed disciplinary action!. Well, the complete shut down might sound absurd to the folks in the developed countries, it is a reality in India!. It is a mockery of the democratic setup we have!. The corrupt politicians don't realize the strain on the economy with a day's shut down. Millions of people depend on daily income, how do they survive? Also, what will happen to someone's planned birthday, wedding and other social events? Why should the normal citizen suffer for someone else's misdeeds?

It is time to enact a legislation (there might be one already!) to strictly ban any such 'bandh' across India.

Comedy day out

2011-01-21T18:29:00.000-08:00

A seven hour non stop kannada comedy show was organized recently in our neighbourhood. The event brought together popular kannada comedians. While some of the artistes brought out new anectodes, most of them sticked to their already popular script. Whatever, the 3000-4000 strong crowd enjoyed every bit of the event. It was hilarious to watch Richard Louis pick out certain nuances of daily life for his story line. Most of the artistes performed along with their teams, music instruments included to add to the comedy delivery!
The event stood apart from the overall experience, everything from the seating, vehicle parking, policing and the eatery stalls were setup beyond my expectations...kudos to the organizers for roping some sponsors and doing a wonderful job.
The event reminded me of the 'HariKatha' which we used to frequent as kids. The narrator would tell mythological stories, in between injecting few songs and stirring the event with few funny lines. The late Guru Rajulu Naidu was a (still is) famous Harikathe artiste and we never missed his show in our locality. The current day comedy events have the same crowd attraction like the Harikathe ones, only thing required is the continuous innovation and 'staying current' with the expectations.

Elevated Road experience

2010-12-04T04:28:00.000-08:00

Driving on the Bangalore's electronic city elevated toll way is a very pleasant experience. The 9.5 kms trip costs Rs. 30 one way and Rs 50 for a two way trip. It takes approximately 10-15 mins to cover the distance...brings back the memories of using the turn pikes in the Pennsylvania.

The return trip on the toll way from electronics city towards Bangalore is a breeze through until you are brought back down to the ground level at Madivala!. Overall, using the toll way is a pleasant experience, there is a temporary relief from crowded roads!.

Yedduryappa and his survival stories

2010-11-24T09:27:00.000-08:00

The Karnataka Chief Minister has yet again managed to save his post. While I don't normally care about the political roller coaster stories, I have assumed some immense interest in following this (in)famous CM. Given the number of attempts made to remove him, number of scams that are being unearthed on a daily basis, he will very soon make it to the Limca Book of Records. Yedduryappa, at least for now is the survival of the 'politically fittest'.

Per Political analysts, politics in Karnataka has hit an all time low. The current government is more or less in a survival mode, ignoring some major issues that need to be addressed.

Unlike Andhra Pradesh, where Chandra Babu made a significant impact in bringing the IT industry in to the state, Karnataka has been fortunate enough not to depend on the politicians for this purpose. Bangalore being a hub of aerospace, research, large scale public and private companies and scores of educational institutions helped incubate the manufacturing, IT and BT industries. All that the industry expects is a stable state government that can address current & future infrastructure needs...Given the present circumstances, that seems like a dream itself!

Food, Laundry and Hot Water

2010-07-08T06:54:00.000-07:00

That's my basic expectation from a hotel where I stay. Given my stay at Mumbai for the last one month, the expectation is hardly met. I expect the hotel to have a decent enough restaurant, a reliable laundry service and obviously the hot water for bath. The other expectations are good decor, a nice television with adequate channels, comfy air conditioner, etc. In the hotel where I am currently staying, they charge over Rs 2,600 per day. The food is excellent, but the supply of hot water is non-existent. One needs to content with warm water only!. I am not sure if they have a plumbing issue or if they are going on a cost reduction overdrive. Any feed back, escalation does not have any impact on improving their service levels. I guess it's time to move on to another hotel.

Memories take me back a decade ago when I would travel extensively within Karnataka and Maharastra. Though I always stayed at budget hotels, they exceeded my basic expectations and made me comfortable!.

What's in a movie name?

2010-07-06T11:19:00.000-07:00

Well, name dictates the destiny. The bollywood and the rest of the Indian film industry follow a distinct pattern. Movies starred by Hrithik Roshan usually start with the letter "K" and have four words in the title. Golden Star Ganesh ( Kannada) has most of his movie names starting with the letter, "M" ( after the Mungaru Male hit).

Abhishek's much hyped movie, Raavan is said to have flopped. The critics have trained their guns on poor editing, a non compelling story, etc. I have not come across any critic on the movie's name. On the contrary, the producer(s) and other related stake holders seldom admit Raavan is a flop and claim strong box office revenues!

Note, the tamil version Raavanan is already acknowledged to be a super hit!

Bharath Bundh!

2010-07-05T11:07:00.001-07:00

July 5th 2010: Seemed more like an extended week end - except no going out until evening 6pm..The mumbai streets looked deserted. All the shops and restaurants in the vicinity were closed. Many companies were 'officially' open though some employees decided to stay off.

In all, I felt it was a complete waste of time for the entire nation. The political parties are bragging themselves for the 'success' but they cannot replace the lost time, income and the opportunities for the millions of people across the country!

Brazil defeat in the FIFA World Cup

2010-07-03T05:04:00.000-07:00

Football fans around the world are shocked with Brazil's sudden exit from FIFA. This was the first time I watched the complete game during this FIFA. Brazil team's overconfidence was shattered in the second half, while the Dutch continued their onslaught. The impact of Brazil's loss is felt in India as well - common people to Bollywood stars like Amitabh are upset!

Hoping to catch up with the rest of the world cup, not sure how many more surprises are in store.

Mumbai..City that never sleeps

2010-06-10T09:39:00.000-07:00

Mumbai is often compared with NewYork for its diversity, financial strength, celebrities, public transport, high cost of living, crimes, etc. In the last 3-4 months of my stay at Mumbai, I have observed some unique good points about Mumbai.

The common citizens ( not politicians!) demonstrate a relatively higher level of social responsibility, example:Involvement in reduction of plastic usage. Most of the road side fruit and vegetable vendors, small groceries do not offer you plastic bags!
Excellent Public Transport: Without BEST and local trains, picture of Mumbai is incomplete. The government, railway and various organizations work closely in ensuring no disruptions (barring few exceptions)
Apartment societies: Mumbai being the 'apartment' capital of India, renting/owning an apartment is made easy. Though living in apartment has few disadvantages, a newcomer to the city will have lesser difficulties in setting up a house
Numerous eat out options: There are numerous options from road side vada pav to five star hotels. The peak time for most fine dining restaurants are between 9:30pm-11:30 pm on the week days!

There are still more points...but stopping here...

Doctor Visit

2010-06-02T12:11:00.000-07:00

Though it was a minor ailment of throat infection, I did not want to land up with other 'special' effects like cold or fever. Though new to Mumbai, I had observed few doctor clinics during my daily commute to work. I landed up at one such clinic, the doc was a diabetologist ( hope i got the spell correct!).

My first question to the lady at the front desk "Does the doctor treat ordinary throat infection cases"? Yes! came the response. The rest of the visit was over in next 5 mins during which the doctor performed diagnosis, seemed more curious to know who sent me there and where I live. His diagnosis, body language showed he's a true professional. He asked me if I would want to pick up the medicine as well from the same clinic? "why not, I said". The front desk promptly prepared a small packet that had 2-3 types of tablets!.

That reminded me of our first family doctor Azeez Ahmed in Wilson Garden, Bangalore. After diagnosis, Dr Azeez would offer the tablets and some kind of liquid medicine, which was dispensed in dark small bottles!. He would personally prepare that liquid medicine, mixing samples from 2-3 large bottles.

Happy Deepawali!

2009-10-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

Wish all those reading my blog, a very happy deepawali. I am celebrating deepawali in India after a break of over 5-6 years. I noticed now there is more festival spirit, higher spending on crackers and sweets. Beyond this, the automotive and the consumer electronics companies are offering tempting deals to the customers, reminding me of the Thanks Giving occasion in the USA. I think very soon, we'll have a black friday kind of sale during deepawali eve!

A day out in Mumbai

2009-09-20T00:37:00.000-07:00

I worked for a Mumbai based company a decade ago. I was lucky enough to have a lot of friends in Mumbai who worked with me earlier. We would get together once in a while and go visit places. My Hyderabad roomies Anil and Mahesh were also there in Mumbai and Anil had self declared fan of Mumbai and unofficial tour guide. One Sunday evening, we set out first to Marine drive, walked about 2-3 kms and then went to the Bandra Band Stand Area. After going around the obvious places, we walked in the fashion street ( not sure of the name now) and visited a famous old church in the same area. We spent about 30 mins in the church and headed to Prabhadevi, to the famous Siddivinayak temple. The temple required no introduction as Anil had almost created a virtual image in our minds during our Hyderabad days. It was around 7:15 PM when we got in to temple, an announcement followed thru mentioning the temple doors will be closed for aarthi. We assembled in the prayer hall in front of the ganesh murthi and I could tell there were more than 200 people. The aarthi started off, the 200 people in the hall sang the bhajans in Marathi and Sanskrit. The entire place had so much energy and the people were completely immersed. The audience continued to stand and chant the bhajans for over 30 minutes, the drum beats in the back ground added more rhythm!!. I became an instant fan of this temple and took my wife couple of times when we visited Mumbai later on.

Coming to our original story, after consuming the prasad, we headed back to the Dadar Railway Station and we were hungry. Anil was alcohol hungry, we ended up in a small bar and Anil had a mug of beer. In one day, we had completed a pilgrimage trip and signed off in a bar!!

Bangalore's worst flyover at K.R.Puram

2009-08-20T11:32:00.000-07:00

I spend like approximately 1 hour each way in my daily commute and I don't complain because I get on to work as I soon as get in, my driver will take care of the wheels. The traffic is by and large flows through, the stretch around the KR Puram takes around 20-25 minutes. This is one of the most chaotic intersections in the outer ring road where there is a railway station, an ocean of pedestrians trying to board buses towards white field road, hoskote and further. The great hanging bridge across the railway station sits there waiting to help....I wonder why the flyover designers wanted to have the outer ring road merge in to old madras road and again take a deviation!!.

The return journey through this stretch is the rewind of the onward events. It is very interesting to note there is at least one vehicle breakdown in that stretch every evening!!

STD/ISD Phone Booths in Bangalore

2009-08-16T21:13:00.000-07:00

About 15 years ago in Bangalore, you would find the STD/ISD pay phone booths almost every 50 meters in crowded residential and commerical localities. Over the last 5-6 years, cell phone penetration is so high the above phone booths are phased out. I remember the day after I returned from the USA. I had some urgent official phone calls to make. It took me half an hour to locate a phone booth. It took me couple of days to get my own cell phone with international calling options. While the earlier phone booths are phased out, they are compensated with the "yellow" pay phones for making local phones. These are installed in many groceries, restaurants and public places.

So is the case of internet cafe - with the entry of so many ISP and wireless services, cyber cafes faced the heat and many of them are out of business now.

Aayo Rama!

2009-08-09T11:07:00.000-07:00

"A...a...y...o R...a...m....a" : A tired man, a guy having difficulty getting up after sitting for long time, an angry mother unhappy with her kid's tantrums. All these people utter this phase, it is hard to tell whether it's voluntary or not. Well, this particular expression is very popular with kannada speaking people in India.

Other phrases or expressions people make when they are in the situation like above, "Rama Rama", Shiva Shiva, Panduranga, Sairam. Aayo Rama happens to be most popular with the people. I am not sure what's popular in the other Indian states.

The Indian gods must now be tired of helping people who have orthopedic issues, the younger generation does not involve the gods for such "simple" tasks. "Shucks", "Shit" or f... is enough for these guys... :)

Well, let me know if you have heard any such phrases

IT journey from Ameerpet, Hyderabad

2009-05-11T00:15:00.000-07:00

IT journey from Ameerpet, Hyderabad

Astrology & India

2009-05-10T23:57:00.000-07:00

Astrology and India have strong connection since thousands of years. Kings were known to have a team of astrologers advising him in strategic decisions. Common people took help of astrologers to plan important events of life like match making ( horoscope matching), marriage dates finalization, house warming, child naming, baby showers, etc. While there is a significant portion of the people who don't believe, I think there is a strong following too.The present day astrologers have specializations matching the present generation needs; a) Education & Married life; b) Internet consultations;c)Politics; d)Corporate astrology/numerology; e)Vaastu Shastra; f) Naadi Shastra; e)Bollywood/Sandalwood movie naming; many more. While the low profile astrologers continue to operate from the word of mouth or referrals, the big time players use different advertising channels like print, television, internet to reach the masses. The advertising for internet/telephonic consultations have gained momentum in the last 5 years, especially in the US.The indian politicians are known to take astrological predictions/recommendations very seriously. Deve Gowda is known to offer puja/homa quite often, while Jayalalitha changed her name to get lucky. Some chief ministers are known to seek some structural changes to their residential quarters based on the vaastu recommendations.The genuine sounding revelations I have heard are related to the Naadi Shastra recitations. I believe there is a particular group of Naadi Shastra readers ( will add location details later) from Tamil Nadu, who are capable of revealing your past, present and the future - all looking at your thumb impression or finger print. I heard they can get your dad/mom/wife/sis/brother(s) names so accurately that it is hard to believe - Please note there are a lot of fake Naadi Shastra readers, so check around before you consult one!

Trip to Florence, OR

2009-04-27T18:45:00.000-07:00

Our recent trip to Florence, OR was quickly planned within 2-3 days. The trip involved about 15 adults and 4 kids. While the guys worked out the logistics and sight seeing schedule, the ladies put together a quick plan laying out the menu for breakfast/lunch and dinner. The trip was eventful from the word "go". Some GPS systems could not navigate to the final destination. We had some production support issues to take care. The first evening pot luck followed by drinks was awesome and relaxing. Saturday morning was a Rava Idly mela - more than 100 idlies were made and consumed. The guys enjoyed the ATV rides in the sand dunes. The families with kids took the bus ride in to sand dunes...this is was breath taking as the bus ride up and down the sand dunes provided a good sight seeing and a thrilling ride.

The spot light of the trip of the kayaking!!. 2 Kayaks and a canoe were part of the vacation rental. The funniest part was we tied a small rope to one of the kayaks to pull it back if the rider lost control or was scared. Saturday dinner was again amazing with over 5-6 items to choose from!!. I got locked in the bath room for over 30 mins and all my attention seeking efforts went in vain. My friends came after some time and flipped open the lock within a minute. The other spotlight was the horse ride along the 1.5 mile trail along the ocean. It was the first time horse riding experience for all of us and we had good time navigating, controling and talking to the horse!!. The return journey was along the Oregon coast (101N) which presented some breath taking views of the ocean. We took some beautiful pictures and reached Portland in the evening.

Good Bye America

2009-04-11T23:42:00.000-07:00

While we are wrapping our current visit to USA, I wish to take few minutes to recollect some memorable events that happened during this time. One lovely gift was the arrival of my daughter. Except few unsettling events on the personal front, it was a wonderful, memorable years, time well spent.

Some of my key observations on the common man's life in the USA;

1. Reliable power & water supply - Except during major snow / thunder storms, there was never any serious disruption of power. The same goes with water supply

2. Influence of internet: Internet has become a way of life for working class people and above.

3. Car: Except few select cities, you need a car in the rest of the country to commute to work or for pleasure.

4. Medical Facilities: Amazing. In the beginning the process appears to be time consuming and unfriendly, but once you get used it, nothing like it.

5.Schooling: Not a major fuss, if you are moving from India. Primary education is free and state run schools do a great job here.

6.Libraries: One can borrow as many books as possible. The free library services far exceed the ones offered by the hifi libraries in India like british council library, etc.

There are still more ....but stopping here. What about things that I did not like? The list again is long ...but what is the point in cribbing? Instead appreciate the good things around? what say?

A pleasant dinner!

2009-04-06T23:21:00.001-07:00

The warm weather was a welcome break and I could literally tell people at the office and outside were enjoying the sun break. This evening we decided to try out a new place for dinner. Since we had to return on time for a work related telecon, we picked a near by restaurant called Mary Callendar's. It's a cozy, medium sized restaurant. Their welcome lobby displays their specialty - freshly baked pies and pastries which are appealing. The other thing I noticed is their uniqueness in the menu. They were extremely friendly in offering the vegetarian options. While I tried the unlimited soup and salad, my wife had pasta with alfredo sauce. The kid's meal came free with one entree and a beaverage. The food was excellent and we did not have room for the pies!. Once back home, I did some researching; their online address is http://www.mcpies.com/ and they are present in the west coast. They are a big chain listing more than 130 plus restaurants and the PERKINS chain in Mid West, Pennsylvania belong to the same group of companies. PERKINS - We frequented this lovely pancake restaurant, during our stay at Mid West and North East.

Stir/Protests/Demonstrations

2009-04-02T15:57:00.000-07:00

Isn't it surprising that we find so many protests/stir/demonstrations in India than the other democratic countries? While the answer is not simple, many things have changed in the recent past and still requires a lot of changes. I mean some time back, the administration in Bangalore came up with a list of places where the affected parties can hold their demonstrations. But is that implemented? I am not sure. The political parties lack the nerve to ban any large scale demonstrations or marches because these very steps are perceived to be the tools to demonstrate the authority or the popularity.

It is during these protests or demonstrations that the common people are inconvenienced. The roads are blocked, children cannot get to school, essential services are disrupted and there is a possibility of mob attacks. While disagreements, open forums and public meetings are required in a democratic setup, they need to moderated in a frequency acceptable to the local communities. It is the responsibility of each individual to raise his/her voice against these type of inconveniences to daily life.

traffic stoplight......

2009-03-29T09:28:00.000-07:00

I took a long break from blogging, I am now back!...

Everyday when I get to work, I pass through about 7-8 stoplights and 3 rail road intersections. Every stop provides an opportunity to look around and catch up on things that I've missed - like an advertisement bill board, an apartment community or a restaurant or a store. In contrast, the stoplights at Bangalore offer a variety of time pass options...most of the busy lights have timers which count down the wait time. A lot of hawkers get on to the roads to sell flowers ( seen this in New York, no where else in US), news papers, auto cleaning products, sun glasses, etc. The "organized begging" goes on too...I have heard off late eunuchs are showing up on the Bangalore stoplights, trying to "beg" or extort money from the motorists. While the car passengers have an option to shut themselves in, the 2 wheeler riders at the mercy of these guys...I had seen eunuchs in Mumbai, where they ask for some money, when not obliged, will snatch from the shirt pocket...

About the technology associated with traffic stoplights, US is far ahead in terms of configuring the lights to support movement of emergency vehicles, red light camera, sensors for low traffic areas where lights change upon arrival of a car at the stoplight. Policemen rarely do traffic management, unless there is an accident, road construction or some special event. In contrast, the Bangalore stoplights are also being upgraded. I heard, some of them have still cameras, video surveillance. In addition, most of the stoplights have 1-2 policemen manning them. The mix of electronic controls and manual intervention work in tandem to support the massive vehicular flow. Hats off to the Indian traffic police, they do a tremendous job in keeping the traffic under "control" inspite of so many dynamic variations every day. When the lights turn green and the vehicles surge forward to criss-cross in the opposite lanes, that sight reminds me of the epic kurkshetra war where the warring enemies rushed to each other in full strength.

Good Bye 2008

2009-01-02T15:41:00.001-08:00

Wish you a very happy new year 2009...Thanks for taking time to view my blog.

The year 2008 came and went in a flash. On the personal front, there were significant milestones or changes. We moved to a different city, I started working for a different customer and we visited India on vacation. I got an opportunity to visit my customer's vendor, which is quite a rarity in my area of work.

Welcoming new year is always refreshing. Over a period of time, there has been some difference in how I am celebrating the new year eve:

College days: New year eve used to be mostly at the Sardarji Dhaba on the hosur road near Madivala. It used to be popular choice for the engineering college guys, mainly due to the attractively priced menu and excellent taste. Also, drinks would be served from the near by liquor stores with absolutely no service charges!. All such parties would be complete only with a dessert at Arun Ice creams at Koramangala...The shop would remain late in the night!

After college : We would target few restaurants and pubs in the brigade road area...Then gradually we moved towards the resorts and far off restaurants. We also ad few celebrations at our friends' houses

While in the USA: Mostly with friends at their or our house. Focus is on having good time with family and friends. The parties generally start off around 7pm and go all the way up to 2-3 Am in the morning. A cake is cut to mark the transition to the new year!. Some new year celebrations that I remember in the US mainly due to some travel involved with each of the events;

2005: We drove from Pittsburgh to Waukesha, WI to meet with friend's family. Together we traveled to Las Vegas and Los Angeles. We then came back from LA to his place to celebrate the new year eve.

2006: We were in Space Needle, Seattle to witness the wonderful fireworks display

2009: We drove up from Portland to our friend's place at Seattle and had a good time

A for apple

2008-12-25T15:59:00.000-08:00

My daughter has been practicing or rather we are getting her acquainted with alphabets from the last one year. However, yesterday she picked up a crayon and wrote "A" on her own. I was immensely overjoyed at that moment and made her write multiple times....These appear like ordinary moments for any one but for parents, this is a significant milestone!

She has been identifying the alphabets for sometime now and it is funny sometimes when she reads the alphabets off some one's T shirt!.

Instruction manuals

2008-12-07T09:57:00.000-08:00

Instruction manuals are part of the package when we buy any electronics, toys or other items that require some assembly or set of instructions to be followed in order to make the product working.

Let me confess that I've never read any product instruction manual completely or referred to them on a continuous basis to improve the product usage ( like exploring all the camera features, etc). This is mostly because either the products are too user friendly or intuitive that you don't 100% instructions or the lack of patience in reading the complete documentation. I have seen the instruction manuals getting thinner by the day - may be they heard people like me complaining or giving feedback. IKEA goes a way further by providing a one page doc with some funny cartoons... one exception being the "MALMA" mirrors that look easy to assemble but requires significant thinking!

I really try hard to maintain these product manuals/instructions because they are the first source for exploring additional features, warranty and other information. But over a period of years and lots of traveling - I don't find them when I need them most. So what I do then? Google or look up the product writeup in the respective company website...Given the push to reduce operational cost, even the camcorder/camera manufacturers might come up with a one page simple instruction manual and provide links to the Internet documentation!

Bottomline: I implemented a new rule that I will start using the product only after reading the documentation....There was a feeling of triumph and some satisfaction....I am not sure how long will this practice continue :)

Majestic Mount Rainier

2008-12-07T09:55:00.000-08:00

Check out the link;http://www.katu.com/blogs/weather/35631614.html

Mount Rainier continues to be one of my fav places!

"Bear" in Mind

2008-11-23T09:24:00.000-08:00

Teddy bears are extremely popular with kids, starting from infants to teenagers. Well, my first present to my daughter was a small teddy bear, which I picked from the hospital gift center. Subsequently, she did not develop a deep love for stuffed toys. One of our friends brought a big bear from their New York trip. Rather than cuddling and playing with it, my daughter was initially afraid or not so comfortable with the big one. She instead developed a lot of interest in the kiddies rhymes that are broadcast in the baby boast channel. Some of the rhymes involve playing and kuddling the bears and my little one picked cue and we've seen enjoy playing with the bear for a significant time. At my place, we have a unique way of naming the bears, difference - they all carry typical indian names. Following is the list of daughter's bears or stuffed toys or animals, they are listed in the order of their arrival

1. Vimala

2. Sangeetha - Gifted by my friend, whose name

3. Vikram ( 1,2, 3 are all US born bears now settled in India, also they are not in the picture)

4. Nirmala Bear - Biggest and most popular with my little one and the guests - for its unique name
(first one from left)

5. Kausalya - Kausalya is a ABCD singing toy (second from left)

6. Anurag - The tiger toy, which was christened a day ago...but I forgot to include in the earlier post)

7. Minni - The cute "costco" girl who came home 2 weeks back. The package had many skirts, tops, 2 pairs of shoes, purse, etc.

8. Sasha - the latest addition on 11/22. ( extreme right in the picture)

Caution: While naming bears, we exercise caution or discretion by not selecting the names of the people that we know ( offcourse in the immediate circle of friends and relatives!)

Sasha's coming was quite unique. We bought her in a unique store called http://www.buildabear.com/. The kid gets to choose from various stuffed animals, followed with the custom filling to suit the little one's needs, dress material, shoes and a birth certificate!. Yes a birth certificate - the bear comes home with a birth certificate carrying details like height, weight, date of birth!, belongs to..... I liked the innovative idea of the person(s) who started this store. I could see the kids buying the bears were really engaged in selecting the bear and selectin the accessories. The store has gone a long way in establishing a USP - they even host parties if you want!

Harishchandra coffee!

2008-10-01T23:54:00.000-07:00

Unique and catchy names are the key to consumer products, especially groceries and food products. I am always curious how they name such products. Example: MTR, Parle-G,Vajradanti,Centerfresh, etc...

Couple of days back, I came across "Harishchandra Coffee" at one of the indian grocers in Portland. I was so amused with the name because that name has some mythological connection. Harishchandra, the mythological charecter stood by truth all his life, even while facing acute difficulties....

I was guessing what would be the value proposition of this brand? You will develop some truthfulness by drinking this coffee everyday? drink this coffee everyday and land up in the job at the cemetry like the mythological charecter???

Or is that the name of the person who founded this coffee company? This reminds me some of the one time local coffee brands in bangalore; Annapoorna Coffee, Panduranga, etc. Well known brands:Bru, Nescafe, Coffeeday

Where did the mouse go?

2008-06-09T22:29:00.000-07:00

One of the days, I reached office in the morning, setup my laptop. Something was missing!, yes the mouse!. For a moment, there was a feeling of guilt - missing something very basic and thoughts about how to manage the day without one. This incident made me think of the all the stuff that I have been carrying daily to work / school. We don't want to miss carrying the critical stuff everyday. However, given the human nature, there is a tendency to have some occasional forgetfulness.

Out of the current list of stuff that I carry, laptop and the accessories are the key to perform daily work. The rest of the items get added based on priority and importance. During my early days in the software industry, I did not have a laptop but still carried a similar office bag. However, the bag was not lightweight and there were all kinds of other stuff like stationary, some personal papers like bank statements and other important docs. Only time I did not carry any bag for work was during tenure in the manufacturing shop floor. Those were the days of glory when I would go empty handed. Off course carrying the ID card was very important.

School days( read in India), especially up to grade 7 required carrying most of my text books and the respective notebook to take notes. Commuting in the city buses with the heavy bag was always a challenge. However, the weight of the bag reduced gradually as I passed thru my high school and college. During my engineering days, it was common to find guys carrying just one notepad or a file with lots of sheets...

SSLC & PUC Results

2008-05-31T22:54:00.000-07:00

SSLC: This is how people refer to grade 10 in the karnataka schools. Grade 10 or SSLC is again a keystone in a person's life.
PUC: Explained in previous post, means grade 12 / 2 pre-university course.

There is so much pressure on students when the above results are announced. Teen suicides are on the rise as some unsuccesful students attempt the extreme step. Garudachar, the ex-police commissioner was once a chief-guest at my college and shared this funny anecdote about how a normal policeman goes about in blindly executing the assigned task.

Background: SSLC & PUC results have been announced couple of weeks ago and policemen have been instructed to keep vigil at popular suicide points with strict instruction to stop students who failed SSLC in undertaking the extreme step.

A policeman is keeping vigil at Sankey Tank, the lake situated at Sadashivanagar, Bangalore. He just in time saves a teen, who is just to take a deep dive in to the lake and the dialogue follows;

Cop: Hey, why do you want to take your life? SSLC is not the end of life and by dying you are putting me in trouble.

teen: Who said SSLC? I have failed PUC and want to end my life...

Cop: Is it? Okay...I thought SSLC...that's fine ...you may go ahead and jump if you want...we have been asked to stop only those who failed in SSLC...!!!

Apply, Apply, PUC time

2008-05-30T20:03:00.001-07:00

PUC - Means the Pre-University Course in India. This is the 2 year pre-university course pursued in a college after 10th grade. Graduating PUC, one becomes eligible to pursue a 3 year or a 4 year professional degree.

PUC (that's how it is called in karnataka / bangalore) education is taken very seriously by academically inclined students and their families as it defines their career path and related achievements in life. There is lot of competition in getting in to famous colleges in Bangalore. Some of the famous colleges include MES College, National College, Vijaya College, St.Joseph's college, Mahavir Jain College, Mount Carmel, etc. The marks secured in the tenth grade is the main selection criteria in most colleges. Students usually play safe by applying in more than 3-4 or even 5 colleges just to make sure they have a fair chance in the competition.

Reminds my college admission at St.Joseph's College of Arts & Science, the only college at that time which conducted the entrance exam for selecting the students. When the results were published, my 2 close friends had passed the test. I did not make it and focused on other colleges. One day, some how i remembered St.Joseph's had a practice of filling the unclaimed seats in the order of merit. I immediately cycled my way to the college which is about 6 miles from my house. On enquiry at the office counter, I was asked to meet the vice-principal Father Ambrose Pinto. I was not very confident of speaking directly to a vice-principal of a big college. With fear in mind, i stood in the queue and when my turn came, father asked for my roll number and name. He checked in the document in front of him, smiled and wrote a note on a pre-printed form and gave to me. I did not understand asked what is it. He coolly told me I have been offered a seat and asked to come on the date mentioned in the form and complete joining formalities. I thanked him, walked out and was on cloud nine. I quickly pedalled my way back, not forgetting to stop at MICO Bosch Factory, Adugodi - where my dad worked. I called him from the telephone at the factory gate and he was extremely excited. He came out immediately and did not believe the news. We both went to the college again to confirm the news 100%, because we were all set to complete the joining formality in another college, the next day. What followed was very interesting - Me and my 2 close friends ended up in the same section and had a gr8 time.
Getting application form from St.Joseph's college was also a memorable experience. Myself and cousin Roshan went by bus and alighted at SBI bus spot. Only mistake I made was to walk in the opposite direction of the college!. After 20 mins of walking, we landed at Queen's Statue, Cubbon Park. Roshan, who was still very young (may be in 4th grade) soon realized the mistake and recognized cubbon park. Since he was new to Bangalore, I tried to convince him we are on the right track but he knew the truth. We found our way back via MGRoad, Brigade Road and Residency Road!. I felt really sorry for taking him for such a long walk. At home, I was taken to task for taking a small kid out for a long walk!. Myself and Roshan would later recollect this story number of times and laugh at ourselves!.

Daam....Khreeem.....Booom....Bu...s...h..

2008-05-27T20:21:00.000-07:00

Well, it's not about George Bush!. This phrase and its numerous variations are quite common in the old Indian mythological movies.

In the typical movie scene, the sage needs to be extremely disturbed by the person and is unhappy with the proceedings. Sage then picks up a fist full of water and says seriously "daam...khreem....krroom...booom...bush......Jai Maha Kali.... " The cursed water is sprinked on the person who is causing the disturbance. At this, the subject turns in to whatever form the sage or the rishi wishes ...most popular choice is dog...!. That means the sage / rishi/sadhu turns a human being in to a dog!. Other popular forms are transforming human to snake, goat, elephant, etc. The movie industry has picked up this theme and made funny elaborations in some movies. In one of the kannada movies, the comedian is turned in to a dog and it is so funny to see the entire episode where the dog goes around talking and asking for food. In order to get back to human shape, the subject has following popular options;

a) Do penance and offer prayers to the god.
b)Bound by time limit. Remain a dog / snake / Rock for 10-14 years.
c)Perform some good deeds
d)Divine intervention - Supreme gods step in and cut short the curse

Myself and my brother used to sometimes enact the above scene and made up one similar phrase like above but instead ended with "Jai Maha Koli...". This became very popular with cousins and friends and finally only "Jai Koli" was retained...so our modified phrase would go like "Daam...Kleem.....Kloom...Jai Maha Kali.....Jai Koli....". Unfortunately we could not transform each other's form ...but ended up with a literal water splashing fights!

AaraMitra - The popular Kannada writer narrated his own funny creation of a serious mythological incident -
Ahalya, a beautiful woman is cursed and turned in to a rock. Lord Rama with his magical touch transforms the rock to back to its original human form. Then Lord Rama asks her following question...
L.Rama: Oh Lady, you must be very happy? You came out of the rock form and now you are back to human? What do you want to do now?

Ahalya: That's true Rama. But first I want to have a good warm bath, and...

L.Rama: Then?

Ahalya: Then I want to get rid of all the dogs in this area. They have been relieving themselves on me all these years!

P.S: I had forgotten the name of the woman mentioned in the above conversation. Thanks Roshan - for letting me know her name.

Queue...Queue..Waiting in the line

2008-04-24T18:33:00.000-07:00

Queue - or the waiting in the line - Well, i am not trying to explain the Operations Research queuing theory here. Instead touching upon the the few lighter moments, experiences and some thoughts

Well, it's a fast world and no one like waiting in a queue. They would rather be doing something else and be productive. Earlier days, it was common to find people catching up on books & newspapers while waiting in the line. Now cell phone has caught up so much that many service counters want you to turn off / hang up cell phone conversations while they help you!

Early during my career, I used to spend time waiting for my appointment in the reception lounges at my supplier/customer locations. Browsing thru job advertisements in newspapers/business / IT magazines was my favorite time pass. I would quickly write down any interesting posts and then apply for it. One such post took me to a quick interview trip to Chennai. Who said waiting is boring, I've had some good friends while waiting for my job interviews. Those 10-15 mins conversations with the fellow interviewees have given me so many leads. I suppose waiting in the line comes with the culture, to some extent.

In the USA, people have abundant patience to wait forever in the line and don't always show their frustation. Welcome to India, the sheer population will inevitably lead to long queues wherever the services are in great demand. This is true mostly with the utilities payment, railway/ bus ticket booking. Thanks to e-ticketing and ebills - things have improved drastically and reduced the waiting time in the queues. Unlike USA, In India it is usual to find people watching(staring) at others, while waiting. While too much of staring may be objectionable, occasional glances are okay!

I would say waiting in the line is more easy and entertaining in India than the USA. I've categorized queues in to following categories:

a) Serpentine - like a snake originating from the counter and all the way to the road!: This happens mostly in places where the waiting is not foreseen/seasonal / occasional.

b)Box type - This one's present in the US too - especially airports. Here the waiting is foreseen and organized in the orderly way. There is a temporary / fixed barricade so there is no confusion and jumping ahead.

c)"Magnet" Queue: This is very popular in India. The queue runs along the wall of the building and there are queue masters stationed to counter any gatecrushing or jumping ahead. This makes it more orderely and worthy for those who came in early. This is quite common in utility payments and some movie theaters

d)"Multiplication" Queues: Simply means one person in the queue is suddenly joined by his family / friends!. This irritates the people behind but they cannot complain unless there is scarcity of services like limited tickets or whatever - Very common in stadiums, movie theaters.

e)Phantom type: Or proxy waiting - Yes sometimes it's possible to pay someone to wait on your behalf and later take their place. This is valid in events / services where there is high interest or huge demand like important cricket matches.

f)Premium queue: Adding this one after seeing comments from my friend Mahesh. This is like an advance booking for a slot in the queue - like booking visa appointment at US Consulates in India. Tirupathi temple - Which assigns serial numbers to people who opt for free darshan, so the people can go off the queue and spend time else where and rejoin at the allotted time. Then
the temple also offers less wait time options on the paid tickets.

g)Special Entry: Very much valid in India - VIP, VVIPs and influential folks never spend time waiting in the line!. Doors open automatically for such people!

The list goes on and on...how do you spend your time waiting in line?

And he flew…………………..This post contributed by Mahesh

2008-03-27T02:54:00.000-07:00

I collected the travel details and before I could confirm the booking I called Satish to share the details. We both were working together with a company in Hyderabad and we were about to join another company in Mumbai (together). Between the jobs we had couple of weeks to spend in our home town namma Bengaluru (Bangalore).

During those days INR 5000 + tax was the air ticket cost to Mumbai. And there were only three airlines India Airlines, Sahara and Jet. There were some Air India late night flights which were bit cheaper by 40% to 50%. Since that was my only second and Satish’s first visit to Mumbai, I preferred the day flight.

Looking at the cost, Satish had a different opinion about travel plans. In stead he proposed the travel by train. He also spent about 30 min on phone to give gyan on the importance of Money. Being impatient and being used to new lifestyle, I was NOT ready to travel by train and back in my mind I was thinking of flying alone. After 30 min of phone conversation, Satish was able to convince me to go with him by Kurla Express which starts from Bangalore everyday at noon and reaches Mumbai the next day by noon. And finally we booked two tickets to Mumbai and I guess Satish’s father only booked the tickets.

Then there was a big twist in the story. A week before the travel date, Satish called me from a travel agent’s office to inform that due to sudden developments at a work front in the new company, he has to fly immediate….. and he flew………………….

Now after almost 10 years, I really got an opportunity to express my Anger in his own blogspot :-)

ಕನ್ನಡ ಬ್ಲಾಗ್

2008-03-26T23:05:00.000-07:00

ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಬ್ಲಾಗ್ ಬರೆಯೋದು ಇದೇ ಮೊದಲ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ. ಇದು ಸಫಲ ವಾದರೆ ಪ್ರತ್ಯೇಕ ಬ್ಲಾಗ್ ಬರೆಯುವ ಪ್ಲಾನ್ ಇದೆ.

Get More for lesser price

2008-03-25T23:50:00.000-07:00

The way current economy is heading, that must be what customers are telling themselves as they enter the retail stores
Background: Watched an hour long program regarding WalMart in CNBC and was quite impressed by its history and the legendary Sam Walton. Sam Walton, I believe got to work very early in the morning and so the execs who worked with him. The same legacy is being followed and current day execs also make it quite early to work. Some of the things I liked: The vision of Sam Walton and and his approach to problem solving by involving his colleagues, which also included hourly employees.
Last weekend when I visited WalMart, CNBC story was still fresh in my memory and started comparing the retail industry (in general) and its unique challenges compared to the conventional industries;
a)Retail : Open to the general public -regulars and non-regulars. The challenge is to have an attractive / cost-effective setup. The other industries, example: Manufacturing has a regular set of workers who come in daily and don't expect lot of changes.
b) Merchandise: Retailers should stock seasonal stuff, offer discounts during the major festivals, events, etc. Placement and availability of the merchandise is one of the key factors.
c)Competition: The store is wide open for competitors to walk-in and evaluate the premises and the prices. Manufacturing companies have fewer visitors (except employees) and many processes are confidential
d)Operational excellence: This is the key to achieve higher sales. Some stores are highly efficient in addressing customer questions, providing help and answering questions. One such example: BabiesRUs -
There will be definitely a lot more comparisons ..but will conclude here to qualify for a short blog!

Kaadu Kudure

2008-03-06T21:21:00.000-08:00

That's a kannada word, literally translates to forest horse! or wild horse. Well, here is the LINK to watch the song in Youtube. The movie, Kaadukudare was released when we were children and I vaguely remember watching this in the movie theatre. This song especially was a superhit during those days. It was quite a popular dance number too and the one of the most sought after songs in any orchestra those days. The song is shot with very little amount of light ....may be this is a art movie as per my own interpretation. I was always curious about Indian "Art Movies"....Doordarshan (the state owned television channel) played a lot of such movies. Many things common with the art movies;
a) Very limited use of lights ...may be cost cutting measure
b) Few songs or none
c) Strong on the theme, story and no masala ...or commercial frills like flashy dresses
d) Usually cast unpopular or upcoming actors than the existing ones
e) Very poor financial returns. I think there was even a subsidy available from the state to make such movies.
f) Not much fan following and does not reside in public memory for a long time.
Offcourse there are exceptions to the above and these are my own interpretations. I know of famous movie makers and directors who have excelled in art movies and later made classic movies in their lives.
Whatever, thanks to Youtube and the person who uploaded this song. I was tired looking for it in the kannada music portals... Neevu Haadu Keli, Enjoy Madi... ( Hear the song and Enjoy)

Visit India

2008-02-12T21:36:00.000-08:00

The long awaited India trip went like a whirlwind and before I could realize, the 3 weeks were over. Account for 3 weeks; The onward and return journey -4 days, US Visa interview at chennai: 2 days. Sick: About 1.5 weeks - both me and my daughter together had health issues, 1 day to my office to collect visa papers, 2 days to fix my apartment door lock! - There you go: very few days left. In that majority of the day time would go away in the traffic jam or the commute between the places. But in all, it was a hectic trip. One satisfaction is that of spending some quality time with family and few friends. There were numerous unfulfilled visits to friends and family, unreturned phone calls.
Bangalore in my eyes:
1. Many services are now available at a phone call . You can order food, groceries, mineral water, cab, ironing, plumbing and electrician services, value added services like telemedicine(call your family doctor). Almost everyone has a cell phone and the "missed calls" are the most effective way of communicating with the known people..
2. The prices of consumer goods and eating at restaurants has become very expensive since the last 2.5 years. In one of the Andhra restaurants, carrier meals ( take out lunch or dinner) for 4 people costs Rs.89 while an appetizer like Gobi Manchurian costs Rs.69!
3. Lots of new hospitals and educational institutions. Number of engineering colleges in Bangalore might exceed number of schools in some of the states in the US!
4. Retail revolution: This was predicted back in 2000, that India will witness a major revolution in the retail segment. Malls are there in almost all the upscale residential and commercial areas. I was surprised to see many stores in the fresh produce segment. Though small in size compared to their US counterparts, malls and department chain stores are attracting the current young generation. Most of the malls have huge floating population and the food courts are jampacked with people.
5. Commute: No doubt, commute time has increased multi fold, thanks to the short sightedness of the successive governments. The improved bus service is just inadequate to catch up with the growing human and vehicular population. However some of the major highways like the Bangalore-Mysore road have been turned around and one can reach Mysore in about couple of hours. I will not be surprised if some one starts off a helicopter service for commuting within Bangalore.
6. Airports: The existing Bangalore airport looks more like a typical bus terminal in any Indian city. Thanks to the booming (or now slowing?) IT market, emergence of new airliners - According to a report there are about 150 take offs and landings in one day!... I remember in the early 1980s, there used to be hardly 10 or 15 flights a days - 4 flights to Mumbai(2 outbound and 2 inbound), 2 to Delhi, 2 to Chennai and few more...The visitors also contribute majorly to the chaos. From what I have seen in my own eyes, a local bangalorean set to fly overseas will be seen off by at least 2-3 visitors and there is no upper limit! - I have seen groups of over 30 people sometimes!. I think it is time the government must intervene and stop visitors to the airport :) ( to reduce the proportinate amount of traffic)... Or they can even think of converting the major bus terminals in to airport pickup points!
7. Cars..
Till few years back, one had to go overseas to see the internationally renowned cars. Now all these cars have set strong foot in India and there is no looking back. Expensive cars are now visible almost everywhere. Maruti 800, Santro, Zen are considered to be entry level cars.

There are some more..keeping them for the next post..

A unique Store

2008-01-07T00:49:00.000-08:00

One store caught my attention while I was walking around in the near by mall. The name was very unique, "Art of Shaving". This instantly reminded me of Sri Sri Ravishankar's Art of Living....

Curious, I peeped in and could tell it's an upmarket store with lots of shaving products and accessories stacked in the shelves. Also interesting is their services offered. The Royal Shave comes at $55 only!.There were other services priced lesser than that. What I appreciate is the innovative thinking of the person(s) who started this kind of business. I really wonder what a royal shave would be.... After coming home I found out from their website that it's quite a big chain and they are present in quite a few locations across USA. They also offer lot of reading stuff on their website.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year

2007-12-30T14:37:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-16T11:34:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-06T21:44:00.000-08:00

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...

2007-11-30T13:55:00.000-08:00

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

2007-10-26T12:03:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-15T11:11:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-30T23:01:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-26T01:17:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-09-18T14:56:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-15T01:21:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-09-06T15:04:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-23T01:34:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-14T15:50:00.000-07:00

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)

2007-08-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-08-07T15:38:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-08-01T14:25:00.000-07:00

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?

2007-07-30T11:10:00.000-07:00

Bangalore City Bus: My travel experience

Call it necessity or personal choice,I always liked traveling by the Bangalore City Bus ( read Metro or state operated transport). During those days, it was called BTS ( Bangalore Transport Service). I started traveling independently from sixth grade when we moved to Koramangala and I had to commute to my primary school located at Wilson Garden. Mine was the last stop at Koramangala, that meant Only few passengers used to be around till 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. During those days, few bus routes like 171, 163(A),166 connected Koramangala to the outside world. 171 was by and large the most popular and busiest route because it connected the the Bangalore City's main bus terminal(Kempegowda Bus Terminus). This apart, there were few mofussil buses which connected villages beyond koramangala 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 the kids coming from the other economical backgrounds.

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 BTS (now called BMTC) introduced a direct bus 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 crowded and just to avoid more passengers, did not stop in the assigned stop but instead would pull up 50-100 meters after the stop. We were not the ones who gave up, and 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 mofussil buses or the regular routes. Mofussil 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

2007-07-23T12:15:00.001-07:00

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

2007-07-11T14:44:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-09T12:31:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-03T10:32:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-02T13:21:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-27T15:10:00.000-07:00

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?

2007-06-22T17:08:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-21T13:37:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-19T12:22:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-13T14:24:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-08T13:24:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-25T10:42:00.001-07:00

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!

2007-04-02T23:55:00.000-07:00

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.

I am Back!!

2007-02-19T10:12:00.000-08:00

Well, I am back after 2 months of forced time out from blogging!!.

Here is what happened:
Once upon a time when I logged in to my blogger, I saw an upgrade or switch to button. I promptly followed all the steps and ended up losing access to all my previous blogs :). All my attempts to read through help, contact google and seek peer support did not pay off. I had almost decided to ditch this blog site and go somewhere else. Finally, my prayers were heard by friendly google developers. They put in the fix which people like me could follow and reset my password.

Moral of the story: There should be no complaints on things coming free of cost.After all we are not paying for blogging.

So many things happening around and I will blog periodically from now on and bug you people :)

Seattle Shut down!

2006-12-15T18:51:00.000-08:00

Dec 14 2006 evening - Strong wind and thunder storms hit Seattle area quite hard with winds in the range of 60-80 mph in some areas. This was accompanied with heavy rain which dumped over an inch of rain in the Seattle downtown. The famous floating bridge across lake washington ( Hwy 520) was closed for traffic and kind of "dismantled"around 10:30PM. It was already announced that thousands of people were without power. From my apartment balcony, we could tell its not just a passing storm but something very big. The trees swered left to right and some of the branches from the near by tree kept banging our balcony. Air would whistle through tiny gaps in the sliding balcony door and also through the plug points!!. With no power interruption, we had no difficulty going to bed
Dec 15 2006 (Friday) 7 AM: I receive a call from my colleague who says there is no power at his place since last evening. He asked me if I am going to the office, for which I replied yes. Only when we started driving to the office did we realize the damage done by the previous night's storm. Lot of trees and signposts were uprooted and most of the signal lights were without power. What normally takes 15 minutes drive took us more than an hour. We could see extensive damage in the bellevue area where some of the trees had landed on the houses, cars or simply blocked the arterial roads. Our office was without power and we headed back to "work from home". By then we knew most of our colleagues were without power at their respective homes. One of my friends who had power at his home setup a kind of base camp and accomodated as many of our friends as possible and provided food through out the day. According to TV reports, more than a million homes were without power!!

Dec 16 2006: Power is back in most of my friends' houses and on the road, things are limping back to normal. Still there are lot of people out there without power!!.

This reminds me of the power cuts back home in India. Over there, life without power cuts is incomplete. Power cuts provide employment to lot of businesses like electricity company( to cut and restore power), generator mfrs, candle mfrs, theives, auto repair shops ( accidents occuring due to darkness!!), etc. In India, common people have lots of fall back systems for cooking like gas, kerosene stoves, fire wood, etc. So even if there is no power for a day, things will move on. The electricity supply companies manage the power "cuts" so well, I have not seen any major protests or demonstrations in this regard. May be the people are very patient or they understand the reality and the constraints quite well.

Bangalore real estate boom

2006-12-02T23:11:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, it was quite common to see "money plants" in many houses, so even we had one. We took good care of it because people told us amount of money we make ( or get) is related to the health of this plant and number of leaves in it. So more leaves, more money!! I wish money making was so simple!

Well, this came up as I reading about the latest real estate trends in Bangalore & Hyderabad. Yes, these days one need not to have a physical "money plant". Instead invest in an apartment or a lot(site) in Bangalore or Hyderabad. If the purchased property has all the paper work in place, approved by necessary authorities then you will laugh all the way to the bank. Add to that, if the property is in the "IT Belt", then you will most likely hit a jackpot within 2 years of buying!!. Now what is "IT Belt"? I don't know the standard definition, however here is my version;
a)Any locality which has at least one or more major IT companies OR if at least 20 - 30 % of its residents work in IT OR
b) if any major IT company's building is visible from this locality OR
c) if you have to pass through this place to get to any 2 major IT companies

Going by the above, 50-60% of Bangalore and Hyderabad belong to "IT Belt". This belt is very flexible and increases its size everyday. The earlier Bangalore "IT Belt" consisted the strip between whitefield, marathhalli, the outer ring road and HSR. But now the boundaries are far stretched to include Koramangala, Madivala, BTM Layout, Kanakapura Road, Bannerghatta Road, etc

Some times the real estate appreciation in the IT Belt is so high you really wonder when exactly the prices go up? During the day or the night time?All said and done, how far will the real estate boom continue? Pundits predict a downfall in near future based on so many factors like excess supply of apartments, increase in interest rates and dependency on IT market. At least for now, nobody is trusting these predictions because both the owners and prospective buyers of the properties want the prices to go up!!

Bangalore's Idly Vada Sambar

2006-11-16T23:33:00.000-08:00

Sorry, idly vada sambar is not available electronically!!! I am just sharing some of my thoughts on this wonderful creation and its bangalore connection. Wait a minute!! this is all about the "hotel" version of the I-V-S

Whoever has visited Bangalore and stayed for at least of days will realize the fact I-V-S(and chutney) is one of the lifelines of Bangalore. Idly / Vada attracts people from all walks of life - rich and poor, young and old. What makes it a popular choice? Sometimes I really wonder how someone came up with this idea of serving 2 idlies+vada+sambar? Why not Idly and dosa? or idly with upma? One of the answers can be: All these fit together in one small and manageable plate or a bowl ? Or is it simple economics which put these together? Forget it, whoever (for whatever reason!!) discovered this chemistry, it's a wonderful combination.

What is the IVS and bangalore connection? It could be because of
a)People - Yes, a middle class Bangalorean likes to eat outside
b)Place - Bangalore has lot of educational and business establishments which means there are a whole lot of hungry young people out there!!
c) Long distance commute means that you need to have a 2 tier breakfast - one at home and one after reaching your office because it could take 1 - 2 hours to reach the office?
d)Darshini (self serve restaurant)revolution - which virtually put at least one self service restaurant every 100 meters in the crowded areas.

So that does'nt mean you can walk in to any damn hotel in Bangalore and expect a good IVS. Tracking a good place requires some knowledge in local geography(to get to popular hotspots), some common sense(finding a busy joint), good eye sight(take a look at the vada mountain and guess when it is prepared!!) and trained nostrils(for separating the stale chutney). Darshinis and some of the old time hotels are always a safe bet. The darshinis have a great business model by having minimal overheads and great returns on investment. So the consumers pay less to get fresh and quality stuff. They also offer great taste combined with unlimited sambar and chutney!!. Depending on the place and how much you pay, chutney can be anything from coloured water to a divine creation.

Going further, not all localities in bangalore are loaded with good IVS(C) joints. I would say the old bangalore - basavanagudi, chamrajpet, hanumanth nagar and Jayanagar can be considered IVS capitals. Why they dominate over others? It's a good subject for an elaborate white paper...Well if you happen to go in the morning to any of these areas, you cannot escape the aroma of IVS coming from the darshinis. You will find middle, old aged people side by side with yound kids enjoying this stuff. It is very common in Bangalore to sign off a early morning walk with a Idly or Vada or both!!

Do you ever imagine how many idlies might be consumed in Bangalore. According to my conservative estimates it is at least 250,000 idlies every day considering at least 50 localities/ 10 darshinis/50 idlies per hour!!! I always evaluate a restaurant / darshini by first eating idly / vada. Going by the hotel industry standards, these are not "difficult to make" items and if I don't like the taste, I just walk off from there!!

How do you tell if the idly or vada is fresh? Here is how my friends used to ask simple questions
1)my friends: "is the idly / vada hot and fresh?"
hotelier's default response: "yes sir, very fresh, it is prepared just 15 mins ago"..that means at least one hour in reality. If he says one hour, it means at least 3 hours. If he says it's prepared couple of hours ago, it could be anything from 2-10 hours!!
2)my friends: Can I make out if it's hot by touching it?
hotelier's response1(annoyed): How does it matter? Sambar is hot!!
or
hotelier's response2(cool): Go ahead..its coming directly from the pan!!

So where does I-V-S stand today in competition? As far as bangalore is concerned, kids and the IT crowd are moving towards sandwiches, fruits, cereals, etc. Eating Idly / Vada may longer be the popular first choice. Things change over time and we need to wait and watch the breakfast preferences of today's kids.

See you Soon with another update!!

Seattle & Garage Sale

2006-11-07T20:33:00.000-08:00

Well, Finally I decided to go ahead and write my blog. After reading some of the interesting blogs written by my friends and family, I thought of sharing some of my stories, thoughts, etc. Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoy reading this one. In case you don't like it, simply press the keys alt + F4 !!

What to write? Well, there are so many things to write but the thoughts need to flow all the way from the brain to my hands to type them out :). Let me dedicate my first blog about the beautiful place I am living in - Seattle...Yes this is one of the most beautiful cities I have lived in. I love Seattle for 2 reasons - Friendly People and the places in and around Seattle. Seattle has some beautiful places around; a bustling down town, the impressive Mount Rainier and the amazing Mount St.Helens and so many more!!

Thanks to my kind of job, I have been on the move for the past 4 - 5 years. Yes, we have got used to the excitement in moving to a new place, setting up a home, buying a car and settle down. When things settle down too much, there comes a "change" wind and out we go again..this time trying to undo our presence in the current city - sell the car, some belongings, give away some stuff and throw some things. So when we moved to Seattle, we were surprised to find the used cars expensive compared to North East or MidWest. Even if we were ready to shell more dollars, there was no gurantee of getting a good car. There were some "sellers" who offered to show their car in the public parking lot, then there were cars which did not have good history. Once one of the prospective sellers called us to his place and we promptly started within 5 mins of speaking to him. Fortunately we got lost in the way and called him for directions. By this time, looks like the "seller" had changed his mind. He told us that the car was not yet home. It belonged to his relative who was supposed to be there but had not turned up. We aborted the car hunt for the evening and came home. Once my friend offered to buy a car from a person but the person would not sell the car even after 15 days without any valid reason. My friend had not offered any advance but he stopped looking for car in those 15 days....and had to start all over...

One more funtime we've had in Seattle is going to Moving / Garage Sale during the weekends. In the initial days of our coming here, we had couple of friends who were setting up their home as well. Out we used to go as a team --we really enjoyed getting up early on a weekend and go in pursuit of used treasures. We have driven as far as 30 miles to purchase a standing lamp :). Some of my friends who never went garage sale shopping thought they are missing something in their lives and joined us. Soon it was a big party time going to such events...In order to have fun time while buying, we established some ground rules like a) Whoever spots their item of interest should openly declare his interest in it; b) One should hold to an item till he decides to buy - Not like go around the place and come back to claim the item; c) Preference will be always given to the person who is going in for a specific item of his choice. Many a times, those simply accompanying in the trip have ended up buying more items. We also used to go in a team of 2 cars just to pick up more items. In some instances one of us would get lost in the directions, come back defeated and admire all the freebies the other group have picked up

There are some more interesting stories...in the next release