Unforgiven Too

It was a bright sunny day, the one which gives you hope. The one where you wake up and feel a bubble of energy inside you, a bubble large enough to last the entire day. He was looking forward to spending his day on the beach. It had been a long, cold, dark, and ruthless winter, hundreds had died. The shivering had finally given way to the warmer climes, the darkness to the bright sunshine.

He neatly packed all his jackets and put them deep inside his wardrobe. The tshirts and shorts were in for a front row appearance now. He made a short trip to the pharmacy to buy a sunscreen and then drove to the beach.

The animals in the forests were loving this climate too. They had finally started getting back their bodies to normal routines. A small pond of water had formed on the other side of the freeway. The animals routinely hopped across oblivious to the sounds of the moving cars.

He was a fan of rock music, Metallica being his all-time favorite band. "Lay beside me, tell me what they've done. Speak the words I wanna hear, to make my demons run" blared from the car stereo. He was head-banging and at the corner of his eye he saw a deer approaching the freeway. His brain applied Newton's laws and the imminent crash dawned on him.

His mind panicked and in a knee-jerk reaction, he turned the steering of his car to the right to avoid a collision. He was an animal lover after all and couldn't imagine killing an innocent deer. His car bumped against the median strip and swerved back. He caught a glimpse of a hummer in his rear-view mirror. He closed his eyes and heard the music blare from his stereo "the door cracks open, but there's no sun shining through"

Inner peace

The chaos that the last year was, it has left me wanting for some sanity and peace, inner peace. So what is the secret to inner peace? In my opinion, we seek inner peace in the unknown, not in the known. The known is what causes chaos and insanity in our lives. It is the unknown which provides us with the perfect recluse, to be within ourselves and not be bothered by everything else around us.

It is in this unknown that one can live the way one wants to, without ever being judged or commented upon. There is no history or baggage that we carry along in the company of the unknown. Maybe that is why we love to explore unknown places, meet new people, try new things.

Maybe that's why I found scuba diving to calm me down (as did Hrithik in ZNMD). Maybe that's why twitter has become such a big hit, your followers are mostly unknown people and you can do as you please. Maybe that's why a trip to the Himalayas can rejuvenate one. And it is this solo trip to the Himalayas that I crave so badly right now.

Roaming alone in the majestic beauty of the royal mountains, interacting and living with strangers who also happen to live the simplest of lives, staying away from internet and social media, interacting with the outside world only when I feel like doing so, can any other place offer me all this?

This leads to a much broader and philosophical question, weren't we all supposed to live life that way until society and its rituals and expectations redefined life for us? Why should we let society dictate our lifestyles, should we be the dictators of our own lives? The common argument is that this attitude will lead to chaos, complete chaos in the world. Are we supposed to sacrifice inner peace for outer peace, the greater peace of this big bad world?

Have we set ourselves standards high benchmarks because we consider ourselves to be at the top of the food chain, to be the most intelligent of species on this planet? Are we putting too many restrictions on our lives just to sound social and intelligent? Other than our own species (humans), which other species considers us to be supreme? Are we engaging in this kinda behavior to self validate our hypothesis that we are superior, to keep boosting our own egos? Have we fallen in some kinda trap that has stopped us from enjoying our lives the way we'd ideally love to?

Too many questions, too few answers, too little time. The time aspect is again a fallout of our own false beliefs and practices. And the fact that we don't have answers reiterates our barriers of intelligence and knowledge. Can we, or any other species, ever break these barriers?

The great Indian traveler

We Indians are paranoid when it comes to boarding aircrafts. I guess it stems from our experiences in boarding buses and trains in our country, especially the local trains in Mumbai. One has to fight for every inch of space, for every mole of O2. I myself have been in situations where am hanging from the door of a train with one hand holding my bag, and the other holding my weight. To make matters worse, the track was circular and the centripetal force started pushing me out of the train, as if the forces applied by other passengers was not enough. Thanks to my stars, and all the temple visits, the almighty was generous enough!

Anyhow, as soon as we Indians hear "We are commencing boarding for Flight AI 884. All passengers are requested to proceed to the boarding gates." we jump out of our seats and run to be the first ones in the queue. I personally think this behavior is based on three flawed assumptions!

1) The Pigeonhole Principle is not applied to seats in an aircraft:

The number of seats in the aircraft is always greater than the number of passengers waiting to board it unlike what we Indians experience daily (in locals and buses)! Little do we realize that its not a Virar fast train that is just reaching Churchgate station and seats will not be allotted on a first-come-first-serve basis. We all have a boarding pass with a designated seat number printed on it! Boarding first or last does not change your seat number magically.

2) The buses follow a LIFO system:

Typically airlines take you from the boarding gate to the aircraft in a shuttle service. Ever noticed that the passenger who gets into the shuttle last is actually the first passenger to get out of the shuttle! Voila, the earlier you enter, the later you get out. So, guys and gals, remember, always be the last person to get into the shuttle which implies always be the last person in the queue at the boarding gate.

3) The last passenger is the RDS:

The flight typically does not take-off until the very last passenger has boarded it. So you boarding the aircraft 30 mins before take-off does no good! Relax a bit, take a small nap, read some newspaper, play some game on your phone, but do not, I repeat, do not run to the boarding gate.

On a serious note, let us all show some maturity while traveling and be courteous to our fellow passengers. Every traveler desires a comfortable and peaceful journey.

Point of inflection

In differential calculus, an inflection point, point of inflection, or inflection is a point on a curve at which the curvature (second derivative) changes signs. For a visual illustration of this, refer to the figure. Enough of differential calculus though!

When you meet new people in life, you form certain perceptions about them. These perceptions are based on how they interact with you, how they react to different situations, so on and so forth. As is obvious, these perceptions are limited to the number and kind of observations you make. The more the number of observations, the better your perceptions. The more time you spend with a person, the better you know that person.

After spending sufficient amount of time with a person, you begin to think that you know that person inside out! But is that ever the case? Well, sometimes it is and sometimes it is not! There are certain moments or certain actions which can completely change your perception about that person whom you claim to know inside out! I call these moments/actions as the points of inflection. These can be simple gestures or statements. The points of inflection are the moments/actions wherein a person reacts in complete contrast to your expectations. These points of inflection bring about a complete reversal of your perceptions. Your perception about that person changes implying that as per your frame of reference, the person's nature has changed.

One thing to bear in mind is that this can be cyclic (Now you know why I chose the sinusoidal curve for the graphical illustration!). As the nature of this curve changes from convex to concave and then convex again; so does your perspective about the nature of that person. This can give rise to false assumptions. Remember, the nature of the person might remain the same, its your perspective which has changed!

Awesomeness Redefined

In August 2009, I'd gone for a trek to Hemkund Sahib, the religious Sikh shrine. It's located at an altitude of 14,000 ft! Whilst enjoying the view from the top, I actually wondered how much time it would take for one to free fall from such an altitude. Assuming uniform gravity and no drag, the time turns out to be roughly 30 seconds. That is it!

Fast forward to September 2009, and I am about to sky dive from an airplane at 14,500 ft! So on 27th September, my friend and I decided to go skydiving. We booked a slot for 2 pm, the charges were $322 per person ($190 for the dive + $90 for the video + $44 service charges). We rented a car (none of us had ever driven in the US before!) and headed off for Wisconsin! It was a 50 mile drive and using Google Maps on our blackberry, we somehow managed to reach the place only to find out that due to bad weather, skydiving was on stay. We waited for a few hours, after which we were issued rain checks valid for a year! The disappointment was obvious but there was hope as I had one more free weekend in US!

The weather got worse during the week but the prediction for Sunday was good. I convinced two other friends of mine and we rented a car again and this time left at 9 in the morning! We reached there at 10 only to find out that the skydiving is on hold again coz of bad weather! As time passed by, hope started diminishing. We had lunch and then coffee, by now it was 4 pm and we were hoping against hope. The clouds seemed to hover exactly above us, everywhere else the sky was blue! Seemed like I was destined for it. Just as we were about to give up and head back, the weather cleared up! We were drinking our coffee and the next thing we knew, we were all geared up and inside the airplane.

I did get a scare the first time I saw the ground from 14,500 ft and I said to myself, what the heck! But there was no stopping from there on. Ready, steady go and there I was, falling freely under the influence of gravity! The first few seconds were literally free fall! I had no clue which side was earth and which side was the sky. All I knew was that I had an instructor along with me and if not for my life, at least he would want to save his own life. That was my consoling factor! After 2-3 seconds of falling free and tumbling around in the sky (now I can imagine what birds would feel like), the instructor deployed the primary parachute and things became stable all of a sudden.

Once the primary parachute is deployed, the instructor makes you go round in circles and performs some other maneuvers. In the meantime, the video guy is capturing all of this live! You are falling @ 200 kph and the only adjective that comes close to describing this experience is 'awesome'. Right below me (10,000 ft below), I could see the run way. In the far background, was the beautiful and serene Lake Michigan. I just felt like this should never end. Flying is the best thing that can ever happen to mankind!

By the time we reached 4,000 ft, I was supposed to pull the trigger for the main canopy to open. In the excitement of it all, I forgot. But then, what was the instructor there for. After all, I did pay him $200 for something, right? So he pulled the canopy and all of a sudden, I felt a jerk and the free fall stopped! I felt as if I have switched from a Ferrari F1 car to a Maruti 800! Paragliding seemed like peanuts in front of sky diving. And as is the case with all good things, even this came to an end after a few minutes of gliding around.

So there I was, with my feet firmly on the ground (:D), literally! This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and you have to experience it to understand what I mean! I am sure that even if I go for skydiving again, it won't be the same as the first time; but still I would wanna do it again. So all ya adventure buffs, what you waiting for? Go out there and jump!

To watch a video of this awesome skydiving experience, click here.

Chicago Calling

Just 4 days to go before I finally fly to Chicago. Am just too excited about it but work has kept me so busy that I have not even got time to enjoy this excitement. It's the first time am traveling outside of India, so you can imagine my excitement levels! I want to savor these 2 months and enjoy as much as I can without bothering too much about the money factor. I guess I have already saved enough to deserve this kind of splurging :D. Also, I will be watching all the sitcoms live :D:D:D.

Am flying with 2 of my colleagues so that's something awesome as I will have company throughout my trip. Our flight is schedule for 0855 from Mumbai Airport and we reach O'Hare Airport at 1830. And now comes the most exotic part....a Limo has been booked to pick us up at the airport :D:D:D...it can't get any more awesome than that!!! My friends aren't ready to believe that its actualy a Limo so will click pics and upload them as proof.

Our accomodation has been arranged at Extended Stay Chicago (http://www.extendedstayamerica.com/hotels/chicago-skokie.html). From the looks of it, seems quiet a good place to stay! We plan to use all the facilities to the fullest of extent :D:D:D. We got free phone calls throughout US, so I guess the phone will be busy almost always ;-). Thr room service doesn't was the utensils though :-(. So whenever we cook, its gonna be a lot of work!!!. Also there's a big mall and Walmart nearby, so sounds good :D. This place is a bit far from office so we will have to travel either by cab or train, whatever the Evanston office suggests. The company will take care of everything except personal travel, so any plans to roam around in US will have to be self-sponsored. We will be getting $20 per day for personal use, so will use that to travel to as many places as I can.

Chicago and New York top the list of must-visit places. I've heard that trips to Chicago are reimbursed so thats awesome! The depending on the schedule, I am planning trips to Bloomington, Michigan and Niagara Falls. Lets see how many of them actually materialize. As of now, I simply can't wait to go to the top of Sears towers and get a magnificent view of the entire city.

The only sad part about this trip is that I will be missing Diwali. For the first time in 22 years, I won't be at home for Diwali. I'll be working during Diwali....that sucks! But what the heck...am in US during Thanksgiving. Heard a lot about the cheap prices for all kinda stuff during Thanksgiving and its on the week before we leave. So our timing is perfect, shop during Thanksgiving and leave immediately in the next week :D:D:D:D.

There will be a huge difference in climate compared to Pune and imagine, I was in Mumbai last weekend and temperatures there were around 35 degrees and exactly a week later, I will be in Evanston with temperature hovering around 7 degrees. But I simply love winter, I love snow...so I guess its perfect timing for me :-)

The trip is not all that rosy though, I just have the ability to make it sound like that ;-). There's gonna be hell loads of work to do and my Manager has already warned me about the working hours. I presume its gonna be atleast 12-13 hours daily. I hope I atleast get weekends off to actually have a blast in my first visit outside of India.

You just can't imagine how excited I am and I have so much more to say....but as usual...office....gotta get up early morning everyday.....so that's all I can express with the given time constraint...next blog will be from Evanston..... :-)

Hitchhiker's Guide to Cooking

This post is inspired by a friend's blog....

http://fitsoffantasy.blogspot.com/


Fresh out of college life and trying to start living on your own, one is beset with a wide variety of problems and challenges. But every other challenge dwindles in front of the enormity posed by the challenge of cooking your own food. However easy it might sound, the reality is very different. So, for all newbies who are looking to enter into uncharted waters, here are a few tips (based on personal experience) which might stand them in the long run.
1. The most important thing to understand is that whosoever opined "Too many cooks spoil the broth" was an absolute genius.
2. The concept of learning does not hold true while cooking. You might have cooked an awesome curry yesterday. But if you try to replicate your feat , you might as well end up making a puke-inducing curry today. So, your learnings from yesterday don't really count.
3. Pressure can be a big detrimental factor. Ergo, you must know how to soak in the pressure caused by the high hopes people have from you. Promise only what you can deliver; never over-do
4. Always keep a mobile phone handy. You will need to call your mom every two minutes.
5. Knives and strippers ( i prefer calling them strippers rather than peelers) are more dangerous in real life than they actually seem. Unfortunately, they are indispensable.
6. Cooking is NOT in the genes. But, yes, if your mom is actually not so good a cook (no offence intended), then you better not try!
7. There is something called a safety-valve that comes with a pressure cooker. And btw, people have died in the past due to exploding pressure cookers.
8. When you go to shop for groceries, please remember to purchase burnol(an ointment applied to burns and scalds) as well.
9. Vegetable vendors are the smartest people around. Learn to keep them happy or you might end up eating potatoes that were meant for the municipality trucks.
10. Adding more salt than is necessary is blasphemous. A little less salt never killed anyone
11. N course meals (N=2,3,4,5...) sound very exciting and mouth watering. But that is where the excitement stops. A one course meal isn't all that bad.
12. Onions can be very harmful to your eyes. They go much beyond the spects
13. Exotic food tastes much better when eaten at a restaurant. So, why take risk?
14. Washing utensils doesn't come naturally. But, it can be learnt with practice. And, its also the safest option around. Becoming a pressure-cooker-washing-specialist can also earn you a lot of respect, awe and admiration.
14. Maintain a good relation with any one you can think of. This includes your newspaper-man, the security guard of your building, the nagging bai who does your household chores, your neighbour, your office colleague, your cab driver and anyone you can think of. Who knows; you might get a lunch/dinner invitation

Now, for those who are freshly starting out on their own in the city..err..town of Pune
1. Spencer's is a nice option to go shopping for your groceries as long as you aren't really looking to buy green vegetables.
2. No one really knows the source of water supplied in the taps at your home. Better be careful!
3. While in Pune, do what the Puneites do. Which is: sit and eat at any place you can think of. This also will save you the trouble of cooking.
4. Pune can be a really boring city if you run out of ideas(although this has got nothing to do with the cooking business)

I don't think a cooking guide of this sort can ever be complete. So, if you happen to read this, please feel free to add/append. All your suggestions are welcome. Also, if you gained anything out of it, please remember to call me home for dinner :)