The Pick-up Game!

It has now become a common occurrence... Every time we go shopping at one of the nearby Indian or any supermarket, one or another Indian couple with a big smile on the guy's face and a glib pick-up line approaches us..!

Let me tell you what happened the last time.. Me and my friend (roomie) were at India Cash & Carry buying some stuff.. our bi-weekly routine. This guy with his wife approached us (the wife seemed pretty young and enthusiastic.. she must be new at this game! ;-) And as soon as he opened his mouth, I knew what was coming "Hi.. you resemble one of my friends..."!!!!
Mez: yeah?!?!? [##$%^%*&*&^($#]
Hiz: Hi.. I am Rakesh [holding out his hand]..
Mez took one look at his face and another at her face... I did not want to disappoint the eager look in her's :P.. "Hi.. I am Bhaskar"
I think I saw a glow in her face ;-)
Hiz: Bashar? nice name....
Mez: [#@^#&*^**()@ ]... [nice name, it seems....at least pronounce my name properly!!!!]
Hiz: Where do you work?
Mez: [thinking to myself..."in the road-side gas station here"] blah blah blah...
Hiz: yada yada yada yada
Mez: blah blah blah blah
Hiz: yada yada..... can I have your phone number?
Mez: [thinking again... haan, aagayaa naaa... tu Amway/Quixtar waloon] [translated as... 'yeah, there you go... ya Amway/Quixtar guys']
I give them my cell number. And internally, I am laughing out aloud.... 'cos I have already become a member of this Quixtar thingy... (for a totally different reason... I will tell ya some other time!!)
More blah blahs and yada yadas... and we part amicably...

I go home and promptly, the next day evening, I get a call from this guy.... But, I did not pick up his call.... why? 'Cos I don't pick calls from guys who cannot pronounce my name right...!

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Question of the day: How do you differentiate between cabbage and lettuce??!

Redwoods and the Pacific

Me and a couple of my friends recently went to the Muir Woods National Park and some beaches around - Muir beach and Stinson beach. It was good (but not so good on my knees. I need to check with a doctor now :( )

The thing about redwoods is that they grow really straight and tall. And their barks look like somebody twisted the whole tree. Also, we noticed an inverted 'V' hole on almost all trees. Any idea why redwoods are the way they are?

The big apple and its charms..

I gotta say this - New York is dirty, at least most parts of the regular city.

I got to see the big apple this time like never before - Up close and personal. For one, I stayed there for almost 10 days. For another, I commuted like any other NewYorker - in the subways and NJ transits. For one more, I saw the NY of the wee hours (May be I should add that I did not get to visit the SOHO as I had planned earlier).

Our Jersey city office by the Hudson was great. It had a spectacular view of Manhattan and there were ample light reflecting from the waters. Central park was great too - got to explore some more parts of it this time. But, the surrounding areas or the areas leading to it were pretty dirty. Some of these areas had garbage and dirt piled up in the mornings - I guess they were waiting for the garbage trucks to pick them up. Others like the Harrison station along the NJ transit route looked downright ugly (I thought it was an un-used station since my trains did not stop there. Later on, one of the trains did and I was shocked!)

If you walk around the regular city at a time when the regular guys are not around, you will get to see a lot more dirt and folks that live in the dirt. But, I think - what is amazing is that the city is so old and yet, has moulded itself with the times. Like the numerous subways/trains developed and connecting almost every part of this humongous city.

Many people over the decades must have thought like Annie Hall in the Woody Allen movie by the same name - Annie: "What's so great about New York? I mean, it's a dying city...". But, the charm of the big apple probably lies in its undying spirit - that it has thrived beyond its age. With and without its WTCs.

And it is so different and levelling.. you see executives (well, may be not the top honchos) wearing blazers traveling in the transits/subways.
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The NJ transits are another animal altogether. Once I got onto a train only to know that it was not going to stop at my station. What worse, the first stop in that train was an hour ahead, much after the station I was to get down. Another time, I got into the wrong train because my train was late and this train came to my platform (also late by itself) at the time it was supposed to come. (They don't even mention the destination on the sides of some trains) [Lessons - you gotta carry a schedule with you and find out the exact time of the train you need to catch - after looking at the stops listed on the schedule for each train. And confirm with the ticket checkers/staff before you board, especially if the train is delayed]
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On the subject of Annie Hall and Woody Allen,

this is what he says about California!
Alvy Singer (Woody Allen): I don't want to move to a city where the only cultural advantage is being able to make a right turn on a red light.

And here is a classic dialogue from the movie:

Alvy Singer :[addressing the camera] There's an old joke - um... two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible." The other one says, "Yeah, I know; and such small portions." Well, that's essentially how I feel about life - full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly. The... the other important joke, for me, is one that's usually attributed to Groucho Marx; but, I think it appears originally in Freud's "Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious," and it goes like this - I'm paraphrasing - um, "I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member." That's the key joke of my adult life, in terms of my relationships with women.

My first above-5 miler...!

Yesterday, I ran my first 7-miler! (well, almost seven miles ;-)

I knew I had a target of 7 miles as a part of my training here. But, just the previous week (as I had wrote earlier), I had this bad knee pain and I had to stop at 3 miles. So, I was quite unsure. I did do some cycling over the week. And I did ice my knee multiple times.. like, wrapping a frozen water bottle around the different sides of my knee and then, once the area goes numb, I rub the area (it seems, the cold helps control the inflammation and the friction improves the blood flow)

So, I reach the Oracle trail (near Foster City) at 7am on the Saturday and it was a great cloudy day. The temperature must have been in the late 70s or early 80s and there was no wind - just the ideal day for a long run. I was all happy and excited (I was excited already - I woke at 6am and ate a protein snack bar!).

And I started my run comfortably with my jerkin on. Reach 1.5 miler and I was getting really warmed up.. rather hot and I left my jerkin at the water station. I then reached the 3 miler and had a couple of gulps of Gatarode and I could feel a li'l pain in the knee area. But, I was happy because I had already crossed my previous limit!

I was also happy because I was only 0.5 miles from the turn-back point!! Man, these small joys... So, I reached the 3.5 miles, kissed the line and was on my way back.. and the pains started getting bigger - not so much as to stop my run, but still it was getting to me. But the view was nice and scenery was good and of course, the weather was great, so I kept on. Oracle trail or Bay trail, as it is also called, I think runs all the way to the bay.



And beyond 4.5 miles, I had to stop running and start walking because the pain was considerable and I was afraid I will make it worse. But, I saw that the pain subsided as I was walking (this was contrary to last week - when the pain increased and remained even after I stopped running) So, I started running again at 5 miles. I took a few small breaks in between my runs (either walk instead of run or run slower) and I managed to finish the 7 miles in (approx.) 2 hours.

I am happy for my first six/seven miler.. this is at least 2 miles more than what I had run in a single shot earlier! :-)

Cross-posted on my Sun Runs blog
Check it out here

Omar and the Niagara!

And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before
The Tavern shouted - "Open then the Door!
You know how little time we have to stay,
And once departed, may return no more."

Alike for those who for TO-DAY prepare,
And that after a TO-MORROW stare,
A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries
"Fools! your reward is neither Here nor There!"

That is Omar Khayyam for ya...

But time comes to a standstill at the Niagara... Majestic, as it is - where does all the water go?!

Here are some pics (and some Patel shots!; no! not the typical staring into the camera ones)..






Don't you feel like jumping into the water and stoping the flow....??

For the full album, check this link!

A Visit to NY

Sun Runs and Baby Steps!!

I started a new blog today... Sun Runs!!! It is going to be my chronicle for the next few months as I train with Team Asha for the Chicago/Silicon Valley Marathon.

Follow me there....!

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Here is my first post on Sun Runs.. {cross-posted here}
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In the world of Iron Men (refer Iron Man Triathlon), I am just a toddler taking my baby steps... and I just want to chronicle my first steps and my experiences as I train for the Marathon!!

I am sure I have not run 26.2miles in my entire lifetime put together so far. I am now going to run it in a single day... and multiple times over as I practise the next few months. And with my coaches and mentors @ Team Asha, I am pretty sure I am in good hands!!

So, here is to Iron Men and Women of the world(read coach Char's blog!!) and the toddlers!!! :-)

The Well-Read!!

I "Read" @ Stanford!!! ;-) :P

Off-beat Math & A Short Story

12 + 144 + 20 + (3 * 4^(1/2))) / 7) + (5 * 11) = 9^2 +0

If you are not gifted enough to decipher these simple codes, I will give you a clue: It is a poem!! Now, try looking at it from that angle...

...and if you are still having trouble with the poem, here you go:

A Dozen, a Gross and a Score,
plus three times the square root of four,
divided by seven,
plus five times eleven,
equals nine squared and not a bit more.

!! ;-)
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10**12 Microphones = 1 Megaphone
10**6 bicycles = 2 megacycles

2000 mockingbirds = two kilomockingbirds

1/2 lavatory = 1 demijohn

10**-6 fish = 1 microfiche

1 unit of suspense in a mystery novel = 1 whod unit

10 millipedes = 1 centipede

5 holocausts = 1 Pentacost

10 monologues = 5 dialogues = 1 decalogue

8 nickles = 2 paradigms
2 snake eyes = 1 paradise
2 wharves = 1 paradox

1 milli-Helen (of Troy) = amount of face that can launch one ship
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In a literature class, the students were given an assignment to write a short story involving all the important ingredients - nobility, emotion, sex, religion and mystery. One student allegedly handed in the following story:
"My god!" cried the duchess. "I'm pregnant. Who did it?"
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Thanks Venky (MP)!

Team Asha & Asha for Education

TEAM ASHA is a premier endurance sports program that trains people for half and full marathons. Team Asha gives one the chance to discover not only the magical benefits of running but also the supreme joy of affecting the life of a child with every progressive step.

Since 2000, they have trained more than 750 marathoners from different walks of life. 99% of them successfully completed a full or a half marathon. Train. Run. Educate.

Asha for Education is a non-profit organization on a mission to catalyze socio-economic change in India through education of under-privileged children. Of the 68 Asha chapters worldwide, three are right here in the San Francisco Bay Area: Asha Berkeley, Asha Stanford and Asha Silicon Valley.

Over the years, Asha has succeeded in touching the lives of thousands of children through its various educational initiatives and projects. Although the primary focus is on education, Asha also addresses issues affecting human life such as health care, environmental concerns and women's issues. Asha will continue to evolve in keeping with the needs of the hour and the needs of our country (India).

Asha for education is run by a diverse group of committed volunteers who take personal interest in researching and identifying worthy projects in India. We mobilize the needed funds and also work closely with the projects right from inception to realization.
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My grandmom used to say "Whenever you get a chance to share your knowledge or better still, help somebody learn - do that. That is the best gift you can give to not just him but his entire family. And it is equivalent to feeding 100 hungry persons." I think Asha embodies that spirit.

One of my school friends, who later went on to BITS Pilani and then to Univ of Wisconsin - Madison for her MS - she was one such volunteers who came back to India and was handling some of their educational initiatives in South India. (I am trying to reach her.. Lets see if I can find out what she is upto now.)

That is how I had heard about Asha. And now, in the bay area, I heard of Asha again and I took this opportunity to be a drop in the ocean. I am a part of Team Asha 2008 - training for the Silicon Valley marathon and also championing the cause of educating the under-privileged in India.

I have no idea how I am going to run 26.2 miles.. I have zilch idea how I am going to raise 2400 odd dollars for the cause. But, I am doing it. Whatever support you can give in showing the way to a kid in India - please let me know.

Madras isShtyle!!!

The first time I saw it on a JC Penney's catalogue, I thought it was a coincidence... But, it did remind me immediately of the lungis I saw in my childhood...

I checked the next catalogue I got (yeah, we are getting a lotta spam in our postal box!) and there it was, with more colors and types.... Then, I was sure the city I grew up has inspired a whole new style... the Madras style.... !!!!

I did some research online... check these out for yourself!!!!
www.capemadras.com

Check this one out especially... they even show an authentic Madras lungi... the guy on a cycle with the girl behind!! Click on the "India" section at the last...

More Madras ishtyle!

And a lot more here...

WB!!

I can give you hundreds of reasons why I am not writing here as often... but then, when they have given a good, encompassing reason called Writer's Block, why should I worry about those hundreds?? :P

Anyways, it is a self-attributing reason... What I mean to say is - the same reason also prevents one from even writing about it!! So, I guess I have broken through it now!!!!! ;-)

Lovin' it!

Am loving my S10 experience!!

The other day I was coming by the CalTrain and took a picture...


But, what is that grass like things hanging from the speakers??



It sure looks like grass.. Let me zoom some more..



Wow! why would they keep thin wire-like things protruding from a speaker?!

Here.. are some other snapshots

SF Giants game at AT&T Park by the bay
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563136421pmlCKA

a soothing 'zen' weekend!
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563085000SwNgPR

Ensoi!!
Bhaskar

Here There!!

Here is not so much fun anymore
Let me get there for more!

And I can be this life-long wanderer
With no one 'dear', till my feet get sore!!
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I at least bought a new camera... so, I can capture the sights on the way!! It is a Nikon Coolpix S10.. pretty conventional looks.. let me check how it performs and tell ya..

Scenes

A Quiz!!

What is the best place for the sun on earth?!? (pun intended!!)

Answer:
Sunnyvale!!

I moved to this place last week... And fell in love with it!! More later....

And you know the best part?

Saravanaa Bhavan is only 2.4miles from my apartment!!!!

Buds!

Some of my buddies are budding bloggers now!!! I am happy for them and happy that I could play a small part in their exploring their own hidden facets and expanding their horizons :-)

The Truth!

I came across this wonderful clip on the Modern Doomsday(Thanks to Erin!).

The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard

It's terrific! Like my friend Arun says, the best part of this story is that it is so catchy and so true!! truth - simple yet flabbergasting!!!

Quoting Cris B., "Annie Leonard does a brilliant job of distilling 10 years of research about STUFF into a fast-paced 20 minute presentation..." ...
"With the support of pen & ink sketch-like animations, Annie demonstrates how our materials economy is completely dysfunctional, how our linear production-consumption system is using up our limited resources. Smart, witty and factual, Annie explains in language school kids can understand that our finite planet is in crisis...it's being trashed by what we the people, our government and powerful corporations are doing to create, use and dispose of stuff...lots and lots of stuff, every day."

When the going gets tough...

Everyone (at least quite a lot of folks) are looking towards the possible fed rate cut on tuesday. There are tell-tale signs that the recession is already underway in some sectors of the industry and affecting the vulnerable sections of the economy.

There are talks of more lay-offs in the mortgage and financial sector... Other sectors (notably IT/software) too have started cutting the costs and tightening the budget. There is growing unemployment in the economy - supposed to be at the levels of 2003!

etc etc...

But, you know - When the going gets tough, the tough gets going!!

Detroit, nalla Detroit!!

Well, I am in Detroit now. Come here for a few days, on work. I don't know where work is going to take me in the coming weeks, but I do know that I will not continue in Los Angeles for long.

Detroit is so coool!!! well.... literally cold... with snow around and flurries falling... but is nice (to visit, don't know about staying though ;-)

The best part is that the snow and all-encompassing whiteness gives it a surreal feeling.. more like in those fantasy lands... of Santa & Snow white!!!

As I was driving to my friend's place, I was reminded of my time in the Netherlands some years ago. Bare leaf-less (but not life-less) trees and cold winds... amazing! And then, the shock on my friend's face (I had not told her about my visit) when I knocked their door in the middle of the night... Man, priceless!!

But then, as Govar says, living here could be an altogether different deal... But I am not going to worry about it... I am just a happy visitor now!!
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Downtown Detroit is supposed to be so crime-ridden... I went to a Tacos place... They had security cameras all over.... And even the counter was like a safe-deposit with thick glass panels... you deposit your money and close the door... only then, would the cashier's door open on the other side... he will keep the food packet and close the door again... And then you can pick it up your side....
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I almost drove to Canada... We were on our way to the MGM Grand casino downtown... we went past the ambassador bridge (that links to Canada)... There were a lot of construction work happening on the highway and many ramps were closed... We tried navigating our way and ended at a toll plaza. When enquired, she said that it was the toll leading to Canada... Well, imagine if I had not asked the question!!