Payana

Those stressful HS years

2012-02-18T10:41:00.003-05:00

If your child is going to college (especially in the US), it can be a VERY stressful time for both parents and the child. There is way too much work for a senior from school alone and adding to this, filling out applications is a nightmare. It beats filling out forms for the US or Indian government for claims. The hardest part of the applications are the essays. These essays can be extremely challenging and time consuming as the essays need to reflect one's personal passion and personality. The colleges pay a great deal of attention to the essays. I know my son spent four weeks each on a couple of these alone. Then you need to file the financial aid forms which are a nightmare in themselves that beat out the tax forms filing by a few hundred yards. I would strongly recommend seeking help of professionals to do the Financial forms filling as they can provide accurate information and they would do this every year and it saves you a lot of time. Also seek help for filling out college applications. It might sound trivial why we smart people can't do this ourselves, but trust me, the counsellors have way lot more experience in doing these tasks and they know better. And if your child is in Junior year and taking SAT tests, again don't think your child is extremely smart and can ace the test. It can make a difference getting a 2300 or a 2340 or a 2370. Many children can easily get 2200 with practice, but beyond that it becomes increasingly challenging to add every 10 points. Here again, don't hesitate to get your child coaching. I am thinking the same concepts (coaching) is true for those studying in India too.

Secondly, the times can be stressful to the children. They are anticipating a future and everything depends on what colleges they are going to get into. There is indirect peep pressure (he got into that college, she into that) - all this takes a toll on the child and it wouldn't be surprising you would have noticed them already getting 'into their own world' i.e., less interactions with parents, etc. This would have started earlier on in HS, but will peak in the last two years. It is important we as parents, keep being connected to the child and support them despite our own hectic, crazy schedules.

Beware of EOS CCA

2012-02-13T18:42:00.002-05:00

I got a call from a Lia at eos cca asking for my someone in the home. I said that person isn't at home and asked if I can take a message. She asked me to call 781 753 4235 and she will be there till 9 PM and it was about Government taxes. This itself is a clue - no government official calls at 6 PM and no one says they will be available till 9 PM. I hung up and thought of sending a message requesting the person call her. Then I got doubtful and checked the Internet. EOS CCA is a big scam. They call and try to snare unsuspecting people into revealing information. I called back the same number and the same lady picked up the phone. I said, you just called me. She said 'Did I'? No wonder she must have been making a lot of calls. I said yes you call and mentioned the persons name. She couldn't recall and asked for the account number. I asked for a government identification and she said she won't reveal that information. That's when I knew this was a scam. I said I am going to report you to the agencies and she said go ahead and hung up. If anyone easily gives an account number and gives additional information (for e.g., I forget what company was this with) they can easily look up that information as Verizon and ATT share the information with these companies. Then you are snared into the trap of conversation, etc. Just read about it on the net.

When you think you are in control

2012-02-13T16:07:00.000-05:00

Heard this beautiful reality - when you think you are in control, He lets you do it all. When you think you are no more in control, He steps in. Lesson: When man thinks he can do it all, He lets you do it whether they are right or wrong. At some point, when you have done everything and think I leave the rest to Him, you will start seeing things happen that you didn't think would happen. This has happened many times to me. I have done everything I can, checked everything and the issue still exists. At that point, I just give Up not knowing what will happen and I have seen the next morning things turn around. Am I getting too old or what? Doesn't matter, this belief has worked for me and I intend to resort to it even more.

My first adventures in driving

2012-02-12T20:01:00.003-05:00

Written Jan 22nd, 2008

At Evanston, after my getting driver's license I started renting cars for the weekend. Enterprise had great weekend deals of about $9.99 per weekend day. The first time I rented this Red (all rentals cars are red, I had thought) Ford Escort. Biju also had rented one. I was to follow Biju back to work as the rental office was about 5-6 miles away. After signing the papers, we started and I could follow Biju most of the way. The traffic was less at about 4 PM and that helped. Near Evanston (Sheridan way, where ZS was located), Biju went ahead at a light. I had to stop. My windows were getting foggy and I didn't know what to do. This was my first time driving a car in America. I thought I would crash somewhere. I turned the blower on and that didn't help. The light had turned green and I had to drive (or so I thought). After about a few hundred yards, the windows started getting really foggy. Luckily I had used my hands to wipe the mist away. On top of the fog, I didn't really have a good idea where ZS was. I saw 'Church street' and knew this was close to ZS. I turned into a parking lot and coincidentally it was the lot where we were parking in the mornings. Kirti was renting a car already and we were hitching rides with him to work. Whew, that was a close call. Later on I learnt to direct the air to the windows AND have the fan on at high speed if it got foggy

The other ill effect of stress

2012-02-12T19:59:00.003-05:00

Written Jan 21st, 2009.

One least touted ill effect of stress or excess of it is the fact that it clouds your judgement. You want to just get through the moment and your mind being so stressed, cannot evaluate the options as well as it would do, say, when you were happy. The result is a wrong call. One wrong call can put you on the path away from happiness. With one mis-step and continued stress, you can make take more mis-steps and get farther and farther away from the fork point on the road to happiness. This reminds me of the path Anakin takes in the Star Wars movies (and of course, many living examples) - a perfectly healthy and happy young man lets anger be his source of stress. As the anger develops, he gets farther and farther away from good judgement and ends up being Darth Vader.

Maami in my dreams

2012-02-12T19:57:00.002-05:00

Aug 19th, 2009. Maami was our affectionate name for my paternal grandmother

Yesterday night, I had a dream. First I thought it was a nightmare. I was with Vikas in our Jayanagar home. We were talking and slowly I retire into Anniah's room. Vikas goes in to play. After a while it is all quiet I call out for Vikas. I hear no response. I get worried and walk into the verandah. I see a sticky note on the door handle. It says 'Vikas is with me' and I hear it in Maami's voice. Maami would usually be in the kitchen so I start toward it; I get drawn forcefully into the kitchen. As I enter I realize Maami is no more and blood rushes into my being as I realize that it could be Maami's spirit. I get frightened like hell, terrified is the word, and my hair starts to rise on my entire body. The energy from her starts to envelop me and I start to loose consciousness. This energy at the start feels bad; then I realize it is my assumption. I make all effort to see Maami and soon the darkness in my mind clears. I can see Maami now; she doesn't have a form or a face or a body. She is some wisp of whiteness, ever moving. Now, I realize I am no more frightened and I welcome her as she is. I can feel her hugging me; I can feel the same warmth when she used to hug me as a child. I can smell her dress, ever fresh. This is too much for me and I wake up. I wish then that I had an opportunity to talk to her and listen to what she had to say.

I go to the bathroom and am back to sleep. As I do so, I dream again of Maami. This time, it is a playful spirit. She leads me to the 'Last room' in the house (called kade-room in Kannada). She easily drifts up to the storage space up looking for something. I can feel she is free; she is unencumbered by anything physical from her life. She is happy and I am glad she is.

Hobbies

2012-02-10T23:14:00.000-05:00

Do you have a hobby? If you do, then you are fortunate. For e.g., today was a tiring and long day after a week of hectic work. I had a small headache and got off work at 6:30 PM. I somehow finished washing dishes and watched some TV. But the tiredness and headache wouldn't go away. I then did some karaoke singing for 45 minutes and at the end of it I had found back my energy; the headache was almost gone, I sensed enthusiasm to continue and had started enjoying what I was doing. That is a hobby, the one activity which takes you mind of any drudgery or stress and rejuvenates you. It makes you lose yourself and enjoy the present moment. Those who have their hobbies turned into their main work of life are truly lucky. Developing a hobby is important; a hobby turns over time into passion and is a great creative outlet. As long as you find such creative outlets for the energy that is you, you will keep enjoying the moment; else that energy starts to burn in the form of anger, negative thoughts, etc and will consume your positive self.

Bubba and Apple

2012-02-05T08:05:00.002-05:00

Apple recently became the most valuable company listed on the US stock exhanges exceeding 400B. With its recent quarterly report, it shows no sign of stopping with a lot left in the international markets and developing countries. Apple has been my most successful investment. I got in at around 50 first time and unloaded a whole lot at 75 during the 2003 bust. Then I got back in again at 188 and have stuck to it for part of the investment, with the rest being in and out whenever Apple went down. I see no reason not to follow the same strategy. If I had maintained all the investment from the $50 purchase, I would have been a millionaire now just with Apple, but I am happy for what is left!!

How I came to the land of dreams

2012-02-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

It is interesting how I came to the US. After studying BE at UVCE Bangalore, I studied Indl. Mgmt at IIT Madras and then started working at Kirloskar Computer Services where I met Rama (besides the point :)). After two years at KCS, worked at TCS. During this thime there was this company RCG from US which used to have HUGE sessions at the Taj Bangalore and such places where they would enmasse interview candiadates. I went into one of those and got selected. The VP told me we will get in touch with you. After two weeks, there was no news, so I called him collect couple of times; he said he is waiting for a project. At that time there was so much boom, I guess these companies want people on their roster even if they didn't have any guaranteed projects. Another couple of calls and I gave up. Then I interviewd at Mastech who selected me but took my passport!! After six weeks, I didn't hear back from them about a visa and got back my passport. I interviewed with CBSI who then processed my visa right away. While at TCS I interviewed with IMR where a former big-boss at TCS Bangalore was the recruiting head. He also processed my visa. Since the CBSI offer was better, I took that job up, meanwhile IMR got my visa too. On October 20th, 1994 I left India with Rama and 5-month old Vikas. After a few weeks, my father told me while I was talking to him that a Bhagawan (the TCS Bangalore big-boss) had called home and threatened to make my life miserable, which was an empty threat as it turned out to be.

Forget those little things

2012-01-23T20:14:00.001-05:00

Paying attention to detail is great. But when you get stuck in the details, you will start losing the bigger picture. Don't get hung up on things that stop you from seeing that big picture. Trying to get everything right might not always be the best option. You have to recognize what can be overlooked and try to move onto the next.

If Life is a song....

2012-01-13T07:51:00.001-05:00

Life is a song, then sing it I say
Life is a game, then play it I say
Life is a dream, then relish it I say
Life is a mystery, then solve it I say
Life is a challenge, then face it I say
Life is a poem, then WRITE it I say

Happy Life!

Awareness and Judgement

2012-01-09T11:21:00.000-05:00

In Yoga, the highest state is Nirvana. In this state, you are fully aware of all that is going on around you - it isn't that you know everything. You have the capacity to understand everything. True Awareness excludes judgement. When one starts judging, awareness becomes cloudy as the direction starts to change and start ignoring many inputs. When you are fully aware, you have mastered judgement. Happy awareness

Don't blame yoga for injuries

2012-01-07T18:00:00.000-05:00

An article published in NYT recently - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/magazine/how-yoga-can-wreck-your-body.html - blames Yoga for injuries. The fact is you can get injured in any sport, for that matter even while sleeping if you fall off the bed!! Doing a posture correctly is one of the right things to do. You must NEVER stretch your body limits in one go. It takes months and years of practice depending on your body's abilities to get to a certain stage. This is much like cheerleading. If you jump into a somersault on day 1 or week 1 w/o training your body, you will get injured. The key rule in Yoga is to treat your body with care, understand it thoroughly - its capabilities and limitations and respect it. Don't jump into anything w/o due care. Don't do a posture just because your neighbor can. Take baby steps. Don't do a posture if it isn't meant for you - why do inversions when you have high blood pressure or glaucoma.

Jalandara Banda or Throat lock

2012-01-07T14:06:00.000-05:00

Bandas (pronounced bah-n-daas) are locks in Yoga whereby you 'lock' the energy in a particular area thereby stimulating that region. For example, the Jalandara Banda or the Throat lock is where you press the chin into the base of the neck while holding your breath. At the same time you think and feel the throat region. This stimulates the thyroid. Jalandara banda can be combined with other asanaa such as Shoulder Stand where it is ideal to press the chin into the base of the throat. The focus of the energies or the circulation in that region is what stimulates the area. The Throat chakra or the energy center in the throat call the Vishuddhi Chakra gets stimulated. People who lack communicating abilities or aspire for more are advised to practice Jalandara Banda. As you are holding the breath, there will be strain in your heart IF you over do it. The key is to retain the breath as long as you are comfortable without having to gasp for air at the end. Best learnt from an experienced yoga teacher as always. One can combine the Throat lock along with the Uddiyana Banda also, but that isn't necessary.

Atlantis

2012-01-03T09:28:00.001-05:00

The Sensation had a breakfast for late-risers, very appropriate for us. We had to be at the Plaza lounge at 11:45 PM and had no plans whatsoever before then. After breakfast, we again strolled to the top of the ship for some air and waded through the huge photo galleria. At the lounge, we were the only two of the 200 or so there to have taken to para sailing. After a round of applause for the brave souls, we dis-embarked the ship. The guide was curt and giving out orders how to fill the form and watch the video. He was hard to follow. Two others had joined us. Soon we were onto a transport boat. Rama couldn't join us despite being told she could for a fee; the Sargent wasn't very accommodating. Anyway, the boat took us to more clear waters and another small speed boat stopped by. Once on this boat, we put on the life jackets and the boat captain helped me and Vikas get onto the harness. The harness is at the bottom of the para-sail - it is literally a belt on which you sit and strap yourself to safety. Two could go up at a time. Soon the captain released the umbilical cord that tied us to the boat and we were getting away from it higher and higher into the air. Within a minute we were about 150 feet in the air. I could see the dark blue waters all around below. The air was cool and we got onto a draft once or twice. Initially I was gripping the suspending ropes and thought I couldn't hold it any longer as my arms were getting strained. Then I realized I could just lean back and let it easy on my arms. That made the rest of the time enjoyable. Para-sailing is no where close to an extreme roller coaster ride - there are no sudden twists and turns. Soon it was all over with the captain pulling the cord back. He briefly splashed our feet into the waters and we were soon back on the boat. The 7 minute promise seemed much shorter, but I would do para-sailing again. Para-gliding is something I want to try next. I had given the camera to Rama as she was to be the observer on the boat - bummer she couldn't come along. I have no photos of us on this thrill ride.

We were back to the ship for lunch. The buffet was running out of time and the salad bar was showing it. Today would be the last day of the cruise; we were to get off early morning tomorrow. We headed up for some mini-golf. The New Year's celebrations were gearing up already - it was all over on the TV. Also instructions how to disembark - documents to have, customs procedures, etc were being relayed constantly. I switched off the TV for another siesta on the seas.

We decided to go back on shore. The ride to Atlantis was $4 per head. The Aquarium was free after 6 PM - a way to get in visitors to the casinos. Atlantis is probably the best themed resort I have seen. Yes, there is Paris, New York-New York, Ceasars, etc at Las Vegas, but the opulence is hard to miss at Atlantis. The Aquarium itself is phenomenal to say the least. The Royal Towers hall is truly spectacular with its dome, pillars and the paintings. One hour was too short but enough to get a whiff of the place.

The 7:30 Showtime was a surprise. It was performed by a group Fantasia - colorful choreography to tunes from the 70s and 80s. The one hour was truly entertaining. Since this show overlapped with the family friendly comedy show, we had to skip the latter. After Showtime and dinner, Vikas went out with his new friend from the dinner table. We checked out the Adults only comedy show. To say this show was the worst 1/2 hour ever I spent watching anything is an understatement. It appears that the more expletives that one uses, the more laughs the host got. Truly IQ-challenged comedy. Enough said. I was more expecting a Jeff Dunham kind of entertainment.

The New Years celebration was on the deck of the ship. The place was crowded as you can expect and music blaring. 15 minutes into it, the countdown started and we were welcoming 2012. The next morning, I caught some snaps of the early sunrise but the photos didn't turn out good - I really need a fast lens and a tripod for this time of the day. Despite repeated warnings not to crowd the elevator area for disembarkment, the place was hogged. The ship management can handle this better - we all thought. The drive back to Orlando was smooth and we caught a much earlier flight to Philly reaching home 5 hours early - a real bonus for a holiday weekend travel.

Be Happy

2012-01-02T20:57:00.000-05:00

In India, whenever you are blessed on any occasion, the elders and well wishers almost always say 'Live happy'. The blessees say OK or nod their head and feel good but they fully don't comprehend what it is to be happy. They are too occupied with the event on hand - marriage or their upcoming honeymoon and the joyousness of being married, whatever the event or the current occupation is that is keeping them elated. But rarely have I seen any material that prescribes what is needed to be happy. The message is out there, but a concise collection is something I haven't come across. This is because the prescription is unique to each one of use, maybe. I have spent almost half my life to realize that I need to make a list of things that will keep me happy. By happiness I mean sheer joy of living - energy outpouring everyday in and out in whatever life brings on. This list is by no means universal but very specific to me. Here is what I think it is - this might change over time, but as of now it is the below. It doesn't mean I have mastered all of it or accomplished all that it takes. I could be working on these or some of these till the very day I breathe my last, but it is good to know what it takes.

1. Take up a job or do work that keeps you happy. This is foremost. Whatever it is, your whole life should be augmenting this single goal of keeping you happy. You have to figure out what makes you happy in life - the earlier the better. Don't fall into the trap of becoming someone - be it a star singer or a engineer or a doctor just because that profession has a lot of promise of money, fame, etc. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses, you should be able to decide what work will work for you. This takes a lot of maturity. Sometimes, one can easily recognize the god given talent they have innate in themselves and pursue that. But others aren't so lucky.

2. Face every challenge that comes your way with a positive attitude; an attitude that you can overcome the challenge and resolve it. Overcome doubts by whatever means necessary - talking to others, reading, self-analysis, preparation, etc but don't give to doubts or fears and let them not unnerve you.

3. Care for others. If you can't emote with others, you have lost the battle for life right away. Caring, trusting, feeling, giving, respecting - all will make you stronger.

4. Don't isolate yourself from others trying to stand out much like a competition requires. If you are good at what you do, then you will stand out naturally, but don't try to be one-up on the other for the sake of winning the competition. Winners all know that everyone gave their hearts out to win and there are no losers.

5. Conquer your negative emotions - such as anger, hatred, lust, etc. I found if I got angry at even a simple thing, I would need to start afresh after compensating for it. If you can overcome a challenge without getting angry, you have gathered the energies to propel you forward. That tiny bit of anger will destroy all the positive energies coming your way.

6. Exercise moderation in everything - be it eating, sleeping, working, etc. In today's life, it is hard not to overwork, not to overeat, not to over entertain, etc. Knowing when to say enough is enough keeps your mind and body healthy.

7. Keep learning - once you stop learning or let go of your attitude that you can learn, ego takes over and destroys you without you knowing it very soon.

Set sailing

2012-01-02T20:24:00.000-05:00

We got up for a late breakfast. With no plans to explore Florida further that Thursday, we started driving to Cape Canaveral around 11:00 AM. It is about an hour's worth of drive from Orlando. The drive was smooth and we arrived at the dock about 12:15 PM. Parking was rather easy after getting nuts at Universal the day before. There was a decent line at the entrance to the Carnival cruise docks. Families chatting each other, some dressed up, some casual but everyone was looking forward to wind it down soon. Documents check came okay and we took the escalator up to the Ecstasy deck - the 7th floor. We were right on time for the rooms to open at 1. Our cabin was at the very back of the ship with a clear view of the water. There was another Disney cruise liner docked and that looked a bit more modern than the Sensation, but I had not complaints being this the first cruise for us. A small yatch would have been as exciting as long as we were going far into the ocean. We immediately headed to the buffet which gave us a taste for the amount of food on a cruise ship. The dining hall (the one we were at) was easily large enough to accommodate about 300-350 people. We had some decent choices for us vegetarians. The salad bar was excellent overall though you want to get in quite a bit ahead of the closing time. Plenty of dessert choices made our task easy - when you see too much of anything your instincts warn you and we headed our hearts.

We explored the ship - all of the top three floors and the deck. The deck had a walking track, a mini golf course and a water slide. The lower part of the deck had a huge pool and a hot tub and it was already teeming with people. The Florida sun was sparkling and shining through very few clouds and was very welcome after the colder weather up north where we came from. Soon we found out none of the activities were interesting for us and we went back for a nice nap. After the nap, I wanted to get some shots of the sunset but I missed most of it napping! Rama took some snaps of the red sun; but I could get the richly hued skies right after. It is a great time for photography - just before and after sunset.

Dinner would be at 8:15 PM - the late-r seating; the early seating was at 6:00 PM. I was dressed up for the evening dinner as we stepped out of the room and so was Rama. We ran into many photographers on the way and decided to get some photos done - it was a great decision. You have literally photographers at every major congregational place and time - as you step into the ship, as you step out, dinner time with each day being a theme such as formal, casual, fun-time, etc. Then you have photographers in the dining room take many snaps as you eat. Add to it a pirate steps up to each table for individual and group photos. We missed the family friendly comedy show and thought we will catch up next day.

At Dinner, we were seated along with two other Indian families and got into conversation rather quickly. The children were younger but Vikas found a HS junior for his company and dinner went along. Again some vegetarian choices made it easy. The Indian vegetarian plate was good enough with a couple of vegetable curries, dhal, rice and even mango pickles!! The spinach dip and chips starter was a bit too garlicky. Ended up with some ice cream which was easily forgettable. After dinner we went to the deck to catch the dark skies and hopefully a lot of stars. But that wasn't the case to be. The lights from the ship itself was too bright and the skies were no different than back at home - okay a bit better to see the Orion constellation quite clearly. As you look farther out into the horizon, you could see much darker skies, but with cloud cover. The evening breeze was enjoyable; the waters were very calm with absolutely no roughness at all. I was prepared for some shaking but that didn't happen throughout the journey.

We stopped at the Guest services desk and checked out the activities for the next day. Vikas wanted to do para sailing; I was hesitant at first and then decided there was no strong reason and caved in to the request. If I didn't go with him, then who would? I didn't want him to look out for a relative or a friend always to do the thrill rides he wanted to. These fun-cursions were expensive at $90 for a seven minute experience.

Back in the room, which was all cleaned up by then, there were some material that we would be reaching Nassau around Lunch time. Nassau is where the Atlantis resort is - one of the largest such resorts; I had heard and seen so much of it on TV that it was to be the highlight of the cruise. Worth waiting for and I went to bed. It took me 1/2 hour of getting some 3 stars on Angry Birds before my eyes tired out.

A visit to Harry Potter Park, Orlando

2012-01-02T12:09:00.001-05:00

A Happy New Year 2012 to all on this planet. Let it bring peace and prosperity.

I had a week off between Christmas and New Years Day. Used some of travel points to book a cruise on Carnival Sensation to Bahamas. It was a three day cruise with a 1/2 day stop over at Nassau's Atlantis resort. I used the first few days to get some personal work done. We left Philadelphia on Wednesday for a 8 AM flight. The flight to Orlando was calm and on-time. Hertz gave me a free upgrade - a new Oldsmobile something with 570 miles on it. Spacious and comfortable. We headed off to Universal studios. Our aim was to visit the new Harry Potter park. Once near the park, it took us 30 minutes to get to parking. There was way too much crowd at Noon. I was expecting the crowds entering the park to have dwindled by then, but was not the case. Apparently the Holiday week made everything filled to the brim with people. Halfway to the ticket stands there was an announcement that the park was full and no more would be allowed until 6 PM. But the park would be open till midnight instead of till 11 PM. We anyway got tickets and this was the only day we had before getting onto the ship. Park tickets have gotten so expensive - at $90 per ticket, I was short of nearly $300 including parking; and we were just visiting the Harry Potter park from 6 PM. Late 90s, I remember paying $35 per head to get to one of these parks when Vikas was much younger. At this rate, in ten years, the tickets should cost $200 each - will worry about that later!

The roads were still crowded and took us 3 change of lights to make a left turn. We drove to Ashirwad for lunch - it is a nice restaurant. The food had an healthy amount of spice and not overly greasy; there was quite a bit of vegetables. The Renaissance resort near Sea world is huge and a bit dated, but was overall great for a day's stay. The rooms look out into the courtyard which houses the restaurant and the bar. A mammoth 100-150 inch display was showing off the sea life in all splendid colors. After a brief nap, we rose to drive back to the park.

By 6:15 PM, it was getting dark and could see many people exiting the park. The park was all lighted up and the glitz was coming through. Candy and pastry shops, people lining up for drinks, stopping for photographs, calling out for family members - the whole place was bee-busy. The Harry Potter part of the park was at the very back. After strolling for 1/2 hour we couldn't find a family friendly ride without much wait time. So Vikas and myself decided to do the Dragon Challenge. This is an incredible ride with loops and twists. Luckily I hadn't seen all of it from the outside - if I had, I would have hesitated. I didn't know what I was getting into until the car started to rise nearly 150 feet and we were at the very top. For a brief moment, I knew I was going down and that is all I remember. The next 40 seconds or so was a mish-mash of exhilarating twists and turns and hurls and rush of air I can't recollect much of the surroundings. The trick to enjoy one of these super rides is to trust the system - the mechanical elements of it. As long as you fear for your life, you cannot enjoy the ride. Trust the system and sit there to only enjoy the sensations knowing you will never be thrown out or never need to grip the bars for the sake of your life. The kids don't fear for their life and hence you hear more screams of enjoyment. After all the rides have to pass the strictest possible safety standards and not affect adversely most of the people; else the number of people riding these should be coming down, but it is the other way.

We stopped for a Butterbeer - the drink Harry, Hermione and Ron would seek on their outings to the Hogwarts village. The wait time to enter the Hogwarts's castle was varying between 90 and 120 minutes. I was hoping this would come down after 10 PM. Incredible as it sounds, there were lines to enter the variety of shops - worth 15-20 minute waits. One shop we went into where the wands were sold was almost a stampede-setup. Though the attendant was controlling the number of people entering, the same numbers weren't exiting the shop at the same rate. Moreover, there was this crowd of 15 or so selected fans who would get a special tour. All-in-all, I could find space to move around and stood by a bookshelf while Vikas was getting Dumbledore's signature wand. Children all exited were part of the atmosphere - it was almost like being in the midst of the magic of Harry Potter. If JK Rowling gets a cut of everything sold in the park, she will one day be the richest entity on the planet ahead of the corporations.

We caught sight of the Hogwarts choir and at 9:30 PM, we were hungry for dinner. Looking out for a pizza place, we found Mythos - a themed restaurant after a mythical Greek figure. The inside was like a cavern with ceiling rising to well over 3 story high. The chef made us some nice pad Thai and pizza; topping it off with a kid's banana split and we couldn't have asked for a better dinner. The service was excellent; no wonder the restaurant has been named the best themed restaurant for six years in a row. We were lucky as the doors closed just a bit after we entered. After dinner, we found the wait for the castle was still 120 minutes long. The park was still way too crowded for enjoyment. That was it for us for the day and we drove back to the hotel.

Syncing your iTunes with Android smartphone

2011-12-15T21:05:00.000-05:00

I tried a few free tools such as Winamp, EasySync etc. With Winamp, the sync was never perfect. There would always be some files that needed to be copied over to the device even though they were changed. Also there would be files on the device that had somehow become 'new' and had to be pushed back to the library on the computer. After trying out a few more, I decided to do it my way

First off, download Microsoft's Richcopy tool. This is free. What it does is to copy (or move) files that have changed only; it compares the file attributes to those in the target directory and does its job. The first copy is longer if the number of files is large. The good thing about using Richcopy is it maintains the folder structure of your library. I like to keep the music organized by album much like a CD has an album. Some of the syncing tools copy the tracks into the artists folder first or a track number - didn't like that.

Second step is to use Winamp to import the iTunes playlists into Winamp. Then you can save the playlists as m3u files. Copy these m3u (playlists) file over to your device to the same location as within the library and you are all set.

Whenever I add a new file to the library or change the tags, then all I need to do is repeat the two steps above and it is way much shorter. Now I have more control of the synching process myself.

Lousy Verizon wireless hotspot service

2011-12-10T10:46:00.001-05:00

This is a review more about the service than the device. We bought the hotspot service through Amazon with the Samsung SCH-LC11 4G. The terms clearly state that you can terminate the service within 15 days without any early termination fee and voiding the contract. We found the service to be extremely choppy and rarely we would get 4G signals. You can't rely on such a service and device if your business is dependent on it. In addition the device would go to sleep w/o notice. We returned the device to Amazon who took it back w/o any issues. Just to be safe we asked if we need to cancel the service with Verizon and the rep went ahead and did that.
Surprise - we got an invoice from Verizon for $56 and change. The bill didn't clearly state what the charges are for. They had prorated an $89 charge for the 7 days of the device usage. When we talked to verizon, the representative couldn't give a convincing answer what the charges were. She once explained it is an activation fee. when we told that Amazon doesn't charge activation fees, she retracted that explanation. When asked to speak with the supervisor, she came back and said he/she was busy but can give a 50% discount. Why pay 50% on a charge that is inexplicable? After about an hour worth of time on a Saturday morning, we decided to just pay and forget the lousy experience.
On Verizon's website, the policy states that if we return within 3 days of receipt then there will be no charges. Hope Amazon includes clear policies - the 15 day return is very misleading. Had the service and device worked, we would have kept them. Wish Verizon corrected the issue instead of insisting on charges and leaving a bad taste with a customer.

Thanksgiving without Turkey

2011-11-27T08:57:00.001-05:00

Here was the menu

- Sprouts, carrot shavings, seasoning for Salad
- Onion Pakoras
- Idlis for appetizers with mint chutney and sambaar
- Potato-Onion palya
- Dosas
- Puliyogre (flavored, lightly spiced rice with peanuts)
- Rasam and Rice
- Fruits
- Some Chips and other snacks
- Desserts: Rasgola, Beetroot Halva

This was actually the day before Thanksgiving.

For Thanksgiving, the menu was
- Sprout Salad
- Dosas with chutney and Potato/onion palya
- Idlis
- Bisi Bele Bath
- Rice, Rasam, Curds
- Desserts: Rasgola, Beetroot Halva, Mysore Pak and Wheat Halva - the latter two courtesy of guests.

Tips for Karaoke singing

2011-11-24T09:00:00.001-05:00

Here are my own tips for Karaoke singing.

There are two main things to master singing - 1) Voice 2) Technique. Surprisingly the second one is easier than you might think. You have to listen and listen and note all the nuances. Training your voice is another first step. Your talking voice is not your singing voice. When you talk, you might not exert any effort at all and it needs to be heard only by those close to you immediate unless you are making a public speech which is a totally different thing. When singing, a) you are attempting to carry your voice across over a much larger distance b) maintaining the tone of the voice throughout i.e., without hisses and pops, breathing sounds injecting into your voice, etc. Voice training takes practice and you need to sing at a level that you are comfortable. If you start at a higher pitch you might not be able to sustain it. Finding that pitch that is natural takes some exercise such as shruthi tuning (which we won't get into now) - basically, you try to maintain a certain pitch for a length of time and see which of these base pitches you are comfortable at. Singing in your natural voice might sound as if you are not sounding like the original singer, but that it what you need to first do to know your voice. If you are going to be imitating someone else to start with you will never find your own singing voice.

Singing voice is like a culture. This is true daily. The voice takes time during the day to find its rythm. Right after you get up, you might not find it comfortable to start singing at a higher pitch. In fact, you might not be comfortable to find your right pitch itself. If the culture is a little too young or old, then it won't be good to taste. Likewise, if you are too tired, you can't find that singing voice. Hence in classical Indian singing, one starts of with Alapanas which exercise the vocal cords and prepare for the session ahead.

You need to keep your vocal cords and throat moist. Else the reverberations caused in here can hurt the delicate tissues. Drink water or tea before your session. Don't eat spicy food that cause the throat to produce excess mucus.

Have a reportoire of songs that you are comfortable with. I always carry these along with me on my smart phone. At a party it is good to be prepared thus. I have found at many parties you can't connect your smart phone to the speakers. So keep a pair of cables handy - you never know when it will be of use. You have to create an atmosphere that is comfortable for you. Thus try to be prepared with your own songs and equipment. Don't jump into singing any song at a party. That is why you need to select those that you have practised. After all, at a party, you want to entertain the guests.

You might find sites online that relay the songs with lyrics. That might be a good subsricption. I like to have the lyrics in front of me and let my practice dictate the technique. Just find your own comfort zone for what works with you.

At a Karaoke party, be prepared to sing one or two songs. With other guests pitching in, you might not have too much time. Select songs that the audience can relate to not that you personally relate to. If you have a lot of time for singing, then you can experiment with more. If it late at night, the guests will be tired. So choose a mellow song to start with; don't jump into a high energetic song right away. Select songs that are not too challenging. This isn't a singing competition; songs that entertain are best - pacy/rythimic songs, more background music help.

Keep practicing. The song that you sang so well one day might not work out on another day if you jump straight into it. I have attempted singing the same song at home later on and found I have forgotten nuances such as when to start, etc. So it is a good idea to make a few notes on your lyrics sheet - where to pause, which to repeat. The lyrics aren't always accurate - especially if you are getting one from India!! Words are mis-spelt, repeats aren't marked, etc.

Thank You, IRS!

2011-11-19T13:07:00.001-05:00

It is rare that anyone can thank the IRS. In August we got the dreaded notice that we hadn't declared some taxable stock transactions for the tax year 2009. There was this daunting letter about penalties and time to respond, etc. After the initial surprise, we contacted our Accountant who found out that indeed those transactions were missed out. After a quick review, he found out that we had actually incurred a loss. So we filed an amendment. The net result, we got a refund of some two hundred dollars!! Thank you, IRS! Any money back is welcome.

Did you find your passion yet?

2011-11-16T19:29:00.001-05:00

I think I found a new passion late in my life - karaoke singing. If you haven't tried this, you should. It is so enjoyable and a great past time. First off, I had been to a friend's place for a birthday and found the Karaoke singing in the party a great entertainment. What I was so impressed was the sound that was coming out of the speakers - the music was a delight to hear in a fairly large family room. I didn't venture to sing on that day. Some of the guests sang looking at the lyrics from meragana.com and seemed to enjoy it.

Once I came back, I started researching karaoke machine. My idea was that when children come to our house, they will have a good time. First I bought one from Amazon - Emerson GQ756 CDG Karaoke Player. I found I can barely hear the voice even with volume turn all the way up to maximum. Thus this went back to Amazon - one of the few items I have returned to Amazon over the past 10 years or so.

I decided to try out a machine before I purchase so I headed to Best Buy. After some looking around, I saw the same one as was there at my friend's home - a Singing Machine 1028-N. Some of its features

- iPod dock
- Auto voice control - works with specifically created audio CDs where the voice is on a separate track. With this feature you can suppress the voice to a low extent that you can sing-along and hear only yourself.
- Input from an auxiliary source
- Audio out for recording the output on an external recorder.
- Video display where you can see the lyrics from a CD+G disc
- Echo control
- Two microphone inputs
- Two microphones
- Two speakers with 7 watts each - enough for indoor singing

The finish was extremely nice but while it was a portable unit, it wasn't a small box that you can carry in an hand. But that wasn't a big deal for me. My main requirements were #3, 4, 7.

After getting the machine, I found that my voice was heard easily on the speakers. The sound from the instrumental was phenomenal. I was impressed.

This kicked off my urge to try singing. In the recent past I had been to India on a vacation and had got a Kannada karaoke CD. Thus started my newest passion - singing. When we visited another b'day party, the two songs I sung were received very well. You can't feel happier if there are many requests for encore at your first attempt in public singing, can you?

I found the microphones a bit less effective though compared to the background music. I ordered a 'Behringer XM8500 Dynamic Microphone, Cardioid'/ At about $20 it is a steal. The voice output is outstanding and it has a built in pop-filter to take away those hisses and pops from your voice. You will need to purchase a cord with this - a XLR female -1/4in male ; I got the 'Pyle Pro PPMJL30 30' Professional Microphone Cable 1/4" Male to XLR Female'. All in all, my karaoke setup is almost complete. Well, I might need a second better microphone, but I can live without it for sometime.

A Week in the life of an SA consultant..

2011-10-29T16:00:00.000-04:00

I arrived at DigitalCement and met this charming Tech Manager who went over the infrastructure setup for the install. There were a total of nine high-powered Windows 64-bit servers, with the web, app, reporting and microsites serves all on their own VLANs, Only the app server was behind the firewall. I had gone over the setup a bit the week earlier so I wasn't too overwhelmed or anything. He set me up with another charming young man with bright eyes who got me access to the servers. I was on my way to finish a record at least 9 server setup in a week. The work rolled by - this is what happens when you know what you need to do. By the end of day I was a bit behind schedule as I was needed on all meetings. When you are the first consultant to be on-site, the clients thinks you know everything even though my role was made clear earlier. My job was to setup Aprimo and do the system level configuration so that the Implementation consultants can do their job of helping the client start using Aprimo. I broke out for a quick lunch at the nearby Quiznos.

I was in a 2 hour meeting trying to answer every question, making sure I will get back on those that I didn't know answers for and feeling a bit frustrated with things I shouldn't be answering such as implementation specifics for e.g., things to keep in mind when designing segmentations or best practices for designing Microsites. I finally got back to my work. It was about 7:30 PM before I sent my status update for the day to the team and left the building. I thought some fresh air will do a tired soul good and decided to walk. Once back in the room, it was too much of an effort to step out and get dinner, so I ordered room service - the pizza was okay. I left half of it and stuffed it back in the refrigerator knowing pretty well I wouldn't be eating it again - there was no microwave in the room anyway.

Tuesday and Wednesday were rougher with long days and questions still unanswered about how to support multiple microsites. I got the conversation started with Product with replies back about possible but untried solutions. It can be very frustrating when you face the client and they have a business problem and I have to say we need to try this out. But I wasn't going back to the client yet about the solution. Let it run through some more thinking. By end of Tuesday, I started to catch up with the schedule I had promised - lost time was mainly due to some delays from the client side to get me access Monday morning and time lost in discussions which I didn't have to be part of. Also one of the servers got bad and we had to request a rebuild of it. After work, I was now used to walking to the hotel.

Toronto downtown is more beautiful than New York city. Its buildings have architecture both of old and new. The newer building experiment with the facade and interior more. The mall on Bay street close to work is probably the best mall interior I have seen anywhere with 100s of arches 4 storied high on the inside making for some spectacular space. The food court there was also great and I got some Indian food for dinner two days in the week. As I used to approach the hotel, I could see the CN tower slowly undulating between dark and lighted exterior making for some spectacular sight. I got some photos of it but knowing it was dark, my expectations weren't high.

By end of Wednesday, I was back on schedule and ready to test the setup. I ran into a few issues and not enough support, but pinged my group and got some involvement. Finally I managed to resolve the issues was felt great Thursday evening. When you have a problem on hand, the single most KEY thing to know is that you must believe that you can solve the problem. Once you have that belief, things start to work out. I have experienced this again and again over the past four week. With such belief, you avoid to trip on the Frustration Rd. Make it a habit to develop such belief. After nearly three restless sleep-less nights, I had a good sleep.

On Friday, the domain wasn't hooked up with the load balancer as scheduled. I finished setting up a simple microsite and testing it. Again, when I ran into an issue where the microsite wasn't getting published, I took a step back and assured myself that I can solve it. This cleared up my mind and I started seeing possible solutions. Imagine when you think you solved a problem or two and think it is going to be easy downhill from here on - there most likely will be other problems presenting themselves. Hence don't rest on what you accomplished, but use the learning you gained. The learning in my case was not the technical solutions, but developing the sense of belief of a definite solution. At 4:30 I packed up my things and took a taxi back to Toronto International airport. There was hardly any crowd at the airport - Thursday evenings should be the busier evening. My flight was at 8 PM but with immigration and security at foreign airports, it is always a good idea to get in more than 2 hours earlier. I went to my gate and found the 6 PM flight to Philly was almost done boarding. I check with the agent at the gate and she put me on the flight. With a Chai latte in my hand, a laptop bag I squeezed myself into the small 64-seater plane. There was barely any space to even put down my chai so I could take my coat off. I somehow managed that and we started taxi-ing only to stop for about 20 minutes due to weather delays at Philly. Rama had said there would be 4 inches of snow Friday night - that would be a record as it was still October!!. Anyway, I was happy to get back home for dinner. What I had learned on this trip was worth way more than what I had accomplished.