Ninaivugal...Thoughts

India cash and carry, Sunnyvale

noreply@blogger.com (Praveen Krishnan) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 23:27:44 PDT

Bay area signifies a lot of positive things for an engineer. I've always dreamt about the place ever since I was in college, and after a few years of learning my wares at the mid-west, I moved to the west coast. San Francisco, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Santa Clara and so many other small cities signify the heart of the tech population in the country. Every lane, every street, every building in every corner, houses an engineering setup - startup or a multi-national. When friends from other cities come over for a visit (which itself is rare when you are in the mid-west), they drool at the sight of these companies.

"Man, I need to come here."

"This is the place to be, for a techie" and so on.

The weather is cool, doesn't get into the extremes, although the winters can be colder than to your liking. Whatever it is, there is something that makes bay area tick when it comes to engineering. Being an Indian, unlike in any other part of the US, you would see Indians (Asians in general) in clusters in the major areas of South Bay. Sunnyvale can be a mini Malleswaram or a mini Mylapore, with lines of Indian restaurants - some of them chains (Saravana Bhavan) and some of them local joints (India Chaat Cuisine, Madras Cafe, Chaat House, etc). Simply waiting for a seat in these restaurants on a busy day can knock off your hunger.

Shopping in bay area in an Indian grocery store is an experience by itself. The most popular grocery store in the area is the India cash and carry located on El Camino Real in Sunnyvale. There is nothing Indian not available in this store. Be it the powders - turmeric, cumin, cinnamon, coriander, different types of Rice masalas, different types of lentils, various types of rice - boiled, raw, half-boiled, par boiled, white, brown; flour - wheat, all purpose, corn and what not; vegetables - taro, sweet potato, white pumpkin, sweet pumpkin and so on. So, there is nothing that is not available in this store. And so, you can imagine the number of Indians shopping here. Be it a normal occasion or a special occasion, the checkout line is a long line around the store. So, it is better to hunt in pairs - one does the shopping and the other stays in the checkout line. Then, you have people nudging and when you are busy trying to pick the right vegetables, a hand slips in from behind with a wry smile and a gruff "Excuse me".

Dude, what about me. I am doing the same thing. Patience!

You don't say anything as you are sure he is not going to listen to it.

In fact, shopping here has to be absolutely pre-planned. If you happen to go on a weekend at about 5 or 6 in the evening, you can forget the rest of the evening. It can be an enervating experience. After all the shopping, the only thing you end up doing is heading to the nearest restaurant. You are literally drained of all your energy. It can also cause a lot of anxiety and turmoil at home.

Oh no, we have to go to India cash and carry. We have to buy this, this and this.

OK, let's do this. You go to this aisle. I'll go here and so on.

I mean, I have never been involved in a first hand shopping plan like this. Who would sit and strategize how to shop at an Indian grocery store. But trust me, if you live in Sunnyvale and you end up shopping at this place, you too would plan.

"OK, I'll cook for the evening. I'll put the clothes in the washer and dryer. I'll clear up the kitchen as well. But, you should go to India cash and carry", I would say. I think this is still a fair deal than doing the shopping.

"No, I am the one who went the last two times. Now, it is your turn. I can take care of everything at home." She would say.

I still would not give up.

OK, I'll go to another store. Will that work? I would ask even though I know what I'll be getting.

No. He has fresh fast moving stock. You can be rest assured that the vegetables are fresh, and in any case, you need to buy the Indian vegetables only here. Since we would anyway end up going here, we might as well buy the other things as well.

This is what I can't understand. I don't know how it affects you if you buy vegetables from elsewhere that has maybe 75% freshness as compared to here.

Anyway, this is a weekly routine. We would huff and puff, but anyway somehow, get the job done.

The first time I went to this store on a busy evening, I thought there was a traffic jam near the store, only to realize that it is a normal shopping experience. On a weekday evening, a day before a festival, I have spent half an hour trying to find a parking spot in a complex that can easily accomodate 100 cars only to park my car in an adjacent street a couple of blocks away from the complex. That was the last time ever I went on the previous evening of a festival.

In the US, everyone has a unique visa experience. Everyone has a story to tell. That's exactly the way it is when it comes to shopping at India cash and carry. There is every chance that an Indian living in South Bay may not know some of the tech companies, but there is no way that he will not know India cash and carry.

Taiwan

noreply@blogger.com (Praveen Krishnan) — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 05:54:35 PST

Travelling is fun. There are no two ways about it. You always pick something new when you see a new place. My friends, who are on constant business visits to China, when they tell me about their experiences, I wonder how it would be for a vegetarian to survive in a South East Asian nation. I didn't have to wait long enough as I was sent to Taiwan on a business visit along with a colleague.

Taichung, Taiwan

I found my window seat on the plane. Of course, I was expecting a middle aged man or an old lady to find his/her seat next to mine. That's the way it's always been. All the good looking girls were seated right behind me or just ahead of me. Obviously, I was totally surprised, when a young lady walked towards the seat next to mine. Something had to be wrong, I was sure. Anyway, the introductions were done. She was a French girl settled in the US. Fun company, I thought. I checked my Lumia 920 for the messages. I saw my wife's message on WhatsApp asking me how long before my flight took off. Details about the flight were immaterial now.

"Looks like I have good company for the flight. A cute French girl seated next to me."

"Don't bore her. She might jump off the plane", she responded.

Almost immediately, a guy walked towards us and told the French girl that she was seated in his seat. She looked towards me and said, "This is actually my seat."

"Is this 69K?" I asked.

"Nope, this is 70K"

I took my stuff and took the seat right in front of me.

"Oh, that was the wrong seat. Had to move a row ahead. Anyway, things back to normal. A middle aged lady seated next to me", I "whatsapped" my wife.

"Hahaha, Good Night", she said.

It is a different thing that the lady was very helpful and we ended up talking a lot about Taiwan, the culture, the food and the people. It was actually great fun.

Once we landed at Taipei, we had to take the high speed rail to Taichung. The high speed rail travels at 200 kmph. The infrastructure was pretty impressive. The days were busy at work, but during the evenings, I had a chance to explore the city and try out the food. My colleague and the host in Taiwan accompanied me during the evenings. As long as they were there, I didn't have to worry about the food. They were able to make sure that I got the vegetarian food. I don't think I could have entered any hotel without them and be convinced that I ate the right food.

Basil Tofu

I also made it a point to travel on my own whenever possible during the short stay. I went to Eslite Bookstore in Taichung at about 10 in the night. It was open till 12 and what struck me was the fact that there were so many folks spending time in a book store that late in the night. The area around the bookstore was pretty awesome as well, with a lot of young people adding so much energy to the area.

Eslite Bookstore

Three Idiots - At the bookstore

The hotel booked a cab to take me to the area. Anticipating that I could have problems during my return, I took the hotel business card with me. So, when I had to take the cab back at about midnight, all that I had to do was show the business card and ask the cab driver to take me to the hotel.
I would ask them, "English?"

They would be quick to reply, "No, no English."

For me, to sit in the cab without talking for fifteen twenty minutes is like facing a life sentence.

Anyway, I had a chance to try out veggie dumplings, vegetable hot pot, basil tofu and tapioca and taro desserts. There is no dearth of food in Taiwan. There is food everywhere, in every nook and corner, and tons of hotels and food carts. The city is always bustling with life. The night life is very very active. The night market is also pretty cool.

A funny sign - I have never seen this anywhere else

Bikes for commute

Taiwan <-> English

I asked some folks where I could get local Taiwanese items to take back home. They replied, "There are many Departmental stores". So, as I walked towards a departmental store, I saw a mall which was pretty sophisticated (All the American apparels and items are found in the malls). Again, I asked a lady at the mall

"Where is a departmental store?"

"You are standing in a departmental store", she replied. That's when I realized that a mall is a departmental store.

"Departmental Store" - Very very commonly found

Taipei

On the last day of my trip, I had my flight at about 8 in the evening. So, I wanted to see the city during the day. It was good fun taking the high speed train and the metro train to hang out in Taipei alone. I had a bunch of important places written in English as well as Taiwan at the hotel lest I get lost. Even though language is a problem, the people in Taiwan are super friendly. On the train, there was a girl sitting next to me who did not know English, but was able to use her phone to translate the sentences in English.

Taipei 101

And yes, almost everyone who entered the train, would enter peering at their phones. It was always Facebook and instant messaging that they were preoccupied with. If Mark Zuckerberg can monetize mobile traffic, maybe the super high PE of 2000 would look justified. Galaxy S3s, Notes and iPhones were the prominent phones that I could see.

All in all, a good trip, and it was fascinating that I could see the city alone without actually knowing Taiwanese.

India trip - Learnings

noreply@blogger.com (Praveen Krishnan) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 23:25:26 PST

Coincidence is a rare thing. It happens all the time, but unless it is absolutely explicit, you don't realize that there was actually one. Some of the worst and best things in life are those that happen on the spur of the moment, and somehow, when they seem to be remotely connected, they add a new flavor to the whole situation. Mostly, you're making a reference to someone, when the same person either calls you the next instant or shows up on you. You call it a happy coincidence or a comeuppance depending on your equation with the reference.

You question yourself occasionally.

Recently, I was at a point where I was questioning my beliefs and the whole purpose of existence, presence of God and so on about things which I have no idea of, and which even if I read a million texts, would ascertain none. I spoke to a lot of people, and most of them have been through this phase or dismiss it as over the board thinking. Whatever! I am surprised that people think I think. Thoughts have never been my strength and when you couple that with profundity, I am a goner.

So, on my recent India trip, with a billion thoughts running in my head, my wife, my mother-in-law and I caught a local bus in Chennai when we headed out to this Express Avenue Mall in the heart of the city. It's a good mall, but it's nowhere compared to that other one in Bangalore, called as Orion Mall. Orion Mall makes you feel like as though you are in the US within India. Anyway, as we picked the last row of seats in the bus and were immersed in our conversations, a couple of old ladies sat next to me to fill the remaining seats. Right in front of them was a middle aged couple. As these old ladies started talking about the vagaries of their work and the helplessness that came out of it at various times, the middle aged man sitting right in front turned back and got into the conversation. Such a thing is pretty common in India.

"Sorry for interrupting, but since you talk about helplessness, I have my own stories to tell."

He went on about how he was ill treated by his sisters and how his wife suffered all these years in submissive silence. He then looked at me and said the following.

"Brother, I will tell you something. There is God. Don't lose faith in God. Keep your faith. If not for God, this world would have suffered destruction long time ago."

My wife and I immediately glanced at each other. She knew what was running in my head. If Paulo Coelho was sitting nearby, he would have immediately told me to understand the signs. But then, how some things unfold in life is mesmerizing and beyond belief.

Anyway, I purchased a Kindle version of "The complete works of Swami Vivekananda" to understand more and pick the brains of one of India's finest philosophers. It's not an easy read, but then I did not set myself any lofty ambitions. I figured I'd read one chapter a day and not more.

Coming to my favorite topic of food, which I can talk endlessly and with a lot more assurance and confidence. When you go to India, one of the things that you can't escape and that you wouldn't want to miss is food. Any food is good food back home.

So, my routine in India was something like this.

Go out for a walk in the morning with my father, eat something on the way (pre-breakfast if I may call that way), get back home, have breakfast, take a nap due to jet lag or whatever, get up and have lunch, then watch TV, have some tea, have a light snack, head out, eat chaats or one of the thousand things that's lined up on Bangalore streets, then come back and eat. I didn't even feel like adding a full stop to that sentence. Even a full stop feels like an insult there.

Half the time, we were meeting people and going out, but there was one common factor in all this - food and more food. There was no dearth of good food. I just devoured. I was eating as though I would never eat again in my life.

And then, what happened? I developed a severe stomach infection. I stalled visiting my doctor; he has seen me since I was a little kid. Eventually, I did visit him. He examined my stomach and let out a guffaw.

"What's it Doctor?", I asked with the same meekness like I used to when I was a kid.

"You've been over-eating, Praveen. Just take this medicine and you'll be fine."

I took his instructions grinning at him sheepishly. I mean, who would get treated for over-eating. It just felt dumb. So, when I came back home and told my wife that it was my over-eating that had caused this, she gave me a look that felt exactly like the way I felt after reading about Jab Tak Hai Jaan in the reviews.

So, if you see, an India trip teaches you a lot of things. A person in the bus told me that God exists and a person in white coat told me that I was over-eating.

Contradictions

noreply@blogger.com (Praveen Krishnan) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 10:26:49 PST

Recently, we moved apartments. It neither looks simple nor is it. As we packed the different, unwanted items that we have accumulated over the years, my wife and I had different solutions for the same problem. For each and every box that gets added to the list, I had, rather have, a simple solution,

"Let's chuck it. Why do we need this?", which, unfortunately, is diametrically opposite to the position held by her - "Oh, we can buy a small shelf to offset this problem?" It doesn't require an Einstein to figure out who wins these arguments.

For me, the whole process of discarding is pretty simple. If you don't use something over a period of time, just discard the item. The philosophy is straightforward and I explained this to her, "See, when we move to the new apartment, let's not unpack some of the boxes. It's okay if the apartment is a mess for some days. At least, we will know the items that we are using and those that we don't. So, if we don't unpack something for a month or two, it means we should never ever be needing that box. One of my ex-colleagues did exactly that(I think I have mentioned this in one of my earlier posts). He told me that when he was moving from Colorado to Kansas, he saw some boxes in the basement of his house. "Praveen, I just dumped these boxes in the trash. If I did not need these boxes for ten years, there's no way in the world I would be needing them now. So, I just put them in trash." Sounded like an absolutely logical thing to do. And, one of the other things we differ is, when it comes to home decor. I just want to keep things plain and simple. I still don't get what's the idea behind wall hangings. Why can't you just leave the walls plain?

"We need to get some paintings", my wife said.

The monologue would continue further. "This will certainly refresh the living room decor. Why in the world would you want to keep the walls plain?"

There lies the fundamental difference between a man and a woman, I thought. First of all, men are lazy, and don't want additional responsibility to manage extra items in a cramped apartment. I don't know how women get that extra energy to maintain what I would consider them to be unwanted items. As my friend put it recently, "It doesn't matter what they buy man. It hurts the most, when they place the painting at two different positions in the living room and expect you to opine which of the two places is the most favorable to hang the painting. I just can't take that."

For me, over the years, one of the things I have found most difficult to throw out is the collection of books. In the Kindle age, it is not hard, space consuming to maintain an e-library. But, what about those books which you have bought over a period of time? There is this emotional attachment that has developed along with the dust and cobwebs. I certainly don't regret taking my RK Narayan collection or The Complete Collection of Sherlock Holmes among the many others, because these are books that I have read multiple times over a period of time. But, there are some books that I have not even opened. The smudges of the fingers on the title page may exist because of the transfer of location, but beyond that, it is a brand new book on the inside. I haven't opened them in years, and I am pretty confident that I will not read them ever. But, as soon as I make a mental note of taking the book out of my book shelf, emotionally, I feel like a criminal for even having thought about it. In the end, the books remain and follow us from one location to the other, yearning and begging to be read some day. But, then, I know, human mind is changing constantly. You never know when you need something until you actually need them (thankfully, I apply this logic only to books). I reassure myself superficially, and with extra care (whatever that means in the world of dust and cobwebs), preserve these books.

I look at some of the boxes she has packed. I look at my wardrobe collection stuffed into a box, and then her collection stuffed into boxes. I look at her. She looks at me. I do what any sane man will do in these times. I keep my mouth shut and move on to the next box.

Navarathri - Golu, Sundal and Geometry

noreply@blogger.com (Praveen Krishnan) — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 15:43:54 PDT

Navarathri Golu

It's not unusual for people to get excited about Oktoberfest, the annual beer fest held in Bavaria, Germany. In the other part of the world, in the month of October, falls the annual Navarathri festival that lasts for 10 days. Even though the Hindu calendar takes precedence in deciding the date on which Navarathri falls, as far as I can remember, it somehow coincides with the month of October. Of course, as with every festival in the Indian community, there are many theories as to why we celebrate Navarathri. One of the Hindu traditions during this period is the exhibition of dolls and clay figurines at home. This display of dolls is called as Golu.

Kondapalli Dasavatharam

This year, Hema and I wanted to keep a simple Golu at our California apartment. Now, moving from Kansas to California is a huge step, simply because of the difference in culture between the mid-west and the far west. For us, some of the greatest differences we observed were the steep rental prices here and the massive crowd that followed in any shopping complex. In Kansas, we have always obtained parking spots as soon as we entered a shopping complex, but in California, you literally had to fight for the spots. I digress. All that I wanted to say is the living room space here is a lot lesser compared to our Kansas apartment. But, one of the greatest perks of living in California that overrides everything else in Kansas is the festive atmosphere here. Just the day before Navarathri, we walked into Komala Vilas to buy a couple of dolls, and it was like a mini-Malleswaram or a mini-Mylapore. There was such a huge crowd in there, with a swarm of maamis and families fighting for the dolls of their choice. It is a common experience in India, but in the US, it is a unique experience. We had to walk into another Indian store to realize that it is a common experience in the bay area as well. It is easy to get carried away by the festive spirit here. We felt that living in a big city, and especially in the bay area, truly has its perks.

Kondapalli Hanuman

The best thing about Navarathri is the Sundal. When I was in India, since I was in an apartment housing, I would visit a number of apartments just to get a packet of sundal from every maami's place. The taste and flavor of sundal is different and variegated in every home. And when you visited a temple, you would again be getting sundal as prasadam (temple offering). That beats any sundal prepared by any maami. The temple offering adds a unique flavor to the sundal.

As I mentioned before, since our living area is small, we had to dismantle our dining set first and place it in the room. Since all the items from the living room had to make their way to the bedroom, it meant that we had to clean up the room. Since the room had to look clean, we had to move a ton of stuff to the storage area. In short, we had to clean the entire apartment. This was also our best chance to remove all the unwanted junk that was lying in many hidden corners. So, as we set out to create our Golu for this year, we were posed with a number of unique challenges. You basically have to create raised platforms or steps of different levels to place the dolls. So, this is how we went about creating the steps.

First Step - Kamakshi Amman and Gayatri Devi with the Marapachi dolls

We have a moving trolley on which we place our day to day items like a big plastic box of wheat and a big box of rice. We also have the mixer and grinder in place there.

"Why don't we use this as the topmost step?", Hema asked me.

I was like, Use whatever you want. Why ask me?

I acted as if I was pondering carefully.

I said, "Sure, why not? That seems like a good idea!" This is one of the things I realized from marriage. Once the idea comes from the wife, it always is a good idea. Period.

So, I placed it carefully at the instructed place. She told me to move the trolley by an inch. You guessed it right. I moved it by an inch.

"Haan, this looks better."

Honest to God, I could not see the difference.

We pulled out a couple of cartons, and big flat box to place it on the couple of cartons to create the next step. For the last step, we placed a couple of plastic boxes containing rice and wheat flour, and placed a flat box to create the third step.

Second Step - Dasavatharam, Lakshmi, Saraswati and Hanuman

"You know what. We have a problem", she said. The second box does not subtend an angle of 180 degrees. She could as well have said that the box is not in a straight line. Or maybe that's what she said, and I understood the former. This is how elaborate it feels when somebody asks you to do some household work.

I mean, I made sure it was on a straight line.

Then the boxes. We placed the box of wheat and rice and then placed the cardboard on top of them. Luckily, we had bought a new pack of rice which wasn't emptied on to this box. If not, we would have had to remove the rice out and put it in a separate cover.

What about the wheat flour? Take it out and place it in a bag, otherwise, we won't be able to have chapathis for two weeks.

I said, "No problem. I will skip chapathis for two weeks. Absolutely no problem for me."

That problem of pouring the wheat flour to the bag and making a complete mess of the carpet (since it would have been me emptying the box, I can assure you that the carpet would have been messed up) was thankfully circumvented.

Third Step - Aachi and Chettiar selling their wares

We then covered the entire arrangement with a brand new dhoti. I thought it looked good. For me, even placing the dolls on just the carton boxes would have been fine. But then, it's not me who gets to decide on these things.

But the dhoti did not cover the sides properly. It exposed the cartons and the wooden stand from the side.

What's my reaction?

Oh, wow, this looks awesome. This is really good.

No. We need to cover the sides. We need to place one more dhoti.

Then, we examined the three steps. Everything looked good. To Me.

We need to move it to the right by a few centimeters.

I wanted to wiggle out of this.

Sugarcane in Kamakshi Amman's hand

We followed the whole process again. Then, we started to place the dolls. After several permutations and combinations, we arrived at what we figured was the best arrangement.

She observed the setup.

We did not place the dhotis like the way we placed them the first time. Can we(read I) remove the dhotis and place them back again, exactly like the way they were before?

I didn't even try to figure out what she was saying. These artistic patterns go over my head. I nodded and placed them like the way she expected them to be.

See, the borders now line up exactly at the corners. That's how I wanted.

I was happy that she was happy. She was still examining like a surgeon.

You know what, the height from the first step to the second step is not the same as the height from the second step to the third.

I couldn't believe this was happening.

So, what do you propose to do?

Let us rearrange everything, and swap the second and third steps.

In the end, whatever keeps her happy.