My official trip to SFO and unofficial/personal trip to NY - both were awesome from "tourist" perspective. Though I did end up spending a lot, I still feel lucky and happy that I got to see what i wanted to. I wish I could write down all of the experiences, some funny, some exotic, some tiring but all in all beautiful.

Listing for my future reference, though not in any particular order -

Paris, yet again :-)

Landing at Seattle!

First sighting of Oracle HQ office.

Aviation museum at SFO, lunch at Sky kitchen.

San Fransisco city with Savita, Deepankar and Rajesh - Golden Gate bridge, Fisherman's wharf, the cruise around GG, 39th pier, Girahardelli, Lombard street, Union Square, china town, the dinner at Collibri, followed by the time spent at the Irish pub and Starbucks..

Next day we headed to a mountain (the name of which I have forgotten) and then to Napa Valley; we stopped at Sonoma County and looked around a bit before we headed back and enroute visited Savita's place.

Hillsdale Malls - another of those large shopping malls in the US, best remembered by me for my ipad and iphone shopping.

The evening spent with Prajakta at Hillsdale Mall and dinner at cheese cake factory. the catching up after years.. reminiscing Persistent.. the free and awesome lunch, snacks.. Ajay, Vishal and rest of the team.

Frys, Costco, BestBuy, Donuts shop (the name of which I have forgotten) - courtesy Ashok.

Fremont - to Ashok's place. The Great Mall thereafter where in I shopped a little with Ashok's family :)

Belmont, Crystal Springs and the other beautiful place with a view - again courtesy Ashok! These places were very very beautiful. The feeling of being there and witnessing the views and breathing in the air can't be captured by any photograph!

Evening spent with Jean and his family - Just awesome.

Gokarting - Though I was damn tired after this one, it was still an experience I would cherish! That's the longest I have driven without a teacher besides me ;-)

Non stop chatting with Rajesh - be it in office, hotel and elsewhere (When i was awake!)

Lunch/Dinner at Izzy's, Sky Kitchen, Mistral, Caparino, Chipotle, Unna Mas, Yeah, CheesCake Factory, Oracle HQ 300, 400, 600!

Flight to NewYork - I understood the true meaning of cattle class after I traveled 5 hrs in this leg of my tour!

New York - landing and sighting of people at JFK. normal people. people from all strata. people of all color. the small hotel room. so leveling. reminded me of Mumbai. love that place.

With Rajesh, Yogesh -
The ride in subway and getting off at the wrong place and walking our way to Times Square. An awesome walk and equally happening, lighted, buzzing and beautiful city. The best thing about the city is you don't need to painstakingly wait at every signal - aah so much like India ;-) Empire State bldg, TS, Madame Tuassads, Ripley's Believe it or not, NY Times.

Statue of Liberty sighting, ferry to SL, Wall Street, NYSE, China Town, Little Italy..

Finally back to JFK. Enroute Paris, back to Bangalore.

And ofcourse, MD and PC who were so gracious to come to drop and pick me at the airport to allay my parents' fears!

Retiring would be selfish. When I am at the top of my game. But me being at the top of "my" game - does it signify I am better than others who are at the top of their games? Fortunately for me, once I declare I am at the top of my game, no one can raise questions about it. Because I am, who I am. Some also revere me as God and they have actually empowered me to say this today. And unless I retire, I can't be dropped. I get to choose. Not only the series, match, but also the position where I bat. For e.g. I open in one dayers (Does that show my selfish streak.. naaa!). And that's where I belong. There might be a couple of youngsters in the offing who are the top of "their" game and better than me at the opening slot. But hey, as I said I can't be selfish now and quit. I am being rather generous and allowing those youngsters to relax and save their energy for some time later.. like say 22 years from now, when they would get to be selfless just like me!

P.S. I acknowledge the 100th 100, how ever it was achieved. But please let us not go on record about selflessness!

.. and the fun of it all. I always thought nothing beats selectivity in databases. But I was wrong.. As I grow older and wiser and walk through the day's travails I realise that nothing beats selectivity that we apply in our daily life! And just like in databases, this is really important, or is it??

Selective hearing, selective memory, selective response, selective liking and what not.

And ofcourse we have a rule applied to each of it!

The first two were the only ones that I noticed early in my lifespan and also the most evident till date. And since each of us has seen this, no point going into further. So lets explore the other 2.

Selective response: You respond only when you want to. And in all cases when you didn't respond, you were busy; but oh you didn't notice the question; aah, I missed the mail or missed the chat or what not. Ranging from personal to professional, this can be applied in all questions and random liners that you get and eloquently respond on why you missed it! Infact it is so deftly done, there is always a benefit of doubt involved and with "intentions can't be proved" so heavily looming in the air, the receiver can do nothing but just forget that (s)he didn't get a response.. Asking could turn out to be embarrassing!

Selective liking: Now ofcourse liking is always selective. And also legitimate. But not so when you are talking about FB liking.. Well! Liking has gained a totally new dimension with the advent of facebook. Now you like events, photos, calenders, status, random one liners, victories, loss and what not. There is just no room for dislike. Why? because FB doesn't provide that option. At the onset of FB there was so much pressure on all to "like" something because you ought to like.. now there is a lot of maturity/theory/social thinking evolved around this. You selectively like. What you need to do is just pretend you have been away from FB and missed the "update". Thankfully the "up"dates become "down"dates really soon with events pouring in from all quarters of life and replacing the older stories!
An even bolder approach is to go and like 10 others stories and show you didn't like this one particular event as it was not like worthy!
Selectivity can be as simple as - If the "up"date is from a "likable" girl and you are a guy, you have to like it. Impressing a girl with likes is the next best thing on earth for guys to express their solidarity, interest and fondness in the girl without being intrusive. This deserves a post by itself, so I will leave it at that.
I would have thought clicking the like is a harmless activity with no profit and loss involved. But not so. Now it has become a social prestige issue and at times seeing the 100 others liking a totally random and not so worthy story, you are forced to re-evaluate you liking of the story and make a conscious decision of whether to like it or not to like it. And that's selective liking for you!
And an even better way is the powerful use of like. write a really really nasty comment disguised as a "just kidding" note by "liking" the event.
But sometimes it also totally eludes me how people purposefully don't like an activity just in spite!

And there is also the concept of blind liking, which I religiously follow but deserves a post by itself and shouldn't be mixed up with selectivity :-)

How very long since I have written! Barring a piece I abandoned midway, I haven't really had the patience or the intent to write. Well, just before I forget those tit bits I enjoyed in the last month, here i goooo!


We lost each test match. And getting up early to watch the Australia series was hugely met with disappointment. T20s and ODIs have been a tad better.
***

Ricky Ponting's centuries were the only thing that went according to anticipation. If nothing else, he definitely rose in stature for me. What's been amazing to note is how he is living/playing out the different phases of his life. From the angry young brat, who scored runs to the experienced hot headed captain, who scored runs to the experienced and wise senior of the team, who still scores runs - he has been a driving force in the Australian team and has proved his worth all through. Ofcourse the last phase, is the one that I admire.
***

Australian Open was a lot of fun too. With Federer vs Nadal with Federer defeated yet again after being a set up. Djokovic vs Murray a rather too long affair with Djokovic winning in a blinder of a set. Djokovic vs Nadal again a loooongish match with the biggest rally in Aus open ever. And well deservedly won by Djokovic. And there was our own oldie Leander winning yet another match making us proud.
***

I have lost track of the number of movies I have watched in the last month- Kannada movies -Arakshana, Siddlingu and the rest Sherlock Holmes, Arthur's Christmas, Underworld - Awakening, Good Night Good Morning, Agneepath, Players to name a few!
***

With Oscars around, movie channels on TV have been dishing out awesome fare too. Like Gone Baby Gone that I watched today. One of the finest movies with an awesome story line. My respect for Ben Affleck, as a movie maker, just grew enormously after watching this one.
***

PC's birthday weekend - well spent with a lot of fun with MD, TC and earlier in the day with Aman and Tanusha too. Antakshari, food, politics, coffee and movie - all a lot of fun.

***

Morgan Freeman - I don't know him ofcourse. But whenever I see him in movies, there is an aura of assurance in what he does around him. Almost like he breathes his surname - "Freeman" every nano second of his life.

***

Reading hasn't been far behind. Read a couple of amazing mags - Caravan and Outlook Traveler and Subroto Bagchi's "Go Kiss the World". Some lessons for life in the latter one as it recounts the interesting professional experience of SB.

***
Sports, movies, writing, reading books - what more can be life about... Ofcourse, work - that pays me to spend time on all this and more!

I have had this feeling before. Of having thought that things can't be better than this. That everything is perfect. And then it comes all crashing down. I call it as God's own technique of grounding me. And yet I feel there is the need for deep introspection. Do I just assume things to be at their best. Is it just a rosy picture that I paint for myself, without scratching the surface? And then fail to come in terms with the reality? And should I go beyond the surface at all? Just enjoy things at face value and ignore what's not worth it?

How much more before I learn there is nothing that's perfect or even close to it? How much more before I attain nirvana!! And how much before I stop blogging this over and over again!

(And nothing earth shattering has happened for all those who are going to speculate and suggest therapies :P )

Completed "Keep off the grass" by Karan Bajaj. After a 5 point someone at IIT, I guess a book on IIM was in the order. A lot of system bashing and the ordeal that the students go through, the mad rush for grades, the hysteria for "right" placements, taking umpteen glasses of alcohol to wash down the anxiety or water down the disappointments or get into a different state of mind, or the hash and marijuana, which seems to be available in plenty, just about everywhere in the city forms most of the story! And then a suicide to complete the saga about how our education system is all about stress and screwed up et al.

Keeping all these stereotypes aside, what was really refreshing was some of the soul searching episodes, the conversations of what each of the trio (Sarkar, Samrat, Vinod) thought life was all about, how sometimes you need to walk back a few steps to move forward in life!

Some takeaways:
Superman Syndrome - thinking is a distraction to your goal of forever keeping busy.

These moments of idleness are not stagnant, there is a movement in them, an achievement.

and a few more which I didn't note in the nick of the time, and now it is too much work to go back to the book and find!

And yet another year has whooooshed past me. A year that marked several changes. Whether the changes were for good or bad, time will tell. It brought in a lot of experiences with new work and new people around to deal with.

People have always fascinated me as subjects to be dissected and intensely researched upon. I have many such cases, which are under diagnosis with interesting results.

City change has done little good other than making me sick more often.

The highly connected by roadways Bangalore is a total disappointment. There are many buses plying but you are sure not to get a direct bus to your destination.

I have read fewer books this year, spent more time than I would have liked to on facebook. Completed a marathon. Hardly read the news papers. Watched a movie almost every weekend! Followed cricket, tennis with almost same interest as before. Stayed up late, got up early and watched to my heart's content, argued with people and supported my favorites like crazy.

Been on the wrong side of the conversation on topics like Lokpal and fasting.

Chatted non-stop with a few new friends. Some old ones were not spared with either.

Vacationed at Thailand, which was definitely the highlight!

And to end the year had a mini adventure, which is part of my memories forever!

Hope the new year continues to dazzle me and all around.

Cheers to Life!

... hoIt is that time of the year when I search like crazy for all the predictions/horoscopes for the next year. Yes yes, I read horoscopes - the annual one and the monthly ones.

I don't remember a word of what I have read, say a day later, but that doesn't stop me from reading. It is the hope that it inspires, the anxiety that's put to rest, the curiosity that it infuses, the clairvoyant feeling that it brings in of there is definitely something called destiny which will take its course and what i do and what i think are just part of it - all tempt me to read my horoscope. Ofcourse when you divide people into 12 categories and assign "future" to them, it is not going to be 100% true. And neither do I really believe things would happen that way. And yet the aforementioned reasons push me to read.. I never go back to check whether anything really turned out to be true or false.

But these are those few quirky things I do because I have been doing it since I was a kid. And the habit just doesn't go away!

Aah, well so now let me go back to find the horoscope for the year. :-)

Growing up/old must be a very difficult process for most of us. Cause you need to act mature, have refined tastes, know what to like and dislike, what to say at the appropriate times, when to talk and when to shut up, do things at the right time, shun the evils, support the right causes, act and talk intelligently, keep the right company, know whom to agree and disagree with. Oh so much work, it seems!

Or you can keep it simple, just don't let that number which increments by one with each passing year affect you! Stay young, stay foolish! And ofcourse be ridiculed by all. But atleast be happy with yourself, all the time :-)

Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi, namumkin hain!

This is certainly the type of movie which SRK can reprise with elan. Don 1 was cool. Not only did it boast of superior camera work, but beautiful locales, story line that's suitably modified to suit the modern times kinds. Don-2 is that and much more (minus the story).

The locales are beautiful and Akthar manages to hide the "oh-so-many" flaws with superb camera work and focusing on the strengths. SRK plays his age and is cool on the eyes. His stunts, a not so well edited car chase (not as good as that of Don-1), hand to hand combat, and the ultra cool lines he spouts in moments of absolute hara-kiri, are fun. The romantic angle had me in splits and really though it didnt mean much, it finally kept us all guessing about SRK-PC!

The story line is not taut and doesn't engage you. But the movie keeps you hooked with "the SRK", Lara Dutta's suaveness, Kunal Kapoor's youthful enthusiasm and naivety. Priyanka looks distressed though her nose bridge and lips stand out (literally)! She does little except look hurt by her past experience with Don. Om Puri has the worst lines and could well deserve a Razzy for this one! Interpol has been shown to be utterly useless and you feel pity the way Priyanka looks lost with the people around her.

Hrithik looks cool in his cameo. Just enough to not have us fall for him and lose focus on the star "SRK"!

There is also enough scope left for a Don-3, if ever one plans of having it.

All and all, a decent watch!

(No, I am not a SRK fan. But I like watching him in such kind of movies, where he isn't reprising his KJ roles!)