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2010-11-26T16:20:00.001-06:00

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Trip to China!!

2008-12-23T01:09:00.030-06:00

We visited China in Fall this year for a conference. We were pretty excited about this trip but couldn't plan much for it in advance because of our schedule and classes. We took a direct United airlines flight from DC to Beijing. It was a 13 hour flight. We pretty much slept most of the time on the flight. The meals were not that great which was anyways expected from a US airline. We landed in Beijing in the afternoon. The airport is pretty impressive, especially the new international terminal that is a dragon-shaped building. We took a taxi to our hotel (Friendship hotel). The taxi driver couldn't speak or understand English. Luckily, we had our hotel name written in Chinese script to show to the driver. It was a 45 minute drive. The skies were pretty hazy and smoky that day, though they were much clearer on the remaining days of our stay. Later, a tour guide told us that due to the paralympics, the number of vehicles on roads were being controlled. Only even numbered vehicles were allowed on one day and only odd numbered vehicles on the next day in order to control the traffic and pollution. That was a pretty impressive way to handle the situation. On our way we got to a glimpse of the Birds Nest. The modern buildings in Beijing were absolutely amazing and beautiful. We reached the hotel and checked into our room. Thankfully, some of the staff at the reception were able to speak English. After freshening up, we took a tour of the hotel which is garden style hotel and quite spread out on a huge area. We walked around the various buildings, sports complex, shopping, centers and restaurants. This hotel is a historic and old one and is called the Friendship hotel as a mark of the friendship between Russia and China. The entire setup is architecturally very rich. I have attached a picture below. The hotel has 5-6 different buildings with a wide range of rooms starting from 5-star to 3-star levels. We stayed in the main building (Bldg. 1) and got exceptionally good service. We took it easy that night, got dinner from a shopping mall right across the road.

Friendship Hotel

On Days 1 & 2 in Beijing, we were busy all day at the conference. We had lunches at the Friendship Palace restaurant. It was a buffet lunch and had very limited vegetarian options. But we were glad to find something. In the evenings, we used to venture out to the Shopping malls around the hotel. We also managed to find an Indian restaurant close to the hotel. It was a short taxi ride. The best part about China is the inexpensive taxi rides. Of course the challenge is to communicate with the driver. The hotel staff used to write our destination name in Chinese for us to show to the driver.

On Day 3 we decided to go on a guided tour. We woke up early, had breakfast and were ready at 7:30am to meet our tour guide in the lobby. The tour guide picked a few more tourists (an Australian family, an Irish guy, and a Singaporean girl) and by around 8:30 am we started our tour in a mini-bus with about 8 of us. We first drove to Ming Tombs which was about 45 min. drive from Beijing. We got to see the statue of Chang Ling and went around the area of his tomb which was under a hill and not accessible. I am glad we were with a tour guide and at least got some idea of what we were seeing. Next we went to a Jade carving factory, where we were shown how to differentiate between a real jade and a fake one. We then spent some time in a showroom with lot of jewelery and different show pieces made of jades. Our next stop was the most awaited "Great Wall". We walked up the Great Wall to one of the watch towers and got to see some spectacular views from there. On our way down, back to the tour bus, we did some souvenir shopping. Then we had lunch at a traditional Chinese restaurant with a moving-center round table. Different type of food was placed on the table and everyone picked from the moving round table. After that we drove back to Beijing. It was almost 4pm. Our next stop was a tea house to experience a tea ceremony. We got to taste different kinds of tea and of course the main objective was marketing their products. After that we passed by the Birds Nest (Olympics stadium) and Water Cube and got some pictures there. We could not go inside as tours had not started at that time. After the long day we were pretty tired especially due to the hike on the Great Wall.

Great Wall

Bird's Nest (Olympics Stadium)

On day 4 we had planned for another guided tour of downtown Beijing. We again woke up early and went to have breakfast. Breakfast at Friendship hotel was our favorite activity. The breakfast buffet was extensive with a wide variety of items including soups and fried rice. That was one place where we there were numerous vegetarian items. The staff was extremely friendly and courteous. We thoroughly enjoyed having breakfast over there everyday. We liked it so much that we would assign an hour for it in the morning. Our tour guide called us when we were having breakfast to let us know that it was raining and we better get our umbrellas. We were unaware of this until she informed us. We rushed back to our room, grabbed our umbrella and met the tour guide in the lobby. Again, after picking all the tourists, our tour started at the famous "Forbidden City" which is the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties. It was a huge palace and the guide took us through the important buildings and briefed us on some of the history. This palace was called the Forbidden City as only members of the royal family were allowed inside and any one else who dared to enter the Forbidden City was killed. We entered the Forbidden City from the rear entrance and exited from the front entrance into Tiananmen Square which is supposedly the largest square in the world. There we got a pic with General Mao's picture. We walked around the square which was beautifully decorated. The guide told us a few things about the square though we didn't get into its controversial history. Next stop was a health research center, which was again one of those marketing stops to sell some herbal medicines. We got a free consultation with a Chinese doctor at the center who examined our hands and prescribed some herbal medicines for better health. Next, we visited the "Temple of Heaven". Only after seeing this temple, I realized that the picture we see most of the times on Chinese restaurant pamphlets here in US is the temple of heaven. We went around this gorgeous temple and its museum. The gardens around this temple had a number of old Chinese people exercising, playing, chatting, singing, and dancing. It was a very nice and peaceful atmosphere. We saw a few of them playing a game with something that looked like a shuttle cock but slightly bigger. They were hitting it with their legs and seemed to enjoy it. We then had lunch and drove to the Summer Palace. We had to take a boat over a man-made lake to reach the Summer Palace which was built for the lady empress during the Qing dynasty. The palace is on a hill beside the beautiful lake. We got back to the hotel in the evening and got ready for the conference banquet - a Peking Duck dinner at one of the famous restaurants in Beijing. Although we didn't eat the duck, we enjoyed the restaurant. That night after dinner, the conference organizers had our bus stop at the Birds Nest. We got a slightly closer view of it at night, still from behind the fence.

Temple of Heaven

Summer Palace

We spent day 5 at the conference. I had to make my presentation in the afternoon. That evening some friends from the conference gathered together and we decided to go shopping. A local Chinese student was with us and he took us on a local bus to a nearby electronics shopping mall. The bus ride was amazingly cheap, just 1 yen. The difficult part about shopping in China is that one has to be an expert at bargaining. We looked at electronics for a while. Then we decided to go to the famous Wangfu Jing shopping area. This place is famous for its shops and street food. We got to see all kinds of street food, including fried sea horses. We did some souvenir shopping and applied all our bargaining skills there. We lost track of time as we were shopping and were there until after 10pm. We couldn't get a taxi at that time at a normal fare. There were 8 of us. We decided to take a bus instead which would take us half the way. The bus broke down after a little bit. We had to get off and change the bus again. We finally reached our hotel around midnight and just crashed.

On day 6 we started our day with our favorite breakfast. This was our last day in Beijing. We spent quite some time at breakfast and bid farewell to all the friends we had made there. We attended the closing at the conference. The hotel arranged a taxi for us to go to the airport. We were going to Shanghai. We managed to get air tickets after a great deal of ordeal. We wanted to take a train to Shanghai, tried to buy tickets from one of the booths close to our hotel. No one could speak English there. Luckily we met a Chinese girl who could speak English and eager to help us. With her help we found that all trains were sold out. We came back to the hotel and went to the travel desk for air tickets. Again after great deal of effort, we managed to explain to them what we needed. We used a Chinese-English dictionary that we were carrying. So here we were on day 6, ready to fly to Shanghai. On our way to the airport, we made one final stop in Beijing. It was the Lama temple. We bought audio guides at the entrance of the temple and spent an hour viewing the beautiful architecture of the temple and the beautiful Buddha statues. There was one huge wooden statue made out of one tree and holds a Guinness record. We reached the airport, checked in, looked for food. We found a subway where we got a couple of sandwiches and then we boarded our plane. We looked at the dragon shaped terminal as the plane took off and we bid farewell to Beijing. We reached Shanghai and took a taxi to Renaissance Yangtze Hotel. It was a short 20 min drive through Shanghai traffic. We were awestruck at the high rises in Shanghai. We felt we were transported to NewYorkCity or an even better place than NYC. We reached the hotel and saw they were celebrating the OktoberFest. We didn't join in as both of us don't enjoy beer. We checked into our room on the 26th floor. We kept gazing out of our window at the beautiful Shanghai skyline. That night we toured the hotel and its facilities. The hotel staff suggested a Punjabi Indian restaurant close by. We went there for a spicy and hot dinner. We strolled the shops in the area after dinner.

Lama Temple

Beijing International Airport

On day 7, after breakfast, we again met our tour guide in the lobby who was going to take us on a concise tour of Shanghai. We picked the remaining tourists that included an old Chilean couple, an old Spanish couple, a Malaysian girl, and an Indian guy. We started our tour with the YuYuan gardens. These gardens was a happy home built by a king to please his parents. We strolled this beautiful garden home and then the shops outside the gardens. Next, we went to the famous "Bund" which separates the new Shanghai from old Shanghai. We got to see the stunning skyline of the new Shanghai which was built from scratch in the last 10-20 years. There were people selling fake rolex watches and handbags on the Bund. After a short stroll on the Bund, we visited a Pearl factory. We were shown how to differentiate between fake and real pearls. We got to see their showrooms with beautiful jewelery and pearl creams were sold. Next we had lunch at restaurant "Ginger". After lunch we spent an hour at the Shanghai Museum at the People's Square. The People's square was beautifully decorated, had a nice fountain in the center, and was surrounded by architecturally beautiful and futuristic buildings. Next we visited the Jade buddha temple that had a Buddha statue made completely of Jade and another made completely of marble. This temple felt completely divine. They also had a tea house. We participated in the tea ceremony and tasted different kinds of tea. Our last stop was another Jade factory with a huge shopping center. They had huge jade Pishu's (Chinese dragon - supposed to bring fortune). That night we had dinner and went out shopping (saw some fake Gucci/Versace handbags).

YuYuan Gardens

Shanghai skyline from the Bund

Day 8 was the last day of our China trip. We were tired and woke up late. We had to go to Pudong International airport to catch our plane back to DC. We decided to take the Maglev instead of a taxi. Yes, a maglev - the only commercial Maglev that runs in Shanghai for a 30 mile distance to the airport. We took a taxi to the Maglev station, bought our tickets and were ready to board this most-awaited beauty. It was a 7 min. ride. During the first 3 minutes, the maglev accelerated to 430 km/hr (yes, I mean it). It maintained that speed for a minute and then spent the next 3 minutes to decelerate. I am extremely glad that we got a chance to ride the maglev. We reached Pudong airport, which is also another very nice airport. We flew back to DC via Chicago. For about 2 days, we were jetlagged. On the whole it is a memorable trip and would love to go back to China in future.

"Maglev"

"Max Speed"

Back after a looooong time!!

2008-12-22T12:59:00.014-06:00

Wow.. more than a year has passed since I posted here and a lot has happened during this year. My last post was in October 2007 and I just cannot believe that we are already at the end of 2008. During the later part of 2007, we were busy finishing up our research in order to graduate. We defended our dissertation in November. Finally, my husband and I graduated together with Ph.D. degrees in December 2007. The university made it very special by hooding both of us together on stage. It was an absolutely joyous time with my parents and family. We also made a trip to southern California, Las Vegas and Grand Canyon with my parents who were visiting us to celebrate this occasion. Immediately after graduation, our challenging days of "the move" began. We flew to Washington, DC to finalize an apartment. We spent a couple of days looking around and were absolutely overwhelmed with the cost of living and rental prices. After intense searching, we finalized an apartment in northern Virginia, about 15 miles away from downtown DC. We flew back to Texas and started packing. We spent a week packing and shipping off everything including one of our car. After that we spent a day handing over the old apartment, bidding farewell to friends and to Dallas. We had spent 6 years there and had really enjoyed living there. Hence, it was not easy to leave. Just before leaving Dallas, we made one last trip to the Dallas Museum of Art which had been on our list of things-to-do for a very long time. We spent an afternoon there and then started our 1300 mile drive to DC.

We drove for a week stopping at different cities on our way, sightseeing and spending time exploring them. We drove through the state of Arkansas and then into Tennessee. Our first stop was in Memphis, Tennessee. We spent the night there and in the morning explored Memphis downtown. We visited the Memphis Pyramid Arena (20000 seat arena) and clicked some pictures. We strolled on the banks of the Mississippi river for some time and then continued our journey.

Memphis, Tennessee

Our next stop was at the foothill of the "Great Smoky Mountains", in the city of Sevierville. We relaxed there for the night and drove into the mountains the next day. We spent all day going around Smoky Mountain National Park. We started out by driving through the Cades Cove loop road, a 11 mile drive through a valley that is surrounded by mountains. It was an absolutely beautiful sight and we also got to see some wildlife. We then drove through Newfound gap, saw the state line between North Carolina and Tennessee on these mountains, and then drove south all the way towards Cherokee to Oconaluftee Visitor Center. We saw the barn at the mountain farm museum, spent some time strolling in the valley and viewing the historic buildings there.

Great Smoky Mountain National Park

We then drove back to Gatlinburg, the city at the northern end of the national park. We took the sky lift (rope way chair) to a man-made ski resort. We didn't have time for skiing but went around the area and the sky lift in itself was great fun. Once we reached the top of the mountain we got to see the cities of Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg from the top. The sun had set and it was starting to get dark. We got to see a beautiful view from there. We came back to Gatlinburg and had dinner at a Chinese restaurant. The city was nicely lit up with lot of activity as it was Christmas day. We spent an hour strolling the streets, eating ice-cream and clicking pictures. We stayed in Gatlinburg that night. We woke up late the next day, spent a few more hours in the morning in Gatlinburg and the Smoky's.

Gatlinburg, at foothills of Smoky Mountains

By afternoon, we resumed our drive. Our next stop was in Bristol, Tennessee. It was a city on the Interstate 81 to Virginia. We relaxed in Bristol and next morning continued driving. We took a small diversion and drove through the scenic "Blue Ridge Parkway" which is listed as one of "America's Byways". We drove for a couple of hours on this scenic route and thoroughly enjoyed nature. We made stops at various vista points. After sunset, we got back onto the interstate and reached Herndon, Virginia (our friend's home, where we were going to camp for a day before moving into our new apartment) that night which was our final destination. The 1300 mile drive finally came to an end. It was a memorable drive and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Soon we were into year 2008. The month of January, we were pretty much settling down in our new apartment, new job, and in the new city. The remaining year just flew by and here we are ready to welcome another new year. We did a number of interesting and different things during the year. Hopefully I will find time to write about them soon.

The Fifth Generation - book!!

2007-10-03T10:15:00.000-05:00

I finally completed reading this book titled 'The Fifth Generation' by Edward Feigenbaum and Pamela McCorduck. I have been reading this book since a long time. It is about the fifth generation project that was launched by Japan in early 1980's. The project was to come up with a new generation of computer systems which were extremely fast as well as intelligent. It was designed to be a 10 year project with lot of funds assigned to it by the government of Japan. The idea was for Japan to make a strong position for itself in the computer world. The book talks about this whole project in detail, the fifth generation conference that was held to declare to the world about this project, and how various countries reacted to it. It talks in detail about how skeptic US was and a group of people motivated by this project who felt that US needs to respond to this challenge and in turn start working on it.

Eventually at the end of the 10-year period this project failed and had to be canceled. Of course the book does not talk about that as it was written while this project was in progress. The authors give details about research in the area of Artificial Intelligence at that point of time and all the logistics involved in getting funded for various research projects. It showed the perspectives of different countries towards research. The main idea was that in US a research project was considered important enough to be funded if it had applications for the defense department. Some parts of the book gets boring, but other parts of it had interesting and useful information. Good read for one who is interested in computer science research and especially for one who wants to know the history of Artificial Intelligence research.

Bread Upma and Mint Lassi !!

2007-10-02T22:00:00.000-05:00

Today I am going to write on how to make 'Bread Upma' which is actually my husband's recipe - a quick and tasty snack or possibly even a meal. Along with it is the drink 'Mint Lassi'. I first got to taste mint lassi back in India when a neighbor of my parents offered it to me. I had never heard of it before and loved the taste. I got the recipe from her right away.

MINT LASSI

Ingredients: (for 2 glasses of Lassi)
Mint leaves (1/4 bunch)
Cilantro leaves (1/4 bunch)
Grated Ginger (1/4 teaspoon)
Green Chilli (1 small)
Yogurt (2 cups)
Water (1/2 cup or adjust according to the consistency desired)
Salt (1/2 teaspoon or as per your taste)

Preparation:
Make a fine paste of the mint leaves, cilantro leaves, ginger and chilli. Add the yogurt, water and salt and blend the mixture (Add ice cubes if you like). The lassi is ready.

BREAD UPMA

Ingredients: (serves 2-3)
Onion (1 medium size)
Tomatoes (2 medium size)
Green Chillies (3)
Grated Ginger (1/2 teaspoon)
Mustard seeds (1 teaspoon)
Jeera (1 teaspoon)
Oil (3 tablespoons)
Tomato puree (1 cup)
Bread slices (10) - wheat bread also should be fine, but tastes slightly better with white bread
Cilantro leaves (garnish)
Salt (3 teaspoons or as per your taste)
Lemon juice (2 tablespoons)
Corriander powder (1 teaspoon)
Turmeric powder (1/2 teaspoon)
Red Chilli powder (1/2 teaspoon)
Cumin powder (1/2 teaspoon)

Prepartion:
1. Toast the bread slices and cut them into small cubes (say 9 cubes per slice)
2. Heat oil in a pan and add the mustard and jeera. Once they are fried, add chillies and ginger and fry. Then add the onions and fry until golden brown. Then add the tomatoes and continue to saute.
3. After the tomatoes are cooked well, add the tomato puree and let it cook for a few mintues. Then add the turmeric powder, corriander powder, red chiili powder, and cumin powder and mix well.
4. (Optional) For enhanced taste you can add about 4 tablespoons of the mint-cilantro-ginger-chilli paste from the above (Mint Lassi) recipe.
5. Add the bread cubes and mix well so that the onion-tomato paste gets onto all of the cubes.
6. Take off from the stove, add lemon juice and garnish with cilantro leaves and your dish is ready.

"Get Motivated" - Seminar!!

2007-10-01T23:00:00.000-05:00

I attended the "Get Motivated" seminar last Tuesday in Dallas. A friend from my Toastmasters club told me about it. She had a couple of extra tickets she was giving away. I am so thankful to her for telling me about this seminar as I had an awesome experience there. The seminar had very renowned speakers like Zig Ziglar, Gen. Colin Powell, Coach Avery Johnson, and many others who spoke about various aspects of life.

The seminar started at 9:00am and went on till 5:30pm with a one hour lunch break. The seminar was held at the Reunion Arena and about 12000 people attended. We reached there about 15-20 minutes late, and when we entered the arena it was an overwhelming experience to see so many people - cheering and listening to the speaker who was on the center stage. After that we had excellent speakers one after the other all day and I came back home completely charged up. There are a number of different ways people get motivated. Listening to such speakers definitely motivates me a lot, of course I have to continuously work on it, else the effect starts fading out. At the gate we received a workbook which had articles by the 'Get Motivated' organization and the gist of what each speaker was going to talk about with space for notes. At the end of the seminar we also got a motivational DVD which had a talk by Zig Ziglar and Krish Dhanam.

We missed most part of the first speaker. Then came Brian Tracy, a leading expert on sales. He spoke all about sales and how to master it. One didn't have to be a salesman to find his talk useful. He showed how every aspect of life is actually a sale, whether it is convincing our kids to do something or putting an idea across the table at work. He spoke about the key principles/skills needed for sales negotiation. He motivated everyone to think of ourselves as the 'presidents of our lives' and hence are responsible for every aspect of our life. The next speaker was Bryan Flanagan who is a training expert. He spoke about the different stages of growth and figuring out which stage each of us are in. He also spoke about different categories or kinds of people(Bold, Expressive, Sensitive, and Technical) . Understanding these categories and behaving accordingly in our interactions with others would yield better results. The first thing he mentioned during his speech was Toastmasters clubs and how it helped him when he started out in his career. That was a great encouragement, especially as it was coming from an established speaker like him. Gen. Colin Powell, our former secretary of state spoke about core-values and sticking to them. He spoke about his life experiences, and his thoughts on immigration. It was a great pleasure listening to him speak. Phil Town, a financial expert spoke about the stock market and gave us a quick and simple tutorial on stock investment. It was a very informative session. I was never interested in the stock investments earlier, but now I have a new found interest.

Goldie Hawn, actress, oscar winner, and comedian spoke about being happy. Her speech was an entertaining and funny one. She motivated everyone on doing things that make us happy. Fame, fortune, success, or money need not make one happy. But knowing what is important for us in life and acting accordingly is what will make one happy.

Then of course there was Zig Ziglar who is known as the master of motivation. His speech was centered around living a balanced life. It is wonderful to see a person at the age of 80, so enthusiastic and energetic. His key message was that "if everything at home is fine, then life remains good!!". Then we had other speakers such as Peter Lowe, the person behind these seminars, Keith Craft who spoke on Leadership Capacity, and Bill Bartmann who is a self-made billionaire who spoke about the secrets of success.

During the break there was a small question-answer session with the Cowboys quarterack -Tony Romo and of course the audience cheered the most for him. There was short performance by this year's America's Got Talent winner - Terry Fator.

Finally the seminar ended with my most favorite speaker Avery Johnson - Mavericks team coach. He spoke about the qualities needed to win. His key point was to be excited and enthusiastic each and every day in life. If we are the enthusiastic person in a team, in the family, at work, in a club, or any organization, we automatically pass on the enthusiasm to everyone else around us. It helps us as an individual in getting where we want to be. I am out of words to express what an excellent speaker he is. He knows how to charge-up people. Now I know what it takes to coach a basketball team and motivate them each and every day.

On the whole an excellent seminar, absolutely worth going to if you get a chance. The tickets are also very reasonably priced with the group discounts.
Here's a link to their website: http://www.getmotivated.com
I hope I stay motivated!!!

Maya Ravan and Simply Sonu

2007-09-12T22:35:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, we saw 'Maya Ravan' - a Bharatanatyam concert which was a show to support AID (Association for India's Development) Dallas. This show is directed by Padmashree Shobana. She along with 8 other dancers gave an excellent performance of Bharatanatyam. They created collages, where in through dance moves they depicted various aspects of life. The main part of the concert was the performance of different parts of Ramayana.

After an introduction by AID Dallas chapter, the concert started with the Welcome dance. It was followed by a few collages. I particularly liked the 'Vande Mataram' which was a tribute to all Indians and their professions. Through the collage Shobana and the other performers depicted all kind of professions and how Indians excel in them starting from agriculture to beauty pageants and outsourcing.

Then they performed the 'Maya Ravan' which was a dance-drama fusion with English dialogue. The voices were of Naseerudin Shah as Ravan, Jackie Shroff as Dasharatha, Suhasini as Surpanaka, Revathy as Kaikeyi, and many others. During the first half of the drama, Shobana played the role of Kaikeyi and during the second half after the break she played the role of Ravana. She displayed excellent dance and acting skills. We could see a stark difference in the two roles as she was the queen in the first half and a rakhsasa king in the second half. She totally changed the way she would walk, dance and the way she carried herself in order to accurately depict the character.

Shobana looked absolutely stunning in her various outfits and her performance was excellent. As a director, she did a a very good job and came up with a very creative and enjoyable dance fusion. The music was good, all the other performers did a great job, and on the whole a great display of talent. I particularly liked the performers who played Sita and Hanuman. Here's a short video clip on youtube which shows glimpses of this concert:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss2f8tabH0o

The organizers did a great job of starting and ending the show absolutely on time and as per the plan. Of course, the credit for punctuality also goes to the performer Shobana and her troupe. She was absolutely modest and came on to the stage without much of an introduction or fanfare. It was time absolutely well spent and relaxing and am eager to watch more of her shows.

Another concert that we attended recently is the Simply Sonu concert. That was an evening filled with fun, music, dance and dhamaka. We thoroughly enjoyed the 4 hours. Along with Sonu Nigam were singer Gunjan who sang about 4-5 songs, and his father Agam Nigam who sang a couple of old ones. Comedian Ravi Raj entertained the audience with his jokes and mimicry during half-time, when Sonu Nigam got a chance to take a break. Sonu Nigam performed all his popular numbers you can think of and was absolutely a pleasure to listen to. Towards the end he also obliged to the audiences requests and sang a few lines of each of the requests. There were about 6000 people in the audience and most them had little lights that they were flashing during the show. Once the auditorium was dark, these lights made it look like sky full of stars which looked beautiful. Probably this happens more often these days at concerts, but it was the first time for me, as I was went to concert after a long time.

One the whole an excellent show, beautiful light effects and got to listen to very good songs. The only downside was that the show started an hour late and the waiting was almost a torture. I do hope that the organizers and performers strive to be more punctual in future.

Life is Beautiful !!

2007-08-26T21:32:00.000-05:00

A couple of months back, I traveled to India on Gulf Air. I was quite worried about the airlines, their service and everything as I had not heard a whole lot of good things about them. But quite to my surprise my journey was pleasant and hassle-free. Considering the price we paid for the tickets, I think the service was not bad at all. I realized that it is not a bad option in case one needs budget tickets. I flew from Dallas to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Bahrain, and Bahrain to Bangalore. My flight from Bahrain to Bangalore was particularly memorable, not because of the flight or the service, but because of my co-passengers. Usually I sleep on flights or watch movies, but on this one I started talking to the ladies sitting next to me and time just flew by. We spoke non-stop for 4 full hours. I got to know about them and their lives and was really touched.

The first one M was working as a maid at a Sheikh's house in Kuwait. She worked there for three full years and was going back home for the first time in three years. Her job was to cook and she saved all the money that she earned and sent it back to her family in India which comprised of her husband, 2 daughters (4 year old and 8 year old), and her mother-in-law. Most of her living expenses were taken care of by her employer. But she was never allowed to go out anywhere as it was not safe for women to go out by themselves. It was amazing to hear her story as she was staying away from her family, all by herself, in a place which is not safe for women, just to earn some extra money that she can send back home. It was very impressive to see how much she was doing to take care of her family.

The other lady B was a nurse at a hospital in Saudi. She had been working there since 2 years and was going back home for the first time too. She stayed away from her family which included her husband and 5 year old daughter, again just to make that extra money for her family. She said that Saudi was even tighter about security. She stayed in a hostel where all other nurses stayed and they were not allowed to go out anywhere. Anytime they needed to go shopping, a hospital vehicle with security would take them. They would have to cover themselves from top to bottom completely in black. The only part of body that could be visible are the eyes.

What kind of a life they had for those 2-3 years? Living all alone in a new place with so many restrictions and safety issues needs lot of courage. They were doing it to earn money for their families. Hats off to their courage and dedication that made them go through such a difficult life. It was amazing to hear their stories and know that these women took situation into their hands and went about finding a solution rather than just and waiting for things to get better. Of course one can argue that they could have done better by staying in India with their family and looking for some job there. I am not arguing that. The time spent with them on the flight is memorable for me. I was touched and listening to their struggles in life gave me a new sense of appreciation for my life. I was revived with energy and enthusiasm to live life to the fullest.

Animal Farm, Disgrace and Interpreter of Maladies

2007-08-26T16:00:00.000-05:00

After a long time, I am back and want to write about the books that I read in the last few months. The first one is "Animal Farm" by Geroge Orwell. It is a short story, which is basically a political satire. The story is setup on an Animal Farm taken care by Mr. Jones. The animals are not happy being ruled by human beings. So they plan to throw human beings out of the farm and gain independence. They successfully drive away Mr. Jones and his family. Now the challenge is to take care of themselves and the farm and earn a living. The pigs turn out to be the intelligent ones and hence start guiding all the other animals. They slowly become powerful and start ruling the farm. So the animal farm throws away one dictator only to find themselves in the hands of another. This is an interesting read which shows how power can change attitude of people, often which is what happens in the political world.

The second one is "Disgrace" written by J M Coetzee. It won the Booker Prize in 1999. I had mixed feelings about this book throughout the time I was reading it. I didn't feel good about the story but at the same time couldn't stop reading it. It was a strange feeling. The book is about a divorced, professor of literature in South Africa. He didn't enjoy teaching as much, instead was more involved in researching about Byron. He gets into an affair with one of his students. The University finds out about it and he is forced to quit his job. Disgraced to live in the same city any longer, he visits his daughter who lives all by herself on a huge farm in the countryside. The author describes the relationship between the father and daughter, how the daughter wants to be independent and is passionate about living on that farm far away from everyone. The story takes a turn when they are attacked & assaulted on the farm and the daughter is raped. The remaining story is about how they deal with this tragedy and continue with their disgraced lives. The book has nicely described the relationship between the father and daughter and the emotional turmoil they go through but at the end, I was left with sad feelings.

"Interpreter of Maladies" written by Jhumpa Lahiri, is a collection of short stories. It won the Pulitzer prize in 2000. Most of the stories are about Indian families living outside India. I found all the stories very touching and I could relate to most of them. It discusses issues in families, how parents try to pass on their culture to the next generation, sensitive issues related to love and affection. Some of the stories were quite thought-provoking. On the whole it was fun reading at least 6 out of the 9 stories in it.

International Flight Tickets

2007-05-07T18:54:00.000-05:00

My last few weeks were spent trying to find some reasonable international flight tickets for my forthcoming travel. Usually one would think that it is a fairly easy task - just call the travel agent and inform your travel dates. But to the contrary my last few experiences have been extremely frustrating. This process gets all the more difficult if one has constraints with the travel dates or destination airports and is smart enough to figure out that a much better itinerary can be easily created and is possibly available. All we need is an agent who patiently looks up various options, on different travel dates, and with different connections so that the overall itinerary is a reasonable one in terms of time, layovers at the airports and price. We usually expect the travel agent to be informed and aware of all the flights and schedules. But for some reason most of them don't seem to know or they know and don't want to try out too many options, because they don't want to spend much time on it (I don't know why...). Any person who spends ten minutes on the airline website looking at the timetable can figure these things out.

Travel agents are definitely a boon for those who absolutely don't have the time or energy to find tickets themselves. Of course, one has to go through them for business trips due to all the billing complications. But for people like me, I am really hoping that soon we will have cheap fares for international flights also available on the web similar to domestic flights. Making domestic flight arrangements has become so much easier these days. There is absolutely no need to depend on a travel agent. It would be even better if we have software web agents (artificially intelligent agents) which can totally take care of all your preferences/constraints and will never get impatient with you. I am sure that will be a reality 5-10 years down the line when we will move towards the Next generation of Web technologies and Semantic Web. Well that is my research area as well, so I am quite optimistic about it :-), but until then we'll have to go through this frustrating process.

Strawberry Milk Shake !!

2007-04-28T14:28:00.000-05:00

I am lazy when it comes to eating fruits which are very good for health. So one thing Ajay and myself like is making milk shakes with fruits. So here's the recipe for a strawberry milkshake.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
Strawberries (12), Apple (1), Milk (1 and half cup), sugar (1 tspn or per taste), vanilla or any other icecream (1 scoop)

Procedure:
Crush strawberries and apple with little milk in a blender. Then add remaining milk, icecream and sugar and blend well.

Variation:
Banana can be used instead of apple, icecream is optional.

Health conscious tips:
We use 1% milk and shake still tastes good.

Bhel Puri !!

2007-04-28T11:58:00.000-05:00

I have been writing about my interests on this blog which include travel, books, & movies. Cooking is another interest I developed over the last 6 years. I spend a considerable amount of time every week experimenting in the kitchen. So I decided to write about a few successful ones here. Probably I'll have fun reading these posts after 5/10 years reminding myself of the good old times. I get to share my experiences with others, and of course I will have a them written down for reference.

Today I will start with a slight variation of Bhel Puri (or Jhaal Moodi) which is my and Ajay's favorite quick & healthy snack or sometimes even becomes a light meal.

Ingredients: (Serves 3-4)
Murmura-puffed rice (about 4 cups), Potato (1 big), Onion (1 small), Tomato (1 small), Cucumber(small piece), Green Chili (1-2 small), Coriander leaves (for garnish), Peanuts (1/2 cup), Lemon Juice (2 teaspoons), Aamchur (1 tspn), Chaat Masala (1 tspn), Namkeen mixture (1/2 cup, salt (1 tspn).

Procedure:
1. Boil the potato either in a pressure cooker or microwave. Cool it, peel and chop the boiled potato.
2. Roast peanuts in microwave for 1 minute. Cool it for a few minutes and crush it to coarse powder.
3. Chop the onion, tomato, cucumber, chillies.
4. Add the boiled potato, aamchur, lemon juice, salt, and chaat masala and mix well.
5. Finally add murmura, crushed peanuts and mix well.
6. Garnish with coriander leaves and namkeen mixture.

Health conscious tips:
Potato and namkeen mixture are optional, the bhel should still taste fine without them.

The Five Love Languages and The Case for Christmas !!

2007-04-04T17:12:00.001-05:00

I finally finished reading the book "The Five Love Languages" by Dr.Gary Chapman. This was a wedding gift from a very dear friend. It is a very apt gift for a couple. This book talks about 5 different kind of love languages. Similar to different spoken languages, Dr.Chapman says that there are 5 love languages and not every person speaks the same love language.

The author says that depending on the personality of a person, he/she subconsciously speaks a particular love language and hence feels good and loved when actions of their partner correspond to his/her love language. For example a person may feel loved on receiving gifts while another might feel loved through words of appreciation. The author says that the five love languages are "Words of Affirmation", "Acts of Service", "Quality Time", "Receiving Gifts", and "Physical Touch". So a person whose love language is "Words of Affirmation" need not feel loved on receiving gifts. Hence it is important to understand the love language of our life partners and other family members so that we can express our love in a manner they will be able to see, understand and actually feel it. Through numerous real-life examples the author shows how a couple can keep the love in their marriage always alive, just by understanding the love language of their partner. He talks about many of them who were at the verge of separation, but got back together after counseling sessions with the author where he helped them identify their love languages and express love to their partners accordingly. I tried to figure my love language and feel that mine corresponds to 2 out of the 5 listed in the book. In such a case, the author says that there always is one primary love language. The book also has a study guide at the end which may be useful in figuring out our love languages. My next step is to go through this guide with Ajay and pinpoint our primary love languages.

The other one that I read recently is "The Case for Christmas" by Lee Strobel. A mentor of ours gave this book to us and told us about the author 'Lee Strobel' who has written books on topics which are very hard to justify and almost impossible to produce solid proofs like origin of Christmas, Christ, and about creator of the world. 'The Case for Christmas' is a small book with powerful content and particularly good for those who want some evidences about Christmas and all the facts around it and around the birth of Jesus. I particularly liked his approach wherein he investigates cases looking for solid evidences through interviews with well-read and knowledgeable philosophers, professors, and researchers. In this book he categorizes evidences into four kinds: 'EyeWitness evidence', 'Scientific evidence', 'Profile evidence', and 'Fingerprint evidence' and collects information through interviews for each of these categories. He then justifies the evidences quite convincingly. I liked this style of proof through evidences for hard to perceive concepts such as existence of God, Creator, origin of Christmas, etc. I am eager to read his other two works, 'The Case for Creator' and 'The Case for Faith' and hope to find answers to some of the questions that I have always had.

Everglades National Park, Florida!!

2007-03-11T13:22:00.001-06:00

I wanted to post about Everglades since many weeks. Finally here I am writing about it. Ajay and myself took a trip to South Florida in December. We planned to visit the popular South Beach and KeyWest. After reaching there we heard about Everglades National Park. We knew nothing about it and thought it must be just another park with some wildlife. We had an extra day and hence went up to see Everglades. We first went to the main visitor center, spoke to the rangers there and watched some videos and got ourselves acquainted with the park. Only then did we realize that we were in a place which is unique and one of a kind. It is the only sub-tropical habitat in North America with a very delicate ecosystem which is being carefully preserved. We ended up going back there the subsequent day also. Just this weekend I came to know that the Everglades is at #5 on the travel channel's top 10 Natural Wonders of the World. This ranking is based on their uniqueness and the number of visitors every year.

Everglades is basically a shallow, slow moving flood which I believe at times is 40 miles wide and 100 miles long. It slowly moves southward across the Florida Bay. This marshland is a result of the watershed from Kissimmee River (near Orland0) which flows south into Lake Okeechobee, a fresh water lake. During the wet seasons, the water leaving this lake forms this slow-moving marshland, which moves about 1 yard in an hour. It is also called the river of grass because of the sea grass found in the marsh. There is a huge variety of flora, fauna, and wildlife living in this unique subtropic environment. 350 different species of birds can be seen here including the Anahinga, Heron, Woodstock, White Pelican and many more. It has a number of endangered species like the Manatee, Wood Stock, American Crocodile, Florida Panther and many more. It has white, black, and red mangrove forests, cypress tress, ferns, orchids, and many more. It is the only place in the world where both Alligators and Crocodiles live together. Alligators survive in fresh water and crocodiles in salt water. Here the slow-moving fresh water marshlands slowly moves southward and merges with the salt water of the ocean, hence allowing both alligators and crocodiles survive.

The national park has 5 different visitor centers and each of them offer a different kind of experience with the wildlife and vegetation. We visited three of them and got to see many unique things in all of them:

1. Ernst Coe (Main) Visitor Center: It has the Anahinga Trail and the Gumbo-limbo trail which are 3/4 mile long trails each. Both offer a entirely different kind of experience. The Anahinga trails is a raised wooden deck over the marshland from where we could see many different species of birds and Anahingas in particular. We got to see alligators and beautiful sea grass spread across a huge area. The Gumbo-Limbo trail took us through a huge canopy of tropical trees and particularly the Gumbo-Limbo trees also known as Tourist trees. These trees are reddish in color their skin is found peeling off in the summer similar to the Florida tourists getting tanned and hence the name - Tourist tree.

2. Shark Valley Visitor Center: This is in the northern part of the Everglades, and the best place to the river of grass. It has an observation tower which offers a great view of this slow-moving slough. We took a tram tour on a 15 mile road and go to see at least 30-40 alligators from extremely close quarters. We saw them basking in the sun on the sides of the road and in the marshes. We also got to see some baby alligators and different kind of birds.

3. Flamingo Visitor Center: This is the southern most point of the everglades where we took a boat tour on the wilderness waterways and got see the point where fresh water meets salt water. We got to see an American crocodile, mangroves, many different kind of birds and vegetation. It also has many hiking and canoe trails.

On the whole a great place to visit especially if one likes nature and wildlife. There are lot of activities in this national park to keep anyone busy for at least 2 days. This place is informative, educational and fun for both kids and adults.

Ignited Minds - book!!

2007-03-09T16:23:00.000-06:00

'Ignited Minds' is an excellent book written by Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam - current President of India, and an eminent scientist involved in teaching and research. In this book, Dr. Kalam motivates every Indian to do their best (through hard work) in whatever they are doing, through his personal life experiences. He just asks everyone and particularly the youngsters of the country to dream of a good life for themselves and dream of India as a developed country.

Though this is not exactly Dr. Kalam's biography, there is a lot of information about his life and his achievements for the country. I enjoyed reading about those and felt happy that there is someone constantly doing great things for the country. He talks about his work at ISRO, particularly about his contributions as the Project Director to the first satellite launch vehicle (SLV-III) which could successfully launch the Rohini satellite in 1980. He then worked with DRDO on the Integrated Guided Missiles Programme and successfully developed Agni and Prithvi missiles. He then talks about this work as the Scientific Advisor to the Defense Minister in 1990's. During this period he led the Pokhran nuclear tests thus making India a nuclear weapon state. Dr. Kalam also talks about his other work 'India 2020 - A vision for the new Millennium' which was conceived by him along with 500 other experts when he was the Chairman of Technology Information, Forecasting, and Assessment Council (TIFAC). I am really hoping that we can achieve this dream.

Apart from learning about all the technological advancements led by Dr.Kalam, this book also reveals that he led a very simple life. He traveled around the country extensively, and always made sure to meet students and children. He loves being around children and strongly believes that they will play a major role in transforming India into a developed nation. Hence, he spends time inspiring them and igniting their minds to dream of great things (for themselves and their country) and fulfill those dreams through hard work and dedication. He gives many interesting tidbits about his travel and talks about the vast untapped natural resources in many parts of our country.

This book is a good read for all ages as it fires up the mind. I am looking forward to reading his other works, and especially 'India 2020'.

State of the Union address 2007!!

2007-01-24T17:41:00.000-06:00

Last night I literally ran to the parking lot and rushed back home just to reach on time for the State of the Union address. I wanted to watch it right from the beginning and not miss a single minute. I reached home a couple of minutes late but luckily the president had not arrived by then. That's how I finally got to see Pres. George Bush's sixth State of the Union address. I wanted to watch it so badly not because I understand all about our government's domestic and international policies, but just because I wanted to watch this speech live on TV since a long time. I missed all 5 previous ones and this year I was determined to not miss it. I know it is not a big deal, one can always read the speech text later. I think I wanted to get a feel of this big annual ritual where the entire nation listens to the president speak, listens to all the promises that he makes for the year ahead and his remaining term. On the whole it was an interesting experience. I am not qualified enough to comment on the policies that he spoke about but this link below has an analysis and fact-checking of the state of union address: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6994676
The President's speech text can be found at this link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6970491

For me the most amazing part of the speech was the standing ovation. I thought the president gets such response a couple of times during this speech, but on the contrary, there was one every 4-5 minutes. That was just amazing. Well I am not sure if the audience really felt that way or it was just a part of the ritual.
The other nice thing about this speech was how the president started it by saying that he is the first president ever to start his address with 'Madam Speaker' as Rep. Nancy Pelosi is the first woman speaker of the house. That must have been a great moment for the speaker.

In all, I am glad that I finally watched the State of the Union address live on TV.

"Finders-Keepers?" - book!!

2007-01-18T19:28:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was "Snowday" (i.e., little snow mixed with sleet and freezing rain in Dallas-Texas is quite a big deal) and hence my University was closed. I felt like a kid all over again as I was keenly watching the closings on TV hoping that UTD will remain closed for the day. Not that it mattered, but I was quite happy when I finally saw the email about university closing due to inclement weather.

As I was enjoying my snow-day, I happened to see the book "Finders-Keepers? A True story" written by Robert Arnett for children. We bought this book as a future gift for our niece. This book won a number of awards. It has an excellent message for all age groups. It is a true story about a little boy in Mt.Abu - Rajasthan, that happened during the author's visit to India. The boy found the author's wallet on the road and returned it him. The author offered him a reward in return but the boy refused to take the reward. The boy told the author that he should not be rewarded for doing the right thing. A very heart-warming story with a wonderful message that we should not expect rewards for performing our duties.

This can be a good gift for kids. It has beautiful illustrations by Smitha Turakhia and nice description of Mt Abu. On the whole a good read for all ages.

"Chanakya" - TV Series!!

2007-01-14T06:03:00.000-06:00

Recently I finished watching 'Chanakya', the epic story of a great minister who was the founder of the first Indian empire around 300 BC. I watched this series when I was a kid, but hardly understood it then. I finally got to watch the entire series again and loved it. It is amazing to know the story of Vishnugupt (also known as Chanakya) an intelligent and self-less man, a great teacher and a shrewd minister.

Vishnugupt was from Patliputra which was ruled by Nands at that time. As a kid he got to see the corrupt nature of the Nands who cared only about themselves. Vishnugupt's parents get killed when they raise their voice against corruption. There was not much he could do as a kid and hence he went away to Takshashila to study which was considered the best school at that time. Vishnugupt completes his education at Takshashila and due to his excellence he gets invited to continue as political science teacher there. He becomes one of the best political science teachers of the country. He authored the famous 'Arthashastra' where he discussed his view of politics.

The remaining series shows how Vishnugupt meets a kid by name Chadragupta. He sees great potential in the kid and takes him to Takshashila and educates him. Then begin the invasions by Greeks headed by Alexander. Alexander gradually takes over major portion of India starting from the northern most states and slowly trickling down. He takes over these states either through a battle or through peace talks with the local rulers who give away their land to satisfy their petty and selfish interests. When the country is in a turmoil with its rulers trapped in their selfish interests, Vishnugupt raises his voice for a united Indian empire. It was his life long dream to see all the states of India united as an empire so that our strong diverse culture remains intact and outsiders don't invade and take over the country. He inspired all the teachers and students around the country to fight against the Greeks. He raised an army of students led by Chandragupt who drove the Greek invaders out of India. He then spoke to all the rulers of individual states about uniting into one big empire. In the process he also overthrew the corrupt ruler of Patliputra and replaced him with Chandragupt. He also served as Chadragupt's minister in Patliputra.

Chanakya's policies and methods were radical and hence many did not agree with him at that time and probably now as well. But I admire him as he was a great visionary who could think beyond the present. He was able to think for the future of the country and its countrymen. He had no selfish interests, and believed that the teachers of the nation should raise their voice when the rulers do not perform their duties.

It is a good TV series and I recommend it to anyone interested in knowing how rulers in the BC's dealt with politics, and what was involved in forming the great Indian empire around 300 BC. But let me warn you that you need to be very patient when you watch this series. It was made in 1990's when TV production was not as advanced as it is today. There are many parts which are very slow and test your patience. The battle scenes get dragging. But at the same time the dialogue and speech delivery especially by Chanakya are excellent. The language is deep and intense, dialogue delivery is fast, with complicated Sanskrit words. Though I am quite well-versed with Hindi, I had to read the English subtitles to understand it thoroughly. Chanakya's speeches to his students, rulers, and the masses is the best part of this series.

Uttishtha Bharata!! (meaning Rise O India)

New Year 2007!!

2007-01-14T06:01:00.000-06:00

Here we are at the beginning of another New Year. I am back after a long time. During the last six months I took a 6 week vacation to India. As soon as I was back from India, the holiday season started with Thanksgiving followed by Christmas and New Year. Ajay and myself spent the Christmas week in South Florida. The weather in South Florida at that time was simply unbelievable - upper 70's and lower 80's. It was a very good time to be there. I will write more about that trip in one of my subsequent posts.

At the beginning of every new year I make some resolutions. Of course, I am not always successful at keeping them. But I still like to make them with the hope of keeping them. I mentioned in one of my previous post, I believe in the 'power of the word'. I believe that it helps to tell people around us about our resolutions or things that we want to accomplish in future. So here I am listing my resolutions for the year 2007.
1. Losing 15 lbs (one of the most common resolution)
2. Get done with my PhD
I've started working on both these resolutions. After lot of deliberation, we bought the "Image 9.5 elliptical". It took 4 hours for Ajay and myself to assemble it. Finally, it is up and running and so far I am happy with it. This year I am quite determined to fulfill these resolutions.

Self-Deception - Life's biggest hurdle !!

2006-06-14T19:37:00.000-05:00

Recently read something interesting about Self-Deception in Leadership Wired newsletter written by Dr. John Maxwell. Self-Deception is the inability to see that one has a problem. It is resistance to the suggestion that one has a problem. According to Dr.Maxwell of all problems in organizations self-deception is the most common and most damaging.

Accepting one's own faults or mistakes is not easy. This is so true with majority of people including myself. Though I fail to understand why it is so. This of course differs from person to person. I have always had difficulty accepting my faults gracefully. I am working on this but I have a long way to go. I really wish there was some easy way to do this. But human feelings are very complicated and hard to understand. I am not giving up, I'll keep trying. I hear that Self-Esteem is an important factor that helps in being able to openly accept one's short-comings and learn from mistakes. Probably, building Self-Esteem would be a good place to start with.

NBA - The Finals 2006!!

2006-06-11T00:53:00.000-05:00

Sports or watching different games on TV has never been my favorite activity. I happened to watch Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday and to my surprise I quite enjoyed it. Of course, one of the big reason was Dallas Mavericks. What is amazing is this 2-3 hour basketball game is extremely fast-paced and totally kept me involved all the time. Just like movies, or plays, or any other TV show, it is amazing how these games can help us forget about everything else and just enjoy the moments. It actually is quite a relaxing activity.

I am now quite excited and want to watch the remaining games of the NBA finals as well with the hope that Mavericks win this years championship.

"What To Say When You Talk To Your Self" - by Shad Helmstetter!!

2006-06-05T17:00:00.000-05:00

Recently I read the book "What to Say When You Talk to Your Self" by Shad Helmstetter. The author of this book says that whatever we say, think, or write has an effect on our sub-conscious mind. Our brain receives the messages that we give - silently, by speaking them out, or by writing. After some point of time, with repeated messages, our sub-conscious mind starts believing what ever we say, be it negative or positive. In this book, the author explains about a revolutionary technique called Self-Talk that can remove all the negative programming that is already in our mind and replace it with new, positive and vital energy.

The author says that our success or failure is controlled by the following key things.
- Behavior (what we do or do not do)
- Feelings (how we feel about something)
- Attitudes (perspectives with which we view life)
- Beliefs (what we believe about anything)
- Programming (our conditioning say from childhood)

He says that these five key factors play a great role in the kind of results we get, because programming creates our beliefs, beliefs create our attitudes, attitudes create our feelings, feelings determine our behavior/action, and actions create results. So it is very important for our minds to have the correct programming. He shows through various examples that many of us have a negative programming. He explains the Self-Talk techniques in great detail to achieve good and positive results in our day-to-day life starting with simple techniques such as phrases that we should use in life and ones that we should avoid.

This book is a good read especially for those who enjoy reading self-help books. Here are a few lines from this book that I liked the most.

" You are everything that is,
Your thoughts, your life, your dreams come true.
You are everything you choose to be.
You are as unlimited as the endless universe. "

"Ray" & "Walk the Line" - movie!!

2006-06-01T11:33:00.000-05:00

I saw the movie 'Ray' a couple of weeks back. It was on my wishlist since a long time but kept getting pushed back in the list as it is not a thriller or a fast-paced movie. Only after watching this movie I realized how wrong I was. This is a movie about the life of 'Ray Charles' with Jamie Foxx playing the role of Ray. It is an excellent movie with very good performance by Jamie Foxx. I thoroughly enjoyed all the songs in the movie - no wonder Ray Charles was such a popular singer, pianist and song-writer. He came up with the concept of soul music. This movie shows how he struggled with his blindness, overcame all obstacles, and made an extraordinary career for himself. It is a very inspriring story. This movie also shows the negative side of his life, i.e., getting involved with drugs and women.

"Ray" has a quite some resemblance with "Walk the Line" which is another very good movie about the life of Johnny Cash, another very popular singer, guitarist and song-writer. The role of Johnny Cash is played by Joaquin Phoenix in this movie. This movie also has excellent songs and very good performance by Joaquin and Reese Withersppon. The lives of both Ray Charles and Johnny Cash have many similarities. Both of them faced a childhood tragedy which they could never forget. Both of them saw their dear brother die by accident during their childhood days and somehow held themselves responsible for it. Both of them got involved with drugs and women. Finally they get into rehabilitation. Through therapy they get away from drugs and also get rid of the guilt they have carried since childhood.

Both these movies are very enjoyable for those who enjoy music and like to watch inspiring movies about people who struggled to make an extraordinary career.

"Blink:The power of thinking without thinking" - by Malcolm Gladwell!!

2006-04-25T20:33:00.000-05:00

Last month I read "Blink". This book mainly talks about the power of thoughts that happen in a blink, i.e., a couple of seconds. These thoughts are from the subconscious and can have positive as well as negative affects. The author gives many examples, tests, and statistics where such thoughts from the subconscious mind are involved.
This book is very informative and an interesting read. Though at the end, I felt incomplete. I didn't quite get the purpose. Probably it is just me who feels incomplete if there is no message at the end. Probably the purpose of this book was just to make ourselves aware that everyone has these kind of subconscious thoughts. Whenever we are trying to judge something, we use these thoughts. In many cases our thoughts are correct, but at the same time, we might be wrong sometimes. So it is good to be aware of that. I do recommend this book to you.

"Chariots of Fire" - movie!!

2006-04-24T16:59:00.000-05:00

Finally I saw the movie "Chariots of Fire" this weekend. I wanted to watch it since a long time. It is a very good and inspirational one. The movie is slow-paced but I didn't get bored at all. It is about the life of two athletes who participated and won in the 1924 Olympics. The movie shows the contrasting characters of these two athletes.

- One of them is a missionary and runs because he believes God made him real fast. He fulfills his duty towards God by running. Whenever he runs, he feels he is serving God. The faster he runs, he experiences more pleasure and joy. 'Ian Charleson' played this role and did an awesome job. Whenever he runs, you actually see his facial expressions change, and the joy on his face. I thought the movie was worth watching just for that.

- The second athlete is a Jew and a student at Cambridge. He is full of frustration and anger because of the discrimination he faces and constantly wants to prove himself. He knows he is fast and wants to prove to the world that he is the fastest runner. He has a different kind of drive and motivation to win.'Ben Cross' played this role and you can see a different kind of emotion when he runs. He is serious and all he can think of are the prejudices and wants to prove himself to the upper class society of Britain.

This movie has very good background music. The music so aptly depicts the zeal in the athletes. The movie also has some very beautiful and scenic locations. On the whole an excellent movie with a good message - "We can perform our best in a job that we really like, enjoy, and feel passionate about. When we feel this kind of fire in our hearts, nothing can stop us from winning."

Jumping out of an airplane!!

2006-04-10T20:22:00.000-05:00

In the last couple of weeks, I heard about skydiving experiences from three independent sources, totally out of the blue(probably some kind of a sign :-) ). All of them had only good things to say about it - awesome, memorable and enthralling. After hearing from them I got tempted and added this to my list of 'Things to do in my lifetime'. But I don't know if I will ever succeed at that for a number of reasons.
- Firstly, I have to overcome my fear of free-fall(worst of all fears).
- Jumping out of a plane at a 12000 feet altitude sounds crazy.
- What if the parachute fails to open-up?
- What if the winds carries me away and I don't land at the correct place?
- and so on... this list is quite long...
Inspite of all the buts, I know that once I take the plunge, it will be over in a few seconds. Those few seconds will be a lifetime experience - flying through the clouds, approaching land at a high speed and then suddenly being pulled back up by the parachute.

This weekend I heard a speech on 'The power of the word'. The speaker said that if one has a dream, they should tell people around them about it. For example, here I am telling you that I will 'jump out of an airplane' one day. It seems that 'the power of word' is such that I eventually will be able to do it, inspite of all fears. The reason being, there is always some person whom I told about my dream, coming back to me and asking, 'so what happened to that thing you said you would do, did you do it?' - duh.. I'll be ashamed to say 'no, not yet'. I will probably feel responsible for my words, get pushed into fulfilling this wonderful dream someday, and finally get rid of my fear forever! I will soon write on my skydiving experience :-).

Welcome!!

2006-04-04T19:22:00.000-05:00

My friends introduced me to the concept of blogging. I enjoyed reading their blogs. I spent some time thinking if I should start mine as well. I kept thinking "why bother?". After spending quite some time reading others blogs, now I have realized that this is a great way of sharing thoughts, day-to-day experiences, interesting incidents in life, or just about anything. So here I am.

I am not exactly sure what I am going to be writing about. But I am sure this will be a learning experience.