Back after a looooong time!!

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.

"Get Motivated" - Seminar!!

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

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 !!

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.

State of the Union address 2007!!

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.

New Year 2007!!

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 !!

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!!

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.

Jumping out of an airplane!!

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 :-).