My 2 cents

An eventful trip 2

2009-05-09T20:05:00.000-07:00

And thus I arrived at the "Newark" Penn station at 2.20 AM, to begin my hour long wait for the Philly Amtrak express. Having lived in the States for 4 years, I am not under any delusion that its a land of milk and honey everywhere. But, at the same time I wasn't quite prepared for what I saw. It was a cold winter night and the station had central heating. It was also filled with scores of homeless people (read mostly black men in ragged clothes). It was scary. Scary, that any of them could rob me for the possibilities of a few dollars. But also sad. Sad that all of them were already stereotyped in my mind's eye in less than a second. USA, is certainly the land of opportunities. But it can also be as cold as that winter night to those who fell thru' those cracks in life.

The homeless were not allowed to lie down and sleep. There were a couple of cops making sure that nobody slept. All those lonely people spend night after night standing inside the railway station to survive the winter. I am sure that some of them wudn't mind trading places with the slum mates of Andheri.

As usual there was a desi shop in there. The shopkeeper started playing Swades CD the moment he saw me. For lack of anything better to do, I hung around in the shop for sometime. And eventually bought a plum cake. As I was eating my midnight snack, a black lady stepped inside the station. I guess she was stone chilled. Soon, she started what seemed to be an erratic jog at the same place. Perhaps she was trying to beat the chill. Even more weird was her chanting. I really cudn't place the language. It seemed like some New Orleans Wicca - or ancient Swahili. LOL. It was certainly heart wrenching to watch the American poverty in action. My eyes were fighting to shut down. Thankfully the train arrived.

3.20 AM
Once inside the train, I felt safer. Almost everyone was asleep. Looks like mass transit is popular in the East coast. Or may be there are just more poor people out there. I still couldn't afford to sleep. An hour wudn't be enough to wake up.

4.30 AM
Philadelphia Junction! Yay. I felt proud at the way I had engineered my trip successfully thus far, despite the plane SNAFU. Now, just one more step - to get to the hotel.

I guess I have to continue the story again tomorrow. Hopefully. LOL. But, neva trust granpa. :) You never know how long its gonna take me. Today my eyelids dont yield. Arrgh..I'm getting older. Ready to walk on the sunset boulevard.

Oh ... I am still alive!

2009-05-09T19:55:00.000-07:00

Its been forever since I wrote. Lots of things have happened. And every time time something interesting happened, trust me I was about to write it all out on the blog...Just somehow it never happened :) LOL. I am promising myself the 100th time now to be more regular in my posts. After all, my grand kids do need to read about the exploits of their wonderful granpa! I do wish I live long enough to play with them. Sigh... I am already looking forward to the sunset boulevard. I want to retire happy and content and spend all my time playing with them gran kids. But..not yet! not yet! Indeed there are miles to go..........

An eventful trip 1

2009-03-08T19:33:00.000-07:00

This happened a few weeks ago. This blog has become a semi-diary by now, it is perhaps appropriate that I record that night..even though the ensuing time period has diminished my recollection. Perhaps one day my grand kids would read the chronicles of the good-ol' granpa. Hmm...wishful thinking.

6:00 PM
So, I was all excited that evening as I drove to the airport. I had successfully landed yet another interview with a finance company (an options market maker to be precise). The job if I landed it, would be my first 100k+ job. So the excitement was justified. I reached the airport well on time , parked my car and had a quick check in. I was hoping to spend my estimated half hour wait till boarding at a bookstore leeching on some new release. But bad news awaited me at the gate.

7:15 PM
The flight was delayed due to some weather issues. The airline carrier which is big on its cost cutting measures told me that I would have to wait till next morning. Which meant I would have to miss the interview I had so carefully engineered. My mind starts racing and I quickly check for possible re routing. The customer service person tells me that there is no way I can be at Philly by next morning. I normally never ever show any expression of disappointment on my face. But this time my face fell. Customer service was saying a lot of things.... one thing caught my attention - "You could get to New York by mid night but there is no connecting flight till morning" - "Wait , wait" , I say instinctively. I have no clue how my mind pulls these things off. I continue "If you get me to New York by mid night, I can probably catch a train to Philly". I have never caught a train or traveled by Amtrak ever before. But I know that trains are big on the east coast. God Bless!

Thus started my adventurous night.

7:30 PM
I am confused when I saw my boarding pass. Ok, it was Newark not New York. To my desi ear both sound the same. Well, this certainly looked like one of those times where everything that could go wrong actually goes wrong. But Newark is still very much each coast and I was betting that the train service would say my day - err, my night.

I tried my best to get information about the train service at Newark airport. The helpful customer service told me that there was some "air train". Cool. I asked her, "Is there a internet booth anywhere in my terminal?". She gave some vague clues. To my bad luck that place had discontinued operations. I tried to phish off the wireless by staying close to the President's club area. But all to no avail. With 15 minutes to take off I still had no way of knowing if there was any train service at night at the Newark airport. Cool! SNAFU. I suddenly felt relaxed. There was nothing more to be done, except having good food. The night certainly promised to be long and I would need every ounce of strength I got. Fatigue was already setting in. I had woken by at 6 AM that morning.

8.40 PM
Just as I was about to board, I had this idea of talking to the Newark airport operations .
"Is it the Newark airport. Is there any air train facility"
"We are the ground transportation" - some chinku voice tells me. My heart sinks yet again.
"Do you know of any air train at your airport" (You work at the airport afterall and you gotta have seen the train at somepoint you moron!)
"We the ground transpo taation" the voice insists again in broken english.
It is pointless trying to carry out a conversation with chinkus in english. They jus dont getit.

"Trying to catch the airtrain and save some money!" - A pleasant female voice inquires. Where did that come from?! There was the good looking blonde woman in professional attire standing a few places in front of me. She quickly tells me how I can save 100 bucks by using airtrain to get to downtown Manhattan by catching the airtrain instead of a cab. Good Lord. Somebody had some common sense finally. So, there is the airtrain after all and it runs at night.

12:55 AM
Newark airport was freezing cold. I ask my way around to the shuttle station. The shuttle would take me to the airtrain terminal. After a few more hiccups, I reach the airtrain terminal. I am 150 miles from Philadelphia. My interview is at 9 AM. I haven't slept for 18 hours.

1:15 AM
I finally reach the airtrain station. I try getting tickets to Philly. No luck. The automated ticket vending machine did not recognize that destination. I ask the attendant (who happens to be a Black guy) how to get to Philly. He says that I can't get to Philly. Thankfully a Hispanic guy there overhears me. And he quickly rattles off:
"Take the 2:05 airtrain to NewYork Penn Station.
Catch the 3.20 AM Amtrak train to Philly.
You will get there by 4.30 AM"
Someone did know their stuff! More importantly somehow coincidentally that someone was around to help me at 1.15 AM on a cold freezing night.

I walk down the stairs to the waiting area. I see the list of stations - Newark Airport, Newark Penn Station, NewYork Penn Station,...." . Again the Newark - NewYork confusion. I know I cannot afford yet another snafu. I walk back up the stairs in the freezing cold one more time.

Thankfully the Hispanic guy is still there. I am like - dude are u a Cuban illegal immigrant working ur butt off to send money to ur family back home. I say aloud - "Is it Newark Penn or Neuwwww Yorrkkkk Penn ?" As best as I could. He clarifies quickly - The next station, Newark Penn, you will get there in 5 minutes. Awesome, God Bless.

I go back to the waiting area. I dont want to bore anyone by saying I walked in the cold for the third freaking time. Agony of a twice told tale is punishment enough.

I struggle to stay awake. There was some company. A white woman, a black man and soon a desi uncle joins us. We certainly did take care of the diversity quota that night.

2.05 AM.
The train hadn't arrived. After a few nerve racking minutes the electronic sign which said, Newark Penn Station 2:05 mysteriously disappeared. It was replaced by Trenton 4:20 AM. Great!
But fortunately the train arrives a few minutes late. I was surprised by how many people were actually inside the train!
I was unusually alert, despite every muscle fiber in my body clamouring for sleep.
Exhaustion was setting in.

Action Inaction

2009-02-12T20:24:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, there is no point in thinking things through. No point in endless contemplation. You just go ahead, bite the bullet and just get it done. I put some pink paint on one of my boxers and mailed it off to the pink chaddi campaign! http://thepinkchaddicampaign.blogspot.com/ Lol.

What she said

2009-02-01T02:08:00.000-08:00

OK, firstly I got a 5-in-one printer for 100 bucks, thanks to Circuit City going bust! Yay! Traveled to Philly and bombed an interview. Good and not so good. At least I knew what to make out of these - but what she said, well, that was quite something...

"You are trying hard to impress your superiors at work. It really doesn't matter. The decision has been made. They know you are good. There is no point in killing yourself over it." --- Not quite but tantalizingly close.

"I see tightness. There is some restlessness in you. You will soon be able to relax." --- Good God!

"I see a brother, or someone like a brother trying to come over here." --- Hmm my bro-in-law might pay me a visit.

"I see your mom coming up. In connection with some girl. Its not a big deal." --- Ya she's been nagging me. And ya, its not a big deal.

"There are "people" trying to reach out. They feel strongly about you. You need to trust them and let them help you." --- Hmm, where did that come from? And she didn't quite use the word "people".

"You are surrounded by people. Yet, you feel a certain abandon. You need to open up. Perhaps you will write. People will like it, even if they are not in the circle close to you." ---- This could be said of almost anyone, no ?!

"I see a big red heart" --- Ya, it is right underneath my sternum.

"You have had a near death experience. It just comes up." --- Now, now, this is getting a little spooky.

"You wrote books. I see you dipping bird feather in ink and writing away on parchment paper." --- Oh really! Thats kinda cool.

"You will confide in somebody." --- Well, now you know what I meant. I really don't know what to make of what she said.

Lesson - Don't bump into random psychic chicks in bars. Or bump into them anyway, just that you won't know what to make of what they say.

Bits and pieces

2009-01-18T22:38:00.000-08:00

I never imagined that junk food and diet coke is a recipe for poetry (uh huh ...if you can call it that). I had gone to pick my friend up from the airport and I was talking a bit too much. And griped that I find a lot of people irritating. She promptly replied that she finds me irritating as well. Fair enough. But that somehow struck a chord...or perhaps it was the above mentioned junk food and coke. Anyhow, out came some Keats style romantic crap....(I do need to get back and finish this)
-----------------------------------------------
(if you do read this, read this out loud with the pauses in the right places as indicated :-) )

Ice Princess

Talking king 's/ what I am /my Ice princess,
Talk'd too much /sure I did /Ice princess,
Listen to me /but will who /Ice princess,
Like you did /listen to me /my Ice princess

In the dark /starry skies /O Ice princess,
In the deep /stormy seas /O Ice princess,
In the high /mountain peaks /O Ice princess,
I see your /perfect face /dear Ice princess

You were /an illusion /my Ice princess,
Were you but /in flesh and blood /Ice princess,
Love you for /'ever I will /dear Ice princess

In my dull /boring life /Ice princess,
You were /a lighting bolt /Ice princess,
Gone in /an eye-lid flash /Ice princess,
Memories /are all I got /my Ice princess

Eyes you had /full of love /Ice princess,
Thorns in path /many u saw /O Ice princess,
Heart you had /cold as gold /Ice princess,
Off you went /with no tears /my Ice princess

Defenseless /in love was I /O Ice princess,
Heart I did /lose for sure /Ice princess,
Soul I did /give with love /my Ice princess,
Joy /was the hurt I felt /dear Ice princess

Dancing queen 's /what you were /my Ice princess,
Much too much /moves you had /Ice princess,
Amazed by you /will be who/O Ice princess,
Amazed by 'ur /grace like me /my Ice princess

Words /are /all
I have /for /u
My /Ice /princess

(depending on how you want it to end)

Words that /don't count for sure /my Ice princess,
One question /I ask of thee /my Ice princess,
If I die /this moment /my Ice princess
A tear will u /shed for me /my Ice princess?

*sniff sniff sniff*

(or)

Write I do /crap for sure /Ice princess
Damn I don't /give for you /Ice princess
Words are /but words only /Ice princess
Craze I do /feel for none /dumb Ice princess!

*ha ha ha*
---------------------------------------------
You and Me (To be written)
---------------------------------------------
God is Great (To be written)
---------------------------------------------
Desi Dhal Makhani (To be written)
---------------------------------------------

As it happens

2009-01-02T23:42:00.000-08:00

"Yes, we had to let people go. But, we value you. We want you to take on more responsibilities"... It happened so fast. Just like that nearly half my team was gone. I had survived. We design chips for digital cameras. I am pretty good at it.

But it did throw me off guard. I had been living a rather idyllic life. Today morning I was annoyed that I wasn't able to get a page counter setup. In hindsight I was bitching about something trivial when people were asked to go home. I had kissed enough asses to keep myself safe.

Evening, I went to the ocean front. I was still preoccupied. Some of those laid off had families. On H1B one has no security. I wonder why anyone should work like this..beats me. As for me, I would get my green card in a couple of months. Not that I am ecstatic about it. Just offers a person a greater security. The caress of the easterly wind was rather soothing. Brought memories of the beach back home.

Mom loved the beach. She always said she could stay there forever looking at the waves. An involuntary lump forms in my throat. Have I been a good son? I have left my aging parents back home. In pursuit of what? Has it been worth it? I have worked my butt off, my paycheck makes me smile. But deep down a longing persists.

Still feeling rather heavy, I go to the Blockbuster. I quickly blow 15 bucks on three movies I had always wanted to see - "Pursuit of Happyness", "Bucket List" and the "Dark Knight".

"Help a stranger for common good" - How appropriate. Checking my email, I found that someone did try to help me setup the page counter. It lightened my mood. And she was really sweet. :-) I suddenly feel all the more cheesy for all my solicitations on random blogs to leave me comments. If someone wants to leave me a note they will. I also shut down my wordpress blog. Two blogs are like two wives. I realize that it is enough if I write what I want to write.

If I were to add to the bucket list I would add - "Make those who love you, feel loved". Will I ever truly fulfill that?

I don't let up after the Bucket List. Will Smith's kid in "Pursuit of Happyness" reminds me how much I love kids. One day I will have a daughter. But...not yet. not yet. I need to finish my pursuit. I always thought that term Coelho(personal legend) uses was cheesy while reading the Alchemist. May be it is just our difficulty in acknowledging its existence that is cheesy. Somewhere in the middle of watching Will Smith struggle, a vision of my pursuit crystallizes.....and it is not here in this land. Not between the Pacific and the Atlantic. It will be back there in the peninsula. The only place I can truly call home.

This means I have to continue being a bad son for a while more.... even if I am running short of excuses to avoid marriage ;-)

A blogging ritual

2008-12-31T20:23:00.000-08:00

I decided to follow the bloggers' tradition of posting on New Year's Eve. I don't think I need to give my 2 cents on the year gone by. Rather I'd write some random stuff.

Good boy : Likes a well served dinner at a restaurant.
Bad boy: Likes the well dressed waitress who served the dinner.

Good boy: Never thinks about sleeping with his secretary.
Bad boy: He doesn't think so either, unless the secretary happens to be a blond with big boobs.

Good boy: Packs all his stuff in just 2 suitcases.
Bad boy: Uses 2 girls to pack all his stuff into suitcases.

Goodboy: His wife doubled in size after just one year.
Badboy: He was responsible for that.

Goodboy: Dutifully carries his rubber in his pencil box.
Badboy: Dutifully carries his rubber in his waller, just in case.

Goodboy: Takes his virginity pledge seriously.
Badboy: He just takes the virgins.

Goodboy: Thinks the world is flat.
Badboy: Sees a whole lot of curves in this world!

Goodboy: A goodboy never goes after his best friend's girl.
Badboy: A badboy goes after her and her sister.

Goodboy: Solves all the 99 problems for a straight A.
Badboy: Hes sure got 99 problems but he bitch ain't one :-D

Happy New Year Y'all Faithful.

Battle for the soul of desi music

2008-12-21T13:41:00.000-08:00

Ok ok..I wanted to title this as Nusrat vs Kailash Kher, but settled for the dramatic instead of the cheesy. Desi music has never been in want of legendary singers. There is greatness in singing and then there is singing with soul. Perhaps it has to do with being acquainted with poverty at some point in life....when suffering, pain and a certain hopelessness guide your way of life. You then start doing things in a way you really want to, you do things not for the commercial, but because you know deep down that this is how it needs to be done... you are at peace with a song because you know you have found its soul. The singing that is thus born is so fresh and carries away the listener with its carefree abandon.

It was way back in high school when I first heard "Afreen".
Well, granted the song became a hit in part due to the worshipping of the scantily clad Lisa Ray by bums like me.
Granted the lyrics are as cheesy as those of a first time love letter written by a high school kid -
"aisaa dekhaa nahiiN Khuubsuurat ko’ii
jism jaise Ajanta kii muurat ko’ii
jism jaise nigaahoN pe jaaduu ko’ii
jism naGhmaa ko’ai jism Khushbuu ko’ii"
(what else can you say about such descriptive compliments ;-) )
Yet...... Nusrat's rendering took it to a certain level of innocence that is so close to being spiritual.

Well, so what if it took all the seductiveness of Lisa Ray or the blending with techno to make Nusrat's music popular...Whatever be the means, the broader subcontinent audience so richly deserved to hear his heavenly voice.

While it was the constant poverty of a small traditional qawwali band that shaped the initial years of Nusrat, it was the total failure of his fledgling business that drove Kailash Kher back to his music roots. Thankfully "Rabba Ishq na Hove" was well received despite a subpar picturization(not that I mind Priyanka Chopra and Lara Dutta strutting their stuff in latex minis) and the medocricity of the movie(Andaaz) it appeared in. I need not comment on what followed....his khuli gayaki style of sufi music (inspired by none other than Nusrat) has won over its fair share of admirers since then.

"Oh Sikander" or "Mustt Kalander" , "Teri Deewani" or "Tere bin nahi lagda dil mera" , "Tujhe mein pyar karu" or "Angrai par angrai"....... the debate continues. Despite his somewhat high pitched voice for a male playback Kailash has adapted the Nusrat spectacularly enough to make it a commercial success.

Still when the old master and his mustachioed , kurta-pajama wearing middle aged crew sing,
"Nazar mila ke, mere paas aa ke, loot liya
Nazar hati to phir muskura ke loot liya
Koi yeh loot to dekho ki us ne jab chaaha
Mujhi mein reh ke mujhi mein samaa ke loot liya"
....
they do emobdy a certain simplicty that brings an involuntary smile to my lips.

" What's the world's greatest lie ? " the boy asked,

2008-12-06T18:39:00.000-08:00

completely surprised. "It's this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate".

By now its rather easy to guess that I've been reading the Alchemist. Paulo Coelho, has that rare gift of imparting soul into his prose. Everyone who reads the Alchemist is bound to nod their head at some point, agreeing to what he says and being somewhat impressed by the way he can somehow express what often goes unsaid by a lot of people.

Perhaps Coelho is the R.K. Narayan of the Latin Americas, just that he is a little bit more dramatic with respect to the story lines. My only complaint is, it is more on the optimistic side. (Atleast as far as I have read :)) But he does balance it out with some skepticism and uncertainty. I gotta complain atleast a little bit, shouldn't I? ;-)

But certainly everyone could gain that much bit of cultural experience by reading atleast one novel by this Brazilian author.

Gravity versus Evolution

2008-12-02T06:40:00.000-08:00

( http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/12/gravity-is-just.html ). Ok , here I veer off , being nerdy again. And btw, it is extremely ironical that I am talking about Gravity AND Evolution the very next day after writing
"All about myself blogs - Almost every blog is. You are in the wrong place , if you are looking to read about cosmology or genetics. "
Hmm.... that is how life humbles you at every turn. Now Seth Godin for whom I have a lot of respect says

"Newton gets all kinds of credit. They call it the Law of Gravity. They put his picture on pages that profile geniuses. They say he discovered gravity. Nonsense. He just named it."

--- wooww wait a minute. He was the first one to write a precise expression for gravity. In other words while people who came before him had some qualitative understanding, Newton went ahead and bam -- gave us a formula.

Granted it was somewhat inaccurate (you need to allow for some relativistic effects and perhaps even more stuff that we don't even know about as Seth points out), still it is heck of a lot more useful a theory than Darwin's evolution. It wasn't just spiel. It let us develop accurate projectiles (err missiles), compute the stress induced by their own weight in numerous materials used in construction and many other such precise utilitarian calculations.

In contrast, Darwin's theory was more of a paper giant. It was the elucidation of the structure of genetic material by Watson and Crick (or perhaps Rosalind Franklin, depending on who tells the story) that ultimately led to an explosion in the study of genetics.

"If the timeframe of the message of your marketing is longer than the attention span (or lifetime) of the person you are marketing to, you have your work cut out for you as well."

I would believe that it is easy to say "Man came from ape and was not created by God on the seventh day" and hold someone's attention (or wrath) than to try and convince them that the gravitational attraction between two bodies drops inversely to the square of the distance between them.

Anyways, Seth is Seth. He does have his own unique way of making his point. I do agree with him on the Atkins diet though ;-)

What a wonderful world.....

2008-12-01T18:49:00.001-08:00

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5IIXeR5OUI&feature=related)
It is perhaps inappropriate that after all that has happened in Mumbai, I should write a post with this title. This Louis Armstrong song was made in 1968..at the height of the Vietnam war and the Civil rights movement. Despite all the cynicism and anger that is in the air, there are things to cherish and feel happy about.

Now that doesn't mean that our government can remain inept and indecisive as usual. But that is altogether a different post.

So we are not a one post wonder.

2008-12-01T10:56:00.000-08:00

A one post or an one post? Whatever! Anyways,my blog isnt an one post wonder anymore. This is officially the second post. I had a meeting with my boss just now. When I went up to his room, he was busy -- reading the Steyn blog. You may not agree with everything a right wing nut case says, let alone believe it is true. But nonetheless they write some funny shit. Even funnier if it were actually true. A sample,
"
Ayatollah Khomeini's "Blue Book" and its helpful advice on romantic matters: "If a man marries a minor who has reached the age of nine and if during the defloration he immediately breaks the hymen, he cannot enjoy her any longer." I'll say. I know it always ruins my evening. Also: "A man who has had sexual relations with an animal, such as a sheep, may not eat its meat. He would commit sin."

"
(http://www.steynonline.com/content/view/1516/26)

Now that gives y'all a taste of ma humor.

And so here we are

2008-12-01T10:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I figured out that my 2 cents would be the name of my blog. And sometime today, in fact during lunch, while chewing on those chicken fajita tacos, a little random thought floated in my mind. And here we are now.

I am certainly not the most tech savvy person, although I am quite technical :-) Not that any of this means anything, but then blogs aren't just for posting stuff that do mean something, aint so?

Well this being my first day on the blogosphere, I took a little random walk. Left a few comments here and there...mainly to see if they would respond. I am certainly curious to get to know the dynamics of blog writers.

Some immediate thoughts... There seem to be the following types of blogics....(not that this terminology would stick...just didnt want to call them bloggers like everyone does...even if I'm trying to streotype them ;-) )

--- Those who post tons and tons of pics. They tire me with all the scrolling I need to do before I get to read anything sensible. But I guess their point is - a picture is worth a thousand words. Cant really argue.

--- Family types - talking about their kids and stuff. yaaawn. I'm sure one day I will end up doing this. I can get guidance from these people at that time.

--- Cynical and sad - I agree of late theres been tons of stuff to make people rightfully cynical. And given that everyone has their own chip on their shoulders , perhaps one wouldn't really want to read someone else's pile of crap :-D But these are honest posts and that certainly has its own charm.

--- One blog wonders. I need not say more. Plus this is my first post. I would def write one more. Just in case :-P

--- All about myself blogs. Almost every blog is. You are in the wrong place , if you are looking to read about cosmology or genetics.

I am still not sure how to effectively search for blogs I would love to read. I guess I would figure that out as I walk.