Road Trip to Death Valley

Date: 22nd-25th Dec 2006
To : Death Valley National Park, California
With : Vikram and Pradeep
Photos are here.

How could be a desert beautiful? I always associated beauty with greenery. That was my thought before going on this trip. But my opinions completely changed after going there. I realized how narrow my definition of beauty was.

We went in Vikram’s BMW X5. They were both driving, taking turns, and I was relaxing in the rear seat. Pradeep had already been to this place many times and he played the role of an informed Guide all through the journey.We started at around 2.30 pm from office in Palo Alto. Our destination was 450 miles from our place and it was expected to be completed in around 8 hrs. Enroute I saw lot of oil wells. California has good farmlands. I was amazed to see such huge farms. Agriculture is completely mechanized over here, otherwise there was no way they could cultivate such huge farms. Halfway through the journey, we stopped at Bakersfield to fill our bellies for the night. US has allround development, wherever you go you’ll find good roads and the same stores/restaurants/banks etc. On the way we stopped at a lonely/dark place to gaze at the beautiful star-studded night sky. In the dark, we descended into the valley. Before we started descending, I got the first glance of snow after coming to bay area. I was eager to touch it and I did that. But soon I would see lot more of snow. It was around 11 pm by the time we reached Furnace Creek Ranch, the hotel where we would stay for the next 3 nights. This place is rightly named as Furnace Creek as it’s right inside the Death Valley and the temperatures in the summer over here go upto 115 degree F. Furnace Creek was standing as an Oasis in the desert with the only place I could see greenery. Once in the room, we retired to bed so as to get up early so that we could make the best of the available time.

First Day (23rd Dec 2006)

Our Guide decided that Race Track would be the first place to visit. It was around 70 miles from our hotel. I had no idea what we were heading for. The last leg of the journey to Race Track was to be covered on a kuchcha road. It completely reduced our speed, but it was worth it. On the route I could see snow in the light of the day. Later while returning I stopped by the road-side to hold the snow in my hands and play with it. The picture of the Race Track from the car itself was great. It’s a incredibly vast flat lake-bed surrounded on all sides by the Mountains.

As soon as I came out of the car and stepped onto the race track, I couldn’t stop myself from running from this end to the other end and then come back. I dont know what made me do that, it was more than a mile one-way and it was cold too. Standing in the center of the Race Track and looking at the panorama around you covering mountains was an experience to my eyes. I felt like playing football and cricket there. The Race Track is also known for the moving rocks. It’s seems nobody has ever seen those rocks moving, except for the tracks which show their path. It seems that these rocks move, when the Race Track becomes wet.

From here we went to the Ubehebe Crater. I had only seen pictures of volcanic craters till now. And now I was seeing a Crater with my naked eyes. It was 600ft deep and I went till the lowest point. Pradeep and Vikram came half-way down. I yelled in my full pitch to hear my yell travelling through the walls of the crater and reverberating. I collecteda few volcanic stones as souvenir. Only when we were climbing up, did we realize how difficult was. The ascent completely sapped our energy. Once we were out of the crater we relaxed for a while and then headed towards the Titus Canyon. It’s a long canyon, but it didn’t look that appealing and further we were tried, so we decided not to go along the Canyon. We had our lunch there and got some energy to go for the next target.

We then drove to the point where the Sand Dunes were there. I had seen them from the car, when we drove to Race Track in the morning. I cant understand, how these dunes formed, because at no other place in the Valley could I see such kind of fine-grained sand. It’s only at this place and I heard it’s spread on an area of 15 sq. miles. We had little time as the Sun was about to set. I took off my shoes, and ran on the Sand to feel it by my feet. There were a couple of big Dunes, but I couldn’t afford to go that far. I liked it and now I feel like visiting Rajasthan. From there we went to the Mosaic Canyon, which was a short but good one. It had nice marble stones along it. By the time we came out of the Canyon it was dark enough and we decided to be done with the day and returned to Furnace Creek Ranch. Had Dinner at the 49ers Cafe and strolled in the souvenir shop for a while and then went to our room. It was a tiring but wonderful day. We watched the famous Sholay movie that night (courtesy Pradeep and his IPod).

Second Day (24th December 2006)

The first spot on the itinerary for the day was the Bad Water Basin. We drove for less than an hour along the descending road to reach the lowest point in North America: The Bad Water Basin. It’s 282 ft below the sea level. It’s a very very big salt-basin. It’s like the Race Track, filled with layer(s) of salt. I dont know how thick the layer of salt is. It was formed over the years, because of the water from the surrounding mountains accumulating over here and as there is no outlet for this water, the only way it could disappear was the intense heat in the summer, leaving behind the salt. We played football with a tennis ball over there for a while. Beauty is of different kinds.

We then headed to the Devil’s Golf Course: A funny name. It was named so, because the land there was like tilled land (with salty masses), and it’s so rough that only Devil’s can play golf there. From a distance it looks like there only a layer of salt on land, but from close inspection you’ll realize that it’s all salt mixed with soil. Again, dont know how thick it is. Then we drove along to the Artist’s Palette. The naming comes from the various colors of soil/rocks on the small hills, which get their color from the minerals present in it. We could see tints of Green, Red, Yellow, Brown and Blue. It was nice.

Our next spot was the Golden Canyon. There’s a trekking path through the hills which starts from the entrance of the Golden Canyon and ends at Zarbiske’s point. This trek was one of the best parts of the trip for me, although we decided not to go till the Zabriske’s point as it would eat up some of our valuable time. I found stones of various colors, of which I collected as many as my hands could hold as souvenirs. In the trek, there was a path which was along the body of one of the highest peaks. (I am limited by my vocab to describe it, but this is what I intend to describe this path http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhiraj/346362707/). It was particularly interesting. The area was containing of lots of short hills, which we could have had explored completely, had we got the time for it. There was another spot called the Red Cathedral, yet another mid-sized hill named like that because of it’s color and shape.

After having lunch at one of the camping locations, we headed towards one of the high-altitude peaks. This is called the Dante’s Peak. As we were driving towards it we could notice the drop in the temperature and also patches of snow. I wasn’t aware of how big a surprise was awaiting me. We reached the peak, and it was very very chilling there. For the first time I had to wrap myself in two layers of sweaters. I was enthralled by what my eyes were showing me. From this point, we had an amazing view of the Bad Water Basin and all the salt where-in we were playing that morning was looking like water. The best vantage point to see the Death Valley. The Sun was around an hour away from setting, and we were yet to see Zabriske’s point. So we moved on, although unwillingly. The Zabriske’s point was very close to the road and very much accessible. From here we could see all the small hills around Grand Canyon, where we were trekking in the noon. It was getting dark. I wanted to stay there and watch the start-studded night-sky lying on my back, but the other two were of a different opinion and so headed to our hotel. Had dinner at the same place and retired to our beds.

3rd day (25th December 2006)

It was Christmas day and also the last day of our trip. I got up early and took some of the pictures around Furnace Creek Ranch, at the time of sun-rise. There’s a golf course in the Ranch and it was looking beautiful with the mountains in the background. We packed up all our stuff, checked out of the hotel and drove out of Furnace Creek. Wildrose Charcoal Kilns was the only item that we thought of covering. Along the route to the Kilns, for the first time I could see some greenery and trees. We thought of going to the Aguereberry Point, but the road was very bad and so we had to back-off. After driving for some time we reached the place where Charcoal Kilns were there. There was a lot of snow at this place on these mountains and I was excited. There were a total of 10 kilns which were built in the later half of 19th century to make charcoal required during mining. They were still intact. The road near that point was slippery because of ice and the car even slipped. From here, had we got the necessary equipment and time, we could have hiked along the snowy route to reach the Telescope peak, which is the highest-peak in the Death Valley, stading 11049 ft above sea-level. It’s a pretty tough trek, but would have been great had we done it. Maybe the next time, if at all there is one. That was the last item from Death Valley and the we started on our journey back home.

It was my first road-trip and it turned out to be a wonderful one, beating my expectations and changing my definition of beauty. There were a couple of places that we missed due to lack of time, like the Scotty’s Castle and Panamint Springs. There were lot of nice places to hike and also camp, which can never be covered, no matter how much time you have at your disposal. Death Valley is such a vast and beautiful place.

Here’s my rating of all the places that I saw:-

1. Dante’s Peak
2. Golden Canyon
3. Race Track
4. Ubehebe Crater
5. Mesquite Sand Dune’s
6. Bad Water Basin
7. Wildrose Charcoal Kilns
8. Mosaic Canyon
9. Zabriske’s Point

Vivekanda's paper on Hinduism

This is a link to the paper on Hinduism presented by Swami Vivekananda,
at the World parliament of Religion at Chicago, 19th September 1893.
http://www.theuniversalwisdom.org/hinduism/paper-on-hinduism-vivekananda/
Bear with the considerably large no. of typos in this version.

Here are some of the lines that I liked:-

"Lord, I do not want wealth nor children nor learning. If it be Thy
will, I shall go from birth to birth; but grant me this, that I
may love Thee without the hope of reward - love unselfishly for
love’s sake."

"Unity in variety is the plan of nature, and the Hindu has
recognized it. Every other religion lays down certain fixed dogmas
and tries to force society to adopt them. It places before society
only one coat which must fit Jack and John and Henry, all alike.
If it does not fit John or Henry he must go without a coat to
cover his body. The Hindus have discovered that the absolute can
only be realized, or thought of, or stated through the relative,
and the images, crosses, and crescents are simply so many symbols
- so many pegs to hang spiritual ideas on. It is not that this
help is necessary for everyone, but those that do not need it have
no right to say that it is wrong. Nor is it compulsory in
Hinduism."

Earth at Night

This link has the picture of how Earth looks at night (of course, it's an image formed
by super-imposing many images from satellites)
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020810.html

Money-n-Fame

Let not fame and money hijack the purpose of life.

Desire...Quest...Consummation...Greed

Let not the progression of Desire to Quest to Consummation... reach the stage of Greed.
Run, rabbit run.
Dig that hole, forget the sun,
And when at last the work is done
Don't sit down it's time to dig another one.

- "DARK SIDE OF THE MOON", Pink Floyd

Bringing in Change

Just like there are two ways of designing software, there are also
two ways in which change can be bought in :-
- Top-down. This has a lot of impact and is very intrusive. A faster
way to bring-in change. There will be oppositions and revolutions
and without force or authority this cannot be done.
- Bottom-up. This is very non-intrusive. Instead of asking people
to change, can make them realize that what could be the benefits
of the change, and they would automatically change, once they
see the benefits. This is more durable, but would take a longer
time. No force or authority is required in this case. This is how
the companies like Infosys, Wipro, TCS bought the IT revolution
in India. Only after the successes of these companies did the
government start building STPIs, giving away land and other
infrastructural support to this sector and some other financial
incentives.

Who am I?

I am zilch. My role gives me identity. My sole objective is to
worship my role. Worship in the true sense.

Verses from Gita - 3.27

प्रक्रितेह् क्रियमानानि गुनैहि कर्मानि सर्वशह्
अहन्कारविमुदात्मा कर्ताहमिति मन्यते

అహన్కారము యొక్క్ ప్రభావముచె కలత్ నోన్దిమ్పబదిన జివాత్మ
నిజముగ భౌతిక ప్రక్రితి యొక్క త్రిగునములచె చెయబదిన కర్మలకు తానె కర్తనని భావిన్చును.
(Translated by P.C Bhaktivedaanta Swamy (ISKCON founder))

Purpose of Life - All the world's a stage

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts
- William Shakespheare (from As You Like It)

I heard this many a times, but it is now that I have come to see
relevance of this quote in all our lives. If we go by the quote and
assume that the world is a stage and we are all actors, then there are
some questions that arise and some ideas that we can infer from that
assumption:-
- What should be the aim of the actors (meaning us)? The aim of the
actors is ONLY to play the role as best as possible. And this is the
only objective of the person. The individual should put all his efforts
to make the best performance. Does this mean that the people who play
the bad roles have to be as bad as possible, because their role demands that?
But shouldn't I know the script to play my role well ?
- There are both good and bad roles. Gandhiji said "Hate the crime
and not the criminal". This is very apt. An individual might be
playing multiple roles simultaneously. So if the individual has
to play one bad role, then it doesn't mean that the individual
is to be hated because of that role. Valmiki was a hunter in his early
life. If this was believed then a thief/rebel would be accepted into
the society very easily, than the way it is now.
- Which are the real roles and which are manufactured/fake roles?
- How do I know what my actual role is?
- It's the role that is important and not the one who is playing it. This
is a very important inference, because if each one of us assimilates
this then there will not be any vanity. Everybody who plays his role,
would be given the respect no matter how supposedly small/insignificant
role that he is playing. Individuals who are achievers or considered
to be successful, often have lot of vanity, because they think that it
is they who had achieved this all by themselves. But this is not true.
It's the circumstances (or the role) that have brought them there.
Rather, it's the role that is great and not the person. All the
individual did was to play his role to his best and ofcourse he should
be applauded for doing that. The individual should not forget that,
the role that he played could have been played by somebody else too.
If not Mahatma Gandhi somebody else,
If not Nathuram Godse somebody else,
If not Bhagat Singh somebody else,
If not Sachin Tendulkar somebody else,
If not Rahul Dravid somebody else,
If not Abraham Lincoln somebody else,
If not Einstien somebody else,
If not Hitler somebody else,
If not Lance Armstrong somebody else,
If not Narayan Murthy somebody else,
If not Mother Theresa somebody else,
If not Norman Borlaug somebody else,
If not Verghese Kurien somebody else,
If the people see the distinction between the role and the actor, then
they would not set the goal to be Sachin Tendulkar but rather to be a
great batsmen. Unfortunately the society gives more importance to the
actor than the role as the role is very abstract and it doesn't have
any existence.
[There's a lot of relevance in the workplace. Once people realize that
it's the goal that matters and that all their roles are created to
achieve that goal, and their only objective is to play their roles
to perfection then they would compare their performances and not
their compensations. They would not care about recognitions and
designations]
Service above self. (Put the quote in hindi -- seva parmodharma).
If people realize that it is their role in the larger goal that is
important, people would cooperate with each other in working towards
the goal inspite of their differences. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi
would have continued playing together, if they would have realized this,
if they would have understood that the individual should yield to the
larger goal.
- Every role has significance. Just like the character of the (almost
completely disconnected) squirrel in the "Ice Age 2" movie, whch
plays a major role in the movie, by unknowingly saving all the
animals, everybody's role is of significance irrespective of how
small/minor it is.
- Separation of concerns. We have to play multiple roles simultaneously.
And as mentioned above, our objective should be to play all these
roles they best way we can. And to do this we have to keep them all
separated, without allowing any role to influence any other role in
any ways.
- Detachment. Once you step out somebody else will step in and all that
you were because of the role that you played, is gone. You should be
ready to accept this fact. You should realize that all that you are
getting as part of playing the role will not be available once you
cease to play your role and that you should not try to hold onto those.
There will always be cases when you'll find a person who can play the
role better than you, and then you should righteously give way to him.
- Relentless pursuit of perfection. Perfection is ideal and it can never
be achieved. And that's the reason why
For every Sampras there is a Federer,
For every Gavaskar there is a Sachin,
For every Newton there is an Einstien,
So individuals should strive to push the limits to reach perfection in
whatever they do.
- Just like most of the plays/stage which have a happy ending, will there
be a time when every individual will be happy? Will there be a time when all
the bad roles transform into good roles and there will no longer be any bad
roles?
- Why attribute success to a single individual and honor/appreciate/recognize
/appreciate only him/her, when there are lot of people involved in it? Is
it because all of them cannot be praised, because humans dont want equality,
because an individual would be happy when he is shown as above the rest? Is
it because he/she has set an example, and doing this would inspire others
to follow him/her? But should you make people to work for recognitions than
work for work itself?

A picture you ought to see

Another story on GMR

Sometime back I had written on my blog about the
GMR Group. It seems to be growing very rapidly...and I hope the GMR group becomes as big as the Reliance group.
As per this article on rediff

Rao, who owns a 79% stake, is worth $2.2 billion, enough for him to debut at No. 18 on Forbes Asia's third annual list of India's 40 Richest.

Friends Map at Orkut

I didn't notice this until today. Orkut provides a nice friends map using Google Maps.
That is mine (For some reason no one is showing up in India :-()

The amazingly cool WII

The newly introduced Nintendo Wii (pronounced as We) is an amazingly cool innovation.
I am not one of those guys who is into gaming, but the other day when I saw people
trying it out at the Valley Fair Mall in San Jose, I couldn't stop myself from trying it. I played boxing and
it was as if you were really in the ring and were fight with an opponent to knock him down. No more key combinations or press-buttons...Just swing your arms and body and
it recognizes the motion of the body and also the pace of the motion and reacts
accordingly. I think this is a revolutionary technology.
The last time (remember I am not into gaming) I was amazed, was when I got a jerk/sth
of the sort of a shock when I held the Playstation controller in my hand, and when
I hit my car with sth while playing the NFS sort-of game. I am talking abt the
feeedback and this was like 4-5 years back. But looking at it now, I get the thought..."but isn't that very basic and simple".

The crazy Vista story

I am not sure if I have heard it properly ...but I remember hearing to the radio
that Vista was a 50,000 man year project. Isn't that crazy...but that's what I
heard "10,000 people working for 5 years". (Yeah it does include every person involved
in the effort: the developers, the testers, the program managers, the UI experst and
the other higher-ups). I dont know anything abt what's new in the Vista, but I do
know that it's not just the OS, but there are lot of other products like the entire
office-suite, but still I cant convince myself that it would take such a looooooooong time. But the following blogs seems to point that it could be true:-
http://moishelettvin.blogspot.com/2006/11/windows-shutdown-crapfest.html

I am still trying to find out a written evidence for it.

Purpose of Life - Background

"The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose"

I found it as one of my friends' signature. I dont know what it really means :-),
but there's sth to it that makes it interesting.
I think I am at a stage in my life (almost everybody goes through it) where I have
to question my existence. Questions like: Who am I? Why am I on this earth? What
should I pursue? How should I live? Has it got more to do than just 'I came, I saw,
I left' or will it be just 'I came, I left' (Can I see the the reality in my lifetime)?
are making sense to me. Should I trouble myself by bothering to answer all these
questions or stay happy/contended by being ignorant? I dont konw if I will be able
to answer them...but I am convinced that it's worth giving a try :-).

Does GOD Exist ???

The eternal mystery was/is troubling me. Is there somebody called GOD or
something of that nature who controls all our lives and actions. Do we really have
control on most of the things that happen in our life? Is there sth called destiny?
If so can we change our destiny? I am not wise enough to answer them...but how do
I march ahead? By making assumptions? What if my assumptions are wrong? Does it
REALLY matter whether I believe in GOD or not? I guess it does...it will change the
whole perspective towards life. Because if you believe in GOD or sth of that nature,
you'll start accepting that you are JUST a cog in the wheel. An important thing
that seemed to support this (thiesm) is:-
- There are only a few things that are in our control. Because it's a big
inter-(connected/related) world, we are affected by even minor-minor acts of
somebody/sth living on some part of the world and similarly we affect others
who are totally unrelated to us.
- One thing is true...we come and we go (we take birth and we die). To me it seems
to be safe to assume that we REALLY dont have any control on these two aspects...
PROBABLY death might be a little in our hands, but not birth...because we dont
have any existence b4 we are born :-). If we think about death, the cause could
be a natural calamity, a natural death a sucide or a homicide. If it's a natural
calamity or natural death...there's nothing to point at. Let's think abt suicide
...why did I commit a suicde? there should be some reason for that...it could
be a circumstance...then how did that circumstance originate...it is very likely
that some human is involved in the creation of that cirumstance...if so then can
I say that it were the actions of that human which caused me to commit suicide?
It could be even more complicated...There could be a big chain of humans and
their actions which as a whole made me commit suicide (Individually each of their
actions isn't significant enough to be the cause, but collectively it is)? So
isn't it true that all these people who are part of this chain have a say in
determining my death. But if I put myself into the shoes of one of these
humans....Did I really intend to do that? If I had known that a small action of
mine could cause somebody to commit suicide, why would I do that? Even if I had
known that it could produce such a result, it might not make sense from my point
of view to stop doing that, because the small action by itself is not wrong. Am I
to be blamed for this? At this point it makes sense to accept that I am not
responsible for my actions. Atleast I'll be happy that I am just doing what
I am being asked to do. The same reasoning applies for homicide....here the
person subject of the homicide is directly responsible for my death. So do we
say that there's somebody called GOD who should be held responsible for all the
actions of all the humans? What about birth? Am I responsible for my birth?
Seems very funny :-) but I think this was the question that made the Hindu's
think of the concept of rebirth...the separation of soul and the body.

An AI/NLP problem

I was just wondering if this could be possible:-
Using my blog (which includes all my blog posts) as the key to a
search engine, can I find all those persons who blog and
have a similar mindset/interests/thoughts like me.

Hindi is NOT our National Language

All these years I have been believing that Hindi is our National Language, because
that's what I remember I was taught when I was in school, I am not sure if it was
written in any of my texbooks. Thanks to Vikram, I came to know TODAY...that it's
a BIG myth that we are carrying around in our mind. I am unable to accept that
something as simple thing as this could be tampered with. It makes me think how
many such fallacies and myths I am having in my mind. Will I get a chance to correct
all those things or I'll have to take them to my grave? Whom should I blame for this?

National Public Radio (NPR)

The best radio that I have come across.
If u are in the bay area you can tune into 88.5 FM, which is the KQED-FM.
Their non-intrusive way of advertising, the worldwide (BBC news at 9 pm),
and the daily morning biz news and the "Perspective", have been really
good.
Here are the timings of some of the good programs:-
- BBC world news at 9pm (daily)
- "The perspective" at 7.30 am (daily)
- "Commonwealth club of California" 8 pm (every friday)
- "The voices this week" at 7.05 am (every sunday)
will keep adding to this list as I found more.
Check out the link for details.

The flipside of Rules

Rules are created with a purpose/objective. But unfortunately as time progresses the
rules themselves become the objectives and the original purpose itself is forgotton.
And the enforcers of these rules forget that the rules are to be verified/applied with
the original purpose in mind. Lest the rules might become blind-faiths. So it is
necessary that the rules are evaluated regularly to see their applicability with the
time. It would be great if the authority which judges the compliance with the rules,
takes into account the original objective, because there might be many cases wherein
one can violate the set rules but still be achieving the original objective.
The other problem with rules is that they are sometimes created for avoiding
(mis/ab)use of some things by miscreants...But at the expense of the righteous
persons losing thier right. Take the following scenario:-
My college had intially computer labs open throughout the night. There were people
who were using it for education and there were other who were misusing it. The
authorities came to know abt this and they put in the rule of closing the labs in
the nights. So all those people who were actually using it lost their right to
education.

Sanyaasa - The fourth and final stage of Hindu life

I am impressed by the way Wikipedia describes the Sanyaasa stage of hindu life:-

Having succeeded in overcoming all sensual affections and desires, and in acquiring perfect equanimity towards everything around him, the hermit has fitted himself for the final and most exalted order, that of devotee or religious mendicant. As such, he has no further need of either mortifications or religious observances; but with the sacrificial fires reposited in his mind, he may devote the remainder of his days to meditating on the divinity. Taking up his abode at the foot of a tree in total solitude, with no companion but his own soul (jiva), clad in a coarse garment, he should carefully avoid injuring any creature or giving offence to any human being that may happen to come near him. Once a day, in the evening, when the charcoal fire is extinguished and the smoke no longer issues from the fire-places, when the pestle is at rest, when the people have taken their meals and the dishes are removed, he should go near the habitations of men, in order to beg what little food may suffice to sustain his feeble frame. Ever pure of mind he should thus bide his time, as a servant expects his wages, wishing neither for death nor for life, until at last his soul is freed from its fetters and absorbed into the atman, the impersonal self-existent Brahman, or else returns to dwell with Brahman experienced as the personal Deity.

Inter(net)-Dependence

I never thought I would be so dependent on the Internet. These days it's like I am in a solitary confinement (in my apartment) and my laptop (Thinkpad T60) together with
the internet is my window to the outer world :-). Internet has become the 4th basic
necessity of my life (apart from roti, kapda and makaan). Look at the ways I am using it:-
Chatting :- Yahoo Messenger, GTalk, Gmail
Phone, Conf call :- Yahoo Messenger, Skype
Shopping info: Froogle,
Driving directions: Google Maps, Yahoo maps
Search: Google, Wikipedia,
Music: Raaga.com, dishant.com
Apart from these the other things that I use the net for are recipes, movies, blogging , internet radio etc.

The OLPC Project

Here's the link for the pics of the working prototyp of $100 laptop,
which is part of the One Laptop Per Child intiative.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pete/sets/72057594143224765/
And here's the link that shows the current adoption/interest by
the countries:-
http://www.laptop.org/map.en_US.html

The Hindu

My favourite newspaper is "The Hindu". One of things I was thinking of when coming
over to US was that I would be missing reading it every morning. But recently I
realized that I can read it in the same print format online. The subscription is
free for first the first 3 months.

Computer History Museum

Finally got a chance to visit the one of it's kind Computer History Museum, situated
in Mountain View. It's really worth a visit. It had a collection of old machines ranging from the Abacus to the Blue. To mention some of them: Abacus, Difference Engine, DEC PDP1, System/360, ENIAC, UNIVAC, Apple Mac Workstation, Altair 9000 (that created the PC revolution). You could also see the huge Hard Disks (the platter of which is around 3 feet in diameter). I was just there for over an hour. It makes me visit again. Will fill up this space with more info.

My Cricbay profile

I have become a part of the cricket-playing community of the Bay area :-)

Nice Article On India and it's ties with US by Fareed Zakaria

Universe as a state machine

Was reading this book "Things a computer scientist rarely talks about" by Donald E. Knuth. In the book he ponders
about the existence of God and whether the universe is deterministic. He also mentions
the possibility of the Universe being a big state-machine. Or is it a huge cluster of
state-machines interacting with each other. If that is the case then SUPPOSING we
get to know the transition rules of the state machines then it could be possible to
predict our future :-). This makes me think of astrology and the art of prophecy. In astrology (AFAIK) the future is predicted on the basis of the positions of the stars
and other celestial bodies. And astrology is an old science. So long time ago itself this question had occurred to those founders of astrology, that can we predict future? And they tried to answer that.

Embarrassed

Didn't ever expect that people could be so good. Vinod and I were going to the
Diwali party at Sunnyvale Temple and it was very crowded with all the Indians present
in the bay area making their appearance. For around 15 mins we couldn't find a
place to park and then there was this young mexican guy who saw us struggling and
guided us to a parking place near his house and wished us Happy Diwali. After we were
back from the party at the parking place this guy was still there and we thought he's
looking for making some money out of this opportunity. The way he was being courteous
and helpful we thought we were pretty sure about his motives. Otherwise why would
someone at that hour (it was past 11 in the night) stay out and help people. When we
offered him money he rejected and just bid us adieu. I was amazed. He would have felt
bad, afterall we took it in the wrong way. It's sad that we are moving away from that
kind of behavior to one where every action of ours has some kind of selfish motive.

A nice parable

This is a humorous parable written by Raymond Smullyan. Makes me think about the following things:-
- Belief in God (I am an athiest though)
- When we are doing something are we really doing something, or are we just acting
to the script written by somebody?
- For some time I used to think that Reason should be the basis of all your actions,
but that shows my ignorance. There seem to be lot of things in this universe for
which there are not yet reasons.

WorldWide Catalog

Came across this largest online catalog of books, linking all the libraries worldwide.
It helps me in finding for books/videos/magazines etc. in my local libraries. This will
be very useful to me considering the fact that I dont have my own medium of transport and the public transport system here in the bay area is not good. So I would only go to the library if the book is available.
Found that currently libraries from only a few countries were linked. And there is not
even a single library from India :-). Currently, there are
over 10,000 libraries connected.
I was initially thinking when would Indian libraries have a similar kind of step. Wait are there any community libraries at all India? Except for the bigs cities and that too may be a couple of libraries in them. The situation is pretty bad :-(

Blogger Beta

Blogger has come up with a beta, which includes some good features like:-
- Publish thru Email
- Enhance inline blog content editor.
- Setting up feeds (I am not sure if this was earlier there)

Visit Blogger Beta Tour

I hope I will soon migrate to it.

It's raining marriages

This season (from Jan - Aug 2006) the number of marriages that I have attended reached
14...a big number.

Rahul in Person

Today I had the oppurtunity of seeing Rahul Dravid in person for the first time. He was at Tirumala Music Center (TMC) Begumpet as an ambassador of Samsung. Good no. of people
had come to see him. People wished all the best to him and the Indian team for the coming world cup (2007). He was as usual reticent and didn't even entertain any questions from the press persons. Unfortunately I didn't carry a camera, else this was a wonderful chance of capturing him. Have been looking for a long time for this oppurtunity and today was the time.

Biking to Anantagari

Couple of weeks back my brother and I went to a place called Anantagiri on Bike. It's a small hilly jungle, around 80km from hyderabad, near vikarabad. It's a nice place for trekking, though completely neglected. The ride was very good as it's along the
highway and the climate was cloudy and windy. We trekked a bit but there was lot left
to be explored. Check out the photos here:-
Anantagiri photos

Shirdi Travel Diary

Shirdi Travel Diary (13/04/06 to 16/04/06)
Sunil, Anil annayya, Aunty (Sunil's mother), viji annayya
and myself had planned for a trip to Shirdi and finally we
made it.

13/04/06
I boarded the Manmad (Secunderabad to Manmad) express at Begumpet station, on
which Sunil and Aunty were also there. They came from vizag to hyderabad today
morning.

14/04/06
Got down at Nagersol (which is around 2 hrs from Shirdi) at 7.30 in the
morning. On-board the train we befriended another two telugu familiies who told
us all about what are the formal procedures to get the darshan, where to stay
and what all places to visit near by. From Nagersol we all took an omni (these
are quite popular here, most of them fitted with LPG cylinders, I guess it
makes them quite economical) and reached Shirdi. Went to Bhakt Nivas (the
trust-owned hostel for the piligrims) and found that it would be difficult to
get a room there, as this was a long weekend and so the no. of piligrims who had
come was large. So booked a room in one of the private lodges. Shirdi is
a small place (in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra), rather it's a village
in-transition. As it is evident that a period of transition is turbulent, same
is the case over here. Probably in another 3-5 years it will be as good as
Tirupati, but you cant beat the climate thing.
Refreshed ourselves and went to Baba's temple for the Darshan. Owing to the
big rush we had to wait for 2 and 1/2 hours to get the darshan. Returned to
our lodge-room, and Anil annayya and Viji annayya dropped dropped in. They
were coming from B'lore. They both went for the darshan and they were lucky
to get it in no time. All of us then took an Omni and went to Shani Shingnapur
(a place where the temple of Shani (god) is located, 75 km from Shirdi). Did
some drama there and came without doing the usual formalities as the people
there were trying to take us for a ride. Came back and collapsed on our beds
in the lodge room.

15/04/06
Today was an eventful day as we embarked on our trip to Aurangabad, which
is around 150 km from shirdi. Took an Omni at 8 in the morning from Shirdi.
On the way we visited the hanuman temple near Ellora and also another shiva
temple which had one of the 12 jyotirlingas. We then headed to Ellora Caves:
the best part of the entire trip. It was amazing how they carved out huge
mountains into caves and temples. There were 34 caves in total and we didnt
have enough time to see all of them. The caves were built between 5th and
11th century AD and it was evident as some of the carvings had withered out.
On the way had a cursory look of the state of the farming community in
Maharashtra and the general atmosphere. Farms were very big compared to the
same in my home place. Grapes,Sugarcane,Onion and cotton were the major crops.
The look of the houses indicated that the farmers were not really well-off
but then most of them ( I guess almost all the families) had bikes, (I could
spot lot of Rajdoots and could hardly find a scooter). Further there were
DTH antennas atop houses. Elder people had to wear Topis, dhoti and kurtas
all in whites. Marathi uses the same script as Hindi (Devanagari) and can
be quite easily understood if you know Hindi. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar is quite a
popular figure over here and all the parties exploit his image by having
the picture of this great Indian along with their party leaders on the
Billboards.
From there we went to Aurangabad, where the Bibi-ka-Makbara is located. It's
a look-alike of Taj Mahal. Aurangzeb used to shift his capital from
Delhi to Aurangabad. On the way saw the Daulatbad fort from the vehicle.
Would have been nice if we had explored it, but it was not part of the
itinerary. Also saw an 18th century engineering work called the "PanChakki" a
water mill which still works. The water is routed through canals to this place (
covering a distance of 6km) and it is siphoned up creating a waterfall at
this place and the same water rotates the turbine of the mill. Enroute we saw
big mountains which looked like those in Grand Canyon. I was wondering that
these would be ideal for rock-climbing.
It was 7 in the evening by the time we reached Shirdi. Strolled along the
temple and market and did some shopping and retired in our room.

16/04/06
Got up at 5.30 in the morning as we had to visit Nasik and from there to
Manmad and catch the train back to Secunderabad. Anil annayya and Viji Annayya
left at 6 to catch the bus to Pune as they had to be in Bangalore the next
day. After vacating the room, we boarded a bus to Nasik. Nasik is considerably
big city. Nasik is quite famous for its onions and we could see big onion
fields on the way. Sugarcane was another major crop for Marathi farmers. All
along the route there were grape farms and we could see plenty of grape clusters.
Bought and had enough seedless grapes as they were pretty cheap.
By 10 we were in the Nasik bus station. From there caught a Maharastra
RTC bus (red bus) to Triumbakeswar (30 km from Nasik). The temple of the three
gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva is quite a famous one and an important place to
visit in Nasik. There was a big queue at the temple and we had little time
so we did not venture in to stand in the queue and wait for the darshan of the
idols. Instead we just appreciated the beauty of the temple from outside. The
temple is very good, particularly the way the pillars were carved out, showed
the calibre of the artists and mostly it was still intact. Also Triumbakeswar
is the birth-place of Godavari, went there but didn't have much to see except
for a pool of water and people bathing in it.
We immediately caught the bus to Manmad at the new Nasik bus station at 1 PM.
By 3.30 PM were in Manmad. Manmad is a very old town: the pitiable state of
the bus station reflected this fact. Our train was to leave Manmad at 5.30.
After having lunch at one of the hotels went to the station and boarded the
Manmad express there.

17/04/06
It was 9 by the time we (Sunil, Aunty and myself) alighted at the Begumpet
railway station. There ended our 3-day trip to Shirdi. In all I had visited
the 3 districts : Ahmednagar, Nashik and Aurangabad. Except for the trip to
Nasik in which most of our time went into the journey everything else was
good. Elloras were amazing and surely the best part of the trip.

Ruthless Life

I knew that life could be as ruthless as this, but never saw it through my
eyes. Recently I met the mother of one of my friends and realized how tough
it could be. She had been on the bed for close to two years and for these
two years she could not move any of her body parts, except for opening the
mouth, slight movement of the neck and eyelids. It's a very difficult situation
where you can see, listen and probably understand what others are doing/saying,
you want to reply or do something but you cannot. With difficulty I could
control myself from shedding tears. I can only imagine how traumatic it would
be to go through such a hellish situation.

GMR Group

It gives me a sense of pride watching the television commercial of GMR
Group (which is into Energy and construction (airports and roads)).
This is the group which has roots in my own district Srikakulam and around
20 km from my village. It makes me think about the amount of oppurtunities
(in terms of employment) generated. I have great regard for industrialists,
because they are the one who generate wealth, employment, pay taxes
(directly and/or through their employees) to the government and this is what
the public servants/politicians feed on.
There's a sugar factory, because of which I guess sugar cultivation in the
region would have taken a big leap ( I dont have concrete proof of this, but
certainly it would have given a fillip) . This GMR group has also built a
state-of-the art engineering college in my home-town making higher-education
accessible to students residing in smaller towns and villages. (Ofcourse,
there are other socio-economic reasons why these educational institutions
are not able to create an impact).
I have all the reasons to hail these people whatever be the actual intent
behind doing all this be as long as significant no. of people are benefited
because of this.

Dravid and Tendulkar

One of the recent issues of Sportstar carried a cover feature on these two Goliaths
of Indian cricket of their time, on the occasion of each of them reaching a milestone of their career: Sachin becoming the most capped Indian Test cricketer (132) and Dravid playing his 100th Test, Mumbai Test against England, March 2006. It quotes Shakespeare :
"Some are born great and some achieve greatness..."
Talking about Dravid, S. Ram Mahesh writes:
"He was grudgingly awarded greatness. Even there it was not a greatness easily
bestowed - his was supposed to be a greatness good batsmen "could aspire too".
A greatness that was paradoxically both easier and more difficult to attain than
Tendulkar's. Easier because you didn't need genius hardwired in your DNA to take you there; more difficult for precisely the same reason.".

The suicides have crossed 300 but the sensex has reached the 10000 mark.

"The suicides have crossed 300 but the sensex has reached the 10000 mark too."

Those were the closing lines of an article in "The Hindu" about the pitiful state of
the cotton growers of Vidarbha. The no. of suicides have been increasing year after year.
The above lines give the true picture of India. On one side the country is advancing
at a rapid rate and on the other side it is degrading at an equal or probably even
more rapid rate.

Biking to Nizamsagar

Find the photos here

SBI Connected

The branch of State Bank of India near my village (SBI Vizianagaram Cantt. branch)
is now connected to the rest of the SBI network. That's where I had taken my
education loan from and to which I have been repaying all these years by taking a D.D and then sending it via Post or courier. As a result of this change I can now pay
the loan at any of the branches in Hyderabad and further I can get the information
about the same account from any of these branches. Hope I can electronically transfer
the money to this Account. How simple it has become.

Hi-Tech City Station

This happened some 2 years back. It was when MMTS (Multi-modal trasport
system was just introduced in Hyderabad). Three of us Sarath,Torture Srikanth
and myself had to go to IIIT. I suggested we board the MMTS train
at the Nature-Cure hospital (in Ameerpet, the place where we used to stay
immediately after we were out of college) station, and we can get down
at the Hi-Tech city station, and from there take an auto to our college.
Little was I aware that the station named Hi-Tech city was no close to
Hi-Tech city. When we alighted at the station, we could only see the Hi-Tech
city building at a long distance. That station was actually in KPHB IV phase.
Not knowing how to reach there, we asked a bus-driver. He too was surprised
by our question (or rather ignorance) replied pointing us towards the
Hi-Tech building :- "Just walk along the rocky stretch." It was some 3-4 kms
as the bird flies and there was no path. I was wondering why the heck did
they name the station as "Hi-Tech City".

But today there's a tar-road well illuminated exactly the way the driver
had suggested. (The road's not yet complete though.) Probably this was the
reason they called the station "Hi-Tech City". But it is sorry to find that
the MMTS hasn't really been a hit and so some of the trains during the
non-peak hours have been cancelled recently.

My Village is connected

I can now use my Airtel cellphone from my home in my native village (Tampatapalli Village, Palakonda Mandal, Srikakulam District). I noticed this while I went there to celebrate Pongal.
It was already connected by BSNL and Reliance.

Sheer Nonsense

I dont wanna stay here what the heck am I doing here when the
world around me is running like crazy folks under the sun with no hood to stand by the lane and cros
s the hell with little support with whatever heck can they do...by contributing to the immense press
ure of the societal obligations with the family and the rest going to surrender to the pressure of t
urmoil because of unrest, protesting to garner enough support to raise a hell on the issues confront
ing the nation with little respect for the peace of the masses actually obliged to hear from the wel
l known guys foreleading the charge of waging a war against the holy king under the faith unsurmount
able, epilepsy cornering everybody blue with despair.

Software Engineers or Labourers?

Nagarjuna Sagar

Couple of days back (Dec 10th?) it was the golden jubliee of Nagarjuna Sagar. I had been to this Dam two times. But never did it occur to me that such a massive construction would take how much labour/time/money.
There was an article in the newspaper which tells us how much of a feat was it to construct the Dam 50 years ago. It seems for 15 years at any point of time (day or night) there were 50,000 labourers working on the Dam. And it seems, it had costed around 9 crores at that time.

Money

I dont know when this meaningless greed for money will come to end.
Isn't what we get, enough for living? Why the heck do we need more,
when we get so much, when compared to other professions, when compared
to our previous generations? Dont tell me it's inflation. Actually it's
the other way. We are causing inflation.
I am seriously skeptic about some kinds of jobs in IT, whether they
are really worth getting paid so much for that kind of job. But it's
all economics. I was happy at that moment when I used to get just a
fraction of what I get now.
'Make hay while the Sun shines' shouldn't be applied here.
The whole idea of saving for the unpredictable future...stinks. Stinks
too bad when there's a major portion of the society which is still
struggling to make a living.
Are we so incompetent that we have to compare our capabilities/competency
on a scale of our paycheques.

Is this a negative side of the coin or is it an illusion?

My First Overseas Travel (Travel Diary)

Start Date : 23rd Nov 2005
Retunrn Date : 05 Dec 2005
I was supposed to be in our main office in Bedford, Boston for the so called
"Hell Week". This being my first overseas journey by flight I was naturally
very excited. Managed to take one day leave and go early so that I can be there
in US for the Thanks-Giving Day.

23rd Nov 2005 (Wednesday) (IST)
-------------------------------

Started from office at around 3.00 pm. My flight to Mumbai was scheduled for
5.20 PM. The previous night I was in the office itself as I had comitted myself
to complete my task. By the time I left my house in Yousufguda it was 4 PM and I
was worried that I would be late. Brother and his friend dropped me at the
airport and I was in time for check-in. It was a Jet Airways flight and was
decent enough. I landed in Mumbai at 6.30 PM. To my knowledge this was the first
time I was setting my feet in Mmbai. My connecting flight was scheduled for
1.30 AM the next day. I completed my immigration check and then went and rested
in the waiting lounge. The furniture was good in the sense that we could almost
relax to 120 degrees. The only way to kill time was by reading the book on
Sardar Patel that I had with me and that too was dry. Tried to sleep for some
time but couldn't.

24th Nov 2005 (Wednesday) (IST & Various other Timezones)
---------------------------------------------------------
Boarded my flight to Amsterdam at 1.30 AM. It was a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
(famous for its ageing cabin crew, particularly the air-hostesses). Entering the
flight I realized how crammed up the seat for the economy class were. It was
2-5-2 arrangement and almost 9 rows had to satisfy themseleves with one big TV.
I got the middle column. Food was served 3-4 times during the flight. From here
started my tryst with tasteless and alien food. Had to eat only for getting
energy. It was around 9 and 1/2 hours of non-stop flight. One thing very
interesting was that the current position, altitude of the flight w.r.t the
world map was regularly show on the TV. Also the outside temperature, current
local time, current time at destination, speed of the flight and remaining
duration of the journey was also shown. It's quite difficult to sit in the same
seat for such a long time. It was around 6.00 AM in the morning by the time we
landed at the Schipol International Airport, Amsterdam. Itw as still dark and
cloudy there. A tremendously big airport with five terminals A,B,C,D,E and
almost every terminal having upto 50 slots. Its quite easy to get lost in the
airport if not for the direction-boards set up everywhere. I had 5 hours to kill
before I could catch my next flight. Quickly found out my departure terminal,
got myself freshened up and then set out for going around this huge airport.
Went around the airport sometime by walk and sometimes using the walkways (sort
of horizontal escalators). It was time to have breakfast. I had to convert my
dollars into Euros to have breakfast. Found a Mc'Donalds outlet there and had
burger there. It was difficult to walk any further and so went back to my
departure terminal and killed the rest of time there.
Boarded my fligth for Los Angeles at 11.30 AM. A Northwest flight. Came to
know that Northwest had bought KLM, but still they operated as independent
entities. This time it was the famous Boeing 740-400. I was amazed by its sheer
size. Further it had two levels of seating. The upper level was a smaller one
though (maybe some 15 rows). It could carry around 450 passengers and could
reach a speed of 980 kmph. Quite interesting. Was better than the KML in terms
of the seating and also the cabin crew. An Italian guy and an American lady were
my neighbouts this time. Did some chatting with them for some time. Chatting
with the Italians, I realized how bad the Italians were at English. Later in the
trip I had some more experiences supporting this statement and in fact I can
now generalize it to encompass the whole of Europe.
It was around 2 PM by the time I landed at the Los Angeles airport. Collected
my luggage, got through the customs and immigration check and was very happy
that I had completed my air travel and would soon meet Prakash and his brother.
I was totally unaware of the travails that were in the offing. At the airport I
thought I'll relax for sometime before I call up Prakash's brother. For the
first time I used dollars in their original form. Then when I opened up my bag
for the paper which had the contac noo.s of all the people I know in US, I was
surprised and later angry with myself for not able to find it. I had missed it
somewhere while I hurriedly packed my baggage in hyderabad. This mistake of mine
was to cost very dearly. I had no option other than calling my brother in India
and ask for Prakash's contact number. But to do that I had to buy the costly
20$ AT&T calling card. Only a little later did I realize that it would give me
only 6 minuste of talktime to India. I consumed 3 such calling cards and 3 hours
before I could get Prakash's contact number. But when I called him up he wasn't
lifting and I was disgusted. One good thing that I did was that I left a message
telling where I would be waiting. After some time, I thought I would use the
internet to get in contact with someone else in US. So I went to the
international airport. But at the kiosks I could only browse, but I wanted
Yahoo messenger. I saw somebody with a Laptop. I approached him for help but
naturally he declined. Thus dejected, I decided to go back to the Terminal where
I had landed. When U walked back, to my surprise the place seemed very
unfamiliar. Moved back and forth to find "my place", but was clueless. I thought
I was lost, then suddenly realized that I had taken an escalator and had come
to the upper level. So I descended to the lower level and bingo I found
"my place". While I was roaming back and forth, the security personnel grew
suspicious over me and started passing occasional stare at me. I started
pretending that I was normal. Luckily, then came my saviours: Prakash, his
brother and another friend of his. I took a deep sigh of relief as one of my
ordeals had come to an end. I narrated the whole of it to them and they told me
how stupid had I been by not keeping multiple copies of all the documents. I
also realized how much I had to pay ( 60$) for this stupid mistake of mine.
We headed for Prakash's Brother's (Vasu's) house in his car and I realized
the differences between India and US. The concept of freeways was amazing. Cars
were racing at around 80 miles per hour one after another with great discipline.
Temperatures are measured in Fahrenheit. so I had to recall the formula
C/5 = (F - 32)/9 quite frequently.

Stay in LA (Thanksgiving Shopping) (24th-25th Nov 2005)
--------------------------------------------------
I refreshed myself at Vasu's house. As the next day was the Thanksgiving day,
I wanted to purchase some electronic goods as they would be very cheap during
this sale. But little did I expect that there would be so much crows for these
deals. The amount of preparation by the people was totally unexpected. As there
were different stored (You have these chains of shopping stores), people would
meet the previous night and decide as to who would go to which store and buy
what items. this is what Vasu and his friends in US did too. As there would be
a huge demand for these goods, it was decided that we should start early in the
morning (4 AM) then next day and stand in the queue and grab the items that we
need. The next morning I went to one of the stores (SEARS probably). It was very
cold. Luckily I had brought enough clothing from India to protect myself from
the cold. When I went there near the store, to my astonishment the queue was
very long. Inicidentally all these people had come the previous night itself and
hadn been waiting in the beitter cold the whole night. This reminded me of Chiru
fans over here in Andhra Pradesh queuing up before the theatres for watching
their beloved star's movie on the day of the release.
Prakash bough me a Panasonice Lumix digital camera for 200$. Was a good deal.
There were many good deals but we could grab only a few.

Adventures in Sin City
----------------------
After relaxing for sometime we started for Las Vegas in Vasu's car at around
5 PM. Sudhir, Teja & Dhol had already taken a room in Excaliber (one of the
hotels) and were waiting for us. It was 10 PM by the time we reached Vegas. Las
Vegas is located in the deserty state Nevada. After some communication found the
group and went into our toom in Excaliber. The room was supposed to be occupied
by only 2 people but we all managed to take shelte in the same room (we were
six of us in total). So everytime we had to go out or come in we had to go in
pairs so as to avoid the suspicion of the security guards. There were so many
hotels like Excaliber and the ground floor of all these hotels had casinos and
there were so many people testing their luck there.
After relaxing for some time in the hotel room we set out along the strip to
catch some of the shows. (Each hotel had some special show like the Bellagio
musical fountain, cirus-circus etc.)
We went to the tallest building in Vegas. (While in the lift we could feel the
gravity through our ears). On top of these building were some fun rides. As it
is the case with fun rides, only the first time is fun. Heard that there's an
amusement park chain named "Six Flags" in US which is very famous. But as the
winter had begun I didn't get a chance to visit. After this we dropped Prakash's
brother at the hotel room and went in search for the thing I had come to Vegas.
It was 3 AM in the night by the time we settled in our beds in the hotel room.
The next morning or rather noon (It was 1 PM by the team we were out of the
hotel) , we set out to quell our hunger. Amazing buffet lunch at an Indian
restaurant. Had been quite some days that I had Indian food. I will take the
taste of this restaurant to my grave. Roamed along the strip for some time.
Couldn't do much for the rest of the day. I did try my luck at the casinos.
Played the roulette and you know won 5$. I am a lucky guy. I had to leave to LA
as my flight was scheduled for 10 PM that night. Sudhir and Vasu dropped me at
the airport. I was just in time. There wasn't enough time so had to take the
baggage along with me into the cabin. So I removed the shaving blades and tongue
cleaner. I would soon realize how much this would cost me.
I landed at 8 PM in the LA airport to catch my flight to Boston which was
scheduled for 10 PM that night. I presented my ticket at the Northwest counter
and to my disappointment I was told that my flight was a US Airways one and
that it was scheduled for 12.30 PM the next afternoon. I checked up the ticket
and found that what she said was true. It was my mistake to not to have checked
up the ticket and blindly go by the itinerary sent by Gowri two days before I
left hyderabad. How I cursed myself for this mistake of mine. Had I been careful
I would have spent that night in Las Vegas with my friends. I had to do something
for the next 14 hours. I decided to go to the waiting place at the international
airport and sleep there. So I went there had dinner, and spent time till 12 AM
by reading the book I had with me. I could no longer stay awake, so tried
sleeping on the chair, but that was not possible. So had to sleep on the carpet
on the floor. Unfortunately the cold wouldn't let me sleep. Somehow managed till
5 AM and I no longer could stay laid down. So washed my face, had coffe and
breakfast and went to my departure terminal and waited there for my flight to
Boston.
Boarded the flight to Boston, a US Airways one, supposed to be the cheapest
domestic airways. Had to even buy earphones and snacks/drinks on board. After
flying for 6 hours with a stopping at Pittsburgh I landed at Boston at around
10 PM. This completed my onward journey. Collected my luggage and took a cab
and landed at the Renaissance Bedford, a luxurious hotel in Bedford. This is
where I was to stay for the next 6 days.

My First Flight

yet to come.

Kabini Trip

Trekking into the jungles of Nagerhole (Kabini Trip)

Date: 14/05/05 - 15/05/05

This is about my expedition into the jungles of Nagerhole. The journey
itself to this place called Kabini Jungle Resorts was an experience. We hired
a Qualis and an Indica for this. Started at around 7.30 am from hotel Kanishka,
Bangalore. (The previous day we all had descended to Bangalore from Hyderabad
for Kiran's wedding). The older people were sitting in the smaller vehicle
and the rest eight of us were in the bigger one. Our driver Prakash was taking
us at 90-100 kmph and at times beyond that. We were just horrified at this. Uma
was regularly entertaining us with his vast knowledge of Hindi.
After travelling for about an hour we halted at Kamat hotel to have
breakfast. Eased ourself and then continued our journey. Went through Seriranga-
-patnam, passed by Mysore. All along this journey we were on the highway, but
as we went past Mysore the roads deteriorated, reducing our speed. The whole
of Mysore and infact the whole land that we saw was very fertile. This was
summer and we could see lush-green paddy fields on both sides of till the points
our sight could reach.
There weren't any signboards or milestones indicating where this place was
located and this made our journey very difficult. We had to stop at every other
junction and depend on local people to lead us. As our driver was a Kannadighan,
we didn't have to interact with the local people. Once I changed my seat with
Swathy to occupy the seat besides the driver, I put the cassette: 'Gilli' (tamil
movie in which Vijay & Trisha played the lead roles) and played it. I had heard
one of the songs earlier when I had been to Chennai and I liked it very much at
that time. The music was awesome and I enjoyed listening to it all the time.
Along the journey we played Antakshari. Neha's got a sweet and melodious
voice and Swati's was also good. The trio: Neha, Swati and Snigdha had a good
repertoire of songs and they were leading the game. Due to this all the time just
passed by and it was 3.30 in the afternoon, by the time we reached the resort.
The resort was built on the bank of Kabini River (or rather the man-made lake).
There were nets tied to the trees and I had seen things like these only in the
movies. We climbed the nets and danced and jumped like monkeys. I forgot that
I was no longer a child, but that's ok at times it gives you so much pleasure to
go back to childhood even for a few moments.
We were all hungry and so immediately had our lunch, got ourselves freshened
up and were ready for the Safari. We boarded the open top Jeep and embarked on
the journey through the jungles. Afsar was our guide. Initially for half an
hour we couldn't spot any creature other than birds, but soon we were all on our
feet looking at all the wild animals. There were plenty of deers and they were all
in big herds. Soon we spotted jungle fowls, bisons, Sambars, peacocks, wild dogs,
wild pigs and elephants. I missed my camera very much. There were many elephants
grazing the grass on the bank of the lake. Because the lake was man-made, we could
see dead trees amidst water (which had died of sumersion).
It was 8 pm by the time we were back to our tents. Had dinner and then roamed
for some time around the resorts and I could feel the mild breeze flowing. Later
we watched a documentary shot in the Nagerhole forest. Watching it sitting inside
the forest was an experience by itself.
Next day early in the morning at 7 am we started for another safari through
the jungles. The jungles were dense at some places but really not as dense as I
had expected. Perhaps visiting the place sometime during the monsoon would turn
beauty into it's superlative form. This was the first time I got an oppurtunity
to ride an elephant. It was good. Mary & Sundari were the elephants that carried
us on their backs. We got the chance of boating in those small-circular boats.
On this boat we entered the jungles in the water (the dead trees emerging out of
water). Some of use even rowed the boat. I too wanted to. Again I missed my camera.
We then returned to our tents, vacated them and started on our journey home.
Overall it was a beautiful experience in the company of my colleagues and nature.
I was enjoying every moment of it. How I felt I should leave everything and stay
in these jungles with these animals. There was this person called Wakefield, who
supposedly started the resorts and has been staying there all alone (without family)
for 25 years. He had followed his inner calling.
Some images here

What a Family can do

Recently I came across two instances where the to and fro side of having a family was visible from close quarters.

1) In the movie "Cindrella Man", Jim Braddock, the protagonist resurrects like a Phoenix to come back into the boxing ring and win the world heavyweight championship, and the major reason being the need to feed his family. If he hadn't had a family probably he wouldn't have felt the impulse to come back.

2) This is about my school teacher, who was very close to me and had philanthropic thoughts at the time when I was in school. He was the one who had encouraged me during my higher secondary education through monetary support. (I wouldn't call it support, but the action did encourage me). After a long time I met him and I was surprised to see the changes in his perspective. Seems like marriage & family have taken its toll. The moment you have wife and kids you have to look after them and plan for your kids future and so you need money/property for your family. Only if you are blessed with enough money can you take some part of it and spend on the community.

Che Guevara

Che Guevara...Only thing I know about him is that he is a revolutionary of the 60s who had the Latin American masses behind him, trying to spread communism across the entire South America.
Dont even remember his actual name.
Some good books on him would be appreciated.

Wonderful Photo Sharing site

In the last week I had send our new office photos to a lot of my friends which I did thru email. This is when I realized the need to share my photos online. Looked at "Hello Picasa" but it wasn't possible to share the photos publicly to everybody. Sometime back one of my friends (I guess it was vakiba) who had introduced Flickr (www.flickr.com) to me. I checked it now and I liked it very much. There are offline Desktop tools using which I can post my photos (haven't checked it though) and it's even possible to upload the photos by e-mail. I like it.
Here is where you can find my photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhiraj

Travelogue: Ride to Nagarjuna Sagar

Who : Hari, Prasad, Sudhan (Colleague @Progress) and myself
Distance : 320 km in total
Started : 7.30 a.m, 2-July-2005
Back in Hyd : 8.00 p.m same day
Places to visit: Dam, Boating to Nagarjuna Konda and Ettipotala.

Had been very busy with work for the past one month. So really needed some
means of relaxation. Initially Sudhan suggested we go to Belum Caves (Kurnool),
but keeping in mind the distance (~ 320 km each side), declined it and instead
decided to go to Nagarjuna Sagar. Our ever-enthusiastic guys Hari and Prasad too
jumped in. I wasn't expecting much from this trip...but it turned out to be a
worthy ride.
Started at 7.30 a.m from our flat at Somajiguda. Hari piggybacking on Prasad's
bike and myself on Sudhan's. It was cloudy and wind was blowing at good speed.
The climate ideally suits a ride. With little difficulty we were out of the
city. Stopped at one of the irani cafe's to quell our hunger. Couldn't expect
for better eateries along the route. But he served us stale food...probably
remnants of previous night's stuff.
We were going at tremendous speed as the road was good and it being early hours
of the day there weren't many vehicles. 100 kmph was a norm and occasionally
touched 120 kmph. Pulsar seems to be wonderful for long distance journeys. I was
sitting at the back and hadn't put a helmet. The thrust of the wind was enormous
and it was difficult to keep my eyes open. It changed my haistyle completely.
Whenever we were going past a heavy vehicle (coming in the opposite direction),
the bike would gently oscillate because of the force. We stopped every 40-50 km
by a road-side tea-stall for a sip. Close to Sagar, we saw a board saying
"Crocodiles here. It is not safe to swim here"...We looked all around and
could only find rocks but no water :-). By 10.30 we were at the Dam. There was
plenty of water in the valley and it was blackish...but still it wasn't reaching
the crest-gates. I was surprised to find considerably big waves reaching the
banks of the river.
Just at the left bank of the dam there was a fleet of steps running down to the
river bed...constructed during the Krishna puskaraalu time. We went down there,
drenched our feet in the water for some time and took some snaps. People were
bathing there. We too should have taken a bath :-(. Prasad had thought of it
earlier and came prepared for taking bath...but donno why didn't get into water.
We had to catch the launch which would start from the other bank of the dam so..
we rode on the dam and went to the other bank. Took some pics on the dam...and
here our Prasad suggested we take photos in different angles. He had a nice
digital camera.
FYI, the dam is constructed on Krishna river and was built in the late 50s and
supposed to be one of the earlier dams built during Nehru's reign. There's
a statue of Nehru and the plaque besides it showcased the belief of Nehru that
dams are the temples of modern India. The road on the dam was quite a long one.
One bank of the dam lies in Nalgonda and the other in Guntur. There are a total
of 26 canals, 13 each in the two districts. It seems that the crest-gates of
the dam weren't opened since 1999. So those of whom are waiting to visit the
place during the time when the gates will be opened, can drop that idea.
It was 11.30, We rushed to the launch (boat) and boarded it. It took us to an
island called Nagarjuna Konda which is about 1/2 an hour from the Dam. Nagarjuna
Konda is quite a good place, the main attraction being the Museum which hosts
ancient monuments (mainly related to Buddism) from 3rd-4th century A.D. Actually
the site was found in the valley in around 1930s and the initial excavation was
done then. The site would have been submerged because of the dam if they had
not moved it onto the island. There were stupas and other buddist structures on
the island which we couldn't see as we were running short of time. 1 hour to see
the complete island wasn't enough. The boating experience is nice. As an aside,
we were the last set of people to both board and alight the launch. We kept the
other people waiting for us.
By 1.30 p.m we were back at the dam. It had become sunny by then. Had food at
some hotel. The food was great (part of the reason being we were too hungry).
From there we went to the much hyped "Ettipotala Falls", which is around 17 km
from the Dam. We had good expectations on this...but it disappointed. There
wasn't much water. But I guess it's good enough for Andhra Pradesh.
Started on our return journey from there. Didn't have enough enthu and
energy to drive at high speed. Stopped every ~50 km for a tea. By 8.00 p.m we
were back in the city.

Find the pics here:-
1. http://www.medhas.org/gallery/index.php?list=events/NagarjunaSagar
(Courtesy Prasad)
2. Sagar with gates open

Travelogue: Ride to Srisailam

Blogging after a long time. This one is about my recent ride to Srisailam on bike with my colleague Uma Sudhan.

Total Distance Covered : 480 km
Started : 5.45 a.m 01-May-2005
Reached back home : 8.00 p.m 01-May-2005
Bike : Pulsar 180 cc DTS-I

It all started with this colleague of mine buying the bike 2 days back. He
wanted to give away the bike for the first servicing as early as possible. So
four of us were looking out for places around hyderabad ( close to 150 km) worth
visiting. Nagarjuna Sagar was far too off. From some stupid website found that
Srisailam is around 150 km from Hyderabad. Then and there we decided that we'll
go there. But the other 2 guys dropped later.
We started at 5.45 in the morning from our room at Somajiguda. The guy with
whom I went is a Tamilian and he understands but cannot speak Telugu. So I was
sort of guide for him. And this guy had prior experience of going on
a bike to far away places. But for me this was the first time I was to ride for
such a long distance. The maximum I can remember is the ride to Mount Opera. I
guess it was around 60 km from the city. I was very excited with the thought
of it itself.
Had a lot of trouble finding out the way to Srisailam from Chaderghat. I would
have led this guy astray with my assumption that Srisailam and Nagrajuna Sagar
fall on the same route. Soon we were to realize that it is not 150 but rather
210 km from the outskirsts of the city. But we didn't want to turn back. So we
pushed off. Once we were out of the city outskirts it was mostly straight route,
except for a couple of diversions.
The ride through the ghats was pleasant except for the pain in the arse. He
was riding at 65kmph consistently. He couldn't go above that limit as it was a
new bike. Further it was morning so the Sun wasn't hot. Our first major stop
was at some place called Dindi, some 100 km along the route. We had tiffin at
some roadside restaurant and started off again. There read in "Eenadu" that
Aishwarya is going to wed Vivek: :-(. Every 20-30 km we would stop by a
roadside cafe and sip a tea and he would light up his cigar. Took some photos
along the way.
The next half of the journey is the one that gives the spin to this whole
experience. Didn't know that we would have to go through mountains and forests.
It was around 120 km that the forest stretch started. I wouldn't call it
dense though. Literally just you alone, surrounded by trees on both sides, with
some sumo or a car or a bus zooming past you once in a while. Seemed like a never
ending stretch of forest. Billboards with "Project Tiger" or some "Save Wild life"
stuff were quite common. Climbing up the mountain to other the road through the
forest was just amazing. Will not get the same feeling on a bus or a sumo. The
forest I am talking about is the Nallamalai forest. I was looking out eagerly
into the thicket on both my sides to find some wild creature so that I could get
it into my camera. But all we could find were innumerable monkeys all along the
forest.
Though the Sun was staring us, we didn't find it that hot because of the trees.
The forest had dried up completely at some places. Only after we were close to
Srisailam did we realize that we had been through 85 km of road through
the forest. We were soon near the Srisailam West Bank Dam. There we started feeling
the hot breeze. But the sight of the Dam was awesome. Huge one, basically the
height...at least for me. There were two places one after the other here worth
mentioning: Domalapenta and Eegalapenta.
No more patience to stretch this mail. Will cut it short over here. The places
worth visiting at Srisailam are
- Boat Ride. From a place called "paatal ganga" (Paatal ganga is the place
down the mountain on which the temple is) to the Dam Site. Around
15 mins of ride. Was good for me as it was my first experience.
- There's a ropewy by which you can descend from the top of the mountain
to paatal ganga. I would go by it only for namesake. Not at all thrilling.
- Caves. To reach to the caves we need to go on boats for 16 km. This is
supposed to be exciting. We didn't go to these caves as he said it
would take around 4 hours to go and come back.
- There are these small circular boats called "Teppelu" in telugu, which
could be a nice experience. There were plenty of them there. I wish
I had enough time to sit in this. But it can be dangerous.
- Swimming near patal ganga
- The Srisailam west bank Dam. It'll be a beautiful sight when they open
the gates. Sometime in July/August.
- Srisailam temple (Just for the fact that you had come so long and going
without visiting the God will be ominous)
I spoke to one of the policemen over there about spotting wild animals. He told
me that around a year back a Leopard had attacked a girl in one of the villages.
Further he told that Bears descend are spotted too often in the nights.
We thought we would be baked in sun while riding back. We started at around 2.00
p.m from there and luckily for us it turned out to be more exciting than the
onward journey. Thanks to the clouds which shielded us from the hot rays of the Sun.
It was quite cloudy and wind was blowing and there were some intermittent showers.
This environment made the ride through the forest very very..very pleasant. I spotted
a couple of peacocks and while I tried to capture them they ran off. Now I can only
locate a blue-green speck in the photo which is supposed to be a peacock :-). How
I wish I had a camera with zoom.
I conclude here. In all it was a really great experience. You'll not feel that
you had travelled so far (of course, it was he who was driving and I was happily
sitting behind :-)). Hari, you should have told me about this place earlier. For the
guys interested in Geography: Srisailam is in Aatmakuru mandal of Kurnool district.
I think we had to go through Ranga Reddy, Nalgonda, MahbubNagar and Kurnool to reach
there.
I have decided to learn swimming, buy a bike and then go on a trip once again.
Probably July/August would be a nice time to visit with the jungles looking very
green (rather than gray). Further we should spend a night there and move around
any other places around there. Dont know if they have any night safari kind of
thing available. If so then it would be wonderful. Guys we should all go there
once..and remember only on bikes ...you'll lose the fun if you go on a car, sumo
or a bus. The only deterrent being if you bike breaks down at some point in the
jungle then you are screwed up.

Renting as a Bachelor

One Reason why I would wish to lose my bachelorhood
Writing out of anguish...that we (the so called "BACHELORS") had to suffer
to fulfill one of the three basic amenities of life (" roti, kapada aur makan").
There might be very many good reasons why a bachelor would love
to lose that tag...It could be due to the basic instinct, or could be _fill_,
but what I felt the most driving one was the need to find a makAAn. I dont
know how many of our friends would have endured it but... we certainly had
enough of it. Not once but twice....and not too sure...how many times in future
before I settle with a girl besides me. Well the story starts like this:
It all started when we were to be kicked out of our hostels. We thought
we could easily find one..but nay said the God. The hunt for the house started.
Factors being : cost, space, water availability, ventillation, location suitable for
everyone, a good owner who was allow BACHELORS and the last but not the
least...good beauty (i hope u get what I mean) around. (We soon came to realize
that the before last factor was of prime importance). We had to compromise
on many things later just because of that inadvertently attached tag to us .
Luckily after some serious hunting...could locate a few prospective ones.
How come those owners ...who were for sure BACHELORS at least for
sometime in their past could be so wrathful. How can they forget those days
of yore where they were at the receiving end.
I dont know what is the situation there in Mumbai, Chennai, B'lore & Pune. Do
you guys feel the same kind of exploitation. why dont you give some name to this
kinda oppression.
Well I dont know if the people of the opposite sex too find the same problem.
Hope they dont....what say gals?

The 23rd Day

Important Date   

Looks like the 23rd day of every month has got lot of importance in my life. Here

are some events:-

January 23  = Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose born (year 1897)

March 23  = Martyr's day (Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru & Sukhdev, year 1931)

April 23    = Joined Pramati (year 2003)

May 23    = Brother's b'day (year 1980)

June 23   = Sarithakka's b'day (year 1979)

Lemme see this list grow.

Amity

    Recently went to Jammu for visiting the "Vaishno Devi" Temple. If at all there's one thing that I wont ever forget about this trip, that would the following event that happened with us.
Shows how kind people can be.
   While roaming around the hills of the villages Krimachi & Mansar, (Udhampur district) we
(my brother, cousin and uncle's son) were close to being lost, but luckily found a settlement.
The lady from one of the houses came out and helped us by all means. She even invited us
to have lunch at their home (not even knowing who we were and where we from, humanity
at it's best). Not just this lady, others were as much willing to treat us with utmost hospitality.
This touched me. Can we attribute to the race or region? I dont think we south indian people
aint that open & helpful.

Movie : The Legend of Bhagat Singh

Bhagat Singh : A Great Leader / Enterpreneur

Saw the movie "The Legend of Bhagat Singh" made by Rajkumar Santhosi in Muppi's PC at
home. I was so impressed by Bhagat Singh's and his abilities that I was so sorry about
myself that till this age of 22 I wasn't aware of what really Bhagat Singh was. At most
what I knew abt him was that he was a great freedom fighter who was hanged with another
two fighters Rajguru & Sukhdev on 23rd March 1931. And our history books too mentioned
only that point. But after watching the movie realized how significant a role that he
and the organization Hindustan Socialist Republican Association had played in getting
Independence to India.

If you have the notion that all these revolutionaries were pure head-strong guys who
were ready to take up any sort of activity, means to pursue their goal without being
rational then you are wrong. Go better see the movie or read the articles at
http://www.parwhaz.com/shaheed-bhagatsingh/letters.htm

Will write more abt this later.

Useful CVS commands

Have been looking for the cvs command to list the modules available on the
server. Finally got it today.

cvs co -c
cvs co -S

but need to understand the output a little.

Two Victories (Reflections on Kolkata and Adelaide)

Two Victories (Reflections on Kolkata and Adelaide)

- by Harsh Bogle. Published in the January 2004 issue of the
"Wisden Asia Cricket" magazine
I remember the day well. It was the 15th of March 2003, a young man of 28 was
replaying in his mind the most famous win in cricket history and watching the
attention targeted at two others, younger and more flamboyant. Cameras, words,
handshakes, those friends in fame and strangers in anonymity, were clustered
around Harbhajan Singh and VVS Laxman. One had taken 13 for 196, including
India's first ever hat-trick. The other had scored 340 runs including the
highest score by an Indian in Test cricket. Rahul Dravid had scored a crucial,
but easily overlooked, 180, had been in a partnership of 376, and had batted
through the fourth day of the Test. And had lost his No. 3 position in the Indian
batting line-up.

I see another day. The 16th of December 2003. Ajit Agarkar has shown the world
that he can belong at this level. Anil Kumble has served a reminder that there
is more in his tank. And VVS Laxman has scored another incandescent hundred,
shared in another partnership of over 300 against the best cricket team in the
world. Rahul Dravid is now less than a month short of being 31. This time the
symbols of immediate infatuation are directed towards him. And he has his No. 3
position again.

In many different ways, in different languages, words and accents, the sages
tell you that if you hang in there your time will come. At Adelaide, Dravid
showed there is much truth in these old, worn out sentiments that have seen
the odd millennium and a few centuries go by. Indeed, he might have been a sage
himself, his body merely seeming to be at the most beautiful cricket ground
in the world, his mind at some exalted, higher level of detachment.

He had 'hung in there' for seven years, averaging more than 50 at home and
away; like a solid piece of furniture - you know it is there. There were other
classic objects d'art around him, some delicate, some rather more robust. But
none carved out of the most solid oak, happy to take the weight, and just as
happy being understated. If the world was all plywood, there would be no need
for an oak. If one-day cricket was all that mattered, there would be no need for
the virtues he embodies: resilience, solidity, patience. They count now.

There is orthodoxy in most of what he does; not just in the manner the bat
comes down to meet ball, straight and full, but in the way he has grown in life.
He started early but wasn't a prodigy, and was 23 by the time the selectors
started showing interest in him. He had done the hard yards at first-class level
and he was quite happy to do that in Test cricket as well. When a man grows one
step at a time, every step is a celebration, sometimes when you get too much too
soon you don't understand the value of what you have.

He has a strong memory and he thinks deeply about the game. And with a bit of
help from VVS Laxman he will remind you that lightning can indeed strike twice.
At Kolkata, like at Adelaide, India were demolished on Days One and Two, fought
back on Day Three, turned the tide on Day Four, and snatched a win on Day Five.
In both games, sport had showcased the finest human qualities. That is why you
must have five-day cricket; that is why you must play five-setters in tennis;
that is why you must play golf over four rounds. Both games showed that
momentary disappointment can be replaced by lasting joy; that if you are willing
to ride the rough, the smooth will follow; that sweetness is often the result of
letting the bitter have its moment. Dravid knows that well, so does Laxman. So
too does Steve Waugh, who has played the game having been dealt similar cards.

I wonder, though, if Dravid and Laxman know that there was another bystander
present on both occasions. When I reached the little commentary booth assigned
to the ABC at Eden Gardens, I saw a beautifully carved sandalwood Ganesha amid
all the cables. The well-known Australian commentator, Jim Maxwell, brought one
along hoping it would act as a remover of all his obstacles. There was much
discussion that day on whose obstacles the sandalwood Ganesha was removing.

I had forgotten about it till the Test match at Adelaide, when Jim drew my
attention to the very same Ganesha placed carefully on the table in front of us.
There was more discussion, but I suspect it won't be around for too much longer!

Technical Education : Interview with Dr. U. R. Rao

Interview with Dr. U. R. Rao on the current state of technical education
http://in.rediff.com/money/2004/feb/11bpo1.htm

Importance of Punctuations

This ones about the importance of punctuations in a language in it's written
form

    - from the book "Eats, shoots and leaves" by Lynne Truss

A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it,
then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.
"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards
the exit. The panda produces a badly puncutated wildlife
manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough,
finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to
China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Views on Outsourcing

Positive views on Outsourcing by Chris Anderson (ca@wiredmag.com) Wired's editor in chief. It's not hard to see how outsourcing to India could lead to the next great era in American enterprise. Today, even innovative firms spend too much money maintaining products: fixing bugs and rolling out nearly identical 2.0 versions. Less than 30 percent of R&D spending at mature software firms goes to true innovation, according to the consulting firm Tech Strategy Partners. Send the maintenance to India and, even after costs, 20 percent of the budget is freed up to come up with the next breakthrough app. The result: more workers focused on real innovation. What comes after services? Creativity.