Feathers in the cap of California

clipped from gov.ca.gov I have been asked to talk to you today about what is happening in California, what are we doing about climate change. Ladies and gentlemen, something remarkable is beginning to stir, something revolutionary, something historic and transformative. Let me give you some background. California already leads the nation in information technology. We lead the nation in nanotechnology, biotechnology, and in medical technology. We generate one of every four US patents and attract almost half of all US venture capital. According to The Economist magazine, California is also home to three of the top six universities in the world, and in addition to all of this, California is the seventh largest economy in the world. Now I don’t mention these things simply to boast or brag. I mention it because California is a very powerful state, and very powerful place, and when we do something it has consequences. And here is what we’re doing.

My Wine-List

Wines that I have tasted till now:-

Red Wine

1. Merlot
2. Zinfandel
3. Cabernet Sauvignon
   

White Wine

American Beauty & Steve Jobs

The movie American Beauty ends with Lester's (protoganist) description of his life flashing before his eyes, interspersed with scenes of his family and others at the moment of the gunshot. Looking back on these events from his vantage point as narrator, Lester is only content:

"I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me, but it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much; my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it. And then it flows through me like rain, and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life.

You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry... You will someday."

I think it's conicidence, but just today came across this speech given by Steve Jobs. Here's an extract from it:-

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

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.