Saurabh's random musings

A Boy's Travels in the Himalayas

2008-09-22T21:14:00.008-05:00

I was born in a small town in a house with sweeping views of the high Himalayas. You can say I was born with love of mountains in my blood. My dad moved around a lot, from one beautiful Uttarakhand town to the next, while the rest of our family settled in Dehradun. Every summer, me and sometimes few of my friends from Lucknow, trying to beat the brutal summer heat of the plains, would go stay with my dad. This was before trekking and river rafting in the Himalayas became the cool thing to do and in many places we went to, we were the only city boys.
Whenever my dad went to a new place I would ask him two questions about it: Does the place have a river and can you see the Himalayas from the house ? My dad in his efforts to entice me over, would always say yes, at times stretching the truth a bit. Sometimes the river was a couple kilometers below the house and sometimes to see the snowy peaks we had to climb up a couple kilometers. But it was always worth the visit. The places were invariably beautiful, the weather was perfect and the food was amazing... especially the mutton. In those days, goats were sacrificed routinely in temples and villages and the fresh meat was delicious.
Everything in the mountains was awesome to our little minds. We listened raptly as my father once pointed to the dense forests in the distance and said, "This is the Nanda Devi Reserve. No man has gone into some of its areas" or when my grandfather proudly told us of Nandprayag: "This is the place beyond which even the great Sir Edmund Hillary's jet boat couldn't go in his Ocean to Sky expedition". I recently read an article on the CIA's secret expedition to place a nuclear monitoring device on top of Nanda Devi to keep tabs on the Chinese nuclear programme. I had to chuckle as I remembered my Dad's words. Apparently, when he said that no man has gone into the reserve, he didn't mean the spooks of CIA. Those guys are everywhere.
My favorite place amongst all places my Dad stayed in was Ukhimath near Kedarnath. It had an unbelievable location. Traveling to Kedarnath from there became like going to the city parks in the US. Every other week we would find someone going there and tag along. The more than 10 kilometer trek was no big deal to us then. I remember distinctly the thrill of walking along a narrow path with the river Mandakini roaring below. Along the route were sadhus meditating in tiny caves searching for, well, whatever they search for. I remember the final turn after which you got the most amazing view you could see in your life: the temple framed by towering Himalayan peaks, snow lying like freshly made butter on the mountain. We would have a quick darshan in the temple and then explore the small town. There is a path which goes up to the mountains which was supposedly taken by the Pandavas when they ascended to heaven (Uttarakhand is full of such spots where geography and mythology are intertwined). We once went up this path and upto a small glacier. I promptly proceeded to slide on the glacial ice only to discover that that my brand new black jeans was colored by some cheap dye. Rest of my day was spent walking around with a white rear getting laughed at mercilessly by everyone.
Another amazing place I went to from Ukhimath was Madmaheshwar. This was a two day journey which we undertook on horses. My Dad had some official business there and baited me along, saying "Once we are there you can virtually shake hands with Chaukhamba, we'll be so close to the peak". So on we went for two days and two nights. Nothing much grows in this area so our food after a while was potatoes and some green vegetable which was described to me as "Chooha" (thankfully it was a veggie, not what the name implied). I remember one scary part of this trip: my horse or mule to be exact went nuts at one point and took off at full speed. This along a narrow path with a river a few hundred feet below. Thankfully he came to his senses before flipping me over.
After the long journey, we were finally at Madmaheshwar. You can imagine me being a little cranky after sitting on horseback for two days. My dad made me climb another hour, up a small hill, to "shake hands" with Chaukhamba. Well, after all this, the mountain didn't exactly look that close to me and I was mighty miffed. He still hears from me to this day. It reminds me of a recent trip I made with my sister's family to the Grand Canyon. My nephew, Rohan, endured this long car trip with our promises of an amazing experience. Once we were there, as everyone was admiring the massive canyon, Rohan looked in disdain and said "Is THIS what we came all the way here for? ". I laughed and remembered my reaction on seeing Chaukhamba, understanding exactly how my nephew felt.
Madmaheshwar was truly beautiful though. It was foggy almost all the time we were there. There were three humans, eight dogs and about two hundred sheep in that place. One of the humans was a swamiji who stayed there the whole year despite death threats from smugglers of Kasturi Mrigs. Swamiji hosted us very graciously and regaled us with tales of the place. I wonder if he is still there.

These are some memories of my travels in the Himalayas. There are so many more of them; too many to recount here. The amazing views from Tungnath, the haunted "dak bangla" of Dugal Bitta, the confluence at Deoprayag where Ganga starts after the serene Alaknanda and the violent Bhagirathi merge, the underground caves of Patal Bhuvenshwar where a portal to moksha was introduced in the form of a dark, foreboding cavern opening: I can go on and on. Uttarakhand has wonderful scenery, amazing beauty and countless stories to excite the young mind. Ruskin Bond in his writings captures the essence of the place as I experienced it. As an adult, I now think that things might not have been easy for the residents of these tall, harsh mountains, but to a kid it was wonderland.

I long to return to places of my childhood in the mountains. Time constraints, however, prohibit this from happening. Perhaps I'll return for good some day, for I fully agree with Kipling when
he said "the last puff of the day-wind brought from the unseen villages, the scent of damp wood-smoke, hot cakes, dripping undergrowth, and rotting pine-cones. That is the true smell of the Himalayas, and if once it creeps into the blood of a man, that man will at last, forgetting all else, return to the hills to die."

test

2008-07-15T18:37:00.003-05:00

test

2008-07-15T17:29:00.005-05:00

Test Camera

2008-07-15T17:24:00.000-05:00

Fallingwater and Pittsburgh Trip

2006-12-01T22:37:00.000-05:00

This past thanksgiving we took a trip to the Pittsburgh area. I love this city because the mountains remind me of home. They are not as tall as the Himalayas or even the Rockies but are quite scenic. Pittsburgh, of course, is site of "Tirth Yatra" for American Hindus because of the famous Sri Venkatesh temple. When in college we used to not only visit the temple, but grab tons of boxes of real tasty tamarind, yogurt and sambar rice, which sold for $1 each box in the temple kitchen. Now they have doubled price to 2 bucks but its still great value for the money. Near the Venkatesh temple there is a Hindu Jain temple also. We generally visit both temples.

This time we hung around for a while in the Pittsburgh area. I wanted to see Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Fallingwater, which is an hour south from Pittsburgh. The building was designed in the 1930's by Wright for the Kaufmann family. The family had land with a stream and a very nice waterfall and they wanted a bulding with a view of the waterfall. Wright had an idea about having the building "over" the waterfall. Its a beautiful building integrated extremely well with the natural surroundings. Wright built all the furniture, picked colors etc, imposing his will over the family. You get a true sense of the building by visiting it, since pictures don't convey the sounds of the water and the breeze. There is an ambience of great tranquility. Inside of the buliding is a bit claustrophobic, however. Wright was a short fellow, so built the rooms according to his dimensions and the result is very low ceilings.

Here are some pictures from our trip:

First view of Fallingwater

The famous view with the waterfall

Another shot with more of the surroundings

Swimming Pool loved by Mrs Kaufmann. It is 6 ft deep and tiny holes feed and drain it

Balcony outside living room. Note the cantilevers.

The other balcony outside the living room. A statue of Buddha adds to the serenity.

Our Patel photo in front of Fallingwater

Pittsburgh downtown seen from Mt Washington

View of some bridges of the city

Jyoti posing in front of the buldings

Another view of Pitt

Deepavali Greetings

2006-10-20T21:40:00.000-05:00

To all who come to this site, a very happy Deepavali.

A very nice introduction to the festival is provided on Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali#Significance_in_Hinduism.

My memories of the festival are of extreme excitement about bursting of crackers and eating tons of sweets. We would collect as much money as possible from parents as well as relatives who came to visit us. Then we would calculate, literally, what the best bang for the buck would be. If a particular year was good with regards to the monetary collection, we would go for the big "atom" bombs. In a lean year, we would buy small red bombs which came in packs of 12-24. We would then burst them individually.

The women folk generally preferred "phuljhari", "anars" and "charkhis". These items would put on a fine show but there was nothing macho about them. The guys preferred "rockets" and "atom or aloo" bombs. It was especially masculine to hold the bomb in your hand, light it and throw before it burst. Once a bomb burst in my hand and I swear I saw the entire collection of stars in the universe flash before my eyes.

We had two dogs in our household, one belonging to my mausi and the other to us. They were both pahadi sheepdogs (in my opinion the best breed in the world)... one called Bhotu, the other Rikhu (Garhwali for bear... he was jet black). Bhotu used to enjoy Diwali and used to jump around anars and charkhis. Rikhu was unfortunately scared for his life. He used to just shake through the night wondering what the hell we were up to.

Days before Diwali we used to setup lights on the roof a la Christmas in US. The frustrating part of these lights was that if one bulb went out, the entire collection would go out. Then you spent the next few hours searching for the culprit using a tester. In the process, you frequently got a nice 220V electric shock. I am amazed, now living in the US, how we lived in India back then. A 220V shock was part of life. It stunned you for a while and then you were fine with a nice story to tell. Anyway, somehow we had the lights on by Diwali night. One year, everything was working fine, and then on Diwali night, my sisters and cousins decided to go to the roof to check out the city lights. My mausi's daughter stepped on a small bulb and as I mentioned before, once the bulb was crushed, the entire "ladi" or collection went out. The poor girl was shaking in anticipation of the wrath of my father.

So once Diwali night was gone, I went about collecting the "barood" or gunpowder from all the exploded bombs. Then I used to light up my collection for one final bang. One year, I finished the process, then lit the barood... poof, the flame shot up and singed my hair. I could smell burning hair all over the place. On checking myself out in the mirror, I noticed all my hair had become brown and curly AND horrors of horror, my right eyebrow was gone... completely. This presented a dilemma since I had to go to school the next day. Being very resourceful, I took a black pencil and drew myself an eyebrow. I think I haven't looked more ridiculous in my life but at that time was extremely proud of the artwork on my face.

I feel like one of my favorite writers, Ruskin Bond, writing this post. But boy, being a kid in Dehradun at that time was fun. I am sure everyone has their Diwali stories, and in fact, people from all over the world have their own festival stories. Thats what makes life so wonderful. I hope festivals continue to give us beautiful moments and amazing stories to tell, forever.

So again, wishing everyone a great Diwali. If you are in the US, be with friends, tell tales, light a few "phooljharis" if you can, and enjoy the day. Ultimately, its all about being close to your loved ones and thanking God for all thats given to you.

More pictures from North Michigan

2006-10-15T19:28:00.000-05:00

We went to north Michigan, to the Petoskey, Traverse City area, to enjoy the beautiful colors of autumn. This region is on the Lake Michigan side of the state and is needless to say, just beautiful. There is an area in particular called Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes. Huge sand dunes rise up from the lake, sometimes as much as 450 ft. You can go down one dune to the lake, but the return is extremely tiring and some people have had minor heart attacks coming back !!!! We did this trek last year when the weather was warmer. It was too cold this time around and we are a year older with weaker hearts.

Here are some pictures:

Some colorful trees by the side of the road

Jyoti in front of Lake Michigan

It was pretty windy and cold :)

Another picture of Jyoti looking rather pleased

450 feet drop to Lake Michigan

Don't believe me , here's the proof

Somone was nice enough to take our picture after I requested in my purest Indian accent: Sarr, can you take our pictarr :)

Me in front of another sand dune

Even when I rent, I get a desi car

Me in front of Glen Lake, the water here has an amazing blue

Jyoti is wearing my ABAQUS jacket, probably as a camouflage in this area

Another picture of Glen Lake, it used to be connected to Lake Michigan many an eons ago, notice contrast in blue between the two lakes

Random thoughts

2006-09-16T11:13:00.000-05:00

Why do we get tickets for speeding on an empty highway while there are no tickets for people who turn without indicators, who weave in and out of traffic etc. ? To me these are worse than speeding when there is no traffic.

Can we please revoke licenses of slow people who hog the left lane ? Is there anything more frustrating than this on the highway.

Why don't they just put a car phone as basic feature on every damn SUV ? There is a phone stuck to the ear of every SUV driver.

Why do people buy Land Rovers ? These are expensive but come near bottom of every car quality survey.

Why do Americans lump all of the mideast + Pakistan + lots of Indians as "they hate us", yet care to differentiate themselves when the same people say "you colonized us and created all this trouble" ?

Technically how can you be a "conservative" if things change around us all the time. Its just not feasible. Humans learn things all the time. We have to adapt to these changes. There are only a few fundamental things, biggest being "be considerate and compassionate to others". Other things which conservatives emphasize like family, religion are ideas and are up for discussion.

When conservatives complain that "universities are full of liberals" , can it be that a person who is educated and exposed to lots of nationalities ends up being a "liberal" ?

Isn't it funny that President of Iran also complained of "liberals" in Iran's universities ? That should give a clue to the conservatives in US.

Weren't America's founding fathers amazing ? What a system they setup for the country !!!

Capitalism gets dangerous when bottomline for news media becomes profits.

Its shameful how companies market to kids in the US. This should be banned outright.

In a few years as technology becomes prevalent we'll get a commercial for every breath we take, beamed straight into our brain.

Nehru's greatest feat was stopping a newly independent India falling into clutches of either caps during the cold war. Having said that, was he ever wrong on socialism ? I understand, though, the ideal socialism might have provided for people full of ideas after independence.

Where is Hinduism headed ? It was already bad with idol worship prevalent in the religion. With the rise of the middle class and rush to money it's going to get irrelevant.

Hindus defend the religion as "way of life" and a philospohy. Who many understand concepts like "Advaita", "dvaita" etc. ? Can we please work on changing hymns to a language we understand ?

Why do vegatrians look at animals as if they feel emotions like humans ? If this was the case, lots of tigers would be vegetarians. Is this the Disney effect ? Poor kids can't even eat meat without a guilt conscience. I am not saying animals don't serve a purpose. Everyone has a role in our ecosystem. We are as dependent on other species as they are on us. But don't tell kids a deer is sad because he lost his kid.

Do we have free will or are we slave to chemicals in our brain ? Working of the brain is fascinating. What is consciousness ?

Michigan's Upper Peninsula

2006-08-31T22:40:00.000-05:00

Michigan is an absolutely beautiful state. Surrounded on three sides by great lakes (Huron, Superior and Michigan), outside of Detroit and few other cities, it is heavily forested. It has two peninsulas, lower and upper. We made a trip for the fist time to the upper peninsula or UP as it is locally called. There used to be mining up there, but now the mines are closed and tourism is the main business. There are no big towns. We stayed at a place called Munising and from there ventured to the shores of Lake Superior (largest freshwater lake in the world). There are beautiful rock formations on the shore, called Pictured Rocks. You can take a three hour boat tour to see the rocks from Lake Superior. Its just amazingly gorgeous. Several ships sunk off the shore and you can also take a tour on a boat with a glass bottom, to see a shipwreck. In winter, the place gets several hundred feet of snow !!! Snowmobiling is very popular in that season.

To go from the lower to upper peninsular you go over the famous Mackinaw bridge. At this point Lakes Huron and Michigan meet. There is a very popular destination called "Mackinac ISland" there. You can take a ferry to the island. The island has no motor vehicles and you go around in a horse wagon or bicycles.

We went canoeing on Autrain river on day one. It is a quiet river winding down to Lake Superior. We had tough time navigating it though, since we are novices...we got stuck at many corners and in fallen trees across the river. It was a great day and fun trip though. We then took the boat trip across the Pictured Rocks shore. The rocks are very colorful owing to the mineral deposits on them. We were lucky enough to spot a bald eagle and I took a picture of it.

With this trip I completed my tour of the five great lakes: Lake Superior from Michigan, Lake Michigan from Michigan and Chicago, Lake Huron from Michigan, Lake Erie from Cleveland and Lake Ontario from Toronto.

Here are pictures from our trip:

Mackinaw Bridge connecting the two peninsulas

Ducks on Autrain river where we were canoeing

Turtle enjoying a lazy summer day

Jyoti taking a break from rowing

Lighthouse on Lake Superior

Me by side of Lake Superior (notice what Jyoti did to my hair)

Pictured Rocks (different colors are
different minerals)

Rock Formation Looks Like Flower Vase

American Bald Eagle Perched on a Tree

Sea Gull Flying Over the Boat

Sunset Over Lake Superior

Rock Looking Like Head of Indian Chief

My new aquarium

2006-08-02T13:02:00.000-05:00

I recently got a new fish tank. Since keeping a dog or a cat is not feasible right now, fish sounded like and ideal pet. Well, the fish stores sell you a tank gladly,but they don't tell you that it is lot of work initially. For one month you should not put any fish in your new tank because it goes through a "cycling" process. Basically, fish produces waste which produces ammonia, this ammonia gets converted to nitrite and then to nitrate. Ammonia and nitrite are very harmful to the fish and they die if the concentration of these increase to a toxic level. In a self sustaining eco-system, bacterias consume ammonia and nitrite, so until your tank develops these bacteria, you should not put any fish in your tank.

Obviously, we wanted to put fish right away in the tank. Thankfully, I read somewhere that I should put a "scouting" fish initially to make sure fish would survive in my tank. We bought two "tetras".. beautiful orange fish. Now I have to remove water everyday to make sure my fish survive. It will take a month before my tank "cycles".

Once my tank is ready I'll add 5-6 small fish. I have joined an online forum where the members are very knowledgeable and provide input on all relevant topics.

It is a wonderful hobby though. I would recommend it to all people who don't have time or space for other pets. The sound of water cycling in the tank and the fish just swimming.... existing without thought... its a very zen like experience. And the hobby has just enough fundas to keep you busy without tiring you out. You can keep adding to your tank or switch to a bigger one. It can be a lifelong hobby and you can exercise it anywhere.

Gouging in America

2006-08-02T08:57:00.000-05:00

What is it with price gouging in public places in America. Why do Americans who worship market economics, cry foul over market set gas prices, but willingly pay top dollars at public places where there is obvious price gouging ?

Case in point, a visit to Niagara falls (my 15th visit btw... its a tirth yatra for us desis).... every freakin' stall sells water for $2.25. A sandwich costs you $7 etc... What the f$%&$ ? Isn't there enough water around to fill like a trillion bottles, why are they charging so much, and on a hot day you need lotsa water, so you end up paying a fortune just for water.

What about stadiums in US ? $ 8 beers, $ 3.50 water, $ 3 hotdogs. And people who are outraged at gas companies pay for this gladly !!!

What about these idiotic side shows in famous places. While you stand in line at Empire State bulding, you have all these guys pimping sky ride and this and that. $20 extra for an express line !!! Its such crass commercialization its embarassing. I wouldn't be suprised if a visit to the white house has presidential staff selling hotdogs and water for $20.

Who is an Indian ?

2006-07-22T14:47:00.000-05:00

We, as a people, have devoted countless hours discussing the concept of being an Indian. Terms like Hindu Rashtra, Bharat Varsha get dropped. Controversies abound, e.g. fringe states like those in the Northeast, are they part of "India". Is a Tamilian and a Punjabi really both part of the same country and "Indian". They can't even stand in the same room before going off on the "genius of Ramanujan" or "physicality of Dara Singh" and almost coming to fisticuffs. All this makes you wonder.... hmmm... who exactly is an "Indian" ?

I have a simple criteria for this. Look to the legs. If you don't have calf muscles, you are an "Indian"... simple as that. Sometimes here in the US, I get confused if I see a particularly fair person whose features look like people of the subcontinent, but could be a Hispanic or middle eastern. Well, if its the summer and I can see their legs, its an easy answer. In the winter, its tough, but you just have to follow them to their cars and if its a Honda Civic/ Accord, Toyota Camry / Corolla... bingo. But that is a topic for another blog.

In college we had a very strong looking North Indian fellow in our cricket team. We used to meet frequently in the gym and always used to wonder together.. how the heck do we develop our calf muscles ? He would comment to me "Saurabh bhai.... calf raise karte karte ga&*$% lag gai par saali mucles nikalti hi nahi hai". And I would nod in complete agreement. Once I went to watch a cricket match in Mohali and before the innings opened, out came our reserves for some catching practice.... very fit guys, quite athletic but carrying the shame of all us "Indians"... skinny legs with no calves.

Is their a site funnier than a desi on the tennis court... looking cool with dark shades on, fancy racket... but with chicken legs and a huge paunch. What about all these gorgeous women we have, whose gorgeousness diminishes once legs appear south of the mini. Do you have any doubt about God's sense of humor.... hmmm... let me create this creature, smart, more or less good looking etc., but I shall give him/her no calf muscles and make him/her look completely ridiculous in shorts once he/she develops a belly. I also wonder, if this is why Hindus stopped eating cows (and calves)... maybe we can get God's attention to this matter and appease him....

So really the answer is in front of all of us... if you feel conflicted about your identity, look to your legs, if the calf muscles are absent, you are 100% certified "Indian".

Stock Update

2006-07-20T14:09:00.000-05:00

I recently bought some additional consumer staple ETF VDC. I feel one should have an investing philosophy and I see myself as a defensive investor going for dividend paying, solid long term growth companies with little debt. In the past I have been burnt primarily on tech investements where I had the right idea but did not think more about the specifics of the company. E.g. I bought Webex rightly thinking that web meeting market would go up. I did not think about position of webx in the market, however. The stock dipped when Oracle announced that they were bulding a similar product. I panicked and sold WEBX.

So you don't make the same mistakes again. But of course, there are so many variables involved, you can still get burnt.

I currently have Altria, Cisco, international 100 ETF (IOO), Biotech ETF (PBE), Japan ETF (VPL), VDC, Occidental Petroleum (OXY), Johnson & Johnson and Home Depot. I also own some bond funds.

In the coming months when the stock market has its annual late summer swoon, I will look for additional buys. In particular, I am looking at Citibank and Marathon oil.

Update on 8/1/2006: Opened a position in Honda. Last year I made a nice profit on it. I should not have sold it... like the company very much, no frills, solid engineering . I hope they don't try to expand too quick like Toyota is doing.

Update on 8/3/2006: Final purchase for a while. I bought some NBR which is an oil driller stock. On my stock screener it camu up with amazing numbers, low P/E and low P/E/G with EPS growth more than 25%. Logically, you figure with oil companies making so much money, they have to invest in further drilling to increase their reserves.

So as you can see I am leaning towards possibility of high gas prices in the future. Honda will sell more cars if this happens, OXY already split 2:1, increase dividend and is buying back shares and now I thick the money will flow to drillers.

Quotes Hall of Fame

2006-07-19T20:27:00.000-05:00

This will have quotes which are high on unintentional comedy scale. No inspirational crap... I hate those things.

Rafael Nadal commenting on Wilander's assertion that Roger Federer's cojones disappear whenever Nadal plays him:
"its a crazy thing because if [Federer doesn't] have balls, who has ? Who wins three consecutive Grand Slam titles, makes the final at Roland Garros, wins consecutive Wimbledons and makes the final this time ? Who lost [only] four matches in a year ? He has very good balls."

On Terrorism

2006-07-12T20:48:00.000-05:00

Recently Mumbai was hit by a series of bomb attacks resulting in several deaths and countless families being affected. One can only imagine the agony of people who have to go through this. It is just extremely sad.

What does terrorism achieve ? Hate for the terrorists and their agendas. One thing is for sure that whatever cause they are fighting for loses all sympathy. E.g. Palestine conflict and Kashmir conflict. Who in their right mind, even if they understand the injustices these people have had to endure by the respective governments, would support their cause after such cowardly attacks.

I see the genius of Gandhi and Mandela in these situations. The only way you advance your cause is by non-violence and non-cooperation. You get international sympathy and hope for a resolution. One can argue that people of Burma and Tibet tried this but went nowhere. But I can guarantee you this: Palestine issue and Kashmir issue are getting nowhere with terrorism. Only when terrorism is renounced will we get somewhere in these conflicts. If nonviolent struggle is persisted with, agendas will be advanced. Tibet has given up on this and is hence going nowhere.

The hypocrisy of the international community is evident in these situations. On the one hand everyone is united in their disdain for terrorism. On the other hand, where peaceful struggles continue, the community provides no support because of selfish interests. UN is powerless and USA cares only if it gets affected economically (e.g. price of oil) all the while preaching about compassion and liberty. Struggles then take up the wrong option of terrorism which kills the cause they fight for.

In the current case of Islamic terrorism, the genuine struggles have been ironically (or purposely) hurt by the very people who profess to sympathize with that cause. E.g. terrorists talk of injustice in Palestine while blowing up buildings in NYC and trains in London. How is this helping the cause of the Palestinian people ? The political struggles have been hijacked by religious ideology. What these terrorist organizations like Al Qaida want is fundamentalist Islam across the world. Of course, this is not acceptable,rightly, to any sane person. In the process, political struggles in Kashmir and Palestine get sidelined.

The terrorists and governments supporting the terrorists give an excuse of Palestine. But they do not want the problem to be solved. Why ? Because it provides a platform for fundamentalist Islamist to spread their ideology through. And it keeps attention away from screwed up regimes in the mideast like Syria and Saudi Arabia.

Whats the option for the world ? Destroy the terrorists and their sympathizers. Then, look at the political conflicts and try to find a peaceful solution for them. Why, you ask, should we not resolve Palestine and Kashmir first and destroy the terrorists motives ? Because, I tell you, the people supporting terrorism do not want these conflicts to be resolved. If these conflicts persist, these people can spread their ideology with the conflicts as an excuse. So ,e.g. if there is talk of peace between Israel and Palestine, these people will blow up someone in Israel bringing talks to an end.

Zen quote

2006-07-07T14:14:00.000-05:00

This from Shunryu Suzuki:

To stand on your feet is the most important thing. To sacrifice this moment for your future, for your ideal even, means that you are not standing on your feet. Don't complain; accept things as they are and satisfy yourself with what you have, right now. You should think, "This is the only reality, the only Buddha I can see, I can experience, I can have, I can worship."

NBA Crap

2006-06-21T20:06:00.000-05:00

Well it happened again. The refereeing in NBA finals was so blatantly pro Dwayne Wade, it was embarrassing. I don't think NBA fixes games, I just think NBA desperately wants the next MJ. And DW is the next MJ, so don't breathe on him or you'll be called for a foul. I remember last year against Detroit DW jumped, hit a Detroit guy smack in the front with nowehere to go, and got a foul. That was pathetic I felt. Now I see the NBA finals and I feel the league has anointed him the next Jordan. So he can travel, push people off etc etc and will get all the calls.

The sad thing is, DW, Lebron James et al are such great athletes, they will win by themselves... I don't know why the heck the NBA has to make us hate them by the way they get all the calls. I frankly think NBA gives a crap about the real basketball fans. They want to create a deity so casual fans tune in to watch like they watch Tiger play golf. So all the crying foul about NBA refereeing by sports fans is pointless. There are so many people I talk to who have just stopped watching NBA games because they feel the referees are pro superstars.

And I am amazed by logic of so called NBA "experts" who say: "Stop whining, Dallas had themselves to blame, if they didn't miss shots they would have won". Of course they would have, any moron can see that. The fact is most basketball games come down to a few points, teams go through hot and cold streaks. If referees can sway the game by 10 points, thats huge. And I am not even including the psychological effect of the bias. The fact is that these "experts" depend on the NBA for their livelihood, so cannot criticize it. Or like when ABC won't show replay of a terrible foul, yet due to the miracle of DVR you can go back and see what they don't want to show. The commentators won't say anything , because hey, they are fed by the league.

So, now Stern has his next MJ. This guy for all the accolades he gets, is an idiot. Since I came to this country 10 years ago, NBA has been unwatchable, I got a dose of 70-68 NY, Miami games in the '90s (big market teams)... I got to see MJ and Ewing taking 4-5 steps to dunk a ball and now I see phantom fouls on DW. Or maybe he's not an idiot, he know people all over the world love icons and superstars and a person in China and India is dazzled by the NBA machine and its Lebron's and DW's... they can't tell a foul from a non-foul and they don't care either. Its a nice way to sell the league.

So what does a sports fan do... stop watching NBA, why let your blood boil over an obviously subtly rigged game.... realize that NBA is entertainment, not really sports and look for true and fair competition elsewhere.

BTW, here is Bill Simmons (the one nationally prominent guy with balls to point this out)...

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060620

GM's marketing problem

2006-06-16T20:57:00.000-05:00

I follow with great interest the war between Thomas Friedman and General Motors. For those unitiated Mr Friedman proposes that GM is like a drug dealer feeding the gas guzzling American public by subsidizing gas on its large SUV's. GM had offered a fixed price of $1.99 per gallon till end of 2007 on its new SUV behemoths. Mr F. suggested that America would be better off if Toyota bought GM. He sees GM as producing the most number of large gas guzzlers. According to him, if GM wasn't so short sighted to rely totally on these large SUV's for its profit, it would be far better off.

I see both sides of the issue. GM and Ford have been extremely short sighted. They got lazy with these large SUV's and trucks and didn't see far out that gas price could be a major issue. Toyota and Honda on the other hand developed hybrids and even now are working on reducing price of hybrids. GM on the other hand scoffed at hybrids initially and then reluctantly took them up.

The problem now is that GM needs to sell these SUV's as they bring in upto 6-7000 in profit per vehicle. They can't make money on small cars. A company which is on the brink of collapse can't afford to be environmentally conscious and energy conserving.

The problem according to me is marketing for GM. Specifically, marketing for Hummer. Now this is a vehiclewhich evokes hatred and bemusement in many people. It gives 8 miles per gallon and looks like a monster on the road. Who buys it ? I have no idea. You buy a vehicle for performance or utility or comfort. Hummer has neither. It is a war vehicle and should stay that way.

Now what does GM do in trying to appear cool to customers. It heavily markets a niche vehicle which doesn't make them much money. Companies get associated with an image. E.g. Apple is cool, Google is innovative, Microsoft is evil and slow etc etc. Toyota also makes huge SUV's but get associated with the Prius. Hence, Toyota is a very environmentally and fuel price aware while GM is clueless. When people raise their ire over these monster vehicles , they turn to GM, primarily because of the Hummer.

Why the heck would you market this nonsensical vehicle so heavily and ruin your image in these times of high gas prices. Its not like the vehicle will save your company. The idiots who buy it would have done so regardless of the advertising. Now you have as association : GM -> Hummer -> bad company from point of view of environment and fuel. Toyota -> Prius -> makes fuel efficient cars and is good for enviornment.

Like it or not, what you market determines your image. Now GM comes up with ads for Chevy and how fuel efficient those cars are. But you are working against your image... of bad quality from the '90s and of being irresponsible from the Hummer.

I hope GM turns around. It is very important to lots of people. I also feel Toyota has to go down, no way it maintains quality being such a large company. Also, if GM improves its quality and fuel efficieny while keeping stylish models, Toyota will have to deviate from its boring looking Camry and Corolla and in the process lose quality.

And I pray to god that these SUV's go away. They suck fuel like a drunk... kill sight lines on the road... people inside are so coccooned that they act like jerks.... I just hate these vehicles. I think unless you have two kids, if you buy a SUV you should get taxed 100% and should get your head examined.

American obsession with soccer

2006-06-12T19:11:00.000-05:00

Every four years I wonder why Americans get so obsessed about professing to hate soccer. The rest of the world has a grand party and the media (especially of the radio variety) start waxing about their disdain of the sport..... there is lack of action, not enough goals, too much flopping etc etc....

The criticisms can be applied to any sport you tend to like, some American football games drag, NBA has tons of flopping and very suspicious refereeing and baseball, if not played in the lazy summer months, can be slow (though I feel not boring at all).

My suggestion, don't waste you energy making fun of soccer... just don't watch it. Its on at daytime, so doesn't bother working people. Enjoy your "world" basketball championship and "world" series and celebrate your "world" champs. The rest of the world doesn't miss you, so chill out.