In the SFO

Traveling to the beautiful city by the Bay or the Silicon Valley as its more popularly known after almost 10 long years. I am not complaining because it was an eventful decade for me. I had my two lovely children followed by the ever challenging for all - covid19 spell and 3 jobs, shifted 2 homes and bought one which we finally moved into couple of weeks ago. Life has been good and I am not complaining. 

However I did miss my travel to this wonderful city which had become my second home in the decade before my sabbatical from travels. I am glad I had the sabbatical to be able to focus on all of the above , had enough memories built through travels prior, memories of which were fuel enough to more than sail me through!

With that out of the way, I'd like to use this to share this visit of mine as I go along. To my family and friends. This is for you. 

After a warm good bye to my wonderful family, headed out to the airport at 11PM, reached Terminal2 (Bangalore's most talked about airport terminal) hoping I'll avail the free foot massage I get from my premium credit card to realise that this new terminal is still setting things up and there is no spa what so ever :))

Anyhow, I made it to the Emirates check in counters way before the staff was in LOL. Look at this picture! 

Clearly I was an over enthusiastic cautious traveller after a long gap not wanting to miss out. 

The 4 hour wait before my 4:30AM flight was quite something! 

Abhimanyu

I have been watching the Mahabharat series on Star Plus diligently over the last six months. I have each day learnt tremendous amounts of wisdom - atleast I can claim to be exposed to it, and for most part try to understand it, so it would be fair to say I did learn some in the process.

Abhimanyu's valor and his grit is overwhelming. When Abhimanyu is tortured by Dhuryodhana and gang, reaching abysmal levels to derive pleasure out of his pain, where Dhuryodhana wants Abhimanyu dead only by sunset and until then torture him, Karna gets off his chariot and starts walking towards Abhimanyu.

Upon seeing this, Dhuryodhana calls out to his friend saying its not yet sun-set. Karna give a deaf ear to him and approaches Abhimanyu. Abhimanyu smiles at Karna too. With tears in his eyes Karna hugs Abhimanyu and tells him "Son, I am so proud of you. This battle field is lucky to have a warrior like you on it. Neither Arjua nor I will get the glory of being the most outstanding warrior of all times, because you have taken it away from us. I am so proud of you. Now it is time for you to start a peaceful journey to heaven." Having said this, Karna takes his sword and kills Abhimanyu. He gently lays him on the battlefield and walks away, when Dhuryodhana is angry with Karna, and says "its not yet sun-set, and who gave you the permission to kill him?" Karna replies, "When such a great warrior is dead, it is indeed sunset", and walks towards his charriot, gets onto it and leaves.

Everyone is aghast.

Rest is history. The episode today was so powerful, that death did not seem like a bad thing for a life well lived. The key is "life well lived"..

British Airways

I took British Airways flights from Bangalore-London and London - SFO.

Typically I travel this route every year for the last 6 years, and this was my third trip with British Airways. While different people have different experiences, I wanted to share that I have mixed reviews both are great - one can be use as feedback while the other for pat on BA's backs!

The first flight from BLR-LON was chaotic, and as mentioned by others on this site,  most food options were exhausted by the end of the flight. I dont complain because I got my choice food which was what was left for everyone. The flight staff had some really courteous people while some were pretty snobbish.

The second filght is really what's worth mentioning - It was the most cheerful flight I have been on! Yes "cheerful" - flight attendant Angeliki was so entertaining and kept all of us in such great humor, the pains of being on a second leg of a 24 hr journey was not felt. Also worth mentioning are the other staff members who were equally cheerful and enjoyed their jobs. We need more such people onboard please! BA 287 flying on 9th of May 2014 - fantastic flight. Also such a smooth landing by the pilot! Mighty impressed with this one!  Food was okay - I loved the Lily O Brien chocolate mousse the best!  Please don't take that of your menu.

Entertainment - Its high time BA upgrades its entertainment systems. The audio was lousy, and nothing was clear or audible even on the highest volume against the aircraft sounds.

Dharm ke paanch aadhar - 5 pillars of Dharma

Been watching Star Plus's latest series Mahabharat. Loved the way Dharma was articulated..

Gyan - Buddhi ko sthir karta hai
Dheeraj - Man ko sthir karta hai
Prem - hirday ko sthir karta hai
Samarpan - shareer ko sthir karta hai
Nyay -- Atma ko sthir karta hai

There are 5 facets to Dharma:
1. Knowledge - provides stability to your Intellect ;
2. Patience - helps stabilize your mind ;
3. Love - provides stability to your heart
4. Surrender - provides stability to your body;
5. Justice - stabilizes your soul

When all these five virtues are stable, you will be in a state of eternal bliss or happiness.

This is truly an amazing account of an American trying to follow cricket, which is an English game!

Vicky Schulman is my colleague who works out of the HQ in United States. One of the most wonderful people I have come across at work place, and a very uniquely wonderful at that! The reason I say that is because she is 50+, yet spirited like a 20 yr old, very intelligent – we are scared to say silly things before her, because she knows data and technology in and out!  Her interests are very diverse, and I love her inquisitive approach to anything that she does not know. Like for example learning about different cultures that her friends come from, not stopping there, when I told her about Holi, she participated in the Holi celebrations in the Bay area with her children, and needless to say due to their openness to embrace anything new, they did have a great time at the most whacky festival like Holi, without fearing the colors could give them a skin rash! Very endearing to an Indian like me!

I set out to write this article so I can share one of Vicky’s many very interesting accounts of her observations and experiences – especially to do with Asian cultures. With the world cup fever going around right now, Vicky did not escape it, rather she chose to dive into it ! She started by watching quarter finals (India vs Auz) and said “Yay India!” on her FB. I knew then that she would not stop there. And she did not, she saw India vs Pakistan, one of our very favorite matches. And who introduced her to cricket? Her team of Indians in the Silicon Valley.

So, with her permission here’s my favorite Vicky’s account of cricket, after she saw the India-Pakistan semi-final, that India won:

“I read the wiki pages on cricket last night so it would be easier to understand the game. Reading is not a great way to learn about it - it is very complicated. I think I learned more by watching and listening to the others. I suspect I did not follow the game as well as my colleagues thought I did. At one point I figured out that those skinny little sticks were the wickets. From my wiki reading, I thought they would be bigger and I was wondering where they were. And I thought at some point that India would come back up to bat again, but I was told they were done. And towards the end, the folks I was with kept jumping up and cheering and I thought each time that the game had ended, but in all but one case, they sat down again and the game kept going. LOL.”

:-)

Testing

This is testing my new Windows live writer services.

My Garden

My garden!


Finally I managed to fill my balconies with lovely plants. Its very fulfilling to see them grow, flower and grow bigger and bigger that you need to keep re-potting in order to ensure they survive!


Will post some pics of my garden soon.

Paani bachao yaar..!

I have seen water shortage, and trust me its not fun. But what its worth is that it teaches you the value of natural resources, and how to optimally and respectfully utilize them.

Try the shower instead of the bath tub/bucket for starters.

Its amazing how our population grows every second, and how planet Earth is holding its resources up for our survival. Its time we respect it !

Poem

Remember I said I used to write now and then? Pen my thoughts on things that touched my heart, or that I felt deeply about? As I was clearing up the "baby box" (will talk about why its called that another day, for now its a box of all my things at my parents house), I came across all the things from when I was little - my purses, jewelery and books to name a few. There was this piece of paper I found too that took me by surprise, on my thoughts many years ago about the divine. Here it is, more for my records. 
Disclaimer: This is not meant to preach. Its just a point in time thoughts that were penned down many years ago while I was in college. 


If everything happened as we wanted
All those prayers would go unchanted


Most of us think of Him
only when we have troubles to thin


You may ask what about those
Who are true to Him from prose


For you I have something to say
He will never let you go astray


Be true to Him and true to yourself
If not bliss, in peace you will dwell


How would I know what is happiness
If all this sorrow I did not witness


I know God, you are there
I felt it every time you cared


But why now do I feel so shallow
As if I no longer see you, only your hallow


You know it all too well
Nothing that I need to tell


You have with you already - my reign
I want you close to my heart again...

Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches !

How often have we not heard that saying! Quite commonly used in India BTW. And I for one have heard a lot of it.

I was thinking of it recently. And more so lately, since it so applies to me now with all the socializing I need to do! Like most of us already know, our culture in India calls for all "well wishers" jumping to solve our problems.

So, I was visualizing how it may be, if it were to be literally:-

When you wear pretty shoes... and its killing you, and people around you insist that its so pretty , or that it flexes so well, the color is so unique, looks sooo good on you, goes with your dress. There will be other wise people who say  - think of those who dont have shoes...what if these were torn, and what not !

And here you are, "I dont care how it looks! Its killing me!" or wished, "I'd rather not have shoes than have to wear such.. oh and yeah I wish it were torn exactly where it bites me right now"

Sounds familiar? I am sure most of us do experience this at some point in our lives. Funny isn't it? Can be hilarious as you think of all possible comments :)

Take it or leave it - that's the pair you got! Consider yourself lucky if you can get another pair, and love yourself enough to deem worthy of the change! Rip it for better comfort or throw it! Even better, donate it - to who ever seem to crave for your pair of shoes!