The trip started as planned. We had booked a 25-seater coach  for the trip. The original plan was to rent out an RV but then with 22 people signing up for the trip, RV wasn’t an option anymore. Lucky for us there weren’t as many children in the group which meant more fun time for the adults. This was a weeklong trip into the rural part of the state. We got a wooden lodge reserved for us for the entire week. This lodge could accommodate 35 guests, so we were glad that we could stay together in the same place. We would also do a lot of camping and outdoorsy activities. The planning was perfect and the execution was also perfect. So far.

One of my friends was driving the bus, we figured it was more fun to drive it ourselves than get a driver. It wasn’t a long bus, probably a little bigger than a van. We loaded all our supplies that will last us for 10 days just in case. We had extra fuel just in case and out we go.

The trip was fun. Driving the bus through the rural roads was the experience we wanted. In our excitement none of us was actually paying attention to the weather which had changed drastically in the last couple of days. It was pouring cats and dogs upstream and the water levels have gone up from bad to worse. Most of the levees were ready to give up and here we were oblivious to all of this coming our way. The rain started coming down on us starting with a drizzle and went to a full fledged storm. We could hardly see the roads now and there was water everywhere. We still knew where we were, thankfully, but that wasnt really helping. Finally one of our friends suggests that we were near a village where he knew some folks (old family friends) who moved there recently. At this point there wasnt anything that we could do so the options were either drop by unannounced at their place or turn around and try to find a decent spot to stay. The popular vote was to head back and we turned around. As we started moving back, we saw that one of the bridges was now overflowing with water and our bus cannot stand the flow the water anymore. This leaves us no choice but to drop by this place now.

It was early evening by the time we reached their place and the rain had subsided a bit turning back into a medium drizzle from the downpour. This place was probably the most creepiest of the places we seen so far. It was hardly a village like my friend put it. It was more like 2 houses on an island connected with just 2 bridges fully overflowing with water in the middle of nowhere. Our bus cannot cross the bridge because of the water, so we had to take an old wooden bridge to get onto the island. We packed all our necessities for the night and started walking towards this house.

The two houses on the island were close to each other divided by green fields full of rice paddy. As the rain died down, we could smell the evening scent of fresh crop drenched in rain and ready for harvest. We were hopeful that this might actually turn out to be something exciting in itself. And we were right on the exciting part.

I have no idea what the new health plan is but it definitely shows how easy it is to manipulate a group of people with almost no knowledge of facts. It took Mr.Bush 8 years to become as unpopular but just 200 days for Mr.Obama to get there and beyond.

I really hope they figure this health plan thing out before it gets any more ugly. As much as I want an awesome plan that would take care of me, I cant but think the state of the country that is getting torn and misled by the wrong people working for their own advantage. Now this is where I would use my ‘I want my country back’ callout.

Its nice to see people come up with a variety of answers and more importantly similar ones. Almost everybody who gets this question asked, answers philanthropically with sentences like ‘ I will spend most of it on fighting poverty, world hunger and environment protection/global warming’. Though it is nice that everybody thinks of saving the world first, is that really what will happen once you land with the Billion.

Lets take a closer and practical look at the problem and the common answer.

A Billion is a lot of money. There is no denying that. This much money can fix a lot of problems in today’s world where almost everything and anything is possible if you can pay for it. Now there is no denying that either. Setting up stuff for goodwill is not an overnight process. It takes a lot of time, effort and thought to get it right. Small mistakes could end the money in wrong hands and not to mention that lots of money brings in lots of problems. There are folks all along who want a piece of that wealth for themselves. Not just people who you need to work on your philanthropic project, even family members are interested too. More money means more greed.

By the time you realize what is going on and keep everybody in check, you have already spent a whole lot of time and the interest and zeal with which you took up this task has faded away. Now this is what makes this question a tough one to answer.

I am yet to come across an answer that I feel would really work in a practical world. As for me, I would answer the question as – ‘ You keep the money and do all this philanthropic work. As a payment for getting all of it done, you can keep half of it if you like to after the task is complete. I am content with what I have. Thanks’. Honestly. smirk and wink.

I recently purchased an iPhone. Now for people who dont know what iPhone is, it is the standard for smartphones as some might like to put it. I initially liked the phone a lot but not so much lately. The phone is slow, takes forever to load the apps, drops calls all the time, runs out of memory (oh yeah! I see the oom msg pop up almost everyday) and most of the apps dont even work. Not to mention the sluggish 3G network of AT&T and weird battery draining problem.

So today I decided its time to pay a visit to the genius desk at the mac store. The guy there basically ran a quick sanity health scan of the device and decided that there is nothing wrong with the phone. When I tried to discuss the issues I have had lately, he ran the list of issues and their reasoning which pretty much pushed iPhone out of my fav 5. This is how the conversation went.

Me (M) – So what do you think
Genius (G) – Your device is working fine. There is nothing wrong with it.
M – But the battery keeps draining all the time.
G – Oh. About that. You need to turn off wifi to save your battery. Wifi has a tendency to drain batteries.
M – mmm… But I need Wifi for faster access to content.
G – Not just wifi, you will have to turn off or better manage your 3G and push mechanism for email. These usually need a lot of power to keep running and are the primary reason for draining your battery.
M – But I need my mail and 3G gives me faster downloads where wifi isnt available.
G – Yah about that, 3G from AT&T isnt really that great. So you arent really gaining anything there with 3G turned on.
M – Oh. So whats your recomendation now.
G – You have about 100 apps on your device and thats basically chewing up all available RAM. You will end up with OOM no matter what you do unless you delete some of these apps.
M – (in my mind, but iPhone is famous for its apps)
G – and you might want to download the memory freeing apps to keep your device running.
M – Alright. Thanks (in me mind – for this sucky device.)

So I began a quick comparison of this phone and the Windows Mobile phone I had before. I used to run multiple apps, had easy access to outlook servers, could connect to windows machines without any issues, built in media players, better call quality and service from Sprint. This phone had none of those but for the form factor.

Bottom line -> iPhone – useless crap = nothing. (unless I see some improvement with the phone) If you are looking for more info on love/hate relationship with the iPhone, here is an interesting article on msnbc. Check it out. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32177251/ns/technology_and_science-wireless/wid/11915829/

This is just venting out my frustration with the phone, please do not take this as a review for iPhone or reco for their Genius bar service.

Actions are not like liking which can change with time. You dislike someone initially but eventually end up losing that emotion on them. Actions on the other hand, once performed will remain forever. They cannot be erased from the past and hardly be predicted to happen in the future. Such unpredictability is what makes it important to keep one’s actions in check.

There was this story a good friend of mine once used to express his thoughts on the subject. There was this young guy who was always full of rage and anger. He was abusive and destructive and everybody around him disliked him. His father one day got him a wooden plank and asked him to drive nails into the plank whenever he was angry and pull the nail out when he was happy. The guy started doing that and eventually ran out of space on the first plank. His father asked him to start adding wood to the plank and continue with the plan. The guy never got to finishing the second one but as he grew up ended up pulling out half of the nails on the first one. By that time people around him had already taken a liking to him and he was well respected. His father then using the plank as example explained to him, how his actions have made a mark on everybody and everything around him. Although not filled with nails, the wood still has holes caused by nails the guy put in them. People around him like him for what he is now but the damage he caused by his actions and their reactions cannot be reversed or repaired. He got his lesson.

By nature humans aren’t good. They are full of greed and want. If we let our actions be derived by these and not really controlled or checked by mind, we will end up with acts that will cause a bad reaction. Good actions have better reactions and bad stuff brings in the worst. Controlling our mind and actions and working towards a positive society is what we should be striving for.

Everything we eat now has to be calculated for calories, I hate to say it but I do mind munching on the fourth slice of that extra cheesy pizza. Not because I do not want to eat it, only because it wouldn’t do much good to my health. I dont add extra sugar to my coffee, well actually cant afford normal coffee, only decaf. Reason, my folks wouldn’t appreciate me staying up all night just cause I can’t get sleep with all the caffiene in my blood. Its not like I could use that extra energy to go out and hunt down some extra food for the winters. I calculate the calories in the snack bars, I eat lotsa greens, ration’d proportions of dairy, well you get the idea.

I still envy the folks in pre civilization times when they used to eat everything. I did not want to evolve to stand erect and worry about my spine. I did not ask to be civilized to cook everything I eat and get used to digesting dairy. I am not for evolution and civilization if it makes me work extra hard to earn my meals and makes me watch my diet. But then again I am evolved and civilized so I will follow the rules and norms of the society. Time to go finish off my fifth slice of that extra cheese pizza only after I peel the cheese off of it.

There are more types of vehicles on the road compared to probably any other country in the world. We have the street kings – pedestrians who would like to cross the road whenever they want. A la Jaywalking but then again this is the regular method to cross a street. Then the one level up is the guys running around for a bus or auto or for no particular reason whatsoever. They beat the jaywalkers in that they dont even look around when they are on the street.

The next level is the two wheelers, three wheelers and the four wheelers. The two wheelers category starts with a bicycle. This ‘what can a bicycle do’ kind of vehicle when rode by a normal Indian transforms into nothing but a speeding turbojet twin engine 6 cyclinder race car. Not really but atleast thats what the rider thinks of his ride. They cut corners the way that puts the nascar drivers name to shame. They are everywhere, they dont care for the rules, they have no rules. one level up in this category is the two wheelers that includes the girly looking pep and activas and the macho pulsars and hunks. The driving requirements prescribes that the driver come with an attitude. Helmets are a must so they hang by the seat hook. The speeds are 100+ in a 40 zone and these folks are always in a hurry to get somewhere.

Three wheelers is the transportation class that includes the infamous auto-rickshaws aptly named autos. The vehicles seems to have a mind of their own and so the drivers never apply their when driving. the lesser said the better for this fleet of vehicles. The four wheelers is the community that is quickly catching up despite the gas prices and inflation rates. Four wheelers is a status symbol. If you have a four wheeler you are already a hero in your group. If more than one person owns a four wheeler then its the maker that puts you at the top of the list. There is hardly any maker left in the world who doesnt have a model on 4 wheels trying to rule the street.

The only thing that is common to all drivers on the indian street is almost everybody is trying to overtake everybody else. There are no rules, they dont want to follow the rules. Ofcourse when stopped by the cops, they are either the son of some big shot or a cousin of some movie actor. After spending three weeks in these life threatening conditions and after many futile attempts to drive my old scooter on the street, i just gave up. But then everytime i looked at the street, I thought of a new way to implement the driving laws and atleast come up with some since there are none. More about that later.

So I recently moved to a bigger city from a not so big city. Like many people I said to myself, so whats the big deal, so its a big city, life is not so different after all. But slowly I have come to realize that maybe Big City does have its effects after all.

There are more folks that you know who live nearby.
There are more parties every week that you have to attend.
The crowd to cinemas keeps growing every week.
There are more folks poking in your matters.
The number of people who dislike you is very high.

And this is just to name a few, not including the real problems of a big city like peak traffic, bad traffic and regular traffic jams. The lines in the grocery stores are always long even at 100am.

Damn the move… huh the big city.

The punch line for everything aboard the plane is compact. The snacks they serve are small servings. The alcohol comes in special “small” bottles. Just to add to the list, there is lesser leg room in the flight and the restroom has just enough space to take care of the business.

I can go on and on with the list but my point is aeroplanes are making the world a smaller place – atleast for a few hours.

My elaborate cooking procedure usually begins with getting the menu straight for the evening. The list invariably includes potato fry and tomato rasam with rare inclusions of other curries. If I am not permitted to work with potato or the rasam, then the menu automatically transforms into my personal wish list that includes chana choley and fried rice. No other items will be entertained or be included for that day anymore.

After the menu is finalized, I begin with the cutting and peeling activities. This is always accompanied by Reshammiya’s Jarring soundtracks on my PC or ESPN football commentaries on the TV. Every peeler and knife, of every size possibly available in the kitchen will be used for this process. When this process nears its completion, I begin with checking for the right utensil to cook. I can never guess the right one for the quantity I am working on. I end up using almost everything that’s not already in the sink for washing. My idea of frying is that you should know that it’s fried even without looking at the item. The burnt smell should give you an idea of how fried the potatoes are. At a strategic point of time dumping a few teaspoons of rasam powder in tomato paste or diced tomatoes boiled in water for more than 15 mins gives you an apetite that you will remember for years or the next day morning for sure.

So after all this is over in about 2 hours time, the kitchen loses its charm and appeal and no longer resembles what it used to be when I started cooking that evening.

Now with all of this said, do you still think I am built for cooking. I wouldn’t think so. Instead I always offer my help outside the kitchen, over the dining table where you give the cook the satisfaction of the greatest meal ever cooked by finishing off everything that is being served that evening.