AMDITD - Episode 4: Bovine Intervention

nope - no long drawn out complaints about traffic and pollution - hey the city is spitting out 45 new cars every day and some things can be expected, even lived with; but not the mooing speed breaker we encountered sitting calmly on - believe it - airport road, no less.
there was one difference though: the bovines had become smart enough to leave a small gap for passing vehicles, while they continued to chew the cud and watch us with those soulful eyes as if to say: use the dimmer, please.

AMDITD - Episode 3: Saar! Give Tonty Fie Rupees Saar!

hardly does one need to step out of the customs queue and onto the final mile to that welcoming door that leads to the great country that is india, than one is accosted by a group of well-wishers. these people will help you greatly by providing extremely difficult services, such as:
1. pointing out the exit: "that way out saar; taxi?"
2. giving you the weather update: "india becoming very hot, saar".
3. making minor adjustments to the luggage which you had to heave onto the cart yourself.
of course these invaluable services come at a cost. "saar, give tonty fie rupees saar" will echo in your ears all the way to the door.
finally by around 1:00 a.m. on 18th we were out. whatever happened to the 17th of april? just lost in transit...
after a flight where mantra had to be on my lap almost the entire time (no, i won't even bother explaining what happened to our bassinet row seats), it was a welcome relief to step out into the cloud of dust that was once called the garden city of india.
home sweet home!

AMDITD - Episode 2: The long red line

there it is on the screen again - that long red line on the big blue ocean relentlessly tracing the path of our 747 as it made its way across the atlantic. once again there was talk about why the line was not straight from new york to frankfurt and once again we discussed the great circle line - after all what international travel is complete without discussing such interesting topics.
thankfully, mantra was quite relaxed during this journey since most of it was night-time (EST). we were treated to a showing of spanglish and i thought it was pretty good.
we already knew we had a very short transit at frankfurt but nothing could have prepared us for the walk-out-of-one-plane, climb-up-a-flight-of-stairs, climb-down-a-flight-of-stairs, walk-into-another-plane that greeted us.

just another 10 hours to go ...

AMDITD - Episode 1: Life in the bassinet row

and so the journey to india begins ...

lufthansa crew: sir, you asked for bassinet seats so we put you on row 41 and your wife on row 34 - they are both infant rows.
me: huh? but me and my wife need to be in the same row with our infant.
crew: sorry sir, only one bassinet row per family.
me: ???

and so we had to become the center of attraction on the flight as we juggled some seats around with other passengers and finally settled down.
actually "settled down" is probably the wrong term to use when you are on the same row as 5 screaming toddlers but thankfully everthing quietened down after awhile and we managed to get some sleep - only to be woken up in the middle of the night to be given breakfast.

ah, the little joys of international travel ...

Around My Des In Thirty Days (AMDITD)

all packed and ready to go!
the next month of entries will mostly be updated information about my "Around My Des(Country) In Thirty Days" (AMDITD) trip to india. des is probably too braod a term since i don't plan to visit to visit more than 3-4 cities but hey, that's the only word that rhymed well!
various episodes are bound to include the ayushya homam (first birthday function) of my daughter; the wedding of my brother-in-law, my various cuisine-tasting tours in chennai and bangalore and of course watching movies in my favorite theatres back home!
watch this space (and if you want me to bring you back some halwa, b.good in my absence!)

the grouse struck one, the clock ran down ...

no, i haven't forgotten the nursery rhyme. just updated it for our modern times:

what at first glance looks like an alien, wheeled-mouse, is infact mit media lab research associate, gauri nanda's newest creation. hit the snooze button on "the clocky" and this locomotive 'larm clock takes off and hides in a corner of the room.

Clocky will roll off the bedside table and wheel away, bumping mindlessly into objects on the floor until it eventually finds a spot to rest. Minutes later, when the alarm sounds again, the sleeper must get up out of bed and search for Clocky. This ensures that the person is fully awake before turning it off. Small wheels that are concealed by Clocky's shag enable it to move and reposition itself, and an internal processor helps it find a new hiding spot every day.

i don't know about this, but like one guy says, what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom is the quintessential snooze button, and i like it within my arms reach dammit! i can just picture myself in the morning grabbing the nearest pillows (note plural: myself needs more than one ... but that is a separate blog ...) and hurling them around one by one until i clock this monster (oh yes: that was intended).
snoozing is my birthright and i shall have it!

red lorry, blue lorry

no, not the tongue twister (although it would be fun to keep repeating it ... red lorry blue lorry red lorr-somebody stop me!)
no, this is a ditty that involves a late night at work and the recycle bin.
so it came to be that last week i had to work late on thursday and after venting my fury on my colleague because i was forced to miss the apprentice, i was merrily tapping away at the keyboard when what should i see but the very same colleague throwing a banana peel into the blue recycle bin.

oh, if i forgot to mention, i am also a huge environmentalist and so i descended into a lengthy pitch about the virtues of recycling and what to do with certain types of aluminium cans and paper trash and what to do with certain other types of trash, namely banana peels and used prophylactics. infact i always pictured the two types of trash going to the city dump in two separate trucks (still reciting in my mind: red lorry blue lorry ...)
the poor chap was forced to drop the peel into the regular black trash can.
10 minutes passed and along came the cleaning lady who then unceremoniously grabbed both trash cans and emptied their contents together into one large wheeled canister.
before i could say hola!, the deed was done and she was off on a new expedition to destroy a tropical rainforest somewhere and, i am sure, kill some baby seals while at it...
aaaaaaaargh!!!!

eat that little green tree!

continuing my series on orthorexia, i discovered something today that made me very happy (and being orthorexic, i automatically felt a feeling of superiority over other meat and non-vegetable eaters).
did you know that a medium stalk of broccoli (about 3 florets) contains 5g of fiber and 5g of protein with virtually no fat or cholesterol? well, i have been eating about twice this quantity everyday for the last month and i feel great and am losing weight a la jared!
of course broccoli's history brings to mind that famous new yorker cartoon by e.b.white(who preferred to remain anonymous):
,
but i say steam it, add madras curry powder to it or, heck, even just drown it in vodka, but have some of it whenever you can. it do you good.
yay for broccoli!

Gotcha, Discovery!

NASA's site has a photo taken by Commander Leroy Chiao as the International Space Station he is travelling on flew over the launch site.
220 miles above the surface of the earth! and i get giddy just looking down from the glass floor in the cn tower!

hindi chini bye bye ...

so ash makes the cover of the beijing review and it's big news. why? because this comes at a time when delhi and beijing are already getting ready for talks that involve, among other things, economic cooperation and (egad!) the establishment of a Free Trade Zone
reading through the articles on the beijin review site, brings up some insightful facts:
China's Backbone Industry: Manufacturing sector (talk about the obvious:

)
India's Backbone Industry: IT sectors (ok i get this), motion pictures (but, i DON'T get this) do we really have to mention motion pictures given that there is space for just 2 "backbone industries"?
the articles go on to ask such profound questions as this by a certain highly noted American scholar. Dr. Elizabeth J. Perry, Director of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University: "We are exploring questions such as why Communist China has been able to achieve such a markedly higher ?quality of life? (measured by such indicators as literacy, health care and life expectancy) when compared to democratic India. And why, we ask, has recent economic liberalization in both China and India resulted in notably higher growth rates in China?"
so quality of life is literacy, health care and life expectancy? how about some true freedom and equal right to life?
this about where i stopped reading the articles and turned to other things that take up my busy schedule.
like wondering what is happening to this world???

the knife goes in your right hand

yes - but that's the easy part. what do you do if you are in a different part of the globe? better make sure you know exactly what to do!

a neat little service

ringo is a neat little service that allows people to stay in touch. update your info in only one place and let all of your friends know about it - automatically. and it works the other way (all the other ways?) too!
i might never forget a birthday or have an outdated phone number ever again!

more tomFOOLery

even fool.com didn't want to be left behind.
announcing (april)FOOLottery!

got gulp?

it's the 1st of april (ho hum!) and everyone out there is trying to outsmart the other in coming up with the most (un) believable lies.
of course, google does something weird (and even weirder) every year this day. today is no exception. apparently this new drink (google gulp??? come on!) has "a DNA scanner embedded in the lip of your bottle reading all 3 gigabytes of your base pair genetic data in a fraction of a second" and "it's low in carbs".
yaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn.
and sepia mutineers, nice try!