Gold and Beautiful

About Education Again

2012-01-04T12:55:00.000-05:00

Can I say this one more time?? We do not want everyone to be a STEM major, but lack of interest in STEM fields indicates some serious problems with our K-12 education that instill fear instead of curiosity in our children.

Kayaking at Lake Chabot in California

2012-01-04T12:52:00.000-05:00

Golden Rule #1

2012-01-04T12:05:00.000-05:00

"What we say about others says a lot about us".

India After Gandhi

2012-01-01T01:42:00.000-05:00

When I think about Indian history I think about our struggle for independence, Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar, etc. and I think about partition. I have never known or read anything about post Indian independence or about India's growth. So when 2 years ago I heard Ramchandra Guha talk about his book "India After Gandhi" I knew I wanted to read that book. Other contenders to this book were some Shashi Tharoor titles, but I knew for sure that Tharoor is a Congress loyalist and the titles seemed to be about modern India. So I decided to wait on his titles and instead went with Guha's book. I had no idea that I had hit a bull's eye with this choice. The author says that for Indian historians, India's history ends at partition and independence. When I read that line, I remembered all the books that I had read, even those by British authors. None of them went beyond independence. Maybe a play on Gandhi's assassination. But that's about it. So, hopefully this book will teach me everything that I don't know.

For starters it does talk about all the British leaders, including Winston Churchill who believed that India with it's huge diversity and poverty would not be able to survive as a single nation post independence. To some extent that was proven true by the horrific incidences during partition. Inspite of all our diversity, poverty and other problems we have survived, we have thrived. As the author rightly says, we are an exception to the rule.

All that glitters

2011-11-21T21:24:00.000-05:00

All that glitters is not gold..... But it is usually very attractive!!!!! I think that's why we make some wrong decisions :-)

Most Awarded Degrees

2011-11-03T13:39:00.003-04:00

Fareed Zakaria had this post on FB today. It shows the top 7 Bachelor's degrees awarded in US in 2008-09 and the top 7 bachelor's degrees awarded to international students in US in 08-09. It is no news that US is lagging behind in graduating STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) majors. The problem has been discussed for a long time. There are tons of papers that are presented at conferences and published in journals even today that discuss different experiments conducted by many colleges and universities to increase their enrollment in STEM disciplines. Most of the funding for these projects comes from NSF, which funds some of these projects from H1B processing fees. It was heartbreaking for me to read some of the comments on that post. Before I say anything, lets get this straight:

I teach at a liberal arts college and hail the idea of a well rounded individual.
I don't think that money is everything and that it should dictate what you study and work as for the majority of your life.

Having said that, we need to accept that this is a problematic situation. While I agree that humanities is as valid a field of study as science, considering the impact of globalization and our competitiveness, we can either buckle up and prepare our children to compete in today's world (which definitely involves success in STEM fields) or we do something ground-breaking in the humanities area that can give us a competitive edge in today's market. This is one philosophy I completely believe in, "Find what you like and then find a way to make it work for you". So, if you don't want to excel in STEM and stay competitive in the global market then find a niche for yourself in what you say you like/do well. Because the rest of the world is not going to stop progressing, just because it does not suit us. And whether we like it or not, success today is greatly determined by innovation and advances in science and technology.

The idea of a liberal arts education is great, because it emphasizes the complete development of an individual. Here is the problem though. Do not assume that these students from other countries who choose engineering or science or math are not well rounded. Many of them probably have more well rounded knowledge than some of our liberal arts graduates. In many nations the education from elementary to high school (and even beyond) is more rigorous and well rounded. From what I have seen, our high-school graduates are not as prepared for college as some of their counterparts in other countries. Let me use my example. My entire education from K-12 was very rigorous. Although the emphasis was heavily on math and science, the other subjects were rigorous as well. When I went to an engineering college, the basic level of math, science, history, geography, etc. that I had achieved was comparable to what I have seen being taught at the Freshmen and Sophomore levels in liberal arts colleges here. So a student with that strong background who spends four years studying a STEM field during their undergraduate years is obviously more competitive (and also well-rounded!). So, yes! We need well rounded education, but that needs to happen sooner in a child's academic journey and it needs to be more rigorous. We cannot afford to reduce school hours due to lack of budget.

And then finally freedom to choose is a great gift, if you are capable of making the right decisions. Sometimes, too many choices can actually have an adverse effect. Sometimes an 18 year old may not know what is good for them. If you love History that is great, but have you researched what you can do with a degree in History? Have you researched if you can minor in History and major in something else that might give you better employment opportunities, probably also using your knowledge of History (Since you have so many choices, have you thought about which choices will help you succeed the most?)? Are you choosing History major just because you think it is easy and won't require you to take Math classes? A positive answer to that last question indicates a serious problem that will affect the student's success in any field that they choose, STEM or not. I also think that part of the problem is that upwards mobility is easy and downwards mobility is hard. In this country for the first time the children do not expect to have better standard of living than their parents. And I think many parents do not know how to handle that and how to better prepare their children. Bullying your child's high school teacher for a better grade is not really going to help your child in the long run.

Fairy Tales of the World

2011-10-21T12:42:00.000-04:00

On my trip to India this Summer, I dug through all the books that I owned when growing up and found this. My favorite book… Fairy Tales of the World. I was in fourth grade when everyone around me realized that I was reading all sorts of books both in English and Marathi at a lightning speed. So my uncle gifted this book to me (the first year that I did not receive a dress from him for my birthday!!) This is the most cherished book that I have ever owned, mostly because it was the first real book that I owned. Before that I mostly bought all sorts of comics or read books from the library. It also had beautiful pictures and obviously increased my knowledge (and curiosity!!) about different countries and cultures. The rest of the years growing up were full of many more books that I devoured every summer from my uncle's book collection. Digging through all those books I also realized how much my parents had done to encourage my reading habit. I had all sorts of books in English and Marathi, with topics ranging from science and geography to world history. I owned Marathi translations of books written by Russian authors. It made me want to pack all those books and bring them with me, to read them one more time. Maybe one day I will do that!

Ideal home

2011-10-21T12:39:00.000-04:00

I found an ideal home, actually 2 in NYC… well actually at MoMA in NYC :-) How nice it will be to live in a high-rise of homes or in a high rise in the bridge city!!! Sounds exciting!!! My biggest problem is that I want it all… A modern high rise apartment with beautiful city skyline views (which I already have) would be perfect. A small ocean front vacation home with floor to ceiling glass would be great!! And another huge vacation home in the mountains would be an icing on the cake. Anyways, the architecture exhibit at MoMA is worth a stop.

Taj Mahal

2011-10-21T12:24:00.000-04:00

The visit to Taj Mahal is one of the most memorable trips I have ever had. Walking through the main entrance, the first sight of this beautiful monument leaves you speechless. There is nothing to be said, but just to be admired. I stood at the entrance staring at it as if my legs were anchored to the ground. It was a few minutes before I looked somewhere else and moved. We probably spent 3 hrs at Taj Mahal and could have spent more. From whatever little I have traveled and the numerous travel articles and photographs that I have read and seen, nothing comes close to Taj Mahal. It doesn't matter if this monument is on any official list of seven wonders or not. It does not need a stamp of somebody else's approval. It is a beautiful monument, much more beautiful than what words can describe! The sunrise tour offered from Delhi to Agra is the best way to enjoy this monument…. Highly recommended!

Ayn Rand's Philosophy

2011-07-20T16:30:00.001-04:00

When the Ayn Rand movie released a few months ago, it was touted as a Republican movie. I was a little shocked at the comparison, because I love Ayn Rand's books and her philosophy and I am definitely not Republican (I know both parties have issues... but I know what I don't like for sure!). It's been many years since I read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. So I thought maybe I should read something Ayn Rand once again and confirm that I really still like her philosophy. I read Anthem (freely available on iBooks!). And I realized that these statements are just publicity gimmicks. I don't know whether her philosophy is Republican or Democrat. I know that I agree with it. If you know her background you will understand her love for pure capitalism.... not the one mixed with greed! The message that I got from her book was very clear. She wants everyone to work hard and earn their prize. Maybe that is a Republican philosophy. Maybe she would not agree with the idea of Social Security (but who really doesn't want social security benefits?) and unemployment benefits. At the same time, I think that is only half of her philosophy. She also supports the idea of innovation, thinking out of the box and having high standards. So the "No child left behind" Republican idea also does not fit her philosophy. Lowering the standards and hailing the mediocre is definitely not Ayn Rand style either.

Reading that book was a great relief. I had not interpreted the other books incorrectly as I initially thought.

Swadeshi

2011-05-17T21:27:00.001-04:00

I haven't yet decided if I am pro-Gandhi (Mahatma... of course!!) or anti-Gandhi. I have very strong opinions about many things Gandhian. There are some Gandhian principles that I strongly agree with and some that I completely disagree with. Over the years though I have come to realize that I don't have to pick a side. Everyone has their own positives and negatives and I have the privilege of taking the positives from many others. I have read about Gandhi and by Gandhi for a long time and every time I read something new, it confuses me some more about my stance... Right now I am a little bit on the pro side.... I think!

I started reading his "Third class in Indian railways" on my flight last weekend and a chapter on Swadeshi set me thinking again. He defines Swadeshi as "that spirit in us which restricts us to the use and service of our immediate surroundings to the exclusion of the more remote". Although when he explains the concept, it has more meaning to it and it seems like the definition doesn't do justice to his concept. Using an example he explains, "In that of economics I should use only things that are produced by my immediate neighbors and serve those industries by making them efficient and complete where they might be found wanting". So, although I think that the definition of Swadeshi does not fit in today's global economy (and we have seen a lot of advantages of that), I do agree with the concept as described by Gandhi in his example. And for me the second part is more important than the first... Make those industries more efficient and complete where they are lacking. Especially for those people who complain about outsiders in Mumbai, maybe concentrate on how you can help "your" people to compete with the "outsiders". For those extremists that want to smash McDonald's because it's not Swadeshi, first think about the possibility of "your" people sitting inside with their children getting hurt and then help places like Green Guru survive and thrive. Just a thought.

Amazed

2011-04-23T09:07:00.002-04:00

I am amazed by the lack of enthusiasm, interest and motivation in some people. I just don't get it!!!

How does GOD stay so grounded for so long?

2011-04-03T09:52:00.000-04:00

The whole world cup cricket fever and the thrilling end to the series with India's victory was really quite amazing. Facebook was full of constant updates on almost every ball being bowled during the finals. I was amazed to see the anticipation during the week before the finals and after the win against Pakistan. All these pictures of someone bowing in front of Tendulkar and the constant reference to him as GOD makes me wonder how does this man stay so grounded??? How is his head still on his shoulders??? I mean for any normal human being to not be affected by this kind of adulation and worship is beyond belief. S says it's all in the upbringing. He even joked that it's an "impostor syndrome", which is so common among all middle class Maharashtrians and sometimes (only sometimes) it helps. I don't know what it is, but I think it's remarkable that this man has achieved so much and is still as humble as the 17 year old kid that we had seen decades ago. Maybe that's why they call him GOD!!!

Why we have too few women leaders

2011-03-31T15:16:00.001-04:00

Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders | Video on TED.com

I saw this TED talk recently and a couple of things stayed with me. I liked her third message of "Don't leave before you leave". I could very well relate to that. For me personally, just getting married and changing from I to We was a lot too handle, forget about children. It seemed like I had more things to do, more people to attend to but in the same amount of time as before. When I was at Grace Hopper a new mother had actually asked a similar question "How do I compete with peers who don't have these responsibilities?". But then I realized that it was not so bad. As I became more experienced both at work and living with someone who needed my attention (:-)) I found out that I could achieve the same results in lesser time. I also kept reminding myself that other people have "other" responsibilities, they don't have "none". Not that I would have thought of leaving my job for any reason, but just listening to this talk made me feel better.

Another good point that she made in the same segment was how when you start leaning back your job gets less challenging and there's lesser reason to come back to work and more compelling reasons (children) to stay back at home. That's probably true no matter what. While many colleagues I know usually seek to get the same prep every semester, that bores me to death after a few semesters. I have spent almost every summer prepping for a new course, usually from scratch. I think leaning back at any time is bad. Although I will agree that sometimes I am lazy and wish that I hadn't taken on so many things.

Third point that I liked about this talk was the point about true equality. It took us a long time to come to terms with the fact that women can and should be allowed to do a "man's" job, but it is taking us way too longer t0 accept that a man can and should also be allowed to do a "woman's" job. So, just like there's nothing wrong in having a female COO at a tech company, there's also nothing wrong in being a male home-maker.

Fake patriotism

2011-03-27T11:59:00.001-04:00

"The way we love our troops is the way Michael Vic loves dogs" -- Bill Maher

The child in me

2011-03-14T19:56:00.002-04:00

In December 2010 when we visited San Francisco (yes... again!!) I found these amazing boots in a shop at Union Square. S always laughs when I wear them and I love them, so I wear them every weekend :-). I am happy that even my shoes can bring a smile to his face. When I bought them Anu said, she thought she was too old for them... And I agree!! Age wise I am too old for them too..... But I still love them. They remind of my childhood back home when in the rainy season everyone would buy those rainy sandals. You could also butythese tall rainy boots, typically called gumboots and they came in 2 colors. Boys usually wore black and girls wore red. The red shoes always attracted me, but mom thought they weren't feminine enough and I always got (Beautiful!!) rainy sandals. So when I saw these shoes in the window of that shop I had to buy them and wear them. It usually pours in SF, but not so much in Atlanta. But what the heck!!! I like them, so I wear them every chance I get. Somehow I have this weird funny shoes and socks fetish that is always at its peak when I visit SF. I have sneaker socks, fish socks, bright orange leg warmers and woolen booties (yes... that's what they call them) that I bought from the Sock Market in SF. Anu has categorically refused to gift me $20 socks for any occasion.

I think it's important to keep the child in me alive and not let it sleep under the pressures of day-to-day life. So, of course I can't wear these shoes to school and I am not the kind of professor who cracks jokes in class and entertains everyone... I like to maintain a line between the students and me. How I behave with my colleagues and students is very different from how I behave with my family and friends (I think that applies to everyone)... So its all the more important that I have an outlet in my personal life to let this little child go crazy every once in a while!!

Superfreakonomics

2011-03-14T11:07:00.005-04:00

When I was at UCLA during Katrina I read Freakonomics. When I read the whole theory of Roe v. Wade reducing the crime rate in New York, I was impressed... super impressed!! I loved the book and I read the whole thing very quickly.

So, I recommended the book to S and he recently bought it along with the next book from the same duo, Superfreakonomics. Unimpressed!!!! I just started reading it and have not even finished the first chapter, but am already unimpressed. He talks about how being born an Indian woman is the worst thing ever possible and then talks about a study conducted by two American economists that shows a connection between television and improved conditions of women in India...... Really??? When I told this to S, he burst into a laughter and rightly said, have they seen Indian television?? All the soaps on Indian TV are anything but progressive. And these serials do have huge viewer ratings, so we know that most people are watching them...

I am willing to accept that TVs becoming cheaper and more widely watched may be a factor in how our thinking has changed and many women are unwilling to tolerate abuse, but I also very strongly believe that India is extremely diverse and complex and nothing in India can be explained so simply. Our problems and the reasons for our survival, success and progress cannot be viewed through a simpler American lens.Yes, so most households where women are treated well may have televisions, but that's not all. What are the other factors? And no, I don't think that the women are not being beaten by their husbands, because the husbands are busy watching cricket.... May be the husbands themselves are educated and have a different perspective on how women should be treated than what their father or grandfather had??? And a million other changes that might have affected this. I don't know... All that I know is it is not that simple and there are many more factors involved than just a television.

Similarities between Robinhood and Angry Young Man

2011-03-09T16:37:00.007-05:00

"[Robin Hood] is the man who became the symbol of the idea that need, not achievement, is the source of rights, that we don't have to produce, only to want, that the earned does not belong to us, but the unearned does." | S2C7 Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand's philosophy is usually difficult to digest for many people in my experience. But she sort of had me convinced in her two books "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged". This one above was on Facebook today and it reminded me of a conversation that I had with Prasad uncle one summer in Temple, TX. He is an Amitabh Bachchan fan and was talking about some old Big B movies. My opinion about those movies was exactly as the one stated above. I thought that those movies sent a wrong message and encouraged a sense of entitlement among youth that was based only on the fact that they were poor. Being born in poverty does not give us a right to persecute the rich. Of course some things are wrong and you need to take an action against them, but the kind of things that AB movies showed (especially treating the heroines like trash...) were totally wrong. Of course, according to Prasad uncle those movies were successful because they portrayed the reality and hardships of those times and the frustrations of the youth. That might very well be true and I am incapable of commenting on that, but I do strongly believe that blaming someone else for their fortune (which has probably come from hard work) has never helped anyone progress in their own life. So, while we want to fight for our rights insulting someone because they are rich is probably not the best thing to do...

With all due respect to all Big B fans, I think movies like Laawaris just spread hostility. If there was a positive message in there, I totally missed it.

When I Grow Up

2011-03-03T12:29:00.002-05:00

When I grow up I want to travel all over the world.... and maybe become a travel blogger...

The God of Small Things

2011-02-25T09:02:00.003-05:00

"It really began in the days when the Love Laws were made. The laws that lay down who should be loved and how. And how much."

I started reading the book again after more than 10 years and realized how sad it makes me even now. When I read the book the first time, I just loved the description of Kerala and I thought the book was very authentic, which is why it probably makes me sad. Although it is a fiction, it's not hard to believe that it could be a true story... even in 21st century India!! And that's really sad.

I love this book though (although I am not crazy about Arundhati Roy's pursuits post this book...). It is very real and still very poetic.

"If he touched her he couldn't talk to her, if he loved her he couldn't leave, if he spoke he couldn't listen, if he fought he couldn't win."

This one's worth many a reads!

Appreciation

2011-02-11T10:06:00.003-05:00

One of the things that I completely admire about Amol is his enthusiasm for even the smallest things in life and appreciation of others. And I think the reason we get along so well is because I see some similarities among the two of us (great minds and all :-) OR Sagittarius qualities :-))... Yes, we are all very happy/satisfied and appreciate small things in life. But his reaction to everything seems very heartfelt every single time. For example, this morning I read his FB status about organ donation and I thought that most people would have said this is a good thing, but he said he was inspired by that person and knowing Amol I know that he is not exaggerating when he says that.

It takes all kinds of people to make the world and I am sure we have all been around people who can complain about every small thing. Or worst, I have had the (dis)pleasure of knowing someone who could criticize and find fault with every human being that they met. In that light, knowing people who appreciate others and constantly find happiness and inspiration around them is a blessing.

Here's hoping for more positive attitudes and happy faces everywhere we go :-) (especially at work!!!)

Driving

2011-02-08T20:29:00.003-05:00

Dear driver in front,
If you are driving in the left(most) lane and not overtaking/passing any cars on the right, then please move to the right lane and let others pass.

Thank you.
Yours truly,
Agitated left lane (fast) driver.

Funny or Rude?

2011-01-21T14:36:00.005-05:00

By now everyone knows about Ricky Gervais and his smart*** comments at the Golden Globe awards. The clips have been aired on all sorts of news channels over and over and over again. At first I thought what's all the fuss about?? These celebrities need to be good sports and learn to laugh at themselves. You know? Don't take yourself so seriously.... But obviously, easier said than done. I am sure if I was in a similar scenario I would have hated it.

Now, I have to confess that I like Ricky Gervais and I am a huge Kathy Griffin fan. And for anyone who has seen her shows, knows that she is the queen of making fun of celebrities (maybe Joan Rivers is the queen.... at least she is senior :-)). So, I thoroughly enjoy Kathy Griffin's shows (so much so that I spent a quite a few $$ to watch her live at Fox theater when she was performing in Atlanta)... But when I thought more about this whole episode I realized that there was something not so great about this. Making fun of celebrities on your own television show or live stand up is different... But making fun of someone (that's an understatement!!) when you have invited them to be honored is a totally different thing. So, OK he did not invite all those people, but they were there to be honored, so probably maintaining some respect would have been nice... And I think Ricky Gervais is a smart comedian, I am sure he could have come up with other ways to make this event hilarious than making fun of the nominees and the board.

He has a point though... If they didn't want him, they shouldn't have given him the job.... There's a reason why many celebrities avoid Kathy Griffin and why she has been banned from The View a couple of times :-) (I find that hilarious!! Didn't you learn your lesson the first time??)

On a positive note, he did end the show on time... No one was complaining about it going overtime!!!

MLK

2011-01-17T18:26:00.007-05:00

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Having grown up in a cosmopolitan city and a diverse country like India, I had always wondered why some people were narrow-minded. I remember my baby-sitter's daughter complaining to some one that she was B.A.L.L.B, but couldn't find a job because of all the South Indians coming to Bombay and speaking in English (yell, yemmm, etc..). Even at 5 years old the solution seemed very straight forward to me. Learn English!! She sat at home for quite a few years until she got married. I never remember her trying to learn English, or even looking for a job. I remember her taking me and my sister to watch movies in the afternoon though!!!

Today's holiday reminds me of two things: a movie, American History X and a book by one of my favorite fiction authors, John Grisham, titled "The Chamber" (I am sure there is a movie on this book too!!)

Both the movie and the book point to the same reason at the heart of this problem. The book tells the story of Sam, a klansman who is on deathbed for a klan-related crime. The book eventually unfolds to explain that Sam was brought up in a racist environment, where everyone around him was racist, black people were enslaved and ill-treated. Growing up in that environment it all seemed right, because everyone was doing it and there were no opposing ideas floating around that would instigate him to think otherwise. Interestingly American History X ends with Edward Norton, the skinhead remembering his father the fire-fighter blasting racist rants about everyone who is not white.

I wonder what are people saying in front of their kids today?

Short young female

2010-12-10T13:10:00.004-05:00

Last night was the beginning of the end of the semester. Yesterday was the last day of classes, so to celebrate, a bunch of us went to a coffee shop to listen to our colleague from the Music discipline perform with his band... They were really great!!

As DA, DB and I were talking the conversation turned towards which professors are popular and most respected... DB's hubby told us his observation. He was a tutor for 5 different History professors when he was in high school and he said: "The older you are the more respect you get, the taller you are the more respect you get and if you are a male you get more respect in the classroom". Then he looked at me and summed it up: "If you are a short young female you will have to wait :-)". And I was thinking to myself, you didn't add brown to the equation... That's going to be longer!!! For the most part I have had very good experiences with students so far (and obviously wonderful experience with colleagues) and I don't think I have anything to complain about. I mostly consider myself very lucky and would rather not find an excuse for the few problems that exist.

But there was some truth to what he said... and I think this is not just in the South. I was very naive and used to think that at least urban women should stop complaining about equality because we do live in an equal society. But that's not very true. And when I was talking to DB about it I remembered Hillary Clinton's campaign in the '08 elections. On the campaign trail she once became very emotional and choked while saying something. And that was a totally political move!!! The media had been torturing her about her lack of display of any emotions and was calling her cold hearted. I always thought that was weird... If she was going to be the President of the nation, shouldn't she be strong/tough? So women I think are always categorized as either too soft and unable to be tough, hence not fit for higher positions or thought to be too tough and called a b****. Men on the other hand are accepted as they are, no questions asked!!!

Hapa

2010-11-07T17:46:00.004-05:00

Hapa is the Hawaiian word for "half" and was once a derogatory term. It has since transformed into a word used to describe a person of mixed Asian or Pacific Islander racial heritage. On our visit to Chicago's Natural History Field museum we saw this beautiful exhibit of Kip Fulbeck's "The Hapa Project". The theme of this project was "What are you". 1200 people were photographed. They answered this question in their own words and many answers were very touching. More details about the project, book and exhibitions can be found here. I just wanted to share this innocent little boy's answer to the question. He says "I am part Chinese and part Danish.I don't usually tell people that I am Danish though, because they think I am a pastry" :-).

This exhibition made me feel really warm and nice. It made me feel as if the whole world is gelling together, you can't really differentiate among people anymore based on their looks... maybe last names, but I am sure that will change eventually!! This exhibition made me feel really positive and I find myself going back to that exhibition and those answers.

I always thought that Mumbai was a great place, just because it brought people from all sorts of backgrounds together. I have always believed that the experience of growing up in a cosmopolitan environment has made me a broader and better human being. Living here in US feels like an extension of that diversity concept. I am now surrounded by people of all races, colors and last names possible!!! One more reason why I always want to have a city life.

We all have an opinion

2010-11-02T14:16:00.015-04:00

Spent the last weekend in Washington D.C. The city was just okay. It didn't leave a huge impression on me. I would definitely prefer Chicago any day. I have to admit that we didn't really get to go to any of the hot spots, so maybe that will change my opinion later. Also, maybe going during the Cherry Blossoms festival or the kite flying festival might be a better experience. The one thing that I liked about D.C. was the very well connected Metro. Loved it!!

So of course we saw the Washington monument, Lincoln memorial, U.S. Capitol and White House. Surprisingly though, we didn't go to any of the museums..... Considering the fact that we are museum buffs and the museums in Washington are good and free this was an anomaly. We did attend the Rally to Restore Sanity. I had never been to a political rally before and I don't think I ever will in future. So this was a good opportunity to try it out :-). Obviously, it was extremely crowded, the trains were packed, roads were blocked and throngs of people with creative signs and (some) Halloween costumes made the rally very exciting. It was a weird atmosphere, one that made you feel young again....like naive young...when you are filled with hopes and dreams... like the movie Yuva!! Watching that movie made me feel the same.

So enjoy the shots that S took of some amazing signs..... I love the girl in pink T-shirt. I thought that was very courageous and her demeanor was very soft and kind... She didn't have the kind of aggressiveness or "don't give a damn" attitude that I imagined someone with that sign should have had... These signs definitely draw attention to many important issues along with some of the stupidity that is going around this election season.

All in all, it was a good weekend. But I think I want to go back to see Cherry Blossoms or else never.

Embarrassment

2010-10-28T13:00:00.004-04:00

I am attending the IEEE Frontiers in Education conference and am just mortified by all these people sitting around me at lunch. Today is the first day and the conference organizing committee made a huge blunder by scheduling 2 keynote speakers at the lunch. OK IEEE.... 40 years organizing this conference and how do you do this? You invite these wonderful speakers, give them awards and ask them to speak when everybody is busy eating and talking. I don't know if the guy could even hear himself speak, because all that I could hear was murmur and knives and forks clashing!!! It was embarrassing. I was hoping the speaker (who was very well known and was saying some really good things about active learning and project-based learning) would not look up, because no one was paying attention. Everyone's head was down in their plates or they were busy conversing with others at the table. The lady at my table was talking for 5 minutes about how it was so noisy in there. I wanted to scream and ask her to shut up!!! I understand that lunch time is a wrong time to schedule a keynote, but now that it's already done and you are sitting there, at least show some respect to the speaker, who by the way is your peer!!!

I couldn't stand the whole mockery and left after the first speech. I need to find a suggestion box at this conference. These people are so hearing from me!!

Anderson Cooper

2010-10-23T01:23:00.003-04:00

I was a huge fan of Anderson Cooper for a very long time for all the wrong reasons.... until I saw AC360. Since then I have been a huge fan for the right reason :-) Good journalism, must watch show.

GHC 2010

2010-10-02T00:42:00.003-04:00

Attended Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing last week...... Great conference, actually not an ideal match for educators, but I found value in attending it. Lots of great participants, inspiring keynotes and useful plenary sessions... not to mention interesting research presentations. As I go from semester to semester trying to do all the things that I want to do and more, it is times like this when I can step back and look at what I am doing from a different perspective. The CS Ed conferences are great, but this was definitely a different perspective. I have to confess that I have never been surrounded by so many technical women ever.... In most of the MS and PhD classes I took, I was definitely a minority, usually the only female in PhD classes. Being surrounded by some 2200 odd technical women was kind of nice. I was also thoroughly impressed by the attention India is receiving. They had a female I BM executive from India in a plenary session, a complete track on Women in Computing in India and there is a separate conference in Bangalore, India in Dec 2010. More information here.

Finally, I should also mention that I received quite a decent response to my poster at the event (Is that an imposter syndrome?? :-))

The death of a city

2010-09-13T14:11:00.003-04:00

I am currently reading V.S. Naipaul's "India: A Million Mutinies Now". When I first started reading, I thought I knew a lot about what he was describing in the book. And it was true to a large extent. I think I already had a good understanding of what he was describing. But the way he was describing it, was so beautiful. If I had to talk to someone about India, I don't think I would be able to describe it like this.... even though I can talk about all the things that he talks about.

My most favorite part so far is his theory about Calcutta. We all know about the plight of Calcutta.... He explains the state of Calcutta as the death of a city and says "This is what happens when cities die. They don't die with a bang. A city dies when everyone suffers everyday". He goes on to describe this in more detail, but I think you get the gist. Although I agree with this description and wanted to say exactly what he did, I don't think I would have ever described it this way.

Thinking about that paragraph gives me goosebumps every time!!!

Peepli [Live]

2010-09-05T14:59:00.002-04:00

Rural India, Indian poverty, political satire and no unnecessary singing and dancing..... Elements of an Oscar nomination???? It felt like the movie was made with Oscars in mind. The movie also reminded me of "No Man's Land", Best Foreign Film in 2002.

Internet @ TV

2010-08-28T19:03:00.003-04:00

We were thinking of changing our home theater system for quite some time. It was great for my apartment in Lawrenceville, but somehow took up too much space in this condo. Finally we replaced it with a more compact sound bar. With this new system we finally got Internet on TV and have been watching Netflix online almost all weekend. This weekend for me was time to watch my favorites once again, starting with "The Last King of Scotland". It's definitely a great movie, but when I saw the movie the first time what stayed with me was James McAvoy..... Whooooo!!! I need some air :-). When I saw the movie for the second time, what stayed with me was the young Dr. Garrigan's idealism.... and his naivety to some extend. A young doctor living a comfortable life, but giving it up..... wanting to make a difference. Idealist!!! You have to love him. Such stories always make me feel more positive and although I know that maybe I should be a little more realist, I still believe in being an idealist.

The second movie we saw (and I cannot praise S enough for watching it with me!!!) was Mani Ratnam's Tamil movie, the title of which translates to "A Peck on the Cheek". If anyone can make a beautiful movie with a violent backdrop, it's Mani Ratnam.... Think about Roja, Bombay, Dil Se...... I don't think anyone can handle violence the way he does. The Tamilian struggle in Sri Lanka is the backdrop of this movie..... There was so much room for melodrama, but you cannot find a single scene that will make you cringe. Very beautifully directed and amazing cinematography. Worth (many) a watch!!!

Highly recommended!!!!

Caramel popcorn

2010-08-27T13:06:00.002-04:00

Caramel popcorn reminds me of engineering college, Smita, Sterling theater, Addicted to Love and Jerry Maguire!!! Always brings a smile to my face :-)

To Build Or Not ?

2010-08-26T18:02:00.002-04:00

The mosque "near" ground zero debate has been heating up for quite some time now. Every morning when driving to work, I get an update from NPR. Every evening at the gym I get an update from CNN. And obviously S loves to play devil's advocate on every issue... including this!!! So yes I agree to the constitutional right, I agree that this is not a religious war and tolerance is important.

I have seen and heard a lot of people of various colors and religions speak in favor of building this community center. I would like to hear one Muslim say that maybe we should be sensitive towards the victims of 9/11 and step back and think about this a little. That's all I want. Maybe it's the media coverage that's deceptive. I am sure there are people who think this way, but I haven't heard it and it's hard for me to pick that side. I don't want to support the other side either. I just want someone to show some sensitivity for me to feel good about supporting this issue (even if it's just for an argument's sake).

Beginning of an end?

2010-08-24T19:57:00.003-04:00

It all started with orkut then and it all started with orkut even now. My first Web 2.0 participation began with creating an orkut account. It's been a really long time since then. "A lot of water has flowed under the bridge" as they say!! FB, blogger, shelfari, twitter, etc. all followed, stumbleupon being the latest of them. But enough is enough!!! I have seen it all, used it all and I am done. Ready to move on to something better. So the deactivation began..... with orkut....again!!!And continued with Buzz and Twitter... I am also thinking of deleting this blog.. Or maybe I will just make it private, who knows..

Tucked

2010-08-11T21:23:00.001-04:00

Am I the only one who thinks that these women with tucked eyebrows look weird??? Ladies!!! Seriously!!! It looks like you are always astonished.... Don't spend your money on that surgery. I can tell that they are not natural and you always look surprised!!!

Hawaii

2010-08-11T11:02:00.002-04:00

The place had everything; beautiful beaches, lovely scenic views of bays, mountains and valleys, beautiful waterfalls and rainforests, natural tide pools and most of all flowing lava. Taking the boat tour was the best decision we made. We were very lucky that the lava had recently started flowing again and even though we took a night tour, the water was calm, making the boat ride slightly less scary. We spent more than 35 minutes extremely close to the lava... The sight was worth every penny we paid!! All the pics that I had seen in my Geography textbook in school came live in front of my eyes here. Definitely an experience!!! Last year it was the Glistening Waters lagoon in Jamaica..... Totally worth it!!! Mahalo Pele!!!

Irony

2010-07-26T09:45:00.004-04:00

This has to be the mother of all bad excuses.... or the mother of all "I was sick" excuses. Check out this article about a Pennsylvania teacher who was nominated three times for Teacher of the Year award and faked about having a brain tumor to "skip school" :-). Apparently she's been doing this for 16 years and people started getting suspicious because she was not showing any signs of chemo, which she claimed she was going through.

I am sure her students have learned some lesson..... don't stick to one disease for too long :-)

Appropriate Age

2010-07-21T12:05:00.001-04:00

At what age is it inappropriate to ogle at new actors (hot and younger)???

Education and Empowerment

2010-07-19T18:15:00.003-04:00

I am currently reading Sudha Murty's Wise and Otherwise. In one of the stories she talks about educated Indian girls who are harassed by their husbands and in-laws and wonders why these girls are so submissive? Why doesn't their education empower them? She does talk about building confidence among girls and I totally agree with her. From my perspective, in a poor nation like ours, education is a ticket to a better life. We slog to get the highest rank, so that we can get a good job and live a better life, which basically translates to making more money. And with a huge population like ours, even a 90% score seems insufficient to get us anywhere. Obviously in this whole struggle of survival no one has the time to talk about the basic code of life. Moreover, even though many of us might be earning more and sending our daughters to schools, in how many households are the daughters still expected to help in the kitchen, while the sons are not? (There's nothing wrong with girls working in kitchen, but so should boys. every individual needs to be self-reliant). Basically, in many households you will still see a difference in the treatment of sons and daughters. So how will the girls get any kind of confidence, if it's not talked about or if they are not treated as being capable? This also reminds me once again of the movie Education.... If the message being sent is that the purpose of getting an education is to get a job, make money and find a good husband, then obviously nothing else is going to stick in that mind.

For that matter over a period of time many of my assumptions people and education have been proven to be incorrect. My parents would always say that highly educated people are more humble, more open-minded and that education changes your overall attitude and makes you a better person. To my horror, I have found that this generalization is not entirely true. A degree does not mean anything. It is not the same as education!!!!

BP Oil Spill Finally Stops

2010-07-15T21:01:00.002-04:00

Today's headline news... Finally after 87 days the oil spill has finally stopped. Makes me wonder.... How can a company like BP that has been doing this for decades not have a plan??? I mean how do you start drilling thousands of feet without thinking about the worst case scenario and how to handle it? Shouldn't they be required to have some kind of contingency plan that has been verified at least to some extent??? I have a backup jacket and backup shoes in my office that I haven't used in 3 years and tons of other things in my hand bag!!! Drives me crazy.... how can they start digging the well when they get thirsty?

Signature

2010-06-29T09:15:00.001-04:00

One of my students has this awesome email signature that I absolutely love..... It says "Make it a great day!!!"

Follow up

2010-06-27T16:08:00.003-04:00

This is the same student who when asked "Do you follow me?" gave me a seriously puzzled look and said "following???".... do you mean "getting it???"... I smiled and said "Yes.. Are you getting whatever we are discussing in class?" to which the student's reply was: "Oh yes!!! I am getting it"!!! :-)

You are the bomb!!!!!

2010-06-17T13:29:00.002-04:00

A student came to my office this morning and at the end of our meeting said to me "Thank you. You are the bomb"!! Huh???? Can you imagine me walking into Pabrekar Sir or Thomas teacher's office and saying "You are the bomb"???? It's a whole new way of communication!!!! :-)

First Day

2010-05-25T20:42:00.003-04:00

I teach in a computer classroom and have to deal with distracted Freshmen who are addicted to Facebook. I do believe that banning FB in class is not an option. Like they say, when there was no FB there were notes being passed and you always have students who just skip into their own worlds... So you can force them to not use FB but you cannot force them to pay attention. For that you just have to be innovative with your classroom delivery. I totally agree with this thought and have tried to make this technology a part of my class. But obviously, there is only so much integration you can do with FB and Twitter. Can't do it for the entire semester. Obviously I also try to have as many activities in class as possible, so that we are actually using the computers for something productive. This semester though I decided to go one step further and include something in my syllabus: An "Acceptable Use Policy". There are 3 points in this policy, the other two will not be discussed here... But the third one was regarding use of games, websites and programs that do not contribute to course goals. And I was thinking of a nice way of delivering this "evil" message :-) This is how it finally went:
Me: How many of you have a FB , Twitter or other such accounts?
(Everyone raised their hand including me)
Me: How many of you are addicted to any of these or love spending time on these?
(A few hands slightly raised... I raised my hand)
Me: I am addicted to FB and I am addicted to twitter, but I promise you that I will not waste our class time by visiting these sites when I am in class and I expect the same from you.
(Laughter and slight applause)

Hopefully this semester will see lesser FB visits :-)

The Last Lecture

2010-05-24T19:54:00.004-04:00

Carnegie Mellon University had a last lecture series for professors: "If you had to give one last lecture before you died, what would it be?". Randy Pausch was a professor of computer science and human computer interaction and design at CMU. His last lecture was truly a last lecture, he was dying of pancreatic cancer. His lecture was titled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". This is a very inspirational speech and every person (techie or not) should see this video.

Randy Pausch passed away in 2008. He was a big name in virtual reality and created a 3D programming environment called Alice geared towards attracting girls to computer science. I had heard about this video, but never saw it until Fall 2009, when I invited NN to be a guest speaker in my class and she brought this up. I have seen this video a number of times since then and I love it.

Obviously I love the lessons:

Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things. They are meant to keep the "others" (those who don't want them badly enough) away
When you are screwing up and nobody is saying anything to you anymore... that means they gave up

But most of all I loved his deathbed conversion to Macintosh!!!! Watch this video if you can and if you are like me keep some Kleenex handy :-)

Racial Profiling

2010-05-17T19:09:00.002-04:00

I have been thinking about whether to write this post or not for quite some time now. I was traveling recently with a friend, who is caucasian and wears traditional Indian clothes every day... And by traditional, I mean traditional (as traditional as it can get!!! Veshti and kurta). At the airport they pulled him aside for "random security checking" and thoroughly scrutinized him. His obviously upset wife told me that this happens every time they travel. I could definitely relate to that feeling. I used to be "randomly" picked for screening all the time when I was a student (age in 20s, PhD student, studying computer science... I fit the bill :-)). When I was traveling back to New Orleans from India one year, the guy at immigration counter sent me to an additional interviewing room. Although the person there did not even bother to ask me a single question, all the time I was waiting there, I was freaking out about missing my connection!!! And every time I am stuck at security lines for looooong periods of time it makes me wonder what's the point of all this. The random screening is not really random screening, which is why people like David Headley remain unscrutinized for a long time. Also every time you hear the story of Christmas Day Bomber or someone similar who managed to get a weapon through those security lines it doesn't really make you feel safe. Rather it makes me feel unsafe and it makes me mad for having to spend an hour going through security knowing that someone who really wants to do some harm is smarter and is NOT going to use the same old trick. And the people at the security check points (no offense to them... they are just following procedure) have no clue how to identify a suspect. I mean really, did they think that if my friend wanted to do any kind of harm, he would DRAW attention to himself by wearing traditional Indian clothes ???

The Spanish Train

2010-05-10T18:49:00.003-04:00

This song by Chris DeBurgh has an amazing storyline. I am certainly not much into English music, but when I first heard this song, I really liked the song for the story it told.... It is about a Spanish train that carries souls of the dead and one day when the God is late, the Devil stakes his claim to those souls. God agrees to play a game of poker to win the souls back, but the Devil keeps cheating and winning.... Awesome lyrics and very well sung too!!!

A glimpse of the lyrics:
And I said Lord, oh Lord, you let him win
The sun is down and the night is riding in
That train is dead on time, many souls are on the line
Oh Lord, don't let him win...

Enjoy the song on Lala !!!

Moving Back To India

2010-04-18T20:41:00.005-04:00

A touchy subject, an important topic and very relevant these days! Recently I have known a few people who decided to move back and quite a few who are considering moving back to India. Opportunities are limitless... is what I hear. I also happened to read this interesting blog post. In this specific post he talks about money, but if you scroll down and read the comments you'll see tons of other issues discussed; everything from privacy (or lack of it) from nosy relatives to unreliable help and traffic and corruption and what not. In all these comments, I did not see anyone discuss work culture!!! I believe in "To each his own".... I am definitely not saying that any of the reasons discussed in those comments are less important, but as I read, I realized that people complained about traffic problems and long commutes and long work hours. So, if you are going to spend majority of your time at work (which makes the domestic help issue VERY relevant), then how can you not consider the changes in work culture? At the risk of sounding racist (or unIndian or unpatriotic or whatever), I will confess that having heard numerous horror stories from grad students about desi professors (Oh lord!! what a coincidence :-)), I stayed away from them all my academic life in US. I should also probably mention that I almost had a brush with one and thankfully avoided it. So this is not just some urban legend that I am discussing here.

I don't know what the future holds for me. But if I were to consider moving back, my first criteria would be work culture. When it comes to anything else, I know we can all manage... Come on!! We are Indians, we know how to survive. But spending majority of time working at a place where I don't like the work culture?? Not something that I would compromise on. The domestic help.... I can deal with (or so I think :-)).... Well, "to each his own"!!!

Google Exits China 2

2010-04-15T13:12:00.002-04:00

I created a discussion activity for my students based on Google's recent exit from China. Each team was supposed to play a different role: Google, Microsoft and Chinese Govt and discuss various issues. Surprisingly, not a single student in a class of 20 thought that what Google did was ethically the right thing to do.... Who cares about censorship of information? They all unanimously agreed that losing money was a bad choice!!!

Spreading Cheer

2010-04-12T15:27:00.002-04:00

Do you know someone who always lifts your spirits, no matter what??? Suma aunty is one such person that I happen to know... Always cheerful. Also, reminds me so much of my mom!!! Persistent and hard working, "never say no" kind of personality and overall an individual who has lots to offer and lots to teach. I have never seen her tired or stressed, although I know how much she works (I stayed with them for a bit!!!)... She is full of energy and enthusiasm! Some people bring out the best in you, by just being around you....

Cold Feet

2010-04-11T07:19:00.003-04:00

We were watching Up In The Air last night and the sister's wedding scene got me thinking... Why do men get cold feet at their wedding?? What does that say about the guy?? Some possible answers include:

the guy cannot handle responsibility and wants to avoid it
the guy is indecisive and flaky
the guy proposed for the wrong reasons in the first place
the guy is a coward??? (seems a little too strong, but possible!!! maybe scared is more appropriate... just so that we don't insult someone :-))

Any of these reasons just by themselves should be enough to give the brides some jitters.... I mean seriously, if you are marrying a guy who decides to bail out (or thinks about bailing out) on you at the last minute, how can you hand over your life to him??? Shouldn't it be the women who get cold feet???

Assignments

2010-04-09T13:24:00.004-04:00

Friday is my grading day. At the end of the week, when I cannot do anything more productive, I grade. And it takes forever.... The amount of work I give my students is not insignificant. The worst part is if I want them to pay attention to anything, I have to give them points for that... and I hate it!!! Whatever happened to "knowledge for knowledge's sake"??? I mean, yes I wasn't an ideal student ever (maybe sometimes :-)) but there was at least something that interested me about everything. And I remember that in my school, we did assignments, wrote essays in class and did so much of in class work that did not count towards our final grade. Even then scoring highest points on each and every assignment was a must. I don't ever remember thinking "this is not necessary, it doesn't matter", etc... We would compete over whose essay/letter/story would be chosen to be read in front of the class. Even though that meant nothing for what your rank in class would be or how much final percentage you would score. At least for me, that meant I was reading all sorts of books, magazines and newspapers to: 1) learn about various styles of writing (the style of this blog is purely conversational... don't let that cloud your opinion :-))and 2) to know the latest that was happening around me.

Is there any way of telling these people that no matter what they do, it has to be great work... And that it counts....one way or the other????

What would you watch?

2010-04-01T11:10:00.005-04:00

For the past few days I have been thinking of Tracy. Tracy and I used to walk to campus together during our first year at GGC. He created a trail for us!!! Then he moved further away and the walks stopped. And then he left GGC and the country (I hope he is having fun!!!). Talking with Tracy was usually fun. Somehow he always managed to listen to some weird Indian stories on BBC. I couldn't believe that BBC wasted time on such stories :-) I also learned from him that only 11% of Indians had a Bachelor's education. I never verified it, but I trust Tracy. Just because I grew up in an overly competitive environment and there never seemed to be enough seats every year for professional degrees, doesn't mean every Indian is highly educated :-).

Anyways, the first time I met Tracy was at our new faculty orientation at GGC (15 days of it... can you believe? as an international student nobody bothered to spend 15 days of their time on orienting me to their campus!!! Gotta luv GGC!!!). So, Xin, I, Tracy and Ken were having lunch at a table and Tracy told us this incident:

He went to the gym and was using some cardio machine. A Hugh Grant movie was playing on the TV. Now Tracy would NEVER enjoy a Hugh Grant movie (just like all other men!!) and would have changed the channel, but there were two guys in the same vicinity and he wasn't sure if they were watching that movie (OMG!!! Guys watching Hugh Grant movie :-)).... A girl walked in started using one of the cardio machines and switched the channel to ESPN!!!!

The anthropologist in Ken was awakened and he asked if the girl wanted to watch ESPN or did she think that the guys wanted to watch ESPN... Why did she really change the channel?? Obviously the next question, what channel would you really watch if you could watch anything? My answer: obviously "Food Network"!!! I don't think I would have cared about the guys anyways!!!

So what channel would you watch if you could watch anything? And would you switch to a different channel if you thought that would impress others around you?

Changing Attitude

2010-03-26T11:41:00.002-04:00

J, Ev and I were driving from Memphis to Searcy in Arkansas when Ev told me that her 80 year old father had checked our school website and the faculty page and he thought I was beautiful......... OK!!! So 3 years back I would have been thrilled if someone said that (and I would be lying if I said I wasn't pleased now!!!!). But I would have been happier if she told me that he liked my professional profile!!!! How time changes you..... I need to update my bio and add my presentations and papers to my page. Maybe add my iPhone project... Will that impress Ev's father? :-)

Rang De Basanti

2010-03-23T18:34:00.005-04:00

I had loved Rang De Basanti when I saw it a couple of years back... I am reminded of the movie again today because I saw Shashi Tharoor's tweet on twitter.com in response to someone else's tweet. This is what it said " ShashiTharoor RT @bapoorow: Rang De Basanti was a bold honest attempt at inspiring us. (ST:terrible movie,Aamir's only bad1.Foolishly glorified violence) "... I was actually a little shocked and angry (being a perpetual Aamir Khan fan and what not). It also reminded me of someone else who had a similar opinion when I saw the movie. And my argument is the same as it was then. If you watch the movie carefully you will notice that the main characters in the movie aren't really shown as very mature individuals.... For example, Aamir Khan's character has graduated 5 years back and still doesn't seem to have grown much. He lives in that safe environment where everyone knows him and doesn't want to venture out.... He says to Sue "people in college think that one day I will do something", but he doesn't really try to do anything... They look glamorous to us because they are heroes, their characters are fun and adventurous, but never really portrayed as intelligent and capable of deep thinking or analysis. For me the path that they choose doesn't seem obvious or apparent, but at the same time, it doesn't seem unjustified either. I can believe that these characters can react in this manner given the influence of the play that they are working on and the unfortunate incident that they are faced with. If you take out all the glamor from these characters and the "phoren" girlfriend, these characters remind me of numerous people that you see on a daily basis on the streets of our metro or in colleges doing absolutely nothing and whiling away their time, eve-teasing girls. Such people who may then end up jobless are easy recruits for political parties to create havoc in the city for political reason under the premise of religion. If he was not Aamir Khan, not wearing those fancy designer jeans, not riding that awesome bike, looking uber kool with his "gori mem", I can see how he can do what he did in the movie. I think the characters were very well developed. You just have to pay attention. In ST's defense though, I doubt how many people give so much thought to a movie (esplly Hindi movie) and it can certainly glorify violence and I can definitely see tons of youngsters (similar to the characters in the movie) walking away with a completely wrong message....

Google exits China

2010-03-18T23:25:00.002-04:00

Found this interesting article on Time. Ethics, ethics, ethics!!! Should you do the right thing or not, especially when not really asked for?? As they say "The right solution is usually the hardest"!!! To censor or not to censor is the question. Let's try role playing: Google's standpoint is probably freedom of expression... rather Internet freedom of expression, no censorship. China's govt: You want to do business in our country, you gotta follow our rules. Microsoft's standpoint: Google doesn't want to do it?? Great!!! We'll do it :-) If you won't do it, we certainly will!!! Who doesn't want some more money?? I am sure Google was not really hoping their competitors to support their stand and not take advantage of the situation. Whatever the analysts and the investors might say I think Google should be proud!!!! I mean, yes we all love money, but you gotta have some principles, some strong opinion about something... If it's not privacy, I am glad it's at least censorship.

Dreamz

2010-03-18T13:26:00.002-04:00

This morning I woke up thinking of BB, my advisor.... I dreamt last night (or maybe this morning) that we were both still working together at Tulane!!!!! Probably a good dream for him, would be good for me if I was at least his post-doc if not an Asst Proff... but definitely not good if I was his (still) his grad student... Well, I will never know!! But I woke up this morning with a very good feeling and a smile on my face.

An Education

2010-03-10T14:49:00.002-05:00

We saw the movie right before we went to New Orleans.... An amazing movie, a must see.... I was watching the movie thinking, "Oh!! how typical", "how wrong", etc... I could relate to so many things in that movie!!!! A middle class family of 3, a smart daughter, encouraging parents who want her to go to Oxford and are spending money to see her dream come true and the moment she meets a seemingly well settled guy, (almost) everyone is fine with the girl giving up on her dreams...especially the parents!!! And I have seen this happen so many times (directly and indirectly).... It almost seems like the point of getting an education is to find a good husband or to support yourself if you don't find one!!! And this is totally different from women who give up their careers for their husband's jobs or for taking care of kids... Identifying your priorities and adjusting your goals based on current needs is understandable, especially when it's a well thought and analyzed decision. The moment the movie took a bad twist, I elbowed Shreyas, saying "Back-up!!! She needs a back-up!!"... One more reason why we need to encourage our kids to choose a career that they enjoy. At least they won't be this eager to give it up!!

Do you know what it means to miss new orleans?

2010-03-10T14:26:00.002-05:00

Courtesy Louis Armstrong:

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans
I miss it both night and day
I know that it's wrong... this feeling's gettin' stronger
The longer, I stay away
Miss them moss covered vines...the tall sugar pines
Where mockin' birds used to sing
And I'd like to see that lazy Mississippi...hurryin' into spring

The moonlight on the bayou.......a Creole tune.... that fills the air
I dream... of oleanders in June...and soon I'm wishin'that you were there

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans
And that's where I left my heart
And there's something more...I miss the one I care for
More than I miss New Orleans

The city sure has a hold on you...... I visited again after 2 years. It felt as if I had never left!! Everything was still so familiar, welcoming and friendly. Of course this time I visited some places that I had never been to before. First of all we decided to skip our favorite Marriott and stay at a Bed and Breakfast near French Quarter.... great decision!! Beautiful house, great food and a short lovely walk to the quarter. I have tons of pictures of St. Louis Cathedral from all possible angles, but went inside for the first time during this trip. It's a beautiful church that has Spanish architectural influence. Hadn't been to any so-called fine dining restaurants as a student before, so got that checked off my list this time making sure that the place had live Jazz music.... Although every third restaurant here has live music, it doesn't really have to be Jazz. To listen to some good Jazz you have to do a bit of research. Skipped Hookah lounge...ex-favorite!! But did not skip Lebanon's!!! Took a street car all the way to Uptown... That also allowed us to visit Tulane's campus and catch up with Ms. Toni and Anu... If I had planned this better, I would have actually been able to meet some more people on campus... can't believe I didn't stop to greet Ms. Jeannette in the library. The rain didn't help. Maybe next time!!! Lucky for Shreyas, we actually caught glimpse of a parade. Although not as great as a Mardi Gras parade, it was a good preview.. I am sure Shreyas won't mind visiting in February next year :-)

Can't believe

2010-03-05T07:33:00.003-05:00

Can't believe that I have become this person!!! Someone who doesn't want classes to be canceled because of bad weather and someone who plans work for the next week (which is Spring break) before the break begins..... Obviously I used to love canceled classes because of heavy rains back home when I was in school and college. I remember the first Spring break at Tulane.... I was at Universal Studios in LA (thanks to Karthik)..... The second year I went to India for Anu's wedding. During the third year I was sitting in my lab, scratching my head over some pointers that had decided not to cooperate at all and finally I called a friend to ask for help..... Vipin says to me on the phone, "You are coding???? I am at a parade"..That's when it dawned on me that it was Mardi Gras time!!!!! And that was the beginning of it I think!!! And then every year there was something or the other. Every time they say bad weather in Lawrenceville, I am thinking how am I going to rearrange my schedule to cover everything that I put in the syllabus??? And breaks have now become times to catch up with grading, reading papers, completing work in progress papers, new project meetings and whatever else I can fit in there..... Man!!! growing up sucks :-(

Web, privacy and law

2010-03-03T07:05:00.003-05:00

Recently, I asked my students if they had heard of linkedin.com. These students are freshmen and they all use Facebook, but they don't really use the web to their advantage. Anyways, when I asked the questions a student answered, "It is a website on which you have a profile that I found when I googled you".... I burst into laughter and so did everyone else. But later when I googled myself to see what showed up, I found that there were a couple of websites posting my information even though I hadn't created an account on them. These are the people finder kind of websites. With technologies like service oriented architecture, AJAX and what not, it's become easy to gather data from a number of websites and put it on yours.... But wait what about my privacy and legal rights??? Don't they say that data gathered for one purpose cannot be used for any other and data should not be accessible to people who don't work with it. So what has changed? How is this working? Just because you have the technology to pull my information from somewhere, doesn't mean you have the right to do that. Can someone suggest me a most recent reading on legal and privacy rights for the Web and Web ethics? Maybe my next research question is right here!!!!

Learning

2010-03-03T06:49:00.003-05:00

I have learned tons of things from many people in my life... But today I am remembering Amol. From him I learned, "Be happy, but not content". I think I need someone to push me a little more now :-). I am kinda getting comfortable with where I am, need to push myself out of my comfort zone...

Snowy Days

2010-02-14T11:46:00.002-05:00

It is not really supposed to snow here in Atlanta. But ever since I have been here it has snowed once a year.... And this year twice!!! This weekend we decided to get out of the house anyways and catch the Leonardo DaVinci moving exhibit at High Museum. The exhibit has been at the museum since November and will be gone next weekend. So we had to see it this weekend.... So we bundled up and tread carefully over the snow/ice on sidewalks to get to the museum. The exhibit was nice but small, I would have liked to see more. The streets were almost empty, trees, rooftops and cars were covered in snow and everything just looked beautiful. Maybe, because it's only once / twice a year!!

Mumbai konachi????

2010-02-14T11:28:00.002-05:00

Amol shared this interview of Uddhav Thackeray that was taken by ibnlive's Rajdeep Sardesai:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=286535984673&ref=mf

Here's my problem with this interview.... I totally agree with Sardesai's views.. Obviously!!!! But, dude... you are interviewing a politician. Do you really think you are going to get him to admit to anything on your nationally televised show???? And honestly who was interviewing whom?? Why would you get so emotional that you let your opponent control you... As Shreyas pointed out, Thackeray was of course avoiding answering any questions and was talking in tangents... and after some time Sardesai was doing the same too... When he couldn't get Thackeray to answer a question or admit to something, he was bringing up other issues... This is what I noticed from Larry King and others on CNN.... You give everyone a limited amount of footage and raise issues and make them uncomfortable (especially when you know they are not going to admit to anything). When you give them an hour to talk (like in this interview), it's just going back and forth and round and round on the same few issues without getting anywhere and loses any impact the interview could have had....

The first few minutes of this interview were great.. Sardesai was very straight forward.. I was surprised that he had the guts to say these things to a politician on national TV in India. But then it seemed pointless!!!! And that's when he should have ended it... Learn from Larry King, Wolf Blitzer and Campbell Brown.... Keep moving from issue to issue... You are a newsperson... raise the issues... Solving them is a long process and what you are doing is a good contribution...

Tezaab

2010-02-03T06:57:00.002-05:00

For some weird reason, last night I had this really strong urge to watch Tezaab.... I know, really weird!!!! maybe it was those shots of Anil Kapoor for "24"(as if I didn't hate 24 enough!!!). That just brought back so many memories.... ek, do, teen and sarvajanik ganeshotsav and school gatherings, N Chandra, his bachcha company and manali camp (that was the best camping trip ever!!! Unfortunately for the kids N Chandra had just directed Bekaabu with Sanjay Kapoor). It was the first filmi audio cassette that I got to buy, which played endlessly on our tape recorder (yeah...can't even call it an old music system!!!)..... The 80's and the school days... best time ever!!!!

Phir Mile Sur

2010-01-28T17:06:00.002-05:00

Just saw the video... Everyone is posting it on orkut and facebook, so I had to see what was so special about it.... OMG!!! Made me really angry and I was about to post my comments on youtube (which I would never ever do otherwise), scrolled down and realized, well many ppl share my sentiments and there are already so many comments that I didn't feel the need to add to it.

To summarize my views (if I can ever do that)..."Bollywood does not represent India". I used to be a huge fan and am still to some extent and if I ever go back to India will return to my old ways in no time, but still....seriously why do we always think of Bollywood to represent us? I was surprised to not see any cricket (or did I miss it??)... Not that cricket alone would have made me happy... Anyways, I guess we all agree that at least a few real life heroes would have made it a good video.

On the other hand what I would like to know from whoever created this video (I haven't done my homework, I don't know who it is..sorry!), what was their intention behind making (remaking) this video. Were they trying to send a message or just make some quick buck? I mean all that I saw there were brands, Bachchans, KJ, Priyanka Chopra, SRK..... If they just wanted to create a pop vdo then they did an excellent job... let's all just leave them alone. We all love money (don't deny it!!), they know how to make it. I just wish they hadn't picked this song for it.

Work Culture

2010-01-26T18:06:00.002-05:00

Today's Calvin and Hobbes...Hilarious! Work hard, have to work harder :-) On a more serious note why do we think it's normal to work 10-12 hours a day?? Or maybe even more?? When I was a student, I thought "Soon I will graduate"... and I did, but it didn't end the endless working hours..... Yes, contrary to what you may think about the teaching profession, we do put in as many hours as others. As our President puts it "we are not highly overpaid individuals who work 2 hours a day teaching 1 class". My colleague today apologetically told me that she did not do anything over the weekend. Ridiculous, right? Working on the weekends is an expectation? But I have seen people working in many different fields say the same. Here's some statistics that I got from our president's address... 70% of the people who apply for tenure do not get it. Isn't that crazy??? Are 70% of individuals who have a terminal degree in their field not good enough? What I am seeing around me is that what would have been considered a good portfolio for my advisor apparently is "an excellent job for a rookie". My interpretation.... You set the bar in your first year, you better raise it next year. Maybe should have set it a little lower, huh?

3 Idiots

2010-01-17T08:49:00.002-05:00

Loved it, loved it loved it!!! OK, I agree it was quite filmy.... I mean the delivery scene... really??? But it's a Rajkumar Hirani movie, what else should you expect??? Lots of clean entertainment and some nice touchy moments!!! I am sure we can ignore some filmy "coincidences" and filmy melodrama...

The theme was very close to my heart. Quite some time back I had posted something similar on my blog.... "Find out what you are passionate about and then find a way to make money out of it"!!! The only thing I wish people would stress that this is not easy. It is not that easy to get great opportunities when you chose a "not so chosen path"... I think this needs as much emphasis as "following your heart"!!!! I totally support "follow your heart", but I would also add "be prepared".

Good luck!!!

Can we do this??

2010-01-15T09:00:00.001-05:00

A student in my senior class made my day yesterday by saying this..... Seriously, after quite some time I have a student who said "we should do this in our project. It will help us!!!" The best thing I have heard on campus in a long time!!!

Excellent end to an amazing run

2010-01-09T15:52:00.002-05:00

The best year end so far.... ever!!! Our admin assistant emailed me before I left in December and wished me a wedding of my dreams... "May it be everything you wished for" were her exact words, which made me realize that I had not wished it to be anything!!! That's how I am about most things, usually the most important things. I always take them one step at a time... When I took GRE, I didn't think about what schools I wanted to apply to until I got my scores, when I left India I hadn't really planned exactly what I was going to do after landing in US... Similarly, I hadn't really thought about the wedding as such at all.... Maybe that made it so much fun... Since there were no expectations, there was no pressure and there was no disappointment. I perfectly enjoyed the time I spent with Anu (that was after a long time!!!! I was hardly there for her wedding!!!) and of course also with Swati and Sheetal Tai. I do hate to see my parents so stressed out, but I have learned that that's their way of making sure everything is perfect (and I mean, really perfect!!) and my intervention usually makes it worse for them.

I did imagine the D-Day to be slow and tiring though.... I thought it would be a long day!!! But it wasn't. It went by so quickly that I wished I had more time to meet with the guests. Well, I don't think that happens in anyone's wedding (in India).We love to invite everyone and feed them, even if we are too busy to talk to them :-)

Our next destination was Cancun and Shreyas couldn't have picked up a better place for our honeymoon than this. I am what I call an un-American traveler/vacationer. I like bang for my buck. When I travel I like to visit as many places as possible and do as many things as possible. So Europe is my kind of place, beaches are not.. or rather were not...... I can't just laze around on a beach and do nothing.... That's not my idea of a vacation. I like to be tired when I return from my vacation. Tired from site-seeing :-) So I was a little hesitant about Cancun.... unsure of what we could visit there!!! As I found out Cancun is an excellent place for any kind of vacationer. We did everything from lazing on the beach and getting a sun tan, to visiting Mayan ruins, clubbing, visiting an ecological park and watching traditional Mexican dances and equestrian shows.... 2009 couldn't have ended better and 2010 couldn't have begun better!!!!

Looking back at 2009 and beyond, this run was great; graduation (finally!!!), job (thank God no post docs!!), house (can't believe I met someone who agreed to live in a high-rise!!), wedding and vacations (he also loves to travel!!! and has a job that supports travel:-))..... I have checked quite a few things off my wish list. I thought wish lists had items that you wanted to do but couldn't do... I think I need to make a new wish list :-) for the new run that's just begun!!!

Wedding Shower @ GGC

2009-12-16T18:45:00.008-05:00

I was totally surprised (very pleasantly) when I found out that my colleagues were throwing me a wedding shower... I was even more surprised to see so many people at the event during the final week of the semester.. It was really nice of all of them to plan and attend this shower for me. Jam also baked a 3-tiered cake for me!!! Isn't it the most wonderful thing to do??? The top of that cake is now sitting in our freezer. Apparently we are supposed to eat that cake an year after the wedding, but I am not sure if we can wait for that long!!!

Well, the food was great, the conversations about weddings in different cultures were great, I was happy to answer all the questions about Indian weddings...... Oh! and did I mention that the gifts were great too ?? :-)

Wedding menu

2009-12-05T09:59:00.000-05:00

We were trying to decide our wedding menu this morning and after looking at the booklet for some time we decided to give up and let our parents decide.... We had no clue what most of the things on that menu were. What the heck is "Tawa Taka Tak" and how come "Italian Rasgulla" is a Bengali sweet dish???? What happened to plain old "Mattha" (spiced buttermilk)??? Oh!!! How much I love mattha.... But apparently just because we live in the US and don't eat all the food that ppl back home eat, doesn't mean that we can have "bharli vangi"... guests expect something more... anything but Maharashtrian!!! Along with the main course that includes 3 vegetables, 2 types of rotis, 2 desert dishes you can also pay more to have Italian counters, mexican counters, chaat counters and south Indian counters.... Why would I want to have pasta, tacos and paneer makhanwala all at the same time?? What kind of menu is that?? Apparently a very hit one.... We are so not doing it!!!

Are reality shows going too far??

2009-12-03T18:24:00.002-05:00

I have tons of things running in my head today... I am not thinking of anything else after a long time!!! Anyways, talking about reality shows... From watching a man fishing on an island alone on CBS's Survivor to _________ on _________ (just plug in any stupid reality show on any ntework!!) reality shows have become worse and people have gone crazy!!! Seriously crazy... The crazy participants on American Idol, who know they have no chance of being on the show, but yet don't mind making a fool of themselves on national television to get on national television to the stupid balloon boy parents and the really gutsy White House party crashers, these people are not just stupid but also dangerous... I mean come on.... what will these people do next to be on TV???

The same show (Real Housewives of...) that the Salahis are trying to get into is based in quite a few cities. I saw an episode of the Real Housewives of Atlanta and was totally shocked... Without going into details, let me just tell you that the cameras were in this couple's bathroom, when they were enjoying their romantic evening in their hot tub.... Eeeeeksss...right? This show is about rich women.... So, you are on the show because you are rich.. How much more money can you make by letting the entire nation watch your husband give you a massage and a bubble bath????

Maybe a solution is to switch back to limited programming..... Maybe the networks no longer know what to do with 24 hours of programming time?? How many good ideas can you have right??

Why have women broken glass ceilings in smaller nations???

2009-12-03T17:48:00.002-05:00

I was watching Shashi Tharoor's speech at TED conference on India's soft power (Video). He said in India, a nation of 81% "Hindus", a "woman" of "Italian" origin and "Catholic" was chosen by majority to lead the nation. She then made way for a "Sikh" man to be sworn in as the prime minister by a "Muslim" president. As compared to a nation like US that took 200 years to elect an African-American as their President and have yet to see a female President. And really if you think about it, the smaller, poorer nations that we say are way behind developed countries like US have had female prime ministers. So how come these women in countries that are still "developing" were able to break the glass ceiling (List of women prime ministers)??? And what is stopping women in USA??

Is it double standards?? In a nation that has almost 50% divorce rate (divorce rates in America), divorced candidates don't stand a good chance in elections... People say that the only reason Hillary Clinton never left Bill Clinton inspite of the Monica Lewinsky affair was because she wanted to contest the Presidential elections and the idea of a divorced President is apparently not the best image a candidate can portray...

Also, another point to think about is what do you need to achieve that level of success in a country like India... With all due respect to Indira Gandhi (she was a fabulous woman, a very strong personality), would she have been able to break the glass ceiling had she not belonged to the Nehru dynasty? If she was the same strong, smart woman, but came from the same background as Obama, would she have been the prime minister of India in 70s? Same about Benazir Bhutto? I don't know anything about Kumartunga (Sri Lanka) and Hasina Wajed (Bangladesh), so can't say much. And this is not to discredit these women. I am just trying to see if I can find an explanation.

Women everywhere have made tremendous progress and achieved a lot, but why do the Condolezzas and Hillarys stop at Secretary of State position and not be the Commander-in-Chief?

Thanksgiving 09

2009-12-03T09:03:00.003-05:00

Wow.... We hosted 5 adults and 2 kids in our tiny little condo this Thanksgiving. Cooked lots of food....(I had to stuff them all so that everyone looks heavier than me at the wedding ;-)). It was an amazing weekend (with gifts and all!!!)... Did quite a few touristy things and laying around at house too.... Reminded me of the days when we were kids and had family functions... It used to be so much fun!! We even played Judgment... just like Ganesh Chaturthi @ Thane.. Can't believe we already had our family union here... Before this it was always with friends and no matter how much fun that is, it's not the same as spending time with family members...

Really hoping that this will end up being an annual ritual!!! And did I mention that I still can't stop smiling when I remember Amol serving himself "dal" on my "citrus rice salad" instead of the dressing!!!!! (Sorry dude!! I had to mention it :-))

To more Maggiano dinners :-)

Coffee... My Love.. I missed you!!!

2009-11-19T15:11:00.002-05:00

:-) Ever since we moved I have been trying to get most sleep and get to school as early as possible.... Meaning, I get up, get ready, pick up my bags and leave, drive @ 80 mph (I know I shouldn't be doing that), just so that I can sleep until 6 'o clock and still be at school before 8 am!!! Which means I skip my coffee and I hate the coffee at school and hate the idea of just rinsing my coffee cup without soap (that too in the washroom...eekss!!!) So anyways, I have been missing my coffee.... Finally after quite some time I got to work from home and could finally enjoy my morning coffee on a weekday!!!! Love the feeling.

I think just the fact that I can't have coffee, makes me want it so much!!! That's soooo me.....

Reminds me of that hallmark coffee cup which says "coffee, men and chocolates..." and when you add a hot beverage to it, it says "some things are better when they are richer"!!! I used to love that cup!!!

Rock climbing

2009-11-16T13:33:00.002-05:00

Last Thursday I went for indoor rock climbing and had loads of fun.... It was my first time doing it with a belayer and all. I once did it before in California with Anu and Amol.... But there was no belayer and it was all free-hand (free-fall rather!!!). It was a great experience, I managed to conquer 5 walls, 1 with some difficulty. Just when I was about to leave I thought I should give this one more shot and well... I managed to reach the top!!!!! Great feeling... I always need something difficult to keep me going.... I think I am going to be a regular with this group.... It's weird how we can surprise ourselves sometimes!!! I didn't think I would be able to conquer that wall and moreover that didn't bother me either.. I just thot I would try harder next time... Hmmm!!! Reminds me of that quote (right before this post!!!).... fits so well :-)

One more quote

2009-11-09T14:47:00.003-05:00

Another interesting quote that I read on twitter....

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. -- Thomas Edison.

So true!!!

Ziplining adventure

2009-11-07T18:26:00.003-05:00

This was the best thing I have ever done so far!!! That's what I thought when I went skydiving too... :-) Anyways, ziplining was great... Although Shreyas and I were s*** scared, we had tons of fun... Ziplining is basically gliding through tree tunnels with the aid of ropes/ziplines. These high speed zip lines were 1000 ft long and we were at a height of 200 ft... The scariest part was jumping off. Once you did that, the rest was an amazing experience and a beautiful scenery to enjoy... Although I was a bit too short and a bit too light.... A little more weight would have been fantastic :-)

Election

2009-11-05T08:24:00.003-05:00

It's been an year since Obama won the presidential race and I am sure many of you have seen the HBO movie Election By the People that was premiered recently... I saw the movie yesterday.. thank God for DVR!!! What would we do without it?? Anyways, I had followed the election very closely last year on CNN, but this movie was really an inside edition :-) An amazing campaign and very highly motivated people.... There was an old couple campaigning for him in Iowa who said that the last time they had done this was in the 60's for Bobby Kennedy..... For the sake of all those people who believed in him so strongly, I sincerely hope he delivers!!!!

Today's Quote

2009-10-27T11:38:00.000-04:00

Read this inspiring quote on twitter:

It's not the will to win,
but the will to prepare to win that makes the difference.

-- Paul Bryant

Food sucks @ cafe

2009-10-27T11:31:00.003-04:00

I try very hard to get lunch from home, but sometimes it's not possible.... Yesterday was one of those days, when I decided to pack lunch and realized there was no rice!!! So I had to go to the campus cafe for lunch.... Why does food at every campus cafe have to suck??? I have no clue... Well, of course, the only exception being Tulane :-)

If the soup at the cafe had anymore water in it it would have to be classified as water and not soup.... Also, the sandwich he gave me was a tiny little veggie one on a bagel!!!! I never imagined that I could be left hungry after what was supposed to be a full lunch..... I am sorry, but why are they serving lunch sandwiches on bagels??? Didn't we all agree that bagels were for breakfast??? when did that change???

I guess I need to stick more to home cooked food, for the sake of my health and mental peace :-) Well, and of course for the sake of my palette too :-)

Cosmopolitan

2009-10-25T09:11:00.002-04:00

The red drink that Carrie Bradshaw made popular was my favorite for quite some time. Somewhere down the line I switched my loyalties to red wine. Last nite I had cosmo after a really long time... The last time I had cosmo was 2 years back. And it was interesting. It was my 28th bday and we were at Karthik's wedding in LA. We decided to go to a sports bar first and then to watch Dhoom 2..... Long story short, I ended up having 2 cosmos just so that the waitress could get a good tip.... really stupid!!! Never had another cosmo after that :-) 2 drinks is not my thing!!!! Anyways, last nite's cosmo was good.... the movie was better!!! Certainly recommend New York I Love You!!!

You look like...

2009-10-20T19:50:00.002-04:00

Charlie's mom: You look like my fifth husband
Man: How many times have you been married?
Charlie's mom: Four

(.... and they both smile!!!)

--- Two and a Half Men

Diwali Weekend

2009-10-20T16:00:00.004-04:00

Diwali weekend was great... We got most of our house set up, went to the temple and had some good dinner with some friends. Although I do feel bad that I didn't have enough time to get the rangoli done, inspite of the fact that I bought rangoli and some colors from India when I visited last time. But I guess, that's OK... Gotta get my priorities right :-) have to find another occasion for the rangoli. btw, did I mention that I also managed to get a gift? :-)

How unkempt is really unkempt???

2009-10-13T18:06:00.003-04:00

I am kind of an order freak.... Everything in the house has to have a place and everything has to be in it's place.... Stuff has to be done as soon as it needs to be done. When I was living by myself I used to always wonder, how come people are always busy? don't have time to do anything?? I was doing a lot of stuff, working during and after work hours and on weekends, cooking, cleaning, trekking, watching movies and what not..... I was always volunteering for weekend on-campus activities... Whenever I visited Anu's place I would tease her about the dishes in her kitchen sink (and they would tease me about coming over to clean them :-)).... But as I realize now.... you can actually get busy!!! As I believed it's not bad time management :-) I have boxes lying all around the place.... One of the bedrooms is totally useless because the opened and flattened boxes are still lying there. The plastic bags separated for recycling have been lying around for a couple of weeks now... And I run the dishwasher a couple of times during the weekend!!!!! AND I am behind on grading, I haven't started my background research for next project and I am not doing the weekend open house on campus anymore... well, actually I am not complaining about the last one!!!

Sometimes I wonder if I am giving up on my "good" habits :-) But not really.....I am just picking my preferences/priorities..... Maybe it's not necessary to unpack all your boxes the exact weekend that you move... It's a hard idea to get used to, but I think I will get used to it :-)

Has our sense of privacy changed?

2009-10-13T09:42:00.003-04:00

I read someone's status on Facebook and was wondering if our sense of privacy (or at least of those facebooking and tweeting) has changed? It was really personal.. I don't even want to repeat it here!!! Or is it just me??? Is it just a generation thing? I mean my status usually says what I am cooking or which movie I am watching, etc... If my parents read that, would they feel the same way?

I was having lunch with a group of friends a few weeks back and one of them said that people who update their status are looking for attention... "how much attention do you need?" was her exact question. Although, never before had I thought about tweeting or facebooking as demanding attention, maybe that's what it is.... Is this generation vying for attention? I don't know. Or the other point of view could be that we just have these venues that we are now used to, it seems to be a part of our life and there is nothing weird about posting weird stuff on your profile :-)

Michael Moore's Capitalism

2009-10-12T09:45:00.004-04:00

On Friday we decided to watch Michael Moore's new movie, Capitalism... Luckily, we found a Landmark theater... not a single preview was for a big studio movie.... These theaters apparently screen off-beat movies (One more thing that I learned from Shreyas!!).

Anyways, Capitalism was a good movie... I was comparing it with things in India. How we keep cribbing about corruption, reservation and what not, but never really do anything about it... When I saw one the Congress persons actually asking people who had lost their homes to stay put in their homes, because no one was going to be able to link their name to the mortgage, I thought.... well, at least somebody cares enough..... The same with communities of home owners that forced their way into their homes and communities of workers that refused to leave without proper compensation..... Obviously, unless we care enough for ourselves, why will anyone else???

Of course, not everything is hunky dory either..... Greed is rampant.... The lenders who sold those bad loans, and people who bought into the idea.... One of my colleagues bought a house during the real estate boom when ARM mortage rates were really low... But he was smart (AND not greedy!!!)... he went for a fixed loan... so he still has his house!! Can't blame someone else all the time, can we?? I remember how much our real estate agent kept pushing us to pick his mortgage lender during our due diligence period, saying we had very little time.... Eventually he said.. "Wow!! You guys did a good job!"

All in all, I liked the movie.... I do believe that it was biased, though... Yes, we need someone to represent the middle class, but we also need someone to point out both sides of the coin. Unless we know what mistakes people made, how can we learn from them?? Yes... People lost houses, but what was their role in it??

What's the big deal about Sarah Palin anyways???

2009-10-07T19:42:00.002-04:00

So everyone is talking about the much anticipated Sarah Palin's memoirs....It is a best seller on NY Times' list and it isn't even published yet...... I mean, come on!!! What has she achieved so far??? I agree being the governor of a state and a vice presidential candidate is no small feat... but everyone knows McCain's reasons for picking a female candidate. I think she managed to make a complete fool of herself during the elections and then blamed the media for being harsh on her. Well, she was running for the second top most position in the country, what did she expect???

Apparently the book, titled "Going Rogue: An American Life" was supposed to be 800 pages and to be published in Spring, but it is now being published in Christmas and is only half the size.... Cash in on the frenzy!!!! Stay in news!!! Show me the money!!!!

One of the articles that I read posed a great question.... Who will push the sales of this book over the roof??? Palin lovers?? Or Palin haters??? As far as she and the publishers are concerned, I don't think that matters.... In today's age publicity is publicity...it's not good or bad...

Tony Horton

2009-10-06T19:33:00.004-04:00

Someone at Tulane introduced me to Beach Body and Tony Horton.... Now don't focus on the name and conclude its one of those cheesy exercise videos targeted to fool people. Tony Horton is really good.... I started with his P90X series and realized it was impossible for me to follow him... I was tired after the 10 minute warm up... the entire workout session was at least 45 mins :-) Then I switched to his Plyo... It was much better.... P90X was like a PhD program, while Plyo was a Master's program :-)

Anyways, I went to the gym today and found that all the cardio machines were taken. So I went to the yoga room to do some ab exercises. Within 2 mins, 2 guys walked in and popped a DVD in the TV/DVD player unit. I saw P90X and I exclaimed!!!! Tony Horton!!! The guys asked me if I wanted to join them.... And I said why not.... It was a 10 minute ab workout (that I had avoided when I used to do Tony Horton workouts) and I remembered why I gave up on P90X in the first place... I still have my Plyo DVDs... I think I need to start using them again!!!

Thanks to Tony Horton, I made some new friends today and thanks to them, I might actually get back to my Plyo routine...

Irregular blogging

2009-10-02T11:28:00.002-04:00

I am putting all the blame on Facebook and twitter... Earlier i would blog every time I thought of something. these days I just shorten it and post on twitter or Facebook. Plus we have also been busy packing, moving and unpacking stuff... I know!!! It feels like we have been doing this forever and it's still incomplete. I think I will never be satisfied...

But maybe this is what I need to do... Work with what I already have and take some nice pictures and post them on my blog.... Add to that walking in the neighborhood and taking some more pics to post. I am sure Shreyas is going to love it!!!!

Yes!!! I now have a "To Do" (just in case you didn't know... I am the list lady :-))

New Home

2009-09-10T11:13:00.002-04:00

So... our move did not go as planned.. But what the heck!!! We still moved in our new home and are living there, enjoying every minute of it!!! Whenever I told people that we were buying a condo, everyone seemed to have just one question.. why a condo? why not a house?? esplly in India... Not sure what the attraction towards bungalows is!!! Never got it... Ever since I was a child, skyscrapers (high-rises, for Americans :-)) always fascinated me and I always wanted to live in one. That is probably the reason why I love our Thane home so much more than our Dombivli home, even though I lived there for only an year.

It's an interesting coincidence that the topic for my TOEFL essay was Apartments vs. Homes..... not kidding!!!

Anyways, right now we are loving the weekend walks at Piedmont Park, enjoying the view of Atlanta's skyline as we have our morning breakfast and coffee and evening chai and snacks in our balcony (and at all other times from every room!!!). Can't wait to get High museum membership and watch a play at one of the few theaters here.. and explore the restaurants and cafes.... I hope it doesn't get too cold too soon !!!!

Montego Bay, Jamaica

2009-09-02T08:00:00.003-04:00

If you want to save time you should take a flight to go from Kingston to Montego Bay. But if you want to experience the country, a bus ride from Kingston to MB also works great!! The ride constantly reminded me of home (in India)..... Shreyas said he had never been to a country that is poor and not his home... neither had I. So this was a different experience. Moreover since the climate is so similar, the vegetation is also the same. I was exhilarated at the site of sitafal in a small stall on the road that was similar to the ghats between Mumbai and Pune. And of course the Gulmohar tree!!! Gosh!! It's been ages since I had seen one...

MB was pretty much a touristy place with beaches, restaurants (that served average food for above avg price) and quite some stuff to do. We avoided the beaches and water sports (you can do them in Florida here!!!) and went for bamboo rafting on a river instead. Extremely serene and relaxing. Obviously had to do some shopping. I had to buy my fridge magnet and Shreyas had to buy his shot glasses (can't forget our collections!!!). In the evening we went for a boat ride in what is called the Luminous Lagoon. The microorganisms in this water emit light when disturbed. As people from our boat jumped into the river to swim, we could see the water glowing as if there were fluorescent lights in the water... That was an amazing experience!!!!

Like all good things, this had to end :-(. But, hey!!! If you want to plan a trip to Jamaica, let us know if you need help... I think we did too much research for such a short trip :-) Well, at least I am getting closer to checking items off my wishlist :-)!!!!

Jamaica

2009-08-28T13:05:00.004-04:00

This year seems to be good for me (that phase is going to end soon though, have been maintaining a low profile at work)... Luckily for us, Shreyas got a teeny weeny project at Jamaica and we got to enjoy a weekend here... It is almost as if the need arose only so that we could visit :-) Anyways, the experience at immigration was similar to Mumbai... the heat, the long lines... the only difference being that the # of passengers at Mumbai is huge as compared to this place. This just seemed inefficient to me. The cabbie was real nice giving me a quick tour of the place and pointing out places of interest... We decided to try some authentic cuisine and more than the food what stayed with us was the cocktail!!! All drinks on the menu had rum and these were really strong drinks!!! I have never tasted so much rum in a drink before. As a matter of fact all the fruity cocktails that I have had so far are so mild, that I would have probably not even been able to identify rum :-) :-)

Anyways, off to Montego Bay today... More to come soon!!!

Ghajini

2009-08-13T04:35:00.002-04:00

This was my in-flight movie and the first Aamir Khan movie that I had not seen (and was not keen on watching). I was actually in India when the movie released 6 months back, but somehow didn't feel like watching it. Now that I have seen it I am totally disappointed. It's an exact, frame-to-frame copy of the original Ghajini. Aamir Khan as the handsome, sophisticated business tycoon was great, but Aamir Khan as the angry protagonist was a total disappointment. I never thought I would say this, but Surya was much better (I remember a friend saying "You are actually watching a movie where the hero's name is "Surya" ?"). I saw the original almost 3 years back during Katrina, so I don't exactly remember if the admiration for Surya was because of his performance in Ghajini or was it a leftover adulation from "Kaaka Kaaka" (This one's really worth watching... I swear!!)... Either ways the Hindi version was nowhere close to the original even though it was an exact remake.... I think I am just past the age where the chocolate boy looks were enough.... Even Aamir Khan's 8 pack abs didn't do the trick for me.

Why I Recommend मी शिवाजीराजे भोसले बोलतोय

2009-08-11T18:21:00.002-04:00

So I saw this movie with my cousins back home and recommend it to every Marathi speaking Maharashtrian.... It does have a protagonist who preaches more than I prefer, but the message is something I really believe in. I love the part where Shivaji Raje says: Don't blame outsiders for your bad situation. You are responsible for your stunted growth....

This reminds me of an incident at Louisiana Tech. One of my acquaintances (who was from north) once complained that all our Indian Association functions had tons of Telugu performances and none in Hindi. That was his reason for boycotting the functions, after all it was Indian Association not Telugu Association. I asked him why hadn't he ever participated in any of the events, choreographed or directed a performance or performed himself? That way we could have Hindi performances. If the non-Telugu speaking population was not going to participate, how can they blame others for doing what they like to do? I did make my point successfully, because the next thing I received was an invitation to Diwali function by a new club/association. Of course, that was not my point.... A new association, that invited selected students to a function and excluded others was not something I thought would happen. The point was if you want something stop complaining and blaming others and do something about it. Well, he did something about it, but not really the right thing in my opinion.

Anyways, if you are a Maharashtrian (Marathi speaking) and hate the Thacks politics, I think you will like this movie.

To Be or Not To Be?

2009-07-27T08:03:00.004-04:00

Year: 1996

Location: Kirti Group Tuitions, Dombivli (E)

Scene: I was in the 12th grade and was going to Pabrekar Sir for PCMB tuitions. One day after class he was talking to all the girls in my class, a real small number and said something like: Don't let guys distract you... चांगला शिका, मुलांची लाइन लागेल :-) Nothing extraordinary.... Being pushed for good grades and education was nothing new to me..... It was present everywhere, except at home (lucky me..... everybody should have my parents!!!!). I ddin't need him to tell me about guys!

Year: 2009

Location: Somewhere in Andheri

Scene: My cousin and I were talking and she mentioned a sister-in-law who was past the average age of marriage (among Maharashtrians), worked in IT, drew a very good salary, did not have a boyfriend and was trying for an arranged marriage. Following are the "responses" she got:

Guy: I don't want a girl who earns more than I do.
Guy's mom: We don't want a girl from IT. They have weird working hours. We don't want to spend the rest of our lives raising their children.

When she told me this, I couldn't stop thinking about Pabrekar Sir.... Maybe I should go back and visit him :-) Today's urban, highly educated males and their educated (if not highly) parents!!!! I was really surprised that the demands are getting so specific... It used to be "tall, fair, slim", then we added "working and homely", and now the addition is "good salary, but not weird working hours or should not earn more than the guy"..... Unbelievable!!!! So what's the solution for a gal like her who was always told that "concentrate on your education, don't let guys distract you, they will follow a good degree and a good job." ?

Customer service in India

2009-07-25T19:18:00.003-04:00

I went to a saree shop yesterday, a fancy saree store in a mostly gujju neighborhood, I would guess owned by a gujju.... The moment we went in and sat down and spoke in Marathi, the guy understood almost everything about our needs.... Like he was a mindreader :-) He showed us sarees in a wide range (cost-based), but not a single saree was out of our budget. 4 women were sitting right next to us and he was showing them sarees that cost 4 times more than what I was checking out.. Needeless to say they were all speaking in Gujarati :-) The guy knew I was going to buy only 1 saree, he still made me shortlist around 15 (we were tired, but he did not want to give up.... It's usually the other way around... You have to keep asking for more designs and styles!!!). He draped more than 10 sarees on me and then finally when I could not select one from the final 2 shortlisted, he called another salesman and they both literally draped the sarees around them so I could get a better idea. It was the best shopping experience ever... I think it was customer service at its best!!!