Deja Vu on Deja Vu??? In the past few months ...

Randomly wandered onto this blog and the last post brought a sense of Deja Vu of Deja Vu all over again ... its been almost 3 years since the last post but I could have written it the day after it would more or less be the same.

In the past 4 months

1. We have relocated countries continents - again

2. Found a school for Saara in Chengdu Bangkok. Also found one for Sanjna … yep she’s in Kindergarten already

3. Got onboard the sick-cycle of flu/cold/pneumonia etc.

4. Saara turned one 6 (almost 7) and Sanjna is three!

5. Unpacked a lot of boxes (still work in progress)

6. Setup the apartment (almost done!) Put the pictures up yesterday!

7. Got wheels (kinda - a Buick mini-van Toyota Fortuner SUV :P but its standard issue and comes with a driver)

8. Both have started work ... in full swing! Met PuPr

...

and I wonder why everything is a blur!

So if I haven't been active here/on fB/e-mail/phone etc. ... you know why :)

It’s been a busy past 3 years

- Got a lot closer with dear friends. Made new friends. Lotsof trips to India and here and there in south asia

- Visited the Taj – finally! Also visited the Great Wall of China, Terracotta warriors in Xia and Angkor Wat!

- Hosted families in Chengdu ... all of them :)

- Stopped using the Nikon-D90 and am on the Sony RX series cameras. (RX10 and RX100)

Deja Vu??? In the past few months ...

Randomly wandered onto this blog and the last post brought a sense of Deja Vu all over again ... its been 3 years since this last post but I could have written it yesterday and it would more or less be the same.

In the past 4 months
1. We have relocated continents - again
2. Found dayCare  a school for Saara in Chengdu
4. Got onboard the sick-cycle of flu/cold/pneumonia etc.
5. Saara turned one Sanjna is almost one
6. Getting Ready to Unpack a lot of boxes (still work in progress)
7. Setup the apartment (almost done!)
8. Got wheels (kinda - a Buick mini-van :P but its standard issue and comes with a driver)
9. Had an awesome birthday party for Saara in the company of good friends (more on that later)
10. Started work ... in full swing! - with travel and all! got to meet you Sujith :)
...
and I wonder why everything is a blur!
So if I haven't been active here/on fB/e-mail/phone etc. ... you know why :)

Its been a busy past 3 years
- Sanju arrived
- Got a lot closer with dear friends. Made new friends
- Hosted families in Houston ... all of them :)
- Took family shots in a studio (a month before we moved!)
- Bought a house in Houston, bought cars, setup the house, sold cars, sold house.

In the last month

1. We relocated continents ... moved from summer to winter overnight!!
2. Helped a dear friend relocate from US to Japan ... sigh ... we miss you D&P
3. Found dayCare for Saara
4. Got onboard the sick-cycle of flu/cold/pneumonia etc.
5. Saara turned one
6. Unpacked a lot of boxes (still work in progress)
7. Setup the apartment (almost done!)
8. Got wheels
9. Had an awesome birthday party for Saara in the company of good friends (more on that later)
10. Started work ... in full swing! - with travel and all! got to meet you Sujith :)
...
and I wonder why everything is a blur!
So if I haven't been active here/on fB/e-mail/phone etc. ... you know why :)

Atlas Shrugged

finally finished reading this ... ya ya I know - 15 years too late .... bummer! ... but I preferred music over books when I was a teenager - so sue me!
yanni-ways getting back to the book - first off - I was not overly impressed. Nothing wrong with the message - loved it in fact ... but the story telling was too bloody detailed ... almost a screenplay plus background score and then some more - detailing the position of hair on the faces of the characters ... a bit too much for my fancy and lack of time - probably should have read it 15 years ago when time was not such a commodity!!!

Loved the message - thought-inviting perspective on socialism and the flaws in that theory ... as it is I was a confused capita-socialist, for the sake of coining a term, and now I'm just more capitalist I guess ... or at least I think I see more clearly, the problems with socialism - the spread of laziness, corruption, lack of productivity etc. etc. ... things you see in a typical government organization or in 3rd world countries like Angola where ability is not the only criteria that justifies your compensation.

I agree to a certain extent with Rand's philosophy that productive achievement is man's greatest achievement ... but the world today is not driven by producers - it is driven by traders, stock brokers, hedge fund managers and the likes ... people who really do not produce anything but somehow "assist" in production ... sure they "assist" - but should they be in charge because of that???
I'm not so sure and I think something is wrong with this monopoly of the trading system, that have all so conveniently accepted and adopted.
Then again - not all of us have the same capacity or support system to produce as per abilities ... oh well ... I guess a blend is what's required ... but then again a blend is just that - a dilution of sorts.

hmm ... points to ponder and reponder ... and while deliberating on all this I lopped up Five point Someone by Chetan Bhagat - super read but more on that later.

img courtesy http://en.wikipedia.org/

What would you do with a Time Machine?

Quick. What would be the first thing you do if you got access to a time machine?

Was in an aimless conversation on FB and the Time Machine thing came up - and
- N mentioned that he would go back and change his 3rd Semester KT results! LOL
- U mentioned that he would convince Newton to sit under a Coconut tree instead of an Apple tree
.
me? ... well first thing that came to my mind (if I can not change anything)
I would like to go back to the 3 days of Woodstock 1969. (Tough tie with witnessing the Creation of Life but given the time contstraints, Music quickly won)

What would you do? first thing. from the top of your head.

I'm Sorry Saara that You are an Iyer

summer of 21XX
Saara "But Papa I scored the most points"
Me "I know"
Saara "Then how come I'm not 1st"
Me "Because of your Caste dear"
Saara "Caste?? or Class??"
Me "I honestly don't know dear ... just know that you can never be 1st as long as folks from the other class/caste score at least 70%"
Saara "So my performance is going to be judged depending upon the underperformance of others??? - that doesn't make sense Papa"
Me "Yes ... it wasn't like that before dear but ..."
Saara "Then why don't they create two of everything (Schools, Companies etc.) one for each Caste/Class ?"
Me "I don't know da ... but thats how the Indian Government functions ... I guess your Mom and I had it easier than you ..."
Saara "But that is stupid Governance ... we won't be competent with the rest of the world"
Me "Look - there is a fish flying outside the window - go ask Mamma about that"

...sigh.

If it wasn't bad enough that the IIT's lowered their JEE admission bar for SC/ST sudents - according to this new SC ruling, they can not expel them for under-performance!!!!
If someone had told this to me a couple of hours ago I would have said "Ya right" ... and walked away ... and now I just can't believe what I am reading.
Somebody please pinch me and tell me that this is not happening!

I know my conversation with Saara may seem a tad unrealistic ... but judging by what is happening around - who's to say!

I'm just glad that when I went to school - if someone failed to make it , they pretty much failed to make it ... caste/creed/c* no bar!
A simple performance based system.
Is it that difficult? no really. is it that difficult?

I wonder what kind of future is coming to India ... but since I am not doing anything about the messy Governance (except rant on my blog like a wuss) ... I guess I will just stop now. and pray for some common-sense.

The Pope fell down and broke his arm

He broke his wrist actually. I guess even the Holy Ones are not beyond "normal person/ye sinners" accidents ...

Can you imagine how hard it is going to be for all 'em collective Holiness'es to justify themselves the day the first Green Men show up on our planet from outer space ... yes I'm talking about "aliens" - oo oo oooooh!

Can you imagine the Divine Conundrum ... of explaining how *ALMOST ALL* the holy scriptures conveniently omit all of God's grand plans outside of this tiny Planet ... and of course the conveniently accepted fact that every act of God, child of God, messenger of God or even God person himself/herself is based on a physical location on Earth or above it ... be it the holy land, some mountain in the Himalayan range or some rock on our Blue Planet ... all conveniently within geographical constraints!!

Boy I simply can not wait for the Green Men to show up ... that will be the day I tell you ... that will be the day ...
and my chance to tell all y'all "I told you so"!

for now I will simply refrain from all shubh activities until the solar eclipse season is over ... bad times you know ... See!!! even the Pope got hurt!


Disclaimer: Before you sign off on that fatwa, please remember that I DO believe in God in the general sense ... but not in any specific form/size/shape/color/location/ethnicity/religious orientation!

Less than 7%

According to this article, less than 7% of the Indian population is registered to pay income tax! No wonder our infrastructure is crumbling - we're not paying enough taxes!!!and since we are a democracy and all that we really have no one to blame but me and you ... and you too!
Get off the roads the rest of you ... that's 1.1 billion of you!!!
7%!!!!!!!!!!!!! ... un-friggin-believable!!!

Agreed that a huge percent of the populace is below the poverty line - but even if I peg that number at 43% of India, that means about 50% of India is just getting a free ride. that's 500 MILLION people . The 7% is basically supporting an whole extra country plus 3 European nations ... food, water, electricity, roads and all that jazz ... just like that.
... and then we dream of becoming the next super-power! hah!
disgusting. depressing.

Nandan ... Please come thru with the project for the future of India.