Here at the eve of my week “off” I am floating above the world at an altitude of 10,000 feet, speeding away back to my home in Sunnyvale. Has it been a good week? Experts would agree–yes. Here is a short recap for you.
On Friday, September 8th, I landed at Midway in Chicago at around 11pm and boarded a train on the orange line heading towards my sister’s place on the northside of Chicago. The train ride took about an hour or so. It was not a problem at all (even with my bags and all), as at that time of the night, Chicago trains are pretty empty. At Dhen & Mitesh’s place, I met up with Ami and Avni who had also come down from Cleveland to join our fun. Before I took this trip, I had been extremely busy at Yahoo, working on our guides redesign project. It was great to see all of them and plan for some rest (and fun). Unfortunately, we had more of the fun and less of the rest, which truthfully was quite alright with me
We stayed up quite late on Friday night, and even watched a p art of before finally falling asleep. The next day we were going to see the Sonu Nigam show with Mom, Dad, Kaka, Kaki, Nilesh Uncle, Naina Aunty, Rubin & Amit. We woke up really late the next day, but that was OK as our parents also got to Dhen’s place quite late. They had to make some other stops in Chicago along the way. We all got ready and piled up in our Safari to make our way to the show. It was quite a party piling up in the Safari…but we made it safely.
“Simply Sonu” in Chicago
The Sonu Nigam show was a lot of fun. I had never before seen an Indian singer “concert” like this one. The few things of note were:
Sonu Nigam looked like a complete idiot in what he was wearing.
Though he did sing quite well. I was surprised.
His opening act was also pretty good…but I forgot her name, something Rao.
Most of the songs he sung sound better on the CD than Live.
I wonder how long his whole crew had to practice all those songs and dances that they played. They did a pretty good job of being in sync with each other. I was probably more impressed with the production of the thing, than the actually performances (which I kind of expected).
The next day after the concert, we were all pretty tired. We got up and soon went to Devon street to do some Indian shopping and have lunch. We ate at some restaurant called Tiffin’s which had a buffet–the food wasn’t so great.
Ethiopian Food
Later that day, after everyone had basically left (Mom, Dad and all of them were driving back to Owensboro), it was only Dhenu, Mitesh and I hanging out. We had picked up my rental car at Midway, and got a bit lost driving back, so when we got back, we didn’t have much time for dinner before I needed to drive to Champaign. Mitesh and Dhenu suggested we go to this Ethiopian place to eat. I had of course never eaten Ethiopian food, and so I was very surprised at how good it was. It was very very tasty, filly and indiany food. I would definitely like to go again sometime!
After filling up on food and enjoying our chats, I left Chicago for University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.
Recruting, Talking, Work, Dinners & more
My visit back to my Alma Mater University of Illinois was splendid. Though it wasn’t much like a vacation, as I was working during most of my free time. However, the part of recruiting for Yahoo, launching University Hack Day, meeting with friends and professors & giving talks was great. A few things I learned were:
It is very tiring to stand somewhere talking all day. I have much more respect for any profession that requires you to do that.
Parking is a pain in the ass on college campuses. I guess I already knew this one, but I had forgotten.
I liked the rental Hyundai Sonata I was driving. I had a pretty low view of Hyundai’s before this experience.
I could remember just a few years ago I was the one trying to impress the recruitiers on campus. I wish I knew what I know now about how to do that most effectively.
One of the evenings I took a drive around Champaign and visited all the places I lived and worked on campus. Very memorable!
A thought about hotels
I stayed at Holiday Inn in Champaign. Although this was a fine hotel, with really nothing wrong, I felt there was something missing. The last few hotels I had stayed at were pretty luxurious hotels (4 star +) and I had kind of gotten used to this extra luxury thing. I don’t know what it was but I felt a bit weird, and I suddenly got what luxury means. Many times normal people gawk at those who require “luxury” in their life. I suddenly “got” how one could get “used” to luxury. It has nothing to do with being frivilous or outlandish. Rather it is just that our bodies easily get used to something, and so our standards change. This may not mean much to you, but it certainly helped me put luxury into perspective.
Lucky to be in Kentucky
“Oh I really need this. Coming home is such a pleasure…erasing all these hours and years–they pass by, wrinkles cut into the faces of your friends you’ve know for years and as they pass by you wonder, is it all a dream or has it just begun?” - Dave Matthews Band Two Step 4-21-2001
This is one of my favorite startings to the live version of one of my favorite songs–it captures well how it feels to go back home. I was only at home for a day but it was really great. The drive down from my college to home–a drive I had made many times before–was a somber yet sweet reminder that there are still places in the world that is not bustling, hustling and constantly changing. I reached home very late, and indeed spent a great deal of the next day sleeping, but I still got plenty of time to do medavo with mom, dad, kaka and kaki. Our house is just so amazing–so nice. I had never appreciated it that much before. Living in apartments for so long in my own world I had never appreciated how nice our house is and how well my mom and kaki keep it!
I was also lucky to meet one of my best high school friends, Jesse Brasher. He had just recently come back from Mexico where he spent a year and half teaching english. It was truly a pleasure having coffee with him and getting to talk to him like the old days. What a warm friend he was and is. Hope we get to meet again soon.
Back in Kansas Citaaay
One thing I would have greatly regretted is if I wasn’t able to visit Kansas City on my trip to the midwest. I flew in to KC on Saturday mornin g. Mehul picked me up and we had lunch at Zona Rosa (which is a cute little shopping area in north KC). It was great catching up with him. We chilled at his place for a bit, and then went to see (which was an awesome movie btw). Later I met up with Varun, Amit, Ankur and Jerome and we all went to Swagat for dinner (which was WAY too filling). Then we went to see Ankur’s new condo in Liberty (which was very nice). It was pretty late by then, but we then made our way back to Mehul’s place where we watched a few episodes of The Office before retiring. Before I flew out the next day, I was able to catch up with Mehul and Varun a lot more.
Back to Silicon Valley
I flew out of KC at 8pm on my way back to San Jose. Over all, this break worked out very well and was planned out well. I am sooooo glad I got to visit all these people and see all these places that made up such a large part of my past. If you have gotten this far–then thanks for reading Now I am going to a garba as Navratri is starting. See yall there…if not there, then I’m sure eventually somewhere. Peace.
I was recently at SJC standing in the line to catch a Southwest Airlines flight. For those of you not familiar, Southwest Airlines seating works on a first come first serve basis. Depending on when you check in, you are assigned either a letter, A, B or C. All the A’s board first, B’s second, and C’s third.
About 30 minutes (or more) before the boarding, the passengers usually start forming 3 lines, one each for A, B and C. This part–though kind of annoying–is usually not a big deal. I check in online the night before online, and always get the A pass, so I don’t really worry about lining up as being in the first third of the passengers is usually good enough to get the window seat I want.
So why am I writing this post? Because this time when I was flying Southwest, I encountered a kind of funny display of “lining up.” As I was making my way to the A line, I noticed it looked almost empty…only 2 or 3 people were standing near the gate. But as I got closer, someone told me, hey, the line starts here. The lady who told me was standing about 15 feet from those 2 or 3 people. Turns out, There was a seating area that was running alongside where the line was supposed to be, and everyone who was supposed to be “standing in line” had just decided to take a seat. And then behind these sitting, relaxing people, was the rest of the “line.”
Now I know some of you may disagree, but as far as I am concerned, sitting down is not standing in line. It is no problem if you are sitting on your bag or something while you are in line…but just claiming your place in the line with your luggage, and then going to sit down elsewhere does not work, and really, that is just ridiculous.
Anyway, so to you Southwesterners who are the sitting “line-standers”: either get out of line, or stand up. Because next time, I will not be standing for 30 minutes while you are relaxing, and still have you board in front of me.
As Mr. Matt drives his SULEV (Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle..aka Hybrid) slowly through the Labor Day traffic, I see the opportunity to finally write a post on my blog. We are making our way back to the Bay Area from LA on this fine Monday afternoon. My stay in LA wasn’t too long, we were here for Vineet’s wedding last night. Vineet is one of my Yahoo Travel co-workers.
The wedding itself was conducted beautifully. It was performed in accordance to Indian tradition, although Vineet’s wife is Chinese. Because the wedding was multi-cultural, there were many attendees who may not have been familiar with how an Indian wedding is performed. A family friend of Vineet’s played the role of the “priest” and commentator during the wedding. He explained lucidly each stage of the wedding and kept the entire crowd (of maybe around 200) interested and engaged throughout. Aside from a few hiccups, the entire ceremony went very smoothly.
Some things of note were that Jennifer (Vineet’s wife) and her parents were all dressed in Indian clothing. They looked very natural and beautiful. The appetizers in between the wedding and reception were also very good. I was glad to see a large vegetarian selection, though I guess I should not have been surprised as it was an Indian wedding. They had Samosas, Paneer Tikka and basic vegetable Bhajia. I wasn’t used to having alcohol at weddings, as I guess the only Indian weddings I have been to recently have been of family, but it didn’t get out of hand.
The reception was also quite normal. The part I always love in the reception is the time for toasts. In a way, toasts strengthen the bond between the bride and groom and their guests. We get to know them from the perspective of their closest friends and family. Toasts are fun, joyful and occasionally embarrassing too . Indian receptions don’t have this tradition of toasts at receptions; receptions in India end up having 4x the number of people as the wedding (around a 1000) and nothing is personal anymore. But I’d like to start having them at our weddings too.
After the reception was the dancing! Vineet is Punjabi, so they don’t really do raas/dandia so they just had Bhangra. Dandia/raas would have been a lotta fun too, but of course bhangra is fun also. Matt was a great sport with the dancing, and we all had a lot of fun. Jason also danced for some time. It was tiring and fun! After we were thoroughly sweaty and tired, we all went up to our hotel room (we had gotten a room in the same hotel as his wedding, so that was very convenient) and showered and relaxed.
I then found my dvd of The Office season 2, so we decided to watch some of those shows. That was funny and relaxing We all fell asleep while watching the show and woke up 10 hrs or so later–tired, but satisfied from our wedding, labor day road trip.
I am back from my fun fun Thanksgiving trip to Connecticut for Sheela and Duncan’s Engagement. I hadn’t told any of them that I was going, so it was a fun surprise for all of us. The program itself was also a lot of fun. It was great to meet Duncan and hang out with all my East coast cousins together. I also got to see Priti and Dhiren’s new born son Parth…who is cute cute cute! He is still toooo tiny to really play with, but he’s very nice and delicate and fun to hold.
Now that I am back, it’s back to work for me. Have some catching up to do at work. I am moving buildings to Mission College in Santa Clara on Thursday . I’m going to miss my desk at the main campus! Alright chal, I better go, but hope everyone has been well!
Hey guys, long time no talk. So my time in Kansas City is finally over, and I am here in good ol’ Norwalk, CT visiting for Priti’s baby shower (which was this past Saturday). This whole weekend has been full of busy days, long nights and just tons of fun. A lot of my family was around and it was just fun!!
I have been here since Thursday…and on Friday, Mitesh, Dhenu, two of Mitesh’s friends and I went to New York. I haven’t been to New York since like 1996 or something. It has been waaaay too long and it was fun going there again. I had never been to Times Square, or the 9/11 Ground Zero site, so I went to see both of those. We were also supposed to take a boat cruise around New York but we had to miss that because of traffic.
On Saturday was Priti’s baby shower. That was great…we got to play some silly games, do some dancing at the end, and watch Priti and Dhiren be as happy as ever! We are all just waiting for the little one to come out
On Sunday morning, we went to Amy & Raj’s place. We all used to be great friends…I have stayed over there house sooo many times. I hadn’t been back to their house in years, so this brought back some good memories. We have all grown older, and changed in some ways, but I guess it was just like the same Oh yeah, Amy is also engaged, so congratulations for that. I think I forgot to mention that to her in person
We also went to see Hans uncle’s place in Brookfield for Dinner, and then for some religious swadya today. It’s always good to go there…(that was the first place I lived in when we moved to the US). It was great chatting with everyone…even played some chess with Veer (and I just barely beat him…ouch! Haven’t played chess in like 8 years).
Ok, well it is getting late, so I better go. I have a long flight to California tomorrow, but I can’t wait to get there and start my new life. Hope you are all well, and hope this long post makes up for my silence for the last few days! Talk to you from Cali!
This weekend was Dhenu and Mitesh’s reception in Owensboro, so I went home for that. Because I am just starting to recover…physically and mentally, I am just writing about this experience.
In a few words: It was just great.
Tons and Tons of my family members had come from far to attend. Many of whom who weren’t able to attend the wedding in Mumbai…and some who were. The days before the day of the reception were varying stress levels to different people. Ranging all the way from little Neev who didn’t have a worry in the world except sleeping, eating and dealing with hundreds of people trying to hold him and get his attention, to my mom, dad, kaki and kaka, who were at their best, organizing and planning for months in advance, coordinating people left and right, assigning tasks, making sure everything was in place and the many people who had traveled from far were comfortable. In between those two were us, the dancers, the cooks, the music arrangers, slide show makers, decorators, cake makers, the drivers and the well wishers. Together we arranged an event to remember for years to come. So now first and foremost, I’d like to give a congratulations and thanks to everyone who came, enjoyed and participated.
Now for some of my own personal thoughts. I came home late Thursday night. And since that time till the time I left, it was pretty close to “crazy.” Of the many things I enjoyed, some highlights of the weekend were: playing with and seeing Neev, meeting cousins and relatives from far, MC’ing the event (my first experience of the kind), and of course…the food. Oh the food! The food was just great all around.
We also celebrated Raksha Bandhan on Saturday morning. Nilam and Jyoti fui came up with some trivia for the brothers and sisters to answer about each other while tying the Rakhi. That made it all the more fun… My wrist was full of rakhis, forehead red from the kunkoo tilaks, and mouth sweet from the mithai each sister fed me as they tied their Rakhi. I love raksha bandhan
I flew back to KC on Sunday night. My body was exhausted from the dancing and running around and mouth sore from the talking and screaming (during the dancing). Mentally, I was also tired…there were also some other things bothering me on my mind during the weekend, but overall, I can say it was an AWESOME weekend. Thanks once again to everyone who made it happen and farewell until we meet again to all my loved family and friends.
I’m home this weekend!! I came home to see Mitesh (my jijaji & Dhenu’s husband) for the first time since the wedding in India last year. It was great to see him, felt like having a brother here. Now I have some fighting power against my 3 sisters It was good to see all of us kids back also.
Mom and Kaki were in Chicago (driving back as I write) this weekend to attend Rakeshbhai’s sibir. Will be good to see them again also. Aaaanyway. I’m gonna watch Wedding Crashers tonight with Jesse (and the sisters) (I’ll post a review of that later).
Now Ami is pleading me to go make Dhenu hurry up and get ready for a sweet sixteen party we have to go to. Better go!
I just got back (last night) from Jaina Convention 2005 in the Bay Area. All in all it was an awesome experience. It’s been a while since I’ve attended any YJA/Jaina convention, so this was a nice refresher. The last Jaina convention I went to was a few years back in Chicago where there were 10,000 people, so it got CRAZY. This one was a lot more low-key (and thus better), and only had about 3,500 or so.
The main reason I didn’t attend these conventions is there isn’t much new to gain…most are like a very large Indian party. This one was definitely different. Here are some of the notable events/activities/things I participated in that were good (somewhat in chronological order):
Raas/Garba: It had been a while since I had played some dandiya raas, but it felt great (and I was sore for 2 days) .
Congressman Dennis Kucinich: I heard a speech by Congressman at the opening ceremony of the Jaina Convention. I hadn’t heard much about him earlier, but I was impressed and inspired by his speech. He talked about how the concepts of Ahimsa, Anekantvaad and Aparigraha could benefit the country currently. He himself is a Vegan and a proponent for peace in the world.
Dr. Rakeshbhai Zaveri: Rakeshbhai is a very famous Jain scholar from India. We were fortunate enough to have him here. He gave four seminars on “Four pillars of Jainism” (namely: Ahimsä, Aparigraha, Anekäntväd & Apramäd). He was the primary reason I thought this convention was worth it. He gave a very clear and fresh perception to topics many Jains think they have mastered. He left me yearning for deeper knowledge, and perhaps a deeper appreciation for the Jain philosophy as a whole. Do not miss him if you have a chance to hear his pravachan.
Jain Bhawan: The JCNC Jain Bhawan was one of the nicest temples I have visited in North America. My visit really left me yearning for a similar temple close to me! (there is a picture of this temple above)
Jain Art Exhibition: The Jain Art Exhibition was a beautiful exhibition of art inspired by Jainism. I was very surprised to find amazing pieces of art exhibited here. I have pictures of some of them that I will post soon. There were also beautiful marble jain idols for sale (with proceeds going to donation). We bought one of those for our house. VERY nice. Oh yeah, there was also this Gujarati comic strip writer, who had funny comics. It was funny to see Gujarati comics
Manhar Udhas & Anuradha Paudwal: And last but not least, there was a beautiful vocal performance on Sunday night by ghazal singer Manhar Udhas and Anuradha Paudwal. I learned about the old bhajan/song “Jot se Jot Jagate Chalo.” Anuradha Paudwal sung it beeeautifully. Wish I could get a recording of that!
All in all this was an great experience. The food was also great. We had some problems at night with getting back to the hotel, but that was minimal. My flights there and back were with no problems. Overall this was a great July 4th weekend to remember! (This was also the last of my 3 trips to California this summer. Hehe )
After getting back from San Jose on late Sunday night, I had to finish 4 hrs of on line-classes before going to work on Monday. So I was up till about 4:30 AM on Sunday night (I also spent an hour or so wasting time, downloading pics from my camera, etc). I woke up on Monday at about 9 and went to Orange County airport to meet my team from Cerner who was flying in that morning. Our drive to Palm Springs was about 1 1/2 hrs, but I’m not sure cause I slept most of the way. We got here, checked into our hotel (Marriott Courtyard) and I got to work (finishing some work).
I worked the night shifts here, so I went to work at 7pm. The first night was very tiring. I didn’t get much sleep–plus working hard and walking all around for 12 hours is never easy! What we were doing is helping a hospital in a conversion (when a hospital switches to using Cerner’s software). Our job was to assist the clinicians with the new system and troubleshoot problems (pretty much face to face tech support). The hours were long and the walking was much. The first few days were very busy, and it was weird to get use to the 7pm to 7am schedule.
The work got easier as the nights went on and the staff started to get used to the software. The very last night, we literally watched two movies while at work, cause we were so bored!
Any way, right now I’m at the Las Vegas airport on the flight back. I will post more pictures and such about this trip once I get back home!
With our newly acquired rental pickup truck, Jason and I drove along Route 1 all the way down the coast of California. We started by going down 17 to Santa Cruz from San Jose, and caught Route 1 from there. We also stopped by the at Pebble Beach, but it was totally not worth it. The drive down Route 1 is WAY better! Below is a map of our path down:
Map of trip back:
This trip took us about 445 miles and 10 hours of driving, and was one of the most beautiful road trips I have ever experienced. It’s a must do for everyone that has a chance! A true testament for why the longer and the less traveled road is sometimes the sweetest and most fruitful at the end.
If you are planning on doing this drive yourself, here are a few tips, some of which we didn’t keep in mind:
There are VERY few stops along Rt 1 for food and gas. So don’t start on Rt 1 hungry and low on gas. The one place we could eat, was VERY expensive (I ate a $11 veggie burger).
Leave in the morning, and keep the entire day free for the drive, so you can enjoy and not rush.
Take another driver along that you can switch with. The drive is very beautiful, but if you are driving all the time, you will not be able to appreciate the scenery!
. I’m going to miss my desk at the main campus! Alright chal, I better go, but hope everyone has been well!
