I hate Pop up Blockers ...

Ok, So it took like 20 minutes for me to write down a blog entry, and when I decided to do spell check, there was pop-up blocker.

When I clicked on the IE pop-up blocker to temporarily allow popups, it just simpy refreshed everything, and I lost the entire entry that I had typed.

I hate Pop-up blockers. Why was a Refresh needed in order to temporarily allow pop-ups?

Rang de basanti in a convertible ...

So imagine this, a convertible with its top down, and with Rang De Basanti theme song playing full blast, at 9:30 in the morning.

This was what I was doing, driving off to work, nice sunny day - perfect for a drive in the car(albeit a small 10 mins one). I had this new cd, from Guru, which has really nice new hindi songs. And when the Rang De Basanti (sung by Daler Mehndi) song came, I increased the volume. I was feeling great, listening to a hindi song, which I really liked, in US.

On the way, I was waiting for the signal, gladly shaking my head to the beats and lyrics, when I just realized that the guy next to me( a long haired white guy, driving a pick-up truck) was looking at me with amazement.

I kind of blushed and acknowledged him, and to my total surprise, he started SHAKING his head in rhythm too. So much for stereotyping.

And I smirked to myself, when I realised that at that exact time, the lyrics being sung were

angrez mere sab kuchh rang de
mohe mohe tuu rang de basanti yaara

Fitness at young age?

Its really amazing, how at young age, so many american kids are into outdoor activities. Whenever I have gone to the lake sammamish, near to our office, I have seen so many kids hanging out running around in the water, fishing or plain just swimming in the water.

How many young kids in India have you seen just enjoy nature at its best?

Last weekend, we went out on a hike to West Tiger mountain, a drive of around half an hour from our place of stay. Now tiger mountain is a favorite amongst the localites for hiking purposes. There are a number of interesting trails, some of them very steep a climb of 2948 ft in around 2.5 miles to some of around 6 miles which take you to a height of 1500 ft. Anyway inspite of this being my first hike out here, I was convinced into taking the cable trail, (a trail that is not maintained, but was meant originally for laying cables upto the top of the hill).

Well, after the first 20 minutes or so, when I was the last person in the 4 man squad, huffing and puffing with my legs really hurting, I sat on a rock to take a break, near an intersection with the other trails. I look up and see a lady with her two sons, no more than 8 years old, coming down my way. I look at them with total amazement, at how these kids are handling this. Even though it was a normal trail, it is longer that ours (almost twice). This was not the only case where I saw kids, on my way up the trail, I noticed atleast 3 more families complete with kids ranging from 4- 12 years old or so.

No wonder, americans are fit. If you start of at such an early age, and enjoy the nature, you are bound to be like that. In addition to their love for the nature,given that there is only close to 3 months of actual sun out here, its not really surprising that they try to make the most of it during that period.

Well in short, I was happy to reach the top, and just stood there, chatting with another couple, and looked around me and it was such a beautiful sight. Well it was worth it. The image here, i just borrowed from images.google.com.







Anyway we are planning to make this a weekly thing and start timing ourselves. lets see how it goes

Next Generation arrives

Well, I am a happy man today. As of 1:25 PM IST on 17th, June, the next generation in my family started.

My bhabhi gave birth to a daughter, Navya. Both the baby and mother are fine.

Congrats Bro, Bhabhi. Hope she brings all the luck and happiness in the world.

and congrats to me too... I am officially a Chacha (well not the dance, but the relationship :))

Restaurant in Kirkland

As per one of my earlier postings about the acquaintence of mine, who didnt wash his hands, after you know 'what'. Anyway so this is what I saw today, in a restaurant loo in Kirkland...

"Employees are reminded to wash their hands thoroughly before leaving"

- The mgmt

Hmm ... do I want to really eat there?
Go figure!!

Old lady in maroon...

I was late. I got up late, I spent too much time in front of the laptop. I had a longer bath. Boy, Was I late or what? It was close to 10:30 am in the middle of a week, and in US, thats unheard of.I skipped breakfast, and put on the first pair of clothes that I could see, gathered my stuff which sprawled all over the table, and rushed out, pulling the door of my room shut on the way.

In front of me, there was this lady standing in the corridor, with a trolley beside her. She was not too tall, like 5 feet or so, in her late fifties, wearing a maroon trouser and shirt that is so typical of oriental people. As I walked by, she looked at me, as if she recognized me. She paused on her path, and let me walk by. I just rushed down and saw got into my car, gave it a raise and started on my way to office.

I had a long tiring day, came home at around 3 in the morning finally to see that my room had been cleaned up. Of course, it was wednesday, thats the day of the week when they clean up the place.[On a seperate thread, I will describe why it shouldnt be so] Anyway boy, was I glad, had something quick to eat and immediately crashed.

A week passed.
In the morning, I was getting out of the hotel room, and guess who I saw? Of course, the old lady in maroon clothes. She smiled at me and let me pass through to the stairs. Suddenly i felt kind of bad. Man, again my room was a mess ... as in a mess, clothes thrown around carelessly, its impossible to find out whats washed and whats not. The continuous rain over the few days had led to a moist state of all my clothes. Bed not made, Dishes in the sink, books kept all around the place. Man, did I feel bad or what. Anyway I left that day to office.

I came back, and again saw my room all neat and clean. Boy, she did a good job. From that day on .. I resolved a few things

1. Always make the bed in the morning
2. Keep the clothes in the shelf
3. Keep the clothes for laundary in the plastic bags, and give them for washing asap.
4. Wash dishes over night
5. Keep the books I have read in the shelf and book I am currently reading on the table near the bed.

Touch wood, I am following this till now.... Hmm... dont want the old lady to clean up my mess. :)

Redmond Trip - Photos I

Well I have been asked by many to upload some snaps. So here it goes.

Anyway there are some pics of furniture and stuff, well anyway all these things are me right now. So bear with it

Hope you enjoy it, btw check out the convertible... its my rental :)

Stuck in a digital World...

Ok, so yeah this blog is turning out to be more about me recently. People have asked me about that. But yeah well, it is so, so *live* with it.
Well, I am surrounded by a plethora of digital devices. Cell phones, laptops, Computers - high end and low end. Cool devices and everything. Now mind you, they are meant to make our lives easier and better.-- better communication, better output in work, more work life balance. But do they really do so?


For instance
1. I wake up, go online on my laptop to chat with my wife, about things, about home, and who do I really end up talking to?
My boss, my teammates, a new joinee, and an *old* pain, couple of friends. Only work no fun

2. I have this great cell, that my company (yohoo, thank you boss) has given me for my use in Redmond. Now its a good phone, mind you - Motorola Razor, super cool, and light-- well if you had seen my current one in India, you would know why I am saying this.Coming to the point, well its great, but there is one small problem.

[As I am typing this, I am already pinged by my team mate. I lead such a sad life :( ]

continuing

Whenever it wants, my cell goes into voice mail, without even ringing. Its almost as if it has a mind of its own. Whenever my wife wants to talk to me, when my boss calls up, when people want to get in touch with me, it knows, it does not ring, and simply goes into voice mail. Now the funny thing is of course, that the people on the other side of the line, don't know this, and they think that I am trying to avoid them.
I have had some tough time explaining to people, why this is happening. Well and of course, I have tried multiple times to just disable voice mail completely, but it does not work. Believe me!!


3. Well it so happens, that I try to pay my bills online most of the time, But people who use http://www.icicibank.com/ know how much down time it has. The #$@#$ site told me twice that payment to my credit card, was not done, as the request had timed out.So, I thought well in the evening, let me try again, and imagine the height of my frustration, when I saw that my account has been debited twice from my account.

In short, this sucks. Wanna stay happy and contented? Stay away from all digital stuff.
Go Neanderthal!!