I am generally a timid driver. I do not experiment. I learn a route and stick to it. I rarely change lanes. I rarely try alternates. This leads to problems when the route I follow is congested. I do not have any options but stew in traffic. A few years ago, that would have frustrated me. Ever since I have been able to connect my iPod to my car stereo, I chill with my music and accept this delay as the price to pay for working in the Washington DC Metro.
With the advent of GPS technology the game has changed. I wrote earlier how GPS helps in maintaining marital harmony. I now like it for more than its ability to keep peace. When earlier I would stay behind, stuck in traffic; now I change into side roads. The GPS after 15 seconds figures out alternates for me. Whereas earlier driving was a means to an end, now I am able to derive pleasure from my commute.
New neighborhoods like the one we live in have a blandness or a sameness. I guess they look cliched like my blog. On the other hand Northwest DC in particular has some really nice neighborhoods. Hundred year old homes set in winding roads with Oak trees so tall and thick they take your breath away. Each house looks different from the other. Of course they are not painted startling pink or flaming red as some houses can be in India, but they are different all the same; in a nice way.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
I Ran a Relay Marathon - Again
I have been running relay marathons for the past 2 summers in Delaware. To know about my past experiences read this and that.
Each of the two times, I went alone and ran with folks local to Philly area. This time I was more ambitious. I bullied my wife and daughter to run along with me. Our friends, Maran and Lorency also wanted to run. Suddenly we were a team of five. Swati, Devayani's friend in Philly and two others, a father and son duo, made it 8 which gave us to two full teams. Two months before the race, I filled out the registration form on Jannavi's behalf, put it in front of her to sign when she was distracted and mailed it to out.
During the next 5 weeks Jannavi cried constantly; she hates running, she hates the cold; she hates practice; she does so much around the house and its corollary; how little I do around the house...
As each week passed by her tension increased. Running 1 mile is OK, she had to run 6.55 miles. Additionally I ensured that she was not the last runner and so she could not stop in the middle and go home! Each runner carried a GPS chip that was handed from one runner in a team to the next one. The race organizers used it to track us for timing purposes. The result was Jannavi needed to finish her leg so I could run mine!
Finally with a mere 3 weeks to go I asked her to run with me. Very docilely she ran with me. We kept a steady pace of 12-minute-mile and ran 3 miles. Next week we ran 4 miles and the week before the race she ran 5 miles on her own. That was it; her entire preparation for the relay marathon. Devayani and I also ran a couple of times over similar distances.
The race itself was uneventful. See the attached chart for statistics. Jannavi achieved the goals she had set; complete the marathon and do not walk. I had one other goal, run faster than last time; I shaved almost 2 minutes from my results last year.
I knew she could do it; she now knows it too!
Each of the two times, I went alone and ran with folks local to Philly area. This time I was more ambitious. I bullied my wife and daughter to run along with me. Our friends, Maran and Lorency also wanted to run. Suddenly we were a team of five. Swati, Devayani's friend in Philly and two others, a father and son duo, made it 8 which gave us to two full teams. Two months before the race, I filled out the registration form on Jannavi's behalf, put it in front of her to sign when she was distracted and mailed it to out.
During the next 5 weeks Jannavi cried constantly; she hates running, she hates the cold; she hates practice; she does so much around the house and its corollary; how little I do around the house...
As each week passed by her tension increased. Running 1 mile is OK, she had to run 6.55 miles. Additionally I ensured that she was not the last runner and so she could not stop in the middle and go home! Each runner carried a GPS chip that was handed from one runner in a team to the next one. The race organizers used it to track us for timing purposes. The result was Jannavi needed to finish her leg so I could run mine!
Finally with a mere 3 weeks to go I asked her to run with me. Very docilely she ran with me. We kept a steady pace of 12-minute-mile and ran 3 miles. Next week we ran 4 miles and the week before the race she ran 5 miles on her own. That was it; her entire preparation for the relay marathon. Devayani and I also ran a couple of times over similar distances.
The race itself was uneventful. See the attached chart for statistics. Jannavi achieved the goals she had set; complete the marathon and do not walk. I had one other goal, run faster than last time; I shaved almost 2 minutes from my results last year.
I knew she could do it; she now knows it too!
Songs I Would Like To Try
Growing up I liked to sing. I would regularly take part in school activities that involved singing.
Then I reached adolescent age and my voice broke. I did not understand this well. All I remember was a terrible lack of confidence in rendering songs that I was able to belt out effortlessly just a few months before. I would yearn to sing but my larynx would feel as if it had lost lubrication all of a sudden leaving me a feeling of paralysis. I did not talk about it and at school since no one expected us boys to be interested in singing, the desire receded from conscious thought. Only when I saw a few other kids develop a deeper voice few years later did it realize what was happening.
This fear of singing lasted until I decided to take up Carnatic music in my 30s. My teacher showed me where my Sa or Shadjam is and I discovered I had a very bass voice. The Shruti I could sing in is a full octave below what is considered Five Kattai in Carnatic music. Consequently all songs composed for singers who are baritone or tenor were ruled out. Unfortunately since most film songs were composed for singers in that voice range it ruled out all songs of Rafi or Kishore. These songs are not easy on and throat which is a good thing since people would have laughed at my pretension. I later discovered that some songs (not all) by Mukesh were little easier on the larynx. These songs although were at a higher pitch, did not have the full range of two octaves. Finally we all know that anyone can bray like Kumar Sanu.
So here is a (work in progress) list of song I would like to sing. Some of them are duets and in most of these cases, I could easily pair with my daughter or wife who are far better singers than I am and could support me.
Anand - Meine Tere Liye Hi Saath
Ruki Ruki - Mast (duet)
Do Divaane Shaher Mein - Gharonda (duet)
Kai Baar yun Bhi Dekha, Rajni Gandha
Rim Jhim Rim Jhim 1942 A Love Story (duet)
Seene Mein Jalan Gaman, Gaman, Suresh Vadkar
Suhana Safar - Madhumati
Dil Tadap Tadap - Madhumati (duet)
Then I reached adolescent age and my voice broke. I did not understand this well. All I remember was a terrible lack of confidence in rendering songs that I was able to belt out effortlessly just a few months before. I would yearn to sing but my larynx would feel as if it had lost lubrication all of a sudden leaving me a feeling of paralysis. I did not talk about it and at school since no one expected us boys to be interested in singing, the desire receded from conscious thought. Only when I saw a few other kids develop a deeper voice few years later did it realize what was happening.
This fear of singing lasted until I decided to take up Carnatic music in my 30s. My teacher showed me where my Sa or Shadjam is and I discovered I had a very bass voice. The Shruti I could sing in is a full octave below what is considered Five Kattai in Carnatic music. Consequently all songs composed for singers who are baritone or tenor were ruled out. Unfortunately since most film songs were composed for singers in that voice range it ruled out all songs of Rafi or Kishore. These songs are not easy on and throat which is a good thing since people would have laughed at my pretension. I later discovered that some songs (not all) by Mukesh were little easier on the larynx. These songs although were at a higher pitch, did not have the full range of two octaves. Finally we all know that anyone can bray like Kumar Sanu.
So here is a (work in progress) list of song I would like to sing. Some of them are duets and in most of these cases, I could easily pair with my daughter or wife who are far better singers than I am and could support me.
Anand - Meine Tere Liye Hi Saath
Ruki Ruki - Mast (duet)
Do Divaane Shaher Mein - Gharonda (duet)
Kai Baar yun Bhi Dekha, Rajni Gandha
Rim Jhim Rim Jhim 1942 A Love Story (duet)
Seene Mein Jalan Gaman, Gaman, Suresh Vadkar
Suhana Safar - Madhumati
Dil Tadap Tadap - Madhumati (duet)
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Wrong Movie
Long long ago in a country far far away I was a teenager. My sister, 4 years my junior, was in middle school. In those days we were rarely allowed to watch movies at the theater. There were many factors money being one of them. So when we did go out to the theater, it was for a good reason and it happened about once a year.
This time, I had just finished my Higher Secondary exams and had done really well and had secured admission to various engineering colleges. So I was allowed to go to a movie and take my sister along. We chose Shriman Shrimati with Sanjeev Kumar and Rakhee. I do not remember why we chose that one. I guess it was the only movie running at the sole cinema hall in Janakpuri.
I forget what the tickets cost us, but we had decent seats and we loved the atmosphere. Both of us liked to watch movie trailers probably as much as the movie itself. So it was fun for a while when we realized that one of the trailer was longer than usual. It was not as if we watched a movie every week to have any reference.
An over the hill Rajinder Kumar, dressed as a young man in multi-colored clothes that could get one killed in public, was wooing a past the prime Vidya Sinha with Danny as the Kabab Mein Haddi. RK is jealous of Danny's attention to VS. The rivalry ends in VS dumping RK and hitching with Danny. A brokenhearted RK marries someone else and has a son of his own. By this time this particular trailer had gone on for about 15 minutes and we were now sure we were not watching a trailer. But the possibility that we could be watching a different movie had not permeated our minds.
We turned to the guy sitting next and asked him if he knew what we were watching and we got a laconic answer, Dunno! That there was anyone besides us who was equally clueless came as a surprise to us.
After a few minutes when we saw Kumar Gaurav prancing around, our suspicions were confirmed. We were watching Love Story. We understood what had happened. This hall was not a multiplex and the whole of New Delhi did not have one in the 80s. So we went confidently to the box office and ordered tickets without asking what was running that day. Why should we, we had checked the schedules. When we came home and looked at it again we realized our movie hall changes the movie on a Friday and we had seen the previous week's schedule.
Since we had no other choice and it was not such a bad trade-off and we ended up watching it through. We still have a good laugh when we occasionally reminisce.
This time, I had just finished my Higher Secondary exams and had done really well and had secured admission to various engineering colleges. So I was allowed to go to a movie and take my sister along. We chose Shriman Shrimati with Sanjeev Kumar and Rakhee. I do not remember why we chose that one. I guess it was the only movie running at the sole cinema hall in Janakpuri.
I forget what the tickets cost us, but we had decent seats and we loved the atmosphere. Both of us liked to watch movie trailers probably as much as the movie itself. So it was fun for a while when we realized that one of the trailer was longer than usual. It was not as if we watched a movie every week to have any reference.
An over the hill Rajinder Kumar, dressed as a young man in multi-colored clothes that could get one killed in public, was wooing a past the prime Vidya Sinha with Danny as the Kabab Mein Haddi. RK is jealous of Danny's attention to VS. The rivalry ends in VS dumping RK and hitching with Danny. A brokenhearted RK marries someone else and has a son of his own. By this time this particular trailer had gone on for about 15 minutes and we were now sure we were not watching a trailer. But the possibility that we could be watching a different movie had not permeated our minds.
We turned to the guy sitting next and asked him if he knew what we were watching and we got a laconic answer, Dunno! That there was anyone besides us who was equally clueless came as a surprise to us.
After a few minutes when we saw Kumar Gaurav prancing around, our suspicions were confirmed. We were watching Love Story. We understood what had happened. This hall was not a multiplex and the whole of New Delhi did not have one in the 80s. So we went confidently to the box office and ordered tickets without asking what was running that day. Why should we, we had checked the schedules. When we came home and looked at it again we realized our movie hall changes the movie on a Friday and we had seen the previous week's schedule.
Since we had no other choice and it was not such a bad trade-off and we ended up watching it through. We still have a good laugh when we occasionally reminisce.
Friday, May 14, 2010
How did we manage without GPS
After Exodus or during Exodus (I am not a biblical scholar) the Jewish people left Egypt and wandered for 40 years when they traversed a distance of about 250 miles before reaching Canaan. Now why would it take 40 years to travel the distance between Chennai and say Madurai? Well the punch line here is "Men, even in those days, did not ask for directions". Please see this video why men in modern times are scared to ask for directions.
This is in contrast to our household, where the women folk are extremely stubborn starting with Jannavi. She hates asking for help. It is a matter of pride for Jannavi to reach for stuff in kitchen cabinets 9 feet high even if I were standing near ready to help or, as happens more often, sitting nearby watching reruns of popular shows from the 1990s.
When we were graduate students we would drive a lot. I liked to drive and we deemed the cost of flying too high. We would go to AAA and get Travel guides and maps for the places we were visiting. The maps alone paid for the cost of the membership. This was before Google Maps made maps a commodity that can be now carried on a browser enabled phone!
The AAA maps were very helpful, since it was easy to get lost in down towns with their maze of one ways and narrow crooked streets. Jannavi was the navigator during our travels and it is amazing we are still married considering the number of times we have quarreled over the way she gave directions or the way I failed to follow it. A lot of my time would be spent on cajoling her to ask passerby folks for directions. I still see that mulish tilt of her head and the deaf ears that do not acknowledge my worthless entreaties.
I on the other hand am very different. I could be standing right outside the Taj Mahal and still feel the desire to ask for directions. I need help (in more than one way), OK.
Then one day we discovered GPS and life changed.
For better.
Somewhat.
We now fight over other equally useless things.
Strangely enough it was Jannavi that came up with the idea to buy this device. We now enter the address and I try to follow the directions from a sweet tempered woman. Being accustomed to hearing instructions barked out at me, listening to someone in honey toned voice requesting me to take various actions, was needless to say something of a change.
I used the phrase, try to follow, earlier because where directions are concerned, I am a dunce. Give me a stretch of freeway for hundreds of miles, I put the car in cruise control, set the stereo to Carnatic music and I am in Nirvana. Anything else, I get confused. Easily. But this woman never gets snippy at me even when I miss the exit that most blind man could have seen! She simply tells me "computing new direction" and within 30 seconds has a new set of instructions for me. I discovered this feature when I took the New Jersey Turnpike last weekend, or I should I say, failed to take it.
It does not matter to her how many times I make mistakes. It does not matter if I ignore her completely. She is single minded in her pursuit to get me back on track.
So for all those couples, that like taking road trips; buy a GPS. It could save your marriage.
This is in contrast to our household, where the women folk are extremely stubborn starting with Jannavi. She hates asking for help. It is a matter of pride for Jannavi to reach for stuff in kitchen cabinets 9 feet high even if I were standing near ready to help or, as happens more often, sitting nearby watching reruns of popular shows from the 1990s.
When we were graduate students we would drive a lot. I liked to drive and we deemed the cost of flying too high. We would go to AAA and get Travel guides and maps for the places we were visiting. The maps alone paid for the cost of the membership. This was before Google Maps made maps a commodity that can be now carried on a browser enabled phone!
The AAA maps were very helpful, since it was easy to get lost in down towns with their maze of one ways and narrow crooked streets. Jannavi was the navigator during our travels and it is amazing we are still married considering the number of times we have quarreled over the way she gave directions or the way I failed to follow it. A lot of my time would be spent on cajoling her to ask passerby folks for directions. I still see that mulish tilt of her head and the deaf ears that do not acknowledge my worthless entreaties.
I on the other hand am very different. I could be standing right outside the Taj Mahal and still feel the desire to ask for directions. I need help (in more than one way), OK.
Then one day we discovered GPS and life changed.
For better.
Somewhat.
We now fight over other equally useless things.
Strangely enough it was Jannavi that came up with the idea to buy this device. We now enter the address and I try to follow the directions from a sweet tempered woman. Being accustomed to hearing instructions barked out at me, listening to someone in honey toned voice requesting me to take various actions, was needless to say something of a change.
I used the phrase, try to follow, earlier because where directions are concerned, I am a dunce. Give me a stretch of freeway for hundreds of miles, I put the car in cruise control, set the stereo to Carnatic music and I am in Nirvana. Anything else, I get confused. Easily. But this woman never gets snippy at me even when I miss the exit that most blind man could have seen! She simply tells me "computing new direction" and within 30 seconds has a new set of instructions for me. I discovered this feature when I took the New Jersey Turnpike last weekend, or I should I say, failed to take it.
It does not matter to her how many times I make mistakes. It does not matter if I ignore her completely. She is single minded in her pursuit to get me back on track.
So for all those couples, that like taking road trips; buy a GPS. It could save your marriage.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
I am a Bright
Reader would have undoubtedly observed the use of the article "a". Allow me to explain.
Most people around me and elsewhere know where I stand on God and religion. Let us look up some of the words that could be used to describe this opinion.
Atheism, disbelief, godlessness, impiety, infidelity, irreligion, irreverence, unbelief, nihilism, skepticism, heresy, iconoclasm.
As you can see this list mostly made up of negatives. "theism" which is good becomes "atheism" which is bad, "belief" (good) becomes "disbelief" (bad). In short these are derived words, negation of purportedly positive attributes.
This is not restricted to atheism alone. Fifty percent of world population suffers from the problem of derivation. I am referring to Woman. Not only is the word derived, according to the three monotheistic religions, the woman herself is derived from man.
Another example is the word Homosexual. The rebranding of sexual orientations to being gay and straight was one of the best things that happened. No longer are gay men dishonest or crooked (not straight) nor straight men necessarily unhappy with their lot in life (not gay). The two words are not opposed to each other and there is no historic tension.
About three years ago I set out to invent such a word. As I have constantly bemoaned the fact, I am just not original. Several notable persons had already been at this and this leads us to the Brights Movement. Here is wonderful description from Richard Dawkins
Most people around me and elsewhere know where I stand on God and religion. Let us look up some of the words that could be used to describe this opinion.
Atheism, disbelief, godlessness, impiety, infidelity, irreligion, irreverence, unbelief, nihilism, skepticism, heresy, iconoclasm.
As you can see this list mostly made up of negatives. "theism" which is good becomes "atheism" which is bad, "belief" (good) becomes "disbelief" (bad). In short these are derived words, negation of purportedly positive attributes.
This is not restricted to atheism alone. Fifty percent of world population suffers from the problem of derivation. I am referring to Woman. Not only is the word derived, according to the three monotheistic religions, the woman herself is derived from man.
Another example is the word Homosexual. The rebranding of sexual orientations to being gay and straight was one of the best things that happened. No longer are gay men dishonest or crooked (not straight) nor straight men necessarily unhappy with their lot in life (not gay). The two words are not opposed to each other and there is no historic tension.
About three years ago I set out to invent such a word. As I have constantly bemoaned the fact, I am just not original. Several notable persons had already been at this and this leads us to the Brights Movement. Here is wonderful description from Richard Dawkins
In summary, I am a Bright. Are you bright too :-)Gay is succinct, uplifting, positive: an "up" word, where homosexual is a down word, and queer, faggot and pooftah are insults. Those of us who subscribe to no religion; those of us whose view of the universe is natural rather than supernatural; those of us who rejoice in the real and scorn the false comfort of the unreal, we need a word of our own, a word like "gay". ... Like gay, it should be a noun hijacked from an adjective, with its original meaning changed but not too much. Like gay, it should be catchy: a potentially prolific meme. Like gay, it should be positive, warm, cheerful, bright.
The early bird catches the worm
I was never one for getting up early in the morning. Sleep was my first love. Growing up, we were constantly told to get up early before sunrise and greet the rising sun. Indians even have a ritual called "Surya Namaskar". I did not like the rising sun. I cordially disliked it. I could not understand what people saw in it. It still looked round!
My parents not only liked rising early, they also associated early morning with studying. According to them if one studied in the morning, one learned better, retained more in memory; ergo good grades.
They would repeat the well know adage, the early bird catches the worm.
When I clarified that I was a vegetarian, I discovered that my father had strong knuckles! I still have a bump in my head as proof.
My parents not only liked rising early, they also associated early morning with studying. According to them if one studied in the morning, one learned better, retained more in memory; ergo good grades.
They would repeat the well know adage, the early bird catches the worm.
When I clarified that I was a vegetarian, I discovered that my father had strong knuckles! I still have a bump in my head as proof.
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