Tales from Whisper Valley : of cats, skipped meals, unwashed laundry and such...

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October 2003 November 2003 December 2003 January 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004


stuff


Hindsight
       -Guy Kawasaki

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.
        -Bertrand Russell

Wear sunscreen
       -Mary Schmich

Man was given an imagination to compensate for what he isn't; a sense of humour to console him for what he is.
        - Francis Bacon

Leisure
       -W.H. Davies

Not all those that wander are lost.
       -J.R.R. Tolkein

Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think.
       -Jean de La Bruyère

The average person thinks he isn't.
       -Father Larry Lorenzoni

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
       -Pablo Picasso

Become who you are.
       -Nietzshe

Your future depends on many things, but mostly on you.
       -Frank Tyger

Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
       -Anon









muse


6:00pm, and I've finally arrived at my hotel in Seattle - after catching a connecting UA flight from SFO. The shuttle flights are literally air-buses... people carry on their McDonalds and Burger King meals - and the service levels are almost what you'd expect on a bus. And brrr... its almost freezing in Seattle!
5:00 AM Sunday, November 30, 2003

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IMHO, video on demand has been the biggest innovation in passenger comfort that airlines have introduced since I've started travelling. Yes, its even more significant than the almost flat SpaceBeds Singapore Airlines touts - or noise cancelling headphones - two of my other favourites!

Being able to choose what movie (from 25+ movies instead of the typical 8-10 channels!), when to start, and being able to pause, rewind and fast-forward dramatically change the in-flight experience. I can now watch a movie, doze off in the middle, wake up - continue where I left off, and then doze off again after the movie finishes. The conventional systems work more like TV - if you doze off in the middle - you have to wait till the next cycle starts, and it's often 90 minutes before you get to the point you dozed off at! Big difference!

I've watched Bad Boys 2, 2 Fast and 2 Furious, Hollywood Homicide, Terminator 3 and part of a Hong Kong flick - Truth or Dare already, and I expect I'll get through a couple of episodes of Friends by the time we land!
9:52 PM Saturday, November 29, 2003

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rambling in singapore
When I visit Singapore briefly, taxi drivers are some of the most interesting people I meet. A lot of them love to talk, and expound on life, the universe, and what (and why) the government is up to. And not in that same order. Ran into an interesting few during the day - from the one who is already buying land in Malaysia to go retire there - to the one who wants the Government to fire the SIA pilots protesting wage cuts as the economy falters. Back in the year 2000, taxi drivers were a more fun crowd - the economy was bubbling, and taxi drivers were trying to sell the visiting populace on the wisdom and foresight of the Singapore government...

Singapore still exhibits some of the most pragmatic governance; the law and the control is almost draconian - but the execution and implementation is typically "wise" and "just". Of course, having 97% of parliament makes it easy to not be tempted into populist moves!

Wandering through the streets of Singapore sometimes makes me nostalgic, and wonder what I've traded up to live in the land of biryani. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to explore every darn one of those parallel universes?

Packing again - to head out for the flight to San Francisco.
6:30 PM

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I'm off, living out of a suitcase for the next two weeks! Woke up way too early on Friday morning for my own good - and set about packing my bags. After a couple of years with more time spent shuttling between airports in Asia, than at home - I have the art of packing down to a quick bit of work that can be accomplished in 15 minutes - irrespective of whether the trip is for a day or a month!

Arrived at the airport a little past 10pm, 45 minutes before the Silkair flight, and was told that boarding had been closed. Whined, pleaded and begged until they let me on. Then had a little trouble getting through immigration - the official decided that I looked sufficiently different from the photograph in the passport - mostly because of my new found affection for facial hair. Was allowed to board the flight after having signed five times over, and having given the distilled essence of an autobiography - Where do you belong to? Oh… Kerala? Why were you born in Assam then? Ah… you're an army brat! Why are you in Hyderabad? Ah… what kind of work? How long have you been here? A year? What do you think of our city?... And so on.

All's well that ends well - and I'm up in the air now!

6:52 PM Friday, November 28, 2003

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eid mubarak and SWAT instead of bungee jumping
Lunch at my driver's house was a treat! Everyone was clad in bright new clothes for Eid. They'd decked out the place... even bringing in a dining table that filled most of the one room in which Ghouse lives with his four daughters, one son, and wife! His youngest daughter is only six months old - but has a perpetual excited smile on her face! I like kids in general, and happy kids are even better!

We set out in search of AXN's Mountain Dew Xtreme Zone Sports knowing only that it was at the "MCH Grounds" in Marredpally. We set off in the general direction of Marredpally, and found quite a few empty grounds. The ones with more activity had the occasional cow grazing, and sometimes even a paan-walla we could hassle! None of them were of much help - and trying to call the local Mountain Dew distributor on a holiday for directions was a lost cause. We eventually retired to the IMAX and watched S.W.A.T. Yawn...

We finally have a number to call for the Xtreme Zone Sports; but it'll be a little over two weeks before we're able to consider jumping off a crane with a hope, a prayer and a rope.
11:25 AM Wednesday, November 26, 2003

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millie meets her nemesis... in stuffed toys! When she was younger, she'd actually "fight" with the random stuffed toy lying around the house. Some of them would frighten her when they "moved" and others would get her fur standing on end if they were too "close" for comfort. She's since grown up, and come to share her space with them... mostly. One of my new stuffed toys - a little kitten - interests Millie tremendously - she loves biting on the kitten's whiskers, and yanking on them!

Perhaps I should be worried that people think stuffed toys make good gifts for me :); though I am grateful it's going to be a while before my moustache gets long enough to attract Millie's attention!
11:10 AM

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Barista
11:09 AM

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a sew for dinnner?
I love bets. I love betting. Not on horses, or on our men in white - but on simple, sometimes silly things... obscure bits of trivia and feats and dares that'd never make it onto Australian TV shows.

A kindly room mate in college, who was at the recieving (and often paying) end of these bets, invented something we called "notional Cokes". We printed a poster with lots of tiny Coca Cola bottles, and he'd buy me a real Coke for every five "notional Cokes" I won. I think that lasted about two months - before he stopped betting.

Won a trivial bet over the weekend - over how sew is pronounced. Unfortunately - for my friend - sew has more in common with sow than with few or even dew - but the payoff is dinner at Fusion 9! It's going to be a few weeks before I'll be able to collect... I'm off to the Emerald city - also known as Latte Land. It's home to Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon, and even better, Starbucks!
5:47 AM Monday, November 24, 2003

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too many cooks... make for loads of fun, and even more cleaning up! Had a cookout at my place today, with a bunch of colleagues from work; some with their significant others, and one who was surprised to have his "SO" show up for lunch, since she usually lives in Mumbai. The sneaky birthday surprise was worth it, and we now have a photograph with him hanging his mouth open in surprise - to keep for posterity!

My maid almost fainted when she saw the kitchen the next day. My idea of "cooking up" something usually means brewing coffee, so a busy day in the kitchen for her typically means having to wash a few cups, and maybe a pan and a plate used for Maggi. She managed to cope with the haphazard collection of a dozen plates, assorted pots and frying pans, innumerable glasses and the general feeling that a cyclone had been through (someone misjudged how much water my dinky pressure cooker could accommodate!)... but took the next day off!
10:08 AM Saturday, November 22, 2003

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american chopsuey with sambar sauce
Woe betides any Hyderabadi restaurant that does not have the "multicuisine" tag on it. Even the sambar-rasam-dosa hangout Chutneys feels compelled to offer everything from north Indian to - what purports to be - Chinese cuisine. I guess it's to do with making it easy for everyone in the group to find food they like; however it ends up with most places serving a wide range of food, with as wide a variance in quality. If I had to pick just two peeves - I wish some of these restaurants would figure that not all north Indian dishes need to be garnished with cherries; and that drowning food in MSG does not make it Chinese.

Dined at Lautre, a new Fusion 9 competitor in town. The owner claims the French name means "the other one"... but its going to be a while before Fusion 9 has to worry about the other one giving it a run for its money. It's neat in that you can try out paneer tikkas along side spicy Burmese curries and pasta, but the flavours are sometimes a bit off on the more exotic items. Definitely avoid the sizzling brownie; curiosity got the better of us and we tried it, only to survive a burnt brownie topped with ice cream, on a sizzler platter with bubbling caramel letting out copious amounts of smoke...

For the uninitiated - its pronounced Low-ooo-tré!
10:12 AM Sunday, November 16, 2003

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Millie, the young lady I share my abode with, is a highly temperamental girl with a weakness for long walks, open windows, edible adorable furry creatures, and people who pet and pamper her©.

Today's been a traumatic day for poor Millie! Not only did she get vaccinated at the vets - she was also forcefully showered at home! Cats like water... but only on their own terms! They do not like being dragged into a tub; they definitely do not like being showered in the tub; and they absolutely detest the use of shampoo when they're being showered in the tub! She spent the hour after the shower perched on top of the television (nice and warm there!), preening herself before her date with the vet...

Dinner at the Golden Dragon was a rather tame affair for a birthday bash. The highlight was being able to catch on film the act of plastering cake over the birthday boy's face! He did make quite an eyecatching ad for their pastry shop - walking through the restaurant with the pink, white and chocolate spread settled on his face...
1:44 PM Saturday, November 15, 2003

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plan C?
With appropriate apologies to my pencil chewing buddy for putting his email up on the big bad internet...

Hey! Eastern Europe visa processing takes along while.. and is all done at Delhi.. seems like a tough call for the time at hand... what can be managed...

Egypt : visa easy to get.. and good season to go.. i suggest we take a 3 night hotel stay at cairo and the rest figure out when we go... visas to be processed in Mumbai

Greece : same story....

Guess will stick to egypt.. what say you???


Sorry Nadiya, plan B was eastern Europe, and since that seems to have dropped off the map too, we're now on plan C. No Baltimore just yet :).

Can you now tell why we we're armchair travellers? :)
10:17 AM Friday, November 14, 2003

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pipe dreams
Dear Sirs,
Indians require a visa to visit Mongolia. We have an embassy in New Delhi. I am not sure about the best flyways to Mongolia, out of India. But I presume you can consider flights to Beijing or Seoul (the latter perhaps do not require a South Korean visa...).

Mongolia is very very cold in the winter. Around 10-15 degrees centigrade below zero (freezing in daytime and around below 25-25 during night time. There are hotels only in the capital. We do offer some winter trips in the countryside, such as ice skating expeditions. We have no visitors in Mongolia at this point, and our office in Ulan Bator is closed for the next 14 days. I have duty and respond to you from South America. I will be in the jungle for the next 12 days. After this, I would be happy to guide you further.

Cordially

JAN WIGSTEN
Nomadic Journeys Ltd.


Interesting chappies and cordial response; I'm suddenly a little less hopeful about our trip being anything but an armchair traveller's dream... need to find plan B!
8:34 PM Wednesday, November 12, 2003

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Mongolia... anyone?
A friend of mine and me are intent on travelling to Mongolia over the holiday season coming up at year end!

For those of you might be panicking - with good reason! It'll be a little hard settling IOUs from Mongolia :) - this is an annual ritual. Every year we decide to visit someplace exotic. We figure where to go, and sometimes even what to do there. We find out how to get there, and what's good to eat. And then we don't go. It's quite simple, really. It's a lot of fun too!

I don't want this trip going the same way - I'm really hoping to make it there! So we've started to nose around on what the avenues are available and if we'll need to walk across the Gobi desert to get there...
9:56 PM Monday, November 10, 2003

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It'd been almost a year since I've eaten at Our Place. Their outdoor setting makes it one of nice places to eat out when the weather gods aren't playing truant - and they've done a lot of work keeping the mosquitoes away!

Finally got around to trying to Champagne brunch at Fusion 9. They were very disappointed that we just tried the welcome drink and eggs - but I will come back on an empty stomach to gorge myself on the endless supply of breads, salads, pastas, pizzas and stir-fry options interspersed with unlimited drinks - vodka, beer, fruit juices and soft drinks. All that, without getting to the dessert buffet which offers peppermint mousse, black forest, ice creams and fruit salads!

A friend was recently telling me I eat out way too much for my own good. I think I'm beginning to understand what he was talking about!
6:16 AM Sunday, November 09, 2003

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a simple thing has gotten lost in these sequels: they're not much fun : We headed back to the IMAX on Saturday to catch the rest of The Matrix : Revolutions. The last time we tried watching it (Nov 6 post) - it ended up in a disaster with the projector failing thirty minutes before the movie's end. This time around, we got slightly better seats, but we found out we'd already seen the best parts of the movie!

The ending is weak, and most of the zing in the movie comes from the special effects and the scenes from Zion's heroic last stand against a swarming army of squid-like Sentinels. The title of the post (stolen from a Newsweek review) summed up our mood at the end.

What I liked about the first movie was how easily they conveyed the concept of the Matrix. The special effects were cool, but its that idea that made the movie way cool. The sequels mostly bring only the special effects.

Like Newsweek says, the Wachowski brothers are mortal :).
5:00 AM Saturday, November 08, 2003

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mad hatters in the old city
Ended up heading into the "old city" part of Hyderabad, near the the Charminar! We were in search of the elusive kebab joints that people assure us exist there - and after propelling enough human traffic through the roads (that's what driving means, in that part of town) - we arrived at Shadaab. This is a popular place for haleem, and is right opposite Hotel Madina - which my driver assures me is the oldest hotel in Hyderabad. Having seen it - even if only the facade - I do not doubt him.

Enjoyed a wide range of yummy food, got stuffed, and spent the next hour walking down the main street, gawking at all the bright neon ligths, the brisk pace and the hawkers vending clothes, perfumes, traditional caps and bangles! We decided it'd be fun to buy traditional muslim prayer caps for some colleagues, and bargained vigorously until we got some fairly intricate ones for what we thought was a steal at twenty rupees! I gave one to Ghouse (my driver), who was kicked no end to see us wearing them! It'll be fun to watch the others come into office on Monday and try to figure out how they're expected to use them :). The looks we got when we came back into work afterwords, were hilarious...
9:40 PM Friday, November 07, 2003

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some of the most interesting people in the world...
One of the things I absolutely love about my workplace is the interesting people we get to work with! A brief chat with a visiting colleague about some old Hyderabadi coins he managed to buy ended up with me realising that he'd worked as an egyptologist and then as a geologist, before deciding he wanted to settle into something nice, peaceful and sedate, and entered the IT industry. I'm not sure that's how I'd describe my exposure to the IT industry, but talking to him about the kind of challenges they had to grapple with in his previous roles, sure had me convinced for a while :)
4:46 AM

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disaster strikes... and not just at Zion!
The theory of parallel universes, simply stated, assumes that all outcomes that can take place do in fact take place; each outcome in a different "parallel universe". Yeah, there're places more credible than Jet Li's The One where this argument is made!

If you ever happen to end up in a parallel universe, where you're in Hyderabad, with the option of watching the premiere show of The Matrix : Revolutions at both Sangeet (forty rupees a seat) and the super-duper, ultra cool Imax (hundred and eighty rupees a seat) - do not, I repeat, do not pick the Imax experience! Not only did we end up on the second row from the front (my neck still hurts!); the 15 minute intermission was extended in five minute increments to almost an hour before they cancelled the show and had us queue up for refunds because of a projector failure!

I promised folks I wouldn't release any spoilers for the movie - so all I'll say is that if the second movie in the trilogy was disappointing, this final one will redeem it all! It's packed with lots of incredible action coupled with mind blowing pace and awesome special effects! Not as much of the lovey-dovey stuff either.

It's going to be a long wait till Sunday, which is probably the earliest I'll be able to watch it again. If you live in the same parallel universe as me, please pray for my soul while I bide my time...
1:04 PM Wednesday, November 05, 2003

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Yess!!! I have tickets to The Matrix : Revolutions on the 5th of November - the launch date! Even if its the late evening show... now if only the audience is better behaved than when the last one the trilogy came here!

And we're going karting yet again on Thursday! This is going to be one busy week; and not so much with work for a change!

I've been trying to work on a Powerpoint deck since morning - and haven't gotten very far into it, with all the other things happening during the day. I hope to spend a serious hour on it before its ready enough to pull more people in to collaborate on finishing it. Traditional Japanese businesses have used an 10interesting approach called Nemawashi - which implies prior consultation and agreement on the topics to be put forth, so by the time the decision is being discussed in a meeting - all the stakeholders have already been heard, and have bought into the proposal. While I don't think that's how we run our business - there are these delicate times when that seems the wisest approach :)
8:32 AM Tuesday, November 04, 2003

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Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes...
I've finished a year in Hyderabad! It's amazing how swiftly time has flown by... This is the eighth city I've lived in; and while the first few months were rocky (pun intended, for you Hyderabadis) - I quite like it here now! Finishing a year made me think back to the lyrics of the song Seasons of Love from the musical Rent - which brought back a flood of memories from the time when I first watched it live - still settling into yet another new city, with a lot of things happening in life!

Seasons of Love (heavily abridged)

Five hundred twenty -five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty -five thousand six hundred moments so dear
Five hundred twenty -five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure -- measure a year ?
In daylights -- In sunsets
In midnights -- In cups of coffee
In inches -- In miles
In laughter -- In strife

Five hundred twenty -five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty -five thousand
Journeys to plan
Five hundred twenty -five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure the life
Of a woman or a man?
In truths that she learned
Or in times that he cried
In bridges he burned
Or the way that she died
It's time now - to sing out
Tho' the story never ends
Let's celebrate
Remember a year in the life of friends

10:40 AM Sunday, November 02, 2003

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food for both the mind and stomach...
I now have so many unread books lying around the house that I don't know which to start on next! I've successfully procrastinated for a while - pretended to make a start, by reading two pages each from four books - but I'm pretty much still where I started!

Read an interesting article on why bookshops will die. I buy about half my books online, and another half at bookshops. I buy books I know I want to buy online. I enter bookshops to browse, lounge, flip through books and often surprise myself by what I end up picking up! With the way online sites are adding new features, brick and mortar bookshops need to do a lot to keep pulling the crowds in.

I think I will start on Execution : The discipline of getting things done - a recent gift from the corporate honchos at work.

I've found a new hole-in-the-wall near home that caters to the local populace with ten rupee thalis, and sixteen rupee "chicken rice". Most people at my workplace wouldn't be caught dead eating there, but I'm crazy enough to have taken a liking to it - when I'm too lazy to do anything proper about a meal (and not lazy enough to eat a pack of Frito Lays). They're very nice to me - probably because I'm the only visitor who uses four wheels to get there!

Come November, Hyderabad is full of stalls springing up to serve haleem - a delicious muslim speciality, served primarily during Ramzan. Will go try some stalls - ideally in the older city; should be safer than our adventures finding it "off-season"...
8:39 AM

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Gandhi, Go-Karting and Camels
Gandhi makes an interesting subject for cartoons! There's a hundred and seventeen of them at this site! Its been a while since I've read his Experiments with Truth, but it was amazing how more than the events, and the actions, it was his moral courage and the strength of his beliefs that came through.

We'd gone go-karting at Runway 9 today. Since most of the group were still "developing" a passion for it, we quit after ~30 laps. I think the most I've every done on a good day is about 80 to 100 laps! Given the track length of 711 meters, that's about 71km of driving, 3 inches off the ground!

I'm looking forward to visiting again during the JK races later this month. Karting is more about the lines you take on the track, than it is about acceleration. Races are won and lost on the curves - and it'll be fun to see how the really good drivers control the track!

We ended up at Dhola-ri-Dhani - an "ethnic Rajasthani resort" for dinner. The veg fare is sumptuous and they're very liberal with the amount of ghee they use! We swiftly discovered why they had the charpoys sprinkled around the gardens, as we settled into them to lounge, watch the moon and digest the food before we were off on our way back to the city!
10:15 AM Saturday, November 01, 2003

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