SSM, randomized

Dear Vinay

2005-01-14T15:15:00.000-08:00

The cold. The bitter cold at 13000 feet.

But he couldn't feel it. Now & then, he opened his eyes. All white around him. And closed them again. And moaned.

It was a change to be lying down on the ground. it was a relief not to think about which rock formation to hide behind. Or where the next bullet was going to come from. They had been pinned down. Out of ammunition. Out of water. The blessed stared blankly, long having said their goodbyes, frozen into final gestures.

They were rescued eventually. But the 80% unit casualty rate was maintained.

The chopper came in fast and low, skimming the ground. He could feel himself being lifted, and jolted as his stretcher was carried into the chopper.

The chopper arced around and sped away, even before the doors were closed. The co-pilot walked back, trying to keep from slipping on the slick red floor. They hadn't had time to wash out the chopper for a couple of days. Too many sorties.

He opened his eyes. Solitary words in a fog. "Dear Vinay .... papers came through .... i knew you would understand .... still be friends ...thank you again... love ..."

The chopper landed at the base, and the door was thrown open. One look at the officer on the stretcher, and the medic said, wearily "Nope - he didn't make it".

The list was updated. Captain Vinay Singh Shekhawat, 2nd Rajputana Rifles.

Gourmet ghetto ... in my mind :-)

2005-01-10T15:57:00.000-08:00

Sorry, sapna. A retread is all I could muster up today :) ... for all you veterans from that other place, some of you might have read this already !

This, btw, was inspired by dogmatix's great 2-part walkabout around the kitchens of India - dogmatix' Confessions of a glutton, part-1 , and Confessions of a glutton, part-2 . And Ananth's comment about beaches, food & friends in some blog at the time (sorry, finding that link again was too much of a sherlockian task for me :)

I thought I'd put together a random list of interesting restaurants I've eaten at ..it's just a personal ramble .. some good food, sometimes with great friends, sometimes alone ... but these come to mind when I started writing this...some of these places - I haven't been back in ages, so I'm not even sure they're around any more ! .. And sorry the blog turned out much longer than I'd thought ...

Starting with Madras.......... I wasn't around at that midnight hour when Madras went to sleep and woke up as Chennai .... so please bear with me if I continue to use the old word .... the new name just doesn't ring true in my ears :-)..:-)

** Naethal, Besant Nagar beach .... this was the place which came to mind when I read Ananth's comments. So many pleasant evenings by the shore, so many conversations.... the friends from that time are all over the globe now, and we haven't met for close to 10 years..

** Rangi's, Nungambakkam .... very nice no-nonsense inexpensive Chinese food

** Woodlands Drive-In, Nungambakkam .... this place was so laid-back, that it was a favorite place for just hanging out... lots of coffee, (and sometimes nothing else on student-budget days :-)) ... memorable Irish coffee one crazy evening, courtesy some smuggled-in leftover Old-Monk :-)

Bangalore ... the city where I was born, and spent a considerable amount of time in the Cambridge Road area, before we moved to Madras...

** Rice Bowl, Brigade Rd ...... innumerable dinners, for a while this defined indian-chinese food for me, it's been a while ..

** that crazy biriyani take-out place on commercial street

** a small hole-in-the-wall gem (mitthaiwala ???) on commercial street .. with small cylindrical gulab jamuns.. you had to get there as soon as they were made, or they'd be sold out...the only way, as a kid, I could be bribed into going along for a shopping trip in that crowded Commercial street area

** MTR, Lalbagh area ...... don't go there much now, but when I was a kid growing up with my grand-parents, my g-dad had this favorite grocery store nearby, and we'd go there about once a month.. the high point in that trek for me was dosas at MTR ... think about it, my g-dad was crazy, we lived in Cambridge Layout.. all the way to Lalbagh just for groceries, he must have been nuts :-)

Pune ... I love this city, even though I was there for barely 6 months... but so many favorite places that Pune needs a foodie-blog in its own right :-).. here are a couple though ..

** Shreyas, Deccan gymkhana area ..... the most mind-blowing Maharashtrian veggie food I've had (with my buddy's home in Gopalapuram coming a close second)

** Vaishali, Fergusson College Rd .... this one's here because of the sheer number of times I was there .. sometimes it was as if we were there every evening

Delhi .... never spent too much time here, it was just a pit-stop on the way to & from college...

** Kaaka da dhaaba, CP area .... basic food at its best. There were times (esp. those crazy days at the end of a semester) when we had just enough money for food here, followed by ice-cream at Nirulas :-)

** Coconut grove, Ashok Hotel complex ... I'm sure there are many more now, but at the time, there were few places elsewhere where you could get such great authentic Keralite food .. (it helped that this was owned by a buddy's uncle, so the dinners were free too - student-heaven :-))

And a couple of restaurants from outside India ..

** Empress of India, Santa Clara .... I go there very rarely now, but many years ago when I was a bachelor, I used to go very often . Run by this absolutely charming, if eccentric, Anglo-Indian lady called Jean from Lucknow. There was no menu, just dinner cooked according to her whim. And if she liked you, you'd order one dish ... but end up sitting there for hours while Jean would come by every now & then saying "SSM, you've absolutely got to try this quail (or asparagus or whatever...) ...hang around, what's the hurry.."

** Madhu's Brilliant, London .... we went there once 4 years ago for a great reunion with my wife's family. I still remember two dishes I could die for -- "prawn aachari" & "tandoori salmon" ...my wife's aunt, who I'm probably more close to than my mom even, had just gotten over a traumatic illness.... we haven't been able to get together again .. and my wife's grandmom has aged so much in the last few years that even a 10-hr flight from India to London is probably too much for her.. ..... A photo from that time is now very very precious ..

Vishnu Schist, by moonlight (part 1)

2004-12-30T15:37:00.000-08:00

The sun was going down when I made my way back to the campsite. Fired up the camping stove and started heating some water. There was enough time to make some tea before making my way up. I looked up at the rim, 5000 feet above. The tiny buildings glittered with the reflections from the setting sun.

Tea done, and pan wiped & packed away. I put my hands behind my head & stretched. Looked around the campsite, trying to find some excuse to delay the long hike back up the canyon. I heard approaching footsteps crunching on the gravel behind him. It was a park ranger.

"Hi there. My name's Jenny. I have you down for 2 more nights in the canyon. Tonight here, and tomorrow at the Indian Gardens campsite"

"Actually, something's come up. I need to get back home tomorrow. I was thinking of hiking out tonight"

"A night hike - all the way to the rim ??" .. she looked at me, sizing me up. "Have you done it before ?"

"Oh sure", I replied. "I've been coming here for years".

"Well, have a safe hike back up". Guess I passed her scrutiny.

I hated breaking camp. Especially when I'd just started getting used to the rhythm of camping out. Maybe next time, I'd come & stay here for a whole week. Maybe explore some side canyons. But this chore had to be completed. I packed away everything. Tightened the cinch-straps. And then had an idea. I took off my boots & socks, and waded into the creek behind the campsite. The water was nice & cold. A jolt of ice.

Did it happen 8 long years ago ? Felt like yesterday. Same place, but different time of year. It was summer then. Hot as hell. Maybe hotter than hell.

You know how it is on a trail. People with roughly the same walking pace as you - you're bound to keep bumping into them. After saying "Hi" for the 3rd time in 2 hours, I was sprawled under the shade of some rocks. Mixing some Gatorade powder in the water. She came around the corner just then. Smiled. A lot wider than the last time. We exchanged names this time. And got to chatting some more as we took a breather. We walked down the last stretch to the river together. She was an amateur geologist, and she pointed out the 2000-million-year old dark-steel bedrock as we passed through the rock formation. Vishnu Schist, she called it.

A few hours later. Dinner over, communal style at the tiny lodge at Phantom Ranch. Meat stew & bread had never tasted so good before.

We walked back to the campsite together. I don't remember what we talked.
Just that we talked a lot. Took a six-pack to the creek running by the side of the campsite, and let the water cool the beer.

It was getting late, and the campsite had quietened down. We were left to ourselves by the creek-side.

"I'm going to go in for a dip before I turn in", she said.

I sheepishly grinned "wish I could join you - but I don't know to swim, you know"

She burst out laughing. "It's not more than chest-deep at the deepest point"

I stripped down to my shorts and stepped gingerly into the water. She took off her shirt & pants and dived in, stroking smoothly to the other side of the creek. She turned around, started back towards me & went underwater. Suddenly my legs gave way, and I went under. I came up, splutterring & coughing. And she was standing there, a huge grin on her face.

She looked at me, then moved closer. Ripples in the moonlight.

Vada-pav this.

2004-12-21T15:07:00.000-08:00

Another boring interview lined up for the day. But the boss was insistent we hired someone right away.

I got a call from the security desk downstairs. "Yeah ?? .. sure, I'll be there in a second".

I shook hands, got him a visitor tag and signed him in. Waiting for the elevators, I glanced up & noticed his face for the first time.

Goddamn .. this guy looked so familiar. Well, another desi, god knows where I'd run into him before.

Polite conversations, a trip to the break room to pick up some coffee, and we then settled down.

I gave him a little spiel about the position, a high level view of what our group did, and where we fit in the company's strategy.

I asked him to tell me about himself - his background, his major in school, and all that. Looked at his resume for the first time.

Jeez .. no wonder this guy looked so familiar .. it had been years, but still.

I was one of those scholarship cases in that school .. a poor dumb shit like me in the middle of all these boat club types. Most of the guys were OK - they just let me be. But there was one group of particularly nasty bastards, who looked at me like I was the turd on the sidewalk they stepped aside to avoid.

I was working at this small snack shop on the days I was free .. some nights, some times on weekends, and during the holidays. Some extra money. Things were pretty tight at home those days. One day, I looked up .. and fuck - there were these guys from school. They came up, and ordered vada pav. Lots of laughing, smirking. I bet they recognized me, and they just wanted to make me squirm.

After that, I was always "vada pav" to them in school. Not funny, you bastards. I kept my cool. Now & then, they dropped by the snack shop in their bikes & cars. Figured I was their evening entertainment.

Well, I passed out finally from that school. Lots of stuff happened since then. Good college happened. And tons of other things after that. Now seems like a bad dream I once had.

The interview was meandering. I knew that. But I had to let it take its course.

We wound down. Shook hands. Looked at his face again. Didn't look like he'd recognized me. Why would I expect that ?

I walked him down to the lobby, signed him out, and promised to get back to him.

Came back to my desk, and emailed my boss ... "Not really sure about this one. Let's pass on this, and look at some more resumes".

Vada-pav this, motherfucker.

Next stop, Timbuktu ...:-)

2004-12-14T13:54:00.000-08:00

This one goes out to buck & adithi, fellow-Timbuktu-travellers. And suresh (faint memories of some buckwaas). And tocsin, notwithstanding his busted-speaker-analogy :-)))

"For some people, when you say "Timbuktu" it is like the end of the world, but that is not true. I am from Timbuktu, and I can tell you we are right at the heart of the world". - Ali Farka Toure

A few weeks ago, a dear buddy gave me a CD of that musician from Mali, Habib Koite. And that sent me on a trip, pulling out long-forgotten CDs from the back of my shelf, and buying a few more. I thought I'd write about West African music in general, but it looks like I have enough material to talk about a few fine ladies & gentlemen from Mali alone, the source of some fantastic musicians. The rest of Africa can wait for a later blog !

I got to start with the master-bluesman, the legendary Ali Farka Toure. Sometimes called the West African version of John Lee Hooker. Which is selling him short, IMHO. This guy has been playing for years. Listen to his collaboration with Ry Cooder called Talking Timbuktu. This is as bluesy as it gets. It's fascinating how AFT plays electric and Cooder plays acoustic on one song, and then they switch on some other songs. Like on the song called "Amandrai", check out Ry Cooder going nuts on the slide guitar. And the voice - gravelly, deep. Blues-voice, according to God-described-specifications. This one is a good intro, if you've never heard AFT before. Trivia - the last song on this album, "Diaraby", will be familiar to you if you listen to NPR's World - the hourlong daily newsmagazine on radio. And if you like blues, this is a must-have. Irrespective of your Mali-affinity :-) .... Another very nice album, more "roots-ish" is Radio Mali. It's a fascinating look at Ali Farka Toure's work *before* he hit the world stage.

On to Habib Koite. May I humbly suggest the double-album "Foly - Habib Koite & Bamada" .. with live recordings from a 2002 European tour. Kick-ass is an understatement. Lots of things come together on this album ... Koite's shimmering work on the acoustic guitar (De-Silva, if you're listening, you gotta get this album, buddy), and then Bamada itself is a crack outfit. With Diabate on the balafon, a sort-of-wooden-xylophone, and lots of other very interesting percussion work. Like the Karinyang, an iron-scraper percussion instrument, that sounds like that knife-sharpening wheel that used to be brought around on a cart to houses in India, to sharpen kitchen knives. No new unreleased songs in this album, there are Koite's classics like "Batoumambe" that have appeared on prior studio albums. But there's an energy unmatched in some live recordings. And then the fact they appear to be having a whale of a time, jamming away. Most of the songs are around 7-10 minutes long. "Foly" rocks ! .. Look to Habib Koite's other studio albums for a more pensive & spare sound.

And then, Oumou Sangare. I would recommend the album called "Oumou" .. a 2-disc compilation. I don't know how to pin it down .. maybe I could call it folk-blues. Oumou's distinctively fabulous throaty voice reminds me of all those old blues-divas. Anyone heard Big Mama Thornton belting out "Hound Dog", for instance ?

My cousin who was visiting us during Thanksgiving dropped a couple more names into the hat. She'd seen Rokia Traore live in London and recommended her highly. I need to check her out. The Amazon sound-clips sound pretty interesting. Very simply, this lady has great music in her genes. Her dad is Boubacar Traore aka "Kar Kar", another bluesman, who accompanied Ali Farka Toure on the Radio Mali album. Recommended albums: "Kar Kar", and "Macire" (where Habib Koite and Kar Kar exchange some really tasty guitar licks)

One last name for this edition .. Afel Bocoum. A protege of Ali Farka Toure. Where AFT frequently sounds a lot like American blues, Bocoum is a lot more traditional. His guitar-playing reminds you of the master, but the vocal style is a lot folk-ish. Like the give-and-go with the chorus, for instance.

OK then, folks. Time-out. :-))

If wishes were horses - dream destinations (Locks, SSM)

2004-12-10T15:53:00.000-08:00

This blog is a joint effort between Locks & me. Locks had the idea – of starting an email thread where we could tell each other our Dream Destinations (“if wishes were horses”, as she says :-)). And we thought we’d share our list of Dream Destinations with you. Locks did all the hard work of capturing the email threads into a single document and then editing it to remove the superfluous stuff. Hope you guys like it as much as we did on our virtual travels. We literally went all over the globe … Thanjavur to Lucknow to Cordoba to the Bahamas.

Enjoy !!!!!!

---------------------------

Locks: Wow... if wishes were horses, etc. etc. etc...:-)
Tell me some of your dream destinations, SSM...One each, oki? Istanbul. YOur
turn..:-)

SSM: Cairo... Back to you !

Locks: Ohh. I've done Cairo... Okay, my next dream destination. This time,
it's the Ganga. I want to trek it all way upto the mouth of the Ganga...
Along all the towns it passes by... I feel that it'll be an immensely
spiritual and divine experience...You go next! Oops, you've gotta explain
why it's your DD, dream dest, i.e. I want to go to Istanbul because the
place intrigues me. The Islamic culture, the historical significance... the
Blue mosque. You know, Cairo is an Islamic city too but amazingly liberal.
No rules of purdah or anything.. and very warm people.

SSM: Gangotri & Gomukh ... don't even get me started. Missed a chance to go with my friends when I was in Pilani. It was late in the semester, I was short of funds, and I thought - not a big deal, I can always do this.. but no :-( .. and then to make up for that, the year we were graduating, we
thought we'd go to Rohthang Pass ... but no - late winter that year
...bummer !

Hey I like this game.

OK, a backpack trip now ... you already know about this ... Mt. Everest Base
Camp .. I've read almost everything there is to read about mountain climbing &
Himalayas in particular. I doubt if I'd ever learn skills to that extent
that I might attempt mountain climbing. But I want to get to the Base Camp -
that's the least I can do. Stuff of dreams (all the way from childhood days)

Locks: Oki, my next place.. is the typical one. Paris. I know, I know..
cliched choice but it's the first DD I ever had. Roadside cafes, local
bands, the sheer romance.... underground tunnels... this was a sitter...:-)

SSM: "DD" ?? You know what it's wierd .. I love the places on your list too, but I'll just keep thinking of new ones :-)

Prague ... just the mention of that name conjures up romantically mysterious
images ... I read a great book (& the movie too) based in Prague .. The
Unbearable Lightness of Being.... and then I saw Krystok Keislowski's
masterpiece The Double Life of Veronique (starring the ethereally
beautiful Irene Jacob) ... :-)

Locks: Prague... Seems to be lovely, I know. Russia is next on mine... I saw 'The Saint' and loved the look of the place. St. Petersburg Square snowed over, the Communist history... all that and more... lovely! Moscow,
Leningrad...

SSM: To continue our game ...closer home this time - Lucknow - I've seen so many old Hindi movies, and I've heard that Lucknavi hindi is
superlatively stylish .. that I've got to go sometime to check it for
myself. And I heard the local food is fabulous. Your turn :-)

Locks: Ok... now that we're going Indiawards... I'd like to go to Ajmer. For
the Urs festival, actually.. It's a festival sometime May, at the dargah of
the Sufi saint, Moinuddin Chisti... You get to experience the true Sufi
spirit since a lot of Sufi followers gather there.. and you get to hear the
Sufi qawaalis... I find the Sufi concept beautiful... So selfless and
giving. Ajmer it is... :-)

SSM: wow, Ajmer. OK .. the next place .. I don't have a name, but I know what I want .. a place somewhere deep inside Kerala .. lush green fields ..
a river .. long walks at dusk with that incredibly beautiful late afternoon
sunshine for company .. fruit trees .. fresh-cut jackfruit ... and
chakkapradhaman for dessert. I've been an urban-dweller all my life, and
I've been dreaming for a long time about visiting a place like this. Can you
think of any names for me - if you've been to a place like this ?

Locks: You could visit Alwaye, I think. Oki.. Lucknow appears on my list
too... Food, food and more food! Plus the olde-worlde charm of North India
and all that Urdu-Hindi... I think I am over-doing it??!!! 'Umrao Jaan' was
based in Lucknow so that's another reason...:-)

SSM: OK, next ... Diving the "Walls" & "Blue Holes" of the Bahamas...these are fantastic underwater formations... first I'd have to learn scuba diving though. Here's a link:

Walls and Blue Holes – Bahamas

Sounds yummy, isn't it ?

Locks: Checked out the link you sent me... Looks plain WOW! I dunno
scuba-diving either.. But looks like it's worth learning. You know, one of
the best spots to scuba-dive is Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt.. Check this..
Sharm-el-Sheikh
Along the Red Sea, this place is swamped by European tourists because it's
one of the best place to find coral reefs and scuba-dive.
Oki, my next one is Ladakh. I was reading a book(which I didn't complete!)
called 'Tournament of Shadows'. It was mainly about the history of Central
Asia and how British officials used to travel all over trying to find out
new lands and bring them under British rule. Great book, should have
completed it...:-( The book contains lovely descriptions of Ladakh, the lake
Manasarovar, the Buddhist monasteries around the lake... You'll probably
love it...Ladakh it is...
Why do I feel that you're gonna hit me with Tibet next????!!!!

SSM: Sharm-El-Sheikh ... yeah I heard a lot about this place.
OK my turn now ..

My next place .. I've always been fascinated by accounts of seeing the
"Northern Lights" ... the phenomenon called "Aurora Borealis"... so my next
DD would be any place where I can these fascinating shows in the sky.... I
guess that means somewhere near the Arctic Circle in Alaska :-)

check out:

Aurora Borealis -1

Aurora Borealis – 2

Locks: I've heard about the 'Northern Lights' too... Shall check out the
links you sent... Well, since you didn't mention Tibet, I shall do so.
Tibet it is.. All that mystery and reserve of that country.. The way it shut
its doors to the rest of the world. Plus hearing loads about '12 years in
Tibet' from my husband; gotta watch the film. Tibet it is...

SSM: We're still batting strong here.. each & every place you mentioned is a
gem. Yup, I left Tibet for you :-)
my next DD ..

The Cave of Swimmers, Gilf Kebir region, North Africa. Remember the movie
'The English Patient' where Almasy (the character played by Ralph Fiennes)
discovers the cave with ancient rock art of swimming natives ... pointing to
the fact that the area had water many eons ago ?

It would be an incredibly fascinating experience to go into the North
African desert and hike into this "Cave of Swimmers". I'd saved a link
sometime ago that talked about the actual "Cave of Swimmers" .. and Almasy
was a real-life explorer in the 1930's.

Cave of Swimmers, Gelf Kebir

Locks: Well, I'd written about how I started reading film scripts online and
read the script of 'The English Patient' . I loved the script, it was so
touching and passionate. Ironically, I haven't watched the film yet. Before
I knew that Kristin Scott T played the role of Catherine, I imagined Kate
Winslet. I recall that discussion on winds that Catherine and Almasy have...
Plus, I love Ralph Fiennes..:-)
Anyways, my DD is Venice. A few years back, I read 'Agony and Ecstasy' which
is based on the life of Michaelangelo. I'd love to go see the Sistine chapel
and all of his other creations. 'David' and 'Pieta' too, I believe... Maybe
I should say Italy instead of Venice. Gondolas, waterways, art galleries...
The Colosseum and so many other historical places..
Italy it is! Your turn!

SSM: Oh my God ... you plucked Venice right out of my mind. No, no, don't
say Italy. Let's just take one fabulous Italian city after another, one by
one. Venice -> have you seen the movie 'The Talented Mr.Ripley' ... there
are some very nice scenes shot there in the second half of the movie.

we're still in Italy (and we'll be there for a while ... too many places
there for a quick visit !!!)

Next stop, Florence :-)))))

Epicenter of the Renaissance, under the patronage of the Medici's.. what can
I say, architecture, sculpture, painting, Donatello, Brunelleschi, Leonardo
da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Rafaello, Ponte Vicchio...

I have goosebumps on my hands, just writing down those names.. I'll be in
heaven when I go to Florence. No "if we're going", just "when we're going"..

Locks: Ok, I go along with Florence... But my next stop would be Rome. In
fact, Rome and Paris are two of the oldest DDs I ever had... My dad has
visited Italy and he bought this lovely book full of miniature
representations of the sculptures and paintings... They were so lovely. Rome
I have to visit.. and that shall happen soon, I think. The incredible sense
of art and culture.. Plus the strong sense of religion. I feel really
touched in the face of such a strong sense of faith.. Even though I am not a
believer as the term 'believer' goes... But that's another discussion...:-)

SSM: OK ... after Rome, let's take a break. And let's combine two things -
my passion for Italian food & wines .. and our combined interests in
history/faith/belief (now that you told me)...

You know what we're going to go see, right ? .. The Shroud of Turin :-) ..
and the surrounding Piedmont area in Northern Italy. Home of the nebbiolo
grape ... and the *extremely* good Barolo red wines. Mountains, lakes,
castles, great food & wine... time to indulge, what do you say ?

have a look ->

Piedmont region, Italy

and if I may suggest a place to stay, this awesome-looking hotel on a lake !

Humble dwellings !!

Over to you, buddy !

Locks: Aah.. the more I read of Italy, the more fascinating it sounds.. I
suppose that should be the first place I must plan a trip to...:-) Piedmont
looks lovely... really beautiful! Well, the next place on my list would be
Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. You know, I love Indian classical music. Thanjavur is
the birthplace of Thyagaraja who is one of the Trinity of Carnatic Classical
music. He was a brillant composer and all his compositions are in Telugu.
Every year his birthday is celebrated in Thanjavur. Musicians from all over
congregate and there is a performance. There are five compositions that he's
composed which go by the name of Pancharatna Krithi. All five of these are
played/sung , whatever may be the case. The event takes place in a giant
pandal with some 500 odd artists all singing/playing together... Vocal,
violin, mrudangam, ... the works. It's one of the largest orchestral
performance I've ever seen. I've seen this event live on Doordarshan so many
times and have always wished I could be there myself. Besides, I love each
one of these five compositions myself. A greater dream would be to be there
myself, playing among the greats... WOW! Thyagaraja Aradhana, as the event
name goes, is now conducted at various places this time of the year. The
Hindu Temple, Atlanta is hosting it mid-May. I know that it's happening in
Portland and some other places too.
So that's my next destination.. You go next..:-)

SSM: That's Thirivaiyyaru, right ? I've seen it on TV too, many years ago
... the sight of all those legends singing together gives me the goose-bumps
too. Must be a great experience !

OK, from one gorgeous Hindu temple town to another. Yours lives, mine is
extinct.

Angkor Wat, 12th century masterpiece, supreme example of the spread of
Hinduism in Asia. Jewel of the architectural accomplishments of the Khmer
empire in ancient Cambodia. Dedicated to Vishnu. It's (seriously, very very
seriously) on my
gotta-see-before-I-die list of places on earth.

you know, I was going to say Kanchipuram - but then I've been there. But
that's another fantastic temple town. I was there last year .. and we wanted
to take my daughter to Dad's ancient family temple. A tiny rundown shrine,
but it's been renovated by my dad & a cousin in memory of their fathers.
It's right behind the *drop-dead-gorgeous* 7th century Pallava temple -
the Kailasanathar temple. I was talking to some Archeological Society folks
who were working on the temple when we went there .. and I think I must have
sounded pretty enthusiastic.. he took us on a personal impromptu tour
highlighting the restoration work he was involved in. Turns out the original
paintings on the stone walls were of brilliant colored vegetable dyes....
ill-conceived people over the ages had just applied plaster over the
gorgeous paintings. He showed us some places where they had managed to chip
away at the plaster uncovering the brilliantly-colored paintings.

Sorry to move to another country, feel free to jet back from Cambodia to
India !!!

Locks: You're right; the place is Thiruvaiyyaru... I keep confusing the name
with Thanjavur. I haven't visited all those beautiful temples down South.
Wonder when that trip will happen.. Madurai Meenakshi, Kancheepuram,
Chidambaram... so many
remain. Maybe I can put that down as my next entry... All the lovely temples
in TN. You know, once we made a visit to Udupi. I recall the feel of that
tiny town. It seemed to consist of a single road with shops selling flowers
and pooja materials alongside and the temple at the end of the road. We were
put up in a small guest-house. The caretaker was a young woman who manned
the guest-house and managed a small coffee stall. She made superb coffee, I
remember... And the thought that flashed across my mind was...' This is a
lovely way to spend my life; living in a small temple town and selling
filter coffee to devotees and tourists. Simple needs, a peaceful and
tranquil and God-fearing existence... !'

SSM: OK, temples in TN... to a couple of awesome churches in London. St.
Pauls & Westminster. Hard not to feel a sense of history when you walk thru
those churches. Especially, Westminster, when you go to the basement, and
walk past the crypts of so many kings & queens down the ages. And those
flag-stones with famous peoples' names on them .. I spent hours there.

And there's this awe-inspiring photo of St. Paul's Cathedral during the time
of the blitz in World War 2... standing proud amidst the rubble & the smoke
of a bombed-out city... amazing photograph.

Check it out ->

St. Pauls, London during the Blitz

Locks: Well, forgot to mention one of my earliest DDs. I've wanted to go
there ever since I saw one of those awesome documentaries on Nat Geo or
Discovery, I forget which. Greece it is... The sea such an incredible shade
of ink-blue.. the sky just a shade paler. The islands of Mykonos.. and
another name which escapes me presently. I love that sight. I'd visited
Hurghada, a town along the Red Sea in Egypt and marvelled at how such a
magnificient shade of blue could ever exist... I'd love to visit Greece
someday. Go sailing over those blue waters... Visit the ancient monuments
and the relics of one of the
oldest and developed Western civilizations.. Pottery and sculptures. Must be
sheer magic, I am sure... And see what how
beautiful can a Greek Goddess be.. I am not such a big fan of Greek food
though my husband is...

SSM: OK ... we'll stay in the Mediterranean region, but we'll move west. Hop
across the boot of Italy, steam west across the Mediterranean Sea. Landfall
is Cartagena in Spain (I'm looking at an online map as I'm typing this :-)).
We're not done yet. We have a overland journey now. Due West. Till we come
to the ancient Moor capital Cordoba ..

.. and the magnificent Great Mosque of Cordoba.

Look at this picture of the mosque's interior. Does it strike you - that ,
perhaps, Escher was inspired by Moor architecture ? In fact, I could google
this, but I'm quite positive I remember seeing something similar in one of
Escher's works.

Great Mosque, Cordoba

Locks: That mosque looks lovely. I've been to a couple of mosques in Cairo
and one of the monuments I went to was the same one in which that song 'O
Sanam' by Lucky Ali was shot. A couple of shots.. It's referred to as the
Citadel. The interior of the building is so absolutely lovely.. The ceiling
so high and painted in lovely colours... A domed ceiling, of course..
There's a circular framework of lamps which is fixed below the ceiling and
when they're lit, they look fantastic.. God, I could have spent an entire
reel of film in the Citadel.. Here it is..

The Citadel, Cairo

Oops, wanted to ask you.. Pardon my ignorance, who is Escher?
Oki... my next spot.. I'd say... Spain. Frankly, it's a fancy.. and not even
as if I've researched high and low about the place.. The Mediterranean
climate, the sea, the music.. The rest I am yet to discover!!!
Know what, I'm running out of DDs.. So I think that in order to keep this
game running, I'm going to start reading up and
doing R&D about new places...:-)

SSM: Hey, I'm running out of DDs too. Like you said, I have to go R&D if I
need to come up with some more. Let's take a break then. How about we start
another thread ? Movies - isn't that what we said ? OK with you ?

Why don't you go first ? .. name the first movie that pops into your head,
and off we go :-)

But now that's another blog...:-))

Hail Casaram ....(Desert Days, #1)

2004-12-10T15:48:00.000-08:00

I started out writing this for a dear friend as part of a personal email. I then cut-pasted this section with some of my memories, and sent it another buddy who went to the same college as I did -- just to share some Pilani memories. This buddy suggested I blog it... that there might be tons of ex-hostel-dwellers out here in Blogland, who might identify with what I wrote... so here goes...

Be fore-warned ... if you can't stand yet another of those "college-days-nostalgia" blogs, I'd suggest skipping this one ;-)

--------------

When I went to Pilani, and was being ragged by seniors in the first couple of months .. the first question typically was - where are you from. So I say Madras, and they'd say "oh, an illad" (explanation: apparently Tamilians are prone to using "illa da" a lot in their conversations !).. and I would say no, no .. I speak Telugu, and they would say "oh, a gult"... and then I would continue, " but I was born in Bangalore & went to school there" .. that would just end up confusing everyone !! ...

Ragging at Pilani was great fun. I don't know if that's still the case. But when I was there, there was an unwritten rule observed by all seniors that no physical stuff would be tolerated. So, lots of verbal stuff, but no physical ragging. I've heard horror stories about other residential campuses, where freshers would be put thru all kinds of crazy, even sick, stuff... I'm glad I didn't have to go thru that. Most of the verbal ragging was just getting used to the sheer volume of 4-letter words in everyone's conversations... there were sometime more of those than prepositions & articles in a sentence !!!.... maybe this is common to college-going students in general. Of course, after a couple of weeks of this intense-language-immersion, the freshers were slinging it around too ... probably put a sailor to shame. There were 2 distinct sets of lingo ... one the patois with the guys, as colorful as they come ... bleep bleep bleep bleep yes bleep bleep maybe bleep .... ;-) ... and the other, the de-bleeped dialect, with girls, professors, ...the rest of the community in general ;-)

And after about a month, there was a fresher's lunch which was the date to cease all ragging activities ... all the freshers would be invited to different senior hostels.. there was a pecking order. The interesting freshers usually were invited to the girls' hostel (it was called Meera Bhavan or MB)...it was quite a privilege, because that was pretty much the only time boys were allowed inside the girls hostel. I'm sure things on campus are a lot less purda-fied now ;-)

The most interesting thing about the whole ragging period was the "initiation" into the rituals that made up hostel life. For kids straight out of high school used to going to bed by 10 or 11... it was a rude awakening (pun intended) when a few seniors would pound on your door around midnight... saying "HEY FRESH, wake up .. rise & shine...let's go get something to eat". Life revolved around a crazy schedule in the hostel, most people would be up until late, very few people actually crashed at normal hours. But we weren't to know that, since we were new. So seniors would walk around freshman hostel rooms, pound on a few doors, collect a gaggle of freshmen for entertainment & take them outside the campus to one of those all-night dhabas. Of course, juniors were not allowed to pay for anything if he was with a senior, it was always the senior's treat - another unwritten ragging rule. If guys were too seedha-saadha or boring, they would be let go after a chai. If someone liked to talk or had something interesting to say, then they'd just end up chatting with the seniors for hours on end. My interests in books & music were not as developed as it is now, but I could talk .. so, all things considered, that whole first month was one big party for me. I remember, a few weeks after I joined Pilani, I'd gotten admission in Madras itself in another excellent engineering college - and my parents wrote to me asking if I would like to come back. After tasting hostel life for a few weeks, I wasn't going to go back to a life of "staying at home & taking the bus every day to Guindy", and it took me less than a heartbeat to decide to stay back in Pilani.

And that first month was just an appetizer - life got better and better and more & more interesting the rest of my stay there. I sometimes think I have enough material to write a few hundred pages on my life in Pilani ;-))

More Pilani stories ???? ... dunno, maybe, ... if I don't get flamed back to hell & beyond in the next couple of days ;-))

P.S. if you're wondering who or what "Casaram" is ... it was a stylized wooden camel we constructed as a mascot for our college fest one of the years I was there ;-);-)

Gotta to do a sound-check, always ...(Days in the Desert, #2)

2004-12-10T15:46:00.000-08:00

Quizzing was a big deal on the Pilani campus. Tons of trivia-related activities. There was this annual event called _Brain of BITS_ . I know - silly name. But this was an open quiz, usually MC-ed by the previous year's winner, designed to crown the best-of-them-all-trivia-freaks. In the small closed community of the campus world, if you pulled it off, you were like one of the campus' rock stars. "Almost Famous" :-):-)

I was pretty active on the quizzing scene on campus. I wasn't top-echelon material .. but I was trivia-obsessed-enough to be brain-of-bits runner-up a couple of times, and member of the college quiz team at cultural festivals for 1-2 years. . It was the last semester & I had time sitting heavy on my hands. Had landed a campus recruitment job very early in the semester. And of course, promptly jettisoned all the "heavy" courses ... decided I'd coast thru the next few months with electives like "Appreciation of Indian Music" :-)

Now there was this cute junior, and I thought I'd get to know her. ...the way to a maiden's heart is thru a quiz contest - or something like that :-) ... So, geek that I am, I decide to MC an informal open quiz (I'd paid my quizzing dues by then, and who wants to say no to a senior in his "psenti" semester, anyway ? :-)) .. and the authorities are only too glad for me to host some mid-semester entertainment.
And so I ask this girl, let's call her AM, if she'd like to be my score-keeper, and co-compere. She says yes, but in a few days I can see I'm really not her type, not by a decent mile... ;-).. Too bad, but anyway, gotta move on .. so the day for the quiz contest comes around. The auditorium's packed ... not much going on mid-semester, and a quiz show is reason enough for folks to show up & test them vocal chords.

Time to announce the teams, AM takes the mike ... and oh my god... she has the most squeekiest voice you could imagine :-)))))

I didn't do a mike sound test on her before the event - huge boo-boo on my part. But it's too late to do anything ;-);-) ... The audience is silent for a second, then there are titters all around... and then, people are rolling around. The rest of the evening was just too crazy... every time AM would say the scores out loud, there were calls from the audience for her to repeat the scores. The poor thing... and I'm sure she hated my guts for having put her thru this .. if she had a weapon handy (like Uma Thurman in _Kill Bill_), I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be around to tell you this. Slash, slash..... and my head on a stake :-)

And all this nonsense because I wanted to get to know this girl. Obviously a disaster all around !

That last walk .... (Days in the Desert, # 3)

2004-12-08T15:28:00.000-08:00

Some images tend to stick around forever. Of all the images in my mind about my college days, this has got to be one of the rare morbid ones. And by far the saddest one.

It was a mid-winter morning. That's all I remember. Don't even remember if it was in my 1st semester or the 2nd. Classes were shut down for the day, and a hastily written-up notice in the institute building said that a girl in the girl's hostel had died that morning under tragic circumstances. And that further details about the last rites would be posted in the hostel mess notice-boards. Word went around that the girl had committed suicide in her hostel room.

It was a shocking news to comprehend. Hostel days were, for the most part, extremely fun-filled. With frequent tests every week acting like mere speed-breakers. But this was beyond understanding. You know that feeling when you were younger - how when you were blissful, it somehow felt like everyone else around you was on cloud 9 too ? I'd read about teen suicides, but this struck home. When we got to know who the person was, it shocked me that we probably passed each in the campus buildings dozens of times. And I could've never imagined that a fellow student's life could have been so tormented that she had taken her own life.

The few girls I knew had no clue either about why this happened. They didn't know this girl. All we knew was that she was a shy quiet fresher from a city in Andhra Pradesh.

The next day in the late evening I, along with hundreds of other students & faculty, walked silently behind the body. A silent procession of a few hundred people winding its way thru the campus, out through the main gates, and then on to the cremation grounds. I think the girl's father lit the pyre. We stood watching silently as the fire burned. And that's when I noticed the white of the girl's feet, partially hidden in the pile of wood.

On Sons and Fathers

2004-10-25T16:31:00.000-07:00

One of my old ones, from the sulekha archives. Most of the old-timers have probably read this already. Sorry for the retread :-)

--------------

I've been thinking of this for a little while now .... Enig's blog the other day about the relationship with her father, and then Ardra's comments in another blog, inspired me to blog my thoughts. Sorry if it's long-winded, and if you've had enough of navel-gazing for the day, I'd suggest moving on to I_A's ROFL blogs :-):-)

All this started a few weeks ago when I met someone at a party. The couple was really troubled about something - the woman had just gotten a match to do her medical residency .. you know how those things go for J-1 folks .. the hospital where she'll be working is a small town in the midwest. The guy's trying hard to arrange it so that he can work from home staying with his wife. They have a 1-year old, and they were wondering how they were going to take care of him... since the guy's work involves quite a lot of travel. And the wife's going to be working insane hours on a gruelling schedule once the residency program starts. And they were telling me how they were thinking of sending the kid to the wife's parents for a few years.

That's when I told them about what I felt about letting their kid grow up with his grandparents, instead of with them, for whatever reason. That they might run the risk of letting the kid experience what I went thru. My dad worked for the central govt in India.... and there was a lot of travel & transfers involved. About once every 3 years. Early on, my parents decided that I could stay with my grandparents. Especially, since I had gotten into a good school close to my g-parents' home in Bangalore. My parents used to visit every year (they went all over India), and I stayed with my g-parents till high school. Finally moved to Madras to join my parents - my dad was involved in some long-term project that required him to stay put in Madras for a few years at least. I was with my parents (finally !) for 5 years. Before I left home, yet again, this time headed for college in a remote town on the edge of the Thar, right across the country. I was there for 4 years. After I graduated, got a really interesting job, and in Madras itself, so I stayed home. But after less than a year in that job, I came to the US... and haven't lived in India since (well, vacations and all that .. but you know what I mean). What this means .. in all my life, if you can discount the years until kindergarden, I've lived with my parents & sister for only 5-odd years.

Now, I don't know if it's because I've actually lived for such a short time with my parents ... but I'm not as close to my parents as I would like to be. The same case with my sibling. I see other friends having a great relationship. When my wife picks up the phone to talk to her parents, she can talk endlessly .. and I can see a spark in her eyes. In fact, curiously enough, I'm much more closer to my wife's mom than I am with my mom. There were so many days, when my in-laws visit us here, that I've sat up throught the night talking to my MIL. Just the 2 of us, making coffee now & then. Till someone - either my wife or my FIL, shouts from upstairs .. "would you two stop talking & get some sleep" :-) .. the reason I relate this is that, for the life of me, I can't see myself talking like that with my mom. My mom, after a few minutes of conversation, would start whining about somebody or something .. and I'd just tune out. A little bit of gossip doesn't hurt, but I can take it only in small doses.

Don't get me wrong - I love my parents, more than anything else in the world. I choke up when I think of the sacrifices they went through - to put us thru school & college. It's just the lack of communication, esp. with my mom, that bums me out.

My dad's so much better. Even while growing up as a small kid, he's always had time for us kids. From reading Sad Sack comics .. to taking me to see the movie _Hatari_ for the 10th time :-) ... it's in the middle years that we slowly drifted apart. In hindsight, I wonder if I should've chosen to go to a local engineering school in Madras itself & stayed at home. But then again, I'm not really sure if that would have done anything to change things - I would have been chafing to get out from under their wings in any case. And I wouldn't have had what turned out to be, by far, the best years of my life. Almost everything that I am now - my interests, my career, my enduring friendships (almost half of my close friends from college live in the bay area like me), my attitude to life in general .. I think I owe almost everything to those 4 years in that wonderful college campus.

Sorry, I get a little carried away when I think about my college days :-) .

.. back to my dad .. he & I get along much much better now. I pick up the phone & we talk ... and talk. He's lived a very interesting life,... his life started out as a kid in the most comfortable environment you could imagine - imported cars, a big house .. and all those trappings associated with a successful business venture ...till their family's life turned upside down almost overnight.. and they barely managed to keep a small roof over their heads. We ourselves (parents & us kids) lived a typical-middle-class-no-big-luxuries life. My parents are very comfortable now... but I'm in absolute awe of what my dad's achieved inspite of what he's gone through. I've been encouraging him to write his experiences, and he's finally started doing that. Like I said, the relationship with my dad is a lot better than it used to be. On their last visit to the US, I remember an amazing day - dad & I walking all around San Francisco. Even took him to Buena Vista, a bar that claims to have "invented" Irish coffee at least in this continent. He doesn't like alcohol, but I convinced him to try a little bit of that Irish coffee. Told him he was having a sip of history (or some such dorky comment)... ;-);-) .. anyways, that was a very special day for me. My parents are planning to visit us again this summer - they were waffling about it .. but the water shortage in Madras has forced their hand and they've decided to come.

Hopefully, I'll get to build on the relationship with my parents. It's a pity, you know ... I get this feeling that I'm racing to recapture some lost moments. But that's life, I guess.

If you haven't nodded off by now, thanks for listening in. Sorry for being so maudlin on such a beautiful spring day. Maybe, as dogmatix says, I'm more of a self-absorbed twit now, than I ever was :-):-):-)

a little metal, por favor ??

2004-10-24T08:01:00.000-07:00

Started writing this as a comment to two new sulekha-bloggers, who happen to be jumping up & down about iron maiden & other assorted heavy metal brethren :-))

thought some of you DSS-dwellers might be interested in these ramblings as well !

... i used to listen to a lot of metal the first couple of years in undergrad college .. as I started branching off into other music, listened less & less to metal ... by the 2nd or 3rd year in college, i had started listening to a lot of blues & blues-influenced groups like john mayall, cream, traffic, peter green, grateful dead, stones .. and prog-rock like camel, marillion .. and "un-genre-able" bands like frank zappa .. my metal-listening-minutes slowly reduced to a trickle, and i think pretty much died out by the time i graduated :-)

but i was trying to recollect some of the best metal sounds i'd heard (strictly, imho ;-)) in those early years ..

so here we go -->

iron maiden, yes, you couldn't start talking about modern-era post-sabbath metal without talking about these guys, right ?? .. i guess the natural heirs in the led zepp -> sabbath -> priest metal-progression genealogy ??
... _number of the beast_ & _powerslave_ (i confess, i'd forgotten the names of the albums, had to google to jog my gray cells :-)) ...

judas priest ... their duelling lead guitars were instant hooks .. albums most listened to -> _stained class_, _defenders of the faith_

black sabbath, or more specifically ozzy-era sabbath like _paranoid_ .. there's some really interesting trivia about their sound ... I googled & found this wikipedia piece about tony iommi & geezer butler "downtuning" their guitars --> sabbath & their down-tuned sound ...

those german rockers, of course ... now which self-respecting desi freshman (in my college, in my time :-)) would be caught dead without sampling 4 things (we'll leave the other sample-worthy things for another blog :-P) - scorpions, _catch 22_, dire straits, jethro tull. of course, it was assumed you had been duly zeppelin-ized & purple-ized in high school itself, well before you reached college ;-)))

blue oyster cult, those early american pioneers, lost in the continent-sized shadow of Jimmy Page's outfit :-)

whitesnake, specifically the early days, fresh from their spinoff from deep purple..... but do they even qualify as "metal" ??. hmmm ... well i just threw it in here anyway.

happy post-navaratri sunday, folks ... i'm all dandiya-ed out this morning :-))

One Of These Days (I'm going to cut you into little pieces) .. :-)))

2004-10-22T14:38:00.000-07:00

Trust the smiley in the title will put to rest any worry .. it's not Halloween yet .. just an intro to one of my favorite "lesser-known" albums.

Overhead the albatross hangs motionless upon the air
And deep beneath the rolling waves
In labyrinths of coral caves
The echo of a distant time

_Meddle_ is the forgotten sibling in the shadows of Pink Floyd's _Dark Side Of The Moon_ album. It came out a couple of years before that other monster chart-busting album. But listen to _Meddle_, and you'll recognize the steps the group was taking. Sort of culminating in the luminous tracks like "Shine on you" (from _Wish You Were Here_) & "Any color you like" (from _DSOTM_). Fans of Floyd know how the group's works are incredibly textured and full of controlled energy. _Meddle_ is sort of where the group steps away from the earlier experimental works like _Atom Heart Mother_, and progresses towards that well-known "Floyd sound" of their later albums.

Two monster tracks bookend this album. In the middle are pretty nice songs, but for me, the first & the last track on this album makes this a "must-have-Floyd-album".

The album kicks off with a high-energy piece One of these days. One of the "heaviest" Floyd tracks you're likely to listen to. With a kick-ass dual-bass line providing the overall framework for the initial part of the song .. then a keyboard interlude .. and then after Nick Mason growls "One of these days", about 3:41 into the song, it kicks into over-drive once again, with a screaming soaring slide-guitar. Great stuff !

The next piece Pillow of Winds gives you a chance to catch your breath .. a slow delicate piece "with my love by my side, and she's breathing low.. and the candle dies" ... Fearless is another soft number .."fearlessly the idiot faced the crowd .. smiling ..." with an English football crowd, apparently Liverpool, singing their football song "you'll never walk alone" in the background now & then. Pleasant-enough sounds.

I'm not a big fan of the next 2 songs .. San Tropez, and a tongue-in-cheek blues number Seamus, with the blues-howls courtesy David Gilmour's dog named (what else) Seamus.

And on to the piece de resistance .. one of my favorite musical pieces, and a jam-track par excellence .. I loved this track much before I even understood the term "jam" .. "Echoes" .. this is a heck of a song. 23 minutes of sheer bliss, as the band swoops up & dives down .. this is the band stretching its muscles & going for broke. The first segment is wistful-sounding, then about 6 minutes in, there's a barely-perceptible pick up in pace, and then an *awesome* drums-organ-bass segment. Cue the song about 6:56 into the track, and hear the transition for yourself....one more beautiful piece starts about 15 minutes into the song .. starting off with just the keyboard & "submarine/sonar blips", and then Mr. Gilmour steps into the spotlight to weave some magic ...

Remind yourself to pick your jaw back off the floor after that mind-bending number, but keep that silly grin on your face :-)))

Down the Kaibab ... and Up the Bright Angel

2004-10-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

At the outset, let me tell you that though I'm a hiking enthusiast, I've done very few of those "ohmygod" kind of awesome trails ... never done the Pacific Crest Trail, nor the Appalachian Trail, and only briefly nibbled at the John Muir Trail while it passes thru Yosemite National Park. Done a lot of "armchair hikes" though ;-);-)... my favorite account being Maurice Herzog's incredibly gripping account of the 1950's French ascent of _Annapurna_ .

What I have here are some of my favorite hikes ... these are by no means obscure, they might in fact resemble a pedestrian highway on a busy summer weekend day. But it doesn't take anything away from the hikes themselves esp. if you could indulge yourself the luxury of taking a few days off from work/study mid-week to do these hikes. They involve some jaw-dropping views, a certain amount of strenuousness that you do get a decent work-out, and also a fun way to introduce yourself to a national park on your first visit ...

Kaibab & Bright Angel Trail (Grand Canyon National Park)

Elevation loss: 5000 ft (rim to river), length: about 18 miles roundtrip

As one of my friends said a long while ago about visitors to the Grand Canyon .. there are "rim folks" & then there are "river folks". He was just being snooty, but he had a point - while the views from the rim of the canyon are spectacular, they're not a patch on the kinds of views you get to see when you decide to hike down to the Colorado river. If you decide to do the rim -> river -> rim on a single day, it can be brutal and you won't enjoy it as much ..(though I have seen some incredibly fit guys, some wearing "US Marines" T-shirts (!!), jogging up & down) . Instead take a couple of days, so you can enjoy the inner canyon. Alone on the Tonto trail, with the majesty of the canyon's rock formations all round you .... that's as close to a "spiritual" experience as any.

There are two very popular trails going down to the river from the South Rim of the canyon - the Bright Angel trail, and the steeper but shorter South Kaibab. My best bet .. take the South Kaibab down till you meet the Tonto Trail, then take the Tonto Trail which is usually not crowded at all to link up with the Bright Angel trail going down towards the Colorado. Spend a day at the river (there's a very nice campground) exploring side canyons & enjoying the cool water of the river. Coming back up the Kaibab will take you less time, but there's no water & no shade at all, so you'll be in for quite some punishment unless you can do it before the sun comes up... hiking back up the Bright Angel will take a little bit more time, but there's some shade along the way, and some water too at a couple of spots.

Four Mile Trail (Yosemite National Park)

roundtrip: 9 miles, elevation gain: ~4000 ft

This trail is not the most popular one in the park .. the trails to Vernal Falls, Nevada Falls, and Yosemite Falls probably see a lot more day-trippers. But this one is a very nice round-trip from the Yosemite Valley up to Glacier Point, a fantastic overlook from where you can take in all of the valley and its famous monolithic sentries - El Capital & Half Dome.

Glacier Point can be accessed by road, so it's incredibly popular & usually crowded with visitors. But there's a magical window of 2 weeks or so, between the time the Four Mile Trail is opened to the public in early May and when the Glacier Point Road opens for the season in mid-May. Take the hike at this time, and the rewards are ample ... gorgeous views of the valley, Yosemite Falls at its best, and to top it all ... the whole of the Glacier Point area to yourself when you get to the top ;-);-)

Dipsea Trail (San Francisco area: Muir Woods to Stinson Beach & back)

I'm not sure about the length, but I remember it took about 4-5 hours for the round-trip (not counting the time spent lounging at Stinson Beach ;-)))..

Hike out from Muir Woods National Monument just north of San Francisco, till you meet the Dipsea Trail at the ridge. And then follow the Dipsea Trail all the way to Stinson Beach. A little bit of history ... the Dipsea Trail is very famous among locals .. it features one of the oldest & scenic foot-races in the country (I think the tradition goes back to the early 1900s).

You get to taste a little bit of everything - elevation gain through redwood forests, a long leisurely walk along the ridge line with great views of the Pacific Ocean and the Mt. Tamalpais area, and then a steep drop to the Pacific Ocean till you end up at Stinson Beach. And if pack a picnic to enjoy at the beach, you get to work it off too during the return trip back to Muir Woods !

Cracking crabs ... :-))

2004-10-05T16:07:00.000-07:00

An old old blog ... maybe even the very first blog I posted on sulekha ;-))) ..

When you're trying to make an impression on someone, the expectations involved play a major role in whether you're successful in making an impression. Managing expectations becomes crucial. Set the bar low, and you're more than half-way there even before you've started !

When it comes to culinary skills and Indian men (you may even wonder if that's an oxymoron), there's a distinct advantage in that the expectations are already so low that even a small effort can bowl people over.

Take me, for instance. At home we have an easy arrangement - most of the time my wife cooks & I wash the dishes. My wife absolutely detests the idea of washing dishes. I can cook to survive while stranded alone on a desert island - or, to put it less dramatically, when alone at home while my wife is out of town on a business trip. But I'd much rather wash dishes. I think it's something to do with the fact that I can feel my brain turning to mush when I have to think of putting together a whole meal - you know, something with more than one dish. For shop-a-phobics, ever notice that glaze in your eyes, and your brain slowing to a stop, after about an hour in a shopping mall -- that's the brain-turning-to-mush syndrome. And even assuming I can will my brain into thinking of a whole meal, the best I can do is one meal at a time. With all the ingredients cut, chopped, grated, measured, whatever .. in neat little bowls on the kitchen island before the pan goes anywhere near the stove. There's apparently a fancy French phrase called "mise en place" to describe this - maybe it was invented by a hapless Gallic male cook. But that just means I can't multi-task to save my life, while in the kitchen. Which in turn means that it would take me several hours to cook a meal with just a couple of dishes. On the other hand, washing dishes is a no-brainer. Pun intended.

Anyway, I digress. We were talking about managing expectations in a culinary context. It turns out that you can impress people if you can learn a trick or two - something simple, but obscure. Something which most people imagine is a very hard thing to do, but which in reality is rather simple. Could be a dish. Could be a cooking technique. These things may be hard to locate, but if you keep your eyes open, you'd be surprised.

Take the art of cracking crabs, for example. (If you were wondering when I would get to that !). I really don't know where or how I learnt to do it ....maybe watched it on a cooking channel as a bachelor when extremely hungry on a Sunday morning. In any case, I had filed it away in the back of my mind (there's always tons of useless trivia in there... for instance, did you know the name of the band _Pink Floyd_ came from two obscure blues musicians Pink Anderson and Floyd Counsel ... that's the kind of useless trivia I was talking about ). After I got married, one of my wife's aunts who was visiting the US at the time made some shrimp curry for us, and she happened to mention that crab curry could be made in similar fashion by substituting one crustacean for the other. But that she didn't know how to crack crabs, and so she'd rather stick to shrimps. Bingo - a very big flash, one piece of useless trivia comes out into the useful world. Put my newly-rediscovered crab-cracking skills & this aunt's unique (or so she says) recipe together. And you have something that never fails to impress people. Apparently my mom, my mother-in-law, and pretty much the majority of my friends' moms have always had someone else crack crabs for them - they never learnt to do it by themselves. And crab is a delicacy to begin with - you'd have to live on the coast in India. And to see me cook a crab curry from scratch by myself takes them by surprise. The last time my in-laws were visiting from India, I had my mother-in-law looking over my shoulder at the sink while I cracked & cleaned some huge Dungeness crabs... now that's as good as it gets.

I've since added a few things to my culinary back-pocket ... a berry cobbler here, a tiramisu there, a malabar chicken dish here ...peas with freshly made scrambled paneer... and so on. None of those recipes are more than 10 lines long, the directions are idiot-proof (something essential for folks like me) ...but they turn out great, and the deed is done. The guest (especially someone from my parents' generation) is left impressed. And since chances are that you're not going to entertain most of these guests often, they're not going to know how few tricks I really have in that back-pocket of mine :-)

Like I said, it's all about setting the bar. Bon appetit.

Morphine .. an intro to the band :-))

2004-10-05T14:22:00.000-07:00

I spent a few minutes yesterday seeing what I had in my music collection. I periodically refresh them, selling off the ones I don't listen to anymore, and buying some new CDs. I came across an album I'd bought a long while ago, Cure for Pain by the group Morphine... and I thought I'd post an intro for those who like interesting-sounding rock & who haven't heard Morphine before.

The sound is unlike anything you've heard in a mainstream rock band. Just 3 instruments - baritone saxophone, drums/percussion, and the frontman Mark Sandman on a unique 2-string upright slide bass & vocals. No guitar. I really don't know how to put it, but the sound is both sparse & clean (since there aren't too many instruments muddying up the scene), but sensual and full at the same time (the bass & the baritone sax take the credit). And the music is very very cool - it's downbeat & jazz-influenced, but it rocks all the same. The lyrics & the vocal quality of the lead singer are nothing to talk about - it's all about the kick-ass big-wall bass-and-baritone sound. Listen to the track _Buena_ from the album _Cure for Pain_, and you'll be hooked.

Maybe because of their non-traditional sounds, they were always a cult band. They really didn't get that much airplay on mainstream radio or make MTV videos, but at their prime, they were a big hit on college stations. Sadly, Mark Sandman died of a heart attack a few years ago & the band wound up after that, so we're left with just a few albums. A pity. I wish I had seen them perform live.

update .. just added a doodle-board

2004-10-04T13:15:00.000-07:00

just keeping up with the joneses/voids/bucks/kks ... ;-)))

the doodle-board looks a little goofy, might have to tinker with it later ... but i have a buckwaas-tent. so there ;-))

The debate last night ....

2004-10-01T13:11:00.000-07:00

OK, right off the bat, let me admit to a very generous distaste for the current administration, starting from Mr.GWB & working our way down the ranks .... on the other hand, Kerry hasn't exactly inspired any confidence either in the last few weeks (where the heck is Edwards ? - can someone tell me ? .. I thought he was going to ignite the campaign, but he's totally gone AWOL).

So, I was tempted to throw in the towel even before watching the debate last night .. but I must say - Kerry held his own, and threw in some good ones as well. That line about Iraq being nowhere near the center of the war on terror was on the money. And he stayed on message for the most part ... I thought 20 years in the Senate meant the guy might just about put my little one to sleep (which would've been a good thing, actually ;-))) - but he surprised me, he wasn't bad at all. Maybe all the recent months on the stump has sharpened his style a bit.

And bottom line, maybe there's some hope, after all, for the folks like me who can't bear the thought of 4 more years of that crazy bunch at the helm .... ;-)))

Now, on to Edwards/Cheney next Tuesday. Yo, Edwards - wherever you are, please come back .. and please please, we want you to have a healthy appetite .... so you can help yourself to a 3-course-Cheney-meal for dinner Tuesday night :-)

What a long strange trip it's been ...

2004-10-01T05:53:00.000-07:00

What a long strange trip it's been ... ;-))

with a nod to Robert Hunter & the 'Dead ..
Sometimes the light's all shining on me
Other times I can barely see
Lately it occurs to me
what a long strange trip it's been

Didn't want to miss out on this wave of tribute-blogs. I thought i'd put together a little list of some of the really interesting blogs I've read in the few months that I've been around. A very subjective blog-index (as someone called pradz' recent blogs), if you will :-))

And another disclaimer .. there are many more blogs to list, so watch this space for follow-ups ...

atracus' 3rd part from the "Finding Uma" series --> "finding uma"

void's short story --> The importance of being a coward

ardra's --> nala-damayanti in kathakali

locks' awesome story+travelog --> cairo - a lifetime

kculon's hard-hitting freedom , written under another name - a mask within a mask within a mask .... ;-)))

ananth's blog in his inimitable direct style --> This day that year

one of those really sad ones, from siggy --> a candle for R

dogmatix ROTFL blogs, one of her first --> girl-seeing , and then the object of tocsin's unrequited affections ;-)))) , --> aarudra

buck-meister's poignant memoir --> hanging on for dear life

MzTIC, with her trademark dialog --> getting ready for the party

along similar lines, there was another blogger (Indian_Anywhere) .. unbelievably funny stuff, but he's not around anymore, and looks like he's taken his blogs off the air as well, but there was an alternate blog-site he used .. it hasn't been updated in ages, but it still has his old blogs. Great stuff.. hope he finds his way back here some day :-)). His mirror blog-site --> musings of a married Indian

.. and then, to round off this edition, kculon's state-of-the-blog-nation address, circa March 2004 Bloggers' Park

OK, I think I've given you enough homework for the day .. will continue this later ...

To all the people who're AWOL (or in some instances, their blogs are AWOL) ... please come back, all is forgiven ;-)))

my trusted poet, once again ....:-))
What in the world ever became of sweet Jane?
She lost her sparkle, you know she isn't the same
Living on reds, vitamin C and cocaine
all a friend can say is "ain't it a shame"

Meet me at the Tied House ...

2004-10-01T05:33:00.000-07:00

Meet me at the Tied House ...

This started off as something like a list of some of the really interesting concerts I've been to (both India & the US) .. I'd meant to blog it as a private blog, but then decided to make it public. Maybe this list will spur posts on some other bloggers' experiences !

Not in chronological order ...

*** My first Grateful Dead show (interestingly enough - on my birthday). Early 90s. Oakland Colisseum. If there are any Dead fans out here, look at the set-list below (I've managed to save it, after all these years) ... and you'll know why this is still one of my favorites among the dozen-odd Dead shows I've been to. And my first experience with what is otherwise called "second-hand-shmoke" :-):-)...

Set 1 Help On The Way-> Slipknot!-> Franklin's Tower, Little Red Rooster, Loser, Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues, Let It Grow
Set 2 Scarlet Begonias-> Fire On The Mountain, Truckin'-> Spoonful*, Dark Star*, Drums-> Jam**-> Dark Star*-> The Last Time*, Standing On the Moon-> Throwing Stones-> Not Fade Away, E: Werewolves of London*

*** rock group competition, my alma mater's college fest, late 80s.

This one year, there was an amazing bunch of guys from other colleges all over India. A group from St. Xaviers, Calcutta with a guy who was Salil Choudhary's son.... a bunch of guys from Christ College, Bangalore who just rocked (there was even a flute player with a shiny steel flute who played Tull's _Bouree_, for god's sake !) ... and a group from Loyola, Madras who called themselves "Down Sterling" (what a really cool name, and a pun on the college's location in Madras).... it finally ended with guys from different groups jamming together on stage at 7am the next day, after playing all night. WOW :-)

*** semi-professional music fest. Ferguson College grounds. Pune. Late 80s.

There was this really good band from Bombay (forget their name, apparently very famous, splitup/madeup a number of times, apparently even Trilok Gurtu played in this band at one time).. the name had to do with water - Riverfront/Waterline/Waterfront, something like that. But they were really cool. Pune's beautiful faces too, to keep us company :-)

*** percussion demonstration, Madras. Early 90s.

For the life of me, I can't remember who the players were, except for Vikku . But this was an amazing jugalbandhi (arranged by the British Council folks, I think) ... with a guy on the tabla, Vikku Vinayakram on the ghatam, another guy on a mridangam, and a jazz drummer from the UK. Very yummy. Jaw-dropping stuff

*** Santana (with Phish as an appetizer). Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View. Early 90s.

My only Santana concert so far. The interesting highlight ... we were standing in line at the bar for our drinks. There's this amazing band playing on the monitor.. and we were saying - wow' these guys are great - wonder who they are. Till the guy in line behind us says "you know that's Phish playing live on stage now, right ???).... a classic DUH moment that I won't forget in a hurry ..they finished playing a couple of minutes later .. so much for my first Phish concert :-):-)

*** Dizzy Gillespie. In a small intimate jazz club (Kimball's East, Emeryville). Early 90s.

This has got to be *THE* musical moment in my life. Here's a jazz legend, bebop-ing like he was born to do that. And we were sitting at a table 10 feet from the stage..... life, for a music fan like me, rarely gets better than this :-) ... like a blogger said the other day, I found religion that night.

*** Grateful Dead. Shoreline Amphitheater. Summer. Mid-90s.

I don't remember too much about this, other than the fact that this was my wife's first Dead concert. I was apprehensive, but she totally *loved* the experience... we were pretty much on our feet the whole night .. dancing, hugs, kisses.. magical. Pity, Jerry Garcia died a few months later, and we couldn't do that again (a Dead concert, I mean ;-);-)...

*** Camel. Small concert venue in San Jose. Mid 90s.

A bit of context. Camel was a really sweet-sounding prog-rock group based in the UK. There was exactly *one* album that was available in my college. So seeing Camel live was great fun...and I was watching it with a close friend from college-days so that made it extra-special. If you like 80s prog-rock (Marillion, etc.) .. you might want to check them out.

*** Jeff Beck & Stevie Ray Vaughn. UT Austin campus. Early 90s.

Stevie Ray Vaughn was one amazing musician. That concert was really really nice. Can you imagine Stevie & Jeff Beck jamming together ? One of those "I was there" moments. I never got to see Stevie Ray Vaughn (I think he died a couple of years later in an airplane accident).

..... I got a few more .. maybe I'll continue this later. If there's interest.

P.S. Tied House: a great watering hole in Mountain View in the sf bay area, down the road from Shoreline Amphitheater. A favorite place to rendezvous before a show at the Shoreline .... some really yummy fresh-brewed-beer & blackened-catfish... and get in the "mellow" mood :-)

San Francisco Days ... San Francisco Nights ...

2004-10-01T05:19:00.000-07:00

A creative piece that I wrote months ago when I first started blogging at Sulekha ... (and pretty ashamed to say that I've not written another "creative" word since ... :-)))

---------------------------------------

San Francisco Days ...

One more phone call to make, one more errand, one more thing to run down, a couple more tasks to complete at work.... My life was a mess ...a never-ending stream of bad-hair days. I mean literally, my haircut was overdue, and I needed to find a good salon quickly. Mitra ... that's me. Messed-up Mitra. Sumitra Reddy on my passport... though I haven't used a passport in ages.

I'd just moved to the Bay Area a week ago. Missed Baltimore already. Bay Area was really nice - I could see why people wouldn't want to move once they came here. I'd heard about all the downsides -- high rents, traffic, and all that. Even the "too many desis there" line - this from a nose-in-the-air wanna-be-debutante I used to know in Baltimore. But I really didn't care. The sunshine was good .. it was good to see water everywhere .. it seemed like you couldn't go very far without having to cross one bridge or the other across the San Francisco Bay. And on a nice summer day like this, you could see hundreds of sailboats out on the bay. All the same, I missed the small-town-ish and intimate culture of Baltimore and the tree-filled campus of Johns Hopkins.... A shadow moved across, and I looked up & smiled at the tourist with the camera around his neck - he was oblivious to everything else but the view of the bridge.

I'd taken this drive out to the Marin headlands, following up on a tip from someone at work. I liked it here... sunny, windy, the ocean down to my right, and the bay on my left. Well, things were coming together. Sort of. The new job was OK, the boss seemed on top of things, and the co-workers appeared to be a nice bunch of folks. My car was on its way, along with the rest of my meager possessions - the shippers had promised to be here in a couple of days. I'd just signed a lease on a cute little studio in the hills. Quite a commute, and quite a bit more expensive than I'd budgeted. But I liked the neighborhood, and there was a state park right next door. Plus easy driving distance from the city.

And a mess - that's what I'd left behind in Baltimore as well. The thing with Navin hadn't been going anywhere for a few months. I thought he was needy - and he thought I wasn't giving him enough of a chance . Things were at a blind end on the intimacy-side as well... especially since I'd been so confused about the whole relationship in the first place. I didn't want yet another complication in my already jumbled life. ... anyway, a clean break was, I guess, what was called for... and a clean break was what I got when I picked up this job offer from a Palo Alto-based startup. Navin said he'd try to come to SF during the Thanksgiving break, but I guess he could see it in my eyes .. that I wasn't leaving just Baltimore. He was just trying to be nice .. . maybe he'll find someone .. just not me. So I was glad I'd settled that... and yet, I missed his easy companionship too..

I looked at my watch ... time to head back home. I got up, brushed myself, and walked back to the car....

San Francisco Days ... San Francisco Nights ...

The sun was going down, and I was still stuck in traffic trying to get home in one piece. I fiddled with the radio in the car, the local news station had something on a "jack-knifed big rig 2nd lane from the left...all lanes blocked .. CHP on the scene ..blah blah". I got off the freeway at the next exit, cursing myself. I should have taken 280. Damn.

It had been a few months now, since I came to the Bay Area. And I still wasn't as familiar with the roads as I should be... especially on days like this. Especially today when I was expecting Erica for dinner. She was going to drive up from Santa Cruz, crash in my place, and we were going to go together to San Francisco the next day for the Fleet Week celebrations.

I was settling in to work, and it was going well. Life outside work was OK. I didn't have too many friends in the area, and frankly, I liked it that way. I had some time to just live on my own. I'd started doing a few things I'd always wanted to, things I'd kept putting off while in Baltimore. Now I had all the time in the world and no excuses. I enrolled in a writing workshop in a community college near work. I saw tons of movies at home. My older sister lived in Reston, just outside Washington DC, and she was constantly on the phone with me. Mum & Dad, who lived near my sister, were OK too. They missed me, and they missed being just a 2-hour drive away from me. They asked about Navin - I had taken him home once for Thanksgiving. And they had got along well. But I didn't want to bother them with explaining ... in any case, I was pretty confused myself. If they had asked me why I wasn't interested in Navin, I doubt if I could've given them a coherent answer. Just that I wasn't comfortable continuing something that I was losing interest in.

Erica was new to the area too. She'd started work a couple of weeks after I joined the company. And her office was 2 doors down the hallway from mine. We'd just said hi a couple of times while passing each other. Till Erica came by the next day - "Hi, I'm Erica... I've seen you around ... just thought I'd say hi ... and see if you wanted to get some lunch". We decided to walk a couple of blocks & grab a sandwich. She told me she had a long commute too - in the other direction. She was house-sitting an uncle's home in Santa Cruz. She said her parents were originally from Santa Cruz, but they'd moved away when Erica was still a toddler.

We went out for lunch often after that. We exchanged CDs, books. Went for a couple of concerts together. Exchanged stories. Navin. Erica's failed first marriage. Parents. Siblings. She had a motorbike, and sometimes, the days she brought her bike in to work, we'd go all the way to Half Moon Bay for lunch. I loved the ride, sitting behind Erica, the wind in our faces... leaning into the curves on the twisty road. It was fun being with Erica - she lived life full-throttle. All I had to do when I was with her, was to hang on for dear life !

.....Finally reached home, after taking the city streets to avoid the parking lot on the freeway. 6:10. Erica had said she'd try to make it by 7. And "please don't cook, Mitra, let's just go out & grab something". But I thought I'd make some dinner ...and surprise her.

Erica called around 6:45 and said she'd probably get to my place in 20 minutes. I'd almost finished the pasta when the doorbell rang. She'd stopped along the way to pick up some pastries from that French cafe in the Stanford mall, and she'd brought some wine too. We grabbed our jackets to go pick up a movie from a nearby video store, just in case we felt up to it after dinner.

Dinner was done. Dishes put away. We got bored after watching the movie for a few minutes. We made some coffee, dimmed the lights in the room, and went out to the patio. It was beautiful... lots of lights.. the houses in the cities downhill from us all the way down to the bay, now an inky blackness. The wind had picked up, but it wasn't uncomfortable yet. We were quiet for a while. I glanced sideways.. and Erica was looking at me. With a little smile. She reached out and took my hand. I looked away, my heart beating so fast I was almost dizzy...and then turned back . She was still holding my hand. She was still looking at me, still smiling......

.......The sun had come up, and was shining thru the window. I looked at the clock beside my bed. 9:30. And I looked at the still sleeping mass of red hair next to my pillow. A new day. New beginnings.....

Swades ... (AR Rahman) – my 2 cents ..

2004-09-27T15:14:00.001-07:00

I've been listening to this new album by AR Rahman for _Swades_ .. Ashutosh Gowarikar's eagerly-awaited movie. Tons of expectations after _Lagaan_, but it's a great effort by Rahman.

Should go a long way to meeting that high-water mark. Definitely not Rahman's best ... but should be worth a spin (and considering that a new Rahman album takes a little while to grow on you, maybe more than just "a spin") ;-))) ..

Yunhi chala chal ... a fingers-on-the-steering-wheel-tapping road-song with an infectious rhythm .. this is one of my favorites in this album. Question for those who know something about this movie - is it supposed to be another period movie - in any case, this song is anything-but-period ;-))

Yeh tara woh tara .... peppy, a little rural-tilt with some child-singers weighing in along with Udit ..

Dekho na (suno zara suno zara) ...fell in love with this stunning duet on first listen, i'm *way-hooked* on repeat listens .. the opening lines of this song are still ringing in my ears .. i think i'm going to be listening to this one for a long time :-)

Pal pal hai bhari ... a devotional song (wierd thing .. in one or two phrases, I heard shades of a song from the Tamil movie _New_ ... someone here who's heard both movie soundtracks can probably weigh in ;-))

Aahista aahista ... a lovely soft melodious track .. very spare accompaniment in this song .. the "nindhiyare"s in the lyrics point to a lullaby

Saanwariya .. just a regular ole bollywood number - this one did nothing for me... i'm not a lyrics person at all (it's all about the music for me) - so this falls into the your-mileage-may-vary CYA category ;-))

Yeh jo des tera.. a rahman-sung desh-bakth-ditty (he always sings these himself, doesn't he ?? :-))

and a couple of instrumental pieces ...

my favorites ---> Two got-to-listens: Yunhi chala chal, Dekho na, and 2-better-than-most-others-out-there: Yeh tara, and Aahista aahista ...... 4 out of 7 tracks is not bad, not too shabby at all ... "I'm gone ... solid gone" :-)))