GPS?

Scenario:
premise:
- driving, from home to, say, place-A you kind of know how to reach there. last you visited was 2-3 years back!
- you are on speaker phone, since hands free is enforced by law.
- place X is where you have never been to, neither you know directions to, nor where it is.
- you will be given directions when you drive to place X on phone.
- It's raining badly.
- the day is weekend.

goal:
- you need to reach from place A to place X.

thinkable outcome:
- the road, you are on, vanishes out of sight all of sudden and you end up turning on a street you think may lead you to highway.
- you get confused on a small road: seemingly a ramp, leading to highway and a sign right at the curve- 'no outlet'.
- you get so many honks from drivers behind you.
- you end up going straight on a one-way exit ramp, driving in wrong direction!
- you don't want to go to place X.
- you start crying.

Is this possible? In this universe, it actually happened not too far ago, on Sept 24, 2005..
but place X was visited finally..

dumb system

System is thought to be good, brings order, manages better, anything. But system can also be dumb. Though it brings orderliness, does not mean it is faultless. I want to see my family, celebrate diwali after 5 years with them, I bought airline tickets quite ahead of the time, i got vacation time approved from work, i got my ear doctor lined up too, everything worked out well, made plans with friends and family back home, but one system had to fail! This time, when I leave United States, I have to get my passport stamped from US Consulate to re-enter US, and that's where the failure emerges. I had planned earlier this year too to visit my family, and I had to cancel a week before my trip because of a scare of a surgery. I had sought an appointmet at US consulate then, and everything was perfect, but my doctor told me that something in my body might not had been perfect, and boom, no vacation, no family visit! now when everything else, is just fine, the visa-services appointment system failed! I booked apointment online again, I also let them know that I have booked appointment for such and such date asking them if i needed to re-submit anything again, not just once, twice. No repply from them, and now when my trip is less than a month away, I needed confirmation that my appointment has been confirmed, and now upon my asking, they are telling me that it's been cancelled because I did not sumbit documents-> which means, I can not get my passport stamped when I would take vacation! the wait is more than 3 months for getting another new appointment! Techically I am not requirted to re-submit anything for new appontment since I have already submitted everything!

Even if I want to go to some other country to get whole visa thing done, I don't have enough time to manage everything. what a dumb system they have, all the phone no.s, listed online, have changed, and it's really tough to get thru the recorded message playing numbers. I could some how, thinking I'm lucky to get, got a number I can talk to a person. I finally did speak to a person, who noted down my email address and told me that they would reply me through email. The reply I got was short and not at all sweet: "You called today. Please send us your query again." !!!!!! why did I call them, a question I could not answer myself.. neither they would consider my case where they give emergency appointment. I may not be not visiting my family, again.

angie and company

since last year, there was not much summer weather in chicago, I was very excited when temperature bar was climbing up and up. I have a patio, right on an artificaial pond. I can sit on contrete steps, and I am on the pond. I was busy roller blading, walking in forest preserve, exercising; busy with myself. I have 2 bamboo shoots to accompany me so I don't feel alone. and there is one more plant I have in a pot, which I keep in my patio. with my unsuccessful attempts to grow flower plants and strawberries, I could not save them from some sneaky creature who loved to eat all these plants not sparing even roots!

I would read, talk on phone, swim, forest preserve, cook, watch tv or go to friend's place, i was very well content in my own evening schedule. Then one day, I was talking on phone on my patio steps as I sometimes do to brethe warm air. I get bright sunlight in the morning, so summer evenings are nice in my patio.

the pond is of small circular shape, and kids would be playing along the periphery, shouting, running, biking. I doubt if any of them would be older than 5. i was carrying a book, and talking on phone one day right after I came home. And this little girl comes around, sits next to me, starts a parallel conversation with me while I was on phone. And finally I gave up, I got off the phone to talk to a person in front, and started talking to her. This innocent little lady was asking me many questions- do you live here? where were you? what was I doing? and then she comes to her point: do you have chocolate? and she got me, I had many! I don't eat chocolates but I have many chocolates at home, somene would give me or i'd buy. she was not the cleanest kid in the world, high energied 4 year old, who never stops. She is Angie. Others were alex, tyler, jeremy and some other kids. alex is angie's elder brother. some kids were afraid to come near me as they were not familier with me, and one parent walks by and sees me giving chocolates abundantly, and she tells me, pointing at the kid who refused to take chocolates, 'it's just that they don't know you, once they'll know you, they won't leave from here, you'll have to get rid of them.' Angie came right with me inside my place. I had some sunscreen samples on my table, she wanted those, had chewing gum too somewhere, and she wanted em. these little devils are very greedy. If you give them one, they want two, and when u give two, they want four! I gave them plenty, and at one point, I promised that they'd get more tomorrow now! Angie was very comfortable running inside, going upstairs and everywhere, it was me who was concerned that their parents' would worry of them coming inside. It seemed like they were okay with it.

The chocolate thing went on until my chocolate reserve was hitting it's lowest. I had been recommended to watch Monster Inc. by a friend of mine who also let me borrow dvd. And one friday, after coming from work I was also kind of under the weather, I put this dvd to play, and Angie, as usual, at my large windows opening at patio, peeks in and asks me if I can open the door. I opened it for them, and this 4 yr old recognised this movie right away! And the gang poured in. I had like 6 kids in my living room, demending one after the another thing to eat. it started with chocolates, and when it emptied out, 'do you have pop corn?' Then came ice-cream, and again pop corn. Their purpose was over now, they had fun in revolving chair, running around having nice evening movie+snacks combo, and they started to play again. I have 3 entrance doors, and I use two of them. one opens in the hallway, one in my patio. these kids started running thru both the doors, and going out of building, and again running to my patio and inside my place and they went on. It was very different enjoyable feeling I got watching these kids. They had been coming on an average every 2 days to my place, and I also started to like it. A friend of mine suggested to give them water melon or other fruits instead of chocolates. They saw watermelon in my fridge, and I was glad they wanted watermelon. water melon went on for a quite a while. One day, I was into deep reading, and angie comes to my window and asks if I can open the door, if I she can get watermelon. I wanted to read, so I told her, I have to read, I'll give water melon tomorrow. She makes face and says, our school opens tomorrow, and we won't be coming here now! and they were treated again. I kind of felt sad that they won't be coming now.. I still would remember these sweet little girl Angie, and her friends running around, biking, shouting. I miss them coming to my window sometime, interrupting whatever I would be doing.. to open door.. and ask for chocolate, water melon, sharing my dinner..

Happy Indepencence Day!!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY !!
India is 58 years old today, since AUG 15, 1947.

The Family

I had a subitaneus realization on something very striking, about a family. What is a family? The dictionary definition of Family says:

"A fundamental social group in society typically consisting of one or two parents and their children."

I am talking about immediate family, not the extended one. One's family should transit with age. Ok, let me explain:

Let's start with newly weds. A newly wed couple starts living together, enjoys life togeter. Most commonly they will have child/children. Which would satisfy the definition of a family. It is called a family when children are younger, studying, dependent on parents. Parents usually rule in this small and very basic segment of society. Parents have unprecedented governance in this social group. the youngerones grow up, get their first hand experiences, learn things and reaches a point in time, where there is a cutoff, which plays a very significant role now. This cut off is when a child becomes independent, and most commonly will start to look out or would already have a mate. When this search is over, this child would want to settle down. Now this child, of her parents, as we can say, is in transition. Here is where metamorphosis occures for a person, she starts to belong to a new family now. Her previous family should become an extended family gradually. This is a cutoff point, and traditional valued society misses this cut off point.

In an orthodox commonwealth, a child is not expected to "start a new family" but rather have addition to the family. Usually, this addition to a family is less priored. This phenomenon is very similar to joining a new group. The new person is less important in an association than an old member. The additions to a family, result in embroilment. The old family members want to continue their unprecedented rule over their children, when their children are at the age when they can have their own family. The old family should become extended family. I don't intend to blame or accuse here any kind of social arrangement, and individual case could be different. Even in nature we observe similar pattern of behaviour. A cat would give birth kittens, and when the kittens reach at certain age, cat leaves them alone. But in human society, the parental instincts soemtimes overcasts this natural pattern. They "expect" their once obedient little darlings to be obedient little darlings forever. Fear and jealousy plays huge role here. Parental instincts can not accept the fact that their once little one now likes someone else and that someone is her first priority, and there starts all their tantrum. There are ways to make this transition smoother, and depends very much on a family as a whole's maturity. Some people can never accept transition, and I am sure, their dreams just stays dreams.

In Conclusion, I have observed that mature commonwealth provides a flourishing ground for our betterment, progress and prosperity and is ofcourse more alleviating.

P.S: An interesting article in NYTimes over another interesting behaviour of a family:

It's the Kids. Lock Up the China!

Viva Le Tour!

"Viva le Tour! Forever"
Lance Armstrong, 7th straight, legendary, storied Tour-de-France winner!!

Three Cheers to Lance, A Living Legend!

"I once met three guys named pain, suffering, and sacrifice. Now, we'er inseparable. We're best friends."
Lance armstrong said this once.


Every Second Counts



What would you say to Lance Armstrong if you had one minute of his time?
Here's my one minute with Lance:


Live Strong: Lance Armstrong

Dear Sir Lance,

Yes, I have to call you "Sir". There was something about you, which always made me want to know about you. I am a big fan of your high spirit, not getting defeated by carcinoma. When I heard about your sixth straight victory in tour de france as a cancer survivor, I wanted to salute you. I admire very much your determination, inner strength and will power to come back alive. You have grown to a legend. It does not matter if you win 7th straight tour-de-france, you have already won it even before the race started. You have won it by surviving post-cancer life, by deciding to race, by preparing for the race. That is your one of the biggest achievement. The performance does not matter, the will to perform to be on the top is what matters. You are a living torch for all the cancer patients. I wish you all the best for the race, but remember, you are already No. 1!

Three Cheers for You Lance!!

You can also find this and other letters to Lance here on USAToday .