kadorto blog by bandarji

kya meri hindi itni kharaab hai

2012-01-27T20:09:00.000-08:00

I am slowly (comfortably) learning Hindi. That means, I am not studying, just having fun picking up words and phrases, listening to music and watching Bollywood films. I want to understand the basics, so I have some books, software and MP3 files. The other day, I was asked if I have ever thought about using Rosetta Stone software. Well, I have Rosetta Stone software installed. I am not the biggest fan.

I stopped using Rosetta Stone early on in my learning days. It hates my accent, which is more my problem than its, but was frustrating to work around. I also did not find the exercises engaging. "Writing" in Hindi using the keyboard was a bit painful as well.

But, I was recently asked, so I tried it again. After returning to it after all this time, and knowing more Hindi now than then, I was surprised to learn a lot of the training is simply wrong. Yes, incorrect. Maybe you learn something, enough to build on, but you aren't going to properly learn the language.

Incorrect Spelling

Let us take a look at two sentences used to teach basic Hindi.

bura hindi

Where to begin? The "boy" is reading, then he is running. But, the first word of each sentence is not boy. The second word in each sentence, the verb, are not words at all, that I can tell. And, the last word is not "hai", which is है and not ह .

Now, For Some English

Let us increase our Hindi vocabulary. Repeat after me. In English, "sandwich". In Hindi, "sandwich". In English, "pen". In Hindi, "pen". What? Maybe the software uses the same vocabulary exercises for every language and sandwich in some other language is different and good to know. Maybe if you say "pen" in Timbuktu people help you look for a lost dog. Or, it could be that these words are chosen just for you to see Devanagari script. I don't understand. But, we are right back to inaccuracy, regardless. Pen could be क़लम , but if they really wanted to stick with pen, I would have written it पेन . The rest of the list is just baffling to me: car, cycle (bicycle), bread and coffee?

I hope tea is chai

Back to movies for me! Tonight? तीस मार ख़ान (Tees Maar Khan). And, back to the dictionaries.

Bouncing between dictionaries is not a good way to learn Hindi

January #lspe Meeting

2012-01-23T20:05:00.000-08:00

I decided to give public speaking a go by presenting at the January meeting for Large Scale Production Engineering (#lspe). The evening's topics were on Load Balancers, and my presentation was on using anycast as a load balancing solution, without the need for load balancers.

nginx and Linux-HA
To kick off the meeting, Greg Lindahl gave a short presentation on using nginx and Linux-HA for the search engine Blekko, where he is CTO.

Greg Lindahl details nginx and Linux-HA use at Blekko

Software Offering in the Cloud
Raja Srnivasan, Director of Cloud Solutions from the Stingray Business Unit at Riverbed, presented on the current state and future of load balancing within the cloud. For those not familiar, Zeus was purchased by Riverbed, and this is the current software load balancer product. Click here to view the slides.

Anycast
I was up next, with Service Redundancy and Traffic Balancing Using Anycast. The discussion was how to leverage routing infrastructure to provide service-level redundancy without the need for load balancers. Thank you to Bill H., for taking a photo of me during the presentation.

Detailing routing protocol configuration on Linux hosts

Layer 2 Load Balancing in a Layer 3 World
Carl Stanley, Load Balancer Architect at Yahoo!, talked about how to extend inline and DSR load balancing beyond a router hop. This is useful because SNAT hides client address information, adds transaction latency and requires load balancers to process all service traffic. L3DSR kernel modules allow Linux and FreeBSD hosts to map DSCP bits to virtual services. This was a well-received discussion on extremely interesting technology. Slides available here.

Thanks
A huge thanks to Yahoo! for providing space and pizza for everyone. Thank you to Chris for allowing me to present and everyone for listening.

Kadorto

2012-01-23T19:15:00.001-08:00

Kadorto, a photo by s_w_ellis on Flickr.

In case you were wondering about the source of the name in the URL for this blog, it is from the 80s computer game, Wizardry. Kadorto was a spell you could use to bring a character back to life. In the game, you basically needed to work on your characters until you had someone that could cast KADORTO, to resurrect players, and TILTOWAIT, which could take out any creatures you encountered. Taking care of WERDNA, the bad guy, was no problem at that point.

Determining Public IP Address

2012-01-09T09:00:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, it is just the simplest of things. An admin asked the other day what our Internet egress address was. I told him that he could use his browser to find out. However, he was dealing with a remote host, which had a different public address. A couple sites you can use to easily grab your public address from the command line are ifconfig.me and icanhazip.com.



  [bandarji ~]$ curl http://ifconfig.me/ ; curl http://icanhazip.com/
  200.99.99.200
  200.99.99.200
  [bandarji ~]$

These can also be used within bash quite easily.



  [bandarji ~]$ egress="`curl http://ifconfig.me/ 2> /dev/null`" ; echo $egress
  200.99.99.200
  [bandarji ~]$

HTTP Status Cats

2011-12-16T21:57:00.001-08:00

500 - Internal Server Error, a photo by GirlieMac on Flickr.

I am not typically a fan of Internet cats, but I found this set on Flickr to be well done.

We have probably all encountered some Internet site malfunction which displayed an HTTP server status code. Those codes have individual meanings, and the label for each numeric code has been associated with a photograph of a cat. Click here to view a slideshow of several of these, created by Bay Area user experience engineer, GirlieMac.

NX-OS Piping Options

2011-09-26T18:02:00.001-07:00

Pipe Dream, a photo by s_w_ellis on Flickr.

A friend forwarded to me the options he sees when working on his cisco Nexus 7000. I must say that I am impressed. It surprises me that network gear from all vendors is not like this: processors are fast enough, DRAM is cheap, flash is plentiful and all this software has open source options. Oh, how I wish I had grep, or even just the ability to pipe multiple times, on all this gear I manage. NX-OS seems to have all the commands an administrator would need to easily manage a large configuration from the command line. Running Linux under the hood is not such a bad idea.

Note: The image is simulated, based on copy and paste from an email, just in case it looks different from your Nexus.

SVCCG Workshop in San Jose

2011-09-25T20:11:00.000-07:00

Attended this weekend's Silicon Valley Cloud Computing Group meeting. PayPal hosted the event at their town hall, which had ample space for the eight hundred attendees. The schedule called for some tough decisions: I really wanted to hear about cloud work being done at both eBay and Netflix, however those discussions happened simultaneously. So, after weighing the options with Nisheed, who told me about this event in the first place, I decided on what to listen in on.

CloudOps: Where We've Been, Where We're Going, How Can We Do It Better?
Jeremy Edberg, Lead Cloud Reliability Engineer at Netflix

First up was Jeremy, talking about his cloud computing experiences at both reddit and Netflix. His talk provided insights into reddit's migration to cloud resources, along with surprising financial analysis. According to his calculations, Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) was almost thirty percent cheaper than managing scale with their own resources during his time at reddit, while the site's traffic grew 13x. He also mentioned the Octoputer, which has been referred to as a conceptual example of cloud computing, at least in the sense that you work remotely from any terminal with a connection to the system. RCA's Spectra 70 (Octoputer) is probably not a current offering from any cloud provider.

Jeremy discusses his cloud experience from reddit and Netflix

A Brief History of Cloud
James Watters, Business Development Manager, Cloud Foundry, VMware

James talked about cloud costs, using DRAM prices as a commodity to index virtual services invoicing. As an example, system pricing falls at a much faster rate than service pricing, specifically in the cloud. This is especially true for companies which are not large enough for the cloud provider to keep them happy. As he put it, "[EC2] does cut pricing, but you are at their mercy." Cloud costs have been the reasoning behind several companies building private clouds: Zynga and Urban Airship. Just an aside, it was brought up that the cost at Sun Microsystems to process a payment was around twelve hundred dollars ($1,200). I remember hearing something very similar from way back in my own past, when I was informed that it costs DuPont over ten thousand dollars ($10,000) to cut a check.

Building Cloud Tools for Netflix
Joe Sondow, Senior Software Engineer at Netflix

Joe talked about Netflix's REST interface, which layers over Amazon's provided management console. Reasons given for why they chose not to use the AWS Console were valid and raise questions regarding trusting cloud providers with too much SysAdmin information. You can find the presentation slides here. To learn more about cloud use at Netflix, follow #netflixcloud on Twitter.

Cloud Is Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On
Patrick Chanezon, Senior Director of Developer Relations at VMware

Patrick did a great job presenting (slides) how he envisions changes to systems administration due to a migration to cloud services. His comments on Starbucks and two-phase commitment was spot on regarding increased efficiency. Basically, Starbucks starts working on the drink preparation before the ordering process is completed. This reduction in latency increases throughput if the transaction parameters are not changed. Changes do not result in a loss of efficiency. If the drink is rejected, a new one is created. If there is a failure to make the drink, the customer is reimbursed. If the customer cannot afford the drink, it is discarded. He also warned against vendor lock-in. As he puts it, it is much like Hotel California, where "you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave." Therefore, he endorses Cloud Foundry so that you can be your own bitch, not Google's, Facebook's or Twitter's, quoting Fred Wilson.

Own That Cloud!
OpenShift / Red Hat

I missed the start of the presentation, so I do not know the presenter's name. Red Hat becomes a cloud provider with OpenShift. Their platform as a service (PaaS) offering comes in two flavors: Express is for quick deployment and Flex is for more administrative control. Some side notes on how SELinux and Linux Containers (LXC) are implemented were interesting.

A Tale of Locks and Hacks
Ramon Gomez, Security Program Manager at StrataScale

Questions asked: Anyone using the cloud to scale up online scans and/or attacks? Do cloud providers respond to online security incidents appropriately? What should be part of the due diligence in choosing a cloud service vendor? Ramon went into how StrataScale uses a combination of tools to identify and stop traffic which should not be on their network. Some of the tools mentioned were:

Open Source Security Information Manager (OSSIM)
Intrustion detection with Snort
NetFlow traffic analysis with Nfdump
Using PacketFence for network access control
Brute-force attacker, Medusa
Simple Event Correlator (SEC)

Keeping administrators on top of things using Medusa is an excellent idea. If you see a new host on the network, run a light scan against it with Medusa, just to make sure services don't have default administrative passwords configured.

Thank You

Again, to PayPal for hosting. Thanks also the sponsors: Scalr, VMware, RackSpace, DataStax, Amazon Web Services, HP Cloud, Red Hat OpenShift, Akamai, StrataScale and CloudStack. And, a huge thank you to #svccg.

Driven Before

2011-09-18T17:08:00.000-07:00

There was something too familiar about the font used for the movie, Drive. I knew I had seen the same font and coloring used before. You can definitely tell from the letter "i".

Notice the font

Same font and color

But don't tell anyone in Hollywood. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to make a movie spin-off from the television series, Silk Stalkings.

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Sing in Japanese

2011-09-15T15:30:00.000-07:00

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes released Sing in Japanese earlier this week. The punk band performs only covers, usually in themed releases. For example, Love Their Country covered country music, while Blow in the Wind was music from the 60's. This time, they are turning Japanese with six songs originally from Japanese artists. I shall do my best in this article to provide links for you to hear the original versions of each tune.

Track one is "Hero", originally by Kai Band. Here is a live performance from 1979. And, here is a studio recording.

Track two is "Kokoro No Tabi", originally by Tulips. Here is Tulips performing the song in 1973. And, here is a cover by GO!GO!7188. I like this cover ~~more~~ as much as the one from The Gimmes.

Track three is "Kekkon Shiyoyo", originally by Takuryo Yoshida. Here you will find a live performance. MFAGG usually incorporate some traditional punk sound into their covers. For this song, they use the intro of Social Distortion's Story Of My Life, which somewhat resembles the Japanese original, and works very well.

Track four is "C-C-C", originally by The Tigers. This time, the intro is borrowed from Agent Orange's Bloodstains.

Track five is "22 Sai No Wakare", originally by 70's band, Kaze.

The last track of this EP is "Linda Linda", originally by The Blue Hearts. In the movie Linda Linda Linda, some students learn the song for a school talent show. And, they do a great job.

In my opinion, music from Me First and the Gimme Gimmes only works when you can compare their renditions to the originals. It took a bit of searching to find all the songs, but after doing so the EP is even more enjoyable to listen to. I look forward to their next foreign-language release, as I understand they are planning songs from some other countries as well. Enjoy!

White Board Artwork

2011-09-14T20:25:00.000-07:00

Not all the artwork at DreamWorks Animation is for the films. Armed with dry erase markers, the artists tag the various white boards with interesting works. I shall share a few I have spotted at the office in this post.

Spider-Man

Note: I do not know who drew any of the items within this post.

Binary Rabbot

Surfer

How You Doin'?

Dinosaur

Frenchman

Blue Bear

They're In My Head

White Board Dead Zone

Skeleton

Look Right

Bring Out The Gimp

Rat

Mixture of Art

?!@&*!

Venom

Don Martin Tribute

Cowboy

That's Not Right

Brokenhearted

Happy Programmers' Day

2011-09-13T10:12:00.000-07:00

There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who do not.

Programmers, evidently, do not. Today is Programmers' Day, the 256th day of the year. The slogan for the date celebration is 1111 1111, binary for 255. Therefore, I believe yesterday should have been the date for celebration, not today. 256 is 100000000 in binary, two to the eighth power. Allow me to illustrate the problem.


# today (September 13, 2011)
#
bandarji > echo "obase=2;`/bin/date +%j`" | bc
100000000

# Yesterday
#
bandarji > echo "obase=2;`/bin/date +%j --date 'September 12, 2011'`" | bc
11111111

It could be this is a ~~bug~~ feature. That makes more sense to me than the claim, "Programmers count starting with zero." Regardless, happy Programmers' Day.

Load Balancing Without a Load Balancer

2011-07-31T17:57:00.000-07:00

Application delivery controllers perform a great service to direct traffic to servers which should handle client requests. Decisions on where to send information can be based on a variety of factors. Like their kid brother, the server load balancer, they present a virtual service address, linked to more than one backend system. By monitoring services on individual servers, the ADC or SLB drops unreliable services from pools to ensure high availability. Further, they divvy requests between servers which can answer them, balancing a load which might be higher than one system could accept.

There are times when you don't need the delivery options an ADC can provide, and even an SLB solution might not make sense. A tandem set of appliances for each local area network where servers reside is expensive to purchase and maintain vendor support. They also require power and use precious rack space. If a server load balancer is all you need to ensure service availability while dividing load, perhaps a different solution could do the job.

One Address To Rule Them All

Let's pick three services: ntpd, named and httpd. Now, we'll assign an address to each service: 172.16.254.123 for time, 172.16.254.53 for DNS and 172.16.254.80 for web services. No matter what network the servers for these services lives on, the servicing address will be one of the three listed. With anycast, multiple servers can advertise their availability, inserting into the infrastructure's routing table a single address across multiple machines. Note, that this article will only deal with the httpd example.

More Than One Way To Get There

The OSPF protocol populates network destinations in a table based on the cost of the link. If there are multiple paths packets could take to reach a destination, the one with the lowest cost, or metric, gets its gateway updated in the routing table. If more than one of these share the lowest metric value, multiple gateways are placed in the routing table. For anycast, the destination is simply a host route and the multiple gateways are the addresses of the Ethernet interfaces of servers. Clients are directed to the system with the lowest metric, ensuring requests go to the closest systems, ones without WAN costs.

Home Lab

I assembled a small lab to test out this system.

Host: geary.streetsof.sf
System: Juniper SRX
Interfaces:
lo.0 172.16.0.1/32 ospf area 0.0.0.0
vlan.10 172.16.1.1/30 ospf area 0.0.0.0
vlan.100 172.16.100.1/24 ospf area 172.16.100.0

Host: kearny.streetsof.sf
System: Juniper SRX
Interfaces:
lo.0 172.16.0.2/32 ospf area 0.0.0.0
vlan.10 172.16.1.2/30 ospf area 0.0.0.0
vlan.200 172.16.200.1/24 ospf area 172.16.200.0

Host: polk.streetsof.sf
System: CentOS Linux 6.0
Interfaces: ospf area 172.16.100.0
lo:0 172.16.0.3/32
lo:1 172.16.254.80/32
eth0 172.16.100.128/24

Host: union.streetsof.sf
System: CentOS Linux 6.0
Interfaces: ospf area 172.16.100.0
lo:0 172.16.0.4/32
lo:1 172.16.254.80/32
eth0 172.16.100.129/24

Host: mission.streetsof.sf
System: CentOS Linux 6.0
Interfaces: ospf area 172.16.200.0
lo:0 172.16.0.5/32
lo:1 172.16.254.80/32
eth0 172.16.200.128/24

The routing table on GEARY looks like:

Prefix             Path  Route      NH       Metric NextHop       Nexthop      
                   Type  Type       Type            Interface     Address/LSP
172.16.0.2         Intra Router     IP            1 vlan.10       172.16.1.2
172.16.0.3         Intra Router     IP            1 vlan.100      172.16.100.128
172.16.0.4         Intra Router     IP            1 vlan.100      172.16.100.129
172.16.0.5         Intra Router     IP            1 vlan.10       172.16.1.2
172.16.0.1/32      Intra Network    IP            0 lo0.0
172.16.0.3/32      Intra Network    IP           11 vlan.100      172.16.100.128
172.16.0.4/32      Intra Network    IP           11 vlan.100      172.16.100.129
172.16.254.80/32   Intra Network    IP           11 vlan.100      172.16.100.128
                                                    vlan.100      172.16.100.129
172.16.100.0/24    Intra Network    IP            1 vlan.100
172.16.200.0/24    Intra Network    IP           19 vlan.10       172.16.1.2

When POLK and UNION become unavailable, the routing table on GEARY updates.

Prefix             Path  Route      NH       Metric NextHop       Nexthop      
                   Type  Type       Type            Interface     Address/LSP
172.16.0.2         Intra Router     IP            1 vlan.10       172.16.1.2
172.16.0.3         Intra Router     IP            1 vlan.100      172.16.100.128
172.16.0.4         Intra Router     IP            1 vlan.100      172.16.100.129
172.16.0.5         Intra Router     IP            1 vlan.10       172.16.1.2
172.16.0.1/32      Intra Network    IP            0 lo0.0
172.16.0.3/32      Intra Network    IP           11 vlan.100      172.16.100.128
172.16.0.4/32      Intra Network    IP           11 vlan.100      172.16.100.129
172.16.254.80/32   Intra Network    IP           19 vlan.10       172.16.1.2
172.16.100.0/24    Intra Network    IP            1 vlan.100
172.16.200.0/24    Intra Network    IP           19 vlan.10       172.16.1.2

172.16.0.80 lives on as a valid destination, but since MISSION is now serving it, the route to a farther point (higher cost) is visible in the routing table.

Change Noted

On each web server was a file, host.txt, which simply contained the name of the server. Requests were made from FILLMORE, address 172.16.100.151.

[fillmore]$ curl -x "" http://172.16.254.80/host.txt
POLK
[fillmore]$

After the web server on POLK went offline...

[fillmore]$ curl -x "" http://172.16.254.80/host.txt
UNION
[fillmore]$

And, after the web server on UNION went offline...

[fillmore]$ curl -x "" http://172.16.254.80/host.txt
MISSION
[fillmore]$

So, it works as expected.

The Linux Configuration

For the OSPF networking, you might want to install Quagga routing software. On CentOS, this was simple.

[polk]# yum -y install quagga
...
[polk]# chkconfig zebra on

You need to set up the loopback interfaces.

# /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-lo:1
# Used as router-id, always available
#
DEVICE=lo:0
BOOTPROTO=none
NM_CONTROLLED="no"
IPADDR=172.16.0.3
NETMASK=255.255.255.255
ONBOOT=yes

# /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-lo:2
# To be brought up if Apache is working as expected
#
DEVICE=lo:1
BOOTPROTO=none
NM_CONTROLLED="no"
IPADDR=172.16.254.80
NETMASK=255.255.255.255
ONBOOT=no

A simple check would insert or remove the host's service loopback into the routing tables.

state="up"
ifup lo:1
while : ; do
  /bin/sleep 10
  # be sure to check an interface other than the anycast address
  # is Apache listening?
  /usr/bin/nc -z 172.16.0.3 80
  if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
  # if Apache is listening
  # Fire up ospfd and set state variable
    if [ "$state" != "up" ]; then
      /sbin/service zebra restart
      /sbin/service ospfd restart
      state="up"
    fi
  else
  # if Apache is not listening
  # Remove routing
  # Fire up Apache and give it a bit of time to load
  # Fire up routing
    /sbin/service ospfd stop
    /sbin/service zebra stop
    /sbin/service httpd restart
    /bin/sleep 10
  fi
done

! /etc/quagga/zebra.conf
!
hostname polk
password sfquagga
enable password sfquagga
!
interface lo:0
 ip address 172.16.0.3/32
interface eth0
 ip address 172.16.100.128/24
interface lo:1
 ip address 172.16.0.80/32
!
line vty
!
! /etc/quagga/ospfd.conf
!
hostname polk
password sfquagga
enable password sfquagga
!
interface eth0
 ip ospf priority 0
 ip ospf cost 32768
!
router ospf
 log-adjacency-changes
 ospf router-id 172.16.0.3
 network 172.16.100.0/24 area 172.16.100.0
 network 172.16.0.3/32 area 172.16.100.0
 network 172.16.0.80/32 area 172.16.100.0
!
line vty
!

I would be interested in hearing how this works for you.

A Ride Over The Bridge And Back

2011-07-13T00:45:00.000-07:00

Wonderful weather last Saturday, so I took the train into San Francisco and decided to ride my bicycle around the city. Starting close to AT&T Park, I rode down the Embarcadero, along the beach, and then over the Golden Gate Bridge. Turning back, I went through the city streets a bit more, through Chinatown and around Russian Hill, before heading back to the Caltrain.

In It To End It

I think "Nip It In The Bud" might be a better slogan

This stage explained the sea of pink I saw ahead of me. Early on my route, I ran into a group of walkers, part of the Avon Walk For Breast Cancer (some photos). There was pink everywhere!

Policeman wearing a tutu

Policemen from all over the Bay Area attended the walk, riding their bikes to support walkers while also keeping the peace. The San Jose officer pictured above had a jam box mounted on his bike, blasting out tunes to further motivate the walkers.

After a couple miles, a portion of the walkers had stopped for refreshments at one of the pit stops. The crowd thinning allowed me to make better time up and over the Golden Gate Bridge.

Looking down from the start of the bridge

View from the bridge

About to start back over the bridge

It was at this time I realized that this would be the first time I'd be entering the city via a bridge without paying a toll. After coming down from the bridge, I rode through the city in a haphazard fashion. I did not take any photos, but I plan to next time.

I got home and traced my ride using Google Maps. My calculations put the ride at just shy of twenty-nine miles. When I got home, I felt like I could have ridden another ten or even twenty miles. However, after sitting for about ten minutes, every muscle was telling me that I had chosen a nice stopping point.

I plan to ride around the city again this weekend. This time, I hope to track the ride a bit better and include better photos (from a camera rather than my iPhone).

Sir Geoffery of Lebowski

2011-06-20T09:28:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I went to CELLspace to catch a performance by The Primitive Screwheads. This Shakespearean twist on the Coen Brothers film, The Big Lebowski was very well done: quite funny, worked great with audience participation, went through the entire story and balanced incorporation of contemporary and "olde" elements. The production, Much Ado About Lebowski, has only one weekend left, June 24 and 25.

Verily, that rug did tie the room together

Murals and Graffiti on Bryant Street

2011-06-19T18:32:00.000-07:00

Went into San Francisco last night and saw some cool spray painted artwork on Bryant Street, around 18th Street. Thought I would share a few photos I took.

Hindi Support For Linux

2011-06-14T08:57:00.000-07:00

Ever visited a web site, like the one pictured above, and saw a bunch of (Unicode) blocks instead of the text you expected? Install support for the language you want on your Linux host, just like I did for the above-pictured Punjabi.

Debian Linux Installation

If you are running a Debian Linux system, use apt-get.

# apt-get install ttf-indic-fonts

Red Hat Linux Installation

If you are running a Red Hat or Fedora Linux system, use yum.

As a Bash Script

for indifont in Hindi Punjabi Tamil Telugu Kannada Malayalam ; do
  yum -y install "@${indifont} Support"
done

Individually

yum -y install "@Hindi Support"
yum -y install "@Punjabi Support"
yum -y install "@Urdu Support"

As an aside, this also works if you want support for Chinese and other languages.

Installed. Now What?

With the fonts installed, you can at least surf sites in Indic scripts and see readable text. But, what if you want to write in Hindi (or other language)? You could certainly look up the proper Unicode numbers, but that is tedious and unnecessary. For Hindi, I recommend using Hindi Kalam, a simple interface where you write in transliterated English; Roman alphabet characters entered on the left pane display the Hindi equivalent on the right pane. Once you have made minor adjustments to get the desired output, simply copy and paste the right pane content into your application, be that Facebook, Twitter, et cetera.

While I have not used the application, I have heard good things about ISIS, the Indian Script Input System.

Best of luck to you.

Kung Fu Panda 2 Credits

2011-06-06T10:03:00.001-07:00

Name in credits of Kung Fu Panda 2, a photo by s_w_ellis on Flickr.

If you have not watched Kung Fu Panda 2, what are you waiting for? Call in sick, remove your kids from school, and get to the theater! This film is an excellent follow-up to the first and you must see it in 3D. Just amazing!

This is the scene in the credits where my name is listed. No, I am not a part of the creative staff, although us geeks must be creative at times to support the artists.

Enjoy the movie...

Linux Host-to-Host IPSEC

2011-04-02T17:31:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, you want to encrypt all IP traffic between two Linux hosts. An easy way to do this with Red Hat Linux is to use IPSEC. While there are many applications which are encrypted, such as secure shell or even transport layer security and secure sockets layer over usually-unencrypted applications, IPSEC works at a lower level. IPSEC therefore can work regardless of the application and encrypts all IP communication.

Example Hosts

Host 1: 172.18.64.100 (host1)
Host 2: 172.20.16.200 (host2)

Configuration on host1

The numbers for SPI, or Security Parameter Index, are arbitrary. They just need to correlate with each other (IN on host1 goes to OUT on host2). I just picked a set of seven-digit numbers for this example.

# /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ipsec0
DST=172.20.16.200
TYPE=IPSEC
ONBOOT=yes
SPI_ESP_IN=9180000
SPI_AH_IN=8008135
SPI_ESP_OUT=5550100
SPI_AH_OUT=8675309

Configuration on host2

DST=172.18.64.100
TYPE=IPSEC
ONBOOT=yes
SPI_ESP_IN=5550100
SPI_AH_IN=8675309
SPI_ESP_OUT=9180000
SPI_AH_OUT=8008135

The Difference

Before you activate the IPSEC tunnel (which you have configured to start on boot), you should understand the difference in traffic. Here is an example of a single ping:

16:07:34.401784 IP 172.18.64.100 > 172.20.16.200: ICMP echo request, id 11084, seq 1, length 64
16:07:34.401842 IP 172.20.16.200 > 172.18.64.100: ICMP echo reply, id 11084, seq 1, length 64

You can see that the traffic is identifiable as ICMP.

After "sudo /sbin/ifup ipsec0":

16:09:32.580025 IP 172.18.64.100 > 172.20.16.200: AH(spi=0x00845fed,seq=0x2d): ESP(spi=0x0054b014,seq=0x2d), length 88
16:09:32.580144 IP 172.20.16.200 > 172.18.64.100: AH(spi=0x007a31c7,seq=0x23): ESP(spi=0x000138d5,seq=0x23), length 88

With the IPSEC connection, all the traffic will be IP protocol 50 and 51 (Encapsulating Security Payload and Authentication Header). Here is a secure shell session:

17:00:35.333778 IP 172.18.64.100 > 172.20.16.200: AH(spi=0x00845fed,seq=0x2f): ESP(spi=0x0054b014,seq=0x2f), length 64
17:00:35.333881 IP 172.20.16.200 > 172.18.64.100: AH(spi=0x007a31c7,seq=0x25): ESP(spi=0x000138d5,seq=0x25), length 64
17:00:35.333937 IP 172.18.64.100 > 172.20.16.200: AH(spi=0x00845fed,seq=0x30): ESP(spi=0x0054b014,seq=0x30), length 56
17:00:35.340078 IP 172.20.16.200 > 172.18.64.100: AH(spi=0x007a31c7,seq=0x26): ESP(spi=0x000138d5,seq=0x26), length 72
17:00:35.340183 IP 172.18.64.100 > 172.20.16.200: AH(spi=0x00845fed,seq=0x31): ESP(spi=0x0054b014,seq=0x31), length 56
17:00:35.340299 IP 172.18.64.100 > 172.20.16.200: AH(spi=0x00845fed,seq=0x32): ESP(spi=0x0054b014,seq=0x32), length 72
17:00:35.340355 IP 172.20.16.200 > 172.18.64.100: AH(spi=0x007a31c7,seq=0x27): ESP(spi=0x000138d5,seq=0x27), length 56
17:00:35.340490 IP 172.18.64.100 > 172.20.16.200: AH(spi=0x00845fed,seq=0x33): ESP(spi=0x0054b014,seq=0x33), length 768

tcpdump cannot inspect inside IPSEC to see this is traffic destined for TCP port 22. The traffic is encrypted so if your communication is intercepted, it cannot be deciphered. Clear-text passwords passed for checking mail would not be exposed.

Next time, I'll explain a way to encrypt traffic between hosts you don't have administrative access to, using secure shell.

Golden Temple: Then and Now

2011-01-19T14:09:00.000-08:00

The Golden Temple, 1859, by Felice Beato

The holiest gurdwara for Sikhs is the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, India. When we visited my father-in-law in 2009, we visited the temple, more commonly known as the Golden Temple.

Me and Anjali's dad at the Golden Temple

So, last weekend, my wife and I joined some friends at the The Getty Museum. One of the exhibits showcased photographs from Felice Beato. And, one of those photos, taken in 1859, was of the Golden Temple. While standing before the display, I showed my friends the photos from Amritsar, taken one hundred fifty years later. A security guard came over to tell me that taking photos within the exhibit was not allowed, but she stopped short when she saw that I was not taking a photo, but rather showing my own photos. I did come back to the photo, to save notes in my phone about the photo: when it was taken, by whom, et cetera. The guard came up at that time and asked if I had been to the location photographed, as she could not tell from a distance. I then showed her a few photos, and when the photo of me in Amritsar came on the screen, she looked at me, back to the phone, and back at me. Head tilted a bit, she asked, "Is that the same shirt?"

At the Golden Temple in 2009

Yeah, it is the same shirt. Well, probably. I have four identical green shirts. I have worn this shirt (or another green shirt) many times.

Green shirt in Jodhpur

A different green shirt on a different day of the same week: Jaisalmer

At dinner in Bangalore

Yep, same shirt!

So, after all that, I went back and took a photo of the photo. I needed it for this entry, to tell the story. But, it is cool to see a 150-year span of a spot in photos.

Ties to India

2010-12-01T18:54:00.000-08:00

Wow Factor of India: Ties to India: "I just got mentioned in a blog posting. See me all dressed up, wearing ties!"

I Shaved a Wall

2010-09-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

I recently took a photo of a wall on a music store in Glendale, which was a mural in remembrance of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The side wall of the building had signs hung up which I wanted to erase, and I thought I could do this image retouch using Gimp, the GNU Image Manipulation Program.

Help

It is difficult to find "how to" articles and videos if you are not sure what terms to search with. After some wild searching, I came across a Youtube video entitled Shave someone in GIMP- Clone & Healing tool (+spot removal) GIMP tutorial. Time to shave the signs off the wall.

Before and After

Original image (though resized)

Retouched image

Result

Thank goodness I was not ready to do this one year ago. It would have taken me forever to retouch all the photos I have taken since then! But, I am sure that future photo dumps will be slower to appear on the Net because of this little trick I have now learned. Expect more photos in the future to be cleanly shaved.

My Friend's Zinfandel

2010-06-14T21:25:00.000-07:00

My old boss, Jason, has made available his vineyard's first zinfandel release. According to the website, the barrel tasting notes state, "Vibrant, med purple garnet color. Tons of jammy berry fruit - raspberry, blackberry. Ripe berry fruit dominates. Excellent structure with good acid, med tannins, and alcohol in balance." According to me, this is a great wine to sip on cool (or cold) California evenings.

Mikami Vineyards Zinfandel

To find out more about the vineyard and wine, as well as to make a purchase, visit Mikami Vineyards.

Solution to Missing Mirrors

2010-06-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

The bathrooms at work at being remodeled, which is great. We are permitted to use the rooms before they are one hundred percent complete, which also is great. The bathrooms are sans mirrors, which is not so great. Someone at work posted some mirror replacements, which is funny. I love the creativity and fun at DreamWorks Animation!

No bathroom mirrors

Did you use soap?

You're having a good hair day

You look fine

Indian Fast Food

2010-04-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

I categorize Indian fast food into either dhabas or street food. Dhabas are usually road side eateries with a fast food feel. They serve meals, but don't have the ambiance to match fine dining. Street food consists of vendors selling items from a cart or out of a booth. Some of the best food can be found at places that don't even have a sign out front. Anything else is a restaurant, and not really fast food, in my opinion.

Street Food

Pushkar's Taco Bell

Most street food places do not require a name, borrowed from a US chain or not.

Street food in Whitefield

Some street food is delicious, even if the establishment is not that clean.

Delicious. Just close your eyes and try not to think about the dirty hands which prepared it

Street food in Jaisalmer - not clean, not delicious

And, it is a shame that most foods are regional. I sampled shakkarkandi (here is a recipe) while in Delhi and fell in love with the dish. Simple: roasted sweet potatoes, cubed, then doused with lime juice, then dashed with masala spices. While no vendors sold this dish in Bangalore, Anjali found sweet potatoes and would make this from time to time, and this yummy meal has been served at home in LA now as well.

Shakkarkandi

The Dhaba and The Hotel

I used to laugh when I saw signs for hotels in India, which seems to be synonymous with restaurant. A place to eat is a hotel. I began to second guess myself, thinking that perhaps hotel had an alternate definition. Looking it up in the dictionary, I found hotel to have one meaning, "a building where people stay, paying for their rooms and meals." At first glance, it seems that I was right and that Indians are using the term incorrectly. But, the "paying for their meals" part fits. Whatever the case, don't expect to stay the night at many Indian hotels, they don't have rooms.

Hotel Rolex - no rooms, no watches (Mysore, India)

Then you have dhabas. Road side stands would cook for truckers in Punjab, and the idea spread throughout India, usually bringing Punjabi-style food with it. These side-of-the-road eateries serve some delicious, spicy food. Even though I never got a chance to visit Pune, there supposedly is a dhaba there where you actually sit on chairs made from truck tires. One place to eat near where I worked, which was a technical campus, is called The Geeky Dhaba.

The Geeky Dhaba

We stopped at a dhaba in Tamil Nadu called Hotel Sri Punjabi's Dhaba. Just to cover all their bases, they also claimed to serve Chinese food. The extensive menu, quite impressive, was a complete facade, as they only served about five South Indian dishes.

At least this fast food place did not try to lie about what they served. The place is just called Fast Food. If you see this place on the side of the road, I recommend you just keep driving!

Come to India for the Food

When I studied history as a young school kid, I learned two things about spices: world trade was based on spice and many wars were fought over spices (or at least the control of land or trade routes). I never understood how that could be important. After just a few months in India, I finally understood what spice did to "spice" up food. If they had just brought garbanzo beans to class and cooked them in two ways, one with salt and pepper and one with Indian magic spices, I would have immediately understood. Hell, I would have signed up for battle to protect my country's interest in the spice trade. No, wait, I would have captained a ship to travel to India, sampling dishes at the source!

Here are some photos of foods in India, which are available only in certain regions, or are known to be better in one region than in another. For example, vada pav is something that people claim is better in Mumbai than anywhere else.

Mango, dried and spiced, called Dead Man's Skin (Amritsar, Punjab)

Chilies! (Vary by area - these are from Karnataka)

Mirchi pakora (Rajasthan)

Meen (fish), put over puffy rice (Kerala)

Alright, now I am hungry!

American Fast Food Abroad

2010-04-16T07:41:00.000-07:00

One of the things I found interesting about traveling last year are the differences in American fast food chains when they are opened in other countries. Consider this bit of dialog from the 90's movie Pulp Fiction:

Jules: You know what they call a Quarter Pounder with cheese in France?
Brett: No.
Jules: Tell 'em, Vincent.
Vincent: A Royale with cheese.
Jules: A Royale with cheese! You know why they call it that?
Brett: Because of the metric system?
Jules: Check out the big brain on Brett!

McDonald's

As I travel from now on, I shall take photos of the various McDonald's restaurants I encounter. To my knowledge, none of the McDonald's in India serve any beef. One item I did find which I enjoyed were the Shake Shake Fries. You get a bag of french fries and some spices to sprinkle over them, shake them in a bag for a decent coating and consume. For my taste, nothing else I tried in the India McDonald's was good, but the McDonald's in Egypt was a different story. I entered a McDonald's in Luxor one afternoon to use their free WiFi and was told that I had to be a customer. So I ordered a shake and it was quite nice; not as thick as shakes I have had in the US. In fact, you aren't given those huge, fire hose straws there like you are in America. The sweetness of the shake did little against the bitterness I held toward the entire country of Egypt, since I NEVER got connected to the Internet via any WiFi, paid or otherwise! Actually, I am not bitter toward Egypt for their crummy Internet. I am doubly bitter about my cab ride experiences! As for England, well, I never went into one to see if menu item number one was fish and chips.

McDonald's in Luxor, Egypt

Windsor, England

Bangalore, India

Mumbai, India

Shake Shake Fries - they were pretty good

Here is the Shake Shake Fries commercial

Mysore, India - well, at least just outside Mysore

Another in Bangalore, India, over by the Shiva temple on Old Airport Road

Inside the Delhi airport

Pizza in India

"Welcome to Pizza Hut. How many are in your party? Please have a seat here and our servers will join you momentarily." Yeah, that's Pizza Hut in India. It is a restaurant, with bone China plates and linen napkins. Each slice of pizza is served to you from your pie. Many Indians top their pizza slices with ketchup. I opted for cheese pizza when I went to Pizza Hut, and it was pretty good, especially with the dry Italian seasonings they provided in a shaker on the table. As for pizza delivery, you have Domino's strewn about, and they deliver via motorcycle.

Pizza Hut in Karnataka, India

Domino's Pizza delivery vehicles in Mumbai, India

Other American Fast Food

Perhaps because it was a small stand, there were not thirty-one flavors available at the Baskin-Robbins in ITPL. I only saw the same ten (or so) flavors there, and I only ate there a couple times. Nothing says "keep away" better than a place serving uncooked food without any running water. They would start the day with a bucket of water kept on the floor, in which they left the scoop. After watching that scoop come out of a bucket of water and ice cream mixture at the end of the day, I lost my appetite.

Baskin-Robbins in Bangalore, India

Subway served great sandwiches in India. Like McDonald's, no beef. Pepperoni was lamb meat; not my favorite. I usually enjoyed a tuna salad or chicken tikka sandwich.

Subway in India

KFC was in India, and they served spicy chicken, much spicier than in America. They don't have original recipe-style, so no "eleven herbs and spices", but they will make your taste buds happy. Since I don't have a photo of an India KFC, here is a photo of some Indian chickens. Who knows, one or a few of these birds may have later ended up at a local KFC.

Chickens being delivered in Bangalore

Not long before I moved from Bangalore, an Au Bon Pain opened. I was impressed with their service level, food quality and overall cleanliness. I wish them success in future store openings in India.

The first Au Bon Pain in India

Back to McDonald's

Not everyone that loves McDonald's will enjoy them outside America. Here, Steve tries a chicken burger in Bangalore, which he ate just that one bite of.

Steve is not impressed with chicken burgers

Cheer up, Steve. Even if you don't like the food, McDonald's can be a cool place to hang out.

Hanging out with Ronald McDonald in Bangalore

King of TT

2010-04-14T22:39:00.000-07:00

I never really played table tennis until I moved to India. There, it seems to be a very popular activity. Since I was such a horrible player, I became known as टी टी का माहाराजा or "Ti Ti ka Maharaja - grand king of table tennis". At the DreamWorks Animation office in Glendale, there are several tables and just about any time of the day you can find people playing.

We recently held a tournament, and someone captured a video of the final match. I am posting it here. I don't know what happened to game two, but hopefully YouTube user ceark will post it in the near future. Enjoy!

Game One
Watch

Game Two
Watch

Game Three
Watch

Yes, that is what we do all day, every day, at the office! :)

Dragon Day at DreamWorks Animation

2010-04-11T17:40:00.000-07:00

DreamWorks Animation recently released How To Train Your Dragon, which I think is their (our?) best work to date. Yes, I work at DreamWorks, but as a computer nerd I had nothing to do with the creativity which led to the magic of this film. Anyway, we celebrated the opening of this film on campus and I wanted to share some photos. I took some pictures too, but some coworkers took much better photos. Links to the complete sets of their photos are available at the bottom, and here are some photos from the day taken by others.

Lava Fountain

Rotten Tomatoes Status

Cheers

Vikings of Los Angeles

Made the Papers

Fire Dancers

Addressing the Crowd

Temporary Tattoos

Photo links: One, Two, Three

Contra on Your iPhone

2010-04-09T19:31:00.000-07:00

This is extremely geeky, but phone to do a time or two. Using Safari on your iPhone, browse to www.konamicodesites.com and then enter the "code" by swiping Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right. If performed correctly, two buttons appear on the screen. Press B then A and the site will return a character from Contra.

Bangalore Nostalgia

2010-04-09T09:15:00.001-07:00

Memories of Bangalore, originally uploaded by s_w_ellis.

IT World sent me an email with links to the article "19 Weird but Real Gadgets and Gizmos". The Bug Zapper is one widget on the list. In Bangalore they were commonplace and I purchased one for just under $4 USD. Plus, mine plugged into the wall outlet to recharge the batteries in the handle.

Anyway, seeing this item surfaced great memories of Bangalore. Hello to you all in Ozone and at ITPL!

Dragon Wrap Party

2010-03-23T23:33:00.000-07:00

The latest release from DreamWorks Animation is How To Train Your Dragon. We attended the cast and crew screening, watching the movie in 3D at the Gibson Amphitheatre. After introduction from the producer, directors and our CEO, a special guest came out to say a few words. Gerard Butler joined us for the screening and expressed how pleased he was with the film, where he voices the main character's father, Stoick. Something funny he mentioned was that he is concurrently in the best rated and worst rated opening films on Rotten Tomatoes, also starring in The Bounty Hunter with Jennifer Aniston (as I write this, one is one hundred percent fresh and the other is eight percent fresh). Of course, this is not his first time working with dragons nor working on horrible films, as he was also in Reign of Fire.

(Photo by christianz1969)

I do not want to reveal anything about the movie, so I'll skip the plot and just tell you that the 3D work is stunning. Not many things pop off the screen at you, rather the 3D draws you into the world, providing depth to scenes. The animation itself is incredible and the dragons range in appearance, offering comedy for the youngest viewers and enough firebreathing and destruction to interest older kids. There are touching moments and enough of a heartwarming story to make mothers happy too.

After we watched the movie, it was time to party. DreamWorks took over Avalon in Hollywood. Friends, food, drinks and dancing! Here are some photos from the event.

Anjali about to get axed at the club

Photos by Yellownurbs

Photos by Jennifer Pan

Funny comment on 3D by Cassidy Curtis

Gerard Butler addressing us (photo by P. Miniati) - More photos by Pia

We did not take many photos of the event. It was better for us just to enjoy running around, mingling. It was great to see Tiffany at the party too!

Vikings were everywhere that night!

Dinner with Friends at Carousel

2010-03-07T18:38:00.000-08:00

Catching back up with friends in Los Angeles has been great. I work with Victor and Raffi, so we met up with them, their wives and a couple who are friends of Raffi and Kristine. Reservations were at Carousel in Glendale. The Middle Eastern cuisine was delicious, and the food just kept coming out well after we were full. I could have eaten nothing but the muhammara, which is a dip of chili peppers, crushed walnuts and pomegranates. Of course, I forgot all about the spicy dip once the boureg and kofta arrived. By the time the entree appeared, we were pretty much done. As much as we wanted them, the kabobs were just going to have to put in a doggy bag.

After dinner, we enjoyed the dancing entertainment. There was a mix of Latin-style dancing and belly dancing. Click here to see some photos of the dancers.

Belly dancers

Dancers in the after-dinner show

If you are ever going to be in the area on a Friday or Saturday night, this would be worth making reservations to. We enjoyed a delicious, filling meal, many drinks, a dancing show and even some dancing of our own, for one hundred bucks per person. That was five hours of fun, so it was certainly worth the money for a great night out. And, we met another couple, Alfred and Lina. Can hardly wait to figure out plans for another evening out!

Cape Town, South Africa

2010-02-26T14:04:00.000-08:00

There was a Tuesday holiday in India for Republic Day, and so I decided to take Monday and the preceding Friday off as well, giving us a few days to travel to South Africa. What an amazing trip! Kerala is called God's Own Country, but the person giving the name most likely never visited Cape Town. The scenery is unmatched by any place I have ever visited, the people are friendly, the food is delicious, the area is filled with people from all over the world and the cost of things is reasonable. We stayed three nights in the wine lands of Stellenbosch, and two nights in the city of Cape Town. Honestly, we should have stayed all five nights in Stellenbosch, as driving into the city was not a hassle and the wine country was lovely.

The South Africa Wine Lands

The Wine Lands are less than an hour's drive from Cape Town. Once in the valley, you feel the weather change from the (almost) cold coastal wind, to the gentle, cool breezes of the country. The views are spectacular and the wine is inexpensive. We stayed at Devon Valley, just outside Stellenbosch.

Amazing room at Devon Valley

Devon Valley room's view from the bathtub

Penguins of Betty's Bay

We got out for a drive that first day, but did not venture into Cape Town. Instead, we headed down to the other side of False Bay, driving the coastal roads of Pringle Bay and Betty's Bay. We saw a sign in Betty's Bay about viewing penguins and decided to check it out. The penguins were funny to watch and we enjoyed a break, drinking tea just outside the bird sanctuary.

Betty's Bay

Old gas pump wear we took a break in Betty's Bay

Wine Tastings

Inspecting the color of the SyvlanVale wine

The Devon Valley hotel has its own wines, SylvanVale Vineyards. One of the staff barkeeps, Luvuyo (which means happy in Xhuso) let us sample some of the wines and went over the vineyard history.

Part of our wine tasting took place in Franschhoek, a neighboring town

More Penguins

The famous spot for penguin viewing is Boulders Bay, on the south-east side of Cape Town. If you have a car, I recommend skipping this spot and checking out Betty's Bay's penguins. This is more of a tourist trap and therefore the charm is absent. But, there are some places to get a bite to eat, whereas Betty's Bay is a bit barren.

Penguins at Boulders Bay

Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point

The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky shoreline which has claimed many ships. Boats would come close to the shore to cut their shipping time, but many would run into the jagged boulders of the Atlantic. A lighthouse was erected atop Cape Point, 250 meters above the water, in 1860. Ships forty miles out could see the light, but the lighthouse was built too high, as it was usually covered by fog. When the Lusitania wrecked in 1911, it was decided to build a lighthouse at less than half the height.

The original lighthouse of Cape Point

However, the rocks along the shore are not the only dangerous things in Cape Point. You have to keep an eye out for baboons!

Baboons are not only dangerous, but hideous looking too

Seriously though, the scenery is beautiful. It was a perfect summer day to check out this site.

View from the old Cape Point lighthouse

The Cape of Good Hope

And, there is a signpost next to the lighthouse which points to major foreign cities, giving the distance to each of them. It was fun to see how far it was to some places we had traveled.

9,296 kilometers to Delhi, 12,541 kilometers to New York City

Anjali looking toward India

Cape Town

And, then there is the city of Cape Town. We had a great time at the V&A Waterfront, taking in a live show while enjoying libations. The market close to our hotel was fun to shop within and we ran into some interesting characters. I even got to talk to Nelson Mandela on a phone made of gold (see the colorful dude in the photo below). And, we took a sky tram up to the top of Table Mountain. That part I was less than enthusiastic about, since I do not like the method of transport. Table Mountain was windy and cold, but it provided some awesome views of the city.

Crazy guy in the market

V&A Waterfront, watching boats

Watching a band perform on the V&A Waterfront

View from the top of Table Mountain

Cold and windy on Table Mountain

A Short Trip

The only negative I can say about our vacation was the amount of time we had. Cape Town requires more attention than one week, and it was hard to enjoy all its offerings in four days. But, we were happy to have experienced what we did and we hope to return some time in the future.

Self portrait one afternoon in Camps Bay

Sunset over the Atlantic

One Year in India

2010-01-12T03:38:00.000-08:00

I moved from Los Angeles to live in India back in January 2009. This past year has been an interesting one:

Travel

Took one overnight bus and three overnight train rides. And, spent one night on a boat and two nights in tents.
I visited nine of the twenty-eight states: Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Maharasthra, Haryana, Punjab, Goa, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. I also touched down at an airport in Andhra Pradesh, but am not willing to count that.
Northernmost point visited: Wagha, Punjab. Southernmost: Alleppey, Kerala. Distance between: more than three thousand kilometers.
I traveled with Anjali to points on the west coast, on the Arabian Sea, as well as on the east coast, on the Bay of Bengal.
Anjali and I went on a nine-day road trip across Rajasthan, totaling nearly fifteen hundred kilometers in a car.
Outside of India, I ventured to Stonehenge and the Pyramids at Giza.

Culture

I was invited by Richard to attend an Iron Maiden concert. I think I still owe him for my ticket.
Tried toddy in Kerala for the first and last time.
Got painted during Holi.
Learned a bit of Tamil and Kannada, from some of the drivers.
Learned a fair amount of Hindi, something I intend to keep up with. I am even able to write what I hear.
Learned a small amount of Punjabi - thanks Tanuj and Nikhil. You guys would have only gotten me into trouble, if I had used anything you taught me.
I now know how to write my name in fourteen Indian scripts: Malayalam, Hindi, Urdu, Oriya, Gujurati, Tamil, Kannada, Bengali, Manipuri, Old Manipuri, Punjabi, Assamese, Telugu and Nepali. I have learned how to write Anjali's name in thirteen scripts.
Did my best to understand and remember the Hinduism relayed to me.
Received a rakhi from my neighbor, Raina.
Saw three of the Times of India newspaper's Seven Wonders of India: Taj Mahal, Harmandir Sahib (The Golden Temple) and Bahubali. Bahubali is also the world's largest monolith.
Spent Diwali in Faridabad, being introduced to most of Anjali's family in Delhi.
Watched an idol get submerged in a lake during Ganesha Chaturthi.
Attended a puja for the start of a new business.
Revisited Delhi to attend Sharad and Aditi's wedding.
Witnessed the Pakistan border "Lowering of the Flags" ceremony. Neha's father was kind enough to provide us with VIP passes and a government escort from Amritsar.
While in Rajasthan, we visited Karni Mata temple, filled with approximately twenty thousand rats, as well as India's sole Brahma temple, in Pushkar.

Personal

Got engaged near the top of a mountain in Wayanad.
Spent several nights in a hospital on two separate occasions: once when Anjali broke her arm, requiring surgery; and again when I had my hernia operation.
Watched the clock exclaim, "It is now the new year", from a bed in an emergency room.
I obtained a drivers license, valid for motorcycles and cars.
I did something nice for the parents of a street full of kids that wanted their picture taken.
Am the healthiest I have been since high school, having lost a few pounds and started eating better.
It was a challenge to work in a foreign country: language barriers, work ethic differences, time zone issues, shipping problems, product availability concerns... It was also quite rewarding to be the technical lead for an animation studio, and to contribute, in small part, to their successful premier release.
In my life, I have never had more sick time off from work.
Became the टी टी का माहाराजा, or the "Grand King of Table Tennis."
I gained some true friends here and I promise to revisit.

There is probably so much more to write. Just looking back over a year spent in India, the memories bring a smile to my face. Bangalore has been "home" for me, and I feel as tied to this city as I ever did to Los Angeles, San Francisco, or anywhere else I have lived in the States. I met Anjali at lunch one Sunday in Bangalore and now we are going to get married. Before I came to India, I had never left North America. In the past year, I have spent time in four continents. It has been a wonderful year and the years to come have much to live up to.

cisco High Load

2010-01-11T06:39:00.000-08:00

It is annoying when you have a small network component which acts funny. Here is a switch with a high load.

Problem

Switch has a high load. Consistently, this L2 switch has a load of ninety-plus percent.

System or Traffic?

Checking the traffic at the switch uplink, I see less than ten percent utilization:

#show int e 5/19 | inc util
  300 second input rate: 28243442 bits/sec, 5964 packets/sec, 2.88% utilization
  300 second output rate: 94650470 bits/sec, 13938 packets/sec, 9.59% utilization
#show int e 5/20 | inc util
  300 second input rate: 55866957 bits/sec, 10364 packets/sec, 5.68% utilization  
  300 second output rate: 56331075 bits/sec, 12719 packets/sec, 5.75% utilization

And, on the switch itself (I am removing all the 1/255 manually):

#show interfaces | inc /255
     reliability 255/255, txload 10/255, rxload 3/255
     reliability 255/255, txload 26/255, rxload 2/255
     reliability 255/255, txload 2/255, rxload 1/255
     reliability 255/255, txload 13/255, rxload 16/255
     reliability 255/255, txload 9/255, rxload 46/255
     reliability 255/255, txload 16/255, rxload 3/255
     reliability 255/255, txload 11/255, rxload 31/255
     reliability 255/255, txload 8/255, rxload 5/255

So, traffic is not really that high. Let's check the system to see what is going on.

#show processes cpu sorted 5sec | exclude 0.00%
CPU utilization for five seconds: 85%/14%; one minute: 86%; five minutes: 87%
 PID Runtime(ms)   Invoked      uSecs   5Sec   1Min   5Min TTY Process
 118  36487939601297149358       2812 65.97% 67.99% 68.97%   0 LLDP Protocol
 134         471       393       1198  0.15%  0.16%  0.04%   1 Virtual Exec
  97     2604007   1553121       1676  0.15%  0.06%  0.05%   0 HRPC qos request

LLDP Protocol seems to be where the work is happening. Let's dig some more.

So, this looks odd:

#show platform port-asic stats miscellaneous

Port-asic Misc Statistics
=====================================
    TxBufferFullDropCount               2227541109

I found some drops on "Queue 4".

#show platform port-asic stats drop | include Queue  4
    Queue  4: 116263423
    Queue  4: 116263506

"Queue 4" is the L2 Protocol queue (remember the first queue is number zero):

#show controllers cpu-interface
cpu-queue-frames  retrieved  dropped    invalid    hol-block  stray
----------------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
L2 protocol       1253419075 0          0          5          0

It is time to enter some debug commands, which every network guy hates to do. Debug is usually the quickest way to make a problem worse. It is much akin to an oncologist saying, "I don't know about this lump, why don't we just slice you open?" The surgery could be worse than the initial problem.

configure terminal
no logging console
logging buffered 128000
service timestamps debug datetime msecs localtime
no debug all

debug platform cpu-queues ?

#debug platform cpu-queues ?
  broadcast-q         Debug packets received by Broadcast Q
  cbt-to-spt-q        Debug packets received by cbt-to-spt Q
  cpuhub-q            Debug packets received by CPU heartbeat Q
  host-q              Debug packets received by host Q
  icmp-q              Debug packets received by ICMP Q
  igmp-snooping-q     Debug packets received by IGMP snooping Q
  layer2-protocol-q   Debug packets received by layer2 protocol Q
  logging-q           Debug packets received by logging Q
  remote-console-q    Debug packets received by remote console Q
  routing-protocol-q  Debug packets received by routing protocol Q
  rpffail-q           Debug packets received by RPF fail Q
  software-fwd-q      Debug packets received by software forward Q
  stp-q               Debug packets received by STP Q

An Odd Fix

Figuring we might as well go to the latest code during a planned maintenance window, I decided to upgrade the IOS from 12.2(40) to 12.2(53). The problem immediately went away and has been running error free at five percent utilization for more than three weeks.

Puducheri and Auroville

2010-01-11T02:51:00.000-08:00

In Tamil, pudu means new and cheri means town. Puducheri, or Pondicherry, as it is better known, is a union territory of India, and was once a French colony. Different from states in India, union territories do not have elected governments, but rather obtain rulers by federal appointment. The Indian president personally appoints a Governor for each territory. Today, seven territories exist within India, separately governed and taxed from the states which they border. The French influence is still evident in the city, as many of the street names are in French. And, interestingly, the story Life of Pi is partially set in Puducheri. Also, M. Night Shyamalan was born in Puducheri, though raised in the United States.

Driving Through Tamil Nadu From Bangalore

National Highway 66, what a great stretch of road. You can travel one hundred kilometers per hour easily on most of it. The only slowdowns are toll booths. That would not be so bad if it weren't for the people at the toll booths. Even though all the lanes are clearly defined, some people insist on being idiots, slowing down the process for everyone else.

Here you see trucks in the lane marked for cars

This idiot drives between the toll lanes to cut in front of everyone

About midway, we stop for some lunch. Roadside eating in India is always an adventure. There are no signs in the windows with health department ratings, and you don't have a Zagat booklet. We stopped at Hotel Sri Punjabi's Dhaba, which boasted of serving north and south Indian meals, as well as Chinese (the sign said Chinees). The menu had an impressive selection and I was in the mood for some delicious Punjabi cuisine. But, everything I ordered was something they could not prepare. It turns out they could not prepare any Chinese food neither. And, their south Indian selection was limited. The sign and menu boast of all these flavors, just to get you to stop. Once you have stopped, you find out they only have a few items. This has also been our experience with restaurant wine lists in India: print anything you want, but only have three choices.

A very non-Punjabi Punjabi dhaba in Tamil Nadu

Coast to Coast

Earlier in 2009, I visited both Mumbai and Goa, both on the Arabian Sea. Big Beach just outside Puducheri is on the Bay of Bengal. The Arabian Sea is the west coast and the Bay of Bengal is the east coast. Visiting Puducheri allowed me to see the beaches of both Indian coasts.

Big Beach, just outside Puducheri

A fishing village on Big Beach

Auroville

Outside Puducheri, in Tamil Nadu, just up East Coast Road, there is a settlement called Auroville. It was founded in the sixties by a French woman with a simple set of rules. Basically, Auroville belongs to anyone that lives and works within Auroville, serving and unifying humanity.

Anjali enjoyed shopping in Auroville, as the crafts displayed are all manufactured within the compound. After I had reached my shopping quota, I sat outside and took photos of people with their cameras (so everyone in their group would be in the photo). I also grabbed a chocolate-soy cookie and a soda. While sitting, I noticed a dog trotting from person to person, looking for some food. Since my cookie was not very tasty, I whistled him over and he gobbled up the cookie. We were so hungry after the shopping, that we decided to leave instead of checking out the central temple, the Matrimandir (Mothers' Temple). The temple is rather interesting in that it looks like a golden golf ball and the interior is lit by sunlight scattered through a seventy centimeter crystal housed at the top. At night, a light is passed through the crystal, fed from solar-powered lamps.

They would not stop waving until I took their photo

I shared a cookie with this dog

Blessed by an Elephant

If you visit Puducheri, be sure to stop by the Arulmigu Manakula Vinayagar Temple and get blessed by their elephant. You extend out a coin, which the elephant takes into his trunk, which then is handed over to his keeper, and then his trunk comes down gently on your head to bless you.

The blessing elephant at a Puducheri temple

Anjali getting blessed

My turn getting blessed

Looking for Lunch (in all the Wrong Places)

We came from Auroville to get some lunch in Puducheri. Hearing so much about the French influence, we were sure a small cafe would have something nice to eat. We could not find anywhere to eat! Evidently, if you are in town, everything closes at three in the afternoon. Even so, we visited some recommended spots and found their menus lacking anything exotic (to India). So, we wandered around the French-named streets looking for anything to eat, not finding one decent place.

Statue of Gandhi on the beach, surrounded by pillars displaced from Gingee

Street lined with ambulances

Police headquarters

It was decided by us that the only thing French were the street names. Hungry and disappointed, we headed back to Big Beach.

Final Walk on Big Beach

Early morning stretch before the surf

The morning was cool, chilly even. When we walked along the coast, some drizzle fell. We enjoyed watching crabs scurry about and listening to the waves crash.

Last morning on Big Beach

The Rat Temple in Deshnok

2010-01-07T22:20:00.000-08:00

One of the estimated twenty thousand rats of Karni Mata

Our last full day in Rajasthan took us from Phalodi through Khirva, Gajner, Bikaner, Deshnok, Barani, Rol, Didwana, Moulasar, Ranasar, to Kuchaman. Karni Mata temple was a great site to visit. Kuchaman Fort was a great place to stay. The trek across Rajasthan was a wonderful vacation. A huge thanks to Sudev for putting together an itinerary for us. For me, the temple in Deshnok was the highlight of the trip.

The Rat Temple of Deshnok

Karni Mata was a Hindu sage in the fourteenth century, worshipped by her followers as an incarnation of Durga. Legend has it that Karni Mata tried to bring the child son of a local storyteller back from death. Yama, the god of death, however had already reincarnated the child as a rat and therefore Karni Mata would not be successful in her attempt as restoration. A pact was formed between Yama and Karni Mata, that all her followers would be reincarnated as rats under her protection, and that the reincarnated son would live where her temple stands today, in Deshnok. The original temple was built in the fifteenth century, just after Karni Mata's disappearance from the village, having lived more than one hundred fifty years by that point. The temple in its current construction came from the Maharaja of Bikaner in the early twentieth century. Karni Mata came to the king in a dream, instructing him to build a new temple on top of her old temple, to protect her rats, soon to leave the area and perish if not properly cared for. The temple is lavishly decorated in silver and gold, with intricate marble carvings. Amazingly, with an estimated rat population of twenty thousand, the temple is clean and free of odor.

Silver windows at Karni Mata temple

The rats are cared for by local people as well as pilgrims. It is said that if a rat is killed by a visitor, it must be replaced by a similar-sized rat fashioned from gold. To be touched by a rat, as I was, is a sign of good luck. And, to see a white rat is quite auspicious and a sign of great luck.

Rats fed milk within the temple

I mentioned that a rat touched me. We were in one of the rooms when a rat ran across my foot. Startled, Anjali yelped and I jerked my foot, which sent the rat sliding across the floor. As she was saying she was then ready to leave, I was telling her that it would probably be best for us to leave. Kicking a rat is not the best way to show your respect to those around you worshiping the little guys. Perhaps the good luck I received from being touched was used to keep the kicked rat alive (trust me, I barely pushed the small creature).

If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend checking out the temple.

Jaisalmer and Sam

2009-12-29T23:18:00.000-08:00

The desert swallows some of the roads, if you are not on the highway

Sunset at Fort Rajwada

After a full day of driving and taking the wrong roads, we ended up at Fort Rajwada. The day was not crummy by any means, but we were pretty tired. I suppose timing is everything: we arrived at the fort just as the sun was considering setting, giving us time to check in and clean up before she fell from the sky. The hotel had set up tables and chairs on the terrace for a sunset view and the weather was perfect: cool air with zero bugs and a gentle breeze.

The Sun setting over Jaisalmer

We left the hotel and headed into the city to check out the market and to fetch some supper. I forget where we even had a meal: it was not remarkable. The market was about the same. Perhaps we were tired from the day in the car, but nothing stood out as great as we ordered a meal and afterward wandered the alleyways. We did see the bhang shop which appeared on an episode of Anthony Bourdain's television show, No Reservations. Bhang is prepared from cannabis and can be found in cookies, drinks and candies. It is legal for sale and consumption in some areas of India, including Jaisalmer.

Bhang shop in Jaisalmer

Jaisalmer, The Golden City

The next day, we ventured back into the city, making our way up to Jaisalmer Fort. The 12th century fort sits at the top of a hill. The interesting thing about this fort is the fact that approximately twenty thousand people still live within its walls, so it is as functional as it is a tourist attraction. We did get some shopping accomplished, although the sale was more from the store owner's persistence than anything else. Anjali really wanted an ornate metal bell, but the price was a bit high. We got the price down from the original asking, but it was still not a bargain, so we walked. Before exiting the fort, we sat to enjoy some tea, and here comes the owner on his moped, looking for us. He would not meet our price, but he came close, so we agreed to buy it if he went back into the fort to retrieve it for us. I still wonder if the time and petrol made the sale worth it for him.

The fort walls surround one quarter of Jaisalmer's population

Jaisalmer means "The fort on the hill of Jaisal", after the city founder, Rawal Jaisal Singh. The area was originally populated by a Rajput warrior clan from Punjab. Part of this group moved to this area to begin taxing a trade route, and chose Trikuta Hill as the best place to build a fort. Jaisalmer is also known as The Golden City because of the coloring of the sand, which is all you see from the hill in all directions; surrounded by the Thar Desert.

Sam: A Night in the Thar Desert

Dunes in the Thar Desert

Less than fifty kilometers west of Jaisalmer is a place called Sam, and there are tent camps where you can sleep in the desert. This was a great place to relax, ride a camel, dance around a campfire with some nomads and listen to local musicians perform. Well, I did not dance, but Anjali joined a group of Kalbeliya women that were putting on a show after supper.

Anjali dancing with some Rajasthani performers

But, before all the festivities, we rode a camel named Michael out to the dunes to watch the Sun go down.

About to head out from camp to watch the sunset

This was a true vacation moment: no honking horns, nobody bugging you, all alone in the desert. Just me, Anjali, Ali and Ali's camel, Michael. Oh, and about one trillion dung beetles! These guys were everywhere. A little freaky at first, just because of the sheer number of them which crawl about you if you sit down, but they were harmless and, at times, fun to watch. They would start climbing a dune and roll down, only to try again. They would walk around my beer, touching it, then walking away. And, if some sand was undisturbed, they would take it upon themselves to leave their tracks.

A dung beetle messing up the sand

We watched the sunset, then got back on Michael, and headed back to the camp. Supper was filling, the dancing was fun to watch and the music was interesting.

Sunset over the Thar Desert

After a good night's rest and some breakfast, it was once again time to hit the road. Next stop, Phalodi.

All of our photos from Jaisalmer can be viewed here. And, the ones from Sam, here.

Visiting Bahubali in Shravanabelagola

2009-12-29T04:09:00.000-08:00

Bahubali in Shravanabelagola: The world's largest stone monolith at 57 feet

Shravanabelagola, India

Approximately one hundred fifty kilometers west of Bangalore, in the Hassan District of the Indian state of Karnataka, stands the world's largest stone monolith. The statue is of the Jain teacher, Bahubali, and he sits atop Chandragiri Hill in Shravanabelagola. Carved in the tenth century, this statue received the most votes in the Times of India newspaper's listing of twenty candidate sites to become the Seven Wonders of India. Harmandir Sahib (The Golden Temple) and Taj Mahal came in second and third place, respectively.

You can really get an idea of the size of Bahubali with this picture

Bahubali is revered by Jains because he was the first to attain moksha, or total enlightenment and freedom from death and rebirth. Shravanabelagola is a major Jain pilgrimage, and every twelve years the Mahamastakabhisheka is celebrated, where Bahubali is coated in milk, saffron and powdered sandalwood; and given offerings of food and precious metals. The next celebration will be in 2018, so mark your calendars.

Shravanabelagola roughly translates from Kannada to mean "The beautiful pool in the center of town."

Bahubali ( बाहुबली )

Bahubali, or Gommateshvara, was the second of one hundred brothers. His older brother, Bharat, did not appreciate the fact that the land his younger brother ruled over was more prosperous than his, so he decided to take it by force. Soon into battle, it was decided that war would end in too much suffering for both kingdoms, so Bharat and Bahubali should have a contest of strength to determine the victor. Each would hit the other over the head until one admitted defeat. Since he was older, Bharat delivered the first blow, almost knocking Bahubali unconscious. Bahubali, whose name means "arms of strength", realized in mid-swing that if he landed his fist on his brother's head, Bharat would surely die. Already in an attack position, he could not stop because of the warrior code. If he stayed his hand, he would lose his position of power over his kingdom for breaking the Kshatriya attack protocol. In order to save his brother and to maintain his warrior status, he grabbed his own hair, ripping it from his head and struck the ground. Bahubali then gave over his kingdom to his brother and went off to live an ascetic life.

Statue of Bharat on the hill opposite where Bahubali stands

Bharat approached the meditating Bahubali several times, to return the kingdom, and even later to give over both kingdoms. Bahubali was not interested and remained deep in meditation, until he attained moksha. It is said that the statue of Bahubali is really Bahubali. Others say that Bharat fired his bow at the hilltop and the rock split by his arrow took the shape of the statue. The statue atop Vindyagiri Hill in Shravanabelagola won't tell us the true story, neither will the smaller statue of Bahubali's brother on Chandragiri Hill.

Chandragiri Hill

You can see Bahubali on top of Vindyagiri Hill from Chandragiri Hill

Just opposite Vindyagiri Hill, past the sarovar, is Chandragiri Hill. While it does not have a huge statue of a siddha on it, it does have a dozen or so bastis, or Jain temples. I particularly liked roaming around this hill, as there were very few people around. You could really enjoy the scenery, take your time examining the old writing on the rocks and spend time inside the shrines.

One of the many Jain temples on Chandragiri Hill

A few things to note about this day excursion from Bangalore. First, you cannot wear shoes on either hill, so just leave them in the car for the day. Second, there are a lot of steps; repeat, a lot of steps involved getting to the top of either one of these hills. Third, carry some water with you, as there are no vendors waiting to sell you cold drinks at the top of these hills. Finally, carry more water than what you think you would like to drink, as you should remain hydrated.

Click here for more pictures from our trip to Shravanabelagola.

Jodhpur, The Blue City

2009-12-18T05:11:00.000-08:00

On NH 65 heading to Jodhpur

The Blue City

Jodhpur is known by many names: Sun City, Gateway to Thar and Brahmpuri are only some. Its most well-known moniker is The Blue City. Many of the houses to the north of Mehrangarh Fort are painted blue. The reason for the homes' color varies with the person you ask. Here are some of the reasons I have heard or read:

Brahmins are the religious leaders and skin of the gods is usually blue in color
The color discourages mosquitoes from entering the city
Chemicals to block termites tinted the originally white paint
This marked religious homes during the Jaipur-Jodhpur war, keeping inhabitants safe
Brahmins marked their homes to show themselves superior to neighbors
The color keeps the home cool

Whatever the reason, it was an interesting sight, looking down from Mehrangarh Fort.

View of The Blue City from Mehrangarh Fort

Mehrangarh Fort

Architecture at Mehrangarh Fort

A rough English translation of mehrangarh is "sun fort"; fitting for a city known as Sun City. This fort was constructed in the fifteenth century and is one of India's largest.

Clock Tower Market

The market stays busy, regardless of the time of day

Nothing much to say here. Clock Tower Market is a market with a clock tower in the center. It was a chaotic place.

Market food

Fruit beer?

Umaid Bhawan Palace

The Jodhpur royal family still resides at this 300+ room Taj hotel

We stopped for lunch at Umaid Bhawan Palace. There is a cover charge for entry to the grounds of Rs 3,000 each, but you get to deduct lunch from that amount. Or, as it turns out, your lunch will likely cost more than the cover charge. In other words, we had an expensive lunch at the palace. The grounds and lunch were nice, though.

Anjali catches up on phone calls

That would have been a great lunch spot

Kids at the Cattle Fair

View Larger Map

Asop, India, is between Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, if you get lost. We took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up going through this small town. The area was about to start a twenty-day cattle fair. We got out to stretch our legs and snap some photos, mostly of the local kids. Local is probably not accurate though, since many people travel from other regions for this event.

Kids eating sweets in Asop

Great photo Anjali took of some kids

Making chai

We were soon on our way again, after finding the right road to take. Next stop, Jaisalmer.

Brahma Temple in Pushkar

2009-12-11T08:38:00.000-08:00

"Born from a flower" - that is what Pushkar means. Brahma accidentally dropped a flower down to Earth from the heavens, and Pushkar Lake was instantly created. This was the site of Brahma's first vajna, or sacrificial ritual. When Brahma's wife, Savitri, did not attend this event, Brahma took another consort. Savitri, hurt by this, cursed Brahma never to be worshiped anywhere outside Pushkar. So it was cool to visit the spot where it is cool to have a temple devoted to Brahma.

Pushkar Lake

Pushkar Lake

Pushkar Lake is a pilgrimage spot, or dham, for Hindus. During Kartik, in October or November (lunar), devotees come to bathe in the lake water. Surrounding the lake are fifty-two ghats, though many of the steps do not lead to water, as the lake was nearly void of water when we visited.

Brahma Temple

Since this is one of the world's only Brahma temples, we got up before the Sun to witness the aarti, or morning offering. We did not take a camera with us to the seven hundred year-old temple, therefore no photos are available. It was cool just to see the temple, one place I had wanted to visit since I arrived in India nearly one year prior.

Upon returning to the hotel from our temple visit, a group of men invited us over for some chai. There was a small group of guys with one guru, sitting around a small fire. We hung out for a bit, thanked them and went back to the hotel. I picked up the camera and went back to take a photo of the guru.

The chai guru

On my way back to the hotel, a man extended a flower to me. "A gift from Brahma," the man said. I told him I had no money to give him. He repeated that it was a gift, so I accepted it, thanked him and tried to walk on. He then told me that I had to toss the flower into the lake. I went along with him for a bit and at the lake's edge he had me repeat a prayer. One of the lines of the prayer was that I will give Brahma one hundred Euro. I told him that I am not European, so he said, "two hundred American dollars." I told him that I was not going to give him anything. At this, the man forcefully told me that I have to give him money since I accepted the flower and he had done all the work of going through a prayer with me, and that the money is for charity. I told the man that if he gave me the address of his charity's office, I would gladly give a donation. At this the man got angry and pretty much demanded that I give him money; at least fifty dollars. I told him that he should be ashamed of himself and that I was leaving. Two other people approached me with a flower on my short walk back to the hotel, so be aware of this scam. It is unconscionable that these guys pull this on tourists, where I can see a foreigner getting scared and giving over their money.

Too Many Tourists

This town seems to be mostly tourists, and many of them appear to be loafers or hippies or dopers. I saw many signs posted against drug use, which were outnumbered by the t-shirts and posters hanging around promoting drug use. All the shops we walked by were selling junk at high prices. Perhaps we were in the wrong area to find good quality merchandise and maybe we only saw a small section of the tourists, but that was my impression. I did pick up a cool Ganesha ring, though.

Ring I picked up in Pushkar

Walking the Streets

Saw some interesting people and places in Pushkar. Here are some highlight photos.

Cool dude converted his Enfield into a Harley with some stickers

The only Taco Bell in India that I know of

And, we ate some pakoras and I drank some kadai dudh.

Yes, we ate something cooked by this guy

I found this kadai dudh to be too sweet

Savitri Temple

We were pressed for time, otherwise it would have been fun to climb the hill up to the Savitri temple. I cannot find a representative picture, but I understand there is a large statue of her inside the hilltop temple.

Next time, Savitri

The Pink City of Jaipur

2009-12-11T04:10:00.000-08:00

What time is it? If you are in Jaipur, head over to the Jantar Mantar for the answer.

Jantar (instrument) Mantar (calculation) is a complex of astronomical measuring tools

Jantar Mantar is the largest of five ancient Indian observatories, completed in 1734. These will constructed under orders from Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II. This king accomplished so many things in his thirty-year rule that his title of maharaja, or grand king, was modified by "sawai", which is Hindi for one and one quarter. The massive astronomical devices at Jantar Mantar were used mostly for religious purposes: marking times of the year for Muslim and Hindu festivals. Jai Singh was a religious astronomer himself and strove for accuracy in timing important decisions regarding politics with heavenly events, for the gods' favorable assistance.

Samrat Yantra

At a height of nearly thirty meters, the shadow of Samrat Yantra (supreme device) moves about one milimeter per second across its dial, giving time accurate to two seconds. It would be more accurate, but the builders misaligned the instrument, most likely due constructing something this large without proper tools for precision.

Samrat Yantra is the world's largest sundial

Jai Prakash Yantra

Twin bowls, each over five meters in diameter, were constructed from metal with marble covers. These metal-marble plates could be removed so people could enter the bowls to take readings. An astronomer would enter the bowl where a slab was removed and use a sighting device to find celestial positions of stars. Sunlight only hits the center of the bowl during the vernal equinox.

Jai Prakash Yantra

Jai Prakash Yantra

People in the photo for scale perspective

Astrology

The Rashivalaya Yantras are a group of devices for tracking key stars in zodiac constellations. Astrology was equally important to the astronomers at Jantar Mantar.

Steps and dial of one constellation tracker

Some of the instruments are being restored

Other sites in Jaipur

Check out the Amer Fort, which has a mix of Hindu and Muslim architecture. Get there early in the morning (unlike us), so you can take an elephant ride to the top of the hill.

Amer Fort, once the rulers' palace

The Jal Mahal is a five-storied palace of red sandstone. I believe it is being converted into a hotel at the present time. It contains Bengali construction elements, setting it apart for all other area buildings.

Most of Jal Mahal's floors are below the water line

At Jaigarh Fort, you can view the world's largest wheeled cannon. This was also constructed during the reign of Jai Singh II.

Speaking of the "world's largest", Jaipur's City Palace contains the largest silver objects ever constructed. The two jars were used to carry water from the Ganges to England in 1902, for the coronation of King Edward VII. Each jar is made from a single sheet of silver, which came from melting fourteen thousand coins. City Palace also has a weapons display and a museum.

One of City Palace's silver jars (photo by Shoban Sen)

The City Palace

Ending the Day

Perhaps you can wind down with some meditation

Or, an ice-cold bear

Goa

2009-11-25T10:27:00.000-08:00

Enjoying the Goan beach at sunset

Goa

Goa borders the Arabian Sea and is India's smallest state. Once a Portuguese colony, you can still sense the cultural and architectural influence. The region is also about one-quarter Christian, so there are about just as many churches to find as Hindu temples. However, our time in Goa was not about taking in culture nor about visiting churches and temples. Relaxation on the beach was what we made the trip to Goa for. So, this post will be void of narrative and just show a couple of photos of decompressing in Goa. Enjoy!

View from our room at Taj Exotica to the beach

Anjali enjoyed the hammock while catching up on phone calls and sipping morning tea

Meet the Family, Episode Three: A Day of Channa

2009-11-11T09:46:00.000-08:00

"Where are you from?" is a difficult question for me to answer. My answer now is "Bangalore, India," to which I am just as attached as I am to Berkeley, California or Newport News, Virginia, or just about anywhere else. I was born in California, lived in several states, but I suppose I was raised in South Texas. Even within Texas as a boy, I lived in several places. For Anjali, answering that question is easy. She is from Amritsar, and we were fortunate to be able to visit just after Diwali.

Golden Temple Mail

Bye Delhi

To get to Amritsar, we took an overnight train out of Delhi. This was the best way to make the trip, because even if we flew we would have had to subtract airport time from our day in Amritsar. Already exhausted from things we had done in the previous days, we slept through the entire ride without any trouble, arriving refreshed. Anjali's dad picked us up at the station, and within fifteen minutes we were at his home.

The Golden Temple Mail train

Good morning, Amritsar

Breakfast and Lassi

Our first stop was to enjoy breakfast, some delicious channa puri. A bowl of greasy, spiced potatoes came out and we poured from that right into the beans. My taste buds were having a great time, but my heart was sweating just thinking about the arterial clogging.

My first Punjabi breakfast

After breakfast, Anjali's dad took me to a roadside spot to have me try lassi. Friends at work had been telling me that the best lassi is found in this area of India because of the high quality milk. The preparation has a dollop of butter on top of some heavy cream. I am not the biggest fan of yogurt, so the drink was something I am happy to say I tried, drank the entire serving and would not likely order one again.

Check out the butter on top of each cup of lassi

Harmandir Sahib

Harmandir Sahib: The Golden Temple

The city of Amritsar gets its name from Amrit Sar, the body of water surrounding the Golden Temple. Amrita is what the gods drink, a nectar which grants them immortality. Sarovar is a body of water surrounding a temple. Translated, Amritsar means The Pool of the Nectar of Immortality. The Golden Temple, properly known as Harmandir Sahib, is the central temple, or gurudwara, for Sikhs. Each year, more people visit Harmandir Sahib than Taj Mahal! Though, I suspect a fair percentage of visitors to the Golden Temple are Sikh pilgrims, not all just tourists.

A Sikh bathes in the sarovar

Anjali and her dad before the Golden Temple

Jallianwala Bagh

A short stroll from the Golden Temple, we visited the site of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. In 1919, soldiers fired on unarmed civilians, which had assembled to protest high taxation. The orders came from Reginald Dyer, who coldly reported later, "I think it quite possible that I could have dispersed the crowd without firing but they would have come back again and laughed, and I would have made, what I consider, a fool of myself." News of the incident, hundreds killed and more than one thousand wounded, spread throughout India and served as a catalyst to end British rule.

Kesar Da Dhaba

Kesar Da Dhaba has been serving Punjabi food since 1916

Anjali figured since I tried and enjoyed sarson ka saag te makki ki roti (mustard greens with corn flat bread), I had become Punjabi. Qualifications started pouring in on what it would take for me to be a Punjabi munda:

Must drink Amritsar lassi
Have lunch at Kesar Da Dhaba
Try galub jamon or fried fish from Lawrence Road
Have kulcha channa
Visit Southall in England

Note: I drank lassi. Lunch was delicious at Kesar Da Dhaba. I did eat something from Lawrence Road, but it was aam papar called "dead man's skin". Kulcha channa was homemade and was the last food I ate in Amritsar. Rajeev has certified me as a Punjabi munda, a Southall visit revoked as a necessity. Though, watch out Sanjeev and Monisha, we just might have to make a visit in early February!

So, we were at Muni Lal Moti Lal Jaini, Anjali's dad's wholesale shop, and Sushil dropped by, inviting us to lunch. Now it was Anjali, me and two Sushil's (her dad's name too), on our way to Kesar Da Dhaba. From the shop, we walked down a narrow gali or two and we were there. Kesar Da Dhaba was great! The lacha paratha was dripping with ghee and the masala channa was spiced enough for me to enjoy it.

Delicious Punjabi food from Kesar Da Dhaba

After thanking Sushil for lunch, I peeked into the kitchen. I was beckoned when they saw me taking a photo. Every time I took a picture, I was called farther into the kitchen to take another. I wonder how long I would have been there until I was asked to help cook and clean?

Kesar Da Dhaba's kitchen

Border Show

Let's see, a full morning of walking about coupled with a huge lunch made for a great excuse for a siesta. So, Anjali's dad and I chatted for a bit one-on-one while Anjali slept and after a bit, everyone was snoozing. Now it was time to head to the Pakistan border for the daily ceremony, called Lowering of the Flags. The military border guards from each country put on quite a show. It starts with music, people dancing and cheering. The Indian Border Security Force and the Pakistani Rangers "battle": who has the flashiest turban, highest kick, loudest marching stomp, etc. All this is performed in mirrored fashion and then the border gates are opened. The flags of the neighboring countries are then lowered in unison.

Neha's father works for the Indian government's Ministry of Transportation, and he arranged a treat for us. We were to be escorted by a government vehicle and given special seating close to the border gates. When the jeep arrived, I said, "I want to ride in that!" After getting some nod/permission, I was skipping off toward the vehicle. It was only after I had jumped in that I realized Anjali was planning to ride with me and not in the trailing car with her dad. This was not a bummer moment, but I was just too excited to even notice and be a gentlemen, helping her in or even letting her get in first. When traffic would get in our way, the siren would wail and we would cut through obstacles with ease. This was so much fun!

Our ride to the Pakistan border town of Wagah

Anjali with a border guard

Some kids race to the border gate with Indian flags

No matter what I did, I could not get a photo of the Pakistani and Indian flags being lowered to come out. And, with the sun behind them, none of my shots of the Pakistanis in their grandstands came out either. You'll just have to take my word for it, this was an amazing event. Photos would not have done it justice regardless.

Here you can see soldiers from both countries with open gates

Dead Man's Skin

The sun had set by the time we returned to Amritsar from the border. It was time to try some chaat from Lawrence Road. Sudev said that I had to try aam papar, which is dried mango paste, dried to the point where it has turned black or gray with the same appearance as dried skin. This is when it is called dead man's skin, and sheets of it are cut into strips, rolled in spices and eaten. I actually liked it and purchased some which I brought back to Bangalore for people at the office.

Dead man's skin in the display case of a roadside cart

Channa, Channa, Channa

My quest to become fully Punjabi required kulcha channa. Kulcha channa is a bread, much like a hamburger bun, topped with spiced beans. This would be the third and final helping of channa for the day: started with channa puri for breakfast, lunch was lacha paratha with masala channa, now an evening course of kulcha channa. Mein re bhet kharab ho gaya! Well, more proper to say bhet bhar gaya, since I was full but everything was still in working order. It had to be, we still had some bhindi sabut to eat on the train ride. Some people stopped by to say hello, but our conversations were cut short in order for us to catch the train. A round of good byes and we were leaving Amritsar, headed back to Delhi.

Rajeev offers some onion pakoda to Anjali

Meet the Family, Episode Two: Tea and Tikkas

2009-11-06T19:24:00.000-08:00

We decided to have a small get-together, time for Anjali's family to meet me and me them. We decided to do this the day after Diwali, not too late and not too early; and not a meal so people could mill about, allowing for more fluid conversations. The Claridges out the outskirts of Delhi, in Surajkund, was a perfect hosting spot. Staying there, we also ended up not having to travel, which was nice.

Meeting Dad

The first person to meet was Anjali's dad. Like a deer in headlights, I froze and completely forgot to respectfully reach down to touch his feet. I had read up on this, asked people at work about it, practiced it and was ready to go. Overriding my intentions, all the years of Western programming kicked in and I extended my arm for a firm handshake. I felt a bit self-conscious about it, but Anjali put me at ease, telling me that I would get another opportunity, after receiving a tikka.

Me and Anjali's dad

Tikka

After a while, two chairs were placed away from the grouping of tables. Anjali and I were seated and a few people stepped over to give me a tikka. As far as I know, this a smudge of saffron placed on my forehead. At the same time, I am given a gift. Everyone was extremely generous. I think many people had a fun time with it, since it was a whole new experience for me.

Here I am going down to touch Anjali's dad's feet

Having a laugh because I don't want so many sweets

So many sweets!

Huge smiles at the end of the tikka

Monday Means More Tikka

After the tikka, it was time to eat a bite, then see people off. It was nice to talk some more with people. Conversations could be about business and working in India, like I had with Shekar, or about travel and full of laughs, like I had with JK Uncle. No one was closed up; everyone I approached was happy to chat with me, welcoming me to the family. After clearing out, a small group of us met for a drink, then it was time to get some rest. The next day was going to mean more tikkas, in different parts of Delhi.

That next morning, we headed over to Alka and Sudev's home. Anjali tried some pancakes made by Neha and then it was time for more tikkas. This time, women would give their brothers or male cousins a tikka. We visited different homes in Delhi and at each place sampled delicious food. I do not know everywhere we went, but I do remember NOIDA being one spot we drove out to.

Parakh giving Vitesh a tikka

Alka finding the largest sweet on the tray to give me

Anjali receives a gift

Avika wanted to give tikkas as well

Off to Amritsar

Toward the end of the day, it was time to catch the train to Amritsar. This would be an exciting leg of our journey for many reasons. First, we would be spending the day with Anjali's dad, a great chance for us to get to know each other a bit. Second, we would be visiting Harmandir Sahib, or the Golden Temple, which is the main gurudwara for Sikhs worldwide. At the end of the day, we would witness the flags of Pakistan and India being lowered in unison at the border. And to top it all off, we would be taking two overnight train rides. You'll have to read about these events in Meet the Family, Episode Three.

Meet the Family, Episode One: Diwali in Faridabad

2009-11-02T08:51:00.000-08:00

What is Diwali?

In Sanskrit, it translates to "row of lamps", and it is a festival which lasts for a number of days, usually in October (depending on a lunar calendar). It is called the Festival of Lights, and to the Hindus the lights are put out to guide and welcome Rama back to town from his victory over the Demon of Lanka. To other groups it means something completely different: Jains, Sikhs and others have their own reasons, but almost all religious groups use the date to celebrate a victory of good over evil. Lamps, or small pots with oil and a wick, and/or candles are arranged and lit.

My understanding of Diwali was that was when you meet up with as much family as can fit in a house, perform a group prayer, eat way too much food and pop firecrackers. For you in the States, imagine the Holiday Season, Thanksgiving and Fourth of July happening simultaneously, in one night.

Preparing for the prayer

Meeting Family

The first night of Diwali 2009, was indeed special for me. I was invited by Anjali to meet family and to enjoy the festivities and traditions associated with Diwali. I was warned by Sudev (Anjali's brother-in-law) to pace myself on eating, as we would basically have the equivalence of a complete meal after each puja, and we were going to have three that evening! The first food given at the end of each puja is a sweet, or barfi, which is milk and sugar cooked down until it is solid. At the final puja, I accepted my offered block of concentrated sweetness, then witnessed Anjali break off a tiny corner of one. My immediate exclamation of, "You can do that?", gave us a bit of a laugh.

Anjali and me sitting on the front step

You can see that I wore a kurta pajama for the occasion. Note the lights. Let me tell you, it is difficult to light candles with a candle while trying not to set yourself ablaze in a kurta with a scarf!

Thinking "Don't catch on fire. Don't catch on fire."

Food

After each puja, it was time to grab a plate and enjoy some food.

And, of course, more sweets.

Where is the DMZ?

I mentioned there would be firecrackers. I failed to mention that it would sound like a war was going on outside!

You can see lights and smoke from fireworks

Taash, or Card Game

So, now what do we do? We have full stomachs and all the candles and lamps are lit, pujas are finished. Ah, let's play cards! A coworker told me the name of the card game was Tin Patti. I asked, "Three Husbands?" Korak then said, "No, not pati, patti." We finally got it figured out once he informed me on the number of t's: pati means husband, patti means cards. You could call it three card stud, as you are dealt three cards and there are no community cards, nor a draw. Several rounds of betting ensue and the people left in show their hands. I won the first hand and lost just about everything else past that point. Anjali joined the game after an hour or so, and the losses were now doubled. At least the stakes were low. It was fun to play and we had a great time.

A group of card players

The pots were never very big

Engagement Get-Together / Afternoon Tea

It was technically the next day when we headed back to the hotel. We needed some rest to prepare for Meet the Family, Episode Two.

Happy Rajyostava

2009-11-01T00:17:00.000-07:00

Karnataka, the state in India where I am living, celebrates turning fifty-three today. Today is Karnataka Rajyostava, loosely meaning "celebrating the kingdom of Karnataka." Festivals will occur throughout the month, but it was November 1, 1956, when Karnataka became a state. Well, technically it was the State of Mysore until the name changed in 1973.

Happy birthday, Karnataka!

Au Bon Pain

2009-10-15T21:48:00.001-07:00

Au Bon Pain in ITPL, originally uploaded by s_w_ellis.

I remember walking into the latest eatery in the complex where I work, excited about seeing wraps displayed on the visual menu above the ordering counter. Where I live in India, just about every meal has a bread component: paratha, roti, papad or something. There is a Subway down the hall, but they do not have wraps, and just to watch the bread intake a bit, I was ready to try the wrap pictured. I got to the counter and found they had no wraps. But, the sandwich I had was delicious and I decided to give this place another try.

When I came back, I found out they now had wraps. So, I quickly ordered the sandwich I had the other day as a wrap, only to find out they have set menu items as wraps and what I wanted only came as a sandwich. I was ready to walk away when a gentleman came over and asked what I was trying to do. Once he realized how easy it would be for them to make my sandwich as a wrap, the order was made. A few bites into my wrap, the same guy, Prasanna, came by to check if my choice of meal was satisfactory. I told him it was and thanked him for accommodating my special request. Upon his exit, an Au Bon Pain corporate woman asked about my experience and we chatted a bit about customer service.

Customer service in India, at least where I reside in Bangalore and by only speaking to my experience, is fairly non-existent. A horrible time as a customer is what you expect, so you certainly recognize a good consumer moment. This is not just related to food services, as you might sense from my photo of frustration with other stores in this area (like in the photo below). Or, don't even get me started on the police commissioner's office for foreign registration (one more photo down)!

Does it really take this many people to get nothing done?

Molecules at zero Kelvin move as fast as these guys

From Florida, Elizabeth, explained to me how this is a major training point for Au Bon Pain's entry into India. I applauded her company's commitment to service and mentioned that I hope that training will continue with new hires.

Oh, and I found out why they did not have wraps on my first visit. Bernard, also corporate, from Boston, informed me that there were quality issues with the first batches of tortillas. It turns out that Au Bon Pain sets up their menus in other countries to only use ingredients that can be sourced within that country. In other words, they support the local economy and cut down on shipping at the same time. This was good to hear.

Subsequent visits have left me happy to be a continued customer. Prasanna remembers me and now asks if I will have the usual. This morning, I became a breakfast patron and when Prasanna arrived for work, he came by to shake my hand and say good morning. It does not take much to feel valued, and I appreciate the effort.

Ending a Bombay Day

2009-10-08T21:56:00.001-07:00

Sun Going Down, originally uploaded by s_w_ellis.

.
Random flickr photo blog entry for October 9, 2009.

I have a cheap digital camera. I purchased a cheap one because I never really took many photos and needed to take a few for work every now and again. Part of me thought that I did not have the talent and skill to take decent photos, so why purchase something expensive. Having said all that, every so often I take a photo I feel measures up with the photos the pros take. This happens to be one I am proud of.

This photo was taken from the walkway bordering the Arabian Sean in Nariman Point, Mumbai, India. You can see the rest of my recent Mumbai visit photos here.

Get to Know Family and Friends

2009-10-08T14:12:00.001-07:00

I received an email from Veena wanting to know some things about me. Here was her email:

Looking forward to your answers!

Here is the 2009 edition of getting to know your family and friends.

Here is what you are supposed to do, and try not to be lame and spoil the fun. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then send this to a bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person who sent it to you. Some of you may get this several times; that means you have lots of friends. The easiest way to do it is to hit 'Forward' so you can change the answers or copy and paste. Have fun and be truthful!

01 - What is your occupation right now? Mainly a computer network engineer
02 - What color are your socks right now? None on now, but was wearing white
03 - What are you listening to right now? Wall of Voodoo - Mexican Radio
04 - What was the last thing that you ate? A handful of almonds
05 - Can you drive a stick shift? Yes, I have even driven a truck with fifteen gears
06 - Last person you spoke to on the phone.? Anjali
07 - Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yep
08 - How old are you today? One day older than I was yesterday (36)
09 - What is your favourite sport to watch on TV? Darts or poker (not sports?)
10 - What is your favourite drink(s)? Very dirty vodka martini
11 - Have you ever dyed your hair? Yes
12 - Favourite food? Sushi
13 - What is the last movie you watched? Either Stripes or The Toy
14 - Favorite day of the year? Don't really have one
15 - How do you vent anger? I try to address things and move on, but watch for the finger
16 - What was your favorite toy as a child? Marbles
17 - What is your favorite season? Winter because I like the cold
18 - Cherries or Blueberries? Cherries
19 - Do you want your friends to e-mail you back? No, they should comment below
20 - Who are most likely to respond? Ratboy has nothing better to do
21 - Who is least likely to respond? Anjali is too busy
22 - Living arrangements? Great!
23 - When was the last time you cried? A couple months ago while watching Big Fish
24 - What is on the floor of your closet? A backpack and some boots
25 - Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are tagging? Ratboy
26 - What did you do last night? Cooked poori for the Tuckshop celebration supper
27 - What are you most afraid of? Ferris wheels
28 - Plain, cheese or spicy hamburger? My system can't do them now
29 - Favorite dog breed? No favorite
30 - Favorite day of the week? Saturdays usually
31 - How many countries have you lived in? Two: USA and India
32 - Diamonds or pearls? She wants diamonds
33 - What is your favorite flower? I like the orange or yellow ones
34 - What is your favorite dessert? Ginger snaps

Thanks Veena!

Halloween 2007 at DWA

2009-10-05T18:19:00.001-07:00

Lobster in a Group, originally uploaded by s_w_ellis.

.
Random flickr photo blog entry for October 6, 2009.

I took this photo from the breezeway at the Riverside building on the DreamWorks Animation Glendale studio campus. When you have a creative workplace of one thousand people, Halloween can get pretty crazy. I am still wondering how the lobster guy ate lunch that day. To see more photos from that day, click here. And, for even better photos from that day, check out these from Travis.

Bangalore in the UK

2009-10-04T11:19:00.001-07:00

Random spotting of "Bangalore" in Bromham, originally uploaded by s_w_ellis.

.
Random flickr photo blog entry for October 5, 2009.

So, there we were, in a rental car, cruising the English countryside. When we felt it was a good time to stop for a bite to eat, we found ourselves in the small town of Bromham.

The restaurant/pub we ate at was up the street from a church. To help digestion and to stretch our legs a bit, we visited the church and inside my eye caught "Bangalore". We traveled five thousand miles west from Bangalore, just to find Bangalore!

Ten Songs

2009-10-04T09:37:00.000-07:00

Sophie tagged me on Facebook with this one.

The Rules

Once you have been tagged, you are supposed to write down the top 10 songs you cannot live without. The ones you can listen to over and over and never get tired of. They don't have to be in any particular order. These are the songs that make laugh, cry, think of an old friend, whatever the reason . At the end, choose a few people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If you were tagged, it's because I want to know more about you. To do this, go to "notes" under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note.

Here is my list...

Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
I used to stock groceries as an overnight job while attending college. One of the guys at work would put a radio up against the public address microphone and we would listen to a college radio station. It was painfully distorted. Every night, yes every single night, I would call the station on my break and ask them to play this song at half-past-four. So, if you were in College Station in the early Nineties and heard Comfortably Numb at 4:30, that was a morning I was working at Apple Tree. College radio: they would do anything stupid.

Don McClean - Vincent
This is the answer I give when someone asks what my favorite song is. This song just puts goose bumps on my arms when I hear it and think about the lyrics.

Men Without Hats - Safety Dance
This is proof that a song does not have to make any sense to be a great song. When I hear this song, I immediately get an image of home during the MTV days. If a few bars of a song can transport your mind to your childhood, it is a good song.

Steve Vai - The Audience is Listening
This song changed how I looked at the guitar. I enjoyed guitar music up to that time, but I dove into the technical aspect of playing only after hearing this song.

Dead Kennedys - Holiday in Cambodia
I remember asking many questions after hearing Dead Kennedys songs. Questions like, "Who was Pol Pot?", "What is Dachau?", and "What's going on in Afghanistan?" I believe I learned more history from reading about what DK lyrics were talking about than I did through a decade of schooling. The guitar at the beginning of Holiday in Cambodia was something I always thought sounded cool, and it is still one of my favorite songs. I remember a girl from Cambodia getting upset with me when she saw me wearing a Holiday in Cambodia shirt. After she found out what the song was about, she wanted me to make a tape with some DK songs. I doubt she ever got into punk rock, but she was happy to discover that an American band was telling others about the atrocities which happened when the Khmer Rogue were powerful.

Rush - Tom Sawyer
Every time I hear this song I immediately want to become a rock star. This song makes me want to pick up the guitar and jam!

Plastic Bertrand - Ca Plane Pour Moi
Having no idea what the lyrics are, I just think this song is great! I remember ordering the soundtrack to a movie I heard it in only to find out that it was not a track.

NOFX - The Decline
A punk song that is eighteen minutes. Most punk songs are two minutes, at most! Not only is this one over eighteen minutes long, it keeps my attention for that long. I remember Robo, the drummer for Black Flag, was asked once why punk songs are so short and fast. He said, "If you look at the amount of lyrics, the songs are just as long as popular music. We play fast because that is what inspires us. The songs are short because that is how long the inspiration lasts." Kudos to NOFX for going the distance with this great song.

Pixies - Where Is My Mind?
I cannot put my finger on what makes this song so great. The mix of Kim's 'oooo'ing and Frank's overextended voice? The simple guitar riff? I don't know, but it works, and it works great. I like ever cover version I have heard of this song too.

Tommy Emmanuel - Somewhere Over the Rainbow
This guy works without accompaniment, using nothing less than magic to produce melodies from his acoustic guitar. The best use of harmonics I have ever heard, the intro and outro to this song sound amazing. A familiar song to most people, this is an approachable song for casual listeners and an intense study for musicians.

One Happy Street

2009-10-04T04:57:00.000-07:00

Today I did a bit of shopping and had an hour to kill before my clothing alterations would be complete. During that time, I wandered down some side roads and took photos of the local people. A small group of kids wanted their photos taken and that was all it took: I was taking nothing but photos of these kids until I left. Now, usually I take a photo of a kid and then show the image immediately, never able to give a permanent copy nor email a digital file. Since this street was fairly close to where I live, I decided to do something a bit different.

After finding a fair number of good photos, cropping and creating montages, I then made several print copies to be distributed. I went by a store and picked up a bag full of candy, and with printouts in tow, revisited the same street. The kids were going crazy for the chocolate; no surprise. But, the adults were ecstatic about the photos of their children and grandchildren. However, no one was more happy than me.

I have promised the kids (all yelling out "Uncle" trying to get my attention) that I shall return in a few days. This time, I think there will need to be two bags of chocolate.

Couple is pleased with the printouts of the photos

Click here to see the other photos.

Tomb Raider

2009-10-03T14:12:00.001-07:00

Entrance to Khufu's tomb, originally uploaded by s_w_ellis.

.
Random flickr photo blog entry for October 4, 2009.

This is me entering Khufu's tomb within The Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt. The head covering I am wearing sure saved me from getting sunburned.

I traveled to Egypt back in March/April 2009. A couple days in Cairo and one day in Luxor.

Also spent time in Khafre's tomb

Nandi, Lead the Way

2009-10-03T09:38:00.000-07:00

Nandi Hills is just outside Bangalore by about sixty kilometers. You see, sometimes you do not have to travel far to have a great motorcycle ride and see something spectacular. The view from Tipu's Drop, looking down from the mountain to the plateau, is something to see, even on a hazy day.

Eight kilometers to Nandi Hills

Jain Temple

On the way, we stopped at a Jain temple, on the outskirts of Bangalore. This temple has ceased construction for reasons the guards did not know, but it was under construction for about ten years and is used for active worship. It is built in the Rajasthan tradition and has extremely nice marble work for its temple flooring. No photos are to be taken within the outer wall, but a guard wanting money for coffee allowed me a couple in exchange for a few rupees.

Marble floor of the Jain temple

Inside the walls of the temple grounds

The Hills

Anjali took some photos from the back of the bike, which turned out great. Here is what we saw on the way up.

Starting to see some hills

Large hill in the distance

Looking up to Tipu Sultan's Drop

Picnic

That morning, we threw some toasted bread, cut cucumber and some spicy cashews into a bag as a snack to share on the way. Halfway up the winding roads leading to the top of the highest peak of Nandi Hills, we stopped to eat.

Stopping roadside for a snack

It was hard to capture just how crazily winding the roads are, but here are some photos of the traffic coming up and down the hill.

Bikes coming down from the peak

Slight bend in the road going up the hill

Let's Take It From The Top

Ah, the view.

View from Tipu Sultan's Drop

Looking down on a bend in the road

Monkey Business

One thing you will see a lot of on Nandi Hills are the monkeys. Lots and lots of monkeys!

One monkey family

Rickshaw driver

Uninvited guest in a parked car

Getting Lost

Part of the fun of taking a trip without being completely sure where to go is when you get lost. The course we took home was not the reverse of our way to Nandi Hills, but we managed to find our way by stopping every so often and asking for directions. The ride there took just over one hour. The return took an extra hour, but we got in some added ride-time that way. The total journey gave us five hours away from home, a nice walk up many steps, an awesome view of the villages below the drop and a long bike ride. A great day, to be sure.

Coffee Trails in Coorg

2009-10-03T05:51:00.000-07:00

On the eastern side of the Western Ghats is wonderfully-green district of Karnataka known as Coorg. Taking about five hours by car, this is a great weekend getaway from Bangalore. Within Coorg is Orange County, a resort on the grounds of a coffee plantation. Away from traffic noise, cell phones and Internet, this place provided a great way to enjoy long walks, quiet meals and uninterrupted conversations.

Everything is so green in Coorg

A Village Walk

After getting checked in, Anjali suggested a walk down to the river. We were only a short strut to the banks of the Chauvery. Stopping there, you could hear nothing but bamboo cracking as the gentle breeze would come and go. Not ready to head back into the confines of the resort, we pressed on down a road, through a small village.

Chauvery River

Every kid in the village was eager to say hello, but that was all they would say. Whether they were shy or did not understand us when we spoke, a quick acknowledgment was all we got before they would turn away and go about their prior activity. One young girl eyed us taking a picture of a napping kitten and she proceeded to follow us holding that kitten, calling out "photo" and then smiling. Anjali took a photo of her and the girl was all smiles.

Girl uses kitten to get photo taken

Kids enjoying lunch

We walked quite a distance before hitting a main road and then heading back.

More Walking

After a great supper and a delicious breakfast, there was not much to do but go for another walk. This time, we explored the coffee plantation.

Coffee

Orange County is filled with walking trails. There are so many crossed paths, you would think it is a maze. But, all roads lead back to the lodging and the comfort of some iced fresh lime soda. If you are a bird watcher, this must be the place to be. Posted throughout the area are signs showing which birds can be observed at which time of year. Funny thing, all the signs ended exactly the same way, with "Sighted: Jan to Dec". I guess you can see every variety of bird there at any time.

Why not just say "Seen Year-round"?

Perhaps it was our thirst for something cool between walks, but we never drank coffee while staying on the coffee plantation. Coleridge would have likely written:

Coffee, coffee, every where,
Nor any drop to drink

Little Tibet

Coorg is also home to the Tibetan Golden Temple, a Buddhist monastery. After leaving the coffee plantation, we decided to visit before trekking back to Bangalore.

Tibetan Golden Temple in Coorg

Using cola as decoration

Inside the temple

Tired from walking and walking and walking, we really were not too crazy about a long drive back home, so we decided to break up the return trip with a stop in Mysore to watch the light show at Brindavan Gardens.

Power Failure

We chose an excellent vantage point from which to watch the lit fountains of the garden. The Elephant Bar of the Royal Orchid Hotel gave us a great view, chilled wine and yummy appetizers. Just as the show started and the lights came up, there was a power failure. The electricity never returned to the garden, but we enjoyed our travel break just the same.

Us at the Elephant Bar

Domino's Pizza Motorcycle Club

2009-10-02T18:17:00.001-07:00

Domino's Pizza Motorcycle Club, originally uploaded by s_w_ellis.

.
Random flickr photo blog entry for October 3, 2009.

This is just a small section of the long line of motorcycles used for pizza delivery at a Domino's in Mumbai. In India, I have yet to see a delivery car, businesses using bikes instead.

Now, a bit more about pizza in India. I have not been to Domino's, but Pizza Hut is like a fine-dining restaurant: bone China plates, linen napkins and waiters which serve the pizza slice by slice. When I first entered a Pizza Hut, all I could think of was Demolition Man, where all the restaurants of the future are Taco Bell. Another big difference between pizza in the States and pizza in India is the elusive Parmesan cheese. Instead, pizza is served with ketchup. And finally, you don't have any of the usual American toppings because of the absence of beef.

Sunshine

2009-10-01T18:08:00.001-07:00

Campus Starbucks, originally uploaded by s_w_ellis.

.
Random flickr photo blog entry for October 2, 2009.

The DreamWorks Animation Glendale campus has its own Starbucks. Inside you will find the always-smiling Sunshine. It has been a long time since I have had an early morning coffee run with Victor and Murad, or an afternoon game of chess with Sunshine. Murad, one morning we'll have to get you a drive-on pass.

Looks like I shall be back on campus in early 2010, so see you then!

Sameer in Mumbai

2009-10-01T04:08:00.001-07:00

Kids Posing, originally uploaded by s_w_ellis.

Random flickr photo blog entry for October 1, 2009.

Starting today, I am going to pick a random photo from my flickr Photostream and write a bit about it. I am going to try to do this once daily as a writing exercise and to also share some photos and stories.

These two kids live in a shack on the side of a busy Worli street in Mumbai. The kid on the right's name is Sameer and I met him when I stopped to ask what he and several other kids were doing. They were separating the metal from plastic and paper from tons of liquor bottle tops. Even though we shared little in the way of a common language, him knowing very little English and me knowing even less Hindi, we were able to understand "aluminum." It turns out that they sell the metal to recyclers.

Even though I saw him sleeping on the sidewalk with many other kids later that night, he seems not to let poverty take away his spirit. He wanted photos of him to be taken in many poses and was happy to view the image after each one was taken.

The living conditions I saw while walking around just a few streets of Worli are horrible. It is nice to see these families doing their best to survive the streets without resorting to begging or crime. This particular band of family and friends that I spent a few minutes with were extremely friendly, especially Sameer. As I walked on ahead, turning back I saw he was still smiling and waving.

Jira is Evil

2009-09-26T02:54:00.000-07:00

I am now convinced that Jira is pure evil. Check out how many unread messages I have in my "Jira" folder!

CTRL-A,DEL

One of Two Hundred Thousand

2009-09-24T02:52:00.000-07:00

In the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, on the bank of the Yamuna River, sits the world's most famous mausoleum, the Taj Mahal. Up to four million people visit annually, around two hundred thousand are foreigners. I was one of those foreign visitors, as was my co-worker, Steve.

The Taj Mahal

Getting to Agra

This was not difficult at all. I checked both American Express Travel and Expedia and found flights from Bangalore to Delhi, then from Delhi to Agra. Having heard a few horror stories about travel from Delhi to Agra, I was pleased to catch a Kingfisher turboprop flight out of the Delhi airport. To read about one such horror story, check out my friend's blog entry regarding night travel into Agra.

Unfortunately, I no longer see the flight from Delhi to Agra available. This would have taken you into a small military base and saved a lot of time. Perhaps it is a seasonal option. It sure was nice to start from Bangalore around noon and be at the hotel in Agra by seven.

Agra Fort

Hearing sunrise was a great time to see the Taj Mahal, I got up early. However, there was no reason to rush as the fog was thick and nothing was going to be visible at sunrise unless you could touch it.

Plan B was to check out Agra Fort instead, waiting to see the Taj Mahal after the fog lifted. I found the fort to be extremely interesting and it offered the history of the Mughal rulers very well. This bit of knowledge was useful in understanding the purpose of Taj Mahal and to appreciate its construction even more.

Foggy gate into Agra Fort

Imaging fighting your way up this incline with boulders coming down

Where Shah Jahan was under house arrest for eight years

Click here to view more photos from Agra Fort.

Finally, the fog had disappeared and it was time to see the Taj Mahal. Or, was it?

Sitar Shop

One of the problems with paid guides and drivers is that they usually take you by a few shops to browse (and possibly buy) items. This is done to pad their pockets, as they get an amount for each potential customer thrown a shop's direction. I do not mind the game too much, but on this day I was not interested in looking at carpets. I ventured off down a local street and came across a man playing some Beatles songs on a sitar. After a minute of chatting, he wanted to show me some sitars he had for sale in his small shop, and I agreed. Once he realized I was not a sitar buyer, he switched gears to sell me other things. First, he asked if I wanted some hash, and I declined his offer to sell me some. Then, he basically forced me to smell some he had, shoving some in my face. I politely said I was not interested. Last try to make a trade, he told me I had a nice watch and that he would trade my watch for some nice, clean women. When I got back to the car and recounted the strange encounter to a co-worker, his response was, "How many women?" I guess I will never know. Shopping done, it was now time to visit the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal.

The watch-for-women broker

The Taj Mahal

Taking over twenty-two years for construction, the Taj Mahal is considered by many to be the "Eighth Wonder of the World". I found it interesting that only one person was ever destined to be laid to rest here, and that by entombing Shah Jahan, husband of the intended, his sarcophagus throws off all the symmetry. Another interesting thing to note about symmetry are the two mosques, of which only one has ever been used. This is because the other mosque's doors are not facing Mecca.

Mosque at the Taj Mahal

One top dome for each year to build, 22 in all

Great shot of the Taj Mahal
Download for your desktop

Click here to view more photos from the Taj Mahal.

Visiting Other Wonders

After seeing the Taj Mahal, I was ready to see other world wonders. There are many reasons why I have given up on catching many of them, but I did get to see the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge this year, both of which were great.

Corrected Names in Kannada, Yairdoo Airdoo

2009-09-23T05:39:00.000-07:00

It took a long time, but now I have my name correctly written in Kannada (again). It turns out the "aw" sound found in the word awesome does not really exist in Kannada. The whole purpose of finding out how to write my name is to collect my name in as many Indian languages as possible. Together with Anjali's name, these would make great his and hers coffee mugs.

Original Kannada Writing of Sean and Anjali

Sean here rhymes with scene

Correct Version of Sean and Anjali in Kannada

Sean is on the left and Anjali on the right.

Toddy: My First and Last Time

2009-09-22T03:59:00.000-07:00

To Kochi or Bust

Robin is from Kochi (formerly Cochin) and invited me to come with him one weekend. He was heading to his home town in the state of Kerala to visit family. We took a bus from Whitefield to the bus depot and got on an overnight bus there. Before getting on the bus, I drank a 1L bottle of water, which turned out to be a mistake. On top of whatever liquid I already drank that afternoon, this water wanted out at some point, but the overnight bus was not planning to stop. Anywhere! So, I was uncomfortable for about seven hours of the journey from Karnataka to Kerala.

The Bus From Whitefield

Upon arrival in Kochi, the contrast in temperature and humidity from Bangalore was the first thing I noticed. I stepped off the bus thinking I had been transported to South Texas. We jumped into an Ambassador taxi and were off to Robin's parents' house.

Day one was not even close to being over. I met everyone and we had lunch, then in a rental car, Robin and I headed down to the mountains and tea plantations of Munnar.

Munnar

Beautiful scenery, that is what Munnar is.

Western Ghat Mountains

Mountains, mountains, mountains! It had been fifteen weeks since I had been behind the wheel of a car, and I was driving in mountains! Every sight around Munnar was grand: mountains, trees and rivers. Even most of the trucks on the road were clean and ornately decorated and colorfully painted.

Tea Plantations

Kids Play in the River as Adults Wash Clothes

Majestic Trees Line the Roads

All good things must come to an end, so I pulled over on the side of the road to exchange seats with Robin. He was concerned we might get pulled over and hassled by police in the city if I was caught driving without a license.

Alleppey

The next night was going to be spent on a houseboat, or kettuvallam, on the backwaters of Alleppey. But, before heading away from Koshi, we visited a local fish market.

A Kochi Fish Market

Fishermen on a River in Kochi

We got up early and headed to the market to pick up fish and prawns for the next day's meal. After seeing some local Kochi sights, it was time to head toward the lake and backwater canals of Alleppey.

Kettuvallam in Alleppey Backwaters

Lone Boatman on the Lake

The houseboat experience was very nice and I highly recommend it. Mosquitoes were a pain, so I suggest you carefully pick what time of year you visit Alleppey. When the boat docked for the night, I was able to wander around the local neighborhoods. The entire time, I kept thinking about the property value of this non-commercialized area. Along all these canals there were nothing but simple homes with people who were by no means wealthy.

Guys Playing Cards

Woman Happy to Catch Fish

Having enjoyed some time in Alleppey, it was time to join Robin's family for lunch back in Kochi, where a surprise was waiting for me.

Toddy

I had heard about a local drink named toddy, which I was told to stay away from. I was told that if I were to try it, do so only at the start of the day and that by mid-morning, you should never try the stuff. Here it was, after noon, and I was being given toddy to taste. Robin's dad poured an entire glass of the stuff for me. I tasted it, thinking it was nasty, and then quickly downed the glass to be over and done with the experience. As soon as I set down the glass, it was full again, Robin's dad smiling as if he thought I liked the stuff. Ugh! So, I gulped down the second helping of it and then held onto the glass.

Glass of Toddy

Toddy Bar in Munnar

I had been paying attention to the toddy bars seen all over this area, and toddy was the first word I learned how to write in Malayalam. Robin thought that was funny, saying a person's (child) first word written should be "Mom" or "Dad", not an alcoholic beverage.

A quick lunch of the fish and prawns picked up the day before and we were heading for the train station.

Back to Bangalore

Train Station in Kochi

We hopped on a train for the overnight journey back to Bangalore. The discomfort of the train car was bearable once I found out Robin's mom had packed some prawns for us for the ride home, along with bread made from the remaining toddy instead of yeast. Toddy that way was quite nice.

Train Car for Return to Bangalore

Sean is Hard to Spell in Kannada

2009-09-22T02:40:00.000-07:00

A while back, I found out how to write my name in Kannada. I also learned how to write Anjali's name. There were many changes to my name in Kannada because the original spelling was for a long "e" in Sean, making it rhyme with scene. This was corrected, but I learned from a copy with some bad penmanship. Now, I have a decent version of our names, from which I got to copy from someone in my office from Karnataka.

The Original Version

The Corrected Version

Rubberband Support Ticket

2009-09-15T05:15:00.000-07:00

So, today I get a note from Robin asking me to take a look at a support ticket and help him out. I drop the important load balancer SNMP work I am doing, push some firewall work out even later, and take a look at the ticket:

Support ticket for rubberbands

This was pretty funny. The ticket was not meant for the systems team, but it is always fun to see requests like these come through. And, here is another:

Catch your running fridge?

He Looked Like 65 When He Died

2009-09-14T21:37:00.000-07:00

Not much of the crappy punk music I listen to from the late 70's and early 80's received much air play. An exception would be Jim Carroll's "People Who Died", which was recorded with Blue Oyster Cult's Allen Lanier. A side note about the song, which was not responsible for its popularity, was that it was briefly played in the movie E.T.

The song mentions many people dying before their time. Now, Jim joins the list, as he passed away last Friday, September 11. Fifty-nine years old, he died while working at his desk from a heart attack. A line in the song says, "He looked like 65 when he died. He was a friend of mine."

Thanks for the music, Jim

The Power Went Out Again

2009-09-12T20:12:00.000-07:00

Power outages occur quite often in Bangalore. Many places have generators; you see them in all sizes: personal use to huge diesel ones. Possibly because of the generators, no one seems concerned with fixing the power problems, instead people just deal with the power going out. Just about the time when I would ask why the problem exists in the first place, I get a glimpse into the problem:

Not Enough Outlets

At my office, workers were constructing a video conferencing room. For this work, many power tools where needed: circular saws, drills, etc. Every tool's power cable had the plug cut off. Why? Well, if you have three items needing power, but only one outlet, you simply stuff the bare wire ends of your cable into the same outlet. Why purchase a power strip with multiple outlets?

Exposed Wiring

Free Access to Boxes

No one seems concerned with keeping wiring secured from people, nor the elements. So, electrical boxes are unlocked and most of the time left wide open and utility poles have wiring exposed. I have yet to see a single transformer site which is in decent shape.

Having said all this, the power at home has been up all week that I can tell and for that I need to now find some wood to knock on. Consistent power means stable Internet conne
..+++
NO CARRIER

Fifty Live Music Shows

2009-09-10T05:29:00.000-07:00

I ran into this idea from my friend Carter.

OK, here are the rules. Test your memory and your love of live music by listing 50 artists or bands (or as many as you can remember) you've seen in concert. List the first 50 acts that come into your head. An act you saw at a festival and opening acts count, but only if you can't think of 50 other artists. Oh, and list the first concert you ever saw (you can remember that, can’t you)?

Should you choose this challenge, here's what you do:
Copy my note. Click on notes under tabs on your profile page. Select _write a new note_ in the top corner. Paste the copy in the body of the note. Make your list. Once you've saved, don't forget to tag friends (including me) on the right. I am tagging people I went to some of these shows with, as well as Carter.

01 Toadies

Dead Kennedys in Corpus Christi, Texas

02 Dead Kennedys
03 Helmet
04 Reverend Horton Heat
05 NOFX
06 Butthole Surfers
07 The Ataris
08 Violent Femmes
09 Willie Nelson
10 Robert Earl Keen, Jr
11 Steve Vai

Joe Satriani in Hollywood

12 Joe Satriani
13 Primus
14 Circle Jerks
15 Pennywise
16 John Mayer
17 Cro-Mags
18 7 Seconds
19 The Police
20 Tommy Emmanuel
21 MDC
22 Eric Johnson
23 Angkor Wat
24 Jay Buchanan
25 Liars, Inc
26 Eric Sardinas
27 John Petrucci
28 The Dan Band
29 Blue Man Group
30 Suicidal Tendencies
31 The Dead Milkmen
32 Presidents of the United States of America
33 Iron Maiden
34 Karmacy

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes in San Francisco

35 Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
36 No Use For A Name
37 The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
38 Phenomenauts
39 Soak
40 Bad Religion
41 MxPx
42 Bouncing Souls
43 Less Than Jake
44 Flogging Molly
45 Manic Hispanic
46 The Offspring

Rock and Roll Adventure Kids in San Francisco

47 Rock and Roll Adventure Kids
48 Rancid
49 Los Vatos
50 Kryptos

Black Clouds of Exhaust

2009-09-10T02:07:00.000-07:00

In California, every car has to get its exhaust analyzed to help keep the air clean. After spending the past nine months in India, I was sure that practice did not exist here. To my surprise, I had to take my motorcycle to a center the other day to get its emissions tested.

Emissions Testing Stand

This is all fine and well, but someone is not paying attention to reality. The buses and auto-rickshaws here spit out black gunk like crazy, and those things run all hours. I would be amazed if any one rickshaw in Bangalore could pass an emissions test. If a Whitefield bus backed up to the testing center, the attendant would die of asphyxiation! I doubt that motorcycle and car engines are the source of the majority of the air pollution.

Download The Rose Hotel

2009-09-08T23:01:00.000-07:00

The newest release from Robert Earl Keen, Jr is due out at the end of this month, but the title track is available for download here. One track of the other ten will have Billy Bob Thornton on vocals.

I first listened to REK at Bocktoberfest in Shiner, Texas, where he was the headliner. He is a great songwriter and performer. If you have never heard his music, you should at least download his latest effort for a free listen.

American Express For The Win

2009-09-08T02:51:00.000-07:00

Sony wanted to charge more than half the value of this camera and have me do without for six to eight weeks for a broken LCD screen. This camera was not mishandled and likely had a sleight crack when it was purchased. After several attempts to find some compassion from a Sony Centre service representative, I called American Express, having used my card to purchase the item. Sure enough, the damages were covered by the card insurance and after filling out an online form and emailing a photo of the item, my card was reimbursed for the entire cost within a few days!

Keep this in mind when purchasing electronics, which can come from the factory with some issues: use your American Express card. You get great consumer protection with no hassles.

The Best Ride I Never Had

2009-09-07T03:04:00.000-07:00

Bike Ride to Kerala

A while back, some guys at the office came up with a plan for a group of us to ride our motorcycles to Wayanad, in the Indian state of Kerala. I decided not to go, then came back to going, then on the evening before leaving decided to ride in a car. Monsoon in Kerala is likely not the best time to be on the back of a bike for more than ten hours in one weekend. Anjali and I joined the bikers at a few points along the way, since we were all going in the same direction, and I snapped a couple pictures:

Just outside Mysore on Saturday

Lunch stop on Sunday

Blue Ginger
Since I had flip-flopped between going and not going on this trip, I lost the prime real estate for the resort where most people were staying. A search for an alternative lead me to Blue Ginger Resorts, and I was able to secure their Cascade Cottage, which overlooks a river and has a waterfall view.

To get to Blue Ginger, a 4x4 Jeep had to pick us up from the main road. We spent the next hour bouncing around for the four-kilometer ride up to the resort, at an elevation of more than four thousand feet above sea level. All the water we drank was a bad idea: we should have emptied our bladders before heading up the mountainside; painful.

Meals at Blue Ginger were not the best, but we had ghobi "65" with lunch on Saturday, which was really good. I had to ask what the sixty-five meant and have subsequently looked it up online.

Cascade Cottage

The Cascade Cottage

We stayed in the Cascade Cottage, which is located in the far back of the resort property, built over the river. The views out our windows were amazing:

Waterfall View

River View

Never a bad view, no matter which direction you looked out. In addition, the sounds of the water rushing was great to fall asleep to.

But Wait, There's More...
After coming back from lunch on that first day, we were discussing how great a memory staying in Wayanad is going to always be. We talked a bit about future memorable trips we plan to embark upon and how long into the future we see ourselves happily remembering the moment we were sharing. I asked Anjali if she would always want to recount memories of us as we were building new memories together, and when she said yes, I told her how much I wanted that as well. It was then I got down on one knee and presented her with a ring, asking her to marry me.

The Proposal Site

Relationship Status Change

The Happy Couple

Sunday meant a long ride back to Bangalore, but the time was filled with many phone calls, updating loved ones on the change in our relationship.

Engaged

The next steps have not really been considered, but we are engaged and happy. We are looking forward to our life together and that is really all that matters.

To read about what the other folks were doing, check out the experiences of Dagan and Bree or Michael. Oh, and more from Michael here.

Sick of Swine Flu

2009-09-03T06:34:00.000-07:00

The craziness has to end soon. I was in the city the other night and decided to meet Anjali for supper. Upon entering the restaurant, we had hand sanitizer squirted on us because of the swine flu scare. There is being cautious and checking for symptoms, but that is a bit much.

At the office, all employees were given hand sanitizer bottles:

Hands-On sanitizer

We have held a training session on how to deal with swine flu. There are posters put up showing how to properly wash hands. Now the company is giving out masks to anyone feeling under the weather. At least someone has maintained a sense of humor through all this, as you can see below:

Ogre Flu?

I know it is a real illness and people are dying from it. However, the knee-jerk reaction is a bit overboard, don't you think?

Legal to Drive in India

2009-09-03T03:40:00.000-07:00

The roads were not safe before, but they certainly are not safe now. I just received my drivers license for India.

My Karnataka License

I am licensed to drive two and four-wheeled vehicles anywhere in India. And, this does not expire until 2023! It turned out not to be too difficult to obtain either. I went to a driving school for five minutes and took a test in the license office to get my learners license. One month later, I drove less than one kilometer with a driving instructor. When he exited the car, a police officer stepped in, and we drove the exact same course. Total cost was less than fifty US dollars. Awesome!

Cool Ganesha ASCII

2009-09-02T22:07:00.000-07:00

I saw a cool text-art Ganesha and thought I would share:

   < >
 @(.=.)@
()',jj ()
()( /.)()

This was sent as an SMS during the recent Ganesha Chaturthi festivals.

DeLorean Time Machine Visits DWA Campus

2009-09-02T20:37:00.000-07:00

One day during lunch in 2008, I saw this DeLorean parked on campus and realized it was done up like the time machine from the Back to the Future series of movies. As Doc Brown in the first film states, "The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?"

You can even see the hoverboard

So, it turns out, this car was built by J Ryan and Sean Bishop, the first commented on my Flickr photo shown above. I am adding this to my blog to pass on their website link, which has some interesting information about the car. Another cool thing is that Sean Bishop built Ecto-1, from Ghost Busters.

Wearing Pajamas to Work

2009-09-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

On the day before India's Independence Day anniversary, my office had everyone come to work in traditional Indian attire. My girlfriend and I went shopping and she bought me a kurta-pajama set, along with jootis. I was cool to dress for the occasion and I look forward to another opportunity to step out in something traditional.

Me, as a Punjabi munda

What's Special About Today?

2009-09-02T03:34:00.000-07:00

Today is just like any other day. Or, at least I thought it was.

Evidently I am looking colorful today. We use a simple application, much like xmessage to send notes to each other at work. I got this one today. I hope being colorful is a good thing.

No More Grapes to Steal

2009-09-01T02:36:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday, Anjali and I headed out to the grape vineyard just outside Whitefield where we once sampled/stole some grapes. It was funny when we first went because we will willing to pay for whatever we tasted, but no common language existed between us and the people tending to the grapes (they only spoke Kannada). But, this time, there were no grapes. The harvest was over! Perhaps they were picked early in fear we might return?

Figuring out which grapes to taste

These should have been fed to me

Time to leave

Sunglasses on, ready to ride

Anyone Here Know Konkani?

2009-08-29T06:28:00.000-07:00

I am in the process of learning how to write my name and my girlfriend's name in as many Indian languages as possible. Well, at least as many different Indic scripts as possible. This all started with a waiter from Kerala.

I visited Bangalore's new Chili's restaurant one afternoon and my waiter asked me where I was from. I then asked him where he was from. When I told him I had visited Kochi, in Kerala, he asked me if I had picked up any of the local language, Malayalam. I pulled a pen from my pocket and wrote "toddy" on my napkin in Malayalam, which simultaneously impressed him and made him laugh. He then showed me how to write my name in Malayalam.

When I got to work, I showed my name to Robin, who is from Kerala, and he fixed some problems with the spelling. Then he showed me how to write "Anjali", and then it occurred to me that I could ask around to find out how to write our names in many languages. I turned to Jitan and asked him how to write our names in Hindi and Oriya. Then, Javed showed me in Urdu.

Here is what I have so far (my name is always on the left, hers on the right):

Assamese

Bengali

Gujarati

Hindi

Kannada

Kashmiri

Malayalam

Manipuri

Nepali

Oriya

Punjabi

Tamil

Telugu

Urdu

Love Aaj Kal

2009-08-11T07:44:00.000-07:00

Sunday - What To Do?

Sunday, we were feeling stuck at home. Anjali had a mending broken arm and I had a sunburn. We just wanted to get out for a while. Aha, Gold Class!

Gold Class

I could watch paint dry or grass grow in Gold Class. This is a movie theater experience where you sit with approximately thirty people in reclining leather chairs. A butler brings you food. It is nice to enjoy a movie while nearly falling asleep in an easy chair.

The Movie

Love Aaj Kal was not my first Hindi movie. I had viewed Delhi-6 a few months prior. For that movie, I had just heard the story of Rama and Sita, so I could draw parallels between the movie and what I had learned. Dialog was something which escaped me completely. In fact, I only remember identifying one phrase, "phir melange", which equates to "see you soon."

This movie was a typical chick flick. Two people are in a relationship in England, but the woman is moving to India for school and the man wants to move to California. So, they decide to break up, but never really get over each other. The guy strikes up a conversation with a restaurant owner, who reveals over the course of the movie to this young man his love story in India. Disclaimer: I may get a lot of this wrong, so gimme a break. The older gentleman, Veer, explains how he fell in love with a girl while they lived in Delhi, but she moved to Calcutta. He followed her, but found that she was engaged to another man. Likewise, the young, broken-up couple in the movie had moved on and the woman tells the man she has accepted a marriage proposal. She tells him that she will be getting married as they are flirting with each other via SMS, while both are sitting at dinner with their significant others. Anyway, the chick gets married and the guy lives out his dream of moving to San Francisco. The guy finds himself bored in San Francisco and thinks of the young woman. Perhaps it is just me, but he comes off as a jerk the way he only thinks of his ex-girlfriend when he shouldn't: when he is in a relationship with someone else and when his San Francisco life is not as great as he thought it would be. The young woman leaves her husband during their honeymoon. So, the broken-up couple end up together. Veer, the older man, ends the movie by returning home to his wife, whom you discover to be the woman he went to Calcutta for and was beaten by her fiance (and his friends) for his pursuit.

Understanding the Movie

I was able to keep up with a few things during the film. It was also cool to find out that some of the dialog was Punjabi and a phrase I have been saying for a while was revealed as something which makes sense (thanks Adi). When dialog passed me by, I focused on costuming, menus and other surroundings. I paid attention to locations in the movie which I might visit some day in the future. Who knows, maybe I will visit Calcutta some time soon, although a trip to Delhi is likely in my immediate future.

Rating

We got out of the house, enjoying some comfort snacks while sitting in an air conditioned theater. We watched a movie, a chick flick, and shared an experience. All in all, I would call that a good deal. But, Anjali has apologized a time or two about the fact that I had to sit through a foreign movie. Should I tell her that I have seen many foreign films without subtitles? Perhaps she will feel compelled to treat me to an evening movie with explosions, babes and/or spaceships...