July 4th weekend, 2008

For a change, I want to write about my holiday weekend. I am planning to move to Montreal by month end to start my MBA, so I decided to meet my good old buddy, santu before I moved to Canada. I had two to three options and finalized to go to Columbus and from there we went to Ohio Pyle state park in Pennsylvania to camp and do some white water rafting. Satti also joined us in columbus and one friend (Anu) of santu from OSU and her friend (Richa) from TAMU, college station joined us for the trip. We were supposed to meet santu's other friends from pittsburgh, columbus and buffalo at the camp. Our trip to ohiopyle was all wet, it rained all the way through and rained all day and most of the night on friday. Got to meet a lot of people. First order of the day after reaching the camp was to put the tent on. Well santu's pitt friends helped in fixing the tent. I get to see how chaotic an operation becomes when 5 or 6 Indians trying to do the same thing at one time. It was fun watching the guys put on the tent. I don't understand why some people just want to sit around and do nothing, well seeing not much is happening our group (us 5 from columbus) pushed to explore a trail before it got dark, and when we took off everybody else followed.

The trail was not much difficult, it would have been more fun if it did not rain. The funny thing was satti at one point stopped and insisted on going back, he was the last guy and he just stopped and he is not gonna take a step further. he was like guys we got to go back, its getting dark and we dont have any lighting, I was like man come near and talk why you are standing there and not willing to take a step forward, anyway we were able to convince satti to walk for 10 more minutes and if we did not see a road (we were looking for one) we will walk back on the trial. We found the road, by a scenic location in 5 minutes. After a photo session, we headed back to camp. Couple of pics of mine here are the best from the trip but I dont want anybody to see them, I am wearing an OSU cap, well what can I do, it was raining.

At the camp, the dinner preps were on full swing. The pitt crew was responsible for the food situation. Many of them were vegetarians. Vegetarian Barbecue is what we did for the next hour or so. Burgers with vegetable patties was the dinner. Well I am a non-vegetarian, but I love veg food, unfortunately I do not like veg patties, what is veg patty by the way? its made of soy. Isn't it a good idea to call them soy patties? Not my type of food anyway, I was honest when somebody asked me how the food was, should not have to but was, I guess I disappointed some, when I said it was OK. I guess I should have to be more appreciative of the effort people put in this and just lie to them. But I was afraid if I had to eat one more. I should take that chance. I liked the coffee before the patty, it was awesome, but disappointed with how much I got. I love food. Well I need to learn to adjust.

I was feeling real bad about what I said about the food, and then suddenly something happened, enter Subhodh. I will tell you what, this guy is going to do some amazing things in his life. He turned out to be a fellow non-vegetarian and put on a barbecue show for the vegetarians. I experienced a feeling, where you do not feel the odd man out anymore. I spent some time talking to subhodh and then had to go play cards. I love playing cards. Learned a new game called "Ruk my partner". Well just when I was getting better at the game, rain spoiled the show. Later on we had a Barbecue-II, paneer, capsicum and onions. Good idea, but the paneer was salty, once again I could not stop myself and when asked I said, it is too salty. After the paneer session, there was burned potato session. I learned something new. The potato's were great. I will try this the next time I am camping. The highlight of the barbecue-II was suri, if it is not for him, we would not have had fun during that particular stretch.

We tried to play some antakshiri during barbecue-II but were making too much noise, so had to call it a night. We went to bed, just before that had another session of cards play, this time inside the tent.

In the morning, after al-natural activities, we gathered for the breakfast. I was hungry and eat what was available to me. Hash browns, bread peanut butter, rice patty, corn and banana. We played antakshiri and this time with no problems. Antakshiri is always fun. It involves everybody and lets others know what kind of person you are, in a way. The best part of antakshiri, was santu's song selection. "Ghunghat ki aad mein dilbar ka deedar adhura rahta hain" - made everybody laugh. At the end subhodh bhai showed some talent by singing "Kuch na kaho, kuch bhi na kaho, kya kahna hain, kya sunna hain". Another hyd fella Pavan also got some singing talent.

After breakfast and antakshiri, it was time to pack up and head for some adventure - White water rafting.

This trip was planned ahead of time so reservations were made for white water rafting. But unfortunately the reservation was made for WWR-level1 &2, I wanted to go for level 3&4, and our group was also in sinc with me, 5 of us decided to change the reservation to level 3&4, another guy (Romel) from other crew also joined us. So six of us were in for more excitement. I missed out on an opportunity to go WWR in west virginia last 4th of July and all the talk about it later and talk at my work place, I could not wait to get on with it. We had some time in our hands, so we went on a small trial across the river. The weather turned around completely and it was probably the best day weather wise this summer. After some photo session around the waterfalls, we moved on to the WWR starting point. We had an initial orientation of 5 minutes and then we needed to put on the gear (life jacket and helmet) and hop onto a bus, which would take us to the rafts. We were thinking that there would be a guide in the boat so we thought its going to be easy. Well we get to find out it was guided escort not fully guided, there is a difference. Anyway, we thought we have satti, the man who has done this before, so obviously he was our raft's leader and he got the back seat.

Now nobody else has any kind of experience and satti, santu and romel know swimming, the other three including me were non-swimmers. Our raft was a part of 8-9 raft group and there were 4 guides, 2 escorting through 2 canoe and 2 other were on 2 rafts with passengers.

Within first five minutes we got stuck on a rock and were the worst performing raft in the whole group. If one named all the rafts, the best name for ours would be "Chaotic experience". poor girls anu and richa were just listening and I, santu, satti and romel, were shouting at each other about how the other one is doing it wrong.

After that incident it was time for change of guard, satti's position was replaced by romel. I tell you what, romel was helpful, we would have been ok without him, we always find ways to get out of bad situations. We talked to each other and took it slowly and within next 15 minutes, probably were one of the best crews in the group.

satti and santu were on the front side of the raft and for the next 2 hours they were disagreement about which way (forward/backward) they should paddle depending on situation. satti was doing it wrong but he would not listen to anybody, after two hours of convincing he got fed up and asked santu to just shut, his reasoning he knows what he is doing. Well a simple explanation after words did the trick, and he realised that he was doing it wrong.

In the first hour, while trying to push the raft away from a rock, romel fell in the water. I was the closest to him, so i had to lift him back into the raft. no big deal because it did not happen near a rapid.

The rapids got bigger and we got better at passing them, one by one. we were like man if this is so easy, level 1&2 would be a cake walk. The chaotic experience quickly turned into a smooth ride session. Then it was time to park the raft and have a sandwich for lunch. After re-energising ourselves, we were set to finish the rest of our 7-mile rafting experience.

Just before the last mile came the most exciting experience of all. Our cockiness got to us. At one of the rapids, richa lost the balance and almost fell in the water, all of reacted to hold her, and because she was close to the front side, I and romel sitting in the back (the two most heavy guys) did not move much making the front side lot lighter than the back of the raft. Within no time we were all in the water underneath our raft with the raft being upside down.

In the moment when I realized that we are going down, I decided to hold onto the rope on the side of the raft no matter what and I did just that. Life jackets, as expected made us float but I was right underneath the raft all the way through and because I held onto it, I was ahead of everybody else, meaning moving fast. I did see a big rock ahead and immediately made an effort to put the legs in front, did not do in time so hit the rock with my legs. After that I could hear a voice saying "let go of the raft, let go of the raft" checked on my left side, there was anu, holding onto the raft very tightly, she was not the one shouting, the guide on top of the raft was shouting, so that he can turn the raft around. I let go of the raft and asked anu to do the same, she would not do it. Then the most amazing thing happened, the guide took the rope of his waist tied onto the rings on one side of the raft and held the other side and jumped on the other side making the raft turn, because anu was holding on to the raft and because she does not carry much weight as the raft turned, she was lifted with the raft and dropped in it. I did not get to see it, but immediately when I was pulled in the raft, I could see her. She was looking forward, backwards, sideways and was shouting "richa, richa" and we could see richa ahead of us floating and shouting "Help me, save me", she was on board immediately and when we look behind us we could see romel and satti on the shores/rocks but could not see santu. Now anu was like "where is santhosh, where is santhosh". Man I got real worried about santu, real fast, in the mean time, romel hopped onto another boat and when he reached us he informed that santu is alright.

We were all back in the raft, couple of paddles were missing, had to get on the sides before the next rapid. Everybody had a tired scared look on their faces, and were like lets get this over with, the next 15 minutes seemed too long but we made it through the next 2/3 rapids with no issues, and extra focus and effort.

The whole experience was awesome, if we did not have fallen in the water, it would have been less exciting. Now we have a story to tell, experience to remember, at least until we go on the next adventure.

The Next US president

Being an Indian citizen, I always look for what is good for India and living in the USA and being a keen observer, I will also look at what is good for America. Sometimes what is good for India is good for US but not always. Bush was good for India, so will be McCain. Bill was bad for India, so will be Obama. If you want an indication, from today onwards look for how many times, Obama uses the following words in his speeches in a good way, India and Bangalore.

Obama will be good for America, McCain would not be. I interact with lot of republicans and democrats on a daily basis, when politics makes its way in the discussions all I hear from republicans is how obama's faith can be an issue and how obama's color might be an issue for him to get elected. When I talk to many democrats I always hear about losing jobs, disparity between rich and poor, Iraq war, gas price and so on and so forth.

Now many republicans believe that the party cannot win if they fight on the basis of performance of the Bush administration, ala state of the economy and Iraq war, so lets talk about Obama being a convert (a former muslim), a black candidate and how far away he is from conservative values.

One of the ludicrous things I ever heard is how obama is vulnerable to being assassinated, why because many maniacs live in this country. All assassinations do is make bad people good, good people great and great people Gods. So republicans should pray for Obama's victory and hope he screws up, maybe then republicans will command the white house for next 20-30 years.

Anyway I am here to say that Barack Obama will be the next president of United States. Why? its simple, He is Black ( so all blacks will vote for him ), He is young ( many women will vote for him ) He can talk ( many liberals would vote for him ) he is a democrat ( many blue collar workers will vote for him ) He is young ( many youngsters will vote for him ) He is a convert ( many converts will vote for him ). The only thing standing in between Obama and the oval office are Hispanics. What can he do for brown? from now and November will decide this race.

Three years ago, at a casual business dinner, we were talking about the next US president, ala Hillary Clinton. I made a statement back then that Hillary might not even be a presidential nominee. This became the truth this last weekend. Back then I did not make any calculations or had any inside knowledge of anything including obama. I was basing my conclusion on one simple fact and my experiences in America. The fact was good enough for me to say what I said back then. The fact is men usually do not like being dominated by women and alarmingly many woman do not like other women. There is a bigger struggle between women than it is visible. If Hillary cannot get the full support from women, she never had a chance and that was the case here. Sorry Hillary, you would not have been that bad of a president.

I will conclude by saying a Obama - Hillary Candidacy will seal the deal and there is a high probability for this to happen, just wait and see.

"Quota System"

Supreme Court of India ruled for reservation of seats for higher education for Other Backward Classes. It is an unfortunate situation. I belong to the OBC. How do I feel that I am labeled socially and educationally backward? I feel like crap from the get go. I do not see myself socially and educationally backward. It is determined at birth. So somebody decided that I belong to a class at birth, it is discriminatory at the least.

There are pros and cons of reservation. The cons outnumber the pros. It is not evident and nobody has conducted any kind of study to determine that reservations help the cause of people who used reservation more than people who do not. Reservation is nothing less than a charity and I do not believe charity helps in many cases.

How can we say that reservation helps or not? Just look at who is getting rich and who is not. Almost all of our Prime Ministers came from the forward class. Many of the intellectuals came from the forward class. Many of the leaders in the private industry are from forward class. Reservations just does not make sense. It is actually working against the reserved classes. The motivation to be best is not encouraged within the reserved classes. If you are so-so you will get in, because the so-so is working for you to get in an IIT or an IIM. Fortunately when somebody is taking an exam in physics at IIT, that exam is same for a student from OBC or SC or ST or from FC. Only the best get out of that class with flying colors. Reservation in India just makes the people more divisive. The FC people are crying on this verdict. They should be the ones jumping up and down, because they are held to higher standards in society by the highest judicial authority in India. Everybody else in OBC and SC/ST classes are held to lower standards. What else is left to say other than "it is a sad day for India and myself"

The basic reservation which nobody talks about is within ourselves. We put ourself in a class all the time. Be it based on caste, race or religion or something else. We should start looking within ourselves to find answers to this very important question of reservation.

We should stop being hypocrites about this and free our minds of this act of discrimination. Then only we will see self progress and our mother lands progress.

Me No.1 and Me No.1 what about the rest of them.....

Bollywood is buzzing with No.1 chants. For years Amitabh has been on that spot without anybody being close, now the latest polls put Shahrukh at that spot and Amir is pissed off. He says he is No.1 and the media is playing along. Well if two guys say they are No.1 it leaves no room for others. It means everybody else starts at No.3.

How does one become No.1 in Bollywood? Is it determined by how much money they make? How much money their movies make? or How much influence they have in the industry? or How chics respond to these guys? its a difficult question and the answer might lie in a combination of these things, does it?

I think this number one crap is all media creation and maybe these two contenders are playing along just to make sure nobody else sniffs this seat.

Well if I were to vote for No.1 it will be Salman.....just kidding.

It seems like Akshay kumar had a great year and he is having fun out there. So may be he should be No.1.

Two for Two & More.......

In my last post I made some comments about the recent setbacks to the Bush Administration. Within a short period a lot has occurred including the election losses by the ruling congress party in India and recent assassination of former Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto, who was considered a favorite to win the upcoming national elections in that country.

I mentioned that US - India Nuclear deal is dead, I rushed to conclusions on this one. Looks like the election results in India and Bush administrations reinforcement of the deal might lead to deal being approved by the Indian polity. With the Lok Sabha elections looming, ruling party would like to have this on its resume. So we should watch and wait for the official word on this deal.

As for the situation in Pakistan, I was cent pertain right about America's ill advised trust in the Pakistani president parvez musharraf. He is and will do everything to stay in power. This does not mean that he carried the attack on Bhutto but he is certainly responsible and happy to see her go. People around the world including Indians and Pakistanis are expressing their shock on the incident, but for me it was a sad happening but certainly not shocking. I have not seen any intelligence report suggesting that the intelligence community was not expecting another attack on her, I wish she survived this attack, but what is done is done. Now she is a martyr to everybody. Instead this might turn out to be a historic moment for Pakistan and maybe Americans realize what a big blow it is to their interests in the region.

I think the incident marks as a testament to the unspoken favor to musharraf by al-qaida, people forget that there was an incident back in the mountains of Afghanistan when Americans came close to getting bin laden, it was widely reported that Pakistani army rescued several of the taliban, by air lifting them when they were surrounded by US forces, without any exit. We also need to look at the treaty between the north west tribals and the current Pakistani Govt. These seem to be favors by musharraf to extremists in Pakistan and Bhutto's assassination is a favor to musharraf by al-qaida, it does not change the fact that Bhutto represented the biggest threat to extremism in Pakistan. I can only hope this incident is the beginning of good things for Pakistan. We Indians cannot have an unstable neighbor.

Benazir Bhutto was a brave woman. The world needs more of them.

Two for two.....

The Bush Administration has received two setbacks in South Asia in a one month span. The much touted Nuclear deal fell through because of the Democracy in India and the chance of return to Democracy dropped by the general in Pakistan.

What does the good old US lose? US lost billions of dollars in business if the Nuclear deal went through, it lost a chance to reduce Global warming, it lost a chance to reduce economic Inflation and above all it lost a chance to become India's #1 friend.

Even though India was to gain much from the deal, the process of democracy was upheld and that should be applauded. Who knows maybe we were compromising our National Security, instead we compromised National prosperity. Only future will tell us, Even after the deal's downfall, India is not far away from getting all the nuclear power. The pollution we generate in future will make the world request us to take up Nuclear power, maybe then we do not have communists, who count.

Compared to this the emergency in Pakistan is a bigger blow. No dictator in history has ever embraced democracy. You would think Bush administration would know this, after all nobody brought down more dictators than uncle Sam. On top of that, this same administration will be remembered as the reason for Saddam's downfall. When you count a dictator as your number one ally in the fight against terrorism, something is fundamentally wrong in the thinking itself.

What does Bush Administration lose in this, it lost its face.

Difficulty Breeders....

Oct 15th, 2007, last day to file for tax returns for people who took filing extension in April, 2007. I was one of them and waited until the last minute to file my taxes. At first I waited until last minute in April and due to not completing the paperwork in time, got an extension for Oct. How lazy of me. There was only one good thing in the whole process, my attorney was busy both times leading me to believe that there are more people in this world like me. Well this is just one more of such things where I had company. But this time I thought about it and here I am writing about what I thought.

Why do all of us make things difficult for us? its so easy if we just do it the first time and not wait until the last minute. If you just take a moment and think about what is happening around us and see how many people do what we do, u will be surprised. We people in general make things difficult for ourselves. It is not just individuals, its group of individuals and even governments, including the best there are.

Here is one example... Why is Manmohan Singh embarrassed about the N-Deal episode? Does not he get it, that he needs the parliament to approve any deal? does not he get it that before that he should get his coalition to approve it? I can go on with more examples...no need though...I think I made my point.

so "Just Do It" Damn it.