Gifts

It always has to take some unfortunate incident to make God put in me a lot of stuff that i have tended to overlook over the past few years.

Its always a difficult period for me recovering from injuries with all the mental trauma and agony.

Came across this wonderful quote in the bible today. Very much relevant in the situation..

"Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?" - Genesis 18:14a

Les Misérables

Things are becoming so much more clearer now. Sometimes i wonder... i should have had just this one year of experience before joining B.

Would things really have turned out differently? Definitely!

This stage of my life, my career is turning out to be one big muddle. Its like i'm waiting for some unknown force to come and show me the way.

Status: Confused, Ruminating, Retrospecting.

Burn it up!

Last time i came here, i bloated up so much (infact put on 2-3kg) that my mom warned me not to repeat the same this time :)

So here goes:

Average calorie requirement considering my BMI, Age & lifestyle : ~2400

1 cup of milk (with 2 t.spoons of sugar): 100 + 2x15 = 130 cal

3/4 cup corn flakes : 100 cal

3 chapathis : 3x100 = 300 cal

curry : 60 cal

1 cup rice : 200 cal

1 cup chicken : 200 cal

1 egg : 100 cal

1 large potato : 300 cal

Considering these esentially form my bkfast/lunch/dinner, I'm well withing limits.. and over 20 km of trekking over the past two weekends, and a 150 cal workout session every evening.. i'm hoping i'm buring off just as much as i'm consuming!

Some more complex calculations resulted in realizing that i'm supposed to have max 8-10 t.spoons of sugar per day... that would mean max of around 3-4 drinks of milk/tea/coffee/juice per day. I need to watch out here.

Winding up

Today (Sunday) was a much more fulfilling one. Woke up at 7ish after a 6 hr sleep. Had a mix of stuff for b'fast and then headed out to explore San Jose via the Light Rail. Finally got a chance to visit a church here...and even more interestringly... attended a Mass! 

Got off the Light Rail at Santa Clara, and walked up to the St. Joseph's Basilica. Luckily for me, my timing was such that i entered the church in between services. Initially I had my reservations on entering the place given that i could see hardly any Indians around.. slowly saw a couple of them strolling in...which reinforced my confidence to attend the mass for sometime at least. The American mass is pretty much similar to the english mass in Indian churches... minor changes being that.. at the time of sharing peace, its via handshakes. For offerings you go up to the alter and place money in a basked there. For communion, there are 2 ppl.. one gives u the bread and another person hold a cup of wine from which you have to sip. Otherwise, the choir is just appealing and the priest is also pretty convincing and lucid... add a bit of the technology..the priest said the prayers thro a wireless earpiece-mic walking around the alter :)

Fry's was my next stop. A 1.5 km walk from Light Rail station 'Karina'. This was the first time i spent over 2 hrs and Fry's and surprisingly, walked out without buying a thing. Got back to the Great Mall Station and splurged at McD's to get a whole load of junk food. I'v been eating a healthy diet till now. So a sinful day's not gonna hurt much. After all 3 places you definitiely have to visit when in the US are : McD's, Subway & Starbucks!

Soon its gonna be back in Chennai. The noise, the smell, the life...mmm!... just one thing intolerable - The heat! (Cal's def spoiled my days... sun rises at around 6ish and sets around 9ish.. somewhere u loose the timing of when u ought to have dinner and go to sleep...otherwise weather's been pleasant...bright sunny days cool chilly nights...sort of like spring time at B'lore)

Cal in Spring-Summer

Things have become much more familiar. I'v started getting used to the area, know some of the eat outs, where to get stuff from, the Indian shops, and more importantly the biggest improvement being that i'm able to have dinner in the room itself. Living of ready made frozen Indian food - Chappathi and a variety of Indian curries. The best way to survive short stints in the US is to find the nearest Indian Shop. Believe me u'll find everything there that you can find in a shop like Nilgiri's or Spencers in India. Starting from Vegetables to Haldiram's snacks to Maggi to Ruchi pickles to Thumbs Up!!. Shops would have freshly made Chapaties and Parathas which can last for 3-4 days. You can also buy frozen curries at the shop. I'v tried the 'Deep' brand on Sriram's suggest and found it to be much more closer to home made curry than the MTR brands that you find in India.

Owe a lot to Sriram from SVCE and Lakshmi from Cypress for driving me around, dropping me back after workl and taking me out for grocery shopping more than once!! 

Last weekend was amazing. Went out for a 10km hike/trek along the hills of Montrey Bay and that followed with a vist to the Montrey Bay Aquarium. The trek was so damn exhausting that at the end of it i could hardly give rest to my legs without my muscles locking up. My frequency of going for treks have been now around once in two years... After undergrad i'v maybe gone for 3 treks over the past 5 yrs.. Tada (Chennai), Gimmelwalt(Switzerland)-[wouldn't qualify as much of a trek though] and now this one at Montrey(California).

Work-wise this trip has become much more demanding than the previous one as everyday i'v got to wake up at 6 for attending the daily morning meeting and then come back from office by around 7pm ish...kinda around 12hrs per day...add to that the fact that i'v got to either go out for dinner/make food at the hotel after that. Time enough to sleep for around 5-6 hrs. Things have simmered down a bit now and able to get around 2 hrs free per day.

Additional things to keep my enthu going. After a 4 yr stint with my dependable Sony DSC-p73, I'v got the Canon SX10IS and a host of accessories to go with it... batteries, mem card, tripod, filters, lens, case.

Booked!

A 2 day impulse decision.

Perceptions & Priorities

Talent is not recognized unless its projected as talent! A case study by Washington Post shows how Musician Joshua Bell, who can command $1000 per minute on his violin, managed to be make only $32 by playing at a subway station in DC. A very good article that analyzes human behaviour. 

"In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty (talent) transcend?"

"Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any urban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape: Do you stop to appreciate talent? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and irritation, aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time and your wallet? Do you throw in a buck, just to be polite? Does your decision change if he's really bad? What if he's really good? Do you have time for beauty? Shouldn't you? What's the moral mathematics of the moment?"

A touching quote by one of the passerbys:

"It was the most astonishing thing I've ever seen in Washington," Furukawa says. "Joshua Bell was standing there playing at rush hour, and people were not stopping, and not even looking, and some were flipping quarters at him! Quarters! I wouldn't do that to anybody. I was thinking, Omigosh, what kind of a city do I live in that this could happen?"

The Foodie 2

My Second attempt after the first try :) Going by the looks of it, not bad i say! I still havn't tasted it though.

Being rather bored as I was in the morning, i decided to find out how to get to Perambur station (which apparently is some 4 km away from my house). One discovery led to another and well, i just didn't feel like getting off the bike.... So what was the end result? 62kms, 2 hours! A mini Chennai roadtrip at 7.30AM on a lazy Saturdy morning!