Observation and the observer

I am on this TGV train from Paris to Berne in Switzerland and opposite to me seated two girls - one for sure is a localite and the one sitting directly opposite to me, I was skeptical about.

However, myself being a keen observer (most of the times ;)), did figure out that she is from the States too. Three instances that helped me find out -

1. When the conductor (ticket check guy) walked by, we were to show our tickets and an identification. We obviously being from outside, the only form of ID was passport. The girl showed her passport too and I was already counting that she is not from any of the mainland European region. At this time, I was sure she is either from UK or the US.

2. Sun shining bright until about 9:15pm, as a courtesy I was prompted by my friend to check with her if it did okay to pull down the blinds of the train window. The response was clearly with an American accent - that's fine. :)

3. REI is a pretty famous co-op in the US with all travel backpacks, sporting equipments and the likes. The bag that was rolled in by her was from REI too. Although this was just a guess that she could be from the US, it just added to the fun!

Is it a valid statement to make that she was from the US since she used an iPhone!!? :D
     Probably not, because there were many people in Europe carrying iPhones. 

In all, I was indeed right after striking a conversation (glad I did). It was such a coincidence that she graduated from a pretty known university in Mountain Time, where I live; her family being in the state where my friend works, and her trip to a specific hotspot down in South America which me and my friend were researching and exploring about. Such a coincidence. 

Feels good! Haha..

The Idaho connection

Traveling in Switzerland on a golden pass line train from Zweisimmen to Montreux, I happen to sit beside a cross-country couple; cross-country because, the husband was from Switzerland and the lady was from Sweden. :D

Upon a chat, I introduced myself to be from one of the states in the States and the lady popped the question - which state again, Idaho?
I was surprised to hear and clarified myself what was being asked for. Soon came the response - potatoes, from Idaho.
YES that's right. I live in Idaho and it is famous for potatoes and exported to quite a number of places in the world, of which I learned about Switzerland or Sweden to be one or both of them.

Wasn't just that, introducing my friend to have studied in Salt Lake City, the immediate outspoken word was Mormons. People are indeed aware of the world!!! :)

Again, it was not limited there. The couple were quite familiar with India and the 'romantic' bollywood movies (romantic, quoted by them) all thanks to the many film picturization in Switzerland.

If permitting and viable, we, the people should travel the world and get familiar with cultures & places around one another. So much more of general knowledge than reading books, you see!! :)

A world beyond visual perception

Official travels and personal trips have made me use one of the many faster modes of transport - airlines. Be it international travel back home or on official trips locally and internationally, flights have been convenient.

Similarly, the underground subway system is yet another faster mode of transit within big cities. Have had lived in Chicago, visit New York, London and Paris, the subway trains in each of these metropolis is just amazing too in terms of connectivity and accessibility. 

The natural tendency for all is to imagine life to be only on our planet although life could possibly exist elsewhere in the universe too and we perceive it to be mostly on land quite often, without extending it to the other layers of the earth.

It is so fascinating that at a given point in time, there are in-numerous airplanes in the sky carrying 100's of passengers. To give a perception of how many flights travel on a daily basis, watch this 24 hour time lapse video. Likewise, subway trains across the world ferry quite a huge population during a day's play. Here is a comparison of the top 11 busiest subways in the world. 

Man has informally acquired the space beyond & beneath just land. Being on a plane for close to 14 hours is more than half an earth day spent elsewhere than land (of course lose or gain time). We spend our time 'there' with our neighbors, eat and drink, sleep and entertain ourselves; nothing short of a life on land (cannot be for long though; pity the cabin crew / air hostesses). Nowadays, internet and phone service being available at that altitude too, nothing is far reducing the gap between 32 odd thousand feet and ground.

People have been living for months together on the ISS (international space station) visioning and monitoring the earth and not to forget researching about extra terrestrial beings. Looking at the photos that get posted by a few Commander's I follow on twitter who are aboard the ISS, we the people are not far from finding life on other planets and/or start living elsewhere in the universe. Imagine a man-made equipment 'The Mars Rover' roaming around on the unknown territory of the planet Mars; they just make man feel as an amazing being.

We should at times be reminded about the various regions which support life although artificially; it doesn't seem to stop expanding.

Everyday is a Déjà vu

Everyday is a new day in terms of date, time, year and what not. But, what if the activities during the day remained the same as yesterday or if tomorrow repeats as today!! This is precisely what I am confused over or concerned about.

As a background; during school times, classes, assignments, projects, exams and papers took away most of the day and there was no strict manner in which things happened. It was all asynchronous. Take it with cooking food or chit-chat with roomies late in the night or watch movies at random too; there was no significane to being streamlined in what we were up to. 

This unruly behavior changed with settling in a job (and this is just the beginning :)). A big picture can be explained as below.

For each Monday through Friday - 

     wake-up, brush, shower, cereals for breakfast, 

     drive 5 mins to work, 

     work 8+ hrs for the day with lunch, 

     drive back home in 5 mins, 

     cook, dinner, clean, floss, brush, browse, sleep,

Repeat for the next day. 

Work seem to be the only variable part in the above loop which gets challenging or interesting or fascinating depending on what's going on; the rest being pretty monotonous. There are obviously a couple additions to the loop here & there during the week - phone calls back home or to friends or as today, by writing a blogpost. But, typically the above loop holds good almost always. 

Wonder how our parents and other people we have known been in the same jobs for eons, doing the same task day to day, following a similar typical routine in life, are coping up!!? It seems like a Déjà vu to me. The reason I say it as Déjà vu is that, going with the above flow, I know what I am up to the following morning at 8:30 - either in the shower or having cereals and the very next thing is to drive to work, there can be no other possibility. 

Solution: Looks like this is the reason we have weekends and a few holidays thrown into the equation to make use of them for some quality activities. It sometimes feels, making things a little complicated is worth; will probably get there. :D

Would like to add - there are many solutions here and I decoded a few only while I am writing these lines. So, the whole Déjà vu might not really be a problem, just that it needs to be overcome. :)

Facebook addiction!

These days with such a great network among friends and relatives be it through Facebook or twitter or blogs or YouTube channels, everyone tends to learn of everything another person is up to although security and privacy settings can be used to control the amount of information shared.

Twitter is something people have enjoyed and accepted. I once remember a friend getting Caltrain delay information due to an accident via twitter. Of all, I personally feel Facebook has been predominant in enticing crowd. It has attracted so much that it's hard to get off it. While responding to a survey, I stated time spent on Facebook per week to be 18 hours, which I am sure is quite less than I do. I woud like to share two instances of such Facebook addiction.

A sad case: This less known Facebook friend is back home in India who I had an acquaintance with. He once posted "Woke up to find my father no more!!!" or something which sounded similar. I was extremely shocked to see such an update and kept on wondered - How could anyone post that!! Well, just to make sure I read things right, I revisited his profile to only see the post deleted. It was only after one other friend confirmed of seeing the post that I was sure of what my eyes witnessed.

A supremely happy case: The Facebook status update said "Oh God, thank you God. Made my day. Thank you God." This gave away no information about the happiness. A few minutes later, comments started to flow and only then I understood that the person had got his Green Card (Permanent Residency) approved to carry forward his life in the US. A big deal, yes some what! Still such an open outburst of thanking God several times was not something I expected. And in this case too, the post got deleted in some time. It felt like God granted the person permission to live his life as if the person had never lived before. I would like to say, thank God; he got a life outside his motherland.

Confusion and frustration are the two things one could possibly see in me from the above two cases respectively. Best wishes to the two characters in my play. :)

Disneyland

Disneyland and me go back 20+ years!! :)

July 2nd 2011

It was when I was around 6 or 7 years of age that my neighbor gifted me with a coloring book. It was special then because of the Disney characters that were presented to sketch and paint; so many of them. I was a little into drawing at that time and a big fan of Mickey Mouse. Would make greeting cards with Disney characters and present to my cousins on their birthdays. I still remember the submarine, castle, fireworks, carnival parade... from the drawing book which used to be brought to life upon coloring them.

2 to 3 years down, there was this one regional movie which I still watch and cherish called "America America" (a Kannada movie). This movie is about how 3 friends get into their ways of life and portraying the American dream of a young adult from a village in India. It's an awesome watch and I personally relate so many aspects from the movie to my current US stay!! Indian movies being song and dance oriented, had a couple songs showing around places in the US and also included Disneyland. The picturing of the carnival and characters was so lively as if we made a US visit by watching the movie.

Now, i.e., 16 to 17 years from the movie release time, I have lived in the US for 4+ years, had my family visit me, took them around various places in the US including Anaheim in CA and you know what's in Anaheim, CA. Yes, you guessed it right. It's Disneyland... Not until my mom reminded me of the coloring book, I was able to retrospect how the Disney imagination was lived for real.

The idea behind this blog going back in time is that, we would never have imagined how life would take turns and give an opportunity of something one dreamt in the childhood days. Luckily for me, Disneyland stands right there!

Jamun and the frustration involved.

The characters in this story are fictitious and resemblance to anyone alive or dead is not at my obligation. :D

Scene1: Story begins with A making Jamun one evening. Distributes it among a few of many friends - B, C, D and E. B, C, D and E were chosen such that the commute distance, quantity/quality and late night home visit being okay. Though, A missed out on a few close F, G and H, that was not the intention.
Distribution and visits went fine. Jamun and the effort appreciated by them all. A thanked them and end of story (wish).
Had it been end of story, probably would not have made it into a blog. 

Scene2: The following day, E has a few good words about Jamun at lunch and the lunch group were kind enough, but no further discussion. Good to be a low profile.

Scene3: B and C meet A at coffee. F being present, A would have not expected a Jamun discussion. Suddenly, there is all appreciation of Jamun and the bad part of it going into the ears of F. Though F looked to have taken the whole Jamun incidence at ease, B and C (in all "fun") hinted and pointed and poked of it to F. There was nothing stopping A to disagree and F looked a little triggered and infuriated.
Later, D walks by and no discussion. A at this point doesn't know if Jamun has been "tasted" by G and H already. 

Scene4 (in A's mind): D was best; Scene1 was truly end of it. E was good; nothing to bother. B and C though had no bad motive probably missed something very basic! A feels sorry for F, G and H. A definitely owes them. 


So, the Jamun happiness turned to a frustration at A's end and hopefully F would have forgiven and forgotten. 
Moral of the story: To please everyone, learn to give caveats or do not miss anyone. ;)

Traffic rules in the office corridor

The campus I work at is huge and fortunately for me, the lab is at the south most corner and my cubes about 10 mins walking distance towards the other end. Fortunately because, these days with the sedentary job types I hear, I at least get to move around.

I am aware of the traffic rules on the roads & highways, on the walkways or even on the bikeways! It was very interesting to see how people had a tacit agreement within a closed building to follow the same traffic rules while walking along the office corridors.

A few instances or observations I would like to point out -
1) People always walk on the same side/direction as the vehicles travel on the streets. In this case, walk with wall closer to your right.
2) Slow moving traffic - There are instances when I  foresee people walking very slow. Same as vehicles does with an indicator to change lanes, I would say an excuse me (aka indicator) and jump to the opposite lane and quickly switch back to my lane; of course after looking for the opposite side traffic. ;)
3) STOP signal at crossroads - There comes innumerous doors, stairs, rest-rooms along the way. People on the corridor would get preference and the cross road commuter after looking right and then left can then merge to the main street (corridor).
4) Something similar to emergency vehicles - At some times, there would be people carrying wafer boats or a trolley of wafer boats or one who is in a hurry to attend a meeting across the campus. These are priority vehicles/people. Everyone would space out and move towards the pavement (in this case, wall) and let them step over. This works synonymous to the rule when a cop car or ambulance or fire engine is seen along the streets.
5) One other, though minor - I have observed to maintain a certain distance between two people walking one behind another. Too close doesn't seem appropriate. If one from behind is speeding and doing a tailgate, by frustration, people would allow you to pass over similar to what happens on the streets. :)

As can be noticed in the image, I am oriented on the right side of the corridor strictly following the traffic model. On a funny note, with several routes possible, I have found 2 such routes from my cube to the lab. A scenic route (I term it the CA-1) and the other not so scenic route (I term it US-101). :D

I was never told about all these 'traffic rules'. I have no qualms on this protocol either. It has worked out just fine and people have followed. It is amazing how things fall in place by merely following and co-operating with fellow beings.
Follow the good and discard the bad would not be a bad statement to reiterate at the end of this post! 

CBGIF

Just for Laughs

CB - Cold Bodied: Often times seen in not so heavy winter clothing. Looked simple and less warm, hence CB.

G - Geeky: Sometimes with the spectacles on, looks similar to Preity Zinta of Kal Ho Na Ho fame as in the neighboring pic.

I - Irish: Resembles Andrea Corr, lead singer of the famous inactive band Corrs. Specially in this video. 

F - Female: The female I am talking about. 

I hope to learn her name someday and stop calling Cold Bodied Geeky Irish Female alias CBGIF! ;)

A quick post, just rolling over my thought.

Why would anyone have tens of windows open at work (may be at home too) and for say, months together?
Even a software update restart prompt would not enlighten them to shutdown all the open applications and do a restart.
The later comment is, the machine is unbeatably slow. Never ever saw such a system. Why cannot the company offer better work stations.

Come on! They are not eternal and perish if not taken care; be it you, me, or any man made thing.

An idea changes the world

Who on earth doesn't get an IDEA? Even the smallest creature has the ability to utilize its brain to some extent. And we being humans have higher brain power to come up with several thoughts and ideas. Hence, the world is challenging and progressing at such a fast rate; be it in a good way towards 'innovention' or on the harmful aspects too.

As a child, I had this one thought. If I remember correctly, it was during my 7th standard/grade or so. The traffic those days in Bangalore weren't that huge as compared to now. My father used to ride me to school but used to get late for the assembly mostly due to traffic. I had this idea of literally fly and skip the traffic. My idea was to have a small flying vehicle which would be in such a construction that it would work both on land for a ride and fly in the air based on the circumstance. I would ride the vehicle until I reach a traffic choc-a-block and take off to the point where there is no traffic and ride again. As and when I started learning of the outside world, with the aid of internet or interactions or a little more research, I learned about such a thing which exists now. Not very sure if that existed at the time when I had the idea, but it surely does now. Here is a sample link. One can google "flying car"or something that sounds similar to find the latest available ones for purchase if interested. ;) 

Fast forward to the Spring of 2009. I was doing my Masters here in the US of A, stayed with roomies and was fun. There is a general tendency to forget the location of say, a domestic item or get it lost with in the house. I started terming this as "Why is there no Control+F in life?" This got hyper when a 3 of us sat down one evening and started working out the needs and bring the concept to reality. To be frank, that was the first and last day we ever discussed, later to find this which got materialized in Fall 2010. I was happy to have even coined such a thing among my friends but sad to have not really challenged ourselves to make it happen. The concept utilized in the link above is of bluetooth technology but ours was through RFID tagging system. Not very sure which is cumbersome, but realized that we missed in making it to an article. Later, there was no single response when I shared the above link with my 2 other friends saying - "What we discussed came true!"; and that's when it struck me, who cares. I din't myself. :(

Later that very same year, another concept hit my other friend's mind. A Vehicular Networks related, making use of RF technology again. Took it from concept to some brainstorming among groups, read a few papers, discuss often about the updates we all have - were the things we did. And alas, all go in drain with everyone getting busy with their own jobs and job hunts and the likes. 

To summarize, it can be noted that, as a kid we had ideas but nothing happened. Later, at the times when we had constructive ideas, we weren't determined to do it. Once we did decide to do something, other priorities change the lanes. 

Good thing I take off from the above 3 examples is that - 

Kid: left it as an idea

Spring'09: left it at discussion

Fall'09: took a step further

NOW is the time to make any idea happen. I hope to do something useful in life.

PS: Publish an idea. You might as well make a patent. You never know!! :D