Thamizhan

The Predicament of the Nevada Black Bear : The UnAmerican Hunt

2011-09-27T15:10:00.000-07:00

If Paris has the Louvre and India the Taj Mahal, the United States has National Parks.This statement is probably sobering for one who appreciates the glamour and flairof walking along the Champs Elysees. I would have agreed myself until I saw KenBurn’s “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.” The creation of the national parkssystem in America was unprecedented. The opportunity to set aside land and resourcesfor the goodwill of the natural ecosystem and sustain a home-ground for our fellowinhabitants of this beautiful planet; and most importantly provide fair access to everycitizen of this nation to be one with mother nature. The forefathers of this great America,thereby created the basis for El Capitan to be just as, if not more, inconceivable than thepyramids -- this is the full meaning of democracy.

The phrase “America is the land of Freedom” is passed around very often. The Bill ofRights gives citizens freedoms from unfair taxation and the freedom to hold arms asprotection and so on. Freedom is an ever-encompassing word. It is the legal system thatkeeps freedom in check so that bank robbers and murderers aren’t acting on the pretextof being “free.” Any cold case will show us that the legal system protects the rights ofthe people in tracking, penalizing and/or incarcerating offenders of the law. But whatabout the rights of animals? Does Lady Justice consider the rights and freedoms of ourco-inhabitants of Earth while she is blindfolded?

When we hear about a Maasai warrior killing an elephant for bushmeat or a Bengalipoacher gunning down a tiger to support his family, conservations breathe a sigh offrustration, but in the same breath also have an inkling of hope. Whenever survivalbehaviors are involved, there is opportunity to change the value system to solve the coreproblems – hunger, income, medicine. Education, biodiversity offsetting and habitatrestructuring/relocation are some of the very successful methods in offering a trucein human-wildlife conflict. But when wild animals are sorted out by hunters for pureentrainment purposes, we find ourselves in a quandary.

Despite the black bear not being an endangered animal, the fact that they are treated asgame and recreationally hunted should alarm one to think twice about our actions. Whatgives us the right to take away another life, for a hunter’s pleasure. Isn’t there somethingperverse about this? There are serious costs to treating the black bear as a game species,like what is happening in Nevada right now as they push forward to a permanent huntdespite 15,000+ Nevada residents fighting against it in court. Let’s put aside all of thecomments about data invalidity and murmurs of the state administrators and the huntersacting on their own agenda. The fact remains that even if the population of the Nevadablack bear is growing, the legalized killing of these animals will not only treat thisbehavior as normal but also create a supply of black bear parts in the market. Historicallythis means that one should not be surprised if a new drug in Chinese traditional medicineis created. This will inevitably increase the demand for bear body parts and naturallypoaching, which in human history has been unable to be controlled by any department ofwildlife.

The damage of poaching spreads like wildfire. It can change any management plan thatincludes a game component unsustainable especially when large animals are involvedwhere their body parts are coveted. Wild animals already face disease, habitat loss andhuman conflict as part of their casualty record. Poaching is able to change an abundantpopulation into an endangered one over the course of a decade. 90% of the world’sRhinos have been lost since 1970. A 41% decline in the population of global tigersoccurred just in the past decade. Every decision and resulting action that we make todayundeniably impacts the future of a species. In mother nature’s eyes, the life of a blackbear is no different from the life of a human irrespective of brain size and perceivedintelligence. We have no right to pull the trigger, especially for entertainment. When theTsunami hit my motherland Sri Lanka many years ago, the damage was devastating butno wildlife were lost. All the animals felt the pressure change and seeked out cover. Thismakes us all rethink the formula for measuring intelligence.

The National Park Service is a true monument to equality among all species; proof thatwe can indeed live beside each other in harmony. Things as simple as trash management,awareness and education can play a key role in wildlife management. Bears will be bearsand buying a plot of land in bear territory should come with the same risks as buying aplot on the San Andreas fault. Shooting down bears entering your land is as meaninglessand futile as trying to stop an earthquake with dynamite. The animals need a voice,because they belong to all on this planet. We have no right to hunt them for pleasure, bydoing so we are taking what we do not own. The next time you go on a hunt and pickup your gun, before you pull the trigger, think about your freedoms and wonder for amoment if they are tantamount to the freedoms of that animal in the viewfinder. I endwith Abraham Lincoln – “I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I liketo see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.”

The HTC Touch Pro 2

2009-09-05T17:06:00.000-07:00

So, here is the flagship Windows Mobile phone, right at your service offered by Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless. At this point, if you're a phone addict like me you already know how awesome this device is.

If you don't know, catch up with this excellent review of the European version by the folks at BGR here. Here's the US review of the T-Mobile version by Endgadget.

You know the product, you want the product but where do you want to get it from?
Let's first assume in your area Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile have good voice networks and moderate data network performance. That said, let's do a price comparison.

T-Mobile
(1) Phone Cost: $349.99
(2) lowest voice: $39.99
required data service
(3) unlimited web: $24.99
(4) unlimited web and messaging: $34.99
Total cost for a 24 month contract = $349.99 + 24 * (39.99 + 34.99) = $2149.51
Sprint
(1) Phone Cost: $349.99
(2) lowest voice: $39.99
required data service
(3) unlimited web: $24.99
(4) unlimited web and messaging: $34.99
Total cost for a 24 month contract = $349.99 + 24 * (39.99 + 34.99) = $3

Verizon
(1) Phone Cost: $349.99
(2) lowest voice: $39.99
required data service
(3) unlimited web: $24.99
(4) unlimited web and messaging: $34.99
Total cost for a 24 month contract = $349.99 + 24 * (39.99 + 34.99) = $3

Mobile Phone Craze

2009-09-04T13:21:00.000-07:00

As I'm preparing for my next big adventure, both financially logistically and mentally; part of the preparation process is picking our functional, reliable and affordable equipment. At the moment I am actively looking at a replacement mobile that'll both address my mobile phone needs and essentially also be useful for a media demanding adventure.

I have a Nokia 95 now and the truth is that is works perfectly fine - more than fine actually. Sure I don't have the latest technologies or a touch screen but it makes clear calls and I can check my email, take photos and videos on it. I could do with better photo and video quality and a more stable hardware. It's not too bad since I've updated the OS and made a point of moderating all the beta apps I have installed on it.

Normally I wouldn't need an upgrade. I used this camera during my rickshaw adventure in India and there were some shortcomings. I'd think my next adventure would be longer and more ridic and so these shortcomings will be amplified.
Things I would need:
1) Longer Battery Life
2) Better quality photo and video capture (better signal processing for clear audio capture)
3) Ability to easily acquire apps for lifecasting/mobile blogging
4) Auto GPS lock and coordinates appended to photos/video content
5) Easier data entry (keyboard or legit touch screen)

And of course it would need to be a GSM world quad band phone like n95 to allow for slipping in and out SIM cards if I choose to cross borders.

So living in the US, the ultimate answer to this question seems to be the iPhone 3G|S. I had asked a bunch of friends for their opinions and they came back with the iPhone too. I've kept my eyes peeled for competitor devices like the Nokia N97, T-Mobile's myTouch 3G or the Palm Pre -- Pricey, not well equipped and blah!Sprint? respectively. Not really doing it for me.

And then... suddenly... on the same day I asked my friends the question of the iPhone - I was asking myself this: Why is the iPhone so popular? Is it significantly better of a device? Better engineered? Or is it just better marketing, further fueled by exclusive contracts with operators? Are consumers in the US blind to the competition? Are we talking band wagon peeps here?

So I went on my Google Reader to catch up on some articles and damn, September 3rd 2009 was the pick me up day. So many exciting articles not just about .. ooh look at that leak photo. Ooh look at that *potential* product. No, post FCC release info. Actual products, predicted launch dates and even for some price. How exciting.

Nokia X6
By far this has made me most exciting. Much faster ARM processor, CAPACITIVE touchscreen!!! Great camera? 32 GB storage? EUR 459. There is also the slimmed down X3 and the N900 tablet that was released at the same time. Specs

Nokia N97 Mini
Still a pricey option at EUR 459 but hey, maybe it will bring down the price of the standard N97!? N97 Specs N97 Mini Specs

Sony Ericcson Xperia X2
Wow. Can't wait for the review. This looks solid. Camera is as good (12.1MP) as Aino and Satio which is already out and performing well. Who knows, maybe X3 (Rachael) is a reality too!? The good thing is that this will tumble the price of the X1 which is a solid phone but just too damn pricey.
Xperia X2 Specs

HTC Hero
Damn it is over here in the US, but shucks... why does Sprint have it? I don't want a CDMA phone.. who does, and wants to pay $70/month for data!? Beats me. Somebody please buy Sprint and end their misery. Negative words aside, good deal on Sprint's part and fantastic price point. End of the day, this is a great phone with the Sense UI platform on Android. There are so many fantastic reviews about this piece of equipment. Specs

HTC Touch Pro 2
This is indeed Microsoft's flagship phone for the Windows Mobile 6.5. Leapfrogging from the success of Diamond and Touch Pro.. this qwerty slide out beast has a good UI and solid rave reviews about WinMob 6.5 to support its success run. Too bad T-Mobile and Sprint are going to get burned when Verizon comes out with incredibly competitive pricing on this bad boy in the next week or so ($199). I wish Verizon was a GSM provider.
Specs

And of course to end my rave... an elusive picture showing the *next* Nokia phone. Who knows if this is true. It seems to me like Nokia has plenty on their mind anyway.

So looks like I am going to finally find a phone that would be an actually valid replacement for my Nokia N95. Of course the prices are insanely high right now and I'd hope that people buy/upgrade to these phones and then sell them on eBay. Probably won't work for the X6. I am okay for right now so if I hold still I'm pretty sure these prices will come down to an acceptable range and it'll be a worthwhile upgrade to something I am excited about versus picking up whatever is cheap on the market and not necessarily useful.

A Quick Guide to Finding a Flat in San Francisco

2009-07-01T21:22:00.001-07:00

San Francisco, in my mind, is a nice mix of Europe and East coast America. They do call it the most European city of America. Diverse neighbourhoods, unique by block, tolerant society and very very friendly people. Nobody complains about San Francisco!

That said, SF is indeed a high cost of living city! European apartment sizes with New York city prices because the city has grown to use all the available land in the peninsula. This also means that is can be quite hard to find the right apartment.

Craigslist.org is indeed the best source for apartments with yelp.com a good source for evaluating realtors (and restaurants). Use google maps or windows live maps to get a feel of the neighbourhoods in the city. Also read this link to learn about city planning rules and therefore the amazing money saver: rent control.

When I was moving here, I got a great list of hints about each of the neighbourhoods (boroughs) of San Francisco from my good friend Sean Cusack and would like to share it with you.

Possibly couch surf or crash with a friend until you find the right place to move in and then lock in your one year contract. You want to stay away from short term leases < 3month as you’ll find yourself having to move out as soon as you get in or have to deal with harsh move-in, move-out timings that may eat away at your flexibility of finding a good ‘next place’.

Couple of other quick things to consider. 1) Do you like Victorian housing? A lot of the brand new places will be expensive because of zoning laws and anti-destruction protocols. On the other end of the spectrum the really old and well maintained Victorian structures will be pricey too. 2) Do you plan to have a car? For some parts of the city like SOMA parking can be as high as $250/month. The good thing is that there are always other options. Depending on your work/school location you can combine BART/CalTrain with a bicycle and get around that way saving money and reducing your carbon footprint. Visit the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition to get more information about bicycle routes.

And to go with the short description of boroughs/neighbourhoods below, a map of the regions of the city (in case you were unable to familiarise yourself using gmaps or livemaps): Here you go!

SOMA/South Beach - Preppy-ish, new neighborhood. More bankers here and therefore higher prices but very nice and well maintained condos. Good restaurants and a lot of amenities AT&T Ballpark. Rent control will be really tough to find here.
USF/panhandle - Not a lot to do, but cheaper since its a college 'hood.
Alamo Square/NOPA - A little bit to do here, but within really easy transit to the Castro, Mission, and the Haight (3 great neighborhoods)
Bayview - Sketch as hell. Stay out of here.
Bernal Heights - All the sketch of the mission, with a lot less fun stuff to do.
Castro/Upper Market - The gaybourhood of the world. Though straight, I spend a ton of time here because it has some awesome restaurants, a crazy personality, and the bars serve up super stiff drinks.
Cole Valley/Ashbury Heights - A preppier version of the Haight. Smaller, but still pretty cool.
Downtown/Civic/Van Ness - The stereotyped part of the city. Too many skyscrapers for my taste...you lose the feeling of being in SF, and you feel like you could be in any big city around the world.
Excelsior/Outer Mission - See Bernal Heights
Financial District - See Downtown/Civic/Van Ness
Glen Park - Boring...and not too easy to get to anything but the Bart
Haight Ashbury - Probably my favorite neighborhood in the city in general. This hood lives to be bizarre. Its really tough to find a decent apartment for cheap, and it can get a little depressing at night due to the super high concentration of potheads. You'll have to dodge some tourists as well down here.
Hayes Valley - Home to a lot of the best restaurants in the city. Rides the border between the mission and skyscraper land. This could be a cool place to live too.
Ingleside / SFSU - Middle of nowhere
Inner Richmond - The Richmond district is like a Chinatown for the locals. The weather isn't so hot, but its cheaper to live here, but you don't sacrifice some good eats (asian food). It is also close to GG Park which is nice. Public transit access is tough though, and the parking is bad...
Inner Sunset / UCSF - Like Inner Richmond, but on the other side of the park. Easier to get to the Haight, but sleepier than the Richmond district for sure.
Laurel Hts / Presidio - A beautiful parkland to live in that is affordable. HOWEVER, public transportation is non-existent...you'll need a car all the time here for sure here. Really weird tenant rules here since the place is managed by the government. I have a friend who lives here and loves it though.
Lower Haight - Like Haight Ashbury, but with more personality. Cooler bars and restaurants, less tourists, but sketchier in terms of crime.
Lower Nob Hill - Old money, close to tourist land, pretty residential
Lower Pac Heights - Like Nob Hill
Marina / Cow Hollow - Pretty much the only part of the city tourists see...mobbed with tourists everywhere
Mission District - Probably the newest hood to undergo urban renewal. Its become *the* place for cheap, but tasty eats in the city. A fair amount of good nightlife as well. One of the sketchier places to live though (worse than Lower Haight, better than the Tenderloin). There's always a party here...which can be good and bad :).
Nob Hill - See Lower Nob Hill
Noe Valley - A lot of young families live here, so parking is easy and the place is safe. 24th street has a good variety of very good restaurants and basics (groceries, barbers, etc.). Super easy public transit gets you into the Castro, the Haight, or the Mission in a snap .
North Beach / Telegraph Hill - italian Neighborhood. Has quite a few tourists, so its easy to get trapped in bad restaurants...however, its obvious this place has a ton of hidden gems.
Pacific Heights - Old money, but near Japantown for some ultra cheap sushi and Korean which tastes fantastic.
Portola - A nice place, but in the middle of nowhere.
Portrero Hill – Can be a pretty sketchy place, and tough to get out of it, but really close to regional rail lines and home to some cool local bars. There are some nice pockets though
Richmond / Seacliff - Like the Inner Richmond with less to do
Russian Hill - The stereotypical SF residential neighborhood. Big houses from old money and cable cars (and the curvy part of lombard street). A little main street with some good eats.
Sunset / Parkside - Like Inner Sunset with less to do
Tenderloin - Cool clubs and bars, crackheads and bullets all over the place. By far the most dangerous hood in SF… right behind Hunter’s Point (Bayview)
Treasure Island - This is the man made island in the middle of the bay bridge. Don't live here...you'll have to pay $5 every time you want to drive somewhere.
Twin Peaks - Nothing to do here. Beautiful views of the city if the weather is good (this hood probably only gets 30 sunny days a year though)
Visitacion Valley - Ghetttttoo!
West Portal - Kind of a neat neighborhood, but its always covered in perma-fog, and its a hike to the rest of the city.
Western Addition - This place ranges from ultra ghetto gunshot to nice. You'd have to pick a place wisely.

Lost King of Pop, but seriously when’s the next album?

2009-07-01T20:03:00.001-07:00

How unfortunate was last week? Definitely a couple of significant losses but the one that really hit hard for me was Michael Jackson. MJ was the reason I started dancing. How exciting were the days I danced to MJ in front of the mirror trying to replicate his amazing moves. Eyysh, before all of it I remember having so much trouble getting a feel for rhythm.

Lots of drama and rumours on the networks though. Is it all true? Drug O/D? Suddenly missing? Fake autopsy results.

All said and done, I think it would be really funny if it was all a cover-up. Guess what, wait a few months and there’ll be a few new tracks from Tupac featuring Michael Jackson and Notorious B.I.G. hahah. That’ll be funny if debt ridden celebrities dying = a way to cash in on the post death sales while enjoying the end of days in the Cayman islands hehe :)

comScore Brand Crosses India

2009-05-20T01:41:00.001-07:00

45 degrees C, 3850 kms, heatwaves, sleepless nights and plenty of the shady situations. Sounds awful, but it was the best two weeks, ever. It wasn't just an adventure through India in a crappy rickshaw, it was a cultural and historical excursion, a culinary extravaganza, an opportunity to speak to & touch the real India - its people, and a rendezvous with mother herself in all her glory of peaks, rivers and oceans. And of course the 150cc 2 stroke rickshaw with a max speed of 50kmph (on flat land and no wind) by 3 guys with no auto mechanic skills, made it an adventure.

We went into this trip not knowing what to expect and came out on the other side speechless. Everyone asks us : "Tell me all about the trip". "Awesome", we would say. But, you had to be there with us. Even the photos and mobile phone videos wouldn't do justice.

But that's not going to deter us from sharing a few tips from the road...!

-- A few words about Blessings and thanks --
We were so lucky to be able to do this trip. From the generous donations to our charities SOS Children’s Villages and FrankWater by our corporate sponsor comScore, friends and family, to the rishis, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and so on, from home and on the road, we were blessed to reach the end safely. With these generous contributions we were able to support some charities who do brilliant work in India and therefore add meaning to our adventure. We thank everyone for that opportunity.

1. Get connected
We had an Airtel SIM card already - voice coverage about 95% of the time! Data coverage is available near big urban centres. We got our number in Chennai(Madras) and they have regional locks and so twitter wouldn't work. But hey we could text our fingers off!

2. Ride it like a pro
Roll on, roll off on the throttle. Take a 30 min break every 3-4 hours. It'll keep the piston, the engine from blowing up. Wear a kerchief around your neck. Curse every now and then. Pro.

3. Be Prepared
With a 6 litre tank, we had to refuel quite often. Get a jerry can to take you across the desert. We left things to the last moment and had to suffice with a plastic 10L jar. This meant over the course of the trip petrol started eating the plastic and we’d spend our days sniffing petrol. Also get a funnel, or like us use plastic water bottles to make a ghetto funnel. Get simple spare parts and learn how to fix them so that you don’t have to try to find help late at night when the clutch breaks in the middle of Bihar after election day. Also stash most but not all money when that happens, but do ask how much they want for their services because very often we found Indians to say 1000 when they mean to say 100. They were very nice guys though!

4. Don’t try to squeeze too much before Launch day
We decided to visit Delhi before getting to Shillong. It was really fun. India is big, it takes time to get places and it is also hot. Altogether tiring. When we got to Shillong we thought of taking a tiny nap. Woke up hours later into the next morning completely missing the launch party and the chance to meet fellow teams!

5. Enjoy the curiosity
Embrace the curiousity. India is definitely an incredible place to explore and learn. So are its people. We’d always be approached with the same questions “Where are you coming from?”, “Where are you going?”, “Is this your rickshaw”. Often it’ll be followed by peeking in and checking out us and our gear. And then before you know it there is a crowd and that leads to a group picture. You’ll see a lot of stares. It can be a bit intimidating at first, but its all good! Once we start talking (or trying to) before you know it there are tea snack and nuts going around!

6. Stay Hydrated
There is a need for pure water in India. It’s so easy to get duped with refilled bottles to perfection and with the heat it is important to have stock. We learned a bit late but we got it down! Cucumber and watermelons really help too!

7. The gift of Karma
Over the course of this trip we gained so much positive karma, we are still trying hard to pass it forward. While the cities can be pretty corrupt, dusty and intense, the rural (most of the land mass) areas are very calm, comforting and inviting. The people are so quick to help us. The best experience is from Madhya Pradesh when a farmer refused to let us go back on the road until we rested at his place which involved a cool well water bath, tea with milk straight from a cow, and so on. Earlier that day we met three other farmers who gave us water to drink when we had ran out – this area was very dry so water is scarce and you have to travel very far to get it.

8. Its more than a race, its a journey. cherish it
We really liked Bodhgaya – the birthplace of Buddhism for its calm, international and exquisite. The Varanasi early morning boat ride was very nice, and the visit to Khajuraho was very revealing! The little kids and scene of Shillong were missed and so were the dense forests of Bengal, as we went into drier zones. Fantastic sunsets, camp cooking, dhabas, truck lodges, new foods, morning sweets and lifts were other things we cherished. Central India was kind and pleasant and then we reached the beautiful Goa and set our feet in the ocean

9. Whatever happens don’t lose your map
But we did lose our map! Which was awful. This meant we had to ask people not only for directions, but the route too. Using a Hindi/Urdu lonely planet phrasebook meant sort of communicating with the locals. The biggest problem we came across was that many Indians would prefer to show a random direction instead of saying “I don’t know”! We got a lost quite a bit after this.

10. Roadkill and Accidents
With so much traffic on the highways, animals are very nervous when it comes to crossing the road and often end up getting run over. Dogs who aren’t very smart when it comes to road crossing! Drivers also over extend themselves which results in a lot of accidents due to drunk driving and mostly fatigue.

Read our unedited blog posts from the road
See our pictures: from Shillong, Meghalaya to Colva Beach, Goa
We appeared in the Times of India | Goa. Read it here

Rickshaw Run Spring 2009

2009-05-11T11:39:00.000-07:00

Best adventure ever.
It wasn't the race that was exciting.
It wasn't the organisers that was exciting.
It wasn't the group of people doing this together that was exciting.

It was India, the people, doing it with my brothers, doing good deeds for India and recieving more than believable good karma back from Indians that was exciting.

Read more about my race here:

A review of my new PC and Vista

2009-04-04T22:56:00.000-07:00

So it’s been two months since I purchased this fantastic PC (beast) and I thought I’d blog about it.

First off, Vista kinda sucks. I do like the look better than XP and some of the new apps are pretty cool and the idea they had for memory management is great. On the backend I think there have been significant leaps, but on the front end a tad bit too many issues.

The hardware rocks. It’s a Dell studio xps 345mt. I got it right before Dell released the next version with the cooler looking and larger case. I don’t care about it really. I got a great deal for this machine. This machine is a beast. It’s running the Intel Core i7 chipset which is a quad-core (8 threads). It’s a high performance machine but the fans can be a bit too loud, loud enough to actively switch it off. My biggest issue with it though is the sound card. They used a Realtek one which provides great sound quality but isn’t a well programmed device. I’m experiencing significant audio latency when I have my usb wireless stick enabled and streaming hd content. Sometimes it can be bad enough to give me a BSOD.

Back to the software. On this machine, Aero is slick and I’m having a blast getting back into a Windows environment after a two year detour with a Macbook. I have to say that I’ve forgotten both how flexible and exploration-inducing a PC is, and also how sticky and sluggish it can be. Macs are smooth, simple and sassy, but if you want to find a custom app – you’re for the most part out of luck. If you want to upgrade your system, you’d have to spend a lot of dough. I passed on both accounts.

I like the free Windows Live apps. They are awesome! I’m actually writing this post from Windows Writer which is pretty cool! I’ve been using Windows Photo Gallery, but today I installed Windows Live Photo Gallery and played around with it. It’s brilliant! I can add tags, descriptions, titles & stars. There is a publish feature that makes it super easy to upload to top sites like flickr, youtube& facebook. Windows Live SDK seems to be freely available so it must be quite easy to add your own plugins. When I upload to flickr, all this metadata is intact. The app also has a way of tracking faces! As of right now I can verify faces and link them to contacts in my windows live directory or type up there full names. The super cool thing is that when I upload to facebook, the plug-in matches the tagged name against my facebook friend directory. This is a good direction for Windows Live – looks like they are finally talking to the consumer!

So far so good. I’ve had a great experience with my new PC and the Windows Live apps. I’m just sitting put and waiting for Windows 7!

Technorati Tags: new,pc,windows,vista,dell,studio xps,435mt,windows live,photo gallery,writer,face,tagging

Applying for a UK Visit Visa from the West Coast

2009-03-20T10:26:00.000-07:00

My flight to India for the rickshaw charity run stops in London and so I thought, why not get out of the airport. This way I'll get to see and talk to my friends and I'll also be able to haul out my belongings here to the US.
Getting the visa was a frustrating process so I thought I'd share it here.

Spending some time on the internet browsing around revealed to me that the process is anything but simple. Living in SF, the closest consulate is Los Angeles, but luckily my postcode/zipcode was eligible for the Visa4UK application process (which means I didn't have to fly to LA).

(1) So I gather up all my documents (letter from employer, bank statements, residence proof, passport, immigration status(i-94) and file the application online on the consulate's Visa4Uk site. Long process with a lot of questions. I Tried to answer them as best as I could. The hardest was to figure out all my trips in the past few years. I used my passport stamps to get to that.

(2) Filed the application and paid the $129 fee. I got a confirmation statement and final application which I printed out. Got together the paperwork as required in the instructions (all the documents in #1) and a photograph.

(3) The confirmation said that I had to go to some government office to submit my biometrics. No idea what this was. I showed up and it was a private sub-contractor who carried out biometrics (fingerprints, pictures) for green card application, citizenship services and UK visas. After the biometrics I was supposed to send in my printed application to the Los Angeles consulate. The instructions didn't talk about a photograph but the application form itself did. I didn't want to take the risk that the biometrics group would coordinate with the UK consulate (that would be too easy, right?) and so I just got a photograph and sent it out.

(4) This is when things got confusing and frustrating. I got all the documents ready to mail and send but I had no idea how it would get back to me. There were no instructions or guidance about that. To cover all my bases, I included a letter specifying all the documents I am including and what I want back, and put them in an unsealed fedex envelope (with empty return label with my credit card number and authorisation to send back and charge to me) and then put than envelope in another fedex envelope which I sealed and mailed out the consulate.

(5) I used overnight delivery and so tracked the package. It reached LA the next day but was delivered and signed for at a different address from the the place I mailed to! Mail forwarding? I didn't know. It took 2 business days to hear from the consulate (automated email) that they received my package. Relief.

(6) A couple of days later the consulate sent me an automated email mentioning that my visa had been approved. It said that I would receive a package via UPS. Tracking number was included. I really wish I knew this information before! Anyway, the package came in safe and sound and the consulate returned all the documents I wanted back and now I have a visa in my hands.

Hope you find this information useful! Let me know if you had any questions and feel free to share your experiences!

Rickshaw Charity Run coming up

2009-03-12T22:12:00.001-07:00

Tix all purchased, visas and documents ready, donations goal reached, I’m pretty excited for the Rickshaw Charity run coming up in April.

In the process of collecting donations, a brother of a good friend of mine asked me about the trip and the inspiration to do it. As I was responding through the email I came across realisations that I thought I should share, in this blog post.

“

Hmm.. inspiration huh.. I'm an adventurer as you know. I love mother earth's and ancestral gifts to us in the form of natural and historical sights. I'm always on the lookout for these kind of trips. That's when I came across the Adventurists: a spin off, of the original travel social networking site wayn.com. Find the adventurists here. They offer many different kinds of adventures, and given my love for my motherland India, and my fascination of the auto rickshaw, the rickshaw run was the pick, indeed. So I tried to sign up for the adventure a few times but it never worked out. Too many applications. So I just left it in the back of my mind.
One weekend, I watched the movies "The Darjeeling Limited" and "Oram Po". Darjeeling Limited, really hit home. I was missing my brothers at that time and the idea of the rickshaw run as an opportunity to explore the land we all love, together was so exciting. Oram Po is a Thamizh language movie about a rickshaw driver and his life in Chennai, India. Quite a funny movie that talks about how Rickshaw drivers see a rickshaw as their second home as it is part of their life and their income. Most Indians hate rickshaws as they are noisy, polluting and not very powerful. But they are part of the culture and continue to exist because they are cheap and efficient forms of transportation. I digress; so anyway, I got really pumped about this adventure et al.
My brother and I had been lobbying to get in, and had missed 3 races but this time we really wanted to do this. We really wanted to be in this race. By some form of luck, we finally got a place for the Spring 2009 race, last year.
The past few years have been a growing experience for me as I have questioned many things in my life; work, relationships, religion and then the meaning of life itself. It’s big stuff. In short, I feel I have gotten closer to understanding the true ideals of Hinduism and therefore persevere to be a good Hindu. Maya and holding good karma have been my main directives. So this trip was one of the many things that lead me towards this part. The concept of raising money for these excellent charities and really being in India to spread the good word and the good karma was such a lifetime opportunity for me. It is a fact that only after making the payment and signup fee did I start to critically think about this opportunity. That too has been an adventure in itself, before even getting on the road. I thought about many ways to fund raise, by putting together an event. The first issue was that I lived in London, my cousin in Toronto and my brother in Sri Lanka. We're also travelers so it was quite hard to pinpoint a location and an event to fund raise at.

I only recently realised that I had been fundraising *interest* from the moment I signed up for this race. Emails, face to face conversations, phone calls etc. In all of them, I talked about the trip and the meaning of it to me and the charities we were running for. I was passing the good word. I used justgiving.com which was a simple, safe and clear way to collect money for the chairities. I even requested a sponsorship from my employer and it went through. Normally people take their own sponsorships but I thought the men, women and children of India deserved this money more than I did. I'm in touch with the leaders of the specific teams in India for both Frank Water and SOS CV so it is extremely pleasing to know where exactly this money will go. We still have a month to go, and people are still donating, which is fantastic. I'm getting a press kit from SOS children's villages which is a charity I'm very supportive of. I’ve reached my targets but I’m more excited about the satisfaction this is giving me and when I get my press kit I may just stand out on the street one weekend, just starting with passing the good word.

”

Have a look at our new homepage.

If you’d like to donate to our charities, please do so below:

Frank Water Projects

SOS Children’s Villages

Test post from Windows Write

2009-02-09T01:12:00.001-08:00

If this works, then this is really brilliant! I hope it works like a charm because it seems much easier which means I’m probably going to blog more! Um, but, I always say that!!

Juice of the Trip

2008-09-11T07:03:00.001-07:00

Juice of the Trip
Originally uploaded by dilip.ramachandran

Thank god for Amita.
This brand of juices were available everywhere and for sure quenched our Mediterranean thirst!

It's Been a while...

2008-09-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

Yeap. Lot has happened. War broke out in Georgia, my hair has probably been cut twice, nationalization of US mortgage providers, went to Spain, Italy, Greece & Belgium and going to Norway again this weekend!

check my flickr for some pictures!

"Pushing the Envelope"

2008-05-17T17:01:00.000-07:00

I used it in interviews, do it at my job all the time, when I cross the atlantic permanently on a day's notice etc. In my personal personal life, not so much. But this year has been a year for trying things that may scare me or put me on the edge.

My backpacking trips, planning wilderness hikes, saying how I really feel, living in the moment, redefining work life are a few of the things outside my (and our) comfort zones.

Today was a moment for another on the list. I've grown out my hair for a while to it being 2 weeks more than unruly (another thing on the list) but then finally decided to get it cut. I've been to a couple of hair dressers near my work and my old flat. They've been Italian, Spanish, French, British and Lebanese. They all hate to work with my hair. They say it is too dense and just want to do something and get me out of the door. Well my current neighbourhood is full of Nigerian and Ghanian barbers and decided to check it out. I had no idea what to expect and was actually pretty terrified about it. I walked in, told my barber to "do his thing" and left with a haircut that I thought was pretty impressive, somewhat a new me! The rectangle at the front, I wasn't too fond of but apart from that I'm all about. And hey I've got the Thamizh muzz! What do you think?

So hey, go do something you haven't done before. Yes, it is possible you might be disappointed but at the same time you could also get to somewhere you thought wasn't possible! Half full glass on a cloudy day with silver linings! ;)

How to Survive Norway

2008-05-17T16:30:00.000-07:00

I spent last weekend in Norway and had a fabulous time. Really good.

Couple of things about Norway in the summer:
(1) Warmer than London
(2) People in Norway are very nice
(3) Norwegians don't use the word "Thank You" - a language thing i think
(4) Not a weekend trip location... 4 days is pushing it but you got to spend a week or week and a half to actually enjoy the outdoors
(5) You cannot rent a car in Norway. It will cost a fortune.
(6) It is quite sparse and suburban at most
(7) Cities and towns are a bit overrated. The Fjords, the landscape are not overrated at all. It is impressive.
(8) Glacial waters invite
(9) This is a downer, but Norway is freaking expensive. At the time of my trip, 1GBP is around 9.5 NOK and the average burger from burger king was 70 NOK. There you go.

Bergen Airport Shuttle (runs all the time) = 80NOK
Trains between Bergen, Flam and back, Flam trip to Voss = 1000NOK
Ferry from Bergen to Gudvangen = 200NOK
Bus from Gudvangen to Voss = 60NOK

Recommended route = Night in Bergen, train to Flam via Myrdal, night in Flam, day hiking around Flam, take the Ferry to Gudvangen or Aurland, spend a night here and do some day hiking, bus to Voss, back to Bergen or off to Oslo to end the trip.

Some pictures for you.

Naerofjorden Valley - Narrowest and most dramatic Fjord in Norway

Time for Reflections

Glacial Waters

Parachuter over Lake Voss

Foggy Tips at Flam

View of Bergen Town

Bergen Buildings

Streets of Bergen

See the whole set here

Paris, France

2008-05-09T05:08:00.000-07:00

So last weekend, was a bank holiday weekend for us here in London and I took this opportunity to visit a nearby city - which was Paris. I had a seriously great time. The weather was great and it was New York all over again, to see pictures and videos as seen on the screen and paper, come to life. City of love they say - a bit overrated I think. A lot of people don't come to Paris I guess in search of Love but for sure, for tourists and nearby cities it is a place to come and express it. There's a lot of architecture and culture that just fit right into the romance. No wonder one of my mates and a bunch of his friends refuse to go to Paris until married!

Fun time in all, snapped loads of pictures, filtered them and put my favourites up on flickr. Also befriended my hostel mate and we had a blast. Coincidentally he was from London and we're going to have to hangout sometime soon.

Have a go at the pictures here

Thursday by Asobi Seksu

2008-05-08T08:57:00.000-07:00

Since its Thursday and all, and I happened to come across this track on my iPod, which I haven't listened in a while... I thought I'd quickly post and share this music video on youtube. Indie group from Brooklyn with quite a nice sound. Enjoy!

Understanding Disability

2008-04-22T12:27:00.000-07:00

I've thought a great deal about the matters in this post but not really sure how to react to and think around such a sensitive topic. What happened today on my tube ride clarified things for me.

This evening, on the way home a young man got onto the central line and stood beside me. At first I thought it was a young boy but in a bit after my second take I realized it was indeed a young man who had stunted growth. Suddenly my mind which is always at work tried to calculate how it was to be him, what kind of life he had and the problems he faced. I know, my mind wanders far away, very fast. I don't think I'll ever know the right answers, but I can make some reasonable assumptions.

First off I thought he was a handsome man - he had sharp features and was dressed sharp (as he was returning from work I presume). I saw a flash of his hip building entry card and it was for a city bank. He was reading a new bookshelf novel and had a wide smile on his face as he enjoyed he book. He noticed that people were staring at him and it didn't seem to phase him. He displayed confidence. His qualities card was complete. But now how much does all of this matter? Would an average girl approach him or respond to his approach? Is he treated equally, really? Does fairness exist?

Into The Wild

2008-04-16T03:29:00.000-07:00

So I watched Sean Penn's adaption of the book "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer this past week. LoveFilm just recommended the movie after I rated "A Mighty Heart" which I had watched two weeks ago. I hadn't heard of this movie and was into quite a surprise after I watched it. It really touched me and I find myself to be quite a fan of Chris McCandless.

Too many call Chris "stupid" and the movie "sad". I think they feel so because Chris didn't live his life the way most in the world do - he definitely was breaking away from the mould and I can somewhat understand that.

"Rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth." Brilliant I'd say. But in practice very hard to do when you have responsibilities and commitments. Who doesn't? It really boils down to deciding to not break away rather than not having the option.

Chris had a lot of reasons to leave home and break away from society predominantly because his parents believed in many things he hated. Everybody needs a journey to learn about themselves. Chris learned more about himself at that young age than the average person. At one point of the movie he says "You don't need human relationships to be happy, God has placed it all around us." But then throughout the movie he seems to have some very happy times meeting and spending time with strangers and shortly before his death he writes "Happiness only real when shared." We'd never surely know what Chris felt at that moment but we can make some reasonable conclusions. Chris never got attached to people and so even in emotional moments when he turned down Ron Franz's adoption offer he walked away with little attachment. But he never turned down company from Franz or the Rubbertramps or any others he met along the way. Even to the end, at his death I felt quite low about how it all ended but I don't think Chris would want us to feel sad. That would defy the purpose he intended to teach himself (which through Krakauer, extends toviewers and readers). At his last moments he saw into the amazing beauty of mother nature. One must also remember that his death was natural and no different from how our ancestors before our homo sapien time, passed away. It reminds us that innovation, money, power, capitalism, civlisation, globalisation hasn't really gotten us much far from our lives at its most basic form and the fate it tags with itself.

It is hard or impossible to break away when there is attachment but for one's sanity and the ability to truly enjoy and be happy you need people. That is why he ultimately decided to go back to civilization. But in order to search for truth one needs to break all contact and be in peace with mother nature and her ultimate gifts.

Email - Now or Later?

2008-04-08T06:18:00.000-07:00

How do you treat email? Is it like a text message? A voicemail? A phone call? Where do you place it on the scale of urgency/need to respond?

Just find it interesting how it seems to be so different across the world and how it can be a primary form of communication in American university and a tertiary method in Asia. Quite cool!

Heck!? SNES Portable?

2008-04-03T04:23:00.000-07:00

This is probably the coolest thing I've seen recently. This guy Ben Heck seriously puts together some neat mods. Below you see a SNES in the space of game gear casing. The game cassette and the battery seem to be taking the most space, but apart from that from the front it looks quite small!

Check out more here

Ullapool Roadtrip

2008-03-26T15:47:00.000-07:00

So this past Easter weekend was spent in the snowy Scottish Highlands. I see that I keep going back to the Highlands.. It is cold and snowy but the termperature changes fast enough that the snow melts almost as immediately as it falls. Some of the scenery I saw this weekend was some of the best I have seen, ever.

This was from the award wunning beach in Durness.

Snowy drive up to Northern Scotland

This was a beach on the drive to Ullapool, north of Newcastle at the England-Scotland border.

A panoramic view from the top of Ullapool Hill

Apart from the amazing scenery, spending the weekend with two new couples put a lot of perspective into arranged marriage, for me. In short it was a reminder of how arranged marriage turns out to be really fair and not in any way less off than dating. I liked seeing how people are able to amplify the positives and really demonstrate patience and compromise which is vital for a long term relationship. Okay.... more on this later, for now just enjoy the videos and photos!

More Photos
More Videos Here

The work walk

2008-03-26T02:43:00.001-07:00

So many commuters there are on the walk to work. The value for money on a london tube is so much higher than a can of sardines. Longer commutes, longer days, longer life expectancies... but shorter lives. I could whine more about it but im making my own strides here. From checking and responding to mail, to reading novels im making best use of my time. Hey mobile blogging is cool.

trying out specs

2008-03-25T02:41:00.000-07:00

So I'm in Clerkenwell pub/bar or whatever it is called and after a couple of drinks and dancing around we decide to all wear our coworker's new glasses. They looked chic and we all had to try it out and take pictures. Me, as usual trying to push the envelope on my technology consumption, I took the photo and tried to do one of them mobile blogger posts. I think it did come out well for being away from my computer...

About the look in the picture, I have been wavering between Hansel and Derek Zoolander for many years now. I'm not sure if I have matured into magnum yet. I think I maybe still wavering between blue steel and le tigre!

How about a Half and Half!?

2008-03-22T06:21:00.001-07:00

So I walk into a bar and don't know what to drink. I have to drink but I am not sure what. It is cold outside and the feeling of consuming alcohol would definitely warm me up. I still cannot decide so I'm going to get a half and half - that is a shot of whisky and a half pint of lager. Apparently Scots do that a lot and it is a common bar choice, at least in the western highlands. But who knows, I might have been jipped to pay more for something that was made up on the spot. I think it would be reassuring to point out the that bartender owned the bar, the B&B we were staying at, had shares in some of the other restaurants in town. He did own the whole town and who knows, behind that veil of Scottish kindness was a serious capitalist!?

Doesn't matter really though, the feeling of sipping whisky and beer felt quite authentic and interesting and I appreciated it!

Getting on Track

2008-03-16T10:26:00.000-07:00

So the past week has been very eventful. Settling into a full UK job, finally signing up to the gym (and swimming every morning) has put me onto the right track. I gave up working with agencies and ticket offices and went direct to the source and now have an appointment with the French embassy. The ball is rolling for my Europe trip, finally!

I'm also still working through the kinks of getting my Israel/Egypt/Jordan/Syria trip underway. I can't do all of it but I'm sure I can atleast go for Egypt and Israel. I'm also psyched for a roadtrip from London to the noth of Scotland so I'll put up some pictures from it.

I've still been uploading pictures on flickr- esp. from the St. Patrick's day parade this weekend.

The weird thing about the fest was that the music they played was country music!! And they loved it! I have to say though, that the festival attended by a lot of Americans and St. Patrick's is definitely a bigger deal with Irish Americans than Irish in Britain.

And of course... Techno-ish music

The Hell of the Schengen

2008-03-07T09:02:00.000-08:00

So I've been trying to travel around Europe for quite a long time now. Unlike most of my friends I didn't have the opportunity and the time to do that "Europe/US/India/whatever Trip" after graduating uni. I pushed it off until the right time would turn up. Well last summer I ended up in London for work. Karma, I would say. The frustrating part of it though is that I'm here in Europe - so close to these countries but unable to get a Schengen (the visa that lets me pretty much get around many European countries). I filled the forms and put together a bunch of supporting documents (which is not too hard to put together). The system is such that I need to either do a full Eurotrip in one single shot to actually see all the places in Europe I want to see. For this I need to apply for the Schengen in one country and then always use that country as a hub. So for example if I get a Schengen for Poland, I can't get a Schengen for any other state until the Polish one expires. It also means that to go to France I need to go to Poland first and spend x or more days in Poland for an x day trip to France. Ridiculous? Yeah - on top of that add the additional flight time!
I tried this last summer when I got to the UK but was immediately shoved away because I hadn't lived in London long enough. I needed to be a resident - in the country for 6 months - to be even eligible to pickup an application. So this week I've been trying agencies/the consulate/whatever link that said Schengen visa. France doesn't have any appointments in sight and Spain says the earliest appointment is 70 days away! Gosh! On top of that the cost associated with "speed". An agency that says they'll get me a visa in 3 days talks about £160 just in processing fees. The agent also told me that actually having a friend in Spain and his invitation letter makes the whole process worse because they now need my invitee's passport page, bank statement, work contract and payslips! More ridiculous!
So I'm just frustrated with the system. The good thing though is that Scotland is awesome and I'm looking to checkout Northern Ireland one of these days. It is quite easy to be just occupied in the UK. So I'm going to give all of this a shot but hey if I don't end up getting a Schengen and not going to Europe, it isn't my fault and these coutries will lose on my travel £££!

I'm Back

2008-03-07T02:44:00.000-08:00

So yeah, I guess I went away for a bit too long and left my readership of sample size 1 (0?) with a piece about online retail growth. Yeah, sorry about that. A lot has been going on. I went back to the US for work and completed my final transition stretch to be 100% UK based. Exciting - the spare time has made me get back on track with getting fit, getting a Schengen, putting together a sick eurotrip, bike around India trip and last but not least signing up a rickshaw adventure with my big bro.
Apart from that, I went white water rafting in Aberdeen (in liquid snow) last weekend. I was fortunate not to fall in the river but I definitely got wet enough to freeze and braze my skin - it was a bit intense. I probably will do it again! This time more west Scotland to catch the class V Orky!
So watch this spot as there will be more updates. As usual check my flickr for photos and if you're my facebook friend you know whats going on there. Cheers!

Online Retail Spending

2007-12-14T03:08:00.000-08:00

comScore put out a release this morning about the record breaking online sales on "Green Monday" (link here). I was interested in the new iPods and had gone to oxford circus one weekend and then to a Currys in the city the following Monday. One thing that was clear is that all these stores are packed with people. Packed enough that I gave up trying to find someone to help me.

Since the Currys was really busy I decided to have my own experiment with the customers at the store (of course when the clerks were not looking). So I talked to about 10 people, I had the pricerunner tool on my phone and was able to tell them the price of the product they were looking at, if they bought online. The price was always lower and in most cases quite a lot lower. So I told them the price and recommended they should buy it online. All of them said, well it is holiday season, I like to see the product right now and get it right now for a good price and my office/work/shop is right by here so it is convenient for me. I came back saying that they could look at the product here and then go back to their office/work/shop and then if they have a computer there, use it to order online as most sites guarantee pre-Christmas delivery and faster deliveries for reasonable costs. I think 2 or 3 said umm okay but the rest cited the Amazon order problems and Royal mail failure rates (link here) they heard on the news. Another interesting thing was that they felt that buying in the store means they could bring it back and have better service. I asked if they were getting the Currys warranty and all pretty much said of course not it’s not worth it. I guess with stores means you save on the delivery time/charges but at the end of the day the warranty or the service is by manufacturer and is not likely to change if you go to a currys. Ultimately it depends on the return policy of the store online or offline. I think people just feel better about returns as they can deal with a person and not a machine/phone when something goes wrong.
Well for me that was interesting to see that stores still have so many consumers. I have always sneaked around stores and bought online but I guess when you need something you need it and that urgency is the value of those extra bills.

Anyways, I have no idea how I got away with asking all these questions from 10 people without getting spotted by the sales guys. I felt rushed but it was a lot of fun though in the name of market research!

South Asia's Predicament

2007-12-12T14:08:00.000-08:00

We've read in our history books about the brave Greeks, the dominating Nordes, the Revolutionary Americans and the strategic British to mention a few. This age we're living in right now is of the BRIC (BRICK) nations of which India, our closest neighbour is part of.

This is our time, and an important time for the sub continent which includes Sri Lanka to move towards economical and purely political independence. Political independence - we're a developing country so corruption is in the wheel and so that will take more time to change and is a few degrees away from our control. Economic growth is closer than we think. The things we buy, the way we think financially, our investment strategies determine policy for the subcontinent.

The crashing US sub prime market is rippling through the EU and Asia. It really shows how our markets are leveraged. Also you'll see that even though Asia is booming in manufacturing, outsourcing and other service industries for the west, most of the revenue is pulled offshore and as we're behind the tech timeline as most of the technologies used are borrowed/bought, losing our R&D advantage necessary for independent future growth.

We're also diversifying as a region. This morning a south asian man was moved to the head of Citibank investment banking and a couple of weeks ago an Indian male won an electorate in the US senate. As we're growing and emigrating we're losing more than a brain drain, a culture drain. Those just mentioned looked south asian but they're foreigners really - American, British, Finnish etc. as they've lived offshore all their life and so have their parents.

On another aspect, as south asian temporary offshore workers return home, their strong earning potential induces south asians to purchase foreign good even in the sub continent. This engrossment in foreign produce further hurts local manufacturers who are unable to match the marketing and r&d spend of westerners which stronger currencies. With this consumer shift we're also seeing a strong social culture shift that comes with the produce. This is and will have a strong impact on regional entertainment and consumerism which will in turn (and is) influence irreversible changes upon religion culture and language.

A lot of changes are happening and I see a lot of similarity with America as today, India at least has used America's successful backbone as a model. Looking at what has happened to America, does make one wary about the future as we all know "history repeats itself". This is a time for warning and care for what lies before us.

"The board is set, the pieces are moving. We come to it at last... The great battle of our time."
-J. R. R. Tolkien, Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King [British scholar & fantasy novelist (1892 - 1973)]

India naphtha exports to fall in December

2007-12-03T05:36:00.000-08:00

India naphtha exports to fall in December

It was interesting to see this article this week in icis. Post India-EU talks and global trade summits and the consequent tightening of the energy pricing market, there is no "cut back" in the India dictionary. The rising demand and the willingness to supply puts India manufactures in a spot to choose other available alternatives. Naphthalene, commonly found in moth balls, being used as a feedstock for the fertiliser industry will impact the Napththa supply/demand chain for the region as India is a high % supplier.

Rain Fountain

2007-11-28T02:32:00.000-08:00

This video looked really fabulous.. although I'm glad the sink lid didn't fall on the pickup. Glad nobody got hurt. One has to agree that everything is huge in America - including the storm drains and the quantity of water.

Immigrant Americans

2007-11-27T06:53:00.001-08:00

I was reading up on some Madras Tamil (Thamizh slang) and I came across this very touching article and of course a very tasty looking kotthu recipe. As our generations evolve, its easy to lose our culture and our ancestral uniqueness in our lineage. It is a different lifestyle in the west - it promotes such movement. America in specific is the way it is today because all the immigrants left most of their unique flavours at the door mat at NY islands. Jews changed their names, Hindus turned christian, Asians picked up an "American name". That is how America was formed, people calling themselves Americans, united as a powerful unit. But the cultures and generations of memories suffered. Plus the geographical gaps to the motherland with the cost of travel made this hard. It took a lot of work for the cultures to be maintained and regenerated to the next generation. Toronto has a lot of free policy in this sense as the city embraced foreign cultures with open hands that has benefited the cultural diversity of the city and the homeliness of it's immigrants. The post below is a nice one to read as it is one of those success stories.

http://www.marriedtoadesi.com/2007/08/kothu-parotta.html

England Euro Umbro Boo Boo

2007-11-22T06:21:00.001-08:00

I was reading about Nika acquiring Umbro and how it all fits into the problems the England football team sponsor is facing as England didn't qualify for the Euro cup. McLaren gets sacked and BBC puts together this collage (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/7091027.stm) and then mentions how Englands lost could cost the British economy to lose on £2billion in 2008.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7106952.stm)

Well then something led to another and I got to the umbro website and saw their splash screen at www.umbro.com with magical web graphics that I haven't seen the likes of before! Also I looked at their cool video which I thought I'd share here! Sweet!

Somebody is in a hurry to Climb

2007-10-10T12:55:00.000-07:00

For those who question Apple's hardware capabilities

2007-09-20T12:57:00.000-07:00

What you see above is what happened when a Macbook Pro user went into applications, selected all and ran them all at the same time and then took a screenshot. It didn't crash. Sick.

Thai Real Estate

2007-09-19T05:24:00.000-07:00

Train Runs Through Bangkok Market - Watch more free videos

Whoa, is all I have to say. Whoa.

Giving it to the Man

2007-08-08T10:36:00.000-07:00

Humans, we constantly look at animals and treat them as lower beings (classify them that way too). Sure by brain size or evolutionary standards. But as living, social creatures (being a zoo fan all my life) I've always found them to be equal and sometimes superior. Today I came across video proof that affirms my testament. I guess people don't agree with me because such footage like is very rare.

This is titles as "The Battle at Kruger". This is an example where the relatively lower beings, which are not the minority, stick it to "the man". Power to the masses. Pretty amazing to see that all it takes it unity, some courage and determination to show your equal opportunity to soil and existence on this planet. It also reminds us that the possibility of losing offspring is a big enough deal for a change of personality. Pretty wicked. Have a go at this video.

Alex and Emma's Visit

2007-08-06T07:28:00.000-07:00

Alex and Emma visited two weekends ago and Frank and I showed them a taste of London. From checking out the bars and clubs (heck yea to Guanabara), good late night food, Harry Potter 7 release, mummies in the Museum of Archeology and of course a cups of tea :) Pictures?

Alex and Emma visit London 5/19/07

Edinburgh, Scotland

2007-08-06T07:24:00.001-07:00

Soo I was in Edinburgh (pr: Edin-borough) in July and snapped some snazzy pics. It was really beautiful. So much of history. Even though disorganized and scattered, it was still worth the visit. Lots to see, not enough time. I headed up to Inverness on a day trip to check out the highlands and the Loch Ness Monster herself, of course. Yes, she exists. See the pictures. I'd go there again actually to do some outdoorsy hiking/trekking stuff. Check the pictures out!!

Edinburgh Part1 7/13/07

Edinburgh Part2 7/13/07

Tour de France - Le Prologue

2007-07-08T11:43:00.001-07:00

So I was at Trafalgar square yesterday snapping away pictures for it was the first day of the prologue for Tour de France 2007. I don't know much about the teams and the riders participating and in some instances I snapped away photos of people who seem to be celebrities. I was just there for the feel and of course getting more photo experience. This was a good opportunity to try and take photographs in crowded environments when you don't really have all the space you may want. It was also really cool to try to pan the camera with the riders to create motion in the photograph. It was hard though because the streets were narrow and as the riders approached you'd have to exponentially increase your panning speed to get the right shot, in focus, close enough in details and not too close to have most of the rider in the photograph. Enough talk. Here are the photos.

Tour de France - Prologue 7/8/07 1:56 PM

You Want to Impact the World?

2007-07-06T23:33:00.000-07:00

I was talking to a coworker today and we started talking about how our existence changes the world: how do we impact planet earth? Our we lone consumers taking all that we can and giving nothing back? Where do we fit, in the spectrum of personality types? I've thought about this before and after this conversation, I felt I had a better understanding of this question. The answer to this was to ask yourself another question. How do we define impact?

Impact doesn't mean you have to be in Kofi Annan's shoes. It doesn't mean you have to be a member of a nature group or an aid agency. It also doesn't mean you have to own a floor in World Financial Center or host a concert at Wembley Park. Different people have different interests and abilitys and therefore a different meaning of impact.

I have an example for which the idea is stolen from a scene from the movie "The Devil Wears Prada". Take a fashion designer in Milan who picks a colour for his model's outfit for his next show on the Italian runway. He picks a colour, makes a dress. The model wears it, the show is successful and he scores a big reputation. But, there is more to what he just did. The dress picked is bought by a top actress in Europe and she wears it to a red carpet event where she is photographed and then eventually critiqued by fashion experts - similar to those who critiqued the Milanese fashion designer. One thing leads to another, and this colour ends up at a target nearby. You pickup a piece of clothing in this colour, completing the designer's indirect but intended cycle. The question is: did you pick this colour or was this picked for you by the laws of supply and demand - eventually tracing back to the designer in Milan. His job impacts what you wear. The task of picking a colour seems ever so simple but the result of that action is immense. A programmer at Microsoft who worked on a tool for WinWord impacts the way you type letters today. Your lifetime teachers have made a mark on you. They impacted you and that is why you are where you are right now.

It is true that what you may find very impactful, I may find just "interesting" or "somewhat useful". You may say that you we could live without that colour or WinWord or those teachers to be where we are right now. But we have - whether you like it or not, by the laws of karma/evolution those changes have taken place and the impact has been done. Everyone has their favourite cream pie. Maybe I don't fall in the bucket of people whose lives have been changed by your action. Some forms of impact have a bigger bucket, some have a smaller bucket.

As long as your motives and actions don't result in an empty bucket and you know that its been a positive change, you know you're on the right path. In your field of interest, the smallest things you do, can feel worthy of "impacting the world". If you decided to tutor high school students, you might just do what is necessary for a young kid to score a scholarship at a top university. You've changed that kid's life. That is pretty superb.

So go out there and be a source of positive energy to fellow members of the human race. The sky is the limit and you just might impact the world.

Eurohoppers Visit!

2007-07-01T16:45:00.000-07:00

So in between moving to my new place and setting it up and unpacking my bags etc., I heard from Carli. We had talked earlier because Dalia and her were going to get back in London before they ended up their trip. They really had nothing planned for that night so it was a good opportunity to just meet up and catch up and wind down from the trip. I didn't know if I would be able to meet them because I was moving that day... but things just worked out and we found ourselves in the nearest pub - Allsop Arms, having a couple of beers and fish n' chips. The picture above is rather out of focus and too shaky for my taste but they wouldnt let me take another picture because they were sick of pictures from the trip. So I let them be :)

They had an excellent Eurotrip (just like the movie of course!) but it doesn't make sense for me to share the highlights - you'd better ask them about their adventures during their six weeks in Europe. After a good "shooting shit" session they headed out to their place to get a good night's sleep before their flights the next day and I got back to my new place for a good nights sleep for a week of hard work!

I finally Have a Place!!!

2007-07-01T16:29:00.000-07:00

So after a rough search, dealing with crazy landlords and taking up space in Frank's apartment (as I was couchsurfing there) I finally got an apartment and a place to refer to as "my pad".

So I said goodbye to the Lisson Grove place, packed all my bags and prepared the journey to my new place. My new place is on Baker street which is a 10 minute walk away so no worries :) I moved really fast since it has been a very long time since I've had so little luggage! That's what happens when you need to move your life across the atlantic and Virgin only allows you to have two 23 kg suitcases - makes you efficient!

So I got to the place and found out that it wasn't cleaned yet! I had to talk to the realtors and get a cleaning service and in the meanwhile I setup my email and started getting some work done (I had to get a report out so... yeah). After they finished cleaning I took a couple of pictures because I wanted to see the before/after thing and see if I am able to spruce up the place...

Before

After

Not bad huh? I thought I did a pretty decent job and now this apartment feels like home - for the time being.

A Taste of London!!

2007-07-01T16:00:00.000-07:00

The plans for Sunday were quite out of the ordinary... So Frank's housemate's girlfriend went to school with this girl Angie who now works in London. Frank's housemate and his girlfriend have been checking on Frank to make sure he's having a good time in London... unfortunately Frank works a lot - the time difference and the inability to directly connect to servers and to his experienced co-workers makes his job harder and he's forced to spend more time getting his work done. So, anyhow Angie had tickets through her company (AP) and she decided to get tickets for us too. It would be a good opportunity for us to go explore London, have some good food and meet some people! We we're game for it. We met Angie and the AP crew at the Baker Street station and we walked to Regent's park. At Taste of London we had good drinks, good food, saw Gordon Ramsey and hungout with a group of very cool people!

I took some pictures and posted them on my Picasa Album. Have a look here!

Taste of London 6/29/07 7:46 PM

A Walking Tour of London

2007-06-27T15:53:00.000-07:00

So Frank and I decided to go on a walking tour of the Westminster area by the Thames River. We started off in Marylebone and took Edgware road all the way south through St. James' Park to Buckingham Palace. From there we walked through Green Park to Downey Street and Big Ben/Parliament area. We walked on the south side of the Thames river, viewing the people and the "shows" between London eye and the Millenium bridge. We walked past City hall and took the Tower Bridge toward the Tower of London and walked towards the Liverpool Street tube where we took the tube back to Marylebone. The weather was in-and-out this Saturday. A little bit of drizzle but mostly clear skies which was very good for our walking tour. I had my camera out and took a lot of pictures!

Have a look at my Picasa album!

Self-Guided Walking Tour of London #1

London: It's a parallel universe

2007-06-24T16:28:00.000-07:00

So I've been in London for a week now and I've come to realize that this place is quite bizzarre. It's not like a different world but, like a parallel universe. Somewhat similar to the US but not really. Somewhat similar to Sri Lanka but not really. It is slighly off. I have to mention though how much impact England (a tiny speck island in Europe) had on the rest of the world and most importantly its colonies.

The sizes here (food, milk, car size, train size, room size etc.) are a lot smaller. I know being in the US i've become quite accustomed to big things, but you sometimes pay twice as much for half the commodity! The cost of living is steep! In Sri Lanka portions and sizes are smaller, but it costs a lot less! Typically beer is served here at room temperature which is quite a downer - why wouldn't you pickup a nice cold drink on a warm summer day? The cars are on the other side of the road (like Sri Lanka) but the cars are tiny! The average car is of the size of a half a Prius and there are tons of smart cars here! The good thing is that in terms of consumption, this country is really efficient. As I've mentioned before, in the US we're tricked into thinking that we need more than what we really need and this is due to the economies of scale business model that proves well for the American consumption driven economy. The high cost of living in Europe puts a strong control on consumption which is good for world supply, your body and the environment. The housing market though is another story which lives the economist theory of supply and demand. There is so much demand for London housing that the rent is typically a huge portion of one's wages!

Public transportation in London is fantastic though. The tube is fast, clean and convenient to commute. Londoners complain about delays but living in Sri Lanka, India and the US, I can definitely appreciate how good the service here is. And the buses of course! They're cool as I've always imagined how they'd look like but never been in one! The cabs in London look really funky. They have a weird shape and they can carry 4-5 people. There are folding seats inside that come down and you can look backwards. I lookied into the front once and realized that there are no seats in the front!

London also has very variable island weather. One moment it's pouring and the next moment it is really sunny. Sri Lanka has island weather too but it is much warmer and unless it is the monsoon season, the rain doesn't occur that often.

What I learned at Whitewater Guide School

2007-06-13T05:49:00.000-07:00

June 1 - June 11. One of the most amazing times in my life. I've jumped into a river (Sri Lanka), taken baths/shaved my head bald on a river during a pilgrimage (South India). But I've never been on a raft down a river - I didn't know what to expect from this trip. Maybe I'll paddle a little bit, meet some people, take a break from my cube job. I had no clue this would turn out to be so much fun and that at the end of the trip I would be able to commercially guide down a river. Wow.

Taking passengers down a river, and having a damn good time doing it. After learning knots, how to rig a boat, how to setup a kitchen (and a pooper of course) and after running through safety speeches and training it was time for some whitewater. What you see here is our boat watching another team boat gliding down the rapid "Chunder". I remember guiding down this rapid, hitting the whitewater head on and swerving away from the wrap rock by a couple of feet. Lots of splash, lots of adrenaline.

Campfires. A river guide isn't just about guiding people down the river. Its a lifestyle. Sleeping on the rocks or the beach, making good tasty food (and lots of it), exploring the caves, cliffs and creeks, picking up a string instrument (guitar most likely) and last but not least, daily campfires. The campfires were the perfect opportunity for people to relax and just shoot shit, while of course having something delicious from the dutch oven. We talked about many topics. When the job pays vs. when the job is fun (and pays), the myspace craze, our appreciation of mother nature and her beautiful rivers were some of the topics we discussed.

The real world culture shock. So after spending about 7 intense days on the river, the guides decided to treat us by taking us out for dinner. This restaurant had televisions, video games, beer, good pizza and lots of loud people - it was a real culture shock. After spending some good personal time with only attention to the bare necessities (which was plenty satisfying to the whole group) it was rough to see the rapid transition - families whining about the food taking too long, kids crying because their nintendo ds was taken away, our food not being enough or too salty, people looking at us weird because we had a gnarly stench etc. It reminded me of the imbalance of supply and the actual need and why in America there is deception that people need to consume as much as we do - which is way too much. Anyway after a little bit of intellectual conversation, we knew we were going back to the river so we decided to forget where we were and started taking crazy pictures and cracking river jokes.

Dude, that was a nasty, sick, gnarly, burly, gum but not skunk line of poop, bro. Solid. This region of California (Sacramento) had a very distinct vocabulary. It's as though people didn't want to deal with the extensive vocabulary in the English language. Instead they created new words and these words meant many things. Facial expressions are powerful and if you speak smart enough, you could accomplish a lot with a restricted vocabulary! Now the very interesting thing that I took away from this was that this cali vocabulary was structured in such a way that everything was positive. It's a Cali laid back river culture thing where there is always place for patience and error (as long as you learn from your mistakes of course!) In the picture you see "team poop" because we converted poop to something positive (similar to nasty and sick). So when someone had a nice line (hit the whitewater very well) we'd say they had a nasty line of poop!

P-P Dance! So you're on the river and you've been drinking a lot of water (because you get really dehydrated) and you've had lunch already and a couple of hours between now and your carry out point. And your bladder is full. No worries, good thing is that this isn't a swimming pool so yo'd just jump out and check the temperature :). But this can be still akward to do so Luke and I came up with the P-P Dance where there is a sychronized hand movement for all parties in the water so that the akwardness of the situation is removed. Just make sure you're the one who's upstream...

We can guide now, but we're oh so tired. So after 9 14 hour days of guiding, paddling, cooking, talking and learning we were ready to really hit the sack. As you can see in the picture - Zach just hit a rock. Glad that there was a paco on the rock he decided to "fall" on.

Bare Man Thighs! Overall, I'd say this was an excellent time where I have had a real adventure, an appreciation for the river and the gifts of mother nature and most importantly a really awesome group of people whom I've befriended and hope to keep in touch.

ARTA Pro Whitewater Course - California
My expectation on day-1: A Damn Good Time.
10 days later all I had to say: A Damn Good Time. Indeed.

For more pictures visit these links.
Lisa's Photos on Snapfish
Kaityln's Photos on fbook - #1
Kaityln's Photos on fbook - #2
My Photos on Picasa

Fishes in the Ocean

2007-05-15T16:26:00.000-07:00

In the past couple of weeks I've come across a lot of friends who have been under a lot of pressure especially when it comes to girls. Girls are great but they stress men out. We love em and hate em. So I thought I'd blog a few thoughts here... I've been around a lot of people with good and bad relationships and I enjoy analyzing their experiences and my ideals and try to create a model that best emulates good relationships.

What are we looking for? Let me start by trying to describe what I was once told as the perfect match. My friend's grandmother once told me how she felt about her currently deceased husband - the whole time she was married to him she always loved him. Sure they had fights - everyone does. But the important thing was that she had what I would call the "flicker". Whether it was the time they exchanged wows or the time on that car ride or a couple months before he passed away, she always had the "flicker" - a skip of the beat, that sweat, that glow, whatever unique feeling you have which is unique to you. Of course this sounds like a story from the magic kingdom but I'm trying so show that we all need to start by understand what our flicker is.

Nice guys tend to get a lot of messed up girls in their paths. Seriously there are sooo many fish in the ocean, you can't get caught up with just one. You win some hearts, probably lose a lot too. You show someone your affection towards them - some will get wierded out and leave, others aren't compelled enough to proceed but there are always those very few who would be delighted to make things happen; you just need to be patient to connect with that someone. Until then all these people you come across are tests laid out by karma to *better* your skills so that when the right one comes along you'd be better at sharing your true self. They playground is open for practice and part of life is learning to better understand other humans.

Be confident and dont let a girl get you down, mate. Be depressed - it's fine for a day or two. It's human nature that helps you crawl through the pain in the learning process so you can get back on "track" again. The worst 'crime' (if thats what you call it) people commit is expressing the beauty of love. So really, its nothing ridiculous to get bent up about. Get back on your feet!

Keep fishing mate, keep fishing. Don't waste your bait on the small fish that nibble at your fishing rod. Take a deep dive and throw your heart our when you see those big fish. And you'll know when you see those big fish.

Don't be too hard on yourself just because of what has happened in your past. Your future still lies ahead and you've got the pen for that book.

Should Sri Lanka have won the World Cup

2007-04-30T05:19:00.000-07:00

I believe that the coin toss always adds a coefficient to the "winning formula". Given the weather conditions, this coefficient gave more power to the toss winners.

But, we all have to agree that the Sri Lankan team gave a thrilling fight, all the way to end. They have been doing in the whole tournament. After the lackluster performance of India and Pakistan followed by the Woolmer scenario, Sri Lanka brought soul back to the 2007 world cup. In that view, I think we performed exceptionally end to end.

That being said, would we have won the world cup if we had 50 overs and better weather? Remember, this would also mean that Australia would have had better weather. We can't say Sri Lanka could have won the world cup - but we know that we would have fought as hard as we did on Saturday.

Australia has won some 29 world cup games back to back, upto the world cup. They scored 300+ in every match this world cup. Australia is a very good team. They have a solid batting and bowling line up. Australia is in a league of its own. We should not allow them to play in the world cup!!

Corporate America

2007-04-27T11:52:00.000-07:00

So I came across this article a couple of days ago (thanks for my good friend Shemmy) and it has really made me think about Corporate America and what it means to those of us in our 20s, the young generation that will hopefully be the future of this planet if we are lucky enough to make it that far.

Feel free to read this article at the link below to get up to speed:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/69/sgodin.html

So what does this mean? Day in, day out we work for the man. We come from great schools where our parents' sweat barely covers the tuition. After a boatload of hours in and out of class, all-nighters, we beat the few easy and mostly very difficult mind-numbing exams to graduate, head high. We all come out of schools with a super rush that we will be able to make an impact on our planet. We get our first job and realize that it is quite the contrary. We end up becoming /monkeys/ in cubicles exploring every nook and cranny in excel and working for the man. We put in lots of hours and create tons of charts but don't have much time left to think about extraordinary, *impacting* analyses. The man benefits from our sweat.

Yes, it is true that we all need to do our time. But what does that mean? We must realize that we are a commodity. Like a paper clip. It evolves, gets better at holding the paper. Every new hiring class is better. But what is the value of that "class"? The moment the paper clip gets overused, you see the wear and tear and it is quite easy to get a new paper clip and shove the other one out. It is important to realize that an entry level worker has very little intellectual value, even though there is plenty of monkey business value. Given the dearth of jobs, it is not too hard to hire and train another /monkey/.

Okay, lets say that we do our time and start climbing the corporate ladder. But why don't you stop and notice the kind of people who climb that ladder. What does it take to climb those ladders? You need to realize that your boss will always be above you. You would need to become more like your boss to go up. So for those who don't get along with their bosses, you know what I'm getting at.

So as much as this post might sound very depressing you need to stop for a moment and take a breather to evaluate your current standing. Do you Really like what you do? Do you really enjoy your work environment and your co-workers.

Remember, it is important to build a good career and climp the right rungs on your tree ladder but don't forget that before you know it you might be a millionaire but you may miss a lot of things in life that you cannot put a price tag on.

Globalhood

2007-02-10T15:30:00.000-08:00

My friends and I have always talked about social and economic development around the world. Capitalism is spectacular in the sense that it promots strong competition, survival of the best ideas and some of the fastest technological and economic growth rates. As we would all agree is that the downside is that the distribution of skilled labor, wealth and education enhance its effect.

We young folks have a lot of thinking time, motivation and energy on our hands that outside school and work, we could channel into balancing this discrepancy of "opportunity" around the world. So its really all about opportunities. Globalhood is the platform for such activity.

So go ahead, visit www.globalhood.org, maybe send a few emails to the talented and motivated young people listed on that website, read up on thier initiatives and maybe see if you can give a hand for the better of the world.

Zombies

2007-02-10T10:44:00.000-08:00

So I just watched Shaun of the dead this past weekend and had the opportunity to view the entity "Zombie" in a comedic landscape and came to think about what it really signifies.

So what is a Zombie? Technically it is defined as an undead being with almost insignificant self-control capabilities and a lust for meat and blood. I think it is interesting to view this as an analogy to the lives we live.

Forgetting the slow walking and the facial expressions where Zombies are labelled as those who are suffering from drug/alcohol effects and the urge to acquire meat is a by-product of the drug intake which causes grey matter damage, lessening the being to the most uncivilized method of feeding.

Thinking about it more conceptually... What does it mean to lack self-control? Couldn't this be attributed to what happens in the real world? I mean consider one Zombie who has a single goal powered by greed (whether it be greed for money, food, power, popularity, what ever it may be) which is an analogy to the lust for meat. You get bitten, and then you become a Zombie and the cycle continues. So the process of being bitten is some sort of knowledge transfer where you fall under the spell of the biter's ideas and also succumb to the loss of control.

So. Be safe and don't get bitten. Give yourself a chance to experience the meaning of freedom and your beliefs.

Sri Lanka's Independence Day

2007-02-06T20:14:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday was Sri Lanka's independence day. Every year you see people hoisting the national flag and proudly displaying it on their shirt or whatnot.

This got me thinking. Why is the meaning of this day? Why do people around the world celebrate this. I brought this discussion up with friends who are Indian and American - they have an understanding of the real meaning of this day and have a grasp of what freedom means.

In Sri Lanka, the military holds curfews and controls when and where citizens can/cannot go. Society prevents us from being who we are whether it is celebrating our religious or socially activities. We have a war which seemably fights for tamilian rights, but looking at the changes in my generation, there seems to be so much unity between the sinhalese and the tamils I don't understand what the war could do that coexistence in economic development cannot do - there are plenty of powerful and wealthy tamils, and we all know that money talks.

At the end of the day, it is unfortunate that we celebrate this day; Reason being that there is no reason to celebrate - We never fought for our right to be an independent nation nor do Sri Lankans experience or practice freedom.