Parasailing @ Clearwater Bay ....

Day 2 of the trip to Tampa was spent at Clearwater Beach. We rented a cabana on the beach - this is like a half tent with some lounge chairs where people can relax. After paying $20 for being able to sit on these chairs for 4 hours, we decided to have fun in the water. The waters at this beach were surprisingly clear ... It was a deep green hue that greeted us as we waded in. The first reaction on wading in was the coldness of the water. It felt soooo cold, but we soon got used to it and started playing in the water. Every wave would make us shiver with the cold, but it was fun jumping over them and watching them break. In the afternoon, we stretched on the lounge chairs by our cabana - and totally chillaxed !

Later in the afternoon, we decided to go parasailing. This was an awesome experience where we got into a speedboat that took us about a mile off the coast and launched us into the air. Since we'd requested for a dip, the captain ensured that we had a freefall into the water where we got our legs wet and then pulled us into the air again. It was an awesome experience. I thought that the winds higher up would be gusty, but they were not. It was a surprisingly serene and quiet sail through the air. The Tampa skyline and the green waters of the Gulf of Mexico below us, and the sky above - it was phenomenal. The sun was setting, and I regretted not carrying my camera up with me to get a few good shots. Had I known that the air above would be so peaceful - I would have definitely carried it along.

After parasailing - it was time to head to Britts cafe for a quick bite before driving back to our hotel to end a long day. Fun in the sun - chillaxed to the core - this was a day that I will not forget for a long long time ...

Florida for some fun n' sun ...

Here I am - a few hours away from my much awaited vacation to Florida. A few days of fun in the sunshine, away from the chilly Chicago winds - sounds heavenly. Although, in all fairness, I must say that winter has been quite nice so far.
Florida - I envision a warm tropical breeze, glorious sunshine, beaches as far as the eye can see, palm trees, and those umbrella drinks that look so good in pictures. Well, will write more about it when I actually get there!
Ciao...!

Politically Incorrect ....

My thoughts that can range from extremist to liberal, and casting political correctness to the wind.
Why am I writing them down? I suppose I'll want to recount these someday – a written account would help repaint the memories morevividly.
I recently saw the movie "Rang De Basanti". It has a storyline about ayoung British lady, drawn to visit India by reading accounts of theIndian freedom struggle, namely the revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Rajguru, Sukhdeo, Ashfaqulla Khan from her dead grandfather's diary. She plans on traveling to India and making a film on the memoirs. On reaching India, she meets a group of college students/ drop-outs/students who have graduated but still hang around the campus, and there begins her tryst with the realities of modern India. She repeatedly attempts to cast her new found friends into the patriotic roles only to be rebuffed and told that 'patriotism' is now merely a fashionable word, and that the meaning has been long lost. Among these friends is an air force pilot, who stands up for being a patriot and is willing to lay his life for the country although the rest of his friends scoff at his ideas & thoughts. When the pilot is killed in an air crash and politicians attempt to blame the crash on pilot error rather than get embroiled in a scandal that could expose the extent of corruption in the state & defense forces, the friends are transformed into revolutionaries seeking revenge on the corrupt ministers. They plan & plot to assassinate the guilty minister and make the scandal public. The plot to kill him is successful, and they also succeed in taking over a radio station to broadcast their message. Of course, the rest of the politicians send in the SWAT team which mercilessly kills the defenseless, unarmed students.
Discussing this movie with friends later – I was intrigued to see the various points of view that were tossed around.
1. The solution to the problem – killing the corrupt minister was wrong. They should not have taken law into their hands. If everyonetakes the law into their hands, we would have anarchy.
2. We are citizens of a nation that has a policy of non-violence. An eye for an eye – is not the solution. Gandhi was a great man who achieved freedom for India using the doctrine of 'ahimsa'. (I don't quite know how Mr. M.K. Gandhi was dragged into this, but given that they are someone else's views – I've recorded them here.)
3. They did a wrong thing by killing the minister, but killing them using a SWAT team was wrong. After all, they (though murderers) also deserved the right to a fair trial.
4. Considering that theirs was a crime committed in retaliation against the corruption in the state machinery – they should not have been killed like they were terrorists.
Interesting as the views were – I couldn't help but have some of my own. Since they are my thoughts – they've rambled far beyond the scope of the current discussion – but here they are …
I think the students/ friends were right. Unless today's generation sends a clear message to the crusty old politicians that corruption will not be tolerated, the mess in our country will not ever improve. Leaving the country for greener pastures, like most of those privileged to do so – is not going to help. It is like attempting toignore a particularly offensive odor. Coming to the part where India being a staunch believer in non-violence, and followers of Gandhi. I think it is time we stopped applying one cure to all maladies.
There was a time when oppression had to be stood up to, injustice from foreign powers had to be retaliated against. Given the resources and the prevailing political situation, non-violence was the perfect solution. The doctrine of non-violence is revolutionizing and great. No doubt about it. The civil disobedience movement launched shook the core of the British regime in India. Yes, true. But times have changed. Circumstances have changed. We are no longer fighting against a foreign enemy. We are struggling to stay afloat in competition withour own countrymen, friends and neighbors. Some of these people are part of our immediate society – but they are far from the model citizens we read about in our text books. Everyone is intent ofextracting their pound (or tons – in some cases) of flesh from the resources of the country. Why? When did we change from a country of patriotism to a country of indifference?
At times, I can't help feeling that this inclination towards non-violence(which is often translated into non-confrontationalism) has perpetrated the indifferent attitude. Here is an example – you observe a situation to which you may retaliate with a violent angry/ sad emotion. But, you've been drilled to be non-violent. However, the situation is gnawing at you –triggering a reaction, but you are not allowed to retaliate violently.What do you do? You school yourself to ignore it – since you cannot cure it, you endure it – there in sowing the seeds of indifference.
Our neighboring countries encroach on our borders, send terrorists to blow up innocent citizens, but what does the state do? We exercise restraint, thereby prompting the average citizen to fine tune his indifference. I wonder if India would have been shaped differently had the revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh and Azad survived the freedom struggle. Would we have adopted a stricter policy against encroaching neighbors? Against illegal immigrants? Against corruption? I wonder …and the optimist in me, hopes that we will eventually come around to such a policy, someday in the near future. Optimism or merely wishful thinking? Only time will tell…

Football - Michigan v/s MSU

On Friday a friend of mine living in Ann Arbor emailed me that she had managed to get tickets to the Michigan (Wolverines) v/s Michigan State (Spartans) NCAA football game on Saturday. This game was to be played at the Michigan stadium.

Saturday morning, I found myself driving the 280 miles to Ann Arbor on I-94 ... It was a warm afternoon - perfect sunny weather to watch a football game. Here are some pictures from the game ...

For someone like me, totally new to the concept of "American" football - I had a crash course on the rules of the game before I watched it. I was skeptical about following the game, much less enjoying it, but to my surprise, I had an awesome time. The atmosphere around the stadium was charged. A crowd of 111,158 had turned up to watch this game - the stadium was Maize, with the poor Spartans quite sparse in the crowd.

At half time, the cheerleaders and the team bands had some great sequences that entertained the crowd, while the players took a much needed breather.
Check the cheerleaders jumping ... I am thrilled that I've managed to capture the spilt second jump on my camera!

As expected Michigan (blue & maize - no it's not called yellow, it's maize as I learnt during my crash course on football!) kicked MSU (white & green) during the game - almost out of the stadium. :)
The final scoreline ... 31-13.

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin

A few days ago - I visited Lake Geneva in Wisconsin with a friend who was visiting Chicago. It was a typical overcast but not overly cold fall day. As we neared the lake, here is the sight that we saw ...

A deserted lakeshore, and all the sailboats docked for the day. A thunderstorm was predicted for the evening, and everyone was packing up for the night. Except for people like us, who were strolling by the lakeshore that evening!

It was fun dodging the rain, picking up sandwiches from the nearby Potbelly's for dinner and ducking for cover before the storm really rolled in. Here is a pet parakeet that was enjoying a visit to Potbelly's as well!

Driving in that thunderstorm was a crazy experience, and I was glad that I had just changed the wiperblades on my car a few hours before we embarked on this crazy hare brained drive!

Nevertheless, the scenery was worth it all ...

Fall Colors at Starved Rock

Last weekend, I decided to head out to get some pictures of the fall foliage. I went to the nearby Forest Preserve with a good book, some water and a jacket (just in case!) to enjoy the morning sunshine. After spending some time there - I decided that I needed to head out to my favorite State Park in Illinois - Starved Rock.

This is a 200 mile roundtrip drive, but I decided to venture out in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day and after the spell of pathetic gloomy weather that we had in Chicago - it was difficult to sit indoors for long!
En route the clouds made some interesting patterns, so had to pull over for some pictures. :)
Once I got to Starved Rock, it looked like I was too early for the fall colors.... Most of the trees were still green, but a few that had changed color, made the drive totally worthwhile!






Notice the few trees that have turned yellow and red - don't they look beautiful?

The picture posted here on the right - is not a tree adorned with red flowers, but that of a tree with a creeper that has changed color! There were a few such trees, and it quite made the usually green hued forest burst with color. It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon, the crisp air - walking through the woods - getting some much needed exercise while enjoying the change of scenery. Imagine such glorious weather all year round, and you kinda realize why people flock to parts of California!

If anyone knows of places for good fall colors around Chicago, please - leave a comment with the details!

Tornado at work ...

Last evening, as I was preparing my status report for the week - I heard a few sirens in the background. Since I had heard such sirens in the past, I ignored them and continued to work. It being Friday evening, all I wanted was to finish my work and head out. However, the sirens got louder and the next thing I knew was an announcement on the office's public address system, informing us "A tornado has been sighted in the area. Please move to the emergency shelter immediately." So abandoning my work, I walked to the emergency shelter. This place was a stairwell in our office. We stood their for about half an hour - hearing updates of the tornado's progress. It was supposed to sweep all over the Chicago area, moving in from the South-Southwest to the North-Northeast. After a while, when told it was relatively safe to move out, we drove home ... and the status report?? Sigh - It's still pending.

The story of the tornado didn't end there. At about 9:30 pm, I got to know that a friend of mine who was scheduled to fly from St.Louis to Chicago and onward to Delhi - had missed her flight connection! This was at about 10 pm. Off I went to the airport to pick her up. The weather had totally calmed down by then, and it seemed impossible that we had even seen any thunderstorms during the day, let alone a tornado!

As usual - Chicago airport was a mess. The 2 mile drive from the freeway exit to the terminal took 20 minutes. Cars, cabs were all stuck in the bumper to bumper traffic. People waiting on the sidewalks looked harried and tired. Finally, after a crazy search at the Departure and Arrival terminal and some phone calls to find her exact location, we met up. This entire search had taken almost an hour!

Past midnight, parents and significant others back home were informed that she was safe and would be staying at my place. Dinner at IHOP and it was time to finally call it a day ....

Come to think of it, if it were not for incidents like these, how could any of us claim to lead a charmed life? ;)

Elephant bar

Dinner on Sunday night was at one of Bala’s favorite places – a restaurant called the Elephant Bar. This restaurant has an African animal theme. The first things that greet you are the elephant handles on the doors. As you walk in, the ceiling and décor has elephant, giraffe and zebra motifs all along. We met my friends Disha & Narayan for dinner here. Bala, being a veteran here – ordered for us. We had some spicy fried calamari with grilled vegetables and a shrimp adventure platter accompanied by some mango raspberry smoothie.

All the food was presented with flair and tasted as good as it looked!

It was fun catching up with Disha and Narayan. Narayan has lived in California for the past 5 years and had interesting stories of life in the Bay area to tell us. Disha and myself caught up on general gossip, news and friends.

Mystery Spot & Santa Cruz beach ...

Three days in San Jose. Visiting this place felt like visiting Bangalore in India. Tree lined roads – similar chrome & glass office buildings, commercial spaces with Indian food joints and the many Indian/Asian faces on the streets! It almost felt like being back in Bangalore.

Yesterday – we visited a place in Santa Cruz called “the Mystery Spot” This place is affected by some strange magnetic field, which makes it appear that you are leaning when you are actually stranding straight. It sounded too strange to be true – so off we went to check it out. The place is located on a hill, and is affected by a strange magnetic/ gravitational field. This actually affects all objects placed in the area – where you see objects rolling uphill. We actually saw a pool cue ball, a dry cell battery and a cigarette all roll up a flat plank placed at a 45 degree angle with the ground. Check the video out ...

A place where the gravitational forces seem to work in such a way that objects roll uphill instead of downhill !

Vegetation in this area is also affected. I found trees in this area growing away from sunlight. Also, there were no birds chirping or any animals to be seen in this area. Our tour guide informed us, that the magnetic field interferes with their natural sense of direction, and hence they stay away from any place where they might find themselves getting lost. Humans on the other hand – walk right into it, and even pay money for it! ;)

After visiting the mystery spot – we drove along CA – 1 North. This route goes along the ocean cliffs and offers breathtaking views of the Pacific. We stopped at one such place. This was cove by the cliffs – and getting there involved some agile climbing down a mountain cliff. Nevertheless, since my friend Bala had been there before, I was confident of making it down the cliff with my limbs intact.

Once on the beach – the view was spectacular. I tried clicking a few pictures, but the lack of a UV filter on my camera made it difficult to capture the breathtaking scenery in pictures. Here are some attempts …

There was a section of the cove where the waves would crash on the cliffs had carved out a path that joined two beaches. Since the tide was coming in – we had to run across the sand when the wave was going out, to avoid having to swim back! It was great seeing an un-spoilt (well almost) non-commercialized beach. Sitting on the rocks watching the waves crash in, was a serene peaceful experience. Just the sound of the waves and the wind, watching the waves crash onto the shore rhythmically was calming.


On climbing back up the cliff – we walked farther along to view the beach and the cliff and here are the views ...

Fisherman's Wharf & Pier 39 ...

Fisherman's Wharf & Pier 39 by night ...

Lombard Street & Oracle Headquarters ...

Pictures of Lombard street and Oracle headquarters at Redwood city ... Notice the database shaped - cylindrical buildings!! :)

Pacific Ocean

Golden Gate bridge n' Fisherman's Wharf

Pictures of the Golden Gate bridge, the Pacific ocean - on a Sunny day.

On Saturday morning, we drove down from Sunnyvale to San Francisco. We were driving along, and before I knew it - I found myself on the world famous Golden Gate bridge! Supposedly one of the 7 modern wonders of the world! This bridge is huge. For a change it was a warm sunny day in San Francisco. Clicked a lot of pictures, but only a few were worth keeping. :( I really need to explore the features of my camera better.

View of the San Francisco Bay, from the Golden Gate Vista Point

From the Golden Gate vista point - I had a fantastic view of the Bay. It's a dream to sail there someday. :) Just watching all the sailboats there, felt great.

View of Alcatraz ... the most famous prison in the world

Also saw the Alcatraz prison from a distance. This was one place I was not keen on visting. Not my idea of sight seeing to go visit a prison! :)