The Flickering Tubelight

Ammamma

September 1st, 2010 admin

“Ammamma…Boost…”, I would ask her for a hot malt beverage, as she would get busy in her tiny kitchen after her short afternoon nap on the hard concrete floor, with a strategically placed pillow for her head. Ammamma means maternal grandmother in my mother tongue, Telugu. Amma is mom, and ammamma is, literally, momom. She would then get busy preparing the late afternoon coffees for the elders, starting with the eldest – Tatagaru, and Boost for the kids. Although I mostly saw her only over summer holidays, this particular aspect of her routine was probably eternal. In fact, all her routines were seemingly eternal yet inexplicably fresh every time. She would hunker down at the old, grime-laden, two-burner gas stove sitting on the floor of her tiny kitchen and with what seemed like an impossibly tiny collection of utensils, groceries and gadgets, came up with the most exquisite of dishes. Simple fare it always was, and she was not a great cook, but the taste of her cooking was earthy and heavenly. Vegetables of all manner were shallow fried. Coffee and Boost was not served before being poured several times, alternating between two tumblers to generate froth (steamed milk). “Boost tagutawa, Kishtappa, aain?”, she would ask. The “aain?” was kind of like Amitabh Bachchan’s pan-laden mouth confirming something – “aain?”.

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iPhone 3G Yes!

July 19th, 2009 admin

Though not an i-Phone addict yet, I am now an iPhone user. From the time I have been introduced to the iPhone, by friends, I have constantly admired the versatility and the sheer quality of the product. And after a few bad experiences with our previous phone service with Sprint we decided to switch to AT&T. It has been a relatively seamless switch. But the highlight has been the iPhone.

Even before I opened the iPhone box I was impressed with the immaculate packaging. The phone was surprisingly easy to learn using, and any non-obvious features were easy to search for on the web. The ability to download the applications of our choice and even develop your own applications is a tribute to and celebration of innovation and creativity embodied by the iPhone. I could rave about this Swiss-army knife of mobile gadgets or I could argue that no one really uses a Swiss-army knife in normal life. Indeed, I have not yet figured out how best to effectively use this phone. Some of the features that translate into time and money savings are the GPS when you are lost on the road, the ability to look up the Internet to get answers to simple questions when you are in doubt, the ability to entertain yourself when you have time to kill (books, podcasts, puzzles, YouTube, newspapers, iPod music), the ability to shoot video and ship them to your friends (thus avoiding hours of procrastination) and the ability to synchronize the contact list and calendar entries with Google. In short, this tool allows you to use small pockets of time more efficiently, either the educate or entertain yourself, or to rewind. This is important, to me at least, because then the time with family does not need to be compromised for trying to rewind in my own way. Simple example: if I feel like listening to Louis Armstrong I can listen to him and other jazz artists on Pandora while driving back from work. Then once I am home, I can spend time with Kavita, as she wants me to.

So, finally, thank you, Anu, Shankar and Sandeep, for live demos and persuasive nudges, and thanks Kavita for the final push. I’m on board and I am enjoying the ride.

(I posted this entire entry from the iPhone. I am getting very good at typing on this, something I was not so sure about only two days ago.)

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Annamacharya Jayanti Celebrations in Morrisville, NC

May 22nd, 2008 admin

On May 17th, Kavita’s music teacher, Mrs. Anuradha Chivukula, organized Sri Annamacharya Jayanti celebrations at the Hindu Bhavan Hall in Morrisville, North Carolina. She has been organizing this event every year for the past 11 years. The main purpose is to celebrate the great 15th century poet-composer-saint Sri Annamacharya by bringing together the local Carnatic music and Indian Classical dance talent to participate in the celebration. This also gives a wonderful opportunity for the local and regional audiences to enjoy some beautiful music and dance, and socialize. Many of the participants and members of the audience also bring food items and this provides for a large pot-luck style lunch and is an added draw for the audience. Of course, all of this is at no cost to the audience! Kavita participated this year in the event by singing, as part of a group, 4 kritis composed by Sri Tallapaka Annamacharya.

Here are some video snippets of the event.

Two girls (whose names I will provide as soon as I can find out) did an awesome job singing the kriti, “Vande Vasudevam”.

Kavita’s music teacher, Mrs. Anuradha (in the center in the video) along with other participants (Left to Right: Mrs. Jyothi Sadhu, Mrs. Srikanthi Gunturi, Mrs. Anuradha Chivukula, Mrs. Lakshmi Putcha and Mr. Subramanyam Darbha) sang the 7 main compositions by Sri Annamacharya, called Saptagiri Kirtanas. They were supported by, Mr. Kalyan Sundar on the veena, Mr. Vikram Raj Kumar on the violin (Vikram is an NC State student) and Master Arjun Raghavan who did a splendid job playing the mridangam.

Kavita and friends (Left to Right: Mrs. Sumana Nanduri, Mrs. Kavita Krishna, Mrs. Usha Jayanthi, Mrs. Lakshmi Karra and Mrs. Uma Gorti) singing some kirtanas.

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May the fourth be with you!

May 4th, 2008 admin

After many months of being unable to work much on my website, I ironed out enough wrinkles to be able to launch this new look, Wordpress-based webpage, which is more blog-like than my earlier webpage, which used the collection-of-pages style. I hope that the Wordpress format will make it a lot easier for me to keep posting more regularly now since I do not have to bother with formatting HTML etc. to make the page appear right. It may, therefore, put you squarely at the receiving end of some not-so-well-though-out, whimsical posts. With that warning, let me start off the content dilution that Wordpress allows me with a picture of some fresh and juicy strawberries we picked yesterday at Jean’s Strawberry patch in Apex (a 15 minutes drive away).

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Settling into a new year – compilers, coats, cars and cricket

April 1st, 2007 admin

It took me till April Fools’ Day to make my first post this year. Among several reasons and excuses I can come up with the main one is that the compilers’ class I am taking at NCSU. The class kept my weekends busy with all the project work it involved. However, since I am learning a few new things, I guess that’s alright. Another reason, now that I think about it, is that Kavita and I took up the grand challenge of painting our house on the inside. We have as of now only completed painting two rooms, one of which was a half-bath that originally had wall paper. The wall paper had to be removed first, and then the two coats of paint went on the walls. As the compilers’ class picked up steam, the painting adventures subsided. Also, it took a while to get used to our new life, now that Kavita and I are living together for the first time over the last few months. The adjustments, the catching up with life, which does not wait for you, took its toll on my ability to spend time with my webpage. Happy to report that we did accomplish a few minor milestones this year. The big one of course was Kavita getting a job. Then she bought a Pontiac Vibe after much research. We both love that car. Then we sold her old car, the Infinity G20. That took some effort with the repairs, the ads and the title transfer. All in all this post is a testimony to my return to some semblance of normalcy. I sense a brief and temporary settling-down at a phase of our lives where unsettling will likely be the norm.

The Cricket World Cup is going on in the Carribean islands. After almost four years I chanced to watch a couple of cricket matches live on TV a few weeks back when we visited my cousin, Raghu, at New Jersey. He had gotten installed a satellite dish that received live coverage of the Cricket World Cup. The two games I watched were India playing Bangladesh and Pakistan playing Ireland. It was fascinating that the two games I watched in so long, turned out to both be massive upsets. Bangladesh beat India and Ireland beat Pakistan. These games threw the teams’ expectations, betting odds and the statisticians’ calculations into relative disarray, and ended with both the losing teams, two cricketing giants, being eventually eliminated in the opening round of the cup. The defeats brought great outbursts of emotion from the fans (the lights and pretty much everything Indian and Pakistani). Weeks of introspections, evaluations, shock therapy and retirement announcements later, one thing that is clear is that an era of subcontinental cricket, one that I can relate to the most, is over. The defeat and the ouster from the competition, though surprising and disappointing, does not worry me a whole lot. If this provides a dose of practicality to the millions of sports-starved fans for whom the only sport that exists is cricket, it would be a welcome change. Maybe it will bring with it a dose of professionalism into a game. Professionalism into how the players perform indifferent to the pressures and expectations they are subjected to, and, more importantly, professionalism into the spectators and fans who need to realize that it is a game all said and done. The basic problem in a sports-starved country where sports has always taken a back seat to getting through life’s other challenges is that the few sporting events India does participate in take on an intimate and overly emotional dimension that cannot be dissipated easily through other avenues.

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Hello, Dr. Kavita Vadali!

September 19th, 2006 admin

August 2001 seems so recent. That was when Kavita came to the US to start working towards her PhD. After five years working on cell signaling pathways using the fruitfly as the model, Kavita successfully defended her work and was awarded a PhD in Biology by her advisors yesterday, Spetember 18th 2006. Though the convocation is in December and the magnitude of the achievement may be imparted a more visual facet then, I can appreciate what this day means to her and all the rest of us close to her.

Living in a tiny square patch of a town, in the middle of thousands of square miles of featureless flatlands, encouragingly named “Normal”, was expected to be hard for this single woman. She took to it like a duck to water. Having been on the phone with her almost every one of the days in these 5 years, I wouldn’t blame you if you thought that we were born with the cellphone on our ears, instead of the proverbial golden spoon in our mouths. I saw her develop lasting friendships. I saw her live an independent and brave life. I saw her work hard and cheerfully. I saw her build her life in her tiny, but beautiful apartment in Cardinal Court. Her friends, her teachers, her attitude and her spirit are all worthy of our thanks. She has done us all proud. She has given us hope and promise. Dedicated work, making the best of the opportunities you get, will get us rewards. Her mother, my mother-in-law, is to be especially congratulated. Her words, which usually carry a ring of innocence, humility and simplicity are in fact words of great wisdom. Her role in letting Kavita be herself, more than a direct hand in guiding her educational growth, is one important reason for Kavita’s achievement.

My role has been one of an honest and eager listener. Although I find very few understandable English words in her presentations or reports on her subject, I always tried to atleast keep myself aware of the basics of her field. Other than playing the joker to relieve both our stresses at the end of the day, my role has also been to positively appreciate the praise-worthy in her efforts, and critique the fallacies. I have always respected her work, her efficiency at it in her fruit-fly infested lab, her action-oriented approach towards a plan and the celerity with which she picked up something new. I have been always motivated by the positives in her. And this is a moment to reflect on these 5 years and to look towards the future as she puts the knowledge she has earned to good use. Congratulations, Dr. Vadali. You deserve it.

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5 years have passed by �

September 11th, 2006 admin

September 11th 2001. I remember someone stopping by our office room and breaking the news and then us seeing the footage on a television screen in one of the hallways inside IBM’s building 62 in RTP that morning. Everyone was out of their offices, grouped around the several hanging televisions throughout the building. I distinctly remember someone instinctively say, “World War III is about to begin�” But more noticeable was the silence. What was there to say? Disbelief was so overpowering that normalcy could only be a pretense. Even if in the coming weeks and months, we got our heads around the what, the how and the why, that would not take away the disbelief from the fact that it happened, the thought that such things are even possible. The lives lost can not be brought back. The innocence lost can probably not be restored.

The World Trade Center towers, since my childhood, had been to me the image of the American skyscraper and American achievement. I considered them the most gorgeous of modern buildings in the world. They were symbols of simplicity, elegance, function and efficiency. Their grandeur lay in their modesty, their attractiveness in lack of ornateness. The New York and its skyline that I saw in summer of 2000, while interning at Symbol Technologies in Long Island, was defined by these towers. New York, indeed our lives, had changed forever that day.

I saw the site of the towers again in 2004 when I visited with my parents. It was a large barricaded crater-like pit. It was a sad day with a quiet sense of loss. The current plans are to build another office complex at the site. It will be called Freedom Tower. I always wished the exact same towers be rebuilt, with the exact same plans for, at least, the exteriors. Maybe people are averse to that idea since it might seem to belittle the immensity of the event. Maybe the thought is that by rebuilding the same towers the terrible events would be forgotten and we would be pretending that everything is back to normal. Maybe the reason for not rebuilding the towers is that the suffering of the innocent people who died that day would then continue to haunt forever. Maybe economics plays a cold hand and says the office space would not sell. But I feel, what better way to rebound and rebuild, than in the literal sense. A symbol of and for the indefatigable people around the world would be the twin towers rising back up from the pit to reach for the skies like they were always meant to. They would recreate the New York that defies defeat. The plain simplicity and austere efficiency of the Twin Towers would serve as the best reminder and monument there could be for what happened five years ago.

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The Trip to India – Upanayanam and Marriage

March 12th, 2005 admin

This time the trip to India (left Raleigh on Jan 31st 2005 and returned on Feb 25th 2005), was hectic. It usually is, but this time was the big occasion. I was getting married. Kavita and I “tied the knot” on February 13th, 2005. The wedding was in Visakhapatnam. I met a lot of friends and relatives during this short trip. The days were filled with so much activity that the month just flew by. The trip started with a few days stay in Chennai, where I landed first in India. I stayed with my friend, Srinivasan Ramani’s parents. I had to get my US Visa renewed at the US Consulate in Chennai. It was great to meet Srini’s and Shyamala’s (Srini’s wife) families. I reached Vizag (as Visakhapatnam is called) on Feb 4th. Feb 10th was my Upanayanam (thread ceremony signifying the start of a young boy’s formal education). There were functions, pujas, lunches and dinners on a grand scale almost throughout the week. On 13th was the wedding, followed by my visit to Kavita’s place for a couple of days. Finally we were able to squeeze in a 3 day trip to the state of Orissa where we went to the tourist towns of Puri and Konark.

The pictures of this trip are here.

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Wedding Invitation

December 1st, 2004 admin

Kavita and I are getting married. It has been a long and often tough journey for both of us. Finally, sticking through it all, we have come a long way. The marriage has been fixed on February 13th, 2005 and is in the south-east Indian beach town of Visakhapatnam where my parents and Kavita’s mother live now. Here is a copy of the wedding invitation my dad and I are working on.

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There’s always catching up to do

September 25th, 2004 admin

Why do we not make a decision and stick with it? Is it because our intelligence gets ahead of us and imagines other possibilities…glorious from this vantage, but equally flickering as you get closer. I took about three shots at how to start my blog post, before not being able to figure out anything. The first post. The one that sets the tone. The one that is supposed to be profound. Thus burdening myself with unnecessary expectations I succumb to its aftermath. Inaction.

There is of course so much catching up to do. There always is. Its almost like if you are not catching up with life, with your own thoughts, and with yourself, you are not doing enough. Well I intend to catch up some more with myself as I explore my thoughts via this medium. Blogging. A pretty unattractive name for a phenomenal idea. Let’s see how far I get with this. I hope far enough to untie a few knots on my journey towards plain, elegant, knot-less, self-discovery.