Protect your platinum - catalytic converter theft

June 25th, 2008 admin

Someone neatly sawed off and removed the catalytic converter from under Kavita’s Pontiac Vibe yesterday while it was parked in the Friday Center park-n-ride lot in the UNC, Chapel Hill, campus. When Kavita started up the car, it started up with a loud, complaining roar rather than the usual hum. Clueless about why the car was so loud, she stopped the car and started to look under the hood to see if she could spot any obvious problem, when someone shouted from across the lot, “Looks like your catalytic converter was stolen as well.” He was another of the many victims of such theft yesterday. He called campus police, which was good because Kavita was not sure what she should do next. She tried reaching me, but I was in the gym, away from my cell phone. So she called Anant in California, got my gym’s number and had the lady at the front desk in the gym call for me over the PA system. I came home from the gym, got Kavita added as an associate on my AAA account and ordered a tow-truck to get the car to our mechanic at Wasp Automotive. Meanwhile, the campus police officer, a lady, stayed with Kavita until I reached there. This was nice of her. With typical wait times of 60 minutes for the region, we were expecting a long wait at the lot for the tow truck. However, he showed up a few minutes after I reached the Friday center in my car. He noticed that Kavita’s license plate had expired and the tow-truck guy could not, therefore, tow the car as part of AAA’s services. He was a nice guy though. He had a huge lump of tobacco pushed against the inside of his left cheek wall, and in between spitting, he informed us that in the very same lot, last Wednesday, there were nearly 40 cases of the exact same incident. He had himself towed many a cat-less car that day. He said, “If you want me to tow this to Wasp, I can do it, but you can save yourself a hundreded and twenty five dollars by just driving it yourself. It will be loud, but fine.” He wanted us to file a complaint with the campus police since they had not provided any protection to the lot in spite of the sudden spate of these thefts since last week. We thanked him showing up at such short notice, and for not charging us a penny for his time and effort. His trip must have cost him at least a few bucks of gas. He did inform us that the state will slap a $250 fine on us because of the expired license plate. I drove the car with the emergency blinkers on to Wasp and left it there with a note that the insurance people want to take a look at it before we start off any repairs. So with the $250 fine, the insurance deductible (assuming they pay for it), this misadventure will cost us upwards of a thousand dollars. With our trip to India planned for this Sunday, I am not even sure if the repairs/insurance claims etc will be done before we leave.

In any case, the point of this whole entry is that catalytic converters are a relatively easy part of your car to steal. They contain precious metals like platinum, palladium etc. and when mined for the metals can fetch $50 to $100. Replacing them, of course, costs more than a thousand dollars usually. There is nothing you can do to avoid such theft except avoiding parking in desolate lots. When parking in public areas make sure you park at a location that is visible to pedestrian or vehicular traffic. Such visibility maybe a deterrent. Park close to mall entrances if malls do not have police cars driving around the lot or surveillance cameras. Comprehensive insurance is a good idea, as long as the deductible is low enough that you don’t end up paying the whole amount. Park inside a garage where possible. If you have any other ideas about how to reduce the chances of such theft, let me know.

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Spelling Bee - Can you spell a L-E-T-D-O-W-N

January 7th, 2008 admin

Kavita and I saw the Broadway musical, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”, at the Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh’s downtown yesterday. We bought the cheapest tickets ($21), but given that the auditorium was almost half empty, it was not hard to move down closer to the stage. I was not having as much fun as I normally do at musicals and theatre. I wondered if getting closer might help us catch some subtle expressions which I was missing, and, therefore, not enjoying the play as much. We did move closer to the stage, about 20 minutes into the show, of course, trying to choose an appropriate time so as to least disturb the thin audience and the performers.

However, the show never really managed to significantly challenge my expectations from a play. There were moments where it was inspiring, but most of it was a drag. The storyline, whatever little there was of it, was linear, going through each character’s circumstances and personalities one by one. There was hardly any complex, thought-provoking, interaction between the characters. The ballad, called the “The I Love You Song”, where one of the contestants remembers her mother who is in far-away India, seeking enlightenment, is powerful. Another sequence that I liked was one where a contestant, who, before spelling a word, always writes it on the floor using his “magical” right foot, does it in super slow motion. The sequence starts off at normal speed, ramps up in speed to a frenzy, and then slows down to a low frequency stupor, before rebounding to normal. The songs were not awe-inspiring, in general, and some dialogues bordered on being vulgar.

The stage and props remained quite static throughout, with not much in terms of visual impact. The literary impact, which must have been the main motivation behind making this a play, instead of letting it stay in the book that it originates from, was not terribly impressive either. I am sure I did not get all the subtle jokes, but before I denigrate myself too much, let me add that I did not want to go the show having done any homework. I went there to be entertained; if I did not catch all the subtle jokes, maybe they were too subtle. There was one piece of clever wordplay, where “what” is spelled by taking the w from a word where w is silent, h is taken from a word in which h is silent and so on. Such a “what” is never heard, claimed the contestant. Clever, but such cleverness would do just as well staying in a book. The theatre is supposed to be a feast for the eye and the ear, thought-provoking and awe-inspiring. This play does not manage to consistently meet such criteria, although it grazes those thresholds once in a while. There were some members from the audience who participate in the early stages of the spelling bee, providing some opportunity for seemingly impromptu, but potentially well-rehearsed, jokes, before their pre-planned elimination. Some of the commentary and references were from surprisingly recent political events. Participation by some members of the audience and this sensitivity to current news indicates that the script for the play lends itself to some modification and improvization.

Reviews I have read online were surprisingly positive, even rave, about the show. This is a small-budget production; maybe my expecting it to be comparable to the few other plays I have seen - “Phantom of the Opera”, “42nd Street” and “Annie Get Your Gun” - was wrong. However, even then, given that the tickets were priced just as any regular show would be ($21 to $70), I just did not guess that it would be a low-budget production. I am glad we did not buy more expensive tickets. I feel that plays are over-priced in the US. Except for one of the contestants walking into the audience throwing candy, most of the action was on the stage, which stayed pretty much unchanged as well. I do not see why I needed to go there in person to watch this show, when I could have probably seen it clearer, and, for less, on a DVD, feeling just as involved.

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Entering the US using an Advance Parole

January 3rd, 2008 admin

I have been using my H-1B Work Visa to enter the US the last few times I traveled abroad. A few days back I entered the US using an Advance Parole document, instead. I provide a few tips here for someone in the same situation. An hour or so before the inbound flight is expected to land in the US Port of Entry the airline staff will pass around a Customs Declaration form, a Visa Information form (white in color) and a Visa Waiver form (green in color). Everyone has to fill out the Customs Declaration form. Its purpose is to declare to the Customs official at the port of entry, how much money and what other goods you are bringing in to the US. It is straightforward to fill out and requires you to make some quick estimates about the value of the stuff you are bringing in. For the purposes of this form and the others, if you are traveling on an Advance Parole, you are a “resident”. That is, you are not a visitor and you are not a citizen. You do not have your Green Card yet, so you are not a permanent resident yet, but you still are considered a resident. The green, Visa Waiver form applies to some specific countries and the airline staff can help you identify if you need to fill that form. India is not one of those countries. Indians, traveling on either a visitor or work Visa, or an Advance Parole, will need to fill out the white, Visa form. A part of this form eventually becomes the I-94 card that is stapled to your passport by the immigration official at the port of entry. A question in the white Visa form ask for the place and date of Visa approval. I simply put in the place and date of the Advance Parole approval, since I was using that document instead of a Visa to reenter the country. After landing at the port, Newark, in my case, I went through the Immigration Check first. There are 2 separate groups of lines. One group is for US Citizens and Residents. Another is for visitors and other Visa holders (such as H-1B or F-1 visa). I went to the US Citizens and Residents line. This line is much shorter than the other one. An Immigration Officer checked my Advance Parole, Customs form, the white, Visa form and my passport, put them all into a clear plastic envelope and asked me to take those to another officer who would verify the Advance Parole details. I assume this is needed only for people traveling on Advance Parole, and not for Citizens or Permanent Residents (Green Card holders). I took an elevator down to this next officer. His cubicle was actually right next to the baggage claim carousels and I think their office also inspects luggage which fails customs clearance. After sitting for about 10 minutes in the waiting area there, the officer got to my envelope and called me over. He checked everything was good and gave me my stamped and dated Advance Parole original, the stamped and dated Customs Form, the stamped and dated I-94 stapled to my stamped and dated passport. Then I stepped out of that area, picked up my checked-in baggage from the baggage claim carousel and joined the customs inspection line. I handed over the Customs Declaration form to the officer there and walked out of there with my luggage. Some people were being diverted, along with their luggage, for a customs inspection. I am not sure if it was because their Customs Form was not stamped like mine was, or because they wanted to actually inspect something in the luggage because of what was declared by the traveler. The last step, in my case, was to re-check-in the check-in baggage and go through the security check again because I had a domestic flight to catch to get back to Raleigh. The re-check-in area was placed, conveniently enough, right after the Customs. So I could not miss it. My bags had been checked in all the way to Raleigh at Delhi itself. So I did not have to actually check-in again. I simply dumped by bags in the re-check-in area, where it was helped on to the moving luggage belt by a couple of guys. Then I walked a but further and noticed the long security check line to reenter the terminal. That was it. My international journey was over and the domestic journey began.

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In Phase Interview

September 30th, 2007 admin

A little over a month ago, Sourabh Sriom, a current student at Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, contacted me for an interview. IITG is where I earned my Bachelors degree. Our class, the class of 99, was the first to pass out of the new institution. The ECE Department at IITG has an ECE society called Cepstrum. On september 20th, 2007, Cepstrum released the first issue of the monthly magazine called In Phase. The purpose of In Phase is to both help the students be in touch with the happenings in their field, Electonics and Communications Engineering, and to help restore the social networks between alumni, faculty and students. I was honored to be asked for an interview. It helped me give the current students a view of how my career progressed, after graduating from IITG, and also helped me a chance to reflect on a few things. I would like to thank IITG and Cepstrum for giving me this opportunity. I also was pleased to see the continued support of the faculty at IITG, many of whom I studied under, in this endeavour. It was great to read Dr. P. K. Bora’s communication to the In Phase team, which appears in the magazine too. Here is the original link to the magazine, which appears in the Cepstrum webpage here. I also made a local copy of the magazine on my webpage here. Note that this is a 5.8MB pdf file. It might take some time to open up, and your browser needs to be able to open pdf files. A few questions and answers form my original response had to be removed due to space constraints in the magazine. If you just wish to read the interview questions and answers, the full interview follows.
1. Being a student of the 1st batch of our IIT, tell us about your apprehensions and pre-conceived notions, if any, about IITG.

From what I recollect about my state of mind then, I believe I was more excited than apprehensive. The opportunity to study at an institution where the quality of education, faculty, students and facilities was reputed to be at par with the best in the country excited me. My inclination was towards ECE as a subject area and I was only grateful that I could pursue that subject at IITG when I probably could not elsewhere, given my rank in the JEE. My only preconceived notions about IITG were that it would be a young institute looking to build itself, both in literal terms and in its beliefs and character. I knew it would be an institute that would not have much to show for itself in the first few years in brick and mortar terms. I also knew that when you put smart, motivated and courageous people - people who were smart enough to get into IITG, motivated enough to prioritize their area of academic interest over the place of study, and courageous enough to choose an hitherto unexplored destination – the chances are good that you will end up with an institution you can be proud of.

2. Did these feelings live up when you finally entered IITG? That is, how were your first few days at IITG?

The disappointment of seeing the small, unassuming, pale, four-storied building tucked in the cramped, commercial heart of the city, further isolated by the agonizing groans and rumbles of slow-moving trains on railway lines on one side, and the noisy arch of the Pan Bazaar flyover too close for comfort on another, could have been overwhelming; for me, however, there as no disappointment. The lack of a tangible, photographable campus with large buildings and facilities was probably compensated for, subconsciously, by trying harder to do the best we could with what we had. And what we had were a batch of 64 motivated students, great faculty and the hope that everything else an institution needs would come in due time. I think the one thing that IITG had from day one was fantastic people. And that takes care of the two main aspects of undergraduate education – developing academic skills and developing social skills.

3. Did you feel let down at any point during your stay here? (If, yes what or who boosted your confidence?)

No. I do not recollect feeling let down at any point. The reason might have, partly, been that I had nothing to compare our experiences to. But even in absolute terms, I think the IITG Administration was sensitive to our needs and were always receptive to our suggestions. Even when there were the occasional drooping shoulders, the administration, faculty members and other students would boost the morale by providing honest perspective.

4. Talk us through the experiences of the rest of your B. Tech, the faculty, other students, and, the placements.

We were lucky to have some highly motivated faculty members whose knowledge of their subject was thorough, and, enthusiasm for their craft, contagious. It was a pleasure to actively learn from them in the classroom and beyond. With 63 other students to begin with and with more joining in the future years, it was a non-stop learning experience in social behavior. The emotional support, comic relief, opinionated exchanges and lifelong friendships are experiences we students shared with each other and the faculty. The combination of our being in our late teens, the 4 years we were together for and the shared adventure that was IITG, might be the reason why the friendships made in those days are still so strong. The placements and higher studies are but a blur in my mind. I remember that even then we were able to attract some of the best companies and were offered good jobs with competitive pay.

5. What prompted you to go for higher studies abroad?

My main motivation for higher studies was that I felt I had only begun to skim the surface of my field and there was a lot more for me to learn. The other school of thought was that what you really need to learn you can learn while doing a job. Though that was true to the extent of doing your job well, I wanted to learn more for its own end. That is, I wanted to learn what great minds of the past had thought up or discovered, for no other reason than that I wanted to know. I had no plans for how I was going to use that knowledge. Why abroad? I wanted to explore the kind of academics and research that is practiced in other reputed institutions of the world. It was, in some sense, IITG all over again - the yearning to put yourself in a new situation, to, hopefully, gain a new perspective.

6. Did the department guide you in this goal of yours? If yes, then in what way?

Yes. Because we did not have any student history to go by, being the first batch, we had to research the process of applying for a PhD or a Master’s ourselves, to a large extent. We had faculty members who were extremely helpful in educating us on how to go about applying, how to attempt standardized tests for graduate school entrance, and which schools to choose, based on their experience and contacts. Lastly, they wrote us honest recommendation letters.

7. What were the major differences you felt graduating from a premier institute in India to doing your PG from a reputed university in the US?

I went to Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA for my Master’s in Electrical and Computer Engineering. It was a gigantic University compared to IITG and certainly a bit overwhelming. The size, the history and the bureaucracy were the first things I noticed. It worked like a giant machine with things happening like clockwork running on old but well-oiled and well-cared-for parts. However, I was able to find myself an apartment, make new friends, get a decent understanding of the geography of the large campus, get my head around the official rules and requirements, participate in a different culture, continue good performance in academics, and participate in sports and other extra-curricular activities. So all in all, I think IITG prepared me well to take up the new challenges in the new environment.

8. How did you land up in IBM? Tell us something about your stint there.

Similar to placement interviews at the end of a B.Tech at IITG, there was a job fest organized at Purdue University’s ECE Department. I interviewed with several companies and decided to get some exposure to the industry. I joined IBM, primarily, because of the company’s reputation, the breadth of knowledge the company seemed to possess and because the team that interviewed me seemed to be doing very interesting work. The main difference between academia and industry is that industry tries to channel research into an end product that is tangible, useful and therefore, sellable. IBM has a Research division too; however, the team I joined is part of Development. I work as a Future System Performance Engineer. My work deals with helping hardware designers and system architects optimize the design of a future computer system such that it performs the best it can, given various requirements, such as expected workloads, throughput and latency requirements, and constraints, such as the area and power budget, architectural or microarchitectural extensions allowed etc. I learn a lot of new things on the job and work with some very sharp people.

9. At what point during your job did you make up your mind to go for a PhD?

I noticed that high importance is given to innovative thinking at IBM. I realized that with better knowledge of the Computer Architecture field, I could not just solve the current design problems better, but more importantly, I could foresee future problems and try to incorporate that vision into the current solutions. I also noticed that in the region where I live and work, there were several good Universities and IBM management was always supportive and encouraging in allowing me to go back to school for either an MBA or a PhD. So after working for about 4 years at IBM, I applied to and joined North Carolina State University in Raleigh as a part-time PhD student. By then I had gotten a reasonable understanding of the types of design and technology constraints computer architects and hardware designers face in their work and the kind of solutions that make a product competitive in the market. I thought the time was right to look at the directions academia was taking in this field. Academia and Research are typically a few years ahead of the Industry and Development. Therefore, being in touch with academia allows you to see patterns that would be harder to see from within the industry.

10. How was research in ECE different from a job in the area?

Though I have not yet started serious research as part of my PhD, and am currently taking classes and only recently formed my Advisory Committee, I can give you my current view on this topic. Since I joined my PhD after some exposure to the industry, I can research a topic that is a new and interesting problem both in academia and industry. Such overlap is usually not perfect, but if research in an academic setting is guided to some extent by real problems faced by engineers, it leads to research that is more purposeful.

11. How would you compare India and the US in terms of opportunities in the ECE field?

Having limited exposure to the industry in India, I have to go by my understanding of what I have heard or read. I believe that India has a foot in the door to becoming a knowledge superpower. India is already a major player in the software and services industry. From being a middle-man providing support to the producers and the consumers, India is itself moving towards being a big producer and a big consumer. That is a significant shift, because as a producer you create value where it did not exist before, and as a consumer, you provide a reason for the producers to produce. India seems to be on the threshold of a gear change in this engine of value-creation and value-aware-demand. In ECE and related fields the differences in opportunities between the US and India will continue to shrink as long as India continues to take the opportunities that come her way and discover or create new opportunities on her own.

12. Would you like to share a piece of advice with our readers about how they should plan their career moves.

Based on my limited experiences, based on what has served me well, assuming a vast majority of the readers are students at IITG, and assuming a general guideline rather than a strict example is useful, my advice is, be honest and positive. By honest, I mean several things. Be forthright in your assessment of where you are, where you want to be, how to get there. Be a humble follower when you should be, and likewise, a confident leader when you should be. Be connected to reality by being aware of your thoughts, your motivations, your limitations, your duties and your actions. By positive I mean, most importantly, try to keep improving yourself. Try to do the best job in everything you do. How you define “improvement” or “best” depends on how honestly you can judge where you are and where you want to be. Try to improve that ability to judge as well. By positive I also mean be creative. Get into the habit of practicing your innate creativity. We have the brains and the training to actively create value, rather than passively consume it. Even when being a consumer be an active one. Be a good follower (active consumer) and be a good leader (active producer). Let the opportunity to partake in creativity guide your career moves.

13. Finally, a word for the very first people at IITG, the director, the faculty of the department, the HOD. I’m sure they all would be proud of you.

I am and have always been impressed by the positive energy of the IITG Administration and Faculty. In twelve short years the progress made by IITG has been remarkable and most of the credit should go to these nurturing souls. I am grateful and proud to have been, and still be, a part of IITG. I am positive it will continue to grow in stature and fulfill its role in shaping the world.

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Whaatay Wondraful!!

June 1st, 2007 admin

The old joke goes, “Are you ready?”. “No, I am Zail Singh.”. Zail Singh, a former President of India, misinteprets the question to mean “Are you Reddy?”, where Reddy refers to Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, the President of India prior to Zail Singh’s term. In any case, here, though Reddy was not part of a joke, he was responsible for keeping the jokes coming along at a fast clip thoughout the weekend. Sandeep Reddy’s non-stop nonsense, off-the-cuff lines kept us all in good spirits. His “Whaatay wondraful!” or “What it is?” or “No way! Jose.” or the dozens of other mimicry/impersonations of popular phrases were inimitable. Nandu’s “Let’s make a U-turn”, “Let’s all calm down” and his forays into telegu literature (restricted to “Aithey?”, “Ouna?”, “Yenti?” etc, through sheer self-control), or my “Have a happy” also come to mind as other quotes that were overheard during the trip.

Memorial Day weekend, 2007, was May 26th , 27th and 28th. Kavita and I left Raleigh on Friday evening, May 25th, and reached Cincinnati at 9:30 PM. Sandeep and Gayatri picked us up while Nandu and Shalini picked up the 7-seater, Hyundai Entourage, which we were to use for our trip to Gatlinburg the next morning. The occasion was the yearly reunion that Mili organizes and this year we had 20 members participating. Mili and Sandeep live in Florence, Kentucky and people (related or otherwise, like us) converged onto Florence from places as varied as California(Nandu and Gayatri), Chicago(Kavita akka, Kanth uncle, Shalini, Ashwini, Kavita akka’s brother Karthik and Kavita akka’s parents), Anderson, Indiana(Uma auntie, Guna Uncle, Deepak and Guna uncle’s sister), Kansas City(Varun, Sushant and Prasanna) and Raleigh(Anil and Kavita). The influx went on until 4:30 AM on Saturday. The venue of this gathering changes every year and this time it was decided that after initially coverging at Florence, the group would head to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, which is at the northern foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.

Friday night, when we got home, dinner preperations were going on, although mostly done - Grilled vegetables on skewers, barbeque chicken, vegetable biryani, Raita, bottle Gourd curry and Sandeep’s ‘hit’ dessert made from Marie biscuits stacked together side by side with cocoa and cream sealing them together. After the wonderful dinner, our hostess, Mili, clarified what everyone’s sleeping arrangements were, and everyone prepared to get some sleep, although I hear from Kavita that they were talking deep into the night.

We left at 7:30 AM on Saturday in 4 cars, after a thankfully brief discussion of whether to fit 20 people into 3 cars and save both gas (which is hovering around $3 a gallon) and the communication/co-ordination overhead, or, to take 4 cars and pay the extra price but get some flexibility with space in the cars. We wisely decided on the latter. 7:30 AM was surprisingly nimble-footed for a group with the inertia that 20 people generate. Mili, Uma auntie, Kavita akka and her mom took care of the kitchen activities with utmost efficiency. Throughout the trip they made sure we all got our morning teas or coffees, breakfast, lunches and dinners. In whatever was prepared in the kitchen, there was usually a range of choices, no repeats, and everything was prepared with gusto, speed and expertise.

In our car (a 7-seater van to be more accurate) were Sandeep and Mili, Nandu and Gayatri, Kavita and I, and 11 year old Shalini, aka Shalu or Leany. The drive, both during the onward and return journies was smooth sailing except in the vicinity of Gatlinburg. Sandeep’s Garmin, his portable GPS (Global Positioning System), would show exemplary patience, calculating and recalculating routes for us even when we missed innumerable exits and turns. Enchanted by the patient, sagely, mastery of the roads, Sandeep referred to “her” as his girlfriend, Garmin Electra. (By the way, there is a real actor by the name Carmen Electra.) However, by the time we got to our cabin, the relationship was a disaster. Sandeep lost his faith in Garmin Electra’s sense of direction and “patience being a virtue” notwithstanding, conceded that she took us for a ride towards the end. After countless U-turns on steep, hilly roads, we somehow got to our lodge two hours behind schedule. The U-turns were lent an added dimension of thrill because there were three other vehicles in tow and the ‘leader’, me in this case, had to keep them in mind when making any U-turn decisions or pull-over decisions.

The lodge at “Gatlinburg Hills” resort was a full-fledged, all-furnished house with 4 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, 3.5 bathrooms, 3 balconies with rocking chairs and one with a hot tub where Shalini and Ashwini had a great time and an entire floor devoted to the entertainment/game room with a pool table, a video-game machine, an air-hockey table, a big screen TV, a long L-shaped couch and a 2-storey bunk-bed. On Saturday, after reaching the lodge, we mainly relaxed. We had an early, yet sumptuous, dinner, which mainly Kavita akka and Uma auntie expressly prepared. Dinner included sambar, rasam, curd-rice, egg-curry etc. Later we enjoyed a short walk downhill to the rental office for the luxury homes, came back and played a lot of games in the game room. Eventually, everyone retired for a night of well-deserved sleep. I slept on the lower level of the bunk bed in the game-room.

On Sunday, we woke up a little late to make up for the lack of sleep everyone subjected themselves to the previous night, thanks to the excitement of seeing old and new faces. The checkout time was 10 AM, so we all got ready and had a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs, tea or coffee, and upma. Once we were all ready, packed and loaded, and after we completed a final inspection of the lodge to make sure we were leaving it in good shape, we checked out of it on time. Then we drove towards Clingman’s Dome. We stopped along the way at several lookout points as our cars began the climb into the hills. There was a beautiful creek that the road was never too far from, for a while, during the drive. We stopped and went up to the creek at one spot and took some pictures there. We took about an hour to reach the Clingman’s Dome parking area, from where a 20 minute hike took us to the highest point in the Smokies. The lookout tower on the Clingman’s Dome point had a long spiral ramp that allowed us to get to the lookout platform, which gave us a 360 degree view of the Smokies around us. The point is at a height of 6643 feet, the highest point in the Smokies and the second highest point in the US, east of the Mississippi river. Also, half the hill is in Tenessee and half in North Carolina. So in one way, Kavita and I went from North Carolina to Florence, Kentucky twice this weekend and came back twice this weekend. On the way back down to the parking lot from the Clingman’s Dome tower, Gaay suggested we take a hiking trail called the Appalachian Trail, instead of walking down the same paved path that we came up on. Some of us were up to it and took the trail, the others, especially elders and children, went down the regular paved path. Many of us taking the trail were not sure it would eventually get us back to the parking lot, but gauging Gaay’s confidence, decided to be obedient followers. After Clingman’s Dome we drove down to downtown Gatlinburg where we took the “Sky Lift” (chairlift) trip up a different hill. With our feet dangling in the air, and the landscape we crossed including a large creek, it was a fun ride. Sandeep and Mili in the chair in front and Nandu in the chair behind our’s (Kavita and mine) kept us good company. Kavita was semi-petrified, clung on the the chair and refused to turn around when Nandu wanted to take a picture.

The return drive, for the most part, was uneventful. We did spend a lot of time getting out of Gatlinburg because Garmin Electra was still confused and we did not have good maps. We were late enough that it did not make sense to try and return the car the same day and pay late charges. So, Sandeep called Hertz and extended the rental by a day for the same daily rate ($71, I think). Nandu and I shared the driving while Sandeep navigated. Kavita and Gaay’s murmuring could be only faintly overheard as it deflected the beautiful strummings of Simon and Garfunkel, whose music we played.

Monday was a relaxed day. The families/groups left one by one. Nandu took care of the rental and the gas for the van throughout the rental. Sandeep took care of paying for the lodge, the groceries etc. Kanth Uncle had paid for the Sky Lift tickets. Monday morning we decided to let Sandeep get back to all of us with the expense report and payment options later. Overall, in spite of the the minor driving direction fiascos, rental extension etc., it was a good break from work and life. I had semi-voluntarily (upon Kavita’s request) decided to not carry my laptop during this trip. My cell phone decided to use the opportunity and die on Friday evening. So I was disconnected from the rest of the world in more ways than one. A few minutes of checking email and cricket score on Kanth uncle’s laptop, Sunday night, were my only contact with the outside world. As we await the flight to Raleigh, to start boarding at Gate C3, at Charlotte’s Douglas International Airport, I look back at the last few days as a happy experience where I met lots of wonderful people, saw a beautiful part of the country, relaxed and refreshed myself for summer 2007. Next year’s meet might be in San Francisco, Yellow Stone National Park or Raleigh. Nandu, of course, wants an advance notice in case it is in SFO, so that he can make other arrangements and sneak out before the troops show up.

Anil Krishna
May 28th, 2007

Pictures from this trip are here

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Visiting the Somanis

May 21st, 2007 admin

It is Sunday evening, May 20th, 2007. Kavita and I are currently driving back home to Cary, North Carolina, after a weekend with Sandeep and Anu Somani in Maryland, and Tarun and Sarmishtha Pruthi, who drove down from Cleveland. The main motivation for the trip was Tarun’s commencement ceremony at University of Maryland, College Park, which drew the Pruthis down. We wanted to use this opportunity to meet with them all, and so we drove up from Cary to Columbia, Maryland. Kavita’s Pontiac Vibe has a 100W, 110V power outlet built into the dashboard, which makes it easy for me to use this time, sitting in the passengers’ seat, to recollect or form my thoughts about the last few days, type them out on my laptop, free from any concerns about the battery in my octogenarian (in computer years) laptop running out.

The weekend with friends was relaxing and enjoyable thanks especially to some excellent, yet almost unnoticed work by our hostess, Anu. Kavita and I reached Friday night around 11:30 PM, stifling away yawns the entire second half of the 5-hour drive. It had been a long day for both of us. I had several long drives that day even before embarking on the one to Maryland - drive to work, then to NC State to meet Dr. Gehringer, and finally to UNC to pick up Kavita. A few minutes after we reached, Tarun and Sarmishtha reached the Somani residence. Seeing them all, the aches and sleepiness of the journey, and the entire day, slowly evaporated. The night returned more than the lost evening hours, turning younger, refueling our energies. The chatter of catching-up cheerfully filled the air. The night, with wives’ reporting on their newly discovered traits of their respective husbands to each other, and the husbands, selectively reflective, selectively opaque, enjoying the harmless jabs, drifted on until about 4:30 AM. Even then, in that state between sleep and waking, as practical considerations of plans for the next morning waged small battles in every mind with the anticipatory urge to spend just a few more minutes to relate one more story, it was hard to notice, let alone resist, the soothing and welcoming shoulder of sleep. Through individual failings or general consensus, sleep, deemed inescapable, was respectfully accepted.

The highlights of Saturday were the ladies going out together for pedicures, manicures, facials and other such maintenance procedures, apparently required for continued warranty coverage, the men breakfasting at the Double T Diner and, later, discovering new muscles in their body after playing squash in a racquetball court (the discovery followed the play by a few hours for took that long for the soreness to set in), a wonderful lunch of exquisitely decorated dahi-vadas, black gram curry, jeera (cumin-seed) rice, poppadams (rice crisps) and almond pudding thanks to Anu, and, an evening visit to downtown Washington DC, where after enjoying a stroll through Dupont Circle, Claude’s photo shop, a couple of coffee shops and swinging to street jazz, Dr. Tarun Pruthi treated us all to dinner at Taberna Del Alabardero, celebrating the completion of his PhD. Earlier, during the day, Sandeep and I also planned to go to see the famous Preakness horse race. We eventually gave up after a call to the racecourse informed us that only General Admission tickets were available, were $25, and would only allow us to see the horses on monitors.

The first highlight of Sunday was a trip to an IHOP (International House of Pancakes) near College Park, for breakfast, where exceptionally long lines and unavailability of a table in spite of making a reservation, forced Sandeep to generate a brain wave, suggesting we go to a nearby Hindu temple, where we could also eat. Manish Saxena (Mau) and his wife, Archana, also joined us at IHOP. We all headed to the temple, had “darshan” followed by lunch. We did start out with breakfast in mind, but settled on using a more appropriate name for the eating performed at the temple, with a sincere regard for time. The second highlight of Sunday was a visit to IKEA, the Scandinavian furniture/home-furnishings store, which due to its sparse locations across the country, and due to its cheap, yet good decoration ideas and furniture, is often on our list of places to visit when in the Baltimore area. In the morning, Tarun had to also, in parallel to the activities of the others, exchange his convocation gown because Sandeep, who was supposed to pick up the gown and cap for Tarun, mistakenly reported Tarun to be 5 foot 10 inches in height. The gown Sandeep picked, therefore, did not fit the 5 foot 7 inches frame of Tarun’s when he eventually tried it, although, interestingly enough, the cap fit perfectly. We attributed Tarun’s PhD to his disproportionately bigger head. He did manage to get a correct-fitting gown today. Tarun and Sarmishtha headed out for the convocation ceremony by around 6 PM, and Kavita and I, started our return journey around the same time.

Of course, Anu, starting Friday night itself, prepared or arranged for tea and snacks or other beverages for all of us, at regular intervals. Everyone was quite appreciative of my photography experiments using my Canon Rebel XT, and everyone was quite content to let me click around as they played scrabble, or sipped their drinks, or generally displayed a range of natural emotions. I, in my role as a cameraman, was ignored, and I was thankful for it, just as I am currently, in my role as a writer.

The sun is setting to my right, as we hurtle down I-95. Tomorrow is another day, in another week, in another May, of another few lives. Not a big deal, this weekend, nothing to write back home about, but then, I did think it was special in its own circumstance, in its unplanned, uneventful, unsurprising way. I did decide to write about it.

Anil Krishna
May 20, 2007

Pictures from this trip are here

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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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Red Bull Energy Drink … still waiting for the kick

September 28th, 2005 admin

Today was the last day to use the $2 coupon at the cafeteria. I had gotten my lunch from home. I was strolling through the cafeteria looking for the best way to spend my two bucks, when I noticed a few of these Red Bull cans sitting in an ice bucket. Having never tried this drink, I picked one up, hoping it would be a little over a buck and thus covered by the coupon. It turned out to be 2.13$ for this tiny 250ml can. “It better be good”, I thought. I popped the cap and tasted it on my way back to my office. It was certainly audacious of the company to sell such bad tasting stuff, for over two bucks! “This stuff must be real effective”, I thought, to be able to pull off something like this. I had my lunch about a half hour ago at my desk and then drank the potion. Execpecting miraculous, magic-potion-of-Asterix-like changes, I read some about the drink. It is made in Austria. It has taurine. Sounds bullish, but I learnt everything in the drink is manufactured in a lab. It has a few other ingredients that supposedly “vitalize the body and mind”. The website claimed that having this drink at times when you need to concentrate, or be highly reactive and enthusiastic, like before taking a mid-term examination, can be highly effective. Well its been more than a half hour. The only transformation I feel is the cough-syrup taste in my mouth is finally gone and I feel a little wiser. “Red Bull” (”read bull”), is 8.3 Fl Oz of wisdom.

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