my life in a blog

Gandhi Jayanti celebration at Central Market?

2010-10-01T21:47:00.001-05:00

Thought it was interesting to see Central Market celebrate Gandhi's birthday. Even more intriguing is the band "Bollywood Shake"

NYTimes: The Bomb Chroniclers

2010-09-13T18:34:00.001-05:00

While the photography is amazing it just further restates humankind's destructive nature.

From The New York Times:

The Bomb Chroniclers

A secret corps of moviemakers risked their lives to make 6,500 films documenting the power of atomic bombs.

http://nyti.ms/9osFRU

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes

Where is the Cheerio?

2010-06-01T10:10:00.001-05:00

Where is the Cheerio?
Originally uploaded by sanjoyg.

I can smell it but where is it?

Garage cleanup

2010-05-15T22:26:00.007-05:00

Garage cleanup
Originally uploaded by sanjoyg.

I think I have more of the nesting instincts then my wife as we get
closer to d-day.

Here is the before state of the garage...

Garage cleanup

2010-05-15T22:26:00.005-05:00

Garage cleanup
Originally uploaded by sanjoyg.

I think I have more of the nesting instincts then my wife as we get
closer to d-day.

Here is the before state of the garage...

Garage cleanup

2010-05-15T22:26:00.003-05:00

Garage cleanup
Originally uploaded by sanjoyg.

I think I have more of the nesting instincts then my wife as we get
closer to d-day.

Here is the before state of the garage...

Garage cleanup

2010-05-15T22:26:00.001-05:00

Garage cleanup
Originally uploaded by sanjoyg.

I think I have more of the nesting instincts then my wife as we get
closer to d-day.

Here is the before state of the garage...

Lester saying goodbye

2010-04-03T12:59:00.001-05:00

Lester saying goodbye
Originally uploaded by sanjoyg.

40 acres Lester bidding us farewell as our neighbors move out.

Wi-Fi at 35000 feet

2009-09-22T22:20:00.001-05:00

Wi-Fi at 35000 feet
Originally uploaded by sanjoyg.

My question is "what took them so long?"

But it's here. Wifi from Gogo Inflight Internet for $7.95 for the
entire flight. Definitely worth it if your flying a few hours.

Interesting to read that they ask passengers to "stick to emails and
respectful Internet browsing".

So some sites like aa.com and WSJ headlines is free.

India vs the US: A Visual Comparison

2009-09-11T11:33:00.001-05:00

India vs the US: A Visual Comparison

Posted using ShareThis

Using a Mobile Boarding Pass

2009-08-21T10:32:00.001-05:00

Tried out the "mobile boarding pass" this past week and I love it!!

I skeptically opted for the mobile option when checking in online. The airlines sent a link to a webpage that had my flight information and a special square barcode. At the security checkpoint I confidently enlarged the webpage and placed the barcode against the reader and voilà! There was my flight information. Off I was on my maiden flight with a truly electronic boarding pass.

No more printing or queuing up at airline kiosks. Just flashing my iPhone and jetting away. One more way to help the environment - especially if it catches on with all smartphone users.

Dog of the Day

2009-08-05T12:58:00.007-05:00

Kaloo got the distinct recognition of being the "Dog of the Day" at his training/day-care facility yesterday.

The writeup reads...
"This handsome Border Collie mix recently started the Train-and-Play program at Taurus Lamar, and we’re all so happy to meet him. He was a little unsure on his first day but, as you can see from his picture, he loosened up quickly and has become quite the jokester in the play yards. Whether soaking up all the new knowledge like a sponge, goofing around with his buddies, or getting some TLC from our techs, you can bet he’s having fun. We’re looking forward to watching this guy learn and grow even more over the next several weeks!"

We were proud parents "awwwing" at the post. He looks so goofy and cute. Looks like the little guy is having a whole lot of fun in school (and learning a few good things).

He's been to 2 training sessions and we already see a big improvement in his behavior and focus. We just started using the Pinch collar (also known as the German collar) for training him to heel and not chase after cats, birds and squirrels during walks. At first we were a bit apprehensive at the metal chain but he definitely responded well and didn't show any discomfort. In fact now he is ever more excited when the collar comes out for he knows it's time for a walk. Hopefully in another month or two he won't need the collar at all.

He is always so eager to learn and please that it's hard to see him not evolving into an excellent canine citizen.

Why Dunkin' is hanging in there

2009-07-30T05:23:00.001-05:00

Why Dunkin' is hanging in there
Originally uploaded by sanjoyg.

6am at Newark airport this Dunkin' Donuts is bustling with business.
They can hardly keep up with the constant slew of people looking for
their morning fix. What is surprising is that the original donut store
has a more diversified menu that includes egg croissants, bagels and
flatbread sandwiches. In fact I noticed bigger lines at Dunkin' then
McDs next door. This one chain is changing with time. And they have
better cheaper coffee then that Seattle brand.

Java's world record in eating

2009-07-26T14:15:00.001-05:00

Java's world record in eating
Originally uploaded by sanjoyg

And I missed the initial 10 secs where Java spills the food around to
give herself some room to move around. She is inhaling the kibbles.
It's hillarious.

Toys or more toys

2009-07-24T10:58:00.001-05:00

Toys or more toys
Originally uploaded by sanjoyg.

The life of a growing dog is summed up in "which toy do I play with
now?". It's either playtime or sleepytime for them. There is no
inbetween. Life is a constant rollercoaster ride of chasing, chewing
and crashing.

My Loopt Journal

2009-07-24T09:36:00.001-05:00

Sign up for Loopt at www.loopt.com

Grocery Shopping

2008-06-14T20:24:00.006-05:00

Picking mangos at the Whole Foods HQ in Austin. I'm always so impressed by there presentation. Ma and Baba seem to be enjoying this place. We'll definitely miss them once they are gone.

Movie Review: The Happening

2008-06-14T10:54:00.004-05:00

Ever since M. Knight's first movie I have eagerly gone for the first day's showing of his movies and have been disappointed each and ever time. You would think I would have learned by now. But no - I went into the show a bit skeptical but hopeful.

After an hour and half came out thinking "What just happened?" There was nothing happening in this movie. And whatever did happen made very little sense. The only creative part of the movie were some of the death scenes. A bit gruesome for some people. But apart from that the movie had no real story. It began on an arbitrary timeline and ended just as arbitrarily leaving me wanting my hour and half back.

I'm not sure what the writer/director was thinking when making this movie. Did he ever wonder whether this story made any sense or not. I appreciate the paranormal but I expect the story to be intelligent and raise my curiosity. Not to come out dumbfounded at the wasted time and money.

Please don't go see this movie. Instead go watch "Kung Fu Panda". It's awesome.

Back in Vegas

2008-06-10T12:42:00.001-05:00

After a long hiatus I'm back in Vegas and this time for business. As
expected the skyline has changed (yet again). Newer chique looking
hotels and condos are up. I notice billboards for newer shows. From
Elton John to Cher everyone seems to be performing here. But mixed
among the "classy" elements is the sleaze.

Vegas is the epitomy of human opulence intertwined with creativity.
Where single hotels mimic large cities (to the exact ratios). Where
humanity has created a make belief world that for a brief moment might
take away people's mind from the daily grind. Its surreal and at times
intoxicating. I can only take Vegas in small doses.

My sentiments on the new Indiana Jones movie

2008-05-22T11:49:00.001-05:00

So this is taken from one user critic on Yahoo....
"The Indy movies have always been about adventure, mystery and history; this film loosely bases it's plot on the Roswell, NM crash of 1947, so you have some history. From there it becomes a jumbled mess and doesn't recapture any of the magic that makes Indy great. Gone is the research, creativity, problem solving, and pieces of the puzzle to assemble. In it's place is the rambling of a crazy man whom only Indy seems to understand, supposedly because of his interaction with the skull.

Indy's fear of snakes is revisited, but just doesn't seem as fun as in previous films... maybe he's just getting used to seeing snakes in stressful situations? Instead of bugs or rats, we have ants gone wild. However, all we know is that they're big and that there's lots of them - we don't get an eerie or gory story about what kind of killer or poisonous ants they might be. It's almost thrown in as an afterthought - it's benchmark status compromised."

I unfortunately fall into this camp. I was expecting an archaeological adventure, where ancient myths discovered, clues to a puzzle and then obviously a lot of chases between the good and bad guys. I didn't mind that at the end there was sci-fi twist to the movie but just wanted something where he was more engaged in solving. And then I think the chemistry between Harrison Ford and Shia could have been better. I actually enjoyed the interactions between Sean Connery and Harrison Ford more then this latest chapter.

Anyways, not to be overly critical. It was entertaining and well worth the midnight showing.

Reuters.com - Obamas earned $4.2 mln in 2007: tax return

2008-04-17T01:09:00.002-05:00

Can the millionaire's club really find the solution to improving the lives of those who are working at minimum wage? It's not like these people are super successful CEOs or Economists. They are successful politicians. Successful rich politicians. So can we trust them?

I loved this from another story on Reuters... "Obama and his rival for the Democratic nomination, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, have accused McCain of being economically illiterate and out of touch with ordinary Americans' pocketbook concerns." And how can I be sure Obama who's earned more in one year then most will earn in their life understands the need of the "common American".

Also what this article has enlightened me on - writing books (irrespective of the quality of writing) is a good way to earn a lot of money.

MSF Treats Kala Azar in Bihar, India

2008-04-14T10:06:00.002-05:00

"In Bihar, India, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) treats people living amid the world's highest concentration of visceral leishmaniasis, also known as kala azar."

As much as I am proud and grateful for MSF to be working towards saving lives in neglected areas of India, I feel like this epitomizes what India has achieved in this new millennium. While the country boasts four billionaires in the top ten list of the richest in the world (according to a recent list published by Forbes), we require international relief agencies to provide basic health care to those in need. Unfortunately I don't see prosperity in my country. I see the ever increasing dichotomy between the rich and poor where those who have made it big spend their money on billion dollar homes, and those who haven't been as fortunate await their plight and hope that maybe an organization like MSF, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation or perhaps a NRI foundation will come to their rescue.

I know there are quite a few generous Indians living in India. However, in a country with a thriving middle and upper middle-class (that numbers almost close to the population of the US) what are we doing wrong if we cannot provide basic health care to the population? And what teachings do our business leaders provide to the next generation by demonstrating such opulence and extravagance. So much for their Harvard degrees. Wish they would take a course from the Buffett's and Gate's of the world. Where has our humanity and humility gone?

Movie Review: The Forbidden Kingdom

2008-04-11T13:29:00.004-05:00

A couple of us were lucky enough to catch a sneak peek of this much awaited movie last night. This is the first time (and maybe the last time) we see two of the most famous martial arts actors - Jet Li and Jackie Chan together in a movie.

Before the show began one of the martial arts school in Austin provided a demonstration in the front of the theater. Given the space they had to work with it was real impressive to see some of their moves.

The movie begins. We are on the second row with the big screen towering over us like a skyscraper. I found it odd that the screen was not curved. Naren brought us a big tub of popcorn. Yum. As with most epic Chinese Kung Fu movie, the story starts with more a mythological character. And there is Jet Li (in some hairy makeup) fighting some bad guys while flying through the sky. I'm already digging this. There's nothing like watching a martial arts movie and being fed popcorn by my wife. There's a daughter of a friend of friend sitting a couple of seats down. She is probably 2-3 years old. She eyes the popcorn and starts inviting herself to some from John's hands. She wants more. John builds her a personal paper bag for her own popcorn. He can hardly keep up filling the bag as she enjoys the crunchy buttery goodness. Alright we were a bit distracted watching this cute little kid munch on popcorn. Back to the movie.

I won't bore you with what the story is about. I'll tell you what I thought of the movie.

I thought the movie had all the classical martial arts details with a modernized plot line that involved western characters. Moreover the story kept me engrossed with it's light humor (thanks mainly to Jackie Chan) and cool stunts. The closeup fight sequence was as expected very well done - but then again we can expect nothing less from these two masters. I can't say that there was any new stylization in the movie. It's all been done before. Just that this time you saw Jet Li and Jackie Chan together kicking some bad guys butts. So as long as you like Hong Kong martial arts movie, you will most likely enjoy this one. Oh, the kid actually has a bigger role then I had imagined. In fact he is the main character! That added a bit of a nostalgic touch to it. Reminded me of Karate Kid.

मेरा पहेला हिन्दी पोस्ट

2008-04-11T13:10:00.003-05:00

यह सिर्फ़ एक टेस्ट है। देखने चाहता हूँ गूगल के "transliteration software" कैसे काम करते है। मई तो ताजूब हो गिया के कितने अच्छे काम करते है। अभी सिर्फ़ बंगाली में चाहिए।

Homemade Pizza

2008-04-11T10:53:00.003-05:00

I have to say making pizza at home is so much more fun then picking up the phone and ordering. And the toppings can be anything you want them to be! For this week's pizza night we made two "gourmet" pizza. Both had a base of tomato and Alfredo sauce. Then Aruna had just cooked up some paneer (cottage cheese) with onions and leftover salsa that had corn and beans. Just that by itself was delicious. Top that with mushrooms, green peppers, sun-dried tomatos and mozzarella and you got yourself the ultimate vegetarian pizza. On the other we changed it a bit by putting some shredded chicken (from a can) cooked with some onions and ketchup (yes ketchup) and then added pineapples and jalapeno as additional toppings. Baked at 475 for about 15 mins and we had ourselves the most delicious pizza I have ever had. And I'm sure it cost us a lot less then what any pizza joint would cost. I really can't take any credit for this as it was all my wife's doing. I just recommended some of the toppings.

How to achieve your childhood dreams

2008-04-10T11:20:00.002-05:00

I do sometimes wonder why such good people who have so much to offer to the world are taken away from us so quickly. It seems unfair to those who are left behind.

Professor Pausch's lecture at CMU for me was about getting grounded on what is core to us. It's life. It's how we live life, what we do with our life and with whom we spend it. Everything else that we sometimes get so caught up on is meaningless. All the negative emotions that we feel for ourselves and others is simply a waste of time. And time we don't have a lot of. It's about living in the present and living well where if we had to part with this world today, we would not have any regrets of how we led our life.

So live for now. Be good to others. Take stride on the road to achieving your dreams now. Don't wait for tomorrow to show your affection to those you love and care.

I firmly believe in getting a refresher course like this in grounding myself on my principles of life and refocus on what is "truly important".

I do wish that he is able to continue the battle and live a bit longer.

Movie Reviews: "No Country for Old Men" & "I am Legend"

2008-03-30T20:43:00.004-05:00

I finally started to get caught up with movies. The past two weekends we saw "I am Legend" starring Will Smith and "No Country for Old Men", the movie that won a gazillion oscars this year.

Drastically different movies but both were thoroughly enjoyable. I thought Will Smith did an excellent job in "I am Legend". In my opinion, it's extremely difficult to keep an audience captivated when the story is primarily centered around one individual character's story. In this movie the actor and director were able to keep engrossed throughout the 2 hours. It was suspenseful, intriguing and highly entertaining. I thought that they could have spent a few more minutes towards building up the character of Will Smith's but all in all I thought it was good movie. I'm sure if I were to do some deep analysis I'd find holes in the plot but what's the point. All in all a good 2 hours spent.

"No Country for Old Men" was disturbing at first and then confusing. Javier Bardem did an excellent job of being the cold blooded psycho killer. The suspense of the chase was gripping. But then there were these dialogues (mostly with Tommy Lee Jones) where there was all this questioning about life, age, and who knows what else. I liked the movie as a whole, but I can't say I was as interested about the philosophical aspect. It's definitely worth a watch. You just need a stomach for graphic killings.

Homeowners now!

2008-03-26T11:27:00.003-05:00

Entering our new home!
Originally uploaded by sanjoyg.

Wow! We own a house. It's still hard to believe that we started the year by just looking for another place to rent, preferably cheaper. After many unsuccessful attempts at finding a rental property that's actually reasonably priced and well maintained we decided to see what the condo market in Austin had to offer. After all, we were in a national housing slump.

Although the Austin market has cooled down quite a bit, it's not exactly in a slump. If you don't know the condo market in Austin has been crazy over the past few years with high-rise residential buildings coming up almost everyday along the shores of Lake Austin. The downtown landscape has changed dramatically in the last few years. And most of this is supposedly caused by empty nesters wanting to move back to central Austin, investors and young professionals who want to live the downtown life. After looking at a couple of condos we realized that even condos have their drawbacks. First off, the prices have not cooled off, at-least not for Austin standards, and those that we could "afford" did not necessarily have that "wow" factor. And then you have astronomical HOA fees and sometimes even parking issues. After a weekend or two of looking at condos we quickly shifted our search to houses in central Austin.

Working with Lisa (who is an expert for central Austin) we started searching for a place we can call home. It was an exciting yet exhaustive process. For us novices in the art of house hunting, we had a roller coaster ride of emotions. Staying up late night, excitedly viewing the virtual galleries of houses on the Internet. Driving by properties dreaming of what might be our house. Disappointed to see that the pictures were better then the real thing. Sometimes disappointed to realize that what we liked, where we liked was not affordable by our standards. It was one such late afternoon after viewing a few houses that we were just driving by a neighborhood when we came across this quaint little cottage. My wife immediately loved it. She excitedly called up Lisa. I think we were sold by the back porch of the house. We saw ourselves spending many an afternoon reading under the trees. Viewing the inside we realized that there was definitely some drawbacks to the place. The kitchen was a "bit" outdated and small. The bathroom was dark and dingy. On the bright side the house had lots of windows and natural light.

Although we did not immediately jump to write up an offer we always had this house in mind and over the next few weeks we would always return back to this house to see what we needed or wanted to do to make it our home. Within a few weeks with no other homes coming into the market we started working the numbers to see if this with some work could be our home. We loved the location. Blocks from parks, grocery stores, restaurants and shops it is central living just in the outskirts of downtown.

So here we are, 3 months after starting to look for a place to live, owning our first home. She will need a bit of loving and care but we have rolled up our sleeves and ready to make the plunge into renovating a 1947 cottage. We don't want her to lose her charm so we are carefully considering any renovation and extension we do. Now the fun begins!

Homes of the world’s billionaires

2008-03-25T10:43:00.000-05:00

Homes of the world’s billionaires - Today Technology & Money - TODAYshow.com

You just have to love Warren Buffett for his simplicity in life. The man has all this money yet chooses to live in Omaha, Nebraska in a house that he's owned for 50 years! Interesting to see how the richest people splurge on their homes.

Also check out the youngest billionaires. It's impressive to see the handful of self-made billionaires.

Kashmir - A Troubled Paradise

2008-03-24T13:17:00.000-05:00

Pictures taken by Ami Vitale while she spent 5 years in Kashmir, photographing the lives of people living in the valley. A moving kaleidoscope of all emotions of life in a war-torn troubled region. From time to time I have to ask the question whether 80,000 lives have been worth the land we hold on to. I try to convince myself that for the greater security of India, this region is a necessity. Sometimes I do feel like we should do whatever it takes to end this war. It's a waste of money and if Kashmir's so-called 'freedom' will earn us peace in the region then let's do it. But then again who can guarantee peace. Unfortunately the intentions of all have to be the same and that is yet to proven.

Reuters photojournalists bear witness to five years in Iraq

2008-03-24T10:57:00.002-05:00

The pictures are moving, unnerving, gruesome and at times unbelievable. Our race’s thirst for violence is so pronounced when you see these images. Have we really not learned anything from history? This is a great capture by the Reuters team on a war that has no end in sight.

Weekend in Houston

2008-03-22T18:54:00.003-05:00

Hanging out with the Mathias's. BBQ by the pool.

Time to open up an electronics store in Cuba

2008-03-13T16:01:00.001-05:00

Cuba lifts ban on computer and DVD player sales | Technology | Reuters

I had no idea there was such a strict ban. I mean no electronics. Can't imagine such laws in place in a country. Imagine reading about new innovations (such as a toaster!), having the financial capability to invest in such and yet not being able to due to government bans. Just cannot imagine living in a country like that.

It's interesting to see how the government is phasing the introduction of electronics so that the demands can be met by their energy supplies. Imagine if that wasn't the case. Next day headline reads "Toasting bread toasts Cuba's power grid".

Researchers Develop Self-Cleaning Clothes

2008-02-26T10:41:00.000-06:00

Slashdot | Researchers Develop Self-Cleaning Clothes

So I'm envisioning in the future water-less washers that provide a burst of UV light onto our clothes to clean them. That would definitely be environmentally friendly.

Southern Methodist University to House Bush Presidential Library - washingtonpost.com

2008-02-22T14:36:00.000-06:00

Southern Methodist University to House Bush Presidential Library - washingtonpost.com

I can't help but chuckle at first. I am picturing papers where the writing is in big flowing letters, reminding me of my 6 year old nephew. And then drawings of funny pictures that he may have sketched during meetings with world leaders.

Just had to comment since this has been an entertaining presidency, although it has cost me as an individual tens of thousands of dollars as the economy is in the dumpster.

Some of the discussion papers around going into the Iraq war should be an interesting read.

Gore, U.N. climate panel win Nobel Peace Prize

2007-10-12T10:43:00.000-05:00

Woke up to a surprising news - Albert Gore has won the Nobel Peace Prize. I am happy for the fact that he has raised awareness through a very effective medium - film and speeches. But was the effort so outstanding that it deserved a Nobel Peace Prize or is there just nobody there who's worked harder over the years in developing peace and stability in our world?

I was looking for a definition for the Peace Prize but could not find one. Here's what the Nobel Prize web site has to say -
"Henry Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, shared the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 with Frédéric Passy, a leading international pacifist of the time. In addition to humanitarian efforts and peace movements, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded for work in a wide range of fields including advocacy of human rights, mediation of international conflicts, and arms control."

Advocacy of human rights, peace movements, humanitarian efforst - none of which are applicable to Mr. Gore and his group. Moreover he has made quite a bit of money via speeches, movie ticket sales etc. in this awareness campaign. Has part of the world become a better, peaceful place because of his work? I don't think so. I do think he has brought a very important and sensitive issue into the global limelight and for that he should applauded. But don't think this was the right honor.

When looking for other less heard of people who have had more of an impact on the needy I came across this recent article in the Newsweek, entitled "Giving Globally: How to heal the world". I learned about the clinical trials that's being conducted in Ghana. I was pleasantly surprised to learn about the involvement of the big pharmaceuticals in finding vaccines for diseases that don't affect the western world, such as Malaria. These folks at the grass roots level are the people who I believe need to be acknowledged.

Then there's Bill and Melinda Gates who have shown how we have a moral responsibility in helping those who are less fortunate. There generosity in supporting programs like the research for a malaria vaccine, or education in rural areas of the 3rd world or campaigns to get governments involved has had an unprecedented impact on the lives of millions in the 3rd world. I would applaud them for their work over the years and their continuing efforts. It was heart-warming to read about the hope and passion that Bill Gates exudes.

Lastly, organizations mentioned in the Newsweek special should not go unnoticed. I was very pleased to see Doctors Without Borders mentioned. Having worked for them and being an association member, I am passionate for the work that the organization does and applaud the people who have made such work their life's mission.

At the end I think environmental issues are something that we need to look at seriously. But flying around the world, giving nice fancy presentations in air conditioned auditoriums does not solve global warming nor does it bring peace or uplift the human spirit. In my mind, giving this award was premature.

So here's someone who possibly should have won the peace prize at some point in his life - Mohandas Gandhi. He got nominated 5 times yet never won the committees vote. Why? Read more about it on the NobelPrize.org website.

Extreme dining in Los Angeles

2007-09-06T14:14:00.000-05:00

Extreme dining: Four edgy alternatives to burger and fries.

Just happened to come by this article (thanks to Boing Boing) and couldn't help but blog it. After living in the LA area for 5-6 years I couldn't help but be proud of all the weirdness that's put into culinary experiences in that city. I unfortunately missed my chance to experience any of the places listed here but will surely keep them in mind the next time I'm in souther California.

Trek to Everest - livemint

2007-08-30T13:56:00.000-05:00

Trek to Everest - livemint

Reading the article I couldn't help but think how close technology has brought this world together. Ten years ago I wouldn't have thought that a fellow Bangali from Kolkata would be ordering camping gear from REI.com. And it's not just technology, it's also the mindset has changed. Open economies definitely breeds opportunities and progress.

China Regulates Buddhist Reincarnation

2007-08-23T07:19:00.000-05:00

China Regulates Buddhist Reincarnation - Newsweek Beliefs - MSNBC.com

Wow! Just when you thought China could not do anything further to further place chains around freedom of expression in the Tibetan region, they find something to amaze the world. And why again is the world going to Beijing for the Olympics next year?

The absurdity of the law, the implications from a political standpoint is outstanding. Hopefully someday Beijing will learn the benefits of following the philosophies of Buddhism. Till then my heart and soul go out to those suffering this oppression in Tibet.

Careers: Airport Survival Tips

2007-08-15T10:57:00.000-05:00

Careers: Airport Survival Tips

Love this article, because it's all true. For those of us who have traveled our fair share for work this hits home. Luckily for me I have yet to experience an "all-nighter" at an airport due to delay of flights. I almost feel like I have not graduated until I go through one of these memorable nights.

I'd add to this by saying...
1. Always carry a good book. Just in case there aren't any power outlets at the airport you get stuck. Many international airports still don't have power outlets set up.

2. The iPhone has been my best companion for long layovers. I can surf the web over Edge and there's the ever entertaining YouTube. I do have to agree with the author. I have taken a new appreciation for YouTube. And the iPhone has been a great icebreaker in my recent travels. Never has a phone gotten so many looks before.

3. If you can avoid it, don't check-in. If you must check-in, always keep a change of clothes, toothbrush and toothpaste for emergency.

4. Always be nice to the agents. They can do the impossible (apart from actually flying the plane). Anger and frustration will only make matters worse. Enjoy the little adventure.

Maps of War

2007-08-15T01:25:00.000-05:00

If only History was taught in such interactive fashion while I was still in school, I probably would've become a History major. Love the use of maps to illustrate historical events. I couldn't help but start looking at all their maps. This particular one regarding the Imperial control of the Middle East over the years is most fascinating.

Celebrating 60 years of Independence

2007-08-15T00:52:00.001-05:00

Happy Independence Day!

We should celebrate our freedom and what makes India such an unique country. However we should also concern ourselves over what we can do to improve the current state of India. Thought this BBC article on India's model democracy was an interesting read.

Independent yet intolerant?

2007-08-10T12:04:00.000-05:00

As the 60th anniversary of my country's independence fast approaches I can't help but look for stories that provides a better insight into her past and where we are headed for.

Probably the most tormenting moment was how we achieved independence. The political turmoil leading into it, the physical break-up and failed segregation by religion. The fighting thereafter which engulfed hundreds of thousands of innocent lives. Independence came at a huge price. The British had managed to do it once again - pave the way for territorial unrest for futures to come. In my mind our leaders of that time became selfish and lost sight of what they had originally started.

This particular story of three generations of a Muslim family is symbolic of what probably happened to all those caught in the religious aftermath of our independence.

I was quite intrigued by the map towards the end of the article. Over 25% of Muslims in India live in the state I grew up in (that of West Bengal). My closest friend growing up is a Muslim Bengali. But I just thought of him as a Bengali. Religion never played a role in my selectivity of friends - in fact most of my friends were Christians as I went to a Catholic Boarding school. Never did I realize how religion can bring division amongst a group of people, until 1984. It was November 1st and riots had broken off in the streets of Kolkata. The nation was at war with itself. This time it wasn't the Muslims that were being attacked. Sikhs who were neighbors, once good friends were indiscriminately being murdered just because they were Sikhs. Official figures state that a 1000 people died in those 4 days. But multiples more were affected for the rest of their lives.

As India has shown from time to time, our intolerance over our own neighbors is our greatest enemy towards peace and prosperity. That is why we have been conquered and plundered for a thousand years. Our lack of unity for the land we so much cherish is our Achilles heel.

But after sixty years have we gotten any closer towards that unity I ask myself. How is the new generation building the new India? What is our dream for the 21st century India?

The Muddy Buddy Experience

2007-08-06T13:50:00.000-05:00

It truly is a muddy & buddy experience. Going into it I thought there's the infamous mud-pit at the end and hence the name, but oh no, it's muddy throughout the course. And this time mother nature was intentionally more generous by giving us a downpour that lasted through the night and right up to the race start time. Driving at 5am in the morning in this I'd say Aman and I both had our moments of doubt.

But doubt aside, once the race got underway it was an incredible experience. The trail was just mud which made any sort of movement tricky. Those who started with biking I think had a worse time or best, depending on your definition. They had the more challenging terrain to bike through. Sometimes you essentially walked up a steep 20 feet hill that wouldn't allow any grip. The obstacles in the middle were fun. A good breather. Not having done this before I think our strategy of turning the bike upside down in the transition area worked. Next time we'll definitely provide more color for recognition. Talking about bikes, I'm just amazed at how our bike (go Columbia!) withstood all that dark mud. Towards the end the bike would stall because there was just too much mud on the wheels and brakes. I even saw a few carrying their bikes to the finish line.

Overall it's an excellent race to get (re)acquainted with adventure sports. It's fun, definitely not monotonous and who doesn't like a mud bath at the end?! The event was coordinated very well given that there were 1200 teams. They even managed to have Paul Mitchell set up a booth to give hair cuts for charity donation. Have to start planning our strategy for next year's - how do we overcome the mud.

I do love my iPhone

2007-08-06T11:37:00.000-05:00

Picture copyright of Apple, Inc. 2007

If I had to sum it up I’d say it’s “an eloquent piece of gadgetry that fuses artistic brilliance with technological marvel to bring enjoyment and simplicity in performing some of today’s basic daily chores”.

The device does not bring anything new to the world of applications. However it revolutionizes the way we interact with applications. It almost feels like something from a science fiction movie. Using of fingers to expand on a web page or zoom in on a picture. Flip through albums like you would do on your CD rack. Look up a map, find your favorite restaurant, get step-by-step directions and then if needed call the restaurant to make a reservation, all within 3 clicks. You are one click away from getting updates on weather, stocks and world time – all personalized by you. And when bored there is YouTube and Movies that you can play.

Functionally it works well as a phone, calendar (via iCal) and email (through IMAP). If you use Outlook and Exchange exclusively you might have to rethink your strategy. Again, the seemless integration with iTunes, iCal and Apple Addressbook is such a treat. You plug it in and everything just gets synced up. It just works. No driver download, no additional clicks. If you are a SMS buff then you might have mixed feelings. On one side I’m sure you’ll enjoy the interface where all SMS messages are stored as conversations – similar to chat. But on the other hand you cannot send bulk SMS (like sending dinner update to all friends), and there is no MMS support. I think the latter is what I’ve missed the most as many don’t have email access on their phone but pretty much majority of the world can receive MMS messages. Typing had been a concern initially but you know what – it’s not a big deal at all. You get used to it and as the predictability software’s repository increases, it gets easier. One thing though – you can’t type blindly so typing while driving is a risky proposition. For me the biggest functional value has been email and web access. Previous phones had it but you had to strain your eyes to read and the interface to type or browse was simply clunky. Now I can spend hours surfing the net via my iPhone or respond to emails while waiting for flights. It feels less of a phone and more like a computer. Oh wait – it is one given that it’s running OS X, or as I like to think UNIX J.

But even after all this I still have my wishlist for the next version. Some are software updates so I’m hoping I won’t have fish out another $600. Here’s a list –

Ability to highlight and then cut/copy/paste text
Calendar integration with other desktop programs
MMS support and ability to send a SMS to multiple recipients
Improve flow between applications such as Contacts, Photos and SMS. Further reduce clicks between applications, especially when you want to edit some information.
GPS add on to actually provide real-time directions
Video recorder and video conferencing – just have the camera in front like in the laptops

I’ve been blown away by the stability of the product. Having personally released quite a few initial versions of software products I know the complexity associated with delivering a stable v1.0.0. The quality of the software on the iPhone is outstanding. However be forewarned – it’s not without bugs. I have had the system hang in some cases (such as receiving calls while associating a picture with a contact). But each time the system gracefully recovered and brought back to a stable state. Never have I had to reboot.

All in all – I have never been happier with an investment in a gadget (well since I bought my iPod). My kudos goes to Apple for delivering a fantastic device yet again. Don’t buy the iPhone simply for functionality – buy it for its aesthetics and innovation.

Captain's Log: Stardate -315404.15357052255

2007-08-06T11:12:00.000-05:00

It’s been 3 months since I got back from Uganda

Just like that we’re fast approaching autumn. I know officially it’s still a few months away, but for all practical reasoning, summer is over in the US once we celebrate Labor Day weekend. And that is just 4 weeks away. Thereafter children are in school, dazed and confused freshman students walk the college campuses and for many of us the beginning of another promising year in College football. Last year I was preoccupied with the many changes that I was taking on. This year I intend to focus on the game. Let’s just hope the Longhorns show more skill and dominance then from a year back.

It has been over a month since I have returned to the corporate world. At times it’s hard to believe that I had left it at all. Almost feels like everything was in a standstill while I was away. I feel like I’m continuously drawing comparisons to how life and business was in northern Uganda. The premise of all that people strived for remained the same – wealth and happiness. Yes, just happiness alone is never sufficient. In fact most will argue that wealth can or maybe even will provide certain level of happiness. We do live in a world where without money you really can’t find the basic needs of life to even feel content (or survive).

In the last four weeks I have already traveled to Los Angeles/Santa Monica, Reston, Boston, Seattle and Vancouver on business and pleasure. Landing at LAX, the sunny southern Californian weather embracing me like a mother does, seeing people striding around in ridiculous outfits all engrossed in their little worlds all brought back a sense of familiarity. Brought back many fond memories. Even though the trip was short I was fortunate enough to catch up with a few friends at one of the café’s on Abbot Kinney (in Venice) and then pay the Quik-E-Mart a visit. Yes, a 7-11 had been turned into the Quik-E-Mart, selling Crusty-O’s and Buzz Cola. You should have seen the line (and this is at midnight) to get one the sprinkled donuts, made so famous by the one and only Homer. Even the checkout clerk said in the Appu accent – “Thank you, please come again”. Oh wait, that they do in any convenience store . I do have to say I was a bit sad getting on the flight back to Austin. Had to wonder (and still do) whether it was worth moving back to Austin. The weather, the beach, the mountains, the showbiz glitz - makes me question my decision.

Back in Austin I’m still looking for a place to buy. It’s mesmerizing to see the prices of condominiums in downtown Austin. Housing in general is still very much affordable compared to California. However I’m still trying to get used to seeing prices of $300+ per sq foot close to downtown. Granted these are new condominiums smack in the middle of downtown Austin, I still think it’s ridiculous for a town that’s been known as the laid-back hippy college town to have such prices. Who’s buying up these properties? Are they really Austinites or some yuppie West Coaster who’s looking for an investment opportunity? But even in all of this yuppie-ness, I still sense the same weird, unique Austin that was there 14 years ago when I first landed in this city. There are still some of us who still consider shorts, a t-shirt and sandals a formal dress code. Let’s hope due to financial reasons I’m not forced to the fringes of the city. It’ll be a shame to live far from the Barton creek greenbelt and Town Lake hike & bike trail.

America has an obesity problem?

2007-08-05T23:16:00.001-05:00

Effective Advertising? Or just sad state of air travel?

2007-08-04T13:42:00.003-05:00

Effective Advertising? Or just sad state of air travel?
Originally uploaded by sanjoyg.

While walking to my gate in Austin saw this poster and couldn't help
but think "Wow, has air travel really come to this?"
Remember those Pan Am days when airlines would try to out do each
other on who serves the more expensive Champagne?
I won't be surprised if one of these days the ad says "We still offer
seats..."

Sand Storm in Iraq: April 26, 2005

2007-08-02T14:47:00.000-05:00

Sand Storm in Iraq: April 26, 2005

Just ran into these pictures while Stumbling around. They put the dust storms I witnessed in northern Uganda more like just a breeze on the beach. I can't imagine what people do in such situations. I mean it's almost impossible to ever be clean or dust free.

Heading to Vancouver for the evening

2007-07-28T17:17:00.001-05:00

Heading to Vancouver for the evening
Originally uploaded by sanjoyg.

On our way to Vancouver for a night. Can't believe how beautiful the
Pacific northwest is and couldn't have asked for the weather to be any
better. Just chilling in the back and enjoying the drive.

A great deal!

2007-07-24T01:18:00.001-05:00

A great deal!
Originally uploaded by sanjoyg.

Buzz Cola on Sale at the local Quik-e-Mart (a.ka. 7-11)

Getting ready for the Simpsons movie

2007-07-24T01:13:00.001-05:00

Getting ready for the Simpsons movie
Originally uploaded by sanjoyg.

Folks raiding the donuts around midnight. Love the advertisement and buzz the Quik-e-Marts have created.

Slowly gaining his trust

2007-07-23T16:27:00.001-05:00

After three weeks of living with Howie I think I've become his friend
or at-least gaines his trust. He was quite comfortable lying on my
clothes and watching me pack. Or maybe he just likes the smell of
freshly laundered clothes?!

Zoos kill tigers for their skin

2007-07-23T16:19:00.001-05:00

As if the animals didn't have enough going against them.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2116179.ece

Now they don't even have protection in the zoo! And what joy, pleasure does one get from having a stuffed tiger in their house? I am beginning to think I am just programmer differently. I can't see any point in stuffed animals or hunting.

Wouldn't it just be more magnificent to see such gorgeous beasts in their environment, in the wild?

iLoser retains place in line, crisis averted - Engadget

2007-06-29T11:41:00.000-05:00

iLoser retains place in line, crisis averted - Engadget

A "professional line-sitter"? This is insane. How can someone make a living out of standing in line?

1.5M 'displaced' by Olympic Games - CNN.com

2007-06-20T11:51:00.000-05:00

1.5M�'displaced' by Olympic Games - CNN.com

Although I have not validated COHRE's report but somehow I'm not surprised at this report. What I am surprised at is how little importance such findings are given by the IOC or international organizations such as the UN.

Is the Olympic Games even necessary any more? Most of the events have their own World Championships and does it really bring solidarity and peace to the world?

Why would anyone want a highway on Mount Everest?

2007-06-20T11:29:00.000-05:00

Report: China plans highway on Mount Everest to help with Olympic torch relay - International Herald Tribune

I am deeply troubled by the thought of a highway going to base-camp. What next? Perhaps open a five-star hotel?!

Can't we just keep certain places "natural"?
Mountaineering is not about taming of the mountain but of being one with the mountain. Respecting the surrounding and embracing it. At-least that's what I have felt when I have wanted to go climbing or hiking. And now we have a road leading us to base camp?!

Everest base-camp and surroundings already has it's problems with people leaving trash, oxygen canisters and everything else that is harmful to the fragile environment at that high altitude. Now a road to ensure buses full of tourists visit?!

This to me signifies a new low in our selfish consumer based world culture where we do things just because we have the money to do so. Not because of ingenuity or because of need but simply to outdo someone else.

And is there a political agenda around this?
First the railway across Tibet, and now a highway to Mount Everest base camp. Coincidence? All of a sudden Beijing seems to be spending a pretty penny in infrastructure across Tibet. Why the sudden interest?

The Olympics is now just a mockery of what it stood for a hundred years ago. How can we be celebrating humanity in a country that does not even adhere to basic international human rights? And why spend the billions of dollars on something that most people forget a month later when we still have a billion people going hungry every night?!

Sopranos - is it really over?

2007-06-11T14:38:00.001-05:00

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/thats-what-we-were-waiting-for-angry-fans-crash-hbo-website/
So what happened here guys? I mean after all that hoopla being the last season, this is the final hour of Sopranos David Chase could come up with? I guess it takes a bit of eccentricity to come up with such a brilliant show in the first place so expecting the norm would have been stupid. But did we just have too high of an expectation or was the ending simply lame? And to make matters worse, Tivo didn't realize the actual show went on till 9:05pm Central and so some folks missed the last 5 minutes, if they were not on real-time. Granted one would question whether it even mattered or not.

It felt more like a season ending. Keep us in suspense of what's next to come. I think it's perfectly staged for another season or a movie. Personally I'd just like another season where we can see Meadow becoming a lawyer and either working for Tony or against him. AJ - well I don't care for him - he's just a weak character. Anyways, I do hope they make a comeback of sorts, 'cause it ain't over till Tony says it's over.

(For any of you who have never followed Sopranos, I'd definitely recommend the first two seasons.)

Parkour and Free Running

2007-06-10T17:00:00.001-05:00

Before leaving for Uganda I had seen a sequence from "District B13" and thought it was the best action scene I had seen since the Matrix. Well a few weeks ago I got to see the whole movie and was at awe at the chase scenes. It's insane how David Belle is able to scale up walls, jump buildings and just defy gravity. And then there was a similar chase scene in "Casino Royale", the latest James Bond movie.

I couldn't believe the fluency and ease of movement. They make climbing vertical walls look effortless. And then jumping buildings, I'm sure even monkeys would find this impressive.

Looks like all of this is part of a freestyle sport called "Parkour" and "free running", which originated in France. There are loads of video on this on YouTub e and then just read an article on Austin Fit Magazine (June 2007 edition). Obviously I had no idea of any of this until recently, but seems like the rest of the world did.

I'm sure we'll see more of this in future action movies, much like the techniques copied from the Matrix. I think it'd be cool to see this being part of the X-Games.

I wonder if my old bones can take on the impact of the landings. As Naren says, I should start with learning how to fall and roll.

What the World Eats | Photo Essays | TIME

2007-06-08T17:46:00.000-05:00

What the World Eats | Photo Essays | TIME

This is quite an interesting photo essay. The diversity of what we eat is so impressive, probably seen in no other single species. The disparity between what people from different regions can spend is even more alarming. And then there's the amusement of seeing the stereotypical - Italians with loaves of bread that can feed an army and the German family ensuring there's enough beer and wine.

So some observations...
The family in the refugee camp in Chad. Its just sad to see that when we have full aisles of just potato chips.
The US still clearly rules the junk food arena but I was surprised at the amount of Coca Cola consumed by the family from Mexico.
The families from Ecuador and Bhutan have probably the healthiest eating lifestyle since I didn't notice anything in bottles or packets. All fresh.
And I'll be sure to have some Mutton dumplings when I visit Mongolia.

World's tigers on catastrophic path to extinction | Environment | Reuters

2007-06-08T15:57:00.000-05:00

World's tigers on catastrophic path to extinction | Environment | Reuters

"Do we even care?". I mean if we did then it should show by now. Maybe some of us do care, but does the majority care? Do the governments of the countries involve care? Do the locals who make a living from poaching care? Or can they even afford to care? We have known the decline in tiger population for decades. We know the reasons for it. Then why is the situation deteriorating? The only answer I have is that most of us don't care as much for this cause.

I still do care much for this cause. But it seems to be a battle that is inevitably going to be lost. There are no plans of implementing stricter laws, much like what was enforced in sub-Saharan Africa to reduce the poaching of elephants. We talk about "corridors" and "land" for the tigers to roam free, yet there is no free land in places like India. There is a lot of money that flows into tiger conservation funds, but at the end it's not the funding but the people who live closest to them who can ultimately save the tiger from extinction. Provide poachers who are usually local villagers opportunities to make more with a living, breathing tiger and I'm sure they will think twice before killing one. Publicly prosecute anyone caught trafficking any part of a tiger. Punish them like they are drug traffickers and the message will get through. Don't let multi-national corporations buy pristine rainforest's, but then that's a fight that we all know the outcome to, unless you get the local community on your side. And then build a stronger tourism economy around tiger conservation. The more people who come to see tigers in the wild, the more the revenue for the locals, the more sustainable tigers living amongst us will be. I mean this is not rocket science. Just follow what Kenya, South Africa and dozen other countries have done successfully.

But who am I to provide ideas? After all I'm sure these have all been tried out in the past. I have personally looked at helping but there isn't a good way to be of use, apart from writing a check. Sometimes I do wonder whether just going out to one of the local community and trying to set something up on my own is worth a shot. Just a shot to save such a marvelous animal.

Kittens in the house

2007-04-26T11:52:00.000-05:00

The last few days have been very entertaining as two kittens (probably 4 weeks old) showed up one night at our house. Who knows how they got here but there they were crying away. Maria got them some milk and boy did they chow down. Paws, faces, if they could they'd swim in the milk. They are the cutest little things and have taken a liking to our place. Hopefully they are here to stay. So I've been busy with them. Y'know they have been the easiest to "toilet train". I had no idea it'd be this simple. All we did was put a box of sand where they had earlier done their business and voila! they knew exactly what to do. I was quite impressed. Even some kids don't learn this fast. I still remember trying to train Inka (my pup) and boy it took some days.

Now we have made a basket top to a sort of play ground for their daily duals. I hope they're play but I tell ya - they jump on each other like it's the WWF. Cute but vicious. They still don't have a good sleeping place. I just tore up this box to make a cozy setting and am trying to see if they'll sleep in it. The last few days they've been sneaking behind file folders on the shelf. Quite elusive if you ask me. Well I think they're going to be named Topsy & Turvy by Maria. I

still have no clue which one is which.

Well that's for the good news. The bad news is our monkey Jimmy was refused home at the zoo in Entebbe. Their reasoning was that he is a young single and wouldn't be accepted into the groups they have. Not what I was hoping for. So we'll have to see what the future holds for my little vervet friend.

Four more days and I leave Patongo. I do have to say I'm already getting ready to miss quite a few things. Susie's pancakes in the morning. The ladies with their hoes greeting me on my morning jog. The kids. The folks I've worked with. This village is not much to look at but it definitely has heart.

Nearing my end of mission in Patongo

2007-04-20T07:01:00.001-05:00

Changing landscape
Arriving back from my one week of R&R I realized so much had changed. Tania was on her way out. Helle was all packed and ready to leave. We now had a chicken in the compound. With the school's open, many of the kids were not around to annoy me. The westerly winds just got more vicious as the days passed. And it seemed that the sun had just come closer to greet us all.

Maria the chicken
The chicken was a gift to Helle and she very wittily named it after our new field coordinator Maria. Well Maria was quite the hen. I would usually not think twice about a chicken but this indeed have a personality. She'd go wonder off in the mornings, probably flirting with all the roosters and then around lunch time head back home to find a quiet spot to lay her egg. Her single egg for the day. She never quite found her "sweet spotÓ for laying eggs. One day she'd be in someone's bedroom, another inside the kitchen cupboard. Helle even tried to arrange a nest of sorts for her but I don't think she ever became comfortable. She just liked to wonder around. The eggs were white and fresh. Needless to say we were happy. The morning Tania was leaving Helle taught Susan how to make French toast. So we had French toast with Maria's eggs. Lucky for me Susan's been making French toast ever since. Unfortunately for us, Maria the chicken didn't stay for long. One day a week or so after Helle left she returned home hardly able to breath. We tried to get a hold of a vet (or the chicken doctor as they call them here) but to no luck. After consulting our medical staff I gave her a very small dose of antibiotics. But that didn't help. She passed away that night. Never realized till then how fragile chickens are. Well not to take any risks with diseases, we promptly cremated her with the rest of our rubbish in our rubbish drum. The only remnants of her is the hen house.

Eating dust
As the days progressed in March, the mid-day dust storms just got worse. Soon the winds would start blowing in the morning and by midday the indoor temperature would reach 35C. Walking outside in the afternoon it felt like walking through a dry sauna. I could almost feel the sun breathing down my neck. Even the locals were complaining about the heat.

Welcoming rains
However reprieve was soon to come. As we entered April clouds started forming in the eastern skies. It was amazing to see this overnight change, as if an alarm clock had gone off and the rain gods were waking up from their 5 month slumber. I just hoped they wouldn't be like me and press the snooze button! We still had to wait for a week before the first rain showers fell on Patongo. It's amazing to watch storms form in this part of the world. The flat land allows you to have a view of the great expanse of the approaching clouds. It's magnificent. What a refreshing sight. Everything seemed to get cleaner, greener, fresher overnight. Since our first rainfall, we've had rain every night. Its hours of this monsoon style torrential downpour. But the amazing aspect is that the extremely dry ground hungrily soaks up every drop. By the morning only small puddles are the remnants of the stormy night. During my morning jog I notice more people heading for the fields. This is the time to start sowing seeds, be it maize, ground nut, sogum or some other staple crop. Unfortunately there's a real shortage of seeds in these areas and it has become a concern for all. Shortage of seeds now would only mean shortage of food later in the year.

I too (with some expert help) did some sowing of our own. Rows of sunflower, maize and ground nuts. Now its just a question of whether they'll grow. Hopefully someone will get to enjoy them (and they better give the maize to Jimmy).

Going back to the new villages
We went back to the new settlements (or camps as they all still call them). Our purpose was to re-assess the situation since our last visit 4-5 months ago. It was very refreshing to see the progress most had made. Huts were completed, schools were functioning (albeit some under trees as buildings required major repairs) and people were started to dig in their garden - their very own gardens. Some have been away from these lands for 4-5 years. People showed a great deal of optimism and were genuinely happy being back in their ancestral property. But its an uphill battle for many as food and water are scarce and proper healthcare might be a half day's walk away. To make matters worse security can at times be sketchy for the Karamajong warriors (from neighboring Karamajo) are on the prowl for stealing cattle. But none of this seems to fade them - its always amazing to witness the resilience of the people from this part.

Volleyball is back
With the weather cooling off in the evening, volleyball is back. Hopefully we can have a re-match with one of the NGOs in town prior to my departure.

The new matata's bar
The bar across from our house has moved down the road. And it's now bigger and better with two TVs showing soccer a pool table and a fully stocked bar even serving Italian wine by the bottle. Talk about a changing Patongo. The next wine connoisseurs might just be from here! What next - cigar lounges?! Its refreshing to see such development - shows that stability and peace is all that's required for people to start realizing their dreams.

Spending a week in Kampala and Jinja

2007-04-20T06:32:00.002-05:00

Around the 2nd week of March I finally found time to take my one week of R&R. I really didn't realize how much I needed the break until I was on the bus heading towards Jinja. It had been a week since I had returned from Arua and I didn't have enough time to plan a proper holiday, or maybe I never really wanted a properly planned holiday. I had checked up on Queen Elizabeth National Park and found it rather expensive, not to mention quite a long bus ride west of Kampala. During my ride into Kampala, whilst crossing Karuma Falls bridge and watching the mighty Nile power its way under us I thought it would be a good idea to kayak the fabled white waters of this epic river.

First thing first... good indian food
Upon reaching Kampala my very first urge was to have some good Indian food. It had been so long since I had Naan and Paneer. This time instead of Haandi I tried Nawab which is located on the terrace of Garden City shopping mall. The food was good but I still would have to vote Haandi as serving the better Indian food in Kampala. One of the many things I love about Kampala - good Indian restaurants. After finishing off my glutton feast I moseyed along to one of the many DVD stores to see what new english and hindi movies they had in stock. I always find so much to do in Kampala - just walking around the city is a pleasant experience.

Bus ride to Jinja
Next day morning I take the matatu to the old taxi park for my bus ride to Jinja. Even though known as the old taxi park, it's bustling with matatus. There's probably a few hundred Toyota Hiace vehicles parked inches from each other. It is organized chaos at its best. People yelling for varying destinations, while sellers are frantically trying to sell anything from water to underwear. I finally managed to wiggle my way through to a minibus heading for Jinja. Every seat was occupied, including the makeshift seat that blocked the only clear pathway to the exit. As I sat with my big backpack on my lap I tried to visualize a possible exit strategy in the event of an emergency. Essentially there were none. The road to Jinja was fantastic (as mentioned in the guide book). No potholes to swerve around, not even that many bumps. In a swift 75-80 minutes we are in Jinja and it only cost me 3000 shillings ($1.50). I get off at the first roundabout and decide to take a boda-boda to my hotel. Not the brightest of ideas when carrying 25 kilos on your back. As the 75 horses of this Indian made TVS motorbike tried to get us up the hill, gravity was pulling me down. I knew there was an accident just waiting to happen. After awhile I just had to stop and let the driver know that it's probably best if I walked the rest of the way. He however would have nothing of it and just grabbed my bag, put it in front of him and we started riding. I do have to say it felt such a relief to not be tied to the backpack. But I couldn't help but wonder if my driver could actually see and maneuver with a backpack carefully balanced on top of the fuel tank between his hands.

The Jinja Nile Resort is a new resort built and managed by a company from Kenya. As the guidebook said, it's very much a standard resort with all the usual western amenities and nothing really giving it that special feel. The cottages are lined up facing the river with some having direct view of the water. There are lots of cottages. The place is massive and looks like they are expanding. There's a really nice swimming pool and bar area. Locals and others from neighboring hotels seem to come here for a swim. Construction is continuing on what looks to be a conference center. The Adrift rafting company is just next door. Although it might be a bit ÒblandÓ in terms of character, it was perfect for me. I wanted the western amenities of running hot shower, comfortable bed, satellite TV. The restaurant menu had a bit more to desire for but I wasn't complaining. The grilled Tilapia was excellent. An entire fish, just caught a few hours earlier carefully grilled. Delicious! Well I actually caught up on sleep while staying at the resort. I just needed the rest for I had signed up for an all day kayak lesson the following day.

Kayaking the Nile
So why would someone who doesn't know how to float and is quite skeptical of swimming suddenly sign up for two days (that's right TWO days) of kayaking lessons on the Nile? To be honest I just thought it'd be a good way to get rid of my phobia for the water (and drowning) and I actually thought it'd be fun kayaking down the Nile. Well it wasn't quite the experience I had pictured. You see in my mind I had the picture of me racing down a rapid by the end of day 1. In reality I spent most of the time underwater or going in circles on calm waters! It seems that the essentials of kayaking is learning how to come up while still in the kayak once flipped over. One does flip frequently. It's this motion that supposed to resemble a "C". I never got it. Now there's this other (simpler) "T" rescue that we started with where you push up from underwater and hold on to another (presumably the rescuers) kayak and push yourself up. The only problem is that in all of this the head is the last part of the body that's supposed to come out of the water. Very counter intuitive if you ask me. For a person who's not comfortable in the water telling him to relax while he's underwater just doesn't work. So as the day rolled on, the frustration of my instructor grew while I just became less confident and more fearful of toppling over. To make matters worse I couldn't row to save anyone's life. Until then I hadn't realized how sensitive a kayak is to rowing motions. One strong stroke on one side and there you go turning. Now there were some savoring moments. Once we were trying to move through a small rapid using our knees to sway with the current. I actually got that part... until she asked me to do it with my eyes closed. I felt like the Karate Kid. I did see the fun in kayaking (once techniques and all are right). For me by the end of the day I was both mentally and physically exhausted not to mention quite demoralized. I came to the conclusion that there's no point doing another day if I wasn't having fun.

That night I spent at the Nile River Explorers campsite. I had booked a banda, which gave me the luxury of having a bed and private space although most of the evening I spent hanging out with these Norwegian folks at the bar. Two brothers and their sister who were traveling through eastern Africa. The brothers took the kayaking lessons with me. In fact one of them was quite helpful - more the the instructor in my mind. Well anyways, back that evening we just hung out in the lounge area watching people get pissed on shots of who knows what. There was an overlander group that had just returned from rafting and then what I'd call the local m'zungu crowd (i.e. early 20s westerners who spend a few weeks bumming around - mostly kayakers). I do have to say I felt a bit out of place. Maybe felt a bit older (or should we say mature). I think it'd have been cooler if I came 10 years ago. Anyways, it was fun chatting with the Norwegians.

Bujagali falls and the source of the Nile
The following morning I decided to go for a hike down to Bujagali Falls. This is where the sanctioned new dam will be built. I did feel sad thinking to myself that all the vegetation, the beauty of the rapids will be gone in the next few years. Quite the shame if you ask me. Found a few fishermen bringing home their fresh catch of Tilapia. In a few years they'll have to go further downstream to fish.

I checked out of the backpackers campsite and caught a boda-boda into town. This time I didn't even take any chances - the driver took the pack in the front. Luckily for both of us this was a moped so the pack fit snugly in the front. I had read about this nice bed & breakfast called "Gately on Nile", so without any bookings decided to go and check it out. It's an Australian owned lodge, overlooking lake Victoria comprising of a a few self-sufficient cottages, the main lodge and a spacious back yard. Just walking around I fell in love with the place. Luckily for me there was a vacant cottage. It is a bit on the expensive side but to me well worth the tranquility and service. Most of the day I spent on the patio reading The Kite Runner (an awesome read) and just relaxing my sore muscles. It's amazing how much work kayaking involves. Even my knees hurt.

Later in the evening I headed for the source of the Nile. A few kilometers from the lodge along the eastern bank lies the beautifully kept park in memory of the first sighting of the source. A golf course hugs the park where a few ugly marabous were hanging out, maybe playing a 9-hole game, quite difficult to tell. Oddly enough a bust of Mahatma Gandhi also was at the source. I failed to understand the significance of that. To me the source itself was nothing but a narrowing of the lake. I'm sure experts on rivers and lakes would beg to differ. What I did appreciate was the serene beauty of the surrounding. On my way back to the hotel I stopped by a small fish market. The last passenger canoes were leaving for the other shore while fishermen were busy heading out with their nets. A string of lights shone from the other shore - canoes all heading out to make the night's catch, the next day's living. I headed back to the Gately to finish my book and grab some dinner.

All Terrain experience
I had seen advertisements on TV about All Terrain Vehicles (or ATV short) in the States. At Jinja was the first time I actually got to enjoy one. They are a blast. This Kiwi outfit offers a few hours sheer adrenaline rush riding along the Nile on ATVs. At first it took a bit to get used to the handling but once I got comfortable oh yeah! They are a lot of fun. We rode through tracks made specifically for the vehicles and then through villages and crop fields. I wondered why we don't have one of these in Patongo.

Rafting the Nile
Left the best adventure till the last. Actually after my kayaking experience I really wasn't sure if I wanted to experience anything further on the river, but Sultan gave me some confidence. So on the last day we decided to do a whole day of rafting. 9 rapids of which half or so are class 5. One of the experience of a lifetime as they say. I was quite apprehensive of it all. But being in a group gave me comfort and the group was great. Felt a bit like the "revenge of the nerds" but that's what made it great. So what do we do as soon as we get on the river? We tip the raft over to practice our skills of falling. Oh great! But oh wait - this time I'm not stuck to a kayak and am able to get up to the top effortlessly. The water is nice and warm, I'm not sinking. I'm beginning to have fun. The day just got better from there and I had one of my most memorable experiences. Running the rapids, the anticipation of the currents, the rowing like crazy, the water hitting your face. It was all such a rush. But with rapids named like "Silverback", "G-spot", "Retrospect" and quite simply "The Bad Place" you are bound to flip. And we had our first flip on the third rapid. Suddenly there's water rushing everywhere. I was holding on to the raft. Some had drifted off but the kayakers were quick to chase them down. Never thought flipping would be so much fun. This wasn't the last time we had people fall off. A few rapids later we were vertical in the water. Three of us hung on and amazingly the raft landed back upright. We just couldn't believe that we didn't tip over. What an adrenaline rush. There were also long parts where the river was calm and required a lot of rowing. I couldn't help but wish we had an outboard motor. With the scorching afternoon sun many of us jumped in to the water to swim or just float down the calm parts. I had rafted in central California prior to this, but this was a totally different experience. The rapids are just so much more powerful and the river isn't forgiving to those making mistakes. In fact there were parts where we had to bypass simply because it was too dangerous. We even passed a few class 6 which only kayakers should attempt. I couldn't help but think how even more thrilling the experience must be for the kayakers.

Later that evening Sultan and I headed back to K-town to hit the city and check out the nightlife. All in all a very refreshing and enjoyable few days.

Part financier of real estate in Patongo

2007-03-02T05:11:00.000-06:00

Yes, now I'm part financier of tukul right here in Patongo. It's for an old man admitted to the health center who has nothing, quite literally, as his previous house was just torn down to make room for a bus park. Once he gets better the idea is for him to go into a tukul close to the health center. Hella, Tania and I decided to invest in his tukul. It's a buyer's market in Patongo as more people are moving out (to the suburbs as I say). The going price for a moderately aged Tukul (50 sq ft in area perhaps) is Ugandan shilling 20,000 (or about US$12). So for the price of two happy meals, you get your very own house!

I'm quite excited about all of this as we've written up a one page contract between the seller and our patient. I think this'll be the very first of it's kind in Patongo. Can't believe that there's no official paperwork proving the ownership of one's house or land. You have to wonder who really owns the place? The location of this particular property is quite ideal - almost adjacent to the health center and a short walk from the food distribution point. The community latrines is a walk, but that's probably good to get the pressure. Let's see what the old man has to say about the place.

Happy Holi and other news

2007-03-02T01:52:00.000-06:00

Happy Holi. Hope everyone adds a splash of color to their lives.

For those who are not familiar with this very colorful festival (no pun intended) look it up in Google. Geez, haven't I gotten lazy. Actually a lot of it is because of the extremely slow connection that we've here in Patongo. But we do have a dial up connection thanks to GPRS and that's more then I can ask for in a place where there's no electricity or running water. I'm even told that some other remote areas have broadband over CDMA! Damn - why couldn't I be there!! The Internet has arrived before electricity - wonder what Mr. Thomas Edison has to say about that.

The last few weeks in Arua
It's been a week since I returned from the West Nile region of Uganda. 6th grade Geography came back to me when I had to remind myself why it's called the west Nile region. From the air you get to see the majestic Albert Nile cutting through the north western part of the country. It's actually quite hilly - reminded me of the Santa Monica mountains, minus the expensive bungalows. Unfortunately felling of trees has left the place quite dusty and being the dry season didn't help. Everyday my sunglasses would have a coating of dust and it was just amazing to see the few kilos of dust being washed down the tub every night. I never really felt clean - but then I think that's how it'll be till the rains come. Oh yes, we did experience a rather long tremor one night. I think it was recorded as a 5.3 on the Richter scale. The locals say it's normal in this area - I gather there's still a lot of activity happening beneath the surface given that we're on the rift valley.

The Meningitis vaccination campaign was a real eye-opener for me. Experiencing the threat to thousands of lives, seeing patients who had contracted the disease and then really seeing MSF come into action. Within days we had close to two dozen freezers making thousands of ice-packs, 16 or so expatriates and a few dozen national staff all deployed and working in unison towards one goal - vaccinate the target population as quickly as possible. In some sites we'd vaccinate as many as 3000 people a day. Most of the sites were in the rural areas - schools or health centers. So logistically I had to come up with site plans for how to flow people in and out of the area, provide shade and water. And most of this was learning on the job. With each round I gained more confidence in what was needed to make the most fluid site and provide the most expedient service to the community. But that confidence came shattering down during our last round in the city of Arua. I had failed to understand the anxiety of the people and what that in turn would do in terms of crowd control. So on the first day my queues were more like a mob of aggravated adults and unruly children. It was probably a classic study in a novice mistake. My log coordinator had quite the laugh later letting me know he figured it was most likely to happen. Luckily I had help and within an hour or two we had controlled the crowd and gotten them in single file and moving.

They were long days, with work continuing well into the night. But the impact was realized within days as the number of cases declined in areas vaccinated. That's what made everything worthwhile. It was an exhilarating experience. Looks like MSF is now getting involved in DRC and South Sudan as the disease spreads westwards. It's interesting to read that this epidemic almost appears like clockwork every 8-10 years and in the Meningitis belt cutting through the center of Africa (east to west).

Now back in Patongo, life seems to simple, too quiet. But I've enjoyed it for the last week. Trying to catch up on sleep and what's been happening in the rest of the world and find myself lagging quite a bit behind.

The Oscars and other movie gossip
The Oscars were last weekend as I found out and honestly most of the movies I had not even heard of?! Have I been out of the "limelight" for that long? I think I'll need to take a few months just to catch up on movies and TV shows. Else what will I talk about with friends. Our topics of conversation usually rotates around movies or technology. Sheesh, apart from the very basic technology that I use I won't be able to say much of anything that's on the pages of slashdot or engagdet. It just takes too long to open those web pages. I did hear from John about the iPhone and Apple TV. But that's yesterday's news.

Back to the Oscars. Anyone have any objections in Scorsese getting the best director award? I actually did watch this movie on my flight here and thought it was OK. Not exactly best movie material - maybe worth a silver medal. But then again I haven't seen any of the other. Oh yes, has anyone watched "Black Diamond"? Time to buy some of the bootleg 4 in 1 DVD next time I'm in Kampala. It amazing how these DVDs are sold. All pirated movies, most taken straight from a theater far-far-away and obviously you're lucky if you get to see a movie in it's entirety. But you can't really complain given your choice is either to watch a partial movie or nothing. It feels odd being so far away from Hollywood. The last few years living in LA, the Oscars were a completely different experience. I remember the first year all of us went to catch a glimpse of the stars arriving at the Kodak theater. I think J-Lo was one of the few who did lower her limo window to give us commoners a big wave. Later on we just got bored seeing them at the local Coffee Bean. (Oh how I miss the vanilla latte of Coffee Bean.) And now I hear Beckham is moving into the neighborhood. Just when I decide to leave, "another" football star comes into town. Too bad he won't have me to practice with on the beach.

The presidential race in the US
I'm actually looking forward to going back and following the presidential race. Finally they're candidates who are actually educated and have something more to say then "nu-killer".

And lastly the world cup... cricket that is
Can't believe it's been 4 years since the last one. That was the first time where we got John, Ajit and Missy all hooked to the game. Missy even got a new name - Kashmira. I actually went and bought DishTV just to watch every single match. And India got thrashed in the finals by the Aussies (again). Hopefully the Caribbean will have something better to offer for us. I'm just discounting the recent lack of form of some of the Indian players and usual being hopeful. Unfortunately DSTv (satellite TV here) is too expensive for me to install, not to mention our batteries won't provide enough juice to run a TV (even if we had one). But maybe that's a good thing since India usually loses when I watch.

Brick making

2007-01-20T12:38:00.001-06:00

Brick making
Originally uploaded by sanjoyg.

Everyone's making bricks in northern Uganda. With the amount of new tukuls coming up in the new villages, a lot of bricks are required. These happen to deal better with bullets as we were told by the maker. 100 Ushs for burnt bricks and 30 otherwise. I'd say that it's too little for the amount of labor.

Well this and more pictures uploaded to my flickr account.

Week Nine & Ten, Patongo, Uganda

2007-01-16T10:09:00.000-06:00

New Year's Party
It all began in November when we decided we needed something to work towards - a sort of goal. So the idea sprung up - why not throw a New Years party (just like the one for Halloween). What started then became quite an elaborate production. Early on we decided that for food we'll keep it simple - mucomo and chapatis. The music system had to rock and we wanted lighting, noise makers and possibly fireworks. Ambitious for a shindig in Patongo we got rolling.

So first thing first we had to settle the food situation. Goat meat was going to be the choice for grilling and we'd need two goats to feed 120 or more people. I was assured that goat prices would go up during the holiday season so ended up buying a pair in advance. I have to say it was quite odd to go shopping for goats. Actually the first one looked pregnant, in fact I was convinced she was and decided that we'd not be killing any pregnant goat. I at-least still have some moral values left in me. Anyways back to the two goats whom we kept in the compound for well over a week. Everyday they'd be taken out to feed on someone elses land and then in the evening head back to the house. Invariably the black female one would bring back quite a few male companions. I gather she was in her prime for these goats would be persistent, trying to break down our fence to have some intimate moments with her. I reckon she was quite the flirter. Over the days we were all getting quite fond of the new members of the white house. The female goat seemed to have quite the personality, even the monkey got comfortable with her. In the mornings you'd see her stretching her rope and meeting Jimmy mid-way, and Jimmy would be picking on her ears, eyelids, legs and all other parts - busy pruning and cleaning. Unfortunately all of this killed my appetite for any roast.

As Sunday rolls in we've the drinks stacked in the bar, goats are well fed, the two chapati guys are all ready to whip up 150 of their finest greasy chapatis and Juku from a local bar is providing the music. As usual no party is complete without it's share of drama. When I heard the system at the bar it sounded alright. But on Sunday at 2:30pm we still didn't have the system setup. The guy in charge kept going back to get more wires or replace speakers. Some excuse for why the sound sucked so bad! Unfortunately, it didn't get much better the rest of the evening. Between crackling speakers and us having to hand fan the amplifier from overheating, it definitely gave us enough to yell and laugh about. At one point Helle was over the system dancing along to an Ugandan number while fanning with one of our TFC plates. It seemed like the fan was part of her dance.

With the mid-afternoon sun giving us no reprieve we dug out the barbecue pit. A wire mesh on top and a charcoal fire completed the grill. The meat is really just meat - no real marinade apart from salt and oil. With makeshift skewers we got underway barbecuing. 30+kgs of grilling within 2 hours. We worked out a manufacturing line and not before long Bonny and I had skewers of grilled goat rolling off the pit. I've to say even in the heat it was a lot of fun grilling. By the time we were done the lights and balloons were all set and the poster Timothy drew up looked great. Awright! We were ready to party.

The party was a blast... at-least for me. Never in my wildest dream did I think I'd have such a memorable NYE in Patongo, but hey, goes to show that all you need is fun-loving people, a few beers and music (even if it happens to be in another language). For me the highlight of the evening was right at the beginning when a local group of kids were invited by Ray to put up a show of traditional Acholi dance for us. Drum beats, women shrieking and singing, the thumping of feet raising clouds of dust, whistles blowing, all of this energy made it an unforgettable spectacle. The show was fantastic. As Helle put it - it was a sheer pleasure and honor to have such a group come and enact in front of us. Definitely set the tempo for the rest of the evening.

New Years Blues
And just like that Christmas and New Years came and went. What's left is a few months of dry, hot, dusty weather. So-gum and Sesame (or Simsim as it's called in these parts) have been harvested. Cotton is being loaded into trucks and sent off. What remains is a barren land which is being cleared to assist in hunting and making of bricks. So when it's not dust, ashes are strewn across any open surface. The only escape is in the evenings when the dust settles and a clear sky makes for a pleasant evening.

Children's Playground
In recent weeks Patongo has become every child's dream home. Parents are busy building their new villages and while they are gone the children are at play. If there's any supervision it's usually by another sibling who's hardly of any age to be left unsupervised, let alone supervise. So all day you hear laughter and crying of children. They are out there in the heat busy playing in the dirt, kicking makeshift footballs or just running around. The girls are usually the ones carrying their siblings or smaller versions of the 20L jerrycans, while the boys are making miniature bricks or houses. From a very young age kids here learn what roles they'll play in adult life. But then a lot of the fun games end with disaster. Fire related incidents have increased as more children are getting caught in their own tricks involving fire. Just for this reason I can't wait for school to open in February. So here's something that's been working well. I've set up a sort of Library system where I loan out magazines to some of the kids (well right now there's only three patrons) and once they return the magazine they get a new one. It's actually worked better then I expected for at first I was a bit skeptical of how the kids would take the return policy but they've been diligently bringing back to get a new one. My only problem now is that I'm running out of magazines to give! My next plan is to get the older kids to read some of the books we have. Helle pointed out that a mobile library would work well in these parts where access to books and magazines is so limited. Gave me an idea that I should look further into when I go back home. Books are the very basic tools for educating children and here they can barely afford a 32 page exercise book. It's amazing that they even have primary and secondary schools and some students even go on to university. Just as well kudos to the teachers.

Suburban sprawl
Or maybe called a sub-rural sprawl (although that makes no sense at all). Irrespective of the name given there's a sprawl in northern Uganda or around Pader district. People are moving, and moving out of the IDP camps fast. On our way to Pader town we noticed grounds being cleared for two new settlements. At 8am you notice an exodus from Patongo as adults head off to work on their new houses. And people don't seem to care whether they have latrines or bore-holes at these places. Well I'm sure they care, but they are more desperate to just go home. So acres of land is being cleared, trees chopped as new villages appear on the map. Many were old settlements and many are just "temporary housing" until people can reach their final homes. Either way it's an exciting time for the people of this region as they get to enjoy freedom, peace and to an extent prosperity in a long time.

Their first time in a car
It just so happened we picked up a few old people, kids and mothers on our way back from a visit to one such new settlement and it was quite interesting to see the reactions from the group. For most of them this was the first time they were on an automobile. Gosh, I don't remember my first motor vehicle experience. Probably was too young to remember. Some of the kids were frightened, others had a smile that covered their whole face. Some parents were even holding on tight. I couldn't help but remember the episode Dana had when folks got car sick. I guess all the jerking around can make one a bit queasy. Thankfully no one decided to throw up their breakfast during this ride. One of the kids couldn't stop waving out at the world - quite a different perspective for they are usually the ones standing by the roadside waving at those inside.

Mid-30s is the new mid-20s
And I'm sticking to that statement. So it was my Mom's birthday. It just so happened to be mine also falls on the same day. I wanted it to be low-key (i.e. nobody to know) and it almost was that until friends and family started calling and making the folks here suspicious. At the end there was a cake (Susan's special ginger cake), a big candle (a real candle) and lots of wishes. It also happened to be Peninah, one of our clinical officer's birthday as well. Go figure - it's a small world. So all in all a very quaint birthday celebration in Patongo. I really enjoyed it. And obviously wouldn't be the same without all the phone calls.

Pregnant woman on a Boda-Boda
So just the other day we got word of a 9 month pregnant woman who had been in labor for two days, and was heading towards our health center in a boda-boda. That just set a new record for the threshold of pain I've seen people withstand around here. I mean being in labor is bad enough, that too for two days and to top it of riding on the back of a bicycle along the bumpy pothole filled road. You could tell she was in a lot of pain, but not even a whine came out of her. Amazing. Well we had to take her to a bigger hospital. Hope her delivery went through fine.

Week Eight, Patongo, Uganda

2007-01-16T10:02:00.000-06:00

Here comes the rain again
Oddly enough there has been incessant rainfall over the past few days. Supposedly abnormal for this time of the year. It is soothing for the dust has settled and the day's are nice and cool. But it's quite disruptive to normal business as the roads are washed away with big puddles of water. The pigs have a gala of a time soaking themselves up in the mud. The children have a ball too. I've to wonder if this is just another example of global warming.

Bringing Christine back home
The highlight of the early part of the week was us going out to another town about 4 hours away to pickup up a young girl by the name of Christine who was sent there for treatment and rehabilitation. She is paralyzed from just above the hip down. It's a sad story of how she came to the attention of our health center however thereafter it's a story of tenacity, love and hope. First it was one of our community health workers who found her in a mud pit with pigs. The then doctor decided to drive her 4 hours away to a proper hospital facility where her injuries and illness could be looked at. With her family pretty much discarding her (given her handicap) her maternal grandmother decided to go and stay with her in this town. There she received care, healed and furthermore was taught by another NGO on how to live with her ailment. When we went to pick her up, she was all smiles. She was ready to come home. It had been a long journey there and with no lunch I couldn't help but be a bit grumpy by the time we reached the rehabilitation center. But spending 5 minutes there with her and the other kids got me in good spirits. Bringing her home we realized she's quite the celebrity here in Patongo. Everyone knows her. Let's see where life takes her now. She has support from a very stubborn and kind grandmother, she also has her elder sister. But life is already tough and its brutal if you're handicapped.

Christmas family portrait
So it's time for our "family christmas portrait". Essentially us and a whole bunch of kids all looking in to the compound (like they do whenever we're playing volleyball). The picture says it all. It was a blast trying to set everything up for the family portrait.

Chocolate Cake
Susan cooked a chocolate icing cake for the first time in her life. Well, she's been making these "cocoa cakes" as she calls them and then Tania gave her the recipe for making chocolate icing. What's interesting is that she's never seen or tasted icing, let alone how it's supposed to be on a cake. The very first time she put the cake after the icing back in the oven. Given that she's never visually seen or tasted such a food item, I'd say I was quite impressed as to how it turned out. Mmm... now we have chocolate cake in Patongo.

Christmas weekend
Finally the long weekend came. For us it's a three day weekend as thanks to the colonials we also get Boxing day (day after Christmas). Not sure what this day symbolizes but hey I'm not complaining.

Christmas eve Tania, Dana and I set out to show the kids around town how to blow bubbles and hand 2 gifts. Kids have never blown bubbles before so at first it was odd, in fact a bit scary. Dana was our resident "bubble maker" while Tania and I took photos. Luka was there to greet us at the gate so we started with him. At first he was apprehensive of the whole thing but then the bubbles were just too tempting for him to not jump up and try to catch them. Oh yes, the power of bubbles. Very soon we had a handful all trying to catch bubbles. Walking around the block Dana was the Pied Piper, for kids were now gathering in throngs. It's amazing how fast news travels. Before long we had at-least 20 kids of all ages following us. All running after bubbles or getting their own chance to blow some. Now there were a few who were natural pros in blowing bubbles, whilst most just tried to hard. Our goal was to head to Luka's house and present him and his brother with a soccer-ball for christmas and then go behind our house to Odida's and do the same. You should've seen Luka with the soccer-ball. He forgot all about the bubbles. He didn't even care to take it out of the bag before he was running after it. Amazing how much joy just a simple toy like this can bring to the kids here.

Christmas eve dinner was all planned out by Helle. She and Tania were to do most of the cooking while Dana and I were to make the rum punch. We had Loyda (a Spanish woman working with an Italian NGO locally) over as well. With Christmas lights hanging above and a starry sky we had a wonderful dinner. It was all vegetarian and quite unique (given the veggies we could get our hands on out here). For appetizers, Tania made Homous from scratch and Helle baked some flattened bread (like Pita) to go with it. There was the tasty rum punch. I must say, Captain Morgan's spiced rum with pineapple, orange juice and a hint of crest lime soda makes for a very refreshing cocktail. And then there was a pasta salad, onion tart and roasted veggies. Even for a meat-loving person like me, this was finger-licking delicious. Oh yes, we also had the gift exchange with Loyda. Looks like Edgardo from Kampala got us a jig-saw puzzle - yes, something to look forward to over the week.

On Boxing day we went for a hike up the hill in Kalongo. A beautiful place - nice 1500ft hike up to get a panoramic view of the district. Distant rock formations and flat arid grassland as far as the eye could see. Boxing Day was simply a chill out day. Oh wait - the puzzle. Yes, we got really into it, taking turns in completing this 1000 piece jig-saw. I ended up spending two late nights working on it under my headlamp. It was definitely quite addictive.

Week Seven, Patongo, Uganda

2007-01-16T09:54:00.000-06:00

Introspection
I cannot say enough stuff about the kids of Patongo. They are definitely the heart and joy of this little village. It's like a town of little people. They are everywhere. While the mothers are away attending to the fields, market or simply playing cards and drinking, the kids are there looking after their siblings, sometimes doing chores like carrying water or just having fun with the most basic of toys (like mud). And they help ground me and quickly remind me of why I'm here. They never stop asking for the most mundane of things - like Pringles cans and as annoying as that nagging might be on a Sunday afternoon, its touching and fun. It's that connection that makes everyday worth every bit. I had some kids come in and play volleyball for a bit the other day. Many were still in their school uniform (probably all they have to wear) and it was great to see them laughing and getting a kick out of each other misplays. Kids of Patongo are the most cheerful bunch - no worries in life. Play all day, eat some posho, bug the munus for things, chase the chickens or dogs and that's pretty much it. I've divided them up into the "Odida gang" (that's most kids hanging out behind the house) and then the "Godfrey gang" that hangs out close to our clinic trying to make a tent for themselves. Godfrey's little brother Luka is one of our favorites. And so I've been checking some of the kids grades - essentially giving candy to those who made good grades and it's good to see that many are good students. Unfortunately given the cost of higher education in this country most will never attend a college class. But still with some vocational training they can have a good future. Just need some proper guidance and counseling.

Walking blind
Walking at night in Patongo is quite the art form. Saturday evening I decided that I'll head to the main strip to check out a premiership match on TV. One of the lodges shows matches in the weekends. Feeling a bit gutsy, I headed out without my headlamp - trying out what seems to work quite effectively for the locals. Walking down the pitch dark street, it reminded me of the many summer nights when we'd have blackouts in Calcutta. It was too hot and humid to stay indoors so all of us would wonder the streets trying to stir up a breeze from the mere movement of people. During those days I learned (by trial obviously) to stay away from dark patches. They usually constitute potholes or something you don't want to step on. I felt quite proud here in Patongo remembering that little tidbit of education. So there I was proudly walking like a local, except for when a sudden bump on the road got me. Well I just went about as if nothing had happened, just that every step I took thereafter I must've looked like I was moon-walking as it was slow and purposeful. So even with me being super alert and walking I stumbled a few times, so what I don't comprehend is how people can ride bicycles in such darkness. And the best is they see you for they have their bells ringing. I sure can't see them so instead of giving way I just stand still and let them figure out how to avoid running into me.

Playing pool
I had my first pool game this past weekend. It was at the same place where they show the premiership matches. The pool table is much smaller then what I'm used to and the balls are yellow and red in color. No numbers and no stripes. The cue stick obviously has much to be desired of and unfortunately whoever positioned the table didn't really think it through as some of the areas its just impossible to play. So I played two games and both I was near winning when I scratched. Had a few good shots that seemed to impress the local crowd that had gathered around. I noticed that they didn't think as much when taking shots. Maybe it's just me but I like to make these mathematical calculations of angles of impact, speed of the ball etc., all to miss at the end. But still it's fun. Patongo pool players more or less like to hit straight and waste little time on appreciating the science behind the game. But with Bob Marley playing in the background, a cold (yes they had a refrigerator at this bar) Club beer it was nice just to be playing. Met up with quite a few known faces during the evening - Milton Obote, one of our daily worker or as I like to call him - Glove-man for he wears these heavy duty gloves to work even if the work is to nail a plank. The captain of the military stationed in town was having an evening out. My jogging-mate Will Smith was there. In any case, having lost my two games (and down 1000 shillings) I decided to bid adieu and head home. Later in the evening Dana and I tried out Wetlands but not much was happening. The bouncers wanted to charge more because we aint't the locals and that would still be worth it if the place wasn't dead. Brought back memories of going out in Los Angeles. It wasn't the money that irritated me, it was the principle of the matter. Anyways, disappointed we came home. I guess nightlife in Patongo is back to chilling at the white-house.

Helle's Kitchen
Earlier in the week we had a few visitors from our coordination team Kampala. It's always nice to have people over - we get inspired to do stuff and it's a nice change from the daily routine. Well actually I should phrase that as some get inspired to do stuff while others (i.e. me) enjoy their fruits of labor. In any case, having guests over inspired Helle to showcase some of her culinary skills. Dana & Tania had bought this huge pumpkin (the only one in the market) from Lira so Helle decided to make pumpkin gnocchi. While I just lazed around all afternoon, she was busy in the kitchen roasting the pumpkin and making this wonderful dinner for us. Along with that she made some pizza. Just delicious. It was her way of wishing us all a belated Happy Thanksgiving. It was awesome. A lovely evening of wine and dinner with everyone under the stars. She's actually continued this tradition with another gourmet pizza this week which had roasted pumpkin, some pasta sauce and feta cheese. No, the feta came from Kampala. Yes, I know you're wondering - jeez, these guys are living it up. In the area of food we try not to make any compromises. Anyways, the pizza was delicious. Homemade pizza every Sunday seems to be the norm. Now she expects Dana and I to make pumpkin pie. Oh boy!

International Space Station siting
Early one evening we think we saw the International Space station wiz by. It was around 7:30 p.m. local time and we saw this bright spot on the northern sky closer to the horizon move across real fast and within seconds disappear. Helle and Tania saw it before around the same time however it was then on the eastern horizon. Until I can confirm this I'd just like to believe that it was the space station or some UFO. Either way, staring up at the sky there's just so much happening - shooting stars, constellations, planets - too bad I never took astronomy in college or brought a star gazing map with me. Probably check for one during my next visit to Kampala.

A week before Christmas
'Tis a week before Christmas and we're all getting into the Christmas spirit. It feels weird given that there's no crazy shopping to do or people aren't coming to work wearing their goofy Christmas special sweaters. Amongst the four of us we decided to have a secret santa gift exchange which means I need to go shopping. Darn - can't give gift cards (which is my staple present). The Christmas lights are up (on the clothesline) and a live tree has been decorated. The menu for Christmas dinner is set and I believe Dana and I are in-charge of the rum punch. Good heavens! This will be fun. Looking forward to next weekend. Can't believe another year's almost gone by.

Weeks Five & Six, Patongo, Uganda

2007-01-16T09:34:00.000-06:00

Back Home
So call me crazy but I actually was missing Patongo by the 7th day in Kampala. Maybe it was the fact that I had pretty much exhausted my money and sightseeing needs there. But I'm pretty sure there was a little bit attraction of coming back to Patongo. Back to my daily routine, back to the friendly people. As people in Patongo are, they showed their genuine appreciation of seeing me back. It was good to be back 'home'.

Visiting new villages
One of the exciting projects for the week was to go on a few assessments of new villages/settlements that are coming up in the Patongo sub-county. This is the completion of the assessments that we started a few weeks earlier. Officially these are still called camps but I like to look at them as villages. After all people intend to move back to these villages - their original homes. What's amazing is that people are heading back to absolutely nothing. Most of these settlements don't even have a well to get water from. Those that do probably shouldn't be using them. But people are happy to be back home. I guess home always has that special meaning, no matter what the standard of living might be.

So I learnt something new while doing these assessments. There're tukuls that are round, in fact most are round. Then there're some that are almost a square with rounded edges and then there're some that are more of a polygon. The last being very rare to find. And given the limitations in raw materials most of the huts are 4-8 feet in radius. It's quite basic when it comes to building but fairly sturdy and very cool inside. I guess all the straw provides a good insulation against the heat. Also that's probably why the doors are so small, and the grass roofing almost hides them.

Now one thing that did bother me was the use of fire wood or charcoal for cooking. Wonder why they aren't using cow-dung pies like in India. Here they use wood so heavily that except for trees that provide fruit (like mangoes), everything else is cut down. So there's practically no shade.

Children of the night
Walking to the health center the other evening I realized that Patongo takes a different life of it's own at night. Children are still out playing - especially on moonlit nights. And then there's all these various noises as the night progresses - be it of a drunk yelling, children or some radio cranked up. Lately the bar opposite our house has been blasting music on a borrowed system. I guess we might use that for our New Year's eve party. Oh yes, we're planning on having a New Year's eve party. Not sure of what exactly we'll be doing for New Year's but definitely a party.

Karamajong are here
It's that time of the year again when the Karamajong come into this area to graze their cattle. The problem is that they seem to take back more cattle then they brought. And it's your axe or hoe against their guns. It's like classic 1900s cattle hustlers from the wild west of America. They've guns, and they are complete outlaws. The military has been trying to disarm them, but as we all know in today's world it's difficult to keep someone from getting their hands on a gun. I have yet to see one of them and still remain quite intrigued by their culture.

Being brought up in Patongo
Last Saturday, I ended up working till late trying to close the month. Around 11 p.m. I finally called it quits and decided to sit outside under the starlit sky with a beer. It had been a long week but now with everything done it felt quite relieving. I can't quite express in words the serene feeling of sitting there in our courtyard, with the occasional chatter coming from one of the huts, drinking a beer and looking up at a clear night sky. Maybe it's the absolute darkness around (except for the moon) or the fact that the village had finally gone to sleep. Obviously it didn't hurt to have Thievery Corporation on to get the mood right.

So I began comparing life in Patongo vs. the States. What a contrast in values! Would I consider one luckier then the other? At first look definitely would say that the opportunities are more with the person brought up in the developed world. I look at the people around me, especially the children and imagine what they'd do if they had the opportunities I had? Maybe many wouldn't do anything with it. But then I can't help but think that a good majority would actually grow up to be significant contributors to society. I couldn't believe that most people here have never seen fireworks or for that matter realized the potential for electricity. But then most people now know what SMS is. It's amazing how mobile technology has captured markets even in the remotest parts of the world. People here know what ring-tones are and actually have personalized tones.

In any case, that Saturday evening I pondered what it'd mean to be born in Patongo. I guess I wouldn't know the difference if I grew up here. But for an outsider it is quite striking.

My first sighting of wildlife
During my visit to a nearby new camp (called Lukwa) I came across what looked like the skin of a very small, thin leopard. More like a short cheetah. Later on doing some research with Helle I think we came to the conclusion that it's probably a Serval. The hunters informed us that this cat was caught on one of their traps. Seems like it's a predator of this region. I was quite saddened seeing the skin. The only consolation was that these men were not poachers. They actually ate the meat, which they couldn't stop complementing. I gave them an idea for catching these magnificent creatures alive and selling it to the conservation agencies for relocation. It's sad to have come to eastern Africa and find the first wild cat in just it's skin. Apart from that there are loads of frogs and lizards to look at. Then there's the occasional scorpion. I gather with the dry season more of those buggers we'll get to see.

Mornings in Patongo
Unlike other days when I just head out for a jog this particular day I decided to take the bike and go out for a stroll. A morning hue had spread across the village. It was 6am and the sun was just peaking above the eastern horizon. People were still not out from their cozy shelters and I took that opportunity to just take in the view, alone, without the crowding of children and any other bystanders. The distant mountains, the brilliant sky, the silhouette of the tukuls, dust rising from the isolated sweeping of a front porch. All of it made for a picturesque morning. The roosters had been calling it a morning for quite awhile, but the lazy cows under what looked to be a banyan tree were late risers. I wish my large bovine friends a very good morning as I pass them. The sun is quick to rise in this part of the world. Barely 15mins had passed and the sun was already making it's presence felt and similarly were the people. Some had already gathered around me and my tripod wondering what I was up to. That was my cue to head back home.

It is indeed an interesting kaleidoscope of senses that Patongo mornings present. The smoke rising from previous nights burnt garbage, the occasional fog, people heading to the fields, babies crying while mothers sweep (or as Helle likes to say "rearrange") the dust.

A local in a foreign land
It was odd to feel like a local while bringing a few out of town Ugandans into Patongo. This was their first visit to this part of the country, and they were filled with curiosity and a little bit of uneasiness as we passed new settlements and armed soldiers patrolling the roads. Thinking back I realized that it was just incorrect on my part to expect them to feel at home here. It's just like me visiting some other part of India. They don't speak the language, they've never been here and quite honestly life is different in a village of northern Uganda then in large towns. But I still got a chuckle thinking that in this case I was the local.

Night Photography
Inspired by the sky one night I decided to experiment with bulb speed. Essentially using a small aperture (around f22) and an extremely long shutter speed (10mins+). Thanks to my remote shutter release (last year's b'day gift from John) this became pretty easy to do. I'm not sure if I could set it up using just the camera. Don't think the camera timer actually allows for minutes. Well even with all the gadgetry my pictures didn't come out like the ones I remember from the pages of National Geographic. I guess I need to experiment more. But it was cool to see the movement of stars as streaks across the night sky.

Jogging Partners
One of our watchmen, Will Smith and an 8th grader Alex have become my jogging buddies. It's more like they come over around 6am and most mornings I disappoint them by just being lazy and not going for a jog. But on days that I do head out they definitely help me keep a better pace. We do about 8kms, although they are ever keen to extend to a few more miles. I just promise them the next time we'll do more and I'm sure by now they know the truth. So these guys run bare feet or with barely anything on their feet while I have my gel Asics, and yet they run faster and barely break a sweat. Tells me a lot about my fitness level. I don't think even if I tried real hard would I be able to get to their level, or at-least that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I blame it on genetics. Now the only drawback to having jogging partners is that I don't get to have that "alone-time". But I guess that's alright.

Dust Storms
The dry season is here. The past week the winds have picked up as the day progresses and along with that comes the dust. Its everywhere. Trying to fight it is futile. I'm trying to embrace it. But it's been a tough relationship. By midday the strong gusts of wind makes it almost impossible to go outside. And usually there's a thick layer of dust over everything. Closing the rooms helps keep some of it out but I've given up on sleeping on a clean dust free bed. I realize that I won't really be clean during this dry season. The bad news is that this is only the beginning. I'm told that the real storms come in January and February. Ah, I can't wait.

First inter-NGO volleyball match
We had our first inter-NGO volleyball match. Surprisingly it was taken quite seriously by my colleagues. I just thought it was going to be a friendly game, but turned out to be quite the competition. The good news is that we beat them convincingly 2 matches to 1. Many of the guys weren't too happy that we chose people who turned up for practice and not necessarily the best players. But then again I always hated it in school when I'd go to practice everyday and work out diligently but not make it in the first 11 (obviously I didn't care that I wasn't as good as some of the others). Although I was so excited when I did make the 11 heading to Lucknow for our inter-school meet. I digress, back to the volleyball. We had actual chalk lines drawn and drinks after the match. Looks like we'll be having a re-match in January.

The week ended with us being invited to another NGO's house-warming party. They just moved into their new house/office. There was mucomo [moo-cho-mo] sans stick, some great pasta salad and room temperature beer. They had the place "pimped out". Normal lighting - I mean lamp shades with the soft yellow light, satellite TV, a real music system and toilets that were more then just a hole in the ground. Needless to say we were a bit envious at first but then soon we came to the realization that such luxuries would spoil the experience that's Patongo. And as Helle put it - it just makes going back home that much sweeter. But I did keep the invite open for coming to their place to watch Champions Cup football.

Week Four - back in Kampala

2006-11-24T00:23:00.000-06:00

It's nice to be back in Kampala for a change. Probably the last time I'm here in awhile. The first night headed to a real indian restaurant with Dana and we ate like there was no tomorrow. Mmmm... the Nans were so tasty. Real restaurant food. Spicy goodness. Kampala is cool with the exception that I can't get a good internet connection anywhere to upload pictures. For the most part internet connections are patchy at best. Spent yesterday evening trying to help one of these cafes to get back online. Just as we were making progress, there was a power cut. So much for that.

Anyways, the rains have been continuing all over so the weather's pleasant although I can't say I appreciate all the slush. Heading back sometime this weekend (I think) for the north.

Week Three, Patongo

2006-11-24T00:17:00.000-06:00

Food... mostly good, although I do miss calling Dominos at times. If I continue eating the way I have I'm convinced I'll return home a fatter man. And that would just be wrong given that I've come on a mission. But I have to attribute it to the food. For breakfast, Susie (our head chef) makes these crepe-like pancakes which Dana and Eric taught her. They are delicious. And combine that with bananas, Nutella and honey.... mmm... it puts IHOP to shame. I think I've consumed more Nutella in the past two weeks then I've in the whole of last year. It's just there and I have no self-control when it comes to chocolate. Oh and then to make matters worse they make these Donut like pastries (although there's no hole in these ones). Deep fried and slightly sweetened. Smear a touch of the "N" and it's heaven! There's also the healthy food - whole milk, beans (rajma style), pineapples, mangos and bananas (all brought in from Lira or Kampala) and yoghurt (also brought in). All I can hope is that I'll get tired of all this good stuff. The jogging and volleyball does help a bit to keep me at check. Oh yes, I did teach Susie to make some Dal (Lentils). It came out a bit bland initially as we didn't have any dried red chilies but we seemed to still like it. That with Chapattis and I feel like I'm back in India. In fact she made Dal twice after and I think she's gotten the hang of it. A fast learner this Susan is. So check this out - the roller for the Chapattis is an empty beer bottle - creative I say. They also make a lot of red beans (rajma). Once in awhile they'll buy some of the dried fish that sells in Patongo market and make an interesting fish in peanut sauce. I still haven't quite gotten a taste for this. Chicken is actually not available and I'm told that those that you get are not all that tasty. So for food supplies, we order all of our exotic items (like Nutella, tuna in can, marmalade, cereal, fresh fruits, cheese etc.) from Kampala. And then some items like fresh fish, more veggies and fruits, rice etc. we get at Lira (2.5 hrs drive from Patongo). As for Patongo - very little is available here. The market usually has some dried fish, pretty sad looking tomatoes and plenty of potatoes and sweet po-tatoes although I'm not sure if the sweet ones are the same as those you get in the States. As far as fresh produce is concerned I think what's impressed me the most are the fruits. All three of my favorite fruits are available in plenty (or at-least for now). I've to say I've never had such tasty pineapples before. And chilled with some yoghurt - makes an excellent fruit salad. Now you see why I fear that I'll quite possible put on weight. But even then I do miss some things. I miss Indian food, miss pizzas, miss Tex-Mex and I definitely miss desert. Pastries, Indian sweets - all of it. I do have to say that Susie and Katy do get quite resourceful in com-ing up with dishes given what they've to work with. The Tuna quiche-pie is quite tasty, especially with some chili sauce. And there's al-ways the tomato based pizza-pie.

Volleyball is getting more competitiveNow we've started playing every evening and I've to say everyone's getting better at it. We still don't have anyone really smacking the ball down but I'm sure with time that'll happen.

Getting attached to the monkey

So with Eric gone all of us have stepped up our attention on the monkey. I usually like rubbing it's belly while it just cradles on to me. It's quite a cute bugger. I've also ventured taking it outside the compound for a walk. So far it hasn't pissed anyone off. It does have a temper but I've been able control her (or so I think). In any case I think it'll be tough to give up the monkey at the end of the mission. Hopefully we can let it out in the wild and she finds a family of her own.

And another pet is welcomed into the family

And then we've a little black kitten that's been coming around. She's (presuming a female) a frightened little thing that Tania's taking a real liking to. For now she's been getting some of our tuna. Gourmet food for this part of the world. That should be reason enough for her to be less frightened. In any case, if she doesn't have a home of her own, this'll soon become hers.

Man United supporters in Patongo!

Who'd have guessed there are so many ManU supporters in Patongo, Uganda. There's one place in town that shows matches on a 21" TV and I'm sure it's a happening place on Saturday evenings. I've yet to check it out. So I was hanging out at Matate's bar (next door) and we started talking about the Premier league. These guys are on top of it - more then I ever was. So I figured I'd take a picture of all the Manchester United fans of Patongo and send it to the football club. Maybe they'll be gracious enough to send some t-shirts or better still soccer balls to play here. Either way the photo shoot was a blast. The group was picked up on "Vatican One" - the yellow van that rides around town - and actually found me while I was working with the crew at one of our bore-hole pumps. I also had to take a picture of the kids who were watching around. I'd like to think of them as the junior fans. Anyways, I'm eager to see what Man United does with the letter. I'd be pretty disappointed if they simply chucked into their junk mail bin.

Bore-hole cleaning

This week I actually got to help out with pulling pipes out of one of our bore-hole hand pumps. It's just a fancier looking pump to the one we have at home in Calcutta. I guess some of my experience watching that "tube-well" getting fixed came handy. What was most impressive was the sheer number of kids (all under 8) crowding around us - at one point I counted at-least 100! Some on backs of others!!

Week Two, Patongo

2006-11-24T00:13:00.000-06:00

The day after Halloween Eric left Patongo. It was quite touching to see all the people coming by to say "goodbye". He obviously was leaving a legacy here. In fact people all the way down in Lira knew of him - famous from riding a unicycle down the streets. In any case week 2 started with a saying adieu to Eric in Lira and bringing Helle back to Patongo. And then I was on my own in regards to managing the administrative and logistics tasks. But with the support of the national staff I soon got comfortable in my role. Probably the most difficult part initially was learning all the names. The weather has started to change. The afternoon downpours that came by like clockwork on my first few days have now become unreliable. Now instead of rain, there's the occasional gust of wind that sweeps up quite the dust storm. I'm told that this is the beginning of the dry season where such dust storms will be common and the temperature will steadily rise. The sun can be quite intense and so will have to see how long my sun block lasts.The week was quite eventful as I accompanied Helle to assess the new villages that are being built in Patongo sub-county. Also visited Pader (the district capital) and Kalongo for the first time.

The Acholi People

With the peace talks in Juba between the LRA and the Ugandan govern-ment progressing (albeit ever so slowly), people have started to mi-grate back to their original villages. Can you imagine going back to your hometown after 20 years? These villages are now just part of the bush but not only does the people know exactly the location of the village but what was their own property. There's no complicated proc-ess to reacquire land or no disagreements over who owns what. Simple memory and trust provides the necessary legal bindings. From an outsider's perspective I have yet to grasp this concept of going back to the bush. I understand the sentimental value of going back to your own hometown. However rebuilding an entire village and then still not having some of the necessities such as health center facilities or transport would make me think twice of leaving Patongo. I guess this is just human nature - to want to go back home (no matter what state it is in) - as long as there's peace.We visited one of these villages, Arec (pronounced Ar-e-ch) which was literally in the middle of the bush. All I saw around was the thick tall grass. There was no water nor sanitation facility nearby and the closest health center was at-least 10-15 kms away. Yet you could see the excitement in the residents' faces as they proudly gave us the tour of their up and coming village. Distance has a completely different take here. People are so used to walking long distances to visit the market, health center or attending to fields that 20-30 kms is nothing to them. I guess it's almost like us in the western world complaining of an hour commute to work. Except here you just walk along dusty roads. During my morning jogs (yes I'm getting to do some trail running) I'm greeted by dozens of people heading out to their "gardens" (i.e. small farms or fields). They are all in smiles when I greet them in Acholi. Some of them even keep up with me whilst carrying an ax and wearing slippers. I sometimes have to increase my speed just to out pace them. Not much of an ego booster. but these days I take it in stride and giving them a high-five. Oh, I digress. Well back to my original story - most of them will work all day in the fields and head back in the late afternoon with fire wood. The idea is to grow enough crop for the family and then some to sell in the market. This sort of subsistence farming pretty much guar-antees that the people of this region will never be able to improve their own standard of living. They are never able to sell enough of what they grow to invest in more land or materials which then could help increase production. Once in awhile I'm told a NGO will come by and distribute hoes, shovels and wheelbarrows. Else homemade tools are all they have to work with. Home buildingWhere's the Home Depot? Well home building here is quite simple much like the life style. Bricks are made from the soil. Burnt if you want to last it longer. A round circle is cut in the ground and bricks are layered on top of each other and cemented together using the same mud. The soil is very much like clay so I guess it works well for this purpose. The thatched roofs are made of straw which is abundant after the rainy season. And a plaster made of cow-dung (much like in India) is put on the walls floor. The entrance way is quite low and there's rarely any windows. When there's a shortage of water to make bricks, sticks or logs are used to provide the framework of the side walls and then mud put in-between. Supposedly the whole process (from brick making and cutting of grass to actual finished house) takes about 2-3 weeks. Take that homebuilders in the states! And it's made of completely natural materials. Although that can be your achilles heel in the case of fire - which I've now seen two. Looks like people are not all that careful with their kerosene lamps or stoves.

Children of Patongo

What continues to catch my disbelief is the sheer number of kids that are in Patongo. You see them in the morning going to the fields (or more like taking someone else to the field if the family has a bicycle), you see them going to the school (which there are quite a few of in this town) and then obviously you see them playing on the street side with their make shift soccer ball. I've continued Eric's tradition of giving away the empty Pringles tins, but still waiting to see something cool being made out of it. Whenever they see me the conversation is brisk and almost the same. The greet me by either "Munu" or "George". Yes, that's my current name amongst one group of kids. I don't have the heart to correct them. And then it's a question from either side "How are you?" to which the standard response of "I am fine" comes out. Then there's usually my broken Acholi vocabulary that I spurt out... "Apwoyo" (meaning Hello or Thank you or Bye). Once in awhile they'll chase me while I'm riding the bike and try to get on. And yes, loads of them all hang out close to our house to watch us play volleyball in the evening or just check out the monkey. Thinking maybe get a few soccer balls for the ones who always hang out close to our house. Oh yes, our house is called the "White-house". It's because it's the only white house in Patongo apart from the health center. Or at-least that's my logic.

Karamajong

On my second week in Patongo I learnt about the fabled Karamajong. It's a district of Uganda but also the name of the tribe that inhabits the area. They are by tradition nomadic cattle herders. However over the years they've taken up arms and started looting neighboring districts for cattle and in such acts have also attacked and killed people. Unfortunately the fact that they all seem to have AK47s doesn't help the matter. Apparently the men dress up in blazers, beads and sandals made out of car tires and no pants. I can see how that could be an effective way to take your opponent by surprise. But it's unfortunate that the Karamajong have become more then a nuisance to the Acholi people. Now they are feared. Well 70 kms away from Patongo in Kotido (the district capital of Karamajong) there was a standoff between the Ugandan army (UPDF) and the Karamajong with casualities suffered on both side, or atleast that's the news. The Ugandan government wants the Karamajong to give up their weapons (as it's unlawful to carry them in this country). The K'jongs insist that it's required to protect their cattle. So now people are more watchful of whether there's any insurgence of K'jongs in Pader district. Yet another variable in the equation of instability in the north. However I do have to say I'm quite intrigued by the K'jongs - well I guess primarily from their attire and mix of primitive methods of survival put together with today's weapons of choice. They say that they don't harm those without cattle - but I'd rather not find out.

Cholera Scare

On Friday evening we admitted two kids with suspected cholera. The health center already has an isolated area with tents setup for a Cholera Treatment Center and a kit was sent out earlier this year. But not having done this before it was showtime for me. All the training, reading would finally come to use. I was quite excited. That evening we got the CTC all set up for the two immediate patients. I already knew we were running short on chlorine and definitely couldn't handle a more then a few patients. That night I brushed up on the protocol, supplies, recommended layout and chalked up a plan. Luckily for me Helle (our Field-Co) had been through a major cholera emergency so I could bounce ideas of her or just learn from her. All of Saturday I spent with my team in organizing the CTC for an outbreak. Lucky for this town there were no further cases and the two boys were healthy and discharged by lunch time. It was good to see them go home smiling. And for me the exercise was a worthwhile experience in preparedness for the real deal. I must say I really enjoyed the high-stress, fast-paced aspect of it. Gave me a very specific purpose to focus on.

Week One, Patongo, Uganda

2006-11-20T09:51:00.000-06:00

Reaching Patongo

Kassinga is an airstrip, between Kampala and Entebbe. It's essentially a grassy runway and a small building to facilitate check-in. The pilot also plays the role of baggage handler. And the security check is based on the honor system. The best part is that along with my belongings, I too got weighed. I guess the single-engine Cessna is a bit picky about weight.

Just before taxing down the runway the pilot called us on a quick group prayer. At that point not knowing that this was a missionary run airline, I got quite a chuckle looking at the plane and our safety measures.

As the plane scurried down the grassy runway of Kassinga airstrip I was filled with anticipation and excitement. I was finally on my way to Patongo. As we climbed we left the lush green hills of Kampala and the blue waters of Lake Victoria for the more arid north. The organized farm lands between lush green forests gave way to lighter shades of green and some yellow. I could also see that the bush and had taken over a lot of the previously cultivated lands.

Making our final approach into Patongo I noticed the organized village huts of the so-called IDP camp. To me it looked less like a camp and more like a congested village. The landing strip was smoothened earth, much like all roads and "pavements" in this part of the world. It actually was a much smoother landing then many I have had in developed nations. The soil has a reddish tinge and is more like clay. Highly fertile and multi-purpose as the huts or tukus as they are called are also built from the same mud. As we're landing throngs of children start running on the other side of the fence, chasing the plane. I'm sure this never seizes to excite them. I remember my childhood spent in airports of Kolkata, Mumbai and Lusaka. Always thrilled at watching landings and takeoffs. Leaving the airstrip, throngs of children ran by the SUV waving byes and calling out "Munu" which is short for Muzungu (or white-people). Lest did they know I was here to stay.

The ever smiling children and their odd way of greeting was heartwarming and welcoming. I couldn't help but think that I'll grow fond of this place.

Five Star Accommodation

Our living accommodation is probably one of the finest (if not the finest) in town. While most locals live in tukus we've a concrete building with zinc roofing. The compound is quite large, especially for a team of four expatriates. The office and warehouse for the mission is also on the compound. Each of us have our own room, about 12 feet x 10 feet, with a bed, desk, a side table and a small shelf. The window looks out into our patio. Very cozy and comfortable. I have come to love the bathrooms (or more like bathing stalls). They are open air enclosures so I can enjoy the evening sky while taking a bath. There's one with a light and and roof but I immediately started favoring the open-air stalls. It reminded me of our home in Kolkata in the 80s. Definitely brought back all those fond memories. There's no running water. All water is stored in drums that are filled as needed from a mobile tank which in turn gets filled from a larger tank at the health center. The village/camp's water supply comes from numerous bore-holes, some solar motorized. The toilets are MSF approved permanent latrines. One even has a light for night. Essentially they are concrete trenches with a slab on top with a hole. You block the hole after you're done to keep the flies at bay. There's a ventilation pipe that goes out from the trench. I guess you just get used to doing your business while cockroaches and lizards look on lazily.All of our night-time electricity comes from 4 12.5 volt batteries that get charged via solar panels during the day. An inverter allows us to use the computers at night which are primarily used for watching boot-leg VCDs bought in Lira. Amazingly the office has everything from color printers to laptops. I'm just surprised that these devices are operating in such dusty conditions.

Volleyball

On my first day itself I'm introduced to volleyball. Looks like those prior to me managed to get the national staff excited over volleyball. A net has been sent from Kampala for this. The rules are still fuzzy to many but there's no lack of enthusiasm. It soon becomes a competition between the "munus" and rest. I fall into the munu team. I figure this'll be one form of regular entertainment and exercise for me.

Nightlife in Patongo

Talking about entertainment, who'd have thought that there's a night-club (not in the strictest form of the word or establishment) in Patongo! It's called the Wetlands. We decide to head out there the first saturday in Patongo. Some of the national staff join us as well. It looks like a hotel (with rooms) which is converted for the evening into dance hall. The open-air patio (which feels more like just dirt and stones) is crowded with guys and a few girls. I'm told most of those girls are local hookers. There're two large speakers blasting Lugandan hits. It's obvious that the speakers have cracked (although not sure if that'd make a difference). A generator is trying it's best to provide the power needed to run the amp and these two speakers. Warm beer and local liquor is selling at the caged up bar. I have to say it's not all that bad drinking warm beer, shaking your booty at some Lugandan or Acholi music and looking up at the stars. I found it odd to see guys dancing with other guys - and that too in such close proximity. Almost felt like I was back in West Hollywood or Oilcan Harry's. I guess these guys are very comfortable with their sexuality. I probably would've enjoyed more if the ratio was a bit better, but just the fact that nobody gave a damn how you looked, what you wore - it was a lot of fun. The Acholi people have witnessed atrocities that I can only imagine, yet for that moment they were there to have fun, to let everything pass and to enjoy life. Made it very simple to understand some of the core values of life. I'm sure ot be visiting the Wetlands a few more times during my stay here. Oddly enough there are also numerous pool halls around town. I've seen people playing pool all day long. I guess that's what happens when you've no work. But then I'm told that they aren't all that good. I've to see it for myself one of these days.

Monkey Business

Oh there's a monkey who also lives with us. They story of how the monkey got here is fuzzy but now it's a member of the household, with it's own little house above the store room. Hella calls her Jimmy while most of us just call her monkey. She's quite temperamental although I've seen that just taking her and scratching her belly usually gets her all relaxed. She remains on a long leash as otherwise her destructive self comes into full bloom. Intriguing character this monkey. She likes to lick of the sweat from my neck and pick at my hair follicles. I return the favor by scratching her belly or going through her back. Although I'm definitely not an advocate of domesticating a wild animal, not sure if she'd survive out in the wild. Maybe we'll slowly get her back in her original habitat.

Halloween

Week one in Patongo got more interesting because of Halloween. Eric, Dana and Tania decided to throw a Halloween party Who'd have thought I'd be celebrating Halloween in Patongo! We had about 150 people inside while numerous others were hanging out on the streets. Being a costume party, many came wearing their tribal dresses. There were contests, shows and lots of Lugandan music being played from the system that I heard a few days prior at the Wetlands. The unmistakable crackle of the speakers. All being run via a generator. As expected the beer ran out way before people were ready to leave so more had to be ordered. Lucky for us Matate's bar is just across the street. The party probably would never end if it wasn't for the generator finally dying around midnight. It was interesting to see so many women dancing away the night - made me wonder why these same ladies are not seen at the Wetlands on a saturday evening. I guess it all boils down to the kind of crowd and safety an establishment can provide. Needless to say the party was a huge success. Probably the biggest party Patongo has seen. Kudos to Eric, Dana and Tania.

New York is cool, Heathrow is busy as usual

2006-10-22T13:00:00.000-05:00

Saturday, October 21 2006, New York
9:30 am EST
I am frantically calling up the few camera stores that are open in New York city on a Saturday. There is a crisis at hand. I’ve not brought my camera battery charger with me. For a photo enthusiast like me, that left me sleepless all night. For whatever reason most camera stores in Manhattan are closed on Saturdays.

10:00 am EST
Anyways, back to my crisis. Need a specific battery charger. Calumet, one of the reputed stores on both coast happens to be open. I call. The lady looks through their inventory, but to my disappointment they don’t have it in stock. However she tells me that I might try K&M Camera. Never heard of them but worth a shot. By now I’ve found a street corner cafe (“Cosi”) where they make great omelette bagel sandwiches and have free wifi. So I’m already on the K&M Camera site looking for what I need. To my delight it shows they have it in stock. Yeah! I rush down to 23rd and 2nd Ave and can’t thank them enough. For them it’s just a charger. For me it’s the ability to take capture the images and impressions that hopefully will last a lot longer then my own memory.

Noon EST
Arul calls to give me the good news. Texas is leading Nebraska. Only slightly but nevertheless all we care about at this point is a win. The damage has already been done, given our defeat to Ohio State. For now we need to focus on winning the Big12 championship. Then leave it up to fate to decide whether we get our second consecutive shot at the National Championship. For now I do have to say that Ohio State is playing like a true #1. But we’ll see what happens when they meet Michigan in a few weeks.

So yes, I’ll miss football - american college football that is. It’s probably the only american sport that I follow quite religiously. Yes, it has a lot to do with the fact that my alma mater is Texas, a traditional powerhouse in the sport. But also that anything is possible at the collegiate level. Upsets are an everyday affair, and that’s what makes is exciting to watch. Especially when you have these mystical rankings - computers calculating best teams - coaches being polled. Oddest way to find a champion. Being away in Uganda, I’ll still be bleeding burnt orange (and sporting my Longhorn cap), but I’ll miss watching the matches and yelling “Texas Fight”. Although on the flip side, this could be a good sign as the past two years when Texas have been to (and won) the Rose Bowl, I’ve been away in India. So perhaps there’s a positive correlation between me being out of the country and UT doing well in a bowl game.

2:30 pm EST
Heading back from an Irish pub. I had a pint of beer while watching a bit of football. So what’s with New Yorkers and iPods? Everyone has one. You can tell by the signature white headphones. Did I miss an Apple giveaway, for I have never seen so many people hooked to the “pod” as I’ve seen walking the streets of Manhattan. Streets, subways, coffee shops, even people in cars! It’s almost now a part of the New Yorker’s attire. So I ponder, why the sudden urge to listen to music while on the move? Why was it not the case when the tape or CD walkman were in? Is it a fashion statement? Is it just simply cool? I’m sure the sleek size of the device has a lot to do with it. And are New Yorkers just so much into their own lives, that they don’t want to hear any of the ambient sounds around them? Did you know that the New York subway has a podcast on train schedules & delays? Being a technologist (in the core) I have to enjoy the gadgetry and how people are in with the latest technologies. So yes, I too take out my iPod (to be cool like everyone else) but alas, mine won’t come on. I guess I must have exhausted the battery. Oh well, I tried.

8:00 pm EST
The journey begins. The 777 British Airways taxis out of the gate. I notice that this was the 3rd or 4th British Airways flight to London that afternoon/evening. No wonder it’s not full. Good for all of us. Settled into my seat I look around at my co-passengers. I think of what lies ahead for me. Excitement fills the air, but first some dinner and wine. Also need to check out “Click”, the movie. Angela said she was in tears and John had reported that it had some depressing moments. Being an Adam Sandler fan, I have to watch it. Well, it wasn’t a bad movie. Through comedy there was a message to be taken. We are spending more time working and less in living today with those who we love and care for.

There’s a lady in the row ahead of mine who all of a sudden gets up in the middle of the night to land a slew of obscenities to the family sitting next to her. Out of nowhere she blurts out. Everyone including the flight attendants are caught off guard. Seems like she has some mental issues. Never seen this before on a flight. Anyways, I lower my cap and try to get a few hours shut eye.

Sunday, October 22 2006, Heathrow
11:00 am GMT
Sitting at a coffee shop watching planes land and take off. It’s a cloudy day at Heathrow, but I guess that’s just normal autumn weather here in England. I’m always trying to figure out plane models from their characteristics as well as guess airlines by their emblems on the tail. Just three weeks ago I was here traveling to Delhi. How time flies. In six months I might be back here returning from Uganda. Who knows how I’ll feel then? Will I feel like I succeeded (even the slightest)? Will I feel fulfilled? Will I be looking forward to my second mission? Well, for now I just feel excited to be heading into the field. A Kenya Airways Boeing 777 takes off. It’s been awhile since I was on a flight to an African country. 1994 summer was the last time I flew to Zambia, and I think maybe it was British Airways. Not sure anymore. Then Zambia Airways would fly all the way to New York (via Libreville). The leased DC10 was the pride of the national airways, and many of us self proclaimed Zambians. Nkwazi was her name. She flew relentlessly across the globe, never resting for more then a few hours a day. How apt of a name - the eagle of Zambia. Today Zambia Airways does not exist. I noticed that only three sub-saharan African carriers fly to London - Ethiopian, South African and of course Kenya. What happened to Air Zimbabwe, Zambia Airways, Air Malawi?

Well I still have 7 more hours here and if I'm to keep myself entertained I need to find a electric outlet.

Now that I think about it, I remember similar layovers on my few trips to Zambia during the college days. But in those days, all the children (as we were called) would be going back for holiday so Heathrow became a meeting point for old friends. We’d be talking loudly in our suddenly changed accents (to Zambian) with not a care in the world. Who’d have guessed then what we’d become in 12-14 years.

22:15 pm GMT
After a delay of 3.5hrs we're finally boarding. Hurray.

Off to a new place with a new job

2006-10-19T04:31:00.000-05:00

Well I'm heading off to northern Uganda on my first mission. I've been waiting for this day for months! All the training and advise now will come to use - or maybe not as some of the more wise have to say of this field. Couldn't have asked for a better opportunity. Thanks to a colleague's advise I happened to just finish reading the book "The Last King of Scotland". Although the book was written at a different time and focuses more on Idi Amin, some of the essence of African living and people of the country have probably remained. The book is definitely worth a read (irrespective of your travel plans to Uganda), and I hear that the movie is good as well. For now it's off to New York for two days and then onwards to Kampala.

A whirlwind trip of India - Uttaranchal

2006-10-19T03:07:00.000-05:00

I took the opportunity to head back to India and join my family for a quick 10 day trip of Uttaranchal over the Durga Pujo/Dussehra break that they got. Forgot what it was like to actually be able to take breaks like this.

For those unfamiliar with Uttaranchal, it's formed in 2000 after the divide of Uttar Pradesh. It borders Tibet/China and Nepal in the North-East, Uttar Pradesh in the East and Himachal Pradesh in the North West. Layered with rolling hills culminating in the snow-covered peaks of the Indian Himalayas it's been blessed with one of the best climates and ecology in the world.

As the train rolled into Haldwani, I could see the fog covered hills spanning the eastern horizon. Ranikhet Express offers daily overnight train to Kathgodam (the final stop) for visiting the eastern part of the state, called "Kumaon". As we started our upward ascent towards the small town of Mukteshwar, about 6000ft above sea-level. From here on most days you can see Panchchuli, a group of 5 peaks. It's still a distance and one would need to go up to Pithoragarh to get a much better view, but it's still worth the 8 hour train ride from Delhi. The first two days we spent unwinding at Mukteshwar.

On the second day we took a day trip to the busy hill resort of Nainital. With the placid lake in the middle, Nainital is a bustling tourist destination. Definitely not the place we would want to spend more then a few hours. However even though it's busy, it's clean unlike Darjeeling in West Bengal. It shows that with proper governance, it is possible to still keep the natural beauty of a place.

Day 3 we head to Kausani via Ranikhet. This is the place where even Mahatma Gandhi had contemplated why anyone would go to Switzerland when there's a place like this right in our backyard. I couldn't agree more. The lush green hills gave way to the majestic Himalayan range, only a mere 35-60 miles away (if one could fly). We were lucky for on the second day of our stay we got to see the clear range of Nanda Devi, Trishul and almost a dozen peaks reaching about 20,000 feet. It never seizes to amaze me how high these mountains are compared to all other ranges in the world. I vow to be back and get even closer to them. Kausani also happens to be the town where Rabindranath Tagore came and wrote the english version of the Gitanjali for which he later won the Nobel prize in Literature. I can see why such visionaries and literary scholars chose such a place. If visiting Kausani, the place to stay is the Suman Royal Resort, where no room has a bad view.

From Kausani we headed on to Binsar, a forested area close to the district capital of Almora. This would be our last stop before making our trip back to Delhi. The Binsar sanctuary is located in this area - a heavily wooded area. Folks say that leopards are often seen in these parts. I did not have the fortune of spotting one. However I definitely enjoyed hiking around.

On our way back to Kathgodam, we stopped by Naukuchiatal, Sattal, Bhimtal - all lakes created from underground spring water. Supposedly all the lakes in this region are connected. Although we didn't go to the Hindu religious spots of Hrishikesh, Badrinath or Haridwar, I feel like I had a spiritual experience just interacting with the natural beauty of the region and the warm hospitality of the people.

Next time I do hope to venture further north, perhaps a trek to Pindari Glacier and further. But till then I'll cherish the pictures taken during this trip.

Airports of today

2006-10-19T02:26:00.000-05:00

Airports are fascinating places to view a population at large. You've all sorts of people traveling these days. No longer is it the transportation of the rich. Even in India, people are now opting to take a flight rather then endure a 32 hour journey by rail.

So while at the Chicago O'Hare airport during my recent trip to India I sat and observed.

There's the dreaded parents with crying and nagging kids. The crying gets to me. I know they don't want to be there, and to be quite honest if it was OK for adults to howl, I'd to. After all who looks forward to the dingy seats of economy class for a transcontinental flights. My heart goes out to the parents. If I ever have kids, I don't think I'd have the patience that some of these parents show. If my kids are bad travellers, I'm pretty sure we'll be spending our holiday in front of the television watching the Travel Channel.

Then there's the business people. You can tell by there starched shirts, perhaps the expensive suit and definitely by the headset on their ear which seems to be just an extension of the torso. If you don't see the headset then you're guaranteed to see the incessant rolling of the thumb on the blackberry, for this has become synonymous mobile communication. I was one of them not so long ago. Initially during the consulting years it was fun to have the elite privileges, be able to tell the vacationers (or less frequent traveler) what the latest airline policy was with hand luggage. It became such that at some airports even the check-in counter agent or security officer recognized me. That was probably the sign that I was spending way too much sign in airports and hotels. But honestly, I enjoyed the moment. The moment at the airport. Watching all those people going somewhere.

Now I'm a bit more scruffy looking, with hiking boots, cargo pants and backpack over my shoulder. I still have most of the gadgets but just not the starched shirts. Traveling is still my passion and work requires me to travel. I've graduated from traveling to near exotic places like Cleveland, Ohio to Kampala Uganda.

Once you take away all the "hassles" enforced by new security measures, Airports are still pretty cool places. And then if you get to spend a few hours in Singapore's Changi, London's Heathrow or Hong Kong International you're bound to get lost in the many amenities that the airport provides. Just window shopping alone can keep you occupied for hours.

Himalayas beckons (again)

2006-09-23T01:53:00.000-05:00

If you asked me in July would I be heading back to India and the Himalayas I'd have said "no". After all then I didn't even know what I'd be doing in September. A lot has changed since then. I've changed jobs, moved my residency back to Texas, put everything in storage and have spent the last month without a pay check while waiting for an assignment.

Well, now I do have an assignment and a time line. So instead of bumming of in the US I've decided to join most of my family in their travel over the Durga Pujo holiday week. We're heading to the Kumaon region of India, foothills of the Kumaon Himalayas. A lot of history and natural beauty in that part of the world. Checking out some pictures taken on flickr it seems to be spectacular. That's also what my brother promises it to be, and given our fantastic trip to Ladakh I'm quite excited about this journey. We'll be heading from Delhi to Kathgodam on Ranikhet Express. From there we rent a Tata Sumo and visit Nainital, Mukteshwar first before heading to Binsar and Kausani for getting a closeup on Nanda Devi and the Himalayan Peaks. Perhaps someday I'll get to climb some of these peaks, but for now watching them from a distance should be satisfying enough. Baba's joining the group for the first time - he's never traveled with Boudi and the last time Dada, Baba and I were somewhere outside of Kolkata was in 1997.

Hopefully I'll get some R&R time with the family, a few good hikes and some good shots of the natural beauty that is the Kumaon Himalayas. Time to rest up for what's definitely going to be an exciting rest of the year.

Who will win the DVD rental race?

2006-09-20T12:26:00.000-05:00

The DVD rental race gets a new competitor in Redbox. Currently in 7-8 states in the US, these are little kiosks set up in strategic locations, like right outside McDonalds or in the drug store where you choose a DVD, swipe your credit card and out comes the rental. With a no-hassle pricing of $1 a day it's difficult to go wrong. Right?

At first I was hesitant in this whole concept. After all there's the big brick and mortar players like Blockbuster, the Internet competition in Netflix and the cable on-demand video rentals such as that of Time Warner or Comcast. So will Redbox make it big or be bought by a Blockbuster or better still, Netflix? Only time will tell. But it's a given that consolidation of the different channels of delivering video content will happen. Now with iTunes selling videos what's to keep them from just renting out?

I personally feel that Redbox could be a complementary product to Netflix which has lacked in attracting customers who watch movies on whim. When I must watch the newly released original version of Star Wars I don't think of putting it in a queue on Netflix and waiting 3 days. That's just too long. Given this I don't know why Blockbuster never got this idea? It unfortunately show the lack of innovation in the company. Vending machines have been there for ages and so reducing cost by creating automated machines to deliver videos is quite natural. I mean Japan has vending machines for almost anything.

In any case - I've become a Redbox convert if I can find one. I do think they'll make it big and quickly make another dent in Blockbuster's revenue.

Tara's Birthday Celebrations

2006-09-17T09:35:00.000-05:00

Houston was a happening place last Friday as Arul planned a surprise birthday dinner for Tara. For me t'was good to meet up with old friends and obvious an excuse to party with the Houston gang. Good food, good company - what can one ask for. Yes, food before company :-)

And then we went on to celebrate Saturday with some barbecue at home.

Mmm... sausage, bulgogi. I have gained at-least 5 lbs just living here for the last week and half. Hate to say it but I'm going to miss Houston 'cause of the friends. Forgot what it was like just hanging out with friends. And yes, good home cooked meals. Hehehe... can't get off the food subject.

More pictures on flickr.com.

Run Flats do work

2006-08-31T23:03:00.000-05:00

Just my luck. After driving over 1300 miles, 50 miles outside Austin I hit a brick in the middle of the road! Dusk was falling and I obviously was not as vigilant as I should've been. The object on the road from far looked nothing more then paper but it came up so fast that no quick steering movement could keep me from rolling over this solid brick. I immediately had this sick feeling in my stomach that my left front side of the car was destroyed. Only 50 more miles and we would've been home. I could hear the sound of air escaping and knew that my left front tire was flat. But unlike normal tire flats, this was a "run flat" tire. Which meant it would drive me another 100 miles as long as I didn't go above 40-45 mph. We did stop for a quick check and confirmed the flat. Luckily for me there was no other damage to the car. With a few expletives on the brick we made our way slowly towards Austin. What should've taken only 30 mins now took us over an hour. But at the end we did get to Chivo's place all safe and sound.

And so here's the kicker. The next day I got the tire replaced for a hefty price. The following day a nail takes out another tire!! What's the odd of that happening. So now my car has two brand new tires, all to be sold to some lucky buyer.

I do have to say, the Bridgestone Potenza Run Flats work really well. No hassle of carrying a spare in a car that hardly has any luggage room. The only drawback is that fixing the tires become almost impossible (or risky) and hence everytime you encounter a flat you're pretty much going to spend some decent $$ on a new tire. Can't wait for the Tweel - the tire and wheel concept.

Viva Los Angeles

2006-08-27T18:39:00.000-05:00

Am I sad to leave Los Angeles? Sure I am. Will I miss it? Sure - for the reasons mentioned below. However do I reckon LA as home after 4.5 years? No. It never did become home to me.

Friends. I made some good friends whom I'll miss. The last few weeks we all hung out more often then before and that made it all the more tougher to say goodbye. It felt most uncomfortable saying bye to Tim, Marty and Casey. Tim was part of the trio who moved to Southern California from the Vitalz days. Marty moved soon thereafter. And Casey was born this year. I'm sad that I won't get to see her grow up. Hoping they can make their way back to Austin some day soon.

Weather and Recreation. The weather is perfect. I got to do so many outdoors activities that I just never did before - skiing, mountaineering, hiking. Santa Monica is paradise. I'll miss running on the beach or doing the 4th Street stairs. The cool hikes, or jog up to Skull Rock on Temescal Canyon Park. How about hiking up Mt. Wilson or Mr. Baldy. The 6 hour drive to Mammoth mountains for some powder or the day hike up Mt. Whitney. There were loads more stuff I wanted to do but never got to. Kayaking around the Channel Islands, climbing Mt. Shasta and Lassen, hiking in Death Valley. The list goes on.

Entertainment. Midnight first-showings at Grauman's Chinese theater. Where else would you find a full house of crazy movie buffs at 1am yelling out "Snake vision" while watching "Snakes on a Plane". It truly is the entertainment capital. Y'know what? I never went to a single live showing of Jay Leno or any of the other recordings. Hmmm... well at-least I did go around Universal Studios and take the Hollywood Star Map tour. Then there's the constant chance of catching a star, without their makeup, looking completely normal ordering a latte. Oh yeah, catching the stars driving in their black limos on Oscars night. Yes, this is a movie crazy town.

Food. I think amongst the more impressive cuisines were Sushi, Ethiopian in Little Ethiopia, Chinese (Dim Sum in the weekends in Chinatown), Korean in Little Korea. Then there's places like Father's Office (best Angus beef burger and sweet potato fries on a cart I've had along with exotic beers from Europe). How about meeting up with Wolfgang Puck at Chinois or Spago? (Actually did see Chef Puck at Chinois with Somaiah and Camilla.) I'd agree that there's still things that LA lacks in the food department when compared to food meccas like New York, San Francisco or London.

And last of all the LA or maybe the Santa Monica glitz. Will I miss it completely - no. The arrogance of some people in LA definitely didn't sit right with me. But I'll miss checking out the Maserati parked at the local Von's grocery store. It's an interesting juxtaposition of extreme opulence with poverty or even mediocrity.

Moving Scams

2006-08-26T17:10:00.000-05:00

Moving from one place to another, across states or crossing countries can be quite the stressful experience. So much to take care of. Packing, selling, closing of accounts at the old place and then all the stuff that needs to happen to get setup in the new town or place. Given all these unavoidable stress, why do movers provide yet another layer of worry. Why can't we have stricter laws so that cross country moving is not this mis-adventure.

Well, John and I started searching for movers in early August. We did the usual yellow page and google searches. Luckily John found a site called MovingScams.com. And there you can read about all the horror stories. Well there's also the Black List of movers who one should be careful of. Amazing at the tactics used by some of these scammers. Changing of ownerships, different corporations, choosing states where laws are more lenient etc. All so that they can get a few extra $$ from us. Next time just ask. I'd much rather pay for the service where I know I can rest peacefully while my stuff is shipped.

As part of the research I signed up on moving.com which then shares my information with movers who provide quotes. I figured that the service would be similar to eloan.com where movers compete and I win (right?). Wrong. Got emails from multiple movers. No haggling between the different companies. But that wasn't what bothered me. What really got me was that two of the companies who contacted me were on the black list. I actually did call one of the movers and they gave a quote without coming out to look. Very personable and pushy to write up a contract.

Also looking for alternatives, found the relocube - a storage container that is provided and you essentially pack it up and lock it. They truck it out to your new location where you again have a few days to unpack. At-least there's the guarantee that you won't loose anything (as long as you've a good lock :). The only disadvantage is that if you live in a downtown apartment like we did, there's no place to store something this large for a few days.

At the end we went with the movers we had used to come out to California - United Van Lines. Yes, they aren't the cheapest, but they are professional, well recognized nationwide and you don't have to worry about having to go to another state to actually take legal action. Now I might be speaking too soon but I know they aren't going to hold my belongings hostage and ask for more money. The only complaint (if any) is that the movers were not very careful when carrying the stuff out of our place, leaving scratches on the wood floors.

So bottom line to movers - do your research, pay the extra if you can to go with someone reputable and take the insurance. The alternative is U-Haul but I think I'm just too old for carrying my own stuff. In that case I'll just load up my car and sell the rest.

The last midnight madness in LA

2006-08-18T17:51:00.000-05:00

Snakes on a Plane

The movie is exactly what the title says. I had to finish off my Los Angeles experience with where it all began... watching first showings of movies at midnight on a Thursday night. And the crowd was there to make it one of the most memorable one. Loud, rambunctious and obviously a big Samuel L. Jackson fan. Amazing how many crazy people showed up to watch this cheesy movie. Yes, the movie was cheesy. But then again, with a title like that you can't expect oscar performance. And hell, I wasn't there to watch anything serious. Neither were my fellow theater-goers. We were hissing from the very first scene. As the director made an attempt to build a story, we just got more impatient about when we were going to see some snakes kicking ass. Oh yeah, actually sat next to some drunken 20 some year olds who obviously were having a great time. The girl was quite intrigued by my name although I went with the alias of "Nacho Libre" to all others. The crowd went crazy when the killing started and started screaming "snake vision" everytime they'd switch to the vision from the snake's perspective. It was hillarious. Exactly what I expected. But it also requires crowd participation. So don't watch this alone at home - it won't have the same effect. Watch in the theater and go there prepared to be loud.

The snakes are awesome. The dialogue is cheesy. Sam Jackson is at his element. Once the snakes break loose, the movie is all fun. Go watch it.

Getting a visa - my personal gripe

2006-08-17T17:27:00.000-05:00

Why is attaining a visa to enter a country lawfully such a harrowing experience? Sometimes I can’t help but wonder if it’s just as stressful as those trying to enter illegally?! [Just joking for those monitoring this from the USCIS]

But in all seriousness, I've been involved in getting visas for various countries that I lived or traveled to from the age of 1 month. And as I reflect back on the process it looks like in 30 years very little has changed apart from the visa stamp getting more "high-tech".

The very thought that I need a visa sends a sigh of "oh, not again" through my veins. Trying to get all the documents necessary is always big chore. How much is too much information? Do I give them my whole life history or just the last 5 years? And then if by chance you don't have some details (like Health Insurance) then you better start praying to the visa gods. This actually happened to me a few years back when just providing the high-level insurance coverage information was not sufficient. I quite literally had to print the entire handbook. Oh, another one that always gets my feathers ruffled is showing a confirmed air ticket. So let me get this… I need to purchase a ticket to apply for a visa but then what happens to the ticket if I don't get the visa?

So I've all the documents (or so I think) and head to the consulate office. What do I wear? Maybe being too casual will present a wrong image. I remember my dad always dressing appropriately to get our visas when we lived in Zambia. I loved the trips then because it always meant an extended weekend vacation in Lusaka. Now I know what he must have gone through. And he had to do it for all four of us with no real help from any one of us. Thanks Baba! I decide to follow my father's footsteps and wear something business casual.

At the consulate's office there's this tense silence. Everyone's waiting for his or her fate - the fate that hangs on the hands of that person behind the window. It's like waiting for your grades after finals week. The lady calls me with a terse look. I try to smile and stumble towards the counter. In a half mumble and half stutter I start explaining my case. He expeditiously goes through the "thesis" I've so proudly put together and a few questions later I'm done. Nothing more I can do. It’s all up to them to decide on whether they’ll put the stamp or not. I can hear Dirty Harry’s infamous quote “…you've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?”

Well the story usually goes something like that. And I can understand and appreciate why such a strict process is needed. Nothing much I think we can do about it.

But over the course of the years I've learnt a few things. I've nothing to hide and if I'm trying to visit a country, it's for a legitimate reason. Further more I'm not going to the country to rule over it or do anything that normal citizens of the world wouldn't do ;-) Yes, I might drink a few beers, try to chat up some of the ladies and spend my hard earned money in souvenirs that I'll either store in a box titled "memorabilia" or present to friends and family as trophies of my conquests. In any case, the bottom-line is that there's absolutely no need to get stressed over being given clearance to enter a country. The way I see it - it's their loss as I'm just another person who spends money and fuels their economy.

Having said that I do think getting organized and having all of your documents in order is very important. Provide everything they ask for. Write a cover letter explaining what's contained in the packet. Make it look professional. Transparency is key.

So today went to the French Consulate with the same “visa feeling” but was pleasantly surprised. The lady was courteous and I actually got my visa right there and then. I don't believe that's ever happened to me.

Aviation Videos - bandwidth courtesy of the Alexis Park Inn & Suites

2006-08-12T20:42:00.000-05:00

Aviation Videos - bandwidth courtesy of the Alexis Park Inn & Suites

Some pretty amazing footage of aviation gone wrong. But it's still amazing that given how much I've traveled in the last 2 years (>160,000 miles) I haven't been in any of these crazy spectacles.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Chinese 'anger bar' is a big hit

2006-08-07T17:18:00.000-05:00

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Chinese 'anger bar' is a big hit

What a novel idea?! Not sure I agree with principle but I guess it'd be quite entertaining.

Hakuna Matata

2006-08-05T18:34:00.000-05:00

After waiting nine years I finally got to see "The Lion King" on Broadway and I tell you it was more then what I had expected. The Minskoff Theater off Broadway is definitely one of the best theaters I've been too, granted I have not been to that many New York city plays.

The show pretty much follows the movie with some add-on dialogues as well as songs. The singing/acting was good but what I enjoyed even more were the sets, lighting and costume. The costumes were very creative and artisticly done. The set and lighting gave the whole show a depth that you normally don't get in musicals. It's difficult to take a highly successful animated movie and turn into a live musical. But they pulled it off very well. A wonderful production.

(As a side note, I couldn't help but expect the deep James Earl Jones voice whenever Mufassa spoke. The artist did a good job, but he was knowwhere near the voice of Darth Vader :)

Now looking forward to checking out "Buddha Bar" this evening. John's niece was able to get reservations for dinner at 11. This is this year's newest hippest bar/restaurant in New York. Supposed to be very impressive - we'll see.

The next month should be exciting

2006-08-04T19:24:00.000-05:00

As most of you know I've been accepted as a field worker for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders). This week was the orientation, and quite the eye opener for me. I got a feel of the real thing - what are the core principles of MSF that I'll try to up keep, what my challenges and risks might be and the truth that I really shouldn't have any expectations going in. All in all it was a humbling experience to listen to these people having done what I'd consider extraordinary feats and making a career out of it, yet they kept it practical and unemotional. Almost surgical. But then again many are doctors. I was definitely more impressed then I had been when I applied. In fact I honestly have had doubts on my own skills and whether I can match up to the occassion. But I think I can.

Also I got to meet and interact with 25 new volunteers who were doctors, lawyers, engineers, arts majors - you name it. I never expected such a variety and what amazed me even more was the age range. From mid 20s to mid 60s. A very impressive portfolio of candidates.

So the ball has started rolling and if I'm lucky things will kick into over drive over the next few weeks. The current plan is for me to visit and learn from the central MSF logistics center in Bourdeax, France during the first week of September. The program manager here is hoping to have me assigned right around the same time so that I can jleave for the mission from France but as I've learnt this week - nothing is final until I actually get to the project. And even then anything can happen. The best is to stay prepared and ready. Hence, I need to expedite my move to Austin. Yes, I'm moving back to Austin. Luckily John is completely onboard with this. I'll definitely owe him big for being as flexible as he has been. The plan as it stands is to quit work on the 25th (notice already given) and then head "home" to Austin that weekend or soon thereafter. Leave for France Sept 1. from Austin and return back after a week or just keep going on to the country of my mission. All I can hope now is to get an exciting mission quickly. Also I think it's time for me to learn some French.

2006-08-03T00:08:00.000-05:00

Talk about a perfect evening. First off I meet in person a friend I made through Friendster. Never thought I'd say that. And then she just happens to take me to the Blue Note in the Village where famous jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval just happened to be playing. Bloody awesome! What a thrill to see him play live in a small setting. He makes it seem so effortless. Truly God gifted. To top it of Agamoni takes me to an authentic kati roll place. So I'm enjoying my roll while walking to the subway at midnight. Who would've thought? Did I mention how much I love this city? :)

This is the way to spend a saturday evening

2006-08-01T08:19:00.000-05:00

Sohini, Angela and Brian after dinner
Originally uploaded by sanjoyg.

I forgot how good Korean food was. Trusting my local Los Angelenos we headed to a Korean Tofu Soup place. Not sure what the name of the place is since it's written in Korean. But it is in Korea town.

Driving through Korea town I realized that most of it is now run by Mexicans. All sorts of spanish signs everywhere. Just a few of these Korean restaurants and then obviously the Karaoke places.

Anyways food was simple but great. And lots of it. Some interesting things about Korean food that I learned. The word "Kimchi" essentially means pickle (more or less). Water is poured over the sticky rice that stays in the stone bowl. It's kind of like "pantha bhaath" in Bengal. But here they just eat it plain. I figured it was an acquired taste as I had no interest for it. My favorite was breaking an egg into the soup and watching it cook!

It was good to catch up with Angela, Chiray, Sohini, Brian and John. It's odd how we all live so close yet in our busy weekly schedules hardly are able to make time for each other.

Thereafter we headed over to the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown LA. They run a show called MOCA after dark all summer long where DJs spin outside while the museum stays open. There's even a bar. No - you can't make your own art with the alcohol inside. It's pretty much where the hoity-toity of LA go to chill on a Saturday evening. We just went there to people watch and ridicule the art work. Honestly, I tried making sense. I just couldn't. I guess I'm just not that cultured.

Well after an hour of checking out LA socialites Angela decided to bail on us and head back to the OC . And looked like our interest in people watching had dimmed.

So we headed back to Brian's place in Culver City and checked out this cool karaoke bar called "Backstage". It actually was awesome. $3 beers, people having a blast singing songs. I think this has become now my favorite Karaoke bar on the Westside. None of that pretentious stuff. Just pure music (or lack thereof depending on the singer) and loads of fun. Well we drank a few beers, sang along with a few of them and closed down the place.

Hmm... 2 A.M. ...sounds like it's Denny's time! Why do we do this to ourselves. Complete torture. But who can say no to a "Moons over my Hammy". Definitely hits the spot before crashing.

Needless to say Sunday I just chilled and read a book.

On a plane during a Lightning storm

2006-07-28T18:20:00.000-05:00

Lightning just struck near our plane and the main power shut off! Wonder what would happen if we were airborne?! T'was petty cool I thought. Sudden burst of light outside causing immediate darkness inside. Now we are stuck in until the weather passes through. Great way to spend a friday evening.

2006-07-28T15:45:00.000-05:00

Heading to Boston airport using the infamous tunnel system. What a mess this big dig has been! Basically they moved traffic congestion from above ground to underground. And now its falling apart. Obviously someone got rich from this project. Thought that only happened in developing nations.

Senator open to TV chat about Internet "tubes" - Yahoo! News

2006-07-27T20:30:00.000-05:00

Senator open to TV chat about Internet "tubes" - Yahoo! News

He's defending his "internet tubes" remarks!? He commented, "I have a letter from a big scientist who said I was absolutely right in using the word 'tubes". A "big" scientist. How big is he? Is he as big as Tom Hanks was in the movie "Big"? Or is he just a fat bastard?!! I'd love to see the senator get chewed up by Jon Stewart. He's asking for it.

Over the last few days

2006-07-25T22:08:00.000-05:00

Realized that I hadn't really updated my blog with any real relevant information about what's been going on in my life over the last month or so. And in fact quite a bit has happened.

Got back from India at the end of June. The trip to Ladakh was fantastic. The place was magical. High mountains all around, tiny villages, warm people. Although I didn't get to hike around as much it was a very relaxing journey through the old Silk route. Although I haven't posted any journal on the trip, the pictures are up on my flickr site under tag "Ladakh".

Kolkata was her usual self. No matter what people have to say about that city, I love it. Maybe it's because it's MY city. I'm comfortable there. Now I can do without the high temperatures and humidity but looks like these days even Santa Monica is being scorched by the heat wave that's engulfing the planet. Alright, I do have to say - President Bush, I don't know if this is what's known as "global warming", but you got to admit, the weather is getting a bit freaky. C'mon, we've Katrina, Tsunamis, record highs, record lows, melting ice caps. What more do we need before someone starts paying some serious attention to this?! Four years ago when I landed in Santa Monica we never used the air conditioning. This summer, it's been on since May.

Ok, moving on. So after coming back to the US I've had to make some significant decisions. Not sure if I'd go as far as calling them "life changing" but they could be in the long run. Only time will tell. To my surprise and delight I got accepted and placed in the pool of volunteers for Medecins Sans Frontieres or Doctors Without Borders. I had applied and interviewed awhile back and quite honestly had given up hope of ever getting such an opportunity. Obviously when this came through I didn't even hesitate to say yes. Now I'm waiting on being assigned a mission. Given my expertise & background I'll be handling logistical details. Where I don't know yet although given that this would be my first mission I don't think I'll be put in a war zone. But then again I am ready for anything. If I had to pick a spot it'd probably be sub-Saharan Africa. That region has been calling for awhile now. I can't neglect the fond memories of my childhood and definitely feel indebted to what Zambia has given me. Seeing how the people of those countries are suffering I feel quite compelled to go out there and try to help them as they've done so for me and my family in the past. Next week I head to New York for Orientation. My hope is that through this experience I can either focus on humanitarian or conservation work in developing nations. Perhaps even go for some higher education along the way. Not sure where the road ends but I'm definitely excited about the journey.

As for my current work, it'll be sad to leave a good group of people. As much as I complained, I enjoyed the challenge. And work was getting more interesting as responsibilities increased. My boss has been very supportive (but first surprised) on my choice. I guess there's not much to say. Now I just need to finalize on an end date and move my stuff to storage. Also this means that I am moving back to Austin, Texas. I guess that is where I call home when it comes to the US. Also I figured that if a mission doesn't come through soon, I just might do some traveling and catch up with old friends around the globe. But I'm hoping any day now I get a call and start finalizing on a mission.

My dad (Baba) sent an email today to my brother and I. He officially turned 65 today. Yes - officially. They goofed up his birth certificate so in the books he's older then his elder brother! In reality he's 63. Well the last couple of years he's harped a lot on this age making us realize that he's getting old. But this year the tone was different. It was that of an energized young man who had much to see and do. I liked the tone. It's not about age. Aging is a mental state. I say we live life to the fullest till the very day when we depart from this world. My brother and dad are planning on a trip to the Indian foothills of the Himalayas in late September of this year. This is the first trip for my dad in years and the very first for him and my sister-in-law together. Quite the momentous occasion. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that nothing comes up which messes up this vacation. They're trying to get me to come but I don't think I'll be able to. Too much going on here.

More friends getting married or popping babies. Seems to be that time of life. Oddly enough since my acceptance to MSF, my family has not brought up the topic of marriage. I'm quite pleased and touched by the fact that my family has been very supportive of all my decisions in life. Even when they've disagreed they've left it up to me at the end to make the final call.

Well that pretty much sums it up.

I think I'll start writing about all those things that I'll miss about Los Angeles when I move. There're definitely many "LA things" that I've become attached to. My awesome gym, the morning vanilla lattes at Coffee Bean, the run on the beach, the fourth street stairs, the endless bustle on the 3rd Street Promenade, and yes the gorgeous women who flock the streets with trendy clothes and attitudes to match. Last but not least my convertible Z4. It'll definitely hurt to give that baby away.

Jon Stewart on Net Neutrality

2006-07-18T21:52:00.000-05:00

It's so scary to think that these are the same folks empowered with creating laws that govern this nation. Amazing to see that these people even get elected in the first place. Guess it shows how intellectually capable the electorate is.

Yahoo! Answers - What can we do to make poverty history?

2006-07-12T00:47:00.000-05:00

Yahoo! Answers - What can we do to make poverty history?

Here’re some facts regarding Poverty:

8 million people die each year because they’re too poor to sustain.
More then 20,000 daily of which 8,000 children die of malaria, 5,000 adults from TB and 7,500 from AIDS.
All of these deaths are caused by chronic hunger, malnutrition and inability to afford the proper medications.
The US spends US$15 billion on funding the poorer nations per annum. That is 0.15% of the US GNP. The US spent US$450 billion and counting on the Iraq war.
Once a prospering country in the 70s with the currency exchanging higher then the US dollar, today Zambia has one of the lowest life expectancy in the world (~35 years of age). The natural resource they relied so heavily upon (Copper) is not trading as high and the country under a corrupt government made no investment in improving infrastructure. Much of sub-Saharan Africa share this same sad story.

As of data from 2001:

1.1 billion people live earning less then US$1 a day (which amazingly is lower then 20 years prior). Of these, over 400 million live in South Asia while another 300+ million in sub-Saharan Africa. The number of people living in extreme poverty in Asia at large has decreased over the years, while unfortunately the number has seen a rise in sub-Saharan Africa.
Another 1.6 billion people live in moderate poverty earning between US$1 and US$2 a day. The good news is that we’ve seen a rise in the number of people living in moderate poverty across all regions over the course of two decades (80s and 90s)

We have 2.7 billion people living in moderate to extreme poverty in the world. Our goal should be first eradicate extreme poverty and then to help improve the lives of those who are moderately poor.

In order to find an answer as to how we accomplish this seemingly daunting task we have to search the past. In the last two centuries where we’ve seen an incredible economic boom across what is today’s developed nations. According to economic historian Angus Maddison in the first millennia there was no discernible change in per capita income across the world and the 1000AD to 1800AD so an increase of 50% increase in per capita income. However the last 200 years has seen both an explosion in economic progress and that has driven in an increase in population. World population has grown by six-folds in the last 200 years!

Now what has this got to do with solving poverty. Well everything. You’ve to understand the cause in order to provide a possible solution. The last 200 years brought uneven growth in the economies of the world. In the last 180 years the US per capita GNP grew at a consistent 1.7% per annum while countries in Africa faired to manage only 0.7% per annum. Hence while the US per capita income rose from $1200 per person in 1820 to $30,000 in the 1990s, a rise of 20x, Africa only managed a 3x increase from their $400 per person per capita income in 1820.

A consistent growing economy provides for sustainable opportunity for the population - leading economies of today has proved that. Our challenge today is to use these models to cultivate such economies in the most poverty stricken nations in the world. The challenge is that manpower in such nations run low (example Zambia with a male life expectancy of 35). Malnutrition, disease keeps the working population away from jobs. Unfortunately poverty in itself is a deterrent to the growth of a country. Further over the last 200 years infrastructure in these nations have not drastically improved. Hence health facilities, education, transportation are in shambles. To top it off, corruption runs high in these countries where the government is either selfish or impotent. These all have to be taken care of to promote sustainable economic growth.

Why should those thriving in the richer economies care? Because helping the poorer nations grow will provide an avenue for increasing trade and hence overall earning of the developed nations. Moreover a factor that is rarely introduced in the discussion of poverty is that nations with a booming economy usually provide a platform for peace. Most war-torn countries are also the most impoverished in the world. Peace and prosperity do actually go hand-in-hand.

What can I, a college educated person working in the US do to help solve this problem? Surprisingly, a lot! Here’re some of my thoughts:

I can provide financial help to organizations who are actively working with the people of these countries to improve their way of life and provide avenues for self-sustaining economies. Be careful – a lot of NGOs out there who spend more money on themselves and less on the people who really need them.
I can get involved personally on such projects – volunteer some of my time to help educate in my skill set. Perhaps work in such environments to improve basic infrastructure.
Influence my government to ensure they are providing the financial and political push for economic reforms in these countries. Corruption needs to be curbed and checks & balances provided.

Yes, if we all perhaps gave a $1 a day, we could perhaps rid the world of the 8 million that die due to extreme poverty however that would not be a long-term solution. The solution is to provide the tools, training and enablement of the societies where the extreme poor live such that they can themselves come out of the situation, stronger and more prosperous. Nobody should go hungry for there’s plenty of food being harvested for all 6.1 billion people, however I do not believe in a lifetime of free lunches.

[This write-up as well as my view on world poverty has been influenced by the book “The End of Poverty” by Jeffrey D. Sachs. All facts are taken from that book.]

Godfather I am

2006-07-07T14:08:00.000-05:00

Rolling in the living room
Originally uploaded by Somaiah Kumbera.

I'm one of Paz's Godfathers :-) Quite proud about it. I think we'll get along great. Not sure what I'd like her to grow up to be.

Initial thoughts were to get her into skiing as she'll probably live most of her life in frigid conditions of Norway but then that's a bit too dangerous. Yes, even though I'm adventurous, I've to be responsible for others. So now I'm thinking Golf. Looks like there's lots of money, low risk of injury.

Amazing how fast kids grow up.