Random ramblings..

1) Sometime back I mentioned in one of my other posts that I was impressed with the e-commerce scene in India. Well, if I was impressed then, I was maha impressed on Friday. I had to order a last instalment of pictures for Subhash's parents from their US trip and I finally found time on Wednesday to do it. And this was around 1-2 pm. I called them on Friday morning, and they told me they got the photos already!!! What!!!! Just 24 hours for receiving an order, printing about 80 pictures and shipping them so that they get to the receiver overnight?!?!? T'is insane!!! *AND* the shipping was free. Wow! So I am maha impressed. And I would recommend this service to anyone who is looking to send pictures (prints) to India. Its called itasveer.

2) Fumigation time at the apartment and the management seems to choose some proper times to kick us out of our house to get this done. Last time she (the manager) scheduled it for the day of my CCIE exam and boy! did that give me some jitters. But in the nick of time she canceled it (and I took it as a good sign for my exam;) ) and she scheduled it last week for the coming week. In a way it is good because we are off to Hawaii, but in a way its bad. Very bad. It means not only that I have to plan the trip now (which is still hopelessly incomplete) but I also need to haul out my kitchen (we are not allowed to have any food stuff while they are fumigating the building) before I leave. Waaaaaaaaa:((

3) Banana Spring Rolls (oops, I mean Birthday) time!!!! Our team goes out to lunch on everyone's birthdays (no prizes for guessing whose idea it was;) and with whose birthday it started;) ). Tomorrow is one of my team-mates's birthday and he chose PF Changs. Yay!! I can have Banana Spring Rolls. If any of you haven't tried it, you should. They are simply out of this world!

4) Talking of restaurants. As if the Bay Area didn't have enough already, there seems to be a new crop of Indian Restaurants and Grocery stores and Indian party halls springing up. Maybe its the growing Desi population or maybe its the same population's growing % of "Green Card"ers. (Who can now run a hotel and work at a tech firm simultaneously, you see!). But whatever it is, what used to be 1 restaurant and 2 Indian stores per galli is now slowly becoming 2 restaurants and 3 Indian stores and 1 Indian Party Hall per galli. At least in Sunnyvale. We have taken over entire strip malls. In some places its hard to find gora log. And its getting worse ;)

5) Finally managed to find some decent accos in Hawaii. It was so tough to find one that I was beginning to give up and settle with what we had reserved earlier (which was not oceanfront or mountain front or any front). We had to settle for a split it in two and two days (instead of four days straight) to find what we wanted in Maui. I was thinking its because of the high season in Hawaii. Everyone goes there now to get away from the winter. But no, apparently all this hoopla is for Valentine's day! And I completely didn't realize that. It makes sense now. I guess we are going to have to be extra careful planning our anniversaries from now on considering we got married less than a week from Valentine's day! Sigh!

6) I watched the Superbowl match today. For the first time. No, I don't follow baseball or "futball" (I prefer calling soccer as football like we were taught when we were kids;) ) but I happened to see this one because of the gang. Apparently it was a very historic final and many praises were flowing from every corner for Eli Manning. But one thing I heard was what struck me the most;) They were being hailed as "World Champions". Are kaheka world people? Another classic case of "America is the WORLD" syndrome, eh?!

Rich vs Poor?

While on the topic of California and some things Californian I thought I'd pen some stuff I was meaning to for a long time.

There was this huge wildfire in SoCal sometime back. Huge areas burnt out. It was a disaster. A national disaster. So we were watching television and one of the news channels was interviewing some people who had to take public shelter and wait it out till the fire was finished. A question came up about rescue operations and how the people felt about it. The response was one that I totally didn't expect. Way back when Katrina happened, we were so used to hearing people complain. Aid didn't reach them. Even when it did, it was so inadequate. People were left out to fend for themselves etc etc etc. Major taunt throwing at Bush and so on and so forth. But with Californians, the answer was a very surprising "We were very well taken care of. Blankets, food and water and all other such necessities arrived in a very timely manner. We are really thankful to everyone" and so on. Boy, was I expecting something completely different or what. I guess when you are the richest economy in the United States, it does make a difference eh?

BTW, did you know that California is the eighth largest economy in the world? Wow! (Yeah, curious me, just had to look in Wikipedia after I saw this interview to see just how rich California was;) ) Well well, I am turning into one of those proud Californians I used to love to hate ;)

Ahh the shredding..

Yet another painful 30 minutes with the shredder! What is with the credit card companies asking you to apply for a gazillion cards and all that. I emptied my shredder only this weekend and on Tuesday there was so much crap in the mail that by the time I shredded it, my hands were sore and the shredder was 3/4 full. And mind you, its not a small one, its got quite a big belly!

I wish the credit card companies would spare me. If I want a card I will find a way to apply for one. What is the point in inundating me with all this trash!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagghhhhh!!