Raman's Blog

Just came back from Vegas trip during Thanksgiving week. It was a great fun for 3 days. It is famous as Sin City. Even though its named as Sin City it seemed like one of the best places on earth. It was full of tourists and visitors. Everybody was having some party or fun there. It felt like there is more enjoyment and contentment in sin city than at any sacred place.

Each hotel had casinos , booz , shows and sights. Each hotel was trying to attract visitors hence they had theme based buildings , shows , gardens , mueseums , malls etc. Even though its more designed for adult entertainment there is still plenty of fun for family. Naturally we did not indulge in any sinful ( apart from little bit of gambling ) activities and mainly did family activities. My son and wife both had great fun.

All in all LV was a great place. As they say that love it or hate it but don't miss it.

We also took a bus tour to Grand Canyon - West Rim. It was a great site. This part of the canyon was privately owned by Hualapai Indian reservation.

Saturday I went to Jakir Hussain / AA Khan concert. Ali akbar khan did not come because of his illness. So first half was Raaga Bihag by his 22 yrs old son Alam Khan and accompanied by Jakir Hussain on Tabla. I enjoyed this alot and Jakir's tabla was too good. I can not comment too much on subtleties of the Raaga or how Alam played it but it was very enjoyablle.

Second half was Tabla solo by Jakir Husain and there was another artist named Kala Ramnath who was playing on Violin. She played Raaga Rageshwari in Teen-taal, well thats what what she said I myself can not differntiate between raagas and taals. Jakir played so many tabla compositions like Qaeda ,Phuljhadi , Lal Qila , Shankh etc. Before each he nicely explained the situation and visualisation and any other background info. That helped a lot in understanding exactly what is being performs. Some of the compositions were based on animals , horse running , train , motorcycle , traffic jam , conversation etc. So we could actually hear the sounds from tabla as if horse is running or as if people are talking or as if train is going or as if Deer is running or as if lion is roaring. It was a blast. That tabla performance from Jakir was ultimate.

I fully enjoyed those 3 hours in San Jose Civic Auditorium.

Saturday we went one friend's daughter's birthday party. It was good to meet friends and some new people. However because of so many people at the same place discussion was more cursory and formal in nature. I somehow seem to be preferring having just 2-3 people at home or in any meeting as that gives alot more opportunity for a proper discussion.

Another problem is topics chosen for the discussion. Most of my indian friends are generally NOT at all well read. Most of the times they have mainly read the technical books and some mainstream us/indian news. Discussion usually involves some standard current affairs and one's own office related stuff and some general shit about IT industry and how indians are doing in US. It usually lacks a sense of humour , candid-ness and in-depth insight and usually its full of banalities.

What I am looking for is someone who is interested in discussing about books , music , some lighter jokes/poetry , some humourous incidents/anecedotes , vivid descriptions of peculiar places or people , any adventurous trip , any open / frank discussion on sex etc... but offlate I am finding it more and more difficult to find such people whose company I can really enjoy. Part of the problem has been my own health which forced me to cut down on drinks , sports and other active socialisation. With my improving health I am starting more tennis and trying to get the company of some interesting people.

Part of the reasons many indians have lost their sense of humour is probably because of language mess. Most of the indians know hindi or some other indian language and have good fluency in english as conversational language. However their english lacks spontaniety , sense of humour , naturalness , idiomatic uses etc and many of them still think in indian language and then translate it in English or their english sounds too simple and it lacks subtle nuances. Similarly many of them dont have full command on their language as well. For example many of them can just speak hindi or watch hindi movies and listen hindi songs. They dont read or write or regularly use their indian language so their command and native language is also lost. So on the one hand they might know multiple languages but on the other hand they dont have real mastery on any language.

My own language scenario is bit messy and my English is quite simple and plain. My Hindi is slighlty better and I can speak chaste and idiomatic Hindi with hopefully good sense of humour and interesting phrases. I regulary read hindi books and write diary in Hindi. However for the last 10-12 years with my increased presence in english dominated work and countries I am kind of losing touch with Hindi sometimes.

So the news is out and its not necessarily a good news. However there should be still enough time to see.

I have some more responses for tennis partners. So I will be able to play tennis quite regularly.

Instead of low-carb and high protein diet what is working better for me 5 to 6 mini meals and health carb/fat and modest amount of proteins and avoidance of simple carbs , bad fats , big sized meals , high carbs food etc. I have also stopped taking metformin and started more walking. Hopefully now I should be able to control my fatigue and achieve weight loss only with the help of diet and exercise. Weight Loss progress has slowed down. Right now it is hovering around 179 pounds which means I have lost only about 2-3 pounds in last one month. So I am now targetting weight of 175 by End-Dec and 170 lbs by Mid-Feb. Lets see how the progress goes.

Sent my visa renewal forms to our admin office. Somehow I fell overwhlemed by these visa or other govt. activities which require collection of all sort of documents which involves going thru so many different deptts.

Have got a reading desk and now I am using our walk-in closet as study room as we have kept both the bookshelf and the reading desk in this walk-in closet.

I did get a nice tennis partner from Craigslist ad and we played together today. It seems like we might be able to play everyday on the weekday. My place is midway for him so he is able to avoid peak-time traffic in evening and for me its in my own town. So its like win win for both of us. Lack of tennis play was making me bored and grumpy. After playing tennis today I was feeling more relaxed.

This takeover saga is reaching it grand finale tomorrow. We will know on tomorrow night what exactly happens.

Saturday I am planning to go to A A khan concert. It should be very enjoyble.

I had better discussions with G in India. I was feeling more relaxed after my tennis play today.

There was a lull in my writing blog and I somehow did not write the blog in last few days. So I am back again.

We are planning to go Vegas/Grand Canyon during the Thanksgiving weekend. This should be very exciting.

At office things are going fine. There are some usual billing issues. Everyone is looking forward to coming takeover and see whether it happens are not.

I am having slight confusion in deciding what is the best diet for me. I tried atkins but excessive protein is making me pass abnoxious wind all the time. It became embarassing sometime. I am now having the regular diet with mid-moring and mid-afternoon snacks and avoid bad fat and bad carbs. Hopefully soon I will find the right and optimal diet for myslef.

I put ad in Craigslist to get some tennis partner. I have got one response so far. Lets see how this works out.

Just got a reading desk for myself. Hopefully this will make my reading more organised. Right now I am reading 'South Beach Diet' , 'Amway the cult of free enterprise' and a low blood sugar book. I have no discipline/patieance when I am reading books. I am usually reading 3-4 books in parallel. I am sure many people must be doing the same thing.

Called all the family and relatives in India during Diwali time. As usual mother and sister was insisting that I should come back to India for good.

Watched 'Veer- zaara' during the Diwali. It was OK. Wife liked it very much. She likes the YR movies and general family/emotional movies.

Everytime I talk to G in India about I seem to be losing my control. She seems to be more interested in continously defending her position rather than thinking on how to fix it. Bloody Bitch !!

In office I spent more time on blog and other things then on the work.

today's update ::

Office :: Nothing special. some usual shit abt bi and inf issues.

General :: Went to gym in the evening. Planing to do either tennis or gym everyday.

Personal :: we had a good session in the night.