Have you ever been arrested before, sir?

A weekend trip to Lake Tahoe driving through the curvy mountain roads was a good break from the busy San Jose life. California and Nevada share the proud ownership of this lovely blue lake that looks majestic between the green mountains. With a maximum depth of 500 m, this boasts of being the eighth deepest lake in the world. It would have probably been even more awing if the hills around had a bit of snow, we were just a few weeks early.

The next weekend I came to Ottawa on a business trip. I know it was a little late but just wanted to try my luck with the fall colours. I took a car and drove down to Adirondack Park, New York State; there was a bit of snow, there was a bit of green and a bit of fall colours. The drive through acres and acres of protected forest was without doubt an unforgettable experience. But more than anything else, what remains in my memory was the question the US Border security asked me when I showed him my passport - "Have you ever been arrested before for any charge sir?". I know that question had a lot to do with my pigmentation. I wanted to just snatch my passport from his hand and come back to Ottawa but then didn't want to waste my two hour drive to the border. Then he made me wait inside, took my car key and searched through the car for a few minutes while I saw the other "white" cars pass by. He came back and said "You're all set, sir". I was not angry, for he was performing only his duty, but just hoped that some day the reverse happens.

More pictures are in my album.

Aathaa naan pass aayitaen

Onion fried in oil with garlic and ginger, a small piece of chilli, a quarter of a tomato, pulao masala, beans, carrot, green peas, a little bit of salt, one cup of rice, two cups of water - all was fine until I woke up to the fire alarm that went off when my kitchen got engulfed in smoke and my neighbours started banging at my door. Well, I wanted to type something like that, but then nothing of that sort happened because I just had a good dinner of the vegetable pulao that I made myself for the first time in my life.

Now then, what does the title mean? It's a famous dialogue in a tamil movie where the village-girl heroine comes running and says "Mom, I've passed (the exam)". So, I'm now all set for my one year stay at Northpark, San Jose - this 700 sq. ft. single bedroom apartment is just cool. Microwave, TV, Dishwasher, Fridge, Washer, Dryer, a balcony, and then a gym, a swimming pool, a jacuzzi, a nice park, a Pontiac car - I've started my fun here.

Some don't come to you even if you ask for, the converse?

If my zodiacal constellations portend that Cisco, as an employer and I, as an employee are going to be profited by me being located at 37.30° N 121.87° W rather than at 12.97° N 77.56° E, during the time the earth makes its revolution around the sun after I turn twenty five till I grow older by one more year, then I don't think I have any reason to refute the auguries that are betokened upon me. I'm not sure if I could've ever bungled it up any further, I too didn't understand when I read it. If you think you got it, you're a genius. Whoever you're, read ahead!

Why did I have to fly down to BITS after having got admitted to the Madras Medical college, why did I choose to join Tata Elxsi and got posted in Bangalore when I had some other offer elsewhere, how did I stumble into Cisco when I had almost decided I was going to Spain to work for Vitelcom, why did the product that I worked on for the last two years reach a stage where it had zero bugs and I was made jobless in my BU - though I know I had my own set of contributions to each of what had happened in my life ever since I started to understand the bigger meaning of life, sometimes I feel everything in the universe is just a puppet being operated by Someone Somewhere!

I always felt every single soul's being watched and what it gets might be based on complex calculations that the mortal human mind might not understand. Somehow, small incidents here and there, gathered stories from time to time keep bolstering up these realizations. I got my plot in Bangalore one year back, couldn't start my construction till now and doesn't look like I will be able to in the next one year either. Who's your friend, where do you live and with whom, who're all around you, what do you do, I thought it was the subject who decides all these, but then I am forced to believe that there's something else operating behind the scenes and making it appear as if the subject was responsible for what's been happening!

I guess I'm digressing too much from what I wanted to say, but then I have nothing more to say because I've already said what I had to say in the first few lines, all those that followed are just to make my rant look mystified and to give it a solemn appearance.

Dear friends, I will be joining the Vikings of San Jose, California for the next few quarters if things are going to proceed as expected. Now, this was a complete surprise to me as it is to you right now, because I didn't absolutely know an iota of what had been happening when I went home a few weeks back. When I came back, I saw a meeting scheduled with the HR manager and then I had to gather everything about what was in the pot; I never watched it, so looks like it has boiled! So, after the East coast, I guess it's now time for me to drive on the roads of the West coast.

Along the East Coast

April 14, Ratheesh and I were trying to stay awake at the Bangalore airport. And I did not realize it's going to be a lovely two months forward. The Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, the Air Canada flight to Toronto and another twenty minute flight to Ottawa, we finally reached after a 24-hour journey. There was a lovely thirty minutes during the journey when we were flying above Iceland, we got to see frozen clouds; call it tiny creeks flowing over a snow mountain range, or a huge ice cream dessert, or just a pool of milk, it was amazing!

The first weekend was a walk in the Ottawa downtown, finally we were able to see people walking on the streets. We crossed the Ottawa river from Ontario to the adjoining province, Quebec where we had a glimpse of the Civilization museum, one memorable experience was the I-MAX movie. It was an amazing one hour to watch a movie on a gigantic concave screen, there is a portion of the screen straight above your head even if you are seated in the last row! The picture on the left is the Parliament hill clicked as we came back on the bridge.

The next weekend was a trip to Toronto and Niagara. We started on an early foggy Saturday morning in our Yaris. Our first stop was at the CN Tower, Toronto and we saw the world from its tallest building. We reached Niagara that evening, walked over the bridge to the US and then came back to Canada to watch Niagara by the night. Thankfully both Ratheesh and I had our US visas. The maid of the mist boat ride was closed because it was off-season. There had to be a signature snap, so I had to get it clicked.


Ratheesh had to leave the next Sunday, so we went for a quick trip to Montreal. Montreal was a full French city, there was no board that read in English. We could see the Montreal Olympic stadium, the biggest slanting structure in the world as we crossed the Montreal river to enter the island. But the best part of the city was the live ecological museum, it's called the Biodome. Believe me, it was a thorough feast to the eyes to watch a bunch of penguins stand, walk and swim, all in a row.


Ice hockey and Tulips are the passions of Ottawa. Being in Ottawa during the summer and to not watch the Tulip festival, nay! Ottawa's the Tulip Queen of North America, the festival has hundreds of varieties of tulips, mostly imported from Holland. The entire stretch of the road from Dow's lake to the Parliament hill had tulips all along. We had a great drive along the Rideau canal. Not often will you come to Ottawa and even so during summer, we were just lucky!


The next weekend I flew to Boston to the Cisco, Boxborough office. I did make a visit to the MIT and the Harvard Business School campuses. I didn't want to miss out on New York having come so close to the city. It wasn't a bad drive alone in the car, for it was the right season with green everywhere. I met Chendur who stays in New Jersey and we went for a night's walk in the Manhattan downtown. Times Square, Empire State Building, Wall Street, Statue of Liberty, finally I got to see them all. I agree, New York never sleeps!

I came back to Ottawa and then there was a trip to Vermont and New Hampshire. NH doesn't have a state tax, so you can see malls all over its border so that people from the neighbouring states can do some tax-free shopping. But Vermont was easily my best jaunt, miles and miles through the green mountains, crossing a number of rivers and lakes, all of them so scenic. How can I forget getting caught in the hailstorm on the highway! Somehow we managed to drive faster than the storm and reached Lebanon, NH for the night's stay.

The historical city of Quebec was the only place left in the vicinity. I managed to form a gang and we drove to Quebec the following week. Forts and war parks, citadels and museums, the Notre Dame basilica, the Montmorency falls are all still fresh in my memory. Whatever the British and the French have not left after their wars, they have managed to leave their colours behind; the Canadian flag has white and red stripes on it along with its maple leaf. We walked around the city to click the lit garrisons; I never knew night photography was this difficult.

It was a really amazing two months in Eastern Canada and the US driving a whopping 5000 km in the process. The funny part was that I crossed the US-Canada borders thrice during the two-month stay, the first time on foot across the Niagara, the second time by flight to Boston and the third time in my car to Vermont. The Thousand islands, Hershey's chocolate factory, the lobsters, the New York subway paths, the Manhattan ferry ride, the Boston duck tour, the late night hotel search in Quebec, watching deers in the backyard ... finally I started back!

Homecoming was such a lovely feeling, I was literally counting every hour back on the flight to Bangalore. For a few days after I returned I wondered if India could ever reach the Western standards - the roads, the people, their manners, the respect, the common sense, the first-you attitude; for a few days I was trying to use my indicators while trying to change lanes on the road, I was giving way to vehicles trying to enter the road, was making an attempt to yield to pedestrians, but I no longer care about all those because I've become an Indian again!

I've lost myself again in the alarmingly huge population and an even appalling corruption that exists right from the streets to the palaces. Sometimes, I go back to my album to relish the reminiscences, but at the end of it what remains in me will just be a sigh! Anyway, I am more than happy to stay near my parents, friends and well-wishers rather than trying to find a place for me in an alien land amidst a set of funny swayers. Let me hope that the Indian air becomes less polluted in the decades to come.

After a little bit of thought I feel that there are three highly inter-dependent factors in every place - the people, the money and the human character. These exist everywhere, just that different places have it in different proportions and that explains it all.