The Week Gone By

The week's over. It took a while but its finally over. The first part of the week was a harrowing experience. Its over for some, but for some others, the ordeal continues. Mother nature went on a rampage all throughout Southern California (SoCal) and showered special consideration on San Diego.

In what way you ask? Well obviously, you haven't been tuning into international news lately. Wildfires have been feasting heavily on the parched, arid, dry, drought affected lands of SoCal - some of them still going strong even as I type this post.

Last Sunday was an exceptionally busy day for me. I accompanied my roomies for some grocery shopping and then went to a retail electronic store to get a pair of headphones. (I got a supra-aural Sony headphones for a pretty good deal and I'm loving it. Its amazing how good earphones makes even mediocre music sound awesome :D) Sorry for the digression, anyways, so on our way back, I just happened to look up at the sky and noticed that it was smoggy. Now that might be normal in Bombay (courtesy Mr.Pollution), but its unheard-of here. The sky is normally impeccable blue and I thought its strange for it to be having a grayish tinge.

Anyways, it was pretty soon forgotten and as soon as we got home we started cooking. We were done in a couple of hours and since it started to get a bit smoky in the house with all the frying and stuff, we opened the windows. Suddenly in a matter of minutes, the air started to smell strange. We quickly checked our hot-plates and oven to see if we had left something ON by mistake, but found that everything was switched off. We were trying to figure out the source of the "burning" smell in the air and then we get a call from one of our friends saying that there's a wild fire burning out of control about 50 miles north-east of our place and slowly moving westward.

We all quickly scourged the net and found out that indeed there was a wild fire. In fact there wasn't just one or two or three. There were 7 of them in and around San Diego. WOW UNBELIEVABLE!!! Also, we found some 3-4 fires in and around LA too. In fact there was one in Malibu county which forced many celebrities to evacuate their million-dollar houses.

By midnight on Sunday, (in a couple of hours) the fire was deemed to be about 40 miles away i.e. 10 miles closer to us. The fire department had begun mandatory evacuation of the communities which were about 10 miles away from the fire. We all were under the impression that everything would become normal by Monday morning and we all slept soundly. On Monday, my roomie went to work at around 08:00 (much earlier than usual). I woke up at my usual time of around 09:00 and started to get ready to go to work. Suddenly, I get a call from my roomie (who's at work) saying that the security is planning to shut down office because the fire situation is getting worse by the minute.

I quickly tuned into an internet radio station for San Diego and there they announced that there are two fires, one to the north-east and other south-east of San Diego, both moving westward towards San Diego. Holy Cow!!! What in God's name is happening here?? I was thinking. The fire closest to our location was the one in the north-west. It was now just 25 miles away from our location and all residents who were living in a 10-mile distance from the perimeter of the fire were asked to evacuate. In fact it so happened that one particular school was designated as the evacuation center but when the fire started coming close to that, the location was shifted to a much safer place. This new place was a high school located in our area. When that happened, it was a bit of a relief to us because it gave us the confidence that when there's a evacuation center in our area, then our area must definitely be safe.

The whole of Monday went in closely monitoring the progress of the two fires. In fact the news in the internet radio reported that the 7 different fires had merged and become 2 large fires, one to the north-east and other to the south-east. They also said that the fires were caused because of the strange weather condition, which (considering the terrain around SoCal) is very conducive for wild-fires. In fact although San Diego is on the Pacific Coast, the relative humidity for Sun-Mon-Tue was an avg or about 4-5%. Which makes the air abnormally dry. This coupled with high temperatures (around 30-35 deg centigrade), unusual westerly Santa-Ana winds and the dry vegetation (which is abundant in SoCal) gave rise to the fires. It was declared on Monday that the office would remain shut on Tuesday, because of the fires.

By Tuesday, the situation had worsened. The fire in the N-W - named witch-creek fire (because it originated in the witch-creek canyon) which was about 8000 acres on Sunday evening had affected 15000 acres by Sunday night, 20000 acres by Monday and a humongous 145000 acres come Tuesday (because of merging of different fires). Similarly the fire in the S-W - named the Harris fire had grown from 6000 acres to 14000 acres to 25000 to some 40000 acres during the same timespan. By Tuesday afternoon, mandatory evacuation was in effect for communities which were just about 10 miles away from our locality and rumors were going around that our area too would soon be receiving an evacuation order.

It was Tuesday evening and no such order came. Still we all were tense and monitoring the "progress" of the fire very closely. Also we came to know that our office is closed indefinitely until further notice. The Harris fire was still just about 5% contained and the Witch fire was only about 1% contained. Situation was still dangerous. One look at the sky and the dangerousness was vindicated. The atmosphere was strewn with dust and debris and suspended particulate matter. There was so much soot in the air that the swimming pool in front of our house got very dirty with black dust falling from the sky. Although the fire was raging, thankfully it wasn't spreading towards our area and having come to know about that, our confidence - of not being evacuated - improved.

By Wednesday morning, the evacuation orders for the neighboring area got lifted and we started feeling much safer. In fact evacuation orders were also removed for areas which had been damaged by fire and people started to come back to see the state of their houses. The California fire department and the emergency services did a fantastic job of intimating people much before the fire broke out and by issuing mandatory evacuation orders. It is evident from the fact that - although a total of about 300000 acres were burning as a result of the various fires - there was only 1 casualty, but the damage to houses and property and land was huge. In fact my boss's house sustained substantial damage and the most common question on such people's mind was - "WHY ME??"

Thursday seemed like just another day. The office was open again, most of the shops were functioning like there was never anything wrong. Although office was open, attendance was low. The fires were still raging but far away from any nearby areas. By now the winds had changed direction, they were again flowing from west to east. The temperatures had dipped and the humidity increased. Buoyed by the weather, the firemen started to make fantastic progress in containing and in some places even extinguishing the fire.

By Friday everything was near normal. The air was clear - one could see the blue skies, it had become cooler again, the winds had died. In short a perfect California day.

Its amazing how - even after having made fantastic progress in science and technology and weather forecasting, etc - we are still at the mercy of mother nature's fury. Be it Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Volcanoes or even Wild Forest Fires.

Obituaries

This post is dedicated all those with whom, I've interacted at some point or other but are now no more. I have been very close to some, I have been lucky to have seen and interacted with some, I have spent my formative years with some and I've played and/or studied with some.

The first dedication has to go to this wonderful lady. She's right in the middle of the picture, holding my little baby sister, while I'm grinning away to glory, sitting just next to her. My Great Grand Mother. Not many can boast about having seen and lived with their great grand mother. Apparently, my dad made a promise to my grand-dad (on his death bed) that he will take care of his (grand-dad's mother) - a last wish which my dad fulfilled completely. All throughout my great-grand-mom lived with us. When I was young, she used to narrate stories from "Ambuli-mama". It was the Tamil equivalent of Chandamama. My mom tells me that...This one day she (my great-grand-mom) was tired and didnt narrate me a story and I got so pissed at her that I hit her on her head with a stick. Poor great-grand-mom nursed a swelling for a couple of days. My dad used to tell me, she loved watching TV. Those days we had a B/W TV by a brand named Standard. She loved watching Shammi Kapoor movies and named him "naakku-poochi" (earthworm in Tamil) for he used to wriggle a lot when dancing. Hahaha...cute sense of humor! We took her to Juhu beach and she walked with us along the beach clinging onto my dad's hand. She died in 1986 at the grand old age of 92. May she rest in peace.

My next dedication goes to this lady with whom I was extremely-extremely close. My grand-mother. When I was young (about 2 years old), I used to accompany my granny for grocery shopping. Thats the earliest memory I have and I can still remember waiting outside our house in Matunga, playing under a Jamul tree, waiting for granny to come out. During my 1st-2nd-3rd standard, we used to get copy-writing books and were asked to write atleast 5 pages daily to improve our handwriting. I was too lazy and my granny (a convent educated lady) used to complete the homework, by holding my hand and writing. My granny used to adore me like anything. I accompanied her on many of her "tirth yatras". I went along with her to visit Pandharpur. After my 10th, I accompanied her on a month long trip to all the famous temples of TamilNadu. She is the first lady (the second being my sister) in our family to have gone out of the country. Sometime during the late 80s or early 90s, my youngest uncle (her youngest son) took her to visit Bahrain and Singapore. When I was young, I used to fight and argue with my cousins to take her from their house to bring her to our house and also vice-versa. The last time I met her, she was tremendously ill, bed-ridden and seeing my long hair, she commented - "Yenna ponnu maadri thalamudi valathundirukkai" (What, you've grown hair like a girl). Although I laughed out loud at that, I was crying from the inside seeing her in such a terrible state. She had undergone a hip replacement surgery and developed some post operational complications which resulted in short term memory loss. Slowly her health started fading and finally she left us on April 17th 2007. It is my greatest regret that I could not be with her at the time of her demise. May god give her soul peace.

I'll start of my next remembrance with the following sanskrit verse.

Nana Dharma Nigooda Tatva Nichita
Yat Sankskriti Rajate
Seyam Bharatabhoornitanta Ruchira
Mataiva Naha Sarvada
Tasya Unnati Hetavehi bhavataam
Gyanam tatha may balam
Sampanna balashalini Vijayatam
Me Matrubhuhu sarvada.

This was one of the most complicated sanskrit verses that I had ever learnt and known during my 3 years of learning Sanskrit in school. This was the 10th standard and it was the sanskrit oral exams. We had to byheart all the poems from the whole textbook and the teacher would ask us to recite any verse and explain the meaning. I distinctly remember I was asked to recite the above verses by our sanskrit teacher. She was one of the senior-most and most respected of all the teachers. She had an excellent command of sanskrit and spoke impeccable english too. Her knack of explaining the complex sanskrit grammar and simplifying the english translation was very unique. She used to encourage me a lot and I owe a lot to her. In 2003, I was in Germany and this one-day I read in the online version of the Times of India about a series of shocking deaths involving Indians in the US. I was a bit saddened. Some days later when I was talking to mom, she suddenly mentioned that teacher Pushpa Ramanathan and her family met with an accident in CA and she's no more. I was dumbfounded. I immediately looked up the article in Times Of India and re-read it. The article had mis-spellt her name. The demise of the family was a huge shock to my dad too. Thats because, Pushpa-teacher's husband and my dad used to work for the same company and they were very good friends. The only survivor in the car crash was Pushpa teacher's grand daughter. Mom told me that Pushpa teacher's daughter who is also in the States is now taking care of her. With a great deal of effort and thanks to Google, I was able to search the news snippets and I found two. One from The Union Democrat and the other, exact same article I had read some 4 years back from the online edition of The Times of India. Aum Shanti...Shanti...Shanti.

Sometimes I do think what it would feel to be dead! I mean would I still feel my body, feel pain, feel happiness, feel sorrow, feel drunk, feel vibrant, feel ecstatic?? Will it be a dark, cold, chasm where time stands still or will it feel like a free fall into a pit thats bottomless or will it be like entering into a star so bright that the light can be "seen" with eyes shut. I fear what would be the experience of death. I fear death. Yes I do. May god give peace to all dead people. AMEN!

P.S: I also wanted to post about my childhood friend Sameer Rane and my College mate Shrikant Pawar who died rather young (before they even reached 25), but I dont have much to say about them since they weren't very close to me. Nonetheless, I still pray for them and their families. God bless them. God bless all.

Dumb, Dumber, Dumbest...next what-Dumbestest??

The excitement of meeting my friends always arouses a certain nervous energy within me. The moment my friends here in the US decide to meet or plan to have an outing, I'm always enthusiastic and there's this sudden flow of activity within me to look for the cheapest flight deals. When I was a relative newcomer to the US, I used to rely upon my friends to get my bookings done, but soon I came to know of the different web-sites where one could search for cheap travel deals. There's so many of them here - Orbitz, Travelocity, Priceline, Sidestep, Cheap-tickets - to name just a few.

Well, I dont want to talk about which among the above mentioned is the best or my preferred one or whatever, what I want to talk about is my stupidity in booking the tickets.

DUMB

Some 4 months back, my friend TK (the cute guy from the testimonial post) was going to India for his engagement. He had relocated from Dallas to Baltimore and was going back to Dallas to meet his other friends and his roomie (our common friend - guy no: 2 in the testimonial post) before his India trip. He informed me about his trip and decided - impromptu - that I'll go to Dallas as well. So I looked up one of the above sites to search for flight deals to go from San Diego to Dallas.

TK was going to Dallas on a weekend and so I tried to search for all travel combinations for that weekend so as to get the best price. I searched for Fri-eve departure and Sun-night return; Fri-eve departure and Mon-morn return; Sat-morn departure and Sun-night return; Sat-morn departure and Mon-morn return. Suddenly I found a deal for some 350 or so USD (significantly cheaper than the price I was shown earlier) and just jumped at it and booked it.

I was pretty excited about it and immediately told my friends that I would also be coming to Dallas to meet them. I took a print-out of the confirmation and just looked at my itinerary. My jaw dropped on looking at the printout. I was cursing myself on being such an imbecile - a dumb idiotic fool. In trying out all combinations, I had forgotten to change one of the options for the return flight and my currently scheduled return flight was somehow for Saturday evening instead of Sunday evening.

"OH..F***! How can I be so careless??" - that was the first thought to cross my mind. I immediately called up US-Airways and explained them about the goof-up. They said that they can change the return flight to one-day later, but that would cost me. I told them that I'm willing to pay whatever. The cust-service rep. told me to hold while she searched for availability and computed the new fare. I had no choice. I waited...anxious and eager to know "Kitne Phatke Lagenge" (how many DOs I'd have to shell out). She came back probably after having a mini-meal or so it seemed because of the long time I had to hold the call. She said the ticket can be changed and that it would cost me 150 USD. I agreed to it and got the return ticket rescheduled.

DUMBER

A couple of months back, I was in Kansas City. It was a lousy place and I didnt have very many friends there. I was feeling lonely and homesick and during that time Guy-2 (from the testimonial post) was moving out of Dallas. So I thought I'll go and visit him one last time in Dallas. At first I thought I could probably drive down to Dallas. The distance between Kansas City and Dallas is around 580 miles and it would have taken me about 8 hours. I looked out for rental cars and having found a good deal with HERTZ, I tried to work out the economics. I arrived at a certain figure, but out of sheer curiousity I just started to search for some good flight deals and luckily for me I found a pretty cheap one. About 250 bucks to-and-fro. I just jumped at it.

This time around I ensured that I booked the proper flights, I checked for date and timings and everything seemed okay. I was set to fly out on Friday in the evening from Kansas City and reach Dallas the same night. My return was scheduled for Sunday in the evening at 5:00 or so and I was supposed to reach Kansas City back at around 7'ish. My onward journey went without any incident and the flight landed at Dallas-FW airport on time. My friend came and picked me up and we had a gala time.

Soon it was Sunday and it was time for me to go. My friend dropped me off at Dallas-FW airport at around 04:00 pm and I went to the ticket-desk to get the boarding pass. The lady at the counter checked my ticket and she said - "Mr. GanapathiKrishnan, you are at the wrong airport." I was surprised and I asked her whether this airport is Dallas-FW airport. She said - "Yes its Dallas Ft.Worth, but your return flight is from Dallas-Lovefield." - and showed me the airport code. I saw that and I realized that Dallas Ft.Worth is DFW and Dallas-Lovefield is DAL and my return flight is from DAL.

I called up my friend, who by now had nearly reached his house and told him about this problem. He just doubled his way back to DFW airport and picked me up from the American Airlines terminal. I jumped into the car and we set off to DAL. The distance from DFW to DAL is about 15 miles and since its closer to downtown and further away from the freeway, it takes about 30 minutes or so to reach there. I had reached DFW 1 hour before my flight departure and now I had to reach DAL rather fast.

That evening, my friend broke all traffic rules possible except for jumping a red and we reached DAL at 04:35. I was quite sure that I'll miss my flight and my worst fears were confirmed. The lady at the checkin counter refused to give me a boarding pass saying that I was too late for the flight. Thankfully there was a second flight about 2 hours later from the same airport for Kansas City and I paid 25 bucks to get a boarding pass for that flight.


DUMBEST

Last weekend, my friends planned for a get-together to meet at my friend KCHJ's house. (To know more about KCHJ, read my testimonial post). As usual this was decided just a week before and I - being excited to meet up with my friends again - booked my flight tickets. This time too - after having tried out a number of combinations - I settled for a ticket that would leave from San Diego on Friday in the evening, reach Milwaukee at night on Friday. My return flight would leave on Sunday at around 05:30 pm and would reach San Diego at around 11:00 pm.

I got a deal (if I could call it that) for 400 USD and although it was a bit pricey, I was elated that I would be meeting my friends again. The whole of previous week, I was very much looking forward to my trip. I reached there on Friday and was treated to amazing food cooked by KCHJ's wife and talked a lot about old times. The whole of Saturday was spent just lazing around in his house, watching "path-breaking" movies and playing with his 7 month old baby.

Come Sunday it was time for all of us to leave and KCHJ dropped us off at the airport at around 04:40 pm. I went to the Delta Airlines boarding pass kiosk and entered the ticket number mentioned in my printout, but the kiosk was not able to find my ticket booking. I then went to the ticket-desk and asked the attendant to help me out. He too tried to get the boarding pass at the kiosk, but in vain. He then proceeded to the ticket counter and search for my ticket confirmation in his computer, but he was still not able to find my reservation.

Time was running out for me and out of frustration, I asked the attendant to give me the printout, I had given to him. I looked at it closely and realized the folly. I had done it again! Instead of 7th October, I had booked the return ticket for the 4th of November (also a Sunday). At the time of booking, I had forgotten to verify the return date and had just checked the day. OH...NO...NOT AGAIN!!

The attendant told me to talk to the Delta Airlines helpdesk to get my ticket reissued and he would hold the flight so that I could board it. I rushed to the helpline. I waited for nearly 15 minutes for someone to come and help me reissue my ticket. Finally, somebody came-on and I explained the problem to her. She told me the worst possible news. I had a 1-stop flight and my stopover was at Atlanta. She told me that there was availability from Milwaukee to Atlanta, but there was no availability from Atlanta to San Diego.

I was so angry and frustrated at myself that I could beat myself to death. It was the 3rd time, it happened. Finally after having given all the possible options, I took the most convenient of all - to fly out on the 8th of October, i.e. Monday. I would be reaching San Diego at 12:15 pm, but then there was no other choice. There was no availability whatsoever for the 7th in any of the flights. There was a ticket available with United Airlines for the 8th but that would've cost me 800 USD. There was another ticket available with Midwest for LA (about 1 hour drive from San Diego) also for the 8th and that would've cost me 450 USD.

Finally I settled for the Monday ticket with Delta and I was setback by a cool 250 USD.

Even as I'm writing this post, I am reliving those tense moments in each of the above incidents and at the same time wondering whether I'll ever learn from these happenings, considering that i've undergone 3 similar ones.

Musings of the idle mind

He sits alone in a conference room. The door locked from inside. Feeling slightly cold, a tad lonely. Waiting...apparently for something to happen. Staring into the blank wall. Blinking his eyes every few seconds. His ears intent on listening to even the smallest little peck of a sound. Its quiet...very quiet, but the quietness is intermittently broken by the wind hitting against the door. The lock on the door shudders each time the wind swishes through the corridor outside. Duh-da-da-da. Its sudden and unexpected - the shudders. Sometimes startling him. What's happening outside on the corridor - he wonders. Many people leaving work - thats whats happening. He thinks. He swears. He curses. Curses the fact that he has to work late. Off late work seems to be piling up more and more. So much that he had to work on Saturday and Sunday last weekend.

His conscience pricks him. WORK?? - it asks. Oh yes! Updating blog settings is work alright - it shouts. He hears it so loud, it seems like a scream. Duh-da-da-da. But I did work too - He says. But to no avail. He shakes his head vigorously - as if to shrug it off. But the echoes keep ringing. He diverts his thoughts, tries to concentrate on work. He's determined to finish it by tomorrow. If it gets done I can enjoy the weekend a lot more - He thinks - Ah the weekend! Here it is at last. Duh-da-da-da. A faint smile breaks through his stern jaws. This weekend he wont be working. Wow - he thinks - A break atlast.

He kicks himself..."Stop thinking about all this - you fool. You have work to do. Now get back to it".

A while later....

He feels his neck. Its is a bit strained from the constant upright position. He leans his neck back, feels it stretch, feels it make a few creaks and then back upright. His butt is weary from having sat on the same lousy chair for almost 3 hours now. He wants to get up but he cant. Duh-da-da-da. It is almost as if he is glued. Glued to his chair, glued to the room, glued to the building, glued to the city, glued to the country. He tries to shrug off this thought and does so with great difficulty. He stretches his legs, they feel old. They are getting old - he thinks. Yes nearly 30 long hard years. He lets out a big yawn and stretches his hands as wide as they can be parted. Duh-da-da-da. What has he achieved? - he thinks. He's travelled a lot of places; seen wonderfully beautiful cities; has a good designation at work; has a not-too-bad salary. There's something in the near future he's definitely looking forward to - his new house. But all of this seems so senseless. He feels an emptiness and also an almost inexplicable sense of non-achievement. Duh-da-da-da.

Has he missed the fun part of life in running after good job, good money, good travel, good house - he thinks - He didnt run after these, it just came to him. If not this then what is it?? He sees his friends getting hitchced, he secretly envies them. In some cases almost to the point of not talking to them. He's jealous. Afterall he's human. He has never been hitched, never had a girlfriend, never walked with anyone holding hands on the beach enjoying the waves kissing the feet under a full moon night. NEVER EVER! Is he selfish? Is he mean? Is he not handsome? No. No. Maybe not. Then why hasnt he found his match? The questions haunt him, posing more questions for which he has no answers. Absolutely NONE WHATSOEVER. If it were somebody else, he would have said "No Comment" but he cant ignore his conscience. His inner self. His being. His soul.