Is there anything like Cultural Progress

I was discussing about the recent Lebanon-Israel conflict with a colleague and we started rambling about lots of issues related and unrelated to the conflict. We talked about the American influence, who won who loss, Syrian influence, Arab countries, Cuba, terrorism, previous wars Israel fought with its neighbors, globalization and progress. All this in a matter of 15-20 minutes.

Than as we were discussing about the progress of countries, he made a very important point (which I had read about in The World is Flat) he said that "these Arab countries inspite of being so oil rich are so far behind in progress and people of these countries do not know the meaning of progress, freedom, innovation, equality between sexes, democratic rights. Things should change."

This made me think about issues of culture, customs, strict rituals in under-developed African, Asian, Middle-eastern nations, where people follow customs and rituals which are different than the western way (progressed way). In some of these countries women are not allowed to speak unless asked to, strict dress codes, no voting rights. An African village require its women to remove their clitoris. I respect their way of life but in some cases I feel things should change for better and feel right in imposing changes to improve their life and life of future generations.

Questions:
- Are we (the developed, educated, lucky) right in imposing this change ?
- Can we assure them "You'll be very happy after the change, trust me" ?
- If they're happy the way they live, and if the ultimate goal is happiness, who are we to correct them ?
- What makes us right and them wrong ?

A la Carte - Mumbai Ishtyle

Food is a very important part of life for most of us Indians, often our conversations and life revolve around food. One of the the reason being, the diversity of India and variety in cuisines. Each state has its own cuisine and further each communities have different customizations to that cuisine.

Apart from the yummy 'ghar ka khana' most big towns have awesome roadside eatries which should not be missed. Me being a pakka 'Mumbaikar' have enjoyed eating at these stalls.

Mid-Day (popular Mumbai daily) recently carried a great tid-bit on these roadside food items (which promted me to post on this topic), very nice read for all the Mumbaikars.

You can read it here or here's how it goes.

THESE are some peculiar twists to food items. Very unique, very Mumbai, these hybrid food items are available on city roads and smaller restaurants. They have a unique flavour that says: khao, piyo, mazaa karo, Mumbai ishtyle. What we like about them is:

How the sandwich wallahs sprinkle sandwiches with slivers of crisp sev to offset the softness of the bread with some crunch.
How the corn sellers sell the kernels without the cob, and baste it with a dollop of butter.
How the diet vada pav has brown bread, but inexplicably a fried vada sandwiched between it.
How the enterprising bhel wallah fries noodles puts masala and coriander on it and passes it off as Chinese bhel.
How we have an American Sev Puri, where some westernised topping on the puri gives it that Amreecan flavour.
How Pav Bhaji vendors sell only a masala pav option with so much butter that if the bread was wrung out the butter would form a puddle in the plate.
How some Udipis sell a Maruti dosa, which is as big as the front of a Maruti car, or how they pass the hat around with a topi dosa.
How the fruit platewallah embellishes the plate by sticking a slice of cucumber on one of the fruits.
How fruit juices go by the name of Ganga-Jamuna, Maara Maari and believe it or not, even Bunty Aur Babli.
How the milk at Energee booths has two pieces of cashew and a quarter sliver of almond and calls itself masala milk.

These roadside restaurants become meeting places for couples, friends where sometimes lot of quality time is spent. The ones near school and colleges are extremely busy where the regular goers use their influence to get their order faster.

Some of the famous joints (Kisan's Dosa, Health Juice Center) in my locality even have a community dedicated to them on orkut (each one having 100+ members). As I saw these communities on orkut a smile came on my face that's when I travelled 8k miles in 5 seconds, I remembered my evening walk to Kisan's Dosa and the world best 'Apricot Orange' and 'Orange Blossom' at Health Juice Center.

Anytime you're in Mumbai don't forget to try one of these places, also I'm ready to try new places on my next visit. Any suggestions ?

Airfare Predictions, Find Cheap Airline Tickets - Farecast

Farecast is a startup that predicts whether air tickets for your travel time are expected to go up or down and gives you a tip whether it's the right time to buy or you should Wait. They even have a Confidence level (probably a p-value of some statistical prediction model) and Fare history which tells what's the lowest and highest fare for the last x days.

I first heard and used Farecast when someone at my workplace introduced this novel concept to me. That version was only covering flights originating from Seattle or Boston. Recently, I received an e-mail from them which announced new markets and Newark, NJ was one of them. SiliconBeat reports they've 55+ originating cities now.

Think about it ..... if you were to know when is the right time to buy your tickets and how much you can save if you follow their tip, isn't this cool.

I did a search for travelling on a weekend in Nov 2006 from Newark, NJ to San Jose, CA and the tip I received was to WAIT as prices were expecting to go down by $40. When I did a search for the same cities but travelling on Sept 1, I was told to Buy with a 70% confidence.

Expect this prediction feature to pop up on other travel sites very soon. So all you frequent travellers, be smart and start saving with this service.

PC World lists 100 Best Products of the Year

PC World magazine has come out with a list of 100 Best Products of the Year, the list is interesting because it has products from e-mail application and other tiny utilities to huge HDTVs and expensive chip-sets. Last I browsed through the list I found I was using or have used in the past atleast 20 of those products. Each time I browse through the list I find atleast 1 new product that I've used or currently using.

Some products on the list are like del.icio.us, Mozilla Firefox, DealNews, Yahoo Mail & Maps and yes even Blogger is on the list at no 33. Since I'm not a big gadget freak (can't afford too) I've not used many of the cameras, LCD TVs and montiors, etc products on the list.

One product that I expected to be on the list were Cell phones from Nokia and Sony Ericsson but I only found T-Mobile SDA Cellular Phone at no 62. Its amazing how life is getting so dependent on these gadgets and digital products.

No more Next:

I've decided to no longer put the Next: that I used to put at the end of each posting.

My Reasons.....
1. No one is waiting or want to know about my next post.
2. I cannot blog about other small topics/news/websites I want to write about till my Next: topic is posted, for eg: Impressions of a FOB is a topic I was supposed to blog about next, but I need more time to write about it and meanwhile I came across Farecast about which I wanted to write, but couldn't write.
3. Many times I ain't that articulate to think about the Next: topic or frankly have a topic in mind about which I want to write.
4. My creativity (exaggerating a little bit here) is being lost if I stick to a routine and can't post about things I want to write at that moment.

Hence good bye to Next: topic feature. But surprisingly, I know the topic for my next post after this, which I won't tell. Ssshhhhhhhh...............

Experiences of a FOB

FOB or a fobbie is a slang phrase which means 'Fresh Off the Boat'. I was and still am a FOB (like many others) who came to US some 5 years ago as a student for my Masters. Coming to a new country, new culture, new climate is tough. But what is tougher is adapting & accustoming yourself to this new environment and retaining your culture, temparament and recollection.

It is that time of the year when foreign students come to US universities for further studies. I came across 2 such graduate students (family friends) who've come here for doing MS and MBA. Meeting and talking to them took me straight to a path I had crossed some years ago, 'My initial FOB days'. The initial struggle and adjustments were never forgotten but as time passed, I became more comfortable in the routine work life and live for the weekends 'syndrome'.

I've nothing but good memories of my student life, I was blessed with really good roommates (very very important) and wide group of friends. Some of whom I've known for years even before I came to this country and others I'll know and grow more fond of no matter which part of the world we're in the future.

As a FOB going to a big and expensive school like USC has issues, issues about housing, courses, on-campus jobs, studies, funding, internships, full-time jobs (order in which they come in a FOBs life). I too went through this cycle, like many of my friends. For some of these issues I was lucky, like housing (right place, right time worked). Also thanks to M. Shah who drove us around the campus for housing. For others like on-campus job I switched many before sticking to a place. There was a lot of back and forth for the courses (my own immaturity). There are other experiences like cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, disagreement between friends, dealing with competition which I'm not even considering to write about. Actually a whole blog can be dedicated just to cooking and cleaning escapades.

The moments, stuations, pranks, encounters that a FOB faces will have a lasting memory, personally it makes me what I'm today. Through these experiences you'll learn to live on your own, be responsible for your own decisons, learn time management, be organized, learn whom to trust, whom to believe, whom to ask for help and whom to help..... in general it will define your attitude in life.

With each passing day a FOB makes more friends, acquaintances, colleagues and in doing so creates his 'home away from home'. This comfort zone will be touched by innumerable people. I was lucky to find this comfort zone in my roommates, my 1st year neighbors and my friends at Monmouth St. As a FOB, I also experienced help by people who had no rhyme or reason to do that good to me, but they did and I'm grateful to them.

Life is but an experience, experience of hanging out with friends at night, experience of growing up, experience of being foolish, and lots of others. My suggestion to the new FOBs ......
Go find and enjoy your own! Experience ......

Next: Impressions of a FOB

Below some of the (old & unclear) pictures with my closest buddies from my FOB days.

Undecided Post

Why Undecided Post ? I've to decide the next Blog topic in advance before I publish the posting that I was writing. I've to think about the topic and prepare a framework in my mind. When I finished my last post on 'Lessons of Back Pain' I had no idea what I'm gonna blog about next, totally unprepared. Hence the Undecided Post which is going to cover 'Blogging'.

Blogging has created so many new dot-coms in the Web 2.0 space having products like blog editors, site metrics tool, RSS feed readers & aggregators, advertising & search tools to name a few. These products help novice bloggers to set up quickly and improve their blogging experience & for the professional ones to spread their content, increase viewership and gain from advertising.

Most of these products have a free version which makes it really cool to use them. I use some of them (Also use Google Analytics not in the list). When I decided to blog I was researching about blogging platforms, Typepad vs blogspot vs wordpress vs blog.com I found a very good comparison between Typepad and blogger. Typepad was the winner in features & ease of use, but at the same time I was not ready to spend money for the monthly subscription. I decided to compromise on the features for now. May be someday if my blog becomes popular and I can afford to pay the subscription fees I'll move to Typepad. BTW blogspot is improving and new features were added recently which will make my move all the more difficult. Check this post of Google Operating System on "The New Blogger".

Here's the A-Z of Professional blogging for first time bloggers. Also check out DesiPundit's Tools for Blog Niravana on pbwiki. (wiki's are another mind blowing concept, I'll blog about them in near future).

Here's to motivate all the non-bloggers who are considering, contemplating, intending, aspiring to write their own blog. Amit Agarwal of Digital Inspiration fame quit has regular day job at a software firm to become a full time blogger. You can read the story here. So all the non-bloggers try to taste this 'mind food', its addictive but very healthy!

Next: Experiences of a FOB

Lessons of Back Pain

Back Pain is the number one cause of disability in the United States for people under the age of 45. 70% people in the US will have episodes of back pain at some stage in their lives.

Recently I suffered from back pain which was acute & not very serious in my case, still I've decided to blog about it. My reasons & lessons are below.

My back went 'OUT OF ORDER' when I bent to sneeze on a Wednesday morning in June this year. After pain relieving cream & pain killers didn't help I visited an Orthopedic Specialist who recommended 6 weeks of PT after my X-Ray came out to be normal (no herniated or slip disc). My condition was called lumbosacral strain and spasm. Someone at my work place suggested reading Healing Back Pain Naturally - by Art Brownstein. This book gave me lot of insights about the causes for this physical pain & also recommended back exercises. (Highly recommend this book to anyone who has back trouble)

My mind started thinking what could have caused it, what was going on with my body! Have I put on weight? Did I lift something heavy? Slept incorrectly? Bad sitting posture? Stressed? Why was I in pain?

Stress & Bad sitting Posture partly answered my inquisitiveness.

I started taking PT sessions at Twin Boro Physcial Therapy which was close to my workplace. T. Carpenter (M.S. in PT) was my therapist who decided the therapy program for me. She was helped by L & To. Attached is a picture of these amazing guys (from left L, T Carpenter, To). At Twin Boro, there were patients of different age groups, some younger than me and others older. Each one was there for a different pain or strain but the purpose of everyone there was the same. Getting back to Life without pain.
Lesson 1: Adversity, Pain, Problems (physical, economical, environmental, etc) can come to anyone in life at any stage. Age, social or economic status don't matter. You can take it as an opportunity, learn from it & overcome it or cry over it. Though I'm very young to have Back Pain, I'm glad it happened sooner than later so that I can be more cautious and careful in future.

T. Carpenter & her crew diligently helped me & worked with me in reducing my anguish and frustration. The simple talks, jokes (TubeLight), discussions (about Crocs) while working out helped to unwind and divert attention from pain.
Lesson 2: I read somewhere "Help is always around the corner, you just have to ask." When in a dilemma/problem look around and you'll always find people ready to help & work with you. I've learnt to ask for help. Thank you T. Carpenter, L & To for all your help. You guys rock. Keep up the good work.

My pain has reduced and my back is stronger, yet I know some days I'll feel perfectly fine and on other some uneasiness. It may take some disciplined exercising at home & time to heal my back completely (that reminds I need to do my exercises today).
Lesson 3: Back trouble is not the only ailment I'll suffer in my long life (Yes, I'm going to live long). It's the start but certainly not the end of life for me. I've learnt to be positive & patient with life. As Daniel Powter sings in Bad Days

I don't know if I should be sad or happy to finish my PT sessions. Actually I'm both, happy that I'm feeling better (and Hey, I also save $20 on copay .... ;-) ) and little sad because I don't get to meet & work with the Twin Boro crew.

This has been a rather long post, tried to shorten it whereever I could and removed all the extra mirch-masala. Also attached are some of the pictures with T. Carpenter, L & To, also a log of my exercises.

Next: Undecided post

Objective of my blog

I feel blogging is a very very powerful means of communication. It has revolutionised & changed the internet and web world. I've been reading blogs for the last 3 years, but for the last 1 year have been an avid reader. But the idea to write my own blog is only couple of months old. Once I decided to write my own blog, I started to think what will I blog about. I don't have any special talents, hobbies and neither I'm an executive and nor very knowledgeable in any technology or subject that I can keep blogging about. I never wanted to write a day-to-day or week-to-week activity/diary kind of blog. So what should I blog about ???

For the last 1 year or so I've been reading a lot about web/technology, startups, world politics & disasters, venture capitalism, current affairs, Mumbai, India, attitude in life, etc. I feel I've become fairly opinionated and express my views & thoughts to my friends, family & colleagues. In addition for the last 2 years there've been disasters like Tsunami, Mumbai floods & blasts, wars, earthquakes, Hurricane Katrina and there was a big personal loss in my life. These things made me think deep & hard about my role in society, family, community.

I'll be touching on topics mentioned above and I'm sure as I move ahead & grow in life the topics of the blogs will change.

The blogging technology & concept has opened a new form of journalism, which I would like to call journalism without journalist and these new breed of journalists are unbiased (to a country, political party, religious sect most of the time) and they may be inaccurate or incorrect in their assesment, but the opinions and expressions are still valid.

Also Through Blogging
- writers are made out of ordinary people, not by choice but by American occupation of Iraq in the case of Girl Blog from Iraq
- Like minded people are brought together
- Thoughts, views & opinions can be strongly communicated like Ben Casnocha's blog
- New lessons can be learnt & information can be gathered like this MBA blog and Guy Kawasaki's blog.

I intend to keep blogging reguarly and make my posts short & interesting for you to read and me to write.

Next: Lessons of Back Pain

Bells and Whistles

I started writing my blog some days ago, but haven't written anything meaningful yet. I decided on writing a blog couple of months ago and was sure that whenever I'll start writing a blog, I'll add all the cool stuff to my blog. So some of the cool stuff I added are:

- RSS Syndication using FeedBurner
- Subscription to my blog using FeedBurner
- Search my blog using Freefind
- Created a cloud of my del.icio.us tags
- Created my Blogroll using Blogrolling
- Added Technorati link

I don't think many of the Bells & Whistles I added would be used by anyone..... hey I don't even think my blog would be read by anyone but I'll write it anyways. ;-)

Some of feautes I'm considering adding are:
- Digg
- Del.icio.us
- BlogStreet
- MyBlogLog

So till I start writing meaningful, there are some burning questions & talks going in my mind. Read about Qana massacre in the Israel-Lebanon war.
This week I also came across this amazing, smart and powerful speech of Majora Carter at TED. You can watch it here or download by going to TEDTalks. Find out more about TED here.

Majora Carter makes you think about your role in the society, how the surroundings around you influence your growing up, your attitude in life. How do decisons of some influential policy makers changes life of thousands of non-influential citizens. On the positive note, it also shows how can fight, dedication, involvement of groups like SSB transform the quality of life for South Bronx residents. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2005.

What is your contribution to the society, to your city and its people ?? What are you doing to make this world a better place ??

Next: Objective of my blog