Reverberations

Another year rolled by. If I look back, I have been a very lazy creature the past year. I try to learn something new every year and I have missed the past 2-3 years. I neither achieved my goals, nor enjoyed crazily to counter. So basically, I’ve let a year fly by when I was off guard. Luckily it didn’t create a dent or disaster. A week of vacation made me realize that and I hope to stay on guard forever.

During that fly-by, I happened to glance at a few interesting people and make some friends too. Some became an inspiration to me just during that glance. I will duly credit them when I succeed in my first step.

I have two things that I must do this year. I am starting out with a great determination, I hope to have this all through this year. I will be happy  even if I achieve 80% of these two. One, get in touch with most of my friends. We, well I have been following the same college stlye friendship of guys. We don’t talk much, meet much, call/text much, yet be there when needed, make every hangout, every email, every call as fun as possible. I think all of us have grown a little older and have to keep in touch to avoid the chores of our family lives swallow us. Next, I have keep my vigil on time and welcome everyday of this year. That will get me closer to my productivity bar.

Happy New Year everybody and my best wishes to succeed in all your goals this year.

After about hundred or so movies in a couple years, I was totally blown away by this movie. James Cameron has showed why he is one of the greatest director of all time. If you want to do justice to the movie, go watch it in IMAX-3D and please don’t complain about the story. This is one of those movies that assert loudly that a movie is not just a story. There are so many aspects from a variety of perspectives that make a great movie. You can apprieciate almost everything except for the story. Besides the normal storyline, this movie distances itself from all others and redefines excellency.

All I can say is, “Hats off Mr. Cameron. I’m blown away. Wish I could get my space in pandora”. I am not hinting anything about the story. Go, get donned in 3D glasses and let the movie gobble you up. You’ll never regret.

Not just in the world of movies, even in the technology space I esteem Mr. Cameron. If you find time, watch movies my Mr. Cameron and keep the timeline in your mind. This guy has been directing/producing movies that bring technological breakthroughs for the past 2 decades. This movie uses a fusion camera system that he co-developed.

Trust seems to be the most difficult thing on earth, but they say the world runs on trust. You never know whom to trust and when to trust. It takes a very long time to get someone’s trust, yet you don’t know that if that someone really trusts you….

Well no wonder world is too complex…

Recently, I realized…If you don’t know if a person trusts you…most likely they don’t. Just follow your instincts.

I have always had trouble connecting to google talk from my pidgin in a XP machine. Finally I got it working, so I thought of posting it here as a reference and help for others.

Yaani, that name takes me to my college days. His name hasn’t been in our conversations for several years and all of a sudden I get a mail from a friend of mine saying “Yanni is playing in town tomorrow. Are you interested?”. Of course I was interested but wasn’t sure if my wife would like. Somehow I thought she called his music as airplane music but a few emails back and forth and I discovered that she likes Yanni too…apparently Kenny G happened to be her airplane guy

It was a warm Saturday evening and we headed out for the concert. After some of my usual clumsiness, we were headed to our seats. The concert started 20 mins late, but it was a jaw dropping start. Never listened to Yaani live before…this was a meticulous mix of music, art and technology. Though I couldn’t understand most of the songs, I just enjoyed the music. His violinists were just unbelievable. I loved their solo stints during at various times during concert. Almost towards the end of the concert, someone from Peru in Yaani’s troop played harp. That was the first time I’ve seen someone play harp, but that brought back some memories of instruments I’ve seen in Poompuhar museum (near Tanjore).

Ancient Tamils represented stringed instruments as Yazh(யாழ்). There were may varieties of Yazh and I remembered seeing something similar to harp. So did some research on internet (this time on bing, not on google) and found that my recollection was indeed correct. Here is some information about Yazh in Tamil culture.

And, the concert ended with a nice piece of music named storm. Yes we were stormed by music for few hours in concert and for a few hours after that.

Everyone  needs some one to look up to, some one to lean on, some hand to hold on during the journey of life. For me, all the way since I was a kid, it has been my dad. I have looked up to him for several things in life. He has been there for me in every way possible. Every time I fall through cracks of life (I’ve fallen several times), his hand was right there where I needed, steady and strong to lift me up.

Thank you so much for all you’ve done Appa…Happy Fathers Day!!!

It was Thanksgiving Day and we knew all the shops will be closed, so we forgo our breakfast and instead had some breakfast bars that we got along. It was also time for our Air Tour.

We were picked up at our resort and taken to the Air Kauai’s Front Office, given our instructions and some kind of belt. It was absolutely amazing, we took off quietly. As we flew over the island, we recognized the places that we went to and recalled their names. It was really good to get an aerial view of the island. We were taken to waterfalls where they shot Jurassic Park and locations were King Kong was filmed. And the best was yet to come. Last on the agenda for the Air Tour was flying over Napali Coast. It was absolutely stunning. The ridges, the thick forests and the multi-hued shades of pristine blue coast were a real sight to watch.
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Day 4 was when we had to do the ATV Tour, since we booked for the first tour of the day; we had to show up early. After registration and quick briefing, we drove to the actual site of the tour. Keoki and Dan were our guides; they gave us instructions and some general insights on the tour. After a quick change of really loose clothing, we got into the mudbug.

It was real fun to go deep into the forest and venture into the unknown. We stopped first at a small waterfall, took some pictures, cleaned up a bit before getting messier even more. We drove all through and stopped at a bigger waterfalls for lunch, while Ramesh and others decided to take a plunge in the cold water, I opted to just watch them even though others insisted that its fun. After lunch, we were heading back to the shed and we stopped at an area where several films were shot and most important of them all was “The Jurassic Park”. Our guide had a toy dinosaur and made us all pose as though we were chased by a huge Dino and we enjoyed teasing others on their pose and of course we had our turn too. The guide and the group with whom we drove along was real fun. Never been covered up with so much mud and dirt ever in my life. After a really long shower, we decided to head out and visit Kilaeu Lighthouse.
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Day 3 was really long for us. We woke up pretty early and decided to go for walk along the miles and miles of beach at our resort. We asked a hotel employee on where locals prefer to have breakfast and he suggested “Eggberts” which was very close to where we stayed. After a hearty breakfast, we got ready for our Helicopter Tour. While waiting at the lobby, Air Tour personnel said owing to some repair they canceled the tour for the day and managed to accommodate us on a later date.

Now with Air Tour plan cancelled, we started looking to do other activities in our 100 Fun things to do in Kauai. So cycling it was. With my poor balancing skills and several bruises that I acquired while learning to ride cycle; I managed to talk Ramesh into getting 2 seat tandem bicycle. It was real fun as we drove along the Coconut Coast enjoying the pleasant breeze and of course plenty of sunshine. We were done soon leaving us to wonder what to do next, so we decided to roam around aimlessly with no clear agenda and decided to stop where ever we wanted and exploring the island more. We drove North, stopped at Princeville for some hot coffee for me (Yeh I know I am weird - hot coffee in hot weather) while Ramesh ate ice cream at Lappert’s.
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We woke up to a pleasant morning with Sun playing peek-a-boo with the Clouds and roaring sound of the waves only to be disturbed with occasional crowing of the roosters spread across the Resort. We quickly decided to go to Waimea Canyon and visiting anything that lies along our path.

We took the Train Ride at the supposedly famous Kilohana Plantation. Ramesh, the avid agriculturist, wanted to see the farm and info collected from various websites left him with high expectations. We went through areas which were neatly planted with tropical fruits that gave a feeling of drive around rural India. The star event of the ride was to feed animals - pigs and sheep’s to be exact. I am not very fond of animals so decided to stay put in my seat. After a good 45mins, the tour ended much to my relief.
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