Astrovelo

I continue to do worser and worserer every time I play. Last night, my score was 70. What is my excuse for this time??? Hmmmm…. I was playing against my boss’s boss. So, there was a little added tension/nerves there.

Tulips


When we had a snowstorm a couple of weeks ago, after the tulip bulbs started sprouting, I wasn’t sure if they’ll survive. Contrary to my doubts, all the plants survived and flowered very well.

Completed 35 revolutions around the Sun, today. Thanks to the Earth and my parents for making this possible.

Thanks to many friends for their warm wishes on my birthday.

Happy Mother’s day, Aai

• The most significant achievement came just a few days ago. Ashwini can now jump by herself. She can become airborne for a fraction of a second by lifting both her feet at the same time. They don't go off the floor by more than 2-3 inches but, it is a big deal.
• Her mouth is running constantly through every waking moment. She starts talking as soon as she wakes up and stops when she falls asleep.
• Ashwini is enjoying the spring weather and wants to be outside a lot. Running around on the grass and finding flowers are her favorite activities. She has been helping with the yardwork with her own set of tools. Initially, she didn't want to get her hands dirty, but, now she is getting interested in it. Today, we planted some mustard seeds in her own pot. She wants to water and take care of the pot as the plants sprout and grow. They have similar activities at her daycare too. So, she is very excited about seeing the plants grow and flower.
• Ashwini knows what she wants to eat and starts talking about what she wants for dinner in the car while coming home. She also wants to eat everything by herself. Doesn't like it when we try to feed her. She is very good with forks and spoons, too. Drinks milk with cups and sippy-cups. Bottles have been gone for a couple of months now.
• She is not a fussy eater. Eats almost everything we offer to her. New things that she tried and liked recently are sauted bell peppers (red & yellow) and ice cream. I think Ashwini and I are going to fight over those ice cream pints in the freezer.
• She decides what she wants to wear. She picks her own socks and hairbands to make her ponytails and I can't make her change her decision. She knows all the colors and identifies them properly. She used to get confused between blue and yellow, but not anymore.
• Ashwini can count to ten. She even manages show corrent number of fingers upto 5.
• She is starting to recognise some letters of the alphabet. She spots 'A's everywhere and calls out 'A for Ashwini'. She also knows B, C, E, F and P (for dada Parag). She is showing interest in her alphabet toys lately. So, it is probably a matter of a few weeks before she masters all the letters.
• Ashwini is learning new nursery rhymes. She knows 'Jack and Jill' now. The funny part is that she insists on finishing the last line as... Jill came tumbling after HIM.

Something funny from evening…

Ashwini and V were sitting around and giving kisses. I give you a kiss, you give me a kiss and so on… Ashwini was wearing a shirt with a butterfly on it.

V: Ashwini, can I kiss the butterfly? A: Yeah. (stuck out her belly to show the butterfly) V: (kissed the butterfly) A: (turned around and pointing to her tush) Aai, now kiss this butt.

That was a nice Mother’s day gift. :)

Just finished watching “Winged Migration” on TV. It was just beautiful. Great cinematography. Very little commentary and very few images of human beings in the whole 90 minutes. The astonishingly captured images do all the talking. Highly recommended for people in any age group. I think Ashwini will love this. Am going to order the DVD right now.

Played another round of golf on Wednesday. This time the score was 69. Worse than the first time, but, this part of the course is tougher. One par 5 hole just about killed me and my confidence. I was so shaken that I missed some easy shots on the next two holes. Hope to do better next time around.

One of the prettiest photos of Saturn. Didn’t know that the rings were so thin. The moons in the plane of the ring… it is quite cool.

Finished listening to ‘The Fountainhead’ this morning. I am glad I chose to listen rather than read. I would never have finished a paper copy. I know that many people worship Ayn Rand, her books and her philosophy. If you are one of them, you won’t like my take on it and so, stop reading here.

There are some nice thoughts and concepts in the book, but a lot of Rand philosophy is just bullshit. I agree that nothing gets done in committees, boards and meetings, but, that doesn’t mean that collaboration and co-operation has no place in any original work. Try telling that to Watson or Crick or numerous contributors to the field of Quantum Mechanics, which would not be where it is if it was developed by just one egotist. Maybe, the individuality concept makes sense for art or architecture (which is an art, too), but can’t be generally applied to everything. The way this notion of individuality is extrapolated to every walk of life in the novel, is nonsense. The egotists in the novel are almost like a cult. There are only 5 people in the world who know what is right and evryone else is a horse’s arse. Howard Roark’s attitude about his work is just like Geroge W Bush’s “You are either with us or against us”. Being good at what you do doesnot give you the right be an arrogant jerk. Anyway, this ‘every man is an island’ kind of philosophy is good to read and get influenced by as a teenager, but, in real life it doesn’t work.

The proponents of individualism in the novel, Roark and Wynand (spellings may be wrong as I didn’t read the book), were conveniently without any tangle of relationships. Their parents were killed off at an early age or didn’t contribute to their upbringing. It is also nice for Roark to start off a romantic relationship with a rape and not spend any energy on developing a relationship. When you can save yourself from all the relationship tangles, and not feel indebted to your family or society, then you can be an individual without much concern for the people around you.

I have always believed that I am set for failure in life because my mother loved me, my father wasn’t an abusive drunk and they provided me with a safe and happy home while I was growing up. Only if I didn’t have this relationship tangle with my daughter, wife, parents, other relatives and friends, I could be so successful in life…. just kidding ;)

I would like to see how Roark deals with a two year old’s tantrums or change a diaper with his high and mighty principles and rules.

The third proponent of individualism in the novel, Dominique Francon, had no purpose to her life, other than being a masochistic lover of Roark. One can easily do it if they have a wealthy daddy to take care of them or a string of wealthy husbands to keep them home comfortably.

I do understand that this novel was written during the second world was and there was the big threat of fascism and communism taking over the free world. That is the real villain that the egotists are fighting in this novel.

Overall, I wasn’t too impressed with the book eventhough it is well written. I couldn’t swallow the whole philosophy bit. I’ll wait some time before attempting to read another Rand book.

The walk was on Sunday. It was a beautiful day to be outside. A little chilly but comfortable for walking 2.5 miles briskly. It was a successful event. Judging from the number of cars in the parking lot, there were more than a couple of thousand people at the walk.

My sincere thanks to all friends and family who contributed. I collected $185 from them and after my matching and other employer matchings, the grand total came out to $690. I hope to count on you guys again next year.

Ashwini was happy to be outside after being cooped up in the house for a couple of days because of a fever. For a change, I caught Ashwini’s real smile and not the fake photo smile that she flashes to the camera these days.

V: Ashwini, let’s get ready to go see the doctor. A: nako doctor, aai. V: Do you remember that Dr.X gave you a lollipop last time. A: no Dr. X, aai. go grocery store… buy lollipops, OK???

Played golf after a long long time yesterday. I was substituting someone in the golf league at work. I scored 63. That is better than what Tiger Woods usually scores. The only minute little difference was that I played only 9 holes and he plays 18. ;) That makes my handicap 27. I was better at the short game but sucked with drives. Am planning to play more this season. Let’s see where my handicap ends up by the end of the Summer.

Ashwini tripped and fell while playing at her daycare and got a swollen lip. Her daycare teacher’s comment: “Ashwini looked like Angelina Jolie, today”. The fall wasn’t too bad as the swollen lip was gone by evening and we didn’t get to see it.

Just came back from the opening show of Bruce Springsteen’s concert tour. It was amazing. The name of the tour describes the performance: “solo acoustic”. He was the one man music making machine on the stage with acoustic guitar, harmonica and a piano. He played for 2 and half hours straight without intermission. The show opened with Bruce singing a spooky version of ‘reason to believe’ form Nebraska. He was tapping his foot for rhythm and singing through harmonica mike which made it sound very interesting. That was followed by the title song of the new album, ‘Devils & Dust’. He was promoting this new album that will be released tomorrow and he talked about most of the songs that he played from this new album. That personal conversation made it a better experience overall. If he is performing in your area, don’t miss it if you like Bruce Springsteen. It was one of the best concerts we have ever been to.

sampada asked for this, so here it is….

1. Total amount of music files on your computer:

   On my iPod, I have 955 songs taking up 8-9 GB. But, I haven’t converted all of my 300+ CDs into mp3’s yet. The following is a breakup for my CDs…

   Jazz, Blues, Western Classical and Rock/Pop: 60% Hindusthani Classical: 25% Marathi: 10% Hindi movie songs: 3% Others: 2%

2. The last CD you bought was:

   Bob Dylan Live 1964

3. What is the song you last listened to before reading this message?

   Friend of the Devil - Grateful Dead

4. Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you. (Of Late)
   • Pasaydaan, Written by Sant Dyaneshwar, sung by Lata Mangeshkar. It describes the perfect world that we should strive to build.
   • Take Five by Dave Brubeck Quartet: One of the coolest Jazz recordings.
   • My Back Pages by Bob Dylan:

     but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.

   • Shine on, you Crazy Diamond Parts I-VIII by Pink Floyd
   • Rangeela Re by Babydoll. Initially, I thought it was just the videos that were 'nice', but, I like to listen to the whole Babydoll vol.2 album.

   It is very unfair to stop here and keep this list short with only 5 items. But, I’ll respect the parameters set by the query.

5. Who are you going to pass this stick to? (3 persons) and why?

   canyoncat: Would like to know what music he listens to. arunshanbhag: Ditto. diffdrummer: Ditto. on9thheaven: Ditto.

• Bonny Doon Vineyards; Pacific Rim dry Riesling: Very smooth and refreshing. Perfect compliment for Indian or any spicy food. Bought for $9.99.
• Muscat grapes from Whole Foods. These are tiny little yellowish green colored grapes. Just filled with sugar. Sweetest grapes ever.
• Spanish Date and Walnut cake from Whole Foods. It is just dates and walnuts pressed together. Very yummy.

After two weeks of Spring/Summer weather, Winter is back again I knew it was too early to get so warm. Since yesterday, we have freezing rain and snow to go along with the cold temperatures and fierce winds. Here is a Dogwood tree getting pelted with the rain/snow mix. The newly sprouted leaves look so delicate and fresh. Hope they will survive this Winter onslaught. We are supposed to get 5 inches of accumulated snow. Brrrr…

eBay item 5574030908 (Ends Apr-26-05 11:25:58 PDT) - OFFICIAL HOLY PAN THAT MADE THE GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH

A few months ago, a 10-year old grilled cheese sandwich made big news. Virgin Mary appeared on that sandwich as it was made. The sandwich hasn’t gone bad in all these years beacause of the power of blessing of Virgin Mary or it says something about the power of chemicals put in Wonder Bread and Kraft sliced cheese-like-substance. It was sold on eBay for thousands of dollars, bought by a gambling company called Goldenpalace.com. Now, here is an opportunity to buy the holy pan that made this sandwich.

Here is a hot tip… I am telling you all, just because you are my friends. If you know how to make grilled cheese sandwiches, this could change your life. It could be the greatest money-making opportunity ever. You can make a lot of Virgin Mary sandwiches and sell each of them for thousands of dollars. Do you get it? Isn’t that great? Thank me after you make your first million.