Astrovelo

Thanks for all your suggestions, but in the end we decided that eating Japanese food peacefully was better than any movie we could watch in the theater. Went to Yotsuba, our favorite Japanese place. The waitresses know us there. It feels good to be recognized and get special treatment at a restaurant. Tried a new sake, Yamadanishiki. It was quite good. V had her usual plum wine. We had tempura and 5 sushi rolls. It was a little too much for two of us but we finished it all. This was follwed with a nice nap before we picked up Ashwini. Overall, it was a nice Friday afternoon. No more half day Fridays till next June.

Just came back from a live concert by the sitar maestro, Pt. Ravi Shankar. It was awesome. It was a great experience to listen to him play live and be in the presence of such a legendary genius. The venue was Hill Auditorium on the University of Michigan campus - supposedly an acoustically perfect auditorium. He played three compositions. The first one was ‘Jansammohini’ which we listened to in the foyer. It was followed by Raag Maarubihag. After the intermission, he played Raag Maj-khamaj that was mixed with many other Raags (my untrained ear could pick Raag Megh and Raag Yaman in the medley) and folk tunes. He experimented with different taals in that composition too. It was very well done. He plays with such fluency. Doesn’t seem like he is even thinking about what he is playing, it just flows. I couldn’t believe that he was playing that for over an hour. Time seemed to just fly away. The whole concert without counting the intermission was more than 2 hours and 15 minutes. He seemed very fit for a 84 year old man. Many of us can’t even sit in one position for more than 2 hours.

By the time we got Ashwini settled with her babysitter, battled with traffic and found parking, we were late by 15 minutes. The organisers had stopped latecomers from entering the auditorium and we had to wait outside till the first Raag was completed. I think that is a very good idea. People arriving late always disturb the performer as well as the audience. This policy should be implemented everywhere. I know they do it at most classical music concerts in US. Ashwini was asleep by the time we came home. She was happy with the babysitter; there were no problems. We should do this more often.

Check this out… If it is true, you know whose side the God is on!

Path of hurricanes through Florida.

As we officially move from  Summer into Fall, our ‘Summer hours’ at work come to end this week. From June through September, we were working one extra hour from Monday to Thursday, to take half days on Friday. V and I took these opportunities to watch a couple of movies and to eat out peacefully while Ashwini stayed in daycare.

Tomorrow is our last chance to watch a movie. Could anyone please suggest ‘must-see on big screen’ summer movies that are still playing in theaters?

FYI:  Today (Sept 22nd) is the Autumnal Equinox. The day and night are exactly 12 hours each. Also, the Sun rises and sets at true east and west, respectively.

• This is officially the first day of fall season.
• Looking forward to some crisp cool nights (perfect for taking the telescope out), fall colors, enjoying hot coffee on cool foggy mornings and apple picking.
• It also means that a lot of yard work to rake leaves is in the near future.

This year, it was challenging to get all the cooking and Ganesh Chaturthi Pooja done properly with Ashwini trying to ‘help’ us in every aspect of it. While I took care of Ashwini, V managed to cook varan-bhaat, gavaar-potato bhaaji, chavali (black-eyed peas) usal and best of all ‘ukadiche modak’. We strapped Ashwini in her high-chair while I did the pooja and it seemed like she enjoyed watching it. Then, she kept doing ‘bappa moraya’ everytime she went into the room. Hopefully, she will understand more and be more involved next year when ‘Ganpati bappa’ comes back.

I am helping the American Heart Association fight the nation’s leading causes of death by participating in the American Heart Walk on October 2nd in Ann Arbor, MI. I am sure many of you have been personally affected by friends and relatives suffering from heart disease. Step out against heart disease and stroke by supporting my efforts to raise money and awareness. Please visit my walker site and make a donation if you wish.

If you want to participate in a Heart Walk in your area, find more information about it here.

Thank you for your support!

• MTR is amazing. On Sunday, I made vada and rassam with MTR ready mix and it was just fabulous. I am still licking my fingers. Should try more MTR ready mixes.

• Finished our last bottle of ‘2001 Rosemount Estates Shiraz’
  
  . It was good but not as good as the 2000, which got us hooked onto shirazes. If anyone can still find a 2001 in some remote wine store, give it a try. We must have had 3-4 cases of this wine in the last couple of years. It is on its way down but still good. 2002 wine from the same makers was pretty bad. Haven’t tried the 2003 yet, hope it is good.

We have this huge window above the front door of the house. Birds often mistake it as open space and fly into it with their head first. I have been confronted with at least one dead bird on our doorstep every summer.

I am planning to attend a conference in Hyderabad, India in January 2005. There is a website set-up for information about the conference and they have contracted out registration and accomodation arrangements to Travel Corporation of India (TCI). I am just appalled at the poor quality of web-page design and disgusted with the general service provided by TCI.

I used to be very proud of India’s status as an IT powerhouse in the world. Not any more!!! As an amateur web designer, I could have done a better job at creating and maintaining this website.

via Patrix

• Ashwini is learning a lot of Marathi words along with English. These days she says 'nako' instead of 'no'.
• I was teaching her all body parts in Marathi... naak (nose), dole (eyes), kaan (ears), kes (hair), etc... I don't think she understands those yet. I was saying 'kes, kes' and pointing to my hair, she kept looking at me and finally came close and gave me a kiss. That was just precious.

Capriati moved into the semi-finals of the US Open Tennis tournament. It was a great 3 set match with ups and downs for both players. But, 4 calls went against Serena in the last set. All of those were clear mistakes by the linespersons and the chair judge. I am sure Serena is going to fume about it in the press.

Here is Ashwini's monthly progress report
• The biggest change in Ashwini over the last month is her efforts at talking. She has turned into a parrot. Anything we say is promptly repeated by her. We really have to watch what we say. She can also make up 2 or 3 word phrases now.
• I am not sure if she really understands it, but, she has started using possesives. If we try to take something away from her (usually shoes), she goes 'my shoes, my shoes' and sometimes 'my shwiwi shoes'. That middle word means Ashwini. As if saying 'my' and her name together makes that thing 'more' her's.
• Ashwini has discovered the 'trash can'. Wants to throw things in there. It is a good thing to keep her busy. She likes it when we give her some trash to throw in there. We have to keep an eye on her though to avoid losing remote controls and cellphones in the trash.
• She still likes to read books, but she also likes to play around more these days. I am sure she will go through cycles of reading and playing with toys.
• Likes her fruits and veggies. We don't have to worry about getting those 5 servings in her every day. Her most favorite veggies are cauliflower and green beans. She likes them steamed with a little butter and salt. Her obsession with blueberries is over. Till last week she used to eat them by dozens, and now, she doesn't even want to touch one. The blueberry season is also almost over. Hopefully, she'll eat them again next year. Current favorite fruit is grapes, green and red.
• Ashwini has 7 teeth now and eighth one is almost out. She likes it when we brush her teeth with her toothbrush.
• Ashwini is becoming an expert at climbing the stairs. She still hasn't mastered coming down, but, we have to use a gate on the stairs these days, as she tries go up on her own.
• Doesn't sleep through the night like she used to till 2-3 months ago.
• During the last month, we found out that Ashwini is allergic to nuts along with green peas. So, no more nuts in the house till we figure out exactly which nuts she can't have.

Ashwini is now foreign-returned. She successfully made a trip to Canada to visit the African Lion Safari near Hamilton, Ontario. It is about 1 hour west of Toronto. The safari trail is about 5 miles long and winds through hundreds of acres of open space with about 1000 wild animals. Don’t know how much Ashwini liked it, but, her parents enjoyed the trip very much. We went for a second round on the safari trail after Ashwini fell asleep for her afternoon nap.

It is a neat concept. Unlike other zoos, the animals roam in the open and people are caged inside their cars or buses. The animals walk-by and come very close to the cars giving people a unique view of them. Don’t know what I had on my car, but, a giraffe and a deer were very interested in licking it. A monkey jumped on the passenger side mirror asking for food. Even though there are signs forbidding people from feeding the animals, many people were doing it and that made the monkeys jump on all the cars in search for crackers, chips etc. They have the staff in pickup trucks keeping the lions, tigers and rhinos away from people’s car, but, they let other animals roam close to the cars. Ashwini was enjoying the view and looking at all the animals till the time when a deer came very close to her window and looked at her from less than a foot. Hope that didn’t scare Ashwini off all the animals. She has been a little apprehensive of the neighbour’s cat who comes by our window every day.

We took more than 200 photos during the day at the safari, here are a few representative shots… Click on the thumbnails to see the bigger version

Ashwini strolling in the garden

Here is one of the coolest optical illusions that I have ever seen. It comes from Dr. Edward Adleson of MIT. There are more illusions on his website.

The squares named ‘A’ and ‘B’ are of the same color.

The grey bars in the picture are of the same color. It is obvious from the places where the bars overlap with the squares ‘A’ and ‘B’, that the squares and the bars are of the identical shade of grey. If you still don’t believe this, download the image, open it with your favorite image processing software and check the values for the color properties that the software shows. They are the same: ‘120, 120, 120’.

Via Prashant Mullick

Volkswagen Jetta! According to Tom and Ray Magliozzi of Car Talk, a NPR show that is wildly funny and yet full of useful information.

I have been driving a Jetta since 1996 and haven’t had any accident or even a speeding ticket while driving it. Does it say something about my good driving skills or is it my timid approach to driving a car that can be driven recklessly? I wonder why other cars move out of the way when I come up behind them…

Lunar Farside from Apollo 11. The far side of the Moon is rough and filled with craters. By comparison, the near side of the Moon (the side we always see) is relatively smooth. The large crater is Daedalus. It spans about 93 kilometers (58 miles) and was photographed by the crew of Apollo 11 as they circled the Moon in 1969. NASA Photo, reference AS11-44-6611. Note that the diameter given on the web reference below (30 km) is wrong. CREDIT: Apollo 11 Crew, NASA . SOURCE: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030312.html COPYRIGHT: “NASA images generally are not copyrighted. You may use NASA imagery, video and audio material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits and Internet Web pages.”

PREPARED BY Scott Sandlin in March 2004.

It is interesting that the far side of Moon is rougher and has more craters. But, if you think about it, it makes sense. The period for rotation around its own axis and around Earth is almost identical for Moon. That is why we never see the far side of Moon from Earth. The near side of the moon is always facing the earth and hence shielded from asteroids.

The photo and information about it is taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This is a great online resource. Check it out if you haven’t heard about it already.