Ski Day

Aayush and i spent a great day at kelso - approx 6 hrs with about 30 runs. What a day!!

Eventually Feels Like Canada, again

We woke up this morning to a white pristine world of freshly fallen snow. I instinctly reached for my camera and we went for a short walk. The world seemed an amazingly beautiful place... We just need to respect and preserve what we have.The snow was still falling and as we walked I thought to myself, how blessed we were to be able to experience this day.

Happy New Year - 2011

Here is wishing everyone a Happy New Year.

May the next year be everything that you ever wished for and more....

See you all in 2011


BTW: I clicked this at Times Square a couple days back-- missed the ball drop by a few days :)

The Glass Castle

Just finished the Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. An inspiring true story that tells you that no matter how bad your situation is , there is always a way forward. The pic above is from Jeanette's second book - Half Broke Horses(which i have not read)but i think the cover is more appropriate to the Glass Castle. Jeanette is the one with the cat in her arms in the pic above.

Four kids grow up in abject poverty in Welch, a coal mining town in WV. Their survival instincts and dreams of getting on in life get them to "parent" their parents and push them for a better life. When all attempts fail , one by one the kids make their way out of Welch to find a niche for themselves in the world.

Most of us donot realize that the mere fact that we are sitting in a heated house today is something that raises us to a level that many ( i wont put a % to it as i dont know the %) in the world do not have. There is so much to be thankful for in our lives. Highly recommend reading...

Kenya Nov-Dec 2011

Jumbo everyone. ( That is the Sawhali word for greetings) We made a trip to Kenya this winter and clicked this at the Thompson Falls on the outskirts of Nairobi. This is where the fabled Olympic Kenyan runners practice.. infact we did catch a glimpse of them jogging past in the distance while I was running to find a washroom ( I have a future - would'nt you agree)?



& that is the Thompson Falls.. its not going to solve the worlds energy problems but it was a pretty sight.. bad camera NOT bad photoghrapher.



I needed a typical African picture - acacia trees, Giraffes, and the undulating african savanah streatching away to the horizon-- well i almost got all of it -- almost





We crossed the equator too a couple times and got educated on a curious phenomenon-- In the northern hemisphere, water draining vertically downwards from a vessel drains with a clockwise circular motion and anti clockwise in the southern hemisphere. Dont tell me you knew this - we were never taught this AT ALL, right through grade school



We hobnobbed with the cheetah's



rode an ostrich



Fed a Kelly the Giraffe.

Incidently these Rothschild giraffes live in the backyard of a Kenyan resident. there are only approx 600 of these beauties left and this guy had 9 of them



.. and danced with the Masai

any one wants to see more pics???

A Walk through Eden Woods Park

This afternoon I took a walk through Eden Woods, the park opposite our home. Soft snow fell , the ground was untrodden below me and with Robert Pirsig's famous "Zen & the art..." in my ears, it was what some people call -- 'living the moment'

Will it be a Do-it-Yourself World?

Today if you want to do your plumbling or put up a shower door, where do you go? In earlier times you went to the yellow pages and called a tradesman. Today you go to Youtube or Home Depot, get the knowhow and attempt it with a fair degree of confidence. If you need technical help in an enginerring or a High School subject , you go to Khan Academy and get upto speed while Salman Khan ( The man behind Khan Academy) doodles you out of your confusion. I had mentally accepted this style of education and jested with my friends that I was Youtube educated but i was not prepared for what I saw in a Staples store today ( pic above)

If DIY books exist on seperation and Divorce , it truly reflects how volatile our relationships are becoming. This ties in well with what i had been reading about communities who inhabit the Canadian Northern provinces. As the ice cap recedes due to Global warming, the Innuit men stay back at home as they wait for the ice to thicken on the waterways before they venture out to hunt. As they stay home longer, frustration seems to rise and it gets directed at the family. Obviously relationships get strained. Did you ever have an inkling that Global Warming could have this kinda side effect? We all have heard that rise in sea levels could make islands like Maldives disappear, but this was a new one.

Have you ever wondered what life would be like in the future. Could it get even more modular? Say for example, your car stalls. The message on the dash says " Fuel pump faulty" . You go to the auto store , pick up the right part and the installation direction walks you through the install process. I think the Swedish furniture chain, Ikea started this with their DIY furniture. Suddenly there was an explosion in the consumer market place as goods started being sold in a semi ready state. Not only that ...If you need to file your taxes, a software wizard speeds you through the process. Furniture, electricals, house repair, gardening ... are all DIY now a days & I suspect it will get even more of a DIY world as the world tightens its belt as a result of the last recession. Then where does this leave all our specialist. Will they disappear? I suspect we will still need them but only for the really heavy stuff... surgery ( I doubt you can do a heart by-pass as a DIY) , car engine repair, complex litigation and so on.

For those of you who would like to get initiated to this new world , i suggest you go get yourself a tool kit today but try and stay away from the books in the pic above.

PS:Talking of a DIY world ... some of you may recollect years back , taking apart our mobikes and then while attempting to put it back, we seemed to have an unreasonable number of spare parts left over. The mechanic who was called to "fix it" went to work with a smug grin on his face-- a grin we would have loved to wipe off his face with a shiner to his nose.