Merry Christmas

Heres wishing everyone a happy and cheerful christmas. Christmas over here reminds me of Diwali in India. The glowing stars in every household, the ligthted trees, the shopping spree, jam packed traffic, crowded airports and train stations, those yummy sweets and chocolates. The only difference is the enormous noise of crackers thats missing here :). As the year comes to an end I will put down a few points about how the year went by for me.

Self-improvement: Learnt to be more patient and listen to people before bieng judgemental. Experienced one of the most blissful moments of meditation in Hornaadu temple. Learnt that having negative feelings towards someone/something will actually have its delirious effect (this realization literally shattered me and thereby bringing in more compassion).

Fitness: Was pretty much regular at the gym but for the travelling and managed to gain considerable strength ( am no hulk hogan though ).

Travel: Travelled to a lot of places within India and in the US. Fulfilled my dream to visit Wayanad, Alaska and Montana.

Career: Switched 2 jobs from a US multinational to a desi bodyshopper, moved to US as a contractor and again switched to a fulltime position in another US multinational This was more like a dream job for me ( bieng in customer support ) and today feels good to be the primary support/deployment manager for one of our largest customers.

Photography: Was satisfied with my progress in photography, learnt to shoot appropriately in low light and got introduced to landscape techniques. Could manage some decent shots. However I could'nt satisfy my craving for the Nikon D70 owing to financial situations.

Finance: Realized the importance of money in a foriegn land and knowingly or unknowingly landed into one of the worst ever financial crisis of my life. Breaking the contract with my desi consultant cost me a month's salary and relocation to the bay area from Boston turned out to be a rather expensive affair than I had imagined.

Thats pretty much it, we are having a week's shutdown and mostly will be heading to the grand canyon/las vegas region for the new year. U guys have fun, party and have a blast. Adios

Sunset over Salt lake, Utah

As I was flying over salt lake city, Utah noticed this magnificient sunset and fortunately had my camera handy just in time to take this snap.A little information about Utah. It is supposed to have the best powder snow and some of the world's best ski resorts. So any die hard ski or snowboard folks, mark Utah on your winter travel list.

Sunset in Billings, Montana

Montana, also called the 'Big Sky' is probably one of the largest states in the US. At the same time it is one of the least populated. The land is totally flat, dry and the sky is visible like in no other place. A stargazer's paradise I should say. However during this season, its unusually cloudy and on one such evenings, driving by the I90 took this snap, and liked it a lot for the rare color combinations of the dark clouds and the red sunlight.

Bhopal Gas TRAGEDY : 20 Years Later

The first time I read about the tragedy on the greenpeace website, I literally had tears in my eyes. Reading about the way the children died, their sufferings, the psychological impacts, it was heart breaking. It took me 2 - 3 days to recover and in that duration, my mind was filled with hatred for the DOW Chemicals Co. The company which even to this date, does not claim responsibility for the tragedy and instead has tried suing the victims. What hurts me more is the way the Indian government handled the situation. People who were affected mostly lived below the poverty line, they could'nt afford a day's meal. Such people had to spend thousands on medicines. Still, the government refused to pay them compensation. The victims were asked to prove that they were affected by the tragedy. PROOF, how ridiculous. The whole world knows the effects and the aftermath of the tragedy. Even to this date, the ground water is polluted, women have miscarriages, kids are born with deformities. Still, the government wants PROOF. The kids who are born with deformities have been very earnestly categorized as ''gas kand ke bacchche' or 'carbide children'. Whoever coined this term is worthy of a standing applause.
So 20 years later, people are still fighting for their compensations, activists all around the world are trying to bring justice and force DOW to accept its mistakes and stop such actions from occuring in future. Greenpeace has a provision for writing emails to the DOW execs asking them to realize their mistakes, and I somehow could'nt resist writing a strong letter to the company. Though the letter may never reach the DOW execs of even if it reaches, could end up in the 'Deleted Items' folder without bieng read, it gave me some satisfaction, that I had taken some step which may help in bringing justice to the thousands of affected people.