Sandhya's Trip to India -- Grandfather passes away

Sandhya's Trip to India -- her grandfather

Sandhya's Trip to India (Only T'Halli Stuff)

Sandhya's Trip to India (Only T'Halli Stuff)

Seattle Apartment

My first posting for the year 2006. I have not posted anything in a long time because I have been very busy at work as well as at home! Here are pictures of the Apartment we stayed in before moving into rented digs at Issaquah.

Rekha and Prashant at Seattle during Christmas 2005

Rekha and Prashant at Seattle during Christmas 2005

Rekha and Prashant at Seattle during Christmas 2005 -- Space Needle

The 'Muslim' Issue

Came across this article
in the Wall Street Journal on the Problems in Europe. After all, it's been about 7 consecutive days since there have been riots by the muslims in Paris (as of today--Nov 2, 2005). Some are asking if this is a second infitada by Muslims in Europe?

2 weeks in Seattle, now

It's been a little over 2 weeks in Seattle now. I am slowly settling down. Sandhya was over here during the weekend. We went house hunting, or rather, apartment/rental hunting.

I had already started looking at homes before Sandhya came over and had started negotiations for a home in Bellevue (located in what's called the Eastside in the Seattle area). This was a home near the Factoria Mall, south of highway 90 and east of highway 405.

We started out quite leasurely on Saturday morning. By the time we got out, it was 11'ish in the morning. We first drove over to "Downtown Seattle" and then to where the office building where I work (in China town--sorry, International district). Sandhya wasn't super impressed. She made a striking remark. She said there were no people, for a downtown! I said, yeah, you're right! There were actually not too many people downtown (Eventually, the two of us came to the conclusion that it was like a town that was abandoned because of some strange event).

Anyway, I showed her the Condo that I was thinking of renting. She was Ok with that. I said I liked it because Smokey would be able to go out (and beat up the competition, of course). She agreed that it was a good idea to allow him to do so. Anyway, I always think of how to accomodate the little rascal (otherwise his whining will drive me up the wall).

Bu this time it was around 12:30 in the afternoon. I was getting a bit hungry. We decided to go inside the Factoria Mall. In the parking lot there were lots and lots of cars, and we had a hard time finding parking. Naturally, we thought the Mall would be chock full of people! Visions of the Great Mall in Milpitas, CA were swimming around in my head. I was ready to start complaining bitterly about too many people, etc, etc.

But surprise, surprise! There were not nearly as many people as we thought there should have been, given the lack of parking in the lot. In any case, we went up and down the Mall (which took us a total of 20 milliseconds -- of course, I'm joking, it was more like 10 min).

We headed out to the Japanese place, where I had the Sushi Combo. Sandhya had some Udon something or the other. Good food. Would be worth trying again.

Then we decided to drive on to a place in the middle of nowhere--Issaquah--where there is an Avalon community. Nice place, quiet, with a good view of the Cascade Mountains. We got there, had a look at the apartment. Seemed like a nice place. I called April (my agent for the Factoria home) and told her I had the possibilty of renting a better apartment for a lower rent. She said I should go ahead, because her contact hadn't responded with any responses. I took an abrupt decision (without actualy asking Sandhya if it was Ok--dunno why) to take the Avalon apartment. Smokey will be happy. Lots of country side and not too much competition. A Montrea/California "Goonda" like him is likely to become the Lord of the area!

We forgot to take my Camera. I'll post pictures later when I go over there over the week end to get the Keys.

Seattle pictures

A walk through the First Hill Area of Seattle

The Seattle Library

First week in Seattle

A very hectic and interesting first week. It's been a long, long time since I have lived on my own. Sandhya has been doing everything for me for God knows how long (except for that brief period in 2000 when I had to go alone to California).

First of all, I was right. Parking is going to be a huge deal. They are giving us free parking for the first week at the ParkMed building up on a hill on 12 street South. From there I have to take a shuttle to the office on 5th & Weller. Again more novelty for me. Me taking a shuttle. I would once have shuddered at the thought. The fact that it does not bother me shows how motivated I am!

I was given a couple of days to get my feet wet. But by the end of week I have started serious work. Can't say more because it is all confidential.

The office downtown is nice. I did interview there, so it wasn't much of a surprise. There's a Starbucks nearby and aroma of coffee is nice early in the morning. There are lots of eating places in the vicinity. But I have picked up some lunch from Safeway. But most people seem to go out to eat.

Weatherwise the first couple of days were overcast. But the week ended with sunny days. I am even feeling optimistic that flying is possible.

I'd say I'm off to a reasonably good start.

Seattle -- first impressions

The QWest Arena

The office building where I work

A new beginning (cont'd)

They got us into the plane on time. As my luck would have it I got the middle seat. Looks like whenever we get cheap tickets, say through orbix or something like that, we always get the worst possible seat allocation.

The plane landed on time. So far so good. But it took for ever to get my baggage. Just when I beginning to fear that my baggage was lost, there it was. I went to the Avis rental counter and everything went off well till, that is, I turned on the ignition. No gas! Went back to the counter to get another car. The girl at the counter actually apologized for this mix-up. This was a novel experience. Although rental car mixups happen more often than not, people apologizing for their mess-ups is rare indeed.

Then I started on the drive to the key pickup place. I discovered that this was right in the middle of downtown. This meant that there was no parking. So I went round and round trying to find parking. I kept thinking why are they asking people to pickup keys from locations where they can't park? I finally found public parking at $5. I thought it was outrageous that I had to pay so much for parking. Remember I was used to free parking in the Bay Area!

When I got to the apartment complex, it was a pleasant suprise to see a nicely furnished apartment with a reasonably well equipped kitchen. For someone who was going to live off TV dinners, this was more than adequate.

But it looks like Parking is going to be a big deal all in all.

A new beginning (again)

Well, here I go again. The nomad in me can't sit still and wants to go places. Today is the day I go on to Seattle to join Amazon (Sandhya will follow in November after she wraps a few things at her office in South City).

The flight was scheduled for a departure time of 12:45 p.m. which means (I thought) we should leave for the airport at 11:00a.m. at the latest. We did leave at 11:00a.m., but realized that I had forgotten to get my leather jacket. So we had to head back home to pick up the jacket. This meant a loss of ten minutes from the schedule. I could feel myself becoming a bit antsy (you guys know I am paranoid about keeping time).

When we got to the airport, it was 11:30a.m. (or so). I was flying United and so we went to the United counter. There I saw a placard that said that e-ticket check-ins would close 45 minutes before departure time. This of course had the effect of racheting up my anxiousness level! Oh, by the way, I think I was quite artful in hiding my anxiety from Sandhya (I can hear her say 'Yeah, right').

Has anyone noticed that the check-in counters are all self-serve now?

Anyway, we got into what was a suspiciously short line. Turns out it was the line for oversized luggage that needed to be checked in. Sandhya said that this didn't look right. We looked around and she suggested we go to the other line where there was a long line-up. This was indeed the correct queue.

And it was a very long line. It was now around 11:40 and I was starting to get worried. There must have been about 50 people ahead of us in the line. But to United's credit, I must say they had lots of self-serve counters open. The only problem was people in the line seemed to think that they should only go to the counter nearest to the head of the line. Unbelievable, but true. So there I was, eagerly eyeing all these vacant counters and seriously considering doing the 'Indian' thing by rushing to the counter to check in, like a 'Walla' (after all, all those years of travel by Indian Railways must mean something), so high was my anxiety level.

Naturally I was muttering in what I thought was a low tone (but Sandhya could here it) that the line was full of incompentent idiots who couldn't recognize a self-serve counter if it hit them in the eye.

But it turned out there were more smart ones than idiots so we were able to get to a self-serve counter and check me in.

It was now aleady 11:50a.m., so I decided I should go through security right away. Guess what? There was this super slow guy in front of me who filled up the trays with his belongings (very, ..., very slowly) and then promptly forgot to take his baggage with him! This right away rang alarm bells in my head and I tell the security gal that there is this abandoned bag in the security area. It takes her a while to realize that it is actually an abandonned (or forgotten bag--although how anyone can forget a bag is beyond me--even I couldn't do that). The funny thing is she comes to me and asks me if it was my bag! I said no! She then go backwards asking all those people behind me if it is their bag. What incompetence.

The next part will be continued in part II.

Battle of Mosul, Iraq

Absolutely fascinating account of the battle of Mosul, by Michael Yon. What an incredible writer!

The American Constitution--218 years old

Saturday, Sep 17th was the 218th anniversary of the American Constitution. What is remarkable is that this was the first written constitution in the world. The constitution of Great Britain was not (and still isn't) a written constitution, while the French constitution was not a very precise one. The U.S. constitution, along with the Bill of Rights, is what defines America and Americans. Frontepagemag has an interview with Duquesne University law professor Ken Gromley. Have a look for a good insight.

Turnover in the Indian Tech industy and other woes

Interesting link on the Indian tech industry.

Afghan elects new legislature

Despite threats and fears of the Taliban, the Afghanis voted for the second time in less than two years to elect their parliament. This is a momentous occasion for that region. No one expeced them to actualy have a semblance of elections, given their level of educaton and exposure to democratic concepts.

But then democratic values are the ones that we chersish as a mankind and seems to tbe only logicl steady state condition.

Hope this will nudge Afghanistan towards a democratic future.