Kashmir 1947

India and Pakistan were divided back in 1947 and the reasons that led to happen is debatable and whether Gandhi was the main reason or the end of world war 2 was the reason is a debate beyond me (at least for now, I do have some thoughts on the same). My contention here is about Kashmir.

Agreed the Maharaja of Kashmir wanted to do what ever he wanted and Pakistan also wanted a part of it or the whole of it and all the “controversy” surrounding it and how our then esteemed prime minister placed friendship over national interest at the time and how he changed his mind within a few years later and there is enough and more literature around this also.

My concern stems from the fact that the lashkars attack on J and K happened organically. 2 countries were formed on August 14/15 1947 and both countries military was still under the control of British. But by October that year, our neighbor managed to arm the “Lashkars” and send them across the border to attack Kashmir and in turn India. It all happened organically is the lie that I feel has been peddled for us.

Here is my contention, how can a newly formed country with thousands of problems to deal with organize and launch a war? The military was still under the British on both sides of the border and if that were the case, what was the governor general Mr. Batten doing? He had no intelligence and did the Pakistan side of British government went rogue? My theory they had been preparing for a few months before the whole thing and ready to pull the plug when needed, indeed going beyond the simple “the irregulars attacked”.

Nehru went to UN to resolve Kashmir, I would have taken the British to task and maybe take them to the international court for their military which was supposed to be “neutral” did take sides and was active in supporting one side over the other. Unless it was known that British wanted to do it on purpose.

All the history being taught why these simple questions are not raised by the “teachers and scholars”.

A friend of mine says history should not be changed and questioned for it would mean we are questioning our teachers and parents and some one else says History is dead. I question that statement whole heartedly and say that what history lacked when taught to us in schools is the scientific temperament and question things and not accept everything to the face value.

"I am just trying to make sense"

On our recent trip to Switzerland we went to Mt. Titlis and one of the attractions there is an observation deck which is part of a restaurant and it is 50m above the glacier and costs some extra CHF for the same. Of course it becomes free if we spend 100CHF per person. 

While we were looking at the menu at the base we saw another family asking questions to the host and the hostess was explaining it is a deck which takes you 50m above and so on. The guy or mostly the dad was asking questions like what if I just go up and get a 6$ coffee and the hostess was like "you cant make it to the deck", since we had read up we tried to explain to the dude that "its their business model and people pay for it" and the guy turned to us and said "I am just trying to make sense of the cost and trying to justify". 

At that moment, I felt like, "dude, either pay up or leave" you are not the CEO of that hotel, you may not want to pay but others are willing to and hence they have set the price. 

Yes, it did irritate me more for the family was fellow Indian. Don't know from where. 

Technology adaptation in Bali

 For our recent trip to Bali, all the planning was done by Sandhya and I just went as on the tour.

It was a great trip, people were friendly and entry and exit process at airport was smooth and hassle free. There is no tip culture, yet the service is out of this world. I come from India and I can vouch the hospitality in Bali was much better. There is no tipping culture, only experienced once during the whole trip. Of course we stuck to the religious and scenic parts of Bali, Ubud and south Bali.

They are not kidding when they say traffic is bad in Bali, 2 lane roads and lots of tourists and there is no public transport 😊.

Considering the island has 70% population of Hindu’s, but the main diet is pork and meat. They have temples in every household and every village and reserved only for locals. There is no entry for foreigners. One can hire a Balinese and go to the scared areas as their guest.

Believe me, Sandhya managed to book the drivers in Bali through Instagram and WhatsApp. That’s right, the primary form of communication in Bali is WhatsApp and with Apps like Klook one can buy data plans even before landing in Bali and in our case worked seamlessly the whole time.

I used to think Thai food is spicy and Indian food can be made spicy but after tasting Balinese food, I have changed my mind. The spice levels were so high that I could not even put the thing in my mouth without gulping few liters of water.

What amazed me was the amount of technology penetration that has happened in Bali, case in point was the river rafting videos. While we enjoyed the rafts and rapids, there were drones flying at different locations capturing us and also the guide was making pit stops to collect the recordings which were transferred to their servers and downloaded to our phones while we enjoyed the food. I learnt a lot about IOS thanks to Bali trip. Another occasion is the Bali Swing, they have an efficient operation setup with men and women and all photos taken on your mobile and there is no editing and all such but end of the day beautiful pics.

At the end of the day, they are an island blessed with beautiful tropical weather. The island depends on tourism and I think that’s ingrained in the people and making it a perfect travel destination.

Ps: for the first time ever in my life and maybe last time, I stayed at a suite with a name instead of number.

Pps: we didn’t spend our time in party areas of Bali, one tip if I may give you is, if there is plans to visit water falls in Ubud, start as early as possible. Negotiate, negotiate and negotiate.

Dyson service

 I have been owning Dyson Vacuum cleaners for a decade or so now for they are amongst the best in Vacuums out there. And we own 2 of them, one corded and one cordless. Off late our work horse corded one was having issues and I being a "DIY person" I looked up on YouTube and did some cleanup to get performance back or at least I thought so.

A few days later I was told it is still broken or rather not up to mark. Now a quick visual inspection showed few more things broken and it seemed more involved than my simple DIY to replace them let alone finding the required parts.

There were 2 options, spend money and get a new one or see if there is an appliance repair person to fix this. The conservationist in me could not fathom throwing away such a powerful motor.

Thus began the search, I was hoping to find a local mom and pop shop who can repair vacuum cleaners and to my pleasant surprise I found an official Dyson repair shop here in Austin. The reviews seemed encouraging and hence took a chance and did the drive across the river to the shop.

There was another surprise waiting for me when I found 3 other people waiting before me 😊. The service definitely was courteous and cost was also not too much and service was very quick. They even had the spare filters which I couldn’t find anywhere else on the web. All in all a win and win and our beloved Dyson lived to see another day or lived to do more vacuum. 

Aiyyo Shraddha - comedy show

I had seen her reels on YouTube, mostly of her funny takes on tech industry, on Indian middle class family and had seen some of her challenge posts only to have doubts about her stand up comedy ability. I was proved wrong by her on the Friday evening when she stood on the stage here in Austin and performed comedy for a good 2 hours without even taking a sip of water.

When Sandhya told me that Shraddha (Aiyyo Shraddha) is coming and I will book the tickets, I first said yes and expected the whole event not to last more than an hour and on the day of the event we got lined up with 3 other things for our about to graduate middle schooler. But as though it was divine intervention, one after another things fell apart and we were able to go as a family and enjoy one of the best 2 hours of our lives.

Her comedy was so clean and she intertwined all the way past to almost today present with such ease that it was remarkable and for someone like me who grew up in similar background it was totally relatable. More importantly our middle schooler had the best time too, I could hear her burst to laughter almost the whole time.

Listening to her, it was like time and space travel back to my hometown, her ability to intertwine multiple languages from Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and possibly Tulu was mind boggling. As they say, for those 2 hours she owned the stage. The show started sharp on time, I was completely expecting the opposite and had to stand corrected again.

Only grief is that we should have had given her a better welcome meaning a bigger auditorium and may be one more show. I believe she is still touring and if you do get a chance, take my word and go see her in action live on stage. https://www.sominithings.com/

An Engineer by profession and that too E and C (same branch as me) only to blossom out as a world renowned comedian made me question my own view points, I used to hold the view that people should stick with the fields they studied in, maybe they can switch to management. I guess that view point came from the lack mindset coming from India in the 80s and 90s. Anyways that is a discussion for another day.

ps: Daughter had attended another comedy show with Zarna Garg and when asked her opinion, she chose Shraddha hands down.

Dynast in politics

 When I came to America, George W Bush as about to contest against the clinate man and people were calling it as Dynasty in politics. Coming from India (at that time it was the era of Sonia and our man Raga was still not in limelight), I was thinking how can it be a dynasty when son succeeds father, or wife wants to compete in same slot as husband (Clintons). For a dynasty to be called one it has to be multiple generations and not just 1.

Anyways, this post is not about that but about the fact that people in India are equating the same for Indian political landscape and suggesting the Congress control of the party is no different from regional parties where son or daughter tend to run for the office along or after their parents.

I used to share that view point and agree with the same but now that I think about it, our kids learn from what we do on a day to day basis. Example: talking with a friends son, he wanted to do work similar to his dad on some sort of hardware, doctors kids tend to become doctors and Lawyers become one and actors kids try their hand in acting and we all try our best to help our kids in their respective interests. Again example: actors working to launch their kids and Engineers trying to find internship for their kids in the company they are working in and so on.

I had written this draft a while ago and now concluding it, I think with other aspects of life like Engineering or Medicine or any such professional places the number of opportunities are technically unlimited unlike the political landscape where the expansion is almost impossible. 

Sometimes solutions are simple

 The other day I was the vet clinic to drop off our pup for a surgery and it was an early morning (by my standards) drop off and while I was in the line, behind me came a gigantic late model ford truck and since it was a rainy day everybody had headlights on.

This truck the lights were so powerful (maybe they had in high beam) and it was reflecting on the rear view mirror and hurting my eyes. I was almost tempted couple of times to walk out and ask them to turn light off but resisted as it was veterinary clinic and people show up for umpteen different reasons. Besides, I was supposed to leave from there in a couple of minutes.

After a few minutes of this "torture" to my eyes, I realized I could simply fold the mirror towards me and avoid the torture and that's what I did. Easy fix and I did stay there for a few minutes longer than I expected :).