The car!

As several of you know, I have been driving a '93 Altima. It has been a reliable and faithful partner; a useful yet unglamarous replacement for the speedy Jetta that I chose to wreck.

I have received several nudges to get a new car. Someone even went to the extent of suggesting I get a minivan - grr.... It has been hard to replace a car that has been giving me good mileage and gotten me from one point to another with hardly any trouble.

However sometime last year, a new radiator and clutch later, I decided to get a new car as my primary vehicle and rely on this trusted warrior as my backup. So what car do I buy? automatic or manual? 4 door or 2 door? sports or sedan? hatchback? "luxury" brand or run-of-mill brand? used or new? Choices are plenty, decisions hard...

I narrowed my car choices to something sporty - and having gone sporty, 2-door, manual etc followed in the decision making. At this point, I selected the following cars - Nissan 350Z, Infiniti G37, Audi TT and BMW 335i.

BMW 335i : Great car, very good handling. Smooth acceleration and 4 door to boot. The 4 door part was kinda sticky point though. A sporty car with 4 doors? I am not sure that is what I am looking for. I think a sedan needs to be safe, not powerful - spacious but not chic-magnet. Moreover, the car I was buying was not meant to be a "troop" transporter, but a Dilip-transporter.

Inifiniti G37: The gear stuck, could not shift easily, the pillar in the blind spot was in the wrong place. And I felt it was a luxury sedan trying to power up for a sports car - and ohh yeah - it was too much car.

Nissan 350Z: The steering was tough, and it was very very noisy... And - I got my first speeding ticket in 4 years while test driving the car. Fugget 'bout it.

Audi TT: The car felt like a glove... It understeers meaning I have to fight really hard to lose control - and that little jump that it did when I went over the bump on Spicewoods Spring.... hmm.... I was hooked...

That's my choice now unless events at work change the direction of my devision. If that does happen, I think I might go with a Honda Civic Hybrid, Honda Fit or Nissan Versa... Keep an eye on this section to see what it is I buy... Purchase imminent!!!

A long time coming...

I have thought of updating my blog for a long time now, but under no circumstances did I intend for this to be the first post.

A letter to God,

As merciful as you are, please show this family the light, help them walk with joy again, and bask in your glory...

Khuda Hafiz, mere dost. April 11th, 2008

Questions for Dalai Lama

What is your first memory of Lhamo Döndrub or His Holiness, the Dalai Lama? I don't remember what mine was - would certainly like to hear yours! He has certainly had a strong impact on me in recent past, as has most things Buddhist.

I have seen 3 movies related to the Dalai Lama - 7 years in Tibet (may have been my first acquaintance with the Dalai Lama), Kundun and now 10 questions for the Dalai Lama. The last one was a documentary, a short one. It dealt with the same issues I have heard before; happiness, compassion, tolerance etc; subjects I have read before in "Art of Happiness" by Howard C. Cutler. So why should you consider this movie in your viewing list?

This is the first time I have heard his voice, and seen him in a talk. I have heard Bill Clinton talk - he has charisma, and made you listen. I heard George W. Bush talk, and you could hear the passion (now, I am not talking politics - just personality). The Dalai Lama has both, charisma and passion - no malice. You listen, you believe, and you laugh (reminds of you of your childhood friend who simply made you laugh!)

He spoke about conflict resolution. In a conflict, as he put it "you destroy your enemy, then you destroy yourself" - so he proposes conciliation as the way forward, not one of threats and economic sanction - something the leadership around the world should consider. There was also a mention to a concept similar to Nash's equilibrium - a way to reach a compromise. Or alternatively, during a conflict, just party since that reduces any existing "negative emotion" - where's the beer?

Not a collector's items, but worth watching - if you want to see the Dalai Lama in action.

Not one to read too many articles but...

This particular author catches my eye. I have read a handful of articles from him, and I have found it to be well thought out and more importantly, appeals to my sensibilities. I guess that explains why I like the articles.

What makes the articles very interesting is the author is French and the articles are about the subcontinent, India, Tibet, Burma etc.

Without further ado, here are two links on Francois Gautier's pages, his homepage and his page in rediff.

A word that starts with I

A little lesson about me... In my high school days, while I consistently aced the Sciences and Math subjects, I was abysmal in the languages - English, French and Arabic.

So my mom thought of a remedy, her friend, who was my English teacher in elementary school. She was enlisted to teach me the nuances of English so that I may pass (yes! I failed my first - and only - English exam at high school).

This was a conversation on one occassion:

Teacher: "You are like your father. Both of you are very smart, technically very brilliant in science. However both of you lack something. The word starts with I" (PS: I am being liberal in the use of "very brilliant" - It's my blog, my prerogative)

Me: "You mean inventive?"

Teacher: "No..."

Me: "Intelligent? Ingenuity??"

Teacher: "No... No..."

I try a few more... which was good... since I actually came up with words in English. Finally all exasperated by my incompetence in English, I say:

Me: "What is it - I give up!!!"

Teacher: "Imagination"

Me: "Ahhh... yes - I lack imagination"

Hence the brevity and lack of creativity of my blogs...

More on this later

Traveling heavy

Several of you know my opinion on traveling heavy... well this post is not about that, but more about a recent trip I took. On this trip, I had a rather long leg where I had a window seat. More recently, I have taken an aversion to sitting on the aisle rather than a window. In no event, do I want to be the 'Kebab mein haddi' and sit in the middle, unless it is in between two cute co-eds.

Anyways, on this trip, I had the misfortune of having someone rather huge (through no fault of theirs, I am sure) sitting in the middle seat. I have always prided myself being tall, heavy (not wide) and hard to push, but in this case I was slammed against the window and any attempts to center myself in my seat meant an elbow to my ribs.

What do you do in this case? Endure, I guess... and try to get some shut eye... and hope the flight leaves on time, so you don't have to endure for too long... and get some shut eye - did I say that already?

Hope you have better luck than I do on your travels...