Productivity

I'm fairly certain that the main reason The New York Times elected to roll out their so-called "paywall" this week was to help me improve my productivity.

It's working, thanks guys.

Mumbai

I saw the Taj Mahal over the weekend. It lived up to expectations. Words and pictures don't do it justice.

I'm in Mumbai now, a much more vertical and metropolitan city than Delhi. We've been hearing a lot about the "two Indias" (meaning the poor India and the booming white collar workers and upper class who make up the other India). That difference is in much starker contrast here, with more fancy cars and luxury brands than I saw in Delhi.

I've followed a bit of the news from Japan, though not as much as I would like. A handful of my classmates have been there for the past two weeks. They cut their trip short and left the country safely on Monday.

Jodhpur to Delhi

We saw Jodhpur for a few days (from where we get jodpur riding pants, apparently). There's another massive old fort there which was really impressive. We also stopped at a place that is said to have India's best lassi. It cost 5o cents, we were surprisingly the only gringos there, and it was amazing.

After seeing Jodhpur for a few days, we took an overnight train to Delhi, which was quite the experience. In Delhi, we met up with the rest of my classmates for the "official" part of my trip here. We had back-to-back meetings all day Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The meetings so far have been amazing: we met with company leadership at Indian companies and multinationals, we met with a handful of entrepreneurs, and we talked with cabinet members, all of whom had insightful things to say about where the country has come from and where it might be going.

It's been great and I feel so lucky to have this level of access.

The Good Luck Roadside Motorcycle Shrine

After Udaipur, we (myself and two classmates) headed to Jodhpur by car. Our hotel in Udaipur helped us arrange a driver for the day. We set out a bit later than we had hoped, but the drive was fantastic. We saw amazing sites at Kumbhalgargh (a massive old stone fortress) and Ranakpur (a beautiful Jain temple). We held our collective breath as we swung around curvy, single lane roads up in the mountains and passed traffic on the flat highways.

The drive was quite long and our late start meant that we had several hours of driving left as it started to get dark. Despite the long day none of us passengers were sleepy: the perilous driving kept all of us awake. We were all slightly nervous and wanted to be at our destination.

And then at 7:02, with darkness falling, we came upon a minor commotion on the side of the highway. There was a small roadside shrine with a handful of people drumming before it and a small fire going. Our driver, Javni, quickly pulled over and chuckled that we were very, very lucky. I followed Javni towards the shrine with trucks whizzing by and honking (when I say "roadside shrine" I mean it was really right at the side of the road). I took of my shoes, (though the ground was just dirt) and walked with Javni around the shrine.

As we circled around the back, I saw an old, dusty motorcycle with a flat tire parked there under a fluorescent light. The motorcycle, Javni explained, was known to start all by itself and drive itself around and around the shrine. This ceremony we'd stopped at only happened at 7:00 each night, so we were lucky to have been passing at just the right time. Sure enough a dozen travelers were running from just-parked (or still moving) vehicles to kick off their shoes, say a quick prayer, and sprint back to their car/truck/bus.

As Javni and I headed back to our car, the drumming died down and the fire was put out. The crowd melted away. It was hectic and simple and beautiful all at once. Definitely a highlight of the trip so far.

Udaipur

I'm just leaving Udaipur, Rajasthan. The city is right at the edge of a beautiful lake. There's lots of exploring to do and the streets are narrow, hilly, and often have cows roaming about. There are a handful of palaces and temples.


This is sunrise from the roof of my hotel, looking out towards a palace/hotel on an island in the lake. Apparently it was featured in a Bond film... Cool.

Uprisings

Without the benefit of hindsight and admittedly without being very educated about everything that happened in 1968, I wonder if we're in the midst of something similar. Will we look back on 2011 in a similar way? The pundits have already written about this, I'm sure. But think about it: Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Iran, Yemen, Algeria, and to lesser degrees, Syria, Sudan, Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories. Plus China. That last one, while minor, make one think about things on a global level...

In other news, I'm off to India for a couple weeks.

In case you missed it...

... Happy 209 Day. (Blueberry, banana, and chocolate chip pancakes to celebrate).

No smartphone

I spent a good part of last weekend not using my smartphone. Instead, I tried to focus on the people I was with.

It was great, it was a welcome break, and I highly recommend it. And it reaffirmed for me everything's that's written about how much we're slaves to our tech devices.

Ad from last summer

I ran across this commercial from last summer and it brought me back to all the games I watched during the World Cup. It's a Coke commercial that shows a medley of different goal-scoring celebrations.

There were very few ads shown during the games while I was in Africa (perhaps a dozen in rotation in total) so I saw this ad several times each game. The song is catchy and given the continuous playing everyone knew it. Credit to the ad makers at Coke, I think they got me, as I wrote in July. Here's the ad.

I'm not clear on whether the video and/or song were played at all in the U.S. Did anyone here see them? Below is the full music video from the Somali-Canadian artist. Yes, it's pretty fluffy pop music, but like I said, I heard the song a lot.

Back to school

I'm wrapping up a couple weeks break from school. The trip was great, I caught up on sleep, ate lots, and saw lots of people. Highlights included:

• two birthday cakes!
• a new year!
• seeing lots of family!
• seeing tons of friends!
• dim sum!
• tacos in the Mission!
• a cool "I'm AOK" t-shirt!
• visits to a ton of cool companies, including Tesla!

Now it's back to school, back to the snow, and back to work!

KC

I'm off to California after a brief stay in Kansas City where I saw a cool museum, saw a great movie, and had some BBQ that was truly amazing. Thanks to my aunt and uncle for hosting me!

Done with exams

The fall term is done!

I'm a quarter of the way through this thing. Does that mean I'm a sophomore now?