All the random thoughts

I do indeed search for instances of commercial sense taking over common sense. It is fun, it is sad and given the world we live in, it is not all that bad. So then, there I was. With one suitcase in hand and a laptop laden backpack, I stepped out of the delightful lightrail that brought me from Beaverton Transit Center (BTC) to Portland International Airport in little more than an hour. A fascinating journey that took me through the city center and gave a glimpse of the early morning traffic, while reassuringly avoiding all of it. Equally fascinating would be my flight from Portland to Sanjose, I told myself. I had never been on an aircraft run by the exotic sounding "Alaskan airlines" for one and then the prospect of meeting so many of my dear friends in the bay area was exciting. So it was with lot of anticipation that I brought myself to face the "help yourself" checkin machine of the Alaskan airlines. With little effort and lot of skepticism about my technical c...

I come from a big small school in Hyderabad, Andhra pradesh. The school went by the name "Swami Vivekananda Centenary High School" and was a fascinating place. It was small because the cost of education was minimal and affordable to all the middle class families aspiring to good education for their kids. It was big because it had (at least during the time I studied there) very good human beings as teachers, large play grounds and an elaborate ritual to begin the day with. The ritual included a unique prayer praising Sri Ramakrishna, followed by Jana Gana Mana and finally, for reasons unknown, some drill with one kid yelling "Stand at Ease" and "Attention" for all the other kids to play around with their feet in amusement. This ritual in the play ground was followed by a walk back to the class and a loud reading of the ' pledge' in each class room and then, the day commenced. If the head master had an announcement to make, he'd walk into the ...