gurubhai

Real Age Calculator

2007-07-31T09:23:00.000-07:00

I came across this interesting link yesterday: Real Age Calculator.
Scroll down one page to the actual calculator and answer a series of questions. It is interesting to see how the answers affect the "Real Age". If nothing, it makes you think twice about diet and exercise. There are many aspects of the calculation that are beyond our control, such as family history of heart disease and diabetes, but we can do something about the rest.

Bike ride to Alleghany

2007-05-21T08:30:00.002-07:00

Flight data: 63 miles, 5:08/~5:55 ride/total time, 12.3mph average, ~8000ft total climb. From 49, we take the Ridge toward Pike/Alleghany. Just before Alleghany (around mile 23), we turn on to Pliocene Ridge Road and continue another 9 miles. At mile 32 Pliocene Ridge Road ends (or turns into dirt road). Views of the buttes from several locations on Pliocene Ridge. Weather is at least 10-15F cooler than Oregon Creek, with an elevation difference of 4600ft.

My first century

2007-05-14T08:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, on Mother's Day May 13 2007, Bob and I rode my first (his umpteenth) century. We took off around 10am from Ananda Village and rode our bikes to Bassetts and back. I call it the double B century: Bassets with Bob. The weather couldn't have been better, sunny and in the low 70's. The entire ride is absolutely gorgeous. In about 5 miles from our home, we enter into the Tahoe National Forest. We are in the mountains, either descending/ascending to a river canyon or riding in one the entire time. About 30 miles of this ride each way tracks the North Yuba river or one of its tributaries and as we get close to Sierra City and Bassetts, we are riding at the base of the snow-capped Sierra Buttes. Most of the way we are greeted by small and medium-sized waterfalls that make it hard not to stop and enjoy the beauty. We finished it in 7:20/8:20 riding time/total time. It consisted of about 11,000 ft of climbing. JT, Bob and I will do our next century on June 2nd, in Murphy's called the Sierra Century. I will report on that after we finish it. See you in the Sierra's some time.

A Place Called Ananda

2007-03-03T15:56:00.000-08:00

It took me years to convince myself that I should start a blog. I don’t necessarily chase the latest technology craze and end up usually waiting for a while until the dust settles and see what remains after that. Finally about a year ago I started a blog, primarily to send news and pictures to friends and family about a trip my wife and I took to India. It was extra effort to post fresh news while traveling, but it was well worth it. And it was much easier than sending individual emails.

A couple of months ago, my dear friend Maria Warner (an Ananda minister and webmaster for ananda.org) approached a few of us about the possibility of an “Ananda blog”, so I jumped on the opportunity. Another friend and webmaster Nabha designed and customized the website. After a few months of testing it, we decided on the name: aplacecalledananda.org. So, now I have two blogs. You probably already noticed the nature of this one, random thoughts and musings, travels, etc. The "Ananda blog" has more of a spiritual flavor, where myself and a few friends share observations from living in a spiritual community. I look forward to sharing with you in both places.

Christmas Eve at Ananda

2006-12-24T20:25:00.000-08:00

We had our traditional Christmas Eve service at Ananda Village. Our dear friend Lila Devi, who was the mastermind of the evening, weaved the story of the birth of Jesus with stories, music and theatre. It was magical and very moving. The community center was filled with residents and many guests. The evening ended with offering of candles to the baby Jesus, while Victorian Singers serenaded us with traditional Christmas carols.

Merry Christmas everybody

2006-12-19T08:24:00.000-08:00

The Drifters’ version of White Christmas with flash animation of Santa and his reindeer.

Putting Things Into Perspective [of Time]

2006-11-03T08:24:00.000-08:00

This great little short animation, Das Rad (The Wheel), was a 2003 Academy Award nominee for best animated short film. It makes a lot more sense if you are familiar with the Yuga Cycles or if you read this book: "The Lost Star of Myth and Time".
Enjoy the movie.

Putting Things Into Perspective (2)

2006-11-01T14:05:00.000-08:00

You may remember my previous post about a link that showed relative sizes of planets.

Here is a five minute video along the same lines titled The Hubble Deep Field: The Most Important Image Ever Taken

Free international phone calls (via Iowa)

2006-10-09T18:05:00.000-07:00

Lifehacker today reported a way to make free international phone calls via Iowa. You need to call an Iowa number first (712-858-8883), so long distance charges apply. From there, you can make an international phone call for free. I tried this through the free SkypeOut service (it is free until the end of the year). I was able to ring my parents' home in Turkey. There was no answer because they are travelling, so I can't report on the voice quality, but it seems to work.

Can the Bicycle Save Civilization?

2006-09-21T15:32:00.000-07:00

Ran into this well-written article today titled "Can the Bicycle Save Civilization". Here is a teaser:

"Leg muscles are about 20 percent efficient, so a five kilometre ride consumes 80 kilocalories, or about one small apple. If you are wondering, this translates into a fuel efficiency of 595 km/l (1,400 mpg) of gasoline. Apples are renewable and clean; gasoline is neither."

I wouldn't necessarily go as far as the bicycle saving civilization, but it sure can make a difference. It certainly did in my life. I feel that now I have more energy and stamina than I ever had before. I have been riding quite regularly ever since I moved to Ananda Village. Started with a 10 year old clunker Trek MTB, which I upgraded to a Gary Fisher Tassajara soon after my move. Then last year, after some great influence from my riding buddy Bob, I ventured into the world of road bikes. I bought a carbon-fiber Specialized Roubaix Elite and never regretted the purchase. A few months after that our dear friend JT joined our road bike club(!), which we jokingly refer to as Gurubaik. We had some wonderful rides this summer together. I did a solo ride around Lake Tahoe in July (my longest ride, ~75 miles). Last weekend, JT and I rode do Downieville and back (~66 miles) where Bob also joined us half way during our return trip, plus many other shorter rides. The picture above shows the happy riders at our last stop on the way home from Downieville.

Of Solar and Sun

2006-09-18T10:56:00.000-07:00

I have always been fascinated by solar power and even more so after becoming a backyard gardener. It's so interesting to see how each plant reacts to the solar energy, how the tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and watermelons thrive in the heat of the sun, how they slow down their growth if it gets too hot, but most amazingly how a little seed with some sun, water and nutrients from the soil can generate delicious food, be it sweeter-than-honey figs or spicy hot peppers. I always thought how little of sun's power we seem to be using and a blog that I read today more than confirmed my hunch (not that I believe everything I read on the Internet). It said:
"... solar energy which the earth receives (even after dissipation through the earth's atmosphere) is 10,000 times the total energy consumed by humans in all forms ... "

I am also a big-supporter of hybrid car technology, even though the entry cost seems a bit high for its benefits. What a great complimentary technology solar power would be to hybrid cars, if the cars' entire chassis were made of solar cells, charging the batteries of the car while parked in the sun. One commenter in the blog I mentioned above also refers to that possibility, I hope solar cells can also be manufactured in designer colors (not just black).

Not all customer services are created the same

2006-09-08T14:48:00.000-07:00

I have posted two articles earlier one regarding Tmobile and another Maytag where the customer service representatives failed to fulfill even very low expectations. Well, I am happy to post a short story about another company, MegaCatch, whose customer service was exemplary.

Over a year ago, my wife and I purchased a MegaCatch Premier, a mosquito trapping system. I am not going to go into too much detail about the effectiveness of the product, but lets just say that it helps to a certain extent where I have not regretted the purchase. I have not done a thorough analysis of the number of mosquitos it catches by our house on a day by day basis graphed in Excel or anything like that. However, I'd like to comment about their customer service.

It had been slightly over a year since we purchased it, I noticed that its timer started acting up. It has a nice programmable timer that allows you to set the unit to turn on or off at certain times for any day of the week. One day, it started to not turn on all by itself. I emailed their customer service and asked what could be done about it. They asked for my mailing address and immediately shipped to me not only a replacement timer but also several accessories (one octenol fragrance strip and two fluorescent bulbs, that are used to lure the mosquitos to the trap). No questions asked about when I bought the unit or whether it was still under warranty or asked me to ship the unit back or anything like that. That's customer service. I should add that the manufacturer is based in New Zealand not in the U.S., so perhaps they have not caught on with the levels of customer service expected from the U.S. based companies.

Free conferencing - well sort of

2006-09-08T14:42:00.000-07:00

Lifehacker today posted a free conferencing tool called LiveOffice, which allows you to get your very own dedicated voice-conference number which is available 24/7. Once you sign up you don't need to do any additional steps to setup a conference besides telling the participants the number and time to call. It is free to sign up and use this facility. The way they make money is through long distance phone calls placed in order to join the conference. Pretty neat idea I'd say especially for those who have not entered the wonderful world of VoIP and Skype.

The dire state of customer service in the U.S. - a Maytag story

2006-08-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

I have another customer service story. Maytag in general has been a good friend for our small family of two. They (used to at least) make good quality appliances. Whenever we buy a new appliance we have first looked at Maytag and ended up buying Maytag. However this experience has changed my mind forever.

A few months after we bought our Maytag Neptune washer, we noticed dark spots on the door boot. They kept growing but I didn't make a big deal out of it. It wasn't effecting the performance of the machine. One day about a month ago when I looked at it closely, I noticed how big those dark spots had grown. I have tried cleaning it with bleach but it looked like the happy mold had found a permanent home. So finally I decided to look up this problem on the web to see if other people had experienced it too. It turns out they had, quite a few of them. Not only that, there was a class action lawsuit against Maytag and the consumers had won the lawsuit. Unfortunately the time to claim for a refund, repair or replacement had long passed, so I decided to contact the Maytag Customer Service to find out if I there might be a newer, better part available that would prevent this problem from happening again. Below are the email exchanges I had with them.

My Neptune washer is suffering from the same problem described in the following websites. http://www.lemonlaw.com/maytag-class-action-suit-resolved.html http://www.maytagfrontloadsettlement.com/

The lower part of my washer door's gasket/boot is covered black with mold. I would like to replace this gasket but if I replace it with the exact same part the problem will happen again. I can't use bleach in my washing cycles due to potential damage to my septic field. I would like to know if there is a newer type of door gasket/boot that prevents this mold from forming in the first place, either a mildew-resistant rubber or a drained bottom part or a combination of the two. Please advise with appropriate part number that I need to order.

Regards, Koral

Dear Mr. Ilgun, Thank you for visiting our Maytag.com customer service page. We appreciate your interest in our products and service. The part number that you have requested is 12002533. Which is listed as a door boot with drain. Out of warranty parts can be obtained one of three ways:

1. We would like to encourage you to visit our on-line parts store for your shopping needs. http://www.maytag.com/mths/products/parts.jsp?cs=0&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&cf =home&source=/homepage.jsp&message=parts&cs=0&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes

2. Contact our Consumer Parts Center at 1-877-232-6771 (please have model and serial number of the product available for parts identification).

3. Contact an authorized parts distributor in your area. You may locate a distributor directly from the Home Page on our web site. For your convenience, we are providing a link to help locate a distributor nearest you.

My question is, does the part # 12002533 have any improvements over the older neptune door boot which was the cause of a class action lawsuit ? If so, how does it do it ? If it is the exact same part as the original, then the same mold problem would happen again in just a few months.

Thanks, Koral

Thank you for visiting our Maytag.com customer service page. We appreciate your interest in our products and service.

The issues related to the class action suit weighed heavier on the later products. Some of the related concerns involved several home environment factors such as humidity, ventilation etc. These issues have impacted a small percentage of the Neptune front load products in comparison to the sales volume.

Maytag strives for innovation improvements and to exceed customer satisfaction! If you have additional questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact us.

I am glad to hear that Maytag strives for innovation improvements and to exceed customer satisfaction. That's why I am a loyal Maytag customer for many years. However, you have not answered my question. I have a Maytag Neptune washer with a moldy door boot problem.

Model number: MAH5500BWW

Serial number: A2933319CR

Date of Installation: 10/05/2004

Does the door boot with part # 12002533 have any improvements (mildew-resistancy, better drainage, etc.) over the door boot that I have in my washer ? I would like to replace the boot but not with the exact same part that would exhibit the same problems.

Thanks, Koral

Thank you for visiting our Maytag.com customer service page. We appreciate your interest in our products and service.

You may wish to call Maytag Factory Service at 1-877-255-5511 to schedule a service appointment for this issue. Based on the date of purchase this unit is out of the manufacturers warranty on labor and you would be responsible for the service fee. If you have additional questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact us.

You are still not answering my question. I don't need to make an appointment with Maytag Factory Service. My local Maytag dealer will do the installation. Before I schedule them though, I'd like to know if the door boot with part # 12002533 has any improvement over the existing part in my machine, so that the mold problem would not repeat. Can you please answer this question ?

Thanks, Koral

Dear Customer,

Thank you for visiting our Maytag.com customer service page. We appreciate your interest in our products and service.

We have investigated this door boot in the Parts Pro and the proper name for this is (kit,door boot w/drain) part number, 12002533.

If you have additional questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Is Maytag Customer Service purposefully avoiding an answer to my question ? Can you please read my question and if you don't have the answer can you please forward to someone who has an answer ?

Thank you, Koral

Thank you for visiting our Maytag.com customer service page. We appreciate your interest in our products and service.

We have investigated this door boot in the Parts Pro and the proper name for this is (kit,door boot w/drain) part number, 12002533. This is the most recent part available for your unit. If you have additional questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Is this most recent part any different from the part my unit has? My unit's model and serial are included in the previous emails (see below). If so, what are the differences between the old and the most recent part ?

Thanks, Koral

Dear Koral,

I sincerely apologize for the inconience you had to experince e-mailing back and forth for a simple question.

The newer part has a drain kit installed in the bottom which allows standing water to drain and keep the mold dry to prevent mold and mildew. You would stil have to, however, clean the boot every 90-120 days just to make sure no miold and mildew grows back. I personally hope that this answers your question. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have additional questions.

I finally got my answer. Each representative who was corresponding with me was a different person. The funny coincidence was that the last person who responded me and finally answered my question was Turkish. It takes a Turk to understand a Turk I suppose.

Putting things into perspective

2006-08-02T10:03:00.000-07:00

My fellow blogger Ron Jeffries has posted a link to this website that shows the relative sizes of planets we know (well, mostly).

Seattle Mandir Workday

2006-07-28T13:03:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Suzanne and I flew to Seattle for Ananda Seattle's new mandir workday. On the way to the Sacto airport, we had Devi with us and she suggested that we eat at Latitudes Restaurant in Auburn. We all know that she is a wise woman and this suggestion was no exception. If you haven't eaten there yet, make sure to plan to stop there whenever you are in the vicinity, it will enrich your travel.

Saturday (22nd) was the big work day. Teri gave everyone their work assignments. Seattle was having one of their record high temperature days (I believe it was 95F that day). I was feeling guilty because I got to work indoors soldering LXR connectors to a bundle of wires for the mandir's sound system. While other people were digging, hauling dirt and trash, laying tiles or wood flooring, I was indoors all day sitting next to a fan which was sucking away the rosin and lead fumes.

The mandir is going to look beautiful, you can already feel it. Can't wait to see the finished product.

I took only a few pictures that day. But others took a lot more. You can see them here and here.

Sudarshan's birthday hike

2006-07-16T08:23:00.000-07:00

A group of us from Ananda Village and a few other friends drove to the high Sierras for a beautiful day-hike near and aorund Long Lake to celebrate our dear friend Sudarshan's upcoming birthday. It was a gorgeous day - plenty of sunshine but not hot - filled with stories, laughter and sharing with gurubais. A few of us took a detour and climbed the 7818ft Mt. Elwell. It was like being on top of the world, with 360 degree views of remote valleys, towns and mountains. The pictures pretty much tell the story.

Happiest Country on Earth

2006-07-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

The tiny South Pacific Ocean country of Vanuatu (population 200,000) is the happiest country on Earth, according to a study published measuring people's wellbeing and their impact on the environment.

"Don't tell too many people, please," said Marke Lowen of Vanuatu Online, the republic's online newspaper.

"People are generally happy here because they are very satisfied with very little," he told The Guardian.

"This is not a consumer-driven society. Life here is about community and family and goodwill to other people. It's a place where you don't worry too much."

Sounds good to me. See the full article here.

Ananda in the News

2006-07-10T13:18:00.000-07:00

Ananda Village was featured in our local newspaper, the Union, with a very nice article.

DUI checkpoint

2006-07-07T09:02:00.000-07:00

This one is so funny, I had to post it in my blog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22odFV8U1r4

Pictures from Swami's visit to America

2006-06-20T09:18:00.000-07:00

Links to pictures from Swami's visit:

Pictures at Ananda's website: http://ananda.org/news/sk-visit-2006-photos.html

Pictures from Rambhakta: http://imageevent.com/runbei/skinpaloaltoapril232006 (this site requires a password. The password was published in the April 27, Villager. Sorry, I can't republish the password here, but email me if you like).

Pictures from Heather Lussier: http://imageevent.com/hlussier

Pictures from Pam Barone posted on costcophotocenter. Note that you have to sign up and login all that. It's up to you.

Pictures from Jeffrey Phillips: http://imageevent.com/jeap/jeapfirstalbum

Pictures from Barbara Bingham: http://web.mac.com/barbara_bingham

Swami's birthday gift in the making (taken by Wallach Studio and myself)

Pictures from Koral: mostly Swami's birthday and Peace Treaty

Pictures from Ananda India regarding the pilgrimage to America

Gita launch next week

2006-05-26T20:24:00.000-07:00

June 3rd, 2006 will mark a great day in history. Swami Kriyananda will speak at the offical launch of his book "The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita" at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco on June 3rd at 8pm. The event is already sold out. One may marvel at what promise this event and book might hold for the future of truth-seekers and for the world at large. Paramhansa Yogananda predicted: "A new scripture has been born. Millions will find God through this work. Not just thousands, millions. I have seen it."

My wife and I already have two copies of this book (his and hers). One Indian edition and one limited copy U.S. edition, so that we don't have to fight over it. It's a great scripture indeed. Never have I seen a scripture so clearly and simply explained with extraordinary practicality. It will be a treasure for eternity.

It is already advertised in Amazon.com, though not yet released.

Brithday facts

2006-05-23T15:30:00.000-07:00

Here is a fun link: enter your birthday and learn lots of interesting and fun facts.

The dire state of customer service in the U.S. - a Tmobile story

2006-05-23T11:37:00.000-07:00

About two months ago I bought a Tmobile phone with a pay-as-you-go plan. I don't have cell phone coverage where I live, so I only use it when I travel. Tmobile's pay-as-you-go plan ends up being about 8 dollars a month for someone like me who doesn't live with his cellphone. It came with 60 free minutes, which I needed to refill shortly. My refill experience was quite a story. I used their online refill feature, which was quite simple in appearance, as one would expect. You enter the number of dollars, credit card number and a callback number just in case there is a problem with the transaction. Simple, eh ? The trouble is the refill didn't get reflected in my account. I waited for a day or two and sent them an email.

I am including here my email exchanges with them.

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Thank you for contacting T-Mobile. You should expect a response within 24 hours. Please reference case number 1528615 in the event you need to update your request. Please submit your request only once to ensure a timely response.

Sincerely,
T-Mobile Web Correspondence
12-05-2006
09:06:36 PT

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Dear Koral:

Thank you for contacting T-Mobile about how long it takes for a refill to reflect online. I understand how important this is for you, and I can definitely assist you today!

Once the refill transaction is complete, it will update in all systems in real time, so you should see it right away; if you do not, sign out and sign back in to My.T-Mobile.com.

I see that the last refill on your account was $15 on April 19, 2006; if you have added a refill since then, you should have a confirmation code; please provide it so we can look into it. If you do not have a code, but have a bank statement that shows money was withdrawn, please call our Refill Center to have the missing refill researched. Call 1-877-778-2106 or dial *ADD and press send on your T-Mobile To Go handset.

If you have any other questions or concerns regarding this particular issue, please reply to this message, making sure to reference case # 1528615; if you contact us with a separate issue, please use our website and create a brand new case number. Alternatively, you can call our Customer Care Department at 1-800-937-8997 or by calling 611 from your T-Mobile handset.

Thank you for being a Valued T-Mobile Customer!

Sincerely,

Matthew K.
Rep id # 7263495
Customer Care Specialist
T-Mobile USA

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Does my cell phone need to be turned on during the time of the refill ?

I did this transaction online. I did not save my confirmation code.
It hasn't posted to my credit card yet. Once it gets posted
to my credit card, I will call the Refill Center.

Koral

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Dear Koral Ilgun,

Thank you for taking the time to contact T-Mobile. My name is Douglas and I will be happy to assist you.

I understand, Koral, you wish to know if your phone needs to be on when you make a refill. I know it is frustrating to try and add minutes but nothing happens.

Your handset does not need to be on and working when you refill your account online. If the payment worked it would have happened immediately and reflected on your T-Mobile To Go account and your credit card as soon as they normally post changes. If no payment has been taken from your credit card and no minutes added to your account then the refill did not work. If a payment was taken from your credit card but no minutes added you need to contact our refill center as soon as possible as they only have 48 hours to find missing refills.

Hopefully this answers your current concerns but if you have any other questions you can reply to this e-mail (use the Case ID of 1528615 in the subject) or did you know that you can call T-Mobile To Go ustomer Care at 1-877-778-2106 from your handset (or by dialing 611 and pressing SEND) and it is free of charge and it does not cost you minutes.

Thank you, Koral, for allowing me the opportunity to assist you today. We appreciate your business and value you as a loyal T-Mobile customer.

Sincerely,

Douglas M Rep ID 7255465
Customer Care Specialist
T-Mobile USA

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There is still no change in my T-Mobile account.
There is no charge on my Credit Card either.

So, I tried refilling online again and after more than 3 hours there
is still no change on "My T-Mobile" Account Balance.

This time I got the Order# : .......
It was a $XX order.

So, why is online refill not working ? Is it not possible to refill online ?

Thanks,

Koral

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Dear Koral Ilgun:

Thank you for taking the time to contact T-Mobile today. My name is Angel and I will be happy to assist you. I understand from your e-mail that your minutes did not post to your account.

I do apologize about any inconvenience this has caused you. I understand how frustrating this can be. Upon review of your account the last refill I show is 4/19/06. If you purchased minutes and they did not post you would have to get in touch with our refill center at 1-877-778-2106.

If there is anything else we can do for you, Koral, please let us know.

I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that you may log into http://www.myt-mobile.com at any time, this is a convenient way to check your account information or phones available to you and make any changes you want to your account online.

I hope I have addressed all of your questions and concerns. Our goal is to provide you with World Class Service. If we can assist you with anything else please do not hesitate to respond to this e-mail case # 1528615. We are here 24 hours a day to assist you. Also you can call customer care at 1-800-937-8997 or 611, send from your handset and a representative will be able to assist you today.

We would like to thank you for being a valued T-Mobile customer.

Sincerely,

Angel f
7236985
Customer Care Specialist
T-Mobile USA

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Thank you for your response. I called the refill center and they told me that my
internet transactions were denied. They didn't contact me via the phone contact
number I left, claiming that it was "too late". They could have emailed me that
it was denied, but they didn't do that either. So I was waiting for several days for
these transactions to appear on my account. They could not tell me why my
transactions were denied either.

I then tried the same transaction through a landline phone. I talked to a
representative at the Refill Center and gave my phone number, credit card info,
refill amount to refill my account. They transferred me to a "specialist"
to finalize my transaction. It took me 35 minutes on the phone to refill my
account, they asked me all kinds of security questions as if I am applying
for a million dollar mortgage loan or something. This is ridiculuos.

I don't know if refilling my account through my-tmobile.com will ever work.
It's insane to put someone through such an ordeal to make a refill transaction.
(By the way, the URL you have below is incorrect, there is no such website).

I do not need a response to this email. If you want to do T-mobile a favor,
please forward this email to any and all responsible parties in your
organization so that they may improve the quality of your customer service.
At this point, T-mobile has a big negative mark in my book and I cannot
recommend it to anyone.

Regards,

Koral

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Dear Koral Ilgun,

Thank you for contacting T-Mobile. My name is Shawn and I will be glad to assist you today with your concerns regarding the issue you have been experiencing performing a refill. I can understand the importance of having your concern addressed.

To best ensure that your concerns about the refill process are handled, I recommend contacting out Customer Relations team. Their fax number is 1-813-353-6545.

Thank you once again, Koral, for contacting us here at T-Mobile. We will be happy to assist you with any further questions or concerns. We are available 24 hours a day and can be reached by replying to this email referencing case number 1528615 or by calling Customer Care at 1-800-937-8997 or 611 and then Send from your handset.

We appreciate your business and thank you for being a loyal T-Mobile customer, 1528615. It has been my pleasure to assist you with your concerns regarding the refill process. I hope you have a wonderful day.

Shawn M.
7261202
Customer Care Specialist
T-Mobile USA

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What is the email address for your Customer Relations team ?
Surely they must have some email address at this day and age
at a modern company like yours.

Regards,

Koral

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Dear Koral Ilgun:

Thank you for contacting T-Mobile. My name is Sherryl, and I would be happy to assist you today.

On May 18, 2006 you wrote to ask what the email address for the Customer Relations team is. I realize that faxing is not always an easy option to use through the computer, but unfortunately, the only way to contact the Customer Relations team is by fax.

The number is 1-813-353-6545. When contacting the Customer Relations group, I recommend that you include your mobile number, pin number and an alternative number you can be reached at. If you are writing by hand, please write in a clear legible hand, as some faxes machines can distort written material.

I understand that you experienced a problem when refilling your minutes online. I do recommend that you contact our refill center, as they will best be able to assist you with getting you your minutes.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us again, either by email quoting case # 1528615, or by phone. Our number is 1-877-778-2106. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for your convenience.

Thank you for choosing T-Mobile To Go, Koral. We appreciate your business. Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Sherryl K, 7258055
Customer Care Specialist
T-Mobile USA

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At this point I gave up. I didn't think faxing them would get me anywhere. I think customers will eventually weed out these companies with such ridiculous practices. It may take years or decades, who knows. Having said this, other providers' customer service may not be any better than this, but I hope that in the future the main differentiating factor between these companies would become customer service and only the ones with good customer service would survive.

Nice speed test utility

2006-05-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

I came across this link via a friend. So far, this is the nicest speed test utility I have seen. I have been using livingston.net's speedtest, but this one is even better: www.speakeasy.net/speedtest

Glorious weekend

2006-05-22T11:03:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we celebrated Swami Kriyananda's 80th birthday and his lifetime of achievements and service to God as a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda. Saturday evening, after the incredible Oratorio performed by the director's choir, Swamiji made a simple and concise comment: Glorious! That's how this whole weekend can be summed up.

I don't know the exact numbers but I heard that there were over 400 people attending this weekend.

Our dear friend Barbara Bingham posted some wonderful photos of this weekend on her website. Don't miss it.

The cast of Swamiji's play, "Jewel in the Lotus", gave a stunning performance bringing lots of laughter and tears to people's faces.

Inside a computer

2006-05-18T08:29:00.000-07:00

I ran across this at my friend Ron Jeffries' blog, Cloudy Thinking. Check it out. Pretty nice animation. How your computer really works !!

Free calls within the US and Canada

2006-05-15T11:24:00.000-07:00

If you haven't jumped on the Skype bandwagon, now may be the time. Skype just introduced free PC-to-PSTN calls within the US and Canada until the end of the year. Skype is probably already the market leader for VoIP for the masses. This may be one more blow to its competitors, the names of which I can't even remember. I have been using Skype for several years now. It's quality is awesome. The voice quaity is great even when talking to my overseas parents. I just started experimenting with its video capabilities too. It works quite well. Though I don't think the video feature is for me. It may be useful for some, but I don't feel I need to be seen while I am talking on the phone.

Dogwood and tulips

2006-05-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

It's hard to make justice to the beauty of this dogwood tree in our yard by capturing it with a camera. You need to come and see it. I see it through my home-office window and admire it every moment. It's in full-bloom and in its most majestic look.

And here are some picture from Crystal Hermitage gardens for your enjoyment. The tulips are at their peak beauty.

Google releases SketchUp

2006-05-03T08:21:00.000-07:00

I recently downloaded the new Google SketchUp application (free download). It's a very powerful yet easy-to-learn 3D design application. I went through its very well designed tutorial and within a few minutes I was able to sketch some simple designs. Of course, the free version is to promote their even more powerful Pro application, but it's a great tool for a DIY kind of person. It's well worth a try.

Trimba

2006-05-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I was doing brush clearing around the turtle pond as part of our Rajasi Day project. I was drooling over Ray's Husqvarna brush cutter. I have the big task of clearing the brush and grass around my house. I bought a decent electric trimmer last year but it takes a loooong time to cut through the overgrown grass. By the time I finish the whole area, I need to go back and do it again because the grass ends up growing back especially if we get more rain. I decided I need a stronger unit that can do the job faster. I started looking at the husqvarna web site. I was amazed to see that they have a "hovering" trimmer. It's a walk-behind trimmer that floats on a cushion of air. I thought that was pretty clever. Don't know how well it works in reality, but it is a clever concept.

Ideally, I would like to see a roomba equivalent of a trimmer. Let's call it "Trimba": a robotic trimmer where you can set the perimeter of your area to be trimmed, turn the thing on and let it whack. Of course you need to make sure it doesn’t whack the paint of your house, trim your pet's hair or damage your flower beds and fruit trees. Roomba has the accessories to prevent it from getting into certain areas, so I am sure the Trimba can do it too. I remember seeing robotic lawnmovers on the web a while back. Drop me a note if you see the Trimba.

Spring has arrived and Swami arrives this afternoon

2006-04-25T14:08:00.000-07:00

After a long phase of rains and cold nights, it finally feels like spring. The tulips in our yard now are in full bloom. I am sure the ones at Crystal Hermitage too but haven't seen them in the last week.

On a more important note, Swami arrives in the village this afternoon. It will be a joy-filled two months here with many events, satsangs, concerts, theatre plays, etc. It sure is a good time to be here.

IFTE #3 - CO detector for cars

2006-04-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

Ideas From The Ether #3

I don't drive that often since I work from home, but when I drive, I have an 8 hour one-way commute to Santa Barbara, where my company, Occam Networks, is located. 8 hours gives you a lot of time for thinking, so my mind also wanders about how to improve one's driving experience.

How often do you get behind an old vehicle going up a hill and you see the black smoke coming out of it's exhaust ? You reach for your car's recirculate button but it's too late, you already let all those fumes into your car. A carbon-monoxide detector is a common thing you can get for homes. Why not have one in a car that is integrated with the car's air circulation system? As soon as it detects the CO, it puts the system into "recirculate" mode. For added bonus, it also activates the ionizer to add a bit more freshness to the air. For the design of the year award, it also detects skunks. Wouldn't you buy that optional feature if you were buying a new car ?

IFTE #2 - iPod Projector

2006-04-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

Before iPod came out with the iPod video, I was thinking about a portable video device that can support a large display in a compact unit. iPod video is a step forward, but who would watch a full-length movie on such a small display, much less watch it with someone else ?

What if you could do a mini projector that would fit into the form factor of an iPod video (or perhaps make it slighly bigger)? This is not intended to be used in a large conference hall for a professional presentation, but perhaps to watch a video with a friend or to watch a movie on an airplane on a projected screen of the size of a common laptop display perhaps.

Here are some challenges and possible solutions:

1. Power drain: a standard projector lamp uses a lot of power, however there are already some LED based projectors out there. Again we are talking about a small screen and relatively short throw distance here. With LED, there is no heat, there is no warm-up/cool-down period and there is no bulb replacement after so many hours.

2. Screen: You need something to project the video on. A piece of white paper? Wrinkle-free folding fabric ? That should be easy.

3. Internal vs external: This could be an external plug in unit that attaches to the iPod through the dock connector. It may even have it's own rechargeable battery so that it doesn't use up the iPod battery. Once the technology improves I can see Apple offering it as an integrated iPod video projector unit.

Extend my Windows desktop

2006-04-20T08:34:00.000-07:00

Lifehacker today posted an article based on a NYT article regarding the productivity increase when using a dual monitor setup. I can't agree with it more. Though I used virtual desktops before I found them only marginally useful. The dual monitor setup is great. Especially for someone who does more than just email and browsing. The setup I use is not a PC with two video cards. At least not visibly so. I use an IBM T41 laptop, which happened to come with "Multiple Monitors" support. I have my laptop raised up a few inches next to my 19" LCD monitor with the laptop's display also open. I use both the laptop's LCD and the external LCD at the same time resulting in a double-wide screen. The screen real estate is nearly doubled. In order to use an external monitor as an additional monitor to your laptop's LCD, the laptop needs to have support for "Multiple Monitors". If you have a modern laptop, perhaps it already has that support.
How to find that out ? Right click on an empty area of your Windows desktop. Click on Properties. Go to Settings tab. If you see two monitor icons, you are in luck. When you click on #2 monitor, you will see a checkbox below that says "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor". Click on Apply and you are good to go. You can change the position of the monitors by dragging #1 after #2 or vice versa.

IFTE #1 - iPod autostart/stop mode

2006-04-19T10:17:00.000-07:00

Here is IFTE (Ideas From The Ether) #1.

I sent this idea to Apple but so far no action. I am sure they hear thousands of ideas from their fans. When I first started using my iPod in the car, I missed a simple feature that I was used to when playing CDs. When I am playing a CD in the car, every time I stop the car the CD stops, when I restart the car the CD continues from where I left it off. Very useful feature that I am accustomed to when I am running errands in town. The iPod can't do that. You have to remember to turn it off and then turn it back on again every time. Moreover, if you park your car overnight and you forgot to turn off your iPod, next morning your iPod's battery will run out.

This is such an easy feature that can be added to an iPod. You add a setting that says "AutoStart/Stop Enable/Disable". When enabled and if it is plugged to a power source, the iPod would automatically turn off when the power is cut off. It would automatically restart when the power source comes on again. This will work the same way a car's CD player works. I am hoping that Apple will eventually implement this feature.

IFTE - Ideas From The Ether

2006-04-18T15:01:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while my engineering mind starts churning and spitting out ideas that I don't do anything about. Sometimes I think, I should patent this idea or I should start a company. Some of these are simple improvements to existing products, some are new product ideas and some are kinda futuristic - way out there - type of ideas. All are within the realm of possibility and I believe the technology exists to create them, even if it may not be practical to manufacture them in terms of cost and ROI. More often than not, either the idea feels to far out or I don't have enough motivation to really do something about it. So instead, I decided I will start posting these ideas in my blog. If you find an idea great and want to pursue it by starting a company or patenting it, go ahead. (If you get rich and would like to make a donation, I can tell you the name of my favorite charity). Well, you can't actually patent it because since it is posted on the web it is already public information.

In general, I think that a lot of these ideas are already in the ether and probably a number of other people have thought about it or are thinking about it or perhaps even a product exists that uses that idea. In either case, blogging might help get these things out of my brain so that those empty cells can go into the "available cell repository" (if they don't get immediately filled with new ideas).

I will title these blogs IFTE (Ideas From The Ether) #xx.

With this post, I will also start experimenting with the blogger ads. Let me know if they become annoying.

Papatya - In Memoriam

2006-04-16T16:17:00.000-07:00

Papatya (1993 to Easter 2006)

Our dear friend and companion Papatya has peacefully passed away on Easter morning 2006.

She was born in Koral and Suzanne's home in Santa Barbara to Lavender (father) and ?? (mother) who were rescued from a household where they were not being well cared for. She started living with two existing bunnies (Amber and Sasha) in the same house, as well as her mom, dad and three other siblings. When she moved to a home with a larger yard, she preferred the outdoor living to indoors. After all, Santa Barbara climate was perfect for her. Unfortunately, over the first few years of her life she lost all of her friends and relatives to different causes (a dog attack, myxomatosis - a deadly virus). After those losses she preferred to be alone and kept indoors. Though she were given many choices of companions of same species, she preferred to be a celibate nun for the rest of her life. She started her meditation lessons along with her adopted parents in the year 2000.

For the rest of her life she continued meditating regularly by frequently visiting the meditation room in her house.

Though she no longer had any bunny friends, she made many human friends (Jackie/Virani, Eliane, Elanor Marcella), who frequently cared for her when her parents were out of town. She consistently contributed to the household by providing extra-potent fertilizer for all the garden vegetables and fruit trees. She is survived by her adopted parents Koral and Suzanne, who already miss her. A memorial service was held right outside her home at Ananda shortly after her passing.

Calle Koral

2006-04-12T09:16:00.000-07:00

In case anyone is wondering if I am famous in Santa Barbara, a picture is worth a thousand words. Right after I left Santa Barbara for Ananda they named this new street in Goleta after me (for some odd reason they didn't call me for the opening ceremony). It is a few blocks from my work and kitty corner from the Goleta Valley Athletic Club, which I visit almost every day when I am in Santa Barbara.

koralusa

2006-04-10T16:10:00.000-07:00

Someone at work figured out what I do in my spare time. I guess I can't keep it secret anymore :-)
http://www.koralusa.com

cycling after 6 weeks of break

2006-04-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

I was finally able get on to my bike again today after a break of six weeks. Not much aerobic exercise during those six weeks either. In fact, one might consider walking on the streets of big cities of India anaerobic exercise. Kidding aside, the air quality in India was much better than I anticipated, nevertheless, it is no comparison to the fresh air of the Sierra foothills. After weeks of rain and snow, the sun was shining today and the air was very crisp. Going out for a bicycle ride felt as healing as getting an Ayurvedic massage. My legs remembered the bike but my butt didn't, as it felt sore right away, I guess it will take a few more rides to numb those nerves again.

Of Mice and Men

2006-04-05T14:10:00.000-07:00

Another cute story I remembered from our India trip. It was during the meditation classes held in Delhi. We were at the Officers' Club, Railway Officers' Colony which we were using as the lecture hall. I was sitting in the very back of the room by the entrance to help with the late arrivals. Haridas had just finished a short meditation session and as he was finishing up he suggested everyone to hold on to that peace as they opened their eyes. Right at that moment this big rat started running on the floor past the back row of chairs where a western lady who lives in Delhi was sitting. The rat ran past by her catching her totally off-guard and scaring her to death. She tried to stay quiet because of the quiet room so she barely uttered this "Eeeek" and pulled her feet up to her seat. I had to hold myself hard not to laugh at the whole situation.

memory foam

2006-04-04T07:21:00.000-07:00

I remembered a fun story of the time we were in Kolkata and I had to blog it. The high-school girls, Smallens, Santoshi and Irene were staying at the Fairlawn hotel in Kolkata, while we were at the Oberoi. The two hotels are about a 5-10 minute walk from each other. One evening, we were having dinner together at the Thai restaurant at the Oberoi. Suzanne and I were at the same table with the Smallens, Santoshi and Irene. Santoshi and Irene were relating stories about the comforts(!) of their hotel. Irene had a hard time sleeping on her bed because the mattress was out of shape. She started thinking, "maybe it's memory foam" then she thought "Yes, it must be memory foam, it remembers every single person who slept on it". We couldn't stop laughing for ten minutes.

01:02:03 04/05/06

2006-04-03T09:58:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 AM the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06
How cool is that?

Barbara's web site

2006-04-02T15:16:00.000-07:00

Here are many fun photos and movies from India that Barbara Bingham has posted on the web:
http://web.mac.com/barbara_bingham/iWeb/India%202006/Welcome.html

We are back at home

2006-04-02T09:41:00.000-07:00

This concludes my blogging regarding our India/France trip. I hope you enjoyed the posts. I figured this was a better way of keeping in touch instead of emailing. It's good to be back home.

Musee d'Orsay

2006-03-30T11:43:00.000-08:00

No, that's not the picture of the hotelroom we stayed at in Paris. Hopefully you recognized this painting. It's Van Gogh's bedroom in Arles. This was at the Orsay museum along with many other fine art paintings. My favorites were the works of Van Gogh, Monet and Pisarro. This museum is filled with their work. It was so much fun to see so many of their work in one place. Surprisingly, they don't mind the visitors taking pictures, as long as flash is not used. I ended up taking enough pictures to make my own screensaver. I actually enjoyed my visit to Musee d'Orsay more than my visit to Louvre.
I had to have my picture taken in front of Monet's "Les dindons". I had never seen this one before.
This "Baby John the Baptist" sculpture was also calling for a picture.

Yumm!

2006-03-30T09:38:00.000-08:00

My blog about the Paris adventures cannot be complete without mentioning our favorite bakery/cafe here, called Paul. We went to this place every morning to get our Cafe Au Lait, Cafe Mocha, bread, croissont, etc. The bakery items are great, the coffee is great, the atmosphere is great. I am sure there are many bakeries/cafes like this in Paris, but this one happened to be on our way whenever we left our hotel for the day and it was a perfect stop to start our daily adventures. Later we noticed several other Paul's scattered around the city. In case you are wondering, this one is on Rue De Seine (and Rue De Buci) about 10 minutes from Luxembourg gardens. Their hot chocolate wasn't like a milk and melted chocolate mixture, it was like melted chocolate mixed with heavy cream. They don't skimp on fat here. Low-fat probably won't translate into French.

Opera - March 29

2006-03-29T09:30:00.000-08:00

Wednesday evening, we had tickets for a performance at the Opera Garnier. When we visited the Opera on Monday we thought it would be great to catch a performance here, because it is such a beautiful building. Our first choice was Figaro, but it was sold out. We were in the ticket line already and without thinking about it too much, we ended up buying tickets to a modern dance performance. It was unbearable. It wasn't even rajasic, it was tamasic. The music was disgusting and that made all the dance moves seem terrible too. I couldn't find anything enjoyable about the performance. There was no moment of upliftment and I thought, is this really art ? What is the purpose of this whole thing ? I might be ignorant about the modern dance, and that might have contributed to my dislike. However, I visit museums and I do see many uplifting pieces of art even though I might not know much about the particular art or the artist. Anyway, I would love to catch a more traditional performance in this opera house one day. For now, I am left with the pleasant memories of the interior beauty and I am trying to forget the performance alltogether.

Queen's Hamlet

2006-03-29T09:26:00.000-08:00

At the end of our Versailles visit we also visited the Queen's Hamlet on the same property. This was a getaway for Marie Antoinette. The design was so unlike the Chateau Versailles. It looked just like an English country village. The interiors weren't open but the grounds were a delight to visit.

Versailles - March 29

2006-03-29T09:17:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday, we tried our chance again at the Versailles. The RER was about 15-20 minutes delayed but we still got there at a reasonable time. We purchased the guided tour, which was great. The group was small and our guide was very informative.

One of my favorite pieces during the tour was this clock which was several hundred years old and still in great working condition. It showed the exact date, month, year and it was designed to show the date accurately until year 9999. That's up to Y10K. Who can match that ? It takes into account the leap years too. It has a special vibration dampening base to prevent the floor vibrations from reaching its mechanisms. It only needs winding once a month. Appearently there is full-time staff at Versailles whose job is to maintain and wind these clocks, there are quite a few of them, but this one was unique. This clock also was the reference clock for the entire France, kinda like the atomic clock of that age.
This last picture shows me taking a picture of this gorgeous malachite basin.

Paris - March 28

2006-03-28T09:08:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday we headed over to Versailles. It's about 40 minute ride from the city on the RER train and a 10 minute walk from the train station. When we got there we looked for the cashier to purchase our entry tickets but all were closed. We started asking around to figure out what's happening. People kept saying "la greve". We finally figured out that the museum workers were on strike. Lucky for us, the gardens were open, so we were able to stroll around and spend a good part of the day in its gardens. We made a full circle tracing the perimeter of the pool/canals which took over two hours. Later we found out that the property's perimeter is 42 kilometers. Even though the museum was closed we had a great time just visiting the gardens.

March 27 - Paris

2006-03-27T08:54:00.000-08:00

On March 27, we arrived in Paris. We arrived at our hotel around 10am. After freshening up a bit, we went out to explore again. Our first stop was the Arc de Triomphe on Champs Elysees. The first picture you see us on top of the Arc.

This picture was taken on the other end of Champs Elysees at Place de la Concorde right outside the Jardin des Tuileries.

The third picture is inside the Opera.

This last picture shows Sacre-Coeur, a Byzantine-looking impressive 130 year-old church.

Mumbai - March 26

2006-03-26T08:51:00.000-08:00

A group picture of the afternoon (advanced meditation) session attendees.

Mumbai March 26th Sunday

2006-03-26T08:39:00.000-08:00

Sunday was the last day of the classes. I had originally planned to ship all remaining books and CDs back to Gurgaon. I called GATI while we were still in Gurgaon and made arrangements to have them pick up the boxes from the Indian Red Cross on Sunday at 8pm. When I called them back to confirm on Saturday, they said Sunday 8pm was too late and they couldn't do it. So, I had to come up with a backup plan. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 1:50am Monday (a few hours after the lectures) from Mumbai to Paris. I talked to Rammurti and he said I could leave most of the books/CDs in Mumbai for the next lecture tour (in 3 to 6 months). This would save a lot of rupees in shipping. Mr. Biswas generously offered to store whatever we wanted to keep in Mumbai. So, that's what we did. Whatever we had to ship back to Gurgaon, I marked them separately to be stored overnight and Yogesh offered to arrange shipping for those boxes. This plan worked out great.

Suzanne and I were able to leave the lecture hall around 9pm, went to the hotel for a shower and light dinner and headed to the Mumbai airport.

The first two pictures show Dhyana and Jaya demonstrating the spinal adjustment and the last picture shows the students trying it for the first time.

Mumbai - March 25th Saturday

2006-03-25T08:33:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning, we arrived at the Indian Red Cross building bright and early (at 7:30 am). Suzanne didn't get much sleep as she was entering latest registrants' info in to the computer. It was another busy but fun-filled day. We had about 190 people attending the morning (beginning meditation) class. The first picture shows the attendees practicing the Superconscious Living Exercises. Second picture shows Jaya giving his discourse and the last picture shows the book table.

Mumbai - March 23

2006-03-23T07:52:00.000-08:00

After a breakfast at our hotel, Dharmadas, Jaya, Dhyana, Ruby, Suzanne and I went to see the venues for this weekend. Our first stop was at K.C. College auditorium, which was only a few minutes away from our hotel. You see the front of the College building in the first picture. We looked at the facility and planned where to setup the registration table, book tables, etc. From there we headed over to the Indian Red Cross building next to the Asiatic Society Central Library (see second picture), which was another 10 minutes drive from K.C. College. We did the same type of planning there. We had the challenge of where to store the books Friday night until Saturday morning since we had to go to a different venue on Saturday. Luckily, I was able to arrange storage at the second venue thanks to a nice gentleman at the Indian Red Cross who collected the security deposit from me. I also became friends with the guard, which is one of the most important persons you need to know in order to get things done. If you know the guard, you can get to anywhere in the building, even if it is locked. This becomes important because often times we need access to other parts of the building to hang banners, etc. The third picture shows the entrance to the parking lot of the Indian Red Cross. The Saturday/Sunday lectures were to be held at the Taleyarkhan Memorial Hall.

We spent the daytime Friday doing further preparations for the lectures, mainly data entry, copies, paper folding and envelope stuffing.

We are in Mumbai

2006-03-22T07:50:00.000-08:00

Around 10am we left the Ananda center, picked up Dhyana and went to the Delhi airport. After a pleasant and ontime flight with SpiceJet, we arrived in Mumbai around 2:30pm. A van picked us up from the airport and drove us to the Oberoi towers in the south end of Mumbai. The first picture shows the world's smallest taxi. Our van was a bit bigger than that one. The hotel is about a 45 minute drive from the airport. The hotel is quite nice but somehow not as nice as the Kolkata Oberoi. The service level doesn't compare to the one we encountered in Kolkata. The view is quite nice though. It is very close to the sea, so we get to see that from our room.

After we checked in to our rooms and got our luggage, we went down to the restaurant to have a late lunch / early dinner. Strolled around the shops in and around the hotel. Tomorrow we will be going to the venues for the weekend and do some preparations.

Last two days in Gurgaon

2006-03-21T03:36:00.000-08:00

Sunday evening after the lectures, Suzanne and I took Jaya and Sadhanadevi out to dinner to our favorite Italian restaurant (Tonini's). The dinner once again was delicious. It was great to chat and catch up with them.

On Monday, Lakshman took us out to breakfast at the Hilton Trident. What a beautiful hotel that is. The food was great too and we were able to spend some quality time with our dear friend Lakshman. The service you get at these five star hotels are truly five star. I have been to some five star hotels (at least for business trips) in the US, but the Indian five star hotels definitely got the service figured out. You have to really be there to experience it. There are areas of the hotel we can't normally go to but at breakfast time they don't regulate it, so we took a walk towards the guestrooms. They are located around a courtyard made of reflecting pools with water trickling down the walls to a lower area where there is a real swimming pool. The rooms around this courtyard have floor to ceiling windows that face the reflecting pools. It is very cleverly designed because the constant sound of water dampens the traffic noise that you'd otherwise hear because busy streets are not too far from there. One more pleasant surprise was that when we went to the restaurant it was Swami's music playing in the background. In fact, the whole time it was Swami's music (it was Secrets of Love if I remember correctly). Lakshman said that they had given the hotel some of Swami's CDs and they were usually playing them in a shuffle with other CDs. This was the first time they played only his CD(s) the whole time.

The rest of Monday I spent with printer and networking issues. I must say it is quite challenging since there are all kinds of machines (Win2K, XP, MacOS 9.x, 10.x) that make it quite complicated to make all printers work from all machines. I don't think I have solved all the issues but hopefully it is a bit more functional than it used to be.

Suzanne has been working on getting the spreadsheets of the registrants ready for the Mumbai event. A lot of data entry with names that we don't see every day.

On Tuesday, we had a meeting with Dharmadas, Jaya, Sadhanadevi, Claudio and Deborah to go over the Mumbai lecture tour. The good thing is we have a number of Sangha members traveling to Mumbai as well as several volunteers joining us for the weekend. With all this help things should go a lot more smoothly than in Kolkata. We spent the rest of Tuesday doing more preparations for the Mumbai weekend.

We fly to Mumbai tomorrow (Wednesday) and the lecture series start on Friday evening. Dhyana arrives from Italy late tonight and she will also join us tomorrow for the Mumbai trip. We are taking SpiceJet this time (the previous one was JetAirways). It is supposed to be like JetBlue in the US, cheap with no-frills.

Sat/Sun of lecture series

2006-03-19T03:13:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday and Sunday we continued to help with the weekend lecture series. There were only beginning classes, so both days the programs went until 2pm. We had lots of volunteers and staff members that made the setup and teardown really easy. The location was in a nice area of Delhi, where most of the consulates were located. You can see the before and after pictures of the venue.

I had the opportunity to chat with a few of the attendees. Suzanne and I talked to a very nice young couple both of whom work for the Gallop poll company. It is nice to see people from all kinds of backgrounds and all ages. The nicest thing is that it is very easy to talk to them about spiritual path and practices. They don't get freaked out when you use the word God. I also talked to another nice man who was in town for a few days to take his TOEFL (English proficiency) and GRE (math, analytical proficiency) exams in order to start a PhD degree. He had a Computer Science background like myself. He was flipping through the pages of newspaper and came across our ad. He had a day off so he decided to come to the lecture. How many people in the US would decide to use their free day at the last minute to go to a meditation class ? That's what makes India so special. There was another very pleasant gentleman probably in his fifties who said that he had learned about meditation some 40 years ago in school, and he said it took Americans to come to India to remind him about the beauty of it again. All the people I talked to were very impressed and inspired by the lectures.

Lectures in Delhi

2006-03-18T08:26:00.000-08:00

This weekend there is another lecture series in Delhi. Friday evening is the open-to-public discourse on meditation and Kriya Yoga. Saturday and Sunday are two four-hour classes on beginning and intermediate meditation.

Friday morning I went to Swami's house again to meet with Lakshman. We installed the Vonage unit back into the network and made a few test calls. It all seems to work ok so far. Lakshman will try to test it as much as possible while I am still in Gurgaon. He also has an interesting setup for Swami where a cordless bluetooth-capable phone attaches to the phone switch in the house and via a special extension can get a dial tone in Nevada City through the Vonage unit. The bluetooth-capable phone links to Swamiji's hearing aid (which is also bluetooth capable) via another device called SmartLink which provides a bridge between the phone and the hearing aid and it also provides a microphone to speak into. This is quite an ingenious link of devices for Swami to be able to make and receive phone calls to/from America with highest possible quality and lowest possible cost, giving him the freedom to roam around the house with a cordless handset in his pocket (or on his desk) while talking on the phone.

Friday afternoon we hopped onto a Toyota SUV taxi with all the supplies needed for the weekend and headed over to the auditorium of the Delhi railroad museum where the Friday evening's discourse was going to be held. The location and facility was excellent especially compared to the facilities we had in Kolkata. We had many volunteers that made the preparations go very smoothly. Jaya, Dharmadas, Nirmala and Haridas were the acharyas present for the evening. My favorite part is the end of the talk where the audience is allowed to ask questions. Some ask the usual practical question such as "how long should I meditate?" and "what do I do with the noise?" etc, but you also hear much deeper and blunt questions such as "Can I experience the presence of God during meditation?" and "Do you feel the Kundalini rising during Kriya Yoga?", questions that we are not that used to hear in the U.S.

Short visit with Swamiji

2006-03-18T07:56:00.000-08:00

Thursday (16th) I helped out with a number of network related issues as well as testing Vonage (Voice over IP) connections. In the afternoon, Suzanne and I went out to run a few errands. We stopped by the Metropolitan mall to check out the Ananda store called "The Wishing Tree". It's a beatifully designed store with spiritual books, CDs, mini statues, incense, water fountains, etc. The mall itself is very western, with all the top brands you'd see in the American malls. Inside there you feel like you might be in any mall in America. There is a Barista cafe there where we enjoyed cappuccinos, it has the feel of Starbucks.

After our little outing, we stopped at Swami's house where I was going to pick up the Vonage unit to test in the evening. Suzanne also came along so that she could see the house. As we were about to leave Swamiji saw us and we had a chance to visit with him. We talked about his latest book, "The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita", and his ideas about the upcoming projects. I had given Lakshman a copy of the Fast Company magazine which had an article about a new solar power system developed by a company called Stirling, because I had heard that Swamiji was very interested in building solar power systems in India in large scale. Appearently he had already heard about that company. He also mentioned that Ananda's upcoming Yoga Institute of Living Wisdom in India was invited to be a part of an international online university called "The World Wisdom Academy", which will be an adjunct to the Club of Budapest, founded by Ervin Laszlo. The curriculum of this university includes ecological sustainability, inner growth and personal development, development of corporate culture and social and political transformation all based on peace, harmony, individual and shared well-being. He asked me to work with Jemal and help out with the technical parts of this project, because it involves online teaching. This would be a great way to get the universal teachings of Yogananda out to the world.

The first picture you see is the Barista at the Metropolitan Mall. The second one is Suzanne with Jasbir, who taylored a couple of outfits for Suzanne.

Back in Gurgaon

2006-03-18T07:30:00.000-08:00

After a late flight on Monday spilling into Tuesday (14th) we were back in action on Tuesday morning because we had to start preparing for the Mumbai lecture tours. We met with Jaya to talk about what went well and what we could do to better prepare ourselves for the next lecture tour. We also prepared a list of books we need to ship to Mumbai and I started working on that with Jemal. I made a few calls to potential attendees in Mumbai in the evening inviting them to the lectures. Those are really tricky since I don't know any Hindi. First of all, the list I had to call didn't have Mr. or Mrs. titles for the names, so I wasn't sure how to address them. In India, the more formal the better, but I had to skip Mr/Mrs lest I make a mistake. The person who answers the phone doesn't necessarily speak English and when I ask for a specific name I get an answer in some mixture of Hindu/English at which point I have no idea whether:
1. I am talking to the person I am looking for, or,
2. He/she is getting the person I am looking for, or,
3. The person I am looking for is currently not home, or,
4. I called the wrong number.

Each call becomes quite a confused conversation and at the end I end up with less information than I started with. After about five calls we decided it's best for a Hindi speaking person to make these calls.

Wednesday (15th) was Holi. For an outside observer it seems about as significant as Halloween in the U.S. Basically, if you are out on the streets during Holi, you will get covered with paint and it is normal. The pictures show some of our friends after having joined in this fun. I stayed indoors and helped with the book shipment preparations. For my own edification, I looked up the meaning of this day and here is what I found:

"The festival of Holi is celebrated on the day after the full moon in early March every year.

Originally a festival to celebrate good harvests and fertility of the land, Holi is now a symbolic commemmoration of a legend from Hindu Mythology. The story centres around an arrogant king who resents his son Prahlada worshipping Lord Vishnu. He attempts to kill his son but fails each time. Finally, the king's sister Holika who is said to be immune to burning, sits with the boy in a huge fire. However, the prince Prahlada emerges unscathed, while his aunt burns to death. Holi commemorates this event from mythology, and huge bonfires are burnt on the eve of Holi as its symbolic representation.

This exuberant festival is also associated with the immortal love of Krishna and Radha, and hence, Holi is spread over 16 days in Vrindavan as well as Mathura - the two cities with which Lord Krishna shared a deep affiliation. Apart from the usual fun with coloured powder and water, Holi is marked by vibrant processions which are accompanied by folk songs, dances and a general sense of abandoned vitality."

Wednesday evening, Keshava and Diana invited us to a dinner out at an Italian restaurant called "Toninos". The food was excellent. Being in that restaurant was like being in Italy. Pizza came from a wood-burning oven, which is my favorite. We had a great time of sharing and eating.

Last day (Monday) in Kolkata

2006-03-15T04:22:00.000-08:00

Monday was our day off after a week of touring holly sites and then helping with the lecture tour. So, we finally were able to sleep in. In the morning I got the book/CD boxes taken care off. We checked out of the hotel at noon, but stayed within the premises.

After lunch, we both had spa appointments. Dave Bingham had suggested the Ayurvedic massage mentioning that it was very caring and nurturing, so I tried that massage and it was just like he described. The "therapy suites", as they call them, are huge. They are like large apartments all by themselves. There are two massage tables for those couples who want to have their massage simultaneously. There is an old-fashioned tub (used for certain treatments), a private steam room, bathroom and shower room in each suite. When you enter, the first thing they do is wash your feet (and you need that in Kolkata). The therapists are very professional, courteous and skilled. You really feel like a prince being pampered. That was a great way to finish off the week.

After our treatments we proceeded to the airport, this time with a crazy young driver from the Oberoi, driving as if on a race track. Driving in India is like those video games where a car suddenly cuts you off, another one approaches from the side leaving less than inch in between, cows appear out of nowhere plus the honking. You have to be extremely alert. Our driver had probably about three really close calls, coming to screeching stops because he loved to tailgate. We were chanting aum all the way to the airport but made it there in one piece. One thing I noticed though is that with all this honking and aggressive driving, people are actually not angry at all, there is still a calm feeling beyond that. Turkey has similar traffic (perhaps not as crowded or crazy but it is reminiscent of this), but the main difference is people do get angry and curse at each other in Turkey. Even in the U.S. which has much less traffic, when people drive like this there is a lot of anger and yelling, but here, it is just part of the flow. People don't seem angry and they don't yell at each other or use profanity. The other thing I noticed in India is that I don't remember getting stuck in traffic more than a minute or so (and when we are stuck for a minute, that's usually due to traffic signals). Even when there is congestion the traffic moves, it's slow but it moves. I haven't encountered a gridlock or anything like that.

Our flight was a bit late, with the transport from Delhi to Gurgaon, we ended up going to bed around 2am. Sleeping in tomorrow...

Sunday in Kolkata

2006-03-14T23:49:00.000-08:00

Sunday was the last day of classes in Kolkata. The morning was less hectic since we already had all the material at the venue. There was an energization class early afternoon for the intermediate meditation class. You see a picture from that event. I also saw one of the guards getting curious about what everyone was doing and joining in the fun. The other picture is some wild horses across the street from the Academy of the Fine Arts where the classes were held.

We also served tea in the mornings and afternoons. It is interesting to see how labor is divided among different people. First of all we had a person assigned to our conference room the whole time, he is like a guard outside, and he also monitors the room occasionally, making sure we are not doing something in there that we are not supposed to do. Most of the time he sits outside by himself or chats with friends. They have shifts so the person may change from morning to afternoon. Some are very serviceful and they are very grateful for any tip (bakshish) they might receive at the end of the day (Rs. 10 goes a long way, since I heard they make about Rs. 100 a day). One day our guard was directing the tea person on where to place the hot tea dispenser on our registration table. We asked our guard to turn the pot 90 degrees pointing the spout the other way. Instead of lifting it up and doing it himself, he called the tea person and have him do it. They do not touch each other's tasks. Similarly if we need chairs arranged for instance, if we start doing it, they don't touch it, even if that is their task. We also found out that they most typically don't listen to women. If Suzanne asks them to do something, they don't do it, or they procrastinate on it for a long time. If I ask them, they do it right away. So, after a while Suzanne stopped asking them to do anything. She asks me, I ask them and it gets done.

Since the book and registration tables were outside the conference room in a public area of the academy, we had a lot of people passing by and browsing through the books. The "spirit-in-nature" essences drew the most attention and most number of questions. We also had people stopping by and sharing their own "spiritual wisdom" when they saw we were selling spiritual books.

At the end of the day on Sunday, we still had 11 boxes of material remaining that we had to ship. We wanted to ship them to Mumbai to use the books/CDs at the next event. GATI is the company Ananda uses here. It's like the Indian version of UPS. They are supposed to come and pick up the boxes when you call them, but finding a person who'd do that proved impossible on Sunday. Their supposedly 24hr international call center didn't answer calls. The local office we found (which also said 24hr on their logo) was closed on Sunday afternoon. I called a dozen different numbers, only one of them answered, but no one spoke English. If I ask them "do you speak English?" they say "yes", but that seems to be the only English they know. We ended up lugging all these boxes back to our hotel (I am sure the bellboys were saying, "oh no, not again"). I called the local GATI number on Monday morning, found an English speaker, who gave me a cell phone number, and finally I was able to arrange a pick-up from the hotel. Things went smoothly from that point on, they were on time.

Meditation and Kriya Yoga Lectures in Kolkata

2006-03-11T09:16:00.000-08:00

On Thursday we met Jaya and Dharmadas at their hotel to plan the weekend of the lectures. In the evening we called about a dozen people who had attended the previous lecture series in Kolkata and we invited them again to this weekend’s classes. In India, an email or written invitation is needed but not enough. It always needs to be followed up with a phone call to personally invite them again.

Friday evening was the free class for everyone about meditation and Kriya Yoga. It was held at the Kala Mandir, about 10 minutes from our hotel (including traffic). We arrived there around 2:30pm and started getting the conference hall ready for the 7pm discourse. Jaya arrived shortly after and also rolled up his sleeves to get the place ready. By God’s grace we had it ready (or as ready as it can get) before the lecture. We even had two power outages through the evening, one before the lecture and one almost at the very end. We had about 250 people in the hall. I had the honor of introducing Jaya and Dharmadas for the evening. They both gave a wonderful introduction to meditation, Kriya Yoga and our path in general. Many people stayed at the end to ask further questions. The book table was like a mob scene. Imagine ten hands holding books extended toward you at the same time from all directions with ten voices saying “I’d like to get these” all at the same time. It was quite an experience.

At the end of the evening we had to pack up all the books, CDs and other setup material (about 20 boxes) and take them to our hotels, because we didn’t have the same conference facility the next two days. We split the boxes amongst ourselves, including dear friends and volunteers from Kolkata, Mr. Chaudhuri and his son Prasenjit, who took a few of the boxes with them to their home. Our hotel was very helpful in storing our 11 boxes overnight at the bell desk.

Next morning (Sat, March 11), we took all the boxes again to the new conference room at the Academy of Fine Arts using one of the metered taxis. The metered taxis are a different story. We used the hotel’s cars for the first few days, who are very professional, very friendly, the cars are much nicer and I am sure they are more expensive than the metered taxis (we will find out about it when we get our hotel bill). When you get into a metered taxi, it’s quite different. They are all Ambassador brand cars, which seem to be from the 60’s. The drivers don’t speak English. It’s a constant battle to figure out what the right amount to pay is because no matter what you pay them they want 50 rupees more. The taxi who took us to the Academy of Fine Arts found the location but he realized he was on the opposite side of the divided street. Since we had quite a few boxes, he wanted to take us to the entrance. His choices were either to continue to drive another ½ mile or so and make a U turn to get to the front of the facility or to drive backwards the way we came (against the traffic) and forward again on the opposite side of the divided streeat (again against the traffic). Guess what his choice was? Yepp, he first backed up about 500 meters against the traffic flow and then changed four lanes to get to the other side of the street and drive again another 500 meters against the traffic flow. All this time I was thinking, this would be a good story to write about.

The challenges at the new facility seem to be never-ending but once again we managed to get the place ready for Saturday morning’s lecture. We had about 70 attendees for the beginner’s meditation class in the morning and in the afternoon we had 5 attendees for the advanced class. I was able to spend only a few minutes inside the classroom, because I had to monitor the book tables outside, but for the few times I was in the classroom, I was able to feel the keen interest from the attendees and also outpouring energy and enthusiasm from Jaya and Dharmadas.

Tomorrow (Sunday) we will finish up with the second half of both series at the same facility.

Kolkata observations

2006-03-11T09:14:00.000-08:00

Kolkata air isn’t that bad. Perhaps it is the time of the year that makes difference too. I remember smelling heavy smog when our flight from France first started descending to Delhi. I haven’t smelled that much smog ever since. It is possible that I got used to it.

In Kolkata, driving time is about five minutes per kilometer. If someone says they live about 12 kilometers away, that means it takes them an hour to get there. In most areas, the speed of a motorized vehicle is about the same as the speed of a rickshaw. By the way, Kolkata is the last place in India that have non-bicycle rickshaws.

When we were in Serampore, walking through the streets from Sri Yukteswar’s hermitage to the nearby Ghat, it felt like travelling back in time to any year within the last couple of centuries if you can just erase the cell phones and motorized vehicles. It is as if things didn’t change much within the last few centuries. Open sewer systems, rickshaws, people bathing on the side of the streets, it’s quite a scene.

Thursday in Kolkatta

2006-03-11T09:02:00.000-08:00

Thursday early morning we joined the group again to visit the Dakhineshwar temple by the Ganges. This is where Ramakrishna spent most of his life, where the famous Kali temple is located. Again we were not allowed to take any pictures in there. This is a much busier place compared to the Blur Math. In fact, our guide said that this is the second most visited temple in India, with about 26000 visitors a day. Entering the temple grounds requires one to go through a long marketplace of flower shops where they sell hibiscus and marigolds to offer at the temple. After buying flowers for our group we left our shoes before the entrance at the official shoe keeping area where a person watches over a group of shoes for a fee. We had to go through security screening due to recent temple bombings in Varanasi. We spent around an hour and a half at the temple grounds, visiting various areas including the Kali Temple, Ramakrishna's bedroom and the banyan tree, chanting and meditating at these various places.

We were at the Mukherjee's again for lunch and for more satsang. We scattered around the house in various rooms and we also had the opportunity to lay on the bed where Master and Sri Yukteswar had slept. It was a very peaceful afternoon.

The picture of today is the meditation room at the Mukherjee's where Master and Tulsi Bose had meditated together.

Wednesday in Kolkatta

2006-03-11T08:58:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday, Suzanne and I visited the Belur Math (by the Ganges) in the morning where there is a Ramakrishna temple and several memorial building for Ramakrishna, Vivekananda and other disciples. We meditated inside the big temple where once an hour or so they open the iron gates to a shrine, where a lifesize statue of Ramakrishna is located behind thick glass. We were able to spend only about an hour there because the grounds close at noon and we weren’t able to get there before 11am due to the drive from our hotel taking much longer than we expected (somehow it always seems like that). We were not allowed to take any pictures at the Belur Math, so I am including a picture I took yesterday of one of the many stray dogs that live here.

In the afternoon, we went to the home of Devi and Hassi Mukherjee and meditated in their small meditation room where Master and his childhood friend Tulsi Bose often meditated together. Though the room must have been about 100F at that time, the vibrations were very sweet and being able to meditate there was very special.

At 6pm we walked over to Gosh’s house (right around the corner) with Santoshi where Durga, Vidura and high school girls were also present. This is where Master lived many years during his childhood and young adult life until he left for America. When we arrived there our group had already started chanting. Vidura took Suzanne and I around and showed us the special rooms. We meditated in Master’s attic meditation room and in other rooms too. After dinner the high school girls once again serenated us with their fiddle music. Somnath (great-great grand nephew of Master) took us to the rooftop and pointed out all the special spots around the neighborhood where many of the events of the Autobiography of a Yogi took place. It’s amazing how many great saints lived in a 500 meter radius. He also mentioned that many great politicians also lived in the same neighborhood. There must be something in the soil there.

First day in Kolkata

2006-03-07T05:21:00.000-08:00

A city of 13 million people. Driving across the city feels like it will never end. Our drive from the airport took about 45 minutes. A very pleasant driver from the Oberoi hotel came to pick us up in a very nice car (I think it was a brand new Toyota, something between Corolla and Camry). A Corolla or Camry may not look like a luxury car in the U.S. but believe me, in Kolkata, it feels like a limousine. We asked him to stop at an ATM on the way to the hotel. He pulled to the leftmost part of the road across the ATM machine which was located on the opposite side of the road. He came to the ATM with me because there was heavy traffic and it was dark. On the way back to the car, the traffic seemed even heavier. He figured that left to my own devices it may take me a couple of hours to cross the street, so he said "Hold my hand, I'll help you". So I clinged to him like a little child holding daddy's hand and we both ran across. I used to be able to do this by myself in Istanbul but that was over 15 years ago.

The hotel is absolutely gorgeous. The room had the most comfortable hotel bed I ever slept in. The breakfast buffet was delicious too. It is an oasis in the middle of an incredibly crowded and polluted city.

Vidura met us at the breakfast restaurant of our hotel in the morning (Tuesday March 7th) and Dave, Barbara, Brook, Suzanne, myself and Vidura walked over to the hotel where high school girls (and many others - Vidura, Durga, Santoshi, Irene, Cullen, Krishnabai) were also staying. It was about a 10 minute walk through the "real" city. There we boarded a bus and headed to Serampore (Sri Rampoor). On our way we picked up Devi (the son of Master's childhood friend Tulsi Bose) and Hashi Mukherjee from their house. Our first stop in Serampore was the YSS temple built in memory of Sri Yukteswar, located adjacent to Sri Yukteswar's home and hermitage. We chanted and meditated in the temple. We then proceeded to Sri Yukteswar's home next door. We walked through the balcony where Sri Yukteswar spent countless hours with many of his disciples. We then entered to his room and meditated there too. His wooden chair was also in that room for us to touch and meditate with. The room was filled with sweet energy. From there we proceeded to Rai Ghat by the Ganges. We sat underneath the banyan tree where Babaji appeared to Sri Yukteswar (see Chapter 36, Babaji's Interest in the West, in Autobiography of a Yogi) . We chanted there for 15 minutes or so, during which time we became the local attraction to all ages. Many of us dipped our feet into the Ganges, the braver ones went in all the way to their knees.

Durlov (Master's grand-nephew, Ananta's grandson) took us to their home for satsang and lunch. There we met Durlov's wife Bubu, their son Ishan, Durlov's sister Krishna. The Mukherjee's were also with us there. We toured the house, had wonderful satsang with everyone, had a delicious meal (including pizza!!), chanted and meditated. Brian and the high-school girls played fiddle music for everyone's delight. We spent about three ours in their home which felt like home to everyone. From there we returned to our hotel.

In the evening, Dave B. invited everyone over to dinner at our hotel's Thai restaurant. It was a fun filled evening, with lots of giggling mixed with louder laughters. The service and food was first class.

More stories to follow tomorrow...

Weekend in Gurgaon

2006-03-06T10:00:00.000-08:00

After a day in Gurgaon at the Ananda Center, we realized that we will need a cell phone while we are here. Vidura kindly offered to take me to the nearby cellphone shop and help me with the process. Appearently he helped two other people in the last two days so the guys at the store know him quite well by now. We rode a rickshaw to the mall where the phone shop is located. That was an experience all by itself. It is best to close your eyes and pray. Despite the heavy traffic and extreme-close-proximity driving, there are not many accidents here. At least I haven’t come across any. Even when they happen, I heard that they are low speed accidents so they are rarely fatal. With all the honking and waving, somehow it all works smoothly. Honking is not only allowed, it is encouraged. Most buses and trucks have a “Please Horn” sign on their bumper. By God’s grace we arrived at the mall. Vidura inquired for the cheapest Nokia phone. Once the phone model is determined the next step is to get some passport pictures for the “mobile phone application form”. A copy of the passport is also attached to the application. Despite all this paperwork, within half an hour the phone got activated and they were able to add the pay-as-you-go minutes to my phone. We also stopped by the Hutch(sp?) shop, which is another cell phone service provider, to add international roaming to Dhyana’s phone. This store looked like from space age. When you enter the store, you first go to a touch-screen terminal where you enter your inquiry and get a number. A few minutes later a computerized voice calls your number along with a booth number that you go to. Unfortunately, we were told that a copy of the passport was needed to add international roaming. From that space-agey store you walk outside to the street, where dust, rickshaws and cows rule. You can observe multiple centuries all happening at the same time.

The air is generally clear in Gurgaon, at least this time of the year. The weather has been comfortable, somewhat warm during the day but comfortably cool at night for sleep. Since I haven’t been outside Gurgaon and outside the gated DLF Phase-I area (where Ananda center is), I can’t add my opinion but I have been told that it is like the Beverly Hills of India. Sure there is trash, dust and all that but it is quite nice in general. After a while you don’t really notice those things, trash becomes part of the landscape, honking becomes part of the music, cows become part of the local wildlife just like deer at Ananda village. In fact cows of Gurgaon seem quite well fed.

The weekend of March 3 through 6 (Friday evening through Monday mid-day) was the Mahasamadhi celebrations. We spent all day Friday preparing the local community center for the event. Many volunteers showed up and helped transform a beaten-up looking community hall into a beautiful room with flowers, colorful wall covers, altars, bookstore, boutique and gift shop. At its peak throughout the weekend, we had about 250 attendees, including many visitors from America and Italy. Swami gave speeches of over 90 minutes every morning (every day he was able to stand longer than the day before to deliver his speec). He looked and sounded great. He was constantly pouring his energy out encouraging everyone to be part of this wonderful work in India. Much of his talks were focused on different aspects of his masterpiece, “the Essence of Bhagavad Gita”, the first prints of which arrived during the first evening. It was an exteremely inspiring weekend. We met many wonderful people and devotees from India.
Saturday evening we had a musical program where Swamiji also sang with the choir. It was quite special to be able to sing with him on the stage.

Indians have great reverence for Swamiji, they flock towards him whereever he goes, bowing to his feet and asking for his blessing. Swami always greets them graciously, with most sincere smile and with no hint of ego. One of the greatest features of Indians is their openness. On Sunday as Swami was arriving at the hall, one middle-aged man bowed to his feet and asked for his blessing. He started pouring his heart to Swami explaining his trouble with his marriage. Swami listened to his troubles attentively and gave advice right there on the spot. All this happening in the midst of a crowd all wanting to get a dharshan of Swami. Indians have a great quality of open heart. They do not have any trouble of asking for help with what issue they might have with their lives even if other people might be listening. They do not mind that at all. One young Indian man asked my advice about his upcoming marriage about half an hour after we met. They are just so open. They do not have any of these barriers and personal space that we are so used to in the U.S.

The weekend events concluded on Monday afternoon with a fairwell lunch. At the lunch I had a nice chat with an Indian middle-aged man who was quite interested in our path and especially the community aspect of it. He had lots of questions about the community life. He also said he had two primary observations throughout the weekend. He said the first one was that everyone who was part of Ananda had light and joy emanating from their eyes and faces. He said he had never seen that so consistently across so many people before. He said the second observation was that there were people of all ages associated with Ananda. He said that in India when someone joins an ashram generally they are retired and older people (the fourth ashram stage). He was quite pleased to see people from all age groups here. How wonderful that people choose this way of life even at younger ages he said. I couldn't agree with him more. He hopes to visit Ananda Village during this summer since he is planning on spending four months in the U.S.

Suzanne and I left right after lunch because we had a flight to catch. I wrote most of this blog while waiting for our flight at the Delhi airport. We are now in Kolkata. Tomorrow morning we are heading out to Serampore to visit Sri Yukteswar's hermitage. We will be joining Durga, Vidura, Irene, Santoshi and the high school girls. The Binghams will also be with us.

First two days in Gurgaon

2006-03-02T04:47:00.000-08:00

I seem to be one day behind in my trip log, but oh well... We spent our first day (Wednesday March 1st) with our dear friend Dhyana. She took us to her favorite places around Gurgaon. We first went to a Shiatsu massage place. Suzanne and I had a simultaneous one hour Shiatsu session that was to die for. In fact it felt like we had died and gone to heaven. This was Dhyana's treat for us, bless her soul. After that we went for a little bit of shopping primarily for clothing. Then came lunch time so we went to the Hilton Trident for lunch. It's a gorgeous hotel, such an escape from the busy, dusty, noisy city. The food was excellent (and it was enough for both lunch and dinner). This is one of the few places where you can safely have a fresh green salad. I also had a test of a local gym here in the subdivision where the Ananda center is (DLF Phase I). The owner is a very nice and friendly young man who offers his personal care for everyone who visits his gym. Without being intrusive he goes around and helps people to have the correct posture, grip, adjustment, weight, etc. It's like having your personal trainer there every time you go.

On our second day (Thursday March 2nd), we spent the morning with Keshava by going over our responsibilities for the upcoming big weekend (Mahasamadhi and the launch of Gita commentaries). After lunch at the center, Vidura took me to the cell phone store to get a cell phone while we are here .... on a rickshaw. That was a lot of fun.

The first picture you see is Dhyana, Suzanne and I at the Hilton Trident in Gurgaon.
The second picture is Dhyana's terrace garden right outside her home office.

Gotta go now. I will finish this later ...

Leaving Paris

2006-03-01T05:50:00.000-08:00

We may have figured out how French have their breakfast. First of all even on a weekday don't expect a cafe to open before 8 or 830am. Most Parisiand don't seem to wake up before then. Haven't come across a 24hr Starbucks here. On Sunday we had breakfast at a wonderful bakery called "Paul". We hadn't really figured out what all the things on the menu were but with a leap of faith and with our knowledge of "un baguette", we placed our order. It ended up being half baguette, orange juice, coffee, hot chocolate, butter and jam. We then observed a madamme next to us order pretty much the same thing. She sliced her half baguette lengthwise into half, smeared the butter and jam on it and dunket it into her hot chocolate. Don't know if that is typical, we may need to observe more instances of this to make a generalization.

We are now at the Paris CDG airport waiting for our plane to Delhi. Paris has snow today, so it's probably a good day to get out of here. Our taxi ride took about 45 minutes here, we may try the RER (fast metro/train) again when we get back from India at the end of March.

One funny thing I noticed during the flight on the TV monitors was that the French for "in-flight entertainment" was "Distraction en board". Kind of fitting for TV in general, isn't it ?

On the Air France flight, we sat next to this very pleasant Lama named "Lhakdor", who lives in Dharamshala (where the Dalai Lama lives) and who has been the Dalai Lama's translator for 16 years. He is now the Director of Library of Tibetan Works & Archives, which is also in Dharamshala. We had very nice conversations with him. Towards the end of the flight we exchanged "business cards". After he looked at mine, he smiled and said "I think we can do business with you".

We arrived at the Delhi airport about an hour late due to air traffic and circling in the air a few times. Another half an hour or so at the immigration, and half hour ride to Gurgaon, we arrived at the Ananda Center at 1am.

India stories to follow ...

2nd day in Paris

2006-02-27T13:00:00.000-08:00

It took us a while to write yesterday's blog because we had to deal with a French computer at our hotel's library. Instead of a qwerty keyboard they have an azerty keyboard, where about fifth of the keys are in different places. That slowed us down a bit, not to mention having to guess the menu items options in French.

Speaking of hotels, we are staying at a wonderful little hotel called Hotel Luxembourg Parc. It is right next to Luxembourg Gardens and the Senate on the left bank. It appears to be a heavily renovated historical building decorated from the neo-classical French era (as my wife says, what would I know). Termite damaged old wood beams are purposefully exposed to improve the ambiance. This hotel was recommended by my old-time friend and colleague of many years, Henri, who is originally French, but lives in Santa Barbara now. Thanks to him we are staying at this beatiful hotel with wonderful service and attention to detail. The location is unbeatable. It is just a few blocks from many cafes, restaurants, farmers market, etc.

While looking for the construction year of our hotel in our room brochures we ran into the fact that there is actually DSL access from our room. Since Suzanne brought a laptop we don't have to fight the French keyboard anymore. Yeah!

Let me mention that the weather is very cold here in Paris. We were talking to a French lady at the airport on Saturday and she said this was unusually cold for Paris standards too. It was -2C yesterday during the day with Accuweather RealFeel at -7C. Walking out of any heated building is like walking into a meatlocker (never been to a meatlocker but I assume they are cold). Delhi will surely be a change of weather tomorrow.

One more thing to mention is that we have been experimenting with pre-adjusting to our destination timezone by getting up and going to bed earlier each day during the week before our trip. On the day of the flight out of Sacramento we got up at 2am, slept quite well during the Chicago->Paris flight, easily stayed up until 9pm'is last night and comfortably got up at 6am (7am for Suzanne) today. I felt a bit jetlagged while at Ananda a day or two before our trip, but so far it worked great at our destination. I strongly recommend this technique if you want to make best use of your time at your travel destination.

Today we followed the historical walking tour as described in Rick Steves' Paris guidebook, starting at Notre Dame and finishing at Sainte-Chapelle. Notre Dame would have been worth every penny of the admission price (though it was free since it is an active church), whereas Sainte-Chapelle was a bit of a disappointment due to an hour wait in the freezing cold and 7.50 euro admission price (since it is now a museum). Sainte-Chapelle is worth seeing if you are into biblical stained glass art due to its massive 15 panels of stained glass and 1100 different scenes, mostly from Bible. What makes it so dramatic is that there is a lot less wall than the stained glass, creating a 360 degree back-lit pictorial view of the story of the Bible. Nevertheless Notre Dame was a lot more enjoyable, with sweeter vibrations and the sheer size of its structure which took 200 years to build. The bell tower tour is a definite highlight, with close look to the many gargoyles and bird-eye view of the city.

Later in the afternoon we took a walk to the Eiffel Tower. It is hard to go to Paris and not visit this attraction. It's well worth it. According to my guidebook, it is 1000 feet tall (6 inches taller in hot weather). Since it was so cold today, I bet you it wasn't taller than 999 feet. We took the elevator all the way to the top (it was getting late in the day, we were getting quite tired and we were at the wrong leg to take the stairs up to the 2nd level), again took the elevator down to 2nd floor, took the stair from 2nd to the 1st level, had a hot chocolate and watched the movie at the 1st level and elevator down to the ground again.

Tomorrow morning we are heading to the airport and from there to Delhi. Stay tuned for more trip diary.

In Paris

2006-02-26T10:27:00.000-08:00

Well, we made it to Paris. We left home at 5am on Saturday with Pranaba and Parvati, so that they can take our car back to village. Bless these souls for their graciousness and service.

We had a nice flight to Chicago and after a few hours at the Chicago airport another nice flight to Paris. We landed in Paris at 9:55am. Despite our 7 pieces of luggage (including carry-ons), we wanted to brave the railways to our hotel. Let's just say that it was an adventure. I wouldn't recommend venturing into the metro system unless you have a small carry-on or a backpack. It is not trivial to go through the turnstyles when you need to maneuver 3-4 pieces of luggage. Even to get out of the metro system you have to re-insert your ticket and not only go through a turnstyle but also through a one way, one person gate that only opens for a second after you go through the turnstyle. Suzanne got literally trapped between the turnstyle and the gate waiting to be picked up by the local police :-) Luckily a young man who had not exited yet, put his ticket through the machine so that Suzanne's gate would open. He ended up jumping over the turnstyle while holding the gate open. He must have done it before. I think we will take the cab on our way to the airport on Tuesday.

We arrived at our hotel at 12:30pm, were able to check-in early. So we freshened up a bit and headed out towards Louvre. On the way, just a few blocks from our hotel, we found this cute little restaurant called Seraphine and had a delicious lunch there. The atmosphere was just what you would expect from a Parisian restaurant.

We then walked over to Louvre and spent about three hours there following the tour described in Ric Steves' Paris travel book. That was just the right amount of Louvr'ing for the day.

testing diarist on my pda

2006-02-24T08:56:00.000-08:00

my first post from my axim ppc.

Getting ready for India

2006-02-24T07:27:00.000-08:00

Leaving early tomorrow for India with a short stop-over in Paris.
I will use this blog spot for posting pictures and memories.
This will also be a test to see if I can use blogger from my PDA and attach pictures to it.
I will post another one from my PDA...

Zippo MPL

2004-09-22T10:23:00.000-07:00

I bought two Zippo MPLs about a year ago. These are fancy multi-purpose lighters you can use for your wood stove, candles, what have you. They worked great for a few months. As the weather got cooler, their gas output got less and less, and finally one of them wouldn't light at all. It has a small adjustment knob at the bottom but even with the highest setting, it wouldn't light. I had to send it back to Zippo for repair. I contacted them over the web, they sent a special box for me to mail the lighter with. After a few weeks it came back and was working great. Recently my second lighter started acting up the same way and I thought, I don't want to send it back and go through that ordeal again. So, I started taking it apart, after I took at the hook at the bottom and a few pieces more I realized I didn't have to unscrew anything. The adjustment knob comes off when you pull it out. You can then put it back in with a little turn and now you have another quarter turn to increase the output. If it is not enough, pull it out again, put it back in with a little turn and now you have another quarter turn for more output. If you look at the bottom side of that adjustment knob you will see that it is designed to limit the min/max output within a certain change. When it got shipped from the factory it must have been summer time so the output was enough, but when the weather cooled, the gas didn't have much ooommph to escape to put it in scientific terms. I was thinking why wouldn't they describe this simple adjustment in a small piece of paper when they ship it? I am sure I am not the only person who ran into this problem. The lighter is very elegant, the mechanics are wonderful, just what you'd expect from Zippo. Hopefully they will fix this minor problem in their Zippo MPL 2.0.

3 clicks

2004-06-28T11:59:00.000-07:00

The wealth of information I can find on the internet with just a few minutes of googling never seizes to amaze me.

Yesterday driving from Northern California to Santa Barbara, after I filled up my tank and driving off the gas station, I noticed the check engine light stayed on. I pulled over and checked for obvious leaks, engine oil and transmission fluid. That's pretty much all I know to check. I had an oil change recently, so there could have been some loose cap somewhere but didn't see anything obvious. So, I just kept driving. I had my eyes on the temp gauge, just in case. I was dreading to take the car to the dealership. I was afraid they'd hook up their diagnostics computer and charge me 50 bucks for 5 minutes.

This morning, I googled some keywords: "check engine light rav4". After 15-20 minutes of looking through various automobile discussion board posts, I came upon a very simple suggestion: "Make sure the fuel tank cap is turned at least 3 clicks after refilling; after that, remove the EFI fuse for 60 seconds and replace it". Well, that's something I can do without getting dirty. I know where the fuel cap is, I wasn't sure about the EFI fuse, but I read that it was under the hood inside the black box. So, I followed the suggestions. I opened and re-closed the fuel tank cap with at least 3 clicks and then opened the black fuse/relay box under the hood. The fuses were clearly marked on the underside of the cover, thank you Toyota. There were three EFI fuses marked as EFI1, EFI2 and EFI3. Removed them all with the extraction tool and replaced them after 60 seconds. Restarted the car and voila, check engine light was gone. Thank you google and Internet.

9/22/04 update: well, actually the check engine light came back on intermittently, even after our mechanic cleared it with a computer. We had to take the car to the dealer and they ended up upgrading the software in the car's computer. So far so good.

Apple Unveils Adapter to Link iPod to Some BMWs

2004-06-22T08:41:00.000-07:00

Well, it was about time Apple did something like this. I have had an iPod for over 6 months now and I love it. Where I use it most though is in the car. I rarely use the ear phones, definitely not in the car. There are choices on how to hook up an iPod to a car stereo, such as a cassette adapter or radio transmitters like iTrip and I do have both. I don't like either of them. I don't like the cassette adapter cable sticking out of the car stereo and I don't like the sound of the rollers' noise rubbing against the adapter, especially when the car is quiet. iTrip is an improvement, no additional cables and it taps into the iPod battery. However, the sound quality drops, there is background hissing noise and when you get an overlapping radio station in the neighborhood, it is not that easy to switch to a different station and continue playing where you left off, especially not while driving a car.

I always wondered how long will it take Apple to team with car manufacturers so that the car stereo would have an iPod dock on them. You get in the car, you insert your iPod into the iPod slot on the stereo, just like you'd insert a cassette. The car stereo takes over all the iPod controls and display output; if you have controls on the steering wheel, all the better. So, Apple linking iPods to some BMWs is a great first step, though a little costly solution to upgrade your iPod's capabilities.

Another annoyance about playing iPod in the car is you need to remember to turn it off.
Why doesn't Apple come up with an iPod setting that says "car mode" and the iPod shuts off when the external power is disconnected. When the power is connected again, the iPod continues to play where it was left off, just like a CD or tape would continue. I don't think it takes rocket science to add that feature. If you are running errands and have multiple stops lack of this feature becomes really annoying.

Enough bashing about iPod, I think it is a technological marvel and absolutely beatiful design. I am sure these features will be common place for iPod in a matter of time. At least the "car mode" should be just a software upgrade.

Better late than never

2004-05-28T15:21:00.000-07:00

As I was reading the info about google's blogger, it said that blogging has been around for five years. Being in high-tech sector it took me five years to create a blog? In fact, I didn't know what blog was until about 6 months ago. Same happened to me with IM. I didn't see the need for it for a long long time. Finally I gave in and started using it. It worked fine for a while then I had all kinds of glitches using Trillian. I liked Trillian because I could IM with AIM, Yahoo and MSN. That looked like a great advantage. I am still only using it on an "if I have to" basis. Perhaps there is a better multi-IM client out there.
Let's see how long this blogging will last for me.