Question

I have a question for you. What is the most reproduced symbol on earth? It can be a symbol of anything, a nation, a corporate logo or even a trafic stop sign. I thought about this when my mind was wandering the other day. I will give it a week for you to think and participate if you want by leaving a comment or email. I will share my answer next Saturday.

 Shiva said...

I would say the american dollar :)

Shiva.

June 13, 2005 9:55 AM

A Hypothetical Question To Ponder

Let’s be hypothetical here, shall we? Say you run a services business, your customers pay $200/hour for your service engineers. Say your customer may need your engineer any time of day and any day of year. Say your engineer gets dozens of service calls in a year, at odd times. Would you or not pay $18/hour for a pager your engineer can carry? Especially if the engineer is of the type that loves outdoors and is away from the cities during the weekends, where the cell phone may not pick. Granted you pay $50/month for the engineer’s cell phone, would you or not pay $216/year for the pager, which can be recovered in the first hour of a single page? Then, think of the peace of mind and in extension the satisfaction your customer gets in being able to reach the engineer anywhere anytime. Just a hypothetical question :)

Jasmine (ஜாஸ்மின்)

This is Jasmine, Roja's mother. Jasmine is six years old now. When we went to get Roja, four years back, Roja was only six weeks old, still suckling from Jasmine. We didn't have the heart to separate them. We are glad we didn't. We brought them up as indoor/outdoor cats. We never declawed them. They both can climb tall trees and they never got stuck. They never messed our furniture. They never soiled our carpets except when sick, which is rare, They love to stay outdoors, Jasmine during the entire day and evening and Roja during evening and early night, some times very late. They both are really fun, albeit lot of work and expense.

The Da Vinci Code

I don't usually read fictions in English, I get that in Tamil. I prefer non-fictions in English. Nevertheless, I picked The Da Vinci Code from library just to see what the controvery was about. It is an interesting read. What ever you think of the pseudo/history, it is an interesting novel at the least. I am learning some history and some pseudo history and several new words. Veena is also reading the book, when Srinidhi allows her. Makes it an interesting topic to discuss.

New Yamaha

This is the new Yamaha Bike Karthi and Deepan got.

Karthi and Amma on new bike.

New Bike.

ഇതു എന്ട പാര്യവുക്കു ശ്പെഷല് എന്ട്ര്യ്.

ഇതു എന്ട പാര്യവുക്കു ശ്പെഷല് എന്ട്ര്യ്. ഈ ലവ് യൂ. Is this correct? Surprised?

What's up with DHL?

DHL website allowed me to schedule a pickup for my laptop I am sending for repair. But they didn't show up to pick! What's up with that? I have scheduled another one for today morning. If they don't show up by 2 PM, I will go and drop it.

First Helmet

Remember I was talking about how Srinidhi was using my helmet? We got around to getting his own helmet couple of weeks back. He chose this color from what we selected. He loves it. Picture from 5/28.

ஸ்ரீநிதி என்னுடைய ஹெல்மெட்டை எப்பொழுதும் போட்டுக்கொண்டிருப்பது பற்றி சொன்னேன் அல்லவா? இரு வாரங்களுக்கு முன்பு ஸ்ரீநிதிக்கு முதல் ஹெல்மெட் வாங்கினோம். நாங்கள் எடுத்து கொடுத்ததில் அவன் இந்த கலர் செலெக்ட் செய்தான். ஸ்ரீநிதிக்கு இந்த ஹெல்மெட் மிகவும் பிடித்து விட்டது. படம் மே 28.

Pragmatic Advani

The hot topic in India now is LK Advani’s resignation as the president of BJP. Known as a hardline Hindutva nationalist, his trip to Pakistan and his comments venerating Jinnah, the force behind the division of British India into India and Pakistan caused quite a controversy in many circles.

News article 1

News article 2

News article 3

News article 4

I have an opinion on this. For me, it is obvious, the catalyst for this is the USA. US wants democratic India to play a larger role in the region, for their own self interest to balance China and to aid in the fight against terrorism. The biggest obstacle for this and a possible permanent UN Security Council seat for India is the Kashmir issue. By resolving the Kashmir issue, Pakistan will also be more stable and can eliminate the support locals give to terrorists. So it is in the interest of US to achieve peace in Kashmir.

Currently, Indo-Pak relations and the Confidence Building Measures are at their best in several years. Who else to legitimize these measures and to assure the Pakistanis a future BJP government will not derail any progress that is made now. I bet US Secretary of State Condi Rice when she visited India, pushed for BJP heir-apparent Advani to go to Pakistan and to do what he did. I do not think Advani gains anything politically by doing this. His chances of becoming the Prime Minister does not improve from this. I think he did this for purely pragmatic reasons, to help resolve the Kashmir issue and to move India forward to a place where she belongs.

Train Set

My work laptop had crashed again :( I had to take it to the desk side support to make sure it is not the harddrive. Luckily the harddrive seems to be OK. I am sending it in for repair and will be getting a loaner today.

Veena remembered it was Ammavasai and cooked for the Viratham. I did the Viratham.

It was a rainy evening yesterday and we couldn't go anywhere. We remembered the cheap wooden train set we got for Srinidhi last week. Putting that made a good family time. We have an arrangement in our house. Anytime something needs to be assembled, Veena reads the instructions and identifies the parts. I do the assembly. Works out neat.

This time, we had to involve Srinidhi so that he is not destructive. He was the little helper carrying parts his mother gives to me. We had good fun putting it together. Srinidhi has very clear preferences on what he wants to wear (sometimes what we need to wear :( Yesterday afternoon, his preference was not to wear anything but his diaper!

Uncharacteristic of him, he did not play rough at all. He played for hours. The tracks remained intact the entire time!

Downtown Food Festival

We went to Downtown Food Festival yesterday. There were 100 or so stands. All kinds of food and beverages.

There were good street performers, magic shows and baloon artists. We didn't see any clowns, hmmm, did we miss them?

Srinidhi wanted to say Hello to the NBC Peacock.

It was a hot day, 88 F. Cooled of a bit by the fountain before proceeding.

Part of kids play area.

Srinidhi wanted to go on the Giant Slide, but not by himself.

We had to do the choo-choo toot-toot, of course.

Overall, it was a good day. It would have been better if it was a bit cooler or if there was some cloud cover.