Couple of days back, I was hearing an audio lecture on the ‘The Ethics of Aristotle’ by Father Joseph Koterski, Fordham University .  It has been a long time, since I wrote a blog post and thought of sharing a few points from that lecture.

Aristotle is a famous Greek philosopher of common sense from the lineage of Socrates and Plato.  His work, ‘Nichomachean Ethics’ gives a historical and philosophical account on the subject of ethics.  Being a biologist himself, he approaches the subject of ethics with a ‘biological model’ in which species are characterized into ‘genus’ by finding common characteristics among them.  In the same way, he looks at common elements in the lives of culturally diverse individuals and organizations that led to their excellence.

Purpose of Human Life

He mentions that the purpose of human life is HAPPINESS.  All people act in some way or other towards making themselves happy.  He argues that what constitutes happiness is where people disagree.  He considers happiness as an end in itself, rather than a means to an end.  Human beings are blessed with RATIONALITY that provides them with a sense of ‘Knowing’ and ‘Choosing’.  By ‘Knowing’, he refers to cerebral functions such as articulation and calculation but also practical intelligence such as arts, carpentry etc.  By ‘Choosing’, he refers to choosing from the gamut of our passions, desires and emotions to which we are attracted or repelled.  Though, long life of reasonable health, material prosperity, friends etc., are essential for human happiness; Aristotle claims that only in the proper development and use of of rationality, human beings will be able to find fulfillment and happiness.  Dalai Lama in his book ‘The Art of Happiness‘ also mentions that ‘Happiness’ is the ultimate goal of our human life.  It needs to be distinguished from human pleasure and pain through rationality.

Moral Excellence

Aristotle refers to ‘Virtue’ (aristeia in Greek) as ‘Excellence’ in any human person.   ‘Moral Virtue’ as the state of character in which a  person has the habit of choosing the mean between the extremes of excess and deficiency with respect to some action, desire or emotion.  By ‘mean’ (kind of golden mean), he refers to the peak of excellence that is ‘just right’, and not ‘average’.  Socrates viewed ‘Virtue’ as a ‘matter of knowing’; a person who really knows what is right will do right.  In contrast, Aristotle argues that ‘knowing is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for moral virtue’.  According to him, virtue is attained by right reasoning or making right choices consistently, until it becomes a habit  i.e., Moral virtue can be acquired as a habit by repetition, until it becomes ’second nature’ to us and thus makes life easier.  Aristotle combines an element of knowledge and an element of control in his concept of ‘virtue’.  Right reasoning includes taking into account relevant aspects of situation, a choice that an impartial but knowledgeable observer would come to.  He also holds that certain things like murder, adultery are inherently evil in themselves, not just by reason of some excess or defect.

Courage and Moderation

Aristotle’s definition of COURAGE, is the virtue of choosing the golden mean between recklessness and cowardice when we are confronted by danger that really merit some fear.  In similar fashion, he mentions TEMPERANCE as the habit of choosing between insensibility and self-indulgence.  Aristotle also argues that we should attach praise or blame only to actions that are done voluntarily.  Responsibility for the actions could be eliminated or reduced if the following conditions are met

• If the action is done under compulsion (physical force, threats, addictions etc)
• If the actor didn’t have sufficient knowledge about the circumstances – sometimes by one’s own fault or circumstance which are totally out of his/her control

Social Virtues

Money

Liberality and Magnificence are the two virtues that he discusses with the subject of money.  According to Aristotle, LIBERALITY stands between prodigality and meanness.  MAGNIFICENCE stands between vulgarity and niggardliness.  In the days of Aristotle, wealthy people demonstrated magnificence in the form of sponsoring theatrical productions and Athenian festivals (putting large sums of money to work for public service).

Honor

PRIDE stands between vanity and humility.  He does not consider pride as arrogance, for example, in the saying ‘Pride comes before the fall’.  It is the true love for the things that went fine in one’s life and humility to accept things that gone wrong.

Industriousness

The golden mean between too much and too little ambition

Good Temper

Virtue concerned with the emotion of anger.  Anger involves the mean between excessive irritability and wimpiness (to be liked at whatever cost).  According to Aristotle, passion is not something we choose, but something to which we must choose to react.  He mentions that we must learn to recognize the patterns of anger and respond appropriately.  Anger could proper beneficial, for instance, a spirited response against an injustice.  Tamil Poet Bharathiyar mentions in his poems “Sirumai kandu ponguvai va va …” (get angry at the sight of injustice) , “Rowthiram Pazhaghu” (practice anger for right things).  In circumstances of injustice, he considers wimpiness as a vice.

Friendliness

It is the peak of excellence between flattery and surliness.

Truthfulness

The mean between boastfulness and false modesty.  It means a habitual willingness to keep an open mind and maintain critical objectivity.

Wisdom

The mean between buffoonery and boorishness.

Shame

Healthy sense of shame and modesty should be developed between shamelessness and bashfulness.

Justice

He throws light on the crucial distinction between law and justice.  Justice in the sense of fairness and equity need not be codified into law.  Aristotle calls “natural justice” into natural law theory, the notion of a higher law by which one may judge the justice or injustice of any humanly crafted law.

He categorizes justice in the sense of fairness or equitable as

Corrective justice: Justice that involves the restoration of equality between parties by compensating the wronged or injured party.  It looks at things objectively without regard to the status of the parties and concentrating on the amounts in question to be made equal.

Distributive justice: Justice that takes personal status of the parties into account.  Things are expressed in terms of ratios rather than equal amounts.  For instance, people earning salaries above certain amount falls in a particular tax bracket.

Like other virtues, Aristotle considers justice also as a habit of choosing the mean.  For instance, giving the right amount of pay for the work done; taking into account the knowledge and skills required, the risk involved, time and money spent etc.  Also giving the right amount of work for the pay to be earned.

Regarding equity, he mentions that law makers should consider the general situation while creating a law and cannot expect to envision all possible exceptions that may arise.  However, he mentions that appropriate amendments have to be made to correct the law when those exceptions arise.

Hard cases make bad laws

Intellectual virtues

Aristotle believes that the goal of TRUTH is to conform the mind to the way things are.  He believes that one must first know the way the world works to be able to improve it with practical uses of the intellect.  He implies that we must know the truth about ourselves to be able to develop appropriate skills and virtues.

Aristotle identifies five major intellectual virtues:

Science

The habit of demonstrative knowledge of what is necessary and eternal to show how effects are linked to their causes.  He proceeds from first principles, through the chains of reasoning typical of a discipline, to the conclusions appropriate for that discipline.  For example,

• All men are mortal
• Socrates is a man
• So, Socrates is a mortal

Art (techne)

The whole range of technological knowledge that shapes the mind of the person who possess it.  For example, the knowledge of a plumber or a mechanic whose competence is far-reaching rather articulative.

Prudence

Prudence or practical wisdom relates to the action of deliberating for the right amount of time with regards to an action or emotion.

Intuition of first principles (nous)

Intuition of first principles means insight, is the habit of grasping the principles from which demonstrations will be able to proceed.  For ethics, the first principle is identify the good from the evil.  Then pursue good and avoid evil at all cost.

Wisdom (sophia)

The habit of uniting the intuition of first principles with science.

Aristotle argues that intellectual component is necessary for any of the moral virtues to take place, and a moral component is essential for prudence to occur.

Struggling to do right

Aristotle distinguishes four kind of people

Altruistic: People who are god-like or who have already developed a preternatural affinity of choosing good virtues.

Bestial: People are adept at choosing vice all the time.  They do it with ease and with great regularity.

Continent: People who know the right from the wrong and struggles a lot to choose the right one.  Ultimately, they settle for the right things.  The continent person is not altruistic but weak-willed in nature.

Incontinent: People who know the right from the wrong and struggles a lot to choose the right one.  Ultimately, they settle for the wrong things.  The incontinent person is not bestial but weak-willed in nature.

Morally weak people’s action is not just the result of intellectual mistake but involves the influence of the interplay of their passions and desires.  Aristotle strongly urges that we develop the habit of deliberation to facilitate the control of our passions and desires.  Slowly, we will be consistent in making wise choices.

Friendship

Aristotle distinguishes three different types of friendship

Friendships of pleasure

People simple enjoy one another’s company that gives them a sense of one’s own pleasure.  This sort of friendship tend to fade and break off when what gave them pleasure cease to exist.

Friendships of  utility

Friendship that is grounded on mutual advantage for one another.  They may not enjoy each others company but appear to be nice with each other.  Once the usefulness vanishes the friendship also vanishes.

Friendships of excellence

Friendship of excellence (also called Friendship of Character) depends on virtuous people wishing well for one another.  They wish good for their friend’s own sake and not for their own pleasure and utility alone.  This could occur only when atleast one person in a relationship has already developed that virtue, that still holds the relationship even when the other person draws out.  This requires considerable time and familiarity.  Such friendships are rather small.

Also there can be relative equality or inequality between the parties involved.  Friendship can exist between a parent and child, spouses, rulers and subjects.  Virtuous people are in general more open to share than vicious people.  He also mentions that loving is more of an essence of the friendship than being loved.

Friendship is based on self-love and on a willingness to look out for the good of others.  If one’s love is excessive he looks out for less in others and vice-versa.  Much of the pleasantness in friendship consists in holding a shared viewpoint on many topics.

Aristotle’s vision of friendship contains a strong sense of nobility, that at times requires us to do painful things when they are right even though it hurts friendship.  We have to transcend boundaries of pleasure to do things which are equitable, even at the cost of considerable sacrifice of friendship.  Friends should be able to face hard decisions with honor and justice.

Pleasure

Right from beginning, Aristotle marks that Happiness is the ultimate goal of human life.   Even though pleasure is necessary but not sufficient for attaining virtue.  He takes a moderate approach and considers PLEASURES that assist the development and proper use of our rationality should be regarded as right and good whilst those that impair or frustrate our rationality should be regarded as suspect.

Conclusion

Nicomachean ethics is basically set in a political context of his period.   He claims that happiness consists in a life of virtuous activity rather than a life dedicated to personal amusement.  This is achieved through deliberate action through rationality and consistent practice until it becomes habitual so we do things with pleasure and great ease.  Finally, he claims that the happiness of the contemplative life is superior to the kind of happiness possible in active life.  For a scholar like Aristotle, having leisure for study and using his mind for a great cause provides him supreme goodness and happiness.

Once upon a time in a village there lived a farmer with an old donkey.  This donkey served its entire life with utmost sincerity to the farmer. On one fine evening, the farmer and the donkey were taking a walk back home through the farm land.   Suddenly, the tired donkey trembled and fell into a dry well.  He started braying loud with sustained injuries.  The farmer thought for a while – “This donkey is already very old and it would cost me damn money to pull him out of the dry well.  Also, he does not have a costly insurance like me”….”Go to hell donkey, I will bury you live in this well itself”.  Then, the farmer enthusiastically began to cover the dry well with the shovel in hand.  Villagers gathered around to watch the plight of the poor donkey.  They cursed the farmer for being very cruel.  The donkey was deep in pain; not over his injuries but over his Master’s spiteful nature.  He struggled for a while and then an idea struck in its mind.  He jibed around the inside of the well whenever the mud fell on him.  The farmer got irritated and frantically threw more mud inside the well.  Slowly, the dried well started filling up with more mud and now the smart donkey was on top of it.  The farmer was totally exhausted, threw his shovel and fell to the ground.  Villages cheered the donkey which emerged successfully like a phoenix out of the ashes.  They praised the donkey for its smartness (Kick Ass dude!!!!!).  Hearing the villagers outcry, the farmer stood up and went on to hug his smart ass.  The donkey turned around at the foolish farmer, slapped him on his face with its powerful paws and went on its way.

Moral of the story: When you try to cover your ass, you get slapped on the face

Just kidding !!! Whatever be the circumstances in life, if we patiently think for a moment, we could find a solution to the problems in our life.

Courtesy: Isha foundation http://www.ishafoundation.org/IshaLive/Streaming.php

This is my first post after joining Schlumberger.  I attended a two weeks training program that gave an overview about the Company, the Oil industry and some training on soft skills.  Schlumberger believes in improving the potential of the employees through continuous training and development.  I found this particular training lengthy and tiring after sitting for long hours listening to lectures.  I wished to get back to work soon.   Nonetheless, I had something to learn out of this training program and I tried my best to summarize the contents that I could remember in this post.

Being a software engineer, it didn’t make lot of sense to me to write programs without understanding the domain. We had a three day session conducted by an experienced geologist that gave us an overview of Oil Exploration and production.  It was an eye opener for me to get to know the different technologies that have been employed to obtain black gold from the earth’s belly.  I have little idea on how long these non-renewable resources could satisfy the energy needs of the world.  However, it is worthwhile to note that the current technological advancement and engineering feat achieved through collaborative efforts are pushing the decline of this oil industry and the energy crisis to the future.

People & Teams

Also, It was a wonderful experience to meet people from

• Diverse backgrounds – Software Engineers, Postdoctoral Research scientists, Field Engineers, Supply chain specialists
• Different Nationalities – Indians, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Americans, Hispanic, French
• Different Levels of Experience – 0 to 2 years with the company

We were divided into three teams for most part of the training.  It was good to learn some team dynamics.  They mentioned that a successful TEAM (Together  Everyone Achieves More) has the following characteristics:

• Common Goals (and Vision)
• Leadership and clear roles
• Expertise
• 100% Participation
• Supportive Relationships
• Time

Working in a multi-disciplinary team for different case studies assigned during the training program, I noticed a few things:

• Most people were experts in their own area and they view the same problem given to everybody with a ‘filter’ based on their background.  We get to know the different dimensions of the same problem from different angles.  However, we must understand that people perceive things differently and nothing can be left for ’Assumptions’.  Always, we have to make sure that everybody is on the same page regarding a particular issue
• Some people talk way too much and some people rarely open their mouth during meetings.  A good team leader should make sure that everybody gets a chance to voice their opinion.  Final decision need not be that of a team leader but the one agreed upon by the team inline with the common goal
• Brainstorming sessions are essential to generate new ideas and all the ideas have to be captured somewhere, before picking the good ones
• People do not so much listen as wait for their time to talk – Evelyn Waugh.  When everybody in our team were talking at the same time, one of my team member threw a permanent marker on the table and asked everybody to stop.  He said, “Person who wish to speak, take the marker in hand and the rest of the team just listen”.  It made a huge difference in that atmosphere.  In conclusion, we need to Understand first and evaluate second.  They mentioned it as the E.A.R method (Explore, Acknowledge and Respond)
• We should have a well-defined problem to start with.  Considerable amount of time has to be spent in properly understanding the problem.  This is critical in identifying the root causes of the problem.  Once the root causes are identified a decisive plan has to be drafted to identify the priority of tasks for execution.
• People neglect Common sense at times and give more importance to tools & processes that they learnt during the course.  A good carpenter would be noticed only by his furniture work rather than by the size of his tool box.  It is to be emphasized that the process and tools are in place only to aid us rather than think for us
• Supportive relationships are essential in leading an ordinary team to exemplary performance, even though the team lacks some expertise
• Never put down other people’s thoughts as rubbish or start your conversation with a negative connotation.  People are more willing to listen to you, if you start something like “I appreciate your idea and have you thought about this….” and then present your idea.  Don’t have any BUTS, HOWEVER etc., as part of your sentence.  In my opinion, we could say something like “I have a suggestion to make and we could decide to take it or not later”.
• Time:
  • It is better to have a time-keeper in a meeting and a proper agenda to keep us on track.  Nevertheless, we need to be flexible with the agenda within that time period, so that we meet our objectives and arrive at some conclusions at the end of each phase
  • Every member in a team should have a space and time to think on his own before collaborating on ideas
• Going with the flow:
  • We have to learn at times when to make our point and when to keep quiet.  This is called the art of fighting without fighting
  • Not all your ideas would be appreciated, however brilliant they might be.  Therefore, we must not take anything personal
  • I purposefully started working alone on a particular case study, to see how the team responds in such a situation.  People immediately think that you are a spoil sport, neglect your ideas and suggestions.  In short, you will lose your presence in the team.

Presentation Skills

• Texans in general are slow speakers and majority of Indians (including me) speak fast.  Slowing down my speech indeed helped me to garner my thoughts, at the back of my mind before delivering it.  In addition, it helped the audience understand my thoughts better
• I was pointed out that I need to be improve on the cadence and that my tone is fine.  I realized later that it is essential otherwise people get bored with a monotonous voice
• Watch your ‘ahs, uhms’ during the presentation.  Indeed we had people who set records with the largest number of ‘ahs’
• Smoothen your transition from one speaker to another, rather than ending your speech abruptly
• Sometimes people worked their case studies with so much depth that they did not find enough time to practice their presentation.  Communicating our ideas is much more essential and it could be done better through practice
• Keep your audience in mind
  • Expand on the abbreviations and clarify the jargons
  • Avoid any jokes that could offend anyone in the audience
  • Engage the audience through interactive questions or thoughts
• Less is more.  Sometimes people get into too much details losing the forest for the trees
• Grab your audience attention before starting your speech and set the ground rules for the presentation (For instance, the questions will be taken at the end of the session)
• Stand up and present yourself, so that you would be the center of attention
• Take a deep breath in case you are nervous.  Confidence is the key to effective presentation
• Make a proper eye contact with your audience.  If you keep looking at one set of audience, the other people in the room feel neglected and lack attention
• Avoid unnecessary movements and hand gestures that could distract the audience
• When you screw up something, don’t get tensed and apologetic.  Keep moving
• Presentation slides:
  • Keep slides to the minimum and to the point
  • Never read through your slides.  Slides are there, to aid your presentation
  • Have a complete understanding of your material and don’t put anything on the slide that you could not explain
  • Keep your slides clean from distracting pictures and videos
  • Don’t show your back to the audience while presenting.  Look at the laptop in the front rather than romanticizing with the projected slides behind you
  • Slides should have appropriate font size so that the contents are legible from a far away distance
  • Choose your colors appropriately.  Nothing is worse than a dark blue letter on a black background

Giving Feedback

Breaking the mundane schedule of office to home and back to work, I decided to go on a weekend camping along with my friends in Austin.  This was my second camping after Huntsville trip.  After I came to Houston, this was the first time I went to College Station to pick up my friends, on a trip to Austin.  Also, this was the first trip that I drove a lot in highways.  I believe I have improved my driving skills with little quirks once in a while.  Once I reached College Station, I felt that I returned HOME after a very long time and while passing through University drive, A&M Libraries etc., I felt very nostalgic.  I had food at one of my favorite restaurant in College station – Chef chaos and also at Jin’s Asian restaurant.

Once we  reached Austin, we went to Cholas Indian restaurant along with my friends.  After a wholesome meal, we started towards HWY 29  to Burnet.   From Burnet took the Hwy 29 West and then left on Park Road 4 towards Park Headquarters.   We reached Inks Lake State Park before 5.00 pm and parked our cars at our camp site.  Later, we decided to go on some trails as some of my friends wished to jump into the lake from the cliff.  But the water was too freezing that only one guy managed to do so and others came back after some hullabaloo.  We took a few snaps near the rocks while enjoying the cool breeze and a wonderful sunset.

The camp site had excellent restroom facilities with showers, electric outlets where we could charge our mobile phones and is situated amidst beautiful lake and granite cliffs.

We rented out tents and other stuffs for barbeque from Texas A&M Outdoor Adventures facilities.  We had sufficient food and drinks for everybody.  Unlike Huntsville trip, this trip was well planned by my friends rather adhoc.   Successfully, we were able to build the campfire and I spent most of the time sitting around it.

I believe we were the only group in the entire camping site who were making hell a lot of noise, dancing and enjoying a lot.  I should really appreciate our neighboring campers who patiently accepted our presence without complaints.  I thought of sleeping in the tent and finally decided to sleep in the car itself.  It was bit uncomfortable, but I felt I made a good decision only after my friends knocked the car door in the early morning when the temperature dropped to 29 °F suddenly. We slept for some time switching on the heater in the car.  In the morning, after refreshing ourselves we spent sometime on the paddle boats in the serene lake filled with ducks.  We would have spent almost an hour in the lake jumping from boat to boat and taking photographs.

Then we went to the nearby Longhorn Cavern State park.  We were taken on a guided tour of the limestone caves which was used as shelter during prehistoric times.  At the entrance of the cave, we saw a cute little girl with a gracious smile towards photographers.  I should have taken a good picture of her.  There used to be a church and consort hall inside the cave.  The tourist guide recounted a story about an outlaw who hid some big loot in those caves.  He also informed us that gun powder was made in these caves during civil war.

I was too tired after we reached my friends’ house in the evening as I am not used to long trips that much.  So my roommate has to drive me back on my car.  We reached Houston around midnight after dropping two of my friends in College Station.

There was no big celebration for New Year 2009.  I was happy that I was successful in my last new year’s resolution of  “eating no meat and no carbonated drinks for a year”.  I started this New year at a new apartment and with a Toyota Corolla 2009.

I was little hesitant to buy a car in this economic crisis situation and against my parent’s apprehensions.  Two reasons made me buy a car – Texas is not good in public transportation and I wish to be independent at least after joining a job.  My apartment is around 10 miles from Schlumberger office and there is no other way after signing the apartment lease.

Buying a Car

I opted for buying a new car rather than a used one fearing maintenance issues.  I was looking for a car that has good mileage, not big and better resale value.  I narrowed down to Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic based on the above reasons.  I have little idea about cars compared to my friends and I found these two sites Fighting Chance and Carbuyingtips really useful to do my initial homework.  After going through these sites, I thought I should have spent considerable time in buying a car as it is a big investment for me.  These sites will help you understand the different terminology while buying a car and some buyer’s tips.

Request for Quote

Before requesting for a quote from a dealer, I would suggest you to go and ‘test drive’  all your favorite cars.  Read through the car manufacturer’s site to understand the different trim levels and the features that goes with different trim levels by doing car comparison.  You should choose a car that matches your needs and comfort levels.  Discuss with your friends and family members about the pros and cons of each car.  Once you have decided on a particular car, go to Edmunds site to find the True Market Value of the car by building the car or if you have purchased the Fighting chance package, you would get lot many details about a particular car, different incentives and negotiating strategies.  Aided with this knowledge, request for quotes from different dealers of your favorite car online.  You would also get internet coupons at some sites after your request for quote.   Give your phone number and the best time to reach you, so that you are not wasting your time and that of the dealers.   Most dealers will contact you in a day or two over phone or through email.  The first quote you get from the dealers will not be specific and you won’t be able to compare the different quotes from different dealers.  Build the car in your manufacturer’s site with the exact features that you require and save the specifications as some pdf document or you could do this at Edmunds.  Send this document to the dealers and ask them to provide you the final drive-out-price inclusive of taxes, registration, rebates etc.  I got 400$ college graduate rebate and $1500 factory rebate from Toyota.  If you do your math in Edmunds site, you will get the details about the invoice price for your car with different options.  Compare this price with the dealer’s invoice price not with MSRP.  Inform the dealers about the lowest quote that you have got so far and ask them to give the best quote in the next email.  Inform them clearly that you are not ready to do back and forth negotiations, but will be buying a car within a specific period if you get a good deal.  Sometimes, it is better to clarify things by calling the dealer than through email.  Try to close the deal with the nearest dealer.  Be aware that some dealers will say that they have all the options that you wish to buy, but indeed it won’t.  For instance, one dealer informed me that he got the ‘All weather guard package’ for Corolla and ready to offer me at the lowest price, but when I went to a different dealer from whom I purchased the car, he showed me on their computer terminal that there is no car in texas that had that package installed for that trim level.  In order to get your business, some dealers follow dishonest strategies, be aware of them.

Auto Financing

Once you have finalized the dealer, you need two things to get the car out of the dealer shop – auto insurance and money.  You need to have an idea about your credit score in order to get a good APR from your financier.  Better your score, better APR you got.  Whenever a dealer or insurance agent runs a credit check on your credit file, your score decreases.  So try to minimize this as much as possible. Toyota initially offered me 6.45% APR for 36 months with 1500$ rebate or 0% APR for 36 months without that rebate.  If you go to cars.com you could calculate which one is best for you.  Once you have finalized the dealer, I would sugget you to apply for car loan elsewhere and get it approved before you walk into the dealership for driving out your car.  Some credit unions offer you better interest rates for car loans.  Once I got my auto loan approved from a credit union, I negotiated with the Toyota dealership itself for a better APR.

Auto Insurance

Car dealership will suggest you some insurance agents or check with your friends who could refer you to some good insurance companies.  You could also visit the Texas Department of Insurance website to know about the different insurance companies.  While getting an auto insurance quote, it is better to try over phone than email.  For a new car, it is better to buy comprehensive insurance coverage.  Installing anti-theft devices on your car, taking Defensive driver’s training course will help you get some discounts.  Your age, average daily driving miles, driver’s history also determines your insurance amount.  I still feel that I should have worked out this better.  It is better to get your driver’s license as early as possible before the purchase of your car.

Some Useful Links

• 10 step to buying Auto Insurance
• Kelly Blue Book
• Car Fax – Vehicle History Report
• Simple Dollar – Tip on New Car
• Car Zen
• Safercar.gov
• Car Refuelling
• Toyota Iguide
• Car care guide
• True car
• Car Bible
• Motor Mouth

I went to New York for “Thanksgiving break” to meet my friend Sreenaath, who is doing his Master’s degree in Computer Science at Stony Brook University. I was happy that I will be meeting him after almost 2.5 years. When I reached the Houston Airport, I was saddened to hear the news of ‘Mumbai Terror attacks’ which was telecast live on CNN. I traveled through North West Airlines and the flight was indeed good. I had a one stop at Detroit and then reached New York on time. Sree asked me to take the ‘Air train’ to Jamaica station and he was there to receive me. It was not that cold as I expected. I reached Stony Brook past midnight and we had food at Mithun’s house. Sree’s apartment was well furnished and I was surprised to see things in order to some extent. Later, I came to know that they would get a health violation notice if not tidy.

New York City

We could call New York city as the ‘city that never sleeps’ and always buzzing with activity. It is one of the most populous cities in the United States and is the center for finance, commerce, art and entertainment. If Chennai, India is upgraded to tall skyscrapers it would resemble New York. Geographically it is divided into five boroughs namely Queens, The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island. Most of the tallest skyscrapers were found in Manhattan and it is highly populated.

Subway

Surprisingly it is one of the cities in the United States that has a mass transit. The subway that was built in 1904 interconnects the city well. Navigating through the subway was quite easy with the maps all around the subway.

At the end of the trip I felt that I should have got a 7 day pass that would have been more economical. Ticket vending machines at subway accepts both cash and card, but I had trouble purchasing tickets with credit card at certain vending machines. I found people using cash a lot instead of credit/debit cards. One has to swipe the ticket at the turnstille to pass through. Initially, I lost some money stored on the ticket by swiping it two or three times. Once you are inside the metro you could travel any number of times without coming out of the metro. I found many musicians, singers all around the subway entertaining the crowd.

The only difficulty that you would face once you swipe the card and enter the metro are restrooms. It was indeed difficult amidst nature call’s since it was very cold. You might find websites like nyrestroom , sitorsquat very useful, if you have Iphone or Blackberry.

Attractions

Everyday, we had to travel about 2 hrs from Stony Brook to New York city through the Long Island Rail route. We had to take a transfer at Huntington or Hingsville mostly. We used to have food at Subway or Taco bell in the subway. Most of the places I visited were in the dark.

Empire State Building

It is one of the tallest structures in New York City from where one could get a panoramic view of the city skyline. I was able to see the Statue of Liberty, The Brooklyn bridge from the observatory on top of the building. After the destruction of World Trade Center, it had no competition in New York.

Lexington Avenue

After we visited Empire State Building we went to Lexington Avenue which is a host for many Indian Restaurants. We had dinner at Tamil Nadu bhavan. I met Santosh in Saravanaa bhavan after a long time. It has been a pleasure always to work with Sree and Santosh.

Grand Central

The look of the Grand Central was stupendous. It had a royal look and the number of terminals branching out were countless. The digital kaleidoscope was dazzling with all the colors. My room mate here at TAMU showed some beautiful pictures that he took during his visit to Grand Central during Christmas time

Rockefeller center

There was a big Christmas tree planted near the center. Had it not been late to catch the train we would have got into Snow skating.

Time Square

Time Square was buzzing with activity and it was very cold. After sipping cup of coffee at Star Bucks we took a round around this place.

West Meadow Beach

We planned to go to Flushing temple after renting a car. However, only few people joined with us and we had to dropped that idea. Finally, Sree, Anu and myself went to the West Meadow Beach. It was extremely cold and the cab driver was surprised to hear that we wanted to be there at the beach. We three were the only ones at the beach. We took snaps of beautiful sunset and walked for sometime along the rocky beach.

Wall Street

We visited Wall Street, the financial hub of United States.

The World Trade Center (WTC) site memorial was totally deserted and I don’t know what they are still building even after 7 years. When the incident happened I was in my first year of undergraduate studies. It was the most heinous crime that could have ever been created in the history of United States. The Mumbai terror attack was even more gory. I was really angry at the media for its minute-by-minute live coverage of the incident thereby disturbing the operations of the NSG.  Even that would have helped the terrorist getting directions.  In my little experience, I found many Americans have little knowledge about the outside world. However, I was surprised while talking to a black elderly women in the metro who had sound knowledge about the two countries. She said “I am a christian and I wish world peace.. Hope the two nuclear war heads solve issues amicably and let the peace be spread around”. I wished the same.

Brooklyn Bridge

Sree and myself went around the Brooklyn bridge and it was a wonderful sight at night. There were separate pedestrian and cyclist path. A good place for jogging and taking your pets around.

Statue of Liberty

This was the last attraction that I visited in New York. Sudharsan who is one of my friend from TAMU and now working at Bloomberg joined with us for a trip to the Ellis Island. It was getting pretty cold and was very cloudy. Luckily there was not a big crowd that day and we got a beautiful glimpse of New York Skyline. When we were taking a round around the pedestal of Liberty, icy showers blew us away. As a taken of visit, I got the imprint of the Liberty statue on the copper coin which has the same thickness as that of the Statue of Liberty.

People, Food and Friends

New York life is suited for some one who is always buzzing with activity. The place is very dynamic. However, I found the people rude and not very helpful. May be they are tourist who had little idea about the place or my Indian accent and looks horrified them . It has been a pleasure hanging around with mithun, manoj, anu, poorani and sree. It was the most fun loving trip I had after coming to US.

Return Journey

I had the most hectic return journey of my entire life. The flight to detroit was delayed by 4o minutes. Since I came to New York for the first time via detroit, I had some understanding about the gates and terminals. I took the express train upstairs and reached the gate at 7.32 for the plane which was about to depart at 7.33 pm. The lady at the NWA desk, interrupted me saying that “you are not the pilot, are you sure you are in this flight”. “Yes, offcourse I’m”. Once I got into the flight I learnt that they were fighting for another pilot. Finally, the pilot arrived and ticket a seat beside me. I had a lengthy conversation with him about his experience, till I reached Houston. I switched on my cellphone half way through landing and sent a text message for the ground shuttle to wait for my pickup. I was not sure whether I was allowed to stay at the airport, if I miss the last shuttle. I should definitely be thankful for the groundshuttle for waiting for almost 20 minutes along with nine other passengers. Finally I reached home at college station at 1.30 pm. It was one of the most adventerous trip and a great learning experience about a new place.

The spring semester finally got over and it was time to chill out in the summer. I bid adieu to my sweet College station and started on my internship journey to the weirdest city Austin, Texas. The corporate housing provided by dell at ‘Villas of Bristol heights’ was an awesome place and I fell in love with it at first sight. It was a well furnished two bedroom, two bathroom apartment. They provided us with the necessary cooking utensils, cable and wireless internet.

I had a undergrad roommate from purdue and he arrived after a week I got into the apartment. I met some new people during the internship and at the end of the day met my manager. He handed out to me a brief description of the project that I would be working on throughout the internship. At the end of his speech came the biggest surprise; I learnt that my office is in Round Rock and not the palmer campus close to my apartment. I have to travel daily 10 miles and there was no public transportation available to Round rock. I was bemused for a moment and thought that I would be spending my entire internship money on a cab , but surprises makes life interesting. I opened the directory containing the list of interns staying in my apartment community and started calling one by one. I learnt that most people had offices in palmer campus, except for one undergrad girl in finance from georgia. Luckily, she had a car and was ready to carpool with me. I didn’t know how long it would work out. I asked for a change in apartment with the corporate housing and they provided me with three options, none of which were closeby RR campus. I thought in the worst case that I could stay with guru, who was placed in Enclave at La Frontera, which was closeby round rock campus.

Restaurants

Potlucks

The second one was at Sekar’s house at Villages of Sage Creek. The puffs that they prepared stealed the show. As usual we danced for sometime and earned them a lease violation notice. While leaving their house around 2 am, a strange thing happened. There was a small kid roaming around the apartment community in the dark. He looked nervous and after speaking to him we learnt that he had lost his parents. For the first time I called 911 and they responded immediately at the second ring. They asked me to describe about his physical features, his dress and enquired about me. It was pitch dark and to my surprise seven police vehicles came by the time we took the kid to a well lit place within a minute . They asked us a few questions and by that time his mother came from nowhere. It seems that she was talking to her boyfriend, leaving the child sleeping in the vehicle and he suddenly disappeared. Finally, I was happy that the kid was safe and I reached home soon. This entire incident was running through my mind in my sleep.

Main Event and Austin 300

A group of friends went for laser tag at Main event. It was pitch dark and my team won the fast paced game of strategy. It was indeed like being in the battlefield. Running up and down was a good exercise too. At Austin 300, three of my friends went together for Snow bowling. I was surprised to see how people are good enough to move the balls to gutter always.

Dell Organized events

I took a ground shuttle from College Station and reached Houston IAH. I had two hours left for my flight and was trying to browse the internet. I was unable to get any wireless connectoin and hence reading some magazine out there. The aircraft was small and there was a cute kid in the nearby seat. During the entire journey, I was either gazing out of the window or playing with the child. Finally, I reached Pittsburgh after 3 hours and there was my cousin’s family to pick me up.

At home

My cousin’s house is situated atop a hill. The place resembled Ooty with windy slopes and cold weather prevailed till I left Pittsburgh. I relished the South Indian food prepared by my sister and I had a great time playing with Sriram and Siddharth at home. I watched the television after a long time. Eating and sleeping filled the greater part of my time at home. I went to a movie “Gone baby gone” at Star city, which I didn’t like much. I went jogging one day ,out in the cold and came back with a running nose. I would say, I had a great time at Pittsburgh.

Washington DC

On early Sunday morning, we started on a 250 miles trip to Washington DC in car. We reached Washington DC around noon. It was pretty cold in Washington and snow biting was unbearable. Even in that cold, I saw lot of tourists with young children wrapped around in warm clothes. Initially, we had trouble in finding a place to park our car. The interesting fact about Washington DC is that Lincoln Memorial,

WW II memorial, Washington Monument and Capitol hill were all lined up and at a walk able distance. I took some snaps from Washington monument. We found a place near Washington monument to have our lunch that we had brought along with us. Soon it started raining, luckily by the time we finished our food the rains subsided. Next we went to a Star bucks coffee to refresh ourselves and moved on to visit White House (the home of the US President). It was getting dark and the white house had a grand look after the lights were switched on. But it can never be compared to Rashtrapathi Bhavan (the home of Indian President) in terms of size and beauty. We then visited the Lincoln memorial and took photos near the Lincoln statue.

Later, we took some snaps near the ‘Capitol Hill’ but it was very dark and the snaps didn’t come out well. The weather was getting worse and soon we started on our way back home. We forgot to take the print out of driving directions, so we had to take frequent exits from the highway. It was snowing outside and we could barely see the roads. Finally, I had to call my roommate over the phone to look into the driving directions. By the time we reached Pittsburgh, there was 2-3 ” of snow on the road. We stopped at a pizza hut for dinner. The ‘Pizza’ was really good and finally we reached home around 12:30 pm.

Mount Washington

On New Year’s eve, I went to Mount Washinton which is a steep hill overlooking the Pittsburgh skyline. After parking our cars, we took the Duquesne Incline to reach the hill top. It was built in the year 1877 to carry cargo up and down the hill slopes. It is considered to be one of the city’s most popular tourist attraction.

Venkatachalapathy Temple

New year evening, I went to

Sri Venkateswara Temple situated on Penn hills along with cousin’s family. It was built in the year 1976 and it is one of the oldest Hindu temple in the United States. After the regular prayer, we ate puliyodara and curd rice at the temple itself.

CMU and downtown Pittsburgh

It was the last day of my stay at Pittsburgh. I wished to see the Carnegie Melon University, so my sister dropped me at the South Hills village railway station [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_Light_Rail] and from there, I took a transit ticket to Steel Plaza [downtown Pittsburgh]. The landscapes around were completely covered with snow as I could see from the light rail. My brother-in-law picked me up at Steel plaza and we both went around the downtown in his friend’s car. Oakland is the academic, cultural and healthcare center of Pittsburgh. The Oakland area has many universities like Carnegie Melon University (CMU), Carlow University, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), University of Pittsburgh(UPITT), Duquesne university and is known for its hospitals. I had a glimpse of Carnegie Museum of Natural History from the outside, but missed an opportunity to see the world famous Dinosaurs exhibit in this museum. I took photographs in front of Carnegie Melon University, University of Pittsburgh, Statue of Christopher Columbus, Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens. As it was getting late to catch my flight, after taking a few snaps in front of melon bank, USX tower and Cathedral of Learning we returned home.

How To Tie A Tie Under 10 Seconds – Unbelievable!! – Funny bloopers R us

There once was a king who offered a prize to the artist who would paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried. The king looked at all the pictures. But there were only two he really liked, and he had to choose between them. One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror for peaceful towering mountains all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.