Smokin' Sumatra!

Patriotic Smokers

Most of the conversations in Sumatra followed a set pattern. With usual greetings accompanying a beaming smile, an eager looking Indonesian queries, "What's your name, Mr.?". Without waiting for an answer his hands move around his pockets and picking the most valued possession - a packet of Cigarettes. He offers, "Cigarette, Mr.?" Upon receiving a negative response, either his eyes bewilder with an excitement spotting an alien (and probably thinking),"How can a man be a man without smoking". Else, you gain a rarely respectable nod, "Wow!!! how the hell you resist such a divine pleasure." Most of the advertisement billboards on the roads also address tobacco lovers, either enticing the new pack or pleasing the veterans. Given this penetration of tobacco in an around, it is not surprising and indeed heart breaking and absolutely shocking to spot about 10 years old kids smoking their adolescence with every inhaled puff on a scenic beach or equally scenic lush green landscapes.

I could not stop but to rake the topic during the chat with Joe - a paragliding enthusiast, with whom I could strike long conversations on my way to Bukittingi from Padang. He offered a rather cynical argument,"Guru, one has to understand smoking in Indonesia is a mandatory national cause for every Indonesian man. This is how men demonstrate patriotism in Indonesia." I did not get his point immediately and naively asked,"Smoking demonstrating patriotism. How?" And  the logic he presented can be extended to all the smokers and alcoholics the world over. He argued,"Cigarettes attract most tax and contribute the most to the national exchequer* and more the Indonesian men smoke, more they contribute to the national exchequer and towards the economic growth of the country." So to all the smokers in the world: Keep smoking your lungs out, keep contributing to the patriotic national cause but please, please do something to keep those adolescent kids out of the dirt. Any ideas? Meanwhile, a few screenshots...

Lush Green Sumatra Landscape

Lush Green Sumatra Landscape

Canyon in Bukittingi-Indonesia

Islands close to Armanis beach - Padang-Indonesia  

Paragliding: A classy adventure

Thanks for the surfing goof-up on the 2nd day morning, I had a chance to spend the entire day with the gliding enthusiasts in Indonesia. I have already been sold on being a gliding pilot after a single gliding session with Peter, thanks to Tomas and NBH. This one was the more adventurous of the two. In glider plane, you are inside a gliding plane feeling at home while in paragliding you are out in the open sitting on your harness. The take off and landing are very crucial and in between it looks like driving a car where the fuel (Thermal heat from the atmosphere) is not in your control making it more tricky. Nevertheless, with a proper precaution, it is certainly an enjoyable sport providing many more entertaining views. Waiting for my turn, I had an enjoyable time playing out with my lens taking a few gliding shots... 

Joe- paragliding enthusiast; Unfortunately, his  glider could not take off on the day

A long zoom shot -  Paraglider enjoying his ride

Landing on the Armanis beach

I climbed the hill twice desperately waiting for my turn and the weather spoiled the party every time forcing me to live on one thing, Hope. Unfortunately, the nature was unkind yet again when I traveled to Bukittingi for climbing Mt. Merapi. The active mountain was erupting and it was forbidden to hike. But then, there is always next time, a new day and a new opportunity. Hope is a good thing, good things do not die!!!    

Finally, Minangkabau architecture - a unique view in Smoking Sumatra!!!

Minangkabau architecture - the big house roof structure

___________________________

* For those interested in Economics of smoking: Although the detrimental effects of smoking are well-known, the world over it has never been banned by governments. For One, smoking does contribute a great deal to the exchequer and secondly, with larger life expectancy today, it saves governments a lot of investments in old age homes as most smokers get smoked out sooner than later.  

"Holiday Credit" - a worthy experiment?

Apparently, working in the month of December* (applies to all holiday seasons) generates mixed feelings. On a tragic note, there is always a feeling that holiday time is not optimally utilized. Being in nature (rather brainstorming in the nature) is always preferred than brainstorming on a desk, any disputes? On a better note though, with a very few in the office (read no bosses :p), the work environment is much more relaxed giving time for more coffees and more radical thoughts and laughter. And with no immediate pressure of deadlines a.k.a. sliding, one can work quite leisurely spend time exploring untouched long thought ideas...

In my Singapore experience, the pressure cooker corporate environment might actually turn worse (read hostile) for a few, specially on a Business (One u think money, you always think of money) front. There are a few souls who are not lucky enough to take holidays when they desperately desire. Now, for me, emancipation's top item in a corporate set-up is freedom to plan your holiday and in no circumstances it can be traded off for money. But then there are bills to pay and other societal pressures and hence the compromise. Worst still, there are few who have to soak their souls in the office even when they are on an official holiday. Totally appalling!!! Pity, huh!!! But then what is the solution, any way out?

Talking to colleagues Roshan and Merugu over coffee on a cloudy evening I believe, "Holiday Credit" - a credit on the lines of carbon credit that lead to Kyoto protocol could lead to an acceptable solution. Holidays have to be fairly monetized just like carbon credit monetizing carbon emissions. The set number of holidays provided by an employer can not have an equal weight and only a trade on them can lead to an optimal valuation. As an example, the vacation during the holiday season should obviously be valued much more than the vacation during the other times. And the demand and supply in the market should lead to an optimal value for holidays. This way, one can borrow/buy holidays finding a replacement for one's  work and the seller (money making souls) can be adequately compensated for her sacrifice. 

Most importantly, an avid traveler - yours truly, can plan loooong vacations (e.g. Antartica, Arctic, Himalaya and the endless list) in lull periods and compensate with spending time in the office during holiday season compensating for the colleagues if required. If there is any term called "team work", the Holiday credit would certainly fructify it. At least, it should be an experiment- worth a try. What do you say?   

__________________________________________

* Recounting, this is only second December since 2006 that I am actually working... 

Guru! Guru!! Guru!!!

Well!!! I genuinely request every friend undertaking a traveling sojourn to chant/shout/scream "Guru! Guru!! Guru!!!" whenever they encounter an amazing traveling spot, a mesmerizing wonder or anything alike. I believe by doing so the world would conspire me to visit the spot sooner than later. Majority of the souls laugh, laugh out laud and (sadly) forget :-( 

Recently though, I was pleasantly surprized by my colleague Romen when he brought me this video from his recent vacation to Tenerife - Canary Islands - Spain. I went ecstatic. Thanks a ton Romen!!!

Romen shouting "Guru! Guru!! Guru!!!"

In the background, El-Tiede (3717.91m; 12198 ft) the highest mountain I have ever been and in the foreground, Romen yelling "Guru! Guru!! Guru!!!" is the funniest thing I have recently seen...

Shala - The School(Part-I)

"Sandhya is so lame, Savitha", Kavitha, "Sooo lame...She has only two games in her phone. Look at my two phones. So nice!!! I have sixteen games and eighteen movies. I have chammak challo, chikni chameli and on and on and on..." I was dumbstruck listening to the conversation of ~10 year old Indian school going kids in Singapore. Watching lunatically my new smart phone which I was totally proud of even with a single game installed brought me on the ground and for the first time in my life,  I was struck with the effect of (so called) generation gap I had missed to recognize (or chose to ignore) so far. Since that day - rather everyday journey to the office has been an entertainment I dearly look up to. On the way to office, there are at least 3-4 schools and when I pan out, one class or the other is on the ground. At times with the coach on a basketball court or a football field and many times doing the rounds around the park. A few kids sprinting to the dash line, a larger group forming a parliament discussing most burning issues while a notorious few cleverly walking behind the girls...

Pritam Kabra (Left) - A Chartered Accountant (CA) by profession today and yours truly (Right) sitting of the same bench we shared during our 10th Standard - Class B. The room is on the first floor of the (then) S. V. Joshi's new building

The younger generation of the school demoing a science experiment - It's unbelievable we were so small once upon a...

Another bench pair Anil (Left): An accountant and most importantly the most outstanding student of the Class X and Subodh (Right): Entrepreneur and a budding politician

As I am witnessing their childhood, often I fall into nostalgia recounting my childhood and I remember the recent reunion day I dearly enjoyed during the Diamond Jubilee celebration of my school - S.V. Joshi High School. What a day it was!!! Catching up with old school mates was fun...indeed fun... undoubtedly one of the most enjoyable days to cherish. With the bellies out and chubby cheeks demonstrating the signature of well being and inactive life style, the banter mostly revolved around the current coordinates, evolved career paths, new opportunities and most importantly the fond school memories. As we were walking around the first building, one of my classmates remembered the thunderous strike by our class teacher Patil Sir. The entire class had gone into an uncharacteristic silence and the only thing she could not gather was the exact protagonist in the story and I had to oblige to narrate the incidence: 

Well, it was a rainy day yet the gloom had not descended into the classroom and everybody was happily playing with the pencils and colors, drawing rather mimicking an attractive piece of nature scene Patil Sir (The Master) had just drawn on board. He certainly had one of the most magical hands and could create a different world on his own on the board with a handful of colors. The scene was colorful adorning the otherwise insipid black and white board. I always wondered how the math or science teachers that followed could mercilessly wash the entire scene, only to implant the worldly knowledge into our heads. 

Anyways, once done with the master piece, The Master settled down with his job of collecting the annual fees from his pupils. The cumulative annual fees were to be 120 rupees (2 USD today) and it was the turn of yours truly to hand over the annual bills. A total of 120 rupees meant a set of two paper notes, one with 100 rupees and the other with a twenty rupees one. To my love towards miniature things, I had folded the 20 rupee note into 20 folds and probably 100 rupees one into that many. Honestly, I was more than happy with my invention. The notes not only took less space in my ever tiny pocket but also resulted in a 3D structure that significantly appealed me. Little did I know that I would one day become a microelectronics engineer playing with micro and nano-dimensional entities building 3D chips, saving crucial real estate and energy in state-of-the-art electronics. Looking back at a few folks, returning their monkey gestures, I nonchalantly handed over the annual sum to The Master and it happened... It happened in a flash...It happened before I could realize, before the class could realize...It happened when I was caught unaware, everyone was caught unaware. The right hand of the master thundered on the left cheek of the pupil, the head was dispatched for a free space travel, the throat started yielding intermittent quacks and in unison cheeks started rolling unstoppable warm tears... 

The thunderous strike created a thunderous sound quelling all the whispers in the class and all started watching the drama unfolding on the front stage. "You Donkey, is this the way to treat money?", shouted The Master. "They are just the piece of paper, Sir, nothing more nothing less!!!", but The Mind could not speak as it was traveling the galaxies counting stars. "You monkey, this is what your parents have taught you so far?", screamed The Master again. "What's the role of teachers then?, Sir", again The Mind could bot speak as it was off the milky way counting close to infinity in a flash now. "You moron, get lost from my sight and remember if you treat money like this any more. Show it the respect it deserves and only then it will respect you", The Master, "Understand!!! The damn thing is not only hard earned but many hardly ever earn it..." Even off the galaxy, The Mind has not forgotten the message. Thank you Master!!!    

The reunion day was also the day when the great achievers, the cum-laude's; the creme-de-la-creme of the school were applauded for their achievements, for some the life time achievements. And my mind started wondering again, yet again... More about that in Shala - The School (Part-II)... 

Adriatic Croatia - My last PhD trip in Europe

My last trip in Europe during PhD was to Croatia* - a beautiful holiday destination with lots of Sea and the Sun and to add to that more and more beautiful people all around. Where else can you expect the host to come to receive you at the bus terminal and you reach ho(s)tel in chauffeur driven car at 6AM in the morning. The lady of the house then greets you with a traditional welcome drink -- honey and vintage liquor (may be) half as strong as Becherovka burning your throat -- What a way to start a day!!!

Ferpect (There is nothing perfect in this world) for a last minute travelers like me, one of the curious practices in Croatia is that you do not really have to book ho(s)tels etc. in advance. For one, you will have a lot of residents looking for travelers to offer them beds/rooms. Renting places and tourism is their major source of revenue. If you are unlucky to find none, I was informed that you are free to just knock on any door in the neighborhood and request them if they have a place to stay. Worse come worst, the residents will guide you to another neighbor and most likely you will get a bed at least.

With more than thousand islands, Croatia is one of those beautiful marvels that it becomes too difficult to imagine that the country was at loggerheads with neighboring Bosnia just a two decades ago and the war stories on the dinner table leave you shock shelled. 

For most prominent traveling destinations, there is a lot and lots to see. While The pearl of Adriatic -- Dubrovnik, described by G. B. Shaw as "Those who seek paradise on Earth should come to Dubrovnik and see Dubrovnik" should not be missed in any circumstances the tranquil park in Plitvice will certainly leave you far away from the mundane day to day routine that you will hate to come back. It's one of the decent places for adventurists too as there are quite a few water sports options to bask in. The passing beauty of the islands when you travel on roads close to Sea is simply mesmerizing and it would be a huge effort to give a break to your shutter. Here are a few shutter bugs...

Dubrovink - The pearl of Adriatic

Lokrum - An island close to Dubrovnik

Croatia - A country with more than thousand Islands

Pristine -- A natural cave in Lokrum

Plitvice Park water fall - small and sweet

   

_______________________________________________________  

* By the way, Gary Kasparov travels to Croatia for vacation every summer. Not only he relaxes in the summer house with his entire family, he works on his Chess too. Being hugely optimistic, I was hopeful that an ounce of sand would be fly into my head to improve my Chess performance. Height of optimism :-)