California Diary: Hollywood

After resting from our Saturday roadtrip, we had a late lunch on Sunday and stepped out for a 15 minute drive to Hollywood. Yep! I stay just a stone's throw away from Beverly Hills. :-) But Hollywood is just another place by me. I guess it depends on who you know around here. If you know somebody hep, you can probably attend some of the parties that happen around here and brush shoulders with the stars.

But to the rest of us, we can take in some regular touristy stuff. We started with the Wax Museum and I did see a very good look likeness of Samuel L Jackson, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie among others. Then we went to the local mall and hung around before we went to the Chinese theater which had the hand, foot prints and signature of the stars like Sidney Poitier embossed in concrete. It was a slow evening. But me thinks, Hollywood is just another place. Its home to the stars, but I can always see them on screen wherever I am. :-)

California Diary: Sunnyvale

So, after San Francisco, I was on my way to Sunnyvale, a cool 75 Kms away. And I was really happy. Not because I was going to eat authentic spicy S.Indian non-vegetarian food at 'Muniyandi Vilas'. But because when the plan initially came up, I had realized that one of my best school friends actually lived there (I had spoken to him a week earlier and we had given up on meeting).

In fact Karthick lived hardly 10 mts away from the restaurant. The restaurant happened to be inside this big Indian supermarket. The food was awesome and it was so damn spicy. I got the feeling that the chefs were trying too hard to make a point about this being authentic Indian food in America. My friend and me made good conversation over dosa and spicy chettinad chicken curry.

It was good catching up with a friend whom I had grown up with and played cricket on the streets near his home. We had about an hour there and then we had to leave on our 7 hour drive back home. But with Dinesh driving at a steady 90 miles/hr we made it back in 4.5 hours and it was wonderful turning in after being on the road non-stop for 27 hours.

California Trip: San Francisco

And so we were on our way to Sunnyvale, when someone had this bright idea- Why don't we visit San Francisco. After all its just 45mts away from Sunnyvale. There was no opposition to the idea and once we reset the destination on the GPS, we were on our way.

After a 6 hour journey, we entered San Francisco. The city is beautiful. The road to the pier can stop you short by its sheer fall. It just drops! We made our way to the Golden Gate bridge. Since its by the sea, its pretty cold here. But a little more chilly up there on the bridge. We strolled up and down the bridge. I believe it took 19 years to build and is a beautiful engineering marvel.

From the bridge, you also have a view of the island of Alcatraz. Made famous by the movie 'The Rock' starring Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery, the island is a former housing for the most dangerous convicts. One of its most famous occupants being the mobster, Al Capone. The story goes that the convicts were fed well and were not spared any exercise. They thus became fat and the possibility of escaping by swimming across to the mainland became extremely remote. :-)

Well! We just had an hour there. And I wished I could have spent more time in this city. But I guess you really cannot have too much of a good thing. So we got back on the van and we were off to Sunnyvale!

California Diary: Yosemite National Park

And so the seven of us started off at 1 AM on Saturday. I had a tough time keeping awake and drifted in and out of the land of oz. We had estimated that we would reach by 7. But we made it by 6 and so we killed time at a local Mc Donald's as we freshened up and had breakfast. We drove into Yosemite by 7.30 AM.

Once in we drove to various view points and did little treks. The giant sequoia trees were an amzing sight to see. Did you know that these trees are more or less resistant to old age and fire and pests. Some of them are a thousand or more years old. What makes them die is the shallow roots and that results in them toppling over.

There were supposed to be some beautiful waterfalls. But I guess its the wrong time of the year and so we were left looking at unimpressive no shows. Anyways the views were awesome. These pictures would testify to that. It would have been nice to stay over, like camping and all. But that would mean a bit of preparation and time and consensus. Maybe later on in life.

Anyways we were done by 1 PM and we were on our way out of the park. It was hot and since we didn't plan to finish this early, the boys were planning to drive about 6 hrs to Sunnyvale famous for its authentic Indian cuisine. Yep! I know what you are thinking. 6 hrs or 700 Kms to eat Dosa or have a chicken biriyani at Saravana Bhavan or Muniyandi Vilas. :-) these guys are crazy! Well I am glad somebody had that crazy idea.

California Diary: What a weekend!

I never imagined I will be able to do so much this week-end. But I did. I was actually keen on going to Las Vegas. But, on learning that I don't smoke, drink, gamble and I wasn't interested in visiting any strip clubs either 'just for the experience', my colleagues kinda said it would be good to give it a miss. The extravagant shows would be worth a visit, but it also meant a lot of dough. But things kinda clicked and I learnt that plans were made and a mini-van (GPS enabled and rented at a dirt cheap price) had been rented for a drive to Yosemite National Park. That was the only plan then. But things kinda changed after we finished the tour at the park and before I knew it, I had reached back home and I had ended up travelling 1600 Kms in a space of 27 hrs (20 hrs on the road) and I had also seen downtown San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, and had an authentic S.Indian non-veg dinner with one of my best child-hood school friends in Sunnyvale. And thats not all. Today, after a good sleep-in and a late lunch, I also saw Hollywood. Yep! What a week-end! Hallelujah! I am so happy that I am getting to do so much, especially when I had started out thinking that I would be left high & dry without a car and without friends in this part of the country.The next four posts will detail my experiences. Have a nice read.

California Diary: Universal Studios

Last Sunday I had also gone to Universal Studios. It happens to be about 8 miles from where I am and so about 8 of us took 2 cabs to get there by 10.30 in the morning. Since schools are off at this time and the fact that it was a weekend, the place was packed. Its a nice place and it was 9 PM when we left.

We started the day by going for the 'Studio Tour'. We were taken on a 4-carriage motorized car around the premises. What was interesting was that they played movie scenes and showed us where exactly it was shot. I will never forget the Bates hotel (and the house on the hill) from the movie 'Psycho' and the Jaws scene.

We also passed by a 'Costa Rican' setting from another movie. With perfect precision they initiated a flash-flood on a country road which disappeared in an instant. Then there were those cars that they used for movies like 'Mummy', 'Back to the Future' etc. They even showed cars on robotic arms that made them move, explaining the stunts in movies like "Fast & the Furious-Tokyo Drift'.

Next we tried out all the various shows & rides grabbing lunch in between. The Terminator-3D show and the Shrek-4D show were awesome. I will never forget the water actually splashing on my face when Shrek & Fiona fall down a waterfall and something brushing against my legs when spiders came on screen.

Of the rides, the Mummy ride, Jurassic park and back to the future (3-D ride) were exhilirating. But the average waiting time for these rides is an hour in a 1-km parallel laned queue. The wait was killing on the legs. In between I caught a special-effects show where they explained the nuances of the craft spiced with good rehearsed humor to boot. That was exciting where they showed in an instant how voice effects are done, how you can be reduced to size and be chased by giant tarantula's on screen etc.

The 'Waterworld' show based on the movie of the same name was exciting with ski-scooter stunts, pyrotechnics, gun-fire and explosions. That kinda wrapped up the day and I was really pooped by the time I reached home. It was nice, but I don't think I would do it again. Maybe Disney, next time and that would be with my kids. :-)

California Diary: At the Park

Was at one of the many nearby parks last saturday with friends. What did we have in mind? Cricket! Am not kidding. A colleague put it best when he said that we seem to be taking more interest in the game in USA than we would ever have in India. I guess it is something that binds us Indians together, especially when we are so far away from home.

So about 10 of us played 2 games of 8 overs each. A Pakistani gentleman named Bobby who was sitting on the grass with his wife and baby also joined us. I stretched a muscle near the hip and was left limping and stiff for about 2 days. But I did play well and enjoyed the game. Its amazing how Indians bond in a different country. A bunch of Indians who were playing volleyball came over as they hadn't seen a bunch of Indians together in months. It took just a minute for the 2 groups to gel and crack jokes in tamil and exchange numbers. I was intrigued to say the least.

The parks seem to be a place for social gatherings. I saw 2 huge groups having an evening replete with balloons, food, games, kids running around and adults enjoying good conversation. You also have barbeque grills, tennis courts, basketball & volleyball courts. Its definitely a great place to spend an evening.

California Diary: Murder at Hillcrest

If you had read my previous posts, you would have read that I had stayed over at a colleague's place last weekend. They stay at an apartment complex called Hillcrest at thousand oaks. My colleague, Ramakanth Reddy who stays close by had come over to pick me up early Monday morning on his way to work. As I waited for him near the leasing office, I saw a battery of police cars, television mobile vans & reporters near some apartments. I brushed that off at that moment. But then later on Monday night as I watched the news I read that a resident's jealous boyfriend had bludgeoned her little son to death and injured her critically. Even a passer-by wasn't spared. This had happened a stones throw away from where I had been put up for the night. :-(

California Diary: Anecdote

Was walking by the Mann theater the other day, when we suddenly came across a horde of NRI's. We realized that this was the local Indian beauty contest we read about. We just kept on walking. A little ahead, a white girl within a group of teenagers passing by showed me the flyer for the program and asked me- "Do you know who won?" I looked at her and told her with obvious disinterest- "I just got off the plane from India and I am trying to stay away from everything Indian". :-)

California Diary: Skydiving

Last saturday when we came back to the apartment after the beach trip, we found we had visitors. Some cognizant colleagues of mine had driven in a rented car about 70 Kms from a place called Thousand Oaks to visit their friend who lives in the same apartment as me. Over the course of the conversation, I found out that they had hired the car, especially for a skydiving expedition on Sunday. I immediately got the phone number, & booked my reservation too in the same group.

The only hitch was that there was no way that they were going to pick me up or drop me again the next day, which meant that I had to go with them that night. On the other hand it also meant that I will be stuck on sunday, with no way of getting back on Monday morning to work. But then my colleague informed me that another colleague of us actually did commute all the way from 1000 oaks to Glendale. I called him up and he said it was fine with him. He would pick me up on Monday morning. :-) Hallelujah!

So Saturday night, I left the apt and stayed over at 1000 oaks. I have never met these guys before saturday night. Sunday morning, we (4 of us) made a 200Km journey one way (it took just 90mts) to the drop zone. This guy Pradeep drives at about 180Kms/hr. But on these roads you hardly feel it. We had an awesome time. I did a tandem skydive from 13000 ft. It is exhilirating but not scary. Its awesome.

We flew in this WW-II kinda dual propeller plane with very spartan interiors. Barry holebuck was my personal instructor. I was strapped to his front. Shaza, a petite,brit girl was my videographer. We jumped together, Shaza taping all the while in our 1 minute freefall. Shaza & I even held hands & did a spin in mid-air. Then at about 5000ft, we pulled the cord, the parachute deployed & shaza went her own way. As we parachuted down, I took in the view. Its awesome. Its like looking out of your window in a plane; except that you are out of the plane. :-) We landed acurately on a small grassy patch near the runway. Its awesome. Its out of this world & its not scary because at that height, you kinda stop noticing how high you really are (relativity??). :-)

We made the 200 Kms trip back to 1000 oaks, where we hooked up with a few other cognizant boys around and had a lovely 2 hrs volleyall session at a local court. Then we went for a birthday dinner to another colleagues place where I had lovely desi food and some soothing tamil & malayalam to my ears. :-)All in all I think that was a very satisfying weekend.

California Diary: India's Famous Export

There's an Armenian grocery shop near home. If its something minor we usually buy it from here. The other day we had dropped by the store after work. After finishing with our list, I asked the lady at the counter if she had had any salted butter. She asked me to repeat that a few times and then with a confused look on her face called for her daughter. After conversing in their lingo, the daughter turned to me & asked- 'You want salted WATER?'. :-) Well! after a smile and a laugh, the elderly lady asked us if we were Iraqi's? On our revelation that we were Indians, the beautiful daughter asked us how we spoke such good english. I then launched into a lengthy discourse on how the educational system is one good thing our former British rulers left behind. She then said she's a big fan of Raj Kapoor. I wasn't that surprised because I knew that Raj Kapoor had a major following in the erstwhile Soviet Union. But in this day & time to hear about an Indian man of a previous generation, forgotten by most Indian youth and being spoken of in endearing terms was pleasing.

California Diary: Pepperdyne University

Well! On my first saturday here, we drove back by the ocean from the beach. We stopped by Pepperdyne University on the way. The security guard just waved us in. Its a beautiful place. Imagine studying in an University, thats in a hilly area and thats got the ocean on one side. Its beautiful. There was a lake that had a few ducks & tortoises swimming in it and a few couples lying on the grass whispering sweet nothings into each others ears. I kinda left with the feeling that it would have been good to study in a place like this. California dreamin! :-)

California Diary: Kerala Calling

You know what they say about Malayalees- 'You could find them even on the moon!' Well! I certainly didn't expect to find them in plain sight near the beach and certainly wasn't prepared to eat Kerala food in a restaurant opened by an enterprising Mallu couple, who got off the boat about 2 years ago. For 10$, I got to eat a buffet of 'Authentic Kerala Cuisine'. I must say though, that it left a lot to be desired and being malayalee myself I can certainly tell the difference. But I certainly thought they did a good job of customizing it to the western palate.

California Diary: Venice Beach

There are about 40 of my company employees contracting at Nestle and about 500 possibly in the state of California alone. That makes it convenient for the uninitiated when they reach here. Luckily for the 4 of us who have been staying here, Dinesh, a colleague has gone out of his way in ferrying us around. On the 1st 2 weekends alone, he took us shopping, to Venice beach, Pepperdyne University & a Hindu temple at a place called malibu. This blog is about the beach.
Californians are envied for the wonderful weather they have through out the year. Its a wonderful place to come away for an entire day and families do that. Whether its to sun-bathe, cycle, roller-skate, skate-board, get a massage, fly kites, play beach volleyball, play paddle tennis or just take in the amateur but unique art displays and music performances.
I enjoyed playing paddle tennis with my colleagues. Even enjoyed taking a dip in the sea. But what I enjoyed most was the walk down the road by the beach taking in the vibrant culture. Everyone had his own unique way of making money. Nobody begged. Even if they did it was with a sense of humor. I saw a bunch of ragged punkish kids with a sign that read- 'Aren't we glad that we are not your kids' Then she hollered 'Give me some money to feed my kid-sister'.

There was this art display of movie monsters like the Alien & Predator made out of scrap metal. Then there was this guy who spray painted amazing cosmic & landscape paintings in a matter of minutes. Another young performer juggled barbells and knives mixing it with a good sense of humorand at the same time encouraging the kids to stay at school, so that they may not end up like him.

Then there was the DJ, the solo-artistes, palm readers, tattoo artists, fortun-tellers, snake charmers, hare krishnas (I saw this hare krishna couple and with their permission took their picture, coz I thought the girl looked beautiful in a sari) and even Iguana handlers. I even saw a bush-man. There is even a full-blooded gym by the beach and a basket-ball court where I witnessed a group of bare-bodied muscular blacks kicking some white brother butt.

In all, there is a vibrancy about the beach here. A sort of culture, a way of life that is more than just a hang-out. Its a wonderful place to spend an entire day. Come prepared with your own bikes, skateboard, volley-ball etc as things can be got for a rent here, but can be very expensive. Its a nice place, but am hoping to see more than beaches in california. But yeah! if you live around here, its a great place to spend a relaxed weekend.

California Diary: At Work

Ok. In case you guys were under the notion that I am here on a holiday, then you are mistaken. I am here on work. My client is Nestle. They occupy a building on Central Avenue, about 10 mts walk from home and right opposite the Hilton. Its about 21 floors and I work on the 10th Floor. My first day at work, I get accosted by 2 Indian Americans, near the entrance. They explained to me that about 80% of the people who work at the Hilton are working at near slave wages. Nestle, it seems was a major customer to the Hilton due to its proximity. They requested me to put up a notice eliciting support for their cause, to which I politely declined citing my status as a contractor and my 1st day at work as the reason.

Work is fine. Though I must confess its picking up speed as days go by and its hard to get a moments respite these days. Work timings here are betwen 8.30 AM and 5 PM. But I stay back till about 6 PM at times. So far the weekends have been off and if all goes well, I would like to keep it that way. Work involves a lot of meetings, reading and documentation. Pretty intense. But nothing that I cannot handle. :-)

The cafeteria here is very nice. The lunch counter I must say has never repeated a single dish since I have been here. Its tough on the vegetarians though. I break for an ice cream at their snack counter at 3 PM almsot every day. The ice creams here are very rich and at 54 cents for flavors I have never had, I think its dirt cheap.

The people at work are racially (am not sure if thats an acceptable term any more) diverse. The cubicles have much more space and people concentrate on their job at work and leave office on the dot. While our intelligence levels are on par or better, I believe they score heavily on communication, organizational, management and personal grooming skills. As Indians, I must say we have some way to go before we reach there. I have heard from one cognizant employee already that an ingrained inferiority complex certainly hits the self-confidence of most Indians who have just arrived on this shore.

Looks like I am going to be in office on the labor day weekend in September. Its a wonderful learning experience for me in terms of core Business-IT process mapping in one of the top FMCG companies in the world. Just wondering though if it would get monotonous in a little while. Also my work timings when I come back to India may get skewed towards the late evening side. But I am just taking all this one step at a time. :-)

California Diary: First Impressions - LA & Glendale

Los Angeles airport is pretty ordinary. I had to wait about an hour at immigration as their systems had crashed. Took a taxi to Glendale. Yuri of persian descent (Iran, but he said Persia) drove me there. We made good conversation. Yuri was born in Iran and spent his initial years there. Then he spent about 5 yrs each in Armenia & Germany before coming over to LA with his wife. Looking at his handsome profile, you wouldnt think he fathered a 17-yr old daughter and a son. He worked alternate nights sharing the cab with a partner. The highlight of that trip was when he asked me if I was married. When I told him 'NO', he nodded sympathetically and said- 'I understand, Too many lesbians these days'. :-)

I paid 100$ for the taxi ride to Glendale & I had to remind myself to stop 'converting' in this country. Landed to a beautiful brand new 2bhk luxury apartment. Except that it wasn't furnished. Spent my 1st night in a sleeping bag on the floor. The next day the furniture guys- Hugo & Sergio came over & set up the whole house including making the beds in 4 hours. The house looks comfy. Don't like the un-coordinated sofa sets though. Am pretty touchy about the house and like to make my bed every morning and clean up the kitchen before I turn in for the night.

Had a bit of jet lag. But am Ok. Rested the 1st day. Glendale is beautiful. Its got mountains on one side and roads lined with palm trees. Its hot during the day and cool in the night. Its beautiful. The office is a 10 minute walk from the apartment and we have super markets, malls and a theater close-by. There is a strong Armenian presence here. But more stories later.

California Diary: Stopping by Singapore & Taipei

Singapore Airlines is good. The air hostesses are hospitable, the service is excellent & the food is good. Its hard to get their chinese accented english though. I tanked up on a good dinner, orange juice and saw Shrek-3 in the in-flight entertainment. In 4 hours, I had entered Singapore airspace. At around 6.30 AM, I had filled out a form and was glad to know that the next 8 hrs didn't have to be spent in the visitors lounge. I called up Viren & he came over to the airport, picked me up and we spent the better part of the day talking over breakfast, taking a dip in the pool, praying and having lunch by the sea. Viren lives in a pretty nice apartment with a very nice view from his bedroom.

Viren even dropped me off at the airport. It was raining heavily by then and the cab we were driving in skidded heavily trying to avoid a car in front. We then tried killing some time before a faux-pas on my part found me running like my arse was on fire to catch a flight which was still an hour away. So when I had finally caught my senses & my breath, I struck a conversation with Peter from Taiwan. Peter, had retired into business from the Chinese naval Academy. He is a sales-rep selling in the middle-east. And he wanted to show-off his hindi/arabic off to me. He kept saying 'Mazbooth' (Strong) after every third sentence. He was bemoaning the fact that his son went to study Russian in Moscow, only to realise that English is the predominant language. DUH!!

Had a pretty short trip to Taipei where we stopped for an hour and I roamed around the deserted airport. Got on the flight again and saw 'Cheeni kum' a sweet hindi movie. Took a good nap after that as the flight was atleast 8 hours long. In all as we taxied into LA airport, I thought the trip was smooth and length of it didn't show on me at all. Little did I know about Jet Lag. :-)

California Diary: Farewell in Bangalore

As usual I did my packing at the last minute. And when I say the last minute, I mean just two hours before I left my room. Neetu was such a dear. She came over to pick me up. We met Ivan, Bryan, Roshan for coffee on the way to the airport. There I met Savio & Jane as well. Well! Reader, I must say, that its always so hard to say good bye, even if it is just for 6 weeks. I didn't cry. But I started missing people as soon as I stepped into the airport. Once inside, things went smoothly. I called up Viren in Singapore and we prayed that I will be able to get an on-arrival visa in Singapore the next day. After all, I had 8 hours before I caught my connecting flight to Los Angeles.