Media matters

Raleigh, NC

I have Time Warner cable in my house with 70 odd channels. After returning home, I switch on the TV to catch up with the news. One common characteristic of all the 3 major news channels (Fox, MSNBC and CNN) is their intellectual bankruptcy. Opinion masquerades as news, with each channel giving a different spin on the happenings of the day. Debates are nothing more than shouting matches with each political contributor sticking to his talking points and shouting his message across.

In 8 years of living in the US, very rarely have I found incisive, logical and informed analysis of the happenings in the world on these 24 hour news channels. World news? Forget it. Look for that someplace else. In my conversation with people around me, I notice a general ignorance of the geography, history and current events of the rest of the world. I wonder to what extent the American media is responsible for that.



Of all the Indian and American newspapers I read, I would rate Indian Express as the best. Shekhar Gupta, the editor of Indian Express is one of my favorite columnists. I spent this weekend catching up with all his recent columns. He offers an excellent analysis of the US Af-Pak policy and the happenings in the Indian sub-continent. Some of his columns can be found here Shekhar Gupta Columns

Passport update

Raleigh, NC

I received my new passport from the Indian embassy in Washington DC. I am delighted that I got the passport in time to apply for the tourist visa to Brazil and the student visa to France. With an Indian passport, travelling is a pain. There are very few countries which provide visa free travel to holders of Indian passport.




The Henley Visa Restrictions Index is a global ranking of countries according to travel freedom their citizens enjoy. Denmark leads the list with 157 countries providing visa free travel to it's citizens. India ranks 75 on the list with only 37 countries providing visa free travel to it's citizens. Afghanistan is at the bottom of the list with 22 countries providing visa free travel to it's citizens.

The complete list can be accessed at Henley Visa Restrictions Index

Junk mail

Raleigh, NC

Since last week, I have been checking my mail box twice a day. I found new credit card offers, balance transfer offers on existing ones, coupons for grocery stores, catalog for online apparel websites, postcards from real estate brokers, premium increase notifications from insurance companies and other things which I will not find useful in a million years.



I open the mailbox with enthusiasm and expectations and they get shattered in the barrage of junk mail. What I am waiting for is my passport which I sent to the Indian embassy in Washington DC. I have heard horror stories about the passport renewal process in the Indian embassies and I am hoping that things go smoothly for me. Once I get the passport back, I can go ahead and apply for the tourist visa to Brazil and student visa to France.

I am going to go check my mailbox again now :(

Travel plans update

Raleigh, NC

I will leaving the USA in May and head to Sao Paulo and then to Rio de Janeiro. In Rio, I will be taking a 4 week Portuguese course at Casa Do Caminho Language center. The school is located just 3 blocks away from the Ipanema beach!



The classes are from Monday to Friday 9am-12p.m. In the afternoons I can explore more of Rio and take short trips out of Rio on the weekends. End of June I will be flying to Hyderabad, India through Dubai. That will be a long flight. 15 hours from Sao Paulo to Dubai and additional 4 hours of flying to Hyderabad. July and August, I will spend some time with my family and travel to the Himalayas in the North. I will be leaving Hyderabad for HEC Paris, the 1st of September.

travel plans

Raleigh, NC

My travel plans from May - September. Starting in Raleigh, ending at HEC Paris.

Irrational exuberance

Raleigh, NC

I was so excited to receive the MBA admission offer from HEC Paris that rationality and realism went out the window and I made some over-ambitious plans. I bought the Rosetta stone software for French, level 1,2 and 3. I planned on finishing all the 3 levels by the start of the MBA program in Septemeber. All this in parallel to

-Learning Portuguese
-Working out regularly
-Drinking beer with friends on the weekends
-Upcoming travel plans to Brazil and India.
-Emptying my apartment and getting out of USA.

The HEC MBA admission offer led to some irrational exuberance and now the bubble has busted. Reality is sinking in. I will not be able to finish all the 3 level's of Rosetta stone French in time for the start of the MBA program. Language learning takes time and it is not possible to cram everything into the mind at once, like I used to do for my exams in grad school. Retention is the key to language learning and that takes it's own sweet time. I plan on not making any more plans.

I accumulated some good karma this week. I donated all my computer science books to the library at my workplace. I don't plan on getting back to programming after my MBA and hope that these books are helpful to my coworkers.

Avatar effect

Raleigh, NC

I just got back from the movie Avatar at the IMAX theatre. Awesome movie with excellent visual and sound effects! On planet Pandora, the indigenous humanoids can physically feel the interconnectedness of everything living and non-living. The entire planet Pandora is like a giant organism, with 'Eywa' the underlying field of energy sustaining the balance of life.

On a deeper thought, is our planet any different? All living and non-living things on this planet are interconnected in ways we cannot comprehend or imagine. It's just that we cannot feel this interconnectedness at a physical level. Eastern philosophies have talked for ages about this interconnectedness and the all pervading life force which can be experienced through deep meditation and contemplation. Physics research on the "Unified Field Theory" is validating what eastern philosophies have been preaching for ages. I recently read a book "The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe" by Lynne McTaggart. I highly recommend this book which details how scientific research is validating what ancient religions have been teaching.

On a tangent, I have been questioning whether we would value things in our life differently if we could feel the interconnectedness of everything living and non-living? The world around us, there is a huge distance between the cause and the effect. We are disconnected with the sources of food we eat. Sitting in a cube writing software, I am disconnected with people who will ultimately use what I develop. Politicians and leaders are disconnected from people whose lives will be affected by their decisions. Financial wizards at Wall Street are disconnected from the long term pain their actions can create. Is this disconnectedness leading to actions which result in short term gains and long term losses, whether be it in finance, environment or politics?

Recently I have been very skeptical about everything I see or read. I switch on the TV and see advertisements for prescription drugs. Talk to your doctor about xyz drug. Just pop one pill a day and you will lead a better life. But wait a minute; you might die from the side effects. Every advertisement or news article I read takes me into the 'skepticism zone' and I Google to find information which proves the exact opposite of what I just read. That again validates my skepticism which makes me all the more skeptical! I hope this is a temporary phase that will pass. I don't to be a grumpy old man at 31!