My Favourites

These are my favourites:

Favourite Novel: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper_Lee
Favourite non-fiction: What Religion Is by Swami Vivekanand
Favourite comic strip: Tintin
Favourite fictional characters: Salvatore Giuliano (The Sicilian), Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird)
Favourite Hindi movie: Deewar
Favourite English movie: The Bridge on the River Kwai
Favourite song: Noori Noori ... of course not! :-)
Favourite actor: Amitabh Bachchan
Favourite actress: Waheda Rehman? Nutan?
Favourite singer: Lata Mangeshkar
Favourite place: Myeong-Dong (in Seoul)
Favourite cities: Mumbai & London
Favourite season: Monsoon
Favourite sportsmen: V Anand, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar
Favourite sport: Chess
Favourite freedom fighter: Lokmanya Tilak
Favourite politician: Atal Bihari Vajapayee
Favourite world leader: Abraham Lincoln
Favourite historical figures: Adi Shankaracharya and Shivaji
Favourite business leader: Narayan Murthy
Favourite scientists: Einstein, Darwin

What are yours?

I love DST

A couple of weeks ago when I left office at around 5:30 p.m. there was still some natural light. Until a few weeks ago it would be pitch dark long before 5 p.m. I noticed how the days are getting longer and was glad to see the change.

This Sunday the clock was moved ahead by 1 hour. At 2 a.m. on Sunday the clock skipped an hour and moved to 3 a.m. We moved from Pacific Standard Time (PST = GMT - 8 hrs) to Pacific Date Time (PDT = GMT - 7 hrs). This means that we have natural light for one more hour in the evening. This is such a welcome change after cold and dark winter. Today there was natural light even at 7:30 p.m.

A few months ago I had met someone from Phoenix, Arizona, who said that DST was useless (Arizona is the only state in the US that does not observe DST). I didn't think so, but I didn't argue with him, because then I wasn't so sure about myself. But next time some says it, I will surely support Daylight Savings. It's such a useful concept. Why waste an hour of natural light at wee hours of the morning when we are fast asleep (or trying not to wake up despite the light), when we can use it to light our evenings. I love Daylight Savings Time.

A plane with a view

It was not a part of our itinerary. When we planned our trip to San Diego and Los Angeles, we planned to see Sea World, Universal, Hollywood, and Disney. We even considered visiting LegoLand, an idea that we eventually dropped. However we never thought of adding Mount Rainier on our itinerary. You would say, it's obvious that you won't be visiting Mount Rainier if you are travelling to southern California.

To our utter surprise and much joy, we saw the most unexpected view of Mount Rainier on our way to California! How? Here's how it happened. The Seattle sky was covered with clouds as usual. For a moment we could see nothing as the airplane pierced through the layer of clouds. When the plane was above the clouds all we could see were clouds all the way to the end of the horizon, and one more thing - a huge Mount Rainier standing tall above all. It was a good view, but there was more to come. As the plane moved ahead it went very close to Mount Rainier. A few minutes later we were just top of Mount Rainier to its North West.

Then the plane took a turn and cruised to the south of the peak. The view that we had of the peak of Mount Rainier from the top was one of them most amazing views I have ever had in my lifetime. Unfortunately I did not have my camera at hand, and the fasten seatbelt sign was on. So I couldn't capture the picture for you all to see.