Jairam's Jives: April 2008

Ronin - The Lonely Samurai

The Ronin were a group of Samurai during the feudal period in Japan without a master. Historically, a Samurai was supposed to commit Hara Kiri (ritual suicide) upon the loss of his master. However, there were Samurai who chose not to honor this code and "was on his own".

However, as time has gone by, the Ronin have been immortalized in popular culture to mean somebody who is as deadly as the Samurai and who operates all alone. Ronins have attained legendary status in Japanese popular culture as individuals who single-handedly display all the warrior-like qualities of the Samurai and walk the hard path of life alone.

Now before you begin wondering why I am talking about Ronins and Samurais, let me give a brief context to this post.

Apr

Concord - likes and dislikes

Here's a list of 5 things that I miss the most about Concord -

1. The fact that Concord was one of the most scenic places with lots of green spaces all around. Although I hear Charlotte is also like that, the fact that I am stuck in the Business District of the city doesn't help me in getting to see the greener part of town.

2. I actually miss the BART (Bay Area Rapid Tranport) trains.

Apr

Up in the air

When I began blogging I didn't quite envisage this kind of post. Yes, it is official. I am actually sitting on an aeroplane when I am typing this out right now. Can you believe that guys, although I won't actually be able to post this considering that we probably don't have Internet access upon above the sky so high, I am actually typing this out around 29,000 odd feet in the air above the US of A.

Apr

Japanese Tea Garden - San Francisco

Well, since I was moving out of the West Coast this week, and Bhasky has plans of staying in the US for quite some time to come, it kind of became mandatory that I visit him this weekend as well, considering that neither of us knew when we would meet each other again in the future. So off I was to Sunnyvale the second weekend in a row.

Apr

Work Culture here in the US

Although it is a widely known fact that the work culture here in the US is extremely professional and people schedule their tasks and draw up their work estimates strictly based on 8 hr working days, it has been quite an experience to see them in action. The fact that most people working here push back work which they feel will take them more than 8 hrs a day is prevalent across hierarchical levels.

Apr

San Francisco Sojourn

Well, after my anticipated visit to California turned out to be...well, a damp squib, to put it mildly, at least for the first 3 weeks, the arrival of Bhasky at Sunnyvale turned out to be quite the lucky break for me, in terms of sightseeing.

After planning and re-planning and goofing up the entire itinerary by not carrying Bhasky's mobile number with me, I ended up pretty much wasting a little more than half a day on Saturday.

Apr

The United States - A vegetarian's nightmare??? Not quite

When I arrived here at Concord , California , just a little over two weeks ago, I landed here quite perturbed at the stories that I had heard regarding the miserable fate that vegetarians have here. Not that I am a strict vegetarian myself, considering that I do enjoy the occassional poultry dish now and then, but I prefer veggie food. So naturally I approached the entire food scene here at the US quite warily.

However, what awaited here quite surprised me.

Jairam's Jives

jive: (Slang) deceptive, exaggerated, or meaningless talk: "Don't give me any of that jive!" Mostly movie reviews and cinema related. Do visit Mahabore's Mumblings at http://mahabore.wordpress.com for my non-movie related writing.