Wish you all a very Happy & a Prosperous 2009!!!

As we near the end of 2008, here are some of the activities that we did and places we visited this year:

December: A trip for the nth time to Antelope Island from the time we have been in Salt Lake City.

My sister-in-law was here and we decided to show her around. The good part about Antelope Island is that it has its own beauty in summer as well as winter. I enjoyed shooting some scenery with my new Canon Rebel XSi.

November: Diwali Party at our place, OUR Birthday party and then a fun 2 weeks of travel, first to Las Vegas and then to Colorado Springs.

At the beginning of the month, my wife Radhika and I had organized a Diwali party at our place for the Maharashtrian group we had met earlier. It was fun and we got to eat a lot of faral. Then it was the time for Aarav’s 2^nd birthday. We do share the same birthday btw. You know, that’s like a 0.5% probability of that happening in the entire world. We threw a party at our community clubhouse for our friends. Radhika made food for like 40 people which was awesome. It was also great to have my brother Ashvin and his wife Sarika [also my sis-in-law] at the party. Then it was time to celebrate their first wedding anniversary and we were off to Vegas. It was more than a year since we had been to the sin city and I could feel a lot of changes already as we passed by the strip. We had a great time there, eating at PF Chang’s, twice, and playing roulette. We then came back and in a few days and were off to Colorado Springs to meet our Cousins for Thanksgiving. It was some experience driving in the snow storm there but overall we enjoyed the trip.

October: Celebrated Diwali and Halloween

Aarav was dressed as a Giraffe this time at the Halloween party. He was looking damn cute. We celebrated Diwali and the Hindu New Year also by decorating our house with lights and eating a lot of sweets. We also made a day trip to the Alpine loop to see the fall colors.

September: A ride on the Trax

Since Aarav loves the trains so much, we went for a ride on our local Trax. It was a hot day but the little guy loved it.

August: Trip to Oklahoma City and Houston

My parents were due to leave from Houston and so we decided to visit our cousins in Oklahoma City and Houston. We basically just ate and drank in OKC but in Houston I loved the trip to the Keemah boardwalk and NASA. At the end of the month my parents flew back to India. Aarav was missing his aaji aaba for quite a while after they left.

July: Yellowstone and Salt Lake City tours

This was a fun month filled with a lot of travelling and family reunions. We had our relatives over and had a lot of fun showing them around here in Salt Lake City. Some of the places that we visited were Antelope Island (n-1 and n-2)th time, the Copper Mine, Wendover, Snowbird, Gateway, Temple Square, etc. The entire gang then left for Yellowstone. It was one of the most gorgeous national parks I had ever seen and the place we stayed at was awesome. I would definitely love to go there again next year.

June: Zion and Bryce Trip, Bear Lake and the Hogle Zoo.

The beauty of the Bryce Canyon NP was truly breathtaking. Zion NP was also a great place to stay. It was also the birthday month for my Mom and my wife. We also had a great time power-boating on the Bear Lake. We went to the local Hogle Zoo which Aarav enjoyed thoroughly as it was his first trip to a zoo. The sight of the giraffe truly fascinated him.

May: Wedding Anniv, Aai Baba came to US, Camping trip, Thomas!!!

It was our 4^th wedding anniversary this year, boy 4 years have just flown by. By the end of the month, Aai Baba had come to visit us and Aarav was onto them instantly. We also went on our first outdoor camping trip here in Utah. That was a fun experience. Since my boy is such an ardent fan of Thomas the Tank Engine, we got a chance to take him to see the real life version. He just loved that ride.

April: Trip to Capitol Reef NP, IPL, Fishing Trip

We went to the Capitol Reef National Park here in Utah which consists of the natural rock formations. This is the smallest and the newest of the NPs in Utah. It was fun to drive the 4X4 off-road. Indian Premier League started this month and as we all know it was a great success. I really enjoyed the format, but still am a big fan of the test cricket. This month we also went on our first fishing trip. We picked up some basic fishing gear from Sportsman’s warehouse and headed off to Piute Lake which is in central Utah. We never expected to land a catch but to our biggest surprise, Radhika was able to net a Rainbow Trout. We wanted to eat it but later decided against it.

March: Indoor activities

There was still some snow around and we had fun visiting our friends and taking Aarav to the Jungle Jim.

Feb: Valentine’s Day

We celebrated the V day by going to a nice Chinese restaurant.

Jan: Move to the town house

At the beginning of the year, we finally moved out of our 2 bedroom apartment into a newly built town home. It was a big change in terms of the space as after Aarav’s birth we had started to outgrow the earlier place. This place was now 10 minutes from my work so it was all the more great! It also has a 2 car garage which means that I no more had to clear the snow off my car in the winter which was a big relief.

An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore - Wow!

After his "I invented the Internet" fiasco, I was not so sure whether watching a film involving Al Gore would be a good idea. My cousin had recommended it a few months back but I kept putting it off until last week when I finally got to watch it. It's not like I was not aware of Global warming as a term but this documentary helped put the concept in to perspective. The one thing I liked about the documentary was the way the facts were represented as figures, graphs and trends. It made me realize that we are not aware of so many things happening around us that contribute directly or indirectly to this phenomenon. I would not say that suddenly I have started caring about the planet after watching it but at least from now on I can gradually start making the changes towards solving this issue. I would highly recommend to all of you to watch this documentary and to take a stand which I am pretty sure there would be just one way to go about it. Below are a few of the quotes that I found really interesting:

Al Gore: [quoting Mark Twain] "What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so."

Al Gore: [quoting Upton Sinclair] "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

Al Gore: We have everything, save perhaps political will. But in America, I believe political will is a renewable resource.

Al Gore: I don't really consider this a political issue, I consider it to be a moral issue.

Al Gore: You see that pale, blue dot? That's us. Everything that has ever happened in all of human history, has happened on that pixel. All the triumphs and all the tragedies, all the wars all the famines, all the major advances... it's our only home. And that is what is at stake, our ability to live on planet Earth, to have a future as a civilization. I believe this is a moral issue, it is your time to seize this issue, it is our time to rise again to secure our future.

Al Gore: You look at that river gently flowing by. You notice the leaves rustling with the wind. You hear the birds; you hear the tree frogs. In the distance you hear a cow. You feel the grass. The mud gives a little bit on the river bank. It's quiet; it's peaceful. And all of a sudden, it's a gear shift inside you. And it's like taking a deep breath and going, "Oh yeah, I forgot about this."

Al Gore: Future generations may well have occasion to ask themselves, "What were our parents thinking? Why didn't they wake up when they had a chance?" We have to hear that question from them, now.

Al Gore: What we take for granted might not be here for our children.

Al Gore: It takes time to connect the dots, I know that. But I also know that there can be a day of reckoning when you wish you had connected the dots more quickly.

Salute to the Little Master

His 103* at Chennai last week against England is one of the best compiled innings I have ever seen. Some of the other test innings have been more flamboyant but this got rid of the "Tendulkar cannot bat in the second innings" stigma for sure. I had decided to watch the match only until 1:00 am that night as I had to go to work the next day but I got a hunch that something special was about to happen and boy was I glad that I didn't miss it. At no point of time did he play a false shot in this inning. He very much stuck to the basics, curtailed his cover drive and was ticking the scoreboard beautifully. As the total got closer he was more vigilant in his approach and guided Yuvraj in the chase. Below are some of the quotes that others have said about him.

"Sachin is cricket's God"
- Barry Richards.

"He is 99.5 per cent perfect. I'd pay to see him"
- Viv Richards.

"I have seen God. He bats at number 4 for India"
- Mathew Hayden

"There is no shame being beaten by such a great player, Sachin is perhaps only next to the Don"
- Steve Waugh.

"I still think Tendulkar is the best batsmen in the world ahead of Steve Waugh and Lara"
- Glenn McGrath.

"You take Don Bradman away and he is next up I reckon"
- Steve Waugh.

"Cricketers like Sachin come once in a lifetime, and I am privileged he played in my time"
- Wasim Akram

"Sachin Tendulkar is a genius. I'm a mere mortal"
- Brian Lara

"Don't bowl him bad balls, he hits the good ones for fours"
- Michael Kasprowicz.

"It's scary, where the hell do we bowl to him"
- Allan Border.

"Yeah mate, but that's with all great players"
- Ian Chappell.

"He's better than Ben Hur"
- Paul Wilson.

"There's no doubt about it. He is the best"
- Tony Grieg.

"Technically, you can't fault Sachin. Seam or spin, fast or slow - nothing is a problem"
- Geoffrey Boycott.

"Destined to be a great"
- Barry Richards.

"You have to watch India in India truly to appreciate the pressure that Sachin Tendulkar is under every time he bats. Outside grounds, people wait until he goes in before paying to enter. They seem to want a wicket to fall even though it is their own side that will suffer"
- Shane Warne.

Aai's Canvas Magic

Here are some of my mom's recent canvas paintings. Aren't they simply amazing?

Its Black Its White