Indian Stallion's blog

This is been a crazy last week and a half here on the other side of the planet.  My mother, god bless her soul, had made a sacred vow in two temples in India for my well being and for me getting married.  Part of the deal, if god come through for her, was that my wife and I would go back to that those temples and give our darshan.  Well my mother, god bless her soul, picked the two temples that were on 2 different sides of India. 

Somnath
The first was in Somnath which is located at in Western Gujarat overlooking the ocean.  It is a very moving experience.  This along with the next pilgramage I will write of, is one of the holiest ones can take.  Aside from the very interesting and spiritial story of Somnath, is the beauty of the surroundings.  It overlooks the ocean and one can sit for hours getting browner just captivated by the majestic beauty of a tranquil ocean untouched by western capitalist bastards ripping apart all that is good and holy....great a whole bunch of high school kids just showed up... there goes my moment.  Of course Ruhi came along on this trip.  We had to endure a 12 hour drive to this place and back. 

Balaji
Right after returning home we left for Mumbai (formerly Bombay) to begin our trip to Balaji temple in Tirupati.  Tirupati is in South Eastern India in the state of Andhra Pradesh.  The Tirupathi Balaji temple is probably the most visited temples in the whole world with over fifty thousand pilgrims visiting each day.  The catch here is that the lines can be long... like 12-16 hours long to see the statue of the god: Balaji. And you probably have about 1 second to see it.  Luckily for us, Ruhi's dad knew this super rich and super connected man who gives a ton of money to the temple.  Once he heard that we were going he told my father in law that he will arrange everything once we get there.  Now Ruhi and I had no idea what that meant.  Ruhi didn't know this man personally, I actually had the honor or meeting him last year, and we had no idea who was going to greet us at the airport. 

So the original plan was:
We get to Tirupati on the 15th of December
We get in line at 10pm so we can do our darshan (prayer) at around 2~5 am
We rest on the 16th and return to Mumbai on the 17th.

So we reach Tirupati Airport (after our delayed flight on Indian Airlines) and we start looking around.  This is a tiny airport so I figured we'd have to bump into someone.  We got our bags and then headed outside to look further.  There were about 5 people holding signs with names.  We didn't know whether my name or Ruhi's name would be on a placard.  I saw one dude with a sign that said "Mr. Veni"  I moved on.  Finally a real nice gentleman tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was Veni... I said, are you with Mr. _____.  He said yes. Whew...

Our guide was met!  His name was/is Manikandan, or Mani (like money), for short.  Mani was extremely nice.  We didn't know what language to speak with him.  Hindi is the national language in India but I heard South Indians hate speaking it because most northerners look down on southerns.  My dad said don't speak Hindi in the South, most people speak English.  So when we met Mani we spoke broken english to each other.  Mani and the driver we were speaking Telgu but I didn't want to disrespect them by showing my ignorance.  I had already done so early when Mani asked if I knew the religious story associated with his name.  DOH!  We came to learn that Mani spoke some hindi and for some odd reason, even though both Mani and I both spoke broken Hindi, that's the language we decided to dialoge in.  English a stronger language for the both of us seemed alien and odd to us both so we spoke in Hindi.

Anyway Mani took us straight to the temple which was actually locaed on a mountain overlooking Tirupathi in a city called Tirumala.  Tirumala was a very small city which was basically built around the temple.  We stopped outside the temple grounds and Mani said that he needed to consult a Swami about our arrival.  Apparently our well connected friend knows one of the main swami's of this temple and had told him of our trip.  The swami came out and we all drove to the ticketing area.  Here the plan was that we were going to buy a ticket that was going to give us entrance at 10pm.  Of course the ticket only gave us entrance, we still would have to wait over 6 hours until we get to see the statue of god.  When we got to the ticket counter we found out that the 10pm tickets were all SOLD OUT!  The swami was even perplexed on what to do.  He started to walk away really fast and so we had to catch up.  After about 10 yards he stopped and started to talk to Mani.  Then the swami looked at us and asked if we would come to his prayer at 5:30pm after which he would get us into the temple.  WOW.  It was around 3:30pm right now so we'd have to shower and get dressed right away. Mani was supposed to put us up in this nice bungalow but with the change in plans we had to find a place close by so we could get ready.  We found a hotel within walking distance and Ruhi and I were off to get ready.

 

At 5:30pm we were off to find the Swami.  Mani came to pick us up.  We went over to the prayer area (which was right outside the temple entrance) and the swami was on stage.  The swami saw us an motioned for us to sit up in front.  The "users" let us in the roped off area and we sat on the floor.  The prayer lasted about 20 minutes (thankfully because my foot was pretty much asleep) and then when everyone got up the Swami pointed to another Swami and he told us to follow him.  THE RACE HAS BEGUN.  We litterally power walked a good quarter mile up and around the temple to get to the Basement Entrance of the temple.  Unknown to me at the time our Swami-guide was also ushering in a few more people with him, so we had ourselves a nice group.  At the first checkpoint there were guards and a small entrace, the swami showed the guard a piece of paper he had with him and he let him in.  We followed him.  It really felt as though it was a ride at Disneyland where once you think your close to the end, another slew of lines show up. 

After a bunch of twists and turns we were upon the center of the temple where the statue was.  As we grew closer to the statue the line became more and more compact.  What I didn't realize at the time was that once you were in front of the statue there were people there to literally SHOVE you away.  Indian crowd control baby!  So people wanted to get as long of a look as possible before being shoved away.  I got to the front and as I bowed my head and lifted a big guy shoved me along.  I was wondering if men shoved women and as that thought was crossing my mind, a short lady pushed Ruhi along.

What was to be a 6-10 hour ordeal lasted a whole 90 minutes.  It felt great that we were done so fast, but right after we were done, I realized ... "what the hell are we going to do for the rest of the 3 days?"

Singapore Airlines.  Great vegetarian food (their veggie indian food is actually pretty good).  Excellent service, especially if you have young ones.  And they take care of disabled well too.  The only knock on them is that it takes about 3 days to get to India.  I would like to fly first or business class w/ them, but that will be WAY WAY WAY down the road.  I must say that it may take longer to get to India, but we get there in a good mood and in good health.

The best thing is that Singapore has a FANTASTIC entertainment system that has On Demand movies, TV shows, and video games.  I spent about an hour on Super Mario Brothers.  The games are old but I'm not complaining at all.  Most movies are recent.  Some of the the recent ones showing were: Miami Vice, Invincible, Lady in the Water, My Super Ex Girlfirend, You Me and Dupree, Superman Returns, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and some recent Indian movies like: Omkara, Krissh, Phir Hera Pheri.  Each seat is equipped with its own 6" x 6" screen located on the headrest of the seat infront of you.  The seat phone doubles as a remote control for programming and a joystick for games.

Our trips so far:

We started off our journey at SFO on Tuesday afternoon.  From SF it was about a 13 hour flight to Seoul, S. Korea.  Now I've been at the airport here about 4 times and I must say that the terminal and view from the gate has remained the same.  There's a little over an hour hold here so there's not much to do but wait.  Finally we boarded our next flight from Seoul to Singapore, which is about a 6 hour flight.

I'm here writing from the Plaza Premiere Lounge located at Terminal 2 of Singapore International Airport.  I am traveling with my mom and my niece Vidya.  We've happened to pick up some stray older Indian ladies here too.  This is becoming a trend, on my trip to Florida 3 months a go I had to take care of older Indians too.  These ladies are nice and one of them is hanging out with Vidya while I blog and my mom sleeps.

I really like this lounge and I recommend it to anyone who happens to have a 3+hour hold in Singapore.  It's about $22 and with that you get high speed internet, all you can eat snack and non alcoholic drink and shower.  All we need.  They have nice comfy couches that you can put together and it's big enough for a small Indian woman to sleep (look to the left).

Vidya's getting antsy because she's couped up here so I'll give her some attention.

After that I'll take a shower and head off to India.

See you all next time!

In the last 20 years I've found that I could only concentrate on a few shows at a time.  It really started around X-Files (still my favorite show of all time).  I can't really keep up multiple shows at the same time.  It just wasn't me.  So as I said before it was the X Files (which was FANFRICKINTASIC, well up until the last 2-3 seasons ... talk about jumping the shark).

Anyway lately I've been hooked on the FOOD NETWORK. Food Network?  God I've gone domestic (as a friend recently said).  When the Food Network first started (1993) I heard rumblings about it through a friend (J_r_y W_k_) that there was this cooking show and he really liked it.  Way back in high school, I was in Santa Maria visiting said friend, and he flipped to this obscure channel Food Network and the show on was Grillin and Chillin.  It paired up a New York chef with a old southern grill master.  The southern guy was a hick and the New York guy was yuppie.  I LOVED THE CONCEPT.  But I couldn't watch because the hick was giving me flashbacks to my days in Arkansas ... a blog for another day.

Well that yuppie in Grillin and Chillin was none other than BOBBY FLAY.  Bobby Flay has become one of my favorites on the Channel and I think I'm figuring out why... but read on for the reason.

Here are the shows that I like:

• Boy Meets Grill - Grilling secrets by Bobby Flay (Bobby Flay)
• Iron Chef America - US version of Japanese hit Iron Chef (Mark Dacascos, Alton Brown  - Iron Chefs: Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, Cat Cora, Masaharu Morimoto (so far the only Asian I've seen on the channel).
• Malto Mario - Italian cooking show (Mario Batali)
• Everyday Italian - Italian cooking (Giada De Laurentiis - she's hoooot!)
• Good Eats - one of the funniest and best shows (Alton Brown)
• 30 Minute Meals - just as it says (Rachael Ray)
• Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiaraello - a show that will show you how to entertain white yuppie friends (Michael Chiarello).  I don't really have white yuppie friends, but I'm prepared if they ever show up.
• Food Network Challenge - brings together master chefs to a food creation challenge.  Prize: $10,000.
• Throwdown! with Bobby Flay - Bobby surprises top chefs around the country and challenges them right on the spot against their master dish.

I like these shows because I don't have to follow any plot and I get to fantasize that I really know how to cook or that I can recreate what I just watched...

Notable Notes:
There are very little to NO people of color on this show.  A lot of the food is dominated by Italian food.  Don't get me wrong I love Italian food and ladies but come on, they do not corner the market.  That's why I think I like Bobby Flay.  He incorporates a lot of yellow and brown people spices, plus he's a good host.

Alton Brown - dude is smart and funny.  I can watch his shows anytime.  I really like the show Good Eats.  It's funny, he breaks the science down in funny ways, and it's... fun.

Iron Chef America - it definately does not hold a candle to the O.G. Japanese version but it's grown on me because Alton Brown hosts and Marc Dacascos is the Chairman of Kitchen Stadium.  Marc Dacascus!  Yes! He's not dead!  This is probably his best work right after Brotherhood of the Wolf and Cradle to the Grave.  He's a martial arts actor and I had high hopes for him as an poor man's Asian American Jet Li.  I had similar hopes for Brandon Lee (and he was great - ALERT! ALERT! VP MOVIE RECOMMENDATION! watch his movies: Rapid Fire, The Crow, but the Lee family curse got to him too before my wish could be fulfilled.) but I digress again.  Anyway it looks like Dacascos won't be donin any movies from Kitchen Stadium.

I can't shake that fact that this is a show dominated by white people.  White people that use Latino, Asian, and Middle Eastern flavors.  It pisses me off because the network has money and it should know better. 

But I'm still gonna watch.  It's the devil inside me.

So I bit the bullet last night and purchased the new T-Mobile Dash.  My homie JC (always Jesus Christ but in this case I mean flipfive) has had his Blackberry for a while and he said it's been transformative for him.  I really enjoyed my previous phone, Audiovox SMT5600, which was quite possibly one of the best candybar smartphones in it's generation.  This Dash functions similarly.  The SMT5600 was running on a Windows Mobile 2.0 platform.  The Dash has the upgrade: Windows Mobile 5.0.  Not seeing much difference.

Now I am not a Windows fan, but I have to say I do like their phone operating system.
And for these reasons:

1. I can sync easily w/ outlook.  I can tell you how fantastic this is!  I changed phones and within 1 minute all my contacts and calendar was uploaded into the new phone.
2. I work with Windows everyday so getting around on the phone system is not so tough.
3. I found some freeware video and video converting software so I can watch movies/tv shows on my phone.
4. And their solitaire game is pretty cool.  Not a PS3 but it helps on long waits in line or trying to aviod an anoying co worker that god placed on an elevator with me just so he can get a laugh. But I digress.

Functions I was looking for:

1. QWERTY keyboard.  The SMT5600 had the standard cellphone number pad and I had gotten pretty good with it but in my next phone I wanted to do some email and for that I really wanted a QWERTY keypad.  The keys are pretty small but I like the handling of it and I am trying to untrain my hand eye to go back to QWERTY on the cell phone.
2. Data. I wanted to do email and in my 'fantasy list' I wanted to use the phone as a cellular modem.  BAM! I got both.  I haven't actually tried out the cellular modem function but it is listed in the manual as a function.  I also get free T-Mobile Hotspot service on my phone.
3. Email.  I'm still trying to figure this one out.  I got my Google accounts set up but it doesn't always pull all my emails and I think that has something to do with limiting how much data to pull and if I have a long email it'll reach the quota.  I can change the limit but I have to check to see how much storage I have.
4. Size and feel.  The size is great for a QWERTY smartphone.  I was going to bite at the T-Mobile MDA but my gut was telling me that I shouldn't.  I mean literally.  I had to use the bathroom bad and also the salesperson said to wait until the new one arrived.  The MDA was clunky, thick, had a slider keypad which I knew I'd eventually break.  The Dash is slim and has a rubber backside which looks and feels nice, but oily finger leaves marks so wash up people!  The only thing is that you MUST BE CAREFUL, and I am a disaster waiting to happen.  I know that a drop would mean the end.  The SMT5600 was pretty durable.  It's got a ton of scratches all over but it's held up but because this one is slimmed down, I doubt it'll be as strong.

More about functions later..