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2009/3/30 Spring CleaningThis spring appears to have naturally cleaned up a lot of my life clutter. And the space that opened up reflected back on the void I felt in my life, which was naturally and easily filled by the presence of a special being that entered my life on February 2nd. Little Chilman "Chilly" Chandra Sekhar Iyer is my new baby cat. He was already 2.5 years old or so, has quite the personality and a good appetite to boot. I have had to unlearn being a doggy mom and learn to be a kitty mom. Its been a lot of fun so far, and last Saturday, when I opened my eyes to find him curled up and sleeping on my legs, I felt the kind of warmth I had really missed for ages.
Besides that, changes in the workplace (as always - every February on the dot) signaled opportunity and ideas are now baking onto the pages of a roadmap that will hopefully find consensus across the key stakeholders required to make this initiative successful.
Travel has begun again - I've been back down to Cali to visit SVC, (I miss everyone!) and Kat Collins (woo hoo!) and Barb (XOXO) and Geetha with Hubby and Baby (Akash told me I am too old to be his girlfriend); then I went to Vegas for a break and the photo shoots for this year's dance graduates took me back for the 1st 3 sessions to Detroit. Baby Vishwa's birthday was squished in too, and he was a trooper with his goopey nose, happy smile and smooshy cake.
I read this nice novel by Kathleen Tessaro, called Elegance, which is a fiction work based on a real book written in the 40's (or so) about how to be elegant. It was a charming twisted look at the life of a girl who tries everything to figure out how to makeover her life. And it inspired me to pull all my clothes out of my closet and onto the floor of my spare bedroom - for sorting and evaluation, of course. I am sure in the next few weeks, my closet will be more chic, my shoes will be all racked in color order and I will be elegant -- yeah ok, whatever that means. Somehow, I agree with millions of Indian women who know the easy route to elegance is to casualy drape on a silk sari, press a delicate bindi on the forehead and some fragrance and decorative bangles on the wrists. Much easier... but then where does one go when elegant?
:) 2008/10/28 Summer MemoriesIt was really healing going back to my grassroots, having been campaign fatigued, to unapologetically rest and watch HGTV and drink chai all day. It gave me some renewed energy to go through my old checklist and upload pictures from my amazing summer vacation (the few days I managed to get away) to join Dawn and Doug who offered to take me to their other home in White Salmon, WA. White Salmon is this quaint American town centered around the Elks club, where one finds the sweetest people kicking back and socializing. There are a couple of little shops, including a cute bookshop and a glass blowing studio, a little jeweler and a couple of cute bars (one of which was supposed to be open, but our colleague who owns it lied about it being open) all set against the backdrop of the most refreshing views of a breezy landscape.We hiked a bit, shopped a bit, drove around a bit, watered the grapes a bit (Don, the dad owns a vineyard on the farm), made a little jam and laughed a lot. It totally made up for being so busy that I never got to go to camp when I was a kid. I have a ton of highlights but for me the #1 standout was meeting Dawn's 90 something year old cousin Weyman. He had more energy than I did when I was a feisty 5-year old. He told jokes, and pointed out some things he had recently built in the woods behind the house, including a bridge which he promptly took us on a tour of. He also told some amazing tales of that part of the country back in the day and his experience as a young man of the Great Depression. It really was motivating meeting him. If I ever get to meet him again, I'll take video this time. Wisdom of elders needs to be captured and preserved forever. I will always remember Weyman. My #2 standout was a tour of the old barn that Dawn and Doug took me on a tour of. While waiting for a post-fire rebuild of the house on the hill, Dawn's grandma (or great, can't remember) took the kids and lived in the barn. The most impressive evidence of their stay really stunned me, as the barn has depreciated into history quite a bit.... it was the beautiful wallpaper on the walls, that Grandma Millie, I believe it was, decorated the barn with to make the family and herself feel comfortable. It made me think about how I still love archeology and piecing history together from remnants of life found in a dig. Standout #3 - Dawn and I got tons of peaches and we made jam!
And I got to taste a teeny piece of deer liver. Mmmmmmm.
Stop reading and go enjoy the pictures. Better yet, log off and get outdoors.. go for a walk or something. Not a virtual walk on Second Life. A real one.
2008/10/10 Republicrats – Official Political Party of Sean MastersonHahahahahahahaha.... Can't believe I didn't find this earlier. There's another choice for President, and he really has ideas! I'm a PC and I'm a Republicrat. 2008/10/8 America’s ‘Lost Monarchy’: The Man Who Would Be King | Newsweek Culture | Newsweek.comAwww... cute story. America’s ‘Lost Monarchy’: The Man Who Would Be King | Newsweek Culture | Newsweek.com. Coming from a Commonwealth nativeland, its not unusual for me to feel a little love for anything naturally dynastic. I wonder what all might have been different historically, had George decided to accept coronation. We wouldn't have the constitutional battles we have today (or the Nick Cage movies where he finds our founding fathers' artifacts.) We might have had an interesting approach to immigration and possibly a resultant more heterogeneous society. Would the ideas of Ford and Edison have been suppressed early on? Would casual wear have ever been invented? Would the Couch Potato have never emerged? Possibly we'd all not be living like Kings as I think we do, something we probably need to reflect on, in comparison with the real have-nots in this world. Maybe we'd have still made it to the kind of technology we have reached today, but maybe not. I guess this leads to me thinking about who else might have been, or might be a cool King of America. All issues of dynasty and DNA aside, from just a personality and accomplishment perspective, Would Lincoln have been made King? Would Kennedy have ever even had a shot at it? What about someone else, someone like Larry King or Carole King or Martin Luther King Jr.? Would Bill Gates or Jack Welch, or even Warren Buffett have been a good American King? And of course this brings me back to the topic of campaigning. When the leader is not ordained by God, it seems to be complex trying to figure out how to choose one. I don't get it. Thanks to Reality TV, we have some great new business models for an improved election process, and a more intimate view of candidates as well. Placing them in the same home with tight shared quarters and crazy contests with weird food, random "sports" and emotional battles, it would make for a real understanding of who might make a better president for our great and sometimes neurotic nation. Hmmm... what about the model that American Idol, Dancing with the Stars and Top Chef offer? We could have them complete various levels of challenges - maybe in an inner city school one day, handling a fire in big city another day, speak in a Huge stadium another day, and don't forget the lightning veto rounds, where they can quickly consider and veto bills that sit in a pile for them. And our judges would give them feedback, but ultimately, its our text messaging that would decide the victor. Imagine Obama and McCain each behind their text-to-vote numbers (as Jenn imagined so vividly) with their silly Vote 4 Me smiles and gestures. That would be a hoot! Ok maybe Reality TV and game shows aren't really the answer. Maybe there's another, greater model to leverage here for our amazing American dream. I was telling Jenn and Gayathri yesterday, how is it that we struggle every 4 years over a new leader, with bi-partisan mudslinging, etc., while as a world we citizens have found an intelligent way to choose a Miss Universe? And she gets a crown, too! What might work here, may not be monarchy, but maybe we can tear a page from the beauty pagaent industry's best practices, since the debates are starting to sound like beauty pagaent Q & A segments anyway. Perhaps we have contestants from everywhere (and call them candidates if we really want to, but it means the same thing) do their thing (talent, Q & A, obviously their best runway, a la Obama's rolled up sleeves casual look with Michelle's throwback to the Jackie days). Then, we get down to a contestant from each party -- all this should sound familiar, no changes yet -- and then they don't choose running mates. Instead, America (supplemented by a panel of illustrious judges) chooses 1 winner. The other's party's rep becomes 1st runner up, which is an important role, since in the case that the newly chosen Mr. President cannot continue his role, the 1st runner up must conduct himself with dignity as the next Mr. President and take the responsibilities and duties of the winner. Why not? The worst that could happen is a ripped suit in the dressing room, but a little fabric tape could fix that. And let's not forget about the prizes! The winner always gets a great advertising contract to promote a cause of their choice and a terrific scholarship for advanced education. After Brokaw's posing of the "what don't you know?" question, this prize offers just the solution. I suppose in the face of potential global economic meltdown, a little entertaining thought of McCain in an authentic Mikimoto pearl & diamond crown with the gorgeous Cindy in her velvet and lace best plus those Sex & the City high heels close by his side, ain't a bad day in my Imagi-Nation. 2008/10/2 More to Come... The Summer of 08 Recap.The skies in Redmond are slowly giving way to some light showers here and there between our final radiant sunny days this summer. I am looking forward to a little bit of downtime to recap all the thinks and things that were woven into my 1st Washington Summer. Obviously, The Move was #1... and The Unpack (#2) persists, so we'll move on to a listing of fun things I did. I'll loop back around when I get time in these next couple of weeks and fill in the blanks.
1. Made new friends on campus.
2. Made new friends off campus.
3. Walked a lot - trails are abound here.
4. Unearthed little bookshops everywhere (yes this is heaven)
5. Found new local hangouts.
6. Joined some cool meetups. If you haven't tried it yet, you can find one in your area, Anywhere, USA - www.meetup.com
7. Looked around for the Vedic Temple and finally found it. Its in bldg 13 in the offices across from Microsoft's bldg 22. Wow, big deities!
8. Hung out with my awesome friends that I have known for a couple of years now - Gayee, Dawn, Dan, Dorsey, KatG, Sara, Alicia, Kim...
9. Made plans with lots more people and we've kept moving them for meetings... tsk, tsk on us.
10. Duct taped the roof of my Miata. Hope it sticks through the rainy winter here.
11. Changed my licenses over to WA!!!!!! Thanks to my friend with the tools who changed the plates for me.
12. Tried deer liver. (Dawn tried to rescue me, but alas.) Then Tried skewered venison... (much better, thanks Gina.)
13. A colleague invited me to join him and his friends on their huge catamaran, during their last sailboat race of the season on the Sound. Awesome.
14. Hung out with my old team when they came up here to visit
15. Went to my 1st Company meeting... then lost the last company shuttle and had to trek home on public transport. Totally adventurous.
16. Got my brain filled with a lot!
17. Learning, working, meeting, writing, rinse and repeating.
18. Got new furniture (already!) in my new office in Bldg 21.
19. Shopped a lot
20. Bought mom a car for her 68th bday
21. Joined a new dance class and found an amazing teacher!
22. Went on a fantastic journey down to White Salmon, WA and hung out near Columbia Gorge, at Dawn's ancestral home, enjoying grapes, the surroundings, her amazing relatives and taking in the falls on the path home, through Oregon's historic hwy. This was the best. Expect a long version of these tales soon.
23. Got introduced to Seattle's art museum by Dawn and Doug and enjoyed a wonderful exhibit on the artistic inspirations for the Impressionists.
24. Found a little place to drink chai, eat some chaat and enjoy lovely live Classical Indian sarod.
25. Saw Chotu a couple of times this summer in Michigan... and now he's already 6 mos! They moved to Boston a couple of weeks ago.
Not a bad life. That's a snapshot of our upcoming episodes on this space. Now go make your own list and look back at what a wonderful life you also lead....
XOXO,
404.
The CISSP Journey (original draft 7/23/2008)An attempt was made to post this a long time ago, and then I got too busy to try and fix it. But here you go.... Why bother with the CISSP? I had this goal in my Franklin Covey for like 5 years now. I am really passionate about security, but not for your average, typical reasons. Not because security professionals get paid more, or because I needed another cert for my job or career goals, or even due to any kind of professional and industry peer pressure (not to mention being in a job that is less likely to be off-shored.) I am passionate about security because I care about the young girls who are the target of evil online predators of a really bad kind, and I want to to protect the women of the future from facing this kind of abuse. I am concerned deeply for elders who click on links in their emails, only to find out that a predator of a different kind has stolen their life savings and their identities away from them. And I care about businesses working so hard to provide services to their customers, to drive to the results they need to show their stakeholders from quarter to quarter for American business to thrive and our economy to improve, but the cost of a single security incident is damaging to their reputation, resulting in loss of customers, revenues and ultimately, our nation's jobs, if that business fails. I felt I should do something... be tough on myself, learn everything I need to know and test myself, you know, prove I have the basics so I can be a superheroine. I felt that a tough exam that organizes and reviews all the areas that a security professional who really cares should be familiar with in order to interpret or act on a situation, or create strong, user-inspired, protective governance, would be something I should do for me and for my world. Just like my world records were not for my reputation or for publicity, but for my passion about Bharata Natyam. So I put it in my planner and kicked my butt during the 1st half of this year by adding it as a personal goal in my committments at work, causing my boss and even my great grand boss to remind me over and over again to prioritize and complete the boot camp and subsequent exam. Once fear and laziness subsided, I talked to some of my MS colleagues in Security who were already CISSPs, and they pointed me to some online prep, their own study guides and recommended as long a camp as I could get into since the failure rate is between 60 - 80%(source:http://govexec.com/mailbagDetails.cfm?aid=38380) or so. My friends Mark and Ben gave me study materials and endorsement and really helped prep me adequately for the exam. Kat (messagelady) as well as everyone from the Hotmail engineering team who were at my unofficial going-away party (since I was moving to Redmond also at the time) did some tequila shots with me, after we started (drunkenly) talking CISSP domains like the OSI model, physical security and attack scenarios. You should have heard us at St. Stephen's Green: there's nothing like the intense creativity and passion unleashed by geeks when we get drunk and twisted, talking tech together. In all seriousness, looking back, they really gave me some good meaty scenarios to think about. After the drinking, came the thinking: If you go to the ISC2 site, you will see they recommend a number of sources for the exam. This is a very different experiential and scenario driven exam in that no all-in-one book is enough. So if you noticed me closely, I was traveling for about 5 months with more than 4 books at a time, switching off by content, until I had read through about 22 books and portions of 14 other books. Then there were the websites. What really helped me was working on some actual incidents, cross-team, end to end, from an online team getting notice of a vulnerability all the way through to providing the documentation needed for our legal team. It made me know the types of attacks from the subtle differences in described forensic evidence which I saw the need to understand in a lot of the questions I faced. Helping my former org get through audit cycles helped me understand compliance at a non-auditor level. And having worked on early Homeland Security identity apps helped me understand a lot of the crypto- based scenarios for some of those kinds of questions. My choice of roles had required me to stay on top of internet trends in attacks and activity worldwide, understanding the subtleties of opening a data center on a fault line, or in a particular Asian region and all the implications there. So Dark Reading, SANS, searchsecurity.com, and a lot of other similar sites and hacker blogs helped as I got closer to exam time. We had to finish reading either the ISC2 BOK or the All-in-one by Shon Harris by boot camp start time. Some folks I met had read through both books for the third time before coming to camp. I took the Vigilar camp with a number of folks from different companies and from the military. About 1/3 of the attendees had previously failed the CISSP the first one or two times they had taken it, so I made sure to include a couple of them in our self-organized study team. The boot camp was in Virginia and lasted one week from about 8 am to about 8 pm daily plus study sessions with our self-organized teams, practice exams and homework for the following day. So sleep was usually from 2 – 6 and that was it. It was the most exhausting and rigorous schedule I had been on since my world record. Even physically it was exhausting. But there were lots of chips, donuts and other munchies to keep us awake. It was totally useful… because it prepped us for the stress and recall that you need to have over 6 hours. 4 hours was the longest exam I did before this, and that was really nothing, since the brain can usually focus for that long normally. The prep helped in the way a real boot camp does, but it would never have taught any of us everything we had to know for the exam. It was just meant as a review for what we already each know about information security. I had to use every single experience, book, magazine article and website I had encountered in most of the 250 questions. I think overall, only about 15 questions were easy glossary throw away types. Also, you can’t plan your odds in a weighted manner like you can with all other exams. The questions all have different weights, 25 will not be graded at all, and the rest they don’t tell you the worth on, but they are not equal. So you never know how you did. But the hardest thing is 5 hours in a chair and trying to fill in 250 little tiny circles with a pencil. It’s hard on the eyes, I got drowsy in the middle, hallucinated that my baby nephew Vishwa was sitting on my desk, and just couldn’t focus at one point. All every one of us did after the test was 1) go and pee; 2) get a drink; 3) lie down and close our eyes; 4) catch our shuttle back to the hotel silently and crawl into bed and sleep with the a/c on. I really can’t believe I passed. Quick break for a Vote of Thanks: Pops, Markple, BDB, SCREAM Team (everyone in Security and GSO/GSM - esp. the Davids (Steele, Raasch, Schiff,) Gayathri, Joan and Kim Howell. Oh and the Kats (Collins and Gillespie) And Leo and Bob... Bam! You guys shared so much of your knowledge in discussions, in passing and in meetings and emails... and supported me through this process. Marius, your wisdom exceeds your youth. I learned a lot from working with you and I so appreciate your partnering approach to security. And there was the overarching encouragement I received from Glennbee and Steveclo and my former boss, Lori. And my cyber Kung Fu Guru, Larry Greenblatt!!!!! You are a brilliant superhero-level esoteric security arts master. You and Kirk and Spock (and Daler Mehndi too) made preparation fun and easier than it would have been otherwise. You are all the sharpest folks I know and I grow smarter just by knowing all of you. I am grateful to all of you and always will be. I do think what helped at the end of the day was: 1) Having had enough varied experiences in all of the 10 domains, (especially physical security, networking, law and crypto) so one isn’t struggling to learn the basics of a whole science or law to have to instantly turn around and decipher or interpret it in the scenario-based questioning 2) Being able to basically shut out everything -- friends, family, all communication except really critical work for about a month or two in advance of the boot camp 3) Going away from anywhere near home or work (for me) so I could not be contacted or found. I chose boot camp away from Redmond, Silicon Valley and any place I had a relative or dance person I know well. Mom told me who was nearby, but I blocked it all out. 4) Reading everything current one can about every domain to stay on top of current trends. A book can’t help with a question that describes a certain type of an emerging botnet attack or court decree that the book didn’t know about but the exam writers included since its hot off the press over the past 12 months. So that’s what I have come back with. I hope some of this helps. You really have to be completely in love with information security to put yourself through this particular exam. I hear the Security + exam or the CISM is just as useful career-wise and not as demanding as the CISSP, which has the reputation of being the toughest certification exam in the world. Bar none. If you love everything about this field, then you should pack your family off for a while and hunker down and do it. 2008/7/21 Unpacking... the uncola sequel.They packed me, they moved me. The truck was here in a day! I signed the lease while the truck stood outside waiting. They hauled all the boxes in. They don't unpack me. :( Actually, I need an exhausted, fatigued, crying emoticon to express this. Today, I hired a couple of people and paid them to come unpack with me, since its complicated merging and purging stuff accumulated and stored from 1) The Michigan House, 2) My old offices and 3) The 2 apartments I lived in while in Cali for the past few years. Time did fly, and I got stuff. Today we all patiently deboxed everything (except a few remaining boxes in the garage that I'll get to soon enough). Then after the unpacking crew left, I slowly tried to make sense of each room just a little. I think my master bedroom and the living room are the closest in an almost photo opp kind of way. The 2nd bedroom will be a converti office/guest space, so i have to seriously hang out and make friends with someone at the Container Store, so I can figure out shelves, cubes, boxes, baskets and other nice organizational tools for the huge mess I have on my hands. I also have sizable Goodwill piles on the floors of each room, since this makes me feel like I am doing something good for my self, my home and someone else. Don't worry, I will make the call and get the truck over to pick it all up.
Its going to take me a bit longer to make the place livable. I almost spent the night there on Thursday night. It was really beautiful and I think it might have almost been a full moon or something. But I left and went back to Mercer Island because I was lazy and didn't want to unpack the bedding. Almost slept on the plain uncovered mattress, but it didn't seem fair to the poor bed. So, as I said... a few more days and it will be livable.
Then, believe it or not, I plan to go back to moving my temp place stuff, by Miata. :) Baby cars rule! 2008/7/14 How To Move Without Any ConvertiblesSo, dear readers... If you have been keeping up with my cross-cultural banter, the reading lists and the crazy devotion to my new nephew, then you will remember when I wrote about How Not to Move iWith a Miata. After struggling back and forth with the top down and everything I could stuff into the baby car, then I updated the blog with the 2 convertible moving story, when my very generous and driven friend Tammy rescued me by adding her Beamer converti to our pool of moving "trucks". Just a couple of trips, two very determined Gemini women and Tammy's super PMing skills and I was all tucked away safely in Sunnyvale. I know what you're thinking... have I not heard of UHaul? I have, but sometimes, the pleasure of the ridiculous outweights the intelligence of logic. N'est-ce pas?
Fast forward to tonight. I am hanging at a hotel I used to chill in the lobby of, when friends from Redmond visited (there was that time that we all snuck into the hot tub at night once) and preparing for Microsoft's top relo vendors to come pack my little apt and move everything from there and from storage all the way to my new home. That's right.. for the first time, I am moving, and there are NO convertibles to stuff and move. I will dearly miss the one arm over the back to hold down the computer and some bags as I fly across 237. I will not have rock music blasting as my legs tan in the sunshine while I drive back and forth down 101 with load after load of stuff. I will probably have some nice pack and move tales to tell though, so stay tuned. What happened to my converti, you ask?
My sweet little Mizzie got a nice truck too that loaded her up and she was delivered to mommy (me) last week up north. She's dent-free, sparkly and happy to be moving to am attached garage again soon. After so many years and all this hybrid hype, she's a trooper who still gives me great gas mileage. And I am happy to save her the pain of trying to be a moving truck again. We all deserve a little dignity after all.
Diya
P. S. I can't wait until Chotu can go in the baby car. I still have piccy's of Akshi when she was little, pretending to drive it.
P.S. 2 - I want to thank Tammy so much for making me feel at home in Cali, filling my home with great furniture and home electronics (TV too!) and for being my co-mover back in the day. We'll always get to remember that... as well as the adventures of Tammy's shades. :)
P.S. 3 - I am going to miss Barb and Barb. And Kat. But Kat and Kat will be up north, so I will get to hang with them. Confused? Name your kids Sundaralakshmi and Yashodhara, and everyone will know who's who. Sorry, Indian joke. LOL.
2008/5/30 Mishma MideosHere's the ultimate Vishwa Video collection, which of course, a crazy aunt such as I must proudly display!!
In the Bassinet with the most peaceful relaxing music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bmjdEil3Eo&feature=related
One potatowallerchip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZED8jpQzNQ&feature=user
Who's Getting a Bath?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CPK3A8cUbQ&feature=related
Who's got dirty hair?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5UI1F9Gt9k&feature=related
2008/5/29 On my mind....Anandini's little guy seems to be healing all of us. He's just so cute and simple and he smells so good. So the 3 things at the top of my list lately have been: Chotu, CISSP and Relo. Relo is crazy. I need all kinds of new references. New doctors, new trails, new avon lady, accupuncturists, cleaning service, new local liquor shop, new local dollar store (I am still ghetto), new shrink and dentist and Walgreen's... whew! But first, I need to transition all my SCREAM work, of course which I will miss (since it was my baby,) and get geared up for Engineering Excellence. This is exciting! Next week is the EE/TWC Forum, and I am planning to be all over it and to enjoy the ride. Its a good time for me. As Lori said the other day over beer - since the wisest words always emerge when mixed with beer - When you're 40, you've messed up so much, you now know confidently you can recover from anything! I agree. Plus, when you're 40, you get lots of spa gifts. :) Yay! More vichy showers, salt scrubs and deep tissue massage, please. And yoga. Don't underestimate the yoga. :) My brain loves when I am all folded over and pretzeled up. I love my 40's already.Ahhhhh..... 2008/5/2 A week has passed, a life has passed I am having a hard time coming up with words for the years of memories that our grandmother shared with our family of girls. Jayalakshmi Doraiswamy, or Ammamma, aka Ammsy, was a strong, elegant, compassionate, loving, funny and forgiving woman. She was 5 when she lost her mother, and it made her a "mother of mothers," as Gopal put it in his tearful eulogy last week Sunday. Ammsy bore 8 children, only 4 survived, and she followed the eldest, her daughter Sudha to Canada, when Sudha was pregnant with her eldest (me). When I was 5, Ammsy taught me how to do the difficult Overhead step in Classical Indian dance, and she continued to teach in the institution she founded from 1969 - 2008. Her last class was April 13th when she was helping me teach one of the students in the dance school. She loved to feed all of us. Whenever I stayed over with my mom, I'd wake up to her hot, spicy chai in the morning, for which she would always grate fresh ginger. Mom and I will miss her tea and we love all the nice ladies who have tried to replicate the tea for us in the kitchen, since Ammsy's demise.
I will never forget her. She saved my life once, when I was bleeding profusely, and she had a very sharp presence of mind to try to stop the bleeding, and instruct my brother Jim to call 911. I think she saved all of us, over and over again, with her committed prayers for all of her children, grandchildren, great-grandchild, all of the cousins and extended network of dance students and... the world. I would hear my grandma and my mom pray for world peace every day. I love that they care and they instilled this care in all of us.
My mom has never lived alone. At 67, she is so young and beautiful, dancing and singing, teaching young people. She is going to be independent now, and that can be a healthy thing. I just know that she has been the best daughter, teaching us to honor our elders, always including, worrying about and taking care of Ammsy. I know that Ammsy really loved my mom throughout her life. I worry about my mom, but I also know that she is stronger than I am. But all said and done, we miss her deeply.
We are fortunate to be the continuance of her DNA. I hope we learn to give, love and live as she did.
Love you, Ammsy!
Diya 2008/3/23 Choti produces SuperChotu.Time to rejoice! The Chandra Sekhar girls finally have a new bud on our family tree! Anandini (aka Choti, since she's the smallest) has a little Chotu of her own now. Ohm and Nunni, I am so happy for you both and for your growing family. Vishwa Chandra Srinivasan (huge name for a little guy) popped out around 9:20 am EST Thursday morning the 20th, at a whopping 8 lbs! Where were you hiding him Nunni? You weren't that big.... Anyway, I did get through to the grannies and Supergranny (Ammsy gets that honourable title as an 80-something great granny) and they were happily chatting away until Chotu started wailing and then forget who's on the phone, we were all quiet and amazed by the teeny voice in the background. Chotu reminds me so much of Choti, when she was a baby. She was small, pink and had these gorgeous eyes and expressive eyebrows, even for a baby. This is a special spring gift for us.
And tomorrow is Jah's bday. I remember when Jah and Nunni each came home as newborns. I held each of them in total awe. Couldn't believe how tiny their fingers and toes were. Jah grew up to have a feisty but funny personality. Nunni was quiet but sweet, and seemed very shy, but would show her boldness every now and then. I guess its interesting looking back at them, and at myself... and observing how we have grown. I wish that Vishwa will be that blessing that will bring us all close again. Dabby has been watching over us for a long time now. He's celebrating now. I'm celebrating... Yay! I'm a Periamma (Badima, or Big Momma) now for the cutest little guy.
I can't wait to meet the Superchotu. Lots of love to Ohm, Choti and Boy.
Vidya Akka, I mean, Periamma. :) 2007/12/31 Happy 2008!Hope you all enjoy another evolutionary year of wonder, joy, laughter and continued fulfillment in life and pocketbook. I grew so much this past year, learned so much and enjoyed so much happiness, I thank each of you for touching my life and making it shine a little more. Efrat is here from NYC, and we are having a really nice time together after so many years. She taught me to make this amazing salmon, and we got to go walking and singing. She sang You've Got a Friend, as her very 1st karaoke song, and she sounded so pretty. We're not sure what all we plan for New Year's Eve... but it should be fun, whatever it is.
Before Efrat's trip, Vig and Ajay, my cousins, had hung out for Christmas and we wore our little ears and stepped out to an Indian restaurant Christmas day. I can only imagine what our fellow eaters were thinking when they saw us all geared out elf and reindeer style! While they were here, we ate great indochinese at Temptations and hung out at Buddha Lounge. We had gone singing at Blue Max with Kat Collins and then we talked and drank whiskey in my kitchen that night until 7:30 am the next morning! The best part of the conversation must have happened around 4 am when it turned to spirituality and religion which we all gravitate to discussing even while sober!
Anyway, wherever you are when you read this, and whatever you are doing, I hope you take a minute to close your eyes and send out a prayer/wish/thought for someone out there who may need it. And I hope you get to relax and enjoy 2008, after all the hyperwork we've been putting in these past few years. Its time we all take a deep breath and really try to practice work/life balance.
Lots of love and wishes for all...
XOXO,
VS
2007/11/6 Windows Live is Live today!
And all is well in the world of Microsoft. You;d like the new Windows Live Mail, if you haven't already begun using it. And hey, if you hated your Hotmail ID all this time, now is the time to go to www.live.com and try to obtain a new Live ID. No worries, there's tons to tools to integrate your mailboxes seamlessly. This is a test posting using Windows Live Writer, and it is kind of fun and simple to use. I like that you can use it offline and then post to Spaces or a Sharepoint blog whenever you want to connect up. Plus there's lots of flexibility with the toolset. So maybe, for a few days, I may go back to blogging here and leave the Superpoking on my Facebook to other kids. :) 2007/7/18 Labor study 3 days in...So three days in and my spreadsheet's lookin' hot and spicy with context switches, multitasking, cancelled meetings, travel and time ofF. The other interesting thing I noticed was how much email keeps coming in. Not the generic reports that auto-appear in the junk mail box or deleted items, I mean real mails I need to pay attention to. And honestly until around 11:30 pm each night and up to 7 am each morning, I think the rate of emails I receive is around 45 per 5 minute increment. I find this kind of KPI exciting, now I can really hunker down and filter and prioritize and measure actual impact. Now I can also explain to f&f (family and friends) why I never reply to their chain mail forwards. Yay! Human Optimization Tactics -- that's HOT!
Next on my list is to streamline my communication with something similar to good old-fashioned use cases. I guess if I figure out who needs to consume what data from the various branches of reporting and how to get that into a simplified and clear format, I can spend less time writing that kind of stuff.
(Context switch)
Ok, nuff work stuff. I have been getting lots of nightmares lately. Don't know why. I think it has to do with kind of feeling root-less. Please submit words of affection whereby I am the object of said affection, and/or information about plants that grow without roots to this blog if you feel like helping me let go of the nightmares. Thanks.
Ciao for now, kids!
2007/7/13 The Next Seven Days: A Study in how we LaborOk, this is going to be dramatic. It already kicked off with oohs and aahs and moans and groans, but deep inside, we're glad she's doing it. What am I talking about? Well, for the next 7 days, Dalene has us reporting in 5 minute increments on what exactly we're doing. And we can be on vacation, or have a hallway convo, or IM or whatever! She's trying to help our management see how overburdened we are with program work and interruptions, and how frequently we have to context-switch so that we could optimize the work and experience work/life balance again. Its cool that they're doing this.
I already context switched twice since this morning. I am going to context switch again now (I think... or maybe its just a tangent. Whatever.):
I always have this overworking problem, which I think is an addiction I inherited from my mom. My dabby used to be balanced. He did things on time, and then relaxed the right amount. Since he's been gone for the past 12 years, I get the feeling that he lived the right amount too. He never had to see Paris Hilton screw up a generation of potentially intelligent women with her role-modeling. That would have upset him deeply. He never had to hear about how Monsanto began experimenting with cross-breeding vegetables with fish and other creatures. He would have said "Oh, no wonder we're having a weight issue. Let's grow everything here at home and eat off our own land." Not that he wouldn't have wanted me to eat fish, which I do, but that cross-breeding could introduce new energies into our diet that we may not be aware of - the unknown impacts. Am I talking about food again?
Context switch or tangent again...
(Chandan walked in with a Security textbook.) Chandan just told me he's taking a Security class for his Master's in CS. He also proceeded to whiteboard how easy it is to break DES and 2DES. I asked him if he'd study buddy with me for CISSP, and he said totally. Cool.
Ok back to work now. I'll keep checking in and letting you know how the 5 minute intervals are going.
A thought: If I have 60,000 thoughts per day, that means I have 41.6 thoughts per minute (208 thoughts per 5 minutes) and I need to focus on one to two of those thoughts per 5 minutes. How limiting! I want to use more of my brain, not less!
2007/7/10 Showtime in Vidyaland!!!So I went home to MI to hang with the famms and prep for Nisha Choksi's premiere dance show as a solo artist. Arangetrams, as they are known, are far more difficult to orchestrate than the flashiest MTV Sweet 16 episode and Made episode combined. Yet the girls themselves are amazing, humble and outstanding human beings. Nisha and I sat in the basement working on bullets for her to memorize her last minute choreography enhancements, courtesy of Mom, while everyone else was enjoying fireworks from 4 different cities outside on her deck. She turned out to be so impressive on stage. When we finished making her up on Arangetram morning, I kept teasing her that she wasn't Gujju anymore, rather she morphed into Malathi Subramaniam. Ha ha! Her best numbers were Sri Rama Raghurama Sabdam, written by Gopal and beautifully acted out scene by scene by a very expressionally mature Nisha. The bow-breaking sequence was enhanced by Jim's Guitar and Jeyasingham's drums; and I also loved the work she did on her folk number, the Matki dance, nicely accompanied by Prabha's veena.
What I enjoyed outside of Nisha's dancing and effervescent personality, was what came to be known as The Arangetram Sisters. Tiasha, Mallika and Riya got up there and narrated and mimed the history of B.N. and Hindu Temple Rhythms from Lord Shiva's dance right down to Daddy marrying and moving mom to Canada. They were beautiful and funny, even mom laughed at some of their rendition. At the end they honored the work that a student like Nisha has to do to make it up there on stage dancing for 3 hours and they wished her as her Arangetram sisters, which was so cute. I think this will end up being a fixture in our shows now; it was unique, independent and a nice depiction of Bharata Natyam's storytelling abilities.
Ok, it continued to be Showtime in Vidyaland, because I went on my hotmail and found out my little cousin, Poonzie, is in a seriously hot video: http://www.bhangrachick.com/ . Check her out. She's the hottie in black with the frequent closeups. Nice pix of her on her facebook too. I had so much fun hanging out with her at Muldoon's after practice one night last week. Some guy was playing acoustic guitar and singing medleys of my fave classic rock, and I went to sit in front of him and enjoy the music when he did a Doors medley (you know how I feel about the Doors!) He asked me my name and changed all the words to Riders on the Storm, to say "Diya loves her man..." and then he told everyone it was my 18th b'day and someone should buy me a shot... and when I went back to Poonie, someone had!! She was cracking up. Plus we had sweet blueberry martinis and talked a ton about life, survival and love. She is amazing.
Showtime continued after these two fun events... Sunday morning 8 am, we got two girls all dolled up for another photo shoot at Al's. Pavitra and Pallavi looked gorgeous, even in the 100 degree weather. It was so hot! Pavs got her eyebrows done (by me) for the 1st time.. no Krithi, she didn't cry like you; no one ever has. And both of them rocked their photo session, nailing pose after pose with precision and swiftness. I was really surprised in a very positive way. Kids sure do grow up fast.
I stayed in a hotel this week, since it was just better with the weather and the noise and people everywhere, for me to have a quiet, cool, place to sleep and work and think. I am glad I did that and so grateful to Nisha's folks for picking up the tab. I think for me to do a good job on the shows, it matters that I control the conditions where I stay so i can prep and practice and be ready. This last show went so well, I am really pleased and enthusiastic about the next couple....
Which brings me to the next part of the Showtime in Vidyaland series. What? You say, how can you keep going? This was one weekend? Yup and a really long one. So Sunday after the shoot, I checked out of my hotel and wheeled myself back to Mom's for another rehearsal, this one for Nandita and Vidhya's show next week. Wow, they looked good. All the positions and expressions have really evolved and they have excellent stage presence. The orchestra got together and they were really awesome to px the very next morning after the night of Nisha and the major dance and music and food afterparty that she threw.
Then I got on a plane, flew home and went back to my fave thing of all... being a Security Superheroine at MS. Tomorrow is Patch Tuesday. Check out Bhangrachich on the link above, some pix to the left of the screen from the Nisha pre-getram Bell Puja and then sleep tight. We patch all your servers starting tomorrow evening, so you can feel safe and peaceful.
:)
Vidya Akka.
2007/6/1 Whirlwind weekendWell, this past weekend, my b'day weekend was absolutely busy and totally fun. Friday kicked off (after con calls in the a.m.) with lunch at Google - Charlie's cafe - which was beyond amazing. It was like walking into a fresh street market with a smorgasbord of fresh seafood, fusion noodles and rice, italian, mexican, indian and amazing buffets of endless culinary fantasy. And then, Barbara made me try the dessert since it was the b'day. Too good. Mmmmmm! Anyway, during lunch, my friend - former colleague Afotey from the East Coast called and let me know his flight had arrived and he was taking the trains up to Mtn View. Now, interesting thing (I am sure his blog will likely tell the story), probably a lack of sleep and poor eating over the week along with cabin air pressure and he was in the aisles, fainted to the floor! When he regained consciousness, people had oxygen masks on him, and were interviewing him about the year, the date and the president. Poor guy was way embarrassed, but medical events on a plane aren't so uncommon. According to Marketwatch, "Last year, MedAire fielded 17,310 calls from airborne planes, or about 1,450 a month, said Heidi Giles, vice president of global response services for MedAire's MedLink. " (http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/sick-plane-airlines-look-ground/story.aspx?guid=%7BC1B7041A%2D2D1C%2D4FB9%2DB16B%2D659921E0C2CA%7D).
Anyway, Barb and I finished lunch and she gave me a bag of such amazing treats, most wonderfully, a bottle of some really crisp, sweet Whitehall Moscato, and then I headed over to the Caltrain station to pick him up. I took him back to Microsoft and walked him around. He met Syed and freaked out over Syed's Transformers collection in his office. Then we went to the Company store where Tey was like a kid in a candy shop. I finished up some work and we went over to make paper cranes in honor of one of my colleagues. Afotey was really intrigued by the paper engineering and Turner and Julie were awesome with their instruction. He said he's going to teach his daughter Athena to make paper cranes too. I think its so beautiful that Sadako's tradition has continued through the decades and is passing down generationally now. Following crane making, Leo took me to Cascal to celebrate the B'day.... with Ramnita and Tey, and we had white and red sangria, and lots of wonderful finger foods which Leo so graiciously treated us to (as he took his hi-pri phone call, while we drank). It was a great evening, and the second b'day celebrated with/by Leo. He is so amazing and I am deeply grateful to have a friend/twin/mentor/colleague like him in my world.
I still remember Leo answering me when I texted him like this:
V: I wanna go home
L: This is your home now.
And so at that instant, I attained enlightenment about my new home, and Leo became part of my local family.
Ramnita was awesome to hang out with too. Her husband is a speed metal musician and she was talking about how he cooks so well too. She recently taught her kids to knit and rejoined the knitting world, so I can't wait to see some of her creations soon.
OK, so the next day (Saturday) I went to my favorite bookstores (the East-West, and the used bookshop) on Castro, and then walked around Mtn View early morning. Then I took Tey around town for a tech company tour, where he joyfully posed in front of the exciting signage, and reminded me of how I felt when I first moved here. We then went downtown for the Anime Convention going on in downtown SJ, and it was so cool. The whole city was dotted with handdrawn characters-come-to-3D life via creative fan costuming. It was surreal walking into McDonalds and bumping into characters from Japanese videos. Very very cool. Then we went over to the Tech, and then took the light rail up to Cisco to walk around. Returning back into SJ, I had been wanting to go back through the Winchester Mystery House, because I love history and creepy things, so it was cool that Tey wanted to do the same thing, and we had a blast! Finally, we had some drinks in Santana Row at V bar and at the Tequila Bar (where I was exposed to the Mariachi version of "Hotel California"). And then I headed over to Beefy's to cap off my celebratory Saturday night with some singing and hanging with my girls Gina and Jodie.
Sunday, I did something I have wanted to do ever since I moved here... drove up the 4200' Mt. Hamilton in the Diablo range to go to the Lick Observatory. (http://mthamilton.ucolick.org/) and look at the great Lick refractor telescope in the 36" historically relevant dome. Both the drive in my Miata with the top down on a sunny day, and the tour at the top were as wonderful as I had expected them to be.
And then it was time for LOBSTER!!!!
My 1st Lobster Dinner by Vidya Shaker.
To celebrate my 1st non-veg b'day, my dear friends Ainsley and III, both part of the Bay APLN board (www.bayapln.org) decided to treat me to a lobster dinner at Fish Market in San Mateo. Now, it turns out (as described when I talked about the wonderful sushi lunch that the Hotmail OPMs took me to) that Dave Rusconi's father in law is a buyer for the Fish Market restaurant group, and so I expected it to be amazing. They steam the lobster there, and then III taught me to crack the shell and to pull the meat out. So, lobster meat tasted creamy and kind of like eggs to me, but bore no taste-resemblance to chicken. I loved it, but it was huge so I only really got through the claws and the tail. The middle did taste a little like monkfish liver to me, but I couldn't even taste too much of it. And happily, there was creme brulee to complete the fabulous evening, which Ainsley, III, Tey and I just scarfed up.
Ok Monday...
Monday started with a trip to Fry's (i know, i know... what can i say? Geeks must play) and then we ventured out to Golden Gate Bridge and to the park there. Then I showed Afotey Lombard Street ( where he was overjoyed that he was visiting a world record site with a world record holder - and he's sure that III must have a world record for his Roman Numeral name), before heading to the Wharf and grabbing drinks and a bite at Bourdin's. An airport trip followed with hugs, and I headed back to log on and catch up with ooodles of work!
Its been an exciting week at work too. We have a new GPM, Margaret Butler, who is awesome and has a terrific charisma. And being in the middle of pre-audit is a very juicy time for my brain.
Still with all of this going on, my heart was still thrilled by a few simple things I am deeply grateful for:
1) A string of sweet texts from a far-away someone who matters saying he's been thinking of me
2) the phone call songs from those I love
3) my friends Leo, Barb, Tey, Ainsley and III spending valuable time with me.
4) bouquet and lovely messages from Mom, Ammsy and my sisters and brother
5) the energy I feel from the heavens as I breathe each day and live one more jam-packed experiential juicy day, and my big bed with my big stuffed animal doggy where I can curl up, read and sleep to recharge my batteries for the next day's adventure.
So let me ask you this: Are you living the Ferris Bueller day each day you're alive?
2007/5/23 My 1st Non-Veg B'day OK, so its time to openly admit it. Some 19 weeks ago, I was curious (tempted) to try just the tip of a fried shrimp antenna. I felt guilty, and thoughts of ex-communication from my totally Hindu Veggie family and friends circle swam all through my dreams. Just 3 short weeks later, a friend so sweetly offered me a taste of some thumbnail size bites of raw fish - some sea urchin, monkfish liver and albacore tuna. It tasted so good dipped lightly in soy sauce and decorated with the spicy and sweet flavors of wasabi and ginger. But then I called mom and had another big bout of guiilt. This was the farthest I ever fell from the tree, and the nearly 40 years of pure vegetarianism and ritual thinking and belief that I held dear floated away from me. On the one hand, restaurant menus and grocery aisles held new adventure for me. On the other, the death of the old me was inevitable.
As knowledge evolves and expands us, we need to take the time to mourn the loss of the culture we committed to. I experienced something similar to this when I got divorced. The moment the gavel went down, I felt hundreds of generations of elders cursing me and worse, I felt like I forced change to the thousands of years of belief in our family that the gold pendant permanently worn around a Hindu wife's neck on a gold chain held a marriage together and protected the life of her husband. When mine came off, I worried for 5 years about my ex-husband Deepak's life. Then he sent me a lovely letter about how he will never forget me, he's in love with a woman from Bangalore and he's getting married. He didn't want me to intimidate her, so we won't be in touch again, pretty much ever. Gold safely around some other girl's neck, I was free from that whole bag of beans.
Luckily my experience with meat, outside of my own culturally-embedded ethical dilemma moments, has not at all been negative. In fact, what started out as temptation, simply based on smells and Food Network shows, fueled by the euphoria I saw on people's faces while eating meat, turned into a requirement for my own health. Fish and chicken, it turns out, make for healthier humans. I decided one day to try and be one of those. My thumbnails, turned into whole sushi rolls, and encouraged/instructed by my friend, I had my first chicken pan-grilled with tarragon, with sides of sauteed mushrooms, green beans & a slice of avocado (which I heart) in my own apartment, of course complimented by a terrific wine. The next day was the last time I will fret about migrating to Diya 2.0. I have to thank so many friends for opening my tastebuds and understanding about the associated fine arts surrounding cuisine. I had a class under Lorraine, where Hans, Grace, Dale and I learned to make chicken curry, shrimp vindaloo and a really cool corn casserole. Tammy got me to taste Mahi Mahi and Barb gave me my first try of Scallops and both of them got me to try crabcakes. Lori and I tried Thai BBQ Squid together, a delicious 1st for both of us. Dan introduced me to the amazing nabiake udon Japanese soup which is like a treasure chest inside a soup.. and he also got me into Vietnamese pho. One late over-worked night, Pete introduced me to the amazing In-and-Out burger (animal-style, so they say). Leo gave me a taste of ribs when our whole team was having dinner at The Event in January. Schiff introduced me to oysters in Seattle. Each time I taste something, I am pleasantly surprised by how delicious my world is becoming. Rusconi had introduced me to Hamachi (yellowtail) a few weeks ago. One taste made hamachi my seriously favorite thing on earth, next to the relentlessly beautiful avocado. Today, the Operations PM team from Hotmail took me to Bonsai, that restaurant from which Rusconi had brought me my 1st Hamachi. Ainsley and III are taking me to my 1st Lobster dinner on Sunday.
This is the 1st b'day where I get to try everything, and I plan to do just that.
I still love everything about the life I led as a Hindu. I continue to respect and admire traditionalists who live by their orthodox beliefs. I am still a practicing Buddhist. I am just also a human reaching a little farther to experience all the wonder that this life has to offer.
I bow to the universe and thank all the people who have come into my life and introduced me to new sights, sounds, smells, tastes and ideas. I thank the one who tempted me first... that shrimp antenna led to a life-altering evolution, and I look ahead to a really exciting new year.
-- Diya.
Disclaimer: Any kids from dance class reading this, Vidya akka has chosen this path after obeying my elders for 1/2 my life. You should still listen to your parents. Be good.
2007/4/21 Talking about Armed Miss America 1944 stops intruder - Peculiar Postings - MSNBC.com
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