July 2005

Mussoorie Monsoon

July 30, 2005

Most Woodstockers are nostalgic about the monsoon, though we’d probably be a lot less so if we had to live through the entire season again! I had not been to India during the monsoon season since 1981, and had forgotten how beautiful the hills are when they’re lush and green and wet. Every tree is [...]

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India Vlog: Tenzing’s Monkey Tales

July 29, 2005

Tenzing Nima, Woodstock alum, actor, and proprietor of Momotours, came over for dinner at Sharon & Steve’s, and regaled us with monkey stories. There are two types of monkeys in Mussoorie, langurs and rhesus. Langurs are beautiful, graceful, and fairly shy of people. Rhesus are very aggressive and can be dangerous. So langurs are hard to get pictures of, [...]

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India Vlog 2005: Arriving in Delhi

July 27, 2005

The voices are myself and Kishore, our driver from Uday Travel. We arrived after midnight at Indira Gandhi International Airport, and proceeded down the hall to a marble staircase, with a man-sized bronze statue of Ganesh at the top brightly polished and freshly garlanded, welcoming us to India, then down the stairs to the immigration line. [...]

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India Vlog 2005: July 26, Departure from Milan

July 26, 2005

We were among the first people in line for our flight from Milan Linate airport to Frankfurt (Lufthansa, connecting on to Delhi). As we checked in, a young Italian couple arrived at the counter beside us. I had previously noticed the woman, wearing a clingy, spaghetti-strapped top, and thought in passing, “I hope she’s not [...]

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Living with the Threat of Terrorism in Italy

July 24, 2005

I heard about the 7/7 bombs from my dad, who called to let us know that my daughter and her boyfriend, visiting them in England, were safely at home in Milton Keynes, though they had all been touristing in London the day before. I checked in with various friends; everyone’s okay. Life in London returned [...]

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Commuting with Nature – Observations Along the Railway

July 24, 2005

It’s ironic that, having moved to a beautiful place more or less in the country, I now commute into the city for work. I’m usually out of the house 12 hours a day, and don’t get much time to enjoy the natural beauties that surround me at home. But there’s still plenty of nature to [...]

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Ristorante Belvedere: A Gem on Lake Como

July 17, 2005

We set out for a lunch somewhere along Lake Como, knowing only that we wanted a view. After pulling into a few parking lots and then changing our minds, we climbed the hill towards the Monastery of Piona, following signs for Ristorante Belvedere – with that name, it had to have a view. The Belvedere [...]

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Creative Energies: Interaction Design

July 5, 2005

Nowadays, most of my creative energies go into my work for TVBLOB. “What work is that?” you may ask. Good question. As in many startups, roles aren’t well-defined, but, basically, everything that touches our future end-user customers will somehow, someday, be my responsibility. For the moment, my main job is designing software features, behaviors, and [...]

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MBA: Collecting My Dues from the Open University

July 5, 2005

2:57 min – video shot June 10, 2005 I went to London to collect my MBA from the Open University. Attending the ceremony was not obligatory, but I’d missed my BA graduation, and thought it would be fun to do the cap and gown thing. The ceremony was held at the Royal Festival Hall, where [...]

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International Marching Show Bands in Lecco

July 4, 2005

We spent the weekend watching marching bands – appropriate for the 4th of July, though that’s not a holiday in Italy. The association of Italia Marching Show Bands had its championship in Lecco, with special guests the Concord Blue Devils, one of America’s premiere drum and bugle corps. The presence of the Blue Devils in Lecco was the [...]

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