Smaller motorcycles from Harley Davidson???

Globalisation is changing things across the world and the impact is being felt in the US also. The most favored cult brand in the US or rather I would say the world, Harley Davidson is facing the brunt of the economic downturn in the US. During the 1990s when the US economy was booming the bike manufacturer was the most favoured company of bike dealerships and stock brokers in wall street. But a decade down the line, US is spending billions of $s in fighting two wars half-way across the world and domestically people are grappling with steep increase in gas prices, home mortgage crises, rising unemployment (6.5 percent) and sky-rocketing grocery and food prices. Historically the motorcycle has been a symbol of prestige; a vehicle of pleasure and entertainment in the US and now people are so strapped for money that they are just not riding lesser and lesser as the days pass. The first to be hit in this flagging economy has been the motorcycle behemoth, Harley Davidson. The company has been experiencing sales at snails pace and is planning to cutting back production and laying off workers. Harley-Davidson stock split four times during the 1990s, but the last split was eight years ago, and shares in end-August were priced at $38.78, down considerably from a 52-week high of $55.41 reached in September of last year.

Since the US markets are pretty much saturated Harley Davidson is looking at international markets for sustainance. They are opening dealerships in South American and Asian nations in the hope of drumming up flagging sales. But in Asian countries where roads are narrower than the sidewalks in the US it is difficult to ride the elephantine Harleys. And perhaps for the first time in the history of the company, Harley Davidson is contemplating manufacturing smaller motorcycles. It would be sad to see the big-daddy of motorcycles falling from grace like this.

Oliva's Adobe near Los Angeles

During our recent visit to Los Angeles we took a day off to look around and explore the beautiful countryside. As we drove towards Channel Islands we saw brown signs directing to "Olivas Adobe". The brown sign indicated that it was a state-recognised park or historic site. We decided to take a closer look and detoured off towards the Adobe.

Fountain at the Entrance to Olivas Adobe

Entrance to Olivas Adobe

Main entrance to Olivas Adobe - Another view

Main entrance to Olivas Adobe - Close up

According to the information onsite this is the one of the earliest two-storey Adobe (I guess home or abode) in the Santa Clara river valley. This was originally built in 1837 and expanded in 1849 by Don Raimundo Olivas, a prosperous cattle rancher. This is a California registered historical landmark. There is nothing special about the home/ building except that it is built of brick, mortar and mud and not wood, foam and shingles. The Olivas apparently had 21 children and I must say I admire the woman who spent 21 years of her life giving birth to offspring. She must have been one strong woman.
Antiquated Machinery at the Olivas Adobe

The home with large front, side and back yards is completely self contained, there are classrooms, bedrooms, entertainment rooms and a large playground too. So pretty much I would guess the children were schooled at home. What I found really impressive at the Olivas Adobe is two large plants: a grape vine and a fuchsia bush. According to signboards both these plants were planted in the 19th century and have survived more than 100 years and continue to thrive.

The fuchsia was planted by the 21st child of the Olivas in 1899 and is recognised by the British Fuchsia Society as the oldest, still flowering Fuchsia plant in the world. This plant belongs to the "Schiller" variety and has flowers with white petals around magenta sepals.
Fuchsia Plant

The Grape Arbor was apparently planted in 1860s and still bears bunches of purple grapes and we did pluck and taste a couple. They were sweet and juicy. I am definitely impressed by these plants and the way they have been preserved even after a hundred years.

Entrance to a Golf Course adjacent to Olivas Adobe

Happy Ganesha Chathurthi to all

Tomorrow or rather in a few minutes as the clock strikes 12.00 am the big day starts for adherents of Hinduism like me. It is the festival of Ganesha Chathurthi/ Ganesha Festival, the day when Lord Ganesha, son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati, comes down to earth and blesses his devotees. It is also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi.



Ganesha, the elephant-headed son of Shiva and Parvati, is widely worshipped as the supreme god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune. Students worship Ganesha seeking knowledge, learning and wisdom. Adults worship Lord Ganesha for removal of obstacles in their life and to get good fortune.

Lord Ganesha is also known as Vighneshwara meaning the "removar of obstacles". Devout Hindus always perform a Ganesha pooja before starting any enterprise, work, contract etc, requesting the Lord to remove obstacles in the way and to help achieve their goal smoothly.

The festival begins by installtion and consecration of an idol of Lord Ganesha which is ceremonially worshipped by offerings of Modak (sweet made of jaggery and coconut), fruits and flowers.

While the festival is celebrated all over India, it is most popular in Maharashtra,Goa (Biggest festival for Konkani people all over the world), Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Outside India, it is celebrated by Newars in Nepal.

A note of warning though, if anyone catches a glimpse of the Moon on this day, he/ she will face bad luck.

Clicksmart - the best online business directory

In this day and age of convergence there is an overload of information and not all of it is useful. For example a simple search on the internet for anything will throw up thousands of websites as possible matches. It is very difficult to find out which site has the information that you are looking for. I have found it very difficult to find the right property or real estate agent through a plain internet search.

During one of my searches on the internet I visited Click Smart, a unique online directory of professionals, businesses and service providers. On click smart I found the perfect Atlanta realtor who helped me identify and buy the home of my dreams. After that I have used the site for an array of searches and have found it very reliable everytime.

Recently I was looking for a company which executes Landscaping in Atlanta and guess where I went to search for the right option? You got it, I went to clicksmart.com and found the right Atlanta Landscaping company which helped me in my work.

I am completely convinced about the website now and will be depending upon it for any future requirement of real estate or landscaping or related services.

Fort Bowie, Arizona

During our road trip to Los Angeles we stopped by at Fort Bowie in Arizona. This used to be one of the key links in the days of rail road and when the white European invaders were fighting the Native Americans in a bid to take possession of this continent-sized country. Getting to Fort Bowie involves a 1.5 mile walk through a open grassland surrounded by mountains and one has to ford couple of streams too. Paucity of time prevented us from getting to the actual fort but nevertheless we did about 0.5 miles on the trail and retraced our steps. Here are some pictures of Fort Bowie trail..

At the beginning of the Fort Bowie Trail

According to the official site of Fort Bowie National Historical Site, this was the location of immense military action and a location which commemorates the "bitter conflict between Chiricahua Apaches and the U.S. military - a lasting monument to the bravery and endurance of U.S. soldiers in paving the way for settlement and the taming of the western frontier. It provides insight into a "clash of cultures," a young nation in pursuit of "manifest destiny," and the hunter/gatherer society fighting to preserve its existence."

The site further states that this site was the center of military operations between the Native Americans and the European Settlers. Quite expectedly the ill-equipped and simple native americans couldn't stand for long against the well equipped and cunning European forces who forced them to surrender in 1886. Did the Europeans leave the surrendered Native Americans alone? No way, in a bid to further humiliate them and alienate them from their land, the Chiricahuas were banished from Arizona to Florida and Alabama.

If I were to inherit this kind of legacy of ruthless murder, plundering and displacement of natives to take over their land and natural wealth to build settlements, I would be totally ashamed of my history. But here this kind of practice of annihilating entire civilisations, cultures and tribes is celebrated and praised. No wonder these people didn't bat an eyelid while dropping the Atom bomb on Japan during WW II or battering up Iraq recently or supporting Islamic militancy in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other parts of the world.

Anyway coming back to Fort Bowie and its serene nature friendly surroundings. Sited in the southeast corner of Arizona state, Fort Bowie's trails range from 4,550 to 5,250 ft asl, and hosts over 65 mammal, 30 reptile and 150 bird species in the area. The trail passes through tall hills and the vast plains are careted with bushes, shrubs and grasses. The entire national park area hosts 471 plant species including several uniquely different flowers, cacti etc. The highest point in the mountain range and national park is a mountain known as Helen's dome. This is a granite rock formation which was used as landmark by travellers during olden days to guide them to the fort.

The entire area is overrun by several streams which run during monsoon and dry up in the warm summer months. There are numerous boards which warn visitors not to go ahead if it is raining or if the road is flooded etc. Apparently when water flows it is quite dangerous.

The first stream which we crossed enroute Fort Bowie

Another stream crossing, there are boards advising people to turn back if these streams are flowing in full capacity

Beautiful flowering plants dot the trail

Arizona is the state of cacti and this is one of the unique varieties found here

Trail facade.... long way through the wilderness to Fort Bowie

Bright yellow flowers cheer the visitors soul

Another uniquely different cactus plant

A 100% dried up tree on the trail

Remains of old buildings along the fort bowie trail

Overview of the Fort Bowie Trail

Beauty of Nature's creations

During my recent visit to California we stopped by at the Malibou temple. The temple is a beautiful white structure built as per South Indian style of architecture. But this post is not about the temple, it is about the antics of a squirrel I saw in the temple parking lot. This little creature was enjoying the summer prancing around the cars, bushes and trees in the open. It was a delight to watch this creature enjoying itself in nature without a care in the world. I tried to capture some of its interesting antics in my camera. Here are some of the better pictures...

The first sighting: squirrel looking for food scraps in the parking lot

As soon as the squirrel saw us walking, it scampered across the tarmac for cover

Stopped on the ledge ready to spring, waiting to see what we were upto

Trying to take cover or looking for food inside a car bumper

After roaming around parked cars, the squirrel came back to pose for pictures

Lonely highways and oil wells

Last week as we returned from Los Angeles on I-10 and I-20 through vast tracts of uninhabited wilderness and open country, I noticed several new machinery and different types of sights along the road. The most common sight around Midland, Tx was hundreds of oil and natural gas wells. These were working away incessently drawing natural gas from the depths of the earth and sendint it for consumption.

These oil wells go as deep as 10,000 ft or even more into the earth. But on the surface what is seen is a small metal contraption which keeps turning round and round day in and day out without stopping for any rest or respite.

For those of you like me who haven't seen a real oil well here are some pictures of the oil rigs I saw in Texas.

Another Olympic medal for India

Abhinva Bindra's gold medal in the Beijing Olympics gave the billion plus population of India a huge boost in self confidence and now there is another medal in the grappling sport of wrestling. Indian wrestler, Sushil Kumar won the bronze medal in the men's 66 kg freestyle wrestling. This medal in wrestling has come after 56 years. I would say that after years of being enslaved and persecuted by foreigners we are slowly starting to rouse ourselves and rise above the treachery of invaders who not only plundered our country of wealth and riches but also ensured that our mindset changed to become corrupt, dishonest and un-patriotic. But now after 60 years of independence we are experiencing a slow but steady turnaround. And these Olympic medals are evidence to that.

Independence Day Celebrations - Radio Style

Today's India's independence day by date (August 15). Our compatriots back home have already celebrated this momentous occasion of India turning 61 and into a young, dynamic, fast-growing, vibrant nation in the world. As for me, I achieved something unique today, for our country and for our state (Karnataka). In the morning show of Radio Salaam Namaste 104.9 FM, surprisingly the presenter offered to play three regional language songs. And I was probably the first to call him and request for a Kannada song and I directed him to Geetganga.org, a website of patriotic songs compiled from all sources. The site features over 200 patriotic songs, mantras and couplets in different Indian languages. And within a few minutes the radio was playing my request and I guess this was probably the first time a Kannada song was played. I used to rue the fact that there were dedicated programs for all languages except Kannada and now I was finally successful in getting them to play a song in my mother tongue.

Travelling to Phoenix
As per our original plan we started off from home early in the morning and started our journey towards Phoenix, Arizona. It is about 1,000 miles away and the journey brought us through a completely different terrain, a facet of Texas we had not seen. Driving on I-20, we drove through thousands of acres of desert-like lands where we saw wind farms with hundreds of wind mills generating electricity and then we passed through vast tracts of ranch land with numerous oil and gas wells. This part of Texas between Abilene and El Paso seems to be rich with minerals, especially natural gas and petroleum. The number of oil wells quietly working away drawing gas and oil from the depths of earth is amazing.

Mountainous terrain enroute El Paso

Rolling hills is a pleasant change from flat Dallas

I hadn't heard or known much about El Paso, except that it was a city near the border of Texas-Mexico. I was under the impression that El Paso would be a small city, but we were in for a surprise. El Paso is a large and spread out city surrounded by craggy mountains. The open skies, beautiful cloud formations and mountainous terrain is awe inspiring. I would like to visit this city some other time with leisure and take a closer look.

Interesting cloud formations

Mountainous terrain and clouds with the stunning blue sky as background is picturesque

Right now we are checked into a room in a city known as Deming. Something interesting about this city is the fact that they organise a annual "Duck Race" in August. And unfortunately this years Duck Race is scheduled for next weekend (August 23-25). We will get to watch it some other time maybe.

Happy Independence Day!

Today, as India celebrates its independence day, I sit in the US where several people are celebrating Pakistan's independence. It is still 14th in the US but I am missing the celebrations because this is the first time I am NOT in India on the Independence Day. Feeling nostalgic I was browsing the net for patriotic songs and videos and this is one of the best videos I found on You Tube. I hope you will agree.

Movie Review: Singh is Kinng

A film sans logic but a great entertainer
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Javed Jaffrey, Ranvir Shorey, Sonu Sood, Om Puri, Neha Dhupia;
Director: Anees Bazmee

The wait for this highly entertaining comedy masala flick is finally over. And does the film live up to the hype and expectations it created? You bet, it does; Singh Is Kinng has all the ingredients which make it a great entertainer: generous dose of laughter; drama; emotions and of course two hot heroines. All these will surely keep you glued to the silver screen.

The medium paced film starts off the usual way. Our hero, Happy Singh (Akshay Kumar) is a simpleton who wants to help people but somehow ends up creating problems than helping. His attempts to help which turn into disasters are portrayed in a sublime manner which will leave you laughing out of your seat. The people of the village get frustrated with his antics and ask him to leave. Left with no alternative Happy and his best friend Rangeela (Om Puri) set out on an aimless sojourn.

Now the scene shifts and the spotlight is on Lakhan Singh aka Lucky (Sonu Sood), the King of the Australian underworld. Like all underworld dons Lucky also has a sidekick, Neha Dhupia and few henchmen: Javed Jaffrey, Yashpal Sharma, Kamal Chopra and Sudhanshu Pandey. Quite expectedly Happy’s journey leads him to Egypt and then to Australia where he becomes the king of underworld. During the journey he meets his lady love Sonia (Katrina Kaif) and finds warmth and affection in an elderly lady (Kirron Kher).

The action sequences of the movie are excellent and in typical Akshay style and once again he has proved that he can excel in comedy too. The timing of his funny dialogs and actions in the movie is just fine. Akshay Kumar is really the king of situational comedy and witty dialogue delivery. And of course Om Puri has also delivered a stellar performance which seamlessly blends with that of Akshay Kumar’s.

Sonu Sood too done a good job and Neha Dhupia looks sizzling and it seems like that is all there is to her. Javed Jaffrey adds some more laughter to the movie. And of course Kiron Kher in the role of an elderly lady has done a wonderful job.



As a director Aneez Bazmee has extracted great performances by everybody. Singh is Kinng will go down as another successful comedy flick in his portfolio. Ben Nott and Sanjay Gupta’s cinematography is excellent. Lilting music in the movie became a hit much before the the film was released. Pritam has done a great job in delivering numbers like Bootni Ke, Jee Karda and Teri Ore and the title track ‘Singh is King’ is catchy too.

Taking a bird’s eye view of the movie, I would say this is a must watch for all the fans of Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif. Akshay Kumar is definitely getting better at comedy, I had watched his movie Heyy Babyy and it was a great entertainer. And with Singh is Kinng Akshay Kumar has successfully created a niche for himself in the genre of comedy film heroes too. And coupled with his penchant for delivering stunning action shots, Akshay Kumar is definitely set to go places.

On the downside the movie has a pretty lame climax, I wish the director had added a punch to make the climax memorable. And then once the intermission is over the movie becomes painfully slow and boring when compared to the first part. Either ways it is a movie worth watching.

Olympic Glory for India!

Jai Hind! Bharat Mata Ki Jai! Vande Mataram!

We have done it! We have won the hitherto-elusive Olympic gold medal and where did we win it? in China, the fiery dragon country which is always competing and strategising on how to take over large parts of our nation. The gold medal couldn't have been won in any better occasion or location or even the sport.

My Heartiest congratulations to Abhinav Bindra who won the first ever individual Olympic Gold medal for India. And heartfelt thanks for bringing glory to our motherland.

Abhinav Bindra (25), already a world champion has shattered the track record of India by winning the first ever individual gold medal at the Olympics. Sharp-shooter Abhinav Bindra won in the 10m air rifle event at the Beijing games today in a nailbiting finale. The whole nation went into great revelry when Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won the silver medal in shooting in 2004 Olympics in Athens. But this feat of Abhinav Bindra has surpassed this and I am sure that Indians across the world will get a big booster of national pride.

Bindra, a Khel Ratna awardee, had earlier won the gold medal in 2002 Commonwealth Games in the pairs event and silver in the individual event. It is a moment of great pride to our nation and I sure hope that there will emerge more athletes and sportspersons who will surpass these achievements and catapult our nation to glory that it truly deserves.

We will take on the world and win over the entire universe not by military invasion or by crooked and deceitful religious conversion, but by our achievements, honesty and righteous ways. We won our freedom from colonial British through the predominant use of non-violent means. Despite thousands of years of invasions, persecution and slavery which let our nation impoverished, we have turned it around and started achieveing good economic growth. It is only a matter of time before we will take over the world and regain our original glory which we enjoyed till the marauding Muslims invaders and Britishers set foot and made our country chaotic and impoverished.

The Indian Economy has always been compared to the elephant which walks slowly but steadily. But I would like extend this connotation to sport, it takes time for an elephant to get up and start moving but once on the move it can run really fast and when it runs the earth around quivers.

An unusually interesting profession!

Ever heard of anyone making a living out of old newspaper clippingsand other media? Well as a journalist one of my interests was to clip interesting and relevant news items from newspapers and magazines for future reference. But I had never thought or even imagined that someone could actually make a living doing newspaper clipping, till I read about Dallas resident W.K. Jeffus (61). I was intrigued when I saw a front page headline screaming "Yesterday's news is Dallas man's current occupation" and read the entire article spread across two pages.

According to the article Jeffus is passionate about the history of Dallas and is pained to see little being done to preserve the city's past. He is particularly sad to see that people in Dallas don't care much about history. He scouts through flea markets, garage sales and even houses under demolition to collect newspapers which is stores in a home in Oak Cliff, south of Dallas. The newspaper article talks about how frugally Jeffus lives, his office in Oak Cliff doesn't have airconditioning, he drives an old car and guess what his electric bill was: $1.85. I think it would be impossible to pay such a low electric bill even in India. I wonder how he survives the heat of Dallas in such circumstances. Jeffus makes about $1,000 a month, which is abysmally low by American standards and can't lead a decent life within that money.

Having read this much about Jeffus one would think that he is probably not educated to get a mainstream job or he is retired from work and does this as a pastime. Well the latter could be true, but Jeffus has a bachelors degree in Marketing from Texas A&M University and has worked in several places. But he has been associated with old news since long time.

Back-to-School Fair in Dallas

I read about this wonderful initiative of the Dallas City Council in Dallas Morning News couple of days ago. The article showcased the annual Back-to-School Fair which attracted about 50,000 people (double from last year). During the fair people were handed out free school supplies, administered innoculations, given haircuts etc.

The initiative is primarily aimed at poor families who find it difficult to put their children through school. Through this initiative the parents get free supplies and feel less burdened. And with slumping economy in the US the numbers queueing up for dole is only going to get more.

This initiative was started in 1997 and is funded by the federal government and began as a drug prevetion program. But since the city identified other needs in the community they expanded it to include several other facets to the program. Like every other free offering there are simply too many people wanting to get them, for this fair too there were people who waited in the line for upto six hours so that they don't miss out on anything.

But something that really impressed me is the spirit of the people who attend and take help at such fairs. They know they are taking help and gratefully acknowledge it, and in the same breath they say that they want to become rich and sponsor such fairs. That is the spirit of enterprise which needs to be inculcated in every individual in the world.

I was wondering that in India we have lot of initiatives to give free stuff to school children. But most of them are centered around government schools and children who attend private schools are not beneficiaries of such initiatives. Moreover if an independent fair of this type were to be held it would attract people who can afford to buy supplies too and the real target of the program may not actually benefit. This shows an abject lack of self-respect and enterprise and a desire to get everything free from the government.

I wish things change sooner and we start developing quicker.