My most recent deja vu experience...

I'm here, thousands of miles away from Bangalore. I came here on work for a month. I later met four more people from my office. I had not seen anyone before. Anyway, we all got along well and we used to visit places in Seoul together on weekends. One particular evening after returning back from some sight seeing, we were calculating that day's spending. I suddenly felt I had been through this moment already. I exactly knew I had seen the same situation few months before. I knew these 4 people, their positions, the discussion ... and the room... everything! But to my surprise I had met these people only after I landed in Seoul. How could I have dreamt about people I didn't know or the room that I had never been to?

Previously I have had dejavus but they were mostly of the people I knew. Once me and my close friend were chatting in my bedroom and I instantly realized this was a dejavu. I knew this had happend before. I knew the dress my friend was wearing, the way she was seated, the words she was about to speak! But I didnt realize all this until it actually happend!

One other experience of my friend was when we were lost in a deep forest near Kollur. 14 of us were trekking and we got lost after about 7 hrs of trekking. One of my close friends came and told me she had seen this situaltion before. There was a small clearing in the forest with a lonely leafless tree staring high into the blue sky. She said she very well remembers this tree and the situation that we were in!

Weird power of Dejavu... lets you see your future.. but you cant remember it till you are in that future!

Sudoku...

I'm just writing about some interesting information that I found on Sudoku today. I wanted to participate in the National Sudoku championship but then I found out that it just got over :(
Anyway here is the site for it : http://sudokumasters.in/ It did not get any publicity this time because Times of India was not sponsoring it.

There are more than 27 types of sudoku and many more types are being invented. For types of sudoku you can see :
http://rm.quixy.net/pdf/sm08/sm08otib.pdf
http://www.wsc2006.com/pdf/booklet_int.pdf

Bhagya was the person who introduced me to Sudoku... before that I thought it was a stupid game of numbers! As I played I started evolving my own strategies to solve it. This http://www.sudoku-world.com/tute_1.html site explains many strategies. I'm sure as a player you would have already figured out those strategies by yourself.

Sudoku in Japanese means "Single number", but this game has a longer history before it got that name.
Play Sudoku... & get your brains working!

Coffee time.. nostalgia

We were a gang of 9 people who had just finished our induction training. For most of us, this was our first job. We always used to have coffee/tea together. These coffee breaks gave us the most needed break and it used to be a hell lot of fun! The coffee call would start by a group mail like" Anyone coming for a cup of coffee? ..."

Now after 4 years (really cant believe it's been so long) we are all at different companies/ different locations and different countries. But a recent mail reminded us of this blissful time ...and my friend Santosh (who is also a poet apart from being a software developer) wrote this poem.

I couldnt resist myself..so here goes a poem --for old times' sake!

The mails were so nice...
And such a pleasant surprise!
Ah..how many memories does this mail chain bring back!
Those lines provided a much needed break,
And left satifaction and happiness in their wake.

Memories sometimes haunt..
Sometimes they taunt..
But all said and done.
Nostalgia is indeed fun!

These mails carried with them, a wisp of past..
I felt happy-there is not much lost.
Days may pass..and we may grow old..
Then the past will unfold
In such mails
And bring back so many smiles!

I've longed to visit Japan, the country of rising sun. I appreciate the Japanese people because they have developed their country so well inspite of limited land, recurrent earthquakes and the two atom bombs! I got a chance to visit Japan when I was invited to present an idea at a techinical conferance held in Kobe, Japan. Kobe is located in Kansai region of Japan, the nearest airport being Osaka.

We were around 120+ people travelling to this conferance from my company. It was fun travelling together in such a large number! We occupied nearly 1/3 of Singapore Airlines flight to Singapore. We reached Osaka and took a bus to Kobe. The roads were amazing! They were narrow (too narrow when compared to some US expressways or even some Indian highways), but the traffic flowed smoothly and fastly. We resided at the Hotel Okura Kobe, one of the finest Hotels in Kobe with 33 floors. I got a room on 22nd Flr. There was a note in my room saying please dont panic if you feel that the building is swaying a little. It is build that way to withstand earthquakes upto a certain richter scale.

Kobe city view from my window - night and day

Now came the food part. Most of us were vegetarians and we were really worried about getting vegetarian food in Japan. But to our surprise the food was manageable. I used to have some starters which consisted of boiled vegetables, little rice (rice is sticky) and then feast on the desserts!

The Japanese are very punctual. One morning I came in a little late for breakfast and a session was about to begin at 9am. I came to the dining area around 8:50 and thought I could atleast grab a sandwich. But the dining room was deserted and the last person in there just left! The waiters there gave me a stare and I fled with just a glass of juice ! I found the Japenese to be freindlier than the western people and though the language was a barrier they expressed themselves quite well. Oh.. how can I forget their "bow"! At first I didn't know how to react when people bowed to me.. finally I too started bowing like a Japanese :)

We were taken on a half day tour to Rokko mountains and a sake brewery. Our guide spoke good english and thanked the Indians for 2 things, first - Buddhism and second was delicious Indian food especially curry. We first visited Rokko mountains. On the way I saw how Japensese eifficiently manage their city with so little land. They have well connected railway, sleek flyovers, smooth narrow roads, high (not very high) apartment complexes close to each other. The roads, flyovers and railway tracks are stacked over each other. No space is left wasted. They even have managed to plant few trees on road sides with few tiny gardens here and there. Some houses even have terrace gardens!

Fall colors - Rokko mountains and Sake bottles

Rokko mountains is just behind the Kobe town. These mountains were bare 100 years back and caused a lot of landslides. Then the japanese planted trees in the entire mountain range to prevent landslides and increase green cover. The mountains are now covered with forests and during fall time the entire forest is in shades of yellow, orange and red. For a change it's amazing to see the reversal of environmental destruction! Rokko mountains boasts the first golf ground in Japan. It also servers as a weekend getaway for city folks and trekkers.

We later visited a sake brewery. Sake is a alcoholic bewerage prepared out of rice with an alcoholic content of 14-16%. It comes in several flavors. I tasted a sake with plum flavor, it was very good but strong :)

Ikuta shrine & Nankin machi

We visited many shopping arcades, temple and Kobe port during next few days. The Ikuta shrine is possibly the oldest Shinto shrine in Japan. It is a beautiful shrine with red color used tastefully. Nankin Machi is China town in Japanese. It is a street filled with fresh chineese food (living creatures cooked in front of you) and some chineese stores. Suresh and I being vegetarian Brahmins had nothing to relish. Motamachi Arcade is nice shopping place. We bought kimonos, jewelry and shoes. We then found a 100yen shop. This place is worth visiting, it sells everything from gardening tools, cutlery to japanese fans!

Merikan park, Kobe port

Later in the evening we headed towards the Kobe Port. On one side are the illuminated Port Tower, Merikan Park, Hotel Okura Kobe and Oriental Hotel and on the other is a huge Ferris wheel. We took a ride on the Ferris wheel. The view from top was awesome, we could see the glittering Kobe city.

We visited the Maritime museum the next day. It houses a collection of ship models and also the Kawasaki museum. Kawasaki museum displays the prominent Kawasaki products over the lifespan of Kawasaki. There are also some cool bikes displayed there.

Nxt Gen bike model at Kawasaki museum FT(white robo) with robo creator

During our conference, we once had a talk from Tomotaka Takahashi, the robot creator. He creates robots singlehandedly. He has developed the first female robot named "FT". The FT catwalked till the edge of the table and came to a stop with her hand on her hip! The audience was awestruck. Walking like a human... more so walking like a woman is very difficult to achieve in robots. More info http://www.robo-garage.com/english/robo/index.html

Overall my Japan trip good and I look forward to visit this country again. The next time I would definitely visit the Fuji mountains and take a ride on the bullet train! Seonara till my next post.. which I assure will be sooner than the next appearence of the Halley's comet.

Interesting definition of Japan on wordweb: A string of more than 3,000 islands east of Asia extending 1,300 miles between the Sea of Japan and the western Pacific Ocean

My footsteps on Earth

Most of the places that I've travelled till now are mentioned above. I would love to travel to civilised worlds like Europe, less explored places like Artic & Antartic and incredibly fasinating places like Congo Basin!
There is so much to see in my own motherland India itself!

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