A Visit to the Saratoga Battle Field

This post is long overdue, but better late than never. I and Philip visited the Saratoga Battle field shortly before I moved from New York to South Carolina a few months ago. Not unlike this post, the visit too was long overdue. Saratoga witnessed one of the decisive battles of the American Revolution. Here are a few snaps,

A Cannon atop Bemis Heights



Freeman's Farm


Charging downhill

After walking for a couple of hours ....


I now live in Greenville, South Carolina about 30 mins drive from the Cowpens Battle field. I plan to go there in summer.
Someone once asked me what the fun is in visiting a battle field. Let me answer it this way - It is not about fun, but rather about what that trip makes you do before you go there - like reading about the battle, its context, its aftermath and about letting the mind roam freely while one walks around the park which then travels back in time, tries to get a sense of how that gory day would have been and what could have happened had the result been opposite ..etc etc. It is also about the lung full of fresh air that you get to inhale in those wild empty plains. It certainly has something to do with my fascination for green, vast, open plains - the sight of which I believe has an emollient power.

Cisco Telepresence


Today, I had my first Telepresence meeting at work and it was an amazing experience. It is truly as shown in the picture above(courtesy Human Productivity Lab) where folks join from different parts of the globe, but all appear to be together in the same meeting room, sitting next to each other or right across the table. The attendees get to see and talk to each other in real time and high definition. Cisco has really hit the ball out of the park !

Hello World !! :-)

It has been a long time since I blogged. My son is now 4 months old and keeps us busy 24*7. Time flies when he is around. He has turned over and is now trying to crawl. He has become very curious about the world around him, turns his head towards light and sounds, coos, smiles and laughs. He also talks to us in an arcane language which only has sounds like "Aaa", "Eee", "Ooo", "Urr", "Aee" !! He can go on and on as long as we reciprocate. I have now started to get a hang of his language and we engage in conversations ;-). He demands attention and needs somebody to play with all the time and by evening when we are weary and drag ourselves home from office, we crave for some kind of energy booster to keep up with him.

Being a parent is an amazing experience ! And by the way...to all those "parents-in-the-making", I strongly suggest Dr. Harvey Karp's book "The Happiest Baby on the Block". He talks about the missing fourth trimester and also the 5 S's to calm babies. We have tried it and it really works !!