How often we wish that commuting through the daily traffic should be a pleasant and smooth ride and a shorter one too. I carpool with some of my office colleagues. When the traffic in the lanes is bumper to bumper or worse sometimes comes to a standstill we whiz through the traffic thanks to car pool.

Well think of it, it's a pretty cool initiative. Rules for Car Pool are that there should be minimum of 3 people. If someone flouts the rule there is a minimum of $271 fine. Rules are mostly followed b'coz there is always the fear of cops but yes there are crazy people.


I like the concept of Carpool as it helps save time, is easier on your pocket, it's not boring as you always have something to chat about and the most compelling reason, it's eco friendly. Just imagine, if four people are travelling in the same car you are saving the road space for 3 additional cars ( if each one drives his/her own car) ,cut down on fuel consumption and most important, pollution.

The concept of Car pool is even more important for a developing country like India, where more and more people are opting for personalized transport and the public transport is in a bad state. Just like in California, the Government of India/State should take the lead in popularizing the concept of car pool lanes. Of course, we have a space crunch but then we should start some where.

(Image courtesy: http://www.seaporttma.org/images/carpool3.jpg)

While most parts of the United States baked or wilted under the scorching sun, California enjoyed a cool summer.

Yesterday, however it was a different experience. Temperatures touched 111 fahrenheit which is roughly equivalent to 43 degrees celsius. It was bloody hot. People here are not used to such record temperatures. It also led to a situation in our office where the fire alarms got triggered due to the excess heat. The air-conditioning unit supply got cut off.

Every afternoon during lunch time I go for a walk. At my workplace, there is a sprawling campus and its nice to walk with the greenery around.

But yesterday, the merciless sun made me cut my walk short and I returned to the cool environs of my cubicle (that is what I thought) until I realized that the airconditioning was switched off. But the one remarkable thing I appreciated about the US was the response time.

As soon as the fire alarms got triggered, the fire engines were there in no time. It also made me wonder, if people in India care so much about how every life is precious things would be a lot better.

(Image source: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mssociety.ca/images/sun.gif)

At 63 years one is considered as a Senior Citizen but if you're a nation which has gained freedom 63 years ago you're still young. Today, i.e. August 15th is India's Independence Day and I extend my best wishes to Indians across the world.

Personally I am proud to be an Indian and if one believes in the Indian concept of reincarnation I would still prefer to be born as Indian. We are not only a nation with a rich past but one which has gained freedom against all odds and proven the doomsday pundits wrong. Yes a lot of people are still steeped in poverty and unable to afford at least 2 square meals a day and there is a still a lot of struggle ahead against corruption, scourge of terrorism, illiteracy, dismal infrastructure, water shortage being some of them but there is still hope. We are a vibrant growing economy with a young demographic profile and it will take time but we will surely get there.

(Image courtesy: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://pictures.wayn.com/photos/018927108_689307531.jpg)