All posts by johncohn

Thursday night – up too late

My friends.. I’m up way too late givvin the time I have to wake up tomorrow. I’m going to post these pictures with minumum text in the interest of getting some sleep !
 

As I left the lab in Delhi, the resident dog family was there to say good bye.. Seems they live there.. The staff makes sure that they’re well fed.. They are so cute !

Salim picked me up at 6 and took me to the airport.. I was there in plnety of time.. Not a quarantee in Delhi traffic !

I grabbed a quick bite at the McDonalds in the airport.. they hae a full veggi line.. and mot of it’s vegan !

This sign really caught me.. The message is true and it made me thing of my SMC..

THe flight to Banglaore was 2.5 hours and uneventful.. I landed at the brand new Bangalore airport. An infinite improvement ver the old Bangalore airport.. It was more like a bus station !

My friend Mani was ther to meet me.. It was so nice to see a friends face !

THis morening I went over to the conference at abotu 7:30 courtesy of my friend Subhrajit.. Here’s my freind Sukanya trying to dig out my registration from the pile

I went into breakfast and found so many frinds.. Here’s my buddy dave.. all the way from Burlington ! I never get to see him there.

Here’s the breakfast table I hosted.. all nice guys .. all differnt lines of work. I love hearign their stories ..

There were about 1000 people at the conference..

Nick D and reinds cncecrated the event by lighting a sacred candle.. a nice touch

Nick gave a really good talk.. .. proably his last official one in India.. e retires Oct 1. The company will be a differnt place without him.

This is hsi favorite line.. something his dad once said to him .

Lunch was amazing.. 1000 peple crammed into a small patio.. good food though !

I saw my freind Suparna.. . It was nice seeing her..

Eeek.. my turn to talk.. Lots of people !

Here are one of my set of copanelists Paul M, and Satish (I gave 4 presnettions/panels today)

And our other paneist Ed K. He graduated college in 1963 and looks younger than me !

Here are my copanelists on the Fellows panels.. Ray. Mohan. me and Dave.. all good buds.

Subrahjit gave me a ride home at 9:30 .. the streets were still packed !

I got here aroudn 10L30.. then dave and I worked for another hour and a half over a bottle of Indain wine. . No rest for the wicked..

OK.. Off to sleep.. GNite all. Nite Sam !
-me

Tuesday night – Far away

Hi friends…

It’s about midnight and I’m struggling to stay awake. It’s been a good day here.. THe meeting was really interesting.. and I also managed to get some good day job work done. that’s the advantage of working in two such different timezones..

I am feeling sort of lonely and disconencted here.. Last night I did aomehting I rarley do when I travel.. I acaually went out and ate dinner by myslef. Usually when I travel by myself I only eat when there’s a group f folks goign out.. Last night I was too hingary to sleep.. so I went down to the resturant and ordered a meal.. just liek all the other guys eating by themselves.. I didn’t feel social.. and evindently neaher did they. we all ate in silence.. Actually.. it asn’t to bad. the food was excelelnt.. I even took pictures.. I call them ;Still life with okra’ ..

It was by far the best okra I’ve ever eaten.. My dad loves okra.. but I
wouldn’t touch the stiff as a kid.. now I love it.. Just one of the
many good traits I picked up from my folks..

For dessert I took Pan.. the wierd Indian concoction made of beetle leaf, lm e as in calcium carbonate.. not the citrus fruit), sugar, silver flakes, cardamon and (sometimes tobacoo all wrapped in a beetle leaf.. It’s got to be the weirdest thing eaten on the entire planet.. It tastes a bit like toothpaste mixed with wood chips wrapped in newspaper.. but for some reason I just love it.. ‘sposed to be good for your digestion.. and a billian indians couldn’t all be wrong.. could they ?

I got up at 6:30 this morning.. did some yoga and wentdown staris to have breakfast with einds. My driver Salim met me at 8:30 and we went out to battle our way to teh ibm site.. As we left.. I took a pictue of the most ignored sign in all of Delhi..

I love driving through this place. it looks familiar to me now.. I love the color. the people and the general disorder

THere’s some serous roadwork goign on here (a new metro maybe ?) .. I loved the signs they had plasted on the road works. The english is close, but no tobacoo leaves stuffed inside tobaco leaves.

The took ?!

And my personal favorite for all your crytographers and number theorists out there..

I just realized that it didn’t rain today !.. Though.. the streets are still pretty flooded.

The IBM Researhc lab here is beutiful and gleaming.. a perfect place for a meeting…

We worked from 9 till 6:30 then headed back to the hotel.. these cutre street puppies were foraging ouside the plant.. The mma was there too… they looked pretty helathy

It is pretty hot and steamy here.. I think this picture captured the feel of the late afternoon atmosphere .

We got back to the hotel in time for a 7:30 dinner.. Great conversationn. I partculary enjoyed the conversation tonight . I spoke with Chieko-san.. She’s a blind researcher at IBM Tokyo Lab who works on alternat ecomutere interaction. . Bo from Beijng, Eric from theCongo by way of S. Aftrica, Paul from NY, Nitendra from Delhi, Chalire from Minnesota and several others… I had to break for a half hour in the middle of dinner to take a work call.. but got back in time or the rest of the meal. Dinner was great !

Not muchelse to report here.. I’ve used some of the time here to catch u on the SamStone palcement and findings. I put about 15 new ones on the map today including the following ones..

OK.. now I’m reallllly tired.. time for sleep.. Love to you all.. Nite Sam !
-me

Monday evening – Delhi

Namaste from steamy Delhi.. It’s about 9PM here and I’m trying to stay awake long enough to get a normal nights sleep tonight. I feel pretty good so far !

Before I write about my day, I want to correct a mistake from a few days back. I mentioned that Baby brother billy’s band had a shot at opening for Coldplay on their next tour if they get the most votes in the best unsigned band contest that a Boston radio station is playing. The band’s lead, Jon, let me know that I got the link wrong.. Here is the correct link
http://www. coldplayontour. com/wfnx/ Please go there right now and vote for the last Band.. Common Thrill. The picture on the video looks like this:




Anyway.. back to my day.. What can I say.. I spent it all in the air. We boarded abut 5:30 PM at JFK .. a pretty small 777 for such a long nonstop


They fed us many times… nothing very exciting.. but all vegetarian.. one big advantage of Air India

I sat next to a really nice indian couple who live in Pittsburgh now.. The guy went to school at Texas A & M.. They’re on their way to Hydrabad for vacation. I gave them one of my few SamStones to take there.

It was hard to get comfortable… but I managed to sleep on and off through the journey.. It’s a loooong way in coach seating in a packed plane.. The route took us over Greenland then down through the Baltics, over Afghanistan and Pakistan and into India. One cool feature is they had selectable cameras so you could see what was below.. For some reason I thought it would be cool to video our landing..

..

My driver met me as I excited customs.. and we were on the road.. plane to insane in maybe 15 minutes.

It started to rain just as we got in the car.. and it was torrential !.. It was about 90 degrees when it started.. it colled into the 80s as the rain got harder.. It reminds me so much of growing up in Houston.

I checkied into my hotel.. did soem day job work.. then decided I was goign to be brave and take a run. it was amazing.. it was about 7PM and the streets and sidewalks were still packed..

There were cool stalls set up everwhere.

I found a yoga place about a half mile from here..

Every vertical surface is plastered with politics.. they’re really pretty whn they start to mix together..

I found this cool church with a christian saying in Hindi. (What’s it say Ruchir ? )

there was a Hindu temple across the street. I love the way the culures mix here..

This one had a swastika on it which is a sacred symbol in the old Hindu tradition. Still scares me to see it.

It was getting dark so I ran back to the hotel.. The streets were running like rivers at that point.

Just before the hotel I saw this building that was some sort of Engineering society ? I took a picture of the word ‘Engineer’ in Hindi.. as soon as I did A security gruard came up and chased me away.. No taking pictures of this builiding !.. Wonder why ?

Ahh.. I found my way back to the hotel.. Not my fastest run to be sure.. but very interesting.

I got back o my room and took a shower and started to work again.. thenblog. I’m hoping to stay awake for an 11:30 work call… Wish me luck.

Namaste everyone.. namaste Sam
-me

Sunday afternoon – Our Lady of the Air

Hello from JFK Airport. Seems I’m often writing from these sleekly polished hallways. I’m on my way to India for a few days. I better post now.

Today’s been a bit anti-climatic after the iron pour yesterday. That was such an amazing experience. All I’ve done today so far is go for a run with Diane and the dogs, pack and get on a plane. Diane and Ann dropped me off at the airport on their way to the Burlington Garden tour which our friend Gina is helping to organize.. then they all will get together for Tea.. sounds pretty civilized .

The flight down was pretty easy.. I slept the whole way. I saw Trey Anastasio sitting in the front of the plane.. that was pretty cool. I’ve never spoken with him.. but I see him around Richmond sometimes. I’m sure he likes his privacy.

On the AirTrain between JetBlue and AirIndia I saw this guy with a Sam tattoo which made me smile… Thanks goodness for zoom lenses.. I don’t think he thought I was taking a picture of him.

I’m several hours too early to check in… so I found a small corner of floor wit an electrical outlet. I’m in the religious wing of terminal 4. In this corner we have the ‘Multifaith’ chapel (everything inside is written in Arabic)

The Jewish synagogue

The Christ for the World Protestant … uh.. what do Protestants have ? church ? chapels ?

And the wonderfully named ‘Our Lady of the Air’ Roman Catholic church.. I love this statue of the Virgin Mary on a propeller

What made me feel good was that the religouns had a joint social area with snacks. There is hope for the world.. I beleive that where there are snacks.. ther can be peace !

El Al and IsraelAir both use this terminal .. so there are several Kosher restaurants.. My favorite tis the Kosher vending machine !.. I was hungry and curious so I ordered a Kosher (and it turns out luckily Vegan) Potatoe Knish.. It was delicious.. and blessed t boot !

Eeeeek .. an alarm is going off here.with buzzers and flashing lights. I’d better finish. More from India.. Love you all. You too Sam !
-me

ps. Ahh the alarm stopped.. wonder what it was ?!