The plane rises above the clouds and suddenly our windows are blasted by sunlight. That's how I feel when I write to you all, my dear friends. Hope all of you are doing well. No matter how long I live in D.C and how much I enjoy living and working here, L.A always feels like home and going there is very refreshing to my spirits, even if for just two days. The endless vista of palm trees and stucco buildings bathing in the exuberant sunshine alongside broad avenues stretching for miles, the smell of optimism and dreams in the air even in the most ramshackle neighbourhoods, the fuzziness of boundaries among people due to the constant fusion and crossing over... The moment I step outside of Baltimore airport I can feel a little gloom, a dampening of the spirit, and an involuntary hardening of the heart. Maybe because of the closeness to the action in these days of war preparations and the shuttle disaster. Maybe it is the pervasive cynicism and preoccupation with ego. My will starts asserting itself, reaching deeper inside for inspiration and happiness. Perhaps that is why I continue to live here, in D.C... Sankar Random thoughts (28) 2/3/03 1. As mentioned before, flying is always a thrill for me. Here we are over six miles high and going at 500 mph and the glass of water on the tray table has hardly a ripple on it. Far below us cars and houses are tiny specks in the vast landscape of forests, hills and river valleys, showing how small our life really is compared to the earth itself, urban sprawl and global warming notwithstanding. 2. Life at Caltech is so peaceful and self-sustaining that one gets lost in his or her own work. It is very easy to forget the outside world. Not all that different from the life on a farm in the country-side. Except that the work that goes on at Caltech is changing the world technologically. Maybe all of the scientists there should make time regularly to go out to the real world. But it is easy to see how people in different walks of life that are successful and comfortable apparently have no concern for others who are having a difficult time. 3. Only in LA?: The L.A county unified school district has its own police dept; In Venice beach, there are spots designed and reserved for handicapped people to fish in the pier; Also in Venice beach at a sushi restaurant, the restroom looks almost like a miniature japanese garden. 4. Here is a basic difference, I think, between the west and the rest of the world. In the west, it is about wanting and acquiring. In the rest, it is about being. Of course this is just a vague generality. One can never stop any human anywhere from wanting to satisfy his or her own desires and ambitions. Unless one is truly enlightened, just being degenerates into inertia. On the other hand unbridled ambitions and too much self-indulgence results in a disconnect from one's true nature. 5. West is the best? The lands west of the Mississippi seem to be doing much better in almost every aspect of life: Their sports teams are dominating, their companies are innovating, their cities are expanding; economically, technologically and even culturally, they seem to be leading the way. 6. Is there no escape from rectangularity? It starts with the roads. It looks like they can't be anything but rectilinear, except in the hills, perhaps. That causes the houses to be rectangular, which in turn forces furniture to be rectangular. But at least we have the Beatle and the PT cruiser to defy the tyranny of rectangularity. 7. A human being is like a tree. In the beginning, it needs shelter as well as light, and all we can do is to protect it while giving light and water. We cannot force it to grow in ways that we'd like it to be. Who wants bonsai people? Unfortunately, it seems to me that a lot of Indian parents end up doing exactly that. 8. Overheard on the shuttle bus from campus: "I think California is part of L.A, but L.A is not part of California." I don't quite get that. Do you?