Ramanan's Musings

As is the norm, life throws you a curve ball when you least expect it. We had been making several plans and were about to make a big change in our lives when the COVID-19 contagion struck the world with a bang. Now, several months into this pandemic, it feels like we are making little or no progress at all. All travel is now effectively shut down. Working from home is now an everyday event. Weekdays merge into weekends with no fanfare. There is not much to do. But in a very surprising way, folks including our family have been finding new things to do. A lot of people have jumped into cooking various dishes at home or baking up new treats. Gardening is now very popular as well. For me personally, it has been about walking.  Even before the contagion struck, I had started walking more, listening to good audio books to help me walking further and further. What started as a lunch time activity, is now something I do religiously twice a day. Two hours in the morning and at least an ...

Hi there, Back here again after a long sojourn of more than 5 years. Life has been busy. A and S (my 12 yr old and 9 yr old) are very busy individuals with heavy schedules which pretty much dominates our schedules. Since my last post in 2013, much has happened. Here is short list of events in my life worth mentioning: A and S started school. A is now in middle school (in 7th grade) and S is in 4th grade. My significant other got her B.S in Computer Science, got her teaching credentials, passed the CBEST and CSET exams and is currently a 8th grade Science teacher. She teaches now at a local school and no silicon valley commute for her.  I left Cadence after completing 15 yrs and landed a job at Xilinx Inc which is walking distance from home. No more silicon valley commute for me too!

Phew - it is over. My personal challenge of finding at least one geocache per day for 366 straight days. Thats  weekdays and weekends, folks. Yup - rain or shine, one geocache per day. Now that it is over, I will take a well deserved break and NOT find a cache tomorrow (Apr 17, 2013). The unbroken run will end on April 16, 2013. Feels like I have achieved my Mount Everest climb!

February 2, 2012 was when I officially joined the geocaching bandwagon and registered a user name at the geocaching website. The first family hike for geocaching was at the local Vasona park and while the record suggests that this was our first cache, I think we only found this one on our second attempt. At this point, you are probably wondering what a geocache is? A geocache is usually a container of some sort containing at least a piece of paper that we call a log. Object of the exercise is to find this container which is usually hidden in plain sight and sign the log to get credit for the find. Of course, containers come in all shapes and sizes and some are really devious. The cache owner posts the GPS location of the hide on the geocaching website and folks can download these coordinates onto their smart phones or GPS devices.  The really hard to find containers are the little itty bitty ones called nanos . These are very small and really blend in with the surroundin...

I feel almost guilty that I haven't written anything in such a long time.Writing is a passion of mine but I hardly make any time for it. I blame the people in my life - they want me to do my share of the chores!!. Anyways, rants aside, my goal this year is to fully document the new shared family passion - geocaching . The 4 (soon to be 5) year old and I have been hiking the hills of Almaden this past year and we have been raking in the geocaches. The little one is quite the hiker and I am a better man for it - okay well, maybe that is the nice way of saying "I lost a few pounds walking all them hills". I hate to call it a sport because that brings in all the competitive connotations but it is a great family activity that everyone should look into. Some of us eager ones are so hooked that we challenge ourselves by trying to achieve crazy goals such as one cache per day for at least a year!! Yes, that's right - my goal is to reach 365 days of continuous caching wit...

It is 7.46am on a Saturday morning. I have just changed the diaper of the new princess in our family and as I sleepily stare into her beautiful face, it occurs to me that the world is slowly becoming a Borg kingdom - yes, when I say Borg, I refer to the race of humanoid creatures made popular by Star Trek. Just look at the many ways people interact in the world today - phone, email, blogs, twitter, and facebook. With everybody having a virtual persona these days, doesn't it feel like we are slowly evolving into the Borg? One huge collective consciousness that seeks and destroys any other intelligent forms of life. Yup, this is my pithy observation for the day. Live long and prosper!!

Just got back from a camping trip at the Big Basin State Park. There is nothing like camping out in the woods for a couple of nights. The peace, tranquility, and the solitude of the forests is an experience that deserves to be repeated every so often. Of course, the same two nights out camping will make you relish those hot cooked meals and a nice soft bed!! The two year old REALLY likes the outdoors. Even 2+ mile long hikes in the mountains wasn't enough to slow him down. He walked and hiked those trails like an expert and even waded in ice-cold pools (in his undies) and still had energy to play with the glow sticks at night. He is one tough cookie. For the parents, it was a joyous occasion to see their child interact with the other children and play as GOD intended them to. No fancy toys - just nature. On the final day, the little one got up extra early and was rewarded for his good behavior by the presence of a few deer that wandered over close to the camp site. The little one ...