My Digital Thoughts : Shashi's Diary

A few months ago I was brave enough to take my toddler alone from Washington DC to Austin. me to attend SXSW and my toddler safely deposited with his aunt to play with his cousins. The journey was great, he entertained Ranajune in Baltimore who was - also flying to SWSW - before we boarded and then promptly fell asleep as the flight took off only to wake up in Austin. The return journey was the same. Now that my skills at taking a toddler cross country have been proven I am now going to fly with him to India next week. We have a 8.5 hour flight to Amsterdam and then 5 hours layover and then another 8.5 hour flight from Amsterdam to Hyderabad. Now for those of you who have made a similar trip with only one parent , what do you suggest. Any tips and advice is highly appreciated. Please leave a comment here ! CNN has some tips for travel with a toddler at http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/traveltips/06/06/flying.with.babies/ other resources I found are https://upgradedpoints.com/flyin...

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Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw,died in Military Hospital in Wellington, Tamil Nadu, India late last night. He was 94. The name Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, may not be very familiar to my blog audience specially from the US. Growing up in India the name was an inspiration to me the 70's. One of the two people who got the rank Field Marshal in the Indian Army ( the other was Field Marshal Cariappa ) he led the victory in the 1971 Indo-Pak war which created the country Bangladesh. Many years later I am living in Washington DC and would like to salute this man who inspired me in my childhood. Several Articles are on the web about Sam Manekshaw and his life. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200806271340.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Manekshaw http://www.rediff.com/freedom/0710jha.htm http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Manekshaw_A_soldier_till_the_last/articleshow/3168495.cms

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I am glad that the Washington Post had this news on the front page. I never met the bloke myself but I wish I can soon, now that he has more free time. I like what he said about his management philosophy: "You hire people smarter and more talented than you and enable them to do their best work." Washpost bio :Downie is the author of four books: Justice Denied (1971), Mortgage on America (1974), The New Muckrakers (1976), a study of investigative reporting; and (with Robert G. Kaiser) The News About the News: American Journalism in Peril (2002). He was also a major contributor to Ten Blocks from the White House: Anatomy of the Washington Riots of 1968, a Washington Post book. In 2003, The News About the News won the Goldsmith Award from the Joan Shorenstein Center at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Wikipedia : According to Bob Woodward's 2005 book The Secret Man, Downie was one of the few people to know the true identity of Watergate scandal info...

I am at the Montgomery County Court House jury lounge as I am writing this blog post. They first showed us a video and then a judge came down to talk to us and thank us for being there. They said it will be the whole day and we will probably be in and out of courtrooms depending on being accepted for Jury for particular cases. In some cases the case may extend for a few days. Montgomery County seems to have a system that averages 1 day 1 juror every 3 years. They will pay us $15 which we can donate to the generous Juror program which helps foster children in Montgomery county. So far about 2 hours into fulfilling my Civic duties they have not called anyone. Last time my wife did jury duty she stayed in the lounge for pretty much the whole time till the end of the day. Iam glad I saw that they had wifi and brought my laptop along. Even if I did'nt they have some computers that people can use. The whole process was very conversational and a lot of humor in the whole talk.One thing ...

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Great Marketing Messages , originally uploaded by shashiBellamkonda . This is a new series of marketing messages that make me stop to take pic

My friend Nancy is a  reporter and is in search of people who shop too much. Yes, we all shop, but do you feel your shopping might be excessive? Is it putting too much of a dent in your pocketbook? Do you feel you have to stop shopping but just enjoy it too much? She is searching for people in D.C., Maryland or Virginia who fit this description and would be willing to talk. Please leave a comment here if you are interested before Monday 9th May.

  The story in today's Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/04/AR2008060401975.html gives an update on the parking issue that I posted a few weeks ago. Since then I got a response from the office of Phil Andrews and they told me that Phil supports the continuation of free parking "change in policy would have a disparate effect on residents with disabilities because the Rockville Library houses the countywide Disability Resource Collection." The people who are voting for taking your money when you visit the library are : George L. Leventhal (D-At Large)Council members Roger Berliner (D-Potomac-Bethesda) and Valerie Ervin (D-Silver Spring) Can you go by public transport? it doesn't exist. Even if it exists its usually for Federal employees to go to DC. I have met Phil Andrews and he is a great guy with a balanced view of things. Thank you Phil for supporting the right thing.