Almost two years ago, I was invited to act in a wonderful short film in Texas. Named ‘About Face’, the film is extremely relevant, especially in today’s political climate. Directed by the exceptional Dr. Thomas Riccio who had auditioned me for a couple of his plays (none of which I got selected for 😆), the short film brings to light the topic of racism over the ages.
Cast and crew of About Face
It premiered on Kera TV (the local wing of PBS in Texas) this October. Dr. Riccio plans to send it to festivals so for now, all I can share is the teaser. Let me know what you think –
One of the things that has sucked most about COVID-19 is how it has put a damper on theatre activities. Having moved to LA recently, I was excited about participating in stage activities and becoming part of a theatre group as soon as possible. However, the pandemic hit the theatre world bad and made it impossible to start something new in a new city. Mercifully, after months of emailing groups, schools and artists, I found a summer Shakespeare workshop in the valley that I could easily attend.
I’ll never forget my first visit to Will Geer Theatre Botanicum. I rode my motorcycle through the curvy roads of Topanga Canyon flanked by pleasant views of hillocks. The short ride was fun, adventurous and refreshing. As I pulled into the parking lot of the Botanicum, I saw Ms. Ellen Geer walking in. I was to meet her to present a short monologue and get my assignment for the intensive workshop. She smiled at me as I parked my bike but our greetings were drowned by the loud thumping noise of my motorcycle as I, in my stupidity, hadn’t turned off the engine before beginning to speak. We walked in where I met Michelle and after a short chat, performed my monologue from Romeo and Juliet. To my delight, Ms. Geer said I’ll be fine and gave me an extraordinary piece from Richard III.
The month of the workshop was the most creatively satisfying time I’ve spent in California so far. Surrounded by hills, green trees, nature sounds, and a group of talented actors, I worked on my monologue under the guidance of wonderful teachers. The voice work sessions with Ms. Jan Wilkstrom got me back in the groove as it had been months since I had acted. Ms. Melora Marshall directed my monologue in which I employed scansion and rhetoric techniques taught by Ms. Susan Angelo. The Alexander technique sessions were great for body language, breath and future work. I particularly enjoyed the Elizabethan life session by Ms. Elizabeth Tobias as it gave an insight on social structure, clothes, courtesy during that era and how it matters in Shakespeare.
On the day of the performance itself, we were all ecstatic. Starting with some Elizabethan dance (choreographed by Ms. Marshall), we went through one monologue after another presented for a small audience. Our directors had done a fine job making use of the entire space for the show. I myself was to hide on the upper level and make an entry from the balcony. I was a bit nervous but by the time it was my turn, I was confident and raring to go. The last performance I had done was a student project where I played the General in a recreated scene from The Outbreak for a direction class. Stepping on stage to perform for a Live audience again, and a Richard III monologue at that, felt like an infusion of much-needed oxygen.
I have now returned to the Will Geer theatre for another workshop in October, this time on scene work. It’s reassuring to see some familiar faces from the summer intensive – wonderful artists I had the pleasure of connecting with in August. And there are some new ones to learn from! Here’s hoping that my journey as an actor continues here in LA and I stumble upon some creative inspiration again.
One of the coolest things about my workplace is that we get an entire week off for celebrating the 4th of July. I figured this would be a good time for my first post-COVID trip since I was fully vaccinated and had some travel money saved. I decided to embark on a train ride from LA to San Francisco aboard the Coast Starlight – something I’ve wanted to do for a while. I had driven through the Golden Gate Bridge with my cousin last year and spent a few hours in San Francisco. This time, with a week to spend, I figured I could get a better feel of the city and couple of its neighboring spots. A couple of my friends from UT Dallas were interested in exploring San Francisco so they visited me in LA for a couple of days before we took off for our summer holiday on Friday, the 2nd.
The train ride was what I was most excited about. And boy, did it live up to the hype! We started from Union Station in Los Angeles at 10.10 am. While the first hour or so from LA is just views of the city, the stretch just before Santa Barbara up to San Luis Obispo is spectacular to say the least. The train has an observation car which became my office for the day!
View from Coast Starlight train between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo
The crashing blue waves on one end and the horizon blending into the clear blue sky on the other – I couldn’t take my eyes off if it. The observation car was fully occupied for those couple of hours and I met a couple of interesting fellow travelers too.
Our first day in SFO was as dedicated to the Golden Gate Bridge. Thankfully for us, the bus and ferry rides were free for the 4th July weekend. So we hopped onto a bus and reached the bridge – walking across the bridge from one end to the other and back. I hadn’t walked that much in a long time. The views from the bridge are truly magnificent. The city on one side, the woods on the other and clear blue-green water all in between. The bridge was full of people of all ages from all over the world. As we walked on the walkway, I noticed motorcyclists performing stunts on the bridge, bicycle riders pacing on the other side (dedicated to bikes), couples getting all mushy, children running around, families clicking pictures… it is very touristic and yet so refreshing.
Golden Gate bridge
The bus back to the hotel was eye-opening and exposed some parts of the underbelly of downtown San Francisco. Some streets were full of garbage and home to junkies just sitting/walking around. I felt a bit intimidated thinking what I’d do if I were to find myself walking on one of these streets. Some others were fancy with patio seats of trendy restaurants.
The next day, we took the ferry ride to the next available ferry. And to our delight – it was to this beautiful island of Sausalito. A beautiful, Greek-like island, Sausalito was a breath of fresh air. A marvelous place to take a walk and enjoy great views with hip restaurants, coffee shops, ice cream parlors, Sausalito quickly became the best part of our trip. That was till the next day when we visited Monterey.
Sausalito
So one of my friends wanted to take a drive to check out this bridge from the show Big Little Lies – the Bixby Creek bridge. We rented an car and started in the morning. While it took longer than expected because of traffic (4 hours instead of 2), we were quite happy with the last stretch of the drive as it was flanked by scenic views of fog-clad hills and pristine beaches. After a mandatory photo shoot at the bridge, we decided to stop by a trail on the way back. And that’s where we all found our favorite part of the trip.
Bixby Bridge
The trail on Garrapata state park is straight out of a romantic song in a Bollywood movie. It’s surrounded by green landscapes and flowers, clean, quiet beaches, hills kissing the clouds and an X-factor I cannot even begin to describe. No matter which direction I turned in, there was a magnificent view sweeping me off the floor. We walked around for a while, then found a spot and sat quietly just to take it all in. We didn’t want to leave but realized that no amount of time there would be enough. So, after another walk through the trail, we headed back to the urban hoopla of downtown SFO.
Our last day in San Francisco was all about street walks and shopping. My friends then left for Dallas while I visited some other friends in Pleasanton and Sunnyvale. It was great to see high school buddies who are now parents to adorable kids. I took the flight back from San Jose to Burbank with a full heart and a wide smile.
It’s been over three months at my new job and I have already learnt a variety of new things. Working with a brilliant team of developers, I have been exploring the nitty-gritties of Spotfire and unraveling new functionalities every week. While there is a significant difference between the available functionalities for the client and web versions, Spotfire leads my list of best visualization tools to provide business insights. But what I have found most exciting recently is integrating it with Smarstheet.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Smartsheet, as the name suggests, is a smart sheet – essentially an Excel-meets-Trello-meets-Tableau platform. Tying it up with Spotfire gives you a pretty neat solution where on one end, you can create efficient workflows for your team to work directly on the data source and on the other, pull the data in to create great data visuals. To give you a simple example – you can set an automation in Smartsheet to send out email reminders to different members of your team to populate cells assigned to them and this data can then be pulled into the corresponding Spotfire dashboard. The only catch here is – you would need a Smartsheet business license to connect Smartsheet to Spotfire using the Live Data Connector.
As I continue to monitor things that are new in upcoming versions of Spotfire by following Neil Kanungo’s enlightening Dr. Spotfire sessions, I plan to keep an eye out for other such integrations to help my team build efficient processes and deliver fast, accurate business insights.
It’s all been a bit overwhelming. Yes, there is a global pandemic that has shaken things up for almost everybody on this planet. But that aside, the last few months have been an emotional roller coaster. I graduated with a Master’s degree in May, left behind some loved ones in Texas and moved to California in June, turned 35 (still can’t believe it!) in October… and throughout all this, kept looking for full time employment to land on my feet. So, you can imagine my thrill when I inform you that just as the year was nearing a disappointing end, I have joined Amgen in Thousand Oaks, California as a Clinical App & Analytical Services Manager.
I really can’t describe how I feel at this point. Relieved? Happy? Anxious? Motivated? While these words begin to describe my emotions, they don’t completely portray what’s going on. It’s been that kind of a year. What I do know is that I have been incredibly lucky throughout this journey. I am touched by the kind gestures of a number of people who have tried to help and support me. From the professors at my University to my friends and colleagues to strangers who admired my Resume song to a kind old friend who offered me a lifeboat in the form of a contract job to my cousin who suddenly reappeared in my life to play big brother – I have had so much love and warmth that my heart is full of gratitude. I also know that whatever is coming my way holds great value and can never be taken for granted.
I now move forward, with the entirety of my skills, dedication, and experience, to join Amgen’s mission to serve patients. As part of the R&D team, I’ll work for Global Development Operations and strive to provide meaningful analytical insights and business intellect using vital data. I am already moved by the warm welcome I have received at the firm, and am pumped to work with a brilliant global team. It’ll be amazing to employ my Python, Spotfire, data analytics, and business training and experience to help develop life-saving drugs. I am inspired by the incredible things Amgen has achieved over the years, and feel honored that I can be part of its upcoming feats.
On the personal front, I will soon be moving into a little apartment – my bachelor pad if you will – in Los Angeles! Once the virus is no longer a threat and it’s safe to step out again, I would love to explore the city of Hollywood. I’ve heard and read great things about southern California and can’t wait to check this part of the world out. Like anyone beginning life in a new city, I’m feeling the butterflies. Let’s see what 2021 has in store!
This will probably be my last post of the year. So, here’s wishing everyone reading this a merry Christmas and a marvelous new year! Happy Holidays!
What does it take to find “the one”? Gazing upon the picturesque view of sunshine hitting the peaks of stunning Simi Valley hillocks, we pondered on this age-old question. After the discussion, my friend suggested that I write down my take on the subject. So here I go!
My take, I should point out, is my humble opinion based on my own experiences and sensibilities. It works for ME. Anyone who knows me would tell you that I am certainly no expert in this particular subject 🙂 I have no intention of suggesting how one should approach this or any life matter. Like other articles in this category, this one too is a musing.
My theory is that the decision to choose a life partner finally boils down to this triangle of compatibility:
The Compatibility Triangle
The first one’s a no brainer, right? Love, in this context, encompasses all feelings of attraction – romance, sex, chemistry – you get the drift. Without this vertex, it wouldn’t be a life partner compatibility triangle but an “any relationship” line segment. When two people develop the same romantic feelings to a mutually acceptable degree, they are all set to try and explore the likelihood of a long term relationship (marriage, for example).
Then there’s respect! It’s possible to get attracted to someone, even love them with all their flaws when you spend some time with them. However, unless you respect the behavior, personality, actions, ethics of your partner, you are bound to run into problems sooner or later. Respect, like love, develops over time as you experience the actions and thoughts of your partner. It also employs your moral compass. While you may agree to disagree upon a few things, certain things may be non-negotiable for one or another. For example – punctuality, hygiene, humility are my non-negotiables. So on dating apps, when I see that a woman’s answer to the question “I’m known for..” is “being late”, it’s a dead end. Once two people accept organically that they both respect each other’s values and can live with the disagreements, this very vital criterion is met.
And then comes the most practical one of the three vertices – Goals. Two people may love and respect each other enough but they also need to be true to their own identities. Everyone has aspirations, goals, dreams for what they want to do with their limited years on this planet. To make a lifelong partnership work, two people would not only need to be cognizant and supportive of each other’s goals, but also align them in a way that they can build a fruitful life together. If one plans to live life as a teacher in the mountains of Nepal, and the other insists on being a developer in San Francisco, or if one wants to travel the world all year round while the other enjoys a grounded, indoors life in one town – it might be tough to find bliss.
While I do not want to do this all year round, at least twice a year won’t hurt!
Of course, people make sacrifices for their partners all the time. In all of these three vertices, one partner or another is probably going to make some compromises to keep the relationship stable. That’s commitment. The question is – how much is okay? Where’s the line? Think of it like a balance with one partner’s sacrifices on each side. If the scales tip too much in either direction, the equilibrium is lost. If one or both of the parties in the relationship are having to compromise too much on their feelings or values or goals, that’s a red flag.
Also, there is no particular order to these three vertices. One doesn’t necessarily come after the other. In several long-lasting arranged Indian marriages, feelings of love develop at a later stage (speaking of the ones where couples are actually happy, not the ones where there is just silent suffering for years to avoid societal backlash). Couples take a leap of faith based on familial approval of mutual respect and agreement of goals. This initial respect is often based on things like one’s financial stability, security, qualifications, qualities, culture, horoscopes, et all. Love may come later.
So, long story short – If I can build the compatibility triangle of mutual love, respect, and goals with someone, I’m not letting her go! Let’s see where this mantra lands me 😀
Watching how genius coders are portrayed in movies and TV shows, I grew up with the impression that they are smug, arrogant, and often delusional. My experience interacting with them in the last couple of years has proved otherwise.
Be it the TIBCO Spotfire community where even the lead data scientists provide exceptional support and guidance to anyone interested, or the Alexa developers slack channel where patient SDEs answer your questions in great detail – the developer community has proven to be extremely welcoming and helpful. For instance, Justin Jeffress does a marvelous job hosting Alexa office hours on their Twitch channel where he answers questions from developers at all levels of expertise. Similarly, Neil Kanungo from Spotfire hosts great Dr. Spotfire sessions every month helping Spotfire developers get better at visualization and analytics.
Justin Jeffres hosting Alexa skills office hours
Stackoverflow continues to be the go-to for a bit more intermediate stuff and it is perhaps the only place where I’m still nervous to ask questions. However, even there, experts encourage you to learn in the right manner and point you in the right direction to get you started. If you are into Machine Learning, you are familiar with Andrew Ng, the man who is the pioneer of online education and has released a bunch of free courses on Coursera (which he co-founded).
The tech world is extremely challenging and constantly changing. You cannot stop learning for even a bit as you might get outdated in a jiffy. As such, it is reassuring to know that programmers have each other’s backs. Say what you will about these geeks, they can teach you a thing or two about camaraderie. After my theatre group, this is the second place where I have felt a sense of community and belonging. Nobody cares where you’re from and what the color of your skin is. They are all here to learn, build, and sometimes crack geeky jokes. Respect!
If you’re reading this and have ever helped someone understand the complications of programming – take a bow!
Tibco Spotfire is an excellent tool for wholistic data analytics solutions. Since I got certified as a Spotfire analyst, I have been working with different datasets to get well-versed with the nitty-gritties of Iron Python scripts in Spotfire. I recently conducted some exploratory data analysis with COVID-19 data and built a dashboard that –
points out trends in countries – those getting better and those getting worse
points out which countries have highest deaths per million and how these are not the same as countries with highest number of cases
describes which continent needs to be alarmed right now
collects user feedback and writes back to the data table using Iron Python
The dashboard uses buttons (Action Controls) to give you graphs of countries that are doing okay and those that need to do better. It also employs property controls and an IronPython script for a user to provide feedback which can then be written back to our data table, and with the right permissions, to our database.
Here is a short video of the COVID-19 Spotfire dashboard, and my commentary on how it works:
I was never an Alexa guy. Part of the reason is that I’m extremely happy with my Google Home Mini. She helps me with all the basic info I need, wakes me up and puts me to sleep, even flirts with me on Valentine’s Day. I’m a simple man and this is more than I can ask of my voice assistant. So I was enjoying my relationship with my Googlie! But then came COVID-19 followed by graduation followed by job hunting, during which phase I moved from Texas to California to live with a kind cousin who took me in during these testing times. He also introduced me to his friend who works at Amazon, on whose suggestion I started toying with Alexa Skill development. And I must say, Alexa has been sweeping me off my feet.
I started by creating an Amazon developer account, and going through a bunch of tutorials on building simple Alexa skills. Most of it was pretty straightforward. I called my skill Covid Info (the name you use to invoke the Alexa Skill). Then, I came up with a bunch of instances that the user will say – How many cases in USA, get Covid info for America, How many people have died due to COVID so far, and so on.
My first challenge was to connect my skill to an external API where it could pull this data from. After some trial and error, I was able to accomplish this and my skill started working at a basic national level.
I could ask questions like – how many cases were reported in USA yesterday? how many deaths due to covid so far? get coronavirus updates for america
Next, I wanted to work at the state level. How many cases in Texas yesterday? The problem here was that the API had state IDs and the user would say the entire state name. After playing around a bit with slot values and synonyms, I fixed this by introducing a dictionary where state ID keys had full state name values. This solved my problem. So, now when I asked for specific state info, Alexa responded as expected.
Latest screenshot of my Alexa skill in development
Once I validated my skill and got the clearance to submit it, I had to wait for a few hours before getting an email from Alexa.
Alas! I have to wait a bit longer to gain some recognition and respect among ALexa developers. It is becoming increasingly clear with every passing day that voice is the present and the future. Apps that are not voice controlled will soon become redundant, just like mobile phones with buttons were driven redundant by touch screens. So, it looks like I will be working a lot more towards my Alexa Skill development in the time to come.
I take a lot of pride in the friends I choose. I have always striven to surround myself with exceptional people I can look up to, have meaningful conversations with, and count on for guidance. Most of these people, as one might expect, are writers and artists. On an emotional farewell evening full of scintillating conversations with some people I love, one of the many gifts I received was the courage to post this.
When I watched the video of George Floyd’s ruthless murder, I was shocked and terrified. I have immense respect for police officials. I come from Mumbai where the police, simply put, is extraordinary. Mumbai is considered to be one of the safest cities in India, all thanks to the Mumbai Police. All my life, I have known cops to be exceptional, hard-working individuals who put country and duty ahead of race, religion, or even self and family. Add to it their uncanny sense of humour (just follow the Mumbai Police Twitter account) and what you have is an adorable force that always has your back. So, when I saw that a police officer could do something so horrifying, it was heartbreaking. However, what was worse and made me feel like a petty human being was the immediate next thought – “What do I care? It’s not my place to say anything. I don’t have any role to play in this Black vs White fight. Here I am trying to find a job in this foreign country where I do not belong. Let me just shut up and not post anything that might bother someone.”
I also believed that social media was an ineffective medium for any real change. In my opinion, it appeals to your short attention span (growing shorter by the day) and gives you the illusion of having played your part by simply posting a picture or a comment from the comfort of your home. You are followed by people who mostly think the same as you do, and already have the same beliefs as yours. So, there isn’t much opportunity to change minds of people who think differently. Your drive is limited by the satisfaction you get when someone validates your post. What I was missing, and what my friends rightly pointed out to me yesterday, was that it creates a ripple. It informs you, and gets you started, and what you do after that is up to you. And this was true in my own case. I have been reading posts by people I respect and therefore, follow. Just in the last two weeks, I have read more about racism than I have in my entire life.
Once I read a few articles, I started introspecting my own behaviour and prejudices. I come from a country of fairness creams. Women are expected to be “fair” to find a good boyfriend or husband. While most of the strong women I know in Mumbai are brilliantly destroying this stereotype, I am not so sure about the whole country – especially the men. Some metropolitan men may speak out against skin-color bias but I am not certain that they have rejected it organically. Look at Bollywood and you’ll see that the lead actors (male and female) are expected to be fair-skinned, if you want the movie to be a countrywide commercial success. The description for uptown men and women when you get casting requirements is often – tall, “fair”, well-groomed. I, a dark-skinned man, have had my own share of failed attempts to try various creams and diets to lighten the color of my skin. When I appeared in the movie ‘2 states’, one of the comments I got on my Twitter account was – “But you are very dark.”
In the non-Bollywood world, we Indians have our own lingo of offensive words to describe people based on their skin color – we refer to white people as “firangi” or “goras”, black people as “kallus”, Chinese people as “chinkis”. And it is not just a way of speaking. These words come with their own respective perceptions. I do not know where this bias comes from (perhaps the British rule – need to read more about this) but it’s clearly, undeniably there. Hand to God, in one of my conversations about racism with a friend a few years ago, he casually (in his honest opinion) expressed that “white is just the better looking skin color”. Even amongst close friends, it is quite common to make fun of dark-skinned boys and girls, men and women by calling them “black” or “andhera” (darkness) or “dambar” (black tar). The fact that it is meant to be funny or offensive, or the recipient takes offense when someone says this is part of the problem.
This bias, then translates to our behaviour with people in the United States. We have always been fascinated with the west. We ape almost everything the west does. So, if the west is racist, we inadvertently end up fueling our already existing biases. We mask it well, of course. We are well-behaved and nice to everyone but that’s not because we are not racists. It’s because we don’t want to bother anyone and mind our own business. In inner circles, we still ignorantly refer to black people as “kallus” and the Chinese as “chinkis”. So what role do I, an Indian student in the United States, play in this fight against racism? It’s the same as the role white people play. I am integrated in this society that needs change. Like everyone else, I need to be educated, informed, transformed. And if everything else I have mentioned above is not a good enough reason, here’s one –
Ask me today, in 2020, to imagine my dream woman and probably the first attribute that’ll come to my mind is that she is “fair-skinned”. May be in the past my ancestors were victims of racism but as of today, I have become a perpetrator.
