It is hard to believe that my two weeks of break just flew by so quickly. I learned quite a bit during my break and discovered the power of meeting and reconnecting with old and new friends. I finally found time to meet many old friends, make new friends and also discovered that the desi world is really, really small in Silicon Valley (there are about 200, 000 desis in the SF bay area). It was amazing how many people I met once I spent time talking to them, which I miss doing given the inordinate amount of time I spend on my show, research, blog and video blog. What these meetings and new friends also mean is that now I have more stories to tell. There are so many wonderful stories and people out there that I sometimes wish I had 48 hours in a day.

However some things don’t seem to change and I am talking about news in the online world. I did a quick scan of the the websites I read on a regular basis and discovered they are still taking about Yahoo vs. Microsoft, Twitter vs FriendFeed (BTW, I am unable to log on to my twitter account…none of my login ids appear to work), and how the Left continues to stymie Indian PM Manmohan Singh’s nuclear treaty efforts. What was also amazing is the number of stories about Bollywood in various US, UK and Australian mainstream media. Has Bollywood hit the hockey stick curve in the online news world? Has the Indian government realized the power of Bollywood as a foreign policy instrument?

Here are some things I discovered or re-discovered during my break and I have put them down in a random order.

Culture Unplugged is an online short film festival and was deeply moved by Toba Tek Singh. For the first time I realized how traumatic the entire partition of India process must have been for millions of people, especially for people that are portrayed in Toba Tek Singh. Talking of partition I scanned and read portions of a book on Gandhi and Churchill and discovered that Lord Mountabatten was a protege of Churchill. Apparently Churchill was not in favor of Mountabatten’s plans for India.

Rap, Latin Music and Bollywood is a potent mix. Here is what I am talking about. Singh is Kinng video clearly was a big hit with the industry folks….watch the reactions and expressions of the various actors and you will know what I am saying. Snoop Dogg makes his Bollywood debut in Singh is Kinng. This video clip with Shahid Kapoor from Kismat Konnection (wait, is this an Ekta Kapoor film or did Sunita Menon tell the producers that they will hit the jackpot if they spell the names differently?) has a nice catchy tune. There is something very appealing and nice about Shahid Kapoor and he has great energy and positive vibes when you see him in person. He just seemed like a really great guy when I saw him in person a couple of years ago.

Discovered Nova Now on PBS and through that discovered Neil deGrasse Tyson, the wonderful host of an absorbing series on Science.

Watched teacher cum author Manil Suri talk about infinity and I wondered silently why we did not have a math teacher like him when I was growing up in India. If I had a teacher like Manil Suri I would not feel so mathematically challenged and recoil in fear every time I come across an equation or a graph.

Watched Russell Peters all over again and discovered that he is of Anglo-Indian origin from Calcutta. I am not sure why I mentioned that but maybe it is that annoying Indian habit of trying to place the person in a geographical context. We just have to know where you come from and we will find out one way or the other. Maybe that is why Russell wove that into his stand-up routine and mentioned the names of his parents and where they come from in India. My question is how come Russell has such a strong Punjabi accent when he talks about India or Indians? Where did that come from?

Discovered Pablo Francisco and totally got hooked to his comedy routine. I love those voices he does. Check out his Tortilla Boy routine it will crack you up.

Rediscovered Dan Nainan, another stand-up guy, who does a great job with different voices. Dan has an Indian father and a Japanese mother and like he says he both “Harold and Kumar.” This guy is really funny and I have seen him in-person.

Nikhil Pahwa, who was with ContentSutra now has his own website called: Media Nama. I told him for some inexplicable reason the name reminded me of Akbar Nama.

Many Silicon Valley bloggers appear to be writing a lot more about desis either in Silicon Valley or in India . Check out this one from TechCrunch, or this one from Valleywag (they now have a person dedicated to write about Indians in the valley?), or this one from VentureBeat.

San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley’s newspaper organized a CopyCamp, which is on the lines of the BarCamps. This unconference reached out to various ethnic communities in the area. I came away learning quite a bit about how newspapers are trying to reach their readers and see what they need to do. I thought to myself if any Indian newspaper or mainstream media company would ever go through such an exercise and carry an open and engaging conversation with its readers. Back to the The Merc, which has gone through a rough period and recently laid off some people and the size of the paper has shrunk quite a bit.

Some bloggers in Kerala are holding their BlogCamp Kerala 2008 in a houseboat. I would have loved to have attended this camp since I have never been to Kerala. I know it is a real shame considering that I have always lived a few hundred miles away from God’s own country. For some inexplicable reasons all my Kerala plans unravel at the last minute and I think to myself that maybe God has a different plan for me about visiting his country.

RIP: Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw passed away earlier this month. It seems that all the important Indian government officials had other things to do and did not have time to pay homage to this soldier. Why do we forget our soldiers? Why do we forget to pay them our last respect?

The monsoons finally arrived in Mumbai and here is a beautiful picture of the approaching monsoon clouds from Daily Sun.

Just before the break I told myself that I will try not to use the Internet. I half-succeeded in my goal. Hopefully, the next time around I will be able to completely wean myself from the Internet and switch off completely.

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