Joining the continuing series of public art installations at Rockefeller Center is Electric Fountain by Tim Noble and Sue Webster. This hulking structure sits in the same spot occupied every winter by the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, overlooking the rink and the statue of Poseidon. I saw the thing being put together last week when I was walking home from work, and was interested in seeing how it would turn out. And it turned out pretty decent.

The structure is an attempt to evoke a fountain of light, as thousands of blue LEDs and neon tubing try to create the illusion of light flowing, splashing and pooling like water in a real fountain. The effect, on a wet and rainy night, was pretty cool, though not spectacular. I mean, with Times Square just a few blocks, this light show manages to look interesting but not that extraordinary. The good thing was that because of the rain, we managed to see it without too many crowds around it.

Electric Fountain is going to be illuminating the Rockefeller Center plaza through April 4th, so check it out if you are going to be around. If you aren’t, you can check out some of the photographs I took by checking out the album “Electric Fountain” on my Life As We Know It page.

I absolutely loved

• Jon Stewart, who did a great job of hosting.
• The part where Jon Stewart went and brought back Marketa Irglova, the little known Czech actress and singer from “Once”, so she could have her moment and give her acceptance speech when she was previously cut off by the music from the time police.
• The acceptance speeches. This year there were none that made me want to shoot myself. And quite a few were really elegant, gracious and funny.
• The Jimmy Kimmel Live show with the whole schtick about Jimmy’s response to what Sarah Silverman (his girlfriend) did. If you didn’t see it, check out this clip followed by this one. It is one of the funniest things I have seen all year.

I usually avoid talking about anything deeply political, because it tends to lead to volatile discussions that go nowhere. But last weekend was different. After the pooja at our house was done, I found myself engaged in a debate about the upcoming elections with relatives, and thought it would be fun to lay it out here.

The basic question that my aunt posed to me and my cousin Rajji-B was this – “Why are you supporting Barack Obama”? Both of us had been pretty clear for a while that we are squarely in his camp, while she is a Hillary supporter. While Raj and I discussed our reasons for being so strongly supportive of him, we found that our reasons were more about our hearts than our minds.

The big reasons have no hard grounding in political strategy. We trust him more, we have more faith in him, we believe in his moral and ethical core. On the other hand, Hillary feels like she is just another politician (even if she is a better one than most).

Obama also represents an ability for this country to move beyond the partisanship that has brought this country to its knees over the last 8 years. He seems to have the ability to lead us past all the differences and divisions, whether they be over race, class or background.

Part of it also is that Obama’s candidacy feels more like a social movement than a political movement, which is why we are more inclined to be part of it. Our generation has only read about the 60s and early 70s, and the political involvement that the youth of the time had. This feels like our chance to be part of something like that. It is a resounding statement against the old politics of Washington, and a hope for something different, something real, something more in tune with the times. I think the huge number of micro-donations to his campaign reflects that it is more of a grass-roots effort bringing in real people, as opposed to corporations and influential donors.

We find ourselves looking past all the arguments about inexperience because we are all part of a culture that teaches us to look past that. We have billionaire teenagers running companies that are shaping our daily lives. Why would we not have a (relatively) young politician leading our country? We are definitely hoping that Obama has the leadership to turn good intentions into actionable plans. But is that really such a bad hope to have, after the last 8 years?

I usually never care about celebrity endorsements, but I have to say, this video by Will.I.Am is just brilliant, and captures perfectly why it is that the Obama campaign has captured our imagination.

Reading this article by InfoWorlds Robert Cringely is literally making me cringe (pun completely intended). I knew that my civil liberties were already under attack with the illegal wiretapping that was going on. But now I actually have something that will change how I work and travel.

I don’t want to hand over my passwords, my financial information or my laptop contents to some technically unskilled customs official at the airport. Not because I am afraid of abuse and misuse, but because (as a person in the security industry) I can see that there is no mechanism in place to protect me. The information they copy from my laptop could end up on an easily hackable server somewhere, or in a flash drive that falls out the pocket of some low paid TSA employee. It just doesn’t make sense.

And it feels like such a massive violation of my privacy. I don’t see the purpose of this. The argument is that it is similar to the search being conducted of my suitcase. But there are two purposes of that search – to find something dangerous to take on a flight (like a bomb) or something that is subject to customs. Neither of those could possibly apply to anything on my laptop. So I don’t see the point of doing anything beyond simply confirming that my laptop switches on.

This is going to be hard when I have to travel internationally on work

Yesterday we did a small pooja at our house. Tanu had expressed the desire to do one during the 7th month of her pregnancy, partly because we had never done a pooja ceremony of any kind since we moved in (if you exclude the ones we do ourselves at Diwali).

It was a small family affair, with Mamaji and Mamiji coming up from DC to join the rest of the family from the New York area at our place. Tanu invited the same pandit that Maasi usually has do her poojas. He was really good, making the whole thing real easy and painless. He brought most of the stuff he needed to do the pooja and havan. He also took us through the various prayers and mantras, explaining their meaning and relevance as well. The whole thing probably took an hour and a half, and had some interesting and some funny parts (like the part where I “beat” out any bad vibes from inside Tanu using a broom like thing). Thankfully we did not have any issues with smoke alarms or sprinklers, and the havan went off without any issues.

After that Tanu treated everyone to a lavish lunch, with butter paneer, dal makhani, kadhi, pooris and her famous cholas. It was delicious. Everyone got so stuffed that a number of us fell asleep in the very spots where we ate lunch. The party extended well into the evening, as everyone slowly recovered from the food induced coma they were in to participate in some interesting discussions about world politics and history. The evening ended with Avi and Mamaji entertaining everyone with some musical performances.

Photographs: I added photographs and video from the evening to my photo album on the ‘Special Occasions‘ page. Just click on the album “Our First Pregnancy” when you get there. It’s a new album that I just launched, which will contain pictures from our first pregnancy, right from the first few months all the way till the birth of our firstborn. Keep checking back for updates to that album.

I thought this news report was absolutely hilarious. According to a survey conducted in the UK, “nearly half of British men surveyed would give up sex for six months in return for a 50-inch plasma TV”.

Not to pick on the country of my birth, but I think this says a little something about Brit gals

There are days when this whole “becoming a parent” thing feels more real than others. Yesterday was one of those days, when we had a whole bunch of things going that drove the reality of what is approaching home.

It started with Tanu’s usual checkup which, now that we are only a few months away, is happening every 2 weeks. Listening to the baby’s heartbeat at these checkups is always pretty cool, though it is not as cool as when I feel the baby move.

After the doctor visit, we went to Max Brenner’s in Union Square. Sitting there in the middle of the day, we both looked around and realized that we were probably the oldest people in the entire place (That’s what happens when you go to a place in the NYU area during work hours). That somehow made us realize just how much life is about to change for us. But the delicious desserts and hot chocolate made us feel a lot better.

And then in the evening we went to the hospital where we are planning to have the baby for a tour of the facilities. Who knew that taking hospital tours and interviewing pediatricians was going to be something on our to-do list. But seeing where the big event was going to happen (fingers crossed) made it all very, very real.

I have been cleaning up around the house trying to free up storage space for all the stuff we will have to buy. And this weekend is the pooja ceremony that Tanu planned. Things are really starting to happen.

Today was a day of celebration, a day to continue the great sense of fulfillment that we started to feel on Sunday. Leaving the house early in the morning, I headed over to downtown Manhattan to join thousands of fans in welcoming home our Superbowl Champion New York Giants.

Superbowl Champions. It still has a great ring to it. I joined thousands and thousands of Giants fans who feel the same way to share the love with the team. Even getting to Broadway as early as I did was no help, as I had to squeeze through crushing crowds to find a decent spot. We had to wait for hours, but the crowd passed time with some good natured New York fun – throwing toilet paper rolls across the street, bouncing a beach ball along the length of the crowds, even an inflated condom at one point (only in New York). People were climbing on top of lamp posts and phone booths. Chants of “Let’s Go, Giants“, “MVP” and “18-1” kept rising from the crowds.

Suddenly, the crowds roared as 8-9 buses rolled past us, obviously carrying the team members down to the starting point for the parade. The “Canyon of Heroes” was getting into the right mood to greet the returning victors. There was a giant screen set up by where I was standing, and a little after 11am, the crowds roared again as it showed Eli, Strahan, Coughlin and more emerge with the Vince Lombardi trophy and get on their float.

It was a lot of fun to be part of the crowd celebration, everyone doting on their beloved Giants, sharing this communal feeling of joy. When the defensive players went by on their floats, shouts of “D-Fense” went up. When a float or bus went by carrying people no one could recognize, chants of “Who Are You?” would fill the air. When Eli, Strahan and the Lombardi trophy came by, the place really went crazy, with everyone shouting “MVP” and “New York Giants“. When the float carrying the assistant coaches went by, chants of “Redskins suck” and other similar derogatory screams went up in an obvious appeal to Spagnuolo to not leave the Giants for a head coaching job there. Some players were obviously having more fun with the crowds than others – Pierce, Strahan, Bradshaw. A lot of players were taping the crowds, and were signing jerseys, caps, anything that the crowds threw at them.

After the last float went past, the crowds dispersed rapidly but pretty calmly. The surrounding streets and train stations were a sea of blue jerseys. Big Blue ruled the town this morning.

Photographs: I added photographs and video from Superbowl Sunday and the parade to my photo album on the ‘Life As We Know It‘ page. Just click on the album “Giants Win Superbowl” when you get there.

This is the most unbelievable feeling! My heart is still racing a mile a minute. My throat is aching from all the screaming. My beloved Giants have pulled off the biggest upset in the history of the NFL, and THE NEW YORK GIANTS ARE SUPERBOWL CHAMPIONS!

It was one of the best games I have watched. It was physical, exciting, back and forth all night. No one, absolutely no one can say that the Patriots lost that game. The Giants went out and won it, in decisive fashion, playing good ol’ smashmouth football. The D-Line went out and smacked Tom Brady silly, to silence that record-setting New England offense. The better team won big-time, in a game that is sure to go down in history, and not just because the Giants ruined the perfect season.

We continued our tradition of watching this years playoffs at Jeet and Jeeves place. First rule of sports is to never change anything that is working. And watching the Giants post-season at their place paid off big time. So big thanks go to them – our champion hosts. And I also have to thank Jeet for giving me the tickets to that Giants-Pats game in week 17 which we can now see clearly was the start of the Giants championship run. The core folks (Jeet and Jeeves, Sudipt and Svetlana, Advait, Ed, and of course, me and Tanu) were all there. And we were joined by Aneesh, Steve and Elizabeth, And what a night it was!

The game was full of highlight moments. Brandon Jacobs running over the defenders at the start of the game, an indicator of things to come. Amani Toomer and Steve Smith making some pivotal catches, including a great one by Toomer on the sideline. Ahmad Bradshaw continuing to grind out yards, even though a defender had him in a headlock and another was dragging him down. The 45-yard catch and run by Kevin Boss. And the D-line continuously introducing Brady to the turf of University of Phoenix Stadium.

But it was that last quarter, stomach churning beyond belief, that elevated this game to an instant classic. Watching Eli take the team down for the eventually winning TD, starting from their own red zone, with only 2:39 left in the game, was just unbelievable, especially when you consider the plays involved. That unbelievable escape by Manning, for a 32-yard downfield throw to Tyree, who makes an amazing catch – that will join Jeter’s play in the 2001 playoffs in New York lore as “The Play”.

The Play

Those last 35 seconds, with the Giants holding on to a slim 3 point lead, were the longest of my life. Watching Brady trying to engineer another game winning drive was nerve-wracking as hell. But the G-fense has been unbelievable all year, and really came through time and time again in the clutch. That massive hit Jay Alford put on Brady on 2nd down had everyone on their feet. And when that last hail mary from Brady to Moss was batted down with 2 seconds to go, we just lost it (click here to watch the secretly taken video of it). It is the most unbelievable feeling. Sooooo cooool!

Eli was great, especially when you consider how the year started. Even a month ago, people were doubting him. And what a drive in those last 3 minutes. He deserved the MVP award. But my MVP is Steve Spagnuolo, for turning the defensive unit into the awesome monster that they are. Watching Brady getting hit over and over again, getting sacked 5 times, slammed into the turf about 18 times, constantly getting pressure in his face – that is what won the game. That is what won the championship!

Brady becoming best friends with the Turf

Can’t wait for the parade on Tuesday. I am soooo there. We won the Superbowl! The New York Giants are NFL Champions!!! My son is going to be born a fan of Superbowl Champions!

Eli holds up the Lombardi trophy