The Visakhapatnam city looked marvelous – all single lane roads are now 2 lanes each-way with good dividers. Politicians in Visakhapatnam should be given some credit since the changes in my home state Kerala is close to none. We visited some nice beaches and had fun. The unfortunate thing is that both of my kids came down with Amoebic dysentery.

Now I am back in Kerala and kids are home resting. They still have not fully recovered from their dysentery. My wife and I hit the road again for social visits.

Another big winner is India and Bollywood. Even though it produces more movies and more viewers than Hollywood, it was never recognized. Yes  – I agree that many movies made in India are not Oscar material but there were many that has never got a nomination. AR Rahman’s talents got a big recognition when he bagged both the musical categories viz, the original score and the original song. Razul Pookutti got one for sound mixing. Above all the Slumdog Millionaire grabbed the coveted best director and the best film awards. Megan Mylan’s Smile Pinki fetches the Oscar for the Best Short Documentary. No wonder some say “Earth is flatter”.

Kate Winslet received her deserving best actress award for her role in the “The Reader”.  She got six nominations but this is her first Oscar. It is surprising that Kate did not win the best actress award for her role in Titanic even though she was nominated. I had a feeling that she may loose it this time too and Meryl Streep may win with her performance in “Doubt”. That is why Kate said “For you Meryl, you have to suck up to that”.  Keith Ledger was honored posthumously with his supporting actor role in Dark Knight. Sean Penn’s win of best actor is expected. Kate’s and Sean’s win will again start that usual question “Is it easier to win Oscar with a Holocaust or a Gay themed movie ?”.

Most other categories I cared was as expected except for the visual effects. I never thought the “Curious case of Benjamin Button” will win. My favorite for that category was the Dark Knight. But I have been wrong before too.

A artwork becomes great when the artist puts in a lot detail in the background. Artwork with plain canvas is not amazing. The same way a movie becomes great when there is a lot of vibrant background. A story without a colorful background is not Oscar material. That is the same reason the ‘Gone with the Wind’ is a great book. It takes us through the civil war era with a simple love story. Similarly with a simple story, Slumdog shows the environment an orphan kid has to go through in India. It made me remember another great movie “Life is Beautiful” by Roberto Benigni.

I understand that many Indians in India did not like that movie and personally I also did not like the “too real”, “too cruel” aspects of some of the scenes. But many of those are very much possible in India. I still remember those days when my parents used to warn me about “strangers catching kids, cutting their hands and making them beg”. But unfortunately no one discusses about that in public. That is the Indian culture… Don’t discuss about anything which is uncomfortable to discuss.

I recommend everyone to watch that movie and many times even the funny scenes cannot make you laugh. But the director has sketched the real life in the slums through the stories of two ophan kids.

I am sure you will ask what is harinair? My original name is supposed to be Hari G. Nair; the middle initial G for Gangadharan (my dad’s first name). Nair is our family’s last name but my parents decided to drop it since it identifies the caste. In late 60s and early 70s there was a sentiment against using caste in the names, at least in the state of India I was born in. In that state, the last name was not important. Hence my name became Hari G.

When I moved out and started working in other countries, I found that the last name is important and I finally expanded my middle initial to make my full name Hari Gangadharan. Later when I got married, fortunately or unfortunately, my wife’s last name was already Nair and we decided not to change her last name to Gangadharan.  When our kids were born, to reduce confusion and to keep the naming a standard (yeah – I like that!) both of my kid’s last name became Nair. Now I am the odd person out! Meanwhile since harigangadharan is too long (I too misspell it) and hari is always taken, I always use harinair for all my online identities. That way I feel I still belong in the family. Few years back, I registered this domain but I am putting this to work only now.

1. We could not get the funding.
2. We were pretty sure that Google is releasing a similar product (They did now – they released Mapmaker couple of weeks back)

Now after all those phases of grief, in May I accepted a position in the SPOT product team  of Globalstar. We provide a personal tracker that can communicate back your latitude and longitude using the satellites. Hence your family and friends can track your progress in a Google Map interface. Also it has a cool 911 button that can send message to the emergency responders. What is great about it? It communicates from virtually any where in the earth even in places where there is no cell coverage. A must have for all the adventurous people…

My work is exciting and some what challenging – hence I am enjoying it. Do you want to know where I am? SPOT tells you where I am.