03.14.09
Posted in World and Wisdom at 9:19 pm by Chirag Shah
Do you know how much mileage your car gives? Does it matter?
I had this discussion with my girlfriend a few days back. She didn’t know how much miles per gallon her car gave and she wasn’t curious to find out. When asked why, she replied, “it wouldn’t make me change anything.” My argument was, even if that was the case, one should know such a thing. One should know the cost of things.
Sometimes having such knowledge may not change anything immediately, but when the time comes to choose between two things, and the differences seem too small or irrelevant, you have an extra piece of information that may guide you to make an informed decision.
Studies have shown that when one monitors one’s calories intake from the food that one eats, he/she starts making better choices about the kind of food to eat. For those planning on going on a diet, this is the first step - to simply start noticing everything that you eat. Even that knowledge of how much calories a food item contains may change your course of action.
Bottomline - know the consequences of your actions. Hold yourself accountable.
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09.20.08
Posted in World and Wisdom at 8:07 am by Chirag Shah
It’s interesting that we do not put any article before word “god”. It is implicit that it’s “the god”. English language imposes this belief on us that when we talk about god, it’s only one god that we are talking about.
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08.08.08
Posted in World and Wisdom at 8:15 pm by Chirag Shah
What’s right? Forget about the definition, but what’s right without wrong? If “wrong” didn’t exist, could we tell what’s right? It seems that to do right, one must know what’s wrong. Right just can’t exist without wrong.
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05.06.08
Posted in World and Wisdom at 5:20 pm by Chirag Shah
There are essentially two schools of thoughts for changing this world. One believes that giving a lot of power to a few select individuals, who are smart and know what’s good for the world, is the way to go. The other school believes giving a little more power to a lot of people instead. I belong to the latter school of thought. I am convinced that the goodness of the world cannot be determined by a select handful individuals; instead, let the consensus of common good be emerged from the wish and willfulness of the whole world.
To make a difference in this world, I would rather focus on empowering the mass by a little than handing over all the authority to some select individuals.
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02.28.08
Posted in Chaos and Cosmos at 2:13 pm by Chirag Shah
- Before you finish looking at your pictures from the last trip, you’re off to a new destination.
- You never finish watching a rented movie in one session.
- Instead of crying at your hectic schedule, you start laughing at it.
- Your thought of blogging about some event gets overwritten by the happening of another event.
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02.25.08
Posted in Chaos and Cosmos at 9:46 pm by Chirag Shah
As a researcher, you work with problems all the time - identify problems, define problems, solve problems. While ultimately we want to solve all the problems, it’s hard to realize that once a problem is solved, it’s no longer interesting for a researcher!
I love my problems. It’s because of them I have an exciting life. They stay much longer with me than the solutions. And I like loyalty!
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01.05.08
Posted in Travel at 12:04 am by Chirag Shah
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain
There is a saying in my mother tongue Gujarati that literally means, seeing is better than living. The more proper meaning being, life without traveling and discovering is a meaningless life. When I was a kid and my dad once asked what I wanted to become when I grew up, I replied, “Anything that can allow me to travel as much as you do!” Now I realize that it was more than a childhood dream. It wasn’t so much about achieving becoming something; it was about living a certain kind of life.
On the way back from my recent backpacking trip to Mexico, I was thinking about all the wonderful things that happened to me in the last few days - how great the Christmas dinner was with Miguel’s family, how wonderful time I had with beautiful Tania, how I struggled to overcome the language barrier on dates with with Liliana, how much fun I had at Cancun beaches and clubs with Martha and Angelika, how I froze on the streets when locked out of Hugo’s house in Oaxaca, how creepy it was to eat a fried bug in Cholula, how lost I was while trying out some Salsa dancing, and of course, all those wonderful places I went to and great food that I had.
My thinking got extended to several other trips that I had been to in the recent years and then I realized that I have been to 26 countries so far! Some of these countries I have been for only a few days, whereas some others I have lived for a significant amount of time; some places I have been only once, whereas some others I have visited several times. All in all, total 26 countries so far! I’m not sure if I should be happy to learn this or distressed that I have yet to explore most of the world in this short life. I guess it doesn’t matter because as I realized earlier, this is not about achieving something; it’s about living it and I’m grateful to God for blessing me with this privilege of living my dreams.
I do not know the meaning of life, but one thing I do know that without these travels, life would be meaningless.
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01.02.08
Posted in Travel at 12:15 am by Chirag Shah
“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” - St. Augustine
Backpackers are essentially budget travelers and every penny saved counts. In this part I will list some pointers to saving money on eating while backpacking.
- Find a supermarket or a grocery store and buy water and snacks from there. Many times I have bought groceries and prepared simple meals while traveling. They save a lot of money. Once again, the key is to improvise. Find what’s good and cheap in that area and make a meal!
- Often cafes and restaurants near the center of the town, where tourists most often go, are overpriced. Leave them and go little off-center. On the streets, see which stall has many locals eating. Chances are, that’s a good and cheap one.
- Carry some chcocolates or high energy bars, so that you don’t have to eat pricy food just because you’re starving and there is no other place in proximity with reasonably priced grubs. This happens when you’re visiting a remote place such as ruins or mountain top.
- Many places outside of US have no problem with public drinking. Buy your booze at a convenient store and pop it open on a bench in a plaza or park, just close to restaurant that would serve the same for four times the price!
- Never order before looking at the menu and knowing the prices. In fact, it’s better not to even enter a place before knowing how much a cup of coffee would cost there.
- Tip properly. It’s better to order a cheaper dish and tip accordingly than spending the same amount by having an expensive dish and being stingy on tipping.
- To avoid tipping, go to self-serve places or street stalls.
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12.29.07
Posted in Travel at 7:27 pm by Chirag Shah
Life has been on the roll here in Mexico - figuratively and literally. After leaving Mexico City, all I knew was that I was going to Southeast direction. Life in the last few days can be summarized as the following.
- I ended up in Puebla one morning and met Tania. She and I spent the next two days as if we had known each other for ever. I wouldn’t call it a date, but we had great time together! It was hard to leave her.
- Tania made me eat fried bugs (grasshopper, called ’chuplin’ here) in Cholula. Apparently they are sold as tasty snacks garnished with spice!
- Going further Southeast brought me to Oaxaca. Turned out that this beautiful town is famous for two of my favorite things - coffee and chcolates!
- While I was relaxing and watching people in zocalo one evening, I met Liliana - a smart, beautiful local, with whom I had a wonderful time. Unfortunately, her English was almost non-existant and my Spanish is worse than a two year old! She made me promise that I would see her the next day.
- I saw Liliana the next day. We had some wonderful time together. She had lots of questions and my vocabulary was very limited. Not many times I get a chance to use a dictionary on a date!
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12.26.07
Posted in Travel at 11:30 am by Chirag Shah
“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.” - Lao Tzu
The most consistent part of any of my backpacking trips is from leaving home to arriving at a destination, which is not very consistent itself. However, if I had to stretch a lot and try to generalize it, this is how the procedure would go.
- Go to the airport a couple of hours before the flight. Take out the small daypack from the big backpack. Check in the backpack. Pass the security. Hang out at the airport thinking what I have gotten myself into this time.
- During the flight, skim the guidebook and try to get in the mood for the new place. It is usually this time I realize that I actually left things behind and that I’m on my way to a new adventure.
- At the destination, collect the backpack that I checked in. Clear the custom.
- Get local currency either by exchanging USD or withdrawing straight from an ATM.
- Set the currency conversion formula in mind.
- Look for the public transportation. Find the transportation map and make myself familiar with the system and directions. Head to the destination.
- On the first day, go to the heart of the city. Walk around. Watch people. Get a city map and get myself orientented. Some times this also involves getting used to new timezone and/or weather.
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