In Pursuit of Wisdom

Last 2 weekends we attended 2 Bangladeshi events. The first one was Sadi Mohammad 's Robindro Sangeet & Others songs arranged by Porshi in Sabir Vai's house. I, Shusmita, Ahyan & Nitol attended that a little late in the afternoon as we were late to get back from Pakwan Hayward. Shuvojit, Saneyat joined me and Nitol in Sunday lunch Buffet in Pakwan and Saneyat brought the old Notre Dame College's journal where we saw our 16 years' old pictures. The second event was a Bangladesh-Kolkata Natto Mela in Pleasanton where Nitol, Ezaz, Shaki also joined us. Sayeem and Shorno came late in the evening to catch the Bangladeshi performance "American Dream: Bela Shesh Edition". It gave me a clear picture of typical NRBs living here. Sarkar Raj came out last week and Shusmita was ready to let me go alone leaving her with Ahyan at home. Thanks to her, I sent an email for Guys Night Out to watch it in Fremont Naz initially for Wednesday. But people need at least on...

We didn't want to loose the long weekend for memorial day and hence had a quick trip to Fort Bragg, Mendocino which is 200 miles drive from San Francisco Bay Area. Nitol joined us in the trip and we took his car as it turned out to be a good driving experience for him in his first long trip in his new car. The idea to choose a less tourist-crowdy place was because as my parents are coming within next few weeks, we will anyway go to many tourist places in California. So we picked this area where our chances to go more than one is very less. Here are some of the pictures of our trip - http://picasaweb.google.com/shusmita/FortBragg http://picasaweb.google.com/nitol.shabbir/FortBraggMendocinoDriveThroughTree We started at 9 in the morning of 24th May Saturday. The drive through the Highway One was amazing. Ocean and Beaches in the one side, hills and trees in the other side. And every half an hour the road and sceneries change. That evening we went to Glass Beach from our hotel. We had...

Last weekend of April was one of the fast ones when I, Shusmita and Ahyan went to a 3 day trip to San Diego. It was a great trip in all sense. We had a little more than one hour flight in United Airlines from San Francisco at 25th night. By the time I got a Toyota Avalon from Alamo and checked in Holiday Inn Quality Suites in San Diego it was almost 2 AM there. Here are some of the photos of the tour. http://picasaweb.google.com/shusmita/SanDiegoTripApril25To28thPril2006 The first day (26th) we went to Sea World. We watched the Shamu show in the noon and again the late evening. I would not believe a Whale can show such kind of gymnastics with other whales and it's trainers if I would not see with my own eyes. We also saw the dolphin show, Elmo's 3D show and many other booths. The second day we spent in San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park which are about 45 miles apart. As I had the 5 day unlimited entry ticket fro us, we didn't have to worry about the queue or any additional...

Today is one of the rare days when I am sad. I just heard that my younger brother Rasel's new car got damaged in an accident in Dhaka with truck last Friday. Fortunately, no one was injured. Rasel is already running on edge after returning from London to settle down on business and finish his MDS in BRAC University. He just bought the new car with extreme desire by 16.5 lakhs taka only couple of months back. He is now running in garages and insurance companies the whole days and nights leaving his semester final and business in this crucial time. This is definitely a major blow to him. And now while I am reading the article below I am feeling better when I read: Generation Pakistan is near the exit. Generation Middle is still running the show. Generation Bangladesh is here and rising. http://www.thedailystar.net/forum/2008/april/genaration.htm

I filed tax return for 2008 last night in H&R Block. Although a little expensive, it didn't take much time and I will get some good (!) refund from both Federal and State this year as well. On top of it I should be getting some George Bush money as well in May like others. This money will be a good source for the staffs we are buying (LCD HDTV, Sofa, Bed etc) as a preparation for my parents visiting us in June. :-)

Lots of things happened pretty quickly in last few days. Emon (Sazzad) and Saiful came from Atlanta to visit us last Thursday night (28th Feb). I & Nitol picked them from San Francisco Airport late at night. Liju and his newly wed wife Deepthy were waiting for us back home with Shusmita & Ahyan when we reached after midnight. Nitol rented a Pontiac G6 the next morning that took us to Silicon Valley. We picked Sayeem from EBay first and then visited Google's office. Shahriar was waiting in Starbucks near his Cadence office. By the time we came back home and started for Yosemite, it was 1:45 PM afternoon. I booked a 2 bed room fully furnished resort in Bass Lake (15 miles from before Yosemite) via my trial time share for this weekend. Yosemite is one of my favorite places in California which is couple of hundred miles from Fremont where I live in. The roads to Yosemite are a little curvy and so Shusmita was anxious while we were driving at night. The first night's stay wa...

The first day (yesterday) of first test Bangladesh tour of South Africa, despite Bangladesh getting all out for 192 runs, Bangladesh managed to rip off top 4 South African batsmen only for 76 runs. Good fightback from us. At this stage, we want fighting cricket whether it ends up in win or loss, we want good cricket for long term improvement of Bangladesh cricket team. Meanwhile in U-19 world cup Bangladesh defeated England in n exciting low scoring match to go into the quarter finals undefeated as the only other team than Pakistan. Incidentally, the Quarter-Final will be held between Bangladesh Under-19 v South Africa Under-19 at Kuala Lumpur - Feb 24, 2008.