San Francisco – Sadly, my hero Neil Armstrong passed away a few weeks ago. As everyone knows, he was an American astronaut and the first person to walk on the moon. He was also an aerospace engineer, naval aviator, test pilot, university professor, and the most humble, inspirational human being ever to walk on the earth. His famous words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” will always stay in history as long there is history on our planet.
Since then, mankind in Silicon Valley has been making giant leaps – did you know that you use up more computing power when you perform a single Google search than the total computing power used by NASA to put man on the moon? Now if Apple could fix the maps in my new cell phone, I would know where I am going.
Steve Jobs must be turning in his grave. It’s a pity that the quality of customer experience is eroding so soon after his passing away. Maybe its time to consider making computer products using “cage free” workers in the Valley.
Fortunately, the action now in the Valley is in the software part of computers and Indians are playing at the top of the game. Behind every major engineering development at Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Oracle, and scores of other innovative companies, there is a thirty-something man or woman, most likely an IIT graduate, at the helm.
Also noteworthy in the past few weeks was the successful IPO of Workday – a cloud-based financials and human resources software firm. It put the founder Aneel Bhusri , an Indian American, in the Forbes Midas List of best investors. The company has been extraordinarily successful in the business space and is considered to be one of the best companies to work for in the Bay Area.
The other day I went to see the final match of the “Bong” cricket tournament. Before my friends in NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) get excited, I want to clarify the BONG here fondly alludes to Bengalis. Indeed, the BONG cricket phenomena here is just part of over fifty cricket teams thriving in Silicon Valley.
Many Indian professionals working here carry the passion for cricket from the mother country with them. The level of the game I watched was about the same as one can experience in a passionate match among urchins in any Indian village. But the food in the post-game victory dinner gave a run for money to the top restaurants in Calcutta.
That brings me to the last topic – chicken curry. I was born in Old Delhi and my palette was nurtured by the masters of Mughal cuisine who have run fabulous restaurants for hundreds of years in the narrow lanes of the old city. I have three cardinal rules that I apply when I choose an Indian restaurant: (1) If the restaurant provides a table cloth – don’t go; (2) If the restaurant has zucchini in the menu – don’t go; and finally, (3) If the owner speaks only Urdu or Hindi – go.
Fortunately, due to great demand and severe competition, some of the finest Indian food in the world is being served by the Indian restaurants in the Valley. Special mention must be made of Madras Café, located at a close proximity to Google, Apple, Yahoo, and other technology giants employing thousands of Indian software engineers, for their fresh Dosas and other delicacies.
But for the ultimate Mogul food dining experience, one must go to Shalimar, which was at one time rated by Zagat as the best restaurant in all of San Francisco Bay Area. Shah Jehan, the great Mogul supporter of Old Delhi chefs, must be smiling in his grave.
Shyamal Roy
Shyamal Roy, born in Old Delhi in India and a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, received the Distinguished Service Award 2012 from IIT Kharagpur for his photojournalism work related to the institution. Roy lives in the San Francisco Bay area.
www.shyamalroy.com