Bay Area

 Bay area is a part of California State in US and rightly called as Silicon Valley. Pretty
much all the tech giants like Google, Apple, Face book has their HQ in Bay area. If you
have happened to live in Bay area for a while trust me it is extremely difficult to move
somewhere. So what is special about the area? I am going to walk you through some of
the highlights about Bay area from my personal experience. God has been kind with me
by giving few contract assignments in Bay area but at the same time rude by not having them
convert to full time assignments. I have worked for Tesla Motors in 2008 (Unfortunate
that my stint was before Obama took office and Tesla became altogether a different
company once Obama became president) and Applied Materials in 2014 -15. To give you
an anomaly of how does it feel when you leave Bay Area after living for quite some time
– An independent girl enjoying all the freedom with her parents is suddenly married and
asked to settle down with her Mother in law and co sister(s) all in one roof. That being
said let me go over Bay area from my experience where first three are common features and last
three areas are from personal perspective.

Techy Freaks !!
If tamil folks meet for lunch there are sure shot four topics – Thala vs Thalapathy rivalry,
Whistle podu CSK’s form and Dhoni factor, Vadivelu’s latest memes and Television’s
happening show like Big boss/ Cook with Komali / Airtel Super singer; Bay Area is one
place on earth where suddenly the same old guy who had Oothappam in his childwood
suddenly talk high funda stuff and use terms like ‘Startups’, ‘Bootstrapping’, ‘Venture
Capitalists’, ‘Prototype’, ‘Dry run’, ‘Penny stock’, ‘IPO’ etc., Jokes apart the work culture
is amazing in Tech companies; I took a tour of Google through my friend and it was
amazing to see facilities to take power nap, pool , board games next to your cubicles
etc., On top of providing healthy meals, laundry and fitness facilities company also has
generous paid parental leave and on-site childcare. Best thing I liked was 80% of the
work you do what company requires you to do and remaining 20% you choose what you
do for the company. This is how the creativity is tapped in each individual and would
you believe the median age of Google employee is around 30-32 years!! Most of my
friends who work in Bay Area wake up late and go to office only around 10 or 11am and
they take Brunch straightaway and it is great sight to see folks take their Bicycles for
work and Google infact encourages bike riders by that way it reduces the crazy traffic
and also promotes green revolution. There are big time startups companies in Bay Area
where guys put very long hours sometimes even to the extent of sleeping at office. The
success percentage of startups is around 2% but if you are part of a STARTUP team, that
experience during infant stage can take you places because your whole learning has
been expedited. Innovation, out of the box thinking, likeminded people, venture
capitalists all make Bay Area a paradise for people in IT industry. If a building has 5 floors pretty much any floor you get down from an elevator you will see an IT company with Indian folks. 

Nature & Tourist attractions !!

Bay Area is one place on Earth where you open your bedroom curtains you may get to view the beautiful Mountains. Some of my friends have alarm pretty early in the morning just to shoot the sunrise. People who love trekking, hiking and Biking I don't think you will find a better place than Bay area. Seeing the interest amongst public some Indian restaurants even open for Breakfast on weekends - trekking for 10 miles and having sambar idly is an awesome feel. Golden gate is a must see attraction especially for Indian couples who try to find exact location where Suriya romanced Sameera in Varanam Aayiram through Google coordinates. Fisherman's wharf in San Francisco is a great place to hang out since place is always happening. Napa valley is another attraction that will please tourists and be close to nature. If you can watch couple of Balu mahendra movies then you do have patience and that makes you eligible to visit Yosemite national park and enjoy Nature; Half moon Bay, Santa Cruz Boardwalk, Gorgeous 17 mile drive are all so beautiful and you realize only when your memory card runs out of space. Apart from this taking a tour of Googleplex, visit to Lombard street, visit to Standford university, Intel museum, Facebook HQ and visit to Tesla Motors can just create great memories. 

Travel & Bay Area:

When you live in Bay Area it makes travel look very easy (road trips in particular); Southwest has a flight between Bay Area and Los Angeles on Friday evening and trust me CEO of Southwest airlines may seriously consider changing its name to Desi airlines ....you will find all the spouses working in Bay area travel to LA for weekend and vice versa. Not just that Bay Area is located in such a way where it is mandate to take parents from India to Las Vegas and Arizona which makes it a triangular trip. The long road trips would mean that you catch up on the old stories with your parents on what happened to coconut tree of your Indian neighbor. Also to make things politically correct the same trip has to be repeated for your wife's side too thereby making you a seasoned tourist guide in Las vegas and Arizona. Lake Tahoe can be a day trip too from Bay area and a lovely place for tons of activities. You can even drive to places like Los angeles from Bay area through Highway 1 and am sure that drive will top all of your drives in your entire life. Crater lake is another tourist attraction you can drive from Bay Area and if you have enough Raja sir songs then I don't think you will mind the drive. 

Above three can be applicable to anyone and following three are my personal preferences

Temples & Bay Area:

Obviously I visit temples wherever I go and Bay Area is no exception. Right from early days I used to visit Vidhya Ganapati temple in San Jose. In the year 2009 I called my friend whether we can visit this temple, he said yes but then he got some work and we couldn't go on that day and both of us went next day. It so happened the day we went was Thai poosam and both of us were asked to carry Kavadi inside the temple ...its just a coincidence that our names happen to be Saravana and Karthik and guess what both of us got married within the next few months. I just love this temple and there is great positive vibration and it is always nice when you can do abhishekham to lingam through your own hands. Concord Murugan Temple is very famous for its padhayatra during Thai pusam and once such year I happened to be local and decided to participate in the yatra temple organized. It was so very well organized and such a great experience that my spirits were high all throughout the day. After coming home I couldn't sleep because of the excess caffeine I took on that day and decided to write a blog on my Padhayatra experience and named it "Thai Poosam - Amazing experience" and blog became viral and I started to take blogging seriously. Shirdi Sai Darbar in Sunyvale is another temple that I used to go every Thursday when I was in Bay Area and the disciplined crowd and bhajans were something I enjoyed. 

Food & Bay Area:

I haven't been to Malaysia but for me best malaysian food is served in Banana leaf,Milpitas. I have tried lot of items offered in their Menu and thoroughly enjoyed their food. When Anjappar opened its first branch in 2008 a bunch of us were invited to test the food and provide feedback. This was like giving money to eat sugarcane case !! I provided mine and guess what owner called us second time to again test the dishes after taking the suggestions into account. Since then this Anjappar next to one of Cisco's building has been a constant one in my list of places to eat. Now coming to a road called 'El Camino Real' ..Omg ...if you visit this road you wouldn't know whether you are in Biz bazaar street or California ....Madisar mamis, Panchakacham mamas talking about their lazy Daughter in laws, Balram Naidu and Reddy garu talking about their hardworking Son in law so on and so forth. I got to a point where I knew what menu items were available in Madras Cafe; Komala vilas a typical brahmin type of lunch served as per schedule (each day they have a fixed menu like Monday - Potato poriyal, Tuesday - XXX) is another restaurant I enjoy. Aapa Kadai is one restaurant served in two places on the same road - one in Sunyvale and another in Santa Clara - since I visit both the places often I knew how sweet is the milk served for Aapam in both the places. Since I take United nonstop flight from DC to SFO I don't get to enjoy my breakfast so my Lunch on Monday's is usually at Ananda Bhavan and I take the 10.5$ lunch which is ideal to eat at the same time work post lunch versus the grand lunch served where we can build paathis and carry irrigation in the plantain leaves. Likewise there is Indian pastry shop, places where you have have Indian sweets, sugarcane juices, Indian chat shop etc., If you visit Nameste Plazas in Bay area you will realize how men take care of kids at the same time how good in buying groceries. Swathi Tiffin is one place where I used to hangout often since it was very close to the Applied. The 1$ masala tea is a great one to quickly refresh yourselves and food is good over there and televisions screening Telugu programs in non stop manner just shows USA stands for United states of Andhra pradesh. There is Saravana Bhavan, Sangeethas, Pesarattu (andhra meals) and Madurai idli kadai all of which I visit often especially Madurai Idli Kadai since it was geographically closer to where I worked. I promise idlies are softer than cotton buds and literally melt in your mouth. Actually some of these restaurants I developed a rapport with the management/staff in such a way that I was wondering whether I should send them friend requests. 

Movies, Entertainment and Bay Area

Since Bay area has got a sizeable Indian population we have celebrities who come directly to Bay Area for the weekend, do a show and leave back to India right away. Pretty much every weekend you will have some concerts, music shows, stage drahmas, stand up comedies happening and will never make you miss Home. There is one theatre called Towne 3 cinemas closer to the SAP convention center which is truly a fan's corner. All the videos which people see before Thalaivar movie - fun and euphoria which fans rejoice are from this theatre. Theatre gives full freedom to fans to celebrate the occasion before movie release of superstars like Thalaivar, Mahesh Babu, Chiranjeevi, Pawan Kalyan, Allu Arjun etc., Cutting cakes, throwing paper, music, cutouts, posters, train rally all can be witnessed in this theatre. Though Theatre may look ancient and outdated for current times it is camaraderie between fans and theatre management makes this a great choice for movie buffs to come. Probably this is one theatre where I must have watched maximum number of movies in USA. I still remember seeing movies like Vellai illa Patathari  with a crazy crowd .....On one instance when I went for watching Kaaki sattai a friend of mine came with his expecting wife and asked him when is the baby due? He said it is pretty much time and she may go to labor anytime ..I wondered they may even go from Cinema theatre to Operation theatre. 

  On the east coast of US I have tons of friends and great memories and on west side basically the Bay Area I just love the place by itself. By writing this blog I was able to reminiscence some of my experience with Bay Area. 

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