Having a round of Neighborhood.
Front yard, 205 Sherwood Ct
In the Stoneridge Mall, Pleasanton
Duck Park, Blackhawk, Danville.
Favorite Indoor Water Falls in the Mall.
Relaxing in Blackhawk Lobby
Friday, July 19, 2013
Livermore Vineyards and Neighborhood
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Birth Of A Relationship
Birth of a Relationship
Visit to Reno/Tahoe with Vinod Kohli
Visit to Reno/Tahoe with Vinod Kohli
Vinod's Dad late Mr Mohan Lal Kohli was a neighbor to my Nani Ji Mrs Kesar Bai's house in Jangpura Extension, a rehabilitation Colony established by Government Of India to settle refugees from West Pakistan in the aftermath of 1947 Partition. This gave birth to many brand new relationships to overcome the trauma of murderous riots in the annals of Modern history. A close to one Million lives were lost and about 12 Millions were uprooted. One of the new relations that developed was between Mr Mohan Lal Kohli and Mrs Kesar Bai. Mr Kohli quickly adopted my Nani Ji as his mother.
On every morning, Mr and Mrs Pushpa Kohli will go to nearby Gurdwara along with new found mother. On every Tuesday afternoon, Mrs Kohli will take my Nani Ji to near by Hanuman temple in D Block. The relationship developed into a strong association between the two and led to close bonding relation between off shoots of of both persons.
Mr Mohan Lal Kohli respected my Nani Ji like his own mother and affectionately addressed her as Bebe Ji. Very soon nothing in his house would move without the blessings of Bebe Ji, come weddings, parties, Kirtan or any other ceremonies. Bebe Ji would keep a strict motherly watch on Mr Mohan Lal Kohli (now Mama Ji for all of us) family. While her command was authoritative and used to habitually rule roast, but her love and affection for his adopted son and his family was selfless and overwhelming.
I joined Nani Ji after moving from Panipat on getting a Central Government Job and hence came close to Kohli family.
Mama Ji had a flourishing Motor Parts business jointly with his younger brother Mr Rattan Lal Kohli. The two older sons Joginder Pal and Vijay joined him in the family business of Motor Parts at Kashmere Gate, the youngest Vinod got into a highly established professional job. Vinod was very studious and always found with books in his hands and studying ferociously. I recall him involved in deep studies adopting the landing of the open cemented stairs of their ground floor house as his desk. He got admission into IIT Delhi and so was destined to succeed in life. Three daughters Kamla, Late Bimla and Sunita were married off to affluent families. The brothers Joginder Pal, Vijay and Vinod continue to live amicably and in wonderful harmony at the same place after redeveloping the property and occupying an independent floor each. The souls of Kohli Mama Ji and his beloved wife Pushpa still live here.
So suddenly after 40 years, I happen to meet Vinod again at a common friends house and re-established our links. Vinod and me started a joint business and hence the relation with Kohlis was extended.
Vinod is visiting USA presently, he has two very bright sons. Older Aman is with an Investment Bank and married to Mitali with a lovely grandson Arham and is settled in Pittsburgh PA. Younger one Ashish a Software Engineer, married to Shilpy, is also in the process of settling in USA. It was at Ashish wedding last Dec that I was able to reunite with Kohli Mama Ji family.
Vinod came all the way from East to spend a few days with us in San-Francisco Bay Area.
Visit To Reno, Nevada known as "The Biggest Little City in the World", Reno is situated just east of the Sierra Nevada on the western edge of the Great Basin at an elevation of about 4,400 feet.
Winning a Soft Toy tiger for his grandson Arham.
Enjoying a show
In front of the Signature Advertisement by city of Renu.
Vinod trying his hands at the Slot Machine in the Casino.
A ring show by an artist in Circus Circus
Vinod and me trying aggressively to win a gift. While both Harvinder and Vinod won, I came out blank.
In front of the Entrance lobby.
On way to Reno driving on the wide tracks of road.
Another view of famous hoarding "the Biggest Little City In The World"
Visit to Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe is a large freshwater lake in the Siera Nevada of the United States. At a surface elevation of 6,225 ft, it is located along the border between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America. Its depth is 1,645 ft, making it the second-deepest in the United States (the deepest is Crater Lake in Oregon, being 300 ft (91 m) deeper, at 1,945 ft. It is about 22 miles long and 12 miles wide and has 72 miles of shoreline and a surface area of 191 square miles.
It is said that the lake was formed about 2 million years ago and is a part of the Lake Tahoe Basin with the modern lake being shaped during the ice ages.
Lake Tahoe is home to a number of ski resorts, summer outdoor recreation events and tourists attractions. Snow and skiing are a significant part of the area's economy and reputation. Mountain and lake scenery are attractions throughout the year. Lake Tahoe never freezes.
It is best known for the clarity of its water and the panorama of surrounding mountains on all sides. Lake Tahoe is world famous for Ski resorts, water sports and golf courses. Celebrity Golfs Games are very common.
July 4th fire works are another big attractions and tourists throng to visit Lake Tahoe at this time of the year to escape from heat in the low lying towns around.
Vinod was simply nostalgic on seeing the vast and wide view of the clear waters of the lake.
On the beach, Lake Tahoe
Another view of beautiful Lake Tahoe showing multi colors.
Harvinder and Me
With the statue of an Indian
In Eldorado Hotel Lobby
Sep1, 2013
There is one more milestone in our relationship. Vinod has very successfully managed to open a world class office of our Jointly owned company named QGS Infotech Pvt Ltd complete with a beautiful Front desk space, Individual cabins, a Conference room, Private offices for Directors, Pantry and a huge resting place with nicely laid out bed with closets. This has all been conceived, designed and implemented by acquiring the professional services including that of Guneet who did an awesome job as the pictures and reports are to be believed. The basement Floor at A-21 Jangpura Ext has been fittingly utilized for this purpose.
After Kirtan and Ardaas, Vinod being given a Saropa by the Bhai Sahib from Jangpura Gurdwara Sahib. Mr and Mrs Joginder Pal Ji and Ajit Singh Ji are seen gracing the occasion with their presence.
Fortunately the opening of the office coincided with 'Guru Gadi Divas' when the first ever Prakash of Sri Guru Granth Shib took place in Golden temple Amritsar. A very auspicious occasion indeed. On my behalf my sister Tripat Chhabra, Harry & Harleen Chhabra participated and enjoyed. Harry, my favorite nephew, as usual did lot of spade work to make it a successful function and accepted the Saropa on my behalf.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Halloween 2013
A union officer and a vampire. Happy Halloween 2013 everyone! ! 
Gobind, the Union Officer participating in the Parade.
Gobind, the Union Officer participating in the Parade.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Our Agricultural Lands
My visit to Badbar was significant and a landmark in the timeline of my life. This was the first time ever, after the allotment of lands in lieu of our family lands in Muzaffargarh and Multan now in Pakistan, that we requested the Revenue officers to measure and remark the parcel of land belonging to us. My late father Mr Vasdev Singh handed over the charge of maintaining this estate to me in 1985, as he had gone too old to stand harsh conditions any more. Till then we had never got this drill of actual measurement done.
Every time when I visit my lands annually, the persons simply tell me that your land has been encroached upon by the neighbors. So I have to be present at the site after the Wheat harvesting when the lands are vacant and remain so for two-three months before the rice crop transplanting begins in the Rainy season. The window between May to July is very hot sultry and above all unbearable particularly when you are visiting from Western countries. With the result, I continued to be short paid.
A Satellite view from Google Earth of the Parcel of Maru land which is adjoined with that of Village of Harigarh who often tills my lands as contractor too. Incidentally both of my parcels are bordering with neighboring villages. My dad told me as his name started with an 'V' alphabet, and hence his turn came in the fag end of allotting the lands.
A scanned copy of the Fard of Maru Lands in the name of Harvinder Kaur inherited through my mother Mrs Savitri Devi
A scanned copy of the Fard of Nehri lands in the names of Preet Mohan Singh inherited through my Dad Sardar Vasdev Singh and my grand father Mr Bhagwan Dass S/O Mr Mr Bhupat Rai
A scanned copy of the Fard of Maru Lands in the names of Preet Mohan Singh inherited through my Dad Sardar Vasdev Singh and my grand father Mr Bhagwan Dass.
A Scanned copy of a rare Fard in the names of Preet Mohan Singh inherited through my Dad Sardar Vasdev Singh and my grand father Mr Bhagwan Dass S/O Mr Bhupat Rai ( Birth around 1850) is mentioned in 1992-93 Revenue records in hand written Gurmakhi script. The mention of my Great Grand Father.s name Mr Bhupat Rai is significant Government document, showing the linage of my family tree since last 150 years.
It is very interesting to note that the Revenue records are almost available for 150 years.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Driverless Cars will reshape the Towns
I have been excited by this futuristic article, I am sure my grand kids both Gobind and Jania will be able to have a taste of them. I also hope that third world countries in South Asia having congested streets in their old towns will be benefitted the most and grab this opportunity.
SAN FRANCISCO — By now, seeing one of Google’s experimental, driverless cars zipping down Silicon Valley’s Highway 101, or parking itself on a San Francisco street, is not all that unusual. Indeed, as automakers like Audi, Toyota and Mercedes-Benz make plans for self-driving vehicles, it is only a matter of time before such cars become a big part of the great American traffic jam.
While driverless cars might still seem like science fiction outside the Valley, the people working and thinking about these technologies are starting to ask what these autos could mean for the city of the future. The short answer is “a lot.”
Imagine a city where you don’t drive in loops looking for a parking spot because your car drops you off and scoots off to some location to wait, sort of like taxi holding pens at airports. Or maybe it is picked up by a robotic minder and carted off with other vehicles, like a row of shopping carts.
A test of Google’s self-driving car.
Inner-city parking lots could become parks. Traffic lights could be less common because hidden sensors in cars and streets coordinate traffic. And, yes, parking tickets could become a rarity since cars would be smart enough to know where they are not supposed to be.
As scientists and car companies forge ahead — many expect self-driving cars to become commonplace in the next decade — researchers, city planners and engineers are contemplating how city spaces could change if our cars start doing the driving for us. There are risks, of course: People might be more open to a longer daily commute, leading to even more urban sprawl.
That city of the future could have narrower streets because parking spots would no longer be necessary. And the air would be cleaner because people would drive less. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 30 percent of driving in business districts is spent in a hunt for a parking spot, and the agency estimates that almost one billion miles of driving is wasted that way every year.
“What automation is going to allow is repurposing, both of spaces in cities, and of the car itself,” said Ryan Calo, an assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Law, who specializes in robotics and drones.
Harvard University researchers note that as much as one-third of the land in some cities is devoted to parking spots. Some city planners expect that the cost of homes will fall as more space will become available in cities. If parking on city streets is reduced and other vehicles on roadways become smaller, homes and offices will take up that space. Today’s big-box stores and shopping malls require immense areas for parking, but without those needs, they could move further into cities.
The Autonomous Intersection Management project, created by the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin, imagines cities where traffic lights no longer exist but sensors direct the flow of traffic. Although a video showing off the automated traffic intersection looks like total chaos, the researchers insist that such intersections will reduce congestion and fuel costs and can allow cars to drive through cities without stopping.
Of course, getting to a utopian city will take a little longer than circling the block looking for a spot. A spokesman for Audi said a fully automated car would not be available until the end of the decade. And the regulatory issues to be addressed before much of this could come true are, to put it mildly, forbidding.
But the pieces are starting to fall into place, at least enough to excite future-minded thinkers. Last year, Jerry Brown, the governor of California, signed legislation paving the way for driverless cars in California, making it the third state to explicitly allow the cars on the road. And federal agencies are starting to consider their impact. In May the Transportation Department made its first formal policy statement on autonomous vehicles, encouraging cities to allow testing of driverless cars.
But to some, this promise — or overpromise as the case may be — sounds familiar.
“The future city is not going to be a congestion-free environment. That same prediction was made that cars would free cities from the congestion of horses on the street,” said Bryant Walker Smith, a fellow at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School and a member of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford. “You have to build the sewer system to accommodate the breaks during the Super Bowl; it won’t be as pretty as we’re envisioning.”
Mr. Smith has an alternative vision of the impact of automated cars, which he believes are inevitable. Never mind that nice city center. He says that driverless cars will allow people to live farther from their offices and that the car could become an extension of home.
“I could sleep in my driverless car, or have an exercise bike in the back of the car to work out on the way to work,” he said. “My time spent in my car will essentially be very different.”
“Driverless cars won’t appear in a vacuum,” Mr. Smith said. Other predictions for the future city imagine fewer traditional-looking cars. Taking their place will be drones and robots that deliver goods.
Oh, and that food-delivery car double-parked outside? That, Mr. Calo said, will be replaced by a delivery drone.
E-mail: bilton@nytimes.com
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
SAN FRANCISCO — By now, seeing one of Google’s experimental, driverless cars zipping down Silicon Valley’s Highway 101, or parking itself on a San Francisco street, is not all that unusual. Indeed, as automakers like Audi, Toyota and Mercedes-Benz make plans for self-driving vehicles, it is only a matter of time before such cars become a big part of the great American traffic jam.
While driverless cars might still seem like science fiction outside the Valley, the people working and thinking about these technologies are starting to ask what these autos could mean for the city of the future. The short answer is “a lot.”
Imagine a city where you don’t drive in loops looking for a parking spot because your car drops you off and scoots off to some location to wait, sort of like taxi holding pens at airports. Or maybe it is picked up by a robotic minder and carted off with other vehicles, like a row of shopping carts.
A test of Google’s self-driving car.
Inner-city parking lots could become parks. Traffic lights could be less common because hidden sensors in cars and streets coordinate traffic. And, yes, parking tickets could become a rarity since cars would be smart enough to know where they are not supposed to be.
As scientists and car companies forge ahead — many expect self-driving cars to become commonplace in the next decade — researchers, city planners and engineers are contemplating how city spaces could change if our cars start doing the driving for us. There are risks, of course: People might be more open to a longer daily commute, leading to even more urban sprawl.
That city of the future could have narrower streets because parking spots would no longer be necessary. And the air would be cleaner because people would drive less. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 30 percent of driving in business districts is spent in a hunt for a parking spot, and the agency estimates that almost one billion miles of driving is wasted that way every year.
“What automation is going to allow is repurposing, both of spaces in cities, and of the car itself,” said Ryan Calo, an assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Law, who specializes in robotics and drones.
Harvard University researchers note that as much as one-third of the land in some cities is devoted to parking spots. Some city planners expect that the cost of homes will fall as more space will become available in cities. If parking on city streets is reduced and other vehicles on roadways become smaller, homes and offices will take up that space. Today’s big-box stores and shopping malls require immense areas for parking, but without those needs, they could move further into cities.
The Autonomous Intersection Management project, created by the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin, imagines cities where traffic lights no longer exist but sensors direct the flow of traffic. Although a video showing off the automated traffic intersection looks like total chaos, the researchers insist that such intersections will reduce congestion and fuel costs and can allow cars to drive through cities without stopping.
Of course, getting to a utopian city will take a little longer than circling the block looking for a spot. A spokesman for Audi said a fully automated car would not be available until the end of the decade. And the regulatory issues to be addressed before much of this could come true are, to put it mildly, forbidding.
But the pieces are starting to fall into place, at least enough to excite future-minded thinkers. Last year, Jerry Brown, the governor of California, signed legislation paving the way for driverless cars in California, making it the third state to explicitly allow the cars on the road. And federal agencies are starting to consider their impact. In May the Transportation Department made its first formal policy statement on autonomous vehicles, encouraging cities to allow testing of driverless cars.
But to some, this promise — or overpromise as the case may be — sounds familiar.
“The future city is not going to be a congestion-free environment. That same prediction was made that cars would free cities from the congestion of horses on the street,” said Bryant Walker Smith, a fellow at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School and a member of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford. “You have to build the sewer system to accommodate the breaks during the Super Bowl; it won’t be as pretty as we’re envisioning.”
Mr. Smith has an alternative vision of the impact of automated cars, which he believes are inevitable. Never mind that nice city center. He says that driverless cars will allow people to live farther from their offices and that the car could become an extension of home.
“I could sleep in my driverless car, or have an exercise bike in the back of the car to work out on the way to work,” he said. “My time spent in my car will essentially be very different.”
“Driverless cars won’t appear in a vacuum,” Mr. Smith said. Other predictions for the future city imagine fewer traditional-looking cars. Taking their place will be drones and robots that deliver goods.
Oh, and that food-delivery car double-parked outside? That, Mr. Calo said, will be replaced by a delivery drone.
E-mail: bilton@nytimes.com
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Sherwood Ct, Danville,United States
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Happy 4th July, Statue Of Liberty Reopens
A family poses for a picture in front of the Statue of Liberty on the first day it is open to the public after Hurricane Sandy on July 4, 2013 on the Liberty Island in New York City.
The Statue of Liberty finally reopened on the Fourth of July months after Superstorm Sandy swamped its little island in New York Harbor as Americans across the country marked the holiday with fireworks and barbecues.
A large crowd gathered for the holiday and ribbon-cutting ceremony at Liberty Island with federal officials and New York's mayor. Lines stretched blocks long for the boat, which left from Battery Park in Manhattan starting at 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
Rodney and Judy Long, of Charlotte, N.C., were the first people in line for the boat called Lady Liberty. They couldn't get tickets to climb up to the top of the statue, but they were just glad to be there for the big reopening, they said.
People lined up on Thursday morning.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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