Welcome to jasmine's corner

Currently living/working in Seattle. I'm working for Aerojet in Redmond WA.

I've recently returned from a ~10 month travel adventure to Nepal and India. My family migrated from India to the US in 1991. I finally managed to get back to India last year for the first time since 1991!

During my travels I enjoyed trekking in Nepal, visiting historic Sikh Gurudwaras with my folks, doing some solo traveling in South India, plus a few months of volunteer work. It was a great experience!

• Trip photos - more to come ..
  
• My travel blog

pictures

• Cascades Trip (Sept 07)
• Mexico Volcanoes Trip Photos (Christmas 07)
• hiking
• misc pix

Ethical down sleeping bags

I've been looking for a warm sleeping bag and jacket for winter activities, but have been shying away from down due to the unethical way in which it may or may not be obtained - most companies do not tell you (of course) where the products come from - which is also true for non-animal products - but that's a whole other story.

I came across a company in the UK called Tundra (the Brits are definitely at the forefront of providing choices to consumers who care about how their $$ is spent!). They offer products that are not just manufactured ethically but are also very good quality with attention to detail. TUNDRA

In a nutshell, the ethics extend to animal welfare + employee welfare:

1. Tundra sleeping bag employees in Poland enjoy the same standards as EU workers.
2. Not only are the animals not part of the meat industry (with questionable practices), since they're not killed but the down is also harvested by just collecting the feathers that naturally moult - so the animals live their natural life and are kept humanely - it's a symbiotic relationship.

One of the benefits in addition to providing a choice for consumers is that the down comes from more mature birds and this is better quality down. The claim is that the warmth to weight ratio is better and the bags pack tighter. Here are some reviews.

Also, the bags have a few neat features - one is that the area around the feet is rated to 5deg warmer than the bag rating; really good for people like me. The second feature, this one I like - the bags are tested at the University of Leeds (I believe) to certify the stated ratings.

Now if they only made a bag in my size .. and also made down jackets ..

Being Cyrus

I just saw a very interesting flick: Being Cyrus. The film had interesting characters, Dimple Kapadia's character and acting was fabulous - all the other actors and characters were great as well. Most of the characters are not really likeable - the main character, played by Saif Ali Khan does evoke sympathy and you like him despite his somewhat negative role. The story telling was great, with interesting twists and turns right till the very end when everything comes together. There is some forshadowing so you're sort of expecting something more but you don't really know what it is you're expecting.

I would probably put it in the same genre as Memento - even though the movies are completely different. The subject matter is dark, and the lives of the characters evoke sympathy more than anything else, but there's humor in it. Saif Ali Khan was great in the lead role. The film was also made in english and the dialog and acting was very natural and very good - I would definitely recommend this movie!

.. pics + fanaa review

I finally managed to put some pictures online:

• rose ledge climbing
• dad's boston visit
• acadia NP trip on memorial day weekend
• some misc pix

I live a block from somerville theater which shows 'Bombay Cinema' - bollywood movies. On Friday, I checked out fanaa - in sufism this essentially means to annihilate onself - destruction is another word that comes to mind. It was an interesting movie, I did infact enjoy it despite the goofy hollywood type stunts -- those were lame. The premise of the movie was ok too, nothing too special - a love story with a twist. Though I could've done without the terrorism angle - getting a little tired of terrorism movies, especially those that try and provide some discussion of current political events and end up sounding flat - in this case, relating to kashmir.

The reason I did like the movie was because the dialog and the movie itself was well made. Amir Khan and Kajol are fabulous actors and it was a delight to see them in this movie - both their characters were well developed and the emotions were so beautifully captured and filled with nuance. It was (somewhat) of a mature love story. Amir Khan really seems to keep getting better with each movie - his character was powerful and beautifully acted in this movie.

The underlying theme of the movie was: ".. the choice between right or wrong is simple, but our lives, our paths, are defined by the choices we make between the greater of two goods or the lesser of two evils." I liked this thought, though I don't think the movie presented this idea succinctly .. they could've just played with this instead of the additional terrorism story.