A trip to see the "Oracle of Omaha"

Link to pictures: A trip to Omaha

It still feels like a dream with me sitting in the front seat of a cream-colored Cadillac, with none other than Mr. Warren Buffett driving the car! I still have a hard time believing that this actually happened - I got this wonderful opportunity on the 11th of March, 2011. Every year, Mr. Buffett invites various top MBA schools from the US to visit him, generally 20 students per school. This year, I got selected from my school to visit Mr. Buffett. The "Oracle of Omaha" is one of the most humble people I have ever met - very humorous and energetic.

Thursday, March 10, 2011 - Arriving the day before the big day, we stayed at Hilton Garden Inn in downtown, Omaha. Omaha as such is not a very big city. There was hardly anything to see except the beautiful Qwest Center - not even people or vehicles were easily visible;-) The localities were quite excited as Lady Gaga, Janet Jackson and some other singers were to perform in the Qwest Center that month. I found the food in Omaha very delicious and differently prepared - It just tasted better. Unlike Californians, people were driving very cautiously and with discipline.

In the afternoon, we went to "Girls Inc.", a voluntary organization run by Warren's daughter.We played with the girls there and kept them engaged with our planned activities - Marshmallow Challenge and basketball/soccer/jumping rope. We got to see a whole together different perspective of life playing with these low-income families' kids. Most of these kindergarten and first grade girls were very smart. Hope they get the opportunity to do something in life! Some of them did not want to work in a team and some of them were quite bossy. Some of them started crying because they did not win the game and some were crying because they were unable to perform well in the game.

Friday, March 11, 2011 - It was a cold, sunny morning. We woke up with the sad news of earthquake/Tsunami in Japan. We had breakfast at hotel and went to our first stop - the Nebraska Furniture Market, owned by Warren Buffett. It was a huge market which had a huge furniture selection and a gigantic electronic store. Warren wasn’t there himself but the store manager told us the history of the store, that it was opened by his grandmother. The furniture market had at least 160 sample recliners on floor - I know this because all the 160+ people present there found a recliner to sit on when the manager was talking about the store.

Our next stop was Berkshire Hathaway. We (the Sacramento Working Professionals group) drove there on our rental car. We were seated in the chairs, waiting excitedly for Mr. Buffett to arrive. He arrived at the scheduled time of 10:30am. It was a wonderful moment for everyone, seeing him from a few feet distance. Mr. Buffett acted as the moderator for the Q&A session. Each school got a chance to ask 2-3 questions. Some of the briefings can be found at: UCD Blog by Richard Chen, a student from UC Davis who was with us on the trip.

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- Leverage: Dangerous. Berkshire doesn't have to depend on others for financing.
- Question about what to do with your career: Answer: Do what you would do if you were retired. Buffett says that he loves what he does and he makes money at it.
- He told the story about what a person, who has yet to be born, on how they would shape the world. But the catch is that the person doesn't know what they will be born as: gender, what country, healthy or retarded. How would you shape the world's resources and society? How can you shape it to be fair for all?
- Joke: Buffett walked to the back row to hear a soft-spoken student ask a question. With this, Buffett tells a joke. Buffett is concerned that his friend, Charlie Munger, who he has never had a disagreement with, is losing his hearing. A doctor advises that he asks Munger a question from across the room in a normal voice and see if he responds. The next day, Buffett is in a room with Charlie Munger and from across the room, asks: "Charlie, I think we should buy Microsoft at $26, what do you think?" Munger doesn't respond. Buffett goes halfway across the room and asks the question again. Munger doesn't respond. Finally, Buffett goes up close to Munger's desk and asks him the same question. Munger replies, "For the THIRD TIME, I said YES." (Joke explanation: Buffett is the one who has a hearing problem)
- On Charity: Buffett says that normal people who give to charity are more generous than billionaires who give billions to charity. Why? Because when billionaires give money, they are not giving up anything. By giving away a billion dollars, is the billionaire going to sacrifice seeing a movie, expensive dinner, vacation, or anything else in their daily lives? Not really. But for a normal person, giving $100 to a charity, might affect if they go on vacation this year or affect their choice of meals later.
- Buffett on small town development. Basically, it's up to the person growing up in the town to give back to the town and develop it. But in most cases, really smart people tend to leave their small towns behind.
- Buffett drank one regular red can of Coke - He said he has a big share in Coke. So, basically he gets profit for every can we drink. He said he loves when people have coke!
- More on charity: Buffett remarks that he has paper stock of Berkshire Hathaway in a vault 2 miles from the building. He says that those pieces of paper can get him a huge pyramid tomb that will put the Egyptian pyramids to shame. I say that he should do that. That would be awesome.
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At the end of the Q&A session, he said 4 people would ride with him in his car: 1 girl each from UC Davis and UC Berkeley and 1 boy each from Montana State and Maryland University. Thanks to my school for selecting me for this life time opportunity. It was a great moment sitting in the front seat with Mr. Buffett driving. In the car, he asked each of us about where we see ourselves in 10-years from now. On the way, he showed us the insurance company that he owns and told us that it is now $80 million or something.

Then I asked him a personal question, " What is the secret of your healthy living?" He said, "Happiness. I never take stress in life. I am always surrounded with happy people. I can never get irritated and have never in my life yelled at anyone. I have a really bad diet and I do not exercise but I keep myself surrounded by happiness all the time." It was a short 10-minute ride. Mr. Buffett (now 80 years) had good driving skills (or maybe I never noticed his driving mistakes as I was too engrossed listening to him and admiring him).

We reached his favorite restaurant: Piccolo’s Steakhouse where he treated all the students to lunch. It was good lunch, even though I could not enjoy it as it was the time when I was getting hit with flu. I had a terrible flu after my trip which took me almost 3 weeks to recover. We then had a photo session with Mr. Buffett in the restaurant. He was very energetic while taking pictures. Each one of us had an individual picture taken with him along with a group picture. We gifted him a Giants jersey with his name printed on it (since he is a huge baseball fan and we wanted to gift him something to signify California). Our photo session was the last time we saw Mr. Buffett in real.

Our last stop was Borsheim's Mall which he owns. It had a huge jewelry section which was realllyyyy expensive. Even though there was a special discount for us for purchasing anything, but it was still far from our reach! We left for the airport after this. Ahh, not to forget, on the way we thought why not check out Mr. Buffett's house! We found his address on internet. Omaha, being a small city, places weren’t too far away. We drove past his house and clicked some pictures. His house was in a beautiful, affluent-looking area in Omaha.

Mr. Buffett invited us to attend his annual Shareholder meeting in Qwest Center in April, 2011. Not that I am going but getting to attend his shareholder meeting is a privilege as buying his Berkshire Hathaway stock is far, far from my reach.

Link to pictures: A trip to Omaha

Our "Salute" to the Legend

Isn't it amazing that we can read about what was going on in the mind of someone more than 70years ago? Someone who might be an inspiration for many of us, someone who fought for his country and sacrificed his life for his fellow people, someone to whom we Indians owe our lives - Yes, I am talking about Shaheed Bhagat Singh here. Bhagat Singh (September 27, 1907 – March 23, 1931) was one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian independence movement. He is often referred to as Shaheed Bhagat Singh (the word shaheed means "martyr").
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagat_Singh)

Bhagat Singh was a revolutionary ahead of his times. By "Revolution", he meant that the present order of things, which is based on manifest injustice, must change. Bhagat Singh studied the European revolutionary movement and was greatly attracted towards socialism. He realized that the overthrow of British rule should be accompanied by the socialist reconstruction of Indian society and for this political power must be seized by the workers.

His translated and some original writings can be read at:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/bhagat-singh/
http://www.shahidbhagatsingh.org/

Bhagat Singh was hanged when he was only 24 years old, along with two other great revolutionaries, Sukhdev and Rajguru on March 23, 1931.
Bhagat Singh will always be respected and will always live in our hearts for what he did for us at such a young age. Our salute to him!

Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna Ab Hamare Dil Mein
Dekhna Hai Zor Kitna Baazue Qaatil Mein Hai
[The desire for sacrifice is now in our hearts
We shall now see what strength there is in the boughs of the enemy.]

The hidden poet

Here are some poems by Shavi (from his bachelor days).
http://poetry.com/dotnet/P5205524/Shavinder/Singh/PoetProfile.aspx

Guess he needs to bring out the "married poet" inside him :)

Is it laziness or just getting old?

This is the first long weekend that I do not want to go anywhere - just want to sit at home and relax.
Maybe life has become so hectic because of the school that I am yearning to sleep till late some day. I always thought that working hard and sleeping less would make you stronger but perhaps it was wrong. You do not realize that until you have all sorts of shoulder, back and head aches which do not go away easily. Not to forget the ulcers in intestine which I developed due to stress as per the dear Doctors! Well, you cannot make the days longer than 24 hours, you can just cut short your sleep - I thought the same way but it does not work for long! Just learned a lesson that it is really important to sleep for at least 7 hours. Heard on TV last night - sleeping for less than 6 hours is equivalent to having 0.5 percent blood alcohol level!!
Remember, sleep is important if you love your life!

The 3rd 19th of March together!

It sure has been a long while before I last blogged. Thanks to my last MBA quarter at school - I took 3 courses instead of the recommended 2. It was tough but I enjoyed it. With Shavi's help and his efforts, I could make it well. Not to mention, I again take 3 courses this quarter. I dont like working much in kitchen these-days and love it when Shavi does all that for me. You guessed it - that's my reason behind taking 3 courses again ;-), inspite that it gets really hectic for me; and we (Shavi and I) are left with hardly any time together!
Yesterday was fun - it was my last exam, Anu came over from DC for our anniversary which is today. Got the most wonderful gift from Anu - she painted a big card for us which is so worth getting framed and bought a self made delicious cake all the way from DC. She herself came over - it was the best gift from her. Been 3 years now and I dont even remember how it was like being alone and neither does Anu. Isnt it Anu? Thanks to Shavi for all the love he has given us. Well, dont want to make it more cheesy, but that is what it is:)

Looking forward to our trip to one of my favorite places - Monterey/17 mile drive tomorrow to celebrate our anniversary. It was Mendocino on our 1st anniversary, Vegas on our 2nd one and this is the 3rd one - Monterey.

Tickets to India from USA

Couldn't believe the price we got this time for our tickets to India. Even 4 months before our date of flying, the tickets were exorbitantly priced. Most travel agents said that there was no availability and we tried all the routes we could and all the travel agents we could!! Out of so many airlines flying to India, we finally got British Airways and that too when we are flying on dates no one prefers to...lol. Even then, we paid almost twice the price of tickets we could have got had we been flexible on our dates. We could have got them for less had it been some better dates. Dec 2nd week to Jan 1st week is fully packed for travel. So - take care when you travel in those days. Either book it 6-7 months in advance or be flex on dates.

I have some travel agents to recommend - few of them recommended by a friends:
0. GLOBAL TRAVEL AGENCY: Naren: 510-441-7479 (Ref: Saurabh Batra)- I will take this one back. He said twice he is working on my quotes but did not get back.
1. World Wide Travels: Surender - 800 343 0038 ext 111, 202 659 6430 ext 111 (East Coast) - helped us very well this time
2. Angad Travels: (800)-430-0396 - DC - Gets you a good price for tickets but you have to run after this guy. This time he had no availability for us though.
3. East West Travel, Inc: 202-833-6068
4. International Travel Center: 877 766 7786, 562 860 2559 - They were nice and polite to talk to and gave us some good quotes (when most of the others said that there was no availability for our dates).
5. Trip Explorer: 1 866 trip exp (874 7397) - Not bad
6. Legend Travels: 510-797-9010 - Got us good tickets last time but this time they had nothing available. We had to call them a lot but still it was worth it - last year.
7. Alex (Travel agent in Chicago) – 773-465-1619 - Recommended by Kalpana's friends.
8. Omega Travels in Dallas - 972-518-1268 - Recommended by Kalpana's friends.
9. http://www.alanitatravel.com/ - 617.923.4810 - Recommended by Kalpana's friends.
9. Universal Travel (Sacramento) - 4400 47th Ave, Sacramento, CA 95824 - (916) 429-2711 (Bobby at Universal was quick and gave me rates that were much lower than what I found on Expedia or Bing. Easy to work with)

I tried calling like 50+ travel agents and these were the only ones who atleast bothered to give quotes. Others would not even answer back even if we called them like 10 times!

Hell and Heaven!

Been a while since I posted the last blog. Reason: my school. Shavi and I hardly find any leisure time in weekdays - My MBA and Shavi's office responsibility after his promotion to CTO/VP of the company, along with our Gym has made our lives hectic but nevertheless we are enjoying this phase of life:)

I still try to find some time to read books/novels. The other day I was reading this book: 'Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia' by 'Elizabeth Gilbert', gifted by a friend of mine. Thanks to her - It's a nice read which teaches you the importance of meditation and love for a peaceful life, through the true life-story of the author.

In this story, one of the Guru's of the author in Indonesia talks about Hell and Heaven. I liked his funda - the way he talks about it touches your heart. I will not be able to put it here as amazingly as in the book but here it is in my words:

He says that Hell and Heaven both are good places - where there is all fun and laughter and good, happy things. But then why do we say that Hell is a bad place - for bad people? That is because the path leading to it is bad. The final destinations are both good. So, it is upto you if you want to make the path good or bad - path means ur present life which is in your hands. Finally everyone has to die but how you die - the impact you leave behind makes the people behind you decide if you went to heaven or to hell.
In other words, probably the Guru meant that worry about doing good and living a happy and peaceful current life rather than worrying about the final destination which you dont even know what it is going to be!:)

Woman leader - who leads US or India?

Is that what we get to hear often - Women in India is not treated with that respect as in US?
Then howcome, US never had a woman President till date and India had a woman Prime Minister long back (Indira Gandhi) and the current President is a woman (Pratibha Patil). And now when there is a woman who is getting to stand for the vice-Presidentship in US (by whatever reason), then she is being stereo-typed as 'Hockey Mom' etc? Is that what it is?
Somethings you can never understand. For sure, countries like India do not have much security/freedom for a girl and the western society has much more, but then who will answer this question that why till date when a woman is trying to be a leader in USA - she is already being stereotyped without people judging her. And when Hiliary was standing for the elections - she was stereotyped as a special case - 'Wife of a x-President'. Not that I am taking their side - I do not even know what they actually are (due to my lack of interest), but just got this thought in my mind - where is the woman leading today - in a country like India or in a western/modernized/developed country like USA?

Love breads? Then this one is for you!

Ever tried sprouted grain breads? They are awesum health wise as well as taste wise...Here are more reasons for you to try them:

Sprouting breaks down the starch, protein and fat molecules found in the grain which means that you end up with a pre-digested food, a much healthier one.

Also, sprouting increases the nutritional value of the food, proteins, vitamin and enzyme content gets higher while at the same time this process lowers the carbohydrate content, and the calories of the same.

Basically, Sprouted grains are easier to digested and are rich in so many vitamins and minerals.

Sprouted grains are digested more slowly by your body and as you know foods that are digested that way help you to keep your blood sugar levels stable, which has a positive effect on your weight and energy levels.

If you eat bread, give this type a try and look for organic. I have a recommendation for this: Try the Eziekel Bread (spl the Raisin Bread) at Traders Joe. Yes, it's a bit more money but far more healthy from the normal breads plus this Eziekel bread does not contain corn syrup - one of the reasons why this bread goes bad in 5-6 days. It is organic and has no chemicals. Try it and love it!

Weight day again!

I now feel like pasting our Before-After pics here..lol. We completed almost 3 months of our healthy eating and exercise on this last weekend and the results were amazing. I lost 25 lbs and Shav lost almost 30 lbs! Anyone who sees him can easily figure that out:-) Our diet sheet which helps us count what we eat seems to be a real blessing for weight loss plus we do not feel energy-deficient 'coz we are eating everything healthy we should. Another amazing thing that exercises led to was a drop in my my cholestrol without my conscious efforts. My LDL dropped by almost 50 and so did my overall cholestrol. My cholestrol some months back was just near the border line and it significantly improved now. I assume this was due to my exercise and brisk-walk routine.

It is not that there havent been moments when we did not feel like working out or having something good (rather bad) to eat. In such cases, it was always the other one motivating the other for workout or we trying out better activities like hiking, playing tennis etc. Another thing to mention here is that we havent stopped going out to eat - eating pizza, pies, pancakes and everything we craved for - but only in control and mostly early dinners. The word: 'control' is the key here. You got it!:)