When in rome...

The flight from Geneva to Rome was pretty uneventful. I think we fought about something..I fail to remember what it was about. Must have been quite irrelevant. :)

When we landed at the airport, I almost felt like I had left Europe and reached Mumbai. The weather was hot, the airport was more like airports in India, no fancy stuff. The orderly fashion in which people stand at airports in US was missing. It was a mad frenzy to get the bags of the belt into the carts and whiz past the others like you were the first to arrive.
Again, we just vaguely knew where the hotel was. You would think that by this time, we would have learnt a lesson. But nope. We were in for the adventure. :)

We had actually booked a car in Italy as well since we were getting a real cheap deal. But everyone had warned us about driving in Italy and no one had warned us about Geneva. So, we decided to do a "no-show" at the car rental. Fortunately, there was no credit card needed to book the car. When we came out, we were hit by the warm weather and sheer number of people...I almost thought that someone was going to say "chalo chalo sawari baith lo...gaadi paanch minute mein nikalegi". There were several buses waiting and for about 13 euros they take you to the city center. It was past 8 and we were worried about how we were going to get to the hotel. We knew it was very close to the train station, but did not where. The bus journey took us to places and streets that were slowly getting deserted. After we reached the train station, it was completely deserted with just one newspaper stand open. We didnot want to start walking in any direction since all the streets looked similar. Again, we did not know where to find the street names. To top it all, we had no maps.

We asked the newspaper guy and he did not know the hotel, but knew the street. He pointed us in the direction and we started to walk. On the way, there were a few stores open which looked like the typical grocery stores back in India. There were a few internet places open, but the place looked quite shady and we were too worried to get in. Finally, we found our hotel which was on the second floor of one of the buildings. It was a pretty old hotel but functional. We went down to get dinner. For about 10 euros, we got pizza, salad, panini, soda.

This was the only place which did not have an A/C. I guess booking online sometimes has its drawbacks....

Zurich and back..

We left Interlaken quite late in the day and then drove to Zurich. Again, we did not know where the hotel was, so we had to do the difficult task of looking it up in the map. We were hoping that it would be better than Geneva. When we reached the city, before we knew it, we were drawn into another maze of streets; only this time they were called Strasse. The German influence on this side of Switzerland is undeniable. However, at that moment, again, we had to look for the hotel. Fortunately, for some blessed reason, we found ourself going around the railway station. We had a book of maps, which was very hard to read. We found a parking spot, and then went inside the railway station. We purchased a map and tried to pore over it to locate the hotel. Just as we were about to give up, we found a huge map on the wall with the names of the hotels and leds. We had to press the name of the hotel and the led started blinking. Miracle!!

Fortunately, this time, we drove around for about 30 minutes and then found the hotel. Again we set out to look for dinner. By this time, we were quite bored with all the baguettes, quiches, paninis. We called a few Indian restaurants (there are quite a few in Zurich) but they were pretty pricey. 40 CHF per person was not justified. So again we went to the railway station and found a Chinese restaurant which had a cafeteria kind of a feel. We ordered some thai curry and rice and then again, after getting lost a few times, went back to the hotel.

The next day, we decided to start early as we wanted to reach Geneva by 5 pm to catch a flight to Rome. On the way back, Neeraj's cough and cold was pretty bad and so we decided to not make too many detours. We went to the UNO building, but there was a line to get in and Neeraj was simply not upto it. So we drove to the airport and Neeraj read his book while I walked around for sometime drooling at the beautiful watches.

By then, we had were feeling a guilty about how much we were spending and so we both resisted :). Finally after immigrating, we sat in the departure lounge where mind you, people can smoke inside the terminal. Sad :(

Exhausted, but in love with Switzerland, we headed to our next destination, Rome.

I believe I can fly....

After a breakfast of fabulous coffee and all kinds of bread and cereal, we asked Chris about paragliding. He told us how he did it once and was so hooked that he went and bought the whole gear. He said he did it for quite sometime, until one of his friend had a terrible accident and was in rehab was over a month.

Not very encouraging, since I am quite scared of hurting myself. But since Neeraj really wanted to do this for a long time, I decided to go along...They are all experienced people, Chris reminded. He also booked the tour for us. Neeraj and I decided that since both of us had spent plenty of time in snowy regions when we were studying, we would spend the money that people spent to go to Shilthorn etc, and spend it on paragliding.

The ride cost was 150 CHF including a hotel pickup. There was another Indian family with a 10 year old girl who were also going to paraglide with us. Once at the main office, they explained the rules and safety precautions. Also packed the backpacks video camera's in a trunk. They would also take pictures once in air for 20 CHF extra. What the heck? You do it only once, so we went with it. Neeraj carried our Sony elph with which you could take a short clip of about 5 mins. They then piled all of us including the pilots in one van and we set out. After introductions, they told us to pick the pilots. Pick someone your size :) Yeah right :) We drove up the moutain for about 20 minutes and then walked to a cliff, though not that steep. The pilots immediately set to work. They unrolled the gliders and set them on the ground. I was with a quiet but tall guy called Patrick. Once every chose the pilots, they handed all the gear. We had to wear windbreakers, a jacket which had a seat at the back. Then the pilot hooked the parachute and himself onto the jacket and explained that during the take off, keep on running for as long as you can. Avoid the temptation to sit!!

Patrick and I were third to take off. Since Patrick was so much taller than I, my legs were lifted within a few feet and even before I knew it, we were in air. Just like that. There were lush green mountains, the ice-capped peaks, the two lakes, the city....it was just so amazing. Patrick took several pictures. The only sad part was that on a warm and clear day, there is not much breeze and you don't stay in air too long. So the whole journey lasted about 10 minutes. As we got closer to land, Patrick explained what to do when we land. Again, keep on walking..don't sit or else I will fall on you, he reminded.

The landing was smooth and it almost seemed like it was all a dream. Neeraj's pilot did a few antics like the spirals and circled a tall hotel building, but since I was terrified initially, Patrick was very cautious. I was almost jealous of Neeraj for being able to do that. After the pilots all packed the gear, we walked back to the main office which was right by the meadow we landed on.

After that, we had a choice to be dropped to the hotel, but we did not want to go back. We went to this restaurant which had the menu written outside in hindi. I almost thought like I was back in India. There were busloads of Indians everywhere. Later we found out that Interlaken is a favorite place for Indian tourists.

I tried the German sausage and Neeraj had some Thai curry like dish. It was alright, but at that time, even a feast would have made no difference. We were too excited. :))

Later in the evening we drove up the mountains and just drove and drove for a couple of hours. For dinner, finally, we tried the famous Cheese fondue. Unless you like cheese and really love alcohol, I would pass this one. It had a fairly large percentage of alcohol. We were not impressed at all.

The next morning, we were to start to drive to Zurich. We had heard that Zurich was not a very fun place, so we decided to spend the morning and a good part of the afternoon in the moutains, stopping to have coffee or munch on something. We took the gondola up to one of the carless villages up in the mountain. The gondola ride was like the cable car ride in lake Tahoe, but you can never stop being amazed by so much beauty and peace. We found the best pasta in the whole trip in one of the villages. After we came down, with a really heavy heart, we said goodbye to beautiful Interlaken and its beautiful people....

Up in the alps...

Interlaken is an extremely charming little town with very friendly people. Chris and Ursula recommended that we go take the cable-car or cog-rail or drive up to atleast one of the peaks. Hurry! she reminded. But first lunch..We found a mall with a food court with fairly good and cheap food. I hada quiche (again) and coffee.. Gotta love the milk coffee there..It was about 3:45 by the time we were done with lunch and the last cog-rail one up was at 5. So we hufffed and we puffed and ran (in the beautiful meadows) of Interlaken...:)

The journey up the cog-rail was unbelievable, it took about 10 minutes to go up. It was a little like the cable car ride at Heavenly in Lake Tahoe. Except that I was not that scared. :) Once we reached up, the view was simply amazing. You can actually see why that place is called Interlaken. Its in between two lakes. The calm green of the lakes, the whiteness of the Alps. One can't simply help but relax.

We spent about half an hour up there and then took the last rail down. The interesting part is that there is another car which goes in the opposite direction. By this time however, Neeraj cough had turned pretty bad. We went to a local pharmacy and got some aspirin. Note to ourselves to always have basic medicines.

For dinner, we just got some cup noodles, Ursula graciously provided some hot water, forks. Neeraj was sick but still thinking about paragliding.

Interlaken..

We started early in the morning to pick up the rental car, again..:) this time we got a modest peugot 206 (something like that) and it was such a relief to drive that car. We started off well on time and soon hit the highway towards Zurich. Interlaken is about halfway and the whole drive can be completed in about 2 and half hours. We immediately fell in love with the countryside although we have heard so much about it. After some time, Neeraj, who had a bad cold and cough by then, needed a cup of coffee. We pulled over at a gas station and found a place called "stop and go". This has usually has very clean restrooms, grocery store and a cafeteria-like place where you can get several things like bread, quiche, pizza, soups and of course, coffee!!

We skeptically ordered the veggie soup only to be pleasantly surprised since it tasted more like the gravy of veg-korma :)That with garlic bread was just divine!! Also, this place had free internet, where you could send emails. To read them, you needed to insert coins. For a couple of CHF, you got 15 minutes. We determined that even if we stopped at every place we liked, we would still make it by lunch time! Then we fought!! :D for reasons undisclosed :)

Even when you are really upset, Switzerland entralls you with its beauty and peace. And friendly people. One thing to be aware of though, is that there is plenty of road construction all over the highways, you have to be really careful when driving on a single lane road.

The approach road to Interlaken is simply breathtaking, although I must add, having seen the Colorado rockies and Poudre Canyon, it can seem alike, if not that gigantic. The hotel we were staying in again was a B&B owned by the friendliest people we met in our entire trip(Chris and Ursula). It was called Rugen Park and was a little on the outskirts of Interlaken. On the outside it looks like any other building, but once you step in, you are greeted by a huge but harmless dog and Chris/Ursula with a warm concoction while you complete the formalities. Chris even offered to help us carry our stuff up. This time, we had a shared bathroom and W/C. It was fine, since we were the only ones on that floor at that time.

Ursula offered tips on what to do while we were in Interlaken. Ursula is a native of the region and Chris is an American. And then Neeraj set his eye on the advertisement for Paragliding....

Shopping in Geneva..

After spending the day in Geneva City, we were going to rent the car back the next day and drive to Interlaken to spend three days and two nights in the mountains. After having spent two years in beautiful Colorado literally steps away from the Front Range and Rockies, we were aware of how easily the weather can change. Because of the luggage restrictions on the airlines, we had very limited clothes and definitely no sweaters and warm clothes..Another reason to shop !! :)

Looking at all the smartly dressed women in Geneva, I wanted to see what the stores had to offer! We found a Bata shop (which had more than just shoes, jackets, purses...:)), a C&A and another store called EPH. Having heard so much about C&A from my mom, I wanted to check it out. The store was cheaper than the average Macy's and JC Pennys. But as much as I love to shop, I am a very finicky shopper and can take forever to shop. We walked into EPH and found that the store had a major closing down sale..upto 70% off. We did not really want to buy any warm clothes and found just the right pair of gloves for me. Also, they had a decent grocery section. One thing I must mention is that two things are strangely expensive, water and tomato ketchup. Mac D's etc charge .50 CHF for ketchup which was so weird. We found a bottle of hunts ketchup for 1 CHF and 2 liter bottles very cheap. We also found a whole lot of swiss chocolates.

At the last moment Neeraj bought a sweater and thats when they announced that the store was closing. We were on the mens section and walked over to the cashier to pay. She almost yelled at us, saying that we could not pay for my gloves on that floor. D-UH? So Neeraj rushed down to pay while I paid for the sweater. In that rush, Neeraj took all the swiss currency with him and I had to pay in Euros!!

After reaching the hotel, we found out that the water was sparkling water (with gas as its locally known). We were stuck with 4 liters on gas water to take to Interlaken. By then Neeraj had a fairly bad cold and cough. We were grateful for the Ricola and cup-o-noodles. The sweater Neeraj bought was one size small. :) So much for warm clothes...

Geneva..the "timebound" city

After we checked into the hotel, we slept for the next three hours exhausted from the whole driving experience. was a B&B called "hotel Cental" aptly named for its location. It was located on the main street in Geneva on the sixth floor of a building that had offices as well as shops. Although they had an option of using a shared bathroom, we paid a little more and got our own bathroom. It was a tiny room with a tiny TV and a table on the side. The weird part was the room door opened into the bathroom which then opened into the room. However, at that time, we were too tired to care.

After we got up, we set out to get food since we were famished. Neeraj loves Italian food (anything with cheese and I dislike it). So the dreaded moment had arrived. We were surrounded with italian restaurants, sandwich shops and all sorts of shops. We walked around for a reasonably priced restaurant and it seemed like all the restaurants were quite expensive. Finally, we found a Chinese restaurant which looked like the spring roll-fried rice-kung pow chicken places. The owner ushered us in and immediately we saw dozens of people smoking. Politely we asked to sit outside. We ordered tom yum soup, chicken sweet and sour and rice. The food was alright and once our stomachs were full, we broached upon the delicate topic of the car.

It was costing us about 171 CHF per day to keep the car. Since street parking in not allowed for more than an hour, we had to leave it in the public parking which was another 24 CHF a day. We called the car rental company and told them we wanted to return the car and then rent another car (smaller) the day after. Thankfully, they agreed to do it. However, we would not get the internet deal, and the smaller car would cost almost the same as the bigger car. But it was smaller and we did not have to worry about it for a day!!

We grabbed a quick sandwich at Mac Ds , carefully read the map and at about 9 in the night returned the car at the airport and sat in the public bus which brought is back to the hotel in about 10 minutes and 6 CHF :)) The next day, breakfast was served in room which was coffee, orange juice and two kinds of bread, butter and marmalade. We set out to see the wonders of this city...

We spend considerable time at the Geneva Jet d'eau (Jet of water). Once we reached it, thats where it hits you that this is the city of Time. There are hoardings for almost all the watch companies all over. By noon, we were quite bored of the jet and were heading back to the hotel when we saw the tourism offices on one of the bridges. Grabbed a free booklet and map and found a list of top ten things to see. Turns out that the undergroung parking was right by the famous Flower Clock. Just that we were too hassled to notice. Also a couple of statues that were listed in it were right by the jet and we had seen those. That left us with six things to see. The lady in the office said they were about 5 minutes walking distance behind hotel Central. :) We again patted our backs for the wise decision of returning the car.

It so happens that all the places we saw the previous day, were these places. Just that we did not know. :) We walked up the hill-like roads which were cobbled which lead to a cathedral. Below the cathedral was a real archeological site which we paid 8 CHF to see. But they let us take as many pictures as we wanted. It was so spooky to know that there was an entire catheral and parts of the city under the existing cathedral. Definitely a must see. We spent plenty of time there, peeped into the cathedral for a few minutes. It was quite spendid and first of many in our trip. The walk around the cathedral was oh-so European!! I have falled in love with the cobbled streets. There is an administration building which was quite artistic, the place where there were some cannons. There was a garden where there were chess game boards marked on the ground and almost life-size pawns. People were actually lifting them and walking to change places. Very funky!!

Also, Smart Cars all over the place...They grow on you!! :) I hope they decide to launch 'em in India. Had dinner in one of the open air restaurants in the middle of the streets. Had pizza, finally!! :) Just a little one too many sparrows...I think I amused everyone by ducking everytime a sparrow flew my way...The street side musicians playing accordians and singing typical European music was so enchanting..I can still close my eyes and hear them play music..

We managed to see about 9 of the 10 of the items. This changed our opinion about the city. It is a city with character and history..just that it is hidden under a "chronological" life...

Driving in Geneva...

After we took off from Amsterdam, Neeraj and I were very excited about having rented a car in Switzerland. Also, since we booked it online, we were able to rent a Mercedes or similar and we were extremly eager to see what car we got. Obviously we did not get the Mercedes :) however, the "or similar" was a Renault Scenic. We were paying considerably more than we anticipated because of the insurance coverage but driving in new country, you are better off with the full insurance. If we paid 20 CHF more each day, we would have been able to get an automatic instead of a stick-shift. But I am not fond of driving and I like to navigate...(or so I thought)

Here is snippet of conversation shortly after we left the car-rental office.

K: I hope this car is worth the money we have paid.
N: Don't worry..Enjoy!
In the car:
N: Cool, there is no key, just press this card in and press the start button.
K: Hey we don't know the way to the hotel
N: I am sure we will find it.

Few minutes later
K: I am lost
N: Wow..this car is soo nice...No wonder we are paying so much.
K: I need some help with this map, it's all Rue d' and Rue de la...
N: I thought you learnt French
K: Ha Ha..you have not seen my marksheet
N: Here is how you read this map. Read the name of the street from the list behind, then locate the Y co-ordinate on the grid in the map, then fold the map so that the X marking show up and then locate the street...simple!!
K: HUH??

A few minutes later..
K: Careful, we could easily miss an exit and go to France. We do not want to do that..my visa is valid of 15 days only!!!
N: Don't worry..we are doing fine..see the sign to Geneva city?
K: yeah!! :) You are so good with directions

I sit back and relax..the map shows a long way to the city center
K: Careful!! Don't you think this car is a little big for these streets..
N: Hmm..No, its fun to drive a powerful car...its new!!
K: It almost seems like a city in India..but cleaner..wonder where we are...WATCH OUT FOR THAT bike....the traffic is also a bit like India
N: hmm..why don't you locate us in the map?
K: I think its a long way..whats the name of the street we are on?
N: I thought you knew where we were..
K: Relax..I am sure we are on the right road..I just need to find the street name, locate it on the map
N: Okay, hey this car has some anti-lock gear first gear shut down (this is where I tuned out:))

A few seconds later, Ketaki visibly panicked..
K: What is the name of the street...why does it say Geneva city 3 km? how could it be possible? What is the scale of this map? Where is the name of the street? I don't like this at all.
N: Relax! But where the heck are the street names?
K: Whats that little thing on the side of the buildings with small letters?..Rue de...Oh No..Those are the street names??
N: Are you serious? Do you know where we are on the map? I wonder if that sign means we are supposed to stop? or maybe slow down?
K:We should have never rented this car. We should have never rented a car..I can't find a single street on the map. By the time I find one, we have gone past it long back. The scale of this map is not like what I thought. I don't want to navigate
N:You are not helping by panicking. Why don't you focus on the map?
K:But I can't!! You think its easy? We should have printed directions before we attempted to do this. Are we on this side of the river? I don't think we crossed any bridge?
N:No we didnot. Do we need to?
K: I don't know. Stop this car. I can't do this. This car is too big
N: Okay, it is, I am doing fine..Okay?..So where do we want to be?
K: (Sulking) The other side of the river.
N: As far as I know, there is not river in Geneva..
K: But I see it on the map!!!!
N: Ok ok..Here goes the bridge..Do you see a name?
K: Okay...now I know where we are..now we need to turn right..then left...(looking up) Now where are we?
N: I thought you knew where we were..Should I keep on going straight?
K: Yes...should buy us some time..why are we going up these cobbled streets? Do you think we are allowed to go here?
N: Well, I can't stop in the middle of the street. Anyways, looks like the rules are not as strict as US. People seem to drive as they please.
K: Hey, I think I know where we are..turn around now..
N: I can't ..the streets are so narrow...I think the car is a little too big...

A few minutes later, Neeraj pulled over and read and explained the map to me.
K: Okay...however, I think we made a big mistake.
N:Lets first get to the hotel.
K: I think we are lost again, how did we cross the river? I mean the lake?
N: Okay, I need to find a way to turn..I wonder if its our right of way? I guess it is (zooming and going to the other side). Wonder how many laws we have broken?
K: Not funny...lets try and get to the other side...
N: Okay, I am trying to...
K: We are going towards the airport again..
N: I am trying to turn...Okay, here we go...
K: by the way, we are driving on the tram path..I don't see any more cars ..Are we allowed to do so?
N: At this moment, I don't care, lets get to the other side of the lake first..
K: Finally, I know where we are..
N: Have I heard that before or what?
K: Okay I am lost
N: I think I have heard that before as well!!
K: Turn left ..turn left...don't cross the river again...
N: I have to ..I am in the turn-only lane..
K: I don't think it matters here.
N: Okay..here is the main street..The hotel should be on one of the cross-streets.
K: (sinking feeling) I think we just went past it.
N: Okay, then I know how to get there.

Finally, this continued for another half an hour, and we found 'Rue du Constantipole" and the hotel. Neeraj waits in what seems like a no-parking zone, while I run up to the reception. The girl there tells me that we cannot park on the street below, but need to park in the public parking, below the lake...She hands me a paper.."follow these directions, and you cannot get lost". Yeah right..It been two and half hours since we set out.

K: Okay, we need to park under the lake..
N: What?
K: Just listen to my directions..we can't get lost
N: Okay...here we go..
K: Hey we were not supposed to cross the river!!!
N: You did not tell me that...

After about half a dozen wrong turns, we finally found the public parking, gladly got out of the car, and walked towards the hotel thinking...Maybe the car is too big....

Amsterdam part 2

The twilight tour was in a small low boat with glass windows and dinner table. The one we took was a candlelight tour with drinks only. The boat with the twilight, with the tiny red candles was quite romantic. There were about 8 other people in the boat. The served free nuts and we just bought some pepsi. The tour guide was multi-lungual speaking in english and french. They took us around 6 of the 100 canals. Extremely cute. Showed us the twin sisters and twin brothers( two similar buildings in front of each other). People in Amsterdam in the olden days, paid their taxes proportional to the width of their house. So people built their houses slender and tall.

Also the buildings because of all the water, move and shift little bit. Sometimes even gaps of aout 6 inches between two buildings. They showed us the unassuming Presidents house, Anne Frank's museum( from outside), the point where we can see seven bridges in a row all light up, and the infamous "red light area". I was not prepared to see two girls in the show window gesturing to people. I instictively turned the handycam off, much to Neeraj's amusement. :)

The tour took about 90 minutes and by the time, the main city center was very quiet. The next day we went to Kukenhof Garden. It takes about 60-75 minutes by rail and bus to get there. We were armed with 1 handy cam and two digital cameras. Nothing could have prepared us for the sight. Although it was then end of the season, the various colors, shapes, sizes, textures drove us mad..We went clicking like crazy. The handy cam battery died within 2 minutes and after that was just a bag to carry.

A lot of the flowers had been plucked or were being plucked. It gave us an idea of what we missed :) There was also and Orchid and Lily competition which made up for the tulips slightly. We ate something like a burger called croquettes (shaped like the cutlet in Deccan Queen). We were really sad to leave, it helped a little to know that anyways after two days, all this would be gone.

Since we had a light lunch, we decided to have a proper dinner. Desi was out, we had just left US. :) Neeraj wannted to try Indonesian food (Indonesia was ruled by the Dutch and there is a lot of influence in Indonesia). We found this place that seemed reasonable. We did not realize that the fact that people can smoke in restaurants in Europe can be such a nightmare. Women seemed to smoke more than the men. To top it all, I had my own bottle of water, the guy in the restaurant pointed out that "its not considered good to get your own water". Not like US!! :)

The food must have been good, but the smoke was so terrible, that we almost wanted to walk out. The one hour that we sat there, I almost felt like the smoke chopped off a day from my life...WHY?????

Neeraj started feeling pretty sick after that and that continued well into Switzerland. However, at that time, our clothes were stinking pretty bad. The next day we asked about a cab to the airport and we were told to take the tram and train which works out cheaper and faster. Who would have thought the tram would breakdown bring all the trams to a standstill!!! It was quite a sight...We got off and walked the way to the station..
All in all, we loved Amsterdam and enjoyed the people, the food and the sights there...

Out of US..into Europe..

The flight to London was quite uneventful, except the fact that Neeraj and I had to sit apart. Aparently, everybody books seats online..we were left with none. :( Fortunately, it was only a 6 and half hours flight and I had some work to do :)

After landing into London, the immigration was quite smooth, we were going there just to drop all our stuff. No point in lugging around 4 suitcases 25 Kgs each everywhere. Moreover, the luggage restrictions are stricter withing Europe. Way too strict!!

We had booked most of the Europe trip on easyjet or Ryan Air. We were pleasantly surprised that EasyJet allows no restrictions on hand luggage. (Within reasonable limits :)). These flights are cheap and are very basic, make Southwest airlines look like a luxory! The other thing is that there is no food served on these flights ..not even soda and pretzels. Well in an hours flight, it does not really matter. Also these flights usually do not use the main airports, but the ones that are out of the town or not so well connected. Luton is one such airport. Neeraj's bro-in-law had to drop us off at 5 am and it was almost an hours drive. The taxing in Luton takes so long, that you almost feel like this plane will just drive its way to amsterdam :)

When we were close to landing in amsterdam, we could see a few fields that looked red, but having been told that the tulip season was almost over, we were skeptical. After reaching amsteram, we realized that the entire printout of the iternerary was missing. Neeraj forgot it at the check-in counter in Luton. Then began the mad rush to find an internet cafe only to be old that there are none and we had to go to the city. It was about 8 in the morning and we immigrated, bought tickets for KuKenhof gardens and then bought the rail tickets to go to the City. It took about 20 minutes and was quite crowded with British teenagers. I simply could not understand their accent. !!

The train stops at the centraal station which is in the heart of the city. It was crowded with commuters, except that they were on bicycles. :)
It was still too early and after getting the information for the nearest internet cafe, we set out to drag our bags on the oh-so-European cobbled streets. We needed that to get directions to the hotel although we vaguely knew where we wanted to go.

After walking about 20 minutes, we finally gave up and asked a local. He asked us to get on a tram and we did. You can purchase a one-time ticket, though we purchased a day-pass. These need to be validated, that is the date and time is stamped. After a few minutes, we did not know how long to wait and asked the train-conductor. He told us that we had passed Ramada long back.
We immediately stepped out. The other problem is that not all the stops were marked on the free map we got. There was no way to know how far we went. Once we got off, we walked over to the other side to go back. A desi, mostly software, guy smiled at us and asked us if we were staying in Ramada. Out of the blue!! He said he was living there was two years and it was about 20 steps away from where we were...thank God for small mercies.

The hotel is in a residential area, away from the city center, however neat and clean. The rooms are small but functional.
We crashed and went off to sleep and woke up only at 3 pm. Then we set out to look for lunch. We took the tram back and found a money changer to change the travellers checks that we got from Neeraj's sis. Its a good idea to get these from US, since 50 Euros = 45 Euros. You lose some in conversion (not exactly conversion)

We found a place which looked like mediteranian food and went in. I ordered Falafel and neeraj ordered something like a satay. Mine was sufficient with one sandwich and one round of salad. You have to buy water and a small bottle cost 2 Euros. We decided to keep this bottle for the rest of the trip and stepped out.

The city was still not very bustling. Night-life in amsterdam is famous (or notorious ;)). We booked a twilight tour in the canals and walked along the canals waiting for the tour to start...

Chi-town

The landing in Chicago is pretty dramatic. Midway is not the main airport and it shows. The runway is so close to a freeway that you almost feel like you are going to scrape the cars on the road. I have seen plenty of places where the road is close to the runway, however this was the worst.

The flight itself was uneventful, or so I think. I feel asleep even before the engines started to hum and woke up right before we landed. I can easily fall asleep..anywhere..anyhow. As I child I hated to sleep. However, a night full of physical work for enough to knock the lights out.

After we got all our luggage (all 8 bags of different sizes, weights, volumes), we got our rented car (a nissan Sentra), stuffed the back seat with the luggage and headed to the hotel.

The hotel we had booked was very close to the main airport, O'Hare. It was a good 30 minutes drive. Again, after making several trips to take the bags up, we headed out to find dinner. Elk Grove is a really small suburb and the only place that looked decent and was open was an Italian restaurant called 'Avanti'. It had several pictures of movie stars, sports people etc. Had Gnocci which is a pasta made out of potato and Neeraj had a sandwich. Both were good, except that the sauce was very sour. I am not really fond of tangy stuff and I am extremely worried about finding food in Italy.

Anyways, came back to the hotel and slept for the next 11 hours. We meant to wake up at 7 am, we did, only that the alarm went off at 7am PST :). We missed the free hotel breakfast, so had to go to Dunkin Donuts to get coffee and a bagel. On a side note, I think California misses a lot by not having Dunkin.

This Dunkin, like our hotel and many other places around here, is owned by desis. Apparently a lot of the places are. The drive into Chicago downtown is just like any other, except that even on thursday at 11 am, there was traffic. Parking that was safe and cheap was hard to find and eventually, we parked close to Sears tower. We immediately went up the tower. It was an amazingly clear day. You are on the 100th floor of this 1700 feet tall gigantic building. You can see the flat terrain as far as the eye can travel. The Michigan lake is a sea. There, I have said it. After years of teasing friends who called it a sea, I agree it is a sea.

After we got down, I shocked Neeraj by suggesting pizza for lunch. Found a place called Giordino's which had a long wait for the single person serving of stuffed pizza. I am not a pizza lover, hence I won't do justice to the pizza by commenting on it.

Then we walked around millenium park, the diamond cut building. The strange thing in Chi-town is that security guards and cops go around on Segways. Pretty cool. We rested our feet at Navy Pier which was quite quiet as it was a weekday. We sat there, watched the sun set and then treaded back to the car park. Here is when it got a little scary as it was getting quieter and lonelier. We kept on telling each other that next block we get into a cab. The problem was that we did not remember the exact cross street where we parked. After a few fights, wrong ways, we made it to the car and rushed out of the city. The only place we found open near the hotel was a DQ. Had a really awful sandwich and worse fries.

The next day, I saw one of the worst thunderstorms. Luckily, our flight was one of the few not cancelled or delayed.

Chicago is clean (cleaner than NY), its multi-layer downtown is different and confusing. I think I did not see all the better parts of chicago, so it seemed just like any other big city. The lakeshore drive, the navy pier, the skyline and most of all the weather were what I enjoyed the most.

Ketaki's Guide to moving to India

Hmm..so much has happened. We are on our way back to India for good! It was something Neeraj and I wanted to do since the day we met. We finally got around to it.

We left bay area for good on the 9th may with not a minute to spare. We were packing (mostly Neeraj ;)) for over a week. The last weekend was a crazed rush to get the apartment empty. The ambitious plan was to get it spotless...

We shipped about 150 cubic feet of stuff on Friday. We hugely underestimated the amount of work left after that. We fortunately were able to give away a lot of the stuff. However the time it takes to get the stuff out of the apartment is huge. We ran out of trash bags, plastic bags, brown paper bags, boxes to throw out stuff. We even ran out of space in the trash cans in the apartment. We even used up the two trashbins futher away. We made countless trips to the donation center for almost an hour at 3 am in the morning. Fortunately, the guy who lives below, was not at home.

The best part about doing this at this unearthly hour was that I was able to throw out stuff that I would have to clung to had I been even slightly more awake and in a slightly less in a "don't care" stage.

As luck would have it, early in the morning (or was it late in the night :)), I realized that I was not able to log into my laptop. I drove to work at 5 am in the morning and sorted that out while poor Neeraj was still throwing stuff out. Its just unbelievable how many things can find nooks and corners of the aparment. Almost seemed to defy all laws of physics :) Think about it this way, there is a huge pillow stuffed in a fairly small box. Imagine you pull it out and now try to put it back in...seems impossible..So how in the world did all this stuff fit into our one bedroom apartment?
Bad anology...but I can't think of anything better.
Ah yes, and there was stuff that should have been shipped to India, but was inadvertently left behind. We had to post it to Neeraj's sister in Boston, or leave it behind with friends ...you know who you are...we really appreciate it!! :). Fortunately, another good samaritan came with coffee, bless her...and more trash bags :)

Amongst random things we left behind, theres my car, some clothes, my hair dryer...

Finally, at 11 am in the morning, we handed over the keys and left the place that has been home for almost three years now. We will always cherish the memory of our apartment.
Now we shall live in and out of bags, hotels, homes of relatives for the next one month. We are going to the following places:
1. Chicago (done)
2. Boston (here right now)
3. UK
4. Holland
5. Switzerland
6. Italy
7. France

The next few blogs will be travel blogs. I will write them regularly..post them when I can...

adios ...

Going to NYC..

It is one place I just love. I went there once last year and always wanted to go there again. I just love the hustle-bustle. I think its a place which has vibrance like no other place. Its like the city is alive ..of course, I should I add that I spent all my time in Manhattan. Oh well, I loved it and so going there back again!! :)

Went to the tech museum with the smartest guy on earth..daddy!! :D I think he would have enjoyed going with Neeraj more since they could have had a technical discussion, but he was stuck with me..And I had a wonderful time. We also rode the Segway. It was more fun to see the guy there struggling to discuss it with daddy. One of the things that daddy asked was.."Why Segway?" And its true, after all, what can it do that a bike can't. Apart from all the technical comparison between the true, the one thing he mentioned was "Status symbol". Amazing, aint it?

Also going to Chicago in May. Am going places or what?

Unprofessional...

Why is it that some cultures have more unprofessional people that the others. It is almost sure that when you deal with people from a particular culture or geographic location, they are almost surely a pain to work with.

Its frustrating when people do not want to do their work and come to expect that others will do it for them. This post cannot continue without getting politically incorrect. Hence thats all I have to say..

Travel anxiety....

Is there a word for people who have a phobia of travelling? I have recently discovered that whenever we go somewhere, I get nervous. A little voice in me constantly screams. Its screaming right now..we are off to Lake Tahoe...

British accent..

rocks..listening to Bridget Jones Diary the edge of reason. It is soo funny.

Happy new year...

Wish everyone a happy new year.

Not a very joyous beginning to the new year. The brain numbing events in Asia, the death, the fear, the apprehension. Just last year my dad left Indonesia for good after having lived there for over 8 years. I have spent plenty of summer vacations in Indonesia. Beautiful country with the most amazing people. Its unbelievable that this should happen there. Its like the country just does not get a break :(.

I have been to Chennai as well. My best friend just moved from there to B'lore. Can't imagine the places I have been to and loved are gone. Just not fair....This is not something anyone can be blamed for, makes it harder to vent out..whom do you hold responsible? Population, religion, political beliefs, heard them all..ridiculous explanations. What if ..looms over the mind of ever Californian.

May God give peace to the people whose life, love has been washed away...

Bought my first item on ebay!!

It was more of an adventure than some thing I wanted..but it was fun! ;)

Yes, I am guilty....

I have not read Da Vinci Code and now I am trying to get my hands on a copy. Reason for the inspiration, National treasure. The movie is alright..surely deserves a watch..on the DVD. But after the movie, I heard from a lot of people that the decryption in Da Vinci code is a lot more interesting and challenging..I guess a trip to Borders today evening is a must.

On the other hand, I guess I should get my wiper blades changed ASAP. I drove to work at 6 am (insane I know). It was pitch dark and had rained all night and was still drizzling a bit. As soon as I turned the wiper on, the entire windshield turned into red and yellow lines shining against the dark road. I guess the wiper is not actually removing water, just spreading it and so I could not decipher where the lane markings ended. Very scary indeed.

Borders and AAA, I think triple A is gonna win today..

Trip down memory lane....

Dug through Neeraj's cassette collection, yes my primitive car does not have a CD player, and found a whole bunch of old movies. The reason to do this was that we watched Naach, which reminded me of Rangeela so much. I had "pyaar yeh...jaane kaisa hain" playing in my head over and over and I had to listen to it. I knew Neeraj had it somewhere, so dug through the old bag.

By the time I reached the car, I was curious to find what was in the unmarked coverless cassettes. First one is was some marathi sidey concert. Popped the second one in another sidey marathi album..side flip..very softly..."Lonely is the night, when I am not with you..." turned up the volume in sheer disbelief. That is NOT something Neeraj would have ever listened to. But I did, all of my teen years. "Knife..cuts like a knife" "Everything I do.." "Hello" "Can't stop loving you"...Does not get any mushier..

Neeraj has officially disowned this cassette, it is definitely not mine, it could not have been mine. Because the other side would never have been wiped :)

You can run but you can't hide...

Hehe, tried to run from blogging, but I guess the urge to write brings me back here :). So what have I been doing these past two months? Reading a lot of books. I am a self confessed romantic and a sucker for mushy novels. I guess I will never really grow tired of reading "and they lived happily ever after" kind of books. I love to curl up with a novel, coffee and rajai.

It all started with getting a free rental of "Pride and Prejudice". I remember attempting to read this when I was 7. At that time, just loved to read. All I could lay my hands on was this book. And I also remember how amused mom was. So then I just gave up on that since nothing made sense. The words did, the feelings did not.

So, we got this 2-DVD set from blockbusters. Started watching it at about 10 pm, thinking we would watch it in parts. Was so hooked on it that Neeraj and I watched the entire 5 hour movie in one go. Darcy played by Collin Firth stole my heart. Next few days, Neeraj had to listen to Darcy praise. hehe. Plan to get my hands on "Love Actually" to watch it again.

After that, regular trips to library. Did not enjoy Emma as much. Sense and sensibilty was okay, but nothing beats P&P.

Its shocks me that I had stopped reading completely. I guess as long as I get an occasional love story and an occasional Harry Potter, I am fine!!

I am back....

Just been caught up with a lot of things...Parents-in-law visited for two weeks. Action-packed food-filled days :) Now I am one of the senior people in the team...means lots of responsibility...

Its always fun to have someone you have known as a child tell you how much they like you, your non-stop chatter...

Dad's friend visited us this weekend with this wife and sun and they had such nice things to say about me. It definitely was a feel-good weekend! Made punjabi food and for once we did not make enough to feed entire Santa Clara. We also managed to finish the leftovers! Thats too much by our standards, usually we throw out food, or land up getting nauseated with it.

Went bowling and mostly caught up on sleep...12 hours each day... :D

RDIAENG.
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

forwarded to me by Medha...Awesome isn't it??

Bourne supremacy rocks..

loved the movie....you know what I liked the most, the ease with which he moves around..like I have always said, I would love to travel around the world!! So I was fascinated by that!! I mean not with the whole CIA after me! :)

I enjoyed it.

Shopping for a guy....

can be exhausting!! Went shopping for Neeraj's birthday gift, I know I am late, but can barely get him to go to the mall with me. So finally today I dragged him to the mall, to buy the white shirt he said he wanted. Phew!! A plain, simple white cotton shirt is all we wanted..Not a tall order, was it? Sears, Macy's, GAP. No plain white semi-formal shirts. So like I always complain, they don't make clothes for the real women. All of them are meant for models, or plus size. There were no decent shirts. If we liked the material, it had a big golden sun on the sleeve. Or design on the collar, or simply transparent and thin that will surely get spoilt in the washer. Finally we ate at Panda Express and promised ourselves that we would be back.

Camping was fun...

was tiring and hot. Did not do touristy things like various falls etc. Hung out at the lake on the way back from Glacier point. Guys did some rock climbing.

Back to  work, parents-in-law got their visa and will be visiting next month!

 

Going camping for the weekend....
 
Yosemite, 8 people, one 8 seater van! fun times...
 
more when we are back
 
PS: drove all the way to SF and back. Am I getting better or what?? :D

Mississippi in the middle of a dry spell.
Jimmy Rogers on the Victrola up high.
Mama's dancin' with a baby on her shoulder.
The sun is settin' like molasses in the sky.
The boy could sing, knew how to move, everything.
Always wanting more, he'd leave you longing for.

Black velvet and that little boy's smile.
Black velvet with that slow southern style.
A new religion that'll bring ya to your knees.
Black velvet if you please.

Up in Memphis the music's like a heatwave.
White lightning, bound to drive you wild.
Mama's baby's in the heart of every school girl.
"Love me tender" leaves 'em cryin' in the aisle.
The way he moved, it was a sin, so sweet and true.
Always wanting more, he'd leave you longing for.

Black velvet and that little boy's smile.
Black velvet with that slow southern style.
A new religion that'll bring ya to your knees.
Black velvet if you please.

Every word of every song that he sang was for you.
In a flash he was gone, it happened so soon.
What could you do?

What could be better that this blasting in the car on a friday evening, sun setting behind you, and me singing at full volume? Back to back Black Velvet on two different radio channels!! Aah maybe I might be exaggerating a bit..am so ready for a weekend!! So much a good review can do for a morale boost..

Fun weekend..

SF and pier 39, bbq at Vasona County Park, Santa Cruz and Boardwalk and 4th July Fireworks. Some observations...numerous trips to Lombard Street and I am still terrified every time, especially, if we take Neeraj's stickshift. Though nowadays, we just take mine. No poing getting a high BP every single time. Fisherman's wharf, clam chowder and garlic fries. Yum Yum. And I am always fascinated by the spray painting artists. They are good, although, sometimes they tend to be repeatitive. Shalimaar, always associated with over-eating, no parking spots. Went to "naan & curries" last time and its not half as good. Maybe its more non-veggy and beefy than us brahmins are comfortable with :). Shalimaar suits Indian/maharashtrian palate well. Drive on Golden Gate gives you a rush and a sense of power. I did it last time, although I jumped off the driver's seat as soon as we reached the other end. Marine headlands is not my cup pf tea, yet.

We always want to visit other places in SF like the Museum of Fine Arts, Japan town, China town, Haight and Ashbury, but somehow every single time we do the typical tourist things. I think a few days in the city is what we need!!

Tandoori bbq can stir up quite an interest amongst people around you. "Chicken Teeeka"..um um good! New found love, Fish bbq. Tilapia and Cajun spice.

4th July fireworks, too short :((. Missing Diwali poluted smell, continuous noise and faraal. I have been lucky to visit India once in Diwali and its just something that I miss every single Diwali here in US. Well, not for too long. :)

At Boardwalk, you can't be weak at heart or weak in stomach. Weak in heart is fine, you can just walk around and eat. All the forbidden delicacies find a way into your stomach. The beach, I think I will pass on the tan part, but I always get sun burnt. Red flaming cheeks is what I have right now. Something I never had in India. I guess I am my father's daughter in more ways than one :D Americans dress down at boardwalk, Indians dress up, Saadi, Salwar kameez..the whole nine yards, or maybe six. :).

As it shows, I had a very relaxing weekend...back to the grind..

Carpet clean, kitchen clean and car clean..

yippppeeee. Isn't that great? We haven't put the furniture back yet. This is so clean and nice. Caught Lakshya on the big screen. Was pleasantly suprised. Decent movie, decent pace. Gonna watch Munna bhai again. Loved it the first time I saw it. Nothing more to blog..so toodles!

Its hot in Santa Clara..

so hot that one day home of cleaning can drive you mad!! Since I am in an extra-cool office all day, just don't realize how hot it is. I miss the free utils and A/C in Fort Collins. Were we spoilt or what. We used to leave the A/C on in the morning so we would have the apartment cool when we got back from school. I want an A/C....

How come people with authority think they don't and those who don't have any think they do....

Or maybe thats how I see things, whereas in reality, who seem to have authority don't really have any and simply project they do. Does that make sense? I guess not. Anyways, plans to clean my kitchen, carpet, car, go jogging, cooking...and I know all I am going to do is flop in front of the couch and do nothing. :D

I need the motivation....

Finally issue resolved..

and some sanity is restored here at work :). Had a very high calorie weekend. First made some italian-mexican chicken that I made that was soaking in butter and cheese. Then has a lunch of shrikhan puri and dinner of awesome puranpoli and masale bhaat and batate wade! Why can't I eat and not put on weight??? Its sooo unfair. :)). Anyways, who said life is fair?

So what else, been watching all sorts of silly movies, Aan, Dev. Amazing how reel life is so divorced from real life. If I want to seen unrealistic movies, then might as well go all the way! The ones that claim to be hard-hitting and are ridiculous are the bad ones. Anyways, never ever watched soo many indian movies ever in a week. Time to go to blockbusters or AMC to catch up on foren movies.

What else? No news on the stolen stuff:( Have pretty much washed our hands off it.

Phew..been sooo busy. :( Putting in 12 hours a day at work. with production issues, upset customers. Although i like it when things are lively, this is getting hyper. will post soon..promise

The reason for the previous blog..

was some people who are obnoxious and overbearing. And I find it hard to sometimes say no. Maybe because I don't care about somethings strongly enough to get into an argument and hence I comply to certain things easily. However, sometimes it backfires and then you are in a soup!! :) I try to avoid confrontations unless I am passionate about it. Then run for cover!! ;)

Listening to radio on itunes, and I tuned into some top 40 and everything is new to me, saw an 80's section and tuned into those stations one by one, and heard a familiar song on almost each one of those :D. We used to beg mom to buy blank audio cassettes (90 minutes, 60 minutes were too short). Then we used to get cassettes from Rushi and Radha who always had latest music, and then copy the songs we liked. Then play it over and over again in the car. Wham, Whitney Houston, Phil Collins, Michael Jackson, Madonna..all of them. Atul and I used to tune our radio's into voice of America, he also had a list of radio frequencies and times when there were countdowns. Then we used to exchange notes, record if it was good quality.

I also sent a letter to VOA for a free calender, and I did get it. At that time, however, I lost interest in the calender very quickly and lost it. :). After all, did it matter if it was Chicago downtown or SF? Now with everything available on the net, I guess the novelty of tuning into a radio chanel and listen to the entire countdown to hear the lastest songs is gone. I just look it up on the internet and listen to it. Especially, hindi movies.

Internet did kill the radio star..

Technical support, not my cuppa tea...

how many times have I heard this? How many times have I had to convince people that its a challenging job. It needs an in depth knowledge of many aspects of the term "computer". And it requires the skills to handle people. And yet, time and again, I have heard "Support???!! Call center??" "Is your job related to computers" "You must have forgotten programming by now??..ahem..I do html and jsp as a consultant" WHAT????????

How come everyone who is a developer thinks of themselves as superior? Ooooh, I am a DBA oh a big bank, I did not know that my database is not being backed up, and I don't know how to check if the storage is about to exceed, but YOU do support, hence you are a mere "technician".

"I am the manager and I am certified in all these blah blah blah things, but can you show me how to find the ip address of the machine I am on". "I am this java expert, but somehow I never had to catch an exception, so can your technician show me" "I am not too sure how to use winzip, but I am a leam lead here". There are true sentences I have heard.

I just had a tough day...maybe tomorrow holds a better day....

Back to Alaska and good things...

Looooong days. Restaurants open till midnight. Nice food even in the remotest of places. "Hun ..Sweetie...Dear" in the conversation. People smiling at strangers. Relaxed mood. Pure air....If only the camera did not get stolen.

I have my car back...

aaaah..the bliss. Its amazing how easily you get used to comfort. For almost a year I did not have a car and I was ok. Of course now office has moved much further away. And considering I spent two years in Fort Collins, CO, with no bus. The place I lived had no direct bus route. So I walked, come rain, snow (it always did). I used to thoroughly enjoy it. The tread back from department to home, listening to songs on the cool MP3 played daddy gifted me when I visited Indonesia the first time. That was almost 3 years back.

And look at me, withdrawal symptoms for not having a car for one week...shame on me ;)

I did get something back from Alaska...

a bad cold. :( And it is Alaska, simply because Anu and Sheetal also have a cold. Could it get any worse?

I guess, now I should stop cribbing about Alaska, and talk about the good things. The Portage glacier was extremely beautiful and considering we went there only because we were looking for a restroom, it was a pleasant surprise. Here is the link to get an idea.

http://www.alaska.net/~design/scenes/portage/portage.html

It was even prettier than the pictures here. The Kenai Fjords national park is also fantasic, certainly something to experience, though not for those with weak stomach :)). Seeing a glacier and touching one, never would I have realized how blue they are.

Also did white water rafting. Level 3/4. Thank God, the lady convinced us, because since I don't know how to swim, I was a bit skeptical. But its worth every penny. Also also on this one, we did not have to row, we just sit and hold on tight :D

More positive things about Alaska to follow....

I got an A...

so finally I think I am all set to graduate..and the documents are falling in place too.

Alaska was no fun...

first Sheetal lost her contact lens. Then we had our car broken into and lost a lot of stuff. thats so unfair. Considering that we bought the camera a week back (a digital SLR), its very very bad. To top it all, we took a cruise at Kenai Fjords, and Neeraj, Sheetal and Anu were sea-sick all the time. And it was a 9 hour long cruise. They missed out on the Salmon dinner. :(

So when I think about Alaska, I can't help but think about that and I can't really say its the best trip I had. Considering a similar trip we had last year to Yellowstone was so much fun.

My two cents:
1. Don't ever leave anything in a car, even for a few minutes
2. Get the maximum possible insurance on a rental car
3. Get expensive stuff insured ASAP
4. Don't park in an uncovered parking, if a covered parking is available. (Even if both belong to the hotel)
5. Be alert of people around you.

I am off to Alaska....

for the long weekend!! So what if weather.com predicts showers, so what if Denali park tours are still closed, so what..I am taking off for four days, pure unadulterated fun! yaay..

We will be visiting Denali National Park, Kenai Fjords, and Anchorage. Last year's trip to Yellowstone was simply amazing, this promises to be fun too! :) Never in a thousand years did I think I would go to Alaska...as I pack all my winter stuff, can't help but think of Madhuri in a sari in the song from Pukar, on a glacier. Should I pack my one and only saree?? haha.

PS: Grades are partly out and looks like mes heading to atleast an A-, mostly an A

I am playing with templates...

I must say I am really challenged when it comes to art!!! :)

Happy birthday dear Aai....

I hope you have a great day!! I miss you a lot!!

Finally I got to see Shrek 2. Loved Puss in Boots. :) Very very sweet movie. Totally worth going to the theatre to see this. Although the music was much better in the first movie. Also Lord Farquaad was more funny than Prince Charming and Fairy GodMother. Donkey is awesome as expected.

I heard they are planning to make two more movies. I will surely watch both the movies.

Came across something very interesting...

India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of history.
India invented the Number System. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.
The World's first university was established in Takshila in 700BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
Sanskrit is the mother of all the European languages. Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software, reported in Forbes magazine, July 1987.
Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans. Charaka, the father of medicine consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago. Today Ayurveda is fast regaining its rightful place in our civilization.
Although modern images of India often show poverty and lack of development, India was the richest country on earth until the time of British invasion in the early 17th Century.
The art of Navigation was born in the river Sindh 6000 years ago. The very word Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH. The word navy is also derived from Sanskrit 'Nou'.
Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart.; Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: (5th century)365.258756484 days.
The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century long before the European mathematicians.
Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India; Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11th Century;The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 10^6(10 to the power of 6) whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10^53(10 to the power of 53) with specific names as early as 5000 BCE during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera 10^12(10 to the power of 12).
According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source for diamonds to the world.
USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century-old suspicion in the world scientific community that the pioneer of Wireless communication was Prof. Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.
The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.
According to Saka King Rudradaman I of 150 CE a beautiful lake called 'Sudarshana' was constructed on the hills of Raivataka during Chandragupta Maurya's time.
Chess (Shataranja or AshtaPada) was invented in India.
Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted complicated surgeries like cesareans, cataract, artificial limbs, fractures, urinary stones and even plastic surgery and brain surgery. Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India. Over 125 surgical equipment were used. Deep knowledge of anatomy, physiology, etiology, embryology,digestion, metabolism, genetics and immunity is also found in many texts.
When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization)
The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC

Quite amazing eh?

You fill up me senses like a night in a forest
Like the mountains in springtime, like a walk in the rain
Like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean
You fill up my senses come fill me again.

Come let me love you, let me give my life to you
Let me drown in your laughter, let me die in your arms
Let me lay down beside you, let me always be with you
Come let me love you, come love me again.

:) puts a smile on my face, every single time.

Heard a very interesting comment

'sometimes when I talk to cranky people, I am glad that I am not like that'. That is so true. I mean, it must be so hard to be grumpy and sour all day long.

Got my car serviced today, so got a ride in my co-worker, Danny's, Mercedes SLK 320. That is some car, although you feel like you are sitting at 3 inches from the road (you probably are :)). Its way too cool with the automatic roof sliding back in about 15 seconds. When I came to CA the first time, I totally flipped to see a metal hard top just glide into the trunk, much to Neeraj's amusement. He, anyways, thinks Fort Collins is a gaav (village).

But given a choice (yeah right:)), I will still prefer a four door sedan or even an SUV, small cars scare me...Neeraj almost bought a Mazda Miata when he got his first job. I am most thankful to people who discouraged him. Of course, then he went to the other extreme to buy a SUV...

Liars..

put me off completely. Sometime you know that you are right and the other person is lying..blatantly. But you cannot do anything, because the customer is always right. And there are others who are so sweet. Its really so nice to work with them. Then you automatically spend more time on them.

Vent out by shopping?? :D

Reality shows ....

Seem to go beyond imagination as time passes. Is there any theme that has not been tried? There is a show about restaurants. Gimme a break. They are so gross sometimes. Saw a trailer for Inferno, could not believe what I saw. They have to lie down in water which had dead body parts. Or atleast thats what I heard. I certainly hope I was wrong. Makes me shudder to even think of it.

PS. IPOD rocks

I am done with my finals..

and I have spent an idyllic day. No hurry to get tihngs done. Went to the mall to buy some clothes for Neeraj. Spent 3 hours in the mall for shopping for a guy. It can get quite tiring :). I never realize it when I am shopping for myself.

Went to Shoreline park today in Mountain View. Its a really nice place. When we went there the first time with aai, we did not know there was a lovely lake in the park and we came back thinking there is nothing in that place. And we also wondered why people praized that place. Today we found out. Its very green, fun place for a family outing. Reminded me of Saras bag. :) The fugewala was missing though. :))

Also went to Bayland's park and turned back halfway, thinking there is nothing there, maybe if we walked some more...

If I had all the time in the world (and money, of course :D), I would....

visit new countries..I want to go to Peru to see Machu Pichu, to Egypt to see the pyramids, so Mexico, it just seems so colorful and vibrant. I want to go to Europe - Go around the countryside, sip coffee at a streetside cafe, or see Greece. I want to go to Japan eat sushi (on seconds thoughts, I don't think they would have california roll, its the only one I simply love :)). I want to go on an African Safari. I want to go to Canada. You can't consider the "Maid of the mist" ride much of a Canada visit ;). I want to see Mount Rushmore, Badlands national park. I want to go to Sikkim, Mizoram, Assam..all the states there. I want to go to Calcutta...I want to see the world.

Places I actually have been to

Indonesia - Bali, Yogyakarta, Mount Bromo, Solo, Thousand Islands (Putri and Pelangi), Suryakarta. Oh I just love it there. Its a fabulous country with such happy smiling people. I associate summer vacation with Indonesia, cause usually, the day our exams got over, we would go there.

Singapore - Amazes me with the blend of high tech and culture living side-by-side at the same time. Even people from US are impressed with this country. I would love to stay and work there.

Jamaica - Reggae music, Beach, Jerk food, jolly people, Dunn's waterfall, blue mountain coffee, Rum and Cigars (Last two no relevance to me, but its an integral part of a visit there)

US - :) I am here and I have been here for 4 years now. Too much to write.

Next on agenda: Alaska in two weeks!

PS: IPOD mini delivered to apartment office...Gotta rush to pick it up :D

Why have I started blogging regularly all of a sudden

No specific reason. Just trying to see if I have the will-power to be regular at something if I want to. Reduce the adhoc way in which I do things in life. I tend to give up on things easily, so is there something that I can stick to?

My ipod has been shipped and it will be here on 17th. yippee.

To be praised....

Is always good thing. To be praised publicly, even better!! :) To be praised publicly but subtly, priceless!!

So, its okay to be soft and non-assertive. hehe. Its easier for me that way!
Not a very important thing for most, means a lot to me, because I have worked for it. So its nice to know that all is not in vain. Its not like people don't realize. So, its all good. Its something I wanted to do once. I did it :D

Keeping quiet....

is not always a bad thing, is it? I just got "gyan" (as Gayatri calls it) from a couple of people at work that I am too soft sometimes and that I have to be more assertive. Well, there is a sense of responsibility that sometimes makes you push harder. It can get stressful, but then I'd rather be stressed than have someone stressed because of me! Makes me seem like a saint, eh?? ;) But no, I have been told by numerous people that I have a caustic tongue when I am irked. So, I am trying to control that as well. At the cost of being over-worked.

So moral of the story, if you are too soft, it ain't good. If you are too harsh, that is totally not good. SO, what to do? :D

Lunch at Saravana Bhavan...

Yumm..its the best South Indian place in Bay Area. Of course, nothing beats Vaishali. Neeraj and I, like all other puneites, miss it so much.

My parents, after their wedding in Indore, had a reception for my dad's co-workers in Telco. They were so busy meeting people and being hosts, they did not get anything to eat by the time all the guests were gone. So they went to Vaishali and since then, we have always gone there atleast once in two weeks. The year that it was closed for renovation was so strange. Its a place you go to hang out, get a quick bite, catch up on old friends.

Everytime I go to India, or my dad went to India, we just HAD to go to Vaishali. Fortunately Neeraj and his family also love it as much as we do! So simple!

I wish they open a branch here. Although on second thoughts, I think I don't think they can bring the entire FC road :)

New look for the blogger..

Pretty cool.

Saw Main Hoon Na yesterday. Can't say I am too crazy about it. I went with very low expectations, so it was okay. The make-shift IMC6 theatre in San Jose is a joke. Blue carpets on the wall with multi-color lights and folding chairs for the excessive people in the theatre, not my cuppa tea. We were in line for about 40 minutes to get in, and yet sat in the third row from the front. I have no idea whats the deal with not having seat numbers. Very irritating.

Sushmita looks pretty cool, loved the look. The other girl is okay. The guy who plays Lucky looks extremely weird with the long hair, looks like anything but the school heart throb. Shahrukh is, as always, larger than life. The matrix and Mission Impossible spoofs are funny (assuming they are spoofs :)). The best part is the last song. Never get to see spot boys, make-up crew on the camera. I think the most loveable part of the movie. And what was Tabu doing in the blink-your-eyes-and-miss-me shot?? Anu's take was that she must have been shooting for Meenaxi some where near, and must have strayed away from the set in search of some action.

All in all, no comparison to Kuch Kuch Hota hain. Somehow the class is missing.

10 hours undisturbed sleep..

Can put a smile on my face! :) I simply love saturday mornings. There is no routine, schedule or hurry. Except on weekends when I work. But oh well, not this weekend!!

What is even better is catching an old episode of Beverly Hills 90210. I was majorly into it when I was in India. I used to think it was so cool to be a teenager in US. I used to love the clothes, the hair and wonder how it would be. Now as I watched them again after a good 8-9 years, I could not believe how my perceptive has changed drastically. For one, the serial seems cliched and almost silly at times :) I could not help but smile to see these actors who were well into their 20s play 17 year olds. It was fun to watch it and just that. No profound meaning of life in it. Though as a teenager, I certainly used to think there is so much more to it!

They are together...

Ross and Rachael. So I am happy, being the eternal romantic, I was hoping that that would be the end. I think I liked the episode, not too mushy, not too senti. Maybe a wee bit cold. Oh well. Maybe I was almost sure it would be weepy, that I was surprised it was not. :)

So I am finally done with all the course assignments and now with just the finals to go! I am seriously looking forward to not tuning out of work and into assembly language everyday. I just can't switch tracks easily. Mental inertia I suppose! :)

PS: Pizza hut's buffalo chicken pizza is quite nice, if you like the tangy buffalo chicken sauce to replace the regular tomato-basil sauce. Not something you can eat often, but surely satiates the craving for something tasty.

Last assignment of course done..

Yippe. I just have to make some cosmetic changes to it, but otherwise its done!! Now a final to go, and finally I am done. Now I can peacefully watch and enjoy Friends today. :) I am a self-confessed addict of Friends. Drive Neeraj nuts with all the marathon runs that I make him watch. Took a quiz on Friends, got a 11/12. :D Yes, I am guilty and I am proud of it.

I can't wait to see how they tie everything together. Its going to be challenging to please the expected. 40-60 million viewers today. Interesting observation today on the radio, that a reasonably large number of male viewers of Friends are victims of wives hogging the remote during that time. Interesting because, I know Neeraj watches it because I watch it.

Anyways, there rings the phone....

Stereotypes...

Its strange how we try to not conform to stereotypes and yet somehow, we just keep on doing it. I thought that the move to US for my Masters was breaking the conventions, yet, when I reached Fort Collins, I was surrounded by Indian girls who had just completed their BE. :)

I don't claim that thats even 0.001 % of the girls I know, just that its not an uncommon theme. Similarly, the number of DINKS (double income no kids :D) amazes me.

I think the life we have is like any other average couple in US, but when we have guests from India, its amusing to see how shocked they are to see Neeraj help me with cooking, or Rahul doing the dishes after Anu is done with the cooking. "aaj kaal chya muli expect their husbands to help them gharchya kamat" translated "girls these days expect their husbands to help them in the house" LOL. Isn't that amusing. What would they think if they saw Neeraj make expert polya while I made bhaji yesterday? Sacrilege!!

Weekend shift is the only time I blog...

I find myself with absolutely no time. I think I have received a smaller day than the others. :) I think I seem to not get time to just sit down and relax. Just a matter of time. 12th May is when my course gets over and then hopefully I will have more time.

Weather in bay area has been so chilly past few weeks. Don't feel like stepping out of the house after I come back from work. Its just nice to be at home. As much as I want to drive, it just can't drag myself out once I am home after work. Somehow as the course has become harder, work's getting hectic too. Been putting in almost 12 hours a day each day. Poor Neeraj has to put up to my weird hours and schedules.

Had a long chat with Sachin today after ages. Met Medha after a long time. And have Neeraj's friend visting Bay Area. Thats too much socializing for someone who spends most of her work time talking to people. People say these days I have become extermely quiet Imagine talking to people all day. You really don't want to talk much after that :).

My Birthday is fast approaching. I am reaching that age that I should start hiding my age :D. The only three months that Neeraj and I are of the same age. I look at all the blogs that are like "Happy 21st birthday" "Happy 18th birthday" and I think.."Happy 27th Birthday" just sounds OOOOOOOLLLLDDDD. :D. In my early twenties (long time ago), I used to think I will never hide my age ever. Now I think I might not go an proclaim it to the world ;)

Back to work..Hasta Manana till we meet again

I wish I was more regular...

Too many things happening and things to do! so just can't find to time to sign in and write.
Had a very intersting trip to India, attended my sister in law's wedding, got my visa stamped and fell sick !! I refuse to drink boiled water and much to my parents and doctor's chagrin. Oh well. its a price to pay. Could not go out to all our favorite places since I was sick and then the bird flu completely sealed the deal.

It felt nice to be in India when earning. I was able to spend on clothes, music, tv and not think much. Once in your lifetime, you should spend and not think..aah! the bliss. Met some of my newly wed friends, some getting married. Its like everyone I know is getting married, getting engaged or having kids. It was strange to meet school friends and talk about husbands, marriage, in-laws rather than boys, crushes, studies.

When you walk into places like Vaishali, earlier, my parents used to dread going there in the evenings with me, because of the number of people I would run into and time that was spent chatting with them. Now I feel like this alien, who looks at people who come there and thinks, "kids!". I find myself looking at some of the stuff these kids wear and cringe. I guess I am getting a bit older. And the cell phones drive me nuts. I am a person who hates carrying a cell phone. Its just another bother to carry and so most of the times, my phone is not charged or not with me. But in Vaishali, almost all college kids have cell phones, hanging off their necks, SMS.

Pollution was one more thing that really amazed me. And the traffic, I know I am getting more and more used to the organized traffic, but the traffic in Pune is insane. I was almost scared to cross the road. Its time to take some drastic action. Pune has developed so haphazardly that it just seems to explode with the number of people and vehicles.

Anyways, back to US. Got my driver's license. Love the freedom. More sooner than later

PS: congrats rohit!

Its a boy!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shamala gave birth to a baby boy friday, 15 days ahead of the due date! :) totally exciting! Can't believe that she is a mom! Congratulations Shiva and Shamala!

:) I never relealized it was Kachhi_Kali's Bday!! thanks to Sid

..Happy BDay kalis!

Life update: after almost 3 months!
Amazing fun when aai visited. Visited Seattle, Washinton, portland, Florida (for a conference), New York Niagara etc..
Neeraj and aai also visited Las Vegas. It was so cool to come home to a cooked dinner and to not come home to an empty house. Was a whirlwind trip. Lots happening..Daddy is quitting his job and going back, Neeraj switched jobs, I bought a car!! yippppppeee...Bought India tickets for Jan..

Now can't wait to get a license to start driving on my own. The DMV does not have appointments for the next one month in South Bay...how boring can it be!! I wish I had gotten my license in CO..I know ..my bad ;)

Also...fast approaching first wedding anniv!! 29th Dec..no plans as yet..

More detail post soon! got to get some fruit-loops...These weird hour shifts make u hungry! :)

Long Post

I am working on a weekend. Dont expect any calls but I have to be here and not move away from my desk for more than 2 minutes for the next 8 hours.

So what do I do??!!
I have loads of pending work, but I can get to that later. The last thing I want to do right now is work.
This is like a forced relaxation! :) Some of my co-workers think that is a funny phrase. Especially thats what I call some mandatory training for some stuff that we dont need to spend an entire day on..but oh well..it is such a relief!!

So well I am here in the office, it is eerily quiet. Barring a couple of people who stopped by...
Want to call friends..will do that later in the day...Maybe hours might not be enough for all the things I want to do, and once I go back home its a mad rush to get the apartment cleaned before Mom gets here..4 days to go..yippppeeee.

Thought I should get my very (in)famous group on the web!! We are a group of 8 friends from my grad school, Colorado State University, Fort Collins. To the amusement of a lot of people, our group is called Kacchi_kali. There is story behind this name.
Cannot be shared.! :)

There is Atul, Medha, Priti, Ritesh, Rohit, Sachin, Siddharth and of course..I
(This is an alphabetical list)
Atul: The "thinker" of our group. He maintains an awesome blog. Check it out in my "I read" section. He and I have spent a lot of fun times especially during courses that we took together and did projects. We will always share the trials and tribulations that we suffered in CS581. We wanted to do well in that course so badly. And both of us messed it up...we were sooo upset after that..
The only person from Kacchi_kali to attend my wedding.

Medha: Hehe..cant help but smile when I think of this nutcase..she is beyond repair..:D She and I loove shopping and we love making the other buy stuff. We have made countless trips to Walmart and Foothills fashion mall to buy clothes, shoes..Most of the times we landed up buying two of the same design. :) Miss the afternoon coffee, the gym sessions, the gossiping, the crying-ur-heart-out. We hated each other when we met for the first time..Both of us thought that the other was a bit oversmart. I guess we are..but then can;t help it..

Priti (Darling): God, what has Kacchi_kali association done to this girl, this sweet innocent girl..now she uses the language that would make a sailor blush (i love my fair lady). She taught me typical marathi phrases like "ovalele karta" :) The only person I know who used to call Neeraj "tumhi" haha..Had a major ball about it !

Siddarth: Probably the most infuriating, outright shocking, and devil-care attitude..I don't know what fuels this boy..on the second hand...I dont want to know! :p. Great writer..great at dramatics..other KK on my blog. One of the very few people to have come to US with funding in his lap. I think I have had maximum fights with him..he justs keeps on hurting me ..Remember the day you threw that ball in my face...yeah yeah..when I stormed out...:D

Ritesh: The guy from Indore..He is the only non-marathi in this group of pune-mumbai people. He is almost converted to a maharashtrian. He follows marathi quite well..I guess and speak a few sentences if he wants..:) He visited Neeraj and I for a week..It felt like Neeraj;s friend was visiting him rather than mine! He is the quiet guy...or so you would think on first impression. Great cook!!

Rohit: My best son!! hehe..he is the guni bal ..well behaved caring, sweet. The first person to meet Neeraj in person. Neeraj still finds it funny that on introducing Neeraj, Rohit blushed the most. He plans to go back to India for good. :( Will miss u...keep in touch..

Sachin! :D Last but not the least..
So many things we have shared. When he first stepped out of the shamrock shuttle, I was looking around to see this Indian guy who was supposed to be arriving. Then this fair, green eyed guy starts talking in marathi!! We have had a blast since day one! People actually thought we were going around for some time! Then all the navra thing, the diamond thing, the walk in the oval, the fight (we had one..remember ritesh?), india night, his bay area trip, his engagement..that lasted a few minutes :D...so many things...unbelievable...he is the next KK to visit CA this December.

Miss you all...

Topsy Turvy

Have you ever felt like you life went on a roller-coaster ride and you did not want to get on the ride..and never knew when you got on it..

Its strange how life takes a different course in a matter of a day..You are used to some things..and your life follows a pattern, and there is no un-predicability. And then it something shakes that and there is uncertainty. Uncertainty need not necessarily mean a bad thing..but then its new..

I am not too sure I like it....

U2..

I heard "With or Without you" after a long time..Made me want to go to a U2 concert. Always wanted to hear them live..now maybe we will. Got to watch out for their next concert in the bay area.

Been a crazy week as usual. Highlight is that mom got my papers for visa. She will be applying for her visa soon. I am so excited. I have been dreaming about aai-baba's trip almost everyday. Only thing is strangely, last nights dream, they landed in Boston, where the reached by railway and the railway station uncannyly looked like Pune railway station and it said "New York Railway station" ..it gets weirder..I walk from my office to pick them up. My office is in Sunnyvale, CA. And I have been to Boston once for a few hours.

Anyways, hopefully she will be here for the long weekend. Other nice thing was along and overdue chat with my best friend, Shamala. She is the sweetest person I have known. She makes me want to be a better person. She got married in Dec 2000. I so badly wanted to be there, but I was not funded and simply could not afford to fly back. I met her husband Shiva for the first time for my wedding. Was so thrilled to see her so happy. And she is now expecting a baby in Dec..Dec 20th to be precise (their third wedding anniversary). I am sooo happy for her. We had always planned so much to be together. we even planned to get our kids married and "dosti ko rishtedari mein badal dalenge" .

We used to do the craziest things, we used to love this particular song "WAlking in the rain". I went "I am just walking in the rain, and I missed you once again.." Please please please if you have thing song, send it to me..We both lost it. Anyways, we used to drive back from Camp singing this at full volume, chat in college all day and then call immediately after reaching home. I love her mom's cooking and she loves to cook. I had prayed that I got my Toefl center in Banglore cause Shamala had moved there a year back. I was so happy when I got to go there. In the excitement of meeting her and chatting into the wee hours of the night, I almost forgot to go for the exam..

Anyways, Shamala is going to have a baby...and I am going to pamper my little neice/nephew..YAAY!!

God!! ..some people are sooo ungrateful. Its unbelievable..But then I think its all a part of the job!..

I think I am a disgrace to all the wizard world. I am still on chapter one of the book....waaaaaah..:( But been doing a lot of things lately. Went to Yellowstone, learnt to (well tried to learn to) play basketball and almost broke my finger, clean the apartment: even pigs would refuse to stay there, been driving a bit.

I am okay as long as there is no one behind me. Then I go into a panic mode and make the silliest of mistakes. The worst one I have made till now has been not yeilding to a person but since he was kind of far away, I was okay, but the minute I saw in the rear view that it was a ford explorer, my panic returned, and in that state, my car came to a stand still. I am sure the guy was quite indignant. Since it was a single lane road, all I could do was start the car patiently and go on till he got a chance to cut me.

I have realized that I am not much of a driving fan...Maybe once I get the hang of it, I will love it just the way I loved driving my kinetic pride on the streets of Pune...

HARRY POTTER

I think the vegas post can continue later...

Right now I am totally excited about the new Harry Potter book. I want to be the one of the first ones to get my hands on it..I can't believe that thieves stole a truck full of those covetted books in UK. People!! Stop doing that...
So well..what might happen? Umm..my guesses:

1. There is going to be something about Dumbledore in this book thats more than just the one who tells Harry some unknowns and then sorts out things when they wrong. There will be more of his personal life..I think it was hinted in goblet of fire.
2. More love will be in the air ...
3. Its hinted that Ron will be the best student (something of that order/sort) in all the books. So he has to become a house prefect or something like that.

Thats all I can think of.....Can't wait!

Las Vegas.

We drove to Las Vegas last weekend. I always wanted to visit Vegas ever since I flew over it last year. In the dead of the night flying over this city of lights was quite an experience. We had been planning to go there and then one day about ten days earlier I just went and made hotel reservations. We decided not to fly and save that money and get new tires for our car. We were not too thrilled about the Marriott Suites we got on priceline. Its not on the strip. But then once its done, its done.

The day we were supposed to leave, it was a long day at work, and Neeraj picked me up at 4 pm. By the time we hit the road it was 6 pm. We knew it was a long drive and decided to take all the stuff to make bhel and just eat it on the way. (small pleasures of living in CA :P). Just stopped on the way once to make the bhel and eat it. And then got stuck in nasty traffic. By the time we got out of it, we were all set to stop at one of the bigger towns on the way. But then Vegas was waiting for us.

The interstate to Vegas that we thought would be deserted was teeming with people. It is in the middle of death valley and we thought we were the only fools to drive at that time. It was like a carnival. It just kept us going. As we neared Vegas, we got a couple of false alarms with the outlet fashion mall and Nevada Landings (another city). Finally when we reached this city of lights, We were so tired, it was 4:30 in the morning. We barely crossed the strip to reach the hotel (which in fact is in a really nice location). After seeing all the huge hotels and casinos, we were a bit skeptical about this little hotel that seemed so insignificant. As we opened the door to our room, we were pleasantly surprised. It was a beautiful suite with a european touch.

Next day we got up at 2 pm and it was HOT. We were contemplating going out, when we saw the magazine with an ad to fly over the Grand Canyon in a helicopter. It was going to drain us out of all the money we saved by driving was going to be spent on it. We decided what the heck and made the reservation to go ahead with the ride in the starry afternoon at 3 pm.

Then we stepped out in to the Mayanagari. We parked in the parking lot for one of the casinos. And stepped into the Casino. Its an unbelievable. Even at 3 pm in the afternoon, the place was full of people gambling. All we needed was food. We found a little mexican place call Margarita. Nice fajitas.

Then we walked on the strip for some time. It was hot and dry and we came back with a headache. Cesar's palace, Bellagio live up to the expectations. We spent some time walking there. Gambled 4 dollars. :) Not worth it. And we were already broke. We came back for a change and then went back to the strip. We walked around for some time and then dragged ourself back to the room.

More later......

My first 100

I am bad at bowling..its a fact. My highest score for quite some time was 36 :D. As a student in CO that was an expensive hobby, and also not worth going all the way in the snow to get a measly 36. So never really tried it much. Here in CA we go bowling often, and my performance has been slightly better..my maximum was 69. And today I rocked (not exactly :)) but well I made a 75 in the first game and 104 in the second. The second game was a combination of strikes and 8-9's but no 2s or threes. So if I had not gotten so many in the gutter I could have easily made 150 ..hehe..

I am happy!! NOW I am going to buy bowling shoes.....

Frustration.

I am at work..and I need to get the frustration out.

I have spent over 9 hours with a customer trying to get the simplest of the issues to resolve. It is so logical and simple, that I feel like an idiot because I can simply not think of any thing else to do. There is nothing to do. I have tried it here on my machine and it works and it just does not work on the customer;s side.

It is so frustrating when you know you can do it and yet you can;t. I do not want to stop trying but I could not keep the customer for so long.

AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGH

This is for Radha.

Chicken Biryani

Chicken (cut in cubes) or drumsticks / mutton cubes
curd
ginger-garlic paste
garam masala
turmeric
chilli powder
salt

This is for the marinade. Marinate will in advance, atleast 4 hours.

For the rice,

soak rice in water and drain and keep for about 30 mins. (This will help to avoid making the rice sticky).
Heat some oil (ghee even better). add black pepper (whole), cloves, ilaichi, tej patta (optional), dalchini. To it add ginger garlic paste.
Then add onions and let them fry on low flame till they are done well. Then add tomato.
The onions have to be well done or else on adding tomato, they will no longer get fried, then tend to get soft and cooked.
Let the tomato cook till the oil starts to leave the paste. To this add some kasuri methi and some mint.
Then add garam masala. (if you can get some biryani masala, even better)
Add rice to this and let it mix well in this masala.
Add the chicken with all the curd and mix it well. Then add water and let it cook. (pressure cook if needed).

Other way of doing this.

Heat some ghee and add some pepper, dalchini, ilaichi and tej patta and then put the rice in it. Cook the rice and then add some kesar to the cooked rice.
For the curry, in the cooked onion and tomato paste, add chicken and cook it.
Then make layers of rice and curry and cook it in a pressure cooker.

Quick recipe:

Veggie Pattice

Pepperidge puff pastry sheets
Boiled potato
green peas (frozen is okay too)
ginger garlic paste
jeera (cumin)
oil
Turmeric powder

Heat some oil and add jeera to it and turmeric, then add the ginger-garlic paste. Add the peas. Then add boiled potatoes.

Cut the puff pastry sheets to make 12 equal pieces from one packet. There are two sheets in each packet make 6 from each sheet. Defrost the sheets in the microwave and then this is the trick. Using a polpat-latna (rolling pin) press the sheets and spread them out a bit. Then fill the potato mix and then in a pre-heated oven bake the pattice till they become slightly golden brown.

Always a sure hit! :)