What a day it has been today.. I woke up to heavy rains as the skies opened up in full force.. Wondering why I went about my daily chores.. About half an hour later my personal newscaster woke up (needless to say that's Ashish - my better knowledge half) "Switch on the TV! Turn to the news channel!" I wondered what happened??? It took some time for me to realize why?? India had launched its first unmanned mission to moon and the launch had been successful..
What a proud moment it has been for those who do realize the achievement! The entire day we saw those images of "Chandrayaan".. I felt so proud and so happy that finally news channels had something besides cricket or violence as part of their "breaking news"..
It indeed is Rocket Science.. No wonder we don't understand the technicalities of what the Chandrayaan is all about.. The news channels were all about educating us about what it was all about and what the mission was all about.. the "unknown heroes" behind India's force.. At the end of the day I saw one particular show on a popular news channel where they interviewed all the greats of Indian Space Technology and also the scientists involved in the mission.. What was most striking about the show was the host himself, was so enthused and excited about what he was doing and all the people he was interviewing - he was not doing it to project his channel or his show or anything else but he actually seemed proud to be an Indian and even more proud to be in the midst of such iconic people.. His excitement could not help but be contagious..
The next piece of news - Raj Thackeray and his related news - does it even matter??????
When we have such a big news to celebrate about there are still such trivial attitudes of people that will plague our country forever..
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
No ideas to write about!
Its like I've stopped exercising my brain... I have been thinking of a topic to write about and nothing has occured to me! The ideas that did play peek-a-boo with my brains didn't develop at all! God help me!!! I'm growing old :((((((((((((((((((
Friday, March 21, 2008
Renewing Old Ties
I just got back from a week's trip to Boston. My cousin, Rama and my brother-in-law, Vivek stay in a city near Boston called Sudbury with their two cute daughters - Sareena and Alyssa and Vivek's father. They have a beautiful house (literally in the middle of a forest - because around the place there are a lot of woods and they have frequent visitors in deer, coyotes, turkey etc.) We got there late on Friday night. So the saturday was dedicated to visiting the old city of Boston. It reminded us a lot of London and UK in general. I guess Boston is one of the very few places in this country to actually have a rich history. The best way to get a glimpse of Boston Downtown is to go on the Freedom Trail. This is a 3 mile walking tour which starts at the Boston Common and ends at the Bunker Hill. Of course, we never got to complete the 3 - mile tour for various reasons. The trail is marked by red bricks all along the pavement of the route and at times it is a red line so you just follow the trail and look around all the places of interest.
The following day was something we were really looking forward to - Skiing! We went to the Wachusett mountain - about 40 minutes drive. It was my first time at a snow mountain and I was being readied for it all the way - with special instructions from my nieces who had attended a class once before.
The following day was something we were really looking forward to - Skiing! We went to the Wachusett mountain - about 40 minutes drive. It was my first time at a snow mountain and I was being readied for it all the way - with special instructions from my nieces who had attended a class once before.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
A day in my life in the US
Just this morning someone prompted me that I hadn't updated my blogs for a long time so here I am.. Writing down my thoughts.. The first time I started blogging was when I was in the UK.. Ashish at work so pretty much the afternoons were lazy and that's when the idea of a blog came to me.. And this time I'm in the US - pretty much the same scenario - so will put down my thoughts as and when I get the enthu to do it..
Yesterday, was a pretty eventful day considering the other days for me.. Before coming to the US, my friend's mother happened to call me and ask me if I could carry a gasket for her daughter.. I was traveling light pretty much and said that a gasket would be no harm at all.. After I reached the US and called my friend promising to post it and got to doing it yesterday... The problem was that I couldn't find an envelope big enough to put the gasket in and the brilliant idea that I could find it in the post office hit me only yesterday! So I made my way to the post office - this was after extensive studying of the maps of the area around me and locating the post office and how to get to it.. It seemed pretty simple on paper but in reality it took me a few wrong turns and a watchful eye to discover the US Postal Services Building in my area.. I was quite surprised to see a very long queue there.. I admit I haven't been to the post office in Bangalore for sometime now but yet I've never seen such a long queue - ever.. So I got the envelope, wrote the address in and finally mailed it..
Following that I was supposed to make my way to Ashish's office from where we were to go to dinner in NYC.. So my first stop was the Citi building, LIC... I had to wait for Ashish to finish work so in the meantime I went to the library downstairs and read a couple of magazines before the library staff politely sent me off saying it was their closing time.. I window shopped for a few more minutes and then read a book.. Ashish got off work and we both were ready to go for dinner..
In the morning I had browsed through this interesting site which lists out all the vegetarian hotels in any area that you might be looking for - round the world.. I wanted to eat Thai and so found a vegan hotel that served Thai cuisine... Ashish got directions to the place and we were on our way to finding the hotel..
We got off on Second Avenue subway station and with the help of the map walked towards the general direction of where we thought the restaurant might be.. On our way I mentioned to Ashish that the review of the restaurant was rave but one of the reviews said something to the extent of "getting past the interiors" so we thought we'd first have a look, if it didn't please us we would find another place.. The restaurant was called 'Pukk' and by the name we didn't know what to make of it.. The entrance to the restaurant was so small that we might have almost walked past it.. We then got inside and it was indeed a small restaurant - it was like a narrow long lane.. Like one of the reviewers put it, it felt like sitting in a small swimming pool.. The seats were made from stone and the movable ones were translucent ones.. The lighting was minimal and there were candles at each table.. There was just one more couple sitting in the restaurant while we went in and we were quite convinced to continue having dinner there.. Greeted by some very smiling hostesses we sat down to order.. I thought it was a 'vegan friendly' restaurant and it turned out to be only vegetarian! The meat served was all substituted.. We ordered an appetizer - A Spinach Toast and some wine.. While we waited I went to wash my hands at the restroom... I was pretty much impressed by what I saw there - it reminded me of the villas in Bali - not that I've ever been there but my knowledge comes from pictures online and from pictures I've seen from my cousins' visits there.. Thoroughly impressed by what I saw, I almost came running back to tell Ashish that he had to visit in there before we left.. Funnily enough, a while later there was a couple who sat next to us and the lady went to the restroom, came back and told the guy with her to do the same thing! :)
Anyways, now coming to the food - the first of our appetizers came along and by the look of it we were wondering what kind of food they served - was it going to be very expensive???? From the look at the menu card it certainly didn't seem so but the food - it looked like gourmet food - something that we'd get to see on Gordon Ramsay's shows or on Top Chef or something like that... Stylishly arranged and with the sauce flowing down on an equally designer plate! With a silent prayer that the menu card indeed showed existing rates, we toasted and began our dinner.. Ashish ordered an entree - a Steak Tofu and I had a Noodle Curry ... The service was pretty quick and by now the place had filled up and it looked like a place the hip college crowd would mob... Again we got brilliant looking food and like everywhere else in America, large quantities of it.. The food was extremely good and we thoroughly enjoyed it.. I especially like Thai because the spices and the flavours they use are quite similar to what we use... So having ended our meal we now waited apprehensively for the check.. And to our delight, the menu card wasn't outdated.. Minus the wine, this place served decent food-no great food- which costs about $15 for two people which was amazing! I would definitely recommend Pukk to anyone visiting NYC and wanting to eat Thai food... Its near Little Italy and quite easy to find online...
Yesterday, was a pretty eventful day considering the other days for me.. Before coming to the US, my friend's mother happened to call me and ask me if I could carry a gasket for her daughter.. I was traveling light pretty much and said that a gasket would be no harm at all.. After I reached the US and called my friend promising to post it and got to doing it yesterday... The problem was that I couldn't find an envelope big enough to put the gasket in and the brilliant idea that I could find it in the post office hit me only yesterday! So I made my way to the post office - this was after extensive studying of the maps of the area around me and locating the post office and how to get to it.. It seemed pretty simple on paper but in reality it took me a few wrong turns and a watchful eye to discover the US Postal Services Building in my area.. I was quite surprised to see a very long queue there.. I admit I haven't been to the post office in Bangalore for sometime now but yet I've never seen such a long queue - ever.. So I got the envelope, wrote the address in and finally mailed it..
Following that I was supposed to make my way to Ashish's office from where we were to go to dinner in NYC.. So my first stop was the Citi building, LIC... I had to wait for Ashish to finish work so in the meantime I went to the library downstairs and read a couple of magazines before the library staff politely sent me off saying it was their closing time.. I window shopped for a few more minutes and then read a book.. Ashish got off work and we both were ready to go for dinner..
In the morning I had browsed through this interesting site which lists out all the vegetarian hotels in any area that you might be looking for - round the world.. I wanted to eat Thai and so found a vegan hotel that served Thai cuisine... Ashish got directions to the place and we were on our way to finding the hotel..
We got off on Second Avenue subway station and with the help of the map walked towards the general direction of where we thought the restaurant might be.. On our way I mentioned to Ashish that the review of the restaurant was rave but one of the reviews said something to the extent of "getting past the interiors" so we thought we'd first have a look, if it didn't please us we would find another place.. The restaurant was called 'Pukk' and by the name we didn't know what to make of it.. The entrance to the restaurant was so small that we might have almost walked past it.. We then got inside and it was indeed a small restaurant - it was like a narrow long lane.. Like one of the reviewers put it, it felt like sitting in a small swimming pool.. The seats were made from stone and the movable ones were translucent ones.. The lighting was minimal and there were candles at each table.. There was just one more couple sitting in the restaurant while we went in and we were quite convinced to continue having dinner there.. Greeted by some very smiling hostesses we sat down to order.. I thought it was a 'vegan friendly' restaurant and it turned out to be only vegetarian! The meat served was all substituted.. We ordered an appetizer - A Spinach Toast and some wine.. While we waited I went to wash my hands at the restroom... I was pretty much impressed by what I saw there - it reminded me of the villas in Bali - not that I've ever been there but my knowledge comes from pictures online and from pictures I've seen from my cousins' visits there.. Thoroughly impressed by what I saw, I almost came running back to tell Ashish that he had to visit in there before we left.. Funnily enough, a while later there was a couple who sat next to us and the lady went to the restroom, came back and told the guy with her to do the same thing! :)
Anyways, now coming to the food - the first of our appetizers came along and by the look of it we were wondering what kind of food they served - was it going to be very expensive???? From the look at the menu card it certainly didn't seem so but the food - it looked like gourmet food - something that we'd get to see on Gordon Ramsay's shows or on Top Chef or something like that... Stylishly arranged and with the sauce flowing down on an equally designer plate! With a silent prayer that the menu card indeed showed existing rates, we toasted and began our dinner.. Ashish ordered an entree - a Steak Tofu and I had a Noodle Curry ... The service was pretty quick and by now the place had filled up and it looked like a place the hip college crowd would mob... Again we got brilliant looking food and like everywhere else in America, large quantities of it.. The food was extremely good and we thoroughly enjoyed it.. I especially like Thai because the spices and the flavours they use are quite similar to what we use... So having ended our meal we now waited apprehensively for the check.. And to our delight, the menu card wasn't outdated.. Minus the wine, this place served decent food-no great food- which costs about $15 for two people which was amazing! I would definitely recommend Pukk to anyone visiting NYC and wanting to eat Thai food... Its near Little Italy and quite easy to find online...
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