Trip to Marlborough/Westborough... Hopkinton State Park

So, it was my first trip outside the city since I came here and it was to Marlborough (& it's not where Marlboro cigarettes are made or not even remotely connected). Why was I there? There was a summer party/picnic from my work there at Hopkinton State Park. Remember those amazing picnics we used to have with family/friends as kids; all the fun & excitement of food, play & fun. can't do that now I guess!! So, I went a day in advance to be ready for the event. I took the commuter rail to go there from South Station (Boston) & reached Westborough station on Friday. Commuter rails are pretty cool, they are double storied and I traveled on the top floor to get the experience (reminded me of the double-decker bus we used to have in New Delhi when i was a kid, they are not there any more. It was like a bus on top of the bus, without a driver!!). You can buy the ticket at the station or you can even buy inside the train when the TT comes (without any fine... but make sure you buy it & don't think of going WT i.e without ticket plz). The ride was nice & the view outside the train was fine too. I reached my destination in evening & stayed with my friend for the night.

Saturday was the 1st day of Navratri so after waking up in morning I thought of going to temple. There's a temple nearby in Ashland called Laxmi Temple. It is a south Indian Temple (yeah, south Indian temples are different from North Indian Temples. They had a temporary made up Durga for navratri!!). So, I went to the temple... It's quite large in a nice place & it was good. Then I went to the park. As usual, weather was fooling & faking it. Yeah, here in US it's normal... It's so damn sunny outside but you step out & its chilly cold. Same was the scene there, it was very windy & chilly outside (& inspite of facing it so many times, I got fooled again & I was wearing just a T-shirt & left my jacket at home. it always happens here). Luckily it was better later in noon with sun kicking the heat up. It's a huge park with fake beach (it's normal in US to make fake beaches in these lovely parks. I could understand in Kansas which was thousands miles away from real beach but why here??), lovely greenery & nice grounds. Friends & people (well, everyone is not a friend) showed up in some time & they started with a game of cricket (now you get a bunch of Indian guys in a ground even in US, all they want to do is play cricket). We tried to get some American folks too to play with us (why am I saying we, I never played. I don't play cricket, or any outdoor game much for the fact!!) & taught them cricket & how similar or different it is from baseball. Suddenly they decided to quit cricket as its not fun & play soccer (yes dear, in US the football is what is played with hand & also known as American Football. & what the world calls football is known as soccer only). After some gaming the time came for food & the grills were on. The food was good & there was lots of stuff to eat, I had samosa burger (just stuff samosa inside a bun, easy-breezy. make sure you use lots of ketchup or sauce too!!) for 1st time which was actually nice. Then time came to play some team game with everyone & they decided to play rumal-dupatta (you don't know rumal-dupatta, c'mon!!) and my team won (& I did play this time & I played well!!). We also did kayaking in the lake there & I did pretty well there too. Kayaking is fun, but it needs skill too & it's real full upper-body workout. Overall it was a nice day of fun at the park... meeting new people, hanging out, eating good food & having lots of fun.

Then we drove back home & rested. In the night we went to dunkin donuts for dinner... I asked for there special toffee donut they had on display but turns out they didn't have it. Then I took a low fat blueberry muffin (I am really into low/no fat/sugar food these days. however the muffin was coated with sugar!!) & the guy offered free donut with that. I like this thing about American service industry, they always try to make sure that customers are happy & will do anything needed for that. You can't do that in India, can you?? We know how to take advantage of everything, I know people taking advantage of the return policies here (would get into more details some other time but many of you know what I mean). The mufin was actually nice & donut was okay too, then I went off to bed for the day. That's all I got for today, I know that Cambridge Carnival blog is till pending & would be coming soon. Until then guys & galz & friendz & foes... bye, take care & Jai Ho!!!

I had SITUATIONS... Bathroom Overflow vs Metro Jam

Yeah... I had two situations within less than 24 hrs!! And by situation I mean BAD incidents, or atleast not good ones. Yesterday my bathroom sink got blocked somehow (none of my fault really, i seriously did nothing... NOTHING!!) & also the knob to control water inlet was not working, so water kept flowing & then overflowing. The bathroom was filled with water & I was just not able to do anything, I mean what are we supposed to do in such situations but to panic... So i just panicked. The first thought at such moments is, why me?? & why now?? (imagine what people affected with real floods or calamities think.... but at this hour this is the bigest calamity for you). I just threw some towels on the door to block the water from entering the room. (How smart is that?? or stupid?? Definitely smart if I did it) .And in bathroom floor, they didnt have a water-hole to let the water out. I mean, it's a bathroom so it could happen anytime, right!! The good thing of living in hotel is I called the housekeeping to take care of it, what would I have done if I was in an apartment or something to alone take care of it. I am glad I could get this housekeeping guy to help me, he came with his magic machine & cleaned the blockage (I was like.. yeah, if I had this then this would never have happened). Water was all spilled & even had wet some of the carpet (that's the bad part in this situation here in US, all's carpeted, in India it's just flor so that's ll you can wet except people sleeping on floor or babies playing on floor or...). Next day they put some blowers/dryers to dry it & it's fine now. But it was terrible yesterday & i was so pissed/scared/ or something like that......
And today... I came back from work & got ready to go to Isckcon Temple (yep, I am religious & spiritual guy & it has nothing to do with wednesady prasaadam i.e. free food!!). As usual I was planing to take the "T" (metro train is called T in Boston, what kinda stupid name is that). I went to the Kendal/MIT Metro station to take the Red Line towards downtown & there was a train standing there since last 10 mins & not moving. The whole metro is stopped & shutdown!! Thers was this guy cursing metro & US too, dunno why... & another guy was pissed that this guy was cursing US (well, many people in world do that, get used to it). It turns out that there was some incident at the South Station and all the trains have stopped. They asked us to move out & said a shuttle would come to take us, we waited 15-20 mins outside but nothing. How frustrating it is when you have made all your plans to be somewhere using the public transport and it suddenly jams, or a late flight/train... what to do? who to blame? At those hours, the poor employees or representative of the train/flight/bus who are somehow stuck there too, have to suffer the questions, anger & curses of public; even when it's not there fault. Anyways, I decided to come back home because it was very cold outside (yeah, it's already getting damn cold in Boston). So home sweet home was the rescue & I wrote this blog. One more blog has to come about my last sunday trip to Cambridge Carnival. Until then, bye & take care!!!

999...

That's the date today, sound's cool.. doesnt it... I always thought I'll do something special on these triple dates (& all special I do is I write this blog, this is special.. you know!!). We are the lucky ones who had chance to see 9 of these till now (starting form 1/1/1 & we still have three left). 999 means a lot of things if you know, click here. FYI... Nothing more to say now, so read my birthday blog here if you missed it..........

FYI: I went to this awesome restaurant called Border Cafe in Harvard Square. The best food I have had in Boston, & on of the best Mexican food. People were waiting outside but I managed to get a seat in just a min (I dont know how & why, I guess they knew I am super cool & awesome and a future celebrity.. you cant hide the truth!!) The server was very nice & she suggested me this black nice dish (can't tell teh name here) which was just AWESOME. Also I had food in Tanjore earlier & it was nice too, Indian food restaurant in Harvard Square. There sambar tasted better than many restaurnats in India & they had some really awesome dishes there too. Really... Harvard Square is a nice place as I had said & Border Cafe rocks!!

Men's RULES, Very IMPORTANT!!!

View more presentations from Rahul Tiwari.

Happy Birthday Dear Rahul!!!

Another birthday spent alone, really alone this time.... I didn't even get any Happy Birthday call except my family, my dear dad, mom & sis .You know how phone keeps ringing form 12 midnight on your birthday (if you don't know it, it means you are really alone dear). I don't understand why people are obsessed with calling at 12 midnight on birthday, most of us were not even born at 12 midnight, Or being the first to call (I a the one who cares about you most & first, or I have nothing better to do but to just call you). This was 3rd birthday in a row when I was away from my family, I should be getting used to it; & honestly it's not that bad. Birthday is just another day, just that it comes once in a year (like many other days, unless you are born on Feb 29th & it comes once in 4 year.. how cool is that, you turn 4, 8, 16, 20 & wow!!). What's so special about birthdays, nothing honestly. You just realise that you have lost another year of your life (or gained a year of experience to be optimistic/positive, knowledge & all that... but does it really happens?). Birthdays are overrated I guess... or you get to say that when yours are not that cooooooool, lol!!

What did I do?? I went to Mohegan Sun, the 2nd largest casino of the world (click here to know more). I took a Chinatown Bus for just $15 return ticket, with $15 food coupon & $20 to play a bet in casino. That's the best part of going to casino that bus fare is very cheap & you get complimentary stuff. Like the hotels in Vegas are so awesome but still cheap. All they want you to come there & stay there, then you spend all your money for them & they ENJOY (& you feel that you are enjoying!!). Chinatown buses are cheap anyways though, like from DC to New York it used to be $25 return ticket & from Boston its almost the same. & those guys drive like crazy (I got from DC to new York in 3 hours once, I was glad I reached alive), it may not be most awesome ride but for a short trip of 3-4 hours its really not bad. So, I took the night bus & reached there at 11 in night & at 12 midnight I was on the slot machine playing lucky 7. I don't really gamble so I just played a little for fun thinking I'll go out & do something later in the day. But there's nothing to do there, nothing at all!! It's not like Atlantic City (with beach & shows & so much else) & not at all Las Vegas ofcourse. I didn't sleep all night though, just wandering around, gambling, seeing places, falling asleep on couch. Honestly, the casino is not even that big... I must have walked the whole place 10 times (I alway smake over statements, called atishayokti alankaar in hindi). I did some shopping too (less than Vegas though, I was down by couple of thousands there), like chocolates & souvenirs. And also the buffet was just awesome, real good food. You know how you feel at buffets... You can eat as much as you want so you want to eat as much as you want. But wanting & being actually able is not the same. I could hardly pick up 25% of food available & gulp down just 50% of it (it's always like that in Buffets, eat some, throw some.. huh!!). I had more than 40-50 desserts & cakes in front of my eyes & i picked 5 somehow to be able to manage to finish just 3 of them. That was really awesome bu except that all you have is that one casino & nothing else. I wonder how good/bad Foxwoods would be (largest casino in world, click here).

Overall, it was not bad.. it was kinda fun!! I was damn tired by the time I came back with no sleep for 2 days & walking & eating & do whatever else I did. The pics are here... You are not allowed to take pics in casino though (specially playing area), I am told. I was caught by security taking pictures & they called there supervisor but she luckily let me go a I not super cute & awesome!!). I don't know what's the problem with taking pics. It's not like you take pics & you sell them or make more money bcoz you can remember how the machine looks. But a night at casino is never bad, on b'day too. Let's see how it goes next year... it's different every year now. Waiting for the awesome one, special one... or the one!! just...

Happy B'day to ME!!!!