Happy Halloween 2011, Union Sq. NYC

Burrrrrrffffff... First snowfall in NY/NJ

Its snowing heavily today, surprisingly for October. Started in morning & still snowing. Couple of inches of snow I guess. I had to go out to city & it was quite a walk, pants half wet & shoes all wet. Also.. it turns out that the PATH commute increases many folds, if its snowing. 25-30 min delays on all PATH trains. Anyways, MnD were very excited to see their first snowfall. Like I was when I saw my first snowfall. Taking videos & pics & all that. Exciting & Fun. But I told them that it's only exciting first time or first few times maybe.. And that too, only if it doesn't snows a lot. Or its just PAIN!!

I was gonna go watch Ra.One today but couldn't/didn't. Watching Rann (8/10) at home instead. Fantastic movie, great performances, excellent storyline.. and great direction. Ram Gopal Varma is a great director, seriously he is. Although he has done some terrible work (aka Aag & James?), he has done lot of terrific work as well. He is one of the greatest film makers of India who knows how to present a story, how to use camera, camera angle, camera motions etc. Such an excellent technician. I am really impressed, really!! The movie is about how redicuolus media has become these days, lying & cheating & everything. Where money should be medium & news should be the goal; we see that news is medium & money is goal. Look at this ridiculous video below, from India's most ridiculous news channel 'India TV'..

Happy Diwali.. Shubh Deepawali!!

So finally this year, I really celebrated Diwali. Atleast the most Diwali I have celebrated here, the way we used to in India. Basically, because my parents are here (like hear, not hair). Had lavish Indian lunch of chhole-puri (yum-yum). Had Gulab Jamun, Besan Laddoo & Gujhiya for sweets, home-made. We did evening Lakshmi-Ganesh puja & aarti etc, lit diyas all over house & all that. Didn't do firecrackers (patakhas), I didn't do that much in India either - lot of pollution & money wastage I think. We used to go to neighbors & friend's home to deliver Diwali Sweets & they'll bring in our home for us. We'll be loking if they got as anything good, or special or better than what mom made (which is impossible). Lot of FUN. We also watched Yamla Pagla Deewana (6/10) which is a decent fun masala movie. Had a good day, had a good Diwali. Happy Diwali to you, Shubh Deepawali!!

Fall Foliage near NY/NJ | Big Pocono State Park & Jim Thorpe PA

So I took my parents for viewing & enjoying Fall Foliage (which is almost near ending now). Considering I live NY/NJ, the best bet at this time of the year seemed to be Poconos. So we decided to go to Big Pocono State Park & Jim Thorpe. The Big Pocono State Park is around 2 hrs drive from my home, the last 1/3 part of which is through mountains & stuff, which is interesting & nice. The fall colors were still there, which was kinda nice. Then we reached on top of BPSP, which is on top of a mountain, I guess Camelback Mountain. There are 4 parking spots & a cafeteria/store (which was closed). Parking Spot 1 is the best spot, right on the top & in middle. You can see the view of all sides & do hiking/trekking around it or so. Pretty nice view & fun experience. Then we drove an hour to Jim Thorpe, which a nice small little town in the valley with a river flowing & all that. You can hike & bike along the river, looking at the river on your side & mountains all around you, which had beautiful Fall colors, & the nice gorge. It's quite pretty. There are some other nice spots with great view & all that, old historical buildings, railroad & rail ride etc (which I didn't get to do/see). It was definitely a nice day with lot of nice Natural site-seeing & FUN.

MnD are 'here' in USA

MnD = Mom & Dad. My Dad came up with this term/acronym when I first came to USA. He started using this in chats and I/we have stuck to it since then.

'here' = In USA, this is said as hear, like hearing & not hair. I need to remember that!!

Rest is all a simple story. After all the previous tussle with US Embassy in Delhi my mom finally got her visa earlier this month and my parents are here today. I am meeting them after more than 2.25 yrs. It's exciting, its emotional, its nice.. very nice. Glad I could do this for my parents. I am sure they are going to have a great time & so will I. Looking forward for lot of travelling & hanging out, lot of good home-cooked Indian food & lot of talking (arguing too maybe), lot of FUN!!

My First American Wedding Experience

To begin with, let me clarify: I was just attending the wedding yesterday, of my (& Tani's) friends Amy & Duncan. It was not my "american" wedding, or "my wedding" of any kind. Just my first experience with/in an American Wedding.. & it was AWESOME!! It really was...Wedding parties are usually fun, at least in India they are. In India, weddings are Big Social Event. It's all about show-off & having fun & all that. It could be a multi-day celebration, but that's changing now. Although I haven't attended a wedding in India for quite  a while now.. actually haven't been to India for more than 2 yrs for that matter. But anyways..

The wedding started with Wedding Vows (i.e. the real wedding ceremony stuff. BTW, this could be a tough phrase to say for an Indian as ity has both 'W' & 'V' which are said differently by Americans) were exchanged at Carlyle House, which is a really historic building (maybe pre-historic for American standards??). It's a beautiful old building, the weather was warm & nice and it went very well with occasional sound blasts by airplanes flying overhead. Short & sweet stuff. Then the party moved to the Ritz-Carlton at Pentagon City for the reception.The theme was 80,s which I really don't know much about. But no one really cares about the music much, once you are few drinks down, even the banging of kitchenware can be music (that's how heavy metal came to existence I guess). Although as far as I can remember, the music was fun & nice.. if I remember!! After the introductions of bridesmaids, groomsmen, groom & bride herself, it was time for a beautiful "first dance" by our beautiful couple, very well choreographed (with almost no steps to do, except one :-). Then some long & "emotional" speech by best man & maid of honor & some other things maybe which I don't remember. But the food & drinks were on table which was NICE (that's what made it lemurable). And then... The DANCING. OMG.. As far as I am concerned, I made the party rock n roll.. or something.. dunno.. but I had LOT OF FUN, lots of Dancing, with almost everyone who wanted to shake a leg, or two. It was pretty awesome. Along this time, there was wedding cake cutting, which I never got to eat & more Dancing.. more FUN. I just remember the Dancing. It was very joyful, festive with lots of wonderful & great people there. Amy & Duncan are surely fortunate to have so many wonderful friends who came to share there joy on there special day (and enjoy free food, drinks & dancing). We are so fortunate to have such friends who decided to make us a part of their special day (and get lots of gifts and on top of that get the video taken by me for free... yeah, I was the unofficial & unpaid video-grapher for the event). All in all, a wonderful day, a wonderful weekend, a wonderful time.

Thanks Amy & Duncan Van Buskirk... and Heartily Congratulations!!!!

Jagjit Singh, the Indian ghazal king is dead :-(

Another death of a master of his craft, after the last one. Jagjit Singh, the Indian ghazal king & maestro died yesterday. He made me really like ghazals, or lets just say that I only liked 'his ghazals'. I read this song hothon se chhulo tum in my dad's youth diary and heard it few times too & loved it. Then later I heard some his other ghazals in movies & loved almost all of them. He had such a melody in his voice, such compassion & such music. With in a week, this is another BIG loss for all of us!!

On a different note, Netflix has taken a full U-turn about split & Qwikster spin-off. They are not going to split the company, make 2 accounts & all that. That was a stupid idea to begin with anyways, glad they realized that. They are still going to keep the price raise, that sucks. But I am still subscribed to both Blu-ray & Streaming!!

It's Amitabh Bachchan's birthday today - Happy-Happy B'day Amit jee, the Big B!!

A weekend in Boston... waiting for lovely FallS

I was in Boston this weekend, after almost 2 yrs.. & I had a good time. It was nice. The people who know me & my opinion about Boston may find it surprising that I enjoyed Boston. Although, I did enjoy Boston earlier too, sometimes. I guess its always been about people, & that part was very good this time round. Met some old friends and new people as well, both was lot of fun. Also visited Rhode Island for few hours, it was okay too. The weather was nice all this weekend too. Kinda chilly on Friday night but very nice all Saturday & Sunday. I was told that it was one of the warmest Oct 9 in Boston area, with record breaking 84 F. Although its almost impossible to predict. Cold then humid then colder then rain then cold then rainier then.... UGH. Wish the weather is good for next 2 months, Wish for lovely FallSeason & pre-winters!!

RIP Steve.. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died :-(

Steve Job's dead.. & I never got to meet him.. never got to say thanks to him. to tell him that how his speech below inspired me.. motivated me.. & raised my respect for him to highest levels. Before this, I thought of him as just another Technology master/guru of Silicon Valley, the Apple co-founder, who was great businessman & a sharp/smart guy of course. A guy who has created such royalty with his brand that he can afford to charge ridiculous amounts of money for his products & people will blindly buy it. An arrogant & obnoxious & proud person maybe. & so I never bought or owned an Apple product, for that same reason. Did I ever doubt quality & superiority of Apple products, not really..

But Steve Jobs is not just Apple co-founder, the leader of a technology giant. He was an innovator, a thinker, a scientist, a leader, a true visionary. He changed the way people look at personal computers, even though he was not the first person to invent GUI in computers. He changed the way people use portable music players, even though he didn't invent mp3 players. He changed the way people use phones, even though he was not the first to come up with a touch screen phone device. He changed the way people look at hand held tablets, even though many including me thought it was a stupid idea. Why would anyone want another device to hang on to when we have smart-phones & net-books. Why?? But.. what do we know? He was the visionary behind all this. He was the one who either knew it will work or definitely was the one who was ready to take that chance/risk of bringing it to people & it worked. Worked very well I guess.... He was a genius of User Experience & User Interface. He converted existing ordinary/mediocre/popular ideas/devices into a new invention by his excellent UE/UI enhancements & innovations and made these things just unbelievably awesome. He changed the the way we use any of these devices. He changed the World!!

Today, he's dead. But he accomplished so much in his life. He lived the life of "Steve Jobs". Regardless of all the challenges & difficulties, he did SO much. But he's still alive & will be for years to come.. in our hands, in our pockets, in our bags, on our desks, in our offices, in our living rooms, bedrooms, homes and everywhere around us. He'll be always alive in our hearts.... RestInPeace Steve, RestInPeace :-|

Not that it's anything important.. but I think I'll buy some Apple products now. Just as my tribute to Steve Jobs & support for his brain-child Apple..

My mother finally got her U.S. Tourist Visa!!!!!!!!!

After rejection twice, my mother finally got her U.S. Tourist Visa. So glad & happy!! What did we do different?? I contacted my area congressmen (Jerrold Nadler & Albio Sires) & they sent a query/recommendation letter to US Consulate in New Delhi. Sires' office asked me to send them my mother's documents & all that and I did that too. My mother went for interview today with all the required documents & letters. But they didn't even have a look (probably they had it with them). Just asked 2-3 simple questions unlike previous times & the visa was granted. COOL & AWESOME!! Heartfelt & cordial thanks to Congressman Nadler & Sires and everyone else who helped :)

my mom's favorite song..

Occupy Wall Street Movement | 2.5 Men S9-II

There is occupy Wall Street movement going on these days. I work at Wall Street, at one of the financial firms? Not really a financial firm but something like that, I guess.But I am not the one who makes markets move or stuff impacted & all that. I don't. I just do my job, which is probably as insignificant as.... ummm, can't think of other insignificant jobs. Anyways, I saw that people wanted to sit at Wall Street so its all blocked now with barricades.I can't walk easily to just get my lunch & stuff. Protesters are sitting at Liberty Square, across Broadway St now. I hear people are quitting jobs & going to stay till December or so. Sounds HARDCORE. Many people are there just for FUN though, atleast it seems so. Music, food, drinking & partying.. That's "PROTEST". I don't know much so won't comment. It's a free country & everyone should have right to peacefully protest & raise there voice. Good thing... I might go & sit there sometime, I might!!

Also saw Pilots protesting today at Wall Street. They were actually let in, inside the barricades. I guess it was one day thing. I hear Pilots are very badly paid in U.S. Surprising for me but it's true I hear. That's probably not good. Happy Pilots are important for all of us. Hopefully they are all protesting for & requesting for the right things. I mean, not asking TOO MUCH. LOL... on me!! I seem to not know details of any of these things. Just been so busy. Another excuse?? Not really. What's going on with you & what do U think????

BTW.. After my last review, I saw 2nd episode of 2.5 men season premier & it was not really good. Ashton started playing the same dumb guy he does and the same old stuff. No innovation, no fun. It's not a bad or horrible show, but definitely not as good as it used to be with Charlie Sheen!!

Just another weekend again.. Amadeus/Munnabhai-2/Two and a Half Men S9 Premier

Yeah, so just another weekend like last one. Nothing exciting or special has happened yet. Was mostly relaxing & not doing nothing much. However did go to Lincoln Park yesterday & it's SO BORING. It just sucks. It's like in middle of industrial area with nothing to it. Half of it seems unsafe to visit even in the day time. Maybe okay to go with big group & play games etc. But otherwise it's just BAD. Except that, Here's what I watched at home on my awesome TV..

• Amadeus (9/10): Really good movie!! Very well made & great performances storyline is great to. It's a movie about Antonio Salieri & Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The Amazing part was How Salieri loved & hated Mozart and it was portrayed amazingly by F. Murray Abraham's performance. he did a great job in portraying the struggle of the character. The crazy Mozart was excellently presented by Tom Hulce. The music was definitely beautiful and so was cinematography. Also the way it represents that hwo huge artistic talent may have to suffer and not achieve real greatness until death.
• Munnabhai-2 (8/10): The Sequel to Munnabhai MBBS, also called Lage Raho Munnabhai, is one of my favorite movies. Munnabhai is stuck with Gandhi & Gandhigiri giving message of honesty & integrity to all of us. Rajkumar Hirani really knows how to convey great messages in simplest forms, great director & great movie.
• Two and a Half Men: I am not a big fan of this show but its alright. This ninth season premier killed Chalie Sheen & Brought Ashton Kutcher and I wanted to check that. Episode was boring until Ashton came in. But after his entry, it was funny & nice. He's not Kelso kinda dumb guy or neither Charlie kinda womanizer. But it would be interesting to see how this goes.

Thats it from me. What do you think of above? Anything else to share??

Qwikster: The New Old Netflix

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings wrote a letter to me & blogged this yesterday explaining why this DVD vs streaming split happened. It has been making me mad how they increased the prices by splitting services in two. But I eventually decided to keep both because nothing can beat Netflix DVD/Blu-ray collection & I Blu-ray is AWESOME on my Awesome HD TV. Although lately the netflix's disk shipping has been very slow & disappointing. Netflix streaming is pretty awesome & convenient too as I can just play & watch on my PS3 anytime I want. So, both are good. But as per last night, the old netflix of disk shipping will be renamed to Qwikster and the Streaming service will be called Netflix. Qwikster will include video games & will remain pretty much same except new website & little more hassle for user. Seems like an attempt to divorce the DVD business by branding it separately & letting it live or die. Netflix streaming is supposed to have lot more great things coming, soon. So, i'll stick to both & wait & watch what happens next. I still love/hate NETFLIX/QWIKSTER.

Just another week-end.. & just how we worry too much!!

Another nice one.. This was quite an uneventful week/weekend I guess. Just went to work, came back home and didn't do anything else much. Can't remember, so probably surely didn't. Doesn't it sucks how time just passes in our life. I mean, we worry each & every day, bother ourselves with one thing or other and  when you look back there is not even much you can remember. But we sure did worry about dozen of things on that day, pissed/angry/mad/sad/excited and everything else. But can't remember anything right now, just nothing. That's why we should worry less, I guess. Atleast not about the unimportant things. Worry about important things which are in our control, not about things which are not in our control or we can't do anything about...

Although all that reminds me of four things - 1) How I have to pay more than $2000 for my hand surgery even after having health insurance. This is the "co-insurance". The total cost just for the surgery is 12000+. Should write a separate blog about this. 2) I lost my nice cap & sunglasses y'day. Just while walking out from home, dropped it from my hand, JLT. 3) Went to & walked through the Highline Park in NYC taking pictures of park & the city. Guess I am finally getting hang of taking pictures than just getting taken pictures of. 4) I watched The Expendables (6/10) & Marigold (5/10): The first is a decent action movie with big ensemble cast & nice action etc on a thin plot. The second is another example of a good movie done wrong. It has a good plot & I would say god actors. But very bad screenplay, poor dialogues and horrible direction. It was not painful to watch but not as fun as it could've been. So, that's all I remember of just another weekend. Rest... All izz Well!!

10 years since 9/11

U remember what was going on with U that day/time? I remember I was in India in the train going to village I think, or coming back and I heard that plae crashed into some very tall building of America in New York, the World Trade Center. Kinda couldn't believe it. 19 Terrorists had deployed the most horrible plan killing 2977 people. I moved to NYC last year and went to Ground Zero WTC site on 9/11 last year. I was there last night as well. And then went to Liberty State Park 9/11 Memorial this morning. Feel sad for all who died in the plane, the people who died  in WTC Buildings, the people who decided to die to save the plane collision in Pennsylvania, they had a tough choice to make. All these innocent people died that day. Innocent people died in 2001 Parliament attack in New Delhi or Attackers in Mumbai or just few days ago in New Delhi. What's wrong with these people? What's wrong whith this world?? UGH... May god bless the soul of people who had to give there lif and peace to there soul & there family may survive this terrible pain. May there be peace in this world & everybody's heart.. AMEN!! (feel free to share your experience/opinion)

'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying' review - My First Broadway Musical

( I watched, not I did.. LOL) So YAY!! Thanks to Tani - who bought the wonderful tickets, I finally (click here to know more) saw my first Broadway Musical & it was AWESOME. The story is about a young man J. Pierpoint Finch who lands his hand on a book telling him all secret to corporate success... umm you know what, click here to read story/synopisis. I'll tell you that I really enjoyed it. Maybe also because I enjoy watching singing & dancing thing since I grew up with Bollywood movies; and this had  Daniel Radcliffe, the Harry Potter (If you don't know Harry, there is no point in me telling U. Just think Daniel as a somewhat famous British 'child' actor) as Finch, who was very good at singing, dancing, acting and specially at American Accent. This boy needs to watchout, he's very talented but needs to pick right roles and all that. He's lil short & not any Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt. But lot of energy & talent. Hope he doesn't becomes Michael J Fox. John Larroquette & Rose Hemmingway were good too and so was most of the cast actually. Also it has a funny satirical story on corporate & business world, office politics etc. Performances are excellent; songs, music & dancing is great. Total FUN.. Also got some very good pictures of most of the  main cast, including Daniel Radcliffe as well. It was just nice.. I just LOVED it!! (My score would be - 8/10)

Bombing in New Delhi by Terrorists & then Earthquake

There was bombing near New Delhi High Court killing 11 & injuring more than 77 people. Why do these damn terrorists try to injure & hurt & kill innocent people.. WHY?? What will killing people on the street is going to give you, just other than bad name/fame & possibility of getting killed/eliminated very soon. Why can't people live just peacefully with love & caring or just minding there own business.. WHY?? & My dear Dilli was not only rocked by a bomb blast but also an earthquake later in the day with not much damage I think. I just wonder, what's going on? The nature is trying to hurt us, but been kind to spare us it seems. And we are making it just worse by fighting each other rather than holding hands joined together & work for Peace & Happiness. WHY??

4Peaks @ Adirondacks-dacks-dacks

That's where I celebrated my Birthday Weekend.. and it was AWESOME, but better (Thanks!!). I was at 4Peaks in Adirondacks-dacks-dacks. It's a privately owned 700 acre land with 7 back-country cabins/camps. We stayed at Sugar Camp there, which is very secluded with no one around for quarter mile. We had a beautiful & big log cabin in middle of a small field, surrounded by woods. There's a well/water-pump & privy right outside. There's a screened porch, wooden chairs outside, hammock (which was broken with a down tree this time), a brook flowing right next to camp too. Just beautiful surrounding.. The cabin is nice too, its kinda old, built in 1974.. but beautiful & pretty & very comfort-full. There's a nice full size bed with pillows & blanket (you do need your own linens), wooden fire-place, dining table, rocking chairs, full kitchen with oven & all kitchenware as well. there's also another small room with smaller bed for kids I guess. You can hear the brook outside in night & see the starts in dark. Nights & dark could be scary as there is no electricity (just gas lamps, gas stove, gas oven & gas fridge too). We did our own cooking all 3 days/nights & enjoyed the serenity & awesomeness. So it's a really nice setup.

4Peaks has 4 mountains, one brook and lots of deep woods & wilderness. We did hiking to two mountains - Rattlesnake & Lookout. The First trail ended right in our camp, just amazing. The hiking was not like any other, but real hardcore & more like walking in the real woods. No real trails/path but following the ribbon markings or being on your own (like when we got lost off of  a trail & had to just follow our gut feeling for half an hour until we landed on our destination.. such a relief). The view2 from top of the mountains is as nice as the hike. Also there's Ausable river just a mile away for swimming & hangout, beautiful & nice. We sat with our feet in shallow water, getting fish pedicure for free. It was just SO NICE. Went to Lake Placid on the way back. IT's beautiful but kinda very touristy. just had lunch there & drove back. The drive to Adirondacks-dacks-dacks is not very scenic except the parts close to Lake Placid etc. But still it was lot of fun.

Martin the owner is cool, but kinda weird too. He seems unfriendly in person & kinda obnoxious thinking you don't know anything about living in wilderness and all that. But he truly tries to take care of you & make sure get the best customer service & experience possible. Following his advice on  what to do is good too. His website looks weird too, kinda like brochure & very old school but maybe that's his style. The place is nice & you'll have a good time if you are looking for an "off the grid" experience.

Now some of you might be thinking that why anyone will spend 400-500 bucks to be stuck in middle of woods with no electricity, internet, phone service; and where you have to cook & clean by yourself, bath in open & use a privy. Why would someone do that? Well, because many of us like it. If you don't you don't have to worry about it. If you do, then go & DO THIS!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!

Wow.. so I turned 28. Yeah, that's the magic number. 28. I don't know what to say/feel. I am not where I would have wanted to at age 28. Still not a successful businessman, big superstar, famous social activist, great leader & many-many other things I wanted. And shortened another year from my life. Sucks, huh?? Sometimes I don't understand why people celebrate birthdays. Is it really a happy day? Isn't it just sad day which just lets your reflect all you have not accomplished till date & how your life is getting shorter... how you don't have enough/lesser time left... how things are not as good as you wanted... & how they may not get any better.. & how you have just less of your life left!!

Or I could look at it this way: I just turned 28 & I have lived more than a year in New York City now, many peoples wish.. successfully working with a great job at Wall Street, many people's dream.. have a great & blooming business in hand.. great experience/learning in all the awesome things I have learned in all these years.. some really great friends and special people in my life.. and last but not the least, a great year of new accomplishments & achievemenets to look forward to. I already have some great things starting right in this month which will go a long way forward in fulfilling my dreams, goals & aspirations. With all the awesome experience and love I have collected in past 28 years and specially in last one year, I am definitely goingt to make this a special year & looking forward for many-many more special & amazing years ahead. With that, all I have to say is...