The year that was.. 2011

Can't believe that the year is over. It was okay.. nothing special, except MnD visit. or was there more?? Lets see as per my blog, what this year was about:

• Alcatraz and Drive on CA-1 to 17 mile Drive & Big Sur!!
• Maximum India @ Kennedy Center DC: Kailasha with Kailash Kher.. Symphony with Zakir Hussain, Shankar Mahadevan, Hariharan 
• Maximum India @ Kennedy Center DC: Ismat Apa Ke Naam with Naseerudin & Ratna Pathak Shah 
• Comedy Central Roast of Donald TRUMP... by Rahul~RT 
• India won the ICC Cricket World Cup 2012.... & cricket explained!! 
• Luray Caverns & Shenandoah National Park 
• Obama: Osama Bin Laden's DEAD 
• I just gave $25 to a roadside fraud... or person in need?? 
• Century 21 is horrible, really sucks... No End of World / Shackleford wins Preakness / Bloodworth 
• FLORIDA Vacation begins... New York to MIAMI Beach 
• Savannah, GA to Charleston, SC to Washington DC : End of Florida Vacation
• I am a New Yorker... 1 year in NYC!!
• I had hand surgery... MCP Joint RCL tear & subluxation
• Hand in 4 week cast / Dinner Cruise in Manhattan
• Moved to Jersey City... I am not a New Yorker??
• Visit to Amish Village... Memories of my Indian Village
• Happy / Sad | Rakhi / Shammi Kapoor
• Irene was here & she was not bad...
• HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!
• 4Peaks @ Adirondacks
• 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying' review - My First Broadway Musical
• 10 years since 9/11
• My mother finally got her U.S. Tourist Visa!!!!!!!!!
• RIP Steve.. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died :-(
• Jagjit Singh, the Indian ghazal king is dead :-(
• My First American Wedding Experience
• MnD are 'here' in USA
• Dev Anand is Dead... RIP :-(
• MnD left.. back home to India
• MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2011!!!!

Hmmm.... this is lot (30=2.5/month), but still not all.... so, it was a wonderful year!!

War Horse & Don-2

Watched War Horse (6/10) and I don't think it's really great. Just okay.. Not bad, but not great either. Somehow, couldn't feel the emotions. No connection to chracters - the horse Joey, the boy Albert or anything else. The french girl story was the most emotional/touching.. and a scene od the british & german soldier saving the horse together. But not as great as I expected....

Don-2 (8/10) on the other hand was quite good. Great action/crime thriller. It was FUN. Good performaces, nice storyline, cool action, pretty cinematography & great dialogues. FYI: At the end scene, the car to pick don has Don 3 written... SO??

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2011!!!!

A very-very Merry Christmas (to all Christmas celebrators) & Happy Holidays (to everyone else). Holiday time of US has started with Christmas & goes untill New Years aka Dec 24th to Jan 1st, which is like more than a week. People ususally spend time with family & do things & have fun & all that. I am celebrating my Christmas in Boston with Tani & her parents and seeing/enjoyig with other friends in Boston too (It's going to be almsot 2 yrs since I left Boston and this is 2nd time I am going back. I think it's nice to visit, just staying there was becoming unlemurable.). Christmas last year was fun. I went to see the Christams tree at Rockefeller Center (which was really cool unlike this year) and then went to midnight mass at St Patricks (managed to get in, in half hour, without ticket). Let's see what goes on this year, excited & waiting... again, Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!!

Misssion Impossible: Ghost Protocol & Girl with Dragon Tattoo

MI4 aka Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (7/10) is quite good. Good to see Tom Cruise back, good to see him in action,, good to see him in style.. so, it's basically his movie & he has doen very well. The movie is about Nuclear launch control device & codes have gone missing and Ethan has to track them down & stop them . The chase takes him to Kremlin, Dubai & India (where you see Anil kapur in his famed hollywood stint for almost 100-200 seconds, dancing around like a charming cobra, as an Indian biliionaire business tycoon should be.. also, somehow you see lot of tamil/telugu script written on sign boards all over in Mumbai, India). Movie is exciting & fun, performances are good.. especially by Simon Pegg & Jeremy Renner (this guy is really good). Great action & great fun what you expect from MI!!

The Girl with Dragon Tattoo (7/10) is exciting in some ways, interseting in other ways, vulgar & gory in some sense & maybe disappointing in others.. Great job by Rooney Mara as the dragon tattoo girl, the investigator & all that. Others are good too & the movie is captivating is ome senses. The portrayal of woman abuse is very clear message in story & comes across appropriately. I think I would like to watch th eother two upcoming movies of the Millenium Series..

Another day without water, second time..

Basically the water supply is gone for the day today from 8am in morning to 12 midnight. It's not as bad as last week when water was suddenly gone in the late evening until next afternoon. I practically had no water except half a jug for drinking. This time I have filled & stored a little more. Also, the steam heat here gets shut off if there is no water. So, it's going to be cold as well. I have never had it happen to me in USA, but as they say, there's always a first time. Although, this is second time. So.. wish me LUCK!!

Weekend with Sherlock, Harold & Kumar!!

Another nice weekend.. Why? Just had a god time meeting friends & hanging out & shopping & all that. Got stockings for Christmas, a nice rosy watch & many other things, JLT. Good mexican & vietnamese food (PHO 98) & Naked Pizza, homemade cookies etc etc. Sounds pretty festive, it was, it is. Watched 2 movies as well..

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (7/10) was pretty good. I would say as good as first one overall, sometimes better & sometimes not as much. It doesn't have the first time charm like previous but still has lots of action & stuff going on. Humor, action, adventure, drama & all that. Robert Downey Jr is a great actor & very good, so are others. Jared Haris as Prof Moriarty was good too. Seems they left scope for another one too.

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (6/10) was fun to watch. ALthough not as funny & iconic as previous two movies, it had its moments. Little more vulgar maybe & crude but still the pair of Harold & Kumar, cracks you up. NPH had a smaller part, would've been nice to have more of the hypocritical $%#@&. Seems they left a scope for another one too ;-)

A really nice weekend...

This was first weekend after MnD's departure back to India. I miss them, a lot. However, still the weekend was good. Starting from all the awesome food that my mom has left for me in fridge & some frozen too. To a wonderful dinner at Komegashi too (really great japanese food, not that much of a city skyline view except tip of the south if you are sitting at a good spot. but you can be seated right by the water & enjoying wonderful traditional japanese food). To a nice stroll in the city watching SantaCon (its not Santa conning people, it's more like a Santa Claus Convention aka people dressed as Santa Claus or Christmas themed & walking all over the city) & the famous Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center (it was not very impressive, just a huge tree with lots o flights on it, no fancy decoration etc). And the movies: Delhi Belly (8/10 - great comedy & very good performances too. Imran is good, Shehnaz was much more lemurable, Vir & Vijay were great but Kunal Roy Kapur was total pleasant surprise).. & Horrible Bosses (6/10 - good comedy & decent fun, not mind blowing ROTFL kinds but good laughs & all that). It was nice, very nice!!

It was Tani's Birthday on Dec 9th, a very-very Happy Birthday to Tani!!

MnD left.. back home to India

MnD left today to India. After a stay of almost 7 weeks, they left. It was so nice to have them here, very-very nice. It was one of my best times of my life and specially of my stay in US. It was sooooo GOOD. MnD's love & affection & caring, hanging out every weekend or even more, movie every sunday & more and on top of everything - the love & caring. I am going to miss all of it ofcourse. But it's awesome that they were here & we had such a good time. The life moves back to normal/usual, so it will. The pictures, the videos & the memories will keep bring smile to my & MnD's face :)

MnD @ Liberty Science Center

My dad really been wanting to see Science Museum since he's been here. So as part of free BOA museums, I took MnD to Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, NJ. It's basically right next to Liberty State Park ,which means its 10 mins drive from me. Lucky like we have been many times for my visits with MnD, we got free street parking right in front of museum. Or it's like $10 I think. I think Science museums are more for kids, so they can get first hand experience on lot of scientific phenomenas & principles. It's good for that. Kinda huge, or maybe not. Surprisingly, lot of animals etc - like turtles, frogs, snakes, fishes etc. Then lot about communications, some about diseases/medicine etc. It seems it's not very well organized. But there are some interesting & interactive activities which are cool. It was quite good for FREE!! Then I took MnD to the Liberty State Park where dad did some driving & he was quite good for just his second time. Then, back to home & watched Nanhe Jaisalmer (5/10). So basically, we continued the tradition of going out every weekend & Sunday Movie nights with MnD. Nice day & Nice weekend!!

Dev Anand is Dead... RIP :-(

Just after Shammi Kapur, the legendary Dev Anand passed away as well today :-( Such a super star, the real evergreen super hero. He was one of those actors who created his own style & people started imitating him & copying him. Tons of people are making money by just copying & imitating him. He's one of the senior most actors of bollywood with Dilip Kumar. Just makes you think how time doesn't wait for any body and you need to accomplish everything you want with urgency (why I say that, guess??). But anyways, he lived his life to fullest and will always-always be alive in our memories & our hearts.

Rest In Peace Dev Saab....

MnD in FIDI, Downtown NYC

MnD visited FIDI (Financial District in Downtown New York City) yesterday. First thing was the free ferry trip to Staten Island. I have done that too, more than once. And it's prettty cool I have to say. Good view, nice breeze & all that, for FREE. Then I walked them through the famous Wall Street of New York City and we reached NYSE, The New York Stock Exchange. Not only that, but I took them for a visit of NYSE Trading Floor. We walked on the trading floor, roamed around & took pictures and thenw e enjoyed the famous "Closing Bell" too. Pretty Cool!! Then we walked to the Trinity Church. After spending half an hour there, the next stop was the 911 Memorial. Currently, you need to get special entry passses from 911memorial.org. Then get there & get in. Not bad at all. The museum is still under construction. The two waterfalls are ready. I would like to go there again.. Then a visit to Century 21 aftter a long time, for a quick but short shopping spree cuz they gave me $10 after my last disastrous experience there. It was okay....

So the visit to FIDI, Downtown NYC was totally AWESOME!!!!!

Thanksgiving Weekend....

This Thanksgiving was nice. Didn't do much though.. What did I do? What did we do?? Was at home all day. We had a nice lunch I think & normal dinner. No turkey, ofcourse. Did watch Parineeta (8/10), very nice movie. What else? Nothing I think.. Oh yeah, we didn't go out. I mean, we didn't go to Thanksgiving Parade as my dad was not up to it. So, we just watched it on TV. Although we did go for Black Friday Shopping to Best Buy & Target after midnight. It was my first time & it was cool to see huge lines & find people waiting since 5 pm in evening. FUN, I would say...

I worked (from home) on Friday, so nothing happened. Really nothing!! Except I did watch Your Highness (5/10). However Saturday was the real FUN-Day. We went on our road-trip aka long-drive to Bear Mountain. It's awesome. It's surprisingly nice to see/realize that there are so many nice natural places around NY/NJ, mountains, hikes, rocks, beaches, forests etc-etc. It's just cool. You don't really realize that when you are living in the city aka Manhattan. But anyways, Drive to Bear Mountain is nice, & so is Bear Mountain itself. Beautiful scenic view, nice trails, good hiking & all that stuff. There is State Line (something) on the way & that's nice too. A nice view of Hudson River & the town on the river. On our way back, we went to Rangnath Temple in Pamona. It's a nice temple with prasaadam (holy food) available round the clock. It's nice, calm & serene as well with lovely design/architecture & beautiful environment. Went to Macy's before returning & bought a nice Coat for Dad, with >60% discount. A very good day indeed!!

Sunday was slow & relaxing. Just awesome food again. I mean, awesome food is being made by MnD, mostly Mother, everyday. We did watch Aarakshan (7/10) on my dad's special demand. It's a nice movie with good concept & very good performances. Although, the execution seems to weaken in second half where movie loses its direction, and from grueling discussion of Reservation system in India, it becomes about Education & Private tuition & Coaching center & Poor basic education etc. Still not bad, but movie loses its rhythm, the note it set in beginning. Good overall. Although, my Thanksgiving weekend was great, just great overall. So, what do I say? Just THANKS.

Happy Thanksgiving 2011.. THANKS

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone.. No turkey for me, but still thankful to god, to my MnD (who are here with me), my sister (who doesn't have MnD with her these days) & myelf (just cuz I am awesome!!) and "everyone" else, for "everything wonderful" I have.. THANKS!!

MnD in Manhattan & Hugo 3D (8/10)

We finally went to visit Manhattan today.. me, MnD & Tani. After a nice & elaborat enorth indian thal/meal - paratha, palak paneer, aloo bhindi, dahi vada, arhar/toor daal, salad & kheer; we went out to  the city. Took PATH from Jersey City (to get 25% discount with PATH Smartlink Pass, you need to buy 10 trips for $15 or more) & then Subway to Central Park. Enjoyed the skating rink in Central park (just watching) and then the swing on children's park (I am very good with swing, very good!!). Took a walk to Columbus Circle where they have put two new elephant statues, seems  there are lot more all the way uptill 200 street or so. Then walk to & through Times Square (the second center of the world). My dad just loves Times Square, reminds me of my initial love for Times Sq. I think it has that charm, you see it first time & you are in awe, the lights, the buildings, the signs, the people, the place & everything is awesome. Although, after living just 3 blocks from there, for more than a year, walking through Times Sq every day with  all those tourists around & all that; you just get sick of it. I didn't :-)

The next stop was AMC Times Sq.. I had invitations for Hugo 3D Premiere in NYC, an upcoming movie directed by Martin Scorsese, based on The Invention of Hugo Cabret written by Brian Selznick. Brian's partner is friend of my last Roommate's girlfriend. Anyways, it's a nice movie about this boy Hugo, who winds clocks ina station in Paris & is trying to fix this automaton, his father was trying to fix before his death. And thers is osmething weird about the old man at the Toy Store, George Melies. Surprisingly enough, half of it aka the story about George is true, inspiring!!.. So, that was all about my awesome weekend.. really awesome!!

Baby Girl for Abhishek & Aishwarya

Me & my mother had predicted this already. We were talking last week and bothof us said that it would be a girl.. & so it is. I am usually right with such predictions anyways. So, Amitabh Bachchan is grandfather to a new baby girl born to Abhishek & Aishwarya today. Congratulations to Bachchans!! (Share http://timesofindia.feedsportal.com/fy/8at2EuS0TepVC1F8/story01.htm)

Coney Island & Traffic in Manhattan

So MnD & I visited Coney Island today. Dad wanted to see a beach & this seemed closest to Jersey City & most optimal, with nice beach, boardwalk & all that. It's really nice too. The boardwalk extends into sea and people were fishing and nice view of water all around. Sky & clouds looked beautiful. Weather was lil cold but nice. Must be great in summers!!

However from Jersey City, the best way as per Google Maps is to go through Manhattan. It's 17 miles & should take 31 mins one way. It tool an hour to get there & 2.5 hrs to come back. Yeah!! Whiel returning, we were stuck for 1.5 hrs in Manhattan itself from Brooklyn Bridge to Holland Tunnel. Sucks, huh?? Anyways, that's why I like to avoid driving in/through the city. Driving through city reminds of India a lot too, very unlike US. People honking, cutting, not driving in lane & all that. But anyways, we made it and got another experience... and, that's New York City!!

11.11.11

SO.. today is 11.11.11 - The special day. Palindrome & all that. I hear lot of stuff about today actually - Auspicious Day, Dooms Day & all that. I don't know. But I do know that I wanted this day to be special at some time. Years & Years ago, I wanted to have my baby born at this day. Really!! Well, that's not happening.. not that I know of!! & Years ago I thought I'll get married on this day. That's not happening for sure. What's happening is that I am writing a blog about all this. Which is COOL... You don't need special days to make days special in your life. They are just special, cuz they are SPECIAL!!

The new Batman - The Dark Knight Rises has been shooting around my work, aka Wall Street. My friend got pics with Christian Bale & Gary Oldman and saw Anne Hathaway & Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I saw Gary & Joseph too. They didn't let me take pics though cuz they were dressed at the time & were in "character". Anyways, I don't even care much. I am waiting for the movie though, very much!!... The week has been fine since return from DC Trip. Nothing special & nothing happening overall. The weather has been okay too except it's lil chilly today. Parents are enjoying there time here & All izzz Well!!

Happy 11.11.11... Happy Veterans Day!!

Bronx Zoo - $100 $avings

How?? Bank Of America has this Museums offer every first weekend of month, these list of museums are completely free to visit. I went with my parents and got in free at Bronx zoo instead of paying $30 each for the tickets. Also there is free street parking on Southern Boluevard over weekends, so I saved $10 for parking as well. At Bronx Zoo - They have lot of lemurs, polar bear, reptiles & frogs, monkey & birds exhibit and sea lions as well. The weather was warm & nice today and we really had fun at Bronx Zoo!!

Trip to Washington DC

I came back from my awesome & great FUN trip to Washington DC with my parents today. I drove from here (aka Jersey City) to Washington DC and back. I was the only one driving and it was totally fine actually. I took NJ Turnpike & I-95S toll road and drove 225 miles to DC in 3.5 hrs. Drove back toll free on I-95N & US-1N for 265 miles in 4.5 hrs... AWESOME!! & No tiredness or anything either.. Just AWESOME!! We were staying right in DC in China Town so everything was walking distance. So, this is what we saw/did:

• National Mall: Well this includes the area from Lincoln center to Capitol Hill and Washington Monument & World War II Memorial & The White House falls in it as well. It is kinda a lot of walking but all this can be done in half a day as we did. FYI - White House has a better view from the back, specially for pics.
• Capitol Hill: This gets a separate mention here because I did an inside tour of Capitol Hill (Thanks to Tani) and also got to sit at the visitor gallery in the Congress in Session. FYI: You can't take any backpacks or bigger bags, no food, drink or even water etc is not allowed.
• US Botanical Garden: It's right next to Capitol Hill, its ofcourse FREE like everything else there & its NICE. FYI: They have a nice audio tour where you can call a no# from phone, enter code given next to the plant or place u seeing and get lot more info.
• Smithsonian Natural History Museum: Now this is a really BIG Museum. You can wander here for days. It has dinosaur's fossils & skeletons, many other pre-historic skeletons of animals & humans, stones & rocks & minerals, Hope Diamond and LOT of other stuff. We almost completed it in half day. FYI: Start from the Dino exhibit because it's most interesting & entertaining. Most of the fun stuff is on the ground floor only.
• National Air & Space Museum: There are two Air & Space museums in the area, one is in DC at National Mall & other is in Chantilly, the Udvar Hazy Center. If you have to do one & you can manage to get out of city, do Udvar Hazy. It's bigger I think & has real space shuttle & a sky observatory to see 38 miles around & planes landing. It also has Enola Gay there & first passenger Concord  FYI: There's a $15 car parking at Udvar Hazy.
• ISCKON Baltimore: This is an Isckon Temple in Baltimore, Maryland called Kulin Gram. I always confuse this with the big Isckon Temple at Potomac, Maryland which has cows & bigger temple & fields & all that. But its still nice. FYI: It's just a small residential looking building on side of the road, so make sure you look for the board/sign outside at the location.

RA.ONE - 8/10

Yeah, that's my rating for this movie which I saw today in 3D. More details to come soon...