Saturday, December 30, 2006

Florida 2006

When hundreds of thousands of people in Seattle were shivering with cold and rain in their powerless houses, a place called Florida still had in its skies, a glittering yellowish thing called Sun, brightening and cheering up people's lives. Yes, you start appreciating Sun much more if you are resident of NorthWest.

Dec 18th - The trip began like any usual trip of mine, packing my bags at the last moment. And as usual I had forgotten some key things like a towel, sunglasses, swimming trunks, the laptop bag and some more things which I have forgotten now. :) And my three "Shaane" friends who went to drop me to airport, somehow knew everything I would have forgotten. I was so glad that all these are things that money can buy, and I had not forgotten my mastercard.


Dec 19th - Domestic flights serve reasonably nice meals to their First Class passengers, the bacon Omelette and Beef patties were pretty good. While landing at Orlando Int'l airport, I had realized what's coming ahead. Water all around with shimmering rays of Sun and temperatures well above 80. Perfect conditions for a vacation.
Then started the nostalgic part, we were waiting for the baggage to arrive and someone tapped on my shoulder from behind, it was my best friend, Abhishek Das. And all those pranks, poltus, fights and jokes just came afresh. It had been an year and a half since I last saw him but nothing had changed, not even his shorts, they were the same as what everyone used to see him in at IIT. (though he claims otherwise.) He knows my liking for Chicken and he might have started preparations for it just a day back but I know this Chicken was marinating in his head since a month. His apartment mates told the excitement that had been bubbling in him, since a week. Both by Chicken and kheer, I must admit Das has turned into an awesome cook.
The day was spent more or less in going into past, in discussing things which we would have otherwise discussed on phone, if I had not been there. Had food at a pizza place which I felt is visited for a reason more than just their pizza. ;)
Then we got our rental car, the Chevrolet Malibu and drove to a nearby beach.


Dec 20th - A visit to Orlando without visiting a Disney's theme park would always be called incomplete, we chose to visit Epcot. Mission Space took us to Mars, went into Seas with Nemo and Friends, there was a turtle talk throughout which S/W engineer inside me kept wondering how were they creating animation online? (I am still not totally convinced), the test track which was reasonably thrilling, 3-D movie with effects, "honey I shrunk the audience" was one thing I found particularly entertaining, a handheld gladiator simulation made us travel the whole world, and finally the fireworks were simply superb. (Ask me for the videos that I captured.)
We wanted to celebrate Shrivaths' birthday that happens to fall on Dec 21st, but unfortunately, it was pretty late after we left Disney, so all bakeries were closed and IHOP, the place where we dined that day, refused to do anything special.

Dec 21st - The day started with a visit to Kennedy Space Center, a bus took us on a guided tour to various snapshots of history of space race, covering the details of space shuttle's engine to the actual consoles where man controlled first human's journey to moon followed by a simulation of what happened when last man stepped on moon. We were also shown the work towards the giant International Space Center, which would be twice the size of a football stadium. It is difficult to capture all the details, but I would summarize it as a must see for anyone who has slightest of interest in space exploration.
After that we reached the Dayatona, somehow managed to get parking and beach access, thanks to a kind SriLankan receptionist but the beach could not hold people's interest for more than half an hour, after all people were restless for something else, what had to become the highlight of the trip.
  • Note: The details of this part cannot be revealed here so as to respect our Non Disclosure Agreement which has been created with a fundamental respect for every trip members' right to privacy. No disclosure about Laila, Lisa or any other bhabhi would be made a part of this blog.
Dec 22nd - Last night everyone had slept pretty late, so we left a little late for the Magic City, Miami. A four hour drive and we were there.

[Before moving further a tip for all the readers - while driving in Miami, don't make a mistake to follow traffic rules. The one who drives the most reckless survives, follow the rules and you'll end up with some mishap.]

The water was not too cold, and a refreshing dip got rid of all the tiredness. The sea waves, the beach sand, the palm trees, the view of awesome Miami skyline, and the presence of so many tourists in this festival season, I am simply out of words for the whole experience.
The dinner that night sparked a new concept of defining people when we encountered a "Bhai Bandi" at Denny's.
At night, we stayed in Homestead, right besides the Everglade national park, and discussed all our escapades we'd had till then.

Dec 23rd - We woke up pretty early in the morning, and left for KeyWest, the best drive I've ever had in my life. The blue green water of Atlantic Ocean on both our sides was simply spectacular sight, it was like a 100 mile road in the middle of the sea connecting 43 Florida keys. And not forgetting to mention the sandwich made of Dolphin meat I had as my lunch. (Yea yea, now please don't tell me how cruel of me and stuff, I was feeling guilty swallowing every bite but somehow I made that decision to have that experience.)

We visited the southern most tip of continental US, rather we visited southernmost hotel, southernmost house, southernmost motel, southernmost christmas tree, southernmost yellow coloured house, southernmost desi, this word southernmost seems to be in fashion in that area.

Then, we parted into two groups. Me and Goru went on a kind of mini-cruise, where we went off 7 miles from the coast, where we had an amazing experience of Snorkeling. They provided us with an apparatus which sealed our eyes and nose and breathing was through a pipe which went from our mouth to just above the surface of water.
I must admit it was a little scary in the beginning, there were thoughts in my mind, Dude!!! what am I doing completely immersed in water seven miles away from land in Atlantic Ocean!!! Shouldn't I be calling for help!!! But soon, it was like live discovery channel, jelly fishes passing by me and I was making unsuccessful attempts to catch them, and the huge coral reef beneath me seemed like a magnificent work of mother nature.
I made it alive to boat, and as they were served us champagne, I found myself lost in a glorious sunset. After leaving the board, we shared our underwater experiences with our friends who had chosen to go in a glass bottom boat so that they can see the reef from the boat itself without actually entering water. We bought some souvenirs, had our dinner at a Thai place, and then decided to head back. By midnight, we were back to Homestead. We were not hungry but we still wanted to???, so we went to Denny's, where we met a "Bhabhi Bandi" this time. :)

Dec 24th - A tiring day - Snorkeling, other activities at KeyWest and I had already driven for like eight hours that day. It was all on me if I wish to continue all the way back to Orlando or we stay at HomeStead since I was the lone driver among the four. There was no particular advantage in continuing, since we knew it would waste the next day anyways, if we reach by 5 in the morning. But I still decided to continue just to test my endurance, how long can I continuously drive. Also, I preferred to drive on a trafficless night road.
The experiment was successful, I exceeded my own expectations, we reached home and of course I had every reason in the world to feel dead tired. But I still didn't sleep for long, wanted to have a chat with Dikshit and Gupta as it was our last day, so woke up early and had breakfast with them. The lunch was at a Desi place called Aashirvaad, whose Malai Kofta deserves a special mention. 20 mile one-way trip for food was worth it.
We had quite an adventure while returning the car to Avis guys, I was totally unimpressed with the customer service they offered me and their whole unprofessional way to handle the situation. They finally had to waive all the extra charges imposed, rather I took them even below what I should have paid, but they wasted more than a couple of hours of mine. Anyways, let bygones by bygones. I was pretty interested in going to Universal CityWalk but everyone just chose to relax, so we just stayed at home and watched Sholay. :)

Q: LailaTumhaara naam kya hai?
Ans: Laila.
[No no, please don't correct it to Basanti, it is Laila :P]


Photos added: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=149299479

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Camping at your own place

I had never expected one storm can blow the whole Puget Sound Power supplies for several days. In India, at my place, we used to have power cuts, which at times even used to be 10-12 hours everyday. The conditions used to be bad but no power for 3 consecutive days, I don't think I ever witnessed that.
And in India, we were never so dependent on electricity.
Here we could not cook food (stoves are not electric back in India), the internet stopped working (who cares about that back there :P), even cellphone networks went down (since no commercial organization here think of backup generators/inverters) , no traffic signals (now what's that in Indian context? :P), even gas-stations stop operating, and of course, there you never depend upon the heating systems that much. (although Delhi gets pretty much as cold as Seattle does)

Anyways, the whole incident was more of fun than trouble to me. Gathering food supplies which neither require cooking nor refrigeration, getting wood to burn in fireplace, sleeping in a sleeping bag in your own house, using flashlights, and even checking out hotels in case it becomes the last resort, doesn't it sound like a camping trip. I must say I thoroughly enjoyed this "paid Friday vacation". And then, I was one of those fortunate people in whose houses power restored the very next day but I know some of my friends who are still in dark after 3 days of cold and darkness. Unlike me it wasn't (or maybe I should say it isn't) fun for everyone, but hopefully everything should be fine by tomorrow and Pacific NorthWest would be alive once again :)

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Common cold

I have always hated it, more than anything. Could not trouble me for past 2 years but now it is back. And it has been for the first time there is no one around to care, gone are the days of those mama's remedies to cold. No I am not talking about pepper and honey, hot milk, ginger tea, besan halwa and stuff, I am talking about that kind touch, a gentle pat, and all cold and cough used to disappear away like magic. All that has been replaced by cafetaria's Chicken soup, which used to be absent otherwise.

Song:
Ye daulat bhi le lo, ye shohrat bhi le lo, bhale chheen lo mujhse meri kahaani,
Magar mujhe ko lauta do bachpan ka saavan, wo kaagaz ki kashti wo baarish ka paani

State: Not too good

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Christmas in Florida


Yesss :)

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Review for Aath Ghante - A hindi play

The play still has a big impact on me and made me really think about where I was taking my life. In fact I spent 2 hours or so in the next 48 hours thinking about my life direction.
- Would you miss a movie to go see the play – Yes
- How much would you have paid for the play and felt it was worth it – probably 20-25$
- What would you say stood out the most – acting; message
- What you missed – there were no inflection points. Actually that brings me to -> what really didn’t make sense is firstly why (what was the catalyst) for making BBVerma go ballistic on his manager; and why he gave up so quickly.
o I really do think that could have been the inflection point and strengthened the message further and didn’t.

-Abhishek Singh

Saturday, September 23, 2006

An awesome start

I could not have expected a better start, was delighted to receive such a warm response from crowd at the opening show of Aath Ghante. But still three more shows to go, hope to perform even better.

-Brijbhushan Verma

Some of the people who chose to email their feedback:

"It was an awesome performance by both actors. It completely blowed all of us away. It was extremely well executed, the direction was wonderful." -Bhuvan Middha

"Congratulations to you, your actors and your crew - it was awesome show!! The 1.5 hrs spent on 520 during friday evening traffic was totally worth it." - Bharati

"Awesome guys, it was just too good, a new direction to theater in this place. Verma and Sodhi would be remembered for long." - Sangharsh

"I thought Lakshman was a your masterpiece but Verma proved it all wrong. Way to go." - Vidhi

"Saw this play (Aath Ghante) yesterday. Excellent! Well written, acted and directed. It is heartening to see the high quality work by Agasthya and his group. Bravo!" - Niranjan Benegal

"Oops, are you guys serious when you say you just practiced two months for this? Just 2 people carrying a show for 2 hours without a dull moment!! Can I book the tickets for your next production right now?" - Gaurav

Thankyou very much to everyone who came and enjoyed the play, and thanks a lot for the feedback sent. :)

Friday, September 15, 2006

The God is back

141 Not Out
13 Fours
5 Sixes
40th One day International Hundred!!!

Who else? Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is back, who else can make such a comeback after the injury except for the King of the game.



The innings really depict the character of the man, his maturity and the determination. I don't remember a period in his career before this, when he has been put on test, when the questions have been raised on his fitness, his hunger for runs, the critics narrowed their eyes on the healed shoulder, but no this man doesn't know how to say die. At the age of 33, when he has already given more than half the years of his life for the cause of Indian pride, there comes 141* to give a very simple answer to the critics, "injuries can change and so can the oppositions, but not the class of Sachin Tendulkar."

The next match is against Australia, and I am looking forward to another repeat of what happened in Sharjah in April 1998.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Should parents be informed of everything in life?

I read this somewhere:
But don't they (your parents) love you so much that their love for you owe that you keep them informed (about everything)


My reply:
Yes, they love me so much, that's why they cannot and rather "should" not be informed of everything.

I met with a car accident few days back, now I had decided not to tell them because they would have worried unnecessarily and of course they can't do anything but worrying. My mom would have started crying, and though I started feeling ok the very next day, she would be in tension for long time, how would he be? who would take care of him? What would happen when he drives again? No way, I would not tell them, was my decision.

Anyhow, eventually I had to tell my father, (there were some developments that I had to) and somehow my mom got to know it and there goes my mom, she started visiting each temple in the city, praying and fasting for my well wishes.

No mom no, don't make me cry by doing this for me. I am not worthy of it. You've taken all pains you could for me, now it is my turn.
The things have taken a complete U-turn, now I am supposed to know everything at their end, good or bad but NO they don't deserve to know everything.

Wishing everyone's parents best of their health because they are the most beautiful creations of God.

Song: Mujhe maaf karna, O Sai Ram
Tujhse pehle loonga mummy daddy ka naam.

State: Extremely sad, Nostalgic, thankful to didi for giving me another chance to thank my parents.

A poem I wrote in my good old days :)

A friend is someone like Das, who brightens up your day
listens & responds to ur poems, hangs on to what you say
No matter what the distance is, moshu will always share ur pains,
A friend will help u face all afflictions - blizzards or stormy rains
If you are in a serious trouble, you'll find a friend ever on call
Accompanying you in all walks of life, he'll never let you stall
If lost in the dark night, he'll always guide you back to road,
When the burdens get real heavy, he'll always part your load
You may gather great wealth, but always you'll find in the end,
Real treasure is chap with a smile, who blithely calls you friend
You all are god's gifts to me, that I will cherish always
If ever, any of you needs me, I'll try to help in all ways
I know that day is soon to come, when we won't see eye to eye
That day will certainly kill me, when next yr u'll bid me good bye

Friends

My first public blog is dedicated to everyone who believes that friends are everything in life, more important than any of the world's treasures.

At the end of the day, when you look back you realize, that you don't have anything but a set of friends. And please note, when I talk about friends, I believe in depth and not breadth. What would I do with 100 such people, who are just there, who know my name, and my phone number and email address, and when you meet them, they greet you and ask you, so what's up? how are you doing? let's go for a lunch, it has been long since we had one!!! No!!!

A friend is someone whom you can blindly trust, who's interested to hear/share the most insignificant of joys and sorrows, who you know would always be present as a shoulder to lean on. My father is my best friend for sure and fits perfectly into the definition and of course so does my mom, my siblings but they are kind of relationships I got for free. The biggest treasure I have earned for myself is my set of friends at IITD who I know wherever I go, wherever they go, would always be close. They would always be troubled if something hurts me miles away.

Friends don't need anything but some time of yours and anyone who has some for me, becomes closest of my friends. I am glad that I've tens of such people who can bear me, my silly talks and my random stories. Yes, I love you all.

In short, friends are God's way of taking care of us. God, if you don't give me any more friends, it is ok, but I don't want to lose even single one from this little set that I possess.