Travelogue of the lost wanderer

SFO ahoy !

2007-06-29T22:25:00.000-04:00

interesting place to visit... this city... the odd people.. the even odder weather... odd but an interesting place to visit nonetheless... a few random takes on the hippy-est city of em all...

the locals..

A few minutes after getting lost and hardly a few hours after landing in SFO, the potato and I were dumbstruck by what was undoubtedly the oddest behavior we've seen in a loooooong time... we were staring blankly at a map of downtown san francisco when a bus that was merrily on its way pulled up abruptly right next to us... the driver swings open the door.. sticks her head out and hollers...

"where do you guys want to go?" ....

"errmmm.. we were just.. ermm.. trying to get to the embarcadero.."...

"oh that easy... take this bus to street x, then cross the street, walk a block in that direction, take the second bus from there, get off 5 stops later..."

me and the potato just stood there dumbfounded nodding away in the hope of hiding our gross incompetence when it came to following directions.... a good two minutes later the bus pulls away with us just as confused about how to get where we wanted to go... what was odd about the whole conversation that just happened was that how somebody would go out of their way to give directions to people who were unlikely to find a way south if they were actually lost in the north pole... we sure as hell weren't in new york anymore...

and it turns out this wasn't an isolated incident, either... a good half hour later, after finally getting on the bus that we needed to take, we're surrounded by people explaining to us the places to see in the city and how to get there... the ceremony of the nodding-of-the-heads-of-the-directionally-challenged continued unabated....

the weather..

sunny california... sunny california... one thing that i did learn from this trip is to never rely on cliches when packing for a trip... with the temperatures in the low 40s when new york itself was touching the upper 80s, the odd locals weren't the last of our surprises... i actually ended up having to buy a fleece hoodie to walk about the city.. the thick fog over most of the city wasn't helping either...it sure as hell ruined any chances of getting a decent shot of the bridge...

the sights n' sounds..

as a city, san francisco was very different from new york... the steep inclined streets, the pier with its street side stalls, the trams that criss-crossed through the streets, the streets themselves as oddly twisted as could be.... there was an almost hippy feel to the whole city.. i half expected to hear "dham maaro dham...mitt jaaye gham.." resonating through the streets as we wandered aimlessly... of course, now we had a GPS unit in our hands... made it much easier for us to get lost much faster... ahh... the wonders of technology...

back outdoors again..

2007-06-18T15:19:00.000-04:00

felt great to be outdoor once again after a huge gap... just wanted to publish something on the blog so that no body thinks i've vanished off the face of the earth... (methinks me hears a steady chorus of "if only..") :D

(above) the view near mirror lake in yosemite (yo-se-mi-tee) national park in California...

(below) a winding path through Muir woods...

more random pics here...

Viva Las Vegas !!

2007-01-01T20:14:00.000-05:00

Before you start reading this post, I just want to go on record to say that I don't have a gambling problem... I really honestly do not...So what if I like the clinking sound when the coins start cascading down a slot machine.. or if I feel like getting on the table and doing the macarena every time I get the winning number playing roulette.. or if.. (well you get the idea..)

Welcome to Vegas..

The first time you visit Vegas the thing that really hits you is how much money is actually flowing through those casinos... you can see people all around throwing away enough money to pay off the debts for most small developing nations... well... if you can't beat 'em, join em...

date with lady luck

lets face it... there's no point being in vegas if you don't know squat about gambling.. thats kinda like sending homer simpson to work at nasa.. but with the tremendous odds stacked against you winning anything, there's no doing anything on the casino floor without lady luck on your side... something that the author and his slightly misguided friend from Mass. found out first hand... thank heavens for the "what happens in vegas, stays in vegas" tag line...

but if you're fortunate enough to get your groove on in vegas, there's no turning back.. if you're willing to throw around some greenbacks(cuppla hundred grand or a mil or two, that is) your practically royalty out there... i guess more often than not most people just show up in vegas, just hoping to join that club... and more often than not these people take the bus back home... ah well.. there's no beating the house, is there?

gluttons inc.

one stop that needs to be made by every foodie in vegas is the world carnival buffet at the Rio Casino and hotel... 300 items on the menu (yes, thats right -- THREE HUNDRED) in this daily lunch buffet... i'd died and gone to glutton heaven.. for those to whom the magnitude of the challenge, that lay in wait for us that day, isn't immediately apparent, i ask but one question... have you ever thought of a scientifically acceptable way to make the best out of such a buffet without having to regurgitate every 20 minutes? well, i did... is it better to go cuisine by cuisine, so as not to mix up lasagna with salmon sushi or lobster meat in garlic sauce with roast beef? or should one go with time tested favorites alone, leaving behind oodles of food never tried before? or with unheard of preparations at the risk of spending an eternity in the restroom? and what about dessert? how on earth does one pick what one wants from tables with over a gazillion choices? well... it was a dilemma... and it was no easy task.... but we, the brave souls at gluttons inc. forged ahead and an hour & a half later, gravity seemed like our biggest adversary.... ooof.... cant wait to do that again :)

the best free show on earth..

i guess no post about vegas is complete without one mention of the bellagio fountains... proof that there is hope for the rest of us... and there are things that you can do without having to sell your house and half your relatives.... the fountains outside the bellagio casino... truly amazing stuff... a must-see if ever there was one...

a "grand" adventure

2006-12-21T17:14:00.000-05:00

Alright... I'll admit it... I'm a cynic... and believe you me, no ordinary cynic at that.... I can scoff at most any thing without the slightest twitch... the word pucham should pop into the minds of people who're familiar with the term... i'm not entirely sure how i got to be this way, but i'm pretty darn sure its not something that's happened overnight... ah, well...

the problem with being a cynical traveler is that you expect a lot from the places you visit and more often that not, the places turn out to be a disappointment... it was in this exceptionally cynical frame of mind that i headed out to the west coast this thanksgiving, and i must admit that I was more than awed by what was out there.... a few snippets from the trip there.....

daybreak

I'm not sure who exactly came up with the idea that we should be up in time to catch the sunrise at the grand canyon... i'm even more unsure as to who thought we could actually pull it off... needless to say, the sun did rise a wee bit (say a few hours) earlier than we actually got there... but still we did put in some effort in trying to get there on time... and the view of the sunrise en route wasn't all that bad either...

the grand canyon

When it comes to imagining what the grand canyon looks like, the first thing that you'll have trouble envisioning is the sheer size of the place... it is big... You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is... (sounds familiar... i wonder why.. hehe..)

Seriously, though, the place really is huge and pretty awe inspiring as well... Even the cynical minds of me and my cohorts could not continue on about instant conspiracy theories about how everything there was the work of aliens and/or secret government agencies for little more than a minute...

the grand canyon national park is one great place to be if you are interested in outdoor activities.. hiking, camping - can't imagine a better place to do all that... our three hour hike on the south kaibab trail (though an unpleasant reminder of how badly out of shape i am) was truly awesome... the steep narrow path to the floor of the canyon present some pretty breath taking views of the canyon...

i could harp on and on about the place but i'm pretty sure the cynic in you will possibly have started with the sarcasm by around this time... so i'll leave it at this... a day well spent, well worth the effort...

half a cup of metal...

2006-10-20T07:07:00.000-04:00

A snap (taken on my cell phone) from the iron maiden concert in camden , nj, a couple of weeks ago... most of the songs played were from their latest album, apparently the first maiden album to ever reach the top 10 in the US... unfortunately, not all of us had heard that yet and we were much happier when they started playing older much better known songs... for those who appreciate good metal, know this - it sounds a whole lot more powerful in a packed auditorium... gave me a well deserved and long overdue jolt from the pits of the caffeine deprivation that I have been subjecting myself to over the past month...

(Link: Much better snaps of the iron maiden tour (from their concert in Toronto) posted at Sam J's [daily dose of imagery]...)

out of this world !

2006-09-27T20:00:00.000-04:00

One of the most interesting blogs that I've come across in recent times... mainly cos of the novel nature of the the content and of course the unique location from where the blog is getting posted...outer space !!... chk out Anousheh Ansari's blog... (in case you haven't heard the name before, she's - as her webpage describes her - Earth's "First Female Private Space Explorer & Space Ambassador")

An excerpt from the blog

You have probably heard the expression “watching the world go by.” I guess it is usually used in the context of just passing time, relaxing, and not doing anything… just observing… Sort of a state of inaction…

For Astronauts this expression has a new meaning…

Have fun Anousheh... Sounds like the adventure of a lifetime.... Now if only I could find a cuppla spare millions lying around in my bank account.. :D

(Photo: bluedharma. Used with gratitude, under the CC attribution license)

game.. set.. match !

2006-09-09T09:44:00.000-04:00

One infant grows up and becomes a jockey,
Another plays basketball or hockey,
This one the prize ring hates to enter
That one becomes a tackle or center,

I am just glad as glad can be
That I am not them, that they are not me.

from "Confessions of a born spectator"
Ogden Nash

Different kind of game, i agree... but couldn't help but remember this poem we studied in school... (ain't it funny how disjoint the few things that we actually remember being taught in school are from the professions we've taken up today)...

anyways... here's another snap from the Federer-Blake quarter final from this year's US Open...This is the first time that I've actually attended a live sports event.. (i'm sure the ppl who know me well enough are surprised for sure.. well...times change, i guess) ... and i have to say this really is a whole lot different seeing it on screen... the euphoria at the arthur ashe stadium was overwhelming... the crowd's pro-American / pro-underdog support was no match for the performance of the champion as he glided effortlessly across the court... kudos to u, roger... all the best for the semis today...

The Great Indian Wedding

2006-07-28T06:41:00.000-04:00

I've come up with a theory on the best way to determine the kind of people that live in a place. It's quite simple, really... the scale of celebration involved in a local wedding is perhaps one of the best indicators of the caring and lovable nature of the people there... the only thing you need to do to test my theory is to get yourself invited to the weddings in the town where u live... for those inspired by the 2005 movie "Wedding Crashers", this should be a piece of cake.... :)

By any scale that you setup to measure the grandiose of a wedding, i doubt few communities can boast of greater celebrations than the average Indian wedding.. (unless perhaps, the wedding is like a Oprah show where guests walk away with mercs or beamers or something like that..) This post is dedicated to the phenomenon that is the Great Indian Wedding... A few snippets from one such wedding...

D-day minus 6

I land in India to attend my cousin's wedding. I had wanted my visit to be a real surprise and hadn't told anyone at home that I was coming. In fact I had told my folks how much I wanted to be there and how sad I was to miss out on the wedding... (As a side note, my performance was brilliant, if I do say so myself... they ought to cast me in the next Godfather movie...I'd surely give ol' Al a run for his money :D)... The only people who knew about the trip were a couple of close friends from high school. Pytho had most kindly agreed to pick me up from the airport and drive me home. It was on the 2 hour drive from the airport to my home town (my home town doesn’t have an airport... yet) that I realized how lil' things had changed out there... that unhurried kerala way of life was evident everywhere... the best example would be a couple of fly-overs on the way which have been under construction since the time I was in college.. some things are just not meant to be :)

I get home and surprise the socks of everyone... Just wish I had taken photographs of peoples expressions... Would have been quite a souvenir :) The wedding preparations are just getting started .. The bulk of the invitations for the wedding have been distributed... The cooks for the wedding have been contracted... The orders for the rice, spices, oil etc etc have been placed... The pandal wallahs have off loaded an entire load of bamboo poles with plans for setting up the pandal in the next 2 days... My cousin, the bridegroom, is all set to arrive in 4 days... My 96 year old grandpa has already thought up all possible things that could go wrong and has started worrying about them...

D-day minus 4

I've overcome most of the jetlag that I was under for the past 2 days... All things going as per plan except for the pandal.... Our pandal wallahs are completely missing... the bamboo outside the house is lying as it's been for the past couple of days... the cooks for the wedding come up with a list of additional to-do tasks for us for them to be able to start on their work... (intersting trivia - cooks at weddings make as much money in 2 days as an IT professional at the best MNCs in India make in a month)

D-day minus 3

Just heard that pur pandal wallahs had been thrown in the slammer for the past cuppla days... caught gambling apparently... no idea when they're gonna get released.... The bridegroom finally arrives...

D-day minus 2

Our pandal wallahs finally make it... pandal work and decoration work outside the house start in full earnest... most of the cooking supplies have been delivered... Relatives from out of town start arriving.... Our house is transforming itself into a beehive of activity.... kids running all over the place... I'm not even sure whose kids some of them are... (Pytho has a theory that 60% of the kids that you see in weddings are actually rentals.. yes, some people have had disturbing childhoods)... the ladies of the house start planning for the mylanchi (mehendi) night.. the kids have split themselves into groups practicing their singing, dancing and all other aspects of the festivities... my sister has started with applying mylanchi to the all the other girls & ladies of the house....

D-day minus 1

The eve of the wedding... the mehendi night or mylanchi night as it is called in these parts.... For most Indian weddings (at least for the one's I've been to), this is the night where the real festivities take place... While traditionally this is something the mylanchi is something that happens only at the bride's place, of late, this is as much a party at the groom's place as well... The singing goes on till late in the night (sometimes till the early hours of the next day)...had loads of fun throughout the night... I think it was around 3am when I finally hit the sack that day...

D-day

I wake up at around 5 in the morning... the groom is sleeping away peacefully while i'm sent off to pick the out of town arrivals... ah well... if what they say about marriage is true, I wonder how much longer he's gonna sleep that peacefully :)))

After the frenzied activity of the previous night, the wedding day appears a whole lot more toned down.. We head off at around 11 to the brides house, which actually was just a couple houses down our street.. (scandal mongers are free to wonder how and when the boy first met the girl :D )... The nikah was (thankfully) a short ceremony... I can see my cousin start to feel the pangs of RSD (Repetitive Smile Syndrome) from all the smiling that he's doing wile meeting the extended in-law family and posing for photos... poor dude.... and to imagine he's gonna have to keep at this for the next cuppla days as well....

Off to the main event of the day... LUNCH !!... wonderful to say the least... It had been a cuppla years since I last attended a wedding and this was the part that I had missed the most... boy, it felt good to be back... :)

D-day plus 1 week

The bride and groom are beginning to recover from RSD... I've been invited to most of the post wedding lunches and dinners so far... and I'm blissfully content... All in all a wonderful wedding... Too bad the rest of the bunch from Gluttons Inc. (doon, hurr etc) weren’t here with me...

PostScript:
Warm Wedding wishes to Nabeel & Nadeeda... May the beautiful adventure that you have embarked on be as exciting years from now as it is today....

Maple Syrup, anyone ?

2006-04-02T11:05:00.000-04:00

Prologue
Was fortunate enough to get a chance to visit Canada this week... Real nice place... Parnter in crime for this trip... the Hurr.... Here are few excerpts about our time there...

India Bazaar
For most desis living on th east coast, Edison, NJ is considered one of the (if not THE) most desi town in North America... Having lived in Edison for a couple of weeks, thats exactly what I had thought too... So it really was one helluva an eye-opener for me when we got to India Bazaar in Toronto... situated to the north east of downtown Toronto on Gerrard St. this section of the city is lined with desi eateries, sari shops, indian grocery stores etc... there was even an ICICI bank smack in the middle of the place... It really did feel like walking through the streets of a bazaar in India...

Downtown Toronto
One of the most outstanding things about downtown Toronto is how impeccable clean the whole place was.. May not have as many skyscrapers as Manhattan but nonetheless cool.. Spend a whole lot of time roaming the place seeing in first person most of the places captured in Sam Javanrouh's DDOI....The life size flying geese sculpture at Eaton centre... The famous CN tower with its 1100 ft high glass floor observation room... (yup, u heard me.. GLASS floor at 1100 feet).. Lake Ontario as seen from Queens Quay...

Its only fair to mention here that the really really great looking things aren't the buildings or some damn tower... sweet heaven... one wonders how on earth all em chicks ended up in the same place :)

Greek Town
Another interesting district of Toronto is Greek town... loads of Greek/Mediterranean style restaurants line the streets of this place... We, at Gluttons Inc., felt right at home :)
Just a bit disppointed that my appetite isnt what it used to be.. really did want to try the baklawah...

All in all, time well spent... wonderful city... worth a visit... i'd definitely recommend it :)

Postscript
A big sorry for not posting for a long time... lots of factors came into play... work.. a period without an internet connection at home... depressingly cold weather... the britney spears (pro-life) sculpture :D .... etc etc.. Hopefully I'll get back to more regular posting in the days to come...

Happy New Year..

2006-01-01T21:54:00.000-05:00

One of the problems with living in New York is that people all around the world expect you to do all sorts of things just because... errm...well... actually, for no apparent reason... case in point - how and where you spend your New Years eve... don't get me wrong here.. the new year celebration at TimesSquare is one hell of a party... most probably the greatest new year party in the world today.... what most people don't realize, however, is how crazy you have to be to actually attend it... (The MEC-ian dictionary on life would probably rate this is a prime example in the definition of the word "kazhapu")....

As with all wisdom accumulated over one's years, this is one of those things that you have to actually be a part of to... well... figure out how dog-gone crazy you were to attempt it in the first place...think about it...10 hours of standing in near freezing conditions through rain and snow waiting to see a ball that looks about the size of a tennis ball from where you're standing with the only option of a restroom break being the coke bottle you brought with you... (As someone said on the night...can't wait for this to get over.... Ha-PEE new year...)... :D

All said and done, though, it truly was quite an experience... the sheer exuberence of being there... there, where the entire world sees you ... the sounds of the city that never sleeps on the night that it refuses to sleep.... the lights around a small piece of earth that could in all probability be used to light up most cities in a developing nation... guess it was one of those things that you have to do ... if you're living in New York....

Postscript:
Did you know..

The histrory of the ball drop in Times Square ball drop dates back to 1907.Since that time, the only years when the ball drop wasn't undertaken, was in 1942 and 1943 due to wartime dimout of lights in New York City.
They actually drop 2000 pounds (1 tonne) of confetti on TimesSquare on New Years eve...

Postscript 2:
Here's wishing you a very happy and prosperous 2006... :)

The Dancing traveller...

2005-12-04T00:38:00.000-05:00

Boy, do i envy this guy.... he may not have the coolest dance moves but the guy definitely has done a lot of travelling..... wonder when i get to be in the same league as him.... i haven't even seen any of the places in India that he's been to... :(

Dude (whoever u r)... i salute u....

Link to Original Post

On the Road (n' lovin' it)

2005-12-02T22:29:00.000-05:00

Day 3 & 4: The Road Back
Sadly, It was time for us to head back.....

We were determined, however, to cover as many places as possible on the road back...Had to take a couple of detours to make this happen...more time spent on the road but still it was worth the effort... First stop: Daytona Beach in Florida... This town is probably as famous for the huge NASCAR racing stadium as the actual beach itself... Beach, itself, was pretty cool and we managed to click a couple of good ones while we were there.... the beach was actually a drive through and kinda reminded me of another beach near my home town... nostalgia apart, we had a good time on the beach and did get our feet wet and the car (when we finally did get going from there) was a couple of pounds heavier with sand...

The next detour took us straight to Virginia Beach, Virginia.... ah...another beautiful beach... the sand, the sea, the sun... well.... not quite... the sand and the sea were pretty much there... only prob was we arrived a couple of hours before the sun actually got there as well :D ... first time to everything i guess.... and roaming on the beach at 4:00 am in the morning was definitely a first time experience... in a way, the sounds of the ocean, the wind in your face and the overall calm serenity of the beach was actually amazing.... wonderful kinda feelin... relaxing and revigorating at the same time...

Further down the road we took the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel... with a combined length of around 17 miles, the bridge (actually, the bridge-tunnel ) streches above the water for some of the distance and below it for the rest....

The rest of the journey included ...a beautiful sunrise in Maryland... almost getting lost in Delaware (no thanks to the road-runner/grape pilferer from Delaware).... a break in Newark, DE... lunch at Lansdale, PA.... and from there on my solo journey back to NY.....

Postscript:
Most of the road trip on this leg of the journey is still kinda blurry to me... I don't know if we did actually break the sound barrier, but with Anita at the wheel I wouldn't really have been all that suprised if we did... somewhere out there in Georgia, I'm pretty sure theres a cop who's staring at his radar gun, wondering how on earth its display screen got cracked....

Thoughts for now... can't wait to start planning on our next trip... christmas is round the corner and options on the east coast have kinda run down.... rumour has it that I may have to relocate to Boston in January... so i'm not sure how thats gonna affect things... but for now me keepin me fingers crossed....

Too Much to do… Too Little Time…

2005-12-01T20:51:00.000-05:00

Day 2: Orlando

My first impression about the city of Orlando was that the place was made for vacationing… The number of things to do in the city runs into to a truly mammoth list – Disneyworld, Universal Studios, Sea World, Islands of Adventure etc. being just a few of the things to do out here… Unfortunately for us, our time in the city was limited and we had to squeeze in as much as we could in the one day that we were spending there… With that aim in mind, we aimed for the first place on our itinerary.. Universal Studios, Florida….

Most (a.k.a. normal) people who visit Universal Studios would probably go to great lengths to describe how great the rides were, how wonderful the place was and all that… but me… nope… I’d rather talk about the greatest thing that my recently rediscovered gluttonous being saw… Posters all over the place that announced the special “I eat all day” pass… People who bought these passes could eat for free at the food courts within the theme park any number of times… WOW… felt like I had died and gone to heaven :D

The rides were also good, I guess…(talk about understatements…) The revenge of the mummy, back to the future, MIB rides were some of the outstanding ones in the lot… The Earthquake simulation was pretty amazing…. I’d say it take more than a bit of talent to get the special effects stuff that looks cool in movies, presented live to people on a ride… One of the other good shows in the studio was the “Fear Factor Live” show… It had people from the audience performing the same crazy stunts and eat the same assortment of worms, slugs etc as the people on the Fear Factor T.V. show… Kinda gross but fun to watch I guess…

The City Walk outside the studio is home to the worlds largest Hard Rock Café… Somehow I kinda liked the one on Times Square more… but nevertheless we did spend some time thereabouts, listening to the great music that was playing from within…

Other things we did – A visit to Downtown Disney… this is a part of Orlando that kinda highlight the Disney spirit of things… nice place to wander around in… Sujith treated us to dinner in celebration of his promotion… Went to this superb South Indian restaurant, where I ordered rice and Kottayam style fish curry… wonderful… nice place, too… the ABCD waiter even offered us some “NEEM-BHOOO PANY”… just thankful he dint ask if we wanted some “LAA-SEEE”…

Highlights of the day - Having to carry a Questionable Unisex Bag (Q.U.B.) which Anita had brought along for the trip… (Anyone who watched F.R.I.E.N.D.S. would remember Joey holding on to one of these things in one episode… for those who don’t, a Q.U.B. kinda poses the question “How gay are you, dude?” to anyone who touches it)… Anita, who apparently masquerades as a feminist on most days of the week, felt that it was too much of a load for a lady to carry and it was impertinent that we had to handle this charge…WOW… lucky us :(
From the looks on the faces of the people around us, it appeared the Q.U.B. was asking them the same question it was asking us….

Post Script: (Gluttons Inc.)
By the end of the day it was plainly obvious that the limits to which my gluttony would extend was nothing more than a sad performance compared to my cohorts… Earlier in the day, Anita had almost single-handedly managed to pilfer and gobble down a whole box of grapes while most of us were asleep in the car… Sujith, an expert in this arena, wasn’t a bad performer either… but the person who left all of us astonished was Don… After having bought the “I eat all day” pass waaaay before I even got to the cash counter, Don managed to eat 2 lunches in one sitting…Not to mention an already vanquished breakfast and the 2 dinners that he managed that night… I hang my head in shame as I relinquish all rights to talk about my love for grub…

Post Script 2:
This one’s for Rosez, who’s been complaining that she’s the only one from our old Chennai bunch who hasn’t has a mention so far in any of my posts… U happy now ?

Sun, Sea and Snorkel

2005-11-29T22:00:00.000-05:00

Preface:
In the past weekend, my wanderings took me a whole lot further away than usual. It was the beautifully long Thanksgiving weekend and our destination – beautifully sunny Florida… my mates in this wonderful trip - Don, Sujith, Anita, Nisha and Ashwini… we decided to plan this trip out as a road trip rather than the flying down as most normal (read boring) people would do… (no sirreeee… not us… we do things differently)… In the end turned out that we could have saved a whole lot more time if we had actually flown down… but somehow, I doubt if the trip would have been just as fun…. Like they say… “Life’s a journey, not a destination”…

Day 1: Key West

The first thing that hit us when we started the drive from Florida City, where we had spent the night, was how incredibly warm and sunny the weather was… After living for around 3 years in Chennai, I never imagined I’d be this happy to see warm sunny weather again… but boy was I wrong… I was over the moon just to be relieved of the burden of the usual 2-3 layers of clothing that was the de facto dress code for late November in New York… God Bless you, Mr. Sun

On our agenda for the day was Key West…. The Florida Keys are actually a group of islands that are connected to one another by a series of bridges… Key West is the southern most of these islands and is in fact the Southern most tip of the United States…. The drive through the Keys was serene and idyllic… A bit too serene and idyllic, in fact… We ended up arriving late for our parasailing excursion…. As a result, Don, Sujith and I had to skip that, but I guess using that time to roam around in those parts was a treat in itself… Sujith and I checked out the birds (and Don, obviously checked out the local vegetation)… Summa dem birds were HOTTT, maaaan, and I don’t mean from the sun either ;)

We did however (just in the nick of time actually) mange to catch the boat that would take us snorkeling in a reef near the island… A wet suit, a snorkel and pair of flippers was all we each of us had for company to start with…. This was actually the first time any of us were out snorkeling and it did take some getting used to…. A lot of seawater was drunk in the process (strangely enough, I didn’t do much of that) but in the end all of us did manage to get our bearings right…. Swimming with the Fishes (when used in a truly non-GODFATHER context) is quite an experience….

Other sights n sounds in the Key West… Key Lime Pie – Absolutely wonderful, a must-try I’d say… Caribbean Rum Cake – not bad, kinda reminded me of plum cake at a bakery back home … the sunset - gorgeous… (no better way to describe it)…

Post Script:
One of the things that I re-discovered throughout this trip was my appetite… not that I had ever stopped eating or anything, but it was no where close to what I was capable of in me college days… It was during this trip, however, that I totally indulged myself in the sin of gluttony… In fact, I even held on to the title of “The Glutton”….. for almost an entire day… (it appeared that I wasn’t the only one who was turning gluttonous, as it become plainly obvious the very next day… more of that in my next post…)

A touch of Marvin-ism in me:
Hopefully one of these days when I’m back in good ol’ India, I’ll re-do this part of the trip in Lakshwadeep or the Andaman and Nicobar Islands…. Anyone else game to join me?

The Arts and I

2005-11-14T02:15:00.000-05:00

This week the art critic in me took center stage and I decided to wander the weekend in search of art to criticize. That’s probably one of the greatest things about being a critic… You can roam thinking about nasty things to say about other people’s work without having the slightest idea of what you’re talking about… As someone once explained, a critic is someone who knows the way but doesn’t know how to drive :)

Bob, as this refined art critic in me prefers to call himself, decided that we should head off to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the upper east side of Manhattan. So off we went, Bob and I, in search of artistic fulfillment. At this point of time, I’d like to tell those of you who think I’m a certifiable schizophrenic requiring immediate professional help, to go jump in a well…. And Bob, Alice and the little green men who visit every Wednesday second that…..

The museum (commonly referred to as The Met) is supposedly one of the largest art museums in the western hemispheres and has significant collections of art from various periods of time ranging from ancient Egypt to modern day art.

The Egyptian exhibit was probably the largest of the sections in the museum and included portions of an ancient Egyptian temple that was broken up, transported and re-assembled at the Met. The collections of medieval Europe, especially the hall of armor was also quite impressive. Some of the sculptures in the Greek and Roman sections and the masks in the South American (Mayan, Aztec etc.) were really awesome.

I guess the section that I (and Bob, naturally) enjoyed the most was the modern art section. Picasso (for lack of a better way of putting it) was one really cool dude. Impressionist art really kicks ass. The special exhibition that was on at the Met this weekend was a huge collection of Van Gogh drawings. They showed (as Bob explained to me later on) the gradual transition of Van Gogh from the budding artist that he was to the refined maestro that he became.

Takeaways: Keep an open mind towards art.. You never know when you may start understanding any of it !!

Postscript: Have a good meal before you visit the Met.. There’s a whole lot to see and a whole lot of walking about to do… I spend a good four hours roaming the place and just managed to do the first floor and around 10% of the second floor of the place….

Wandering the Big Apple!!

2005-11-07T02:00:00.000-05:00

This weekend I played host to the usual gang of Sujith, Don, Geo and Subi…. The plan: Roam aimlessly in the Big Apple like no man has done before…

Sujith and I, having cleared our TAW-ND (Totally Aimless Wandering – NYC division) certification a long time ago, decided to mentor the others in this subtle and rather unappreciated art form… We felt our technique (honed on our well-defined twin principles of total lack of direction in life and having nothing better to do on a weekend), was too good to be confined within our minds and needed to be shared with the rest of mankind….

In the process of this week’s wandering, I did manage to head out to couple of places that I must admit I hadn’t gotten round to seeing myself…. One of them Grand Central… The architecture in this place is definitely awesome… Even aimless wandering in this place (which is what we were doing there, in the first place) is a treat….

Also added one more entry to the “BTDT” (been-there done-that) list this weekend… The Hard Rock Café on Time Square… Pretty nifty place…. Anyone with even the remotest interest in music would definitely have been impressed….

Other places that are wandering took us this weekend – the WTC site, Wall Street, Battery Park, the Manhattan branch of Saravana Bhavan, Central Park’s Reservoir…..

All in all, a weekend well-spent…. Rather saddened to admit, though, that TAW-ND may not yet be suitable for universal acceptance… we had a couple of casualties during this weeks training too... Don blabbering away to the staff in a Punjabi restaurant and claiming that he was speaking Hindi… Subi throwing a tantrum in a crowded subway station saying we didn’t show him the subway train that Dr. Octavius almost destroyed in Spiderman 2 (go figure…)

Take-aways: TAW-ND needs a few more rounds of lab testing before we release it to the world…..

Footnote: Me took me first real plunge into cooking (as opposed to re-heating/microwaving) this weekend… Rice and mixed vegetable bhaji…. Wonderful, if I do say so myself… :)

Footnote 2: My roomie bought one of those new video iPods… beeooootifulll…. Me resisting the temptation to get one myself….

Back to the wilderness

2005-10-30T16:25:00.000-05:00

A week into the normal life, I decided its time for more of the outdoor life... This time I decided to expand my range of unsuspecting victims to include the poor souls who work with me.... (I figure why not let them have part of my wonderful life as well... yeah rite..).. This week's target: Montauk Point in Long Island... This is one of the eastern most points of NY state and is known for a state park of which the major highlight is a really old lighthouse...one of the oldest in the United States, in fact....

The towns around this place is also supposed to be some sort of vacation haven for the rich and famous… me tried looking around for Julia Roberts… guess it just wasn’t meant to be…. :(

Whole bunch of really old houses and all… one of the places where the people from Europe and other assorted places settled once they reached America, I’d reckon…. We even saw a couple of windmills on the way there…

The Lighthouse in itself, was a bit of a monument… having been commissioned in 1792 by President George Washington himself… quite cool, actually… the lighthouse museum, which formed part of the lighthouse complex, was slightly less exciting… but then I guess most museums are that way…

We did a bit of roaming around on the seashore alongside the lighthouse and some other open wilderness type places nearby… niiiice…. Even nicer because I didn’t manage to lose my way this time round :)

Takeaways from this trip: I have a good sense of direction.. Don was the reason I got lost the last time :p

The wilderness and us

2005-10-25T17:28:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, Sujith, Don and me decided to embark on what we would hopefully refer to (in hindsight, at least) as "A journey into the wilderness", “Bonding with nature” and other assorted cool sounding stuff... Pulled in Geo, Harish, Sarith and a whole bunch of other innocent bystanders.... a grand total of 13 in all.... the destination: Catskill National Park in upstate NY.

To say that the place was beautiful would be a gross understatement..... Would've been kinda like Bill Gates saying Windows has a few bugs that need to be fixed..... So I'm not gonna say that... In fact, I'm not gonna say anything bout the place at all... I've decided I'd rather talk about the journey itself....

Me started early on Friday from my place to Albany (some miles north of catskill).... the plan was that I'd stay with Geo at his place in Albany and meet up with the rest of the gang at Catskill on Saturday.... Sound simple, enough ? well, it was actually... except for the hour's delay before we actually got to our rendezvous point a few miles from Catskill only to find that Harish and the people in his car were no where to be found...Sujith n' Don were there looking slightly concerned and overly bored.... Sujith, decided to drive back for a couple of miles looking for a stranded car filled with more people of the "slightly concerned and overly bored" variety.... that left me, Geo and 2 other folks from Albany waiting in the cold in a gas station in the middle of nowhere.... beautiful place, though... but that would be a gross underst... (wait a min.. dint i just talk about that earlier...)

Sujith and Don got back from their quest to find the missing people in around half an hour’s time… only they came back empty-handed…. plan B was asked for and it was immediately obvious we had already finished plans B through E in the past hour… we decided to continue heading towards Catskill in the hope of bumping into them on their way back…. Sujith’s car in front and our car right behind….. A couple of miles up ahead (lo and behold) Harish’s car parked right outside a SUBWAY on the highway…. Yup there’s nothing better than a quick snack when all your friends are running around trying to find you J

The rest of the journey was quite uneventful and wonderfully scenic… the rain was just a mere drizzle compared to the predictions of heavy rains by most weathermen in the country…. (A-ha… stupid weathermen…what do they know anyways…)

Our trekking plan for the day was to start on one of the easier beginner level trails and then move up to a more difficult one somewhere along the way…. Strangely enough, that plan seemed to have worked pretty well on the way up the mountain…. (Hurrah for Don, the trail planner)….

The way down, however, was a slightly different ball game…. the rains had eventually managed to graduate from the “light insignificant drizzle” category to the “heavy un-ignorable rain” category…. (darn those weathermen… y do they always have to be right?)…. if there was anything worse than the being wet, it was probably being wet at around 3500 feet above see level… booooooy…was it cold…

it was in this cold n’ wet state of mind that Don and me, decided to be gallant…. we decided to stay back on the trail so that part of our posse of “cold-n-wet” trekkers who were trailing behind, dint get lost…. Ah yes… those were the times…. Staying in the rain… shivering in the cold… to make sure that no man was left behind… weren’t we wonderful? they would probably have handed us the Congressional medal of honor too…. if not for a sliiiiiiight oversight on our part…

Heading back down the trail, we realized how much more beautiful the place looked on the way down… the lake in front of us looked exceptionally stunning… that’s when realization hit us (“And realization hit us like a loaded 747 dropping from the sky” Copyright2005 Don)….. there wasn’t any lake on the way up…. and we, the congessional medal hopefuls….realized we were lost :)

Of course, Don had things under control…. Control, unfortunately, translated to running around all over the place screaming “SUJITH…SUJITH”... to lesser mortals our actions may have been mistaken as panic...but not to us enlightened beings…no sireee... ours was a scientifically proven technique designed after taking into account spacial vector mechanics and sound propogation theories... ..oddly enough, we were the only ones who were aware that this is how things should work in the universe, and we had to do this for a quite a while before we saw any results.... the technique did finally work after a good 15-20 minutes of running and screaming…. Our rescue party was undoubtedly pleased to have gotten much colder and wetter than they had originally planed for and were, of course, more than willing to share that pleasure with us… “where the bleddi #$%!Q@#$ have u morons been?”…..

Take-aways from the trip….pick a SUBWAY as a rendezvous point….never make fun of the weatherman… carry a compass if u planned to get lost….