Got myself tagged....

I am tagging this post from Preeti blogpost

I have tried to be truthful in answering them, so enjoying reading and knowing something about me… answer them too…



1. What curse word do you use the most?
Ahhhh!!!! No guess for this one “What the F&%k” and this catchy phrase I would have got from my work place one major source of enhanced vocabulary, it is so common in use most of them use this as an article “A” “An” “The”….

2. Do you own an iPod?
Yeah the first series and iPhone..

3. What person do you talk to on the phone the most?
As I got engaged last month so it has to be my faience… “manu”

4. Do you still remember the first person you kissed?
Will wait to mention for the special one …

5. Do you remember where you were on June/2002?
I had passed out from my Graduation was free but would have been most confused what to do next as I had got a summer internship for 8 weeks… to say the story that 8 weeks have translated into 8 years in the same org :-0

6. What was the last movie you watched?
Last Saturday Evening we watched Adam Sandler starring Grown Ups , and this was one of the back to back movie we watched, the first one we saw was Knight and Day Tom Cruz and Cameron Diaz

7. Has anyone ever called you lazy?
No one will ever dare to call that to me… as I plan and plan… week after week,,, as my friends make me plan and execute each and every weekend..

8. Do you ever take medication to help you fall asleep?
I am blessed in that way…. As I sleep like a log (and rarely do I dream is that bad or good I am not sure)

9. Has anyone told you a secret this week?
Hmmm and can I say YES for this one, as my friend find me a nice listener and I have the time and heart to hear them out….

10. What is the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?
Smile and eyes… as it says 1000 words unsaid but eventually I would like to hear them as well

11. What are you looking forward to?
Another unplanned trip heading towards Pune, wanting to meet someone special…

12. Do you own any band t-shirts?
I wish I do have but I do not have one but the pone would ne of “Bryan Adams” but always wanted to steal from my Brother as he owns “Nirvana”

13. What will you be doing in one hour?
Having Dinner, I happen to cook “Alloo Palak” and “Strawberry Milk Shake” I hope the combination is not odd…

14. Is anyone in love with you?
Yes for one I am sure she is in Truly madly deeply, and not sure about the unknown list…

15. Last time you cried?
Hmmm I am a bit hard hearted, I guess male hormones do not allow most of the time to cry and if they break then most do don’t say :-0
I guess I to did not answer this one….

16. Are you on a desktop computer or a laptop?
Yes laptop: IBM Thinkpad

17. Are you currently wanting any piercings or tattoos?
Wanted to had a tattoo for some time but dropped the plan due to following reason:
- Its pains a lot
- And what it I lose the love for it afterward
Gosh I currently say everyone is beautiful in the way they are, do we need tattoo? Today on my way back home I saw a guys on street who was passing out coupons… he was completely covered in INK even his face….

18. Would you ever date anyone covered in tattoos?
NOPE: Tattoos are a completely NO…

19. What were you doing before this?
I am being listing to songs from youtube the last few I recall (Sweet Child of Mine, November Rain, Stairways to Heaven , Truly Madly Deeply Bryan Adams Heaven & Have u really loved a women….)

20. When is the last time you slept on the floor?
Yesterday Night, I have a full size bed, but I feel real comfortable sleeping on the carpeted floor

21. How many hours of sleep do you need to function?
Normally I sleep only for 5-6 hours I guess that all I require

22. Do you eat breakfast daily?
On yeah…. Mostly its Cornflakes + banana + milk


Hey Guys and beautiful girls please do not read and leave, spare some time and answer them i would love to read them all...


1. What curse word do you use the most?

2. Do you own an iPod?

3. What person do you talk to on the phone the most?

4. Do you still remember the first person you kissed?

5. Do you remember where you were on 11/9/01?

6. What was the last movie you watched?

7. Has anyone ever called you lazy?

8. Do you ever take medication to help you fall asleep?

9. Has anyone told you a secret this week?

10. What is the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?

11. What are you looking forward to?

12. Do you own any band t-shirts?

13. What will you be doing in one hour?

14. Is anyone in love with you?

15. Last time you cried?

16. Are you on a desktop computer or a laptop?

17. Are you currently wanting any piercings or tattoos?

18. Would you ever date anyone covered in tattoos?

19. What were you doing before this?

20. When is the last time you slept on the floor?

21. How many hours of sleep do you need to function?

22. Do you eat breakfast daily?

First Driving lesson:

So finally the day arrived when I finally planned to take my first driving lesson, I had called and booked up with this driving school for a two hour driving lesson.
So this guy come up by 9:30am and for the first time I was sitting in driver’s seat for real, so as a customary he asked me bunch of questions:

- Is this your first class, I said YES
- Have you driven a can in India, I said NO for which he replied Good, the reason would be the driving direction, in India its Right Hand drive while in US they prefer the wrong side and say that as the better side… let me leave this topic here only

So with initial instruction for Right & Left indicator, and just use you right feet to control Acceleration and brakes and I guess I was all set buckled up and roll wheels. You all have to believe me on this one the RIGHT and Other Right, at the first turn itself he bombed me to turn right, I was saying to myself right, right, right, and ahhh I took the Right turn,,,,


So I first stepped on accelerate and that when for the first time i was driving car, nit sure why but it was a major mind block for me to start driving, and for next 2 hrs I was driving.

First 30 minutes I was driving on internal roads slowly juggling between each right and left turn, and later the instructor took on to highway that the same road I have been traveling daily to office from last three years but today it was something different I was driving myself for the first time...
The speed limit on that stretch is 55mph and I had all the reason to drive slowly, as safety of other along with me is of high importance and I was clocking 35mph

Then I was back again driving on internal roads so at the end of 2hours i can say i have broken the jinx and I am yet not fully comfortable but yes I can drive and definitely I am getting my driving license and driving in US...
On a liter note, let’s pray for all the people who will be sharing road with me....

Freakonomics.... Book review a inside story

I have heard about this book long back but I never got a chance to read...
Last month as I was retuning back from Pune, connecting flight had a 6hrs transit at Frankfurt, listening only to music will not suffice.


I was wandering in the terminal from one gate to another, that’s when I passed by a book store and there saw the book Freakonomics (written by Levitt and Dubner), and the next 3 hours wait at the terminal went just fine…

It is a real nice book giving insight about of the know topic which go by unnoticed in our daily life, and when anyone hear about economics, numbers starts to scare you off and on top of that you will see some complex equation and assumption running down mostly which do not make any sense unless you are an economist.


Few topics discussed in detailed are:
1. Why drug peddlers stay with their moms.
2. What do gym membership and gift cards have in common.
3. Is it safe to send your kid to play in a house with swimming pool or a house having gun.
4. Do name of a child decide their future.

Comments on above topic:
1. Back in late nineties a study was performed by a sociologist named "Sudhir Venkatesh" from Chicago University for 6 longs years from the data that was collected pointed out that a drug peddlers earn $3.5 per hour against minimum wage of $7.00
That was one of the reason why drug peddlers end up staying with their mothers, the reason they worked \because the top bosses have lot of money and power, just to achieve power he goals for the big and risks his life and earns only for his survival.

2. Common between Gym membership and gift card are they go unused...
On an average 25% plus people who have annual gym membership rarely go to gym, for those people it would cost effective if they pay only weekly or daily membership
And as far as gift cards been considered on an average 20% of people do not use their gift card in the same year.
And Best Buy makes average $100 million every year due to unused gift card, a real treat for the shareholders and investors

3. In US every year the ratio you child is 100 times more likely die due to a mishap in swimming pool then gun related incident at, still parents fear a neighbor having gun.
Still parent fear a house with gun is due to the nature of demise that scares everyone

4. Do name really make or break a child future, some studies do suggest, but one cannot assure that to be a safe bet..
Say if a child is named Ram and another kid is named Raavan It would be unfair to assure that the kids will inherit characteristic and behavior of the characters based on Hindu Mythology “Ramayan”.
A major aspect in every child future depends on environment and surrounding where the child is brought up.

Note: Reading this book will definitely will make sure a person will have a different approach towards economics

One month....

What I doing last month this time of the day? I was getting engaged to the mot beautiful person I now....
All said and done each day passed by and here we both stand one month after, the flip side we are not able to celebrate to mark the occasion as I am in NY and she is in Pune....

Long distance relationship has it's own ups and down, and just to sweeten up time difference plays the perfect role... Of the time we talk we end up the call either I saying "Good Night my sweetie pie" or she say "Good Night buddy and please have breakfast morning main and as usual I laugh at that as I call it a day and she make sure to make a point of having breakfast....

But on the long run we have to run the in the race of life hand on hand and not like 2x12 race where she start the run during her day and I continue the baton during my day...

Happy one month Engagement...

Do we need a day to express...

Do we really need to have a day dedicated to express love and affection?

Father Days, its one more day we tag on our calendar along with birthday and most important events that we do not want to miss year after year...
All this day and events celebration were not started long back but I guess started only recently, I really do not remember recalling that we had many such days celebrated, Buddy Day / Environment Day / Smile Day / Laughter Day and what all not, it would be safe to say we have already out numbered every day in our calendar for all day and events we can tag in our Calendar.
What will happen if some one comes out with one more new day to celebrate where will we find place in our Calendar, aahhh in that case we would have to celebrate once in two or once in a Leap year as we will have more events adding in our calendar.

At time I feel this all this days that’s been marked as events and been publicities as a day that we have to wait to greet each other, is a one big marketing strategy started by corporate to make feel people that in this fast and nucleus life that we are currently living. Greeting or passing gesture on a day will suffice the relationship we have with our family / friends and all loved one.

If you care for anyone or anything we should not wait for the event to strike our calendar, we can meet or great or pass a smile any time of the year and not restricting only on that particular day

So it not late to say…
I Love you Dad (can be said any day of the year)
I Love you Mon (I say every time I speak to my mom)
I Love you guys for all this years we have been friends (why only on Friendship day)
Plant a tree or switch of light for an hour to save earth (We need not wait for the next Earth day 22nd Apr)
I Love you (say to the lady love every time no need to wait for Valentine day)

Niagara Falls...

After much planning and wait we planned to visit Niagara falls over this weekend (11-13 Jun) and the funny part was we did not check weather as it did not matter and the rain also did not dampen the enthusiasm in us, we 5 (Me, J, A, S, M) drove all the way to Niagara.
The drive is 450 miles we started on Friday Evening, details as time unfolded.

Friday: On the move, to Niagara.
We planned to move from our place by 6pm, it first started by sending a email "Leaving early 3pm", reached home at 4:00pm and got car, the same one we rented couple of weeks back, and we started at 6:00pm.

First stop: after 2:30 hrs drive we took a stop to have some snacks, we reached a shopping Mall, as just then we saw "Game Stop" and PS3 was kept for display, and in next 15 mins we ended up buying 2 Consoles, we are impossible as we have been searching to buy PS3 from last 2 months and in every store located in Manhattan.
Oh yes and we still had time to have a nice dinner

Finally after a long 4hrs 30mins we reached "Syracuse - NY" by 11:45pm, how could thing be so easy for us ever, we saw the restaurant across the road but not able to reach, we were moving at dead slow speed, when we saw a black car tailing us, and guess what, it started flashing "Red and Blue light" night patrolling cops were here, they ran our number plate and let us loose and helped us find the proper route. But this were still not that easy for us, we took couple of wrong turns and were able to cover 2min drive distance in 45mins, finally checked in at 12:30am.

Saturday: Reached Finally
We left "Syracuse - NY" and reached Niagara by 3:00pm, and that when we took a guided tour to "Whirlpool spot", "Maid of the Mist" and "Cave of Winds".


Whirlpool: This is really nice, the spot is located 180+ feet below, and the whirlpool is created due to the large amount of water flowing in small confronted loop area



Maid of the Mist: It’s the ride on a double decked boat that will take u close to the foot of both the water fall
(American & Horseshoe)




Cave of the Winds: Stairs leading to foot of "Bridal water fall", even this is an awesome water fall but gets unnoticed due to the other two giant waterfall, the stairs lead to the foot of the waterfall, called "Hurricane Deck" where dare to stand below the water fall

Sunday: Time to turn back
Was a bit lazy day thanks to the rain an gloomy weather which was for most of the morning, but we still went back again to Niagara Falls, had walked on the couple of small islands connected by bridge was real nice...

So finally we were on our way back home after a nice weekend we five had.

Foodies --- Pani Puri

We (I & J) have been planning to prepare Pani-Puri from past some time, and we had a small hurdle in that we then would have to buy blender.
And if you have to avoid blender from buying one can get every thing available in ready to eat section in store, but that would not have made the food we prepare mouth-watering.
 
So finally we decided over the weekend we are on mission Pani-Puri.
Saturday we had a Afternoon birthday party to attend, but still we went to Indian Street (People leaving in New Jersey are aware of how horrible weekend public travel is) the distance that can be covered in 15min in car took us close to 90 mins, but our Pani-Puri mission was still determined.
After shopping all the required:
- Blender
- Ready made Puri
- Grocery (Whole Tamarind, Pani-Puri Masala, Ripe Mango, Mint Leaves, Lemon, Green Chili)
 
We reached back home only by 3:30 and went straight away to the Birthday Party of a 2 years old sweet kiddo. We were back home by 7:30pm. Every weekend adrenal rush is skyrocketing, later evening we had a failed attempt to watch Ranjneeti (Nice movie after a long time) only to see that the 9:30pm show is houseful so finally we reached back home by 10:30pm.
 
J and I were still spirited and determined to prepare Pani-Puri, meanwhile our lazy Mr A was already in sleep mode and in no time he dozed off.
She prepared the Green Mint chutney, i prepared the Tamarind chutney, and along with stuffing for Puri (cooked whole chic beans) was prepared
 
We woke lazy A and finally its fine to taste and eat loads of Pani-Pori, generally people have it as evening snacks while we were having this at 1:30am which itself show how fanatic a normal weekends are with us...

The crazier it can be...

Everyone has some sort of fear from childhood or rather to say fear let me say I am scared from swings and heights.....

Everyone in their childhood would have spent hours on swing, while I stayed away from it, whenever I used to swing I would be doing at the lowest speed.
I was scared a lot of Giant wheel, If you check the noise intensity my scream would match to all the other people in the giant wheel....

Crazy swing ride:
Couple of years back we friends have been to Tennessee that place have a big fare going.... My college buddy Akki is one enjoys all such rides...
So he ask me to join him on this ride (it had two seat at the end of 50 feet long suspenders, and this will spun) worst part of the ride, after couple of spun it would halt and we would hung 100 feet above ground it would either go backwards or forward... The rise lasted
couple of mins.... Whole time Akki enjoyed the ride while for the first min I screamed my lungs out... And later I gave up I closed my eyes as hard I can and was silent as I am lying in a park, trust me the video we have is mist funniest one.... I am sitting like a log and he is enjoying...

Sky diving:
If I am so scared of height why on earth I would accept my friends offer for sky diving...

Close to year and half back I was a my friends place celebrating a friend who just got engaged... This friend would have emptied half of Jack Daniels, and the spirit made him announce that we are going for skydiving next weekend.
Monday started as a normal week, Thursday he calls up just to say "Dude as decided I have booked for skydiving over the weekend" So here we are at south jersey shore... Where we got further more details.

We will reach an altitude of 11,000 ft and it's is a tandem jump, we will have a free fall for close to 30 sec by then we are at 5,000ft and it's time for deploy parachute and in next 5+ mins touch down....
If a person like me who I scared of height can do all should do, best part is the free fall an the view one has from that height is just mesmerizing


Six Flag Kindga ka:
It's worst tallest and fastest roller coaster with top speed of 128 miles per hr (205+km/hr) and the highest point at 456feet....

It takes 3.5 seconds to reach a speed of 128mph Once at the top it comes down at a angle of 90degree facing ground and takes a 270degree spun....
It last for less the 30sec

After reading this most would claim I am flabbergasting that I am scared of height... But trust me I am still scared a lot and each time I say to my self I am not going to do any more crazy rides....

Me waiting to do something crazier...

Trip to Pune - 2 - Engagement saga

Of the 3 weeks stay I had planned I intended working for 2 weeks and taking a week off in between....
So Tuesday I met Manu (with whom I got engaged on 23rd May) When I had met her first I did not had imagined that I would be getting all the support from my parents and brother along with her parents... with everyone blessings we would be getting engaged....

19th May my parents and I visited Manu's place and immediately her parent visited our place next day... On that day it was announced that we are getting engaged on Sunday 23.


And in next 2 days our friendship will have a name as well....

Therefore, Friday 21 we both went shopping for ourselves, first the engagement rings, and trust me Pune had the most horrible collection of engagement rings for guys....

Most of the engagement ring we saw looked like they had built-in tracking and global positioning system implant like ones from Bond movies....

Forth store we got a band style engagement ring for me that we were looking for and she got a cute looking ring for her....

Next stop was engagement dress for the day...
I decided I would be going more traditional and bought a Shervani, and for Manu we got a nice pretty looking Sari... and we were looking super kwel

Saturday day before engagement (only day when we were not meet) It had its own twist, I was grounded as something fancy that I eat along with roaming whole day in 41 degree Celsius Sun, that all was required to get my system to a halt. I visited doctor three times and was having liquid diet and medicines till noon Sunday.

Sunday the day I + Her = We
We for engaged in a small family function at her place with 40 odd family, relative and friends from both side showered us with blessing for a happy living.

Trip to Pune - 1 - On way to Pune

At first, my tickets were booked for 8th May. All eager to reach back more for the vacation, I reach airport only to see the flight getting delay at first by an hr and finally by 3 hours. Airline helpdesk told that I would not be able to make my onward journey so I have rescheduled for 9th May...

Day Two or rather “Take 2” hoping this be the day I be able to travel, I reach and once again the flight that was on time ended up 4 hrs late, but lucky my onward flight had 6hrs transit period. During that time I befriend a German woman who was in her 70s we were talking as if we know each other from some time. Her name was 'Astha' I said in Hindi it means belief....

In my onward from Frankfurt to Mumbai I met this guy who was a Brazilian but was living in Canada, travelling to Gujarat (India) for two weeks official work....
As it is not that comfortable to sit in economy class unless I bet you are not travelling in Business class, so I prefer standing end of the aisle, he too was one with same thought... So half of the journey we were chit chatting while standing at the end of aisle.
He was working on conveyer belt maintenance so for work related he had to travel a lot overseas.
He mentioned one things "that during all this trip he missed his wife and family" (now I guess I am able to correlate that what he felt).

So finally, after cancelation and multiple delays I reach Mumbai....
Reaching Mumbai felt very nice about to meet my family and Manu after exact six months.
At that moment, I was not sure what is in store next 20 days of my stay in Pune....