2009 and The Birthday Hangover!

I am back.... yeyyy!!!!

phew! after a long time, I felt like I should blog.

2009 - last year was kind of rough for me. Lots of things changed me, and my perspective towards life. Living all alone for almost 2 years, it has been quite an experience. I made some good trips in 2009 and now when I recall, I miss those good days, especially my trip to Costa Rica. It was am amazing trip, although a short one. I still remember the humid air, the sound of waves and having drinks next to the sea - no stress.

I was elated to hear that I was admitted to Masters in Netherlands, and the shock was yet to come when they called the whole thing off, due to their supporting bank going bankrupt. As I was packing my bags and wrapping up my stay in US, came the news about extension for few more months. And I am here enjoying the winters in US, I wish it were summers, atleast I could make trip to some beach or go for hiking.

2010 - LOL - my 2010 started with a bang and a hangover. 31st December is the reason for me to cut loose, a) because it is last day of year and b) it is my birthday on 1st. I really wanted to spend this night in Vegas, because, who knows when I will spend another 31st in USA. But, unfortunately, Vegas trip was too expensive, so we ended up in New York. Fortunately, one my school friend was in NY and we planned to go to some club in New York.

It is always fun to dance with American girls ;) , but most of the clubs are expensive on 31st December, except a few that play Indian music. So, my friends were low on budget and we decided to go to a Indian club. And boy! what a night it was. The club was just packed, there was no place to dance. Since it was open bar whole night, we decided we would drink a lot and have fun, but probably club owners already knew this.

After having few drinks and few shots, came the countdown and the champaign toast. And after that I don't remember what I happened. The only thing I remember is that we were on the streets of New York wishing everyone a Happy New Year, and people were thinking who are these idiots. And then we were in some hotel kind of building, where I was feeling really dizzy and every passing by person was watching me.

TIPSSSYYYYYYYYYYYEEEOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Next morning, a call from India wakes me up and I find myself in my bean bag. And my friend lying down in another corner. After hanging up the phone, I realize my wallet is not in my pocket.

RED ALARM!!!!!!!!!

As I was trying to figure out what to do, block all my credit cards etc. etc., I realize I don't have my shoes on, and I don't remember taking them off.

ANOTHER RED ALARM!!!

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!!

My contact lens were still in my eyes and I was having a terrible headache. I decide to check my bedroom, before calling up the banks to freeze my accounts, and I find my wallet lying in 1 corner and shoes in another corner. WTF Happened!!!!!

Then I ask my friend, what happened last night, and he said, I passed out (oh yeah and he managed to click me), and last thing he remembers is talking to some cops and tipping $20 to some security guard of some hotel for no reason. Cops were after us, as they wanted us to reach home safely.

Then we tried to trace back to understand what happened, and no one had a clue what happened after we left the club. I find a camera in my pocket - turns out that it is my friend's and we thought we may be it can give us some clue. And we find few pictures of us hanging out on New York streets and me lying one some street after being passed out. So, we still don't know what argument we had with the cops and what we did in that hotel and why did we give $20 to security guard, and the big one!! - how did we manage to reach home after being so drunk. Since, we were at my place - who gave the address, since I was completely wasted?

Later my friend realizes, he has lost his watch, his wallet and his cellphone. He manages to find the watch on his wrist (somehow), his wallet lying in one of his shoes (how?? why??), and no sign of cellphone. So we make a call to his cellphone and we find that his cell phone is with some guys we met at the club, and no one remembers why his cellphone is with them. The good guys returned our phone and the fun came to an end :-)

The good part was that I was not married to some unknown girl, there was no tiger in bathroom and there was no baby in any of the closets (yes, I did check all of them) - LOL

THE END!!!

Bottom line, we had a blast on that night with countdown, dance, and drinks - but no girls (which I guess is good).

I am waiting for Hangover part II - I hope it will much more fun (in good sense) and in Vegas!! ;)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Back from Costa Rica and laziness

Finally, after uploading the pics on Orkut and Facebook. It's time to log my experience on my blog. Phew! I have been lazy for quite sometime to put something on my blog. It has been a long break!


My trip to Costa Rica was great, but the planning was a mess. I had to postpone it by 2 weeks because of unavailability of tickets. Finally, after booking the tickets, it was turn of hotels and other travel arrangements. Thankfully, my team in Costa Rica helped me a bit here. And also, good part is many things can be done online these days.

08/06/09 - I left the home at 1 AM to catch my flight to SanJose, Costa Rica at 8 AM in morning. I knew if I sleep I would never catch the flight. And I had a nice sleep in flight.

08/07/09 - After reaching at SanJose, one my team mates was there to drop me at the hotel. She took me to their office in SanJose to meet with the whole team. It was really nice to put faces on the voices I often heard on various conference calls. And SanJose was kind of like Delhi, growing urban place, lots of traffic, and lots of upcoming buildings for office etc. After that we reached to my hotel

The Intercontinental at SanJose was an awesome hotel and ofcourse they charge for it, about $120/night after discount. The bad part was that internet was not free and I treated it as blessing in disguise, atleast it would give me chance to stay away from the internet. After taking a shower and some rest, I hanged out in the biggest mall, which was in front of the hotel, of SanJose. Later in the night, I met with few of my team mates to go out on dinner and drinks. They took me to a nice place with loud music.

That's the view from my room.

Roads wise Costa Rica was not too different from India, recless driving, narrow streets, and not so well built roads. I was feeling at home!

After dinner they took me to some kind of place which was kind of full of clubs, but there were gross, with young boys and girls hanging and some weird kind of music. Anyways, it was an experience.

08/08/09 - Next day, we had to go to a volcano in SanJose, so I had to got up early. Damn it was early! 8AM, I don't even get up at 8AM on normal week day and I was suppose to get up at 8AM on vacation. Phew!!

My team mates, took me to the Poas Volcano. The way to volcano was nice around the moutains it was a scenic drive of about 40 mins.

Here are few of the views:

And we reached the place near volcano, which had nice shops and restaurant. The volcano was about half a mile walk from this place. The best part was that there was hiking trail near the volcano to reach a lake. So, how could I resist! We took the trail and it was one of strenuous trail I ever did. It was steep for quite some distance before it became flat. I kept clicking on what I could.

I got to eat some nice Costa Rican food on our way back from volcano. And after resting for the day at my room in hotel and hanging out a bit at the mall, we again met in evening for the dinner. This time they took me to another nice place, which was open air with nice crowd and good music. I just love it!
And I pleaded them not to take me to that gross place again

To be Continued....

4th July Fireworks

4 years back, on 4th July, I was taking a flight back to India and people told me I will miss the fireworks. 3 years later, I try to watch the fireworks from New Jersey shore and it's a terrible experience. 4 July 2009, I along with friends hit Brooklyn bridge in hope to watch the perfect fireworks. And we come to know that the venue has been changed and NJ shore is good place to be at.

Neverthless, roaming on streets of NYC with friends is an amazing experience. After figuring out a good location to watch fireworks, we head to West of Manhattan. The streets of NYC were crowded as if people have been asked to come out of their homes due to an emergency.

After walking for miles we found a nice spot where we could get a good view of fireworks, and after standing for about an hour the show began. I enjoyed it and it reminded me of our festival Diwali, which is all about fireworks. Though I must admit, the fireworks were not as great as what I saw in Disneyland, LA, but the crowd and NYC made this one an unforgettable experience.

I couldn't carry the bulky SLR to shoot fireworks, and I really missed shooting them.

Below is my favourite sunset.

5 years!!

Away from blogging for several weeks, I spent most of my Sundays at Barnes and Nobles, reading books and sipping Starbucks' iced tea.


As I complete 5 years at my first company and in Software industry, I gifted myself with a Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens; my new prime lens for shooting portraits/close-ups. However, my ankle, which got pulled while sleeping, kept me at home for almost a week and didn't allow me to experiment with the lens.

So, I mounted the camera on tripod and posed in front of it to check what can it do. Since, the focal range of this lens is narrow, it should be focussed precisely on the object, otherwise it gives a blur image somewhat similar to this one. Since I was shooting myself, I had to put camera on timer and with timer, the camera can't autofocus, it just clicks on what it has been focussed on.
This is the best I could get running several times between camera and chair. But it can certainly do much better, and I need to find a better subject to get juice out of it.

Taking a break from blogging........

Readaholic inside me

05/09: This Saturday I found something new about myself. Hiking was not an option due to the weather; I decided to visit a nearby Barnes and Nobles and spend sometime reading books. As much as I enjoyed staying away from computer screen, I enjoyed seeing beatiful people in the store.

I re-discovered the readaholic inside me, who loves to take notes on paper rather than typing it and loves to read paper books. I would have probably downloaded gigs of pdf books, thinking I would read them in my spare time, but that spare time never comes. It is dumped inside the folder just like another file on disk. And I purchased 2 books, 1 of which I have already finished reading [200 pages] !!!!!

Once again, here is sunset; I clicked this when I went on hiking.

Appalachian Trail

Second sunny weekend in row, I guess it will continue from here on. After spending whole winters inside home, I was so desparate to go out that took advantage of sunny Satruday, and went for hiking yet again. And spent time in woods with mother, mother nature.

After registring on Trails.com, which gives 15 day trial period and provides information about almost all the hiking trails in US, I decided to hike Appalachian trail. It came out to be whole day affair, 2 hours of drive one side and few hours of hiking. This was probably the most strainous trails I hiked so far after Mount Rainier in Seattle. And after reaching at top, I realized it was worth. Though the trail is quite long, I covered a bit of it. Thankfully, my Prius gives good mileage and I didn't had to think thrice [though I did thought about it twice] before going on 2 hrs long drive just for hiking.

Here is how NJ looks from one of the highest points in NJ.