The Apple Store

On Sunday, I had the oppurtunity to visit the celebrate and much talked Apple Store in New York. I had planned for a trip to this place over the weekend.



The store is at 5th Av just besides the Central Park. You wont see an advertisement board or an flashing electronic board indicating the store. After all, Apple stands for simplicity! They have a huge square glass box containing an apple, the registered trademark of the company.

There are video screens in shape of iPod on all four sides of this box and an attendant wearing a white Tee to help you out from your first step in the store premises. There's a capsule lift to take you down to the store which is at the first level of Basement. The lift is transparent cylidrical glass. You can also take the stairs, which encircle the lift.

As you come out of the lift, you will see a deluge of people trying their hands on most sleep and attractive gadgets of this decade. There's simplicity inside the store too. All products are displayed on large rectangular tables. Big posters are on the walls, most of them of iPod nano and iPod touch. The iPods areplace on tables with high quality Bose headphones attached to them, which will give birth to the unresistable temptation to own both of them, the nano and the Bose headphones. The new iPod nano is damn sleek, more lightweight, sleeker and sexy in looks. There cant be a better mp3 player in market which can beat it in looks or sound quality. I cant comment about durability.

There are attendants all over the store to help you out about any question related to apple products. There are attendants standing near some pre-designated posts where they have iPod touch and iPhone for people who want ot buy them. You just need to be in queue and let them know if you want free laser engraving or not and then you can pay the bill at the cash counters.

On the other side of the lift are Macintosh, powerbook. Damn, they look so tempting to own one!

Then there are lot of accessories on sale for everything from iPod to Mac. They have sound systems and headphones and socks for iPod :P

All in all a great store. If you happen to be in Ny, do pay a visit to this place, no matter you love Apple products or not!

The US Diaries - Chapter 6

Casino

Yesterday, we went to Mohegan Sun. Its a casino in Ulcassville, Connecticut. The place was around 137 miles from our apartment. Amit was our coach & guide there. He drove around 137 miles. All of us form apartment were in car, which makes 5 people.

I was going to a casino for the first time in my life. I had seen big casinos and all that jazz in movies. Now here I was standing in the parking of Mohegan Sun and ready to enter the grand complex. Believe me these casinos are huge and damn beautiful from inside. Mohegan Sun is especially noted for its interior decoration.

Amit guides us through different sections and told us about different games and rules and stuff. The first thing we tried our luck was in fortune wheel and we pulled a win! It was not something great which needs to be told but we managed to gain a profit on our investment. Happy start!

The next thing Amit tried was those boxes were in you keep pressing buttons and if some pattern comes you ein accordingly. I dont know what they are called. Then we moved to Roullette, the most played game in a casino. We put $50 on bet, 10 from each person. Amit was playing as I was busy in understanding the game, rules and how it's played. I was also busy in one more thing. Watching Chicks! :D There were many of beautiful females hanging around with their partners :) We secured $25 from our bet.

We decided to play individually, whatever one wants. I lost $20 on that box thing. Everyone of us lost and no one pulled up a win!

Reached back home at 4:30 AM.

The US Diaries - Chapter 5

Niagara Falls

The US Diaries - Chapter 4

NY

The US Diaries - Chapter 3

Week 1

The apartment is 1 BHK and has big rooms. These apartments had dishwasher pre-installed in them apart from gas stove, oven and a refregerator which are mandatory to have in an apartment according to Federal laws.

October 1 was my first day at Pearson Technology, USR, NJ. I was asked to come over to my PM's apartment (which is near my apartment) at 8:45 AM as I was suppposed to reach office with him and my RM.

The place I am living in (Mahwah) is a small but beautiful place. The office is around 2.5 miles from our apartment. The drive to the office was pleasant and soothing to eyes. The houses which I was seeing on both sides of the road were beautiful and I bet you would have loved it too. Trees lined on both sides of the road had started showing fall colors. There was a golf course on the way and it was beautifully landscaped. Some of the houses are almost built in woods. The house is standing alone with trees all around it like a curtain hiding the innards from the outsiders. You can see the sign boards indicating drivers to drive carefully as Deers may come suddenly on road. And it's true. You can spot a deer if you are driving at night. I had spotted one when I was coming to my apartment from JFK.

Anyways, we reached office. The office belongs to Pearson Education. Its a beautiful and landscaped complex with 90% open area. The parking is open and is huge, well-thought and planned. I loved this thing as it seemes that the planners knew that the building they are designing will house many people and everyone needs parking! (This concept is alien to India. Builders, architects in India dont give a damn about parking facilities. ) The work culture is commendable. During work hours, people work. You wont see people hanging around, flocking the coffee vending machines or busy in chit-chat across desks. The office starts at 8 AM and almost everyine leaves by 5 PM. So you have a lot of quality time for your family. The partitions across desks here are high which makes sure that you are not distracted often by others.

Lunch and breakfast was a big headache as alsmot everything in Cafetria had either beef or chicken in it except salad. I had to be extra cautious while deciding what to eat as sometimes even if you order chicken, it can contain beef in it. Dont be in the impression that if it's written Veggie Burger then it means that it's veg. Nopes, you have to specifically ask or tell the person that you dont want beef, chicken in it. Be specific in telling No Meat.

Throughout the first week we were fighting with Jet-lag. Everyday we came from office and used to sleep by 6 PM and then we used to wake by 12:30 AM. So I was skipping dinner everyday. I used to sleep sometimes around 4:30 AM till 6:00 but most of the times I was up throught the rest of day.

I had a good day in office and met all my business users and PT folks. The office desk here is spacious. The space I have here is shared by 4 people back in Noida.

On Saturday, my relatives came over to my apartment and I went with them to meet some relatives in Parkridge, NJ. I stayed there that night as my colleague (who was living with me) had gone to Atlantic city. Next day was Sunday and I was taken to Manhattan, NY. That will be in next post.

The US Diaries - Chapter 2

The Taxi Ride

When we came out of the terminal, the first thing I wanted to do was make a call back home. But I couldnt coz in US, you cant make an international call without a calling card and I did not had one. I tried to call Mausi, but for that also I needed some coins, I needed some quarters and all I had was dollar dills. I tried to get change from a cafe but the attendant there said that she cant gicve change until and unless I buy something due to some rules of the shop (it was regarding the cash register). I went to the exchange counter to try my luck and the girl sitting there tendered 4 quarters for a dollar bill. I hooked onto a telephone and inserted the coin in it. But the phone did not responded. I pressed for coin return but the coin did not came out! I inserted another coin but the same thing, the phone did not responded and the coin did not came out! I didn't wanted to waste another coin. I was standing near the gate with my luggage, when a short Asian came to me and spoke something in Bangla. I did not responded and so he asked me " You are not from Bangladesh?" . I said "No"
Man: "Where you from?"
Me: "I am from India"
Man: "Ok, so you are Indian"
Me: "Yep"
Man: "you waiting for someone?"
Me: "Yes, I am trying to make a call but I am not able to make a call"
Man: "Where you want to call? India?"
Me: "No, Just here only, Virginia"
Man: "Ok, you can use my phone"
(He had iPhone in his hand and offered me)
Me: "Non, no its ok. I will try again and then ask you, if you are around here"
Man: "Ok, as you wish"
Me: "So how long you are in USA?"
Man: "I came here in 1989 and from then I am here"
Me: "Ok"
Man: "I have to pick comeone today"
Me: "Ok"
Man: "So this is your first time here?"
Me: "Ya"
Man: For studying?"
Me: "No, business"
Man: "You are here for doing business?"
Me: "No, no, its official trip. I work and I am here on office work"
Man: "Ok, so where you live in India?"
Me: "I live in New Delhi"
Man: "Ok, that is capital of India, right?"
Me: "Yes"
Me: "So you are from Bangladesh, na? Where you lived here?"
Man: "Dacca"
Man: "So where you going in US"
Me: "New Jersey"
Man: "So someone is going to cpick you up?"
Me: "No we are going to tak a cab"
Man: "Ok"

I was somewhat uncomfortable after taking to him for so long. But, since my colleague was not doing anything for moving out, I had to think of something. The man moved from there and was out of my sight. After some time, I decided to go and ask for his cell phone. I looked around the place and then I found him. I went up to him and asked for his cell. He dialled the number and handled the bluetooth jack to me. I called Mausi and told her that I have reached here and I am going to take cab from outside. I asked her to call mom and tell her this. I thanked that guy and moved from there. Suddenly he sent some guy, who came asking for our destination and offered that he can drop us. I was pretty suscpicious and so I told him that someone gonna come for picking us up and went towards the yellow cab stand. There we lined up and that guy came again. now, it was embarassing as I had told him that someone gonna pick us up and now we were in the queue for the cab. He said to me that he will charge no extra money and will drop us. I politely turned down his proposal and then he went.

Our turn came and we boarded a Yellow cab. The driver was having curly long hairs and he was an American. I told him that we wanna go to Mahwah, NJ. He agreed and we boarded it. Fare was not negotiated when we got on the cab. In NY and NJ commuting is very easy. You can easily get cabs for moving in and aroud these two states. We started the cab ride from JFK and I started enjoying the NY. I can see the curling highways, going underneath each other and creating loop. Tree lined roads, fast moving vehicles, swanky cars and fast bikers. I was enjoying the sight.

The cab driver was talking too much. He was well informed about India and South East Asia in general .He said that he watched news and read newspaper regularly. He was a student and was doing graduation in Communciation Engg from some college in NY. We were stuck in Traffic near Lincon Tunnel for almost 45 minutes. We were told by our friends that it will take at most 90 minuts to reach out destination.

Now starts the drama! The cab driver did not knew the way! He had a book, which gave directions but it mentioned only three directives, which were not at all sufficient for him. He was lost and so were we! After moving for almost 3 hours, we crossed the same toll three times. The cab driver had lost the patience and so had I. My colleague, who was never concerned for anything as if he was my responsibility was fast asleep. I was helping the driver in finding the way by checking in my google map printout. The driver was unable to reach Route 17, on which we had to go. After almost 6 hours, we finally reached the house of our PM at 9:30 PM. It was such a bad ride that I am not in a mood to explain that in detail. The cab driver asked us to give whatever we want and said that "Please consider the distance, I covered". We gave him $220. Our PM had just arrived from somewhere in his car and he saw us. He told the way back yo NY to the cab driver and then we followed him to his apartment. There Tarun greeted us and came outside to help us out with our luggage. We left the luggage outside and went in. We had water and then we had dinner and I called Mausi from their cell that I have reached. Then mom's call came and she was furious thay why hadnt I called her? I told her in short and crisp words about what happened and promised to call next day.
After having dinner, we left for our apartment which was at a walking distance. We reached there and moved in.

So after such a bad first-hand experience I finally reached the place. We did nothing but opened our luggage and gave the Cigg package to Tarun and handed the sweets and Suji to Manish and then we slept to get ready for the office next day! We were aksed to reach Manish's house at 8:45 in the morning.

The US Diaries - Chapter 1

Departure & Arrival



My flight was on Sunday morning 01:30 AM. I was flying on Austrian Airlines. This was my third choice, so I was kinda happy that I got a flight of my choice. My other two choices were Lufthansa and KLM.



Saturday was a hectic day for me from the very begining. Mom and dad helped me in packing my suitcases and getting hold of all things. I finished my packing before brushing my teeth. This was the first thing on my To Do List. I had called Sunny to come over so that he can also be with me when I leave. After doing the packing stuff, I did my chores and then ran to Haldiram to get sweets. Umesh was supposed to come there, but when I called he asked me to get sweets on his behalf for Manish and Saurabh. I reached home and then took Dad along with me to Sai baba mandir in Sector 61. It was already 4 in the evening doing all these things. Sunny had arrived by then. I was calling everyone in family from morning. I had tried to call Nitin and Abhishek but Nitin's cell was unreachable and Abhishek didnt picked up. Finally in the evening Abhishek picked up the call. I talked to him and Nitin for a long time. I was happy that I called them and talked to them before leaving.



I left my flat with mom, dad and my brother on Saturday night at 21:00 hours. It took us almost 80 minutes to reach International termninal of IGIA, New Delhi. There was slight commotion near the terminal due to vehicles. Sunny got out of the car and went to get a trolley. The driver stopped the car near Gate 1 and we all got out. I got my luggage from the car and loaded on the trolley. A Traffic constable was blowing horns on all vechicles to drive away fast. I touched the feet of my parents and hugged them and Sunny and asked them to leave. Mom wanted to stay back for some more time but I asked her to leave as I didnt wanted to see her wet eyes. I bid farewell to them and they left. As soon as they left, I felt a jolt inside me. Guess, it was the thought that I will be away from them for three months! I dont know why I felt such, coz here also in NOIDA, I leave alone and I went home after 6 months last time! Maybe this is what they call psychological factor. As far as I was in India, it felt like I was with them only. But now it seemes what it likes to be away from family.



My colleague was already there with his parents. We waited for some half an hour and then decide to enter the terminal. By that time I had already weighed my luggage. It was well under allowed baggage limits. I felt relieved. We went inside the terminal and then crossed the level 1 of security check, where the do the x-ray of the baggage and tie it up. The Check in counter of Austrian Airlines was at the other end of the lobby. We moved there. The queue was not lengthy and there were three active counters for check-in. After doing normal formalities I got my boarding pass. Then I started searching for a phone booth so that I can tell mom n dad that I have checked in and ask whether they reached or not? I got sight of a BSNL booth. I called mom from there. They had reached home. That booth didn't allowed local calls. I had to make a local call and after a lot of searching I got hold of a pay phone. Neverthless, that thing was screwed as the other party on the line was not able to hear my voice. I was like Damn you #%$&%#*. I asked my colleague to lets move in. We got in queue for immigration check and got the immigration stamps. Then I saw another Airtel PCO booth. We decide to get our cameras stamped at Custom office first. The guy sitting over there stmped our camera. We were asked to get that doner by Amit so that if we have another camera with us while returning they wont object that! So from there, I rushed to make a call and then did that. The attenadant over there was a lousy bastard and he didnt returned change. I was like, why these bastards think that keeping a ruppee or two with them is like their fundamental right?? It's not that a single ruppee was that important for me in terms of monetary value. No, it was not. But I hate giving away without any reason and I hate more when I have to leave some amount without any reason, no matter how small that amount may be! Freaking morons!



I was seeing duty free shops and I started strolling inside one shop. All that was available on sell was either wine or ciggarettes. Nothing of my interest. So I headed for final check. We crossed the security check and reached Gate 9, where from we had to board our Austrian Airlines flight. I was like scouting for some chicks around but all I couldnt find many of them! :P

However one thing drew my attenton was an indian couple, actually I was hooked on the girl. She was wearing a red pullover and had shoulder length hairs, which were free. no hair bands. She was wearing specs, which were adding to her appeal! Time and again my eyes went on her. My apologies :) So here I was. Waiting for my maiden air ride :) All too excited to fly to US!

As we were waiting the crew members came and I was like Ooosh, how beautiful she is! One of the air hostess was so beautiful and cute. There dress was red in color, which is Austrian Airlines color. they allwnet behind the doors and we were still waiting for the the door to open finally. After some time, we were finally asked to form a queue and the gates were opened.



You may luagh at me, but I was too excited while I kepy my first foot in the plane. We were seated in our economy class seats. The place was not a big one! The economy class seats were having green color covers and every seat had a tv screen. Thanks for that Austrian! I was seated in the middle column first row, which added to my discomfort :( I wanted to be at window seat so that I can have a look outside shen the flight takes off. Jut the thought of the scene outside the window was making me more and moe excited. But here I was seated in the middle column :( Anyways so the plane took off smoothly and we left Indian soil behind us!



The handset in my seat was all screwed up and after repeated attempts to dismount that, I failed! I kept pressing buttons by having that fixed in its position! The embarassing moment came when I swicthed some channel and after wasthing for seconds, started looking into my book, the next moment I looked onto screen and the thing that was running was an adult movie!!! I was shocked and immediately switched off the screen. It was embarassing cos besides me was an Indian couple! Thank God, the lady didnt saw that but I think the guy had a look when I hurried to switch off the screen and dur to my damn handset, I created a stir there :)

I resisted having wine or beer in the flight! Though at moments, I was tempted but someone came in my thoughts. I had my promise to keep to someone for whom I dont even matter now! But for me, the person and the promise still hold as strong as it was on the day, I made the promise.

After repeated attempts to sleep, I was feeling like hell. I wanted to lie down on the floor and have some sleep, at least for an hour. But I knew I couldnt do that. It wasearly morning, arounf 5:00 AM Vienna time andI woke up completely. I can see the darkness in the sky fading. The temperature outside was -1 degree celsius. What!!! I am gonna freeze, if it will be so cold down there as I didn't had any warm clothes with me in my hand bag. The plane started descending and the temperatyre started increasing making me happy. When we started to land for touchdown, the temperature down was 7 degree C. I was like "Ok, Its not that cold. And after all, we have to be in the transit area only. The flight landed and I was seeing the beautiful landscape outside. Lush green trees and forest in the distance can be seen out the right window.

The terminal was small but beautiful. It was aesthetically designed and was not at all congested despite being small. I shot some pics here and there and then went to transit area to take rest. I sat there for almost 3-4 hours, somwtimes wandering here and there in shops, trying to convince myself to buy something. But I didnt bought anything. My colleague did bought something for someone special, I had no such person and so I bought nothing :D

The time to check in came and we lined up near teminal 1. After security check, we came to know that the flight has been delayed due to some technical fault. It got delayed for almost an hour. I was busy in bird-watching ;) and try to have eye contact with someone, but I think I didn't had that much guts.

Finally, it was announced that the flight is ready and passengers were requested to board the flight. We boarded the flight and after taking our seats, the captain announced that they are going to take the flight at its 83 % of max speed to cover the time lag. This time I got the window seat but it was not adjacent to my seat, it was a bit ahead so I had to bend to look outside it :(
Theperson seated next to me was an American and as soon as he seated he opened his book and started reading. I asked him, whether he can change the seat so that my colleague can sit with me? He was not interested and so I did not insisted again. This time, I had to eat non-veg coz both options were non-veg. I opted for chicken coz the other option was Pasta with tuna fish :(
For drinks, I went for Coke only :D

After around 7 hours, we reached NY. I was checking the map on my screen and seeing outside window. I was seeing the beautiful country right down there, the land of my dreams, the land of my oppurtunities. Soon, the map showed that we were in the NY skies. I was looking down at the Manhattan skyline. Wow, it looked amazing from up there. Man, I wanted to hold that flight there and sit in the cockpit to keep looking at that skyline. Soon, we were hovering above the JFK and the flight started to prepare for landing. We touched the American soil and I was all set and done for coming out of the flight. I was seeing the vast airport outside my window and all the flights standing in the hanger area. When the flight was docked, I took my bag and came out of flight. We were given two forms to fill for Immigration check in the flight. I had to re-fill I-94 coz I had screwed some section in the form.

The immigration check was easy and simple and I was just asked some simple questions. I got stamping and the date was 29th DEC, so I would not be here for seeing the new year bash at Times Square. Anyway, we went for collecting the baggage which came after almost 20 minutes. We collected our baggage and took the baggage trolley after paying $3 bills. We came out of the terminal and so here we were looking at the gate of JFK and US outside that gate!

I had arrived uncle Sam!

The US Diaries - Introduction

This is an Introduction to a series of posts I am going to publish. I will be talking about my US trip in this series. I will try to cover my experiences, share my views and thoughts about the country in particular and people, places, culture, business and everyting that I can understand and feel like talking about.

Some of you may be thinking that how come I reached US and what for I am here? Well, I am on official trip at the client site.

Let me take you back in history for a moment. I remember when I was a kid, I used to watch almost all animation stuff on TV. I just loved it and I still do a lot. Myself and my younger brother never used to miss Disney stuff. The treat in those days used to be Tales Pin and Duck tales. As far as I remember, it used to come on Sunday morning from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM, Tales Pin followed by Duck Tales. After days of running, they started a contest (those were the days when almost every serial on tv used to have contest and we sent postcards to win something somewhere), the grand prize was trip to Disney Land, Florida, USA. They used to show snippets of Disney Land and we were like seeing our destination to be. That was the first time, at the age of 11-12 I dreamt of visiting US someday! So this dream to be in this country was not born when I was in college but long way back!

Without describing more of this stuff (the part when I was in High School and University), I got the oppurtunity to be in States through my employer. I was working on a project for US based client and so I got a chance to be onsite. The destination was New Jersey.

I will take you through each day (If something worth sharing happened). Hope you will love to go through this stuff!

Cheers