Om Shaanti Om

Yuvraj had planned for a movie after office on Monday which was shifted for Tuesday after common consensus. We had planned for the latest Shahrukh flick Om Shaanti Om, despite warnings from Manish that its not a good one.
Yuvraj, I must admit is the most active of all. He and Anbu reached this Sunday and they are not showing even a single sign of resting. Both of these guys, esp Yuvraj, is so full of energy that you cant get bored in their company. You wont have to spend even a single working day in just office and home, leave aside the question of weekends. I like them and such people, who are enterprisig enough and always ready to venture out and not kill time by chatting or sleeping in home.
So, we went to Mavelli theatre in Nanuet. The ticket was priced at $6 per person. The theatre was good enough. When I compare it with the theatre in Edison, it was damn good. The screen was bigger, the seats were slightly more comfortable and the audi was spacious.
If you ask me about the movie, it was an average one. The first part was good but the second part kind of killed me. If you ask me on the whole, I would say watch it for Deepika Padukone. Man, she is so beautiful and cute and yep sexy. I cant stop myself from using that s word more often. All in all, worth $6 I would say.

Watch it for the damsel, Deepika!

Jana Gana Mana in NY

I was waiting in the queue for the ferry to Liberty Island on a chilly and windy Sunday morning. The wind was piercing through me and making me miserable as I was not having my wollen cap to cover my ears nor gloves to protect my hand. All I had as protective wear for the cold weather was a Nike sports cap just to cover my head and my NU jacket, fighting hard against the chilling weather to make me warm. The queue was pretty long and I knew I had to wait for almost 90 minutes before my turn comes for the ferry ride.
Well, standing in the line was not at all boring for me that day. You know standing in queue somewhere in NY city can never be boring. Reason, there are hell lot of people doing things to amuse you, to make you laugh, to make yourself enjoy in the queue, and yep all they want is that you give some money to them so that they can keep you entertaining. So, I was standing in the line and the first thing which I was doing was scannign the zig-sag line for beautiful and secy chicks. I was traversing the queue as far as ppl can be seen clearly and then my eyes stuck on ther beautiful lady standing 4 persons ahead of me. She was damn beautiful and let me say it, she was so hot and sexy. I was like OMG, look at her. When everyone, almost everyone around here is covered head to toe to keep themselves warm and save themselves from the cold wind over the Hudson, there this gorgeous young lady is standing in a mini skirt. Well, to my pleasure :) I can bet you, no one would have resisted seeing her! Everyone passing by was seeing her out of two reasons:
1. She was in mini. So eveyone was like "Hey aint she feeling cold?"
2. She was obv beautiful
Anyways, there was a girl, standing right there in front of me. I kept guessing till the very end of my step in ferry as to whether she was an American of a south-east Asian? She had covered all her face, so I wasnt able to figure it up.
So, I was moving ahead in the queue at a vairable pace. This queue starts all the way from Clinton Castle and goes zig-zag around the battery park to the ferry deck. There are food stalls and guys singing, dancing, playing come musical intruments to entertain the crowd and earn their living. When I reached, this guy who was playing a musical instrument (I dont know whats it called), I was feeling bored. Well. the music was good but I was in no mood to hear that. My attention was on the pigeons which were flying so close to people, it felt at times that they will almost dash right into the face. Children were enjoying in running after those pigeons and making them fly away. These pigeons were in huge number accompanied by sea-gulls and some sparrows. Pigeons clearly outnumbered all other species of birds. I was looking at a sparrow who was hiding under a bench in the sun-light. She was sitting in a leaf, which may be giving her warmth. I was intrigued by the bird, I dont know why. Then there were squirrels, which were running all over. You may be thinking as to what's so special about a squirrel. But there is something speacial, you know. First the squirrels are bigger in size than we have in India. They have a hariy tail and they walk/run taking hops. Hops which a squirrel is charecterized for. I have never seen such beautiful hops back in India. Anyways.
So, as i was moving in the queue, there came a black guy with colored hair and a normal guitar in his hand. He asked a couple standing ahead of me as to where they are from. They answered that they are from Sideny, Australia. And he said that "you can always make something for Sidney and Australia. And he started singing a song related to Sideny and Australia. He was framing the song connecting facts about Australia ranging from geography, people, politicians, Kangaroos and lot more stuff. He was making it rhyme and pleasant to ears. I was enjoying his singing and rest of people were enjoying too. Some of them came ahead and gave some money in his box. Then he asked that hot girl, I talked about. She was with two more people (they were couple, she was their fren). They were from San Francisco and he was right there singing a song on San Francisco and California. It was rhythimc and he was making it sound good. When he finished that, he said to me, Young man, a girl is tanding ahead of you and you are not even talking to her. Why? I felt like saying Hi to the girl but then resisted. I just smiled and he smiled back to me. I thought the girl will at least say something to me but she didnt. I kept silent and looking around at the children. The line was moving slowly now. Time and again, I was looking that girl. I was unable to resist her :)
When I was almost near the security check-in room, there was a guy playing Piano at some distance. I was looking at him and moving in ther line. When I came near him, the queue was static and he looked at me and then started playing again. As soon as I heard his music, I felt like "Wait, I have heard it somewhere" Then I dint took time to recognise it. It was our national anthem, Jana Gana Mana I was moved and it touched me! I looked back at him and he was looking at me. I was the only Indian in that part of line and he said to me You from India? I said "Yes". He said this is Jana Gana Mana. I said: "Ya, it is and you played it perfect". He did played it perfect. He was no Indian guy but was an American, a black guy. He smiled back to me and then I gave him a dollar. I missed recording that in my camera as at that time I was just lost in that thing.
That thing made me feel good and for sometime, I was feeling warm inside.

It really feels good when in US somone, says Namaste to you. But this was much more than that. Our national anthem. And that guy there even knew the name of the anthem. Well, he may be knwing the national anthem of all countries to entertain the visitors coming there. But aint that good? Aint it good to hear your national anthem played by some guy who is not from your nation? I think it was very touching. It made my day.

Diwali

Today is Diwali. When we woke up today, our families and friends have already started their Puja (prayer) and were all set for lighting earthen lamps and light all those colorful crackers.
And I am thousand of miles away from that light, that sound which I would have been hearinf non-stop for almost 3-4 hours. All the way from my family and the delicacies which mom would have prepared today.

I had to go a temple (in Bridgewater) in the evening, but somehow I got so much work load today that I had to slog damn hard today. I was like, I can work for 2 more hours from the office. We had to leave the office at 1530 hrs as per our plan, but the wrok screwed up all plans. I was happy that I would be going to a temple for the first time here and that also on diwali. Maa had told me that temples are decorated beautifully today and puja is performed. More than that a lot of Indian families flock there. Then we had planned to go to Edison to have some indian food and check out the city for any function which may be underway. But everything just got screwed up!

And here I am, sitting in my apartment and trying to motivate myself for work which I need to completed today and send back the mail.

Going to work now after watching some movie!

Happy Diwali India. I missed it big time.

I wish

Into your loving arms

I can feel my heart

And it's fit to burst

I try to clean it up

But I just get worse

Wish I could fall

On a night like this

Into your lovin' arms

For a moonlight kiss

I thought I saw your face

In the evenin' sky

On a lonesome cloud

That was driftin' by

I wish I could fall

On a night like this

Into your lovin' arms

For a moonlight kiss

You got someone else

Maybe it's for the best

Since I took the cure

For happiness

And I'd trade it all

On a night like this

For your lovin' arms

And a moonlight kiss

For your lovin' arms

And a moonlight kiss

Lovin' arms

And a moonlight kiss

Ooh, yeah

Hey, How u doing?

Americans are friendly. Not all of them but most of them. They will greet you in subway, bus, train, washroom, store, market, street and everywhere they come in front of you. They will smile and pass a greeting to you. I really appreciate them and this habit of theirs. It makes one feel good about people, people you dont even know. They are courteous and they are warm.

I learned a lot many things here and am still following up and trying to uncover many more things so that I can add to my knowledge, to my skills be it professional or personal.

Saturday Night

Like every weekend after the Niagara visit, everyone except me was sleeping till afternoon. We had no plans for this Sat n Sun. I was awake by 9 in the morning and was all ready and surfing net for nothing. I was getting bored like hell.
Anyways everyone woke by 2 PM and then we had just one place to go in the evening. And that was Edison. There are a lot of Indians there, mostly Gujrati's. You will see more Indians than Americans. People in NJ go to Edison when want to watch Hindi movies and have some Indian food.
We had planned to go for a movie (read Jab we met) and then have some Indian food. the movie was from 7 PM. Edison is almost 75-80 minutes drive from our place. We reached in time to the theater and had tickets for the movie. The theater was a small one, even smaller than I have in my hometown. The seating capacity was, I guess, 200. I must admit that I dont like Hindi movies a lot, esp this normal drama. But I had no choice and I dont know why but even my conscience did not resisted! Maybe I was missing India a lot which wanted me to go for a movie, no matter how crap it may be. Well, the movie was not that bad, but well it was not good even. It was a one time watch, if you are getting bored like hell and have nothing to do! After the movied we went to an Indian Restaurant, Mithaas, which was in the same complex. We had chhole-bhature and Mango Lassi. Man, I cant tell you how satisfying that was. The food was good, which added to my happiness. More than that, I was not expecting it to be good so it came as a surprise. After our dinner, I was feeling sleepy but we had to go to the place of Amit's relatives. He had to pick up the insurance card for the car. After that we headed back to home and I was like not feeling sleepy nomore. I started watching a movie, Heartbreak Kid online but left it in middle and slept.

Ok, lets talk something from the movie now.

It was like my story in pieces being shown to me. I loved some girl, we were going good but girl dumps me for some other person. I am totally out of control of myself and my life. I felt like ending my life (obv I was not going to die from a train :P). Then people consoling me, asking me to forget her for my good. People telling me that she was not at all deserving me, she was this, she was that. And even after hearing so much I was not ready to take her out of my mind. This was Shahid's part in the begining. Enter part 2, Kareena's life...She loves someone big time and dreams and hopes that the other guy also loves her that much. Poor she (Poor me). She goes running after him for marriage and the guy is like comeon, I never committed! (Exactly with me) So she is broke. She cries a lot and tries to plead a lot but he guy is unmoved. She calls him a lot, thinking that he will agree and give in to her. I was having Nostalgia. Well she finds her life in total mess and all the happiness and bubliness vanishes from her life. Check movie for waht happens next. That's not what happened with me.

I miss!

Chhole-Bhature
Kaju Katli
Aalo Paratha
My bike
Mom n Dad
Sunny
CAT

Happy Halloween

Oct 31 was celebrated as Halloween day in US. People had decorated their houses with traditional halloween stuff, pumpkins being the most sighted one. Halloween is celebrated on last day of October to frighten ghosts which are believed to rise from their graves at midnight of this day.

Children came looking for candies in the evening which is a part of traditional Halloween celebration. They go door to door with their friends or parents and you're supposed to give them candies. We had bought candies for this occasion a day in advance. Not many children came to our house against my expectation. One group was of Indians and other of Chinese/Japanese/Koreans. Anyways, It felt good to shower them with candies and see them dresses in halloween dresses ready to frighten the ghosts.

I was very much excited to see their dresses. Children here have halloween festivals in their schools wherein they dress in their spooky dresses and have fun together. Parents also take active part in these celebrations. A day before, we were in Wal-Mart shopping for candies and chocolates and there was a huge rush of parents with their children shopping for spooky dresses, baskets (used by children to collect candies) and candies, of course. Every commercial establishment as well as homes are decorated a montn in advance for Halloween.

History of Halloween

The modern Halloween festival has its origin in the ancient Gaelic festival as Samhain. It was a celebration of the end of harvest season in Gaelic culture. The ancient Gaelics believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of living and dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damage crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfire, where bones of slaughtered lifestock would be thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them.

This was widely celebrated in modern day Ireland.

Arrival in USA

The Halloween festival came in USA from trasatlantic Irish immigrants following the Irish Potato femine (1845-1849).

The most famous symbol which can be connected to Halloween is jack-o-lantern which is a glowing pumpkin. The origin of this symbol is also traced to Ireland.