p-scribblez

Long Road Out of Eden

2007-09-16T21:44:00.000-07:00

In this June, when The Eagles visited and performed in the Shareholder Meet of Walmart in Fayetteville, AR, they anounced their forthcoming latest Original album - "Long Road Out of Eden".

I just had a preview of their new song - 'How Long' from the album exclusively at the Walmart site:

http://soundcheck.walmart.com/eagles.html?povid=cat4104-env10169-module54497-lLink1

Walmart is now accepting Pre-Orders for the album.

Long Road Out of Eden is the seventh studio album by American rock band the Eagles and will be released on October 30, 2007. For the first year after the album's initial release, it will only be available via the band's website, Wal-Mart, and Sam's Club stores. Nearly six years in production, this will be the first studio album from the Eagles since 1979.

While in Bangkok, watch Siam Niramit

2007-08-24T15:43:00.000-07:00

During my last trip to Krung Threp (Bangkok) my friend told me to watch Siam Niramit, a musical show similar to the Broadways. The show is a journey to the enchanted kingdom of Siam (สยาม), now known as Thailand. The show features enhanced special effects with a perfect blend of finest art and most advanced technologies. And in turn it presents a very realistic, stimulating and inspiring experience.

The show is divided into 3 acts - "Journey Back into History", "The Three Worlds: Hell, Himapaan Forest and Heaven" and "Journey Through Joyous Festivals". These three acts are presented at the Siam Niramit complex, located near the center of the Bangkok City, which is also a beautifully crafted representation of Thailand's arts and cultural heritage with the help of a quaint Thai Village set on a canal, bringing to life the traditional lifestyles, arts and crafts of the four regions of the Kingdom. Spread across 10 acres of land, the Siam Niramt also provides thai buffet. A number of Souvenir Shops offer beautiful handicrafts and keepsakes from around Thailand.

The show proudly displays the rich heritage of the Siam Kingdom with the help of 150 actors and actresses with more that 500 costumes and 102 units of sets. The stage is certified by Guiness as the highest in the world. The whole show duration is 80 mins and by the endyou are all mesmerized by the great colorful and incredible performances and lively music.

The first act is Journey Back into History, For over seven centuries, Siam has been home of diverse cultures, a cross-road where civilizations met. The Siam Niramit show represents the past to witness The North - The Ancient Kingdom of Lanna, The South Sea - Traders from Overseas, Issan - Heritage of the Khmer Civilization, and The Central Plains - Ayutthaya, the Mighty Capital.

The second act is Journey Beyond Imagination: The Three Worlds: Hell, Himapaan Forest and Heaven. This act displays the common belief of various religions that despite the diverse cultures and livelihood, people are all bound by the Law of Karma. The good deeds or bad deeds in this world will result in merit or suffering in the next life - this is beautifully and very creatively depicted in three scenes viz. Fiery Hell, Mystic Himapaan Forest and Blissful Heaven.

The third act is ourney Through Joyous Festivals. Buddhists believe that to go to heaven, one must gather merit on earth. Thus, Thai culture is full of a wide variety of merit-making festivals, which combine religious ceremony with joyful celebrations. For example, Ordination, Song Kran, Phi Dtaa Khon, and Loy Krathong.

Song Kran (สงกรานต์) is Thai new year which is celebrated from 13th to 15th of april every year. This is time when many cultures and countries like Laos, Combodia, Srilanka, Yunan provice in china and India celeberate new year. The most obvious celebration of Songkran is the throwing of water. People roam the streets with containers of water or water guns, or post themselves at the side of roads with a garden hose and drench each other and passersby. This, however, was not always the main activity of this festival. Songkran was traditionally a time to visit and pay respects to elders, including family members, friends and neighbors. Besides the throwing of water, people celebrating Songkran may also go to a wat (Buddhist monastery) to pray and give food to monks. They may also cleanse Buddha images from household shrines as well as Buddha images at monasteries by gently pouring water mixed with a Thai fragrance (น้ำอบไทย) over them. It is believed that doing this will bring good luck and prosperity for the New Year.

Loy Krathong (ลอยกระทง) is another beautiful festival on Thailand. This takes place on the full moon in November. During the evening, many people will go down to their local klong (canal) or river to float their krathongs. They believe this will bring them good luck. The krathongs contain a flower, a candle and three incense sticks which are lighted before being placed on the water. The people usually make a wish at the same time. Some people believe that if the candle remains burning until the krathong is out of sight then their wish will come true. By the end of the evening, there are hundreds of flickering lights bobbing up and down on the water. Quite often there are also firework displays.

During the depiction of Loy Krathong festival in act 3 of Siam Niramit show, those guys when they floated their krathongs in a makeshift river on the stage, actually invited the audience and asked them to float the krathong. Another time the show became so lively when actors were actually performing and dancing between the audience.

You will find elephants on the stage and between the audience, the thai dancers dancing between the audience, along with music so melodious, the whole show was one of the best I have ever seen. It easily beats the much famous shows on New York City and Las Vegas.

Siam Niramit is a must visit show if anyone is visiting Bangkok even for a day or two. The show happens every evening at 8 PM. Once you make the booking, they pick you from your location and the show tickets include your Thai-Western buffet dinner.

Its the most enchanting, beautifull and creative show. A definitely must-see attraction of Bangkok City.

Few Pictures (courtesy: Siam Niramit website)

Kingdom of Lanna

Blissful Heaven

Festival of Loy Krathong

For more details refer to: http://www.siamniramit.com
For preview of the show : http://www.siamniramit.com/show-preview.php

Reference: http://www.siamniramit.com and the Siam Niramit handouts given to me during the show.

A Mighty Heart

2007-06-22T20:46:00.000-07:00

Good Movie. Terrific Performances. Highly refined screenplay. As always absolutely natural Irrfan. Good Sober Angelina. Awesome Camera shots. Beautiful Archie. Nice Editing. Good Film making.

Go for It!

The Long Road to Eden

2007-06-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

That is the name of Eagles latest album planned to be relased somewhere around June - July in 2007. They are playing few of the brand new songs in their current concerts including the one we had in Fayetteville for Wal-Mart. The name of the new album is The Long Road to Eden and this would the first new album after 1979.

Wal-Mart also released a Wal-Mart Bonus Cd and the songs are included in that Album

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Road_to_Eden
http://www.therockradio.com/2006/06/eagles-say-new-cd-out-next-year.html
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002949536

The Eagles at Fayetteville

2007-06-16T19:05:00.000-07:00

Yeah, thats right. They Came and Hell Freezed Over. The Bud Walton Area packed with approx. 13,000 Eagles crazy Wal-Mart people. If not all Wal-Mart, they were somehow assciated with the fortune 500 number one company. The Eagles' live performance was one of the many live in concerts organized by Wal-Mart during their Annual Shareholders Meet which happened during the memorial day week from 27th May to 1st June.

Watching The Eagles live was always a dream since college time. I had a DVD of Hell Freezes Over which i got from my Nepali friends in college, the Eagle came back for that concert. Watching them live was indeed a dream. Who knew that time how that will come true, and that too in such a manner.

I was talking to a freind of mine few days back when Amjad Ali Khan performed at nearby Tulsa, he wanted to go to some big concert. But we laughed on the possibilty of that. He said, the probability of watching some big band live is more in Bangalore than in Bentonville, Arkansas. I simply agreed. BUT then came the mail from Wal-Mart internal about the schedule of events for the Shareholders Meet, and the second day says 'The Eagles'. Oh my god, awesome, The Eagles coming here to Arkansas for the Wal-Mart annual event, mind-blowing. The second thing I read was that this event will be held in the Bud Walton Arena in U of A. fayetteville. U of A is University of Arkansas, and Bud Walton Arena is university's basketball arean with a massice capacity of 18,000 people. The mail also mentioned that the event is not Open to public and only Wal-Mart associates are allowed but they can take two guests. Ah ha, so the search started, who can take us. we were three people who found them crazy and jumping around with the news of Eagles. After 5 days of search we finally got nod from Raghu, a Wal-Mart associate and part of our project from Wal-Mart side. And 30th May evening, we scooted out of office at 4:30 and reached Bud Walton Arena, initial parking seemes to be a big problem but that was handled esily although the traffic was jammed towards U of A. Huge lines outside the gates,people in Wal-Mart T-shirts, crazy electrifying atmosphere with a Band playing in nearby open air parking lot.

They let us enter much ahead of time because of showers, and inside the whole almosphere was nothing less than a soccer game. I didnt even remember whan I started participating in mexican waves flowing across the stands. There were Wal-Mart shareholders teams from all part of the world and they were giving tempo shouts and dancing. The one hour wait in the auditorium because we entered early didnt seem ages because of so much activity happening. The stage looked awesome, with picture is the Indian Head projected in the back.

At 7, lights dimmed, we notice some activity on the stage in dark and when the lights came back with a staring of guitar, few more guitar joined in with drumns and piano and everybody was on their feets, shouting , cheering for Eagles and singng "Take It Easy" along with them..... awesome that was real awesome. They finished Take It Easy and started with "Witchy Women". After Witchy Women they stopped for a breather and they said hello people. few talks, they introduced two new members and the Trumpet and Sax player and they started again. Wow, every time they start with a new song, people cheering, dancing, everyone on their feets. They anounced that their new album will be out soon with brand new songs.
the played few of their brand new singles like - "One Day At A Time"

That was going as one heck of an event, they went back stage after about half an hour, few people seems disappointed and few were still in shock of what they have just seen. I was thinking , no they can't end it like this, how come no Hotel California. And I was right in 10 mins they were back, and the guy with trumpet started playing the starting music piece. I remember when thay perfom live the start of Hotel California is very different most of the time and that what is not captured in the Original. Be it the Hell Freeze Over concert. Today it was a good impressive music piese on Trumpet and then the leads started for Hotel California. Don Henley is his husky voice on drums....

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night
There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
’this could be heaven or this could be hell’
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say...

Welcome to the hotel california
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the hotel california
Any time of year, you can find it here

People singing along, mesmerized by the same husky voice on Don. Soon after Hotel California, we found Don again at the centerstage with lights on him crying Desperado....Desperado, why dont you come to your senses?

Desperado, why dont you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin, but theres a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you, before its too late

I guess that was the best song to end the lovely evening, the only song we missed a lot was Tequila Sunrise, but we cannot ask for more after this wonderful evening. Each and every song was well supported by terrfic stage lightings and effects with video projected in the back groung on stage. No one wanted to go but the show has to end. They have to go home. But thanks for those wonderful songs and thanks for the awesome performance.

Viva the Eagles!

It’s another tequila sunrise
Starin’ slowly ’cross the sky, said goodbye
He was just a hired hand
Workin’ on the dreams he planned to try
The days go by

Ev’ry night when the sun goes down
Just another lonely boy in town
And she’s out runnin’ ’round

She wasn’t just another woman
And I couldn’t keep from comin’ on
It’s been so long
Oh, and it’s a hollow feelin’ when
It comes down to dealin’ friends
It never ends

Take another shot of courage
Wonder why the right words never come
You just get numb
It’s another tequila sunrise,this old world
Still looks the same,
Another frame, mm...

Arkansas Route 7

2007-06-10T23:38:00.000-07:00

This year's memorial day weekend actually became quite memorial for me. After quick day before planning for memorial day weekend, we settled for a lake side condo at Hot Springs area which will be home for us for the next three days of the weekend. Our day before planning included temper rising high and cooling down, some reservatons and cancellations, late night shoppings and decision changes but finally when the weekend started, we ended at the right note at every step. Thanks to all the guys who were part of that trip. And those guys are my collegues and their respective family members. [Thank you note ends here]

I am dying to cut this blog short and stress more on the important stuff, but actually everything was important and worth mentioning and I dont know why I have named this blog as Arkansas Route 7, so just let me list out the best things during that trip which hapened with an average guy me [:P]

- Nissan Pathfinder
- Using Nissan at 90 MPH speed
- Condo on one of the many coves of Lake Hamilton
- 40,000 acres man-made Lake Catherine
- Grilled Shrimps and Aluminium Foil wrapped Potatoes
- First time Kayaking at the lake
- Captain with Coke
- ROUTE 7

I loved the route 7 drive back home, on 28th, the memorial day, that was time to head back for Bentonville and after spending good 3 hours at Hot Springs downtown we were left with two options - Go again to Lake Catherine and try out some trails or search for some Jet Skies at Lake Hamilton or Lake Catherine. Well we decided to take the third option and decided to start for home, but by not following the I-540 route, instead we decided to follow the Route 7 towards north to Harrison. And all credits goes to me for that [:D] for just having a cursory look at my map atlas and figuring out that this route should be scenic. So plan is final,

- take the scenic route 7 to Harrison,
- from there take route 62 E towards Eureka Springs
- Eureka Springs downtown is awesome, and has the only Indian food restaurant in NWA
- Have Indian buffet their
- Head back for Bentonville following Route 62 E

Here we start, as soon as we left Hot Spring downtown area, Route 7 showed its colors and Arkansas government made it very clear that the road ahead is going to be scenic. And it indeed was. First we were welcomed by the huge and thick Ouachita State Forest area, and Route 7 was zig-zaging through the ups and downs of forest area. The curves getting crooked and steep, air so fresh with smell of timber, wet earth and wilderness. Windows of our Pathfinder down, cruising along the curvy trails of route 7 was such an excitement filled moments and being a passionate driver I was enjoying my stint to the full extent. Beautifully supporting me was the Nissan Pathfinder which is one hell lot of an SUV, i loved that and that bugger gave good 24 miles per gallon.

Trees after trees, curvy roads and crooked turns, sometime we gaining height and sometime going down. An ATV trail on the right and a deep valley on left. Lake Catherine showing its giagantic figure, spreading around 30-40 miles with a number of coves and creeks, many islands (50 in total). After about 2 hours of cruising along Route 7 through Ouachita State Forest on the Ouachita Mountains we started going down and soon our single lane road become 2 lane and we reached a small town Russleville, we quickly crossed that pumping the gas pedal because the Ozarks were waiting for us.

As soon as we crossed Russleville, we entered Ozark State Forest. And this time they made me happier with the sign board saying Highly Steep and Crooked next 63 miles. Awesome, I love crooked miles. And Damn! I really have to slow down from 60 moh to 45 mph at many turns but I was loving maneuvering Pathfinder. Oh baby I love that. Crooked road, Steep up and down, thick forest, fresh air, everything was awesome. But I did felt jealous at one stage, when a group of 9 boys and girls were driving ATV on the dirt by the road side, drenched with water and mud. Must be coming down from the hill through the thick forest with no concrete road to drive, just muddy trails. That would have been awesome -- another thing to do before I die.

We did stopped at one point, that ws some Vista point in the Ozarks, we spent some time there relaxing and started again for Harrison. It was still long way to go and I was secretly happy about. I was not at all in mood of going home and start wrecking my brains in from of my thinkpad. But what to do. Anyways.

By the time we reached Harrison, it started raining, another thing which I love and its best when it rains in a forest (ofcourse when you are on well defined state highway). We reached Eureka Springs at 8 but the restaurant was closed and we decided to continue our drive back towards Bentoville. There were still good odd 50 crooked miles left n 62 E along the Beaver lake.

Reached home by 9, well spent 3 days of memorial day ended. Indeed will be well documented in good memories book. ANd I was thrilled to have discovered and drove on Route 7. Arkansas is indeed a Natural State. We are stull to discover public diamond mines and other state parks here. hopefully that will happen soon.

Here is the route 7 on the map (courtesy google maps)

One day at a Wal-Mart DC

2007-04-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

Its been close to two months and I am refreshing my knowledge of Retail domain. I have never got chance to work so closely in Retail domain before my current assignment for Wal-Mart Stores. Having a know how of Retail domain is not sufficient to understand all Wal-Mart retail practices, because Wal-Mart follows its own standards. Its so huge that its a world in its own with its own standards and practices. My retail funda right now require a real good uplift to come to the expectation. A feel good breeze came in this direction today when Wal-Mart guys organised a DC visit for us. DC as in Distribution Center which basically is the routing channel for all the goods to various stores of Wal-Mart all over the world. DCs recieve goods from vendors and they ship out replenishment stocks to the stores so the stores are well stocked for the customers like use to go and purchase.

Yesterday evening we recieved a mail from our manager that we will be going to a US Groceries DC nearby at Bartlesville, OK. Activity started right there at our area for the car pooling things and were ready with 6 cars and 20 people. We assembled today morning at 7 AM in the parking lot of a nearby restaurant. Two Wal-Mart guys were going to be escorts cum guides for us. They were there with directions flyers for the DC which is well close to 3 hrs drive from Bentonville. So we started from there at 7:30 AM, we four of us in one car. Took Route 412 W towards Tulsa, OK. From there we had to head north for Bartlesville. It was a quite beautiful drive through the hill with mix or city and express way roads. Route 412 W was quite impressive to me. We started with 412 as a city road with traffic lights and all with 45-55 as speed limit, as soon as we crossed city limits it was 65 MPH, the best was when we entered Oklahama and the same 412 became Cherokee Turnpike with speed limit of 75 mph. Well I have driven in US a lot in past one year, only because of driving as my passion, this was the first road which has official speed limit of 70+. Cherokee Turnpike converted into normal highway after some time but with speed limit still 70 mph, still higher than any highway limit in NJ or NY. We reached Tulsa at around 9:30 and by 10 we were at the Wal-Mart Distribution Center of Bartlesville which actually comes under Ocheleta town limits.

Here we go, we had our team with two very informative guides, we had our initial assembly and we started for the DC tour in two groups. Our group headed for the Dry Groceries section understanding the way it operates at DC level. I was looking at way high item slots and forklifts, which are known as RRs here, moving from here and there operated by DC people. Moving goods from one place to other. It was interesing to actually look the Prime Slots and reserve slot for any single Item. Various aisle and levels in different warehouse areas. Warehouse areas are broadly divided on the basis of conditon required for goods. Like Dry Groceries need room temperature but Produce needs colder areas with temperature range from 0 degree to -40 degree F. Mark, our guide for today was explaining things and answering to our questions helping us understand and gather whatever we can from this visit. We covered Reclaim section and saw the DC people do the order filling for very fast moving items. Interestingly the aisle of fast moving items are called super highyway. Essentially because of high traffic of RRs there.

Then we moved to the shipping area where pallets created for various stores were automatically wrapped and stacked into the Trailers. RRs honking, moving here and there carrying item pallets or stacking them somewhere, we didnt knew when it was 12 Noon and we realised that we are really hungry. We went back assembled again with the other group and headed to a nearby restaurant called Ella's. Nice food and real nice lemonade.

Second half was for Produce including Dry Produce like Banana, fruits to wet produce and Meats. We are all decked up as now we were about to enter cold zones. Dry Produce area was well as cold as temperature outside today. And it was quite cold, really. We learnt the importance or what we can say the attention required for Banana. We were joined by the DC's QC head Keith. He explained the process - they recieve Bananas in stage 1 condition from Guetamala, when they are green in clor and hard and actually smell also like cucumber. They put them in a chamber and raise the temperature, release ethylene gas for riping them to stage 3 when they are yellow in color and softer. Thats the ideal stage for delivery of Banana to store. All this process of ripening of Banana to right stage before delivering is done by application of various degrees of temperature and ethylene gas during the time span of 5 days. Keith was telling that Banana is the highest selling, fastest moving items of all time for Wal-Mart. He gave an analogy that if one day some top shot moves into a Wal-Mart store and found no Banana, its like the world has come to and end. And maintaning Banana is the most cumbersome process which is actually not controalable to the full extent. It invlves extensive manual effort to turn Bananas into correct stage so that when they reach homes of the cumsumer they are perfect in looks and taste. One deviation can result in bad banana in the morning breakfast.

Crossing the Dry Produce section we entered Wet Produce area. Any leafy item is actually termed as Wet Produce. They require colder storage area and close to 95% of humidity. Next was Meat produce section, definitely colder and chilly. The best thing there was the stacking of goods based on there characteristics like Poultry should be at the lowes level in the pallet. It should not be put on top of any other meat item. And seafood shoud always be at top level etc. The other thing was the mechanisation of Replenishmet moves. There were huge cranes installed to moves Reserves stocks to the primary slots. Awesome. Starting from the recieving to the Prime slots movement of items/Pallets, everything is mechanized. In between we saw people moving with RRs for inspection and orderfilling, shipping etc. The last stop was freeze section for frozen items. We only went to -20 degree F area. The group consent was to skip the -40 degree F area. All were already numb and were barely able to sleep. We head back for smokesticks and coffee. Had a quick assembly again and called the day off. Thanks to Mark and Donald for this trip.

Started back for Bentonville with an amazing educative day at Wal-Mart DC. Day by day a simple fact in getting rock printed in our minds that Its takes a lot to be largest and number one retailer in the world.

Samosas on the house

2007-03-25T20:48:00.000-07:00

Its been more than one month now when I Ianded in this holy city of Wal-Mart. Holy because this city is all about Wal-Mart and things closely attached to Wal-Mart. Well, the city is the global headquarters of Wal-Mart Stores Inc, And yes, the city is not know as Walmartville but Bentonville. I was quite skeptical before coming to this northwestern town of Arkansas state. The state which I knew only because of Bill Clinton, he was a senator from Arkansas. The other quite famous thing which became cognizant in my little world of knowledge recently is the diamond mines. This state has the only public diamond mine in the USA.

Bringing focus back to Bentonville, a small town in believe it or not a DRY Benton county. So if you want to get tipsy, you have to drive 10 miles atleast. I guess because of this very reason or may be because of my habit of flocking to New York and New Haven frequently, I along with my new friend started going out every weekend. First two weekends were Fayetteville, the nearest big town, in search of good pubs and bars. Well I have been a New Yorker, so can't help it and highly respect the relationship of a Pub and Friday evening.

This weekend when I woke up at my saturday timings of 1 PM, I wanted to go out. Out means real out and not inside any Pub or bar or movie theater. So I decided to take the Route 12 E which is supposed to be scenic highway once you cross Rogers city limits. We decided to go to Eureka Springs via 12 E. The town of Eureka Spring is famous for being Art district of northwest Arkansas. So we started at around 4 PM on Route 12 E with moderate expectation from the route and the town, well and the route indeed changed rapidly into scenic highway as soon as we travelled few meters out of the city. And the next were the crooked miles along the Beaver lake which looks like multi tail - multi headed dragon if you view in google maps or from your plane flying high. We crossed Hobbs State Forest conservation park and merged to State Route 62 E to reach Eureka Springs well before day lights fades away. Till that time we were quite satisfied with our scenic journey. Had the spring on full bloom, we would not have cared to go into Eureka Springs. But still our expectation were not much and we didnt expected much from the city apart from few art galleries. But as soon as we entered into the historic downtown of Eureka Springs, the tranquility level in my bloods rose to new highs. The town has total poplation of not more than 2500 and the downtown was a small, cute hilly area like a typical hills station in India. It was certainly like a mix of Shimla, Mussourie and Darjeeling. One road going up and one road going down with small beautifull shops on the sides. Shops full of atistic souvenirs and gift items, Coffee shops, Restaurants with live bands. The town was celebrating Jazz festival that weekend and that was certainly in the air. Horse chariots moving on the roads with a beautiful couple sitting cherishing their lovely moments with glasses of white wine. Happy people smilling and laughing, displaying the happiness and life of their small world.

I was just loving the small town I was walking in, then suddenly my eyes got stuck at the board outside a restaurant. The board was hanging high above the front door with Taj Mahal painted in one color. Some local artist must had drawn that for the owner. And beside Taj Mahal was the name of the restaurant written proudly as New Delhi on the Deck. I was quite delighted to see that because that was the first Indian restaurant I saw or heard about in Arkansas. I wont say the restarant was a hardcore Indian restaurant of the types we have in New Jersey or on Lex Avenue. This one was a normal cafe in a beautiful model downtown which reminds you of old victorian era. But this restaurant clearly seems like being owned and run by some one who is highly inspired by the country India. We decided to step in for some food and with a sense of curiosity. With one step inside nothing seemed india, nor the ambience nor the people. The first thing which looked Indian was a bronze statue of a lady sitting with hands joined welcoming everyone who walks in to those doors. We decided to sit outside, a nice band of three beautiful local girls was performing and the ambience was soothing and electrifying at the same time. Not many people, but it looked like a happy family. I guessed everybody knew everybody or they were just very friendly. The arrived the menu card which looked quite familiar with items like Samosa, chai and Indian Buffet. The best part of the menu card was the sandwich section with sandwiches like Bombay Sandwich, Dil Ruba, Goa Sandwich, New Delhi Sandwich etc. But we settled on Samosa, which were very brilliantly explained alongside on the menu card as veg tea time snack from India.

The Samosas did took time to arrive but they were real 3x3 inches and good with green north indian chutney as mentioned in the menu card. The time went by, real good listening to beautiful songs written and sung by Maia Archot. She play and sing amazing and was very briliantly supported by her partner Danielle on violon. In the meantime we started for Indian Buffet which was equally good being tasty and no spicy.

The night was falling and it was 9, time for the restaurant to close. We decided to move and when I asked for the bill the attending lady us just refused to add Samosas on the check. She said huh! They are on the house for you. I just smiled and said thanks and wished her a great night. We started our walk towards parking lot and headed back to Bentonville. A nice day, a nice evening with bunch of nice people around laughing, smilling, dancing and LIVING.

Hibernation ended...

2007-02-25T11:36:00.000-08:00

It feels good to get back to this space. I was hibernated for long time and n number of things happened around, things changed, surroundings changed and people also changed, and I am also thriving hard to change and get back to my normal self which I lost in between. So again the search has been started to understand myself and feel and understand the difference between happiness and the real happiness, differences between struggle and challenges, difference between living life and living yourself.... well many questions to be asked and many to be answered.

I have left few things behind which I didn't wanted to, few things are left so I can go back, few things are left to help me appreciate the time that was or to cherish the present. If time could not roll, if things do not change... we would have missed a term called Memories. The memories, capable of making you cry, laugh, angry... they can make you travel distances, they can make you hide more deeper in your present den, they give lessons, they teach you for future, they act are guardians and sometimes they bring out the kid in you. Few memories should be forgotten and few cherished. I built many, some to forgot some to remember. Its time to built more...

Its time for me to wake up, come out of hibernation and live. And that starts now 1...2...3...

Missing Calcutta....

2006-11-27T09:03:00.000-08:00

Born and brought up in Northern India, a punjabi by nature who loves everything about North India, I never thought of being in eastern city of joy called Calcutta, but that fascination always stayed. Although it has been re-christened as Kolkata but I do love to call the city as good olde Calcutta. During childhood doordarshan used to telecast a unity commercial featuring artists from every part of India... that gave me first glimpse of bengali and the city Calcutta with its Metro proudly boasting high for being the only city in India to have underground rail system. Well time flies fast....and I end up joining REC Dugapur, the REC chapter of West Bengal. The steel city of Durgapur famous for its steel plants and CMERI, is about 180 Kms from Calcutta, and here I go, I finally landed in the city which used to fascinate me for years. Not to stop there, after 4 years of engineering I end up having my first job in Calcutta. And I still relish my stay at the City of Joy. The city which is truly live always, any time of the day. Today its been exactly one year since I left Calcutta and joined my client locations in New Jersey, USA, But the city will always be an important part of my life.

Fortunately yesterday I found few pics of Calcutta in 1947. The earlier british capitol of India still got its periodic charm....

Calcutta Downtown

Howrah Bridge, Calcutta

Barbers on Calcutta streets

Billboards

Hoogly Bank

Coconut market

Night life

Red Cross of Calcutta

Chowranghee street

Chowranghee square, with Tram

Jai hai.. jai hai

2006-11-06T09:53:00.000-08:00

Man in Black

2006-11-03T10:27:00.000-08:00

He surely was somebody, the Man in Black

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he's a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me.

Well, we're doin' mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin' cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought 'a be a Man In Black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mournin' for the lives that could have been,
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.

And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,
Believen' that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
Believen' that we all were on their side.

Well, there's things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin' everywhere you go,
But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You'll never see me wear a suit of white.

Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything's OK,
But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black

- Johnny Cash

Diwali in USA

2006-10-27T11:15:00.000-07:00

October is about to end in few days. October marks the starting of festive season both in US and in India. Beginning of October I was quite mesmerized here by the fall colors that came up on the trees before they shed all their leaves. The month also started with Durga Puja, followed by karva and then Diwali. This is my first Diwali in US and I was quite skeptical about how it will happen. New York City had its Diwali street fair on 1st of October - so early because in NYC fireworks are not allowed after 15th of October every year accept on new year's eve.

In whole of New Jersey and New York area various Indian Communities and Temples were celebrating Diwali by organising some sort of get together and Aartis, like ISKON of New Jersey had two day festival comprising of Aartis, Bhajan, Bhog etc. Same with Durga Mandir in South Brunswick and Sanatan Mandir in Parsippany.

We here at Parsippany/Morris Plains had a small get together at one of our friend's place. We called for a Potluck dinner which means everybody will bring some dish from there home and contribute. On staurday evening i.e. Diwali day we had small puja at home followed by lighting of Diyas and Dinner and an Adda session till late in the night.

puja darbar

Diyas

Diwali Celebrations continued on Sunday with a matinee show of DON at Edison and awesome desi dinner at an amazing Pakistani restaurant - Shalimar in Edison. Those days Shalimar had extra tables for sweets because of Diwali and Eid. It looked all similar to the situation we have at sweet shops in India. Before all this we lit Diyas on Diwali eve also i.e. a day before Diwali marked as Choti Diwali. Thanks to the Indian store in Parsippany, it was never an hassle in getting Diyas and different varieties of sweets. Missing on this auspicious day in US were family and Crackers :-)

Thanks to Rashee di for quick setup of puja darbar

Puja

Puja Darbar

Online availability of written Aartis made things easier

Teeka

Howcome a Diwali without good food

flowers and floating Diyas

Group photo :-)

2006-10-14T20:56:00.000-07:00

Fall foliage

Today we thought of appreciating the beauty which gets wrapped over the trees during these months, well the month of October is also known as fall or autumn. Its the time when the leaves of trees in major part of US starts changing color. This major part essentially means the places where it snows, because fall colors have some relation with snow and frost. Okay, coming back to the colors. The colors change from green to yellow, orange, red, purple, brown and differnt shades or before mentioned colors. The color depends on time and type of tree.

In layman's terms during fall leaves start changing colors, starting with yellow then orange, purple, red and finally brown or faded. After this they fall.

The color change necesserily happends because of a cell layer which forms over the leaves about two weeks before the fall. This layer restricts the renewation of chlorophyll, hence other colors which were earlier overshadowed by green clor of chlorophyll start showing up. And finally due to lack of chlorophyll, the leaves die and fall.

I read in some travel book about top 32 must visit places in USA, one of them was New England during fall to see the foliage. New England area includes the north east states like New Hampshire, Rhode Island etc... I also read somewhere that there are two places in world for best fall foliage - New Hampshire in USA and some parts of Northern Japan. I am not sure about the later part but I can easily put a stamp on the first one.

I remember, we used to have nature wallpapers on our computers of beautiful roads with trees on the both sides bathed in colors of yellow, orange and red. Maple leaves flying on the road. And here we are, appreciating the beauty with our bare eyes in real. Nature is already so beautiful and this time its like it is on full bloom and want to again prove its beauty and the artistic sense of almighty.

Today, I started from my friends place in East Haven, CT for Topsmead State Forest. Well that was sort of disppointment, colors didnt came up good and most of the trees were pine tree which do not really shed leaves. So we head for Mt. Tom State Forest about 20 minutes from Topsmead. Ummmm, quite impresive, we took a trail to top of the hill. There is a small tower over there on top of the hill, you can see quite a distance of connecticut's forest area from the top of that tower. The view was mindblowing, worth 2 miles of trail to top. After that we head for Mohawk State Forest via beautiful routes of CT-4 and CT-7. Wow, its like whole of the forest is bathed in yellow color. Pretty impressive, breathtaking views with Mohawk Pond and a river flowing beside the route 4. Mohawk made my day today.

Its amazing to thought that falling of leaves because they are dying can be so beautiful. Amazing, another wonder of mother Nature

2006-10-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

Good Old 80 - From NYC to SFO

2006-10-12T23:01:00.000-07:00

California - Black and White

Sousalito - north of Golden Gate

Paul & Mason street car - San Francisco

Golden gate bridge - San Francisco

San Francisco, the city

Pacific coastal drive - 17 Mile drive, Monterey

17 Mile drive - Monterey

A scenic house - Monterey

Rocky and scenic Monterey coast

Pebble beach - Monterey

Santa Cruz

Municiple Wharf - Santa Cruz

Giant trees - Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park

Biker on a Yosemite road

Reflection of Half Dome - Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park

US - 50, on way to South Lake Tahoe

2006-10-06T21:21:00.000-07:00

The best national park - Yosemite

Last weekend when we hit west coast, the two most important places on my mind were Yosemite and the Route 1 pacific coastal highway. I would admit Yosemite was the top priority although it was the worst time of the year to visit Yosemite, people say this.... I don't know.....I don't care.....I could not plan a long weekend in Yosemite because of time constraints, So I planned to reach Yosemite village at night and dedicate the full next day to the park. I along with my two buddies left for Lake Tahoe that pretty Saturday morning. Tahoe didn't had much to offer that day apart from scenic Gandola ride to top of the lake facing mountain. The lake is definitely pretty and one of the most beautiful lakes of the country. We had an early dinner in an amazing Chinese restaurant - water wheel, at the Nevada side of the South lake Tahoe city.

Our route was NV-207 S, NV-88 S to US-395 S to hit CA 120 E. CA-120 runs through Yosemite National park. We hit CA-120 from Nevada side and entered Yosemite from east. The CA-120 is also known as Tioga Pass Rd in Yosemite park area. This road is all year open road on Yosemite. When we reached US-395 it was pretty dark and by the time we entered Yosemite it was 11:30. Unfortunately we found nobody at the park gate, so we entered the park without paying. well paying was not a big deal because we can easily pay while going out but we were missing the park map which we were supposed to get at gate....we thought of getting the map from Yosemite village next morning and proceeded our drive. It was all dark. Yosemite is a park which allows night hiking also so its open 24 hrs. For us it was good 1 hr drive more before we reached the Housekeeping camps at Yosemite valley. I was driving and enjoying the forest in night. Thanks to the almost full moon that night, the forest was looking beautiful, we passed the Tenaya lake, which looked awesome in moonlight, we almost crossed the Yosemite park on CA-120 and turned towards east for the valley.

The guy at Housekeeping told me that they are open 24 hrs, well the park is 24 hrs so they should be... and yes he was infact waiting for us. I didnt knew the concept of housekeeping camps before I visited them at Yosemite. The are like three brick walls covers with tent at top and a curtain as fourth wall. The camp has a light buld and two cots and a rack, that's all with a fire grill outside and a bear box. Its like an installed Camp for you. Cool concept, you just need to carry blanket etc and other stuff, no need to worry for roof and walls.
Bear box, whats that, well these are the iron boxes installed just outside each camp to keep food. Yosemite has lots of California black bears which are actually brown in color. These bears smell food and come down to get them, if they sensed food in car, they are going to break the car and get the food. So they can come to your camps too to get the food and they might hurt. So its advised to clear the cars and store the food at secure locations i.e. bear boxes. We didn't planned and adventuresome night that day, so we were equipped with only Smirnoff Ice and tiring. We just had few and hit the bed.

Our whole of journey from Lake Tahoe to Yosemite valley was in dark and I had no idea about the park except from the fact that is jungle and its hilly. Nest morning when I got up and stepped outside my camp. I was stunned. Oh gosh, I never imagined, is it real....I was surrounded by nearly vertical high rocks from all around. With lots and lots of pine tree in the valley. The whole view was so so amazing. I just wanted to get ready and go out into the wilderness.

We had quick breakfast and hit road, the Yosemite valley is amazing place....small flat area surrounded by high rocky mountains and a narrow merced river flowing in the middle of the valley. There is a point where we can see the reflection of world famous half dome in totally still merced river. I remember the time when I was a kid, just got a new PC and we had beautiful wallpapers of amazing views from different parts of world, we used to just sigh looking at them. And today I was witnessing one of the most beautiful creation of god with my bare eyes in real - Yosemite falls, Half dome, El Capitan, merced river and there are many un-named sights. wherever I look, its an amazing sight.

Shortly after 2 we left valley for Giant Sequias and in between I saw a sign pointing towards Glacier Point, the first thought was that it will be a place to look at the valley in winter to see the glaciers, but I could not stop myself, I didn't wanted to miss any angle of Yosemite, I wanted to see whatever I can in short span of one day. It was a well 16 mile steep drive to the Glacier Point. And along the way little drizzling enhanced the beauty of Yosemite. Everyone can imagine how beautiful forest look after rains. The extra 16 mile atop the hill for Glacier Point came heavy but equally rewarding when we reached there. That was an unbelievable site. It was drizzling and in front of my eyes was the Yosemite valley surrounded by high rocky mountains peaks.

Our next stop was Mariposa Grove which is residence of Giant Sequias trees. We went for small hike into the groves. Passed giant trees fallen and still standing proudly. The giant sequias have shallow roots but spread out to large area, which help these huge tree stand proudly. There is one California tree tunnel, which is a huge tree carved out to create a tunnel in the tree trunk. Wow, the trees are so huge.....you can pass a car from the tree tunnel. Amazing.

By 7 we left Yosemite from south gate and followed route 41 south for San Fran. What an amazing day. I would love to visit this amazing beautiful place again sometime. I missed out hiking this time. Yosemite has some best of the hiking trails. Something for every season, for day and for night. Hats off to Yosemite!!!

2006-09-24T20:59:00.000-07:00

2 VS 5

Its yet another weekend in US, but what is 2 VS 5. What is 2? well 2 plus 5 certainly makes 7. And 7 is considerable number as 7 days makes one week. 2 days of weekend and 5 days of ... arrrghhh ... Working. Everybody loves Raymond but I guess more number loves weekend.

There was one quote made famous in my workplace - hope of weekend on every Monday is called life, after all life is a hope of next breath after this one. I get up on mondays and tuesday and rest of the weekdays, dying to sleep more. what the heck why i was not sleepy last night when I was up till 2-3 AM wasting time on some stupid websites. suddenlt a voice comes from my heart - comon dude, get up, lets work for a while we will sleep to the fullest on weekend. weekend is just 4 days away man... See, the hope of weekend is powering up 5 days of work. the hope of those 2 days.

2 must be feeling lucky after knowing this. He got one more medal to his credit, after becoming an important number in mathematics, he is also powering up the work days of whole world.

Everybody has there own ways of spending those two days. Few people cannot get out of bed, well reasonable enough. For some its time to drink and party. Few find it as golden time to finish up personal things and few cant make difference between 2 and 5. Well my 2 days are always dedicated to New york, if not York the my bed....either I am in NY or i am lazing around in my bed till late afternoon. Sometimes the weekends become more hectic than the weekdays.

Anyways, this time i spend most of my time lazying around at home only. Gave NY also a miss. Ah I miss NY. And now I am in the worst phase of weekend, sunday late evening. Oh my god its monday tomorrow.....but its 5 O'Clock somewhere

Cheers!