Colors of a lovely weekend

I had a fantabulous weekend. Having V come over for the weekend was simply awesome. We had a great time just going around the city. I got to show him my workplace, my daily route to work and places I normally visit. We ate great food in lovely restaurants and cafes and we even ate at this Amish marketplace where I normally have my lunch. It was oh! such a romantic weekend...just the two of us, hand in hand, with no cares of the world, whatsoever. Except for one small glitch when we lost our digicam right on the very first day. That did set off our mood a bit, but it couldn't last long in the joy and sweetness that we felt on being together.

We also wanted to watch The Phantom of the Opera, but due to lack of planning and research, we kept it for Sunday evening only to know they have no shows on Sunday. Tsk! Well, there's always the next time. We also did loads of shopping. Even though its his birthday, I was the one who got most of the stuffs....ok ok...all of the stuffs except one :D

Yes, its my dear V's birthday today. And not only am I not with him, but I didn't even get to write a nice post for him :(

Happy Birthday to my darling V

Today is also the birthday of my kid cousin whose name incidentally, also starts with v. All these years, I have been missing V's birthday to attend my cousin's birthday party. This time I got to attend neither. Oh well! Happy Birthday to my cute, naughty cousin v :-)

Well folks, my life's going pretty busy at work. My landlord and family returned from their month long India trip today, so I am pretty sure this week I wont be able to do much of blogging. Coming weekend being a long one, me and my friends have planned a trip to Colorado. I will be flying from here and my friends from Indy and we are all gonna meet at Denver.

Hope you all have a great week ahead and a wonderful weekend!

UPDATE: I had forgotten about these pics I had taken with my cell phone. We had gone to the Toys R Us store at Times Square and I was quite amazed to see these structures made entirely by Lego blocks! Thought I would share with you too.

Statue of Liberty

King Kong

Raksha Bandhan memoirs

Rakhi is fast approaching. I got one for my brother through an internet shopping site. Hopefully this time it will reach him on time. As I was browsing through the different selections the various sites had to offer...I found myself remembering those 'good old days' back in my childhood days. I have always tried to get nice ones for my brother. But once, just to bug him, I had got this huge rakhi made with pink sponge flower and decorated with shiny golden, pink and green paper. If that wasn't bad enough it had this plactic moulded 'Mere Pyare Bhaiya' pasted on the top. Haha...it was fun to see my bro's face when I got out the rakhi.

Rakhi is not actually a Nepali custom. Its something we adopted from Indian culture. We have our own Bhai Tika which is celebrated during the Diwali season. On Rakhi day we have something called Quati Punhi. We cook something called Quati and as it falls on full moon day, hence the name. Quati is kind of soup/dal made by mixing 9 different types of pulses. I dont know the significance of the day but they say we have to have that nine times during the day. I love Quati ...so I never minded the nine times rule. To think its been like ages since I had Quati last! :-(

I also remember how when I was in 5th std there was this craze to tie rakhi to each and every guy in the class. I also remember me and my friends had swiped a few extra rakhis from the dukan wala bhaiya! We had some outing from school that day and I had managed tie rakhi to almost all the guys in my class except for one guy. I had searched for him everywhere but was unable to get hold of him. Years later when my friends told me, did I realise that he actually used to like me and was therefore hiding from me!! LOL!

Wishing all the brothers and sisters a very Happy and Lovely Raksha Bandhan :-) Missing you, my dear brother!

Independence Day

On Saturday the Indian community in Columbus, IN had organized a small function to celebrate the India Independence Day. They held drawing competition for kids. I went and attended the function with the prospect of getting to eat samosas. The turnout of people and kids were more than expected so me and V had to rush to a store to get extra gifts for the kids and also get additional chips and soda. The function ended with snacks and drinks. I was lucky to get the last samosa left!

On 15th Aug, though we didnt have any ID parade, a few of us still managed to attend a parade. This parade was organised by the people of Columbus in the honour and to celebrate the winnings of Tony Stewart. Tony Stewart is the current Nasscar champion and his hometown is Columbus. Thousands of Tony fans and friends lined up the streets of the tiny downtown. Almost everyone was wearing his team color orange. Thats the beauty of having a celebrity from a small town like this. The people are so genuinely happy and proud. Felt nice to be a part of this function.

Who doesnt like surprises?

Nothing can beat the pure joy of having a surprise long weekend! Wat say?

We are moving our offices to another building tomorrow and apparantly the new place is not yet ready...so we have been instructed not to come to work on Monday! Yippeeee!! So guys, I have booked flight tickets to Indianapolis. How can I let such an opportunity pass by?! :P I am leaving Fri eve and returning Tue morning and going straight to work. Please pray for me that I dont face any problem in the trip, like before!

I have started walking to from the bus stop to my office. It takes me about 25-30 mins..so that adds up to almost 1 hr of walking everyday! I feel so good about myself. The walk is crowded but interesting. I get to catch a glimpse of J Lo every morning and say hi to Samuel Jackson every evening as I pass through Madamme Tussaud's. Since I have to walk so much, I use two pairs of shoes. Flat comfortable ones for walking, and once I reach office, I change to my normal high heeled shoes. Colors ke shoes, ek dikhane ke liye aur ek chalne ke liye. :-)

Wish you all Happy India Independence Day!

Happy Friendship's Day!!!

Dear Friends,


Wish you all a very
Happy Friendship's Day


Love,
Colors

My flight woes

I hate flying to or from NY/NJ. On each and every of my numerous trips, I have had to face some or the other problem. I have started feeling its kinda jinxed for me.

Last Friday afternoon, on the spur of the moment, I booked a ticket for Indianapolis. I was missing V so much..couldn't not be with him that weekend. I had walked out of the house in the morning as usual, expecting to be back in the evening not so much looking forward to a dull weekend. But by the end of the day I found myself going towards the La Guardia airport. So far so good. As I approached the guy checking the boarding pass and the id in the security check, I was feeling good and excited. The guy was a desi...he took one look at me and pointed me towards the 'special shorter queue'. I though wow..what did I do to deserve this, thinking that I had been selected for an express queue. Bah! In my dreams! When I came closer, I realized it was a special screening queue. I had to undergo a body search! Aaargh! I was seething mad at that guy to have chosen me to undergo the procedure. How can a desi do this to a fellow desi? I mean do I look like a terrorist or what? I understand this is their duty...but why always me??? This was not the first time I had been 'hand picked' for this 'special treatment'. Infact I have lost count. Luckily I had plenty of time in my hand..so I didnt have to worry about missing the flight.

Other thing that normally happens to me (again why me??!!) is that almost every flight I have taken to/from NY/NJ gets delayed. But this didnt happen and I was nicely settled in the aircraft with my cell phone obediently switched off. And then guess what....the captain's voice crackles through the speakers announcing that we havent yet been cleared for takeoff and we will have to wait at least 45 mins more!!! Once again proving that NJ/NY airports have something against me.

I finally reached Indy where V and a couple of frens had come to pick me up. The weekend was good and went by too quickly. The next thing I knew I was on my way back to the Indy airport on Sunday afternoon. I was kinda worried about the return journey as I was landing at La Guardia at 830pm and the best way for me to get back to NJ was take a bus from Port Authority at NY. Already a couple of my friends had scared me on traveling alone in that area in the night. But of course..I shouldnt have worried...coz do things really go as planned when its NY airports involved?? I went through the security check..and guess again...I was selected for the special screening! I guess I should now take it as a normal thing and not get bothered about it. When I reached my gate I realized my flight was 1.5hrs late. Of course...how could I have even thought this would be smooth?

I got my flight changed to NJ one. Although the NJ flight timing was almost the same as the delayed flight, atleast it was in NJ saving me the trip from NY. Also, I knew the way around NJ airport more than the city which made me feel a bit more comfortable. However since I had changed my flight, it was with another airline and I had to undergo security check again. Yes you got it...once again I had to go through the special check. The lady there told me that its the airlines who select and they mark it on the ticket itself. No wonder I had to go through it my entire trip!

By then I was in a terrible state. As if I wasnt feeling bad enough to have to leave V, I had to go through all this. I had even started regretting why the heck did I move..why couldnt I just be with V and let him support me :P. Also, I was worried about how will I reach home...I didnt want to bother anyone to come pick me from the station (I was taking train from the airport) in the middle of the night..plus I wasnt sure taking a cab was a good option.

To make matters worse the 2nd flight too got delayed. I felt like doing something..bash those airlines people..strangle them..something! But I was helpless and had to (in)patiently wait for the plane to take off. Finally after an hour's delay we took off. On landing it was 11:30pm. I approached the lady at the airline counter and asked some arrangement to be made as since the flight got delayed, I missed my ride back home. She was nice and sorry and she told me to check the customer service. I went there only to find empty counters staring back at me. I noticed one lady walking out of the area. I quickly caught up with her and asked her if she was from the customer service. She rudely replied yes but couldnt I see they were closed? I simply walked out of her..I wanted to give her my mindful, but I had no time to waste, plus I knew my words would not make any difference to her. I went to the train station and took the train back home. My landowner came to pick me up from the station and finally I was safe back home.

I have told V, henceforth he will be the one to travel. I am so tired of dealing with these stuffs every time. Plus I hate traveling alone... as if I haven't had enough of my company while commuting to work everyday.