I AM BACK!!!

Yes!!! I am back from the most wonderful trip ever!!! 1 month is too short a time to visit your hometown! Anyway....had the most lovely time! I am still jet-lagged, so until I get my groove back, take a chill pill in this crazily warm winter weather and enjoy!!

Cya all soon!

P.S.-> Thanks for your constant visits and comments and wishes. They have not been wasted, unnoticed and unappreciated :-)

Yipppeeeeeee!!!!!

Yippppeeeeeeeee!!!!! I am sooooooooooo veryyyyyy excitedddddddddd!!!!! Just 2 more days !!! Tomorrow's my last working day and I have Saturday to spend with V and then I will be gone for 5 weeks!!!!!!! The last few weeks have been hectic.....shopping has been a tiresome continuous process, work's been trying too as I had to complete assignments and wrap up. However, this week has been okay.... with the MTA strike on, most of my colleagues could not make it to work and neither could my manager. So things are quite cool with everyone in the holiday spirit!

A week before, we had organised an International Lunch at work. People were to bring food representing their country. Since most of my colleagues are from different parts of the world, the variety of food we had that day was awesome! I got to taste many new superb dishes and even learnt a few new country names. To add more fun to the event, we had a "Fear Factor" section where food that is common to a certain country but might not be too appealing to one's eyes or mind were included. People got stuffs like Octopus, Chicken Feet and some really yucky looking stuffs. We even had a prize (bottle of stomach medicine) for the one who tried most of the fear factor food :-)

Well guys, thats the update for now. Thank you all for checking in regularly even though I was not responding to your comments. Not sure when I will post again but will try from home anyway. I am flying on 25th eve from JFK airport and land in New Delhi on 26th night. My parents are already in Delhi waiting for my arrival. The next morning we have our flight to Bagdogra airport and then another 3hrs drive and I will be home! Yeah..its a long journey but after Delhi I'd be with my parents so it wont be bad at all. As always, on the way from Bagdogra airport to Gangtok, I shall be stopping to gorge on a plate load of Momos!!! Slurrrpppp!

So, wish you all HAPPY HOLIDAYS and a very HAPPY & PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!
Hope you all have a blast!!

Watsup?

Well well well...time just flies doesnt it? And as the technologies of the world keep improving, seems like so is Time's method of travelling. Time seems to be travelling faster and faster. Can you believe its already December?!!! Where did the rest of the months go? I have been so caught up with 'non blog' stuffs that I even missed my Blog Birthday! No need to mention how utterly wonderful the past year has been...getting to know and make friends with you wonderful guys. It has been a great blog year and I hope it will continue to be...

Now the time for my update.
Well, since my plans to go home was fixed, I have been keeping busy with shopping for friends, family and relatives. This is indeed a big chore. Nowadays you get everything in India and its becoming extremely difficult to decide what to get for whom. I have been making rounds of stores and malls, buying gifts ...reflecting over them once I bring them home and then going back to the stores to return and get something else.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I went to Pittsburgh. When I arrived there, it was freaking cold and was snowing. It was like a reminder of how the winter is actually gonna be. 9 of my friends drove from Columbus, so by Thursday morning, we were a happy group of 11 crammed in V's one bedroom appt.That day we decided to go to a temple. Pittsburgh is famous for the Balaji temple there. After their long drive, my friends were famished with hunger. The choice of temple to visit was greatly favored by the kind of food we would get there. Eventually when we did set off in the cold, we somehow ended up deciding on a Krishna temple in Wisconsin. The brochure also showed this lovely picture of something they call Palace of Gold which also helped in making us decide to go there. Some wise guy in our group said its just 20 miles away and we set off! We drove on and on and on and finally we reached the place almost 2 hrs later!!!! It was coldd and we were hungry! The Palace of Gold was pretty impressive. It is basically a beautiful monument set up as a shrine to one of the gurus ISKCON. After a guuided tour of the palace where the guide informed us of how the palace was made with marbles from 17 countries and other stuffs. We then proceeded on to the temple....the temple too was lovely. Then came the part we were most interested at....FOOD!! We went to the cafeteria and had the yummiest thali of poori, sabji, rice and dal with samosa and tea.

The next day was Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday and during this day stores offer huge discounts and they open up early in the morning. We had decided to go to the stores when they open at 5am, but then came to know one of them would open at 12am itself. So it just happened that we were shopping from 12am till 8am!! Though standing in the checkout queues for hours was tiring, but overall it was fun.

The rest of the weekend went by quickly and soon it was time to return. Only 20 more days for me to leave for India. As much as I am excited to be back with my family, I am feeling sad at the same time to be away from V for an entire month.