Good week finally

What a week it has been! This week was by far the best week since I came to the US.

Wednesday, May 09

I got the camera delivered from amazon. Sony T100, the one I mentioned in my last post. A stunner!! And my first macro shot taken using the camera is there for everybody to see, below!



Thursday, May 10

Finally, booked a house, after so much deliberation. I finally settled for a house in Jersey City Heights, close to Washington Park, close to the bus stop and near the shops and everything. I would be moving to the house on June 1st.

Friday, May 11

We went to Spiderman 3 on Friday night, first movie of the US trip in 2007. Movie was utter crap though. Im a spidey fan and it was a big disappointment for me. That should be obvious from my previous post.

Saturday, May 12

I drove! It was not as difficult as I imagined. It is way too easy when compared to driving in India. But, in the highways, it takes some getting used to, keeping the speed and knowing where to exit and when is quite a challenge. Driving on the right side of the road is something I had to remind myself to do, a couple of times.

Then, we went to Rasoi, the Indian restaurant on Oak Tree Road in Edison. We went to the buffet in the afternoon, it was very good. It costed 13$ per person and for the number and quality of the food items, it was well worth it.



In the evening, me and BIL played Tennis for around an hour. My first attempt, its really not that easy to play. All the time I saw it on tv and other people play, I thought it was no big deal, but it was really funny when I played, I could almost never always keep the ball within the court. It was fun though. Hope to make time and play once atleast every week.

Sunday, May 13

And today, we went to Six Flags Wildlife Safari that is located in Jackson, New Jersey. It is close to an hours drive from sisters place. I drove, with bro-in-law's help. The Wildlife Safari was quite good, it is supposedly the world's largest drive-thru safari outside of Africa. As per their website, this 350-acre wildlife preserve stretches 4.5 miles and features 11 themed sections with nearly 1,200 animals.



We basically have to drive through the entire stretch in our own vehicle, its exactly like it is in the movie Jurassic Park. All the animals just roam around, there is a paved road that goes through the entire stretch, we can stop wherever we want on the road, near the animals we want to see. We went in around 10.30 Am and we saw Giraffes, Deers, Rhinos, Elephants, Ostritches, Peacocks, Lions, Tigers, kangaroos, monkeys etc. We also had a couple of close encounters with a couple of Giraffes and an ostritch. The lions, tigers and elephants were caged (obviously), that was a bit of a downer. All in all, it was worth the money. Not great though, I would call it a well spent 2 hours, a good outing.

It has been hectic this week. Need to catch up on some sleep and rest. Have uploaded few pics to flickr -> Click here .

One week over!

One week over, am still indecisive about the house. Lot of confusion over where to take a house. I had two plans or rather two options.

Plan A

Take an apartment in Journal Square.

Journal Square is a sort of indian locality.It is congested, unclean and very densely populated area. Not the sort of place one would want to be in immediately after coming to the US. The sole advantage to this place is that it is close to the city, very closely connected to New York through the rail and bus network. People who work in the New York could take a place in this sort of a place, coz the prices in new york is beyond the sky.

My office is in Newport, 2nd station from Journal Square by train, so its very easier for me to go to office if I take a home in Jersey city. However, I hated the place the moment I saw it.

Plan B

Take a place away from work and New York, like Edison, Woodbridge etc.

But this is like an hours drive to office, so a car is a must. Three of us (friends) in the current project are thinking of buying a car together and sharing the expenses. The advantage with a place like Woodbridge or Edison is that it is very scenic, spacious, clean and serene. The problem here is finding apartments for all the three of us in the same place. It is proving to be a bit of a challenge. Whole of yesterday and today we were out there searching apartments, lot of good options but somehow each one posed some problem for atleast one of us.

At this moment, it looks like more of Plan B will work out. For now, living in my bro-in-law and sisters home. Living with them makes us forget that we are away from India, theirs is a Warm and cozy place. Im giving myself a couple of more weeks
max to find a house, hope to find a good one soon.

My wonderful office

Till now, the one thing I liked the most, was my office place. One word for it is stunning, it is located on the 11th floor of a 15 storey building on Washington Blvd in Jersey city.
Note the office, marked in green below in google map, it is right near the entrance of the Holland Tunnel. The Holland Tunnel starts in New Jersey goes under water across the hudson river and emerges out in New York. Wonderful aint it?
The office is located on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, the river
separates New Jersey and New York. The view from office is just stunning, on one side of the building we can look at the whole of New York and from the other end of the floor we can look at New Jersey. The views are just breathtaking. I will try and post some pics from my office building soon.

Thats all the update till now, interesting month ahead.

Reached US of the A

I used to take the same road to office every day. But in the wee hours of 21st april, the same road looked different, the air pleasant and the memory unforgettable. It was a short 20 mins journey from home to airport that I for once liked very much and didnt want to end.

Anyways, the flight was at 5.25AM, the flight took off at 5.30 something and 10 hours and a big headache later we (mom and me) were in Heathrow airport. And I spent my first dollars there, 10 $ for two cofee, phew!

And at Heathrow is were we faced one of the most gruelling security checks, everything from shoes to belt to wallets were checked. No liquids, only one bag per person, no this and no that. No matter what these people do the T guys (short for Terrorists) would find a way to outwit them, atleast some times.

Around 9 hours later, we reached Newark at 5.35 PM. Sister and bro in law came to pick us up. 20 mins later we were at their home. Visiting a new place for the first time is really an experience I like very much. Trying to observe as much as possible, the roads, the cars, the buildings, the shops, the people and the smell of a new place. Everything had changed in a span of one day, India to New Jersey.

New Jersy has a sort of old world charm. It is not too overwhelming, it is just about right. The houses all reminiscent of the past, ample greenary everywhere and above all the free flowing traffic were the stuff that stuck me the most.

No signs of jet lag till now. Had a good nights sleep yesterday. Was up fresh in the morning today, next one week is probably going to be very hectic. Settling in office, getting used to the place and above all finding a house will be the key challenges next week.

Hope floats!

6 days to D Day

Well, 6 days to D day! Very little time and even more little time for me to get ready for it. By this time next week, me and mom would be in air, somewhere between Heathrow and Newark, over the ocean.

Today, while I was driving, I took a few seconds to think about what Im looking forward to and what I would be missing when I go to America. Few things came to my mind and I put a litte more thought and have listed down them down.

What Im looking forward to..

1. Meeting my sweet little sister and taking my mom to America.
   
2. All the amazing places in America. Touring and Visiting places along with my mom, sister and everybody.

1. Movies (without intervals and good audience) and netflix (what a wonderful concept!).
   
2. More money, the green currency(not too much though) and lesser expensive gadgets.
   



3. Lesser pollution (dont know if that will be the case, coz going to stay in journal square, supposed to be sort of indian terrain in New Jersey).
   
4. Well mannered people, good traffic system.
   
5. Regular office timings (unlike here, working 2-11pm for months together) and more time at home.
   
6. Weekly 1 day working from home (that just sounds amazing, Im just so happy even thinking about it).
   
7. No tie (hip, hip, hurray!! my current employer has this ties on mondays and tuesdays rule in office in india alone! That sucks! I hate it more than anything else. So much so that when I joined this firm and the first few days, I thought I might as well hang from the same tie!).

Things I would miss

1. India. No matter how much ever we brood about the country, the people, the politicians, the system and everything else, it is still India. My own India.

1. Home and Chennai. Even though mom is accompanying me to America, I still would miss home in chennai, no matter how hard I try, America would still be alien to me and me alien to America!
   
2. Trading in the Indian Stock Markets. Because of the time shift, Indian market will be open past midnight US time.sob sob. But it is also good in a way, because if I dont trade atleast one thing is gauranteed, I wouldnt lose any money!
   
3. Not having to follow any rules. Are there any in India in the first place? My office does though, lots of them. I hate rules that keep reminding you that it is a rule. My office has lots of them.
   
4. All my friends. Thinking for a few seconds, I realize most of my friends are not in Chennai, but still!


5. The big, mad crowd almost everywhere and especially in theatres, would definitely miss watching Sivaji in India.


6. Driving on Indian roads, it is the best driving test one could take in the whole world. With all the traffic, the lack of rules, poorly laid roads and lack of driving discipline, everyday driving becomes like playing a video game, where almost every moving object on road would seem to collide with your course. To come out unscratched after a days driving is itself an achievement. I would miss driving in Chennai roads.

Summing everything up and considering the fact that I will probably be there for a year or less, I think the things I look forward to outnumber the things I would miss. And thats the reason, I guess, I dont feel like I would be missing much.

Visiting Lord Venkateswara

I had only once earlier been to Tirupati / Thirumala (when I was a small kid)! I didn’t have any memory of that trip and so this was like the first time for me and boy, the opulence in the temple was just unbelievable! The sheer enormity of the place was striking, the crowd, the history of the temple, the hundreds of thousands of devotees who throng the temple each day; all this had to be seen to be believed!

We had booked the APTDC Tirupati package(transportation to and from Tirupati / Thirumala, Darshan tickets and visit to main temple, hotel stay for the few hours, visit to Kala Hasti, visit to Sri Padmavathi Devi temple)!

We started off from TNagar at 6.15 PM and reached Tirupati at 12:00 AM (delayed after a bus break down which provoked the passengers to curse and swear like there was no tomorrow!).

We were allowed a measly 2 hours of sleep before being whisked away to the temple and from 3 AM to 5.30 AM we were just in the queues, the elaborate paths that has been setup to control the crowds is extremely annoying but is unbelievable in the way they have planned and set it up.

I had never been this long in the queue, that too at 3 in the morning, it was a bit too much and eventually when we reached the deity, it was just mayhem!

The devotees went berserk! It was like suddenly everybody went mad, people start pushing each other, stepping over other peoples legs, crushing people literally and while all this is happening, the temple staff are trying their bit, by pulling people out of the madness, all this was a little too much for me. I stopped moving after the initial mayhem, , the crowd, literally swept me off my feet and took me in front of the deity.

Boy, those few seconds, those few seconds one gets to watch Sri Venkateswara, is worth all the pain one takes to reach till there! You are not allowed to stand there in front of the deity for more than a few seconds, if you try to then you will definitely have an aching arm, the temple staff just pull you out of there, such is the pressure with which they pull at you that if you resist your arm might come off! I didn’t take the risk though, within those few seconds, I had a one sided conversation with the Lord Almighty! However once I was out, I remembered that I had forgotten to discuss a couple of things!

Was feeling bad about that but we then were headed to Sri Padmavathi Devi temple, so the rest of the conversation happened at that temple!

As per history, when Sri Lakshmi Devi came to know of Lord Vishnu's marriage to Sri Padmavathi Devi, she was in consoleable and eventually Lord Vishnu had to shift Sri Padmavathi's place to a different location to console her. That's why Sri Padmavathi Devi has a separate temple, whereas Sri Lakshmi Devi is borne by Sri Venkateswara on his chest in the main temple. (Well, bought a pictorial book about Tirupati outside the temple, got some gyan from that book about Tiruapati and this info is from that book!)

Then we started our journey back and reached home at 5.00 PM. In short it was a very tiring schedule but what I got to see compensated for the pain that I had to undergo in the journey.

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Contact info for booking tickets

A.P. Tourism (http://www.tourisminap.com/tirupati.htm#)

Address: 1Soundararajan Street, T. Nagar, Chennai600017
Phone: (44) 24333010, 24331977