Pooja's Travel Notes

Weekend at Ocean Shores

Wed, 11 May 2011 03:17:00 +0000

This week we are celebrating three years of our engagement. Keeping up with our tradition of a weekend trip this time every year, we booked a room at Collin's Inn at Ocean Shores along the Pacific coast of Washington state. This city is about 150 miles from Seattle and almost 2 and a half hours long drive. We set off on Saturday morning after a lazy start to the day. With a long Friday movie night behind us, we were in no hurry to begin our drive early. So after a home-made brunch we left at noon and reached Ocean Shores close to 3 pm.

Before we checked in at Collin's Inn we decided to check out the beach :) The beach strip is unbelievably huge and its one of those where you can actually drive on the beach along the waves hitting the shore. I was fascinated to do this since I have never been to a "drivable" beach before. Collin's Inn is at about a 5 mile drive from this beach and it has another beach at walking distance which is more private and not drivable. We checked into our room and were thrilled with the jacuzzi tub and surround shower equipped room that set the mood for a perfectly relaxing weekend. Very strikingly the room also boasted of a thousand pillows in different sizes and softness. The restaurant at Collin's Inn has a very homely feel to it. It is also very well furnished with a piano and beautiful candles and very striking accents to go with its archaic style furniture. However it is quite pricey and we decided to eat dinner in the city where there were other highly reviewed (on Yelp) options.

In the evening we headed back to the sort of city area and drove along the entire long stretch of the beach. It was too windy and hence chilly to actually spend time outside of the car on the beach. We ate at "Viet Ho", a highly reviewed Chinese & Vietnamese hotel. We loved the food and were impressed by kindness of the lady who served us the food. The next morning began with a complementary brunch at Collin's Inn. They had amazing pastries and chocolate covered strawberry starters. However I was not too impressed with their main course. They had eggs benedict which I didnt try and quieche which I tried for the first time but wasnt impressed by it. I think I am too used to my standard oatmeal, hash brown and pancake based brunch options.

We then went for a long walk along the other beach close to Collin's Inn. I enjoyed collecting patterned shells that were still intact and I managed to collect almost a couple dozen. Later that afternoon we headed back to the main beach. It was another windy day so we choose to fly kites which seemed like a popular activity on that beach. We bought a single threaded kite and enjoyed watching it fly and fall in a cyclic manner :) The beach also had horse riding and tricycle and bike riding options. We then headed for a late lunch meal to a place called La Chica Taqueria. Its a tiny taco shack run by a Swedish woman who knows how to make those Mexican dishes to perfection alongwith engaging her customers in a pretty fancy conversation. We tried her puffy tacos and 1.5 lb burrito and the variety of salsas, horchata and churros and I cannot say enough about how each of these was the best of its kind we have ever had. This is definitely a highlight of our Ocean Shores experience.

So we have now found a great weekend getaway destination at a comfortable driving distance from Seattle that can make a beautiful and relaxing and quiet and serene weekend.

My brother as a kid ...

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 01:01:00 +0000

There are some memories from childhood that are permanently imprinted in your head and cherished in your heart! My little brother and I have shared all our childhood times with each other! I always wanted a baby brother to play with.. when I was told at age three that I was gonna get a sibling, I announced to the world that my brother was coming. It was my way of telling "Its a boy". I also picked a name for him (I don't know how I did that at age three). It now feels as if I was always prepared to welcome him to this world and build my budding years with his! Just as typical siblings growing up together, we fought a lot, took the other's side when the other was in trouble, played pranks on each other, planned pranks on others, loved, cared, and yet made life tough for the other one! Reminiscing some of the days that I vividly remember from my little brother's cute, mischievous and absolutely adorable toddler years -

In his first grade he asked a friend cut his hair with the scissors that he took to school for craft work. His friend cut his hair from either sides of his head around the ear leaving the top of the head intact. He got punished severely by his school teacher and they banned scissors for craft work for primary school after this incident. But he looked so cute in that weird hair cut!!!

During our trip to Goa as kids we were watching our older friends play water volleyball in a swimming pool and we were at the edge of the pool. Clapping and cheering every shot, the next moment my brother landed straight into the water and his mini slippers were floating around. An alert lady swimming nearby came to his rescue, got him out of the pool and thumped his back to get the water out! My parents were called for and panic struck everyone! Fortunately my brother was on his feet in no time but gave a good scare to everyone around!

At my uncle's place on the second floor my mom suddenly realized that my brother was not in sight. We thought he may have wandered into another room or may be the neighbor's house while playing but that was not the case when we looked for him. He was smarter and more curious than we thought! He climbed down the stairs to the ground floor on his own to play with the cocks and hens wandering in the campus of that building.

In another trip to Jabalpur, we reached the house of our hosts at 2am and they had prepared an awesome meal for us! There was a huge HOT pressure cooker in their kitchen just moved from the stove to the ground. My brother loved pressure cookers. He got excited when the cooker whistled and would be ever ready to hug the cooker while it was whistling! The family almost believed he would become a chef in future ... that night my brother missed his cooker hug narrowly when my mom rushed to him and grabbed him out of the cooker's vicinity!

He was once asked by his school teacher to pick a bird that he would like to dress up as for the Annual Day at school. While his friends picked peacocks and sparrows and parrots, my brother's choice happened to be "crow". When he came home and told me about his choice, I burst out laughing! His cute defense was - "But no one selected crow so I did"! He did dress up as a crow ...

On one hand he loved pressure cooker which was not a toy but on the other hand he was scared of balloons which is almost every kid's favorite! He hated attending birthday parties for the fear of balloons bursting around him! One day our neighbor uncle got a small balloon and put it in my brother's tshirt without his notice. That made him realize how harmless balloons were!

My mom, my three year old brother and I were sitting in the principal's office to seek admission to the school for my brother. During those times the principal would ask some basic questions to the little kids and then approve their admission. My mom had spent days teaching my brother how to answer simple questions like "What is your name?" and "How old are you?" and so on... Now on the D-day my brother felt bored in the principal's office and opened the door and ran out of the building onto the main road. Seconds later my mom rushed out to grab him and I was left alone in that room to answer all the questions. I was told later that I had a lot to speak to the principal while my brother enjoyed his silence!

Mysore Mystique

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 02:20:00 +0000

The Mysore Mystique poster has been on my mind today and so I cant help writing a line about it! One of the most amusing posters I saw at a market stall in a fair at Mysore, Karnataka. After Hyderabad, Mysore was the other city that we explored in our India trip in December 2010. We flew to Bangalore and then went to Mysore in the Volvo bus which runs between the two cites hourly. It was a good 3 hour ride and we spent most of the time catching up on much needed sleep! We stayed at the Ginger Hotel which is a pretty decent hotel in terms of rooms and amenities, however I was not impressed with their food. I hoped to find authentic South Indian food but they served the broader category of Indian food which mostly has North Indian dishes.

Mysore Palace by sunset

On the first evening I ate to my heart's content dosas at an authentic South Indian udipi place. I have to mention that I am a big fan of South Indian food. We then went to see the majestic symbol of the city - the Mysore Palace. The palace was closed so we took pictures from outside. Since it was Friday, the palace was not lit up it its most famous way. However the dim lights with colorful sky at sunset offered some amazing snaps of the palace! We then headed to a fair across the street from the palace. It was very crowded and had stalls selling a variety of items ranging from clothes, footwear, domestic appliances and articles to locally made handicraft and decorative pieces and a variety of food of course!

Mysore Palace lit up at night

We booked a cab for the whole of next day to explore the tourist attractions of the city. We started with the Chamundi temple on the Chamundi hills. The temple had amazing sculptures on its entrance. We also visited the huge Nandi (the bullock) statue in the same neighborhood. On our way downhill we stopped at a location that offered a spectacular view of the city and the palace domes standing out from the rest of the buildings. We then went to Karanji Lake. This lake was a pretty usual one, the only attraction there was a bird sanctuary that had a variety of beautiful birds with unusual colors! I cant name most of those except the peacocks and the white peacocks. We then took a short stop at the Montogomery Church which was well decorated for Christmas festivities. We headed to Vrindavan gardens and on the way we stopped at the scenic KRS dam. The gardens are huge and the layout is perfect and symmetric. The variety of fountains and the effect of colored lights after dusk is fascinating! We then headed back to the palace to witness the palace lit with few thousand bulbs. The sight of the palace was almost like a fairy tale book coming to life.

Mysore Palace by day

The next day was our last day at Mysore and we planned to set off for Bangalore after lunch time. We spent the morning again at our favorite place in the city - Mysore Palace! This time we took a tour of the palace from inside. You have to see it to believe the lavish interiors, abundance of gold and silver architectural structures and precious paintings and carvings and gems adorning the palatial walls. We rented an audio guide and enjoyed every bit of the description of the palatial rooms that took us back in time to the Wodeyar era.

We brought back with us memories for a lifetime and delicately carved wooden frames portraying a famous chariot scene of Arjun and Krishna from Mahabharat! We also bought a delicious sweet Mysore Pak, and the popular South Indian coffee to cherish the Mysore memories even later in its tasty offerings.

There is something about the ocean ...

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 04:48:00 +0000

I have grown up in Mumbai, a city that is empowered and outlined by the Indian ocean. I now live in the Pacific Northwest and from the time I moved here I have visited several destinations along the US Pacific coastline and the Hawaiian islands in the Pacific. There is something about the ocean that fascinates me and its hard to describe the connection that an ocean view makes with the depths of my heart!

That something is probably ...

the size, the depth, the expanse, the magnitude ... that humbles me!
the power, the force ... that is creepy and scares me!
the voice of the ocean in its waves ... that soothes me!
the horizon ... that makes me believe that the ocean meets the sky!
the life in the waters ... pretty and unique!
the changing colors ... reflecting the mood of the sky!
the beaches at the coasts ... that make the most beautiful relaxing destinations!
the sunsets across the water ... that makes me feel the ocean can drown the sun!

I spent the last weekend at Big Sur, California with a bunch of friends. We took the CA1 freeway along the coast and the breath-taking ocean view throughout our journey was a reality that still doesn't sink within me! We stopped at several vista points on our way and at each stop I was only more in awe of the picturesque sight than the previous! We sat at these lookouts and heard the waves run towards the coast and retreat as well. We spotted several whales coming to the surface at periodic intervals. We saw the sun through its journey from noon to sunset. We saw the color of water change from bright blue to pale to grey as it reflected the drowning sun's rays front and center. Our cottages were ocean facing which is why we booked those! However the icing on the cake was that each bed faced a full length glass wall facing the ocean so we could watch the blue waters as the first sight in the morning! I couldn't have asked for more from this view but I haven't had enough of the ocean yet! So here's a toast to more trips to the farthest islands and coastlines of the world ... that I will keep visiting and describing here :) Cheers!!!

Hyderabad: From the lens of an NRI

Sun, 30 Jan 2011 02:22:00 +0000

In December of 2010, I visited and worked out of Hyderabad city in India for 3 weeks. My last visit to Hyderabad was 5 years ago and this time it seemed like the city has been on a fast track literally and otherwise in terms of growth and infrastructure development. The airport is truly world class with its magnitude of space and comforts. The roads leading you to the city from the airport compare with the US freeways with the only exception being official speed limits imposed! :) The Hitech city, where I spent most of my work time, has grown tons of times its size 5 years ago with hundreds of corporate offices of Indian and foreign tech companies and educational campuses like ISB and shopping malls and restaurants and the likes.. During this stay, I also visited several tourist spots of the city and my experience was surprisingly spread across a wide spectrum of emotions. Each place had a charm of its own that was either pleasantly reflected in the energy around it or dishearteningly lost among the camaraderie of crowd and its mundane activities in the arena. Here is my mini-guide for tourists who visit this city with my lens.

Charminaar and Chudi bazaar and Laad Bazaar: These beautifully carved minars (pillars) at the crossroads of one the busiest junctions of the old city is worth a visit to wonder how lonely and neglected a structure of such historic and architectural significance might be! You need to do some ground work before you can brace yourself to shop in the crowded markets, that are most known for pearls and bangles, along the Charminaar crossroads. Warnings of cheating on price and originality of those gems float around in plenty especially if you are an accented English speaking, camera holding admirer of Charminaar's intricate design.

Golconda Fort: The Sound and Light show in the evenings at this huge fort is an experience I will never forget. In the voice of Amitabh Bachan, this show takes you back in time to the days when this fort was full of life and riches and a symbol of strength and power.

Hussain Sagar Lake & Buddha statue: My only low point on this happening area of the city is the strong stench of the stagnant lake water that is quite discomforting after a while. The good news however is that the largest monolithic Buddha statue in the country at the center of this lake is only 10 minute boat ride away and absolutely worth a visit.

Eat Street: This is the most happening food place in the city with a variety of options from Mumbai Frankie to South Indian dosas to Indo-Chinese to MacD to Chaat and several more... They have a comfortable common seating area facing the lake. This place offers some great night shots of the lake and a ride to the Buddha statue as well.

Chowmallah Palace: This is a group of beautiful well-maintained palaces built by successive Nizams. The collection of photographs, crockery, furniture, apparel, currency, weapons and many other royal artifacts including the royal throne in a room roofed under magnificent chandeliers is very interesting.

Ramoji Film City: The film city is huge and can easily consume an entire day worth of time exploring. It has amazing sets in the form of replicas of India's most famous monuments, boasts of a variety of gardens each with its own theme and color, and an arena full of demonstrations of the tricks of the film world. Since I have been to film cities of the likes of Universal Studios, I should have reset my expectations from film themed rides and shows to outdoorsy exploration of natural but not original lawns and parks sets to feel content with this plan.

Birla Temple: Built at a height this temple offers a view of the entire city spread around the lake. The different levels of the temple connected with quite some flights of stairs have a unique layout and magnificent sculptures on the walls.

Qutubshahi tombs: These are domed structures built on a square base and reflect a blend of Indian and Persian architecture. If Charminaar's neglected state can cause any bout of pain, then these tombs will only make one cry for the lack of maintenance and solitude these endure.

Salar Jung Museum: This is one of the oldest museums in the city and has the largest compilation of personally collected artifacts from all around the world. It has hundreds of rooms and requires a lot of time and patience to see each artifact at ease.

Snow World: A big room full of artificial snow, a dirty ice-slide and an igloo and maintained at a temperature below the freezing point is no fun for the ones who have had the experience of snowfalls for entire winters. This place was the biggest letdown of my trip and a complete negative experience being a part of hundreds of visitors packed together in an environment that lacked hygiene and discipline.

A visit to Hyderabad is not complete without eating the famous Hyderabadi biryani. The most popular Paradise restaurant and Zafraan Exotica with awesome ambience and tasty food were among my favorite biryani places. Based on my trip experience my last thoughts on this city - it is now ruled by rickshaw drivers who impose exorbitant fares for rides and tourists like me have no option but to obey their HIGH command!!!

My favorites Live in Concert!!!

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 02:28:00 +0000

The year 2010 has been awesome for several reasons - we traveled to many different places in the US and to Canada, visited and hosted several friends and family, celebrated the arrival of our nephews, moved into and furnished our new apartment and I can keep going on and on. While counting my blessings for this year, the two other unexpected and major events that made it to the list were hearing my favorite musician A. R. Rahman and my favorite band Euphoria live in concert!

A. R. Rahman

Rahman's concert was announced in May and I was both overjoyed and disappointed. After years I thought I had the chance to fulfill my dream of hearing the maestro live but among the locations where he would perform, Seattle was not listed. However my gloom turned into glee when I saw the gift of my tickets booked for his concert in San Francisco. My emotions were filled with excitement with each passing day counting down up to the concert till they were drowned in sorrow with the news of the cancellation of the event. After several such hiccups, I had very little hope left, but I think I was destined to attend the concert this year and so on a beautiful sunny September afternoon in Vancouver my long wait ended. The stage was the grandest of all that I have ever seen. He started the concert with a fusion of "O Saya" and "Maa Tuje Salaam", one of my favorite songs. I was at the edge of my seat for each of his songs and often jumping like a frog only to amuse those sitting around me. The one thing that I would have loved to change about my experience was the passiveness of the crowd around me. Each time I screamed my heart out, leaped out of my seat to applaud and whistled and waved, all I saw around me were some raised eyebrows.. but who cares!! I did what I wanted to! Focusing back on the concert, the stage, lights, sound, choreography, his entire crew of singers and performers were flawless. The stage was so dynamic, it changed structure with each performance and the variety ranged from classical and historical touch to acrobatic, western and digital wonders (3D projection of Lata Mangeskar to accompany Rahman for the song "Luka chupi"). Among the other popular singers in his team were Hariharan, who stole our hearts with his "Bharat humko" and Shaan. But words fail to describe my feelings hearing classics like "Yeh jo des hai tera" and "Dil Se" from the man himself. He also surprised us by singing one song from the center of the auditorium just few feet away from our seats. The grand finale to this unforgettable evening was expectedly "Jai Ho"!!!

Our response to the next announcement of the Euphoria concert in Seattle in November was a no-brainer. We booked tickets immediately and were pleasantly surprised to get to know on the day of the concert that we were the first ones to book for that concert! I love the songs Maeri, Kabhi aana tu meri gully and Dhoom Pichuk and have been a huge fan of Palash in my undergrad days. I attended their concert few years ago at a college festival during my undergrad days in Mumbai. And I was pleasantly surprised to experience the same sort of energy, and attitude in their performance even after so many years and in a different set up altogether. I could not stay put in my seat after 1 song and jumped out of my seat into the "standing" area closer to the stage. From then onwards there was no moving back from there! Every song pumped in more energy that the previous one and made me nostalgic as I relived the concert time spent with my buddies from undergrad days. The performance almost seems like a one-man show since Palash is only lead singer and the only one who literally keeps everyone on their toes. The same reason was a cause of disappointment for some who expected the whole band to be sharing the limelight on stage. Others were a bit taken aback by Palash's repeated sarcastic remarks to those comfortable in their seats to try shaking a leg and let go of the seat that they paid for. Since this was not a college concert setting they were justified in their disgruntle however I personally got more than what I expected from this concert and returned home nostalgic and ecstatic with refreshed memories and renewed enthusiasm!!!

So 2010 goes down as the year of watching my stars "Live" :)

My diary from the Zion & Bryce trip

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 01:04:00 +0000

7 friends from 3 cities set off on their 3rd venture together on the Labor Day weekend this year to sign off 2 more US National Parks from their list of parks to explore! The chosen ones for this expedition were Zion and Bryce National Parks in Utah. Since we were all coming from several cities across the West coast, a meeting point was to be decided and the closest city to these parks, Las Vegas, was an obvious and unanimous choice. Since we all know the ground rule "Whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas", this blog will focus only on the Zion and Bryce memories from the trip and conveniently leave the Vegas nights out of print (though certainly not out of mind!).

After a long Vegas Friday night behind us and an early lunch, our journey to the one of the most scenic natural wonder began. The 5 hours on road breezed by in the company of good old friends, music, games, food and fun. The early signs of what was in store for us came as we reached close to the park and saw some unbelievable stone structures on either sides of the road. We stopped at the park entrance sign for our customary group snap and then halted at several vista points within the park. The view of the canyon is breathtaking and unbelievable. The erosion over many hundreds of years has led to a natural pattern formation on the rocks, which almost seems like delicately chiseled stonework by hundreds of sculptors. When you set your gaze on this marvelous canyon you also realize that there is more detail and synergy to the reddish, brownish, orange tinges to these structures than meets the eye. After sinking in the reality of this picturesque place and capturing it in our lenses for future pondering and reminiscing, we called it a day and supposedly headed for some rest at the Best Western hotel. We played a card game called Dalmuti which was completely dominated by one of our friends, and we played until he lost a round for the first time. Whoever coined "sadistic pleasure" was a wise man! :) Pillow fights and an iPad and iPhone app "Talking Tomcat" advertised by our Apple savvy friends added to the already entertaining session of watching our favorite Hindi movie "Welcome" for the millionth time!

For a group that deeply and whole-heartedly values food and sleep and leisure, getting up and winning the race with the sun for the first spot at the Sunrise Point in Bryce canyon is truly the most remarkable feat of the trip. As the sun's crisp rays touched each layer of the canyon, it gradually brought the dark hidden patterns of the rocks into bright shining visibility. We then rewarded ourselves with a lavish breakfast at the hotel and set off on our hike into the deep corners of the canyon. The trail head was 0.4 kms from the Visitor Center and the 1.8 mile hike though short was not an easy one with the steep uphill climb on our way back. This Queen's Garden hike was filled with close encounters with the amusing shaped rocks and arches and beautiful lookouts into the nooks of the naturally sculpted canyon walls. We undoubtedly captured the most amazing photographs posing beside these marvels. At our next destination, Zion National Park, after a 2 hour drive from Bryce, we stopped at the park sign for a group snap. The 2 photographers of the group gifted the rest of us one of the funniest memory of seeing them run a few meters towards the sign setting auto click on the cameras. Zion has a majestic charm of its own. In striking contrast to the delicate patterns of Bryce, Zion boasts of huge sandstone mountains formed by the pressure of flowing river water and other geological activity over time. We hiked a short trail in the evening and were humbled by the enormity of the rock walls on either sides. After the sun left to explore the other half of the world, the dark trail roofed with star filled sky became scary and fast paced. We realized that this was an apt time for narrating stories about snakes and ghosts and wild animals revealing their hiding spots at dinner time. At the end of this trail, our thirst for some adventure was not satiated enough, so we went star gazing in a dark, secluded corner of the park. While deeply engrossed in identifying constellations, a random unrecognizable sound of an animal from the dark was followed by all of us jumping into the car, locking the doors to discover that no one took the driver's seat. So we tasted our share of peril for the night before settling down in the Best Western again in Zion.

Our target for the morning was Angel's Landing, a 2.5 mile(one way) hike to a landing on one of the peaks for a grand view of the Zion canyon. We geared ourselves with heavy breakfast, backpacks filled with water and snacks, and a lot of enthusiasm and reached the trail head in a bus operated by the park authorities. From then onwards the word on everyone's mind was "Lakshya" (meaning target). We were astounded by the trail path that varied from steep winding zig zag pattern to long stretches of upward slope accompanied by several photographic elements like mini-caves and crevices in the walls seeking our attention for exploring and capturing in our lenses. It was an arduous hike and we rejoiced at our first milestone - Scotts Lookout. The last 0.5 miles ahead of us kept our hearts pounding heavily. This stretch had no paved trail, and involved almost rock climbing skills with a chain to hold onto while looking into the 900+ feet deep valley on the other side. Setting each foot on a stable but slant rock while trusting the grip of my hands onto the chain for the safety of my life sent some chills down my spine. After about a quarter of this stretch, one of us realized his fear of heights and this was not a good spot to be in. So he and I backed out of this mission, while the rest of our group went ahead and hoisted the flag of accomplishment at the peak. I strongly recommend attempting this hike, if only to realize your hidden fears and I hope to mark my footsteps at this peak some day for sure. After the relatively easy downward hike back to the base, we saw the other mystifying spots in Zion in a bus ride through the canyon. A well deserved lunch and a drive back to the entertainment capital marked the end of our Zion experience.

Words and pictures may fail to justifiably match up to the memories that we hold from this trip. The destinations left us in awe of the wonders of nature and a strong beckoning for another visit. Looking forward to exploring the unexplored ...

Diwali celebrations!

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 01:53:00 +0000

This year Diwali celebrations began early, and we(seattle-folks) met for our traditional Diwali get-together on the weekend before the official Diwali weekend. So the tradition continues, this time with different hosts, different dishes, different sarees and kurtas shimmering .. but the spirit of celebrations is just the same! I am amazed at the energy and enthusiasm that Diwali brings with it, no matter where you are or how busy your mundane schedule is, the celebrations always find a way to light up our lives.

The menu for the Diwali potluck was adorned by dishes like dabeli, frankie, cutlets, methi malai matar sabji, dum aloo sabji, parathas, pulav, raita, srikhand, and gajar halwa. From the chaat appetizers to the amazing entrées to the delicious desserts ...it was a grand food fiesta! Need I say anything more about the food?? :) This party also marked the farewell of one of our friends who is leaving Seattle for good as she has found her life-partner in a sunny state and is soon gonna tie the nuptial knot. So a session of hearing her thoughts and memories of each one of us was another highlight of the evening. As much as we tried to keep the session emotional, the efforts predictably resulted in the opposite sentiment of humor and laughter riots. After a round of non-democratic non secret voting for some not-to-be-published-here predictions for this group, everyone joined the mafia(game) bandwagon, another tradition that this group have been following. This game is always intense and brings out the true colors of each player and highly entertains a large group like ours. It was a strange coincidence that like last years mafia session during Diwali, this year too I was the mafia for all the rounds.

The real Diwali weekend that followed was no less exciting. Friday evening was spent with a couple of friends at home over dinner, games, talks and food of course! The Diwali element was added by the row of lamps lighting up the house and the festive lights garland that decorated our patio. The next day was a shopping day, when we shopped till we dropped dead in the night. Shopping is such an integral part of the Diwali celebrations back home(in India) that we were glad we continued that tradition this year in Seattle as well. Last but certainly not the least, we celebrated Diwali with many others at a family friend's house on Sunday afternoon. We met a lot of people from several diverse cultures of the world, and I was once again overwhelmed by the spirit of everyone who came together to celebrate this festival. The delicious traditional Indian food prepared by the hosts, modern rangoli made out of M&Ms, the enthusiastic and energetic kids running around, and warm exchanges of cultural insights with the guests at the party were the highlights of this afternoon.

May this festival continue to bring all the joy and prosperity and brightness to everyone as always!!!

My first trip to a third country!

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:33:00 +0000

Besides the country in which I was born and the one where I live, I had never stepped out beyond the airport lounges of any third country until last month when I set my feet on the Canadian soil in its Victoria city in British Columbia. The journey was very short, a 3 hour ferry ride operated by Victoria Clipper and so was the trip - less than 48 hours long!

We reached Victoria before noon on a beautiful sunny Saturday and set off on a bus ride to the famous Butchart gardens. The guide on our bus gave some interesting facts about the city, which unfortunately didn't interest us a whole lot! And so I know why I don't remember any of those! The gardens are huge and beautiful, it is in fact a collection of several smaller gardens like rose garden, Japanese garden, Italian garden, sunken garden and many others. Before we toured these gardens and got engrossed in photography and posing, we got some coffee and ice-cream, though we had lunch just about an hour earlier before we hopped onto the bus! We laughed at the obvious thought, expressed our dislike for the non Starbucks coffee and laughed again and ate all the ice-cream and then toured the gardens.

The city is a small pretty tourist destination! The Fairmont Empress hotel and parliamentary buildings are the pride of the downtown. An afternoon hight tea at the Fairmont Empress is one of Victoria’s grandest traditions, but we are not tea-lovers and so we are among the less than a percent of people(my guess!) who did not experience this tradition in their Victoria trip! We walked through the small downtown, capturing the city in its touristy busy, and picturesque look! We also walked though its Chinatown that has flamboyant gold tiles and red pillars at its entrance and we enjoyed a delicious Asian meal. The Fan Tan Alley in Chinatown is the narrowest lane in Canada (only 0.9 metres wide), which is a much hyped place to see than what really looks like a narrow crack between 2 red-brick buildings!

The trip was a milestone in my life since I visited a new country! And we left Victoria with some great memories of a scenic, beautiful and relaxing weekend.

A tale of 2 cities!

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 00:43:00 +0000

Last couple of weekends were spent in San Jose(again this year!) and Seattle respectively! Though Seattle happens to be my home-city, this weekend did not fit the just-another-weekend in Seattle category!

Another San Jose visit was planned without any hesitation by a huge fan of the God of music - A R Rahman - a fan who has always dreamt of hearing the maestro live! But when the weekend came, our excitement was dampened by the postponement of the concert. The trip still remains amongst the memorable ones for it will be remembered by the times we cherished with friends. After a long, long, tiring drive to the Bay area, I will not be exaggerating if I say that my spirit for the trip was regained just at the sight of my friends when we reached there. From there onwards, there was no looking back! We started with a grand lunch, followed by a barbecue party at Half Moon Bay later in the day. The beach, the beautiful sunset, the talks, the jokes, the pranks, the food, and the drive through the dense fog were all the pieces of a "dream evening" collage! Some of us were engrossed in food, others in the talks, one of us was busy capturing these moments in his lenses, and some of us gave memorable poses for his collection! Even nature couldn't stop itself from portraying one of the best sunset pictures in front of our eyes!

The next day in the Bay area was spent visiting friends and family and catching up on all the latest and greatest happenings in everyone's lives! A post dinner session of desserts and more talks with certain not-to-be-named Indian television shows in the backdrop and a successful attempt at a "Hum saath saath hain" snap was quite an unusual but memorable time from the trip!

No sooner had we gotten over the hangover of this trip than the long weekend followed and this time a couple of friends from Bay area felt like teasing the Seattle sun but the sun hid behind the clouds for most of the time! The weekend began with a soccer game that happened while I was still dreaming, and then a drive to Mount Rainier that I distinctly remember since I was driving :) Snow fights, in fact snow war along the Nisqualy Vista trail interspersed with posing for our cameraman was not easy for me, especially since I was the sole warrior defending the Northwest side, but nevertheless was full of thrill and chills !!! In the peace time, Mount Rainier showed its true colors and left us marveling at its majestic look all over again! I wouldn't be doing justice to what we saw, and so let the pictures convey here. Our next day seemed to fly by with a drive to the Alki beach, Readhook brewery, Canam pizza and a certain not-to-be-named Indian movie with Independence day fireworks show seen from our deck!

My eventful but no suspense filled story of the 2 cites ends. If you are still there, you wouldn't mind a happy note that its mid July and finally the sun is enjoying outside daily while we are enjoying as well!

Its all good at the Hood!

Wed, 26 May 2010 03:11:00 +0000

On a May weekend, 2010 I set off on my fourth trip to the Portland neighborhood in Oregon state. Each trip has been special in its own way and this time the significance of the weekend dates in our lives and having the family together to celebrate the days made it very special.

Multnomah Falls

Our trip started early in the morning at 5.30 am when we all set out on our 3 hour drive. Watching the sun come up and brighten up the day and listening to Hindi songs we haven't heard in ages made our destination arrive much faster than we realized. We stopped for breakfast at the Original Pancake House for some pancakes of course :) Then we headed to the Woodburn shopping mall for doing what I love to do the most! Lucky me.. to get to start the vacation with loads of shopping bags! Then we headed for some Italian lunch followed by the drive along the Columbia River Gorge Scenic Highway. The view of the gorge is as always so mesmerizing. The drive along the winding highway road with gorgeous waterfalls at regular intervals is amongst the best scenic drives that I have ever done. We stopped at the Shepherd Dell, Wakheena and Latourell waterfalls after which we reached the tall and beautiful Multnomah falls. Each waterfall is unique in its course and sound and beauty and you cant help but fall in love with this form of nature's gift! We then headed to our hotel located on the shoreline of Columbia River. The panoramic view of the flowing river and bridge across it from our hotel room was just more icing on the cake :)

The next morning started with a grand breakfast at our hotel. I have to mention this because not many hotels serve hot breakfast at their restaurant with unmatched ambiance and river view like this one. We then set off on our drive to Mount Hood! The Hood started peeping through the other mountains and the uneven terrain in the first 30 mins of our drive and ever since offered some breathtaking views all along the drive. We stopped at several vista points on the way intending to capture the Hood in all its different looks! When we finally reached Timberline Lodge at the base of the Hood, we were surrounded by the pure serene white bed of snow. Geared in our warm snow jackets, gloves and scarfs we took the Magic Mile ski lift ride to reach closer to the Hoods summit. That ride is just a gateway to a view like God's own handcrafted scene. We played in the snow, and tried to capture every moment spent there in our lens and in our memories. We had been to this same point a couple of times before, but each visit only reiterates the humbling feelings in our hearts in the midst of these magnificent natural wonders.

The Hood was the pinnacle point of our trip by all literal and emotional means and the memories of each of our visit to the Hood will always be very dear to us! As always - "Its all good at the Hood".

A weekend at Pittsburgh rocked our world!

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 01:54:00 +0000

The excitement of visiting CMU campus for the first time after graduation was building up ever since we planned our trip a few months ago! But I did not anticipate the magnitude of nostalgia, fun and memories this trip had in store for us for sure! We left for the city of bridges on Friday night last weekend in a red-eye flight, all charged up to catch up with our friends at the INI alumni lunch next day. We were pleasantly surprised to meet a couple of friends on our second leg to Pittsburgh and so the catching up began early on. Driving through Pittsburgh freeways in a rented car was a "first time" event and it was unusual not to be in a 28X for this ride, but the downtown view after crossing the Ford-Pitt tunnel was as touching as it had been on all our previous rides from the airport to the campus.

City view from Duquesne Incline

As we passed the restaurants on Atwood, we were reminded of the several occasions that were celebrated in some of those restaurants. We left the car at a hotel near our campus and then walked to the cathedral where the alumni lunch was hosted and met our friends and INI staff members after what seemed like ages ago. The lunch session was filled with exchange of hellos and hugs and introductions and wishes and congratulations with the gang that had lots of news to share and even more memories to reminisce. We then headed to our campus, checked the newly opened CS department building, and walked through "our own" campus buildings, posed for snaps and acted like "school kids" all over again! We also visited our apartment on Craig Street that was our first student home in the States so to say! The evening began with great food and networking with the alumni who had made it for this event from across several states and countries! The night after the evening saw no end and the parties just poured over from one location to another. The dinner party continued at Doc's place over more beer and drinks, and this was just the beginning of a night to be remembered forever! The night unfolded at Zen where dance and drinks worked their charm on all of us! Another first time for us in Pittsburgh, and the pleasure was immeasurable. It was overwhelming to see how we reconnected with our buddies, some of those we had even lost contact with in the last couple of years. After few hours of rocking the dance floor, we headed to Duquesne incline for capturing the perfect night shot of the downtown and needless to say redoing this for our emotional connection with this place from school times! By now our stomachs were growling for food and though we were sapped off all our energy we made our way to a restaurant for some burgers and fries and hot chocolate before we called it a night!

CMU Computer Science Dept Gates Building

The next day came soon in only about 5 hours and we headed back to campus, this time starting the trip with my favorite Iced Chai tea from Kiva Han. I live in the birthplace of Starbucks but dream about the Kiva Han at the campus corner.. I know that the connection with this place goes beyond the unmatched taste of its iced chai tea. We toured the campus all over again, not content with our previous day's tour and touched few more places this time. Since we had an early afternoon flight, our second day had to end sooner than we would have liked! In spite of the race against time to catch the flight, we made a quick stop at Pamela's in Strip District to exchange the all-important last minute goodbyes with our friends who were there for lunch. A couple of days into the week and I could not get over the nostalgia and wished I could go back in time and relive the grad school years - the years that changed my life, that made the most difference, that gifted me great friendships and that will be cherished forever!

Downtown view from Duquesne Incline

Trip to the Bay Area...

Sun, 04 Apr 2010 20:11:00 +0000

Though I have stayed in the Bay area for 3 months during my internship days, and I have done a lot of sight-seeing then, there is something about the place that never makes me seem to have had enough!
This year in Feb we spent a weekend in the Bay Area to soak up some sun after a month of gloomy and cloudy days. Since I stay in Seattle neighborhood I had to say that, right! Well, a third of our grad school peers are settled in the Bay Area so we were all set for weekend full of socializing and reliving all the fun from our good old days. Did I make it sound like it was a million years ago.. gosh .. its hasn't been that long by numbers but staying away from them in a different city makes it seem like that!

In between all the social meets, we also did some sight-seeing in the area. We visited Mount Diablo State park which is a ride to the summit of Mount Diablo marked by the serene, pure, panoramic views. We enjoyed the beauty of the place, captured some nice poses (thanks to our pro photographer friend :)) and not to forget all the fun and talks that we had been looking forward to! The next day had some crisp bright sunlight in store for us and we headed to see the majestic Golden Gate Bridge from Sausalito. The pleasure I derived by just walking down those streets with a bunch of friends, talking about random crazy things, posing and trying to capture every moment to freeze it forever was magical! Our day ended at a friend's home with a session of movie scenes that have been an integral part of our fun times along with delicious homemade food and we couldn't have asked for more!

Friendships from school days and and the joy of reliving the times spent with old friends are priceless. Cheers to all of you who have been a part of this amazing, life-changing experience!

Halloween preparation!

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:22:00 +0000

This year my colleagues at work were excited about dressing up as X-men characters for Halloween! This was in the talks since quite a few weeks and I was amazed when we actually had a spreadsheet to keep track of who was gonna be which character. That's when it struck me.. I got to PREPARE!

I need to explain why this was gonna be a whole lot of preparation for me! I was till then one of the few souls who had not seen the X-men movies or read those comics! I wonder how I lived through this harsh fact for so long! Each time I brought up the X-men topic with my friends in last couple of months I felt like its time to rewrite those facts! So when one of my friends offered to lend me his X-men DVDs I grabbed the offer with both hands. This is when my preparation began.

Jean Gray - XMen

I took one whole week to watch the 3 movies. There was no doubt that I was gonna like those movies. Now it was time to decide which character I would be.. my teammates had already picked Storm and Rogue. So for me it was gonna be a choice between Jean Grey and Kitty Pride. I checked for their costumes online and loved the black shiny jumper suit for Kitty and hoped to find one for me in the local stores. I still had 2 whole weeks to go.. But weekdays just passed by in anticipation of weekends, then weekends passed by doing the other important things.. so on Thursday I decided to go costume hunting! At the eleventh hour! Not surprisingly the costume shop had no X-men costumes left and the jumpsuits were oversized for me! So I looked for some wigs and found a perfect red long hair wig for the Jean Grey look! The next day I walked into my office with long red hair! I saw a few eyebrows rise as I walked around, and heard a few chuckles! That was the whole idea, mission was successful! I was glad to see my teammates dressed up too!

Detroit Top 10

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:33:00 +0000

1. Visit to M&B's new house with a great view at a great location

2. Downtown Detroit after dusk

3. Wii games with M&B

4. His birthday celebration relishing cookie cake with M&B

5. Italian dinner with Sangria wine at Macaroni Grill

6. Rainbow on our way back from Ford factory

7. Visit to Ford Rouge

8. Dinner at R's palatial house

9. His photography craze .. captured even the parking lots of Detroit .. Here's my favorite snap :)

10. All the awesome time spent with M&B! You totally rock!

Diwali weekend

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:26:00 +0000

Diwali used to be the biggest and brightest festival back home for me! My favorite part was making rangoli at the door of our house! And of course enjoying a whole variety of sweets and bursting crackers and visiting friends and family and shopping and .. and .. I could just keep writing!

Now that I am away from all the actual festivities back home, we have our own variation and scaled down version of celebrations! Keeping our tradition (2 year old) going, we all (seattle-folks) met for dinner this weekend at our friends place who have traditionally been our Diwali party hosts! Though the gang meets often for dinners and birthdays and get-togethers this one is quite unlike others. This is only time in the year when our traditional clothes come out of hiding from the bottom-most racks of the closet! And everyone dressed up in their brightest and colorful sarees and kurtas, we could almost pose to be at a wedding in Bombay or so! :) Being in Seattle did not stop us from posing for snaps, we came up with different group definitions for the sake of group snaps! From all non-Mumbaikars to Windows engineers to Gatech rejects we had a snap for every group! :) After the snap session the night was long and intense with everyone engrossed in our all time favorite gang game - Mafia :) My stars changed position this time and its really worth putting this down here that I was Mafia for more than 1 round!

Needless to mention food and festivities are inseparable! Our hosts had made delicious dishes that we all relished! Now that I am reminded of that dinner, I have to mention the dishes .. sabudana wada, methi matar, paneer, biryani ... I wanna go back in time! If you have reached this line, I am sure you are feeling hungry too! Time to end this here...

Meeting deadlines for a party project is not easy!

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:02:00 +0000

This weekend we invited our local gang ("seattle-folks") over for dinner and games. Its worth mentioning how we both came up with this idea! Our random talks in the last week about cooking (we both love to cook!) made us realize that we hadn't cooked for a large group in a long time. We couldnt have asked for a more appropriate weekend than this one to DO IT since its his birthday on Monday. The project began with sending an email, and then deciding the menu. We came up with a very ambitious list and this is not one of those projects where deadlines can be pushed! So soon after the decisions were made the preparation began! As with every project, the race closer to the deadline (2 hours before our party began) was very intense.

The clock struck 8 so fast, and the table was all set! Vegetarian puff pastries, pav-bhaji, chicken curry (xacutti), peas pulav, dal fry, salad and boondi raita - was our ambitious goal that we managed to meet. As our friends poured in, the drinks were being poured too. And we hardly realized when the crowd grew from 2 to 15, and we were all singing the birthday song for him! Cake, chips and salsa were the usual party favorites and dinner followed.

We had a video of the gang taken in Feb while we were setting up the plot for a surprise birthday party for one of us. The 20 min long video was played for the first time after it was shot and the couple whose house was decorated could not believe the chaos, curiosity and confusion while setting up their house. After lauging our hearts out while watching the video we played a game that was never played by the gang before. It was simple but involved a lot of team effort, creativity and skills. A couple of these first time actvities interleaved with ice cream and dessert wine gave the party project a perfect sign off.

Indian Ocean's new fan!

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 06:26:00 +0000

A few weeks back we attended the Indian Ocean concert at Seattle. I have not been a big fan of their music so far but that could be attributed to the fact that I had not heard most of their songs.. till I heard them live.. and I am now a fan of their songs!

My recommendations for all those who haven't heard their songs yet:
Bandey from Black Friday
Ma Rewa from kandisa
Bhor from Jhini

Long weekend at Yellowstone!

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:51:00 +0000

3 days (Labor day weekend) at Yellowstone National park with old friends! Priceless..
This time I will let the pictures do the talking!

Upper geyser basin:

Hot Spring:

Vista point:

Sulphur caldron:

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone:

Indeed, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Mini golf at Willows Run

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:13:00 +0000

My first experience at golf was with a bunch of my colleagues at Willows Run Golf Course. We played mini golf at the Rainbow Run Putting course at Willows which is a themed 18 hole putting course. I liked the design of the course that was adorned with pretty lake, bridge, cave, and waterfalls.

It took me quite some time to settle into the game and it was no surprise that I used all 6 chances during the initial round of the 18 holes. But the best came at the very end, when I scored 2 and 3 in the 17th and 18th holes!

Overall I enjoyed the experience and I am glad I am no longer gonna be a first timer at golf!

In Lake Washington!

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:14:00 +0000

In spite of having enjoyed the beauty of Lake Washington for more than a year now, we had not found any chance of being IN the lake. Till August 2009 of course when the seattle-folks decided to dive in :) literally!

We rented a boat at Yarrow Bay Marina park. The best part about getting a boat license is that you have to give no test! So anyone who has registered to be a boat driver can zoom on water! Since we were more than a dozen, we has 2 boats for us (each could fit 7). We could now officially race amongst ourselves! After some initial instructions from the rental company guy we were all set for the aquatic race.

Speed on water is really not the same as on road! In this case you can take a sharp turn almost dropping your friends on the edge of the boat or simulate speed bumps with the waves. Its like creating your own path for an amusement park ride and you can choose when you want the bump or the turn unlike an actual roller coaster. The only uncontrollable aspect here is the height! Our friend got her elbow stamped(bruised) during one of these bumps that she later displayed with pride to prove the speed factor!

The 2 hours in the lake were the most eventful with a surprise birthday celebration of one of our friend, cop catching us for speeding in a speed limited zone of the lake(yes they have cops on the lake too.. we didnt know how to pull over in a boat so we only stopped where we were :)), most of us diving into the water to drive the point of being IN the lake.

One more thing added to the todo list for Kirkland visitors :)

BBQ weekend

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 06:01:00 +0000

"Seattle-folks" (that's how we like to call ourselves) met for an evening of Barbecued food and fun this weekend. The hosts found an excellent opportunity to gather all of us on their huge deck and almost a dozen of us jumped in having done our pre-preparations of sorts, shopping for almost all things that could go on the grill. Our hosts welcomed us with the best home made guacamole and chips and salsas that we relished for so long that some of us had to be reminded that the long long grilling session was the real theme for the evening!

The "grilling event" couldn't have had a better start than our very own Mumbai-style "makai bhuttas" (grilled corn cobs) smeared with lime and salt and spicy paprika! (Secret ingredients like pav bhaji masalas can do wonders ..sshhh). Next came on fire the yummy semi-boiled sweet potatoes again smeared with the spicy powders and then coated with maple syrup based rub. Garlic bread couldn't be left far behind either in this burning race. The irresistibly delicious looking paneer tikka on skewers for the vegetarian junta and the shrimp equivalents for the rest was the star of evening! Of course no bbq party can ever be complete without the sausages and burger patties topped with molten cheese and hidden between the bun and its green accompaniments (read lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes). With every new dish that was prepared on the grill, each one of us took the opportunity to display our barbecuing skills and do our bit of cooking and serving for the evening .. Of course the sprite, coke, vodka, whiskey, orange cream (the best new addition to the list) glasses were filled at regular intervals!

After a perfect barbecued multi course meal that we relished to our heart's content, little did we know that an innovative surprise dessert was awaiting us! No prizes for guessing that it had the grill effect too.. Grilled pineapple slices drowned in caramelized sugar and cinnamon accompanied with pure vanilla ice cream was the show stealer that redefined the dessert bliss!

One of us rightly portrayed the motto for the perfect evening - 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happy hour'.

Snow or surprise? The obvious winner is ...

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 07:55:00 +0000

Having seen two white winters and then moving 3 hours behind time for the third winter to an area not at all known for its winters I thought my encounter with snow was over! But seems like it isn't yet over!

This weekend when he was planning a "surprise" party for me, weather decided to play spoilsport! So weather completely followed the weekend snow warnings to hold them true and down came the white from the blue!

In spite of the chills and no-thrills filled driving, the party rocked the weekend when everyone came to be involved in decorating the plot for the "surprise" (Should I call it "scare"?).

So the obvious winner to be crowned for the weekend is ... surprise! :)

A new beginning

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:02:00 +0000

Last two months of my otherwise "routine" life have witnessed scores of "special" moments!

Moments when I felt like I was on the "top of the world" when he slipped the ring of promise! (Is this the same song that I wanted to sing for "us" on the "D - day" ? ;-))

Moments when the pride of the degree being conferred on "us" overwhelmed me!
(Is this the Graduation ceremony that I was awaiting for 2 years!)

Moments when the meaning of "life" itself changed forever!
(Am I listening to Randy Pausch at my graduation ceremony?)

Moments when wonder seemed like a weak word to describe the picture portrayed by the power of falling waters !
(Am I lost in the mist of the majestic Niagara Falls?)

Moments when the abundance of glamor, beauty, lights, and grandeur hid the unrealities within that world!
(The Worlds Entertainment Capital at its best?)

Moments when the beauty of sunsets from the lake that overlooks my deck seemed like a fantasy!(Is this the house of my dreams?)

Welcome

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 06:25:00 +0000

Welcome to "Word World" !
Visit again soon for more "words" !