Goodies!! Goodies!!

* 1GB USB stick from Vmware
* T-Shirt from Bloomberg,
* Laptop keyboard Night lighter from Morgan Stanley
* Rucksack from Computer Associates (CA)
* Radium ball with built-in LED Circuitry from Riverbed
* Key chain from Falconstar
* Wall board + writer from Vmware
* Soda bottle opener from Acoustics concepts
* Unlimited Tasty Veg Pizza hosted by Microsoft and yummy dinner hosted by Vmware,

Thats all I could muster in a two and half hour job fair drive that happened in our college :) While this year gonna_be_pass-outs were trying hard to push-in their resumes down the stack, we freshers took this opportunity to grab them all. Because I was naive(curse my shyness and what_would_she_think_mentality), I missed out on some company T-shirts and backpacks :(

Some machakaarans like KB laid hands on Nikon CoolPix cameras too!! இப்படிக்கு அடுத்த ஸ்ப்ரிங் ஜாப் பாயர் இனாமிற்காக (கூட்டிஎஸ்) காக்கா போல் காத்துக்கொண்டிருக்கும் மாணவன்!!!

All Alone, Along the Broadway

The last weekend trip to New York City gave me the much needed confidence, and this weekend I went alone to NY - Penn Station. Reminiscing the walk along the 5th Avenue that I did last week, I wanted to try out the oldest north-south through-fare "The Broadway" this time. I knew I was looking at a 4.8KM walk from Penn Station to my destination @ Allen Street which is in the middle of Chinatown. Keeping the ever viewable, mist shrouded(It was cold and raining) Empire State building spire as my guide, I ended up in broadway.

One good thing about NY city is the avenue and streets criss cross each other at right angles (the exception being broadway) and named serially using numbers, All you have to worry about is whether you are heading at the right direction, as you could move from one street to another very easily. As I walked along the Broadway, the glass & concrete monolithics came into view one after the other. The street hosted almost all the brand shops that one could think of and it was very tempting to enter them all and look around, but I continued on with my paatha-yatra. My next pit-stop was Union Square, a historic intersection in the broadway.

Union Square hosts the infamous Union Square Greenmarket Taking some snaps and apples, I moved into the Union Square park, which I heard has a statue of Mahatma Gandhiji. I went around the park and an active inquisitor followed me throughout, whether out of curiosity or perhaps for the apples that I had in my bag :) This stuart little showed no signs of fear and I took some snaps, u bet!! After moving around the park twice or more, I could not locate the Mahatma's statue. A fellow Indian manning the nearby newspaper stand pointed the direction in which I could find the statue. With a nod and a smile, I started moving in the direction he pointed. At a few steps from the main park, there was a small enclosed garden and atlast I found Mahatma Gandhiji statue in Union Square. I considered my sole purpose of the walking through the broadway fulfilled and headed towards allen street through Bowery unknowing of the high drama that was about to unfold in the Allen street. Contd... in the next post.

Recipies for life

Gone are the days when I used to dream of damn good chicks. Toor dal and spices from India shows up now and then in my dreams giving me a Deja vu experience. What looked attractive when I was in India doesn't get my attention anymore and what was common to get back home doesn't find a place here.

I have been away from home for around 6 years now, and my perspective continues to change and so does my understanding of life. From being a die-hard hotel food fan six years back, I converted myself to a connoisseur of home food after my 2 year stint in the college hostel. The next 4 years, I managed to eat at some hotel everyday and moved on. Though I know cooking, I never really did that full-time, now that I am donning that role too, slowly it dawns on me the travails of cooking everyday's every meal!!! So far, I never realized how hard it would be for my mother to cook day-in and day-out.

Guyz, If you are studying and staying with your parents, Its the best part of your life enjoy and eat well. If you are working somewhere in India and staying away from your home, do not wail for not getting good old home food, you always have the option and ability to pay and have some real good food at some hotel nearby. If you are staying in a foreign country, where the word "VEGETARIAN" is never heard of, where vegetables are stocked for weeks if not for months together, where people don't have any staple food like "RICE" or "WHEAT", where people live on DIET_PEPSI and DIET_COKE and call them as "SODAS", where vegetables are costlier than chicken, meat, beef and pork, where people cook once and "MICROWAVE" the rest of their life, where people call bread by different names like bagel, muffin and bun the only striking difference being the shape, where veg food means lettuce leaves + sliced tomato + chopped onion, where spices and dal prices gives you a heart-attack and the monthly grocery bill is the reason for your receding hairline well, you are not entirely alone. Find some solace in whatever you cook and in the fact "good chicks always like good chefs!!!"