Starved Rock

In the last week of July, an outdoor adventure was planned to Starved Rock state park located in Utica, IL. This place is known for the boating, camping, hiking, picnicking, fishing activities. The park has around 15 canyons and many rock formations.

We planned this outing mainly for the hiking activity. A group of 12, nice weather and a nice 4 hours drive, what more can you expect for a wonderful day!! :)

Many didn't know each other in the group, but that didn't stop us from having a nice time. Its a nice unexplainable process which takes place during these kind of situations which really makes each one in the group to automatically tune up to the required frequency band :)

The park had many trails for hiking. I guess we had taken a 4 mile trail after the lunch at a very distinct wooden decorated restaurant. To make things better and interesting, we sometime took our own route to have a path for others to follow ;-) The trail was featured with many water streams, sunset/view points and small bridges. To be frank, the ready made trail with wooden planks stretching the whole trail makes things very easy and less-close-to-the nature experience. But the thick n dense park covers this up!

A very nice canyon attracted us which had a small water falls in the midst. We spent considerable time getting drenched and literally invited others to sing in the same tone of ours;-)

This was just the first outing for this group and we truly enjoyed every bit of it.

Fell in love...

August 3rd, I was all set for a nice weekend with many plans in mind. (Sitting in the airport waiting for the departure is a nice experience for different reasons). After an hour delay I was in the plane and ready to face the next days music. The Chicago city view from the place was great during night time. The city was fully lit up and it really looked like a jewelry.

After two hours I was in Newark International airport. Reached the hotel very late again due to some hassles, it was 3:30 AM. Early morning I was ready to explore one of the best cities in the world at 8 AM.

Started my journey in a ferry towards Ellis Island and the Liberty island to have a look at the copper statue, 'Statue of Liberty'. Got to know the history and few other facts and was really surprised by the immigration facts in the Ellis island. Spent some more time at the islands and was ready to head towards the busy Manhattan. Plan was to cover all the important places in the mid Manhattan and immediately was in a train towards Grand central.

I was able to visit United Nations building, Empire state building, time square, Rockefeller plaza, Broadway, Bryant park, Central park in the first day. It was indeed a hectic task to cover all these places. The best was the 250 acres central park, located middle of the city with sky scrapers surrounding it, with true spirit, lively and completely serene. I liked it very much coz I could see people coming over to the place and enjoying the time available in their hands. I could see music bands, live dances, Horse-Drawn Carriage Rides, sports ground, people resting, a peaceful place. It was great!!

Bryant park is located next to the NY public library and is one of the impressive places, not coz of the size or greenery but coz its in the midst of halla-gulla but could see people pulling over chairs with books, lappies, rolling over the green bed, resting. People literally had a calm time literally. We find wide variety of events happening at this park with 'Movies on Monday' scheduled during that month.

By the time I reached back to the hotel in New-Jersey, it was 1:30AM. My back and legs would shout at me, if given the powers to speak. But my heart was singing.. !!

The plan for the next day was to cover the lower Manhattan. In just two hours, I was at the Brooklyn bridge. This is the first bridge which I looked at, with this importance and size. Passing the China town, I was really taken aback. I really got confused whether I was in China or in US of A. There were shops, malls n everything with boards in Chinese and Chinese were the only people seen :)

After few mins I was at the NY stock exchange, wall street. Covered the ragging bull featured in many movies.

I visited WTC site. The site was very disturbing but should appreciate the spirit and the determination seen over the place.

In the next couple of hours, covered the Tussaud's Museum and Bryant park again. After a very satisfied weekend- satisfied coz of the planning involved, the execution and the selection of the places ;-), I headed towards the airport back to Chicago.

This was yet another good weekend in US. I fell in love with NY, truly a city to visit.

Niagara falls

My only helicopter ride so far and it couldn't have been better than this...
(Please mute your speaker to avoid the fan sound)




Alternate link

Wisconsin Dells: Noah's waterpark

Noah's water park at Wisconsin Dells is one more place where I really enjoyed a lot. I had been with 4 other families knowing that water parks, resorts are the places to visit if you are in a group. A good decision!!
This is supposed to be the America's biggest water park. yes it was indeed big!! :)
This had many waterslides, pools and many other attractions!(other than those who came to enjoy there :-D)
The best waterslide(the narrow one) was the one shown below: The Point of no return!

The best coz the angle at which it starts with is almost 90' to the ground. Infact had a funny incident at the top. With all confidence and assuming it to be an easy one, went at the top, But but.. when I sat to slide, my confidence was really shaken. I infact came aside to pull my level back. In the mean time, I saw a couple coming at the top, seemed to a married couple and around 45 years of age! yeah yeah.. they both came and sat on the slides. The lady gave a count 3..2..1 and thats it, both were at the end of the waterslide in the next moment. They were great!!

What best can I see to boost my morale :)
The next minute even I was at the end of waterslide after a successful act!
Check the video for better feel of it!

St.Louis: The Gateway Arch

(The above photo is not doing justice to the structure being discussed :-D)

The Gateway arch in St.Louis, Missouri is a wonderful engineering structure. Its 'Wonderful' for the reason being that this was constructed during 1968's time. And during that time, the stainless steel structure was shaped up without any highly sophisticated techniques. Its 630 feets high and at the same time having the foundation of the same dimension.
The best part of it is the train inside this structure which takes to the top of it. At the top, windows are provided to have a look at both the sides of the city. Its a great view from the top.

Bahai temple

Its been a while, didnt post anything new in this blog. So to keep my interest going, I decided to write about the places I visited recently( instead of giving the blog, the 'outdated' tag).

The first place I visited after coming to this new place was the Baha'i temple at Wilmette. This is one among the 7 Bahai temples around the world. Similar to the one in New Delhi, India. This house of worship has a unique and interesting history. And infact the structure too has a well explained reason. I like the quite serenity surrounding these houses of worship.
The visit was during the peak winter, so had a really tough time entering the house in the windy cold weather.. But the efforts were really worth at the end.

Silence

Many of you might have read great quotes about silence and about being silent... those may be really worth noting down.

Ok.. forget about those boring stuff..
Listen now..

Today, I was just sitting idle at home with no better work to do. So started browsing, wanted to read some good articles. So 'Google' came into picture immediately.. So what's the keyword for the search??

Tried 'silence'.. I got many results which took me through boring articles and blogs.

But, something interesting struck me, words of my mom. She always tells me the tale.. I guess the first one in my life I suppose :)

She says, when I landed on this earth, there was a complete silence in the hospital room with doctors and nurses staring at me. As a sign of normal condition, I should have entered this boring earth(.. to make it a very interesting place for others to live) but I was silent, no crying business, no movements.. I guess that was the first shocker I gave to my mom(And an indication of what is next in her life ;-)).

Docs had to literally hold my legs, hold me upside down and pat on my back!! (it must have really hurt me..Idiots!). You know even I am bit stubborn, couldn't give up my silence soon. They continue that annoying thing(and a source of scary thoughts to my mom I guess :-D) for few mins. Realizing that, things will be really serious if I continue my stubborn nature, I gave up!! yeah I finally gave it up... I started crying :-((

I guess that's the only cry anyone would feel happy and relieved listening to!

But.. But.. see that was the best entry one can have.. Don't you think?

I really do think so...;-)

Quarter century!

How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?

Hmm interesting question..
I would say, a little younger than what am I :)

Yesterday was yet another day with umteen thoughts in mind. The MIND, which is ON all the time turning the same pages of thoughts again and again, and sometimes new pages!!
But having said that, I should say, the day was bit different. It was my b'day and thanks to my friends who made it really exciting and interesting.
As expected, I received calls, msgs and mails from the near and dear ones! (Expecting things is really not a wrong deed, and especially from your closer ones.. Not at all :) I really missed everyone this time :(

Coming to the interesting part..
Contrary to what I had assumed, this b'day was made special by my friends who work in my company. Due to an onsite assignment, I am not celebrating my b'day in my country with my friends. But this didn't stop my friends to make me feel good on this day. They cut the cake in my absence and sang the b'day song. And that's not it, they recorded all this along with their messages to me(.. and how can I forget the naughty suggestions/advice) and sent the VIDEO. How else can a person be made to feel special!!!

I take this as my gift and this will remain the best one ever received :)
(The gift which really took great amount of trouble to be packed n delivered;-) .. my frnds know it better :-D)

Thank you friends(Sridhar, Hema, Raghavendra, Anuji, Uday, Mahe, Deepthi and Sandhya), you all really made my day!

Confounded..

The day started in no different manner. But there was something missing, something my heart wanted to do..I really wanted to talk to someone, but I don't know why was I holding myself back today to talk to anyone..

With no other option, I started to do what I usually do when in these situations, listening to songs.
I landed up picking up 2 songs from a kannada film(..for a change) 'Mungaru Male' i.e. the title song and 'Anisuthide'. Both sung by Sonu Nigam and this film is a hit and heard that its one of the good films out of Kannada industry in recent times. I read the story today, concluded the same(or may be the person who wrote the blog, managed in a very impressive way).
After listening to the title song, I felt something different, my heart felt fullness with emotions(which I am unable to explain in words), kinda restlessness. I kept on listening to the songs for around 4-5 times, the music is good and very soothing.
This episode may depict my state of mind, but that altogether tells something which I hadn't been through before..

Cheers again!

hmm today we had a small party for our supposedly good work and good progress wrt few products, to be more precise for completion of a particular phase of couple of products. So the party was arranged in Mickey Finn's Brewery.
So all were set and my manager said in his own style before he making a move towards the venue, "move your butts guys.." :-) 4 of us from 2 teams made our way and reached in few minutes. As specified, its kind of a bar n restaurant. It was a decent place, crowded and bit small to what we had not expected. Afterall, all the teams were invited, so to our expectation it should have been a bigger one. But didn't know that the attendance would be less, Hence the right decision on the venue :)
Hmm immediately, seeing me the product manager came and greeted and said, 'This is for ppl like you all.., lets have fun'. I just replied smilingly, 'so are we here for' ;-)
He asked me to place an order for any of the drinks n snacks. He infact queried, 'Beer or something?' Hmm nice question to few... I told, 'yeah something would go i.e. Coke'. He immediately ordered for a pitcher of coke and beer. Beer for few Russians who came along with us. As many of us know, most Russians just enjoy vodka and beer.
We saw few known faces and few nice few nice faces around;-). I saw my manager sitting on a chair sharing few thoughts with couple of them. After few minutes of waiting, coke and beer was places in front of us in a table. Everybody started to serve themselves, given 2 options to me now, I thought of trying the thing (which you are thinking of in your mind), which I hadn't tried before. I finally took a glass of beer in my hand to few of my frnds surprise, since they knew that I don't(till then:)). I would have the complete glass without any deteriorating my senses:) for some considerable time though. My one friend who boozes quite often asked me to continue for one more. I just said, 'Mujhe tho bas try karna tha ek baar, so karli' :)

That was the highlight abt the party!!


P.S: Its not the start of anything, as commented by someone in my previous blog;-)

Cheers!!

hmm
Three of us at my friend's place on a Friday evening...
I guess we were done with our dinner and had decided to watch a movie. But before that, there was a need for something pleasing(though not for me).. which can be generalised as 'alcoholic beverage'.
There was it in few mins.. on the table with three classes.. though I refused to have(I am NOT trying to prove myself a 'bhola bhala' :) )
I was given a glass with whisky(.. I guess).

Hmm as a tradition.. the next step is to go for the friendly remark.. 'Cheers'

I joined the party in this step, the glasses went in air for a collision..
I tried to place my glass on table and oops..!
The next moment both my friends in loud voices said....
'Hey, you are not supposed to place the glass down without taking a sip.'

Hmm nice learning ;-)
so had a sip..(Plz believe me.. only a SINGLE sip).. I literally didn't like the taste..(same again)

After sometime, I went in the kitchen to have some water. I saw a bottle of water placed near the shelf. I asked my friend before drinking
'Is it ok to drink that water?'

He replied with tongue in cheek.. 'Yeah yeah.. you can of course'
With a doubt in mind, I drank it without giving a second thought.

Damn it!! My mouth started burning as I drank it.. My friends bursting out laughing..

Later I was told.. It was RUM (or was it GIN.. Have to contact that 'great friend' to clarify on this :))..

Illinois Driving license

Hmm.. getting a driving license back in India was a hectic thing but getting the same in Libertyville,IL was altogether a different experience and quite a satisfying job too. You will find the reason for this now..

To get a driving license, like in other places, a written test followed by a driving test is necessary. The only change here is to have a vision screening before the written test and to have the driving test along with the examiner.
After 3 days of reading through the traffic rules, signals, sign boards n other necessary things I passed the written test with 88%( I remember, I answered 28 questions out of 32 correctly ;-) and 80% is the minimum required score to pass). For this one of my colleague also had accompanied, who also got passed along with me.

It was almost 2 months, that I was driving the car and I was pretty confident of getting through the driving test. And I was informed that getting through it is pretty easy provided you don't commit any stupid mistakes or violate any serious rules.
So I decided to go for the driving test on one fine Friday. After getting my coupon, I had to wait for my turn for about half an hour. During which, I was observing people around me. Saw quite a few different people, interesting one was a girl who had a habit of applying lipstick every 5 mins(I guess this was coz, she was talking a lot.. a typical one:)
On my turn to the counter, I was greeted by a strange looking, arrogant bespectacled lady. Arrogant was the way she talked, so was her looks. Then I passed through the cashier way to the parking area where I was supposed to pick an examiner.
In the waiting area, I was questioned by a lady, around 55 yrs of age for my details and the form. Her looks were very serious and seemed that she wasn't having a nice day. After confirming that all the indicators, horn and the breaklight are in working condition, she was in my car the next moment. Yes, she was the judge for my hearing!
I was asked to follow all the instructions given by her and so I did. It was only after few mins on our way to highway 45, I had to apply the break firmly which really did give a hard jerk. This was coz of an idiot who stopped suddenly infront of me due to one more idiot who took a turn from the other side. Hmm.. she gave a look.. a look which said a thousand words. Damn!! I was really scared at that point of time.. not coz she is going to slap me but for the outcome of the test.
Keeping this thing aside, I just moved on as per her instructions.. After few mins of driving and stunts like up-hill parking, U-turns, I was told to get back to the driving office.
Immediately after hitting the driving office parking lot, I heard something from her which kind of stirred me.
She said - "You did not pass the test"
It really took few seconds for my brain to process those words. Before me asking for the reasons, she started off saying, - "You violated one of the important rule of not taking off the vehicle to the right when any emergency vehicle is coming on the way."
Then I started to recall the whole trip, as when did I encounter with such a vehicle but didn't get a clue of it :(
I politely asked her, 'Ma'am may I know where exactly did we face this vehicle ?"
She started firing off saying.."The vehicle in front of you had to stop immediately coz of an ambulance which took a turn from the other side. And you didn't notice it due to which you had to stop just inches away from that vehicle"
Again it took some time for me to know that the 'second idiot' was actually driving an ambulance. I responded to her comment, "But ambulance and other emergency vehicles should have a siren ON", For which I got an unconvincing answer, - "But the flashing lights were ON"
After that I went in deep thoughts.. trying to understand as what exactly was going on and how all this happened.

Taking the receipt, I was back to office and then to home. I couldn't sleep that night properly coz of this. After a long time I faced the ugly face of 'failure'. I was very uncomfortable the whole day. Not coz I didn't get the license but it was really difficult to take this failure. I still don't know what exactly that feeling was all about ..
The next day, I tried hard to forget what happened the previous day but in vain. I decided to take a small break and then give a second attempt. I was under more pressure now, coz we can have only 3 attempts in one year(or 6 months).
On Tuesday morning, I was again in the same office with all the familiar staff faces. After many days, I wished. Wished for not seeing the same lady. I was fortunate enough this time. One nice lady examined the same things as before and then we were ready to take the test.
I was asked to show more experience( plz don't ask me in what..! :-) and responsibility while driving. The test was over in 10 mins and yes, I was declared PASS this time.

After many days, I wanted to shout in joy!! But controlled myself saying, its just a driving license. But I was very happy that moment ! :))