My trip to India and Back!!

Look at the pic man...! This was the food served at the Vishala Hotel in Ahmedabad Gujarat. It is simply awesome and mouth watering food. The worst part of being in USA is the food I eat here. I miss the spicy punjabi, the sweet Gujrati, the tasty south-indan food and the chinese food (Indian style)!

Hell, once again I had problems with Air-India while going and coming and not to mention there are still no points added to my frequent flyer programme though I mentioned it at time of booking my tickets.! But this time Air India staff at New Ark was really great as they put me up in a hotel without any arguments and apparently no fault of theirs!!! I appreciate this help so much! A lot things have happened since my return. I shifted to another appartment, got glasses, my bed got punctured and had to be thrown out.!

I always forget to mention the help extended to me by my friend Akash Puthran. He really helped me in setting up my bags at the new appt, giving car rides to IP office, Airport, etc. My new roomies are great, but I do miss the CC 211 roomies. Otherwise life's cool and studies suck!!! hehehe!

Roomies

10/31/2007, my roommate bought a new car... It is a Acura Coupe in red-beige colour. The car is awesome man... Sometimes it just makes me think, will I ever be so successful... When will I have so much money that I can tell my parents Dad chill, no more work for u!!! I can take on the reigns of the family now...

I am so happy for all my roommates as they are now earning and in good positions.. May God bless them all because it is because of these people that I love staying here. Otherwise once again I would have returned to India. CC 211 Rocks!!! I will always miss these guys once they move out.!!! Hope to get a great pic together and paste it here! I still remember the first day here when I was so shy to talk, couldn't mingle with them, felt as left out and now I enjoy... I guess people need time to feel at home in a foreign land.!!

Instruction Permit day!!!

Today I went for my license to drive and they say it is tough to get one in USA... The actual procedure is that you have to give a written examination consisting of 30 questions and 21 should be answered correct... It is a multiple choice exam. Once you clear the written exam, you are eligible to drive if someone with a valid driver's license sits next to you.!
I went to the examination center and was waiting for my turn... You get to see a lot of cartoons at this place... especially blonde girls who act really dumb. The girl next to me in queue didn't know what to fill in her form. So finally when my turn came, I handed out all forms which turned out to be correctly filled and then they go for an eye test... There is a machine in which 9 rows and 4 columns are displayed. The size of the letter keeps decreasing in each row. The lady told me to read line 5, which I did without any problems. Then she told me to close my right eye n read column 3... AndI was dumbstruck coz there was no column 3 visible to me... I was like "There is no 3rd column". She said Sir, you need to see again... there is a 3rd column and I tried closing each eye and reading but the numbers just stayed hazy... And even though I scored 86% on the written test... I was denied the permit!!

Now I need an eye test that costs about 100$ in USA... So no permit till I visit India and get my eyes tested!

Missed flight!!!

PIC of Me and My SIS!

Hey Friends!!!
Now for one more dhaasu experience in USA. This happened when I was travelling from Pittsburgh to Dallas Lovefield airport. I left Pittsburgh for Dallas via Kansas city. I left Pittsburgh at 6:30am and reached Kansas at 8:45am. My connection to Dallas was supposed to leave at 11:10am. I don't know what happened, (I fell asleep or something) but I just thought my flight was for 11:40pm. I reached the boarding counter at 11:45 and told them when will the flight board and is it on time... The lady at the counter was like "Sir, your plane left 30 minutes ago!!!" I just got rooted to the spot... Then she arranged for some other flight and I reached Dallas at 3:00pm instead of 12:30pm.

One more misadventure in Uncle Sam's land!!!

Trips in Pittsburgh

This time I don't have much to write but more pics to upload... I visited the Niagra Falls, Falling Water and Kentuck knob (houses designed by famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright), cucumber falls (Only water falls though and no cucumber in sight), etc. It was a great week and I tried many new cuisines like Greek (consists of Humus something like chutney made of chick peas, falafal yani ke apne bhajiyas, etc), Thai (chawal ke saath tofu, sabji etc dete hai) and Mexican..... Not to mention the Pizzzzaasssss!!!

I also ate a famous cake available here called the Chocolate Mousse cheesecake. Now the pics....

Reaching USA

What the heck??? This was all that came to my mind when on Ahmedabad airport I was told that instead of my flight in early morning from Mumbai at 5, I will depart at 3 in the afternoon!!! I was shocked. Why should I suffer the strike that the Air India employees had undergone??? I reached Bombay at 4:50am. So almost 10 hours before my flight would take off. One thing that drived me mad was there was no accomodation available. I had to sit on the airport in one stupid chair glancing at fellow passengers. At 6 we were given complimentary breakfast of Cutlets, Sandwhich (foul tasting one and limited no.!!) and UNLIMITED tea (or coffee)!! On questioning about further arrangements we were said that we will be given another breakfast. What man, the other breakfast was served at 8 and the same menu added with puri sabji was given.... the only difference that this time it was all unlimited. After 10 hours the flight was announced to be boarding. With an aching pichhwada and a stiff back, We boarded the plane.
The best part was that the plane was almost empty. I had a window seat but the 2 seats next to me remained unoccupied and so I could sleep nicely.!!! From Paris a gorgeous air hostess boarded the plane(No bad thoughts boys!!!!). Finally, I landed in USA (Newark) at 12 at night instead of 4 in the afternoon.
So I missed my Continental flight to Pittsburgh, but the AI staff gave me a 12$ food voucher(Only McD was open at that time) and arranged me on a 8:15am Continental. I had 2 large chip packets and a large cold drinks coz McD has no other Veggie offerings.!!!

Finally exhausted and drained I reached Pittsburgh at 10am... The remaining part later!!!