~~Happy Independence Day~~

Empire state glowing in Indian Tricolor!

~~Eating at Indian Restaurants~~

Last Sunday we had a heated argument on where to have lunch,Raj didn't want to think about any other place apart from Saravana bhavan. I normally think twice before going there because it reminds me of my previous company's canteen. Since he was my guest I had to agree with him. I wonder why people insist on having lunch at Indian restaurants when there are hundreds of wonderful places around to dine in NYC. Normally when I m in home I eat Indian food and while going out I will experiment with other delicacies.

Anyways what I found when I reached Lexington Avenue was there were a handful of Indian restaurants serving the Newyorkers. So whenever any guests come to visit me I m going to take them there!

~~Student life advantages~~

Being a student has its own advantages you only have to worry about assignments and exams, for rest of the things there are always friends and relatives.When they come to meet me ,I needn't play the host card as they sponsor me for everything when roaming around.The buck doesn't stop here when they leave take care that I m placed in a comfortable position.

When Raj came over for the weekend he
--> refilled my supplies- he was jealous that I have lost few kgs or rather he put on weight ,so he stocked my refridgerator with ice creams,chocolates,pastries,cheese etc

-->recharged my metro card-can have more than 10 trips for free

--> pocket money - this will last more than a month

What a jolly life :)

~~World's Expensive cities to live in~~

I was looking at this link, which tells us the costliest place to live and surprisingly NYC has come down to 27th place sounding its little cheaper.Indian cities are fast in catching up with Delhi and Mumbai within top 100.


Its not that cost in NYC has come down but cost in other countries have gone up. After this I checked the inflation rate for USA for the past 10 years. Its well maintained under 5% for the past 10 years and whatever increase it had from 2000-08 would have been nullified by the negative inflation of 2009. So the cost of living is almost as same as the one it had 10 years ago.



I have seen many people who goes to vacation from US to India tell that the country has become expensive ,they are still thinking in the rates prevailed 4-5 years back. There is an inflation rate of over 7% on average(as on today its whooping 13.75%) that makes cost of living in the India double every ten years. If the same rate prevails Mumbai can catch up NYC by 2030!

~~A ride in Staten Island Ferry~~

Visiting statue of liberty from NYC will take more than the time taken to go up the empire state building,even after waiting for quite a long time one wouldn't get access into the monument as we have to see it from 100 meter distance.If at all we need to go inside the monument we have to book 3 months in advance.




So when Raj told me needs to visit that place I had other plans as I wasn't willing to waste my time there.New York city offers a free ferry ride between Manhattan and Staten Island once in 30 minutes.The ferry passes via the statue of liberty on its way to Staten island.So one can watch the Statue of liberty,Skyline of Manhattan,Brooklyn bridge and experience a wonderful ride in Hudson river for free of cost.It takes almost 30 minutes to reach the island and one can spend sometime in the island or return in the same boat as we did.





To say about the ferry more than 1000 people can travel in it at a time so one needn't wait for the next ferry since there is always a place.Since the boat was crowded we were reminded of the times back in Kochi were we used to take similar ferries to Fort Kochi but only difference it costed us Rs3 there and its free in NYC.

~~Pic for the day~~

I shook my camera while taking this pic ,Ended up with this!


PS: thats the east river separting Manhattan and Brooklyn

~~Night life in NYC~~

This weekend I had the opportunity to host my friend Raj in my wonderful apartment. He was my first guest visiting my place and he was alarmed in seeing the size of the room compared to living life King size in rest of the US. Then he got a heart attack when I said the rent I m paying for the room. But that is Manhattan the costliest place to live in USA.



I had told to him to keep a night free for Newyork since night life is something worth seeing (or I need to see it). So Saturday night he came around 9pm, after having delicious aloo parathas we left to explore the city, first stop was empire state building I m not sure how many times I m going to climb that building in future. He was amazed by the crowd at that place at that time and scolded for wasting the time there.After an hour when we finally reached the top he was stunned by the view and told the time waited was really worth it.

After coming down we walked up till times square it was past 1 am and the streets were buzzing with activity.Finally after way past two when we had enough of partying we decided to come back home, waiting for the train in the subway and Raj was complaining about the heat , cleanliness of the city and alarmed to see rats freely running past the subways tracks.When the train came around 2:30am he was more frustrated to see the train fully crowded and having no place to sit.We reached home past three then thought it was the right time to call home and talked for a while and left around 4.

Night life in the city is something unique to this city and its real fun when you have good company!