~~One month over~~

The first month of our course got over and finished it off in style. Our director hosted us party in Havana Central a wonderful Cuban restaurant.We also had our maths term exams today which is like a thing of the past when I came out from the party.

Have attached few pics from my party!

~~Coin problem~~

I had worries about how I m going to survive in an expensive city but i never thought I would troubles getting coins. We have a wonderful washing machine cum dryer in our apartment which accepts only quater coins. To use that washing machine I need 6 quaters and for using dryer another 6 coins, so for one round of washing clothes I need to have 12 coins.I know that going to bank would get me a quater roll but knowing my laziness (I need to study,no time in my busy schedule!)I thought of devising a strategy I would collect quater coins whenever possible and when it reaches 12 I will go and wash my clothes. Over the weekend I got some fifteen coins(even a Newyork beggar wouldn't have collected much)from Ganesh and my uncle. I thought let me wash my clothes as soon as I get into NYC.When I reached my apartment my room mate was there waiting the lift, seeing my pockets jingling he asked "Do you have quaters I badly need it and being Sunday shops and banks are closed" Being nice I had to give him my hard earned coins for paper notes.

Today I realised I m never going to get 12 coins,so decided to goto bank.

Guys apart cheques I also accept coins ;)

~~Economics and ways of learning it~~

Macro and micro economics are the two subjects which I m taking this semester,since I m one of the few not coming from a economics background few things takes time understand apply practically.My professor used to say learning economics is like learning a new language and practice makes it perfect.So one way of learning is by group study which will be funny where we discuss everything other than economics.Other thing is to read books which I never bothered to buy, considering 200$ for a book is way out of my league that too when I am not going to use the book after this semester.

To make learning more interesting I searched for stuff in Internet. There were lots of pdf's making my job easier and giving information more than what I required. Then I stumbled upon this site,an online video tutorial.It covers most of the syllabus for this semester and makes learning fun.At least never makes me feel sleepy ;)

Had my micro economics and macro economics exam back to back,hope the professor understands what I have written :)

~~Today morning!!~~

My cousin dropped me in front of the building and wished me good luck, the place looked familiar as I walked my way inside. I was carrying my usual bag which I take to college and was in my usual attire.I went inside the classroom there were few people dressed in formals waiting for the class to begin. I took the last row(as usual) and looked around, hoping to see at least one familiar face but all were eager for the class to start.

Then the instructor came and asked to introduce ourselves. Once we are done with that, he said "I welcome you all for joining this prestigious company.... Sriram I expect you to dress properly from tommorrow onwards". With a sudden shock I woke up from my bed,what a nightmare to begin the day.Anyways there is more than a year to get into such a routine.

back to simple template!

Due to popular demand brought back the blog to a simple template!
Yea whats in the blog matters not outside!

I thought I would find some spare time to write something about the weekend but I have to go for group study now!

~~Weekend trip~~

Weekend was more hectic than the weekdays , trip went like this Newyork->Philadelpia->New Jersey->Statue of Liberty->Edison->Atlantic city->Ganesh's house->NewYork.

So weekdays study hard(!) and weekends party harder :))

~~Yesterday's outing~~

Since many were interested to know what I did till 1 AM yesterday night- here goes the story. Yesterday we had class from morning 9 to 6 and after wards I stayed back to finish our group assignment.Around 10 o clock when we were almost exhausted,one of my classmate said she is going to meet a friend of friend at a bar whom she has never met and she asked us would we like to join her.Since one shouldn't miss a opportunity like this, myself and another classmate agreed to accompany her.

Once we entered the place it was crowded and soon I realized it was not an ordinary bar but a gay bar.I said this to my other friend,he said its cool man at least we will get some attention here!Once we found her friend we went to that table and soon I started a conversation with the guy next to me,about the college and courses we do.After few minutes of the conversation he asked does he being a gay offend me I said not at all, he replied many Indians feel offended about it. Then he went to add "you know my partner is an Indian".Interesting,I asked from which part he said Tamil Nadu and he is tamil brahmin.He was glad when I said I m from the same part. We talked about Indian culture,food etc and he was say things he knew about India..The other guy whom I talked with was doing Phd in clinical research.

When it was about 12 I decided to leave and my classmate joined me,since she lives in the next building to mine we decided to walk.When we came out of the bar, city was as buzzing as usual people on the road few shops opened and there were cars and taxis moving on the road.We walked inside our college campus and the buildings were great at the moon light.It was a wonderful walk back to my room.

~~Busy week ~~

Its was an enjoyable week writing assignments and stuffs ,I used to wonder what am I going to do having good maths skills but its doing wonders. I have made friends, helping them out and clearing their doubts, few have offered me free lunch or beer or whatever I like :)

Btb its 1 am in NewYork city and really the city never sleeps!

~~New Theme for blog~~

Have applied a new theme to my blog, how is it ?

Can you guess the picture in the backdrop ?

~~My task for day~~

Was given a small assignment to write about my country's economy and its future.
So now you are reading my homework(all fate) ;)

In the year 1991 India was on the verge of an economic collapse, when reforms were introduced and the country opened up its economy for foreign investments. From then on there is no looking back as the country has reinvented itself and today its one of the world large, dynamic and steadily growing economy characterized by huge work force operating in many new sectors.

The biggest boon for the country is the large pool of low cost but highly skilled educated and fluent English speaking people who have contributed to the growth in the service sector. Outsourcing to India has become one of the easiest and efficient ways to do business across the world making Her one of the best destination for information technology as well as business process outsourcing. There are three Indian companies in the top 10 Technological companies of the world. Apart from that all the top technological companies have their business running from India

Indian government on its part works proactively in bringing foreign investment to the country, they have introduced many industry friendly policy changes attracting companies across the world to set their shop in the country. There are more than 1000 Special Economic Zones in the Country which are fully operational providing plenty of job opportunities to the people and companies get 10 year tax holiday such that they get a good time to settle down and have a sustainable growth. Due to these friendly policy India has attracted more than 35 billion $ as foreign investments making her the fourth largest in the world. Another major factor to be noted is the growth in many sectors of the country are driven by domestic consumption which is different from many other countries which follow an export oriented model

On the hindsight the country needs to improve its crumbling infrastructure which might be a major hindrance to its growth. Its good to see that the government is taking right policy measures to address this problem. It is predicted that more than 15 billion $ will be poured to develop the infrastructure of the country. Disaster management is another area where country needs to focus. Cities should be capable enough handling heavy rain or storms which shouldn’t bring the work life in the city to stand still.

Thus things go as planned India will become a developed country by 2020 and become a major player in the global economy.

~~Pic for the Day~~

Went to temple at Queen's yesterday , there were lots of Indians around, seems I m never missing India ;)

~~Keeping track of your roots~~

I was talking with one of my classmates from Korea, he started the conversation with Namasthe then seeing my sarcastic smile he said your mother tongue is not hindi right. Then he asked me do I know ayodhya when answered in affirmative he said "my great grand mother is from that place",interested in the conversation I asked how long back,he said some 1000 years back! He went on to add that his great grandmother was a princess in Ayodhya and married the king of Korea. He is the son of 72nd generation of King Suro Kim and they have old books keeping track of all records and roots.

If I think about my roots I know my grandfathers name and apart from that heard few stories from my on grandma how we have settled in our native, so at most it might go for 100 years. So keeping track of the generation for more than 1000 years was something extraordinary.One good thing I like about the Asian countries are they are proud of their roots and take efforts to pass on to their next generation, such that their kids never lose their self identity.

After coming back home I did some googling about the Korean Indian connection ,I got some interesting links whichwere similar to what he said.It was an interesting read and to confirm the facts there is a town in Korea named Gaya and there were few ancient symbols which are common both in India and Korea. Its really a pride to know
your roots and makes it more meaningful when it has a wonderful history behind it.

Hope after 1000 years there is some person to say I am the great grandson of Sriram Jayaprakash :)

~~Delicious Lunch~~

I was expecting Saturday to come soon after a long week in the college,apart from that Saturdays are when we get our food from our beloved cook in New Jersey. He was sharp by noon delivering the packages. This time the menu was Dum Aloo,White eyed peas masala,carrot-green peas subji ,sweet dal along with soft rotis. It was delivered hot and what a yummy lunch I had.

~~Lab classes~~

Today I had my first computer lab class,we are introduced to a statistical tool called STATA which can be used to analyse and do some research from the data we get.Since being in IT field for few years it was easy to understand the it and had no problems in having a hands on experience over it.

Then we are told about the sources of data and how to get it,world bank website is the major source from where we fetch the data for our research. Our TA(technical assitant) was explaining step by step on how to go to the site, click on the data we need and finally click download data in excel button.And when all the people clicked the that button what I excepted happened, the site got struck and all the people got blank pages.Since I know the performance of that site and my colleague who was working more than a year to get this download to excel thing working after lot of issues, giving correct response to forty people at a same time was too much an ask.Then we came up with a simple solution one person downloading the data from worldbank and rest of the class shared it.

So people developing worldbank's website do remember great people use this site you are working on :))

~~Traffic in NYC~~

One another thing I can relate NYC with India are the common traffic jams occur during the morning and evening hours. Having a car in NYC is the last thing people want.Its huge burden most of the time will be lost on the road and finding a parking space.Being the most populated city in US space is major constraint here.



One good thing about the city is the public transportation,more than 60% of the people use this system to come to office where as in rest of the country 90% of people use their own cars.My professor talked about how the good transportation changes cities structure. A city with good public transportation system is really a boon its people and how much money can be saved per year due to that.

~~Food from NJ~~

Lots of people who call or chat with me ask one major thing-what are you cooking/eating or how are you adapting to the food.So I thought how good people will always get great food where ever they go.

When I was preparing my journey to US many people threatened me about how am I going to manage myself adapting to the food I get or how am I going going to cook or teasing me how I will miss my grandma's food.I too had these concerns in the back of my mind because cooking for own self is the boring job and wont give any motivation,cooking a good Indian meal means washing more dishes which takes the same amount of time as cooking.

When I landed in my room in New York my room mate asked me what am I going to do for food I said I m going to manage with bread and peanut butter once I get bored of that I will try to cook something. He said there is a better option and told that I can use the services of cook from New Jersey who cooks food and delivers over the weekend.Excited by the idea I readily agreed to it. On last Saturday I received my package of food it consisted of around 20 rotis and 4 dabbas of dal,channa masala,aloo curry and french beans respectively. The food was really tasty and the whole thing is more than enough for me for the entire the week.I just had to keep rice whenever I need. Moreover my room mate said the menu will change every week.The whole package cost just 20 bucks which is pretty cheaper to NY standards,in fact more cheaper than the cost of eating in my previous company's canteen.

Ganesh has said earlier I might be longing for Indian food when I visit his place next time but still I am not missing Indian food :)

PS: My friend commented "Nogamma Nungu thingarduna un kitta than kattukanum"

~~Rain in the City~~

Today I got the following mail in my university ID

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN UPTON NY HAS ISSUED AN

URBAN FLOOD ADVISORY FOR MINOR FLOODING OF POOR DRAINAGE AREAS
IN NEW YORK (MANHATTAN) COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST NEW YORK...
UNTIL 230 PM EDT.

AT 1125 AM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED
THAT HEAVY RAIN WAS FAST APPROACHING THE ADVISORY AREA. ONE TO TWO
INCHES OF RAINFALL IS POSSIBLE...WITH SOME LOCALLY HEAVIER AMOUNTS
IN THE NEXT FEW HOURS.

EXCESSIVE RUNOFF FROM THIS STORM WILL CAUSE FLOODING OF URBAN
AREAS...HIGHWAYS...STREETS AND UNDERPASSES AS WELL AS OTHER DRAINAGE
AREAS AND LOW LYING SPOTS.

As per the perdiction it started pouring out here and its a huge relief from the heat wave we were experiencing from the time I reached USA.Since I read the mail only after reaching the university I left my umbrella in the room,so have to wait till the rain recedes and then leave this place.Because of the rain I couldn't manage go out for lunch and had to be contended with eating Salad(4$ Ouch) in our building cafeteria.

Edit: I installed weather bug in my PC and it cautioned rain with thunder and I took my umbrealla but it didnt rain! It will only rain when I dont take one :)

~~Subway Experience~~

New York has a well connected subway system which makes people to cover long distance within a short span of time,a good way to avoid traffic and saves a lot of time.There is station just 50 meters from the place where I stay, 125th street station which is connected by Train No.1. Its one such station in Manhattan where the station is over the road and the subway train will come up from either side of the stations.So its pretty easy to locate the station apart from the other subway station.

Once I reached station I got a metro card from the counter and being a weekend trains going to downtown wont stop at my place so I had to catch the uptown train and go to 137th station and then catch a train back to the downtown.Being a Sunday there were some service works going in the tracks and the train was going as slow as a goods train and since its going underground there isn't much sight seeing either unless you are lucky enough to have something in the compartment.It took some 30 minutes to reach the Penn station.



When I was done for the night after visiting the Empire state building it was past 10 30pm. When I reached the station there was a train right there waiting for me so I quickly boarded the train.It was crowded even at that late hours.When the train crossed crossed the 116th station I sensed something was wrong and when I finally reached the 125th station I found it wasn't the station from where I boarded the train,a simple fact being this station was in underground while the one near my place is on top.When I came out I could figure out where I was and what mistake I made. Instead of taking a train No.1, I took train No.2 and I got landed in Harlem at 11pm, a place people warned me not venture alone at night.At that time I used to think why would I go there during that time but never imagined I will be here so soon.Anyways my place was a mile away from there and I walked fast with my heads straight as a normal Newyorker would do,ignoring whats going on either side of the road and reached home safely.

Lessons learnt
1)Never rush to board a train as there is always a next train within 5 minutes
2)Do look at the train number before you board.

~~Visit to Empire State building~~

A trip to New York city is not complete without visiting the empire state building.I didnt have any weekend plans as I got up late then caught up with the world cup match.By evening Prabu one of my young age school mate who has settled down in New York called asked whether we can meet up,next minute I was there in 125th station catching the subway to downtown.



Since it will be more than an hour for my friend to reach downtown I took time to explore the city,I roamed around times square,Madison square garden looking at the skyscrapers on both sides of the road.When my friend finally came we went to subway for a quick snack,its been around 15 years we have met.We talking about our school day,he didnt forget to say"the thing I remember about your house is it will be full of book".We talked till nine, waited for the place to get completely dark ,so that we can get a good view of the city from the top.Then we took a walk to the Empire State Building.



The Empire State built in 1931 is the tallest building in Newyork city and it took just 410 days to build the massive structure.There was a decent crowd when we went in,the way inside was like a maze with lots of turns.We had to wait few minutes at every place for the queue to move up but since we had lots of catching up to do time pass was not an issue.We walked pass the security checks then to lift which takes us up 80 floors in a minute.In the 80th floor we had our friend King kong welcoming us, almost all king movies do have a scene with the empire state building and king kong.From 80th we took another lift to the 86th floor where there is open terrace for the visitors to have a look down at the city.




It was a treat to the eyes watching the city from that angle which we couldn't get anywhere maybe only from the flights.I could see sea of lights as far as I could few things I could spot in the night were the Broklyn bridge,Chrysler building,Hudson river,New Jersey quite a lot of other buildings. The climate was wonderful as my friend was saying its one such day because most of the time place can get too cold,rainy or foggy making the visit to the top not worth the money.Speaking of money it of was a free trip to me because Prabu took care of the expenses for the entire evening.After spending some 30 mintues there and taking few pictures we came down.

We talked for a while then went to our respective stations to catch the train.Will write my experiences in subway in a separate post.

~~Pic for the day~~

I never thought I will crash into my friend so soon in NYC!



PS: its not kili pudikka poi ended up with this :)

~~library and reading books~~

Yesterday evening I was little bit free and went on a stroll to our department library. Located in the basement of our building its a quiet and calm place.There are journals from all around then globe that I can read the copy of Indian Express,Economic times or glance through other newspapers around the world.Then they have advanced data center lab which can be used to collect data statistics around the world.

The main thing is the book collection were a person can easily get lost. The number of books they have would turn my dad's collection into peanuts. I looked for the Indian section of it and lost my count in the number of books and various titles they have.I was reading an article in nytimes about the importance of reading books.It was said "that kids who grow up in a home with 500 books stay in school longer and do better" and if that was case I was imagining I would have to stay in the school life long.

~~What a relief~~

From the day I remember I was made to wear formal dress from school to college till the company I worked for. Given the hot climate in India that kind of attire is more than a curse,the time spent wearing it,ironing the stuffs and finally if wear it and goes out within few mintues the body will get drenched in sweat.I never knew whom did I please wearing those kinds of dresses or even the people who formed those rules would have never known why they keeping those.

The day one of the orientation I choose to wear formals and from there on I m in (my)formals.Just grabbing a shorts and a t shirt in the morning getting ready within minutes.Also its really really comfortable in this hot weather. Cant imagine wearing that kind of attire to my college or my company.Only problem I have is that I have a large collection of formals which I have pushed to the bottom of the shelves,never know when I m going to use them.

~~Adapting to the NYC life~~

Settling down in the city comes with interacting with new people,learning new things,exploring places finding right shops restaurants etc in short getting adapted to the way city lives. I think in a matter of one month my walking speed will increase by few km/hr. Habbits take time to die as I looked the right side first to cross the road and realised my mistake after crossing the first half of it.There were times I made a fool of myself waiting for the door to open to enter the shop and a kid guiding me the right way as that was at the exit of the shop

Other things I like about are the people with whom I interact in the customer care side or in business what they call as moments of truth,they make us more comfortable make our lifes easier. Its more like having a chat than making business. It was wonderful talking with lady at International students Service Organisation who wanted to visit the country and asking about the places there. The guy who helped me opening the bank was more interested in telling things about the city and life there,he patiently took more than 20 minutes to explaing the banking procedures,building credit history and stuffs.Finally he asked how long I need this account I said 14 months and he replied back "you never know man this might be the city for you". Both of them before entering my date of birth in system wished me a belated wish.

With bank account created its time to get money :)

~~1st day in college~~

Its was blazing hot today in NYC and when I reached my class I was drenched,the director of the program welcomed me saying that we have exported the weather from your country just for you.It was an interesting day in the class never I have talked with people from many countries on a single day. In my class there were around 45 people from 32 different countries. A diversed crowd indeed.

It was a day I came to know of few countries which I haven't known before like Sao Tome and Principe. It is good to know I share the class with lawyer,mayor,TV anchor and people from different area of business.And to end the day I tried to take a maths test found myself staring blank at the paper for few mintues and then gave the paper back. Its time to catch up stuffs!!!

~First few days in US~~

What I was upto the last four days written by Ganesh(from google wave) :)

Jul 2: Kicked-off with taking sri to temple for his b'day, followed by delicious indian buffett... Fresh from chennai, sri did not taste the traditional south indian dishes and settled for northy dishes... (waiting for the day when sri dried-up from NYC food comes jolling for southy dishes..)





Jul 3: Sri will never forget this day... 1st experience of "seeing" americans in long-weekend spirit...

Took sri to shopping outlets to equip 2 survive in NYC. Wide-eyed/mouthed, sri "enjoyed" Cing lovely people around and need to grab hold of sri and drag him to shops... purchased of load of stuff for sri to conquer his quest here.

Then off to the "sin city of the east coast" (Atlantic city) for sri to try his LUCK.. hoping his lady luck would work her charm and bring him a fortune... Again, sri got excited seeing the people around in the boardwalk next to the beach and wanted to rampage thru the casinos. We really had to try hard keep sri on the ground and bring him back home (sri did not want to overwork the lady luck...).

For "other" details on what sri did in AC, need to open a separate wave (not for the faint-hearts... oh my!! you could never imagine what sri is capable of...)



July 4: Took sri out to see the Independence day fireworks... and to celebrate sri's last day of "independence" for next 14 months... sri was awestruck by the fireworks and (again, now a common feature with sri) seeing "kilis" in the park... Sri signed-off his independence in style.



July 5: With a truck load of sri's goods, dropped of sri at his NYC apartment. Typical of NYC apt buildings, the space is small. But being close to the Columbia campus and lots of amenities around, sri would have a good time there. Plus, loads of young crowd around to give sri company (pani vizhum malar vanam...)

Movies I saw...

Good thing about taking British airways is the number of movies you can choose to watch,it has collections ranging from the latest to classic from different languages.
Movies I saw during the journey are

Dear John
This is wonderful romantic movie between a college girl and a Military man. They exchange their love via letters but somethings happen which is out of their control. A touching movie which I liked a lot.

Shutter Island:
Leonardo Di Capiro plays a role of a detective, it was a electrifying thriller the ending was similar to most of the thriller movies.

Ondine:
Its a Irish movie which goes on telling about a relationship about a fisherman and a woman he meets.He goes on tells his daughter that he caught a mermaid and story goes about the relationship between those two.

~~Watching worldcup at Heathrow~~

When I booked ticket to USA I found that taking a late flight from London turned out to be economical.So I had a 5 hour stop over at Heathrow.Once I reached the airport I cleared my way through the securities.The airport as told by many people looked like a mall and since I didn't want burn my pockets I was looking for a silent place to throw my back.

I found a place near domestic lounge which was not crowded, before I was about to close my eyes a beautiful girl asked me do you have 5 minutes,since I had more than 5hours in the pocket I was generous enough to give her more than that.Seems she is a BA apprentice and was conducting a survey about the feel good factor of the airport.
So she was asking me the questions how easy I was able to navigate in the airport,did you ask for guidance,how clean the airport was,was I satisfied with the facilities there etc. Having the Chennai airport experience at my back of my mind I gave overwhelming response to the survey which made her happy.

Then I went to starbucks store got a cup of coffee and went to book stall and got a copy of that day's SUN(newspaper). England had been defeat againsted Germany and the anger was evident on all pages of the paper.The best quote I liked was "Had the England defence been the same as yesterday during the World War 2 we would be speaking German".There were columns thrashing the coach and the players pointing out having the costliest coach,highly paid players and the biggest preimier league the country couldn't even proceed to final 8. And all in all it was not a defeat but humiliation.

Then I found a right place near the big screen to watch netherlands vs slovakia worldcup match that was about to place. Once the game started the excitement began to set in.What was once a silent and diplomatic crowd turned out cheer the players and the whole place turned electrifying.It was wonderful to see a football with people from different countries sitting around cheering for the love of the game. I imagined how would the atmosphere would have been for England~Germany match.
Once the match was over with Holland comfortably winning over Slovakia it was time to catch my flight.

I was thinking how would I kill my time there but it flew away quicky and moreover I enjoyed it!