~~Visit to Coke Museum~~

Though we were not keen on going out on a gloomy day,mama pushed us out and took us to the coke factory so that later we wont say that he didn't take us anywhere in Atlanta.Kids who have been to that place many times dropped out, so it was me Raj and mama who went to coke museum.Atlanta downtown was deserted as mama zipped his car through the streets,cant imagine something like that in NYC.




There was a long queue in front for the building and it 30 mintues to get it.We went in took few pictures drank different varieties of coke and finally watched a 4D movie. Though the place is not worth the money its just to add in the list been there done that.

~~Yummy Vadais~~

When we were in Atlanta we went to Cherians a big Indian super market, when we came to the fresh vegetable section my mami asked me tell me what do like the most I will make it for you. I looked around the shop saw the usual veggies which are available in NYC then something pink and unique caught my eye and I said I need vazhaipoo vadai.Though Mami havent tried that before,inorder not to disappoint me told me that she would call India learn the recipe and make it for me.




So today morning after cleaning up the vazhai poo mami made delicious and hot vadais I lost count on how many I ate,she even packed more than a dozen which I brought back to NYC.

~~Careful with teens~~

There are somethings which we really need to take care, messing up with teens is one among them. Even a small sarcastic comment would lead wild reactions which one could never imagine.And since these people are more connected with the social network the news gets broadcasted all over the world.

So when my friend Raj made fun of a teenage girl he never knew he has invited trouble for the whole weekend.He had to watch his steps wherever he went. Given below are few status messages from her facebook

i just pulled the BEST prank everrrrr. to bad it didnt go the way i planned. hahaha

okay. so this guy was being really mean. so when he was taking a shower i took all his clothes and hid them(:hahahahaha it was sooo amazingly planned. BUT THEN. i took the wrong clothes. alkdfaliewfj.

hahahaha it would have been amazinggggg. i unlocked his door went inside took the clothes that were next to the door inside the bathroom, but it was like the wrong one bc he took clothes into the shower or something uurhghghhg. it would have been a classicccccc:(

Its left to your imagination what would have happened! I m not sure whether Raj will come with me for the next vacation :)

~~early to airport~~

Before leaving to Charlotte for the Thanksgiving break people are over US threatened to mean to leave early to the airport exaggerating long queues, traffic jams etc.Being a sincere a student(!) I never bunk classes and leaving airport early means I have to miss a class. Though I was not keen on missing the class I wanted my relatives to be in peace.So I took the hard decision of bunking the class and leaving to airport early. If it was for bunking this class I would have left a day before.

So never before in the history of my life I started to airport just 5 miles away 4 hours before. When we early everything happens accordingly as soon as I reached the bus stop there was a bus waiting for me I thought I will catch the next bus but the driver waited for me to board the bus. I have reached airport more quickly than ever as the streets were empty and to more annoying fact the airport was deserted and there was very few people flying out at that time even the flight I took had seats empty at the back as out pilot requested few people to move to the back row to balance the weight.

I thought its only me who was under going the pain to wait for the flight when I saw tweet from one of my favourite blogger "JFK Delta terminal deserted. No lines. No pornoscanner. And I came 2.5 hrs early. How anticlimactic."

going early to airport its a bad idea you always miss the thrill and fun :)

~~News from Bihar~~

Its wonderful news coming from Bihar to see that the people have elected the incumbent Nitish Kumar government with stunning absolute majority when I last saw it around 206/243 seats. This means lots to the state and as a country as a whole.Something which can change the way politics is run in the country.

For a state which was riddled with casteism, underdevelopment law and order issues,people were moving out of the state for jobs and other means of life.It was a state surviving on remittances. When development happens in one state and another state is left back it is cause of concern for the country as a whole. So when Nitish Kumar got into power years ago he didn't bring lot of industries to his state which creates jobs, he started with the basic development, building roads and restoring law and order.Another main thing he did was empowering woman as it had a tremendous impact on the woman voters who in previous occasions justed voted what their husband said. Nitish Kumar is not strong orator like Laloo but people prefer task master than a stand up comedian.

For India it sends strong message to all the politicians people will elect you back if you do the job right. Gujarat and Delhi have elected their imcumbent CM's but winning from an underdeveloped state like Bihar means a lot.In the past anti imcumbancy played a major role in Indian politics and politicians considered it as a burden and after losing elections they used give a statement people needed a change but never introspecting why they needed a change.May be the results from Bihar will clearly tell them what they need to do.

Hats off to Nitish Kumar!

~~in the lecture~~

Sometimes listening to long lectures needs a lot of patience but if we go as a group it can be informative as well as entertaining.




My friend got bored during the lecture today and drew each one our pictures and passed on it. Then asked to draw his picture while I drew the monkey one and another drew a better one. It was difficult not to laugh when a serious lecture was going on.

~~Wake up calls~~

I was in a deep sleep when my morning alarm(mobile phone) rang I opened my eyes and it was little dark.I soon realised its not an alarm but a call from my cousin from India

cousin: Sri are you sleeping ?
me: Do you expect me to play cricket at mid night?
cousin: you only said there is just 1:30 hr time difference,so you sleep till 9?
Me: what its 6:00 am here you shd subract 1:30 hrs backward not add forward
cousin:ok sorry ,I need some advise regarding the elective I need to choose
(haiyoo haiyoo)
me:See I will call you back ,now I m going back to sleep!

I bundled up back to bed ,again when I was back to my dreams, phone rang tried to snooze it but it was my uncle

uncle:Sri are you sleeping?
Me: Already had a wake up call
uncle:just wanted to make sure you got up early and went to class on time!
me: evening 6 o clock class ku why should I get up at 7 am
uncle:thanks giving day airport will be crowded go early to the airport.
me:dont worry I will goto to the airport a day before and sit there!

After the call I tried to sleep again but within few mintues my actual alarm rang and with sun shining bright it was the only motivation to get up that time.

And the whole day was as if I had a hangover!

~~Links I liked~~

1)Update on online shopping:
As a strong advocate of online shopping ,its good that more shops preferring to give their Thanks giving deals first online!

2)Nat Geo pics:
I m always a fan of national geography's picture of the year contest.This year contestants in the link

3)Raja in NYtimes:
Waiting for the time when our politicians make headlines for right reasons.

~~Movie I liked~~

There are few movies which are really good that you can watch it again and again.I would put Bucket list in that category in fact most of the movies Morgan Freeman movies.Yesterday when it was shown in cable I decided to watch it.

It was well scripted movie with a person who has devoted his entire life for his family and other being a successful businessman spending the last few months of their life together doing things they wanted to do.

one of favourite scene from the movie ,when souls reach heaven God will ask two question
1)Have you found joy in your life ?
2)Has your life brought joy to others ?

Even we can think about it now before its too late!

~~Festival time~~

With Christmas round the corner its wonderful to walk in the streets of NYC with all shops coming up with their own creative decoration,lots of shops offering sales discounts no wonder the city is geared up with the festival mood in full swing.



Above are few pictures I took yesterday when we walked just six streets from the restaurant.So inspite of my busy schedule I m trying to take a break and go back to downtown!

~~Dinner at Chinese restaurant~~

This week group of our class decided to go to a Chinese restaurant, since there was a assignment due next day many people dropped. But since there was more than 20 hours left to finish the same I took the come what may option.

It was a restaurant located in mid town. Since we had a Chinese girl in our gang we left her to decide all the menu. Having a native speaker in the makes things a lot easy and we get things right and customized. We stated with cold appetizer made of tofu and mushroom.Then went on have soup dumplings.I also had rice cakes cut into gravy of vegetables and then spicy tofu with rice. Finally we ended with a dessert named Almond bean curd. Its also made of tofu mixed with almond and really tasted good. Eating with a gang of people from different countries is always fun. A girl from Argentina commented now I know the reason why her country is exporting lots of soyas to China.One of the girl told me that she thought idly was a dessert which has to be had at the end of the meal.



After that I suggested lets take a walk to Rockefeller center, but taking a gang of girls via fashion street was a bad idea. They stopped almost at almost all shops windows looking at the costumes worn by dolls, thank god most of the shops were closed else it would have been a night out.That's why I prefer online shopping! Anyways it was a great evening.

PS:I finished my assignment before my normal bed time :)

~~Links I liked~~

1)21 st Century kids
This what happens to kids these days many enjoy being at home with lots of things to do.

2)Comedy of errors
Its a funny video between Uz'tan and Qatar, this video got the most hits in the day! what a way to attract the world cup bid!

3)A new shooping experience
A online shopping portal going to opened by google,looks pretty quicker than most of the sites.


4)is it for me ?
A website launched recently by B school students and beacuse of my busy schedule I didnt sign up yet.

~~Parliament proceedings~~

Last few days when I read the Indian news sites its filled with the 2G telecom spectrum allocation mess happened during the 2007. I liked the tweet from Chetan Bhagat "Heard abt the new Tamil film? It's called 'the 2G network: You can't make 500bn rupees without a few enemies."

We know that the politicians lack the accountability its funny to see minister resigning as if he is an martyr. It would have better much better if the opposition nailed him in the parliament asking him why he has taken such and such desision than blocking the proceedings of the parliament everyday demanding his resignation.

When it comes to nailing down the politicians in parliament UK is at its best.What ever desision one takes should be justified in the house you can't run scout free like the telecom minister did. I have attached below a video from UK parliament when David Cameroon(present PM) cornering the then PM Gordon Brown.



If you have time you can watch another famous debate between these two . Waiting for a day something similar to happen in India :)

~~Video link~~

With US and China at logger heads on the currency issue it has become a cock tail conversation these days on discussing who is right and who is wrong.China with more population has a right to defend its own people than compared to half of that in US.
Here is a funny rap video about the crisis.

~~Keeping up time~~

I always have a good habit of going late to any class because it makes life more simpler. Yesterday we had an Indian cultural event happening in our university. As usual I was not so much keen to go but things changed when one of my classmates told she's interested to come. Yea going to an cultural event alone is useless but taking a Latin American girl along with you is priceless. So we decided that we will we meet that evening and goto that event together.

The event was at 7 as usual I decided to go there around 7 30.I met my friend at the campus and went on to walk to the hall. To our disappointment there were two security guards standing outside the hall stopping us from getting in telling that the hall was filled to the capacity.Since I had didn't have a plan B we went back to our library and as a good college kids finished our assignments!

~~A lovely day~~

There are few places in New York city that I have kept in mind to visit only with a reason. Central park is one such places.

Yesterday evening I talked with one of school mate who was living in jersey city with her husband and was soon moving to west coast. So we decided to meet of brunch at early morning 11 o clock. I told her to give a wake up call so that I can make it.At 10 today I got a wake up call and hurried up and finally reached the place around 12 o clock. The place was peach tree tavern.

One of our common friend also joined us. After a delicious brunch stuffed with artichoke and mushroom stuffed toast. After lunch my friend and her hubby decided to goto an opera which i had no interest. The weather was perfect with temperature around 15 C and sun shining bright. I asked my other friend whats her plan and unanimously we decided to goto central park. Yea its one place I have kept in my mind not to visit alone.



Fall is the best time to visit central park with each tree with different colors and the park is so huge you and lots of thing to do and in short its like the heart of Manhattan.We walked through the narrow criss cross lanes inside the park looking at stuffs various people were up to.There were few marriages happening at the park,few kids celebrating their birthday,tourist giving their legs a break.

There was an Afro American street artist show going on which was really really funny mocking all the people across the world.They randomly picked people from the crowd and did tricks and stuffs. They called an a small kid and then asked people in crowd to give a quarter and a 10$ bill.Then they said they are going teach the kid how to use money.They asked the kid do want this dirty paper or the silver coin and naturally the kid chose the coin.

After a 2 hour walk in the park we decided to give it break as it was getting darker and as I had another appointment with my classmate I decided to leave. I know central park was beautiful but I came to know its more than that.

~~Innovative Ad I liked~~

In an competitive market creativity in advertisements plays an important role in capturing the market share. Find below how Bingo did it

~~Movie I watched~~

New York public library has decent collections of foreign movies. Though I m little lazy to go and get stuffs my room mate is a regular visitor. He got a German movie named "Lives of others" today ,this was a Oscar winning movie in foreign category in the year 2007.



The story is based on East Germany in the year 1984 when it was still under the socialist regime with censorship fully in place and suspicious people will be tapped upon. The plot revolves around a revolutionary writer and a spy who has the duty to keep survillance on him.The more the spy gets to know of the writer more interested he becomes which might cost him his job. Good movie to start my weekend!

~~Reading Worldnews~~

I always have a habit of spending sometime on reading whats happening around the world. In my school and college days these were just helping me to attend few quiz competitions .Now coming to the university, these small stuffs helps me a lot in conversation starters.

News like a big coal IPO in Mongolia having a positive impact in Hong Kong stock market or a google map mistake causing a border issue between Costa Rica and Nicaragua or Hurricane Richard causing damages in Belize gives a chance to talk about those stuffs to the people of the respective countries.The insight what I get from them is 100% more than what is told in the newspapers and also any people would be proud and happy to talk about their country. Sometimes they will be surprised how come I know about it.

So last few days was my time to brag about, Obama visiting India is a hot topic in discussion and there were lots of people in my class asking me the significance of his visit. I used to tell people on how strategic his visit is and and assurance of permanent seat for India is a major policy shift from US perspective.

Thats why there were lots of stuffs about Obama in my blog and facebook!

~~Obama's Speech in Parliament~~

Obama's Speech in Parliament

Apart from few mispronunciations of Indian names it was a highly motivational speech!

Thomas Friedman article in NY times

~~Links I liked~~

1) Obama's visit to India:
One of friend asked me whats in for India and why media is creating such a hype for Obama's Indian visit, I said to him apart from the $10 billion bilateral trade and unconditional support we got for NSG we need US support for UNSC. Support from US for permanent seat in UNSC is really an important,with UK France Russia already committed to support we still need to convince China.

2)Technological Change:
Sometime you never know how much technological change is going to have an impact on our day to day life. This is an article written during 1995 mocking the use selling airline tickets by internet.

3)Patimandram video:
This tamil video was filled over my facebook wall today, guy speaks sarcastically on the things sacrified by younger generation of today. Though I dont agree with him beacuse I strongly beleive its upto ones hand to decide life's destiny.

4)50 reasons to live in NYC:
Any links mentioning about how great it is to live in NYC will always be double liked by me :)

~~Unfinished Agenda~~

After listening to the two day conference these were some of things which were reforms still need to be done. Its said that the we have already picked low lying fruits and we need to go to the next level so all these reforms will take its own time but will surely pass through.

1)Infrastructure : Ajay Panda one of the young MP's of India pointed out there is just only one difference between India and China its not about being democratic or communist its just the infrastructure gap between two countries.Though there is a tremendous improvement in airport facilities and telecom lots need to be done in power,roads and urban infrastructure.

2)Education:
Though there are millions of students graduating out of college every year only 50% of them are fit to be employable in firms. Primary education should be improved dropouts should be reduced.Kapil Sibal our current education minister is working hard to get this passed in current tenure of UPA.

3)Health care:
40% of children born in India are malnourished,public health care system should be developed. Tamil Nadu was termed as a state having good health care facilities bringing child mortality rate almost to zero.

4)Agriculture:
The problem in Indian agriculture is exogenous(outside the system), lots of trade restrictions which makes farmers not getting the right price for their crops.More than that subsidies kill the system, instead of those just few hours of
uninterupted power supply will do good to them

5)Administrative reforms:
Indian judicial system and police system needs to be reformed. For reforming the police system the bill has been placed in parliament but never know when it will be passed.

6) Fiscal deficit:
Every year governments spending is been increasing more than its revenue. Cost cutting measures should be taken before its too late.Bold measures needs to done in reducing military spending.

7)Labor law:
One of the most controversial bill which needs to be passed. No one had confidence it will come through in the coming decade.

8)Water Management:
This is going to be a main issue in this century. Technological measures needed to overcome this problem.

All these things are easy said than done!

~~conference~~

The last two days were really the most memorable one meeting few of the top economists from India at one place. It was a two day conference about the economic reforms and policies the country need to do and the challenges in implementing the same. It was great to listen to talks from Shankar Archarya, Jagdish Bhagwati, Y V Reddy, T. N. Srinivasan and a lots of other prominant people.

~~Dinner at korean Town~~

On Thursday evening one of my Korean classmate told she will take us to Korean town for dinner. After our classes got over we took the subway to downtown. Travelling in a subway with a gang was similar to that of when I used travel in bus with my friends to college(undergrad). We were talking and laughing not bothered about the stares and scrons other people gave.

Finally when we reached the place it was a great relief for the people in the compartment. When we came out of the subway it was raining.For the girls who came with us their small handbag umbrella never helped them to save from rain and it was the first time my wonderful golf umbrella proved its worth. It took a wonderful 10 minute walk in the drizle to reach Korean town.



When I read the menu the first thing caught my eye was chicken a******. After that I never had guts to read further and told Hyung to order what will be good for me. He got me rice rolls and kimchi. Then I also had kimchi pancake and noodles.It was spicy and tasty but funny thing was there wasn't any dessert available so we went to Cafe lola (a place famous from the movie - you have got a mail) and ended our night with an icecream.

~~Winter Time~~

Being my first winter in NYC I have been getting threats from people from all corner of the world describing how horrible its going to be.Though they try to get me depressed I am keeping them up with a smiling face.Yea winter is depressing not because of the weather but I feel all girls in NYC have grown fatter.More like the April May of India(feel like singing that song)

Yesterday night when I was catching the train back to NYC we were wait at the platform for the train to come,it was cold with the mercury going below 5 C. I had three layers of clothing to overcome the weather.It was a relief when the train came and it was warm inside, when I reached New York the sultry sub way system made me sweat with all the clothing on. I took the train walked all the home ,when I reached the room I was drenched.I was wondering how come NYC is so hot when I was shivering at a place 100 miles south. My room mate brought me back to senses when he asked me whether the centralised heating system works in my room!

~~Movies I watched~~

It was day today in USA and what I got was a four day vacation from my normal schedule. It was the final day of the vacation and ended up in style by seeing a movie. Myself and Ganesh decided to go for social network today to kill time on a lazy afternoon.We thought no one else will be in the theater but there were quite a number of students came to see the movie.

Movie was well taken in a non linear fashion. Apart from the controvorvies involing how ethical was the facebook founded ,it was more about the passion and liking to do what one likes even if it means discontinuing from Harvard.