~~Coffee with friend~~

     Today I met one of my classmates for coffee. She is from New York and has taken up a job in Chennai in a NGO. So she was asking lots of questions about the city and way of life. We talked for almost two hours and I was giving all sorts of scenarios about the day to day life in the city. Yea there will be few cultural shocks when she goes there and starts her work . There are many things which people take it for granted in US wont be easily available there.
    Few things I said were in this terms there is no partying after mid night everything closes before midnight. There are lots of good beaches in the city dont ever go there wearing your beach wear. There are public transport but you can't use it for day to day use. How to be careful with with the people who will try to rip money at any given opportunity. We also talked about the weather ,food ,fashion etc etc Then she was asking me where she could find an apartment. I had heard Thiruvanmiyur is one area where expats live and suggested her to live with room mates rather than stay alone in the city.
   Whatever I said seemed too little compared to the ground realities she will be facing. Hope she has a wonderful experience in Chennai.

~~US Open inauguration~~

  Tennis stadiums are viewer friendly ,even from the last row we get a good view. In fact its better to be little bit away from the action else we need to turn our head left and right to see the action. So when I booked the tickets last I didnt care where the seats were located and since it was the first day tickets were really cheap. Being first had the added advantage as we watched the inauguration ceremony

 Mayor Bloomberg inaugurated the event said even Irene wanted the event happen without hindrances. With few musical performance ,firecracker bursts and flag salute by mariners the inauguration went well.

~~US open opened~~

Good to be there on the inauguration day!

~~Irene- Big Flop~~

    The much awaited Irene didn't bother to make any major impact in the city apart from breaking few branches off the trees and bringing down few letter boxes. Since I forgot to close my bathroom window two of my shampoo bottles were knocked down but as I had closed them tightly not much damage was done.

When I got up in the morning it was bright outside and I knew that the storm was weakened and decided to check how it is outside.  After having my breakfast I ventured out to the nearby river. Wow the sight was awesome the wind and surge from the Atlantic ocean made the  Hudson river to flow in the opposite direction. There were few branches flowing in the river apart from few debris caused by the rain. There were few people who had come to see the river. One person looked at me and said disappointing right, I agreed with him I expected some trees to float in the river. He added he is still more disappointed as he has to goto work on Monday.

It was fun to see seagulls trying fly ,with the wind speed the only thing they could do was to fly in the direction was the wind. I spent more than an hour in the river talk with people there and with few people on the phone. Finally came back home when I was hungry.

~~Movie Marathon~~

 With hurricane threatening to hit the city around the corner , the whole city has shut down. This is this first time subway system of New York is getting closed as a precautionary measure to avert damages coming from a natural disaster. People who are living in downtown river facing apartments have been evacuated from the city.
Its kind of boring to sit in home all the day long doing nothing. So I decided to watch movies. By the end of the day I watch three back to back movies.
1) Me Myself and Irene
   The title suited apt for the day, its the usual Jim Carey movie where you shouldn't look for any logic but just laugh.
2) Definitely Maybe:
    Its a story of a met dad telling his daughter on how he met his mother. He starts his life as ambitious young man coming to New York working for the campaign for Bill Clinton and meeting new friends.
3)Trading Places:
    This was movie I really enjoyed staring Eddie Murphy taken during early 80s. Two brothers who are owner of big brokerage firm have a bet that money makes a man's character. They hire Eddie Murphy who is a homeless guy as their new manager and fire their present manager by putting false charges and making him penniless. What happens next is told in a funny way.

So here is the picture of Grand Central and traffic around the city. First time I have seen the station empty and road around the city green in color.

~~Picnic at the park~~

  The weather was bright and sunny today, since we didn't want to waste the day by worrying about the hurricane we decided to have picnic lunch at the riverside park near our college.  Each of decided to bring their own food. First I thought of getting some Indian snacks but I found that I had fridge Russian stuffs in the fridge,so I decided to bring those.

We were seven of us there was lots of food for everybody, one of them brought pita bread with hummus ,Japanese girl prepared a veggie sushi with bean curd which I liked very much, there brownies bread and cheese apart from lots other junk stuffs.

One thing everybody liked was my Russian Cola. Good lunch to end the week.

~~Pic for the day~~

Guess the bird - taken from my work place!

~~Zoom of my camera~~

 Last week I was checking how good the my camera zoom works, so while I was returning back from work I few pictures from the Geo Washington bridge.

Below is the normal view

 with zoom.

Thanks Sheila ,the camera looks impressive :)

~~Earthquake in the city~~

    I was having my lunch in the basement when Diana messaged me "Sriram R u ok? I found it weird and replied I am fine and even tried calling back. My friend tried to reach me then I didnt pick it up. Then we got alarm in our building saying there was an earthquake. Earthquake in New york is very rare and when it struck I was in the safest position underneath the building failing to feel it.

~~Stuffs I got this weekend~~

   After browsing through the books my friend took to gifts section where all sorts Russian souvenirs were available. Below were few of the stuffs available in the shop. Can you guess what are they and where its used?

From top left clockwise

1)Russian Chessboard

2)table heat protector

3)The famous Russian Matryoshka dolls

4)Tea nesting doll ( used to cover your morning tea)

5)night lamp

6)drinks brewer

Since all the items were way above my budget limits I happy just to take pictures of them.

From there we went to Russian one supermarket as she told Russian cookies made there are really famous. When I entered the shop there were lots to choose from I dont what choose from those ,finally ask my friend to select the best among the lot. She selected the one made with layers of waffles with cream which tasted good.Then there was something like are bajji but stuffed with potato paste ,it was so big and when I finished it my stomach was full.

Then we went to shopping the super market, since I needed to buy food for the week I thought why not try different varieties. First my friend took me to cheese section and asked what cheese you eat I proudly said Philadelphia cheese ,she asked how can you eat packed cheese and took me to place where fresh cheese was available and after tasting 3 or 4 varieties finally I narrowed down on one. Then got German butter dont know what special in that. Got Turkish bread ,Ukraine cola,Danish  muffins and few other stuffs

Good thing about this shop was all these food items where cheap so bought a bagful.

~~Trip to Russian book shop~~

   This weekend I went to Coney island with my class mate , after going for few wild rides we decided to go the Brighton beach area where there are lots of Russian stores. Since my classmate did her schooling in Russian she was keen to go this place. We saw a Russian book store and she said she will show some of the best Russian collections.

Once inside I saw different sections and there not much for to look apart from the front cover as everything else was in Russian.There was section called bilingual which was interesting because the left hand side was written in Russian and its english translation on the right hand side. It would easier for people learning the language to read these books.Then I found that all great writers like Shakespeare, Dickens  to the latest books by Paulo Coelho translated in Russian. There were also the book of famous Russian authors like Leo Tolstoy Alexander Pushkin etc Then there were biographies of famous Russian people like Lenin,Trotsky,Rusputin etc. My friend was telling me all the book she read during college days and how much importance the Russian literature were given importance in their school curriculam. It was my first experience to go into a book store finding my as an illiterate.

~~Movie night~~

      Since the weather reported predicted there might be a thunder storm in the evening we decided to go to a movie to begin the weekend. Then we were discussing what movie we should see since I ran out of gold amc passes and had only silver passes with we had to watch a movie which is two weeks old.Given our choices from the showlist we could see only one movie which suits our taste. It was horrible bosses.

     When we started from the home it started pouring and we were almost drenched before reaching the subway station.We reached the theater 30 minutes before the screening got some snacks from the nearby shop and went to the theater. Being a friday night the hall was packed ,we patted ourselves for coming early and getting good seats.
     The movie was about three people who are having terrible bosses and given the economic conditions have to live with it. They get frustrated at one point decide to kill their bosses and hire a hit man to do so. Things start to mess up and it is a laugh riot after that. We enjoyed the movie and it was a good start for the weekend.

~~Reading on travel~~

   Books are best companions and we can take them where ever we go. Best time to read a book is during the travel. This should have in practice for a long time ,to prove this I came across this statue of Lincoln in our institute in the middle of apple orchid . We can see him reading a book while riding a horse. 

~~Movement against corruption~~

  With anti corruption movement gearing up in India I steadily keep myself updated with whatever happening there. There were some interesting videos posted and had good dicussions with my friends in facebook. There were arguments that the movement is pure blackmail against the government to get things done but it wasn't a blackmail as government had plenty of time to negotiate on the table.
Government handled the whole issue badly first appointing the five member commitee from the ruling party alone, second changing the bill given by the civil society upside down replacing the bill to be piece of joke. The best thing would have been to get bill introduced in parliament had a discussion among the political parties and made amendments which were necessary.Arun Jaitley explained the opposition's view excellently in the parliament. Government has caught itself into a cobweb finding difficult to come out it.
  I commented in one of facebook post  "Since we dont have right people in power to make right policies, we now see people on the streets demanding politicians to implement policies which will be beneficial for the country" Hoping the best happens for India!

~~Cooking time~~

  This summer I started to cook slowly as I had some free time and my cook didn't have enough customers in our area as most of the students are away from the city.Another main thing is the location of the place I work. Its in middle of a national park with the nearby restaurant is not near by in walking standards. So apart from eating salads in the cafeteria a better option was to cook.

 Cooking is not new to me I have done it in Trichy as well as Cochin. First I started with Indian foods such as tomato rice fried rice etc.Then started making the easy ones like pasta spaghetti macaroni noodles etc.  I also made Spanish rice and red bean rice.

Today after coming back home I thought of doing something different. I decided to make Quesadillas and checked I had all the necessary items in the kitchen. First I fried all the veggies and beans in the olive oil. Then toasted the tortillas stuffed the veggies inside and sealed. It was as simple as I said. Now I remember why I restrain myself from cooking because of the delicious taste I always end up eating more.

~~Independence Day~~

Today after lunch I was in an eternal mood , my supervisor came to desk you never told me an important news. I was wondering whether he was mentioning about the aloo paratha I had for lunch. Seeing my blank look on the face he said congratultions for your 65th year of Independence.

Oh yea it is Independence day today but is it an "Independence day" with me coming to office and working hard :)

~~Cartoon I liked~~

~~Midnight at NYC~~

 Sathi and Surya came to NYC along with D and G. We roamed around central park, had dinner at Indian restaurants and finally spent the midnight at times square.

Above is the the picture of times square at mid night!

~~Dino in the sky~~

Took this picture yesterday!

~~Movie night~~

   In summer we have many movies screening in different parks of the city. One I found worth watching was  in the Brooklyn Bridge park in Brooklyn. The screening was called movie with a view overlooking the Manhattan skyline. The movie shown today was Breakfast at Tiffany's starring Audrey Hepburn one of my favorite actress.

Knowing that it will be crowded we went there a 30 minutes early but even then the lawn was fully packed but we squeezed in between little place available in the middle of the lawn. When we looked around most of the people were busy munching something, my Eastern Europe classmate commented going for movie in their country is a culture but here people come to eat. Anyways I told her to enjoy the movie and the view.

The movie was taken in 1960s in New York where Audrey Hepburn play a role of New York socialite with a sole aim of marrying a millionare. Her neighbour is guy is a struggling writer who is trying his luck in New York. The movie is about the complicated relationship between two of them.It was fun to watch the movie in Open air theater bringing memories of many movies I have seen in Trichy club. More than the movie the view of Manhattan skyline was really wonderful. I patted myself for choosing a good park to see the movie.

~~Book I read~~

    When I was in the border's stores looking for books to pick, I found the book Marley and Me. I have seem this movie two years back in Chennai and really enjoyed the full movie. Its about a naughty dog and  the troubles it brings along pictured in a funny way. Since the book is always better than a movie I thought I will read the book.

The book was ridiculously funny and I laughed loud at  many parts while reading the book , my room mate would have thought I was crazy laughing alone. The book was well written and hilarious along with toughing parts embedded all the way. One of the good reads this summer.

~~Work Authorization~~

  Today my room mate gave me mail which had come during the weekend. I was curious who would have sent me mail. I was from USCIS giving me authorization for an year. With the card in hand its time to search for a job :)

~~Visit to book shop~~

  Its been more than a year I got books for myself, after becoming a student I usually get books from my college library or NYPL. Today one of my friends was shifting her room and asked me for help. Her new place was near the Penn station and I knew of Borders bookstore near that place. Since the store is going out of business it was selling the books at dirt prices. So after helping her out I went to this store spent more than two hours there and got few books.
Now I should get back to reading my new book!

~~Movies I watched~~

1)District 9:
   In my work place they arranged to screen a movie today afternoon. It was a science fiction movie about aliens setting down from the outer space.They live friendly with the human beings but they are evicted from the place due to some misunderstanding. I couldn't watch the movie for more than 30 minutes as the movie was gross and filled with bloody violent scenes

2)Crazy Stupid Love:
    My classmate wanted to see this movie,so after I finished the job we went for the evening show. It was good to see an house full crowd in the theater.As the title suggests the movie was crazy and stupid and we laughed all the way through the movie.

Edit:
3)Midnight in Paris:
     It is a Woody Allen movie which takes place in Paris. Owen Wilson stars as a budding writer and want to live in Paris. At mid night he travel back to 1920s of Paris and meet the famous people of the era like Ernest Hemmingway, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso etc. Funny movie well taken.

~~Dinner at friend's place~~

  My Serbian classmate invited me to dinner at his place tonight. His fiance prepared wonderful food for me starting with a wonderful porridge then baked sandwich and ice cream. Coming back home after four hours of chit chat!

~~scam mails~~

  I used to get lots of spam mails but this was the first time coming from a facebook , first there was friend request from a girl  posing as if from my university then a message in the facebook.

Thx for the add the other day on facebook. Im sorry for it taking me so long to email you. I just was wondering if you could meet me? Sorry for me being so blunt but I just had to ask because Im really tied up with classes and don't have a lot of time for much more, but anything can happen.. Btw if you maybe ever want to grab a bite to eat or something I would be up for that :) I know that I said I would send you a few photos of me but... I could not get it to go through, so I just decided to put them here on my page: Goto my page. Email me when you get on there with your user name and I can allow you access to my photos.

xoxoxo, 


Also, Pls dont give out my pictures they're only for you :)


The go to my page linked to spam website asking to pay money to become a member. It is funny to see how personalized spam mail have become.

~~New York 19th century~~

 Took this pic in national arts gallery in DC last month