Suramya's Blog : Welcome to my crazy life…

Went for a trip to Bangalore for the past few days for work. Left here on Thursday morning via Jet Airways and arrived in Bangalore in the afternoon. The flight was nice and I liked the service. Vinit’s mom picked me up from the airport and dropped me off at the office where I met the guys/girl for the first time. It was an interesting experience.

Spent a lot of the day installing Visual Studio 2005 on my system along with other assorted junk. VS took up almost 2.5 GB of my disk space no idea how much SQL server has taken up. Will be doing a lot of .NET programming now and I have already started missing Unix/Linux programming. However thankfully I will also be working on PHP and MySQL so thats a saving grace for me. 😉

There were a lot of power cuts during the day and the UPS kept us running for a while but then even it gave up and we had to sit and wait for the power to come back for almost an hour. At night it we had a thunderstorm and it was the first time I saw so much lightning at a time (Probably because usually I spend thunderstorms inside). This time I spent some time talking with Aunty while enjoying the cool breeze and the lightning.

Friday and Sat were also pretty much the same; spent some time programming, waiting for power and more programming.

Flew back on Sat night with Indigo Airlines and it was an OK flight. The service was good but for some reason they don’t serve any food during the flight. The only stuff they sell are cookies and cashews plus juice and softdrinks. My flight was Via pune so only got to Delhi at 11:35 pm. Then had to drive back to Noida so got home almost at 1 am.

Overall it was a fun trip. Met some interesting people.

Well this is all for now. Will post more later.

– Suramya

As some of you might know I took a four day trip with friends to Lake Placid, NY and I just got back. This was one fo the most fun trips I have taken in a while. Lake Placid is an awesome location with great Ski trails (They held the winter there in 1932 and 1980). I have been there earlier and loved it so we decided to take another trip there.

There were 10 of us on this trip: Me, Vinit, Surabhi, Pranav, Aarti, Sarang, Sandeep, Pradeep, Amit and Anu. All of us except Amit and Anu left from Newark, NJ (We had to leave the cars in the NJIT parking deck) at 4:30 am (so that we could miss all the traffic) in two cars. It was me, Sandeep, Pradeep and Sarang in one car and Surabhi, Vinit, Aarti and Pranav in the second car. The drive up there is beautiful and we were there in Lake Placid by 9:15 am. The cabin was really nice, it was located right next to the Ausable River and was really beautiful. Below is a pic of the cabin from the front.

Front View of the cabin we stayed at

We basically lazed around during the day. The cabin had a fireplace so we relaxed in front of it; played Uno, Vollyball and Climbed trees (That was just me) and slept (Some of us hadn’t slept the entire night before).

Enjoying the Fireplace

At night we had a bonfire and we fried Paneer (Cottage Cheese) and onions at the bonfire and had them. They tasted amazing. It was freezing outside and till we got the fire going it was literally a pain to stay outside inspite of all the jackets and gloves. But once we got the fire going the temperature became a lot more bearable. We were outside for a couple of hours atleast. The best part was that the bonfire area was near the river so if everyone stopped talking we could hear the river flowing and nothing else. There was absolute silence in the area. The night sky has never looked so awesome before.

Once the food was done we came back in and started talking about various horror movies we had seen, basically to scare Aarti, Vinit and Surabhi. We talked for a couple of hours and just as we were about to goto sleep Amit and Anu arrived and we talked for another hour before finally going to sleep.

The next day was also very relaxed and we all woke up by 9:30 am. While we were getting dressed Anu made tea for everyone (I had a soda as I don’t drink tea) and we had breakfast. After breakfast we went outside for a couple of hours of cricket.

Having Breakfast

Playing Cricket (The big beach ball in the pic is the wicket)

Then once everyone was tired we left for Lake Placid and on the way we stopped by the AuSable river which had frozen (Not completely but just the top inch or inch and half) to toss stones and ice across it. It was a lot of fun. The really interesting part was that when we tossed a particularly large stone or ice piece we would get a cool echo.

Tossing Stones in the Ausable River

After playing at the river for about an hour we drove around to the Lake Placid proper, visited the Olympic stadium and had dinner at this Italian place. After dinner we went back to the cabin and watched a couple of movies. Actually I just watched half of the first one when I got bored and left to read a book. After the first movie we decided to make another bonfire and roasted/grilled corn on it along with Yams. The corn tasted awesome but the Yams were ok. I think we shouldn’t have let them catch fire. That probably ruined the flavor. 😉 Aarti, Surabhi and Sandeep stayed inside while we were out by the bonfire. After eating we put out the fire and went back in and spent the next few hours just talking. We talked about everything from politics to cars to college life. We finally went to sleep at 4 am and that too because we were planning to go ice skating and had to get up for that.

Having dinner at an Italian Restaurant

We were originally planning on going skiing but since it hadn’t snowed yet none of the beginner trails were open yet and only the intermediate trails were open. So we went ice-skating. That also was a lot of fun. The rink was only open for 2 hours but we enjoyed ourselves a lot. After skating we went for lunch at a Mexican restaurant where the food was pretty good and the service was amazing.

Group Photo at the Skating Rink

Having lunch at a Mexican Restaurant

After dinner we came back to the cabin as we had a few hours to kill before we went to the Stars on Ice show and just relaxed. I didn’t goto the show as my head was killing me but everyone else except Sarang went and really enjoyed the show. I basically finished my book and then went to sleep. Got up the next day feeling a lot better and had breakfast. Then after lazing around for a few hours while everyone got dressed we reluctantly left for home.

Group Photo taken outside the cabin

I was in Amit’s car with him and Anu and the drive back was non eventful, we did hit a lot of traffic at first but since we had a GPS and my black berry we choose an alternative route and managed to avoid most of the traffic.

Over all the trip was a lot of fun and I took a lot of photos (About 500+) so it will take me some time to sort through them and select pics to put in the photo gallery. However I have put up a zip file containing all the Lake Placid photos up on the web, you can download it from here.

Well this is all for now. Will post more later.

This is the cabin we stayed at: Our Cabin

Update (5th Dec 2006): Posted the pics from the trip in the Photogallery

– Suramya

I spent the last week in Ooty, Well it was in Wellington and Pykara lake but both are near ooty. I had gone there to attend Gaurang and Kangan’s engagement. It was a really fun trip. It started off with me leaving home at ~4:15 am on the 17th to catch the 6:30am flight to Bangalore. This was after I had been working till about 3:30 am so I was a bit tired but nothing major. The flight was uneventful and I arrived in Banglore on time where Lloyd picked me up and drove me to the Bus Stop where I was supposed to catch the 10am bus to Ooty. This is where the fun started…

The bus was supposed to leave at 10am (There was another bus at 9:15am) while waiting for the bus I found out that the 9:15 am bus never showed up and the 10am bus is the last bus leaving in the morning, the next bus was at 8 pm. So we waited and waited and waited… The 10am bus finally showed up and while boarding we were told that the 9:15 am bus was on the way also and would be arriving shortly. We finally left Blore at 11:00am and about two hours later we stopped for lunch. At this time I realized that my phone battery was low but I had called Gaurang and told him that my ETA was ~6pm. Then I went off to sleep (Cause I had to work again at night) the bus took forever to get to Ooty. He stopped a lot and drove really really slow. I finally reached Ooty at ~9:45 pm. Both Gaurang and Kangan had come to pick me up and they were royally bored. Plus since my phone was low on battery life I didn’t get a regular signal so I couldn’t tell them where I was. The best part was that all the road signs were in Tamil which I don’t read so even when I got through to Gaurang I had no idea where I was so I couldn’t give them an ETA.

The engagement was fun, I had about 3 hours of sleep before the ceremony but I managed. Gaurang had to wear a Dhoti which was funny (See picture below). I recorded the entire thing on video plus took some still photos. The funniest part of the entire thing was that the pundit told us that if the girl and guy exchanged rings that meant they were married so Kunal (Kangan’s brother) put the ring on Guarang’s finger. 🙂 It was funny as hell, I got a video of Kunal saying “Don’t anybody dare take any photos” (Or something to that effect. I don’t remember the exact words). Will post it when I get a copy. Then we went for lunch where a lot of people showed up. Then Gaurang and Kangan went to get his car fixed and I went home to sleep. Below are some photos I took.

Gaurang in a Dhoti

Aunty, Kangan, Gurang and Uncle

Kangan and Gaurang

I worked again at night then the next day we went to Pykara lake. That was the best part of the trip. This is a series of 7 interconnected lakes which is restriced access for defence personal only. There are four rooms over there so Gurunathan uncle had booked them all for a 3 day stay. We went paddle boating, canoeing, on a row boat and this one boat that looked like a round bath-tub. (Don’t remember what its called.) Maitreyi, Kunal, Kangan, Gaurang and me went on the different boats in various combinations. The bath-tub and canoeing was the most fun and the paddle boat the most boring. At night we played Pictonary and dumbcharads where my team won 🙂

Next day me, gaurang and Kangan went to drop Kunal at the bus-stop and the rest of the group went to pick up Mini and then went for a walk. The second day was also spent enjoying the lake. We went for a ride on the motor-boat where we spotted a bison. Then in the evening it started raining and we watched the clouds move in over the lake which was really nice.

The next day (Sunday) I left at 6am to catch the 8:30 bus and arrived in Bangalore at about 6:10 pm and went straight to the airport where I found my flight was delayed till 9:30pm. The flight back was uneventful and I slept most of the way. Mom and dad picked me from the airport and I went to sleep after a long talk with them.

This was a brief summary of my trip to Ooty. Will post more later.

Cya,
Suramya

So how was my trip to Kansas. It was fun, yesterday there was a NASCar event going on at work so the entire project team including the manager decided to go visit. It was fun. They had some car simulators that looked fun but the wait was over 40 mins and it was freezing. So we decided t skip it then and thought we would try again later in the day when it was less crowded. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance due to the work load (we ended up working till 8 pm) but I did manage to snag a NASCAR cap and a poster which was cool.

Today we went to an Irish pub for lunch and it was awesome. I have been wanting to go to one ever since I read about them in Mercedes Lackey’s novels and they are certainly worth visiting. The food over there was amazing and the music was awesome, I will be looking around for more of them in NY.

Right now I am at the Kansas City Airport waiting for my flight to depart. MyIt was supposed to leave at 6 Pm frm Kansas and right now its 9:10 pm (Kansas Local time) and we still havnt left (yes I am typing this on my blackberry) Its been a long day…. At the last update we are supposed to lift off at 9:20 pm but let’s see how much longer do we end up waiting….

Well, this is all for now. Its hard typing long messages on this thing… May post more later…

Cya,
Suramya

Today I went white water rafting with Vinit, Surabhi, Aish and Sameer. It was a lot fo fun. We drove for about 2 hours to get to this place called Narrowsburg in Pennsylvania. We got there at around 10:30 am and spent the next hour inflating the rafts (We had bought them at walmart earlier). The reason it took so long was that one of the rafts had a hole in in that we didn’t know about and it kept deflating. We finally saw the hole and figured out that it was causing the problem. Since we didn’t have anything else to fix it with we used a band-aid Vinit had in his wallet to tape the hole. Surprisingly it actually worked and held for the entire 5 hour trip. I am defenitely investing in the company that makes the adhesive for band-aids.:-)

Then when we were finally ready to launch this park ranger walked up to us and told us that we couldn’t launch if we didn’t have 5 life jackets on board with us. So we had to go and buy 5 life jackets even though all of us could swim 🙁 But then we finally launched for an awesome time in the water.

The best part was our lunch which we had while we were floating down the river in two rafts. It was one of the most peacefull moments of my life. Then once we had lunch we started rowing as it was getting kind of cold and it looked like it was about to rain. Unfortunately about 1/2 way through the ride it did start to rain and it was cold rain. Since we didn’t feel like going to shore and freezing over there we decided to continue rowing and braved the cold rain and the hard rocks. 🙂

The rain stopped for a little while after about an hour and the sun came out for about 15-20 mins to warm us. Then it was back to the stupid cold rain and freezing water. Thankfully we made it back to the car in one piece. The only casualty of the trip was Sameer’s Slippers which kind of floated away when none of us were paying attention to them.

Once we got dressed and picked up the other car from our starting point we drove back to NJ feeling really tired but awefully good about the trip. When we got home we ate great pavbhaji that Vinit had made and Surabhi reheated/served and now I am so full that I don’t want to move out of my really comfortable chair. Lets see how long it will take for me to motivate myself enough to move from the chair to the bed and fall asleep.

– Suramya

As promised, here are the remaining details of my trip. In a very condensed format.

In my last post I told you about my trip to Bangalore where I met Gaurang and Kartik but I forgot to tell you about the trip I made with my family to my Paternal grandparent’s place a couple of days before that. Me, mom, papa and Surabhi all drove to their place for a day and had a great time there. Here’s a family pic taken at that time.

Me, mom and Surabhi also visited my youngest mausi where I also met my cousin sister Rakhi and her daughter along with my cousins Rishab and Ritika. We stayed there for lunch and had a great time. Below is a pic taken there:

Surabhi, Mom, Ritika, Rakhi Didi, Sheetal Mausi, Rishabh

After I got back from my Banglore trip me and mom went to visit my maternal grandparents and my cousin. Mom drove the whole way (4 hours) since we were in a hurry (She had to attend some political meeting) and according to her she could drive better on those roads (I agree) so I slept the whole way. Once we got there mom and babaji (Thats what I call my grandfather) went to the meeting and I stayed at home with Mamiji (Mom’s brother’s wife), Ashok Bhaiya (My cousin), Sarika Bhabhi (His wife) and Shaurya (My nephew). I had a lot of fun with them. Shaurya took me to the fields and there we had guava picked fresh from the trees (I tried a couple of times but got unripe ones each time, guess I am not much of a farmer).

Ashok bhaiya took me to the market and to meet his friends. It was a lot of fun, then we came back and had awesome home made food. Below is a pic of me and shaurya taken when he was having his dinner.

Me and Shaurya

Once we all had dinner Ashok bhaiya and me went to the field and built a campfire and talked for a couple of hours. Then once we started running out of stuff to burn we came back and went to sleep. The next day we had to wakeup early and me and mom left for Delhi. One the way back we stopped for a couple of hours at my 2nd eldest Mama’s place for a couple of hours. We had lunch over there and mamiji made halwa (If you don’t know what this is you have been seriously deprived) for me. Here’s a pic taken over there

Chavi, Me, Badal, Rajkumar Mama, and Shipra

Then after luch we drove back and arrived in Delhi in the evening.

This is a long entry, and I am tired so I will finish it later

Here’s another update from India. Since I last posted I have been pretty busy with visiting friends and relatives. First I flew to Bangalore on the 7th Jan on an Air Deccan flight. I almost missed the flight in spite of being in the Airport an hour before the check in time. I was watching the status board for information about my flight and it kept saying that my flight was on time but didn’t say if the flight had started boarding or not so I happily kept listening to music and was reading a very interesting book. Then about 10 minutes before the scheduled departure time I walked up to the Air Deccan counter and asked them about my flight which is when I found out that the flight was going to depart in 10 mins and they were about to close the boarding gates so I rushed through the security check and boarded the plane.

I made it to Bangalore on time and had a lot of fun, I got to meet my friend Gaurang who is in the merchant navy after 3 years. We stayed up pretty late and talked a lot. The first night we were up till 3 am just talking. We were supposed to go check out the nightlife in Bangalore but we got so involved in talking that we lost track of time. The next day Gaurang’s mom woke us at 8:30 am and took us out for breakfast. We ate Dosa’s at this restaurant (can’t remember the name) which Aunty didn’t like as they were pretty oily but both me and Gaurang liked them a lot. Then we drove around Bangalore for a while doing chores after which we dropped Aunty at home and left to have lunch at this place called RR. We (Me, Gaurang and Viraj) left home at 2:00 pm and got caught in a very bad traffic jam for a couple of hours. We finally made it to the restaurant at 4:45 pm and had our lunch at 5:00 pm. Then we drove back to Gaurang’s place to pick up aunty and drive to Kartik’s place for dinner. Since we had such a late lunch neither Gaurang or me ate much inspite of a great selection (Sorry Aunty)

Edit:(The remaining entry)

Then we spent the night talking. Once the party was over all of us went back to Gaurang’s place. Kartik drove his car and I rode with him while Aunty and Gaurang were in the other car. The only comment I have about the ride back is that Kartik plays too many car racing games… 🙂

Gaurang, Me and Kartik at Gaurang’s place

Once we were back we watch Animatrix ’cause gaurang hadn’t seen it yet, then we talked for a while and then Kartik went back home while me and Gaurang went to sleep (I think it was about 4:30 am at that time). Got up in the morning and helped Gaurang and Aunty pack. By this time Gaurang’s dad was in town so I got to meet him too. Then we dropped Gaurang at the Airport for his flight to Bombay and uncle & Aunty dropped me at Kaban park near Vinit’s place.

Since I knew no one was going to be home at his place till 2:30 pm I spent the next couple of hours walking around MG Road and Brigade road. Then I went to his place and met Aunty and his cousin Anshu. After a great meal of Pav-Bhaji we all went to the temple where it was pretty crowded due to it being a Sunday. Then on the way back we stopped over at Madhur’s place and met his mom. He wasn’t there ’cause he had gone to drop someone off on his bike and had an accident on the way back (He wasn’t hurt but that should teach him to pay more attention to the road than the girls on the road.) Then we left for home and stopped for some very tasty Golgappa’s.

At home I met Vinit’s dad. By this time a couple of Anshu’s friends had come over. So Aunty took all of us out for dinner and we went to this road where both sides will filled with stalls and I had awesome Uttapam’s and Idli over there followed by a couple of slices of watermelon.

Once we got back home, we watched a little bit of TV then after Aunty went to bed Anshu and me stayed up talking. Since my flight was at 5:30 am and I had to be at the airport latest by 4:30 am, I decided not to sleep and spent the night reading.

The flight back was uneventfull and I made it back in one piece.

Other than memories I brought back one other thing from Bangalore: A very bad cold, which I caught from Kartik and then passed on to my parents. (Kartik: Thanks a Lot… )

Over all a very fun trip. Wish I could do it more often.&

– Suramya

Made another trip to Washington over the weekend.

Me and Vivek left at about 11:30 am and drove to washington in about 3 1/2 hours reaching there at 2:00 pm where we picked up Ruth and started on the drive back to her place so that she could cook Lunch for us.

Since she needed to borrow some utensiles we had to go by Liji’s house to pickup stuff. On the way we were also supposed to pickup Chetan from the trainstation. Inspite of being warned Ruth told Chetan that we would pick him up at around 3:00 pm and sure enough we got caught in traffic and then got lost and then got stuck in traffic again before we finally picked him up around 4:15 pm.

Since we were in a hurry we only spent 10 mins at Liji’s place and then drove to Ruth’s place. There we cooked food and surprisingly it actually turned out to be edible. And we finally had our lunch at around 6:30 pm. Then Ruth had to goto her Aunts place for Dinner so we drove her there and while she was enjoying dinner we picked up a movie from Blockbuster. After driving around for about an hour we pickedup Ruth and went back home. At this time Vinit and Surabhi had also joined us at her place.

Unfortunately her landlords were back at this time and were asleep so we couldn’t play foosball as we had planned so we took the TV and the VCR down to the basement so that we could watch movie. Since its a lot more fun to talk than to watch a movie we spent the next 3 hours talking and having fun. Then we started the movie but since it was 4 am and all of us were tired we stopped halfway through the movie and went to sleep.

Next day, Ruth woke us up at 8 am again so that we could go on a morning walk with her, as I have had the pleasure of this during my last trip I wisely declined and went back to sleep. Vivek wasn’t that lucky and got stuck with her. This time they only took 2 hours to get back. Then we got ready and left after dropping Ruth off at the Church as Vivek had to be back at work in the afternoon.

Overall it was a nice trip and I really enjoyed myself. We took a couple of photos and I will put them up sometime over the course of this week. (No really, I will….)

– Suramya