I have been trying to drive myself to write about the memorable Lake George visit for the last 3 days. Just did not want the detailed memories to fade with time. Next week, Devaki's parents are visiting us. So there will be many more interesting things to write too.
The day of Lake George (may sound too historical) was June 23. All 4 of us (you have to read the earlier post first to understand who is 'us' ) did not wake up before 8 am. We hit the road at around 9:30 as we had expected. It was veg toast sandwich for breakfast. And the same was packed for lunch. But we made sure we carried some snacks too. The drive was good. We headed northwards from our place on I87 towards Montreal (Canada). For those who don't know, you can actually drive in to Canada from US without any hassle. Many Canadian cars are seen on this road. And the funny thing is Buffalo, which is in US is farther from our place as compared to Montreal. Anyways, as we moved north on to this highway, we saw a lot of forest parks and a lot more tree cover. The terrain too was much more mountainous. This large area is called Catskill Forests just like say Sahayadris in India. Lake George is a part of Catskill . On the way, we stopped at the service area for 5 minutes. Devaki was thrilled with the display of plants there. Btw, she is always thrilled after seeing all those flower plants in Stop n shop,Walmart, Sams club and every place we go. And she always buys at least one. :-) In our balcony we have around 10-15 flower plants of different variety.
The new GPS fitted in the car made our life very easy. I do not miss those days when we carried printouts of the directions every time we visited any new place. As we entered Lake George, the place seemed to be more and more lively. We had entered the Lake George village which is like the downtown for Lake George, where you will find most of the restaurants and activities. We parked our car in one of the parking lots in this area, probably the most costly one. The sad part is that we realized that only 2 hours after we parked. Devaki and Sumel were eager to get down and enter many of the small shopping outlets. Jatinder and I promised them that we will do it later towards the end of the day and now we must do what we had planned earlier i.e. Para sailing.
We climbed down from the parking lot which was on the shores of the lake. The lake is situated in a small valley surrounded by mountains on almost all sides. It's roughly 20 miles long and 2 miles wide. Reminded me of Nainital lake from what pictures I have seen of it. For some time, we walked on the small walking track along the lake. There were very small beaches on the way, where many people were sun bathing, swimming or reading a book. We saw some folks with their fishing gear too. Next thing to do was to have lunch as our stomachs were demanding it. So we sat on a tiny grassy patch of land slightly elevated and overlooking the lake. We were given company by a bold duck which seemed to have joined us from the middle of nowhere. It was highly attracted to Devaki or Devaki's sandwich and moved so close to her that she got up and started running helter skelter. All of us were laughing aloud at that point of time. But definitely Devaki was not enjoying much so I helped her to scare the duck. Surprisingly, the duck took off in the air and landed in the lake. For those e of you who are interested, I even have a picture of that bold duck in the photo album in my earlier post.
Post lunch, we walked further on the walking track passing some lake view restaurants and many docking stations for the private boats. We saw someone para sailing from a distance and immediately, all of us were excited and wanted to be in the air asap. We asked some passerby for the directions for the base area of para sailing and reached there in minutes. The lady at the small para sailing office made us sign an agreement, which said something like, If i die while doing this , none other than I am responsible for it. The usual disclaimer when you do any adventure activity. We came to know that this can be done singles as well as doubles. Devaki and Sumel quickly bought the doubles idea and that gave them some more mental strength.
We boarded a medium sized boat with a flat surface to facilitate take off and landing of the parachute. Devaki and Sumel were to go first. When they came down, Devaki was not talking and Sumel had enjoyed every bit of it. Devaki surprisingly felt giddy. It was least expected as she had thoroughly enjoyed paragliding in Manali. Next to go was Paape and he really enjoyed. He was worried about his Pagadi getting blown away by the air flow but I noticed that it was in its place when he landed. Not sure what happened in between though. I was the last to go from the whole group. And what an experience it was. The flight was quite long. Around 10 minutes in the air at an altitude of around 300 feet. It felt so isolated from the world. There were interim strong wind currents to give some sudden n jerks but overall the flight was smooth. Tiny islands in the lake could be seen clearly from up there. In 2 minutes, I pretty much got used to the altitude and later I was waving to the people travelling on the local cruise.
We proceeded to the car park and moved out our car, determined not to park there any longer, at such exorbitant rates. We then drove northwards along the east side of the lake. And it was a nice drive with small resorts on the way. We saw several camping grounds on the way just like our colleague Andrew had mentioned. The camping grounds were packed with people. After driving for around 10 miles, we decided to head back home and we were home by 8:30 pm.
We thought of spending at least a night in Lake George, the next time we go there. That place was definitely not worth going for a day trip. Such was its beauty !
Friday, June 29, 2007
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Times Sqaure Visit June 22
One of my acquaintances told me yesterday that he knew about my recent Cape cod trip as he had read my blog. And how in the world did he know about my blog ? Well, the not so intelligent guess is that I have posted my blog URL on my Orkut profile :-), which is public. Anyway, I was glad to know that my blog has some viewers. So I decided today that I must get my act together and scribble about our last weekend when our friends Jatinder and Sumel from Richmond, VA visited us and make sure that the details of such a memorable time dont just evaporate.
This was quite a planned trip as Jatinder alias Paappey (you will realize when you see the snaps above) had booked their Amtrak tickets to New York last month itself. Yes, Paapey prefers a train journey more than driving. From our end, Devaki's preparation in terms of cooking and getting ready for their visit gathered ground 2 day before they reached on Thursday (21st). Pav bhaaji, delicious Sambar were ready and bulk cooked in advance so that we get maximum time with our friends. House was vacuumed none other than by yours truly. Uhh, vacuuming a house more that 1000 sq feet is indeed tiring. Not that I didn't know it, but I like to say that again.
The weekend started when Devaki and I fled early from office on Friday afternoon 3:30. That felt great to get a head start for the weekend. Plan was to receive our friends from Edison, a 90 mile drive from our place. It was great to see them once again and within minutes all 4 of us were busy in our conversations. Since we met them on Oak Tree road, how could we not go and eat in Sarvana Bhavan. I just ate a Vada Sambar, Devaki had a Rava dosa and all of us sipped the special Madras Coffee. With some food in our tummies, we were all set to go to Times Square. So got in the NJ Transit train and got down at New York Penn Station. Felt great to be in the city after around a gap of 3 months. Till 30th March, when we used to work for Infy, we used to be there everyday in freezing cold. Gone were those days and also the cold. City, as usual seemed to be full of life. We walked down to Times Square. Was just a quick 15 minute thing. Our friends were admiring the dazzling lights of Times Square, clicking photos all the while. Guess the first place we went to after finishing our photography sessions. We entered Toys R Us. Sumel wanted to go in, I know for sure, but how could Devaki resist with all those thousands of soft toys inside waiting to be cuddled. Spent around 30 mins inside, admired the Dino's roar, and came out.
Once out of the store, we had a small brain storm session on what to eat and where. Those sessions are always interesting. So the final decision was to eat in Khasiyat which is on Oak tree road. That place is well known for its excellent Chat and tikkis. I should say we hogged there. Papdi chat, Alu tikki, Sev batata puri, chole Bhature, Paratha, Pista Kulfi, Falooda were some of the few items that we pounced on. Once done, we drove back home and the drive was pleasant. Once back home, we didnt spend too much time chatting as next day was going to be packed one. Early morning we were going to drive to Lake George, the place that we wanted to go since such a long time, the place with one of the most beautiful lake and the place that did not let us down in any way. Hang on !
This was quite a planned trip as Jatinder alias Paappey (you will realize when you see the snaps above) had booked their Amtrak tickets to New York last month itself. Yes, Paapey prefers a train journey more than driving. From our end, Devaki's preparation in terms of cooking and getting ready for their visit gathered ground 2 day before they reached on Thursday (21st). Pav bhaaji, delicious Sambar were ready and bulk cooked in advance so that we get maximum time with our friends. House was vacuumed none other than by yours truly. Uhh, vacuuming a house more that 1000 sq feet is indeed tiring. Not that I didn't know it, but I like to say that again.
The weekend started when Devaki and I fled early from office on Friday afternoon 3:30. That felt great to get a head start for the weekend. Plan was to receive our friends from Edison, a 90 mile drive from our place. It was great to see them once again and within minutes all 4 of us were busy in our conversations. Since we met them on Oak Tree road, how could we not go and eat in Sarvana Bhavan. I just ate a Vada Sambar, Devaki had a Rava dosa and all of us sipped the special Madras Coffee. With some food in our tummies, we were all set to go to Times Square. So got in the NJ Transit train and got down at New York Penn Station. Felt great to be in the city after around a gap of 3 months. Till 30th March, when we used to work for Infy, we used to be there everyday in freezing cold. Gone were those days and also the cold. City, as usual seemed to be full of life. We walked down to Times Square. Was just a quick 15 minute thing. Our friends were admiring the dazzling lights of Times Square, clicking photos all the while. Guess the first place we went to after finishing our photography sessions. We entered Toys R Us. Sumel wanted to go in, I know for sure, but how could Devaki resist with all those thousands of soft toys inside waiting to be cuddled. Spent around 30 mins inside, admired the Dino's roar, and came out.
Once out of the store, we had a small brain storm session on what to eat and where. Those sessions are always interesting. So the final decision was to eat in Khasiyat which is on Oak tree road. That place is well known for its excellent Chat and tikkis. I should say we hogged there. Papdi chat, Alu tikki, Sev batata puri, chole Bhature, Paratha, Pista Kulfi, Falooda were some of the few items that we pounced on. Once done, we drove back home and the drive was pleasant. Once back home, we didnt spend too much time chatting as next day was going to be packed one. Early morning we were going to drive to Lake George, the place that we wanted to go since such a long time, the place with one of the most beautiful lake and the place that did not let us down in any way. Hang on !
Friday, June 08, 2007
We are back
Heya...This is rather late in saying that we are back from the Cape. It was a memorable trip. The highlight of the trip was cycling which we did only on the first day. But its effects were there for the next many days. And we remembered them every time we sat on a hard wood chair :-) I hope you got what I am saying. But seriously, I must have cycled atleast 20 miles on the first day. Devaki may have done half of that. It was fun though but only when we were doing it :-).
Friday, May 25, 2007
Pre Cape Cod
It's Friday afternoon and we are all excited about an upcoming trip to Cape cod. The memorial day weekend is coming up and it’s the first long weekend after Xmas. So the spirits are high and the planning for the next 3 days is in full swing. The only thing left to do now is to switch off our laptops, go home and think about the next 3 days.
During the inception of this plan, couple of months back, I was expecting my ‘Pappe’ friend Jatinder Singh from Richmond, VA to visit me and Devaki. We had planned for the Cape cod visit together. I asked Vivek (one of my other friends) to join us and he agreed too. But, unfortunately, Jatinder called it off later as he was expecting someone to visit him in those days. But Vivek and I decided to continue with our plan. Later, Arun and his wife joined too. So its 3 couples now planning for the next 3 days.
Devaki triggered the planning and preparation for this trip on 18th May itself. She did some research and sent across a mail with some local attractions. No doubt the information was good and useful, but, procrastination is the name of the game and we were (Vivek, Arun and I) are such lazy bums, that none of us responded to her mail. Poor one. She gave it up and we didn’t get any further mails from her. Had we listened to her and started preparing then itself, we would be having all the information by now.(Girls are smart) But guys are guys and we delayed it. We started only today morning. It was fun anyways. We had multiple meeting; sometimes in my cubicle, in cafeteria, or in Vivek’s cubicle. The last one was in the café when we grouped together for the final time and decided to leave at 6:00 am tomorrow morning. Now, deciding on our departure time was fun. Vivek, a late riser usually, wanted to leave not before 7 am. Arun was adamant on leaving at 5 am. I was enjoying their debate.
So here’s the rough plan for the next 3 days:
1) Day 1 – Martha’s vineyard
2) Day 2 – Water sports, beaches.
3) Day 3 – Cycling, sight seeing.
Our travel route is not going to be what map quest gives us. But it is going to be via Middletown,CT a cute little place, where Vivek and I have lived for more than a year. So we go through Middletown take the Route 9 South and go towards the shore, hit 95 towards North and continue on it till we reach Provincetown. En route, we pass the towns of Groton, Mytic and also of source Rhode island areas.(Vivek and I used to drive on this route everyday for around 3 months. We used to car pool then.)
And yes how can I forget all the shopping that we have already done for this trip. We purchased a big ball from Walmart yesterday, which we will be playing on the beach. Also I purchased water googles and a new pair of shorts. Vivek has a Frisbee and some board games, which we will play in the nights in our rooms.
So that’s all for now, and I am about to switch off my laptop and transform in the weekend mood !!! I will be posting our snaps as soon as we return. Ciao !
During the inception of this plan, couple of months back, I was expecting my ‘Pappe’ friend Jatinder Singh from Richmond, VA to visit me and Devaki. We had planned for the Cape cod visit together. I asked Vivek (one of my other friends) to join us and he agreed too. But, unfortunately, Jatinder called it off later as he was expecting someone to visit him in those days. But Vivek and I decided to continue with our plan. Later, Arun and his wife joined too. So its 3 couples now planning for the next 3 days.
Devaki triggered the planning and preparation for this trip on 18th May itself. She did some research and sent across a mail with some local attractions. No doubt the information was good and useful, but, procrastination is the name of the game and we were (Vivek, Arun and I) are such lazy bums, that none of us responded to her mail. Poor one. She gave it up and we didn’t get any further mails from her. Had we listened to her and started preparing then itself, we would be having all the information by now.(Girls are smart) But guys are guys and we delayed it. We started only today morning. It was fun anyways. We had multiple meeting; sometimes in my cubicle, in cafeteria, or in Vivek’s cubicle. The last one was in the café when we grouped together for the final time and decided to leave at 6:00 am tomorrow morning. Now, deciding on our departure time was fun. Vivek, a late riser usually, wanted to leave not before 7 am. Arun was adamant on leaving at 5 am. I was enjoying their debate.
So here’s the rough plan for the next 3 days:
1) Day 1 – Martha’s vineyard
2) Day 2 – Water sports, beaches.
3) Day 3 – Cycling, sight seeing.
Our travel route is not going to be what map quest gives us. But it is going to be via Middletown,CT a cute little place, where Vivek and I have lived for more than a year. So we go through Middletown take the Route 9 South and go towards the shore, hit 95 towards North and continue on it till we reach Provincetown. En route, we pass the towns of Groton, Mytic and also of source Rhode island areas.(Vivek and I used to drive on this route everyday for around 3 months. We used to car pool then.)
And yes how can I forget all the shopping that we have already done for this trip. We purchased a big ball from Walmart yesterday, which we will be playing on the beach. Also I purchased water googles and a new pair of shorts. Vivek has a Frisbee and some board games, which we will play in the nights in our rooms.
So that’s all for now, and I am about to switch off my laptop and transform in the weekend mood !!! I will be posting our snaps as soon as we return. Ciao !
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Outsourcing
On a lazy Sunday afternoon today, I was reading Business week and came across an article titled "Private Equity vs China".
Click on the link below to view the article
Private Equity vs China
It was of definite interest to a person like me. Recently, in the US presidential race, there has been a hue and cry over the H1B quota, allegedly misused by Indian software giants. In the last 5 years, Indian IT companies have grown tremendously when so many H1B visas have been issued. Its election time now and also a time to create some issues and debate about them in a run for presidential post. Its really surprising to see such a thing happening in the US politics too. Till now, I had only seen similar incidents taking place in India.
Now coming back to the article I was referring to in the beginning. This article talks about how US Private Equity investment firms, who have invested in paper manufacturing companies have filed a complaint against Chinese. And, recently US commerce secretary announced the anti subsidy law against such Chinese companies. (I will encourage you to click on the above link and get a better background.)
This article is a classic case of political influence of the US companies to the extent of modifying a trade regulation. A private group owner,who was also a treasurer secretary of the president, claimed that he did not represent the group when lobbying for the trade sanctions. This claim does not only seems to be untrue but also very ridiculous.
Why should the US companies or even people who represent the government worry and care about how Chinese govt encourages low interest loans and has debt forgiveness for Chinese companies. That is completely out of the control of American companies and should not be a matter of debate or concern for them.In fact, Chinese government may go to any extent to boost its country's exports. The claim of a lack of level playing field for American and Chinese companies seems to be meaningless since it is like comparing Apples and Oranges. Even without measures such as debt forgiveness and low interest loans, the US companies may not be able to match the Chinese companies in their profit margins.
The claim of US companies about rising unemployment and their presence in low income geographical areas has some substance (in the article). This is a bigger question which is not only particular to such paper manufacturers but also for all US companies hit by the outsourcing wave. Also this is a long standing question which the US govt needs to address. At one end, the govt wants to keep the costs of the consumer goods low to make them available at cheaper prices to all sections of the society. It also wants to boost the consumer retail market by doing that.And at the other end, it has bigger challenges like rising unemployment and protests by American companies, which it has to face. This trend might have started from the time the Japanese auto manufacturers entered the US markets in eighties. But it seems to have peaked now with Chinese companies showing their presence in almost all types of manufactured retail goods and Indian companies in the services sector. It seems to be a question of balance which the US govt may want to strike, but doesn't seem to have given much of a serious thought till now. Lets assume that the US govt stops outsourcing completely. In that case,wouldn't the American consumer complain about high prices for something which is locally manufactured. And with the ongoing offshoring wave rising high, what happens to the non graduated people of America who are losing their jobs steadily because such (sometimes non intellectual) jobs are getting offshored to India and China. How will the govt strike this balance ? Or maybe a more pertinent question is, will the govt want to strike it at all ?
Click on the link below to view the article
Private Equity vs China
It was of definite interest to a person like me. Recently, in the US presidential race, there has been a hue and cry over the H1B quota, allegedly misused by Indian software giants. In the last 5 years, Indian IT companies have grown tremendously when so many H1B visas have been issued. Its election time now and also a time to create some issues and debate about them in a run for presidential post. Its really surprising to see such a thing happening in the US politics too. Till now, I had only seen similar incidents taking place in India.
Now coming back to the article I was referring to in the beginning. This article talks about how US Private Equity investment firms, who have invested in paper manufacturing companies have filed a complaint against Chinese. And, recently US commerce secretary announced the anti subsidy law against such Chinese companies. (I will encourage you to click on the above link and get a better background.)
This article is a classic case of political influence of the US companies to the extent of modifying a trade regulation. A private group owner,who was also a treasurer secretary of the president, claimed that he did not represent the group when lobbying for the trade sanctions. This claim does not only seems to be untrue but also very ridiculous.
Why should the US companies or even people who represent the government worry and care about how Chinese govt encourages low interest loans and has debt forgiveness for Chinese companies. That is completely out of the control of American companies and should not be a matter of debate or concern for them.In fact, Chinese government may go to any extent to boost its country's exports. The claim of a lack of level playing field for American and Chinese companies seems to be meaningless since it is like comparing Apples and Oranges. Even without measures such as debt forgiveness and low interest loans, the US companies may not be able to match the Chinese companies in their profit margins.
The claim of US companies about rising unemployment and their presence in low income geographical areas has some substance (in the article). This is a bigger question which is not only particular to such paper manufacturers but also for all US companies hit by the outsourcing wave. Also this is a long standing question which the US govt needs to address. At one end, the govt wants to keep the costs of the consumer goods low to make them available at cheaper prices to all sections of the society. It also wants to boost the consumer retail market by doing that.And at the other end, it has bigger challenges like rising unemployment and protests by American companies, which it has to face. This trend might have started from the time the Japanese auto manufacturers entered the US markets in eighties. But it seems to have peaked now with Chinese companies showing their presence in almost all types of manufactured retail goods and Indian companies in the services sector. It seems to be a question of balance which the US govt may want to strike, but doesn't seem to have given much of a serious thought till now. Lets assume that the US govt stops outsourcing completely. In that case,wouldn't the American consumer complain about high prices for something which is locally manufactured. And with the ongoing offshoring wave rising high, what happens to the non graduated people of America who are losing their jobs steadily because such (sometimes non intellectual) jobs are getting offshored to India and China. How will the govt strike this balance ? Or maybe a more pertinent question is, will the govt want to strike it at all ?
Here I am ..back again
Its been so long since I have written on this space. The last time I had posted something was after Devaki and I returned from a memorable Shimla & Manali trip in Oct 2006. And that was my first post to this blog space. So its a different question altogether how long I have written in the past. Not so long really ! So anyways here I am back to writing on this space and putting in my thoughts.
So what has really happened which has prompted me to take such an unusual step i.e. writing to the blog ? Nothing really out of the world. Just that I made up my mind to improve my writing skills and give a direction to my thoughts by putting them on paper...oops I meant this blog.
So welcome back to myself in writing more, more and more and happy blogging ! ! Any of my readers comments will be highly appreciated. Be it good or bad, most welcome. These will be truly a source of inspiration to write more..and blog more...So please even if you have nothing to say, just say one word or two..Even few words like "I read your blog. And it was so hopeless. Will do." :-) Hope to see some of them.
So what has really happened which has prompted me to take such an unusual step i.e. writing to the blog ? Nothing really out of the world. Just that I made up my mind to improve my writing skills and give a direction to my thoughts by putting them on paper...oops I meant this blog.
So welcome back to myself in writing more, more and more and happy blogging ! ! Any of my readers comments will be highly appreciated. Be it good or bad, most welcome. These will be truly a source of inspiration to write more..and blog more...So please even if you have nothing to say, just say one word or two..Even few words like "I read your blog. And it was so hopeless. Will do." :-) Hope to see some of them.
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