Saw this awesome sight while driving home…The Empire State Building in New York displaying the colours of the Indian flag atop its mast…awesome …
Happy Independence Day 
P.S: The fuzzy pic ofcourse does not do justice to the actual vista…wish i had a better camera..
at Newport, jersey city.
Even though the real estate market is still in the dumps, atleast folks still have their sense of humour intact
But yeah , the guy who put up the ad needs a reality check !
Watching a collection of MJ’s videos on the flight, I realised that he didn’t die recently. Atleast not for me 
For a long time, I used to be a huge fan. Discovered him when I was in Std IV in a boarding school near Darjeeling.
Like it happens all ‘only boys’ schools there were times when you got into fist fights. During one of those fights, the guy I had just clocked, instead of punching back called me a ‘blackie’. I was dark and he was a ‘ fair’ guy.
To an impressionable 8 yr old, it hurt more than any punch.
And it was MJ’s ‘Black or White’ which helped at that point of time.
However, more than the social message, it was his music that I really liked. You could just hum most of his songs…even though i couldnt understand most of the lyrics, i just loved hearing the songs…
Those were also the days when magnetic cassette tapes were still in use and hard to come by. And they were expensive too (alteast compared to a school kid’s pocket money )
I used rent them from some of the rich scmucks at school during the weekends. Later when I got my own Walkman, rather than buy whole albums , I would get a bootlegger to write about 12 songs on a blank tape. They cost like 5 bucks a song and were a much better deal than buying a single album.
I guess you could call me a cheap ‘fan’ but it was tough spending half your month’s worth of pocket money on single tapes.
Oh, those were the days.
Gradually, high school turned into college and Michael turned from black to white.(and i guess also went bankrupt fighting the child molestation accusations). He also stopped producing the kind of music that I liked. The breaking point came for me when i bought ‘ Blood on the dance floor’ and didn’t like a single song
Life moved on and he sort of faded from memory. Till ofcourse a few days ago.
Today when, I think about it, it’s amazing the amount of sub conscious impact his music has had on me, unlike that of any other musician.
As somebody was saying the other day, ” oh he was only 50 and should have lived longer”.
I don’t disagree with, that. However, in his 50 yrs, he has lived life on his own terms and more importantly ‘done his thing’ , creating history in the process.
Which is what counts at the end of the day.
May he R.I.P
Saw this old iMac in the trash room left by somebody who has no more use for it .
Wonder how will it be disposed off ?
Wonder if apple has a formal policy for reclycing stuff ?
Wonder if the user could have disposed it off in a more environment friendly manner ?
Wonder if it will end up in a developing country ?
Wonder if will even be useful in it’s current format in a developing country?
Wonder if I am wondering too much and ‘Waste Management’ will dispose it off appropriately ?
What would you have done ?
Saw the fireworks on the Hudson river as part of the 4th of July celebrations. Took some pictures but I don’t think any picture or video can capture the experience of seeing it ‘live’…was Awesome with a capital A 
Check out some more pics on my Flickr photostream by clicking on the pic above.
Spent 3 hours in a line outside the apple store from 7 in the morning to get the new iPhone
I know there are like 21 million of them out there so thought that these things would be easier to get… Apple apparently doesn’t think so.
It almost felt like they were doing me a favour by allowing me to buy it… The way the lines were organized by the almost condescending apple staff (orange concierges) to the herding in store almost made me feel like my first day at school the fact that I paid over $300 for it almost seems incidental
But they have built a fantastic product and I guess are very much aware…
And it really is cool and not really a phone…again like the price, thefunctionality for making calls is almost incidental
Trying to blog from the wordpress app on the iPhone…seems pretty simple at the moment. Hopefully the writing will be more regular
Aloft…a new chain of hotels with a very distinctive (multi colored gradient) design…i booked here primarily because i wanted to see the interiors…and i wasnt disappointed…
Apart from a very fresh look, its got a pool table, a Nintendo Wii, a bar open till 12:00 am and a very pleasant outdoor area by the pool…and not only does it have very well thought out design elements but the staff are also exceptionally polite (not something the other chains can claim)
Def better than the Holiday Inns / Courtyard’s and the rest of the business traveller brat pack…so the next time you are travelling, give it a shot
is that service for Indians at Indian restaurants in the US is so pathetic ??
Or is it just me (and my ultra sensitive nerves when it comes to customer service )
Have been trying to fish, (unsuccessfully if i may add) over the last 2 months…Tried the famous Lake Hopatcong and a couple of ponds in the Plainsboro area…nada luck
Finally managed to catch something today at the Liberty State Park…caught an American Eel…
While it wasn’t really what i was expecting, at least something was better than nothing (considering all the other guys had been there all day and had not caught anything )
check out some pics below.
