Friendship Day

Tommorow August 3 is Friendship Day and I have already received emails for the same. So celebrating it, I will share some interesting news/stories of some of my close friends here and in India.

First, as of next week, August 8th is the begining of the Beijing Olympics' 2008 - and one of my close friends from school Malav Shroff is going to represent India as a port stopover manager (news clipping) for the Indian sailing team. He is a former olympian at Athens 2004 in the 49'er class.

Secondly I met a very close friend whom I know from childhood, Amrish Shah, after 16 years, last week when he was traveling the States. Spent three nostalgic evenings with him remembering the good old childhood days. He being interested in Acting/Dramatics, quit school in 9th to pursue his dream. Struggled for few years with Channel V and then Star TV. He has turned producer director and is now co writing a movie for a sequels sequel - Don 3 with Farhan Akhtar.

And now something about my roommates, the first friends I made when I came to the US to study. We were six of us were sharing a house. One day we decided to go to Exhange Place along the Hudson river to get a great view of the two World Trade Center towers. This was our first visit. After the initial first five minutes of "Oh Ahh What a great View", one of the guys had a brilliant idea. He put forth a question to the rest of us.
"What will be the force and trajectory required to hurl a ball from top of WTC so that it reaches across to where we were standing on the pier in Exhange Place"
See the diagram below.

Image Courtesy Google earth plus photoshop overlays

I am not going to discuss the technical aspects of the discussion that ensued with detailed calculations, theories and assumptions. The point is that we all learnt "How to spoil a perfectly good evening trying to figure out something that is irrelevant and of no use to anyone"

This is what happens when you have three roommates who are IIT'ians and doing reasearch here, another two from BVP Pune, one doing research and the other studying management and me an architect.

But these are the friends who stood by in every difficult situation and become part of an extended family. For each of us WE were the support system through out little journey away from home studying here. So this post is dedicated to them.

Also wishing all the bloggies who visit here - as they are my new set of E-friends.

Happy Friendship Day!

Happenings

Latest story on shortceedy - New York New York - Link on the sidebar.
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A new collaborative blog Ambrosia is up and running :

( Contributors - Princess Mia, Gunj, Anindita, Vrij and Ceedy )

This is a food blog, started by a bunch of foodie bloggers to express our love for food. So anything n everything gotta do with food is what you will find here, be it recipies, restaurant reviews, facts and more. Whats unique about this blog is that the authors of this blog are from different countries and cultures so you can find lotsa variations here...So lets wine n dine....Bon Appetite!!!

Current posts :

1 - Ambrosia welcomes you - Princess Mia
2 - Costa Coffee - Gunj

I will update my side bar with updates from time to time.

Your suggestions and inputs are welcome.

Do check it out.

Thanks!!!!!
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We all are conversing in a common language - Why then the differences?

Goof Ups

It was an evening of goof up I guess.
First the last post "NY PEEK TURES" was to complement the short story
"New York New York" on my other blog shortceedy.
It has been a while since I updated and added a story - so I invite the veterans to visit it and the newbies to take a shot....give you bahumulya (invaluable) comments....

Second it has been brought to my attention by few bloggies that the last post was all bonkers in a different browser but worked well in another one.

So the Fire Folks kindly follow the advice of Vijeta Pandit in this song from the movie Love Story from 1981 when viewing the last post to view it as it was meant to be - thanks...




Sorry about the goof ups....ab main kya karoon! (What can I do Oh Guru Oh guru)

NY Peek Tures

Peace among the Urban Chaos

HE is ORNATE and CELEBRATED

St. Patiricks Cathedral

from Top Of The Rock observation deck on Rockefeller Center.

Most of those yellow cabbies will be desis -its fun to drive in NYC - feels just driving back in India

Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani
The Tri Color (Indian Flag) amidst flags of all countries in the Rockefeller Plaza.

Boom! Boom!

Mastiyon me Jhum Jhum!

July 4th - American Independence Day celebration fireworks

The clouds this year were a let down. This picture is from my apartment.

The Green Mean Machine

Central Park in Midtown Manhattan

O M F G ! Exactly

Phew there is no Shiv Sena here

Summer Time : George Micheal (update : pics added)

Have been kinda lazy on the blog hopping and commenting as am active enjoying the summer. Its in full blast with HE forgetting that there is adjustments on the hearing thernostat. Constant temperatures around 90 F (32.2 C) is not hot compared to any tropical climate but here since the temperature drop way below zero - this is significantly hot.

So as usual I am enjoying the Heat till it lasts. Was out for two day camping/canoeing trip in upstate New York. Went for my usual walks in NYC and then the one I want to share here is from yesterday.

Attended George Micheal's 25live - his first tour in 15 years - "a celebration of his 25-year career in music" at Madison Square Garden in NYC.

The stage was three huge screens as a backdrop with the center being a 45-50 foot screen that cascaded down onto a ramp. It showcased the videos and graphics for individual songs. It was really spectacular and surreal- with only him on the stage dancing and performaing as the videos rolled right from underneath his feet on this constantly changing flickering digital backdrop.

The setlist of the songs he played yesterday included some of his greatest singles : Fast Love,
Father Figure, Faith, Roxanne, Too Funky.
His new song Feeling Good - talks of his coming back after personal struggles for the past decade.
The highlight of the evening was Careless Whispers - where the entire crowd of 20000 plus was on their feet swaying and singing it word to word along with him.
He ended the performance with Freedom

Interesting thing is since he is gay, most of the songs are for his lost love partner but they have an universal appeal and the crowd simply lapped every moment.

Some of the songs that I did wish he played were : Jesus to a Child, Last Christmas and Dont Let the Sun Go Down on Me.

All in all it was a perfect evening and awesome to witness live a singer whose songs I have cherished all these years.
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Update: I forgot I had taken pictures on my cell phone.
Here are some images taken of my cell phone - sorry for the poor quality.
It so happened that last time I posted the video for Asha Bhosale's concert - I got an email from Youtube and Carnegie Center for copyright infringement and the videos were removed by them from the US servers. Also I had been to the Garden for another concert where they did not allow the cameras - so did not take it for this one and guess what....I was amont the few who DID not have a camera on me....----Ah well