Namma first snow experience

Jan 26 - Republic Day - Wednesday

When I reached office early morning people were saying that it will start snowing @ 3pm as per the weather forecast and it really did ( not like the Indian forecasts which happens exactly opposite )..

I decided to leave office early ( around 4.30 pm ) and came out to experience the snow ( which was bit moist ..people say it is more of powder nature ).












Reached my hotel after a 2 hour traffic jam ( most of the BMWs were getting jammed because of the rearwheel drive )..



Came out again to enjoy the snow ...



This snow storm was so heavy that around 300,000 houses had power cut in DC ( transformers were bursting like crackers and 15 min drive from Tyson's corner turned to be 4-6 hrs pain ).. Was lucky enough that we didn't have any power cut ... :)

CGI Winter party

I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time ... CGI Fairfax had a Winter party at Key Bridge Martiott located at Arlington on 22 Jan 2011(Sat).I went with Paresh and Prashant by car..
We had food and dance during the party..
Food - veggie items were limited but Paresh helped me in choosing the right items and it was a good dinner ( caseidillas , some rice related item .. chintu carrots ..some desserts and drinks , of course.... )

Parag,Nabaz,Paresh,Prashant and myself.



Manish and his wife


The big guys (Mukund Mohan , Meesham Maredia, Parag, Prashant , Nitin, Paresh )




Did dance for somewhile.. Met Ben and his wife .. had a nice chillout weekend party..
Came back with Parag and Trupti around 1 am..

One video added ..

Travelogue - First Week in US

Day 1 - 15 Jan (Sat)
Had a good journey of approximate 20 hours and slept for sometime ( obviously I was bit tensed regarding the port of entry and customs in US )... didn't have any issues in Paris airport maybe because I had found few guys going to my terminal - some students going to Texas(from 2C to 2E ). At the terminal 2E , we can check for our flight gate number since there are many gates in terminal 2E.
Reached the Dallas airport around 1.30 pm . Cleared out through the port of entry, customs check and got my baggage. Mukul and Tanmay had come to pick me up..
Since I was not feeling sleepy , we went to Mukul's house..
Some of his friends had come and so , we had a nice Indian get-together . Heedless to say , I got savouring food items and got completely stuffed up...
Around 9 pm , I started getting jetlag and so, went to sleep around 10pm ..

Day 2 - 16 Jan (Sun)
I got up around 3pm ... Read some health related magazines and went to sleep again... Had breakfast at Mukul's house and then we came to my hotel..Since I was to checkin on Sat, my booking had been cancelled. Anyways , they booked it again ( money matters ..right ).
In the evening , we went to Target and Walmart ( approx 20 mins walking distance ).. bought some stuff .. It was good walking in the cold..

Till Tanmay was there ( for 3 days ) , all food was being cooked by him and for the next 2 days was cooked in advance... thanks buddy .. :)


Day 3 - 17 Jan (Mon )

Got up early as usual around 4am .. Went to office around 8.30 am ..
Met Tim ,Paresh, David Denenberg, David Hay, Milind shah, Praveen Chawdekar, Parag Bhagwat, Trupti Sawant , Ramesh Venkat, Venkata Atluri, Atul Singh and the list goes on.... :)

Had a light storm and it was highly slippery because of the ice
Came back with Tanmay from office and we went to Safeway to buy some more grocery.

Day 4 - 18 Jan (Tue )
Meeting with people continued ...Met Don Cartmell - the most calm guy I ever met ..
Went to Baja Fresh ( Mexican restaurant ) and had Nacho Barito ( rice , beans , vegetables wrapped up in roti sort of stuff)

Day 5 - 19 Jan (Wed )
Tanny is about to leave. Went to PF Chung's for team lunch and had eggplant ( baigan and rice)
Came back early from office to hotel since his flight was at 9.50pm..... Said goodbye to him and went back to my room and slept

Day 6 - 20 Jan (Thu )
No cooking done yet .. Took Bread and chhole ( which Tanny had prepared in advance ) for lunch .Prepared Maggi after coming back at night ( finally , started the stove ).