This winter 06 break had been very wonderful for me. Apart from finally being to get a break from the grind of grad school routine, I got to meet my new born niece, Ragni (meaning: Cosmic goddess J). After a long time and not probably sooner again, we had a family reunion! Though this is kinda strange, the point is, me studying in west coast, my bro in raleigh, sis’s family in nj and mom and dad in India, it some times becomes difficult…believe me. We were all very happy to get back together and share some laughs like good ol’ times.
I would like to put down the events as chronologically as my notorious memory would remember them. Me, vicky (bro), BIL (brother in law, coined by my bro) and a friend of his kicked off the weekend with some street cricket. We were joined by a coupla awestruck kids who perhaps thought it was some kinda of weird baseball variation. God bless America ;). Anyway we let them join us and tried to teach some impromptu nitty gritty basics and all went well. At the cost of sounding pompous, I would say I rocked at the game that day :D. Then came nune , kj (my undergrad mates) and kiran (nune’s roomie) and we planned NYC trip. On the first day we covered Times Square and Madam Tussads (the NY branch) which was really good. The horror room was really scary and we were glad to come out alive (just kidding). After posing with all the wax chics we could lay our hands on (literally!), me and kj moved to empire state building. It was nothing like I imagined (which mostly happens with these hyped structures) but we got a good bird’s eye view of NY at nite. On the next day we could only cover statue of liberty, due to some stupid mix up of ours (me and kj) in the subway trains. Then in the evening, our BIL rented a SUV and we drove off to DC. DC and VA were more beautiful than I thot (a paradox!?). We did the Air n Space and Natural History museums, the capitol hill and white house (from very far). When we were returning back to NJ, mom slipped from steps infront of the house and fractured coupla toes in her left foot. We had to scramble to reach the ER of a nearby hospital and relieve her of the by-now unbearable pain. She had a casting done for her foot coupla days later and now my parents had to postpone their journey back home from jan 18th to feb 15th, for better or worse. I bet my sis is happy that they can stay more time with her. Then all the males of our family went to Atlantic City to do some gambling! The unlucky person I am, I was quite shocked to won $225 profit in the roulette (if you know that game) within an hour at Trump’s plaza! Whoaa! We followed some weird strategy of our dad…and it worked…it was not logical...but who cares!
Then came the new years and NY in NY was gr8. Tushar (another undergrad mate) and myself spent the 31st nite at the Times Square and the crowds were unbelievable. We were lucky to get a place right infront of the concert stage (where Christina Augerilla and others performed) and near the place where the ball drops. We also met some interesting folks and had nice fun, if you don’t count standing for 10 hrs on a windy day without having access to rest rooms J. All went well, my only complaint being that the sound system of the concert absolutely sucked. It was as if the concert was meant for the TV viewers…crap. Anyway…that’s how my winter break was...and currently am on my flight back to SB via Salt Lake City. Back to the grind of grad school. Btw…am now sitting between two not-so-good-looking chics…the pervert I am!
