World is small enough -2007

Sounds like the bond-movie huh? I guarantee you; it’s not even close to that.
First of all, this is Shantanu who is writing this blog... why here? If you notice, in “amishan”, there is some presence of “shan”. Anyway... forget about this crap..

No other title would be best suitable for this blog. I’ll tell you why. The last weekend happened in my life, has shocked me so much with the truth that the world cannot get smaller than this.
We planned to go to Chicago downtown and gathered some information about the local sight-seeing. To our knowledge, Kapil Mistry, our old friend from Selectica lived in Chicago. We called him up supposedly to ask about sight-seeing info... but it ended up in Kapil inviting us to stay at his place. That of course sounded great! But Kapil just became a daddy which defiantly must be keeping him very busy... so we were not sure whether we should accept the invite. Also we never met his wife Anuya, and Kapil’s mom-in-law was also there... hmm should we go? I think it will be good. Ok... if you say so…

We left for Chicago early morning and went to the first decided destination “The Sears Tower”. That thing was huge!! 103 floors?? Yes... (Photos uploaded as a proof…) and we went to the top… which they call the Skydeck. You cant imagine the view... I mean... of course if you have been in a plane :D But great experience. Then we went to Millenium park and Navy pier… good places… then we left for Kapil’s place.

8pm on Shaumburg station: We borrow a cell from a stranger (total garibi), called up Kapil and asked him to pick us up. After 5 minutes... just both of us were left on the station. Spooky... it was dark... not a hint of human life, nor of Kapil. The public phone not working! Hard time... new country... no one to help, it was dark too. We waited for an hour or so... finally Kapil showed up... phew!! I should confess… we got frightened for a while.

He took us to his home where we met Anuya and Kaku, and of course cute Mr. Ved Mistry. We had a great dinner... thanks to Kaku. We discussed about food, then non-veg, then of course my dad (he’s a great cook). And guess what, kaku knew my Dad. Moreover she knew my Mom too and reconfirmed me as her friend’s son. Kapil was like... "Okay... I am already side-lined :(". This is not enough… she told Anuya and I used to be childhood friends when we were in kindergarten… scary... Then of course we found lots of common contacts… Kapil was still like... Okay. We just forgot... Kapil had got us here… Sorry Kapil :P

The weekend was great, it was over and we went back:(! Anuya’s husband or Kaku’s son-in-law dropped us at the station… hehe... (sorry Kapil :P). We went home and relaxed… Amita called up her friend Poonam... Poonam was busy so Prateek came on the phone and talked with me... I told him I went to Chicago for weekend... he said “I have a very close friend in Chicago... he’s name is Kapil Mistry” @#$%^&*(

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Something good and something bad!

Let me talk about the bad part first…
Not more than a week than I came to US, I started experiencing some excruciating pain near my left-cheek. I thought it was a normal swelling due to extreme cold weather, but destiny was something else. Before coming here, everyone told me ‘stay away from dental issues’! After the visit to a local dentist, we figured out that my wisdom tooth is coming out towards my cheek-bone! Oh… that sounds bad!
Wow! What a timing to become wise! Anyway, I had to get the tooth out – first surgery of my life! Doctor told me that my mouth doesn’t open wide enough to extract the tooth easily (LOL). So I had to undergo this surgery with general anesthesia (‘go to sleep’ is what they call it here). Surgery went well… fortunately I had no pain after that. It’s been a week now and I can eat almost everything.

Okay, let’s talk about the good things now J
1. I got SSN (thank goodness!)
2. Shantanu and I got few project-offers in hand to choose from.
3. We had a wonderful weekend (it is worth writing another blog :))

long time!

It has been a long time … I was waiting for things to get settled down. Last few months have been 'no-so-good'... dull work, too many things to plan, excitement to see the plans being materialized... meeting all near and dear ones, preparing for relocation and what not!

Now having some time in hand... I have too many things to write about :)
lemme start with 'my first few days in US'…

My hubby and I were excited to see US for the first time! I always said that I love UK :). But I have to be unbiased since I have to stay here for couple of years!

Though I was psychologically prepared to see snow all-over and bear the cold out here (Chicago), I am kinda bored to see the color-less life …. Everything is white – roads, roofs, houses, walls and the sky – even in the night! Believe me, there are no “dark nights” here; if you see out of the window… you’ll see a bright surrounding outside. Streetlights get a huge reflection from the snow on the road and surprisingly sky is also white!

Check out the snaps on flickr.

First few days were relaxing in good words and unexciting in other words LOL. We stayed at home due to bad weather conditions and continuous snow fall…. Everytime I peeked out of the window… saw the same scene

No need to mention about the things which were contrary from those in India… traffic rules, electric switches … getting used to all these slowly. I am just waiting to get a car and be independent! Long way to go…. SSN bhi nahi aaya abhi tak!

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Here's the imagini - idea that I got from reshma's blog :)

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