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  • english to french to english

    [googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Kingston,+ON,+Canada&daddr=toronto+to:Kingston,+ON,+Canada+to:Ottawa,+ON,+Canada+to:Montreal,+QC,+Canada+to:Old+Quebec+to:Kingston,+ON,+Canada&hl=en&geocode=FaHqogIdY_5w-ympjkB0BqvSTDHq2dYVd0mldg%3BFdlamgIdfadE-ynTVA9UrjQriDFPxT1snM6Gxw%3BFaHqogIdY_5w-ympjkB0BqvSTDHq2dYVd0mldg%3BFYYbtQId8_B8-yk14FzUdvzNTDEAFSPHKHsDBQ%3BFef3tgIdXFuc-ynlMRocFRrJTDGU0cHwvvy4Lw%3BFUhPygIdqHfB-ylHBbsv3JW4TDGQD1VjxCFF7A%3B&mra=ls&sll=45.240086,-75.2948&sspn=3.682292,8.382568&ie=UTF8&ll=45.120053,-74.827881&spn=2.713276,6.04248&z=7&output=embed&w=550&h=350]

    Back in Kingston after a lovely three day Canadian roadtrip! Met a beautiful family, saw a few cities, made a few new friends! and thanked God for the lovely time he lets me have EVERY time!

    and this happens to be the 1001st post on Chai ki Dukaan! what a trip so far!!! and I am all exited for the journey ahead! God bless!

  • Bonjour

    Bon Jour = Hello
    Merci = Thank you
    Arret = STOP
    Sorte = Exit
    Sud = South
    Est = East
    Ouest = West
    Nord = North
    Rue = Street
    Ouvert = Open
    My first lessons in French came to me in the second largest French speaking city in the world! Am I in France? no! I am in Canada and the city is also the fashion capital of Canada, Montreal!!!
    So far I was able to see some english along with French words, but as of right now, I am totally away from anything written in English!!! May God be with us!!!
    And Merry Christmas everyone!!! It makes a ton of difference to see the Christmas spirit first hand!!!
    Also if someone could tell me the connection between Santa and birth of Jesus, I would be grateful!

  • It gets better…

    When I was having an early dinner in an Indian restaurant in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio on my way back from Smokey Mountains to Milwaukee, I felt that it was the best Indian food in a restaurant I had in the US…
    Little did I know that I would travel all the way to Ottawa, capital city of Canada to realize that things could get better!!!
    I just had dinner at East India Company Restaurant on the W Somerset Street, in downtown Ottawa and I have to say that it has the best buffet menu, the best assortment of pickles and chutneys, lovely sweets and the BEST taste!
    It might just be better than most of the Mughlai restaurants that I have eaten in India too! yumm yumm!!!!
    So next time you feel it cannot get any better! trust me! It will!

  • Avatar – The movie!

    I am not sure how I got introduced to it, but I have always admired the views that I got to see on Digital Blasphemy (www.digitalblasphemy.com)
    I just came back from watching a 7 pm show of Avatar! Have been reading and hearing about the movie…
    It redefines the movie going experience
    It takes animation and graphics to a completely different level
    James Cameron is at his all time best
    and a whole lot more…
    Guess what! All of it is true!!!
    Follow these guidelines if you plan to watch the movie:
    1. Watch it in the largest possible screen… if you have to drive to an IMAX which is outside your town, do it!
    2. Sit in the centre
    3. Watch it in 3D. THAT is for sure which literally added another dimension to the movie
    4. Do not look for a story ( you know the story already, Powerful people wanting resources, natives not willing to give up, powerful people sending someone to know more so that they can plan the destruction well, the insider turning hostile, battle and climax follows, good wins, bad loses… that’s all that is to the story)
    From how I see it, there are a few ways you could connect with Avatar…
    1. Technically : It talks about a network within the living organisms… something that keeps everything going… A tree connected to a different tree through the roots and the entire jungle a LAN/WAN/Network of sorts… you break one important link/hub or the data center, and you have the capability of suddenly crashing the whole network!
    2. Visually : It was the digital blasphemy site turning into a movie for me… The colors, the clarity, the detail, the rendering of the thoughts into visual experience, is Abso-fkking-loutely mind blowing… cheers to whoever thought of the images in their mind, and more cheers to who got them out of mind and put them on the screen! The details, the quality of animation is something which is not way ahead of the rest in my opinion, Transformers is equally good! What makes Avatar different is the presentation of things that are otherwise non existent, or let’s say we do not get to see them much! Though I found similarities in quite a few characters in the movie and some wildlife that I saw on NatGeo/Discovery documentaries. Having said that, it still does not take away the sheer brilliance of the artwork that has been done for AVATAR. (I was trying to find the details of the team who has worked on the graphics for this movie.. Please share if you have some info)
    3. Spiritually : The movie has something that I believe in. Bonds that are not explainable! The visual rendering of these bonds is extremely beautiful too! Bond between man and nature (though I doubt if using man and nature in two different words is justified), bond between you and animals, an unsaid comfort and connection between various elements of nature and the fact that there is no deity or God, but everything is connected and is a representation of HIM or HER ( for that matter)
    I am going to see this movie at least one more time! Let’s see when!!!
    While I am anxiously waiting for my next opportunity, go take out time and open this Pandora’s box which now has a completely different meaning!
    Hat’s off James Cameron!
    Oh, and don’t forget to visit the Digital Blasphemy site that I mentioned above!

  • What’s in a name?

    To be honest, at times I feel there is not much in a name, and at other times I feel exactly the opposite…
    A name can make a whole of difference to the perception of people who hear it, mostly in cases of things/places/people/parks/highways or let’s say… Hospitals…
    I was walking in downtown Toronto (yes, Canada!) yesterday, and came across this hospital names Sick Kids hospital! I did not feel good about this name at all.. the name has such a strong emphasis on Sick Kids that I feel a statistical study into the time that it takes for kids to get better this hospital might just suggest that it takes longer for kids to get better here than other hospitals!

    Everytime someone uses this name they talk about sickness and associated it with a kid.. like it or not, believe it or not, but this way we are talking about “sick kids” like the name and not kids who are going to go there to get better…
    I seem to be making sense to myself, but not sure if it makes sense to anyone else! never mind! A request that I would have though who reads this is to remember that a hospital is a place where you go to “get better” and not because someone is sick… the way we say it makes a whole lot of difference in the way we look at it!

  • 2009 in Pictures – March

    Before you go ahead and check March photographs, make sure that you have a look at January and February pictures too….
    March from the photographs looked like a month with mostly beautiful skies with occasional rain (which meant that the temperature was well above freezing) however it ended with loads of snow!!!

    Views from the 13th floor of my office building… I miss this window a lot these days !!!

    Like I said, it was a month of beautiful skies….
    And I found some natural artwork on the ground too…
    The artwork continued to my kitchen with some effort going in cooking food for myself and getting surprised with the tasty results…


    This is me behind a record… taken by Preet…

    And like I said, it had rained that month too… i remember this day when I wanted to go out, but just could not because it would not stop raining…
    March also celebrated St. Patrick’s day, an Irish festival… This day kind of marks the entry of spring to Milwaukee too, but it was long before anything related to summer or spring came to Milwaukee… That day though sunny and happy, was very cold!!!!


    I think I used to look smart in March too…photograph taken by preet…





    and like I said, the month ended with loads of snow… here is a Toyota Rav4 that I had rented for a weekend in March… as you can see, there was something about 30 going on in my mind that time… I have written 30 on the window of the car…
    Next is going to be April… the month when I turned 30, the month when 30on30 was launched and it turned out to be a huge success… one of the most memorable months of my life thanks to the overwhelming support that I got for the event!!!

  • Re-Connect-ed

    My source of english music in school till class 10th
    The best moonwalker that I know and a huge MJ fan
    Amazing writer and poet as I remember
    A super intelligent student
    and one of my closest friends EVER

    Sandeep!!!

    and I connect with him after quite a few years of no conversations!!!
    I have to say that it has to be one of the best things that have happened to me this year!

    And this when I was talking about him regularly to another very close friend of mine!!! I guess while I was talking about him, time and space was making him look for me! Makes my belief in the fact that there are no coincidences, a lot more stronger!!!

    I feel that the best thing about connecting with childhood friends is that there is no judging happening… it’s absolutely easy to accept that friend the way (s)he is, mostly because you tend to remember all that you can from the yesteryears, and what that person is “now” is of little importance… you tend to rely mostly on the years when you have grown together instead of being close friends because of you liking something about the person! There is a lot that I have to write about the times Sandy and I used to be a two member gang, but sometime later! I am smiling non-stop right now thinking about my good ol’ school days right now!!!

    Sandeep, if you are reading this! Thank you bro! I can’t tell you how happy I am!

  • 2009 in Pictures – February

    Its going to take quite a bit of effort to select the images, edit them for CKD and post them here, but I am willing to make that effort… I hope you are going to make an effort to browse those images as well…
    If you missed it, photographs from January can be accessed by clicking here (Opens in a new window)
    February was a month of a few firsts… and a few seconds and some thirds as well 🙂
    After the freezing months of December and January, Feb brought a bit of sunshine and nice weather to Milwaukee… good enough to get out of the cosy comfort of your apartment and walk around… during one such walks, I went to the Milwaukee Art Museum too…

    An artwork in the museum…

    Warm morning sunlight….


    The ice started melting as well because the temperature went above the freezing point after about 2 months… hence the beautiful reflections on the path above and the road below…

    The building with the christmas cap is my office!

    Puddles also were formed at places because of the snow melting, giving the kid in me an opportunity to play around the water…
    The sun was really shining bright and gave me some interesting photographs to click…
    I also went to Minneapolis on Valentine’s day….

    Took some interesting portraits of friends in MSP… this one is Lakhan…. the bored pilot 🙂

    One of the most interesting and remarkable firsts in February was walking on a frozen lake, and driving on it… Scary and very exciting! This is Pritam’s new SUV at Medicine Lake…


    Another first…. a frozen Waterfall!

    Miss Sapna… not too interested in the camera!


    A valentine’s day is not complete without a few roses! innit?


    Now back to Milwaukee, and the frozen lake Michigan…

    People enjoying ice fishing on Lake Michigan, and downtown Milwaukee in the background…

    A closeup of how the frozen water looks like…

    Deepali and Gaurav trying to walk on ice…
    February turned out to a fun filled month… I started traveling out of Milwaukee, I also got myself a film camera… some results from that camera a little later….
    See you with March Photographs!

  • 2009 in Pictures – January

    2009 started on a brilliant note for me… and its ending at a much brighter one!!!
    Just one post is not going to do justice to what a wonderful year this has been… so I have decided to have 12 posts… mostly pictures to relive the time once again!!!
    2009 started with a visit to Mecca of bikers, The Harley Davidson Museum!!! enjoy the photographs below…

    Starting 2009 with going to see a bike which is 100 years old… pretty cool!


















    Pritam and gang’s first of the many visits to Milwaukee… I am sure they enjoyed it… I loved it… it was having a family around me…

  • Time Travel

    It’s really a matter of time…
    Isn’t it? or is it?
    Imagine a situation where you can move 100 times as fast as anything imaginable… would you be able to walk right into future? theoretical, maybe! because you have moved ahead of everyone, everything… but it’s a li’il hard to imagine.. but imagine a time when what takes 24 hours for the rest of everything you know, can be done in, say, 10 hours by you…A controlled increase in speed should take you to a “relative” future state…
    Also if you are able to slow down… like reeeeeeeeeally reeeeeeeeeeally slow down, would you not be able to move back into the past? because the rest of the world has moved ahead! and so has the trees, and the earth, and the snow and everything else too… going by the same example… 24 hours for the rest of the existence would mean, umm let’s say, 36 for you…and a controlled reduction in speed should take you to a “relative” past.
    if you can switch between the fast and slow at your own sweet will, you will be able to time travel!
    This of-course depends heavily on what you consider a constant… because present, past and future are only relative terms… tomorrows’ past is today, but today is also yesterday’s future… so be a li’il careful with choosing your reference marks! also if the reference moves around then the entire calculation of the past, present and future can go for a toss, and you will land up in a totally parallel world! How about that!
    I really wish I was able to pictorially or visually represent what I am writing right now! damn it!
    anyway!