Gorgeous Tulips Abound as Spring Unfolds in New York CIty

Enjoy these gorgeous tulips that are blossoming every where on the sidewalks of New York city. The atrium near the World Trade Center has a very large number of them in all colors!

Thoroughly enjoying the magical and revolutionary iPad

Happened to buy the iPad today from the 68th and broadway apple store (you have to go see it - its awesome) and the whole experience of buying it was tooo cool - i walked in, asked one of the sales guys to get me one - which she did in a minute. and the whole thing was the size of a book and neatly packaged. and then the rep just took my card and swiped it on the iphone! the receipt was emaile d from the iphone itself and all in 2 mins!






And now i am just playing with the device - swiping, rotating, zooming, pinching and much more - including just oooogling!

here are some screenshots of the apps and stuff i have been looking at - the device has clear, crisp image and video rendition and is just meant to consume stuff with more focus. and the typing was actually better than i had thought - i was able to type the first blog and post it using the wordpress app from the device itself !!!

The New York Times App

The Cure Talk Clinical Trials Blog

Epicurious Food App

Watching Lost on the ABC App

Trialx.com - a website to find clinical trials

Image from iFood.tv

Sunday afternoon musing in the starbucks at battery park

One of the joys of the weekend is to spend a few hours letting the mind wander, think (without making an effort to think), criss-cross ideas while sitting in a starbucks or another cafe. Off late i have found this nice Starbucks right opposite battery park. It has great views of the park and the Hudson beyond and is usually teeming with a constant parade of tourists stopping over for a restroom break or a coffee (the former comes first).

And today for a brief moment it just occurred to me - as if some one was speaking these words into my mind or that my mind was reciting a mantra from the book of life itself. So i figured why dont i blog and tweet (and also text my friends) before the thought recedes into memory.

"In the end what really matters is passion and love.. its what drives the creativity within us to realize our potential."

Perhaps it takes a sunday afternoon in a Starbucks to learn/realize that.

But i think it applies to so much to what we do and becomes. And it surely does apply to entrepreneurship because unless you feel passionate about what you are doing and love what you are doing, a start-up may never realize its full potential.

Happy to hear comments ...

Enjoying Dark Chocolate With Caramel At the Starbucks After a Great Iyengar Yoga Class

One of the rewards of the long weekend (and a messy rainy one). Just wanted to sit down and enjoy a chocolate after my grueling (level 2) Iyengar Yoga class (went to Lra Brunn's class - very good, though a bit advanced for me).

Bought a Dark Chocolate with Caramel made by Starbucks itself. Felt really good though the chocolate itself was not the best i have had. But for $1.50 it did work to provide some contentment. Now back to work ...

Some pictures of a walk in the city after a snow blast

Some pictures as i went walking one morning along the Hudson River as it curves along battery park after the major snow storm 2 weeks ago - it was incredible and more so to see people out and about with the same enthusiasm as a regular Sunday morning - salute to the energy or New York City and New Yorkers (and to the tourists who flock to this park)

The pictures are tiny (the samsung cell phone setting probably got whacky)





Even the Birds are out and About



Along the Pier ..

Awesome dance on the NYC A line Subway Train

One of the great things about the NYC subway is that you can get to see some great dancers and musicians perform both on the platforms and some times in the moving trains. The A line subway train is particularly good for spotting such random performances as it runs non stop between 59th street and 125th street giving the performers a good chunk of time to show their act.

Just a day or two ago i saw this bunch of young kids do some amazing stuff --- pretty cool - the pictures from a very basic samsung camera dont really do much justice but i hope you get the vibe and feel of the energy!

The Lincoln Center Website Sucks! Slow, Error prone and frustrating

I happened to read about the 12-hr long play that will be staged in July (to be directed by Peter Stein and to be staged in a warehouse in Governors Island) and is being organized by the Lincoln center. I decided i might as well buy the ticket now because the play (the demons) is going to be SOLD OUT!

But the Lincoln Center website SUCKS. I had to struggle with it - here is how

1. I found the page that describes the details of the play, 'The Demons'. On that page is a Link to 'Buy Tickets'. You click and the site croaks with this message (and mind you it took like 3-4 minutes to load this page and that too at like 12.45 am).




2. Okay, so i thought maybe i need to sign in and then it may allow me to buy the ticket. SO i did the mistake of registering. This is what happens - Upon clicking 'submit' the site goes caput ... some internal server error




3. So i try again - this time i told that a user with my email address has already been registered! And i thought step two had failed

4. Okay, so what was to be a 5 min thing has now stretched to 25-30 mins of frustration. Anyways, i move on and login using my email and password.
Great. i am able to do so.

5. So i go back to page about 'The Demons'. Cool. Works. And in excitement that finally i would be able to get the ticket i once again press the 'Buy tickets' link. And .... damn it - its still that same error



I give up - perhaps the center doesnt want these tickets to be sold till very late. And mind you the minimum price for a ticket is $175 (yes, $175 for the 12 hr play with lunch, dinner and a ferry ride to Governors Island). Now i am willing to pay that much i EXPECT better online experience.

Why cant these organizations get it. World class and world famous to performing arts but a website that SUCKS... big time. So much so that i am blogging about it at 3.41 am !!

Anyways, as for the play - its based on the book 'The Demons' by Dystoyvesky (i am sure that is not spelled correctly!)

Pictures of Indian sweets, snacks and other food items from my recent India Trip

Returned a few days back from a quick 8 day trip to india (specifically Delhi). Was there to attend a childhood friend's lavish wedding (more than that soon). As always when back in India, when gets to really catch up on the awesome food, particularly the sweets and snacks . Here are some pictures to give you a sense of what we miss here in the USA (you can get these items here but its not the same in many cases).

Sizzling Kebabs @barbecue nation, Gurgaon

Paan flavored Halwa

Ladoos


Shelf Load of indian sweets

Awesome Puffed up Bhatures with Chole

Haldiram's Sweets (kaju Potli, Kaju barfi, Kachauris and much more)

Shocking pictures of the Chilean Earthquake and impending Tsunami

Here are some pics of the catastrophic earthquake that struck Chile Today.
The questions that arises is why do most earthquakes occur around early morning. This one struck at 3.22 Am local Chile Time. The massive earthquake in kashmir in 2005 also occurred in the wee hours of the morning. Some big earthquakes in CA also happened in the morning . Go figure

Some pics (these have been taken from NYTIMES.com, Huffpo and others)

From the NYTIMES.com (see more here )






From Huffpo




And of the impending tsunami in Hawaii (the empty beaches by twitter user @rickawho)



Watch tsunami hit live on ustram - http://www.ustream.tv/channel/waikiki-beach-surf

So is a cool chick hot or a hot chick cool ?? whats your take

i came across this great line in a song for a promo video for a game show in India (the indian version of who wants to be a millionaire). As the song was themed , 'a question that may change your life (for the better)' (ek sawal jo zindagi badal de in hindi).

And one of the questions was ' Is a cool chick hot or a hot chick cool???' Hmmm ... so what do you folks think. Maybe you want to ask your 'chick' friends ...