Memorial Day in Chicago (2009)

Memorial Day weekend in Chicago (23rd, 24th and 25th May, ’09)

As soon as long weekend is approaching, we start churning the wheel about where to go and what to do. Winters are always boring hence this is what we do - 'Plan for summer'! That too, Memorial Day long weekend is like opening gateway for summer.
We were 'last minute planner' this time. Just a week ago we finalized everything and yeah, we got really good deal! 3 days are just perfect for Chicago; you can comfortably cover almost all attractions and at the same time can relax as well.

Chicago is just 2 hours flight from Philadelphia and it was perfectly on time, good omen to start with :) But then be ready to spend another hour or so to get in rental car facility (free shuttle from airport) and then wait in a long queue. Being a big airport, lot of options are available for car rental, this time luckily we got sweet little Hyundai. Our stay at Holiday Inn was just the perfect location, around 15 minutes from airport and 15 minutes from downtown (which is called Chicago Loop)

We portrayed Chicago in our mind somewhat similar to New York- crowd, traffic and multi-cultural tourists. But none of these turned out to be true. Manageable crowd, better-organized traffic really saved us lot of time and efforts. For all attractions except museums, you have to find either street parking or be ready to spend $25 for one-time parking. Good to have street maps because GPS will not work sometime.

Day 1

We started our day with world famous, renowned attraction, Sears Towers - tallest in US and third-tallest building in the world. Mainly office area offering total space of more than 400,000 sq feet. Like Empire State we expected wait time both in queue and observatory. But we were lucky enough to go up just in 10 minutes. We took audio tour by paying little extra, which we later figured out was useless. Usually they take you to 103rd floor, but because of construction we had to settle for 99th floor only. It is a covered observatory with nice maps and instructions in each direction mentioned which attraction/building look for. The moment I looked down, first though came how structural and organized it is. It looks so well planned whether you talk about roads or buildings. The most beautiful view is city area near Lake Michigan (where all museums are located). Bad part is, since it is covered, you cannot have photos with beautiful backgrounds :(
Anyway, 30-40 minutes in observatory is good time to cover everything.

After Sears Towers, we walked down to Chicago Cultural Center. It was free admission since we were not interested in particular exhibition. (It is like NY Metropolitan Museum of Art). It is a nice walk in downtown area, not too many people and while walking you get a close look of several other buildings as well. Several snack shops and cafeterias on your way to keep you energetic :)

After this point, we should have brought car back and parked somewhere near Michigan Ave to cover Millennium Park, Buckingham Fountain and Magnificent Mile. Millennium Park is a rare combination of architecture, art and landscaping. It has got open theatres for performance. You can sit or literally lie down and relax. Near entrance, there is a 'Big Bean' designed by Indian, which reflects panoramic view of all surrounding buildings. (Also known as Cloud Gate). You can encircle the entire park if you want. There is also a water stream running where people sit on steps.
Buckingham fountain is one among the largest fountains in the world, which you can walk to from Millennium Park. This park is considered to have got the most sophisticated theatre for any kind of events across US.

And then comes, 5th Ave of Chicago, The magnificent mile. It is a shopping area located on Michigan Ave to gratify the desire of shopping :) It has got all big branded stores just on one street, which is again uncommon sight. I have seen all such stores in some covered malls. Even in NY, one cannot find all of then on the same street. The view does look Magnificent in the evening. There would be lotta people on the street, which will drive you crazy! If you do not intend to shop anything, just stay in car and drive those 3-4 blocks. Free street parking is not available at all so walking is the only option.

And finally the dinnertime, Chicago is full of options for Italian, Mexican and Indian food. I did some homework and we landed at Giordano's Pizza. I thought we were little early for dinner but then it was waiting time of half an hour. It was the best-stuffed pizza we ever had!!

Day 2

Chicago is a cultural city, full of museums. Few famous to list here are, 1) Adler Planetarium 2) Shedd Aquarium 3) Field Museum and 4) Museum of Science and Industry. First 3 are located in same area, near far end of Lake Michigan. Each of them has got their own free parking and average admission fee would be $20-$25 per person. We were not interested in any of these 1) We have seen the best planetarium, Smithsonian in D.C. 2) Aquarium is not my cup of Tea 3) Field museum is an underground museum, mainly aimed for school-going kids

Museum of Science and Industry had an exhibit going on for Harry Potter. It's about 6 miles from above-mentioned museum-area. Drive is very beautiful and scenic. You have to drive all the way on 'Lake Shore Drive', parallel to Lake Michigan. It is a not a very busy street with one side Lake Michigan and other side portraying few of the nicest buildings in Chicago. As far as Harry Potter exhibit is concerned, I would recommend booking tickets in advance. We were among first 100s of people to get in ticket line still we got time slot for 4:00 PM!!
Even if you are not a big fan of Harry Potter, you must not miss this. They have display of almost all dresses, shoes, game articles etc associated with all main characters and certainly you cannot ignore some of the finest details.

In a warm weather, it's nice to spend 2-3 hours at Lake Michigan. They have plenty of parking spots and seating facility at lake. It will always be pretty windy here. They have nice picnic spots as well, you can grab some food, bring it here and enjoy...

Just to utilize the time in afternoon we decided to go Navy Pier. It is another end of Lake Michigan with small amusement park and river cruise. You can comfortably spend around 3 hours. They offer covered parking with flat rate of $24. If you are willing to walk and lucky enough, you can go for free parking couple of blocks away. This place I can most closely relate to fun fair (which is permanent though:))
It has got museums, street-side games, few eateries, a big Ferris-wheel
etc. If Kunal would have accompanied me, definitely I would not have missed Ferris-wheel. The main attraction is the river-cruise. There are quite a few options for cruise based on duration and time offered by different private companies. Duration ranges from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Some of them do have options of food being served on board but not good for veggies like us :) Fees vary from $15 to $60 based on which option you choose. It is advisable to allocate some time for this since frequency is not very high. We went for 45 minutes cruise and it was worth every penny we spent. It did not have even tourists half of its capacity hence it turned out to be our personal cruise :) Make sure to choose something, which has ample of indoor sitting facility since it would be pretty windy and cold outside.

By the time we headed back to hotel we were so hungry and craving for some hot, spicy Indian Food. Chicago is densely populated with Indians, especially suburbs like Schaumburg. We found one Indian Restaurant (Indian Garden) in street mall and we were astonished to find it cheaper and better than NJ!!


Day 3

Our third and last day was occupied by visiting relatives in Streamwood followed by visit to Swaminayrayn Mandir (BAPS) in Bartlett. We could not get a chance for Darshan, but just roamed around for 15-20 minutes.

I found Chicago perfect for 3 days visit. I wish could have spent more time by Lake Michigan. I wish I know how to sail and I have my personal boat as well:)) If time permits, you can cover one more museum as well. If you are hard-core shopping fan, Chicago premium outlet is something you should not miss. It is a perfect combination of big-city-like architecture and local variety of food and culture. It is the best trio of fun, relaxation and knowledge!

I Love Writing...:)

It's a different story that nobody else likes to read but I thouroughly enjoy it! Flow comes easier and better then I had thought.
Few weeks ago, I came across website for Gujarati poems maintained by two friends-one in India and other, here in USA.
And then thought popped up to do something similar- we (Rachana and I) are in a process of creating/publishing our joint blog. And Rachana being close to punctual and stickler, I am sure our blog has got long life :)

Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks

After reading The Wedding, The Notebook and A Walk to Remember, no wonder I had high expectations from Nicholas Sparks. He made me believe true love and long-lasting relationships can and do exist in West, it’s not just anybody’s property. Also, after reading his books, desire to visit North Caroline is getting stronger.

But after reading ‘Message in a bottle’, my heart is broken and I am totally disappointed in him. He sounded very monotonous, no complaint about it since every author has his or her own style and secondly, I am no expert to comment on somebody’s expertise.

It is a nice flow, how two lonely persons (Theresa and Garrett), leading completely different kind of life are destined to meet each other to make themselves complete. Everything was going good, Theresa flew in to NC from Boston, met Garrett and they had a ride on his boat. Very coincidental, but still convincing. Then Garrett invited Theresa to his home and what happens when two lonely persons are alone? That’s right, SEX. Author has devoted good 3 pages to describe this, why? They don’t even know each other for 24 hours. I can understand that they fell in love immediately, but why it has to be concluded like this and that too so fast? He is an established author, he does not have to use this trick. Even if he wanted to portray physical intimacy why to write such detailed description?
Another similar incident, Garrett gets upset with Theresa when he finds out she knew about him through letters he wrote to his dead wife. Theresa comes to NC to patch up with him and everything is suddenly okay after they have sex!!

I am not over traditional or conservative. I agree that physical intimacy is final step for any close man-woman relationship. For man, this is ultimate aim and for woman, it’s byproduct of love and security. But it should be done at right place, right time.

After reading this book, I was compelled to think whether I am over-reacting or my expectations were very high?

DRUMS, GIRLS & DANGEROUS PIE

Young Adult Fiction about Jordan Sonnenblick

He has done wonderful job by describing mindset of 13 years old teenager, Steven Alper. Told in sarcastic manner, it’s about how Steven’s hatred towards his brother Jeffrey (5) is transformed into love after Jeffrey diagnosed with Leukemia.

Suffering from teen-age adolescent and turbulence, he grows up to a ‘matured man’ who is a great support, not only to Jeffrey but to his parents as well. He plays all the time with Jeffrey and gives him courage that everything will be alright. He shares tension with parents about family’s financial problems as well. Steven is an excellent drum-player, which does not remain just a hobby but also an activity, passion to soothe his agony. But just to save money, he is ready to give up practice.

Because of family problems, he is not able to concentrate on study, during is bad time his teachers, counselor and friends support him like anything. Renee Albert is the most beautiful girl whom he has crush on and Annett who is his best friend, and an excellent piano player become his tutors. They come up with an idea to make band concert a charity function to help Alper family. Starting with Steven, all friends cut their hair to look bald to save Jeffrey from feeling of dismay and embarrassment.

Some punch-lines really penetrated me are,
“Renee was beautiful and now she is friend. Annette is friend but now she beautiful also.”
Counselor advises him “Instead of agonizing about things we cannot change, try to concentrate on things we can change”

How wonderful! Such an eternal fact has been explained in nice and easy language. During the concert, Jeffrey and parents are in hall to cheer up Steven. During interval, Jeffrey becomes sick and all of them have to rush to hospital. Steven’s coach replaces him for rest of the concert.

But all is well that ends well. Concert turns out to be a great success; Alper family gets some $23,000.00+ fund. Jeffery has started recovered from cancer. Renee and Annette are Steven’s best friends and last but not the least, bond in Alper family is stronger than ever!

Aarti Thali decoration

Navratri is just approaching and though it’s a festival time, the fact of not in India, not being with parents brings dismay and sadness. Emotions override joy and enthusiasm.
But it’s getting better as years pass by. Now I have a few friends who can accompany me in Garba and probably I might have started loving US!

In India, every Navratri we will do something different and unique. Sometimes it is patch and mirror-work on chaniya-choli, sometimes decorating pooja-thali, sometimes trying different variety on ‘prasad’. 3-4 days ago when I was thinking about making Navratri more special than previous years, suddenly thought popped-up why not decorate pooja-thali? In a way, it will be small tribute to mom also. She always taught me to utilize time in constructive manner. We always participated in such competition either during Navratri or ganesh-chaturthi and won the prize.

As the blog title says, ‘Originality and Imagination’, I would not say it is completely justifiable as far as this task is concerned but I can say I have transformed it into American Scrap-booking look and feel J. I bought satin lace, different color stones (These are for stitching and not for scrap-booking though) and stickers. Next job was to find a thali since I do not have any stainless-steal thali. I finally used oval-shaped serving tray.



PHOTO


I used lace, stones and stickers in outer-border and grain and pulses for inside border. Got a nice photo of “Ambe-Ma” and padded it with papers. The best creativity shot was to use crayola tubes to draw swastik and flowers (credit goes to Kunal). Hope it stays good so I can use it for all 9 days. This will be my 3rd Navratri in US and I am hoping at least it should be better than previous two.

We never touch people so lightly that we do not leave a trace!

I heard this on Oprah's show. Not like I am a big fan of her and listen to her very carefully but this one did touch me and could not resist myself to express my feelings about it

Life is a journey and not a destination – we meet so many people during this odyssey and we leave our trace, our impression on them.
Who am I?
I am lying between two ends of birth and death.
I am a soul – a feeling that touches you.
I am and I am not - Mirage
I am everywhere – a precious gift of God and one of many human beings.
I am God’s messenger – I have emotions that stroke you
I am sensation and sensitivity – waves of feelings
A short-term existence with certain responsibilities
An ultimate truth like the sun and the moon and the stars
My core’s voice like waves of ocean

How cannot I touch you?

સુખની આખી અનુક્રમણિકા
અંદર દુ:ખના પ્રકરણ
તમે જિંદગી વાંચી છે ?
વાંચો તો પડશે સમજણ

કવિ મુકેશ જોશી ની આ રચના આજે ટહૂકો પર સાં્ભળી.
ખૂબ જ સરસ ગીત પરન્તુ હુ ગીત ન વિચારો સાથે સં્પૂર્ણ સહમત નથી
જીન્દગી ે વાન્ચવાનુ નહી પણ જીવવાનુ નામ છે. જીન્દગી ના વીતી ગયેલા પાના ફરી વાન્ચવાને બદ્લે ાત્યાર ની ક્ષણ ને માણો ેમ મારુ માનવુ છે. હા, પસાર થયી ગયેલા સમય મા થી બોધ જરૂર લો, પન ે સમય ને બાન્ધી ન રાખો. જૂની વાતો ને ચગળવાને બદ્લે ાગલ વધો. તમે સમય ને પકડવાનો પ્ર્યત્ન કરશો તો સમય તમને બાન્ધી રાખશે, ેના કરતા ેને વહી જવા દો ને ે તમને પન મુક્ત કરી દેશે.મુઠી મા પકડેલી પળ માત્ર તક્લીફ સિવાય કાઇ નહી આપે.

આ ગીત મા મને બીજો પણ એક અર્થ દેખાયો. ઉપર થી સુખ ની અનુક્રમણિકા હોય અને અન્દર થી દુખ ના પ્રકરણ હોય. ઉપર પહેલી નજરે સુખી લાગતો માણસ અન્દર થી તકલીફ મા હોય એમ બની જ શકે. એટલે પોતાની વ્યથા ની કોઇ ની સાથે સરખામણી ન કરો. સુખ અને દુખ બન્ને જીન્દગીના અવિભાજ્ય અવયવો છે એટલે એમને સ્વીકારી, એમની સાથે જ જીવો. દરેક ને પોતાના હિસ્સા નુ સુખ અને દુખ મળતુ હોય છે એતલે બીજા સુખી અને પોતે દુખી એમ માની ને અન્યાય ના કરો

In short, life is too short and beautiful, don't ruin it!

Finally...I did it

Just a small matter but big achievement for me
For past couple of months I was thinking to brush-up my programming skills and instead of just reading books, I thought to download and practice ASP.Net. I know ASP.Net but never had any formal education as far as this technology is concerned. Hence wanted to start from scratch like architecture, installation, configuration etc.

I tried few times but somehow got stuck with some kind of error. Yesterday I read all the steps carefully and could troubleshoot all the problems with IIS. Obviously, I took help from Internet and just followed the guideline but still it is a big thing for me. Finally my efforts and tenecity paid off

I consider this as a positive omen. I did not do programming in nearly 3 years. I lost hope of again going back to programming. Now I am in touch with few companies for job and sponsership purpose where sound programming knowledge is must, especially ASP.Net. So may be something better is awaiting for me.

Not only feeling of accomplishment, but also some way to keep myself occupied. At this phase, I see so much of uncertainity in life. Nothing I can predict or foresee. I am having lot of inner chattering these days which mostly results into frustration. My expectations go high and feeling of dissatisfaction starts settling in. Deep sorrow sournds me which I have to make sure not to reveal to anybody. I can see that tension is taking toll on my health as well.

Atleast now I will be busy after going home in some way.... :)

It's festival time!

Tomorrow is Janmashtami. Krishna has been always my favorite God. Best resembling to human being :) "Great blend of bhakti, chaturya, shaurya and prem! kadach nav ras mana badha j ras Krishna ma jova malshe."

Till the time I was in India, Janmashtami was nothing more than a holiday in school, visit to temple and 'farali' food! After coming to US, any festival means making my bond to India stronger, cherishing those childhood days, giving tribute to mom by following all her rituals and also preparing to pass along the same to the next generation!


Every year around each festival, I do some research to find more about it and today was no exception. I am all set for tomorrow's early morning pooja. Krishna pooja followed by bhog and prasad, recitation of Krishna's 108 names and listening to bhajans. This time I am going to make special sweets home and already found link to one among the best collections for bhajans. 'll go to mandir and try to attend krishna-janm ceremony.

What I hate is to plan get-togethers, eat delicious snacks and play card just in the name of Janmashtami. For any religion, any God your feelings should be pure and sacred. If you cannot follo that's fine but at least don't try to hide something in the name of God.

I think, day-by-day I am improving myself; I am getting more honest and feeling closer to Almighty. That's why, in spite of stress and tension we are currently going through, I am simply excited about tomorrow and even more thrilled to tell about all of this to mom.

Don't we look great together? :)

I love food..

Well, I've always been food-lover, thanks to my mom. She has always been fantastic rather perfect cook. She taught me not only to cook, but also cook and serve enthusiastically! Learning is a continuous process and cooking is no exception. The day I felt convinced about my cooking, I felt very proud and independent as well.

After getting married I have always felt that cooking is equally important though you are a career woman and having food together is even more important. Just appreciation about your food makes you full..earlier dad and now husband, both of them always have been great food-lover! Dad has always eaten whole-heartedly, approvingly whatever has been served. Husband is one-step ahead, never has started eating without thanking me although I have served ready-made food!

Cooking makes me happy and hungry but admiration about my food makes me happier and full. It's great satisfaction to cook and serve to your beloved one. Way to man's heart is through his stomach has proved 100% true for me. I already have my cookbook ready..planning to put on blog soon :)

Had a rocking weekend...

After a long time I am writing blog. Meanwhile I started writing diary then realized blog would better structured and organized way.

I had friends visiting; probably after getting married I would get to see somebody whom I knew so well. Somebody from the past world..I considered myself well settled and acquainted in new world where I have made new friends, but then I realized I was not completelty right.

It is amazing for time being to ignore new world around you and be covered old good familiar faces. Just a nice way to energize yourself for coming days. The thought itself to recall and remember time you spent with your friends is fascinating for me. And I had such opportunity to cherish moments I had witnessed with some of the most important people of my life - Rachana, Krupa and Preeti.

Rachana - The very first friend of mine in college at Nirma. We started talking about the same difficulty in 'Strength of Material' outside lab and then realized we don't have to have common difficulty to talk! We found our common subjects of interest so interesting that 'uncommon' factor vanished. Books, movies, shows, shopping and list goes on!

Krupa - First my college and then L&T pal, we got very closed during 6 years of span. I would say she is a versatile friend of mine, I am comfortable sharing almost everything with her. Open minded and hearted, somebody you can always count on.

Preeti - My L&T time friend and roommate, very beautiful and pleasant personality, more like elder sis to me. I exactly do not miss her but at the same time, I do not fumble around the words when I see her.

Once you talk after long time, you realize how many common people you know to gossip about :-). We know that those days are gone, still irony is we feel happy thinking about past, comparing it against our present we go crazy and we are always worried about future. When will we learn to 'live present'?

I am happy that I could not make new friends after getting married, but I have so many wonderful moments to remember and feel good. I really am thankful to Almighty for my ability to remember things - good or bad. People who cannot or do not want to remember, I see their life like a black hole where these they cannot traverse back, plain, flat life. For me, ability to remember is directly attached to my emotions.

I just wish had I have more opportunities in present so I can cherish them in future!!