Its Tax time again

a quick one.

Her Driving Lincense

A big "to-do" item has finally got scraped from my List. After three wasted return trips to DMV for different reasons; On Snow day She finally got a License to Drive. Also as Bonus, my License got renewed, saving an another additional trip to DMV.

Dead Car Battery

This happened on Sunday evening after returning from someone's birthday party; the car wouldn't start in front of apartment entrance; blocking all the traffic. Fortunately, the neighboring guy had Jump Start Kit to pull the car in parking lot. So over the week; We spend time looking for reliable car mechanic and way to tow the car at his place. Finally after all this worry, things took place and my car started by spending $600; which included much needed 30,000 Miles car servicing.

So the guys that "Road Side assistance" do help; when its most needed.

Another Big Move !

Its time to move again. Everything NEW !
New Job, New City, New State and New Apartment - Many address changes, Lots of planning, Lots of frustration but finally settled for now before next move.

Fighting Viral Fever

This annual fever has lasted longer than usual one day stand, it took almost complete whole week to cure.

early morning trip to JFK

another quick early morning visit to JFK. Surprisingly, didn't find any usual traffic this time. Also the waiting time at the airport was average hr or so.

Its Tax Time

Its that time of the year again, when 'Filing taxes' just add another item in the to-do list. I always preferred filing it as soon W2 arrives in the mail, just to avoid that last minute stress.

Indian Passport Renewal

Never thought that the 10 yrs will go such fast, when I received my first passport 10 yrs ago, the Expiry date didn't bothered much. But when the time came to renew the passport, it was just additional paper work stress and early morning trip to Indian Consulate. In addition to that, now I need to carry two passport old and new every time I travel and every time I make those never ending copies.

The Year, That was !

"Patience, that paid off" that is how I can sum up this year. The year went by accomplishing these major goals:-

1. after that third attempt for visitor visa, my parents could finally make it to US.
2. Huge paper work showed slight movement in never ending GC process.
3.The last minute filling for brother’s H1b visa and his arrival to US
4. and last one, seems almost impossible trip to India for sister-in-laws wedding, we could finally make it.

Two Weeks, 12 Movies !

Two weeks, 12 movies ! thats the most nos of movies, I’ve ever watched within short period of time. Courtesy of forced bachelorhood, winter and plenty of year end holidays. The list goes like this:

Mumbai Salsa
Johnny Gaddaar
Aaja Nachle
Chain Kuli Ki Main Kuli
Dhana Dhan Goal
Banaras
Dus Kahaniya
Main, Meri Patni Aur Who
Pak Pak Pakaak (Marathi)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Taare Zameen Par

Still looking forward for:

Life in Metro
Ek Chalis ki Local Train
Omkara
Black Friday

long, dark, cold and never-ending winter

Seems like its gonna be long, dark, cold and never-ending winter this year.
It just early December and It’s already snowing few days a week and average temperature is in 30’s. Everyday it’s take extra 10 mins to get ready to wear all those winter jackets and gloves. Cleaning the snow and ice off car windshield is another painful task.

Back from Vacation

Back from vacation, had a perfect flight timing -departure from Mumbai at 01:10 am and arrival at JFK at morning 07:30 am, just to attend Monday’s full day office. The total 15 hrs non-stop flight was all empty, making room for us to sleep and this time the flight entrainment system was indeed working.

Immigration, Custom and Airport shuttle was quick one, only complain is about this long chilly December.

Nightmare of booking air-ticket thru travel agent !

This was the worst experience I had, while booking the Air India ticket thru careless, stupid travel agent. First this fellow didn’t have any clue about the ticket after charging my credit card, which he didn’t bother to inform me for 2 weeks. When I followed up, he gave some ridiculous excuses, which just wasted my days. After speaking to agency owner he transferred the matter to another lady, who cancelled the previous ticket and recharged credit card for new e-tickets. All this was happening with in the last week of travel date, making you more anxious.

Due to the double charging of tickets, credit card was almost reached to credit limit. Finally when they’re unable to issue e-tickets, they issued old paper tickets, which were collected by friend on my behalf.

The big surprise was waiting for me on monday morning, when I saw only two paper tickets. After waiting for an hour for the opening of their shop, they said they issued one e-ticket for me and paper tickets for my family.

It was rather a simple task, booking a ticket ! but took plenty of phone calls then follow up calls and the painful one, i.e. checking your mailbox everyday for the delivery of tickets. It just adds up unnecessary stress during those vacation days.

Its just reminds me of the MakeMyTrip.com’s commercial ad.

On a same note, soon the paper ticket will become a collector's item. The global airlines body IATA has placed its last order for paper tickets, clearing the way for air travel to be based entirely on electronic ticketing from 1st June 2008.

a day without TV !

Our old TV suddenly stopped working, Not that we are much into TV, But having a not working TV in home makes you miserable . You never imagine that, you would miss it so much.

Waiting and waiting …!

Most of September month went waiting for those few important letters, which were critical for out India vacation trip planning. Finally, when they arrived they arrived all together and patience paid off.

Getting lost in Downtown Washington DC

And I thought only Capital Beltway was confusing, wait until you enter the Downtown area of Washington, D.C and it will be like a maze for the tourist traveler. Even thou I’ve been visiting this area for 5th time, I had hard time locating our hotel on Rhode Island ave at Dupont Circle.

Normally, Most cities have Streets mapped in X and Y axis but here in DC the diagonal avenues make the road network more complex. Just to get an idea, have a look at this Dupont Circle which is the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, Connecticut Avenue, New Hampshire Avenue, P Street and 19th Street.

To make matter worst, while driving you have to also consider the “One way” or “Do not enter” signs. One time, I was almost entered into “One way” road before I realized the mistake.

Next day also, while getting out of the city, those Google map couldn't be helpful. Thanks to all those cabbies for much understandable direction.

Bottom line is, Washington D.C. can be awfully confusing and frustrating to get around if you're not familiar with the area. Here is a link, which advices you to get a good map, If you are heading to DC and also plan in advance to save travel time.

another visit to Niagara Falls

This will be the 3rd one and hoping the last one. a quick weekend trip started at Saturday 06:30 early in the morning, reaching the Niagara Falls at 1:30 pm. At the destination, Most of the time was spent waiting in the long queue, thou everything was forgotton after completing the attraction. The food at Punjabi Desi Dhaba tasted more delicious due to the all tiredness.

On the return journey, we stopped by "Corning Museum of Glass". So now we know what exactly the Glass Museum is, when people talk about Glass Museum near Niagara Falls.

Last but not least, Most importantly this trip will be remembered for the first Speeding Ticket on I-390 for driving at 83/65 mph. It was a quite learning experience.

another visit to JFK airport

After some time, I made another visit to JFK, but this time it was personally emotional one, due to the parents first visit to USA. This time too it was same bumper to bumper traffic, (a JFK airport trade mark) but didn't bothered much.

R2I keyword !

Did you know that "R2I" keyword stands for "Return to India" ?
May be you don’t until now; unless you are really planning to return to India from living abroad.

In Last few months, I’ve given serious thinking on this topic of returning to India due to many factors and hence stumbled upon this keyword "R2I" after searching on web.

One of the very useful forum that encountered is "r2iclubforums"; where you can find detailed information about various topics from 'sharing a container' to 'school education' for your kids.

Its been sometime now I’ve been reading these posts randomly, whenever I get a chance. Also, Few experienced R2i’er have started blogging about their experiences, which are very interesting to read about and thus the introduction of this new tab on my iGoogle page.

Project - Visitor Visa.

Finally It has paid off ! All the efforts & stress of going thru Visitor visa process.
Thou it took almost 2 yrs, 3 attempts, 30,000 /-Rs, plenty of paper work and lots of emotions. In the end, the feeling of getting Visitor visa is comforting & uplifting.

So my advise for others who have faced rejections; keep a hope alive at least in Visitor visa case.