Written by Photographs from the temple of bikes, Harley Davidson Museum, Milwaukee….
Posts in category USA
Minneapolis and the kabootar and the baby hunter
One of my fondest memories of all times would be driving around in sub-urbs of Minneapolis with Pritam, Deepak, Lakhan, and Sapna with Delhi-6 songs playing!!!
I remember this weekend where we must have heard Sasural Genda Phool and Masakali atleast 50 times or maybe more!!! I think this was the weekend when I met Pritam’s baby hunter for the first time!
As per Pritam this was a hunter who was still a baby… not to forget that we are talking about a Nissan Xterra here! To accept that it was still a baby at that size was very tough for almost all of us… And somehow the title baby hunter, tilted towards the car being someone who hunted babies more!!
Nevertheless, the whole Minneapolis downtown gang and the cars, and the drives are some thing worth remembering for a very very long time to come!!
Grand Entry
Entry to the Basilica of Sr. Mary in Downtown Minneapolis.
2009 in Pictures – May
May is expected to bring Spring season! it did.. though it was pretty cold and unusually cold for that time of the year, it did not stop the flowers from blooming, it did not stop the birds from coming out and singing, and it did not stop me from going to Holland, Michigan to enjoy the Tulip Festival.
I had rented a Nissan Altima for this trip, and I loved driving it… had not driven a car so smooth and so responsive yet! Totally totally loved it… and had just the right company in Joy along with me… Pritam, Sunil and Golu joined us from Minneapolis later in the evening after we checked into our motel near Holland!
Photography would have been a challenge for sure, because I do not know what to do when I am supposed to take pictures of flowers… I personally came back satisfied with the pictures I took that weekend though! enjoy the moments and some photographs from Holland below… This might just be one of the most colorful months of 2009!
The right set of people makes a trip so much better! I am so grateful to have good travel companions all the time (I also take credit in that though! I chose who I travel with, most of the time)
Artist’s tables are one of the most interesting things that I know of… they shout out loud of creativity!
I have also been fascinated by wheels and rims for a long time… but I do not have a liking for such loud rims! I like them subtle… like Radha!
Holland in addition to the Tulips, is also famous for wooden shoes! And yes, you can wear them!
I also drove a Jeep Commander… Big SuV… loads of space! and Jeep 
We managed to find a lovely local Italian restaurant for lunch and then a decent Indian restaurant for Dinner… had to rush and drive fast to reach the Indian one in the night before it closed, but we did manage… 
Another very interesting thing we did in Holland was go on a Sand dunes safari… it was a crazy sand ride with adventurous twists and turns in a 1979 dodge truck!
The Big Red light house in Holland… This place was exactly opposite to Milwaukee on the other side of Lake Michigan…
We also managed to check out a local market in Holland before we headed back to Milwaukee.
I love huskies! Period! This one had such beautiful blue eyes!
Also visited a winery on our way out of Holland… Experienced a bit different US there… very quiet, non-concrete, natural America… lovely it was!
And more flowers near home!
The third car I drove in the month of May was a Mazda 6. Radical design, but another beauty to drive! I had rented it to get Ma Pa from the Chicago airport! Cannot explain that feeling in words… going to an airport to pick up mom dad after their first ever flight! very precious memory!
In May itself, I drove to Minneapolis and Chicago with Mom Dad!
This is a view from the 14th floor apartment in Minneapolis… my home away from home in America… the famous or rather infamous 1409!
See you with some pictures from June soon!
2009 in Pictures – April
The biggest thing about April 2009 was 30on30… It was a personal achievement which brought immense satisfaction to me, and I am glad that the thought worked so well! April was also about some warm days, more rain, less snow, and some cold days too…
My birthday was celebrated by cutting an Apple pie instead of a cake because the gang from MSP could not find a cake shop on their way to Milwaukee on my birthday… it was nice to have friends on birthday night, though birthdays usually are no big deal for me…
We thought of going to 6-flags, the amusement park about an hour south of Milwaukee, but it was too cold to get on the rides and we had to come back, much to disappointment of Deepak who wanted to go inside… Later in the year, we did manage to get to the park and enjoy a few rides…
We also visited the Miller Brewery in Milwaukee that weekend… For those who did not know, Milwaukee is famous for its beer as well! At one point of time, it used to have the largest number of breweries in the US.
After the free tour, you get to taste the 3 key beers that Miller makes at this brewery!
I also got my flash in April… the macro lens and the flash unit were my birthday presents to myself… I suck at using flash in photographs, and have to learn how to use it… one item on my to-do list for 2010…
Talking of places to visit, I also spent a few days at the Milwaukee Art Museum in April…
April 10th was cold for sure… but there were really warms days in April too… the picture says it all I guess!
Rain and the macro lens… good combination if you know how to use it well… My first attempt and much below average, still does not stop me from posting a few pictures I liked from that evening…
This brings me to the end of a wonderful first quarter of the new year! The other months’ pictures can be seen here if you have not seen them already…
See you later with some pictures from May!
First of the amazing weekends – Minneapolis this time!
I had this amazing weekend, but before I write about it, I am going to put up things from the last amazing weekend I had… I am going to make a record of sorts of living up weekends as the fall is coming to town this year… so here we go about the last one…
This current weekend, it will be up here soon!!!
It was a new weekend !!!
and full of new experiences… from the 1409 apartment overlooking a beautiful Minnesota Sunset which I went to first in July’08 to the same apartment in August’09, its been quite a journey…
The first time I was quiet, in a new place, new city, with new people… and this time around as well
It seemed like a new place, with some new people, and new vibes in the environment…
From a close knit group of friends, to couple, and husbands and wives, and girlfriend and boyfriend, I guess this has been a nice ride for the entire gang… Lakhan and Sapna are seeing each other and spend a lot of time together over weekends… Deepak’s wife Prakati is finally in town, and he has shifted out of 1409 and now is in his own apartment, Pritam has a lovely firang girlfriend Tracy and she has moved in to 1409 temporarily as well… all in all, this was like a set of threads which were overlapped with each other, drifting apart with distinct points which connect each other…
or lets put it this way, its something like big bang theory… forces internal and external make you move away, but still not loose the contact, an invisible force, like gravity keeps you around each other, moving around in your own orbits but with paths crossing time and again!!!
Its a nice journey What has not changed in this year is my status though 
we were watching a movie yesterday, Enemy at the Gates, and it was kind of funny to see Deepak and his wife on the sofa, Pritam and Tracy on my left, and Lakhan and Sapna on my right… I had to say this loud that the couples had taken all the corner seats, and were not really there in the theatre to watch the movie 
it was fun! It was a rather serious scene on the screen but we all laughed out at this!
What has not changed in this year is my status though we were watching a movie yesterday, Enemy at the Gates, and it was kind of funny to see Deepak and his wife on the sofa, Pritam and Tracy on my left, and Lakhan and Sapna on my right… I had to say this loud that the couples had taken all the corner seats, and were not really there in the theatre to watch the movie it was fun! It was a rather serious scene on the screen but we all laughed out at this!Now that this transformation study and analysis is done, I can move to my regular way of narrating the sequence of events as it happened!
Greyhound is a bus service that is more expensive than the much cheaper Megabus, and provides a few attractions over it too… better leg room, a big waiting area/bus station, attendants to manage everything and so on and so forth, but Megabus is a low cost, no overheads model and it works very well for a lot of people… For some reason, the Greyhound here on the Milwaukee/Chicago/GreenBay/Minneapolis route has a high percentage of African-Americans (no offence to anyone, just an observation)… the attendants at the counters, the bus drivers, and MOST of the travellers! vs. Megabus where its completely the opposite!
Left Milwaukee Friday evening and reached Minneapolis around 1 in the night! I love seeing the Minneapolis downtown approaching for some reason! The lights at the downtown, my femiliarity with the place and having some friends there makes it feel like home!
Met Tracy and Pritam, went home… had some food and chatting the rest of the night away before sleeping around 4 in the morning… The original plan was to go for a shoot, but we went to Deepak’s place instead! Beautiful apartment, and looked so much like home! This is where “women” are way way way ahead of men! keeping a house like home! Tracy has cleaned up 1409 beautifully, and Deepak’s place also looks like a home! He has recently bought a Epson Movie Mate Projector and we watched “School of Rock”… i love the movie anyway, and watching it on a projected screen was a lovely experience! Lakhan and Sapna reached later in the day and we spent the rest of evening talking… Everyone now seems to have an iphone in the US and this gang is not far away… Pritam had one 2G (which I have now because he got the 3Gs), Sapna and Deepak also got a 3Gs! I tried confusing Sapna’s iPhone’s compass and succeeded in about 15 minutes… rotated it so many times that it forgot which direction north was in! funny fone!
We finally got ready to get out the apartment around 8ish, went back to downtown and then took cabs to one of our favorite bars in uptown called the Chino Latino… it has the best Cocktails that I know of, some of them being Vodktajito (this is served with a sugarcane slice), X-rated, Mango Martini, Kamasutra Mama, Mexican three-way, and some Brazilian crap (that Pritam likes). And yes, all of these are cocktails, before you let your imaginative horses run wild!!!
Back to the apartment and talking and more till 3 again before we went off to sleep…
Sunday was another lazy day… Tracy made some mouthwatering Pancakes and French Toast for brunch (well, if you wake up at 9 and stay in bed till 12, you get only brunch)… we then went to get some Veg Biryani from Kabobs, and then to return a few DVDs to Blockbuster, where I went crazy buying a few that I wanted to have, and then to Deepak’s place and finally to Sapna’s apartment… it was around 4 that we reached there, had food! Lakhan makes amazing food! and started watching Enemy at the Gates, only this time, it was the projector, and some bose speakers to provide the much needed clarity to the war movie!
It was a hard stop for me and Pritam at 1945 hours for me to catch the bus, which I did only to say bye bye to the city that welcomed me to USA, and makes it feel much better than it really is!
Too much of text eh !!! If you managed to read it this far, kudos !!!! Time for the photographs now….
The movie mate result !!!!
Tracy, Myself and Pritam went down to the play area and took some pictures !
Deepak and Prakati…
French toast, Pancakes and syrup… Tracy ROCKS!!!!
Just a li’il bit of reaching out
It cannot get better than ThumsUp!!! Ever!
Lakhan, Sapna and view from Sapna’s apartment’s patio!
Tracy!
And me! Aro says I am fat !!!Thanks Pritam for taking this one!
A french festival and the Great Circus Parade in Milwaukee
A couple of weekends ago, Milwaukee celebrated two events…. One called Bastille Days, which is a french festival and the second called The Great Circus Parade.. This post is about my visits to these events over a period of three days… Enjoy the photographs!
Bastille Days is a 4 day festival which was held at the Cathedral Square in Easttown Area of Downtown Milwaukee… This was essentially a festival focusing on three things, Good food, Good music, and take a guess, well! good Wine!
I am not a wine fan, but I did enjoy some brilliant performances, and some Egyptian and Greek food during the festival…
Over to visuals now…
This is the north stage…
Street artists at the Bastille Days…
Some images from the South Stage in the festival…
So this was all about Friday… The next morning I decided to walk over to the Lakefront where the Great Circus Parade was camping… Walked around the place looking at various wagons, watching people enjoying with family, this was a place to come to with kids… They really enjoying watching the horses, elephants, Jokers, Camels etc etc
This guy’s mom had an inter-cast marriage with a Dalmatian…
India? Someone is still living in the British Raj when it comes to India…
After spending a few hours at the Circus Parade grounds I headed back home…
And decided to go to Bastille Days again in the evening ! Just the right time to enjoy some amazing live music….
What I really like about US is that people enjoy and dance irrespective of their age… Mostly people in their 40s and 50s were dancing around the south stage this time around… Teenagers and Youth apparently were not interested in this festival, as I did not see many !
Some rope acrobats as well in the festival….
I have developed a strong liking for country music here, and I was happy to hear it live too… The base guitarist was amazing!!!
And the next morning which was Sunday, I went to see the parade… People had reserved/blocked spaces on the street sides for days in advance, some kept their chairs, some had marked the spots with duct-tape, some had even pitched their tents and were staying there for a few days… The number of people I see in Milwaukee every weekend is probably equal to the number I see in 4-5 winter months together!
Ok, back to the Parade, enjoy!
Like I said, these were family events Even the horses were not behind… Baby horses were a part of the parade with Mommy Horses…
Hope you enjoyed the parade and the festival… Will have more from other events from Milwaukee… Stay tuned!!!
I have purposefully not written the details about the festival or the parade assuming that if you are interested, you would google and read about it!
Amreeka Discovered Again…
- The land of the Eagle….
- The land of shorts with formal full sleeves shirts…
- The land of polo neck t-shirts with formal shorts and shoes…
- The land of sports shoes…
- The land of large man and women…
- The land of loooooong cars, huge SUVs ( now I really know why they are called trucks) and larger than life trucks ( what are they called here?)
- The land where being on the road feels like being in the mirror…
- The land where the flag can be worn anywhere in any form…
Flags at the O’Hare Airport, Chicago ( seen in the background is our Tiranga too)- The land where flights and flight attendants and amazingly casual about things…
- The land where there can be a thin line between being rude and being to the point…
Welcome to the land of Amreeka !!!
The flight was long by any standards… took a total of 15 hours from take off to landing… pathetic collection of movies, and not even average food with ultra casual attendants most of them over 40 yrs of age… so was American Airlines !!!
anyway… when I reached the Chicago O’Hare Airport I could not get any information about my connecting flight except that I should go to terminal 3. I did, checked in again and realised that non of the display boards had my flight number out of the about 60 flights they were displaying… Felt a li’il strange and manage to find an agent ( here the people who are associated with the flight, but are not Crew members are called agents) and after a couple of understanding and misunderstandings I was told that the flight was cancelled and I was moved to the next available flight… It added about 2.5 hours of waiting at Chicago with nothing much to do… If it was not for a few lovely words and I had read and heard when I left Delhi, I did not have anything much to think about either!
Anyway, I reached alright… hungry, tired and with a backache as expected from the long flight !!!
The balcony at my Inn…I had talked to a guy here a couple of days back and he was kind enough to come over and take me to a super market to get some bread etc and then show me around a few restaurants and my office which thankfully is just about 5-6 minutes away…
I am happy that subway tastes the same in India and London and now Minneapolis too… Just stuffed myself with a footlong and two laaarge glasses of Nestle Iced Tea…
Back at the hotel room now and trying to pass sometime so that I sleep only when its evening here… That would help me wake up properly tomorrow morning! Maybe !!!!
Lamps in my Inn Room…I will crash now, Just can’t keep my eyes open anymore…
