My New Camera

OK, as it is shipped now, I can tell you about my thanksgiving shopping. I bought a $179 camera in $99 from CircuitCity including a free photo printer. Its a Nikon Coolpix P50. Prooof of purchase… Here it is:

After leaving my D50 at home and having this old, small camera with me, I was not very much into photography anymore. Now I have this till I get my D50 back from home. I hope this improves some things.

So, After getting it out of box, I did what I was supposed to do. Took a couple of photos in Office. Uploaded photos on Flickr, Couple of shots here:

Our Kitchen Sink

We came back from office and it was not easy to stay in kitchen. All that water in sink and that smell…. Nitin tried very hard to make it go away and guess what I did. I took a photo

 Silver Spoon

And then we decide to have our favourite aaloo paratha once more. Destination was usual, The Silver Spoon. I like this place. Its almost a month since I started eating there almost regularly. This time, having camera with me, I could take some shots on the inside. Couple of shots are below, rest on Flickr.

Tags: Camera, Nikon, Photos, Thanksgiving, US

Wednesday was much different from normal mid-weeks. It felt like Friday… No, It felt better than Friday. And I left the office before 1800

Everybody is either leaving for somewhere or expecting someone to come. All you can hear is planning the thanksgiving and weekend. Even in our desi team, Nitin is already gone and Muks leaving in morning. While leaving the office, had a small conversation with Christina and as expected, she’s also leaving. She asked me about my plans and then I realized that I still have no plans finalized… Wow, what a preparation for 4 days:)

Its Wednesday evening and me still thinking to finalizing something. Then time shifted my focus when I realized that I have to make something for dinner. Hmmmm, back to cooking and its time for “more” experiments. Lets try cooking the rice traditional way… but hey, no onions at home… OK, lets try without onions. Took almost an hour, but it was fine. After eating the dinner, browsing the Internet, I saw something of my interest. I didn’t know that Thanksgiving comes with a season of sales and bargains…. And some of them are tooo good. I also decided to spend some of my hard-earned cash What I purchased??? Will blog about that later, after I get the item.

Its around midnight. Thursday is coming and I have no plans and still can’t sleep. Again, lets try something more with cooking. Go downstairs, cross the street, get to Giant and bring onion and potatoes. That’s what I did. Cuz If I have these two things, I can try a lot It was almost morning when I was making “chakli aaloo”. And it was also very tasty.

Talked to my wife in morning, then made aaloo andey and finally managed to sleep around 0900. And then I was sleeping till evening:)

Its Thursday evening and I suddenly say, WTF, I have to get out. I can’t stay like this for 4 days. Called Akif and Kamran. Finalized the plan and I am all set for coming day.

Friday, after Friday prayer, went to silver spoon (my closest and favorite eating place), had a delicious aaloo paratha and packed one for coming time. Had 57 to Shady Grove, RedLine to Washington DC, Chinese Bus to NY, NJT to Edison NJ and finally a taxi to guest house. At 2130, I was at the guest house.

After a tiresome journey, Night was calm and fun. Had some discussions with Akif and Abdul. Some chit chat with other mates too. It looks like almost every body has an idea about my current status. There were no clear discussions though.

Saturday morning was a pleasant one. I walked for more than an hour on streets around guest house only because it felt so good. Some how, That place feels like home. After all, I’ve spent two very good weeks there and found the best of people at that place.

As per plan, Kamran was there finally and me, him, Akif and Abdul went for lunch. It was a party from my side for my current status. It was also the first transaction on my credit card in US

Me and Akif had to leave for Maryland. Akif actually decided to accompany me till Baltimore on same bus as he also had to visit relatives. We had to rush towards Jersey to be on PATH for 33rd street.

Before getting on PATH, in Jersey City, We offered our Asar prayer. There was a Masjid and we rushed to join the prayer. I don’t know the reason but this prayer felt real good. I felt very calm and satisfied after the prayer.

Getting on PATH, getting out at 33rd street and then walk (or I should say run?) towards Penn Station was all a rush. It was really hard to catch that chinese bus but we did it. Finally we left on the bus from famous Fashin Street of New York for Maryland.

Saturday Night was not a very good start on the roads. NJ TurnPike and 95 were all jam packed. Initially we expected that after Delaware, it may lighten up a little but It remained the same till Baltimore when we reached there around 2200. After that, roads were not that much crowded.

Every time I travel with these chinese buses, especially on way back to Maryland, something “not good” is to happen. This time, After all the traffic, when we finally reached DC, Driver lost his way to get out of DC. For some time, He was going in circles. Once he figured out, how to actually set for Rockville, there was one more thing. Another chinese guy was kind enough to tell that he has missed his DC stop. And then, driver was kind enough to go back to DC to drop him. A couple also dropped there out of frustration caused by this whole scenario. And when we reached Rockville, it was almost 0000.

Sunday, I slept all day and then could not sleep at night. I knew that its a call on early morning but still could not sleep till 0400.

Monday morning: Just finished the call and this long story of long weekend is also complete. Posting it right away.

Tags: Chinese Busses, cooking, Maryland, new Jersey, New York, Thanksgiving, US

Last 3 weeks were nothing but an adventure. A lot has happened. Switching companies, updating bank accounts, first pay, paying bills, sending money to home, etc….

And now, life is real slow suddenly. It’s calm all around. No more worries about ‘things’. Just wake up, have breakfast, go to office, work till evening and come back to room, dinner, movie and back to sleep. Not to mention, Its getting really cold out there. Did I tell you that this Friday, Maryland had its first snow?? I think I did. Here are two photos in front of office:

So, to spice up the life a bit, I decided something. And on the weekend, I bought a Rice Cooker

It was -3 Celsius this Saturday when we, me and Nitin, were heading to walmart. All packed in jackets, we had to wait for bus. I had my mini camera with me but it was too cold to handle the camera. Still, Nitin managed to take a shot while I am waiting for bus at stop.

After getting that rice cooker, we’ve made rice only once but I’ve fried eggs twice Really, Since I left the NJ, I was missing the eggs too much. Here we don’t have stove so could not fry anything. But after cooking rice, suddenly i thought to give it a try for eggs and it worked

Tags: cooking, Maryland, snow fall, US

Almost 3 weeks after the first snow in New Jersey, Now its time for Maryland. First snow of Maryland, dropping slowly and slightly to the ground and vanishing…. Right now its to light to be captured. I’ll see If it gets heavier and i can take a shot of first snow.

Edit: 2 photos added. You can view on side bar or can go to flickr.

Tags: Maryland, snow fall, US

I was trying hard to find a suitable way to show text and image in same cell in a DataGridView Column. Thanks to DotNetMonitor I found the code to extend the column so that it can do that. However, as I am pretty new to C#, I did not know how to use this code. Once I figured it out how simple it is, first thing that came to my mind was to share this. This information might be helpful for someone like me who is totally new to C#. All you need to do is:

1. Copy the code from provided link and create a new file.
2. This way, You’ll get two new classes, TextAndImageColumn and TextAndImageCell.
3. Change the type of required column to the TextAndImageColumn
4. Populate the text values just as you do normally.
5. To show the image, All you need to do is, set the image property when you are populating the data. You may need to type cast the column object to TextAndImageCell for this. Below is the sample line of code:
   ((TextAndImageCell)(myDataGridView[columnIndex, rowPos])).Image = Image.FromFile(“myImage.ico”);
6. just replace the myImage.ico with the path to your image.

I hope this helps someone.

Tags: .NET, C#, DataGridView, Technology

A piece of poetry after a very long time.

~*~bey rabt~*~

agar ho faaasla zyada
agar mushkil ho laut aana
agar na rabt ho koi
ya ho bhi to
faqat awaz ki had tak
ya kuchh be jaan tasveeren
to phir kab pyaas bujhti hai

suna tha hum ne sab se
aaj khud mehsoos kerte hein
kissi se door jaaney per
muhabbat aur berhti hai

Tags: Poetry, urdu

Decided to visit a couple of friends in couple of states before I get my SSN. I thought to start my journey from Maryland and then visit Boston and Philadelphia before coming back after a week. But that’s not what I’ll be doing anymore. Read below to know why…

Right now I am in Gaithersburg, Maryland. To reach here from Piscataway, NJ I decided to use the following route: Edison Station —using NJ Transit—> Penn Station NY —Using chinese bus—>Rockville MD. Route was fine and cheap but I did not count the biggest mistake that I was about to make

Yes, I made a grave mistake when I thought to keep all my luggage with me during the trip. Oh my God, how I forgot that my suit cases are HEAVY. Carrying around 46 KG in 2 suitcases without wheels or any cart and then having 10/15 KG on my shoulder in laptop bag…. Uff, that was hell. Walking out of Penn Station was the toughest time of my life.

Adding insult to injury, Chinese bus was over booked and i could not get into the buss going to Rockville. So, without thinking much, I got into the one for Washington DC.

Before Baltimore, we saw the Rockville bus standing beside the road due to some big problem. So, I reached DC at 10:45 PM. There when I told them that I was to go to Rockville instead of DC, they told me that how lucky I was. And they told me to wait for the other bus, that we saw in our way. When that bus came to DC, they moved me in and I was finally coming to Rockville.

At 00:45, When I reached Rockville, my friend was waiting for me to pick me up. Went to his place and crashed in a room that he managed for me. By the way, his place and the room he arranged for me is too good.

I am feeling too tired to leave from here tomorrow or the day after. I am so tired and the room is so good that I am planning to chill here for the week. However, I’ve decided that even if I have to complete my trip as per plan, I will not carry my luggage anymore. Will leave it here, this room is secure anyway.

Attaching some photos of the room for interest:

Tags: Chinese Busses, Edison, New York, NJ Transit, Penn Station, US

Thought about adding the video too. Video is captured from my office window on October 28, 2008. Here it is:

Tags: new Jersey, snow fall, US

This place, home for several consultants waiting for project, has its own atmosphere and its own set of activities. I am sharing some photos of VSG/OrionSoft/Lekha/Venturi head office in New Jersey. Thanks to Kanna for photos.

Workplace, labs & cabins…

Dining Corner…

Diwali feast, company provided lunch…

Tags: new Jersey, Office, US