Seen at the Millennium Park

 
Polish Rally at Grant Park. 1 of every 12 Americans is of Polish descent.

 
The North side of downtown Chicago, from Grant Park

 
Seen at the Millennium Park

Seen at the Millennium Park

 
People try to do different things and come up with some very creative poses that involve themselves and the Bean in the background.

 
But the really amazing ones are the “right-after-marriage” photoshoots at the Bean!

Michigan Avenue, The Magnificent Mile

Finally I got a day of no rain to visit downtown, and I could not resist visiting the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor of John Hancock Tower.

 
This is the view to the South of John Hancock Tower. The Aon Center and Prudential Plaza are prominently visible.

From 1000 ft above ground, this view is to the South-West of John Hancock Tower. The rightmost skyscraper is Willis Tower, a little off the center is Trump Tower (the second tallest building in the world having residences), and to the left is the Aon Center. Chicago is a city of skyscrapers, and some amazing architecture! For more on Chicago’s architecture, click here.

My first impression of SFO was “Wow! What a beautiful city!” and I would say I am happy to stick with that. A city that has both hills and sea, is truly a gifted place to be. People say that the weather in California is amongst the best in the United States. The ample warm sunshine was a pleasant break from the cold Chicago. Lovely tree lined streets, nice breeze, lots of people on the street, awesome street side food, great entertainment, excellent public transport, lots of Mexican babes… are just few of the many things that come to my mind when I think back of San Francisco… :)

The flight from Chicago to San Francisco is more than 4 hours long, but flies over some of the most beautiful landscape like the Rocky Mountains…

San Francisco City, as seen from the Marin Headlands (other side of the Golden Gate Bridge)…

The Golden Gate Bridge, is by far the most recognisable landmark of San Francisco… I actually wanted to see this bridge engulfed in clouds, and thought I was unlucky, though Sudeep thought the other way and said that I was lucky to be able to see across the  bay!

San Francisco, like much of the Bay Area, is a hilly city with more than 50 hills within city limits. Though being a planned city with roads looking like lines of a well defined grid, they go up and down, and are quite painful to walk around!

The SFO cable car system is the world’s last permanently operational manually-operated cable car system and is an icon of San Francisco, says Wikipedia…

The Embarcadero is the eastern waterfront and a major road that runs along the San Francisco Port, and Bay. It is one of the most beautiful parts of the city, with the sea and the pier on one side and the downtown on the other. Trees and trams run along the street on one side, while cyclists and joggers fill up the sea side of the Embarcadero…

The Navy Pier is a great place for people to spend some time with themselves, calm and serene, with tons of fresh air and sunlight (when the clouds are not around)…

The Navy Pier contains a number of restaurants and coffee shops and attract a pool of people who like to relax in the open…

Don’t I like taking pics of my feet?!?

This is the Bay Bridge that connects SFO to Oakland, is a double-decker bridge that has one of the longest spans in the world.

This statue of Gandhi is mired in controversies… and may not look as pretty or picturesque from all angles.

It was a weekend trip, but the total time I was in SFO was not more than 18 hours… I did miss a lot of places but the fun really was in walking the streets in downtown and exploring some of the little known corners :). I would really like to thank Sudeep for driving me around the town, and letting me put up with him at his place… Only after coming back to Chicago did I realise that Google’s HQs were just a stone’s throw away from where he stays!

Play it safe :)

And I am traveling to Chicago (on the night of Diwali) once again… “Trains and Winter Rains” calling…

Going to eat Bibimbap!

Prized Possession!

And this is for 2008…

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before? Went ‘Zorbing‘.

2. Did you keep your new years resolutions, and will you make more for next? I dint have one but I will make one for 2009.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? No.

4. Did anyone close to you die? No.

5. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? November 4, the day Obama was elected President of USA and I was there to hear and see him when history was made.

6. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Surviving subzero temperatures and enjoying.

7. What was your biggest failure? Unnecessary weight gain.

8. Did you suffer illness? Yes.

9. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? Idiots :).

10. Where did most of your money go? Shopping!

11. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Snow and subzero temperatures :).

12. What song will always remind you of 2008? American Pie.

13. Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder? Sadder.

14. What do you wish you’d done more of? Eating!

15. What do you wish you’d done less of? Eating!

16. Did you fall in love in 2008? Yes. With ‘fall’.

17. How many one night stands? HuH!

18. What was your favourite TV programme? Don’t remember watching TV at all.

19. What was the best book you read? Huh again, but still reading, Shadow of the Silk Road.

20. What was your greatest musical discovery? Katy Perry.

21. What did you want and get? Bibimbap!!!!

22. What did you want and not get? Nothing as such.

23. What was your favourite film of this year? Truth in 24, and The Boy in Striped Pajamas.

24. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I went out for dinner with my friends. It was a cold evening, and we had dinner at an open-roof restaurant. I was 23.

25. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? If someone special had some more good luck.

26. What kept you sane? Dislike of alcohol.

27. Who was the worst new person you met? Nobody was that nasty.

28. Who was the best new person you met? SXR.

29. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008. Be patient.

30. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
If I sing a song, will you sing along? Or should I just keep singing right here by myself?

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Rashmi, Sriram, and Satish... Thanks for absolutely everything...

Rashmi, Saunvit, Prateek, Sriram... Thanks for the awe-kasam Smoky Trip :)

Rashmi, Ramya... Thanks for all the meals we had together... :)

Jae, Heera... Thanks for the most amazing Bibimbap and your warmth... :)

Chicago... Thank You...

New York... Thank You :)

Fall... Thanks for the most beautiful moments that you gave me and my camera :)

Snow... Thanks for the mind-blowing cold and an amazing experience...

And Guru (for the amazing talks of everything starting from China to Peru, vada-pav to chai-at-a-tapri, NCC to ‘bakch**di’…), Anna, Chris (on the Metra), Jing, Sally, Liliana (whom I may never meet again), Kunal, Riya and everybody else…
I know there are many more…

Thanks,
Goodbye…

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Click to read more and see the pics…

Adam and Eve…

A pub?

Marvelous sunset by a lake… Do not try to look for the sun :)
It is on the other side…

Women…

Common people…

And Christ formed the subject of a really large number of paintings…

The contrast of darkness and light used in this painting, was more remarkable than it appears in the photograph…

Something sad is depicted here, but look at the details…

Out of the many photographs, this photograph from a market in Mumbai caught my eye…

—
And now…
Perhaps the best or one of the best parts of the Institute…
These are houses… the most beautiful living places I have ever seen in my life… but…

But…

OMG lovely carpet… :) but…

Yes, all of this is amazing and excellent… but…

This is perfect, isn’t it? It sure is, but…

Ok, enough of “buts”, now look closely at the picture below to get an estimate of the size of these things :)

I hope you saw me, wondering about something, looking through the…

Glass windows…
—
Okay… now, its time for perhaps the most popular piece of art kept at this place in the world…
Here is something about it… Can you guess what it is? Have you seen it before?

This is about one of those few paintings that were in school textbooks while I was in school…

Isn’t this brilliant??

Have you seen this somewhere before?

Sure you have :)
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte – Georges Seurat

Well, that is all I could capture… after that I did not feel like clicking pics anymore… It was too beautiful to capture in the camera… It sure was captured somewhere else…

“Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.”
- Albert Einstein

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The beginning of November, marks the beginning of colder days, subzero temperatures and snow flurries…

It was the first time I saw such a beautiful fall, or it was the first time I saw fall AT ALL.

Here are some of the pics I took in Evanston, my way to wish it goodbye.

Click to see the pics…

But I missed walking on crispy dried fallen leaves with Roshnai…

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From bustling cities to affluent locations, it has everything to offer…

Like, what I found in NY is this…

Madison Square Garden: World’s largest arena. Watched Wintuk (Cirque du Soleil) here.

Do you know this place?

Click below to see more pics…

…..

This is it!

Times Square

Arbit building! Really Arbit!

This post office takes up one whole city block!

The Empire State Building

Broadway…

At Madame Tussuad’s…

Pennsylvania Station, NY

The really dirty NY subway, but do you see the Korean lady?

CP, NY

All of Fall in Central Park, NY

World Trade Center, Ground Zero

The Manhattan skyline looks a bit empty without the WTC

On the top: Empire State Building

All this was good… really! Good! but the thing that captured my eyes, my sorrow and definitely my camera’s lens was this…

This might be a good sight, till you click the link below and read the following shocking truth about the pic above…
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/26/nyregion/26manhole.html