Travel

Labour day weekend : Good Beer, Good Friends.. Good times :)

It’s amazing how fast holidays zip by :). Wish, it was the same with work days…. Lakshmi and I didn’t get a chance to travel during this long weekend, but we caught up with some sightseeing in Chicago. We visited the Field museum, using the free family pass you can get at the Chicago Public Library. For those of you who are not aware, you can get free passes to most of the attractions in Chicago. All you need is a membership at the library. Each library has limited quantities of the passes and it is given out on a first come first serve basis. A great way to explore the city without breaking your bank :). It was great day to visit the museum. I took some snaps from the trip and posted them on Flickr

We also got a chance to catch up with old friends..Sudheer and his charming wife, Neelima flew down to Chicago for the weekend and all of us got together at Ravi’s place for a night of fun, beer and food :). It was great to catch up on life and fondly remember our days at school. As usual, me and my camera were busy snapping pictures of the night…

[Left to Right: Back Row: Shekar, Achi, Ravi, Byna, Sudheer Front Row: Nirmala, Pallavi, Madhavi, Deepthi, Lakshmi, Neelima]

Chicago : O'Hare : Terminal 1 : Fast Security checkin

Terminal 1 at the O’Hare International Airport in Chicago is dedicated to United Airlines flights and is one of the busiest terminals in the airport. Accordingly, it is a pain in the rear to get through security here. Try the security check-in at the extreme left of the terminal (next to the bag check-in counters) and you will be surprised, how empty and fast it is :).

August 18, 2006 by admin Travel Uncategorized 0

Chatting at 35000 feet!!

I flew Lufthansa, on my recent trip to India and was very impressed by the hospitality and the services offered. One of the coolest service on the flights was “Wi-Fi” hotspots offering Internet service. While the service was a bit expensive at $10.00/hour, I tried it out just to satisfy my geeky urgings. It was a blast chatting with friends and telling them that I am doing it from 35000 feet in the air ;). For anyone wanting to try this, I would reccomend getting the “unlimited” access for the entire duration of the flight for $29.95. I would love to look at the technology behind this setup. I am sure they are using satellites for the Internet access. Just interesting how they make sure that the connection stays steady while the flight is moving, since satellite service is very dependent on “point-of-view” access to the satellite.

August 8, 2006 by admin Networking Technology Travel Uncategorized Web 1

Please ~sound horn~ Please

I went in India for a (very) short trip this week. I was literally there for only 4 days to attend a wedding. For anyone who travels between US and India, you will realize that this is a SHORT trip :). I ended up spending more time in the airports than with my family. In fact, I am writing this post from the business lounge in the Frankfurt airport. How I got into it is another story :).

I spent a lot of my time during this trip on the road travelling between cities for the various wedding ceremonies. It was a lot of fun, but pretty tiring. During my last trip to India in February, I came back with a vision of a country on the verge of moving on to the next level. It looked like there was unlimited potential everywhere you look. This euphoria certainly came down during this trip. The rural countryside has been mostly left behind from the benefits of the “Internet” explosion. This might pose a big problem to the country if there is no immediate focus on developing the infrastructure. For comparisions..travel time in the US between two cities ~200 miles apart would be ~4 hours. The same distance took me ~9 hours in India. And not to mention the numerous times you get a heartattack from vehicles parked in the center of the road without any visual signs or the cows that wander onto the road without a bother :). And every truck/bus has a “Please ~Sound Horn~ Please” printed on the back of them. Just imagine the sound pollution when everyone in the world seems to be honking at the same time. It is so bad that people seem to have stopped responding to the horns. I know that a lot of people have nostalgic feelings about this situation, but unfortunately, if we want to move from a “developing” nation to a “devloped” nation, we have to get better infrastructure.

I wanted this post to be a reflection of my nostalgic feelings of the “do as you wish” country that India was (is) and how we need to get more organized, even if it means giving up this luxury of being a laid back country. But as usual, I seem to have made a mess of expressing my thoughts :). More posts on this topic soon….

August 8, 2006 by admin Fun Politics Rantings Travel Uncategorized 0

Hailstrom in Chicago

I have been in the Chicago area for ~6 years now and have never seen a hailstrom. Last week, on Thursday (5/17), I came home early and was caught up in a hailstrom. I was able to grab my camera and capture some quick shots of the strom from my backyard

May 20, 2006 by admin Photography Travel Uncategorized 0

Dr.Dhireesha!!!

My sister graduated with her Ph.D in Electrical engineering this Saturday. I flew to San Antonio to attend the graduation and it was a blast. We had tons of Mexican food and I got meet a bunch of nice folks. I think my sister will be really sad when she has to leave all her good friends in San Antonio and move to Rochester, NY to start teaching over there. She was the first student (and woman) to get a Ph.D from the school of engineering at the University of Texas, San Antonio. It was very cool to see her on stage and get a standing ovation from all the people who came to the graduation ceremony. Way to go sis!! :). We are very proud of you. Here are some links with more pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kudithipudi/tags/graduation/
http://www.sillymunky.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=dhireesha

May 15, 2006 by admin Family Photography Travel Uncategorized 0

New favourite Chinese restaurant

I accidentally ended up at the “Chinese Friendship Restaurant” on 2830 N. Miwaukee after a recommendation from a friend. I was pretty impressed by the service and food. It was authentic Chinese served with a flourish. The wait staff was very attentive and the owner (at least I like to think so) was making rounds to make sure that all the guests were happy. And a added bonus was their “Tuesday Special” where all the entries were only $8.95. The prices are a bit high for Chinese food but well worth it. Highly recommend the “Spicy Peppercorn Beef” and the “Spicy Garlic Shrimp“. Think this is my new favorite Chinese restaurant :).

March 29, 2006 by admin Food Travel Uncategorized 0

Cool picture..

I think of myself as a good photographer :).. And fortunately for me, the shots do turn out good sometimes. Another thing to brag about :). Here’s a picture I took of Naveed, when we visited the Hoover Dam during the Vegas trip.