BUGATTI TARGA – Rs. 10 Crore ($2.25mn) CAR…. God why don’t you just kill me?

Presenting the all new, exclusive, expensive, beautiful, sexy… BUGATTI TARGA (official name: Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport). What’s special about it? For starters, a chic (starting) price tag of Rs. 10 crore (yes you heard it right… the equivalent of 500… read again… FIVE HUNDRED MARUTI 800s!). Also, ONLY EIGHTY (80!!!) will be ever produced!

Why mention something which almost all Indians WILL NOT EVEN SEE once in their entire lifetime? Assuredly, an Indian sitting (NOT OWNING) in this epitome of Luxury on wheels would be as unique as the first man on the moon! But then, as with most other things tagged as ‘luxury’ which invariably continue to elude Indians, the best way to inch closer to their existence is to window-shop!

I’m going to provide two pictures (taken from some site since Bugatti Public Relations declined to let me test drive or atleast see the car itself…) which will give you an idea of how beautiful/sleek/sexy/hot this car looks! Believe me guys, I’m a hard-core Ferrari and Lamborghini fan but this car beats ALL of those beauties hands down and smacks any competition out of the park!

Close that jaw now… oh come on… get over it… I don’t want to be held responsible for your clinical brain damage…

Tech Specs:

Confirmed iPHONE Launch Price Rs. 31,000!!!

UPDATED ON AUGUST 20: The wait is finally over!!! iPHONE 3G is coming to India on August 22 through two operator networks AIRTEL and VODAFONE. An official Vodafone SMS stated the price for the 8GB iPHONE 3G variant as Rs. 31,000. The booking has to be done on August 20 and 21 with a pre-order amount of Rs. 10,000 with the rest being paid at the time of ‘appointment’ (i.e. when you buy the phone).

This is particularly heartbreaking for most Apple fans in India because shelling out Rs. 31K for an iPHONE 3G is a bit hard especially when the nearest competitor, the NOKIA N95 8GB costs around Rs. 22K (Gaffar Market, New Delhi). Mr. Steve Jobs, all that ’sex appeal’ may not be able to pull a million expected buyers to the nearest shops unless something is done to bring down the price.

Original article continues below:

Arguably the sexiest cell phone on the planet, definitely the most-hyped gadget of recent times, iPHONE 3G was unveiled on July 11 across 12 countries. Of course the disadvantage of being in India is that I will have to wait for months before the first one comes in!

Well, the popularity of the gadget can be assessed from the fact that though it is far from being the best in terms of features, no critic could resist the temptation of calling it the future of cell phones! From what I’ve learned in past few years, Apple is one company you can trust blind-folded for dishing out the hottest and most innovative products. This was proven correct once again when, barring one or two cities, there were queues of people waiting for hours to get hold of the latest iPHONE! It fails me if 200-300$ is small enough sum to be given away without second thoughts to this company. But again, there are crazy people and there are the crazier, Apple fans.

So, while some lucky people relish tapping the screens of their brand-new asset, I’ll just sit here cursing and waiting for mine to arrive someday! What a day would that be! Anyways, book your iPHONE with Airtel or Vodafone if you’re an Indian dying to get one!

[P.S.: OMG stands for 'Oh! My God'... just in case you were wondering!]

Racism in United States?

Updated!!

Have I been racially discriminated in the United States? Well… I don’t really know but I’ll let you judge!

Well, since I’ve been getting a lot of hits to this post, I thought I should share my experiences in the land of dreams (for most Indians) with you.

As is the case everywhere, people tend to get apprehensive to find someone different than themselves in their own locality. No wonder that you see ‘goras’ and ‘goris’ getting chased around by an Indian crowd in the streets of Jaipur or Chandni Chowk in Delhi. It is very natural for them to get curious, get agitated, or even get annoyed with the ‘foreign’ presence. Keeping this background in mind, consider the events that I describe below.

A brown man stands out in a white and black crowd as much as the opposite. So, it is not surprising to get an occassional comment like ‘Oh! you’re an Indian… yeah… I thought so!’ Now, depending on the way it was said, this simple statement can be ajudged a comment, a complement, a simple observation or a racist remark! Mostly, what you can do is to ignore all of it if said with negative connotation. Avoid brawls to the best possible extent except if you are bigger, stronger and as they say, in a position of might (rare… very rare!) Please understand that this behavior is called discrimination… and if you don’t have an elephant’s memory, must I remind you that it is the same as what you do to other people while you go bossing around in India.

Now, most waiters and waitresses have a notion that Indians don’t tip well. Hence, expect a rough serving at any ordinary restaurant unless you walk in with the attitude suiting riches! Listen to this well… TIP atleast as much as the service tax on your bill or 10-15% of total bill amount. Yes, that would come to be around 2-5$ but it is a good habit. Saves people like me from getting remarks like ‘hey… you’re Indian and still you gave me a 5$ tip! Wow, thanks!’

Jet…. Set…. and RRRRUUUUUUN!!!

To catch a flight at 8:30am, you would normally wake up at 4:30, get ready and leave your place at 5:30AM. Then, as the system is everywhere, dial a number, call the cab and reach the airport at 6:00AM. Check in by 6:30 and wallah! your on your way to the destination. Simple, isn’t it?

But, when you are me…. in New Jersey…. awake chatting with ur bud till late the night before… things are bound to get… well… ummm…. pretty fked up!

So, I woke up at 430AM alright AND got ready well in time… but decided to take a short walk to nearby cafe to have a snack and WALLAH!!!!! we got so fuckin delayed…. we reached the airport at 7:45AM. So what? Just in time! right?? yeah, they said I could check in, but they had stopped checking in the luggage… toh I was practically suggested to goto the city of angels, dressed like one… (with just once pyjama in my backpack!!!)

Many emotional requests later, the sweet and kind-hearted lady at the counter rescheduled my non-transferable, non-refundable, booked a month in advance (well… in other words, cheapest-available) ticket to the next flight (in the evening)! All this while, I stood there with a sad face, drenched in sweat waiting for the good/bad news.

As soon as I got the boarding pass for the next flight, we came out of the airport and breathed the cool air! What followed was a sequence of events beginning with us getting back to Ankit’s house, leaving the luggage and going out to the city…

The first half of the day was spent in search of a second-hand mobile (just to make-do) and finally, I got hold of an okeish mobile for  60 bucks. After a quick bite at the Indian Street in Jersey, we rushed back to Ankit’s house.

Cab took us to the EWR airport at around 4:30PM. I checked in and then spent 45 mins with Ankit doing chit-chat. I boarded the flight at 6:15PM and after a short announcement by the captain, a shaky-looking plane took me to the sky!

Next Stop: LA a.k.a. Los Angeles a.k.a. City of Angels a.k.a. My home for next 7 weeks!

A day in the Garden State

For the uninitiated, New Jersey is also called the Garden State. Now, in the last post, I wrote about how we reached at Ankit’s Place. After taking a nap from 7:00am to 2:30pm, we finally woke up to the 1000th snooze of the alarm! Getting ready took another 1:30 hrs. The weather was very good with chill winds and low temp of around 5-6 deg. I was feeling bad because I had missed the snow by just two days. But anyways, we went to the Jersey City to get sum stuff and buy a mobile. I got my supply of Indian food to get me through the upcoming food shortage that I’d be facing in LA. With that done, we went pillar to post in search of a mobile and a phone connection. In US, everyone has a constant service provider and mostly post-paid connection(s). So, the situation was pretty bad. But we finally settled on a T-Mobile plan for 50$ per month. Now, the only problem was a mobile. Finding one turned out to be a real pain in the neck. It is only then I realized the difference between your own country and ‘paraya pardes’!!

We could not find the mobile, so it was decided that it’d be purchased in LA. I had a flight the next morning, so we had some food outside and came straight back home.

Rest of the time was spent chatting and we went to sleep!

The next day was one full of adrenaline rushes!!! But who knew!

Read the next post to find out more….

Next Stop: The Times Square!!

We boarded the train to go the the NY Penn Metro Station on our way to New Jersey, Ankit suggested the idea of going for a walk at the Times Square which is in Manhattan, NY. So, it was decided and we got off the train at the nearest station to Times Square. With two large bags (total 60kgs) and a huge back-pack, we climbed two staircases to reach the ground level. We exited and I found myself standing at the Times Square. It was an amazing sight with XXL Billboards and XXXL Buildings and not to mention the fact that every single THING was lit up with endless no. of bulbs. This was the condition at 2:30 in the night. We walked on the 42nd street. I saw what I had been hearing about for years… Broadway theater, Madam Tussad’s (Wax) Museum (With wax statues of Nicholas Cage and Opera Winfrey in the window displays!!!), Ripley’s ‘Believe it or Not!’ building and ofcourse, Mc’Donalds. We had a snack at Mc’D and then walked to the place where America welcomes its New Year (remember those visuals on your TV from NY showing thousands of people gathered for New Year?). We saw Macy’s and Virgin Store and mind you, we had walked for almost a mile to reach the (end?) of Times Square (this square is biiiiggg!). It was really irritating to walk back all that distance to reach the Metro station to New Jersey. But, so we did! I was tired but nevertheless, it was a great feeling to be sitting at the underground metro station at 4:00 in the night, waiting for the train and with the visuals of Times Square in the head! The train came, we boarded and an hour later, we were in Jersey (the garden state). A quick cab ride brought us to the doorstep of Ankit’s house at Mulock Place in Harrison.

We dragged the luggage to the second floor apartment and all I could possible do at that point was to get a good sleep. And so I did.

More on how my time in Jersey and NY was spent in next post…

Helllooooo New York!

Finally, the announcement was made. We had been flying over the outskirts of NY when I woke up. All I could see was an endless array of light bulbs glowing as if a billion lightening bugs were neatly stacked in blocks of varying sizes! The expanse of New York City was something that I had neither seen nor imagined. It was 1145PM on 03/Mar NY time. Our flight landed at the John F. Kennedy International Airport 5 mins later. Seeing the JFK made me realize that the Delhi Airport needs another 100 years to even come close to what JFK is today!

Anyways, we walked through the corridor towards the immigration counter, only to find a line for immigration. As I stood there waiting, I could feel my heart race with excitement about how I was finally here in US, my plans for the next two months and a million other things!! The gentleman at the immigration called out for me, asked why I was here and a few questions later, I was stamped for a max. stay of SIX months in US!!

I had to wait for half an hour for my luggage to arrive, the reason for which, as one could imagine, was that my bags would’ve been placed perhaps at the bottom of the whole stack as I was one of the few people on the flight who were flying from New-Delhi to New York. All that time was utilized in thinking and drafting an emergency backup plan in case my bags didn’t arrive at all!!! (hehe!) Guess what… it takes $3 (Rs. 120) for luggage trolley!! (All I could manage for this was… wtf!!)

I then reached the customs counter, which took away a pre-filled form, asked if I was carrying any food (No points for guessing the answer) and then, I was finally in the USA. I took an AIRTRAIN to the Howard Beach Station. It was an awesome experience riding in a train (slightly smaller than Delhi Metro) which runs on an elevated track (almost making you feel as if in air and hence the name). My friend (Ankit) had come to pick me up. It was getting late (around 1:30AM) and we decided to take a train to reach his house in New Jersey.

More in the next post!

Delayed by FIFTEEN HOURS!!!

(Continued from the previous post…)

So, we boarded the next flight from Abu Dhabi to JFK, New York. The time was around 2:00AM. Just as the captain gave instructions for the crew to prepare for take-off, the window on my side became fogged up. I could barely see the outside. The camera on the In-flight entertaiment system showed heavy rain and dense fog which had suddenly appeared in a span of a few minutes!

The next announcement was made half an hour later which told all the passengers that there has been an unexpected storm at Abu Dhabi and that no flight could take off till the weather clears. So, we were asked to deboard the airplane and wait at the airport.

When the chart for rescheduled flights was displayed, we were shocked! They had, beyond any reasonable imagination, delayed our flight by FIFTEEN hours! So, now we could only take off at 5:30PM on Mar 03, 2008. I was…. what can I say (in most civilized manner i.e.!)…. aghast! Anyways, this time, the a**h***s from Etihad were least helpful and had NO answers to any of our queries and NO solutions to our problems!! We were told that the accommodation will be arranged at 7:00 in the morning. Meanwhile, we were given an option of having snacks in a 4star restaurant at the airport. So, after the snacks and hours of waiting, I received a room at the AIRPORT HOTEL (which, to my surprise, turned out to be a five-star and a quite luxurious one at that!!). We were offered complimentary lunch (which was okeish!). We boarded the flight at 5:30PM and the captain welcomed us onboard. The plane headed to the taxiway, all set to fly the skies of New York..

More in my next post… STAY TUNED!

::Cheers::

From New-Delhi to Abu-Dhabi

With so many things to be packed and so less time, it was expected to be a hefty schedule! So many clothes, food and what not! Since it was going to be my first trip to the US, I didn’t quite know what to put in and what to leave out. Anyways, after toiling hard for many days, 70 kilos of ’stuff’ was packed into three bags and I was set to go!

I had a flight with Etihad Airways (the official airline of UAE) on 02 March (One might ask the question that why did I not take Air India or Jet Airways? Well, these are 3-star while Etihad was 4, so I guess it was a safe bet!). The flight was on time and I bid India good-bye at around 11:30 PM IST. I was sitting with a gentleman from Amsterdam and since he was a globe-trotter and a fun-loving guy, we had a very interesting conversation. And yes, being from the drug capital of the world, he increased my knowledge about certain* things!! By the way, it was a wonderful flight with superb food and beverage** but a rather cold hospitality (not unexpected from a new airline!). We were right on time and landed at Abu-Dhabi at 11:30 PM (UAE time).

The airport was a beautiful sight with marvelous architecture. My next flight was in 2:30 hrs, so I went window shopping in the duty-free zone at the airport. I found out first hand that all that glitters in Abu-Dhabi is really really expensive. With all the ‘most-famous’ brands at disposal, it was a feeling that I had never experienced! Then… we boarded the next flight to John F. Kennedy Airport, NEW YORK at 2:00 AM (UAE time).

…. to be continued!

Stars and Stripes!

This is my first post during my trip to the United States. To some it might come as a surprise as I had managed to keep the preps very low-key but anyways, I apologize for not informing on an individual basis.

I’ll write more soon…. stay tuned!!!

Cheers… Adios!