A great weekend

I am off to do what I do best before describing a terrific weekend. Describing people and what I think of them. The subject this time around are the three roommates I have here, in the town of Secaucus in New York City.
Mr. F, my wingie from IIM Calcutta, a great guy to be with, but can be really juvenile at times. And can really frustrate you sometimes, with his mood swings and a totally freaky I dont care attitude. And he has some characteristic Bengali traits. Stubborn, for example, and once started, doesnt really know when to
Mr. P is the ideal small town middle class guy, who wants to show the world he is cool. This includes eating food which he doesnt really like, drinking almost daily here, while before it was once a year, smoking madly, and generally trying to live up to the great American Dream. Wanting to visit all places, and do all of NYC masti. And yeah, complaining about everything American (in private, ofcourse) and how Infosys has a better working environment than Bloomberg. Going late to office, getting back pretty early. And he is the one who wants the PPO, even perhaps more badly than I do.
Mr. H, on the other hand, is another small town middle class, who has made office his second home. His only other occupation is talking on the phone. One thing he is game for is exploring famous places in New York and adjoining cities, but at minimum cost of capital. Easily the most hardworking and the biggest fattu among us. Has a sense of responsibility though, which I kind of like. Now on to much better things.
(Now I guess you can see why I wish I live alone. Not helping matters is the fact that we live one hour from our office, and are sharing the house with one more person, the man who has subletted it to us, and is, using the cliched term, a complete asshole. (Well, not complete, but the greater I stay with him, the more convinced I become he is).

The past weekend was easily among the best I had in the recent past. It started off pathetically, though, with my "boss" telling me to go out of the office and "get a life." Even after that, I was out only by 7:00 p.m. and the evening seemed to be going nowhere when my room partners decided they werent ready to take the taxi back to Secaucus which meant going house early (before 11 p.m. anyways, when the last bus leaves NYC for our house) for them, and wasting time at the Port Authority for four hours (waiting for the 3:30 A.M. bus to take me to Boston) for me. However, F and P decided to stay back,(because they found out about a late night service!) (H went home, guess he had to talk on the phone) and the rest, to overuse a much used cliche, is history. Or in this case, the start of history.
The night got young with an expensive and good dinner, coupled with some good Irish Whisky, at Hard Rock coffee, seeing the Doors, U2, Third Eye Blind, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Metallica videos, among others. After that lavish dinner, which ended at around 12:30 a.m. while I had plans for a night club, the alcohol had taken hold of one (F), and the other had not entirely liked the New York night culture, and gave the excuse, I am feeling cold. But there was nothing much to do, we had to somehow pass time till 3;30 A.M, in the morning, (because their late night bus, was scheduled to leave 3:30 a.m, as did my Boston bus), and so we went to the Empire State Building, and just reached in time to see the shining lights of NYC. For the second time in my life, I fell in love with this amazing nightview of the best city in the world. The experience left them spellbound, just the same effect it had on me three years ago. They got high like no alcohol ever could. And the high changed into an ecstacy when we got a STRETCH LIMO ride for 20$. It was absolutely surreal! This is the kind of stuff that dreams are made of, and finally, one of mine was achieved.
The Boston bus ride was spent sleeping, and when I reached the station at 730 a.m. on Saturday morning, nothing could match the elation I felt when I met Suhas. It had been a pretty long time since we had last caught up on each other, so spending around 36 hours with him was great. It was one of my cheapest trips ever (thanks to Suhas, who played the perfect host, and my entire cost for the trip was the round trip ticket of 55$ plus four or five dollars more for tickets.), and one of the few weekends where I was so happy I stopped thinking, and didnt need alcohol (Thanks again to Suhas).
As it turned out, Suhas' roommate turned out to be a classmate from DAV college. As they say, its a small world.
The day started off with a trip to Harvard Square after breakfast, followed by a visit to the Boston Harbour. All this was done in his Honda City () (You know what to put between brackets now, dont you). After that, the lunch was pizzas at Papa Gino's. Later in the evening, went to watch Hot Fuzz - a brilliant, comic, gory movie. It was one of the most comedy, and at the same time, one of the goriest movies I have ever seen. A must watch!!! The evening was capped off with a cheap (by NYC standards, atleast) at Harvard Square, where I also had three Glenfiddich pegs for $ 6 each. You get my point now, dont you?
The next day was spent touring Coolidge Corner, and eating an Indian Buffet for 8$ only. Later, went to country side Massachusetts (One other advantage of the trip was, I learnt this difficult spelling), and it was awesome, sitting down the beach across a lake in the middle of what looked like a jungle. But there were plenty of people. The woods and the area were so quiet and silent. It reminded me of home a bit, but much more beautiful. This was again thanks to Suhas. A place to have a farmhouse, or a ranch, which is another of my dreams.
And on my way back Sunday evening to New York, I thought about this post and how its going to be. It came out well I guess.
Next: Watch out for a review/synopsis of Nick Hornby's Hi Fidelity.
For all the Geo-Enthusiasts: New York is the Empire State, New Jersey is the Garden State, and Massachusetts is the Spirit of America.

It happens only in America

A Chinese, a Russian and an Indian (all of different ages, and practically strangers) shared a lunch in a Mexican restraunt. Talking about New York and the world of finance. It was pretty cool.
After the first week of internship, the training is done. Have started with a really cool project involving portfolio analytics, which test only my quantitative and logical skils. This internship should be fun.
Have planned a trip to Boston next weekend. And California is also not too way off the radar. So should be okay.
The Bus trip and the Metro trips are complemented listening to some of the coolest songs ever written, and by the book High Fidelity. Nick Hornby, I realise, is a fantastic author.
Also, running on a parallel track maybe, Dazed and Confused is a much watch.
Another book, which like A Million Little Pieces, reminds me of myself.
In short, another book in first person about a complete loser, who shall probably get happy at the end of the book.
I hate the endings the most, because the ending of my story will be anything but happy, and I seem to find happiness in other people sorrows.
Much of cribbing, more about this fantastic book later, when I end it in another week or so, for now, good night and good luck!!!
Life is so good, it seems to be a dream. I am high!!!!!

And so it begins...

Day one:

The major highlight: Given a tour of the office by by far, the prettiest girl who ever lived. Remember Madhubala of the old Hindi films? This Spanish girl looked exactly like her, and was tall and grand. Awesome. Great.
The Office is awesome as well, and the Bloomberg Towers are considered to be one of the best buildings in New York.
The team I am joining in Bloomberg is doing the kind of work I want to do, so thats awesome too.
Also, a bar is pretty nearby, so after a hard days work (okay, or maybe, after the day's work), you know where to go.
Our house is in Secaucus, a town in NJ outside Manhattan, which means a commute time of 35 minutes.
On the cards, is a trip to California.
Life is good. Could it be any better. Yeah, maybe. If only I was staying in Manhattan (alone:P, you never know of all the possibilities that could occur.) And if beer and whisky were a little cheaper.