So I got some slack from a few of my friends for writing a post from class. If only you guys knew the *pain* we go through every Tuesday and Thursday sitting in this class…..and you would be blogging too!!!!

Anyway, because today was such a good day, I felt like blogging. But before that, I noticed that I really didn’t talk about the 4th of July long weekend. So I am going to start there first.

4th of July is of course USA’s Independence Day. This year it was on a Friday, so Neeraj and I were very lucky to have our dear friend Beth come and visit us in STL. I was very excited because Beth hadn’t seen our house yet, and I wanted her to see it.

Current Tune: Chaaliya - Tashan

Change is good…especially when that change involves technology. Before that, welcome my dear blog to our new theme. I hope that you like your new look because I love it Neeraj finally helped me get the stupid widgets to start working - so now I have a new thing to add to your sidebar.

So in the weekend I called DirecTV because I wanted to find out if we were in any type of contract. Ever since the announcement that Star Plus and Star One is now being shown on Dish Network, there has been really no motivation for Neeraj and me to keep DirecTV.

So I left off the last post with the moving on the 22nd of September. Because we had some great help from two of my colleagues (one being my old boss) from the office, also our dear friend Nishant from Decatur (now moved to Springfield), and of course Suraj, they were able to get us moved very quickly. Thanks to all that helped. Muki Chacha and family also came from Chicago that evening, and even brought Papa early from Springfield, which was very nice. We all went out to a Mexican restaurant that night, a first for Neeraj and us because we hadn’t try any Mexican restaurants because Taco Bell Zindabad! Anyway, it was pretty good, and we had a good time with all.

That night we hardly slept because everyone was together, and the next morning we were up at 4am. We had a special religious (vaastu pooja) at 6am, so Neeraj had to go and pick up the panditji from the temple and then the pooja began. This is a very normal Hindu tradition to have this ceremony in order to bless those who live in the home, those come into the home, and all that come in touch with us at this home.

We have still been in the process of getting the major stuff setup in the house. Neeraj has been Mr. Blinds as none of our windows were covered when we entered the house. Slowly he has done a great job of getting all that setup properly. I have setup the computer network with two PCs setup. I have been organizing the various photo frames and of course the kitchen as well. Today we made the investment of a lawnmower, and Neeraj had his first experience of cutting grass in 90 degree weather! You will have to ask him how it was.

MBA classes so far have been really good. Both classes have a great professors who have said that they are not here to fail anyone but ensure that all of the students are successfull in learning. That really makes you feel good that you and your professor are working towards one goal throughout the semester. I definitely feel a different atmosphere between graduate level and undergraduate level classes which was the expectation and nice to see that it is happening. Hopefully the rest of the classes will be as positive as these two.

Time passes by very quickly, but many a times I think about many things that happen to us that makes me think “I should write about this”. Most of the times it is the experiences that we face with the various companies, especially now that we are buying and interacting more often with them. For instance, today when we were in the merchandise pick-up area at this store, Sears, these two guys came out with our lawnmower and tried to put it in the trunk. They put it in and saw that it was not going through properly, but not once did they think of other ways they could make this fit. At the end, Neeraj had to tell them why not put it in the backseat, and then one of the guys was like, “uhh ok.” Guess what - it fit properly. There are more examples with many more companies, but its the lack of customer service that companies provide these days that makes me upset. You see it more often these days with airline companies (we were talking about this in our Legal, Ethical Behavior class too this past week) where they could careless the problems their customers go through to get on an airplane. Its the same with travel agents. They could careless about getting you a good deal, but they will do anything, even lie to you (i.e. 4lowfare.com - don’t use it) to get your business. They will even try to charge you extra if you use your credit card when you can go to any regular travel site like Travelocity or Expedia and not be charged at all.

But such is life and until we get more people to realize to take some action, these companies will keep on taking advantage of providing as little customer service as possible to their customers.

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

Finally got some time to write this post. The week has gone by very quickly. Now its the explanation of the surprise which is the interesting part of this post.

Mumma and Papa reached St. Louis on Friday the 13th of July quite late (11.30 pm), as you must have read in the last post. Finally getting the baggage, we headed out of the airport at around 12.30 am. We decided that we would all stay at Neeraj and my apartment and leave in the morning for Morton. We did just that, got home and watched some TV, chit chatted, and were off to bed.

In the morning, I had the alarm for 6.15am, so that we could quickly get up and leave for Morton. We ended up leaving around 7ish and on the road. Mumma was pretty tense because she knew that that with my thoujee (Papa’s elder brother, who we call Vicky Papa) and his family were going to arrive in Morton around 12 pm. She knew that she had a lot to do, cooking wise.

So Neeraj and I had an enjoyable weekend. On Saturday night, we went to Harrah’s casino (because we were bored & we are prepping up for a big Vegas trip in September) to pass the time. So we got there after 6pm and didn’t leave the actual casino area until 9.30pm! We had been to this particular casino previously with my parents (that was the first time Neeraj had been to a casino ), so we knew our way around, but there was one whole section that we had never seen before, so we thought we would scope out the machines. Yep, we just played slot machines, and that too the 5 cent slots. In the beginning we played with big money: $1 here, $1 there. But it wasn’t enough for us to build momentum on a machine, so then Neeraj started playing $5. While he was playing, I went to a separate machine and played with a $20 (the smallest bill I had at that point).

About a half hour later, my $20 had multiplied into $40, and Neeraj’s $5 had won him to $25. We were psyched that we both made some cash. So Neeraj started playing other machines, and I kept going between these two machines where I was winning. Two hours later, I had won $80, and Neeraj broke even. So then I went and cashed my 80 bucks and was playing with $20 bucks from that. After a while, I was done but Neeraj wanted to play so I had about $15 still left to play on the $20 that I had put in, so I told him that he could play that. Of course he didn’t win much more (or whatever he would win he would want to play some more ) so at the end of the day we broke even.

We ate at one of the nice Italian restaurants at the casino (Charlie Gitto’s), couldn’t finish the cheese tortellini, and we both brought it home for a delicious Sunday lunch.

Sunday we went to see the fireworks as with it being 4th of July (no work tomorrow yay!), our community was holding fireworks on Sunday. They were really great, as they do fireworks with patriotic music (in sync), it was really well done. So that was fun.

Now tomorrow we have a day off, and what are we going to do? Well hopefully study. We need to get ready for the GMAT, and tomorrow should be a good day to do that.

So I have heard through the blogvine, that we have some others that are ready for an Online Bloggers’ Meet, so please share your thoughts for July, (i.e. what would be a good Saturday or Sunday to do it, any things that we want to do that would be fun, etc..), and so that it can be setup properly. So far the date that has been talked about is Saturday, July 21, how does that sound?

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

Hopefully you all enjoyed looking @ the pics of the anniversary party. Neeraj and I were happy with the success of it. Now our home is back to being empty - with just the two of us, as Neeraj’s parents have gone back to India. They left the day after the anniversary party as we drove up to Chicago to drop them off at the airport.

In a way it was perfect timing for them to be back home with Neeraj’s elder brother and sister-in-law because very soon after the state of Rajasthan was closed due to the rioting of the Gujjar community. It hit the heart of Rajasthan, and also the heart of Neeraj’s family, as the cities affected were all around Hindaun City (Neeraj’s hometown). Thankfully Neeraj’s family (brothers & sisters and their families) are all fine and safe. The atmosphere is much better but for a few days the market was closed, and it was very tough to leave the house.

So now what are Neeraj and I doing with the time? Well we have been relaxing. But we have lots to do — such as look for a house!! Yes, Neeraj and I are getting ready to move into our first house. Since the past few months, well actually ever since we have been married, we have been leaving in various apartments. Now we have found the city where we want to settle (O’Fallon) and so we are looking for a house near our office. Currently we have a mere 1 minute commute, and we would like to keep it that way. That being said, we have slowly started looking at various homes on the Internet in our area, and soon will go physically to look at the houses. We hope to be moved in by the end of September (our lease at our current apartment will end then).

Neeraj and I haven’t bought each other an anniversary gift yet, as we were waiting to buy a new plasma or LCD TV once we move into our house. Looking forward to that.

We haven’t seen any movies for a while either!!! Neeraj and I both want to see Shootout at Lokhandwala and then once its released, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. There are some great sequels that are out in the English front such as Shrek 3, Spiderman 3, Rush Hour 3, Ocean’s Thirteen, and Pirates of the Caribbean, One of these nights will be movie night for us.

Its my dear brother’s birthday today!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY Suraj!!!!! I hope that you had a great day today. We celebrated with him and the parents yesterday which was lots of fun. Neeraj and I love getting together with them. We gave Suraj half of his gift (a baseball PS2 game) yesterday and will give him the rest of the gift next month when we go to a Chicago Cubs baseball game.

So I guess that’s it — I want to make some changes around this space, so keep in eye out. Nothing is easy and nothing works quickly, but definitely I am going to try to stay on pace and keep writing more often.

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

We went to the Amit Kumar concert last weekend, and it wasj just absolutely amazing!! He and his brother Sumeet sang songs, and they just did all of the favorites. Because we could videotape, I did the best thing, used my parents new camera and used the video on that. You can check out a clip for yourself below.

The lady singer that came with her, she was not well known, did not sing good at all. In fact she was horrible:!: She forgot the lyrics, she was off tune, etc… It was not good at all. But overall the concert was great! There were other videos that I also took, but it takes forever to upload so just enjoy the one above.

Haircut
I have gotten my haircut today!! It is looking too good (if I say so myself ). I will have to upload some pics soon, but yes, it is looking much nicer and easier to take care of now. Its down to my shoulder length with layers.

That’s all for now. Its getting late, and I should go to sleep to be able to wake up on time to go to the office tomorrow.

Another post this weekend.

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

12.23 am. Neeraj is asleep, what am I still doing up??? Our lives just hit another level. It has hit a level of busyness that I think I have never felt before. Do you know how many things are going through my head right now? I would like to write by priority but dang it, its past midnight and I should go to sleep, I have an 8.30 am meeting that I need to reach the office on time for tomorrow.

Visitor Visa
This is a beast. To make it even more interesting, Mitu Didi’s (Badi Masi’s daughter) mother-in-law (M-I-L for short) went for her US Visitor Visa interview three days ago at the US Consulate in Mumbai, and her visa was rejected due to having insufficient funds to survive in US. This has caused a bit of a scare to Manoj Bhaiya (Mitu Didi’s big bro) as he has already paid the fees for himself, Bhabhi, their daughter Aayat, his mom (my Badi Masi), and his dad (my Mausajii). That would be a whopping Rs. 25,000 for fees, and anyone who has paid that much $$ wants to make sure the investment is worthwhile. So the past two days Neeraj, my parents, and I have been dissecting piece-by-piece the interview that went on with the MIL to understand what might have been the issue for insufficient funds. The story is too long to write about now, but we have come to the conclusion that you shouldn’t hide anything during the visa interview, and you should make sure that your sponsor’s papers match exactly with the visa application form. This visa stuff is never easy and really time consuming. It will be worth it when I see Manoj Bhaiya and all of their smiling faces @ my house though. So we are not only sponsoring Manoj Bhaiya and family, but also Lata Didi/Kishore Jijaji, and then Neeraj’s parents. So we are going to know the process in/out by the end of this. Anybody else going through this, you should check out this and that websites for solid information.