England vs Kazakhstan

(live on Fox Soccer Channel)

Fabio Capello boldly predicted before the game that this would be England's best performance under him in his managerial career. It was anything but. For the occasion, Capello went with the much maligned central midfield combination of Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard. Unlike his predecessors however, he chose Gareth Barry to hold the midfield behind them, with Rooney wide on the left.

For the first half England huffed and puffed without threatening Alexander Mokin's goal. Kazakhstan's closing down was admirable and England lacked ideas, barring a couple of threatening Theo Walcott forages down the right hand side. An early snapshot for Emile Heskey on the far post was created by an excellent low cross from Walcott. On paper, Lampard and Gerrard form a lethal combination. On the Wembley pitch, they were usually at the same line, playing square passes to each other.

Kazakhstan started the second half better creating a couple of half chances. Against the run of play, England won a corner and in somewhat farcical fashion got the opening goal. Mokin ventured out to punch but was impeded by his own player, leaving Rio Ferdinand to head into an empty net. It wasn't really what England deserved, but it was what they craved to inspire the restless 89,107 strong crowd at Wembley. Again there was more evidence of how Wayne Rooney was not effective on the left. Marginalized on the left wing in the first half, he dropped deeper and deeper to get the ball. In the second half however, Shaun Wright-Phillips occupied the left wing berth and Rooney got pushed up to his favoured position.

The second England goal came from a Lampard free kick whipped in with the unlucky Aleksandr Kuchma getting a touch to head into his own net. That effectively sealed the game for England. Or so, they thought. Three minutes later, Ashley Cole made a right mess of his back-pass to God-knows-who and Zhambyl Kukeyev kept a cool head to hold Ferdinand off and fire into the back of the net. Cole was subsequently booed for the rest of the game, which was an unfair reflection of his performance. Just as the Wembley crowd's nervousness began to surface, a wonderful goal from Wayne Rooney calmed the fears. Theo Walcott got clear of his marker and cut it back to Wes Brown. Brown kept his head and picked out an inch perfect cross for Rooney to head home.

The poor marking was indicative of a tiring Kazakh performance. One suspects that their first half exhaustions took their toll as the fourth goal culminated from extremely poor defending. David Beckham had come on to a rousing reception and provided a signature free kick from the right flank. The ball hit Matthew Upson and fortuitously came out to Wayne Rooney who couldn't miss from two yards. Rooney's goal spurt continues and Manchester United fans must hope for an extended run of goals. Emile Heskey was instrumental in England's fifth and final goal. A harmless goal kick by Kazakhstan resulted in Upson winning a header in his own half. The ball fell to Heskey who flicked it on for Jermain Defoe, who had just come on for Rooney, and he raced clear of the defence to calmly slot it into the net for the clincher.

The scoreline might have been emphatic, but the performance was extremely poor. Fabio Capello still has a lot of work to do with his charges before they can be thought of as world beaters. The problems that his predecessors had still remain:Gerrard and Lampard remain incompatible as ever in the midfield, Rooney seemingly can only play with a target man, and the left side of midfield does not have a good enough permanent occupant. A sterner test for England will come in Belarus in midweek, although Mr. Capello must get his tactics right by then.

Man of the Match: Emile Heskey. Wayne Rooney might have scored two goals but the overall presence of the big man created more space for him to work into.

Moan of the Match: Fox Soccer Channel had to utilize Nick Webster and Warren Barton for their match commentary. They were obviously not at the game, appearing at the studio before and after the game. Warren Barton's evidently partisan commentary referring to England as 'we' every time England had the ball was biased. American Soccer channels are crying out for Martin Tyler and Andy Gray.

Likes and Dislikes

What I like about America in no particular order:

1. Setanta Sports
2. Fox Soccer Channel
3. GolTV
4. Madras Cafe
5. Sarvana Bhavan.
6. Surati Farsan Mart
7. US-101, CA-1
8. Julie and Ellie
9. Manhattan
10. Burrito Bol at Chipotle
11. GSN
12. KomalaVilas
13. Lane Discipline
14. Paved Sidewalks
15. XM Radio
16. ESPN's selection of Andy Gray to commentate for Euro 2008
17. Southwest Airlines
18. O'Hare International Airport
19. Recycling Measures
20. High Speed Internet

What I dislike about America in no particular order:

1. McDonalds, Burger King, Jack in the Box, Carl's Jr. etc etc
2. American food (bland)
3. Salad (and any standard dressing you can buy)
4. 90% Meat options in restaurants
5. 10% veggie options having mainly Zucchini, Mushrooms, Eggplant and Squash
6. Mexican food (with notable exception in Likes)
7. Thin Walls
8. Lack of privacy resulting from 7)
9. Number of cars on the road
10. Hillshire Farms
11. Beer craze
12. Distances
13. Utter lack of public transportation
14. Economy
15. Mail in rebates
16. High cost of labour
17. Reality television
18. MTV,MTV2 and VH1 (I thought these were music channels)
19. Use of toilet paper
20. Los Angeles
21. Number of illegal immigrants (and I don't mean from India)
22. Gasoline prices
23. California Federal and State taxes
24. American Football
25. Baseball
26. Ice Hockey
27. Lack of enthusiasm for soccer
28. Newspapers don't pay any attention to world news
29. Lack of parking
30. Over inflated real estate prices leading to higher rent in California
31. Grad student salaries
32. Long flight to India
33. American Airlines
34. LAX
35. Tap Water Taste
36. Wastage - Food, Electricity, Water etc etc
37. Lack of good trains
38. Seemingly arbitrary credit scores
39. American soccer commentators
40. The American accent

Nepal I

From an outsider's point of view, Nepal sounds like an exotic place to visit. Possibly it is, during peak season. Throughout the year except June, July and August. How convenient that we decided to visit during the peak off-season period; in the middle of July. The portents were not good straight-away, we landed at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu and it started raining. Being made of sterner stuff, we braved the rain (since the airport lacked an aerobridge). We discovered as Indian citizens that we don't need a visa to enter, and we walked in like kings, looking down at the Americans and Europeans standing in line at Immigration. We collected our bags and made our way to the Tourist Information Center in the airport, assuming it was the best way to glean information about the country.

It is quite true that the man was indeed helpful. However, most of the news he gave was bad. Sample these tidbits:

a. We were likely to encounter rain, both in the Everest and Annapurna area.
b. Given the rain, the trail would be slippery, slushy and full of leeches.
c. Five hundred rupee and thousand rupee notes are illegal in Nepal.

Given that I had carried all my money in five hundred rupee notes, this was not the best way to start a vacation - with apparently no usable money. There was a money changer right next door. Due to good foresight, I carried with me my Indian credit card. Not a moment to lose, I thought, and charged into the money changer. No luck there, they didn't accept credit card. Much to my chagrin, most money changers all over the country followed suit, making my Visa almost redundant. The next problem was getting a hotel. As we stepped out of the terminal, the hotel association booth vultures crowded around. We finally took a hotel, to which a free taxi was kindly provided (an excellent trick used by travel agents, which I'll dwell on later).

We alighted at Hotel Buddha & Garden. The name piqued me, even though I never got to see the garden. So in we went, having been promised a lovely air-conditioned room, got a drab one with a fan and a double bed. Winners never complain. I suppose that's what leads to their eventual downfall. Then the man who had conned us out of the air conditioned room led us to his own travel agency. There we were swindled out of even more money. I wonder if we were that tired not to even see the wool being pulled down over our eyes. There they were, all five employees, jobless in the off-season. We were paying for their wives and mistresses, for their Coca-Cola and Raksi. For their computers, the rent, the posters of Annapurna and Dhaulagiri, I ruminated bitterly later.

Finally, our mind was made up. We would assault the Annapurna Base Camp. Standing at 4130m above sea level, we hoped an easy six day trek would take us there. We made it longer than it could have been, a detour to nearby Poon Hill seemed worthwhile to take in the grandeur of the snow-capped peaks. A princely sum was paid out to the travel agent, for the services of the guide-cum-porter, and for the accommodation that was to be provided to us for the duration. All we had to pay for was the food. They charged 10% commission to exchange our 500 rupee notes. We put together our meager savings and hoped that it would be enough to pay our food there. That night, we took our guide out to dinner as a goodwill gesture, a gesture forced down our throats by our excellent travel agent.

That was where we got our umpteenth shock. The food was horrendously expensive. On the normal assumption that it would get more expensive as we climbed higher up the mountain, we redoubled our efforts to find a money changer who accepts credit card. We tried ATM machines in vain. The next day we were due to leave to Pokhara, second biggest city in Nepal. Hoping that the day would bring us some ideas, and eager to leave the problems of the day behind, I slept soundly.

RK, our guide, was in the lobby at 6 am. A rich Good Morning Sir as if I were an English babu accompanied. Our bus was to leave at 6:30 am. We hoisted the rucksacks onto our backs, and off we went. Through the narrow streets of Thamel, a ten minute walk brought us to the well barricaded royal palace. Thankfully the bus stop was right there. On the way we passed the bank, which said Credit Card counter. At 6 am, it was obviously closed. We hoped that somehow the problem would solve itself in Pokhara (which it didn't, as it turned out!) . The bus ride took about six hours through the mountains - Nepal doesn't seem to have that much flat land. Highway 4 connects Kathmandu to Pokhara, the route winds through the hills. It is usually accompanied by a frothing river, water mutinously stirring around claw-like rock bases of the mountains. Stops were made for breakfast and lunch, our heart sinking at the food prices at each place. Batteries for the camera were purchased for a cost of Rs.100 at a place called Rani Gaun, where we partook of lunch. The only batteries available were called Geep - which we assumed to be a local brand. Local or not, this correspondent can confirm that they didn't work for a minute.

We reached Pokhara in the afternoon and checked in to the Green Tara Hotel. Later we found we could have stayed there for half the price almost if we had not booked it with those travel agents. Brushing aside our financial difficulties, we proceeded to enjoy our stay at Pokhara, which has a spectacular lake - Phewa Tal. Nestled in the tall Himalayan mountains, the lake has an area of 4.4 square km. The weather being cloudy, the mountains were shrouded in cloud, and we couldn't see the flagship mountains that we came to see - The Annapurna South at 7129m and the MachaPuchare (Fishtail) at 6993m. There are many mountains called Annapurna - Annapurna South, Annapurna I, II, III and IV. The Nepalese government bans anybody from climbing MachaPuchare and Annapurna I. However they still have base-camps. It was these that we were aiming for.

Ironically, the guide we hired seemed incompetent and uninformative. He gave us more insight on the flesh trade in Kathmandu rather than the conditions we could expect, or whether the gear we had was sufficient. As it turned out our gear was rather insufficient - the worn out soles of my basketball shoes kept me skating around in the wet slush. He didn't even know whether we needed a permit for the Annapurna Conservation Area. As it turned out, we did. And since we were leaving at 6 am the next day, that was the time when we procured it. Luckily the hotel concierge at the Green Tara told us that the fee for SAARC citizens was Rs.200 compared to the Rs. 2000 paid by other foreigners. So off we went at 6 am the next day in the taxi to the Permit office. There we found out they needed two passport size photos of us to put on the permit. Something our guide should have told us. Sighing, we headed off to the instant photo shop right conveniently situated right outside the office. Outwardly, it looked like an ordinary house. It turned out to be the same. The woman positioned me in front of a white bed sheet on a clothesline and then took my photograph. Our dwindling resources sapped further, we sat in the taxi looking forward to our next destination.

UK..

My time in the United Kingdom started in London. We got out of Baron's Court tube station and straight to the house in Kensington. It was just off the A-4. The UK classifies their main roads as M (Motorway) roads and A roads. The motorways are like the freeways in the US, but the speed limit is 70 miles per hour outside city limits. No motorway passes through London, so there are only A roads in the city. I visited the Science Museum later on and then we went for dinner to Nando's near Earl's Court. Nando's is a Portuguese place, and asking for the food to be spicy brings out the flavour of the Peri-Peri sauce excellently.

The next day, I woke up late and did the tourist thing - hopped on a bus. For 19 quid, this bus has several lines (like a subway). The yellow and red lines hit most of the heavily trafficked tourist regions. I caught the blue line from Hammersmith and got off at Hyde Park Corner to wait for a yellow line. I went on the complete bus tour once without getting off. I saw almost all the popular sites in London. I didn't go to Madame Tussaud's, because the entry fee was a prohibitive 20 pounds. I did get off at Buckingham Palace and wandered around there for a while. I toyed with getting down at Harrod's but I decided not to be elitist and got off at Piccadily Circus. I walked to Leicester Square and didn't realize that it was close to Covent Garden, because I got on the bus again. I got off at the Strand, and walked up the Strand, unable to find Covent Garden. I got back to the bus stop and saw signs for Covent Garden. I walked to Covent Garden and saw the marketplace. It reminded me of a bazaar in India.

Later, I got off at Tower Bridge, thinking I'll walk to the London Bridge. I was very lucky, for when I was on the Tower Bridge, sirens started sounding. Now this doesn't sound very lucky, but I realized that the bridge was folding upwards to let a ship through. Many people who have stayed in London haven't had this happen to me, and it happened to me on my second day. I walked to the London Bridge underground station and we walked to a pub on the south bank of the Thames. Deciding where to go for dinner, we settled on a Chinese place at the subway stop Elephant & Castle.

The next day, we went into one of the areas that has many Indians - Tooting. We ate lunch at a Lahori restaurant. Parking was a problem. The parking wardens in London are said to be the most strict. They give you a ticket even if you're one minute over the time. Conscious of the time, we bought some snacks for the onward journey and returned. The traffic out of London was awful. Even on the motorways, the traffic was totally clogged. Considering it was a Friday afternoon, many Londoners were probably going to the country for the weekend. We were to do about eighty miles on the M40 and about 200 miles on the M6. The speed limit on the M6 was 70, but there was bumper to bumper traffic for a long stretch. It took us about 5 hours just to get to Birmingham which is about 100 miles from London. After Birmingham, the road was fairly clear. So much so, that we managed the remaining 320 miles in under 4 hours. We arrived at Glasgow at 11:00 pm.

The next day, we set out for Inverness. Taking the M80, Inverness is about 170 miles - which should take less than 4 hours to drive. However, we decided to take a long scenic route through Western Ross, and the decision was more than vindicated. Our first stop was Loch Lomond. A Loch is a Scottish Gaelic word used to describe a water body similar to a lake, but not exactly the same. It could be used for some other types of water bodies common in Scotland. The scenery became progressively better and better, green mountains standing on Lochs became commonplace. Low lying clouds obscured the view of several mountains and only added to the beauty. At the start of the road trip, we all tried speaking in Scottish accents and pronouncing words the Gaelic way. In-vur-Nayss was particularly popular to roll our tongues round. I learnt the following conversions:

Inver : River
Ben: Mountain
Glen: Narrow Valley
Firth: Fjord
Strath: Wide Valley

My drive on the automatic two door VW Polo was from Loch Lomond to Oban. Oban was where we had lunch at an Italian place on the waterfront. From Oban, I handed over the driving duties, because I would be doing some driving the next morning. We wound on single lane roads through Western Ross going past Lochs, streams and the highest mountain in the UK - Ben Nevis. At a height of 1300m, it is about 400m higher than the altitude of Bangalore. It's cloud shrouded peak added an air of mystique and on the way back, we saw some snow near the peak. We reached Inverness at approximately 10:00 pm, a 12 hour drive from Glasgow. Went for dinner to a fancy Indian place called Cinnamon. Stayed at a hostel that was close to the city center. Our six peopl room was empty so it was just the four of us that slept on the bunk beds that were available.

The next morning, we set off back to Glasgow on the M80. Stopped at Loch Ness at Urquhart Castle. It was raining, but that didn't prevent us from looking for the monster. My next driving assignment was from Fort William to Glasgow in torrential downpour. The last twenty miles or so was on the motorway, so I felt almost at home going at about 85 miles per hour. Immediately as we reached Glasgow, we took the tube to the city center and then a train to Edinburgh. From the bus stop, we walked the Royal Mile, it stretches a mile away from the castle and terminates at the Parliament building with unconventional architecture. From there, we climbed Arthur's seat which offers a great view of Edinburgh. At this point, the fickle weather of Scotland decided to change and we battled gusty winds and torrential rain on the way down from Arthur's seat.

Soaked to the bone, we went back to the railway station. In most parts of the UK, you are charged when you go to the toilet. I handed in my 20p and used the dryer to dry my clothes more than my hands. Quick train back, burger at Burger King and went to Glasgow bus station on Buchanan St. Took the overnight bus back to London. The sun rose so early, that when I woke up I thought it was 7 am and we were nearly at London. It turned out to be 4.21 am and I cursed the sun and tried to sleep again. Reached London and took the tube back from Victoria to West Kensington and slept the morning away. That evening we went down to Greenwich on a train called the DLR. The DLR passes through the newer financial district of London, Canary Wharf. At Greenwich, did the touristy thing of taking photos with either foot each side of the meridian. We then went to Wapping for a drink at quaint Captain Kidd's pub and then dinner at a pretty fancy Italian restaurant.

The next day, I went to the Museum of Natural History which has a nice dinosaur section. There is a mechanical T-Rex that scares the children with it's roar. I then went to the Victoria & Albert Museum and wandered around looking at sculptures and Indian paintings. Soon, it was time to leave and we took the tube back to Heathrow Terminal 4. A goodbye later I was on the plane to Mumbai. I must say that the food was much worse on this leg than the San Francisco-London leg. Moreover, the in-flight entertainment was scaled down to such an extent that I tried to sleep all through. A Gujarati woman with three kids befriended me and I filled out all their disembarkation cards to help out.

It struck me as I landed in Mumbai, how as soon as you come out of an international flight there are human vultures all over all ready to make a quick buck. Some guy wanted a 5 pound note just for pushing my trolley from the terminal to the taxi. Nearly showed him one of my fingers. Tipped the taxi driver 20 rupees. He baulked. Come on, that's half a dollar. What does he expect? At the Spice Jet counter, the lady charged for my excess baggage. I thought domestic was supposed to allow luggage when I've caught an international flight. After all the mess, it started raining when I had to get on to the shuttle that took us to the plane. Got wet while boarding and disembarking the shuttle. Patently irascible after this sequence of incidents, I nearly snapped at the air hostess who gave me just a mint. I could have bought that mint for 25 paisa. When she offered to sell me a sandwich or juice for 20 rupees each I was so frustrated that I pretended to sleep. Some semblance of normalcy returned when I was finally in Bangalore, and realized I was going Home.

BA...

Stands for Bay Area, and is the symbol for BART and British Airways. I successfully drove the three hundred miles to Santa Clara in spite of G.'s constant prattle. She still thinks she won at the Word Building game we played to kill time, even though I won comprehensively. We stopped at Atascadero to get some Pizza Express. At that time my rear was very sore (and I don't mean the rear of the car) and I welcomed the rest. The landscape was pretty unremarkable after Atascadero around the exit for Vandenberg Air Force Base. It was pretty barren and desert-like. Luckily the speed limit on that stretch was 70, so I promptly pushed Julie to do 85. It was also extremely windy, and there was a strange noise on the driver's side, so I pulled over for a while and filled in some air in the tires. Eventually when the wind died down, I realized I didn't have to worry at all as G. pointedly pointed out.

The south part of the San Francisco Bay Area has a lot of Indians. We could see the first signs of Silicon Valley when we were near San Jose. The two lane freeway became five lanes wide. Tall buildings of software companies appeared into sight. I got to Santa Clara about five and a half hours after leaving home - which I think is pretty good, considering we had a forty five minute stop for lunch. That night we ate at a place called Grand Indian Buffet. The variety of the food was mind-boggling though the quality was not all that great. I started off with a Masala Dosa and some Idlis (after six long months) and Sambar. The Uthappam was decent too. After the South Indian fare, came the usual Naan and the "Paneer Butter Masala" type of dishes. A huge chicken spread was available too. It was capped off with Gulab Jamun, Carrot Halwa and Mango Ice-Cream. All in all, a decent Indian meal after days, so I was pretty happy.

The next couple of days were for rest and recuperation, so I took full advantage by watching the NBA finals on the Samsung plasma HDTV. When I start earning (i.e. a decent amount of money), I've decided I'm going to buy a HDTV and get channels from India, especially Headlines Today. The day after rest, I went to Palo Alto. University Ave seems an excellent place to just chill. Initially of course, I took the wrong side of University Ave and went into East Palo Alto, where the decrepit run down houses bore no signs of bead shops. I couldn't even see house numbers as I was looking for #158 but to no avail. When University Ave. finally culminated in Highway 84 I knew I had come the wrong way. I took a quick U-turn and went the other side. The road narrowed and I entered downtown Palo Alto. The shops immediately showed an increase in prosperity and I knew I was close. I drove for another 10 blocks before I found free parking (glory be to Stanford!) and wandered around University Ave. Purchased all beading equipment successfully and walked down University Ave. I considered eating at Hyderabad House, a Paneer Roll that might have reminded me of Kabab Corner back home. Finally, I settled for another buffet - at a place called Darbar.

The next day I drove to the place with probably the most concentration of Indians, Fremont, CA. I parked in the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station. I took a round-trip from Fremont to San Francisco (10$). This particular train starts from Fremont and goes up the East Bay. We passed the relative squalor of South Hayward into the industrial areas of Oakland. After the West Oakland station, the train goes under the Bay Area and enters San Francisco. I got off at the first stop - Embarcadero. The Embarcadero or Herb Caen Way skirts the East side of the Bay. All the piers of San Francisco are on the Embarcadero. I walked from Pier 1 to Fisherman's Wharf. Pier 39 is a huge draw to tourists with lots of eateries and entertainment joints. A juggler especially caught my fancy, not with his juggling acts but with his patter. He made out to be a very ordinary juggler but he could easily juggle three razor sharp machetes, while balanced on a plank placed on a circular pipe. I toyed with going to Alcatraz, a cruise which would have taken a couple of hours. I also toyed at going to the Alcatraz souvenir shop and buying a prison T-shirt. I did neither, though I saw an extremely beautiful blonde woman who was wearing a tube top with prison colours. I saluted Alcatraz and finally settled on a Dreyer's ice cream to ward off the heat and headed back to Pier 1.

The next day was the half an hour drive to Foster City, CA. It seems like one of the lonelier places in the Bay Area. One can't reach Foster City by BART. The BART terminates at San Francisco International Airport, on the west side of the bay. However, the west side is well connected by Cal-Train. I missed a chance to go on this double-decker train. The main draw of Foster City is a lagoon. Kayaks can be rented and the lagoon isn't small, so kayaking is a fun activity one can do there. I didn't have much time that day, so I didn't do it and we returned to Santa Clara.

The next afternoon I ate lunch from Swati Tiffins. This take-out place is just off Lawrence Expy, and the prices are very cheap; or at least comparatively cheaper than the other Indian places. After lunch, I drove to north Oakland for the weekend. I was met by J. and Raja. Raja was initially a little shy but then she warmed up to me by stretching out on my lap. She also has the typical cat mentality to stalk for prey. This was evident when she tried to hunt down a laser beam, one provided by a key-chain. She also bites, not very viciously, because I got bitten quite a bit (pun not intended). We went to Peet's on 4th St, in Berkeley. I remembered the chaat place we had visited six months back, on the way back from Napa. Chaat Cafe, on University Ave. apparently pales in comparison to Viks Chaat Corner, also close by, on Allston Way. In the evening, we went to Alameda, and dinner at an Italian place.

In the morning, we went to Nomad Cafe, where J. and a musician called Jacques Ibula were performing. Armed with a guitar, and accompanied by J. on the violin and a bass guitarist, they touched the hearts of the people in Nomad Cafe. A lady even cried when Jacques was talking about Africa. After that, me, J. and K. played basketball at the local park. Tired out after that, I had lunch and then we went to Berkeley Bowl. A very famous shopping center in Berkeley, it's always filled with people. We managed to make it before closing time. Berkeley Bowl is so famous that it's packed at almost all times. It was announced twenty minutes before that they were going to close. When it became closing time, there was still a long line at all checkout counters. Very humorously, the announcement was "Berkeley Bowl is officially closed".

I left after the shopping at Berkeley Bowl, back to Santa Clara. Next day, being a Monday, we thought we would go to downtown Mountain View. Castro St. was a let-down. It ended too quickly. We couldn't find the chaat place, so we finally made it back up El Camino Real to Indian Chaat House. Unfortunately, the quality of food wasn't that great here either. Apart from the Salt Lassi, the other items were not good at all. When I ordered Masala Puri, I got a Puri that was made of methi and some vegetable. Not classic chaat one felt. Amusingly, the place had TVs that showed Hindi songs with English sub-titles. One ridiculous sub-title said "Look at the colorful tie I wear" and other such literal translations.

The next day, I left Julie at Foster City and caught a cab to San Francisco International. My Asian Vegetarian meal on the San Francisco-London was surprisingly good, considering the food that British Airways served last time. As usual, I caught a couple of movies, one being Don, which was really awful. The action parts of the movie were achieved with a lot of hand-waving without any substance. Because of my online check-in, I got a window seat, I could see the whole of downtown San Francisco and I saw the Rockies when I flew over them. When we flew over London, I saw Craven Cottage, home of Fulham Football Club. At the time I didn't know I was going to stay close to there. When I arrived in London, I was presented an Oyster card for getting around the London underground. We took the blue line back to Baron's court but I was denied the sleep of the just until that night.

LA

When one drives to Los Angeles on the southbound 101 highway, one encounters 10 lanes of highway after entering Los Angeles county from Ventura. The LA traffic is so awful, that all 10 lanes of traffic are totally jammed. Staples Center is on S Figueroa Blvd about a mile off the 101. We parked at a place pretty close by, where they were charging us $15. As we walked to take our seat, I imagined Mike Breen and Mark Jackson on ABC Sunday doing the pre-game briefing. Just as we entered the arena, the Phoenix team roster was being announced. No major surprises, that Raja Bell was starting and would be guarding Kobe Bryant.

Then the lights dimmed, and the techno-tron showed past moments of glory for the Lakers, some dunks of Kobe Bryant among others. There was a loud cheer as Kobe was introduced for the Lakers. Most people in Los Angeles see him as the new savior of the Lakers after the fallout with Shaquille O'Neal which led to Shaq being traded to the Miami Heat. However, Kobe Bryant was totally eclipsed on the day by my pick for the MVP this season - Steve Nash. Nash was in truly inspired form, setting the pace early on and setting up "The Matrix", Shawn Marion for three early dunks. Urged on by the crowd, Kobe Bryant's heroics kept them in the game till half time.

At half time, we decided to do the typical American experience, and each had a burger, fries and coke from the McDonald's at Staples Center. The second half produced some telling fast break play from the sixth player of the year Leandro Barbosa, with some typical robust play from Amare Stoudemire. The Lakers rallied briefly but their resolve trailed off towards the end and Phoenix won it quite comfortably. Understandably, the mood around Staples was downbeat. We were downbeat too, but of course took a lot of pictures of the empty arena after the dejected crowd had trooped out. A visit to the Lakers' store set us back by a bit of money too - I bought a styroam No.1 finger for $8. I nearly had a picture of myself with Bill Walton (Hall of Famer and one of the top fifty players ever) but some man had asked me to take a picture of him and his son, and I didn't want to disappoint them. Bill was much taller than me, anyway!

There were the usual faces in the crowd - Jack Nicholson at his customary courtside seat, I suspect I saw Denzel Washington. Jack Black appeared on the techno-tron and waved to the crowd when his face was on there. I also think I saw Adam Levine (of Maroon 5). Eva Longoria, of course was not to be found - she was probably attending a San Antonio Spurs game.

After the game, we drove through downtown Los Angeles. The tall buildings reminded me of New York, though they were not that many. We continued on 1st Ave, and turned off on Hollywood Blvd passing Sunset Blvd on the way. Sunset Blvd is the in-place to be, with famous parties, but we didn't stop there. One would expect Hollywood Blvd to be very posh filled with glamorous stores and posh eateries. However, it is a let-down. Despite the fact that the sidewalks are paved with golden stars with celebrities names on them, the neighborhood looked fairly run down to me. As we kept going North, however, there were signs of more tourist oriented buildings. The Hollywood and Highland center, as the name suggests is on the corner of Hollywood Blvd and Highland Ave. This building houses the Kodak Theatre - home of the Academy Awards. I was related the story of where the red carpet was, and the huge crowd that throngs there to cheer on the celebrities for the Oscar.

We also went to the Grauman's Chinese Theater. Here, handprints and footprints of celebrities are immortalized in cement. I found that my hands fit Jack Nicholson's. Hand-Twin anyone?

NY

I spent that night at Harvard Square. Harvard University, established in 1636 has lot of stately looking buildings in it's campus. As with all other universities, it has felt the force of the generation change. John Harvard's proud statue with the golden boot should usually be rubbed for good luck. A rather crude but popular graduating gesture from Harvard students ensure that the same boot is urinated upon before graduation. For this reason, I was advised not to rub the foot for good luck. Rather amusingly though, I did see a bunch of tourists rubbing the foot for good luck. Another interesting story that I did learn is that the story of Harvard turning down Leland Stanford was nothing more than an urban legend. The much popular hoax of the rise of Stanford from the rejection of Harvard has been circulating in e-mails around the world. I even saw where the famous Harvard string theorists sit and the equations and the mathematics that goes around such research.

Harvard University owns most of the property in Harvard Square. So, the shops around are their choice. Predictably, one would not find a low budget option to eat in Harvard Square. The crown of the jewel is Burdick's, an extremely expensive chocolate place. Even though it has its critics, I found its hot chocolate to be excellent and extremely apt for a chilly Cambridge night.

The next day we set off to upstate New York. Up-state means North in the state. We went to the capital of New York state - Albany. Many people confuse the capital of New York to be New York City, but actually it's unassuming little Albany. The drive from New England was punctuated with clumps of unfrozen ice in the laboring spring yet to melt on the roadside. The undergrowth didn't change much, the same barren trees could be seen right into New York. The reason New York is not part of New England, is because it's a Dutch colony. Downtown Albany is dotted with the usual skyscrapers that are seen downtown in any city in the United States. One of the most famous buildings in the landscape is the Egg, where concerts and such like are held.

Niskayuna, NY is at the crossroads of Troy and Schenectady. It's a small place with nothing much to see apart from Lock 7, a river lock on the banks of the river Mohawk. A lock is useful for boats when there is a sudden waterfall. It allows the boat to go through a small channel and lowers it through the steep grade. Unfortunately I didn't get to see this highly useful mechanical device in action because there was not one boat in sight. It was still a little cold, and we could see ice on the banks, so we attributed the lack of boats to the cold. The quaint town of Niskayuna was left behind the following night.

We needed to take the I-90S towards Manhattan. Instead of drving around the crowded Manhattan area, we decided we would stay at Jersey City, in New Jersey across the river Hudson. The river divides the states of New York and New Jersey. We stayed at a fairly low budget area where the price of Gasoline was ridiculously low (2.30$ per gallon). People who pay $3.50 per gallon (like I do) in Southern California would have empathized with my outrage. The breakfast next day, though free, was woefully inadequate. A couple of bagels and muffins were strewn around a decrepit looking kitchen counter, while the orange juice tasted worse than Rasna (if that can be believed). Later that day, we caught the bus to Manhattan. Our tour guide was a veteran of twelve episodes of the popular TV show, Law and Order. This titbit of information was gleaned from the driver after the tour. The two most popular ways of getting from Jersey City into Manhattan are the two underwater tunnels - the Lincoln Tunnel and the Holland Tunnel. All suffer from traffic congestion during the day and we finally ended up taking the slow agonizing Lincoln tunnel.

Central Park was the first stop. It stretches from 59th St. to 110th St, a whole 51 blocks in central Manhattan. This 2 mile stretch of man-made park offers much needed to respite to the New Yorkers from the constant bustle in that part of Manhattan. It is said that there are parts of the park where one cannot see the skyscrapers and cannot hear the traffic. From central park, we drove around Manhattan, gazing at the abundance of the skyscrapers. We drove south towards Greenwich Village and passed Times Square. Times Square appears to be the hub of New York City. The large plasma screens advertisements and sometimes general news. There's a ticker giving news and stock information. NBC has studios at Times Square, and so does Fox, ESPN and other major television broadcasters. We would return to Times Square at a later point of time to visit Hard Rock Cafe, New York. On the way, we saw the Soup Nazi's (from Seinfeld) restaurant. It's called the Soup Kitchen. The Soup Nazi is opening a chain of outlets in downtown Manhattan called the Soupman. I would have loved to visit, but it was too much to do in just one day.

We continued down Broadway passing the Museum of Natural History, and took a small detour to stop at Rockefeller Center which is next to Radio City Music Hall. We then through the park and crossed to famous 5th Avenue. The fashion district was pointed out at 5th Avenue, SAKS 5th Avenue being one of the famous stops. Continued past the Museum of Modern Art and also stopped at the famous Grand Central Station for a quick bite and took in the sites of the huge number of rail tracks that originated here. We also went further south into SoHo. SoHo which is also called Greenwich Village derives it's name from SOuth HOuston (pronounced House-ton). Here the regular rectangular grid of NYC is lost and the roads are slanted and irregular. The artist community is the most active in SoHo, and it houses a large gay community too. The next stop was Ground Zero. Construction has now begun on "Freedom Tower" a skyscraper slated to replace the fallen twin towers. From there, on to Ellis Island and Liberty Island. We baulked at the length of the cruise to Liberty Island, and viewed the Statue of Liberty at a fair distance. We went back into Jersey City and took the subway into NYC and went back to Madison Square Garden and Times Square among other places.

The next day we drove back to Boston. That night was Belly Dancer night at the local Middle Eastern place ironically called The Middle East at Central Square. There was only one belly dancer disappointingly, though the money that was poured on her when she was dancing was quite copious. Before I left Harvard, I had a chance also to sample authentic American diner cuisine. Having missed out on Seinfeld's diner in New York, I grabbed this opportunity.

The next day it was back to the business of flying across the continent. My flights to Chicago and LAX were really close to the connecting flights departing from there. Thankfully I made both and reached home. On the flight back from LAX, I did sit next to a woman, who held her daughter on her lap. Next to the woman, was her mother who looked suspiciously whenever I tried to make the baby laugh. Annoyed at my success, she engaged her daughter in a conversation and tried to feed the baby lots of fried chicken from KFC. The baby was still quite engrossed in her game with me where both of us were trying to peer through the window of the cramped tiny aircraft. As we landed, the baby clapped her hands in glee.