AR Rahman concert in NYC!
Had been to the AR Rahman concert in NYC. The show was awesome, inspite of the sub- standard acoustics. The array of performers was amazing, with each of them performing 3 to 4 songs each. SPB , Udit Narayan, Sonu Nigam, Shankar Mahadevan, Hariharan, Sukhwinder singh ,Mahalaxmi,Sadhna Sargam and Vasundhara Das. My pick of the evening was Shankar Mahadevan for the amazing “Ghanan Ghanan “ from Lagaan and Siva Mani for the wonderful performance on the drums!!!
The major irritant was Sukhwinder Singh who changed his costume 4 times within 4 hours , finally ending up in a total white costume and then blowing kisses to the crowd. I thought that was funny!!!
The sound system could have been better, though.For a musical show to have such acoustics is criminal. Unfortunately cameras were banned in the auditorium…Check out some pictures at rediff site
Philly and the Cheese Steak!!
Lived in Philly and not had the Philly Cheese Steak?? Well, I remedied that situation a few weeks back. Did some preliminary search via google (what else!!) to figure out that the best Philly eateries are in south street ,downtown Philly. Then I asked a few colleagues on suggestions for the most authentic Philly cheese steak in Philadelphia and surprisingly all of them directed me to the same place. Jim’s steaks in Philly downtown .
The place was overcrowded , with a huge queue of people waiting to order their steaks! The steaks were done well ( thank goodness!…I still can’t get myself to eat the rare steak) , loaded with cheese and have a pretty good range of toppings you can choose from!! It did convert me from a steak hater to a steak eater!!
Wildlife
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? It is a common tongue twister which I have used a lot when I was a kid. I didn’t know that woodchucks actually existed till i saw a woodchuck!! Fox Chase has a good amount of woods surrounding it and the wildlife it harbors includes woodchucks (before you ask…there are no foxes!!).Woodchucks look like overgrowm squirrels and they have a tendency to stand on their hind legs while eating their food!, which gives them a very playful look.
Trivia for the day: Woodchucks are also called Groundhogs. There is actually a holiday dedicated to these creatures in US called the Groundhog day. According to local wisdom, this is the day the groundhogs emerge from its hibernation and observes his own shadow. If  the shadow is visible, it means six more weeks of winter, if not– celebrate for Spring is here.
