Weekend at Akshay's

This past weekend was spent in NY with ma-in-law and my parents...I gotta say, despite the hectic schedule, I had a great time with ma-in-law and my parents...felt pretty special to spend time with the "whole" family...apart from meeting Akshay, of course:) and yes, contrary to popular Zee TV soaps, I think I have a very sweet ma-in-law who pampered me with all her yummy cooking, making most of my favorite dishes and told me cute little stories of Akshay....It was really cute watching the two moms chatting away and trailing the pack while we were walking through Manhattan.

Some of the things we did this weekend:

- UN Building tour: This was actually a pretty informative and interesting tour. Especially fascinating were the gifts from different countries that are members of the UN - The Chinese gift was particularly spectacular, carved ivory which took 2.5 years to make (and I forget what it symbolizes) but it had carved trees, bridges, etc. I'd kill to get one of those little trees! Akshay has been on the tour several times so he was able to provide more nuggets of information than the tour guide herself. The tour guide was an interesting woman named Olga, who was dressed in traditional Swedish clothes, but at the end of the tour, when people asked where she was from, pat came the reply "San Fransisco"...hmmmm..... should have guessed! She was relatively stern and unfriendly, but was able to narrate the mission of the UN and stories of histroical significance at around 200 WPM. One piece of information that stuck out in my head was that as soon as we enter the UN building area, we are on international territory, and not US terrirory. As my Dad recalled later, When the President of Iran needed to visit the UN, the US refused to give him a visa, even though he agitatedly debated that the UN was international territory. Every part of the building reeked of power and made me feel very important as I sat on wooden chairs in large auditoriums, thinking to myself that some of the world's most powerful people gathered here to make decisions of tremendous significance - walking into the General Assembly and the Security Council, my instant wish was someday to be sitting on these wooden chairs, with the golden dome in the background, commanding the world's most important diplomats. It's always debatable how successful the UN has been in brokering peace...but nevertheless, the corridors of power beckon me....Till then though, I'll just have to make do with tours of the building...

- Chicago Musical: the Ma and pa in-laws need to fill in this one

- NY Philharmonic: This was AWESOME! The conductor Bramwell Tovey was fantastic - he knew his music and had the ability to narrate its virtues in an extremely entertaining and simplistic manner....Kevin Kline narrated Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and the overral experience was refreshing and mesmerising. It would be wonderful to catch more of their concerts in the park. We are scheduled to see John Williams at the Philharmonic on Sept 15, thanks to Akshay:-)

- Rockerfeller's Top of the Rock: This was proudly proclaimed by Akshay to be the best view of NY city and Jersey, better than the Empire State Building...well, I kinda agree...gorgeous views of the Upper East and West side, the Hudson river, Central Park, etc. etc. Akshay has the view up on his blog. I am still waiting on the pics he took from his camera. We took one of us with Upper East Side in the background, With Akshay beaming and hoping and proclaiming this to be our future residence. It was a blistering 96 degrees, so we din't stay up too long, but worth a trip nonetheless.

- Brunch at Mon Petit Cafe: This is a cute little French restaurant on the Upper East Side, very close to Akshay's place. The story goes that this is where he wanted to take me on our first date, but I, exhausted from partying all night and eager to catch the play I had gotten tickets for, gave him one hour and one cup of coffee. So, this time round, Akshay was insistent that we go here for brunch. Despite the lack of vegetarian options, the food was um um good....Especially the Brioche French Toast and the chilled Tomato Soup (who knew chilled soup could ever be this tasty!)...a good two hour long brunch to get us ready for a 20 block walk to the Rockerfeller in 96 degree heat....boy! we sure worked the brunch off!