Bonnya’s concert in NY and some of my updates

It has been a while since I posted a new entry in my blog; what are my updates? Well – I got a new hair cut, did laser vision correction, enjoying nice summer weather, lost some weight, started going to the gym, started taking singing lessons, life is too busy and time is running fast! Every summer, NYC offers variety of events (both American and Deshi events). There are free shows and plays in different parks in Manhattan. There are also deshi melas, cultural shows/events, picnics, BBQ, etc. during the weekends.

Last Saturday on July 18th I went to one of these Deshi events in the evening. It was Rezwana Chowdhury Bonnya’s concert on Rabindra Sangeet (Tagore Songs) in Saint Peter’s Church in Manhattan. This was an experimental event of taking Rabindra Sangeet to the next level. They used 10 different types of instruments with her singing (both Eastern and Western instruments). The instruments they used were: Harp, Piano, Cello, Saxophone, Violin, Flute, Veena, Sitar, Tobla, and Mandira. I personally enjoyed this event, mostly because she sang the songs really well, the environment was very nice and pleasant; men and women dressed in cotton Panjabies and Saaris that gave me a feeling that I was in Dhaka enjoying this program. I enjoyed her singing also because I have been trying to learn to sing Rabindra Sangeet, and I know how good she was singing compared to mine . I recorded the entire show so that I can listen to her singing later on and learn from her. I was also thrilled to hear her singing live in a quiet environment. Overall, the concert was great! I went with my brother, bhabi (brother’s wife), my music teacher and her husband. After the event, we had dinner and chatted and then went home. It was a great evening after all!

Feeling sooo very happy!

Since yesterday I have been feeling very, very happy. The world seems sooo nice. The weather is nice, the nature looks so beautiful. And I have been feeling extremely cool and happy. I feel like I was under a lot of stress, and now everything is clear and sunny. Feel like to sing along this song:

My Laser Vision Correction

I have been wearing glasses since I was in 10th grade to see far things more clearly. Recently I have been thinking of having laser vision correction and been to a few doctors for consultation. And guess what … I got all confused!!! In the beginning I thought laser vision correction was all the same and I just needed to carefully choose a doctor who had the most procedures done. But as I went to three different doctors, and they are using different technologies, I started to get confused.

First I went to Gotham Lasik and met Dr. Brian Bonanni; the office was the nicest and quietest (I was the only patient there), and also cleanest. Dr. Bonanni was also very nice. He uses some technology called Allegretto Wave to do LASIK surgery. The cost to do the treatment from him would be almost $5000. Seemed kind of expensive to me; plus I wanted to check with some other doctors first before making the final decision.

Then I went to Manhattan LASIK Center (MLC) for a consultation. This place seemed very busy (like to mention that they have ad on newspaper saying $399/eye). When I went there, I even saw a woman in the office who had done the surgery a day before, and she was fine and smiling. Looked promising to me . They did the test, and the finance guy told me the cost of the surgery would be $3000. I was like wow! Sooo cheap (even though I was not getting the $399/eye advertised deal). Then when I met the doctor, he told me I was not qualified for LASIK, but he would do LASEK on my eyes because my cornea is too thin for LASIK. Confused because Doctor Bonnani never told me I was not qualified for LASIK and he was going to do the LASIK on me

Then I went to another place called Park Avenue Laser Vision to clarify if I really did not qualify for LASIK; but this place only does LASEK and was very expensive (also a 5k), and they use the same laser technology as the Manhattan LASIK Center (VISX STAR S4).

Now there is more confusion: (1) why Dr. Bonanni at Gotham Lasik told me that I qualified for LASIK when the doctor at Manhattan LASIK Center said I did not because I had too thin cornea; (2) Dr. Bonanni’s office says their technology (Allegretto Wave) is newer, safer, better than VISX STAR S4 used in MLC when MLC claims that their technology is better, safer, more accurate, and so on.

With having a full time job, I can’t go to too many places for consultation. I will update my status on this when I make up my mind … Anyone giving me any suggestion would be highly appreciated!

Update (05/01/09): with all the confusions and everything, I have decided not to have the surgery at this moment; may be within a few months or a few years or so.

Update (06/02/09): I had the procedure (customvue PRK or LASEK) done at Diamond Vision on Saturday May 30th; the total procedure took only about 2 minutes per eye, and was totally painless both during and after. I took complete rest on Saturday and Sunday. I felt a very small amount of pain and a foreign body sensation in my eyes on both days. Yesterday (Monday) when I woke up, I felt no pain at all, and I came to work also. But I could not read clearly. But today I can read clearly and feeling very happy.

Update (06/12/09): The contact from PRK was removed on June 5th; since then I have been feeling some pain in my eyes and having difficulty reading. Still my up close vision is very blurry. Doctor said it’s normal; but I am not sure how long it will be like that. I hope soon I will be able to read again normally!

Update (06/16/09): This is the third week since my surgery; I have been seeing much better this week, especially with reading and using a computer – last week I was not able to read at all; this week it has got much better; still my reading is not perfect, but I can manage to do my work and read an article, etc. now.

Update (07/17/09): Today I had my 7-week post-op appointment with the doctor; she checked my cornea and it looked good. Then she asked me to read from the reading chart and I was able to read even the last line very easily from the chart (which is a perfect vision or 20/20); then she put one line smaller on the screen and guess what, I was even able to read that line as well, and that’s a 20/15 vision (better than perfect)!!!!!! I was sooo thrilled and happy with the result! I think this is one of the best decisions I have ever made to get laser correction of my eyes. Now not only that I don’t have to wear glasses or contacts anymore, I even have a vision that is better than perfect!

Have you heard of Redbox?

redbox

Those of you who are movie fans …

I just read on Yahoo today that there is a new movie rental service using a Kiosk called Redbox that lets you rent a movie DVD for just $1 per night. You can find a redbox Kiosk in select MacDonald, Stop&Shop, Wallgreens, Wal-Mart and such retail stores. You can return the DVD to any Redbox Kiosk. Is not it amazing! They have all the latest DVD releases. You can go to Redbox’s web site and try for yourself. I am thinking of trying it myself as well …

Picture Courtesy: Yahoo

Movie Review: Khondo Jibon (Healing Life)

Khondo Jibon (Healing Life)

I watched the screening of the Bengali feature film called “Khondo Jibon” (“Healing Life”) on Saturday February 28, 2009 at Tribeca Cinemas in Manhattan; it was hosted by NYBAP (Network of Young Bangladeshi American Professionals). The film started at 7:30 PM and ended at around 9 PM. There was questions and answers session after the movie with the directors, producers, and a lead actor. They were very talented; none of them are professional media personnel; they have their own professional jobs, and they worked on this movie on the side.

This writing is actually not exactly a movie review; it is more of talking about a character in this movie: Shapla (American name Shelly). She may seem to be a negative character to many viewers of the movie; but to me she was a true and honest character. She lost her Mother at age of 5, and her Father raised her all by himself. She was raised in New York and was a Princeton graduate. She was pretty, intelligent, and had a mind of her own; yet she married the guy that her father chose who was a son of her father’s 1971 Bangladesh-Pakistan War friend and who just came to New York from Bangladesh with a visit visa; she married him just so that she would not have to hurt her father even though by marrying this guy she emotionally hurt herself!!! She tried to remain married to this guy, she cooked for him, cleaned for him, filled immigration papers for him, did everything for him as a wife, while also working full time in a highly competitive field at Goldman Sachs. But all her father and her husband Rana wanted was for Rana to get success in his life and she would be supporting him to get his success by being next to him all the time, by helping him with getting a Green Card, finishing his education, and achieving his dreams. But at one point, she realized she was cheating on her father, she was cheating on her husband Rana, and she was cheating on herself by trying to be a good wife to a guy who she didn’t love; she also realized that she didn’t believe in marrying someone she didn’t know, did not love and had nothing in common with.

To me, Shapla made a mistake by marrying Rana this way. She was a soft girl, and her father emotionally manipulated her into marrying Rana. This is not right to use a nice, intelligent girl like her into helping a guy getting success by having her being married to him – unless she loves him before she marries him; parents should not put their daughters into this type of marriages so their daughters can help a strange guy getting success in his life. What about your daughters’ life? Do not give your precious daughter away to someone so that person can achieve his dreams by using your daughter. Shapla is a potential girl herself; and she should be with someone who is strong enough to achieve his dreams on his own as well as also can help her to achieve her dreams; someone who she can love and respect down the road …

P.S. My review of Shapla character here is not exactly what the movie shows; I guess I have twisted the character a little bit to use it as an example of what many deshi girls in the USA have been experiencing and how their lives have been thrown into an unknown future by some parents and by some greedy guys who are only looking for a way to get legal status …

Cooking after a long time

For the last one and half year, I have been eating either from my Mom or my elder sister’s kitchen as I have been very lazy to cook. But last week, I decided that I should start cooking in my own kitchen. I was not sure how the food would come out to be after the cooking. I did the food shopping last week, and yesterday I set myself to cook. And surprisingly it was not so bad. Normally if I cook after a long time, it does not come out that good for the first couple of days; but this time, it was an exception. I made spinach bhaji, daal, chicken curry with potato, and tomato sous (all Bangladeshi dishes). I had my sister and her family, and my brother eating dinner in my place. It made me feel really good.

My next plan is to try to see if I can manage to work and cook at the same time; and I am also going to try cooking different dishes; kind of like picking cooking as a new hobby. Let’s see how it goes …

P.S. There is a good Bangladeshi cooking site at Rumana’s Kitchen

Who started the war in GAZA?

Some Movie Reviews

Today I came to work after three days; I have three days weekend in December (taking every Monday off in December from my vacation as I did not use up all of my vacations allocated for the year and they will expire by end of the year). Anyway, last Friday we had holiday party in the evening at work; so on Friday starting from the lunch break, we all the girls at work were spending time in getting ready, putting makeups, dressup, and hairup for the party ; the party was a lot of fun as the people at my work are very nice and friendly.

So, today at work, I got a lot of things piled up; and I am finishing them up one by one, and now taking a break and writing here

Besides the work party on last Friday, I watched two movies during the weekend. I watched the movie called Bolt in Disney 3-D on Sunday evening in a theater near my home in Astoria with a work friend. The movie was great! I enjoyed every single bit of the movie; it was funny, emotional, and touchy. Also watching it with a close friend added extra charm to it

I also watched Slum dog Millionaire on Saturday afternoon. The movie was not that great although some of my friends said it was good and funny. It was little bit of like Hindi (Indian) movies style, and I do not like Hindi movies. I personally also do not like any violence and the movie had a lot of violence in it that were very disturbing to me.

I also watched Twilight a few days ago on a lazy Friday when I did not have anything to do after work; so just watched it in the theater near my home; I liked that movie too but not as much as Bolt.

I would recommend Bolt to anyone who wants to have some nice relaxed time to watch a funny and emotional cartoon film.

Just something …

It has been a while since I wrote something in my blog. So today I was thinking what to write … There is nothing special going on in my life to write about. But there are lots of things happening around me … The economic crisis, a number of friends loosing jobs, people moving out of NYC (there was a time when people used to come to NYC for opportunities, now it seems to be the opposite); the city is getting too expensive to live in, MTA planning to raise the subway fare by some 23%, and so on. We just had two special holidays (Thanksgiving and Eid-Ul-Adha). My Thanksgiving was great! But I got sick right before the Eid – caught cold and flue; I was looking forward to celebrating Eid with my family as I had the day off from work on Monday; but the flue attacked me on Sunday. I spent the whole Eid day in bed sneezing, itchy throat, fever. I am getting better now, but I think I might get stuck with the cough for sometime. Anyway, hopefully I can write something interesting soon … This is just a post to keep my blog updated

Arnob’s Concert in NY

Yesterday evening I went to see Arnob’s concert at Symphony Space in upper west side in Manhattan. The saddest part is that I had an opportunity to be a part in organizing the concert, but I was too lazy to contribute time after work every week. So, I ended up being in the viewers sit

But anyway, the weather was not that great yesterday in NY. It was raining all day. But I still decided to go. Two of my friends also showed up. Plus I met with a few other old friends there. I bought the tickets at the last minute from online right before I left home for the concert. After I got off from the subway on 96th street, it was raining very heavily. My sister asked me to bring an umbrella when I left home, but I did not. The place was right next to the subway though.

The concert was a little boring; I felt like I was falling asleep. But finally, he sang one of my favorite songs: “She je bose ache aka aka …”

Other than that, it was OK kind of concert.