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05/08/08

2nd August, the day of Firsts !!!

I don’t really know how to start writing about this weekend, this is the third time I have started and I hope I am not deleting it again…

So Far So Good…

I was desperately looking forward to getting out of Minneapolis, its too dull and dry for me… Even though the weather is great for evening walks, I am not a guy who likes too much peace in his life, and here in my apartment I can actually sit and look at the sky for hours, with no activity happening… So the Chicago trip was something that I was really really looking forward to… Had planned it within the second week of arrival to US…


Friday evening, instead of coming back home, I went to the Minneapolis Downtown to a colleague’s place… I had to take my bus from there, and it only made sense to go to downtown, see some people around, and then take my bus to Chicago, which by the way means, a smelly onion (I wonder why).. Walked around the downtown with colleagues from work and finally took the bus at 2230 hrs on Friday night…

My healthy dinner on Friday...

I have this interesting habit of meeting online friends far away from where I stay, so that I can easily avoid meeting them the second time, just in case ;) NO NO I am kidding… Infact both such friends, who I have met after going a long distance have been great to meet again and again… Deepu (who I met in Chennai) and Ankur (who I met in Murthal on our way to Bhakra Nangal) and this time I was meeting Kshitiz, who I really admire as a photographer and now as a person too… We figured out our itinerary and the plan of action for the weekend…

The Minneapolis Sunset from the Downtown...

I reached Chicago ( I kinda like the sound of this name) at 0630 hrs as scheduled, went to Kshitiz’s place before we left for the activity of the day… We took a bus to the Train station and then a train to O’Hare Airport…

Breakfast at Kshitiz's, by dear chef Kshitiz...


I really like these kind of curtains...

After a little struggle with the car rental shuttle pickup, we finally reached Thrifty Car Rental’s office where a nice white Dodge Calibre was waiting for us… While I was kinda nervous about driving with all the mirrored roads and everything… But never mind, it cannot be too tough, just some focus right? !!!! but hey, I don’t even know how to take the car away from the parking mode to a normal drive mode… most of the cars I have seen have a small lever just next to the gear lever to do that, but this one was different… so we got out, got some inputs on how to drive that kinetic Honda of a car and moved from there… surprisingly it was easier than I thought, and I am happy to have driven those 100+ miles… this was an interesting experience, with we missing a turn and then finding our way back to the correct road quickly too…

Chicago is about very high and higher buildings...

We reached our destination in a li’il more than an hour, and the day being a nice bright, sunny day was perfect for our aeroplane ride… yes, we had planned to take a flight ride in the country side for a change… I felt it was the best way to see things from a different level !!!


We just kept waiting for our turn almost the entire day, being a nice day there were far too many people which were going up on the flights…

And I kept waiting....


A jumper packing her Parachute...

Another one of the jumpers with the camera video and digital (Canon Xti with a Sigma Fisheye)

anyway after a looooooooooong wait our turn came too, and we boarded the flight for a completely different view of the world !!!

The Vehicle of the day...

So there was I, leaving on a not so jet plane to reach 14500 ft, and then do something that I will probably rate as the craziest thing that I can EVER do in my life time… which basically translates into Skydiving from 14500 ft, you body falling towards the ground at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour, the parachute ride for a few minutes before you finally hit the ground !!!

Aliens were falling off... and this was one of them....

Made people look for more...

There were many options that people could choose from...

She was my alien :)

I was going to jump out of the damn aircraft and rush towards the ground at 120 miles per hour !!! sounds scrary? Well… You have to be there to really know what the fkk it means to JUMP… there was not much going on in my mind when it was happening, except that what the fkk is happening !!!

More pretty Aliens...

We drove back to Chicago, and spent the rest of the evening walking around the Cloud Gate, the Navy Pier etc etc etc... actuallly I don't want to write more and want to think about the jump again...

The Dodge Calibre I was driving...

enjoy the pictures of the walk and fireworks below...

The Cloud Gate, popular as Bean...





The Chicago downtown skyline... just before the fireworks...

I was tempted to start walking back home :)

Goodman di laltain...

Oh, and before I go, here is a visual account of what I did !!!

Ready to get on...

Dave(Photographer), me and Fin(Instructor)...


And I flew !!!!


Without wings...


For a while....


Ok, a li'il more....


And a smaller chute opened to keep us balanced while we fall at speeds of 120mph+ towards the ground


Kept Falling...

For a while more...


And landed after 5 minutes, but after the parachute opened, and we flew around in the sky...

And I am still high !!!!

This is Kshitiz's video... the second around minute and a half in this video have me jumping out of the plane !!!


37 comments:

  1. badhiya hai....
    like this post...you've made it into a story for a change...but what i really like here are the pics :) bean one and all others...

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  2. wow.............must be amazing experience....agreed totally about ur feelings........me waiting to get my turn out there....i am surely gonna do it soon

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  3. and pics are amazing and so is the video.........

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  4. bhai i already told u how i felt about it :D

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  5. niceeeeeeeee....welcome to the jumping club :)

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  6. Waaah je waah...


    udd chalein hum bin pankho ke saang..
    door gagan mein....

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  7. SO U TOUCHED THE SKY :))

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  8. Phew!! This was fun post..loved the narration wid pics.Sky divin must have been abso freakin..how did u do that.I wud have had a heart attack seein that distance only.

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  9. i m jealus and i m sulking... this is one of my dreams to come true... better than bungi jumping and all.... dude enjoy it to the core till it lasts.... u made us live every minute of it thru the pics... thanks for that. btw i noticed soemthing... but will tell you privately.. huh wish... enjoy

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  10. HATS OFF ONCE AGAIN!!! U FINALLY REACHED THE SKY TOO...

    must b awesome exp...jab mere ko dekh kar hi acha lag raha hai to karne mein to mazaaaaaaa aa gaya hoga...

    Good Luck n Keep Doing these activities....

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  11. "Omie u r oh-so-cool"
    huh - i cant help not liking u for this!!! :/

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  12. W O W ! ! !

    Someday.... me too! I am so glad you did this.

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  13. Wowwwww!!!!! just Wowwww!!!! I so wanna do it too....

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  14. Sahii..! This is uber cooool guys :))

    someday.. sigh...

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  15. Jealous....

    Mujhe bhi koodna hai :)

    But very nice pics and an awesome description...

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  16. AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Prashant :-/ i m JEALOUS... er!!

    okie dokie... lov the description :)

    and AWESOME photos!

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  17. # Reeta....

    thanks... bahut hi badiya thaa rather...

    thanks..

    _________________
    # Deepu...
    Bhai ! Amazing beyond words...

    Amen to that !

    and thanks bro...

    _________________
    # Kshitiz...
    without a doubt...

    _________________
    #burf...
    :) hehehe.. yes

    _________________
    # Tanu...
    glad to be one !

    _________________
    #chakoli...
    ji eggjacktly...

    _________________
    # Anony...
    almost.... but fell short

    _________________
    # Mez...
    thanks... It was total freaking awesome funn... i still don't believe that I did it... But I guess I did :)

    _________________
    #Aqui...
    thanks...

    hope you do it sometime too..

    _________________
    # Ankur...
    :) yes I did bro :)

    it was awesome without a doubt....

    thanks !!! will try

    _________________
    # Baandri...
    hehehe...

    hugs !!

    _________________
    # Bharti...
    kahan hai yaar tu :(

    I have called you many times, left messages on facebook as well...

    Hope you get to do it too !!!

    _________________
    # Vinod...
    yea super cool !!

    all the best :)

    _________________
    # Aseem...
    :)

    Amen to that thought !!!

    thanks bro..

    _________________
    @ Veens...
    :) yes AMAZING !!!

    Jealous :) great !!!

    thanks :)

    _________________

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  18. # Subbu...


    sorry for missing out on your comment bro :(

    thanks a ton and i hope you do it soonest :)

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  19. sounds great!!..ive been wanting to go to chicago for sometime too..maybe soon..hey do mail me the contact details/site of the parajumping thing!!..should try if there!

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  20. sir jee...
    Read your post and i instantly had a vicarious excitement about it...

    Was wondering how you must be feeling
    at the time of jumping out of the aircraft...

    must have been a wow experience....

    in punjabi, we call it a Burraaaahh moment.... ;-)

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  21. Iam Jealous..Iam Jealous..Iam Jealous..khoob saara waala..
    I wanna do it...
    It seems Amazing..m sure the experience would have been one of its kinds..

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  22. # Gunjan...

    details are with you now... all the best :)

    # Ankit...
    :) great !!!

    I was feeling crazy like crazy...

    am going to write about it soon...

    # Vaishali...
    great !!! thats what I wanted !!!

    one of its kinds EVER

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  23. WOW ultimate boss kya superab experience raha hoga gosh! maza aa gaya apka video deekh kar:)

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  24. Good lord.. that jump photos made me nervous/.. I am not so keen on jumps but am glad that you enjoyed..

    and yeah its nice to visit friens on an abroad trip.. makes it enjoyable..

    hahaha.. the absolute quite gets to me too.. when I am there..

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  25. # Princess...
    thanks :) thats my friend most of the time in the video :)

    # Pallavi...
    nervous :) at that height, thats not an option, you gotta jump you gotta jump and it will take you as long as it takes to get down :)

    it was fun meeting Kshitiz, yes :)

    :)

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  26. whew..whew..whew... bro, tahtw a ssuper cool.. a treat of a blog with lotsa superb pics and then teh jump.. totally.. what do i say,... man, it was soo superb... :) thnx, if i missed this blog, it wuld hv been a loss...

    want to hear abt teh jump from ur mouth, do call me once u r bk @ India....

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  27. Sure Bro...

    I knew you would like it !! :)

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  28. Wow u seem to have travelled a lot !!!!! From Murthal to Minneapolis and from Chennai to Chicago....gr8 !!
    And the pics and write-up truly describes what an exhilirating experience wud be to jump off a jet and fall freely under gravity at a speed of 120 mph !!

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  29. sir ji,

    I have a friend of mine, who is both acrophobic and agoraphobic.

    Guess what I did to him???

    U r intelligent enough to guess it.;-)

    I showed him this post of urs...

    He is after me since then....

    His dad is a lawyer, they might sue chai ki dukaan...beware...;-)...lolz..

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  30. crazy !!!! But i am sure it was awesome ! :)

    P.s: Loved the pictures !

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  31. amazing......truly awesome......i must say this experience must be far better than any experience in UK (london).

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  32. # Anony...
    yea life's been good :)

    this jump was awesome... i doubt if any words would be able to justify the experience...

    # Ankit...
    tu marvayega bhai !!!

    :)

    #Neeku...
    it sure was...

    thanks :) glad you liked them...

    # DivineGrace...
    thanks...

    UK had its own charm... this had its own :) happy to have two diferent experiences in my kitty :)

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  33. awesome! And totally crazy!!!!
    I am so NOT doing this anytime in this life! :)

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  34. Great photos!

    Any tips/suggestions for good fireworks photos? Or for that matter photo of any skyline at night. Thanks in advance.

    Been lurking on here for a while but couldn't help post comments today. Good work with the blog. :)

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  35. # Kashmira...
    crazy is an understatement :) but it was worth it...

    # Kanan...
    thanks...

    only one suggestion, hold the camera very still and keep the shutter speed low (If you are not aware of the manual modes, use the night mode in you camera)... if possible use a tripod or keep the camera on something that can work like a base...

    thanks :) glad you commented...

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  36. Borrowing Kshitiz's words..."Freaking Awesome"!

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