Mr. Bijoy Writes

Much of my childhood was riddled with trips from St. Louis to suburban Chicago. Every once in a while, my cousins would take me into the city to see sights and hang out, maybe even go to a Cubs game or a White Sox game. I've done the sights, I've done the shopping. However, almost tragically, I haven't eaten everywhere I want to eat in Chicago. I haven't and I will no longer stand for it! So here's my proposition to anyone willing to join. I want you to join me in some eating. All over the Chicagoland area. I want to try Chicago-style pizza that I actually like. I want to eat at Blackbird, Silver Palm, Chicago Chop House, The Signature Room at the 95th, to name a few. You wanna come? I want you to come. I might even pay.

I love Thanksgiving. No, really. It's my favorite holiday. Growing up Hindu (not staunchly practicing), we didn't really do Christmas. This erks me only because I hear stories of my older cousins going to my parents house in Elmhurst, IL, to have Christmas together, open presents, eat, and so forth. All of this, before my birth. Continuing on, not being Christian, we never did Easter. To add, living in St. Louis in the late 80's didn't have many perks as an Indian. There were a handful of Indian families from all over India, each with their own traditions, making it terribly difficult to really forge a true celebration for Indian or Hindu holidays. All I had was Thanksgiving. Everyone we knew would get together on Thanksgiving and eat. This only got better after my cousins, on my father's side, decided that we should do a Thanksgiving of our own. November, though often cold, became one of my favorite months of the year. I'd be in LA or Chicago enjoying a beautif...

It's not too often that people from my generation really take a moment to give thanks, or to truly understand that It could really be a lot worse. The latter, for those that may not be of religious mind. The course of the past few weeks has been a rather daunting one for me. I cannot, with fortitude, say that I have been in any place of real and true state of elation. However, a song I recently heard brought much of this in perspective. Here's part of one of the verses: Its so funny how we think we got it rough when there are babies who got mommas hooked on drugs and this depression got folks losing they homes they spent they whole life saving for I guess I'm just saying that I felt the need to tell the world thanks for having my back through everything. I've got some of the finest friends a gentleman could ask to call his friends. Thanks folks. *Oh yeah, the song is "It Coulda Been Worse" by Lyfe Jennings

Stole this idea from my homeslice from here . So the idea, which I stole from Kim, sounded like fun. I've done Top 10 Song lists before and I've never really been able to encompass everything I like together into one coherent list. So I'm going to fail again, but at least I can share some fun music with you! Also, these are in no particular order. 1-"Don't Gotta Go Home" - DMX feat. Monica 2-"In The Ghetto" - Elvis Presley 3-"Emotional" - Carl Thomas 4-"Tere Bulla" - DJ APS 5-"Groovin Tonight" - St. Lunatics feat. Brian McKnight 6-"Cops Up" - Lyfe Jennings 7-"I'm Shipping Up To Boston" - Dropkick Murphy's 8-"Ernie's Jam" - The Isley Brothers 9-"Volare" - Dean Martin 10-"Summertime" - DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince This list doesn't really do my musical tastes full justice, but it works! Have a good one people!

Every few seasons, I have a great football weekend. For those that may not know, I grew up a UCLA Bruin fan, and no, the reasoning behind it is unabashedly simple. That's another blog post though. I also cheer for the St. Louis Rams and the Purdue Boilermakers. Now, if you have any knowledge of the football legacy of either of these teams, the past few years have been absolutely horrid for me. However, once every few seasons, I have a great football weekend. I like to call that weekend my "autumn weekend affair". This past weekend, I had my "autumn weekend affair". I didn't expect it. It began with the Purdue game. Purdue failed miserably. I saw no silver lining to the weekend at that point. I threw on a neutral colored polo and headed to my favorite watering hole for a sip. I had planned to meet a few friends from undergrad there to mourn our losses. That's when things got interesting... UCLA, my beloved Bruins, came out victorious to No.7-ranked Texas,...

Every once in a while an organization, teacher, or professor of some sort asks me to come speak in a class or meeting. I've done so at numerous universities and two conferences. What do I talk about, you ask? I talk about working, getting a job, preparing properly for an interview, and food. The last one, though dissimilar to the others, is kind of my job, so it's a given. Today, I thought I'd share some stuff with you. It's not easy getting a job in today's economy. Let's face it, it's even difficult to get an interview. But when you get that interview, are you ready for it? I want you to be equipped with a few tips so you nail it. 1-Turn off that cell phone. Don't be the guy/gal that loses a job because your friends text you about grabbing a beer later that evening. I know it's a no-brainer, but it happens. Trust me. 2-When your interviewer(s) introduces his/herself, remember that name. Do not forget your interviewer's name. For one, it's r...

You should probably know, I smoke cigars and tell people what I like and don't like. This is my opinion. Take it as such, I don't pontificate as an expert, just as an enthusiast. To begin I should explain the lack of picture for this cigar. I forgot. I'll tell you what it looks like though! The band is at the foot, black with “5150” embossed in an old gold Gothic typeface. It's simple, and that's why I like it. On to the cigar. The Esteban Carreras 5150 is a Corojo wrapped in Ecuadorian grown Sumatra, with Nicaraguan fillers and binder. The overall construction is just a hair from amazing. A few spots along the cigar looked as if the wrapper wasn't just right. Appearance-wise, it was beautiful. A slight mottled color with a wrapper devoid of veins or bulges made the 5150 something that really looked, well, real. By that, I mean that it didn't look perfect, but that allowed for a very true to life, non-manufactured, non-gussied-up look, which I really...