CURRENT MISSION

Hosting weary travelers and trading travel stories :)

You can check out more about me on my website - http://www.BiyaniPhoto.com/

ps: I've made it my mission to FINALLY learn Spanish.. so anyone that can help me - travelers or Houstonians, I'd be happy to trade photography services or home cooked Indian food, in exchange for Spanish lessons!

ABOUT ME

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Background
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- Born in New Delhi; raised in Calcutta, India
- Moved to the US for college when I was 18
- Freshman year at IIT Chicago
- Transferred to U Texas Austin Sophomore year. Graduated with Business Economics and Political Science + got 3 minors – Computer Science, Mathematics and Asian Studies
- After graduation, moved to New Jersey to work for HSBC (HongKong Shanghai Banking Corporation) as a Management trainee. Managed branches in NJ, TX and LA. Moved back to Austin with the same company.
- Quit HSBC in Feb 2008 (coz the market was starting to sour, and I wanted to get out of the mortgage industry; this was 7 months before the Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac collapse and govt bailout)
- Started working for the Power Grid manager/regulator (ERCOT) in the great state of Texas!
- Moved to Houston in 2012.
- Run a photo studio - http://www.BiyaniPhoto.com/

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Temperament
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- Goofy - I'm not always funny, but I promise I'm goofy 50% of the time.. the other 30% I'm sleeping and the other 20% I'm probably serious...
- Thoughtful - I'm goofy, on the outside, but I can be deep and thoughtful on the inside. I have a knack of getting pretty seriously intense sometimes! Which given me easy-going, funny demeanor freaks some people out!
- Planner - I love planning things! Even thought I've been known to take impromptu road trips from Austin to New York in the middle of the week... I like to think of myself as a planner :-P
- Affectionate - I hug everyone I know - family, friends, coworkers, professors... everyone. They are used to it now... and you will too! :)
- Happy - I perpetually have this smile on my face.. and I like seeing it on other people's faces too
- Foodie - I consider myself quite a good cook (and my friends agree). I also enjoy eating out and trying out new and different foods. I'm a vegetarian and NO I won't fall for "Seafood = Veggies of the Sea" :-P

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Looking to meet new people and induct friends to be members :)

Interests

- Traveling - I love checking out new places and going on impromptu road trips. Generally I'm a planner, but I can be impromptu as well!

- Photography - I shoot a NIKON... so all you Canon people, don't talk smack about Nikon. I primarily shoot weddings and portraits now. But I've shot for SXSW (Music Festival in Austin) for a few years and have had my photos published in their magazines and on their website. :)

• photography
• festivals
• dining
• seafood
• cooking
• indian food
• vegetarian
• running
• traveling
• eating out
• music
• business
• computer science
• economics
• mathematics
• political science
• science
• road trips

Music, Movies, and Books

- Reading - picked this habit pretty late in my life... but really enjoy reading now. Love almost all South Asian Authors, but very partial to Rohinton Mistry and Jhumpa Lahiri. Salman Rushdie is great too. So are Philip Roth, Dan Brown, Oscar Wilde and Jane Austin... crazy and eclectic taste, I know!

- Movies - I can pretty much watch any sort of movies … not really a big fan of the horror films.. but anything apart from that is fair game! Cohen brothers are great, so is pretty much anything by Francis Ford Coppola, Christopher Nolan, Wes Anderson, Alejandro González Iñárritu. Love old school Yash Chopra stuff. Not really familiar with the new crop of Indian directors but have been catching up on some good stuff lately (I went through a 3-4yr hiatus on Hindi movies, probably only watched 4-5 each year)

Music - Pretty much anything... but depends quite a bit on my mood.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, England, France, Hungary, Jamaica, Nepal, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates

Countries I’ve Lived In

India, United States

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