Its' all worth it now!

You may have noticed that I've been very wary of driving in the snow here... Having read some horror stories about it and talking to people who give advice like "Drive your car into a block of ice if you think you're going to cause a major accident", I've been at my wits end on how to avoid driving on the icy roads! I also feel colder than most people, so I tend to freeze pretty fast, and that's just one more reason to stay home and work remotely instead of making the effort to actually go to office!

But, here's the interesting bit - I'm falling in love.

With snow. (Ummm, what did you think?!)

And its all worth it now.

You've just got to look out at the white expanse, pristine and pure (before people walk over it and it becomes brown!), and you'll fall in love with the beauty of it all. The trees look so pretty, each branch slightly drooping under the weight of the snow, the outstretched fields look like a sea of white crystals, and the best part I think is the mood in the air! Its probably the most romantic season of all! You just feel like curling your fingers into someone else's, laughing, shivering, slipping, walking together...

You feel like smiling to yourself even when the roads are completely backed up and it takes you 1 hour to do 5 miles! Of course, if you're driving a Pontiac G6 Coupe, you'll smile through rain and snow alike! No no, this isn't the car that I've finally decided to buy/bought!! It doesn't even figure in my list, not out of choice but out of helplessness! (For those interested, I've decided its going to be the Altima Coupe, if I can't get a good deal on the Pontiac that is!).. No, I just turned out to be really lucky and got a free upgrade on my car rental and so am driving around (at 30 miles/hr - ok, so what the heck, I'm still scared of sliding on the snow!) in that these days! I'm only sad that it keeps getting covered in snow and the beautiful gleaming blue color is lost inside somewhere! :(

Incidentally, while we're on the subject of snow, this is the festive season after all - I've paid my respects to the cheer by shopping (too much)... most of the stuff I've bought is not useful to anyone. I've just bought it because its the season to buy. Shucks, such a sucker for marketing! Oh, and I don't know how many of you have noticed but people can be quite nasty during this season "to be jolly", especially in parking lots! "Say bye to Santa this year miss! You're fighting with me over a stupid parking space?!!"

Anyways, getting back to why it's all worth it, its because you can spend hours and hours with friends sitting inside a coffee shop and chatting away without feeling guilty that you should be "out there", doing hiking, trekking, rafting or any such unnecessarily tedious activities! (just kidding! i'd love to go on one of these actually!)... I spent 4 hours last evening having dinner with 4 PhD students from Brown University.. we were the most odd combination of people - one Greek (Greek God, if I may add!), one German, one Japanese and one other Indian apart from me! We spoke about everything under the sun from beer-drinking Swiss cows to airhostesses on international airlines, from Starbucks marketing strategy to the appropriate BMI of a Japanese v.s the rest of the world! Of course this isn't season related, but I miss the exchange of ideas that students have here... I guess it was a real missed opportunity to not have studied in this country... where else will you find such a diverse mix of people?! And the fact that these people really exchanged ideas about important stuff! I recently met a guy who is just finishing under-grad, and he's already so knowledgeable that it makes me wonder! He spent 3 months in India last year, he's going to go biking through Asia when he graduates, and is planning to work in China after that... and his friend spent a few months in Pakistan learning Urdu and studying about Madarsas! They were teaching each other Urdu and Chinese, which was such a better use of time than talking about the latest affair of your college-mates or bitching about a professor! I think the only ideas my friends and I exchanged in college was whose nail polish was better and who was going out with whom!! (ok, so thats not true - but I'm trying to make a point!)

And lastly, I'm going out for lunch with this person I really really like! [Can't tell you guys who, though I must have mentioned him at least 3 times before! But, for the curious ones (read Zee and S) this is not a romantic involvement! :)))]

So its' all worth it, getting out in the snow.

:)

A nice cuppa coffee is what I want...

I've been meaning to blog for a few days, but there just seems to be either too much happening, or too little, both of which means that I couldn't think of what to post! My trip home was great, spent a lot of time with my family, a few close friends, watched SRK's bulging unnatural muscles, discovered that Shahid Kapur is not as kiddish looking as I used to think and can look quite "ogglable" (I know thats not a word) and lost a good amount of weight - so as to justify why apparently my friends on Facebook think I'm 'number 2 person with the best body' in my network! Lol! (And yes, I'd like to know who is number 1!) I also met one of the music directors of OSO in Mumbai, and it was nice to see that success still hasn't gone to his head! Not that I know Bollywood people too well, but I think they're basically all megalomaniacs or some such...

The funny thing about life is that it doesn't turn out the way you planned it... Take these 2 weeks that I spent at home for example.. they turned out to be the exact opposite of what I had planned... I wanted to meet this particular friend of mine, and just before I reached Delhi, he had an accident that had him bedridden for like 3 weeks.. things would have been so different had we met, makes me wonder about the timing! And I'd thought it would be the most hectic trip ever, but turned out to be the most relaxed, with no shopping and no meeting relatives!

I missed a cousin's wedding thanks to the best Indian Airlines service that just cancels flights at the last minute without offering any alternatives to the passengers! But that's just as well because that meant I could legitimately avoid all conversations that usually go like this "So, when are you getting married? Haven't found anyone in the US yet?! These days girls go after what they want, you should too! Wait, let me talk to my sister's husband's friend's nephew - very nice boy, earning lots of money, doesn't/didn't have a American or Indian gf [picture me rolling my eyes with a 'yeah right'!], and better still, he's also on the East coast - in Texas"! To which I'd reply, smiling sweetly "Thanks for your concern Auntie, but I'm not sure you're the right person to be doing any kind of match-making. Awww, don't worry about me, I'll find a nice boy myself. And Texas is at quite a (safe) distance from the East coast anyways"... hmmm.. thank God for the unreliability of Indian Airlines :)

Somethng that happened this time also made me realize that I'm such a bad liar! You know, lying requires lots of practice! For someone who is used to talking straight from the heart and usually either speaking their mind OR keeping shut (which does not tantamount to lying per se!), lying means getting caught in their own web of "oh god, what did I tell him?... oh shit, is that what I told her the last time? Damn!" - Results can be disastrous. Oh yeah. For example, someone you used to know can suddenly bump into you at the international airport lounge and have you fumbling to try to figure out what you told them the last time you spoke, and so whether you're going to Paris or to the US or to Timbuktoo - which one is the "right" answer?!

Anyways, now that I'm back, I've got enough time to think about Life, the Universe and Everything, take some time to figure out what I want (most importantly which car I want to buy) and devise ways to get my work done while avoiding walking, talking or driving in the snow. Ah, and yes, drink a nice hot cup of coffee.


Promise to be back with a more coherent and less cryptic post the next time!

Blessed!

As you may have guessed from my previous post, things haven't been going too well this week, and everyday something goes really wrong and I feel stressed and irritated, and like I said, provoked.

Today was one more such aggravating event... aaah, its not exactly the world's biggest emergency, but I happened to have twisted my ankle really badly and now am unable to walk around and have to be in bed nursing myself back to normalcy...

But I'll tell you why I'm not feeling aggravated, and not feeling like I'd throwing myself under a moving bus or something! (Because believe me, this stupid sprain has really bad timing!) It's because I've been blessed with these people who've taken great care of me! Thank God for small mercies!

This is how it all began.. I got off the bus this evening and was crossing the road to the other side to catch my connecting bus home.. there was a huge pothole kind of thing in the middle of the road that I didn't see and promptly, my high heeled shoes (there's just 1.5 inches!) caught in the middle of the freakin hole and my ankle twisted 180 degrees totally, and I lost my balance... luckily I managed to catch myself in time (by only some wonderful stroke of luck, due to which I wasn't looking like a total fool splayed across the road!) but I was knocked out of breath! Anyways, the pain wasn't that bad then and I managed to make small talk with the guy who came to help me... now this is very interesting... some sense of humour these people have.. I was just regaining control when this guy asks me "Are you Indian?"... I thought, fine time he's chosen to make polite conversation! But I answered yes, and he's like "Yeah... don't know how to walk in high heeled shoes, do ya?!".... !!!! Although I laughed right back at him and pointed to the offending pothole, I was bewildered by his joke! Hehehe... anyways, he's obviously not one of the people I was blessed with this evening, so lets move on...

I'm staying at a guesthouse right now, which is run by a young couple (lets call them J and D) who are really great people, very friendly and cheerful! There are other guests also, infact on Sunday we all had a barbeque and had a lot of fun talking and enjoying a nice fall day together! Anyways, I called J shortly after I realized that I couldn't walk 5 steps without getting paralyzed with pain! I explained the situation to him and requested if he can pick me up, because I just would'nt have been able to manage the walk from bus stop etc... he was so wonderful, he came right away! unfortunately I was waiting on the other side from where he parked his car, and my otherwise loud voice carried no further than 5 feet when I called out to him! He left by the time I wobbled to the other side at top speed, and then I found him 10 mins later on the side that I'd just left!! So ofcourse, more wobbling, panting, paralyzing etc took place but I didnt catch him in time... anyways, finally he called me again and picked me up, inspite of having made 3 trips from his house to the bus station already!

Back home, his wife took care of arranging dinner etc for me and making me comfortable... had the food delivered to me at the dining table, which is a rare or almost unknown thing here, especially for those not in the same family!

And then one of the guests came in... she'd been through this before, and knew exactly what to do... because there was nothing available at home right away, she walked to the nearest pharmacy and bought me an icebag and bandage, all of her own accord! Then she helped me with putting it on.... and finally, when it was time for me to go upto my room (it doesn't help that I stay on the 3rd floor!), she actually carried my laptop bag, my handbag and my shoes upstairs for me! And from nowhere, J produced a pair of crutches (he'd also sprained his ankle a few months back), and they both taught me how to use it... and slowly but steadily I hopped, skipped and jumped upstairs, and now am safely tucked into bed.. delirious because of the painkiller I was finally forced to eat, but happy to be resting!

And it makes me ever so grateful to see how much out of their way these literal strangers went for me! I am alone in this city, as in these people are not my friends in the real sense... we just met a week back! But I'm just so touched with their kindness, that I feel blessed! I consider that I could be totally alone, trying to cope with the whole thing myself (which I could do, but its miserable!)... but I have all these people to take care of me.. didn't make me miss my family for a bit, in a time of trouble!

And I thought people didn't care anymore. Misconception. Especially if you reach out for help instead of trying to do it all by yourself (I would in normal circumstances be too shy to ask for help, and would rather have taken the bus in agony than "bothered" these people).

Nice. The pain is there. But I'm not miserable. There is a God, somewhere! (everywhere!)

Party like a rockstar!.... or not

This post is about perseverance, and its rewards (or punishments, depending on your general mental attitude in life). Its about the great human tendency to aim at the sky and strive to achieve higher heights. This is a story about this guy who demonstrated a "never-say-die" attitude! Oh yeah, its an awe-inspiring story of he who dared, failed and fell flat on his face, but rose up from the ashes and tried again!

This weekend saw a considerable amount of partying… On Friday night my friend and I ventured downtown to check out the nightlife there… there’s an array of nightclubs in this particular area of downtown, ranging from latino to hip hop to reggae music… the clubs are also differentiated based on the crowd that gathers inside, like primarily Hispanic or African American and even homosexuals… interesting mix and loads of choice, like everything else in US! Anyways, we finally decided to go to the hip hop music club, a peaceful compromise because my friend didn’t know how to dance any Salsa and I refused to "getjiggywitit" (or whatever reggae music is!)!

When we were ushered in, the floor was packed with people “getting down” and doing the grind. Now, the ‘Grind’ calls for explanation… if you guys ever saw the program ‘MTV Grind’ (which used to be aired at like 11 in the night on Fridays because of its “adult” content), imagine a live version of that right under your noses! The ‘Grind’ involves a guy holding a girl by her waist with her back facing him, while she “grinds” against him, hip down! His role is limited to holding her in place and “enjoying the grind” while she’s supposed to move against him, and apparently that’s a lot of fun… Depending on how late it is in the night, the raunchiness of this entire “dance form” takes on monumental proportions, so that ultimately, somewhere around 2 in the night, the entire dance floor begins to resemble a huge orgy. I realized that no matter what kind of music is playing, the only “dancing” that happens on these floors is this grinding and bumping (A bit like the universal bhangra in India?). And the most important thing is that most of the couples are strangers! They just met on the dance floor - sometimes the girl doesn’t even know who she is grinding till much later! Hmmm… alcohol can make dreams a reality I think.

It took a lot of getting used to this new dance form, with everyone looking like they’re literally having s*x on the floor… so I decided to maintain eye contact with the dance floor and do my own non-grinding, “normal”, at-arms-length dancing (Oh, how I missed good ol' Punju music then!).

In the midst of all the “fun”, my friend and I noticed one desi guy standing around on the periphery of the floor - carefully checking out all the girls, meanwhile forming a game plan in his head – a ‘how do I get to dance with a girl tonight?’ plan. Specific targets in mind were the non-suspecting Caucasian girls. He was there with a few guy friends who were also scanning the crowd with similar intention.

Suddenly, about 15 mins later we found this guy clinging onto a girl who was at least a 5” 10’ in height, big-bodied and looked like she could swat him like a fly! Because he was, in contrast, only about an inch taller than me, which made him a whole of 5” 6’ at the most, and also very skinny! But you’ve got to admire the guy’s strategy – "I'll just cling onto a girl who won’t be able to find me for at least 5 mins, in which time I've got what I wanted… errr… danced with her".. He basically wanted to imitate the “lucky American guys” doing the grind. Aha! Now, if you want to do the grind, at least learn how to do it right first! Instead of standing straight and letting her do the moves, this guy assumed that just because this looked like s*x on the dance floor, it actually was s*x on the dance floor! So, he held her tightly with her back to him and began to move like what can only be described as a horny dog at the peak of mating season!! If we had not collapsed with laughter, we may have tried to warn him that his moves were inviting trouble! Of course, the girl was very quick on the uptake, and realized there was someone behind her who didn’t know jack shit about what he was doing (or did, depending on what you think were his intentions!) and she ran, and I mean actually ran with her girl friend to the absolute other side of the floor, leaving this guy in the middle of his self-deception.

You’d think he’d learnt his lesson and would then slink into the periphery again and adhere to the “you can look but you can’t touch” policy, but no… he was persevering, demonstrating a great never-say-die attitude which may have gotten him through very crucial situations in his life, and applied it to the task at hand – “I want to dance with a hot chick”. So, right before our eyes, he proceeded towards another group of girls, waiting for his “chance” standing behind them, and suddenly grabbing them… every time they realized what he was doing and turned to look at him, it resulted in either fits of giggles and a scurry across the floor, or a disgusted expression and an almost physical push asking him to get away!

We began to feel bad for him after this happened for the fifth or sixth time, but I mean, you’ve got to admire the guy’s shamelessness! His admirable one-pointed focus on what’s got to be done – he has to tell his friends back at home that he literally “made out with a hot American girl”, carefully omitting the embarrassing parts in his “report”! We wanted to stop him, saying “Please stop humiliating yourself and us, by association”, but we couldn’t get ourselves to stop laughing, so talking coherently to him was out of the question. I also think he was drunk out of his mind, and don’t think he would remember the next morning what he subjected himself and others to! (At least not for his sake). It is important to note that this guy’s friends had disowned him sometime during the virtual orgy he was indulging in, and he was found alone later in the night, lurking around a group of girls, hoping to “get lucky”! Needless to say, he was packed off home alone 5 mins later.

I have only one thing to say after this entertaining yet harrowing (coz the image of this guy is stuck in my head!) experience – I love Bhangra and the Orange Room! :))

P.S: Pls don't crucify me for writing about this gentleman, I just couldn't keep this story "inside me" for long!!

Stories from last week...

"Are you married, single, divorced, widowed?"

"Single"

"Are you pregnant?"

"Ummm... no..." (With the Indian upbringing, I'm still wondering why the question is being asked.. I'm SINGLE, psycho!)

"Are you trying to get pregnant?"

"Hell no!" (Eyes popping out at the horrifying suggestion)

"Ok, don't get pregnant in the next 6 months"

"I don't foresee the danger of that happening" (Goodness, stop already!)

-- Thats my conversation with the new doctor I went to visit last week. I was thinking the whole time "I have an earache for God's sake, what does this have to do with my being pregnant?!!".. Its an American thing, I noticed, that even if you say you're not married, they ask you pregnancy related questions... ofcourse you can't take anything for granted here.. in India, you went for a blood test, they asked "Are you married?" You said "No", and they peacefully moved on, avoiding any questions relating to marital status.. comfortable... answering 20 times whether you're pregnant or expecting to be pregnant is hell of a lot more awkward than I could imagine!

Other laughable situations this week included spelling out my name for the girl at the counter at Blockbuster videos... I said "Its spelt as Are You See Etch Aye Kay A" and she's like "ruc-what?" "Etch" "What?" and she looks at me like I'm some non-english speaking illegal immigrant from a 3rd world country where they don't teach how to pronounce H correctly. My cousin pitches in, she goes "Aetch" "Oooohh.. you mean H"!!! Yeah, you dim-witted moron, H... you should be glad I wasn't saying "hetch"!

But accent I realise is a matter of habit.. If you don't pronounce words the way they're used to listening to it, the above situation repeats itself everywhere.... so you have to end up rolling your r's, "Do I have the time? Oh yes, its eight-turrrty"... Pretty soon you're talking to your parents with the same rolling rs... damn. Well, atleast I haven't pronounced fast as fayst yet, so I'm glad.

Anyways, in other significant little achievements (which I've told you I will start celebrating), I've declared myself a "sober chocaholic" :) I can now look at a rich dark chocolate brownie with hot melting chocolate sauce poured over it - without devouring it the next second. Its an attempt to get my ever increasing mid-riff in control! Cheers to that!

Also this week, I finally watched 'Serendipity' in an attempt to find out what everyone is so ga-ga about! I had tried to watch is once before, but had to shut it off within 15 mins, disgusted as I was with all the mushiness (it didn't help that I had a broken-heart to mend at that time)... This time, with renewed enthusiasm, and since my heart is now in perfectly good shape, I watched it, and managed to see it to the end. But, I still don't know whats so great about the movie! Its not exactly the Dr. Zhivago or Gone with the wind of romance, and its based on such a silly idea. And worst is, many of us are trying to find our own 'serendipity' in our own little worlds, thinking someone somewhere is "made for us".. Like an SRK-Kajol movie, complete with gazing at the clouds and imagining soulmates... Jeez!

And the song thats been stuck in my head the past 3 days - "Pom pom pom pom pump up the jam!" (--Partner, 2007) Hahaha! Its too funny! :))

Come away with me...

From the time that laptops came into the market, I’ve thought about owning one and keeping it handy for all the times that I traveled and wanted to write my thoughts down… for years, I’ve been imagining myself on a train (anywhere – long distance train journeys are almost identical everywhere!), looking out the window, taking in the landscape, and having at the same time a means to capture it forever… And today my dream’s come true… at this particular moment, I’m sitting on an Amtrak, headed on a south-bound journey across the East coast… and I have my laptop on my lap (!) to accompany me - finally.

But you know what I am realizing now? I’m actually spending more time looking down at my monitor than out of the window! So I’m missing the very moments which prompted me to want a laptop handy in the first place! Oh well, you know what they say - “Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it”!

But I’ve got a lot of catching up to do on Blogger so I’m going to take some time out to tear my eyes away from the window and live my little dream :)

Recently, Nithya 'gave' me the “Thinking Blogger” award and she wrote something very nice about my blog, which surprised and pleased me! And according to my new philosophy (which I started following at 7:00 AM this morning), I’ve decided to love myself enough to celebrate the little things in life, so cheers to this thought and this small yet significant achievement!

I’ve also got a lot of other thank yous to say because Zee tagged me… she’s got the devil in her for sure, for putting us all “ees” in this predicament!

But now since I have the time, let me start with first saying thanks to the people who thought of putting sockets next to the seats on this train so that there’s no danger of my laptop running out of battery while I ramble on...

[Oh, just looked out the window - the fog has cleared and New England can now probably be described as a painter’s delight!]

And thanks to -

All the books, novels, travel channels and magazines for giving me the opportunity to experience the world sitting in my living room…

K sir, my 8th standard class teacher, who showed me that joking and having fun doesn’t necessarily mean you lose the respect of the other person…

H, for being my closest friend for the past 15 years and for making “distance” the least of the problems in sustaining a friendship…

R, for being thoughtful and taking the time to send me snail mail and real gifts in parcels across continents, in times when we all usually make-do with e-cards…

[Btw, have you guys heard John Legend? He’s got a voice like rich melting chocolate, which makes you feel warm and light-headed! I’m listening to his song “Ordinary people” right now… Maybe I should thank him too!]

K, for being like a sister I never wanted, but am eternally grateful to have!

C, for not leaving me alone on those nights when I was upset and cried buckets!

My bro, for being very stringent with his appreciation, so that when he nods his head in approval, you know there’s truth in it…

[I’m thanking more than 8 people/things, if that’s ok with you all! I think I'm on a roll here!]

S, for teaching me that first impressions can be totally misleading!

Pink Floyd, INXS, Nickelback, Jagjit Singh Kabir, U2 and many more, for creating lyrics that can move mountains!

Sudhamadhav, my 7th standard classmate, for drawing a pencil line in the middle of the desk we (forcefully) shared and never allowing either of us to break that boundary, not even with a stray eraser or scale! And thus, I knew the exact description of men-to-be-avoided-like-the-plague. Forever.

[Oh, I know whats missing in this landscape outside - there are no cattle grazing in open fields!]

To ‘Annual Sales’ that make frightfully expensive out-of-reach stuff affordable! (I recently bought a pair of flip-flops from a very elite brand, which originally cost $30, for $3.44! I don’t know who’d buy a pair of chappals for 30 dollars anyways!)

[You know you’re approaching New York when the afore-mentioned scenery changes to high metal cranes, unfinished construction sites, blue orange and grey coloured buildings, dirty abandoned plots of land and walls covered with graffiti. Oh, and of course the downtown Manhattan skyline.]

Our helper at home, who knows how to make a perfect cup of challu chai. And who has cared for our family for more than 25 years.

[As my journey comes to an end, I should finish this post and start gathering my stuff up]

And I want to thank my Mom and Dad, but I think this space is not enough to write down the many many reasons I’m grateful to them…

True to my nature, I’m not going to pass on this tag to anyone, just like I don’t usually forward chain letters. Sorry about that.
[FYI, ofcourse the world is not totally high-tech yet and so they still don't have wireless on trains... hmpf... so much for "real time".. so obviously, I'm actually posting this hrs after writing it down]