Did I tell you my name? I am Mayaputra. Rule 101.3 states that the parents have to name their odd numbered kid either Mayaputra or Mayaputri based upon the gender. I am the 3rd child of my parents. I have an elder brother Mayaputra and an elder sister Mayaputri. Despite the law only applying to the odd ones, its a common practice for parents to name all their kids as per the law. It keeps things simple. 41 out of the 73 students in my 9th standard were named Mayaputra and 32 were named Mayaputri. Long time back there was a protest against this rule as people pointed out that it was becoming difficult for them to communicate. Mayaputra, the then prime minister worked with Mayaputra, the then law minister and formed a committee which comprised of 3 people - Mayaputra, a businessman; Mayaputri, a famous actress and Mayaputra, a social activist. A legendary decision was taken and and it was formulated that people will use their father's name to distinguish themselves. Every one til date is thankful to that decision.
I cried all day long but the authorities were not ready to listen to my pleas as their systems told them that I had broken the first law. It was never about that one year that I worried about. The second law of the country stated that when one is imprisoned after they break the first law a red colored tattoo denoting 'X' will be created on the their face. A new tattoo will be created every time the first law is broken. That made it easy for people to identify the defaulters. It was a social stigma for you to have that tattoo on your face. One would lose all their friends, will not get admission in a school/college, will struggle to get a D-grade job, will have to pay double taxes and would only be able to marry a defaulter. The thought of it all sent a shiver down my spine as I realized that was what my life was going to be. I looked up and prayed and cried out loud, "Goddess Mayapati!! Why me? I was your ardent devotee. Why do you make me suffer?". I was told that I am being kept in a holding area and based upon a selection tomorrow, I will be sent to the prison.
On my second day there, the 'X' tattoo was created on my left cheek. I wanted to kill myself when I looked in the mirror. I decided to find a way to get rid of the pain once and for all, but something changed my heart. After the tattooing ceremony, I was taken to a large hall where stood hundreds of guilty children, men and women. The hardcore criminals had multiple tattoos painted, their face an ugly mess . The jailer, a middle aged short and fat guy screamed at the top of his lungs, "You the unforgivable, the heinous crime you have committed should lead to a capital punishment. But we are all Mayapati's sons and daughters and we believe in peace and prosperity, just like She did. So all of you will get a chance to revive yourself. All of you will be put to work for a holy cause till your sentence is over. You will have to give your soul to your job to wash away your sins". Soon after, all of us were being divided into various groups and each group was assigned to a different job. Some had to give hand to Mayapati's temple's construction, some had to work on Mayapati's websites, I was put in the statue department. I will be taught to be a sculptor and will be creating Mayapati's statues. It was an enlightening moment. I immediately canceled the plan to kill myself and decided to devote myself in Her service. In the evening the statue group boarded a bus and we started our journey to the prison. I thought, She wants me to devote my life to her. I will give my soul, my body in Her service. It will be my duty till the day I live. I felt asleep with all the great thoughts sprinting across my mind.
Next morning as we approached it - I could see it, the prison a huge building and I looked to the skies and asked Mayapati to help me in my quest. There She was, Her statue as soon as we passed through the prison's main gate. It gave me an infinite amount of strength. I had not spoken with the others in the bus as all of them were guilty. I was there by mistake. They had broken the law and I loathed them. They made me sick. Their sheer presence made me puke. If it was not the love for the Goddess, I would have killed myself. We were taken to a big hall, that had hundreds of beds in line and I was assigned to one of them. There were 10-12 columns of beds and they stretched to as far as I could see. There were Her statues all around these beds. There was one right in front of me. A thought then exhilarated my mind. I would see Mayapati's bright and smiling face every morning I open my eyes!! Imagine that.
Life in the prison was not a piece of cake. We had to get up at 5 am in the morning and pray for an hour. We were taught great Mayapati hymns, which we had to sing in the morning. After that we got 30 minutes to get ready and breakfast was served at 6:30 am. We were required to work from 8:00 am till 8:00 pm in the morning with an hour break for lunch. The evenings ended with the prayers once again. There were certain people that would talk to each other but I remained with self. My entire focus was to contribute as much as I could towards a statue that was being built that will be unveiled in next year's independence day.
After five months, I wrote a letter to my parents asking them not to worry about me as the Goddess's blessings are with me. A week later, I got a letter back from them. That's what I thought. What I got back was my letter only as I was told that my parents refused to accept the letter and have sent a message that they have disowned me. It broke me, my heart turned into million pieces. For that moment, I forgot my goal - the goal to serve the Goddess and dedicate my life to Her. My world came tumbling down, my knees felt weak, no longer supported me and I fell down on them and started crying. Then something happened, I felt a hand working on my hair. Soft hands gently caressing my hair. Someone had touched me after 5 months. I felt better, I never knew a touch could feel so good, I turned and then I saw an angel. "I hope everything is OK", she said. My jaw dropped as her enchanting voice echoed in my ears. She stood there innocently looking into my eyes. I saw myself in those big eyes as I would see in a blue river. The contours on her face made my head spin. Her skin sparkled in the sun shine; the wind made her hair wave like the exuberant ocean tides. Her nose and the 'X' on her face glowed like a constellation. With my mouth open, I was like a born blind who never saw a thing in life and then one morning wakes up to realize that he can can see; looks across the window and sees the bright sun, the rain and the rainbow. She left me in that state.
That touch got too much for me. I could not sleep. I forgot my evening prayers. I forgot my morning's. I tried to find her everywhere but did not see her for 3 days. All I could think of was those eyes and the sight of me in them. Then on the next morning, while working on a statue; I saw her. I approached her and as soon as she realized she tried to escape. I ran after her and held her hand. "Go away! You don't want to talk to me. You don't know me. I am going to fe executed in a month's time", she said. It came as a shock and my grip on her hand loosened, and then ours eyes met again. I saw myself and I pulled her towards me and told her, "I don't care". She started crying and before we realized we were in each others arms. It was pure magic. Time stood still. She was holding me tight. "I am Mayaputra. What's your name and why are they executing you?", I asked her. That musical voice once again sprinkled on my ears, "I am Pooja". It was a strange name as I had never heard it before.
"I..I.. d.d.d. don't felong to Maya Nagari, I am actually from Raj Nagari Mumfai. They caught me praying my God Raj FakwaasKare and as per the third law of your nation I was sentenced to death".
(...to be continued)
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Monumental Mess - I
I am about to be executed. It all started 20 years ago...
I grabbed a window seat. The school bus roared towards its destination. All the 250 kids seated inside had been asked to wait for this day since they were born; even before they could make sense of it. Even though this day out was part of the history subject, all the toddlers including me were ecstatic as it gave them a chance to be outside the school walls.
The five hour journey was about to end it was announced. The MK memorial park could be seen from the bus window and so could be seen hundreds of similar buses each one travailing to get into the parking lot. It took another 2 hours before everything was settled and the country's 100,000 5th graders gathered in the park. The park resembled a huge stadium, in the middle of it stood a huge sculpture. In the short lives we had lived; we had seen a lot of sculptures but nothing as gigantic as this. There was a small podium at the feet of this huge statue. After a lot of anticipation the moment of our lives arrived. An old hairy man took control of the podium and started repeating the lines he knew by heart. After all, he had been the man in charge for the last 40 years.
"Future of tomorrow; you have already read in your 2nd grade history book about our great country. Our country that is greatest of them all; our country Maya Nagari was formed in 2025. The time has come for you to be cognizant of some facts now. What you haven't read yet is that before our formation we were ruled by an ancient country they used to call India." His face filled with hatred as he continued, "I am sure all of you are surprised as you never learned that name in the list of 729 countries you went through in 4th grade. That's because India ceased to exist after 2103. All the different states India used to rule freed themselves up, got further split and in result became 41 individual countries, ours being the best of the lot. The Indian barbarians ruled our country for more than 2000 years. Then Princess Mayapati freed us up", he paused and let it seep in the young ones.
"The air, the water, the rain, the forests, the food, our breath - we owe it all to her. She fought for our freedom when others were licking India's feet. She the Goddess, She the force, She the greatest soul, She the greatest warrior. That's why we call her mother of our nation. She was a ravishing beauty, an angel Gods had bestowed earth with. Men would drool over her and all of them wanted to marry her but She chose to fight for mankind instead of settling down. She led the war against India for freedom. Then, in the battle of 2024, the louche Indians bribed a couple of freedom fighters who were close to her. On her way to the battlefield they screwed her GPS and stole her guns. Following the fixed GPS, she found herself surrounded by hundreds of armed men and realized she was unarmed. She could have run but she decided to fight with her bare hands and gallantly she fought. She dodged bullets and the hundred men stood no chance but the immoral Indians attacked her with a tank from behind her back. The volley hit her on the head; she fell down but stood up immediately and picked up the tank in one hand while she used her other hand and legs to fight with the soldiers. Another tank came in the scene, seeing that Mayapati threw the tank she had in her hand towards it. The tank flew in the air and fell on the other and both of them burst into fire. The barbarians knew they had no chance but then Nimonia Jhandi the Indian queen played a devious plan. She sent hundred more soldiers; all of them wearing AamBechkar's mask. AamBechkar was a great soul and he was Mayapati's God father. She decided not to fight. All the merciless soldiers emptied their guns on Mayapati. She just stood there and ate all the bullets. It took a total of forty thousand seven hundred thirty seven bullets to .....", he started crying. It's easy to induce tears, it only needs some practice.
"One year after that horrible day we won our freedom and Maya Nagari was formed. The MK (Mayapati Kuwaanri) park that you see today was built in her memory. You have already seen hundreds of her statues that were built across our country after we attained independence. But this one is special, this is 148 ft. high 24-carat gold statue of her. From this year onwards the first law of the constitution will apply to all of you under which everybody needs to visit this park and pay homage to the Lordess once every year. An absence will result in a 1-year rigorous imprisonment. Class of year 2744 it's your time to carry forward Mayapati's legacy". There was a huge round of applause. I didn't clap. I didn't because I was lost in the monument and the legend of Mayapati had completely mesmerized me. She will be my idol from this day on I thought. Year after year, I came to the park with my parents. They would always ask me to close my eyes and thank the Goddess for bestowing me with life. I would have dreams of her fighting with hundreds of men and cutting them into pieces.
There were millions of websites on Mayapati, each one apprising the legacy. The KR browser (the only internet browser available and named after KaanKheench Ram, Mayapati's cohort in the fight for freedom) we use to surf the internet had bookmarks for 10 of these websites and these bookmarks could not be removed. The homepage was fixed to www.mayapatikuwaanri.com and it could not be changed either.
I put up a huge poster of Her in my bedroom. In 8th standard we learned the 145.781 law of constitution which was known as RFI (Restriction on the Flow of Information). This law meant that information could not flow out or in of the country. The news agencies and web were limited to Maya Nagri. Guilty are punishable by death penalty. We were told that it's evil's regime outside our country and this law protects the evil to spread in our country.
The gallows pole where I stand today started in my 9th standard. I still remember it was 10 days for the year's cycle to complete and I had as many days to visit the MK park. I decided to go the next day. That night I had a dream and the next morning I was woken up by police. My head hurt. I was told I had broken the first law of constitution! I cried out that there were still 10 more days but no one listened and I was thrown into the prison for an year..
(...to be continued)
I grabbed a window seat. The school bus roared towards its destination. All the 250 kids seated inside had been asked to wait for this day since they were born; even before they could make sense of it. Even though this day out was part of the history subject, all the toddlers including me were ecstatic as it gave them a chance to be outside the school walls.
The five hour journey was about to end it was announced. The MK memorial park could be seen from the bus window and so could be seen hundreds of similar buses each one travailing to get into the parking lot. It took another 2 hours before everything was settled and the country's 100,000 5th graders gathered in the park. The park resembled a huge stadium, in the middle of it stood a huge sculpture. In the short lives we had lived; we had seen a lot of sculptures but nothing as gigantic as this. There was a small podium at the feet of this huge statue. After a lot of anticipation the moment of our lives arrived. An old hairy man took control of the podium and started repeating the lines he knew by heart. After all, he had been the man in charge for the last 40 years.
"Future of tomorrow; you have already read in your 2nd grade history book about our great country. Our country that is greatest of them all; our country Maya Nagari was formed in 2025. The time has come for you to be cognizant of some facts now. What you haven't read yet is that before our formation we were ruled by an ancient country they used to call India." His face filled with hatred as he continued, "I am sure all of you are surprised as you never learned that name in the list of 729 countries you went through in 4th grade. That's because India ceased to exist after 2103. All the different states India used to rule freed themselves up, got further split and in result became 41 individual countries, ours being the best of the lot. The Indian barbarians ruled our country for more than 2000 years. Then Princess Mayapati freed us up", he paused and let it seep in the young ones.
"The air, the water, the rain, the forests, the food, our breath - we owe it all to her. She fought for our freedom when others were licking India's feet. She the Goddess, She the force, She the greatest soul, She the greatest warrior. That's why we call her mother of our nation. She was a ravishing beauty, an angel Gods had bestowed earth with. Men would drool over her and all of them wanted to marry her but She chose to fight for mankind instead of settling down. She led the war against India for freedom. Then, in the battle of 2024, the louche Indians bribed a couple of freedom fighters who were close to her. On her way to the battlefield they screwed her GPS and stole her guns. Following the fixed GPS, she found herself surrounded by hundreds of armed men and realized she was unarmed. She could have run but she decided to fight with her bare hands and gallantly she fought. She dodged bullets and the hundred men stood no chance but the immoral Indians attacked her with a tank from behind her back. The volley hit her on the head; she fell down but stood up immediately and picked up the tank in one hand while she used her other hand and legs to fight with the soldiers. Another tank came in the scene, seeing that Mayapati threw the tank she had in her hand towards it. The tank flew in the air and fell on the other and both of them burst into fire. The barbarians knew they had no chance but then Nimonia Jhandi the Indian queen played a devious plan. She sent hundred more soldiers; all of them wearing AamBechkar's mask. AamBechkar was a great soul and he was Mayapati's God father. She decided not to fight. All the merciless soldiers emptied their guns on Mayapati. She just stood there and ate all the bullets. It took a total of forty thousand seven hundred thirty seven bullets to .....", he started crying. It's easy to induce tears, it only needs some practice.
"One year after that horrible day we won our freedom and Maya Nagari was formed. The MK (Mayapati Kuwaanri) park that you see today was built in her memory. You have already seen hundreds of her statues that were built across our country after we attained independence. But this one is special, this is 148 ft. high 24-carat gold statue of her. From this year onwards the first law of the constitution will apply to all of you under which everybody needs to visit this park and pay homage to the Lordess once every year. An absence will result in a 1-year rigorous imprisonment. Class of year 2744 it's your time to carry forward Mayapati's legacy". There was a huge round of applause. I didn't clap. I didn't because I was lost in the monument and the legend of Mayapati had completely mesmerized me. She will be my idol from this day on I thought. Year after year, I came to the park with my parents. They would always ask me to close my eyes and thank the Goddess for bestowing me with life. I would have dreams of her fighting with hundreds of men and cutting them into pieces.
There were millions of websites on Mayapati, each one apprising the legacy. The KR browser (the only internet browser available and named after KaanKheench Ram, Mayapati's cohort in the fight for freedom) we use to surf the internet had bookmarks for 10 of these websites and these bookmarks could not be removed. The homepage was fixed to www.mayapatikuwaanri.com and it could not be changed either.
I put up a huge poster of Her in my bedroom. In 8th standard we learned the 145.781 law of constitution which was known as RFI (Restriction on the Flow of Information). This law meant that information could not flow out or in of the country. The news agencies and web were limited to Maya Nagri. Guilty are punishable by death penalty. We were told that it's evil's regime outside our country and this law protects the evil to spread in our country.
The gallows pole where I stand today started in my 9th standard. I still remember it was 10 days for the year's cycle to complete and I had as many days to visit the MK park. I decided to go the next day. That night I had a dream and the next morning I was woken up by police. My head hurt. I was told I had broken the first law of constitution! I cried out that there were still 10 more days but no one listened and I was thrown into the prison for an year..
(...to be continued)
Monday, August 3, 2009
One last push
I have been cooking up a piece for 4 weeks now. In today's world where any information is a couple of clicks away, where everything seems like is already penned down - to write something sui generis is a tough ask especially if the goal is to have the dibs on it. Combined to that my laziness; I haven't been able to motivate myself enough.
On my way back home yesterday - I saw something that is surely going to act as a catalyst in my pursuit to finish this one.
Cum'on.
On my way back home yesterday - I saw something that is surely going to act as a catalyst in my pursuit to finish this one.
Cum'on.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Why?
I hate filling forms. It kills me. It was announced that apart from the immigration every one needs to fill another form that the health authorities in India had circulated. Then I thought, "Hey God, why did man invent a form?"
Anyways, the form consisted of five questions. 1. "Have you been to Mexico, USA, Spain, Germany, ....... (there were other countries)?" 2. "Do you have high fever?" 3. "Do you have .... symptoms?" 4. "Have you been in touch with someone who had the flu?" 5. I don't remember. It was also announced that there will be a health check-up for swine flu before the immigration. The health check-up counters were there but it had no qualified personnel. There was no check-up and the only thing they did was stamp the forms. I found it hilarious. I thought they could have simplified the form with just one question. "Do you think, you have swine flu?". Then I thought, "Hey God, why did you create disease?"
Only with experience, after you have traveled multiple times you learn the art of walking past the Indian customs. I was carrying two laptops, one of them belonged to our client and I had a letter from them stating that the laptop will go back to the US. I was asked how many laptops do I carry and I proudly declared, "Two". The guys didn't even want to look at the letter and what followed was a 20 minute argument which ended with - "Tum engineer ho, disturb nahin karenge tumhein. Bas thodi sewa kar do". I did not budge to that and it frustrated them. I got lucky as they saw a bigger fish with 6 suitcases and as they started attending their new guest I walked past them. Then I thought, "Hey God, why did man create customs?"
I got a cab. The cabbie was a nice guy and I picked up a conversation. After talking about a lot of things he told me that in 2006 he took four people to Aligarh. He could never make it there as his clients robbed him of every single penny, took the taxi and threw him in the jungle. Then I thought, "Hey God, why did man invent robbery?"
The house was a bowl of dust. It irritated me to the core. Then I thought, "Hey God, why did you create dust?"
The maid worked for 3 hours and cleaned up the house. I asked her to fix some eggs for me. After two minutes I was told that there is no salt in the house. Then I thought, "Hey God, why did you create salt? Why did man discover it?"
The maid is very generous. Most maids would be happy to have me as a client. They will get multiple opportunities where they wouldn't have to cook because I forgot to get the groceries. Not this maid. She said, "Prepare a list now and get the stuff today". As most of you will expect from me; I said, "We will do it tomorrow". She was holding her front and said you have to do it today. I said, "Fine. I will do it today but there is no need to create a list. I will remember everything". I could see the frustration but no way she was going to lose this one, "No, you will forget. Please prepare a list". I even gave her an excuse that I can't find my pen but she found one and I ended up preparing a 23 item list. I didn't do it. Next day, when she realized that I hadn't moved an inch the disappointment on her face killed me. She said, "Kaise rehta hai aap saahab?" with a sigh of frustration. It motivated me and as soon as she left I drove to a local store to get the 23 items. The enthusiasm though didn't last long, bewilderment filled me as I went through the list. It reminds me of a Sidhuism - "I was like a kid in a topless bar". Then I thought, "Hey God, why did you create food? Why did man create dishes? Why did man create spices? Milk? Rice? Oil? Why do hen lay eggs?"
On my way back I thought, "Hey God, why did you create matter? The world would have been so uncomplicated, so simpler without the body. Mind doesn't need water to drink cause it feels no thirst, food to eat cause it feels no hunger, clothes to wear cause they only hide the body not the mind, a house to live cause it's omnipresent." I thought of what the world would be if God didn't create body. I will leave it up to your gray cells to imagine the matter-less world, to paint it yourself and fantasize about it. You will fathom a lot of things but ponder on what love will be like. I think it will be the same. My personal favorite is that mind doesn't need to brush the teeth or go to the loo. A male mind doesn't need to shave and if you are an astute thinker the ladies get an even better deal.
I came crashing out of my dream as I drove by a seductress middle aged woman. She was getting in her car and our eyes met. I slowed down. She ogled me I returned the favor and then I thought, "Hey God, why did you create me?"
Anyways, the form consisted of five questions. 1. "Have you been to Mexico, USA, Spain, Germany, ....... (there were other countries)?" 2. "Do you have high fever?" 3. "Do you have .... symptoms?" 4. "Have you been in touch with someone who had the flu?" 5. I don't remember. It was also announced that there will be a health check-up for swine flu before the immigration. The health check-up counters were there but it had no qualified personnel. There was no check-up and the only thing they did was stamp the forms. I found it hilarious. I thought they could have simplified the form with just one question. "Do you think, you have swine flu?". Then I thought, "Hey God, why did you create disease?"
Only with experience, after you have traveled multiple times you learn the art of walking past the Indian customs. I was carrying two laptops, one of them belonged to our client and I had a letter from them stating that the laptop will go back to the US. I was asked how many laptops do I carry and I proudly declared, "Two". The guys didn't even want to look at the letter and what followed was a 20 minute argument which ended with - "Tum engineer ho, disturb nahin karenge tumhein. Bas thodi sewa kar do". I did not budge to that and it frustrated them. I got lucky as they saw a bigger fish with 6 suitcases and as they started attending their new guest I walked past them. Then I thought, "Hey God, why did man create customs?"
I got a cab. The cabbie was a nice guy and I picked up a conversation. After talking about a lot of things he told me that in 2006 he took four people to Aligarh. He could never make it there as his clients robbed him of every single penny, took the taxi and threw him in the jungle. Then I thought, "Hey God, why did man invent robbery?"
The house was a bowl of dust. It irritated me to the core. Then I thought, "Hey God, why did you create dust?"
The maid worked for 3 hours and cleaned up the house. I asked her to fix some eggs for me. After two minutes I was told that there is no salt in the house. Then I thought, "Hey God, why did you create salt? Why did man discover it?"
The maid is very generous. Most maids would be happy to have me as a client. They will get multiple opportunities where they wouldn't have to cook because I forgot to get the groceries. Not this maid. She said, "Prepare a list now and get the stuff today". As most of you will expect from me; I said, "We will do it tomorrow". She was holding her front and said you have to do it today. I said, "Fine. I will do it today but there is no need to create a list. I will remember everything". I could see the frustration but no way she was going to lose this one, "No, you will forget. Please prepare a list". I even gave her an excuse that I can't find my pen but she found one and I ended up preparing a 23 item list. I didn't do it. Next day, when she realized that I hadn't moved an inch the disappointment on her face killed me. She said, "Kaise rehta hai aap saahab?" with a sigh of frustration. It motivated me and as soon as she left I drove to a local store to get the 23 items. The enthusiasm though didn't last long, bewilderment filled me as I went through the list. It reminds me of a Sidhuism - "I was like a kid in a topless bar". Then I thought, "Hey God, why did you create food? Why did man create dishes? Why did man create spices? Milk? Rice? Oil? Why do hen lay eggs?"
On my way back I thought, "Hey God, why did you create matter? The world would have been so uncomplicated, so simpler without the body. Mind doesn't need water to drink cause it feels no thirst, food to eat cause it feels no hunger, clothes to wear cause they only hide the body not the mind, a house to live cause it's omnipresent." I thought of what the world would be if God didn't create body. I will leave it up to your gray cells to imagine the matter-less world, to paint it yourself and fantasize about it. You will fathom a lot of things but ponder on what love will be like. I think it will be the same. My personal favorite is that mind doesn't need to brush the teeth or go to the loo. A male mind doesn't need to shave and if you are an astute thinker the ladies get an even better deal.
I came crashing out of my dream as I drove by a seductress middle aged woman. She was getting in her car and our eyes met. I slowed down. She ogled me I returned the favor and then I thought, "Hey God, why did you create me?"
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Moments
No one knows better how to count hours than me. Soon I will be counting minutes. Its 44 degrees back home as compared to the pleasant weather here; no one waits for me the way I want to but it's just the thrill of getting back home.
Anyways, loneliness brings the best and the worst out of me. Someone asked me to pen the eventful 20 days that passed by, could not ignore the request. Also it gives a chance to my rusty cells that don't get used a lot these days to be put to some work.
Last year, I read Michael Crichton's book - Travels. It is a good book and I highly recommend it. The writer relates real life events from his travels to something about him or others and is pretty honest about it. I thought maybe I will use that philosophy to make this blog entry more than just a bunch of events that took place. So I will wander in any direction based of an event.
May 19 2009 New York - Camera rolling, Action
I was carrying his business suit. I was perplexed if he will make it to the big meeting on time. I was there 10 minutes before the stipulated time. The clock ticked, it was 10 minutes pass the fixed time, 20 minutes for the meeting to begin and there was no sign of anyone. I got a call and was told that everybody was around the corner. But where was he? How will I hand over the suit if he gets late? Before I could muster a plan, Mr. Sandeep Maan messaged; he was going to make it on time. Sandeep had taken a red eye from San Francisco last night and was running by a thin thread. He made it though, surprisingly before the other fellas who were following the characteristic Indian time zone. The sigh of relief was short lived as there was no place for him to get dressed. The receptionist was kind enough to suggest Starbucks next door; time was running out and Sandeep had no other option. He actually enjoyed it as I saw a huge grin on his face when he came back all dressed up. May be he got to do it more often! Other people joined us and the meeting was on shortly. For me, I have no doubts that I suffer from "punctuality paranoia". It's a disease.
Corporate details are boring. This meeting though was a test of how much can you deceive? One thing that I noticed was that lying doesn't come naturally to Sandeep. He stutters when he does. On the contrary I was a smoothie; I bet I could have beaten the polymorphic test that day. I always knew I had it in me!
After the meeting we met Pravin and headed towards Times Square. I got my camera which hadn't been put to work for 6+ months and it had to be same for one more week as after we got there I realized I had forgotten the batteries; anyways Sandeep's cell came to the rescue.
New York is unique. My poor writing abilities will not do the justice to describe what New York is all about. I will only say that I think one can probably find at least one face here for every other city, town or village in the world.
Sandeep flew back to SFO and me and Pravin spent the evening with a friend who took us to a well known place for dinner. We caught a flight early next morning to join Sandeep in SFO. The days went by and then came the long weekend which we had grand plans for. 100%.
May 23 2009 SFO, Towards Yosemite
After Gilchrist had murderously thrashed Delhi out of the IPL, we were hoping that Chennai will make it to the finals. If our grand children are lucky they will probably get a chance to see a cricket match on a regular US TV channel. 50% of people here would think of an insect when you mention cricket, the next 25% know it as a game Britishers created, the next 23% call it a version of the baseball. It kills me. The only chance we had to watch the game was online but the hotel network was worse than what you would get in an Indian village. Anyways, where there is a will, there is a way. We got to a parking lot where we could catch the wireless coming of a local company and watched the game sitting in our poor SUV. It turned out to be an average game, Chennai lost and we started our journey towards Yosemite. This one demonstrated the passion we have for the game. It's just the way one looks at it. For some it's a piece of wood and leather, for some the sound of the leather striking the wood is music.
We got a GPS device from the car rental and began our journey. We had a poor man's SUV - a Kia Rondo. The hot topic during most of our ride was to find a suitable match for SK and how to make poor SK sellable. Till date it remains an NP problem. We covered an army gal, an artistic gal, a house wife, a philosopher gal, an NRI gal and many more. It got more nightmarish than the applied mechanics problems. This discussion came to a sudden halt as we closed in on Yosemite area. We had been driving for almost 50 miles with no sign of any life. Then we saw it. It stood like a lone island in the middle of an ocean. An old fashioned building with a huge sign board that said - "Girls, Girls, Girls". A gentleman's club! If you draw a 50 miles radius circle around this point, the only thing you will get is dirt and brushes. That's America baby! Sandeep who was asleep got up as we passed by this monumental landmark and kept on looking back (OK I am exaggerating).
May 23 2009 Yosemite, Glacier Point
A long drive and we got to Glacier point - one can see the entire Yosemite valley from this point.
We saw the sunset; it was not that exciting and started our journey towards Merced, a town 100+ miles away where we had booked our hotel. We planned to get back next day and hike a trail. No, we did not book our hotel far away to save money. We simply did not get a hotel closer than that; so busy was the weekend and they tell me economy is bad.
The GPS was not helping us and neither were we. The sign board clearly marked take right for Merced but the GPS asked us to do otherwise and like the robots depicted in Wall-E we took a left turn. From that point on, it was as if a ghost had entered the GPS. It went ballistic after that turn. It would ask us to take a turn when it did not exist. We knew if we turned back we will be OK but we followed the machine rather than our instincts. That's an interesting point there. Trusting a machine more than you do yourselves. Just goes to show how dependent we are and how the society is headed towards use your brain as little as possible. Anyways we kept on going and found our way to Merced. We checked in our rooms and came out looking for dinner. We found it easily 30 feet from the hotel.
As soon as we got there we realized it was not a diner, it was a disc. The music was on; we were tired - perfect time for some beer. Merced is an American village and this place was a disc in a village. I found it hilarious as much as I found it amazing. People kept on pouring in. The funny thing was that the girls outnumbered the guys! The other interesting point to be noted was the eyes. You have definitely seen those eyes before - the voracious eyes of a guy staring at a female as someone would at the food if they hadn't had anything to eat for a week, as a pack of wolves would at their hapless prey. There was a key difference though. These were female's eyes! A couple of faces are worth remembering. Sandeep took particular interest in a gal; he and Pravin found her the "Shaadi material" and they kept on pushing me to ask her for a dance. I would have probably in my hay days but I am old now so I just had my beer and enjoyed the sight of it. We came back to our rooms after a pathetic dinner at McDonald's and I did think about it. Should I have gone to the dance floor where this babe was dancing all alone waiting for someone to join her. I think as I have grown the fear of the denial has caught up on me more than anything else. It's one more disease I suffer from.
May 24 2009 SFO, Towards Yosemite again
We started our journey back to Yosemite once again after a hefty meal at Denny's. The IPL final was on and I was rooting for Deccan chargers. Bangalore had restricted them to a low total and were doing well in their chase. We were following the match on Sandeep's cell phone courtesy Cricinfo. Up till now Pravin was refreshing the score; Bangalore were on their way to the trophy when I took the phone from him with little hopes of a Deccan revival. As I did that Symonds got 2 wickets in 2 balls. After that I simply never let go the phone. Yes, I am very superstitious about this. I don't breath in the last over of a tight game. Well, 2 overs from finish and we lost the signal. I guess I had done enough by then to ensure a Deccan win.
Let me now talk about a very different facet. I realized I was with two Schumachers who don't have any respect for a normal driver like me. As soon as I requested to be on the wheel and got on the wheel I was bombarded with some serious driving lessons. Go fast, stay in this lane, over take this vehicle, change your lane. Ufff. It kills me. I am not a novice man - I have driven 10,000 miles in the US. I had decided I am not going to drive on this trip. Sandeep specially protected the vehicle from me as Dhoni protected Yuvraj by sending Jadeja at 4 in the game against England, or the way Amrish Puri used to protect his daughter from the coolest chaps.
May 24 2009 Yosemite
We reached and started our walk towards the trail.
We had picked a trail that would take us to the top of the Vernal falls. It was a 2 mile walk towards the starting point of the trail. Nothing spectacular so far. If you haven't seen mountains all your life the sights would amaze you but for us we were still waiting for something that would set Yosemite apart from others.
The trail had three sections. We decided we will cover the first two. The first one would take us to the base of Vernal falls and the second one would lead us to the mouth of the fall.
Pravin had bought new shoes for the hike; we were loaded with Gatorades, energy bars and therefore our spirits were high!! The first trail was easy and we made it to the base of the fall, nothing worth mentioning.
The most thrilling part of our trip was around the corner. The walk to the top was along with the water fall itself. It was beginning of the summer and the water was falling down mercilessly. The unimaginable force of the water beating down on the rocks creates an awesome mist effect. A mist you need to walk through to reach the top.
The sweat and the water commingle, you are drenched in both, you see multiple rainbows, rainbows you can touch, the falling water looks like tons of milk and suddenly you don't hear the sound of the water crashing down, you don't see thousands of people around you, you forget that you are walking towards the top - for once you feel Almighty's touch. You need the proof - just look at Sandeep in this picture. He looks like a man who just attained nirvana. Who says we need art of living to tell us how to feel happiness!!
We found a spot to sit and just enjoyed the moment. Pravin and Sandeep were tiring but I was feeling good. I haven't done a lot of hikes in my life but whenever I have done them I enjoy them when I am all by myself. I decided to move on and started moving up at my own pace. I was acting like a little boy with a spring in every step of mine as I headed towards the top. I love to act like a kid at times. I guess all of us do. There is something magical, something special about being a kid. The world we live in, the world of rules awards you license to drive, license to drink at a certain age. Nature works the other way round - At the age when the world thinks you are wise it snatches a license from you that you got when you were a kid. It's the license to fly!!
Finally we got there.
All of us felt very nice to be there. A couple of very pretty faces around added to the spark. We stayed there for about half an hour clicking some more snaps and then headed back. We drove back to SFO that evening itself. I never offered to drive. We stopped at a local Mexican restaurant and had probably the best mexican food of our lives.
The GPS started its drama again. Once again taking us to the unpaved roads and we followed it blindly despite knowing the fact that the highway we were on will take us straight to SFO. We got onto some unpaved roads that reminded me of the Evil Dead's of the world. We cursed the poor machine all the way long. It was only the next day before handing it back to the car rental we realized that the GPS was set to "shortest distance" and not "shortest time". We the cream!
It was Wednesday before we realized, the day Pravin flew back to India. 66%.
May 28 2009 SFO Tennis begins
After Pravin left, Sandeep and I decided to play tennis every day. We had brought over our racquet's from India. Both of us bought new tennis shoes, I invested in T-shirts and tennis shorts so we thought we might as well play!
We played almost every day and it was fun. It doesn't matter who won and by what difference because it kept us going. I wish I had some pictures of me hitting that ripping serve down the corner. We would play for 1.5 hours on an average every day. The game made our evenings special. It also told me one thing about both of us. How much we love to win. As long as we played without worrying about whose winning, knocking the ball around hitting our shots and serves the mind was calm. As soon as we got into the "compete" mode I could see Sandeep making an extra effort and running even when his leg hurt. Simply put, he hates to lose as much as I do. I think he also saw the same from me.
One more interesting thing that both of us felt was how our mind played games when someone was watching us. This guy was looking at our game from far away but his presence affected both of us. I remember I was serving and I was thinking this has to be an ace because the guy's watching it!! Kiddish but true, while he was there the only thing on my mind was he is watching me and that he is there to vindicate my game! So now think of the guys who are on field with millions watching 'em. I would go crazy in a scenario like that! I can't imagine but it's easier for me to think about why Federer was almost in tears even before he started to serve out for the French open. I mean we mortals can't imagine the mental strength the top guys possess in any sport.
May 30-31 2009 SFO The Crazy Weekend
There are days you look back for a long long time.
The 30th of May was one such day. The Yosemite trip had our spirits rocking and we decided to hike in the local SFO area called Muir woods. Sandeep had been there before but he wanted to be there again hiking a different trail. So we got there (Sandeep drove again) and trust me it was the cold and not a style statement that I was trying to make when I dressed like that. It was a good hike, nothing special about it we slowly got to the top of it. The way up was different than the way down.
This picture on the top actually shows our new shoes!
On our way back we again saw a glimpse of American glory. We passed by a rest house where people were relaxing and having beer!!! This place was selling beer! Can you imagine - you go on a hike and have beer on top, that's out of the world.
Anyways what made the day crazy was not the fact that we hiked for 5 hours. It's the after events. We headed towards SFO downtown after the hike and spent a lot of energy trying to find a place to eat. We roamed around for 45 minutes trying to pick a place that both of us were happy with to have our lunch.
After the late lunch we got back to our hotel tired to death and decided it was time to play tennis. 30 minutes after that we were on the court. I could see the fatigue on the other side and feel it on my side. It was not the body that played for 2 hours that day. It was the mind and this just goes to show what mind can do.
The day wasn't going to be over without the alcohol. We got to a local grocery store and Sandeep got crazy about 2007 grapes. I went to buy some ben and jerries ice cream but all Sandeep could talk about was the 2007 grapes. I guess, some sales guy in one of his trips to a wine brewery told him that the 2007 grapes were awesome and all he cared about that evening was to buy a 2007 wine. Anyways we got the wine, we got the ice cream and finished the bottle, most of the ice cream and it was only after 2 am when we went to bed.
The next day was dedicated to an Indian buffet at a local restaurant and the pacific coast highway drive. After eating as much as we could we headed towards the drive. Once again, being the gentleman I am I never offered to drive. Even though it was the PCH, I sacrificed it. The drive was awesome, anyways. I also got some cool tips from Sandeep on how to smile and how to pose for a snap. Here he is just trying to give me a lesson on the same.
And here I am trying to do my best. Blame it to the Indian food or previous day's deeds - our energies were fading out fast. Sandeep wanted to go out to shopping but I was losing it quickly. The body was giving up. We decided to get back to our hotel and crashed at 4 pm. It was only 8:30 pm when we gained cautiousness. The next couple of days chugged along.
June 4 SFO The Mongolian Experience
After our tennis game and a trip to Macy's to check out a wrist watch for myself the next item on the agenda was to find a place to eat. It was only two days for Sandeep to leave so he was very picky about what he wanted to have. We roamed around and he said no to almost everything that went by. It was 9:30 pm and most of the outlets were closed anyways. On his hunch he took a highway exit and we reached the same block where he had the Indian food on the weekend. We parked our car and realized that everything was closing down; we were in a hurry and were running around to find a place. We saw this mongolian place and decided that it's our last chance. We got in there and were immediately put under the gun when the receptionist told us that we got 5 minutes to place our order.
As we sat down we realized it was a hot pot place. For everyone's knowledge a hot pot is a place where you cook your own food! The table consists of an induction heater, you order a base curry or a soup as it was called in this place and you order for basic ingredients. The ingredients consist of sliced meat, vegetables, tofu, mushrooms etc. This caught us by surprise and as soon as a waiter passed by Sandeep called him and told him point blank - "We are new, help us out". The guy was generous and explained the entire concept. We had been to a place like this before but we were under the pressure to order. We ordered the base soup and got ourselves some raw meat and vegetables. It was a lot of meat. Then I screwed up succumbing to pressure once again. I picked up all the ingredients and poured them into the bowl of boiling soup. The thing is you are supposed to add a couple of slices and eat it and so on. It cooks in a couple of seconds as its very thin sliced meat. The damage though was done before the guy came back and explained what we should have done. Anyways, despite that the food was amazing. We ate and we kept on eating for almost an hour. The spices were amazing and I couldn't resist going this last week one more time. The initial experience though could not be matched due to the surprise factor.
June 5 SFO Closer to the heart
The evening plans were pre-decided. We were supposed to go to PF Chang and have our dinner. Sandeep's love for the 2007 grapes rose once again as we ordered some wine along with our food. The wine was good and one could see the affect. On to the second glass we were already talking about stuff that doesn't come out often. I want the non-alcoholics to pay close attention here! We were actually talking about how our parents played a huge role in what we are today. We got drunk but the discussion was heartwarming for both of us and we needed more. So we headed to a find a grocery store that would be open past 11, luckily found one and got some more 2007 wine. We talked and drank for another 2 hours on the same topic and couldn't help thanking our parents. I am not good at expressing myself unless I am under the influence of alcohol (may be Sandeep as well). Anyways, hopefully I will gather the courage of getting drunk in front of my parents and say it all :). Sandeep slept blabbering something I did not understand and I don't remember how I got to my room and slept.
June 6 SFO 0%
I didn't want to accompany Sandeep as I headed towards the airport to drop him. It's not my usual laziness, it's something inside me. I hate to see people off. It depresses the hell out of me. Well it did.
I have had many trips before. I can't even count. They have been longer than the current one. Most of the times I was by myself for the entire duration of the trip. This time around though I had some amazing company and then I didn't. May be that's what hurting me more. It's hard to eat green after you have been eating red for a while!
Anyways the count is down to 84!
Anyways, loneliness brings the best and the worst out of me. Someone asked me to pen the eventful 20 days that passed by, could not ignore the request. Also it gives a chance to my rusty cells that don't get used a lot these days to be put to some work.
Last year, I read Michael Crichton's book - Travels. It is a good book and I highly recommend it. The writer relates real life events from his travels to something about him or others and is pretty honest about it. I thought maybe I will use that philosophy to make this blog entry more than just a bunch of events that took place. So I will wander in any direction based of an event.
May 19 2009 New York - Camera rolling, Action
I was carrying his business suit. I was perplexed if he will make it to the big meeting on time. I was there 10 minutes before the stipulated time. The clock ticked, it was 10 minutes pass the fixed time, 20 minutes for the meeting to begin and there was no sign of anyone. I got a call and was told that everybody was around the corner. But where was he? How will I hand over the suit if he gets late? Before I could muster a plan, Mr. Sandeep Maan messaged; he was going to make it on time. Sandeep had taken a red eye from San Francisco last night and was running by a thin thread. He made it though, surprisingly before the other fellas who were following the characteristic Indian time zone. The sigh of relief was short lived as there was no place for him to get dressed. The receptionist was kind enough to suggest Starbucks next door; time was running out and Sandeep had no other option. He actually enjoyed it as I saw a huge grin on his face when he came back all dressed up. May be he got to do it more often! Other people joined us and the meeting was on shortly. For me, I have no doubts that I suffer from "punctuality paranoia". It's a disease.
Corporate details are boring. This meeting though was a test of how much can you deceive? One thing that I noticed was that lying doesn't come naturally to Sandeep. He stutters when he does. On the contrary I was a smoothie; I bet I could have beaten the polymorphic test that day. I always knew I had it in me!
After the meeting we met Pravin and headed towards Times Square. I got my camera which hadn't been put to work for 6+ months and it had to be same for one more week as after we got there I realized I had forgotten the batteries; anyways Sandeep's cell came to the rescue.
New York is unique. My poor writing abilities will not do the justice to describe what New York is all about. I will only say that I think one can probably find at least one face here for every other city, town or village in the world.
Sandeep flew back to SFO and me and Pravin spent the evening with a friend who took us to a well known place for dinner. We caught a flight early next morning to join Sandeep in SFO. The days went by and then came the long weekend which we had grand plans for. 100%.
May 23 2009 SFO, Towards Yosemite
After Gilchrist had murderously thrashed Delhi out of the IPL, we were hoping that Chennai will make it to the finals. If our grand children are lucky they will probably get a chance to see a cricket match on a regular US TV channel. 50% of people here would think of an insect when you mention cricket, the next 25% know it as a game Britishers created, the next 23% call it a version of the baseball. It kills me. The only chance we had to watch the game was online but the hotel network was worse than what you would get in an Indian village. Anyways, where there is a will, there is a way. We got to a parking lot where we could catch the wireless coming of a local company and watched the game sitting in our poor SUV. It turned out to be an average game, Chennai lost and we started our journey towards Yosemite. This one demonstrated the passion we have for the game. It's just the way one looks at it. For some it's a piece of wood and leather, for some the sound of the leather striking the wood is music.
We got a GPS device from the car rental and began our journey. We had a poor man's SUV - a Kia Rondo. The hot topic during most of our ride was to find a suitable match for SK and how to make poor SK sellable. Till date it remains an NP problem. We covered an army gal, an artistic gal, a house wife, a philosopher gal, an NRI gal and many more. It got more nightmarish than the applied mechanics problems. This discussion came to a sudden halt as we closed in on Yosemite area. We had been driving for almost 50 miles with no sign of any life. Then we saw it. It stood like a lone island in the middle of an ocean. An old fashioned building with a huge sign board that said - "Girls, Girls, Girls". A gentleman's club! If you draw a 50 miles radius circle around this point, the only thing you will get is dirt and brushes. That's America baby! Sandeep who was asleep got up as we passed by this monumental landmark and kept on looking back (OK I am exaggerating).
May 23 2009 Yosemite, Glacier Point
A long drive and we got to Glacier point - one can see the entire Yosemite valley from this point.
We saw the sunset; it was not that exciting and started our journey towards Merced, a town 100+ miles away where we had booked our hotel. We planned to get back next day and hike a trail. No, we did not book our hotel far away to save money. We simply did not get a hotel closer than that; so busy was the weekend and they tell me economy is bad.
The GPS was not helping us and neither were we. The sign board clearly marked take right for Merced but the GPS asked us to do otherwise and like the robots depicted in Wall-E we took a left turn. From that point on, it was as if a ghost had entered the GPS. It went ballistic after that turn. It would ask us to take a turn when it did not exist. We knew if we turned back we will be OK but we followed the machine rather than our instincts. That's an interesting point there. Trusting a machine more than you do yourselves. Just goes to show how dependent we are and how the society is headed towards use your brain as little as possible. Anyways we kept on going and found our way to Merced. We checked in our rooms and came out looking for dinner. We found it easily 30 feet from the hotel.
As soon as we got there we realized it was not a diner, it was a disc. The music was on; we were tired - perfect time for some beer. Merced is an American village and this place was a disc in a village. I found it hilarious as much as I found it amazing. People kept on pouring in. The funny thing was that the girls outnumbered the guys! The other interesting point to be noted was the eyes. You have definitely seen those eyes before - the voracious eyes of a guy staring at a female as someone would at the food if they hadn't had anything to eat for a week, as a pack of wolves would at their hapless prey. There was a key difference though. These were female's eyes! A couple of faces are worth remembering. Sandeep took particular interest in a gal; he and Pravin found her the "Shaadi material" and they kept on pushing me to ask her for a dance. I would have probably in my hay days but I am old now so I just had my beer and enjoyed the sight of it. We came back to our rooms after a pathetic dinner at McDonald's and I did think about it. Should I have gone to the dance floor where this babe was dancing all alone waiting for someone to join her. I think as I have grown the fear of the denial has caught up on me more than anything else. It's one more disease I suffer from.
May 24 2009 SFO, Towards Yosemite again
We started our journey back to Yosemite once again after a hefty meal at Denny's. The IPL final was on and I was rooting for Deccan chargers. Bangalore had restricted them to a low total and were doing well in their chase. We were following the match on Sandeep's cell phone courtesy Cricinfo. Up till now Pravin was refreshing the score; Bangalore were on their way to the trophy when I took the phone from him with little hopes of a Deccan revival. As I did that Symonds got 2 wickets in 2 balls. After that I simply never let go the phone. Yes, I am very superstitious about this. I don't breath in the last over of a tight game. Well, 2 overs from finish and we lost the signal. I guess I had done enough by then to ensure a Deccan win.
Let me now talk about a very different facet. I realized I was with two Schumachers who don't have any respect for a normal driver like me. As soon as I requested to be on the wheel and got on the wheel I was bombarded with some serious driving lessons. Go fast, stay in this lane, over take this vehicle, change your lane. Ufff. It kills me. I am not a novice man - I have driven 10,000 miles in the US. I had decided I am not going to drive on this trip. Sandeep specially protected the vehicle from me as Dhoni protected Yuvraj by sending Jadeja at 4 in the game against England, or the way Amrish Puri used to protect his daughter from the coolest chaps.
May 24 2009 Yosemite
We reached and started our walk towards the trail.
We had picked a trail that would take us to the top of the Vernal falls. It was a 2 mile walk towards the starting point of the trail. Nothing spectacular so far. If you haven't seen mountains all your life the sights would amaze you but for us we were still waiting for something that would set Yosemite apart from others.
The trail had three sections. We decided we will cover the first two. The first one would take us to the base of Vernal falls and the second one would lead us to the mouth of the fall.
Pravin had bought new shoes for the hike; we were loaded with Gatorades, energy bars and therefore our spirits were high!! The first trail was easy and we made it to the base of the fall, nothing worth mentioning.
The most thrilling part of our trip was around the corner. The walk to the top was along with the water fall itself. It was beginning of the summer and the water was falling down mercilessly. The unimaginable force of the water beating down on the rocks creates an awesome mist effect. A mist you need to walk through to reach the top.
The sweat and the water commingle, you are drenched in both, you see multiple rainbows, rainbows you can touch, the falling water looks like tons of milk and suddenly you don't hear the sound of the water crashing down, you don't see thousands of people around you, you forget that you are walking towards the top - for once you feel Almighty's touch. You need the proof - just look at Sandeep in this picture. He looks like a man who just attained nirvana. Who says we need art of living to tell us how to feel happiness!!
We found a spot to sit and just enjoyed the moment. Pravin and Sandeep were tiring but I was feeling good. I haven't done a lot of hikes in my life but whenever I have done them I enjoy them when I am all by myself. I decided to move on and started moving up at my own pace. I was acting like a little boy with a spring in every step of mine as I headed towards the top. I love to act like a kid at times. I guess all of us do. There is something magical, something special about being a kid. The world we live in, the world of rules awards you license to drive, license to drink at a certain age. Nature works the other way round - At the age when the world thinks you are wise it snatches a license from you that you got when you were a kid. It's the license to fly!!
Finally we got there.
All of us felt very nice to be there. A couple of very pretty faces around added to the spark. We stayed there for about half an hour clicking some more snaps and then headed back. We drove back to SFO that evening itself. I never offered to drive. We stopped at a local Mexican restaurant and had probably the best mexican food of our lives.
The GPS started its drama again. Once again taking us to the unpaved roads and we followed it blindly despite knowing the fact that the highway we were on will take us straight to SFO. We got onto some unpaved roads that reminded me of the Evil Dead's of the world. We cursed the poor machine all the way long. It was only the next day before handing it back to the car rental we realized that the GPS was set to "shortest distance" and not "shortest time". We the cream!
It was Wednesday before we realized, the day Pravin flew back to India. 66%.
May 28 2009 SFO Tennis begins
After Pravin left, Sandeep and I decided to play tennis every day. We had brought over our racquet's from India. Both of us bought new tennis shoes, I invested in T-shirts and tennis shorts so we thought we might as well play!
We played almost every day and it was fun. It doesn't matter who won and by what difference because it kept us going. I wish I had some pictures of me hitting that ripping serve down the corner. We would play for 1.5 hours on an average every day. The game made our evenings special. It also told me one thing about both of us. How much we love to win. As long as we played without worrying about whose winning, knocking the ball around hitting our shots and serves the mind was calm. As soon as we got into the "compete" mode I could see Sandeep making an extra effort and running even when his leg hurt. Simply put, he hates to lose as much as I do. I think he also saw the same from me.
One more interesting thing that both of us felt was how our mind played games when someone was watching us. This guy was looking at our game from far away but his presence affected both of us. I remember I was serving and I was thinking this has to be an ace because the guy's watching it!! Kiddish but true, while he was there the only thing on my mind was he is watching me and that he is there to vindicate my game! So now think of the guys who are on field with millions watching 'em. I would go crazy in a scenario like that! I can't imagine but it's easier for me to think about why Federer was almost in tears even before he started to serve out for the French open. I mean we mortals can't imagine the mental strength the top guys possess in any sport.
May 30-31 2009 SFO The Crazy Weekend
There are days you look back for a long long time.
The 30th of May was one such day. The Yosemite trip had our spirits rocking and we decided to hike in the local SFO area called Muir woods. Sandeep had been there before but he wanted to be there again hiking a different trail. So we got there (Sandeep drove again) and trust me it was the cold and not a style statement that I was trying to make when I dressed like that. It was a good hike, nothing special about it we slowly got to the top of it. The way up was different than the way down.
This picture on the top actually shows our new shoes!
On our way back we again saw a glimpse of American glory. We passed by a rest house where people were relaxing and having beer!!! This place was selling beer! Can you imagine - you go on a hike and have beer on top, that's out of the world.
Anyways what made the day crazy was not the fact that we hiked for 5 hours. It's the after events. We headed towards SFO downtown after the hike and spent a lot of energy trying to find a place to eat. We roamed around for 45 minutes trying to pick a place that both of us were happy with to have our lunch.
After the late lunch we got back to our hotel tired to death and decided it was time to play tennis. 30 minutes after that we were on the court. I could see the fatigue on the other side and feel it on my side. It was not the body that played for 2 hours that day. It was the mind and this just goes to show what mind can do.
The day wasn't going to be over without the alcohol. We got to a local grocery store and Sandeep got crazy about 2007 grapes. I went to buy some ben and jerries ice cream but all Sandeep could talk about was the 2007 grapes. I guess, some sales guy in one of his trips to a wine brewery told him that the 2007 grapes were awesome and all he cared about that evening was to buy a 2007 wine. Anyways we got the wine, we got the ice cream and finished the bottle, most of the ice cream and it was only after 2 am when we went to bed.
The next day was dedicated to an Indian buffet at a local restaurant and the pacific coast highway drive. After eating as much as we could we headed towards the drive. Once again, being the gentleman I am I never offered to drive. Even though it was the PCH, I sacrificed it. The drive was awesome, anyways. I also got some cool tips from Sandeep on how to smile and how to pose for a snap. Here he is just trying to give me a lesson on the same.
And here I am trying to do my best. Blame it to the Indian food or previous day's deeds - our energies were fading out fast. Sandeep wanted to go out to shopping but I was losing it quickly. The body was giving up. We decided to get back to our hotel and crashed at 4 pm. It was only 8:30 pm when we gained cautiousness. The next couple of days chugged along.
June 4 SFO The Mongolian Experience
After our tennis game and a trip to Macy's to check out a wrist watch for myself the next item on the agenda was to find a place to eat. It was only two days for Sandeep to leave so he was very picky about what he wanted to have. We roamed around and he said no to almost everything that went by. It was 9:30 pm and most of the outlets were closed anyways. On his hunch he took a highway exit and we reached the same block where he had the Indian food on the weekend. We parked our car and realized that everything was closing down; we were in a hurry and were running around to find a place. We saw this mongolian place and decided that it's our last chance. We got in there and were immediately put under the gun when the receptionist told us that we got 5 minutes to place our order.
As we sat down we realized it was a hot pot place. For everyone's knowledge a hot pot is a place where you cook your own food! The table consists of an induction heater, you order a base curry or a soup as it was called in this place and you order for basic ingredients. The ingredients consist of sliced meat, vegetables, tofu, mushrooms etc. This caught us by surprise and as soon as a waiter passed by Sandeep called him and told him point blank - "We are new, help us out". The guy was generous and explained the entire concept. We had been to a place like this before but we were under the pressure to order. We ordered the base soup and got ourselves some raw meat and vegetables. It was a lot of meat. Then I screwed up succumbing to pressure once again. I picked up all the ingredients and poured them into the bowl of boiling soup. The thing is you are supposed to add a couple of slices and eat it and so on. It cooks in a couple of seconds as its very thin sliced meat. The damage though was done before the guy came back and explained what we should have done. Anyways, despite that the food was amazing. We ate and we kept on eating for almost an hour. The spices were amazing and I couldn't resist going this last week one more time. The initial experience though could not be matched due to the surprise factor.
June 5 SFO Closer to the heart
The evening plans were pre-decided. We were supposed to go to PF Chang and have our dinner. Sandeep's love for the 2007 grapes rose once again as we ordered some wine along with our food. The wine was good and one could see the affect. On to the second glass we were already talking about stuff that doesn't come out often. I want the non-alcoholics to pay close attention here! We were actually talking about how our parents played a huge role in what we are today. We got drunk but the discussion was heartwarming for both of us and we needed more. So we headed to a find a grocery store that would be open past 11, luckily found one and got some more 2007 wine. We talked and drank for another 2 hours on the same topic and couldn't help thanking our parents. I am not good at expressing myself unless I am under the influence of alcohol (may be Sandeep as well). Anyways, hopefully I will gather the courage of getting drunk in front of my parents and say it all :). Sandeep slept blabbering something I did not understand and I don't remember how I got to my room and slept.
June 6 SFO 0%
I didn't want to accompany Sandeep as I headed towards the airport to drop him. It's not my usual laziness, it's something inside me. I hate to see people off. It depresses the hell out of me. Well it did.
I have had many trips before. I can't even count. They have been longer than the current one. Most of the times I was by myself for the entire duration of the trip. This time around though I had some amazing company and then I didn't. May be that's what hurting me more. It's hard to eat green after you have been eating red for a while!
Anyways the count is down to 84!
Thursday, April 9, 2009
The Mudita in me
If a child lives with criticism,
He learns to condemn;
If a child lives with hostility,
He learns to fight;
If a child lives with ridicule,
He learns to be shy;
If a child lives with jealousy,
He learns to feel guilty;
If a child lives with tolerance,
He learns to be patient;
If a child lives with encouragement,
He learns confidence;
If a child lives with praise,
He learns to appreciate;
If a child lives with fairness,
He learns justice;
If a child lives with security;
He learns to have faith;
If a child lives with approval,
He learns to like himself;
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship,
He learns to find love in the world.
I found these lines here: Mudita
The lines above quench a the burning question. What made an erudite unlucky me?
I see a painting; a picture of 10 years; 10 years, 3652 days, 87648 hours, 5258880 minutes painted in one minuscule collage; large yet small, clear yet foggy, white yet black, lucid yet confused, logical yet illogical; the collage of my excoriate, combat, timidness, shame, patience, confidence, appreciation, fairness, faith, selfishness and love the search for.
He learns to condemn;
If a child lives with hostility,
He learns to fight;
If a child lives with ridicule,
He learns to be shy;
If a child lives with jealousy,
He learns to feel guilty;
If a child lives with tolerance,
He learns to be patient;
If a child lives with encouragement,
He learns confidence;
If a child lives with praise,
He learns to appreciate;
If a child lives with fairness,
He learns justice;
If a child lives with security;
He learns to have faith;
If a child lives with approval,
He learns to like himself;
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship,
He learns to find love in the world.
I found these lines here: Mudita
The lines above quench a the burning question. What made an erudite unlucky me?
I see a painting; a picture of 10 years; 10 years, 3652 days, 87648 hours, 5258880 minutes painted in one minuscule collage; large yet small, clear yet foggy, white yet black, lucid yet confused, logical yet illogical; the collage of my excoriate, combat, timidness, shame, patience, confidence, appreciation, fairness, faith, selfishness and love the search for.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Unsolicited Update
It happened on the Friday morning. Quick decisions needed to be made. I did what made business sense. Details as usual are boring.
I canceled my trip to Charlotte, the trip I had been waiting for over a month. Some grandeur plans with a couple of bumchums gone for a toss; only for the time being though. The plan gets materialized in 6-7 weeks when I head back. So instead of being in Philadelphia en route to Charlotte on Thursday; it's Noida.
I had paid no attention to my apartment's entropy when I had flown 2 months ago as the plan was for me to be away for 2 weeks only. Things changed as they did last week and as they always do. We had a major win and I stayed back.
The apartment had an eerie stillness when I opened it. I did not recognize it. There is a lot but I picked the top five things.
5. In my absence the dust & webs had taken over and were ruling the roost. I was just on time as webs were being built on the corners of my book shelf.
4. The bedroom patio was black and battered with bird shit. Some birds had built their home on top of the bedroom AC. Who says these guys are dumb? The family was observant enough to realize that the master was away.
3. The dishes that should have been done 2 months ago appeared charred. I poured some water to realize I had some more company. Some strange kinds of leeches were making merry on the left-overs. 2 months ago it was spinach but I can't be sure.
2. Even though the refrigerator was on all the time; the vegetables chamber was a gross picture of death. An unrecognized vegetable had turned into a dark pink viscous liquid. The oranges were green. The eggplant was white.
1. A lonely apple sitting on the kitchen shelf did not reveal the pain it's inner self had gone through. It needed half an ounce of energy to change it's state from solid to liquid. Oblivious I picked it up and it dissolved in my hand.
We have won, it's all fine now. Thanks to the enduring efforts of my maid.
I canceled my trip to Charlotte, the trip I had been waiting for over a month. Some grandeur plans with a couple of bumchums gone for a toss; only for the time being though. The plan gets materialized in 6-7 weeks when I head back. So instead of being in Philadelphia en route to Charlotte on Thursday; it's Noida.
I had paid no attention to my apartment's entropy when I had flown 2 months ago as the plan was for me to be away for 2 weeks only. Things changed as they did last week and as they always do. We had a major win and I stayed back.
The apartment had an eerie stillness when I opened it. I did not recognize it. There is a lot but I picked the top five things.
5. In my absence the dust & webs had taken over and were ruling the roost. I was just on time as webs were being built on the corners of my book shelf.
4. The bedroom patio was black and battered with bird shit. Some birds had built their home on top of the bedroom AC. Who says these guys are dumb? The family was observant enough to realize that the master was away.
3. The dishes that should have been done 2 months ago appeared charred. I poured some water to realize I had some more company. Some strange kinds of leeches were making merry on the left-overs. 2 months ago it was spinach but I can't be sure.
2. Even though the refrigerator was on all the time; the vegetables chamber was a gross picture of death. An unrecognized vegetable had turned into a dark pink viscous liquid. The oranges were green. The eggplant was white.
1. A lonely apple sitting on the kitchen shelf did not reveal the pain it's inner self had gone through. It needed half an ounce of energy to change it's state from solid to liquid. Oblivious I picked it up and it dissolved in my hand.
We have won, it's all fine now. Thanks to the enduring efforts of my maid.
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