Plan A Plan B

The plan for Saturday was rather neat. Praveen would come over to my place and help me get my broken spectacles fixed (of course, by driving me to the optician..!) Then we would move onto check a car in one of the local dealerships. Then, per his plan, we would proceed to go for the movie - "ஆதவன்", the show timing being 06:50 PM.

My spectacles were fixed. It was lunch time. Lunch time also meant decision times - especially if you are out traveling. "Why not we check out the greek restaurant in Milford?", I suggested. Praveen obliged. We drove all the way up there, only to find that it operates only for dinners..! A complete bummer..! What neither of us realized is - we just started our day.. all is not over yet...!

We would then want to settle with checking out "Liquid Lunch" and "Sammiches". He settles for a Santa Fe and I for a vegetable lentil soup. This is probably the best decision that we could have ever made. The food tasted great. I couldn't leave without a ton of thank you note to the lady who recommended these dishes for us.

Next comes the car dealer part of the day. We land up in Beaconfalls, which looks like a one-road town to us. The keys were given to us and the good old Subaru Forrester was all us for a good 30 minutes. I felt there was more problem with the way I drove than any problem with the car itself. However, Praveen's keen sense of hearing did ensure he got hold of some noise while doing a full-right forward or a full-right reverse turn. He advised to check that with the dealer. The dealer drove the car with both of us. We could "hear the silence" of a pin being dropped..! "Issue not replicable / Root cause unknown", I thought to myself.

We drive along CT-8 North, I-84 East and then onto I-91 North before exiting on CT-178 West. That was a terrific drive, I must say. The fall colors were awesome. While crossing the city of Hartford, I call up my friend to ask if he can join us for the movie. He responded stating he is moving to another apartment but added, "I don't think the show that you guys are trying to go even exists for today"  Do I care to check? Definitely no. We had supposedly done our "research". I tell him, "you are missing this today!". And does my friend stand by what he said? No, he would have me go and get SIX tickets for tomorrow's show..!

We land up in "Bloomfield Cinema 8" to find that the show was on yesterday night and it would come only by next Thursday. Wow..! Another bummer for the day. Oh - but we didn't target the movie, did we? We were out to see the fall colors in the "All American Valley" region and along I-84/I-91. That was supposed to be our initial plan anyways. We are always good at the art of consoling ourselves for something we didn't get.

The next question - where do we go from here. I suggested we eat out and go to the temple in Middletown. Praveen suggested it would be very odd thing to do, coupled with the fact that it isn't too late for dinner yet.  So, temple first - eat next. The spiritually inclined Praveen and Ravi, for God's sake, land up in the temple during Diwali day..! They are now surely good boys in the books of the elderly. They goto temple without fail, keep up traditions and values even when they are far removed from their hometowns ;-) :-) Well.. it wasn't all that bad.. the only thing is - we couldn't make it in a little earlier to grab that nice "rava kesari" at the temple.

A funny wake-up call on a weekend

"Hi, can we know if there are any tickets available for the Cog Rail?" - thundered a voice on the phone. I was a little confused in the beginning. I knew who it was but quite stunned with the formal tone and sense of authority in the voice. I responded calmly - "Can you please hang on for a moment while I pull the details?". "Sure", went the reply.

I cannot have customers wait ;-) I quickly grabbed my Macbook and logged onto google. Searched for Cog rail. Got onto their webpage and saw only 2 PM tickets were available. I continued on the phone, "2 PM tickets are available..!" The voice at the other end went, "Okay, thank you. 2 PM would be pretty late for us though".

The caller was about to hang-up when I yelled on the phone, "டேய் கார்த்தி.. என்னடா பண்ணிட்டு இருக்க?" It was a long pause. Then came a response, "ஒ நான் உன் நம்பர் அ டயல் பண்ணிண்டன்ன.. ச.. சரி விடு.." We were laughing. I thought my friend was making a ploy.. he has genuinely called me in lieu of Cog rail :-) A funny wake-up call on a weekend..!

Everything cannot make sense..!

8 AM on a Sunday morning. My little kid was crying aloud - and rather very aloud this time. Probably he was very hungry. I had not fed him for almost quite a time. Half the time I don't hear him when he cries out aloud. The more vocal his cry,  the lesser seems the chance of me taking care of him. But when his vocal levels start coming down to a shrill, I sense it immediately and take some appropriate action.

I travel wildly. My child doesn't complain. He just accompanies me, often silently. But what I keep forgetting most of the time is his feeding bottle. His feeding bottle is like a bottomless chasm, I must say..!  Never I know what amount of food satiates his hunger and how long he eats.. what I do know is this - when he is eating, I don't disturb him. He will start crying and cribbing if someone disturbs him while he eats. But as a principle, I don't try to join them and disturb him more... I just allow him to eat and rest and then catch-up with anyone who was trying to disturb him much later. He has a clear and distinct memory of who disturbs him... giving me the complete list to take action on :-)

My kid is often ridiculed as a "one-eyed jack". I don't care. I know the many things he does with his one eye has helped all the "two-eyed geniuses" share some good time and reminiscence on many a things vividly. And I never miss an opportunity as a proud parent to flaunt his capabilities as a "one eyed jack" amidst these "two eyed geniuses".

My kid is a little heavier for his size. But what the heck - I am heavy myself for my stature. He is as much exposed to the wild outside world as he is protected by the comfort of my clothing - resulting in his rather red face and cheeks.

Naughty kid that he is, he would many a times slip out of my control and fall down - often injuring himself with minor scratches. I guess he has it all over his back. But luckily, they have never hurt him much. It was only once when he had my heart skip a beat - when his heart almost stopped ticking and I was thinking he is almost dead. I had to quickly do the emergency operation myself - turned him on his back and pressed him a little on the same side of his heart. He was back ticking and I heaved a sigh of relief..!

It might not be a long time before my kid might leave me to find his own ways, however caring a parent I am And I realize it. And in those times, I am sure, I can still look at what this one-eyed jack did and remember the good times.