Ramblings

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Armed with my cellphone in hands-free mode, my wallet and office id cards, I leave home triumphantly - the first day I was scheduled to join back after a long period of resting on sick leave, towards the ice house bus terminus in Triplicane, Chennai.

Two years back, all the prime locations in the city, the roads, the bus routes - everything was literally at my fingertips. Not anymore! I enquired with a gentleman if a 25G that was leaving would goto Saidapet. He answered on the affirmative and I rushed to board the bus which stopped there for a few seconds. Thanks to the fact that I don't cross check things too much, I landed comfortably in the bus and announced that I need a ticket to Saidapet. The conductor shot back, "Board ah padichitu vandi era maatiya?" (Would you not read the board and then hop onto the bus?) Wow.. what a start to the day... but heck, who cares?! :-p

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What is our higher GDP growth rate translating to? I wonder.. Not even one day seems to pass off without seeing the many people who are toiling from the wee hours in the morning until late after dusk, all for paltry daily wages that would do enough for getting them going with food - forget shelter and clothing. Are we missing something in this fast tracked industrialization in India? 

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Why are we so unfair to the tropical summer??!! Isn't it supposed to be hot anyway?? When else would we get a better time to enjoy nimbu pani, delicious mangoes, juicy water melons and sweet lime? Not to mention the papads and the buttermilk..!!

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Among the many good things that have happened to me is one, which entirely happened by accident, when I was choosing some music albums to be played during the reception of my sister's wedding. It is laying my hands on Rahul Sharma and Richard Clayderman combo... Wow. amazing and deadly they are.. not sure when I would get a privilege of listening live to them :-(

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Irony, Rest

"Its like a rain on your wedding day... its a free ride when you have already paid" - Alanis Morisette.

Well... I don't get to experience the ironies of life so much really. Been really very fortunate to keep sailing and stay afloat without hitting an iceberg even when probably navigating myself directionless in the polar regions of the world. Then struck an experience which to be honest, I might probably keep looking back at and laughing out aloud..!

I am a big time car buff. Every other time, I used to keep renting cars and go out driving almost every weekend. Having toured all states in the northeast of the USA except Maine (that would be for the next visit, whenever that is!!), the last thing that I was expecting was a day to come when I would be buying my own car and drive it for less than a 100 miles in a span of 3 weeks time and give it off on grounds of taking more rest..!!

It was a good old manual Subaru Forrester. I cherished its "all-in-one" kind of a build. It was like the Egyptian Sphinx - It had the windows of a convertible (there was no frame), the look of a SUV and the ride of a car.

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Some people talk of taking rest and doing nothing as the easiest thing. I would ever wonder if that is as simple as it sounds. It was a humbling experience I must admit, when I had to spend close to ten days just taking absolute rest - doing nothing, in a very literal sense! For me, the concept of rest has always been synonymous with probably lying down an reading a book or newspaper, listening to a song, taking a relaxed walk along the lanes in a park etc and never about doing nothing and just lying.

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.

QGM - Quite Good Movie

First things first - don't look around for too much in terms of a movie review from me. I have never written one before and never felt like writing one too - until the time I happen to watch a quite good movie called Quick Gun Murugan :-)

Simplicity always attracts. This movie had everything very simple in it. No high fundoo stardom. Not much of a heavy logic or message. The idea seemed pretty simple and very very appealing to say the least - how to merge multiple movies that are new and old, with a variety of stars, into one single one, capturing the essence from everything. Of course, when we want everything, we do tend to lose on many things.. but that is not something a movie should be concerned about anyways? Or should it? I don't know, given that I am not  a movie buff as such.

It was really a very well-thought out one I say ;-) Connecting the fact that Indians tend to love hot food with the dabbawalahs and then moving onto project the water scarcity when a lady under arrest shouts "It is time for the water lorry to come. I need to fetch my pail of water" - all within a few screens and spaced a few minutes apart, would certainly leave your mouth wide open and gasping for more..!

I think I am quite unable to do complete justice to this movie since I must admit that I also slept for sometime when the movie was on - but that is something I would've done in any case for any movie and hence Quick Gun Murugan cannot be blamed for that phenomenon. And I know I did miss on probably a few more enchanting numbers to which I could have probably set myself on my feet.

All in all, a highly recommended watch for anyone who likes a time-pass with some serious thinking behind the scenes - on whatever topic they would like to :-)

Professor, of another kind

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I was out to my uncle's place in Ohio for the Labor Day weekend here in the US of A. We went to the temple in Dayton on Sunday evening. The temple has an entrance from the basement, where devotees need to leave their footwear before proceeding upstairs. When it was time to leave after the darshan, I just walk out of the exit gate towards the car, totally unconscious about the fact that I never went to the basement to put on my footwear again :-) My aunt reminded me about it and I did it.

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After quite a drive, I reach home from my uncle's place around midnight. I pull myself out of the large Chevy Impala that had taken me back and forth safely for almost 1700 miles in a span of three days time. I take great pains to ensure that I don't leave anything in the car seat pockets, trash all the cups and bottles, pick my mobile phone from the power window socket etc and head home. I sleep well. Morning, while getting ready for office, I frantically search for my wallet.. and where do you think it was? In the car front seat..!!

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I always appreciate my roommate's observation and consciousness. He hopped onto the car and finds that other than leaving my wallet on the front passenger seat, I have also dumped a good deal of quarters near a socket close to the power window controls on the front door. He tells me I would need them for the laundry and asked me to pick them up without fail before dropping-off the car. And what do I land up doing? I carefully shred and trash the gas station receipts lying on the floor, trash the empty Starbucks Mocha and large Dunkin Coffee, leaving the quarters were they were..! It was late in the evening when I realized I needed quarters for the laundry that it stuck me about these.

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My mobile phone battery had gone down considerably due to the fact that I was on speaker phone, talking and driving for the most part of the time last night. I reach out to my travel bag to pull the charger to re-charge mobile battery. I realize that I had left it at my uncle's place in Ohio.

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Well... while my father never forced any of us to take or do what he wanted, he would always talk about the goodness of the academia and how he likes being a Professor and how he enjoys teaching and  research very much. He would keep suggesting that we should also probably try to see if we might want to get into such professorial role. I can definitely tell him, head straight-up, "Dad, you son is certainly a professor - of a different kind though, absent minded" :-)

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