Thanks givin weekend

Thanks giving weekend is a big occassion here .People get around 4 - 5 days off and they celebrate by going out , by organizing dinners , get togethers etc..Well...I was under the assumption that it is in this time that people thank their parents , God etc.But only few days back I got to know the real reason.Thanks giving weekend is nothing but the time when the Americans thank the (red) Indians for teaching them to survive here and also for giving the land.What a novel way to thank !!! ..isnt it simple?- " Dudes , you teach us how to live here and give us your land . We will reciprocate by thanking you once in year by organizing a thanks giving day.On that day you will be remembered and you will be given a turkey to eat !!! " ....Well..there is a proverb - when in Peterland , do as the Peters do. So whatever the historical or geographical reasons , I didnt complain . I too spend the thanks giving day as the Americans do ..I went for a trip .

I went to LA with my school friend and his colleagues.We drove through the beautiful mountains.Though the route wasn't listed as a scenic route , trust me , its a very beautiful road.The road system here shows how much India lags behind , especially when it comes to infrastructure.


We visited the Universal Studios.Man ...that was fun .It was very crowded and for every ride/show we had to wait for long.For some shows , the waiting time was around 1 hour and the wait in the queue itself was like a ride (now..that was a sarcastic statement if u didnt get the tone :-) ) .The ride we all enjoyed was "the revenge of the mummy" ..guys dont miss this one if you visit Universal studios.Its real good and fun .We waited for more than an hour for the short ride of 40 seconds.My friends told me that usually it is longer but due to the large crowd the ride was shortened .When I look back now , it was morelike waiting for long hours in queue in tirupathi to see God.And when you see Balaji (athaan ba ..lord venkatajalapathi ) , some dumb guy says "jhargandi ...jahargandi .." ( I think it means "keep moving" in telugu ) .The wait was long but the few seconds in the ride was ultimate and memorable ...btw ..nothing religious in the comparison I have used .

Apporam .. I met my cousin , his wife and their cute kids .He took me to Malibu temple .It is pretty famous out here .Damnnnnnn....I dont know why it happens to me alone .No babes in this temple too...cha..Oh lord ,what wrong did I do to be cursed like this ? Apart from this , I enjoyed my stay in LA .And it was made more memorable as I got to meet my friend .I had been looking forward to meet her ever since I came to USA .I am pretty sure she too will remember it ...but for the wrong reasons .She thinks that I got her bad luck as she banged her car into some other car while she was driving to meet me .And worse still, the voice recognition software in her car failed miserably when she was trying to show off :-) .She ordered "Fan speed two " and the voice recognition software replied ""39 miles to destination" . And I was blamed for everything that went wrong with her on that day ...... .Hey you people ..do support me :-)

Okie ..I had lotsa fun and will keep you updated .As of now , let me go back and work :-(((

PS : I havnt been able to comment on all your blogs .But trust me I do read them .I leave comments in as many blogs as possible :-)

How ya doin ?

It was my first trip to USA and my first day to office here.My heart started beating faster when I saw a beautiful girl walking towards me.And before I realised , when she was few metres away from me , she had a beautiful smile on her face and said "how ya doin ? " .My heart skipped a beat and by the time I could put up a "romantic look" and a smile on my face she walked past me.Again at the office , I was asked "how do you do ? , hows u ? " and similiar questions by women of all ages.I went to the restroom and checked myself in the mirror.I was neatly dressed but I couldn't call myself dashing .Whatever ..who cares ...all the women seem to find reasons to talk to me.I was flying until a guy entered the restroom and asked "how do you do" ? I was like ..oho..yeah gr8 .Now , I might be looking good ( ..high hopes ah ? ) , but still I didnt want guys' attention.If this wasnt enough , every guy on the floor I met asked me the same question and every person had the weird smile on his face .I knew that Americans were "broadminded" , but I didnt want to be on the receiving side.Come on , I thought that it was more like equivalent of eve-teasing.I dodged every look from any person untill my colleage told me that it was just a greeting and people greet strangers here :-) .

Imagine I tried greeting people at the Elliots beach , Chennai .Hey ..how you doing ? and the girl will say "ponnu konjam azhaga irukka kudathey , udana vanthu oothivingala" .Or if I tried it on a kid , the kid could say "ayyo...kozhanda pidikurey puchandi vanduta..run" and the kids mom could say "I told you never to talk to strangers" and then she might slap the kid.The slap is meant to hurt you more than the kid.Or if you greeted your friend asking hows he doing he could say "dai loose ah da ni ? we met 3 hours back " .So by the law of whatever , if you have walked 150 metres , you could have greeted 60 people , got slapped by 13 girls , scared away 20 kids and the rest could consider you mentally challenged .And also you could have got the beach police sweating ..err.. I meant they might get suspicious and might be following you with their huge thoppai (bellly ) .

It could be great if people back home could greet strangers and respond back.The above 3 scenarios described could be like this ...to kid - hey how u doin ? and the kid says good.now you ask - so whats ur sister's name (..now do you get what I mean ? ).Or your friend - howdy ? he say "gr8 da" .And you can go- " kewl da ..so lets go to pub and celebrate .You can buy me the drinks" .Or if you see a beautiful girl walking alone and you ask her - "hows your day been ? " and she says - not bad. Then at this moment , arrange someone to play "Lets make it a night to remember " song and stretch out your hand reaching for her hand like Shahrukh in DDLJ and tell her - I could make it better if you let me walk with you ".(warning - this idea is highly injurious to health.It is performed by experts under the supervision of other experts .So dont try it at home) .

But greeting may not be all that fun.Imagine you are very dejected because the beautiful girl next door called you uncle ( crashed your world ) or if your manager denied you a leave ( it doesnt matter if it is a sunday ..does it ? ) or if one week from now is the first anniversay marking the day you proposed to your girlfriend and you are desperately trying to ditch her because she is expecting an expensive gift for the occassion ...or any other reason.And then you meet this cheerful guy who comes smiling and asks you how you doing. you will be like - vanthutaya ..vanthata.It could be more like adding fuel to fire and you could wish that you could throw stones at him and hit on his head till he falls down.You could then complete the revenge by asking him - "now how do u feel dude ? " ...

Man..and guess what ..when I make a call to home .The first thing dad could ask is " eppadi da irrukey" (how are you ) ? ..oh god ..save me .It looks like this is the most difficult question to answer at this point of time (supposed to be a bit pholosophical ) ...Can I please use "phone a friend " option ?

memorable weekend

Venkitu Narayan + Shivshankar+Uma's cooking +two sweet kids = Jagan had fun ( as in above pic.)

It was really a memorable weekend.I think you could have already seen posts on the weekend in ShivShankar and Narayan's blogs . So I am not going to write on the nice things on this post .I will write on -ve things :

• I didnt get to learn cooking .May be Uma (Narayan's wife) was trying to save me and Shivshankar from danger and the after effects of Narayan's cooking or may be we were given an excuse to come to their house again.I think it is the latter and I will definitely use learning to cook as an excuse to go there once again .seri ..seri ..I know what u guys are asking - dai OC le sooru potta udane avanga veedukku poi dera poduratha ? I dont deny the fact that we could go just for the amazing food Uma cooks , but I also cherish the time we had there .It wasnt like we were meeting for the first time .
  

• Temple - Narayan took me to Livermore temple today .Well ....last time I went to temple was a year back ..and that too when I was in USA and my cousin forcibly took me there .Now tell me why guys of my age could go to temple ? of course we go to sight adichify .I did see some girls ......but none in half saree .athu enna theriyallai ..nammakku ponnunga thavani pottukitu , thalai le malli poo vachi irunda , rombha pidikkum .athu thani kick thaan machi ..appadi-ey manasu alai payum.enna nachu feeling athu . I missed that in this temple . Now..this reminds me ...a friend of mine ,here in LA , had promised me to take me to temple when I meet her. I hope atleast she takes me to a good temple :-) .

@Narayan - Its gr8 to know that myself and Shiv had made you feel younger .When you come to India , I will definitely take you to places (not to bars/pubs ..but to temples ;-) ) where you will feel much more younger :-) ..and your memories from college days could repeat again in reality :-) .

@Shiv- machi , I will definitely come over to your place . Lets explore the places around your town :-)

More experiments...

I think am experimenting too many things nowadays .Previously I had stated that I want to experiment trying to be a loner . That one was by choice .But the experiment I am talking now is a matter of survival . Its freaking hard and I have never had tears in my eyes before .

It all started last week when I was still staying in the hotel and I was hit by the jetlag .It was pretty late in the night and I was wide awake.I was damn hungry and I didnt know what to do because I knew pretty well that all the eat outs could be closed by then . Luckily I had a "MTR ready to eat" tamarind rice pack .To eat this , I was supposed to keep the pack in water and heat it .There were no utensils in the hotel room and .You should be knowing that I am a lazy butt, and at home ,I have not even moved a pencil from one place to another .The only physical exercise I do is to type on the keyboard .So due to laziness , I decided against picking up phone and calling the front desk or to go out and explore . Though I dont do much physical exercise , I do exercise my grey cells ...brains , pretty often :-) ..I can get pretty innovative at times (can you hear the music ? ..because I am blowing my own trumpet ;-) ) . So what did I do ? I filled the bath tub with hot water and put the pack in the hot water for few minutes .Apporam enna ....it was ready to eat and I ate it .Trusted me ..it wasnt the best food ..but it felt heavenly .

That was my second experience with cooking .Last time I had tried cooking was when I was in home ...some 2 years back or so.That time , I had turned the kitchen into a war zone .After that day I was banned from entering the kitchen.So I had never learned to cook .But here , you need to cook becos you cant eat everyday at KFC or chinese restaurants .So me and my roomie planned to try cooking again . Since my roomie knew more (???) about cooking than I did , he decided to make sambhar and rice .I was asked to cut vegetables and onions . (BTW ..is onion a vegetable ? The music that you heard due to blowing my own trumpet stops here :-) ) . While I was cutting onions, my eyes were red and tears were flowing . I had to wash my face many a times before I could cut the onions .Man..I had never forget this experience.

And...while experimenting , we managed to repair the microwave oven.And all said and done , we did cook something :-))) ..yahoooooooooooooooo ..

After all this , when I told my dad about this , he said that I am getting ready for marriage ....Man ..my dad neednt encourage me , but it could be better off if he didnt threaten me with such statements :-(( .

Con-FUSED

Last time I had been to the USA , I was confused and found it difficult to adjust ..And this time too I am confused ...Yeah dudes .. everyone in USA does things wrongly ..and everything works in the wrong way .Some of the wrong things done here are :

• People here drive on the wrong side of the road .
• You have to switch off the light to switch it on and vice versa .
• The ground floor is called the first floor and the first floor is called the second floor and so on.
• The date is wriiten in the mm/dd/yyyy format which is so darn wrong and so darn confusing.
• The worstestest thing is waiting for signal to cross the road . Enna freedom ethu ? freakin... I dont have the freedom to cross the road as and when I like (The birth right , of we the Indians , is snatched away the moment we land here :-(( ) .Plus ..they have camera installed to catch violators (..vitta sun TV le telecast pannuvanga polla irrukku )
  

The other thing is people eat here with fork and knife .Back home in India , I had rather kill myself than be caught eating with fork (you know ..if you are caught in this act ..you will be branded as Peter for the rest of your life ..which by itself is an insult of highest degree ) .But here it is a norm...of course , everyone is a Peter or Mary here .

Last year , in Raleigh , I had been to a popular local Indian restaurant ( local restaurant here doesnt mean our Nair tea kadai or Andhra mess ..Local restaurant here, by itself , is better than the star hotels back home ..but who the hell wants to eat in the star hotels ??? ) .I was eating roti,naan etc . and was enjoying myself .An American couple were seated in the next table.They too had roti , paratha etc and were eating with knife and fork . They saw me eating with hand and gave me a weird look. I am not sure if they had not seen any person eating with hand or if they were looking at me for help to tell them how to eat the roti .I smiled at them and told them that Indian food tastes better when eaten with hand and also its more fun that way.The couple smiled at me and they started eating with their hands :-) .

I hope to teach such good things to the Peters and Marys out here .Next I may be teaching them the "is the" language of the Dalda Dappas :-) .I wish I knew how to wear the lungi (Dalda Dappa Dress code ) so that I could teach these guys that too :-) ..I know its a freakin shame not to know how to wear a lungi especially since I am a memeber of the Dalda Dappas :-(( .

Anyways ..lets Indianize this place ...and God bless America !!!

PS : if you are in a mood for fighting , then have a look at Archana's post ..please fight there :-)

experimenting !!!

I have always been keen about experimenting and exploring new things ..like trying out some new restaurant or piercing my ears or taking a new route to office or whatever . I look forward to changes and making things more interesting .But there is something which I had never tried so far because I was never keen about it and never did I think that I may give it a shot.Ppl ..am talking about living a life like a "loner" .I don't think I could consider something so drastic if I were in India.

I am not a loner ...I have always been used to people(namely , my friends) around me most of time .I do go to some deserted beach on the ECR (Chennai ) and do sit there alone at times. Yeah .. I do like to spend some time myself. But that doesnt mean that am a loner. I had go mad if am alone for long. I have always been lucky to be in company of some junk person or the other who could keep me entertained (rather not bored ) .And if not , I could just go and talk with people , try to get to know them . I am more comfortable that way .

But I realise that most of my friends, here in the USA ,are used to ....rather prefer being lonely .I don't know if it has got to do with privacy or that they dont want others to interfere in their life nor they want to interfere in their life .I have been talking about this to a newly found friend here .This is the first time I am referring to her as friend and I had want her to know that I respect her views , though many at times , I couldn't completely agree with her.Man..I do admire her (..hey lady ..are you reading this ? ...now enough of the flattery ;-) ) ...

Also, I chatted to j'adore regarding this . I am really determined to try being a loner .I will try it with open mind and will let you know which lifestyle I prefer ( by the end of my stay in the USA ) .

Guys ..Am not sure if many people back home can relate to being lonely..as in really lonely .But I am sure most of the ppl abroad could have experienced this kinda situation.All you guys - do let me know your opinion on this.

PS : I am looking forward to meet Venkitu .Will talk to adengappa by the end of this week and am expecting a mail from IBH . And of course ....could like to hear from the others too!!

US of A

I knew that there was a trip to the USA on the cards .But I didnt know that it will happen in such a short notice.I didn't have time to inform many people.Neways ..am in Santa Clara , California .

The journey was pretty good but was very tiring. I think I have just managed to travel to the USA by the longest route possible (bangalore-Singapore-Hong kong-San Franisco ) . I have travelled for more than 24 hours :-( . It could have been worse if not for a cheerful sardar ji , who was sitted beside me for the longer part of the journey ,made me smile with his hilarious comments on everyting that happened on the flight .

The journey was otherwise uneventful.Wait..I didnt tell you this ..In the Hong Kong airport , I had some time to kill.I was porrikifying in the airport when 3 Japanese ladies approached me.They spoke to me in broken english and then they offered me a Japanese fruit called khee-khee or something .Immediately I was reminded about the video I keep seeing at the Chennai railway central (when I wait to catch Bangalore train ) . The video warns travellers not to accept any eatables offered by the strangers .I guess you all should be knowing the biscuit gang (they offer biscuits to travellers which makes the travellers unconsicous and then they steal from the travellers ) .So me too was wondering if I should accept the fruit offered by them . I was confused but I accepted it. The fruit was good and luckily nothing happened . I thanked the ladies in Japanese (tho mari atho or something ..they understood and smiled ) .

apporam ..I reached SFO safely .My company had arranged a limo (can you believe that !!!) to pick us up .This was my first ride in limo and I made the best of it .I rolled on the seats and the floor and jumped around. The driver gave me a weird look ..but who the hell cares :-) .

Neways ..am back to office ..I will be doing the same crap as what I was doing in Bangalore but I guess I will get screwed more over here .I will be here for the next 3 months and hope to talk/meet bloggers from the USA . So people do write to me ..may be we can meet .

Parents know their kids well

Hey people .... if you think I hadn't updated my blog because I had been busy porrikifying in Chennai , then you are wrong . I got a call from office and I had to rush back to bangalore .So I didnt get to spend much time with my niece or my parents or friends ........or the cute thing . My friends and parents could understand. The cute thing can wait ..if she can't then I can get another cute thing . But my 11 months old niece ....man..it was tough to leave her and come ..I felt so bad when she cried as I was leaving . orey peelings ma ..Neways am back to office.

Okie coming to the matter ..I mean to today's post . I justed wanted to share something that happened to my roomate .It is a good example of how much our parents know us. My roomie got a call from his dad the other day .His dad asked him about some IT company in Bangalore and wanted to know where this company is and if we could help to find accomodation for his friend's child who had got an offer from that company . My roomate had no idea about this company and he had no intentions of taking pains to help his dad's friend's child . So he tried giving all excuses but his dad didn't give up. After some time my roomie seemed too enthu to help his dad .He started making calls and finding details about the company and also details for accomodations. Then he told his dad all the details he could get.Only later did we know that his dad told him that he was trying to help his friend's daughter who has got an offer in that company and also his dad mentioned that she looks pretty !!! .His dad knew how to get the job done.

Its really nice that our parents know us well .But its not fair if they make use of our weakness and use it to their advantage.What do you guys say ah ?