Risk-taking, trust, and serendipity are key ingredients of joy. Without risk, nothing new ever happens. Without trust, fear creeps in. Without serendipity, there are no surprises

This is kind of going to be a long laundry list kind of blog entry. I have just been pushing off talking about my experience in US so far. This is my second stint in the US and a long term one.

I’m in office right now in Atlanta, US. Under terrible jet lag feeling :( Body is paining like hell; don’t know how I’m sitting straight.

People here are quite good enough. Almost all known faces around, barring a few. Met with my manager and talked. As of now we don’t have much work, only need to read a few things, we are awaiting another guy who will be joining the team from New jersey Akshat Arora next week sometime. Only after he joins we will start our training on the processes. So this week we can just take time to settle down and all.

The best thing that happened was the presence of Sunitha's friends. Sunitha is my room mate here. They managed to get us a lovely 2 bedroom apartment. The apartment is really good considering the rooms I had seen in San Diego with sky rocketing prices. The fixed amount that we have to pay for this apartment is 950$ and electric, water and net bills will be separate, which won’t be too much. The apartment is too cool; we have everything in it and no need to go out Like - TV, internet, microwave, washing machine, baking oven, toaster, dishwasher etc. Totally cool considering the rent. Three of us will be staying here - me, Sunitha’s and Manjry. Manjry is a cleanliness freak so the first condition is we must keep the house spic and span. Well hehehe it’s going to be a tough time for a messy person like me. I find Manjry to be a nice person. She talks well. She has a car and a cycle. So she has offered us that we might accompany her on grocery shopping when she goes in her car. That's also cool enough.

Regarding the room. It’s pretty good looking. Last night we were hopping till Wal-Mart guys shooed us away at 12 am  :P. We bought the entire world and our home is almost set. We need to organize things a bit patiently now. The rooms has a through and through soft carpeting, so it’s nice to walk and sit on the floor also. We have 2 bedrooms, numerous closets, a dining cum drawing room with a plush sofa, a chandelier fan, a wide screen LCD :), table, bean bags...cool na. The kitchen has all the things I mentioned above. We also have a quaint little balcony which opens to a winding gray pathway; it’s mostly the back portion of the society yet to explore it. The place is blossoming with violet small flowers. Looks totally amazing. There is a small wooden jhula also amongst the flowers which can be seen from our balcony. By the way we stay on the 2nd floor. Yesterday I almost died while taking my 46 Kg baggage’s up the two floors through the small wooden stairs. That's the reason my hands and shoulders are paining like hell. Even a dose of painkillers were not enough :( Only rest will help me get back to health I guess.



We got almost everything we needed for the home from Wal-Mart last night. Here we don’t take gaddas or beds; we have something known as comforters which are something like a razai. I took a king sized comforter to use as a bedding. I folded it in two and it made a nice comfy bed. Also I got a second comforter, a colorful one for using as a kambal. Along with that two pillow covers came free :). We also got light stand and all. I still have to set up my pooja room :( That was the first thing we had done last time, but yesterday we were so much engaged couldn’t do that.



Today we will be leaving office early, as Sunitha’s friends are still there, and we need to do the rest of the important things. I need to get a connection, the most important thing. Also might be we will have lunch outside. Last night we dined at an Indian restaurant. And we had chicken biryani, chili pakoras and mango lassi. I didn’t have mango lassi, it sounded weird, but tasted ok ok, but I was too tired to eat. The chili pakorasbiryani, chili pakoras and mango lassi. I didn’t have mango lassi, it sounded weird, but tasted ok ok, but I was too tired to eat. The chili pakoras were so hot that only Uday could eat it, me sunita and shirisha just flipped pour top with the first bite of the pakoras. But tell you what the biryani was the most delicious biryani I have ever had in hotels. It was too filling, and two orders of the same were sufficient for 4 of us.


Now regarding the Air France travel. last time the company had asked me about my preference of food, but this time some brilliant mind out there figured out that I would prefer veg food, and on top of that Indian veg food on a French flight.....grrrrrrrrrrrrr.....how I wish I could find that person and strangle him who did this to me. The moment I got into my first AF flight they handed over a meal menu to us and in that were listed many delicious French cuisines. But when it came to serving us Indians they said they said they had veg food for us. Thankfully I asked the air hostess to change mine to a non veg thing and got the French omelets served, it wasn't that good but at least it was different. Same happened while on the next AF flight, there also they were to serve


Same happened while on the next AF flight, there also they were to serve veg meals. I asked for a non veg meal which consisted of a nice chicken and some pasta etc or lasagna. But the guy air hostess politely told me that was only entitled to the 'Indian' veg lunch. I became so sad. And when I opened the lunch box I was even distressed. It looked like a stale veg and paneer preparation from Stone Age. Rice was also there. So I tried mixing all and had the first spoon it was so salty. Somehow I managed to gulp it down. IT was a terrible Indian lunch. And I couldn’t get why the hell they assigned an Indian lunch to me, when I was all set to experiment with French food. While the others feasted on different pastas, chocolate mousses, cheddar cheese muffins and pancakes I was chewing on the tiny naans and stale subzi. Such a bad luck.



The second airfrance flight was a double Decker flight and I was assigned a seat in the upper deck. So after entering the aircraft I was asked to move up through the stairs. Nothing very special it was a normal flight. The only difference is that the seats were much better than air India. They were comfortable, else my poor back would have ended aching more than it already is. Also I had bought one of those U shaped support pillows hence this time my neck got good support and I was able to sleep comfortably. IT was a really good bargain of 380 rupees.

Once in Paris, there was a lot of pandemonium. I only had 2.5hours to catch my connecting flight. Hence there was hardly any time. CDG is a very spread out airport. We had to go from 2C to 2E terminal. For that we had to take a shuttle. IT was an overcast day and was raining. From the flight I could see glimpses of Paris. It had vast pasture lands spread on either side of the road. The pastures were in the shape of rectangles, big rectangles. So once I was in the bus shuttle to go to 2E I thought it would hardly take 3-4 mines. But it almost made a world tour and we finally reached 2 E in almost 15 minutes. I was tired holding my laptop bad, handbag and backpack for so long. :(


Now once in 2E another problem cropped up. There was a specific gate of taking the gate pass and stuff, and to reach to those gates we were supposed to take the train for that particular gate number. Now I was searching for assistance when a chinki girl came to help me. She said I was to go to the southern wing and my gate was 49. She mentioned it at least 5 times. Ok so I moved to the escalator to take my train. Now on the train it was written that it was going to the stations numbered from 21 to 47 and on the other side it was 51 - 76. So there was nothing for 49. I was totally confused. I stood there like a fool in the empty platform. Felt a bit scared also since there was no one there. Then I met an Indian lady who was as confused as me. So we went up the long escalator again and asked the info desk again. The same chinki girl was there and she now assisted to take me to that gate. So we boarded the train number 21-47. I was confused and kept asking her why we got up in this train when we were to go to 49. She said in her typical chinki accent that we have to be in this only. I was fed up with her. Then she left me at 47 and asked me to go for a security check. I went for the check and after that there was a lady at the security she asked me where I was to go, and I told 49, she said there is no gate as 49. I was at my wits end. What was going on? So I asked her can she guide me to the proper gate. She asked about the flight I was to take. And I told her it was to Atlanta. It was then that she told me I was to go to gate 39 and not 49. I cursed the chinki thoroughly and went and sat at gate 39.


In the meanwhile I was too hungry but was too tired to go and get currency exchanged to Euros and then buy food. So I just wandered here and there looking at the shops and taking snaps. Then finally at 9.55 Paris time we were supposed to begging the boarding procedures and flight was at 10.40/ but even by 10.15 boarding didn’t start and people got restless. Finally at 10.45 they asked to form a queue. Almost after 15 minutes of waiting finally they let us start boarding. Once in the flight, it didn’t take off even after 30 min. so that time the pilot declared that there was some issues for which it might tackle time. This particular thing kept on repeating for 3 times in next 1 hour. We were all so tired half of the people fell asleep. Then finally they said something like they were waiting for a few missing passengers for which they couldn’t start the flight. Don’t know for whom they were waiting. Paris didn’t appear all glitz and glamour to me might be outside it would be good. To be a fashion capital it needed more jazz that’s what I felt. But while travelling in the bus shuttle between 2c and 2E I saw the path almost as dirty as some places in India. IN fact I would say, the Mumbai airport is far better maintained than this one. This looked nothing great. There was water clogging at places and dirt. The CDG 2E terminal however is well decorated. Red furnishing and dome shaped structure give it a tasteful look. And nice and expensive brands add color to it. But that’s it. Felt nothing much special in it. Might be I was too tired to appreciate things.


Finally the flight began and it was too cold inside. We literally had frost bite inside :( I felt I would get fever if it continued thankfully the temperature came back to normal in a short time. Paris sky was totally filled with clouds hence couldn’t see anything down.

When I reached Atlanta, the temperature outside was 26 degrees. So it was nice and warm. The flight had already got delayed by 2 hrs in Paris and another 20 mins it kept hovering over Atlanta as thunderstorm was taking place and it couldn’t land. So my flight was completely delayed through and through. After that was the long process of baggage collection, customs and stuff. Here baggage collection happened in two phases, first we collect our things and then we hand it over to the airport guys. After that they give us another terminal number and belt number from where we finally get our baggages. So after checking in my luggage for the 2nd time I was asked to board a metro train to go to that last belt. Now here also there was confusion galore. Just to confirm whether I was on track I asked an Indian couple where to collect my baggage. Seemed that I had asked the wrong guys they were waiting for a connecting flight and they told me all wrong things, where to go and what to do and stuff. So I left them and went ahead for a reliable source of info. Just then a bomb squad personnel was going and I asked him. So he escorted me to the proper belt. After that nothing it was a long wait for luggages. After collecting luggage’s I came out to the taxi stand finally and took a cab to Atlanta city. The driver was good and gave a nice briefing about the history of the city. He also told me about the buildings in downtown Atlanta.


Cox is in main city. So I called Uday for the address of the room. The area we live in is known as Dunwoody. The place is very different from San Diego. SD had a very organized look and feel. This one had a wild and vintage beauty to it. It looks more like a European city than an American one. Lots and lots of green all around, it almost feels like the Maharashtra in rains. Dense foliage all over. Bright blossoms dotting the landscape and wooden houses, apartments, etc at long gaps. Will take snaps and sent it across so that you can see what I mean.


The society has an automated security system. It had a phone outside wherein if a visitor is there and u are at home, the visitor needs to punch in a code and press call button. The call gets to your home and you can press the remote to activate the gate lock. The gate then slides back and you are allowed to enter. Else suppose you yourself want to enter the premises, then there is an access card that you swipe at the gate to make it slide. Nice system. The society consists of 3 floored apartments. We stay at the second floor. Nice ambience and all.

Shirisha and Uday appeared to be nice people. Especially Uday, he was very helpful and good humored. We did some shopping after I freshened up at an Indian mart. That when I noticed that even at 8.30 pm it has light like 6 am in India. Only by 9 it is dark. So before that you won’t even know its evening. After the Indian mart we went to an Indian restaurant where we had the biryani I mentioned before. Dinner was done before as restaurants would close by 10pm. So after dinner we went for the second round of shopping at Wal-Mart. Uday was under the impression that Wal-Mart was opened 24x7 hence he was in that mood of shopping. Thankfully it closed by 12 else I would have collapsed in the Wal-Mart itself :(. Even after coming home at 12.30 we were busy setting up the kitchen and all. It’s only by 2 am we went to bed and today I woke up by 7.30 :( so you can imagine the level of fatigue. Just feel like sleeping and having a good back massage.

I just learnt that here we have to go in for a drug test at the hospital before we can get a company icard. Might be tomorrow or day after someone will take us to the hospital for the tests. It’s a mandatory test over here.



Today also Sunitha's friend's are there. Her friends dropped us at the office in their car today morning. Here trains are known as Marta. So from tomorrow we take a Marta to a station named medical centre and from there we take the office shuttle which will drop us off at the office premises.

That's all for now. Will keep on adding my experiences.

So finally I have manged to shrug off the infamous jet lag with long sleeps over the weekend. Our area is known as North Springs in Atlanta, US. Every place around the neighborhood actually has very beautiful names like - Sandy Springs, Brooke Ridge,Cedar Chase, Meadowlake etc. The names are well suited because the entire area seems to be covered in a quilt of greenery. Dense thick trees on either side of the road dotted by the occasional peach, red,white and purple blossoms form the usual avenues around the communities. Its a very laid back place. people are very scarce on the road apart form the office area. Most of the time you will see people jogging along the narrow sidewalks lining the dense tree trail beside.

However tired I am I cant sleep beyond 10 am in the morning.It was Sunday morning, Manjry (our third roommate) was also up by then. The day was a bit overcast, making the greenery look a shade deeper and more alluring. We were having our morning coffee together when Manjry suggested we go for a drive. Sunitha was still sleeping hence both of us went out. Manjry drove around what is supposed to be the backside of our community. It was the best driveway around. Here nature was even more bountiful. The norther side of Atlanta is inhabited by wealthy people. So the drive we followed had only palatial penthouses with mind blowing Victorian architecture, stunning driveways and elegant lawns,fences and flowerbeds. The houses were almost covered from the public view by large trees. Almost it looks like the fairytale houses which are built inside forests. I was absorbing all these with a childlike yonder while asking Manjry about this and that. The roads which went in a sinusoidal curve were providing extra thrills.


As soon as we entered our apartment, it started to rain. On Friday night also we had a bout of thunder shower. We lamented for it not raining while we were out. We enjoyed the shower from our quaint wooden patio with tea and cookies.

Here in Atlanta the daylight is for quite long, from 6.30 am to 9 pm. So its very hard to know the time by looking outside and most of the time due to that we end up having dinner by 11 pm.Yesterday I prepared my first dish in Atlanta - a yummy egg curry and rice. Since Manjry is a vegetarian, so me and Sunitha enjoyed it.

The jet lag was still there hence we decided not to venture out for sightseeing this weekend. Although we surfed the net and zeroed in on some places which we will be visiting like the coke factory, ruby falls etc. Post lunch I wasn't in a mood to sleep unlike Sunitha, who dozed off the moment lunch was over. So me and Manjry sat watching a Hindi movie - 'Aage se right' on Netflix. The movie was not very great but we had a great time laughing together and watching a hindi movie in US. Let me tell you here that on Friday night we had gone to watch 'Inception' in theater. Even after the rains, it was a houseful for the 10.20 pm show. Here in US you don't have seat number, so its always first come first serve situation. We got late and ended up watching the movie from the second row from the screen. Also I was damn tired that day, because we also had to attend the welcome party thrown in our honor by the office teammates just before the movie. So my first Theater experience in the US was not really memorable. In fact I was so tired that I had dozed off in between somewhere. Need to watch the movie again!

Later in the evening we went to the Bank of America ATM to transfer cash from our traveler's card to the BoA account. It was such a simple process. We had to just withdraw the amount from the traveler's card and the ATM had a flap wherein we had to put the money, then it would count and automatically deposit in the Bank of America account. No hassle of standing at the counter or filling forms. We went to the Walmart next, had to get our daily supplies. Walmart is almost like a big-bazar over in India, just much bigger in size. We got ourselves all the food items we could. Here usually food items wont get spoiled fast, so its safe even to buy in bulk.


We had a long day hence were in no mood to cook dinner. Manjry called her friends and all of us together went to an Indian restaurant 'Swapna' for binging. The chicken biryani was too yum, in fact the best I have tasted in a restaurant ever!We also had mango lassi, it tasted more like a mango shake, but we were least concerned about it.We observed that there was an equal number of Americans and Indians at the restaurant.Here the restaurants offer so much food in one serving its hard to finish by one person. Also free starters are there which is enough to fill you before you start the main course.

We came back home well fed and happy. The first weekend thus ended with a mixture of experiences. As I slipped into the comforts of the warm bed at night, the words of Robert Frost reverberated in my mind - "Miles to go before I sleep..."

Morning shows the day - at least that's what the textbook says. But Mumbai rains? It doesn't follow any textbook, notebook,weather forecast or whatsoever. Its the lord of its own mood and fancy when to show up. So what does the Mumbaikars do since they don't have a weather forecast to depend on? Of course they depend on their inner self or for that matter something known as intuition.

Now the fact is that this intuition is also as bad as the weather department forecasts. It tricks you and catches you unawares.

Since officially the monsoons are here in Mumbai, the first thing I do in the morning is to look out of the window and play a Q&A session with my intuition. And today it predicted fair weather going by the bright sun and no clouds in sight. So eventually I decided to try on my brand new Allen Solly steel gray trousers which was perfectly complimenting my pastel colored shirt. There was a small problem, the length of the trousers was a tad more. I didn't want to change into something else thereby upsetting my dress code, so after much speculation I decided to were my stilettos with it to adjust the height.

As expected I made a fashion statement at my workplace by attracting appreciating looks from all around. The 1500 bucks for the trousers seemed totally worth spending now. I was in all smiles until the first frown came on my face around the lunchtime. The sky was terribly overcast with a mild drizzling. I crossed my fingers. Four and a half hours to go, things can change.

Things did change and that too form bad to worse. I sprinted to the bus stand across my office at 5.30, hoping to beat the rain. The traffic was bad due to rains and the always-under-construction roads of Navi Mumbai were cradling knee deep mud and slush. As my luck would have it, the buses were diverted from the main route and by the time I came to know that the damage was already done. The bus left me at a good enough distance of 20 minutes form the main road. A guy also from my company (gathered form his I-card) was also in the same bus and hence had the same fate. People in distress become friends so happened for us.

The guy suddenly became very chivalrous and courteous. He started walking in front of me and directing me where all to step. My situation was pretty bad - a fat book in my hands and holding up the trouser with the other while trying to wade through the knee deep mud puddles balancing on my catwalk stilettos. The guy was genuinely sorry for my pathetic state or at least he looked so.

Gosh I couldn't even bear to look at the state of my trousers. The concoction of cow shit, mud, spit, earthworms and I don't know what was lovingly following me where ever I stepped.

That's when the rain started and the umbrellas of all shape sizes and colors were flung open here and there. Now all I could see was a sea of colorful umbrellas at the eye level, each trying to push and shove the other umbrella.A slight miss to dodge, and your eyes would become the perfect score of a bulls eye.

I frantically tried to defend myself against the rain and attacking umbrellas.

Just as I walk cursing everything around me, my phone rang. And it kept on ringing.

This freaking phone wont ring even once when I would be at the comfort of my ac office or lounging on the bed at home. It would always ring when I wouldn't be in a position to pick it.

But I had to pick it. Since I'm currently on a job hunting trail , I cannot afford to miss any calls coming from unknown numbers, fifty percent of the time its the consultancy firm.

I answer the phone precariously balancing my book. It's from the mobile company and the voice on the other end wants to know why my outgoing calls have reduced in number over the past week.

I resist all the temptation in the world to hurl an abuse at the guy. I politely say, "I have just dumped my boyfriend hence the call numbers are going to be so till I find a new one!" and end the call.

The guy accompanying me looked a bit shaken by the sudden aggressive damsel. I don't care and keep walking. I was so derailed by the time I reached the main road that I felt like hitting someone just for all the miseries I had to endure.Finally when I stepped out of the rick before the gate of my society, I looked like a crow caught in a thunder storm. But even a crow in a thunder storm is better than me, at least it didn't have a mud splashed brand new trouser to sport with its wet look.

Now while I write all this the sky is clear, beautifully clear. I can even see the stars in ones and twos. Just wonder what exactly the rain gods had against me.

The only good thing in the entire episode- I didn't get splashed by a rick with rich and frothy puddled water - at least this one time.

Image: Internet

7 June

In my hometown Bandhs are as common as sun rising in the east and setting in the west. But in Mumbai its something which happens to be luck by chance. While the politicians are busy hogging the limelight by protesting the atrocities of the ruling party, for the common man its an extra day of leave.

Usually three days off from office would see me jumping up and down, making plans for a sojourn into some unknown wilderness with friends. But when your friends deceive you by already getting booked for the weekend you are left to shudder thinking of getting bored for three l-o-n-g days!

Saturday was a real bore, with really nothing to do I was sulking the entire day. Sunday was still better. We had to meet the broker along with the new owner of the flat to bargain the rent. The one hour rendezvous with them provided quite a lot of entertainment, and enough to bring me out of the extended weekend blue. I decided to fight the mood by buying myself some books, tad of window shopping and a leisurely lunch at home.

Today being a Bandh day and me in no mood to cook, I had planned my hogging schedule well in advance. I got the neighborhood takeaway joint to home deliver me their special chicken biryani and mutton rogan josh last night itself.  Late in the night I made a nice playlist of the songs I had not heard for long and saved it for today. Thus I was fully equipped to enjoy the Bandh day.

I had woken up quite early going by the normal holiday standard. The morning greeted me with rain. It was more of a drizzle. I was happy. Rains make me happy when I am at home.

I spread the chatai (mattress) near my window and piled up all the pillows by the wall.  I had plans of perching there till the evening, so it needed to be cozy. My window spans almost the entire length of the wall, hence I can have a nice view of outside even while sitting on the floor. I settled down comfortably with a cup of coffee and my laptop. The rains had stopped for a while. The sky was overcast with water impregnated clouds. There was a mild wind which made the weather more pleasant.  I was in a mood to write.

I scratched my mind for a topic, but it echoed back with an empty reply. I sat idle for a while waiting for that one spark of idea which might create a masterpiece. All the while my mind was getting distracted by the sight of the small kids playing in the school ground opposite to my building. Being a no-school day, the local boys were enjoying a game of football in the empty playground. They didn't have proper goal posts or anything, only a ball and a few enthusiastic hearts.

I got so engrossed in their game that soon I found myself rooting for one team. I was voicing out my views so loudly that my roommates got worried about my mental health. After assuring them that nothing was really wrong with me, I went back to my gallery view position. Soon it started raining. I thought that the kids would run for shelter, but seemed like their energy got a boost and they were playing with much more enthu now. Splashing around the mud puddles while it rains would never go out of fashion, I inferred.

After their game ended I focused back to the empty MS word document orphaned by my lack of attention. I  felt sorry for it but I still didn't have an idea. Songs were the best remedy to make the minds tick. I played the playlist from yesterday.

Rains , rains and rains... that's all in my mind now-a-days. I have junked up my playlist with all the rain songs I could dig up from my song folders. The first song was - Indian Rain by Colonial cousins.

And within minutes the sound of the rain melody filled my ears. I was transported back to a time when I was a teenager.

Rain Clouds in the sky, I don't know why
They make me blue, when I'm thinking of you
Maybe they want to cry, As I walk on by
Hiding my tears, in a world of good byes.

Such amazing lyrics - hiding my tears, in a world of goodbyes. Beautiful. Simple, yet meaningful. Sad, yet romantic.

I still remember the time when I used to rewind this song again and again in my philips walkman while sitting alone in the verandah or walking in the garden aimlessly. The flow of music would always give me an high.  Even after so many years it still feels the same way when I hear it. Soft and melancholic with an undertone of nomadic romanticism.

I really wonder how people manage to pen their exact feeling through words. I fail miserably hence I envy them. Like Gulzar, what a gifted lyricist he is. His words almost churn the core of your heart,  making you feel the mood of the character itself. I love his lyrics because, he uses the nature extensively to portray any emotion. I'm also a nature person, hence the love is but obvious. And with Gulzar's thoughts, the song from Machis - Pani pani re comes to my mind. Lata and Gulzar definitely had come up with a winner there.

Back to colonial cousins. The voice of Hariharan makes you feel singing is such an effortless job, and rendering such multitude of emotions to the words is a mere child's play. Specially the Dhentha Dhentha Dhena na Dhena part - truly surreal.

Somehow I always felt the singers from south have unmatched voice quality and sweetness whether its balasubramanium, minmini, kavita krishnamoorthy or anyone. Learning singing the classical way is the thing that makes one a singer, not like the numerous DJ, RJ, VJ and all those Js who keep mushrooming all the time and think that without a training in singing they would hit the charts. Thankfully the horrendous DJ era is slowly subsiding. Singers and composers are again trying to focus on good original music; of course there are exceptions like Pritam, who keep proving plagiarism is in vogue and one should never feel shy in lifting other's work. Wonder why the colonial cousins vanished into oblivion after the huge success of this album. I guess the modern times composers can come up with only a one time masterpiece unlike their forerunners who were consistent in their quality of work, giving us some evergreen melodies.

Surprisingly I realized that good music and random ramblings can offer you a temporary asylum anytime, anywhere. Deadly combination - it might even make a philosopher out of you.

As I was just trying to become one, my stomach started rumbling, interrupting my thought process reminding me apart from the foods for thought, I should have some real life food, so as not to let this budding philosopher die a premature death.

I warm the parceled food, adding some extra spices, I attain my kind of taste. I come back to my room with the plate of Biryani and rogan josh. The aroma of the wet earth gets mixed with the flavor of the food in my hand giving a feeling of home.

Its this feeling which might be known as being closer to the soil  The philosopher in me lovingly muses with a filled tummy.

Rain drops and dance, strange kind of romance
I don't know why (whether) to cry out loud, But I'm feeling fine
Watch the rhythm of the rain falling down...

Rains and ramblings never go out of fashion as well...



Image Source: Internet

"Sitting here, alone in the dark, I cannot help but think these disturbing thoughts. I apologize in advance for this. I would never dream of forcing my sorrow unto another’s spirit, so I will warn you now, burn these pages. I only write these words in the futile hope that these thoughts racing through my head can be lessened, if only in the slightest"

I was standing in my balcony holding the cold railing; raindrops fell from them as my fingers moved over them. The moonlight was creating filigrees of light and shade on me through the patches of rain clouds. The wind was quite strong making me close my eyes, but I was forcefully keeping them open.

Such silent dark nights always make you reflect and prick up some long buried pain in your heart for no reason at all. Same was happening with me. I had just come to the balcony just to water my plants and the beautiful rain drenched sky held me captive and mesmerized. The lights of Navi Mumbai shimmered in dark like fireflies. There was something magical about the night. Or maybe just that I had looked at the night sky after a long long time.

As I stood there for sometime conflicting feelings of happiness and sadness were cascading like waves inside me. Don’t know why it happens, but it just happens every time I stare at the silent night sky. Suddenly the darkness becomes the clear mirror of our souls. And the questions that we keep running away from reflects back to us. We generally bury all our pains in the humdrum of daily life, but now we stand exposed - alone, well not exactly your shadow always accompanies you.

I was again drowning in the sea of self inflicted sorrow when from somewhere the song lingered to me -

"Nahin samne yeh alag baat hain...
mere paas hain..tu...mere paas hain
mere sath hain..."

It brought a smile on my face. The music made the feeling of pain melt. I looked at my shadow. It stood there silently.

"Shall we go for a dance?" I asked with a mischievous smile.

And I thought it nodded silently.

I hurried into my room and came back with the ipod .I knew exactly which song I wanted. I scrolled to Jhankar Beats folder. I held out my hand, my shadows imaginary hand slipped into mine and I pressed the play button. The melodious refrain filled the air around me -

"Hume tumse pyar kitna ...yeh hum nehi jante magar jee nehi sakte tumhare bina...."

Amidst curious glances from the moon and the few passing dark clouds we swirled into motion. I could still feel a pin prick of pain in my heart, maybe I was missing a friend or some moments from the past. I closed my eyes and just immersed myself in the ecstasy of dancing away the blues. My shadow was an understanding companion. We moved along in perfect harmony, tilting our bodies at the right beat, spining in circles or moving in asymmetrical shapes on my balcony ballroom. The wind soon joined us in the rhapsody. The three of us were creating magic.

So I'm dancing alone

Dreaming solo

'Cause your love's the one worth waiting for

It's just like heaven

Nobody's gonna break my heart

And hurt me like they did before

No one can even get the part

Not until I know it's deep

We finished our performance and bowed down before the panoramic audience. The nature applauded with a light rumble of the thunder and the sky started showering on us. For a moment my shadow moved aside and let me enjoy the center stage and bask in the limelight. The little drops of rain felt like glittering specks of stardust from the heaven.

I stood in that shower feeling liberated.

Human mind work in such a curious manner where by which we always wanted to fictionalize any simple thing which come across our way. We grow up to be skeptical.  We are taught to question everything that we see or hear. No arguing to the fact that we do need to question things at times for our own safety, but then at time we take the inquisitiveness and wishful thinking to a different level all together.

For an example, someone might just say - I like the way you think.

The skeptical brain would immediately start calculating -  was that an appreciation? Or was it a try to set the stage for telling something more demanding.

Basically our mind would conjure anything and everything other than a simple - okay, someone appreciated me. That’s so nice.

Due to the blustery weather if the door is shut, we might think of some evil spirits in action. After all, it is providing some sort of curiosity and spice for life.

It so happens that me and my room mate need to walk for about 15 to 20 minutes to reach our home. Also, for a few days it was raining during evening and hence we found it difficult to make it to home by walking. So, those gentlemen in our team who has the luxury to get a car on rent (To be specific who can spent USD 400 to 500 per month towards rental and insurance, especially when gasoline price is USD 3.5 per gallon) occasionally used to offer us lift.

But many a times, we enjoy walking primarily because it provide as a kind of forced exercise and a sense of fluttering around without hassle, not to mention we got ample time to gossip about the day's proceedings as we walked.

That particular day, we got out of office at 7 PM and it was pretty dark. We have to pass through a forlorn stretch devoid of any human beings. It was both dark and scary. There are a few companies like AT & T which we have to cross before reaching main road. Of course, the mind is so tuned to discuss all the eerie phenomena regarding paranormal activities especially when we had to cross this path.

Going by Rhonda Byrne’s Secret and Law of attraction, we might have attracted some unholy spirit with our constant discussion on clairvoyant subjects. So we did the best we could do - run. We used to check if there were no oncoming cars on the road, then we would start running in this stretch like there is no tomorrow. We did the same that day.  So after that running as we came out in the nicely lit part of the road still huffing from the brisk sprint, I happened to briefly look at the sky.

What were those on the sky? I nudged my roommate and drew her attention to the four white spots in sky. It looked like the reflection of beam of light but again the tail beam was not to be seen.

The four dots started gaining radius and they came close to form one single big circular object and in a moments time they started dispersing. It was like the movement of an octopus. There we stood frozen for a while and later we started comforting each other. But then the overdrive of Hollywood and Sci Fi movies on weekends yielded result and we gasped in unison “UFO”.

Those who read a lot on UFO might remember the clandestine news which is so popular and known as Roswell UFO Incident. In 1947, some extra terrestrial UFO crashed in Roswell in New Mexico State of US (Again not so far from our place) and US Army found some alien corpse. Afterward, they have engaged in some major research on aliens based on the debris available. Of course, many conspiracy theories are available on the basis of this.

Finally, we started walking ahead and there we came across a building on the other side of the road caught in fire and many military helicopters were engaged in surveillance. A possible interpretation of this white spots could be the military helicopters marking the space with some strong beam. We reached home and tuned to various channels to get to know more about fire accident in the locality but could not find anything regarding the same.

Afterward, back in our house, late night when my roommate was already asleep, I finished a few pending work and then before going to bed I thought of combing my hair and reached near the mirror on the dressing table. I switched on the dim light so that my roommate could sleep without disturbance.

In a few seconds I found something moving behind me and I was almost dead with the feeling of some cosmic force still playing pranks with me. You see we were still pretty jittery from the evening experience. I told myself – No, it is your mind in action. Think positive! Bur No ---- it was something. Someone is behind me covered in blanket. I wanted to scream, I could experience lump in my throat, I was getting asphyxiated!

I turned back and saw my roommate standing behind staring at me! I could not believe this and screamed “You were sleeping! What are you doing behind me?”

While saying this, I looked down to confirm whether her feet was touching the ground. Just in case.

In a hazy voice she told “Sorry dear, I just wanted to confirm whether your image can be seen in the mirror”

We stared each other for a whole minute, pinched each other and had a good laugh!

Good bye to all unholy spirits. At least for the time being, I do not have to hire a ghost buster.

Bandhs are so common in Bengal that people know Bandhs are just held to show the ruling party in bad light and not really for the welfare of common man. In fact its considered to be an irritant of the nth order. Still no one is bothered. Political benefit is the final word for the so called saviors of the common man.

Even if bandhs are such a common affair, I still remember one particular bandh day. I was only a kid of 4 years then, yet the memories of that particular day are so fresh because, we had to undergo a lot on that day.

We were in Darjeeling at that time. Uncle was posted there as a doctor. My aunt was expecting and hence could not make it to Kolkata, so we paid her a visit instead. It was a group of two families consisting of two pairs of grandma, grandpa's, aunts and their respective kids. We were about to leave next day.

Everything was packed, train tickets in place, schedules matched, we were ready. While having dinner we came to know that the GNLF had declared a three day bandh from next day. Shubhas Ghising, the GNLF leader blaring fiery speeches splashed across the television. The elders of the house looked quite worried. Our train to Kolkata was from New Jalpaiguri. And the descent from Darjeeling to NJ took at least 4 hours. Also since getting a reservation for so many people again would be next to impossible considering the rush season, cancelling our return was out of question. Anyone hardly had a wink of sleep that day apart from us kids.

Since we had never predicted such a situation previously we had thought of taking a taxi from the roadside car stand just adjacent to the quarters where we were staying. It was a grave mistake as when we came down the next day, there was not a single soul in the road, let alone taxi stand. The tension was increasing exponentially. A few locals got together and somehow managed to convince the driver of a dilapidated jeep to take us to NJ. As expected he charged an astronomical amount, with no other option, we bowed down.

Thus began our journey downhill.The usually busy market area bore a dead look, only a few goon type local guys were seen here and there. Within half an hour of driving we came across a procession of people carrying flags, festoons, placards mouthing slogans in the local dialect. Huge fires were lit up on all sides and effigy's burnt. Mob psychology was gathering pace. As we passed the area we also witnessed some violence between the leaders and a tourist group.Seeing the somber faces of the elders we could also feel the mounting tension. The elders had taken a great risk by deciding to travel along with kids on a day like this. We were badly praying to god, to see us through.

A short distance from there we faced another issue - Rasta roko (Road block). It seemed that we were not alone, there were tourists like us who had trains to catch and were forced to travel on a day like this. Two three jeeps were stranded before us. Our driver got out and engaged in conversation with the other divers and the protesters. They were all talking in Nepali and we could hardly figure out anything. After sometime the driver informed us that they were not ready to let us go at any cost, still he would try some more. Time was running out and so was our patience.

We had started early but with all these issues we were now having only 4 hours in hand to make it to NJ. Half an hour passed and still they didn't budge. Heated conversation followed between the frustrated tourists and the aggressive goons. We also saw some guys carrying arms among them. We kids were as much petrified as the elders. It was a moment of realization - life was more precious than catching a train. But we were already amidst the mess, and there was no wayout apart from praying. When the one hour margin had crossed, we left hope of making it to NJ, our only though was to get out of this. The elders had ordered the driver to turn back, when suddenly the unexpected happened.

We could hear sirens from a distance and soon we saw a convoy of white cars coming towards us. The political goons suddenly got busy clearing the way. It was then we got to know that GNLF leader Ghising himself was travelling to NJ and it was his convoy. It was a god sent opportunity. The road was narrow so in order to let his convoy pass, the vehicles in front had to be let off. Thus we were finally allowed to go! We couldn't believe our luck.

The driver also got charged and drove like Schumacher. By then we were so much drained with tension, that we hardly cared how he drove. We reached the station 10 minutes past the departure time of the scheduled train. We still had to cross a long over bridge to reach the platform. It was the run of a lifetime.

Grandpa ran before us to stop the train if there was a chance. My mom, granny, aunts ran behind him like there was no tomorrow with the kids dangling by their hands like rag dolls.

The coolis pulled the ladies in. Later we knew , considering the bandh they had delayed the departure of the train. By the time we took seats, the fatigue level was extreme. Mentally, physically we were absolutely derailed. We blessed our stars profusely that day which kept us safe amidst all the troubles.

Ours was just a one off case in which we got lucky. Most of the time it isn't. Bandhs like this might get all the attention for the opposition, but what does it offer to us - the janta? Only toll-full of miseries and harassment. Oh saviors of the common man, kindly take some time off from hogging the media light, ask us, do we want a bandh or do we want sanity? You protest against rising petrol prices, why don't you use fewer air-conditioned cars to decrease the load on nature and preserve the natural wealth yourself? Whom do you point fingers at when you are also one among the many responsible for depleting the natural resources thereby making them scarce and expensive. Promote awareness not bandhs!

From the day I have landed in this amazing place called San Diego, I have been learning the American ways of course the hard way. We are so used to the Indian lifestyle that knowingly or unknowingly we tend to follow the same over here, only to realize, this is not the way things should be done over here.

One of many such things is cooking on an electric stove and extensively using the microwave. Never in my life had I known the multi utility of this contraption if I had not come here. But of course after all it’s the Indian brain on the American gadgets so, you see wonders will definitely happen. So even with the electric oven we didn’t fret to prepare biryani, pakoras, chapattis or any other Indian delicacy.

Let me give you a small information here. We live in studio apartments over here which means it’s a single room in which you have an attached modular kitchen and bath. So everything in one space including the fire alarm. One day we had invited our colleagues for dinner. We had prepared 24 aloo parantha that day for 6 of us. We were so busy with the khana that we didn’t notice that the room was filled with smoke. When the guys came in they started coughing and complaining, its then that we realized that the fire alarm didn’t go off even if the room was exploding with burnt oil fume and smoke. The guys investigated and found that the smoke detector was off. Had a narrow escape that day from bringing down the whole neighborhood.

The food marts over here are filled with fresh produce. All the reds, greens,yellows and violets allure me to experiment with the pots and pans. One such marketing day I picked up a big fat brinjal in my hands and proposed with a smile– “Hey shall we try Baigan bharta today?” Meera, my roommate immediately snubbed me saying – “Are you crazy? Do you want the receptionist to hand us over to the police for trying to cause a fire in the hotel?”

Thus ended my ambitious dream of making bhaigan bharta with the American brinjal.

But, there are so many possibilities with the food stuffs over here that I always feel like experimenting with the dishes I have never tried my hands with. Like that day when I coaxed Meera that we will make stuffed capsicum for dinner. I absolutely hate and Meera loves capsicum hence when I took the initiative of cooking capsicum, Meera hardly had any objection.

I made a yummy filling with mashed potato, chilli,onion etc and stuffed it inside the capsicum generously.By then Meera was free and she took upon her the responsibility of shallow frying the stuffed capsicums.Very willingly I handed over the baton to her. As I was free I decided to ring home in that time. Before moving out to the lawn I told Meera - "I'm keeping the door ajar, as the room is getting a bit smoky"

Just as I put the first step outside, a deafening shrill voice started ringing behind me. I dashed inside fearing the worse.

"Jeezz the fire alarm!" She panicked.

I panicked double the time and stood transfixed looking at the fire alarm right on the top of my bed howling like a banshee. I never had imagined in my life that it could shriek in this ear-splitting manner.

Meera jumped on my bed with a wet towel and began waving it below the alarm. Nothing happened. The shrill embarrassing sound kept on bellowing at its best.

With no other option, I rang the front desk giving the detail of the mishap. She suggested to keep the door open for sometime so that the smoke goes off and the alarm would eventually die out.

I did the exact thing, I opened the door fully and immediately slammed it shut! Because I deliberated, if everyone in the adjacent rooms hear this sound they all will panic.

Meera could not quite reach up to the alarm, hence I jumped on the bed and tried to switch off the alarm while Meera instructed - "You got to hold the button down for 30 seconds to get it to stop" . Poor me I was still struggling to locate the goddamn button with the speaker of the alarm right next to my ears.

I got down and thought what to do next. Meera said she will try once again, and began hitting the alarm with wet towel. I thought it wise to call the front desk again before someone complained. The receptionist understood the plight of us this time and was on her way. I saw her coming down with a box and another lady. All of a sudden there was silence. I looked back and saw Meera giving a victorious smile while the fire alarm dangled from the roof.

"Goodness heavens! How did you manage to uproot that?!" I was at my wit's end.

"It's okay at least that stupid thing stopped na?" she said smugly.

"Darn, now we will be paying for this damage till the rest of our lives and that too in dollars!!"

By then there was a knock on the door. The receptionist was there. I held the door for her red-faced, while the other lady went inside and inspected the damage done. There was positive fear on my face for the consequence.

''What were you cooking?'' The receptionist asked me trying to sniff her way through the mess.

I was sure that she would say next - ''It smells so yuck and burnt'' so I stammered managing a toothy smile, ''Well nothing, its just capsicum you see''

She smiled and said, ''It smells so yummy!''

I almost fainted.

I looked back at her to reconfirm whether I heard the right thing. She was still smiling. By then the other lady had uprooted the entire alarm. After that she educated us on the alarm. That's when we came to know that it was a smoke alarm and not a fire alarm as we had thought. It was basically for detecting smoke while anyone was in sleep and alert them.

After some pleasantries and promise to repair it next day they left leaving us in a state of partial shock. They didn't ask us to pay for the damages and also appreciated the food! Our faces were a sight to behold.

We looked at the dangling wires from the ceiling and burst out laughing.

I wondered whether we should have ideally offered them some stuffed capsicum for their generosity. But then decided otherwise.  I didn't want to end up in jail on charges of trying to food poison someone from the front desk.