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.