Indian Ameri

After yesterdays special conversation with a pretty 'married' woman, I had dreams on meeting someone special. Did I meet one?? Hmm..... Lemme think. Yep I did meet someone special. It all started like this.

Yesterday after my soccer game Brandon a good friend of mine (came with me to the Smokys and we rafted together in Nantahala river) said to me that he is leaving to his hometown tommrrow. When we went to Morgans house to play some Fifa soccer in playstation he saw the flyer of Bananna leaf (not sure with the spelling of bananna) a south Indian restaurant. He was so excited that myself and him decided to go for lunch today.

Me being a lousy sleeper woke up at around 11.oo Buddy being my alarm (he was working on the door one more day). So I decided to skip lunch. Brandon called me around noon and asked me when to depart for the restaurant. Me being an indolent piece of lifeless human apologized and said that I have my experiment in an hour. He was dead striken. Then I told him that I can make it up by goin to dinner (me thinking after 9 30 coz I had my practice on Thursdays till 9). I dont know whats with these americans. They have their lunch around 12 and their dinner around 6. Finally somehow after lotz of analysis and some friendly memories made me quit my practice today and go with Brandon for dinner around 7:00.

Went to the lab, did my experiment, got my formatted system from the CS dept guys. Checked the air fares for vacation to India in December, cursed all the airlines for the recent hike and then cursed Bush for the hike in oil prices. Then Cathy (Chineese girl who studies with us and works with Brandon) calls and says that she wants to join us for dinner. I said no problem and that she can bring her friends. To my suprise Brandon called Morgan and he said he is gonna bring Amanda (Morgi's Fiance and a good friend of mine) with him. Niting being my partner of food crime agreed for the plan.

So the clock ticked finally 7 pm and there I was in an international Omnium-gatherum with me being the leader. I was tensed whether these guys would love south Indian cuisine. We walked to the restaurant. There was this 15 minutes of enlightenment of knowledge from my side on what a Dosa is?. It was fun explaining things around to them. The restaurant owner being a busy guy still dint get close in explaining things to them.

After all this lecturing I finally ordered a Ghee masala dosa (whew! it took another 5 mins for explainig what ghee and masala was), a Ghee Onion Masala dosa (these two were for the couples Amanda and Morgan), a bananna leaf special dosa (stuffed with vegetables) and 5 chicken dosa. Oh I forgot there were 3 chineese, 4 americans and 2 Indians with one being the pure south Indian.

It was fun watching them eat with spoons and forks. Thank God the restaurant dint give chopsticks for the Chineese. Learnt that Chineese cooked similar stuff. It took me a while to explain them what sambar and chutney was. After the yummy dosas I ordered Stuffed egg and chicken parottas. We all shared them and then I gave a finishing touch by ordering kesari as desert. They loved it. Cathy had a mango Lassi. Took another part of my life to explain what parotta is made of and what lassi was.

After the wonderful dinner we all bid farewell to Brandon. He was a nice kid and is gonna be remebered in my memories. Hope we can meet again and we can upcling more adventures like sky diving, parasking etc. Then Morgan and Amanda left home. The two chinese guys decided to depart on their route. So myself Cathy and Nitin were left and we walked together home.

On the way Nitin revealed that a new South Indian girl is gonna come to our department. Cathy found that I was happy listening to the news (Hey come on guys, its boring in here without a relationship) and teased me a bit. Then we talked for a while about Indian 'beautiful' girls, what I and Nitin call as beauty, then about Cathy's personal life, about Nitins and then Cathy's inner feelings. I being a quitter on loving someone was just goofing around but they were serious, dead serious. And so this went for a while and then we departed on our own roads.

When coming back I felt that I've met people like 2 hours ago, and that I have learnt that be it any country everyone has the same heart. Everyone feels to be social. Its just that everyone is unique in achieving that relationship. Thats when I found out that everyones special in ones life. Its just that you need define the word 'Special' in your own way. So in this thought I came to my apartment and to forget things wathced the movie 'Reservoir Dogs' (Kaante in Hindi). It was such a nice movie by Tarantino that you would learn all the F words in 5 minutes. Then played Fifa05 with Sameer. I've been playing with him for the past 2 weeks and really feel sorry for scoring too much against him. Yet he manages to score up on me once in a while.

After all this which happened in a single day which was supposed to be normal ended up special. I dreamt of how mine and my family would be 'IF' certain things never happened. Who knows those Ifs might have produced a completely different person if the if happened for true.

Letz see what happens in the days to come. Hoping that the girl who comes this year is special (not for me, but in general)...... Ah!!!!!! How so quixotic of me......

(And in the picture from left to right: Ron, Wen, Amanda, Morgan, Daron, Nitin, Invisible me, Brandon and Cathy)

The day began a bit crazy than expected. Was dreaming about this lovely girl who was so gorgeous that I got a bit too straight in the real world. Thanks to my bed sheet I wasn't let embarassed in front of Buddy (a mexican) who was working on our apartment door.

After my infinite attempts to set the alarm 10 mins late finally made me wake up after 3 hours of scheduled alarm time. To my suprise everyone in the house faced the same problem. Fought, conquered and finally truced upon the order of using the restroom (Its hard having 5 guys using the lone restroom at the same time, Probability is always 100% same timing).

After all the muddle over the restroom I departed for my department. Caved into my lab and finally decided to format my system to stop the begetting caused by the spyware (which I was feuding for 2 weeks).

Then went to Bangkok House (thai restaurant) and had a veggie fried rice with no eggs. I dont understand why everytime I go out with my friends for lunch or dinner is always on either Wednesdays and Saturdays (when I dont have non veg). After the mildly hot lunch went to the pulic library to get my reserved books and movies. I helped the librarian by removing all the covers, opening the books where the barcode was present, removed dvds from their cases and she was impressed. Then came the most interesting, embarassed and finally suprised conversation in my life.

Thought about it till I reached my lab and did my experiment. Did some good work and then left home. Went to play soccer after that. The rest is just routine. Hope I dint dream about the librarian in the morning. How dreamfull of me????

Last weekend was a special memory in my life... I went with my friends and the department colleagues to Smokys (Cool place). Being summer all I saw was lush greenery everywhere. Expected some kind of fall colors (how stupid of me). Yet got some great caps for my photography bio... Had so much fun that I lost my wallet while playing in the river and to make matters worse my mp3 player was soaked with fresh water that it went dead on me. Then went for rafting level 3. We were 27 members. 4 of us decided to go for the rafting unguided. I was the first person to agree with the idea. Noah had the experience twice before and so was confident on him. I was accompanied by two other starters Vasille (Romanian) and Brandon (A good friend of mine after this trip, American). On the outside we 3 were afraid. Noah was neutral. But once we went past the first rock we rocked the river. The photos turned out to be great with us being calm with dangerous spots whereas the other 5 boats showed 'God be merciful' faces. The trip went great, had some great chineese food. The finishing touch was great. Came with Nitin, Saikat, Abhay and Sumod. We had 4 hours of nonstop PJ's and PJ's only (hey Abhi if u r reading this scrap me). Being a dull toned guy none of my PJ's made an effect but Abhays was great. We finally decided to call him the PJ king.

Came home and bought a new mp3 player. I had planned to send some of those good shots of mine to orkut media page, but it turned out that I saw some profiles of great photographers and decided to wait for some while.

Did some ATRP reactions for my research and as usual everything turned out to be bull. AFM results proved my inept ability to master the instrument. Went for the weekly soccer game and met Brandon as my apponent. But still I had Reynolds as my striker. Assisted Rey in two easy goals, tackled Brandon with all my strength (my body weight) and had a good battle with the chineese who were sweaty-slippery (they removed their t shirts coz it was damn hot).

Went to Ohio for the weekend cricket game. Great city should I say. The downtown is large and made a puny out of my current city (Lexington). First time had coffee in US after 11 months. Had a French Vanilla Frapachino (dont even know the spelling, its from Starbucks). Got addicted to it in the first sip itself.

Picked up a new guy from Hyderabad on SUnday. Found out that this guy is innocent. But he had a great first day experience. We took some cool speakers and shelves from trash for our apartment (Hey what do u think!! Its not easy living in US as a starter).

This week did some normal stuff. My computer got infected with adaware and spyware (I was a bit lonely and went through these odd american sites and all of a sudden some adult popup came up). My virus detector gave a blare all of a sudden and thats it spyware infestation.

Planned my experiments and this time found out I got good patterns in my samples. Verified them with the lab microscope. Was happy with that. My Smokys experience enticed me to buy a camera and so I decided to check some deals. Found some great deals on the net. Just before pressing the verify to place order button Ramu (my new roommate) came into my mind and since he came 3 days ago from India I got into the act of converting stuff into rupees. My heart went bizarre and finally pressed my mind to wait for some more time. Still I'm aiming for the Panasonic SLR type.

Played basketball for two days during my routine workout. It was a good change and my arm feels strong. Checked my weight and found out that I am reaching a saturated level of around start 70's. Other than these my life was routine. Expecting some new comers and fresh faces to throw the light around me. Still am in the dilemma to whether go for election next year or not. And finally I feel lonely coz none read my blog and even if someone does I dont see a reply. Seems like this finally turned out to be my personal diary instead of a public bulletin board about my life. I wish I can go back to the time when I was happy.

Still got lotz of time to play with. Let me finish it coz am becoming Nostalgic. What will the future birng me this week??

Monday, was a special day in my life. I was forced by my vicarious brother to buy a car (for him). He had a friend who knew people in the dealership field. So we went to his shop. This friend of my bro named Raj, owns a normal petty shop in a strange place. It wasn't situated in the best of the neighbourhoods (or should I say not even close to what International students call as USA). Lining the streets on two sides were halfway houses, populated by drug addicts, mafia gangs (as my bro aptly put it), not so recovering homeless people, and those who weren't all there in for a family but only for pure sex. Most of them or to be precise 99% of them were Niggers (no offense) who sat on ragged couches and lawn chairs on front porches beaten by years of use, sometimes smoking, sometimes talking to themselves, and sometimes shouting at you from across the street as you walked with a language so unique that you can understand that they are using only filthy language but with the most friendly gestures you can ever get. Most of them had a style of their own. Most of the guys showed their torsos broiling with the summer sweat, and they had this strange way of dressing their bottoms. They wore these half trousers hanging tautly at their thighs, allowing only their inner garments (boxers) covering their genitals. If you think these Yins were crazy, then you should have seen the Yans. The ladies knew exactly when to show what they are not supposed to show these guys. It was a horrid atmosphere you would like to want.I had to wait for my bro's friend for an hour. This was one of those strange days in which you dint want to stay at the place but the place was a new world to you. People walked in and out of the shop buying packaged food as a side dish for the alcohol and beer they considered as the main routine carbohydrate. Women came with children who showed great enthusiasm in making a fuzz of things around the shop. The most common item most women shop is Hair. Yep 'H' 'A' 'I' 'R'...... They liked blonde, redneck, purple, fritzy and all kinds of hair.
The children as I learnt later from my bro and his friend were not their kids but actually children from foster homes and runaway toddlers. When I asked them why they wanted to have these children, one nigger replied 'its for the Fucking greenie'. I dint understand what he said and I looked at my bro. My face was painted with a big question (I guess with the green color the nigger indicated). My bro instantly understood my question and replied 'Greenie means Dollars'. He cleared my mind with a concept which I never knew existed in the States. He said that these communities were considered by the US govt as deprieved class. These people were given some wild priviledges that every month they need to pay only 15 bucks for their rent and half their utility bills. Further for every family the government gives 800 bucks for food each month. The best part is that for every child a family has the govt pays an extra 700 bucks. Then my bro startled me saying that the women whom you met a minute ago has 23 children and thats for the money. How cruel can a person be???
During the time I was trying to resuscitate from the horror I had just encountered, many other people came in and did their wacky shopping. One guy around 20s came in for Jordan shoes. He saw the shoes and after finding out they costed $140, he started scowling in his usual language of F's with my bros friend. I expected him to beat the life out of him. But my bros friend returned the favor with an equivocal language and skill.
Later I decided to stand out for a while coz the shop had too much of a smoke caused by the cigar fanatics huffing and puffing like a smoked steam engine. (learnt that there were 62 varieties of cigars and that the pineapple flavor is considered the most profitable cigar type). So when I stood out I was world watching. My eyes met a group of men and women sitting on a park bench and its nearby ground.
I don't think of myself as the type of person to find enjoyment in the mere existence of a group of people, just because they look different. But there was something strange about low community black people that just gets my goat. It's not just me either, almost everyone I know gets frightened at the sight of a black person. They looked really frightening, and who doesn't like someone who perpetually looks jolly. But their bantering seemed that they dint care about the outside world or about the way the world looks at them. The group was having fun in their own way. They were jeering with joy. Each one had a bottle of beer in his or her hand, mouth filled with 32 teeth which were the only other white regions in their body other than their eyes. They were singing with the usual F words with ease. They fought against each other occasionally, ran against each other, teased every women in the group, gave a cheerfull compliment to onroad passers, greeted children with sarcasm, booed old people with greetings and finally made a fool of themselves to their friends. It was a strange and admirable sight. Finally I got sick of it that I went back into the shop. To my suprise my bro was about to leave.
Finally I was relieved from this Black wonderland and taken to the car lot where I met the complete opposite of what I saw like 5 minutes ago. I wont call it the opposite world, it was the normal community one would encounter in US. Looked at the cars and finally drove 4 of them, sorted 2 and finally decided upon one.
This experience has changed the way I think of this land of opportunities. Every country has its own drawbacks. The people I had seen are made lazy by the government. They dont beg, but they smuggle drugs. They are not educated not coz they dint have the chance but coz they are supposed to be kept like that by the higher class. The world is a strange place. It might be made small by technology but it never can be clasped by the human mind. There are just certain things in the world which cant be taken that easily by the heart either.
Lets see how much more would I see in this world before I lay my soul.

I dont know whether it was starters luck or if it was sheer will to achieve under pressure made me score three magnificent goals during my first ever attacking position in a soccer game. I had played soccer right from my childhood. So whats so special about these goals. Simple. I said I played soccer from my childhood but never told you how good I played.
I wasn't born normal like other kids (nice start). I was 4.80 kgs. I was healthy more than enough and I was fat and chubby. It took me 22 years for me to lose my childhood cholestrol!! :-)
During these 22 years sports has been my passion. I had played soccer not because of fun and friends but because of its spirit. I was lucky enough to get chances of being the goalie my entire life. I had dived, rolled, jumped, why even ran to save certain good goals in my life. But after coming to the States, I made some friends from all continents. I have friends from Ghana, China, Japan, Bangladesh, Korea, Brasil, Sudan, Saudi and much more.
I had the honor of playing with these intercontinental players like a month ago. The best thing was I started as a defender and guess what, I defended like hell. There was this big Brasil guy whom I pushed and dieshevelled and did all kinds of strange stuff to protect my goal. I was appreciated by everyone in the team. Everything goes to my ability to understand concepts, strategies and ideas while playing Fifa 2006 in playstation. Thats how I learnt what true soccer is. Then like a week ago, I started again as the defender, but more likely as a Central Defensive player. I kept oscillating between midfield and defense all the time. I gave a cross so good in that game that we scored a goal at the crucial moment.
But today since there were less players, I had the opportunity to start as a right forward along with Reynolds (Ghanian and my lab senior) who was the left forward. As expected I was horrible in making a fake move and every time the defender read my mind. I would say I was like Peter Crouch in the England team. Then Reynolds engraved my mind with some eye opening tips that immediately I followed it and scored a solo goal. Then 2 minutes later he lofted the ball from his left to the left corner. I ran about 15 yards dived and nudged the ball into the goal with two defenders sliding past me. The opponents equalised soon. Then I was hell tired that I played midfield for some time and thats when I gave two pinpoint crosses to Reynolds who converted them to easy goals. After first half I was fine and again went to attacking position. My hat trick was an easy one as Kausthav did the solo work in central midfield assissted by Reynolds. He passed me the ball and I just tapped it in the sloppily guarder goal. The score read 9-9. (Hehehehe, sorry to break u this late. Come on guys think about it. Graduates played the game) We decided to go for golden goal rule. The opponents gave pressure on our defence. I ran from forward to right back, intercepted the cross, tapped the ball over the opponent forward, ran 40 yards and gave Reynolds a high volley which he took control and kicked mid air. Suprisingly the opponent goalie got a hand to it, gathered the ball and kicked it so long that the opponent forward socred a goal. We lost by figures but all won by hearts. Final score 9-10. Reynolds socred 6. I scored the remaining 3 in our team. Opponent striker scored 3, midfielder 2, owngoal 2, Right mid 1, left mid 1 and centre back 1. Who cares about the final score. It was just fun, real hope of survival, a game of exhaltation, a revival of my self. I did the unbelievable (Even I dint believe it). That what counts.
Got 4 more years to play this game and everyday is gonna be a new game. Lets see what happens.
Jai Hindh!!