Indian Ameri

“Unbelievable” was the only word I had at the Camerata Nordica (Terje Tonnesen). The two hour orchestral levity was special. Mistakes stupid enough to question my reason in continuing PhD marked the concert. Searching for the lost lab note for nearly 5 minutes while I had it in my hand all the time, getting into an elevator at the first floor and pressing the ‘first floor button’ not twice but thrice and still blinking on why the heck didn’t it move to basement, sticking a ‘Please do not shut this door. Be right back in 5 minutes’ post it on the door of the AFM lab and pushing the post it hard enough (in the pretext of gluing it firmly), that I pushed the door myself shut, and finally, going to the Student Center for an orchestra which showcased exactly 24 hours ago. Thankfully the Nordica’s were still in town performing in Richmond and I got in time.

Was Terje worthy enough to skip a good friend’s birthday? Well this time it was a tie between the two maestros, but luckily, the three hour playful chat with him that night made both the events worthwhile. Was it the aura of the aria, I ended up listening to ‘Nostalgia’ from Yanni, while a rarely ‘as crazy as me’ guy decided to slide action in the parking lot of iHOP for ten whole minutes. And ‘yes’ I had to teach him the exact control of drifting while holding the broken seat belt of my funny sister from another mother (that’s the new term we use for close friends – he is my musical brother from another mother :P).

As we reached back home, I decided to use the snow to my advantage, and ran as fast as I can in the parking lot and did a side slide. Impressive enough? I won’t consider, but fun enough, that it brought the kid in all four of us and we did a short havoc in the parking lot sliding and running like lunatics. While the snowman, and the usual snowball fight had to wait till the morning, the game of solid ice hit had to take place at 2 in the morning along with the crazy slides [I had wheezing trouble after nearly an year coz of this :(]. The feeling of blood boiling the frozen fingers was just ‘rejuvenating’ As I closed my eyes as I slept, I was laughing at the amount of fun we all had playing as kids. Guess I wasn’t crazy after all.

‘Butterfly dance’ shook my spirit as Yanni brought back memories of adrenaline this morning. A look at the juniors taking pictures across limestone, gave me the energy to test them for some cricket skills. End result: we played snow ball across the city road. One against seven! Thankfully, my practice throws, before meeting them ensured a lean patch on my sweatshirt while a wet cold day for their jackets.

‘That’s the department door’ ‘Wait there’s the peaceful white snow waiting for one more slide from me’ ‘Here it goes’, I said to myself, ran as fast as I can on the pavement and two hops on the snowy surface and Sllllliiiiiiiiiiiiddddddeeeeeee. ‘Damn this is longer than I’ve ever done’ ‘I need a scale’ ‘Here goes’ and thud!!! I jumped parallel to the slide and stretched my hands. (check the picture for the length of the slide) Went back to the lab, measured the height I reach with my stretched hands and a new personal slide record – 2.3 meters. After the lab, walked all the way across campus to Youngs library and with the help of a cardboard box (folded dreadfully into my bag) I tried sleighing. Only at the third attempt, I ended up not crashing on my face.

‘Seven! That’s awesome K K’ half an hour later, six people were lying on the ice rink shouting ‘Ouch! That hurts’ and all I had to do was teach them how to skate on ice. An hour later, while first timers braved their struggle into the center of the rink balancing over a tight rope, I ended up skating backwards. Hurray!! Now I skate backwards too. A few minutes later, Gwen Stefani ooohooooed ‘Sweet Escape’ and we decided to do a group dance on the ice rink. It was all fun. We’ve decided to keep ice skating as a monthly event from now on. My thud rate today: Nada. Zero :D (Except the heavy fall with a 220 lb friend on top of me coz I tried to teach him a little fast. But at the end he thoroughly enjoyed the stay in the rink and that mattered the most)

For all the Tamil people in the world, if you think of going for a suicide, just give me a promise. Watch the movie ‘Yaruku Yaro – Step nee’ directed by Joe (where the heck is that rock?) and the lead role was done by our one and only famous Sam Anderson (where is the rotten egg?). After watching this actor and the movie, I’d promise you, that you will seriously love your life like anything. God! Only coz of these guys south Indian movies are always mocked. Yesterdays Dil Dosti etc was a million times better than this movie.

And finally, something self satisfactory: For the first time I saw a paycheck entirely to be spent for myself. Just chipped in fifty bucks for the Udavum Karangal organization and spoke with some old friends. Now I can stick to my bed with a long awaited smile. Skipped tomorrows Tennessee outlet mall trip and gonna finish the rest of the lab work. KYNANOMAT 08 finally seems promising.

Err….. One more thing. My fortune cookie during dinner had the words ‘Someone special admires you’ :o Someone really there? I just pocketed the fortune and am hoping to see it work… :)