And it's all over....

It's true. My time at Amherst is close to coming to an end, and I am not happy about it. The quiet and beautiful (in every sense ;))town, so much like my village close to Mangalore, with extremely friendly people, has possibly given me the most fun 2 years of my life. I guess it's my problem that I get attached to every place I live in, but I don't think there was a better place for me in the US than this. What I can only take back with me are the friends I made, for I have made many good ones. And the fact that living alone away from family has made me learn about myself so much more. I don't know if it's easier for others to handle this.. seems hard to me. I hope it's just a matter of time.

India's pride..

The Oscars have always held a special place in my family. I remember catching a few glimpses of it every year, early in the morning before leaving for school, thanks to my mom. I remember actors and actresses acting weird when they received such an award, something they must have been waiting all their life. And when one really does get it, its probably unbelievable! Hence, the screams of joy, tears and gratefulness to the Almighty.
I would not have imagined a day when an Indian would be on that stage. When I was a kid, may be we never made world class movies, and that forced me to think so. Probably, as a kid I wasn't even aware that music categories existed at the Oscars. But, nothing is impossible. And a genius, one of our own proved it. People say he has done much better work, and Slumdog's music does not deserve an Oscar. But who cares, it's his reward more because of all his previous great works of art. Name one person who has been so consistent in his/her field of work - may be Sachin Tendulkar.
"Mere paas maa hai" - might sound filmy, but he summarized everything he had to say in one line. He's our ideal representative, and an idol, never forgets his roots, never speaks more than he needs to, and just gives his best at work. It's one of my dreams to meet him at his studio, and sing in front of him. Hope that comes true!

What joy it was to see him get both Oscars, jumping up and down, giving hi-fis, shouting - that was us. He was just calm. How amazing was it to see and listen to the drums rolling for Jai Ho!!! We really did rock that night!!!

Dr. Saahu on Air India 144

Dec 30, 2008:
"Haan ji beta..Aapki seat hai.. aao baitth jaao. Myself Dr.Saahu... I was the Chief Medical Officer in Chattisgarh, but I am now retired. My brother is a minister there, and so I am still working at the age of 65. I keep coming to my daughter's place here in New Jersey every alternate year."
I was welcome with these words as I sat in an Air India flight back home to Mumbai. I just smiled and looked for another seat, but it wasn't to be - the flight was full! An aged, bald, unshaven man sat next to me, with his demure wife on the aisle. They had supposedly traveled all around the world, with the man claiming to have been spending all his savings on tours. This got me a little interested, as I thought it was a cool thing to do. But, I wasn't sure how much more of the constant chatter I could take :) He finally seemed to settle down; by the way in the midst of all this, I didn't get an opportunity to even introduce my self!
Soon after taking off, sleep found me and I enjoyed a few moments of silence.
Time for some food. The world infamous air hostesses of Air India began serving - food and some cranky expressions. May be they don't get paid, or its just old age I suppose!
Anyway, the food was good, and that's all that matters on a long flight.
Back to sleep. Oh btw, Dr. Saahu had 3 pegs of whisky, which to my relief put him to deep sleep.
Next wake up call - London. We were supposed to disembark, run through Heathrow and get another round of security check done, and get back into the same plane. What a crappy system, I thought and hurled few abuses in my head. And what a racist country the UK is!!! People were being looked upon as terrorists, with bags being checked once though the scanner and twice manually. A lady was asked to drink some water from her baby's bottle. Heights of paranoia!! Wonder why AI hasn't been able to sort this issue.
So, we're back on the plane after wasting 2 hours. I listen to some music before its time for food again. And Dr. Saahu doesn't miss the free drinks - 3 pegs more. Well, this time it makes him talk! I get to listen to another round of his life's achievements and his political contacts and what not. He tells me how great his sons-in-law, and how he advised them regarding their careers. And then finally, he asks me my name!
We reach Mumbai - I'm in a little discomfort as my ears ache(due to the air pressure, and possibly my neighbor!!). We say our good-byes and Dr. Saahu leaves. I get to doing the formalities at the airport, and get out - to get to the domestic airport to Bangalore.
Home sweet home after 18 months, its new year's eve and I'm going to make the most of it!

One year later...

The first thing I felt after landing in the US – sleepy.

My friend and I had a comfortable flight, but still were groggy eyed, and we had to wait for sometime for the seniors to arrive for our “pick-up”. We tried calling them using the public phones at the airport, fumbling with coins, trying to decipher quarters and dimes! It’s been exactly one year since that day, and now we find ourselves planning pick-ups for the Fall entrants this year!

Roles change here, and quickly - The reserved newcomer in August, the settler for the next couple of months, the inquisitive traveler, the laptop-addict (read Youtube in my case), the cricket-player, the laundry-boy(girl), the amateur cook and of course the student, for the rest of the year. Life’s been good, I should say, coming to a new country amongst new people, with not-so-many desis, so to speak. I live in Amherst, a small town in Western Massachusetts and go to Grad school at the University of Massachusetts here. The early mini-struggle for jobs, choosing courses for the Fall, getting a social security number, a cell-phone, an internet connection and a few more things – take up time, almost one semester, but at the end you feel good about having settled down well!

In the next few months at Amherst, I found several things amusing – people run a lot, on the roads with a music player and a beverage; most of them help you find your way if you are lost, and very politely; some of them will make a mockery of your name (most make one of mine!), the police cars, ambulances and LOUD fire engines try to scare you off, bus drivers wave at each other, cars stop for you if you are a pedestrian crossing the road(though, this almost never happens in the cities here!), students skate-board their way onto campus (sometimes right into class!), every food item has lettuce, tomato and cheese in it, and most importantly one will not find a single public toilet in case of an emergency!

What you might possibly find is, few Indian students trying too hard to make an impression – most commonly this means trying the accent but making it very obvious, criticizing India (this gets them a bashing, of course), trying to roller skate (but without practice, we know what can happen), changing voice mail messages on their phone every week with an accent that gets heavier with time! You will definitely find a couple of such specimen, but my friends and I just have a good laugh at their expense.

The biggest change one feels is that you have to do all your work yourself - Shopping for groceries, converting pounds to kilos and gallons to liters, long queues, dividing the shopping list amongst your roomies and finishing up quickly to get the bus back home on time(get a car!); washing utensils; cleaning your room, and the kitchen (the frequency varies drastically from house to house); ironing your clothes; cooking by guess-work(for the newbies, turns out alright, don’t worry) and other chores.

Seriously speaking, you just have to make sure you are doing things right, like paper work at the University administration offices, your taxes and legal stuff, and of course not getting on the wrong side of the law. Look for a house online before you arrive so that you don’t spend a lot of time here and staying at other places for too long. I would also suggest that newcomers share apartments with themselves, as it just helps each other to get along better. Just an opinion.

All in all, I would just say – the key is to find like-minded people to stay and interact with, go out and explore new places, talk to people and just be yourself.

You’re all set! (I bet you’ll hear this phrase time and again).

Welcome to USA !

Hello Mr. Hedge!
One of the many strange things that happened to me upon coming to the USA - my last name being pronounced Hedge. Isn't is easy to say - 'heh-gh-dey'. I was taken aback, almost laughing at the other person, thinking "Is it really that hard ?? !!". How does one manage to interchange the 'g' and the 'd' when it is'nt written that way? Nevertheless, they're nice enough to say 'Oh ! Its two syllables!! I'm sorry !", when I correct them. But my friends enjoy this the most :)

Helping pick up truck
Like most new students here, we set out hunting for stuff to furnish our apartment - mattresses, couch, closets, lamps etc. After a few days of collecting bits and pieces, we hit a jackpot. A really nice study table with several shelves - was an amazing find, a bit too heavy though. Not a big deal for four guys we thought, but 10 steps and we were spent :P
We caught our breath, and were about to start over when this pick up truck with a couple in it offered to give us a ride. We were amazed - helping strangers was not something city-bred people are used to, for obvious reasons. But I guess its something really nice that small towns like Amherst have'nt lost yet. So we loaded the treasure on the truck, and jogged along till the apartment. Said our goodbyes and thank yous to the gentleman. The next hurdle was to get it into the apartment, and we somehow managed to hurl it in without damage :)
Nice feeling at the end of the day!

Friendly directions
Recently, we were looking for a new apartment close to Amherst Center. We found a nice one on Craig's list and decided to have a look. We took Route 30, and got down at the Main Street bus stop (the one near Amherst groceries), and started walking further hunting for Spaulding Street. After a long walk and not finding it, we took a turn into a road hoping it would be the right one. But we didn't find number 40 on it. Right there, on our left, there stood an old man with a long beard mending the plants in his house. I went in and hesitantly asked, hoping he wouldn't get annoyed, "Can you please tell me where Spaulding St is ?". He came towards me with the spade, and I moved back a bit. Then, slowly he said, "This one is Gray, next is High, then comes North Whitney, and then you have Spaulding. So it's a little further way!". I was surprised - it was the most polite reply I've got :). Amherst has some really nice and affectionate people. They'll go out of their way to help you. And about the house, it turned out to be nice, so we'll think about it !


More of these to come...

Bengalooru se chale Mekedaatu tak....

It all started with Suchit's (aka Konde's) idea to go on a looooong drive with his pals - Varun(aka TK), Vinayak(aka Pot) and yours truly ! We thought and thought with some Internet surfing in between before deciding upon a place called Sangama ( the meeting point of three rivers ) and a 4 km trek to Mekedaatu from there.
April 28, remembered for the 2007 World Cup Cricket Finals made us ( namely TK, Pot n Konde) wake up late the next day - the trip day !! Eventually all got together at Konde's place and got going after a light breakfast. The place was around 95 km from Bengalooru with a lot of greenery, cattle and a few villages along the way. Driving was a pleasure for most parts except the occasional slow-down stretches owing to bad roads. The usually lazy Konde had managed to make an effort and find out about a quiet and removed stretch, by the side of the river just before entering Sangam. This place was totally in contrast to the crowded and noisy Sangam, as we would find out later. TK, Konde and I spent some time finding our way through the rocks alongside the river bank with Pot opting to stay put at the side, clicking a few snaps of the surroundings ( not to mention his frequent claims of giant Crocs being in the water). The volcano-like hot rocks almost burnt our feet but then stepping into the cool streams of water felt like heaven.
After enjoying the surroundings and a bit of leg-pulling of one-another, we decided to carry on towards Sangam and the trek to Mekedaatu. And were we in for a surprise or not...!! It was like the whole of Bangalore was there ... full of cars, people, kids and what not. We had a quick lunch before moving on to cross Sangam, looking forward to the trek ahead. It was humid, with the sun beating down on 4 city-bred souls, ready to test their stamina. TK and I also came up with the idea of jogging down before realizing it was not worth the effort after about half a kilometer. Slowly and steadily we moved ahead with Konde constantly asking me how much more and I would tell him the distance in exact decimals ;) !! Waah Konde !!
And then after an hour's struggle, meeting up with a few monkeys & dogs and feeling jealous of the people going on bikes along the way, we reached a sort of a small shelter. Here is where we had a weird experience......
Under that shelter, was a person with three plastic coins in his hand, one of which had a mark on it. He would constantly juggle these coins, briefly showing us the coin with the mark on it, and then placing the 3 of them face down - we had to guess which coin had the mark. Sounds simple enough if one observes his movements carefully, but here's the catch - like all simple matters this too was made complex by the 'money' factor. Well, it was a game of gambling going on between a few people - they would bet a minimum of 100 bucks on the coin with the mark and get double the amount if they were right. From nowhere, the gambling instincts of our beloved Konde creeped in and he put the "only" 100 bucks we had carried from Sangam as his first bet - and he managed to get 200.!! But before we knew he lost the 200 that he had just earned, leaving us almost high and dry... Thank God that Pot had close to 80 in his pocket, else it would have been a longgggg frustrating walk back again, since we had planned to return on a bus which would cost us almost 80.
Despite the loss, Konde maintained that we would have won if all us were with him and that we should not get too upset about it, and treat everything as a new experience - so profound !! Moving on, we climbed down a flight of tricky stairs , from where one could see water gushing down with great force between two mountains. It was a great sight and put our minds off the money we lost a few moments earlier..:). Then it was time for the bus to arrive and we moved up to the shelter.
As we moved towards the bus, out of nowhere, we saw two police constables rushing towards the shelter with sticks in hand on the look out for someone. Guess what, the guy enticing everyone into the gambling game was beaten up by these policemen and to our shock a few of the apparent participants were also his aides in getting others to bet higher and higher..!!!
Finally, the bus started and it was funny to have the policemen and the crooks in the same bus with us. Konde never once looked their side( as seen in the snap - Konde is left-most ).. He wouldn't agree but rest of us knew he was a touch worried !!!
It was time to leave, and the guys picked up few beers to enjoy the drive back home. Along the way, we played a few car games, listened to few songs and slept, except for me of course as I was driving, rather racing with the other cars and buses on the road.
All's well that ends well .. and we reached Konde's place in quite good time. It was a good trip and we plan to go on a few more...

The worst lunch... EVER !!!!

Just another day at work ... time passed by and it was lunch ... Kisi ke bhejey mein bulb jalaa... Chalo khaana khaane baahar jaatey hain...

My team mates and i are ever ready to go out and have food... bas kisi ke bolney ki der rehti hai..and of course jeb mein atleast 100 rupiye hone chaahiye..:)

So we set out... kisi restaurant ki khoj mein... kitchen ko khallaas karne... We reached Church street and found our intended destination closed... EMPIRE RESTAURANT ... yes the one made famous by our CM's son..

All disappointed we moved on... somebody in the team mentioned about another place... called QUEEN's... sounds royal doesnt it...?? Aagey chalo.........

Andar aaye toh lagaa "itna andheraa kyon hai bhai..???? "... then realised - some ambience crap...!!
the jagah was alright... everything given the rural and rough look... the seats...table... walls had carvings of something like the Harappa civilisations...shaayad hotel owner ke bacchon ne banaaya tha... Investment almost nil...maan-na padega owner dimaag waala hoga..!!

Then came the time to order some stuff... bolte hain nah pet mein chuhe daudte hain... aisa hi kuch samjho... Saw the MENU...:)) !!! Prices looked a lil over the top but we assumed qty bhi milega :) Then came hamaar (interchange the 'm' and 'r' and put an 'i' at the end) pyaara waiter

.. we were four guys at the table.. first ordered a Chicken Kabaab (aaha..sunke muh mein paani!!)... poocha kitne piece aayange ?? Bola 6 pieces Sir...Theek hai le aao...
Then socha roti-shoti chicken gravy-vavy mangaayen...so ordered a chicken gravy... poocha chaar ke liye theek hai nah bhai... Haskar bola... No sir its only for two...
WAT NONSENSE>... 110 bucks and for two..!!!! Well... phir bhi ek hi order kiye...:(

Ab aayega mazaa khaane mein socha sab ne... par aisa nah tha,,
Kabaab ek skewer mein laaya... toh dekhe 6 chote-chote chote-chote pieces they.. chicken hi tha... par 130 Rs mein 6 teeny tiny pieces... wat crap man...!!! Do the math...:)

Wondered how small the phulkas we ordered wud be.. and how less the gravy.. Phir mere colleague ki nazar padi doosrey table par... kuch dish tha grav jaisa ek chote se bowl mein... bowl ka spoon saala bowl se badaa tha..!! Well 110 mein gravy utna hi milna tha ji...

Well...kabaab toh ek mint mein khatam... phir kiyaa intezaarr........... Khaana la de bhai... bhookh almost mit gayi thi... log jo humaare baad aaye khaana khatam karke jaa rahe they.. aaj hum bakre they shaayad...:( Well roti-gravy aaya toh kisi tarah khaane lage... bas yahaan-vahaan nahi dekha ki sab khatam... ab kya karen yaar... bhookh lagi hai.. aur paise bhi khrach ho gaye.. aaj koi treat dedo bhai..!!!

Meanwhile baahra kuch log dikhe... ek line mein khade...pataa chala waiting mein hain.. we laughed... aisi jagah mein aane ke liye log line lagaye hain...!! Paagal honge... jaise hum ho gaye they...

anyway... ordered some more... gave the angry/irritated/frustrated look to the waiter... but wat wud he do... finally came the bill... Bill toh bahut jaldi le aaya .. aur bahut badaa bhi...

Everybody frustrated to the core... paise de diye... aur nikle baahar... nobody else seemed to be bothered about paying up so much for so little... maybe sabke paas paisa tha.. ya doosron ko (read dates !) impress karne laaye they... but we'll not know...

Moral of the lonnnnnnng story : Never go to Queen's, Church Street,Bangalore...!!!