Before I left for the US, I went to say bye to a dear friend who, by chance (good or bad I can't say) happened to be in town then. It was very late so I was able to meet his parents as well. Talk went from very general to very personal and ended with his mom advising me to be 'good' while I'm in the US and not to emulate the 'Aviva' ad. Auntie asked me what I wanted and I just asked for something cold to drink, basically anything other than coffee or tea.
What she gave me was pure heaven. Actually it was honey mixed with water. I never knew that something so simple could be so tasty. Recently, my friend caught up with me in chat and reminded me of it, so much that I decided that I'll get honey that night and make it again. But, unfortunately I was not able to get honey till now. Finally, I got around to buying that honey and made it. But you know what, somehow, it doesn't taste as good!
Monday, April 28, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
what are u upto these days?
a bit of research, a bit of studies and a bit of fun all mixed up in a jumble called life :D
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
OCCD.
OCCD - A disease that has a healthy percentage of the world population under its clutches. Hereditary in nature, it mainly affects the female of the species, with close to 98% of the cases leading to infections lasting a life time. The male of the species is somehow amazingly resistant/resilient to effects of this deadly strain.
Obsessive Compulsive Cleaning Disorder, OCCD for short, is one of the most comical yet (maybe) the most deadly of various strains of infectious diseases known to man-kind (not necessarily woman-kind). The symptoms of this disease are quite easy to spot. The person shows a maniacal zeal and fervour to the process of cleaning and the art of keeping things clean. Researchers have yet been unable to figure out whether this is an illness of the mind or the body. But, all evidence seems to point to the former. Though a permanent cure has not and may never be found, researchers have been able to formulate a remedy that at least seems to have some effect in stunting the growth of the disease and to an extent, ameliorate it.
A case study conducted seems to confirm the above postulate. A female was chosen as the subject to increase the chances of finding the disease quickly. Careful study and analysis done over a period of one month has led me (and fellow researchers, who shall remain anonymous for safety reasons!) to the conclusion that the subject in question has undoubtedly been under the influence of the disease for such a long period of time that medication that we administered was only able to stunt the growth of the illness and un-fortunately, could not ameliorate it.
We promise that we'll keep on working on this interesting research problem until a cure is found!
Obsessive Compulsive Cleaning Disorder, OCCD for short, is one of the most comical yet (maybe) the most deadly of various strains of infectious diseases known to man-kind (not necessarily woman-kind). The symptoms of this disease are quite easy to spot. The person shows a maniacal zeal and fervour to the process of cleaning and the art of keeping things clean. Researchers have yet been unable to figure out whether this is an illness of the mind or the body. But, all evidence seems to point to the former. Though a permanent cure has not and may never be found, researchers have been able to formulate a remedy that at least seems to have some effect in stunting the growth of the disease and to an extent, ameliorate it.
A case study conducted seems to confirm the above postulate. A female was chosen as the subject to increase the chances of finding the disease quickly. Careful study and analysis done over a period of one month has led me (and fellow researchers, who shall remain anonymous for safety reasons!) to the conclusion that the subject in question has undoubtedly been under the influence of the disease for such a long period of time that medication that we administered was only able to stunt the growth of the illness and un-fortunately, could not ameliorate it.
We promise that we'll keep on working on this interesting research problem until a cure is found!
Alone in the crowd.
I was recently on a river rafting trip with a bunch of students from my college. Most of these guys were young blokes - mostly, if not all of them, undergrads from the US. The group was a pretty large one. But, I was not able to related with even a single one of those guys/girls!
I did play 3 or 4 rounds of volleyball with them, I think I was accepted into the group without much ado, but when it came to subjects for conversation, it was like we were from two different worlds. Come to think of it, maybe we are. The way we were brought up and the social circumstances were completely different. There were a couple of points about their general interaction that I liked, but overall, I was not able to digest their behaviour. I'm sure it was the same for them as well.
Usually talkative, I was labelled as the most silent person in the group! This was a strange and interesting experience for me.
I did play 3 or 4 rounds of volleyball with them, I think I was accepted into the group without much ado, but when it came to subjects for conversation, it was like we were from two different worlds. Come to think of it, maybe we are. The way we were brought up and the social circumstances were completely different. There were a couple of points about their general interaction that I liked, but overall, I was not able to digest their behaviour. I'm sure it was the same for them as well.
Usually talkative, I was labelled as the most silent person in the group! This was a strange and interesting experience for me.
All Forward...
The whitewater rafting trip began nice enough. For once, I thought I'd remembered to bring everything I needed along with me, alas, I was wrong. As usual, I forgot one item (This item changes from trip to trip, but for every trip I've gone on, I've inevitably forgotten one item). This time, it was my towel. This didn't cause much of inconvenience as there was a WalMart near our camp grounds and I was able to buy a new one quite easily.
I was 10 minutes late getting to the pick up point and I was one of the last person to get there. Whatever you say about them, Americans as a culture are damn punctual. One thing, we Indians lack. There is even a joke going around that IST stands for Indian Stretchable Time... :D. Once I got there, I realized that I was not the only one without friends there. There were a couple of others like me. I thought I could strike up some conversation with these folks, but unfortunately we were put into seperate vans. There were 4 of them, all Fords, each capable of holding 15 people and each one filled to near capacity. There was a lot of chatter in the van about anything and everything. Soon a friendly game of 'Uno' followed in which I too took part (the second time around). But apart from that, I didn't actively participate in the chatter that much. Anyone who knows me, would be surprised at this statement.
Due to large number of people in the van, we made several stops en-route to the camp. We stopped for lunch at a place called the Golden Corral. This, like everything else in the US, is a chain. But what the heck, they had good food, greasy - Yes, but good none the less. And I didn't care about how mcuh grease was there in the food either. For $11 + tips you get a really filling buffet meal here. There were puh-lenty of stuff to eat. So much so that I didn't get to the desserts section. I was pretty much stuffed by the time I got through the main course and the fruits. But I heard the desserts were really good. One of the guys in my van puked and was promptly given the name 'Pukey Pukerson' or something. I'm not too sure about the last name, but 'Pukey' was definitely part of it.
Well, after such a satisfying meal, went on a short trip to see the local legend 'Moth Man of West Virginia' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman). It was, mmmm.... interesting, to say the least. After countless other stops we reached the New River Gorge/Bridge. Man, this was a monster of a bridge. There was a spot near the bridge where you could take pictures of it. It was so very beuatiful. You get a panoramic view of the valley from here. Unfortunately I don't have a panoramic photo of the place :(. For now, these will have to do. The small bridge you see is the one which was there before the new bridge was built.
Following a brief stop here, we moved on to the camp grounds. There was a volleyball court there and we played 3 rounds of volleyball. Though my team lost two of the three matches, it was fun. We had dinner at 7 or 7.30. We built a small camp fire and sat around that for the rest of the evening, eating roasted marshmellows and trying to pass the time. We turned in early as we had a big day coming up and we need to get up early for it.
Sunday was pretty chilly. After having put on the wet suits, PFD's and helmets, we had a quick lecture on what is to await us (as if we already didn't have enough of it during our classes at OSU). This lecture continued all the way to the river. After the build up that was given at OSU, I was slightly anxious as to what was to be expected. But by the time we got through the first set of rapids, I was okay. Actually it was kind of anti climatic if you ask me. We were expecting something much much worse, and what we got was not that bad. And in a wierd sort of a way, I felt a bit let down. Actually I know I shouldn't feel that way, but somehow I just did. We did the rowing reasonably well as a team and we got through all the rapids with relative ease. Next time, I'm definitely going to sit in front of the raft to experience more adventure ;) :D. We successfully navigated, 'The Meat Grinder', 'The Greyhound Bus Stopper', 'Millers Folly', 'Thread the Needle' and a bunch of other rapids. At the end, we just picked up our raft, loaded it up onto a trailer and went back to the camp grounds pretty happy.
I was 10 minutes late getting to the pick up point and I was one of the last person to get there. Whatever you say about them, Americans as a culture are damn punctual. One thing, we Indians lack. There is even a joke going around that IST stands for Indian Stretchable Time... :D. Once I got there, I realized that I was not the only one without friends there. There were a couple of others like me. I thought I could strike up some conversation with these folks, but unfortunately we were put into seperate vans. There were 4 of them, all Fords, each capable of holding 15 people and each one filled to near capacity. There was a lot of chatter in the van about anything and everything. Soon a friendly game of 'Uno' followed in which I too took part (the second time around). But apart from that, I didn't actively participate in the chatter that much. Anyone who knows me, would be surprised at this statement.
Due to large number of people in the van, we made several stops en-route to the camp. We stopped for lunch at a place called the Golden Corral. This, like everything else in the US, is a chain. But what the heck, they had good food, greasy - Yes, but good none the less. And I didn't care about how mcuh grease was there in the food either. For $11 + tips you get a really filling buffet meal here. There were puh-lenty of stuff to eat. So much so that I didn't get to the desserts section. I was pretty much stuffed by the time I got through the main course and the fruits. But I heard the desserts were really good. One of the guys in my van puked and was promptly given the name 'Pukey Pukerson' or something. I'm not too sure about the last name, but 'Pukey' was definitely part of it.
Well, after such a satisfying meal, went on a short trip to see the local legend 'Moth Man of West Virginia' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman). It was, mmmm.... interesting, to say the least. After countless other stops we reached the New River Gorge/Bridge. Man, this was a monster of a bridge. There was a spot near the bridge where you could take pictures of it. It was so very beuatiful. You get a panoramic view of the valley from here. Unfortunately I don't have a panoramic photo of the place :(. For now, these will have to do. The small bridge you see is the one which was there before the new bridge was built.
Following a brief stop here, we moved on to the camp grounds. There was a volleyball court there and we played 3 rounds of volleyball. Though my team lost two of the three matches, it was fun. We had dinner at 7 or 7.30. We built a small camp fire and sat around that for the rest of the evening, eating roasted marshmellows and trying to pass the time. We turned in early as we had a big day coming up and we need to get up early for it.
Sunday was pretty chilly. After having put on the wet suits, PFD's and helmets, we had a quick lecture on what is to await us (as if we already didn't have enough of it during our classes at OSU). This lecture continued all the way to the river. After the build up that was given at OSU, I was slightly anxious as to what was to be expected. But by the time we got through the first set of rapids, I was okay. Actually it was kind of anti climatic if you ask me. We were expecting something much much worse, and what we got was not that bad. And in a wierd sort of a way, I felt a bit let down. Actually I know I shouldn't feel that way, but somehow I just did. We did the rowing reasonably well as a team and we got through all the rapids with relative ease. Next time, I'm definitely going to sit in front of the raft to experience more adventure ;) :D. We successfully navigated, 'The Meat Grinder', 'The Greyhound Bus Stopper', 'Millers Folly', 'Thread the Needle' and a bunch of other rapids. At the end, we just picked up our raft, loaded it up onto a trailer and went back to the camp grounds pretty happy.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Pink Lemonade
It was Angela's farewell party. We got together at Mad Mex, a local pub, to (to put it in Angela's words) celebrate her leaving the country! As I don't drink, I was a bit hesitant at first, thinking that I'd be the odd one out. Angela re-assured me that it'll be fine and that I could just have water or something like that.
We didn't order much food. We were content with drinks, chips 'n dips. There were all sorts of drinks on the menu, a "Big Azz" margarita, Pink Lemonades and what not. Intrigued by the name, I ordered the Pink Lemonade, wondering how they made it. Out of curiosity, I even asked the waitress about it's contents. She just gave me a dazzling smile and replied that she didn't know how it was made either. The taste was, mmm... for lack of a better word, 'unique'. It had the taste of regular lemonade along with something I couldn't place. No matter how much I tried, I was unable to figure it out. So, I promptly stopped trying and began to enjoy my drink.
The waitress was apparently not impressed with our orders and tried her best to stay away from our table. There were 7 of us and consequently, the chips began to vanish quite quickly. And, as the waitress was no where to be seen, we had to send for her to get us some more chips. She was not too happy to do this as the chips come free of cost... :D. Some of us finally ordered actual food like the "House Salad" and the like which bought a semblance of smile on her face.
After many interesting stories and jokes, I called it quits as I had told my friends that I'd come for a game of badminton later that day. So after paying my bill, giving a hug to Angela and promising that I'll write often (which I intend to), I left Mad Mex (possibly for the last time) and headed off to the RPAC.
We didn't order much food. We were content with drinks, chips 'n dips. There were all sorts of drinks on the menu, a "Big Azz" margarita, Pink Lemonades and what not. Intrigued by the name, I ordered the Pink Lemonade, wondering how they made it. Out of curiosity, I even asked the waitress about it's contents. She just gave me a dazzling smile and replied that she didn't know how it was made either. The taste was, mmm... for lack of a better word, 'unique'. It had the taste of regular lemonade along with something I couldn't place. No matter how much I tried, I was unable to figure it out. So, I promptly stopped trying and began to enjoy my drink.
The waitress was apparently not impressed with our orders and tried her best to stay away from our table. There were 7 of us and consequently, the chips began to vanish quite quickly. And, as the waitress was no where to be seen, we had to send for her to get us some more chips. She was not too happy to do this as the chips come free of cost... :D. Some of us finally ordered actual food like the "House Salad" and the like which bought a semblance of smile on her face.
After many interesting stories and jokes, I called it quits as I had told my friends that I'd come for a game of badminton later that day. So after paying my bill, giving a hug to Angela and promising that I'll write often (which I intend to), I left Mad Mex (possibly for the last time) and headed off to the RPAC.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Share and share alike...
Are we all good at sharing? I guess not. Suppose you've a few slices of a pizza and have the option of either eating it or giving it to your friends, what would you do? Would you rather have the pleasure of eating it or the pleasure of seeing your friends eat it. I don't know.
If I were hungry, most probably I'll fall into the first category. But, there is a friend of mine who, I think, might have chosen the second option. I really haven't been able to figure out why, once a few of us argued against him saying that it was only natural that you don't share it, even with your friends, when you're hungry. But somehow, without rhyme or reason, he stuck to his point. And, though we accepted it and appreciated him for it, we were sure that we wouldn't do it as there was no logical reason behind it.
But you know what... though he wasn't able to provide any rhyme or reason for it... it makes you feel good when you share with your friends. You get a much better feeling than the alternative does (atleast I did). And maybe, that was the reason he was (and maybe is) doing it.
If I were hungry, most probably I'll fall into the first category. But, there is a friend of mine who, I think, might have chosen the second option. I really haven't been able to figure out why, once a few of us argued against him saying that it was only natural that you don't share it, even with your friends, when you're hungry. But somehow, without rhyme or reason, he stuck to his point. And, though we accepted it and appreciated him for it, we were sure that we wouldn't do it as there was no logical reason behind it.
But you know what... though he wasn't able to provide any rhyme or reason for it... it makes you feel good when you share with your friends. You get a much better feeling than the alternative does (atleast I did). And maybe, that was the reason he was (and maybe is) doing it.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Of Fist and Feet.
Yeah, translated literally that's what Tae-Kwon-Do means. And, just for fun, I did take that course last quarter. And so did a friend of mine, you know, the driving master - Athreya. We were the only non-residents in the class. This was a little surprising, as our college is like a little India/China town... :D. We had a nice teacher in Sung
joo. He is a fun guy to hang around. Has a bunch of funny stories and is damn good (atleast I think so) at what he does. If I can, I'll take boxing under him in the fall.
The class was fun and it gave a nice reprieve from the usual stresses of course work. We practised a lot of kicking and punching techniques. And man, if you do it regularly, there is nothing wrong in dreaming of one day of being like one of those cool martial artists you see in TV all the time.
We did the front kick, the side kick, the jumping kick and so on and so forth. The drills really tire you out. I initially thought that the class was really short at 35 minutes long. But boy oh boy was I wrong. There were times when all of us struggled physically to make it through the class. Take it from me, It is tiring! But it was a ton of fun. I'm just sad that there is no level 2 class for it :(.
joo. He is a fun guy to hang around. Has a bunch of funny stories and is damn good (atleast I think so) at what he does. If I can, I'll take boxing under him in the fall.The class was fun and it gave a nice reprieve from the usual stresses of course work. We practised a lot of kicking and punching techniques. And man, if you do it regularly, there is nothing wrong in dreaming of one day of being like one of those cool martial artists you see in TV all the time.
We did the front kick, the side kick, the jumping kick and so on and so forth. The drills really tire you out. I initially thought that the class was really short at 35 minutes long. But boy oh boy was I wrong. There were times when all of us struggled physically to make it through the class. Take it from me, It is tiring! But it was a ton of fun. I'm just sad that there is no level 2 class for it :(.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Licensed to Drive... :D
Like a lot of other things, the process of getting my drivers license was also a whirlwind affair. There were points when thought I would definitely flunk the test, and I would've too, if I had made a couple more mistakes. Thank God I didn't, for that would've ruined the wonderful plans we'd made for the next day, the details of which will (hopefully) form the contents of another (hopefully) interesting travelogue.
I really have to thank Athreya, for having the patience to sit in the car with me while I practised for my manoeuvrability test as well as for parallel parking. I might have driven, maybe, 10+ miles just practising for the manoeuvrability test. Going front and back and front again, in a less than graceful way.
We rented a car, a Ford Fusion, from Enterprise Rent-A-Car and took it for a spin around Columbus in the process of getting my license. We also raided a few grocery shops in the area and (drum roll please) invited a comment about the amount of food items we were purchasing from a startled lady, standing ahead of us at the cashiers' at the local Indian store. In response, the only thing I could do was to make a wide grin and say that this would only suffice for a month. She didn't speak to us again! After close to 12 hours driving practise, we called it a day at 4am in the morning, hoping that both of us would get up in time for the test that day.
The day of the test was gloomy and rainy. Little did I know that it was a sign of things to come. The whole thing started off on the wrong foot as, unfortunately, I couldn't understand a word that was coming out of the mouth of the official sitting beside me. He'd asked to pull the windows down, but I heard it as turn the wheel. When the whole, 'excuse me', 'pardon me', 'sorry, I didn't get that' became too much for him, he said that he'd fail me if I said that again. This put in a peachy state of mind... I was nervous as hell. Never in my life have I been so nervous. I was sure that I was going to fail the test at this point. Though it was pretty close, I managed to make it through the manoeuvrability test without knocking down anything. Then began the road test. Apart for a few minor mistakes, it went off well.
I was so very relieved when the whole thing was done with. I was still shaking when I got out of the car and he said that I'd passed. He also made a less than encouraging comment before saying I passed. But, at that point I was like, who cares... I'm "Licensed to Drive!!!!" and our plans for next day will be all right.
I really have to thank Athreya, for having the patience to sit in the car with me while I practised for my manoeuvrability test as well as for parallel parking. I might have driven, maybe, 10+ miles just practising for the manoeuvrability test. Going front and back and front again, in a less than graceful way.
We rented a car, a Ford Fusion, from Enterprise Rent-A-Car and took it for a spin around Columbus in the process of getting my license. We also raided a few grocery shops in the area and (drum roll please) invited a comment about the amount of food items we were purchasing from a startled lady, standing ahead of us at the cashiers' at the local Indian store. In response, the only thing I could do was to make a wide grin and say that this would only suffice for a month. She didn't speak to us again! After close to 12 hours driving practise, we called it a day at 4am in the morning, hoping that both of us would get up in time for the test that day.
The day of the test was gloomy and rainy. Little did I know that it was a sign of things to come. The whole thing started off on the wrong foot as, unfortunately, I couldn't understand a word that was coming out of the mouth of the official sitting beside me. He'd asked to pull the windows down, but I heard it as turn the wheel. When the whole, 'excuse me', 'pardon me', 'sorry, I didn't get that' became too much for him, he said that he'd fail me if I said that again. This put in a peachy state of mind... I was nervous as hell. Never in my life have I been so nervous. I was sure that I was going to fail the test at this point. Though it was pretty close, I managed to make it through the manoeuvrability test without knocking down anything. Then began the road test. Apart for a few minor mistakes, it went off well.
I was so very relieved when the whole thing was done with. I was still shaking when I got out of the car and he said that I'd passed. He also made a less than encouraging comment before saying I passed. But, at that point I was like, who cares... I'm "Licensed to Drive!!!!" and our plans for next day will be all right.
Friends...
I don't have a lot of them, but the ones I have are gems, absolute gems. For the life of me, I can't figure out how I ended up with them. But, I'm so thankful that I did. These guys and gals have helped me out in some tough spots, just by being there and listening to me.
Thanks for being there dears... :)
Thanks for being there dears... :)
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