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.

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 Sungjoo. 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 :(.

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.

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... :)

Following a crazy idea.

One fine saturday morning, when me and Sabari were chatting about anything and everything, as we usually do, one of us (or maybe both of us) got this idea of going around Chennai on our bikes and taking pictures of all the places to make kind of a picture encyclopedia of the city we called home for nearly 3 years. After a few minutes of in-decision and reality checks we decided that this was indeed a trip worth undertaking.

We started off from that most famous of all places, the place that a dear friend of mine calls a country within the city, 'Mylapore'. After taking a few pictures of the tank, which happily had water thanks to the many bouts of torrential rain we had, and the schools of fish in the tank; we began our eventful journey to explore the less frequented spots in Chennai like Foreshore Estate.

Unfortunately, our foray into Foreshore Estate came to a rather sticky end when I stepped into a pile of something which I rather not mention (I still have a picture for anyone who is interested!). After having failed at the attemt to find water to clean my feet, we decided to go to the nearest sure supply of water - Marina Beach. My friend was busy taking pictures of anything and everything while I trudged forward in the sand towards the sea. After having cleaned my feet in the saline water, we began our journey to the north of Chennai starting with the Cooam estuary, past Parry's Corner to reach 'Burma Bazaar' - the place to get pirated items in Chennai, which coincidentally happens to be opposite the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police (hey I'm not complaining).

As we were taking pictures, we made slow progress, passing the High Court and the old bus stand to reach Chennai Central - that Mecca for many a weary mallu yearning for the taste of good water. Having taken a few snaps of those hallowed grounds, we moved on to Mount Road through Egmore. We finally hit Mount Road near the Spencer's junction. Ohhh, how many times did we come here with our friends, to spend hours window shopping, getting lost in the many corridors and just maybe buy a t-shirt for 100/- or 150/-.

As the light turned green, we turned right and headed towards Gemini flyover and T-nagar. And we would've gone into T-Nagar as well, if only we were up to the challenge of facing the almost impossible traffic. Having faced the north Chennai traffic for half a day, neither of us were mentally up to the challenge of facing the traffic in T-Nagar. So after a minute of contemplation, we went straight at Teynampet signal instead of right and headed straight for home and a nice lunch.