24 hours of sleep deprivation!

Hey all, I know it has been a while since I had peeped in to share my experiences with you! Well, here I am back again to share with you, yet another awful experience during my first travel alone from New York (JFK) to Dubai (DXB). 1st of April, 2010, was the D date, the date for which we had booked my tickets to DXB to meet the best people in my life- my parents. And I had been counting each day till then, just to make sure that I do not miss the date ; which had the least possibility. 1.5 years away from everyone had seemed like 15 years ! How much did I long to meet everyone. But this feeling has another side to it too- Kichu and I have never stayed apart from each other all these days. So staying away from each other was tough on both of us too. Due to that solid reason, I wanted to take the morning flight on 1st, which was cheaper too, so that we would avoid the direct sight of temporary parting. Well, he had another perspective to it; he wanted to see me off, and hence he chose to book me seats in the night flight, which was slightly more expensive too.

A week ahead of we booking our tickets, Kichu had to fix an official travel plan to Salt lake city, that too for April 1st- and guess what the flight was at 5pm, while my flight was at 11pm . Yes, you guessed it right,now I was supposed to see him off and wait at the airport for another 6 hours to board my flight and, I should also reach the airport by 3 pm. Imagine how bored I felt?
I was left with no other choice than waiting at the airport, till Kichu left, till the check in counter opened, till I drank 2 large cups of coffee, till I ate a dinner combo of fat thick noodles, till I finished my 2 novels, security checks , roaming around to find a place to sit and finally, board the aircraft! It is not as easy as it sounds! :)

I desperately wanted to sleep in my flight, as firstly it was night time and secondly, what do you think one could do in a 14 hours flight? 26 hours by train is way far easier and better than even 4 hours in flight. What else can you see from your window except clouds and clouds only? How long can you watch movies in your TV when you have watched most of the movies atleast once or twice! Luckily when I entered the flight and got to my seat,I found that there was only a lady sitting one seat apart from mine on the 3 seats - I was on the aisle and she on the window with the middle seat empty. She was in her early 50s, dark complexioned , wearing a gray mega sleeved T Shirt and white capris with a white hat over her head-God knows for what! :) . She turned her head and smiled at me- She was a Desi- holding an American Passport, which meant she is an American citizen now but earlier- an Indian like us!

Both of us started discussing of how we could share the middle seat for us to sleep, and so on. The flight doors closed and I started browsing the inflight magazine to see what all movies they were playing that day. Disappointed on seeing the list but happy about the fact that there was one seat empty next to me, I tried to engage myself on the Menu card to see what they would serve me that night as I was really hungry. That was when someone just called me from behind with an " Excuse me please ?". Wondering what was happening, I turned back just to find a short stout man asking permission to enter in to sit in the middle seat. All my smile vanished in seconds. Of all people, a man had to sit between two women, 14 hours, that too a fat man , a really fat man who would definitely need 1.5 seats to sit properly! OH MY GOD.... what would I do all those hours? Too many thoughts started passing my mind, when I was disturbed again by a crying noise. While praying to God asking for no more further aftershocks of the quake that just happened, I turned my head to see what happened- well, it was a real after shock......the man was screaming something in Farsi or Urdu or something and was counting the beads in the rosary he had in his hands. That was when I realised that the flight was taking off and he was praying to GOD. All the people surrounding our seats started staring at me as I was on the aisle seat. I sat quiet as if I heard nothing and silently prayed to God to not give me too many after shocks.

I immediately took out the earphones from the pouch and started watching the movie " Blind Side". I adjusted the volume to the maximum that my ear drums could bear, as the screaming rather praying around me had not ceased. Few minutes later, the stout man who was already sitting on seat - wait let me tag him as Mr.X as it seems quite offensive to address him in any other way- called me and asked me how to use the TV and earphones. After my wonderful tutorial, I noticed that he was a man in his early 40s, was really fair, had a fat face with a thick moustache and he wore a blazer as if he had to host a program in the flight. He definitely looked like an Asian, and I assumed him to be either an Afghan or a Kazakh. I got back to my Movie mode after hearing his "zank you"!!!! It was only the first hour of the journey that was calm. After a while, X started sleeping. He snored,snored ,snored and snored so much that even the noise cancellation earphones proved ineffective. Wonder why do I have to hear too many snores in my life! :) Snoring became unbearable when he started moving to my seat and started putting his legs on me. I moved more towards the aisle making every air hostess smile at me and say sorry each time they hit me.

When it had become totally unbearable, I woke him up and asked him to sit properly. With a "sorry" , he readjusted himself towards the other side :) . To say the truth, he did the same on the other side and guess what, the other lady did not even react! Wonder how can people be so tolerant- or may be even she was in deep sleep! Well, as you know that good times do not last long, it did not take too long for him to turn towards me and call me up with another "excuse me?". This time he wanted to remove his coat off and he wanted more room to do it, which meant he had to stand on the way and do it. I made way for him and waited till he was done with his coat, sweater and Shirt removal, and he walked inside in just his undershirt, with yes of course his pants :). I am not being offensive now, but the truth was it felt awkward, he smelled real bad, guess it had been days since he had cleaned himself up! I really wanted to change seats or get out of the plane or run around to somewhere or what not! But what option do I have in a flight that is carrying 308 passengers in its 310 capacity? I continued watching movies and in about few minutes, X started pushing the pouch in front of my seat where the magazines would be placed. I waited patiently just to make sure that he did not hit me. But as I had expected, he started kicking me too. I had to wake him up again and he said a Sorry! I felt bad at myself to be frank. But at the same time, I was guilty of waking up a man who was sleeping well. But then, I woke him up because he did all these right?

After few minutes of only snoring, he suddenly woke up and he told me that he was not able to sleep properly and that he wanted to readjust himself. I asked him to carry on with what he wanted to do and guess what he did? He stood up, facing the seat, placed his knees and hands on the seat, and head on the head rest and slept with blanket all over him. I was dumb struck to be frank. I do not think even kids would sleep so in a plane or how can a grown up feel like doing that in a flight? Well, I would not dare to do it even if I was alone. Lots of adjustments, snoring, eating , pushing and kicking went on for 10 hours. I kept on looking at my watch every 5 minutes , just to recalculate the number of hours I had to bear X more. Time passed by real slow, worst in my life, and all I did was wait for the flight to land, as I was totally hapless.

Hardly 2 hours were left for the flight to land, when they served us dinner. They had only 2 choices in their Menu-egg or veg. When it came to X, he asked for chicken and she gave him Veg. He opened it up and found that it was veg. He called her back and she verified and apologized for her mistake. After she had walked about 10 seats behind us, he called her up again like " shshshshsh I need water". He screamed to her all the way from where he sat. She ran back to him and apologized again, which is when he asked her " Which country are you from?" . She smiled and said " England". It was very much evident from her accent that she was an English. As if he was happy to have known that she was English, he settled down to eat his food, while the the lady, at the window seat questioned him asking ," where are you from?"

He smiled and said, " Afghanistan"

Window lady , "Are you a "T"? Why do women there wear purdah? Why do they wear Burqah? Look at Indian women, they are so advanced."

My mouth went wide open, I slowly looked around and turned towards her, which is when I saw that his mouth was wide open too. I wondered how can such an elderly lady be so senseless. He started justifying themselves.. I turned to both of them and said, " This is not a real good topic to discuss". I felt like I was a real sensible matured girl and wanted to pat myself.

But the lady did not stop there, she went on and on. I decided not to involve myself in it. I made sure that I did not listen to a word, by wearing my earphones. After a while, she pulled my hands and asked me a question in which she wanted my opinion to continue her discussion. The question was simple- why do the women there cover themselves up when each man can get married to 6-7 people each girl being half of his age?. Well, this had been something that I have always wondered. But this was not the right situation to discuss. The sensible person in me pulled back and made me reply like this- " Each religion has its own beliefs and customs. We are none to question as we know nothing. All we can do is respect each other and be peaceful". Gosh, I was surprised by what I had said. I felt great for what I did and this time I was successful in keeping her mouth shut! :)

After a while of silence, he asked me if I was from India. I smiled and said , " Right. Is not that obvious?". He smiled and said, " Yes, Thanks for supporting". I smiled back. In deed a good deed right? He switched on his TV and started watching an old hindi movie. He called me up and asked me if that was Amitabh Bachchan. I smiled and said, " You got it right". Then he mentioned his love and respect towards India and Indians, how he had learned Hindi and so on. Now this was a different Mr.X :) he spoke well and sensible too. Time flew real quick and it was time the flight had started its descent. He quickly took out his rosary and started screaming again. X was interrupted by the window lady as she wanted to know what he was doing. He did not respond and he continued his crying prayers. In a while, the flight landed and he asked me what my name was. When I told him my name, he said this , " I know that it is an Indian God's name. Nice Name." Quite astonished by how much others know about India and how little we know about them, I smiled, but we were interrupted by the window lady , saying that her name was Kumkum and that it was funny. We smiled and I asked X what his name was. He said it was Amaan Rasheedi. By bidding farewell to my fellow traveller companions, I stood up from my seat to take my baggage from above. Quickly, he pushed me and came out behind me and said, " I will take your bag for you". He asked me for my bag, verified it and lowered it down for me. He quickly took his wallet from his pocket and showed me a picture of a girl, and said that she was his wife. A very pretty lady. We smiled at each other and I ran quickly to finish off my passport control just to collect my luggage and meet my parents outside.

It is easy to wait for years and hours when you are far, but when you are almost there, you just cannot wait any minute longer. The moment I got out of the airport, I saw my mother waiting for me. We rushed to the parking, my father was already there. We loaded my luggage, I took off my jacket and like as usual, I started talking, firstly about Mr.X and my awful sleepless journey to DXB.

Borders without borders!

This time, it is not a sunny day that provoked me to blog. Pretty much all days are sunny now as the beautiful Spring has set its coming! It is the cafe' at Borders that makes me write this blog and share few thoughts that have been running through my mind. Now, let me set the background of the story- Borders is a retail book outlet. And I know each and every one of you would be wondering what am I doing in a book store. Well, for those who did not wonder, I myself keep wondering what am I doing here. As the saying goes, " An idle mind is a devil's workshop", my mind was starting to prove that too. And for a change my idle mind opted reading books-and yes not management but novels, fiction, thriller and the list of genre has not been finalised yet! Not quite voracious yet! Kichu has to travel to York, a village town 2.5 hours south-west of NJ, in the state of Pennsylvania where his company has a warehouse. And, I do not fore go any chance to travel ! Since the hotels here provide check in only after 3pm, and since the earliest that they can provide is 1pm, and again since I cannot be sitting in Kichu's office, I had only one option- Borders. Thank God I had finally decided to start reading.

Borders provides free Wi-Fi internet access. Now you get it! And that is why I am here busily blogging to let you know that, well, I do not know what I want to let you know! May be I just wanted to share what I felt of being here. I walked around the entire store looking for books. I found lots of John Grisham books on the shelf. Quickly grabbed " The Rainmaker" and walked around again to find out where I could sit and connect my laptop to the wall charger. On the corner of the store, I found a Seattle Best Cafeteria. At the corner of the cafeteria, I found a single table, next to the plug point! How excellent can it be. I ran towards the seat before someone else took it away! Connected my laptop, switched it on, did some Farmville and chatting and now Blogging!

Sometimes I wonder how much things have changed in my life. I was rather I am a person who prefers to be with friends or someone to whom I can always talk to. I hate being alone. I hate the loneliness that made my mind wander and bring in stupid thoughts. I hated being too far away from my family and loved ones. I had always wanted to keep myself busy, in my career, with my friends, pretty much in everything except reading. Now I sit here, in this cafe' , like an isolated soul, surrounded by all sorts of people. To the exact opposite corner to where I am sitting now, I can see someone busy with his laptop, may be he is typing his blog too. I can see a woman sitting alone and browsing through a magazine, opposite to her table, sits another guy browsing a magazine, may be the same one! 3 other tables are filled by single people busy reading books. # other tables have couples, each of them discussing their own personal matters. One of them busy planning their next date, one of them busy with their family problems and to be frank, I cannot hear what the other couple are talking! The entire cafeteria is filled with the mixing and brewing noises beautifully combined with the chit chat of people and the melody orchestra being played vaguely. Well, I feel like I am in a movie.!!

What am I doing here? Sitting and listening to everybody's conversation? Well, I will finish that and blogging in a while. After that? I have absolutely no clue on how I would be killing my time till 3 pm which is just 3 hours and 20 minutes away! May be I would plug in my earphones onto my ears and listen to some beautiful regional songs and start " The Rainmaker". Or may be I would chat to my friends, if anybody comes online.

I never knew that this country would bring such a drastic change in my life. No friends to talk to, rather no person to talk to, nothing to do on my own! And of all things, I started reading, something I had hated even when in school. But now reading really helps me restrain myself to the book and the world it creates for the reader. 6 books-2 weeks and now onto the 7th! Great statistics huh! Well, now I have one more thing to do, start counting my days to April 1st! Ah yes, I am making it to India, baby! :) An entire month of seeing my families and spending time with loved ones! What else would one like me need to escape this solitude of being stranded here! 21 days to go and here I come , to meet each and everyone of you! :)

San Diego, California

Another sunny morning makes me feel bright and active again! And my lazy brain feels like expressing itself really well today. Well, you guessed it right, that is why this post comes to you after a short short while of more than a week! When I was just brooding over on what shall i write about today, I came across this one small incident that had happened few months back , ah yes to me ! :)

After our Disney world trip, Kichu told me that he would have to go to San Diego in California where his company has a warehouse. Well, I did not have any reason to say that I would not be joining him. We had reserved our tickets well in advance, even before our Florida trip, though chronologically, Florida trip came first! As usual, like before any other trip, I did my research on the place, location, things to do when we were there and so on! That was when I realised that San Diego was on the border on USA and Mexico! What else did I want now? I started concentrating on how I could reach Tijuana ( pronounced as Ti-h-ua-na), the border city in Mexico. I realised later that since I had my visa formalities, I would not be able to step into Mexico. All I could do was, just peep and struggle to see the other side of the fence that separated the two countries! That was more than enough for me. Pretty much excited to see San Diego, we started off in the evening from here. We landed in San Diego at local time 1030pm. After collecting our baggage, we waited for the rental car shuttle to pick us up. Since it was in December, it was really cold in NJ, because of which I had worn 5 layers of dress. But I started sweating in SD. The temperature there was perfect for winter. People stared at us as they were all stuffed in jackets and we did not have even one! Little did they know that we have come all the way from North where it is really really cold! :)

After having Dominos pizza at 12 am, and sleeping off at 2 am, we woke up on the Saturday morning to have breakfast. After his office, Kichu came to the room, picked me up and we left to La Jolla ( La- Ho-yya) Drive, the most scenic and expensive neighbourhood in the city. Getting drenched in rain while on the sea shore had always been my nature perfect dream. That long time dream did come true there at La Jolla. After enjoying the calm and beautiful Pacific Ocean in rain, we drove across the streets to really just enjoy the beautiful sea. Day 2 -Sunday- full day at Sea World watching the Sea Lions, Killer Whales and Dolphins.

Day 3- Monday- I was pretty much in the room except for lunch and dinner. This time for dinner I said I would drive to the Indian restaurant we had found on the google maps. New place, new car, new roads, new rules, and mountains. Well, you got it! I was scared to drive. My ego did not let me admit that I was scared though. I started the Suzuki Forenza and drove down the streets which barely had some light or sometimes no light. I was getting all the more scared as it was a mountain and had ups and downs and curves at every half mile without any lights. I tried putting the high beams, as there were no other cars on the road. I started panicking a lot. Kichu gave me all the confidence. Do you know what he said? " The roads would not suddenly stop as Dead End without any sign. So just keep going". Well, he was right. But that was not what my mind was thinking. All I could see was just black roads that were right in front of me. I could not see the direction of the road even in high beam! What a car :( I cursed everything on the way. Suddenly at a point, all I could was a black thing like a wall in front of me, one side mountains, one side valley! I panicked and slammed the brakes real hard to just stop there. Kichu started smiling and asked me what happened. I said I cannot see anything except a black wall in front of me. He asked me to just drive forward and see what it was. May be you guessed it right this time also, it was just a steep up on the road. But it did not seem like that when I checked for it! My heart did not stop beating hard and fast. It was beating real fast and I was panting all the way through though Kichu was laughing! I got real angry at him, but kept everything in control and decided to burst when back in room! :) After a couple of minutes of my stupid tensed brake slam, a car came on the roads behind our car. I felt real happy to see a fellow driver behind me, some one to accompany me atleast.

We drove together for about 15 minutes. Roads were real small with just the exact width for two cars to travel at the same time, speed limit being 35 mph. Normally, in such deserted roads people here travel at 45-50 mph as there would not be any cops. And if there was a slow driver in front of such a driver, he would tail gate him to the core that he would get fed up and then speed up himself. I was driving at 30 mph as I could not still see the roads properly. I did not have to speed myself up as the fellow driver behind me was not tail gating me at all. He maintained the distance beautifully through out the route that we were together. I started calming down my fear and temper by appreciating my fellow driver to Kichu. He did not respond much to what I said, he just kept smiling throughout. After the long haul of 15-20 mins, a junction with a signal came up. ALAS- I wanted to scream Eureka to have seen street lights finally! I also made sure that the fellow driver had the gap to over take me! Surprisingly at the signal, I was driving straight and he was turning to the right! I eagerly waited for him to pull his car forward so that I could see the driver and smile at him for giving me company. Since Kichu was sitting on the non driver seat, I could barely see him. But I leaned forward and tried my best to get a glance of him. Finally, I saw him smiled at him, and he smiled back at me. I leaned back and that was when my brain slowly started deciphering the letters that my eyes had read on his car that read ' SAN DIEGO POLICE'. It did not strike me first, but in a few seconds my brain realised that I was calling a cop my fellow driver and then hey no wait, I was being followed by a COP! oh my Lord. Before I could get a second glance of his wonderful smile, he drove away. I looked at Kichu. As usual, he smiled and said " I knew this before, I did not want you to panic again. He started following us after the brake slam you did. May be he just wanted to make sure everything was fine. Or may be he wanted to ticket somebody and he found only you driving on this lonely deserted road and hence he followed you!" I had my mouth wide open and the signal turned green. Kichu said "hello madam Drive!! 'I started driving again and I told Kichu " Little did he know that Lekshmi was driving! She always drives below speed limit! He does not know that na!!" Well, that was a vain attempt to console myself or may be praise myself. Actually I do not know why I said that. I did not know what to say either. I did not know if it was a matter of pride to make a cop follow me and take care of me or was it just pure coincidence that he followed me as there was no body else there. Kichu concluded his smile and silence by saying this " All these years, no cop has followed me. You made a California motta cop follow you for no reason. Take it as a pride that he followed you to make sure you were alright!". Since I always take his words for the expert thought, I, till now have assumed what he said was right.

We reached the restaurant and I was still pondering in the cop thoughts! Kichu said he would drive way back. And you know what happened? This time the Maps showed us another route that had lots of street lights and straight roads on the way! Why does this crap happen only when I drive? I have never hated google maps so much! Kichu ended up smiling more rather laughing more , each time he thought about this! He always gets the better route while driving.

I could not forget the Cop's face for the next few days. On the last day, hours before our flight back to NJ, we drove to Las Americas Premium Outlet mall, which was on the border to Mexico. I got to see the fence that separated the two neighbours and the thickly populated mountain in Tijuana. After clicking as many pictures as my brain and hands wanted me to , we returned to the airport and boarded our flight. Even then. rather even now, that cop's face haunts me every time I drive. Be it for any good reason, or be it unknowingly, I passed the cop's test without any preparation and escaped his tickets! So ultimately I guess it is a matter of pride right?

Snow Storm go away!! Spring Spring come again!!

York, Pennsylvania- our current location, Time 09:50 am EST, 18th February 2010! Now this date is really important to people like us, living in the East Coast of USA. This is just because of the fact that we saw sun after a gap of 7 days! I had felt like asking the Gods to show us some sunshine to take us out of these snowy days. I know that all of you must be wondering if I have gone nuts or mad. Well, I am just talking the truth!

Snow had always been my fantasy. When in school, I remember watching Home Alone and the cute boy( Macaulay Culkin), who goes through lots of adventures during his winter vacations. Winter was accompanied by only chill and some rain in Dubai. That increased my craving to see snow. Winter in Kerala was basically just more sunshine, more rains and more hassle on the roads. A short span of 5 days in Istanbul, Turkey gave me the fortune to experience the winter there, but not snow! So when I was travelling to USA, in Jan 2009, I was sure I could see snow. Now it was my time to clarify all vagueness that my mind had for years about snow. Probably same time last year, I made my first snow ball, without wearing gloves. Now wait- Lekshmi dear- this is not as simple as you thought!!! It was freezing like anything! The cold I had ever experienced was nothing!

Though I did not get to see much snowfall, days passed by. We reset our watches and clocks to EDT on March 8, which marked the beginning of Spring. Spring is a word that I had not commonly used, except in my school classes from where I had learned the word for the first time. I had not experienced spring either. All the trees that remained lifeless leaf less for the 2 months I had been here, had all started blossoming! All the trees were filled with flowers and only flowers. There were no leaves at all. Any possible colour on earth could be found on the trees. Since both of us did not know the flower names, all we could do was to admire each of them irrespective of their colour and creed! Mother nature would not have been this beautiful in any other season. Tulips, Daffodils, Roses- in any imaginable colour, Dahlias, Azareas, Amaryllis, Hyacinth, Orchids and what not!!! May be it was my hidden fascination for flowers and gardening or may be it was because it was there hidden in my blood ( as my father and mother love gardening), I wanted to have a garden too. We went to Lowes and bought 3 plants and a yellow tulip bulb. After doing a research on tulips, I understood that they lasted only for a month in total which included the growing phase, blossoming phase and dying out phase. But first time right, I did not want to lose a chance. We waited for more than 2 weeks, but the weather was colder than it was expected to be. Rest of the plants had grown and settled well, except the tulip. Finally on my birthday, I stepped out of the house to take my daily peek at the tulip and finally it had blossomed. It was so pretty. Sun light had come out as well, after a short while. We 3 yellow buddies were so happy ! It infact made my day so bright. Cherry blossom was the most spectacular attraction in DC during Spring. We did not miss the chance either. DC was filled with pink Japanese Cherry blossom trees all over. Swear- the best treat eyes can ever have!

No Spring in Dubai, little Spring in India, but full Spring in Cincinnati. I was so happy. I felt blissful to have been here to atleast see and feel what Spring is! Days flew by and fellow Summer was right here! After coming from the desert to tropical to USA, Summer was not a big deal at all. It was usual- sunny, sultry and sweaty. But there was one special feature to the summer. Any idea what it was? Well, to be honest I had not noticed it either till we played tennis like crazy. Sun used to rise at 5am but it set down only after 930pm. Shocked huh? Well, I was too. But I loved summer too. We had more time to be out, we could play more tennis. Both of us had fallen so much in love with tennis, we did not want to miss it any day.

3 months flew by just like that! And there you go, you see all the leaves on trees and plants, changing colours. You got it right- it was the beginning of Fall rather Autumn. Though it was an early autumn, which meant an early winter, I did not even care. I just wanted to know what Fall was. We were shifting to New Jersey from Cincinnati, and we had lots of work at home, including painting. There used to be a Blue Spruce plant ( a useless thorny plant) right beside the pine tree in front of our house. We had been asking the community people to take it out for us so that we can build a garden there. Now I know- you are right- they got the time to take it out only in September, which was summer! And that too, they had taken out the pine tree as well. We had to check out for plants to cover the barren area in front of the house before we could sell it. So Kichu, my in laws and myself, had gone to a nearby store and purchased 2 rose plants, and 2 other plants ( I do not know their names), and we set our garden in Fall , when all leaves fall down! Kichu and I did not miss a single chance to see the colours. Initially I could see only Red and Orange coloured leaves. But as October came in, there were plenty of colours. Orange, red, brown, yellow, and yes green at times. All I did when I went out was click click and click more pictures. I could not even take my eyes off for a moment. How can nature be so pretty? How do the trees know every year that it is time to change colour? Since we were driving from OH to NJ and most of the journey was in PA state which gave lots of importance to conservation of trees, long long drives were accompanied by beautiful coloured autumn leaves. It is usually said that Good things do not last for long! So was the case of fall. Soon the leaves had started to fall down. But that was also a pretty sight. Know why? The leaves fall on us each time wind blows. Weather is so perfect to take long strolls in the evening, especially during sunset! Wow- perfect picture! :)

With the memories of Spring and Autumn still bright in my heart and eyes, winter had come in! It started off with heavy rains, which slowly moved to hails and finally back to square one- yes snow! Hit by 7 snow storms in 3 months, 18 inches of snow accumulation, more snow coming on the way, ice and slush on roads!!! What do I say? No one would want more snow. I enjoyed all the snow falls, I clicked pictures even when it was real freezing to do it! Kichu keeps on scolding me for that though! :) , but he takes the pictures too!! We even made snow man in each snow fall. 'A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.' This is not what I said, this is a quote I had come across while doing some research on the Internet. Initially I thought that guy was mad. I love snow. I love to play even now. I love to walk on snow. But now I feel to an extent, he is right. You know why? After these heavy snow storms, we need to clean our cars everyday to dig it out of the snow. It sometimes happens that people do not even know which is their car. We experienced it the real hard way this time- not just once but several times. Snow is always welcome if it would not accumulate! Long drives ( even short drives) are now accompanied by White snow all over. It feels like I am in Dubai, but instead of the desert sands, I see snow and only snow! Now you know why I was really happy to have seen some sunshine hit my face today morning! Days begin well when you are woken up by sun!

Now it is almost time to reset our clocks back to EDT, but it does not feel like it! It still feels and looks like winter with more snow coming despite it being almost the month of March. Well, it is not anything in the normal man's hands! All I can do is to surpass these dry, dull, snowy, sun less winter days with the hopes of upcoming cherry blossom spring and colourful autumn!

Window-Middle-Aisle- Which one would you want?

After 3 chilling childish beautiful days at Disney World, Kichu and I were all set to travel back home, not Cincinnati, but New Jersey.Well, whatever our likes and dislikes be, we had to travel back to NJ. The shuttle had come to pick us at 4am as the flight was at 630am and the airport was quite far from the resort where we stayed. Though both of us were half asleep, we somehow managed to reach the check-in counter at the airport. We found a really long queue there and we joined the queue too. Kichu made all attempts to look around for an alternative but we had no other go! Like all others, we waited and finally had our boarding passes in our hands. We grabbed a sub for breakfast and rushed to the Security check at Orlando Airport. Since it was the last day of Thanksgiving weekend, and since the weather in South east is the best all year round, people from North ( like us), always visited south, particularly in Winter. Hence was the rush at the Security check. Due to security issues, it always took time at every airport, even if there was no rush. We waited for our turn, and finally boarded the plane.


We had got the middle and aisle seats. Usually, I do not like sitting in the middle seat, because of which Kichu always used to have a bad time. This time, due to my generosity and kind heart, I gave away the aisle seat to Kichu and sadly took over the middle seat. Since the flight was full, I had no hopes of the window seat near me being empty! But I was hoping atleast, maybe just one seat was free! I kept my hopes alive till the flight was fully boarded. At last, a man with two boys walked up towards the end of the aircraft, he checked the seat numbers, made the boys get seated first-which was behind us- and then he looked at us and said , " That window seat is mine". Kichu got up immediately, as he was sure that man would not be able to get in unless he gets up! He was a real big man, taller that Kichu and definitely bigger than him!! Real BIG MAN!

For a moment, I thought it was good that I decided to sit in the middle, as two big men would have had hard time sitting near each other in a flight. Well, the next thought was, I felt really small sitting in between two big men! Well, I am not sure how far it is true, most people forget that the other arm rest is actually shared by the fellow passenger too. I did not get both the arm rests this time. But I made sure, I would get some sleep, I laid my head on Kichu's shoulders sometimes, else I laid back on my seat uncomfortably and slept for a while.

Luckily, the man near me did not sleep. He was busy reading news papers- yes new papers-not one but many! He had a big bundle of newspapers, which where half on my place. In the middle of my sleep, I saw Kichu already awake and watching tennis on TV, that too RF was playing! I did not waste time, I decided to switch on my TV. That is when I realised that my TV controls were on my left arm rest, which was completely taken over by my fellow passenger. I looked at his face a couple of times to make sure that he was looking at me, in vain! I started watching the match in Kichu's TV, by that time he had decided to change the channel. I looked at my fellow passenger again, and just called him and said

" Hello Sir, Can I switch on my TV?".

He said, " Sure Why Not?" and he started reading again.

"Well Sir, your hand is on my TV Control." He just reacted as if he got the shock of his life, he just would have jumped off his seat, if he did not have his seat belts on! I said " Thanks" and smiled.

I quickly set the channel to Tennis channel, and wow I saw RF play! That too in a flight! How nice!! My happiness did not last for long! Suddenly, like as if there was a virus attack on my TV, the channels started switching on their own. I looked at Kichu's TV, it was all fine. Quickly I looked at my left and here you go!! You are right- it was my fellow passengers arm again! He had placed his arm there again! This time, I got angry.

I called him again, and repeated my request. With a humble sorry, he moved off his arm. I switched back irritatedly to watch RF. He did not wait for long! He had started off again! Did he have some memory problem? And this time, he switched on his TV, and was watching it nicely, but with this right arm on my arm rest, completely pressing the controls. I told him 2 more times. Well, when the 3rd time came, I was done. I did not want to call him again, and see his shocking reaction, as if he did not know that the controls were even there on the arm rest and that I had done something wrong. I had enough. I was not able to sleep well, I could not watch RF and I was hungry-terribly hungry! I had decided that this would be the last time that I sit on the middle seat. Window seat is the best!Luckily it was only a 4 hours journey! After our plane landed, I gave him a bad irritated look, for which he did not even bother! Good he did not bother! He was a real big man you see!

My decision of not sitting on the window seat had to be withdrawn, when we were again offered the middle and aisle seats, on an over night flight from San Francisco to NJ. I offered Kichu the aisle seat, and I took the middle seat. I was praying to GOD that it should not be a man rather a big man on the window seat. God heard my prayers and it was a lady there, that too an Indian lady. I gave my respects to her through a wide smile, she was my mother's age, if not even more! She held her bag tight to herself as if someone would snatch her bag from her! I tried to explain to her that she could keep her bag down and nothing would happen. She did not even respond. I lost all my hopes of having a nice sleep! Since the lights were switched off during take off, she did not have enough lights to read her book- Hanuman Chalisa. I asked her if she wanted light, I could switch them on for her. She said," You put if you want". I was like Ergh!? What did that mean. I said "ok ", smiled and laid back. She seemed to be pretty much like a person who had not travelled very much in flights. There were lots of turbulence, she held the arm rest too tight! This time I did not go to explain anything to her. I would be the one who gets embarrassed ultimately.

In sometime, Kichu dozed off. I switched on the TV to watch Four Christmases movie. In sometime, the lady called me and asked if I could help her lower the table. I said ," Yes Aunty , I can! But you need to move your bag from you, else there would not be any space"
She said," I want to keep bag on table".

I was like," Sure, you can. But you need to move it a little, so that there will be space to lower the table."

She said,"OK", but she did not move her bag.

I started explaining to her in plain english, the logic behind moving her bag and lowering the table. Reluctantly, after 5 minutes, she gave me the bag. I lowered the table and placed her bag on it and said "Here you go! Enjoy! :)"

Luckily, this time the TV controls were on to my left. Kichu was sleeping well! Hence there was no one to change channels on my TV. After the movie, I lowered my table, took out the inflight magazine and started playing Sudoku! I completed all the 3 puzzles they had, but still there were 4 more hours! Meanwhile, I thought of taking a short nap, if I could. Kichu was peacefully sleeping. The moment I decided to doze off, the lady started leaning onto my lap with her bag, her sweater, her duppatta and what not! Wonder why does this always happen when I have to sleep only!!!! Oh Lord! This is not fair. I tried to move away from her, but where will I go! I do not have the entire aircraft for me to sleep! :( She kept on moving towards me and finally she was in almost 50% of my seat! 3 hours passed somehow- I watched others sleep, watched the movie again, took the magazine from Kichu's seat and solved the Sudoku again! Since the weather was really bad in NJ, it took almost an hour to land. Heavy turbulence as the winds were blowing head on! Plane started to shake like hell. Kudos to the Pilot for the safe landing! But the lady had started over again! After her 3 hours sleep on my seat, she sat up to check time. I told her it was time to fold the table, as we would be landing anytime. She said she wanted to keep her bag there. Well, to avoid another embarrassment, I quit the conversation!

The airhostess came and adviced her to fold the tray table, and place her bag down. She listened to the former but not to the latter. Finally, we landed after the traumatic turbulence! The moment we landed, she wanted her bag down. She started to get restless. It was evident that she wanted her bag down immediately from the locker above. I did not care. I paid least attention. We waited till everyone left, and we were almost at the end. She somehow managed to capture Kichu 's attention and asked him to get the bag down! She smiled and walked away. I did not want to curse her! But then, it is hell especially when it is middle seat and your fellow passengers not co-operate.

But when even if it is the window seat, this does not end. In one flight, I took over the window seat from Kichu. Unluckily, the person behind me was a boy, a boy less than 2 years old! He found all his happiness by kicking my seat, crying, talking and by pulling my hands from behind. It lasted for more than 2 hours, but finally he slept! Now that's like a good boy

Well, that is how few of my journeys have ended! I have not gone in any other flight trips after that! But definitely will make sure that both of us get separate window/aisle seats and never the middle seats again! :)

Civilian honour! for the sake of it!

January 26,2010 was not a special day for me, except that yes I did not forget that it was the 60th Republic day of India. As we had not subscribed to Dish network here, we could not watch any new regional movies,songs and interviews that would be shown on TV. It was a normal day for me, till when my friend-Gopan told me that Virendar Sehwag aka Viru, was honoured with the Padma Shri from the Government of India. This reminded me of the fact that every year, this day, famous Indian citizens are honoured with Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and Bharat Ratna. Moreover Padma Shri was given to recognize the contributions in the areas of Arts, Literature, Science, Sports, Medicine, Social Service and public life. Padma Bhushan is an award of a higher degree than Padma Shri, and is awarded by the President of India, to citizens who have offered special services to the country, be it in any genre. Padma Vibhushan is the 2nd highest award for an Indian Citizen and Bharat Ratna is the highest.

Well, the moment my friend told me about it, I took the time to google the honoured people this year. I found out the wikipedia link, and started reading the names. Due to my poor General Knowledge, I kept looking for only familiar names. I started off with Bharat Ratna, and there were no recipients this year. The next in pipeline was the Padma Vibhushan. As I was browsing through the names, I found only one familiar name- the pretty lady Zohra Sehgal. She must be 97 or 98 years old now. She still looks pretty. I felt real nice at heart for her, though I personally did not know her.

Jumped on to the next category, Padma Bhushan. Quite a few familiar names- Ilayaraja, Aamir Khan, A R Rahman, Mallika Sarabhai, Kuzhur Narayana Marar and then, I did not know even a single name. Ilayaraja was one of the most deserved person among the list I knew, for his wonderful contribution to the Music industry. He had his own style of composition which always included the harmonium, tabla and more traditional instruments. A R Rahman deserved the honour as he took India to heights by winning Oscars, Golden Globes and Grammy Awards ( 2 each) for Jai Ho. I was quite astonished by why Aamir Khan was honoured with Padma Bhushan? Was it because he acted in just one movie a year, and all of them were great hits and many of them were nominated in the Oscars ? Or was it because he showed off less and created very less hustles unlike the other Khans, for media attention? Or well, may be it was simply because he is a better actor, and the only actor who deserved it? To be frank, I have not well accepted that yet, whole heartedly. And I know, one thing- Thank God Shah Rukh Khan did not get it!

With a certain amount of discontent in my mind, I started to check for the Padma Shri award recipients. I again, browsed through for familiar names. Well, I knew that Viru was in it. I started reading the recipients names in order-Rekha, K Raghavan, Resul Pookutty, and OH MY GOD, Saif Ali Khan?, ( I re checked the list to make sure I was on the right list and sadly, I was), Narain Karthikeyan, Saina Nehwal, Vijender Singh, Virender Sehwag, and yes, the list of people whom I knew ended there. Rekha, personally, I have had no affection towards her. Is it my less passion towards her or is it mere truth that makes me say this- I do not know- but I was like why should she get a Padma Shri? Padma Shri Ms. Rekha- for what? for the ample number of surgeries to stay young? Well, since there was an even worse recipient, I just calmed down what I felt. K Raghavan aka Raghavan maashu, a well know music director. The first song that comes into my mind of his is 'Kayal arikethu'. I truly love all his songs, he is a real maestro. Resul Pookutty, of course had done a real great job in Slum Dog Millionaire for which he won the Oscar too. While I thought Narain Karthikeyan was out of the picture for a while, he came up again just for Padma Bhushan. Saina Nehwal and Vijender Singh have held up India's pride at the 2008 Olympics in China. Virender Sehwag had an outstanding year and was a deserving candidate.

Now while all these thoughts passed through my fast paced brain, my brain could not resist processing one name- Saif Ali Khan-oh it is - Padma Shri Saif Ali Khan. Well, it really sounds funny. Not only does not the title suit his name, but also his name does not suit the title either. When in school, and till recently I had assumed that these honours were given to great people with outstanding contributions, that normal citizens like us have not done. Did Saif Ali Khan get his Padma Shri for having an outstanding, outnumbering list of girl friends? Or did he get it for acting in his recent flick ' Kurbaan', which was another same theme movie on the list? Or is it now that he has finally decided ( or atleast has announced that he would) to settle with one girl friend of his? Well, he himself would have been surprised by the honour. He was humble enough to admit that he was not expecting this award at this young age of 40 ( wonder what would the sports people have to say) and that he did not deserve it (He better do something to atleast keep up the standards of a Padma Shree).Will the Government of India withdraw the award just because he did not expect it? And if my memory goes right-there is a 'black buck poaching' case against the Khans ( Saif Ali Khan and Salman Khan), and the case is still pending! What an honour! And if you all remember well, he had also received the National Award for the Best Actor in 2005 for Hum Tum, for no good reason. His mother, famous actress, Sharmila Tagore is the Chairperson of the Censor Board of Film Certification. This had definitely worked out for his National Award as she was in the Jury too. Did this magic (influence) work out again for her son to be honoured with the Padma Shri?

ESPN3- Fantasy for Sports!

I have always wondered, how my life would have been if I were a sports person . Right from a really young age, I loved sports-Cricket, Football and Tennis. Studying in a school that gave least importance to sports especially when it came for girls, I had no option to even dream of playing in a team for a competition. Always took part in the school competitions, but nothing worked out. I never practiced. I also did not know that a whole lot of dedication, involvement and practice gets into one's effort in winning in a game, be it any game. In school, during the games period, we girls used to spend time playing either Throwball or Cricket, rather a form of cricket we had invented for ourselves. I used to love catching balls always. Being a really short person in school ( pretty much now also), I was always asked to be in the front-for assembly and for the games. My classmates were not so interested in playing with me as I was always mistaken for a Geek or a Nerd or a Non friendly person in school- I guess I really seemed like one then. But then Appa used to play badminton with us when time permitted.

Things changed pretty much when we shifted to a new flat, where I really got friends for the first time. My new friends-Merlin, Sam and Bindu-accepted me into their gang. We spent most of our time walking around our building and talking and gossiping ( of course, after all girls right!). Sam and I used to find time to dodge the ball to play basketball on the a torn,old basket that hung near the stairs. We also found time to play badminton, our newer version of cricket, 7 tiles, Medicine and Poison, Hide and Seek and many many other games. We used to play with the younger gang ( Lals gang- who were more into gossips I suppose) and sometimes rarely with the boys gang ( Gopz gang), who were really aggressive. But this did not last for long. Merlin left to India for her higher studies. And I left to India too in about 2 years after she left.

Nothing was same there. New place, new friends, new world and no family near me. Everything was new and my priorities changed. Always friends. I thought very less about sports and games. I remembered sports only when World Cup comes up. I had always supported Brazil in Football and South Africa in Cricket. And also whenever Tennis Opens happen- as I was (am) an ardent fan of Roger Federer right from 1998 and before him, it was Pete Sampras. I felt so void by not being a fan of anything. After a gap of about 5 years, I got a teeny weeny chance of getting back to track temporarily, when I stayed at my mother's sister's place in AP for a project. She had a daughter, Devi , of my age. We played badminton for hours, continuous rallies till both of our shoulders ached. We used to also play blind fold, dumb charades, kho-kho and dance with all the kids there, whenever we got chance. This did not last for long either.

Little changes did come in when I started working. Our company used to conduct a festival every year. When I joined in, I was in the hosting/program committee. Also, I was a part of one of the team, our company was divided into 4 teams. One of the outdoor competitions were Throwball for girls. I was so happy to have that in the list. After a long long time, I got my hands on it. And I was not all that bad. Only problem being, I could not play as I was in the committee. Hence I took all chances to practice with the team. Wow I felt so happy to have started playing again. As expected, this was just for the program and hence did not last for long.

When I met Kichu, he told me that he was basically into every sport except Football. Well, what else did I want more. I can definitely get into playing everyday. Along with travelling to USA, my dream of playing also started to come into picture. Kichu always loves going to the gym too. Well, I wanted to explore what a gym was like. I joined the one near my home in Irinjalakuda, and started going there. My first experience was not a great one- I fell off the treadmill, i was all exhausted in about 20 mins and I could not even walk back home. :(. I did not experiment much. Since I was at home for about 7 months, before my marriage, Gopz and I used to have a great time watching Football, rather Soccer. He used to watch most of the English Premier League matches and he was a die-hard fan of Chelsea Football Club. Now the "Men in BLUE" always had a bad time with one of the "Men in RED", Manchester United. So I used to take sides with ManU to just agitate him! That was indeed real fun. But I never knew I would miss watching Football ever , till I came to USA.

After coming here, things changed again. For a while , there were no sports as I had come here in Winter. In March, we got a chance to go to an Ice Hockey game, with Kichu's friend Susan and her husband, Pete. At the last hour, they could not make it to the game, hence we had Harsha coming in with us. In the first quarter of the game, I sat quiet as I understood nothing. At the first interval, I understood that this game was played in quarters and not halves, also there were 4 quarters of 15 minutes each, with timeouts and intervals between quarters being more than 15 minutes. This literally means that the game does not end in an hour or 2. Second quarter was interesting, as I saw all of them fight with each other for the puck, smash each others face with their gloved fists, and blood oozing out. And the crowd enjoyed it! The men whom I had come with too enjoyed the fights. I started to feel bored. We left the stadium when there was just a quarter left as it was getting too late, and the stadium was so over packed that we would not be able to take our car out for a while.

Next venture was at a baseball game. Again, Susan had sponsored the tickets. It was on April 8th, a day before we left to Vegas. It was really cold out there, moreover the ball park ( ground) was on the side of the river. Hence it was all the more cold. I somehow tried to kill time, 1st innings,2nd innings and so it went on till 8th innings. We sat till about 5 innings- the game between Cincinnati Reds and New York Mets at the Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati. As it started to get more cold, we left the park. But trust me , from Day 2, I joined Kichu in watching all the MLB ( Major League Baseball) matches of Cincinnati Reds. We did go to the Ball Park again to cheer for REDS. I learnt the rules of the games, and the various players names and guess what, I started commenting on their games too. MLB has two leagues in it- American League and National League.At the end of season, the winner of AL plays against the winner of NL. And in 2009, the world champions ( if any one wins in US, then they are world champions-irrespective of the fact that no one else plays it), were New York Yankees who won against Philadelphia Phillies. Baseball does not work as fast as cricket, it is slower than Test matches too. But once you learn it, it is fun. I am waiting for the next season to come up, but I do not know which team to support this time- as both Yankees and Phillies are local to us!

Slowly, as the weather permitted, Kichu taught me how to play Tennis. I was overwhelmed with happiness that I did not want to miss it any day. I learnt to serve, play with both right and left hands, hit forehand and double handed back hands for more power and what not. Since tennis was more of an individual game, it required more dedication from the player's part. I really started to wonder and feel what all players or for me , Federer, would feel in each serve or game of his, if he goes down one set what would his thoughts be. It really takes a long long way of involvement and passion to reach such great heights. I never missed a chance to play tennis. We played daily, and I mean it. Everyday we made sure that we would not miss tennis if the weather was all good. One of the advantages of summer is that, sun sets only at 9pm or later. So we have longer days to play. I miss summer a lot! Kichu was not able to play a good game with me as he had to lower his standards to match mine. In between, we used to call Harsha, for Kichu to level up his game again!

Cincinnati Tennis open was in the pipeline in August, the peak of summer. Kichu had to go on an official trip. I was all alone for 4 days. And I took the guts to drive alone all the way to Mason, which was 30 mins from home, to watch Federer play! I had reached there early in the morning, firstly to avoid traffic and rush, secondly to see players practice. The first person whom I saw was Novak Djokovic, World No.2 now. Like all other people around me, I had gone wearing an RF cap and had a pen and a book in my hands; I also stood in the queue to get his autograph. He was such a nice person that, after his practice, he took time to sign autographs for all of us. He also took time to smile at each of us when he signed for us, and yes I was in it too. :) After a wonderful start, the next person to practice there was my favourite, not just mine but most of the people's favourite. We waited there for almost an hour, when Fed came there to practice with former champion Marat Safin. They did not practice much. We did not care much about the practice. I watched him play in front of my eyes, at the same time saving my spot for the autograph. It was the first time I was seeing my favourite sports person, right in front of me. But little did we know that we were all waiting in vain. He could not sign autographs for us, as the court had to be used for the upcoming game in 10 mins. Felt so disappointed that I did not get his signature, but then felt nice that I could atleast see him. Never had known that I would be able to watch him so close. Gosh!! It was a real big dream come true. After this, I got a chance to see Andy Murray (No.3 now), Leander Paes, Stanislas Wawrinka, Gael Monfils, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Andy Roddick( for whom there was a long long queue), Marin Cilic, Bryan Brothers Davydenko and last but not the least, of course, Rafael Nadal. I could not get his autograph either as he was not practicing anywhere when I took a stroll around. My tickets were till about 6pm. I left the grounds at around 5pm, an hour in advance, due to the same reason, rush! I drove back home with a fully contended heart of a true sports fan.

American Football, American version of Rugby, was another sport that came into my life, just because Kichu loves watching it. Want to know the reason? Ever watched Rugby? If you love to see players fight and push each other, then yes, both these games are the ones you will love to watch. Rugby is hell! American football is better organized than Rugby. Wonder why they call it football, despite the fact that the game is played with hands, except to kick, that is just twice! The season for NFL( National Football League) starts only in Fall/Autumn. And the players play in winter and snow. Have you seen any of the players? All of them are atleast 6 feet tall and weight more than 200 lbs. To be frank, they are bigger than Kichu too-really big. They practice real hard by pushing such heavy weights of more than 500 lbs. Now that is how they practice to fight and push! Even though I am least interested in the game, I watch it every time Kichu watches and I do understand interception, field goal, touch down, yards and the key terms one should know just to prove that he/she can understand it! :)

One of the biggest advantages of being able to study in countries like USA is that, the education system gives equal importance to sports and books. Kids start playing and working at a real young age.Gopz and Kichu would have loved to be brought up here. Despite being brought up in places where only books are studies, both of them love to play everytime! All day! Wonder why does not that come into practice in our countries too? Wonder where all of us would have been , if we were allowed to play equally with our studies as a part of our curriculum? Definitely, we would have chosen a different career path, even if not in sports, but sports would have been a part of daily life.