As hungry as one gets!

Carbohydrates, fats, proteins and minerals- very common words in school grade Science. I had never been conscious about the daily composition of my meal. I had never thought of my food to have 'X%' of fat, 'Y%' of carbohydrates and Proteins. I have learnt in Science that Milk is a good source of proteins, which is why I hate drinking milk- except in coffee and tea and yes, milk shakes. Wondered ever why people in USA and many parts of Europe are obese? Well, I can tell you. Despite having least knowledge of food composition, I learnt the reason for obesity after coming to US. Food- and ignorance of its composition. Each and every day, every meal that people here consume, has more than 50% of cheese and meat in it. Meat in any form- chicken, lamb, beef, bacon, pork, sirloin and what not. Sea food is also prominent here, but I personally do not think that should be a source of fat, atleast that was not what I had learnt in science. No matter whatever the reason and statistics be, I was least concerned about all these and I had decided to experiment with the various cuisines that I would get to try here. But primarily, cooking at home is definitely Indian.

As a part of my initial trials, Kichu took me to El Ranchito, a Mexican restaurant. Mexican restaurants always have plenty of vegetarian options. Kichu ordered Margarita on the rocks, one glass for the 2 of us. I had no clue what Margarita even was. The host arrived with a glass of blue liquid, surrounded by pieces of salt on the rim of the glass where we take our sip and a piece of lime slice for decoration. I tasted it with the salt. As the liquid was blue in colour, I expected it to have a smooth and calm taste, but it had a sweet and sour taste, exactly that of lime. Kichu enlightened me with the fact that its components were tequila, orange liqueur and lime. I did not feel its taste much different from Lime juice with extra salt and more sourness. Well, that is what is called Margarita on the rocks ( because it had salt pieces on the glass- I do not know further justifications). The Main course is called Entree' ( I read it as Entree like every normal person, while it really is Aa-n-th-r-ay, Get it? ). Kichu suggested me to order Chile relleno ( ll is pronounced as yy in Spanish- so its Chile Reyyeno). Chile Relleno was nothing but our traditional Molaku Bhajji with cheese stuffed it and eggs on top it, along with a side of guacamole sauce, cream and salsa. But the Chile was different from what we normally use. It is the Jalapeno ( J is pronounced as H in Spanish- So it is H-ala-pee-nyo), which is a really long and large Chilli than what we use back in India. I was happy to have had something different and I fell in love with Mexican. It was definitely in my future list.

Apart from the usual brands of fast food like Burger King and Subway, Kichu introduced me to few local fast food stores: Quiznos subs, who were famous for their subs and a competent to Subway; Dewey's Pizza, Donatos Pizza and Penn Station Subs, who were local to only a few states in the East Coast. I really fell for the Medium Mushroom and Artichoke Subs with Medium Fries. I really miss the Penn Station subs after moving down to New Jersey. While once Kichu had been to Cincinnati for some official work, I had asked him to get me one. But he forgot :(. I miss it badly!!

Meanwhile, my quest to explore the cuisines did not end. Kichu took me to his favourite restaurant of his favourite cuisine- Thai. I had the notion that Oriental cuisines ( Far East) , had more of sea food options. Well, now I got to know that I was wrong again. It was true that they had more sea food and other meat options, but they had vegetarian options too. I was totally ignorant about the entrees in the menu, Kichu took the initiative to order Pad Thai ( Paduthayiii- well that is how my Mother in Law calls it) and Yellow Curry. Pad Thai was just noodles with lots of peanuts and vegetables like broccoli, carrot, cabbage and then leaves like rosemary, with plenty of oil dripping from it. First sight, I did not like it, first taste, I did not like it either. Yellow curry had all of these vegetables in a yellow colour gravy, with Tofu ( paneer made from Soy milk) in it. I did not like any of them. He ate them though. After a dissatisfied lunch at Thai, Kichu promised to take me to a Thai restaurant which has better food than this. He was right this time, food was better. This time I got a chance to taste Sake ( Saa-Kay), or Rice wine, a Japanese Drink. I was told by Kichu and his ex-room mate Harsha that it just tasted great. I tasted it and I just felt it like hot water, it did not have any taste. Why was it even called alcohol? I still wonder. I stopped it in the first sip while both of them enjoyed a lot! As expected, they had finished it up too. This time food was ordered, with few changes, instead of Pad Thai, we had ordered Yellow Curry and Penang Curry ( p-an-yang) with sides of rice and Wasabi. Wasabi is made from the roots of Japanese Radish which is also called Wasabi. Like any other side dish, I took a large spoon of it, though I was warned not to do that. I tasted a small portion of it to know what it feels like. And I got the shocking taste of my life- it just had the taste of some crushed green chillies but I did not know it would produce vapours that would run through my nose instead of my throat! OH MY GOD! Thank God that I felt like considering their warnings rather than eating the way I felt. Though Sake did not have any taste, Wasabi and the spicy curries compensated them all.

I did not waste much time in waiting to try other cuisines. Next in queue was the world famous Italian cuisine. Olive Garden is a famous, a little expensive, chain of Italian restaurants. One would have to always wait in queue to get tables there. While we were waiting for tables, we took some time to visit their bar for some drinks. Kichu had ordered Red Wine for himself and Peach Fresco for me. I thought like Margarita, Fresco would also have a little vodka in it with peach juice. Well, I was right for the first time, but little did I know about what the fresco had in store for me. I was not warned about anything this time so I drank it like Peach juice. As I was getting to the half level of my drink, we got a buzz that our tables were ready, and we headed to the tables. I was hardly able to walk. I held his hands throughout and did not tell him that I was feeling really dizzy. We sat at our tables and I told him, I am feeling crazy and heavy and dizzy. Take me home if I fall down!!!! Gosh...I stopped drinking the Fresco. Kichu told me that eating cheese would compensate for this and we ordered Ravioli stuffed with cheese. I ate and ate and ate, and drank in the middle to finish it off. Well, I did not feel any difference. I almost resembled the drunk women , one can see in Bollywood movies....completely lost in the "nasha" of Vodka! I was sure of one thing, even if I had fallen down, Kichu would definitely be able to carry me!

Learning from my previous lesson, I quit drinking! :D . I got chances to taste White wine in a party as red wine was bad and all told me White wine was sweeter. I did not feel even a single difference, except that the colours were different. Scotch and Beer taste YUCK! Margarita was the best....but I better be careful.

While in Disney world, we had dinner at a restaurant after waiting for 1 hour to get a seat, that too a Mediterranean. I have been waiting for more than an year to taste something Mediterranean or Arabic. I miss the Khubz, Hummus, Falafel, Zaatar and Shawarma. Good Old days in Dubai! :(. Due to this I did not mind waiting at the restaurant for an hour. We finally got chance to enter the restaurant and we had our waiter ready for us. From somewhere a bad smell of perspiration started to succumb us. We first made sure it was not from us as we did really have a tiring day. But it was not us. In about less than a minute, our brains and senses figured out where it was from, want to know? it was from our Waiter. :(. He smelled real bad, wonder if he had ever changed his clothes. Now I also need not explain what I would have felt about the Mediterranean food we had. I got what I wanted after an hour's wait! :(

We also explored Chinese at PF Changs and Master Wok. The latter was good as they had sweet plantains fried in oil ( nendrapazham). Will I ever miss a chance to have that? One of the many things I had been craving for months! Their Vegetable fried rice and Egg Roll were just superb.

All this while, we got chances to explore Indian restaurants too. None of them tasted really great except the Mysore Masala Dosa at Hot Breads, NJ ( close to where we live now). Nothing close to the molaku bhajji, bonda, samosa, pazhampori or anything that we have!I started to get bored of eating what I make, wonder what Kichu feels. Really miss the good old days of eating Amma's cooking, fighting and having great times with Lals and Gopz, and of course, the special foods that Appa used to get to us from office, for which 3 of us would be waiting eagerly, each time he has a party! And I know, Kichu would be missing Amma's foods too! Gone are those good days of eating what Amma makes! Little did all of us know then that one day we would be craving for them! No matter whatever cuisine or food satisfies one's hunger then, always, home made food is the best!!

Gambling and Gaming!!

Ever watched the movie 21? I had not watched the movie till I came to US. I was another person, like many, who was least interested in English movies-no songs, no dance, and on top of all these- American English spoken by actors who hardly open their mouth to speak the words. I hardly even understood what they said. Why trouble yourself by watching English movies when you have plenty of Desi movies in languages you know, and that have songs, handsome actors and beautiful actresses in it! Ever imagined how would it be to land in this place and not being able to watch a desi movie? Well, I understood it. And without an option, I had to switch choices. I started watching Hollywood movies, and Kichu suggested me to watch the movie 21. There was nothing much evident about the movie from its title. But I watched it. And I fell in love with it. I had always wondered how gambling would be, how casinos would look like, how will I ever learn what were the different choices I would have to gamble and so on! 21 had all the answers. Do watch it if you need the answers too. And as you guessed right, the next thing I wanted to do was to visit the Gambling capital of the world- Las Vegas.

Inspired by 21, I learnt how to play Black Jack, one of the most dangerous gambling games. Fell in love with the game so much that, I started reading about it all the time and asked Kichu to teach me too. We had even downloaded the app for Black Jack on our iPhone. Now it was time I really wanted to play that for real. Kichu, one day gave me a surprise saying that we were really going to Vegas. Oh My GOD!!! I can legally gamble! That too as anticipated, for the first time. I started preparing for the trip again. Read through few articles, got to know of the various options one would have there and here you go- April 9 had finally arrived. Las Vegas was located in the West Coast of USA, in the desert state of Nevada. West Coast was in Pacific Time, which was 3 hours behind the East Coast time. Obvious was the haul time, yes, single flight, 6 hours. I could have travelled back and forth between Dubai and Cochin by that time.

We arrived at the Cincinnati Airport, which is when we got to know that our flight was delayed by 3 hours. We waited, waited and waited. We were all accompanied by a group of guys and girls, who were really excited to be to Vegas. Once we got into the flight, all of them just shouted in chorus, "Viva Las Vegas"!!! After the long haul, we finally started to see the Strip of Vegas, which is the most expensive place on earth. Thousands of Volts of light, 6 miles, "The Strip" , pulled all of our brains and eyes on to it. People in the other parts of the world, do not even have one day of electricity. This place did not have a moment without this thousand volt of power. What a contrast!! Partial right?

Kichu was being to Vegas the 2nd time. Hence, he got the chance to drive through the Strip again, while I enjoyed the lights, traffic, hotels and people, with some amount of fun and guilt in mind. But ultimately, we had come here to enjoy right.... so just chill girl! It really did take a while to digest the fact that I was in the heart of the gambling capital! I enjoyed the short drive to our hotel- Trump, which is where we had to stay for 3 days. We were welcomed to the Trump by the bright lights from the Chandeliers hanging from the ceiling to the floor. We collected the keys to our room and know what? Our room was in the 45th floor. woohoooo!!!! never even had thought of that! And another surprise was that, we reached the 45th floor in less than 30 seconds!!! Human brains- really a wonder. As we were tired after our journey from the Atlantic to Pacific, we were ready to just doze off after a hot tub jacuzzi.

Day 2 started with drive to Grand Canyon, one of the largest Canyon in the world, Kichu's favourite part of the trip. He says, Grand Canyon is much more pretty than Niagara. Well, I did deny that though. After all , Beauty lies in the eyes that see it right? We started off our 5 hours drive to the Canyon, with a 10 minutes halt at Hoovers dam, on the border of Nevada and Arizona States. Both sides of the road had mountains, desert,desert, desert and desert only, with some greenery of dry cacti, here and there. Well, it was nothing new to us, as both of us had seen this plenty of times. Finally, we arrived there, found a parking spot, grabbed our camera and rushed towards the look out area. To be frank, for a moment I really did feel what he said was right, this place was just too good to be put in words. Can earth be more natural and beautiful? It is not water and sky that are always beautiful. Indeed mountains and canyons are! The prettier it was, the scarier it was too. It was just because of the heights and it was definite that if one falls down, he would surely reach the ground that was more than 4000 feet below. Is not that scary? Well, I did not care for the scary part, I just enjoyed the beauty part. We kept on walking, walking and walking. Not even once did I take my sight of the beauty on my right. Most of the people who come to Las Vegas, definitely would drive 5 hours to see Grand Canyon even if it was for a matter of one hour. It is really worth that 5 hour drive. We started to get late to drive back, but we did not want to go. Wish we could have just been there, the whole day. We also got a peek view of the Vishnu rocks( foundation rocks of the Canyon- 4000 million years ago ), Buddha temple and Siva temple in the middle of the Canyon. Surprised by the names right? So were we! We did not find anybody to clarify the names but. With half minds, we started our journey back to Las Vegas. We were halted by the traffic, for almost 2 hours, on the border. Finally, we reached back, took a hot shower and started to explore the Strip for dinner options- and we found an Indian restaurant. :)

Day 3 was a real jam packed, tight scheduled day. We started off with the Treasure Island hotel, exploring the Casinos, Shows and exhibits each of the hotels had. We then walked to the Caesar's Palace, where I had the first casino experience of my life. Being inspired by 21, I wanted to play only Black Jack. We took tokens and headed to a table. Despite learning so much about Black Jack, we did not win any money. The best part of it was that, we gained some money and then we started losing it, so before we even lost further money, we decided to move ahead with the money we had! :) With the remaining money, we tried our luck at the slot machines and poker tables. None of them yielded a penny! What a satisfaction to have gambled for the first time and won nothing except a souvenir token!! Well, that is the dark side of Gambling! You win, only if you are ready to start off with a real huge amount! :) The day was busy with our visits to Flamingo, Tropicana, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, Monorail, Venetian, Palazzo, The Fire show by Mirage, Dancing fountains at Bellagio, Harrahs, Monte Carlo, MGM Grand and finally Trump. We did also find time to have dinner and lunch at the same Indian restaurant. During lunch, Kichu met his old friend there. We had some time with them too. I did also get a small chance to view the table dance from outside, but due to well heavy rush there, Poor me could see nothing! :)

Gambling, Casino, money making are all fun- with the tons of electricity being used there just to light up the strip for making money- did make me think and feel bad for a while! Way back- I really got time to find out- how did the 6 mile strip get so rich? Just with casinos? How are the hotels surviving the peak of recession, when people who come to gamble would have either been laid off or are having a pay cut? Where does the money come from? Where does the power come from? Why is it being wasted so much? Did Vegas have that much in it? Well, I still wonder! May be it is all fair in gambling!What do you say?

Maneuverability-as simple as the name goes!

After one month of driving lessons from my personal instructor, I was pretty confident to started getting on my own on the roads. Since Kichu himself had not taken his drivers license from the state of Ohio, he wanted me to enroll myself into a driving class. As expected, it is not just a can of pepsi, but everything including driving classes are expensive. This was how the deal was - 5 hours-200$- and each day 2.5 hours-which literally meant just 2 days of class and 100$ for each class. Well what do I say! With a heavy sigh of discomfort, I sat in the new car to start my classes. Since I am a quick learner ( Pandit as how my father addresses me ;) ), I got accustomed to the new car too- Chevrolet Malibu-but that was nothing close to our car :). In one day, I learnt how to do the road test. I still remember her words, " Are you getchin watcham tellin ya?"! Well, I did not know first! Now I know.

Second day she taught me how to do the maneuverability test, in which one had to take a 'Y', similar to the 'H' one takes in India. Most of the states in USA have the concept of parallel parking, Ohio was one among the few states that had the maneuverability test instead. Lucky was I!!!! After the second class, I was pretty sure I could take the test and hence got myself s-ke-ju-led ( scheduled) for the test on April 1st. I love April 1st ;). I just had one confusion running on the back of my mind- I knew I would be taking our BMW for the test. Malibu was a really small car and hence I could manage the Y. But our car was really long and I knew I would definitely flunk if I took our car for the test. To clear off the doubts in my mind, we headed off to my instructor's place to collect the cones for the practice. I did practice for about 30 minutes, but it did not come out the way I wanted it to. Anyways, thought of taking a toss, and trying my luck the next day.

On April 1st, we drove to the test center, and waited for the inspector to call my name. When she called my name- I did not know she had called my name, I only understood the Mohaaaan part of my name-which I knew for sure nobody else there had it, my heart started beating faster and faster, and like every normal person, my stomach started grumbling and making weird noises. The Inspector asked me to do the Y test first. In my first attempt, she had asked me to take the left and come back, I did go to the left, way back as expected I hit the cone. She gave me another chance and I hit it again! I was all broken, I did not want to do it again. Legally, I had one more chance. Tried the last one in vain! Well, that was expected. The car was too long that I had not been able to manipulate its length and width. She asked me to do the road test, I did it well. She had asked me to make a right turn first, then right turn again and finally a right turn again. In the last turn, I put on my left indicator, and realised I was wrong and switched back to Right. Finally we reached a signal and she asked me to take a left there. Now that was the toughest part, rather the most confusing one. Since USA has left hand driving, turning to the Right is easier. While taking left, if there is no left turn signal, then we had to take yield and wait till the other signal went either yellow or till there were no other cars coming this way. I had not learnt that so well. But luckily, I maintained it and took the left turn well. We reached the test center back, she gave me my score card and asked me to reschedule for the Maneuverability after a gap of 14 days. I gave Kichu a call and took a quick look at my marks. I had no marks in the maneuvarability, while I had lost only 5 marks in the road test. Guess why? Oh yes right- for the wrong indicator!

We did not wait for long to reschedule. We got a slot on April 15th, exactly 14 days after April 1. And this time, I had decided to take a really small car for the test. Definitely a rental car. In the meanwhile, I got a chance to drive in the states of Tennessee, Nevada, Arizona and of course-Ohio and Kentucky ( Cincinnati was on the border of Ohio and Kentucky). I had gained so much of confidence that I was sure I would pass the Maneuverability, but not so confident in taking our car. As decided, days passed and April 15th had arrived. We took a rental car for the same day. This time I was going to take my test on a Chevrolet Aveo. I took a look at the entire car to get an idea of its length and width, got inside the car and learnt its features, and I was all set to drive to the test center. I have always tried to maintain my speed limits on the roads and obey the rules to the best I can. Atleast, I need to do it initially to get my drivers! :) Roads had heavy traffic and I did not dare to catch up with the rash traffic in front of me, despite being on the left lane, that was meant for fast drivers. I did not have a chance either to get to the right. I was honked and cursed by a fellow car driver behind me which made me feel real bad and lose all the courage I had gained for the test. I broke down and cried. Wonder why I had done that as I did not even know the guy! Finally we reached the test spot and waited for the Inspector to call my name.

Luckily this time, I was really called as L-e-k-sh-m-iii M-o-h-aaaa-n! Well like how I used to raise hands for attendance in school, I did it again all set to take the test. It was nice that I had to take only the maneuverability. With the Aveo steering in my hands,the inspector to my right, and Kichu watching me from a distant area, I felt good and confident. In hardly 40 seconds, I was done with my test! And yeeehaawwww, I have my first foreign drivers. I have an ID card in the country. Another reason that made me feel more happy was that, my sister had sent me a message, Wishing me a very happy birthday. That is when we realised that it was already April 16th in India, yes my day! What more do I need to feel better. We waited in line to take my picture and this time I smiled better. We had to run up and down a couple of times due to some missing documents. Finally got everything settled at a nearby center, and here I have it finally- my Drivers!

Since Kichu had night shift then, I thought I would begin my day watching TV. Well, as usual I was wrong. He came home at 12, bought me a cake, a bouquet of fragrant red roses, and 2 pairs of dresses. We then went for a movie- I Love You, Man; played tennis and Wii. What else did I need to make my day memorable! One of the best birthdays in a really long time!

Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee, April 3,2009

After a short gap of 1 month and 20 days, both of us were all set to begin our next journey-by road- to the Great smoky mountains in the south eastern state of Tennessee, which was 5 hours south of Ohio. The Great Smoky mountains are believed to be the most natural picturesque place in the Eastern side of US, God's own place :). Kichu was planning to catch up with his long time friend Prasanna. Hence we were planning to share the log cabin that we had booked, with Prasanna and his wife Maithri ( My3 is how she writes her name ). We had reached there earlier on the day on April 3. It was so beautiful to see Mother Nature at her best in Spring, at the most natural place one can ever imagine. Beyond words. All the trees were blooming with flowers, no leaves absolutely, in various colours one can ever describe or think of-or probably in colours one would not have even thought of. Apart from learning in science class in school and watching in movies, I had never seen Spring season. Coming from a part of the world that does not have anything apart from summer, winter and rain, Spring was indeed something special.

The drive was just beyond words-just too good. Reached Gatlinburg, the bottom part of the mountains, quite earlier than anticipated. We spent the whole day roaming about in Gatlinburg, waiting for them to turn up. And roaming included my first sky ride , my first motion theatre (in US), my first game stop and what not. Now I started realising one thing- the next time we go to a place, we should go to one where both of us have not been. It is so bad when you go to a place with someone, but the other person has already been there 4-5 times. The person knows in and out of the place, that he never lets you go where you want- Nah this is not good, we will go there, last time we all went there and had a great time, This place is just too good!!!!! D'uh- It was not a nice feeling. I knew this time the same thing was going to happen as I was in a gang of 4, where 3 had already been to the Smoky, 4 times, once in every season, and the 4th person was me!!

Despite these 'not so big' complaints, time flew really quick. We were really enjoying playing games, which is when we got a call from the rest of the gang, saying that they were on the way to the cabins and they have an emergency. They wanted us to join them immediately. Now this was the N th time they had been calling us. They wanted to know the route, which we had already told N times, ( N being greater than 10). Luckily the N+1 th call was not for that. Wondering what had happened, both of us rushed to get started to the cabins or atleast to where they were to help them out. We were trying to figure out what had happened through the 15 miles drive, of which 10 were up the hill. And I was driving for the first time, through the roads which had hundreds of people on it crossing every 2 seconds, and uphill. We somehow managed to reach there quickly. DO you want to know what we saw? Firstly a tensed My3. I was seeing her for the first time, we had been in touch through chats and emails plenty of times but meeting in person, for the first time. Before we could start the girls' talks, I had to get back to know what was going on. Their car was on the road and the back half beyond the curb, floating on air. The other side of the curb were the mountains. So one more inch down, all gone. Now I knew why they wanted help so urgently. Trust me it was bad. Real bad and scary. None of us had a clue of what to do. Though I did not have an idea on what needs to be done next, I knew one person who definitely would have an idea-none other than Kichu. I have heard his friends say that his mind travels at 300mph while the normal human brain travels at less than half the speed of his. So, I knew we, for sure, had the Einstein with us! He got into the game, gave his ideas to Pras, Pras just played and started the car accordingly, and here you go, the car was back on the roads. Sigh of relief on everybody's faces and hearts. We started back to our cabin. We spent the night playing UNO cards, Pool table, Air hockey and I guess that's it- well no - there was one important thing-talking.

I was most excited about the 2nd day plans- White water rafting. None of us knew swimming. Luckily Kichu was going on it for the first time. I had a company. But they were in it for the 2nd time and they said we need not know swimming, which was the only hope we had. We were introduced to our guide-Kenny. Kenny introduced himself to us- he was from florida and learnt to swim at the Atlantic. What else does a swimmer needs if he knows to manage the waves at the ocean!!! I felt I was talking to a great swimmer.:) We were asked to wear the life jackets, helmets and pick up our rows, all according to our size. As expected one of us had to get it wrong, because nothing goes perfect always, and as obvious, it was me again. I did get a life jacket that was of Kichu's size. I did not know what to do. Is it not embarrassing for a 26 year old to wear kid's life jacket? Of course it is!! I did not even dare to go that side, and I had already started mumbling- I never get it right, all of you have it right and blah blah. Suddenly for a minute, I was in the air, lifted from the ground by some unknown unseen power( only to me ). Rest of the gang had started laughing, which is when I knew that it was not any unseen power, it was just a guide making sure that my jackets were right. He took me in and got me a Kid's jacket!! I felt all the more ashamed when I even realised that, he just lifted me so easily. How the hell did he do that? Did not I even grow fat or gain weight? What more do I need to lament? I kept quiet till we reached the banks of the Tennessee river which flows from Tennessee state to North Carolina State and we were on the border, the most calm portion of the river. The guys were made to sit in the front of the raft and we girls sat behind them. Rafting was fun and equally tedious. I developed my biceps for the first time :). Kichu and I sat on the same side of the raft. Rest of us were on average and equivalent heights, while Kichu was exceptionally taller. Hence there should be differences in the direction and speed we row also. While all of us were in terms with that, Kichu was always a lap ahead. We always had time to collide against each other! :) Rapids were the best part of the rafting. Rapids are classified from 1-5, 5 being the best one. We were all waiting for 5s and 4s, and Kenny had such an expertise that, at each rapid he made sure all 4 of us got wet. It was so much of fun to get soaked!!! wow!! We rowed, got wet, rowed and then started talking! At one point when the river was calm, Kenny just pushed Pras into the water. I am pretty sure My3 would have had the worst shock of her life. He did not know swimming either. That is when I knew why are life jackets called 'LIFE Jackets'. They really did work. He just floated in the water. All of us pulled him back on to the raft and he was so happy. :) He had infact asked for it to Kenny right when we started off. After a wet morning and a heavy dinner at Pizza Hut, we were all ready for Day 3.

Day 3 had trekking in plans. We did trekking for about 2 miles, and finally arrived at Grotto falls, which was our end point! I was so happy to see it, not because it had anything great but just because it was a small one. I can definitely go stand behind it and take a picture of both of us standing there. One of a kind that I had seen in movies only. I also saw a stand alone piece of rock there, which reminded me of Aiswarya Rai dancing on a rock at the Athirapalli falls, for the song Barso Re, in Guru. Did I really feel want to get over the rock that I saw and dance? Well I really did want to. I somehow managed to get on top of the rock, and she climbed too. May be even she wanted to do the same :). The men quickly clicked few beautiful pictures for us! I felt I was on top of the world to have been stood on that rock in front of the falls. Sometimes, it is the smallest and hidden feelings in life, that gives one the most happiness, when expressed. Loved it a lot.

Day did not just have trekking in it. We did Go-Karting ( I got the worst car that did not even move and I came last ), played at the theme-park, sky ride, helicopter ride, 1 hour ride on horse back( I got the baby horse that was 6 years old and Kichu got a girl horse that was 11 years old) (check out the pic-now you know why I got the baby horse) and what not. Fun packed busy day! I had lots of first timers in this trip, despite being with veterans in Smoky! Here comes the final day- day to drive back 5 hours, enjoy spring, good food at home and start planning for the next trip to LAS VEGAS!

Hocking Hills, Ohio Feb 14,2009

Days were passing by really slow and nothing special was happening!! Life was getting real bored as all I could see from my room window was the snow, snow and only snow, as a result of which we went out no where. Well, finally there comes Feb 14, our first Valentines day! I had not planned to buy anything for Kichu, as I seriously did not know what to buy. I basically found everything really expensive. I had the basic natural human tendency to convert USD to either INR or AED and start comparing- and the basic expression was 'OH MY GOD. I should pay 60Rs for a small can of Pepsi? Are you kidding me?'. But then there was no other go either. As I had not bought any gift for Kichu, for which I really felt guilty, I was not expecting a gift from him either. We had decided to get my Learners permit first and then start off our maiden driving trip to Hocking Hills in South eastern Ohio. It was almost 2 hours drive from Cincinnati. I was tensed about taking my learners test and I had been preparing for it for the last 24 hours :). I remember the last day I drove was in Cochin, for my driving test. Well, he wanted me to take my learners or temps ( as it is called here), that too on that same day. I went in, gave my test and passed by a margin of 1 mark! Gosh Phew! What a relief was that! :) We waited in the queue to get my temps card printed, they took my picture then and there. I was finally happy to get my temporary license card with my beautiful wide clownish grinning photo on it! What a beautiful national ID card I had :)

I was anticipating a beautiful day ahead. Little did I know, Kichu would make me drive our black sexy BMW 528i, that too on the expressway where the minimum speed is 65 mph ( 104 kmph). He made me drive for about 20 minutes, change lanes ( without looking at the mirrors), and finally felt a great sigh of happiness when he asked me to take the car to a rest area to switch seats! :) It was a nightmare , I almost broke down into tears. I was so scared. But he was really patient. He had not lost his temper on me at all, not even once when he taught me driving, though I had several break downs which included a sudden stop in the middle of road when I had not decelerated to make a turn and the lady on the opposite side stared at me, pulled the car on to the curb and got angry at him for none of his mistakes on the road.:) This is one of the best things he has done to me. Thanks Buddy!

Finally we arrived at Hocking Hills. We had booked Bed and Breakfast log cabin there, which was in the middle of a forest! Sounds scary right? It was scary too! :) Just at nights though. But then that was the best part of the trip-the stay. Our B-n-B hosts were Micah and Susan of Thunder Ridge cabins. Micah was called Muffin Man by the kids around there, as he made really tasty muffins. We were really lucky to have stayed there, as we got to meet two really good people. They were really reserved people who were so concerned about their daughter who is in her teens, seems guys have started asking her out. Slowly, the notions I had about the Westerners were changing. There are people who feel insecure about their children going on dates and so on. All these were happening when we were having Micah's banana muffins, blueberry muffins and English Continental breakfast of eggs, bagels, cereals, breads and juices. The best thing of Continental breakfast was potatoes-anytime, any day, any form potatoes are just yummy! :) After the wonderful breakfast, we left for trekking in Hocking Hills, Trust me it was really really freezing.

Despite wearing a sweater, jacket, cap and gloves, it was really cold. The waterfalls were all frozen in the flowing poses :). Turned out to be one of the wonderful pictures of the trip. The falls looked like as if somebody had cut them off on their midway. The trees, grass and the walkway/rocks were all icy and slippery. We had to be really careful on each of our step. We did not enjoy much, as the weather was too cold to even smile and pose for a picture. But one thing that both of us were enjoying, was each others company. We were really getting to know each other. The day 1 seemed to end real quick. I assumed it was because I was loving the place. It was later when I realised that it was just because of the fact it was winter, sun sets at 4 pm in winter. Days are short and nights are long too damn long! Damn. It gets so boring in the evenings and nights. We tried exploring the places around the hills in the night. But here also conditions were pretty much like in India, shops and stores close very early at around 6pm especially as it was winter! Moreover it was a forest area which just had trekking and hiking as its primary attraction. We just loved being with each other, as it was our first trip.

Two days went quick and it was time for us to start back to Cincinnati. The final day welcomed us with beautiful sunshine, reaching our cabin through the slender tall trees in the forest. Picture perfect. Nature at its best. No words to describe it! We both were enjoying it so much to the extent that we forgot to click a picture of it. Outside the cabin, Micah was lighting the woods for fire and heat. Plenty of pine cones were lying on the ground. Beautiful for decoration. We could not set away our eyes! We collected many of them! :) After bidding farewell to Micah, Susan and their fat lazy old cat, we started off to Cincinnati. On the way, Kich just spotted an attractive piece of wood, lying on the side of the road. Even before I realised what was going on, he had already jumped out of the car, picked it up and dropped it in the trunk of our car. Beautiful rings did it have. It was really a nice piece of wood. Lucky, that he spotted it. Hats off to his eagle vision!

As we started, we did a quick follow up about our house. And the status update we had was that, our house was not repaired yet. Sigh! Bye to 2 weeks at Country Inns and a welcome at Holiday Inn.

Trip to USA-Jan 31,2009

United States of America-USA- who on earth would not have heard these 4 words or this 3 letter abbreviation. I was one among million-billion population in the world who has been hearing and reading about this beautiful country right from a very young age. One of the many things that definitely came to mind was the Gulf War- the hot discussion topic in School. Disney World, Walt Disney, New York City, Niagara Falls, Rocky Mountains, Golden Gate Bridge, Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami and Of course- Washington DC : The White House, Pentagon, Smithsonian; and many more names crossed my mind when I realised that I was going to live in USA. I had never ever had even thought that I would be living in this great country and would be listening to 'wanna-gonna-gotcha-see ya' version of the English I ever knew. Millions of places and dreams crossed my mind and I knew that they would all come true, when I met my life partner-My handsome Kichu.

Jan 31,2009, 03:30am IST, began our journey to this country. I had the longest single stretch flight of my life-13 hours. Being brought up in Dubai, I was acquainted to flying, but not more than 4 hours. I had assumed that the 13 hours would be much more like 4 hours , with just 9 hours more- which meant more movies, more songs, more clouds from the window and more talks with Kichu. But well I was completely wrong. We slept and slept and slept and woke up just to have some food!! :) We did not watch a movie either, despite many good movies being shown on TV. The times when I woke up, I was lost in thoughts. I wondered if I would ever understand the world famous American English, how the people there would be, if I would ever get a job, would be living in a house or a flat, how snow would be like, if I would make friends, when would I go back to meet my family next, and lastly, if people would ever understand what I say !!! I was pretty anxious- not just pretty but really anxious- like every other normal human being!

John F Kennedy Airport (JFK), New York City , welcomed us with the beautiful snow fall. My first experience in the US- NYC- the city I had always dreamt of. The Airport had long queues and large number of queues!! Well now I understand why the airport is one of the busiest ones in the world. I was welcomed by the Immigration Officer who sarcastically gave me the frequent flyer tag just because I had relatively larger number of passports! Well, I did not react as I had not understood what he had intended to say. The obvious next encounter was at the Baggage Claim counter. The busier the airport is, longer does it take for your baggage to even reach to your sight. We waited, waited and waited. Finally, our bags had arrived at JFK. Little did I know the red tape stickers on our baggages would definitely help us in identifying our bags. All Thanks to my Father in Law. :) Oh Boy!! after the long wait, we had to walk miles and miles ( kms and kms changed to miles and miles), up and down, escalators and elevators, just to reach the check-in counter for our next flight to our destination-Cincinnati. I am not sure if it was the jet lag, or the long haul fatigue or in plain english-tiredness; Kichu reclined his seat in the Delta airlines flight to Cincinnati- and I stretched myself and wow....slept beautifully!! Best sleep ever. Finally, the crew came and woke us up, How nice of him :)!! All this while, I had forgotten the worst part of it, our condo was damaged in a pipe problem and we were putting up in a hotel!! :( We grabbed a pizza slice, from Sbarro, collected our baggage, and waited in the cold cold windy weather for about 20 mins, for the hotel people to pick us up!!,the coldest experience I have ever had!!!

And Guess What!?? At the hour of midnight, of 31 Jan, I saw a lady drive the cab to pick us up! :) It was really a rare sight of its kind, atleast for a person like me who comes from places where women do not even go out of home after 7!! It was really a feast to my eyes.Country Inns and Suites, welcomed us at midnight, with a sweet note that said, 'Complimentary breakfast from 6am-10am, 7 days a week'. Who would not love it. Little did I know the breakfast would be ice cold eggs, ice cold milk, ice cold juices and cereals with the temperature outside being below freezing point!!! Well, I learnt it the hardest way!!! :)