Proud to be an Indian?

On Independence day, Republic day I find all my Indian friends post patriotic messages to indicate that they are proud to be Indians. And when I looked at these messages and videos I thought these people in spite of living away from our country they all are still very proud to belong to my country.
But yesterday there was a weird thing that I experienced. After this incident all my thoughts about patriotism have gone upside down or let me be little polite and say that my beliefs are little shaky. It was freezing and drizzling and I was waiting for bus number 35 to get back to my apartment where cooking task was awaiting my arrival. Then I could see the bus approaching me. As the temperature was 6 degree centigrade the bus arrival made me feel similar as a hungry person who hears to the bell rung by a pizza delivery boy. I entered the bus and felt warm. As I got back to normal from shivering state, I noticed a group of Indian guys in front of me. They were conversing in Hindi. They were loud enough for the entire bus to hear them. There was one guy in the group who spoke 75% in the conversation and had an unusual accent. Most of the time the others just nodded their heads in agreement to him. The topic of their conversation was the reason for me to compile this blog. They were discussing the ways to get PR in United States. The guy with the unusual accent was giving lot of simple ideas. One of his ideas was to get married and have babies in US. According to the law, the newly born baby will be the citizen of US and parents have to stay in US to take care of the baby for certain number of years. After spending those years the parents will have a very high probability of getting the PR. By their conversation I could infer that they were desperate to be the citizens of US. If you look closely most of the people who are working or studying here have the same intention. There are exceptions everywhere and that is the reason I used the word “more” and not “all”.
The only motto of coming here is to stay here forever. Be American in every way possible, adapt to their food, culture, ethnicity etc. How can these people claim themselves to be proud Indians? , When they are ready and willing to change their nationality, citizenship, culture, belief, their root. It just proves that they are not faithful to their country. They are changing their identity and breaking all relationship with their country and establishing a new relationship with a new country. It is equivalent to changing the parents. My point is why people wear patriotism mask. They can always frankly accept the reality.

My experiments with two wheels

Very unusual to hear a 25 year old person telling that he or she cannot ride a bicycle. But as far I can recollect I am always a person with unusual habits and experiences. When everybody else order for a cappuccino in a strange and a foreign coffee shop, I will be the only one to order a coffee with a peculiar name and have an experience to remember, because it would have tasted terrible. So when I was in my first grade I sat on a bicycle which was five times bigger than me and had a horrible accident and after that I have never got the guts to sit on it again. The day I gifted my sister with a Dio and saw her enjoying, I felt I was missing something. The initiation to this process happened during my training days at Infosys. At Mysore training campus, we could literally see hundred of cyclists at peak hours. The campus was very huge and to travel from the respective buildings to bus terminal and food terminals people used cycles. This continued when I was shifted to Bangalore campus. In spite of the campus being not as huge as the Mysore campus we could spot lot of cyclists.
This process reached its peak when one of my friends purchased a cycle. I was so tempted that even I bought one. After that I had no other go but learn to ride that. The next evening after the cycle arrived at my place I decided to take it for a walk in fresh air. My friend had promised me to help me in handling the cycle. Within 5 minutes I was able to independently ride my cycle for a surprise. Even I don’t believe that I was able to ride. After that there was no looking back. I have tried to change gears, accelerate in turns and had good falls. But it never stopped me. Once I rode my cycle at -9 degree centigrade and froze my hands and nose. Until Fargo, the city where I live was covered with snow that even walking became knotty, I never gave up cycling. Now my bike is resting in our garage where it is accompanied by two cars Nissan and Honda for a while daily. But she likes it as she is warm in the garage. Waiting for the snow to vanish so that I can get her back on tracks

Hide and Seek

When “He” and “She” met.

Eight months have passed now; in this duration probably she would have dreamt more than eight hundred times of meeting him. All sweet things passed across her mind every single day in these eight months now. She never imagined that all the thoughts could ever turn into reality. Dreams are always a little exaggerated but dreams can turn into reality as we picture it to be. After loads of circus destiny had dragged her and him from different parts of the globe to a common point. Impossible had already turned into a possibility. Time and date was fixed by them for their first encounter with each other. He is known for being always late and he wanted to break this trend and reach early and made it thirty minutes prior to the specified time. She is always known to reach early than the intended time. She entered this busy place where they were supposed to meet and saw him right in front of her. She hid herself in a corner and watched him silently. He looked very sweet in brown and pulled out his cell phone from his pockets and dialed her. The phone in her hands started vibrating with his sweet name flashing on it. She wore a smile and picked his call. He was very confident that the girl had already reached the place and he tried to play a trick by telling that he was still on his way and would take another thirty minutes to reach the place , unaware that the girl was witnessing his drama live. She told that she would wait for him on the third floor on one of the chairs located there and hung up. After few minutes both were on the third floor searching for each other. She called him to ask where he was. He started singing “ jaaane ja mein yaha tum kaha …. “ And she started laughing and said “ Boy in brown you are playing with a wrong person”. He now was aware that the girl had seen him and all his drama went in vain. For the next few minutes both just wandered on the same floor searching for each other. Finally he spotted her and hid behind a pillar and started passing comments of what she were wearing. He gave her instructions to come near the pillar but never specified that he was behind the pillar. When she approached the pillar he appeared from nowhere and took her for a surprise. Both hugged each other. They felt they were still in a dream. It took some time to believe that something like this had happened in real to them. After this hide and seek all she had to say is that his arms were the safest place to be in. It was the best place she was ever and wants to be in.

Swirly, My girl

Swirly is my new roomie. She has occupied a space on my study table inside an aquarium. She has golden orange body. She shines as she waves and swims around and hence her name. At times I feel she is very similar to me. Her favorite activity being eating, every time she eats, she makes me feel that I have made her starve for years. She is in such hurry that she picks stones as well and then throws them back after tasting them and finding those non edible. She is trying to be my competitor in laziness. I lie on by bed feeling lazy and keep watching her. She on the other side feels lazy to swim, stands static and slowly falls down and as she touches the floor she again swims back to the top and again stops swimming. This cycle continues until she gets bored. Fish feeling lazy to swim, I term this as heights of laziness.
She loves water. Of course fishes have to love water as there is no other go. But swirl is extra crazy for water. The filter in the aquarium emits bubbles to oxygenate the water and she plays with these bubbles. She stands right next to this filter and waits for the bubbles to come and collide with her.
At times she acts as if she is on cloud nine. I feel that she might break the glass walls of the aquarium looking at the velocity in which she moves. She takes such sharp turns that it reminds me of a mutant from X-Men. I always peep into her mouth when she opens it. Yeah she opens it wide open that I can view her empty stomach and give her food. That is her way of letting me know that she is hungry. She is like the best thing to happen to my room. My room looks more lively with swirly in. We always have this “who is more lazy?’ competition and swirlz always a champ as she stops swimming and I get anxious with her act. I love my girl.

Sweet Mechanic!

I was in the library today from 4 in the evening. I was searching for some journals in the library and time just flew. My last bus leaves at 5. After that there is one more bus numbered 13A which circles the entire city before dropping me to my destination. I never take this bus for the same reason. I generally walk back home after 5 but today I thought of taking 13A, laziness being the only reason. I stood in the bus terminal for about five minutes, at sharp 6.01 13A arrived and I boarded the bus. This bus goes to the central bus stand takes a break for couple of minutes and again starts the service. After the central bus stand it is about 7 minutes ride to reach my place. The bus entered the GTC (central bus stand) and the driver left the bus. A new driver entered the bus and I was the only one in the bus. I was wearing a white colored t shirt with NDSU logo printed on it. I was sitting in the very first seat. I thought there was a shift change for the driver. The new driver started driving the bus. After some time I realized that the bus diverted from its regular route and ended going to a garage. The new driver was actually a mechanic who had taken the bus to the garage for some repair and the bus was out of service. I got up from my seat and this mechanic was taken for surprise. He exclaimed with shock for not noticing me before starting the bus. He thought for a moment and asked me to hang in the bus. I was scared as I had no idea where I was. I dint have a clue of how to get back home. I was only aware of 2 buses till date. He came back in few minutes with his car and asked me to get into the car. He started driving without asking where I wanted to go. He was confident that I had to go to NDSU, probably because of my T shirt. After some time he asked me where exactly in NDSU. I asked him to drop me in GTC so that I can take a bus to home. With a sad face he told me that 13A is not available at this time. I gave him my complete address and he dropped me right in front of my house. On the way he explained me that similar event had occurred 5 years back with him. He told me that next time before taking the bus to the garage he will ensure that there is none in the bus. A lesson for him. He was a sweet mechanic and I realized after he dropped me that he was not in the driver’s uniform. Silly me late realization!!

Not out of Indian time zone!

It was 29th July around 1.30 pm and I was chatting with one of my friend online. He started singing the birthday song and immediately I was surprised and asked him that it was still 29th and not 30th to wish me for my birthday. The next sentence was really wonderful. He said “Madam, you were born in India and in India it’s exactly 12 am now. So happy birthday “. It was very sweet of him. I don’t know if everybody feels this, I feel very happy on my birthday some kind of extra happiness keeps bursting inside my stomach. I started feeling this after I got his wishes. We continued to chat for some more time till it was 3 pm. Again he started singing birthday song and this time it was 12 am in Abu Dhabi the place where this friend of mine stays. I had nothing to say but just smiled and felt happy. I remained happy the whole evening. At 11 pm one of my friends came home with a cake. It was nice and we spoke for some time then I got a call from India. All my Infy friends were on the line. We kept speaking all nonsense for some time and they ended the call with the birthday song. I really felt special because in spite of thousands of kilometers of distance between us, they made me feel special and wished me so pleasantly.
At around 12 some more friends also arrived at my house with one more cake and an aquarium. I was so excited to see that I completely forgot everything else. I cut the cake, took some snaps, and decorated my face and hairs with cake. All my friends left after an hour. I cleaned up the place and slept around 1.30am. Did I tell you I got a call from my friend who had wished me according to two time zones! He again sang for me and this was according to US time zone. This was special and really different that I had the same person singing for me at three different time zones. In the morning I got up to find one more cake from another friend of mine. It was a birthday filled of cakes this time. I also spoke with my family members for some time and left to the school. Till now everything was fine and I felt that extra happiness which I feel during my birthdays.
After 1 pm I suddenly started to lose that feeling of extra happiness. Because it was 31th July in India and officially by birthday was over in India. Looks like even after seven months in United States I am still stuck in Indian time zone.

Expectations Reduces Joy !

This blog was edited on a sheet of white paper. In general my blogs are born on my laptop. But this time my blogging mood collided with my laptop getting attacked by series of Trojans. Currently my laptop is under scan and I got an opportunity to use my golden parker. I love the way it slides over the paper. The purpose of this blog is to convince myself that I have understood the meaning of “expectation reduces joy”.
I always knew the meaning theoretically but off late from about three to four months I have got many occasions to learn it practically as well. The only thing a person gets seamlessly irrespective of expectations is mother’s love and rest all is just an illusion. I have always been expecting things from people, in specific from people who are close to me. I usually have ended up disappointing myself. Things that I expect sound very silly and sometimes funny as well. As people grow old they are not believed to expect much, which I have seldom implemented. My level of expectation is still the same as when I was a small kid.
When I used to fall sick I wanted my mother to be by my side. Anytime I opened my eyes and dint find her I used to shout at the top of my voice. She used to take care of me very much. Now when she is thousands of kilometers away I expect the same. My cousin and I were the best pals and did everything together. We played together, studied together, fought together, and wore similar clothes, hanged out together. After this I started expecting similar things from the rest of my friends as well. This is the reason some times my friends hurt me with their small acts without their knowledge.
I feel the world is filled with good people and as long as I love everybody people love me back the same way. This basic idea is itself wrong. People have their own way of expressing love and some don’t find the necessity to express it and some take it for granted. God has built every person with different ingredients; they think and act in a unique way. Every person has his own priorities and they abide by them. The best way to be happy in such environment is to expect nothing from people with whom I am linked with. In that way bad things never bother me and good things come as a surprise and bring more happiness.
I plan to implement this from this moment. Hopefully I will succeed in few weeks. It is never too late to change yourself for the good.

Signing Off,
Resh