After the wave has swept.....

Wave... swept... what the hell? Tsunami has not happened in the last few days...... 

Its been a month since we arrived. The initial excitement of being outside India and getting to see USA has subsided. Now I am able to make and relate to the roads that I travel on. The address and sign board make more sense to me and the bacon in the menu means pork to me!  

But we still get to see thing’s that catch our attention– like the solar powered garbage compacter, unlimited supply of cold drinks for $ 1.39 and 3/4^th wearing-heavily tattooed-stallion haired co worker. And other things that we see daily buy yet bamboozle us – the couple passionately kissing in public places (I act as if I didn’t see anything coz I have two ladies with me!), the slender-sexy-legged-pretty looking ladies wearing minis/micro minis (My jaws drop at times… most of the time actually!)  or the unexplainable fetish for Touch phone (everybody seems to have a touch phone).

It’s a beautiful place – America, its really beautiful. The citizens of this country love their country and do their bit to keep it as good as possible. There is so much green (and red and white and pink and yellow…….)  around that it’s a feeling on its own when we wake up walk towards the bus  and watch the surrounding seated from the bus. Many houses will have so many beautifully colored flowers that being a boy I stop by to watch them. Even god knew that this is the US of A I guess, otherwise how do you explain the sun going down at 9 PM? Well I guess it helps when the country has approximately 1/4^th India’s population and 30 times land area of India. Oh damn! It surely does help. It’s not that there are no poor, homeless people or laborers – but everybody and everything looks a lot cleaner. Even the ever chaotic traffics of Bangalore look like a uniform arrangement of Cars in a broad roads of USA (well that the feel good factor when you stuck in traffic!!). Water and electricity do not seem to be like a problem here. (Oops.. It is a problem they say - there was last year a power cut it seems– for few hours… few hours, Are you guys kidding me? Few hours is that your problem? God guys get a life or come to India.)

Everything is about style I feel, the bus stands, the garbage bins (Oh I guess I mentioned that!!), the hair colors, the cars. Everything seems to be about necessity – Push button to cross road for pedestrians, wheelchair accessible busses (the bus steps acts like a lift for wheel chairs),  garbage bins wherever you want. And everything seems ti be about security - the RED Light on the school buses which makes it a rule that all the vehicles need to stop when the light is beeping.

But in all this I feel one thing has been lost somewhere, the humanity. The very reason we are humans and the four legged are animals. Or maybe because I come from India it seems so odd to think that good people meet their parents few times in a year, while others don’t. Or that neighbors do not talk to each other and friends take appointment to meet. I love the way I am so close to my parents that I still plan to buy bike with their approval and that I can any day barge into my friend’s house without a mention of my arrival making him smile rather than making him doubt about my friend ship. It feels great when the neighbor aunt comes and gives me some sweet because it was her daughter’s birthday. They say USA is a developed country, that really great. And I feel privileged that I am here today to experience all that I talked about above. But I am already missing my developing India… It’s still gonna take another life time for the fragrance of bursting mustard in oil go away from my breath.. 

  

Did I mention the pressure sensitive blocks on road which if experiences the weight of a car in a lonely street turns the Red signal to green for this one car ; making all the logical calculations that there are no cars anywhere else in  the other signals and it makes sense to let this guy go ahead – I did not, well then I just did. :D. And hey Rose grandma makes lovely cookies. And there are no spices in the currie sthatthey make here. And…….. blah blah blah ……

America and Me ....

Its been a long time since i have blogged.. Well can’t help, need to show off; now that I am in Seattle, USA.. What best way than social networking.....

The flight journey was nearly 18 hours - Bangalore - Frankfurt - Seattle. I realized that after few days of coming here that how closely we could have got stuck. The Icelandic volcano had actually interrupted flights and passengers were stuck at Frankfurt (and other European countries) for a week or so before the volcano ashes would subsidize. Well so landed safely; and started my adventure. In the immigration dept. i was questioned; and not finding my answers  satisfactory enough they took me inside for another round of questioning as to why was I there - was i going to code, will i be staying for long, who are my contacts, why so long for just meetings?  etc etc. from nearly three different police uniformed people - immigration officials. Finally I was let go, but by this time i was separated from the other members of my team Akhila and Judith. I collected my luggage and went through all the various gates and reach the exit - no sign of my frens. I was bit tensed. in the cold climate is started sweating. So i started scolding my luck for being such situation and also thanking god for coming out of the immigration test without much issue. I looked around, i couldn’t find my frens so decided to call the person whom we were supposed to call on reaching - Anup. Now the problem; that i realized, with everything automated is that - you bloody need to follow the system. I had to make a call and i was supposed t have two 25 Cents - boss i have just arrived i do not have it. I had the minimum change of 20. SO someone told that i can get the change at a Change dispenser. I tried something it didn’t work out; later i got to now that the change dispenser was bad - yaar i am happy things do not work in USA also; i thought, quite like my lovely India. So no change, no call - damn I am stuck. Saw a machine (gaur farmayiyye - machine again) that gives Calling cards for 20 $ onwards. Well need of the hour i needed to make a call - and that was the way out i allowed the machine to swallow Rs. 880/- (20 $) and give a plastic card - my only way out, and some 10 Minutes to India or 80 Minutes in America. Went to a phone booth, read the instructions of the card to make a call - thak thak thak - dialed a number. I heard a very sweet voice saying (to my dismay) - "This card has to be activated, please wait for some time". Well this was not my day after all.

Ok this was too much to take, coz its already been an hour since i came out of the immigration. I took out the paper that told me the way to reach the Hampton Greens, Bellevue (apartments where i was supposed to stay). It told that i needed to to some place where a Shuttle Express has already been booked in my name to allow us to reach our apartments. In tension even such a detailed mail of Arelette ( Mindtree HR in Bellevue) didnt make sense to me. I started asking around how to go to the Shuttle express. In this asking around process i handed the sheet of paper to a guy ; he looked at the route to follow in the mail, and gave me direction. I happily ran towards the place as mentioned by the person. Just then I reached the place it looked more like a parking lot than anything - Shuttle Express Bay should look like. I just turn around to ask another guy and looked for my mail sheet - it was not there, i had unknowingly handed it over to the last person i asked directions. So you see me - alone in Seattle - Tacoma airport not knowing where to go. Turned towards the exit - depressed, tensed at this unexpected thriller episode.

A chilled wind greeted me - chilling me to the under wares. I decided that i will take a taxi and go. Thats when I saw a vehicle looking like a Baby truck by name Shuttle Express in running letter go by. That was the first glimmer of hope that i saw. Then some how Ifelt that Ishould give another trial and went in and towards the parking lot that i had missed to go to last time. There an African American in overall was going in the elevator to cellar. I asked him - "Shuttle express"; he said "Thatsss right over there man!! Come on in.". Just like i had always heard in movies; from the likes of Samuel L Jackson, Denzel Washington speaking in Black Snake Moan and Training Day respectively. And i followed his instruction to reach the Shuttle Express Bay; i saw one of the happiest things that i could have asked for - Judith and Akhila; waiting as tensed for me just like I was in the past two hours. Well i gave a short summary what went wrong and why it happened. Jumped in the express minivan; ready to experience Seattle. Ready to experience America.

First few things i couldn't miss observing were-

the broad well marked clean roads,

many signals and everybody; including pedestrians, following it,

the awesome cars ; i had seen only in Car Magazines.

Houses made of woods like the ones i see in the movies,

And off course over dramatically rhythmically speaking people.

We reached our apartments - wow man - awesome pretty small n clean house. Basic amenities for few days like curd, Kellogg’s, tea, sugar, salt etc. in fridge and cupboard. Machines dependent on electricity everywhere - Dishwasher, cooking range, washing machine, dryer, water heater, alarm clock, telephone, wireless modem. Other things like Liquid detergent, hand wash, hand sanitizer, dish washer detergent, deodorant, shampoo could not be missed either. Wow, wow wow... that’s what I had to say.

After i was done drinking the fact that i was here in US of A, I wanted to rest. Rested a bit. In the evening woke up and; made tea and drank. After this I felt the pressure building up - thought let’s give nature a call. Well boys, the day was not over after all, horror in the bathroom. No faucet, bucket and mug either. Well I have managed somehow using a big dabba that was there since then. :-)

Well.. That’s my initial experiences. More to come - on the way.