Doodles of a crazy man!

Why dont the Lufthansa air hostesses smile? They seem too unfriendly, too cold. Its okay if Indians dont smile, we are used to it. Any others, we expect a smile, even a very fake one. Their entertainment facilities suck! There is a common TV on which we have to watch the movie being played. And why oh why are they so costly? I hate the Frankfurt airport too, it looks too hostile. I guess visiting Singapore raises the expectation too much. Not every airport is Changi! I observed that the seat numbers in a row are listed A-B-C, D-E-F-G, H-J-K. There was no "I". I remember noticing this in other aircrafts as well. Not sure what the funda behind this is. Any idea? When I asked for Asian Veg meals, I was told that it was over. I thought of taking a salmon meal and eat everything else except the main item. But, then the air hostess asked me if I am okay with a "Hindu meal". That was the first time I had heard something like that. What has a food got to do with religion? D...

Its a very chilly night, perhaps the coldest I have seen till now. The sleeping pads, the heater, razaai just making sure that the death count in Grand Canyon does not go up. The thermals, jacket, sweater, gloves, socks, sleeping bag - losing the battle against the invincible cold. I am slightly shivering, unable to sleep.The whooshing wind outside acts as the perfect partner for the cold. Just like the pace bowlers, they hunt in pairs. My co-occupants of the tent - Krupa and Saif are sleeping peacefully. May be they were too tired by the travel or they have had their share of struggle with cold already. After more than an hour of losing sleep, I feel a bit drowsy. I enter my home in Mysore. Its too crowded. Dont know why there are so many people, may be some function. I proceed to the backyard, where a few cousins are sitting and chatting. I join the conversation. All of a sudden, I realize that there was a cricket match the previous day. What happened to the match, I ask my brother...

It was just another tuesday evening. A bit more strenuous perhaps. Yet another conf call. Tired voices. Stressed out faces. The projector looks the brightest in the room, almost too inhuman. I am just rocking in my chair and all of a sudden I am rocking more. And suddenly less. I shiver. Tense faces show unusual signs of alertness. "Hold on guys, we may be having an earthquake", tells my manager. A less tiring day, he would have screamed it. The realization had not hit me. I could not visualize the wreckage, the pile of garbage and unrecognizable dead bodies yet. Its just a little jerky boat ride. And then a slightly bigger tremor, that gives me what cricket commentators call butterflies in the tummy. "Will call later" declares my manager as he disconnects the phone. We all head towards the door. A colleague is just standing there coolly checking the message on his phone. Another colleague gets a text message within a few seconds from his brother - "You felt it...

I walked as fast as I could. Got inside the apartment and locked the door. Still breathing heavily, I tried to comprehend the strange events in the last 20 mins. I tried to put different pieces of my logic together to see if it makes any sense. Its been quite sometime since I had gone for swimming. I decided to go today even though it was cold. There were very few people in the pool. By the time I had my shower, even they were gone. I was alone in the pool. Great! Not every day you can have the whole pool for yourself. Three dudes, who were smoking, were sitting outside the pool, accompanied by three girls. I started swimming. Did I hear something? Yes, I heard it more than once. I stopped and looked around. One of the girls was telling something to me. "Your swimming trunks are cool". What? The black trunk with small green circles I was wearing, was actually pathetic. May be she is trying to make fun of me. Thats okay girl, you can be mea...

It was 8.41 PM. I paused the Spanish movie I was watching. My mind tried to make one final attempt to trick me. It could not find an excuse - the weather was not cold, there was no rain, none of those possible excuses. Procrastination! What a beautiful word for the quality I hate the most. Nothing could stop me from swimming today, I said to myself. The swimming pool in the apartment was open from Sunday, but I somehow kept on postponing (Yes, I even postpone the things I love the most) There were very few people in the pool. All the "sun-desperate" people had left. After taking shower, I dived into the pool. Water has so much life. I bet, you cant feel depressed there. Aah water! There are very few things that can make me more happy than being in water. I know, all those Linda Goodman followers will say that me being a Cancerian is the sole reason for that! The pool was quite small, may be 40 ft length and 20 ft breadth. I finished to and...

The alarm started ringing. I switched it off ‘temporarily’. It rang again after 5 minutes. I hate these snooze alarms. Well, to be honest, I don’t hate them that much – they give me enough buffer time to get out of the bed, also ensuring that I don’t sleep till evening. I looked at my watch. Oh no, its 4.30 in the morning! Most of the Saturdays, I sleep at this time. Whats wrong with me, why am I getting up so early? Oh, I remember now! I am supposed to go to Arches National Park today. Pramod gave me a call to make sure that I had not tricked the alarm to sleep for some more time. By 5.30, I was ready and Pramod picked me up from the apartment. We crossed the State Street and headed south on I15. It was still pretty dark and I was confused if I was feeling proud or stupid about myself for getting up so early. I took out the camera from my bag and started experimenting with it. All I could see was desert, mountains, and of course, cars. By 10.00, we were in Arches National Park. We vis...

If the last time was full of ‘post-airport-arrival’ adventures, this time was less interesting. The only problem I faced was the lack of transportation facilities due to the demise of Rajkumar. There were no buses, autos or taxis. Finally, my company arranged for some vehicle and I was in the airport. After checking in the baggage, I got the boarding pass and finished the customs and immigration check. As I was waiting in the lobby, two foreigners sitting in front of me were talking to each other. “Today I’d been to office. Roads were totally empty. I could finish all my work today. I reached office in 20 mins, which used to take me an hour atleast. Yeah, it was good, yeah. My security told me he would get a printout of Rajkumar’s photo and I’ve to stick it on my car. But, there was no problem, yeah” “You’ve been to IISc? Indian Institute of Science. Its one of the premier institutes here. The campus is good. Lot of greenery inside. I had been to the IITs also, they are also good, but ...

I had heard a lot about Chennai (mostly bad things!), but never been there before. As I reached there, I realized how true they were. If Bangalore is the 'hot and happening' city in India, Chennai was just 'hot'! Chennai looked a cool 10 years behind Bangalore - the railway station, the flyovers, the autos, the buses - everything looked so 1990ish. I checked into one of the better looking hotels in Wall Tax Road. But, the hotel room did not have any towels. "No towelz. Khatam vogaya saar. Paisa do. Main tumko laatha", was the reply I got from the receptionist. Even the lift there had a major bug. It would go from ground floor to fifth floor properly, but while coming down, I had to walk down to fourth floor and take the lift from there to ground floor! By afternoon, I took an auto and reached the visa consulate. As I was walking towards the consulate office, a policeman near the gate asked me, "Do you have mobile or any electronic devices?" "Yes...

When was the last time you did something for the first time? Me? Yesterday! Yesterday was a rare saturday, not just because I woke up as early as 7.00 AM (For me, this is too early for any day), but I was going to ski for the first time! By 8.00 AM, I was at the 6600 S bus stop along with my colleagues Aravind and Pramod. The Wasatch mountains looked beautiful from there - as fresh as a girl who just had a shower, water droplets dripping from her hair! We boarded bus number 92 and to my surprise, all the seats were filled. I had to stand in the bus and I did not miss Bangalore buses at all. There were people of all ages, with their skiing accessories. Many of them had the ski membership cards, and I felt as if we may be the only beginners. Within half an hour, we were in the snowy mountains. The snow gave a 'black-n-white' look to the surroundings - all the colors seemed as if they are different shades of grey. Only a few people got down at the Solitude ski resort. I felt as if...

Downtown has become one of my favourite hangout locations over the weekends. Last saturday, I and Aravind went to the trax station and took all-day pass from a ticket vending machine. I love travelling by trax. Its full of life and I can see all kinds of people there. A young boy got his bike into the train(people call their bicycles as bikes, and they can bring it in the train. The funny thing is, they have separate places for boarding the train with their bikes!) A couple were sitting opposite to me - the girl seemed to be very angry and the boy was using all his skills to calm her. I was watching them from the reflection on the window glass ;) The girl did not relent for quite a long time, and then the boy said something for which the girl could not control her laughter. Persistence pays! An old couple sitting diagonally opposite to me were playing with the kid of a young couple sitting opposite to them. It made my belief stronger - that deep down, people are same everywhere - their...

Before you let your imaginations run wild, let me clarify - "First Night" here means the night on January 1st when they welcome the new year! Honestly, "First Night" seemed amusing to me too. It could have been "New Year Day", "New Year Eve Night", "Jan First", "Jan Night" or anything. Just imagine a person here talking to another - "How was your first night? Enjoyed? Had fun?" :)) December 31st started like any other saturday. I got up pretty late, had a long sleep, though my laptop was awake all night downloading the movie Rashomon. I had seen this movie more than a decade back on doordarshan. Surprisingly, I had liked this Akira Kurosawa classic. The story was a bit weird but very captivating. From the last few months, I had a strong desire to watch that movie again. I made full use of the amazing internet bandwidth here and by noon, I was watching the movie. I loved it even more this time. This saturday was turni...

After a few exciting, happening and eventful days, things seem to have slowed down. "May be the powerplays are over. Overs 20 to 40, hang on! Wait for the slog overs", I said to myself. I had leased an apartment, which is just a block away from my office. I packed all my baggages from the hotel, asked the receptionist to book for a cab and started preparing palav. It took a while as I was experimenting with palav for the first time. Packed my lunch box, locked the room and went to the reception. Wow, the world is such a small place, the driver who used "son-of-a-bitch" in every possible sentence, was waiting with his cab. I thanked the receptionist and went near the cab. The driver looked very upset. I had asked the cab to be there in 15-20 minutes, but I had arrived after half an hour. The time on my watch showed 8:52 AM. "I am waiting here from 8.35", he said angrily. So rare, a sentence without "son-of-a-bitch". I silently thanked my reception...

On the first day, I was walking back from the office. I just wanted to prove myself that my road sense was not that bad at all. I had remembered the road, all the landmarks while going to office in the morning by taxi. There is no way I will be lost! Half way, I confirmed all the landmarks and was proud of myself that I was right on track. It was then I saw the board - "Dont walk"! "What the **** is that?" I said to myself. It was a highway and I was not supposed to walk straight at that traffic signal. I remembered my vector class in college. AB is same as AD+DC+CB. So, instead of going straight, go left, take a right and another right, and there you are! Who said that mathematics is useless? I turned left and walked for a few minutes when I got a traffic signal without "Dont walk" board. I crossed the signal and started walking in the vector DC. But, where is DC supposed to end? I was lost! There were no people around to get the directions. I could see o...

As I started writing this from the hotel room in Salt Lake City, I distinctly remembered what the gem merchant had told me not so long ago - "This will be a huge eye opener for you!" The journey was long, almost two days (excluding the half day I had lost in travelling to the other part of the globe) On friday, I had reached the Bangalore airport almost three and a half hours before the schedule and the first sign I saw on reaching the airport was "The flight AF 0191 from Bangalore to Paris has been delayed" I had no idea that this was just a small beginning of a series of "Waisa bhi hotha hai". I carried 2 huge suitcases, along with a hand bag and a laptop. This was the first time after my school days that I was carrying so much weight. Even though the baggage limit was 30 kgs per bag, the "negative-thinking" person in me told me to carry much lesser than the limit, so as to completely avoid any chances of overload. But, Air France had different...