Travel Diaries 3 - Life @ Louisville

Staying alone in states is offering me to do and feel various things that I had never imagined! Staying at France was a soothing experience as I had an awesome team with me. But believe me, first few lonely days in US were really bad! In initial days, I was like 'what exactly on the earth I am doing' but now, its kind of a routine and I have started enjoying it. Following are some of the major impacts. Now these are my personal experiences and does not relate anywhere near to India-America comparison! 

1. This is what I see when I come out on road here and when I come out of road in Pune. See, no people, only geese!

 


2. This is what I eat here and in Pune. Of course I can prepare the food I want to eat over here but as they say, 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do' I am following 'When in America, eat as the Americans eat' (by food, I dont mean any fast food here!)

   

      

3. These are the tv shows I watch here (as there are no more channels on tv which I can watch) and in Pune

    

So, life is good and its nice to know, staying alone in foreign country is not so difficult. But staying away from loved ones can make you sick sometimes! Right now, looking forward to go back now, stay there till I get bored of the routine life at Pune and wish to come US again :)

Boost Life!

From some unknown source on internet

Nostelgia!

I was surfing on youtube today and hit this beautiful song. It sent me back in my school days when this song was just released and was getting famous day by day. Those were the magical days when me and my friends used to dream about the "Mr. Perfect". Those were the days when every moment was a "search for love" moment. Those were the days when we liked every romantic song that we came across, however bad it may be. Those were the days when we had fantasies about every step of coming life. Those were the days when every love story seemed to be magical and we envied all our friends who had boyfriends!
 
Now this is making me nostalgic and am gonna enjoy this nostalgia :)

Travel Diaries 2 - Downtown Louisville

It was a long tiring journey, I found myself revolving around the world and shutting myself about 14 time zones backward!

After changing from Mumbai-Paris flight to Paris-Minneapolis, the 9.5 + 8.5 hours which passed without any real incidents, horribly jet lagged and going through terrifying immigration check at Minneapolis airport, I stepped in the U.S of A. I was simply not in a mood to pick up my 21kg luggage (sorry, around 47 pounds of luggage as that’s the way they measure it here) but had to go to carousel! I spotted my bag, bent down to get it and it gave a terrible pain in my back muscle. With a same feeling of pain, I started off for my next flight, observing western faces, perfect English, familiar fast food chains with outrageous prices, I headed to a tiny plane to Louisville and after around 2 hours, I touched the town.

Well, Louisville downtown seems glamorous but the part of the city I stay is a bit away from glamor and fast-pace I had expected. It’s cold (for now), it’s peaceful and yes it’s beautiful. About the bad thing, very low public transportation so you either have to have a car or have to rent one or use a taxi (which I feel is a bit costly option!). There are lots of places to visit but I have to find myself some means of transport!

Now, I am trying to get used to, to have temperature in Fahrenheit instead Celsius, distance in Miles instead of Kilometers and most importantly Dollars instead of Rupees! (it hurts when every time you pay the bills and convert it to Rupees in your mind...) That's the beginning of adventure in America...

The Immortals of Meluha and Devo ke dev Mahadev

It's been going simultaneously since long. 

People in my family are crazy for this serial on Life Ok called Devo Ke Dev Mahadev. 
No doubt in a religious country like India, TV shows like Ramayan, Mahabharata create a hype and Mahadev is the lateset version. As the name suggests, this spiritual drama revolves around the life of lord Shiva who is considered as a Supreme god and he is creator, preserver, destroyer, concealer and revealer of the world. Shiva is not only worshiped in India but also in Nepal and ShriLanka. People in India sense fortunate to complete the journey of 12 Jyotirlingas. 
With any god, there are many mysterious and miraculous stories related and Lord Shiva is not an exception. He is Neelkantha who drank halahal poison evolved through Samudra Manthan, Gangadhar who has held river Ganga in hair, Traymbakam who has a third eye, Chandrashekhar bearing on his head the moon indicating this lord is beyond time, Nagendra Hara denoting wisdom and the list goes on. 
The TV show describes it all and people keep on waiting to see each and every part of the show. 
I do believe in god but believing him as a normal human being doing miracles is quite difficult for me to digest.

During the same time, I read this book called Immortals of Meluha which has got a huge commercial success and was a bestseller for quite some time. This book aims to humanize the Mahadev and portray him as a hero-cum-rockstar instead. It is the war between Suryawanshi and Chandrawanshi communities during 1900 BC. Shiva is a curious, honorable and respectful "person" who searches for his destiny and tries to do what seems to be right. This whole story takes place in the land of Meluha (place near Himalayas and Kashmir) and drives Shiva to Ayadhya, the place of "King" Rama. 
The finest part of the book is that it makes almost all the God legends into potential human beings who achieved prominence and contributed so much to culture that story tellers made them Gods. So after reading this book, henceforth whenever I hear of Shiva, I will imagin him a strong, wise character with feelings and faults and with a logical mind. Get this book, it's a perfect cocktail of reality and myth, you will definitely like it (at-least it's a great escape from now a days rubbish and filmy Chetan Bhagat books!)


So as I said these things were going simultaneously in my head, I came to a conclusion that we don't have to believe in miracles in order to trust god!

Just a thought, we all know, Shivaji Maharaj is a human being but people do warship him, respect him. Who knows, few centuries down the line, he might emerge as a Lord Shivaji and get attached to as many miracles as people can think of!

The greatest fear of my life!

Someone asked me today what my greatest fear is and I realized there are so many things which I am scared of.

Since childhood, I have a fear of fire. When I was in 7th grade, I happened to see one of my friend caught on fire at her home. Though she survived, burning changed her body, face and in turn her life. She is suffering through the trauma and consequences even after 12 yrs! I always pray to god, please give me any kind of death but not a death by burning. However I cannot say, fire is my greatest fear.

I am not afraid of height or speed or water, I can drive at any speed and do bungee jumping from any height or throw myself in water even though I dont know swimming. So what else I am scared of? ghosts? Yes, sometimes. specially when I see a horror movie and Ajay keeps on reminding me the movie or sings the title tune of zee horror show! but again its not my greatest fear.

Death? No i am not afraid of death but yes I am afraid of death of my closed ones as I would never want to loose them. Since it's the thing no one can change, it doesn't come into "greatest" bracket.

Being alone? No, I am not scared of being alone. I would definitely find something to do, either reading or painting or anything. Being at unknown location? No, even if someone leaves me at any african jungle or remote country on earth (except Pakistan and Afganistan), I would be more than happy to stay there.

I am scared of street dogs but I guess everyone is scared of them. so not a big deal. Being unemployed? that would definitely hurt and frustrate me but again not a big deal.

The real horror would come if I would sit idle and have nothing to do. Yes, thats my greatest fear. I simply cant do that! Though I am quite lazy by nature, the concept of doing nothing can haunt me. 

So finally I got my greatest fear! What's your?

Mind matters

Human mind is one of most complex things in the world. They say, our mind can process seven items at once- items such as sounds, odors, images, or emotions like joy or anger.
we need only 1/18 of a second to process each item. It means we can process 126 pieces of information every second. That's 7,560 per minute, half a million per hour!
Interesting! Isn't it?
Now what a mind can "DO" can be devided into Thought, Thinking, Memory, Imagination and Consciousness. But do we realize these things in our daily life? No, at least I don't. So I just decided to concentrate on whatever is going on my mind for one minute. Initially, I found it funny but by the end of minute it was a hell lot of things. Or my mind might be very diverse :P

1. It stopped raining, that's not good :(
2. Why I am working here?
3. Hmm, I need to prepare status report
4. Oh god, when my mom will listen to me
5. Tumhi din chade, tumhi din dhale, tumhi ho bandhu, sakha tumhi
6. Did I call Ani today? Let it be why should only I keep on calling him everyday...
7. Party Time, no one seems working today except my teammembers, 3 hours to go for party.
8. I hope, food would be good at LeRoyale
9. Where did I heard Tumhi ho bandhu, sakha tumhi? is it some sanskrit shlok or old hindi movie song?
10. that 1920 wala house was so pretty but I didnt like her dress.
11. Why is Richa talking too loud
12. Ok, for that issue, field validation was right, did I check field formula? Yes, I did. I should check design synopsis
13. Madhuri, you have to loose weight!
14. It's 3:30, Ajay must be in a meeting!
15. This guy should change his ringtone or put the cell on silent. it's so irritating! How can one keep any gazzle as ringtone?
16. I forgot to update my cv, update it, update it
17. tu jeet meri, jag haar meri, main hoon hi nahi is duniya ki
18. 1200 rows and it's still counting, My life is EXCEl, pathetic!
19. So many emails this company sends everyday, dont they have any other work?
20. I am not prepared for party... let it be, whose gonna to see, I'll eat and enjoy music.
21. Richa must have reached Bangalore by now, so many things I want to tell her
22. ohh my Bike's breaks are not working! it's good no one was coming fast today while it slipped on the road
23. My life is a mess, why cant even a single thing go good?
24. ok, synopsis is showing nothing! means no error it should give, how is it possible?
25. hehe she is soooo excited about the party, when did I attend my first corporate party? don't remember :(
26. I should call Ani, after all he is younger than me
27. Is mom right? am I over-reacting?
28. Yes Yes Yes, got the link, why it didn't hit my mind before?
29. My touchscreen is now a beat screen hehehe
30. Tumhi din chade, tumhi din dhale, tumhi ho bandhu, sakha tumhi