It was a nice sunny sunday afternoon. I headed out to Little India (artesia) to meet couple of friends for some lunch and to get myself some groceries. After having our spicy thali at Tirupathi Bhimas, I started out for Pioneer Cash n Carry.... as I was trying to figure out wat to buy.. A voice came from behind n greeted me.. this is how the conversation went..
Voice: "have we met before"
Me: I dont think so
Voice: where are u from
Me: Whittier, previously lived in TX. U?
Voice: Norwalk,CA
Me: well, nice to meet you.
Voice: same here. so what do u do..
Me: I work as a engineer around here.
Voice: Can I have your ph. number, maybe we can talk sometime.
STUPID Me: sure, here you go.. feel free to call .
Couple of days go by, and my phone rings...
Voice: Hello, we met at Artesia the other day..
Me: yeah I remember.
Voice: what are you doing for the weekend
Me: Dont know yet
Voice: I am having a meeting this weekend. Y dont u join in?, its a e-commerce meeting and there r ppl of diff fields and also with opportunity to work on different projects.
Me: click. ( hung up my phone)
Its because of ppl like these, u lose the interest or get scared to talk to Indians on the street anymore.. even if sum1 genuine person wanna talk to you, u feel like they r from the dreaded Quikstar gang and avoid them. Hopefully someday ppl will realise and change so that Indians could interact with other indians as usual.
Learning from my past, when I went to the Pioneer cash n carry last weekend this is wat happened:
Voice: Do i know you?
Me: Nope
Voice: do u work here
Me: yes, but I am kinda in a hurry, hope to see u some other time.
Voice: ok, can I have your phone number
Me: I dont have a cell phone (had to switch off my cell phone when he had his back turned to me so it doesnt ring off during the conversation).
Voice: how abt land line
Me: I am moving next week, so shifted my phone already.
Voice: how about ur office number
Me: I dont give it for personal uses, u can have my e-mail if u want to contact me.
Voice: oh ok, i will have it. I work in e-commerce... have u heard abt "MC DONALD"
Me: I ran out as fast as I could...
hopefully someday they will realise how they r causing a bad rap to all Indians around.. and stop this bullshit..
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Nyabagam Varude..
when i went to India earlier this yr, saw few things tat I did b4 and thought I could reflect on how I felt abt them now......gone are the good old days.. where u can stop by a tea shop, have some tea, grab some bhajjis, play cricket on the streets, chase behind a girl, happy school life.. and the list goes on...
As i was walkin bak home from shopping across the street , saw few kids playing cricket in the middle of the street. It reminded me of how we used to play cricket in a narrow street with no fear abt the traffic coming at us and terrorizing ppl walkin along the street and above all it was amazing to see how fast a person can run when a ball enters into some1's house or breaks a window.. its a wonder how within one second around eleven ppl run synchornise and disappear without any1 telling them to run..where we made all those silly rules .. current, no current, one pitch catch, one pitch one hand, one pitch two hand, underarms, wall catch, all reals, only off side runs, full toss over the wall is out( only in our rules can a sixer be considered out) causing major controversies whether catching a ball fallin off a tree should be treated as wall catch..... and with innovations like drawin three lines on sintex tank, or three sticks or two bricks for wickets..thinking calling a strike in baseball is tuff, try calling it out when a ball goes over the two bricks.. but the game also showed how much u trusted ur friends.. when the umpire was some1 from the batting team and we never doubted him of course other than the usual quarrels when it is a runout..
after annachi gave me the stuffs i wanted .. started to head bak home.. As I was waitin to cross the street to head bak into home and looked up at the traffic, never in my life I was so scared to cross the street... I was amazed how much skills I had in negotiating hte traffic and walking across the street..
after crossing the street I walked thru a house where a girl used to live b4 on whom I had my eyes set on early during my school days.. I probably walked thru her street ever day more than she did.. jus hoping to get one good look at her.. sometimes dragging my friends to walk with me.. my kadhal vaganam tvs 50 probably stopped at her place automatically even when i didnt want it to .. upgrading to a super splendor after i entered into college , the first street it passed b4 goin to the temple was hers... as time faded away so did she..but u can always count on ur friends to find u another girl.. its jus wonderful to see how much effect it can have when ur friends shout out ur name when a girl passes u by...
neways..when I was about to reach home, I saw few high school students walk out of their tution classes..ah tution.... I always wondered y I paid that much tution fees for phy, chem n math.. trying to book urself earlier in 11'th std to join johnson, xavier.. but after all the hassels all we did was end up at bogenvilla park... as time went by and we headed into coll nuthing much changed.. instead of tution it was datamatix for GRE prepartion and instead of bogenvilla park it became beasant nagar beach.....
AfterI finally reached home couple of friends called me up to go grab somethin to eat.. so I kick started my bike, grazing thru the traffic, I remember the days when I used to ride my bak in rain thinking of myself as barrichelo riding a f1 car in the rain.. squeezing by two lorries. Dont think I can ride my bike like tat anymore. I always wondered whether i would honk at some1 in India traffic after I head bak home from US.. it was amazing to see how many fingers never let go off the horn..
after hanging out with my friends at the beach and grabbing somethign to eat.. I was bak at home eating all those goodies my mom made for me..u kinda realise tat the food items tat u didnt want to eat b4 looks liked heaven after u eat ur own cooking...
As i was eating .. I heard my house calling bell ring so I had to walk out, saw a kid around 10 yrs old.. saw his legs shakin n fearing the worst asked him wat happened.. staring down and the kid said "uncle.. ball ullae vizhundidchi edutukatuma, tirumba adika maten"... uncle?? damn I am old but gave him the ball bak. He took it from me with a grin and I realised to see the smile bak on his face after he got the ball is worth breaking a glass window :)
when i went to India earlier this yr, saw few things tat I did b4 and thought I could reflect on how I felt abt them now......gone are the good old days.. where u can stop by a tea shop, have some tea, grab some bhajjis, play cricket on the streets, chase behind a girl, happy school life.. and the list goes on...
As i was walkin bak home from shopping across the street , saw few kids playing cricket in the middle of the street. It reminded me of how we used to play cricket in a narrow street with no fear abt the traffic coming at us and terrorizing ppl walkin along the street and above all it was amazing to see how fast a person can run when a ball enters into some1's house or breaks a window.. its a wonder how within one second around eleven ppl run synchornise and disappear without any1 telling them to run..where we made all those silly rules .. current, no current, one pitch catch, one pitch one hand, one pitch two hand, underarms, wall catch, all reals, only off side runs, full toss over the wall is out( only in our rules can a sixer be considered out) causing major controversies whether catching a ball fallin off a tree should be treated as wall catch..... and with innovations like drawin three lines on sintex tank, or three sticks or two bricks for wickets..thinking calling a strike in baseball is tuff, try calling it out when a ball goes over the two bricks.. but the game also showed how much u trusted ur friends.. when the umpire was some1 from the batting team and we never doubted him of course other than the usual quarrels when it is a runout..
after annachi gave me the stuffs i wanted .. started to head bak home.. As I was waitin to cross the street to head bak into home and looked up at the traffic, never in my life I was so scared to cross the street... I was amazed how much skills I had in negotiating hte traffic and walking across the street..
after crossing the street I walked thru a house where a girl used to live b4 on whom I had my eyes set on early during my school days.. I probably walked thru her street ever day more than she did.. jus hoping to get one good look at her.. sometimes dragging my friends to walk with me.. my kadhal vaganam tvs 50 probably stopped at her place automatically even when i didnt want it to .. upgrading to a super splendor after i entered into college , the first street it passed b4 goin to the temple was hers... as time faded away so did she..but u can always count on ur friends to find u another girl.. its jus wonderful to see how much effect it can have when ur friends shout out ur name when a girl passes u by...
neways..when I was about to reach home, I saw few high school students walk out of their tution classes..ah tution.... I always wondered y I paid that much tution fees for phy, chem n math.. trying to book urself earlier in 11'th std to join johnson, xavier.. but after all the hassels all we did was end up at bogenvilla park... as time went by and we headed into coll nuthing much changed.. instead of tution it was datamatix for GRE prepartion and instead of bogenvilla park it became beasant nagar beach.....
AfterI finally reached home couple of friends called me up to go grab somethin to eat.. so I kick started my bike, grazing thru the traffic, I remember the days when I used to ride my bak in rain thinking of myself as barrichelo riding a f1 car in the rain.. squeezing by two lorries. Dont think I can ride my bike like tat anymore. I always wondered whether i would honk at some1 in India traffic after I head bak home from US.. it was amazing to see how many fingers never let go off the horn..
after hanging out with my friends at the beach and grabbing somethign to eat.. I was bak at home eating all those goodies my mom made for me..u kinda realise tat the food items tat u didnt want to eat b4 looks liked heaven after u eat ur own cooking...
As i was eating .. I heard my house calling bell ring so I had to walk out, saw a kid around 10 yrs old.. saw his legs shakin n fearing the worst asked him wat happened.. staring down and the kid said "uncle.. ball ullae vizhundidchi edutukatuma, tirumba adika maten"... uncle?? damn I am old but gave him the ball bak. He took it from me with a grin and I realised to see the smile bak on his face after he got the ball is worth breaking a glass window :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)