A Civic sense..

I had started on this across the seven sea relocation, drooling over the thona kaykal this whole thing was supposed to offer me. Now after a month of doing almost next to nothing, I have found myself in a spot that is very familiar to me - the edge of being broke. I had had enough of being broke in Trivandrum, to shift to Bangalore to continue being broke and onto a continuation in Hyderabad of the same. I had expected a monastic existence in the US was what the doctor would prescribe and had gone ahead with the very difficult choice of moving here without C.

Now suddenly nothing makes much sense. I am stuck at home with no TV, no movies, no one to talk to and no car to go anywhere. To top it all off my bank balance is steadily dwindling. And if that weren't bad enough, I went to an ATM to get cash to buy lunch, the ATM refused to provide me any money and to add to the injury, refused to give me back my ATM. Then I realized that the check card was a temporary one and it was high time it would have expired. So now I have three dollars in my wallet. Not that I would need a lot many notes in my wallet to sit at home and watch infomercials on the basic channels which come free with Comcast.

In the morning, while my laundry was being done, I took out my ten dollar, goodwill secondhand roller blades and headed out to the tennis court (hah!) to try roller blading for a while. Well in case anyone is wondering why the tennis court - I do not yet know how to stop very well and you can imagine what would happen if I try something on the very sloping roads in front of my house. But the cold got to me, it got to my bones and I had to hang up my blading shoes and think of other things to do while my clothes were being done. So that sent me jogging to the gym and a few sets of heavy shoulder presses and lat pulls followed.

Now I am sitting here and thinking of how to get enough money to buy a car once my social security number comes. Again, it needs to be seen if the social security card actually gets here to my mailbox, considering that my name is not there anywhere on the lease (which might explain why I did not get my debit card which was sent weeks back). Keeping my fingers crossed that both the debit card and social security number comes soon, and hoping that someone sells me a Honda Civic for less than three thousand bucks...

Does anyone know anyone in Atlanta selling a car?

A jab in the face

Its been a month that I've been in Atlanta and when I look back I am not so sure what I did this last month. My new year was wasted in the New Delhi International Airport with a Canadian settled Indian lady and her obese son sharing the dinner table with me at the New Delhi International terminal. I did not even notice the minute hand cross the 12 mark, and it was already 15 minutes past 12. What a way to welcome the new year into my life. Taking how my new year went, something tells me that life ain't going to be a lot of fun this coming year. I've had to leave my better half in Hyderabad and move to Atlanta on a long term assignment. Its going to be hard on both of us, with just two months together after getting married. We had not even gotten used to replying to people with 'Yes, I am married', or introducing the other as 'Husband/Wife' to friends.

Settling here in the US was a cakewalk compared to last time. There was no roaming around in downtown in the middle of the night with two suitcases and no idea where to go or not even the search for accommodation in places where drug dealers were quite conspicuously standing outside. This time around, I already had an apartment waiting for me thanks to my colleague who got here two weeks ahead of me. And how hard is it to settle into an empty life?

Finally after 4 weeks of inactivity I finally decided to go and do something. I had always wanted to take boxing classes. So after a fair bit of googling, I narrowed it down to a place which is walkable from a Marta (Atlanta's metro rail) station. I took a free sample class from the place and decided to go ahead with the place. They killed me the second day and I could not even lift my arms after an hour. The speed bag is as tricky as it looks. Same goes for the double end bag. I can't even jump rope properly! But the fun part was my first real spar. There is nothing like getting your face smashed up by a Chinese dude.. :-)

Everyone should try this!

So when do I learn Tango...?

My photography

International commerce for dummies

"How many countries have you been to, outside India?"
"One", I said.

"How about you man?"
"26"

How do you travel around the world without spending a lot of money?

I am sure a lot of adventurers around the world would have thought about this and come up with their own ingenious ideas. Shoestring budget travel and the lot. The one I like the most is the one which was explained to me by my new friend J.

J is from Switzerland and had shown early symptoms of being different from others. He put in what ever money he had and bought a second hand '96 volkswagen for an equivalent of 20k in Indian monies. He took this no frills workhorse all around Europe, driving through different countries and sleeping in the back with the seats taken out for the night. This was after his other costlier volkswagen was almost broken into in Romania at night. So when they'd be bored they'd hit the road and go to the beaches in France. Makes me wonder where I would go if I were bored. Vizag?

Then came the more difficult part. He developed a predeliction towards India. Now, you could drive all the way to India in a couple of weeks. IF. If it weren't for those looters in Baluchistan, says J. Two of his friends who attempted the same were left in the middle of the desert in their undies, just like in the movies.

So what do you do? Summer jobs pay well enough for the tickets. I can make upto the equivalent of a lakh INR by doing summer jobs says J. Good enough to come to India and splurge. And how do you make the trip more worthwhile with some intelligent commerce? Now what is Switzerland famous for? Banks ofcourse, but you can't pay for your Indian adventure with a Swiss bank. So you do the next best thing. You pay for it with a Swiss watch.

You buy a Swiss watch in Switzerland for say, INR 500. You come over to India with the money you made working summers and sell the watch for say INR 5000. Pays for a 3 day trip to Pondy it does. So what do you take from India that would help you get back a little more of your investment? We Indians would have certainly underestimated the value of a few of our very precious products.

J was kind enough to break it down for me. The Swiss were bad at bargaining and would prefer to throw out stuff which they don't need anymore rather than try to sell it second hand and make additional money like Indians. So they would throw out old bikes/mattress/all sort of junk (to them). This junk will be picked up by the junk truck and be taken off to be disposed. But, not if you are the ingenuious traveller trying to make most of what each culture has to offer. You get there first, making a round of all the neighbourhoods and checking out their driveways for junk. Say you see a few bikes (as in cycles) which were thrown off because they were old, or had minor problem like a bent wheel. You pick them all up and take them home.

So what do you get from India which would help you in Swiss commercial endeavors? You get the rubber mud guards with those bright tamil company logos (Murugan Cycles). Or you get the cover for your frame, which you see on all the local bicycles. Green, blue, red and what not. Who can forget those bells and peepees (don't know what else to call them!). Now you put in a little work and fix all of this onto the cycles you picked up and voila.. you have an Indian bike, which you can sell for say.. INR 8000. Your investment - a drive around the neighbourhood + 1 Re. for the mud guard + 10 Rs. for the cover + little effort in putting all this together. The swiss being very fond of cycling will buy it all up for the fashion statement he can make with his Indian bike while out for his morning cycling round. Now explain that to the puzzled customs officer in India with the raised eyebrow.

What else does India offer for the swiss. Who could forget ayurveda? You buy a bag full of Chandrika soap for Rs. 8 each and sell them for astronomical amounts. What? Its ayurveda. It can cure everything. If you have a problem in your stomach it will seep in through your skin and cure it. Never underestimate Chandrika ever again. I never would again.

Note: J has made about 8 trips to India selling stuff out of India to make up for a major share of his travel expenses. Then he went a step further. He took a job in India teaching French. I just wish J had a picture of himself selling Indian paraphernalia off the back for his VW golf which I could have put here.

Shapping..

"Hello"
"Helleeeeeeeeeooooooowwwwwwwweeee"

"Where are you..? Libra bar"
"No .. we are sh'a'pping..."
"Oh so you are drunk now aye?"

"No we are sitting on the road, waiting for them to come. Then we will start."

It always amazes me, how all my buddies back home get drunk in anticipation of getting drunk.

Home sweet home.

It has been about 9 months since I've set foot in Kerala and it would have been more if it had not been for Daisy Kutty*. Before going to bring Daisy Kutty, I had been there after recuperating from my Chicken pox bout in the hot April of '08. I still remember the sweat drenched nights and the buzz of those bloody mosquioes never letting me sleep while the power had gone off in the middle of the night. I had wowed never to return to Trivandrum in summer. Or never to return unless I had enough money to get my room back home airconditioned.

Daisy kutty has dashed all those hopes of going home after that June. She has caused me to stay back in Hyderabad longer, even after return from phoren land. Even though she is one hell of a sly lady when it comes to draining my pocket, I have to admit life is really much better since she has been around. Though lately she has been giving me continuous back pain.

Anyway, not digressing any longer, back to the point at hand. I had finally requested for leave, surprising my manager, who had made up his mind that I had run away from home after committing fraud of some kind and could never go back home. I had never asked for leave since he had taken office, while P had asked atleast 3-4 times in the same period. There is nothing happening in office anyway, with the team being overstaffed and no maintenance issues. Client is reasonably happy and our TM never wants anything more.

What I am going to really miss is the show which is coming up at Steps. We had been practicing quite fervently over that last few weeks on both the beginner and advanced salsa routines. There were too many hip-hop routines for me to follow, so I never gave much thought to that, and with so many people in hip-hop attention would anyway be on others. V and A would remember all the routines from the last century and I could always learn it from them later on. But suddenly the show was postponed and it clashed with my trip back home. I did not want to piss of P, but finally went and told him that I would not be there for the show. He took it surprisingly well, and went on business as usual. Later I came to understand why. I would again be digressing if I were to follow that story here.

People are surprised that I am leaving on a monday instead of Friday. But I cannot miss two weekends here. Last few weekends have been memorable, with Super Pondy trip and the drive to Basar. Holi was two days ago and it turned out to be one helluva Holi to start off my Holi playing days with. We 3 newbies ended up having a lot of fun with the other three experienced players. We then topped the day off with the worst movie ever - 13B.


Some pics to cover the whole story...

Silent Beach - Pondicherry

Me and Anuhya practising our pose!

As Sidharth was saying - This reminds us that our country needs a long way to go and money needs to trickle down to the lower levels. (From Basar trip)

Shows that even though I dont have a D60 (I have an S3IS), I can still take some kick ass photos if I am lucky enough. (From Basar trip)

Holi '09

*Daisy Kutty- My Esteem Di. High maintenance. So miss sunflower decided she is a girl and named her Daisy. Undakkanni came in one day and added a dash of malayalee'ness by attaching the kutty at the end.

Late night trysts..

Being back from the US I would have expected to have some moolah atleast to keep my nerves steady, even if it were not enough to go out partying every weekend or so. But not too surprisingly what ever money I saved from the US has gone down the drain on my car which is giving me a string of unending problems, or again on the welcome back partying and new year partying. But have got to admit it though; the new year party was a party to remember. It was certainly the wildest party I have been too. Shiva was a newbie party boy and he sure was not at all disappointed with this tryst with the clubbing crowd. Unlimited drinks (considering that couples and stags had to shell out 6k, it was not a bargain) and an eager crowd along with seasoned party goers. Even I am getting quite good at enjoying myself at parties, getting drunk and holding a few drinks down. And ofcourse I love the lasers.

I have never been a big drinker, and have started seriously drinking only recently in the last few months of partying. Here too I tend to stick to vodka based drinks or a long Island Ice Tea, trusting it to kick in fast and leave me fast enough to drive back afterwards. Vodka with redbull is perfect for me since it gets me drunk enough, without making me sleepy and giving a hell lot of energy to freak out for two hours straight and more if it weren't for the Hyderabad 12 midnight curfew. And I have found perfect partners for drinking and dancing too. I just wish A would be a little more free to come out dancing that would make two awesome dance partners.... lets see
Sutra in Atlanta.. fun place... different crowds different days. This particular day was for ABCDs. Explains why I had to get drunk alone (1 beer, 2 l-Iced teas, 2-vodka red bulls, 1 vodka brandy) and had to be practically carried out by the bouncers.

Salsa Havana, where I saw some pro Salsa dancing.

Take Hold Ballroom Academy.. some of the best Salsa I have seen yet. A guy there turned so fast that I heard the swishing sound. And I met a very cute girl too.. Danced with her a lot. :D

Tongue and Groove.. Wednesday Salsa night.. With Lourdes and Dee.



Now thats another wild party. 10 d the place to be!!!.. and look who joined in at the end!!!!

Firangi pani.. Now thats where I saw Hip Hop in India

The rest places were nothing great.. and we did not get great group pictures... shame..! I had really loved the chicks in the new year party!!!