Hairy Tales...

The foremost reason for this blog is coz I am afraid ppl wont recognize me when I come to India..I am me, myself, same person..Am excited abt my India trip..

My stint with hairstyles hasnt been much.. but as far as I can remember, I have been combing for a long time now.. ;).. Throughout my engineering I was thinking of changing my hairstyle.. but didnt materialize somehow.. The opportunity came in the form of 'expenditure problem' and 'isolation from critisicm'...

The fact that a hair cut cost 8-10 dollars was too much when I landed in US... when I was striving to save every penny...(I couldnt have compromised missing climbing..). I decided I would have very few hair cuts.. Little did I know I would let it grow this long..It started with this..but later became a passion and something 'new' to try out. Along with hair, comes the problems....

Problem of drying after taking shower.. Then the problems of kids spoiling my hairstyle... Then the problem of hair being too unmanageable.. and the problem of tying a pony..and the problem of falling hair..I have had to get hairbands, rubberbands counter these problems.. I even had to buy a shower cap.. Didnt ever think ill be using one of it.. Gosh I have had threats from my roommates that they would cut my hair while I am sleeping.. I have had sleepless nights in this fear..not to mention the problem of not being able to open the car window..Also, the problem of misplacing the rubberband/hairband and looking around the whole house for it.. I dont remember how many times I have put my hair behind my ear and it keeps falling in front.. too much trouble..:P Not just this, I have run out of shampoo much quicker than earlier.. I have also become the scapegoat and getting blamed for the bathtub getting clogged.. (though it is just an accusation and no truth behind it)..

Though I have not told any tellable tales here, I just wanted to make a note that I have tried growing my hair, 'been there, done that' kind.. and now, I am finding it difficult to manage.. After 22.5% supporting my hairstyle and 78.5% not happy with it I think in public interest, it calls for a haircut..

(wondering abt the statistics??an approximation..it doesnt even add up to 100% wondering how many actually verify the statistics they see on the internet..)

So, maybe once I go to India in December, ill be cutting my hair.. My sis and mother are waiting to tie a plat.. maybe once its done.. :D .Below are some pics of the transition...right from the first few days in US.. till today..

University - Aug 2006


My Birthday - Oct 2006

Phoenix - Dec 2006

Climbing - Feb 2007

Austin - Mar 2007

Las Vegas - Apr 2007

Kiran Bday - June 2007

San Antonio - Sep 2007

My Bday - Oct 2007

UTD Sangam 2007 Mad Ads

H for Humanity

Volunteering and me go hand in hand.. literally speaking..two hands together is a lot of strength.. but how often do we join our hands?? very rare.. similarly I want to do a lot of volunteering.. but never find much time to do the same.. but finally when I do atleast one.. I feel very happy.. he he never get tired of PJs. the topic starts here..

This Saturday, had been volunteering through 'Habitat for Humanity' where people build homes for ppl who cant afford a house.. Got this opportunity from Samsung to volunteer for this activity. On enquiring with the HR, came to know that I could invite more people. Sent an invite to 'Students for Environmental Awareness' too..

On reaching the place, was surprised to see so many people first of all. And second surprise was that most of them were 40+ or 50+. This is not what I would have liked to see..Very few youngsters... and very few energetic people. This kind of social work or volunteering requires more participation from the youth I believe..


Anyway, the place had free t-shirts, free food, free caps, free towels, and a drive not to waste my saturday. This was enough reason to go work. Ok another reason to go build homes was the interest to know how houses are built in US. Completely of wood. was keen to know the structural and technical aspects, etc..

The place was flat and only planks of wood lying around..A few pros guiding how the pieces fit together and how to saw and nail them together. We all were given a hammer, an apron to hold nails and gloves.. Split into teams and we got working..
Here are few fotos of my team and the place. Few teams working on interior walls. My team working on Porch.



After the afternoon lunch, I still thought I had the energy to continue.. So, came home, asked my friend Aditya to come along (as he missed the morning)... Started working there and realized that I was out of strength to even lift the hammer. Still struggled to hit a few nails in. Finally got to cleaning up the place since this was easy.. Looking at the work at the end of the day, I was surprised to see how much work we all got done. It was impressive. I want to go once more and maybe for painting work too.. It is fun and it is social work..At the end of the day, the satisfaction that you did something worthwhile. Wish more and more people got to do such social work..

Memories...

While clicking photos of my second 'new' car, 94 Corolla, the child in me forced me to climb over the top. Meanwhile, triggering a series of memories of my family's first car...The Ferrari.. I mean.. Fiat Premier Padmini..

Forgive me if I use 'hood' for 'bonnet' or 'trunk' for 'dicky'. In US, I can be sued for offending someone..

There are just so many memories associated with it, I hope I make justice to my favorite car so far..

The first memory is of buying the car.. Nov 21st 1994. We went to a relative's house near Koramangala, Dairy Circle ( It was as if we were travelling to another city that time). Parents finished the transaction for 90,000 rupees for a second hand car and we drove home. The only thing I saw interesting in the car was the Steering wheel and the pedals.

A couple of days later was an adventure I will never forget. My dad was still learning to drive. He was driving to granny's house, 2 kms away. He didnt take the shorter route as a part was 'too steep'. Took the longer route. Took a left turn somewhere and he forgot to turn the steering wheel back to straighten the car. There was rubble on the side of the road and the car went over it and got stuck. Where else do u get to see a car standing at 80 degrees to ground?

Next came the fights with sis to claim the front seat. Poor mom was all too soft for us..

This other time, we had taken the car to the temple in front of our house. It was a very rainy day and the ground was muddy...Car got stuck in a pool of mud and would not budge. Had to request around 8 construction workers to come and lift the car out of the mud pool.. I got a free ride on the trunk..

Couple of years later,it was my turn to drive. How did I learn? Dad had parked the car in front of the house. I started the car, drove it to the end of the road, drove it reverse and parked it back in the same place. Mom's complaint in the evening didnt matter as I was given a chance to drive around the area in the evening.. I should say my dad was encouraging.. That is the end of learning... Rest is history..

Experiments.. This one time I wanted to check my driving skills.. So, what I do? I turn back looking into the rear windshield and drive forward. Concept is that if I stay in the center of the road, car is going straight. A loud noise.. I turn forward just to find that my car is scraping a Maruthi car on the left side. Run Lola Run......

This again goes back to my cycling days when I tested my riding skills. Was testing how far I could ride straight on a road, closing my eyes..Had gone and banged into a lightpole. Explanation given to dad for blood dripping from forehead - "Applied front brakes".

Back to car. For me, my car was the king of the road. Though not the fastest, I would try every possible manoeuvre to be quick. One time I didnt stop for a lorry. Is there any rule that I should stop for a lorry just because they honk? My friends Prasanna and Shesha vouched that they would never sit with me in my car. I still stand by my argument.

Ever seen a puddle on top of the car? We had been to Rangaswamy hills in my car. Great drive in places where two wheelers find it hard to go. Kids in village had danced on top of my car and the top was bent in a boat shape. The toughness of this car could be matched by none.. All I had to do was go in and give a punch from inside and the car was back in shape.

Parasailing.. Jakkur Air Field, Yelahanka. I used to take my car with around 7-8 ppl from Mountaineering Club. Achievement - Tried my hand at a 360 degree car spin on the sandy air strip. Believe it or not, I could achieve 180 degrees car spin, with 7 people sitting inside.

Parasailing.. Dev and his injuries.. Dev plummetted to the ground after his parasail collapsed due to winds. His back was severely injured. Had to drop him home in the evening. Came back to BMS College and drove into our Football field. A tree stump that was by the side was not visible. My car went over and got stuck. Tried lifting with a jack and the jack got bent. Got some ppl to help. Went home, only to realize the Chassis was damaged. 2500 ruppees tax for my dad.

Every time we had to start the car, we had to open the hood, fill the carburator with 30-40 ml of petrol and then start it. Otherwise, it wouldnt start.Not to forget the umpteen number of trips made to functions and weddings with relatives, with upto 9 people in the car. Also the umpteen number of times me and my mother have pushed the car coz the battery was discharged.

Well..It was a good trip down the memory lane.. That car had no AC. No power windows. No center locking. No stereo. No auto transmission. No defroster. Yet... it has its own significance in my life and I will never forget my association with it.

MY OWN CAR....Still cant believe it

The planning started right from when I started applying for my University..It was all worked out.. I would apply for a few, get admissions in a few..might(read it as "was sure") would get an aid in some university. Or atleast a RA or TA position in some dept and I would be funded and would have a car in say 3-4 months.. worst case, after 1st semester.. Who knew life had a different twist altogether..

No funding...no on campus jobs... no part time jobs... realized (after joining univ) that working outside campus was illegal... and what was I left with? A life reduced to minimal expense.... Monthly expense settlement calculated to the accuracy of 1/100th of a dollar.

Internship was the only option left for me and tried hard applying to any website I encounter.. I applied to some common companies as well..like Google, Microsoft, Intel and Yahoo... (read it as.. I dont think these companies would even have read my resume)..The story of Motorola goes like this.. Motorola is a 'telephone' company and do they have a website? Yes they do and it is for selling phones...Why would I want an internship in that company? Never thought of applying to Motorola for the same reason...

But come one day when my roommate Anand got a call from Motorola for an internship interview.. and damn it.. I had missed it.. I applied for altogether 11-12 different Internship positions in their website that very hour.. An interview call 2 days later..(The voice of interviewer was not clear enough), 20 mins of OOP questioning and my interview was over.. At the end of the interview, I ask the question "Which company are you calling from?". Seems funny? silly? I dint care.. I was confident my interview went well...thank god.

Two days later, I get the confirmation that I am selected for my Internship in Motorola... This was the sweetest thing that could have happened to me since I came to US...Could be one of the many precious moments of my life.. Also one of the painful situations due to the 'butt hitting' tradition (bumps) of my roommates.

The very next thing on my mind was the CAR.. and decided the very moment that I would be buying a car..Started researching on the million webpages that google search engine retrieves.... Finally started monitoring a few websites that I felt would be useful.. Meanwhile, I would call my uncle Ananth daily for 1-2 hrs and discuss about the car, its features, what to check, what not, what could be wrong, how many miles it should have run, what is better, what is bad, which company car I should buy, what price range, where do i get it.. ok.. the questions are innumerable.. Without him, I could not decide anything and am really grateful to him for sharing the info without any boredom...

I did test ride a couple of other cars(actually only one) like Nissan Sentra which I didnt like..it didnt have the 'kick' or pickup i should say...Scrolling up and down and after many combination of search queries on craigslist for a week or so, I did find many attractive offers.. The posting would be in the morning. I would call in the evening to set up a test ride the next day and the response was 'vehicle is sold'. Until I hit upon this attractive offer of 2750 for a honda accord. The only problem was, it was in Arlington around 30 miles away and no public transport. Thanks to Venkatesh, my senior here, I got a ride to Arlington, the very next day for a test ride.

After a short ride of half a km, I got the idea that the car felt good, had the 'kick' i was looking for and was decently maintained.. though not great.. Thought this is it.. I cant wait any longer..and spoke to my uncle and after a discussion of 15-20 mins, decided I am buying this car and finalized the deal for 2.5K. Something about this car attracted me then and there.. the looks, the smooth drive or was it my 'haste'.. i dont know..

The next day, the deal was done and voila.. I have the car keys in my hand.. Believe it or not, 2 months ago, we were fighting to save every cent in Walmart, buying 1 dollar bread instead of 1.08 priced bread.. and today I own a car. What a semester this has been.. Never thought things would turn this way this quickly...Still not able to believe it..

Of course, there are the risks in buying a Used car and I am willing to take it.. (NO CHOICE)...Have taken a plunge and got to see how my investment works out.. Currently have taken a loan from my friends for the car, which I will repay with the Bank's education loan and would have to earn some money (not until June) to actually reap the benefits of the Internship. Not that I have lots of money.. Ill be working for only 3 months..just that I own a car( a bare necessity in US).. I still got to take education loan for my summer course.. [:(]

Sunday special

No more than a week into our new apartment, we had our first stint with the police and the very efficient Fire Department... Didnt have a real opportunity in the previous apartment coz the place was supposedly the 'slum' of Dallas...

Been 3 days and the rain had not stopped. I guess it is the peak of winter in Dallas. -3 degrees Celsius was the temperature. We were so bored staying home for 3 days that we played Badminton in Activity Center and I came back home ALONE because it was my turn to cook.. Realized that I had no keys and walked all the way back again to get my keys. Came back and started cooking. My choice - Sambar.

Rice was cooked, vegetables done and it was the time for our traditional 'oggaraNe' or 'Seasoning' as it is called. Never was I bad at it.. But you know, sometimes, there are ups and downs in life and to my bad luck it happened this day. I overheated the oil and on putting the mustard, 'very little' smoke started spreading the hallway, the 'very useless' vent was not good enough and the 'over-sensitive' fire alarm starting shouting..

We opened the windows, doors and whatever that could be opened. Unfortunately, this alarm could not be disabled by cutting down the power also. (We used to do this in our previous apt). Within no minutes, there were people running down to the open area from our building. I tried going to them and telling them not to worry.. But they were so reluctant to believe me! The whole building had emergency lights flashing.. supposedly for the FIREFIGHTERS to identify our building.

3 mins down and I see police cars with flashing lights come in front of the building. 2 of them got down and I was there to greet them right in the ground floor. Brought them inside, showed them that nothing 'EXTRAVAGANT' had happened. Then it was the turn of the firefighters.. A fire engine came with sirens beeping. The firefighters came and inspected the house. No problems but a few notes about the name and contact number. On asking for a solution to this 'oversensitive' alarm, all they said was 'Stop cooking your Traditional dish, try getting readymade stuff from McDonalds.' Ha ha.. as if we dont know that solution..

Finally all was done and we started putting out a plan to avoid such mishaps.. The solution.. Whoever triggers the alarm, pays the fine for the FALSE alarm. The day before Sankranthi is a day never to be forgotten..