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..