A trip to Hyderabad - Part 2

There are more passengers than the number of berths, Sathya observed and said to Prakash. Perhaps they are traveling together, but were allowed berth in a different coach, he guessed.

Let's share this side lower berth till TTE allocates one for me, Prakash said. Meanwhile, Sathya was arranging Chapati and Daal as lunch for both. "When did you prepare this?" Prakash was clearly surprised.

When you were packing your bag, she replied. "But weren't you also packing then? Also, you only had about 10 mins!" he asked in reply.

"Where are you going up to?",  an elderly gentleman asked Prakash, cutting into their conversation.

"Secunderabad."

"Me too," the gentleman replied with a slow nod.

The elderly gentleman was accompanied by a young couple. There were three more people in the same bay that makes 6 passengers, but only 4 berths were there.

"No chance, sir. Coach is full. Not even a single berth is available", TTE's voice broke his attention. TTE was replying to a fellow passenger who happens to board the compartment with a waitlisted ticket he bought from the station counter.

Later, he examined the tickets from the elderly gentleman's and the rest. "Sir, I have a partial waitlisted ticket," Prakash said, showing his ticket to be examined.

"I can't confirm the waitlisted ticket. If you find some empty berths, feel free to occupy", saying thus the TTE moved to next bay.

TTE have just checked 6 tickets from 4 berths. Some of them must be traveling on partial waitlisted tickets then. Thinking thus, Prakash initiated a small talk with the rest in his bay.

"Do you have confirmed ticket, sir," Prakash asked the gentleman.

"No," came the reply in a shallow tone as if he is sad. "Three of us are traveling, but we could get only one confirmed ticket," he replied. After a brief chat, Prakash came to know that their status before final charting were WL 13, 14 and 15.

Indian railways have cleverly confirmed WL 11 and 13 so that 5 people can travel with 2 berth allotment!

What an idea Suresh Ji!

(Suresh Prabhu was the railway minister when this trip happened).

A trip to Hyderabad - Part I

11'o clock. Prakash desperately opened the PNR checker website and typed the 10 digit number eagerly to witness a miracle of getting confirmed berth in Konark express that will take his wife and himself to Secunderabad for a vacation. He had missed the chance an hour ago to get himself a confirmed ticket through tatkal mode in Air Conditioned compartment. His only alternative is to book tickets in the Sleeper compartment, which is just the same as "paid" general compartment. Only he knows how he dreads traveling by 2nd Sleeper every time he finds himself in a situation like this!

"Did you finish packing?" he asked Sathya, his darling wife.

"Yet to start," came the reply in a jiffy. "Were the tickets confirmed? Are we really going to Hyderabad?" she countered him.

Not yet. The PNR status still shows that our ticket is in waiting list 11 and 12, but final charting is, however, to be done.

"But the train would arrive two hours from now!" she exclaimed.

Yes. But what if the tickets are confirmed by then? Let's better pack and get ready.

Time ticked at its own pace, moving the minute hand slowly past 30 notches. Prakash and Sathya grabbed their essentials and stuffed them inside a couple of bags, unsorted. "We will have enough time in the train to sort them out," Prakash commented. 

"But only if we get in that train," Sathya replied skeptically.

"Let me recheck the PNR status. I wonder why they are yet to finalize the chart", he lamented.

Charting done. Final status: Ticket 1: Confirmed, Ticket 2: WL

He jumped in joy. "We are traveling for sure," he hasted their packing. 

"But what about the waitlisted ticket?" she asked while packing her sundries.

"Don't worry. We have partially confirmed ticket. I can talk to TT and get a berth for myself. Let's go".

They rushed towards the main gate to catch an auto to the railway station. Fate intervened again. There was not even a single auto! "Damn," he banged his fist on the other hand. "We do not have much time. Let me get our bike. We shall park it in the station itself", shouting thus, he took long strides towards the parking lot.

"Your kind attention, please. Train number 11020, Bhubaneswar to Pune, Konark express via Visakhapatnam, Secunderabad has just arrived on Platform No. 1", they both heard the announcement as the bike entered the railway parking lot. He quickly parked the bike, and both of them ran towards the train that was about to depart.

"We made it!" he said while she was still gasping for air. They made their way through the narrow passageway to find the allotted berth. "Side Lower," he said after seeing the seat. "We can share the seat till a berth is allotted for me. Let us wait for the TT", Prakash said keeping their bags below the seat while Sathya was getting ready to settle down.

To be continued in Part II...

Inside a Little Brain

A few days ago when we were at my friend's place, my little one was crawling towards where the food was kept thrice. On all those three occasions, I picked her up when she came near to the food. On her fourth attempt, she crawled in the opposite direction towards her mom. Halfway between me and her mom, she stopped crawling and looked back at me. Since she was going towards her mom, I was not making any attempt to stop her. Sensing this, she suddenly reversed her direction and reached food in no time! She almost succeeded in dodging me!

The following incident happened a few times at my home. I have observed that she likes to go through a door even if it is only slightly open. If the door is wide open, she would crawl through it, but if the door is kept ajar, she would stand straight, position her body such that she could go through between the narrow space.

These incidents made me think how my little one's little brain works. To put her little brain to test, I made her a challenge taking help from my wife and observed how our little one performed. I kept a room door wide open and placed a steel rack on the way. The steel rack had space between the two shelves which is enough for my little one to crawl through, but not enough for her to walk in between. 

Seeing the way blocked, she stood up and tried to position herself to go past through the door. She cried at first, then applied brute force to push the steel rack aside thereby making a way for herself!

I placed the steel rack again, but this time in such a way that she could not move it by force. She cried a lot and put a sad face as if asking me for a clue. I asked my wife to make her sit in crawling position and show the gap between two shelves.

Our little one got the clue immediately, and felt elated after knowing that she was able to crawl between the shelves and go through the door!

After repeating the test one more time, I found that when I make her stand and asked her to go through the door, her reaction was to apply brute force. When I make her sit in crawling position, she gets the clue and crawls through the door.

So much for her little brain!

Pursuit of (Eternal) Happiness

Some people say if I do "this..this..this", this will make me feel happy.

Some others will say if I do "that..that..that", that will make me feel better.

Yet some others would say if I get "this..this..this" or "that..that..that", it will make me happy.

This begs a question, Can someone feel happy by doing "this" or "that" or by getting "this" or "that"?

Maybe. But how long can one remain happy with "this" and "that"? Is eternal happiness really possible?

Time and again, people's experience has shown that nothing can make one eternally happy. This statement has been warranted by scriptures as well which says one gets eternal happiness by serving the Lord.

Though scriptures are very clear on this point, the human tendency is to ignore what scriptures say. Our tendency is to think of scriptures rules as the ideal which we could never achieve. We accept that we are at a lower level of consciousness and we deserve to be happy only by doing/getting this and that.

There is nothing wrong with this kind of thinking. But the issue gets bigger when one strives hard to change temporary happiness to an eternal one. This can never happen!

Let us for the sake of an argument say that if a person does "this/that" or get "this/that", he feels happy eternally. Extending this argument to all the people in this world, then people from this entire world will remain content with their own "this/that". When this happens, the earth will stand still! There will not be any progress, no newer ideas, and development.

Assuming that no one is bothered about not getting newer ideas or development, one may still feel jealous of other people's "this/that". I may have what I want, but I still want what the other person has!

Even if one person in this entire world thinks along this line, like the butterfly effect, the whole scenario would change in no time. Negative forces such as jealousy, possessiveness, etc are always at work. No matter how hard one strives, eternal happiness with materialistic desires is beyond one's reach.

Wise are those who are in pursuit of eternal happiness. Those who pursue mere happiness are otherwise.

Completed 31 orbits around the Sun!

Today I completed my 31st journey around the Sun, from Earth. To celebrate the occasion, Jaisri carefully plucked 31 'Sun' flowers, tied them together and made a hand-made bouquet. Thank you so much Jaisri!

I thought, I wrote.

People often make mistakes. Often times, they get punished either by the court of law or by divine intervention. The punishments are mild, medium or hard based on their mistakes. But, there is a worse punishment one can ever subject to, punishing someone without giving him a proper reason. It's not just worse, it's inhumane.

People often get angry because they expect the world to move around them. But unfortunately, the world moves on its own path. We are not at the center of everything. We fail, we lose hope, we get frustrated because of this. Everyone has expectations, dreams, aspirations to be someone, to do something or to achieve something in their life. There is no single human on earth ever born who is happy because his expectations are fulfilled, dreams realized, aspirations achieved. Even M.K.Gandhi had dreams which are not fulfilled even today!

True, we cannot make the world move around us. But as a human being, we can only hope that at some point in our life, we can make the world stop and have a look at us. We can strive to get the world's attention for a moment on us. Unfortunately, for most people, this moment happens when they are no more. The world stops and thinks about that person when he/she is not alive to celebrate the moment with consciousness.

Only a few succeed in grasping this reality. Those who understood this are the ones who never hesitates to struggle in their life. They remain cool and composed because they know that things can't go wrong unless they try to manipulate and make the world move around them. They do have expectations, dreams, and aspirations. But their dreams are big. Bigger than us lesser mortals can comprehend.

Everyone is born, everyone would die one day. But there are very few who has the courage to struggle, who aspires to make the world pause for a moment and think about them when they are alive. It takes one spur of a moment for nature to take back the life it gave us. No one was born with a guarantee that he/she will stay alive till their dreams are fulfilled. But so long as we are alive, we have a choice; to leave our footprints in sands of time, or be forgotten. It is up to us to choose.

That moment!

"My water broke. Call the hospital", my wife cried in excitement.

"Sure I will!", I replied dialing the hospital number, checking the calendar meanwhile. "Saturday, May 25", it said.

I had a hunch that our baby will be born on 25th. After all, my wife and myself were both born on 25th! Won't it be awesome if our baby were to be born on the same day as ours?

"Her water broke at 5 AM. No, she did not have any contractions yet. No, we do not need an ambulance", I answered the protocol questions from the nurse-on-call. Jaisri woke her mom up while I called our friend Rachel who had offered us a ride to the hospital. "I will be there in ten minutes", she said over the phone. 

Meanwhile, Jaisri checked the hospital bag once more to see if she had missed something, prepared a cup of coffee for us and was ready to go. "We are going to see our baby", she said in excitement.

Ten full months! We could not wait a minute more, particularly since the day we came to know that its a baby girl! At a quarter to six, we reached the Poudre Valley Hospital, registered and went up to the maternity ward. One thing I love about American hospitals, particularly PVH, is that the father-to-be is allowed to stay in the maternity ward throughout the labor!

But Jaisri is yet to have her first contraction, the beginning of labor. "Your cervix is at 1 cm now. You need to dilate more. Let us wait and see if your body is able to do it on its own", Dr. Stern, the doctor-on-call said.

Four hours went by. Nothing much happened. Rachel, my mom-in-law, Jaisri and myself played Phase10 to spend our time. "Do you think it is possible for our baby to be born today?", we asked the nurse who was monitoring Jaisri's blood pressure, the strength of contraction and pulse and our baby's heartbeat.

"She has a good chance! Its good that her water broke early in the morning", the nurse replied.

The doctor examined her again around noon. "Your cervix is still at 1 cm", he said. Three hours later, Jaisri felt her first significant pain. Sooner she had more contractions at a regular interval that her pain became unbearable.

In the evening (which was still afternoon in this part of the world), we consulted our nurse and agreed to call the Anaesthesia specialist to administer Epidural.

The combination of more frequent, high intense contractions and epidural lowered Jaisri's blood pressure which she did not feel, thanks to Epidural. But, unfortunately, the baby was alarmed with the condition and her heart beat lowered.

"Will something happen to me?", my wife asked me anxiously. I realized that no words are enough to convince her. I called the doctor and asked the same question. "She looks perfectly alright. There is nothing to worry about", his replied reassured our faith.

Still, every ten minutes, Jaisri's bp lowered drastically and baby's heartbeat would come down to half of its normal rate. We cried from inside and did the only thing we could do, pray to God. "Why should this happen to me?", she quizzed herself.

"Don't worry honey. Everything is going to be alright soon. Think of all the good times we had so far", I said, trying to calm her down. Meanwhile, the nurse adjusted the Epidural dosage and infused saline and glucose to keep her bp under control.

After observing her vital signs for a while and finding that they are stabilizing, I took a brief meditative nap. At the wee hour in the morning, my wife woke me up and said, "my cervix has dilated to 8 cm!"

I felt elated! "Our baby is going to be in our arms soon", we cried in joy. The nurse then gave her instructions to coincide her push with the peak of her contractions.

Her push became rigorous next morning when the sun rose. "Your baby has a wonderful black hair", our nurse said. With every contraction, the nurse asked Jaisri to push and count from 1 to 10, and repeat it three times.

After a long and enduring wait for 26 hours, Hrdaya was born. It is hard to express "that moment" in words in any languages humans had ever learned.

That moment, when I cut the umbilical cord of Hrdaya and welcomed her to Earth...is the best moment in my life that I would cherish forever.

Confessions from a Ph.D scholar

"Will you get a job at least now?", was the question everyone asked when I shared the news about the successful defense of my Ph.D. thesis.

"Will I get a job at least now? Did I not qualify for a job earlier? Why did I opt for a Ph.D.? Why did I even opt for a graduate program after my Bachelor's?", I asked these questions to myself.

I did get a job from one of the leading software companies in India soon after completion of my degree in Mechanical Engineering. I opted for Masters degree by choice and not out of compulsion. When I took the decision to join SASTRA University as a JRF, I was still an employee at that company.

For many in our society, four years of Bachelor's in Engineering/Technology is a valid pass to get a job. It does not matter whether one has a sound understanding of their curriculum, nor are they really concerned about whether the four years of learning is applicable and useful for rest of their life. But deep inside, I was never satisfied with my learning. I realized that Bachelor's curriculum is only surface level deep. How can I rejoice myself after scratching only the surface?

“When you really want something to happen, the whole world conspires to help you achieve it.”  - Paulo Coelho in Alchemist.

How true!

When I quit my job, I did not have an alternate plan. I quit because I was not satisfied with the work¹. Like many engineering graduates, I could have continued with my job, have a raise and/or promotion with time, marry a girl and get settled. But, I had a dream - to continue my education, learn more and go deeper from the surface. It was a risk when I quit my job not knowing what to do next. As if the whole world conspired to help me achieve my dream, one fine morning I received an email with an offer to join SASTRA University as a Junior Research Fellow (JRF) and work with Dr. Katte.

That one mail changed by destiny.

First few months I spent with Dr. Katte helped me in molding myself into a research material. It was during those days I learned the nuances of doing research such as critical thinking and technical writing. Soon, I quit JRF post to fill the vacancy for SRF with Dr. Katte on an ISRO sponsored project. At this point in time, SASTRA University did not offer Masters by Research program.

"What are you doing? ", my "well" wishers asked. I did not have an answer to them. How can I say I quit my job to pursue higher studies, but have joined a university which does not offer Masters?

Thanks to Dr. Katte, SASTRA finally introduced the Master of Science in Engineering by research in 2005. I was one of the three students who had registered for the program in the first batch. After two years of hard work, I defended my Master's thesis successfully and shared the news with everyone about graduate conferment. 

"Are you going to work at least now?", they asked in one voice. "Nope, I am going for a Ph.D.", I said. I am pretty sure they heard it as "he did not get a job yet".

My association with ISRO continued during my Ph.D. as well. From VSSC, ISRO sponsored project at SASTRA, I joined in a SAC, ISRO sponsored project at IIT Madras. After four years, I submitted my thesis with five papers (of which three are based on my Ph.D. work) in international journals and 6 international conference papers.

"I have defended my thesis successfully", I shared the news yet again to everyone.

"Will you get a job at least now?"

"Nope, I am going for a postdoc", I said.

"A what?"

"Never mind. Well, I won't be working for quite some time yet!", I replied to them.

No, not too soon. I am happy that I had gone a level deeper, but I still have miles to go.
-------------------------------------------------------
¹I thank the company who recruited me. It was during those 5 months that I learned stuff about computers and also learned to speak English in American accent which eventually became useful when I went to the U.S.

Nature adores Math!

Found this near a footpath

A post a day ends today!

At the beginning of the year 2012, I accepted a challenge in Goodreads to read 50 books before the end of the year. Somewhere around mid 2012 I realised that 50 books was out of my reach. I revised my target to 20 and I have read 15 books so far. Will I be able to complete the challenge? I guess not.

At the end of November 2012 I posed another challenge to myself. To write a post a day until this year end. I had published only 18 articles in the past eleven months! "Will I be able to complete this new challenge?", I asked myself. 

I certainly do not want to enter into 2013 with two failures! I took the challenge seriously and I vowed to write. I so wanted to welcome 2013 with a success. Of course, I would not forgive myself if I failed twice!

I had plenty of things in my mind to write about. I started off with a travel article, one of the easiest ways to get rid of writers block. The travel article was first in Fort Collins Diary. I then went on to write 11 more articles covering my experiences of the new place where my wife and myself had come to.

Five strangers at a bus stop happened two summers ago when I came to Fort Collins for the first time as a summer intern. That was when I played ping pong with an international student from Pakistan. It was during the same time I met André at one of the Friday Afternoon Club meetings.

After I came to Fort Collins in October 2012 taking a dreadful risk, I revisited the Fort Collins public library and had a few strange acquaintances. I applied for learner's permit and had quite an experience.

Following my success in overcoming my writers block, I wrote a few short stories. Taken was based on the effect of watching too many movies in short span. 

I wrote the draft version of Fish and the Bait a year ago! I revisited the unfinished draft when I felt I had nothing to write. Same is true with Orphaned, the only difference is I did not have a draft version ready this time.  

The story of Kurma Avatar and When the time stood still are two stories that gave me goosebumps after I wrote them. It was also my first attempt to demystify mythological stories and present it from a rational perspective.

Every Saturday, wife and myself would take a Transfort ride either to Carmike or AMC and watch a movie. Life of Pi was the first movie we saw in December. It was followed by Taken 2 and The Hobbit. The only movie that we did not plan earlier was Monsters Inc, which we went on a movie day out with my friend André.

To catch up with reading, we decided to have a study hour between 9.00 and 10.00 PM everyday. We read books that we borrowed from the public library. Though I would not be able to complete the Goodreads challenge, I read two books in December. The sins of the father was written by one of my favourite authors, Jeffrey Archer. The other book that I read in this month was Moonlight becomes you, which was also my first book written by Mary Higgins Clark.

It has been quite an eventful month for me. To be honest, there were times in the past 31 days when I felt I do not want to write anything. But then, there were also times when I felt writing more than one post a day! Looking back, I feel happy about myself that I was able to overcome the urges and stick to my commitment. I was able to write one post a day until the year end! I now have a success story with which I enter into 2013.

I wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year 2013.

A special thanks to my wife Jaisri and my friends who had read and passed on their comments on my articles. Your support and encouragement made me succeed!

Self Watering Plants Using Empty Milk Cans

"What do we do with all the milk cans?", I asked my wife pointing towards top of our fridge where more than half a dozen used milk cans are kept.

Milk cans each of a gallon capacity

"Wait. I'll think of something", she said, watering the Poinsettia plant she bought a few days earlier from the Sprouts farmer's market.

That evening, my wife called me over phone while I was about to leave from my office. "Surprise! But I will let you see it for yourself", she said.

Unable to withstand the surprise, I rushed to my apartment and saw the new arrangement my wife had made to the Poinsettia plant she was watering earlier on.

Poinsettia draws water stored in the milk can through its roots thereby strengthening it.

She does not water the plant daily any more, rather she pours the water in the milk can and allows the plant's roots to draw water from it. "This will strengthen the roots, and make good use of all the empty milk cans", she said.

"Indeed! Its a cheap and innovate solution to make good use of milk cans", I patted her.

DD MM to MM DD

"I've got an admit to doing my Masters in U.S dad", Aarthi said ecstatically.

"I know you would get, my dear", her father replied with a pleased smile, making himself busy immediately arranging things that she would require during her stay abroad.

The checklist he had prepared while his son went abroad for higher studies a couple of years ago came in handy. "Dresses and food items are most important. Let's get it ready first", he listed.

Aarthi contacted the university to obtain the necessary documents that support her visa application.

"Is your university close to where your brother is staying?", her mother asked with a concern.

"Not so close mom. I have made some temporary arrangement with the Indian student association for my stay as soon as I arrive in the U.S", she replied.

"When should you join the university?"

"By mid-June mom. I would leave around eighth of June so that I will have time to settle down before I go for classes".

The next couple of weeks went busily for everyone. Aarthi received her immigration documents from the university, took her visa interview and was waiting for the embassy to stamp the visa and courier it to her home address. Her dad had marked ticks against most of the items in the checklist that contains a list of things she needed to buy. Her mom was preparing food items with which she can survive for first few months.

Everything was coming to a good ending, but for her stay. She hasn't heard from the Indian students association regarding her application. Eighth of June is not too far!

Deeply concerned, she shot a mail to the association chairman again, asking about the status of her application.

"Your application was received. We are working on it to make an arrangement for your stay from sixth of August. You will hear from us soon", she read the mail for the umpteenth time.

Two experiences

Experience # 1:

"Have a look at this", wife pointed out to an ad link on Facebook.

"Vintage Style Glass Ball Pocket Watch with Chain for $9. Free shipping with first order", the ad said.

"What a deal!", exclaiming thus, I placed the order online in an impulse fearing for a change of mind, without researching on the authenticity of the website.

After a couple of days since I placed the order, I googled for people's review of nomorerack more out of curiosity. To my dismay, I found plenty of irate and negative reviews about the website and their customer service!

It was quite a relief to receive a mail from nomorerack after a couple of days saying our order was shipped. However, the relief did not last long for the tracking id opened the order status page on nomorerack and not the status of shipping.

I became skeptic at this point and had almost convinced myself that I should forget my $9.

It was like a dream come true when I found a package delivered to my mailbox yesterday from nomorerack. I opened the package, anxious to find a wrong product or at least a damaged one. But the package contained exactly what I ordered for, all in one piece!

Does this mean I would recommend nomorerack to my friends and followers? May be not. This may just be one good experience after all!

Experience # 2:

"Try phoneindia. They have a plan for 1000 minutes call time to India which is valid for 30 days", my friend suggested.

I googled for phoneindia and found plenty of positive reviews about the website, their products and services. After enough research, I made up my mind and placed an order for $4.99 which offered 500 calling minutes with a 30 days validity. Since this was my first experience, I opted out of auto recharge plan while placing the order. After all, I had skype, viber and gtalk installed on my mobile to stay in touch with anyone in the world.

Everything went fine for a month. Placing the order was simple. There wasn't any hidden charges that normally gets adds up to your final billed amount. The call quality was good. With that positive note, I decided to stick to phoneindia in future, should a need arise.

It came as a shock when I found that phoneindia had billed my card for next month. I double checked my control panel to make sure the auto-recharge settings is turned OFF. Worse, the website did not allow me to delete my card, which I never gave my consent to save!

I tried to chat with customer care representative asking for an explanation, but the chat window closed without giving me a reason. I tried initiating the chat help again, and mailed to customer service about the mistake.

To my relief, a representative answered my chat query saying I had opted for $4.99 plan which offers 1000 minutes and comes with auto-recharge by default!

"If that was the plan I had subscribed to, why did my account control panel showed only 500 minutes?", I asked.

The representative paused briefly for a moment and replied, "Do you want me to cancel the plan?"

"Yes please", I said over chat.

Well, does this mean I would never recommend phoneindia to anyone? May be not. This may just be one bad experience after all.

5 strangers at a bus stop

Five strangers were waiting for the bus at a bus stop and I am one among them. My name is Sam. I live in an apartment down the road.

"What time does the bus comes?", a stranger was asking another when I reached the stop. His salt and pepper hair told me that he must be in his late fortees or early fiftees. He had a peculiar mannerism of cleaning his teeth with his tongue often.

"In about five minutes", came a reply.

"Five minutes?", he repeated with an accent. "We have an accent here buddy. Where are you from?"

"India", he replied nervously. If he was an atheist before, he wasn't one now for he was praying to all Gods for the bus to arrive and save him from this situation.

"India? You people are smart! My math is not as good as yours", he complimented with sarcasm.

I shifted my gaze to a girl who brought a cigarette to her lips slowly, inhaled it deeply and casually blew out the smoke, glancing at them every now and then as if she was not interested in a conversation, but was curious to know what's going on.

"Starbucks on your right at 200 feet, a Mexican restaurant across the road at 150 feet", someone was passing on the instructions to the fifth stranger at the bus stop. He appeared to be in his early twenties and gave me an impression that he was going to a college. He wore fine trousers, cotton shirt and had a cooler on his eyes. His hands were in his pockets and he was talking to someone over wireless. No! He wasn't talking, but only the person at the other end. After a closer observation, I realized he was blind with a talking GPS in his pocket.

"I've grown old now. I can't do any work", the salt and pepper gentleman lamented.

"Where did you work?"

"I was a carpenter. I am not as smart as you guys are to take up a computer job", he replied.

Silence pervaded the entire space for a minute and disappeared as soon as it came with the salt and pepper gentleman yelling "Go back to your country" on top of his voice.

I looked at the Indian guy who smiled and replied: "I sure will".

When I was expecting a confrontation between the two of them, the bus came to a halt and accepted new passengers to board.

Two mistakes

Mistake # 1:

"The system was unable to authenticate your debit card. Please check that the data you entered is correct or use a different card", ATM displayed the error message.

I pulled the ATM card from the slot, inserted it again, typed the PIN carefully and pressed the Enter key. The ATM took a moment to verify the data I entered and displayed the same error message.

"What? It can't go wrong! I haven't changed my PIN recently", I wondered. Fortunately, the ATM was located next to a branch of the bank. I entered the bank and proceeded towards help desk. 

"My ATM card is not working. I am getting an authentication failure error message", I gave my ATM card to a representative sitting at the desk asking for his assistance. He took my ATM card, observed it for a while and said, "Sir, this is 1st bank, and you have an account with 1st national bank".

Damn! How did I miss this!

Mistake # 2:

After waiting in the rush hour queue at a post office for about half an hour, I went to a counter when my turn came.

"Hi, how may I help you today?", the clerk at the counter asked me with a cheerful smile on his face.

"I have printed out a stamp for shipping this parcel. Could you please assist me with shipping?"

The clerk took the stamp from me, observed it for a while and said, "Sir, you have printed a UPS stamp. This is USPS".

Seriously, how did I miss this!

Dreadful risk

I was welcomed officially today at the Colorado State University after about two months since I joined here as a postdoc research scholar. The orientation program welcoming all the newly recruited faculty/staff started with complimentary breakfast snacks and coffee/tea. Presentations were made explaining in brief various benefits and resources CSU has to offer. Presentations which has the information I was looking for for the past couple of months; the vital information for which I ran from pillar to post to understand and apply.

My wife's medical report came a day before we were planning to leave India to join as a postdoc in CSU. Her report confirmed that she is pregnant. First trimester risks due to extensive traveling, fatigue due to sitting for a long time in the same posture, nausea, and vomiting because of pregnancy hormones were some of the things my near and dear ones talked about at this time. With such a situation, traveling within the country was not recommended, leave alone the question of flying abroad. I had a decision to make then; take up a new job in my country and take good care of my wife with the support from family and friends, or leave abroad with the wife to accept the postdoc offer.

I was aware then that whatever decision I take would change my life forever, a change that would eternally reflect in my personal character in future. It would have been a lot easier for me then to choose the "right" path, a path that was suggested by my well-wishers. After all, they care about our well being, don't they?

I questioned my destiny trying to find which path to choose. One thing I like about destiny is it never commands. It allows us to take a pen and paper and write it by ourselves. Often, we aren't bold enough to take a pen and paper and ask someone else to write our destiny. The ones who take a bold step to explore the path less traveled are the ones who have experienced life. Success is only a nickname given to this experience.

I decided to take the path less traveled, a dreadfully risky path though. Taking a path less traveled would give me an opportunity to clear off the obstacles on the path by myself, molding me into a more responsible person. When I made my decision, my bank balance was just enough to apply for a visa and buy tickets to travel. A thought never occurred to me then to save some money for a return, just in case something unexpected was to happen (Cortés would be happy to hear this!)

With not enough savings to return, we started a new life from scratch. I ran from pillar to post and found procedures to apply for insurance, finding a doctor, filing new papers for paying taxes and lot more. There were some moments during this phase when I felt it's worth going back and take the path that has no unique footmarks. Those were the testing moments which I could overcome successfully, thanks to the love and support from my wife.

Has my decision changed me to a more responsible person now? Is the destiny that was scripted by myself kind enough not to punish me harshly for my actions? It's too early to find answers to these questions now. But what I do know for sure is that the path less traveled is not as dreadful as I thought earlier.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, our complimentary lunch will be served at the Long's Peak Dining Room", a personnel from training department made an announcement concluding the orientation session formally. With that announcement the crowd dispersed, and so did my reverie.

A post a day...

Of late, I realized that I have not been updating my blog consistently; writer's block or careless attitude,  whatever!

But one thing is for sure. I have not decided to quit writing, and would continue to write here as I had promised earlier. I must confess though that a thought occurred to me in the meantime to give separate spaces for some of the topics. But that is when I realized that 317 cauvery is like a big family and each topics are like the members of a joint family with myself as its head. Giving separate space for some of the topics would only mean I failed to fulfill my duty as the head of my family.

My blog had reached a stage where it needs a boost to revitalize and regain the past vigor. "A post a day..." (until this year end) is in line with this thought. An apple a day had certainly kept many people from their doctors away. However, I believe, a post a day would only bring my followers closer to me than before, and would encourage new followers to become a part of my family.

A lot of things had happened since my blog met my stepmotherly (fatherly?) treatment. I'm going to try writing about some of the interesting experiences I had starting from the days towards my marriage to turbulent October when I took the dreadful risk I would never forget in my lifetime. All I need now is a large dose of motivation. A post a day is only a part from the large dose, your encouragements will do the rest.

What's in the name?

If you have a big name like what I have, you would have probably faced problems when you tried to introduce yourself in a social gathering, especially if the people who have gathered for a social meeting were from different parts of the world.

Some people call me as Jam, while some prefer to call me as Ramanujam. On official occasions, I address myself as Srinivasa.

Today, while I was about to introduce myself as Jam to a new friend of mine I met at the Friday Afternoon Club, a friend of mine found me from the crowd, walked towards us and said "Hey Srinivasa! Good to see you again after two years", shaking my hands.

"Well, you can call me as Srinivasa or Ramanujam or in short, Jam", I told my new friend. "I'm sorry, I will probably remember Jam, but not any of your other names", he smiled apologetically.

When I introduce myself as Jam, some people would ask me to repeat it twice to make sure they got it right. To them, I would say, "Yes, you got that right. It's like bun butter jam" with a smile. While some people would assume they got it right and later call me as Jim or Gem.

People from outside India often times find it difficult to pronounce my name, much like the way I find with their names. Recently, I had to talk to a mobile company's customer care representative to change my mobile plan. After so much effort in trying to pronounce my name, the customer care representative asked me to spell it out so that she can type it in her database. As soon as I finished spelling the first half of my first name, I did not offer the representative to note down the second half. It took almost five minutes for her to get the first half and we haven't even started working towards the main issue of changing my mobile plan!

After fifteen minutes, the customer care representative said she had changed my mobile plan successfully. "You can visit our website to know about the new plan details", she added. After I hung up my call, curiosity got into me and made me log in to their website. 

I was amused when I saw the website welcoming me as FRINI DAFA! Though I wanted to correct my name, there was no option to edit my account. "After all, what's in the name?", thinking that way, I consoled myself.

I've moved!

317 cauvery, the place which was dear to my heart in real world for the past four years no longer homes me! I'm done with my Ph.D. and so have to move out in continuous quest for a better life.

But no! I have decided not to move from 317cauvery, the place which is also dear to my heart, but in cyber world! I'll continue to share my thoughts, register my ideas, chronicle my experiences, share my travel diaries, review books and films, publish short stories (Yes, I'm aware that I haven't finished some of the series!) and so on.

Way to go! So, do keep coming along :)

A man in uniform

There was a huge crowd at the Gandhi Mandapam bus stop when I reached. 21G, the Tambaram bound bus didn't arrive for the past half an hour, I gathered from a stranger who was waiting to board the same bus.

Knowing that the next few buses would be filled to the brim, I decided to wait and thought about various ways to kill my time. At a corner of the bus stop, I noticed a soup seller who was doing good business, thanks to the overwhelming crowd. I walked to the mobile soup shop and found a slate on which the soup seller had written the varieties that were on offer for that day.

"Vegetable soup, Plantain pith soup, Mushroom soup. Each for Rs. 10 only", the notice said. I ordered a plantain pith soup for myself and observed the seller. He appeared to be in his late thirties, with a thick mustache and curly hairs which had just started to gray. He took my order with a smile on his face, picked up a plastic cup, stirred the soup in a steel pot and filled the cup till it was nearly full. He then peppered the top and dressed it with corn flakes.

"Good evening Sir!", the soup seller addressed a man in uniform while he was serving my soup. "Plantain pith soup is on the menu, Sir. Would you like to have a cup today?", he asked. The man in uniform approved the offer with a nod.

By the time the man in uniform parked his bike nearby and walked to the mobile shop, the soup seller had kept the soup ready for him. "Parcel a cup of vegetable soup", he ordered while he was still savoring the plantain pith soup.

"Will men in uniform have a commanding voice even when they are off duty?", I wondered.

After having the soup, the man in uniform collected the parcel, took his bike and fled. When I was about to ask the soup maker "Did he pay his bill?", he muttered under his breath, "these type of people should be stoned to death in public", venting out his anger.

"Last week, he charged me Rs. 400 for skipping a signal! I even showed him all the documents I had, you know?", a stranger who had ordered a soup joined the row. The stranger finished his soup, threw the plastic cup in a fenced area, paid his bill and left. I overlooked the pile of used plastic cups to find a notice board that says "Thiyagigal Manimandapam", a memorial for freedom fighters.

I paid my bill and was about to leave when I asked the soup seller, "Why didn't you ask him to pay his bill?"

"He will ask me to leave this place", he said in a casual tone.

When I asked him why, he replied, "I don't have a permit to run my shop here!".