There's no food like home food!

My roomies and I had somehow managed to get through the first month here with this brand of thai rice called "3 ladies" whose categorization as rice is highly questionable. Trust me, it tastes more like soft pebbles than rice. My tastebuds had gone into a coma! Then, enter "Ponni raw rice" (courtesy the indian store in minneapolis)- the same rice i used to have at home. I suddenly rediscovered my appetite! Eat it with sambar, rasam, pulikachal, curd.............everything tasted better! Suddenly everything in the world seemed nicer and almost heavenly. Home food makes all the difference. I'm never going back to that crappy thai cereal masking itself as rice. I wish my supply of powders and spices that I brought from home could last forever!!

This one is for my mom. Amma, thank you for every home cooked meal that you have ever prepared for me!!!

I've been itching to say this

I finally got myself to post an entry about something that i truly enjoy - sport. I thought this article on sachin that i found on rediff was an appropriate place to start. The article expresses the exact sentiment that I've had about sachin's game better than I could ever try to. So, just sit back and enjoy the article.
Wanted: Tendulkar of old

The author of this article has a nice blog on cricket at Beer, chips and cricket

Stand up comedy!

This weekend was fun! Soccer or footer as they call it here is exciting. A bunch of friends and me went over to st.paul for a game on saturday. We played for the international team and they were quite good. some africans as well. they are really quick. a couple of europeans who know how to play the game the way it should be played. We were found wanting and woefully short of practice.
I think i should do it more often!

Saturday night is usually filled with expectation and then it bombs. i usually end up doing laundry. This saturday was much better though! I had my first experience of stand up comedy and it was awesome! I've always likes spontaneous comedy......(hell, whose line is it anyway is my favorite show) but this exceeded my expectations. The comic was simply fabulous. He could make fun of just about anything and anyone without being dirty or politically incorrect. simply awesome! cant wait to see another show!

Rahman Teases with the power of music!

I had completely lost touch with indian music until the genius of a.r.rahman revived my sense of sound again. I just saw the promo of Swades(his next release in hindi) online and it simply rocks! The theme just grows on you and stops suddenly leaving you begging for more. It is almost entrancing!! Ah........can't wait for the audio release on the 26th. Doesn't this remind you a lot of the first lagaan promo where a small bit from 'ganan ganan' is played. That was so captivating! and why shouldn't it be similar coz its rahman and ashutosh gowarikar again who have come together for swades........only this time its the inimitable shahrukh in the lead.
For those fortunate souls in India stay tuned to sony or zee to catch a glimpse of the trailer. The rest will just have to watch streaming video at radiosargam.com

Now I listen to the CDs I brought from India all day to keep myself charged. I'm never leaving home without arjun's mp3 player again!!!

My new tap shoes!

Don't they look neat!!
Actually, i'm realizing how challenging tap dancing can be. But its a lot of fun. The sound that the shoes make is so unique. Today, our instructor showed us the routine we are going to learn and perform by the end of the semester and trust me it was phenomenal! There is no way I can learn that but he seems to think otherwise. I'm well on my way to being the next Michael Flatley(i wish!!!!). Oh, and Riverdance (the irish dancing troupe) are coming to minneapolis in november. Yeah!! They are the reason I wanted to learn tap on the first place. Thanksgiving is going to be one heck of a weekend!

India is pervasive!

Yesterday, i went swimming at the recreation(rec) centre. I was doing laps and the guy in the neighboring lane comes up to me at the end of a lap and says hi. since both of us were taking a breather we got into a conversation. Bill Wealy (i think that was his name) was a local and was teaching management at the business school here although he is an attorney by profession. so anyway, he suddenly says "ninne kannada gotthu, numke kannada solpa solpa gotthu" and i'm like Oh my god!! is this really happening to me. Here is a quintessential minnesotan trying to converse with me in fluent Kannada. It was almost embarassing as my knowledge of Kannada was far less than his. Turns out he had lived in Raichur for more than 20 years. Here he is telling me how beautiful the city of Belgaum is and how bangalore has developed and I was just frozen there listening to him in amazement. It seemed he was very fond of karnataka from the way he was describing it. He says he will go back there again. Then we went on to topics which were much closer to minneapolis like skiing and the winters and the conversation looked more like one between a local and a foreigner!! phew!

What can I say...........India and its presence are ubiquitous!!

What I'd give for a TV!!

So, the long weekend dawned on me full of expectation albeit a bit late coz i woke up at noon after the emergency room debacle the previous night. so i was looking forward to a weekend of fun filled with games, a trip to the state fair and maybe even a taste of downtown. wishful thinking!!! turned out that most of the guys here were out in on hiking trips in various parts of the US. and with arjun out cold i was left stranded with nothing to do.

i realized that all a man needs are a TV and a computer for entertainment. I always knew i was dependent on them but only when you start having enough time to stare out of the window and see the rains come down like never before for more than 4 hours do you realize that you are addicted to it. I miss watching sitcoms and movies, browsing online(the only thing i do online now is check and reply to mails). I realized that I'm completely disconnected with the world when i found out that india had won a cricket match two days ago and i came to know of it only now. its almost pathetic to see that I have completely lost touch with what i truly love(sport, in case your wondering). but i will try to stay updated on campus where i will atleast have access to the internet. And maybe the occasional basketball game once the season begins. Right now I'm watching paes and navratilova dismantling sharapova and mirnyi and waiting for justine's match to begin. it feels like heaven!! i just dont want to go home!! hail the man who invented the television(i think that would be a gentleman named baird)

so atleast i've salvaged something out of this miserable weekend. Cant wait for classes to begin. My first tap dancing lesson is tomorrow. Will keep you posted on that!

The definition of the term 'Emergency'


The US medical system is known for its ridiculously high-priced service. But atleast we were supposed to get our money's worth. Well, unfortunately as we found out first hand that is not the case. I dont know if every emergency medical facility is as bad as the one we went to on Friday to treat a friend of mine who went over his ankle(i pray they aren't) but this must have been one of the worst.

It was 11 in the night when we figured out where the place was after much confusion with the lady in the emergency helpline. Sheesh, we should have guessed then that this wasn't going to be pretty. Anyway, the place itself seemed to have all the facilities to treat emergency cases. But as soon as we entered the fact that the triage nurse made us wait more than 1/2 hr before attending to him was the sign of things to come. Finally she came back with an icepack, placed it on his foot and said "unless you have blood oozing out of your body you will have to wait" and that usually patients having heart attacks or open deep wounds would be given preference! was she kidding? i assure you she wasn't. After a bit of paperwork which was basically an personal information quiz which included questions like "would you like to state your religious preference?". What the hell........the guy is in a lot of pain and ur sitting here wondering which religion he believes in. I mean come on.......this is an emergency facility and clearly this was a medical emergency. Dont they know that?

He was finally ushered in only to be quizzed again this time by the triage nurse about questions on his medical history. This also included the most ridiculous question of all. " On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate your pain". was she trying to torture him. This was outrageous. and as if this wasn't enough he was given a chart with grades of pain ranging from mild to severe to unbearable. All this while we were wondering if all this trouble was worth it.

It wasn't for the lack of nurses or doctors but nobody seemed to care. The guy was dying of hunger now coz he had been told by the lady on the phone not to eat anything until he was checked up. Now that the doctored had OKed him to take some food we asked the nurse for some vegetarian food. She promptly brought a frozen banana, a few crackers and juice! Well, if the insurance didn't cover all this we would have sued for mental and emotional trauma in order to pay for this visit.

By the time we left it was 3:30 in the morning and we now realize how important it is to stay healthy and not get involved in any serious injury...............else our fate would be sealed........literally!!

NEW APARTMENT

As you already know I just moved into my new apartment and i love it. Its a spacious two bedroom with a nice view on to the road. I dont know my neighbors yet but by the look of things they seem cool. most of them are students both desi and american.
The apartment itself looks clean and furnished. I will upload photos soon. The kitchen is handy as it comes with a lot of storage space, a garbage disposal and a dishwasher.........yey!! and the bus that comes outside takes me right to my department.

Well, labor day weekend is coming up so maybe i'll goto the state fair that is going on here. The last weekend of fun before i buckle down into some serious studies. So i'm quite looking forward to it. I'm quite looking forward to the classes as I will get an opportunity to make some non-desi friends for a change!! oh, and did i mention that i'm also planning to take a course on tap dancing. it will be an audit but its bound to be interesting. i hope i dont break any bones.