Little Miss Sunshine!!

A pinch of salt, a spoonful of sugar,a mixture of condiments,a dollop of cream... so are my stories, so are my dreams!

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Somebody's out to get me!




It's been one month since I have arrived at US and finally I have realised what Calvin means when he says

Hobbes : "Do you think there's a God?"
Calvin : "Well somebody's out to get me!"

Well somebody's out there to get me too!!! wasn't I brought up with this ideal that Chennai was the hottest place on earth???? Well that has been proved wrong... there is a place hotter than Chennai where people walk miles and miles to reach Wal-mart.

However I have seen the spacesuit Neil Armstrong wore when he landed on the moon and what kind of life they lead on the spaceship. A trip to the local space research centre was very informative and almost like the mini Disneyland with roller coasters and g-force rides... we were told that "Harry potter and the order of the phoenix" will be screened in the Imax theatre specially for the University students and we ended up watching "the magic of flight"; a visual replica of Jonathan Livingston Seagull written by Richard Bach.

Remember the existence of a word called "FREE" in the oxford dictionary? well wherever that comes up, u can see all of the Indian graduate students waiting in queues(including me of course!).... free food, free picnic, free chocolates and what not. There used to be(I'm using past tense here) free Hersheys chocolates available outside the admin block when i first stepped into the university... well lets just say they don keep them anymore!

The houses here almost transport you to a bygone era. Sometimes you wonder if you have just set foot upon a day in the past. I never thought houses with such huge lawns and nearly two mammoth sized Christmas trees could exist within the city in this era. just when you have been walking, walking and walking for nearly forty minutes, one of those old ladies watering the grass waves at you and asks "hey how are you doing?"... you begin to wonder if time indeed has stood still in this part of the world(and also you wish she would offer you a cookie!)

Another great thing is the fact that you get to meet people from so many different parts of the world. It gives you a macroscopic view of the world and broadens your perspective about the humankind. We begin to understand the fundamental strengths and abilities that a human being does possess irrespective of the country they hail from.

After a hiatus of nearly 10 years, I'm riding a bicycle to my university since the motto here is "you either have your own means of transport or you die!". Well on the positive side we do have sidewalks to ride or walk unlike in Chennai where platforms only mean platform shopping at T.nagar, which is one of the integral cogs in the Chennai living scenario.

I guess that's enough about me so how have u been doing? :-)


P.S: the pic at the beginning of the blog is a house near my place that i absolutely love.

17 Comments:

  • At September 6, 2007 at 11:54 AM , Blogger Ajay said...

    Hey hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii,
    As usual the first to comment. Hey awesome.... glad to see ur blog back on track after a very long gap... Extremely jealous to hear that u got free chocolates... that too at will :-((.Delighted to know that ur house or apartment is more like a mansion.. Enjoy...It reminds me of Old Dracula movies.... Scary!!!!!!!!... And finally cycle vangirukke ok.. Ottatheriyuma??????

     
  • At September 6, 2007 at 1:08 PM , Blogger Anu said...

    deeeeeeeeeeeei
    i had a mongoose cycle when i was a kid... rode it for an year before i called it quits. so not bad i do know something. Here no one bothers how you ride a bicycle etc... so i ride it the only way i know to

    i got free choco but since they saw an empty basket every day, they stopped filling it!! :-(

    One of the things i like about this place is the space... loads and loads of free space!

    Anyways thanks for being the first to comment! :-)

     
  • At September 6, 2007 at 7:46 PM , Blogger cm chap said...

    you either have your own means of transport or you die! - Damn True....

    BTW.. I will nvr travel to Albama till u confirm you have learnt bi-cycle riding... Last thing I want is a cycle hitting me ;-)

    Exptg snaps with ur cycle....

     
  • At September 6, 2007 at 8:40 PM , Blogger Anu said...

    @cm-chap
    He he lol!!

    seriously i know to drive dude!

    will mail u the pics :-)

     
  • At September 7, 2007 at 5:54 AM , Blogger Kartik said...

    Hey Anu nice one.... N that's a beautiful house... With your next post add photos of your apartment, ur school n also ur cycle or atleast mail dem 2 me!

     
  • At September 7, 2007 at 10:55 AM , Blogger Karthik Balasubramanian said...

    sweet living area.. u shud see the dump i live in.. chicago is still more like madras to me.. hurried life.. cramped living spaces.. but we do have lots and lots of public transport..

     
  • At September 7, 2007 at 11:30 AM , Blogger Divya said...

    Hey ! taz a good one and by the way u've mentioned something called the "local space research centre"........darling taz wat USA calls as NASA space research centre, taz the only thing we have in h'ville to put us on the US maps.

     
  • At September 7, 2007 at 12:07 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

    hai anu,
    it was awesome to see your blog once again. It is very beautiful to see the description of the landscape. Your experience during the visit to Space Station, about the word "FREE" was highly humorous. continue your poetic writing with a tinge of humour.
    Expect you to give more and more blogs in the days to come....

    MOM and DAD

     
  • At September 7, 2007 at 1:45 PM , Blogger Anu said...

    @bka
    glad to know u liked the blog!

    @karthik
    Big cities are always cramped... btw im blogrolling u

    @divya
    Well that was an added sarcasm in the passage...

    @dad
    thanks a lot!!! keep reading!

     
  • At September 8, 2007 at 12:18 PM , Blogger navien said...

    Hey gud one!!It s nice to read abt all ur experiences there. True it is there's a different world out there..Enjoy!!!! And ur house s so beautiful and located in a scenic location...Good to c u back blogging.Keep dem comin..

     
  • At September 8, 2007 at 7:16 PM , Blogger Anu said...

    @navien
    Thanks to your encouragement i have already updated it yet again this week!! :-)

     
  • At September 16, 2007 at 4:30 AM , Blogger adithya said...

    hey loved your opening lines where you quoted Calvin… it just totally gels with the whole blog.. and sets in the right picture a bout what u r gonna say.. :) and hey guess whaty I was also brought up with the same image.. and I really really cant imagine that there could be a place hotter than Chennai you know and honestly cant imagine that in the great U…S… OF… A.. one would have to walk miles for Walmart.. looks like I was brought up with the wrong image about USA too :)

    And hey spacesuit of Armstrong.. space research centre..and Harry potter screening looks like u have lived it up pretty much inspite of travelling constraints.. and hey that “free” thing really got me laughing.. wooow.. so true.. a few days ago one of my friends was talking abou this place in Germany where there is a chocolate fountain {yeah u heard it right }. Apparently “inspite” of the fountain flowing endlessly only the Indians would be crowding around it with as many as three to four breadstick to dip it and then redip it .. and then re-re-re- dip.. and surprisingly the “ Indians” included people in Business suits… :)

    And hey to me reading the last two paragraphs was like walking in a dream.. cant think of houses like that… true.. should be soke by-gone era.. and hey funny thing about transport though.. one thing is for sure.. I don’t think people there will have to worry about watching their weight :)

     
  • At September 18, 2007 at 2:32 PM , Blogger Anu said...

    @adi

    Whoa! chocolate fountain!!! that's like every child's dream :-) Indians do behave the very same world wide...don they!!!

    btw the heat has reduced due to the advent of fall season.

    ppl sure don have to watch their weight, unless and until u buy a car... i have lost 2 kgs since i came here! :-)

     
  • At September 23, 2007 at 6:52 PM , Blogger Swati said...

    It's gr8 to read ur xperiences & feel them...only diff is dat i replace 'chennai' to 'vizag'...
    hmmm! indeed, worth reading...

     
  • At October 5, 2007 at 8:34 AM , Blogger Dhivya said...

    Good work Anu! and very funny! Its always nice to read ppl's experiences when they first arrive in the US.

    I totally agree with you about all the free stuff- we grad students have a sixth sense of knowin where they are giving out freee stuff! :)

     
  • At October 5, 2007 at 8:34 AM , Blogger Dhivya said...

    Good work Anu! Very funny! Its always nice to read ppl's experiences when they first arrive in the US.

    I totally agree with you about all the free stuff- we grad students have a sixth sense of knowin where they are giving out freee stuff! :)

     
  • At October 5, 2007 at 6:15 PM , Blogger Anu said...

    @swati
    glad u like it!!! welcome n keep visiting :-)

    @dhivya
    thx dude... yeah surely we do have a sixth sense for it :-)

    do keep visiting!

     

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