Aai – Baba, Mazhe suttiche divas!

Things were different earlier. My mom would shudder at every message Windows would spit out when she switched on the computer and tried to access the net. As we are all aware of Window’s brilliance at throwing out pointless messages, it is an easy assumption that my mom gave up her attempts to catch up with her son’s life at that point. She now waited for my dad to be a knight in Microsoft armor.

While my dad is a little more proficient then my mom he also lacks enthusiasm for the net. Yet on mom’s request the computer gets turned on. However, when dialing up to get online my dad realizes that he hasn’t been able to finish game # 2331679 of solitaire. Rest is history. My blog now remains unread.

I consider my blog as a pseudo email that highlight the bigger things in my life. While most of my posts seem like wasted web space to my parents, they still like reading and making sure I am alive and well.

But now, Conditions have changed drastically. My mom no longer needs dad to give windows a spanking. She sees a message and banishes it with an ‘ok’ or ‘cancel’ with utter contempt. Blast you Gates, I need to get on line. So you can take you beloved operating system and donate another $3.5 million to the poor.

This now puts pressure on me to update my blog more regularly. And not just post nonsensical rhetorical yardage but more specific real world posts! So, in order to calm my wonderful creators I have decided, in typical eight grade level work, to write a small essay on how I spent my Christmas break.

My break began with a long drive through Pennsylvania, across blasted Ohio, Indiana and then down through Illinois. Praveen just started working there and we decided to meet up, like we do, each year, we have known each other. I reached in about 10 hrs. 600 miles in 10 hrs, not terribly good, but yet, I managed to set me longest-driven-one-way in a day record. Dad, you must note that I have now officially defeated your 1996-1997 record of Pune-Bangalore. However, driving that long in India cannot be compared to straight driving on the interstates here.

Reaching late night, Praveen was kind enough to have butter chicken ready for me. I was amazed by his cooking skills and continued chomping away on the food! I was tired but I sure did not feel like it. His new car, the black Acura TSX, was thoroughly inspected. He showed me where he worked and the road where he went to speed. He really is my clone, albeit a bad one. Eventually, we managed to tire ourselves by 0300 and finally hit the sack. This was then to set the tempo for sleeping times for the ten days that followed.

The next morning we pretty much slept through. I woke up, bright and early, at about 1300. I automatically headed to his kitchen to get my morning dose of caffeine when I remembered the bitter truth. My friend did not like coffee, tea or any of that wonderful brown stuff. Furthermore, the fridge was pretty empty. No Milk! After butter chicken last night, I found this to be a complete shock. It goes without saying then that day was useless to me.

I stumbled through the day as he showed me Peoria, Illinois. It was your typical winter afternoon. A shade lighter then the ambience found in dungeons… There wasn’t much to see in the city and so we hit ‘Wal-Mart’. When all else fails, Wal-Mart will continue to shine. The day then was rescued by getting supplies for the fridge and stocking up for Christmas day when everything in this country shuts down. We allocated that day as a day of staying in and making tons of food! I was to make shrimp, curry and ‘sukka’. Most other days were filled by watching Top Gear Videos and talking cars, buying furniture and making Wal-Mart a regular feature. As much fun there is with two old friends just sitting around, I doubt any body else would be interested.

Route 66 was good fun. We drove on the interstate till we could get off and join the old US Highway 66. Our in car conversations were brilliant. We both realized we have grown much older and life has gotten much more intricate. We drove till we got bored and then drove back. I was so glad that she had seen the route 66.

The Gateway Arch at St Louis was undoubtedly the highlight of the city. While it stood a good 600 feet tall, such heights now fail to impress me. I guess all those rollercoaster’s and falling out of planes has raised the bar too high, literally. Yet, like any American historian, I managed to make a big deal of the arch as we went up through the curved pod like elevators! But in all seriousness, the arch from the outside is magnificent. This was my first equilateral triangle construction and the steel plates that lined the concrete arch shined gleefully in the sunlight.

Next on the list was Snow tubing. Some of Praveen’s friends had come over from Texas and had never witnessed snow before. So what better then taking them to mounds of snow and then hurtling them down on inflated rubber tubes. It was a lot of fun. And no mom, it wasn’t dangerous. Four year olds were showing us how to do tricks on those snow slides. To them I had this to say, “You are still young and there’s a lot you have to go through.” The kids now days don’t seem to care. For those who are more inclined to see/hear what it felt like, feel free to download the video I captured on my way down.

New Year’s Eve was spent at Chicago. The view atop the Sears tower again failed to impress. Blame the Chicago clouds I guess. However, I managed to get a very comic book feel picture from outside as shown here. Then, as hunger set we went on to have the famous stuffed pizzas at Giordano’s. Finally, we set out on to the Navy Pier where fireworks were lined up for midnight.
The city looked great when the clouds cleared out and the fireworks ensured that no expense was spared. Boom- Boom – Boom and lo, behold, just like that I turned older!

The next day we drove home (Peoria) where I treated myself to a new black shirt (I have lost count) and a nice dinner! Since I had another 600 miles trip to Erie lined up next day we both decided that we would hit the sack early. So, as per plan, we went for a movie. ‘Syriana’ is a great movie and must not be missed. More Top gear videos, more ‘Need for Speed’ on the computer and more stupid future talk later, I finally slept at 0500. So much so for the early to bed and early to rise plan… My trip to Erie was completed in 9 hours and 45 minutes. I was sure I could improve on that time further but may be later.

And that’s that. A nice long break…Now, my next goal is to visit the west coast. And, not pretentious LA, but the naturally gifted north California and San Francisco!