Ice Storm & I

Yesterday was nice.

I was on medication for cold - Have been making my mornings super drowsy. Woke up just in time for my 9:30. The same old rut. Was on calls till 11. Reached work at 12. Almost immediately went for lunch. That's when I was told about an impending ice storm. Vow! Nearly the entire office was vacant by 14:00. Me left around 14:30 with MC. The campus was super slippery. Main roads weren't too bad. Temperatures hovered around 32F (0 Celcius). Went straight to Kroger to get bread and milk. Ended up buying a lot more.

Got Home. Connecting to the VPN was a big hassle. But somehow managed. Quite eerie ... Wasn't receiving any mails ... I thought something's wrong with Outlook (Oh ya ... Lots wrong with my Outlook ... But, for a change I am talking about MS Outlook, the mail program) .... But nah ... no one was working it seems ..... Cool - It was an early COB ... Do I like that?! :-)

I did some Chatting (3 girls simultaneously - Ain't I good :)), Reading (Blogs), Saw a Movie (Deadline), Listened to music (Kabul Express is Rocking!), Watched Television (Sanjay Dutt case), Cooked (Vegetable Soup), Did the kitchen and all that.
All this done and the hour hand on the clock was not pointing to heavens. Silly me read more blogs and slept only at 2 :)

Wondered to myself - What an awesome day - Completely enjoyable - Can I live like this everyday?!

"Yesterday was nice"

No, it was great. Rather, it was brilliant ....!!

Watched a Movie

Watched a movie yesterday night.
Movie: Deadline 24 Ghante
Featuring: Kokona Sen Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Rajit Kapur, Sandhya Mridul et al
Review: http://the-review-point.blogspot.com/

There You Go ..!

Right. Here I am - This is me! All too easy for a blog description. My first attempt on a personal blog post. Never thought I would be doing this. What the heck? Let me just give it a shot. No agenda. No motive. No nothing. Just key in whatever I feel like. Vow! Sounds fun ... Lets see how long this thing goes from here.

It has been quite an awesome last week - The Thanksgiving Holiday Week. For a change I wasn't working during the holidays this year. I took a day off from office and flew for Orlando, FL on Tuesday afternoon. BG and SG flew from Washington DC; AA and fly drove from Atlanta - All of them reached there are couple of days before AKS and myself. They cribbed about all the troubles they had while checking in to the villa we had rented for the entire week.

AKS flew from Dallas and met me in Hartsfield, Atlanta where I had a 4 hr stopover. I had resisted myself from carrying my laptop during this trip - My first such trip for nearly 2 years I guess. And guess what - Surprise Surprise!! I survived. I actually could live without the laptop and with nothing to do at the airport (Except of course my favourite pastime of observing people and having to hide that smirk all the time). Confession: I did have my cellphone with me and I accessed gmail and some websites (at snail's pace - Sprint rules)

Reached on time. No hassles with the luggage. All of us were meeting up after nearly 3 years. Tuesday night we slept at 5 am and woke up at 8 am on Wednesday to leave for Magic Kingdom. Oh ya ... We had a sumptuous breakfast in the morning thanks to the ladies. These guys had purchased tons of things to eat from an Indian Store .... Worth $200 .... Un-Freakin-Believable .... But it helped!!

The next few days were quite simply unforgettable. An awesome trip. Naaah ... Disney was ok .... and so was Universal. But, we were unbeatable. Unstoppable. Hardly slept over 3-4 hrs everyday . So much to talk. So many things to discuss. Gossip. Global Issues. Leg Pulling. The camaraderie hadn't diminished even a but with time.

A short list of things we discussed:

• Life in India v/s Life in the US (At least five thousand times everyday)
• Relationships and the Cultural Divide
• Arranged and Love Marriage and Kids and Life before and after each
• Eduction Framework in India v/s US
• Business Ideas - How can we start our own big venture
• Office News (Just AA and I are in the same company where we all started out)
• Career Path

Each discussion must have gone on well beyond 3-4 hrs. All shouting to the top of our voices. I was on medication. I could barely talk but was still shouting. Wonder where I got my energy from. Super Brilliant!!

Sunday morning AKS dropped BG, SG and me to Orlando Airport. BG and SG had missed their flight and were put on stand-by for the next flight. Luckily, I was on time. But by the time I was to board they flight, they stopped me. The flight was overbooked and they didn't have place for me inspite of them having issued me a boarding pass with a seat #. I was put on stand-by for my flight from Orlando to Atlanta and onward to Kansas City. Got confirmed for the Atlanta Flight. But wasn't lucky for the 2nd leg of my journey. Realised stand-by is no good. The airline offered me a confirmed flight only after 48 hrs. Luckily PP and fly were travelling back from Dallas to Kansas the same day. I took a confirmed flight to Wichita which is on route for PP. But he had to wait a good 4 to 5 hrs before seeing my face (I am sure he would never have been happier to see me at the airport .... Must be thinking why he accepted my call!!) But, really, it was very kind of him to save me the hassle. So, Jimit Shah reached home at 3 am instead of 12 noon. An 11 hr long harrowing experience in Atlanta airport. But, I kept reminding myself that this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Live it. Face it. Enjoy it. And so I did. I am so proud of myself. Can anyone else do something like this?? Maybe I am crazy!! But I love being like this ... :-) I called a thousand people from the airport. Caught up with old friends. Made friends with people at the airport. Kept thinking. Was fun. I was alone (Remember not even my laptop to keep me company)

A nice trip. Really Memorable. Unforgettable due to so many reasons.