Freeways

Freeways, American highways. Are highways really at some elevation? I suppose not. The word freeway is true to its meaning, no interfering traffic lights except the exit and entrance ramp.

Americans drive on the right side of the road with driver seat on the left. Hence the left most lane is for fast moving vehicles and for overtaking as well. In the state of California the left lane is known as HOV or carpool lane. HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lane is meant for vehicles having two or more passengers.

The right most lane is for slow moving trucks. I recall one of our acquaintance’s comment, “Goonda Truck”, which aptly describes these gigantic container trucks. In fact all trucks are pulling containers, maybe it is easier to dump containers in warehouse and ports, rather than loading and unloading goods in the body of the truck.

The trucks have speed limit of fifty five miles per hour on freeways while cars can drive up to seventy miles per hour. All measurements are totally different. It will require a separate blog post to write about it.

At successive intervals, sign boards flash speed limit and also mention radar enforced or aircraft enforced. Sometimes I do notice helicopter hovering over freeway, may be it is measuring speed of vehicles moving down under. But it always amazes me how speed is measured of fast moving objects, at a particular instance. I have still to learn how exactly laser gun works.

Some times one does find a highway patrol cop issuing a ticket (chalaan) for over-speeding and other traffic violations. One more thing, drink and driving is called DUI, driving under the influence.

The interstate highways are well numbered. Those running north-south are odd numbers, while even number freeways run east-west. Here the things are so very straightforward. The mantra is K.I.S.S. Keep it simply stupid. The street addresses also follow some sort of same pattern. On one side of the street are even numbers while on the other side are odd number addresses. It makes sense to me and easier to find new locations, be it office, shop or house.

Rest area is a good concept along the freeway, for travelers to take a break during long drives. Most of the rest areas have gas station, food joints and motels too for overnight stay. All signposts come far ahead to plan the exit. If the oncoming rest area is five miles ahead and next further away, say after forty miles. Signpost will mention both, for you to decide and take the exit accordingly.

Coined telephone boxes are found all along. So it can well be concluded freeways were built prior to the advent of cell phones. There is a fine of $1000 for littering around.

No street lighting, no lamp-post except the fluorescent reflectors all along the freeway. Driving without headlights is simply not possible during night. If there is a dark patch because of mountain range; it forewarns to turn on the headlight during the day as well.

Behind trucks you’ll find drivers wanted and also how I am driving today. It is a subtle approach for reporting bad drivers.

I got the opportunity to travel extensively in Unites States. It is fun and entertaining, but only up to three hundred miles or so. Long journeys tend to be tiring be it anywhere in the world, any mode of transport.

Showbiz India

*I request for a song online.

*A one hour long South Asian, primarily bollywood entertainment Showbiz India is generous enough to accept my request and air the song on Feb 7th.

*Prior to each song, the anchor announces the requester’s name and location, followed by greetings from the star in the song. Our very own Sanju baba says, “Hi, I am Sanjay Dutt and you are watching Showbiz India”.

*My friend is watching it in San Francisco.

*The song and phone starts ringing almost simultaneously. Dear friend is taken by surprise and seems excited as well. All seems unbelievable, though I did get a confirmation mail from showbiz team, accepting the request a day before.

The song I requested is Pal Pal from Lage Raho Munna Bhai. It is version two of old Cliff Richard song, Theme for a dream. It remains one of my favorites since I first heard almost over two decades back. The black and white video is available on YouTube, young Cliff performing on stage. A must watch, for sure you’ll like the lyrics and love the tune.

Namaste America

On a lazy Saturday morning (2006, Stamford, Connecticut), I get a call from one of my friend to switch on the television and browse the local channel. I followed the instructions and to my delight, bollywood music starts ringing in my ears.

Since then I have become ardent fan of Namaste America, a one hour infotainment each weekend. I am fortunate enough to get the broadcast along with regular cable connection, wherever we have been located.

It is a good mix of latest bollywood music, movie reviews, DVD releases and news from the Indian sub-continent. The most interesting part is behind the scene interviews like making of movies or making of a particular movie song or interview with bollywood stars who now more often premier their movies either in New York or Los Angeles.

It is an interactive program, one can online request for a song or a shoutout. A shoutout is a brief message for loved ones on his/her birthday or anniversary, read aloud by the anchor during the show. Here advertisements are called messages hence shoutout is used for, what we would call a message in plain English.

The advertisements are limited to that of two insurance companies, Nationwide and Farmers, of which most Indians are either customers or agents and of course Wal-Mart, the low price leader.

However much I read online Indian news, bollywood gossip and listen to songs and watch videos on youtube but the television program has altogether a different aura. It summarizes and presents bollywood and India in a nutshell. I can say with conviction, television programs are here to stay despite internet tsunami.

Forrest Gump

A post on fifteen year old movie seems outdated, when Indian film fraternity is going gaga over slumdog millionaire. There are valid reasons too, AR Rahman winning the golden globe, the Indian music with Rahman flavor getting international recognition, indeed an achievement…now back to Forrest Gump.(as I need to watch the movie first, before giving any further inputs)

Though I read the book and watched the movie long time back. I recall it today after reading a news snippet; Aamir Khan will remake Forrest Gump in Hindi. Of late, Aamir has got the latest bug of remaking Hollywood movies. After success of Ghajini, remake of Tamil movie which itself was an adaptation of Memento. All’s well that ends well.

The book, Forrest Gump, by Winston Groom is a good read and academy award winning movie is also awe-inspiring with Tom Hanks at his best performance. The story is about a boy with below average IQ, and how he struggles in life and slowly achieves everything; and wins over Jennie, his childhood sweetheart.

Prior to watching movie and reading book, I dined at Bubba Gump, a seafood restaurant, with specialty in shrimp. The prawns are known as shrimp here and are bigger in size, the big shrimps are sold as jumbo shrimps. The international restaurant chain is inspired from the movie.

The storyline portrays, Bubba, a friend of Forrest Gump, while Gump is enlisted in army during Vietnam war. Bubba always shared his dream of owning a shrimp business, but he succumbs to injuries during war. So Forrest starts the shrimp business to live upto his dreams.

I always wonder how life incidences connect. Everything seems related. Dinner at Bubba Gump, watching movie Forrest Gump, reading the same title and stumble upon bollywood gossip. All four incidences happening at different places at different point of time. I just tried to join few dots together and created this post.

Fortune cookie

Fortune cookie, the best description I can give, is a hollow bland ‘gujiya’ without any filling. The waiter serves it along with the bill in a Chinese restaurant. I find its shape close to bow ties.

It contains, on a piece of paper, one line fortune more like a maxim. My fortune cookie foretells – You will soon bring joy to someone.

We were in for the dinner, which happened to be a buffet. For dessert there was an array of colorful fresh fruit bowls, water-melon, cantaloupes, papaya, grapes, strawberry and mango. Maybe this is the secret of flawless glowing skin and shiny black, straight hair of Chinese people. So my three course meal was over and done with fruits only.

Two things I like about restaurants here, in general -
1. Upon entering any restaurant, the waiter or the manager or the owner of the restaurant greets and asks for the number of guests and accordingly ushers the guests to the table.

2. Most of the restaurants have lunch buffet. Buffet is a safe deal, no surprises and misadventure; there are several starters and desserts to savor and an assortment of main course meal. Accompanying drink needs to be ordered separately. You can have a sumptuous meal to your heart content in one flat rate.

Makar Sankranti

It is 8..30 pm January 14th, another day coming to end. In India it must be the next day after Sankranti. I recall it now as I open Helium.com; a site which I regularly contribute my writings to. It is amazing to find all featured articles on homepage dedicated to Sankranti.

The articles on topics as varied as faith tourism, the international kite festival and introduction to Hindu calendar; add on to the more quintessential articles on Sankranti celebrations in different regions like Lohri in Punjab and Pongal in Tamil Nadu.

The burgeoning Indian population is making Hindus ubiquitous. I had been celebrating Sankranti since childhood savoring til ke laddoos and Kichdi; even today I made for the occasion pretty edible laddoos, but the global importance and presence of Sankranti, I came to know today.

Please click on the picture, to see the article titles. I have really invested time on capturing the web page. First searched for the software; came across snagit, downloaded the trial version.It was okay till here but the actual usage of software, capturing a webpage and publishing in blog took me over two hours and here it goes.

Nifty Coke

The water was draining somewhat slowly. I had been observing it for quite a few days. Now the time had come to be proactive before the basin got totally choked.

I tried hands on it but the drain cap was reluctant to come off.

Second option was to log a call at rental office. The maintenance staff is rather prompt in service. They knock your door once and getting no response, after sufficient time, barge in; using a duplicate key. This is one of the things I detest being here; one key of the apartment is always with the owner as a federal law and remaining two with the tenant. It is always good to specify while lodging complaint, whether you want the work done in your absence or presence.

If not specified, Murphy’s Law just works fine. When the concern person knocks at your door, you will be either in the restroom or somewhere in between cooking or engross in a task which requires more due attention than responding to the door knock.

As my head was spinning with brilliant ideas my eye caught the solution, a pack of coke cans adorning a quiet corner of the dining space. Of late my hubby has become a huge soda addict. It is on top of the routine grocery list, lest we forget to purchase.

I took one full can and emptied the 355ml coke into the wash basin. The coke vanished in seconds as if the drain was never choked, unlike sluggish water which was taking its own sweet time to drain off.

Later turned on the faucet, of gushing hot water, for five minutes and soon everything was back to normal. Classic coke can do wonders.

At this juncture, I remembered Baba Ramdev’s saying, thanda matlab toilet cleaner; a twisted version of the famous ad line - thanda matlab coca cola. Doctors only might be knowing, what all the cola cleans or rather corrodes inside our body.

On the lighter note I would like to recollect the award winning coke ad – thanda matlab coca cola, created by advertising guru Mr. Prasoon Joshi.The tune to which Aamir Khan and the nepalese kancha dance in the ad, is that of a very popular Uttranchal folk song – “Bedu Paku Baaro maasa”.

Drinking Fountain

Winners don’t do different things, but do things differently. The quote is perfectly applicable to Americans.

We all know westerners eat food with spoons and forks.But what about water; yes they don’t cup hands as we do for drinking from a tap or faucet as they call it.

At all public places like parks, market place, airports or even at rest areas along the freeway, there is a drinking fountain, another fancy name for tap. But it is not just another ordinary faucet we have in our homes. On pushing the button, the water slowly squirts out like a fountain stream. One has to make a slight angle and the water directly dispenses inside the mouth.

Then down below, there is another push button accessible by foot. It is for adorable dogs and cats. The owner pushes the button and the pet quenches his thirst.

The old technology of, turning on and off taps is replaced by the new more convenient push button technology. There is no more wear and tear of washers which result in leaking taps. There are no dry fountains either. If there is a facility, water will be there.

It is hygienic too, once outdoors our hands touch so many different unclean things around. In aquariums, you will find a sanitizer near certain exhibits, where visitors are allowed to touch few species. A sanitizer is neither soap nor water but is some sort of germ killing gel, which vanishes after solving its purpose.

Living here, I have observed, the whole American research, focuses on, making lifestyle more and more comfortable.The inventions and discoveries I read in books are actually being implemented and extensively used here by one and all.

How People Identify Me

Incident 1
I stepped into dry-cleaners cum tailoring shop for altering my Capri pant. I was briefing about required length; the guy was taking measurements and et al. Amidst all this Capri discussion, a question pops - Are you from India??

To this out of context question - I replied, “ Yes, but how do you know?”
Firstly, he said Indians shake their head a lot while talking. Secondly, for affirmative answers also they shake head sideways. It needs to be like this, with proper demonstration, moving his head vertically.
Good and accurate observation.

Incident 2
This incident happened in Rite Aid, a pharmacy store. I was engrossed trying varying lipstick shades on the back of my hand in a serene cool corner. A petite girl arrives and stands next to me. The dumb damsel extends a paper in front of me. I cross read and hand over a five dollar bill. Some sort of fund raising campaign.

She starts reciprocating in a Japanese fashion. Had I counted, it must have been more than ten times, she bend almost at ninety degrees each time. In the end said SHUKRIYA, the first word she spoke. It left me spellbound; next came my reflex question, “how do you know this ?”.
“I have many Indian friends”, she replied casually and left.

It is really amazing how skin color, facial features, behavior reveal our ethnicity. Once abroad, lest we forget, we all are ambassadors of brand India.

Fall 2005, Boston

The incident happened, back in good old days when we did not possess a GPS, navigation system. Finding our way out was limited to handwritten driving directions, courtesy www.mapquest.com. During initial days a wrong turn, left the note in hand of no use; unless until one is smart enough to drive back to the street, from where s/he made the wrong turn.

Boston suburbs are sparsely populated. One finds them even more thinly populated, if you have recently arrived from India.

One afternoon, we lost our way. It was a precarious situation; neither in the position to reach the destination nor drive back home. Our route quest resulted in the endless loop.

After a long wait, I sighted a man at a distance. Quickly approached him and rattled away my sorry tale. He patiently listened and replied in one sweet line

“I DON’T KNOW ENGLISH” , in spanish accent.

Gosh, I could not stop laughing aloud, wondering who taught him this one great sentence. It was then I realized for the first time, English challenged people live in America too. After getting driving directions from a friend on phone, we reached home safely.

Few tips on what to do when lost.
1.Look for a gas station. Get down from the car and ask the person at the counter inside the convenience store for the directions. Probably he might be of help being familiar with the area.
2.Most important just not carry the address but also note down the nearest cross street. It really helps you to reach the area, close to your destination; then you can get down, walk around a bit and find the exact address.
3.There is no better option than GPS. It won’t shut-up till you are right on track. It is indeed a very useful device for frequent travelers.

Red Light

I was desperately waiting for the traffic light to turn green and quickly reach my friend’s place. What else do you expect at red-light intersection?
Pedestrians and cyclists slowly crossing the road. They have the right of way, whether your signal is green or red, it hardly matters.

At few intersections the red-lights are pretty longish. I have seen ladies making the best use of the available time, combing hair, applying lipstick or sipping coffee.
Accepted, I have a bad habit of peeking inside cars but then holdback and read on…

The incident I quote today is the most bizarre I have encountered yet. One fine evening, at red- light, a car halts next to mine. A young smart lady in the car, glasses rolled down, shaving under arms with a suave razor.

It was rather strange, to believe, at first. I may sound conservative but what is wrong is wrong wherever in the world you might be. Few things need to be done inside the four walls called home.

I do not totally blame the girl, it might be circumstantial. Maybe she was out on a date and did not get sufficient time at home to do the needful. It got rather late coming out of the office too. After all its America, anything can happen. No lines drawn. Open culture open society and happy living.

DOMINO'S

I chanced upon a Domino’s flyer, flashing achievements in grand numbers. The numbers mentioned were mind blowing, all set to make world record.

Domino’s drivers cover 9 million miles each week in United States alone which is approximately weekly 38 round trips to the moon. It is nice to know Domino’s do not possess APOLLO space shuttle; otherwise its drivers must be visiting moon every now and then. One can well estimate the huge fuel consumption in United States.

Domino’s delivered 360 million pizzas last year; roughly a little over million pizzas each day. It adds to the proven fact Americans spend more at restaurants than on grocery bill. One of the benefits of economic recession which I foresee is more healthy Americans. Home foreclosure and job loss will force Americans to cook and eat at home and stay fit. It is well said every dark cloud has a silver lining.

No doubt, domino’s figures forced me to write this post. But I must confess; I myself enjoy domino’s pizza a lot; especially thin crust veggie feast. Not only it tastes good but the entire hi-tech online ordering process interests me. Right from selecting the pizza crust and amazing half and half topping option.

Numbers do not lie. Domino’s pizza is the number one pizza; I would recommend it to anybody. It is worth your dollar.

The list seems short; many more tasks can be added to the list. Multitasking is the buzzword of modern times. Why in the world this miniscule towel left behind in exemplifying its eternal versatile usage.

I came across this guest towel in a hotel room. Materially, not close to any towel, more like a gigantic paper napkin. The hotels come out with great innovative ideas to impress guests.

ENERGIZER

I often visit a 7-eleven convenience store, located close to my apartment. It caters to all my grocery requirement when spouse is out of town, though the prices are relatively on the higher side. Moreover to my observation, having done quite a bit of travelling across United States , I find several 7-eleven stores owned by Indians and notice South Asians efficiently working in the store.

On a very recent visit to the store, two teenage girls greeted me, having a stall on either side of the entrance, each ready to offer a sample drink, followed by numerous advantages of M-150 over other available energy drinks in the market.

I had a vague idea about energy drinks, though never savored one. Often times seen people consuming liquid of vibrant shades, which is neither soda nor chilled beer, hence concluded must be something different. Energy drink is a trendy concept here, no wonder Americans are full of life and zest at any time of the day.

M-150, a non carbonated energy drink, the girls bragged, no caffeine, no alcohol. Since two young girls were advertising and giving, BUY ONE GET ONE FREE offer, the most popular modern global marketing strategy, I went for it.

With two bottles of M-150(6.2fl.oz=185ml) and a gallon of milk, I swiftly walked down home, wondering about the contents of the drink, which makes a person so very energetic.

No sooner I reached home, than I started reading the information all over the bottle. It gives about, 130 calories of energy based on 2000 calorie diet.

The nutrition facts on the bottle had some numerical value corresponding to Carbohydrate and sugar. Rest is Pantothenic acid, which comprise about sixty percent of the content.Pantothenic acid, not part of my vocabulary, researched and came to know it is Vitamin B5.

ITS DIFFERENT, the slogan aptly fits M-150, as it is a product of Thailand, unlike every other product you buy in America, which comes with made in China seal. I liked the tangy test, flavor close to pineapple, color faint red, stored in a brick red glass bottle, signifying the fire it will arouse. It is a welcome change from routine beverages like tea, coffee and soda.