US Trip fun - 1. leaving home

Finally, I write this blog sitting near the balcony on a recliner with its seat positioned in the most comfortable condition, a laptop on my lap and a cup of hot coffee besides me. After a long wait, it happened. Got an assignment for which I was told to go to the US for a couple of months. I came here with my wife. Both were new to air travel and traveling abroad as well. We both had a fair idea that we might have to leave this weekend. but due to some official paperwork, I could see the trip postpone for another week.
It was Friday, 21st August and I was in the office awaiting the arrival of an important document needed for my US travel. Since it didn't arrive in the morning, I was sure it wont come till Monday. So going to the US will be postponed by 1 week. As time passed, my manager came running to my desk and said, your document has arrived, pack your bags, book your tickets and leave tonight !
I was shocked. It was already 6 pm and I had to book tickets, get insurance, pack bags and leave India on a 1:40 am flight !
I called up the travel desk, gave them the details and told them to book the tickets as soon as possible. In the mean time, I went running to the insurance desk to get overseas insurance for myself and my wife. As I went out to reach the insurance desk, it started raining. That was the last thing I wanted to happen. The lady there was ready to pack up and go home. I requested her to do this for me. She agreed and did the paperwork. I called my wife and told her we had to leave today. She was fast asleep and woke up in surprise. Thankfully, my wife with the help of my Mom had packed the necessary things in the bags. She couldn't believe what I told her. Even she panicked. After the insurance was done, I went back to my desk, took the ticket printouts, necessary documents and left the office my 8:30 pm. It was a Friday evening and you know the generous auto wallas of Bangalore. No one was ready to take me to my destination. And on top of that it was raining ! Finally, convinced an auto who took 50 rs from me for a distance of worth rs 14. As I reached home, I booked the taxi to the airport. At home my mom and Sonam were waiting. Even a couple of my friends arrived home. All the bags were packed. I got fresh, prayed to God and awaited for the taxi to arrive. I was tensed as I feared whether I took all the necessary documents with me or not. As this was my first time, I had 100 doubts in my mind.
Finally the cab arrived and we got in and started to the airport. Inside the taxi, we made calls to relatives, friends, and close ones. The rain was pouring. Since we had a fair idea about leaving tonight, Sonam's Mom, dad and brother had also started from their home early in the morning with hopes that they will reach here in time to say goodbye to both of us. Her mom had prepared home made snacks for us to carry. But rain spoilt everything. Even their bus got late. We reached the airport by 10:30 pm. We checked in at 11 and went towards our boarding gate. We were both hungry. We had a cup of coffee worth 60 Rs and Gobi Manchurian worth 210 Rs at the airport. This was the last time maybe we tasted Gobi manchurian and the last time we used Indian Rupees as well.
We patiently awaited for our flight terminal to open. We both were excited and at the same time were tired due to all the happenings in the past 6 hours. Sonam's parents reached Bangalore but couldn't meet us as we already checked in. They traveled more than 600 Kms and 13 hours of day journey just to meet us and missed the chance by nick of time. Finally the terminal opened and we got in. We had the worst possible seats anyone could get. The arrangement was like this :

|AB CDEF GH|

We are the D and E of the seats. It was a tiring 9 hours journey from Bangalore to Paris. The seats were very congested. The Volvo buses which we have are far better. We reached Paris. The airport was so huge, we had to take a bus to go to another terminal. There were internal trains as well in the airport.The security check there involved us to remove our shoes, wallet, belts and keys and then get checked by a security staff in front of everyone. As we reached the terminal, we decided to make a call to our parents. We took a 10 Euro (700 Rs) worth calling card and spoke to our parents. Then we roamed the airport to kill time. There were awesome beauties roaming around wearing all kinds of dresses. I was amazed, even Sonam started to feel awkward looking at those ladies. There was time for the flight to arrive. So we decided to eat something. The counter there had all sorts of foods but vegetarian. We carefully read the ingredients of all the items and finally bought potato chips :) and a bottle of water. only this much cost us 700 rs. (or 10 Euros) The flight arrived. This time we got window seats. As the plane took off, we enjoyed the sight outside. Within a couple of hours, we both slept. The flight started at 1:50 Paris time and was scheduled to reach at 3:45 US time. The journey time was 10 hours. We spent time looking here and there, watching movie, talking trash with each other and commenting on other people in the flight. We got a form called I-94 which is required to be filled by everyone who lands in the US. we filled it. Along with that form, there was another form which declared that I have not brought any items with me which can be sold commercially, have not bought soil, pets, meat, foods, germs etc etc. It also mentioned about the address where we will be staying while in the US. The journey decision happened so quick, we didn't book the hotel itself. Thankfully, I had the hotel address with me. Just that if the hotel was full, we are in trouble.
At the port of entry at Minneapolis we were asked whether we carried any food items, I proudly told I have sweets, snacks and spices. They told me to put my bags through the scanner and frisked out one bag. Since we were 2 of us, we had dedicated a bag for all Indian foods we carried. It included Maggi packets, rice, dal, pulses, spices and other small stuffs. The security guy over there got furious at us. He started to open each and every packet we had. We told him that we were to stay here for an year and that's why this much is needed. He was not in a mood to listen to our explanation. He scolded, showed rules, reminded us we were aliens to them and have to obey what they say. I got scared. Inside my mind, I said, take the whole bag, but let us go. Finally, (and thankfully) he didn't throw anything from our bags. We packed the stuff again and got out of the airport as soon as possible. We took a taxi straight to the hotel. Fortunately, there were rooms available. We took a room and dumped the luggage. The hotel was all self service. We had to carry our own luggage to the 4Th floor using the carriage and return the carriage back to the reception. We got fresh, and slept. It was Saturday 22nd August 7 pm in the US.
We had heard about Jet lag and what happens due to that. Same happened. Both were awake at 2 am. We prepared coffee and enjoyed the highway view at night. Since we were awake, we decided to call home. The call card we had with us didn't work, so we decided to call directly from the hotel room phone. (for 5 mins of talk, they charged us $73 i.e. 3500 rs ! ) In order place an international call, we had to dial 9-011- 91 number. We missed the zero in between and the call went straight to 911. The lady spoke to Sonam, She couldn't understand what she was saying. I took the phone, and heard the lady saying, "This is 911, do you have an emergency ?" I was shocked, we reached US and the first number we dial is 911 ! I convinced the lady there was nothing to worry, it was our mistake and dialled this number. Morning we woke up at 9, had stomach full breakfast and requested the hotel cab to take is to Mall of America, One of the nearest attractions there. As we walked on the streets, we could'nt believe ourselves we were in America !

Part 2 . New house, new fun coming soon with fun we had moving into our new house.

10 Random Things

Getting bored in office and nothing to read. Thats when I went to Ojas' Blog and found out that I am tagged ! Tagged to write 10 random things about myself. After reading his blog, I thought lets do it and lets make other do it too !

Rules of the game: Check if your name is at the end of this blog post. If so, type out a similar blog copy-pasting these rules. After that, list down 10 random things about yourself (that many do not know) and then tag 5 more people who have to do the same.

My List:

1. I am 26 and I still dream of having a huge collection of Hot wheels cars. Small cars, remote control / battery operated toys still facinate me.

2. I hate people who waste food. Especially in the cafeteria where people who take the food by their own hand and later throw it away. I feel such people dont have the value of money and the quantity of food thrown in the dust bin is directly proportional to the money they earn excess to what they deserve.

3. I love to sleep. Everybody loves to sleep. But I love to sleep early and get up early. This way, I put myself into a good habit, going to office and coming back is not affected by the usual road traffic at peak hours and I get to sleep early that day so that I can get up early the next day.

4. I am not obsessed with luxuries which everyone dreams of. Fashionable dresses, gold, silver, High end mobiles, laptops, watches, bikes, cars etc. I am happy riding a descent bicycle.

5. I am very bad at maths. I need help even for the smallest of the calculations. Every addition, multiplications, division happens on a calculator, not in my mind.

6. As a kid, I badly wanted to become spiderman. I had told my mom cut my wrist and put some thread inside so that I can throw the thread on buildings and swing like spiderman.

7. I love my wife and Quake III :-)

8. I can solve a rubik's cube in less than 5 mins. Yes, I have drilled the logic and moves in my mind and I can do the last bit of moves blindfolded.

9. I dont believe in God. I believe in Nature. God is in Nature.

10. I remember the faces of people I met, but completely forget their names seconds after our introduction.

I tag : Manjunath, Swaroop, Arjun Rajan, Samudyatha

Swine Swine

Was thinking of a better title for this blog, but couldnt think of one. Recently there have been reports of so many casualties due to the deadly swine flu. This has scared me too and I am taking precautions. Everybody is taking precautions. Nobody wants to die. I always felt that I was one of the most unfortunate people in this world. There were things which I thought happened only with me. But now, I have started to think different. Everyone has their own fortune and misfortune. I consider myself very fortunate thinking that I am not affected by the swine flu as I write this blog. I always beleived that God is in Nature. Whatever you think is in God's hands, same powers are owned by Nature.

When do we pray to God ? before going to an exam ? On some festive ocassion ? When in distress ? When your close ones are ill ? or maybe everyday ? We pray for all sorts of reasons thinking that God will take care of the troubles. But what I think is, Its not God, (or Maybe God in disguise of Nature) its Nature who answers your prayers. In this blog I will only write about natures way to save the world from trouble. Science is advancing, world is becoming a safe place to live, people are closer to each other due to better connectivity, theres internet thru which you can read my blog and so many good things we talk about. since the 19th century, there has been an population explosion. Nature know how many humans it can handle. It keeps on adding some obstruction (which we call as natural calamities) and at the same time, man is trying its best to keep its origin alive. When Nature saw this growth in population, we saw diabeties. This disease tries to kill a human being due to shortage of insulin in his body. Somehow we managed to produce artificial insulin and saved the sure death of diabeties affected people. If there was no artificial insulin production, millions of people might have lost their lives without they at fault. Even today the number of people having diabeties goes on increasing.

Next came world wars. We think the war was purely because of human misunderstandings. But its was Natures' plan to control population. There were so many epidemics, droughts, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes etc. These are natures best ways to control population. Swine flu is just one of them. When all failed to control the population, there was AIDS.

Nature will try its best to save the world, and we should try to save ourselves. Thats the rule.