CHAPTER 20- THINGS I OVERLOOKED (GUEST WRITER WANTED)

CHAPTER 20- THINGS I OVERLOOKED (GUEST WRITER WANTED)

Initially, I planned to write in this post, all the stuff that I had missed writing about in my previous 19 posts and were pointed out to be by comments from people or stuff I remembered later. But, seeing how big the previous posts have been, it would be an onerous task for me to go through all the posts again and all its comments and write a huge post. And so I am chucking this post...
UNLESS.....
........
ONE OF THE GUYS WHO WERE WITH ME AND WENT THROUGH WHAT I WENT THROUGH (JB, MS, AZ 'n JD) WANT TO WRITE THIS POST.
So guys, if any of you are jobless enough to fill up this space, you re totally welcome. It would be good to have a guest writer in the final post in the series too.

SIGNING OFF,
AJAY

CHAPTER 19- SOME GOOD NEWS, NOSTALGIA AT BERKELEY AND THE END OF THE TRIP

CHAPTER 19- SOME GOOD NEWS, NOSTALGIA AT BERKELEY AND THE END OF THE TRIP

It was in the middle of the quarter that I got an amazing piece of news- my first admit for grad school- at UC Davis. I had got a rejects from a couple of big guns I had applied to, Princeton, UC San Diego and so I was quite anxious about whether I would get any admits. And I had ambitiously put in my application for a Phd at UC Davis, which is generally more selective than a masters.

One evening, when I was shopping, Varun called me and told me that he had got a mail from UC Davis for the Phd that he had also applied to. I was happy for him, but was sure mine wouldn’t have come as his profile was way better than mine and it is only fair that he gets his admit before mine. I went home and checked my mail to find nothing new, and as rejects always come a few days after the admits, I thought my aspirations at UCD was over.

Then after an hour of brooding, I suddenly got a hunch that I should check my spam, and voila, there was a message from the UCD CS dept. I opened the mail and realized this was an admit letter. I was stunned. I didn’t really believe it until JB read it for me and confirmed that it was indeed an admit to the Phd. I was relieved more than anything else. I knew that I, at least,, had a choice to decide what I wanted to do for my career when it is time. I spent a couple of hours on the phone letting people close to me know about it and then went to bed and got up a different man, with no pressure on me.

I enjoyed the rest of the quarter without too many qualms even if some minor glitches came in the way as I knew I had the big fish. And so, now that I had that choice between working in India and pursuing my Phd in UC Davis and pursuing my masters in either UC Irvine or Oregon state university, I decided in favor of UC Davis and so am back here and quite happy.

I also squeezed in a trip to Berkeley towards the end of the quarter, for a day mainly to meet my cousin who studies at UC Berkeley and collect some stuff my mom had given for me through him, as he had come from India only a couple of weeks ago. Varun accompanied me for that, and we took a shuttle which runs between UCD and UCB early in the morning. In an hour, we entered Berkeley and saw it was a wonderful scenic place.

We got down and decided to explore the town first. We went into a bookstore, which had the largest collection of old books I have ever seen or imagined. I doubt if a museum would have such a collection. There were many rare and coveted ones, some quite controversial and therefore unpredictable. We spoke to the owner, an old man of 90 years and he told us that he had spent all his life collecting these and he even knew what books he had and which shelves it was on. Remarkable, considering that there were at least a 100000 books there. We went around the shelves and some were so old that in a few years from now the paper may start disintegrating. The whole smell of the place and the history associated with it really impressed avid book enthusiasts like me and Varun.

We then walked further in the town to get to a street, which was like mini- India. There were at least 20 restaurants, 5 saree and Indian clothing shops, lots of Indian supermarkets etc. We felt so much at home. So nostalgic.

It had been months since we had proper Indian food, and so with no worry about the prices, we ate thrice that day. The chole bature in the morning, the biriyani in the afternoon and the chaat in the evening may well be my happiest meals in my life considering how much I had missed such food and I got an opportunity to have it unexpectedly. I licked my plate clean each time, not even leaving any work for the dishwashers.

Then we walked further and further and explored the whole town. We must have walked about 10 miles there and went to parts of the town to which my cousin later disclosed he hasn’t been to in his 6 months of dwelling there. We also did some shopping at a place to fulfil the second of the two places I had aimed to visit while coming to the US (I had visited the first with JD and D-dub in Sacramento). After all this and many a buck spent, I met my cousin and took the evening shuttle back to Davis.

Soon, it was the end of the quarter and we were done with our exams. I was rather disappointed at how the course on visualization I had taken, turned out for me, but I was at a stage where I was starting to get homesick and the fact that I was going back home in a few days cheered me up loads and kept me going. Soon it was time to pack and we had to vacate our apartment a couple of days before our flight because the GSP people insisted and so the five of us spent about 15 hours each over a course of two days to clean the whole apartment, including the carpets and walls and shelves and toilets and get it ready for presentation. Though we did a commendable job, it wasn’t good enough for a certain suddenly hostile GSP staff.

So slightly upset, we said goodbye to #116, our wonderful home for the past 7 months which has given us many memories to cherish and went with our luggage to Dwarak’s place, where we were going to be put up till we left for our flight. We had a lot of fun there, especially playing FIFA 09 on his Xbox. Thanks for being a great host, D-dub.

Cherishing those memories, we left for the San Francisco airport on the morning of the 26^rd of March, bidding farewell to Dwarak and boarded our flight.

At the Hong Kong airport, on the transit, we had to wait in queue for boarding the next flight and we realized that people were pushing past us to get to the door first while we were socially giving way like a person in Davis would. We realized we were back in the big bad world of again and we needed to get back to our selfish selves to survive in this competitive Asian world. And so with no further delay, we blended into the crowd pushing other out of our way. It was a good feeling to feel right doing that in some ways. It took us some time, after a couple of embarrassing situations to realize we shouldn’t be commenting about our co-passengers in tamil as it is quite probable that they may understand the language. It was going to take some time getting used to some things in India again. But I was looking forward to it.

We arrived at the Chennai airport with no glitches and after checking out my luggage, bid farewell to the others for now and was delighted to see my parents after a very long time. We had a lot to talk about. And a lot to not talk about too :D . Only then I realized how much I had been missing them. All this time while I had been in Davis, I had I never felt homesick which I guess is due to my good fortune that I had such good friends there. I thank you all, who have influenced my life, in any way, as I like how it has turned out till now.

Epilogue:

It was a great feeling to be back in India but not so great a feeling to be back in SRM as far as academics were concerned. It sucked to be back in the system where you cannot question anything and take things at face value and memorize stuff instead of understanding it conceptually to get marks in “exams”. I had to unlearn the system of learning I experienced in Davis and get back to the degradatory folds of the SRM education system. Worse, I had to put up with the politics and all the other crap that was dished out to us. But now that I have come past all that, and passed out successfully after graduation, I can say I have no regrets and I can look forward to what’s coming.

P.S: this started as a blog post which I thought I could complete in a couple of thousand words and publish at once, but as it went on I realized I had so much to say. So I decided to type it all as I remember it, omitting no non-sensitive important detail, with no worries about the size. I am quite shocked to see that THIS is the 31645^th word that I am typing and the 19^th blog post that I am posting . And I shall end it here!!!

THE END!!!

THAT'S ALL FOLKS!!!

CHAPTER 17- WWE AND NBA LIVE IN SACRAMENTO

CHAPTER 17- WWE AND NBA LIVE IN SACRAMENTO

I also went to Sacramento a couple of times again that quarter, to watch some sporting and entertainment events. First was the WWE RAW event at the Arco arena. I haven’t really been a big WWE follower and I had always found the whole setup quite silly. But I was curious about it nonetheless. I was interested in seeing the event live, to understand why a lot of people were total WWE fanatics. Also we would all have a lot of fun.

A visibly excited MS and AZ, Dwarak, Jakki, JB and I set out that evening and got into the arena and found the atmosphere electric. There were about 10000 people there and each one was screaming on top of his/her voice. I also got into the mood and started screaming random stuff, though I didn’t even know all the wrestlers names and their ‘history’. Most of the superstars were there including Cena, Edge, Orton, Jericho, Kane, Mysterio.

To see them wrestle looked totally artificial, I must say. Some wrestlers started falling and reacting even before their opponent's punch landed on them. I noticed one such anomaly when Jericho hit Cena and chuckled, only to be greeted by a dirty stare from a couple of bouncer-like guys, who could’ve thrown me all the way into the ring from the stands, with one hand. They were Cena fans and probably thought I had chuckled to express my happiness seeing Cena get beaten. I decided to keep my thoughts to myself after that if I wanted to return home in one piece.

In another match, the self-proclaimed world’s strongest man, Mark Henry (he was huuuuge…must have been some 2000 kgs and about 7 feet tall) was beating up Mysterio and a pint size kid (he was one third my height) of about 10 sitting beside me, stood up on his seat and screamed “Henry…you bas****…you leave him alone or I ll come and throw you out of the ring”. I didn’t know how to react. Henry could’ve pushed him two rows back with his little finger. But from his voice, I could see he meant every word of it. That’s how passion transcends barriers like age and size. Though it was a good enjoyable one time experience, now that the curiosity is fulfilled, I wouldn’t pay to watch another WWE event again.

Another time, I went for an NBA match at the Arco arena. I badly wanted to watch the Lakers play in Sacramento as I am a lakers supporter but they weren’t to come until after I left for India. So I decided to watch the team where one of my favorite players, Lebron James plays- Cleveland Cavaliers. The cavaliers were to come to Sacramento to play against the Sacramento Kings, who are nowadays called only the Kings nowadays as they are an potential embarrassment to the capital city if they carry its name. They were last in the western conference, and by a large margin. The cavaliers were comfortably on top of the eastern conference table and if they got a win here, they would be through to the playoffs. It was also an important game for Lebron personally because he had been in the form of his life lately and had got 3 triple-doubles back to back. Were he to get one more, he would be the first player in the NBA ever to do that.

I had to go solo, as the others weren’t really interested in basketball. Without a second thought, I bravely took the yolobus and changed twice to get there to the Arco arena, having just directions from Google maps and with no idea how I was going to get back after the match as it would be late. It didn’t matter at that time. All that mattered was seeing Lebron in action.

So, asking a lot of people on the way for directions and advice, I finally got to the arco arena and took my seat. It was a really exciting atmosphere, with a full house of about 15000 people. I talked to a few people before the match and everyone was just wondering by how many points the Kings would get thrashed and not about the result.

It was one hell of a game though. It started on totally unexpected lines, with the kings getting a 15 point lead at the end of the first quarter. At halftime, they managed to increase the lead further to about 25 points. Everyone was stunned, from the players of both teams, to every person in the crowd. The Kings were growing in confidence and the crowd was cheering louder too sensing something special here. After all it had been 7 games since the Kings had won a match and to win against the best team of the eastern conference with the best player in the world, it would be special indeed.

I was discussing the game with the girl beside me and said it looked like it’s going to be a comfortable win for the Kings, she looked at me with a twinkle in the eye and asked me if that was the first time to a kings game. I told her it was so and she said that explains why I do not know about the Kings. She told me “Mark my words. The kings can really perform miracles no other team can. Like losing from this position”. I was like “No way. 25 points is too much of a lead to make up”.

The game got underway again and the kings left off where they started. They were playing like they were possessed, banking on the now-excited crowd's backing and also the DJ’s music. Yes that’s one thing I noticed which was really unique about the NBA. They have a DJ and play with the music on. That also works to the advantage of the home team, as the DJ plays adrenaline pumping music when the home team has the ball and droning music when the away team does. I guess the sounds you hear affect your tempo and rhythm. So it’s better for the away players to wear earplugs while travelling.

Towards the end of the fourth quarter, the cavaliers went on a 12-2 run, thanks to a few three pointers by Lebron. So with the momentum with the cavaliers but a 15 point lead with the kings, the 3^rd quarter ended. I still thought it was way too much to make up in the second quarter, unless the kings play real real badly and go on something like a 0-15 streak.

And that’s exactly what happened. Suddenly, where there were ferocious warriors battling for the kings, there seemed to be clueless amateurs ball watching as Lebron and co started steamrolling their way to the basket. With 30 seconds to go, Lebron hit a 3 pointer to make his tally go to 40 and draw the cavaliers level. The kings messed up their final shot at the basket, with a bad pass which was intercepted and it was end of time. The score was tied 102-102.

I was shocked at how the kings had thrown it away and got a “see…I told you” look from the girl beside me. In the overtime, as expected, it was the cavaliers all the way and they won the game with a 10 point lead. To have been 25 up at halftime and lose a game by ten points, I have to say no other team could do that. Hail the kings for the miracles they can perform. Lebron ended with 56 points and some of the best three pointers and dribbles and tricks and dunks and alley-oops I have ever witnessed. I was lucky to have been there.

I looked down at my watch and it was 10 pm. I was totally panicked as the last yolobus to Davis would be at 1030 in downtown. I ran out of the stadium, pushing the already dejected Kings fans, hearing their trailing curses, but not registering in my state of panic. Thankfully, I got a cab as soon as I went outside and asked him to go as fast as he could to downtown. He told me we just might make it in time, if the traffic wasn’t too heavy. Luckily it wasn’t and we reached at 1020. I gave the driver a generous tip and got down relieved and waited at the deserted bus stop.

I remembered the last time I was in Sacramento and realized what a foolhardy thing it was to have come all the way here on my own relying only on public transport. I thanked my stars when the bus came and I got onto it and I was finally in known territory. I came home happy with my day’s adventure but knowing I shouldn’t act so brave and take such risks.

CHAPTER 16- LAKE TAHOE- SKIING AND SOME SCENERY GAZING

CHAPTER 16- LAKE TAHOE- SKIING AND SOME SCENERY GAZING

It was in the middle of the quarter that we decided we ought to the one other place we had been wanting to go every since we came to Davis- Lake Tahoe. It was a frozen lake just 80 miles north of Davis, which was very scenic and had ski resorts and the best time to see it was December to February and so we decided it was now or never. The 5 of us who were interested in going (JB, Dwarak, Varun, Jakki and I) rented a car and started very early in the morning, heavily dressed for the cold. I was really excited as it was the first time I was going to see and feel and even ski in snow.

We had driven for about an hour and there was still no sight of snow. We could feel the wind chilling a bit but considering we had another 30 miles only to our destination, which was to be snow covered mountains and a frozen lake, it was bizarre that we hadn’t caught sight of any snow. After double-checking if we were on the right track, we continued on and noticed that the wind had chilled suddenly and another two minutes of driving led us to our first sight of snow. It was beautiful to see white flakes on the black tar on the road ahead of us.

Another two minutes of driving…and voila…we couldn’t see any color other than white all around us. All the greenery and earth had been covered with snow. It was a majestic sight to look around you and see only white. Soon the road began climbing and we realized we were on the snow capped mountains now. After sometime we could see the ground below, all covered in beautiful white.

We reached our first destination, the ski resort in a few minutes from then, and got down from the car and wore every layer of clothing we had brought with us. We needed it. I stepped into the snow for the first time in my life and it was initially a weird feeling. It was about 5 inches deep and it was pretty difficult to walk initially. It was similar to walking on sand on a beach, only this was a good 3 inches thicker. We went into the resort and collected our gear. It was a huge struggle to wear the snow boots. They were humungously heavy. Each boot must have weighed at least 5 kgs(whatever that is in lbs- I am still used to the SI system). It was such a struggle to walk with that. We were handicapped the whole way from the gear closet to the open, as our movement was restricted by these boots and we were also carrying other stuff like the skiing rods. After losing balance countless times and bumping into loads of people, we finally got out into the open and the sight dazzled us. Literally. Everything in front of us was vulgarly white. There was so much white light reflected by the snow all around us that we had to close our eyes and open them gradually to get accustomed to it. It was like waking up from sleep and the first thing you look at is the sun. No wonder serious skiers wear goggles.

Once our eyes got accustomed to the light, we looked around to see lots of snow covered hills of all heights and of all steepness around us. There were at least 500 people skiing in that resort at that time. We wore the skis on our boots and we realized we were even more paralyzed that before. It was impossible to lift our legs and walk. And it was impossible to move uphill with the skis which dug into the snow. And we were too scared to go downhill, as we didn’t know how to control it. And so we stayed put, watching other people, including kids as young as 6-7 years ski down the steepest slopes. We felt retarded.

Finally the ski instructor came down to us and our crash course in skiing started. There is so much technique involved in skiing, some quite difficult to master. Your legs need to be bent at the right angle to have proper control when you ski downhill. And your feet should be relaxed. When you want to stop, you have to do what is called the pizza formation with your legs, where you join the thumbs of both your toes and maintain a 30 degree angle. Not more, not less. You do one of these things wrong, and you ll end up falling, as we realized the hard way. When you want to turn right while skiing, you need to wiggle the toes of your right foot and for turning left, your left foot. There was so much concentration necessary.

The initial lessons were quite easy but when we went to do the real thing, we realized how hard it was. Concentration and relaxation is preceded by instinct when you are racing downhill and so you often end up doing one thing wrong and that is enough to make you do a somersault and fall a few yards away, head down and feet up. The worst thing was not the fall. It was the recovery from it. It was really hard to get back up on your feet, with such heavy boots and skis which give you no control. And once you get back up, if you don’t get your feet into the pizza formation, you are likely to plummet downhill again and fall.

I must have fallen at least a hundred times (no juxaggeration) and it is a wonder that I had no bones broken. Each fall propelled me to try more and fall again, after attaining a greater velocity. The longest I managed to stay on my feet was for about 20 seconds down a 60 degree inclined hill and I remember that achievement not for the good amount of time I managed to maintain balance but for the fall I had at a 40 kmph speed I must have attained. I tried to steer right, for which I had to wiggle the toes of my right foot alone and being the symmetry freak (guys who know me will understand this), I couldnt get myself to do that and so I wiggled the toes of both my feet simultaneously and as they say, the rest is history. I must have been at least 5 seconds in the air (which is a long time) and landed at least 20 metres from the point I started flying. Ouch. It sure hurt! It is funny how snow flakes, which are on its own so soft, combine to form a lump of snow which is as hard as stone (and seems harder as your body is numb in the cold). It is analogous to how, in a situation where one individual may be ineffective in performing a task, a team of individuals can accomplish the same task. In that way, the snow teamed up to give amateur skiers like me a ‘hard’ time. Pun intended.

But finally after 4-5 hrs of skiing, I think I got the hang of it and I could keep myself on my feet over a whole downhill path. Dwarak got really good at it though, almost looked like a pro towards the end. Varun didn’t really take to the snow as he would to a guitar and hence was branded ‘grandma’ by the ski instructor (:P). Knowing that our bodies would be aching all over but not even able to feel it because of the numbness due to the cold, we called it a day and returned our gear and warmed ourselves. Only then we started feeling the pain from all the bones which had taken a beating. It was like coming back from a dentist after a tooth extraction and feeling the pain after the anesthetic wears off.

We then drove to the lake, which was about 20 miles from there. I got down from the car and I was greeted by what was the most beautiful sight I have ever taken into my eyes. This was what would be justifiable usage of the often overused expression ‘picture-perfect’. Imagine this scenery. You are standing on snow. Right in front of you is a vast expanse of a frozen lake, where the ice forms a single sheet which reflects light at you like a mirror. In front of the lake which seems to stretch forever are mountains. Snow capped ones, where the snow on their peaks makes them look like a vanilla cream garnished dessert. Behind them, you can see the sky, in its purest blue. And behind that, the sun peaking out of the mountains completes the picture. It was breathtakingly beautiful. You could stare at that one scenery all day. It was so hypnotizing.

We played around on the banks making a snowman and taking pictures and then decided it was time to leave.

Rather reluctantly, we went to our car and drove back home. It had been one hell of a day. The aftermath was also hell, but in a different way. The next three days, we couldn’t move a muscle as an effect of all the beating our bones had taken while skiing. But it was worth every bit of that pain.

(TO BE CONTINUED...)

CHAPTER 13- SIX FLAGS AND AN ADDITION TO OUR GANG

Well... sorry for taking forever to publish. Got too busy, thanks to the rigorousness of the UC Davis quarter. :( I am going to post the remaining parts of the blog within the next week, so that I can start chronicling and posting my experiences this time, in a new series of posts...

CHAPTER 13- SIX FLAGS AND AN ADDITION TO OUR GANG

Physically and mentally charged, we spent the rest of the holidays mostly in Davis. Christmas was rather quiet, taking into account what we expected, but then there were hardly any people in Davis as UCD was not functioning and Davis minus UCD seemed to leave only a few like us here. As the holidays were coming to an end, we decided we should go somewhere else and we decided we should pay Six Flags a visit.

Six flags is a theme park, with some of the most high-thrill roller-coasters in the world. Dwarak (hence referred to by his popular nickname D-dub) was also interested in coming and we rented a muscular SUV this time and the five of us, D-dub, MS, JD, JB and I started in the morning. We reached in an hour and there was no problem finding the place as we could see its really tall roller-coasters from miles away. We had done our homework and learned there were 4 high thrill rides and we decided we should do all the 4 first before going on the medium thrill ones. We realized how much of a flop our plan would be only after going there.

We went on the Medusa first, the longest rollercoaster there lasting close to 4 minutes and one of the longest in the world too. And it was really fast too, with so many twists and turns and 360s and inversions that at the end of it, I didn’t realize when I was travelling straight and when I was upside-down. At the end of the ride, I was as physically exhausted as a runner would be at the end of a marathon. And that was just one ride. We had three more equally if not more exhilarating rides according to our plan before we took a break. We knew it would not be possible.

We walked dazedly to the next ride. This was the Kong. It was a short-ride and its course was not half as scary as the Medusa. But it was easily the scariest rollercoaster I have ever been on. Purely because of psychological reasons. There was no cart and no track on this one, customary on all roller-coasters. There were individual chairs hanging out from a platform suspended in the air, with a thin wire. We were strapped onto these seats, which looked like wooden armchairs. Then the ride started and the platform on which our seats and consequently our lives were suspended, started moving. As it picked up speed and height, I realized how scary this was going to be the moment I looked down. I could see my legs dangling in mid-air a hundred metres above the ground, with nothing to break the fall if I were to slip out of my seat. On a normal ride, you wouldn’t get such a view of your dangling legs as there would be a floor to the cart you are sitting in. Also there would be plenty of people sitting by you, and if you were to crash and die, it might be a little comforting that you will have some company when you find your way to heaven/hell (personally I do not believe in the concept of heaven/hell, but it’s a useful concept to use in figure of speech…anyway that the topic for another blog post). It got scarier by the moment when my loosely hanging chair started twisting all 360 degrees at an enormous velocity and a great height above the ground. I closed my eyes shut and was actually thankful when the ride came to an end. I wouldn’t want to get on this again, if I can help it.

We were totally exhausted after this ride. We climbed down and couldn’t get ourselves to speak to each other for the next 5 minutes. Once we recovered, we decided that’s all we could do at a stretch and to give it a break and come back later for the other high thrill rides. We had some food and did a lot of the medium thrill rides which seemed totally lame to us after having gone on the Medusa and the Kong. So we never even gave the low thrill rides a second glance.

There were also penguins in the water section of the park. It was really nice to see hundreds of penguins all around us as we walked in the underground passage, where the penguins were housed in large glass enclosures around us. They looked really adorable and I added them to my long list of potential pets.

We then visited the underground aquarium where they had some ferocious sharks.

We then took some pics with Looney toons characters and then played around in the artificial snowland.

We then went to the animals section of the park and took some pics.

Finally when we had recovered enough, we went on the other high thrill ride, Vertical Velocity V2. This was supposed to be among the fastest rollercoasters in the world. It goes from 0-70 mph in 3 seconds, which is one hell of an acceleration when you start a ride. We found it really thrilling but not scary after having been on the Kong but disembarked from this one, totally exhausted. We knew we couldn’t do any more, even if there were any. Fortunately we had been on all the high thrill rides Six flags had to offer so we were satisfied, and so we wound up the day. We drove back and only then realized how much of a beating our bodies had taken. We were on the bed for the whole of the next day.

The end of the break was nearing and this was when there was one more addition to our gang. That was Varun. I had been in touch with this chap, for the last 6 months as he had been getting my opinion on various things once he had decided to come to UC Davis on the Global study program from SRM. He came from a mythical SRM campus at Ramapuram, whose existence most people aren’t aware of. (I still have my doubts, so Varun if you are reading this… is there an SRM University campus in Ramapuram or are you talking abt Easwari … expecting your comments :P). This chap had one scary profile attached to him (a 9.5+ GPA, a 1540+ GRE score etc and consequently admits at a couple of colleges by the time most of us hadn’t even started to apply to universities). His reputation preceded him and most of the others knew his heavy reputation before they knew him. He was also supposed to be one really good guitar player, making him a bit of an all-rounder. I had got to know him pretty well without having met up even once and he was one helluva computer graphics freak like I was, with the only difference that he had already learned most of the stuff I was learning.

I went over to meet him when he arrived in Davis and helped him check into his apartment. To show him around Davis, we took a walk from the apartment and which turned into a marathon as we walked at least 10 miles around Davis, braving the drizzling rain. I discovered that he was one amazing character, who always very instinctive and wouldn’t hesitate to call a spade a spade (As his new roommate and coincidentally our former roommate who moved out due to differences with us, found out). It was good to have such a person around.

He was a totally ironic person, who might act often unconfident, but is one of the most self-confident guys I have ever come across; act confident and that too with confidence even when not confident about something; act indifferent about something that may be very important to him on the inside; act sadistic to something though he may like it dearly; act unconcerned about a person he is very concerned about. He was one of the most complex people I have come across, but nonetheless a great friend who would unconditionally help out the people he cares for. (Note to Varun: The deviation in the last few sentences were just cos u asked me to blog about what I think of you, especially the criticism J). So he gelled in well with all of us. We also found out that he was also one amazing player of the guitar, when he played complex stuff like Hotel California, Sweet child of mine etc with amazing ease.

(TO BE CONTINUED...)

MY EXPERIENCES IN CALIFORNIA : Chapter 12

Sorry about the delay in posting.... Getting too busy here to even spend sometime posting this... I ll try to do it every Saturday from now...

CHAPTER 12- SEAWORLD AND THE JOURNEY BACK TO DAVIS

The next morning, we woke up well on time with no antics on our part and got ready half an hour before the planned 9 am start. We were to go to Sea-world, and we were transformed into those adventure seeking active tourists again after a couple of nights of relaxation in San Diego. We went for a couple of water rides first and then checked out the underground aquarium and the penguin display where there were so many amazing cute looking penguins.

We then went for the main attraction of the place. The Shamu show! Shamu was a killer whale, who would perform stunts for the audience. We went to the huge stadium, which semicircular, with a water-pool in the middle and about 200 rows of seats. It could house a thousand people easily. We went to sit in the around the fortieth row, when someone told us we should consider going a little further back if we didn’t want to get wet. Our eyes twinkled and we did get up and leave those seats to go to the second row to sit on the least-coveted seats with our grins reading “Bring it on!”. It was surprising that there were not more than a handful of adventurous people in the first few rows , so we got to sit comfortably. The gallery filled up and the trainers came out and announced that the people in the first few rows should be really prepared to get wetter that they might have ever been in their lives. That turned us on more and we stay put. People around us were buying raincoats and ponchos to protect them from the torrents, but we stay put braving anything that was to come our way.

Then Shamu came out. He was huuuuuge but looked so adorable. About 30 humans could fit inside his mouth comfortably and to see him close up from our seats was awesome. He came near us and waved to the audience. Imagine a killer whale waving to you. And one which looked so adorable, with his black color with white patches and what I could have sworn was a grin on his face. Even the most cold hearted soul would be moved by its awesome sight. The trainers hugged him and I felt I could give anything to be in their position. Getting a hug from a killer whale. Fancy that.

Then one of the trainers got on his back and he went around the pool, with such amazing speed that left us gaping. It looked so majestic to see a whale swim up close. He jumped in the middle of the pool to such a height that the people at the hundredth row might have seen him in their horizontal line of sight. It looked so awesome to watch him do that. Each time, he landed, due to a certain Archimedes principle, water splashed on us and we were soon dripping wet. It was pretty cold that day and so we had no way of knowing whether the goose pimples we got were attributed to the cold or that splendorous show we were witnessing.

And then the trainers announced on the mike that it was time for us all to get wet. We looked at each other, thinking if the mess we were in currently was not wet then what would be. We soon found the answer to that. Shamu came near us and put his fin into the water and threw what would have been a thousand litres of water, with such an amazing force that when it hit us square in the face when we were least expecting it, it stung us and threw us backwards into our seats. We looked back to notice water pouring into people sitting as long as a hundred rows back. You would have to be on the last row and equipped with a poncho to stay dry. I have experienced drizzles, showers, downpours and even torrents of water but this was something way beyond all that. It felt like a pump from a fire engine was hosing us, albeit in short spurts. We negotiated the spurts which followed better, by getting into a shell as the water splashed, as we didn’t underestimate its force anymore. At the end of the show, we had learned what the definition of getting wet was, the hard way. It is not poetically that I am describing that we got wetter that one could while taking a bath; believe me I experienced it.

We were drenched to the skin and shivering in the cold breeze the rest of the afternoon, but we didn’t complain because the spectacle we had witnessed was worth a little discomfort. We then went for the dolphin show, which was also really grand. We sat further back this time though, not wanting to get any wetter than we already were. There were about 10 dolphins in the pool and we watched with awe as they jumped through hoops and touched flags placed as high as 50 metres in the air. To think these little things, not more than 6 feet in length could jump to 20 times their height was stunning. And they looked really cute too.

At the end of the show, we went to the dolphin feeding centre where each of us were allowed to go up to the pool and a dolphin would come to us and greet us by shaking our hand with its amazingly soft fin and then jump for us a few times and even get on its back and wave at us. It was soo soo adorable to watch them do all that. I was transfixed when I noticed it was opening its mouth wide and I threw the, rather disgustingly stinking, fish in my hand into its mouth on the instructions of a representative. It jumped up and caught the fish and feasted upon it and jumped up a couple of times as if thanking me for the food and swam away backwards while waving its fin at me as if bidding farewell. I was so moved by its adorable actions that I could have cried right there. I added a dolphin to the now fast-growing wish-list of the animals I wished to have as pets. Let me see- a polar bear, a panda, a killer whale and now a dolphin among many others.

We then went to watch the sea lion and walrus show, which was a themed comical skit with the animals running around a stage ship with people and balancing balls etc. The show was quite hilarious and we enjoyed every minute of it.

By the time the show ended it was dark already and after getting a couple more souvenirs, we drove back to the hotel and had dinner and went to bed thoroughly satisfied with the day and our trip in whole, which was just about over.

We got up the next morning and break-fasted and realized we were really far from home. About 600 miles. We had one long drive back and we started at about 10 am. We went to the San diego beaches on the way and spent some time playing soccer and I got a chance to ride a jet ski there. It was really amazing. To go at 40 mph in water, and wherever you look around you see no land, it is quite scary. Each time the ski hit the surface of the water while going at 30+ mph, there was an amazing jerk. It was an awesome experience.

We had an uneventful journey back, thanks to MS’s safe driving but we were really slowed down by the trademark traffic out of LA, which went all the way to San Francisco. Guess southerners were going north for Christmas. It seemed like being back in India, with cars in all directions. For about 4 hours we were inching (by US freeway terms it is inching) on at 40 mph.Also near the bay area, there was a great amount of fog and we the visibility was not more than a few metres. It is a scary feeling to know that you are travelling more than 20 metres each second and you cannot see more than the next ten metres. You just had to pray there wasn’t some stranded vehicle or a broken road just ahead of us, as there would be no reaction time to do anything even as soon as we see it. We stopped in resting places, off the freeway, 3-4 times so that we wouldn’t tire. We some some frosted ice and snow too at one of the resting places- the onset of winter was quite clear.

I have to mention the organization of US roadways is really brilliant. The Interstate freeway connects states and the roads are 8 lane. Whenever some city comes up along the way, or there is a bunch of shops off the road, an exit comes up which takes all the traffic away from the freeway and then branches off to different points so that the freeway cruisers are not affected by cars turning left or right from the freeway itself to go to their destinations. Admiring the effectiveness of the system, we travelled for close to 16 hours on the road and reached Davis at about 1 am. We took turns to sleep in the car and the person who was awake would be MS’s cartographer and companion. It was a brave effort by the equally tired MS to keep his concentration and drive safely.

Once we reached home, we hit the bed right away and it was the worst feeling to get up as early as 8 am next morning to return the rented car, but if we didn’t do it, we would have to pay another day’s rent and I volunteered to accompany MS to Enterprise to do that. Once we came back, I went to bed again and the best part of the next 3 days was spent sleeping, resting our physically and mentally exhausted selves. AZ left for Seattle to visit his sis and it was the four of us again for some time.

(TO BE CONTINUED...)

MY EXPERIENCES IN CALIFORNIA : Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11- SAN DIEGO BEACH ADVENTURE AND ZOO

We slept for 12 hrs that night and got up the next morning and had a late breakfast and headed to San Diego on the car. It was only a couple of hours drive but it was one helluva drive, as it was totally along the coast. We could smell the sea and feel the moisture when we opened our windows and could almost hear the thumping of the waves on the rocks and the beach amidst the quiet roar (a quiet roar is oxymoronic while describing anything except good cars, which is a complement to them) of our Chrysler 300 engine.

We found our hotel, Holiday Inn and checked in and it was awsome hotel, right by the harbor. We could see the sea right from our room window and it was one hell of a sight. We felt relaxed mentally. We decided the best way to sight see San Diego was to laze around, as it was a city meant for that. We had some places on our list to go to and we would go with the plan but at a relaxed pace, unlike LA.

We lounged around for a couple of hrs in the afternoon and then started for the nearest beach at about 6 pm. It was getting dark by the time we got to that area. As we drove towards the beach, the lights from the shops seemed dimmer and dimmer, and the roads got narrower and narrower, and the people seemed shadier and shadier. We hesitated a bit to go further but then we thought… what the hell…lets see what this side of the US is all about. We parked the car at what seemed to be a car park, only that it seemed more like all the cars there seemed out of some dump yard. We headed towards the beach, noticing that all the shops were shady salons and bars where almost everyone seemed to have a ruffled look and sneer on their faces and the sneer seemed pronounced when they took in the sight of 5 nervous Indian tourists walking their streets. We could see a few shabbily dressed whores on the street winking at passers-by. We could see some people, just lounging on the road, who looked to be drug sellers, talking in low voices to people.

We went past all these people to get a sight of the beach. It was dark at that time but we could make out enough to see that it was quite deserted. Or was it? There was a gang of about 10 well-built people we could see, who would fit the definition of the gangsta typically described in Hollywood movies. And they had with them…..on a leash….a dog. We were first perplexed by this. Anyone, who just saw 10 of the scariest looking men, taking a dog on a stroll by the beach would be perplexed. After sometime we realized, they were waiting for someone. We put two and two together and concluded there was going to be a ferocious dog fight here between two gangs that night. The gang whose dog kills the other dog is granted some favor by the other gang.

Some of us were (including me) excited by this and thought it would be a good spectacle to watch, especially considering there was a good chance someone may take a gun out of his jacket and just shoot us dead for nothing. But then sense prevailed and we decided to scram from there. We just turned around and walked towards the car, when a giant of a guy stopped us. We thought the game was up and he was gonna set his gang upon us or rob us or worse, but then he asked us if we wanted some weed. We refused his offer and walked away, as he mouthed some expletives at us. We breathed a sigh of relief to find our car intact and just drove out of that area as quickly as we could. We could relax only after we went to the more secure parts of the city.

Disappointed at not having been able to set foot on the beach but more than content with our adventure that night, we had dinner and went to our rooms. This side of the US is not seen unless you go to the right places and we were really happy to have experienced that. Now AZ’s birthday was also that night and so to give him a “surprise”, JD ‘n I kept him out of the room trying to distract him by playing soccer with the ball we had brought, in the lawns of the hotel and forcing a couple of toilet breaks, just to ensure he wouldn’t go to the room where MS and JB would smuggle a b’day cake after buying it and hide it so that we could surprise him at midnight. It looked really retarded for JD and me to play our parts, dragging AZ along with us to satisfy our sudden “desire” to play football in the night outside. He would’ve guessed something was up for sure, nonetheless we did our part. We “surprised” him at midnight, though we all knew he was wide awake and knew what was going on. Still… we were all sports. So we had a nice little celebration, feasting on a delicious cake and some b’day bumps. We had some badushah (curse you JB :x for having disclosed the meaning of the codeword on your blog) too for the sweetness ;) . So we all went to sleep quite late.

The next morning, we got up very late (at about 9 am), considering what we had planned for the day. Well, we actually woke up early but then our laziness didn’t make us get up. My alarm rang at 7 am and I woke up and silenced it. I turned towards JB, who was sleeping next to me and I could see him shut his eyes quickly as I looked at him. I then closed my eyes thinking a couple more minutes of sleep won’t make a difference. I lay awake for the next 5 minutes and though it was high time we all woke up, but didn’t want to take the initiative. I opened my eyes and lay on the bed when I sensed JB also open his and look towards me. I quickly closed my eyes and pretended to be sleeping. Had two of us seen each other awake, we would be weighted by logic and would take the initiative to get up, which means I couldn’t lounge longer on the bed. So I didn’t want to be among the first ones to take the initiative to get up and wake the others. I later discovered that was exactly on JB’s mind too. And AZ’s too. And probably the other two too. So we basically had been all awake on the bed, pretending to the others to be asleep so that we could laze around on the bed longer. A couple of hours passed like this and finally at about 9 am, JB, AZ and I (un)fortunately opened our eyes at the same time and there was no excuse this time. So we got up in a jiffy and woke the other two.

We knew we were running really late, as we had planned to step out of the hotel at 8 am max. After all, we needed one whole day to visit the largest zoo in the world and the national park and take its numerous safaris. As we had just one bathroom, it took us about 11 am to step out of the hotel and so we had to modify our plans as the national park was 20 miles from the zoo in the other direction. So we had to choose between them. That was a tricky choice but we finally choose to see the zoo because it was really famous and had some animals no other zoo in the world would have and it was closer by about 15 miles to the hotel and we knew the way.

In the now pouring rain, we reached the zoo in half an hour and decided there was no point in waiting for the rain to stop and so walked into the zoo in the rain. It was pretty deserted because of the weather. We looked at the map of the zoo, and it was huuuge. We decided to take the motorized tour of the zoo and it took an hour for the van to go all around the zoo, that’s how massive it was. By the time we got down from the van, we had an idea of the layout of the zoo. So, with zoo maps in hand, braving the rain, we went to visit the animals we had picked out. We must have walked about 10 miles in the zoo in the next 3-4 hours, during which we covered about 50 percent of the zoo.

The stand-out animals, which might not be seen anywhere else were the panda and the polar bear. Yeah that’s right. A real polar bear. The name polar bear itself suggests that it lives only in the poles. But hey… this zoo had one. It was housed in a huge 1 acre glass enclosure, in which the polar habitat had been simulated with caves ad polar vegetation and optimum temperatures. It was really exciting to see an animal, which only the explorers who explored the poles would generally see, right in front of us. It looked so majestic- so large and ferocious but it looked friendly too. I guess it was the white color of its fur that gave a friendly harmless look. Our mind always associates mild colors like white to be non-violent and peaceful unlike brown or black which are associated with violence. It seemed to me that if there were no glass enclosure, it would run to me and hug me. A bear-hug it would be too. Good thing I couldn’t try it… cos it might have had other ideas….

We then went to the part of the zoo when another attraction was housed. That was the panda. It was sooo cute. Cute is a term often overused and misused by most girls, but this is one time I would totally agree with any girl who might have called this cute. It was black with white patches in its body. There has never been a time after that where I felt it would be amazing to have one as a pet. Alas… they are protected animals and I was lucky to have had the opportunity to see one at least.

Due to the lousy weather, it grew dark as early as 5 pm and the zoo was closing down. We did some souvenir shopping, where I got a stuffed panda, which was so soft and fluffy that I even toyed with the idea of hugging it in bed(:D), much to the disgust of AZ, who was barbarous to the poor thing all the time (:x).

We went back to the hotel and made some rice, with the rice cooker we had brought from Davis (lol…look how planned we were), because we realized we had spending a lot and we could save up on this at least and so we had some curd rice. I then hit the hay, with regret on my mind for the first time in that trip, because after having come this far, we couldn’t get to see the wildlife sanctuary, due to purely our laziness and stubbornness in not getting up that morning. That is the only thing which I would want to change if given the opportunity in the otherwise perfect trip. But I guess that was one of those times our physical fatigue won over our mental willingness to make the maximum of the trip.

(TO BE CONTINUED...)