Sunday, August 28, 2011

Here to stay

It has been brought to my notice that I have not blogged for quite a while. That is indeed, true. The fact is, I did not want to bore my readers with a travelogue - Chennai to TAMU. I did not want to describe how my apartment looks. I have shared a satisfactory number of Picassa albums with my friends filled with pictures of my apartment and the university.

I could list a whole lot of things that are different here but that is not what I am going to do. That, I am sure, has been done by many bloggers. This post is about what never changed for me even after travelling a considerable distance on the globe(apparently, over the north pole too, according to the animation on the screen in the flight).

Bad hair days - They are here to stay. If you have hair like mine, you are doomed. You can travel over all the oceans on earth and climb the Himalayas but you shall have bad hair days when your hair shall never get set. Especially on days that a professional photograph is going to be taken by your department, for free.

"Oh this is the worst day of my life!" - Looks like I have been forcefully subscribed for one such day per month. Some technical mistake up there in heavan. Nothing I can do about it. The heel in the costliest shoe breaking off on the very first day, forgetting my ID card after delivering a sermon on its importance during an exam, ironing a black coat and ending up with a white patch on it....I am not able to come up with a better explanation for such "events". Whoever is in charge up there, please escalate this issue. I am very much dissatisfied with the way you are rolling out your disastrous designs to production environment.

"Maybe I spent too much :(" - This particular syndrome which attacks me after every purchase in a shop also seems to have taken a particular liking for me. The attacks have increased in frequency. The logic seems to be, the frequency of attacks is directly proportional to the value of the currency used for purchase.

"What do I eat??" - Agreed, this was a "fancy" question back in India, but I still had this confusion. With so many dishes on the menu, I never could choose one that would keep me contented and not make me look over someone else's plate and wish I had ordered that dish instead. In Texas, it is the greatest problem for a vegetarian. There is almost nothing for vegetarians in most restaurants. There is a hidden advantage though - you never spend money. Atleast on food. And my mother got her wish granted - her daughter cooks every day(atleast maggi).

I have also made it abundantly clear to the folks on my friends list in Facebook that I personally think life was more comfortable in India. Agreed, Chennai is hot. But Texas is hotter. In Chennai, I could get an auto and escape the heat. Yes, the Chennai auto with its driver now looks like the shining armour with a substitute knight to me.