about living life?

I am yet to get over this jet lag thingie. I sleep at odd hours. Last evening, I slept at around 7:30 and woke up around midnight - to catch dinner. Then again I slept at 1 and woke up at 4:30. Thereafter, I decided to not sleep further. Spent some time on the Internet, and then got all ready to reach the breakfast lobby by 7. Then was on the phone for some time, before I drove to office.

Coming to think of it, most of my conversations since I've come here have been either on the phone, or through the messenger, and sometimes email. Anyways, that changed for a brief while in the lunch hour today. Three people were playing cards. Now, I think I am one ace in any game of cards (it doesnt hurt to think highly of yourself - I mean who cares anyways), so I went up to them - and was invited to join the game. The game was somewhat unique - I hadn't ever played such a game. They called it 'Uca'... or something to that effect - I din't want to show off my ignorance by asking them to repeat the name over and over again. It was a little complicated game. Bottomline being that every win gets you a point - and the team (two people formed a team.. ala 29, Bridge, Coat-Piece... u name it) that makes 10 odd points first wins. Ofcourse there are cases in which you can make more than one point in a game. Anyways, we started - and we lost the first 8 games on the trot. I could see my partner a li'l not so happy, and with the shrugging of the blame as 'hey, i have a new guy... we can't win'. Anyways, then I luckily got one game... then another... and then another ... soon we were 9 games against their 8 :-). Overall good fun. I finally got talking with firangs about something other than the weather and scenic beauty of Austin, India, or work :-)

Another thing that dawned upon me while talking to one friend of mine, who is based out of Seattle, is how little I have actually lived my life. I mean, there are so few things I actually do; I have so few interests. To the extent that I just seemed to be breathing... and not really living. This friend - is one dude - he has so many things up his sleeve - from skating, to swimming, to going around places... taking part in marathons across the country... you name it. He doesn't have time to stop and think - he is so busy living. Clearly, this has some aspirational value! I remember the long discussions we had at the rooftop of the IIT hostel - that was the theme right- live, and chuck tomorrow- it will come neverthless!

... anyways, some random thoughts that crossed my mind.

ps: we lost the game on the the last card of the last hand (they got 2 points) :-)

Dinner and drive

I lost my way to office today. For those that know me, this shouldnt come as a surprise. Home to office is one straight drive (no left, no right, no nothing - dead straight), and still I managed to lose my way :-(. The problem here is that you cannot see a soul on the roadside who you can stop over to ask. Also, I couldnt find one place to pull over and check the map (which I always carry but never use)- another reason why I dint want to pull over was that i've been told that in case you do, then the patrol car (which is always doing rounds along the highway) thinks your car has some problem and comes over to help - and my shady Indian license is the last thing I want to show around :-).

Anyways, I did manage to reach office. Also, I finally managed to meet one known person in office today. Vlad was one the section leads during TU. Russian, but settled in the US for over a decade now. I had some discussions with him and our general counsel about taking my TU idea forward.

Thereafter, he took me out for dinner. It was around 5:20 PM. He took me to an Indian restaurant called 'Sarovar'. It had a typical Indian restaurant ambience, something like Samarkhand in Bangalore... and it was playing hindi music. It played some current popular numebers like 'Kajra re', 'Dhoom macha le', 'salaam namaste' - btw Vlad knows this song. He says that during his three month stay in India, he heard this song on almost every channel on TV, or on the radio while he was in the car. There were some songs which I had not heard for ages now. Some real oldies. Anyways, dinner was through by 6:30 (this was the earliest I have had dinner in my life - the last being from 6:30-7:30, when I was in the boarding school).

So as you can see, today was a bland day. Look forward to a new day tomorrow.

Why don't devices here have an instructions manual?

I din't get much sleep last night. Spent quite some time on the Internet, writing emails to those that matter, and chatting with family.

I think Austin is one huge ISB. Beautiful all around and very few people. The drive from the apartment to the office was smooth. The landscapes are simply breathtaking. I shall post pictures once I get a camera. The cab driver told me that Austin is amongst the world's most desirable cities to live in!

Reached office at ~9:45 AM. After spending 20 minutes hovering around the building looking for an entrance, I managed to reach the main reception. And there was no one seated there. The main gate required an acess card which ofcourse I did not have. So I searched around the reception desk to see if I could get hold of one - tough luck. Then I struggled with the phone on the reception area - trying to figure out how to make local calls. Tried every key on the phone - to the point of irritation. Why can't phones across the world have standard external dialling features? This struggle lasted for a good over one hour, but never could figure out the phone. Finally, I sat at the reception desk, and connected my laptop to the Internet. Around 11:30 AM a gentleman came over - he was kind enough to get me into the office, as also told me how to use the phone. btw: just in case you were wondering why wasn't anyone in office - the person said, 'today is a holiday'!!

Incidentally, phone is not the only thing I have been struggling with here.

First, it was the dishwasher. There is this huge setup, just like a washing machine which has slots for all sorts of utensils. I put in some stuff... closed the door, and switched on... 5 minutes of massive vibrations later, I opened the door. Not a trace of water; and the dishes... as dirty as they started out to be. Then, there was this strange machine which called itself the brewing machine. It has a jar at the bottom, a slidable cup on the top, and a a removable lid on the top for another section. Not knowing what to do, I mixed coffee with water, and put it in the slideable cup. Whatever happened, I never could get my cup of coffee. Finally, the car - the Hertz guy gave me the keys. I went down to check the car - there was no gear. How was I supposed to get that damn thing to move? Anyways, it took me 30 minutes to figure this one out. Hopefully, I should be driving around today.

For some reason, no device here has any instructions or how-to-use manual.

One long day

Now I know why some people call Dec 25 as 'bada din' - one long day it was. I started from Bangalore around 2:30AM. Reached Austin at 8:20 PM - all on Dec 25. In this 18 hours, I flew for over 24 hours, spent 3 hours in paris, and another 3 hours in Atlanta.

Bangalore airport was interesting - brief rendezvous - too bad it din't last longer.

In Paris, for a brief moment, in transit on the way from terminal to the bus, I got to feel the air. It was cold. Paris to Atlanta, across the Atlantic, was a comfortable trip - except for the two couples, one in front, and the other on my left, who just couldn't seem to get enough of each other. I slept for most part of the flight.

Atlanta airport was one place. It just dint feel as if I was out of India. Every second person seemed like an Indian. While Paris looked hostile for most of it, Atlanta, looked so much like home. and Atlanta airport... if first impressions are anything to go by, US is grand!! Atlanta airport simply blew me away - it is HUGE. and you can travel from one terminal to another via underground rail. Spotlessly clean, it is easy to navigate.

The guy at the immigiration counter was cool. He asked me whether I was carrying any food etc. On hearing a "No", he said, "this is a new day in my life, this is the first Indian who has come to the US without food; 99% of people coming from India bring in food, spices etc.". The guy had one sense of humor. :-)

time to catch some sleep now... office tomorrow.