..........................for everythng else there's mastercard/visa/american express :)

First of all, before starting this post, i would like to take time out and thank all the people who have appreciated my blogging...Thank you for all the support..And a special thanks to my silly poo, who kinda got me started on it :D

In this land of cheeseburgers, there are some things simply bring warmth to my heart, make me feel good...get my happy hormones alive and kicking...make me go awww..etc..etc..i guess u got the drift...I decided to list down a few of them (u wont understand the importance of the first 2, if haven't worked in the lab).

1. The absolute joy of wearing gloves in the lab...u know those tight, latex gloves which fit perfectly onto ur hand...makes me feel important, like I'm a great research scientist or something (not that m not :P )
I remember back in college, v used to use everything, from newspaper to plastic covers, and eventually, "maga just wash your hand with soap before going, nothings gonna happen." So when the prof handed me those sparkly white amazingly awesome latex gloves (i jus love them!), to use compulsorily no matter what chemicals i was handling, i couldn't help but give a broad smile.. :) :) :) :) :) :)
Well after putting them on, i couldn't help but have a lilt in my walk, a song in my head and a great feeling that I'm gonna get the Nobel prize 1 day :) :) :)

2. The absolute abundance of distilled water in the lab....Nobody from the lab back in college would believe me if i told them we get distilled water from taps! yes, m not kidding u guys...all the labs here have dedicated taps for distilled water, which give distilled water 24/7...
Well, back in blore, we used to have this secret stash of distilled water, our very own cache for our experiments...I remember at one point of time, our bacterial culture plant tissue culture media had mineral water (supposedly sterile!!)...well, now i can water the plants in distilled water...Hell! i can bathe in distilled water!! :) :)

3. After many attempts and many experiments (trust me "many"is an understatement) , u finally take a spoonful of whatever you have made in the kitchen, and taste turns out to be purrrrfffeeecctt....oh, joy to the world! annadatasukhi bhava.. :) :)

4. A single bedroom house, 8guys dancing like hooligans, 4am in the morning, watching Sachin Tendulkar (live, courtesy 6mbps internet speed and live streaming site) become the highest run getter in test cricket, half way around the world...a religion called cricket... :) :)

5. Some traditions never change i guess....Birthdays are celebrated the Indian way....a big choclate cake, a pool party and a very wet b'day boy at 12 AM..

Staying away from home for the first time can be a hard experience, if not for the little moments of joy that truly warm ur heart...
Maybe i can end this post with a really senti quote from a really familiar place...
Life is like a box of choclates, some are crunchy,some are soft,some are minty...but all of them are sweet in their own way..

Guru, Kadrenhalli yavkade?

U never really appreciate something, until you start living without it....I never for once thought, i would miss the traffic in Bangalore this much..Being in a country which runs on a
"car culture", u will start missing a few familiar sights and sounds from Bangalore...like the trademark drone of an auto rickshaw running on kerosene or the honking of the "musically inclined" lorry drivers....Maybe i should have recorded a few noises to remind me of home. :)

In spite of all the cars zipping around the roads, life on the road as a pedestrian is not as hard as it seems....if he doesn't stop for me when I'm crossing the road, i can sue him..if he honks, i can sue him...if he drives the car too close to me, i can sue him...if i don't like the colour of his car, i can sue him...so basically, I'm the king of the road!!!!(and of course i was kidding about the colour part :D) What the hell, i can even walk blindfolded!! :)
so, guys if u r coming to America and u luv walking (like me)...u will have the time of your life :)

The funniest rule of all though is the part where i can file a law suit against the guy if i feel his driving is in someway scaring me...if he turns suddenly,stops suddenly,drives too close to me, i can haul his sorry ass to jail..
Seriously, we would all die if this rule was implemented in India...The BMTC bus drivers are experts in nanotechnology...that's the distance they leave when they stop behind you! and i dont even have to get started on the matrix style stunts of our auto drivers....i think all my reflexes became lightning quick after i started driving amidst auto rickshaws :) :)
Oh, what the hell, the first thing I'm gonna do when i come back to India, is drive really close to an auto and listen to the driver's choicest of expletives..ah,music to my ears :)

Why all this blah blah on the American traffic system?? Well, it so happens that this dude wanted to get to the USPS(United States post office), to pick up a parcel from back home (mane thindi...yummm)..and he has this amazing compass in this brain which lets him get lost even in his own apartment complex (its confusing,cmon!)...so he gets a printout of the route map from google maps (god bless google!) and heads out on a cycle..its 2.3 miles on the tiny inner roads after all (3.7km), piece of cake...

He goes cycling for about 40mins and suddenly realises hes hopelessly lost (it took 40 mins to figure it out?!?!)...what would you generally do? ask somebody for directions....well..thers not a person walking around for miles and all the cars are zooming on..windows up, AC on full blast, eyes and ears trained on the GPS (greatest technological gift to America..huh!)......It was much simpler back home, drive up to an auto rickshaw (i'm just missing those darn things too much!!) , shoot up a question, "guru kadrenhalli yavkade", for which you would get an accurate and highly detailed driving instructions...all of this whilst riding next to him! :) :)....
So he curses his sense of direction, curses America, curses the guy who invented GPS ...heads back home (thankfully its 1 straight road!) , replenishes his drained energy and heads back on the road, with undeterred determination (mane thindi aase :D )...

U cant blame the poor guy for getting lost...Ok, if u r at the intersection of 4 roads, and there is a board hanging from the signal right in front of you, which says "Saturn lane" ...u would normally go straight to go to Saturn lane...well, apparently, at a junction, a sign board in "front" of you on American roads tell u the name of the road you would be on if you took a right turn or a left turn..wow!! i would like to meet the genius who thought of that!!! there should be atleast an arrow pointing to the left or the right after the name...huh!

Finally, by sheer instinct and pure luck, the guy finds his way to the post office, gets the parcel (worth more than its weight in gold) and heads back home...aching thighs,sore butt, a little wiser perhaps...Well, m not saying the guy in the story is me, nor am i saying it isn't me....just that I'm missing the chaos of Indian traffic..

Signing out [my butt still hurts :( ]