How would it feel for a cave-man to live in America? Lots of movies have been made on this subject right? For 2 days ... i suddenly felt thrown off into stone-age, the age where the invention of the wheel was yet to happen! As usual ... behind every unsuccessful person like me, there has to be a girl. This time, it was Jennifer Connelly.

We had gone to this stupid movie called 'The day the earth stood still'. Irrespective of how crap the story-line was, the moment Jennifer entered, one thing was sure - the earth just stood still! And in that excitement ... little did i realize that my mobile had decided to fall out of my coat pocket. Yep! I lost it!

But... behind every successful person like me, there are plenty of people, dominated by girls!! I got my mobile back ... my precious instrument ... for those who do not know ... my coronary arteries do not just stop at the heart ... they extend further out and connect to my mobile too. So i have my 'thank you' speech ready (looks like i've won an Oscar ... but it is that big ok!). Thanks a tonne to the Waterworks people ... they are fantastic! Thanks Arvind for offering me a free sim card ... i'L take it next time i lose my cell again. Thanks Melanie and Sanchith for offering a free phone ... if its a Blackberry ... and if the offer is still open ... i'L take it! Thanks HEK, Priya and Advaitha for those comforting words in such difficult times. Thanks a lot to Shreya, Manjula and Shreyas for calling me 'careless!' I really needed that. Thank U Sandeep for answering that phone call from Waterworks. Thank you Sreya ... for taking the pains to search for the Western Psych number and giving me the awesome info. I also need to thank Sue and Mikhil for confusing me with information. Oh God! Thanks Manasi ... my lucky charm ... if not for you, my mobile would be history! I need to thank my brother too ... for not disowning me ... normally he does it! I not only got my phone back ... but also got to eat Chole Bhatura that night finally! And we all lived happily ever after (sniff!). The end!

After the first semester draws to a close ... and all hell breaks loose when Americans begin jumping from one pub into another ... I beg to differ! I have made my own list of ten commandments I shall strictly abide to ... this spring semester and for the rest of my life.

1. Thou shalt not copy Biostatistics assignments from anybody else
2. Thou shalt not mail thy lab professor from Starbucks that "i'm very busy studying and hence cannot come to lab"
3. Thou shalt not oversleep (like i did in fall sem and missed every Dr. Finegold lecture)
4. Thou shalt not have any more crushes on genetic counselors
5. Thou shalt not take color prints of Jessica Alba from thy lab
6. Thou shalt learn to comb thy hair more neatly (every day of my fall semester was a 'bad-hair day')
7. Thou shalt try to forget Sophia
8. Thou shalt grow more taller like most other Americans
9. Thou shalt not each french fries or drink hot chocolate any more
10. Thou shalt not follow any of the above commandments!

Well ... sorry to have wasted your time :-)

When I was in India (oh god ... that phrase again ... ), I did not really need a reason to go watch a movie. Ok ... i did go to find possible girlfriends and future Mrs. Suhas at Vaibhav theater ... but that's not a reason ... i was just there to admire nature's creations ... ok whatever! So what i intended to say was ... the movie did not necessarily have to be good. Inspite of the list of pathetic movie makers we can boast of ... any movie with friends was invariably fun. But here ... its a little different. Watching a movie is nothing short of a luxury. Even watching one at home needs to be scheduled in between my endless exams and assignments. And by and by ... almost every movie we watched were crap! So fridays became the official 'crap movie night'. It still appalls me that i gotta wait 'n' wait 'n' wait for watching even one good movie. So as usual ... i began watching those in my wishlist ... movies that i always wanted to watch but never did or could.

Hmmm... lets see..... yeah I watched both Golmaal and Golmaal Returns. Same old sequel=sucks equation. The first part was more fun ... its only Arshad Warsi who makes you laugh your heart out in the sequel ... I don't really know what Ajay Devgan's doing in a comedy flick. Shreyas is good to watch ... he's versatile. Tushar Kapoor ... ha ha ha !

I saw Madagascar. The first one. The sequel's probably released or is about to. This is one movie you have to watch the day you finish your last exam. Its the most relaxing movie to watch. Enjoyable ... funny ... gives you a 'feel-good' sensation all the time.

Then there's Ocean's 11. One of those stylish movies. It probably is a 'should watch'. Far-fetched i do agree ... but the story keeps you occupied. I wrongly believed Catherine Zeta Jones is in this ... she is actually in its sequel ... and throughout the movie I kept waiting for her. For those who do not know ... i almost married Catherine ... until i saw Jessica Alba in Fantastic 4.

Oh yeah ... i watched 'Blood Diamond'. One of those class movies ... so its like when someone's not watched this movie ... you go - "What the heck??? You haven't watched Blood Diamond???" with lots of question and exclamation marks. Leonardo DiCaprio is simply super. And Jenniffer Connelly is so gorgeous ... but its the story that blows you ... the gory ... the blood ... and the truth.

I watched 3 Kannada movies. 'Aishwarya' ... for the 2nd time ... its a nice timepass movie. Did not watch it for Deepika Padukone though ... she looks sad in this movie. Watched 'Aa Dinagalu' ... man! Why the heck did i not watch this earlier? Damn good movie. Then there's 'Mr. Garagasa'. Surprise surprise ... i actually felt the movie was pretty ok ... good actually ... Komal is a bit of a pain to watch ... he's really a garagasa here ... but Anant Nag is the only reason why you want to watch this movie.

I also watched a few movies which I had watched before ... A Beautiful Mind ... Finding Nemo ... Chak De India ... Gaalipata ... Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na ... Jurassic Park ... and the Pink Panther.

I would want to watch Madagascar 2 ... Yes Man ... and Ghajini. Someone told me Ganesh's new movie is comin' up ... no thank U boss! I have had enough of him!

Again I went into the mode ... the mode which gets me pretty down ... its triggered when I see something small and huggable ... something similar to my nephew Arya. I had been to this potluck dinner @ an uncle's friend's place ... and there I saw this tiny creature ... little pants ... naughty laughter ... hair flowing down till his eyes ... tightly hugging his dad ... never letting him go for a second. Anything small and huggable ... even a pillow ... reminds me of Arya. No day goes by without me thinking about the day I go back to India ... he's playing ball near the gate ... i come with baggages and all ... he looks at me and calls out my name ... and then i hug him so tight he starts crying! Until that happens ... i gotta be the one to cry :-(

Every Indian who steps foot in the Yankee's land (aka America) ... including me ... one thing they have to face is certain ... the wrath of people back home! Because, you are not only stepping into an alien land, you also somehow become a representative of this country, responsible for every crap this country does or gives.

Obviously, my situation was not that different. Any talk with friends ... cousins ... parents ... or any Indian in general led to statements like "Dude, your economy sucks!" ... "Dude, do you realize our Asia is the next superpower" ... "Dude, what does your Obama have to say these days?" What the heck??? My country, your Asia, and my Obama? Since when? Of course ... its all for fun ... but then, after a while, it starts getting onto your nerves.

On the first hand, ain't these people supposed to be proud that one among them got into a world-renowned university for a PhD program? To be one among the 3 PhD students selected every year ... you think it was just a fluke? Great ... now i will be branded as a big-time bragger.

So, suddenly, i am somehow responsible for every decision the US government takes, i am responsible for every economic crises the world has to face because of a dying US economy, and I not only have to give explanations about why US always goes to war against the middle-east, I also have to admit that nothing can stop the rise of India and its booming economy.

I shall keep the humor part aside. But why on earth do we have to continuously prove that our country is shining? We should let the figures talk for themselves right? Its said that in 10 years, India's economy will be larger than that of Italy's ... and in 15, India would have overtaken Britain. Of course, its still China leading the race among the Asian countries with consisting improve in the economic status since 1980. If we have to constantly keep telling others and ourselves about the flourishing India ... it only talks about our inferiority complex ... something probably instilled into us during the British rule. Or else, why do we weigh ourselves against others so much all the time.

Its obvious that no country is free of problems. And with a growing economy ... responsibility increases ... so do the problems; the only difference is, with a good economy of the country, we have better ways to tackle problems. America is a prosperous nation ... resources are so plenty, people here can afford to waste it to the core. Yet, America is plagued by so many problems all the time ... if its not natural disasters, its terrorist attacks; if its not increasing crime rates, its the increasing rift between the 'whites' and the 'blacks' ... if its not dying economies, its about unemployment. So development does not promise a problem-free nation ... it never has!

Believing in the growth of a country, being proud of its rich culture and being patriotic is one thing ... India and America are perhaps not so different in these aspects. Probably, Americans are more patriotic than us ... surely possible. And to say America has no culture ... is another big misconception being cleared only these days ... we don't identify with it because it is not our culture. 3 months here has taught me more about India than what I could learn back home. Its said that patriotism reaches a new high in an alien land ... its true! You know the value of something when its not with you. At the same time ... i also learnt that we only tend to adapt wrong ideals from the West and then end up dubbing it as Western culture.

And then there are this other section of Indians who settle down in US but just talk shit about India. I had seen them in movies ... read about them in books ... now that I am actually here, I can see them ... and oh man! They are such irritating people ... they ask if Bangalore has any flyover as of now ... and if I say 'yes' ... they give this mocking laughter that makes me wanna rip my hand off and throw it at them. Russell Peters says it right - "America and India are pretty different. Like ... they have different enemies. Americans fight against the Muslims ... Indians fight against each other! So for all ye who think India is the greatest country in the world - all i can say is - "I don't think so mate! We have the potential for it ... we just aren't there yet"

Ever since I have set foot into US soil ... one question has continuously bothered me. What the heck shall I eat? I very soon realized my definitions of food and the definitions here were very different. Vegetarians were still considered mythological people ... and I had to even ask them if the drinking water they serve was purely vegetarian or did they consider fancy to mix it with beef powder !

Of course ... Indian stores like Bombay Mart saves my intestines from getting absorbed as food ... but a meal plan ... oh that was what I badly needed. Especially for afternoons. I started off with making Puliyogare a day ... tomato baath another ... and lemon rice a third day ... and then repeat the cycle. This was a terrible idea. The complexity of the dish and the number of vessels I need to wash in the end are directly proportional. And although my Puliyogare tasted better than the one given in SV Temple (which sucks actually!) ... the plan just failed outright.

Making chapatis was another long-term project I decided to take up. But then after keeping the dough in the refrigerator for a day ... it changed beyond recognition into a soot-like mass of sticky charcoal-type slushy fungus. Plan dropped!

My 3rd idea was skipping lunch outright. To beat the hunger, I substituted food with flavored yoghurt and a banana. This worked fine ... except for the fact that I was so hungry in the evening that I could eat a penguin. To beat this hunger, I sped off to Scaife, grabbed a box of fries and hot cocoa mix ... and gobbled up with greed. And for those who know me well enough, Suhas never shares his fries (Suhas never shares any of his food mostly ... unless he hates it). Fries and chocolate everyday ... my room-mate soon saw my paunch ... aka protruding abdomen.

Now i've hit upon uncooked chapatis (courtesy Bombay Mart) ... let's see how long this works. Anyways, I have friends good enough to share their food ... invite me over for lunch/dinner regularly ... or come over and cook at my place.

My roomie's gone off for thanksgiving. I was so sure I'd stop eating ... no no, not coz I don't eat when my sweet-heart's not around ... but it gets so bugging to cook for myself. But surprise surprise! I have been eating a lot more than I usually do ... either our relationship is not working out ... or else I have realized the importance of giving exercise to my digestive enzymes. And above all ... very soon I am expecting some banana chips to come my way. How or why don't ask me ... but when banana chips are with me ... all my meal plans go to hell! That's my dinner, my lunch, and breakfast. And no, i don't share banana chips too :-)

The last time it snowed ... i was dancing around the streets of 5th Avenue. It was sad that my friends weren't around then ... and i only had company of shocked Americans who were aghast looking at me doing weird walks ... and i am sure atleast one among them thought i am a terrorist.

Today ... when it snowed ... i just yawned casually. Its a pity how man loses interest in some things so soon. Man needs entertainment ... a break from monotony ... a change that is everlasting. But this snow was a bit different.

As we adventured around with our cooking in the kitchen ... my room mate happened to notice that the snow was accumulating outside. That never happened ... snow would just turn into water. Put a look outside ... and you could see leaves and flowers sprinkled with what looked like salt. Both of us rushed outside.

Sandeep almost slid past the entrance whereas i came jogging around. Immediately a gush of wind and tiny feathery snow flakes hit us. The cars had layers of ice over them already. After utilizing that snow a lot ... and cleaning up the cars (the owners would have been grateful) ... we started thrashing each other with snow. Sandeep was the first ... he duped me into writing something on the car and right came a flurry of snow on me. M was the one who I thought would get thrashed by my snowballs ... but it had to be my roomie ... he was more closer to me and he deserved sound thrashing. So we started piling up huge balls of snow and flooding each other's faces ... i don't know whether we went into hypothermia ... but unanimously it was decided to head back home. I had a hard time answering nature's call ... perhaps it had turned into ice ... or worse, perhaps it will never ever come. Anyway ... won't gross you out more ... that was the end of our snow play ... the first we have had in Pitt.