Diaries from Happy Valley Part-2
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2009
The Russian Hat
The maximum heat is radiated out of your head. Time to cover your head. As the temperature drop in State College, the clothing increases proportionally. Muffler, gloves, jacket and finally the cap. Its a lot of clothing. It takes five minutes to dress and probably the same time to undress. Sometimes you feel strange to carry all these around. But they are extremely essential.
So I have cap which has an ugly brown color with ear protection. I bought before coming to State College. As the temperatures dropped to ridiculously lower levels, I had no options than to wear it. I never like to wear a winter cap and my mother would know that. As a kid I used hide the cap so that my mother could not find it. She took me to every possible shop in Model Town, but I won't budge. Sometimes it was the color and sometimes it was the coarseness of the cap. Tired she would buy me something and put it on my head next morning. I still remember when my Papa would drop me off at school and as soon as the sound of his old pristine scooter would disappear the cap would come off. But that was Delhi and not State College.
But then one of my friends saw my cap and remarked that it was a Russian Hat. A Russian Hat! That explains the whole staring issue. A Desi wearing a Russian Hat does not digest at all. This gives rise to a lot of crazy questions in everybody's minds. Like, A desi born in India, migrated to Russia and then to America. Or, A Russian moving to India and then US. Or........Possibilities are endless.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2009
'g', 'a', 'u', 'r', 'a', 'v'
International students always have a big problem in communicating the right pronunciation of their names. Specially this semester has been really bad. In past two weeks I have at least spelled out my name to ten different people and all the culprits have Americans.
When I first arrived and met my adviser he pronounced my name as 'Guraav'. This was interesting as it sounded something different. Soon most of the people of the lab started calling me 'Guraav'. But soon a week later it was the usual boring 'Gaurav'. But it was a pleasant surprise. Some different sound.
But this semester my teacher in Numerical Computations class has had a hard time pronouncing my name. So we communicate by spelling out my name letter by letter. So if I go to collect my homework, I tell her 'g', 'u','p', 't','a' or 'g', 'a', 'u', 'r', 'a', 'v'. She sometimes have a laugh about it. And so do I. Its something that never happened to me in India.
Americans are very casual about their names. Christopher becomes 'Chris', Thomas become 'Tom', Mathew becomes 'Matt'. Not that it something offending or bad, but its a real pain to the TAs who have to check the assignments. While the official entry is 'Christopher', they would write 'Chris' in their assignments. Its all very confusing and a time consuming affair to resolve the ambiguity.
Sometimes I do think, that why don't we assign numbers instead of numbers. Something like an SSN or passport number. Or something on the lines of the IDEA ad in India having Abhishek Bachchan. This a great IDEA. No more ambiguity of pronunciation and shorthands. Everybody has a number having universally known digits.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2009
OF BROKEN RACKET
So the badminton has become an on and off thing recently. But still its too mouth watering to resist. Beating the my old nemesis, the cold, I was back on courts. I don't seem to enjoy the doubles. Its too difficult for someone as new as me. The placement has to immaculate 80-90% times, else your opponent would kill you. Still I am average and hope to improve in future.
I got to play with Sudarshan after a long time. I wanted to see how mich I had improved. To my surprise I actually had. Lesser smashes down my legs, sometimes he was running around and I was dictating terms. My timing had become better and I was watching the shuttle better. But as little technicalities are take care of other issues like stamina and agility on court become more important parameters. It was only a 15 minute hit but I was already all sweaty and panting badly. But these are not major issues.
So after two near losses, we started playing with another pair. I was paired with this chapta (Chinese) who is I guess the GOD player. As expected I was the bottleneck and we are already behind 3-5. Cat among pigeons. And I am moving all around the court sometimes taking his shots also. And it finally happened. A high shuttle towards the back of the court and we both raced. I am much taller than him and hit the shuttle with good power. But I also collide with the chapta. And some loud noise. His racket fractured badly from the middle. The loss of the racket proved too much for him and he clearly looked all shaken up. I went up and apologized. He took in the lighter vain but I knew he was upset. Loss of 120$ racket or anything in a flash is difficult for anyone.
All the chaptas near were uttering some chinese gibberish. Surely they were giving of lot of bad mouth to me. They might have expressed a little emotion for the chapta but more abuse at me. I was also all upset wih that had happened and caught the next bus to home.
The good thing was my racket survived the accident. I could hardly imagine before the incident that something of that could happen to any racket. The metal frame is too fragile I guess. But then you really can't imagine that anything could happen to your car unless it really does. Lesson learnt.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2009
Pet cat 200$ security deposit
So this about the apartment hunt over last few days. Its strange. You start looking and booking of an apartment 8 months in advance and you shift into the place only in early August. Guess the population in State College has increased in last few years. May the sinking economy also show similar trends.
So the search began at the HUB. Collecting pamphlets and discussion are two things that one does here. Then an on site unit inspection is mandatory. But for a Desi the ever rising prices are the biggest heartache. The prices are ridiculously high when compared with what I am paying at Southgate. But that's a place I just loathe for both obvious and non-obvious reasons. Parkway looked way better and Executive Houses are also great place to live.
But the most interesting is the security fee for the pets. In Executive Houses you pay something like 200$ as the initial security for the cat. And then you pay 200$ per month. Ridiculous!! And how do you decide how much of the cat security to return. By the number of reports of the neighbors that your cat scared them or the number of times the cat was found wanting by dirtying the place around. God knows!
But that's a very interesting observation here. The number of people having pets here is significantly higher than back in India. My neighbor has three pet dogs of three different sizes and personalities. You see a cat almost everywhere. I asked Jagdish why was it this way here and if something is wrong with the people over here. First he is offended since his parents have pets. But then he says that a pet would always pamper(not sure if this is right word to use) and love you when you come back home whereas your own child may not show that love. They always follow you when you come back home and would never turn their back on you.
That's why maybe this country looks sad and alone. People look at animals for love and affection, unheard of in India. Not that people do not have pets in India but I always thought that they were for fun. But they could be a commodity to replace humans and their emotions is a fact I came to know here. I guess then 200$ are worth then.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2009
Pet cat 200$ security deposit
So this about the apartment hunt over last few days. Its strange. You start looking and booking of an apartment 8 months in advance and you shift into the place only in early August. Guess the population in State College has increased in last few years. May the sinking economy also show similar trends.
So the search began at the HUB. Collecting pamphlets and discussion are two things that one does here. Then an on site unit inspection is mandatory. But for a Desi the ever rising prices are the biggest heartache. The prices are ridiculously high when compared with what I am paying at Southgate. But that's a place I just loathe for both obvious and non-obvious reasons. Parkway looked way better and Executive Houses are also great place to live.
But the most interesting is the security fee for the pets. In Executive Houses you pay something like 200$ as the initial security for the cat. And then you pay 200$ per month. Ridiculous!! And how do you decide how much of the cat security to return. By the number of reports of the neighbors that your cat scared them or the number of times the cat was found wanting by dirtying the place around. God knows!
But that's a very interesting observation here. The number of people having pets here is significantly higher than back in India. My neighbor has three pet dogs of three different sizes and personalities. You see a cat almost everywhere. I asked Jagdish why was it this way here and if something is wrong with the people over here. First he is offended since his parents have pets. But then he says that a pet would always pamper(not sure if this is right word to use) and love you when you come back home whereas your own child may not show that love. They always follow you when you come back home and would never turn their back on you.
That's why maybe this country looks sad and alone. People look at animals for love and affection, unheard of in India. Not that people do not have pets in India but I always thought that they were for fun. But they could be a commodity to replace humans and their emotions is a fact I came to know here. I guess then 200$ are worth then.
Comments
Post a Comment