Dream of Californication

Pack your stuff, get the sunglasses, apply the sunscreen lotion and get the beachwear…. Coz you are at California, the golden state. The very first thing that I noticed, when I landed at SanFrancisco Airport was this tagline of the car rentals ‘ You did not come to California to sit inside your room ‘.. Well, that sounds like something interesting, right? And it all started from there, the rock and roll roller coaster ride. This is the place that gives you the opportunity to do lots of outdoor activities, and I am getting indulged in all those. There were some ups and downs, but yeah, what’s life without these?Now I have my next 3 goals .. get my body in shape , build a personal website and get a brand new camera.

Sail on over the rough waves

Long and winding the path may be,
Indeed rewarding the view will be...
Give that thrust for the final flow
Gotta endure the rain, to see the rainbow

Harold and Kumar go to office

Sounds like the latest Hollywood blockbuster ? Well yes , it is .. and this post is all about the Indian guy KK ( me , the Kumar ) and his flat mate Mike ( Harold ) . After making my first internship switch from SAP to Qualcomm , I checked into the new apartment given by Qualcomm , with all the enthusiasm in the world , humming a new tune and surprise ... I got a guy from Hong Kong as my roomie . Its always fun to have some one from a different country , but I never thought that it would be so much fun altogether. Day1 @ office , we were the last ones to check in there and when we reached the desk , HR girl , yes that cute one , smiled and said " You two remind me of that movie , the Harold and Kumar " and well , it all started from there . The name became a bit famous among our batch-mates . We were also excited about this ;-)
I have made my roomie listen to Hindi Songs , taste the Indian 'curry ' and now he has started craving for more .. dil maange more .. And I put on a smile when ' Dum Maro Dum ' flows out of his mobile when a call comes.Because of him , I have slowed down a bit , when I am talking ..but he says he has now got used to the Indian English . And he taught me Turkish Checkers ( a board game ) and some American History and culture . If you happen to visit our place , you may also notice that the wireless router is 'Harold and Kumar ' ;-)
San Diego had a lot of things to offer . Sun , Sand , Surf , Sea World and whole lots of out door activities . I did surfing for the first time in my life . Went for kayak in the bay , visited Sea World and Zoo , and whole lots of pristine beaches . I am extending my 3 month tenure here .. till December 2008 . Lets see how it goes.

Transit loungers

The term 'transit loungers' (borrowed from Pico Iyer) refers to the class of people who are entangled between multicultural identities .(My roomies refer to a friend of us as "Cultural Shock " hehe ). Iyer suggested this to denote the set of people who end up spending a lot of time catching international flights , waiting at the transit lounges . They don't have any affinity towards any particular nationality , but feel quite comfortable eating Pizzas and burgers ( or even trying out Chinese dishes with chopsticks ), listening to Bryan Adams , watching Hollywood movies and thinking of English as an international passport. Well , I still believe that I don't belong to one of them.But what made me think about this is the recent conversation that I had with my cousin who is in Indian Airforce .I was talking to him after a long while and he asked a simple question "Are you still a desi ? Or have you embraced the new culture ? ". I replied assertively saying that I am , and will always be a Mallu (hehe , the identity which I love to cherish ).
But afterwards this made me think a bit deep . " Do I have any right to be one ? ".....Like any pravasi Malayalee ( the denizens of Kerala ), I too wear the traditional dress on Onam and Vishu , and still vehemently talk , rather argue about CPI (M) , Malayalam lyrics and the desi mindset and all that . But that doesn't entitle me to be a proper Desi or Mallu .
Dreams and ambitions took me a long way out of the place where I was born and now I think the attachment for my hometown is only because my parents are still there . For me , home is where my mom is .. well thats true . Once when I was in Bangalore , she was hospitalized in Cochin and I rushed to the hospital and stayed with her there for the entire 3 days when she was there . Not because my house was quite far from the hospital , but I felt that is where my home is !!! So if at all my parents come down to this alien country to stay with me , will I lose the touch with God's Own country ? Something that experience should tell me .
My friends over here have now developed this habit of listening to Malayalam poetry online .Thanks to www.nishaunni.com and Vishnu , who introduced us to this website . When I listen to the lyrics of Vyloppilli and Vayalar , I feel that I have lost a lot of things when I embraced Information Technology . Well , technology has its benefits . It has taken us close to the long lost lyrics through these poems now .While I was in Kerala , I never used to listen fully to these lines , but now they sound far far better . May be I am not a transit lounger yet .... I am still at the domestic lounge :-)
PS : The cousin who talked to me , Manoj chettan , is heading to Kashmir now , his next posting . He told me that 'Dahl Lake' would be awesome . He told me that his posting is 11,000 feet above the sea level , and mountains look wonderful from there. He told me that life could be really adventurous there . He told me not to be a transit lounger and come back ....

Coconut Oil and Rock Music

You must be wondering , whether I am out of my senses . What a weird combination .. hehe but I am trying out that . Two things that caught my attention these days . I am quite comfortable listening to 'System of a Down ' with dosas dipped in coconut oil chutney . And I successfully made my non Mallu friend try some coconut oil . Don't know , the life of every sane Mallu ( insane as well ) is linked with Coconut Oil , CPI ( M ) and Fish ..I am adding rock music to that :-)

Adding new melodies

It has been a while since I blogged , not because my life was not eventful , but it was so eventful that I couldn't devote time to compose one .. :-) . Well as the title says , adding new melodies , I added quite some new aspects to my life . A new country ,new roles and a whole new set of friends and new activities to keep me engaged . I couldn't have asked for more . I never thought that I would land up in the so called 'land of opportunities', which was one big surprise , and I was not even sure whether I was dreaming or not when I was pushing the trolley through Dulles International Airport .If it was a dream , then I didn't want to wake up then .
VT threw in a couple of surprises , with my roomies and friends .Got some nice people to hang out with . Started doing all those things which I wanted to do ( don't mistake me here ) . Started living on nights and weekends ( just like the Sprint talk plan nights and weekends ).Now VT has got into my system . Yeah , lets rock , Hokies.Can't think of leaving this place , even though I know that day is not far.And I started visiting new places , Niagara falls to start with ; An awesome place which I had only seen on postcards , then to Florida , to Miami , NYC , DC .
The most amazing part was the New year trip . DC -> NJ ->NYC->Connecticut and back . Spent the new year at Times Square . Well , that was a trip where in me and my roomie did all sorts of things ; we roamed around , got up late , got lost in the subways , missed the bus , got into another one , missed our luggage , went to restaurants which didn't accept our cards , rented a car and got caught by the cops . What a nice end to a trip !!!
This semester had a new set of surprises for me , with me putting on the role of an instructor . Well , do I have to mention that studies have taken a backseat ? Well , now I am in the mad race to get an internship . Lets see what life brings to me ; may be some more melodies .