Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Grad ramblings

Graduate life has started and time is scarce. So you see people asking for 48 hours in a day or 120 minutes in an hour! Ah the common mistake. I always believed in higher efficiency. Thus, I wish I could read two text books at the same time or write two assignments at the same time. I gotta ask Rajnikant about the latter! I guess I exaggerate when I say I am very busy. Else how would you explain me finding time to go rock climbing, or attend student group meetings, or go for tennis classes, or meet a published author (Adam Shepard) or play ultimate Frisbee or go jogging on the beautiful stone arch bridge or write blogs and the list goes on. So grad life hasn’t reached top gear yet. I am hoping it doesn’t anytime soon!

So what else has been happening? Oh, I met this guy at a student group CFACT meeting who was interested in Indian culture. On knowing I was from India he asked me if I would volunteer to teach him Hindi!! I puffed my chest and said why not!! I guess I was the best Hindi speaker in the radius of a few feet. Yeah there are Indians all over the place here. But then I am the only one who delivered the epic dialogue 'jai aur veeru bhag gaye, magar kaise?' So the man was in safe hands when it came to learning Hindi. So being Indian helped me make a new friend.

But being Indian has its downside too. I become really conscious of my accent while speaking to the foreigners. Oops sorry, I mean natives. I am so used to calling Americans foreigners! Coming to my accent, it really stands out. It’s like I over pronounce every word. I used to think that Raj's accent in Big Bang Theory was exaggerated. But now I see the reality. I guess I’ll get used to it as time passes. Not that I feel inferior in any sense. The only time I feel bested by someone is when I walk in front of a mirror! I have installed bullet proof glass mirrors in my apartment cause of my mirror cracking looks! \m/

Many people have asked me whether I felt a culture shock after coming to the US. I guess it wasn’t much because in the US we have only 110 volts as compared to 220 volts in India. An American coming to India will feel a bigger shock! Hilarious jokes aside, one thing that has really caught my eyes, or attention rather, is the low waist fashion here! Guys here have taken low waist to all new levels. Low waist pants would baffle even Newton with their gravity defying lowness. I really want to know how they keep their pants from falling!

Free food is big here in the US. Every event is advertised by free food or pizza. Student group meetings, prayer meetings, gen events and even academic events pull crowds through free food. For instance I have taken a seminar course for 1 credit in the nano science department for the sole reason of free food. They serve amazing cookies, cake and coffee before the seminar. It is eat and then go and relax in the comfy hall!

Anything that’s pissing me off here? Yeah the obscenely high cost of labour. The bike repair shop asked me $6 to install new brake pads! Thank you Rahul for installing them for free! A hair cut costs at least $20. And you can’t get second hand haircuts. So for the first time I see something positive in my hair loss. I guess once I start earning big time(wonder when!), I ‘ll ask himesh where he got his hair weaving done.

Thank you guys for showing 'Fultoo attitude' in reading this fully faltoo post. I wind up, thanking himesh in anticipation for his next block buster, char buster and mind buster movie Radio! One last thing, Radiation is my favourite course. Guess why??

This post is dedicated to Sivram (bloodrayne) who recently questioned my ability in generating crap posts like dis! :D

Picture credits
Awesome Himesh: http://www.indiahits.com/media/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/himesh_reshammiya_radio_rj.jpg

Hindi Pic: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinEtls2dj0E9qvBxXeePuLnblz9G3QErUhtSy86ev0jJFzIzWUFA08dBuMz_Dy5AoKb9sv6lCbMnRuv4Dbh1ct_8EsyI1voAA-IiN3c56RLeYIm-7_37_5OzXrVDbWAAjGQvGAcbakLhE/s400/hindi-day-special.jpg

18 comments:

  1. Brilliant stuff! :-) Hope you're having a good time there :-D Make us proud Danny-boy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. hahaha omg nice one :D :D culture shock omfg best pj ever \m/
    for me at least, the load is insanely high :( this is why u need funding :=(

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Rohit.. no1 has ever asked me to make them proud!! thank you!! thank you!!

    @raja.. yeah thank God i have funding.. actually i hv a lot of time now as i hvnt been assigned an adviser yet.. so no RA work too! and my courses seem relatively light.. i guess i am just lucky.. so i'll make hay while the sun shines!! :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. Deii.!! Awesome Post!!! N da piC!!! Hilarious! howcome you the paper on your right is empty?! Rajnikant ROCKS :D

    ReplyDelete
  5. @bloodrayne.. u need night vision goggles which work in sunlight to read wat i hv written..

    ReplyDelete
  6. dude !! i got a hair cut for just 9$..u missed this detail about the US..there are coupons for everything !!

    ReplyDelete
  7. my dear bro y u so worried abt accent..u got a nice vibratin voice..n ur 220V PJ..ur jokes jus get drier m drier..gud kip it up!!!!!!!n i dono how u manage 2 teach sumbody hindi...

    ReplyDelete
  8. @pradeep.. i'll contact u before i go fr a haircut!!

    @clifford.. tanx.. hows d weather? :D

    @sahaj.. obbestestest..

    @all readers.. y hasnt ne1 answered y radiation is my favourite subject? :(

    ReplyDelete
  9. @blogger
    i'm sure theres some dumb reason, please spit it out. enlighten us!
    also, haircut coupons come in your mailbox even if you don have hair, i need mine !! :P

    ReplyDelete
  10. nice post.. so u planning to keep long hair? :P

    ReplyDelete
  11. that hindi stuff reminds me of school mate...
    tht was one sub uv worked hardest on...
    cheers ..thts finally helpin u...

    ReplyDelete
  12. @chimu, if i do i'll post it in my blog!

    @roshan.. dont remind me of those days!! hindi ws d most useless subject.. helped me develop muggign skills though! :D

    ReplyDelete
  13. @dainy: u can ask him to write it in english n mug up...nice post btw..PJs and bharis reachin to new level..himesh rules!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. hey dany.. not heard for a long time now...
    atleast write smthin man....

    ReplyDelete
  15. @ravs.. bharis are my birth right and i shall hv it!!

    @roshan.. sup!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Excellent post danny boy !!! Although I must admit when you post opened, the first picture I saw was that of himesh's and I wondered why you had put clintson's photo there !!!.... LOL... they look soo similar man... especially after himesh losing so much of weight...

    ReplyDelete
  17. @adi.. i must tell clintson that.. he will be overjoyed to knw that he looks like himesh!!

    ReplyDelete