I got fooled... by myself!!!

I know, some of you might be very happy to hear this, that I got fooled & that too by myself. You would be thinking that it's obvious that it should happen to me. What am I talking about?? Well... turns out I have some haters too. How do I know?? People making hate comments on my blog. Really!! It's so sweet n cool!! Why?? Firstly... when people start hating you & criticizing you, it means you are making progress in life. Secondly... it's amusing to see that people have so much time to waste there energy on me for negative things. I mean I don't have enough time & energy to hate anyone, what good does that do except giving me extra tension. But... it's cool. The point is I accept that I got fooled by myself. But I am only a human, or am I??

I am a Man... who's actually a Woman.... who's actually a Horse!!!

I left from work at 6 today and was expecting to reach home in 30-40 mins as usual. I got on the metro train from Park Street to Davis Square (here's the link to the metro plan). I had my awesome Sony-Walkman with cool noise isolating headphones on. Enjoying some new songs I got from Dulha Mil Gaya & Pyaar Impossible. Songs are actually nice, but I loved songs from Radio... (yeah Himesh haters, I again like his music & voice. It's think its still lil nazal but with a new pinch!!). Well, Davis square is 6 stops away from Park Street & Central Square & Harvard square are on the way respectively. The train came really late today, I waited almost half an hour for train at Park Street. I got on to train & kept enjoying my loud musinc with no outside noise disturbing me, so I was really in the rhythm & mood shaking my head & tapping my feet. By the time we reached Central Square, I saw that there were 2 girls sitting next to me and they were looking at me & smiling too. Seemed like one was about to say something but just didn't, I was lil happily surprised. I thought they might be liking my music (if they can hear) or linking my style of listening to music or maybe they just like me. Again, the train was taking long pauses at the station today but I was happy enjoying my new music (& the company of 2 pretty girls). The train reached Harvard Square and it seemed the girl said something to me but I didn't pay attention (why did i do that??). Now both of girls were looking at me enjoying my music & smiling. It took long time for the doors to open this time &the girls got off with all other people. Few people got it but the train kept standing for long time & I kept enjoying music further (not thinking of those girls!!). Now the door closes & the train starts heading back... yes, the train starts heading back to Park Street. I was like, what the hell happened?? Am I dreaming or what??. It's already 1.5 hrs almost for a 30 mins ride & now this. I immediately took off my headphones & got off at Central Square really pissed. But now I hear the announcement that there is some technical problem (or derailment) because of which trains are not going ahead of Harvard Square & they are running free shuttle-bus from there to Davis Square. They kept making that announcement at regular intervals. I had to wait another 30 min for next train to arrive & they had announcement playing in train too (with sincere apologies from MBTA & asking for patience!!). So... it turns out that the announcement was on all the time & I was just not ready to hear. Even when (supposedly) those girls tried to tell me. I just kept plying cool & enjoying the music. It totally costed me 3 hrs to reach home because of all this. It happens though, humans do mistakes & I am just a human... or am I??

I am a Man.... who's actually a Woman.... who's actually a Horse!!!

Trip to Marlborough/Westborough... Hopkinton State Park

So, it was my first trip outside the city since I came here and it was to Marlborough (& it's not where Marlboro cigarettes are made or not even remotely connected). Why was I there? There was a summer party/picnic from my work there at Hopkinton State Park. Remember those amazing picnics we used to have with family/friends as kids; all the fun & excitement of food, play & fun. can't do that now I guess!! So, I went a day in advance to be ready for the event. I took the commuter rail to go there from South Station (Boston) & reached Westborough station on Friday. Commuter rails are pretty cool, they are double storied and I traveled on the top floor to get the experience (reminded me of the double-decker bus we used to have in New Delhi when i was a kid, they are not there any more. It was like a bus on top of the bus, without a driver!!). You can buy the ticket at the station or you can even buy inside the train when the TT comes (without any fine... but make sure you buy it & don't think of going WT i.e without ticket plz). The ride was nice & the view outside the train was fine too. I reached my destination in evening & stayed with my friend for the night.

Saturday was the 1st day of Navratri so after waking up in morning I thought of going to temple. There's a temple nearby in Ashland called Laxmi Temple. It is a south Indian Temple (yeah, south Indian temples are different from North Indian Temples. They had a temporary made up Durga for navratri!!). So, I went to the temple... It's quite large in a nice place & it was good. Then I went to the park. As usual, weather was fooling & faking it. Yeah, here in US it's normal... It's so damn sunny outside but you step out & its chilly cold. Same was the scene there, it was very windy & chilly outside (& inspite of facing it so many times, I got fooled again & I was wearing just a T-shirt & left my jacket at home. it always happens here). Luckily it was better later in noon with sun kicking the heat up. It's a huge park with fake beach (it's normal in US to make fake beaches in these lovely parks. I could understand in Kansas which was thousands miles away from real beach but why here??), lovely greenery & nice grounds. Friends & people (well, everyone is not a friend) showed up in some time & they started with a game of cricket (now you get a bunch of Indian guys in a ground even in US, all they want to do is play cricket). We tried to get some American folks too to play with us (why am I saying we, I never played. I don't play cricket, or any outdoor game much for the fact!!) & taught them cricket & how similar or different it is from baseball. Suddenly they decided to quit cricket as its not fun & play soccer (yes dear, in US the football is what is played with hand & also known as American Football. & what the world calls football is known as soccer only). After some gaming the time came for food & the grills were on. The food was good & there was lots of stuff to eat, I had samosa burger (just stuff samosa inside a bun, easy-breezy. make sure you use lots of ketchup or sauce too!!) for 1st time which was actually nice. Then time came to play some team game with everyone & they decided to play rumal-dupatta (you don't know rumal-dupatta, c'mon!!) and my team won (& I did play this time & I played well!!). We also did kayaking in the lake there & I did pretty well there too. Kayaking is fun, but it needs skill too & it's real full upper-body workout. Overall it was a nice day of fun at the park... meeting new people, hanging out, eating good food & having lots of fun.

Then we drove back home & rested. In the night we went to dunkin donuts for dinner... I asked for there special toffee donut they had on display but turns out they didn't have it. Then I took a low fat blueberry muffin (I am really into low/no fat/sugar food these days. however the muffin was coated with sugar!!) & the guy offered free donut with that. I like this thing about American service industry, they always try to make sure that customers are happy & will do anything needed for that. You can't do that in India, can you?? We know how to take advantage of everything, I know people taking advantage of the return policies here (would get into more details some other time but many of you know what I mean). The mufin was actually nice & donut was okay too, then I went off to bed for the day. That's all I got for today, I know that Cambridge Carnival blog is till pending & would be coming soon. Until then guys & galz & friendz & foes... bye, take care & Jai Ho!!!

I had SITUATIONS... Bathroom Overflow vs Metro Jam

Yeah... I had two situations within less than 24 hrs!! And by situation I mean BAD incidents, or atleast not good ones. Yesterday my bathroom sink got blocked somehow (none of my fault really, i seriously did nothing... NOTHING!!) & also the knob to control water inlet was not working, so water kept flowing & then overflowing. The bathroom was filled with water & I was just not able to do anything, I mean what are we supposed to do in such situations but to panic... So i just panicked. The first thought at such moments is, why me?? & why now?? (imagine what people affected with real floods or calamities think.... but at this hour this is the bigest calamity for you). I just threw some towels on the door to block the water from entering the room. (How smart is that?? or stupid?? Definitely smart if I did it) .And in bathroom floor, they didnt have a water-hole to let the water out. I mean, it's a bathroom so it could happen anytime, right!! The good thing of living in hotel is I called the housekeeping to take care of it, what would I have done if I was in an apartment or something to alone take care of it. I am glad I could get this housekeeping guy to help me, he came with his magic machine & cleaned the blockage (I was like.. yeah, if I had this then this would never have happened). Water was all spilled & even had wet some of the carpet (that's the bad part in this situation here in US, all's carpeted, in India it's just flor so that's ll you can wet except people sleeping on floor or babies playing on floor or...). Next day they put some blowers/dryers to dry it & it's fine now. But it was terrible yesterday & i was so pissed/scared/ or something like that......
And today... I came back from work & got ready to go to Isckcon Temple (yep, I am religious & spiritual guy & it has nothing to do with wednesady prasaadam i.e. free food!!). As usual I was planing to take the "T" (metro train is called T in Boston, what kinda stupid name is that). I went to the Kendal/MIT Metro station to take the Red Line towards downtown & there was a train standing there since last 10 mins & not moving. The whole metro is stopped & shutdown!! Thers was this guy cursing metro & US too, dunno why... & another guy was pissed that this guy was cursing US (well, many people in world do that, get used to it). It turns out that there was some incident at the South Station and all the trains have stopped. They asked us to move out & said a shuttle would come to take us, we waited 15-20 mins outside but nothing. How frustrating it is when you have made all your plans to be somewhere using the public transport and it suddenly jams, or a late flight/train... what to do? who to blame? At those hours, the poor employees or representative of the train/flight/bus who are somehow stuck there too, have to suffer the questions, anger & curses of public; even when it's not there fault. Anyways, I decided to come back home because it was very cold outside (yeah, it's already getting damn cold in Boston). So home sweet home was the rescue & I wrote this blog. One more blog has to come about my last sunday trip to Cambridge Carnival. Until then, bye & take care!!!

10 days in Boston...

So I haven't written for quite long & many of you must have been waiting (or my be happy that I am shut up!!). I have been in Boston for 10 days & it has been good & bad. I have been in pain ofcourse because of my back injury & have visited doctors @ MGH twice. They tell me I have no fractures & I'll get better, but will take some time to heal totally. The Percocet I got last time was weird though, made me sicker so I am off it & on to strong dose of Ibuprofen & Cyclobenzaprine. Then medicines keep me dizzy/drowsy but the pain is improving. I hate medicines & I really hope I get fine soon.

I am staying in http://www.marriott.com/BOSCM here which are really nice, way better than those Extended Stays of Virginia or Kansas. They have large LCD TV with cable, full fledged kitchen with all amenities & utilities, attached bathroom, full furnisihing & everything, No need to worry about housekeeping, cleaning or even paying bills. Also they have daily nice American breakfast (bread, scrambled eggs, juice, oatmeal, bagels, donuts etc) & evening snacks (brownies, Doritos, salad, cookies, soda etc) too. I am liking it!! The hotel is close to Kendall Metro station of MBTA which we use for daily commuting to office & usual traveling. We don't get to rent cars here because we don't need it because of metro & parking is very expensive everywhere in Boston. And yeah, Boston is damn expensive man. The cigarettes cost here $10 a pack (& that doesn't says I smoke, i might have just found out)!!

So, on monday I went to my new WMC office (Wellington) dressed in full business formals. I bought 2 business suits before coming here just for this, one dark blue & other dark gray. I was wearing a tie for 1st time after school & it feels weird. I really don't understand who came up with this idea of wearing a long flat ropey clothe in neck which has to be tied in a particular fashion only. I haven't been able to learn to tie a tie still, my dad used to do it for me when I was in school & he did it again for me. He has tied the 3 ties I have got & I am wearing just those; not sure how will I manage once they are untied. Haven't worn a tie & business suit ever in my professional career of 4-5 years but they do look good. The office is okay too & I am getting adjusted...

I was feeling better this weekend so did some things. I went to a club called Middlesex near hotel in Cambridge area, it wasn't too good. Had to wait almost an hour to get in as I went around 12 & it was damn crowded & boring. Ofcourse I couldn't dance or drink as I am on medication (& that doesn't means I drink or I would have drunk if I was not on medication). Then today I went to Revere Beach too. It's not far & you could just take metro to get there. The beach kinda stinks but I like the sound of water & ocean. There were a lot of people there too & nice sand caricatures etc.

Anyways, its too much for today i guess. Please read out my previous 2 blogs about my travel to Boston from Delhi & the visit to Emergency Room in Boston. I would sign off for now & will try to come back soon. Till then... keep reading, commenting & enjoying. This is RAHUL saying Good Bye & Good Luck... JAI HO!!!!!