Re-Union

On the long weekend, i had gone to meet my friends from MCA days and a friend from work...I was looking forward to this meeting for such a long time, was meeting my friend at work after an year and the highlight of meeting my MCA friends was, we were all meeting at one friend's place and one my friend who stays in US was visiting my other friends home for the first time.

So i landed on NY Friday morning, was not expecting my friend to wait till i dropped it, before heading for office, it was nice seeing him wait for me to reach :) Walking on NY roads, reminded of India...NY people share the same impatience that u find in India.

My friend and his roommate like proper host made breakfast and then headed for work...while they were away i just listened to music and slept off.
In the evening, my friend made a cocktail called long island which i had promised i would taste, after few sips could feel my head spinning so stopped, my friend experimented his culinary skills on me(which i must say was good :), we saw a movie and then slept off. The very next day i had to go to NJ to meet my friend, so that i could go with her family to Virginia. I got up early, decided i will go on my own to the train station as it was bit early....after walking for a while, i felt maybe i am lost as the distance seemed longer compared to what i experienced when i came there for the first time. One more time my direction sense let me down :(

Anyways...finally made it on time for the train.

My friend picked me up and we all started our 6 hrs journey to Virginia, on the way we chatted, listened to some good music.

We finally reached around 6, my friend's kids were very happy to reach, as it was pretty long journey for them, must say there were amazing throughout the journey.
My friend's daughter commented on the way, its been a while since we were in anyone'
s home :)

It felt so great to meet everyone at the same place, it did not feel at all that we are meeting after a long time, it just seemed as if we are transformed back in time...The friend at whose home we met was perfect perfect host, she was all the time worried to ensure we had proper food, she will just think in terms of what to make the next day etc...I felt, how would i be if someone came to my place? Can i be like her?

You know what, her cleanliness has rubbed off a bit on me, i am trying to keep my place tidy after coming back from there.. :)

At night once the kids have slept, we all(4 of us) will end of chatting till 2, it felt like the same old MCA days, when we would meet for some assignments or birthday's. It felt nothing has changed since then, more or less we are the same set of people, just bit more wiser now i guess :) The two days we stayed there seemed so long, as we ended up doing so many things, going out, chatting till late, eating, watching movie :)

On Monday, my friend dropped me back in Washington, even the journey back was great, the route was beautiful, we talked in general...

Took my flight from DC, while coming back had to mentally prepare myself to the "real" world :)

Surprise

This Monday i got back from the long weekend late night, as i was coming back in cab, only thing i could think of was my bed...i wanted to reach soon and just crash...
Finally reached my abode, saw a message on the door from the apartment manager, call me...i thought this must be because of the non-payment of rent, decided to call her first thing tomorrow.

As i entered my room, i was surprised to find the decor of the house changed, the book shelf has been moved from its usual location...on looking closer i realised that the shelf was empty, all my stuff was not there...then i saw the bathroom was sealed and some machine was making weird noise...and realised none of my stuff is there in the apartment, not even the food stuff.

Various thoughts ran my mind...something broke that's why they had to seal the bathroom, i couldn't understand why they emptied the kitchen..another thought came, am i being thrown out of this place because of non-payment, the manager must have been real mad, hence she confiscated all my stuff and has locked it some here...then i imagined myself making a dramatic statements saying is this how u treat fellow human beings just because there was a delay in payment...i cannot stay here even for a day now blah blah...and would walkout of the place with my stuff the next day.

Decided to sleep and get up early and call up the manager. So next day called the manager, got to know that there was a leak and they had to shift my stuff to another apartment late sat night, she gave me the keys for the new apartment and apologised for the trouble.
When i got in my new room, was amazed to see that she had put things exactly the same way as i had kept. I was really touched by her action.

Being Treated as Beggar

I normally take buses to reach office, few days back as i left from home to go the bus stop, i realised i do not have 1.5 dollars as change, the smallest note i have is a 5 dollar note. I knew in the bus ticketing slot u need to give exact money,as there is no provision for getting money back.

I felt lets see whether i get bus or cab first, if i take a cab i will have to pay more money, so in a way putting the 5 dollars would be a smart move :)

Guys do u like my logic? tell me, i am smart nah :)

So i boarded the bus, put the 5 dollars note, the machine got confused..it still kept saying drop one quarter or something..the bus driver looked and said, what did u put..i told him i put 5 dollar note, he was shocked...he said u should have given the note to me, and i would have given change. I said its fine(as that was the deal i had with myself)

He said, he will get me the money back, so as soon as the bus stopped at the next stop and people got in, he asked one guy as he was putting money to give the money to me.
The guy was zapped, he gave me such a weird look and started walking further, the driver shouted at him, either buy ticket or give the money to this lady. He shouted by why should i give it to her? I told him the entire story, he handed me the 1.5 dollars and it seemed his mood was all Tipsy-Topsy because of this incident.
He shouted back at driver, you should have explained.

At the next stop, again a lady entered..the same thing happened, she also gave me a weird look and then after telling her what happened she gave me the money.

I was not expecting the driver to do all this, but in a way felt just touched by his gesture to be fair. And also wondered why the people gave me such weird looks :)
They must be thinking she is some immigrant lost and looking for money and this driver not sure why has agreed to help her.

It was a funny experience.

Weird Experiences

I am real bad at roads/directions and if i have someone with me...i will never bother to remember the route. I am in SF right now and have a friend with whom i normally go to office...so i never bothered to remember it properly. One day i had to go on my own, i knew the address was 845 broadway and my friend had shown me the bus stop...so i reached there way ahead of time..got into the bus..was really proud of myself on my time management skills.i knew from the bus stop i have to walk a while to reach office...so i started walking, i reached the street but could not locate the office..asked few people..they guided me...alas still no sign of THE destination.

Finally got tired, also was getting tensed as i hate coming late for meetings. So i decided to take a cab...i got into the cab, the cab guy asked me where i need to go...told him the address, he said its very near..better go by foot...so with a dissappointment of a kid,whose parent has switched off the tv and asked him/her to go and study. I got down, cursing him why does he care when i am ready to pay.
I started searching again...but alas i could ses 843 but than 847...there was no buildings with middle numbers...i decided to test another cab guy...so took another cab, told him i need to go to 845 broadway...told him i am really tired...even if its very near i want to go via cab only..its been 30 mins since i am searching for it.
We searched for a while, then he said are u sure you have the right address? I was like..what do u mean? I, I cannot do such mistake...no way..for some reason the number 845 was soo clear on my head.

Since it was getting late, i thought let me check..as usual i did not have any paper/document which had the address..and i did not have a cell to call anyone. Luckily i had a friend's number..as normally i don't have that too :).

I borrowed the cab guy's phone and called a friend...asked him the address...he said 345 broadway. I could not believe it...why did 845 sound so right to me, from where did i get that number....no clue.

I wonder, if i am like this now...i wonder how it will be when i grow old :)