So much happened in so little time! I resigned from Saber/EDS and 4^th April is going to be my last day. I am joining a new project with the State of Arkansas IT department. Yes, I am moving to Arkansas to a place called Little Rock. The reason for the move is money and position and as of now I am happy with both. I am reading and getting to know more about Arkansas, it’s going to be hot and humid like Chennai, India. This place is close by Texas with sizable Indian community and lot of corporate opportunities. Not many people prefer Arkansas as a place to move but I think as long as the work and offer is good I really don’t care about the place. Coming from India I believe I can live in any place and in any living conditions as long as it is not really extreme.

So here is the plan, My join date in Little Rock is on 14^th April. So 5^th April I am packing everything in my car and I am going to start driving to Santa Barbara, California to meet Ale. It is 900 miles from Salem OR so it will take me about 14 to 16 hours to reach there. I am going to stay in SB for 3 days and on 8^th morning I will be leaving to Dallas, Texas that will be 1500 miles say about 22 to 24 hours, I will reach there on 9^th afternoon. I will be meeting Sreekar who has come down from India and probably spend a day or two with him. I will also get to meet Neeru and Satish in Dallas. On 11^th morning I will be leaving to Little Rock, Arkansas which is about 300 miles from Dallas. So In total it is going to be 2800 miles of drive from Salem OR to Little Rock AR. It is going to be first of its kind for me and I will be driving alone. My big road trip after the 54 hour trip from Syracuse-Boston-Maine coast line-Syracuse. I am excited to see all the people on my way and to experience the longest drive ever.

I left to India on a month’s trip and I am back to US. It started with 3 days in Singapore, 4 days in Tirupati, 3 days in Chennai, 2 day back in Tirupati, 1 day in Chennai again, 1 day in Delhi and Agra, 3 days in Tirupati again and 4 days in Dubai. I do not have the count for the rest of the days, maybe I lost them in travel or I don’t remember what I did.

It started a little shaky with the 30 minutes special security check I was selected for before I left to Singapore, I lost my phone in Singapore before checking in to the hotel, I got my room on the 13^th floor which was a number in its own and not the top most floor for the price I paid (and no balcony). Nonetheless it was a good place to see and I had some very good time out there. Can’t divulge much out here. So I left to India met my family after a year and half, spent some time with everyone and surprisingly with my brother as well. Later I got my H1B stamping done in Chennai and spent some time with school friends.

I always wanted to see Taj Mahal, it was a dream and I thought this was the best time to see it. I left to Delhi in the night and returned the next night after seeing one of the world’s wonders. The first sight of Taj Mahal thru the fort entrance is something you will recollect as the most memorable moments of your life. Spectacular, Marvelous, and more adjectives if possible. I literally didn’t breath for a while and no words can describe what I felt and what it meant to me. I was very sad to see the way the fort was maintained, I saw movie posters on forts wall, stalls, people screwing the foreigners and the dirt. The most celebrated place in India, a face, a pride, a wonder of the world is so poorly maintained that I have no hesitation to spit on the govt. We weren’t allowed in till 2 in the afternoon as the French PM was visiting Taj the same day. I am sure all the VIP’s can only see the inner beauty of Taj as they will be escorted in without showing them how sadly it is maintained outside. Hundreds of factories closed in and around Agra to protect Taj from pollution and at the same time Mathura refinery alone would be enough to do the damage and I don’t see a near solution as it cannot be shutdown and brought up in another place. Sad!!!  My next trip to Taj will be on a full moon night I wonder how beautiful that would be.

I landed in Dubai in the middle of a Sand Strom. Scary but it’s an experience.  Dubai Shopping Festival was closed due to the sand storm the day I landed. DSF was fun, all I enjoyed over there was the food from different countries. I loved Shorma and I had it every afternoon and night. I went to a beach resort with dolly the last day before I left to US and all I saw out there was people who were fat, above 60 years in age in their bikinis. She couldn’t find a better place lift my spirits. It was a beautiful sight at the beach and it just needed some beautiful young people around. I was the only one out there (attitude!).

I am here in US and my biological cycle is all screwed up. I don’t know day to a night and I am up at this time and don’t know what to do.

British Airways........ I was lucky to get a seat near the exit from Chennai to London and I was able to stretch my legs in nearly about 10 hour’s flight. I lost one of my baggages, different story. Conversation between me and the air hostess sitting in front of me after landing waiting for the clearance to terminal 7 Heathrow airport.

Me: Even the London airport has parking problem.

Air Hostess: No, We are waiting for the clearance to the terminal (In her British accent)

Me: We will die for a parking in NYC. (Don’t know why I said this)

Air Hostess: Do you live in NYC.

Me: Yes.... How often do you fly?

Air Hostess: Aah actually I had a baby recently so I fly 4 times in a month.

Me: Congratulations

Air Hostess: I just started after a while now.

Me: Where do you live?

Air Hostess: Yorkshire

Me: oh, Yorkshire has a good cricket team.

Air Hostess: I know but I know less about cricket.

Me: You have a great time with your baby

Air Hostess: Thank you

“To choose between right or wrong is simple, but what defines one’s life is the decision between the greater of two goods or the lesser of two evils” – ‘Fanaa’.

A lot of people have asked me weather I prefer US to INDIA and my answer was political. Now after staying in 3 different countries in less than 3 months I have come across different people, with different opinions and different cultures. I can say that I have seen the cultural extremes. Lot of people argues that they do see diversity in their university campus but I do not agree. You might have friends from China, Germany, Pakistan, Japan, Saudi Arabia etc. Visiting their home land and observing their culture is a complete contrast to what we see in US universities.

I can draw lines and give differences, good or bad between US, India and Dubai. But doing so would be unfair coz it would be like narrating a drop from the ocean. Be it anything the smallest of the things, will have such a huge story behind it (History) that it is merely impossible to explain things to a person in 5 – 10 min. reading a blog entry for 10 min won’t give you any idea of what it would be there, here and there.

I thought I hit ‘the low’ day before yesterday but it wasn’t, it was yesterday. Temperatures reaching 40*c I had to travel with my brother from Tirupati to Vellore (to and fro) for 2 days. It was just a 4 hour journey but it was so tiring changing buses in Chitoor and Vellore to reach college. Oh yeah thanks to my dad, he couldn’t arrange for a driver. A day before this I even had to go to Chennai to see few other colleges. Ok no one would understand what I am trying to say here……..All I had to say was it was sick to travel and I am pissed and frustrated. I couldn’t blog for so long coz of my stupid viral fever which finally said bye to me a few days back. I am still to post a lot of pictures; I couldn’t do coz of a stupid lazy woman in Dubai. There are a lot of things that are getting delayed. The only thing confirmed is that I am coming to US on aug 08. My roommate Vishnu is moving out. Good for him, He is finally going to move in with a German girl.

Few Belly Dancer pics

I met a very dear friend of mine ‘Vinayak’ here in Dubai. It was nice to se him after a long time but missed another friend ‘Sreekar’ coz we form a trio.

Though Dubai is a place in desert the way people are managing resources like water and electricity is amazing. It is very fascinating to learn that these people actually have no scarcity of water in desert. Water from the sea after desalination is actually a byproduct from aluminum plant from where they use high temperatures to evaporate water collected from sea and then cool it to collect pure water. Approx. 76% of earth is ocean water and I don’t see Dubai running out of water for a long time. Anyways water from the taps is always hot due to the overhead water tanks and temperatures. Electricity, I am yet to learn about how it is produced in Dubai (my guess is a nuclear power plant).

There are only 2 things that disappoint me in Dubai

1. Freedom of expression
2. Roads.

I don’t have to talk about freedom of expression.

The quality of roads is amazing but it is so badly engineered that I could very well see how prone it is to accidents and there are accidents happening every day. People always see bigger roads, more number of lanes accommodating lot of vehicles but merging of roads, exits, turns and shoulders are very poorly designed. No wonder Dubai roads are one of Asia’s most dangerous roads. I have nothing to complain about quality, size and the measures that are being taken to reduce traffic, its terrific how they are working towards it and how fast they are developing things with the amount of money they have got but at the same time Infrastructure should also be safely designed and engineered. A high quality fast road with more lanes doesn’t make it safe to drive.

Freedom of expression is what I am using right now.

Dubai Day 3,

I was not feeling well today, stomach upset. Yet I decided not to waste a day in Dubai and went out for dinner to a Pakistani restaurant and to Dubai City center.

I saw a day turn into a night and a night turn into a day in less than 12 hours. I have always traveled longer hours on planes but this time the timing I guess was different. Any other day, I remember starting in the night or early in the morning and I don’t notice much of a day change. But this time I started at 12 noon and saw the day turn night in less than 4 hours it was night for next 4 hours and day again. When the flight landed in Dubai it was 8 am in the morning, so hot and so very bright. Result , A jet lag. hehhe

Damn that beautiful face which I can’t erase from my memory. I will get back to it before that I would like to appreciate Emirates for its wonderful service and very good entertainment system. ICE (Information, Communication and Entertainment) Imagine you have screens attached to every seat and you have like more than 100 movies to watch, more than 300 albums to listens to, more than 200 artistes from around the world, More than 100 TV series to watch, You also have a camera front and downwards of the plane that you can actually see. It was a 13 hour journey and with so many beautiful airhostesses around unlike Lufthansa and United it is the best airline service so far I have ever been on.

Getting back to the beautiful girl that I have met at the airport, she was blonde, less than a medium cut hair, best part was she was tall, she was wearing a leather jacket with a black t- shirt inside and black pants and she had her one eye covered hair and the other one open, unfortunately she was with another guy who was sick (actual sickness not bad looking). We were at the same gate and she was flying domestic and I was to catch my flight to Dubai, yeah, she had her flight before me. She wanted to buy some duty free chocolates and since she was flying domestic the shop keeper wouldn’t sell her, with out an international boarding pass. I was sitting on the floor so that I can hook up my laptop to a power port. She approached a lady before me requesting her to help her buy some chocolates but she wouldn’t help. Now comes the brightest moments of my day. She comes to me and she tries to explain me the situation and I close my laptop and put all the stuff in my bag and I tell her “I will do it”. She gives me the money shows me where the chocolates are in the shop and waits outside hiding behind and artificial tree outside the store. I picked the chocolates and turn back to look at her to make sure I picked the right ones. There she was standing, looking at me holding her hands near her chin as if she is praying and she nods her head saying ‘yes’ peeping through the branch openings. I give her the chocolates and she says ‘thank you’ and I say ‘No problem’. She walked a couple of steps faster, ahead of me and she turns back and says ‘thank you again’. I just nod my head and there she was, gone. I have no Idea why I was so dumb not to ask her for her name or any small conversation to start with.