The doors to happiness

I've been thinking for the past few days. Thinking about the past. What is it that I remember from the past? Its those moments which I will cherish for the rest of the life. The time I spent with the best of friends. Friends like the ones no else can have. I think every person on this planet thinks he/she has the best friends anyone can ever have.

And then I think how would it be if there were doors to access those groups of friends one at a time. I have groups of friends. Friends from school, from higher studies... Everyone's a gem.

How would it be if, I could have doors like, the little school gate, where I could enter and all my school mates would be waiting for me, smiling when I walk towards them. Just being able to relive those days with those friends. Talk the talk which we used to back then.

How would it be if there was a small gate which we had at the back of our undergraduate college which we had to sometimes jump to bunk college, and when I enter it, there would be my friends waiting in their cars or bikes or just standing under a tree, carefree, waiting to ask me, "What now?"

How would it be if there was a heavy glass door which had a button on one side

which said push to open, which we would press even if we were not differently abled, and there they would be standing, my friends, smiling when I enter the door making plans to go some place just to travel even though we have no money left, just for the fun

of it, just to spend time with each other.

I could add in countless other doors here, but then you guys will get bored. :D

Thank you friends, for just being there. :)

PS: I think I've written many "what-if" scenarios in the past 2-3 posts.... :D I'll probably try something different next time.

A button for everything

How would it be if we had a button for everything? Just think about it. All your needs addressed at just the push of a button!

Seriously, how many times have you lost your keys or forgotten where you've put your phone. You know its lying around somewhere in front of your eyes but you just cannot find it! I sometimes imagine having a remote control of sorts which has a button on it. And when I press it, it immediately finds me my phone or keys or whatever.

There was this one time when I lost the keys to a cupboard in my house. I searched all over the place but couldn't find it. Finally we had to break open the lock to open it. The cupboard still has a hole in it at the place where there used to be a lock. It's at times like these that I feel I had the button which could get me what I want. We've called the stupid carpenter many times, but he doesn't show up! Now we don't keep anything valuable in it.

Another time when I was searching for something else. I don't even remember what it was I was searching for! But I searched all over the place. You know why I don't remember what I was searching for? Because something else happened. I found the key to the cupboard I was searching for before! I guess that made me forget what I was searching for.

Another time I felt I needed a button was when I was stranded at Frankfurt because AirIndia didn't confirm my ticket to Washington DC. I wished I would push a button and...

---poof---

My name would just come up on their computer screen. Aah, now that would be nice!

I guess this button thing comes from childhood for me. Everything around me had a button. Remote controls for TVs VCRs which can control everything from afar. A button on the camera which would just capture a moment forever. How about a calling bell. You press a button and someone comes out from inside! Naaice! Oh oh, yeah, the telephone had buttons! Press a few buttons, and you can talk to anyone anywhere in the world! And then came computers! OMG it had so many buttons!

Well, thats my story. I'm sure even you guys have something you hold on to in times of need. Some people call it God. Some call it their lucky charm. I call it, a button for everything.

People watching

I like to watch people when I am in a crowded place. Frankly, I don't like crowded places, so people-watching is my way of getting away from the crowd. I am in my own shell when I watch people. Some people (some of my friends too) probably think I'm a pervert. But that’s not the case. In fact, I don't even judge people.

There was this time in Ooty, Tamil Nadu, India, I was sitting on a park bench and watching people go by. My mind filtered out couples from the crowd somehow. While I was watching people, I just noticed how newly married (or unmarried) couples were walking hand in hand, cuddling some times. They showed love to each other. Then there was this different sect of couples with kids with them. They were just too busy taking care of their children running around them in circles for I don't know what reason! These guys just didn't have the time for each other. And then there were these middle-aged and all older couples. They just walked around keeping some distance from each other. After all this, I just thought "Hmm :-/", talked about this to my friends and moved on.

What’s the point in writing all this? Well, it’s been a while since I updated my blog. So I thought, "Why not write what I keep doing?"... People watching.

Exam Fever

Here I was, sitting at home, bored and not knowing what to do. Thats when I remembered I had a blog and it had been many days since I had posted on it.

A and B were 2 students at a particular university. And K was their professor. A and B were friends and therefore for a mid-term exam they sat beside each other. After the exam everything was normal. The time came when the exam papers were graded and returned. A and B were the only 2 people in the whole class who didn't receive theirs.

Prof. K called A and B to talk to them privately. A and B had no idea what could go wrong. Prof. K said there was some overlap in their papers and gave them their papers to look at. Prof. K was looking for some explanation on this. But both A and B were just silent. They took their papers and compared each others'. They found only two answers to be remotely similar. And those two answers were wrong :P

After all this Prof. K asked them to give back the papers and said "We will keep in touch on this."

Now this university has a reputation of very low tolerance to such cases. After getting back home A was pretty tensed. There had been instances of people been suspended from the university. 'A' certainly didn't want that. He didn't even want to fail the course. For more than a month there was no contact with Prof. K other than the lectures A and B attended.

It was time for the final exam for that course, and one day before the exam A and B get an email from Prof. K saying there was no solid proof that the two had cheated in the mid-term exam. Also the professor asked them not to sit together during the exam to avoid any confusion.

A and B were just relieved it was all OK and they sat as far apart from each other during the exam as possible. The professor noticed this and almost laughed during the exam.

I leave it to the readers to imagine whether A and B had in fact cheated or not. :-)

Airport woes

I was to go to Washington DC from Hyderabad. I got a ticket confirmed after roaming around the Air India office for around 2 weeks. I was glad that the ticket was confirmed just 2 days before my departure. Little did I know that it was just an indication of how bad the journey would be.

I was standing at the checkin counter at the international airport in Hyderabad, India, hoping that all the bags I had checked in would not be overweight. They were not. But then the person sitting accross the counter said, "Sir, you are not allowed 3 baggages from Frankfurt onwards.

Anyways, after arguing with the Air India staff that this was cheating and all that I anyhow turned up paying for that extra baggage. I boarded the plane, changed flights at Mumbai, and was off to Frankfurt, Germany.

Once at Frankfurt airport I was told I would get the boarding pass at the gate. And the gate for that flight would open around 1 hour before departure only. So I waited 6 hours at the airport. Finally when it was time. When I stretched out my hand at the counter for the boarding pass, I was shown the finger!! Very politely though. They said they weren't able to find a booking in my name on the flight. I had to roam around to all the offices that were there. And let me tell you, Frankfurt airport is very big. My legs started to ache after roaming around for 2 hours. Anyways, I went to the airport help desk. Back to the gate. Then to the Lufthansa ticket counter. Who told me to contact people from Air India itself. Air India office was outside the airport. I couldn't go out into germany without a visa.

There was this person whose job is to assist people at fraport. The "May I help you" person, if you know what I mean... She saw me running around so much and asked me how she could help me. I told her so and so is the case. She got the number to the Air India office and called them. She offered me a chair to sit too! She probably got scared seeing the amount of sweat on my face. So finally I contacted them, they told me they would put me on standby on another plane to chicago. I couldn't make it to that too as the plane was already overbooked. The next available flight was on the next day to New Ark. I was given vouchers for food but no accomodation.

How ever I thanked everyone and went to McDonald's to eat. I just wanted to forget everything that happened and pass time. I had to spend the whole night on the seats which are there for passesngers to sit. I slept on them.

The next day I was again caught up as they couldn't find any booking. I called up Air India and finally I caught the 8 and half hour flight to New Ark, went through the customs and off to the local departures to board the flight to Washington DC. I had to roam a lot there too along with 75Kgs of luggage on a trolley. Finally I reached the United Airlines ticket counter. Here I was told that the flight number on my new ticket was wrong!! I talked to the guys at the gate. They somehow gave me my boarding pass after asking me to wait for some time. Sat beside a "wow-so-beautiful" girl on the flight and finally landed in DC without any more trouble.

At the end of the post, I would like to thank all the wonderful people who helped me on the way.

At Fraport:
The "May I help you" lady who offered me a seat and helped a lot. She even gave me wet napkins to clean my face.
Mr. Singh from American Airlines who took my ticket directly to the counter, jumping the line. Still I couldn't make it.
The sweet (and cute) McDonald's girl who said she couldn't give me change for the voucher and gave me extra burgers and fries even though I asked her to keep the change.
Roberto who was at the gate for the New Ark flight who went out to Air India office to get my new ticket.

At New Ark airport:
Ms. Greene who allowed me to check in the baggage even though it was over weight and the flight number printed on the ticket was wrong.
Mr. Gandhi at the gate who gave me the boarding pass after telling me to wait for some time.

My name is Wasim... And I am not a...

- Wednesday, 5th May, 2010.

Finally, the time had come for the US consulate at Hyderabad to give their decision on the status of my visa which had been pending for about one year (I feel as if its been so since the dawn of time itself :P).

- June 1st, 2009.

It was a bright summer morning when I got ready to go the consulate. Clean shave, a bit more deodorant :D I was checking to see whether all the papers were in order for the fifth time since morning that day.

I went to the gate and showed the security guard the papers. He checked my folder. It had a calculator (which I had overlooked) built into it. I was told it wasn't allowed inside. I had to tear up the folder and was about to throw the calculator away when some good Samaritan offered to keep it safe for me.

Inside, after the security check , after waiting for my turn and after the interview (in which he didn't ask many questions other than the usual - which university are you going to, how will you fund yourself etc.) I was pretty positive that I'd get it. (Come on dude, after all that you have to give it to me) But he just said, i'll return your passport, and you'll have to wait to hear from us about when to submit it back if everything goes well. I asked him 3 times if I had to do something. He just asked me to wait. I didn't know what to make out of it.

Finally after 5 months or so, after my university's deadline was long gone, I get a mail from the consulate to submit my passport for further processing. Hah! Now that's a joke. Now the catch was that my university classes had already begun. And the university (Drexel University) did not accept spring admissions. So i deferred the admission to next fall and applied for the spring semester in George Mason. As I applied late, I got the admit for fall semester in GMU. Then I submitted the passport at the consulate along with the new i20. Still the status was "PENDING"!!

- Wednesday, 5th May, 2010.

Finally, after a long wait, the time had come for the US consulate at Hyderabad to give their decision on the status of my visa which had been pending for about one year (I feel as if its been so since the dawn of time itself :P). I got my visa today.

My name is Wasim, and I am not a........................................

The Vent

Lets just say there is a person "A". A went to a function at his relative's place. Now its a big family gathering with dinner and all so he meets many relatives while he's checking everything out.

A meets B. B is elder to A.

B asks, "What are u doing?"

B says, "That's not what I'm talking about. I mean what are you doing these days?"

A replies, "Oh that, well, nothing much...."

B cuts him short at that and says, "What! Nothing much? You must be doing something."

A says, "Ya, I am preparing for xyz tests while I have to wait for my placement for abc company."

"Oh ya, when is your date of joining?"

"Well he hasn't given a date of joining as of now."

Now A turns his head away with hope that this topic will be discontinued. Especially when B isn't A's parent.

B again pokes A, "So what happened about going to USA?"

"That, well i have just left the thought for now."

"Really? Now you're onto MBA here in India? Didn't you write entrance tests before?"

He goes on about how he must be serious about his future. And even goes to the extent of saying A is fickle minded, and that is why he isn't into anything now.

A turns his head to that and thinks [I can't write what A thought here, cuz if i did, i would have to mark this blog as an over 18 years of age - blog] :D

Almost everyone whom A meets asks him questions on the same lines and shows him unwanted, unnecessary and over the top pity which makes A mad. Not because he isn't doing anything, but because he is shown pity, as if he's lost his ability to reproduce recently, due to unnatural causes.

Now C meets A. I say C meets A, cuz A didn't really want to meet C.

C asks, "What are u doing?"

A says, "Eating dinner."

C says, "Ok. I mean at home what are u upto?"

A replies, "Nothing. Just blowing whichever way the wind blows."

And he smiles and gives the same pitiful look A hates.