Awesome.....

Some days just turn out to be amazing. Whether it is because of the people you meet by chance or by decision, whether it is in something you participate or otherwise. Today happened to be one such day .... as varied in the experience, as in the dinner-buffet that I was lucky to have.

First I dug up this snap of the conference at San Francisco. Just one look at it serves as a great source of inspiration because it never ceases to remind me that there are millions of others like me with the same aims, aspirations, striving , succeeding and failing ........ working towards common goals, and best of all........ having the same dreams.

Then coming back to today, a group of students had sat down to write up a script for an Indian cultural fest coming up called Tarana. The skit revolves around the life of a graduate guy who comes from India to UofA and how he gets accustomed to the ways here and goes on to graduate. It focusses on the comedies of everyday grad life of an Indian.
- How just before coming here we refer to Tucson (pronounced Two-sun) as Tucson(pronounced Tuk-son) to all our friends
- How once we are here we go for all free food events .... actually for all freebies.
If there is news of a career fair where free t-shirts are available or free stuff, or a pizza store is advertising free pizzas ...... you are bound to find Indian students there.
- How we always smile and acknowledge other Americans(whoever greets us) but glance away on seeing fellow indians whom we don't know.

Just before leaving for the US, I had read a forwarded mail on how to recognize an Indian who has recently returned from the United states. .......... it included a few of the following anecdotes:
- he drinks nothing but mineral water
- he is always converting from kms to miles and kgs to lbs
- he tries paying by credit card for all purchases
and after that my memory lets me down. The point however is ....it seemed just a few days ago that I was sitting in front of my monitor laughing at these jokes. It seems so scary that I might be turning into such a nightmare myself, so soon.

Today evening, Luann and Dennis took me to a native seeds dinner. It was a formal dinner where all teh dishes were prepared from natural seeds of the region....... but non-vegetarian food was also there. So name something and I will probably say that I had it. The variety was amazing. What was even more amazing was, we shared our table with a lady from teh Tucson city council. Her brother happens to be one of the top 10 american sarodists who has been tutored by Pandit Ali Akbar Khan. Whats more, she happens to know Zakir Hussain since when he was twenty. I don't know about you , I nearly fell off my chair when I was sitting there listening to her telling everybody about the sarod instrument and about Zakir Hussain. The last I have seen and been completely bowled over by Zakir Hussain was in Hyderabad, where I went to watch a concert with Shobana. His personality never ceases to amaze me.
Anyway, I will be able to catch Pandit Ravi Shankar's concert in Tucson. And there still remain a few artists whose concerts I am still trying to catch.

My post's ending note I wanted to be on relationships. Have you ever wondered that even within your friends you have so many different levels of comfort, of familiarity. Mithra has written a very beautiful piece on this thought. Well once I got thinking...there were so many different relationships that came to mind. But I just wondered in how many of them did people go beyond themselves to think about the other person involved. I have been lucky to have friends, who, though ISD distances away, have kept me going by the very thought that they care. I could never thank them enough ...... be it for the mails out of the blue asking if I was still single or fixed :). (Should I add some more smileys here for the person I am targetting!) The best part I am thankful about is that they have never imposed, claustrophobic as I am with relationships which demand too much of me , the people whom I have crossed in corridors, gone to mess with and roamed around the whole of campus have turned out to be the ones I am comfortable with the most. I am not sure if it is college which sows the seeds of eternal friendship, for me it sure has ....... and it is only when it comes to my "this group" ..that I fail to differentiate between levels of comfort and friendship.
Isn't there a mail which goes, smile because you don't know who is falling in love with your smile. And feel happy because someone somewhere is thinking of you, well here's to all my friends. Hope you have a great day because I am thinking about all of you.
(And the above few lines are copied to the best of my memory from a forwarded mail:) but they seemed apt in the context).