My 2 Cents & I am ....

Life is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get.

A FLASHBACK
Why am I flashing back maybe it is the "Prassanna Rasam" that I am eating now :-)

Cut to 2000...
A guy named Bill Clinton was ruling America. I boarded the airplane and was on my way to Tempe, AZ and one of my relatives had reminded a few days before the flight that - "Clinton summa vida mataan. He has built a good economy"... Masters in EE was the reason for the Bon Voyage.

I landed in the United States after some 22 hours of travel. LA airport... flight to Phoenix cancelled. I say "FUCK". No phone numbers to call...arrived 6 hours late in Phoenix... people who were supposed to pick me up came and left... I am left high and dry in the desert...to add insult to injury, one of my suitcases and predictably, the one which had clothes was lost....spoke to the customer service folks at the terminal and they gave their customary "uh-oh" as a reply....

Thanks to some other soul, I reach "BHARAT BHAVAN" in Tempe. It is a place called Terrace Road Apartments. It is very much like the MIG/HIG (Middle Income Group/ High Income Group) flats you find in Chennai. Only difference this is in America and everything else is the same and that includes the roaches.

I go upto my apartment 205, a place I would call home for three years. A certain dude in his shorts and half cut t shirts( bannian :-)) opens the door and I say I am Sudarshan and he says his name. He invites me inside and I tell him my end of the story. he isn't surprised as he went thru the same plight three days back. He reassured me that I will get it back sooner than later and offered me some rasam. He is the dude I would live with till I move out of Tempe. Awesome cook and he was the initator of the scatalogical humor that would rock Tempe in the next few years. Also, he is getting his Ph.D.

I had a few friends from my undergrad at ASU- Birds of same feather literally. They lived a few houses away and the news had reached them that the "DUDE" had arrived. I was bathing and even in the thundering noise of the shower, I could hear his voice clearly. He was loud and in his usual smirkish style said " Bathing and all is enough. Come out. As if you are going to rule the world after bathing". He was an amplifier with excellent gain characterstics. He had minimum input, maximum output whether it was his voice or his education. He was the "A" man.

I enquired with him about the other two guys( lets call them dudes I and II) who came from my college. he said they both have gone dancing alongwith a certain senior. This senior dude was an artist par excellence in shaking his legs and apparently had enough dance classes to get a Masters in that specilization as well.

He also told me that they were pulling one of my friends who had gone to the dance floor( lets call him dude 1) with a certain Indian girl who came to their apartment and asked him to take her to the nearby Indian grocery store."Can you take me to I Mart?" she asked, I believe. I had no time for girls especially the Indian variety and I was dead tired. After I ate the moiety of rice with rasam, I hit the bed.

The next morning I wake up late and start calling the airlines. They put me on something called "hold" and play music for hours together. 3 hours and yet no reply. I wasn't liking the United States after all it has consumed my clothes....

I go around the school and I am pleasantly surprised by the size of the computer center and speed of the internet. I am shown around school by the dude who will share the bedroom with me for the next 9 months.

I go to the grocery store called "SAFEWAY" with another friend of mine and his roomies. His roomies have come with a long list and have made up their mind to save every single of penny. My friend isn't quite in agreement with them and I see trouble brewing. I buy a lipguard and watch the spaghetti tops, butt shorts while trouble is brewing at the other end...

I come home and go to meet dudes 1 and 2. The first person I meet in dude 1 and 2's apartment asks me whether I want "DEE". I say yes and after a few minutes, he gives me a cup of some of the best "Tea" I have heard. This tea would later come to be known as "Devil Dee".

I chat with Dudes 1 and 2. I am relieved after I see them. Dude1 basically tells me about Dude2's dancing feat and his moving style. Dude1 introduces me to a guy who is in serious doubt about why he came to America as he is having trouble getting apartment, courses, funding etc. I find him humorous and we share a few laughs. The common bonding was he got his suitcase after a week and also the fact that there was no love lost between him and the dud(pun intended) who was running for US Presidency.

I go home and I am told there are a few people who want to meet me as they have lost suitcases as well. A great way to become popular, I said to myself.In the meanwhile, Miss1 comes to meet my roomate, the dude who made me rasam on the first day. She is attractive but I find her snobbish and on first opinion, she sounds too studious. In a few months, this opinion would change and we get along really well to the extent that we might end up living together for the rest of our lives.

The "LS"[I meant Loud Speaker) guy tells me that I have a lot of work to do the next day and as he would instruct me for the next two years, instructs me to go to sleep ad wake up early.

I do all the necessary/unnecessary paperwork and get back home. I am in AMERICA, baby. In the afternoon. I eat in a place called "Burger King". They ask me something after I place the order which sounded like the sneeze of a mosquito. In the next few weeks, I would decipher it as "for here or to go". A Mexican guy calls out my order number "169" and asks whether I want "ranch"...

And it is hot in AZ. I am with two sets of clothing. I realize that I need to something about the suitcase and I decide to go to the airport with a girl, whom I would hate in the next two days, in a previous batch guy's car. A decision which will make me loathe AMERICA. As soon as I go to the airport, the news is that the suitcase was not in LA.

I share a few more laughs with Dude1, Dude2, LS guy, Bush hater and a few more guys. These sessions would be a regular feature of our lives over the next few months and years.

The next day in the evening, my last roomie arrives. He calls himself Tall, Dark and Handsome. I find him funny and extremely sporting. I was happy that he came to my apartment because he saved me from being the worst "cook" in the house.

Over the next few days, I meet three other folks who would in the next year become my roomies due to destiny. One guy was a good cook, sincere student and was the last bachelor standing in his tribe. He was my age but in his tribe, even at my age, fellas had toddlers. I simply adored him because he came along to my house with atleast a dozen playboy magazines :-)

"I was born on 17the June" said one guy and I said, so was I. Hence the connection was born. I would remember him for three things in every single birth of mine. 1. His love for Cricket 2. His Limericks and lastly, his least favorite "thing-to-do" cooking..

"Is that Randy Johnson" he would ask pointng to the frst baseman in the next few years. This dude could never be comprehended. He was a mystery of sorts. When I first met him, I thought he was an "Einstien like" genius. The next few months and years would knock him down to the human level. His monetary situation made us nickname him after a casino in Las Vegas...

An year and half later, one more good heart joined the web. We named him after an arachnoid. He is the true definition of deceptive packaging. Short, stocky and extremely lively, he can rib a person like you would never imagine...

[ To be Continued... Stopped because my fingers started showing the strain]