Do in Rome as Romans do!

You know you are turning amreekan if

1. You have a coffee cup or its holder in your car, in your bag, on your desk, in your kitchen, on your dining table, on your "Coffee" table, next to your wash basin and in your hand

2. If you reach office early, let's say before 8 or at times 7:30 am and also leave early

3. If you, when it gets hot, walk around with your t-shirt on your shoulders instead of wearing it

4. If you feel that a horn is an unnecessary part of an automobile

5. If you wear a t-shirt (polo style) with trousers and a formal leather belt and formal shoes

Or if you wear a tshirt(polo style) with short(formal looking) with a formal leather belt and sports or casual shoes

6. You wonder how people live in these countries every single time someone talks to you about India or China or Sri Lanka. And would have a never ending list of things which are not good about India and a longer never ending list of how everything can be resolved

7. If you do not associate Asia with India and visa versa! Asians are Chinese! Indians are Pakistani! and Pakistani are Indian! Bangadeshi and Sri Lankans ! well, Indians again!

8. If you fail to understand why the traffic moves at an average of 50 kmph in countries like India

9. If your footpaths are now called CURBS, if your washbasin taps are now called FAUCETS, if the policemen are now called cops! oh no! not cops, but KHAAPS (read it like PAAP in Hindi), if your taxis are now called CABS

10. If a burger or a sandwich can be treated as lunch

11. If you look for a fat free sign on almost everything that you buy from the grocery store. And one thing that you will always find in your fridge is "I can't believe its not butter".

12. If your kitchen does not have a door

13. If you have a panic attack if you cannot find a tissue roll in your bathroom even though there is a perfectly nice and shining mug kept there

14. The only way to take a bath that you know is a shower. You don't know what to do with a bucket and a mug

15. If you don't know that touching elder's feet is a way of expressing respect like nothing else

16. If you don't stare at cleavages and legs in aww

17. If you don't look around before a lip kiss and after

18. If you start living in today, and not the past and not the future

19. If your requests for credit cards are getting rejected because of a bad credit history

20. If you are ok with paying for incoming phone calls and text messages

21. If you have a pair of running shoes, a pair of walking shoes, a pair of hiking shoes, a pair of office shoes, a pair of casual shoes along some specific running shorts, swimming shorts, walking shorts, casual shorts, short shorts, long shorts and so on...

22. If you have a mp3 player "with" an arm band

23. If you like to eat a cheese burger with diet coke

24. AND, if you stop missing a Chai ki Dukaan at the road side on the highways, or shall we call them Freeways!

What is the relevance of the picture? nothing! I just happen to like the color in there!

Amreeka Discovered Again...

• The land of the Eagle....
• The land of shorts with formal full sleeves shirts...
• The land of polo neck t-shirts with formal shorts and shoes...
• The land of sports shoes...
• The land of large man and women...
• The land of loooooong cars, huge SUVs ( now I really know why they are called trucks) and larger than life trucks ( what are they called here?)

• The land where being on the road feels like being in the mirror...
• The land where the flag can be worn anywhere in any form...

Flags at the O'Hare Airport, Chicago ( seen in the background is our Tiranga too)

• The land where flights and flight attendants and amazingly casual about things...
• The land where there can be a thin line between being rude and being to the point...

Welcome to the land of Amreeka !!!


The flight was long by any standards... took a total of 15 hours from take off to landing... pathetic collection of movies, and not even average food with ultra casual attendants most of them over 40 yrs of age... so was American Airlines !!!

anyway... when I reached the Chicago O'Hare Airport I could not get any information about my connecting flight except that I should go to terminal 3. I did, checked in again and realised that non of the display boards had my flight number out of the about 60 flights they were displaying... Felt a li'il strange and manage to find an agent ( here the people who are associated with the flight, but are not Crew members are called agents) and after a couple of understanding and misunderstandings I was told that the flight was cancelled and I was moved to the next available flight... It added about 2.5 hours of waiting at Chicago with nothing much to do... If it was not for a few lovely words and I had read and heard when I left Delhi, I did not have anything much to think about either!

Anyway, I reached alright... hungry, tired and with a backache :) as expected from the long flight !!!

The balcony at my Inn...

I had talked to a guy here a couple of days back and he was kind enough to come over and take me to a super market to get some bread etc and then show me around a few restaurants and my office which thankfully is just about 5-6 minutes away...

I am happy that subway tastes the same in India and London and now Minneapolis too... Just stuffed myself with a footlong and two laaarge glasses of Nestle Iced Tea...

Back at the hotel room now and trying to pass sometime so that I sleep only when its evening here... That would help me wake up properly tomorrow morning! Maybe !!!!

Lamps in my Inn Room...

I will crash now, Just can't keep my eyes open anymore...