Sight, Sounds and Smells of the U.S

So finally after a lot of rushing, hushing and mushing (I just used it for the rhythm)... I finally reached the United States.... I wanted to write down this blog earlier.. but then as you know I am a real lazy guy... I took all this time.. in fact exactly two weeks later after I reached here... I am kind of still settling down and all..

Well I took my first flight in my life and it turned out to be a pretty long one as well... three flights from Hyderabad to Minneapolis... totalling a journey time of around 30 hours, well that's 10 hours of waiting included... The flight was good considering it my first flight(s) in my life and I obviously cannot compare it with anything else, so it was good. Well I took a Kingfisher to Mumbai from Hyderabad and it was a jiffy.. after all it was just 1:30 hrs of flying time and by the time I felt cozy and comfortable we touched ground. I felt the power of jet engines for the first time in my life while take off and it was awesome..It was good and I did not have any major heart-attacks during take-off and landing.. so I reached Mumbai in the time I reach home from office.. and then a lot of waiting.. shifting luggage to the international terminal.. (I was a little nervous that I would lose my luggage on the conveyor belt, which obviously did not happen).. and then the pain of waiting in long queues for checking in the luggage and immigration checks... all the time praying that the pickles in my suitcases would still be there by the time I reach my destination.. and again waiting.. in the meanwhile I spent a bomb on a couple of sandwiches... imagine paying a 150 bucks for two pieces of bread with a few vegetables in between.. (actually I asked that guy thrice before paying.. sounding like.. O really - have you sprinkled gold or what).. and finally the big boeing 777... It was awesome!
Well I met a good friend Ravi on the plane.. he is a NRI... and he told me a lot of things about the plane.. I thanked god... at least I wouldn't spend the next 16 hours sitting dumb sandwiched between two people (by this time I figured out I was in the middle seat on the left side - I had specifically asked for a window seat... Alas!) Well he was the one who told me.. chewing gum would help me while take off and landing... (Considering the fact that I was half deaf on my flight to Mumbai - I did not want take chances).. and it did work...
We had to wait for the take off due to the constant pouring in of planes.... and finally our turn came.. The kingfisher's jet engines was nothing compared to the this one.. It was as if we were just pulled up into air... The force of gravity and the force of jet engines all combined was something to be felt... I understood how much the seat belts help... and we quickly gained an altitude of 38000 ft (approx 12km)... dinner was served as Ravi was explaining me the nuances of the in-flight entertainment system... well that's it.. my 16 hr long flight had just started...
Well for the first time in life.. I ate without brushing my teeth and it did feel weird. And finally after 16 hours we landed in the early hours at Newark.. It was a beautiful sight seeing the lights of one of the biggest and busiest cities of the world. We finally landed.. a pretty decent and smooth landing considering the size of the plane.
Well then came the immigration clearance and security checks... I did not understand in a continuous flight what can we do to compromise the security of the airport! Anyway blah blah blah.. I finally got out and made it to the air terminal.. The air train carrying me between the terminals A and C was fantastic.. I wanted to take a few more rides on the train.. it was free of cost anyway.. but was tired to do it. Then came the long and most boring waiting.. I had to wait for almost 3 hours before my next flight to Minneapolis... so I decided to watch planes getting loaded... and read the book Phani gave.. even though I did not suceed much thanks to pangs of hunger! I had no clue what could be eaten which was wholly vegetarian... so I refrained from any adventures.. pity of life - I had a dozen restaurents around me and I could not eat anything! Finally after almost what felt like a lifetime.. I boarded the small jet which would take me to Minneapolis. It was real tiny and kind of cramped! Thankfully I got the window seat so I spent a lot of time watching out of the window... Newark is a busy airport, so we had to wait 30 mins waiting for our turn to take off... this time I had real bad earache and I foolishly tried fiddling with my ear and it turned quite painful... and the jet was too loud... I tried looking out at the clouds spread out like fluffy blankets out there and it was an awesome picture had I not had my earache.. Even though at first flying through the clouds feels good after sometime it gets all boring as its all what you keep seeing all time.. Anyways the 3 hour flight was not the best.. I could survive it.. And finally I landed in Minneapolis...
After a quick walk and a short wait for the luggage I was waiting for Keerti who finally turned up. And he forgot where he parked his car... so we went around the parking lot searching his car for sometime.. finally he set his GPS (if he sees me mention the GPS he will murder me :P).. and we were on the way home...
Well frankly I am not too impressed or disappointed by the US.. I am impressed by the way they have developed infrastructure and all that.. but I really miss the Indian crowd and the smells and sounds of India as I put it... After all I am an Indian by heart...

First Rain of 2009

And we had the first rain of 2009. Monsoon arrived here after whole two weeks since it first hit Kerala. Refreshing, charming in its own style and vanquishing the heat out of the earth bringing in its fragnance, soothing and drenching the spirit with joy...
I kept humming - "Barso re megha megha.." all along. I wanted to drive my car in the rain.. I like to see the rain drops splattering on the windshield and the beautiful patterns it makes while the drops of water small at first and increasing in size constantly... conglomerate to form small paths of water on the windscreen while the wipers frantically swing trying to push the water aside. A small stream started flowing on my side of the windscreen originating from the top of the car to the drain below... with multiple inputs from various small tributaries... much like our country's vast network of rivers..
For a moment i was tempted to jump out of the car and relish the rain....... the heavy downpour.. but sanity triumped and I did not dare to get down mindful of the reproachful eyes of my mom I would get on reaching home. I regret it now..
The roads were wet and drains overflowing creating temporary olympic class swimming pools... People waded their way through the gushing torrents and once again umrebllas made an appearance.
The rain bought a sense of coolness and peace much like cleaning the soul out of the noise it bears with everyday.. the patter of raindrops in itself was music... and the smell of damp earth was intoxicating.. there can never be a smell as good as that. I dont think anyone can reproduce that smell in a lab..

Traffic in Hyderabad and Bernoulli's principle.

Hehe.. Sounds very weird but true.. Traffic in Hyderabad follows the Bernoulli's principle and I discovered it today. I happened to start around 7:30pm from my office today. The reason for starting so early :P being my Sony Ericsson mobile which has become a touch phone to touch - me - not phone! Basically there is something wrong with the touch screen and it wont recognize the "touch". I maybe responsible partly for the stuff - my guess is I slept on the phone which causes the touch screen to probably get overloaded with pressure and it broke! Whatever, it caused me to push off from office early today.
So I was with one of my team mates and we both were trying to find a Sony Ericsson service center.. Believe me they have got some reputation around… I have been warned by at least two people including the team mate who came with me that these people cheat a lot… Anyway, I am still covered under the warranty and I hope they wont charge me anything extra… Let see… I have asked Dad to give to the service center at Sec'bad, and they apparently are open from 9:00am - 5:30pm which is out of my range.
So me and the team mate who came with me were travelling back home via the Sony Ericsson service center and we had to take the busiest route in Hyderabad.

Hitech City ---> Jubilee Hills Check post ---> KBR Park ---> Banjara Hills Road No.2 ---> Punjagutta Flyover ---> Begumpet Railway Station flyover ---> HPS (B) ---> Shoppers Stop Flyover ---> 2 more flyovers ---> St.Ann's High School ---> Rail Nilayam ---> Mettuguda ---> Tarnaka.

And the traffic was very sweet and jamy… I had just around 4 jams and 2 jellies on the way, and by the time I reached home, hunger was dead, thanks to those jams and jellies, plus as a bonus offer I had countless potholes as cookies. I don’t exercise - doesn’t mean my bike also doesn’t. Anyway thanks to the digital speedometer on bike I could quickly calculate the average speed at various places on the route. And this led me to the famous Bernoulli's principle.

I had no idea there was so much traffic during Bernoulli's time as well. If he would not have come up with the principle - surely it was my turn today. So with due respects to Bernoulli and his principle I hereby state the Principle of Hyderabad Traffic - (Background music - the one played in old mythological Hindi serials like Mahabharata when kings enter the court.. Peeweeeweeweeeweeweepeee.. I don’t know how to spell that enchanting piece of music...)

"The average speed of traffic in Hyderabad increases in narrow stretches of Main Roads and decreases as the width of the Main Road increases."
OR
"The average speed of traffic is inversely proportional to the width of the road on main roads in Hyderabad"

Well Bernoulli's principle states that - the velocity of a fluid increases as the area of cross section of the flow decreases and vice - versa.. So consider each of the molecule of fluid to be a vehicle (Ignore the size difference between a Luna and a Volvo for the moment), now that’s how the traffic was flowing today. Let me throw some examples around -
1. While the average speed of my bike near H.P.S (Begumpet) was around 7kmph, it was almost 14kmph near that Musi channel (all drains in Hyderabad are by default considered tributaries of Musi), where the road narrows down to almost a third of the width it has at H.P.S (B). As soon as the drain was crossed, which was about say 20-30m in width, the speed drastically fell to 6kmph.
2. It’s the same at Shopper's Stop - While I found that before Shopper's Stop the average speed was the same as around 5-6kmph, it rose to a whooping 20kmph when the road suddenly narrowed down to half of the original width and then again fell to around 8-10kmph before rising again to 30kmph, the credit for which goes to the respectable and humble narrow flyover over there.
3. Same thing occurred near the junction which turns towards Minister's Road - although I suspect the Traffic Signal had a role in playing mischief with the traffic.
4. And once again I saw the same phenomenon near Mettiguda. The road is pathetic there and so everyone goes slow. However, the average speed once again at the widest portion was around 25kmph and at the narrowest point was around 30kmph, maybe.

So my suggestion to the guys who take care of the roads - is it Road Development Authority (or something like that) or the HMDA or the MCH (I am almost sure its not MCH)? Anyway, my suggestion is - Immediately stop work on all Road-widening activities. Its only going to slow down traffic. If possible give permissions to build temples, mosques and what not in the middle of the roads. Also give tax benefits to those who illegally extend their properties onto the main roads successfully narrowing them down. If possible dig all wide roads in the name of road-widening or underground pipe-laying works, etc and never ever get the carpeting done. I am sure one day we will all be zooming across the city soon as the traffic flows at a higher average speed and I will be left hungry by the time I reach home, as I wont have jams and jellied to eat on the way!

For now I guess one principle will do. Next time I will research more and get hold of a new concept to share with everyone. Its just past midnight and I better get sleeping… If I miss the bus tomorrow, I will be eating more jams and jellies, and this time I am sure I will land with indigestion or diarrhea.