May the force be with me!

Its been very busy lately. But break between jobs is always good. With a new job about to push me and my time lines, it was really good to have a break from the daily grind.

What better place, there could've been than Niagara Falls !!!!!

While the flight travel ( with layover's ) and the time-change between PST and EST was tuff, the mere thought of having spent 2 full days erases all that little suffering.

Niagara Falls is a marvel of mother nature and it was one of the best places I've ever been.

The stay in Buffalo, NY and the frequent commute to the falls was great. Living in the Bay area, Buffalo, NY to me, was a small and lonely city. Much smaller was the city of Niagara Falls, NY.

'Maid of the mist', 'Cave of the winds' and the view of the abundant water in Niagara River, even now makes me feel fresh.

I wished I had more time and immigration approvals to travel to Canada and view the falls from that side as well, but I'll wait :) If you've not been to Niagara Falls, I highly recommend it. Its a must see.

We came with beautiful and unforgettable memories. Even the very few captured turned out to be 515 photos in number.

It was truly a dream come true, having amazed reading about it, seeing glimpses of it. Being there with my wife and parents was a god bless.

Now that my batteries are charged I'm excited to face the new job, environment, people et al.,

May the force be with me, god!

Bangalore

After all the trips back and forth were over, I was to travel to Bangalore, the silicon valley of India. It was my 3rd trip, but I have vague memories of my last 2 trips, decade back.

Either way, it was special on several fronts. To start with I was going to meet a person, with whom I've been chatting for a long time. All the but the face was missing in that image developed, with suspense around. Next, I was going to going to stay at my best friends place. It was a long pending invitation and wish.

En-route, I took train from Chennai to Bangalore, after a very long time. It nostalgic. While I've spent years of man-hours in Indian Railways, it was very different to take a 6 hour trip. Walking thro' the crowd in the even-buzzing Central Station brought back all the memories of different trips and mainly running and catching the train. I thought, Central Station for one is one of those places, which is part of almost everybody's( in Chennai at least ) life, but less thought about. Given that, it has seen me from my childhood to till date, was an amazing feeling.

Knocking the door of my friend, early of next morning and opening was my friends long wish - fulfilled :) Weather was wonderful, compared to Chennai and even Delhi. Being in a friends place, where we all got almost nothing to do and to push the day slowly, was a completely different feeling. More so, for my parents.

We all were pampered by the wonderful hospitality of AsHa and I was trying to grapple from where I have to come to what ! As the mysterious feeling of 'something to happen', was sinking in, rest of the plan was going on.

Went to few places around. Did lot of shopping and as the events unfolded - I found my significant other!

The feeling was almost like an action movie, where in the character is being thrown or made run at mach speed, comes to a total stop with a whooshing sound and is looking back to see its all moving without any gravitational force.

Subsequent meetings and conversations were all sinking in me slowly but steadily while reminding me that there has been a change in my life and that's what is in front of me. Tuk, tuk, tuk - wake up, wake up.

When I realized that I have to return back to Chennai, I still wasn't in-sync with my surroundings, was lagging behind. While I was part of several other meetings and conversations and even while travelling back to Chennai, one lingering thought was about this part of me being in a new place, with a different feeling all together. There is no better way to describe it, as I still can't, now.

Then as now, I started to wonder about the phrase "Life is beautiful".

New Delhi

Trip to Delhi was exciting. So much had to be planned, ahead of time for my stay and travel. Given that it was my first trip to the capital. All, for few hours of, but important - visit to the US Embassy for my VISA.

Surprisingly, flight to Delhi thro' Indian Airlines was punctual. Reached late in the night. First thing that caught my attention was the lack of dust and smog in the roads around the Airport. Flying from Chennai, it looked almost like Chennai with out dust.

Delhi in my opinion is coming along really well with the CNG conversion.

Equally interesting was to find someone selling tender coconuts in the middle of the night. All my years, I've had tender coconut during the peak summer. Strange choice, that too in the middle of an highway.

In the morning, I took a long walk around Karol Bagh. So many cramped shops, mostly closed as it early 11AM by their standards. Some areas were too shady that I decided to cut short my zeal to check out the locality.

Talking in Hindi, after a very long time, was quiet an experience. While I was able to understand things really fast, communicating back had a 2-3 second lag. Faster processing of the grammar took the time, but it was nice to realize that I did talk grammatically correct, that too with ease :)

Just when I thought I had a nice trip and that I'd be flying back, the infamous Indian punctuality struck and struck hard. With 3 hours to spare, I thought I was early to the airport and thinking about how to kill time. But only after I came to the counter and checked in, I was told that my flight has been delayed by 90 minutes. Thank you very much.

I as other passengers promptly finished the rest of the travelling procedures. Flight scheduled for 10PM local time, had no announcements or arrangements, even after 10PM !!! While my blood was boiling, I could clearly sense the frustration and panic in so many others.

Finally the disgraceful staff of Go Air came along and lied flat to the face. In an hurry, they dumped all the passengers onto the plane, but only after me and others screaming for their delay. On the way I was wondering, about their customer service and in general 'the lack of time sense' among Indians.

In this aspect, I'm really ashamed of being an Indian. Indians have heard this so much that they now advocate it ! This is possible only in India. It has been repeated and followed so much, that the rough skin is refusing to get the reality in. Sickening it is. What we've failed to realize is we don't have the right to steal others' time. Wake up India, don't gloat in your history and rest on your wrong principle's, fix your basics.

After all said and done, reached home in wee hours and I was trying to erase the last 8 hours of my airport-experience and think good about others. But it was hard. Reality struck!