Thoughts :)

I have been away for long!! and never imagined that i would do so ;). May be i was just being lazy. I have recently equated myself with Garfield :)). But hey, i have really gotten that lazy to not even type a single word over here for one full month! Irritating and amusing at the same time. Or is it because i didn't have much to say. Not true, cuz' there's been a lot that i felt like writing. Probably i published those posts in my dreams ;).



Recently, a very very dear friend of mine Ms. Affection visited me. Actually she was in the city for a conference so we met up quite a bit. it was fun, good fun. We have known each other since M. Sc. days :). I didn't get to show her around much (as if i myself have seen the city a lot), but we did go to a cpl. of my favorite spots, including The Third Street Promenade and the Santa Monica Beach :). And we enjoyed every bit of it, including the lil' ride on the Ferris Wheel after a long time! Its good to be childish sometime :)).


Also, inbetween i had to take cabs a cpl. of times. There's a certain cab company based in Beverly Hills which usually is very reliable. The first thing (or one of the first things) that i got asked after i got inside cab was "Miss, are you from India". The cab drivers, both elderly gentlemen asked this really endearingly. And while we chatted on the bad traffic on 405 and so on, it turned out that both of them were of Armenian origin. Infact, majority of the employees in the said cab company are of Armenian origin. These two gentlemen had daughters my age and had really sound knowledge of India and also "Bollywood" errrr.....Hindi movies! One of them asked me if Zeeta was a very popular Indian name. When i told him that i hadn't heard of this name before, he asked me if Geeta was popular. And i suddenly felt illuminated about what he was trying to say. He was referring to the popular Hema Mailini movie "Seeta aur Geeta" :). The other gentleman talked a lot about his daughter and other kids her age.

He said he felt good that i was so polite and respectful to him and then narrated a horiifying incident on how two young ladies his daughter's age, took the cab and didn't pay him and threatened him!! I had to believe him because he clearly sounded shaken as he spoke about it.....he was grateful though, that the next day when he went to the hotel where he had dropped them the previous night, those two kids were found creating problems in the hotel and given their due. His thoughts on having your roots in a certain place were also very touching.....in his own words, "You belong to place because you were born there, you learnt the basics of life there.....but you also belong to the place where you set up your shop, make your home and babies, see them grow up, the place where you turn from a young guy to a Grandpa, the place you pay your bills and taxes, the place that gives you food, fruits and water....."