America America!

Yeah by this time you would be knowing that i would be somewhere in US updating my blog(yeah here in Downtown MPLS).The following read is a kind of eye-opener for people as instructions not to do and what would happen if you try to do a joshy! So the moment i got my marching orders from my manager ,all the excitement within me died.Oh no..atleast most of the folks around me were more excited and giving me their purchase orders as to what to buy and as well as dire consequences in the eventuality of me not getting it.I don't know why i didn't have the excitement ,probably because i was not having my GF along (incase ur wondering who,this is just to spice up the blog!) , or because i would be missing my planet Kerala more or yeah there is this slight hitch of the temperatures being an average of –20 degree Celsius(coming from India where namma blr is close to +20 degree now).So once i got my visa date interview ,i just moved around as if i had nothing to worry.I got a pretty small flight to Chennai where i was supposed to have my visa interview.And i hate em as you have the feeling that you are riding in a Maruti 800 on Banarghatta road.But once i landed in Chennai i was amazed to see that the metro contruction was going on there too.So more jam to follow .After an hour in the traffic, i reached the hotel.I was made to wait another hour there and i took the liberty of having dinner in the mean time.So soon after i took bath(or did I?) and then snoozed off.I didn't arrange my papers not learn what lies to tell to the consulate officer! But to grace of the Almighty i got up somewhere around midnight and managed to arrange all that in an hour and slept off again.Morning i took a cab which was booked from the hotel itself and damn expensive.I knew why because there were a lot of rather hundreds of mosquitoes in the cab.So i reached the Consulate to see a queue at 7 am in the morning.So when my turn came i got in and came inside what looked like a examination hall.People with their certificates,documents anxious faces and suddenly out of the blue,the security guy asks me “kai ill unnum illalo alle?”.

No wonder where you go there is bound to a Malayali.When i passed the security check in BLR,the guy comes and asks “engotta?”.Then i realised there are many malayali’s hiding behind the skin of various characters unknown to mankind.As i waited my turn with bated breath,finally the officer comes in and starts taking the interviews,mine was 5th i presume and two were rejected already ahead of me.2/4 was not a bad ratio.Though i felt i might go the other half.So when i finally faced him,i mumbled my answers and then suddenly he looked at me!There he was like a school teacher and i felt as if i need i didnt do my homework .So more questions ensured that i was thoroughly meant for B1!And then finally it was all over and i literally ran our of the compound.

”Auto saarrrrrr”,these are the last things you want to hear after your anxious moments.The fun part in Chennai is ,the meter in autos there are kept to let you know that they are also high tech!Else you might fool the auto guy(gracious no..can i do this in this lifetime?).Anyways i managed to reach the hotel back using broken Tamil.So when i was to return from Chennai,i took the liberty of having lunch late and a small nap.All because the cabbie told me i would reach the airoport safely in 30 min.And so it turned ,that the traffic was even more pathetic than the previous day and it took the driver lots of skills and my praying skills to reach there just a few minutes before the last check-in call(and thanks to a few guys who let me ahead of them at check-in).And again as i lazed my life,and the date to travel finally came, i was still in my slumber until 24 hours before i realized i didn't have anything packed to face the brute winter there,absolutely nothing.So i took the previous afternoon half off,after i filled my tax,my timesheets ,sending mails ,taking printouts and lots more.As my flight was early morning at 7am next day, i thought i would sleep early.I came in home at 5.00pm and then went to big bazaar ,got my stuff  in a few hours and then came running back only to realise i had forgotten a few more!So after all this mess,i knew i was running on empty cylinders and took a break at the local Sagar nearby at 10.00pm.Finally when i started packing the bags it was already 11.00 and when i finished it was 2.00am in the morning and the cabbie would come to pick me up at around 3.45.So even as i slept the cab guy called me enquire about my point,and i lost couple of more minutes of sleep.So finally i got 45 minutes of sleep .And then i woke myself up and dumped myself and my luggage into the cab.When i finally reached the airport it was around 4.00 and i took 10 minutes to just get out of the car! Man i was already running out of sleep and after the immigration and the security check-in i dozed off till my flight came in.So finally when i caught my BA flight,i caught up on all the lost sleep,and even managed to watch a few films in between.

Finally i escaped India only to watch myself flying over Pakistan and Afghanistan !More sleep lost.But at least i was served hot breakfast on BA which was really refreshing.Finally before landing in Hearthrow,i lost another half an hour because of hectic schedules.As we finally hit terminal 5 ,it was good to feel the air outside.But the turbulence was really bad as you can judge from the pic above.And I had as my mate Amit,who was also travelling to MPLS.Since he was newly wed,he had this responsibility of calling his wifey and keeping her in sync.So we went in search of the Phone booth,and found that we need pounds in coins to call it.And my roaming Vodaphone was not working nor was there any free WIFI available.Finally he got into a internet booth and mailed her!I tried the Skype and for some reason it didn't work either.

So we took the connecting flight to Chicago and dully filled in our I-94 forms and i caught up on more sleep and wine!Finally i got to see snow in Chicago.The entire city was bubbling with energy from above.The immigration check was quick and the officer let me in without much ado and we caught our flight to the MPLS waiting for more than couple of hours and after moving around a few gates.But this time Amit managed to call his wifey after I begged for some quarters from some Mexican maids!I first went to a store where i bought gums, so that we can get change,but then she returned only 3 quarters and she would give us more change!We didn't want to argue and so i had to beg from those amazing ladies who were gracious enough to lend us a few quarters.Gracias Ladies!Anyways we got into the flight and within and hour reached Minneapolis and it was lovely to see the entire city in covered with snow.We took some time to get to the taxi as there was none to guide us at midnight.But soon enough we landed in front our hotel which cost us something like 40 bucks.But to talk to the African-American driver was a nightmare as he couldn't understand my British English! So i left my British English to the queen and starting to rap to make him understand.Finally he gave me the receipt and i gave him his tip and hit the bed as soon as possible.But not before i updated myself on the FB.I cant stop it can I?