One mans Dream another’s Nightmare:

Yes, my dream came true on 17th Wednesday 2008. I woke up at 7:30am and knew that this was the day!

There were a group of youngsters who asked if I was going to play Golf and needed a caddie… I said to myself’ Stupid question, No I am here to be the next Archery gold Medalist at Olympics and this was my armory. I met a tall lanky fit guy -Munniraj and asked him if he wanted to be part of history. He assumed I have been playing for a while and seemed happy that I chose him over others. The same feeling when my boss makes an obvious statement in a meeting and does not ask me about it even when I am the only one who has no clue about the obvious statement!!

My coach was finishing his morning cuppa and did not recognize me (Don’t know if he chose not to!!). Its only when he asked me if I was ready for my first step on the green that I saw the look of disbelief on my caddies face. It took him 2 Ganesh beedis back to back to come back to his senses and now he completely understood when I meant ‘part of history”. Slowly the look on his face changed from disbelief to accepting what fate had in store for him. He definitely had a long day in office today. Being a caddie is a great job but for some one like me it’s definitely not what you would term’ a walk in the park’. It’s more like treasure hunt to – Why you will gather shortly!

We were to Tee off at 930 and the moment I entered the Tee area, I saw half of Bangalore and Chennai seated near the Tee box, some smoking, some looking like they were just out of bed!!

Why were they there I asked myself, probably they felt this was a safer place than the over the top coffee shops post the Mumbai attack. Little did they know my seven irons which when misjudged (read as most of the time) could knock them off faster than you could say Tiger!

We (a group of 4 including coachie) had to wait for another 20 minutes as a bunch of Jet pilots (All Mallu’s) were taking their own time and they were making the champion ( your’s truly) wait. Ironical when my coach wanted to announce the arrival of the prodigy and here my own brethren had other ideas

The Mallu Jet pilots (some reeking of cheap Indian Rum) were ok to watch but they could do some work on their swing. Our great cricketing nation helps any novice to be a critic of any sport !

Finally the moment I was waiting for – My coach asked me to go out there and show the world what he had to offer……..

Seven Iron in hand, I walked to place my Tee (Ala Russel Crowe in Gladiator)…….. Heard my coach mention… ‘Just concentrate’ and I was…. Get far from the ball … I did… Ok Golfing world here I arrive…

…… A thought flashed me….. Is the half of Bangalore and Chennai out here still watching me……Oops…….lump in my throat…..sweaty palms….. heart beating louder than the bunch of mallu pilots screaming post the cheap rum put together!!!

OH MY GOD !!!! What on earth am I doing here at this unearthly hour … I should be home checking my blackberry for some interesting mails from my favorite boss on downsizing……

I always loved being the centre of attraction especially with women (Chaitali … Yes this is my biggest kept secret and sorry to go public with this) … but suddenly half of Bangalore and Chennai!! not my idea ( and I did not even have alcohol to make me feel stupidly confident)

Suddenly the Mallu pilots making the champion wait was a better option than my triple chin face looking down on a stupid ball.

Phweeet: Strike 1 – Ball in woods! Some champion indeed….. Atleast it matched one legendary golfers surname (close stuff). No one moved …. There was silence till a flock of birds (never seen the species in my 5 years in BLR) flutter out of the tree where the ball landed….I am sure Papa bird would have thought who has been visiting my nest when I have been at work as he saw an egg ( with the Nike emblem)

The only one who moved post that was my Caddie who shooed the flock and got the ball back…… Stop staring at me I thought as the pretty girl looked my way ( parents need to teach them when young!!)

Strike 2 – Coach says ‘No issue’ it happens. I thought – Must be normal for you joker not me….. Oh I miss my blackberry and my bosses mails!!

Strike 2 – Phweuuut: Sounds better !!! Hey pretty girl look at me now!!!! Hey where are you looking that did 160 Yds!



With great determination ( not mine but the coaches) I played ( or rather visited) Hole 2/3/4/5 and then it happened My First Par on Hole 6!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The confidence was back, so was the cockiness ‘ Hey coach ! Can I smoke here’ Go ahead mate ! Kill yourself with tobacco if not shame.

Its amazing how our typical middle class mentality tends to tag along even when you are trying put up a that ‘ this is where I belong’ show. Post the initial round, I felt myself looking from the corner of the eye every time my caddie handled my second hand ‘new’ kit. Why was he handling it like am old pair of sneakers which has done 300 KMs on asphalt! I was fuming ( inside) at the fact that my kits handles may come off and the thought of finding a tailor who would sew it up made me fume even more. You see where I come from you mend everything. Even if it does not give the result you alteast try to mend Yeah golf kit included

So that predominantly was how my first day on the Green went. I am sure my Golfing histrionics is limited in what I mention but what the hell …. Now I know why some call it ‘Golf is like life’


Soumitro – Thanks a lot for introducing me to the game and inspiring me but there are a few ( half of Chennai and Bangalore) who feel differently…. But again ‘What the hell!!!

I feel in the zone now that I am back looking at interesting mails first thing in the morning from my boss!

Fore!

Keerthi Krishnan

Could'nt help but quickly post a line or two about this picture - which by the way I have promptly stolen from the site http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=54450&n_tit=Bangalore% Creates+Awareness+on+Issues+Faced+by+Disabled. This is my current boss Radha (which is not an important piece of information really) with her coodly-poo Keerthi during the Samarthan Walk-a-thon. Radha adopted Keerthi earlier this year and she is Vinay and my biggest inspiration to welcome our child home soon. Its been nearly 7 months since we met Sister Reji at St. Micheals Convent (still remember the date May 7, 2008). We nin-compoos, workaholics, utterly disgraceful 'parents to be' have initiated no paperwork since then. We are scrambling with it now and hope to close it by Dec week 2 - the taro card reader at the Taj mentioned that we will welcome our baby by June 2009 - need to prove her right - just for our sake atleast.

Diwali weekend in Puducherry

Peaceful and quaint Puducherry or rather Pondy. This was my first trip with Vinay's brother and sis in law - big V&D and their 4 year old kiddo - Baby V.

We stayed in a lovely hotel called Kailash Beach Resort, about 7-10kms from the main city, nice property with a beautiful pool, very interesting old world furniture, decent service and a lovely beach just round the corner - where Vinay got a chance to practice his golf. The French area in Pondy is really quiet and pretty. We hired cycles and rode along the Beach Road for a bit. I was a bit wobbly in the beginning but got the hang of my cycle soon - loved the breeze on my face as I pedalled along the by-lanes next to the Aurobindo Ashram. Vinay got me mad with his complete confused look after the ashram visit - he could not understand that spirituality is far tougher to comprehend that basic ritualistic garbage we practice day in and out - what got me specifically mad was his complete lack of curiosity - he just gave up - saying all this is crap and so bloody complex - why couldnt Aurobindo make it all simple...grrrrrr! I took my 'badlaa' on our way back when we stopped to visit a temple in the town of Tiruvenamallai (my spelling sucks)- made faces and showcased the sceptic that I am. he got pissed and YAYYYY I won! On a lighter note the temple architecture was beautiful and the carvings intricate and very impressive - D and I chatted about how these large temple courtyard were earleir meant to cater to our social, religious and entertainment needs - no gBoss and Indian Idols those days :)

How can I miss talking about baby V- the little 4 year old is a budding Bollywood (or maybe Sandalwood or Kollywood) star - she truely made our day with her witty comments and a terribly curious mind - her mum is the worlds most patient mum answering all her WHY AMMA questions. Baby V is really growing prettier by the day :)

The Cry of the Soul

It took me 4 whole days to get over my jet lag. In between I got fever, had congestion and overall felt very dull, terribly nauseated and sick. I hated being away from home. Worst, I missed the Baseball game invitation by Milt's team. Thankfully by Friday morning I felt alive and kicking and made good use of the day by trying to catch up on all that I had missed, or was too dead to listen to earlier in the week.

The much needed weekend kick started some Mexican burritos at Chipotle and a lazy day spent at The Mall of America – a huge 3 storey mall which had numerous specialty stores like including a Victoria Secrets. Very quickly Mary and I split from the retails queens (Sheba and Melissa) and ended our retail journey with a drive to Lake Harriet which was situated in the picturous locality of Edina. A drive through the very up-market rows of pretty homes reminded me of the European countryside – each house had a distinct façade and each one looked prettier than the other – the question we both asked - how do you heat up a large mansion like this during the harsh Minnesotan winters?

Sunday was really special to me – Melissa promised to take me to a Native American museum, some 100miles north to a place called Mill Lax. We started late and had some gorgeous Indian food on the way at The Taste of India – prawn curry, chicken curry, pulao and gulab jamun – we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect start to a 2 hour drive. We reached the museum just in time for it to close (funny !). We quickly attended the last guided tour which was on the tribe called the Ojibway (also referred to as the Chippewa or Anishinaabe). So, the Ojibways were primarily from north eastern Canada and migrated to Lake Mill Lax sometime in 750 A.D. in search of food – the vision provided to them was that “go wherever you can grow food out of water” and they reached the shores of Lake Mill Lax where they grew wild brown rice (and if I heard the guide properly – they do it even NOW!!). The US govt. has created ‘reservations’ for Native American tribes which get certain benefits from the state from the point of conservation of the Native American history and their age old culture. We couldn’t help but do some super quick retail therapy at the Trading Post – I bought a colourful coffee table book and a few nicknaks. We drove a mile ahead to reach an actual reservation where to my DELIGHT a Pow Wow dance camp was in full spring. Apparently these dance camps (which primarily are private Ojibway events) are open to the public just once or twice a year – and we were truly the lucky ones to witness one such spectacular display of age old music, colour and pure EXTRAVAGANZA. As I entwined myself in their music, I could not help but refer to it as the ‘cry of the soul’ because as far as I was concerned– this is how the age old men communicated to others in and around their tribes. Socially acceptable languages with cryptic grammar rules came much later.

Day 1

After breakfast we re-checked to another hotel next to the City Centre - Residence Inn Marriot that was to be our home-sweet-home for the next 14 days (breakfast remains the same). We left our bags in the hotel and headed towards exploring the city. The downtown is very pretty with hanging flower pots, tall buildings, impressive skyways, inviting eateries and some shopping malls dotting the place. We passed a Target store and decided that we could always come back – let’s explore further

We decided to go to Minnehaha Falls and took the Light Rail (Metro Transit) that took us to the suburbs – the REAL Mid West – very wide roads, big vehicles zooming past and large suburban homes reminded me somewhat of Palm Meadows at Whitefield. The Minnehaha Park and Falls was nothing very impressive to write about – pretty ordinary, actually Lal Bagh in Bangalore is far far superior. We had lunch at the nearby Burger King, where Hemanth - a pure bred Kannadiga vegetarian had grilled chicken burger with diet coke; he is watching his weight these days.

On our way back we saw a couple of bikers in their Harley Davidson – that was definitely a pure Mid Western experience! Just to add something important - Vinay wrote that our maid is back in action - Yahoooooo!!

US trip kicks off

After 36 hours of transiting across multiple time zones, changing 4 aircrafts, asking for Asian Vegetarian meal in every flight (colleagues ate work told me horrible stories of raw, uncooked meat provided by airlines), not crapping 1 ounce of what I ate (I felt like a gas balloon we used to get in India Gate), peeing only if the bathroom was per my damn standard, standing in the US Immigration Clearance queue for 2 full obnoxious hours at Chicago and praying that our baggage does not get lost – Sheba, Hemanth and I landed at St. Paul Airport, Minneapolis, Minnesota. An orange-bluish sky welcomed us to the land dotted with 1000 lakes at 8:20pm.

A quick trip in a taxi to downtown, we reached our hotel – The Residence Inn Marriot at The Depot. The room was clean with a decent kitchenette and neat bathroom. However it was dark and carpeted with no sign of sunlight – I wouldn’t say that I was too excited. But I told myself to calm down, take a deep breathe and headed for a warm shower. I was so sleepy that I would have literally rolled back from the shower to my bed – but my infamous greed got the better of me - I ordered a portion of nachos with cheese and chicken. A typical BIG American helping came by and even though I raised my eyebrows at the quantity, I finished most of it, before sliding in to my bed.

I woke up to the phone ringing – it was Sheba and it was 9am in the morning. I helped myself to some eggs and pancakes – my breakfast for the next 14 days and headed out – the day was BEAUTIFUL – gorgeous sun, lovely blue skies, clean air, wide roads, tall buildings – my first day in the United States of America.

Random thoughts

Check out our neighbours adorable bundle of joy - Aaliya Ananya Ahmed. She is Vinay and my 'weekend de-stresser'. We saw her 3-4 days after she was born and look at her today - she waved out to me when I asked her pose. Leaving out that sticky green candy which I keep on assuming will land in the crevice of our sofa, she is such fun to be with. She has started to develop her very own language and speaks with tons of emotions and facial antics. Her vocabulary updates daily and includes words like fish, cha, woof and pisss.



2 days to go before I leave for my US trip and my maid - Kalpana is absonding. I'm worried sick about Vinay - dealing with maids and cooks is not his core expertise. Plus we both seem to be in this 'will miss you lots' mode- that makes one feel more vunerable. My problem is that I start thinking that I am his 'Amma' - and thats not my profile you see - modern life with its modern complexities. He'll manage - I dont say or thing so, everyone else says so - so I guess is that he will.

My first

Facebook is such a blast, BUT only for a teenie weenie short while... mostly when your head feels brainless and light. The 2 BEST things that could happen are the facts that I caught up with Chaman Bagga from LC days and Mini from Inder- teenage days. Eversince I lost touch with them ages back (maybe since I met S at Jet Airways), I couldn't figure out how and where to locate them. I am especially excited to 'virtually' meet Mini - my guess is that she is still a blast & tons of fun.