Dream on...

Here goes my second dream. Well, these dreams are getting spookier by the day. They have this uncanny way of matching reality towards the end and that is what spooks me. How the hell does this happen! 

I was fast asleep and dreamt that my wife, Niel and I were eating samosas in a canteen. Our friends Eswar and Mani were nearby and Mani calls her to play with him. So she picks up a tennis ball lying nearby and throws it at him. Then he throws it at me - I am still chomping on the samosas - and I promptly return it to Eswar. After a while all of them are asleep on the floor and I am... still chomping.

Suddenly Eswar lets out a wild scream clutching his legs. I am tempted to think that he is faking it just to pull our legs, but hell no. I have never heard him cry out in such a pained tone, so maybe he was indeed hurt. I go near him and ask if I should call a doctor, he is still screaming as he shakes his head. I dont know if he is shaking his head in denial or in pain.

I had to act. I call 911.

'Hello, this is 911. Where are you calling from?'

'Stamford,' I say frantically uttering the word.

'One moment while we connect you,' she says calmly. I wait for exactly a moment after which I hear the phone ring at the other end of the line.

'Hello?' I say the word desperately, even as I realise what an ass I have been. I wake up with a start already having realised what exactly happened all the while. The ringing phone was my daily morning alarm and I gingerly turn around hoping, praying that Niel had not seen me talk in my sleep! She was blissfully asleep.

While, this seems funny,  and it is indeed I agree, what is it that makes dreams move ever so slowly, but surely towards a conclusion that meets reality? I do not think it is a coincidence, because this has happened to me in the past as well. I am sure there is a meaning to this that I have not googled up yet. But what are your thoughts?

As for me, I guess I will try to unearth that Dreamcatcher my friend gave me 4 years back, and hang it over my head tonight! 

Leave the price tag on...

A lot of really amusing and funny things happen in our day to day lives and I really wish I could capture them in some form. Maybe this blog would do justice...

Today my wife bought me an amazing gift. It was a North Face Backpack. Since the time I decided that I am going to climb Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in continental USA, I have been looking out for deals in hiking gear - Sleeping bags, backpacks etc. And the branded names on these stuff cost the earth.

It is our anniversary next month and so she gave me a sexy backpack, something just like what I wanted, as a gift. It was green and grey, big enough to hold stuff that would enable me to survive the backcountry for a couple of days and nights and... It had the price tag still on. That was a surprise all right. It was really uncharacteristic of her. She usually goes to any length to shield that information from me.

'This is cool. Seems like it did not cost much...how come?' I asked.

'It was on sale. And on top of that, there was a 15% student discount on it. I went with a friend of mine and he had a student id,' she replied triumphantly.

'Wow! That is awesome.' I could not stop grinning.

After I had poured over all the details of the bag and finished admiring myself in the mirror wearing it, I checked all the websites selling this particular model and was thrilled to find out that they were at least 200 dollars costlier than what she had bought it for. The same model with the same specifications with the same colour!

So I spent the next 30 minutes gloating over the fact that it was such a good deal and what a wonderful decision she had made. Slowly I realised that I loved the bag not just for the fact that it was an amazing piece of work and it fit my need perfectly well, but also for the fact that it was bought so cheaply. Perhaps more so for the latter reason than the former.

'Now do you know why I left the price tag on?' she asked sarcastically. What could I say. She knew me too well.

So for all you girls who qualify as wives out there...take my advice. There are two things that a guy loves - Cool gadgets and a wife who saves money. Be smart, make the right purchase and....

Leave the price tag on!!!

"Mama...Jesus"

Day: Jan 1, 2010

Venue: Satyanarayana Temple, Connecticut, USA

My wife and I were asking the huge, impressive statue of Lord Ganesha, for the usual stuff - good health to all our loved ones, No mishaps during the year, good job market, were probably on both of our minds when we prayed. I was about to jostle past the hundreds of people around me, to worship the rest of the gods, when I heard this little boy, who was flanked by his parents (obviously South Indians settled down in the USA, don't ask me how I know, I just do) exclaim pointing an index finger directly at Ganesha's tummy..

'Mamma, Jesus'

Not surprisingly, it evoked more than a few curious glances by people around, not at the child, because children are still given the benefit of the doubt, but at the parents, who promptly turned red.

'Chee, shut your mouth up,' mama (American, for 'mother') pulled back the boy's arm and sharply rebuked him, more in embarrassment than anything else.

Daddy reacted more maturely by signalling to his wife to remain calm. He turned towards the boy and said

'Kanna ('Dear' in Tamil), this is not Jesus. Jesus is in the church, out in the temple, it is 'God'' (He said this in Tamil)

I had to control myself from laughing. There are many predicaments that Indians raising their kids abroad face, I am sure the Tusked God would have been amused to have been mistaken for his on-site counterpart, Jesus. 

Maybe he has also gotten a green card??? Well, thats a thought!