Interpreter of Maladies
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Travelogue-IIThis first one week has been immersed in office work. With the high priority projects lined up for my stay I never imagined that I will have a fun weekend. The American food is grassy and raw and the Indian food is "bare minimum" Indian- Bland and half cooked. I am pining for home food and being a vegetarian and a non egg one at that has its failings, I completely understand. Friday was chaos in its full form. I got up at 7.30, just the time Vipul called me up to say thathe is ready and waiting for me in the lounge. I did a lucy show and somehow scraped in almost in time. On the same Friday, we had a 4 hours presentation starting right at 8 in the morning. 'Twas highly technical and not much of it made sense of it anyway. I bunked the other 2 hours session and I was glued to the laptop for the rest of the day as a deliverable had to go the same day. I knew we had to leave for Austin that very same evening but the work part was tough to manage and diffcult to accomodate. We left the office late in the evening and then picked a Mazda from the car rental. The drive to Austin was not much fun because 4 hours of continous driving is tough to enjoy after some time. So I tried to socialize with Vipul and he is quite easy going, easy to strike a conversation with. I played word loop with him on the way (which was like heights of boredom, I know he hated me for playing that infants' game with him).
Austin is lots of greenery and hills. The route from Dallas to Austin is pretty as there is good natural scenery around. But since it is US, you cant slide down the car window, otherwise the noise of the roaring wind would tear your ears apart. I am staying with my friend in Austin who has surprisingly lost a lot of weight and has become razor thin. This makes me so ashamed of myself, being the elephant that I have become, these days. She has also become a good cook and the rajmah chawal that she made on the evening I arrived, was yummy. Infact even the aloo paranthas she made on Sunday...were much better than the half cooked stuff that I can manage.
Friday, I guess, we chatted all night, doing a lot of catching up on each other. On Saturday, since I did want to see places around, we went to this theme ride park in Austin. I mean the "Essel World" kind of place. Lots of rides...good fun. My vertigo struck yet again and so I had my eyes firmly closed during the roller coaster or frisbee rides. End of day..I was dying to go off to sleep. Have never done a night out and a theme ride thing together, ever before this. Sunday, we were lazing around and doing more of chatting. I left in the evening and then Vipul and I had a good dinner at an Italian joint.
And now, today is Monday yet again. Vipul has already left for office and I am struggling with this post so that I could go too. There are meetings every second hour I guess, Tough day or Monday blues. Dont know what I should call this.
