What's in a name??!

Well!! I'd say a lot....people either smile or smirk when they hear a name (ofcourse, that is based on the person's character)....Raj, Rahul, Vijay...naam tho suna hoga...ok ok...enough of filmi dialogues, let me get to the point without digressing...

Few months ago, we had a training session which was all about how to improve our communication skills...the instructor started asking for our names....She repeated all the names and even managed to pronounce some of the Indian names correctly...then she came to me..."Niharika", I said...**Silence**...after she recovered from the shock, she went.."Oh My God!! I'm so sorry I did not get it correctly...can you say it again?"..."Niharika", I repeated..."Umm.. I will try to remember that", she said and moved on to the next person :/

To get us all involved in the lecture, she started including our names in the conversation...every time she tried to say my name, she would pause for a few seconds and would instead use my neighbor's name.In the break, she came up to me and asked me to say my name so that she could write down the pronunciation ..."Nee-ha-ree-ka", she carefully wrote down on a piece of paper..."you can call me Niha", I said politely.."But your name is so good...I want to say it all...I like the second part..its so beautiful", she said...And then the unimaginable thing happened...she was talking about some topic..and said, " So if Nyharicky is working in a team...", I looked around and found my colleagues trying hard to control their laughter...Nyharicky??? Seriously!!! Lady, I thought you said you liked the last part of my name!!! and mind you its definitely not "RICKY" :/

Sun n Clouds

So here I am...after a long hiatus from the blog world...I realized I was too busy pretending to be busy :) now its time to get back to my blog...

So last weekend my colleagues had planned out a trip to Grand father mountains, NC, which is about 4 hours drive from where I live...Since it was a day trip, we had to start early...the saddest part of the trip was that I had to get up at 5:30 in the morning, something I had not done since I finished my last exam in school six months back...we started for our great mountain expedition at around 6:30....The drive was awesome, the view breathtaking...but once we reached the mountain most of the leaves had already fallen off, which was a lil disappointing...but the view below from the mountain was colorful and amazing...

Usually I am extremely scared of heights...so I almost gave up when I had to climb this rock which was not very high, but one wrong step and we could fall straight down on the rocks and break our head...But everyone was climbing and with some motivation and help I finally managed to climb it...After reaching the top of the rock, the only thing I kept thinking was how to get down...but thought it shouldn't be a problem as so many people are climbing the place should be safe...but then someone told me about this..


But luckily climbing down was much easier than I thought it to be...After our great rock climbing experience, we went to the highest peak of the mountain...It was very warm and pleasant..so we left our jackets in the car. To reach the peak we had to walk across a swinging bridge hanging at a height of about 5,900 ft...after crossing it we sat on the peak and were enjoying the view, when we realized that a cloud was slowly moving towards us...excited, we waited for it to reach us...it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen...In just a little while, we were enveloped in a thick blanket of white mist and could hardly see anything...it was really difficult to withstand the chill and we started running towards the car...it took us good 10 mins and high heat in the car to regain our senses...


I don't think I'd ever forget this once-in-a-lifetime experience....

How it all started...

I guess it is self-explanatory :P

Diwaleen

Happy Diwali...
Today is the festival of lights and surely some lights did show up on a couple of balconies in my block.....For a change, we celebrated Diwali and Halloween together....my roommates who came just three months back were all keen and enthusiastic to adapt to the US culture....As a resut, we did not just light the diya, but instead carved an entire pumpkin to put it in....But it resulted in a whole lot of fun...I decorated the house with the lights while my roomies were busy carving the pumpkin and cooking dinner...After we all finished our respective jobs, we invited a few friends over for the aarti, that was played on youtube, followed by our prayers...I "tasted" three types of kheers, had amazing dinner and finally went and caught up with our pals....this was indeed different from what we usually do on festivals...yeah yeah I'm talking about lazing around like its just another day :)

Mind Your Language

“Sorry I did not get you. Can you please repeat it?” This is the common sentence that most of the desis in the US hear. When I go back to India, I guess my friends will definitely notice a change in the pronunciation of certain words. It is so difficult here to use the normal Indian accent because people just don’t understand you. Potahtoes now became potaytoes….tomahtoes became tomaytoes…capsicum became green pepper, lady’s finger - okra, spring onions - green onions, petrol – gas, Z’ed’ - Z’ee’, zero - o and the list goes on. Why can’t you just stick to the general way of saying it? They might question…but this is what happened when my friend very innocently tried using our way of saying things…
We once went to have a pizza and wanted some extra chilli flakes…This was the conversation between my friend and the guy serving the pizza…(S- my friend, G- guy at the pizza place)
S- Hi. Can I have some extra Chilli Flakes?
G (puzzled) - Sorry Sir I don’t understand
S – Chilli Flaikes?? (Trying to change his accent)
G (staring blankly at my friend) - Sorry Sir but we only sell pizza here.
S- No, I want Chilli Flaykes?? Chilli…
This went on for quite some time. G was now looking at us helplessly seeking some intervention….
Finally one of us had to interrupt and explain to the guy that my friend had meant “crushed red peppers”…. Phew!!
As if trying to talk to the natives here is not bad enough, just imagine our plight when we have to pay our bills on the phone through the automated voice recognition system!!!!
Hmm…now you know that this change of accent is more of a necessity than ishtyle :)

ABCD...

I always wondered why Indian kids born in the US were called confused desis till I met this real cute cousin of mine...this two year old kid goes to an American play school where she spends most of her day and after she comes back from school her parents only talk to her in telugu, her mother tongue, so that she could learn the language right from the beginning...sammy (the American version of her traditional Indian name :)) , is so confused that she doesn't know which language to use.....this little one answers in only an accented "yeah" or "no" whenever we talk to her based on the tone of our sentence and the direction in which we nod our head...and to add to her woes they even teach spanish in her play school :)
hope this confused desi would soon learn some language so that we could atleast understand what her baby talk is all about :)

Rendezvous with Life

I can't believe that it's been one year already since I came to the US...but I must say life here has definitely taught me how to become a survivor...I always used to tell my mom that studying in the US would teach me a lot in life and it surely did...

From cooking our own food, running around for assistantships, meeting new people, waiting to see the first snow fall of the season, shivering in the december cold, facing the tough competition, staying up all night to finish off assignments, reminiscing the wonderful times spent with family and friends back home, crying silently at nights, dealing with the disappointments, trying to sound cool whenever parents called, facing the tough challenges to juggling between work and studies, becoming a four pointer, getting an internship, having small tiffs with friends, bonding with roommates, longing for the spicy and yummy home-made food, trying out different cuisines, fighting the bedbugs, falling in love with the fall colors, watching lots of movies with friends to kill boredom, having occasional potlucks, learning how to be independent..whoa!! it surely has been a long journey...Looking back, I feel these are the moments that make life memorable...

Everybody faces challenges in life...but how you do it makes all the difference :)