Leave Letter

When I was in my 12th standard, the college I was studying in, was a very strict one....they usually did not give permission to leave the college during lunch or would call home if we missed college even for a day...But then students always knew how to work around these rules...
Each class had an in-charge, who would be responsible for granting permission to leave the college...We had to write a letter to this person, asking for permission, in case we wanted to get out...They usually maintained a list of who all left college for the day and the reason for that...
My lazy friend did not feel like sitting in the class one day. She wrote a letter to the in-charge on the lines of "...I am not feeling well...I would be highly obliged if you could grant me permission to leave the college..." The in-charge who usually never gives permission to anyone, immediately agreed to let her go...When we saw her list, we knew exactly why...under the "reason for leave", she had clearly written - 'Highly Obliged'.

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" :/

How it all started...

I guess it is self-explanatory :P

Samosa Story

Recently we treated ourselves to some awesome mouth-watering samosas...Living in a small town like Clemson where people have to travel for about 45 minutes to get to the nearest Indian grocery shop, samosas are a rarity...Gosh!! I miss those days in India where samosas were just across the street and there was an ample choice for an evening snack...But now, evening snack is either a plain croissant, a veggie pattie sandwich or even an apple pie...that don't even come anywhere close to our jalebi's, samosas,pakora :(
So coming back to the samosas...that was how we celebrated our Ugadi...(yeah not with all the sweets and special dishes but a samosa...and it did make up for everything else :D) And the guy who got them got all our blessings :P After finishing our allotted share of two samosas per head, everyone started eyeing the two samosas that were saved for another person...But after a while, we could not resist anymore....So our plan was to eat another one and just save one samosa for the missing guy....and no one would tell him that we all had two each...we all agreed to the "plan" and finished it leaving just one samosa...But human greed has no limits...so now the only samosa left was targeted and all the brains started working as to how we should get hold of that one last samosa...But humanity is still alive in this world...so we decided we'd leave that one samosa for the poor guy....and then an idea struck the two most brilliant (read greedy) people in the group..."what if the guy himself gave up the samosa"..that way they can have it and at the same time not feel guilty about it....So they went ahead and called MG(missing guy)...This was the conversation they had:
Y: Hey MG...when are you planning to come home?
MG: Hmm...I guess it'll be really late..why?
Y: well we saved a samosa for you here...and wanted to know if you would have it
MG: Yeah...I will have it after coming back...
Y: But you will be really late right...and its not good to have such spicy food at night...
MG: hmm...I'll have it in the morning then...
Y(trying all means to give him the hint): But it will lose its flavour by tomorrow...and it might spoil by then...what do you think we should do with it??(sounding as innocent as possible)
MG(Not taking the hint): Well..in that case, I'll come home early...will start now...seeya soon
Y(cursing under his breath): Yeah..seeya

As promised. MG came back home and finished his share of the samosa...while the (two) others resisted their temptation of snatching it from his hand :P

haule haule se...mind screw hota hai :P

It was a lazy sunday morning...I was woken up by a song playing in the adjacent room..."haule haule se hawa lagti hai.." I did not feel like waking up that early on a sunday morning (No!!! I won't tell you what time it was!!)...so was trying to drift back to sleep thinking the song would stop after five mins or so...but I was wrong...after the song was over, it was played again and then again...after playing it over and over again for about 10 times what jolted me from my sleep was an absolutely out of tune rendition of that song by my roommate, at the top of her voice...It did the job...the thick comforter, the walls..well nothing could stop her voice from reaching me...I rushed to her room to stop her...She was lost in her own world...watching the video and admiring shahrukh and trying to "learn/sing(??)" the song...Looking at my expression she guessed I was not really pleased with the song or her wonderful crooning...so she asked me to listen to the song saying it has a very deep meaning...about how to slow down and stop worrying about things...Being a very impatient girl this song was like a lesson for her...On her insistence, I sat down to listen to the song...After I finished listening to it...she asked me -
her: "So what do you think?"
me: "Its pretty good"
her: "what do you think about that particular line"
me (clueless): "Umm...hmm...well..I wasn't paying attention then. I don't remember it."
her(looking a little offended) : " How did you miss that line??? Wait. Here, listen to it again."
She started playing the song again.
me(screaming in my head): "why??? why God?? why me of all the people??" :/

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 :)