Mystery of The Missing Drum

This was sometime ago when I was thoroughly fascinated by fire. I was not allowed to make fires, so I used to sneak up to the terrace and feed my obsession. The terrace was an awesome place. I had a birds eye view of the locality and nobody used it. There were two drums on the terrace. One was empty and the other was filled with soil. I used to make small fires in the drum filled with soil since it was safe and convenient. Making a fire in the drum was very convenient because I didn't have to worry about hurting the concrete slab and I could put off the fire easily by dumping soil on it. I used to sneak dry twigs, branches and leaves up to the terrace every other day. 

An empty drum.

One quite afternoon I tended a small, vigorous fire. The gentle sea breeze was nicely feeding the fire. It was a nice time. I was just staring at the flames oblivious to everything, occasionally adding more sticks and twigs. I heard a shout and I realized someone was calling me. Immediately I put out the fire by scooping soil on it. I ran downstairs. It was my mom calling me for lunch. I had a heavy lunch and fell asleep. I woke up in the evening and went upstairs to tend another fire. To my utter surprise someone emptied all the soil and took away the drum. I was pissed off. Why would anybody take the pain to empty a heavy drum filled with soil instead of simply taking the other empty drum? It didn't make any sense. I felt like a drug addict who was denied his fix. Angry and desperate I went around asking people if they borrowed the drum. I made a few phone calls and none of them said they took the drum. A couple of minutes later I went up the terrace to investigate what happened. Who would be foolish enough to miss the empty drum right beside the drum filled with soil?

I went to the heap of the soil and realized that it was utterly beautiful. It looked like a giant ant hill. It had a sharp peak made of compressed mud. It didn't make sense because if the drum was emptied by a man, the resulting heap would look roughly cylindrical with some cracks and chunks and a lot of loose mud at the base of the heap. This is because the mud at the bottom of the drum would be compressed by the weight of the soil above it. I poked the heap with my fingers and then went on to inspect the base of the heap. When I poked in I hit a hard surface. I swept some soil away and found the base of the drum still intact. I swept more soil away and found out that the drum is now only 1/3rd the height it initially was. IT HAS BLOODY BURNT DOWN!!!

Heap expected when a man empties a drum.

Heap I discovered.

This was a total shock to me. I thought I put out the fire before I raced downstairs. Somehow the fire grew up and went out of control and ignited the drum. The drum slowly melted down, and emptied its contents. I was amazed and ecstatic. It perfectly explained the unusual heap. I relished the moment and then thought of the consequences. Someone would need the drum and they will find out that it burnt down. I was the youngest child which meant I would be the obvious culprit. I went into damage control mode. I could remove all evidence of the previous fires and throw away the burnt drum. That would create an awesome mystery. A heavy drum was emptied and stolen when an empty one was available right beside. I felt like Loki, like Joker in Batman.

It turned out to be an impossible task. It was very hard to carry around a burnt drum in plain light. To top it off we were supposed to go on a vacation to my grandma's place. I removed all the matchsticks and burnt embers I could. Then we left for the vacation.

I thoroughly enjoyed the vacation and I completely forgot about the burnt drum. A week later we returned. The news popped up that a drum was missing. Luckily no one seemed to have investigated much since there was only talk of a missing drum. My mom was surprised. She informed that someone emptied and stole a drum when there was an empty drum right beside. I was chuckling inside. If Loki exists he must have been jealous of me.

My happiness was short lived since there was news that the drum was burnt down. I was the immediate suspect. There was an interrogation and I claimed to be innocent. I acted in total surprise and went up to investigate. I argued that if the drum was burnt there would be a lot of smoke and someone would have noticed. Even if no one noticed the smoke, the drum beside it would have shriveled a bit from the heat. There should also be soot on the adjacent walls. Since neither of them happened it must have melted from the heat of the sun. There was a gaping loophole in my story since the adjacent drum was perfectly fine. If the sun was actually intense enough to melt the drums, the empty one should have melted first. Luckily I was not convicted since there was no overwhelming evidence.

That evening my dad did his own investigation and found a match stick in the heap. I will never know if he really found one but that led to my conviction. He also claimed that drums don't burn in a fiery way, instead they smolder slowly with very little smoke. Then I gave up the farce and confessed. I was let off with a warning since it was an accident.

PS : All or most of the above story is fiction. I have a wild imagination as many of you know. 

An outsiders perception of US&A

An acquaintance of mine picked me up from the airport in New York. He let me stay in his house for two days before I moved to my own accommodation. 

First impression :

The first thing that caught my attention is uniformity, continuity, patterns, grids and lanes. Everything seemed like I suddenly fell into an engineering drawing. Roads were straight and smooth with gentle curves, houses were built in neat grids, vehicles strictly moved in their lanes and even the people formed proper queues. This was in stark contrast to India which is a lot like modern art, haphazard yet functional. I really liked it in the first few days and I almost stopped noticing it now. 

Cultural shock :

 "A condition of confusion and anxiety affecting a person suddenly exposed to an alien culture"

The people here have a strange habit of greeting random people with a short "Hey ! How you doing ?" or "Hey ! Hows it going ?" and many other courtesies. I was very aware of this etiquette and I thoroughly disliked the idea of being greeted by a complete stranger. I thought it should be no big deal and I will be able to handle it. In reality it was thoroughly disorienting. One evening a guy was jogging on the pavement. As he passed by me he threw a quick "Hey man ! Hows it going ?" and by the time I thought of a reply he was a couple of feet behind me. I was a little offended by his indifference only to quickly realize that its all "etiquette". Later I realized that this habit of greeting strangers is in fact awesome. It breaks the verbal ice and its easy to approach people for help or making friends. I think this habit deserves a post of its own. People hold doors open for people behind them. Thank You is frequently heard.

Classroom :

"Give respect and take respect"

The Professor respects you and treats you like a person. You don't have to stand up when he/she walks in, you don't have to call him/her sir/mam, you don't need their permission to walk out of the classroom or eat in the classroom or even sleep in the classroom. They are here to teach you and interact with you. All this comes with a price, the student is expected to keep calm and pay attention as long as he's in the classroom. This is a real classroom. Real transfer of knowledge and is only possible when both sides respect each other. I think its very hard to replicate this in India due to professors with infinite ego and a lot of the students giving 0 fucks about their field of study.

Respect : 

Janitor : "A person employed in an apartment house, office building, school, etc., to clean the public areas, remove garbage, and do minor repairs; caretaker"

This is one thing I love the most about the culture of the USA, Respect. Nobody gets treated like shit. The Department chair will treat the Janitor just like anybody else. There is a great value for humans in general. This is in stark contrast to India where people look down on the less fortunate and treat people like shit. This probably stems from our huge population and caste system. We are a long way from this checkpoint. 

Women :

White women are routinely* depicted as sleazy and promiscuous in Bollywood and Tollywood. This is ridiculous and false. There are promiscuous people everywhere. People here highly regard their freedom of personal choice. So if a person chooses to be promiscuous its a matter of choice. I did notice that there are very few women in engineering just like back at home.

* My knowledge of Indian cinema is very poor. So correct me if I'm wrong.

Super Markets :

Here comes the ugly part of USA. Lets say you want to buy water. After walking a few hundred meters you may finally reach the water aisle. Now begins the actual hardship. There will be a dozen  or more varieties of water. I may be exaggerating a little but take a look below.

Meat is never butchered in front of you, instead it is cleaned, processed and packed in a very aesthetic way. So it would be no surprise if you ask a kid where meat comes from and he/she replies that its from the supermarket. 

I have nothing else to write as of now. Will be back soon with something more.

*** This is by no means intended to be holistic. I wrote a fraction of what I perceived, which is a fraction of what can be perceived. 

Journey to the 'Glorious' US and A.

It was the day of departure and I was in Hyderabad to catch the flight. Unfortunately my dad has a mighty number of relatives in Hyderabad. Mind you, I do not mean uncles and aunts when I say relatives. It consisted of my dads cousins, first cousins, second cousins and so on up to infinity and their respective children and parents and grand parents. Due to some kind of logic which I will never understand, he decided that its necessary to visit the houses of all the relatives and bid goodbye to them and take their blessings. If the Neanderthals are alive I have no doubt that my dad would have urged me to take their blessings too. I bet even Hector of Troy on his last battle with Achilles would have had a less ceremonious goodbye. Its kind of ridiculous to bid goodbye to people you never met. I did and it was extremely tiring, frustrating for an introvert like me. 

Finally at 11 PM with sore legs from all the travelling I boarded the flight to Dubai. There were no emotional goodbyes. I could barely sleep at all. When the flight landed in Dubai I was eager to snap pics of Burj Dubai. Not so lucky. Visibility was very very low. Its a desert and it was windy. I could barely see 500 meters ahead. I was amazed that the pilot could land the aircraft. In Dubai I met a fellow passenger from Gujarat. He was worried that he may not get the visa for his connecting flight. At Dubai I caught the flight to New York and my fellow passenger got his visa much to his relief.  

My co-passenger was a gorgeous young woman in her twenties. She is a student of medicine and she was returning from India. She seemed to have traveled a lot. She was kind enough to let me use her phone upon landing to call a friend of mine. I barely slept during the journey. So I wasn't jet-lagged upon landing, instead I was sleep deprived and tired. To enter a country one needs the approval of the immigration check officer. There I was with shabby hair, blood red eyes and pissed off. I was half convinced that he would send me back to India as I looked very much like a zombie. He let me pass and I entered the US and A . 

Its been almost 6 months since I landed in the USA and I have a lot to write about. It deserves a post of its own. Will be back soon.