Varalotti in the US -2

Dear Vandhana,

I know that any good wife is a GPS for her husband in the journey of life. I would have been perfectly lost in this world without my GPS, Indhu.

I am sure GPS was invented by a frustrated male who preferred to get lost rather than asking for directions.

I for one never hesitate to ask for directions even if it is in Madurai. It is interesting to watch people directing you, the signs they use, the language they use and all. I have met many interesting characters that way.

With the advent of calculators we lost our ability to manually add up the numbers. With the advent of cell-phones with the address book we lost our ability to remember numbers. And in the same way with GPS we are going to lose our sense of direction. And when everybody navigates with a GPS, some alien creatures can hold us to ransom by simply destroying the underlying satellites or by manipulating the GPS programs.
I think I should now start writing a sci-fic story.

regards,

Exactly. You are not only good and sweet but also very smart. Thanks for the kind compliments, which I am sure my wife will read. If you have a web-camera by your side you can find out that I have lifted my collars in pride. My feet hover six inches above the ground level.

But then you made me land into reality with a thud when you said that people here do not have the time. That's a sad thing.

I am surprised, Kamla, that in the US you have devices that can do our job at half the time it takes in India. The accountant in me tells that the result should be that you should have twice the leisure time we have in India. But in reality I find that Americans have less than half the leisure time an average Indian has.

I think something somewhere went wrong.

Anyhow I am convinced that it is not the numbers that count. Already two or three ILites have evinced interest. Meeting those two, three people is equivalent to meeting 3000 ILites. See, I am ten times potent than our super star. Figure that out and you are in for a surprise gift. ha ha ha.
Love,

Vidya,
Have already placed an order for a Pushpaka Vimana. Keep watching, it would come anytime to pick you up. It will take you to San Jose, to Vandhana's place, where I will meet you on 14th, Sep.

For me this alternative is easier than getting a Business Class ticket, even if it is just one-way.
regards,

Dear Ragini,
Your post has had a sobering effect. While GPS is a wonderful tool, it sure has its limitations.

We were navigating to the Hindu Temple at Bothell. While we were near the Temple Wall, the GPS was asking us to go back, turn around and take a circuitous route. Poor thing! We just switched it off and let common sense prevail.

But the GPS we use does not say Turn Back (our thing says Turn Around when possible) after sometime. It reconfigures the route and issues fresh directions and that's the amazing thing about that.

TB Mio Swamy is surely a humorous name to this wonderful device which can really turn us off.
regards,

Dear Malathi,
When you are inclined to learn, then everyone and everything becomes your teacher. I learnt from a fun ride, from my jetlag and even from a traffic-discipline explained my host.
Stay tuned for future episodes.
We are keeping our fingers crossed for our Bay Area Meeting. Let's see what happens.
Regards,

Dear Sudha,
In fact I learnt about GPS for the first time from Vijay.
I am wondering why is that people always choose a woman's voice? It is a matter worth doing research on.
Well one may not trust one's wife but one's trust in the GPS lady has to be total; otherwise she would let one down in a much more cruel way than a wife is capable of.

Thanks for the wishes. I am learning so many things, so fast that I am afraid that I may not have the time to share all of them. But there will be these biweekly postings for sure, Godwilling.
regards,

VR,

Now this message of yours focussing on the GPS (TOM TOM), is making me blow smoke off my ears (kadhula irundhu orey pugai, is what I meant). Guess why? A few weeks back we lost our GPS, our car was broken and the GPS was stolen. It took me more than a week to come out of this depression .

GPS is one of the essential things to have in the US, especially for people like me(and Jey) who always lose our way (I'm no good GPS to my husband in our road journey, you can then imagine about life journey :icon_frown: ).

My God...as other IL'ites have rightly pointed out, I am just amazed about your thoughts on having a GPS to guide us for the ambition in our life. I too wish we could have one (en thalaya adagu vechavadhu, I will buy one).

That was a nice write-up based on your experience.

PS: Don't worry about less takers for the VR meet thread in CA. To your surprise you will find all CA IL'ites during the meet. How is Vandhana going to manage the crowd?

Malathy

Hello Sridhar,

from the busy roads to Madurai to the even more busy roads of US - so, howz life there???? looks like you seem to be all eyes and ears to the routines of that country.

Interesting thread on GPS. when I read your post it reminded me of my visit to Paris in 2003. Our friend had just got GPS system installed in his new car and we went on a long drive - to see the castles and the country side. It was one of the best drive ever - what with GPS guiding us to our destiny; though our friend who lived all his life there knew all the roads very well.

the immediate thought that came to my mind was why not have it in our country - but unfortunately, ours being the most chaotic roads and with most improper planning, the GPS would surely go mad.....

but still imagine GPS giving directions for shopping and eateries and multiplexes and temples and ..........to find our friends and ..... wow, maybe that day, India would become a super power..........

have a wonderful meeting with ILites and do let us know the diff menus and the gist of all the wonderful interactions.....

Regards,

Originally Posted by varalotti

Anyhow I am convinced that it is not the numbers that count. Already two or three ILites have evinced interest. Meeting those two, three people is equivalent to meeting 3000 ILites. See, I am ten times potent than our super star. Figure that out and you are in for a surprise gift. ha ha ha.
Love,

Eureka!!! Eureka !!! Naan oru thadhavai sonna,nooru thadavai sonna madhiri!!



Dear Sridhar Sir

This asking for directions is very easy in India.You can stop the car anywhere,even in the middle of a road and call out to the nearest guy standing at some 'potti kadai' and you can get the directions,can you imagine doing that here in the U.S.?

MJ,
Yes I could smell that smoke sitting here in Seattle. I know how difficult it is for us Indians, to digest a theft, and that too of a valuable gadget.

I am also a poor navigator like you. Once in Nagercoil I got lost in the road and you know, what? I came to the same road and asked the same policeman three times the way to Madurai. The third time the Policeman hit himself on his head. (thalaila adichundaan)

I have a theory that people who are not good at navigating their road journeys are good at their life journeys. (Like "kai yezhutthu nalla irundha, thalai ezhuthu nalla irukkaathu") We, poor navigators, have to take comfort from theories like these, whether true or false.

Thanks for the nice words you have about my writing. Looks like, in America, everyone is hell bent on teaching me one thing or the other. You know for the first time in my life I learnt to make pop corn in microwave. After about half a dozen trials I can set the office microwave to the exact time for pop corn (The key is you should never hit the pop-corn switch in the microwave. That invariably kills the corn) Today when I made one, a few colleagues were drawn to the office kitchen by the aroma I generated.

If I stay here in the US for another 6 months I am sure to start a recipe forum in IL Ask Varalotti. ha ha ha. Since my stay is limited for just 2 months Chitvish can heave a sigh of relief.

I have sent PMs to about 15 ILites listed in the Bay Area. Let's see what happens. Even if it just two or three, there will be a big photo ops and all.

Thanks, Malathi.
regards,