18 May 2014

The Three Idiots

The Chalupa group took a collective timeout this morning. All except three certifiably crazy members. It was raining incessantly and the temperatures had dropped to an unseasonal 50 degrees. The trail was wet, with a lot of water puddles and deceptively slippery.

Giving us company in the otherwise desolate trail were a couple walking their dog and a high school girl out running without her regular Sunday morning school team. Samaresh and I came prepared – at least I had full sleeves on while Samaresh had full rain gear. Manas, on the other hand, came in his patented Sunday morning light T shirt. When I asked him if he was worried, the every funny and self-deprecating Manas pointed to his prospering mid-portion and said “I am my own protection”!. It hurt my sides, I laughed so hard.

I wish I had carried my phone with me. There were some unbelievably beautiful sights of rain falling on the treetops, the small rivulets, the big creeks and all the leaves glistening in the overnight rain that I wished I had captured.

At the end of the run, as we synchronized our “Atchoos”, and collectively cleared our noses (I know. Gross. You see. “Thanda legey gechhey”), we wanted to give a full throated message to our fellow Chalupa- runners – “Alllll Eeeeeez Welllll” πŸ™‚

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Category: Running | LEAVE A COMMENT
13 May 2014

Brought to you by Roy-ters News

Did you hear about the guy chanting “I am God” and trying to ram a Maryland TV station?

This was always a pious Christian’s worst nightmare scenario. One day, God was bound to see Alec Baldwin in those cycling shorts biking the wrong way on New York streets and say to Himself “This is it. I cannot take this anymore. I have to atone for their sins. Let me pack my gun and bring out my dump truck. I am going to destroy the world. But I will start small. You know a TV station first. Yeah! I know, I will start with the Baltimore TV station first and then work my way up”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/13/baltimore-barricade-truck-rams/9038873/

Category: Humor | LEAVE A COMMENT
13 May 2014

FIL-MIL Mehfil (Bengali alert)

Getting my mother in law introduced to touchscreen is an awesome experience. A few days back, one of our friends had downloaded the YuppTV app on an iPad at our home and shown them how to watch streaming Bengali channels on it.

The whole concept of touching a sophisticated machinery like iPad is proving to be very scary to my MIL. This evening I came home and was a little surprised that she was not watching TV shows on iPad (she does that for endless hours).

“ki holo? Aaj TV dekchhen na?” (What happened? Not watching tv tonight?).
She was really scared and upset when she said “ami bodh hoy ota noshto korey felechhi” (I thinking I messed up the iPad)

“Maaney?”, I asked. (What is that supposed to mean?)
“Amar hath thekey ektu sorey gechhilo. Screen to puro bhenge bnekey gelo”. She thought when the iPad screen turned around (I assume she had tilted it), the physical screen came unhinged and got twisted!!!! πŸ™‚

Half an hour later, I was again in the living room. This time saw her poring into the iPad but I could see that she was on the main screen. I asked her what happened. Why was she not watching something?

“Norchhe”, she said. (Things are moving)
I was like what do you mean “Norchhe”? Upon investigation found out that all the app icons were jiggling!! I assume she kept her finger on the YuppTV app for too long.

Anyways, I laughed out and told her next time to ask anyone of us to help her.

And I noticed that she had a lot of apps open. Obviously, she had tried a few more things before she got them to jiggle πŸ™‚ I asked her to hang on and started to kill the apps one after the other. She watched me as I flicked the apps off the screen and then got her show started.

She helplessly looked at me and said “Thheley diley sorey jachhe e abar ki re baba” πŸ™‚ (It moves when you push it, what kind of a thing is this?)

I am having second thoughts of gifting them an iPad before they leave for India!!