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Chennai to Chicago – A memoir
This is a memoir from a part of my life, filled with tribulations, heartbreaks, travel, and adventures in the US, eventually being hit by the routine, frustrated, losing purpose in life as a software engineer, packed everything back up, and backpacked around India on a soul-searching journey, discovering myself along the way. Webpage created for the book: https://www.chennai2chicago.com Here’s a link to my book on: Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FM8QLKP Amazon India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07FM8QLKP Goodreads.com – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54965063-chennai-to-chicago I actually completed that book in 2013. Then one day I had a thought, “Who would wanna read what I did with my life?”. And that was it, I did nothing, and it had been sitting…
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Iceland
My trip to Iceland did not start off on a good note. I sat next to a guy on the plane whom I guess was having a Tourette syndrome. Tourette is when people have these uncontrollable ticks. His tick was pulling his hair, arranging his books in proper order on the tray table, and violently shaking his hands. He kept doing that for 7 hours straight, except when he dozed off for a few hours. OCD – Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, is when doing something doesn’t give any pleasure, but not doing it gives immense pain. I felt bad for people living with those conditions, they just can’t control it, they…
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Area 51
I landed in Vegas and booked a room for the night at the Luxor hotel. There was a heavy rush for the long weekend, full parking lots, cars wandering around trying to find a spot to park, long lines everywhere through midnight. I stood in line for hotel check-in, watching people losing money in slot machines, half-clothed drunk women with full makeup at midnight tottering around trying to find their balance, drunk men wandering around smoking cigarettes, nauseating smell of alcohol and tobacco everywhere, scantily clothed men and women groping on huge television screens all around, I felt suffocated inside those flamboyant buildings. What is everyone up to? Trying to…
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New York… people watching
The stress in this world is at an all-time high. And nobody seems to do anything about this. Everybody is interested in making more money… all for what? Few pieces of shining metals? It’s okay! But we must take care of our health too! The origin of yoga is from India several thousand years ago. But that doesn’t matter. It’s like the air we breathe. It’s universal for everyone. But at the same time, it’s very disheartening to see how it’s been so commercialized. People are conducting aerobic classes and call it “Yoga for weight loss”. There are Jacuzzi hot tub spas and they call it, “Hot tub yoga”! It’s…
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Being Indian…
Nevertheless, I realized the Indian spinal cord – that makes people adapt to any condition in any country. That’s “Being liquid”. Pour me anywhere, I will fill right in no matter what the shape of the vessel is. People from other countries wonder how Indians live in a country with so much population and corruption. Because we are liquid! If we were solid and rigid, India would have become like some parts of Africa ruled by mafias and warlords. As one of the rarest, quiet, and nice autorickshaw drivers once told me in Bhubaneshwar Orissa, “Sab khaaney ka chakkar hai saab” (it’s all a play for one-course meal). Some pictures…
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Alaska
Alaska!! A magnificent place to travel!
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Life… flowing in and out… Sedona, Arizona
I was struggling to breathe looking at the scorching 110-degrees Sun right above my head in the Sedona, Arizona desert. I had to conserve the last sip of water, I had 30 more minutes to hike to reach my car. The problem was, I could feel my heart struggling to pump with every step I took. If I faint, there probably wouldn’t be anyone to notice for a few days unless some hiker shows up. I have never hiked in hot dry desert weather before, I underestimated the heat. I sat under a tree and closed my eyes. I could rest, but every minute I delayed, I would soon need…
