Why is it the baseball "world" series?

Have always laughed at how the americans call their baseball series the "world series" when it's just a series that only the americans play! Well agree that Japan also plays the game but is not a reglular at the series. Figured just recently that it is called so because the first ever baseball series was sponsored by a newspaper called "The Daily World" and so that series was named "World Series". Well they decided to stick to that name, which does not logically make any sense anymore. But that's what it is and will be, the world series!

Cleveland in Bangalore!

Did you know there is a Cleveland in Bangalore. It is acually "Cleveland Town" and it close to the cantonment area! I did nt believe it when Vinod told me this, google "Cleveland Bangalore" and see for yourself! After Mangalore in Australia this is the next big discovery! :-)

911 - Same three numbers for all trouble!

We were involved in an incident at an Indian restaurant called Udupi Cafe in Parma in Cleveland. A friend of ours agreed to pay the bill because he was on travel and could expense it with his company. The restaurant owner refused to however give us the "original" receipt. This friend of ours, Arun argued with him for few minutes and told him that by law he was entitled to an original receipt. With the owner standing by his refusal out friend called 911. WOW! Didn't know that was a "all-in-all" number to call! The restaurant owner finally gave in, guess he thought he was going to get jacked of the cops came and he would not have been able to deny a receipt. We finally left with the receipt. I was very impresed with our friend Arun! Way to go!!

An evening of art appreciation

Visited the Cleveland Art Meuseum for a talk on Claude Monet's two Normandys. Monet is a famous french impressionist painter. The talk was an analysis of the circumstances (mental/social/financial/intellectual) under which Monet made his paintings of Normandy. Monet painted landscapes from Normandy between two visist he made to the place several years apart. The speaker compared some of these paintings to illustrate the artist's thought process etc.. It was an interesting way to look at art, sounded very scientific. The pictures were simply great! Did not get to see all of the Monet exhibits though. Have decided i'll read up more about impressionism.

Taxis are not better in the US

Apparently taxis may or may not come pick you up if you call and book them on Friday evenings. We had first hand experience when we called for two taxis that never showed up on a Friday evening. We finally had to call for a friend to come pick us up. Wonder whether some auto drivers from India have migrated to the US to become taxi drivers!

What is the relationship between a cell phone and a car related (in Cleveland)?

Answer - Not having either one of these could cause death or serious injury.

You either need a cellphone to call for a cab or you need your own car! Never ever try to go out without one of these in Cleveland. Be ready to get mugged or get ready for a really long walk which you may or may not survive not because you will die from exhaustion but because you may be run over by someone on the freeway!!

Unattended shopping carts!

Have you ever tried leaving a filled up shopping cart unattened in (say) a food world? Try it out sometime and let me know whether you had to redo all your shopping all over again because the attendents in the shop emptied it and moved it back! Well, we left an overflowing shopping cart unattended in Walmart for over 45 minutes and when we got back it was right where we left it! We didn't try this for fun, just that we had to get some other stuff urgemty from anothet store across the street and we did not want to redo all of our walmart shopping. We were thinking some video monitroing system in Walmart would have caught this and intimated someone to remove the unattended cart. Apparently not!!

The Virginia Tech incident

The media here in the US is going ballistic about the shooting that killed 32 students & professors of the institute. Through all of this three things struck me vis-a-vis what might have transpired back in India.

1) No television channel has so far tried to do a story with the killer's family involved in it. In fact there is not even a mention of the family. Apparently the day that the identity of the killer was exposed some media gathered at the family's residen however no one came out to comment and they just left them alone.
2) There are no incidents of vicimisation of people of Korean descent living in the US.
3) No television channel is so far talking about stricter gun control laws federal laws (for the entire country ) instead of state laws as they exist now in the US

1 & 2 - Truely appreciable 3 - strange!

Anna

Anna is my "suite keeper" at the hotel where i am put up in Cleveland. A chirpy and cheerful fifty eight year old woman. This is only the second time i am meeting her after i arrived at the hotel and i already know a good deal about her and her family, i actually thought americans are very guarded about sharing personal information unlike the all too eager women & men that we meet on trains in India (especially in South India) who can pretty much give you enough material to write up their biography. She is originally from Trinidad. Anyways she had this story to tell. She apparently is a nurse by profession and has been one for over 20 years. A patient of her's choked while she was nursing him and since he was in a bad shape and was not responding she decided to slap him to revive him. Well, apparently the patient was not all too happy with the slapping and complained and that cost her the nursing license. That's the reason she works as a suite keeper at the hotel now. Strange country for sure. Anna's getting back into the medical profession end of May onward and she tells me she's looking forward to it! Good for her.

Second Sambar in the USA!

It is my second weekend in cleveland. Has been pretty good so far. Just finished a sumptuous meal of vendaikai sambar & chilli potato dry. We have pictures of all the food we cooked so that Vinod (that other chap that's traveling with me) that he can show off to his wife. Well, hope he can redo it back home after his wife sees the pictures ;-)

Inauguration

And here i rest after i succumbed to the blog bug!