a weird dream

Yesterday i went to mickey's an irish pub in ames.I slept at around 3 ..dint get sleep for quite some time..Normally i don't get dreams..because i will be in deep sleep..infact there are several ocassions where people find it difficult to wake me up..once a whole class of mine tried to wake me up during a school trip..but they could not succeed.When i woke up in the bus i was all alone..i had figure out where they had gone and went by myself..
So anyways yesterday i had this weird dream..for some odd reason i went for hunting..now i have never been on hunting in my real life nor i would like to go and kill some animals..If i remember we were three people in the hunting party and i dint seem to know anyone of them.[weird!!] . There was a dog too with us..now this dog was running around and suddenly vanished into a bush and never came back..all of us became alert..surprisingly none of us talked to each other during the whole episode.Suddenly something came charging at us.One guy climbed up a arecanut tree..[yes an arecanut tree in the middle of jungle!!!]..and the remaining two of us went into a home!! ..now don't ask me where it came from..it was there [:P] we went and locked inside. For some strange reason the other guy switched on a light inside the room..and the animal seemed to notice this..The other guy seemed to be a sissy..but the thing was he was having a better weapon than mine..i had a double barrel rifle which can fire two shots before reloading and he seemed to have a automatic pistol.I was thinking if i can ask him to exchange because he was all shaky ..so this animal started banging the door ..the door seemed to gave away any moment we did not speak..i was thinking what the guy on the tree is doing..may be he could come and rescue us..anyways i was holding the rifle towards the door..all the time hoping only if i had the other gun!!The door opened.... Bang!! .... and... I woke up :P

The above photo was taken in a anti-poaching camp in one of the forests of karnataka..we had gone for tiger census..that trip had a very interesting ..[close to death encounter] incident..some other time about it..

Music of nature :)

It was a peaceful day .. i just went out to sit in one of the parks near my home...I think i need to do often in ames..it gives the much required solace..The sparrows chirping..along with the melodious sounds of other birds was so good.. it reminded of a song that is one of my favorites..a song that celebrates the music in nature and beauty of mother earth..I could not find time to write this description for few days..

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The people of ames :)

Since am writing about ames, i thought i can probably write something about the people of ames.Ames is a small town , with our university being the most part of it . the people here are very friendly ...Probably some indians [especially people who stay in metros] would be surprised as they would be greeted by strangers whom they meet while walking..or a customary nod by young dudes ..i was not new to this..i stayed in a small town called basingstoke in UK , for like a month or so.I had the same experience there as well.
may be its a characteristic of small towns, people tend to be more relaxed.I miss [for good] the fast paced life of bangalore. the constant rush..the traffic ......the smoke and honking sound of horns . so far am yet to hear the honking sound of an horn yet.
I will end this blog by narrating two incidents.Once me and my friend went for an haircut in ames.After the haircut we were standing at the bus stop waiting for the bus.It was about time for the last bus to arrive.We thought we had missed the bus , but we saw the bus going on the other side of the road.The same bus would take a turn at a later stop and come back.As we were waiting , a lady took an exit from the road onto the service road.Parked her car, then she started checking the bus time table. I was wondering as to why someone in car would stop near a bus stop and check the bus time table. Then she came towards us and asked if we know that the time for the last bus is already over.I said yes and told that we saw the bus and it will come in a short time. Then she told that she saw us waiting for the bus and remembered that its late for the bus and so she came to check if everything is okay!
I thanked her for showing that concern .
I had a similar incident when i was in UK. I tend to have a blunt courage when it comes to exploring anything.While i was there , i rented a car on the very next day i went to office.I was not aware of the traffic rules or the roads around there. But still , i thought let me try whats gonna happen. So i drove to my office , which was all fine. But while coming back , i took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up on a motorway.Now its not like india where i can stop and ask people for directions.So i just kept on driving finding some place to get back to my place.All i knew was the hotel name and the street name.I did not have a cell phone nor a GPS in my car.I just kept on driving and ended up in a neighboring town. Now i was sure i was lost :0 .Bad thing was there was no one around to ask directions. But fortunately i met some people who were cycling.I stopped them and told where i need to go to. And to my luck they were all motorolans [i used to work in motorola] , one kind lady began explaining all the directions back to my place.i was still confused but i kept saying yeah , okay giving an impression that am following directions.There was another person, he told he will drive back to my place and i can follow him [ he was on his way to london it seems]. So he drove in his bmw ahead of me and i followed him in my peugeot . the hotel came. I thanked him . He told that he knew i would not have understood what the lady told and so he offered to drive me back till my hotel. I thanked and asked if i could get him a drink.During the course of conversation i learned he was from pakistan :) . we had a long conversation for a couple of hours over various topics ranging from work to politics.
I just mentioned this because i wanted to emphasize that good people are there everywhere , you just need to find them :)

Started blogging again :)

Well , today i decided to blog again :). Co-incidentally its one year since i stopped blogging !!
Its been 6 months i have been in usa. finished a semester , a month of summer ..and still going :)

May be i will just post some pics from college..
Thats the campanile at my university :)
They say that to be a true iowan you have to kiss your partner below that campanile at midnight :)
here is a bit of history for the ones who are interested http://www.lib.iastate.edu/arch/campanile/campanile.html

Probably am putting on weight [courtesy of American food..] ..not able to go to gym regularly though..
I must admit that life in us is not as interesting as it used to be in bangalore..its a small town..but its peaceful and green [in summer and spring atleast:) ].. i have seen the harsh iowan winter and beginning to see its equally interesting rainy season..
They say its a land of five seasons ..[winter , spring , summer , fall are the four standard ones..the fifth i guess it might be a season of floods/tornadoes :P ]
i guess thats enough for today to get started! I will try to be more regular..