Dallas Diaries II

When I came to Dallas, I was bringing up Chicago in almost every other sentence. From cribbing about the windy weather, to walking in knee deep snow, to charms of downtown Chicago, to shopping outlets and eating joints, to grocery prices, to public transport, to every chindhi thing one can think of. Every time fondly.

I was also termed as being paranoid on multiple occasions. So I learned to control myself and look at the southern life and culture open heartedly.

Then I was introduced to dining out and partying and having fun on a regular basis. After shedding my inhibitions I have been really enjoying every outing. Started from visiting a very english-esque club called Sherlock's. The atmosphere was charged enough to get one drunk without any real drinks. It was me's first outing with the bunch (who were I had no idea then going to become some of the fastest (duration wise) friends I made). So me spent most time looking around and noting down the details about its quaint interiors. I LOVED them. The owner seemed to be a really huge Holmes fan. I think I should have hung out more there to get to know him (convenient assumption) more!

A lot of places happened next.

Madras Pavillion - Really good value for money south Indian food. We had the thali. Very filling affair.

Sambuca Jazz club - A really fun but expensive place. We were the only sajjan crowd there.

Dallas 300 - The best margaritas we had. To the fun fact that I won at bowling that day. I know!

Masala wok - Amazing spicy stuff. No wonder Indians prefer to live in Texas. For the food there I would too!

Chili's - The molten chocolate dessert there! We acted so high while eating it that I am sure they will watch out for the rest when they visit next.

Truluck's crab house - Oh what a place. I will leave you with this pic.

* the outer bag is made of chocolate (edible). Inside is pound cake mixed with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries. Topped with hot chocolate sauce. Thats whipped cream dollop with choco-chips on top.


Cannot remember any more places. One more highlight of my stay was the Onam feast we prepared. Aviyal, Sambar, Payasam, Ishtu, Injipuli. Wow. The most amazing part was learning how to make all this. 

So as stated at the beginning of the post, I was being paranoid about Chicago during my initial days in Texas. And now that I am in India, Texas is the only place I seem to be talking about. I wish the girls read this :D

These 2 months surmise the amount of fun I missed out on during grad school days. So much fun human company did a lot of good to my mental well being. And at the risk of sounding repetitious I will once again say that, these girls are the most wonderful people I have met in a long long time. Their zest for life and enjoying small things in life, make them the most addictive company ever. I really miss them :(

So the much needed post on Dallas excursions comes to an end. Time to bore you guys with India stories, henceforth!

~nightflier

Dallas Diaries

After the usual woes of the baggage that I tend to accumulate over time and packing and moving, I have finally arrived in Texas. I was sleeping through most of the touch down and hence dont have any specific aerial observations about the city I am in. But from what my sleepy head can remember, the landscape seemed pretty sparsely crowded (with buildings and vehicles) and greener than I could have imagined. 


Oh and the airs of Dallas blew me away. Literally. As soon as I got out of the airport gusts of hot winds greeted me. Except for the people around I had a deja vu feeling for a second of being in my homwtown, where things get hot, hotter and hottest! My shared cab driver made me wait for 20 minutes and then finally we took off. Normally I do my bit of research before visiting any city to at least know about the people and culture. But this time due to lack of time and lack of internet I ended up being a total nomad. I was clueless except for the fact that I had the address of the friend where I was supposed to go. [May be it was the comfort of visiting someone familiar that I was so careless to not do my part.]


And since I was caught in an unfamiliar territory I started my bit of small talk with the driver by talking about the weather. [:P] After making it obvious that this was my first visit to southern USA, he broke the ice pretty fast. Talks soon moved to schooling and education and what I was doing there. After giving my standard replies, I asked him where he was from. Algeria. I made a very stupid attempt of guessing its geographic location and made a huge boo boo. Thankfully I was judged for being an engineer, a person who should know more about technology than geography. He then went on to explain the whole geography of Africa. He had no difficulties telling stuff about India and our neighbours too. He also mentioned Kashmir and then we ended up discussing how political the whole situation has become. Which lead to an interesting revelation on his behalf. Apparently he was a business administration student at a nearby university. And due to the recession he dropped out of school in his last semester, 2.5 years back and started this driving business. That was apparently the reason for his good knowledge of current affairs. Looking back he reflected he should have continued school and finished it sooner instead of trying to earn more money. But for the better part he also got his family here [but it seems his younger brother and sister have also dropped out of school and are part time drivers]. 


We humans are weird. I met a guy who quit school to earn money by doing something he never thought he would do, at a point when I am contemplating my next career move. I could not help but compare myself with him and feel a tad bit secure.
At the same time, I could not help but wonder if they will join school again and be able to go back home ?


So that's the story of the first texan friend I made. He plans to join school and finish his Bachelors soon. And I can just hope 'that soon' is not the next 2 years.


~nightflier