Around the world in a week

Around the world is an exaggeration, but at-least I traveled to other side of the world (US of A) and back in a week. It was like 4 days on transit and 6 days in US.
When your time is counted …You make the most of it. We did try to prove that, we hired a car and tried to savor as much of San Diego and LA could in 36 hours. And I should say I loved “Apna desh” as US is called back in office (with love).

The modus operandi at all the places we visited was to approach the help desk, give them the map and ask them to chalk out the best plan for us with the limitation of time and preference for action packed rides. And the helpdesk did a fabulous job of planning it out, something that the friendly helpdesk at Wonder-la in Bangalore cannot even dream of. One of the places we visited was Sea World in San Diego. It was interesting how they involved the visitors in all the action around the place. Here was the famous Dolphin show which I had till then seen only on TV (my favorite “Travel and Living”). In the show a small kid (6-7 years old probably and sorry kid I forgot your name) and his father were invited to be a part of the performance. Brave he was I should agree, at his age I would not stand in front of a fried fish in my dinner plate and he was standing among a couple of dolphins. The trainer asked him to touch the Dolphin and explain how it felt. The kid gave one of the most original comments I have ever heard, he said “It felt like a Sausage”। Even the trainer agreed it was one of the best answers she ever got.

As they say “setting the world on fire” …wild fires almost crippled whole of San Diego day after we left (more on this here). Luckily all my friends there managed without much loss

A Useful Handicap

The common bathrooms and toilets in a government college hostel are unchallenged in lack of cleanliness. The misery of the place starts with the careless way the contractor built it. Then walk in the students who use it with equal disrespect and carelessness. The bathrooms in our college hostels too were dark and dingy places considered as unavoidable mess by students and cleaning staff. Floors littered with soap covers and pieces of clothing left over by seemingly busy but actually careless users. The constant use and lack of proper drainage of water and ventilation left the walls damp. Green algae has grown out in places where the tiles had given away or worn out. Floors remain slippery. Then there is the damp unclean smell mixed with smell of a variety of soaps and shampoos. Big spiders would have made there webs at safer heights where the students would not care to disturb and the good old cleaner would not bother to clean. The doors were creaking and wet. The doors need some brain and brawn to handle.

In my Floor in college hostel there was this one bathroom with an added handicap. It had a mal-functioning tap. Courtesy the lack of water, this one was not used by anyone. It remained dry. It got time to remain dry which ensured the well being of the bathroom floors. The green algae never bothered the white tiled walls. Worried that he has not done anything for this bathroom the cleaner always looked up and cleaned the cobwebs in this one. It was not cluttered by various junk the students leave by.

By accident I found out that a precise 3 turns and pull upwards made this tap work. It remained free for my private use then on. At regular intervals few others too inspected the tap, on failing to operate it they moved on, with few words of curse. But I always felt this was the best in the entire hostel.