Chimneys to Chutneys...

Today I was talking to a friend of mine at work. As we spoke our conversation suddenly took a serious turn about life and as usual I started blabbering some serious stuff, then he asked me why don't I write a blog? And later he shared one of his recent postings, for which I'm yet to write a comment! Yes I thought about blogging since a year or so, had created an account in blogspot and wrote some things in it and never dared to post, thinking that it would reveal too much of myself and my state of mind at that time and my seriousness!!?? now that I guess I have grown old by a year since last year (so lost a bit of that seriousness :) and have gained a bit of courage too to laugh at those thoughts and dare to share with others.

As I started digging into the old stuff which I had written a year back or so, which was nothing but my random thoughts scribbled on a notepad, sitting all alone in a hotel room of Seattle. Instead of editing those writings, I started remembering the funny experiences I had during a week long stay.

I had just come back from India, leaving all loved ones back there and struggling to answer many unanswered questions!! I can say that my mind was set in thinking mode, would not do anything other than sit and think!!! and think what? anything and everything! and at that time I had to visit Seattle!! what a right timings! the place where I did not have any friends then, [now thankfully I have one of my great buddy there and I wish my company sent me there for how ever long they want :)] but then as my mind was closed, short-circuited and did not want to talk to anybody or make any new friends. I was all alone myself in a hotel room, driving to MS campus in the rain, doing nothing other than bugging those MS guys,wandering around the building and come back to hotel in the evening, eat the togo parcel packed from nearby Mayuri and again watch TV, watch aimlessly the rain, clouds, trees, parking lot, cars and few people here and there and then again just sit and think about every possible thing about life. [That was the time I started putting all the serious stuff I mentioned above into words, I had no other option but to write!] The same routine went on for a week and there came a weekend, absolutely did not know what to do, first time I felt Santa Clara, my home, a home away from home and missed everything about it. The eagerness to get back was growing in my heart but I was supposed to be there for few more days and spend the weekend over there.

That weekend I was tired of doing nothing, so decided that I will try out some different restaurant in Seattle, was bored with my regular Mayuri, and was looking into the list of restaurants provided in the hotel room, among them Chutney's caught my eyes, remembered the one in Hyd and its delicious dosa and that yummy coconut chutney, was that steam dosa?? I don't remember now, but then I thought of that and decided to explore the downtown of Seattle. By then I had fair idea of Seattle, Belleuve, Redmond’s geography and confident that I would not get lost anywhere. [All those streets are numbered and cross each other, one set starts with hundreds and other with ones and they intersect perpendicularly. Just by knowing these 2 numbers one could easily figure out the near by places]

With that (over) confident I did not bother to take the direction and started to Chutneys. I drove and drove for many miles, I was still on the same road, and I did not see anywhere the board Chutneys. Went into all possible malls hoping that I would find it and have steam dosa! I continued to drive around searching for it, by then I realized that I made a mistake of not taking the right direction and scolding myself for being over confident. But still I did not want to go back without finding it. I gave myself a chance, I thought, will take this one turn and go there if I don't find then, will go back to good old reliable Mayuri and I was thinking this and was waiting for a signal. I heard some one from other lane trying to tell me some thing; I slid my windows down to listen to him. "You are driving without headlights being turned on" Ooops! OMG! thank you was my first reaction. At that same moment before I could do anything lights turned green, there were cars behind, it was a rental car, unfamiliar new car, I'm on some unknown road, trying to find a "known" restaurant in an unknown place!!, could not do anything, just went into the first parking lot encountered on the way, entered it. I saw a police car passing by. Until then I was fearless driving bindaas, now that I knew I'm driving without lights on, the fear crept in me, what if they catch me and give a ticket was going in my mind. I was driving my car for almost a week without turning the lights ON!! [Was wondering all those days why I' was not able to see the road clearly, blamed it on rains and clouds! btw I used not wear glasses by then :)]. Thankfully found a parking lot, parked the car, figured out the knobs for lights, turned them on and then thought enough of Chutneys and almost accepted the defeat and thought that I'm stupid, overconfident and I should not do this again and thought of heading back to hotel and pack the stuff from regular Mayuri on the way! With head lights ON I came out of parking lot with OFF feelings and angry on myself for not taking the proper directions.

I come out of parking lot, see that it was a one way road and was forced to take a right turn out of parking lot and again confronted a traffic signal, waiting again for a green light. It was a long traffic signal, evening, raining, lots of cars on the road and I was waiting and my mind and eyes were just wandering around. Suddenly a light lit my head, I lowered my windows, there was a Indian guy in the next lane, as soon as I did that ,he realized that I was trying to ask him some thing, he lowered his window too, I sensed that light was about to get green, I shouted WHERE IS CHUTNEYS ??

He smiled and said take a right!!!!!!! And lights were green... [Saw him wondering why I asked him that question and might have thought that I’m making some excuse just to talk to him!!! I did see him smiling :)] I waited for cars in front of me to pass and I took a right turn... my joy knew no boundaries... oh! What did I see?? CHUTNEYS in front of me, the joy I felt was worth the effort and I was soooooo happy :), my face was lit with a smile so did my car and I entered the restaurant!!

[PS: I found this restaurant to be pretty decent one, no where near to the one in Hyd though and there were no dosa, forget about steam dosa. Did not feel like eating alone, just ordered togo veggie pulav and drove back to hotel happily and at last this over confident girl did not loose but found her way to Chutneys :)!!!!]