The End that never came!

Driving back home in a sullen mood from the cricket ground (moi's inspired bowling spell couldn't stop my team from being beaten by a better team) I noticed that the traffic lights are off, the police were at every signal trying to get the traffic going with their "handy" work. The hot Texas sun gave way to dark clouds and sounds of thunder. Having decided not to cook for that evening (that's one decision that I take without any hesitation almost everyday..See.. Iam not indecisive as some people seem to have a wrong notion about me..grrr!!) I stopped at the near by Quizino's Subs, a sandwich place only to find that the whole place had no electricity. I looked around and saw throngs of people standing outside of every corner, every shop which made me wonder how big the power outage was.

Normally this is not such a big deal, power outages are common even though not quite often. But having seen Steven Spielberg-Tom Cruise thriller "The War of Worlds" just a night before, I would not say I was very comfortable about the whole situation.

For those who haven't seen the movie, I will try to mention few things without revealing the whole plot of the movie. Please stop reading NOW if you don't want to know anything about the movie. The concept of the movie is how methodically aliens attack Earthlings by managing to get huge winds, orchestrating thunders andlighteningg,take out electricity of the whole area (where they plan to attack) including blowing up the car starters with a idea of making everyone comeout of their homes,cars and basically have them visible on the streets but not able to speed away using automobiles and thus giving them a chance to kill humans in huge numbers. Hope you get the picture (if you don't you shouldn't be reading this blog, I never made sense in any of my earlier blogs anyway. So either you are an eternal optimist or a fool not to learn from your mistakes of expecting too much out of my blog).

Anywho, there I was looking at people standing outside of Walmarts, Krogers, Coffee places and every shop in that strip mall. I could also see people not able to pump gas in their cars. People started walking, quite impatiently. I see fear on people's faces while the guy next to me blew off packet of cigarettes in no time. Being in wireless industry for few years, made me check if the wireless service was available. I called up the same people who went along with me to the movie last night. Lucky for them they were far away from the place where I was and seem to get quite concerned about the whole situation. I was quite glad that the nearby wireless signal tower is working fine. The traffic was jammed, there were emergency trucks and ambulances driving by. There were so many people on the streets like I have never seen before on those roads.

I asked the Quizno's employee who looked like a Hispanic in her teens "How long was the power gone". Either its my accent or my English or both she doesn't seem to understand what I was asking.

"I don't know" an animated response using her hands. I tried to rephrase my question couple of other ways, but to my frustration she had the same answer.

"What's going on.Am I going to see Aliens now." I looked down to the ground where I am standing.(that's where they come from in the movie).

" Is this it?. But I am not even married. I did not even once had 50 comments on my blog. I have not returned Gigli, Yaadein, Tarzan the Wonder car (sheepish look) DVD's yet"

My situation reminded me of the famous Homer Simpson quote
"I'm normally not a praying man, but if you're up there, please save me Superman! "

In retrospect, all my education and knowledge and all the effort of trying to be smarter is a waste and useless infront of these over powerinmonstrousus aliens if they decide to appear. It again reminded me of another Homer Simpson quote
"how is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home winemaking course, and I forgot how to drive?"

So many thoughts trying to gate crash my already stressed brain then suddenly I heard a sweet voice " What do you like to have" the Quizno's girl came out and asked me.

Suddenly I see around the electricity is back. Everyone is already inside the shops and life seem to be normal again in no time. I took my regular Veggie S.wich with extra lettuce no dressing and started the car. So much for aliens attack and my imagination. Sheesssh!!

First Crush !!

There I was minding my own business sitting and waiting for the class to begin. Checking out who is doing what, who the newbeis are. Yes! That's part of minding my own business. I figured that something has fallen off my hand and I bent down to pick it up, when suddenly I heard a rather sweet,vanilla voice "excuse me". I looked up to see an equally sweet and beautiful girl looking at me with a cheerful face.

"Can I sit here. I was told to sit here" she said.

I was so smitten, I did not even say a word, I wouldn't even had said anything If I wanted to, so "mesmerized" I was with her charm. I just moved enough inside so she can sit. We introduced and talked a bit, before the class began. It was quite an experience. She sat next to me the next day too. I had the laddu futofy feeling inside me all day. Not to mention it was my first crush.

The same Sunday my family decided to go for a movie in a nearby theater. So there I was standing outside the theater waiting for the theater staff to let us in, I saw her again. She was waiting just like us with her family. Thrilled to see her I went to her and said "Hello". For some strange, she just walked past me without even acknowledging me. This was coming from a girl who spent good part of the week sitting next to me and chatting and taking notes. She seemed very uncomfortable and scared to talk to me and moved away with her family towards the theater door. I figured she doesn't want to talk to me in presence of her parents.

The very next day my hunch came true when she came to me with the same reason much to my happiness and everything was hunky-dory. Not for long though as the school management split our fifth grade class (and my heart) into A and B sections and she was sent to the B while I remained in A. The sad part is I never got to see her again. My 8-year old brain couldn't think of figuring out where her class room was and getting in touch with her again. I guess it took a day for my crush on her to wear off. But I still vividly remember her face when she first came and talked to me. There I said it , my first crush. (I was told that the crush I had in first grade doesnot count) Fortunately it wasn't my last one and talking about my first love or rather the only one, that's a whole different story and luckily it was way later than fifth grade so you can breath easy.