My ordeal with bugs

What could be the most bugging thing on earth- than a bed bug!!!! There can be nothing more annoying on earth than to be bitten by these tiny little creatures in your beautiful sleep. Only to wake up at 2 or 3 am in the morning with itchy skin and no one around to shower or share your wrath upon.

This topic has been something that has been on top of my head to blog about. Infact, during one of my encounters with bug hunting which I do upon awakened by a bug bite- I was boiling to write a blog. But decided against it as words of fury might surface a lot in my sleepy anger.

They have become a part and parcel of life since my stay here in US. Not many of my friends would actually believe in my complaints about my deplorable plight thinking that these things, just can't be present in this country or it would be supplemented by a sarcastic remark that its ur place which is dirty.

The incidents started egging in my first year at friends place, after they had picked up a mattress full of bugs. The challenging student life here, makes you do such unpardonable compromises on your principles and ethics to pick up things trashed by others- mainly people who move out. Its a common practice here to furnish your house in such a manner. As a saying in tamil goes "naan petra enbam vayagam peruga"- meaning share ur joys with others. The bugs slowly started proliferating in numbers in all our houses thanks to free transportation provided by us during the visits to each other's house.

If given a chance to write a dissertation on this, I would be more than willing to oblige for such is the amount of research I had done on them. In my first residence, unfortunately I was the only subject of torture for these bugs(they didn't like my roommate's blood much!)forcing me to sleep with sweatshirt, gloves, socks on during muggy summer time. When the heat gets oppressive, they hatch out of their eggs and surface out and happily hibernate during winters. Last summer, here in Cincinnati we had cicadas invading us after their long sleep of 12 years. They are tiny little wasp or cockroach like thing flying in air everywhere in huge numbers. So it was cicadas outside and bugs inside.

I tried my best to get rid of the beastly bugs when shifting to my new apartment in my 2nd year. But they have got an uncanny ability to trace me out. The most feared came true, after my neighbors were swarmed over literally by bugs. So horrible was the infestation, that those poor guys were chucked out of their own apartment by the bugs. We sacrificed so many furniture and mattress that we had painstakingly collected over the months from other seniors. Things were kept at ebb, after an amateur fumigation by me and by the professional fumigators sent over after umpteen pleading to our landlord.

The bugs were finally happy when they robbed me of my mattress and I started sleeping on a mat which I luckily brought from India with infact a lakshman rekha drawn of double sided cello tapes around my mat for sometime. Its always been a perennial war waging between us with me now adept with skills to hunt them down and kill them. I have become a terminator in their eyes and earned the due respect that they better not get me angry.

Its with peaceful co-existence that I had somehow got through this second summer. As I am moving into the oncampus apartment I sincerely pray and hope that these beastly creatures wont follow me and I am taking more draconian measures this time to trash everything but myself and my essential as I move into my new apartment.

The Cremation of my dear cell phone

Nothing could match the amount of condolence that I am showered upon with from my friends for parting away with my cell phone. Surprisingly, the loss is not evoking much of sympathy from myself.

The busy life here is so much governed over by the stupid cellular instrument that most people, daily would actually be talking more over their cell than in person with somebody. Be it a graduate student or a working person, its an universal code of conduct to be over phone for hours together. Sometimes it makes me wonder- is it that people find more agreeable friends to talk to far away somewhere or go on to a worse conclusion that is it that familiarity breeds contempt or is it the fast moving life that's taking away from us the time to meet n talk to people in person. This addiction is unfortunately being fuelled by the attractive plans of the provider providing nights and weekends free, same mobile to mobile provider free. Things in India are far better off, being confined to the realms of just SMS which is the only thing free and the emerging corporate phone plan. Its certainly a blessing in disguise.

Reading through these stringent criticism, any unknown person would laugh and scorn at me. Ironically, I have been one of those addicts hooked to the cell phone atleast an hour every day or more for the past one year. Looking back at it, I feel sad for the state to which I have got myself. I am driven now by a motivation to disengage myself from it. Having brought up without even a landline phone at home till I was 18 yrs, I am sure and hope that I can do without the ringing music for a while.

Also, these few years of stay in US of A has induced in me, blissfulness of enjoying one's solitude, which was initially something I really hated. A walk up and down between the school and house which would invariably involve me calling somebody up esp when walking alone in the night is now replaced by just a happy peaceful stroll taking in my surrounding which I am really enjoying so much.

I know few shall actually commiserate with my feelings to stay away from cell phone and only those can truly understand that it is for the good that I bury this evil, (if only for a while)!!!!:D

A way to start

My days of deliberation has finally materialized today, with this blog entry!
To do or not to do? Its been on top of my head for a long time and i have gradually yielded to it, keeping aside my initial strong reservations to it, keeping aside the fact that i have 1001 other things to do in my thesis......After my encounter with blogging i have always fancied myself writing things , my thought process churning up with so many things about which i would like to blog.

My rendezvous with the blog forum came only early this year. And looking back upon my relections to it was- how could i even post my personal musing on the web. It seemed to be as an unimaginable task that i would ever undertake...but here u see......caught in the swirls of the blogs....its not as a surrender of my opinions...but as a positive thought of my adaptation to the technology.

I had formed a special bond to the paper and pen over my early years of communications with my special friend who moved out from school. Ever since my inherent inclination to maintian a diary developed. Though some of my early jotting have unfortunately savaged by the sands of time due to my carelessness, though never much of an avid diary person, i still cherish and look upon it as my most prized possessions with really sporadic entries of my special precious memories of the past. Its has been my secret pal for many years, with which i share all my moments of joys and sorrows and concerns and frustrations. The transition from such a private cocoon to a public forum like blogs; is the reason why it is taking so much time for this materialization of my blog.

The pleasure of turning through the old pages when compared to scrolling down to my blog entries would remain unparalled i believe. A parallel analogy i would draw is my preference to turning through the pages of an old photo album rather than the pictures from a digital camera....its like a jog into the past....the pleasure being completely absent when i sit infront of my computer and switch on a slide show of My Pictures.

May be my inclination to cherish the old way of doing things is what keeping me to away from my blossoming attachment to blogs which i had developed reading through my friends blogs. It has actively become a nice time pass when i get bored to read through others blogs. I look upon blog as a peep into one's inner thoughts and dwellings which wouldnt come up over a day-to-day talk or a discussion. My reservations to having a blog are slowly melting away............

My only wishes are my sympathies for my diary which i hope i shall cherish the way i had. And seriously hope it doesnt meet the tragic death of my letter writing habit, which had its complete annihilation once i came to US, with 24/7 internet facility culminated with my laziness to walk down to post office.

Well small changes are bound to happen......as long as its for the good.....
3 cheers on this venture of blog journey, which i guess shall witness only intermittent entries due to my shortage of time for the time being!!