Day 7 - Aswin owns a Limousine!

Day 7

Aswin owns a Limousine!!

The day dawned. Nice bright sunny one! More because I need to go the nearest AVIS rent-a-car to get my own car for the week. Me and Sreeram went for our breakfast.
Well laid out with Cereals, French fries, scrambled egg, milk, juice, donuts, muffins, bread etc…So many. Had a grab of each one (Well Muffins, my favorite, grabbed many!). After my breakfast, I called on my friends in the Hotel (they have come here on work for 3 months) to take me in their car to the rental office.

Deepak agreed and I drove the car to the place which was around 8 miles. He had a Hyundai Elantra and a nice one to drive. Once I took the car out of the hotel, it started raining heavily, (deepak’s view “it has not rained like this till now during my stay. All the best”) I was slightly tensed as driving another car and rain through a very narrow lane.We drove slowly and finally reached the destination. It helped me a lot as I came to know about the traffic rules. I needed to as I’ll be driving back alone.

We reached the place where I showed my papers for the car. She checked the system and said “I have a very few middle sized cars. So I give you a free upgrade if you want a big car (SUV, something like the Sumo) or a free double upgrade if you take the Limousine. We went outside to see the cars. The available ones were a ford escort, Mercury Grand Marquis (Limousine) and the SUV (Subaru). Limousine was good, but very lengthy and broad, everyone insisted that I lent the limousine. Half hearted and with slight fear, I agreed for the Limousine and requested for GPS too. (GPS – Global Positioning System shows the complete route of America, where you can enter the destination address. It will calcalute the route and show it completely and will be moving along with us as we drive. Even if we take a wrong turn / route, it will re-calculate and bring us back to the correct route / destination.) I just don’t want to get lost in USA – there will be no-one on the road to help me with the route.

So, I took the limo and she explained me the gears, seat adjusters, wipers, lights etc. I was to drive back alone. With great confidence, I told that I can manage as I’ve the GPS.

So I took the car back to the hotel. The drive was neat and very quickly, I was able to adjust to the length of the car and angles of turn. But I took a wrong turn, GPS helped a lot on the way. Finally I reached the hotel and I sensed a joy for this big morale victory. Now I became confident with the car, but freeways (highways), hmm…lets see tomorrow.

We decided to go to a Indian Restaurant “Mysore Veggie” for lunch. There were 8 of us, so we decided to take only 2 cars. (Mine was not taken! Gladly..) It was a 20 min drive to the hotel. Nice clean place, where you get Bhajjis, Dosas, Idlis and Thali meals. Authentic South Indian style. I ordered for the thali where you get unlimited Masala Dosas too!

Food aah!! Very tasty, yummy crispy masala dosas served with hot sambar and thick chutney.. perfect! After the very sumptuous lunch, we decided to go the Nishant’s house to play Tennis. Fine, a game I’ve watched only on TV, but now I’m going to play. Is that fantastic?

Awesome apartments – Nishant’s. They even had a private pond for the residents with a lake where you go boating. I was surprised with the security at the entrance to the flats.
At the main entrance, the door remains locked. You need to press the apartment number you wish to enter. They will get a call and will call you back. If they think, they know you, they press a button and the door opens. Then you can go to the flat.

We got the rackets and went to the play arena. Nice 2 courts. We were 7 and had only 5 rackets. In one court, 4 of them started playing doubles and in the other, there was one gentleman, an Indian playing alone. He was kind enough to offer his extra racket but only singles against him. Better something than nothing.

Me and Sanjay waited for our turn. They played and whoever loses, will be out. The Indian played really well and bet Ajit by 6-0. It was my chance to play against him. I was sure to lose 6-0. For the first time in my life I got to hold a tennis racket. Dreamt of playing against Pete Sampras. First two games, I played badly but was building confidence as my cricket skills helped me with power strokes and got used to getting the right speed and height to put the ball in the court. I played well the next two games and narrowly lost in the deuce (40-40). He was leading 4-0. Then I got the right touch and started playing really well. I won the next three games and back 4-3. But overconfidence – started hitting the ball so hard that I lost the next two and 5-3. I won the next game to be @ 5-4. He was serving the next game and I was desparate to get this game to tie the set. The game went on for around 20 mins. 10 times deuce and finally he won. He came to me and congraluted me.

“You played really well. First time in US I’m getting such a tough opponent. I live at 23-D and you can come to our house anytime to get the rackets to play. Maybe we can get together once in a while too.” He said. Little did he know I was to go 10000 miles away from him in a week. He gave his rackets and we continued playing Again I lost to Nishant (he plays really well) narrowly 6-4. But everyone were very tired, I was still fresh. My cricket strength helped me a lot. All were surprised with me. So much weight and still so much stamina. Awesome! I felt great.

It started to rain and we decided to go back to the hotel. Around 8.45 PM, we reached the hotel. One of my colleagues had cooked dinner and I was very hungry that I devoured. Small menu. Rasam, Rice, Yogurt, Pickles and Chips. It was good enough for us.

I started to feel tired and sleepy. So went back to the room, checked my mails and wanted to sleep. But got a call. “Are you coming to play cards? “ a voice. It was Ajit.

Again enthu started to flow through my veins. Went to his room and we started to play rummy. After 1.5 hours I was so sleepy that I quit the game and dozed off..

What a day! Even Pete Sampras would have loved to play against me… Let alone Sania Mirza…. Good Night…

Watch out for Day 8 – “A rest day on the cards!!”