Saturday, August 20, 2005

What does it take to be an URI?

I recently had the privilege of getting to know the characteristics of an U.S returned Indian. Let me list out them here, meanwhile referring to him as URI, in short.

1. Suitcases would be strewn around the house with his history, , geographical location, travel itenary and all such details except his horoscope, pasted on them in big block letters. And tags! yeah.

2. URI'll miraculously remember all the distantest relatives, call them on the phone and letting it slip by that he has a few goodies for them, meanwhile seriously enquiring about their well being.Then URI'd drown out their formal protests assuring them that bringing Hershey's kisses is his duty.

3. URI'd talk of cleanliness in the US, nonchalantly leaving the dropped shorts in as-is-where-is condition on the floor.

4. For a 30-40 min travel, URI'd bring his CD man along. URI has to relieve his boredom during the short trip. Three friends accompanying him can't match his CD man. More than that, URI has to attach himself to his Sony CD man even while sleeping.

5. And it's not worth living if the traffic at U.S. is not talked about. The speed of traffic, the roads, the yellow pedestrian crossings where whizzing cars creak to a stop...blah..blah...

6. Voila! New sneakers! Suddenly the house shoe rack will see new sneakers. The usual formal black shoes which would have received avuncular attention a short time back in India, would be discarded on the floor.Yes, avuncular! I had never seen a person daily caressing his shoes at the end of every day with spittle and cloth, before this guy came along. But that's history.

7. The guy who refused to do as much as open his eyelids when the milk man literally broke down the door everyday before, would now miraculously wake up early morning. Oh, we realise. It's the jet lag. And URI's room mates'd get preached about the virtues of rising early in the morning.

Heartfelt thanks for my room mate B, who offered himself as an unwitting specimen for this study. And continues to offer himself, I have to add.

If I am left alive by B, after he reads this, I'll continue posting. Bye for now.

P.S: B! Take this in a sportive spirit. Nevertheless, please clean up after you. ;-)

7 comments:

Sidewinder said...

ha ha.... so wen r u leavin to US? ....hope soon u'll get another URI there

Jinguchakka said...

No idea as of now! Things take its own pace.

Adaengappa !! said...

Life is like that

janani said...

lol! :-)
You forget their water fetish. Everywhere they go, they can't drink anything but mineral water. Aquagaurd, boiling water, no purification process will do for them! :-)

Jinguchakka said...

@ adengappa - saw your post. Adengappa!

@janani - very true. And I had missed that point.

யாத்ரீகன் said...

:-))) URI.. nice term to be coined..

hey, i think i know 'B' but i doubt a lot that did 'V' sorry 'B' ;-) do all these things ?!

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