Its all in the book...

I love celebrations & surprises! As a matter of fact, who doesn't?

After a lot of brainstorming, we decided that The Disney World, Florida is the place we ought to be while our marriage turns 4! The choice of place seemed nothing but appropriate because the time has come where Aravind & I finally started believing that age is just an irrelevant number!

If ever I had any second thoughts about it, well, I woudn't be writing this post had the thoughts stayed!

What did I like about the place?

For one, there we were, waiting outside a theater for an animation show that was scheduled to start in 12 minutes. A lady walks up to us and tells us, "Mickey is inside the room to your left. Go meet him before the show begins!" That's right, he was a celebrity there and so were a million of your favorite childhood cartoons!
One moment, you would see birds sing and the next moment you would fly around a city just like Peter Pan. You could shop at zonkos, buy a broomstick and even gulp "Butterbeer" all for real! I felt nothing less than Alice in Wonderland be it at Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios or even at the infamous Universal!

We hired a cab on our way back to the resort from Universal and the cabbie was a retired ex-entreprenuer and an ex-New Yorker who was uber excited about driving his fellow New Yorkers (Or may be I thought he was!) that he gifted us Florida's telephone directory but not before quoting "A gift from one New Yorker to another!"
He took us through a crisp and sweet little tour of the city and this was how the conversation went on:

"Did you take her to Disney downtown?"

Me: "No, We did not go there yet".

"Take her. She would love the place" (He waited until Aravind reponded in affirmative)

"Women like Circus. You should take her there."

Me: "Err...Is there a Circus here?"

"Take her there. The numbers are in the book that I gave you. She will like it"

Aravind (Finally succumbing): "Sure. Thanks for the advice"

"Did you go to Magic Kingdom. Did you show her the Castle?" (I did not bother responding)

"Take her there. All the numbers are in the book that I gave you."

Aravind: "Defenitely, Can't imagine how I would have managed without the book you gave me!!"

The old man did not quite understand the sarcasm but he was affable, sweet and kinda what we would call "Old School".

He was the most intresting thing I had come across in Disney! Yes, and the rest was truly magical!

Ironical that the man who built an empire out of a mere animation died before his dream of conceiving the World's most lovable theme park was realized!

...And the day begins...

Been an year I had set foot on the dreamland of every Asian software guy !! And I barely caught glimpses of the lifestyle here thanks to Aravind's almost-lasted-forever business trip. On the flip side, We owe so much to his trip for we had a chance of visiting some exotic places on the West coast. Err...did I just say exotic??..well...I am kinda thinking for a best fitting adjective right now but Steve jobs had his way of not letting apple users waste time...iPad does an awful job of auto filling my sentences...and FYI Mr.iPad, you are such a lousy mind-reader!! Anyway, I let you win this time!

Started job after a long hiatus of 11 months...mmm...not too long I guess...but once I started missing work, days indeed had started to appear long!

The commute to work took a little over 2 hours one way for the past 2 months and besides the fact that there hadn't been any time for other chores, I enjoyed every bit of it and if I were asked to quote one reason why...well...the list surprisingly turned endless..

The early morning rush to catch a train to NYC..those mad folks just like me whose only goal in life seem to be making to the train station on time..that urgency to get a seat by the window that's all yours..that lining up at the to-be-open doors even before the train makes a halt...that juggling around to set foot on the escalator and that race with the high heels and a heavy laptop to catch the connecting train...

That funny guy who snores the moment train catches momentum; a feat that I had convinced myself to be no less than magic!

That girl whose hand-bags I was mighty jealous about!

That woman who suddenly emerges to have a lightened her skin tone by oodles between the time of getting onto the train and leaving it; (I was almost tempted to ask which brand foundation she had been using but then..couldn't risk of such a naivety!)

That guy whoz totally ignorant of his surroundings and sings his heart out perhaps in sync with his iPod!

That telugu guy who was so damn indulged with "Gabbar singh" he even missed noticing that his ear phones he had duly stuck to his ears, were actually dangling around on the other end and almost every other commuter on the train were craning their necks so hard to find out where the strange lyrics were emanating from!

That blissful free time I had to do away with few books of my to-read-list!
That cute couple visiting NY who had taken a south bound train to NJ when they actually wanted to board one that's North bound to NYC and had hard time figuring out why there weren't any sky scrapers visible on the way!

That starbucks girl who freaked me out every day by giving me names I can only imagine in my wildest dreams possible...Lipty...Zipty...Gypsy (I mean...seriously??..who on Earth would have such strange first names??...I was damn sure my alien name would have been a laughing stock many a times!)

And between all of this...the cab drivers who had dropped me off at office with whom I had made friends with...the flirty...the religious...the one who was fighting his life at a ripe age of 88!, one know-it-all who thought my kurti was indeed called a Lehnga and almost had me convinced with an absurd logic...the one who cordially asks my name and questions.."Does it have a meaning gurly??"...

And that's when I heartily smile and say to myself...."The day had begun!!"