A Decade in US.

It's been 10 years...and I still so vividly remember that day, when I landed at JFK, spend night stranded in LaGuardia airport and right before catching connecting flight to Boston, saw a glimpse of Newyork Times headlines - "George Bush wins GOP primary". Now when we are in 2nd yr of Barack Obama's presidency & MMS has ended 6yrs plus of my ordeal of dealing with "are you related to Mr Vajpayee ?" it feels amazing to think..Its been 10years.

Even though its been so long, it sure doesn't feel so. All 10yrs, flashback in front of my eyes & yet it seems almost nothing has changed, or should I say..the more things change, they tend to stay the same. When we landed, Tampa seemed dreamland...a big new start, a new life & a chance to start things on a blank slate. Blank slate it sure was - everything like new car smell. Between 14hrs work days, tons of paperwork & trying to settle in - there was that list of Top 200 movies from IMDB. Still remember those evenings, strolling along Blockbuster's VHS aisle (yep..this was time before DVD's even hit movie stores) & picking up movies from that top 200 list. Shawshank Redemption, 12 Angry Men, 3 Godfathers, Being John Malcovich, Reservoir Dogs...the list goes on and on, but it was just beautiful simple time. Being happy and having fun was so easy !!

Midway (exactly on 5/5/5), I had someone join me in my journey. The lonesome one bedroom dweller, suddenly became - two is party - single family unit seeker. Coupling came with its shares of ups and down - but the journey sure became lot interesting. Change was stark - as suddenly from "living out of a gas station grocery", I now knew places like "Bed Bath & Beyond" and understood concepts well documented in "Everybody Loves Raymonds". Its funny, how suddenly your "Seinfield" loving evening become ones laughing with Ray, Marie and Debra. But to say the least - I'm loving it !

So whats ahead ! 20 something me from naughties, definitely laughs and ridicules a slightly plumber 30 something of this decade - but this new me knows, twenties will bring a more older & even more ridiculous 40 something...and hence understands lets live this moment. As they say in cheesy movie lingo - past is past, future is unknown...but that's why present is a "present".