100th post

Background: After posting #99, I (Arun/Shock) requested Atul/Vindo to suggest a 100th post. Remember, once Atul's Father himself had narrated his son's adventures to us while he came visiting his son in US. This time, Atul fwdd the request to his wife and said she can contribute (hats off to you Atul...) Eventually, seeing that his wife was a bit shy to send, Atul himself sent us this selfie !!!!!

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In 2006 summer, my parent visited for my graduation and we made some great road trips (New York --- Phillidelphia --- Pittsburg---Urbana Champaign---Minneapolis--Iowa---Omaha---West Lafayette--- places in W. Virginia---back), etc and everything went well. But on the day, I had to drive my parent to the Newark Airport (from College Park), we went to do some small shopping and my car stopped! It turns out I had put-off filling gas and forgotten about it. It was summer and my dad and I walked a mile in the hot sun, got some gasoline in a can with a funnel and filled it in the tank. It was a bit of an adveture but we had enough time to drive to relax and drive to the airport.

Now fast forward, 2017 summer...Smitha, our two kids, my parents and I made a week long road trip to Canada. We had a wonderful time, and on the way back everyone was googling different opition for a tasty lunch and decided on a place 30 minutes away (I was driving during all this)...and suddenly the car was unable to accelerate, then began to slow down, so I got on to the shoulder and stopped...again we were out of gas! Luckily I called AAA and someone came in 45 mins but the gas he brought wasn't enough, so he made another trip to the gas station and we were all set to continue...ofcourse it was too late to reach that restaurant for lunch but we found a nearby place for a quick lunch anyway.

post #99

Year 2000 . Prof 3-letter-initial (he was a favorite during those days) at IIT Chennai is teaching us some course - he is actually from humanities, teaching us a few classes of an elective.

In between the class he keeps asking students - "what is the time" ? "how much time left" ? etc. Students were confused, for he wore a watch. Is it not working ? But this happens everytime

He understood that students are curious, why in spite of a watch he keeps asking for time.

He explains: "You see, people have the habit of keeping your watch fast so that you are not late. But then since you know how fast your watch is, you mentally calculate back and again become late. So, everyday morning, I first set my watch as correct time. Then I close my eyes and fwd it randomly, so that I dont know how fast it is"

Brilliant, isn't it ? And then what does he do ? keep asking others for the right time.

Now you know why IITians like us are different.

post #98

This blog had 40,30,20 posts in the initial 3 years and I was hoping it will get 10 in the 4th and hit a 100 total !

That did not happen, it slowed down... and reaaally slowed down at 97 - I will post random 98 and 99. 100 who? . 

This is the 1980s... an old man was travelling in train for the first time... his children told him - papa, write down your ticket number somewhere so that even if u lose it, u can tell the number to TTE...

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During travel , TTE comes, the man looks for his ticket, cant find it....  He tells the TTE .. "but I have written the ticket no: down" . TTE asks - tell me the number ?

the man goes: Oh I wrote it on the backside of the ticket..

Kids in the car

During recent excursion to College Park, two funny incidents came to the light that have not been posted in this blog earlier. So I will recount them here.

Long time back (don't know exactly when), Hallu (aka Kaushik) wanted to learn to drive. Since Shock was popular volunteer to give rides and all to FOBs in UMD area, he asks Shock to teach him driving. During their very first lesson Hallu made an accident at an intersection. As they stepped down to exchange contact info and settle other matter, they heard the lady in the other car talking on phone and saying that they had an accident with an "old man with his kid..."

Another similar incident happened when we were driving to have a quick hike at the Great Falls. I was driving in my car. Shivani was driving another car with  Monika on the passenger seat and Hallu and Arun (not Shock, another fellow) in the back seat. Shivani was over-speeding so a cop stopped them. The officer walks to Shivani, looks at the back seat and says "Ma'am, you should not be driving at such a high speeds with children in the car." Shivani is actually younger in age than Hallu and Arun.

Vinod (03/29/13)

APS 2013 encouter with The King

So, Atul and I again met in Baltimore in APS March Meeting 2013. We decided to make a trip to College Park and meet with old friends at Ashutosh's place. I went by MARC and Atul was busy so he came later by car. Since, guest parking in Univ Square has always been tricky Atul calls Ashutosh to show him the exact place.As they start walking home Ashutosh hears sound of something falling on the road and he says if Atul dropped anything? Atul said no, don't worry about it. Then, Atul remembered to bring his bag with him. They went back and Atul took the bag out and started walking. Then, he remembered to bring his cellphone. They went back and Atul could not find phone anywhere in the car. Frustrated as they walk towards home Ashutosh spots something shinny on the road. You guessed right, it was Atul's cellphone that he had dropped earlier. After that, we all laughed about it and had brainy discussions (what you expect Utsav was there) over pizza and dosa (what a combination).

Vinod (03/29/13)

Atul's hotel directions APS 2012!

This incident happened when Atul and I happened to be in the same conference (APS) in Boston in March 2012. Atul came with his students and other colleagues. We decided to go somewhere in Boston downtown for dinner and Atul wanted to go to his hotel before we hit out to eat out. We all including Atul's students were following Atul's lead to his hotel. After walking 2 blocks Atul realized that he has come into unrecognized area and said his hotel doesn't seem to be in that area. Immediately, he tried to cover the mistake and asked me where was "I" taking them? I had a good laugh. I had the basic idea where the hotel could be and I suggested we make U-turn and that way we finally found the hotel. When Atul went to him room his students joked that they got a absent-minded adviser. I was barely able to stop myself from giving them link to 9006jokes. Long live the King!

Vinod

A picture

So there are couple of pictures in the blog. I thought we should have at least one picture of people that this blog is about. So I came across this really old picture taken somewhere in upstate NY while coming back from Canada. From left to right, Vindo, Shock, Saurabh and last but not least The King, Atulasimha....