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.

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

dishwash....

remembered one of old atul ones !! every now and then we used to have a house meeting and become suddenly strict about cleanliness.... no more leaving uncleaned personal plates in the sink (cooking utensils are different....).. if found, the fellow will be fined.. etc etc

One morning, atul left the house early after breakfast.... and we find a plate in the sink, unwashed, and near the sink, a note on a paper napkin (yeah that used to be atuls favorite writing pad.. and that also torn not along the perforation, but randomly torn.... )

the note said... "sorry guys, I am in real hurry. will clean the plate once I am back. Please don't fine me"

the time he took to tear the napkin, find a pen and write it, he could have just cleaned the li'l plate

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Best wishes to Atul who is looking fwd to his marriage in Oct and his new job assignment also soon......

old id gold

Some old jokes of atul, being recollected

1) Perhaps a repeat.. we used to maintain "I owe You (IOUs) " amongst our roommates.. and then settle it at the end of every month.. Once Atul wrote Atul owes X - 5$ , where X was not amongst the 5 roomies !!

2) This used to happen more, in our first year in US . Atul would buy, say a bottle of juice.. put his name on it somewhere.. One week, the name writen would have faded off... Atul sends a mail to everyone "hey there is a bottle of juice in the fridge.. is it any of yours ?" .. everyone knows whose it is, but none responds.. next day comes atuls next mail "hey, if noone remembers whose it is, lets share it" .. and atul is so happy that he took the initiative ..

2 weeks later, the cycle repeats

after 5 glorious years........

So finally it was time for the great Simma to leave...... after a glorious 5 year PhD... to Canada for his post-doc

Before we get into the senti part, here are a couple of last-few-days goofs

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1) Atul decides to call anyone and everyone he knows , to say good bye ... So much so that after a while he forgot whom all he called (and neither cud his cell hold that many "outgoing calls" no:s, that he started making a second round of calls and "Hey, did I say goodbye to you ? ....."

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2) It seems as tho' the legacy stayed on even after Atul physically left - atleast for a couple of days more... There was a packet of Lindt chocolates, potentially left over by our man , on the table... Don (Atul's replacement...) and I enjoyed a couple of them, before Don picked up the last one, which ... kinna looked out of shape...

"Never mind" said he and opened it, only to see a bunch of chocolate wrappers rolled up into the shape of a little ball !!

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So, 65 posts , and needless to say Atula was the greatest contrinutor.... Vindo, tried, and still tries, but can't get even 20% of what Atul used to be.... and now that he has left, how do we sustain this blog ? Are we going to close it down ? Or outsource ? Our curious fans have been asking :-)

Well, what do you think ? What should we do ? Take the liberty of using the "comments" section for what u think......

A potential option is if you can send in daily goofs- of yours, of your friends,... roomies.... And I have heard a couple of potential such characters.... apparently ones nickname starts with a "z" ....

So, copyrites permitting, I keep my email id : drisya(at)gmail.com open to such contributions ...
as long as the jokes are clean, and with some level of approval from the party being talked about, they shall be published......

never say never again !

running "away" to glory

Time for Marine Corps and stuff like that, so just remembered this one

Simma once decided to run 3 miles.... runs it , figures out his car is 3 miles away, calls some one for a potential ride !!

some things "cooking"

Quoting Atuls mom , while she was staying with us for a month or so

"Last time Atul came to India, I sent with him all spare parts for the cooker- washer, weight, safety valve etc etc. After coming here I realise that the cooker itself is not there !!"

evidently our man has burned it and thrown it away.. and the "spare parts" are sitting nicely in his bag, unopened and untouched

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Atuls Father told us all the goofs that happened on the road trip they undertook.. we laughed and laughed for almost 1 hr.. its too difficult to write about those here... instead, here are two jokes that his Father told us that happened in his younger days

1) After graduation, Atuls Father had all his friends over at his place once.. they decided to take a group picture... and gave the camera to the only other person who was home at that time- his grandma.. just to be sure, (since it was the "old type" wash camera.. not digi) , they took two snaps...

Alas, after devloping, the two photos came- one had the ceiling fan it , and the other had the carpet :-)

2) This one's is slightly improvised: Talking about forgetting car keys... apparenty once he went with his friends in a car to Marina beach.. and they started playing "hiding things" .... one set of people hide various things and another set finds them out ... they played, the second team found some of the things that were hidden... they left the unfound stuff as it is and kept walking down the beach ...... while it was time to go back, they realised the following things

a) the fellow who was driving was in the "hiding" team

b) worse, the fellow chose to hide the car key

c) worst, that item was not one amongst those that the "finding" team unearthed !!

Dr Simmha

9006 turned 8309 congrats Atul on his degree.. Congrats Dr Atulasimmha

The smart fellow he is, knowing fully well that he will be known by his last name, interchanged his first and last names, 5 years before. When asked why, he AT THAT TIME, had pointed out "When I become a Dr, I don't want to be called Dr (my fathers name)." - and that day finally came last week !

Atul's mom is also here, has come all the way from India for his graduation. Within hours of landing at our house, she tells all of us "I will take 2 days to clean up Atul's room" .. she not only cleaned up Atul's room, but also our (common) kitchen. everything got shifted into dabbas with a label- both in english and kannada..

Next time Vindo ventured out in the kitchen to cook, he was totally lost "Hey, when things are so ordered, its difficult to find where is what. We need the mess to find out where each item is" ....

I guess so... isn't why its called a mess ?

Suggested cartoon and more

This cartoon was suggested by one of the readers as fitting the Atul types. Good one :-)

By the way, did I ever tell you that many times Atul rents movie DVDs and watches the entire movie in fast fwd (2x or even 8x and 16x). When asked what he is doing, he says "I am watching an abstract of the movie first" !

selfone !

Atul can't find his cellphone one day. Vindo n Atul start off on the Anveshan, and finally finds it... in the washing machine !!

As ATul was sitting gloomy and cleaning it up with paper towels, Vindo comes and says (jokingly) "Hey why do u wanna waste your time using paper towels. Put it in the dryer no?"

the burning smell !

Evening time... shock comes back home and finds a burning smell in the house.. but can't find the source. Within 5 mins Atul reaches home too and he too gets the smell... he comes to shock and asks "hey whats that burning smell" ?

sock replies that he doesn't know where its coming from. Atul walks around the house, comes back to shock and says "Hey, are you playing games with me.. tell me, where is it coming from ?" .. shock gets a bit sterner "I told you I don't know"

anyways, it was left at that as the smelll slowly subsided. the next day Atul kocks on shock's door and declares "Hey, I zeroed in on the source of the smell. Apparently I had kept a pan on the stove and switched it on, thinking I will heat roti, and then forgot about that and went to campus. After about 2 hrs Vishal found it and switched it off. Don't worry, I will replace the pan" !!!

B T S - 2

Meantime Vindo comes up with another one : Since past promises of "I will write it in better langauge" were not kept up, me shall have the privilege of the "crude" one itself up on the blog, until any better ones come up

Vindo:

most awesome incident of Atul is this... we were going to Beltville few weeks back, Atul was very tired and he literally slept behind car wheel while waiting on red light.... when I woke him up on green light he shouted at me why I had woken him up... then he came to sense and apologized... its classic Atul joke... I will write in better word this weekend...

Atul's Correction

I did not SLEEP OFF...I just "closed my eyes for a while"

Blogger's Comment

Thank God Atul did not say, what he usually says when we try to wake him up after having fallen asleep in front of the TV "Hey, wake me up after 5 mins man" !!!

Behind the scenes-1

For movies that become hit, people wanna watch the behind the scene, right ? So why not for blogs that become hit

Okay, its now known to many that material that is posted here is with some kind of consent from the goofers. Well, given that its usually from pretty much the same folks, it ain't that difficult. So let me reveal some backdoor activity now, which gives some insights on how sometimes (mind you, most times it doesn't take this much discussion, only sometimes) the material thats posted here comes up

For the first time, Wayne send in a contribution. That was sent to Atul for his comments, since its not a direct observation by yours truly. Attached are the Wayne's version (Post A) and Atul's correction (Post B)

Post A
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Hey arun,had too much time on my hands and no work at the office, so decided towrite this down. I've wanted to do it for quite a while. Check withvindo and atul before posting this:

One sat evening I happened to be lounging at the house and comeevening, vindo and atul both want to go out for dinner. We are allquite hungry. Vindo wants to have something veggie and Atul says he'sok with non-veg food and some beer. I say anything's ok with me andI'll also have some beer. So we decide to go to Benningan's on route 1near Laurel just for a change, since we've been to Applebee's manytimes. We get there and vindo check's out the menu and says "Heythere's no good veggie food here, only american stuff". We all decidedto go elsewhere maybe roam around and see if there'se somethinginteresting.There was some hesitation going to Chilis but still we go there, takea seat check out the menu .. I decided to order a chicken dish andvindo says he will take the side order of salad. Atul decides to haveanother side-order. The waiter takes our orders and goes. Within 5mins, we start arguing .. vindo says he wants better veggie food, atulsays why dont we go to Hooters next door and get beer and chickenwings. Vindo says he wants to go to Red Robin and even seafood is okwith him, but not to Hooters since he doesnt want chicken. We decideto leave Chilis and just walk out the door with no concern for thepoor waiter. Now we get in my car and Vindo says he will eat at Redrobin, and Atul says he will eat at Hooters. But I decide to drivearound and still see if any other places are open. After drivingaround for 20 mins or so, we come back to the same spot and decide togo to Red Sky and imagine our frustration when we see that Red Sky isclosed! (we thought it was open when we saw lights inside from theroad). Now we get back in the card and I'm enraged and hungry...there's some argument for a good 10 mins ... I lose my temper and Ifinally pull up in front of Burger King ... and since neither atul norvindo want to eat there, I bully them into going back to Bennigans. Sonow here we are at Bennigans after having wasted a good 1 hour drivingback and forth and trying to check out other places.

Post B: proposed editions by Atul
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Hi,

Some correction...I personally wanted only veggie food...I only said I don'tmind just ordering a small veggie side dish if no veggie entree wasavailable or beer and fries/onion rings in hooters.

If you want to post it post this version with small corrections:

One sat evening I happened to be lounging at the house and comeevening, vindo and atul both want to go out for dinner. So we decideto go to Benningan's on route 1 near Laurel just for a change, sincewe've been to Applebee's many times. We get there and vindo check's outthe menu and says "Hey there's no good veggie food here, only americanstuff". We all decided to go elsewhere maybe roam around and see ifthere'se something interesting.

There was some hesitation going to Chilis but still we go there, takea seat check out the menu .. I decided to order a chicken dish andvindo says he will take the side order of salad. Atul decides to haveanother side-order. The waiter takes our orders and goes. Within 5mins, we start arguing .. vindo says he wants better veggie food, atulsays why dont we go to Hooters next door and get beer and get foodelsewhere. Vindo says he wants to go to Red Robin and even seafood is okwith him, but not to Hooters. We decide to leave Chilis and just walk outthe door with no concern for the poor waiter. Now we get in my car andVindo says he will eat at Red robin, and Atul doesn't want to.But I decide to drive around and still see if any other places are open.After driving around for 20 mins or so, we come back to the same spot anddecide to go to Red Sky and imagine our frustration when we see that RedSky is closed! (we thought it was open when we saw lights inside from theroad). Now we get back in the car and I'm enraged and hungry there'ssome argument for a good 10 mins ... I lose my temper and I finally pullup in front of Burger King ... and since neither atul nor vindo want to
at Bennigans after having wasted a good 1 hour driving back and forth andtrying to check out other places

Stove : Day two (50th post)

The next day : Atul and the Stove again

This time, shock had just finished boiling some water on the right heater and switched it off for cooling. Atul puts his stuff on the left heater and makes sure he doesn't forget to switch it on.. All's good, just that he switched on the right heater. After a while the water started boiling again, instead of Atul's roti being heated and Atul goes "Who put water on this stove"

Realising that he has not only made a goof, but have shouted it out for shock to catch him, Atul does a pre-emptive strike "Ha ha ha, I have compensated for switching off your curry yesterday" !!

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All 9006jokes readers. This is our 50th post. Thank You all for your support and encouragement.. eventhough it would be great if you could post some comments , your private comments help us keep going

Here's a question tho' for the regular readers.. what's your favorite of the 50 incidents listed here ? Post it in the comments section.. You can do an anonymous post.. no issues

regds
ASM

for 9006jokes

stoveeee

Imagine this

Our electrive stove has those four heaters.. call them front-left, front-right, back-left and back-right, as it appears to some one facing it.. and each has their seperate switch. This is the sequence in which things happen

Shock puts something to cook on front-right heater and switches on the front-right switch

5 mins later, Atul puts a Thava and a roti on it to heat, on the front-left heater, but switches on nothing

2 mins later, Atul feels the roti, finds that its not at all hot, turns it around and leaves, still, not switching it on

again, 2 mins later our man feels it, figures out its still not hot, this time realises that its not on, gives a classic smile to shock and switches the front-left heater on

4 mins later, Atul is done with his heating the roti, and he switches the heater off--- not just the left one, but the right one as well !! Thank God shock was standing right there watching it , if not his curry would have never been cooked !!

The taste of....

Did you ever want to know how an after shave lotion tastes ? Ask Atul

You see, when for a few matches Sachin or Sehwag don't score much, you know something big's coming .. So naturally when Atul did not give much bloggable stuff ("kutty kutty" things keep happening, but thats old news now) for almost a month, we were curious.. and waiting for the big one

And finally it happened...

One fine morning, the great simma poured a cup full of aftershave lotion into his mouth thinking its mouthwash ... Apparently ,he immediately realised something's wrong and all kinds of chemical formulae (predominantly that of methanol), started roaming around in his head.. And in his own words "Thankfully, I did not swallow it"

Duude, so what do u normally do with mouthwash ?!

Checking..

Atul owes Prashant some money

Week No:1 - Prashant meets atul somewhere and reminds him of the money.. Atul goes "yeah, yeah, I will give u a check soon"

Week No: 2 - Atul gives Prashant the check. Account settled

Week No: 3 - Prashant meets atul again. Just for fun he asks Atul "Hey what about the check man".. Atul goes - Hey Sorry man, will give you tomorrow"

Buncha keys

Its one of those cold November nights. Atul walks in home. His upper half is fully covered, with his fat jacket, monkey cap, gluse in his hands, and all that you can possibly imagine

Lower half- ummm.. just shorts ! Vindo starts laughing at the site and when he explained whats so funny, Atul goes .. "Oh, thats why everybody in the restaurant was looking at me like that"

Anyways, Atul leaves the jacket on the couch. His key falls down on the floor, but our man doesn't notice. After dinner, our man is getting ready to go back to lab.. He wears his jacket, but realises his key isn't there.. He looks around and finds his whole key bunch lying on the floor.Pointing to that key bunch, he asks Vindo "Hey man, Vindo, if you are not going out anywhere tonite, can I borrow your keys for tonite ?" !!!!!

Deeeseeee

This incident is as narrated by Vindo, but our man never had the time to update the blog !! Because of his figure skating, and horse riding and volleyball and biking and hiking and..... what not he is always "bery vusy"

So here's the incident
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So, Atul and Vindo go one nite to DC for some... dance club.. Happens to be the nite before atuls b'day . Atul finally finds a spot to park - a pretty big one at that, While atul was trying to park, another car had come and seeing atul trying to take the spot, left , made one full round searching around, and after about 20 mins and came back to the place where atul had parked his car..

Wait a minute, not yet, 20 mins, and our man is still trying to park . The other fellow rolls down his window and tells "I haven't seen anything funny like this for a while" !!

Anyways, finally our man parks.. thats when Vindo realises that he doesn't have shoes.. which is a must for the dance place.. Atulasimmas first offer "Hey, I will go dance for 1 hr, and then you can take my shoes and dance for the next one hour" ..

But then suddenly atul remembers.. "Hey there must be some shoes in my car trunk". Vindo is hopeful, they open the car trunk, and there are 4 shoes.. Vindo is glad, well there are 2 pairs to choose from.. After all Atul is smarter than I thought, and starts looking for which one's a good pair

Wait a minute - something funny ? All 4 are different types of shoes of the same foot !!

They keep fighting on the road, and meanwhile its 12 past, and Vindo wishes atul Happy B'day !

And there was an even better b'day gift coming along atul's way. A lady who was watching all these fun all this while from a nearby house, comes up and complements atul and vindo "Hey guys, for the last half an hour, I had awesome fun, watching u people " !!

Venting it out

So we move in to the new and wonderful 8309, from 9006 on august 15 2005 - "independence" day from our freaking old landlady... leaving behind a bunch of sweet memories and some endangered species in 9006 !!

Atul now has a big complaint about his room - there is no vent in the room.. hjow can he sleep when its summer and winter ?? He searched in every nook and corner of the room and din't find one..

Ever since until the end of October, our man frequently sleeps and sleeps off on the couch upstairs...sometimes with the TV in full blast .. "Hey no vent raa..." continued

And then it came the day when Vindo decided to drop by an otherwise-in-a-mess-and-nobody-wants-to-peep-in Atul room.. Alas! there is a BIG vent right at the center of the ceiling.. and it was closed ...

Is it true that lions can't look up ? After there's no prey for it up there, right ?