uff thera ada!!!!

Can't believe it's been one year that I haven't met HIM!
So much longing and excitement is there now.
On last Gurupoornima how many intimate moments that filled this heart!
But feels like never enough!
How charming is HE!

And when we exchange roles, who is Krishna and who is Radha?.

So I have a song about that.
This song from movie Veer-Zara that was love at first hearing.
In fact in the actual music cd it starts with Gulzar's voice-
"Ek din savere savere jab suraj ne parbat ke thaki se sir jo udhaya, tho dekha" (don't want to translate:-)
Like that what will happen today!?
"Where this life is moving!!!!!!:-D
From where this voice I am hearing
Whose face I am seeing in each and every flower!!!"
:-D :-D;-D
Life is Beautiful!
Have only heard about binge drinking, what an intoxication!
Gurudev says that you need to express it sometimes, otherwise heart will burst:-D
JoyGurudev!

A good but foolish samaritan 2

This is the concluding part of this earlier post

Three weeks later when I had almost forgotten about Bereket and the accident, I got an email from him asking my apartment address and phone number. Also I got two or three emails in quick succession from him asking the same. Thinking that he might want to thank me or something I gave all my details. Then he called me to lab and told about about some difficult times he had to go through after the accident and also related to the statement that I gave to the insurance and police. He also told that he will be visiting me at my apartment so that he can see me in person.

His actual situation as explained by him;

That night the gentleman driver dropped him and everything was happy. Next day Bereket started having pain in his stomach and bleeding started through urine. He contacted the driver and told about this and requested to take him to hospital (because he didn't have car). The driver who told him to call for whatever help needed never responded to his request. He had to manage himself somehow to reach the same hospital and then also figure out that he has some internal injuries. He underwent treatment for two weeks and the amount went upto 10,000 dollars unimaginable for a student to pay. He didn't have full assitantship to cover his health insurance either. The little insurance money that he might have got was also disapproved by the company saying that my witness statement regarded it as Bereket's fault. In my statement I used the word 'he rushed" and that's it! I had to use that because how could he have possibly left my umbrella and reach the road earlier than me otherwise? Also the place he crossed was without any traffic lights and illegal to cross. The police station had already regarded him as a nuisance to public transport and denied him all sorts of assistance. This is because since I had a very good impression initially about the driver, I had told to the cops that he is very nice and it might not be the driver's fault also. (they asked me if the driver was inebriated, and I told absolutely not, he is a very good guy).

Bereket was still ailing and was resorting to some physiotherapy then. I told that it's impossible now to take my statement back and change it since it has been given. And we don't have any money to challenge them in court also. My financial status was also not very sound to help him in any manner. They have put his graduation and studies on hold till he pays back the money and release all those flags.

I was sad and the only relief was that he understood my good intention to help him when he fell on the road and accompanying till hospital. But then I foolishly gave away the statement to the insurance company without knowing the way of how things worked here. In this way I got to know that system here is complicated and usually protects those people who are rich and influential. People can put on a very good face so that you have a good impression and get their things done like that.

Now fastforward to 2007 May 13, the day of my graduation (yes, that day coincided to Guruji's B'day, much to my happiness!). I saw Bereket also walking with cap and gown graduating along with my own spring session graduation ceremony! He saw me and I told sorry for everything. He told that he knew my intention was not bad. He had changed his guide for Masters in between, got full assistantship and seemed happy too.

About this episode only one thing remained, dear Venki makes fun of me being the only one who was able to screw up the graduate life of a person. But, I have no regrets as of now..

PS: The good samaritan entry was given to me by my Oppol (elder sis) who is settled in California whom I update my week-life every Sunday.
Time for a song. Since samaritan story is what Jesus narrated to his disciples, song should be like that..A bro, in this movie, is not invited for his own sis' marriage and he finds a way to attend it by singing this choir in Church. Very touching for a bro like me:-D

A good but foolish samaritan 1

This is an incident happened four months after I first came to US to Purdue University for my Matsers, in 2004. I was still not accustomed to the lifestyle, studies and lab-work here then.

On a fine afternoon I set out to the credit union (Bank) and it started raining. I had to borrow umbrella from downstairs from my chinese lab mate. On the way out found a person walking without umbrella and told him to join in mine.

The chain of events this simple act of friendship triggered was something that I could have never anticipated.

This guy was from Eritrea by name Bereket. We got introduced and he started describing about his thesis work and in no time we reached the road. All of a sudden he got out of my umbrella and rushed to cross the road. And a car coming down from the second lane hit him!

I didn't exactly see what happened, but found Bereket falling into the divider lane.

Many cars were rushing down the other lane and some stopped. After couple of seconds I reached him and tried to hold him up. He was lying down and crying out saying that he is going to die. I didn't see any injury or blood and told him it will be okay. In no time ambulance and police arrived and they picked him up. People never came to look what happened (much unlike Indian situation when people would have thronged there). Some guys from inside the car called me and gave their phone number and told to call them if needed (I didn't know why they did that).

After the cops took him into the ambulance I asked cop whether I have to do anything else. He told me to come to hospital, and since I was new to the place, he took me in his police car to St. Elizabeth hospital, pretty far from campus. Cops were very friendly and I told them that in our country they use to scare us a lot (my acquaintance with police was not new, had earlier experience with Kerala Police back home with strikes and struggles while doing UG when I was actively involved in student politcs; will write about that later:-).

At the hospital, they considered me as the only friend of Bereket and told me to sign some papers for his treatment and checkup. Meanwhile Bereket was refusing to do some tests telling that he doesn't have any problem now and those check-ups will be expensive. So docs asked me to convince him that those were very much needed for a accident victim. I didn't know how to convince him, so went up to him and told what the docs wanted and requested him to do at least the minimum tests needed.

After he was taken for further tests, I came out and found the driver of the car who hit him. He was a real gentleman and told me he was coming after celebrating his wife's B'day along with the kids and was working in a company near Walmart grocery store. He came to the hospital to see how Bereket was doing. Instead of running away from the spot, he stopped and came to the hospital!.Earlier, the cops had told me that they can drop me back and warned me that going alone will not be good since that is a bad neighborhood. Since the tests for Bereket will take several hours to get done, this driver of the car (I don't remember his name) told he could drop me back to the campus and also promised me that he will take care of Berket once check ups are done. Though I was sad to witness an accident, I was happy to see such a good person who cared a lot.

Next day I called this gentleman and he informed that Bereket is safe at home and nothing to worry.

Couple of days later I got a call from Bereket's health insurance company telling me that I was the sole witness of the incident and asked me to recount in my own words. I had hard time explaining things in english and somehow I managed to do so. I thought I had given a very good description and will allow them to give him his claim. Being the witness, cops also called me and asked me to come to police station for the same reason. Since I had no idea where police station was located, I told I can come to the accident location. They came there and took my signature after I explained what I saw.

I didn't know that by my signing stuff and recounting incident in the way 'they' wanted it, I was screwing up the graduate life of this guy from a poor African country.

Will conclude this in next post..:-D