Much of preparations from my side for the upcoming trip to India - tickets, I-94, travel letters, transcripts, proof of Fall semester enrollment, and of course some packing - are done. That leaves me to do one last thing - keep counting days. Less than two and half days to go before first leg of the journey begins. I will probably go to the airport later in the night, just to have my luggage weighed - so that I wouldn’t have any last minute panics.

If you have known me, for any amount of time, you would know my crazyness/freakiness for technology and my dependence on it. To that effect, I have been making arrangements to have a new cell phone ready by the time I reach Bangalore. Just to get into the proper mood, I have been speaking to few friends of mine — catching one of them was lot tougher than talking to God himself. One other, while driving behind yet another friend, was acting like an amplifier for swear words. I will speak to few others before I start.

What else have I been doing? Been involved in looooong chatty-discussions with a nephew of mine - about things on which we don’t really agree with each other, but it has been a healthy debate so far. Apart from that, I roamed around a bit with few friends during the weekend - it was the first time all along this summer that I actually swam in L. Superior. First it was dip in Brunette Park (there weren’t any brunettes there, for miles) and next it was near Silver City (Ontonagon county) with Porcupine Mountains in the backdrop. Pretty sight indeed. For those friends of mine who are eager to know how I look (and have somehow picturizing me with few extra pounds), I am still the same old guy in many ways and still quite athletic — got pictures to prove it this time (Picture Courtesy: Bharath Choudhary and Santosh Karre, respectively)

While I am at it (that is, at my crazyness/freakiness), let me mention that I bought a ticket for an NFL game, later this November. Two of my heroes amongst current NFL players will be playing in that game. Let me kill the suspense and let it out. New England Patriots visiting Green Bay Packers in Lambeau Field. I get to see Brett Favre and Tom Brady in one game - former in what appears to be his last pro-season while the latter hasn’t even reached his prime (he has three super bowl rings, with a 10-1 play-off record - that’s an entirely different story and I will reserve it for an other day). In a nutshell, I am excited about it.

Returning to the main topic of discussion, I believe people (most of my relatives, some of my teachers and few friends) will be surprised to see the new me and many things (living/non-living alike) in India will equally surprise me too. Like it or not India, here I come…