Evening at MEANT

MEANT stands for "Malayalee Engineers Association of North Texas". The evening started with a call to my Uncle, who told me that there was this MEANT cultural evening. I have heard about MEANT for some time now, and was looking forward to become a member of the same. By evening 5:30, I reached my Uncles place, and by like 6:30 PM, we all were on our way to the place where the program was to happen. By the time we reached the place, it was 7:15, and the program had just started. A quick look into the hall told me that I already knew many people in the hall. I had met many of them at different parties and gettogethers at my relatives places. When I entered the hall, there was a group dance going on, and soon, I was tapping my feet with the rhythm. The Kerala environment was verymuch in the air, and felt good to be in the middle of all the malayalees. The evening continued with good songs, and small children performing in the stage, then the typical Kerala "Deepam" which happens in the evening, and then, came the "Strike". When you mention Kerala, you cannot avoid talking about the strikes in Kerala. And, I guess, taht was the reason, it found a place in this all Kerala program too. It was fun, as my friend "Ani Chettan" followed with couple of others, walked into the stage and started calling out slogans... and what funny slogans were those!!!. The whole hall was roaring with laughter, on slogans aimed against the president of MEANT. It was fun, and as I scanned the croud, I found the president himself laughing so much, that he was finding it difficult to sit.

Well, as in Kerala, the strikes come soon, and go soon, and so did that happen here. After the strike program, it was time for another Kerala original program. "Vallam Kali" or boat race today has a special place in keralas entertainment chart. In times of the kings, one of the major entertainment was the boat race.. but the problem was to synchronize 200 pepole in each boat. The solution was a song!!!. Yes, specially composed songs, with rhythemic beats told all the 200 people when to row. And, it worked!!!. All 200 people rows at the same time, and the boat goes forward like a bullet!!!.

So, the song was the next program at MEANT, and though not rowing, we all were enjoying the rhytm in the songs.

Finally, the evening came to an end, and we all headed home. I went to my uncles place first, and from there, to my place. By the time I reached home, it was 11:30, and went to sleep.

Golf - My First Experience

Yesterday, I played Golf for the first time. By 6:00 PM, my friend Rohit called me, and asked whether I wanted to go to play Golf. Till this point, I have no idea of Golf, except the naive understanding that I need to hold a golf club, and then hit the ball. The terms "Driving", "Putting"..etc were out of my understanding. But, as with any thing, there is a begininig, as someone has rightly said... "The journey of a thousand miles, starts with the first step". By 6:30, I was driving to Rohits place, where I picked him and Nikhil Kikkeri. Of us 3, Nikhil was the most experienced in Golf.

We reached the Golf course in like 10 minutes, and as I stepped into the course, it was a totally different feeling. Long patch of grass, with flags at some points gave me an approximate idea of how big a golf course is. Needless to say, my friends helped me with selecting the right golf clubs. They helped me to get educated on the advantages and disadvantages of each of the clubs.

The first step was to learn how to "Drive". Driving is the act of hitting the ball to a long distance... the first shot you see in any golf game. We have cricket, which is something like this, and thought, this is going to be a piece of cake... a thought, I soon found out is very much wrong. For one thing, the ball is much smaller, and to add to it, the surface area of the club is no comparison to the comparitively large cricket bat. Rohit helped me get started by showing me the right way to hold the club, and also, the swing.

While I watched Nikhils and Rohits golf shots go nothing less than 175 yards, mine was hardly making it out of 20 yards!!!. The harder I tried to hit, the lesser it went!!!. And then.... came my first successful shot. Off the ball went, and actually, never saw it, as it was clear sky.

Anyways, it was a wonderful experience, and was a good work out too. Looking forward for this again next week.