It all started from the day, Subi and i were driving from Edison, NJ to virginia. Two months from now, then we decided to plan for a trip for every three months to a new place. The first on our choice was the place to gain or lose most of your money, the Las Vegas of east, Atlantic City!

Then for another two months, we were just talking about the proposed trip to atlantic city. Finally the long weekend on May had come, and the time to Atlantic city too came! I booked a car thru enterprise. Saturday morning Subi, came from Baltimore to my house. By the time, he came to my home; I was still standing in the enterprise queue. Oh man! Long weekend mania drove everybody to the rental cars queue. The logo of the car somehow appeared to me like a puking lion. Guys, believe me, i felt omen is not good as the logo was like someone puking! Till then, i never believed in omens! I went and stood on the four corner road, adjacent to the signal post. And Subu was walking towards me in a blue shirt. I was waving my hands. After his brief non-response, i called him to wave me back. He responded back, that he too can see somebody walking in a blue shirt! Shit!, i was waving to a lady. To my surprise, when she came near to me, she smiled at me! How generous the women are here? Subu came and the first thing he asked me was, what was the car? I said, "the logo is looking like a puking lion". He said, it is dodge! Will tell you, why they had a puking lion as a logo! I adamantly said, only i'll drive. I put the car in reverse gear pressed the gas, it gave a jerk. I was stricken with panic, and pressed the brake, another jerk. Believe me, the brake and the gas pedals were so sensitive, even for the slightest touch gave the hardest jerk. I parked the car back, and requested him to drive for some time. He took the car, this time same jerk! We then concluded the car was in pathetic condition! If we apply the brake we felt the two wheels were running away from us!

So we decided to change the car, but that rental centre had all the cars sold out! So we decided to go to Dulles airport to change the car. In the meantime, one of my roommate(to curse him, we need a seperate blog!), wanted to collect his chappathis. We drove for him! The answer at Dulles Airport was, "We are sold out!". I thought baltimore was on the way, and i called the baltimore airport, got same answer, "We are sold out"! Cursing me, Subu plugged the GPS! Wow, GPS plug was not working!

If it was in india, i would not mind, all that we have to do is, park the car on the side way and to some stranger "anna, how to go to xyz?" or "akka, how to go to xyz?". Here, a lady is called as "Anna"(there is confusion in that too, somebody says, she is a model and somebody says, she is a tennis player), then i got confused, if a lady is anna, then how to call a man? "akka"? Owing to the confusion, i stopped asking route from strangers' long back! So, how to get the direction now, GPS was not working, can't ask anybody. There comes a handy stuff! My iphone! Yes man, i have the most coolest and fancy thing on the planet called iphone! And the coolest feature on iphone is, gmaps. I gave the address, it gave the direction!

Then Subbu started driving. I assumed the role of the manager, giving only directions! We started from the Dulles airport. I was telling to Subi, take left, take right, take exit 13a and all the crap, whatever told by iphone. We reached the first toll gate, paid 3$. Then we drove to a rest area, to wipe out the unrest in the filled bladder. Then, a tunnel toll 2$, then the baltimore bridge toll, 2.4$. Then NJ turnpike, ticket was collected.

Then another exit for coffee. Then we drove towards Ramada hotel. In the way we were made to pay 13$ for toll. We took bath and changed the dress. I was wearing a round neck blue T-Shirt, with a black jean and sneakers. Guess, what Subi was wearing? A full hand black Shirt, jean and a black formals shoe. Our guy's plan was to visit a dance floor and dance with a pretty girl! He is a man of preparation! And needed to be admired. Now the car was driven straight to Atlantic City, thru the express highway, where there was a heavy traffic! In the mean time the toll of 6.5$ was paid and another rest area. Then we reached taj mahal!, the famous casino. I really got the feeling of dharma, elder brother of pandava. Oh man, i'm going to roll the dice over all the hard earned money! I was excited. I took out a five dollar bill and played for two hours. Finally i came out loosing that five dollar bill. I guess, Subi might be more excited, he took few hundred dollars(the amount can't be disclosed) and he too came out with the empty hands. We came out of taj mahal, and we took an oath that we master in those games and buy the whole casino by playing the games, we lost! One of my friends later told me that, those casinos make money, by the people who make the oath of those kinds!

I wanted to go back to hotel and take some rest. But our dance master was adamant to dance in the dance floor. Then we strolled on the board walk from one end to another end for at least 6 times in spending 3 hours. Finally, at last, it was 9'o clock. Then we rushed to a dance floor. Subi threatened me, that i may not be allowed in the dance floor with sneakers! I was really unsure, what I have to do even if they let me inside the dance floor (you know my dancing skills :-)). This guy, anyway going to enjoy and i'm going to stare at everything like a stranger. But fortunately, as soon as we entered, Subi was also staring at everything like a stranger. We are exactly doing the same thing, the only difference was, i was wearing t-shirt and sneakers, he was in formals! (I'm sorry Subi, i let you down, after admiring you before). I was feeling suffocated. He doesn't know what to do. We came out, and took second oath of the day, "one day in the same dance floor, every girl should be desperate to dance with us!".

Ok, it is the time for dinner. We went to a pizza hut. Subi ordered a chicken pizza. We had our stomach full. Then again our favorite activity of strolling the board walk began. Now, we didn't walk for six times, but once. Then we came to the parking lot, to take the car out. We forgot where we parked the car. The parking lot of taj must hold at least thousand cars. If each car is a width of 3 meters with parking lot, we have to walk three kilometers to the worst case. But thankfully, we remembered a dirty place, where we got down. We found the dirty place, Subu pressed the unlock key in the autocop to find the car. Wow man! that too was not working!
Now, it is the time, to drive back hotel. We were driving back to our hotel, somewhere in the express highway, we missed an exit. And we drove a point, where there was no cell tower. In order to get further direction from iphone, we need tower. So to get the tower, we drove further in the wrong direction! Finally we got the tower, direction and hotel!

Next day morning (after noon) we woke up. We decided to take lunch in the hotel itself. Wow, omlet was there in the menu. I hurriedly ordered an omlet. He followed. In the mean time, i called one of my friends over the phone,, who was visiting Niagara falls then. He was in full excitment! He said, "Raaaaj, it is amazing maaan! Water is flowing from the top!" This really amused me, in falls, if not water shouldn't fall from the top, then where should it be falling from? Ok, high genius stuff! let us come back to the trip. Finally omlet came, smashed potato was there, fried tomato and onion were there and everything was there, other than the eggggggg! Again not sure, whether i should call the waitress as akka or anna, so i pushed that hell stuff into my mouth. Again drove back to atlantic city to do our favorite job of walking on board. The street is completely made up of wooden boards. And this street is called as board walk.

Finally around 5'o clock we decided to drive back to my home!

Few learning's about the trip,
1. we paid for the toll around 40$ for five hours drive, it is nothing but paying 1600 for the road to travel from coimbatore to salem!
2. My investment for iphone, was finally a right decision.
3. Your dressing doesn't matter to dance with a pretty girl.
4. It was not puking lion, but a deer with big horns. It just looked like, lion kneeling down and vomiting.
5. Fun and Joy can't stop flowing, if we stop complaining. We never complained, we enjoyed it!

And a very important learning was, you can always call a man as a Gentleman, and a lady as a madam. If you are still confused whether the person is a man or woman, you can say, "Excuse me!"

Why the inflation is so mad and so bad... So long the government didn't hike the price of petrol but there was a mad inflation of 7+%. Despite there wasn't a hike in petrol price domestically, why we should blame the rise in oil price internationally for the heavy inflation? I don't understand, how the tomato price in the market went up, when there wasn't a change of petrol price in local market? What is the link? Just think for a moment... Guys, the inflation so far has nothing to do with the international petrol prices, these idiots kept the ruppee as dollar pegging one and budged to the export lobby. The weakening dollar means, rupee value is weakend artificially and these idiots lied us that international rise in petrol price took the toll. Now we are going to see the inflation... Get ready guys, for the worst!!! I didn't blame them for the inflation, but they betrayed common man. They were talking about aam adami, but then why budged to industry lobby? They compromised the common man's interest in the wake of the demand from the riches, despite they claim they represent the common man! Finally we were made fools once again! Did they try to make any difference for those who survive with a meal in a day? Yes, Government made the difference, by depriving that single meal itself to those! The government is not mastered in creating jobs, not in creating wealth, not in providing food security, not in providing education... but they mastered in manipulating the currency to the best of the interests of the riches and the worst of the interests of the poor with the support of comerdes!