It was like 12B. The crowd, the rush, the push and the seat blocking. Just as same as the Vadapalani-T.Nagar crowd. Travelling from a suburb to the downtown Seattle is becoming an event everyday. With a metro bus full of Indians, it gives me a feel of being in Chennai, except that not many talk Tamil.
The one sitting next to you can say, Kya Yaar/Bagunaara/Inna Mamey, anything of the listed/unlisted Indian language. Sometimes you might have an america-born-asian youth constantly fidling with the tiny electronic gadget which could be the size of a matchbox and might play mp3, kick off the electric heater in your house or sometimes remotely run a few unix shell scripts to index the cramped database at work. Who knows ? Everything is possible with technology, especially here.
You can blabber about deal going with Comcast cable or ask for the best Indian restaurant around with your Indian bus friends. All these details are available after ‘deep’ research of prices and quality. From buying selling cars to broomsticks every single product is analyzed thoroughly. So you can be sure that any advice you get from a desi with regards to price/place/product is a reasonable one. But chances are you might end up sitting with a snob whose face would read a name like Munsaamy or Goindsamy. He would just not even smile at you and would behave like descending directly from St.Peter’s special heaven. As you sit next to him, he would take out his ancient cellphone and talk stuff like gonna, awesome, whasup, gotta go, shoot and what not. The worst part is that you might meet our heaven descendent at an Indian store arguing in local tamil or telugu, bargaining for $2.75 frozen paratha. Fate.
The best thing about Seattle is the commute. The city is well connected with the bus service. For someone like me to have seen nothing but cars in Chicago, this was a surprise. The roads are built on hilly areas which means you will have a roller-coaster ride to the city and with those tall green trees half-covered with the morning fog, it’s a pleasure ride. As the bus crosses the Lake Washington, you find a maze of bridges built below and above to the one you travel. Yeah, you can slip into a dream of singing like Shahrukh on the open car[Pardes].
I am carrying my SONY Digicam with me mostly but with the pace of bus zooming on the express lane, all I could get is a shot of moving objects and not the lake. Will have to get down and click them someday.
kirukkal.com 
12 responses to “Seattle’s Pallavan”
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believe me, it will be your rich ‘food for thought’…
expecting many such interesting blogs about our desi lifestyle…
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>>> He would just not even smile at you and would behave like descending directly from St.Peter’s special heaven.
Read the below stuff Lazy… I think it happens everywhere with our goindasamis..
http://www.chakkarapani.com/main/blog/2003/09/networking-living-in-town-with-very.html
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hey guru.. I have been a silent follower of ur blog for a lomg time.. good to know that you are in the Seattle area.. would love to meet u!! Shoot me a mail at ilayaraja_fan@yahoo.com and we could catch up some time 🙂
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Hi Guru,
I thought of writing this in my blog but settled to your comments section(you obviously know the reason)
I thought you would be back in a week to our great Chennai. But I agree your line “Just as same as the Vadapalani-T.Nagar crowd”. Its true. I think its been quit some time that you tried a trip 12B or the morning train service in the Tambaram Beach lane. Probably you would not have the need to. Whatever stuff you have written happens here also Guru, including the fact that not much people speak in Tamil in Chennai. You can see pda’s, laptops(in electric trains!) mobiles(which runs almost full video songs), mp3 players… Endless.
Guys sincere with their class mates(kadalai’s), old aunty describing her fight with her old hubbie to an audience in the train, the chatters and clatters of Pondy Bazaar, the cool breeze near Santhome(is the breeze still there these days?). Man, I miss all these here in Bgl.
But with Chennai erupting in temperatures its better you are in Seattle. Your new post has just teased me some corners of my life in Chennai like that of “Autograph”
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lazy
quite a nice read, but i have a bone to pick with you.
i’ve never been to seattle but u cannot judge chicago like that. i dont know where u lived at chicago, but the downtown is extremely well connected and the suburbs are fairly well connected. i’ve been living here without a car for almost 5 years now. have to admit its partly cos i am a PIG(poor indian grad)
GO CTA 🙂
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Arvind, I am just enjoying every single experience. Worth it.
Chakra, Wow man. You seem to have noticied this before.
Naveen, Would certainly do that. We can meet up.
JVC, So your the Autograph Cheran travelling in Pallavan. Clash of the kings man 😉
Arun, I do know the CTA. I was in Buffalo Grove which was on the highway to Wisconsin. I had to come to Schaumburg to take the bus or go to foxlake to catch the mtero train. It was boring especially in the weekend when we wanted to hangaround in the downtown. CTA was there but rare.
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Guru, I have sent you a message to gmail.
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Have you heard about the famous “Seattle freeze”?
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2005/0213/cover.html
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//But chances are you might end up sitting with a snob whose face would read a name like Munsaamy or Goindsamy.//
!!!!!???? There also are Toms and Dicks and Harrys and Cortezes and Perezes like that. Haven’t you heard “Horseness is the whatness of allhorse”?
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hafta agree with Arun.. I lived near chicago for an year and in downtown chicago during the summer of 2000.. the public transportation system is better than Seattle’s 🙂
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Addendum to the prev post :OLD HABITS DIE HARD :
http://tringtring.blogspot.com/2005/03/you-might-be-desi-if.html
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hey lg, please post a few pics on here when u get time of seattle. never been there, want to see it. how long ru going to stay there? permanent, or just temporary.
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