On return, I got busy with driving
classes and work. My instructor Dennis always had interesting stories
to tell during the drive. He would talk of his pets – A cat, a
lizard, a dog and a spider. The choice of pet surprised me a little
as the idea would take a while to be digested in my part of the
world. During a conversation on cuisine he shared stories of two of
his ex-girlfriends. One was a Vegan and another who liked Sushi,
which he apparently did not. The vegan girlfriend of his disliked him
eating meat and that was always a subject of conflict between them.
Then, he was also contemplating on
going to Iraq to train the police there. His concerns were on what
risks this package came with and of being away from his daughter.
Dennis mentioned about this place in Manitou springs where they brew
beer and he considers it to be the best.
My last class with Dennis is the most
memorable of all. He talked about his divorce and how painful it is –
the emotions, settlement and money deals etc. His daughter on the
other hand is trying to set him up someone and during her weekend
visits to him, she would ask every other woman she meets – “My
father needs a wife, will you go out with him?” She requests the
neighbors to stay with them. He also shared that he is going out on
date and meets a new girl at least in 3 months. “I want to get
married again but not divorced again.” He adds suggesting that he
wants to take his time to meet the right person. I found that very
thoughtful and interesting. Unlike from where I come from, here
people lived a life for themselves. Compromise was not accepted
beyond a limit. On the other hand, in India, I see many couples live
together for a life time despite their differences as if their
regular fights would not affect the child’s psychology.
On our last day of class, Dennis and I
went to Dunkin Donuts on the 8th street at Colorado
Springs Downtown. I love the glazed donuts there. He got me addicted
to donuts and Dennis being an ex-cop did not differ with the teasing
that people made about cops and donuts. People talk – Bad cop…no
donuts; where is the cop? ….maybe in a donut shops…. He says that
many a times when they have to work late in the nights, donut shops
are the only place that is open to grab some coffee and food. I am
glad that I got to hear both sides of a story.
He also made me drive the route for the
test a day before my exam and shared some tips for the exam, which I
thought was a kind gesture from his side.
I am sure that years to come I shall
always remember Dennis and the conversations we have had.
At home, my novel began taking shape
and characters began to develop. They began to suck me into their
world.
Post a driving test, I got my first
drivers license. Not in India, but in the US on 9th of
December. I could not help noticing how organized and quick the
process was. In India I would have spent hours in RTO and would end
up paying bribe to few people to get my DL.
On December 10th, we
celebrated Jonah’s birthday at 3-Marrgaritas, a Mexican restaurant.
He invited Peggy and Mike as well for dinner. I was very hungry that
night and hence did something very crazy while waiting for the food
which took a lot of time to arrive. I took the lemon slice on the
glass of water that had been served and squeezed it in to blend with
the water. I began adding sugar but it would not dissolve. I kept
adding sugar until all the packets were empty. “And here comes the
food.” I said to divert everyone’s attention away from me!
Another interesting pastime I had was
to drive to Chapel hills mall and walk in to Borders book store and
checkout all the collection. I was happy to find several books by
Virginial Woolf.
During her graduation day, Aditi
visited us. She treated us (we, Ernest, Deb, Aditi, Brett, Peggy and
Mike) at Mirch Masala. We then went to Peggy’s house and watched
the film Dhoom. All felt it was much different from the very culture
centric Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam that we had watched few months
earlier. Ernest liked the movie.
Jonah had left to Chicago to his
cousin’s place. Seb and I meanwhile explored the city as I had just
got my driver’s license. We drove to downtown Colorado Springs and
some malls around. During one of those drives the tires got stuck in
snow but after a few attempts, I was able to get going.
The tires got stuck at this turn
I bought my
new camera- Cannon S 60. I was now planning to capture all the beautiful moments.
On Christmas Eve, Seb and I joined
Peggy and Mike at the church. The prayer was nice and I enjoyed the
customs of a different religion. I do respect all customs but I have
to say that drinking wine from the same glass seemed a little
inappropriate to me. We gifted short story collections- by Jhumpa
Lahiri to Peggy and Mike. And to Brett I gifted an Alfred Hitchcock
movie collection.
After a lot of dissatisfaction with my
mustache, I finally got rid of it and my new look pleased me a lot.
With the mustache an old part of me had been discarded.
Colorado was covering itself completely
in white. It snowed heavily one weekend and this new look of COS was
very exciting. I enjoyed how the entire place looked totally
different from a few months before. In Bangalore/Mangalore, not
really a drastic change such as this could be witnessed through out
the year. So it was quite interesting.
One day, Seb and I decided to go to
Denver. Half way gone I recalled that I had not brought my license. I
had not received a card but this was a temporary paper which allowed
me to drive till I got my card. We had no clue how to react. Scared
we returned from Exit 187 on I-25, interstate, only to come home and
see that I had washed the paper with my pant. :-)
Every time that we
passed that exit, I recalled this first incomplete trip to Denver. So
we returned home and watched Hindi movies that we had rented from
Indian stores.