I had to grope around in the darkness before I found the light switch. It was turned down. I thought that was the "on" position like with the switches in India. It was hard to imagine any other possibility. I thought there must have been a switch outside the room which controlled the room's power supply. I went out and checked, but found no switch. I opened the door wide open, so that some light entered inside.
There was a clock in one corner that showed a glowing red "11:30". It was a digital alarm clock with an LCD that showed the time and it also had a radio. I recalled that in the 5-Star room in chennai where my brother had stayed, there was a clock-cum-gadget that had buttons to control everything in the room - lights, AC, etc etc. I considered the possibility, though my hotel didn't look anywhere close to even a 3-Star. But since it was Amrika, I was not sure of anything. I started looking at the clock. I pressed all its buttons. One of them started the radio. It played so loud, and in the darkness I couldn't think for a while. I messed it up by pressing all the buttons on it 3-4 times. The clock's radio changed bands, the time changed randomly, something rang the clock's alarm very loudly, and something finally turned it off. I kept the clock back at where I picked it from.
I could see a phone kept on a stool. I went and dialled "0" which, Aziz had told me, was the front-desk-number. I told him there was no power supply in the room. But he said in his broken English that there was a switch inside, just beside the door, that had to be turned on, etc etc. I was getting embarrassed inspite of trying hard not to. I told him I would figure it out and hung up.
I started to do some R&D now. As a trial and error, I moved up the switch, the one beside the door, and that lit one of the lamps. There was some light now and I could see 3 more lamps in the room - all turned off. I went to the first one, and tried to see how it could be switched on. I found that the power supply was through a wire which was direcly plugged into a socket and there were no switches. I pushed a pin that slid right below the bulb of the lamp, and the lamp started glowing. WoW!!! I went ahead and turned all the lamps on. The light delighted me.
Next I checked out the wash-basin. I turned the knob on top of the faucet - both clockwise and anti-clockwise. No water came out. I concluded that the room had no water supply. I tried harder as the last ditch effort, and the knob got pulled up a little as I moved it forcefully. And then, water started coming out. So, I came to know that the knob had to be pulled up to turn it on. Soon I also figured out that after pulling it up, if I turned the knob clockwise, I got cold water and if I turned it anti-clockwise, I got hot water.
At that time, there were 2 guys - Vinay and Sampath - from my company working in Cincinnati for the same Client for whom I came to work. They're still here. They are on long-term visits and have been staying in apartments close to my hotel.
As I was trying to figure things out, Vinay and Sampath came to meet me. I had been wondering about food, and was happy to see a box with them. Had the delicious home cooked South-Indian food after they left and then, it was time to get on to the internet.
I was going to use Wireless Internet for the first time in my life. I had tried at London and Chicago Airports, but could never get connected. I took out my laptop and was connected within moments. I also turned on the TV to check out whether the Amrikan TV Channels really showed porn at mid-night, as I had heard. It was past 12:00 AM. I ran through all the channels the TV offered. I found pretty clean stuff everywhere. That was disappointing. I missed Sun TV so much. I found Jeetu online on GTalk. I immediately started a voice chat with him. Someone had to hear my first observations, aankhon-dekha-haal - no non-veg on TV at mid-night, lots of hot girls at London Airport, saw a very sexy gal in a mini-skirt at Chicago Airport, no hot gals visible in the hotel...
I chatted for some time, then fell asleep.
5th May 2007 - the longest day of my life - 24 + 9:30 = 33:30 hours long...had come to an end!
To Be Continued...
There was a clock in one corner that showed a glowing red "11:30". It was a digital alarm clock with an LCD that showed the time and it also had a radio. I recalled that in the 5-Star room in chennai where my brother had stayed, there was a clock-cum-gadget that had buttons to control everything in the room - lights, AC, etc etc. I considered the possibility, though my hotel didn't look anywhere close to even a 3-Star. But since it was Amrika, I was not sure of anything. I started looking at the clock. I pressed all its buttons. One of them started the radio. It played so loud, and in the darkness I couldn't think for a while. I messed it up by pressing all the buttons on it 3-4 times. The clock's radio changed bands, the time changed randomly, something rang the clock's alarm very loudly, and something finally turned it off. I kept the clock back at where I picked it from.
I could see a phone kept on a stool. I went and dialled "0" which, Aziz had told me, was the front-desk-number. I told him there was no power supply in the room. But he said in his broken English that there was a switch inside, just beside the door, that had to be turned on, etc etc. I was getting embarrassed inspite of trying hard not to. I told him I would figure it out and hung up.
I started to do some R&D now. As a trial and error, I moved up the switch, the one beside the door, and that lit one of the lamps. There was some light now and I could see 3 more lamps in the room - all turned off. I went to the first one, and tried to see how it could be switched on. I found that the power supply was through a wire which was direcly plugged into a socket and there were no switches. I pushed a pin that slid right below the bulb of the lamp, and the lamp started glowing. WoW!!! I went ahead and turned all the lamps on. The light delighted me.
Next I checked out the wash-basin. I turned the knob on top of the faucet - both clockwise and anti-clockwise. No water came out. I concluded that the room had no water supply. I tried harder as the last ditch effort, and the knob got pulled up a little as I moved it forcefully. And then, water started coming out. So, I came to know that the knob had to be pulled up to turn it on. Soon I also figured out that after pulling it up, if I turned the knob clockwise, I got cold water and if I turned it anti-clockwise, I got hot water.
At that time, there were 2 guys - Vinay and Sampath - from my company working in Cincinnati for the same Client for whom I came to work. They're still here. They are on long-term visits and have been staying in apartments close to my hotel.
As I was trying to figure things out, Vinay and Sampath came to meet me. I had been wondering about food, and was happy to see a box with them. Had the delicious home cooked South-Indian food after they left and then, it was time to get on to the internet.
I was going to use Wireless Internet for the first time in my life. I had tried at London and Chicago Airports, but could never get connected. I took out my laptop and was connected within moments. I also turned on the TV to check out whether the Amrikan TV Channels really showed porn at mid-night, as I had heard. It was past 12:00 AM. I ran through all the channels the TV offered. I found pretty clean stuff everywhere. That was disappointing. I missed Sun TV so much. I found Jeetu online on GTalk. I immediately started a voice chat with him. Someone had to hear my first observations, aankhon-dekha-haal - no non-veg on TV at mid-night, lots of hot girls at London Airport, saw a very sexy gal in a mini-skirt at Chicago Airport, no hot gals visible in the hotel...
I chatted for some time, then fell asleep.
5th May 2007 - the longest day of my life - 24 + 9:30 = 33:30 hours long...had come to an end!
To Be Continued...
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