Probably the best compliment I've ever received

Ms. Debangana is a PhD student in Fine Arts here in LSU, and lives with her husband Mr. Suparno, who's doing his PhD in English, here in the Nicholson campus apartments. Both have studied from Shantiniketan in West Bengal; in fact the Kala Bhavana (Art School) is supposedly one of the best in the world (Ref: Wiki). I've been eagerly waiting to see Debangana didi's works and am still doing that, because they are all in her office at LSU. But today I got a chance to talk to her, so I rushed home and got my Wolverine drawing to receive her feedback. 

Upon opening the covers, she said "Wow. I have to learn this kind of drawing from you." 

I have no words to explain how happy I am today. When I came back home, I could only think of Maynard's intense words of the song Wings part 2, from Tool's album 10000 Days:

'Its time now, my time now

Give me my, give me my..........WINGS !!!'

Stray dog

I met Ashok from our Kannada group at the empty parking lot of a restaurant on the way to the convenience store at the gas station, a pleasant evening before Gustav the hurricane's arrival. Out of nowhere came an average sized black dog and was skipping around until it finally reached us and was jumping around me playfullyand was probably hungry too. I saw it had a blue collar, but then Ashok said 'we don't get to see many stray dogs here, do we?', so I didn't take much notice. Then we left and the dog kept following me up to the store. When I came out, it was still around and looked at me innocently and hoped that I'd something to offer. By then I thought it really was a stray dog. So after walking a little I turned back and bought a small packet of biscuits from the store, but this time it had gone away. Looking around I caught a glimpse of it near a group of people near a house at a distance, so I dropped the idea of feeding it and turned homewards. Hardly had I walked 2 minutes when a fat white lady looking tensed appeared around the corner....with a leash in hand. She asked me 'have you seen a black dog?'
'Just take a right at the road from the restaurant ma'am'.

Cycle repair

I went to the cycle stand outside my lab after 2 days. The key fitted properly and the lock opened neatly to separate the front tyre from the stand. Funny thing is, that was all that was left of the cycle. So this was the second time that my bicycle got stolen. And this one wasn't even mine, I'd borrowed it from Sunada. Now what to do? I knew that complaining to the authorities or lodging a case would be of no use, because nothing came out of the previous one. A new one would cost me 55 dollars. I kept the lock and tyre as there were, because rolling a cycle tyre down the street with a stick in hand would've been fun as a kid; now it would be embarrassing.
I saw one old cycle lying beside. It had a torn seat, a rusted chain sprocket and the front wheel and the lock were missing. How it came to be in such a situation is beyond my analyzing powers. I waited for a week and saw that no one had even bothered to pick it up. Lifted it; it fit neatly on to the hub of my front tyre. Tightened the nuts, unlocked the 'new' bicycle and took it home. Justice is served.