3G and Hemingway 101

I am not much of a conversationalist. Many people have realized that I hold my conversation like I hold my glass of wine. Speaking of which, here I must mention that I am a teetotaler. But every once in a while, just so that people around don't think of me as the silent type, I try. And I take pride in the fact that when it comes to trivia, I'm a force to reckon with and can talk quite a bit about almost any topic under the sun. And that's not because I'm good at Jeopardy but simply because I rely on the fact that whether right or wrong, a lot of stuff I am talking about cannot be verified at least during the time the conversation is taking place. So, in short, I tend to get away with it. At least, so I thought. But all that seems to have changed. Recently, I went out for a team dinner with my boss. The place we had gone to was a typical American diner-cum-sports bar. Though the decor was that of a typical high-end diner, the thing that immediately stood out was old black and white reprints of a mustachioed man going about his daily life. Though the guy seemed vaguely familiar, I did not pay too much attention to them. But my boss (who unlike me, is a great conversationalist) brought it up. And here's a rough transcript of what happened (with my thoughts in brackets):

Boss: 'I've been here quite a few times but I can't figure out this place's fascination for Hemingway.'
Me: 'Oh, that's Hemingway, is it? I thought those are the pics of the guy who owns this place.' (Darn! So that is Hemingway. And I shouldn't have said the one about the guy and this place he owns.)
Boss: 'Oh, no no, that's definitely Hemingway.'
Me: 'Ok. Isn't he the guy who wrote a lot of books on some wars in Europe? I thought he was more of an European and less of an American. In fact, I think he was from somewhere in Europe. Perhaps the guy who owns the place wanted to bring some European flavor to an otherwise regular sports bar. Interesting.' (A-ha! This is going to be a good.)
Boss: 'It's funny, 'cuz I thought he was American.. hm.. now that you mention it, let's settle this here and now.'

And so he whips up his 3G iphone (oh-oh) and begins to browse. A couple of seconds later:

Boss (reading from the iphone): '.... (he) was an American author and journalist. Was born in Oak Park, Illinois...'
Me: 'Hm. Really? Illinois? Interesting. I didn't know that.' (Hemingway? American? Born in Illinois? Midwest? That's tooootally American. Or do they have an Illinois in south of France as well? Well, I'll be.... Surely he wrote about wars in Europe and lived in Cuba and 'Hemingway' sounds more British than American? Darn iphone.)
Boss: '.... spent time in Europe, Africa and Cuba...'
Me: 'Yea, I've heard that he covered a lot of wars in Europe during his time.' (There you go. I clear my name. I knew he was in Europe. But seriously, Hemingway? American? I missed by a continent and an ocean! Maybe he just spent his early life in US and later settled in Europe for good. Not unusual.)
Boss: '... and finally died in Ketchum, Idaho...'
Me: 'Wow. Idaho?' (Where did that come from? Not even close). 'No wonder they adore him here.... And the fries are really good.' (Darn! Ketchum, Idaho? Potato state? And here I was thinking that he spent his last days in Spain smoking cigars and sipping wine. These fries are really good. With Ketchup not Ketchum. Yum.)
Boss: 'Well, now that we know Hemingway's American...'
Me: 'Yea.' (Hemingway? American?)
Boss: '... I still can't figure out this place's fascination with him.'
Me: 'Yea.' (Who cares? At least in my current state I don't)

Beaten, bruised and totally humbled. I still can't reconcile to the fact that I had got it all wrong about Hemingway. The fact that I didn't know as much as I thought I did didn't help either. So much for claiming myself to be good in trivia. And so much for carrying out an interesting conversation. Seriously, I need to join a school where they teach you to be careful about what you say or how to be a good conversationality (I just made that one up: conversationalist + personality, you know). Lesson learned. Never mess with technology. Or 3G.

Vacationing in Monsoon

When was the last time you took a vacation and travelled aimlessly? For me it has been quite a while. At least travelling during vacation. I do travel but mostly on work. I do take a vacation but then I stay at home. In short, vacation and travel never seem to mix (at least in my case). So, when I warily tried to mix them, it proved to be a potent formula that was more powerful than the sum of the parts and did me a whole world of good. And then some. And here I must Thank the Weather Gods who behaved and didn't play Weather Witch during the whole time I was on road. That too despite a cyclone warning. A bit of rain, a tad of sunshine and a whole lot of good weather. Perfect for travel in a region that's notorious for its heat wave. Now, I can't wait for the next one. Here are some of the pics of locations around Visakhapatnam (Vizag), Vijayawada, Rajahmundry, Annavaram and Srikakulam.

The Distant Mountain

The Road not Taken

Coconut Trees standing as Sentinels against Rain

Annavaram