The other day an old lady in her crimson Japanese sedan gave me a ride just a stone’s throw away from my place to The Grounds. Hearing my good fortune (which i amply advertised), everyone went awww. Apparently, she’s a neighbor. We talked about Sanskrit in the 5-minute ride. She’s been to places and recently been discouraged to take Sanskrit lessons. After 5 minutes I had another devoted Sanskrit learner. Patanjali and Panini are jumping in heaven i guess.

I wish I had better luck with the free ride giving souls here. Not that the rides aren’t free, the buses are free. That said, Charlottesville is one goodtimes place. Although, yesterday the goodtimes mood got a bit soured among the folks here as we got beat 14 -26 by William & Mary in the football season opener. That too in front of the home crowd. Chants of “fire Al Groh”  will be soaring through the roofs if we lose to TCU next weekend.

I don’t like the bow ties though. The tie wearing guys in white shirts look like “preppy stuck up snobs” which of course is our nickname  to every other non-UVA Virginia college kids. Orange looks much better. In retrospect, the best thing Al Groh did was to introduce the Orange Tide and the marching band. But the same can’t be said about the sun dresses. Them sun dresses look good. The “gentleman” tradition in football games in UVA is one tradition we an live without. And thank God, it has been weened out. Well almost.

Speaking of football, one thing I’m really glad about is the school spirit in here. I feel I’m back in my high school days again. Though this time it feels weird to be in the “classy snobbish” institution. but we’re always underdog these days in football. All my school life I was in this perennially underdog school which used to kick butts of the big boys with “attitude”. And i LOVED it. Then in the undergrad years, the school spirit thing kind of disappeared. Because that’s how it is back there. And yes, how many stadiums do we have in India with 70,000 capacity let alone university stadiums? I can’t wait for the TCU game next week.

GO HOOS!