Its Christmas time and what better place to celebrate than in the United States. Every house here is decorated with christmas wreaths (tied neatly with bright red ribbons), bells, rein deer + Santa Claus (most of them are made of decorative lights). It's like a festive atmosphere.

I am right now in Bowling Green, Kentucky (the birth place of the Sixteenth US President Abraham Lincoln). It's a quiet place much like rural India. I have come here to spend some time with my brother who is studying at the Western Kentucky University (WKU). Its cloudy for most part of the day however early mornings whenever there is sunlight its a blessed place. The house where I am living is closer to the university. I can hear the bells chime every hour and the honking sound of the train. Its cold out here. After initial hiccups I am getting accustomed to the weather. I took a bicycle ride in the sprawling WKU campus and it was quite awesome. The bicycle was pretty cool with shimano gears. However I didn't use the gears as I wanted to use my strength to power the bicycle rather than relying on the gears. It reminds me of my bicycle rides in India when I used to commute to the gym.


Yesterday while I was walking down to Walmart (one of the biggest retail chains in the United States and probably the world) which is nearly 3.2 miles from my place, I was hit by a car. Now in India people have to look carefully over their shoulder lest they become a statistic for road accidents. However here people are supposed to stop for the pedestrians at a safe distance. Now there was an intersection leading to the main road. It was almost dark and a car was waiting to get on to the main road. I began crossing the road to get to the other side and suddenly the car started hurtling towards me. I was taken completely by surprise and shrieked loudly.

My hands fell on the bonnet of the car as I leaned on it and by some quick thinking I pushed my legs back to protect against injury. The car dragged me a few metres and then stopped. There was a female driver behind the wheel and she put her hands up to indicate that she was sorry. I was shocked and stunned as I was definitely not expecting it. From then, on my return journey back home chastened by experience I am letting the vehicles go even if they stop for me. Did someone say once bitten twice shy :) It was my lucky day as I didn't even have medical insurance. Getting injured and treated in the hospital here can financially impair someone who doesn't have medical insurance. Now that's a current topic here as today the Health Insurance reform legislation (Obama's poll promise for universal health care) was passed with a majority and must clear a final hurdle which might be just a mere formality.

When I narrated this incident to my brother he chided me for putting myself at risk by walking down to Walmart. The fact is although there are pavements for pedestrians here, except for a minority (which is very rare) people here seldom walk. They just drive. No wonder then people passing in motor vehicles looked at me as if I was an alien from another planet :)

(Image courtesy: http://www.walmart.com, http://media.photobucket.com/image/merry%20christmas/mandyr5_photo/christmas.jpg?o=7,http://media.photobucket.com/image/merry%20christmas/donutz_photos/merryChristmas.jpg?o=6)