LasVegas Mahabharata
For those of you, who are wondering "What is the relation about Las Vegas and Mahabharata?", all i will say is, READ ON!!!!
Las Vegas, billed as The Entertainment Capital of the World, is famous for massive and lavish casino resorts, the unrestricted availability of alcoholic beverages, and adult entertainment. Also known as the "Gambler's Heaven", this place is the soul of the Gambling world. Winning big money in Las Vegas is the dream of every Gambler.
So, What was i doing in this place??
Every indian who visits US of A will take a trip to Las Vegas. I had been in US for nearly 8 months, but Las Vegas had not come into my radar. Many of my friends described it as the ultimate place to visit. My colleagues always adviced me to visit once, before i leave US.
What had kept me from Las vegas? Many factors,
1. Las Vegas was a happening city. My Love for cities is less compared to my love for nature.
2. By the time i arrived in US, everyone of my roomies and colleagues had visited Las Vegas. So, no company.
3. I was a bit afraid that, i would not be able to fit into the environment.
Well, keeping all my fears and reservations aside, i finally made my trip to Las Vegas. Two of my desi colleagues and myself went to Las Vegas for the ThanksGiving holidays. "RAGHU CHALA LAS VEGAS".
We arrived in Las Vegas Grey Hound Station at around 4PM. The view from the Bus window was absolutely terrific. Some of the buildings looked as if they have been snatched from the pages of history. After departing from the Bus station, we made our way to the "Strip". The Strip is the most happening place in Las Vegas. Most of the hotels and Gambling centres are based near the Strip.
Arriving at the Strip, i was a bit confused. I had heard from everyone that the place is always crowded. But, the strip looked empty. Apart from the Casino's bright lightning, not many people were on the street. That is when my colleagues enlightened me that the Strip actually comes alive in the night.
We checked in at the hotel "Riviera", a hotel cum casino. So, what exactly is a casino? Is it similar to what is shown in movies? Like the one's in bond movies, where there are richly clad "gentlemen" and beautiful women in long gowns that sweeps the floor? Hmmm .. I Had expected something similar to that.
As soon as we checked into our rooms, we got ready to hit the casino's and try out our luck. My two colleagues had visited Las Vegas before, and were familiar with its ways. My first gambling was with a 1 cent slot machine. A slot machine is a box, where u feed in your money and press a button, the pictures in the machine rotate and if a particular combination appears, you will win certain set of points. More points you earn, more money you get. I lost a dollar trying to earn more money. One of my colleagues named Srini advised me to try the bigger amount slot machines. Before i could do that, i was dragged outside for a trip around Las Vegas.
What can one say about Las vegas? At night, it looks like the city in your dreams. Bright colorful lights rule the night. I was just mesmerized with the whole layout. The Casinos are built to represent various famous places. The Paris casino has an Eiffel Tower, not the same height as the original, but it comes close to the original. There is a replica of the Liberty Statue in Newyork. And we have Caesar's Palace. Caesar, the greatest emperor of the roman empire seems to have built his palace in Las Vegas. If you enter the palace, you will see personnel dressed as Roman soldiers. If you are a fan of the Asterix comic book series, this place seems to have been taken from the pages of the comic book. There are a whole lot of other things that catch your attention. Some of the casino's host shows to lure the crowd. Enough said, i just can't describe everything in here. Anyway, the story is about Mahabharata and Las Vegas.
Well, on day one, it was more of sight seeing and not much of gambling. We got back to our rooms early because, we had planned a trip to Grand Canyon the next day. Plan was to Gamble after returning from Grand Canyon.
Day two, started early and made our visit to Grand Canyon. I can't describe Grand canyon much. It is a masterpiece of nature. if you ever happen to visit it, i would suggest you to spend 2 - 3 days in Grand canyon and to take the helicopter ride. With a temperature just below zero, it was an exciting place. The best part was, when i had ice cream standing in the sub-freezing temperature. It was getting dark, the sky had turned red and you could see the bright moon over the canyons. Man, that was a sight!!! People around me were staring as if i was an eskimo. HAHAHAHA .... What can i say??? I just love to eat ice-creams in cold conditions and when it rains.
We returned to Las Vegas around 8 in the night. Dropped into our room, freshened up and we were rushed out to gamble. By then, i had decided to gamble only $100. Not more than that. We went to MGM casino. A huge casino where live lions roam in a glass cage.
I started with the slot machines. This time, i tried the 5 cent machines. I started with $10 and raised it to $15 and soon dropped to $5. By this time, i changed to another machine and lost the $5 as well. I then moved to 25 cent machines and started with $20 and after a few rounds, i won a major combination and $10 to my credit . So, i had $30 now. I started playing again and kept winning and losing, slowly i started losing money. The urge was there to try a few more times and see if i can win back all the money. Finally, i lost everything. As if, this wasn't lesson enough, i tried the 1 dollar machines and lost another $20. Totally, i had lost $50. By then, i was feeling a bit bad and thought that, i should stop gambling.
I roamed around the casino and found my friend Srini playing Roulette. Roulette is the classic version of gambling in movies. You have a circular spinning board with numbers marked on it, into which a ball is dropped. The number on which the ball stops, is the winning number.
I still had $50 to go and i wanted to push my luck to the limit. So, there i went and purchased 5 chips of $10 each. The best part about Roulette is, the previous 10 winning numbers are displayed on a board. So, based on those numbers, i started my mathematical calculations. I went for the least risk gambling, and was betting on only the colors and not on individual numbers. i.e. I could bet on either Red or Black. If the ball drops on a number marked on Red/Black ground, you win double the amount. My First three bets went for a toss. And then, my winning streak started. I won $200 with continuos small bets. I usually betted only $10 or $20, never more than that. So, there i was, happily winning.
But, all good things come to an end. I suddenly started losing... all my bets were going for a toss. Out of the $200 that i had won, i lost $100. This was when i decided to pull out... Was i wise? Maybe. There was another indian couple, seemed to be newly married. They started with huge bets and won for a time, but things went bad and they lost everything. They did not pull out until they lost everything.
After seeing my winning streak, my friend Srini(had lost around $200) also started betting again. And, he won two huge bets. After pulling out, i was just standing with Srini and watching over his game. But, the game pulled at me. After about 20 mins of patience, i finally lost it and started betting again. I won $70 before i started losing. I lost upto $50 and then pulled out. Once Srini started losing, i made him pull out as well.
On the overall, i had won back all that i had lost and a bit more. I betted again the next morning and lost a bit. But the one thing that i realized is, you should know when to pull out and cut your loses. Its not easy. Especially, if the bets are huge. That was when i finally found the answer to a question that had stuck in my mind from a long time. "Why did Yudhistira stake everything in the game of gambling?" ..... I had found my answer. Gambling is way toooo seductive. If you are not careful, you end up losing everything.
So, Guyz and Galz, If you want to understand the root cause of Mahabharata, visit LasVegas and gamble. Just keep your wits in your hand and know, when to pull out and cut your losses. Same goes with life.