IT'S MY LIFE

Chapter 1:

It’s that same old sound I hear every time I wake up in my room in Atlanta, but there is a difference this time, I am on it. Yeah, I am driving the truck, the fire truck. I am not in U.S. It’s my home town. Where am I going? I have no idea. Following me, I find that I am on my way to my school. There is a bomb threat to my school. I am patrolling the area and making sure that everyone is safe. You should know how people react when they hear a bomb threat. Kids are no different. There was chaos throughout and I was trying to calm the crowd. All of a sudden, my left ear goes dumb. I heard a huge sound and it’s all there. What the politicians said, what the police claimed (that the city is safe) have been proved to be false and people’s worst fears have come true. There is a bomb blast in my school. I lost my nerve and started to run towards the building. I can see a kid limping, can I reach her, Will I be able to save her……. Lose control………..What…why am I hearing a song from rang de basanti while running……..Oh shit, that’s my alarm. Its 7’0 clock, wake up dude, time to run………

Chapter 2:

“What’s your future plan?” was the question asked by my friend who is working with me…..Well let me think……”I will work for two or three years and then go back to India” – this is what I told him. I got a reply I expected….”You people always say this…..Once you smell money, you will never go back”…… Why we always try to stereotype someone else? …..Why do we don’t allow people to be different. No clue…… I was about to say “ It’s hard to say this dude, but, I see you as a aimless creature brought up with the only sense of chasing money”…..

Chapter 3:

It’s all about conversations…Now the conversation is “Why a lot of Indians are settling in U.S”

Hari: “Indians are not smart. Americans are smart. There is a myth existing in this world that Indians and Chinese are smarter people as they are taking up jobs in U.S, but I would say otherwise because Indians are not smart enough to see opportunities in India”

Karthik: “Indians are not patriotic. Indians don’t have the courage. We don’t really feel that we should do something for our country. We don’t really realize the difference between the amount earned in dollars and amount earned in rupees. Rupee is always cheaper to us. We don’t hold the pride in saying that we are Indians. We always chase money and we always end up losing our culture, heritage, mother tongue and probably everything. We are shapeless”
I am not taking a side here…its upto you

Chapter 4:

I am running…This time, it’s definitely not in my dreams. I am jogging around north park at around 6 30 PM with Sony headphones plugged into my ears. It’s this song…this one song that makes me feel nostalgic….Makes me feel of the days where I would just act as if I was sleeping so that my mom will wake make up…It makes me think about the dinner that would have all the items that I love even though I have never said that I want them. I am thinking of that moment when my mom cried that I was hurt badly in the bike accident. I can never see or probably think that there will be another person in this world who will love me the way you do…..never…Missing you mom…and to everyone…Dare to stereotype........

Signing of…………….meet you soon…..

A tale to remember ……………………………………….

Starring : Aravind, Janesh, Karthik, Krishnan, Preethi, Sathya, Sriram and Vishnu.
Screenplay : Karthik

The spring semester has started and first week is done. Courses have been finalized and assignments have started to flow in. This is not the best time to register one of my best trips, but I want to pen it down before I forget it. 
Let me start of by giving full credits to Sathya who used his credit card to rent a car based upon the driving of four people:- me, Janesh, Vishnu and of course him. We started at 10 30 in the morning on a day that was supposed to be foggy. Two cars were rented – Grand Marquis and Suzuki Reno. One resembled Contessa classic the other was a Tata Indica.

“Hit the pedal Guyz!!!!!” was the call from everyone……..No one has driven before in U.S and the fear of getting busted in the middle of the road with knees down has been haunting everyone. Still, the adrenaline rush helped us move head. The route to Panama city includes three states – Georgia, Alabama and Florida. One hour into the trip and a warning came from a senior who left before “Guyz, I just got a ticket in Alabama for over speeding!!!!!!!”. When the phone line was dead, we heard a siren somewhere when I thought someone was getting a ticket somewhere. Sathya who was sitting next to me said “machan, namma than da”. My hands started shivering. I had no idea wat to do. We pulled our vehicle to end of the lane on the highway and removed our hands from the steering. Surprise Surprise, the highway patrol just crossed us and went ahead. That was an embarrassing moment. “Veeranuku ithellam chagajam” nu sollitu e continued our journey towards the Emerald Island.

After 7 and half hours, after 4 pit stops, after some shivering moments, we finally reached the place, Splash resorts.

“Refresh yourself guyz, wwe are going out on a drive” was the call from Professor sathya.

It was not a good day to start with. We went to Club La Vela, to find out that there is literally nothing there. On the way return, It was my turn to drive Grand Marquis. Vishnu and Janesh were hitting 100mph and since the crowd was afraid, they demanded one of the safest drivers(karthik  ) to get the car from them. We were driving happily on the panama city front beach road. “Vada mappilai Vala pala thopla” song was rocking in the car. I didn’t want to hear it, but, once again, I heard the siren, the alarm that frightened me off on the highway. I was driving the car at 55mph (very slow compared to 100mph) and the Florida police were right behind me. I thought that they were chasing someone in front of me, but looked up on the road to find out that there was literally no one before.

I parked the car before a Chinese restaurant and those guyz parked their’s right behind me. Its confirmed, it’s me this time. I am done. Vishnu was calm, just like me, Preethi was shivering and Krishnan’s face was a bit whitened. I stepped out of the car and spoke to him.

Office : Sir, you were riding at 55mph on a road with speed limit 35 mph

Karthik :I apologize officer

Offier : No son, it’s a crime to over speed here. Do you have a license?

Karthik : Yes sir, I do. Here’s my Indian License.

Officer : I am sorry. Does that mean that you don’t have a proper U.S license?

Karthik : Yes (The politeness was gone as I was afraid)

Officer : I am sorry. You look young to me. I think it’s a crime for you to drive here in U.S and you are arrested under the law.

Karthik : What?

Officer : Hands on your back!!!!!!!

Oh my god What have I done, I have ruined everything. I have ruined my life, I have ruined my studies, my parents will come to know of this and I am going to be ashamed. My heart beat was hitting the high scale but my face remained calm. I was handcuffed. My head started rolling and I fainted.

A flash went by and I found my hands still on the steering wheel. Contrary to my dreams, the officer accepted my Indian license, but still went on to annoy me for my passport which I had left in the hotel. After some 50 apologies, they warned me upright and I was on my Grand marquis again, but this time riding it at 30mph.

I think I have introduced only a few characters to you.

To be continued when I find time ………………………………

Next blog – How Sathya got busted, How Janesh tried to kill the jet ski trainer, How our snorkeling turned out to be waste of money and why we canoed for 3 and half hours!!!!!!!!!!

I hate…I hate…I hate…………

It has been two months in U.S……I have read a lot of blogs which says how people are really happy about this place……. I am gonna write this in a different way, in a way that I believe conveys what I am thinking. Yeah, I am demented. The confusion started a few days after I landed....

Why?

The first thing I hate here is those insane Indians who say “This is not the way it happens in India”. They start the comparison work in two or three days after their first flight journey. Ah, how clean the city is, how kind these people are, how good the goddamn (yeah, they learnt that word in two days) college is”. Frankly Speaking, I don’t give a damn about these people. I say they are demented. I say that they are plain rats who were waiting for a chance to compare their motherland to a country where x marries y,z,w and the son of X has to choose one of Y, Z, W as their mother. I know that it is a very crappy sentence, but that’s wat these people are. One of my friends jokingly commented “Every two years, they change their car or wife, if they are not able to change their wife, they change their car”. I am not complaining about these people. You say this to them, they will be proud, coz that’s their culture. The problem with us is…Yeah, I know we are all from a country that needs a Rang de basanti to show that we need to be patriotic. The problem is, I am not like that.

India club….

This is the place that made me look more confused, out of place. The first meet of the GT India club took place on a day when no one else was in college. The admission fees is 20$ here for the club. Since it was boring to see U.S figures all through the day, I thought I will go for it. I went to the admission counter and saw two girls (don’t wanna discuss their attire, vivek comedy than gyabagathuku varuthu…”pavam veetla romba panjam pola irukku)….They looked stranged to me…Even they should have felt the same about me coz I went a few steps back to look at the board as I was confused whether I had come to the right club. After reconfirmation, I went in. Confusion took me to such a level, that I asked my senior who they are. Machan avanga ellam ABCD da nu sonnar…….Now…that’s the first abbreviation that I learned here….

ABCD – American born confused desis

I have two questions……If someone is born in U.S, how can the fuck he be a Desi, more precisely, how can he be an Indian. Why is she sitting in the India club as its co-ordinator, I think probably most Indian students who come here get confused (just like me). If you give a name to someone, they give it back…here it goes..people who come here to study are called PIGS…..Poor Indian graduate students…….What a sarcastic term to look at people who bet their lives to come here and study……

I hate …I hate …ha ha……..Enough of cringing..I am bored.., here are a few things that I love here..

Patriotism: Nobody realizes this. Americans are the most patriotic people I have ever seen. I see a lot of people who have served the army for 10 years or so and had come to studies now. You scold them, they might not mind it. Try scolding their country; you will deport the next day.
Education system: Awesome, I should say. It makes me think, It makes me sweat, It makes me work hard and It shows me what it takes to be a student here……..and yeah…it makes me cook too…..

I love everything here… The problem is that I don’t want this to be permanent.

Sorgame enralum athu namma oorai pola varumaa………………………………………………………………

A mail from bala.....................

This is what i got from bala....it was really good and deserved to be here........


A thought that's accepted,
An idea that gets materialized,
A spark that ignites,
A joke that's passed on,
A moment that's cherished,
A day that's remembered,
like
the life that touches others'
is the one that stays on.

May this be the day that's remembered,
for YOUR life that touches so many.

Happy Birthday !!!

A REPLY...................................

Reply to blog below…………………

I am gonna reply back to karthick’s(my friend) comments in the blog below. Read that one
>This is an age old topic and there has been endless discussions already done on this.

Yeah……its an age old topic…the problem is “the problem still exists without a perennial solution”


>nee etho figure a manasula vechu, avala correct panrathukaka intha blog ezhudhina mathiri irukku! ;-)

Good one…..you made me laugh here……..machi…ippadiyellam correct panratha iruntha karthi innum single ah suthikittu irukka mattan da……….

>Well, u have thoroughly misinterpreted Gandhi's statement. U like it or not, women are the weaker sex w.r.to sex! No girl rapes a man at the mid of the night. So, men have to fear only for their money when walking alone in the night! But gals have to care for their body too..(though nowadays, boys also face the problem!;-) ) Thats what Gandhi meant and I don see any male dominance there.... Its just the care for the female counterpart!

I didn’t say that a girl rapes a man or something like that…..I say that the world is surrounded by male population that smoothly devices the laws for the safety of woman…….I say that we create rules for woman….I say that we dominate them…….I say…Let them create their rules…..


>Do you believe a child can get the same love and affection from a caretaker that he/she would get from a mother? A child needs a mother dude..she is the greatest thing a person could get and the mother needs TIME to spend with her children. It is next to impossible to spend time with children when she leaves to office morning at 8 and returns at night 9 o clock.. imagine how much tired will she be doing so much of mental work and do u still think, she will feel like hitting the sack or spend some affectionate time with her children...by the time, probably they are already off to bed? so, r u happy with the child growing up without the love and affection of the greatest human being on earth?

A child needs a mother….I like that one……I accept that….But the child needs a father too equally……I am saying that both should share the responsibilities……We should understand one thing……No woman dreams of becoming a mother……Just let the woman pursue her dreams…Just because you want your child to grow up well, you want her to be the caretaker…pretty rough term ah…….A child needs mother’s caring affection…….But don’t make her sacrifice her ambition…Nobody is created to live for some one else……

>And I seriously do not think any guy treats his wife as a slave or look upon any female in that sense... probably a section of the society...yes!and that is due to lack of awareness and the way they are brougt up! They do not grow up seeing gals playing tennis and holding the mike. They grow up seeing women in the kitchen..

Slave doesn’t mean tying someone to the chains and asking them to work incessantly……Why don’t you call this as a polished slavery…..face the truth dude…will you ever sacrifice your life for your children….


>Take a survey among gals and ask them how many of them would be willing to marry a man who earns less than them?! I am sure the count would be less than 10 percent. Women love to be beaten sometimes by the counterparts... in some things..and men love to be beaten by their counterparts in some things... thats the way we have been living life so far and both the clans seem to enjoy it! Let it stay like that..don meddle with them unnecessarily..

Great statement da….This is something I missed out……A girl’s attitude depends upon how she is brought up…if u bring up a girl saying that your life’s dream should be to become a mother and house wife, she end’s up being beaten by counterparts…..Bring up a girl in the way you were brought up……Say to her that she has to chase her dreams and that she has to stand alone…….She will never like being beaten…..You said that “you would never like to beaten by a woman”…….Vice versa will be true….

Sacrifice......A stupid term....

One of us has to sacrifice? How will our kids grow if both of us go to work? I have heard these dialogues in run-of-the-mill stupid films. I have heard this dialogue from former chief of Infosys Mr. Narayamoorthy. I have heard this dialogue from my friend Aravind, a well educated individual who is pursuing his masters in Virginia Tech. I hope that you are intelligent enough to guess the point I am coming to.

Female – A person whom you like as your mother, a person who you like as your life, a person who you love as your kid’s mom. My question is on the face. Do you like her as your competitor? Many of you should find a hiccup at this point. If so, get a glass of water and come back. There’s lot more to come. Freedom is a word that everyone has taken has granted. Gandhi said that freedom has arrived only when a lady is able to roam freely in the streets. Isn’t that a male dominated statement? Why only a woman? Are men safe to roam around at that time?

Men are afraid. I accept this from my side. We don’t allow a woman to pursue her dreams. We sacrifice her for our selfishness. It’s so irritating when a male says that he has to work and his wife has to be at home looking after his children. Wat the hell? You are wrong in two ways here. First, you don’t ask what your wife’s plan is and second you ask your children to become whom you want to be. The term house wife is provocative and should be banned. I have never heard of a house husband. We dominate our counterpart. We ask her to sacrifice her dreams. We ask her to stay within four walls just because we want to roam around. Has anyone reading this has a point to counter against this. I suppose you don’t.

We are called the X-gen. We are called as the people to reform. Let’s change all this. Let’s stop looking at our counterpart as slave. Lets realize that she is a human being with her own dreams, ambition and policy. Let’s not flex our muscles just because we are physically strong. Let’s make a world where all are equal. Till then, slavery is not abolished………………..

...License to Fly.............

Hi Guyz

Got my VISA to GATECH on June 3, 2008 at Chennai consulate…Slot timing – 4.00PM

Went to Consulate at 2.45 PM…Not even a single soul was standing there. Don’t go early, there is no point in doing so as they are leaving people inside according to slots. They will leave people inside just 15 minutes before the scheduled time. I made use of the stars and stripes lounge which is about 1km from the consulate….you can keep your bags, cellphones here….. Don’t keep any sealed covers in your harmonium folder….

I entered the consulate exactly at 4

Step1: you will have to submit the following documents at the 1^st set of counters…there are about 14 counters…

HDFC receipt (blue)

DS forms

Passport

SEVIS fee receipt

GRE/TOEFL Scorecard

University graduation or provisional certificate

No other marksheets are needed. The counters verify your DS forms.

Basic mistakes that other people did

1. Forgot to write the name in local language in 157 form
2. Forgot to sign in 156 and 158

Also carry a tissue paper or kerchief….if hands are wet while taking finger prints…they will ask you to wipe it

Once they verify these documents, they put it in a separate folder and ask you to enter the next building.

Here again, you have 7 counters for issuing VISA. There are also a few more counters that issue VISA to elder people. There are no separate counters for F1 VISA. They call you out by slot timings. You will have to go out and stand in the serpentine queue. You cannot jump between counters or choose your counters. That just doesn’t happen.

My Interview was with a male…aged around 35…..was pretty lenient in giving VISA’s

Me: Hi…How are you

VO: Fine, how about you…Did you know that girl who just went

Me: No…Any specific reason for knowing her???

VO: She is also going to the same university

Me: Oh..thats great…I will go and out and talk to her for sure then….

VO: yeah….just say a “Hi” to her

Me: Sure

VO: So…wat are your parents doing

Me: My Father is working as professor and director and my mother is into agriculture

VO: Are you working

Me: yes sir, I am working in cognizant technology solutions for the past two years

VO: How much do you earn

Me: 2.6 lks per annum

VO: I don’t remembet..wats your father?

Me: Professor and director

VO: Then he must be making a lot of money

Me: Sure he does

VO: Then why is mother sponsoring you (he asked this question…..coz I had shown the amount for I20 only from my mothers account..so it was listed there)

Me: We have a lot of agricultural land and my mother earns from it

VO: How many acres

Me: 16 (this was a lie…said at the heat of the moment…I believed he wouldn’t ask for documents…later discovered that my mom has more acres that wat I said)

VO: Ok son…here are your documents….your VISA has been granted….you will receive your passport in 3 days,…

Me: Thank you……

Took my documents out and went to VFS lounge were they provided a sandwich and coffee for the 200 bucks I paid…

Additional info:

There are around 3 males and 4 females in the 7 counters…..

2 females (middle aged and looking grim) gave a tough time…..interview went on for 15 minutes…..

1 female (good looking young…you can spot her pretty easily coz she is only qualified person there)……she wanted to hear everything from the person…..the person standing next to me was about to show her some documents and she said “ I want to hear it from you..no documents please)

1 male (he was counter 7…….he was in thirties….lean…had some glasses…..i was praying to god that I shudnt go to him..he was the toughest of the lot…a girl with 9.51 CGPA (that’s wat she said) and etc was grilled for 20 minutes before getting a VISA…I saw him reject a person too…he said” I would not recommend you to apply again..however, its your call”…

Some question I heard from other counters

1. Why do you want to study after working
2. Why Masters..
3. Tell me about the university
4. Tell me about research going on at the university….

That’s the end of the story…..i hope that it is helpful,….Let me know if you need any further info……….