From the previous post...

"Why did I do this?" is a question I do ask myself sometimes... I mean I wasn't that cool about ACTUALLY coming down to a far away land... I was also not sure if I was doing the right thing... Yeah I knew that I need to go to a great school atleast once in life, and after 2 1/2 years of work ex I wasn't really sure about going to the IIMs ( not to mention that it is very very difficult to get into one and I simply didn't have that much time to prepare for them... again :P).

I did it coz I wanted to do it all by myself. I have always had this picture of me standing without any help facing all the brunt that is possible.. well not really, but in some ways I wanted to give myself a test and see for myself if I could do it all by myself... All the paraphernalia around me should be my creation.... no legacy to boast of. In fact what added to the kicks was a fleeting risk factor behind joining this course... people who cared about me weren't quite sure about this course... which kinda made me go for this even more... In cliched terms, I wanted to create my own tests, make them risky, and then take them... and maybe pass them too :P


At UIUC's Alma Mater Statue
(With arms wide open... Bring it on!)

This might sound a lil hedonistic but I guess thats how I am! I am usually not on an 'EgoTrip' trying to think highly of me, but yeah i have my own highs... I had one such thing in the past... I bunked a semester of Engineering mostly for kicks, having a good reason helped me then. This time was no different. The stakes were high again , it was about the next step in my career, the rewards were high and so was the cost of giving up a decently forming career to take a 'lift'.

Maybe I mess it up, but most probably I think I should be able to pull it off...

In Aerosmith words I always want to be 'Living on the edge'...

Continued from last post...

If I were to maybe sum up US (only all that I have seen of it) in few words, I can shortlist a few contenders...

a) Keeping the door open for the person coming behind you
b) Multi cultural society ( generally accepting for all sects)
c) Skyscrapers
d) All types of cars ( not that there aren't in other places, but here U have almost All types of cars)

But I think if there is something that maybe represents the US as a society (again as much as I have seen), I would say it's their buses here. Not quite what people might expect, but I have truly not found anything as apt as this to portray the cukture that people have here...

It was my first day on the buses here, and I did not have my University ID as yet... we climb into the bus (here the tickets are sold by the driver himself) and move towards the driver. Here is more or less what the conversation was like...

Driver (D) : Good Morning!
Me (M) ( kinda taken aback coz I havent been wished by a bus driver in my life) : Good Morning! I don't have my University ID... what should I do?

D: Oh! in that case you would need to buy a ticket from me! I am sorry but I hope you make ur Univ ID quickly...
M: ok ... How much do I have to pay?
D : you can do with a Dollar.
M: thanks .. here ...
D : Thanks ! have a good day...

I don't know how educated that guy was.. I kinda think he should be at least a 12th pass...
but his manners pleasantly surprised me... people got on the bus.. and got off... usually people thanked the driver while getting off and he would wish them a good day... people here usually wish each other.. smile while crossing people (even if they don't know each other).... maybe this is because I am in a campus and things might be different in a city ( I wd go crazy if in New York every passing person starts wishing me! )

The buses here have a unique feature.. they 'kneel' by lowering the 'steps side' of the bus, for people with disability, old people or any one requiring a lower platform bus. Not that this is 'rocket science' but this is very demonstrative of the respect given to every human. There are special areas in the bus for prams and handicap people... and the bus kneels for all of them. (although we in India do have a 'viklang' seat but I never saw a 'viklang' sitting on them... viklangs in India either don't get on to buses, or they stand with everyone)

At a bus stop (wherever there is one) you can find either a time table pasted, or an electronic status display for buses and when they are expected... Honestly, it is only here that I have been 'made' to be punctual, and I have started to expect the same from others :P

To sum it all up, I think the major difference I found between this place and mine is the respect given to human life, and the quality expected from everyone. For the diversity of cultures here (which is far more extreme than the one in India) people are a lot more tolerant, in fact even welcoming of people from across the world. You can (at least usually) trust the person in front of you. There is an amicable environment.. conducive for people to.. grow... maybe innovate, invent, and all that ... ( does the bigger picture come across now?). And the thing which kinda pinches is that most of these things don't require much money! just a culture... I wish we could copy these things from them rather than their fashion, music, slangs, accent ... I think they create value... Lets copy them there if we need to... or rather, using a popular sentence 'Do your own thing'!

Its been more than a month now in the US, and has been quite a ride since the start!

I have often been asked what is the difference between this country and mine...
My brother pops this question out every now and then...
well, in the time that I have been here and what I have observed, is probably best explained through the following experiences I had...

I entered the New Delhi airport after saying bye to mom, dad, bro, nani (granny), mama (uncle), mami (his wife), dada (elder cousin)... that moment I felt like being separated from my flesh and blood! I live with them and for them! is what I am going for something worth giving that all away?
I felt that the purpose of living your life is for your family... your people with whom you share your happiness, sorrows and all...

Inside the airport, when we lined up at our gate to enter the aircraft, all the passengers were asked to take their passports out... everyone took out their passports, there were many people and as many passports all around me... I looked around me and saw a group of French tourists take out their passports, then a Portuguese couple took out their, the Thailand boy took out his passport, the German traveler took out his, then the Spanish guy, the American ... passports were all flashing in front of me, and everyone was talking to their people in their own language... I felt like someone all alone with no one by my side... no one to look at with a sense of belonging... no one... my own... It was then when I looked at my passport, and as I read 'Republic Of India', I could feel the whole nation standing right with me... the echoes of thousands of people, just like in a stadium, all around me as if saying 'we are all right beside you my boy'... my passport was the only thing that gave me my identity in that moment. It was my belonging to a nation... my right to a land...

Reached Vienna.. my first stop... I had to take another flight to Chicago from here... This place was different.. majority of people (for the first time in my life) white, and there I was with another Indian by my side, standing in a sea of white people... we were walking in the airport, and we bump into a poster of Longiness watch which had Aishwarya Rai on it! India had arrived...

There on, I was not just Ankit, or the numerous nicknames that I had been know with.. I was an Indian. What ever I did, said would invariably be linked to me, my nation, my people... Had to be ready to shoulder that responsibility... its not as if u take it on you, it just comes... you have to stand up whether you like it or not...

To be continued...