Late realizations!!!

Late realizations!!!

I had lot of assumptions about US and people in US. Here are some realizations which were so stupid assumptions. Some might be so obvious, but forgive my ignorance.

1. Americans are not the best fit people in the world. May be I had seen all Hollywood people fit and fine which left me an impression that all the people in US are good looking and fit. Here out of 10 people I can see, 8 of them are over sized on their hips or on their tummies or other parts

2. Left hand drive is an expected part but people walking along the street are also in the same lines. I mean the people opposite to you walk on the left of you, not on the right of you.

3. 'The coloured people are dangerous and keep away from them' was one such assumption. But what I can see here is they are as human as we are and there is nothing to keep away from any one of them.

4. There are lots of beggars in America, I assumed there was none.

5. Here everyone does not speak good English; they struggle with their grammar and tenses.

6. Car is more of a necessity than a luxury here

7. Public transport in our country is far better than what we see in sub urban US. We should never take our public transport in India for granted.

8. Poor people in India live a better life than those in US. Because it is very tough to live if you don’t fall into an at least one bread everyday category.

9. Buying alcoholic drinks or cigarettes require an identity proof to show your age otherwise these products will be denied for you in US.

10. There are day care centre for pets in USA.

11. Indians are considered clever, intelligent and educated people in USA. (Don't know why)

12. American people talk a lot and they talk about their private life also in office. What I have learnt is, they are very particular that they don’t talk about their family. What I can see is they talk out like all normal people. Nothing particular but nothing hidden.

13. Every one greets each other even when they don’t know each other.
The Indian in US will not greet the other Indian until and unless some one needs some thing from the other Indian.

14. Honking is done only to give a warning about a probabilty of accident or when there is a serious mistake done by another driver, not the Indian style honk for clearing the road.

15. Half the cars will have their head light 'ON' irrespective of being a day or a night.

This much for now, I think I will have a longer list before I leave US and I might change some things listed here...... Things change with time na !

American Adventures............

American Adventures

It was another boring 16 hour journey, over conflicting time zones to reach the dream of an IT professional ...USA. I had mixed thoughts in mind, when I had my first step in US. The major thing going on my mind was, how I am going to find out the address that I printed out two days back from my E mail. There are two addresses, one mobile number and two home numbers. But I had my own list of problems.


1. My flight reaches around 6 in the Morning, US timing. Will the guy whose number I have will pick up a call 6:00AM in the morning that too from an unfamiliar number where incoming costs you in US.


2. What if he doesn't pick up? Will he pick up the LAN number?


3. My connection flight is in one hour and if I miss him in this one hour, all the people whose contacts I have will be in their office and I will not be able to contact any one.


4. I don't have coins to make a call and I searched the whole Navag airport for a phone machine which accepts dollar bills.


Finally, I decided to buy a coffee and get some change. Got change for three dollars. But my first two dollars where eaten by the machine because I forgot to press '1' before the number I had dialed. +1 is dialed in US for out of state calls.
But the lady luck shined on me as I got the person pick up my call next time. He was kind enough to tell me how to reach office and get in touch with him. The driver of the cab I took from airport to his office let me use his mobile to call my friend and get the keys to his house.

But I forgot to give him a fat TIPS. I gave him a nominal tip of 1 dollar where you have to keep it at least to 10% if you are satisfied with his service

I had a little problem in the leasing office, as the lady @ leasing office didn’t allow me to get into the apartment. I had to call my friend, to convince the lady to let me into the apartment. Then the numbering problem! If you are not aware I have a strange problem of not remembering any numbers lately. I had a sharp memory but these days I struggle with almost everything which is lengthier than four digits. My friend had given me the code number to open the gate to get into the apartment. But as usual I forgot, but my instinct helped me to type it in. Even today I don’t remember the 6 digit number to press to enter but I enter it correctly when ever I reach that particular place.

The rest of the day was like I had six peg of vodka. It was all the sleep and tiredness from a 16 hour travel. But I had to keep my self awake to fight the jet lag. The very next day I had to kick off my work in full swing. So the formula was like If I sleep today, I will have to sleep at least for another three weeks. I managed to keep my chin up until 5:15 pm, that’s the last time I remember reading my system clock.
My adventures continued on the next day with a train episode. Every place I had visited, I had problems with the directions for the first few days. Here also it happened. From my place I had to catch a bus to stop E7, and then catch a train to Five Points which is the central station and then a train to N2. So the funda looks very easy. I travel from east to centre, then to north. So while coming back, it will be travel to south until I reach Five points and head towards East.

But on the first day when I traveled back, this was not the case. I reached Five points central station and I got confused whether I need to take towards east or west. To put it clearly, I have to go to E7 but which train will take there was the question. There were more than 5 sign boards saying east bound and west bound, but some how I managed to avoid all those and get into a west bound train. After the first station itself I realized that I am traveling in the exact opposite direction. After a while I realised, any way this train will go until the end and come back to east. I had a good hard sleep for next 25 minutes. By the time the same train traveled to the end of west, came back to central station and traveled to E5 station.

The next adventure was with the coin washing machine in the washing centre. My friend had told me on about 1.75$, 2.75$ and 4.75$ washing machines. He also told me to use the smallest one as I had very less cloths. Any way after I went to the washing area, some how I found only 4.75 $ machine and wasted almost 3$ on that because I had very less cloths. The people around me was staring at me putting so less cloths in so big machine. My ego or my ignorance kept me away from asking where the right machine is. But now I found out the 1.75$ machine.


I have a strange gut feeling that lots and lots of Mis-adventures are lined up my way…No worries ....enjoying each day by being the dumbest.