Landing in the US of America
As my every travel includes a surprise, traveling to the US of America has set of surprises.
Surprise 1:As soon as I reached the Hyderabad international airport, famous music director "Devi Sri Prasad" passed by me. Nice !!! Surprise 2: As I went to check-in my baggage it turn out that I was carrying seven kgs more than the allowed limit. I end up paying 18K rupees just because the weighing machine at my house showed me wrong measurement. Damn!!!! Suprise 3 : Teju came to meet me at the airport in her car ( she just started driving so its a big thing ). Wow !!! Floored. Suprise 4: Film actress Kangana Ranaut and ME got into the same flight from Mumbai to Germany and she was just standing in front of me while boarding the flight. She was pretty and beautiful in complete contrast to how she appeared in the movies. Cool!!!. Suprise 5 : As soon as I landed at Pheonix international airport a old american couple came to receive me. I just love someone receiving me. The couple took me to the B-school and make sure I got a room and carried my baggage till my room. Double WOW !!!.
After intimating about my whereabouts to my family I slept the entire night. Completed the registration and got the necessary access to roam across the campus. But in the process I realized that the outside temperatures were very hot. 48 degrees Centigrade. Just too much for me. It is not just hot but irritatingly red hot. Since the entire campus along with bathrooms had centralized AC I was able to cope up. Free WIFI across the campus. KEWL!!!.
Surprise 6: One of my close friends who was working at USA pinged me the next day to say that he was returning to India as his H1 B extension got rejected. So, What the big deal?? Of course it is a big deal. He is the one who promised me to support my expenses during my studies. Damn it !!!.
Surprise 7 : The demand draft I gave to the school to pay my fee got returned. WTF.Aren't there an end to surprises? It seems not. I found the reason pretty intriguing and the reason is that my clearing account at Bank of New york was blocked due to compliance issues with government of the USA. I need to make quick calls to SBI in India to re-trigger the transmission codes. Since my mama was working there I could be able to fix the issue. If he was not there it would have been lot more drama.
Surprise 8: I changed my savings account at ICICI bank into NRI account. But the process was in the midway when I boarded the flight. However ICICI bank sent my ATM card to my home address. My father sent that card to me without activating it.So, I cannot use the card even though my account has balance. When I called the ICICI bank customer care they in-turn asked me for my cheque book details for validation. Dumm !!! I did not bring my cheque book to the USA.
Things got subdued over the time as said by Teju, with her typical philosophical tone.In the meantime I got used to the hot climate, talking with chinese,new aerobic classes, thai and mexican food(eating salads, bread and beans). I lost good amount of weight. Participated in dances. Oh BTW here is the link for my first dance performance ON STAGE.
PS: My chinese friends call me "Chocolate."
PPS:My japanese friends call me "CHAKLI."
PPPS: Some professors call me "CHAKRA."
PPPPS: Life as a student is much more exciting now than it used to be in engineering days.
Surprise 1:As soon as I reached the Hyderabad international airport, famous music director "Devi Sri Prasad" passed by me. Nice !!! Surprise 2: As I went to check-in my baggage it turn out that I was carrying seven kgs more than the allowed limit. I end up paying 18K rupees just because the weighing machine at my house showed me wrong measurement. Damn!!!! Suprise 3 : Teju came to meet me at the airport in her car ( she just started driving so its a big thing ). Wow !!! Floored. Suprise 4: Film actress Kangana Ranaut and ME got into the same flight from Mumbai to Germany and she was just standing in front of me while boarding the flight. She was pretty and beautiful in complete contrast to how she appeared in the movies. Cool!!!. Suprise 5 : As soon as I landed at Pheonix international airport a old american couple came to receive me. I just love someone receiving me. The couple took me to the B-school and make sure I got a room and carried my baggage till my room. Double WOW !!!.
After intimating about my whereabouts to my family I slept the entire night. Completed the registration and got the necessary access to roam across the campus. But in the process I realized that the outside temperatures were very hot. 48 degrees Centigrade. Just too much for me. It is not just hot but irritatingly red hot. Since the entire campus along with bathrooms had centralized AC I was able to cope up. Free WIFI across the campus. KEWL!!!.
Surprise 6: One of my close friends who was working at USA pinged me the next day to say that he was returning to India as his H1 B extension got rejected. So, What the big deal?? Of course it is a big deal. He is the one who promised me to support my expenses during my studies. Damn it !!!.
Surprise 7 : The demand draft I gave to the school to pay my fee got returned. WTF.Aren't there an end to surprises? It seems not. I found the reason pretty intriguing and the reason is that my clearing account at Bank of New york was blocked due to compliance issues with government of the USA. I need to make quick calls to SBI in India to re-trigger the transmission codes. Since my mama was working there I could be able to fix the issue. If he was not there it would have been lot more drama.
Surprise 8: I changed my savings account at ICICI bank into NRI account. But the process was in the midway when I boarded the flight. However ICICI bank sent my ATM card to my home address. My father sent that card to me without activating it.So, I cannot use the card even though my account has balance. When I called the ICICI bank customer care they in-turn asked me for my cheque book details for validation. Dumm !!! I did not bring my cheque book to the USA.
Things got subdued over the time as said by Teju, with her typical philosophical tone.In the meantime I got used to the hot climate, talking with chinese,new aerobic classes, thai and mexican food(eating salads, bread and beans). I lost good amount of weight. Participated in dances. Oh BTW here is the link for my first dance performance ON STAGE.
PS: My chinese friends call me "Chocolate."
PPS:My japanese friends call me "CHAKLI."
PPPS: Some professors call me "CHAKRA."
PPPPS: Life as a student is much more exciting now than it used to be in engineering days.
Comments