Crossing the border

US Consulate Chennai for student (F1) visa:
My appointment was at 9.15am and I reached to the front gates at 9am. I saw a huge line, so I asked a cop standing there is this the line for visa interviews?? I have one at 9am. He said "All mad mam.. they have interview in afternoon.. you don't go (join the line), you go in". So I got in done with the all security check. Went to a counter where I submitted required docs. A guy sent me to another building and asked me to wait. A lady in another building told me to take a seat... I was in waiting room by 9.45am. It was really a wait, I was just sitting and watching students getting their visas rejected right & left. I did sit wait quietly till 12.30pm I was hungry and had given up any hope of getting visa. I went to the same lady and asked her whats wrong, why such a wait. She went inside saying 'let me check' came back and told me 'since you work for XYZ company we were doing a background check'.. ooffff in another 30min she put me into a line.. where the visa officer was a lady who was ripping every applicant. I wait in line for my turn, when it was my turn she decides to take a lunch break!!!!... calls up a assistant and said 'put these ppl in other line'. wow... I just nodded my head in frustration... interestingly a visa office in another counter saw me.. When I was about to put at the end of another line, this officer asked me to be next.. nice fellow. After the wait of 4hrs I go to the window... here is the interview

VO: Why Syracuse university?
me: I gave the previously prepared typical ans... he interrupted in between and asked
VO: So you work for XYZ.. and you want to study now...
me: Yes
VO: That's nice... oh you have 50% scholarship. You have enough money to go (then he stared typing some thing in his computer)..
VO: Can you put your right index finger on the scanner...
I did.. then he looked at me with surprise and asked 'is there any scar on the finger'
me: yes, I have a cut...
VO: ok tilt your finger to right..
VO: Mr aaaa your visa is approved, go pay fees at counter 1
me: fees..??!!
VO: Oh my bad... you don't pay fees. Run home in another 2 days you will get the passport.

Indian customs at Bangalore International Airport:
My flight to US was at 2.30am and I reached airport at midnight. After saying bye to family I headed to Customs. Officer at the counter too my passport and tickets
Officer: Oh you are from this town... Kannada barutta
me: Howdu
Now on he started asking me questions in kannada
Officer: Why are you going to US and what do you do currently in India?
me: For study, I used work as /se engg at XYZ
Officer: Did you not like your work....??
me: I did like it, but I always wanted to study further.
Officer: Good luck with study. (with a smile) Don't forget you are born in this country so do return.
me: Yes, I will
He put the stamp on my passport....

US Immigration at Philadelphia airport:
After killing 24 hours of travel from Bangalore to Frankfurt to Philadelphia, I reached US immigration at airport. A nice looking officer smiled at me and she said
Officer: Good evening how are you..?? Looks like you had long tiring journey...
me: Good evening... yes it was really long and I gave her my I20, SEVIS fee, Passport and other documents
Officer: Oh, Syracuse.. nice. Did you know it snows terrible there? Are you used to such winter??
me: No not actually!!!
Officer: Its a good school but weather is bad, I am sure you will get used to it like others :)
me: I hope so.
Officer: Place your right index finger on the scanner, and tilt it to right (that's cos it was taken that way wow)

She gave me back all the docs and put respective stamps and I90. She asked me for the customs form. I had checked yes for the question 'are you carrying any food'. She saw that and with surprised
Officer: You are carrying food into US?? what kind of food??
me: not exactly food, some masala and some spices...
Officer: Oh that's not food, everyone from India bring that...
She scratched that 'yes' from the form and wrote Do not open the bags and put some stamp... I was a little worried. But at customs that guy did not even bother to even see anything......

Yes I was officially (legally) in side US borders.....

US Consulate Chennai for H1b visa stamping:
After getting rejected once due to a mistake by attorney my H1b got approved in the next year... It was a too much of uncertainty till I got the approval notice in hand.. So I decide to go back home after 3years and wanted to get the H1b stamped on my passport. Within two days on me landing in Bangalore I went to Chennai. I read some horror stories of H1b being rejected while stamping. So I had carried some 5kg of documents with me!!!... I reached the embassy just 15min prior to my interview time. There was hardly any queue, it was really surprising!!!.. After security check I was put into a line where I gave all the required docs and they took finger print. Then I was sent to another counter meant for H1b.
VO: How long are you working with this company
me: 1.5yrs
VO: Can you give me your recent payslip and Masters degree certificate (She did not even look at it and made hand signs saying take it back)
VO: What is your position in this company?
me: I am this I am that blha bhla
VO: You can go home, you will get visa in another 2 days

WOW I was out in 45min... that was very very fast compared to my last experience.

Canadian Consulate NYC for visitors visa:
I wanted to visit Canada just so I can watch Formula one race in Montreal (But now looks like no F1 in Canada). Now my brother was there so I decided to visit him. I just went online and the process was very clear and easy. I took all the required documents and went to NYC Rockefeller center. After regular security check wen to the counter paid fee. Lady there said 'Give me all the documents you have' and I did. I took my token and sat in the lobby waiting. In an hour they announced my token number I went to a counter got my passport back stamped with Canadian Visa... Wow that was simple!!!...

Canadian border at Niagra:
This was some what interesting... It was kind of obvious that the officer was not very much keen on anything!!.. He asked if this is the first time I am entering to Canada with that visa. If I am carrying Drugs, Alcohol, Gifts or Arms. He also asked me the reason to visit Canada but mostly he was not interested in my answers... Finally he said 'Do you see that building there, go to that and get your car inspected and stamp on passport". So I did go the other building met a lady officer. She opened my passport and looking at the visa stmap on it she asked "Do you have visa to come to Canada"..... "Yes" not sure what was that question for.. she stamped it and I was officially in Canada.

US border at Niagra:
I joined the long lines of cars waiting at the US border check post. For my luck they opened a new booth and an officer told me I can go there.... yappii I did not have to wait very long. I went to the booth and handed my passport.. this was the conversation...
Officer: Where do you live
Officer: Is this your car?
Me: Yes.
Officer: What is your country of citizenship?
Me: India.
Officer: OK.. two questions. First Where is the money, how much do you have right now??
Me: I have absolutely No money!!
Officer: That's not possible, Indians are the one who are pretty rich now a days. Look at you, you have a got a nice car...
Officer: Second, Where is the food?
Me: No food sir.
Officer: That's not possible, You guys are known to bring home food to this country.
Me: Ya, Thats when we return from India. We both smiled
Officer: Can you open the boot.
I did and another officer who was circling around my car went to check.
Officer: Did you get into any trouble??
Me: No.
Officer: Really!! You have never got into any trouble. How about with your wife?
Me: Nop I am not yet married..
Officer: Lucky you, how about with your parents??
Me: Hummm... Ya some times...
Officer: I bet it was cos you did not do well at studies...
I just laughed when I heard that
Officer: You geeky bastards... and he too laughed...
He gave me my passport back and asked me to drive safe!!!

Back to US of A

After being in darkness and confusion finally on last week of April got approval of H1b petition. It was a joy to see the approval after facing a earlier rejection. Till I got the approval there were major drama... and numerous options that were thrown in front of me. I was even supposed to work from home for 4 months. May be who knows, I would have been sent home with a pink slip. All in all it was a crazy roller coaster ride. One thing that made me happy was my boss approving a full month leave for me to visit home.

Then came the fear of getting H1b stamped. Stupid me went to several online visa forums and looking at the posts I got more scared. Anyways I went to the consulate with at least 5kg of document. Amazingly visa offices was not interested in any!!! Life had finally started to be kind to me. I also reached a major milestone in personal life. One month spent at home was really awesome. It was a break I was looking forward since 3 years. I guess most of the time was spent in eating!!!... It was great to meet people, I know I could not do a good job. I have upset many people since I did not meet them.

With a month long fun behind me I started back to US of A. Got a very intimidating welcome at customs. Took a cab reached home. I opened the door just to see an empty apartment with no life... ordering a pizza for dinner was the last punch I could take..... "Yaava Mohana murali kareitu door teerake ninnanau... Yaava Brindavanavu seleitu ninna mannina kannanu"..

From next day it was back to work. I was happy that I could smuggle some home made spicy mango pickle for a good friend..... Right now back to the phase of impressing my boss for next round of vacation...

Finally....

I for one used to believe that mobiles are meant to make calls and send text. I never spent heavily on mobile in my life... I used to think as long as I can make/receive calls its good. To take pictures I have camera, to surf web I have laptop and to listen music iPod etc. This time went I against my philosophy and bought this baby just to pamper myself... yeh it feels good to carry one device...

Are consumers really that stupid???!!

I received a mail from my bank that gave auto loan for my car with subject "Relax and enjoy the summer!". The letter goes something like this

"Withe the rising cost of everyday expenses such as food and gas, it may be more difficult for you to relax and do the things you'd like to do this summer. Here is help, you can have one less loan payment. By postponing your next months loan payment".

Sign the 'Defer-A-Pyment' form and send $40 processing fee by July 18th 2008."

It was OK till here but now comes the fine print with *

"Interest will continue to accrue during the deferment period and additional interest will be due at the end of your loan term. Your final payment will increase as a result of deferment"

How stupid they think I am??
- First I pay $40 for god knows what processing...
- I increase the length of loan duration meaning they get to charge me more interest.
- Effectively by skipping one months payment (for the so called enjoy summer) I will be shedding more from my pocket...!!!

Who comes up with these offers...?? Are we that stupid and they can fool us so easily...??

Ath Shri Mahabharat Katha

This is what many of us were used to listen to for 94 Sundays Ath-Shri-Mahabharat-Katha. This is one of the great epics. It has everything in it. Moral values, Romance, Comedy, Tragedy, War, Love, Hate, You name it and its there....... But the best thing I like is the trivia, the turns and twists, links of different stories/reasons for one event... Here is a list of facts/trivia that I know of (from conversations, reading, watching TV, listening to harikatha etc etc).

• Yudhisthira's chariot used to float an inch above ground and when he lies (half lie) about Ashwatthama's death it falls on ground and never floats.
• Sahadeva was a great astrologer and was supposed to have known the events of the Mahabharata war aforehand but was cursed that if he disclosed the knowledge, his head would split in pieces.
• Ganga gave birth to eight gods, the Vasus, who are being punished with a human incarnation for having stolen Vasishtha's cow. By drowning the babies, Ganga returns them to heaven.
• Vyasa (one who recited Mahabharata and written by Ganesh) is son of Satyavati and rishi Parasara. Vyasa was conceived by Satyavati when she had ferried Parasara across the river
• Drona and king Drupada were been friends, but Drupada had betrayed Drona. To take revenge Drona wants asks his students to capture King Drupada as guru dakshina. Drupada is captured and brought back as a prisoner to Drona. Drona keeps half of Drupada's kingdom and returns half to Drupada.
• Draupadi in her previous lifetime prayed to Lord Shiva to grant her a husband with five desired qualities. Lord Shiva tells her that it is very difficult to get a husband with all five qualities. Then Lord Shiva grants her wish saying that she would get the same in her next birth.
• The Gandiva bow was the gift of the fire god Agni to Arjuna as a reward for having trapped the birds and animals in the forest so that fire could burn the forest and Agni could consume the fat of all the animals.
• Jayadratha's father had given him a boon who ever shall lay his head to ground will be killed instantly so when Arjun struck his head off and made it land on his fathers lap (Krishna helps by using his Sudarshan chakra) who is meditating somewhere and his father is killed.
• Dhritarashtra is so stricken by grief that he wants to kill Bhima. Krishna substitutes a metal statue for Bhima, and Dhritarashtra crushes the statue, thinking it is Bhima.
• Karna tels his guru Parasuram that he is not a Kshtriya and gets the education. Once Parasurama was taking a nap with his head on Karna's a bug bites Karna and starts sucking his blood. Karna to avoid any disturbance to his Guru swallows that pain. When Parasuram come to know about this he realises Karna is Kshtriya. For lying Parasuram cursed Karna for having deceived him, thus causing him to forget the mantra for the Brahmastra at the crucial moment.
• Uparichara is the ruler of the kingdom of Chedi. One day, far from home, he dreams about his wife and his semen spurts out. Uparichara asks a hawk to carry his semen back to his wife, but the semen instead falls into the river where it is swallowed by a fish. Later, a fisherman catches a fish with a baby girl inside. He raises the child as his own daughter and names her Satyavati.
  
• Gandhari was pregnant for two years. After two years, Gandhari gives birth to a hard ball of flesh. Vyasa cuts the ball of flesh into one hundred pieces that are sons, plus one piece that is a daughter. He seals the pieces of flesh in separate jars for two more years. Another story says that Gandhari was jealous of Pandu having five kids so she sqeezed her womb so hard that one embryo broke into hundred. Whatever it is this is a very goos reference of testtube babies!!
• Yuyutsu is a son of Dhritarashtra and a maidservant, born on the same day as Duryodhana.
• Kauravas's raid the cattle of king Virata. During the battle with Kauravas to rescue the cattle Arjuna (disguised as Brihannala) fights on behalf of Uttara Kumar. Arjuna makes the entire kaurava army sleep (Bhishma has no effect). Uttara Kumara takes pieces of anga vasthra from each great warrior on the field. Later he presents those cloths to his sister to make dress for her dolls.
• Shiva told Drupada that his wife was carrying a son, yet his wife gave birth to a daughter, named Sikhandini. But because Drupada was expecting a son, he treated his daughter Sikhandini as if she were a boy. He even arranged a marriage for Sikhandini, but the bride of Sikhandini was appalled to find out Sikhandini was a woman, not a man. SIkhandini then went off into the forest, where she met a yaksha named Sthuna. Sikhandini asked the yaksha to make her into a man. The yaksha agreed to trade genders with Sikhandini so Sikhandini could become male. Sex change was mentioned during Mahabharatha...
  
  

(This is work in progress... there will be lot more added to this list)

I got a letter....

I had a wonderful weekend.. I joined couple of colleagues and drove to Loon Mountain to ski. Drive was terrible as I had to drive in the heavy snow storm. But the scenic looks of White mountains covered white and all the trees on road side made the ride beautiful. My car got stuck in heavy snow pile while I was taking it out from the ski rental shop.. had to use sand to get some traction and move my car... All the trouble was worth taking with the fun of skiing. Friend helped me with some initial tips and asked me to practice for a while on bunny slop... I got some confidence and went to a beginners green trail. This time I hardly fell and had a lot of fun.

While we were driving back my best friend called me and told she and her husband want to visit me. Its been 3 years since I met her. She & her hubby took a 2hrs drive from Albany and reached my place at 8pm. I treated them with the brick oven pizza and we started with beer!!.. As we reached home the drinking session continued with Bacardi 151 and a bottle of Jack Daniels.. Before we knew the bottles were empty and all we were doing was yapping about all the good old college days!!!.. It was a surprise to know that it was already 5.30am... We decided its time to sleep. Everything till here went well. But when we got up "I had got a letter" which was slid under my door... check this out
I had no idea how to react.. I went to my immediate neighbors to apologize but to my surprise they did not hear any noise!!!! Probably the old couple who live below my apartment would have written. But I was having bad hangover so thought its OK. I really liked the way this letter is written, its kind of polite yet sarcastic. It was good enough to make me feel guilty (which I am)... Hummm anyways in a world where hardly anyone writes to me I liked this letter from my unknown neighbor.

Want bad kids...

I was having a time pass chat with my boss and I mentioned couple of naughty/bad things that I did as a child. Also explained him how I was punished later. He has 4 boys and he said I want my kids to be a little bad. They are too nice!!!!.. According to him American school, the society forces these kids to be overly nice.. They are forced to behave the way this system wants!! People expect them to be perfect and kids pretend to be so. He fears that restricting kids from doing some things on their own is bad. Every kid wants to be a little bad if we do not let them be so then they hold on to all that. He feels this may lead them to try out (really) bad things once they are free.

As per him learning by mistake followed by a punishment is the best way to grow. But he regrets that he can't punish the way we Indian kids get punished :P

I hope when I do a mistake at work hope he remembers only the " learning by mistake" part..