A dull celebration..

Phew ! I should be partying, I should be boozing, I should not be sleeping at nights, and I should not be staying at home now ! But what to do here in the US. I am just a week old and have only professional acquaintances here. So no celebrations for me. Sometime back, I wrote that I do not want to write about every stage in this pursuit but now that no one is here with me, all I can do is write.

Life is gonna be exciting for the next 4 months - reading to admit's forums, different social networking groups, the admits internal website. I hear great stories about the passouts of this place but I still can't completely believe that something good is in store for me too in the future.

Something has perhaps changed, but I haven't started feeling it yet !

A fortunate dog..

Receiving lots of wishes today, I noticed one thing - all of my good friends said "I am really happy for you." A couple could have said it as a courtsey but every one of them !

Guess I have some of the most caring ones with me. Thanks pals !

A memorable day..

I spent the entire last night refreshing my gmail account, yeah partly because my bedmate, sadly a male, was snoring so loudly that I had already scrapped all my plans of sleeping early in the night and partly because this day was going to be a landmark one. Whom I had been courting for the last 3 years and had finally been able to propose sometime back and then had been asked to wait for another month for a decision was going to announce my fate today. Would she be mine finally? I was restless. The curtains downed at 10.43 am, Atlanta time, when not only she finally said YES but also offered to pay partly for her ring!

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Oh, I love you 'my' ISB !

P.S.: Branching the thoughts from the point of my bedmate being a male, now that my days are spent comparing the American culture with our own, I was thinking that our Indian culture makes us weird kind of straights - For us Indian male bachelors, to share a bedroom with a male bachelor, always be seen in the company of males, and party only with males is seen perfactly natural by the Indian society, whereas this would be exactly the opposite in the US. Such behaviour here would clearly mean that we are not straight !

Culture conflict in my head..

How nine cans of beer screwed me..

I didn't realize I had been asking so many questions. The friend whose home we (Rajesh and I) are staying at till we get our own lease done had nine cans of beer today and started talking after it got to his head.

- You are a new kid to the US. (Rajesh has been in the US for the last eight months, so I am the only kid in the house)
- It's not good to try to learn a lot too soon. You are asking many questions.
- Why should we bother about you. No, we wouldn't. You should be on your own.
- Things are very complicated man. You will find out. It's not easy buddy.
- Don't think too much at the same time.

And let me put a disclaimer that before, after, and between all those lines, I didn't speak a word. This was his idea of me in the two days of stay together that started pouring out automatically after all those beers. Man ! I guess I'll have to shut up a bit more.

Sodium in the US..

After months of hanging between whether I should or should not, I finally forced myself to take this step..moving to the US. Till the last moment, I didn't really want to work abroad just for money or for the name of this country. But, I was thinking that before joining my MBA, it would be better to go out and see what the world is doing and how they are doing it. That would also help me in making a first hand practical decision whether to try for a job in India, Asia, or the west.

My first days in the US:

The intial phase seems to be over in two days. The phase of uncertainty and apprehensions about whether I really made a right decision. It's time now to experience. The work culture in the US differs somewhat from India, as everybody knows. The residential complexes are very comfortable. And I have never done serious cooking in my life so far, so that's something trying for me. But I have to thank my room-mate here for his culinary skills. He can cook most of the things and charging a premium for this speciality, he always asks me to cut the onion and cry with it for my ignorance. Realizing that otherwise I may not have anything to eat at all, I am also content with cutting all the vegetables in the first few days of my cooking practicals. Perhaps by the end of first month, I would be able to cook all these things myself, end-to-end, as we call it in our IT world. But I won't mind cutting onion for our dinner even then Rajesh. You have been of help.

The apartment complex is posh - A gym, a swimming pool, squash and badminton courts, and not just Indian residents. I value the last thing because when I have come this far, I want to experience the American life somewhat.

Phew ! Life has come a long way man. And everybody has been there. Rajesh said for himself today that he had never thought he would be in the US ever.