US.... and the life here....

I had never imagined I would come to this land of opportunities ( cliche') ... I still wonder how a die-hard brain drain supporter like me had landed here... I still remember those days when I had given fiery speeches in the college assembly in my undergraduate days about why intelligent brains leave India...... Hmmm.. hey .. dont think I have double standards... What made me come here was that I needed to resurrect my career....!!! Probably everyone had such reasons... ! I feel so sorry for having hurt a very dear friend who wanted to come to US very much in our PG days and I used to discourage her very badly by commenting on " The worthlessness of US" ...

Every dog has its day( again a cliche') and this dog ( probably I would be the gentle labrador if ever I am a dog.. huge and cuddly and gentle) had its year (2007) to come to US... I remember how fast my decisions had been and how quick everything moved.. GRE,TOEFL, Application, Admission , flight and here I am... It was only a matter of 6 months that took to get me into this land of paradox....

I remember the first flight... I had booked the window seat as I wanted to lookout from the sky..( I later realised my ignorance.... A window seat is really uncomfortable as u have to cause inconvenience to two more people to get up to go to the loo) .. Probably the travel in trains had hung onto me that made me want a window seat...(:-))

I looked out of the window and all I could see were clouds... I thought travel in the aeroplane would be exciting like we are moving forwards... But all the while, it was nothing but a feeling as if the plane is stationary.. the only exciting thing about the flight was the channel which displayed how and where we were flying.. So it was excitig to learn we flew over Greenland and North pole at a height of about 10,000 meters..( higher than Mt.Everest) ....

I could give an account of all our travel and travails we faced.. but I am not writing a travelogue... Its a blog and a blog isnt supposed to be boring...

So change the track... USA.... I am not in love with it nor am I enamoured with it.... But I appreciate many aspects of it....
The first thing abt US that is in complete contrast with India is its Technology...They have an amazingly developed technology ( read all facilities)...

I also appreciate the sense of art they have....their art is unconventional... they try to build something extraordinary out of ordinary material... and they appreciate every form with an aesthetic sense ....

The standard of education is also different with the application mode of study being encouraged... The students who had been habituated with mugged up study back home may find it difficult here....Brains r to be used...!!!!!

When i had come here with my Teaching assistantship, I had a pre conceived notion that I would have to deal with rowdies and uncontrollable brats... But I was proved wrong.. American students are polite, disciplined and good... They are casual in their talk but they do respect ur teaching and try not to disturb you in the class.... It was a big surprise for me... !!!

Well... let me continue my blog later .. I will come with why I call "US the land of paradox" in my next post....

Keep reading....