Hello friends !!!
As my last post informed you about me reaching US safely. I did not give much details to you about my flight journey. You all will be thinking what is there to tell about my flight journey. But there are many things which I want to share with you about my journey. First of all this was my first international plane journey. Also I have boarded a domestic flight only once that too with a friend of mine called Shion and both of us went to Kolkata from Bangalore. So it was a short journey without us requiring to change the plane. But this time my route was something like this: Kolkata-Mumbai-Newark-Knoxville. And there was a 2 hour stopover at Brussels before getting down at Newark and I needed to change plane in Brussels too. I wrote a letter to my Dad giving him a brief discription of my life in US and my journey. Following is the letter: Check it out ! I welcome your comments :)
Dear Papa,
How are you and how is everybody at home ?
I am good. My classes have started and I am going to the university everyday to attend them.
Currently I have 2 courses in this semester. One is perspectives on communication and information and the other one is statistics. Also I have 2 research projects to work on. I could have taken one more course this semester but I did not want to overburden myself with studies in this first semester as it is a completely different kind of an education system and I am new to it. So I did not take any chances to take more courses. I have also chosen an easy course in statistics so that I can understand how things are taught here and how examinations are conducted, what are the expectations of a professor from a student and many different aspects. Most of my classmates have chosen a difficult level of statistics course here and they were surprised to see me taking a lighter course than them instead of the fact that I come from ISI. So I made them understand my point of taking an easy course at this initial period. I hope I am doing a right thing. What do you say, Papa ? Do you think I should take difficult courses from the first semester itself ? I have to maintain an average GPA of 3.3 per semester which means I have to get two A grades and only one B grade if I take 3 courses which is not a very easy thing to do if I am a new candidate. Here we have this flexibility of taking courses which we want in any semester. So if it is required, I can take the hard course in the next semester too ! That is why I did not take risk and played it safe.
Apart from that everything is good. Not much different as of now from the kind of life I used to lead there in Bangalore. The only difference is I get to see, meet and interact a lot of foreigners here which is a good thing I guess. This weekend I went to the international house which is a student body that organizes many cultural programmes and activities for students to participate and enjoy their time. This time it was a fundraiser program for Pakistan flood relief. So a lot of people were invited to this programme and food and music was arranged to entertain guests. I alongwith many Indians were responsible for cooking food. So I made Biriyani and other people made chicken and aloo gobhi ki sabji and mango lassi. It was a big event and there was also a media coverage of it. I will try and send you some of the photos of the event and of me here in America, so that you can see me.
Now I will tell you about my plane journey from Kolkata to Knoxville. As soon as I left you at the airport, Sanjeev Ranjan jijaji took me to the Gate where the plane was scheduled to come. This helped me understand that there is an unique algorithm to board a plane. I am sharing this with you. It is very easy and it might be of immense help to you if you travel by plane in future. The thing is there are two important points which you need to know and keep in mind. One is whether you are boarding an international flight or whether you are traveling within your own country which is called domestic flight. Most of the airports have both of these terminals (sections) namely Domestic and International. From domestic terminal you catch flights for traveling within your own country and from international terminal you catch flights to go outside your country. Now in each of these terminals you have separate GATES. Gates are the places where people sit and wait for their plane to arrive. Every gate has a unique number. When the plane is ready to have passengers in it, people make announcements about it saying XXX plane is ready and all the passengers are requested to board the plane. So everybody stands in a line and the boarding pass and tickets are checked so that you can enter the plane. So as soon as I went to the gate where my plane was due to arrive, I sat there for few minutes and then there was the announcement for boarding the plane. Now entering into the plane is also a big process. People who have tickets in business class are given more preference. Then people with disability are given more preference and then people having tickets in economy class are called. Passengers are requested to stand in a line on the basis of these criteria to board the plane. They may also announce something like people who have seat number 27- 40 stand in a line, so you need to always keep your ears and eyes open in order to get to know what is happening around. Shion told me this thing and I followed it very carefully. It really helped me very much. Then I entered the flight, took my seat, tied the seat belt, called you up perhaps and then the flight took off.
When I landed in Mumbai, I was a bit scared and nervous as I did not know where to go and what to do because unlike other planes this particular plane by which I traveled from Kolkata to Mumbai landed far away from the airport on a ground where there were lots of aeroplanes around standing at a distance. So here I was standing in the middle of the ground and not knowing where to go. Then I talked to the Jet Staff standing about the fact that I need to go to the international terminal. So he told me to wait there for sometime as there will be a bus coming from the airport which will take me to the domestic terminal and from there I will get another bus for going to international terminal. So I waited and then boarded a bus which came after 5 minutes and went to the domestic terminal of Mumbai airport. There I showed my ticket and they asked me to stand in a line to board a bus which will take me to the international terminal. Then again I boarded a bus full of passengers going to the Mumbai international terminal. It was quite far away from the domestic one. Must be about 30 minutes by bus. Then the bus persons told us the gate numbers from where we need to catch our flights. For JET Airways there was a different gate number, for Thai Airways it was a different gate number and so on. At the entrance of my gate, my passport was checked, then I entered the international terminal of Mumbai airport. The personnel over there had a list of all the passengers boarding a JET Airways flight, so he made a tick near to my name in the list and asked me to go and fill up a immigration form and submit it at the immigration counter. I enquired about verifying my luggage but the JET people told me that I need not do this as my next flight was also JET Airways so it would be automatically loaded. Then I submitted the form at the immigration counter. The person checked my i-20 and asked me to proceed. Then again I went through the process of body checking and the bag checking which I was carrying. Then I moved to the gate where my plane was to arrive. I saw the MUMBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT and you won't believe it unless you see it. It is just so beautiful and big. It is like a city in itself. Just beyond words. I bought sandwich there and ate and called you up. Then boarded the flight. Again everybody's entire luggage and footwear were checked before boarding the flight. I was sitting in the middle of a student who was going to Texas for his masters and a person from UP who was going to Arkansas for his job. We had personal computer screens there having music, movies, Hindi and English serials for our entertainment. Then we were given hot towels to rub on our faces to get refreshed. We also were able to see a video showing where we were geographically i.e we could see a map of India and our place Mumbai from where the plane was about to take off. And later as the plane flew and the positions of the plane changed we were able to see that on the screen. So if we were crossing say Paris we could see that on the screen that our plane is over Paris or some other country or where we presently are. This is the best part of the entire journey which I liked. Then I got food and saw a video before getting down at Brussels about what to do in Brussels. Where to go and all..I followed them. Again there was a lot of checking. They also asked me to take out my belts of the jeans and shoes which was very embarassing. But then they were asking everybody to do this so it did not really matter. Then I messaged you. I again boarded the flight for Newark and got down at Newark. Newark was the first point of entry to US so I had to go through immigration here once again. Before getting down in Newark we were also given some documents to fill up called i-94 form which had details about where we are going to stay in US, why are we coming here and declaration about me not carrying any illegal stuff etc. Then I went through the immigration process once again. The officer asked me if it was my first time in US. I said yes. Then he asked for my i-20 and the forms which I filled in the plane, took my finger-prints and stamped my i-20 and gave it back to me. He asked me to proceed. My immigration in US got cleared. Now I needed to take my luggage and take it to the counter from where it will be loaded to the Knoxville plane. I went and bought a trolley for $5 and took my luggage and boarded the domestic terminal. I needed to have a new boarding pass because this was a flight of different airlines. Then I went to the continental airlines counter. A person standing there was loading all the luggage going to Knoxville in the plane. He asked me when is my flight to Knoxville ? I replied at 8:00 pm. He took my luggage and transferred it to the required plane. Then I took a local train to go to the domestic terminal of continental airlines. Just imagine Papa how big is the airport that people have trains to go from one location to other.
Then I went to the required terminal but could not understand where exactly to go for the boarding pass. I tried asking people. But some people here speak with a different accent which is difficult to understand. So even though they were saying something in response to my question, I was not able to comprehend that. I really got nervous. I tried finding that UP person but people in the immigration took him to the interrogation for 2 hours, so he was also not there and I was all alone and nervous and ill and having no idea of what to do next. For a few moments I felt like crying on the airport. Then I decided to be strong and calm myself a bit and ask someone whose English I can understand. Then I asked a lady police officer and she directed me to a right place. I got the boarding pass, took a local train again to come back to the place from where I needed to board the plane for Knoxville. Again checking was done. By this time I was hungry, I wanted to talk to you and inform you about myself, I wanted to go to bathroom. So I bought water and got some change and tried calling you. Luckily it worked. I got a bengali girl at the Newark airport who told me how to use a booth in US so it helped a lot. Then I went to bathroom and got freshen up. I did not eat anything as I could not understand what to eat because everything looked here so different and big so I decided to eat in Knoxville. Then I slept there for 2-3 hours and woke-up and got-into the next flight. Then I reached Knoxville. Met the people from Indian students association, took my luggage and went to Anuradha's place.
I hope now you have a detailed description of how my journey was. It was really tiring and I kept sleeping for entire week because I was very ill and I had jet-lag.
Now everything is fine. I will be in touch. You take care. Pranam.
Mona (My nickname)
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
I am in USA !!!
Yes, as the title suggests I am in USA right now. Past 26 days were so hectic, busy, full of work that I did not get time to update my blog. Now, I am little relaxed and feeling slightly better, that's why here is the update regarding the past few weeks.
In the earlier post I mentioned about the confirmation of visa. So here is what happened next...
Sudipta's elder sister and her husband dropped me and Sudipta to the Chennai railway station by their car. We were a bit late and the train was about to leave within a few minutes but we managed to catch it. In the mean time I also bought some sweets for my friends in ISI. We reached Bangalore quite early in the morning. It was around 4:oo am and it was dark outside. So we decided to wait for sometime in a nearby cafe. We had samosas, coke and coffee. We talked about several things and before I realized, it was 5:00 am. This is the best thing about Sudipta's company, I never feel bored when he is around and the time goes away so quickly that I want to hold it as much as I can. But I can't. I think the duration of beautiful things in life is always less, so that people realize its importance deeply and this is exactly the case with the me and Sudipta.
We took a bus from Majestic bus terminus and came to the campus at around 5:30 am. Nobody was there in the campus except the security guards and it was a sweet cold-ish morning of Bangalore. I thanked Sudipta for being there with me all this time and told him how important he is to me. He replied,"I have done what a friend should have done at my place". But the reality is now-a-days there are very few friends who help you when you really need them.
We reached our hostel and went to our respective rooms.
I thought of taking rest in my room but could not sleep as my father kept calling me for 4-5 times about the air-ticket booking and all my sleep had gone by that time. So I thought of going to the lab for checking my e-mails. Also on 14th of July, there was an interview for the upcoming MS(LIS) batch, which I missed as I was in Chennai. When the students got selected for the interview, many of them emailed me about the preparation they should do for clearing the interview round. So I was very curious to meet my juniors. Then at around 9:oo am I went for a walk with Sumita, one of my friends at ISI. I was discussing something important with her when I saw a group of 3 boys coming towards us. However I did not pay any attention to them thinking they might have come for the interview and we walked past them. They were also talking amongst themselves. Suddenly I heard a voice from behind "excuse me" ! I turned back and said "yes". One of the guys asked me if I was Priyanki ? I replied yes I am. Then they introduced each one of them and said we are all your new juniors. They also congratulated me for my visa approval about which Shion and Alka had told them. I talked to them for a while and then went to the lab for studying as one of the exams was still left and this time it was Knowledge Management. I had not studied a single chapter of this course as I did not understand what to study for it. Anyway I tried to study something just in case I do not fail. I informed my professors about the visa approval. Next afternoon I gave a miserable KM exam and I do not really remember what I wrote as I wrote nothing special. I just filled up the paper with some bullshit and I was scared if I will pass or not. After I went out of the classroom I got an envelop from visa office with my passport and visa on it. So I was relaxed. I informed my parents about it. And now a new tension in my life, how to book an air-ticket ? And my parents were as usual in hyper tension about it.
I had so much of work to do in the mean time. I had to do packing for going to Kolkata finally, submit my thesis, arrange for the ticket to Knoxville, do all the formalities of leaving the institute. I tried doing it one at a time. My air-ticket was booked by one of my relatives in US electronically. I completed my thesis and showed it to professor IKR. However he wanted some improvements in it and I had no time. I told him I will go to Kolkata, will make the changes inn the thesis and send him the e-copy. If he finds it alright then, Sudipta will make a hard-copy of it and give it to him. Surprisingly he agreed. Prof. IKR is very strict and I think if there would have been any other student at my place, he would not have allowed this much of freedom. Sometimes good rapport and decent behaviour plays an important role in life. I never bunked classes while I was in ISI, misbehaved with any faculty over there, did studies and participated well in the classroom , may be these things were considered by him to give me such a freedom. I thank him from the core of my heart.
It was 22nd July, final day at ISI. I did my packing and it was time to leave. It was an emotional moment. I met all the teachers who taught me. All the administrative staff , people in the canteen who served me food, clerk in the office everybody who in some way or the other contributed to my life in ISI. I thanked everybody and took their blessings. For the last time I saw my lab, I touched my computer, I did pranam to the college building, to my room, hugged my friends, cried and left ISI with only good memories in my heart. Shion and Binit came to the railway station to say good-bye. It is with them I staretd my journey of ISI. It is with them I ended my journey of ISI. For few minutes I just could not talk when I was sitting in the auto while going to the station. I was totally blocked from inside. There was, rather there is a lot of emotion inside my heart about ISI and words are not enough to express them. The more I think about it, the more it kills me. So , I stopped thinking about it and began a new journey ahead.
In the earlier post I mentioned about the confirmation of visa. So here is what happened next...
Sudipta's elder sister and her husband dropped me and Sudipta to the Chennai railway station by their car. We were a bit late and the train was about to leave within a few minutes but we managed to catch it. In the mean time I also bought some sweets for my friends in ISI. We reached Bangalore quite early in the morning. It was around 4:oo am and it was dark outside. So we decided to wait for sometime in a nearby cafe. We had samosas, coke and coffee. We talked about several things and before I realized, it was 5:00 am. This is the best thing about Sudipta's company, I never feel bored when he is around and the time goes away so quickly that I want to hold it as much as I can. But I can't. I think the duration of beautiful things in life is always less, so that people realize its importance deeply and this is exactly the case with the me and Sudipta.
We took a bus from Majestic bus terminus and came to the campus at around 5:30 am. Nobody was there in the campus except the security guards and it was a sweet cold-ish morning of Bangalore. I thanked Sudipta for being there with me all this time and told him how important he is to me. He replied,"I have done what a friend should have done at my place". But the reality is now-a-days there are very few friends who help you when you really need them.
We reached our hostel and went to our respective rooms.
I thought of taking rest in my room but could not sleep as my father kept calling me for 4-5 times about the air-ticket booking and all my sleep had gone by that time. So I thought of going to the lab for checking my e-mails. Also on 14th of July, there was an interview for the upcoming MS(LIS) batch, which I missed as I was in Chennai. When the students got selected for the interview, many of them emailed me about the preparation they should do for clearing the interview round. So I was very curious to meet my juniors. Then at around 9:oo am I went for a walk with Sumita, one of my friends at ISI. I was discussing something important with her when I saw a group of 3 boys coming towards us. However I did not pay any attention to them thinking they might have come for the interview and we walked past them. They were also talking amongst themselves. Suddenly I heard a voice from behind "excuse me" ! I turned back and said "yes". One of the guys asked me if I was Priyanki ? I replied yes I am. Then they introduced each one of them and said we are all your new juniors. They also congratulated me for my visa approval about which Shion and Alka had told them. I talked to them for a while and then went to the lab for studying as one of the exams was still left and this time it was Knowledge Management. I had not studied a single chapter of this course as I did not understand what to study for it. Anyway I tried to study something just in case I do not fail. I informed my professors about the visa approval. Next afternoon I gave a miserable KM exam and I do not really remember what I wrote as I wrote nothing special. I just filled up the paper with some bullshit and I was scared if I will pass or not. After I went out of the classroom I got an envelop from visa office with my passport and visa on it. So I was relaxed. I informed my parents about it. And now a new tension in my life, how to book an air-ticket ? And my parents were as usual in hyper tension about it.
I had so much of work to do in the mean time. I had to do packing for going to Kolkata finally, submit my thesis, arrange for the ticket to Knoxville, do all the formalities of leaving the institute. I tried doing it one at a time. My air-ticket was booked by one of my relatives in US electronically. I completed my thesis and showed it to professor IKR. However he wanted some improvements in it and I had no time. I told him I will go to Kolkata, will make the changes inn the thesis and send him the e-copy. If he finds it alright then, Sudipta will make a hard-copy of it and give it to him. Surprisingly he agreed. Prof. IKR is very strict and I think if there would have been any other student at my place, he would not have allowed this much of freedom. Sometimes good rapport and decent behaviour plays an important role in life. I never bunked classes while I was in ISI, misbehaved with any faculty over there, did studies and participated well in the classroom , may be these things were considered by him to give me such a freedom. I thank him from the core of my heart.
It was 22nd July, final day at ISI. I did my packing and it was time to leave. It was an emotional moment. I met all the teachers who taught me. All the administrative staff , people in the canteen who served me food, clerk in the office everybody who in some way or the other contributed to my life in ISI. I thanked everybody and took their blessings. For the last time I saw my lab, I touched my computer, I did pranam to the college building, to my room, hugged my friends, cried and left ISI with only good memories in my heart. Shion and Binit came to the railway station to say good-bye. It is with them I staretd my journey of ISI. It is with them I ended my journey of ISI. For few minutes I just could not talk when I was sitting in the auto while going to the station. I was totally blocked from inside. There was, rather there is a lot of emotion inside my heart about ISI and words are not enough to express them. The more I think about it, the more it kills me. So , I stopped thinking about it and began a new journey ahead.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Visa Done
Good Morning Friends !!!
Yeah as the title suggests my visa has been approved for US studies. Seems like I have crossed another hurdle in my way. Not to forget there will be many more hurdles in future however for the time being situation seems to be under control.
Getting my visa approved was also an experience of one of its kind. I would like to share it with all of you. I hope it might be of some help to all of you. It is a long story but I personally like to say each and every thing in detail, especially the experiences which are extremely good and the ones which are very bad too. So it goes like this:
Earlier my plan was to go to Kolkata where my parents stay to have my visa done. Also for booking the air-ticket, immunizations etc. I wanted to go home as I know people there and things are easier if you stay at home. But due to my exams I could not go there and my classmate Shion suggested that I should go to Chennai for my visa interview as it is quite near and will save my time. I agreed to that and convinced my parents about it. This time convincing them was not that tough as they understood my problem. However they wanted me to go to Chennai with a friend. They did not want me to go alone and search for US consulate and give interview etc because that would not have been very safe. I understood their anxiety and asked several friends and each one of them declined very easily. Some of them had genuine problems and issues and some of them just did not want to go. But they do not hesitate for a single moment when they themselves need some help and straightaway come to me for help. It hardly happens that I decline anybody when they come to me for some help. It is good to see how people change and say no to you without a tint of shame on their faces and forget about the time when they came for help and I helped them out without throwing any tantrums. I was not getting anybody to go along with me. My father suggested he would send my brother to go with me to Chennai but I did not want to trouble him from so far. So I said no to this proposition. Then I approached my dear friend and one of my juniors Sudipta. He is having his exams from 19th of July and it is difficult to go out of station during exams. But when I told him that I am not getting anybody to go along with me, he agreed. The most amazing and worth praising part was not only did he agree but he did not take any money for the tickets booking. He paid for his fare and it was his condition that if he will go with me, he will pay for his own fare and not me. I had no other option and I said yes to him.
The next difficulty was two of my father's friends already stay in Chennai and they agreed to accommodate me in their house. But as soon as they heard that I am coming with a boy, they declined. Our society is so, so conservative, I can't tell you. People always think that a girl and a boy together always have something going on between them. They just don't understand that their exist something called "genuine friendship" on this earth. Sudipta went with me for the sake of friendship and nothing else. He had no profit in it. He just did what a genuine and real friend should have done at his place.
Now when both the uncles declined, I was in tension once again and my parents were in more tension as usual. Sudipta had a cousin in Chennai and he wanted to meet her if he visited Chennai. When I told him the entire accommodation problem, he asked me if I was comfortable staying at her sister's place. I called up my parents and told them about it. At first they were like a little apprehensive and asked me questions like you never told me that his sister lives there and all. I said I never felt a need to tell you all those details. But now when the situation has become like this I thought about telling you. In the mean time one of my papa's friends called me up and he wanted to make arrangements for both of us in the railway retiring room. I somehow did not like the option of staying there for one-night. So I told Sudipta that I will be staying at his sister's place if she did not mind. He told her about this entire thing and she said yes to it and said just for one night it is not good that a girl would stay out in the railway retiring room. And finally we went there.
It is so surprising that sometimes strangers do understand you and help you out in dire needs when your own friends just back out. She not only allowed me to stay at her place, she gave us a nice warm welcome. She gave me a separate room with a whole lot of privacy. She never behaved in such a manner that I was a burden on them and kept me involved in all the talks which she was having with Sudipta. Didi's name is Amita and she is married. She has a cute little son called R.Deepak who studies in class 7. Not only didi made the stay comfortable but jiju (her husband) was also very kind, polite, friendly and frank. I did not feel even for one second that I am stranger and that they should not talk to me.They were all very easy going. We reached Chennai around3:00 pm on 13 th July and went to this place called Shenoy Nagar. Then we had our lunch. And in the evening we went to Tiruvika park in front of their house. We enjoyed there a lot and came back. I was so tired that I slept at around 9:00 pm and woke up at 4:30am for getting ready. My visa interview was at 8:00 am and I needed to report there at 7:30 am. Jiju dropped me and Sudipta to the US consulate by his car on time. It was so sweet of him.
One of the things which I liked the most in their house was in the early morning she started the music system which played nice devotional songs and it made the atmosphere of the house so peaceful and calm, I can't tell you. When I will get married sometime in future, I will also do the same. I like listening to devotional songs in the early morning.
Then I went to the US consulate. There was a long line. Slowly the line progressed and my turn came. I needed to show the passport and interview confirmation letter in order to enter the embassy. Then a lady guard did the security check and asked me to deposit the CD which I had with me which contained a digital copy of my photograph to a particular counter. I ran up to the counter and then the person asked me for Rs.10 for depositing the CD. I gave all my belongings to Sudipta when I went to stand in the line including money so I did not have a single coin with me. when I looked around I could not him. There was a big crowd of people. So I thought about borrowing Rs10 from somebody and then I would have returned the money to that person. I asked a well dressed person and explained him the situation but he just gave me a weird look and thought may be it is just a way to take some money out from him. God!!! Then the person who was accepting things for deposit told me to give the CD to the person with whom I came along. I turned around in the hope to find Sudipta and I was running out of time so I needed to get into the embassy as soon as possible. This time I found him. I went to him, gave him the CD and got inside the embassy.
Again a round of body checking and file checking etc. Then went to a counter where they asked for finger prints of both the hands. And asked for the HDFC bank receipt, Sevis fee confirmation report, i-20, passport and visa interview confirmation paper. A lady on the counter checked these documents entered some information in the database and put those documents in another folder and gave it back to me. Then I was directed to other building for the interview. There were 5 counters on which Consulate officers were sitting. two of them were ladies and 3 of them were gents. The one who took my interview, was tall, fair, healthy and bald. He was kind of huge and his appearance was enough to scare me off. But he was extremely polite and patient. I got to know this when I talked to him. Following is the excerpt of the interview which lasted for around 4-5 minutes.
officer: Good morning!!! How are you ?
me: Good morning ! I am fine, thank you. How are you ? (with a sweet smile on my face)
officer: I am fine, thank you.
[I passed on the documents which were in the folder]
officer: So, where would you be volunteering ???
[Volunteering ?? I did not understand this, then again I thought must be asking where am I going?]
me: University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
officer:In which field are you going to do your doctorate ?
me: information science.
officer: What is the topic of your doctoral thesis?
me: I have not yet decided the exact topic. I will study there for one year and then finalize the topic of my dissertation.
officer: what is the topic of your master's thesis ?
me: Scientometric measures with special emphasis to h-index.
[then I explained what it meant. I told him it is the study of scholarly communications and it measures the scientific productivity of an institution, scientist or a nation.]
officer: Did you say scientometrics ?
me: yeah
officer: What kind of research happens in your university?
me: I explained some details of the research going on in my department.
officer: On which position you will be working there?
[he asked this question in such a way that I could not understand it. I asked him 3 times to rephrase the question and he did that very patiently]
officer: You are getting the funding not for free, what are you going to do in return?
me: Oh, okay...I will be working there as a research assistant. I will be assisting my professors in the research.
officer: That's what I was asking.
officer: Are there any publication requirement ?
me: They have not mentioned in the offer letter. However it is necessary to publish papers to indicate the work which I am doing. So yes, I will have to publish papers.
officer: Your visa has been approved. You will get your visa within one week. Have a good day !
me: Thank you.
Then I came back. Informed my friend Sudipta, my parents, and came back to his didi's place. Enjoyed there. In the evening we went to Sarvana Bhavan and had dinner. Then we went past Marina Beach in car. Had a drive there straight towards the railway station and got into the train.I thanked everybody and felt really grateful to them. God really really bless them and my friend Sudipta.
That's it for now. Bye.
Yeah as the title suggests my visa has been approved for US studies. Seems like I have crossed another hurdle in my way. Not to forget there will be many more hurdles in future however for the time being situation seems to be under control.
Getting my visa approved was also an experience of one of its kind. I would like to share it with all of you. I hope it might be of some help to all of you. It is a long story but I personally like to say each and every thing in detail, especially the experiences which are extremely good and the ones which are very bad too. So it goes like this:
Earlier my plan was to go to Kolkata where my parents stay to have my visa done. Also for booking the air-ticket, immunizations etc. I wanted to go home as I know people there and things are easier if you stay at home. But due to my exams I could not go there and my classmate Shion suggested that I should go to Chennai for my visa interview as it is quite near and will save my time. I agreed to that and convinced my parents about it. This time convincing them was not that tough as they understood my problem. However they wanted me to go to Chennai with a friend. They did not want me to go alone and search for US consulate and give interview etc because that would not have been very safe. I understood their anxiety and asked several friends and each one of them declined very easily. Some of them had genuine problems and issues and some of them just did not want to go. But they do not hesitate for a single moment when they themselves need some help and straightaway come to me for help. It hardly happens that I decline anybody when they come to me for some help. It is good to see how people change and say no to you without a tint of shame on their faces and forget about the time when they came for help and I helped them out without throwing any tantrums. I was not getting anybody to go along with me. My father suggested he would send my brother to go with me to Chennai but I did not want to trouble him from so far. So I said no to this proposition. Then I approached my dear friend and one of my juniors Sudipta. He is having his exams from 19th of July and it is difficult to go out of station during exams. But when I told him that I am not getting anybody to go along with me, he agreed. The most amazing and worth praising part was not only did he agree but he did not take any money for the tickets booking. He paid for his fare and it was his condition that if he will go with me, he will pay for his own fare and not me. I had no other option and I said yes to him.
The next difficulty was two of my father's friends already stay in Chennai and they agreed to accommodate me in their house. But as soon as they heard that I am coming with a boy, they declined. Our society is so, so conservative, I can't tell you. People always think that a girl and a boy together always have something going on between them. They just don't understand that their exist something called "genuine friendship" on this earth. Sudipta went with me for the sake of friendship and nothing else. He had no profit in it. He just did what a genuine and real friend should have done at his place.
Now when both the uncles declined, I was in tension once again and my parents were in more tension as usual. Sudipta had a cousin in Chennai and he wanted to meet her if he visited Chennai. When I told him the entire accommodation problem, he asked me if I was comfortable staying at her sister's place. I called up my parents and told them about it. At first they were like a little apprehensive and asked me questions like you never told me that his sister lives there and all. I said I never felt a need to tell you all those details. But now when the situation has become like this I thought about telling you. In the mean time one of my papa's friends called me up and he wanted to make arrangements for both of us in the railway retiring room. I somehow did not like the option of staying there for one-night. So I told Sudipta that I will be staying at his sister's place if she did not mind. He told her about this entire thing and she said yes to it and said just for one night it is not good that a girl would stay out in the railway retiring room. And finally we went there.
It is so surprising that sometimes strangers do understand you and help you out in dire needs when your own friends just back out. She not only allowed me to stay at her place, she gave us a nice warm welcome. She gave me a separate room with a whole lot of privacy. She never behaved in such a manner that I was a burden on them and kept me involved in all the talks which she was having with Sudipta. Didi's name is Amita and she is married. She has a cute little son called R.Deepak who studies in class 7. Not only didi made the stay comfortable but jiju (her husband) was also very kind, polite, friendly and frank. I did not feel even for one second that I am stranger and that they should not talk to me.They were all very easy going. We reached Chennai around3:00 pm on 13 th July and went to this place called Shenoy Nagar. Then we had our lunch. And in the evening we went to Tiruvika park in front of their house. We enjoyed there a lot and came back. I was so tired that I slept at around 9:00 pm and woke up at 4:30am for getting ready. My visa interview was at 8:00 am and I needed to report there at 7:30 am. Jiju dropped me and Sudipta to the US consulate by his car on time. It was so sweet of him.
One of the things which I liked the most in their house was in the early morning she started the music system which played nice devotional songs and it made the atmosphere of the house so peaceful and calm, I can't tell you. When I will get married sometime in future, I will also do the same. I like listening to devotional songs in the early morning.
Then I went to the US consulate. There was a long line. Slowly the line progressed and my turn came. I needed to show the passport and interview confirmation letter in order to enter the embassy. Then a lady guard did the security check and asked me to deposit the CD which I had with me which contained a digital copy of my photograph to a particular counter. I ran up to the counter and then the person asked me for Rs.10 for depositing the CD. I gave all my belongings to Sudipta when I went to stand in the line including money so I did not have a single coin with me. when I looked around I could not him. There was a big crowd of people. So I thought about borrowing Rs10 from somebody and then I would have returned the money to that person. I asked a well dressed person and explained him the situation but he just gave me a weird look and thought may be it is just a way to take some money out from him. God!!! Then the person who was accepting things for deposit told me to give the CD to the person with whom I came along. I turned around in the hope to find Sudipta and I was running out of time so I needed to get into the embassy as soon as possible. This time I found him. I went to him, gave him the CD and got inside the embassy.
Again a round of body checking and file checking etc. Then went to a counter where they asked for finger prints of both the hands. And asked for the HDFC bank receipt, Sevis fee confirmation report, i-20, passport and visa interview confirmation paper. A lady on the counter checked these documents entered some information in the database and put those documents in another folder and gave it back to me. Then I was directed to other building for the interview. There were 5 counters on which Consulate officers were sitting. two of them were ladies and 3 of them were gents. The one who took my interview, was tall, fair, healthy and bald. He was kind of huge and his appearance was enough to scare me off. But he was extremely polite and patient. I got to know this when I talked to him. Following is the excerpt of the interview which lasted for around 4-5 minutes.
officer: Good morning!!! How are you ?
me: Good morning ! I am fine, thank you. How are you ? (with a sweet smile on my face)
officer: I am fine, thank you.
[I passed on the documents which were in the folder]
officer: So, where would you be volunteering ???
[Volunteering ?? I did not understand this, then again I thought must be asking where am I going?]
me: University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
officer:In which field are you going to do your doctorate ?
me: information science.
officer: What is the topic of your doctoral thesis?
me: I have not yet decided the exact topic. I will study there for one year and then finalize the topic of my dissertation.
officer: what is the topic of your master's thesis ?
me: Scientometric measures with special emphasis to h-index.
[then I explained what it meant. I told him it is the study of scholarly communications and it measures the scientific productivity of an institution, scientist or a nation.]
officer: Did you say scientometrics ?
me: yeah
officer: What kind of research happens in your university?
me: I explained some details of the research going on in my department.
officer: On which position you will be working there?
[he asked this question in such a way that I could not understand it. I asked him 3 times to rephrase the question and he did that very patiently]
officer: You are getting the funding not for free, what are you going to do in return?
me: Oh, okay...I will be working there as a research assistant. I will be assisting my professors in the research.
officer: That's what I was asking.
officer: Are there any publication requirement ?
me: They have not mentioned in the offer letter. However it is necessary to publish papers to indicate the work which I am doing. So yes, I will have to publish papers.
officer: Your visa has been approved. You will get your visa within one week. Have a good day !
me: Thank you.
Then I came back. Informed my friend Sudipta, my parents, and came back to his didi's place. Enjoyed there. In the evening we went to Sarvana Bhavan and had dinner. Then we went past Marina Beach in car. Had a drive there straight towards the railway station and got into the train.I thanked everybody and felt really grateful to them. God really really bless them and my friend Sudipta.
That's it for now. Bye.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Experience
Hello !!!
Just learned something from my life which I feel like sharing with all of you. The thing is sometimes in life we need to let go of certain things which are very precious to us. Letting go of something/someone close to you is a sign of being real strong. We need to put a stop to certain things very gracefully and always think positive towards our future. There is a proverb something like this (I don't remember exactly) but it says
"Life will give you 100 reasons to cry but you should find 1000 reasons to smile !!!"
Life is beautiful and people come into your life and go. They influence your life, make an impact into it and then just leave. Do not fret upon who came and who left as it is life and nothing is permanent in it.
Bye for now. Enough Gyan though ! ;)
Just learned something from my life which I feel like sharing with all of you. The thing is sometimes in life we need to let go of certain things which are very precious to us. Letting go of something/someone close to you is a sign of being real strong. We need to put a stop to certain things very gracefully and always think positive towards our future. There is a proverb something like this (I don't remember exactly) but it says
"Life will give you 100 reasons to cry but you should find 1000 reasons to smile !!!"
Life is beautiful and people come into your life and go. They influence your life, make an impact into it and then just leave. Do not fret upon who came and who left as it is life and nothing is permanent in it.
Bye for now. Enough Gyan though ! ;)
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Visa Interview
Hello there !!!
I had no idea that there are people out there who are reading my blog. I received an anonymous post from somebody wishing me luck which makes me happy and feel good. Thank you for your well wishes. I appreciate it.
My final semester exams have started. That means it is the last semester at Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore. Omg it feels bad, real bad. I have given my first exam on networking technologies part 1. It was okay. I have fixed my visa interview date and will be going to Chennai for that. This is one of the most important steps. I am a little nervous as to whether my visa will get approved or not. However I think little bit of nervousness is good and everybody faces it. Even Sachin Tendulkar feels nervous when he goes out to bat, he said. So I can definitely be a little nervous, itna to chalta hai na !!! :P
One of my closest friends has betrayed me and has hurt me like hell. So I am very sad and depressed about it. It is difficult to behave normally in these circumstances with him. But since I do not want to fight in these last moments here at the institute, I am maintaining my calmness. I guess now I will be very careful when it comes to choosing friends in future. I feel I made a big mistake in trusting him too much. He did not deserve it. Dishonesty and backstabbing is in the blood of some people and they don't even spare their closest friends while doing it. I pity him, just pity him.
I had no idea that there are people out there who are reading my blog. I received an anonymous post from somebody wishing me luck which makes me happy and feel good. Thank you for your well wishes. I appreciate it.
My final semester exams have started. That means it is the last semester at Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore. Omg it feels bad, real bad. I have given my first exam on networking technologies part 1. It was okay. I have fixed my visa interview date and will be going to Chennai for that. This is one of the most important steps. I am a little nervous as to whether my visa will get approved or not. However I think little bit of nervousness is good and everybody faces it. Even Sachin Tendulkar feels nervous when he goes out to bat, he said. So I can definitely be a little nervous, itna to chalta hai na !!! :P
One of my closest friends has betrayed me and has hurt me like hell. So I am very sad and depressed about it. It is difficult to behave normally in these circumstances with him. But since I do not want to fight in these last moments here at the institute, I am maintaining my calmness. I guess now I will be very careful when it comes to choosing friends in future. I feel I made a big mistake in trusting him too much. He did not deserve it. Dishonesty and backstabbing is in the blood of some people and they don't even spare their closest friends while doing it. I pity him, just pity him.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Visa Document
Hello everybody !!! Just to let you know that yesterday I received my visa document i.e. i-20. I will be soon applying for my visa. Hope everything turns out to be alright as I need to go to Chennai for my visa because I have my exams and I cannot go to Kolkata now. I am little bit nervous because whatever I need to do, I need to do it on my own. Lots of things are to be done like application for Visa, depositing SEVIS fee, immunization, thesis work, final exams, shopping....omg...isn't it too much?? and of course housing ...how can I forget that, which is one of the most important things...I need to look for an apartment...I have talked to several people in this regard ...lets see how it turns out to be...Wish me luck !!!
Friday, June 18, 2010
Visa Documents
Hello there !!! I have been waiting for my visa documents to arrive from the university. Thank God after such a long wait, I am able to get the news that the CIE department has already shipped it and I will be receiving it tomorrow. In the meantime I am also hunting for apartment and roommate. Lets see how lucky I am !!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)