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.