WoW America !

Wow America !!

I don’t know why but most of us Indians dream of coming to America. There are many reasons behind it and you can see them only once you get to the Big Apple. Yes, one of my dreams have come true. I am in America.

It has been one month since I arrived here, 40 days to be precise. But this time came and went like a whiff of fresh air. Time here flies by very quickly, I wonder why. I am still in the process of getting accustomed to the new and unusual things I have never seen before in my life. I would like to walk you through with my experiences here.

But before I begin, I must say that I am already in love with the place where I stay, Milwaukee. A small yet big metropolitan city in the Midwest state Wisconsin. It’s not the capital state but it’s bigger and better than the capital, Madison. Lake Michigan by it’s side makes the city more scenic and wonderful and exceptionally chilly in winters (Lowest Temperatures are around -25). You can see skyscrapers all around every city, especially if you live in Downtown. Generally speaking, the lives of the Americans are filled with exuberance. Everyone maintains a perfect work-life balance. And this is what really makes a difference and makes US stand out. And apart from that, it teaches you to be independent also. People here have their own private space and respect other’s. Lot of unknown faces greet you with ‘Hello’. ‘Good Morning’, whenever you get out in the mornings. This is something I have never seen earlier.

Well certainly there are many things I would like to talk about, but one thing that needs mention here is that I’ve learnt cooking. I can make rice, rajma, dal, aloo gobhi in addition to what I could make earlier :). And if I can eat that, it means it tastes good. Pratish would also agree to that. (Pratish stays with me). I miss paranthas and chapatis though. We have dishwasher and electric gas in the kitchen. It’s kind of hassle free. Easy and quick. People generally don’t use cloth for cleaning purposes. It’s all napkins and napkins. I wonder what life would become here if there had been no napkins :).

Soft Drinks are more common that water. I must agree even I have succumbed to that. And beer, little bit. Milwaukee is a beer factory. Tonnes and Tonnes of beer. Every now and then you can see people sipping chilled beer in mugs. Food, well very less options for veggies like me. But somehow I have been able to manage till date. You have to specifically ask for ‘No meat’ stuff when you go out at some place to eat. Beef, chicken, turkeys, ham, bacon, fish…what all hell do people eat. Crazy !

Trips: I have been to F-1 at Indianapolis. The race turned out to be a big tragedy. But still it was a good experience to see the racing cars in real. Four or five times I have also been to Chicago. It’s close, only around 90 miles. Wait…that means 150 kms. I am used to this now, miles, gallons, ounces, pounds, dime, cents, Fahrenheit etc etc. 4th of July at Chicago was also good. The fireworks were amazing. See the snaps for more details on Yahoo!. The first movie I saw in US was ‘Parineeta’. Avoiding non veg stuff, having eggs and salads (read finding first) has been the toughest part on these trips.

Buddies: Most of my Infosys buddies are here. Some of the old school and infy friends are also there in the US. One day I was wondering that around 8 of my college batchmates are in the US. And about the girls in US, they rock though not everyone gives a ‘look’ to desis. I haven’t seen so many girls at one place ever, not even in Delhi. Be it the Jazz shows at the park, the lakeside or the summerfest, girls are there all over. And if it summers, you know what it means :)

Cricket is back in the picture after such a long break from my life. Six months to be precise. Our bunch of Infoscions gets together on the weekend, and we play cricket, tennis. Americans are really very health conscious and you can see people jogging everytime. Even at 2’o clock in the afternoon. Weekends are really relaxing after a long working week. Work is kindda ok these days for me. I hope it remains the way it is!

I am yet to get my driving license, but driving is a pleasure on the roads. Everything is governed by rules. If you play with the rules, you suffer. Lane driving, respecting pedestrians, right hand driving are just few of things you need to be conversant with before you hit the roads. And as I said, I am still getting used to all this. Still there are some things that I wished wouldn’t have happened. I purchased two laptops and both of them turned out to be defective. Thankfully, within the warranty period and I returned them. I am keeping my fingers crossed before buying the third one.

Whatever, I like America.

Ashish.