Thank You!

It has been a very long process trying to get a visa. I read in this book called The Alchemist, that when you live your dream, the entire Universe conspires to help you. And, it sends people in the form of good omens to help you. Some of these good omens are in the form of people who help you; they are like angels. I would like to thank them here:

My elder uncle – for specifying him as my guardian and sponsor. I made him run to get my sealed mark sheets and to the finance broker. At the age of 60, it is a great achievement!

My younger uncle – for being supportive and lending his scooter to move around in Chennai during for my visa process. He still doesn’t know the reason for the scratches on his scooter - that I hit his scooter on two different cars. Sorry, dear Uncle!

Naveen – my dear friend and “motorbike-driver” who ditched me at the last moment. We had spent days and nights together in the process of applying for the MS. Thanks to him for letting me use his credit card. He backed out because he was sent to the US. Morever, he has got a job of being a permanent driver for some other person – for his girl friend. Well, I had ditched him the first time we had planned to apply for the MS, soon after getting the job at Oracle. So, I forgive him!

Shri Hari Vasudevan – my classmate from college. He had always been there for me. Always analyzing my questions in detail and giving me very good answers. I wish him very good luck in whatever he does. Luck is what he needs!

Bhaskar – my Guru from Oracle. I was working under him some time back. He was good enough to give me a recommendation letter. I have never seen a colleague better than him.

Badri – another of my dear friends who has completed his MS and working there. Thanks for getting information from other friends there. And, ya, thanks for confusing me now and then!

Amarnath and Murali – for providing me information on the US universities and helping me make a decision. Amarnath still says that the Oracle job would be a better choice than MS!

Mrs. Shrimati – one of my best teachers, best as in teachers who like me most, for signing on whatever crap I wrote about myself in the recommendation letter.

Mrs. Malathi – thanks for lending her Ph.D. degree stamp on my recommendation letter.

Ahilan – for signing my recommendation letter even after going out of Oracle.

Skely and Aki – for helping me move my computer between Bangalore and Chennai. Thanks to Skely for meeting Ahilan and getting his signature. Skely never believed that I will do my MS the first time I spoke to him about it. Well, he still does not.

Safer and Rajesh – my roommates. Thanks for bearing my computer-light late in the night, disturbing your sleep. Safer, having known him for 7 years, didn’t believe till this week that I am serious about my MS. Safer, if all goes well, we will work together sometime in the future.

Amogh – for getting information from his friends in the US and Germany.

Chells – just a sorry to him that I didn’t inform him about this when he was my housemate. Chells always used to wonder what the heck am I doing so secrectly with the computer in my room.

Debu – for listening patiently to all my crap while commuting between home and office.

Oracle – for letting me use its resources.

Strangers – from foreign land and in India. I used to get their numbers from the Internet and call them up asking for information. I remember a guy from Kentucky who spent a lot of effort explaining me the US education system.

Friends – whom I troubled now and then asking for their suggestions.

And to all others – who I might have missed in the list. I apologize for my bad memory.

It would not have been possible without the help from these people. This is a statement that I have read at many places. But, it is only now, that I know its meaning!

MS Dreamz...

People ask me why I want to do MS after 3 years. Why don’t I look at other good options I have. And a hundred other questions agains doing MS. Many times even I ask these questions to myself. I don’t really have an answer.

Having done my schooling during IT boom era, I had always been inspired to do MS in the US. Those were the days, when you would find young guys who had finished their college inspiring to do MS because doing MS was the only gateway to get a job in the United States. It was seen everywhere - in TV serials, in movies and even in real life. Especially in a place like Tamilnadu, which I think has the maximum of outflow of MS students in India. I wanted to be among them.

Also, nobody in my family has done MS so far. A year back, I also thought that this is the best way to get out of my job and have a break. It would also give me a chance to study what I am more interested.

So, those are some of the reasons why I want to study further. Basically, it is just a dream to follow. I can’t quantify it by attaching reasons to it. I can’t measure that with attaching profits and losses to it. I cannot give explanation, not even to myself. After 2 years, I may say what I did was not right. So be it. I want to do it. So, I am doing it. (I may change my mind tomorrow; who knows me!)

Talking about MS, I would like to mention the effort I had put in it. This was something I really enjoyed. It has been a year of hard work. I took my GRE back in June, then my TOEFL in September. I had to visit my college after 3 years to get recommendation letters from professors, visit the University to get seals on the copies of marksheets. I made special rubber stamps for my recommenders. I spent days and nights trying to shortlist the Universities I was interested in. Then I spent a lot of money for its application. Then I had to arrange the financial documents like getting certificates from Notary, from CA, from property evaluator, getting the loan sanctioned…. for which I had to roam Chennai from north to south many times. Not to mention the innumberable trips I had between Bangalore and Chennai. After all that, there was the cruesome visa interview that just made the effort worthwile. The process is still going on – trying to quit from the office and making travel arrangements.

So, that is it – a brief history of what I did to do what I want to do and why I want to do.

Visa Interview

So, the wait was over. It was the day - it had to come. Time always flows. It was the day which would decide my course of life. It was 22nd July 2005, the day of my US visa interview for higher studies.

After having hundred different types of prasad(am)s from hundred different Gods, me and my mom were set to go to the American Consulate for my interview at 2:30 PM. I took my mom along to get some good luck.

Having reached the consulate, first step was to submit the fee receipts. I was shocked to see so many students there. There must have been 25 of them. Then, I had to go in and have my documents cross-checked. This was also the place where the visa interviews where going on. I was even more shocked as there were atleast 150 of them. While waiting in the queue to submit my documents, I saw that there was a young lady Visa Officer in the next queue. She rejected atleast 2 students in front of me. I was just hoping that of all the 8 visa counters, I don't go to her. After waiting for 2 hours, my turn came. And, I was asked to stand in the same queue where that lady was taking. My luck!

I was the third one in the queue. The first one got a reject. The girl in front of me was next. She had finished her MS in India and wanted to pursue Ph.D. in Microbiology at John Hopkins, which is a much better Univ. than mine. The VO asked her for letter from the Univ. and her resume. I had none. Microbiology, being a sensitive subject as it has to deal with stuff like biological warfare, she was asked to fill up another form and asked to come on some other day.

So, next was my turn. I was there, standing like a zombie, completely careless of what my result would be. At that point, it didn't really matter if I get the visa or not. This is how it went:

vo: hello
me: hi

vo: what are you going to study in the US?
me: i am going to study MS in computer science...

vo: which university are you going for?
me: university of minnesota, twin cities...

vo: why this university?
me: (prepared speech) my criteria for selecting a universtiy were - it should have a good computer science ranking and it should be good in the field i am interested in. Univ. of minnesota has both. that is why...

vo: what do you want to study?
me: (lied) data warehousing and data mining...

vo: ok, why MS?
me: (prepared speech) i have two reasons for it - if u look at the indian IT market there are too many people with BE. i want to have an edge over them. and, i want to have an in depth knowledge in the field of my interest...

vo: what are your plans after MS?
me: (lied) i will come back here and work at a product-based company like oracle, ibm,...

vo: you are working at oracle, right?
me: yes, for 3 years..

vo: what is your salary?
me: rs. x per annumm..

vo: have you ever been to the US?
me: yes, thrice...

vo: what was the purpose of your trip?
me: each visit was for a different reason. first one was to attend a training, second one was to implement a project and the third one was to give training(lie)...

vo: how are you going to sponsor your studies?
me: my uncle in sponsoring me, i have some saving and i am also taking some education loan...

vo: what is your uncle?
me: he has retired. he was working with bank of baroda for 35 years...

vo: ok, show me your savings proof..
me: (showed her)

vo: (she said something really fast...i couldnt understand because i knew she was saying she approved my visa...)
me: (i smiled and said) feels good

vo: (she laughed for the first time...)
me: ( i was no more a zombie)

After that, I just sat down for a while to make myself believe that I have got the visa. After coming out, I called up everybody I know to give this news.

So, that was it, the very 5 minutes which decides the fruit of one year of hard work and the future of life!

Lucky 3!

This is my 3rd visit to the US - 3rd one in last 10 months, that is almost one every quarter. This one was to attend the "Leaders Summit" – a 2-day conference to help grow the budding leaders of the SC community in my group. I really had a tough time to decide whether to go for this one or not as I have my visa interview next week. After thinking too much about it, I decided to screw the company - enough of thinking too much about what company will loose; enough of playing the good guy. I just decided to visit the US and have a short vacation.

And, that is what I did. I started from Bangalore on 9th, spent a day in Singapore with my friend Deepak, spent 4 days in the US including 2 days at the conference, and now I am on my way back to Chennai to celebrate my holidays(and prepare for the visa) for next one week.

I had quite a good time at Singapore. Stayed at the Golden Lankmark hotel, right next to Raffles hospital. On the first day I was just hanging around with Deepak at different places - doing some shopping at the Mustafa Center, walking around Little India, wandering along the Orchard road along the endless number of malls. We also decided to go to a pub somewhere near the Orchard area - but we just had to turn back as we got scared by the number of eunuchs near that place - most of them were difficult to identify and were prostitues. That experience was very strange. So, we left that place and went to the lake near the China Town. We sat down there for almost 2 hours and had a good chat.

Next day, we were roaming again. Around the City Hall, where I had the opportunity to meet his friends and sister. Second day was quite short and I had to hurry up to the airport after the meeting.

Well, I didn't see any notable places in Singapore like the Sentosa Island or the Jurong park, but I had the chance to walk around the streets of Singapore and look at different people and their lifestyle. I think Bangalore is much like Singapore in its early days. Maybe after a few years, Bangalore would be like Singapore - a complete cosmopolitan city.

Back in the US, I stayed at the same place where I stayed during my first visit - at the Summerfield Suites. This one is much better than the Sofitel as it has a refrigerator, a microwave, burner...almost a kitchen. Summerfield feels more like a home. I got a 2 bedroom place. So I had 3 TVs - one in each room and one in hall. Always confused which room to sleep in, I used to end up sleeping in the hall on the sofa!

The two day conference was quite good. Got to meet people from other hubs. Some of them were 10+ years experienced, a lot more than what anybody in India currently has. I think the long term benefits of staying at Oracle are a lot. There was also a person who did her master's after becoming a grandmother. Boy! She is an inspiration for me to do MS.

Then, Hilarie (Senior Vice President) and Carl Griffin (Vice President) spoke about their life journey line, which were not so interesting to me. I don't know what did others find so interesting in it. Americans(I mean the people who live/work there including Indians, Chinese, whoever...) are kind of funny people - they laugh at silly jokes, they eat uncooked food with such an interest as if there is nothing better, they follow a successful leader and believe blindly in whatever he says always, they dont work as much as Indians do but still they get more out of life. Maybe it is not the Americans, it might be the corporate world, maybe it is just my view of looking at it...i dont know.

One of the team dinners was interesting. Nelsy, who is more of a HR person in Oracle Direct kept advising me that OD is the best place to be. With a lot of dedication and interest, she was explaining to me to see the bigger picture at Oracle Direct; to look at the long term benefits; that I should go back to India and let others know of it; that I have a lot more potential; that I should take more risks at work. I was listening to all these like a good boy nodding his head to her mother's advice and doing exactly the opposite once the mother is gone. Now when the time comes to quit just after a week, I am sure she would just call me up and literally kill me over the phone! That incident was really funny.

So, that was my 3rd trip to the US. Just attended the conference and way back home!

To drink or not to drink?

I don't understand what's wrong in drinking?

Well, I am not saying it is good to get drunk, loose your senses, get out-of-control and misbehave. I am not saying it is good to get addicted to it and spend all your money on it. I am just asking what's wrong if you are a social drinker? What's wrong in having a drink now and then?

If it is all about personal health, then isn't having cold drinks(the soda ones) as bad as that? Doesn't standing in a traffic as harmful as that? Isn't it even harmful to sleep late in the night? Or, wake-up late in the morning?

If it is about committing a crime, then isn't lying a crime? Isn't trying to show somebody down a crime? Isn't praying to God just for your own welfare a crime?

I think it is more of a taboo. We have been told since kids that people who drink are bad. And, that has been into our minds that whoever drinks(even occasionally) is a bad person. Only bad people drink!

(People, I am not saying that drinking is not harmful to health. It is. I am just saying that whether a person drinks or not need not determine his character!)