Genre: Life
Today marks the end of 9 months of my stay in USA, and as I head home for the summer, a look at things that changed (and the ones that didn't) during my time at Virginia Tech-
- I started loving Mexican food.
- I learnt the basics of a new sport - American Football.
- I realized that "multi-cultural environment with students from diverse backgrounds" in Electrical Engineering means classes full of Indian and Chinese with not a single American girl.
- I can now speak English in three accents - my natural accent, American accent and Tamil accent.
- I learnt cooking. Indian, Italian, Mexican, Maggi.
- I started believing orange and maroon is actually a nice color combination.
- I started enjoying the luxury of stepping out of the house without checking how much money is present in the wallet, thanks to the omnipresent debit card.
- I learnt a new meaning to Unity in Diversity. Festivals originating from completely different cultures- Halloween, St. Patrick's Day and Cinco de Mayo have one unified form of celebration- get drunk.
- I adjusted to using paper instead of water.
- I realised that today Americans, most of them, have great respect and love for India, contrary to common belief.
- I learnt what convergence means. Surfing the net, doing homework, watching TV, reading newspaper, everything happens at one place- on the laptop.
- I realised that unlike in India, in some countries public transport is a luxury, not an omnipresent basic amenity.
And there are some thing that have not changed-
- I still love trains. The Indian ones.
- I still watch cricket matches, and not football or baseball.
- I still look forward to Hindi movies, and have seen more of them than English movies in nine months.
- I still read The Times of India daily, not The New York Times.
- I still have all Hindi songs on my playlist on my music player. No Lady Gaga.
- I still love Mumbai. New York was awesome, but Mumbai is Mumbai.
Today marks the end of 9 months of my stay in USA, and as I head home for the summer, a look at things that changed (and the ones that didn't) during my time at Virginia Tech-
- I started loving Mexican food.
- I learnt the basics of a new sport - American Football.
- I realized that "multi-cultural environment with students from diverse backgrounds" in Electrical Engineering means classes full of Indian and Chinese with not a single American girl.
- I can now speak English in three accents - my natural accent, American accent and Tamil accent.
- I learnt cooking. Indian, Italian, Mexican, Maggi.
- I started believing orange and maroon is actually a nice color combination.
- I started enjoying the luxury of stepping out of the house without checking how much money is present in the wallet, thanks to the omnipresent debit card.
- I learnt a new meaning to Unity in Diversity. Festivals originating from completely different cultures- Halloween, St. Patrick's Day and Cinco de Mayo have one unified form of celebration- get drunk.
- I adjusted to using paper instead of water.
- I realised that today Americans, most of them, have great respect and love for India, contrary to common belief.
- I learnt what convergence means. Surfing the net, doing homework, watching TV, reading newspaper, everything happens at one place- on the laptop.
- I realised that unlike in India, in some countries public transport is a luxury, not an omnipresent basic amenity.
And there are some thing that have not changed-
- I still love trains. The Indian ones.
- I still watch cricket matches, and not football or baseball.
- I still look forward to Hindi movies, and have seen more of them than English movies in nine months.
- I still read The Times of India daily, not The New York Times.
- I still have all Hindi songs on my playlist on my music player. No Lady Gaga.
- I still love Mumbai. New York was awesome, but Mumbai is Mumbai.
Hmm.. Great post.
ReplyDeleteI've been told that even though NY is similar to Bombay, nothing can replace Aamchi Mumbai.
You're coming back this week right?
Enjoy the pani puris :P
i really liked this one..
ReplyDeleteI got used to paper instead of water LOL and you too fell prey to tamil accent. Nice one! Thanks so much for offering to write a post as a guest blogger, I will take you up on that once you come back from Aamchi Mumbai!
ReplyDeleteAh.. finally 'stuck' to paper eh :P #okgross
ReplyDeleteUnity in da-varsity was cool :D *hic*
Convergence FTW!
have a great time back in the motherland, bro!
PS: Btw, captcha reads "hoped" #captchaWIN :)
Nice one!:)
ReplyDeleteHey good one!
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed reading.. :)
@Nik: Yes NY and Mumbai are very similar. Haven't you read my A Tale of Two Cities blog post?
ReplyDelete@Darshini
Thanks :)
@tilopinion
What do you mean by "you too fell prey"? Who else managed to do that?
@Sriram
I know its gross, but reality of life! "Unity in da-varsity" #WIN
@Anju
Thanks :)
Dude...the title of the post is rather misleading...dont u think so?
ReplyDeleteAny engg group in US, esp at grad school, means lots of indians n chinese only.
i still hate toilet paper and avoid it as much as i can.
laptops have become our life havent they?
Public transport is a luxury and a rarity too. but then cars and fuel is pretty cheap.
I still watch hindi movies, read TOI daily (hardly every LA times), watch hindi channels, listen to hindi songs.
n of course mumbai rocks...no place can beat it.
@Neharika
ReplyDeleteThanks you jee :)
@Zai
The title is purely intentional. I thought the BAZINGA! was implied.
Cars are cheaper but not THAT cheap that everyone can afford it. And you are missing out the huge insurance bills you need to pay every month, sky-high parking charges and tolls. Its no way better than having good public transport.
You too meaning me too. My parents and sisters teased me endlessly about that accent when I went home the first time.
ReplyDeleteEvery person in USA has a car, except:
ReplyDeletebeggars
Indian students
Even with insurance n parking n all that a car is probably equal to using public transport. In most places public transport is so infrequent that u have no other option.