Amreeca

America is a rectangular country.So you have to take diagonals to save time.But anyways, that is not the most important thing about this country.What has happened to me in the last few weeks is mindblowingly different.And the journey starts since I first missed my cell phone; which was five minutes after I was in the plane. I heard a "Swades" ring tone, and that jolted me to something I am not quite sure, for two reasons. One that I actually "heard" it because it reminded me of my own cell phone which had the same ring tone and for the last few days in India, I used to keep it on ringing mode as compared to silent, because I really did not want to miss all those who called me.Secondly the timing and ring tone itself was metaphoric.With all its shortcomings, the fact is that I have fallen for her.America got me.Might be infatuation, but yeah, the U S of A's got me.

The flight was my first. And I was hoping for all that to happen that happens to one in a flight , which I was not sure what ,but I was hoping nevertheless. A hijack or a turbulence or an amazing air hostess maybe. My mother had said some time ago.."I got to go in a plane at the age of 45 , you are going at 23". 23 I was and not a single dream not dreamt, I was ready for the new world. My first beautiful sight after India was not an air hostess. It was the one sided sunrise when we were about to land in Amsterdam.One side of the plane was pitch dark, the other had the sun rising in its full glory.It was awesome.And for the first time I felt it was a pity the plane had such small windows.And then as if sensing my wish to be in those moments, the plane got a no landing signal. So it kept on making rounds at the airport high above.And I kept watching the sun.

But a surprising thing came across me at the Amsterdam airport. I thought.."Well, this airport is not all that posh as much I have heard. We can have this thing easily in India, in fact better."And somehow that made me feel better .Aha..and these people don't believe in drinking water, they believe in spilling it. Their water faucets defy gravity.A tap by definition should have water coming down, not going up like a jet. What are we supposed to do, take a aim and drink? I tried , much to the other passengers' embarrassment.

And so I write this, as the leaves start falling to give way to the "fall".And it is very beautiful..they change from green to yellow to red and then fade away. I was lucky to get lively friends,who made our initial stay a very pleasant affair. On the way back from the airport itself, not caring a damn about how tired we were ,Siddharth proposed that we go out to some place and hang out. So the fun started day one,ground zero.And I almost screwed up my entry in America.At the immigration check counter, the officer asked me something, to which I replied "yes" assuming I heard it right.The officer stopped dead in his tracks.He kept staring at me as if I was an impossibility in the scheme of things.Then even I got bewildered and asked him "what"? He repeated his question, and that's when I heard it right.He had asked "Have you been arrested before ?".

And then there was this other officer who was curious about what a "thepla" was. I was at a loss of words.How can someone ask a gujju an explanation for a "thepla".I tried to explain desperately, making a round shape with my hands, assuming the shape to be enough to tell him the importance, but he just couldn't get it.That's when Madhura pitched in and said "Its a Indian bread".And then he let us go.

The first few days were busy with getting college formalities done and then looking around city. Transport was initially only walking, but then we got used to all the bus routes.The buses are really awesome, and air conditioned.We saw the "'Stone Arch" bridge, a really old but a picturesque bridge.Near to it was the "Guthrie" theater, a place for drama and theater.Minneapolis is a culturally rich place, with quite a lot of resources directed on maintaining the culture of the place.And that makes the city very beautiful.And we also experienced almost all kinds of weather in the first few days.It was raining initially.I thought I got the weather with me.And then it was very cold, and then very hot .But overall the climate is very enjoyable in summers .It was very hard to get habituated getting out of the house after reading the weather forecast.Was never used to it.And harder was believing the forecast.These guys are actually accurate.And talking about the country's rectangularity, i guess its possible to accurately map it because it is rectangular.I came to know the real power of google maps in America.We can accurately get direction and distances to the last mile.

We also visited the MOA-that's Mall of America.That's the biggest mall in America,..yes its in Minneapolis.! It houses four of the biggest stores in America at its four corners and a huge amusement park "inside" it.That is when I went in a Apple showroom for the first time.And handled the i-phone...No comments. The mall also had a section of Lego. A whole section was built life size with Lego blocks. It sure makes you want to become a kid again and play with those.

All emotions are magnified in a foreign country.Every joy is magnified,every sorrow doubly so.I never knew I would also experience those "I don't know why I am crying" kinda tears.But I did.And in fact I am happy that I was vulnerable.Loved ones are missed so much.Missed ones are suddenly loved so much.And you want to be with your family.You are enjoying the novelty of a new place, but at every place and corner, you wish that someone close should have been with you to share all that. You imagine how you would tell others of the experience ,but you know very well that words can't fully recreate these kind of experiences.So you want your loved and cherished ones to be with you at that moment all the more.

Then came the great "house and furniture hunting" phase.Now this might seem trivial, but it was a daunting task.The whole year depended on what kind of house you got ,and how far and how near to the bus stop u got,and how cozy and how deep inside the ground u got,and how..? It wasn't much different from the gold rush where everyone sacrificed everything they had and left in search of gold. Hopeful and full of food we used to set out in the mornings, scurrying the streets of Minneapolis.We decided to focus on an area called "Dinky Town". That's the "in" place near the university with all the usual things all nearby like a convenience store, barber,restaurants,books stores,bank, ATMs, postal office, pubs,and other things.And a good residential area too. It was quite a thing to call every phone number and schedule an appointment whenever you saw a "For Rent" signboard.

The silence sounds different here.It is odd, but every silence has a sound associated with it.The silence is India was different.It was a busier silence in a way.But over here it is melancholy. Sometimes the silence is so loud that you can hear your own thoughts.God's omnipresence has new meaning when you go to Hindu temple and see a normally suited priest, in a dhoti ,reciting prayers, but at the same time addressing fellow devotees in English.

There's something about America.And like most of them have a false image of our country, we have of theirs in quite a lot of respects.It is a dangerous and unsafe accepted, but Americans ain't dumb and they are nice people.In fact they might seem like that because they don't meddle in others' personal affairs.They are polite and helpful to a surprising extent.But they respect individuals' privacy.They respect the words "sorry" and "thank you". I would rather say that we wouldn't have been that helpful to a foreign national in our country. Or maybe I feel this because I stay in a student populated area. There have been many videos on youtube and similar sites and emails which talk about general dumbness of an American dude.But I guess these things circulate to make that reader feel good about themselves. The fact is that Americans are very intelligent and smart. Its just that they are not bothered about showing of their mental prowess and possibly lazy enough to outsource work to us. What would we do if we could afford afford to get things done from others?And its a vicious cycle, as they keep getting richer by this. And lets say they are dumb, but there is at least one in hundred Americans who is enough for our hundred. And that's why they are ahead.

Americans also come in two categories.One who are totally fit,and the others who are totally not.On one hand you can see fit men and women jogging in the coldest weather and enjoying it and on the other hand you can those who are so unfit and fat, that they cant even walk. And the ones who jog ,don't have a sense of time. Its only in America that I have seen people jogging at 2 in the afternoon.

I have never been on my own before, and this sudden surge or responsibilities does bog you down sometimes. But you do go ahead, one step at a time, hoping not to falter.I still remember my mother beaming with pride, whenever she used to tell others that her son is going to "America" for higher studies. And that beaming face was still beaming even after knowing that they would have to go through a lot of trouble to support me financially. And that is a very big responsibility.

It's also very easy to go insane and get frustrated and go crazy in this weird country. Sometimes there's no logic to things.They are just plain weird. Water costs more than petrol? You never know what might happen on a given day.You might do the biggest screw up of your life, or you might get an assistantship and be on the top of the world, you might get a free pizza or it might be just another day full of assignments and good coffee.Yeah , at least the coffee is definitely good in this country.And then over the weekend, you go to some nice place, and introspect, often involuntarily,and promise yourself you will work harder and see that dream, "that dream" of yours happening in front of you. After all, it only takes a dream to change the future..at least as long as you are in America.

But everything said and still doing, it is going to be a great learning experience.

Nachiket Mehta

10th day of 2007's November