First off, apologies for the break in blog posts…to be honest, I haven’t been that busy, but am certainly guilty of being lazy!!
Well… it has been over 2 months now that I have come to the USA. And it has been over a few weeks now that I am a proud (??) owner of the renowned Green Card, and eventually the recipient of the Social Security Number.
So that is it – it is official now – I am officially a part of the United States of America. And for all intents and purposes I will be so for many years to come.
In the past few weeks, I have been going through the initial phases of the transformation – it takes a while to get used to the weather here (especially if your first visit to USA is during a snowfall) – and all said and done, the process has not been easy because I am pretty adamant and so uneasy with adapting to change.
However, over a period of time, I have tried hard to overcome my mental blocks about America and try to assimilate what I do see about the country. So far, I have seen some aspects of the country which I do like, and some which are not so different from India and some which are so typically American….
I have also been able to overcome my being overwhelmed by it all – and have been able to become somewhat independent here…although, it is not that 100% since I don’t drive or have a driver’s license or own a car… but hopefully that will change in a month or so….Meanwhile, I have been able to figure out the public transport system here (so far, buses and subways) and get by with it. Amazingly, the public transit system does follow the timetable to a large extent and Google Maps can show how one can get from one place to the other via bus – it is quite interesting.
You guys cannot even imagine how much I have walked ever since I have come here …. for a person who chose to take a rickshaw to go from her flat to Prems (which is like 2 blocks) – I have walked distances which are more than twice that much and more in NYC.
So, now I can catch the bus and take the subway to go to different parts of ‘the city’ (that means the New York City) and for some reason, I don’t find the city to be that intimidating at all… I mean, I know of Americans who do find NYC scary and what not – but somehow, not me… Plus, there is so much to explore in the city – and once you get the hang of its layout, it is a breeze….see, NYC is like a grid – there are streets (which are numbered or named) and these are cut across by avenues (which are also numbered or named)…and then any address is simple to find…yes well… again, it isn’t as simple as it sounds but that is the basic thing of it anyways!!
And I have finally gotten back to smoking – Oh Yessiree!! Camel Regulars are wayyy better than Marlboro regulars!! And needless to say, I find it quite funny that one generally finds cigarette packs in the pharmacy here!! Since my mum has asthma, I usually end up going out to the porch and sitting on the stairs to smoke…and funnily enough, the number of ciggys I smoke has come down to 3 – 5 per day instead of the earlier 35 – 40 per day!! Probably because I did not smoke a single cigarette in the past month and a half!
And I will not apologize for the reason I took up smoking again – for some reason, my brain just refused to function without the smokes!! And I had an assignment which I had to complete – for which I simply couldn’t find inspiration…can you believe it? Without a cigarette, I cannot find the first line – the very important first line – because when I get the first line, the next few pages (and the next hour or so) just passes by like a breeze! More about that phenomenon would be appropriate on my writing blog, methinks!
I have also discovered interesting food here – toaster waffles, heat and eat pasta dishes, quesadillas, spaghetti pumpkins, burritos, and of course, an interesting Indian restaurant called ‘Sarvana Bhavan’ on 26th and Lexington (in NYC) which serves good South Indian food… actually most of 26rh is covered with Indian restaurants and gets pretty crowded over the weekends with all the Desis in and around NYC.
The weather here also doesn’t leave much to the imagination – however, the wise people look at the weather channel on TV or weather website and ‘Know Before You Go’! Well…I landed here when the snow was falling and the entire thing looked nice for like 10 minutes, and then all I could do was look at the bleak landscape of the snow covered lawns and barren trees and NOT get depressed!! And then it was the advent of Spring – which so far has been characterized by cloudy and windy weather with slight showers and rains… And then once in a while, the sun comes out – to shine and glow – reminding me of winters in Pune…. Well they say that Spring hasn’t funny sprung yet and Summer will be better….Am truly hoping for the best!
I may even decide to get into a short course or something in a nearby college / university – to (a) get an idea of how the teaching-learning process happens over here, and (b) make some friends and (c) give me a reason to get out and about….believe me, over here, I am not finding it so easy to be sitting at home all day – I need to go out and stretch my legs everyday and so I have taken to going for a short walk ever so often in the park near my home….
In short, I have decided to give this country a shot – after all, it doesn’t hurt to do so…I have decided that I will decide after some years (between 3 and 5) if I want to remain here or go back to India – how about that !!???!!
Sounds like a plan, doesn’t it?
As I was taking a shower today morning, I happened to remember this really cool band - I was introduced to this one by my neighbor Siddharth Tipnis (incidentally, one of the band member's name is also Siddharth - but it is not the same one!! LOL)....
