HEB : Here Everything's Better :P

US is great when it comes to work ethics and stuff but I think people have a more comfortable life in India thought they are poor than here.. I had a lot of new experiences everyday here in US.. so much that I have decided to pen them down.. I guess it'll be interesting to first timers as they can relate to my experiences and a little bit informative to the people who might be planning to come over here.. will divide that systematically into some columns just like the us people do :P

The send off...
Things became pretty gloomy few days before leaving to US. The environment is like "Is this all necessary" kinda thing. I met a lot of people for the last time in India. With school friends, I was a little bit sentimental. Spoke some last words with them about their well being, giving and taking suggestions, remembered some memorable moments we had together, hugged them and bade them a good bye. We met at our common meeting place / adda called Eater's stop and completed the ceremony. Eyes spoke more than anything else on that day!!
Then the send off from my paternal uncles and their families began hours before my departure from the railway station. my two uncles, aunts and my cousins who are 5 in number came to the station. Everyone picked up a random topic and were giving various suggestions on how to live there, what to cook in case of scarcity, how to stay away from danger, how to be more organized and stuff like that. I dint know what to speak and was listing patiently to them. I really didn't wanna leave to US at this point of time, but things went by and I departed from the station after a proper send off.
The send off at the airport is probably the most dramatic of all. We had one of the heaviest downpour that day. One of my uncles passed a comment that may be the "Hyderabad is crying for your departure" :P for which my sister replied that they were in fact tears of happiness for getting rid of me :D... I really dint want anyone to come to airport that day due to the torrential rainfall.. but I was really glad (:P) at the same time a little angry, that my wingies (avinesh, kowshik, rahul, ravi, ponky, pondy, "menace" manohar) came for me in that rain hiring a cab. They made the guy who generally hides from attention the center of attraction that day.. anyways I am glad that I missed the bumps they planned for me in the airport :). We had some good time together, the presented me with a wonderful or rather awesome gift / momento (Thank you guys), and departed by taking some last pics and vids.
Last but not least I had the most sentimental part of leaving my closes family. Had a personal session with each of my parents, my sister, grand mother and my uncles and aunt. Everyone was speaking with their eyes. my granma kissed me on my forehead, I hugged my uncle, had a close chat with my mom, sis and dad.. and finally entered the airport. My independent journey has started from here.

Around most of the world in a day :P
The long, tiring, a little bit exciting journey has started.. I was quite nervous as my cabin baggage was more than 10 kg while the allowed weight is only 7 kg. My mom had a real challenge to include all the necessary things within the prescribed space and weight. She had a leave for her hospital for around a week to help me pack or rather pack :P my luggage. But nothing did happen and infact learnt that ppl with 2-3 kg more in each of their normal baggage were even allowed !! We had an easy check in, met some guys who were headed to different universities like TAMU, texas tech, UFL etc. Me and Aravind, my room mate took the boarding passes but couldn't get them together. The journey of the flight was almost around the world.

It went from Hyderabad to Dubai flying on Mumbai which was pretty much a straight line. Then, the next flight went from Dubai went north west towards Europe till we were on the north of UK, then we went west to Greenland and then we descended south west to Houston!! a trip of the northern hemisphere. It took us around 16 1/2 hours!! btw during this journey I had a girl who was from malla reddy engineering college on one side and a pakistani on the other :P.
The irony was that we both were watching the movie "neevalle neevalle" in which the hero had to travel some 15 hours with this girl who's the second heroine :P.
I completed the immigration very quickly as I was the near the front end of the airbus and again the name ut-austin did some magic. Had to wait long hours before the flight could depart. For the more interesting things, there was this cheer girls gang in their skimpy costumes who were making a lot of noise attracting attention and for a first timer like me it was a different experience to watch :P. The thing I noticed first is the density of population. The airport in shamshabad is small and very crowded. The one in Dubai is big and crowded, however the one in Houston is huge and very sparse. You have the conveyor belts, the small cars to transport people etc. to make these lazy people even lazier :P.

The US (Austn, Tx)
United States is a very very well planned and sophisticated country. Austin is among the top 5 comfortable places to live. Everything is so planned that u cannot even find different types of trees adjacent to each other or irregularly spaced trees :D. Everything is air conditioned and the city is very very hot. There is no dust here and hence the intensity of sun's radiation is very high. The bikes and cars are awesome. However there are no small retail shops to buy things which u might need in emergency, and no public telephones which make life very difficult if u do not have a car and a mobile. Its all "keep right" here, which is very confusing initially. though its tough initially, Life's a luxury as time progresses. However the lack of manual labor is the only concern.

The American culture
People in US are work-minded. People here believe in facts than emotions. They are responsible, neat, dignified, work hard, party hard, a little bit selfish, publicly display emotions, over react, very professional, and have a sense of dignity of labor. Here are some instances to illustrate them
- You will be occasionally wished hi or hello by a complete stranger, but thats it he will simply move on.
- Before any interaction, you'll be asked how your day was or something like that but they instantly come to the topic, and while leaving its your minimum manners to wish them "have a nice day" or "take care" etc.. Things are so formal here that u need to wish the person who bills you a thank you :P
- However you will be solely considered on your merit rather than your background. Thats why there are no bribes here.
- There will be no traffic police here, of course there will be video surveillance. In fact there is no necessity for them as each one follows the rules perfectly. If you do not follow them, you'll either be fined or people look at you like an ill-mannered guy which is more painful :P.
- People here do not utter words as they are. They add a lot of stress and emotion to it. They also help you very well. They patiently listen and answer to you if they are free or bluntly say no. No formalities here!! :)
- However the relations here aren't that strong. everything is a passing relationship. They make and break friends easily. Moreover there is little sense of a family. You can occasionally see old people and little children doing their works themselves and commuting to far off places.

I guess this is enough of the boring narration. Will come back to you with more interesting things and experiments I have done here. In short : I have blown a pressure cooker, walked some 8 miles in scorching heat for no use, had some funny mishaps while cooking etc.