USA Journey Part 2- To Buy or Not To Buy!

Talk about disjointed and irritating.. What a piece of work!!! Well that is how life is. I can't help it. Just forgive me and keep reading. So Dubai at night!! What a wonderful sight!! So the minute I come out of the plane I am ushered into nothingness. There is absolutely nobody. I walked for sometime and finally found an information desk. Denis (from IBM) was still with me as he was catching the same connecting flight. The guy on the info desk told us since we had our boarding passes we could go straight to the gate. We just needed to go up a flight of stairs, take a left and keep going straight. Sounded simple. Straightforward enough.

So we made our way.. Only to realize keep going straight  meant just that. We kept going straight. We were now met with almost a constant stream of people. The first thing that strikes you at the Dubai International Airport is its vastness. It is aptly named (Dubai Air city the Pilot announced). The second thing you notice is the sheer opulence. The number of shops which scream duty free at you is enormous. Flashing signs and huge piles of goods mark the place.

Denis had by now identified a forex counter and took leave saying he had some extra money to spend. The question for me now was the point of this post. To buy or not to buy!! Of course being the conservative son of my father that I am you know what I did. I realized what an evil place this world is though.. So much temptation.....!!! The other fascinating thing that I observed at the airport was the women.

All bedecked in full length bhurkas with either veils or hijabs, one noticed that they had the latest in women's make up on them. The curled eyelashes were there, the mascara was there, the lip gloss was in place (I actually saw a lady with orange lip gloss), the rouge was there, the entire ensemble. I have no opinions on this but it was fascinating...

The rest of my journey was pretty ordinary, my flight to Washington was delayed by an hour and a half. I missed the take off as sleep finally had its say. I made regular visits to the snack bar for bad coffee and a cold sandwich and finally had a special breakfast of pooris and masala (since I was vegetarian), missed having it twice. My name was printed twice so I actually was offered two meals which I denied. (I learnt the first rule of the grad student only after I reached the US). The pooris were delicious but only resulted in heightening my already raging hunger and too my utter disbelief the song played on the in flight radio was "Hungry like the wolf" by Duran Duran. 

I barely made my flight to Rayleigh, my immigration taking me less than a minute. The advantage of my flight being late was that there were only two people in my immigration line. The flight to Rayleigh was a really short one and I was reminded of Maddy's dialogue in Minnale.

The plane raced down the tarmac and the strains of Psychokiller screamed at my ears as we touched down... I wonder if it meant anything.

My brother came and picked me up from the airport....

USA The Journey Part 1

So, a lot of people have been wanting to know how I came to the US and what I am doing here. To the more mundane and dumb of you my answer will be I flew. But that of course is only for those who fit that bill. My presence here seems to generate a lot of questions. Brilliant questions like "So have you become an American now?", ordinary ones like "So, how do you like it there/here?" and out of the world ones like "Is America like how you expected it (to be)?"

I am going to quench the thirst for knowledge for all you guys by telling you a story. Let me begin at the middle as that is what concerns you. Now, before I begin I have to confess that my journey was most uneventful and reading is strictly at reader's discretion. The story (for you) starts on one a/August afternoon. August the 5th to be precise. In Bangalore (Bengaluru to those who insist). Any student traveling to the US will know all about what a harrowing experience it is. Not the journey, but the leaving India part that is. I had the usual troubles of trying to convince everyone not to come to the airport, that I'll pack myself (my stuff that is, but the other option would have proved better), that I'll not talk to strangers etc.. etc.. A young student traveler is one of those great events which unites every acquaintance of the said student. You can listen to the same message, warnings, advice from everybody around you.

I actually began to feel if I was taking the right step in leaving them behind. But I did. A lot of my friends came to the airport and my advice to all the would be travelers is, ask your friends to come. More the merrier. It gives no option to your relatives but to relax.  The tension seems to ease. I flied emirates and my route was through Dubai and Dulles to Raleigh. My first piece of good fortune happened when my baggage was checked in in spite of one of my bags a good kilo overweight. I guess they expect Indian students to come loaded..

An international student to the states from India needs to pass immigration twice, once in India and once in your port of entry. I hardly stopped at either one, in India because the questions were simple enough, in Dulles, well we'll get to that. The emirates leg of the journey was the best because of a lot of reasons.
1. They had great service, 2. They had a good selection of movies (watched Greenzone), 3. I made a good friend in Dennis from IBM, 4. It was just short enough and 5. The view of Dubai from the flight was breathtaking to say the least.

For the first time in my life I fell in love at first sight. She had that kind of effect on me, did Dubai. She looked brilliant bedecked with lights and sky scrapers, with the Al Burj dominating the skyline. One picture of the city just peeking over the wing, will stay with me for life....