For those of you who have not been successful enough to visit the United States (please mark my sarcasm!), I wish to write down a few words about the impressions that have gathered during my stay here.
It is one of the luxuries of my profession that you get to travel to lands where you will not be stupid enough to go with your own money. One day my manager called and said that I had to go to the US for some training on some real core crazy technical stuff. I was expected to get trained and do the work and then come back. So I was granted a B1 visa – permission to visit America for business.
Incidentally this managerial decision to train me on junk benefited me in many ways. In spite of having been in the industry for about 4 years, and at the age of 27, I had still not flown the Wright bros procreation. So I flew up and down to Chennai for visa, then from Bangalore via Frankfurt to Chicago on Lufthansa. As the flight descended over the Lake Michigan to Chicago I realized Americans tend to use words very loosely – this ocean was actually being called a Lake! Or was it that my concept of lakes was pretty much dwarfed by Indian conditioning?
Frankfurt airport did surprise me – they had trains to go from one terminal to another. In India my idea of a train was to connect two cities. In Chicago’s Ohare international airport there were greater surprises in store – the plane after landing actually goes over a bridge, underneath goes a highway! Things seem to be really upside down here. This airport is truly international – planes come in from all directions, and at any given point of time a person with average eyesight can see 5 aircrafts preparing to land. As if that is not enough, they have another airport nearby called Midway where only domestic flights land.
If you love cars, you would go crazy – all kinds of luxury, full size, mid size cars zoom on the highway over which you go when you board the train to the next terminal. The cars made here are way too cool and large. But like Americans, they drink a lot of fuel – unlike the measly Japanese counterparts that would run upto the northpole with one full tank of fuel. When talking about measures, here the only good thing is the measure of time is still in seconds, minutes and hours, thankfully. Rest all are topsy turvy – miles instead of kilometers, pounds instead of kilograms… Farenheit instead of Centigrade. But you get used to these kind of inanities slowly. I mean, you have no choice. Besides, you drive on the right side of the road – not a drastic change for me, unlike what I expected it to be.
Once you get down the flight, you encounter the INS, the notorious Immigration and Naturalisation Service of the US. Arrogance would be an understatement to describe their attitude. But then, it is not surprising. These are the people who would send back members of my tribe (engineers) and accept warmly drug smugglers and others who seeks political “asylum”. In fact, the word is quite apt – this is an asylum. America has the largest number of insane people in the world – and this list includes the most exalted ones in the political hierarchy.
I was lucky to land here the first time in summer. Superb climate, lots of sun, days extending to almost 9PM. People rent cars in the airport itself and drive to their destinations and return the car there… People don’t honk the hell out of cars. So the place is sweet and silent.
Another thing I noticed was huge displays showing temperatures here and there. You find a few every mile. The obsession of Americans with weather is mind boggling. Back in India, I had not seen a temperature display in a public place in 26 years of my life. Here they have channels for weather on top of it. People look at the weather channel and decide if they need to take umbrella or not. Back in Kerala, where it rains for a good part of the year, things were simple – if it is rainy season take umbrella. Otherwise don’t bother. Life apparently is not so simple for the folks out here.
People jog on the roads, many of them topless. Now, my Indian friends, don’t run to book your tickets to US. Unfortunately it is the men who are topless, not the ones you expected to see! Cars respectfully make way for pedestrians. Cyclists literally have their heyday. Running and health has become a national obsession, apart from eating – forty thousand people run the Chicago marathon every year. I don’t think that many number of people have run a marathon since 1947 in India. But then on the other hand, you have people who weight close to a ton. I have not seen such people in India either, thank god. Obesity is a national phenomenon here with 30 million people obese. It is no joke – I feel sorry for them. They don’t have the company of the opposite sex and in this country it is difficult to live without bed games. Obese people are a woebegotten lot, going to adult stores and buying stuff. It is a side of the US that people outside don’t get to see.
It is one of the luxuries of my profession that you get to travel to lands where you will not be stupid enough to go with your own money. One day my manager called and said that I had to go to the US for some training on some real core crazy technical stuff. I was expected to get trained and do the work and then come back. So I was granted a B1 visa – permission to visit America for business.
Incidentally this managerial decision to train me on junk benefited me in many ways. In spite of having been in the industry for about 4 years, and at the age of 27, I had still not flown the Wright bros procreation. So I flew up and down to Chennai for visa, then from Bangalore via Frankfurt to Chicago on Lufthansa. As the flight descended over the Lake Michigan to Chicago I realized Americans tend to use words very loosely – this ocean was actually being called a Lake! Or was it that my concept of lakes was pretty much dwarfed by Indian conditioning?
Frankfurt airport did surprise me – they had trains to go from one terminal to another. In India my idea of a train was to connect two cities. In Chicago’s Ohare international airport there were greater surprises in store – the plane after landing actually goes over a bridge, underneath goes a highway! Things seem to be really upside down here. This airport is truly international – planes come in from all directions, and at any given point of time a person with average eyesight can see 5 aircrafts preparing to land. As if that is not enough, they have another airport nearby called Midway where only domestic flights land.
If you love cars, you would go crazy – all kinds of luxury, full size, mid size cars zoom on the highway over which you go when you board the train to the next terminal. The cars made here are way too cool and large. But like Americans, they drink a lot of fuel – unlike the measly Japanese counterparts that would run upto the northpole with one full tank of fuel. When talking about measures, here the only good thing is the measure of time is still in seconds, minutes and hours, thankfully. Rest all are topsy turvy – miles instead of kilometers, pounds instead of kilograms… Farenheit instead of Centigrade. But you get used to these kind of inanities slowly. I mean, you have no choice. Besides, you drive on the right side of the road – not a drastic change for me, unlike what I expected it to be.
Once you get down the flight, you encounter the INS, the notorious Immigration and Naturalisation Service of the US. Arrogance would be an understatement to describe their attitude. But then, it is not surprising. These are the people who would send back members of my tribe (engineers) and accept warmly drug smugglers and others who seeks political “asylum”. In fact, the word is quite apt – this is an asylum. America has the largest number of insane people in the world – and this list includes the most exalted ones in the political hierarchy.
I was lucky to land here the first time in summer. Superb climate, lots of sun, days extending to almost 9PM. People rent cars in the airport itself and drive to their destinations and return the car there… People don’t honk the hell out of cars. So the place is sweet and silent.
Another thing I noticed was huge displays showing temperatures here and there. You find a few every mile. The obsession of Americans with weather is mind boggling. Back in India, I had not seen a temperature display in a public place in 26 years of my life. Here they have channels for weather on top of it. People look at the weather channel and decide if they need to take umbrella or not. Back in Kerala, where it rains for a good part of the year, things were simple – if it is rainy season take umbrella. Otherwise don’t bother. Life apparently is not so simple for the folks out here.
People jog on the roads, many of them topless. Now, my Indian friends, don’t run to book your tickets to US. Unfortunately it is the men who are topless, not the ones you expected to see! Cars respectfully make way for pedestrians. Cyclists literally have their heyday. Running and health has become a national obsession, apart from eating – forty thousand people run the Chicago marathon every year. I don’t think that many number of people have run a marathon since 1947 in India. But then on the other hand, you have people who weight close to a ton. I have not seen such people in India either, thank god. Obesity is a national phenomenon here with 30 million people obese. It is no joke – I feel sorry for them. They don’t have the company of the opposite sex and in this country it is difficult to live without bed games. Obese people are a woebegotten lot, going to adult stores and buying stuff. It is a side of the US that people outside don’t get to see.
Of course, most of my impressions would be clouded by the fact that I am in the mid-west, land that is typically known for thin density of population. They say you live in the mid west if your idea of a traffic jam is three cars waiting for a tractor to pass. Roads seem empty most of the time. Here is another geographical paradox – this part of the country (Chicago area) is actually closer to the east than west. Still it is called mid-west. Slowly but surely, I am getting used to the American way of life – nothing surprises me anymore! They have local clubs playing American football – and they call it world championship! And for football they use more of their hands than their foot.
(to be continued....)
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