the chicago post ...

hi all...i am back with another edition of the chicago post.

time is passing and it passes quite fast at iit, chicago. i dont know, but its like weird, 'Time', is the only impartial standard, probably the only truth ('cos some of us doubt and constantly argue the existence of other truths like love or God) but we still measure it in relativity according to our conveniences. :) whatever, lets leave the mortal tendencies as they are and discuss what it has been in around past three months.

a worldly important milestone was recently achieved and i bask in wonder in the ever glorious bliss and luck that i believe the almighty bestowed upon me :). i managed to get decent (wont say 'bad' but not even 'great' but 'decent' only) gpa in the first semester. its more of a mundane achievement in the longer run of life but every one has to address his / her tactical survival questions as well and some how! some how, i survived :)

'amreeca' changes people, it has the power of changing their thinking and their mentality. indeed ! you find the same old peers born and brought up in the constrained Indian social network expand their wings so fast and so eager to embrace the culture and admire the openness (cant say 'so-called' or 'just') of this awefully powerful nation. it takes you with surprise. to some extent its fine and looks great, like its just that your aspirations have found practical grounds and you got more space to live. sex is not a taboo and nothing to be shy about, society is not out on the look for you to curtail and define your freedoms, you turn 18 and there you are, masters of your life, no holds what-so-ever.

the most striking of such changes is the one among my brothers, Indian men :) "we stop staring at women (in the open)"...can you believe :) ....well !! hold on and before i proceed, i need to clear the thing that i write all this because i find a combo of fun and fear element, a sort of hypocisy in all this but i am no better than any of my average brothers. Indian men behave like gentlemen at US and do not dare stare at the women in the open. its an astonishingly common self imposed understanding that this is not India and you need to behave...some where, we embrace the openness of US culture and this feeling is comfortably and indirectly augmented by the fear of complying with the rules and fashions of a powerful country and its assumed hepp public. amazing :), i tried a couple of times to see if my american counterparts never fall for their whims and fancies out on the roads and the answer was quite clear 'men will be men' ...

another observation was about the great american work culture. i stayed on and off the job constantly in the past three months. finally i landed in a decent on campus employment with the wishes and efforts of my friends but the life for an average american worker is quite straight forward or would rather say, its blunt capitalism. you can get fired all of a sudden through an sms from your employer and not because of any performance reason but because the owner had losses. such out of outer space surprises can be part of your life if you work here and you understand the trade off between socialism and capitalism but as long as the opportunities galore, american capitalism is fine and survives.

there is clearly a difference between the way we react to different people we come across. if its a white skin, a prejudice of all good and happening dominates Indian thoughts; if its a chinese guy, we are filled with competition; a pakistani, no need to define what we feel. this alone tells the difference in the way we take the world. anyways, i am done for now and probably will be back after a short break with more on this post...