Diaries from Happy Valley Part-1

SUNDAY, JANUARY 18, 2009

Its Ridiculously Cold

Past five days have been the worst in terms of the temperature in State College. Just imagine, Wednesday 6 F, Thursday 9 F, Friday 0 F, Saturday 13 F and Sunday 21 F. Please do calculations for converting to Celsius. Its like even with 5 layers of clothing on top you still feel chillness getting inside.

There plenty of snow around. Snowfall is fun. Soft flakes feel so nice the when they touch your cheeks. And walking on the snow is the most dangerous thing. You can slip and fall anytime. You have to be careful at all times. One lapse is enough for a plaster.

But what you can't do is stay inside at all time. You have to get stuff to eat and then attend classes. But for first timers these things are fun.

Haule Haule aayegi garmi!!!

THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 2009

The early morning Sun

So every morning there is a race. A race to occupy the bathroom between me and Jagdish. I should use 'Sir'. He is at least ten years older to me. A really nice guy. That I broke his bowl, but he was at his own calm self. Just told to get another bowl from 'Walmart'.

So Jagdish and me are early morning people. We look to leave as early as possible. I do not know why a guy who is completing his Phd needs to leave so early. Its understandable for someone like me, who is really struggling with graduate career, to be up and running early morning. Nevertheless when one occupies the bathroom the other has to wait for at least 40 minutes. Longer for me as Jagdish applies a lot of creams to keep those wrinkles under wraps.

But I have another motivation to rush to department so early. The Sun Rise. So my office room was changed by my advicer at the beggining of the semester. That place really sucked with a lot of people in the cooridor and a very big room with a lot of chinese clatter. But I never expected to have the sun staring right in my face. Its an amazing feeling to see the sun rise at around 7 in the morning. Although I never liked my mamma's repeated requests for getting some Vitamin D in winter's., but the morning sun is something I missed since my school days ended. College was all about late classes. The whole picture of the sun coming out from behind the mountains is something everyone wants to see. And I get to see that everyday.

I do not know when my honeymoon with the early sun would end. But for now I am enjoying it.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 2009

Some racialism

The important question here is not that there is racialism in world, but how do you really define it. People may not mean anything by the words they use, but then the situation and the context becomes important.

So today an old lady, who handles logistics of our department, came into my office room and inquired my fellow lab member about the people sitting in the lab. So we were four of the five who normally sit in the lab. So the situation is that we four do not know the name of the fifth person. So my colleague has a hard time explaining her who the person is. He tries hard but cannot come up with an adequate description that could help this lady. I tried to say the black guy but kept quite. I guess for the same reason my colleague was not mentioning the 'B' word. Or maybe because I was there.

But the poor lady helped us by mentioning the 'B' word. What a relief! But the important thing is when we do not put names to faces we start to associate other things such as height, clothes, status and finally color with the person. That's when pundits like me bring the racial stuff in the picture. 

But then people here call Obama the first black president. That's also racial. When we say chapte, desi or amro, that's also racial. I guess we all use some racial terms at least once a day. Then perhaps the lady was just fine. We were unnecessarily bothered.

TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2009

Late night bus

The last bus to Waupelini drive leaves at 2:30 am on Saturdays and Fridays. And its so because the apparent culture here is that people drink and booze on these nights. So they have late night buses. They can cater to the boozing people but not the more sincere ones who like to read late in the night at their office. Anyways from past few weeks I have made a point to catch this last bus. And on Saturday I finally managed to talk to an American girl.

Not a great thing to write about. The bus stop is crowded with rowdy people all making a lot of noise. Sometimes I feel scared. Not that anybody would heckle me or mess with me, but it feels so different and intimidating at first. I have been on this bus three times now but I still feel uncomfortable. Strange same people would be polite at one time and aggressive once boozed out.

So the bus arrives and a lot of people are in queue to get into the bus. While anybody is dressed in their party wares, I am in my pyjama and inners whose sleeves showed from my half sleeves T-shirt. And if that wasn't enough I am also carrying a school bag. Anyways keeping all these inhibitions to myself, I swipe the card and enter the bus to find a seat. I can't find a seat with someone 'quite'. So I insert myself by the window seat. Soon a group of three girls appear and look around and one of them sits by me. They look drunk. Not sure. But I am more nervous now. I look outside to comfort myself. But constant appearance of 'such' people does not allow me to look outside.

She finally said 'Hello' and I replied hiding all my nervousness. She asks if I was going home. I confirm that. She asked where do I study. I can't here that. She then points to the bag and asks a little louder. I replied 'IST'. 'Its a nice building' is her opinion. She is talking something to her friend which I can't hear. Probably about someone at the back of the bus. Meanwhile my stop arrived and she bids me 'Good Night'. I replied ' Same to You'. Could not come with anything better like ' You too'. Same old and out of context expression that I give every-time.

I plan to continue this routine. I guess no better chance to get over that fear. And no better chance to talk to someone.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2009

430$ of fraud

The most dangerous and biggest frauds in America are the IDENTITY THEFTS. And I am writing this piece as this week I was the victim of that.

Its early Thursday morning and I am freaking out of this networks assignment and the sudden and unjustified correction of the mid - term of the class to which I am the TA. I see a pile of letters in the room and curiously check them to find if there are any for me. I have received very less letters since my arrival here and most of the letters are Balaji's bank transactions or his parking tickets. But I manage to find one. One from the bank.

And lo! Three online transactions back to back on the 17th and the 19th. Two of them web and one ifs a telephone. Telephone!!! This is the last surprise one wants early in the morning. I am all shaken up and wrap up the homework quickly and put the fucking papers in a plastic bag and rush to the bank. All way things kept cropping in my mind:- withdraw all money, create a scene at bank. I check my balance at the bank. 83$ more gone. Now I am car without a brake. I approach the lady at the customer service and tell her all my story. I am angry and terrified. Fear of losing my support for the summers over here.

She listens calmly and then makes a few calls, contacts the concerned companies and helps me file an affidavit for getting my back. It takes an hour and i am missing the OS lecture. That did not concern me one bit. This is MY money. I earned it. Joking. I would have been more concerned if it were my parent's money.

Everything said and done. I return home and talk to Jagdish about it. His rich knowledge begins to flow and I am all ears. He puts a lot of possibilities affront such as the Debit Card theft, the cheque number fraud etc. I do not own a debit card and if that was the case then the person knew a lot about me, my SSN , my postal address and my DoB. First time after months I was thinking like a detective.

He tells me to get my facts right about the transactions right and know all about banking here. He said be very careful about your money here. He says that this is perhaps the downside of having a highly technological edge in very possible field. It gives the bad a very fair chance of wrecking havoc on you.

Do not know whether the money will come back or more money would go(hope not. I blocked all debits. But then who knows!). First time I clearly understood the difference between the CREDIT and DEBIT. Yes! I never thought it was important at all. Big lessons learnt. Watch your money(oxygen) all the time.