The preparation for a bright future

The excitement of getting a visa seemed just not enough to keep it to oneself. Every time is a party time for someone who likes to enjoy every single moment of life. This moment being a really important and a big one called for a party time soon. Close friends and family are always a part of any Indian celebration and no matter how small you plan it to be, in the end you end up inviting atleast a hundred people. But well its a time to celebrate, so why not just do it to the maximum? The time was really heart warming for the boy as his close family members like his Mama (mom's brother) and his family, Kaka (dad's brother) and his family and Dada (Grandfather) had been there from Dahod. Oh, I would like to mention one thing here that yes we have a name for every single member in the family. They are all just not uncle's and aunties like Dad's brother is Kaka, Mom's sister is Masi and the like. With everyone there, the moment was very heartwarming because the fact is everyone knew that he was not going to make it to home for at least next one year. So that was the last time when the boy was going to be with his entire family and close friends together. It was a very cheerful, but an emotional moment.

The exciting part was the preparation. Food was on the top of agenda. Then utensils and later was everything else. Everyone was so eager to help. Everything was just new, ranging from clothes to stationary to everything. A beginning of a new life was exciting and his parents made sure he was not missing on anything. It is really great to have parents who can understand all your needs and fulfill them even before asking for something. That was one of the few lucky to have affluent parents belonging to upper middle class. No matter what preparations were made, it always seemed something was missing. The list was never ending. BOOKS, MEDICINES, CLOTHES, UTENSILS, FOOD, STATIONARY, and on and on and on. The memories to pack up were something which could never be done. They are everlasting. The best part was that he was going to Florida luckily. So no need for heavy thermal wear, no need to worry about harsh winter and snow. Florida is one of the few places on USA to have to have really beautiful weather. Winters are pleasant and summers are just the normal.

A small tip here for buying clothes, don't bother to spend money on clothing in India. Rather pack your bags with as much food as you can. You won't regret. Clothes in USA are so cheap and if you are a bargain shopper, with just around three hundred dollars, you can actually fill up you entire closet with brand new line of clothes. And the fit and finish is actually pretty good as compared to one available back home. But if you are an international shopper and addicted to European brands and style, you will be disappointed.

The Future

Lets talk about some technology and some ideas that will be helpful to everyone.

Beginning with an Idea, I always thought of finding a way to connect all the aspiring students to those who are already successful and established in USA. Social networking is one good way. There are many public social networks, but a network dedicated to the matter would be very helpful. It was with this intention that I created The Desi Network. But it is a free network and has lots of limitations, like no more than 250 members can join, to list a few. I found this social networking site which will be really helpful in connecting Indian students and sharing ideas would be so easier as all are students. The link is here, www.stutalk.com/. You can join and find several aspiring students and share ideas and innovations. Also you can connect to alumni students and ask questions.

One innovation, which is really interesting is the unveiling of a $35 computer for students. Follow this link www.cnn.com to view more of it. The idea is giving the power of connectivity to everyone. Even though a $35 computer might seem to be something that could not do half the stuff an actual computer does, still, if you jut think that as an internet tablet, it will give power of expression to people who cant afford an actual computer costing upwards of $300. They are even testifying that eventually, with mass productions, the cost per piece will come down to $10. This will help all the aspiring students in developing nations to see the developed world, they have only heard that exists. This will also give them power to explore new territories and become innovative for new ideas. It will revolutionize the way of teaching in every corner of the world.

The future course

Now that my course is about to be over, I will just give a brief Idea on the future of this blog, what content will I be posting and what direction will i be taking the blog to. I will again start with the original posting and go ahead with where I left. I will make it more interesting and more informative such that everyone can get some idea for what next steps you should take. In between I will keep posting some useful tips that could be of a great help to all the new aspirants.

Some interesting Podcasts

Hey Everyone, 

Today I want to talk a bit about podcast and five of my favorite ones which can be helpful to you. 

1. Get-It-Done Guy's Quick and Dirty Tips to Work Less and Do More:

     In this Podcast, author Stever Robins provides intense productivity and organization tips which are actually really useful in the day to day life. The Podcast updates each week and the topics range from managing emails to juggling with technology to keep in touch with friends to every aspect of day to day life. It is really interesting as you may b applying to lot of universities and this podcast will help you juggling with all the applications, managing materials and keeping stuff simple.

2. Inspiring Words of Encouragement: 

     This podcast also updates weekly by Zig Ziglar. Each week there will be motivation, inspiration and encouragement from the author to keep your positive attitude and spirits high in those difficult times of waiting for admission confirmation from universities, visa application and all the hard times.

3. The Daily Boost: Motivation | Life Coaching | Personal Development | Life Purpose |:

     This podcast updates everyday and with just sparing 9 minutes in morning, Scott Smith helps you to fill your mind with motivation, un-confuse you and helps you get clear about what you want in life. 

4. Take Control of Your Career and Your Life: 

     Marcus Buckingham is a business expert. I listen to this podcast that was released in 2008. It has 7 sessions and after going through all the sessions, it made me feel really clear of what to achieve and what are my strengths. Author, specifically stresses on your career and job, but that equally applies to life and what you want to do with your life. Great motivator. 

5. Law of Attraction Tips: 

     This podcast os more about general day to day life, your relationship, health and money. Author Caren Luniw talks about what relationships really mean to us and how to be at the best to get most out of life and how each relation should be nurtured. Also she talks how to make money work for you and keeping yourself healthy.

The Gator Nation

Here is a slideshow I have created to give a glimpse of how the life is at universities in USA.

The Desi OC

I would like to share this series of The Desi OC. It is a comedy with panache. It actually shows how the second generation in USA is confused with their identity. I have posted its first episode here and the rest of the episodes can be viewed in the related videos on youtube, It is very fascinating to watch how comedy and reality are mixed together.

With the Desi OC I would like to share the trailer of an upcoming Hindi movie which is very promising. The actor seems to do the job as more than perfect.

"The Deep Web"

Here I want to write an article about the obscure web. There are lots of web pages out there and sometimes it gets actually difficult to figure out which one is trustworthy. Here I will take an example of a blog and try to see whether or not you can trust a page or not. I will take the following URL, "http://www.theindiansabroad.com/2009/11/indian-students-in-usa-surpass-100000/"as an example as it is also related to the blog topic. It will be helpful for people digging into information to determine whether or not the source is reliable. 


Let us start with the domain name. There are various extensions for the domain like .com, .org, .gov, etc and also there are domain specific for each countries. Here we have a domain of .com and you cant say much from that just the domain extension. I would say most appropriate domains that could have necessary information for would be students are .com, .us, .in, .org and .gov. 


Check out the About Us page or contact us and find the source of the information. Also look who is responsible for the content. The link that we have here, the Contact page is just a plain form coded in PHP and you have no information about the author. Even the welcome page does not have any reliable information about the author. Even the page is not dated, so we do not know how old is the page. So we have to see other criteria on how reliable this source is. 


Now we can look for additional information. Look for links. See from where the references are cited. Here the references that are US India Educational Foundation (USIEF) and The Indian Embassy (press release). This is what we are exactly looking for. The information is cited from a very reliable source and can be trusted. But again there is no copy right permission. So again you can be skeptical. 


We may again check other sources. Alexa.com is a good source to check thye authenticy of a website. Alexa says that the average views of the above website is 1. pages per day on a an average. Also the number of links that Alexa says is 30. That is 30 other webpages link to this page. While Yahoo says only 14, google and bing says zero. So this is again ambiguous. 


Adding everything up, we conclude that the above page is not reliable source of information and we cant srust it. It has no credible information that could be used. 

Useful Links for students aspiring for USA

School rankings on USNews.com

GRE Official webpage

TOEFL Official webpage

USA Consulate in Mumbai

Additional student visa information

I hope the above links are helpful for future aspirants. If anyone has more questions, you can surely email me on jainil2000@gmail.com.

On the lighter note, I would also like to share this video with everyone. It is a video of University of Florida Garba team. So here the Indian culture is very much respected and people in USA are very welcoming of people from all over the world. Enjoy people!!!!!

The next steps

So the decision was made. And the time was to get the plan into action. One of the hardest decisions were  to choose the state, later the university. But with the help of so many resources available online and also considering the fact that Indian students are now in a sizable number in all the good universities all across USA, it is easy to get reviews for the school. So, University of Florida was finally chosen. Various factors were considered and the best part of Florida is weather, not too hot, not too cold and a perfect student destination.

Beginning from a simple thought, the first step was to give GRE and TOEFL. Then came application to the university, acceptance and finally applying for a student visa. One of the disadvantages (I could not find any other appropriate word) of being an Indian citizen is visa issues, no matter where you go. You never get a visa easily. Being a Gujarati was an added hassle. (All the pun intended ;) ) In India you can make money in every single thing going on in your day to day life and that includes visa guidance for USA. It is a booming business and for each visa guidance they charge anywhere ranging from Rs. 5000 to Rs. 20,000. The funny part here is that even the actual visa fees are less that the consultation fees charged by those kind of agents. I also signed up with one of the VISA CONSULTANTS and paid some Rs. 6000 for just a month of consulting and getting all the paper work ready for presentation before the visa officer at the American consulate.

The day of visa arrived soon. He didn't realize one thing that the date he chose for the visa interview was actually 'Amavas'. No one in India will begin any good work on that day and his parents still believing in that, poured him with all the scolding for selecting such a date without even asking them. But all is well that ends well, and so was his visa interview for which he had been to Mumbai (previously Bombay for those who don't know). On the day of visa there were several hundred aspirants like him in the consulate and the atmosphere was so tensed for the reason whether you will get a visa or not. A few of his friends said that the interview can go on for anytime from 30 seconds to 15 minutes, and after grilling for so long, they would reject without giving a legitimate reason. To the boy's surprise, as soon as his turn was there for interview, the officer just saw his I20 which stated University of Florida and there was no interview. The only thing visa officer told him was 'Go Gators. Be proud to be a Gator'. That time he realized the value of the university he was getting into. There was no interview and he got a visa so easily in less than 10 seconds, which was most surprising as all the rigorous preparations and wasting so much money on those agents, it suddenly felt it was a total waste of time and resources.

The moment he got visa, it seemed that the world around him had changed all of a sudden. For the first time he was proud of himself, ignorant of the hardships lying ahead in USA. But that moment was a bliss and everyone in his family was happy (considering the fact that even though my parents have been staying in UAE for more than 5 years now and he has visited countries other than India, but the great Indian diaspora continues. The great dream of USA, still lives in their mind. He was the first one from his family to actually come to USA and live a life here). Visa was one big step and now came the preparation time for the great dream to really come true. Nothing is just as easy as it looks after actually achieving it. So was the preparation.

Everything starts with a dream of a good life

India, a country of 1.2 billion people, where every two seconds one child is born, there is a competition at every front of life. To stay ahead in the race, you have to keep going without having the word 'tired' in your dictionary. Each day is a new challenge. There is a system which no one follows and to stay in the system, you have to be strong enough to be able to change the system. Each step in life makes you learn something new and you face the coming challenges more better. Now that's about everyday life in India.

One such boy comes from a city named Vadodara from western India. Being from a well to do family has it's own advantages in any part of the world you go. Be it a country in Africa or be it United States of America. Same was the thing for the boy. With access to all the technology and gadgets, you have the information of all around the world at your finger-tips. You aspire more to know about the outside world, how things would be going on, how the way of life would be, how people think in a different way in each part of the world, like eating beef is a big taboo in India and same thing is absolutely normal for people in other parts of the world. So was the thinking of the boy and he wanted to see the world. That dream of seeing the world and knowing more about the world made him take a decision in the sophomore year of college to go to United States of America for further education and a masters degree.

Each decision made in this world for achieving a dream have their own set of challanges and on each step of the path towards achieving the decision is a huge thorn which stops people from moving towards their dream. But this boy was not the one to give up and very much keen to fight away all the odds in the path. The struggle starts right from the point of time when you decide to tell the world about your idea. There are people who never think out of the box and always wants to be in their own little comfort zone. So this dream of looking at the world in a different way and to know more about people gave the boy all the energy needed to move ahead and not to look back.