This week I completed eleven years in America. It’s a long time, but seems like it was just yesterday. Lately, I’ve been reminiscing about the days gone by. My thoughts are fresh from memories of anything and everything that I’ve experienced with each passing year. I guess they will be subject of my next several posts.

Coincidence or otherwise, I was in California this past weekend at my sister’s place, as I was on August 1st, 1999. Amazed, to see and confirm my second or third hand experience through so many relatives who’ve lived here since the 60’s or my sister who moved here two years before me. But above all I was here to make my own opinion.

In India, I left behind everything, my parents and my friends, the very people who loved me and cared for me. For me, leaving them behind was similar to jumping out of a plane without a parachute. Something, which I haven’t literally done yet,  but hope to accomplish sometime before my mind gets better of me. It takes courage to do so, knowing that my support system was gone, for the first time in 25 years. Earlier, I knew if I messed up, my friends and family were there to help me, take care of it all, as they had on countless occasions. I’ve never shied away from doing something new. Most worked, some became a life-changing learning experience (others call it, mistakes), but that was my learning system. I’ve had my share of such learning experiences. Back then in India, I moved on, to try something new, probably have some more, and then learn from them. I’m a lot wiser because of them all.

Now in US, I had to learn to live without that support. I realized that such learning experiences in US can be costly, time consuming, and they could have setbacks from which you would sometimes fail to recover. I had to change the very core of my personality, from a “Happy-Go-Lucky” to “Cautiously Optimistic”.

I was open to life and everything that it had in store for me. I was ready start fresh in a place. After spending a few days, learning the ways of everyday life, I soon come to realize that US is a strange land. There is sense of urgency here. Everyone seemed to be busy doing something, not necessarily the right thing, but doing it, anyway. When they failed, they started doing something else.

I landed in the Texas A&M University in College Station in Fall of 1999, amongst a group of “Desi’s” with last names I cant pronounce to this day. [Some of you may wonder what is a “Desi?” Well, desi is a hindi word, which refers to people who share a common homeland (Desh). In fact, an American can easily call his fellow Americans as desi’s. It would sound weird, but hey, America is all about freedom of expression. So go for it, give it a try].

Suddenly, I was sharing my life with people from all corners of India. It was a learning experience. I improved on my vocabulary, my culinary skills etc. in their company. I hope I taught them a thing or two in return.

Having studied in India up to a Master’s level which easily consumed 80% of my life (3 years of pre-school, 10 years of schooling, 2 years after high-school, 3 years pursuing Bachelor’s, and then 2 years of Master’s), I believed I was a “professional student”, and was equipped to handle anything.

It took me two semesters to learn the ways of US education system. In my 2 and a half years at A&M, I learned a lot, unlearned a lot as well, and then re-learned all a whole lot more. I spent a lot of time in library, going over books, after books, on anything and everything I fancied back then. Mostly, computer books, user manual for different software’s, programming languages etc. Prior to 1996 I had not used a computer, ever in life (I’m not counting a year of the same in High School, when I had no choice). By the end of the 21st Century, I learned, pretty much everything there is to learn about computers (on my own), and then some. Most people, who know me well, would take me for a geek, and I appreciate their generosity in not calling me a Dork, or their humility in mistaking me for a Nerd. Yes, there is difference between the three!

In geologic corollary, the process of Diagenesis (a geologic process, which involves time, temperature and pressure to change sedimentary, into a metamorphic rock) was complete. I’ve become a man, who looked at life, practically, from a boy who cared for nothing. My sweet wife often misinterprets this viewpoint of mine as “pessimistic”, when I think it’s more on the practical side.

My practical viewpoint and my organizational skills, which I believe has been genetically passed on to me, by my father, are actually very helpful in my professional life. I’m good at assessing risk! I see it from a mile, and plan accordingly, if needed. Project Management, thus comes naturally to me.

Life been fair to thus far, with it’s usual up’s and down’s, none to drastic to have derailed me from my path in achieving what I had set out to do. In eleven years, I’ve turning out more like who I think I always wanted to be; someone, who would make my mother proud.

Yet, like the famous Alan Jackson song, “I’m a work in progress…”