USA again

Well, well, here I am back to the United States of America after a slightly long hiatus. A duration of close to 1 1/2 years, this time to Michigan. To be frank with you I have visited the US almost once every year ever since I graduated in Jan 2000, and its amazing how much things have changed and yet strangely enough have remained the same.

So whats changed, politically lots of things have. After 8 years of George W. Bush, the United States of America now has at its helm an African-American President. The year I landed here first (Jun 2000), getting thru' US immigration Customs and the Security Check was a piece of cake, it would hardly take any time. Now one has to stand in queue, remove your shoes, your belt, laptop and what not. If you are "randomly" selected you might as well be frisked in detail. Over the years the craze for coming to the USA has reduced considerably. IITians nowadays seem to get great jobs in India itself and seem to be staying back home. In the 2000-2003 time-frame, you felt so much welcome here and lots of people who came would seldom want to go back. Nowadays, one hears lots of reports of people being deported. One thing certainly has changed and this is very apparent since the last time I came, is people talking politics and jobs. This is something I had never experienced in all the nine years I have visited here. People in America never seemed to discuss politics. Out of 10 conversations you would have in India amongst Indians about 7-9 conversations are likely to go in the direction of politics. That number was pretty small in the US, but I find that its going up considerably, or it just might be Michigan, where unemployment is a record high with the "Big 3" not doing so well.

And, what has not changed. I think, life on the whole still seems to remain the same. Big stores, Big cars , big people and until you actually talk to people you wont realize you are in the midst of a recesssion. Public transport continues to be just as bad. I was to go for a meeting to Detroit, which is a less than 2 hour drive from where I am currently visiting. I was just checking my bus options and the 2 hour drive by bus was going to take a whooping 6 hours. I remember going from Pittsfield, MA to New York by a bus. That was a 2 hour journey as well, but it took close to 4 1/2 hours. Add to that another 2 hours to go to Jersey, where I was to visit my uncle and a total 3 hr drive suddenly became twice as much. So, this thing has certainly not changed one bit.

One thing thats striking is the stoicism of the American people. Inspite of being thru' such a rough recession, people continue to be nice and I hope they continue to stay that way.

Anyways, that was a small post from yours truly after close to two months. I have been here 2 weeks and should be around another 6 weeks. I will try and post more especially since the weather outside is so bad (below freezing) and I have nothing much to do on weekends other than catching up on some reading or blogging or watching TV (which by the way was just as bad as it has been all these years).