#IAmNotAFruit!?

Hello everybody,
I hope you are having a great day today!
As I scrolled through my Facebook feed today, I came across this video where women were saying 'I am not a fruit'. It was a protest video against generalizing women's body types into categories based on fruits (apple, pear and banana). Here is a link to the video. I strongly believe that any kind of shaming is wrong and everyone is free to wear any kind of clothing that they fancy. That being said, I think it is trivial to protest against anything and everything that is said about the body. Magazines do say what flatters each body type and what doesn't; but that's just the view of one stylist/fashion guru (dunno the exact terminology; I rarely read such stuff). Its upto each individual whether they want to read about it, follow it, let it bother them etc. A lot of people like being told what to wear and what not to. And some others like deciding on their own. When there are people who want advise, and people who are willing to give it, I don't see why anyone else needs to get involved. It is hard for anyone to give advise without any form  of generalization especially when they're addressing such a large audience. For such convenience sake, if they categorize body types, I don't see any harm in it.
Ultimately, you decide what you choose to wear. When no one's calling you a fruit, I don't see why you need to say you're not one!
This is just my personal opinion. I don't intend to put down anyone; I just feel that was something trivial to protest against. Again, this is just my opinion. Do let me know about your opinions. I'm open to counter opinions too and would love to hear the other side too!  
Until next time,
Bye! :D

10 things I find strange about America

Hello everybody,
Its been a month since I landed in USA and I find a lot of things strange here. Some good, some bad; here is a list of top 10 things that I find weird about USA. (This one's going to be a long post!)

1) Everything comes in large sizes.
This is probably one of the most well known things about America; but I had to put this on the top of my list. Onions the size of cricket balls! Ridiculous! On the other hand, I saw some baby carrots at the store and they were TINY! I could never imagine carrots could be so tiny. They were really sweet too!
Last week, I saw something rustling behind a bush. It looked like a cat or a dog; but I've never seen strays here. So I was a little curious to see what it could be. A minute later I saw this huuge big squirrel. A squirrel the size of a cat! That can happen only in America!!
Ice cream packs are big; no... anything that is packed is in large quantities (most things; I've seen some really small sized packs too! But generally speaking they are big). The houses are big, the cars are big. It goes on.

2) People talk a lot.
Talking to strangers stresses me out and maybe this is the reason I find this weird. The first sentence anyone greets you with is 'Hey, how are you doing today?'. I'd prefer to answer it with just an 'I'm fine' (because that would end the conversation :P), but the preferred response is 'I'm good. How are you?'. Another question = more conversation. Moreover, I don't know you well enough to help you in anyway if you are not doing good. (But thankfully no one ever says anything other than 'I'm doing good too.'
Even at other places, waiting in queues, at stores etc, people will start a conversation even if you haven't been introduced to each other before. It is a good thing that people are friendly and approachable, but stressful for people who find it hard to interact with new people.

3) A lot of people use trucks or vehicles with a large open carrier compartment in the back.
I believe they are called 'pick up trucks'. (Please correct me if I'm wrong) A lot of people use these vehicles. I have no idea why anyone would need such vehicles on a day-to-day basis. I thought those vehicles were meant for transporting heavy goods. But I've seen a lot of common people use it as a mode of transportation and usually the carrier compartment is empty. Why buy such a big vehicle (and pay for extra fuel) for everyday use? I don't understand.

4) Washrooms are better lit than living rooms.
This was one thing me and a lot of my friends found strange. The living rooms, kitchen etc are quite dimly lit. However, washrooms have 4-10 bulbs and are really bright! Some of my friends, took off some bulbs from the washroom and plugged them in in the living room. Where I stay, the washroom has 8 bulbs and each time I switch on the light I feel guilty that I'm using that much of extra electricity.

5) Have classes for everything
If you want to learn something, you'll have a class for it. Recently I had been to a library and I saw a list of events that were lined up for this month. There were classes/sessions on such a wide range of topics! And it catered to all ages! Even at college, info sessions keep happening. Even if it is just a bunch of stuff that you can find on the internet, they'll have a class for it. (I think its wonderful!) You may be able to find it on your own; but if someone conducts a class and tells you the same thing, you'll have more faith in it as it has more authenticity.

6) You'll want to buy EVERYTHING! (Too much of consumerism)
There is a 'new and improved' version of everything you can imagine. And the variety available is endless! I recently visited a store that sells art and craft supplies; it was so pretty! Especially the aisles with the Christmas stuff... I wanted to buy everything in that aisle! I loove glitter and everything there was fully glittered up! I, a twenty-one year old (on a strict budget) found it hard to get through the store without buying unnecessary stuff; I could completely understand my 4-year old nieces' excitement (and eventual disappointment when she wasn't allowed to buy anything).

The amount of merchandise available for any movie/ character etc is too high! For example, a chapsitck with just a brand name on it won't interest kids; but if it has a picture of Elsa on it (especially if it has some glitter on it) they need it! The other day, I saw a pack of grapes with a frozen sticker on it! We just passed the aisle and my niece immediately shot back and picked it up and insisted that she needed the grapes! As soon as a new character catches the fancy of kids, they'll want everything new again!

7) No traffic and smooth roads
Ah! This is one thing that I've been loving ever since I got here. The city where I used to live was known for its traffic jams. I used to spend 4 hours on a an average each day in traffic, and this was what hit me the very minute I got here. The roads are wide and smooth. (I haven't seen a single pothole on any road!) And people follow rules so well! And pedestrians are given so much respect! I find it extremely funny when cars stop when I'm waiting to cross the road. Initially I wan't aware that people would actually stop if they saw someone standing on the pavement at intersections (in the college campus). A friend was amused by this too. The other day, she was standing on the pavement, thinking about which way to go, and then a car stopped. She never realized that the car stopped because she was standing there. A few seconds later when another car stopped and the person driving the car gestured for her to cross, she realized that they had stopped because she was standing there! She was totally embarrassed for having made two cars wait! I find it strange even now and avoid reaching junctions when I see a car approaching.

8) Everything is spreeaaad out
I'm sure this doesn't apply to ALL of America, but its true for quite a few parts of America that I've been to (I did visit quite a few states during my previous visit). You rarely have trouble finding a spot to park you vehicle, crowded stores etc. There are large empty spaces in front of houses, parks are huge... in general, everything is spread out. (Of course not everywhere!) I did see tall buildings, crowded places in the downtown parts of the city.

9) Everything is automated
Everything runs on electricity, has a mind of its own and is connected to the internet! I've heard that IoT (Internet of Things) is going to be the next big thing technology wise, but I'm actually seeing it in effect here. America is technologically advanced. That's a well-known fact. But the role technology plays in everyday life is something one must experience to understand.
I found digital toll booths very fancy! Where I lived, toll booths used to be a bottle neck for traffic, and here, one need not even stop to pay the toll! A machine scans a sticker on your windshield and the money is transferred from your account! How wonderful!
Many other little things like this are automated.

10) Bad healthcare
This is one major drawback I've noticed. America is well known for its medical advancement; however, the availability of basic healthcare is limited! Insurance plays such a big role here! Where I lived, there were plenty of good doctors available, and one could schedule an appointment for the same day or the next day easily. Here, wait times are so long, the person would probably have recovered before they meeting the doctor! Also, I find that doctors here tend to talk about the worst case scenario and scare patients. I know its better for patients to know about possible implications of their illness, but I think it isn't right to tell them about the worst case possibility before getting sufficient evidence that it could be it. I generally tend to avoid visiting doctors, so I'm not very sure about what I expect them to do, but this is what I feel from what I've heard about other peoples' experiences that I've heard about.

So these are the top ten things that I find strange about America. There are a few more things,like the freedom to dress as you like (Contrary to what is shown in movies, I think people are not very  judgmental about what you wear.) ; but these are the top ten according to me.
(P.S. These are my opinions based on the little part of America that I've seen so far. I may be completely wrong about some stuff, so, if you think I was wrong about generalizing something, please do let me know!)

Until next time,
Bye! :D

One more thing, I participated in a collab post on 'Party ideas' over at the wonderful (yet ordinary) life of me! (Here is the link to the post) Do take a look at it! It has some really cool ideas posted by fellow bloggers! :D

Disqus!

Hello Everybody!
I hope you're having a great day today! I have a new improvement on my blog today! Did you notice it?? I have enabled Discus for the comments section! I'm really new to Discqus but I really liked how it looks. It had been such a long time since I did anything to make my blog better, I thought this could be one nice improvement!
Do you like it? Please do let me know in the comments! :D :D
Until next time,
Bye! :D

Growing young

Hello everybody!
Hope you're having a great day! I've been MIA for the past few weeks because I've been experiencing so many new things and trying to get used to a whole new country. So far, I'm loving USA. I miss my parents and Tee a lot; but with whatsapp and skype, its not too bad. Another huge advantage that I have is that I live with my sister and her family. I have an adorable 4 year old niece and I spend a lot of my free time with her. Off late, I feel much younger! I am quite lazy and lethargic by nature and used to spend a lot of time watching TV or scrolling through fb. With my niece (let me call her A) around, I don't get to sit around much. After spending these past few weeks with her, I've started enjoying playing with her more than sitting in front of the computer! I've never been good with kids; I don't know how to engage them. I've never even had any desire of doing so before. A is the first child I've ever lived with. She's become really close to me and she puts me at ease! Earlier, I never knew what to do with kids. After being around A for these few weeks, I've realized, I don't need to do anything! I just need to find the kid in me and enjoy myself!
When we take A to the park, I never used to get on the slide and other play equipment. Play equipment is for kids and grown ups like me shouldn't get onto them was my thought! (I thought it wouldn't support my weight! :P But the play equipment here is really heavy duty; I've seen well-built 6 foot people getting onto them to help their kids) I finally got onto one once as A kept asking me to play with her; and it was SO much fun! I loved sitting on the swing for hours when I was a kid. The other day I sat on a swing after roughly 8-10 years! God! What an amazing feeling it was! It brought back all my childhood memories. It was early in the morning, and I could see the green grass all around for quite some distance. a cool breeze was blowing, and I swung for almost half an hour! It was SUCH a wonderful feeling! You feel weightless on a swing and I love that feeling.
About 3 days back, in the evening, A was struggling to finish her dinner and we decided to play a memory game with her just to distract her. I never thought that I; a 21-year old would enjoy a game meant for 4 year olds. But we (3 adults and A) had SO much fun! We played another round of it even after A was finished with her dinner.
I don't know how or at what point of time I grew out of all this. I've stayed away from it for such a long time that I was convinced that I was too old for any kiddie stuff. I was wrong! I still enjoy playing games and playing on the swing! (Not to the same extent as A of course!) Staying with A has brought out the kid in me again!
Do you enjoy playing games once in a while? Let me know in the comments!
Until next time,
Bye! :D 

My first day of college in USA!!

Hello everybody,
Its been a loong time since I last posted here. I'm finally in the USA!!! I have so much that I want to share; but I've been so busy trying to get adjusted to all the new things that I haven't had time to write a proper post. Technically speaking, today wasn't my first day at college. Its actually my 5th day. but today was the first day of class, so I'll call it my first day of college. I'll write all about my experience the first time I visited the campus in a later post.
I have classes on just 2 days of the week; but they are back to back with just fifteen minutes between two classes. I have 3 classes this semester. Today morning, I woke up at 7:30 am. I was ready by 8:30 and left home at around 9. (My sister lives in the same city where I attend University and I stay with her) I reached college at 9:20 am. I had already seen my classroom the last time I had been there, so I was able to find it easily. Another class was going on and I sat waiting. I saw two girls from my own country standing near the door. I went and introduced myself to them. They  seemed really nice. As soon as the first class ended, we got in and sat in the first row. The class was Algorithms. The professor was a short soft spoken person. I thought he was really well-organized. He started off with the actual coursework.
My next class (Object Oriented Design)  was in the same room as my first class. I stepped out as I had a fifteen minute break in between. By the time I came back, the first two rows were full! Another person whom I had met at an orientation earlier had taken up this class too. We sat together. (We need to submit a project for this course and it forms a major part of the grade. The professor would be putting us into groups of five for the project work. (I hope I get good team mates!) ) We were asked to introduce ourselves and talk about our expectations from the course. The course would be slightly tailored to our expectations. I found that very interesting!
The next class was Database Design. For this I had to go to another classroom (which was on the same floor). Another friend of mine had taken up this class. I met her and befriended another person in that class. The professor was an energetic cheerful lady. I had heard that she was really strict with grading. From what I saw today, I think scoring well in this subject would be slightly hard. Although happy and cheerful, she seemed like a strict person who wouldn't be lenient with grading assignments.
I had taken most of these subjects at my undergrad level too; so hopefully, this semester  would be easy in terms of study load. I have so many other things that I need to get used to.
After class, we went to the library to get some textbooks. From what I've heard/seen, text books in USA are very expensive. Of the three books, I have brought one of them, the other one, I had referred to during my undergrad course; however, I haven't brought it. But I was able to find an online copy of it. The third book I was able to find a soft copy at the library. By about 4:00 pm I was back home!
I relaxed for a while and tried to look at the online material posted for each of my courses. I'm really impressed with the promptness of the professors in posting material online. I was able to find a lot of useful info.
I love that I have classes on just 2 days a week!
Welcome Week is going on at the university. I still need to plan on what events I want to attend this week. I'll post anything interesting that I experience. I still have lots that I want to tell you all. So stay tuned!!
Until next time,
Bye! :D

Up, Up and Away: few HOURS to go!!

Hello everybody,
Today is the day! Today night, in a few hours I'll leave the country to go to USA for my studies. I'm really sad, excited and a little tense at the moment. All my bags are packed and ready. I just need to have my dinner, change my clothes and leave. All my bags are just within the allowed weight limit. Hopefully the scale I used co-insides with the scale at the airport. I've been home all of this week and I feel really sad to be leaving for such a long time. I'm not too sad about leaving the house (that I've lived in ever since I was born!) or the city etc. I will miss all that, but not as much as I'm going to miss my parents and Tee. My mom was almost in tears today morning. Day before I couldn't sleep till around 2 am and kept sobbing in bed. I feel really sad to be leaving behind my parents especially at this stage when they are getting old. I see that they have lesser energy than they used to a few years back and I fear they may become weaker by the time I see them next. The thought that they may struggle all by themselves when I'm away enjoying my life haunts me. Technology is a boon; I will be able to see them and talk to them online everyday; but, I won't be able to understand the little struggles they may face on a day-to-day basis or help them out in any little way I can. But I guess I'll have to bear with it for now. Hopefully after 2 years, I'll get a job that will allow me to stay close to my parents and take care of them. I am teary eyed as I write this as I think about all that they have done for me and my sister. They've done the best that anyone could possibly do for their children. They've worked hard all their lives ignoring their health to do the best for us. And now, after all that I'm leaving them here and going away so far. This post is also a reminder to the future me. I hope I never forget all that my parents have done for me and never hurt them ever! I'm scared that I may change as a person and get too engrossed with my own new life and forget all about my parents. I HOPE and PRAY that never happens. If such a day comes, I hope at least this post may remind me. Me and my mom had a little squabble with my sister a few days back. The amount it hurt my mom deeply hurt me. The way they look forward to my sister's call every evening and if  she doesn't ask about them one day, the expression on my mom's face after I end the call is heart breaking. I hope I never ever do such a thing! Although I scream at them, I fight with them, at the end of the day they always forgive me; they could never do anything to hurt me so much that I would not forgive them.
I just hope these few years away in a new country won't change me. I hope my parents and Tee are happy and healthy here and I hope very soon we'll all be united again.
So, those are my thoughts right now. I don't want to cry before I leave, but I'm so on the verge off it right now! Ugh! a  really bad time. God! why do things have to be so difficult! Why hasn't teleportation been invented still!? I hope the journey is smooth! See you on the other side! (Hopefully I'll be in a saner state of mind in a few days time!) I still had a lot more to write about about this past week (happy stuff). I'll put it in another post after I reach USA.
Until next time,
Bye! :D

Friends

Hello everybody,
I hope you're having a great day! This is kind of a continuation of my previous post. As I mentioned earlier, I recently got my visa and told my friends about me leaving for university abroad. The way some of them reacted, surprised me a little and got me thinking about friendships.
I had kept only three of my very close friends (I'll call them ABC for convenience) informed about my plans from the very beginning. A lot of people put you down if you plan/try to pursue something and fail. So, I thought it would be best to let others know only after things were clearer for me. Once I received my visa, I thought it was suitable to let others know about it. 
For the past 6 months I've been working as an intern and don't meet ABC on a regular basis. A few other friends from my college (I'll call them DEF (God! I need to come up with better names!)) are interning along with me. So for the past few months, I spend most of my time with DEF and have become quite close friends with them. Sometimes I wonder, if I had met them in my first year of college, would I have become best friends with them? They come from a similar background as me, they have a similar upbringing, values etc. However, on many occasions I've found them behaving in a petty/selfish manner. In such situations I wonder, are ABC better people than DEF or is it just the way ABC react to me vs how DEF react to me (considering I'm a newer friend to  DEF than ABC).
I'm writing about this now because I noticed a significant difference in the way ABC reacted to the news that I had got my visa and how DEF reacted to the same news. Our internship offer was such that if we performed well during the internship period, we'd be converted into permanent employees. I have been performing well and my manager offered to convert me. However, I declined the offer as I had plans of continuing my education. I didn't tell DEF about this as I hadn't told them about my plan to study itself. They thought I hadn't been offered a conversion and used to boast a little about their offers. I used to be tempted to tell them that I too had been offered a conversion but held back as I'd have to reveal my other plans then. Finally when it was my turn to tell them about my plans, I thought they'd be a little more supportive and happy for me. They did congratulate me, but it was quite apparent that they were unhappy about it. I told them about it two days back and I already notice the change in their behavior towards me. They've become a little distant and cold.
When I broke the news to ABC, they were genuinely happy and I could see that in their texts itself! Now I do think ABC are genuinely better people than DEF. I'm glad I got to meet ABC before I met DEF. ABC are friends because I like to be with them; DEF are more friends for convenience.
I know this post was really cryptic and personal, but I needed to tell someone about it and I figured, who better than you! I'm sorry if I bored you with little details of my life which may not make sense to you. But I hope atleast a few people can relate to what I'm talking about.
Until next time,
Bye! :D