Why did I come to USA

Well, for some this may be an easy question to answer, while for the rest this is deemed to be the toughest. Having fallen in the second category, I still believe I managed to convince myself with a rational explanation to this topic.

My fixation towards foreign countries, especially the US, could probably have started during my early ages (7th or 8th grade) and I must tell you, a childhood friend of mine (Guna) could possibly be the individual responsible for augmenting my fixation. He used to be a big time Hollywood movie fan, and if it’s not for him, my memory library of English movies would be half empty now, and certainly my exposure to US wouldn't have been much. But I cannot weigh this to be the only reason, may be this is a prelude to what followed.

As most parents would unanimously agree, male kids in their young age are more interested especially in cars and guns, and I wasn't an anomaly in this regard, in fact I can say I was a notch above most of them as I simply wouldn’t stop at playing with them, but in turn would also try to learn the technical details of it. In addition to this I am very passionate about fashion. Brand addiction wrapped me as early as age 12 and grew stronger as I grew older, and that was the time when jean culture started to claw in. We all would compare each others wardrobe to find out who had the best of brands. Most brands to which I was addicted to were either American or British. It may be funny to even think about it now, myself and a friend of mine (Prabu) even thought about opting for an university based in the US state of Kansas, home to the famous Jean brand LEE, and you may now get the reason why.

Apart from the fore mentioned, I must say the quest for knowledge and technology played a much larger role during my later part. Being an ardent fan of Discovery channel, I probably had access to more information about new inventions and innovations in almost all departments, starting from mining to aerospace. To give you a gist of how obsessed I was with Discovery channel, I once watched it for 18 hrs on a Saturday, and that wasn't just the only time. Most of what I see would either have happened in US or some how related, hence weighed in as an addendum to afore mentioned reasons.

When I stepped into my college, internet was just starting to boom. I would access car websites, printout information and read about them. At one point of time I was aware of almost all the technologies used in cars and bikes in the market. This started with cars and extended to electronics, apparels, and so on. During the later part I started enjoying talking about them, doing so I probably could have annoyed few people with differed interests.

Faced with almost no necessity to look for a job, upon completing my bachelor’s degree, and after being strongly influenced by my parents to pursue my master's, I once for all decided to do my master's. But, I didn't have a definitive answer to where I wanted to pursue my master's, instead had various options in my mind. Ironically it didn't include US. I should probably say, US was the answer that destiny had in mind for me. Had I not taken a turn that day, while I was going back to home after a failed visit to see a friend of mine (Bala), to run into another friend (Jegadesh), who was then instrumental in persuading me to apply for US. If not for all what happened that day, I wouldn't probably be here writing this.

I made it to US to pursue my Master's in 2003, with passion towards my interests as the sole driving force, and have sailed through some rough seas with very little assistance. Yet, I am still here more resilient than ever before trying to answer my own question of "Why did I come to USA".

I can still claim my passion towards technology, cars and everything I do as part of my job as the driving forces, and of course money, which most people find it to be the apex reason, wherein I prefer to differ.

But the day when all these interesting things seize to interest me, is the day I depart.