7 things...

Almost 10 weeks and no contribution to blogspot.com. Finally got some time. Huhhh!!!

Since last 2-3 days, I was thinking what can be my new topic and finally I hit the arrow on my findings about US. First I decided to write 7 things I like most and 7 things I dislike most in US, but then I gave up about good things. As there are sooooo many good things here, I cannot pick 7 out of it. If I start writing about good things then it won't be a blog anymore. It will be an online book. So being unfair, I am just writing 7 things which I don't like in US. Well, before commencing, lemme clarify that - when I say "I don't like in US" means ofcousre I am comparing it with India; and again it is individual perception, I may be wrong by looking at someone' perspective. Okay, okay, enough 'bhashan'. Let me start now

1. TubeLight

Yeah... here in apartments, you won't get any tubelight, or holder of tubelight. All you have to use is Lamp. If you really want tubelight, you can have the set up by your own, but as a must default thing, you won't get it in the apartment.

2. Different Terms

Take anything, you will find a different terms & units here. Forget about Mile, gallon, million, billion, ferunhit, freeway. Normal stuff have got a different term. Soft drink becomes soda, cycle becomes bike, restaurant bill becomes check, biscuits becomes cookies, ground floor becomes first floor, dustbin becomes garbage/trash, football becomes soccer, tin becomes can, baby cloth size available in 2T-3T. So the history says, Americans are separated from britishers and they wanted to have everything different from britishers. So it is very difficult to be adjusted in the world of new terms, but it is just a matter of time, but in intial days, you will struggle a lot.

3. Medical

Well... appointment, appointment, appointment.. no matter what disease you are suffering from, you should have appointment. Otherwise go in emergency. And once you go in emergency, minimum they will charge 200-300 bucks which is 6K INR. In 6000 Rs, a guy can very well be hospitalized in semi-special room for 2 days in India. Medical is very very very costly here. So if you don't have insurance here, you are screwed if something goes wrong. That's why people prefer the employers who have the best medical insurance plan for employees. And Microsoft is one of those best employers here who has the 100% coverage for the whole family.

Coming to medical stores, I was so surprised when I went to medical store with my friend who was supposed to take some pain killer medicines. So it's not like India, park your bike near the store and yell to store keeper- "Aey Rajubhai, jara ye dawaai de dena". Pay the money and you are done in 5 mins. Here in US, it takes one hour to get the medicines. Show the prescription, they take the complete information, verify by asking to the hospital who has give that prescription, make a record of the patient with SSN and applied a sticker on medicine box with patient's name and other info. Oh my god !!! It is such a long process. Of course, 911 is the BEST service in case of emergency, but as long as regular check-up is concerned, I like Indian style.

4. Advertisement

Remember... all those best indian commercials.... (All fevicol ads, All Mentos ads, Vodaphone zoo zoo, kya aap close-up karte hai..., Camline-permanent marker, vergin mobile, Pulsar....... & so on). smart, comic and cool ads. But here if I see the ads, they are very descriptive with full information. Basically you won't really enjoy most of the ads. With my biggest surprise, I couldn't find any celebrity in the ads. I don't know why???

5. Food

Pani puri, ice-gola, vada paau, daabeli, maska bun, khaman, faafda, khandavi.... all Indian 'Footpath Food'... missing them a lot... You have a full variety if you eat non-veg. But for vegie, you have very limited option.

6. Saloon

I am not sure about other cities of US, but here in Redmond, mostly you will find chinkis to run a saloon. Here they will ask only 1 thing - "which size, 1,2,3 or 4". They trim your hair based on that size. And they charge $16 + $3 (tip). Lot of my friends are very scared to go because it is very hard to explain them how exactly you want to cut your hair, you want to have long hair from front/back, stylish sidelocks. Doesn't matter. You will come back with only 1 style. In India, hardly they will charge 25-30 Rs and that too with ultimate head massage with taka-tak sound.

7. Bathroom

Generally in the apartment, you will get at least one bathroom with bathtub, but other bathroom will be a standing bathroom. So if you are staying with your roommates and you are not lucky then you may have to use that standing bathroom. It is just 2X2 sq. feet bathroom. You cannot even move your hands freely. No bucket, no mug. So the satisfaction you are getting by sitting in a bathroom and spilling water on your head, you won't get it here. Moreover, here in the bathroom, in the common space there is no drainage. So if you forget to close the curtain while taking bath and if water comes out, then it will be PITA (acronym available at http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=PITA). And I am not talking about toilet, that's universal truth, let's not make this blog dirty. :-)