Never apply for OPT to Vermont!

Here goes the story of my OPT, something that has kept me intensely frustrated for the last 3-4 days.

- On about the 15th of May I approached ISC (the International student center at KSU), letting them know that I wanted to apply for OPT. It took them about a week to generate a new I-20 for me and to review my application. On about the 20th of May, I posted the OPT packet .... to Nebraska service center.

- On 4th June, I received something from Nebraska: My application packet was rejected. On one of the forms submitted as part of the OPT application, I had indicated that I would like to receive my OPT card at Philadelphia address because I may not be in Kansas when the card would arrive. Philadelphia falls under Vermont serive center, not Nebraska. I would therefore have to apply to Vermont, it said.

- Now, I always thought the service center to which you apply depends on your university. So K-state students would always apply to Nebraska for OPT, I thought. My bad. But the ISC, when reviewing my application never pointed out to me that having a differnt "state" address on form 765, alters the application course so drastically. But anyway.

- On 5th June I went back to ISC asking them for an advice. I asked them: 1. Should I send my application packet to Vermont? OR 2. Should I put a Kansas address of some friend in Manhattan on form 765 and send the packet to Nebraska? Is the Nebraska service center any different or faster than Vermont Service center in processing applications etc, I asked. A lady at the ISC adviced me to send the packet to Vermont. All service centers are the same she said, there is no difference!

- On 6th June I sent my application to Vermont. And now I realize what a joke it was on part of ISC in saying that all service centers are similar. Since the 8th of June my case is pending with the Vermont center. Last week I sent them an expedite request to process my application faster. This request was rejected, the ISC now says that Vermont center does not accept expedite processing requests.

The result: I still do not have my OPT card and I may not be able to start work on 20th July! And it is so damn frustrating. Everyone asks me why did I not start the OPT application earlier than 15th of May. The answer to this is that you are supposed to apply for OPT in your graduating semester, not the semester before that. So as soon as spring-end was approaching, I approached ISC with my OPT application. Now while I am not starting any blame-game here, I cannot help thinking what was ISC doing all this time in advicing me to send the application to Vermont. They should have made it explicit, very clear, to the point of warning me that application processing at a center other than Nebraska would be time consuming. They had a chance to do it twice, but I was never warned!

My advice to K-state students who would be applying for an OPT:

1. Always put a local address on form 765 so that your application would be processed at Nebraska.

2. Do not blindly trust ISC. Make sure you've filled up the forms correct, attached all required documents etc.

As far as I'm concerned, its the beginning of a painful wait for me :(

So many things to do, so less time

So many people to meet, so less time,
So many places to visit, so less time,
So many friends to hug, so less time,
So many things to say, so less time,
So many memories to share, so less time.
I said hello not because I needed to, but because I wanted to
But now its time to say goodbye not because I want to, but I need to.

Alvida K-State, its time to move on !

Parting blues

21st of June is my last day here at K-State. My home sweet home is no longer going to remain mine. I would no longer be coming to this lab, which I have always felt so attached to. I'm no longer going to be a student of this department, my second home here in Manhattan. Friends who were a phone call away are no longer going to be around.

It freaks me no end to think that these things are soon going to end. It is unbelievably painstaking to leave this weird yet beautiful place where routine seems messed up if you sleep before 3 in the night and get up before 10 in the morning. A place where something just doesn't feel right if you don't eat at Chipotle every other night. A place where feet, by default, turn towards union/radina's at 5 pm daily for coffee hour. A place where weekend doesn't seem complete without a movie on projector followed by dance party. In such state of bliss we've lived our lives here, its hard to imagine the day when I would step out of the lab one last time, out of the department one last time, out of the university one last time, out of the house one last time to board my last roadrunner. For a change it would feel like the cab should not just come to pick me up.

It all feels similar to what went through my mind on the last day of engineering, five years back. But then, I was going to live in the same town, in the same house and moreover with the same group of friends. The transition then was not as steep and abrupt. Moreover, then, I did not know the real worth of college life. I always knew college life is the one of the best phase's of one's life. But its only after you start working that you well and truly realize the seriousness and veracity of those thoughts. The same goes with Bachelor's life. Its not until you get married that you understand and appreciate the simplicities in life whilst being a bachelor, and the complications involved when you are no more single. In the last two years I've got a chance to experience both these phases, student and bachelor, once again after having experienced corporate and married life and having got to know their pros and cons. Though being a bachelor again has been hard, it sometimes feel glad to be amongst the lucky ones. Life is more often than not a one way traffic, very few people get a chance to go back in life . And in a sense experiencing bachelors and student's life once again has felt like the clock has ticked back on me.

Now these two phases are about to end ......... in fact a completely new chapter is about to begin. Its kind of been a hard climb and as I stand at this final step looking back at the road traveled, there is again a medley of emotions: satisfaction for achievements made, regret for the mistakes committed, anger for opportunities missed, happiness for the moments lived. Of course a lot of sadness around this whole thing of leaving. Met some really good people here. They say some people come in your life for a season, some for a reason and some for a lifetime. Not sure who came for what, but I sure got some real good friends and to all those folks .... I'll really miss you guys. Its been an absolute pleasure to have experienced life here, with you guys, in this cute little town they call the Little Apple.

In spite of all this nostalgia though, I must say I'm quite ready to move on. What I've learnt from the past is that its quite natural to feel nostalgic about things. But do not hold on to your past. Never think that your best days have gone past. In fact always look forward and keep thinking that the best days in your life are yet to come. So I'm completely positive that the best is still to come and looking forward to move on to a new phase in life. Will meet new people, hopefully make great friends and the new place would have something exciting on offer. Infact, Seattle was the vision, the dream I've had for a long long time. I'm soon going to be living this dream and that makes me happy no bound. Looking forward to getting sleepless in Seattle!

End of the beginning or beginning of the end

Its been a terrific day. As a teen, I had two dreams: 1. Doing MS, 2. Getting into MS. I am happy that both these "childhood" dreams are now checkmarked. Strangely though, the first dream was achieved after achieving the second one .... but who cares. More importantly, there are 2 less things now to "dream/achieve" in life.

But as is always the case "manzil se behtar hote hai ye raaste". Its been a terrific two years in Manhattan and after today's presentation the realization has suddenly dawned upon me that the countdown to leave this place has just begun.

The Curious Case of Mysterious Blogger

last year a tornado hit k-state during fun cricket ..... and this year it is this

.... http://fakeksuplayer.blogspot.com/ ......

its impact seems to be no less devastating, atleast as far as the desi community is concerned :)

IPL Review

The IPL is finally over. I did not follow IPL much last year because of the hectic schedules so I did not have much idea about how it is like. It was fun this year following all the games. Fantasy cricket made it even more interesting.

Its all a good concept. But you can't help thinking that its too long. Its hard to understand why every team has to play each other twice. The home and away concept seems to be flawed. Moreover, waiting for 37 days to know who the winner is, is just not done. One of the best things about T20 is that you get to know the winner in 3 hours. So waiting that long to decide the winner is just like watching a 4 or 5 test series to finally know who is going to win. And that defeats the purpose of T20! I also think that most of us guys even lost interest in Fantasy cricket half way through!

So while IPL promises fun, an overdose of cricket can get nauseating. And thats what happened this time atleast. I hope the organizers do something about it next year.

A lesson learnt

It hurt, really hurt. For some timeless moments I feared the worst. I feared that all my dreams have come down crashing. As I gathered my wits back, I kind of got a feeling that things were not as serious as I had earlier thought. Still, I was worried. I hoped it was not threatening. Moreover, I was shocked. Shocked thinking that how little wrong you've got to do to spoil all your good work, done perhaps in a life time. Its amazing really that one small wrong is equal to, and can negate, a thousand huge rights!
The question I asked myself is Was it really wrong? Whatever happened, was it really my fault? It was sheer bad luck, the probability of being precisely at that point at that time and being hit was really one in a million. Yet, I was hit. How cruel can my luck be!
Its easy to blame your luck in such cases. But as I introspected, I quickly realized that on that day and at that time I should not have been there in the first place! I really should have been here, sitting on this very chair and working on this very computer. Before I went there, I had a decision to make: Should I continue working OR should I go there .... and I took the easier decision, I succumbed to the temptation. And it was not just yesterday, I had been taking this easier, tempting and incorrect decision of going there for the last three days! There have been times when "He" has been very kind on me. "He" has made me believe that hard work never goes waste. "He" has made sure that as I sow, so shall I reap. Yesterday, it felt like "He" wanted to teach me a lesson, the hard way. "He" wanted to remind me of my responsibilities and warn me of my wrongs. "He" wanted me to realize that things should never be taken for granted.
Though painful, it has been a useful lesson.... or as they say every dark cloud has a silver lining. It is through these incidences that you learn about how to treat your falls and how to rise from them. Literally. It is through such events that you grow and mature. I'm grateful to "Him" for putting me through this. I have still not recovered though, so hoping that "He" helps me recover soon and hoping that things are not serious :)