Immigrant Diaries
Thursday, September 25, 2008 at 10:48PM The secret shoebox that distracted me with all those invalubles, held one item that actually triggered the "Chuck Norris for President" post.
It was my little account notebook where every cent was balanced,over my first eight nine months of living in America. This was done till debts were closed in India.
Except for my roomate from those old days, nobody has seen this notebook.
Here are the first three pages..
Lot of "fresh off the plane" memories. Note, how I spelt Pizza (Pietza?!?) two days after landing here. Was rolling on the floor laughing after seeing this and some other entries. Also note, how I learnt to return things in a store (a concept that was really new to me after entering the USA). Still remember asking a college senior, "What do you mean, return the phone? I already bought it! How will the store take it back after I already paid for it and there is nothing wrong with it?" and he said "Tell the store, that your friend gave you a hand me down phone!" and the store will take it back. And "take it back" they did, with an understanding smile and I just could not believe it!
Will never forget having a sleeping bag instead of a bed for nine months and using Kellogs cornflakes boxes as a shelf of sorts to keep all my stuff. We used to watch a hand me down four inch black and white TV, with the two extended antennas which had to be tweaked very precisely to the 0.01 th of a degree, to get NBC, ABC, CBS and PBS. The funniest thing was that someone actually stole that TV, when we were moving from one apartment to another a year later.
Things have changed quite a bit now. There is a 52 inch LCD TV at home, which suggests that the growth is 13 times in 15 years, if of course, one measures oneself by the ratio of the diagonal TV size!
Somewhere, somehow, the lessons in those early days on growing up, taking care of oneself, dealing with debt, having the drive to get over a barrier, have all made me what I am today.
Life goes on, without the precious notebook!
.
account, american dream, diary, immigration
Reader Comments (12)
Too Nostalgic, A very good post... :)
Ah, things hadn't changed much (except the prices) when I came here in 2001 either.
Nice to read!
Awww, that's so sweet. But I still don't understand, parrupu is $5 but phone is $10- what kind of phone is this? :)
Sundar - I've been reading your blog for a while now :)
Nostalgia was what this post of yours evoked. That little notepad brought back memories of our early days in HK - in fact, just the other day, we came across our early "account books".
Good trip down memory lane, that one !
Sundar-
Good post- made me go back to my box from grad school days where I have lists like this and more.
too Nostalgic....
as someone mentioned here nothing much has changed, when I landed in 2001 I had a 99cents notebook for accounts........
living alone and managing with what we earn definitely made me feel proud and sometimes makes me think I can handle finances much better than my parents :)...
Very nice post.
-Swaps
Such a lovely and endearing post, Sundar :)
it looks like things are holding since 1993 to 2001...
would have guessed that microsoft money would have replaced that 50 cent notebook in the 2000's.. guess not!
Sivajini, it was the plain phone.. no features.. 0 to 1, *, # and that was it. no power cord.. nothing.. just plug in the line and done... it was replaced by a similar but free phone.
you see, the seniors had graduated to a phone with answering machine!
:)
we are talking days when the cheapest call to India was AT&T at 1.38 a minute, and you had to call the only house on your street in India which had a phone, tell them to call your parents, hang up, then wait for 10-15 mins and then call again!
:)
sundar:
"we are talking days when the cheapest call to India was AT&T at 1.38 a minute, and you had to call the only house on your street in India which had a phone, tell them to call your parents, hang up, then wait for 10-15 mins and then call again!"
you lucky guy! when i came here, it was $4.xx for the first minute, then $2.xx for each subsequent minute. parents would go to father's office (which was about the only phone they could access) at night, and wait for my phone call (date and time agreed to based on at least two letters written a month or so ago!).
and when/if i called and no one picked up, i would panic. i believe i actually once sent a telegram (costs an arm and a leg here) to ensure that all was well.
when did you realize that usps frowns on stamps stuck front and back on an envelope? or do you still not know about this?
you won't believe this, but once a clerk literally frowned at me - and forced me to purchase additional stamps and stick them on the front of the envelope (i collect stamps, and got penny stamps and stuck them all across the back of the envelope - once or twice).
- s.b.
p.s.: after all this, how can one tell his/her kids "those were the days"?
Thats a neat post ! Life may go on without that scrap book, but that scrap book made life !
I am glad that the TV's width has grown.
Hope the cycling et al is on... to trim down the other lateral widening !!!
s.b., think it was something similar for us also.. first minute was more expensive.. then it got down to a 1.38/min.
our kids will probably telling their kids
"in those days we had to actually use our fingers and press 20 digits to call india.. these days you think it and you connect"
he he..
Kavi, as for the cycling, it is back on.. every alternate day now.
even bought one of those flourescent jerseys from Madras to wear during the cycling so cars dont hit me. .. but it says DROGBA 11 on it and apparently it is some player with dubious repute who plays european soccer.. no wonder the shirt was only 200 rupees..
well who cares! It is as flourescent as flourescent can be..
:)
sundar:
the name is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didier_Drogba" REL="nofollow">didier drogba. i don't think you look like him, but you might bike faster than him! ;-)
- s.b.