The time was 7:10 AM on 22-06-2009, and I was well ahead of the reporting time of 7:30 AM. Just as I was about to think it was just me, I realised there were 4 other people around me who had come early too. Here I wish to bring about a most peculiar aspect of human beings- In professional surroundings, they tend to have a conversation revolving totally around the current atmosphere and it’s immaterial that they don’t even know each other’s names. Similar was the case here and in the entire time I spent with these people, I can claim only to know the name of 1 and that too because I happened to glance at his Visa interview appointment letter: Jason Jesse James (JJJ, that’s a killer name!) from Kerala who happened to have an MS admit from Georgia Tech. The other 2 guys were from Chennai and were going to University of Illinois for an MS course. The gal behind me was going to Rice (I certainly had my share of lady company during this trip) for an MS course and it was obvious I talked to her more due to the fact that we had the same destination in the US of A.
At 7:20, we were allowed a free pass ahead of the crowd by a security guard with a most astounding moustache- The thing seemed to cover half his face! Thick tamil accent not withstanding, he had all of us hand over the passport and appointment letter to him through a window sill and then returned them all to us. The gate opened and for some reason images of Fox River Penitentiary (Prison Break FTW) came to my mind with the appropriate music. A series of security checks followed and the guys were separated from the gals for obvious reasons. Now I wont pretend I liked this, but I turned out to have a great time with Jason and the other guys for the entire 1.5 hours that I was inside. The guards inside suddenly seemed to have a much calmer demeanour and a voice that would put Baba Amte to shame despite being more Madraasi than Rajnikanth himself! Security checks over, we walked through a very heavy metal door into air-conditioning- Oh thank God for that…
Yes, someone actually made this image for the internet!
There seemed to be people of all possible regions of India here and I don’t envy the coordinators who had to handle them all. Mind you, we were still in the Indian section and sadly it was unanimous among the 4 of us that the Indian inspectors were clearly ruder than their American counterparts L…One of them was a grumpy old man (GOM; Nothing to do with the media player) saw me as he attempted to rectify my documents and in the midst of it asked me to write my name in Konkani on one of the forms despite it being clearly written that Konkani had no written script. Then the doofus asked me to write it in tulu, kannada and Hindi in that order. Finally his role was done with and I was asked to take a well marked path to another building where the US consulate-general along with his people worked. Here was where the actual visa interview would be:-
Inside, after crossing multiple security checks and those heavy doors, was a huge hall divided into 2 sections: One for the dependents of those coming along with the primary applicant and another for student/exchange visitors. All 4 of us, who were still together, took a gamble and sat at the far left of the waiting hall- Now this was mainly because the LCD TV set hanging directly above us was showing highlights of the ICC T20 world cup final but there were very few people here and the majority were in the right hand section of the hall. A lot of talking ensued which mostly revolved around the application process, including one of us who was forced to give his TOEFL in a Reliance webworld with 35 people all talking at the same time and another who had pressed Cancel on his GRE score window by mistake when he was confident of securing a 1600!
The visa interview counters soon opened and there were 3 people available: Another grumpy old man (GOM), a sweet matron lady and a unanimously declared hot latin chick (HLC). GOM & HLC seemed to handle the students and in the 20 minutes we waited, GOM interviewed just 5 students and rejected 3 of them with 1 girl bursting into tears right there at the counter while HLC accepted 8 of the 11 applicants at her counter with a smile: It was clear where we wanted to go but ultimately it was not our choice. However sitting in the far left paid off big time as we were asked to stand in the snake-way very soon. When I was the next to go to an available counter, the person in front went to HLC and I was cursing my luck. Luckily GOM decided to be extra special in his own way with the guy he was interviewing and by the time he was done, all 4 of us were finished with HLC…
HLC: What are you going to do at Rice?
Me: Pursue my Doctoral Studies, Madam
HLC: In which field?
Me: Inorganic catalysis (Quite clever if I do say so myself, its probably the most harmless chemical topic there is)
HLC: What’s that?
Me (With my mastery of peshaab): Study the effect of imbedding metals and metal compounds into carbon or silicon based catalysts to get a higher surface area-to-volume ratio (For the 3 people in the world who know my fascination with the “surface area to volume” term, it’s now less… A lot less!)
HLC: Uhmm… Ok! What are your parents?
Me (Highly tempted to reply Homo sapiens): My father is a banker with Bank of Baroda, and my mother is a home-maker
HLC: And how are you sponsoring your studies at Rice?
Me: I have a full fellowship from Rice University
HLC (Gives a hard look which for some reason got the other guys there jealous J): Ok study well at Rice
Me: Thank you, Madam!
And that was it: Less than 30 secs for a process spanning 2 weeks of work and a further 2 weeks of waiting! Coming out the fortress took a mere 15 secs owing to no checks or obstacles, there was another door there and voila- I was out at the gate! Waited a little for the other 3 guys, shook hands while congratulating each other and we went our separate ways…
The train journey back was routine and I am thankful for that- I didn’t think I wanted anymore to do with loud girls/babies. I bought 2 novels and 10 DVD’s from a seedy looking guy (Aren’t they all seedy??) and at 10 AM, 23-06-2009 I was back home. I got my passport soon afterwards and that was the end of the Visa experience, for now atleast…
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