Somehow the idea of getting into and settling in the US imprinted into my mind when I was a graduate student. The thought might have come even before that. The people I used to live with had limited knowledge about the purpose of life; they tend to wrongly influence other people about what to do with life. I possibly got influence from these people that nothing is more worthy than to go to the US. Later in my University life what I have seen from the fellow students was sticking with GRE big book and TOEFL materials. You got to get decent scores, that’s the golden key for US entry. I followed the footsteps of my fellow senior students and was quite stuck with GRE and TOEFL for the next few years. I ended up with decent scores and one day found myself lined up in front of US embassy for F1 visa, what a childish job I have done; now I remember and laugh. Anyway there were hundreds if not thousands were lined up with me. We waited patiently all night long in the hope that we can get into the embassy and will be interviewed. Lucky me that I had some friends with me waiting on the same queue. Otherwise the only thing I could have achieved on that night was some mosquito bites.
My visa application was declined. I was told by the visa officer that I did not have enough family ties in Bangladesh and would not be back from the US upon finishing my study. Well, he was right and wrong at the same time. He was upright wrong on the point of my family tie, having four brothers and one sister, having living parents, having all the good friends, what on earth led someone to decide I have no family ties, it appeared to be he was justifying my emotional bonding in less than five minutes.
Eleven years have passed. I was traveling with my wife to California. I was asked by another officer in Denver if I was carrying cooked spicy food, he added in his 20 years career, he never saw any Indian not carrying spicy materials with them. Well he was downright wrong again; firstly I am not an Indian, secondly I find the idea quite bizarre that all Indian carry spicy food always. I always wonder why all of these people have no ability to talk right. Why people have to talk something that they don’t have faintest idea about.
