Is this the real face of US?

I am sure there are better people in US.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/oct/30pune.htm


Little did the 16-year-old Nikita Dhavle know when she left Pune for the US with dreamy eyes and an idealism of a cultural ambassador, that she would return in three months, with a scarred mind and a fractured hand.

In what turned out to be a nightmare, Nikita, a bright student of a city school, selected under a cultural exchange programme of the American Field Service, landed in of Minnesota in the first week of August unaware of the hostility that awaited her in the form of the host family in Pipestone.

"I was asked to clean the kitchen, dining room, wash clothes, clean utensils, mow the lawn. I also cleaned the barn where the horses were kept," the girl, who returned to India on October 26, told PTI.

"It seemed to me that what they wanted was a domestic slave who parades as a cultural ambassador," a disillusioned Nikita said.

Nikita, who joined the Raff family in Pipestone after an AFS local coordinator screened the host family.

She was in for a rude shock when after two weeks, Ryan, the teenage son who was away, returned home.

"I came to know later that he was on probation for drunken driving," she said.

Nikita, a keen learner with good academic and extra-curricular activity record, joined the Pipestone Central School to utilise her 11-month stay under the programme. But her problems with her host family continued.

"Ryan hurled abuses at me and said he the never liked the concept of cultural exchange. I used to wake up to violent arguments between the boy and the host mom and at times I saw them wrestle with each other on the floor. The lady of the house used to ask me pretentiously whether I was overworked but never cared to reduce the load," said Nikita.

"Once in a fit of rage, the host mom physically pushed me when I requested her to encash my cheque as I needed money. Ryan took every opportunity to insult me."

A fall in the barn fractured her left hand. The Raffs took her to hospital to plaster it but did not care to keep the follow-up dates with the doctor, Nikita recounted. By that time the girl who had made a favourable impression at the school, had begun to think of returning home.

She spoke to her parents in Pune and sent an e-mail to AFS functionaries in Delhi urging them to bring her back as she was no longer interested in completing the stay. Nikita was directed to the local coordinator of AFS who told her "You can change the host. But it could be from bad to worse. All families here are the same. Learn to accept and take things in good humour."

With her disillusionment mounting, and the fracture of the hand adding to her agony and she decided to put her foot down and told AFS officials that "students who come here do not deserve this treatment".

The emotional bruises inflicted on Nikita did not escape the attention of an alert faculty member of the Pipestone school who was fond of her and the teacher sounded the local sheriff that all was not well with the foreign student who looked sulky and depressed.

"I could have proper meal only at the school for lunch. At home the cooking was subject to the whims and fancies of the host mom. For two weeks, I only ate omlettes at home. When I requested her to teach me some American preparations, Ryan said teaching you amounted to teaching a dog," Nikita recalled.

"Sheriff Dan Delanie was a nice man, he spoke to me affectionately trying to understand my predicament. He said I could change the family if I want or return home as per my wish," Nikita said.

When she conveyed all the concerned that she wanted to go back she was advised to cite 'homesickness' as the reason for her premature departure.

But she refused despite repeated pressure and stuck to her stand that she was not comfortable there.

Meanwhile, Nikita's mother, Anita, a school teacher, and her uncle Sarang Kamtekar, who is vice president of Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena, the students' wing of Shiv Sena, contacted some Indian Americans settled in Minnesota appealing them to help her out.

Kamtekar said they got a very heartening response from the Indian community who contacted Nikita and was ready to arrange for her return journey. But her status of a minor posed some legal difficulties.

Finally on clearance from the Sheriff, the AFS functionaries decided to send Nikita back cutting short her stay.

She was sent to Chicago where she failed meet with an AFS contact who was supposed to put her on a flight to Amsterdam en route to Delhi.

"With none to escort me and my hand in plaster evoked suspicions at the airport and I was subjected to extra scanning at every point", she said.

On her arrival in Delhi, Nikita met Adnan Siddiqui, cultural counsel at the US embassy. He had been briefed by AFS activists. "He told me he would look into the matter," said Nikita, who returned to Pune with her uncle Kametkar who has demanded action against the host family in Minnesota who subjected her to mental and physical torture.

Visa

Went to SBM teasury branch near Bowrie hospital. It is reached from the road which is parallel to MG road. After paying the visa fee and getting bank's stamp on the challan we went to FRO. Submitted the application with Challan there. They gave us a receipt indicating that they forwarded our request for Visa to the govt. Told us to contact them after 2 months as after that only Visa will arrive.

Now we came to know why the person at FRO was helping us a lot ? Leave it to ur guess ... :-)

OCI (overseas citizen of India)

It can be applied for someone who is not an Indian citizan but his/her roots are Indian. Eligibilty critetria for this
- If both or either parent in non-Indian citizen then the child and spouse can get it.
- If both parents are Indian citizens and child is non-Indian citizen then
==> If child is major i.e. greater than 16 yrs old then child is entitiled for it.
==> If child is minor i.e. less than 16 years old s/he is not entitled for it and has to wait till s/he is 16 years old.

Visa and Foreigner's registration at Bangalore

- It is done at Police Commissioner's office, which is FRO (Foreign Registration Office)too, at infantry road.
- If only registration needs to be done then alien should have had the visa already.
- Since in our case the Visa also needed to be applied, we had to go there and collect the check list for the documents to be submitted.
- The check list includes
- Application form. Normal information needs to be provided there e.g. name, DOB, Father's name etc of the alien.
- Financial guarantee form. It needs to be on a stamp paper of 20 rupees. The format will be given by the person at FRO. Any lawyer at Mayo court at M.G. Road , near utility building, can get it done for some money.
- Photocopies of Parents passports.
- Photocopies of alien's passport and RP(registration stamp) paper of the passport of previous registration .
- By giving above documents at FRO, the person there will give a Challan which needs to be taken to State Bank of Maysore at Bowrie for submitting the Visa fees.
- The Visa fee is140 USD for 5 yrs and late fee is 30 USD .

Tomorrow we are heading to SBM for submitting the Visa fee and then had to go back to FRO .

Advts.

The ad of Maruti Estalino is strange. The gal comes of her house window to escape with her fiance. Then it shows car moving on zig-zag roads with ease and with good speed. It says the car is very fast. Then they see her father waiting at a checkpost n checking each vehicle for his daughter. It means there is a car which runs faster than the advt.sed car else how her father could have reached there before them.

A better thing would have been to let her father agree to marry his daughter to the man after seeing his car :-)

In another ad, a guy is riding his bike to post job acceptance letter to his US boss. But he thinks its better to be in India rather than going abroad. He tears the letter and throw the torn pieces on the road. Then he shouts 'Mein aa raha hun India (India, i am coming)'. First, he is already in India then why he needs to declare to India the he is coming. Second, why did they show him throwing the torn pieces of the letter on the road itself. Is this the way he will keep behaving in India ?

Indian English Media

I always get amazed at the non-maturity and one-sidedness of Indian Media. Everyone knows NDTV has communist bent. NDTV has RSS-phobia, BJP-phobia. It is a perverted news channel which sees the world from the glasses of communism and Hindu bashing. IBN-Live, well, the anchors of this channel have arrogance on their faces all the time. Looks like they feel that they are doing a favour to Indian people by showing them news. Since one of the main editor of this channel comes from NDTV, anti-Hinduism is clearly reflected there too. Like today , they gave more time to Left leader (i always think and left proves me right everytime that left is a bunch of mentally bankrupt people who are traitors) than BJP person. FYI and for IBN info, BJP is second biggest party in Loksabha.

Regarding one of their anchor Karan Thapar, i think he needs some etiquette training. In the interviews he takes he speaks more than the person being interviewed and will cut short each reply after 1 or 2 sentences. Some people never get matured.

Less i say about Hindi news channel better it is. Aajtak has become entertainment channel. When people in South India were dying of chicken-gunia etc, they were showing documentaries on King (?) Khan (Shahrukh Khan ). BTW SK acting is so artificial that i cant withstand him for more than 5 mins. Never ever Aajtak gave time for people suffering from Chicke gunia etc. A more detailed report on interviews with families of farmers committing suicide would have been a good thing..but alas..their reach can not go beyond Delhi or Mumbai.

Some hope i see in Star news. Though not best but they sort of take personal interest in exposing corrupt govt officials..

Maybe some day..we will have Media we deserve..

A Selfless Fearless Soul

With many people and companies doing charity work and blowing their trumpet for same at highest volume, it is not possible to find someone who does charity selflessly. I happen to meet a man last month at my native place who is doing it because he wants to do it and likes it. Such person don't find mention is the big ads of NGOs we see on media and neither such people are interested in it.
He is a Vaid(doctor in Indian medical science). I have got my two health problems cured from him. I had tried all expensive pathological hospitals for the cure but in vain. This person treated these with jadi-butis. The best part is he will not accept money from me.

When i visited him, i could see lots of poor people coming to him and he would happily treat them for no money. Then how does he feed himself ? For one, if anyone wants to pay him s/he can put the money in front of Lakshmi statue which is in another room. So, how much money anyone gave no one would know. Plus, he has some farms in village which are contracted to someone and gets some money from there. From the same money (plus some donation) he keeps arranging eye camps, blood donation camps.

I see the way he lives, such a simple living. In his house i could not find anything which i can say is bought for comfort. No TV, no vehicle and not even radio. Just a newspaper. He sleeps on floor. Gets up before sunrise and does Yoga for 2 hours.

Such a person will surely be fearless. He goes and fights corrupt officials face to face. The city DC and SP are scared of this fearless soul and listen to him with respect and fear both.

The person carrying the oldest Indian medicine knowledge and serving humanity with this knowledge for no greed, has my all respect. I respect him for his nature and the knowledge which cured my diseases which no pathological doctor in big and small hospitals could cure even after paying so much for their fees and medicines.

In this fast age when society is becoming more westernized, frustrated, loosing inner peace for the want of materialistic gains, we need such great people who keep on doing their good work away from all limelights.


PS - I committed to myself, next time i go to my native i would put money in front of the Lakshmi statue and hope he would not know about it.