The Journey

Best Phase of my life ....  There are few years in life when I feel this way and even fewer when I have the ability to recognize and document it. 2025 was a good year. GC - Applying for EB1A - I140 around Jan 20th 2025 I was not sure if I would get through. New President took office on 20th Jan 2025 ( there was lot of layoffs because of dodge , uscis was loosing staff  so a tumultuous times). We got our application submitted and then approval come around Feb 2nd (not able to recollect the exact date) .. it was a routine morning, I was about to start work, but I was on call with App.. opened the USCIS website and was pleasantly surprised to see approval. I told dad and rushed to tell Sahana... she was taking bath, I was not sure how to celebrate. First I took a screen shot of the approval. I was worried it would go away :). It took a lot of our savings to apply for next steps I-485. Finally after medical, getting vaccinated, USCIS Biometric, EAD approval, USCIS Interview we got...

I should start with the most important thing at-least the one that feels most important right now.  It is better to list in the order of priority of my life based on what is important today.  Green Card  Arjun turned 10 Sahana getting a job right after layoff India trip spending a week with mom and dad Satyanaraya Swami Poojey Sandhi Kala Shanti Dancing with Sahana at VPA event  Fashion show with Sahana at VPA event  Havasupai hike Whitney Hike  Spartan Race  VPA event  Best Phase of my life .... 

Which one is better. Being knowledgeable or ignorent. Conventional wisdom suggests that knowledge is power , money and more. However my experience ( especially last night ) has been contrary to popular belief. I watched sifie series about human brain being a super computer and all that, of the few things that my supercoputer retained from this series was sleep is critical for normal functioning of the brain. This innocuous piece of information stayed in my ram ( random , abnormal memory ) Old one , it was sitting in draft ( I am not sure when I wrote this ).

Yesterday I spent the entire night on a bench at the union station, an experiace I would like to forget. December 21nd 2008 was the coldest day of 2008, temperature howering in the -30 to -35 deg centigrade range. I don't love such weather so I tried taking the train in 22nd December. The train was an hour late than usual ... it was expected to be in chicago by 11:30 and my last intracity train Story from Dec 2008

I don't know about others , but someday I just don't know if I'm a good person or a bad person.

This is the story for Greg Gadson, a commander from US amry who helped motivate a losing team.

I have bought a bike for daily office commute, trying to use it regularly. 

Bicycles have been part of my life for a long time.  2 Wheels. I learnt how to balance on 2 wheels pretty quickly. Then moving up was not easy. I could never get on the big bikes. I would only do half pedal. I did not mind it ... I felt that is what I would do for life, we did not have enough money to afford a bike ,so I had to rent bike. The routine on weekend is rent bike for 1Rs a hour and then find a spot with tall bench and get on the bike.  Gradually I was able to mount the bigger bike and ride it. Repetition and supportive parents did the trick.  Fast forward to now - Kids have grown up. Raising kids is fun and hard at the same time. There is no easy way to learn how to raise kids.  Arjun took a long time to learn riding. Pranathi was quick. Pranathi is always good in physical activities. I don't remember having to teach her. Arjun needed a lot of running around to learn balancing, he is a careful kid, he was scared of falling that kept him from learning....

Boy oh! boy ,there is super demand for Honda two wheelers in Bangalore. I was trying to buy a Honda Activa/Dio/Aviator for last 15 days and I have not found one. 

This is what was written on Jan 2025 but I never published it. It was sitting in draft.  Green Card   Positive Outcome: If this works out