One not so important date.

13th January 2008. Tuesday.

What is so peculiar about that date? You must be trying to recollect if something happened on this day. Yeah, this also coincides with the 'sankranthi' festival. But that's not what i'm talking about. It's just any other date for you people out there. For me, this was the date that has been haunting me since months. Giving me sleepless nights. Nope, nothing cataclysmic was supposed to happen to world that would put the very existense of our mankind at peril.

That date was simply the last date of my OPT. And yeah, for all those out there wondering by now... Yes, it IS a big issue. Fortunately the 'considerate' United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which decides the fate of all poor souls like me who wish to live their dreams, has given us an 17 month extension of OPT. Great!!! But wait a minute..there is a catch in it. The firm has to be e-verified. Now say whats this?? This means firm which registers for this program would be monitored by the Department of Homeland Security for any illegal immigrants. So, if you can get hold of a firm which is ready to offer you employment and which is also e-verified, then you can apply for your extension. Thats not the end of the story. From then on, your approval rests in the hands of the intellectual who might not even have a hint of what my masters is in, what kind of a job i do and how are they even related.

This reminds me of the time we used to joke about our bacherlor's exams correction. If the evaluator was in good mood, even if you didn't write a single sentence with the least possible logic, you could score a top mark. I still wonder how i secured a pass mark in ' Finite Element Method'. That question paper was still a mystery to our professor himself. That day the watcher has given us full power to consult anyone of our friends within the classroom to scribble an answer in the answer sheet. No use. None of us had a clue what to write. Magic!! Everyone passed that exam. Thanks to our paper evaluators. I am certain now that they were in good mood that day.

Okay, now I've done my part. Waiting for the USCIS to do their part. The day that has given me nightmares too passed me very smoothly. I don't feel that it was all that terrible. Afterall, it was just any other day. One of the many days on which I could come across some trouble. Just one more difficulty. There will be many more days with a new difficulty for selected for that day. Until that day comes, I'm good.
As they say, You can only prepare for the future, you cannot predict it.

Comments? Thoughts? Questions?