When I first came to United States, I came with a hope (like many other Indians) that things will be "easy" here. By things I mean, the routine stuff we all middle income families do in India. Apply for loans, pay bills, file tax returns and such other things that the infamously rich and powerful, so called politicians and high-level officials of India do not do.
Over the past two weeks, I had to go through the same kind of bureaucracy that is so often experienced in India. And before some Indian out there gets pseudo patriotic and wants to disagree here, all I can say is "Please shut your gob". We all know what a curse it is to be a comman man in India and the nightmares of getting things done.
Cutting it all short, I was shocked at the total indifference and callousness of people at my university with regards to my immigration paperwork. For the first time in the States, I felt like a loner and an alien. It is shocking to see, irrespective of boundaries or your nationality (no, I am not playing the racism card here), people just choose to be indifferent and have no empathy whatsoever. It is very disappointing to see this happen in USA. Having said that, I am not going to generalize this to all of the people who live here (immigrants included). I personally met some great individuals here who have been very kind to me. But I never once realized that I, of all the people, will be mistreated and manhandled by the system here.
I am fed up of bureaucracy at every place on earth now. Why are people indifferent when it comes to doing their job? Why cannot people empathise or even speak kind words during times of distress, even if they know they cannot help? Why are people given authority? Isn't the sole purpose of being in an authorized position, is to help people who come to you with hopes that they will be served?
Although, I cannot divulge the sensitive information attached to this whole topic of discussion I will some day share the incident, hopefully. I am not very sure if I want to stay in the States for the rest of my life. I am utterly disappointed and have lost the respect and trust that I had in the system here.
4 comments:
You yourself said that you are not generalizing people here. So let not one incident deter you. We could say we understand what you are going through but No, Not possible. Hang in there Miss Manjusree! Just hang in there Please.
Hey,i dont know what you are going through...but i can understand that you are not feeling good. Just BE STRONG and NEVER loose the confidence in yourself. Trust in GOD, HE will set things right.Everybody has their day!
Thank You :)
It also depends on whether the person processing the paperwork is overworked and underpaid. :-) But I can empathize with your situation. My immigration office lost my paperwork when I went to visit home and pretended that they never got it. The immigration bureaucracy at universities and the US gov is the worst there is in the USA. But all this is a part of life. I guess all this will help us appreciate our parents' lives even more. Swimming against the tides in life and not drowning is a thing worthy in itself :)
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