So here are some helpful tips for new comers to this land of USA

1. The Sun rises in the south-east and sets in the south-west. No arguments on this. They simply taught us wrong in the books about the east and west thing.

2. Ask people how are they today. In most probabilities you will get back a ‘Good’ in reply. I have never heard a ‘Fine’ till date. Also, the ‘good’ is most of the times elongated to sound somewhat like ‘gooood,’ unless it is followed by a counter question like ‘Good; and how are you today?’

3. Daylight Savings is an intelligent mechanism to conserve power. And it is a still better mecahnism to lead to confusions. Not to mention, all of a sudden I found myself attending night lecture sessions as opposed to the afternoon lectures I began with; but still conserving electrical energy, dont ask me how.

4. You know winters are approaching when girls on campus start wearing sweatshirts, but still continue with their mini-pants with strategically placed school names and logos.

5. You run out of toilet paper a day or two before your exams. You call it co-incidence if they run out on the day of exams. Having said that, co-incidences do happen.

6. House cleaning is avoided until a relative announces his/her/entire family’s arrival.

7. ‘Soft white light’ is yellow, anything but white for we Indians. For locals, it is white. But a lemon is yellow unanimously for everyone. I am yet to research further on this so as to affirmatively conclude whether these are cultural differences or educational differences, or both or neither. In case of neither, its a pure case of eye defects.

8. You cross roads at right angles. Ofcourse, you have the freedom to deviate two degrees in either direction.

9. The fire alarm has to go off when you cook at home. If it doesnt, get it checked. You never know when it might come in handy.

That’s it for now. Only some of the amazing things here discovered in the last five months.

Note:  The above things sound stupid, because they are stupid. And if this stupidity hurts you, well, I dont care.