Between the time I first went to the USA and later went to work in 1986 with a green card

I was fortunate to visit it a few more times, and also visit Hong Kong, Singapore, Manila, Paris. I visited New York, Louisville and my cousins in Canada.

I did and yet did not know how incredibly lucky I was and good friends of my parents and some relatives helped out. Even though we had green card applications, we still were able to get tourist visas to visit as the Consulate had confidence we would return, which we did.

So it was in 85 we got the green card and then in 1986 went to the USA to actually work. (People are banging car doors now, for some reason, and now simulating a drive off).

In California, we moved to a nice cheery apartment called Stanford Villa, where I moved from to go to Boston, but my sister stayed on for another year or maybe more and incredible as it may seem, Condi Rice's Dad lived in the same complex and my sister now recalls being introduced and talking to Condi at her Dad's invitation more than once.

In Boston, I only had a short lined rain coat and it snowed the first week I was there and lo and behold, when the administrative assistant in the office kindly took me around for apartment hunting from a student list, I noticed the Beacon Hill thrift store and saw a lovely looking grey coat which they told me was all of $10. I think I had them wrap it and took it away joyously.

I looked for the Beacon Hill thrift store, this year when I visited Boston, but I was too coughing and too poor and my knee hurt and it was all I could do to attend the Cancer Conference for which I had paid a lot of money and try to recuperate in my expensive hotel room at the Fairmont, at which the entire afternoons and nights were filled with the sounds of doors banging and at least one lady and several men banged doors frequently when I was in the dining lounge or using a computer.

So though I was anxious to re acquaint myself with Boston, where I had got my start, I barely made it to Newberry Street and ate twice at Paparazzo, which I thought was terrific.

Some loads of people made flash mobs, at least 5 or 6 on a couple of days, which scared me, and annoyed me too and I alternately laughed at them or hid from them, till they went away and then I made my way to Walgreen or the restaurants as the case may be.

It did not go anywhere and that may be what they called a Missed Opportunity, I will never know. Opportunity for what I never found out.

I also met a colleague of mine from Mt Sinai in NY and only had a half hour in the lunch break and we met on Boylston and walked back to the Starbucks in the ground floor back of the hotel and basically I just told him my sorrows but again did not take any Opportunities if those were what I was supposed to take.

I will tell you more about my days in New York and Louisiana, so you can decide which of the Americas I belong in and now of course, I am in India, basically being supported by my Dad and sister and being helped out by my ex who helps me with registrations and mail in the USA and like now, cash infusions to help me take care of health issues and technical stuff which we both hope will increase my functionality and productivity.

Bye Bye

By the time you realize there are many Americas, you are already in the America which is hard to escape

I cant exactly claim that, becoz lettsee, I went to America for the first time when I was 16 or so, in 1974.

I think my Indian parents exceedingly brave and they managed to save and pay cash for our trips, the 4 of us, and took us to New York, Buffalo, San Francisco and Los Angeles and oh yes, from Buffalo to Niagara Falls, with the help of kind friends, who they had good relations with.

In the 70s, people had more free time and willingness to ferry visitors around, I dont know if that is the case now.

We saw the UN, the Rockettes, although it was with an Easter Bunny, not a Christmas Show, so I think they were Rockettes, and Niagara Falls and Disneyland in California. Also Muir Woods, Monterey, Sausalito and San Juan Capistrano with the help of an uncle of mine and his wife.

My Parents got their green cards in the late 70s or 80s, I forget, and we got our greencards in 85. I get dates mixed up but it was 85 and then I came to work in USA in 1986, when I just filled out applications and mailed them snail mail, which wasnt even a term. I lived in Palo Alto in a small windy apartment on Alma Street and rode the bus to Stanford University, which was kind enough to offer visiting privileges to their library based on my ID card from India or maybe just on my saying I was a doctor and I looked up the advertisements in Science and Nature magazine and sent my home built CV which my uncle did on his old MS-Dos machine, or maybe it was a Mac, and then I xeroxed at Kinko.

So that is how I got my first job in Boston, which I flew to cross country to interview at and accept.

So John Edwards and Mitt Romney are the 2 millionaires in the presidential race, NYT did a report on them

Also, CNN had a clip of John Edwards surrounded by genuine looking pinched Middle Class.

I understand what he is saying about the 2 Americas, but most Americans feel solidarity with everyone, so that 2 Americas talk can sound shallow and weird.

We get it, it is not like everyone runs a hedge fund of 800 million and joins Citibank in their early 50s and becomes the CEO in 6 months.

There are many Indias just like there are many Americas.

The point is which America is gonna show up to vote, and John Edwards rich boy looks and fake accent, even though he is from the South, his accent sounds weird, and he looks like a rich beltway boy, which Al Gore was but never looked like, and it is hard to see populists voting for him. I think Hillary or Barack will get the primary votes. Bill Richardson is running for Secretary of State apparently, he dont talk about Somalia or Assam or the piracy on the high seas and persuasion dont always get everywhere.

As for Mitt Romney, money still looks like he will be President, those who turn up to vote for him will be the anxious Middle Class that want small government, who dont want to support a bigger safety net and who want lower taxes, becoz they have confidence in their own ability to save and plan and prepare for their own future.

So this is what the pinched Middle Class is pinched about

the rich are richer, more secure and have infinitely higher buying power and the poor are needier, often more industrious and more deserving.

As I sat in the garden of my apartment, the itinerant workers were laying bricks and cement in the driveway of the yard that has been undergoing repair and renovation these past few weeks. Before that for at least a couple of months they were building a tank in the backyard and then repairing the inter property wall at the back of the property.

Their job is often ear splitting noisy and they seemed raucous and disruptive at first, but now they seem calmer and interactive in a more normal way.

They camp out wherever they work, often for several months, and have slowly encroached a back stairway out of the basement parking lot to set up camp cooking facilities.

They have become allies of my sister and me, against a visiting rowdy black cat who picks fights and beats up on the kittens and cat who we have kinda sorta adopted.

This is what pinches the middle class, is raises of salary and costs directly pinch the constrained resources of the middle class.

So I watched the workers laying down the bricks and cement in the front yard from a tree sheltered bench in the front garden, not having any solutions that I could see.