Five years after 9/11

Can't believe it's been 5 years since 9/11. I vividly recall that morning. We were living at the Avalon apartments on the Alameda in San Jose. For some reason I was late for work that day; I had just come out of the shower and Sandhya gets off the phone and asks me to turn on the TV. She had been talking to her New York office when she was told that a plane had crashed into the twin towers.

I immediately turned on Fox news and there it was on screen. Both of us watched in complete shock the towers burning and then collapsing. I was speechless. The first thing that came to my mind was Muslim Terrorists. And that was the first thing I told Sandhya. She sort of agreed with me, although she is not the type to stereotype people that way.

This is indeed a war of civilisations. The Muslims want to conquer the world and either convert us to Islam or kill us. I sincerely hope the West wins this war of civilisations.

Interestingly, I came across another event that happened on September 11--the year 1565--to be precise. This is when the Ottoman turks were beaten back from the island of Malta by a ragtag group of knights and inexperienced locals. This was probably the singular event that saved western europe from becoming muslim. Here is the link to the posting that describes this historic event.

Applied for a Passport

Today we went and applied for a US passport. They said it would take about 6 weeks. I think it will take less time. Let's see.

A Dream Come True -- We are now American citizens!

It is official. Sandhya and I are now American citizens! This has been a very exiting day for me particularly. Sandhya, of course, is quite blase about it, but for me it has been a very big deal.

The ceremony was at 1pm and went on for about 2 hours. I was a bit disappointed in the ceremony itself, because I thought we'd get an inspiring talk from a good speaker on what it takes to be a citizen, etc, etc. But otherwise, it was well run. The bottom line is we got our citizenship certificates and came home happy campers.

Passed the citizenship interview!

This is a great day for Sandhya and me. We passed the citizenship interview! We go next week to take the citizenship oath and get the citizenship certificate.

I have been waiting for this for so many years. When I first wanted to immigrate to America and become an American citizen, it was--I thought--a pipe dream. This was way back when we were in Lucknow (what is it now, thirty years ago?). Of course we first landed in Canada and I was quite happy to settle down there. But when I got the opportunity to get a green card to come to the US, it was simply too good to be true! Of course, we sometimes do make our opportunities, and I will admit that I did push Sandhya to also accept the idea of moving here and looked for any possible job opportunities.

The interview itself was very pleasant. The Homeland Security Officer was exceedingly polite and courteous. He first swore me in and then he asked me a few questions to confirm what was in the application. I was also asked to read a sentence and then write a sentence dictated by the officer (this is the english language test). Then he asked a set of questions on the history of the US and the government system, like when was the consitution was written, how many Supreme Court justices there are etc. I got all questions right!

He then congratulated me on having passed the tests and the interview and handed me a piece of paper to bring in next week (Aug 22) .

Sandhya also got everything right.

Looking forward to the citizenship ceremony next week.

Mount St. Helens

We visited Mount St. Helens on the week end. Here are some pictures. Very impressive. Everything around for several miles was devastated!

View from the Johnston Observatory (about 5 miles from the volcano)

From right to left: Kevin, Rekha and Me (unmistakable with the pot belly!)

Kevin and Sandhya at the coffee shop in the information center when we entered the national park where Mount St. Helens is situated

My new Vulcan 900 Classic LT

My trip to Reno

Downtown Albany

Shalini's Wedding -- Brunch on Saturday

Downtown Albany

We went for a walk after the brunch.

Shalini's Wedding Ceremony

Sandhya's Trip to India -- Grandfather passes away

Sandhya's Trip to India -- her grandfather

Sandhya's Trip to India (Only T'Halli Stuff)

Sandhya's Trip to India (Only T'Halli Stuff)

Seattle Apartment

My first posting for the year 2006. I have not posted anything in a long time because I have been very busy at work as well as at home! Here are pictures of the Apartment we stayed in before moving into rented digs at Issaquah.