The planning started right from when I started applying for my University..It was all worked out.. I would apply for a few, get admissions in a few..might(read it as "was sure") would get an aid in some university. Or atleast a RA or TA position in some dept and I would be funded and would have a car in say 3-4 months.. worst case, after 1st semester.. Who knew life had a different twist altogether..
No funding...no on campus jobs... no part time jobs... realized (after joining univ) that working outside campus was illegal... and what was I left with? A life reduced to minimal expense.... Monthly expense settlement calculated to the accuracy of 1/100th of a dollar.
Internship was the only option left for me and tried hard applying to any website I encounter.. I applied to some common companies as well..like Google, Microsoft, Intel and Yahoo... (read it as.. I dont think these companies would even have read my resume)..The story of Motorola goes like this.. Motorola is a 'telephone' company and do they have a website? Yes they do and it is for selling phones...Why would I want an internship in that company? Never thought of applying to Motorola for the same reason...
But come one day when my roommate Anand got a call from Motorola for an internship interview.. and damn it.. I had missed it.. I applied for altogether 11-12 different Internship positions in their website that very hour.. An interview call 2 days later..(The voice of interviewer was not clear enough), 20 mins of OOP questioning and my interview was over.. At the end of the interview, I ask the question "Which company are you calling from?". Seems funny? silly? I dint care.. I was confident my interview went well...thank god.
Two days later, I get the confirmation that I am selected for my Internship in Motorola... This was the sweetest thing that could have happened to me since I came to US...Could be one of the many precious moments of my life.. Also one of the painful situations due to the 'butt hitting' tradition (bumps) of my roommates.
The very next thing on my mind was the CAR.. and decided the very moment that I would be buying a car..Started researching on the million webpages that google search engine retrieves.... Finally started monitoring a few websites that I felt would be useful.. Meanwhile, I would call my uncle Ananth daily for 1-2 hrs and discuss about the car, its features, what to check, what not, what could be wrong, how many miles it should have run, what is better, what is bad, which company car I should buy, what price range, where do i get it.. ok.. the questions are innumerable.. Without him, I could not decide anything and am really grateful to him for sharing the info without any boredom...
I did test ride a couple of other cars(actually only one) like Nissan Sentra which I didnt like..it didnt have the 'kick' or pickup i should say...Scrolling up and down and after many combination of search queries on craigslist for a week or so, I did find many attractive offers.. The posting would be in the morning. I would call in the evening to set up a test ride the next day and the response was 'vehicle is sold'. Until I hit upon this attractive offer of 2750 for a honda accord. The only problem was, it was in Arlington around 30 miles away and no public transport. Thanks to Venkatesh, my senior here, I got a ride to Arlington, the very next day for a test ride.
After a short ride of half a km, I got the idea that the car felt good, had the 'kick' i was looking for and was decently maintained.. though not great.. Thought this is it.. I cant wait any longer..and spoke to my uncle and after a discussion of 15-20 mins, decided I am buying this car and finalized the deal for 2.5K. Something about this car attracted me then and there.. the looks, the smooth drive or was it my 'haste'.. i dont know..
The next day, the deal was done and voila.. I have the car keys in my hand.. Believe it or not, 2 months ago, we were fighting to save every cent in Walmart, buying 1 dollar bread instead of 1.08 priced bread.. and today I own a car. What a semester this has been.. Never thought things would turn this way this quickly...Still not able to believe it..
Of course, there are the risks in buying a Used car and I am willing to take it.. (NO CHOICE)...Have taken a plunge and got to see how my investment works out.. Currently have taken a loan from my friends for the car, which I will repay with the Bank's education loan and would have to earn some money (not until June) to actually reap the benefits of the Internship. Not that I have lots of money.. Ill be working for only 3 months..just that I own a car( a bare necessity in US).. I still got to take education loan for my summer course.. [:(]
