It’s hard to comprehend it’s been only 8 Weeks or so and so much has already been dismantled and gutted. When you read in history books how Hitler took only a few months to completely destroy Germany it felt unrealistic – and now we are seeing play out live here in this country. Ooof.

If there is a system that can be exploited, you can be rest assured my fellow Indians will find a way. For instance, the amount of people now qualifying for EB1-A visa by creating some random profile of yourself is through roof. You know have agents and companies solely focussed on making you a EB1-A eligible candidate so you dont have to go through the long wait of EB2/3. I personally know one who made his “profile” standout so he could qualify for EB1-A. Or how my cousin got his B1/B2 tourist visa. If you go through regular channels, it will take around 18 months to get a date with Indian embassy for tourist visa. However there are now agents and companies in between you can pay 20-30k rupees to and all they do is appointment farming. They have actual humans monitoring the scheduling queue 24/7 and the moment something opens up they grab it and book it on behalf of the payee! my cousin says most ppl simply pay the additional 20-30k and get appointments within a week or two if not max a month. Telling you, if there is something that can be exploited, desis will hehe!

Put in my papers in my current role/team. Taking up a similar role in another team local to the area. Still in the same company. I had reached a point of no progress in my current role/team/scope and was not adding anything to my resume. While my new group is not exactly the sexiest org of the company, the role scope and new people/team should bring me some fresh energy and focus. [And then there were a lot of other reasons regarding my own manager that I wont get into detail about].

Hey Siri, what is the status of flight WN3800

Siri: Do you want me to ask CHATGPT?

No you fucking dumb prick, its just a flight status. I could just type the flight number on my phone search bar an it will show me the status without even leaving the screen or opening a browser so why can’t you just that instead? chatgpt for what fucking use?

7miles/21000 steps yesterday in DC. It was chilly but nice. The cherry blossoms were out in full color. However this shot from the car at sunset was my favorite. Like the sun is setting down on American greatness vibe.

At the north entrance of the White House the white young man protesting against the genocide in Palestine, I love you and you have my support. To the white lady with the mic yelling through the fence at top volume – “White House has been occupied by a fascist nazi! Save democracy – remove the Nazi!” Over and over again – I applaud your bravery and passion.

Weekdays are popular for school trips to dc area. It was insane how many middle/highschoolers were donning the full maga gear – girls or boys. I saw even their chaperones and teachers in the gear. I am sure these are kids from maga trashlands and not here. Ignore what you see in media, Trump is fucking popular. (The black guy who heckled me I saw later was leading one of the group of kids).

Cousin here so took him to standard dc tour. At the entrance of natural history a black man wearing the red maga cap yelled at me “you are fired! I am throwing your fucking ass out of my country!”. I ignored him and walked away not wanting a confrontation but a white dude behind me flipped him off and gave him a sounding. Thank you for doing that – you give me some hope.

I don’t get the fetterman must resign thing. Like let’s say he does. Pennsylvania is so fucked they will elect a worse brain dead Republican in his place.

My cousin is here from India on a startup discovery and holiday together. He resigned from his previous startup a few months back and has been wanting to start something of his own so he is here to talk to some of the VCs that funded his old startup and also on holiday. While I was in India i had told him that India was the right place at this time to start something of his own, but I sensed a hesitation. He’s been here two weeks and spending the final week with us here, and first thing he said was his friends in bay area and people whom he had come to meet also convinced him of the same. The current political environment, coupled with hardline immigration stance means that if he wants to get an O1 visa to start something of his own, it mostly likely won’t go through. Pretty much all advice he got was, avoid studying in USA if he wants to start something; instead start in India, get some good funding going, and in a few years use that experience to maybe migrate to USA on O1 visa if things are looking good here. I think that was great advice, and honestly I feel vindicated that I am not alone in thinking that if you are entrepreneurial, India is the right place right now. So many problems waiting to be solved at scale there. I am wishing the bestest of luck for his pursuits after he heads home next week.