Story 19: Gujarat

Did you know where India is located? Did you know in what ways India was different? I was living in Ahmedabad,Gujarat which was a great city. Gujarat was a state in India. The life there was different then it is in U.S. I remember the life there every morning I wake up and ready to go to school at 7:30a.m. The schools were totally different like we had to sit in one class and teachers had to change classes. In Addition,there were no school buses in our school but there was some type of means of transportation.I miss how all the vehicles would honk their horns without any reason. I remember how we had classes,besides our school and how my friends came to pick me up. In Addition,in the evening we all friends would gather up and play different types of sports. We used to celebrate festivals by gathering friends and having fun.

There were three seasons:Summer,Monsoon and Winter. Summer was during February through June,Monsoon was during July through September,Winter from October to January. In summer it was too hot as the temperatures were around 50 degrees Celsius. In Winter its not much cold it used to be around 20 degrees Celsius. In that I loved Monsoon season as it rained there and when it rained severe our schools would used to be closed.If the schools were closed then my friends would come and we used to go for walk in the rain and accumulated water on the roads. When it rained there was a famous food that all the people would eat when it rained was Dalwada. I remember the smell of Dalwada coming from the restaurants in the rainy weather. I loved to eat Punjabi food that was popular in my country. I used to eat Punjabi food every another weekend.

There was a beautiful old structure in my city named Shaking Minaret(also known as Jhulta Minar). Shaking Minaret was a structure with two pillars around a big place in behind the two pillars. That structure was built in such a way that if there is an earthquake and if the four pillars would fall it wouldn’t damage the structure in middle. I remember there were more modernized buildings and less old structured buildings. There was a lake named Kankaria lake which was really amazing.I remember how it was so quiet when I would go there. There were nine bridges on the river Sabarmati that connect eastern and western regions of Ahmedabad. There was a newly developed place on the banks of Sabarmati river called Riverfront it was a great place I remember how we friends would go there before our classes, sometimes after classes and we would  hangout/play there. There was a Hotel named Patang Hotel which was the only revolving hotel and was like a skyscraper in whole country. I had been there once and it was amazing view from the top of the hotel as I could see whole Ahmedabad from there.

It was the month of February and I was preparing for my final exams of my Sophomore year. It was afternoon and I collected the mail and there was a letter from the U.S. Embassy letting us know that we were called for collecting our U.S. Visa. I heard that and was so excited that I am going to U.S. and stay there forever,however,I was unhappy when I knew that I had to leave my friends.I was 16 years old when I came to U.S. for the first time.I came here on May 1st , 2014.That was the first time I had traveled 22 hours in flight from India. I thought it would be amazing to travel 22 hours in flight,but it wasn’t like what I thought. I was annoyed with the clouds that were the only thing I could see outside the plane. I first came to Houston, TX on 1st May, 2014 and on 22nd July, 2014 I moved from Houston, TX to Dublin,OH. I miss my country.On the other hand,I love this country too.