Conversation

Hmm if this stuff had happened when I was on an F1 visa I’d probably have quit. Though there’s a good chance I wouldn’t have applied to grad school here in the first place in Trump era. So much about our lives turns on what we believe about grand narratives at critical points.
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I don’t envy Gen Z kids in good colleges in India today, the kind for whom grad school abroad is a meaningful option. Choose between Modiland and various Trumplands as backdrop for your life story.
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The combination of nuclear sanctions on India after 1998 tests and the general chill of 9/11 made being on an F1 moderately more unpleasant through the years I was on it (1997-2004). Got stuck in security-check visa limbo once while transitioning to an H1B as a postdoc.
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Had to spend an extra week in India and change my return flight since my research area was on some sort of watchlist. Among the more unpleasant weeks in my life not knowing whether I’d be able to go back and continue my work. Can’t imagine months of that kind of uncertainty.