I was born and raised in India until I was 14. Then I moved to America. I consider myself lucky to have experienced both the cultures at that age. In the Indian community, ABCD refers to American Born Confused Desi (Desi refers to anyone from the Indian subcontinent). This is mostly used to refer to those who are born here and their parents immigrated to the subcontinent - the confusion is supposed to be the clash of the different cultures. I think there should also be IBCD - Indian Born Confused Desi, because I know that there are a lot of us. When I tell people that I moved here when I was 14, they often ask me, "How long did it take you to customize with the American culture?" - The answer is - I will let you know when I find out! When I was a child, I was not really interested in traveling. Every time I went from home (in Ahmedabad, Gujarat) to my school (Mayo College in Ajmer, Rajasthan), which was a distance of 555 kilometers, I would complain to my dad that my stomach was burning - in short, I was not very comfortable with traveling. Even after coming to America, that did not change; although that does not mean I haven't traveled in the last 10 years - been to pretty much the entire East Coast from Boston to Key West. In April 2010, I went on a hiking trip to Shenandoah Valley in south Virginia with friends. Although it was not the most comfortable trip (it was freezing cold and we were sleeping in our tents without enough blankets), I was transformed during one of the hiking trails. I started to love traveling! And now, I not only want to travel to great places, but I want to meet great people, and that is why I am on Couchsurfing! After graduating from college,I worked as a research assistant in a lab at the National Institutes of Health. I loved the work! I love singing and dancing. Here is me singing the song "Give me some Sunshine" from the Bollywood movie "3 Idiots": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rutdOHt21Q

PHILOSOPHY

Henry Brooks Adams, who was the grandson of the fourth president of the United States, wrote in his Autobiography (The Education of Henry Adams) that his education at Harvard, where he studied the Classics literature, was not relevant to what he should have known in order to understand the world around him. Therefore, he decided to teach himself Science.

Dr. Lewis Thomas, a prominent Physician and Educator, who attended Princeton University and Harvard Medical School, wrote an essay where he suggested that young students who aspire to be physicians should study the Classics literature and the Humanities in order to make them well-rounded human beings.

It turns out that someone who studied the Classics (Henry Adams) promoted Science education and someone who studied Science (Dr. Lewis Thomas) promoted Classics education. Is anyone really satisfied by what he or she has done in life?

So, my philosophy is to be satisfied. Satisfied with whatever I have and what I get. This does not mean that I do not aspire to become better at what I do, it simply means that I consider all my experiences valuable.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Hosting

Organizing tours (including the tour of DC monuments during the DC Couchcrash)

Meeting and Surfing with interesting people whenever I am traveling

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

My Couchsurfing Experience

May 29, 2010 - Joined CouchSurfing!

June 1, 2010 - D.C. Couchcrash Planning Meeting. Met some wonderful people.

July 3 & 4, 2010 - DC CouchCrash 2010. Had an amazing time - loved every second of it!

September 28, 2010 - Hosted Milad Bahmanof [U.S.A.]

September 2011 - San Francisco Couchcrash!

I continue to reach out to couch-surfing whenever I am traveling to new places.

Interests

LEARNING!
Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Every man I meet is my superior in some way. In that, I learn of him."

Medicine; Entrepreneurship, Reading; Non-Profit Organizations; Running

Khan Academy
Technology Entertainment Design
Arts and Letters Daily

I am also interested in traveling across the Atlantic on a freighter.

• arts
• culture
• humanities
• literature
• singing
• design
• photography
• dancing
• education
• running
• technology
• reading
• traveling
• guitar
• hiking
• surfing
• teaching
• entrepreneurship
• languages
• medicine
• science
• tourism
• volunteering
• tours

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: Comedy. I also love Bollywood movies; although, I have not seen a full-length movie in a long time!

Music: anything with good music and good lyrics. When I hosted Milad, he played a beautiful Italian song (Ho Capito), which was great - we were actually singing along the song after a while! I loved the music from the French movie Amelie! I like Bollywood music, especially the ones that I recall listening often when I was a child. I love Punjabi music and dancing to Punjabi tunes.

Books: I was mostly interested in non-fiction (Malcolm Gladwell, Atul Gawande, Siddhartha Mukherjee) and autobiographies (Ben Franklin, Mahatma Gandhi, Ben Carson), but lately, I have started to like fiction (kite runner).

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

San Francisco Couchcrash!

Volunteering for the Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute

I have observed 5 brain surgeries while I was inside the operating room.

I organized a tour of Washington D.C. Monuments during D.C. Couchcrash 2010. I was a tour guide for a day and I loved it!

Surviving an earthquake in Gujarat, India in the year 2001.

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach: the languages I know, Indian dance (atleast the few steps that I know)

Learn: new languages, photography, guitar, web design, computer programming

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, France, Netherlands, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

India, United States

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