Hard to believe … but it has been approximately 66 months since I came to US. I don’t even know where or how to begin explaining my experiences as a graduate student in Michigan Tech University and as a resident of Houghton community. Flying out of MoTown and seeing the sky-scrapers all around, I remember praying every god I knew Please don’t put me in a concrete jungle … Please don’t put me in a concrete jungle. And adding to all these, I had only heard about love at first sight and seen it in movies but had absolutely no experience of it

With Susan Mills driving me from airport to her house, I fell in love with the place within minutes and descending the Quincy Hill, I knew my prayers were answered as well - lush green forest cover as far as I could see, the Portage Canal and sparse signs of civilization… Starting with that, there have been way too many nice memories - each year was the best of my life and each subsequent year turned out to be better than the previous one. I got to meet very many people and almost everybody became a new friend; learnt a lot of things - sports, computers, physics, photography; realized that growing old was mandatory while growing up was optional (as can be seen from my behavior on most occasions) … However, there are quite many things I wish I had time (or made time) to do. In no particular order, here they are:

• Lake Superior Circle Tour: Approximately 1500 miles trip - had been on the back of my mind for a few years now but the officials across the border haven’t replied to any of my queries yet. This will probably have to wait a few more years now.
• Lake Michigan Circle Tour: This never even occurred to me until recently - very recently. I didn’t need any additional documents to go around it, but just missed out.
• Quincy Mine Tour: Came very close to taking it once in Summer of 2006 but never did it.
• Quincy Smelter: Have driven past it innumerable times but never did manage to go and shoot some pictures.
• Walk across the Mackinac Bridge on Labor Day.
• See and photograph more waterfalls and sports events.

Whatever I wanted to be and I couldn’t be in 20+ years elsewhere, I became all that (and even more) in these past 5 years - with constant support and encouragement from this community (with due respect to my teachers and friends from everywhere). Only disappointing feeling is that barring two - Parag Mehresh & Rupinder Singh - none of my out of state friends ever came to visit this wonderland. May be it’s the glitter of bigger cities and/or a busy work schedule and/or something else… but if you are reading this and if you are one of them, trust me - you missed a lot: miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles, rich copper history, long hikes in the middle of nowhere, places where your cellphone is just as good as the stone you are walking on, the largest fresh water lake, pristine sandy beaches on great lakes, purest breathing air, awesome fall colors, insane amounts of snow, …, and the cozy small town atmosphere with only two degrees of social freedom