Save money on Car insurance as an international in the US

Hi Everyone,

If anyone of you are new to the US and bought a car insurance you know how expensive it is as a first time car driver in the US. 


I wanted to pass on some information for the incoming internationals on how to save on car insurance premium in the US. 
In the US, insurance premium is calculated based on the driving experience and driving record of the driver. As intentional students or internationals one does not have Driving history in the US and hence we all start at zero experience and not surprisingly the car insurance premium is very high. 
However if you get a driving history record  from your home country and provide that to the insurance companies, it is counted as driving experience and your premium can go down substantially because you would not be starting at zero driving experience.
For example my insurance premium dropped from $136 to $60 (per month) after providing the driving history from India. Not only this but if you also provide proof that you had valid car insurance in India and provide it to the insurance companies, the premium will be lowered further. 
So what is Driving history record - its a record that specifies how long you have had the licence and whether you have had fines/challans on your name. In India every state has its own rules and RTO ( Regional transport office) and hence one will have to go there to find out the procedure to get this certificate. Please note that the record has to be English. This kind of certificate is mandatory to provide in Canada ( from what I have heard) and hence authorities know about it. However be prepared to go to the RTO a few times to get this from them. If one does a google search, some states such as Andhra pradesh even have this online. 
I hope this helps you and saves you some money. 

How Lucky we are ???
Today when I went to swim after coming back from office I realized something after a real long time ; I felt that we don't realize how lucky and blessed we are to be in this world.
I saw a young man in the changing room just as I was about to get myself in the pool and after seeing him I had this realization.
The difference between me and that young man was that he only had one arm to himself as compared to normal human beings having 2 arms.
He was having a little problem getting himself dressed up using only his one arm and for a long time after I saw him in the changing room , I could not stop thinking about how small things affect our state of mind when we have so many other things in this world we ought to be thinking of.
Sometimes we all have a feeling that why is it that we are at the other end of the green grass and why is it that something happens only to me and not to others around me ; I have said this a million times myself “ Yeh mere saath hi kyun hota hai “.
So why is it that we crib and cry so much for the lack of things in our lives like our package , on-site trips , promotions , girlfriend , trendy and expensive clothes and others things.
Maybe the reason is that we don't realize how lucky we are to be born pretty much perfect with almost every human necessity provided to us by nature through our parents and family.
Why is it that we think in order to be successful we need to have a much fatter pay package , a much bigger house , a couple of big BMW cars and unless we have everything of these we have been living a losers life.
Maybe we are looking at the wrong place for answers in life , maybe we need to come out of this mental frame of mind that one can only be successful when he gets each one of these things.
I have been reading the book “Sophie's World” for some days now and it talks about the different philosophical theories that have been given by philosophers over the years and there is one particular part of the book which talks about the Socrates theory that I liked where he said that true happiness comes from within and when it does come nobody can take it away from you.
Maybe its time for us to find that true happiness again ..................

The Bhopal Gas Massacre

It’s been over 26 years since the worst industrial tragedy of the world occurred in Bhopal but justice is still being denied to the people who suffered the most from that tragedy.

The incident took place over 26 years ago and its been here and there in the news but the incident has taken a new found momentum lately after the verdict was announced on the guilty a couple of days back.

The Verdict: 2 years of Jail and that too a bailable one.

I am particularly angry after hearing the stories of people who suffered the most - the residents of Bhopal who are still facing the repercussions of the tragedy which happened over 26 years ago.

I am angry not because the government didn’t do anything at that time or because of the fact that Anderson was allowed to go free, by our very own political system but I am angry because even today when we talk about our nation as the biggest democracy in the world, when we say we are a growing superpower, when our growth rate is among the best in the world just after the Chinese, we are still second grade citizens or if not made to feel so.

$500 for the deceased and $1000 for the dead --- that was the compensation paid to the victims.

What have our politicians been doing all these days? The BJP slams the Congress, the Congress takes its hand off the controversy blaming it on some other event and the cycle just goes on and on but nobody is ready to take responsibility or at least rectify the mistakes done in the past.

I understand the mistake has been done but there is still time to do something now and at least try to bring justice now.

But NO , all our leaders can do right now is to play the shift the blame game and do everything in their right to take their hands off this responsibility.

We live in a country where a decision on who is guilty and what is the term of the guilty for the biggest industrial disaster in the world has taken 26 years.

I sincerely hope our politicians find some divine knowledge and take the side of these victims who have been waiting for years to get justice and that they are given due righteousness in times to come. I don’t know when that time will come but I hope it is not too far away.

There is GOD and then there is Sachin

These words are not framed by me , but I heard some commentator say this in one of the matches while Sachin was batting.

Another commentator mentioned that if there was a person sachin could be compared to , it was sachin himself ; there is no comparison against any other mortal.
I cannot but agree more with these statements.
I am not a great cricket follower but never the less I do keep a track of games and statistic's and one of the reasons that my interest is still alive in the game is because of the man I am mentioning here.
I see him and gain much strength from him , he is someone I see as a role model , a great human being and a great ambassador of the sport.

One of the biggest reasons that he is adored and looked up to is because he has not changed in attitude over the years.

You can still see him as a simple and a humble human being ; he does not seem to have the arrogance that comes with fame and achievements.

He has achieved everything possible one could imagine being in this sport but he still seems hungry for more and sometimes I wonder whether he is getting older with age or has he stopped ageing over the years.

I cannot think of another person with as much weight over his shoulders as he had over the years and still keep performing the way he does.
There was a time when he carried every Indians expectations on his shoulders and seldom failed to deliver and now that the times have changed , his persona and class still remain.
I find it hard to find adjectives to define him , all I can say about him is that if someone ever had faith on GOD his faith would have been restored seeing Sachin bat.

His Name is Khan

This is not about the film MNIK but the brave Khan who stars in it.

I am not a great follower of Shahrukh Khan , in fact i admit here that i neither like him nor like the kind of movies that he stars in but for the very first time in my life i have felt that he has done something for which i salute him --- he has taken a stance against the terrorists of Mumbai --- the Shivsena.

I am talking about the recent confrontations between the superstar and the self proclaimed moral police/hooligans of Mumbai here.

Did Shahrukh do a grave sin in commenting that the Pakistani players should have been a part of IPL , did that statement made him a traitor and an unpatriotic Indian in the eyes of the Nation.

If it did then i have great sympathy with him or her or whoever it is who felt that what he did was against the Nation and he or she should probably update me with the rules of patriotism that they are following.

If they go by this logic then they should also be calling our honorable PM and other ministers of the government as traitors and unpatriotic for initiating the peace dialog talks with Pakistan.

Can they make a statement like this ; i don't think they have the guts or courage to say so because all they can do is target innocent and helpless people.

They don't have any other aim rather than disrupting normal life of the Mumbaikars and create a state of Mayhem. All they are looking out is cheap and stale ways to gain political edge over others.

SRK has shown courage and immense integrity on his part of defending his statement and has stood by it , not getting bowed down by the goons of the state.

What he has done should have been done long ago by other political parties and the other authorities but never the less the winds of changes seem imminent now.

Is this the beginning of the end of the communal forces like Shivsena and MNS.

I sincerely hope and wish that it is and in times of come we only read about their authoritarian and parochial regime and how it was washed out , in our history books.

Well actually i would not like to see that also and would never want to hear their name in times to come.

I think what SRK has done is just the start and we need to carry forward the movement that he has started and remove forces like these from the roots of our nation.

There was a time when Mumbai was considered to develop as the next Shanghai of Asia but its only due to people like Raj and Udhav Thakrey that we have fallen way beyond that dream and are now actually looking to save Mumbai's image of a decent and safe place to live in.

Now its up to us to take it where we want it to be.

Let us all get together and put up a pledge that we will not bow down to these hooligans and wash them out from our society once and for all as we remove pests from our home.

They are no more than pests to the nation and should be wiped out as soon as possible.

We keep our homes clean all the time , its time we keep the nation clean as well.

Mercy Killing --- A debate

I was moved while reading a piece of news in the newspaper today which described an incident of a mother who killed his child who was suffering from brain damage with an overdose of heroin (refer to the news article here).
The reason that the mother gave in for killing his child was that she could not see him suffer more in the condition that he was in.
Although the women is convicted on charges of murder and has been sentenced to jail but I support the action that the mother took here.
When the condition of a person becomes unbearable , what option does a mother have ; should she see his child die every day in pain and suffering or should she do something that will giev back peace to her child.
I would have done the same thing if I were in her place and I am sure many others would think alike.
There is no greater pain and agony than to see your near ones suffer everyday and feel helpless about it.
What is the purpose of living when you cannot control your actions and are dependent on other people for almost every living function?
This incident brings into debate the rational behind mercy killing; I don’t think it is permissible in the Indian law but it should be thought of as a remedy for the suffering of the patients in genuine cases.
Debate is welcome here.

This is one of the best piece of advice one can get in life............

The Secret Of Success

A young man asked Socrates the secret of Success. Socrates told the young man to meet him near the river the next morning. They met. Socrates asked the young man to walk with him towards the river.

When the water got up to their neck, Socrates took the young man by surprise and ducked him into the water. The man struggled to get out but Socrates was strong and kept him there until he started turning blue.

The young man struggled hard and finally managed to get out and the first thing he did was to gasp and take deep breath. Socrates asked 'What you wanted the most when you were there?' The man replied 'Air'.

Socrates said 'that's the secret to success. When you want success as badly as you wanted air, you will get it. There is no other secret'.