Using Political Contacts To Beat The Immigration Beast

Image via WikipediaMy friend Jiwan who I am crashing with for now in Sunnyside convinced me yesterday that I need to go the political route to get sorted my immigration mess.

"If the most powerful person on earth can take your help, why can't you take the help of that most powerful person?"

Seeking 10 Minutes Of The Senator's Time For Personal Reasons
(To: Linda at Senator Bill Perkins' office)

Hi Bill.

I have been in an immigration mess since late 2005. A no name State Senator in New Jersey just helped another Nepali get a green card in a month, and the story circulated and a close friend of mine has been urging me to approach you to get the same done for me. If you are in a position to help, I'd much appreciate. I'd remember till the last dog dies, like Bill Clinton said in 1992.

I came to America in the fall of 1996 on a student visa to the top
liberal arts college in the South where I got myself elected student
body president within six months of landing. I finished school in May
2001. After a year I was on OPT, Optional Practical Training. .....
a green card...... Believe it or not I did not renew the card. My
lawyer says I had the option to. I was working days, nights and weekends
for the democracy movement in Nepal at the time, the only Nepali in
America doing full time work to that end. I was not much thinking about me.

I was Barack Obama's first full time volunteer in NYC like you were
the first elected official in the city to endorse him. That was good
work. The day the national primary ended in 2008 they had me
disappear, machine politics at its most effective! They had me inside
for six months. Obama won. I was out a few days later. My first
immigration court date after that was in Chicago. There were two court
dates in 2009. The last one was in June, last month, that got
postponed indefinitely. This political asylum thing has been dragging
on like a bad dream. The three court dates have been about giving me a
new court date, that's it.

I am under the impression you have the option to use some political
levers at your disposal to get my original green card renewed,
backdated to the fall of 2005 when it should have been renewed. If
that can happen enough time will have lapsed that I would by now
qualify for a citizenship.

Once I have the paperwork I can start functioning at full capacity. I
am a tech entrepreneur who wants to go into microfinance in a big way.
http://technbiz.blogspot.com/2011/02/googlefacebook-of-microfinance.html
I can do for the Arab world what I did for Nepal in 2006. This wave of
democracy, done right, could hit all of the Arab world, all of Africa,
maybe Russia, maybe China. But right now I feel like my hands and feet
have been tied and I have been thrown into a corner. Such waste. And
there is the no small matter of Obama 2012. In many ways 2012 is more
important than 2008.

My alien number is ___________.

For now I request to meet you in person for 10 minutes.

Thanks.
Paramendra.

Rockettothesky: Grizzly Man

(Via Katzenmutter)

The Sheryl Sandberg Profile: The Tech Startup Angle

Image via CrunchBaseI am going to be honest. I went to this article first and foremost not from the gender angle. I remain curious about the career trajectory of this woman, as I stay curious about the career trajectory of Mark, The Zuckerberg. Little bits and pieces I have gathered on her life have only whetted my appetite. So I dived in for more details. She has had an amazing life story that both men and women can learn from.

She is not a techie. She is an operations person. You can hope to become a billionaire going down that route as well.

Sheryl Sandberg: New Yorker Profile

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Sheryl Sandberg: New Yorker Profile

(Via Change The Ratio)

Bruce Springsteen: Born In The U.S.A.

(Via Cary Randolph)

Google Plus Has Buzz

Image via CrunchBaseObviously Google Plus is no Google Wave or Google Buzz. This thing has legs.

Has Google Finally Cracked Social?
Larry Page At The Helm
I Will Not Miss Eric

With John Liu

Two Chief Guests: Non Resident Nepali Gathering: Times Square: June 25

The Facebook Effect

Berean/Parisian Lina Benete in town for the weekend: work trip. We might talk more this weekend than we ever did at college. Facebook effectless than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyParamendra Bhagat
paramendra

Back to Thailand
Bollywood Show in Paris
Lithuanian Wedding
Beginning of the New Life in Paris

Facebook's Next Major Breakthrough

Image by Getty Images via @daylife(Article first published as Facebook's Next Major Breakthrough on Technorati.)

Facebook's next major breakthrough is not going to be some nifty new feature, or yet another higher valuation, but its push for HTML5. It is going to be a major breakthrough for the industry at large when Facebook is not a native app on your smartphone or tablet but rather still a browser experience. That would be Mark Zuckerberg going toe to toe with his icon Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs felt snubbed by Mark when Mark did not play along with some kind of a "social" idea Jobs had for his music offerings. Jobs retaliated by integrating Twitter into his very operating system. Snub to Facebook. Mark retaliated by thumbing HTML5 in Jobs' face.

On A Bike

On a bike you see a different city.

I biked along Broadway, across the Williamsburg Bridge, straight to 8th Avenue, then up north on 8th, into Central Park, made a few circles, then came down 7th Avenue, then down Broadway from Times Square, then down 5th Avenue from Madison Square Park, then a few lefts, and back across Williamsburg Bridge.

A few blocks from Williamsburg Bridge one black dude remarked: "First time I seen a biker stop for a black male!"

I had not even seen them until then. I had just stopped, waiting for my turn to cross the road.

I waved as I sped away.

Biking through the city was a serene feeling. The best part was going up on 8th Avenue for as long as the bike lane had been painted green, and then it got wild close to 40th Street.

Biking is like walking - the exercise, the sight seeing - only faster.

I almost ran into a cab door. Some dude abruptly opened the cab door when I was almost next to the cab. I managed to avoid.

I had no plans to cross into Manhattan when I got the bike out: borrowed bike.

It was tremendous fun.

Going biking for the next few hours across Brooklyn/Queens. Borrowed bike. Thanks Bhawani. #nycless than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyParamendra Bhagat
paramendra

Need to find a new place to live by tomorrow. Don't have a place yet. Funny how it always works out just fine. #nycless than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyParamendra Bhagat
paramendra

Tigers That Talked: 23 Fears

(Via Song Of The Day)

At The Buspark

I had been House Captain of one of the four senior houses. There were two junior houses, four senior houses, and then there was Gaurishankar, where people who stayed on to do O Levels and A Levels - Senior Cambridge stuff - stayed. Back then in Nepal school was 10 years. Then you sat for the nationwide School Leaving Certificate (SLC) exams. And if you passed, maybe you went to college. But high school was 12 years in places like America and Britain. And this British founded and run top school in Nepal had introduced O Levels, A Levels. Half of the students in Class 10 were selected to do O Levels. Half of those were selected to do A Levels. And this was already a school where you got into in Class 4 after sitting through nationwide entrance exams.

O Levels was two years in Britain, one year at this school. So you finished school in 13 years.

We had three vacations: summer, Dashain/Tihar, and winter. Dashain would be the Nepali Christmas. I was not from Kathmandu. Kathmandu is a valley, the capital. Half the students at school were from outside the valley. I was one of them. The valley students got to go home about once a month for a weekend. We went home for the three vacations.
Image via Wikipedia
I had given an excellent year as House Captain. We won pretty much every competition there was, academic, sports and otherwise. Morale was super high. The grades of the students went up across the board. I personally took charge of one student a year junior to me who was considered struggling. His marks were up by 20% across the board by the time I was through.

And a fight broke out on the soccer field. We won the match, there was a fight. I learned about it later. It apparently escalated. It erupted in the dining hall later, and one or two places on campus. I heard.

Our official color was blue. The red house were the sore losers.

But then things quietened down, or so I thought.

I had been the top student in my class every year to that point.

Circles: My Idea

October 28, 2010: Social Graph, Social Concentric Circles
May 19, 2011: Social Concentric Circles

Has Google Finally Cracked Social?