Being an immigrant isn’t the easiest of adventures in my life.

I think the cost of life as an immigrant is underestimated.

As a student, you are always running to find a company that can not only offer you an internship but also be open to sponsoring your visa

And then once you have a job, you have to keep convincing the employer to sponsor your H1B visa.

And then once you have your H1B visa, you have to convince the employer to apply for your green card application.

If the employer agrees and applies for you, your whole job for the next 2-3 years is to maintain the job so that your green card application can get confirmed.

Given the long duration of 2-3 years, the possibility of employees either changing jobs, leaving jobs, or losing jobs increases.

And then the cycle starts again - you start in this 2-3 year journey of getting your application filed for green card.

And then you live in fear for 2-3 years to ensure you can keep this job and get your application filed.

For some immigrants, this process can take 10-15 years of life.

What’s happening now is even more interesting.

Even if your green card application is filed, you face a wait of over 100+ years for a green card

This means you remain in a 60-day H1B cycle for life.

The fear of losing your job and having to start all over again in another country remains a constant in your life.

It will pretty much impact all your relationships at work - with your leaders, with your manager and with your co-workers.

Since fear is the exact opposite of courage, this model of waiting for a green card and being in this forever queue with a 60-day period decreases risk-taking among immigrants and also causes them to lose the courage they had when they first immigrated

The journey of choosing to be an immigrant was hard, the journey of living as an immigrant is even harder.

It took me a while to accept that immigration did impact my mental health.

And as I meet more and more immigrants, I can see that I wasn’t alone in this journey.

There are many immigrants like me who are still going through a lot because of the immigration system.

Now that we are on the other side, I want to share this important resource with you.

“The Daily Stoic” by Ryan Holiday is one of my favorite books. It helped me improve my mental health significantly.

I used to read this book - one page a day and did it for around 2 years.

It helped me develop self-discipline, offered clarity of thoughts and helped me think better about life.

Last year, my younger brother came on a visit from India and saw me reading the book. 2 days ago, I saw a poster on his wall and I asked him what does the poster say. He said it says “Read Daily Stoic one page a day”

That’s when I realized that this resource is truly a gem.

I hope it transforms your life as well.

Have a beautiful day in paradise, let’s live today, it’s not forever! 😘🥰💕💜

#india #america #immigrant

I often get this question, on what is my plan B?

I thought this is a good time to share how stoicism transformed my life.

You might remember, 2 years ago, I used to read this book “The Daily Stoic” almost everyday to fight my depression.

The book has 365 pages, and it has 1 month specific on “mortality”

I used to fear death at that time, so initially I avoided reading those pages.

But then I learned that leaning into fears is the best way to improve the quality of my life.

I swam from Alcatraz to San Francisco because I wanted to fight my fear of water.

I lived in a cabin by myself for 6 months where a suicide happened just because I wanted to fight my fear of death.

I don’t advice going this far, but somehow fighting fears and challenging myself bring me a lot of freedom.

Once I started learning on how thinking from a place of death can improve the quality of my life, I started incorporating it more and more into my lifestyle.

I have a death calendar by my bed - when I circle every week that’s gone.

There are limited weeks in my life. And I want to make sure I do justice to each of them.

Death remains the biggest human adversity. And once you conquer death, everything else is simple.

So my plan B is really simple.

As long as I am alive, I am living a beautiful day in paradise.

I can be Canada, United States, El Salvador or India.

When I have my freedom, I see the sky full of stars.

Have a beautiful day in paradise, let’s live today, it’s not forever! 😘🥰💕💜

Day 2/60. H1B. I apologize to you on behalf of forefathers of America. I know human beings lose track of morals and ethics. This happens in power and greed. This happens when a few people control the future of humanity and human rights. And these people put profits over morality. I apologize to you on the current state of America. On behalf of American forefathers. So let me bring some insights for you from the US Constitution. It reads clearly at the start. Even if you can’t see the ocean, the sun, the stars, you can still look upto this constitution for the guiding light. It also says by when you are enough American to represent America. It’s not 100 years. It’s 8 years. One human being who moves to America can get citizenship in 1 year in America. And after living for 7 years they can represent America in the House of Representatives. Living for 8 years in America is enough to embody the American spirit. If you have been living in America for 8+ years legally, you should have equal rights. I didn’t define the rules of the game. Forefathers of America did. Now go live your dreams. You are the future. You are the talent. Have a beautiful day in paradise, let’s live today, it’s not forever! 😘🥰💕💜#immigrant #india #america

Day 1/60 H1B. We are entering the golden age.

The sun showed up and so did I.

There is something unique about this time period.

It makes me feel I am closer to death.

it's an interesting kind of death.

I don't think it's a death of dreams since I am feeling in full control of my dreams.

I think it's the death of the conditional love that I received in America.

Not from American people, they loved me unconditionally.

The conditional love that was a transaction between a country and an immigrant on H1B.

The conditional love happened because the country would only allow me to stay at my home if I keep giving my labor for my life.

Taxation without representation for life can never be justified.

That conditional love was the source of my suffering.

Such unhealthy one sided relationships lead to a lot of problems.

Hope the relationship between you and America is not conditional and you get your green card within 5 years of moving to America.

Now as I am feeling free, let me answer some of the questions.

Advocacy for immigration reforms doesn't end here.

Infact, we are entering into a new phase.

We will continue advocating for immigrant rights because it's the right thing to do.

I don't need to live in America to do any of this work.

I care about this enough to continue explaining the problem in creative ways.

If you are an immigrant, please use OpenSphere, know all your options and find your freedom.

My work is not complete until legal immigrants are respected and treated with dignity.

Because I know I am only free until all of us are free.

Have a beautiful day in paradise, let's live today, it’s not forever! 😘🥰💕💜

#immigrant #india #america

Life update. Day 0/60 on H1B.

On March 18th, I submitted by resignation from my job at Businessolver.

Today was my last day.

Before I go into my story, I want to thank Businessolver.

Businessolver was the best work experience in my life.

I am going to write a separate blog on Businessolver. What makes the company truly unique and why the best people should join Businessolver.

Now as I embark on this journey, I have to say, it's going to be interesting. This is not the 1st time I am going through this 60 day period on H1B.

This time it's different.

I have been getting back on the road and looking for my next move. I know what freedom means to me.

All the work in advocacy, talking about immigration and global mobility was to actually help people understand how the 60 day period changes lives of people.

I have decided to give the next 5 years of my life in pure exploration of my dreams.

I have a ton of creative ideas on how I would be able to monetize a ton of these things.

The future is bright.

I am excited, optimistic and curious about what's in store for my future.

I am here to write my story.

The story of Atal.

Have a beautiful day in paradise, let's live today, it’s not forever! 😘🥰💕💜

I am in a therapy session with myself.

My Christmas message is "You are good enough"

Therapy has got really expensive in this world.

I do think therapy can solve some problems. You can pay someone you trust to walk you through your problems. In that journey of sharing your problems, you might understand how you can solve them yourself.

But I don't think therapy can solve all problems.

Some of the problems can be solved via actions and taking challenges and pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone.

And some of the problems can be solved via meditation.

I have this place by the bridge where I have spent a lot of time by myself. It's a long bike ride away from my house but the beauty of the ocean and the golden gate bridge make it all worth it.

In-fact, I very much look forward to sitting by the bridge and thinking of unlimited possibilities that I can make happen with no constraints. It's a place of my dreams.

In the last bike ride, I was thinking of how many times I have thought that I am not good enough.

This has been a common theme since my early childhood when I lacked the confidence to stand up for myself.

When I was preparing for IIT, I though I wasn't good enough but somehow I made it through.

When I was at IIT, I didn't think I can speak in English forget about becoming the college president but somehow I made it through.

When I was graduating, I thought I am not good enough for America, but somehow I won a few lotteries and made it here.

When I almost drowned in lake Tahoe, I thought I wasn't good enough to swim but somehow I swam from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco.

When I lost my job, I thought I wasn't good enough but somehow I managed to run Ironman race and built a whole new life out of my adversities.

And few weeks ago, I was standing in congress to fight for my rights, thinking I wasn't good enough and I kept reading the US constitution to ensure I understand it correctly "All men are created equal" and "have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"

Over a period of time, I have gone more and more towards running my own race.

And when I am the only one running, I am realizing this feeling of "I am not good enough" is found more common than before.

And that's why my message this Christmas is "You are good enough"

You have within yourself, all you need to live a life of your dreams.

Given all of us have a role to play in shaping our universe, you living your dreams make the whole world work in synergy.

Have a beautiful day in paradise; let's live today; it’s not forever! 😘🥰💕💜

#christmas #therapy #friends #goldengatebridge

If the world's weight keeps falling on you repeatedly, I have a suggestion for you. You must spend time with yourself and go on this fantastic journey - to truly discover yourself. To find who you are? Yes, you need terrific humans to support and lift you up. You will get there, I promise, keep working hard.

I have decided to share my life openly - talking about my depression, layoff, job search, Ironman, everything.

My podcast would share parts of it as well.

Here’s an episode of my conversation with a junior from college who asked me about my Ironman journey and I covered parts of it in this recording.

The video is available on YouTube

We are all the same. Let's leave this planet a little better than we found it.

I want to leave a legacy of light in this universe!

Have a beautiful day in paradise; let’s live today; it’s not forever! 😘🥰💕💜