Sabse Bada Kela



April 15th is the deadline to fill out the tax forms for federal tax , state tax and city tax...... Now while doing this job, one is prone to make mistakes since it gets quite boring and if you are a newbie then you really dont know what to fill in where.... ...This is something however all 'desi' students look forward to.......Let me explain......when we get our paychecks from the University they come to us with the tax cut out of it...Lekin..parantu ...but.... Due to a treaty between the Indian and US governments we 'desi' students on F-1 visas can claim a part of the tax we have already paid taking into account certain standardized deductions........... With high hopes and expectaions of getting a decent amount back , Phani ( my groupmate here in the department) and me made the trip to Carrol Hall , on campus, where twice a week we have volunteers come and help people fill out their taxes.

I had dreams....some big some small....just like Teja from 'Andaz Apna Apna' wherein he has his dreams about what he would do once he gets the diamonds from his twin brother...poultry farm and bread factory et alll...bread ka baadshah aur amlet ka raja....teja.....

So I got to Carrol Hall and signed up for the next available slot......... There was the mandatory round of questions wherein country of origin and citizenship were ascertained.........With necessary forms in hand Phani and me sat opposite to this elderly gentleman ( a volunteer) who once upon a time was the Head of the Chemical Engineering Department here at U of Akron............. he said he had been to Pune and Mysore ( thats where Phani is from) in addition to Jaisalmer, Ranthambore National Park, Darjeeling and the list continued......he seemed to be an interesting character....he mentioned that he played a part in the setting up of the Polymer Engineering Department here at U of Akron in 1983.......... .he filled in Pahni's forms and I did the same for my forms ......our incomes being slightly different I did my own additions and subtractions from the figures ( the standard deductions) provided to me by the gentleman....... All this while I was only eager to know how much 'mullah' I was getting back...... Nothing else mattered....... I moved down to blank 25 and entered the figure there......... I thought to myself " only four more blanks to fill......and then it shall all be very clear...
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$892"yipppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.....sala main to sahab ban gaya.....control beta control....nahi hota yaar kya karu?"......and then i began to think of all the things i could do with that much money.....not to mention another 60 $ in the form of state tax refund.........maybe buy a zoom lens for the camera.....no not a zoom lens.........a bigggggg zoom lens.....spend a little on my car.......go this summer to florida .............and the list would not stop........saving the money for a rainy day just did not come to my materialistic mind.........in the meantime Phani's thoughts are centered towards just this one thing......EUROPE TRIP this summer.....nothing else.......

I was soooo happy that could have hugged that old man soooo hard that......anways decided against doing that and got up to leave......this other gentleman comes to me and says" sir would you kindly step this way so may re verify your tax forms for you?"...."sure...gladly....go ahead..." i said......he sat down and asked me to sit across from him on his table.....he started checking everything.......and alas it happened....halfway through the whole procedure his expression changed.....he found mistakes....the person who helped me prepare the tax forms had given me the wrong figures for the deductions..........wahhhhhhhhhh...i wanted to shout then and there like they do in hindi films.........."nahiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii yeh nahi ho sakta!.......main bekasoor hoon........and whatever else i could if it helped....it could have even been" main tumhare bacche ki ma banane vali hoon"...but none of this would help......so after all the changes the new figure came down to $ 286......892 kidhar and 286 kidhar........now dont get me wrong.....$ 286 is quite a lot of money and I know I should not be cribbing....but at one time it seemed like i would have gotten so much more.......i checked and rechecked and the figure kept coming to 286...not more not less.......so now i need to decide whether I buy the zoom lens OR the trip to florida OR spend a little on my car OR then by an umbrella for a rainy day.......*sniff*

laters