Getting back to the interview, I was very nervous. Omar Hyder helped me prepare for the common questions asked in the interview and proceeded to show me what they expected and needed in Fulbrighters. The day of the interview I reached USEFP and was cleared to enter after security checks. I was given a pencil and paper & asked to comment on my favourite way to excercise. This was actually the psychological analysis part of the interview. Anyways, I wrote about why I considered participating in sports a good way to excercise. There were around 30 people gathered for the interview that day. We were given a circular highlighting that they had called approximately 900 people for the interviews, and the academic committee was already impressed with our credentials. The circular advised us to be ourselves. We were given a presentation on how to search for universities, how to see if a particular university's department was better than some bigger university's department ( for example it was not necessary that Harvard had the best department on agriculture or forestry), we were told that if we were rejected by the ivy league schools it would not be the end of the world and lastly they mentioned that most of us weren't going to get the scholarship, but that didn't mean we should give up our hopes of studying in the US. They advised us to keep in touch with USEFP and register for an academic advisor. We were told there were many other awards that could be availed.

            My number for the interview was almost at the end. The wait was horrible. I was in no shape to talk to anyone. I went to the washroom like ( I'm not joking) 20 times. I seriously began to think there was something wrong with me medically ( did I all of a sudden develop Diabetes ). Anyways, a few people introduced themselves to one another and began to chat, but you could sense everybody was just edgy. The advisors checked our original documents. Around 2 o ' clock I was ushered to the second floor where I was again asked to sit and wait. After what seemed centuries, I was called into this huge room. There was Dr.Grace Clarke wearing a beautiful shalwar kameez and a gentleman from Quaid-e-Azam university on her right side and a lady who headed a research company on the left side. Behind Dr.Clark was a lady whose role I did not understand (Pschological analysis?). Dr.Grace Clark practically conducted my whole interview. She asked me why I was choosing epidemiology as a field? Why was I leaving medicine? Why did I choose Aging? What inspired me to study epidemiology? How I would help on return? She then asked me about the theories of Aging ( I had no clue). Then to my surprise, she asked me if I had heard about certain researches and projects that were carried out in Pakistan. I had done alot of searching into what work had been carried out in Pakistan, but I hadn't heard about the projects Dr.Clark mentioned. This sort of made me nervous. I learnt later that Dr.Grace Clark was very interested in the Aging herself. Then, she asked we why I though Aging was important and what were my proposals on what do about them? She asked me to design a project on the secondary prevention of diabetes mellitus.Then, she allowed the Quaid-eAzam University gentleman to ask me a few questions. He asked me about what I thought about the heaqlthcare system of Pakistan? Did I have hope about the system improving? Overall, the interview was conducted in a very friendly atmosphere. I left the room feeling like I did fairly well. I think I gave them an impression of someone who had an idea of where he wanted to be, but was still young, naive and raw. I think even that worked to my advantage. It showed I was thinking of how I could make a change. 

          During the fall of 2009, in October, I recieved an email from Mr.Saleem Razzaque congratulating me on my selection as a Principal Candidate for the Fulbright Scholarship. This was one of the happiest days of my life. I called people who were close to me, family and friends, and shared my happiness with them.

        I would like to take this oppurtunity to thank USEFP and Dr.Grace Clark for giving me the oppurtunity to study in the US. I can never forget the role of USEFP in making this possible.

                   ( To Be Continued)