Re- Kindling those old memories

I had moved on in life in the search for that perfect future. I had got tired of going with the flow and had decided in my heart to pick up the rows of life and make an effort to move against the tide.

The sudden trip back to Bangalore came as a surprise for sure but what i looked forward to was to re-kindle those great memories that i had buried in my mind when i left for the Gulf.

On my way home from the airport, i couldn't stop thinking of the countless crazy activities that my friends and I indulged in and the ways that we enjoyed every bit of our lives. As i kept playing those memories over and over in my head like a broken record player, i was suddenly interrupted by the driver who told me i had reached my destination. Like a sudden burst of energy, i hopped out of the cab and literally ran up the stairs with all that luggage.

The next few days in Bangalore were spent in repeating all those crazy things that i had done while i lived there. Bar hopping was one of the most favourite and sought after activities that we indulged in almost every other weekend. Only this time it was not a weekend and i had some dough on me to spend!

I had the opportunity to meet up with my old colleagues from work and visit the October Fest which, by the way, is something that his hosted every year in Bangalore under the sponsorship of Mr. Vijay Mallya, the business tycoon and owner of the United Breweries group in India. This is festival where beer is flowing on the house, rock bands and budding artists are playing their thing, and people are generally having a good time.

This also happens to be one of those days when the cops don't stop you for 'Drink and Drive' because the big man has supposedly 'tipped' them off. All said, the day was an awesome experience.

The rest of the days literally flew past and before i knew it i was packing my bags to go to Kerala, my hometown and the place where my grandparents lived.

It was hard to depart from my friends especially when i was seeing them after months together and, was doing  it for the second time.

The stay in Kerala though was a rather pleasant one. I had the chance to eat and fill my stomach with all those lovely granny made dishes and plus to sit around in those huge and well maintained gardens at home to enjoy the autumn sun.

I was in Kerala, when the day i love the most arrived, MY BIRTHDAY!. How i would look forward to this one day in the entire year. I have this strange philosophy; No matter how shitty or bad my year has been, this one day has to be different. It may feel childish but i still love those birthday presents and the birthday bash at home or outside. The only change though over the years is that the birthday parties have moved on from having cakes and home made samosas to tequila shots and discotheques.

The problem here though was that i was in Kerala. I had no friends around and discotheques were kinda hard to find in this city. I had my sister with me and so decided to make the most of it. I rented out a set of wheels and off we went. We visited the one and only mall in Cochin, had a nice lunch, did some shopping and visited the Naval Base, a place where i had spend my high school days.

Like they say, all good things come to an end and so was the case with my little surprise vacation. It was finally time for me to return back and this time work under a valid employment visa. As much as i missed being in India, i actually looked forward to coming back to the UAE.

As i sat at the airport waiting for my flight, i sighted a book shop. i am a Chethan Bhagat fan and so went in to see if i could find his latest book, Revolution 2020. I was lucky to find one of the last copies in the store. As i flipped through the pages and settled down on one of the seats at the airport lounge, i said to myself, One more great story!

Surprise Surprise Surprise!

As the tittle suggests, life in Dubai was turning out to be full of surprises.

I had joined college and was working too. I had thought to myself and repeated the sentence "this is how its going to be for the next two years", in my head countless times. Little did i know that tons of surprises were waiting to pound on me like a bunch of salespersons in a departmental store.

It was after two months of rigorous work and those long trips to college, that i found out that i was still on a visit visa!. The company for some reason had completely ignored the task of issuing me a work visa. The reason was unknown for a while after which i decided to investigate on the matter. I did a little asking around and this is the answer a fellow employee gave me;

"As per the UAE law, every private sector company needs to renew its own business licence. Only once this has been done, can they apply for new visas for any new employee that they happen to recruit."

This short story sounded like Greek and Latin to me for a while and i wondered why this guy told me about the UAE law when my question to him was so simple. It was after a little brainstorming session with myself that i realised the real meaning of that sentence. It meant that the company i was working for had not got its own licence renewed and thats why the delay in getting my visa. That made a lot of sense!

The worry now was, how was i supposed to communicate to my company that they needed to get their licence renewed like immediately coz without that my visa was in jeopardy. I decided to mail my boss asking him for an explanation to why my visa had not yet been issued inspite of me working like a good boy for over two months now.

I drafted the mail and kept hesistating to press the send button as i kept contemplating if it was the right thing to do. I mean how many times have you sent a mail directly to the boss of the company that too asking for an explanation?!. These thoughts kept crossing my mind while i decided to push the button.

The boss was rather quick and calm in his response. He actually took the pains of explaining the situation whilst also assuring me that things would be taken care of. The last line in the mail though was like a pinch. It said, "you concentrate on your work and let the company take care of issues like these". Impressive i thought. The boss knew how exactly he was to convey a message. Shot and sweet yet that pinch of spice.

Before i knew it, i was on the verge of having to return back to India as my visit visa would expire in the next few days.

Things suddenly became frantic in my world. Mails turned to phone calls which were made to every possible head in the company begging them to do something and save my puny ass from going back to India. The idea here was not that I hated going back, the fact rather, was that if i went back, i was doubtful of coming back to the UAE.

Again like a tooth fairy, my boss assusred me that everything would be taken care of and that the company visa renewal was taking longer than usuall and that my visa processing was the next thing on his to-do list after the company issue was resolved. He asked me to go back carefree and enjoy my "break" and that he would have somebody intimate to me once the visa was processed.

Next thing i knew, i was on a plane back to India. The memories of Dubai, the work life, the college..Thoughts suddenly broke when the word college struck...I had forgotten about what would happen to the degree course that i had enrolled for. What would happen to the subjects that i would miss, would my admission to the course be cancelled, will i ever be able to get an MBA?. It was like a sudden panic attack.

These thoughts faded away as I went into a deep slumber. The next thing i heard was the airhostess telling me to put my seat back in the upright position as we were preparing to make the landing.

The strange thing here was that the worries and memories of Dubai and the life that was, suddenly got replaced with excitement and emotions of making it back to my home country. I rushed through the entire immigration and security and before i realised, i was standing at the exit of the Bangalore International Airport Terminal giving a high-five to myself!.

It was five in the morning local time. I quickly signalled a taxi, gave him the address, starpped my self in and began planning out on what i would do in the days to come before i would have to go back on a company work visa.

There were a few things that i analysed on my way back to my room; 1. How long will i be here for? 2. Will i go back? 3. What will i do here?.

Whatever the state, i was going to enjoy every bit of it. All that i said to my self was...WHAT A PLEASANT SURPRISE!

A brand new start

Well, Ramadan was over, life was back to normal and Dubai seemed to get back to its old self after all that fasting and praying.

I too was preparing for my brand new start. A start to my career in the UAE and also a beginning of what I never thought i would have to go through again, college.

The first day at work was exciting as always. New faces glaring down at you like you were the only humane thing around, your to-be manager walking up to you and introducing himself (like he was the sweetest person alive) and of-course the ultimate boss giving you that look of suspicion in a sense that indirectly asked you how long you were planning to stick on.

Things at work moved peacefully, the burden of work was low giving me that level of comfort during those initial days. I learnt from co-workers that it was not the case to be once i was a full fledged ripe mango ready to be squeezed from the inside to the get the maximum work output.

I very joyfully went through the day arranging my new desk and making sure everything was in place. I definitely did not want to start on a wrong note by screwing up on my first day. Plus the reduced work load actually gave me the time for all this arranging and gearing up.

After office it was now time for me to get to college for my first day. This part i was confident of and carried the 'been there done that' attitude on my way out of home. Little did i know that my energy levels would drop down way below critical on my 2 hour journey to college which included a good brisk 20-25 min walk at 2 in the afternoon, a one hour metro journey and about an hours travel by bus.

I reached the bus stop where i was to get into the first bus that would take me to the metro station. I was already panting like i just ran a marathon, thanks to the lack of exercise in my life. I cleared all that sweat with a wet perfume induced hand towel which my mother had wrapped in a nice plastic air tight bag. She had obviously anticipated this. The bus journey was confusing as i had no clue of the route, no idea where i was to get off and absolutely no idea of how i was to tell the damn driver where i was to get off!. Thanks to the in-bus colour monitor that told you which stop was next and the flashy green button on almost every corner of the bus that you could press to notify the driver that you were getting off at the next stop, i was able to safely get down at the metro station.

The metro ride was more fun. I got into the metro realizing the fact that there was no driver. (How in the world would the metro know how to stop!) Plus to add to the excitement, there were no press-to-stop buttons. I just sat on one of the seats hoping and praying like hell that the metro developers had done a good job in terms of programming this machine on a single rail. There were the occasional announcements in Arabic which made no sense but almost immediately followed by an English translation that told you which stop was next. After a couple of stops i was assured that the programming was just fine as the train very promptly came to a halt at every terminal.

It was after i took another bus from the metro destination and traveled another 20 mins that i finally got off at college. The campus in itself was huge. ( No wonder it was called knowledge village). I had to walk another set of blocks to reach the entrance of my university. Dripping in sweat, i entered the classroom. To my surprise i was the first man in!. Nobody in the vicinity. I wondered if i was in the wrong classroom. I waited for a while, checked my watch a couple of times to make sure it was working but still no one. I walked down to the registration counter and inquired. I was in the right place at the right time. As i walked back i met another student so to say coz he looked as lost as i was during my first day of engineering. This was masters. How old was he?. How long had it been since he saw the face of a university?. I asked myself these questions as i approached him to see if he was in the same class as I. In reality i was just looking for someone to talk with to kill time.

The classes began on a pleasant note with the class getting full with people of different age groups and various nationalities. I was lucky i found a good seat coz soon the class ran out of seats. The remainder of late comers who did not get a seat were offered some temporary seats from the neighboring office.

The subject being taught was Marketing. 'Cake' was the first word that popped in my head as i heard the professor read out the name of the subject along with his. It seemed the professor somehow magically read that word from my mind because the first thing he said after that was " Students this subject should be a cake walk for all you working professionals". He carried on the class explaining how the subject would be nowhere close to a cake walk and how the exam would be tough as hell. He obviously made it look very politically correct but i sensed the reality behind his kind words. Four hours of class finished off with just one tiny break and it was time to go home.

Wondering what exactly was taught, i walked back to the bus stop. The bus arrived, i got in with a sense of sleepiness slowly dawning over me and off we went. The next one and a half hours were spent in looking at the night scenery, the luxurious cars that zoomed past and the people who got in and out of the bus.

I got off at a so called bus stop that was in the middle of nowhere. I wondered if the next bus would even see me. Lucky for me, the bus came almost immediately after and took me home. The last walk back home in the middle of the night was like i was being burdened with some kind of large rock on my head. How i wished i could fly. Dragging my feet through the sand, i managed to reach home. I looked at the time. It was 11:30 pm. I had been out since 2 pm. I wondered how this would go in the days to come.

As i cuddled under the sheets for the night, there was one thing i knew. This would be fun!

Walking into the holy month..

My stay in Dubai so far was a fine experience. Those horrible visions that i had about the life here were slowly beginning to fade away and a more beautiful picture started to take its form.

I had actually begun enjoying my stay and was in reality waiting to take things to the next level of my stay in this country. I have to admit that the sun and the heat were killing my attempts to venture out more often but when i thought about it, if the entire population was surviving under these climatic conditions, i should be able to adapt without problems.

It was not long before the entire GCC (Gulf Countries Council) and rest of the world alike was getting all geared for the holy month of Ramadan. Honestly speaking, i had no clue what i was getting into. After having lived in a country with so many cultures, it felt kinda weird to be surrounded by a clout of people who followed the same religion. Not that i had a problem so far but this holy month started giving me the creeps. Newspapers, television channels and even radio stations were announcing the start of the holy month and with every announcement that i heard, my heart starting beating harder. A sense of nervousness started to set in. I thought to myself. Will i be able to survive this?. Will i unknowingly do something during this month that could land me into trouble?. All these thoughts kept pondering in my mind as the first day of Ramadan finally begun.

The rules were pretty straight forward. No eating, smoking or drinking during the fasting hours. Something so minutely unnoticed as chewing gum in public during the fast hours was also considered a crime and if caught in the act, you could probably be paying a hefty pocket burning fine.

The work hours were cut down for the benefit of those fasting, work timings were changed, working after noon till bout 3pm in the open was strictly prohibited and leaves for those who needed it were being given left right and center.

It was a month were the entire country came to a halt. All that people were concerned about were their prayer times and iftars( a kind of ceremony where people have a feast so as to end the fast for the day which of-course is preceded by a prayer).

Adapting to these basic rules was not so difficult but that fear of unknowingly sipping water or grabbing a bite in public always remained.

While in the grind, i took time to go through the history of Ramadan to try and understand what the entire purpose of this holy month was and why the people took this month so seriously with the fasting and excessive praying.

The facts actually made a lot of sense and following these rules that were laid down was not so difficult to follow after i understood why everyone was going through this strict regime. I did make an attempt to follow the fasting part, but my love for food and the thought of missing a meal during the day took precedence over everything else. I obviously took all precautions before taking out that secret snack i carried in my pocket to quench those sudden bursts of hunger but did try and also avoid overdoing it due to the fear of getting caught in the act.

The month of Ramadan was a fun experience, with people like me praying for life to get back to normal so that we could just eat when we wanted to!. Of-course the work timings and laid back culture during the month was exceptionally fun but it was beginning to get kind of monotonous without any real work coming our way.

The 30 days (29 days this time) were over before i realized. As the month drew to the end, one could feel a sudden sense of celebration in the air. Alas, it was Eid!. Banners came out, people pulled out their new clothes and here i was in the midst of all the mayhem. The night after the last fasting session was all of a sudden filled with some kind of energy and vibes. People all around were in a party mood. Food stalls swung back into action, malls were over crowded and the roads were flooded with cars. One would wonder where all this population was for so many days.

I sure enjoyed the experience and actually am looking forward to the next Ramadan. Till then, Eid Mubarak!.

experiencing reality...

As you all know by now, i had reached the beautiful city of Dubai, picked up a nice job and also got admission into a reputed university.

While i waited for life to begin in this new fantasy world, i thought i'd might as well get to know the place a little better coz if was to live here, i'd have to adjust to the various complex lifestyles that people living here followed.

Before i ventured into the outside, i thought it would be wise for me to carry out a little research. I did not want to look like a completely lost soul wandering on the streets. After all, in today's times, Google had the details to every minute piece of information that i needed.

I got my stuff, and stepped out. The minute i set foot outside my building, it felt like i was being roasted in one of those giant ovens. The temperature was way above controllable. My belief is that is was definitely more that about 50 degrees centigrade. I got into the building in the same speed that i had stepped out.

This short roasting experience got me thinking again on weather or not i should take the risk of going out during the day time. Then i thought again, why the hell were taxi's for?!. i stepped out in style trying my best to stay calm in-spite of the scorching heat, waived out to an approaching taxi and off i was to explore my new habitat.

I must admit that during this exploration that i was set out on, my perspective towards the city did begin to change. The place was not so bad after all. I mean the work culture and way of life was perhaps not what i wanted but the place was good. I was not sure of how often i'd be able to visit these places of scenic beauty once i got into the grind but it felt good to see the marvels of human engineering and creativity.

While on the trip, i befriend-ed the cab driver who had lived a good 30-35 years of his life here. (Sad to think that all he did in 30 years of his life was drive people around in his cab!). i learnt from him that the king or ruler of Dubai, had this crazy passion to build the largest, tallest, longest and biggest of everything. He had built the longest bridge, had just built the tallest building, had constructed the widest road and was on the race to build i don't know what else.

The trip, in short, was good. I headed back into my apartment, went under the shower and whoa, what relief it was. After all that heat, the cold water from the shower felt like heaven.

I was certain to make a second trip outside later and this time maybe after sunset to explore Dubai under the street lights.  I had some nice supper that my mom prepared, checked my mail, logged into Facebook (like it was a ritual where i had to give my attendance once every day!) and then went under those cozy sheets for the night.

What lay ahead of me in the days to come would obviously be dealt with as it came. For now, Good Night! ;)

And so here i was...

The hunt for a job was definitely not easy. My father had to regularly get in touch with people from various backgrounds to see if they could get me in somewhere. I myself was getting up early every morning, checking the newspapers for job vacancies and of-course also checking on job sites for a prospective job opening. The college hunt was much easier as there were numerous colleges waiting to grab you for a seat in their university.

It took a while but at last i struck gold. I got a job that looked promising, narrowed down on a university that offered the course i was looking for at an affordable price and now all that remained was for me to start burying my foot on the ground to get started with the life i had not really looked forward to but was eager to experience.

How it all goes from here,will for obvious reasons, depend on how i navigate my boat of life. Ill keep you posted on how it goes. So far so good!. :)

Reality check...

It was after a grueling 4 years past my graduation that i finally saw a clear picture of where my life was headed. I realized that this was the time to take control and move out of 'auto pilot' mode. To my good fortune, my parents were based in the UAE and so that was like a gate pass. It didn't take too much of pursuing before my dad got me a visa to the gulf.

I landed at Sharjah international airport all excited about the fact that i had finally touched ground on foreign soil. The sight of a Porsche and Lamborghini on the road so close to the car i was in made me wanna jump with joy. But again, i had to focus. The purpose of my visit was not to see luxurious cars zoom past me but i was here to find myself a future.

Recession to me was just a word in the dictionary before i got to the gulf. It was here that i realized what it really meant. People with 10 and 15 years of experience were dying to get a job and here i was, a fresher from college with nothing more that some lousy customer service experience, looking to get a job that my degree promised.

I also realized that it was during times like these that word of mouth was a more powerful tool than applying for a job on some godforsaken middle-east job portal that claimed to have millions of jobs for freshers like me.

While on the hunt, i got a taste of what life really is like in the gulf. Housing rates were sky high, those people who came home in shinny dresses and wore dangling necklaces were actually living out of something called a 'bed-space' (a concept wherein all you have in a room of 10 is a bed!) and the Mercedes that they claimed to own was some beaten up old car that obviously was a merc alright but just for namesakes.

The reality show here was not pretty. I almost made up my mind not to ever set foot in a country where expats like me lived like beggars and saved every last penny they earned to send home. It was more than hard to adjust to such a lifestyle keeping in mind the lavish and extravagant life that i lived while in India.

But like they say, you got to forget certain luxuries in life if you want to achieve something. That something here was a life and a bright future that did not look bright given the circumstances.

I cleared my head and thought again. I was not going to be here my entire life. It was just a matter of a few years after which i could probably move out to a different country or maybe come back to india itself.

And so i started looking for a job that would pay me enough to lead a comfortable life and also began the hunt for a good college to do my masters as i believed that it would help me down the line.

The thought process...

Well,
To start off lets say that this is a first time attempt by an ordinary guy who wanted to share with the world, his experiences on going to foreign land, a place he hated to be in or so to say, a place where he eventually had to go to save his life.

It was not very long ago. Maybe a few years back. I had this mis-conception  about people moving out to the gulf. It was not that i hated the place but the mere fact that every second mallu from Kerala was in the gulf pissed me off ( I too am a mallu by the way). The movies portrayed these people as being filthy rich and wearing those dangling necklaces while they returned home on vacation. The truth behind that glamour and show was seldom shown.

I graduated from college, picked up a job in India and was quite content with the state of affairs. My bank account would be full during the pay day and would drain down a few hundreds at the end of every passing month. Not a single penny put towards savings. I didn't really see the necessity to save up. It was when i saw my friends buy houses and pricey cars and settle down for marriage that i began to realize how far behind i already was.

I also began to realize that a mere bachelors degree had no value in today's modern and fast paced life and that a masters degree was the need of the hour. Not to mention that almost every guy i knew had either already got a masters or was in the process of getting one.

This was when the tube light over my head suddenly began to glow and ideas to catch up with the world started to pour in. I had plans, that if implemented in the right manner, could take me places. But being the person i was, none of those wonderful plans ever came into existence.

(watch out for the continuation on my journey from India to the Gulf)