The Change!

Its been a year now. I have slowly but steadily evolved into this new me.

A side of me I never knew existed. It was exciting and at the same time a little scary.

How I had transformed from the guy who loved his life to becoming this person who decided to take responsibility on his shoulders.

In all these months, the one thing I realized was that the credit for this change was not solely mine. There were perhaps more factors that influenced this 'evolution' in me.

It was after a lot of thought that i was able to come with the answers. I realized that working here was a major reason for this change. The outlook of people here was what I was inculcating in me.

The need to save up, the want to live a simple yet healthy life style and the desire to grow in terms of profession were a few of the things that I was beginning to develop.

I guess it would be unfair and un-just for me to not mention the one man who played a major part in this change.

He wasn't my father, not my brother, not a close friend and neither a relative. All that he happened to be was my direct reporting manager.

This one man gave me a whole new perspective to the life here. I'm not sure of what he saw in me or what he conceived of me. But I was sure of one thing. He did see some hope in me!.

To this date he continues to mentor me not only professionally but also personally. Through various examples of people he knew and some of his own, he passed on a few messages that stuck to me like glue.

I still remember the first time I made a goof up at work. This guy was furious. He thought I was some kind of a joker who by accident got his engineering degree.

I remember him asking me to make a report on something that ideally he would have done just to show me who was boss.

I remember sitting in my room with sweaty palms, desperately trying to type out that report in the best possible manner.

The expression on his face when I submitted the report is still as fresh as a photograph in my head.

 He looked at me, read the report, and then asked me to sit down. He then began explaining through one of his own stories on how he had messed up the lives of several other junior engineers when he asked them to write reports like these.

I still remember him saying " Normally I would reject the entire report, make a new one, and keep a few lines written by the junior engineer just to keep his heart. In your case, I can confidently submit this report as it is".

That one sentence was like a turbo boost to my morale. I actually wanted to jump with joy on the achievement.

Change for me was nothing more than the literal meaning. I never cared to see why I should change in the first place. I was happy for who I was.


In-spite of these small morale boosts, I definitely  had trouble changing from the lazy ass I was to someone who understood responsibility and diligence to work.


I have had a lot of up's and down's in this past one year. It has been nothing less than a rough ride on a small boat in the open ocean.


I have been through a stage where my employment was questioned. I have seen a phase where my manager has walked out on me saying that we can never work together. 


What I have understood from these various experiences, is that life has never been, and probably will never be an easy ride. The objective is to face the hurdle, analyse the shortcomings and work a way out.

I'd like to share a very simple statement that my manager made one day while we were searching for something. I being my lazy self, had almost given up the search when he said, " Dhoondega to Milega".

That sentence did hold good for that one instance but what I came to believe was that this sentence applied to everything you do in life! You seek happiness, search for it. You'll find it. You want to be rich, search for richness. You'll find it.

What I believe my manager wanted to convey to me was that if ever you need something in life, you need to need to work for it.

Nothing comes served on a platter. It might happen in a Bollywood movie or in a cartoon, but not in real life.

Another reason for this change that I was accepting was my manager making me realize my own capabilities.

Strengths I never knew I had were been highlighted for me to see. We were discussing some contractual issues one day at work and my boss tells me; " I have seen a lot of regional heads, directors and senior managers goof up when it comes to contracts. You seem to have the knack. work on it and it will do you good"

If your thinking that all is good when my manager says these "sweet" things to me, your mistaken. There was one other thing that he keeps reminding me even now. The attitude.

That's the one thing he has been talking about from day one. He understands where I come from and that I'm new to this field but what he keeps saying is that unless you have the attitude you'll go nowhere.

I happened to share this one slogan from one of my old t-shirts with him and he did agree to it as well. It read; " I do not have an attitude problem, I have The ATTITUDE, you have the problem!"

It might sound strange for most but all along, its been these small things in my life that have actually made a difference.

The pitfalls and hurdles have always taught me something in life; To never give up. The harder you try, the further you go.

I have always been the guy with a million emotions. But experiences like these tend to toughen you up. Not physically of course!, but mentally.

These lessons learnt in my my short tenure here have been life altering. My perspective to life has changed and the need to want more out of life has grown in leaps and bounds.

I might be on a low pay scale, working for a significantly small firm. But the knowledge that I have gained has been enormous.

I did plan on moving out of the job and perhaps out of the country.

But now, I know one thing. Its all gonna change!

A completely new perspective!

It's been almost 8 months since i first set foot into the UAE.

I still remember how I swore to my parents about never coming to this place again especially to work.
I also remember how I realized that coming to the UAE was my only way out for survival.
I also remember how I got all excited about going to foreign land to work!.

The point I'm trying to make here is that in all these years where I had these mixed feelings about the same place, I was unknowingly nurturing this mature side of me into a more sensible human being.

After working here and learning about the way of life in this country, i was also beginning to see life in a whole new perspective.

Its funny how you work in your home country for so many years and not once do you really feel the urgency to take your life on a more serious note and make changes for the better. I guess its the feeling of security and belonging that makes you say things like 'I have time' and 'Ill manage'.

All of a sudden when you step out of that cocoon, you feel so insecure that you almost get desperate. You start worrying about the price of groceries, the number of times you have to re-charge your mobile phone because of the call rates and to make it ridiculous, you even begin worrying about the number times you have to go out for that haircut!.

But like they say, with time, you learn to make those decisions on where to spend, how much to spend and when to spend and the funny thing is, it all comes so naturally. Its like you have been trained for something like this all your life!

Another interesting fact is the multicultural society that exists even in a country so small as this.

As an outsider, the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word UAE is perhaps a picture of a Muslim dominated country where the woman dress in black and men look funny in a white dress with headgear and yes, you cannot miss out on the oil!.

Its when you physically get to this country that you realize how wrong you were about this place. I mean a majority of this is true but a lot stays hidden.

It would be interesting to know that in the UAE, the ratio of nationals to expats is shocking. Its about 20% nationals and 80% expats!.

When you hear that figure, the first thing that comes to your mind is "how in the world did 20% of the population control the 80%?!" That question still remains quite a mystery. What most people have made out of this is that the Arab population had all the money in the world because of their oil but failed to understand how to put it to use and so the expats.

What I believe though is that the Arabs undoubtedly had all the money but instead of being lost in terms of where to spend the dough, they were just being lazy!. I mean, with so much of cash in hand, these guys had access to the best schools, colleges and universities. How then do you assume that they dont have the knowledge.

Its a different fact that more than the educational content, the Arabs were perhaps more interested in getting the certificates to boast about rather than utilizing them coz they had people like us to work for them!/

Another interesting perspective to this whole thing is the bonding that you get to see between the expats.

Back in India, the very mention of a country like Pakistan or the mention of a Pakistani national can literally set the stage for a major debate or perhaps even war!. Here in the UAE, Indians and Pakistani's live in such harmony like nothing ever happened. I mean, I have a Pakistani driver who takes me to work every day!.

All my life Bangladesh was just another country. I come to the UAE and actually see people who are from Bangladesh!. I look rather dumb when i say this but did not have a clue about where the Philippines was!.

I come to the UAE and bang!, I'm surrounded by this rather familiar looking race of people whom we knew or referred to as 'chinkis!'

In addition to all these already mentioned nationalities, you have people from the States, UK, Europe, and the various other Arab countries. All working in unison with one and only one goal; to earn that extra buck.

I have to admit that I have changed a lot as a person after coming to this part of the world. Its perhaps the sense of insecurity and responsibility that forced this change out of someone like me.

I'm not sure of what I am in for in the days,months or years to come. But i know one thing for sure. Its been a complete change in perspective!

What a Life!

It had now been a couple of months since i started work on a valid employement visa. Along with it came the usual running around for my medicals and other formalities that were required to keep my visa valid and permanent.

The one similarity that i noticed in the UAE as compared to India was the government sector. Same old dragging procedures, same old waiting times and the frustration that builds up to get one simple activity done. The big difference here was the bribe business. In India, getting work done in a goverment office means bribing an official. ( I dont mean to be biased here but thats the fact). Here in the UAE one needs to understand that he/she is like a foreigner and will be treated like one no matter what position you hold. If you hold that golden UAE passport and can speak arabic, your work gets done at ten times the pace.

Not withstanding, i continued my duties and eventually everything fell in place. I was now a legal resident of the UAE and so was a little relieved about the entire ordeal.

As the days moved and as i got to understand the culture here, things kind of became a little difficult for me. As a fresher in the industry, my aim was to perform my tasks with complete diligence and hope for the best. There were a few hiccups though;

First of all, i realized things that i would have never known if i were to work in India. Here its all about the "I" game.

As much as one would hate it, you have to play that game if you want to save your skin. Like it or not, you have to let people know what "you" have been doing as how it has helped the organization.

I had a little trouble understanding this and there came a time when my employement was being questioned on the basis that the company did not see any "productive" output from my side.

Though it hit me like a rock, i realized that if i was to keep my job i had to play this game and let people know that i was indeed "working" and not playing around. I had to show everyone that i was taking the initiative and that i was doing a good job.

Thankfully for me, it was not that difficult.!. Coming from a country where these games are played everywhere, its not a difficult ask for someone to put on that disguise!.

With all my will and might i set out to show the organization and everyone concerned that "I" was what they were looking for.

As the days passed, i got some recognition and complaints reduced about my ability to handle the "pressure".  I most certainly enjoyed what i was doing but it definitely took some time to realize what was actually needed to be done on my part.

Its been six months now since i signed my contract with this company. Its not been an easy journey and i know for a fact that it will not be a cake walk in the days to come. But one thing i know for sure, and that is you got to play the game to survive.

Coz here in the UAE, its the survival of the fittest. You may be hated for what you do by the others, but you do gain that recognition and at the end of the day, all you can say to yourself is :

What a life!

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!.