Thai Manne Vanakkam!!!!

I came to USA on Oct, 2011 and the last time i went to India on vacation was on Mar 2014. I have been spending more than 6.5 years in USA and almost last 4.5 years continuously. I planned for a vacation once in Feb 2017 but cancelled at the last moment due to some stir caused by the Trumps Immigration ban. My GC process also got started 2 years ago and i have my I-140 approved through which i applied for H1B Extension beyond the 6 year limit. Since i applied for extension back in Sep 2017, many things happened. I got released from my Support project(in which i thought i'm irreplaceable, but the onsite position itself got scrapped), then the next short term project which i was working on almost went into deployment and got messed up and later it took few more months for the deployment. On a personal level, i finally revealed my love story to my parents(i would write a separate blog detailing that) and got approval for marriage.

After applying for extension, i didn't get any update from USCIS for almost 7 months and finally on April, i got RFE. Few other people who applied for extension after me got theirs approved in 2-3 months(though they are still within 6 year limit). RFE is never a good news, especially in current times. Nowadays, its often the harbinger for rejection. So after i got the RFE i knew the possibility of extension approval is 50-50. So i was preparing myself mentally for both the results. More than me, my Girlfriend and Dad wished a lot for my visa to be extended. My girlfriend came to USA just 2 years back and she certainly wants to spend more time here and she doesn't want me to go back yet. My Dad kinda always wanted me to settle here and especially after i revealed him about my girlfriend, he thought its better if we both stay in USA for sometime after marriage. So they both were constantly checking the VISA status with me.

My girlfriend kept insisting me that i submit the documents on time and fill the details properly on every stage of the process. I, on the other side really didn't care much about the result. I was getting bored here and badly needed a change. So if i get visa, i will move to another state for another project and if i don't i will finally go to India. I kept it that simple. But this result just wouldn't come. My company responded to RFE only at the last few days as more RFE's were coming these days and they have to work on cases on priority.  After submitting RFE, i had only one month left for my Work authorization to expire(240 days since i94 expiry). So i can't afford to sit and wait again endlessly. So i requested for Premium processing. Once i submitted premium processing, people were saying that the result would come any day now.

I started checking the USCIS portal and my email the first thing daily morning. One week passed on nothing happened. I started losing patience and getting irritated everytime i check the case status and my mail. I just wanted it to get over and really didn't care about the result. I always had my luck with USCIS so far. I had my L1B visa approved when around 10 people in my account got rejected back in 2011. Then the first year i applied for H1B, i got picked in lottery. But this time i thought my luck would run out. So i was preparing for that and notified my apartment society for ending my lease by July end and settled my car loan and got the title so i can transfer to my girl friend if i have to leave. I was ready then to leave the country(or)state and just waiting for the result. 2nd week started since premium request and again same. I get up, check case status online, check my mails and nothing. My girlfriend had subscribed for notifications about my case status from USCIS. But USCIS site is not always up to date and not reliable. So i have to check both my mails and status online. More and more it got delayed i started losing my mind. I didn't want to get up in the morning, i wasn't getting sleep and most of the days i slept only at 4-5AM in the morning. I stopped cooking(which recently i got more interest and got really better), i stopped buying groceries for long term, i couldn't plan for July 4th(which surprisingly i got 2 days leave in my account) vacation. Because i may have to pack any day now and i may not get much time as my i94 expired long back and have to leave the country immediately in case of rejection. My Dad on the other side, checked astrology and was telling me that he was sure that i will get it approved between July 9-11th.

By the End of July 3rd, there was no still no update and i planned to go on a short 2-day trip to Wisconsin with my Friends here and their families. But on the whole trip i was checking the status and mails every one hour. I was in talks with few people about my next project in a different account and everything was getting delayed because of this VISA extension result. After the trip was over i again started checking status and mails from Friday(July 6th) morning. Saturday actually i was about to go to Phoenix to attend my Friend's son's 1st birthday party which i couldn't plan for because of the delay in VISA result. I so wanted to go and was checking the status on Friday every 30 mins once. Also checking the flight tickets which was costly on the last minute, so i was checking flight to Vegas which was cheaper relatively and planning to drive from Vegas to Phoenix. So i thought if no update in result by 4PM, i will  book a flight for Vegas and drive to Phoenix from there so i can make it to Saturday birthday party.

12:00 PM - "Case Received and Receipt Notice Mailed on June 22" (No Update)
12:30 PM - "Case Received and Receipt Notice Mailed on June 22" (No Update)
01:00 PM - "Case Received and Receipt Notice Mailed on June 22" (No Update)
01:30 PM - "Case Received and Receipt Notice Mailed on June 22" (No Update)
02:00 PM - "Case Received and Receipt Notice Mailed on June 22" (No Update)
02:30 PM - "Case Received and Receipt Notice Mailed on June 22" (No Update)

* June 22 was the day Premium Processing was filed with USCIS.

Flight from Chicago to Vegas that night was 180$. Checked Rental car also from Vegas for low price. About to book both.

03:00 PM - "Decision Notice Mailed" "On July 3, 2018, we denied your Form-I129 and mailed you a decision notice that explains why we denied your case and your options. Please follow the instructions in the notice. If you do not receive your denial notice by July 18, 2018, please go to USCIS site to request copy of notice...."

Ok Thats it. Luck run out.

I called my girlfriend and said its denied. She thought i'm kidding or checked some other case id(i do things like that, believe me) and checked the status in online to double check. Once she confirmed, she couldn't believe and i could hear welling up and about to cry. I told her not to cry in office and will call her later. Then i pinged my friends in office in watsapp group and everybody was in disbelief.

I saw the status updated in USCIS site on July 6th and the status said they said notice on July 3rd itself. So i wasn't sure how long i'm allowed to stay here and when should i leave. As July 4 was a holiday i thought the notice wouldn't have reached my company by 6th, so i kept waiting for monday. In the weekend i cleaned the room, washed the clothes and packed and almost ready to go. But no email from my company on Monday(July 9th). No mail on July 10th and none on July 11th too. I started panicking. My friends were telling me to be careful that if i overstay i may not be able to enter USA again ever. So i tried to contact HR, Manager, Immigration department and anyone i can, but everybody kept telling me that wait for the email. I also submitted a ticket and got response from my company that the decision notice isn't received from USCIS yet and it normally takes 7-15 business days for the mail to reach and i'm allowed to continue working until then. I still don't know how many days i will have after the notice reaches my company and they send me an email. But i'm ready to leave anytime and just waiting. Now daily morning i'm just checking my emails and every hour from morning.

Then the other problem is that i switched from my old company to current company in USA. So i'm a USA hired employee, so i need to get a project confirmed in India first, only then i will be transitioned to India payroll, else i will be out of job when i arrive in India. So the quest for project and also the location(either Chennai or Bangalore) has begun and was in progress.

I'm going to go to India after 4.5 years, so people are saying i should definitely buy things for family, friends etc. Some of them might ask me to carry stuff to India which i cannot deny. And i'm hesitant to inform all my friends in India to avoid their requests to carry stuff for them. For me and my family, as usual i have no clue what to buy.

A lot of things are going on my mind right now.
1. Climate. How difficult it would be to adapt to India after nearly 6.5 years since i came to USA initially.
2. Office. How difficult it would be adapt to offshore working culture, like staying in office till 10, doing all works other than the actual work, transportation from office to room and vice versa(Man!! Am i going to miss driving a Car),
3. Bike.I'm still not comfortable driving a bike in India. Have to learn that soon after i arrive in India.
4. Food. I don't have to cook in India where ever i end up. I will miss cooking new dishes in weekends though, but i can compensate by eating variety of items i missed to eat when i was in India. I didn't even many South Indian food item's names when i came to USA. I have huge list of food items which i want to eat in various parts of India.
5. Reading.  I like reading and i resumed reading books in Sep, 2017 after a gap of 2 years. Ever since i'm reading on regular basis. I will definitely miss Barnes & Nobles and Libraries here a lot. Sometimes i just go directly from office to B&N and browse some books and start reading some random and continue the book. I won't get such an environment in India or at least that i know of.  I have completed almost 14 books this year out of New Year resolution Count 30. Some how i need to continue the habit irrespective of however busy i get in work or other things.
6. Writing. After coming to USA, i rarely wrote about my experiences or any short stories in my blogs, even though i have visited a lot of places here. But in India, definitely a lot of adventures will happen just in our normal life and i'm sure i can continue writing again once i'm there.
7. Marriage. Well, then there is this thing. As my GF would be in USA for at least another year, i can't think about getting married for an year. But there are definitely few things which i need to take care before i get married and i need to be in India for that and hope this Visa rejection is a blessing in disguise for that.
8. Friends. Almost all are married and most of them with kids. So friends, who i can hangout with in India are very few and i have to use whatever time i get to enjoy last few months of our bachelor life there.

So i'm looking forward to the email from my company very eagerly and can't wait to land in India soon and feel "Thai Manne Vanakkam!!!".

Few of my friends are still in my condition(I-140 approved and awaiting H1b extension beyond 6-year limit) who are waiting to see what happens with me. I will keep them posted on the details.

Falling Water

Last weekend me and my friend almost planned to go to Vegas and cancelled at the last minute. He came to my place from Jersey. We had 3-4 days holidays and only had Niagara Falls in our plan. So I started looking for places to visit around my place and nearby cities such as Cleveland, buffalo and Pittsburgh. I was going through a digital tour guide of Pittsburgh and saw the picture of Falling water. Falling water is a famous building designed by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. I have already heard about the building and seen pictures but never knew or probably forgot that it is located near Pittsburgh and just 3 hour drive from my current place Erie, PA.

I came to know about this building when I read Aynrand's Fountainhead. I read in wiki that the lead character of fountainhead , Howard Roark is partly inspired from the real life architect Frank Lloyd wright. So I read about him and came to know Falling water was his best work and considered to be the best all time work of American architecture. Smithsonian magazine mentioned it as one of 28 places " to visit before you die".

So when I realized that the place was just 3 hours from my place, I decided I have to go and got very much excited. I looked into its website and read that advance booking is preferable and it was true. When I checked the ticket, it was almost sold out for entire weekend and only few slots were available and booked two tickets in those slot without any second thoughts. There was also a house called Kentuck Knob which is located 7 miles from Falling water, which was also designed by the same architect. I booked for that too.

We first visited Kentuck Knob, which was a small but beautiful house. It was mostly designed in a hexagon shape. The whole house, the living room, bed rooms, kitchen everything was designed in a hexagon shape. I knew this place was not famous as falling water but it set up the expectations for falling water. It was like checking out a promo for a big budget movie.

Then it was time to checkout the master piece. We reached Falling water and was allotted in batch number 68. Each batch had upto 12-13 people and a guide. It was an one hour guided tour. Our guide was an old lady and she started telling about the history behind the building and its origin and etc. Then we visited each rooms in the building with her describing about the architecture details about each rooms, it's cantilevered style beams which made the living room looking like hanging in the air above the falls. From the Living room, it had steps down where you can walk down and dip your leg in falls. They didn't let us though :(. The view from the balcony was amazing. We didn't want to move from one room to next but she was pushing us to continue the tour as the next batches was behind us and previous batches was also moving forward. It was like one batch in living room, one in balcony, one in bedroom n each moving at constant pace to cover whole building in one hour and also to accommodate more people on a day. We were in a dilemma as to whether admire the view and buildings architecture or to listen to her lecture about the architecture details and some interesting stories behind it. I didn't wanna miss either, so it was a tough job. I don't think I have listened to a lecture with this much concentration. I don't want to go into the history behind it because you can read that in wiki and not into the architecture details too, because I may not explain properly and you mainly have to to be there to experience it.

But my excitement was solely based on Howard Roark's character. Whether I liked Fountainhead or not is a different topic, but while I was reading I used to think no one can be like that Howard's character. That much adamant, refusing to accept or follow conventional methods, the individualistic philosophy and his architecture vision. Aynrand herself mentioned the inspiration was limited to some of Frank's architectural ideas and the pattern of his career. So I wanted to see if I can see a glimpse of Howard in Frank or vice versa. Based on the stories and details I heard from the guide I did find a lot of similarities between them.

Frank Lloyd Wright used to design both exterior and interior of the house including furniture's and the house owners are not supposed to change anything without his consent. Sounds very rude right? Well he had his reasons it seems. For example in Falling water, there was no curtains or blinds in any rooms except one guest room for which the owners to argue with him as they wanted their guests to have privacy. The reason is the house was built over falls in a mountain. You wouldn't know if a house is coming out of a mountain or a mountain grew inside the house. The view from any place in the house was breathtaking. So he told "I built it so it could enjoy the nature all the time, so you can't hide anything with blinds or curtains." It may sound rude for you guys now, but if you're in that house you would know he is right. He designed each floor in certain limited height so that there won't be much space above the windows. The reason he told was " if you have more space in walls, you would hang lot of unwanted stuff and that might divert the attention from the natures view from the windows". Again we felt he was right. The building had a parking spot at the top floor. As its a mountain, it had a driveway leading upto the top floor. He seems to have told " I won't build a garage for you because you will put all your unwanted stuff in the garage and spoil it, so I ll just design a parking spot". Man!!! Was he right? Or was he right?. 

His philosophy was Organic architecture which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world through design approaches so sympathetic and well integrated with its site, that buildings, furnishings, and surroundings become part of a unified, interrelated composition. Just copied the definition from wiki ;). You can read more about it and you may understand the reason for his stubbornness.

One more incident i heard was, Frank was done with designing furnitures and the owner of the house Mr.Kaufmann wrote him saying table in his room was very small. Frank replied "I'm done with designing furniture's, move on". But finally Frank agreed to increase the table size after Kaufmann replied "Ok. But my table is too small to sign the architect cheque ;)".

The initial budget of the building was 30k dollar in 1936 itself. But after completing, it costed 155k dollars it seems. But the owners didn't complaint after seeing the finished work.

After listening to all these stories I couldn't help but relate Frank and Howard. It was like one of your favorite fictional character was once alive in another name. We were not allowed to take pictures inside, but we took few from exterior. This is the best view of Falling water, but as I said no picture can do justice for it. You have to be there to experience it. If you happen to come to Pittsburgh or nearby, don't miss this place. I didn't hear about this place from any of my friends. Almost no one was aware of it. So I just wanted to share my experience and let you know about the place.

Believe me, you will fall-in-love with Falling water. I definitely did and my friend literally had to pull me away from there once the visit and photo sessions are over. Other than Falling Water and kentuck Knob there is also a place called Duncan House nearby. And in various cities you can find many of Frank's buildings including Ohio, Newyork, illinois etc. So if you're anywhere in USA now, google it and visit soon and update me about each work :).

Drunken Mitsake

                                                         

Rajkumar is going to get married in 2 days. His friends arranged a party for him today on his own money. Tequila, scotch, Vodka and Beers were arranged on the center of the room.

Sundar was arranging the seats, laying newspapers in the floor, opening side dishes and sharing equally on all plates and once he is done, he yelled “Hey! All you lazy ******, come soon and sit. Let’s get it started”. Santhosh said, “Hey everyone come soon, before Sundar loses his temper and break someone’s head with a bottle”.

Everyone came and seated soon fearing for Sundar. Because everyone knows how Sundar would get mad if it gets late for drinking. Everyone started with a tequila shot and went ahead with either Scotch or Vodka as per their choices. After few rounds got over and everyone became little high, they started the chitchat.

Magesh said “Raj, you start to tell your story”.

Raj asked “What story”.

Magesh sarcastically said, “The Crow, the fox and the old lady story. Stupid, The story of your marriage, what else? You were saying that you don’t want to get married for another 2 years and now your marriage is fixed within 3 months. How did that happened?”

“Oh!! That story……” said Raj, by starring angrily at Sundar.

Santhosh started laughing and said “it’s all due to the courtesy of the Sundar and Mr. McDowell”.

Everyone started asking “why? What happened?”, “What Sundar did?”.

Santhosh said “OK. Everyone calm down, I’ll explain what happened”.

Magesh said “Wait, let Raj himself explain, and seems he is very angry, so we will get to hear in the exact tone”.

Raj said “No no, I won’t tell. I might get angry again. Let Santhosh explain”.

Santhosh started explaining:

“Some 3 months back, Raj came to Chennai from Bangalore for a weekend. Before coming itself he told, ‘I want to get drunk heavily this time, so arrange everything before I come there. There shouldn’t be any waste of time. We should say ‘cheers’, the moment I entered the door’.  So as he said, we bought a full and a half and chicken, eggs for side dish and cool drinks for mixing etc, and started drinking immediately after he came in. Then we started chatting as usual, about how jobs are boring and how all our managers are ****. Then the topic shifted to ‘girlfriends’, as none of us have a girlfriend, technically it’s about ‘not-having-a-girlfriend’ and then it shifted to ‘Marriage’ and from where the problem started.

Sundar asked Raj, ‘when are you decided to get married?’ to which Raj replied, ‘not in near future, at least it’ll take two years’.

Sundar said ‘Two years? Why would you wait 2 years, you don’t have a brother or sister. You’re the only boy in home.  You should get married soon’.

Raj replied, ‘should I marry soon if I’m the only child to my parents? 27 is the correct age for boys, so no marriage for next two years’.

Sundar said, ‘Dude, get married when you’re 25 and become a father when you’re 27, so it won’t be too much age gap between you and your children. If you feel awkward to tell your father, let me know, I’ll call him and inform. See us, I have an elder sister and Santhosh has an elder brother. We have to wait till they get married. We’ll be 28 or 29, when we get married and we’ll be an Uncle when we become a Dad.’

Raj said, ‘Looks like you’re the man with the plan, but unable to stick to it and grieving inside. If you want, I can call your Dad and inform that his son wants to get married before his sister’.

Sundar said, ‘Don’t you dare. My sister will kill me if she heard like that’.

Then they kept talking like this for few minutes and out of nowhere they started fighting. Sundar dialed Raj’s Dad’s number and threatened Raj that he is going to press the call button and Raj threatened back that he is going to call Sundar’s sister and one leads to another and suddenly they started fighting physically and were rolling together in the ground. Sundar ripped Raj’s shirt and Raj tore Sundar’s lungi and Raj’s cell phone got broken. I didn’t try to separate them at first as it was fun to watch them fight, but later when I tried, they didn’t stop as it became more fun to them. So I left them and went to bed. But they keep talking trash to each other like Sundar said ‘If I didn’t tell your father, I won’t wear lungi ever again in my life’, to which Raj replied ‘If that happens, I don’t know what else I’ll tore other than lungi’. Then I don’t know when they went to bed and I don’t remember afterwards”.

Once Santhosh completed, everyone started asking, “Then what happened Raj?”, “Did Sundar told Raj’s Dad?”, etc.

Raj said, “Yes that asshole blabbered to my parents that I Wish to marry soon”.

Everyone starred at Sundar sarcastically.

Sundar said, “Hey I didn’t do it in full sense. In fact, I don’t remember calling them at all”.

Raj, said angrily “See, he is still not accepting his mistake”.

Sundar said, “Hey I didn’t say I didn’t call, I just don’t remember anything. I may have called definitely, during fight I dialed your Dad’s number, so I must’ve pressed dial after some time mistakenly and blabbered everything”.

Santhosh asked Sundar, “You didn’t even remember you saying that you won’t wear lungi ever again in your life if you don’t tell his father?”

Sundar said, “Hmmm….No, I don’t remember that too”.

Magesh asked Raj, “Wait, when he says he doesn’t remember anything, how did you come to know that he called? Did your Dad tell you?”

Raj said, “No, he didn’t say anything directly to me. But the next weekend I went to my home and my Mom and Dad both talked in a strange way the whole time. One day I just asked ‘Mom, it’s already 2 ‘o’ clock, Lunch is not ready yet?’. She replied ‘who knows when you want anything earlier or late; we can’t read your mind’. I didn’t understand what that mean. And my Dad kept asking if any of my friends got married and if at what age they got married, etc etc.  And you know how my Dad is, he only decides whatever I need and even if I say I didn’t like one thing which he selected for me, he used to feel like there’s a big gap between us and become sentimental. That day we were some watching some talk show in TV and he said ‘Nowadays, Parents don’t know much about their children as much as their friends do isn’t it?’ If any of your Dad said that, that isn’t a big deal. But if my Dad says, definitely something happened. And finally they said that they have seen a girl for me. Then only I got doubt and wondered if Sundar said anything to them that night. So I didn’t ask him directly. I called Santhosh and asked him to check the dialing list in Sundar’s mobile on the day we drank. And we found out that he called my Dad sometime after we slept. But this A**** keep saying he don’t remember”.

Magesh asked “So, you didn’t ask your Dad anything about that?”

Raj said, “What do you want me to ask? My Dad doesn’t even know I drink. How come I would ask if my friend called you when he is drunk and blabbered anything? I couldn’t even face them properly after that”.

Sundar said, “Why are you still worrying? Everything ended perfectly right?”

Others also said, “Our bachelor lives are sucking anyway. So getting married now isn’t that bad. So you don’t have to worry”.

Sundar said, “What’s there to worry, when you’re fiancé is a good figure?”.

Everyone looked at Sundar in anger and Raj became furious.

Sundar realized his mistake and tried to calm them by saying, “Hey, what I meant was that what’s wrong with our SISTER-in-law? (Pressing hard on the word SISTER) Isn’t she a good match for him? In fact Raj, our SISTER-in-law is too much for you”.

Magesh asked Raj, “Hey did you talked to her properly? Or just ‘Hi, hello, thanks’ like you talk to other girls?”.

Raj said, “Yeah we talked a lot. At first I was very shy and didn’t talk much. She used to tease me why I’m not talking much. Then I got used to it. Not used to getting teased, used to talk. But still I regret that I couldn’t do many things which I wanted to do like going on a date. I didn’t get time, everything happened so fast. And I wanted to do one more thing very much, but didn’t get a chance.”

Everyone got shocked at the last sentence and looked at him in awe and said “you mean????????”

 “No, no, not that, guys. I just ….wanted…one ….kiss…before…. marriage, that it” said Raj by swallowing half of the words and looking shy.

Sundar sarcastically said, “We meant kiss only, why? What did you think we meant?”, and winked his eyes looking at others.

Everyone smiled and Magesh said, “Well, you still have more than 24 hours, so……..”.

Raj said,”no, not now. I’m over it”.

After few more minutes of chatting, few members started to vomit and one by one everybody passed out in few minutes.

Raj woke up early in the morning and went to see the marriage arrangements. Others woke up at the next day afternoon and went to Wedding hall in the evening.  Next day morning is Raj’s marriage and tonight they had a lot of formalities. Raj was busy in all those and after dinner he had a little free time so he came to spend some time with his friends who were gathered together at one corner of the hall.

An 8 year old girl came to Raj and gave him a small piece of sheet. He opened and saw “Come to open terrace in top floor immediately” written in it. Before he asks the girl who gave it, the girl ran away. He got confused and went to terrace wondering who would have called him there at this time.

It was little cold in the terrace with a mild breeze blowing. No one seemed to be there, and then his fiancé came to the terrace.  Even after looking at her his stupid mind still wondered, “Why she called me here?” She came to him and said “I got only five minutes, and then they will start calling me”.

He thought, “Is it going to happen what I think it is?” She came near him and kissed him gently on his lips. He thought “Oh dear god, this dream should not end soon”. Once she is finished, he realized it’s not a dream.  He looked at her smiling and of course with full surprise. She said, “Ok that’s one thing you can cross off from your list.”

He asked, “List? What list?”

“What list?!?!..the one you told me about yesterday night”, she said.

“I told you? Yesterday? When?”, he asked in full surprise.

She said, “you drunkard!! You drunk so much that you don’t even remember calling me? Don’t know how many people you’ve called so far, when you get drunk. I’ll put an end to all this drinking after marriage. Ok, I have to go” and she left.

He was totally confused and checked his cell phone and yes he had called her yesterday after midnight.But he couldn't remember anything about calling her yesterday.

He kept thinking about the sentence she said, “Don’t know how many people you’ve called so far, when you get drunk.” And it made him to re-analyze this whole marriage story.

குடிகாரன் பேச்சு

ராஜ்குமார்-க்கு இன்னும் இரண்டு நாட்களில் திருமணம். இன்று அவனுக்கு அவனுடைய நண்பர்கள் ஒரு பார்ட்டி ஏற்பாடு செய்திருந்தனர். அவனுடைய காலேஜ் நண்பர்கள் அனைவரும் வந்திருந்தனர். Scotch, vodka, tequila மற்றும் beer -கள் அறைகளின் நடுவே பலகரங்களைப்போல் அடுக்கி வைக்கப்படிருந்தன. பலகாரங்களை மொய்க்கும் ஈக்களைப்போல் அனைவரும் அதனை மொய்க்க ஆயத்தமாக இருந்தனர்.

"டேய் சனியன்களா....சீக்கிரம் வந்து சபையில உக்கருங்கடா. சட்டுபுட்டுன்னு கச்சேரிய ஆரம்பிப்போம்" என்று கத்தினான் சுந்தர்.
"டேய் அவன் கடுப்பாகி bottle -அ எடுத்து எவன் மண்டையாவது உடைக்கிரதுக்குள்ள  வந்து உக்கருங்கடா" என்றான் சந்தோஷ்.

அனைவரும் சட்டென வந்து அமர்ந்தனர். இந்த மாதிரி கச்சேரிகளில் late பண்ணா சுந்தர் எவ்வளவு கடுப்பாவான்னு எல்லாருக்கும் தெரியும். முதலில் tequila சாட், பிறகு அவரவர் விருப்பம்போல் scotch , vodka என்று ஆரம்பித்தனர்.இரண்டு ரவுண்டு முடிந்து எல்லாரும் ஒருமாதிரியா செட்டில் ஆனப்புறம் பேச ஆரம்பித்தனர்.

"சரிடா ராஜ், நீ ஆரம்பி கதை சொல்ல" என்றான் மகேஷ். "என்ன கதை சொல்றது?" என்றான் ராஜ்.
"ம்ம்..காக்கா வடை திருடின கதை. நாயே உன் கல்யாண கதை தான். 'இன்னும் 2 வருஷத்துக்கு கல்யாணம் பண்ண போறது இல்ல, bachelor லைப்-அ நல்ல enjoy பண்ணிட்டு தான் கல்யாணம்'-னு சொல்லிட்டு இருந்த. இப்ப எப்பிடி திடீர்னு 4 மாசத்துல கல்யாணம் நிச்சயம் ஆச்சு?" என்றான் மகேஷ்.
"அதுவா.." என்று இழுத்துக்கொண்டே சுந்தர்-ஐ ஒரு  முரை முரைத்தான் ராஜ்.
"ஹைய்யோ!! ஹைய்யோ!!. அந்த கூத்தை ஏன் மச்சி கேக்குறீங்க" என்றான் சந்தோஷ்.
"ஏண்டா? என்னாச்சு?","ஏன்டா சுந்தர்-ஐ முரைச்சான்?","என்ன கூத்துடா?", "சொல்லுங்கடா!! சொல்லுங்கடா!!" என்று அனைவரும் ஒரே நேரத்தில் குய்யோ முய்யோ என்று கத்த ஆரம்பித்தனர்.

"அமைதி..அமைதி" என்றான் சந்தோஷ்.
"எல்லாம் ஒரு பன்னாடை பரதேசி-யால வந்ததுடா" என்று சுந்தர்-ஐ பார்த்து  முரைத்துக்கொண்டே சொன்னான் ராஜ்.
"நான் விவரமா சொல்ரேன்டா, எல்லாரும் கேளுங்க" என்றான் சந்தோஷ்.
"டேய் ராஜ் சொல்லட்டுமடா, அவன் கடுப்பாகுகிறதை பார்த்தால் ஏதோ பெருசா நடந்திருக்கும் போல" என்றான் மகேஷ்.
"வேண்டாம், நான் சொன்னா மறுபடியும் கடுப்பானாலும் ஆகிடுவேன். சந்தோஷ்-ஏ சொல்லட்டும்" என்றான் ராஜ்.

சந்தோஷ் கூறத்தொடங்கினான்:

"மூணு மாசத்துக்கு முன்னாடி ராஜ், ஒரு weekend -கு பெங்களூர்-ல இருந்து இங்க வந்து இருந்தான். வர்றதுக்கு முன்னாடியே, 'இந்த வாரம் செம சரக்கு அடிக்கணும், எல்லாம் வாங்கி வச்சிடுங்க நான் வர்றதுக்குள்ள'-னு சொல்லிருந்தான். நாங்களும் ஒரு full + half வாங்கிகிட்டு,சிக்கன்,ஆம்லேட், மிக்சிங் எல்லாம் வாங்கிட்டு வந்து ரெடி பண்ணிட்டோம். வெள்ளிகிழமை நைட் 9 மணி. அவன் உள்ள நுழைஞ்ச வுடனே cheers சொல்லி ஆரம்பிச்சுட்டோம். அப்புறம் ரவுண்டு அதிகமாக அதிகமாக வழக்கம் போல அரட்டை அடிக்க ஆரம்பிச்சோம். ராஜ் சொன்னான், 'மச்சி!! வாழ்க்கை செம போர் அடிக்குதுடா, வேலையும் அலுத்து போச்சு, ஆபீஸ்-குள்ள காலை எடுத்து வைக்கவே கடுப்ப இருக்கு. ஒவ்வொருத்தன் மூஞ்சிய பாக்கும்போதும் எரிச்சலா வருது'. 'எல்லா இடத்துலயும் அதாண்டா, நாங்க மட்டும் என்ன ஜாலியாவா இருக்கோம்' -னு சொன்னான் சுந்தர்".

"அப்புறம் அப்படி இப்படி-னு சுத்தி எங்க வருவோம்? girlfriend பத்தி தான்."
"நம்ம கூட்டத்துல தான் ஒருத்தனுக்கு அந்த புண்ணியம் இல்லையே" - என்று குரல் எழுந்தது கூடத்தில் இருந்து.
"ஆமாம், இல்லாதத பத்தி தான்", என்றான் சந்தோஷ்.
"சும்மா இருங்கட எல்லாரும். நீ continue பண்ணுடா" என்றான் மகேஷ்.
சந்தோஷ் தொடர்ந்தான்.
"அப்பறம் girlfriend இல்லன்னு ஆளாளுக்கு பீல் பண்ணின பிறகு, கல்யாணத்துக்கு  topic ஜம்ப் ஆச்சு. 'உனக்கு எப்பட கல்யாணம்?' என்று ராஜ்-ஐ பார்த்து கேட்டான் சுந்தர்.'இன்னும் 2 வருசமாவது ஆகுமடா' என்றான் ராஜ். 'டேய் உனக்கு என்னடா? அக்காவா தங்கச்சியா? அவங்களுக்காக வெயிட் பண்றதுக்கு. ஒரே பைய்யன் தான வீட்டுக்கு, சட்டு புட்டுன்னு பண வேண்டியது தான?' என்றான் சுந்தர். 'தனியா இருந்தா? சீக்கிரம் பண்றதா? 27 தாண்டா பசங்களுக்கு சரியான வயசு, 2 வருஷம் கழிச்சு பாத்துக்கலாம்' என்றான் ராஜ். 

'என்னடா நீ, 25 -ல கல்யாணம் பண்ணா 27 -ல அப்பா ஆகிடலாம்-ல, என்னைய பாரு, அக்காக்கு கல்யாணம் பண்ணிட்டு எனக்கு பண்றதுக்கு 28 -29 ஆனாலும் ஆகிடும். புள்ள குட்டி பெத்துக்குரக்குள்ள uncle ஆயிடுவேன். உனக்கு சான்ஸ் இருக்கு ஆனா use பண்ண மாட்டேங்குற' என்றான் சுந்தர். 'நீ பேசுறத பாத்தா நீ தான் பிளான்-லாம் போட்டு ரெடி-ஆ இருக்கபோல, உங்க அப்பகிட்ட வேணும்னா நான் சொல்றேன் 'உங்க பைய்யனுக்கு கல்யாண ஆசை வந்துருச்சு-னு'' - என்றான் ராஜ். 'அட சும்மா இருடா, உளறி கிளறி வைக்கபோற, எங்க அக்கா என்னை கொன்னேபுடுவா' என்றான் சுந்தர். 'உங்க அக்காகிட்ட தான் முக்கியமா சொல்ல போறேன்' என்றான் ராஜ்".

"அப்புறம் இப்படியே பேசிக்கிட்டு இருந்தவனுங்க சண்ட போடா ஆரம்பிச்சுட்டானுங்க, இவன் அவங்க அப்பாவுக்கு போன் பண்றேன்-னு நம்பர் டைப் பண்ணிட்டு கால் பண்ண போறேன்-னு அவன மிரட்ட, அவன் இவங்க அக்காவுக்கு போன் பண்ண போறேன்-னு  இவன மிரட்ட, சின்ன குழந்தைங்க மாதிரி சண்ட போடா ஆரம்பிச்சுடானுங்க, பேச்சோட நிருதுவங்கனு பாத்தா, கட்டிபுடிச்சு உருண்டு சண்ட போடா ஆரம்பிச்சுட்டானுங்க, சுந்தர் ராஜ்-ஓட சட்டைய கிழிக்க, ராஜ் சுந்தர்-ஓட லுங்கி-யா கிழிக்க, ராஜ்-ஓட செல் போன் உடைய, நான் 'எப்டியோ அடிச்சுகிட்டு சாவுங்க'-னு தூங்க போயிட்டேன். அதுக்கு அப்பறமும், கத்திக்கிட்டு இருந்தானுங்க, 'நாளைக்கு உங்க வீட்ல-ஆ சொல்லலேனா, நான் இனிமே லுன்கியே கட்டமாட்டேன்'-னு சுந்தரும், 'அப்படி சொன்னீனா லுங்கிய மட்டும் இல்ல, எத எத கிளிப்பேன்னு தெரியாது'-னு  ராஜ்-உம் மாத்தி மாத்தி, சவால் விட்டுகிட்டானுங்க, அப்புறம் எனக்கு ஒன்னும் ஞாபகம் இல்ல, நான் நல்லா தூங்கிட்டேன்" என்று முடித்தான் சந்தோஷ்.

சந்தோஷ் முடித்தவுடன், அனைவரும் ஆவலாக ஒரே நேரத்தில் கேள்வி கேட்கத் தொடங்கினர், "அப்புறம் என்ன ஆச்சு?","சுந்தர் சொன்னானா இல்லையா?","படுபாவி சுந்தர், அவங்க அப்பகிட்ட உளறிட்டியா?" என்று.
ராஜ், "ஆமாம், பன்னாடை நாய், எங்க அப்பாவிற்கு போன் பண்ணி உளறிட்டான் எனக்கு கல்யாண ஆசை வந்துடுச்சுன்னு" என்று சொன்னான். அனைவரும் தங்களது பார்வையை நக்கலாக சுந்தர்-இன் பக்கம் திருப்பினர்.

சுந்தர், "டேய், நான் வேணும்னு சொல்லலடா, நான் சொன்னதே எனக்கு நியாபகம் இல்லடா. Dialling லிஸ்ட்-ல நம்பர் இருந்ததால தான் நான் பண்ணி இருப்பேன்னு தோனுச்சு " என்றான்.

ராஜ், "பாரேன், இன்னும் ஒத்துக்க மாட்டேங்கிறான்" என்று கோபமாக கூறினான்.
சுந்தர், "டேய், நான் தான் ஒத்துகிட்டேனே, நான் பண்ணிருப்பேன், ஆனா சத்தியமா எனக்கு எதுவும் ஞாபகம் இல்ல, அன்னிக்கு செம மப்பு, நீ என் லுங்கிய கிளிச்சப்புறம் எனக்கு எதுவுமே நியாபகம் இல்ல" என்றான்,
சந்தோஷ், "அடப்பாவி!! அவனோட அப்பகிட்ட சொல்லலைனா இனிமே வாழ்கையில் லுங்கியே கட்ட மாட்டேன்-னு சபதம் செஞ்சது கூடவா நியாபகம் இல்ல?" என்று கேட்டான். "இல்லடா, அது கூட நியாபகம் இல்ல" என்றான் சுந்தர்.
"இவன்தான் நியாபகமே இல்ல-னு சொல்றானே, அப்புறம் இவன் சொன்னான்-னு எப்படி கண்டு புடிச்சீங்க?" என்று கேட்டான் மகேஷ்.

அதற்கு ராஜ், "அப்போ எனக்கும் எதுவும் தெரியல, அதற்கு அடுத்த சனி, ஞாயிறு எங்க வீட்டுக்கு போயிருந்தேன். அப்போ, அப்பா அம்மா ரெண்டு பேர் பேச்சுமே ஒரு மார்க்கமா இருந்துச்சு, ஏதோ பொடி வச்சி பேசுற மாதிரி. ஒரு நாள் மதியம், '2 மணி ஆச்சு, இன்னும் சாப்பாடு ரெடி ஆகலையா?'-னு சும்மா தான் கேட்டேன். அதுக்கு எங்க அம்மா, 'உனக்கு எப்ப எது சீக்கிரம் வேணும்னு யாருக்கு தெரியும்? நாங்க என்ன வெத்தலையில் மை போட்ட பாக்க முடியும்?'-நாங்க. எனக்கு ஒன்னுமே விளங்கல. அப்பா என்னடானா, 'உன் friends யார் யாருக்கு கல்யாணம் ஆச்சு? அவங்களுக்கு என்ன வயசு?'-னு கேக்க ஆரம்பிச்சுட்டார். இதெல்லாம் பரவால்ல, உங்களுக்கே தெர்யும் எங்க அப்பா எப்படின்னு, அவர் வங்கி கொடுத்த பேனா-வ புடிக்கலன்னு சொன்னாலே 'என் பைய்யனுக்கு என்ன பிடிக்கும்னு நமக்கு தெர்லயே, நாம எல்லாம் ஒரு நல்ல அப்பாவா?'-னு feel பண்ண ஆரம்பிச்சுடுவார். அதுக்குன்னே, அவர்கிட்ட நானா எதுவும் கேட்டது கிடையாது, அவர் என்ன சொன்னாலும், மண்டைய ஆட்டிடுவேன். அவர் அன்னிக்கி, ஏதோ 'நீயா? நானா?' பாத்துகிட்டு இருக்கும்போது, 'இப்பெல்லாம் பசங்கள பத்தி, parents -கு தெரியரதவிட, friends -கு தான் அதிகமா தெர்யும் போல, ஏன் கண்ணு? அப்படிதானே?'-னார். இதையே வேற யாராவது சொல்லி இருந்த அது ஒன்னும் பெருசு இல்ல, ஆனா எங்க அப்பா சொல்றார்-னா ஏதோ நடந்திருக்கு-னு தான அர்த்தம்?. அப்புறம் திடீர்னு 'பொண்ணு பாத்து இருக்கோம்'-நு சொன்னங்க. அப்ப தான் எனக்கு சந்தேகம் வந்துச்சு. சுந்தர் கூட ஒரு வாரம் முன்னாடி சரக்கு அடிச்சுட்டு சும்மா சண்ட போட்டது நியாபகம் வந்துச்சு. அவன்கிட்ட முதல்-அ நான் எதுவும் கேக்கல. சந்தோஷ்-கு போன் பண்ணி 'சுந்தர்-கு தெரியாம அவன் cell -ல் நாங்க தண்ணி அடிச்சா அன்னிக்கு எங்க அப்பாவுக்கு போன் பண்ணிருக்கான-னு டைல்லிங் லிஸ்ட்-அ பாக்க சொன்னேன். நாங்க சந்தேக பட்ட மாதிரியே, அன்னிக்கு கால் பண்ணிருக்கான் எங்க அப்பாவுக்கு, நாங்க தூங்கினதுக்கு அப்புறம். ஆனா பேசினதே நியாபகம் இல்லைங்கறான்." என்றான்.

மகேஷ்,"அப்புறம், உங்க அப்பகிட்ட இத பத்தி நேர்ல கேட்டியா?" என்றான்.
ராஜ், "நான் தண்ணி அடிக்கிற விஷயமே எங்க அப்பாக்கு தெர்யாது, அவர்கிட்ட போயி, 'என் friend ஒருத்தன் மப்புல உளறினானா?'-னு கேக்க சொல்றியா?. அதனால நான் எதுவும் கேட்கல. இப்ப அது கல்யாணத்துல வந்து நிக்குது", என்றான்.
சுந்தர், "சரி, என்ன இப்ப? எல்லாம் நல்ல விஷயத்துல தான முடிஞ்சிருக்கு, 'நாரதர் கழகம் நன்மையில் முடியும்'-ங்கற மாதிரி." என்று கூறி விட்டு நாரதர் போல, "நாராயண!! நாராயண!!" என்று நாரதர் போல நக்கலாக செய்து காட்டி சிரித்தான்.
மற்றவர்களும்,"சரி விடுடா, நாங்க மட்டும் என்ன bachelor லைப்-அ என்ஜாய் பண்ணிட்டா இருக்கோம்?, எல்லார் பொழப்பும் நாறிட்டு தான் இருக்கு, அதுக்கு கல்யாணம் பண்றது எவ்வளவோ மேல், அதனால பீல் பண்ணாதே" என்று ராஜ்-கு ஆறுதல் கூறினர்.

சுந்தர்,"இதுல பீல் பண்ண என்ன இருக்கு? பொண்ணு நல்ல figure -ஆ தன அமைஞ்சு இருக்கு?" என்று கூற, அனைவரும் சுந்தரை பார்த்து முரைத்தனர். ராஜ், கிட்டதிட்ட, பாட்டில்-ஐ கையில் எடுத்து விட்டான். பிறகு சுந்தர் சுதாரித்துக்கொண்டு, "சாரி சாரி, எங்க அண்ணிக்கு என்ன குறைச்சல்-ங்கறத தான் நான் அப்படி கேட்டுட்டேன், உண்மையா சொல்லனும்னா, ராஜ், உன் range -கு எங்க அண்ணி கொஞ்சம் டூ மச் தான்" என்றான்.
மகேஷ்,"டேய், பொண்ணுகிட்ட, நல்லா பேசி பலகிட்டியா? இல்ல மத்த பொண்ணுங்க கிட்ட பேசுற மாதிரி 'Hi , hello , thanks ' மட்டும் தானா?" என்று கேட்டான். ராஜ்,"ம்ம்..அதெல்லாம் நல்லவே பேசுறேன், ஆரம்பத்துல ஒன்னுமே பேச மாட்டேன், அவளா 'என்ன ஒன்னும் பேச மாட்டேங்கற, அதை பத்தி சொல்லு, இதை பத்தி சொல்லு'-னு கேட்டுட்டே இருந்தா..அப்புறமா தான் கொஞ்சம் பேச ஆரம்பிச்சேன். அப்புறம் அப்டியே பழகிடுச்சு" என்றான்.
மேலும், "இருந்தாலும் சில விஷயங்கள், நான் நிறைய கனவு கண்டு வெச்சிருந்தேன், அதெல்லாம் தான் நடக்கல" என்றான். "என்ன?" என்று அனைவரும் chorus -ஆக கேட்டனர்.

ராஜ்,"நாம தான் படிச்சா காலத்துலேயே எந்த போன்னுகிட்டையும் பேசினதோ பழகினதோ கிடையாதே, அதனால கொஞ்சம் கல்யாணத்துக்கு முன்னாடி நல்லா சேந்து ஊர் சுத்தணும்னு நினச்சேன், ஆனா டைம் கிடைக்கல" என்றான்.
மகேஷ்," யு மீன் டேடிங்?" என்று கேட்டான். "கிட்டதிட்ட" என்றான் ராஜ்.
ராஜ் மேலும்,"அதை விட முக்கியமா ஒன்னு நினைத்து இருந்தேன், அதை செய்ய முடியல" என்றான்.
அனைவரும் அதிர்ச்சியில் glass -ஐ கீழே வைத்து விட்டு, "யு மீன்.......?????" என்று இழுத்தனர்.
ராஜ்,"அட அது இல்லடா, ஒரே ஒரு முத்தம், ம்ம் .........கல்யாணத்துக்கு முன்னாடி...ம்ம் ம்ம்ம் ........நினச்சி இருந்தேன், அது முடியாம போய்டுச்சி" என்று பாதி வார்த்தைகளை முழுங்கி பாதி வார்த்தைகளில் அசடு வலிந்து கொண்டே அஷ்ட கோணலாய் முகத்தை வைத்துக்கொண்டு பதில் அளித்தான். 

சுந்தர், "நாங்க முத்தத்தைப் பத்தி தான் கேட்டோம், நீ என்னனு நினச்ச?" என்று நக்கலாக கேட்டு விட்டு, மற்றவர்களுக்கு கண்ணாலே சமிஞ்சை செய்து சிரித்தான். 

மகேஷ், "இன்னும் 24 மணி நேரத்துக்கு மேலே டைம் இருக்குடா, சோ இன்னும் சான்ஸ் இருக்கு' என்றான். 

ராஜ், "மூணு மாசத்துல நடக்காதது இனிமே நடக்கப்போகுதா? i'm over it" என்றான்.  பிறகு சிறிது நேரம் மேலும் ஒருவரை ஒருவர் கலாய்த்துக்கொண்டு இருந்தனர். சற்று நேரம் கழித்து, நித்ராதேவி ஒவ்வொருவராக அனைவரையும் ஆட்கொண்டாள்.

அடுத்த நாள், ராஜ் காலையிலே எழுந்து கல்யாண வேலைகளை பார்க்க சென்றான். மற்றவர்கள் அடுத்த நாள் மாலைதான் எழுந்தனர். எழுந்தவுடன் நேராக கல்யாண மண்டபத்திற்குச்சென்றனர். மண்டபத்தின் நுளைவாயிழில், ராஜ்-இன் பெற்றோர்கள் அனைவரையும் வரவேற்றுக்கொண்டு இருந்தனர். சுந்தர், அவர்கள் முகத்தில் எப்படி முழிப்பது என்று தெரியாமல் மகேஷ் மற்றும் மற்றவர்களின் பின்னல் ஒளிந்து கொண்டு சென்று கொண்டிருந்தான். அனால் ராஜ்-இன் பெற்றோரோ, அவனை வழக்கம் போலவே வரவேற்று உள்ளே அனுப்பினர். 

மறுநாள் விடியற்காலை ராஜ்-இன் திருமணம், இன்று இரவு நிச்சயதார்த்தம், நலுங்கு என்று ஏகப்பட்ட சடங்குகள், சம்பிரதாயங்கள். அவன் மிகவும் busy -ஆக இருந்தான். இரவு விருந்துக்கு பிறகு சிறுது ஓய்வு கிடைத்தது அவனுக்கு. அந்த நேரத்தை தன நண்பர்களுடன் கழிக்க அவனுடைய நண்பர்கள் அமர்ந்த இடத்திற்கு வந்து அவர்களுடன் பேசிக்கொண்டிருந்தான். அப்பொழுது, மனபெண்ணின் உறவினர் மகள் ஒருவள், சுமார் 7 -8 வயது நிறைந்த ஒரு பெண் குழந்தை அவனிடம் வந்து ஒரு துண்டு சீட்டை கொடுத்தது. அவன் அதை பிரித்து பார்த்தான். "மொட்டை மாடிக்கு உடனே வரவும்" என்று எழுதி இருந்தது. யார் கொடுத்தார்கள் என்று கேட்பதற்குள் அந்த குழந்தை ஓடி விட்டது. ராஜ், ஒன்றும் புரியாமல் விழித்துக்கொண்டிருந்தான் சில நேரம். பிறகு மண்டபத்தின் மொட்டை மாடியை நோக்கிச்சென்றான்.

மொட்டைமாடியில் சில்லென்று காற்று வீசிக்கொண்டிருந்தது. யாரும் அங்கு இருப்பது போல் தெரியவில்லை.சுற்றும் முற்றும் பார்த்தான், ஒரு மூலையில் அவனது வருங்கால மனைவி நின்று கொண்டிருந்தாள். அவள் அருகில் சென்றான். அவள்தான் வரசொல்லி இருக்கிறாள் என்று அவளை பார்த்ததுமே விளங்கியது அவனுக்கு. அனால் எதற்து என்பது தான் அவனது மரமண்டைக்கு உரைக்கவில்லை.அவள் அருகில் சென்றான், அவள் சிறிய புன்னகையுடன் அவனை பார்த்தாள். அவன் எதுவும் கேட்பதற்கு முன்னாள், அவள், "5 நிமிஷம்தான் இருக்கு, அப்புறம் என்னை கூப்பிட ஆரம்பிச்சுடுவாங்க" என்றாள். ராஜ், இன்னும் எதுவும் விளங்காமல் திரு திரு என்று விழித்துக்கொண்டு இருந்தான். அவள் அவனருகில் வந்து அவனை முத்தமிட்டாள். அவன் "ஆகா!! இந்த கனவு சீக்கிரம் களைந்துவிட கூடாது" என்று மனதில் நினைத்துக்கொண்டான். அவள் முத்தமிட்டு முடித்த பிறகுதான் இது கனவல்ல நிஜம்தான் என்று அவனுக்கு விளங்கியது. பிறகு அவள், "சரி, உன் லிஸ்ட்-ல் இருந்து இந்த ஒரு விஷயத்தை நீ அளிசுடலாம்" என்றாள்.
"லிஸ்ட்-ஆ? என்ன லிஸ்ட்?" என்று கேட்டான்.

"அடப்பாவி, நேத்து தண்ணி அடிச்சுட்டு நைட் போன் பண்ணி உளறினது எல்லாம் மறந்துடுச்சா? அந்த அளவுக்கு தண்ணி அடிச்சு இருக்க..இது மாதிரி யார் யார்க்கிட்டஎல்லாம் மப்புல உளறி இருக்கியோ தெரியல.ம்ம்... சரி அது தான் கடைசி தடவை, இனிமே நான் allow பண்ணா தான் தண்ணி எல்லாம், அதுவும் லிமிட்-ஆ தான் புரியுதா?" என்றாள். "மேடம் சொன்னா சரிதான்" என்று அசடு வழிந்து கொண்டே சொன்னான். அவள், "சரி நான் போகணும்,கீழே தேடுவாங்க" என்று கூறிவிட்டு மீண்டும் அவன் கன்னத்தில் மிருதுவாக முத்தமிட்டு துள்ளி ஓடினாள்.

ராஜ்,"லிஸ்ட்-ங்கறா, நேத்து நைட் போன் பண்ணேன்-ங்கறா, ஒரு எழவும் புரியலையே" என்று யோசித்துகொண்டிருந்தான். பிறகு தன செல் போன்-ஐ எடுத்து dialling லிஸ்ட்-ஐ பார்த்தான். ஆமாம், நேற்று இரவு 2 மணிக்கு கால் செய்து இருக்கிறான். அவன் எவ்வளவோ முயற்சி செய்து பார்த்தான், அனால் அவன் பேசியதாக அவன் நியாபகத்திற்கு வரவே இல்லை. அவள் " இது மாதிரி யார் யார்க்கிட்டஎல்லாம் மப்புல உளறி இருக்கியோ தெரியல " என்று கூறியது அவனை அவனுடைய கல்யாண கதையை மீண்டும்  ஆராயத்தூண்டியது.

Why / Why Not

Cell phone was ringing. He took the cell and saw the number. It was from India and it’s his close friend. He disconnected the call and called him back from his cell.

Friend: Hi da. How are you?

He: ya. I’m ok.

Friend: What man? Just ok?. You’re in USA. Enjoy, its your turn. Don’t waste your chance.

He: What ‘enjoy’?  I’m all alone here; no one is there even to talk to. I’m sitting alone in office all day. In room also same. Room is more boring than office. Especially weekends are like hell. If I close the door on Friday evening, I’ll open on Monday morning only.

Friend: What will you do on weekends? Just movies huh?

He: What else then? Drinks, sleep and movies. That’s it. I’m drinking half bottle alone.

Friend:  We all miss you mostly having drinks. No one to take leadership in teasing others. Either they go to sleep immediately or vomit after drinking. Missing all the fun and you, very badly.

He: I want to come to India asap. I don’t want to stay here for long.

Friend:  Everybody says this in the initial days. Then they will get green card, then citizenship and gets settled there itself.

He: No no. I guarantee you I won’t do that. Whatever happens I’ll come back after sometime for sure. But you’re right. Most people wants to settle here after staying here for couple of years. Main thing is they don’t to see pay slips in thousands after they saw it in lakhs. And life here is easy and sophisticated. Everything is automatic. I’m feeling too jealous that these people live a much sophisticated life compared to our people. Standard of living is thousand times good here. Our angry on corruption and politicians grows much more after seeing how government maintains everything here. You should see the traffic here, everybody follows rules and every vehicle goes smoothly. It’s like pre-programmed video game, no one makes mistakes. You know, one day I was asking lift to cars outside my office as I was getting late for my doctor’s appointment. I didn’t know that hitchhiking is not normal here. For 5 minutes no one stopped, and then I found some cab number and called them and was waiting for them.  All these things happen in 5 minutes. A police car came and the cop asked me for some identification and informed that hitchhiking is not usually followed here. Someone had called 911 and police came in 5 minutes to check. In our place even if an accident happens, ambulance itself comes to take only the dead bodies. And you should see the internet speed dude. A movie gets downloaded in 20 mins. Internet connection in my room is faster than our India’s office Internet.

Friend: So everything is so good there. Why do you want to come back then?

He: Yeah everything is good here. But still this is not my place dude. I don’t belong here. I miss many things. My mom’s cooking; fighting with my sister; college friend’s get-together; chatting in colleague’s cubicle; those long chats during lunch and snacks times; getting newspaper outside the door and turning it to sports section; fan sound over my head while sleeping; tea shop in the street corner; and more and more. And I miss speaking in our regional language. One second, bear with me. Close your ears if you want.

Friend: what? Why?

He: !@#$%!#%(@%$&@%$@%$@%$&@%$@%$@^$*^$&@%^$@^............................................................................................                                                                                                                                                   (badwords in his regional language)

Friend:  oh oh…stop it. What happen? Why are suddenly scolding me?

He: Nothing. Those words are the ones I miss speaking most. So just spoke once.

Friend: Hahahahaa…………………

He: Really dude, in few days I might forgot my language. And people who have kids here, their kids don’t know their regional languages. They speak English and Spanish fluently. But they don’t know their regional language. Even if you speak in regional language they reply in English only. That’s one thing why I don’t want to settle here. I don’t want to speak to my kids in English, I’m having hard time speaking English to clients itself.

Friend:  Ok ok. Just earn some money and get back here soon. I have to drop off.

He: Ok then, see you later.

Friend:  I had good time pass listening to your blabbering.

He: Yeah I listened to you some days back, it’s your turn now. Bye.

Friend: Bye. Take care.

He disconnected the call and keep staring the phone for few seconds.

“Oh God!! I want to go back to India soon…………….”.

Few minutes later:

Cell phone was ringing. He took the cell and saw the number. It was from India and it’s his India’s office number. He attended and said ‘Hello’.

Otherside: Hello.  Are you busy? I want to discuss something Important.

When ‘Hello’ not followed by ‘How are you?’ itself, he realized it’s his Manager.

He: No. Tell me. I’m free only.

Manager:  You filled your attendance?

He: Hmmmmmmmmmmm……..no not yet.

Manager: Does every time someone needs to remind you? You’re getting mails right?

He: Yeah…I saw the mail. I’ll fill now.

Manager: Why didn’t you attend the meeting we had before one hour?

He: Meeting?????.......which one?

Manager: Which one? You’re checking your calendar or not? What will you do when you get a meeting request?

He: I’ll check it and hmm…….

Manager:  You don’t accept the request?

He: hmmmmmmmmmm………………not much

Manager: you should accept right? How others will know that you’ll attend or not?

He: Yeahhhhhhhhhh..i’ll accept hereafter

Manager: And join the meetings 5 mins before.

He: yeah sure

Manager: You’re experienced now. You should follow these professional ethics.

He: Yeah yeah sure sure I’ll

Manager: I hate to say this again and again.

He: I won’t repeat these mistakes. I’m sure

Manager: Ok. Be careful with clients, don’t let any escalation happen

He: Yeah..

Manager: Ok. Bye.

He: Bye

He disconnected the call and keep staring the phone for few minutes.

“Oh God!! I don’t want to go back to India ever again………..Never”.

hIgh school hIstory

Sentenced for two years:

Before Independence, British used to send the India’s freedom fighter’s to the cruel Cellular jail of Andaman and Nicobar islands. During Civil war, America used to send the civil war prisoners to Military prison in Alcatraz Island. During our higher secondary education, our parents sent us to XXXX Higher Secondary school.

First day:

Outside the Office room, in notice board it was mentioned that our classes have been formed based on our tenth marks sorted in the descending order. For my marks I’ve been put on A2. Classes range from A1 to A17-Biology, B1 to B6-CS and C1 to C3-Commerce. 50 students per class, calculate the total number of students in 11^th standard.  Approximately same amount in 12^th and there was Improvement and Pure Entrance also. Totally around 5000 patients, sorry! Sorry! Students. Me and my Dad looked up the building from the ground in awe; my Dad in proud that his son is going to study in such a big school and me in fear that how I’m going to comp(l)ete two years here. My Dad gave me the last words of advice and left, me on the entrance of the building and the pressure (of becoming a doctor) on top of my head.

I entered my class. One Gents teacher was sitting in the chair in the front. Some students (only boys) were sitting in the last 3 benches on both right and left sides. First three benches in both sides were empty. I wondered why no one was sitting in the front benches as all the students in this class had got around 85 % marks in 10^th standard and no one interested to sit before. And there was a huge space between 3^rd and 4^th benches, so much that one more table and bench can fit in. Then I registered the name to that teacher and went to the 4^th bench and sat. One by one students came to the class and all were boys and were sitting in the last 3 benches. I was getting disappointed as there was no girl still in the class. Then I eavesdropped from the students sitting behind me and found out that the first three benches on each side were allotted to girls and that’s why there was a huge space between 3^rd and 4^th benches. So, technically I was sitting in front bench as usual, at least among the boys. Teacher, after confirming that all the boys in the register entered the class, went outside and signaled a bunch of girls who were standing outside in the portico. All those girls entered the class and filled the front benches and some gap in our hearts.

You could wonder what all the girls were doing outside in portico. That’s the rule there. Girls cannot be present inside the class unless a teacher is present inside the class. So they will come and wait outside in portico and when the teacher comes he will signal them to come to the class. Once the class gets over, girls will leave the class 1^st, then the teacher and at last only boys should leave. And obviously boys and girls are not allowed to talk to each other ever . Once I heard this rule from the teacher , the 3^rd bench looked far far away from me and it remained far for the rest of the two years. We didn’t get a chance to look at any girl face to face for two years though they were there always before us. In some ways that helped, we saw some girl’s face in only some particular angle and imagined that she’ll be beautiful.

First day there was no class, so the supervising teacher asked us to read some books. And oh boy!, you’ll never see anywhere students studying so sincerely in the 1^st day itself. Everyone started studying some subjects (mostly biology) like tomorrow is our public exam. Some students directly went to second chapter. I got freaked out and scolding myself for not listening to my father’s advice (to study 1^st chapter in all subjects in holiday itself).

Lunch time came and we all went to Mess in line. And FYI, the line contains all 11^th standard boys. There was two Mess, you could call it as twin mess. Both looked exactly same. If you’re wondering they built two buildings in exactly the same shape and structure, then stop it. There was nothing to build there; it was two big rooms of same size, with four walls and a sheet on top. We have to sit in the floor only. Foods were served in some cart with four small wheels, which workers used to push it in the floor and serve us. 1^st cart came with rice, and the person served it with a plate to our plate. Next came the sambhar cart, which is served in a mug, the exact same mug we used in our bathroom for taking bath in our village. Then rasam, then butter milk. For first day the food didn’t taste bad at all.  

Then again class and continued the study till evening. Then comes the hostel, which is just beside our classroom building. Every class is offered one room which is 20-25 members in one room. The room size is as same as our classroom. Each student is offered two shelves to keep our luggage and a place enough to sleep. We got introduced ourselves between the boys (Which is in the order: Name, place coming from, 10^th marks, Favourite medical college to join). Discussed about medical colleges in first day of high school!! Isn’t that too much?? Well not for us then. Really, some students were saying they didn’t want to join any college in Chennai as ragging will be more there. Even if someone had discussed about which hospital to join after finishing MBBS degree, that wouldn’t have been too surprising.

The student next to me said that we were lucky. I asked why. He said, pointing towards a building few blocks away “you see that building there? The one without any windows? That is girls hostel. There is not a single window in that whole building. We at least got a window, isn’t it?”.

I replied, “oh no window in the girls hostel building? I think that’s bad news for us too”.

He laughed and we were talking for some time and decided to go to snack bar. Yeah we had a snack bar inside which contains only 3 items most of the time. They are Parle-G, Sweet bun and samosa, three rupees each. Shaktimaan might not have saved people in real life, but the three rupees Parle-G saved ours for two years. Then we again had study hours in hostel and dinner , then went to bed at 10 PM. New place, so didn’t get sleep soon. I kept talking with that friend and we kept alarm at 6 am and promised each other that whoever wakes up first will wake up the other. Then slowly I slept, lot of thoughts running in my mind, dreams about getting a medical seat, state 1^st etc etc. 

After few hours I woke up before the alarm rings. I saw my wristwatch and it is 6 am, I thought my alarm was not working properly. My friend also woke up and asked me the time. I said 6 AM and we decided to go to bathroom. We took our buckets, mug, soap etc and started walking towards bathroom. After seeing us others in the room also started getting up. And if I hadn’t said earlier, there are no separate bathrooms there, we need to take bath in the open bathroom among others like buffalos.  Only we two were there in the bathroom and we were kind of proud that we woke up early before others. But to our disappointment water didn’t come in any tap there. We didn’t know what to do. He said there is one more bathroom nearby and water might come there. So we started walking towards there. A worker came before us and asked us where we’re headed to. We said that water didn’t come in the bathroom. He looked at us from top to bottom and said “Are you guys crazy? Its 12:45 AM, go to sleep for god’s sake”. I must have looked at my watch upside down. We got embarrassed and slowly walked towards our room. All our roommates were waiting for us and once we entered, all started laughing and teasing us.

--This is just the 1^st day. Lot of interesting characters and incidents are on the way.


Links to all hIgh school hIstory blogs:
Episode 7
Episode 6
Episode 5
Episode 4
Episode 3
Episode 2
Episode 1

My US Travel Experience - 2

I disconnected the call and stood up and looked at her confusingly. She again said “Rajan, could you come with me for few minutes, just some formalities”. And she started walking and I followed her and I asked her “What madam? Any problem?” She again said “No no don’t panic, it’s just a formality,” and she entered into a room which is mentioned STAFF ONLY. I hesitated for a second and she said “Come sir, I’ll take you back in the same way, don’t worry”. Then she entered from one room to another, then one lift, and we went 2 floors downstairs and reached the basement. There one police men was sitting and she asked to give the hand baggage to him, then he tore off the tags in the baggage which had the security check seal. Then he asked for my Boarding pass and crossed off the security check seal in that too.  My heart started beating very fast. “What’s going on here? Why they are tearing the security check seals? What kind of formality is this?”. 

Then the police man searched my hand baggage and hand it over that lady. She said “We’ll keep this in my room for a while; we’ll take it while returning back”. Then she kept the bag in her room. I just took my passport holder with me. Again I asked “Madam, what is going on? I’m scared, where we’re going?” she said something like luggage needs to be checked again and some problem like that. I didn’t understand anything properly, she was saying mostly in Hindi. Then we went inside a room which looked like some industry. All containers were kept there. She said “Here’s where we keep all the containers which have the entire luggage, we’ll connect it to the appropriate flight. No one is allowed here, you’re probably lucky”.  “Lucky??.....Lucky???????????................you *****. Its almost 7 PM now. I have to board a flight to US in 1 hr and you’re scaring the hell out of me by bringing here and I have no clue what’s going on and you’re saying   I’m lucky???”.

Then we went inside a small room where there was only one security guy sitting and one baggage screener was also there. She asked me to wait in the room and went somewhere; I was just standing in the room with my legs shaking. Then another police man came inside. While coming itself he was shouting “who are you? What is your name?” (In Hindi). I said “My…name ..Elavarasan”. He asked “Madarasi??”.

“Yeah ..yeah madarasi”.

“Enku tamil theryum”( I know tamil).

“oh..that’s great” I smiled without smiling.

“engu pora??”(where are you going?)

“hmm..to US..America”.

He seems not a tamilian, he just spoke broken Tamil. The way he asked the questions, it seems he was trying to make me relax and not scare too much.

Then the lady came and said that she asked them to bring my luggage. She told me that my luggage needs to be checked again. Then some people brought my 2 big bags and it was fully wrapped. The police took a knife and tore the wrap and opened the bags and threw everything outside the bag. The lady said “oh me must have spent 400 rupees for wrapping that and everything is getting wasted”. “400 rupees?? Yeah that is the Important thing I need to worry about here” .I had some homemade powders like Rasam, chilli, Idli powders etc. After seeing those, his tone totally changed. He shouted “what are all these? What powders are these?”. I started shivering and said in shaky voice “Those are for cooking, rasam, chilli powders, home made”. Then after seeing that I got afraid he again turned back to normal, trying to speak in tamil to relax me. For few minutes it was like watching Anniyan (Aparichit) movie climax. One second he is shouting in Hindi next second he is politely talking in tamil. “God, I don’t even want to go to US, just get me out of this room”.

Then finally all my things are outside my bags, and time is now 7:20 PM. I stuffed everything back in the bags and the lady also helped me. It took almost 3 hours for me and my roommate to finish the packing in the morning.  Now we did it in 3 minutes. Then she tore the luggage tag and pasted a new tag in the two bags. Then only I came to understand that they did something wrong in the system while tagging my luggage. And if they didn’t fix it, it would get transfer to different flight in Delhi. So when they’re doing the tagging again after it went to the container, they needed to do it before the police officials and luggage needed to be checked again.

Then they took the luggage back to the container and the lady took me back into the airport. We went to her room and picked by hand baggage and went to the security check again. I had my jacket in one hand, passport holder in one hand and bag in the shoulder and we both were running. Once reached the security checkpoint, they asked me to open the bag and I took everything outside. The lady said “let me help, give your jackets, passport holders etc. So I gave all the things in my hand to her and finished the security check and we finally reached the gate. Time was 7:40 PM. And there was a big queue standing. She gave all the things back to me and told the security that I was taken for some formalities and so need to be allowed before others. So the security allowed me to go inside before others in the queue. While leaving, the lady said “sorry for the inconvenience sir and thanks for the co-operation and have a safe journey”.

I went inside the flight and was still in confusion and I started to feel something is missing. Then I started checking everything again and I found that my cell phone is missing. I gave to that lady during security check along with Jacket, passport holder. I forgot to get it back. I got freaked and said to a airhostess “I need to go out immediately”. She asked worryingly “What sir? Why? What happened?”.  I said “I missed my cell phone outside with one lady”. Then she said “Ok no problem, go and get it”. Then I came to the door and told one office that I want to go outside. He also asked in the same tone “Why sir? What happened”. I started blabbering “one lady, took me for checking, my cell phone.. with her, I have to go..please please”. He said “Ok sir, go” and he asked one security to go with me inside the airport. Then me and that security guy started running inside the airport and that lady is running towards us with the cell phone. She laughed and said “Oh sir!! Really really sorry sir”. I didn’t know how to react, to get angry? Or to say thanks?. I just gave a weird smile and came back to plane.

Finally I sat in my seat and felt little relaxed.  It started to rain outside and they announce that it’ll take some time for the plane to take off. I took one of my novels and started reading it. I didn’t even finish one page, I felt someone touching my shoulder. I looked up and it is that policeman who checked my luggage. There are no words to explain how I felt that time. He asked “Give me your passport, quick, give me”.  I gave him my passport and he noted down something from it and gave it back. Then he asked “You got your cell phone right?”. I shook my head symbolizing yes. Then he said “Ok happy journey and thanks for the co-operation”. It took few minutes for me to come back to feel normal. “God, till the plane lands in US, there are no guarantees that I’ll reach there”. And I was still worrying whether my luggage will tag in the flight correctly in Delhi or not.

The flight took off at 8:30 and reached Delhi at 10:45. **CHECKING**  The Delhi airport itself looked too good compared to Mumbai and Chennai airport. I was wondering how US airports will be. Then I boarded on flight to US at 1 AM with lot of excitement and fear. The journey time went mostly in movies in between meals.  Yeah they gave the meal like almost every 2 hours, and every time it was getting worse. It was like a warning to get used to US food. Two hours before reaching Chicago, they gave all the forms such as customs, Immigration check etc. And it landed at around 7:15 AM CDT on Chicago. “God I couldn’t believe I’m really in US”.

**CHECKING**

I arranged all the documents that they might ask in the Immigrations check. I was preparing answers for all questions which my teammates told me that they might ask me in the Immigration. I got nervous when I came here the counter. But they didn’t ask me anything; they just stamped the I-94 and sent. Then I was waiting for my luggage and found it when I almost decided that it got lost in Delhi. Then I came out and “wow..am I really in US? I couldn’t believe it” took a train to the domestic airport.

**CHECKING**

I got the boarding pass and searching for my Gate. The gate number is G10. It was upto G 13 ot 14 and almost in all letters. “A1-14,B1-14,…how many gates are here? This is US..hmm..i couldn’t believe it”. I asked some people and found a way to reach my gate G10. Then I reached the Gate G10. Nobody was there in the gate, of course it was too early and I had more than 3 hours layover time. I had to call my teammates in Chicago and I needed quarters to call them from a payphone. So I decided to have a cold drink to get the change and went to a restaurant near by my gate. I was looking at the menu card. “Cool drinks?..I’m in US..lets start with a beer”. So I ordered a beer, the waitress looked at me up and down and asked “may I see some id please?”. “Is it not good to ask for beer at this early morning?”. Then I showed my passport, and then she went to get a beer.  An old couple who was sitting nearby me laughed at me and said “don’t worry you’ll get used to here”. And the beer came. I told cheers to myself and had my first drink in US.

**CHECKING**

I went to payphone and tried to call my teammates, but I didn’t know how to use that phone. I asked some guy who also tried to call there, but no use. Then I asked him the local time and set my watch to the local time to catch the plane on right time. Anyway I was nearby my gate only, so I’m not worried about missing the flight. There were PC’s with Internet connections, and I update the status in Facebook that I reached Chicago. ”In Mumbai/Chennai airports only 2 or 3 laptops will be there for internet and that also won’t work properly or some keys would be missing in the keyboards. Here how fast it is!!!..God, I couldn’t believe I’m in US”.

**CHECKING**

I was roaming here and there around my Gate trying to make me believe that I’m in US. It was like in exhibition. Everything looked clean, sophisticated and luxurious. Then I went to one more restaurant and ordered a coke and took my diary and noted all the incidents happened in Mumbai airport to write in blog later. While drinking coke, I was looking at the menu board in that restaurant. “Muffins,doughnuts,bagels,trifles…ahh!! All names we heard in the F.R.I.E.N.D.S show or some English movie. Look at the peoples here, they are really white. I can’t believe I’m really in US”. I was wondering each and every second and it was like I was watching English movies for long time and suddenly I’m in the movie. Then I again went to the payphone and this time I succeeded in calling my teammates and informed them I reached. Then again some Facebook in the superfast internet and some **CHECKING** and some Oh-god-couldn’t-believe-I’m-in-US stuff. 

But every time ten minutes I was going to the gate and checking that the flight is not started yet and was checking time also constantly. Then the time reached 10:45 AM. Alarm rang in my brain. Very few people were there in the gate though just 45 minutes are there for flight to take off. I asked one old man in the gate, “flight to Philadelphia is from this Gate right?”. He replied “no, this is for Florida”. I showed him by boarding pass and the Gate G10 mentioned in that. He saw that and said “Yeah it’s right, this is G10, but don’t know about this flight, wait…this flight was at 11:30, now its 11:45. You have missed your flight”.  

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttt?????????????????..............................”

I saw my watch, it showed 10:45. “Oh my god, I must have set the timing wrong”. He said “you better go and contact some officials here.”. I didn’t know where to go, I got panicked and I went to one person in green uniform and said “Sir, I missed the flight, but I’m in gate the entire time sir”. He checked in the system and said “That flight has been changed to Gate H11, but you have missed it, it’s past 11:30. You better go there and ask”.

I started running to the gate H11 and at the same time lot of thoughts started running in my mind. “Will I get another flight? By any chance this flight would have got delayed? For next flight ticket, the money I’m having is enough? Can I use my traveller’s cheque to buy ticket? Can I stay tonight here in Chicago with teammates and go to Philadelphia tomorrow? OMG my luggage already went in that flight, can I get that back if I go delay? Why am I this irresponsible? Super fast internet?  beer in the morning? Yeah I know something like this will happen”.

I reached Gate H11 and as I was running fast I was breathing heavily. I showed the guy in the gate my boarding pass and said “huh..huh..huh…I.. huh huh missed flight..huh huh…gate changed..huh..huh…I didn’t..huh..know..huh.huh..”. He looked at the boarding pass and said “Well Sir, there is one more flight to Philadelphia which is leaving in 45 minutes from now, I’ll give you the boarding pass right now”. I said “How much huh..huh..i need to pay..huh..huh ?”. He printed the boarding pass and gave it to me and said “Sir, go to gate H1, it leaves exactly in 45 minutes”. I asked “Do i..huh.huh..need to huh..pay for this..huh..?”. He replied “no need sir, just go to the gate immediately and catch that flight”.

**CHECKING**

Then I boarded on that flight and reached Philadelphia. I got my baggage from baggage claim and took a taxi from there to Pennsylvania. While going in taxi I was looking at all the places around and wondering “am I really in US? Well In Mumbai airport they did some mistake in the system and tortured me for more than one hour and here I missed the flight itself and they just simply gave the ticket to next flight. 

NOW I SHOULD DEFINITELY BELIEVE THAT I AM IN  US….100%”.

My US Travel Experience - 1

Once the VISA approved, everything happened immediately and within 2 weeks I got ready to travel to US. The day before travelling I gave treat to my colleagues and my tickets have been booked just before the treat. So after the party is over I went to office again at 12 AM midnight to take the print outs of tickets, important documents and I was still searching a place to stay temporarily for initial days. Then I got all the documents I needed, found a place to stay temporarily with TCS colleagues and I was trying to book a cab for next day to reach the airport. The time was 5 AM. I couldn’t book any cab at that time and I felt very sleepy. So I asked my teammate who was doing night shift to book the cab, and came to room at around 6 AM. Then I slept for 3 hours, woke up at 9 AM.

Tonight 8 PM flight, I have to reach the airport by 5PM, I have to leave from room by around 3 PM. I have to start packing, and finish it; pick up clothes given for alteration and I don’t have a cab booked yet. Will I catch my flight tonight?

I didn’t believe I could finish the packing before afternoon, normally my Dad used to do the packing for me wherever I had to go like while 1^st time going to Hostel, 1^st time college, 1^st time Chennai for job, 1^st time Mumbai. While doing the packing he used to give advices, warnings such as “don’t use this often; use this like this; use this every week” for each thing he keeps in my bag. So for me packing means ‘Listening to advices/warnings and watching him doing that’. But somehow I finished my packing around 12 PM. This time my Dad is replaced by my roommate.

My teammate booked the cab successfully for me; I picked up the clothes and was ready at around 2 PM. Cab came at 2:30 to my room. And my Journey starts here.

Travel Plan: Mumbai(8PM)->Delhi(10 PM),Delhi (1 AM)->Chicago(7:15 AM),Chicago(11:30 AM)->Philadelphia(1:30 PM). From Philadelphia I had to take a cab to Pennsylvania.

Once I got in the cab, I called my Dad to inform that I started.

 He asked “who are all coming with you till airport?”

 I said “No one, I’m going alone only”.

“Alone? What da? No one is coming to send off?”

“Dad, everybody has office, anyway they can’t come inside airport, and I’m going in cab so no need to worry about carrying luggage”.

“Still…, you’re going to US and no one is there to send off. Here for going to Dubai many people are creating scene and celebrate like festivals. My son is going to US and going to airport alone like an orphan. I feel very bad” said very unhappily.

“Dad, stop worrying for silly things. I will call you after I reach there, bye”.

On the way to airport I almost called all of my friends and informed. I reached airport very early at 3:45 PM itself. I went to get the boarding pass and gave my ticket printout to the lady in the counter. She looked at the timing and said “Sir, what’s the urgent now? You still have time, wait for one more hour”.Woww..probably this is the first time I’m  reaching  the airport this early. Then I waited in the airport thinking what my colleagues at the office told me the previous day.

--  “Update us once you reach Delhi Airport, then update us once you reached Chicago airport, then update once again after you reached Pennsylvania, I’m really worried about you. Go safely”.

--“Hmm..i don’t think you would reach there without making any comedies”.

--“They can still send you back to India if you answer anything wrong in the Immigrations, so be careful; don’t blabber there”.

--“We would rather want you to reach there safely instead of doing some misadventures and writing that in your blog later”.

Everyone in office had that much belief on me. So I told myself I have to be extra careful through the whole journey. So I wrapped by two luggages fully and wrote the name and US address in the outside. I kept my passport, US contact details printout, US dollars, Travelers’ cheque everything in my Passport holder and kept the holder and the files with all the documents in my hand baggage. Every 5 mins I was opening my passport holder, checking passport, money, cheque etc. And it reached 5 PM. So I decided to go to the counter and get the boarding pass. I stood up, again opening passport holder, checking passport, money, cheque etc.(you might get irritated if I say this again and again, so hereafter I will refer this sentence simply as **CHECKING**). I went to the counter.

**CHECKING**

I gave my ticket printout to the lady in the counter. She asked for passport and id proof. I gave that too. Then she tried to print the boarding pass, she swiped my passport in some machine, then she swiped again, then again, again………after few minutes she called her colleague and he tried the same again for few minutes. They were discussing something among themselves and I heard only words such as “issues”, ”record”, ”fail” etc. Then they called their supervisor who looked like my Account manager. Then he told them to try in few other ways and no use in that too. Time is 5:30 PM.  For every second it was getting late, my mind was thinking every possible way that I could’ve messed it up. “Did I missed some documents? Did I forget to do any formalities? Did I not follow all the steps? My VISA really not approved? Will they send me back? Will they detain me? Will they arrest me?”.

Then I asked them “was anything wrong from my side? Any mistake in my passport?”. They replied “No sir, nothing, it is just the system issue, you don’t need to worry, we’ll take care”. I remembered saying those exact same words to my customers in my job. I used to say that whenever I don’t know how to fix any issue, which means now they don’t know how to fix this one. Then at 5:45 PM finally they gave my Passport back and the boarding pass. I again asked “Is everything fine? No problem right?”. They again replied “No problem at all sir, now everything is fine”. I put my2 big bags in luggage which I wrapped fully. They registered it to auto transfer from Delhi to Chicago so I don’t need to check out and check in again. Then they gave the immigration form to fill. I heard that Immigration is very important process to clear, so I kept that form safely in my file and I went back and sat in the same place as before.

**CHECKING**

Time was 6 PM now. “Got the boarding pass, luggage checked in, why I’m waiting here? What I need to do next? What is that form they gave? Do I need to fill that now or in flight or in US?”.

I went to the counter where I got the boarding pass and asked that Old man who looked like my Account Manager, “What I need to do with this form?”. He replied, “fill it and go to Immigrations check, once that is cleared, complete the security check and go to gate for boarding”. “Oh!! That form is to fill now…”

I went near Immigration check where many people were filing the same form.

**CHECKING**

After filling two fields I didn’t know what to write in the next field, I asked someone who was standing nearby me, but he said he also don’t know. “What to do? Let’s go back to Account Manager”. I went to the same old person and asked the doubt and he explained and this happened couple more times. Coming back to Immigration check and going to that person and back and forth. Then somehow filled everything, cleared the Immigrations, security and reached the Gate. It was 6:30 PM.

**CHECKING**

My dad called me. 

Dad: Did you reach airport safely? Is everything fine?

Me: yes Dad, everything is fine, I got boarding Pass, now in the Gate.

Dad: You took all the documents right? Check once again.

Me: Yeah I got everything, all are clear.

Then I heard someone calling me as “Rajan………”.

I looked up, still keeping phone in my ear. The lady who gave me the Boarding pass was standing before me. She said “Rajan, you need to come with me for few minutes”. It was like a scene we used to see in many movies. Customs or Airport officials get the information in the last minute and asking the terrorist/smugglers in the same way before arresting. “Could you come with me for a minute?”.

I froze. I’m looking at her, with the phone in my ear and in the same position for few seconds.

Dad: Hello…Hello..

No answer from me.

Dad: Hello, you there? Everything is fine?

Me: Everything…………….hmm…..I’ll call you later.

******I'll Update the remaining later*********