Here, I am sitting in the Richmond International Airport waiting for my flight back home. Constantly checking the status of the flights, praying that there are no delays/cancellations.

It is really a good feeling here. After 10 months of being independent, landing in home ground on the Independence Day! (Aug 15).

Just packed enough to please all people at home, gifts, toys, music players.. Time to ponder on what happened in the past months here in US.

I began liking US for what it is! Strict Rules, People following Rules, Cleanliness etc. It doesn’t mean that I hate India for these. I like India as it is! After all, it is my home!

Learnt to live alone, cooking, washing, travelling, making friends… Transforming from a Dependent Kid at home to the Independent Man.

Now, awaiting the flight!

For the past one month, I am getting to meet families of my colleagues, having lunch, tea and dinner with them. Socializing!

This is giving me the break from the monotony of living alone and single in my apartment. Getting to meet people, share thoughts, playing golf, badminton, etc.

With it, my tummy has again started to grow. Nice food, Indian food, South Indian meals, from Vijay’s, Renga’s, Murali’s and Bhavneet’s houses, travelling on my car, getting used to driving in the nights and the rains. These are those nice things that happened in the past month. I have decided to try every nice restaurant in Richmond, eat the specialty dishes.

Started off with omelette’s, hash browns and pan cakes in ‘ihop’… More to come…

Now that I have a car, the next thing that comes is maintenance. I am not that person, interested in cars, for me, car gives freedom to move around here in the United States.

For the past two months, I have been spending on the car, getting it to live! First I had the “LOW COOLANT”, that happened to be a leak in the coolant, that had gone bad and damaged the radiator. I had it fixed. Here in this country, labour costs more than the cost of the spare parts. I was astonished to see the bill. Then I had the “CHECK ENGINE” light coming on. Man! Why!

But, I started loving the car now. I clean it every time, I take it for a ride, give it a wash regularly and take care of all those monthly maintenance stuff that I have to. Living alone, the phone and the car are the only two companions that I have. So most part of my weekends are spent either on the phone or on the car. The remaining time, sleep, watch movies and cook!

Life is not that interesting at all times. Maybe I must start spending time before my laptop as I usually did when I was in India. Now it has turned to be just the entertainment center. I also added a new policy, “not doing office work on weekends…” Cool

I own a car now. A 2000 Chevy Malibu LS. One most important, must-have entity for life in the United States. I didn’t visit the regular KBB or Car Dealers to buy my first car. It was a good feel that I did not have to hunt for cars. Looking at VIN, vehicle history. Probably I will do all these for my next car.

I bought it from my friend, Abhilash Nair. He is a friend since undergrad days. He studied Aeronautical while I was in Instrumentation. But he was always welcomed as a Instrumentation senior by all our juniors in college. A happy going, cool dude, and the only person from Kerala who calls an auto an ‘auto’ instead of ‘otto’ (This is meant just as a joke… Please don’t take this seriously as I believe firmly in democracy…)

The moment I announced that I bought a car, my mom wanted me to perform a ‘Vahana Pooja – a ceremony of bestowing goodness and blessing to the person owning the car and the car’. I was asked to get a coconut and four lemons for the ceremony and I did get it from an Indian Grocery Store. The pooja was performed last sunday.

Now I am ready to drive the car! A way of attaining independence in United States! Here I come!

Licensed to drive in the US.

I got my driving license now. Got to get a car, and get mobile. I am planning to get a car from my friend Abilash Nair. A chevy. Heading full steam on the life in America, the land of opportunities.

Yeh Jo Desh Hai Tera!

Wish you all a very Happy New Year 2010. Let this year bring prosperity and joy to all.

This is the time to reflect back on what happened the previous year, and plan for the coming year.

What happened in 2009?

• Completed my one year in Sagitec.
• Had been continuously writing on this blog.
• Got my first ever proposal.
• Accepted her as my better half.
• Got my first onsite offer, to work in America.
• Came to USA on a H1B permit and currently working.

Wishes for 2010:

• Get happily settled in life.
• Get a new look for this site.
• Get CowsNBulls game to the next level.
• Learn a new language apart from C#, looking at python and ruby.
• Live happily ever after.

Once again, wish you all a very happy and a prosperous new year.

I was surprised the day before yesterday to see a FedEx door tag hanging on my apartment door. I had not ordered anything, or I could not think of someone who would spend money to send me a FedEx parcel as gift.

I just left it signed on my door yesterday, so that the FedEx person could leave it at the door. When I came back for lunch, yesterday, I met the FedEx guy who gave me a small parcel.

Viola! it contained a 2 GB iPod Shuffle. It was gifted by Sagitec, my employer as a Christmas gift.

Thank You Sagitec.

I had my first haircut in America yesterday. @Virginia Hair.

One hair cut costs $35.00 equivalent to roughly Rs. 1750. That is a huge sum of money. In India, I used to have haircut for Rs. 20.00. The maximum that I used to spend was Rs. 500 equivalent to $10.00.

So the lesson is, earn your money in America, spend it in India.

This is going to be a musing… A rant, a self confession, a analysis.

WARNING: Boring rant ahead.

I have never been to the kitchen at home, in neyveli, or in chennai. I was just as worried, when my company offered me a H1B visa and wanted me to work from the client’s location. I am a foodie. I can’t live without tasting the great Rice for at least one meal a day.  But things have changed quiet a lot now. I am cooking my own food here. What has changed?

Is it love? Might me. My girl helped me pack all the luggage for me. She got me two good books on cooking. She wanted me to help myself so that I don’t miss home food. She packed up everything I would require. It was very nice of her to do it. Also my mom did the final touch ups. It must be that I am in love and I end up doing something to please her?

Survival? I am reminded of the film ‘Puthupettai’. There are two songs ‘Oru naalil valkai’ and ‘Nerupu vaiyinil oramai’, two of my all time favourite songs. The theme of the film is ‘Survival’.  When you are pushed to the limits, you tend to fight back, face the reality, tend to move forward. The simple ‘Darwin’s principle for evolution’. Not perpetuation, or theory of natural selection, I am not going scientific here. It is just the ‘Survival of the fittest’.

Just analyzing on the same subject, we tend to perform or succumb when we are pushed to the limits. The is a comedy in a film that I watched recently, where the comedian says ‘I am cornered’. This has nothing to do with this post. Is it survival or love or desire or just a new learning? Questions unanswered.

Hey why am I ranting. Actually cooking is good. So why this post at all in the first place. I have time to kill!

Here is more update on my life in America. It was hard finding an apartment here. Office is in Downtown area. I don’t own a car. So I had to consider that fact too, either, the office must be reachable by Public Transit or walkable.

I found one. A nice and a beautiful apartment (That is how anyone from Chennai will feel about any house here). I am now a resident of Downtown, Richmond, VA. After the apartment hunt, then comes setting aside enough money to furnish your apartment. I had to buy a bed and a few kitchen utensils, the minimum requirements to stay in any apartment. With no car to get to places to shop, I resorted to shopping online.

In India, we just buy a bed (wooden or steel), then we order a mattress or we just leave it off. Here, we have more. First you have to get a bed frame, then a box spring, then the actual mattress. Still, I have not gotten used to not tracking dollar conversion to rupees. I have asked my stupid mind to stop counting it. And there are 4 sizes to choose from, King, Queen, Full and Twin. That is when my college friend, Abhilash (Nair as I call him), came. He was the friend in need. He has been here for sometime now, he dragged me to the omnipresent Walmart. And that ended all the shopping.

We also made it a point to visit the local Indian Restaurant ‘India K Raja’ and the Indian grocery store, ‘Lakshmi Palace’. It was good to do a bit of shopping. Now I have moved to the new apartment. It is just 5 mins walk to my office. Also the SSN application is over. I am getting settled.