I arrived at the Chicago, O Harare Terminal on 20th October. Just like any other first time traveller to the United States, confused, excited, wondering, awe-struck, I entered at Terminal. My flight carrier was Lufthansa. It was a long day for me, I started from Chennai, India at 1:45 AM IST. I landed on Frankfurt airport at 8:29 AM German Local Time. Then the connecting flight landed me in Chicago at 12:26 PM CT. What a long day with 4 meals already done.

Immigration and Customs were a breeze. I brought 2 huge check-in luggages, one with all items to wear here, and one with all groceries, equipped to run a Indian Grocery Store. Well packed with goodies, and love of my lover, mom and sister. I had my domestic flight that took me to Richmond, VA only at 4:49 PM CT. I waited all that time in the domestic Terminal 2, flipping through “2 States” by Chetan Bhagat. It is a nice book. (More about it in a separate post)

There was Manoj here to pick me up. A nice colleague. He took me to a grocery store, restaurant and then to my apartment. He even took pain to see that I got myself comfortable in my apartment. Thanks Manoj, if you are reading this. Jaswinder Singh was there with him. He is my lead here. It was in his car, that I got to the Apartment.

Till now, everything was fine. Then, I wanted to open a bank account, get a phone connection and all these wanted a SSN. God! Everyone and every service wanted to know my SSN. I am brand new to America, and I can’t survive without an SSN. The SSN application can be done only after 10 days, after my immigration information and I-94 forms have moved to the office. I was stuck.

I work out of Virginia Retirement Systems office. It is located in the downtown area. Got used to the place now. I have started cooking. The second day, I cooked rice and ate it with “paruppu podi”. The next day morning, I did Top Ramen’s Noodles. Simple items though, this was my first try at cooking. Day before yesterday, I did “Pongal (Ven)”, it came out well. I was very happy! Today, I wanted to try more. So I cooked “Venkaya Sambhar” (Onion Sambhar). Though it came out with little salt, it turned out to taste good.

From a software engineer, America turned me into a cook. Those in Richmond, looking for room mates, who knows to cook, you can look out for me. More ramblings in future posts! Watch out!

And people out there, recommend me if I should take a separate apartment or go for a shared one with a room mate. Also, I hold a valid Indian License, will you advise me to buy a car and start driving now or 6 months later!

United States, Here I come. With lots of dreams, awe, fear, feelings. I am now an amalgamation of various feelings. I am about to get into a country, that had transformed dreams into reality for many, changed lifes completely from riches to rags and rags to riches. People chasing dreams, money and pleasure. A land that I have always wondered about all these years, Here I Come!

Dreams of what is in store… Computers, People, Music and Stuff.
Awe of the single name… United States.
Fear of what is yet to come… How is America going to treat me, A lone traveller in a stranger land.
Feelings of leaving home land, leaving home food, leaving my beloved here for a while..
Questions about life….

America! Here I come!

What a month!

Started off, being sick  on the very first day! Loose Motion! Very loose I must say. I have not been having any junk foods recently. But then, I am having a running stomach now. It has been so for the past two weeks.

Doctors! Wow! First when I visited, they gave me two tablets to stop it. Ya! it stopped! But then again it has started in two days. With it now the situation is quiet complex, I have fever, cold, cough and this loose motion stuff!

Visited another doctor yesterday! She says that I have Stomach Flu (rhymes well with Swine Flu, she must have caught that term from there, marketing fellas wake up, now you have a new kid on the block). She says a Bacteria might be the cause. Yet she has prescribed medicines for three days, after which she says she might take the motion test.

Another three days!!!! No Spicy food! No Oily food! Bread and Idly! Hope I get better soon!

This is just an account of what happened in July and August, the period I have been passive on the internet. July 2 saw me turning into a Photographer at my friend’s Soms marriage. One event that I have been looking forward too for sometime. The wedding and reception were good. Special mention to the food served there, a buffet with stalls for Panju Mittai (What do they call it in English?), Pop Corn and Sweets. A different reception altogether.

Then I received my first ever proposal, from a girl whom I have known so long, but have talked to very little in the recent past. A moment to cherish forever. That kept me busy for the remaining part of the month, deciding!

Computers saw a sudden set back in my life, after nearly seven years! Cell phone took over a priority. Most of the evenings spent  and late night chit chats! Life is beautiful! I went on a trip to Athirappalli on the first week of August with Maarshal. It was a really nice trip. The second week I was sick at home. The third week went on visiting beach, giving parties and cinema halls.

Between the wiring and painting work in our rented house is done. Now it is habitable, really nice interiors and colors. Wonderful lighting! Do visit! I promise a nice dinner or lunch to anyone visiting us.

Have seen Ice Age 3, Nadodigal (thrice), Malai Malai, Aachamundu Aachamundu in these two months. Right now back in Neyveli, to have Kollukattai for Vinayaka Chathurthi.

Somasundaram weds Aishwarya, on a fine thursday morning. One more member in my friend’s circle is happily married. To a girl of his choice, his first love, the only wish he had for some time now.

Somasundaram – Met this guy during the second year of my college life at MIT. He was transferred from GCT, Coimbatore. He had the typical ‘Palam’ look in him. But he was ready to shed it the immediate instant he joined MIT. He could never speak more than a few sentences to any girl. No one ever imagined, he would fall madly in love someday, and never marry the same girl whom he loved.

Life is really a interesting piece of mystery! When it reveals itself, you are a bit surprised. And really we were, when he revealed that he was in love with his team mate at his company. She, Aishwarya was in the testing team, and Soms was in the development team. When he announced his love to us, we would comment, “Instead of fixing the bugs that she reported, you fixed her”. An interesting person, he was, the comedian of our gang, the rocker who never listened to Tamil songs, till he found his lady love.

I am reminded of the speech that Shahrukh Khan delivers in “Om Shanti Om”. “Happy Endings – If it is not happy, then it is not the end”. Here is one such really happy ending.

Wishing Soms and Aishwarya, all the wonderful things on earth. Let them be blessed and ever live happily. For all those who missed the marriage occasion, here are some of the moments.

Today, I complete three years in the professional software industry. I thank all who have lent their helping hand in making the journey possible for a guy with little knowledge in software to what I am now. There are still hundreds of miles to go. This is just a small step.

Three years. Why is this special? With three years experience, you are no longer considered a newbie. People start to have expectations out of you. You are supposed to have atleast some basic understanding of how a professional software project setup is and how it operates. You are given more responsibilities in the projects. You also qualify for most next level positions in all the job search engines like Naukri or Monster.

So what have I learnt or unlearnt in these three years? I should say a lot. They may not be big things, but they surely are something that is really needed.

Things that I have learnt:

• Debugging a program
• Searching the internet effectively (Googling up things)
• Write effective emails.
• Sell solutions to the clients.
• Work as a team.
• C# and the .Net platform. (Yet to start using the features in version 3.5)
• Technical Writing.
• The bare minimal HTML, CSS and Javascript.
• Talking on conference calls.
• Using Source control.
• Unit Testing.

More to learn, more experience to gather, more to everything. Yet again, I am forced to quote, “Miles to go, before I sleep…”. Will be sharing the experiences here on this blog with you, as and when they happen.

Borrowing the idea from Sharon‘s post on prophecy of dreams, here’s my take on dreams.

Dreams are a way to vent out your mind, that is what my mom says about dreams. They reflect the deepest desires in your heart. I dream a lot, by lot I mean everyday. All my dreams are centered on the theme “Me, Rajeshwaran”. I always and mostly 99% of the time dream in the first person, i.e., I dream where I do things, not that I see me doing things.

One that I have told all my friends about and to the person involved in this:

“I am in my college’s hangar (MIT has a hangar, where aeroplanes are supposed to stand. We use it for conducting culturals and indoor games, that is a different matter altogether), sitting in the very last bench in one corner. I see her (the heroine), coming a taking a seat next to me. I am in a sober mood. She starts the conversation asking me why I ignore her. She asks me to come closer and sits next to me. (I still remember with precision, the dress color she was wearing, a black shirt with white flower patters and a sky blue jean). One of our college professor, a close aide of her father, sees us there and moves past us. The scene ends there. (Might be, I changed to a different position in sleep, that changed the course of the dream). It again starts, where she and myself are holding hands together, ready to begin a run. We are chased on a bike by the same professor, who saw us chatting. We run across our college roads and reach the Rubber and Plastics Department. There we see a small cottage (There  is no cottage in MIT near RPT dept.), we enter it, actually it a small illicit arrack shop. I search for known faces all over, I see a very close friend of mine coming towards me. He asks me why I had brought her to this place, I tell him that the professor is chasing us. We turn back, at the entrance. we see her father standing. He calls out her name and asks her to come with him. She just hides behind my back and says, “I want to stay with Esh.”

There the dream ends. What to conclude from this dream? But the dream was one that I will remember forever.

Some one month back, I had a dream, where I am standing on a mud path. I have to go some route, I see a lion eating a deer lying on the mud path just ahead of me, turning to the right, I see one more lion roaring and getting out of a small pond on the way. I turn to see another path, where a tiger is just lazying. I decide to take the path, where the lion is eating a deer, my consciousness in the dream, says, since the lion is eating he won’t mind you taking his path. Totally weird dream, could not make a head or tail of it.

Just share your dreams. I invite Sudar, Yuvi, Sukumar and Kaddu to continue on this meme “Dreams”.

Latest addition to our house, ‘The Palace’ is a new carom board. So it means lesser time being spent on my computer. Carom is easier than cycling in ‘chennai’ city. But it won’t count as a physical activity!
So anybody visiting our house in the near future, be prepared to face a ‘Battle of Fingers’, on the carom board. Winners get sweets! Losers have to pay Rs. 500 /- to the company (which is none other than myself). You will get a cup of tea and whatever snacks available in the fridge at the moment of play. So buck yourself up and head to our house.
Happy blogging!