About 62 days ago, 2008 finished its journey finally to make way for 2009. It was the year that brought dramatic changes to things that seemed well set for a long time. As I roll back the imaginary magnetic tapes on which I store all the major incidents of the past year for blog writing purposes, I see so many events that will be remembered, talked and referenced in years to come. Good and bad things happened in random fashion as Myanmar got hit with a bad hurricane, China hosted its first Olympics with a huge and brightly colored iron fist, military conflict broke out between Russia and Georgia, after which Israel and Palestine took their turn, terrorists continued to use stupidity as their weapon of mass destruction as they went on their usual spree of killing innocent people in various parts of India and the rest of the world and Global economic recession threatened to make our lives, present and future, dangerously uncertain (and still does) and as consolation prize the US of A got its first black president in Obama and Team India won the 20Twenty world cup. Frankly, 2008 had 12 more months than it should. I felt like it took forever to finish.
Personally 2008 was an historic year for me. So many things changed, for better and worse that I would be able to trace back most of the future episodes in my life back to 2008. It started with a possibility. As 2007 closed, I finished my graduate thesis defense and technically graduated. I started applying for jobs as the new year celebrations went off for big O-8. I kept applying and nothing was happening. The now-confirmed US economic recession was budding at that time and the job market did not look too bright. After some consultation with my friends and colleagues I joined a consulting company whose name is a combination of a sensory organ and the most important connector in our body. I moved to Dallas and like most consultants, stayed in an apartment home with 4 more guys as I learned the technical and non-technical ways of a consultant’s life. Once the training was over it was time for project hunt. As I waited for the illusive client calls for the bunch of applications we send on a daily basis the downturn in the job market shifted to higher gears casting more doubts on tomorrow. Things moved slowly and on the 20th of April, just after dinner time, finally I got the call. It was a moment of happiness and anxiety. I had, in the mean time, lost 10 pounds due to poor dietary habits, made some very good friends, gained quite a bit of working skills on a framework named after an island in Indonesia and missed the marriage of a very close cousin back home.
Anywho, I moved from Dallas to Phoenix, Arizona for the new position. I stayed with a college friend who lived in Tucson for about a week, before finding a place in Phoenix with his help. The fun-nest part of moving as a consultant is that you need to always buy things you need the most. Comforters/sleeping bags, pillows, plates, bags, excess clothes, essential accessories (thanks to restrictions imposed by TSA) like shampoo, shaving cream, deodorant, yada yada need to be bought whenever your travel involves airplane(s). After buying all of these things, again, I settled into my new house, shared between 4 guys. The guys were students at Arizona State University and it was nice to be with students again. The nice part evaporated soon after, once I found out about the nasty bed-bug infestation in the house. Every night, we lost a few liters of blood to these night crawlers and in return got multiple bumps/rashes well grouped into sets of three in straight lines- what bug specialists call ‘breakfast-lunch-dinner’ pattern. Never having encountered them in my life before, they kept me awake all night with their bites so that I was Mr. Sleepy Red Eye the next morning at work. After about a month, I moved to near by apartment, same setup, but the other 3 roommates were working professionals and that kind of helped with arrangements. Man proposes Bed Bugs dispose. This house had even bigger bug problem, both bed and roach family. I had to move again, after about a month, but this time things turned around.
Work was going well, and I had moved to a nice apartment, with even nicer roommates and lots of space. After a long time this was a place that could honestly qualify as a long-term prospect. I picked up on some old activities I used to enjoy like cricket, watching movies, daydreaming and started attending Judo. It needs to be mentioned about the helping mentality of these roommates and I am thankful for all the free rides, literally and metaphorically. Due to a very helpful and knowledgeable friend from work I attended the Rider’s Course for Bikers and successfully got the driving license for motorcycle. In September of 2008, I purchased the first automobile paid off completely from my pocket, a used 2007 Kawasaki Ninja EX250-Black, and have been riding that baby ever since. Five days to work and one day to the Mall/Movie and one day for complete rest, I was living life-Jeans Style (Shankar’s Movie, not the clothes, bcoz that wouldn’t make any sense), minus twin brother and Aishwarya Rai.
2008 was also the year during which I went on a number of tours across the US of A. For Labor Day in May, I went to San-Francisco and Los Angeles, California, for Memorial Day in August, Seattle-Washington, Thanks Giving day in November, New York City, New York and Washington D.C. and in between theses trips, I also made multiple trips to Las Vegas, Tucson and the Grand Canyon. In a span of 7 months I had visited The Golden Gate bridge, The Universal Studios, Mt.Rainier, Boeing Manufacturing Plant, The strip Street in Las Vegas, Statue of Liberty, The White House and the South Rim of Grand Canyon.
US-wise, the stocks were falling, the Presidential Election process was under full swing and Michael Phelps had more gold from Olympic Medals than the US Treasury. Changes were abundant locally as well. In October My client company offered me permanent position in their company and I accepted to make it the first full-time salaried job of my life. By December all the roommates in my apartment had moved out to separate homes/apartments one after the other which left me with a new set of roomies. I learned to cook and organize stuff and as the 2008 closed I prepared to move out as well due to a growing infestation of- yes, you guessed it - Bed Bugs. I don’t know why these things keep ‘bugging’ me.
As you finish reading this, I have moved to a different spacious apartment with a room for myself. I have a sort of new roommate, new as room mate here, but he is an old friend of mine from college who works in a very old and stable bank. The home’s furnishings are being done slowly- it’s a bit hard to track free/subsidized stuff from craigs list or some other local online classifieds. As of Mar 01 2009 I am looking for, among other things, a kitchen table to keep the microwave, a free TV, a Jeans-style Aishwarya Rai (resemblance not mandatory) to continue my Jeans-style life and a SIX PACK ABS [:)] [:)] [:)].
Hopefully the rest of 2009 would show the way.
Personally 2008 was an historic year for me. So many things changed, for better and worse that I would be able to trace back most of the future episodes in my life back to 2008. It started with a possibility. As 2007 closed, I finished my graduate thesis defense and technically graduated. I started applying for jobs as the new year celebrations went off for big O-8. I kept applying and nothing was happening. The now-confirmed US economic recession was budding at that time and the job market did not look too bright. After some consultation with my friends and colleagues I joined a consulting company whose name is a combination of a sensory organ and the most important connector in our body. I moved to Dallas and like most consultants, stayed in an apartment home with 4 more guys as I learned the technical and non-technical ways of a consultant’s life. Once the training was over it was time for project hunt. As I waited for the illusive client calls for the bunch of applications we send on a daily basis the downturn in the job market shifted to higher gears casting more doubts on tomorrow. Things moved slowly and on the 20th of April, just after dinner time, finally I got the call. It was a moment of happiness and anxiety. I had, in the mean time, lost 10 pounds due to poor dietary habits, made some very good friends, gained quite a bit of working skills on a framework named after an island in Indonesia and missed the marriage of a very close cousin back home.
Anywho, I moved from Dallas to Phoenix, Arizona for the new position. I stayed with a college friend who lived in Tucson for about a week, before finding a place in Phoenix with his help. The fun-nest part of moving as a consultant is that you need to always buy things you need the most. Comforters/sleeping bags, pillows, plates, bags, excess clothes, essential accessories (thanks to restrictions imposed by TSA) like shampoo, shaving cream, deodorant, yada yada need to be bought whenever your travel involves airplane(s). After buying all of these things, again, I settled into my new house, shared between 4 guys. The guys were students at Arizona State University and it was nice to be with students again. The nice part evaporated soon after, once I found out about the nasty bed-bug infestation in the house. Every night, we lost a few liters of blood to these night crawlers and in return got multiple bumps/rashes well grouped into sets of three in straight lines- what bug specialists call ‘breakfast-lunch-dinner’ pattern. Never having encountered them in my life before, they kept me awake all night with their bites so that I was Mr. Sleepy Red Eye the next morning at work. After about a month, I moved to near by apartment, same setup, but the other 3 roommates were working professionals and that kind of helped with arrangements. Man proposes Bed Bugs dispose. This house had even bigger bug problem, both bed and roach family. I had to move again, after about a month, but this time things turned around.
Work was going well, and I had moved to a nice apartment, with even nicer roommates and lots of space. After a long time this was a place that could honestly qualify as a long-term prospect. I picked up on some old activities I used to enjoy like cricket, watching movies, daydreaming and started attending Judo. It needs to be mentioned about the helping mentality of these roommates and I am thankful for all the free rides, literally and metaphorically. Due to a very helpful and knowledgeable friend from work I attended the Rider’s Course for Bikers and successfully got the driving license for motorcycle. In September of 2008, I purchased the first automobile paid off completely from my pocket, a used 2007 Kawasaki Ninja EX250-Black, and have been riding that baby ever since. Five days to work and one day to the Mall/Movie and one day for complete rest, I was living life-Jeans Style (Shankar’s Movie, not the clothes, bcoz that wouldn’t make any sense), minus twin brother and Aishwarya Rai.
2008 was also the year during which I went on a number of tours across the US of A. For Labor Day in May, I went to San-Francisco and Los Angeles, California, for Memorial Day in August, Seattle-Washington, Thanks Giving day in November, New York City, New York and Washington D.C. and in between theses trips, I also made multiple trips to Las Vegas, Tucson and the Grand Canyon. In a span of 7 months I had visited The Golden Gate bridge, The Universal Studios, Mt.Rainier, Boeing Manufacturing Plant, The strip Street in Las Vegas, Statue of Liberty, The White House and the South Rim of Grand Canyon.
US-wise, the stocks were falling, the Presidential Election process was under full swing and Michael Phelps had more gold from Olympic Medals than the US Treasury. Changes were abundant locally as well. In October My client company offered me permanent position in their company and I accepted to make it the first full-time salaried job of my life. By December all the roommates in my apartment had moved out to separate homes/apartments one after the other which left me with a new set of roomies. I learned to cook and organize stuff and as the 2008 closed I prepared to move out as well due to a growing infestation of- yes, you guessed it - Bed Bugs. I don’t know why these things keep ‘bugging’ me.
As you finish reading this, I have moved to a different spacious apartment with a room for myself. I have a sort of new roommate, new as room mate here, but he is an old friend of mine from college who works in a very old and stable bank. The home’s furnishings are being done slowly- it’s a bit hard to track free/subsidized stuff from craigs list or some other local online classifieds. As of Mar 01 2009 I am looking for, among other things, a kitchen table to keep the microwave, a free TV, a Jeans-style Aishwarya Rai (resemblance not mandatory) to continue my Jeans-style life and a SIX PACK ABS [:)] [:)] [:)].
Hopefully the rest of 2009 would show the way.
