I had been planning my trip to USA. My office was sending me to their US office and they had applied for my visa. The process took a few months. I was thrilled to get the required documents when the visa was approved. Then I visited the US consulate in New Delhi to get my passport ready for travel. After my passport got stamped, I went on a shopping spree. I was mainly looking for western clothes to take with me. Clothes like tops, jeans, trousers, skirts and such other stuff. While buying, I realized that buying western outfit is difficult. It is not as easy as to buy a ready-made salwar, kameez. There are sizes, fits, cuts and washes. This was my first attempt to buy and wear such clothes so I found buying western outfits very difficult. After many efforts finally I found something I could wear and I bought it. The other obstacle was to actually wear them in public. I had never worn a frock or dress after say I was five years old. So wearing the body clinging top and jeans (my first denim) certainly took some heroic effort on my part. But I did it anyway.
Next step was to get a proper hair cut. I got rid of my ponytail and cut hair short. I wanted to look like Princess Diana in short hair. Sadly I looked like Anu in short curly black hair. I also bought huge boxes to carry all these stuff to US of A. Then finally the time came when I had to bid good-byes to all my dear ones. It was a happy sad moment. I hope you understand what I mean. I was off to a maiden voyage in an airplane. And after eighteen hours of flight I landed at Philadelphia Airport. The airport seemed like a huge blanket of white when I peeped out of the window from the descending aero plane. I thought it was normal to snow like this in mid February in Philly. It was snowing heavily. My flight was the last to land on the airport. It was snowstorm day. My colleagues who had come to pick me up seemed like they had arrived from North Pole. They were wearing heavy jackets and shoes. I had expected people from US would be wearing normal sweaters as they are used to this snow. It was like a movie to me. But actually wading in the snow and feeling the chill outside the airport, I realized why each one was wearing what they were wearing. My colleague could hardly maneuver his car in the snow though he had been in Philadelphia for fourteen long years. And after a fun ride (for me), we reached his house. In fact the entire area was shut down. 17th February 2003, the day I landed in Philadelphia, the city received two feet’s snows, a record. An emergency was declared in the area.
The drive from the airport in late evening was exciting for me. I had small chat with Viji and Varun wife and son of my colleague Siva with whom I was staying. Viji prepared dinner and I was happy to eat Indian food. I went to bed after that. My room had a big glass window and I could see snow falling. It is a beautiful sight to see snowfall. Flakes of whites just drift slowly in the wind and slowly settle on piles of white below. As I said before it was snowing heavily the day I landed, the next day all the areas surrounding Philly were covered with at least two feet snow. Some cars could not be seen and seemed like small hillocks of snow all covered with white grainy powder. In the morning I woke up and got ready for office. Siva was busy shoveling the snow in the driveway. Snow collected in all possible roads and it was difficult to take the car out of the garage. Finally after much struggles with ploughs and snow, we were off to office. Main roads were clean, as the county people had cleaned the roads. As we approached the office, I was curious to see the office building and the entrance. To enter office, I had to be very patient and careful as one had to walk through three feet of snow. Nobody was in office and the driveway of the office was loaded with tons of snow. Walking through waist length snow I entered the office. My colleague and I were the only employees there. Others called afterwards to say that they won’t be able to get to office because of snow. After about an hour another colleague Gandhar joined us and finally our boss stepped in. Siva was busy with lots of work and I wondered what to do. I had little work to do. The setup in this new office was different.
Soon enough it was lunch time. Our boss decided that we would have lunch in office. Gandhar brought in some food. He had a difficult tome finding a shop open. All food outlets and malls were closed. I was hungry and cold. So I looked forward to eating the sandwich. When I opened the packet, I was disappointed as it some bunch of lettuce and tomatoes with white bread on top. I had imagined a warm sandwich with butter and mashed potatoes. I ate that cold thing and was back to work. Siva, Gandhar and my boss kept working on some project, which had to be delivered the very next day. I kept looking at some report application. Half the time I felt sleepy. At other time I was tired and bored. The sight of those mountains of snow outside the office kept me awake. The project needed some finishing touches. But the small touches were complete only by midnight when we drove back to Siva’s place. This was the beginning of a busy work schedule I have here in USA
My second working day was not much eventful, except that I filled in some medical insurance forms. Later in that week, all my colleagues decided that we go out for lunch. One of us leaving and we wanted to buy him lunch. So off we went to a Thai restaurant. Snow was still all around but it was clearing up. All of us were seated around a round table. The table was neatly decorated with some flowers in the center. The atmosphere inside the restaurant was peaceful and friendly. Monica, who was sitting next to me, began talking to me. I told here I felt cold in the snow.
Monica said “How is Daram’s sister?”
I said “ I beg your pardon”.
Monica said again “how is Daram’s sister.”
I gave up. I was embarrassed to ask again. I could not figure out what she wanted to know. Siva, who was sitting close by helped me and said that Monica wanted to know “how Dharam’s sister is?”. I realized I had to get used to a different accent in this new office. Monica is a very gentle and kindhearted lady. After that day onwards she and I became very close friends. The first course of the lunch was being served. I expected to have a very hot soup. I had pictured that the soup would be creamy, spicy and full of all herbs that the menu mentioned. The soup bowl, which I got, was a far cry from my imagination. The soup looked like somebody had poured boiling water on some leaves and served in a bowl. The same was true for the next course. I could hardly eat anything. I kept sipping the ice-cold water that was served. I was not happy paying the money that I had to pay for such an awful meal. But soon I was to realize that this would be the kind of food I can expect in any restaurant. The food here is devoid of any spices and fragrance, which are essential part of Indian food. There was no time to eat a desert in the restaurant. So Monica picked up a cake from a nearby grocery store. The cake was the best part of the lunch I had that day. Dori did not like the cake, as it was too much of the pineapple. But for me it was a delicious thing to be enjoyed after a bad lunch.
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