Moving back to India
Yep, we’re moving back to India; yea, it’s that time. Although this is not a technical article, I just wanted to share with you the time spent in the US of A. Below are some of the highlights:
-
Year 2001: I came to US to pursue my Master’s degree from
ASU, landed in Phoenix, AZ on Jul 31. Needless to say,
Phoenix felt like a fireball at that time. I say
‘fireball’ because, the annual temperature range of the
place I grew up in India varies between 60-90°F (15-32°C)
throughout the year. As I got out of the terminal, I said
‘Wow’, mainly because I hadn’t yet known of the phrase -
‘Holy Cow’.
-
Year 2002: Buried deep in courses; Almost forgot the term
‘recreation’; All I had time for was for assignments,
projects and exams; Met my roommate once in 2-3 days; Also
made my first visit back home in the winter break.. the
best thing that happened in the year!!
-
Year 2003: I graduated from the Master’s program (or
should I say, ‘managed to graduate’?) in August. Despite
the ‘post-911’ market conditions, I got myself a job in
Phoenix area relatively quickly and I’ve been here since
then, though I’ve changed jobs.
-
Year 2004, I turned myself into a hobbyist Photographer. I
have been updating my site:
Photography & Eye
with the shots I’ve taken.
-
Year 2005 turned out to be a complete downhill for me and
some of my friends. On a trip to Utah, the other car met
with a fatal accident. I lost one of my dear friend in the
mishap. I feel the impact of this incident even to this
date.
-
In May of 2006, I got married to Pallavi (pronounced:
Pal-uh-we). This change turned out to be very good for me
(I think she took a loss for marrying me!!). She underwent
the HR Management course, completed it recently and has
been interning at Fox Television Network. She loves what
she’s doing there.
-
In 2007, I invited my parents to visit the US. We visited
quite a few places, from New York, to Los Angeles, to Las
Vegas and the
Grand Canyon. They absolutely enjoyed their stay here.
-
2008: We continued our ‘travelling-spree‘ and covered more
places including
Hawaii,
Yellowstone,
Florida
and
Niagara Falls, to name a few.
-
Come 2009, the realization that my visa was ending here
became more real than ever before. The result: Yes, we
have to search for a new job (still searching for one!!!)
and move back to India. We’ve always wanted to go back,
it’s just that due to circumstances, this kept getting
pushed further. We depart on the 28th of this month.
During these 8+ years of our stay here, we’ve have met some truly amazing people who have had a very profound impact on our lives. We have learned quite a bit from them and we have been with each other through trying and happy times. Both Pallavi and I are deeply thankful to each and everyone of you for everything.
Yes, it is, no doubt, really difficult to leave all this, go back to where we came from and start afresh. On the other side, we hope this change will help us advance to something bigger and better. We are really looking forward to returning HOME.