One of the best perks my company provides me is a pickup and drop facility. Given that I dont really enjoy driving and the drive to Madhapur is not really an enjoyable one, this facility is really a bliss to me. My house is at a distance of 45 mins - 1 hour by car, from my office. So 2 hours of my week day are spent in a cab.
I get a headache when I attempt to do anything like reading in a moving vehicle, thats why I literally end up doing nothing while in a cab. To kill this time, I spend it talking to my friends on phone, taking a short nap at times and sometimes getting into a conversation with my driver mostly initiated by the driver himself.
I have come across a variety of cab drivers. Some are just very silent doing just what they are supposed to do ( these are the kind of drivers I like), some of them pick on the topics I talk on phone with my friends while in cab and start asking me questions on some of the things which I am not very comfortable talking to strangers and some of them initiate a general topic and ask my opinion on them ( if its politics I hardly have any opinion).
But I started believing that there is a whole lot of life that exists around these cabs. Most of the drivers are in their early 20's. Though I am pretty much an introvert, I sometimes break free and indulge in a conversation with them when they initiate it. Some of these guys go upto the extent of sharing their love stories with me. Its strange but I dont get a feeling like "why are u telling all this to me". They dont expect any suggestion from me, but they just want to tell. I hear offering no expert suggestion. I just listen thats it.
Some of their conversations on phone with their friends/relatives, give me a peek into the situations at their home. Some things which we see in old movies, and think "oh the same old tragic family stuff", do exist indeed.
I sometimes wonder what makes me different from them. Why am I leading a fairly comfortable life when that guy of almost my age is working day in and day out just to earn his living. Probably i would have been doing a similar thing if I was born into a family which couldnt have afforded my education. I should be thankful to God and my parents for helping me lead this kind of a life.
But the one thing I find amazing about these young cabbies is that they have a lot of enthusiasm in doing their work. For a while, my daily pickup was done by a driver who didnt mind working for 16 hours a day, just bcoz he was faithful to his supervisor who requested him to work for extra hours as the other drivers werent available. Sometimes, either due to lack of work or excess of work,they tend to drive faster inorder to squeeze in as many kms per day as possible(their revenues are dependent on the distance of their pickups/drops) or finish their drives sooner. Inspite of me(or for that matter anyone) complaining a several times about the rash driving, things dont change.
One thing the IT industry, the BPO industry rather, has done to India is that it not only created employment opportunities in those sectors but also created employment for these whole lot of cab drivers. A whole lot of families are earning their livelihood becoz of this.
Whenever I sit in my cab, I have all these thoughts flowing through my mind, but the moment I move out of the cab, I have many other things to worry about. Just like the cab driver needs to worry about his next pickup/drop. At the end of the day, life goes on ...
Sunday, April 01, 2007
The Excruciating VISA Experience - II
I hadnt totally recovered from the dejection of getting my VISA rejected in the first attempt , when I was asked to reapply for the VISA. This put me under a lot of pressure and also increased my responsibility as the company invested a lot of money and confidence on me hoping that I would get the VISA this time and complete the assignments in US successfully.
The appointment was taken by our travel coordinator and I was surprised to see the date. It was exactly one month from the day of my previous appointment. Even the time and day(Wednesday) of appointment were the same. This made me a bit skeptical of the result, I was just hoping that history doesnt repeat itself.
I started believing in all kinds of omens, I didnt want anything to be similar to my last trip. I tried to change the flight options, though at the last moment I had to stick to the same flights I took the last time. I requested a change in the hotel I would be put up in Chennai. And I have chosen a shirt(to wear on the D-day) different from the one I wore the last time for the interview. I also vowed to visit a temple atleast twice before I leave for the interview, a thing which I havent done in an year. And I actually stuck to my vow. I tried everything in this world to make this trip different from the last trip, hoping for a different outcome.
With all these preparations, I finally set out for Chennai, again, a day before the D-day. I didnt go out from the hotel this time, either that night or early next day. I woke up a bit late the next day, had my breakfast and relaxed for a while. I finally set out for the Consulate about an hour before my appointment time. This time I was lucky enough to sneak through the first two queues ( application screening and finger printing) pretty quickly. Or its just my feeling probably bcoz I was mentally prepared for spending a lot of time in the queues, unlike the last time. Finally I was waiting in the last queue for the interview which was pretty long that day.
I was waiting for an hour before I could actually see and hear my preceding applicant's interviews. I was trying consciously to avoid being put up in the queue of any lady interviewer. But as luck would have it, I got the feeling that I am moving more towards the queue of a lady interviewer. I already could see some rejections before me. I had butterflies in my stomach. I was still hoping that somehow I should get into the queue of any other interviewer.
Then something strange happened, I would probably call it the 'Divine Intervention'. As the queue was growing faster, some people from the queue were assigned to a different interview counter and I happened to be one among them. I would call myself really lucky bcoz I was the last person in the queue to be moved. The interviewer at the counter I was assigned was a young man. There were atleast 10 people before me and 9 out of them got their VISAs. From the point I was put in that queue I was just trying to calm myself down and started memorising the reason for which my VISA was rejected the last time. At the sametime I was telling myself that I shouldnt hurry into answering anything the interviewer wouldnt be interested in.
Finally i was before the interviewer. He took the passport, scanned the barcode and started looking into his computer for a while. My heart was pounding so fast that I thought it was going to leap out of my chest. The interviewer took his time reading the notes on the computer, probably the feedback from my last interview. Then he asked a question "Why are you going to US?". I took a deep breath and said "To attend a few training sessions.". Then he looked at me again and asked "What is the training on?", I was quick this time to say "On some of the tools we would be using to monitor our website". He didnt ask me anything more, after a minute he said "Go home, you will get your VISA". I couldnt believe what I was hearing, the only assurance I had was that he didnt give my passport back( The passport would be given back if our application is rejected) . Then I came out of the Consulate and rushed to the hotel.
As soon as I reached the hotel, I called a whole lot of people including my manager to tell that I finally got my VISA. It did relieve a lot of burden on me.
After these two experiences with the Consulate, I didnt really understand if it was just luck that is involved in the VISA process or if there was something more than just luck. But it didnt matter to me now, as I got the VISA and I am going to fly to US soon.
The appointment was taken by our travel coordinator and I was surprised to see the date. It was exactly one month from the day of my previous appointment. Even the time and day(Wednesday) of appointment were the same. This made me a bit skeptical of the result, I was just hoping that history doesnt repeat itself.
I started believing in all kinds of omens, I didnt want anything to be similar to my last trip. I tried to change the flight options, though at the last moment I had to stick to the same flights I took the last time. I requested a change in the hotel I would be put up in Chennai. And I have chosen a shirt(to wear on the D-day) different from the one I wore the last time for the interview. I also vowed to visit a temple atleast twice before I leave for the interview, a thing which I havent done in an year. And I actually stuck to my vow. I tried everything in this world to make this trip different from the last trip, hoping for a different outcome.
With all these preparations, I finally set out for Chennai, again, a day before the D-day. I didnt go out from the hotel this time, either that night or early next day. I woke up a bit late the next day, had my breakfast and relaxed for a while. I finally set out for the Consulate about an hour before my appointment time. This time I was lucky enough to sneak through the first two queues ( application screening and finger printing) pretty quickly. Or its just my feeling probably bcoz I was mentally prepared for spending a lot of time in the queues, unlike the last time. Finally I was waiting in the last queue for the interview which was pretty long that day.
I was waiting for an hour before I could actually see and hear my preceding applicant's interviews. I was trying consciously to avoid being put up in the queue of any lady interviewer. But as luck would have it, I got the feeling that I am moving more towards the queue of a lady interviewer. I already could see some rejections before me. I had butterflies in my stomach. I was still hoping that somehow I should get into the queue of any other interviewer.
Then something strange happened, I would probably call it the 'Divine Intervention'. As the queue was growing faster, some people from the queue were assigned to a different interview counter and I happened to be one among them. I would call myself really lucky bcoz I was the last person in the queue to be moved. The interviewer at the counter I was assigned was a young man. There were atleast 10 people before me and 9 out of them got their VISAs. From the point I was put in that queue I was just trying to calm myself down and started memorising the reason for which my VISA was rejected the last time. At the sametime I was telling myself that I shouldnt hurry into answering anything the interviewer wouldnt be interested in.
Finally i was before the interviewer. He took the passport, scanned the barcode and started looking into his computer for a while. My heart was pounding so fast that I thought it was going to leap out of my chest. The interviewer took his time reading the notes on the computer, probably the feedback from my last interview. Then he asked a question "Why are you going to US?". I took a deep breath and said "To attend a few training sessions.". Then he looked at me again and asked "What is the training on?", I was quick this time to say "On some of the tools we would be using to monitor our website". He didnt ask me anything more, after a minute he said "Go home, you will get your VISA". I couldnt believe what I was hearing, the only assurance I had was that he didnt give my passport back( The passport would be given back if our application is rejected) . Then I came out of the Consulate and rushed to the hotel.
As soon as I reached the hotel, I called a whole lot of people including my manager to tell that I finally got my VISA. It did relieve a lot of burden on me.
After these two experiences with the Consulate, I didnt really understand if it was just luck that is involved in the VISA process or if there was something more than just luck. But it didnt matter to me now, as I got the VISA and I am going to fly to US soon.
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