I feel like documenting my life more now than ever before.
This way, I guess I can reach out to other fellow country men who are trying to
come back to their country after a long overseas stay. I hope this will help
them in getting ready for things and what they should or should not expect from
here.
We landed in India on the 24th July at New Delhi (NY ->
Brussels -> New Delhi) about 9.30 PM. The flight was on time, Jet airways
was awesome. Most importantly, the one way tickets costed much less from NY
than from anywhere else. It was just about half the price of a one way fare
from DFW. The flying time and journey was uneventful. We had windows and isle
seats and that was the best combination ever. Jet airways had much more leg
space than any other airlines we have traveled. I have also traveled in Air
India and the leg space is comparable to that. People were friendly and the
choice of channels was awesome. I managed to see many episodes of the Big bang
theory. One comparison I would like to make here with the airlines I traveled
to China (I think probably US airways and China Eastern airlines). The
difference between these airlines and Jet was obviously with food and
hospitality, and most importantly with the choice of TV programs on board. In
those airlines, the choice of programs were limited to very few and there was issue with
synchronization. In other words, if you choose to play a program, then it will
appear that the program is running already like a regular TV show, and you have
to wait for a certain period of time to get that re-broadcasted. This may be
because they are using very less bandwidth…
In any case, we landed in Delhi only to realize that one of
our baggage was missing that contained all our documents. We initiated all the
procedures, so that it should be delivered the next day to the hotel we checked
in. We spent the whole night in Delhi airport. They have a guest lounge area
where you can stretch yourself. Our flight to Kolkata was in the morning at
6.40AM. We checked in all our bags and belongings at 3.40 AM and were killing
time in the airport. Finally, we boarded and reached Kolkata on time. My
brother was there right on the gate (he works at the airport). Then surprises
followed. The hotel we booked through hotels.com informed us that the hotel is
actually not booked. My brother tried to use his connections in getting us a
place, but finally it turned out that they let us stay in a suit that costed 3
times the price we would have liked to pay. To add to our troubles, there was
also taxi strike. Some news channel type people came to me asked me about my
experiences about the strike. I am not sure if they had broadcasted it or not,
but it was funny. I emailed Dr. Mandal (A chief scientist, who I was in touch
with from the very beginning of my recruitment procedure at IICB) about our
housing woes and thankfully, they managed to book guest house from the next day
for 10 days. I would join the institute as a Ramalingaswamy fellow initially at
the insistence of the director. The regular position will take a while is what
I was told. In any case, after that being done, we decided to proceed back to the
hotel and slept a lot. The next day morning, we proceeded to the CSIR guest
house that is located by the side of the Ravindra sarovar. It is a very nice
place with high speed internet in each block. It is managed really well. After a long time, I did not have to lift our overweight luggage, somebody else actually did it for me:))
We called the laundry guys to come and take our dresses for washing and drying.
I guess, my dresses must thank me for that since they were never pressed in
last years…Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner was served along with morning and evening
tea. Again another luxury, did not have to wash utensils in 10 years. We just
eat in the dining room (Food served) and walk off. Food comprises of Rice,
Roti, 2 veggie items, dal, salad and sweets. I am enjoying it. The room cost
per employee (IICB) is Rs.25 and Rs 50 for Pramod. It was very cheap and nice
place to be in. Now I am feeling little bit like home since we will be here for
a stretch of 10 days. Looking back I realized ever since we vacated our home
(on July 4th), I never lived in a place for longer than a week. So,
this definitely appears long term. My second day in Kolkata was really good. We
booked a car for the whole day and ferried around the city. I managed to talk
with the section officer of the institute, clarified some employment related questions, filled
up some more forms and came back to guest house. We took walk by the sarovar
side that has beautiful walking trails. The next day 27th July was
also a good one. I send my photos for id
making, followed by making some progress into taking students and my office
space. On 28th our baggage arrived and we obtained a data plan for
cell phone. The next thing remains is to buy a phone.
Kolkata has not changed ever since independence I guess,
with all the old dilapidated structures and non-functional traffic. It is
impossible to go from one place to another without frequent halts. I am not
sure why the govt. is not taking any actions. There are old vehicles, taxis
ferrying around and people with their unpleasant demeanor make situation more
worse. But slowly, you will realize that behind their grumpy face does not lie
any anger towards you, but rather that is their true native state.
The first few days appears extremely similar to my CPMB
joining dates for Ph.D programs. The only difference is, I was much younger and
in-experienced then. I am now tempted to write about a comparative account of
landing in USA VS landing in India. I am sure there will be many parallels as
well as perpendiculars. Life is slowly settling and I am feeling better each passing
day.
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