An year to remember..

Last year on October 2^nd, though irony, I had to leave India on Gandhi Jayanti to travel to US. Lot of 'first time in life's happened during this one year  - staying away from family and outside country, travelling in airplane, cooking, meeting different kinds of people, etc. Journey was excited, travelling alone seeing people from different cultures. While heading towards my room in the cab after landing in Houston, I was able to see all the things here which I imagined about US except skyscrapers. Being a flat city, Houston has more kind of wide-spread buildings which are high in width but shy in height.

On the first day at office, all formal introductions and meetings happened with the team.  It was totally a different experience to meet and talk with the people here. They are so friendly in nature and truly professional. I started working with client-side employees who have more experience in the domain of the project than my ageJ. They never downbeat or pessimist any idea that is held in anyone's mind.

The weather in Houston is quite similar to Hyderabad’s. So, there were no problems in adjusting to this place initially. But, there were some unusual days where it was hard to live. And funny thing is you can see a downpour in one place but there are no signs of it when you proceed one mile ahead.

Other interesting thing happened to me during this year is "Cooking". From someone who barely knows how to prepare a tea, I become a less-than-expert in cooking. Thanks to Youtube, within short period, I was able to cook the food which is eatable. It is not that much difficult as I thought before starting it.

To talk about US, being a developed country, it has perfect system in most of the fields. They are more automatic which reduces time and effort of people here. For e.g., Traffic system. It has setup everything seamless to control the huge number of vehicles on the vast roads with multi-lanes .The most amazing spot which I noticed on the road is the STOP sign. People follow the system here strictly (and blindlyJ) as they have faith in its precision.

In this one year, thanks to wonderful colleagues and friends, I got a chance to learn lot of new things. But, there are many more to learn and survive here. Slowly working towards them and the best is yet to come..!!

LIMITLESS WONDER

This is about the person whom I came to know accidentally when one of my friends liked his post in Facebook. His name is Sai Prasad and the post was about his first sky-diving. As fascinated by the word sky-dive and after seeing the number of hits for the video in the post, I clicked on the link to watch it. And believe me, I stood spellbound for some time after watching it. There is nothing special about sky-diving as it is always a common aspiration for most of the youth and it increased more after the movie ZNMD. But a person who lost the sense in his legs during his childhood (as per previous news and his interviews) doing this adventurous task is definitely remarkable. Besides experiencing one of his lifetime thrills, he indirectly proved the whole world once again that “Impossible is nothing”.

         Immediately, I sent him a friend request and it was accepted within minutes. I started peeping more into his profile, posts, and videos and was deeply impressed by the inspiring words and stories which he keeps posting. The more I came to know about him, the more I started thinking what can be achieved with the self-determination and willingness. There is a series called ‘100 Inspirational stories’ on his wall and it has stories of the people who influenced him the most. They all teach us one simple lesson – never forget you roots and people who helped you to become what you are today. There is something you can learn from every person you meet in your life. Those stories are truly mesmerizing and the way he narrates makes them more interesting and encouraging.

One day, I was watching ‘Satyameve Jayate’ episode which is about physical disability and to my surprise, Aamir khan was interviewing this person in the show. My respect towards him increased million times more after hearing his motivating words in the episode. I bet those words might have boosted loads of confidence in the people with the physical disabilities. Such a fantastic show it was, with such a perfect actor interviewing the most confident person. From then on, I became regular follower of his posts.

There are many events which he regularly participates and gives lectures. Recently, he got selected as youth ambassador out of 30 people in the world to tour ANTARCTICA and his idea to raise awareness on renewable energy is the key for the selection. It made all Indians proud. With his grit determination and commitment, nobody can stop him in this world to travel to any part of it. There are plenty and plenty of things which are not just to see and learn but to follow from him. All the best and a big salute to you Sai Prasad...We are proud of you!!

An Attempt!!

Everyday is running as if it is competing with Bolt..years are passing with the wink of an eye..”In this rush hour, in this busy life which we surrendered, are we caring and talking to ourselves which is needed by our soul??”…This is the question which lingers in my mind every night when I go to bed…Here, Iam making an attempt to answer that question.Hope this will be a nice experience!!