New Girl in the City... :)

                “Mam, please go to the 10^th counter and pay the required amount.” I looked at the receipt.’ INR 6000 /- only’ it said. “That is as expensive as my air-ticket” I said. She smiled. Not wanting to argue I went to the counter and paid for my excess luggage. I remembered the number of tests I had failed in my training to earn that money. I checked-in and turned back to search for my family. Their worried faces greeted me with a smile. It is a custom for them to wait till I check-in. I showed them thumbs up. I started walking towards the security check. I glanced at the huge LCD. Despite the bad weather my flight to Trivandrum was as per the schedule. No chance of missing the flight or the flight being rescheduled. My bad luck had been steady so far. I reached the security check only to find a km long queue. Out of frustration I looked outside the glass wall adjoining the Ladies security check. There my parents and my brother sitting on a table of 4. I found them staring at the empty chair. My heart broke. I was supposed to sit on that chair and enjoy a nice cup of hot cappuccino with them on that rainy day. I was supposed to fill that 4^th chair every place they went to. Wishful thinking I thought. I called up my parents, waved at them for one last time and moved on.

                Flights are always boring. Time crawled. Unfortunately even my favorite writer could not keep me engrossed. I finished with two masala teas and gazed into the future. I had seen Trivandrum only on Google maps – magnified view. The zoomed out map of India had pushed me into depression. Trivandrum was just few hundred kilometers away from the extreme corner of country. I was thrown from Mumbai to Mysore and now further down south - to Trivandrum. Life had just gone down-under.

After cursing God for more than half of the duration of my flight I decided to take advantage of my window seat. And I was amazed. Beautiful! I could only see coconut trees. I wondered where people stayed! And for some time I actually thought that people here stayed in tree houses. All I could see was the vast ocean and coconut trees. The rainy season had only beautified everything. I knew my life was going to be cool. Or so I thought.

Landed. The airport was/is only 1/50^th of the Mumbai airport. But that was not my concern. I opened my email to fetch the address of the hotel where I was put up. All of my acquaintances (I say so because we hardly knew each other’s names then) were slated to reach after a few days which meant me alone for quite some time. I somehow managed my luggage, took a prepaid taxi to reach the hotel that was in the heart of the city. The entire city was silent and it was only 5.30 PM. I sat beside the driver seat and he was pretty surprised when I told him I would take the front seat. On the way I hardly saw anyone wearing trousers or shorts. ‘Lungi’ and ‘Mundu’ (I have learned the difference between them only recently) seemed like the national dress of Kerala. Kerala felt like a different country altogether. I reached the hotel successfully but the nightmare had just begun.

I was given the corner-most room of that hotel. The lights of the corridor ceased to work. I tried to convince the receptionist for a room nearer to the reception. But NO! According the rules Rooms could not be exchanged. Also I was supposed to pay the entire hotel rent alone since I had no roomie. Expenses Reloaded. I knew Trivandrum was turning out to be too expensive for me. Thankfully, they helped me carry my bags.  Thankfully, the room was decent enough.  But with decency came silence. I looked out of the window. No view. And it rained. I felt happy for the rains though. At least there was something common between Mumbai and Trivandrum – rains.

To do away with the silence I turned on the TV. And it just did not work. I tried all the possible combination of buttons. And then there came a point when I felt ashamed of being an Engineer. This point comes in every Engineer’s life. None considers you as an Engineer till you fix some appliance. TV failed me. I wanted to avoid calling for help since I was alone. Security reasons you see. But I could not take the silence anymore and hence called up the reception for repair. And within seconds the entire staff made an entry into my room. They worked as if repairing that TV was the only mission of their lives. Finally after an hour the TV worked. Now the entire hotel knew I stayed alone. Exactly what I wanted! (aargh!) Of course I could not sleep that night…and the many nights that followed. TV was my only companion all this time.

On the first day I asked the receptionist my way to the campus. He told me to catch some bus that went to some place. I could not even spell what he said. Pronouncing those names was impossible. They spelled ‘zha’ in a different manner.  Since I was confident I would catch the wrong bus anyway I thanked him and left. So here I was, in a totally strange land, catching buses. I got into the first bus that was supposed to help me reach my destination. During the journey I spent my entire time tackling strange looks. There were separate sections for men and women in the bus. That was something new to me. Separate compartments in trains were expected but not in buses!

Finally, after more than an hour and changing 2 modes of transport I reached my workplace. The campus ended as I entered. It was extremely small as compared to the other ones. I found my manager and reported to him. Everything was new. I was clumsy. Faces were unfamiliar. I tried contacting friends from other DCs. Office communicator was the first thing I opened. The ‘Black tag’ had transformed me from a ‘trainee’ to a ‘resource’. I quickly made a list of things to do. Searching for a house was priority no.01. And it had to be done real quick.

Dinners were a problem. The hotel, we stayed at, was too expensive. I and my colleague tried every imaginable restaurant in the city. The pink and boiled water greeted us everywhere. I whatsapped a photo of the pink water to my father. He panicked and immediately called me up to ask what it was. It was difficult to figure out that it was drinking water. The water is colored because of the medicinal herbs. I decided to go for it. And since then I decided to try every imaginable Kerala custom and food. I decided to adapt to everything around.

We had to find a nest within 6 days and so we house-hunted like crazy. My roomie joined me in a few days and finally I was spared the horror of taking important decisions alone. Come Thursday and we did not have a nest to stay. I stood in front of the hypermarket and called mom, my last resort. It was pitch-dark and traffic was deafening. I broke down. I felt helpless. I was just 2 days away from being kicked out of the hotel and I had no place to dump my ‘over-paid-for’ luggage. I regretted having turned down my father’s offer to accompany me till I settled down. I regretted being confident about living on my own.

Come Friday and by God’s grace we had options to choose from! 2 beautiful houses waited for us. We opted for the fully-furnished one though. It was like a dream come true! However, we were not sure which apartment we had opted for. We had seen so many apartments in the past few days that we could not recollect exactly which one we had opted for. And VOILA! It turned out to be a steal! It has a sea-view. And yes, in case of a Tsunami our building would be the first one to be hit. Doesn’t matter though. Finally, God had seen those tears.

And we sealed the deal. It was the first time we all wrote cheques. Cheques worth more than a lac rupee (expensive deal. But we love the house!) The amount on the cheques made me think I had a bright future!  We entered the apartment (now home) and it felt amazing. It was meant to be. This apartment is now called our ‘home’ *touchwood*. And the sea is still the first thing that we see every morning. Uncalled expenses, sleepless nights, tears, frustration, bad luck… in the end it didn’t even matter. J  We got ‘home away from home’. J *touchwood*. We vowed to make this place the most happening  place ever. We all are…like…alienated here having little access to the outside world. Sooo.. we created our own world here.  According to us visiting Sri Lanka is cheaper and faster than visiting home. Jokes apart! Understanding, love and support follows. We are just a bunch of awesome people mixed together like a Bhelpuri. The only thing is that….the Bhelpuri is served in coconut leaves.