Sometime your silent, straightforward life takes sudden turn, it changes drastically, you don't get time to prepare yourself to face the new era of your life. In a same way, my life took a sharp turn in 2006, I was switching my job to company having customers in Japan. I joined the company office based in Pune. The induction and other formalities took place and my life in the new company started. I was happy and first few days passed in that happiness. But you quickly get bored at new place if you are not assigned any interesting work and same thing was happening to me. That boredom was irritating me and occasionally, thoughts of one more switch started coming to my mind. I was not doing any interesting or so called challenging work for almost next two months and finally on one fine morning I decided to ask my management about this and if they don't respond positively I was thinking to quit this job and find the new one. I talked to my manager and conveyed him my concern. He assured me that soon I will be assigned the real work and will be free from this boredom. I was not convinced, because I believe that the word 'soon' is very tricky, its diplomatic, it is used to hide the realities and to convince the people just for time being. I was now seriously thinking of change, I started preparing my resume and then forwarding it to various companies but as you know its but obvious that when you are trying to seek something, you don't get it, it runs away from you. I was no exception to that. I was expecting the quick reply from the companies I applied but they were taking their 'own time' and I was becoming more and more frustrated.
On one afternoon when I came to my place after finishing my lunch, our HR manager called on my extension and asked me to see her in her office. I thought that she must have found out that I am looking for a change and to discuss this she must have told me to visit her office. When I entered her office, she smiled and offered me a seat. I sat down and then she asked me typical HR type questions like how are you doing? Did you like the company ? etc. " A perfect start of sensitive conversation". I muttered to myself. But to much surprise she directly came to the point and told me to submit my passport and two photographs as soon as possible. I was shaken, I was confused, I could not respond. Then she told me, "yes, you are flying to Japan next week and for at least three months". When I was out of that pleasant shock, I was worried about number of things. The most scaring was the Japanese language. Although I had studied Japanese for two years in Pune University, it was altogether different to use this language in a country where its native, particularly when the majority of it's speaker are unaware of the so called language of the globe, "English". First time in my life I was about to stay for so long, away from my home and I was not having any skill of cooking, so my next concern was how I will able to feed myself as the Japanese food is very much different from that of my own 'Maharashtriyan' food and how would I survive in workaholic Japanese society? All these things were bothering me that afternoon.
In the evening, I told my parents and my younger sister about my company's decision, they were surprised at first and congratulated me. But soon, as expected I saw their worried faces, I knew that there are the same reasons which are bothering them. Then we kept talking just on Japan for the entire evening. For many years I was dreaming to visit Japan and now my dream was coming true.
From next day I started all types of preparations for my Japan visit like collecting the required documents, packing up my suitcase, studying my tasks which I needed to carry out during my visit etc.
In next three days my visa got approved and by the end of the week my flight ticket was issued too.
So finally everything was set and I prepared myself for departure. Two of my colleagues were with me and I was the only one among them who could speak Japanese.
On the day of departure company's van came to pick me up. After listening non stop instructions from my parents and other relatives (few of my relatives came to my place to see me off) I finally boarded the van. Suddenly I got call from my Administrator telling me that the van did not pick one of my colleague up as he was not present at his place, in addition to that he was unreachable on his cell phone. She instructed me to somehow manage the chauffeur of the van, contact my missing colleague and pick him up from where he was. Then I tried him several times but still he was unreachable. After fifteen minutes I got call from him asking me where we were and requested me to pick him up from specific location. I requested our chauffeur to turn back and finally my fellow colleague boarded the van. He was quiet and tired, wearing only a short, T shirt and bathroom sleepers. I saw his brand new empty suitcase lying on the seat. It must have been bought today only, even the packing paper was not removed. He was holding several carry bags in his hand, it seemed that he was busy in shopping hence he could not make it on time. But why he was wearing shorts, T-shirt and bathroom slippers? I was thinking. After resting for few minutes, he was comfortable, then he smiled and told me the untold story. Last night he had a rocking party with his friends. And obviously he got up late in the morning, just an hour before his pick up time. After that he realized that he was supposed to buy several items including suitcase. So in order to save his time he skipped some 'less important' things. His room mates took him out for shopping and dropped him at the place from where we picked him up. I asked him to make sure whether he has all the necessary documents viz. passport, flight ticket, invitation letter, with him. He opened one of the polythene carry bag and took out a bunch of documents, verified them and told me in relieved voice that fortunately he has everything he needs. In few minutes our one more colleague joined us and we started packing that empty suitcase.
I kept thinking about my next three months during my entire journey of four hours to Mumbai airport. I was excited and afraid at the same time about these unknown three months.
(In continuation)
On one afternoon when I came to my place after finishing my lunch, our HR manager called on my extension and asked me to see her in her office. I thought that she must have found out that I am looking for a change and to discuss this she must have told me to visit her office. When I entered her office, she smiled and offered me a seat. I sat down and then she asked me typical HR type questions like how are you doing? Did you like the company ? etc. " A perfect start of sensitive conversation". I muttered to myself. But to much surprise she directly came to the point and told me to submit my passport and two photographs as soon as possible. I was shaken, I was confused, I could not respond. Then she told me, "yes, you are flying to Japan next week and for at least three months". When I was out of that pleasant shock, I was worried about number of things. The most scaring was the Japanese language. Although I had studied Japanese for two years in Pune University, it was altogether different to use this language in a country where its native, particularly when the majority of it's speaker are unaware of the so called language of the globe, "English". First time in my life I was about to stay for so long, away from my home and I was not having any skill of cooking, so my next concern was how I will able to feed myself as the Japanese food is very much different from that of my own 'Maharashtriyan' food and how would I survive in workaholic Japanese society? All these things were bothering me that afternoon.
In the evening, I told my parents and my younger sister about my company's decision, they were surprised at first and congratulated me. But soon, as expected I saw their worried faces, I knew that there are the same reasons which are bothering them. Then we kept talking just on Japan for the entire evening. For many years I was dreaming to visit Japan and now my dream was coming true.
From next day I started all types of preparations for my Japan visit like collecting the required documents, packing up my suitcase, studying my tasks which I needed to carry out during my visit etc.
In next three days my visa got approved and by the end of the week my flight ticket was issued too.
So finally everything was set and I prepared myself for departure. Two of my colleagues were with me and I was the only one among them who could speak Japanese.
On the day of departure company's van came to pick me up. After listening non stop instructions from my parents and other relatives (few of my relatives came to my place to see me off) I finally boarded the van. Suddenly I got call from my Administrator telling me that the van did not pick one of my colleague up as he was not present at his place, in addition to that he was unreachable on his cell phone. She instructed me to somehow manage the chauffeur of the van, contact my missing colleague and pick him up from where he was. Then I tried him several times but still he was unreachable. After fifteen minutes I got call from him asking me where we were and requested me to pick him up from specific location. I requested our chauffeur to turn back and finally my fellow colleague boarded the van. He was quiet and tired, wearing only a short, T shirt and bathroom sleepers. I saw his brand new empty suitcase lying on the seat. It must have been bought today only, even the packing paper was not removed. He was holding several carry bags in his hand, it seemed that he was busy in shopping hence he could not make it on time. But why he was wearing shorts, T-shirt and bathroom slippers? I was thinking. After resting for few minutes, he was comfortable, then he smiled and told me the untold story. Last night he had a rocking party with his friends. And obviously he got up late in the morning, just an hour before his pick up time. After that he realized that he was supposed to buy several items including suitcase. So in order to save his time he skipped some 'less important' things. His room mates took him out for shopping and dropped him at the place from where we picked him up. I asked him to make sure whether he has all the necessary documents viz. passport, flight ticket, invitation letter, with him. He opened one of the polythene carry bag and took out a bunch of documents, verified them and told me in relieved voice that fortunately he has everything he needs. In few minutes our one more colleague joined us and we started packing that empty suitcase.
I kept thinking about my next three months during my entire journey of four hours to Mumbai airport. I was excited and afraid at the same time about these unknown three months.
(In continuation)
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