Everyone's Dream
It's always fascinating to visit new places, learn more about people & culture and take pictures for memories. We all love trips. But visiting foreign country or going abroad can be on top list of most. Some may want to visit for shorter period for tourism purpose and some may want to live for longer period. In today's IT boom, going in foreign country (going onsite in IT lingo) is not a big challenge anymore. With most IT business in India carried out for foreign clients, sending Indian people to client country is inevitable. So the trick is clear. Become an IT/Software professional and you might be on the way soon anytime.
And so did that happen to me. After higher secondary school, I badly wished to go for Hotel Management which of course didn't happen due to opposition from my home. But if I look back, in a way it might have happened for good. I got into IT field studies, graduated out of Mumbai University and got into IT organization through campus. It was less than two years spent at organization and I get a call. I was late to office on Monday and friend of mine tells me, my project manager was looking for me. "You need to travel urgently to Baltimore (US) on Friday for long term". Long expected yes, but completely out of mind frame at that moment, I was shocked. With so little time left and so many unfinished business at current project at offshore, I was more than lost.
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Saturday, 23rd June 2007 and I was on my way. I was accompanied by my parents, sister and two of my good friends. Apart from going abroad, there were few more things about this travel to me. For more than a decade now, I have been following football quite closely and being a true fan of ManUtd football club in England, it's always a dream of any Reds to visit Old Trafford in Manchester. England being home nation, this place was always close to heart. And co-incidentally, my British Airways flight was arranged in such a manner that I was required to do stop over journey through Heathrow airport in London with 6 hours of gap between next flight. For my age and innocence at that moment, nothing could have come better for me. I wasn't even going out of airport but still the fact that I will be landing in England fascinated me more than landing in US.
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Finally arrived in London, I was overwhelmed. It was my first ever visit to foreign country and normally international airports being maintained in top condition, everything around starts amazing you. To my surprise, I saw lot of Indian(sardar) staff at Heathrow airport which gave a bit of comfort feeling being out of country first time. Instructions to find terminal of your next flight is quite detailed everywhere so its never a problem at any airport. I had 6 hours of stopover and trust me, Heathrow Terminal 5 is one the biggest & busiest international terminal you may come across. It's shifted to new a place now and even bigger than what it was in 2007. You may actually need to take a train to reach to your gate if you landed exactly at the other end of terminal. So spending 6 hours wasn't a challenge. I managed to get a travel phonecard and called home. I was given AMEX credit card by my company for my initial basic expenses which I nicely used to purchase England Umbro jersey worth 70 pounds. Ya, that was my first basic expense (lol). After wandering through entire terminal and shops, I finally had to bid goodbye to England.
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My next part of travel was not much to look forward for as it was 7 long hours of journey over Atlantic ocean and nothing much to watch. However time fly by and I landed in Baltimore, US. The place which I had not even known before coming here and no idea how long I was gonna be here. I had little clue how much this place was going to mean to me after good 2 years of stay. How much it had to offer me and how much I was going to change personally. I had immigration check done and took a cab for my hotel. I was given driving instruction of route to hotel which I handed over to cab driver and I reached hotel with no hassle. I checked in at Extended Stay Americas and finally I was in my bed after exact 24 hours of journey.
I count my stay in Baltimore as one of the turning point as it changed me personally a lot!
