Half a decade as NRI

 Yesterday, 10th March..

A day that I wont forget... Of course there are many more memorable days in my life that I wont forget, but this is one of its kind...

A day that I (actually I should say we - my family) landed on a foreign land to become a Non-Resident Indian, NRI.. A long cherished dream of working abroad, in a developed nation, in a more peaceful work culture with better work life balance..

A destination... Not really... probably a pit stop... Dream destination is was the United States of America. So Penang, Malaysia was planned as a layover at a transiting airport... 

A year or maximum two to be eligible to apply for L1 visa to USA.. I was so confident of finding that opportunity to get an internal transfer to USA.... Of course, Intel is the largest semiconductor company in the world.. If the opportunity cant be found here, then where else could it be!!

But life always has surprises in store. Within probably half a year, I was getting into a new comfort zone.. Life is easy here too.. 

Traffic is less... The biggest relief for anyone who moves out of Bangalore... 

Weather was better for me - Bangalore weather affected my sinus most of the time.. 

Office work culture is not hectic.. bosses and colleagues understood what can be accomplished in a 40 hr workweek and things are planned accordingly. For someone coming from India, what is planned here probably needs only 60% efficiency.. There was lot of scope to do more - still less than what you would do in a competitive environment like in India - and be considered excellent..

Travel to India is significantly easier than having to go across the globe.. 4 hour flight from Kuala Lumpur to Cochin.. Low cost airlines.. No jet lag.. And a trip to India for a wedding within 2 months of coming to Penang.. Unimaginable if I had moved to USA..

Asian culture.. Things mostly seem familiar.. many Indians around.. Indian food.. Little India Market.. Temples.. 

And there goes the dream destination - sloooowly into the back of the mind... After a year in Penang, if someone asked me "Do you want to go to US", my answer was "only for business travel or holidaying"

So time flies and yesterday we finished half a decade on this beautiful island in Malaysia... 

A day that we had been talking about for past few weeks.. Imagining how we should celebrate it.. Discussing options.. Should it be a lunch/dinner at a restaurant? Should it be a staycation? Should it a day trip?

But as I said, life always has surprises... As I write this today, we realized we had forgotten the day!!!!

Yesterday ended up being just another day... And that signifies that Penang has indeed become our own... 

Ah, how to leave an opportunity to celebrate go waste... that too in this pandemic that took a year out of our lives confining us to ourselves without get-togethers and parties and trips... 

So we shall find yet another "half-a-decade anniversary". There are going to be plenty coming up in the next few weeks!!! First day of office, first day of school, first day at our rented apartment (where we still stay), first outing in Malaysia and the list goes on. And on...

Signing off for today, promising that I will soon tell you what we celebrated and how!! 

Comments

VLSI KINGs said…
True Penang is amazing , miss it alot
8:08 PM
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