Memphis to Bangalore - Part 2

Memphis to Bangalore – Part 2

(…continued)

.….. Aug 2007, my father finally returned home after a prolonged two weeks of stay in the 6th floor of the Hospital. All of us were just thrilled to see the smile back on his face and support back on his spine. Now, it’s his own turn of treating himself with sufficient exercise to justify the metal and cage inserted into his vertebral column, thanks to the advanced medical technology. By the time we bid adieu to the hospital, I had made myself quite familiar to each and every corner of the hospital. I was kind of a Premium customer due to my frequent visits to the various departments - Orthopedic when Ashwini was admitted a few months ago after being hit by our house gate one windy morning during Summer of 07 & of course, my routine trips to the ENT corner.

Around the same time, we celebrated Arabhi’s 2^nd year birthday when my improved father was able to ascend 2 floors in the party hall. Even after the surgery with a sigh of relief, he still suffered pain when I continuously coughed. It was my time to consult the well established Pulmonogist in Rajajinagar. It was my testing time not just as a chronic patient, but also as a driver from E-city to the Bashyam circle, honking and coughing all my drive. After a series of tests to my lungs, some Anti histamine capsules were supplemented to my medicine menu card. Curious were my family when I returned home late with a bunch of reports, graphs, medicines and prescription. As usual, a few days later, I started feeling better after the intake of new drugs, but hopes always short lived. Just a day before Karnataka Rajyotsava of 2007, when we completed our first anniversary of "Return to India", nasal dripping re-started. When I sadly looked back at my one year of achievement, I remembered my US Manager’s words that doors would always be open if I decide to join them back.. Before I left Memphis I remembered Srinidhi mentioning, “We’ll see you back sir in Memphis after a year :-)”…… Will running away solve my problem? … Well..It might.. But that wasn’t just my motto and I will rather fail the very purpose of returning back. I knew my father’s case was just a temporary fix and there were many more in pipeline. I definitely couldn’t have quit, hence decided to re-sharpen my cartooning skills and contribute for Infy in some way.

After all, re-starting cartooning after a long break of 7 years wasn't that easier. After enquiring our intranet portal folks I could start "Infytoons", much to my satisfaction for being able to use the rusted creativity. My cold, cough and sore throat mates kept visiting me every few days making quite sure, I don't dare enough to sing. However, in that week's span of “cough-free” break I could barely open my tanpura & tabla bags and close them safely. Meanwhile, a friend of mine also a Tablist Guru, Shankar Kulkarni tried motivating in arranging me concerts.. I was quite reluctant, but having believed in me, he continuously visited my place accompanying me on Tabla despite his busy schedule as a Delivery Manager. However I only kept coughing. When my father was just showing good signs of improvement, one night he was unable to prevent spraining his ankle, leading the problem from Neurology to Orthopedic. For my Jan 2008 New Year wishes e-mail, one of my friends from Memphis, Doris responded, “Hey bro, I understand your commitment to your family, but you got to take care of yourself first”.. She was right.. I badly needed to take care of myself to move forward.

The newly formed TV channel in our company, interviewed me for their very first show ‘Offline’ when I was constantly involved in contributing cartoons to their portal. Well,, I thought finally that would mark an end to my bad days journey, but as they say, “Prathama chumbanam danta bagnam”, had to undergo some technical issue on the very show in the IT company and no one could watch it including myself. Now it’s available on youtube though :-) visit - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wBsrEnIUjY

Meanwhile, I dared posting a message to the Infy classical music forum in seeking support for a fusion music group. When hardly anyone responded, my interest and confidence even dampened. Anyways, I didn't have to go for a follow up with the musician group as, my “happy break” was soon over and I was back into my fever/cold and coughing business. It was probably the same time I read an album release article from a fellow musician colleague, Manu Shrivastava. I congratulated him and also expressed interest in meeting, but didn’t receive a reply.

Without much of any luck, I continued drawing cartoons on the corporate world. It wasn't that easy to get published because I had to prove and re-establish the contacts all over again. “Times of India” started publishing.. but as it wasn’t on a regular basis, my motivation levels kept fluctuating. Thatskannada.com also published some.. In all, my enthu meter varied depending upon the publication. I had almost lost the immunity in a year by the intake of drugs with mild steroid and anti histamines content. Perhaps, this resulted in a rare infection, “Herpes Zortes”, making half of my face with pus filled rashes. As I looked real obnoxious, I stayed home for over a week to placate my scary derma caused by this Vericella virus, which in turn also infected Ashwini with its contagious sibling, “Chicken pox”. Arabhi’s vaccinations given in the US somewhat shielded as anti virus from this viral attack. My “Shaapa vimochana” still appeared like a distant dream. For more than a year I continuously sneezed, threw the flem out, wiped my nose, took all the Desi remedies people recommended to pacify - ginger/pepper/turmeric/honey/kashaya/Tulasi/Chawanprash etc. I also developed dark circles around my eyes and ache in the upper back due to the chronic cough. At nights, I used to sleep like a baby and start my day, coughing as an old man. I barely managed to even attend my Guruji Pt. Parameshwar Hegde’s Guru poornima functions. When I explained my problems, even he felt helpless and only wished me for the speedy recovery and I continued to remain as a dead man because I never lived without music. Ayurvedic Amritarista and Balaristha were something that I was advised to take to bring back my immunity.

April 2008 was the time when I had my major achievement giving the finishing touch to my home studio setup after buying low end mixer, speakers and step up transformers! When we were absolute clueless about the Sound engineering stuff way back in 2003, it took us just about 3 months in our Cordova apt going thru Online forums. My setup was complete, but singing was still out of reach. I dared knocking the doors of my vocal cords only when my cough took break for a few days. Usually the symptom returns with vengeance after a few days break. This time, May 2008 became a complete peaceful month, free from all symptoms. However, our Hospital rounds didn’t come to a halt - this time it’s Ashwini’s surgery turn for the removal of cyst.

When Prabhakar Parikh from Memphis visited us during his India trip in this hot summer, we could glimpse the entire Memphis in him. I sang Raag Bageshri during his stay at our place. June wasn't too bad either.. I sang Raag Rageshri, Dhanashri, Madhuvanti, Durga, Poorvi… (beautiful names huh?J) .. Shobha aunty from Hunstville visited the same time. I had started recording and editing some half a dozen half done songs that were initiated in US just before we left. I knew, often, follow up’s work. Hence, I knocked Manu Shrivastava’s mail box again and this time he was prompt replying and after listening to my samples in www.soundclick.com/vishwini, he responded “Saastang pranaam Guruji...My pleasure meeting you”. That was one of my greatest compliments I received from an exceptionally talented musician since we returned from US. For the first time in about 2 years, I managed to sing for a concert arranged by my Tablist friend, Kulkarni in Sep 2008..At the end of the concert, I could notice Ashwini's eyes patting my back and my parents watching me from a distance were almost in tears. I couldn't believe for a moment it was me singing. It was not just the voice that I had lost; practice, ability, confidence, rather everything. In the same month, I performed for a Ganesha festival too. I then started thinking where did those terminator symptoms go, that had reminded, “I WILL BE BACK!” before leaving me last summer? Later, when there was a request for a Jugalbandi of Carnatic and Hindustani concert for Infy Karnataka Rajyotsava 2008, I nominated myself as a vocalist.

My first concert in Infy in Nov 08 was soon followed by the formation of a dream group "Xprescions". When Vikram seek my help forming the group, though I was little scared of my condition initially, I finally took up the charge of composing, arranging, connecting with the musician friends. No one in the group would have had a clue of my condition just a few months ago. Most of the group members knew me only from this point of time as a hale and healthy musician. The symphony concert in March 2009 was a phenomenal success.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3PpY7H5VUw&feature=related

Formation of this group probably changed my Rekha giving me a second birth. After the concert, quite a few wondered where I was all these days. For all of them, I sincerely replied, “Well,, probably sitting next to you coughing, unnoticed.." :-) .. I developed many friends and could sense myself going back to my college days, feeling ten years younger ;).. Over a decade ago, we had a wonderful musician group of friends - Anil, Yashwaswini, Vardhamana, Kitta and few others. I could now feel all of them in this group, which I badly missed after my return.

We started performing as a group in many public places. As a group we received recognition, respect, support, award and we also learnt many things; it was the practice sessions that we treasured more than the performance. Making time for practicing alongside the ever demanding work and the family time has been quite a challenge for all of us and we had to overcome this if we need to move along. Now Manu, Himesh, Sarang, Shruthi and many other musician friends along with me work as a team composing and performing.

We started getting featured in the newspapers all over again. Recognition from the media, company and various organizations also boost one’s confidence. It certainly gives an immense feeling when one’s hard work is appreciated. Any success story would have often witnessed a number of failures, which are normally unseen. Now, the immunity of my conditioned body has tremendously improved, but I still get attacked from my old pal once in a while. Whenever I could sense that the terminator is on my way, I make sure I take precautionary measures to keep him away and if it all he makes, stays for at least a month or two giving me hard time and hard cough. Now I have a hope that, it wouldn’t last for long. I continue singing so as to stay in the race. When I recently explained my colleague friend, how I used to be home by 5:15 in the evening after work, have light supper at 6 and then go for a peaceful pollution free walk, and back on my music, she compared my life to that of Raghuvir Yadav's "Mungeri Lal ke haseen Sapne".. How true it is!! It might be hard for the people here to believe the way we lived. I now realize that I was probably riding on the top of the wheel then, which wouldn’t remain at the same position. One may not remain in the same coordinates all the time, be it good or bad, top or bottom, it has to change. There is always a success, always a failure, always a surprise, always a hope.

Almost a decade ago, when I was living in a 10*10, drawing room attached kitchen attached bathroom near Raghavendra Swami temple in Hulimavu, did I imagine I would have a US born daughter one day?..

In the same way, I never predicted my Mungeri dreams would take a 360 degree turn one day and then trouble me staying at the bottom of the wheel for years. My father’s surgery wasn’t a permanent one either. Pain aggravated from the Lumbar spine region, demanding another round of surgery which took place just a few days ago without any major issues.

At work front, probably it only worsens when you move up the ladder. However, I can’t help sincerely hoping for a change one day or somewhat adjust to this environment. Traffic problems?? Well – Metro :-) "Bhagavan jaane!!" when it completes; wherever we are, India or abroad, still have the same amount of time in a day, where we spend more than half a day for satisfying the customers in the west and.... ofcourse our bosses (will they ever be satisfied?? ;).. And rest, the commitment and support to the family - spouse, kid(s), parents, and the list goes on.. whoaaaa.. Where do we have time now? ..and there is still a long way to go for reaching the next level. I still manage to spend time for my music to an extent, still draw cartoons on demand, still perform, still compose, and try indulging in social responsibility activities whenever time permits... It’s possible in my case, because I still don't know where the Garuda Mall is in Bangalore, I may have visited "Forum" once or twice,,, "Chak de India" was my only movie in last 5 years before we updated our "Avatar", I hardly do shopping. I’m least knowledgeable on the restaurants we have in Jayanagar or Koramangala or BTM Layout, and when my friends talk about shares and market, I see stars, I rarely take vacation, and I have almost stopped watching my favorite cricket matches :-( but I still enjoy life and my true passion.. :-) I know I have to loose battles to win a war as it’s quite difficult for a person linked to an ever demanding professional competency and yet trying to excel in some other.

Arabhi now 4, very much enjoys following our footsteps, be it in the form of singing or drawing or dancing or acting and this is how our lives have adapted without compromising the true passion. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsFma5BRTeg
However at times, when people enquire me about their “Return to India” plans, I try giving an unbiased view and stay neutral with more facts and figures :-). One of my friends who lived in Phoenix, Arizona for over 15 years returned back and now working for the same company, living in a very comfortable Brigade apartments, and their US born kids enjoying their Indian school life. Just to quote another example, a friend of mine hailing from South Canara during his India trip a few years ago, was unable to cope up with the torturing sultry Mangalore heat, jetlag, had to stay away from his own house and move to an Air conditioned hotel when his kids terribly suffered. Situations vary from one individual to another. If something works for one, not necessarily should it work for others, and viceversa. I would consider this as just a new phase; though my transition was quite a long one, but marks a very interesting phase of my life, witnessing the good old Mississippi river side drive to the “Nice” bumpy ride of narrow Gottigere and Begur lakes..

Arabhi now hardly remembers a thing of her US stint, however relates every US city, downtown, snow in the Star movies & HBO channels to ‘Memphis’, and even says sometimes “Papa, Memphis ge hogoNa?..” (shall we go to Memphis?).... Nodding my head, I simply smile at her and react “Yes, Putti..we’ll go some day”… Well, I hope, after a few years she gives me a similar smiley look if at all she happens to read this some day ;)

Success is not the key to happiness
Happiness is the key to success
If you love what you are doing
You will be successful!

- Albert Schweizer

Best wishes - Thanks for reading and the comments given for the previous part :-)

Memphis to Bangalore - Part 1

Memphis to Bangalore - Part 1 (a long read.. but quite an interesting phase of my life)




---------------------------------------------------------------------

I wanted to leave the office at least by 9:00 pm, but the updates on the resource plan were still pending. Even after receiving the plan from Onsite, I knew, I would have to spend an hour minimum to re-generate that million dollar report to send it to the client. Cursing one of the bad Fridays of year 2009, I finally got off to start my Hyundai Getz at 10:00 pm. The tired security chaps at the Gate-6 were making an attempt to extract some entertainment from their routine chat. Outside was still as energetic as 6 pm with all the company buses from the Electronic city making their way towards the Hosur road. After covering 9 kms of Nice road, now it's time for the "Not a nice road" stretch.. This is one stretch where I unwillingly abuse my car every time I pass. My poor 1 and half year old Getz moans every time the biggest pothole of the Universe hits her bumper. My car isn't just an unfortunate automobile, every vehicle passing this 'Not a nice road' stretch has to undergo the same harassment. Trucks loading tons of raw materials for the construction of countless apartments, even help successfully widening the diameter of these penalizing potholes. Flies happily resting on the dark Gottigere lake on my left was witnessing the long queue on a narrow 7 ft. road restlessly fighting to get onto the Bannerghatta road.. By keeping the car windows airtight, I continuously try keeping my allergies away from taking the control over me..


---------------------------------------------------------------------

Just a few years ago, I used to enjoy the daily ride to my office from the long Germantown Road stretch, onto I-40 West towards Memphis downtown.. After passing the Danny Thomas Blvd exit, 3rd street, 2nd street, and then left onto 1A exit, the Main street, I passed the gorgeous Mississippi river on my right for one last time in Oct 2006. My six long pleasing years of beautiful Riverside drive to the office is simply unforgettable. I could still recall the happy faces of those Main street trolley visitors wearing T-shirts and shorts, holding dunkin donuts and bagles, taking the downtown ride to the Beale Street and Sun studio on Union Avenue where Elvis Presley cut his first hit track ‘That’s all right, Mama’. The security guy, Mike never ever failed to wish anyone at AutoZone in his routine. At the reception, Frank punctually greeted with his 'Good morning..' I was entering the glass building in the Front street for the last time.. I didn't have to do much on this day except meeting a few of my business users, my American and Desi colleague friends, leads, Managers.. I could hear my long time team mate and friend, Mike Walker, grumbling in his cube as usual, "Vishwesh.... Should’a been rich, man!!" after failing to hit the ‘Power ball’ lottery. I also knew I will miss his company and his deer hunting experiences for sure. After returning my id card to the curiously looking Frank, I hurried to the parking garage at lobby. My last drive on Toyota corolla from office to the Woodchase apartment on I-40 East towards Nashville at 75 mph was indeed a memorable one. Our last 3 days in the US at Subbarao's residence passed just with an eye blink. Our friends Dinesh/Bharathi, Srinidhi/Saroj and Subbu/Uma who had bought new houses in Cordova, Bartlett and Collierville respectively just months ago had offered us to stay at their place before we left the country. Most of my friends who had landed the land of opportunity in Y2000 along with me had applied for the Green card buying big bungalows, were already US citizens in making. I had always stayed away from the much tempting stages of green card - Labor, I-485, EAD etc. Our long association with the Kannada association was not so easy to get detached. In fact, I carried a special pride for successfully holding the Taranga Kannada Sangha of Memphis fort as Cultural Secretary for many years, whenever there was a crack. Once in 2004, for the renowned poet Dr. N.S.Lakshmi Narayana Bhatta’s visit, the Sangha President Subbarao and I had driven to a 5 hour long drive to St. Louis, Missouri returning the same night to bring him back to Memphis for his next day's seminar at our place. We did this with so much of motive to keep the Sangha flag very high.















I had met Prabhakar Parikh, a Memphian resident for over 40 years, within first 3 months of my visit to Memphis in 2000. In my six years stay, I would have visited his Elmhurst Road residence not less than 100 times. My Hindustani classical music practice always took the stimuli, not just with his Harmonium accompaniment, but for his chaste and unconditional love and affection that he offered us. Rohini aunty and Prabhakar Uncle had attempted extremely hard to convince us not from leaving Memphis.. But I was quite firm and was not open to any options. Many of my Telugu based colleagues had advised to apply for the green card to always keep the doors open.

My bonding with the India Association of Memphis was also quite deep rooted. I had to interact with various Presidents of IAM, Mrs. Wagh, Anupam Lahiri, Sandeep, Tracy Haldar for conducting special programs. My "Vande mataram - Revisited" for Republic day, 2002 in St. Francis auditorium, "Swadinta - Indian Independence", during Republic day 2004 were awarded with a standing ovation. The Indian and American National Anthems that I specially arranged and conducted for the INDIA-FEST program were being repeatedly played in the home of blues.

My involvement in the Indian Cultural Center and Temple mainly attribute to the music workshops and concerts I conducted. Our new age devotional music also had marked its debut in the same conventional hall, after the release of our 2nd multi lingual album "Resurgence". Our posters for promoting the CD's were being glued in some of the Indian groceries in Collierville and Cordova. Dr.Achar, Dr.Ashok Rao, Dr.Bellur, Dr. Duggirala, Dr.Shivram, Dr. Sidhu, Dr.Takhur, Dr. Goorha, Dr. Jallepalli, Lakshman and Chitra, John, Shobha aunty, Nalini aunty, Bhrughu and Meera aunty, Nayana Acharya, Anantha and Vani Prasad, Anand/Deepika, Prakash/Nandini, Sushma/Ravi, Yogesh Vaze, Ajit kulkarni, Shekhar Tulshibhagwale, Dr. Kapil Shukla, Partha da, my colleague friends, my apartment mates, my relatives and many others had supported through the various stages of our stay. Just a day before leaving the country, we had met Lakshman and John Oommen for the last time at John's residence in Collierville, leaving our UB Behringer recording mixer. Reluctantly we had to dispose some of our studio equipments including the Roland speakers, and the 33 year old sacred Veena. Ashwini embraced her for the last time in Hunstville just a month before we bid adieu with hard feelings after the concert in the Jagannatha Temple, Alabama. She was in her guilt filled tears on our drive back to Memphis as she was leaving behind her father's treasure in an orphanage. We had just finished giving online podcast 'Awaaz Anjaane' interview in Piya and Deb's -
http://www.podioindia.com/html/aa2006november.html just days before leaving US. I had no choice but to reject, the requests from the Kannada koota of North Carolina and Madison, WI to perform for their 2006 Rajyotsava and Deepavali functions. I couldn’t even join the AKKA celebrations in Maryland, Virginia when my senior in the college and Cartoonist friend, Janardhan Swamy from San Jose invited us, as we were about to begin the final destination. Bindu from Washington DC e-mailed, "Why are you going back? Eno.. work nalli enadru problem ideya?" Few others had shared their miserable "Return to India" experiences and luckily with multiple choices in hand, returned and settled back happily ever after in the States. I myself had witnessed Seenu and Sudha Rao making several attempts where Seenu could never adjust to the Indian working environment. "Sir.. Raatri ella call itbiDtAre and we have to plan our schedules based on these people and it's just disgusting!!".. Ashwini had gracefully accepted the courageous decision by simply following me along with our one year old baby doll Arabhi along with her baby stroller without uttering a word.

Many of our friends tried calling us on the day we left. By then, I had already disconnected my T-mobile service. In spite of having a knee replacement surgery, Bhrughu Uncle still offered help carrying one of our 11 baggages to the Memphis International airport. He said, he would feel good even he carries a small bag pack. Milind Ganoo and Deepak Joshi of Marathi Mandal, Dinesh, Subbu, Srinidhi and Anand, Bhrughu uncle and Prabhakar uncle accompanied us to the Airport on Sunday morning of Oct 2006. I then remembered all the memorable trips to the Vegas, Florida, NY and California, and all those gayest moments at various Indian associations, before the flight from Memphis took off to Minneapolis.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

We reached Bangalore a day later than expected due to the courtesy of the flight delay followed by the ill-treatment by the Amsterdam KLM flight agents. After passing thru the torture created by our Immigration and customs gentlemen, we could finally view my anxious Parents, brother in law, Ramesh chikkappa and family, my friend Jayateerth waiting in the Bangalore HAL Airport lounge early am. Our first day in India re-started just days before the burst of 2006 Diwali crackers. My father, (67) clearly appeared much older than I expected at a closer look. His latest MRI scan report that was just out had revealed a destructive compression in the C4-C5 area of the spinal cord vertebrae. Couple of visits to the well established Neuro physicians, Neuro surgeons and hospitals only suggested the much needed surgery of the spine. As per the various opinions and study, we left for a hospital in Whitefield, taking an auto rikshaw early in the morning from our residence near Arekere Mico layout bustop. That was indeed my first commute to the Whitefield via Outer ring round, which didn't exist during my stay here last century. After the successful return, the multiple rounds of discussion we had resulted in trying out for an alternate to the surgery due to his much concerned health conditions. A week treatment at an Ayurvedic retreat just a few miles away from my place was the first attempt to rejuvenate his dead nerves without a much success. He returned home with hardly any improvement in the overall nervous system. Some of our family friends wanted us to try out the next phase of treatment at a Ayurvedic center in Coimbatore.

I still had not finalized my job till then. Job consultants from Naukri.com whoever called, piqued me, how many resources reported to me in my previous assignment in the US, while the fact was that, for the last 4 and ½ years of my experience at AutoZone as an SME, I hardly had to work anytime, post 5 pm. Since most of my old pals were now residents of US or UK, I felt I truly missed them back here. Thanks to my old colleague friends, I was able to join my good old company back without much hassles, who didn't ask the much irking question, "How many people work under you"... However, I soon found the culture to be extremely different as a Contractor working at Offshore than as an employee. My working hours started quite early in the morning, dropping Ashwini in J.P.Nagar Ring road near Kadirenahalli cross for her college, till late in the evening after the Onsite communication. I started working on the weekends as well to support the beautifully termed "Customer delight" principles at any cost and justify the white collared salaries. However, it appeared as if I returned here only to work four times more for one fourth of my previous pay to make mockery of myself.. Meanwhile, with in a month or so, the dust particles of Bangalore were able to detect me as a true NRI returning India and I started coughing.. We had worries of Arabhi getting adjusted to the conditions, but never suspected my own health would be in stake at this allergy prone atmosphere. Doses of Salbumatol Sulphate prescribed didn't reduce any congestion in my throat. Within few days, both of my nostrils stopped working. Whenever I was able to breathe, it was just the ruthless Carbon monoxide from the dusty Bannerghatta Road. But I needed to move on.. So, went for the driving classes just to unlearn the traffic discipline that I had learnt in the US. Yes, absolutely don't stop at the signal or yield, never maintain the lane system, you always have the ‘right of way’, never stop honking and keep moving... Well.. he taught me many other things which I could slowly adapt after buying a car. Even in the closed car, my throat could easily sense the dust and annoy me enough to produce that bad cough every few seconds. The cough resulted in the dripping of flem feeding back to throat creating another round of irritation to re-initiate cough making it a complete cycle. It took me a few months to forget that I was singing once. For the first few months, I still used to get dreams of me driving on the long Germantown Road stretch and taking west onto the Farmington road to hit Poplar Ave for our weekly groceries in Walmart and Target.. Often I had the nightmare of missing flights, forget carrying air tickets, loosing Social Security number, failure of performances for the Kannada Sangha programs etc… and then suddenly wake up from the bed coughing soon to realize that I'm in the real world, after hearing the non stop dog barks with a mosquito bite and that Airtel jingle ringtone when our neighbor took his car in/out.. I no longer had the luxury of getting up and straight away going for a shower.. Instead it's a bit lengthy process now.. had to make sure if there's sufficient water in the sump so it fills the Sintex tank and close the tank valve to switch on the geyser before taking shower, if there was no power cut.

On the other side, my father’s the spinal cord was being continuously subjected to the wear and tear; the treatment at the Coimbatore for an alternate to the surgery couldn't have been further delayed. Little over a 5 weeks stay of Kati vasthi and Greeva vasthi therapies at the Ayurvedic center in Tamilnadu hardly did any miracle to our despair. We found there many visitors from the West frequently making trips to this center to get the overhaul of their body. I also inquired about my continuous struggle with the allergic problems I faced. So, my Ayurvedic medicine experimentation commenced after my visit to Coimbatore. 4-5 months passed since I started suffering from the cold and cough allergies, and throat infections. The newly introduced bitter choornas and kashayas didn't do much, but just spoil my taste buds. I continued to cough and was unable to prevent post nasal dripping. I was already exhausted explaining these symptoms to new doctor every other week. The symptoms could arrive from any corner, any form.. sometimes thru a feverish feeling.. followed by high temperature, or thru sore in the throat and irritation, sometimes thru running nose.. From whatever the form it starts, the end result was just the same. I had also tried taking Homeopathic Arsenic or Sulpher globules 30 minutes before and after food, quitting coffee still without any relief. I couldn't take up any of the music programs as my musician life was totally eclipsed by the monstrous problems. I had not even opened my YAMAHA PSR-2100 that I brought from US after heavily paying the custom duty and taxes. It was probably after 6-8 months that I could connect the DELL desktop for the first time that was bought in 2003 while building the HOME STUDIO. My friends from the US started inquiring for my progress in music.. "Hey, were you guys able to compose for any new albums?", "Did you start performing in TV?", "How is your new life, work?" etc etc.. I had no answers to any of these questions.. One of my friends from New Jersey, who had visited Bangalore wanted to take tips from me on my new avatar as they were planning to return to India. I spoke straight from my Arteries and veins.. "Satish, I don't know where to start, where to put patches.. My body has never been able to adjust to this allergic world, my work is as hectic as ever, I'm total blank on my father's health, my music is completely out of scene, people don't recognize me anymore as a musician and I feel like a refugee in my own place.. My visits to ENT specialists, Ayurvedic and Homeopathic experts failed bringing my health back.. In one of the team meetings, when I couldn’t even speak, I had made fun of myself stating that if I don’t clear my throat every 2 minutes, it would be archived into backup tape like Mainframe datasets and my team laughed at my joke.. But I could only cough.. I've no life without music. I don't know the contacts for contributing my cartoons either, as the entire newspaper team is changed. I no longer was a source of item news for the newspapers they realized we're back for good. The moment I revealed our return to India, I could clearly observe the submissive reaction even over the phone. The theory is quite natural and simple. Well, You now inhale the same air, drink the same Cauvery water as rest of us, drive on the same potholes, bumpy roads and speed breakers, as we all do.. How are you different then?. How true was R.K.Laxman's "Waghle ke duniya" episode. I have lost, Satish…" Satish wrote everything in his blog ‘Antaranga’, http://antaranga.blogspot.com/2008/02/blog-post_17.html about my true sobbing story. My cousin meanwhile strongly suggested me consult a Pulmonologist (yes,, even I heard this term for the first time then) in Rajajinagar for the allergic ailments, bringing me another ray of hope, which I planned to make after my father’s surgery.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

My father continued to suffer and without finding any other alternative, we finally took a bold step to get him operated for a major spine surgery in Aug 2007. We weren't very much comfortable as his prolonged hypertension, Diabetes and old age only added as catalyst to our fear. Our friends and relatives also had given us enough scares from all the corners to keep him away from Surgery. My father has lived most of his live without his parents.. Working for 14-15+ hours a day in a Hotel for 40 years, he provided me education, made me an engineer when he himself couldn't study beyond 12th. He wouldn't know the ‘Sa re ga’ of music, but sent me to the music class, took me to the singing competitions on his Luna, made me a successful musician. He probably never knew what a cartoon was, until I started drawing cartoons. However he constantly supplied me R.K Laxman's "You said it" series and many other raw materials made me a Cartoonist,, well... the least I had to do for myself is just becoming a human being. After chanting the Gayatri Mantras, Purusha suktas and Dwadasha stotras, and performing Puja to those black pebble saligramas that my father worshipped for years, I left for the Hospital early in the morning, listening to Ustad Rashid Khan’s rendition of Raag, Lalit Bhatiyar on my way.

He was taken inside the Operation theatre after talking to my second sister in Saudi Arabia over phone. The Joy of giving back standing next to the operation theatre can never be compared to the fun I had in Disney land theme park rides or the night life at Vegas casinos. After I landed Memphis for the first time in 2000, I remember sending $1000 to my mother asking her to buy as many Sarees she wanted… Now I'm sitting next to her who was worried about her husband's present/future condition. What would she want now? Sarees or my presence?? At her tender age of 19, my elder sister was born. She had given me birth at 25, when probably the current generation youth still be enjoying their lives dating, drinking, partying...etc. At that time, she had a huge challenge ahead of raising up 3 kids of different age groups, along with shadowing her husband in his day to day work. What future did she think for herself? She only cared about our future. That was around 32 years ago when we were living in a very old and scary Bhimsen Rao’s house near Manappa doddi, Bellary before constructing in Satyanarayana pete.


While sitting in the waiting lounge during the 6-8 hours long surgery, with her bag stuffed for a week, I could detect her deeply sunken eyes conveying that she has come a very long way thus far.. There were many similar buried eyes in the room with same sort of expression, carrying deep thoughts and hard feelings passing on the same message. I just thought for a while, what would she be thinking now had I not returned back to India to give her a supporting hand. "Where is my boy that I have given life 32 years ago? I sacrificed my entire life just for raising them.. When he was bit by a deadly poisonous scorpion, did he ask me to take him to the Ghausia hospital? Did he ask me to enroll him to an English medium school when I myself can hardly understand English? Did he ask to send him to the music lessons or Science Tuition or admission to the engineering college? Did he ask me to prepare his favorite Idli/kadabu and sambar during his semester holiday trips? During his return to the hostel after holidays, I secretly used to give him Rs.50 - 100 from my side that I had deservedly earned.. No..No..he didn't ask us anything.. When we did everything for our own pleasure, how can we ask for his help now??? Didn't we enjoy when he used to bring bunch of prizes home? Didn't we take pride in broadcasting that our son and daughter in law were residing in the US...? His songs, CD's, awards, recognition etc.. After all, what have I achieved in the end? I don't know how to talk to an auto guy and tell him to take me to the hospital.. I don't remember my own phone number.. I can't operate the mobile phone, I don't know how to even receive calls.., I need assistance to use the elevator, I never went alone anywhere till now.. Was that my mistake? Soon after his 12th grade, he left for Engineering, returned after 4 years and soon left for Bangalore; within 3 years, he even left the country.. Well, this is probably how the story of our life is written to end…". She had bent her head supporting her gloomy face with the arms. She was quite reluctant to even consume a cup of coffee that I offered. I looked at her eyes again.. I wasn't sure what was she thinking, but I proudly told myself, "I didn't give you a chance to think that way, ma…This is your time to redeem your mileage.. I clearly remember your every sacrifice, care and support.. I also realize that I can never match your sacrifice to that of mine".. Up the TV screen in the waiting room, Dravid was quite batting sensibly in the Natwest England Vs India 2007 series before he resigned from the captaincy. I continued to gaze at the waiting room reception as well as the TV screen every few seconds for updates. I was coughing horribly, trying to clear my troubled throat and discharge any flem. A few minutes later, my sorry mother who was already in tears, looked at me and said, '…Sorry Vishu, unnecessarily you are going thru all of this for our sake.. You would have had a wonderful and successful life back there. I couldn't even stop when you wanted to return to India.. I can’t see you guys suffering here. Do you get visa to go back?..." I was not in a position to react anything.. Just queried myself,"…Is there a God above mother?"....

(To be continued...)

Bellary..

Written in Feb 2000

Dust arousing from the black soil in the dry and uneven land without a tinge of greenery, with most of the existing veteran trees making their livelihood without leaves, special thanks to Tipu’s large fort radiating Sun's heat to its surroundings impartially, resulting in the re-arrangement of schools colleges time-tables after successfully bypassing the continuous focus from the Corona's rays; while some Medico guys with their white cream colored aprons that had not smelled a detergent over a week, sipping a burning cigarette, along with the hostelite medico gals, who on the other hand respecting the other sex's masculine ability and the fluency of English slang, with 10 and a half kg "Gray's Anatomy" book in their soft hands, sucking Pepsi outside the decade old canteen till the lab attendant informs them the arrival of Professor of the next session, who is normally paid much more than the peanuts for prompting them the type of slides the students were provided by the examiner in the Pathology lab,.......etc...etc....etc.; Yes! Summer has just landed Bellary when I visited last month, after marking the end of the previous season, the "Extreme Summer". It's said that Bellary has only 2 seasons...Summer and extreme summer!!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

When Sonia and Sushma contested against each other sometime back it was a month long feast for Journalists and Cartoonists of different zones, I had written something that time.....

This is the first time in my life time that I felt my self to say that I belong to Bellary, the place where I spent the 18 years of my life. All of a sudden that neglected place has appeared in the International map. I could never understand the reason why that place always took back seat right from the beginning. (Congress's life long rule?? huh). One of the reasons why I couldn’t tune to the frequency of this place was due to my native.. I had always identified myself to be from Udupi as my parents hailed from that place. 15 years back or so, when I had visited Bangalore and received the state level prize from the then Governor of Karnataka A.N.Banerjee, many gathered asked me from which place I was from and when I replied, they just raised their eye-brows “Really??? Bellary is it…??” However, the moment I revealed my native, they remarked “Ohh.. that’s the reason!!!”

Now it’s looking as if this place has totally vanished from the maps of India, Sonia Sushma clash has brought her back into the political domain. I, at least hope that whoever comes into power should do some good for her.

Wishing her (bellary) all the best..
Vishwesh

>>>>>>>>>>>

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

But this time, my visit was totally different! Lot many things got changed since the last elections, especially after S.M.Krishna’s announcement of 3300 Crore sanctioned to her on behalf of Sonia Gandhi! Roads were all widened and better compared to the ones they used to have! No more potholes… More and more constructive programs happening in the city, water supply has improved with people no longer have to wait for days for a bowl of drinking water,, Almost stopped grumbling the poor transportation, high corruption and poor public development programs. I just could not believe my eyes, thought I, hope every area follows this model city. When I was still continuing to appreciate this magical make over just, felt like rays of the tube light started falling on my closed eyes...soon followed by Chiranjeevi starred M.M.Keeravani’s “Bangaara kodi petta” song started knocking my ears overlapped by a terrible voice screaming “Yashwanthpur ree...Yashwanthpur ree...” Diwakar travels hadn't updated his Telugu movie collections beyond 'Gharana Mogadu' and 'Muta Mesthri" for years. When I fully woke up, I was near Navrang theatre, a few kms from the ever crowded Bangalore Majestic Bus stand. Well..Was that a dream? What ever it is, a good dream..I didn't care much … Cleared the layer accumulated on my oily epithelium face, pulled my bag from the rack and started another day in Bangalore!

Divorse before marriage

Written in June 1999

In Politics, whenever we find the dissidents arising even before the formation of a ruling party, I often recall my friend's brother Ashwin's incident "DIVORSE BEFORE MARRIAGE" that happened long back.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Ashwin, not so tall, not so handsome, quite intelligent, after completing his MBA from XLRI
Jhamshedpur, joined as a Manager in Cococola company in Delhi and started looking out for a bride. Earning five digit salary with a company provided car and quarters, was his major asset. Along with his parents, sister and a mediator one fine morning they left for Basaveswarnagar in Bangalore where Arathi lived in a small 2 bedroom newly constructed apartment. As mediator knew their place, they could get into the right place, right time. Festive atmosphere was all spread at Arathi's place. This was the first ever experience of this kind for the young and simple girl...Also this was Ashwin's first Voyage, which created more tense than the campus interviews he faced. Arathi's house was already filled with their close relatives of around 15 to witness the celebration, welcoming the guests with a lot of respect and home made Mangalore Bajji and Bisibele bath. A few minutes later arrived our heroin, who wore a purple colored saree with a matching blouse with a broach tied to dupatta, with a similar colored rhombus shaped bindi. Infact nobody could have realised that she had fought with her mother that she won't wear the saree, but a simple salwar kameez. An eye on the dress that disclosed her womenly possessed assets and an inhale of her smell was quite sufficient for him to get a kick. He strictly followed all the lessions and instructions that his sister taught. When the two were asked to have a chat, he didn't want to loose a moment of having her close up..Making his eye contact with hers, said "You look gorgeous!!" and inagurated the talk. Her sunken head nodded with a gentle complimentary smile and said Thanks. She didn't expect he would hit a boundary on the
very first ball of the innings. Now it was all again his turn.., "well..you see..I'm a quite reserved
person and have not talked to girls much since my school days.."; she then slowly raised her head. " ...my hobbies include playing cricket, ofcourse once upon a time, reading books and listening music...I heard you have passed junior exams in some classical music..but I don't understand A,B,C of it! I just do listen to Pankaj Udhas's ghazals sometimes,hmmm...old Kishore kumar's songs and that's it..". When she was still occupied by silence, he added again, "may I know yours?" "...I don't know how I passed the music exam..infact my mom had interest, she sings too..I listen to Hindi movie songs..and yeah...I have heard many ghazals..I watch a lot of movies..but I don't like reading..that's why I did my B.A; Perhaps even if I'm left alone in Siberia with a book, I may hardly opt for it!!" and giggled. He hardly heard anything, but was just looking at her dark and attractive eyes, color of the skin, her teeth, lips that had sticked with a gently applied violestish lipstick, her soft hair that had slept over her straight sticken back.., but he still managed to giggle. He talked little things about his parents, asked about her parents, and finally asked "Do you like me?" She just lifted her face and conveyed the message that he was longing for. His heart plunged out to express his love for her, but his reserved mouth interrupted and postponed it to the next time..


* * * * * * * * * * * *

Per his promise, 2 days later he called her from his Uncle's house in Udupi, "Hello....it's me..."
"Hello..???" from the other side.
"Didn't you recognise me?" he querried her.
"Ofcourse..I do..You sound different; I didnt expect you would call me..It's like hearing you after a long time.. " "Same feeling to me..the every hour, the every minute and the every second, I think of you and sirf you".
"Yes..Mr.Shayarji..even I waited for your call so desperately.."
"That's my pleasure...one of the best days of my life..since 2 nights, I could not sleep you know?
and all the time, your picture that has mesmerised me had blocked my eyes.."
Listening to his sweat words, she giggled and he enjoyed the every second of it.
"your voice is just great...I love your voice...and infact.." continued he, with full determination
this time, "..and infact.." said finally "..I,..I love you..."
"Even me too.." cooly she said and giggled and he gulped every bit of it for the cost of just an STD
call. "When shall we meet again..?" he asked.
"See..Ravi, ever since you have moved out of Bangalore, it's become quite difficult.. It's been a while we have met.. I have your picure, otherwise I would have forgotten your face by now,, haha... my appa has already started looking out for a guy and something needs to be done soon....Hello..Hello..."

Beep..Beep...beep..beep..

"Ufff...No!!!!!!See akka, once again cut!! these stupid telephone lines!.. Ravi had called me after a
long time you know and I was telling him about appa's plans..."

"Well,,Thank God..he will try sometime later then and I won't disturb you haha.. Atleast I can now wait for my Ashwin's call that he had promised me", Arathi took a deep breath and started waiting for her fiance's call which never turned up again..Arathi never received call from Ashwin, but after a day or two, her father received a call from the mediator only to inform them of another guy for her.."

Immigrants....

Written in Dec 2000

Sitting in the lobby floor, peeping out of the plain glass window I was waiting for my carpool friend to join me...The longest river of the world, Mississippi was punctually flowing across the other side of our office window. Barges were as usual doing their jobs utilizing her smooth flow. Men and women of all ages with T-Shirt/short combination were releasing the sweat and the Mitochondrian cells by jogging even in the bone chilling wind, when their fellow cyclists and skaters utilized that pathway to move parallel to the catchment area of the river. Memphians were all set for boiling Turkeys apart from a healthy honey baked ham for the next day's Thanksgiving celebration of year 2000!! City of Memphis looked awesome especially after the arrival of fall - waiting for the white christmas, when the whole downtown getting illuminated, with all kinds of Thanksgiving SALE on most of the shops; the interstate highway I-40 that connects east to west, also a tangent to some parts of Tennessee looked even more busier with the automotives engaging themselves to rule the traffic..This was also a high time for many Desis to design their long weekends traveling the sunny Florida or the bayside California/Las vegas at the West coast. People from Hyderabad and its neighbouring districts are the primary source of Indian Java population in the US. Doctors, surgeons, civil engineers who migrated from Madras and Bangalore ages ago were also no less in their numbers. Many Dallals from North eastern part of India have already conquered the business here!! Ofcourse people have adjusted to many things - the day to day lesser Fahrenheit temperature, the typical accent of Afro-Americans, the importance of Halloween's day, Martin Luther day, Labor's day, President's Day, July 4th, Thanksgiving and all other day's.., adjusted to all the evergreen nightclubs and hooters, the fast moving life...last, but not the least, saying "Hi..how are u doing" to any stranger coming across irrespective of sex or age. I have to accept the fact that I was one among those millions of Indians who migrated, temporarily or permanantly to the land of oppurtunity, United States. I was quite surprised to find that still many of this country men in the Central part of US doesn't even heard of India; many here still believe that everybody on the Earth does have the same religion, celebrate same festival, eat same bufallo and red lobsters!!...People across the world mainly Mexico, Japan, China and Europe have made their home here and ofcourse their offsprings are the natural resources of this land, language and culture. It's also sometimes an interesting phenomena for us to identify their original race due to their inappropriate hybrid identity. I understand that it is not just we, who are Dollar dreamers, but everybody across the world whoever landed here are for the same purpose!!

* * * * * * * * * * * *


When I visited my brother-in-law's native at Uppala (around 30 miles from Mangalore) 4 years ago, most of the people from the Northern part of Karnataka had made their way for their livelihood there. It was an extra-ordinary daily wages they received from the then Konkan railway construction agencies, that had brought all of them to this fertile land, Mangalore.
Foreseeing poverty, heat, drought in their native land Bijapur and Gulbarga, workers probably migrated during the season of the railway way back in early 90's, embosing their existance in Karwar, Kundapur, Udupi and Mangalore districts in Karnataka.

The highlight of the area; the greenary spread throughout the Western ghats, continuous water supply, road system, commutation, adjustable society, and ofcourse money were the main attraction for their expansion of growth amidst the sultry weather created by the Arabian sea. As local mangalorean labor found to be little expensive and more dominating abiding to
the prominent labor laws, these people from "Bayalu seeme" (dry land) soon found this to be their dream land of paradise. Cheap labor, adjusting nature was more than a considerable factor for the employers here! The minorities are always inferior in any part of the globe...so too this place. Numbers grew in as and when requirement incremented. First him, next his brother, then his neighbour and his friends occupied the piece of land. When they found stabilized and comfortable in this area, started importing their wives and children to this tourist spot, who has not seen the water and rain for ages! Some young men with strong muscles getting extra pay for their overtime work were of high demand in their place. Perhaps they are fed with most beautiful brides based on their immigration validity!! They go to their motherland once a year probably, during rainy season when it is not too hectic to work beneath the red soil...most of the guys take their stride to comeback with their newly married beauty queens of their province. This sometimes tighten their budget though helps tremendously in feeding them the regular raagi rotti and other stuffs- their primary source of food. They totally have different food taste from the locals, they can neither get their favourite mouth watering dishes from the outside hotels nor they were strong enough cooks to prepare during their tons of workload till their counterparts joined them. In the meantime many people with slightly higher IQ than the normals, also started creating hotels for them, which could serve all rottis to make them nostalgic.. Initially they also faced the problem of language accent; people from this bayarea speak different from that of people originated from the dry land. They both used to make fun of their respective languages at their respective backs...needless to say gradually they soon commommorated to the more complex frequencies. Konkan railway construction is now somewhat a history I believe!! But the people who discovered the means of immigration for their better living still lives taking Tulu and following the other's culture and tradition..ofcourse their siblings continue to occupy this land for the years to come.


* * * * * * * * * * * *


My friend who sits in the first floor tapped me, when I turned back. Next day, I had planned to meet a person who was an active member of some Indian cultural organization in Memphis city. Forming a music group in the next few months of my journey altogether takes another story.. I didn't want to be just one among millions of immigrants from India.. As soon as I sat in Nissan Altima car,,, Jagjit singh/Chitra singh's ghazal...

"Safar mein dhoop tho hoagi..Jo chal sakho tho chalo
Sabhi hein bheed mein thum bhi..nikal sakho tho chalo.." continued.

Happy new year 2001..
Vishwesh

All about work......

Written in Nov 2001

When my friend in Boyton beach, Florida calls me every weekend without fail, we talk many things; Our Hostel days, College days, friends, marriage, current affairs, latest happening in India, South Canara, etc - yet the main topic revolves our work!! More I discuss whenever I felt disgusted with my work load. I told him many times about the tension I had and that I was unable to handle that kind of situation. May be 4 years back or so, I remember him telling me over phone that he was in deep tension because of his work pressure. It was the time when he was working for Infosys and I was looking out for jobs. I still smell the sweat it produced from my body sitting inside the telephone booth in the burning summer and looking at the seconds the instrument displayed. It would cost me 2 Rs. more for crossing 180 seconds. 100-150 Rs. that I used to get from the Kannada magazines for publishing a cartoon hardly filled the petrol for my scooter, or tickets for the BTS bus, bills for the local calls or for the resume copies. I then had uttered him over phone with low voice, "some people have tension because they have too much of work, while some have tension because they have no work!!.." That was 4 years ago.., now both of us are standing on the other side of the globe, I asked my friend working in Motorola, "Hey, do you remember that?" Replied he, "Certainly, I do..you were depressed".

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It was real fun working here in US for few months till I got moved to a different module. More than the new working domain or the environment, I kind of became the victim of the internal clash between my lead and the ex-lead of that module. We two were the new members to join the existing 4 members group. For some reasons, the existing team members started quitting the job one by one. One moved to a small town in Pennsylvania, the other resigned to pursue her studies if she is to be believed, while the rest 2 had already formed a new team as a result of which, was our entry into this team. So, no sooner I realized that I was the only working member of the team for all the problems and complex tickets. I was not even allowed to ask for any assistance from the previous owner of the application. Some tickets were small in nature, but some weren't.. I couldn't concentrate on my regular work. Ruth, who deals with the Logistics had some of her e-commerce Invoices not been rated which makes them unable to approve to go for payment. She was more an intelligent user than she appeared not just a reason or two; Many times she used to guess the reason for the problem she faced before just dumping everything onto us - like when they started getting 15 digit Waybill numbers all of a sudden for Fedex GROUND Invoices, when the total Invoice header amount didn't match with the balance due amount for Airborne..etc.

That was my first dive into Accounts module before I was caught under Reva's strange issue with the EFT stuff. Hispanic origin Laura started creating problems after she moved into the Vendor Bank Account maintenance group. Almost every alternate day if not everyday, we were paged to fix an abend in the batch job. Reason was not so difficult to trace - Whenever Laura or her supervisor Reva created a new Bank account for the vendor for Electronic payment, they somehow didn't realize to close the existing account there by causing the batch program that runs in the evening to make a million dollar decision, "to which account should that amount be transferred to ??"...Yes; it was a million dollar question for the poor batch program because, amount used to be certainly more than a million dollar!! Well..instead of looking at the database every evening to find to which account our ladies wanted really to go to, and closing that account, we finally thought of changing Online Mainframe code to restrict them to make multiple accounts open!! The real trouble started when we discussed this with them; "Oh...that can't happen because we should have 1 cent to pre-note to their account before actually going it live" Claimed Reva. "Vendors can also have multiple accounts when the current date is still less than the EFT date (actual next business date)" added Laura. "We should also be able to re-open the closed account, when the pre-note switch is 'Y',..we can also have multiple accounts when vendor's ABA number is different; but we can't...etc etc". they continued their can's and can't's for a while. Finally I came out of their cubes rubbing my fore-head. Yes!! it was a tough nut to crack..The every time I modify the code and asked them to take a look, they would be coming with new sets of validations followed by the pressure to concentrate on all other production issues. I even had to come out of the MALCO movie theatre once from watching "Lagaan" to fix a bug. Amir won the match, but I had lost... It almost carried for a month to finally take a proper shape. Reva was more than satisfied.. Now it's an easy one whenever she calls me and ask, why did vendor 'x' not receive his Remittance advice either thru e-mail or fax or EFT?.. What's the default check handling code that appears on the check when they just bypass that screen..etc. Meanwhile Tammy who works on Electronic Purchase Order group gets a daily duplicate report if she enters any Invoice twice thru her Online system. She called my lead and reported her problem. "Well..I can't show an example now, but I can call you when I find one" replied she, when I asked for an example. Once she saw me taking printouts in her floor, she dragged me to her desk to show an example. I told her "Hmm..Is this duplicate?? I don't think so.." I checked the program too and couldn't find any possibility. She accepted and said, she would call me again when she finds the actual one. I thanked God and ran back to my seat. I started running away from her whenever she happened to find me somewhere in the corridor, break pad, etc...Tammy never came back. During the same time or may be a month later or so, Tommy joined the Merchandising group taking charge for all the merchandising supervisors. Can you imagine a combination of a newly joined user working with a newly joined programmer? He started calling me once in every half an hour with his 1 liner questions, which always looked simple, but answers weren't. Questions like "How does the EDI, process Vendor direct parts invoices", "Does the PO Variance table has allowances in it?" almost chewed my whole brain for several unaccounted hours. Due to the frequency of his calls, I also guessed may be one day he would call me even for his stomach problems!!. But more than his questions, to me the problem was his accent. He hardly opened his lips while speaking; Concentrating on his 2 degree lip movements, I used to grasp few words like "vendor..invoice..matching..2nd time..EDI..Dorothy..rematch process..PO..undo ..payment" and used my internal processor to frame a sentence this way - " A Vendor number having this invoice is not matching for the second time thru EDI, even though Dorothy tried to re-match that Purchase Order by using the undo process to send it for payment". Ufff..I developed that skill gradually, my next task was to understand the problem and solve it..Once I told him the truth - "I joined this team just couple of months back, I may take sometime..". The soft cornered Tommy looked bit disappointed. But he became my good friend. I started working late in the evening and many times at home to understand the system of EDI matching process, which started getting worse day by day. The reason was simple - Several years back when the system was designed and developed, it was assumed that a vendor was suppose to send only upto max of 5 Invoices per Purchase Order raised, because the quantity of PO's were hardly few hundreds in number. Now that, it has increased ten times and vendor started sending more than 10 invoices for a PO making the system behave madly. In this phenomena, I also realized that we were not just scape goats, but there was one more technical group "Ware house Inventory" who apparently supported this merchandising group, the failure of which used to give us more problems than expected. That was the hardest time I ever had. Many times I was hardly seen by my room-mates though out the day.. The way the system was designed for an EDI process linking with the Unpaid Receivers was more complex than Fourier transformation. Nobody except the ex-lead of this group knew this system. There was no systematic solution for most of the mess-up's done by the Unpaid receiver clerks and supervisors who constitute more than 50 in number. Even now, there is no solution and if we develop something, that's going to be a new one. Laverne asked me once "Veeeeshwesh, do you love this kind of job?"...I took a pause and said, "Yeah...I have to!!" Laverne, Terry, Tiffany and others even today try to reach me with some EDI match failing Invoices and I may have to run some special process to fulfill their request till we come up with a permanent fix. Once while testing something, we accidentally FTP'ed a test file to the Bank. After few hours, they called us and asked about that duplicate file. Oh my God!! We then suddenly understood the consequence and requested them not to process that file. American Express, Visa and Mastercard companies rejected the duplicate file; however next day when Nancy bought the $192,000 rejects report, we realized that Discover card had already processed the file. I started chanting Gayatri Mantra...God save me.. Give me strength to face this... Needless to tell that, I later spent nights to change the database, reverse the journal legder entries, chargebacks, fees etc.. After all, these were all just some of the production day to day issues that I had to deal with, apart from my regular work. Later, when the users started approaching me directly, things weren't as simple as it could've been. My American boss sometimes felt bypassed was not that comfortable...


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Whenever my friend who joins me on Tabla calls me to have a practice session in the weekend, I would rather tell him that I was too tired to have a practice. He would comment "Tired??? Abe, kaunsa kaam karrahe office pe??"...In fact I was the one who tempted him to take his Tabla out of his closet before it could go completely out of tune.. Many a times, I felt returning back to India , till one Friday the fair and the beautiful lady from HR and our lead started murmuring along with my team member and all of a sudden he started packing his stuff within minutes, came to me and said, "Vishy..thanks for all your help man, my company no more needs my service.." I couldn't speak a word. Continued he, "please let me know if you know any openings anywhere..you guys will have more contacts than me" I was just shell shocked at his situation. His wife Tina wasn't working, his 4 year old daughter Tasha had just started attending school. The whole day, I was disturbed and felt so sorry for him. He was just one among the 30 other victims in the list our client had laid off out of their 200 member IT staff. Most of the people started looking at us in a different way; Of course we deserved that.. Were all looked thieves for them - stealing their jobs..aren't we?? I thought for a while. I got answers for all my questions I started asking from the very day I got moved to a new team. Yes!!! tension in work is far better than not having work!! I then thanked all the users Ruth, Reva, Laura, Cathy, Carol, Tommy, Tammy, Dorothy, Laverne, Nancy, Janie, Chaney, Owens and her team, Ray, Dawn, Dave, Bernice, Sandra, Mary Walker and many others for giving me work...the hard work.

Happy Rajyotsava day 2001!