January 5, 2010

  • Never Ending Day Dream-The Early Days.

    Previous Chapters.
    1) Never Ending Day Dream-The Journey.

    The night went away totally unknown to me as I spent most of the time sitting on the couch and going to the deck for smoking once in a while. In between I came back and slept for sometime. Lot of things went through my mind. Things were not as easy as I thought it will be. I am a man who was fed, clothed and educated by family and friends. Even though I lived a life virtually alone in a shell created out of my imaginations, it was made possible by the support and immense tolerance of my family and friends.

    I told myself, "This is going to go to the extremes of things way beyond your imaginations Saju, you better take every step with care and make sure the foundations are laid upon which you develop yourself as a better man".

    After a lot more thoughts and planning around those thoughts I went to bed at around 5:30 in the morning. The next day woke around me far beyond my consciousness. Mani woke me up saying someone from office called and he will be coming to our place to introduce himself to us. That kinda put me into top gear and I was rushing to get a shave, took a crap then while I was taking a shower, I heard a knock on the door.

    Mani told... "Riaz you idiot get out now, George is coming up"

    So I got out wearing a Turkey Towel and drying my hair with another and here stands someone is full suit right in front of me.

    He told me.. " Looks like my lucky day to see someone fresh and clean" all laughed and I am no one who will be ashamed of standing in front of someone half naked. He stretched his hands and told "I am Geroge Janovich".

    "Aaah I remember talking to you on phone from India George" I said and shook his hands. He told me to to get ready and went to the living room. After dressing up I went out and he asked us how was the journey. A very pleasant man who is probably in his late 40s. Very friendly and kind in his talks. We spent nearly two hours talking to him. Mani made some tea for all of us. George told us that Manish and Santhosh will be coming later to take us out and give us an idea about Milwaukee. By about 4:00 Manish and Santhosh came and took us out to Pick 'n' Save to get some groceries.

    That was the first time ever I went to a Grocery store. I never did any Grocery shopping when I was in India. Well there is always a first time I told Manish I wanted to buy some smokes. He looked at me and asked "You smoke?" I told him "Yeah, that's one of my bad habits" Manish smiled and told me " I don't want to know the rest of the bad habits" It made me laugh and I told him " No plan to let you know other bad habits, maybe America will soon know what they are".

    We all chit chatted a lot after coming home. Lot of directions, don't do this, don't do that. I might have heard couple of alphabets which I forgot almost instantly.

    The next day was our first day at work. Well George came and picked us up and told he is going to do that for the next couple of weeks. We first met Dulsey, she was a pretty looking woman, little trouble walking, other than that, very friendly. Met Brian who came to India to hire us. As me and Mani speak the same language in India. Got a warning from Brian not to speak any other language other than English in the office.

    Then lot of administrative stuff to do, paper works, meeting local consulting managers and eventually Curt the administrative manager took us to the Social Security Administration office to get SSN. We filed the application and then Curt dropped us at home.

    The week went by very fast and in the weekend. Shareen and Mohish came by. Shareen my sister-in-law's cousin (My brother's wife's cousin) knew me very well. Her husband Mohish also was a software consultant and Shereen a doctor in India was preparing to write some exams in USA to start her medical career in USA. They were fun with their little baby Momin. He was fun to deal with.

    The week after also went by fast as we were given everything by Keane. Mentor, money directions, training you name it. All were given. I met a wonderful girl at the Keane office who worked from the office doing a project at a remote client. Her name cannot be disclosed for her privacy. I am giving her the name Kristen. She smokes and whenever she goes out for a smoke comes and ask me to join her. She is married with a kid but gave me a lot of ideas where to go what to do. Another set of directions. Eventually she told, " You have to figure out a lot of things Riaz" and smiled.
    I told "Oh thank god, at last someone is telling me I got to figure things out than do exactly what they want me to do" . She laughed and told me something deep

    "Every misstep and every fall should be a lesson"... I smiled and said. "So far in my life there was someone to hold me upright before I fell" she looked at me in a strange way and said. "This is America, you better learn to stand on your two legs before you jump" she smiled and walked away.

    The weekend that came brought two more Indians. Senthil and Gowda, both are friendly chaps who were giving me strange looks. The next day was our first trip to office by ourselves. George had shown us where to get into bus and which stop to get down. We needed to change the bus at Mill road and Good Hope on our way to Park Place where the Keane office was.

    Well we took the right bus and reached Mill road from there we took the exact number George told us. But the bus went on and on and on and eventually stopped at Tutonia avenue. The driver told me. "This is the last stop folks"

    I got out with all the other Indian guys looking up at me. The I told " Fuck really fuck, where the fuck did we reached?" Senthil told me "Someone will hear" I told "Fuck them and Fuck you" I was so pissed I wanted to break his head on the lamp post.

    I looked around and an African American teenager came by. I asked him "Sir where can I find a phone?" He looked at me for like a min and then told. "Look on the other side of the bus stop man". We went there and found the phone. We called the office and got Dulsey first, I told her what happened. Then Brian got on the phone and asked me "Riaz, where exactly are you guys now?" I told him where we are and got a very strange response.

    "Don't talk to anyone.. you all went in an entirely different direction" he giggled and told someone called Anne will come and pick us up. Anne was an Employee development manager at Keane.

    She came and picked us up in her mini van. On the way she told me. "Riaz, you soon will be working as I have an Interview scheduled for you at one of our clients" That was a good news for me as I no longer needed to sit at the office smoking every half an hour. Gowda was supposed to join me in that project. We did the interview very well. Peter another Keane consultant was our lead. The moment I saw Peter I said in my mind " I am in trouble, this old guy looks like the biggest ass hole I have ever seen".

    I smiled and my managers congratulated me for doing the interview very well. That was a Friday and Monday Peter was supposed to pick us up from home to go to Johnson Controls battery group in Greenbay Road. I didn't sleep on that Friday night. I felt like something is haunting me, an uneasiness, something is not right. I sat on the floor of the deck and looked up at the sky and to myself I spoke.

    "This the starting of a life as a new birth you are taking. It is only the starting, a long way to go and it is okay for you to be afraid" Yes I was afraid as I felt obligated in many ways to many, many people. Some I don't even know. Some I know from one look they are not going to help me at all. Some are just onlookers who wanted nothing, just a sight of a winner or loser.