Perfume Factory

It has been 9 months now since I moved to Bay Area.   Life is moving so good so far. Having been lived in Kansas City for an year before, I find a huge difference if I compare both. Though bay area is more ideal place to live , I still somewhat miss Kansas City may be because of the people I met there or the slow paced life compared fast moving life in bay area.

Some of the things I like here is .. it is lively place. The place is more vibrant compared to the central US.  Unlike Kansas, I get to see more people everywhere. The environment is more casual. It reflects in workplace as well. People prefer not to wear formal dresses. Work timings  are flexible.  Even meetings, most of the times, are  informal.  Since Bay area has silicon valley, it has more IT companies  than any other place in the US.

Bikers in SFO

Weather is ideal. It neither gets too hot during summer nor too cold during winter. It doesn’t snow at all. Though it is good to snow once in a while, but people who lived in the snow areas know the significance of it and how much trouble it carries along with it.  You wont face those blizzards or shutdowns like in east coast or in chicago.

The weather in bay area is more or less like Bangalore weather. I haven’t felt much variation though Bangalore sometimes gets really hot during summer.

As a tourist destination, it has beaches, coastline, woods, bay, hills, museums, recreation parks and many such attractions. Bikers are in more number in bay area. You will see bikers everywhere riding mountains, woods, on shores. Infact many people commute to office using bike. Public transits including local trains, buses provide provision to carry bikes. Talking about public transportation, it is very good here. There are trains and buses connecting every location of bay area. One can manage without car in bay area.

SFO Panorama View From Twin Peaks

Things I dont like.. bay area is super expensive. Taxes are high. It is not just affordable to live here if one is getting low wages.  The city fast faced. More pollution, more noise and traffic.  Stress level is more compared to the central US.  But that is obvious I guess.

I am liking it so far. I hope I would continue here for some more period of time.  Oh yes.. there are lot of places to see around bay area. Expect more blog posts on it

It saddens Norwegians that America still honors the Italian Columbus, who arrived late in the New World and by accident, who wasn’t even interested in New Worlds but only in spices. Out on a spin in search of curry powder and hot peppers- a man on a voyage to the grocery- he stumbled onto the land of heroic Vikings and proceeded to get the credit for it. And then to name it ‘America’ after Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian who never saw the New World but only sat in Italy and drew incredibly inaccurate maps of it. By rights, it should be called Erica, after Eric the Red, who did the work five hundred years earlier. The United States of Erica, Erica the Beautiful, The Erican League.

Long long ago.. in the land  of twitterville, some bunch of guys were discussing on how a person changes his turkut/ tacetook profile location when he moves to another country and puts something on how he misses India and and and how he uploads new place pics.

Most of them being sarcastic.. I would say, in a southpark isshtyle, screw you guys !!!

The man, a social rascal, finds it very tough to leave everything that he has been with for past 20 years and stay away in a good land’s devils country.

How shall I tell how much I miss infybus, 1.5 hours commute, blore traffic, listening to music through headphones, a lovely nap and mostly importantly thinking of everything in every possible minute.

Here, commute ends before it begins. I will be in office in about ten minutes time.

Lazily lazy as I am, I never had prepared a cup of tea let alone cooking. I used to ask my mom even for a glass of water while lazing infront of tv or internet. Now I maintain whole flat here including cleaning of utensils, cooking, bringing vegetables for food, groceries, cleaning the house and hell lot  of such daily routine things. Well cooking is no big deal.. but cleaning all utensils that were used for cooking.. it is pain. I never cared about my things while I was in India. Here, everyday before I leave to outside, I have to make sure that all windows & doors are locked.. all gas points are off.. all lights are off.. AC is off.. all water points are off.. fridge door is closed.. there is  nothing cooking in microwave/oven.. and finally I will also have to make sure that main door is properly locked by pushing it twice just to make sure that it is locked..huh

Once  I come back from office, there is no one  to talk at home.. no family.. no friends.. there will be only two things to talk to.. the wall and myself.

Individualism is so high here.. that people either stay alone or stay with dog. They either stay in home or stay in car. For people like us who used to with spending time in groups.. it will be quite difficult.

You will either find cheese or pork in most of dishes you order. So here you will find mainly two types of people.. one who is very fat ( so fatty that he/she may explode anytime ) and other who is fit/slim ( fit because that person maintained it ).

People drink more beer/coke than water. A glass full of Coke / water will have half full of ice cubes in it.

Few good things.. you learn to greet a lot ( infact you will start to say hi even to strangers who come across you ), respect people irrespective of their positions, will really know what the work-life balance is.. there is a clear cut solid boundary between work and life.

Few bad things.. “Me first”, “No love.. all sex”, “eat beer.. pee beer” and many such worse things.

People start to work in IT companies after 30 years ( thats the age when they become little serious about  life ). So in a office, you can expect either uncles or aunties. Now need I tell how much I miss Blore DC that too on fridays ?

Traffic Signal is your GOD. Follow it else you are dead. Cars see nothing but signals. People never horn.. rarely honk. They honk when you really piss them off .

It is buddaas and buddiees who enjoy the life to the maximum extent here. They pour all pension money into a luxury car and a very luxurious bike. If you see a BMW bike on the road, I bet rider will be someone’s grandpa with someone’s grandma at the back seat.

The Erican League saga will continue.. America is modern India !!!

PS: Watched love aaj kal.. can be watched once.. deepika looks better.. saif asusual rocks.. This is second hindi movie and four in total in 1.5 months

Life has taken a little twist. It has  been a week since I have landed here.  Yes, I am in Uncle Sam’s land. It took almost 27 hours to travel 15000 kms. I had to change two flights one at Paris and other at New york.  Both are very huge airports. I have to travel through train and buses to change terminals at both airports. Although I had traveled through air before, but hadn’t got opportunity to travel on daytime. It was nice to see the land and ocean well above the clouds

Well talking about the city where I stay.. it is calm.. infact very very calm.. full of greenery and very well organized. People are seen hardly on roads. In bangalore, if you throw a stone it either hits dog or SE. But here, if you throw a stone, it either hits a car or another car. Public transport is pathetic. Life becomes tough without car. One must have car. Kansas City has spread across two states Missouri and Kansas. There is one state line road that divides these two. I work in Kansas City of Missouri state and I stay in Kansas City of Kansas.

Talking about the cars, one can get to drive the cars that one had never ever imagined of. People drive cars crazily. Traffic rules are always followed. Things cannot go wrong on roads and if they go.. don’t ask.

Everything is organized to the core.

Regarding the work, I am the 1oth infoscion who joined here for the client of size 500. Office environment is very good and office culture is very different from the one that we have in India. Loads of formalities, exchange of greeting s and smiles. Good thing about these people is they treat everyone with the same respect be it a CEO or a housekeeping guy. Everyone does their job and they do it properly. Working hours will be 8 hours usually from 8 to 4 or 9 to 5. People never stay in office after office hours unless required urgently. But one mentionable thing is .. if they work for 8 hours , they do only work and nothing else. Lunch break will be usually of half an hour. Most of times, people have  their lunch at their desk.  Like us, they too wait for Friday to come. There won’t be any important meetings during Fridays. People start leaving office from 3 pm. Everyone will be in weekend mood on Friday.

I am here on long term assignment. Hope, I soon get adjust with this place.

My tea-mies, Prazy and Amar, presented this before I come here ( I am still missing our daily tea sessions  )

I believe that everything happens for a reason and I hope this my new phase of life would make me better than what I am now. Onsite has  definitely a lot to learn from work perspective as well as life perspective.