Abroad calls-Our dream training

“Ministry has nominated 26 officers for foreign training in USA”, read the sanction order. Even while writing this blog, I could feel my heart sprinting with joy. The earlier week was a busy one for people in Ministry. They were involved in hectic activity of getting official passports. The official passports had arrived. I departed from my Regional Office in Chennai on 13 September 2018 for Delhi. I was in fact really eager to see my colleagues after the recent transfer. I went directly to Ministry in Delhi and met my friends at office. We chatted there for long regarding all sorts of things. There was still a bit of uncertainty regarding the trip as Coastal areas of USA were facing a Hurricane. However, anticipation and hope was boundless.

            I stayed at my friend’s apartment which was definitely a plush one. We partied there, talked about life, about work and about the trip. All the friends arrived one by one to the apartment. The ‘THE’ day had come. The flight was at night 2am. We left around 11 pm at night from the apartment in two cars. We all arrived at airport and were really excited. All of our friends, juniors and seniors came.

            We went inside the airport. We took our online tickets and went to get our boarding pass. There was a long queue. We all had our wheeled bags for travelling. The bags were checked and sent through conveyor.After getting the boarding pass, we had to go through the Airport security check. There was a diplomatic/official line specifically for the Indian Officials. We went through the immigration. It actually didn’t take much of the time. We went straight to our Gate where there was one more checking. Around 1:30 am we boarded our Air India aeroplane.

            The aeroplane was colossal and not like the domestic aeroplanes we usually saw. This aeroplane had to cross the ocean to another continent. We sat down in our seats. My place was near aisle. There were facility to watch TV, but I guess mine was broken. The flight took off soared into the air and so did our dreams. After some time we were given snacks. Nothing is better than snacks for a good dreaming. We were asked to shut the window screen. I guess it was time to sleep. My friends had little drinks to aid their digestion. Around Morning, right above the Ocean, we had our breakfast. Around 3 pm at noon, we landed at Chicago. This is the first time geography lesson came to my mind. As we went towards the west, we gained time, we were hours younger. The time which we were all so concerned about had different meaning in different places. It was all interstellar again if you get what I mean.

            We again went through immigration checks. Here also we were given separate line as we were officials. Before landing itself, airlines airhostess had given us some forms to fill which had to be presented at the immigration counter. Our immigration officer was a bald stone faced guy with blue hand gloves. He took the passports and scanned it. I would be lying if I say that I was not anxious. However, everything was over in a jiffy. We hand official land in United States of America.

            No one was there for us to tell where to go or how to go. We were just moving forward by asking airport officials, one step at a time. Our bags came out of those conveyor belts. I could see how happy those bags were. They were dancing on those conveyor belts. They also traveled with us to another Country. My bag was of American Tourister Company. Its life goal was fulfilled. It was once again checked in and sent in conveyor for the next flight. Some of our daring friends had exited  Chicago Airport for sightseeing. Not me. I waited for the next flight to Washington. I was really hungry. However, the funny thing was I had only 400 dollars. If truth is to be told, this may be one of the least prepared tours for me. No research, money that too at the last moment from my seniors. The trip was for 12 days and I really did not wanted to spend the money and be stranded here. Our other friends had forex cards with them. They checked whether it worked or not. Truth to be told, I was sceptical about those cards. But it worked rather well and was very convenient. Convenient may be because while giving cash for purchase, I don’t know whether people gave me correct change or not. There were cents, dimes and I had never bothered to check.

            When we reached Washington, a bald person in Coat came to us and asked whether we were from Ministry. I said yes. He asked where the program coordinator was. Till that time I had no idea who our program Coordinator was. I mean, I knew the name and all but never met in person and did not know how he looked like. I pointed towards direction of one of our seniors. May be he knew who it was. Thankfully he knew. They all met and talked. We were shown way by the Indian embassy officials towards the exit. There were two big Chevrolet cars and two big black Mercedes Benz vans. This might be the second time in my life to enter a luxurious vehicle. We kept all luggages behind the Van and hopped on. The entourage headed towards the hotel at Arlington. The place was stunning. I was glued to the van’s wind shield to see the scenery. The moving landscape with greenery splashed on both sides of roads was a treat to the eyes. There was no swarm of people, no crowd, only cars plying in the road. It was like watching a Hollywood movie with camera zooming in. Throughout I think our Indian desserts have more people than on those roads. I was dumbstruck by the weather, the greyish hue in them. The weather had different colour to it, pale colour. The Indian weather is very bright like a big ‘mela’. Even the air in both countries was different, each of them unique and breathtakingly beautiful.

            We were to stay in the Hilton garden Hotel. The hotel was amazing. It was on a slope. We were all given magnificent rooms. We were given our morning coupons for breakfast. I was just exhausted and exhilarated at the same time. The jet lag had caused some sleeping problems. I think it was common throughout. For coming 1 week I kept on waking up 3 am in morning and was very sleepy during the afternoon times no matter how many tea or coffee I drank. The next morning around 6 am I and my roommate went out for a walk. The streets were so neat and clean that my sole of shoes were cleaner than my front of shoes. The one thing that perhaps we all noticed was people are very fitness conscious around here. They are always running, in morning with their earphones and in evening with their dogs.

            I had this fantasy of bathing in the bath tub. Throughout my stay in USA, I bathed in bath tub with hot water and soap. I don’t know how many litres of water I wasted, how many hours I stayed there, but a man wants what a man wants. Then we all went for breakfast. We all wanted a typical American breakfast. Vegetarians were scared out of their wits as to what to eat. I ate all types of meat, and in morning itself. I learned how to make waffles which is to just put the dough in machine. The beacons, the pork, the chicken and the eggs, all ate in the morning itself.

            The class was held in Arlington, FHWA. It was like a Regional office where training was held. We met the Deputy Director of the Institute. We were taught on various aspects of engineering with a field visit during the coming week.

            We were given DA by the Embassy. Out of all 26 officers, we 4 knuckleheads had missed to collect our DA. Now we had to collect it from the Indian Embassy. One of the seniors had credit card to book UBER. We went to the embassy in UBER which was a JEEP. We met the Second Secretary for collecting DA.

            After DA, we had to make arrangement for food at night by our own. For the whole one week, we tried different restaurants. Indian restaurants were really costly. We went to some Art party of which I had little understanding and ate snacks from there and left. Our first major tour was to the White house. The White house is an imposing structure. There were barricades and lots of tourists. We clicked our photos. By now, we had come to an understanding the McDonalds was the cheapest food anyone could find. After white house, we went to a Animal Zoo. It was quite large and had number of animals. We went to the pentagon mall. The one thing you again learn in US is not to convert the dollars into Rupees in your head. The first week was really stingy in terms of my spending as I was always converting the currencies in my head. This drought changed in coming week. I emptied all my money and I spent till I was broke.

            The time at Arlington was closing to an end. We planned to go New York in the free weekend. The hotel and bus was booked and no plans were made. We just went with the flow. New York is the city that all should see. Newyork is a stark contrast to the Arlington. Crowded and filled with all activity, this city was majestic. From the bus we were dropped near the empire state building. I still remember seeing the tower aching my neck. This is the first tower in my life whose top was not visible. It was true to its name, a sky scraper in all respect.

            We now went to the hotel. Each of us had made a group of five to six people. The hotel was also Hilton garden, however smaller in size compared to one which we stayed at Arlington. At night we went out. The street was full of activity. Big screens of LCD with endless advertisement, Building that rose to abode of God. The people all from different countries and New York is truly a Global city.

            We visited the empire state Building, the mall with Alien like skeleton, World trade centre memorial. The statue of liberty was missed because of bit miscalculation in timing. We went on the bridge at night.  We got scare of life when our internet stopped working. We had got off the hook many times because of the free Wifi offered by the restaurants. However, near this bridge there was nothing. Out of the four people, only one of us had internet and that too was not working. Finally after lots of try, we could book a car. We were happy that the cab driver was an Indian. We had a lovely conversation about the life in the city.

            After the New York program, it was back to Washington. We stayed at Willards Intercontinental which had rooms for big politicians. This was the hotel arranged by Embassy and was really a huge one. The hotel was gold painted to give it royal feel. Here also my favourite part was the tub bathing. If any environmentalist found out this extravaganza, I would have been in deep trouble.

            Here, we did all the sightseeing. We visited White house, Washington Memorial and Lincoln memorial for second time. All reminded us of the great past and hope for the future. Any distant place was travelled in the Metro. Unlike our Delhi Metro, there is no security checking. A card filled with dollar for travelling around. We however found that travelling in metro was more expensive than using UBER.

            Like all good thing end, this trip also had to come to an end. Within two week however, I was missing my family. Our last photograph was in front of US DOT. Our last visit was the National Museums. Those were some great museums, especially the Science Museum. There were animal’s models, microbes, real space stones and real rare stones. The next was the space museum. Finally, the trip ended. It was a trip of the life time. We all packed our things and departed towards our Home sweet Home. We said goodbye to this great Country, but the reminiscence of the time here will be always with us.

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things”-Henry Miller