My Morning Coffee – The Eternal wait

Well, folks this is my first blog and I am kinda nervous to submit it…Its like those silly childlike experiences, when you can hardly comprehend the meaning of an “EXAM” at grade 3, and all you know is that your mom wants you to pass it!! J My good friend Rabiya had been prodding me on for quite some time to write a blog on my experiences in Melbourne and hence this piece would be a mixed bag of my experiences here. 

Life has nearly been turned upside down in the past 3 months that I have spent my time here. Melbourne and its people have given life, an entirely new perspective and meaning. The things that had been taken for granted in India have turned back and given me a hard slap on my face. Some background of my “Chennai” life would help to put things in perspective.

It was going fine in Chennai, where I had the thankless job of a Software engineer in a reputed IT company with never ending deadlines. It’s another matter that I seriously wanted to amuse myself by getting into this job as I had done my Mechanical Engineering!!! The location of the office was great as I had to travel just 20 minutes on my motorbike to the office, whereas some of my lesser fortunate friends were the poor souls who caught the morning bus at 7.30 in a semi-drowsy state to reach the office by 9.

I am the kinda guy who has never lived a hostel life before. The maximum distance I travelled to and fro on a daily basis was to my Engineering College which took 40 minutes. Now it is no exception that Indian mothers can cook well!!! This had converted me into a professional foodie (the veggie band) and I rarely ate a dish at home without passing some generous comments on how this dish can be improved further. I remember the days at Andhra Mess in T Nagar, where I and my brother had hogged shamelessly such large quantities of ladyfinger poriyal (curry) in the unlimited meals section, that the poor waiter was dreading to cross by our area, fearing that we might ask another serving after already being served 4 times!!

Coffee was served to me in its best South-Indian form in a tumbler-dabara (kinda saucer) set, by my caring mother or my loving granny, immediately after 2 minutes of brushing my teeth in the morning. Being the first son had some privileges!! That coffee, along with “The Hindu” newspaper would set the tone for the entire day.  My poor granny had the task of reminding me to take my company ID card and my handkerchief daily to the office. It’s because of her that I had rarely ever missed my swipe card at the office. On the days, I missed it, she would be staying at my Uncle’s place and then I would understand the reason of my forgetfulness. Mom would prepare a superb lunch and pack it in a hot-case, much to the envy of my colleagues. My eating quantity would be nearly the same as the combined intake of two of my female colleagues!! I could never understand to this day, how they manage to survive on such a diet and yet turn out the highest quality of work.

All this went fine until the day I decided that this job was not taking me towards what I had intended to become of myself after college. I applied to a few reputed Universities in Australia for my Masters and got an offer from a good one. So, I happily packed up my bags and bade a tearful farewell to my family and nervously sat on the flight to Melbourne.

I was received by two of my colleague’s friends and they helped me move into my friend’s place temporarily in the dead of the night. Those friends are helping me to this day, and all I have managed, is to get more than to give. I am indebted to them in every sense and I am waiting for the day to repay their kind favors with interest.

Melbourne is a beautiful and a well planned city with plenty of gardens. Every house is picture perfect and the roads nearly reflect your face. Well, at least that’s the first impression of a middle class Indian guy who hasn’t been abroad before!! My experiences in Melbourne can broadly be classified into the Good, and Not so good categories. Let us start with the good ones first….