The sunshine on Sundays is still different. Just that instead of gazing at the deep azure skies with fluffy satin clouds strewn all over and thanking my luck to have shown me 'the light of this day', I
wonder when was the last time I had such a moment of leisure on a Sunday (Albeit I don't have to stretch my memory too far. It has been only 2 months since). Four years have passed by, and the innocence really needs to be returned to sometime, except that this is such a cliche that I would rather keep it for some other time.
"Do you have a passport?" is how it all started. With an extreme-disappointment-eliciting "I applied in Jan, it should be with me any time", I started to really push around for the passport to positively come to me. After numerous 'nashta pani fundings', there it was, the beautiful Godsent in deep navy blue colour, with the Government of India Logo on it. I could not believe my eyes, nor the fact that my wings were no more clipped, and I was a free bird in the globalised corporate world skies, or so I thought.
Along came my first foreign assignment, the one that made everyone I told raise their eyebrows so much it would have put macaques to shame - Dhaka, Bangladesh. Yes, that one.
"Can't you like shun it?" dad asked.
I said it is an international assignment!
"Ok", said dad.
"Can't it be Pune instead of Dhaka?" mom asked.
I said it is an international assignment!
"Yeah right,
International Assignment", said mom.
"Will you be coming home often?" sis asked.
I said it is an international assignment!
"Ok, but try your best, hmm?" said sis.
So there I was, on the Delhi International Airport (Limited), saying things like "I might be in India in August" to my friends on phone, and feeling weird as I did it.
Coming to the Sunday in question, the system that saw me making major adjustments with itself was that of having Friday & Saturday as weekend and Sundays the start of the week.
Finally, finally in my life I was able to see the light of the fact that all calendars I had seen had one red S at the beginning of the week before M and one red S at the end of it, after F. Just that this S at the beginning of the week was more blue than red.
So there I am, making the best of the seamless working system we have evolved (India works on Friday and half Saturday, the work flows to the team stationed here on the Saturday, and lo! Work gets full time processing Sunday onwards!).
And so far so good, apart from little things here and there like lack of reliable and safe public transport, lack of variety in vegetarian food, and lot of access to the kitchen of the guesthouse where we stay - it is fun!
Labels: Dhaka, first international
