While growing up I never
thought I will leave the place which I call as home and hence the thought of
blind date with the world is something not even came in my dream.
But as I started going to
college and started reading things the curiosity bug bit me too. I often
thought of just going to some place and keep traveling because at the end of
the day what do you need – something to eat, a safe place to sleep and stay and
then keep moving.
"The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams" ~ Oprah Winfrey
I had many times discussed
this with my school friends about dreaming of living in a place in a small hut
where in the backside of the hut we have some vegetable garden with veggies and
in front of the house are the hot springs where we cook most of our food and
eat and sleep under the sky gazing stars and my Moon.
I know dreams are so
beautiful and when someone says go live your dream – that’s really an action
which once taken then you’re on your own.
I also took such a blind
date with the world and it was in the year of 1997 when I took a one-way ticket
to Toronto, Canada. I had gone through the process of immigration where I got
my Permanent Residential visa and I headed to this blind date with Canada where
I have no friends and/or family. I will share the journey which now I look back
and feel good about taking that blind date with Canada because it changes my
whole perspective about how I look at world now.
"We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open." ~ Jawaharlal Nehru
I remember I had only
clothes in my suitcase as I had heard its very cold in Canada and so I landed
in the month of April assuming it will be spring and may not be cold.
Surprisingly, it was still snowing that year and I had my mixed feelings
towards that. It’s beautiful how nature itself deals with all these seasonal
changes and how people adapt to it too.
My journey was a struggle
in the beginning because when you land at any place which is not your home, you
start your bill from that moment. Not only that, there's a strangeness in the beginning and also cultural shocks which makes you to be more cautious. I somehow made use of the newspaper ads which
helped me to get the rental basement space for me even though the job was still
far from me. I have met many people during this struggle time and to be frank
only Indians took advantage of my situation. Others, they offered help without
expecting anything in return. I am not sure if I should call that out but that’s
one of the experiences which happened not once but number of times.
People tried to convert me
to Christianity, so they can get money from their institution and to me they
suggested we will help you with the job, which was totally incorrect, and I am
glad I didn’t fall for it. One thing I knew that there are no free lunches so
some of the proverbs that I learnt in school did actually help me from not making
mistakes.
"Life is an adventure, it's not a package tour." ~ Eckhart Tolle
But then in all this, you
tend to find yourself safe in the custody of your race and people and that’s what
lead me to suffer. The moment I freed my mind from that, I felt a relief and
freedom from all tie-ups, taboos and everything. It’s all about your mind
believe me. I decided to move out of renting in someone’s house and went to
rent a one-bedroom apartment where I had my freedom and independence to live.
It not only gave me my space, but it also taught me how to not look to lean all
the time.
I found a small job as a
part-time cashier with minimum wage, but again it was the mind which said this
is not what you came here for and so I decided in 4 months I need to move on
from here. And believe me sometimes you got to make your decision from your mind
and not heart, because only then you can do things that your heart wants.
One after the other jobs
and finally I ended up in a Bank and it completely changed my life, from an HR
field to technology field. The merge was amazing, and the transition was such
that I figured out my actual interest, which is people and technology that
enables people to do things. I guess the blend of this helped me to move from
one company to the other and one place to the other, and now I am in
California, USA.
I think we should all blind
date with the world, so we understand people and life better. Sitting in a
comfort zone can make anyone do anything that they feel is right but actual
life is in traveling and understanding the life of different people. So, I love
this blind date which made me to marry to traveling :).
It’s true that blind date
is not always about happy ending, because many ups and downs are there which
occurred in my life too because of meeting wrong people at the wrong time and
place but the better lesson you learn and move out from there. Because life
always gives you another chance and that’s up to us to see and grab it.
"Life experience is what defines our character, even if it means getting your heart broken or being lied to. You know, you need the downs to appreciate the ups. Going on the adventure or taking that risk is important." ~ Nev Schulman
As I was getting
comfortable with my date in Toronto, I decided to do another blind date with
San Francisco, in California USA. Let me tell you, it was not a very happy one.
I feel when there is a change, it does bring some turbulence, but one got to
hold on to it and stay strong that’s what I did. Initial days I didn’t like US.
It was something like I started comparing between Canada and USA. Everything I
related it that way, whether its people, place, behavior or even the process in
banking etc. I realized I was missing Canada very much because it was my first
blind date with whom I fell in love, so the first love is always there as
special in my heart. I guess no one will understand that because that journey I
had taken alone and every corner of the place, city, people have made an impact
on me. It is difficult to not be connected with a place where I started from
scratch and built my home finally.
Over the period, I went
back to visit and be at every place that I lived in, walked around and worked
around and after that when I came back to California it was kind of be at
peace.
"Life would be pretty boring if I didn't explore. It's about letting my ears take me on an adventure to soak in everything I can." ~ Trombone Shorty
I would like to go for
another blind date and I am just going to go for that soon!
~ Dawn
No comments:
Post a Comment