At the SFO airport, while I was waiting for passengers to board, I started typing...
I'm a bit disoriented with jet lag (sleeplessness) and balancing my work role too, but it all adds to the craziness of my life.
I'm trying to combine two days into one post—a spectrum of laughter, madness, bliss, and a few moments of deep gratitude and happy tears.
Wednesday was a great day... oh wait.
I'm really not sure what kind of mess my mind is cooking up, with all the late-night calls, and the early morning rush to balance commutes, on-the-way vegetarian food at Madras Cafe, meetings scheduled at different campus buildings, and joyous bike rides. It seems like I only have one day's worth of data.
Some of the best parts of my day were meeting my first buddy, a day-long offsite with people of different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds, and the pool of knowledge each person had, yet they made everyone feel so heard and comfortable.
Meeting a bunch of other APAC team members felt like coming closer to home. After all, we had recently met in Singapore too. I was glad I brought gifts for them; my heart felt elated. Yup, I love to gift!
(Airplane mode 14.5 hours)
Day 2 of my journey...
Now boarded the next connecting flight to BLR.
Enjoyed my strong cardamom tea throughout the flight journey. 💗🙏 Both ways.
The previous night, I had slept at 2 AM, knowing that the next day would also be an overdose of meetings and connections, data, and a late-night India call.
Well, let's take a quick peek into my last day of the trip.
The next day, I woke up at 8 AM, rushed to the breakfast place one last time, then to the office for an all-day summit with approximately 121 people from my role and wider business unit.
Each day, I felt so happy and proud of myself for all the planning that went into everything pre-travel and my choice of dresses. I was so looking forward to the days!
Each day, there was someone new I was meeting, heading to dinners, or bumping into teams at restaurants, cycling between buildings for meetings, etc. I loved it all. It felt like I was sent on a business trip to have fun (🤫 shhh... 😉).
I attended the day-long summit until around 3:30 PM, spent some time networking with the broader group, and indulged in fun activities like decorating tote bags, screen printing t-shirts, arranging dry wildflowers, and a photo booth.
We all had such a blast at the photo booth, making fun of the newly introduced role profile that doesn't really help us grow. 🤷♀️
I was a bit surprised to see all my fellow peers excited to indulge in these activities. I took some time to really let loose and just go with the flow. Eventually, I was happy, maybe, deep down, the only motivation I had was to carry a part of it all for my colleagues who couldn't come along.
Around 4:15 PM, a colleague suggested we leave to beat the traffic. It's so funny how different countries experience traffic, and I can bet no one can beat India or Bangalore for that matter!
Many visitors to India express their astonishment at how drivers ride so close to each other on Indian roads, and it freaks them out. 🙂
Well, we had a senior leadership team dinner, and in between, my colleague and I went to my stay apartment to keep my bag pack and rest a bit. I didn't have much to offer her, but I remembered the mint leaves in the fridge. Since I had a good amount, I invited everyone who wanted to come over for tea.
One of my peers joined us. We took a quick tour of the property, I prepared mint tea with the limited cutlery I had, and asked them to make themselves comfortable and feel at home. 🙂
I felt so happy and thanked God in my heart for such tiny moments of life, just a gathering to chat, laugh, and share different cultural experiences.
Both of those colleagues were so grateful for the hospitality, and I told them their visit made me feel at home, away from home.
The US can start to feel pretty isolating, especially if you're from India where people are everywhere.
Around 5:30 PM, we started back for the dinner venue, which was hardly a 10-minute drive. While looking for parking on the busy road, we were guided to a space called "orange car spaces parking" and next to it was "pear car parking." Those fruit-named parking spaces sounded funny to me, but I didn't say anything. But I got to see a lot of my beloved Names💕💖💕😍 .
We walked to the venue, it was a cozy street which restricted vehicles after 5:30 p and was full of different resturants offering various cuisines ...at our restaurant, guests starting to arrive. We all introduced ourselves and realized many were meeting for the first time. The senior leadership was so appreciative of our work.
We laughed a lot, discussed various cultures, food habits, work experiences, celebrated someone's promotion, and toasted to him. Overall, it was a lovely gathering, and sometimes, it makes so much of a difference to bring people together for honest conversations and get to know each other without any ranks coming in between.
Around 9:30 PM, I left by cab to attend a night call and pack for my checkout the next day. It became 2:00 AM. I guess I was a bit stressed with all the packing! I still wonder why it's so...
Luckily, I got a two-hour extension at the apartment. After getting ready and packing all my luggage, I headed out for brunch. It was a vegetarian Punjabi restaurant, and the food was awesome. My whole being was immersed in it.
Soon, I rushed back to the apartment, got my luggage, booked a cab to the airport, and threw away the garbage from the room. I noticed the car was just a minute away and would wait only for three minutes, and again, the rush began...
One minute before the cab was supposed to leave, I reached there. The driver was Italian and kind. He helped me with my luggage too.
As soon as I boarded the cab, tears started rolling down my cheeks. I found it so silly and couldn't understand why I was crying. Probably, they were happy tears from all the fun we had experienced in such a short four-day trip! It all felt surreal, moments were starting to play in my head, and I realized that all these days, I never had so much time to myself or to be able to detach from work or backlog.
At last, all my heart wanted to learn is to be nutral be it the beginnings of journeys or endings. I wanted to really be at ease within my heart...
