Onsite and all that…

In a country where eligible bachelor status is directly proportional to the duration you spend in a foreign land, it’s always considered blasphemous when you don’t have an ambition of settling in a foreign country. Its not that I don’t like traveling (for that matter I really love traveling and visiting new places) or I have any personal grudge against a country, but just that India is so beautiful that you would realize it only when you are visiting another country. Yeah, some would argue that it’s all about people and not place. In a way it is true, but India works better for me even as a place. After visiting places like Statue of Liberty, Tower Bridge (London Bridge), Big Ben and the most-hyped skyline views, Taj Mahal still stands out at the top as my first choice for the second visit. The skyline view of a city would be the most boring thing to do as sightseeing and you get to do this more often in the “developed” countries. Given an option of free stay in NY’s most luxurious hotel for a week or a stay in a farm house of a village in Kerala, it would be Kerala hands down for the very obvious reasons. This reminds me of a conversation I had with an American-born-Chinese girl in a flight from Chicago to Atlanta and here is the conversation excerpt.

She: so, when are you going back to India?

Me: Next month.

She: Oh, so you have already planned for the vacation?

Me: No. Actually I am here only on a short business trip for two months.

She: Wow. That’s great. I have been to India for few weeks on a scholarship program. It was this city called Cochin in South India. I just loved that place; it’s so beautiful with the rivers. I loved the samosas over there. I was so happy that I would get 10 samosas for 1 dollar.

(Me trying to say something about samosas but she never stopped)

She (continues): I went to Mother Teresa’s home in Kolkata and I cried there. I didn’t manage to learn wearing a saree. It was so great in India.

Me: Wow. That’s so nice.

She: So how did you like US?

Me: Hmmm. US is Ok.

She (with a wide-opened-mouth in surprise): Jus’ ok?

She was really surprised that I wasn't excited about visiting US. Like that, it wasn’t that fascinating to be there except for taking some new pictures.

Onsite trips are not always fairy tales, at least for me. You will be bored to death in a new place that you start eating lunch in your cubicle; your only entertainment would be internet in home as well as office. Even worse if you are on a completely different time zone, you will not have any of your friends in your messenger in your time. All you get to do is work non-stop which would ultimately increase the productivity. You get to eat everything which has a tag ‘ready-to-eat’, ‘frozen’ and ‘instant’. Above all this, there is a soft part to these onsite trips, where you get to meet your old friends in that land. But mind you, if you don’t have any friends in the place you are doomed. Well, it is a different case if you are settling with your family.

That said, onsite trips are always good where you get to see new places, earn lots of money, meet new people and learn new things in work, but the place you want to get back soon is always, you know, home.