In Houston..

Life in houston is not as difficult as I thought. Main reason was that I had some friends here. Sathish from the punters and Anu from Mangalore DC were already here. Started the process to get the apartment before I reached here. Got an apartment in the first week.
After my 4 months stint in Charlotte, I was not very happy with life in US. Mainly because of the huge dependency on cars. Some of it was taken care by the fact that I am staying close to the office. And some more because Anu had a car. Fawdi joined me soon and then we started stuffing the house.. One thing after another and soon we have a well furnished house..
Project started good. I had come here as a business consultant and was suppossed to work on the Process Optimisation. But somehow I eneded up with the data track. Almost everyone in this project is old. Only 3 people from my group.. Me, My Manager and Fawdi. Soon things started to fall in to routine and the boat started sailing... Slowly...

Am back in US

Most people know by now that I am back in US. Seems some powerful force backing me right now :) am getting lucky...
First of all I got out from the project I was working on. Not that it was a bad one, but i was just fed up of it. Then I got an onsite chance, that too as a business consultant. I was dreaming of this for long time. More good news was to come even as i reached mumbai for a 2 day vacation. fawdi was going to be in the same project as I was! The earlier plan was that she was going to be in Chicago. but some how.. that project got cancelled, and she was moved to the same client, same location, same place as I was. Can you believe that?
So here we are. In houston, together almost whole time..

The silence before the storm..

Long time no see.... :) okay. Just that writing blogs was completely off my mind. some things were completely covering my mind during the last few months. First was my neck and loaded lymph glands. then there is my dear project and then there is usual thing about home and fawdi..
I joined office back in August and am working almost with full efficiency. Not that I have great amount of work. Every project I have touched has landed in escalation. That makes me most known name in my practice. They now spell Anand in the middle of every escalation. (ok ok.. that was a bit of exgageration ;)) It was a welcome change when our onsite manager sent a appreciation mail for the team. Now I am targetting some improvement in the project quality rating so that I can pitch for promotion in the coming years.
Aur abhi tum logon ke liye kuch.. Jo log pehli baar blog padh rele hai.. unko welcome. Aur jinko iske baare meing maloom hai unke liye... Are chor log kuch comments likho.. :)
Expect some interesting news (good or bad you can decide when you hear ;)) in the coming months..

Back in mumbai

After a short stint in bangalore, I am back in mumbai. This time for a long break... for treatment and rest.. of my COX ( thats what docs call this.. something on my neck) Seems my immune system is down in dumps and the medicines I am having are not having any effect on these little lumps of lymph :) Am here to consult a specialist and get this treated. Took a month long leave to be a bit healthy. Fawdi back in US. She was not at all ready to go. Wanted to be with me. But its better that she is not here ;)
So here I am relaxing at home.. on a vacation..

In Mumbai

Wrapped up my assignment in US in 4 months instead of the earlier plan of 1 year. The swelling in my neck was starting to increase. I informed my manager about this and asked him to go back. Fawdi also came back. We travelled on my birthday to the bangalore. And not all was a concidence ;) We were together for 2 days in bangalore. Met the team and talked to Srini, my manager again. Told him that I would be on leave for 2 weeks. He asked me if i can travel onsite as soon as I am back. I said not for 2 months. So he asked me to be in Bangalore for that time.
I started for mumbai on tuesday.
I am finally in mumbai. A good place to be.. my home :) Again a surprise to aai... and a good one too. Got an appointment with the doc the next day i came here. My family doc suspected TB and asked me to get opinon of specialist. Did that, he recommended a biopsy. The next day, 27th April, he removed one more of my lymph glands which was swollen. This time on local anesthesia. And here I am.... Resting here at home. :)
Fawdi too back at her home. After almost 10 months.. it is going to be a crucial week for us. Her dad almost decided.. he has already asked fawdi to choose between him and me... difficult choice.. still hoping fawdi will be able to make her parents agree.. waiting...

The story : Part ...

It is a long time since I have updated the the story series. Lots of things happenned in between. We finally figured that we are in love with each other... Told our parents about our relationship... My parents cautious.. trying to convince me otherwise... and fawdi's parents angry... We met each others parents... fawdi made a good impression, though there are some more issues... And I made a pathetic one... Fawdi came to US. we were been away from each other for almost 6 months. I came to US... met Fawdi...went to new york with her and my other friends...had a swelling in my neck which finally led to a surgery which was done on the 10th of march 2006.
the situation now is both our families are not agreeing.. though there is less opposition from my parents, they have not yet agreed... Stiff opposition from Fawdi's parents. Dont know what will happen when fawdi goes back in April... Hoping for the best.. that they agree... but am sure that it wont happen so soon... and continuing to talk to my parents and convince them. :)

The surgery

The lump in my neck is finally removed. Doc says it was bigger than he expected and also expects it to be tuberculoid. Am a bit tensed about that. Earlier I thought that it would be either TB or the surgery, now it turns out that it would well be diagnosed TB after the surgery! Scary, considering the fact that its already a tumor, I could well be in the second stage of it. Not that it is not curable and all, but that would be a huge impact on the way others would look at me especially my family, which now includes fawdi.
Fawdi is here with me now. Was with me for the surgery and I could see the tension in her eyes. Probably she was more tensed than anywone else about this whole thing. She still is. I can see pain in her eyes whenever I have a slight pull on my neck. Am thinking am so lucky to have her around me. :) She will be here for another 2 days.
And my friends and people around me.. its so nice to feel so cared. Meghana, Gopal, Sriram, Arun, my roommates and all the people who know me.. care so much. Gopal almost like my dad or an older brother. Mehgana, as concerned as my sister would be. Sriram, Arun and other roommates like solid supports. :) must have done something very good in my previous life ( Am sure i did not do anything good in this one ;)) to have all these nice people around.