We together!

When I reached mumbai, I got a mail from fawdi that she wanted to talk and asked me if she could call me. I asked her to call on my landline.
"My project got scrapped"
"So are you coming back?"
"No I am assigned to go for a training"
"Training for what?"
"Another tool and after that another project"
"Which tool and what project"
" and a project in houston!"
I Could not believe my luck. She was to get trained in Palo Alto on a tool and then travel to houston to MY PROJECT!!

I reached Houston on a sunday and the story repeated. I lost my baggage. It came after 3 days. And after a week, came fawdi. We have been together ever since in Houston. Until my emergency exit due to Visa issues.

On a side note, I dont know why my onsite trips end in a disaster. Swiss trip, had a arrest warrant against me, Charlotte, came back with TB, Houston, became an illegal immigrant!

My Onsite planned

Days seemed to crawl as I was waiting for fawdi to come back. On the other hand I my onsite prospect was getting stronger. I went and talked to our resource manager here to see if she can put both of us together. She assured us of all the help she could do.

One day I got a mail from my DM telling me about an onsite opportunity as a Business Consultant in Houston. Sathish Rajagopalan, an old punter was also in the same account. That was a nice role and a nice location too. Meanwhile fawdi was also allocated another project in Chicago. That project was suppossed to move to Houston in some time

Fawdi started training for that project and I started preparation for my assignment. Fawdi had plans of coming down to houston as one of her former roommates, Anu, was also there. I left for Mumbai and was planning to go to Houston from there

Fawdis dad agrees!

After a month long vacation and trying my level best to convince fawdi I joined back in Bangalore. I was still talking to fawdi and trying to convince her that we will be together soon. She felt otherwise. My project was getting over and I had a chance of going onsite.

One morning, she called me and said that her dad had asked her to call, and she thought perhaps he had finalised something. I told her to call me back with whatever her dad says. She did. She was not able to speak properly
"He said yes!!"
"What?"
"He said yes, anu!"
"What yes?"
"He said yes to us!"
"Calm down fawdi. I am not able understand what you are saying"
"Anu..." (sob.. sob..) "Anu..."
"Dont cry fawdi, tell me what happenned"
"Anu, I talked with dad. He said if this is what you want. So it be! We will get you married!"
I froze!
"Anu... Anu.. Are you there? I am not able to control my happiness"
Still frozen
"He said, I liked Anand, but my only issue was how will I adjust and how will they tell the relatives. But if this is what I wanted, then he is ready to get us married"
I still dont remember what I said to fawdi that day, But it seemed like I was floating in a sea of happiness

Fawdi goes back onsite

Meanwhile, Fawdis project in phoenix had another requirement and fawdi travelled back. That atleast gave me time to talk to her. My health kept getting worse. Finally I decided to take a month long leave and concentrate on getting my health back on track. I took a long leave and went to Mumbai. Fawdi still did not think that we had a future together. Deep down she knew.. we were made for each other

Fawdi looses hope

After I came back to india, I went on a week long leave to Mumbai and fawdi travelled to Mangalore. I had another surgery done there and removed the swelling. Started the course for TB medicines. When I joined back Bangalore, Fawdi was already in Mangalore. She was finding it more and more difficult to talk to her parents now. She still had proposals going on.

One weekend she travelled home. Had a long, hot talk with her parents. Finally she could not take it any more. She agreed to do whatever her dad wanted. I was waiting for her to come back and tell me what happenned. She came back and told me that everything is over between us and that she is going to marry whomever her dad asks her to. I had little choice left but to accept this fact.

Proposals had started to come in full swing again. We hardly talked, I felt betrayed. Felt like I had no reason to live. I still had hope that I would convince her and her parents. But luck and my health were against me.

Back in India

Fawdi went back to Phoenix. Her project was getting over and she was to fly back to India for some time. I joined back office after a week of rest. The pain was still there, but I could manage with antibiotics. After some days the swelling came back! The tissue culture results had still some time to come. I sent the CT reports to my doctor in India.

He suspected TB and asked me to get a test done. The results came negative I was getted scared of what this is and was planning to go back to India if the medicines did not show results. After 8 weeks the results confirmed the fears. I had Tuberculosis of the Lymph nodes. I had to travel back on a very short notice. Coincidently I and fawdi travelled back on the same day, April 22, My birthday :), and reached Bangalore with 10 mins difference.

Lump in the neck

When I was in mangalore before going for Preetis marriage, I had a swelling on my neck. The local doc gave me some antibiotics and it subsided. After reaching Charlotte, the swelling came back. This time it was bigger and more painful. I went to the doc there after coming back from Phoenix. He asked me to get a CT scan done. He could not make out much from that. So he asked me to get it removed. This would mean a big cut on the neck and atleast a week long bed rest. He asked if I had a family here. Though I had lots of friends there, I needed to have someone who would be there with me for the whole day. I initially planned to go back to India and get it done there. Fawdi was the only one whom I could look to in the US.

Fawdi managed to take some leaves and came to charlotte for my operation. All my friends, Arun, Harsh, Sandy, Meghana, Sriram and the ever helpful Gopal, helped me a lot during this time. Fawdi stayed with Meghana. On the day of the operation, fawdi looked more tense than me. Dont remember much of that day as I was on anasthesia and was drowsy. Gopal took me back home and fawdi took good care of me in the next 5 days. She also talked to my parents at home and assured them that everything was fine. This was when the Orange went to green at my place

The surgeon took out the swollen tissue and gave that for culture to check the cause.