NO to YES...

I had never ever thought even in the wildest of my dreams that I would work outside of India but here I am, working in Kuwait(of all the countries), you may ask why Kuwait…and I have all the answers…

The primary reason for me coming here was that I badly needed a job change from UnitedHealth Group after working there for almost 3.5 years and more importantly I was no more enjoying my job and my profile was becoming redundant & stagnated, I tried my best finding a job in Delhi-NCR but could not succeed due to various reasons. I was getting extremely frustrated and just wanted a new job but as it’s the way always with me, nothing comes easy and I knew I was in for a long-haul…

And then on 16th January my good friend Savita Nair who works in Quadrangle called me while I was in a Hiring Event at Hyderabad and told me about this job opportunity in Kuwait and told me to at least apply and then try my luck, my mind said “let’s go for it” and then on 21st January gave me preliminary Telephonic Interview to the Head of Recruitment and believe me guys it was one of the best Interviews I ever gave, the discussion was tremendously informative and I had all the answers to his questions and at the end of the interview he clearly told me that they would invite me to Kuwait and then take things forward…I knew that I would get shortlisted…no over-confidence but surely self-belief…

The other reason was money, yes let me be honest & upfront here…as everybody knows that The Middle East is extremely lucrative wrt salaries & it was clearly on my mind and Kuwait is the best paying Country here…I knew that if I work in Kuwait for 3-4 years then my Financial Future would be stable & certain as due to various reasons in the last 3-4 years I had not been able to save much of money…the reasons being my Divorce in 2008 & my never-ending Bike-Rides…I don’t regret either of them!!!s

I travelled again to Hyderabad the following weekend and got a mail from Kuwait that they wanted me to be there for the Interview & the Orientation Tour to know more about Kuwait, but as always with me there was a visible roadblock, my Passport was expiring on 10-Apr-10 and for an International Trip I needed a validity of 6 months at least so I had to get my validity extended but only when I could reach Delhi…on the following Monday I reached the Passport Office in Delhi(which I became a regular visitor of in the near future; more details about that later) but to my horror found out that due to an incomplete Police Verification in 2005 the validity extension would at least take 15-20 working days and I could not afford that long a delay so I took the normal Indian route…met a Tout, paid him money and then got the extended validity in flat 3 hours!!! Yes 3 hours only…the power of Money as they say…

I was also sent a link to know more about life in Kuwait which was informative indeed; in addition to this I also did some extensive research using the routine culprits & my best Internet Friends!!! Google & Wikipedia…also talked to one of my MBA Batchmate Preety whose husband was born & brought up in Kuwait and she had also stayed there for some time & in fact her in-laws are settled here and I knew she would give me real-time and authentic information much better than the Internet links…and everything she told me helped me make up my mind and I am extremely thankful to her for all her inputs…

Yes there were loads of apprehensions & fears in my mind like staying in a completely new country, with no friends or relatives, staying away from my family, friends, my Bike and the Bike Rides, plus the normal fears of working in the Middle East with so many restrictions in place and also the fact that I was to get engaged soon and would have been away from my fiancée at a time where we needed to spend more time together…but I had pretty much decided that if I successfully clear the Interview Rounds I would surely take up this new challenge and give it my best shot…

And then I was all set…all I needed were the tickets & Visa from Kuwait and I could fly…the final hitch was managing 2 leaves from UHG and considering the mayhem we were experiencing due to the new Hyderabad Centre it was not going to be easy…so I had to think out-of-the box to get those 2 leaves!!! As I was going to be away without any access to my office Mails or Mobile Phone…but somehow I gave a solid bahaana and got the leaves…I knew it was going to be fool-proof…only very few people knew about the upcoming trip as I never wanted the beans to be spilled-out!!! The Trip was planned for 3rd & 4th February 2010…