Settling In...

When I reached my Service Apartment the driver got me all the groceries I needed for myself – Cheese Slices, Sliced Bread, Jam, Tomato Ketchup, Yoghurt, Eggs and what not!!! I was also given a Temporary Mobile connection and a book named “Kuwait – A Living Guide for Expats” to help me know more about the country, it’s culture and all the information one needs in a new country. I called up my parents & Bandita and told them that I had finally reached Kuwait safe & sound and they were quite relieved to hear that considering all the travails I had gone through and you know all about them by now!!!

I reached my Office at 11 AM on the first day and had the whole Team welcoming me, was nice to see so much diversity in the HR Team and generally all over, in my own Team there is a Philipino and an Egyptian who reports in to me, I report into a British & an Indian and in the HR Team we have Pakistanis, Iranians, Serbians, Sri Lankans, Syrians, Lebanese, Jordanian, Kuwaiti, Palestine and a host of other nationalities. It’s a whole mix of the World under one common roof, in fact in my organization people from 61 different nationalities work together and it’s simply one of the most amazing aspects of working here and it surely would be one great learning experience knowing so much about various cultures, working styles and about so many different countries…

My on-boarding representative here is a Syrian peculiarly named Rani and he is very much a male!!! He is by now used to Indians sending him mails and addressing him as “Ms. Rani” and even I got a shocker when I first talked to him over the phone in India!!! He is a very nice bloke and extremely helpful and humorous, never ever would you find him without a big-wide smile on his face and he is my Smoking Partner here as well!!! He would take care of all my paperwork formalities and generally help me in settling down here.

He got my ID Card & security access card issued, got me the Life Insurance & Health Insurance documents and my bank forms filled, I was up & running; was introduced to the entire team and also got my Laptop issued, all in all everything was well set for me and I was getting comfortable in the new environment quite easily. I left early that day as I was really tired after the night sleep, reached my Service Apartment and slept at 4 PM and shockingly woke up the next day at 6 AM!!! Yes a 14 hour-long sleep!!!

My Office Timgs here are 8 AM to 5:30 PM, currently I have hired a daily cab to take me to office and then back home so I wake up at 5:45 AM everyday which is really tough as back in India I used to wake up at 10 in the morning!!! but by now I have got used to it and it doesn't trouble me much. The Lunch at the Office Cafetria is amazing and there are so many options to explore from...India, Arabic, Chinese, Filipino, Continental and Mexican!!! There is a Live Salad Counter, a Shawarma Counter and one counter for Saj which is basically the Arabic form of a Kathi Roll and have 6-7 options of fillings to choose from. I specially love the Turkish Black Coffee in my office and with a sutta it tastes even better!!!

I was staying at a place called Jamaica Inn which is used to accommodate all the expats joining in and I had a fully furnished 1 BHK Apartment to myself, it had loads of restaurants close to it and I treated myself every night!!! Turkish, Moroccan and Arabic cuisines!!! It had a small gym, a swimming pool, TT & Snooker Tables and extremely good service. It had been allotted to me for 2 months and after that I had to find a place for myself and shift into it.

There is a website for all Indian Expats named www.indiansinkuwait.com which is a one-stop guide to all our needs, I put up a classified Ad on it for a PG Accommodation and the first day itself I got a call from Hemanth telling me that he had a room in his apartment which he wanted to sub-let, he came & picked me up and I saw the room and instantly liked it, was very spacious and well lit plus had a balcony with it. So I moved into my new home here on 10-Apr-10 and set things up for me.







Hemanth & his wife are from Andhra Pradesh and have been in Kuwait for the last 17 years and are extremely nice & courteous people, they have a 2 years-old daughter named Chahna who is really cute and she became pally with me quite quickly but is a very cranky child and always keeps crying and at times gets very irritating, in fact right now as I am writing this she is howling away to glory!!! The only discomforting part of staying here is hearing her continuous howls but can’t help it, the other good things about staying here overshadows this pain!!!

Hemanth got me a Dish TV connection for me and then I had access to all Indian Channels and most importantly I watched all the final matches of IPL!!! I got a second-hand 29 inches Sony Wega Television and a new LG DVD Player also for me and was all set with the Audio-Video devices I needed for myself!!! Plus with the Broadband Connection I am connected all the time.

Plus I have some amazing restaurants nearby where I can gorge and at home I get authentic Andhra Style food!!! What else I need!!! Thanks to God I got settled here very quickly and everybody at my office was surprised at my speed of managing things here, in the first 15 days I had found everything I needed for a comfortable stay here and it is all thanks to my Office Friend George who has been my advisor all this while and has helped me in making all the wise decisions as he had made some blunders when he first came here and never wanted me to repeat those…he has been in our organization for almost 3 years now and keeps telling me all the information I need…

I have been observing so many new things here and would be writing soon about my observations in my next post and there would be more revelations as the time progresses…this is surely a fascinating place and I don’t feel very far off from India, the direct flight back home just takes 4 hours and the tickets are not too expensive either plus with Internet I am always electronically connected!!! Even if I would have taken up a new job in say Bengaluru or Mumbai I would have been in India but still the distances had been similar as statistically Kuwait is 2700 kms away from Delhi!!! The big pluses about working here are that I am getting a global exposure which would be extremely beneficial for my future career, I am getting to know so much about different cultures and it is simply fascinating and on the top of that I can save loads of money!!!

So here I am…having spent a month here and it has been a wonderful time till now, thanks to God no roadblocks till now, maybe he tested me enough in India so saved me from any new troubles here!!!