Pecten in the Sand Box

The spring was over and summer was on

Austin was hot and the streets had gone

Parched and shimmery. May was here and

When the pecten called, Denver was my new land.

 

The drive was long, through hills and dirt

El-Paso was mid-way and my back began to hurt

Miguel was happy that Le-Bron had scored

The one sec shot and Orlando was floored

 

The Mexican flag flutters nearby they said

We turned right and I-25 stretched ahead

We passed Santa Fe n other New Mexico sights

The 8 o clock horizon showed Denver city lights

 

The house was fine though the parking was tricky

And sleeping on someone else’s bed seemed icky

At first but exhaustion took its toll

Next it was 5 in the morn and I was all set to roll

 

Drive to Shell to short and swift

5^th and 14^th Stanford Place. Took the lift

to the front desk. “Hi I’ am the new intern in drillin”

Just a sec. Lemme fetch you manager Chris Hakulin

 

A tall, lanky Finnish gentleman came and said Hi

Took me around the floor and after a while I

Was sitting at my desk with million forms to complete

This is what they call on-boarding. Frikking Sweet!

 

By the end of the day I had met and known

Andrea Boock, Jose Santiago and Jess Malone

My buddies for the summer interning at Shell

For some reason I heard a voice ‘this is gonna be swell’!

 

A happy hour at Lodo’s or a dollar taco at Lime

Saturday mornings at Wash Park never realizing time

Flew swift. Hiking up the Rockies or Pike’s peak by cog

Weekends went snap and come Monday, the same ol’ jog

Studying directional tendencies in Pinedale

is my project and effectively it boils down to ‘all hail'

MS Excel. Some head and some toil later, I can

Now safely say that Peter Voser is the man!

 

HR is rarely praised but I would thank them now

Houston and New Orleans was just a tad short of wow

Watched LSU knock off Texas’s baseball crown

And made up for the grief by owning Houston Brown

 

24^th floor room at W. Mississippi streamed the view

And for a strange fuzzy reason that night my heart beat anew

Bourbon St, Vampire Tour were merely some crazy means

Of enjoying the dark and soulful city of New Orleans

 

And while all the flights and hands of clock ran

Continental and United had a rather demonic plan

“Sir you can’t check in online” their moronic website says

Solamente porque su nombre es Jose Gomez

 

Back in the mile high town an untaken road

Was treaded. The power of ’10^-9’ was showed

To the wise and all keen tech nerve centre of Shell et al.

I would have jumped on but the wagon was too frikking small

 

Engrossed in smart fields I kept time at bay

Shooting out 20 mails was my target for the day ;)

Nonetheless 6 weeks passed and I was half-way through

So much had been done so far and yet so much to do

 

The story remains unfinished. So much more to tell

This was but a blink in the intern-life at Shell

Few answers are still pending. A lot depends on the few

A promise to you my dear friends, I’ll get back to you. 

Fifty stars and the lone star

This post is dedicated to my friends: Ashu, Miguel, Angel, Gandhi, Lauren and Drea 

When somebody uses the term ‘fresh off the boat’ I don’t mind the cheap shot but please at least respect your own Boeing.  Well admittedly I’ am not that fresh anymore. It’s almost a year now and on this 4^th of July weekend when none of my friends are here with me, I find time to reminisce.

After a 22 Hour flight you land in the same weather you had taken off from. Welcome to Texas. I drove from Houston to Austin on the first night and the place was so desolate, dark and quiet. Damn Youtube! I had such a different image it mind.  The next morning I woke up with a weird feeling of isolation, like a dog-eared page in a book, distinctively different yet a part of the herd.

Morning also brings another feeling. Although I had been to the US before there was one thing I respect about the French that I despise about Yankees and Brits. Toilet paper. Why kill trees or worry about recycling when you have Atlantic on the right and Pacific on the left??

Austin took quite sometime to grow on me but when it did it was malignant. The place that had looked quiet on the first night had life blown into it and was brimming with colors, sun, cars, hotties, cap-metro, cyclists and so many people I’d come to know as friends. Just the confetti was missing.

UT itself was imposing and it blended so well with the city that it did not look like a university per se and walking from one end of campus to another was a feat for the quadriceps. Classes began, moved into a new apartment, commuting on buses began and life started switching gears.

Going grocery shopping was like embarking on an adventure. Hop off the bus in front of H.E.B and then do a couple of lunges and squats. Warm-up before a workout. The place was so massive that a fly coming in would think that it was a new planet. Finding a carton of juice in those gazillion aisles deserved a same elation as Marie Curie’s radium find. Except that I didn’t die after drinking the juice. The way back was an ordeal, as I had to lug four 15-pound bags from the bus stop to home. That is when you appreciate the value a car and the fact that every American has two hands and four wheels.

When I applied for a driver’s license I rented a car and that night was the first time I was driving a left-hand drive and believe you me, it’s not easy. It’s like walking on your hands when you lose your bearing. I got fifteen honks on the very first day but did make it safely back home.  Americans say that Asians are good at math but are poor drivers. I say why don’t you come to India, you’ll be good at neither.

I got my first car, a Honda Accord EX Coupe with the money I had saved up from my fellowship and I’ am really proud of the five scratches that it has till date. I’ am pretty comfortable driving on the right side of the road now but I’ am skeptical about driving my dad’s car when I go back home. One scratch and I’ am disowned!

I had worked for an oil field service company before I came here to the US and after a year of studies I got a chance to work for an exploration and production company as an intern. I drove from Austin to Denver, a total of 1800 miles along with my friend. I had a throbbing back pain for a week but was an awesome experience driving thru the hill country, desert and along the Rockies. For some odd reason being away from Austin made me sad. I had begun to relate to it.

My intern began and I came to know and like people and gradually with their help eased back into the life of corporate world.

This one year has given me a lot. I’ve taught myself how to get a feel of the weather on the internet without going out of the house, talked my parents through the yahoo messenger setup, played softball and ran towards the pitcher with the bat in hand, seen snow at 14000 ft, gone hiking and seen a snake creep over my feet, learned to dabble in Spanish, drank half a gallon of milk in day and loved my life like never before.

Aquí está a la vida y a los Estados Unidos.