City of Bridges

When a city has over 400 bridges, we can call it a City of Bridges. Recently, I got an opportunity to visit Pittsburgh. I must have passed at least 6-7 bridges in a day of my stay which justifies the name. At a point of time, it was the 3^rd industrialized city of US, after NY and Chicago. I was there on a business trip, just for a day. I flew from Chicago to Pittsburgh in the morning and rented a hotel nearby airport. The benefit of booking an airport hotel is it’s cheap and convenient. Also, you get the shuttle pick up and drop off. As soon as I entered the PGH airport, I was greeted by a Mesozoic era being-Dinosaur. PGH is the home of Carnegie Museum and hence the display. I called my hotel and requested for the shuttle pickup, they gave me directions to stand outside pillar 8. Soon the shuttle came and driver asked me “app Indian hai”, he had a different accent, so I was not able to catch it first time. I said “sorry”, he replied back-“app Indian hai”. Then I understood him and said “ha bhai, me Indian hu”. As I entered in the shuttle, he offered me if I wanted to sit in the front seat. I said, ok, and then we had a little conversation and got to know that he is a refugee from Bhutan/Nepal. He was born in one country but his ancestors were from another country. At 18 years of age, that another country denied keeping them and he could not move back to birth country. So, he had nowhere to go and hence fell in US. The hotel room wasn’t ready when I checked in, which is understandable as I was too early than check in time. I was on call all the time while checking in and traveling from Airport to Hotel which is also understandable. 

I spent some more time on the call and then took rest before heading to office. I called Uber and reached PPG industries where my office was located. It was right in downtown. That building was the best building in PGH. It was surrounded by similar type of buildings. As I was hungry, I had a sandwich first and then entered office. I completed my office work and then I was roaming around downtown to get a gist of PGH. I visited Point State Park and Fort Duquesne (in Point State Park). The Three Rivers Arts Festival was also going on in the park. I sat down and enjoyed some songs, although I wasn’t able to understand everything, still it was good listening to those bands. It was Wednesday, but crowd was enough to make the environment lively. Then I took my dinner and headed straight to hotel and returned back to Chicago the very next afternoon.

Humid Houston

Summer Trip 3

HPE

Out of the blue, I get a call from one of my manager to check if I wanted to go for training. Being me, obviously, I said yes. I mean, who doesn’t want to learn something new, right. It was in house training which barely happens in my company and hence I was excited for it. I have attended one more training in past in India, but I had to bare all the expenses for it. It’s okay as I consider it as an investment. It was one of the major reasons, me being here. But this time, it was different.

Into Space

There were 4 people chosen for this training. Out of them, 2 were my all-time trip friends which made this trip even more exciting. This was the 3^rd trip of the summer series and the longest one. It extended an entire week. There was no clear idea about the training and it didn’t matter either as it was a chance to learn something new, explore a new city, meet cowboys and visit the space. Training was conducted by HPE-a sub part of HP. I was sent to the training to learn storage, its essential for me in order to manage my infrastructure efficiently. Some people were raising questions and making fun on why we were being sent to training, but its okay. We know that when one person wants to move up in life, there are 2 people trying to bring him down.

Entering in Houston Downtown

So, we raised travel requests, booked hotel and flights and soon we were in Houston with little bit of hiccups. It was an official training with no time to explore anything but to learn and return. Even then we/I were able to steal a day in order to check something out. These are the things that should remain out of the blog. I hope you understand. Training was exhausting, it used to start at 8 A.M. and finish 6 P.M.10 hours, that’s long. Even office has 9 hours. Training was more of sales event, they were trying to train and sell their products and eventually we can sell them to our clients. Clients expect us to learn and know whatever is new in the market and bring it to them. Hence, it was a win win situation. Seller gets to sell his product, my company earns commission from seller and client and Client gets a new product which improves their environment. I get to learn new technology.

View from Houston Office

We used to come back from training in evening and then spend sometime in the pool and hot tub. Then go out to get some food and finally sleep. I used to awake till late night to attend some calls. We were trained from Monday to Friday. I had a special day in the middle of all this. It was Tuesday, when my parents visited Ujjain to officially confirm that I am no longer single. My marriage was fixed with a gorgeous girl. I am no longer available. It was an exciting day, I could not believe that my life will take such a serious turn. I was ready at some point, but I still don’t believe that everything has fallen into place at right moment. It’s all God’s grace.

We were there from Monday to Friday. Friday was bit relaxed day as we were allowed to leave early. Everyone left, excluding me. I had to work on something else before I could return back to Chicago. Thursday, I get a text from my supervisor stating that I had to speak with him before leaving. When I called him, he explained me about some new thing that I had to complete. I extended one more day, completed my job and finally returned.