There and back again
Like I mentioned in my previous post, it’s been a tumultous ride in the past year. The year started on a positive note, with my work for Kurlon being admired, prototyped and ready for production. Towards March, I learnt the leadership at Kurlon was changing hands, and in-house design was not a direction they wey wanted to pursue at the time. So, we parted ways, and I began exploring new avenues.
March, April and May progressed rather quickly, interspersed with me meeting some rather colorful characters. There was the patent lawyer (IIT, IIM) who had developed a “product” he thought would replace wood. He wanted me to research potential uses for a month at a retainer of INR 10,000, but he wouldnt let me see, feel or touch the product. Yeah..I know what you’re thinking.
Then there was the pretty wealthy entreprenuer from Chennai who wanted me to relocate to Chennai and design furniture for him, but without a written contract. Remuneration and other expenses would be paid to me in cash (or black money). That didn’t work out either.
Around the same time, I was contacted by an entreprenuer in Mysore who ran a business that did contract furniture for the hospitality industry. They offered me the position of Engineering Manager, reporting to the COO, a gentleman with an interesting character, and a very unique way of running operations, I later found. Two months into that opportunity, and I was fed up. I had spent more time playing dirty politics with the COO, than doing what I was hired for. I learnt the hard way that my american sensibilities did NOT fit into the Indian work-place.
Just when I was beginning to despair, that perhaps, my decision to return to India in 2009 had been a little impetuous, I received a little surprise in my inbox. My ex-manager from Maxon was looking to set-up a new Engineering team based out of Muscatine, Iowa and he wanted me back. A couple of days later, I signed my new offer letter and immediately quit the gig in Mysore. Meanwhile, the COO had antagonized the local labourers and they went on strike, plunging the factory and its business into total chaos in the midst of a INR 40,00,000 order from a prominent hotelier in Bangalore.
It tok 2 months for the immigration-related paperwork to be processed, and on September 21st, I left Bangalore to return to my adopted “home” country. I had never experienced such joy. When people say “When one door closes, and another opens, there’s always a reason”, they have no idea it is so true.
Leaving home was tough, as I had spent a year and 7 months surrounded by family, my dear friends with whom I had reconnected and bonded so well. But, it was the right thing to do, as my career had begun to stagnate and I hate my mind being idle. Work in india was just not challenging enough for me.
Now, I write from Iowa and I am happy.I wake up happy everyday. I am so grateful for second chances. My friends in the USA call me Phoenix – although the only ashes I rise from are the ones that fall off the coals from my Hookah. I have setlled back into my old routine. I am making new friends, discovering new challenges at work everyday and as of January, will be starting my part-time MBA from the University of Iowa.
There, life updated.
