The Long Drive for My Graduation Ceremony:
I was packing my baggage on Friday December 15th to Sydney from Melbourne Southern Cross Railway Station. I arrived in the last few minutes to the station. Thanks to the excellent "right time" driving by my friend karthik. It was my other friend Preethi who helped me get to the train I need to board. This was my first long travel on a train to another city. I arrived in Sydney for the first time next morning at 7am. Nattu alias Natraj picked me from station to his place. I had high notions of Sydney before I landed in there. I was bit down after seeing the railway station and the nearby places. It did not strike any difference between Chennai or Mumbai and Sydney. I liked Melbourne much not because I moved in there currently.

Graduation day-Adelaide,December 20th 2006

My previous blog about Melbourne stands up prior to Sydney. Over population has created such a thought in my mind. I had a great breakfast with Uppma and yogurt prepared by Vinodha, Nattu's fiancee.The same day Hari or Harry(to his colleagues) or Nari(to me alone!) drove from Wollongong to Sydney to pick me in his brand new car Holden VIVA(not to forget the name!). We had a great lunch at Janani Restaurant, a Srilankan Cuisine which had specialist cook for Dosas. Finally said goodbye to Nattu and started with Hari to Wollongong. We reached there by 2 hours. It was a beautiful town across the Pacific belt with not much population. Hari was buzy with his official stuff and I stayed in this beautiful town for couple of days. Then on Monday the journey began. We both drove to Canberra(my first ever visit to the Capital city). I was not able to view the Parliament as it was dusk. We reached it by 11pm. Gary or Giridharan or Guitar joined us from there. It was back again with the same old friends. Both guys drove the entire 15 hours with a couple of breaks. We had a gala time mocking each other and cherishing the old memories when we all shared landing in Australia 2 years back. The road was dry and was such a hot day springing up to 40 degrees.By the time we reached Adelaide, our hub it was around 2 pm on Tuesday. It was fun to meet all the old buddies and stayed in our good old home. My room was now shared by the new inmate friends. Anand and Prakash were the ones who were expecting us, mainly Hari.

Next day was The Day for us. It was a "funny" and "cool" experience wearing all black suits and gowns on a very hot day. Thiru the professional Photographer did not let our spirits down and took marvelous pictures on the most important day of our life.

Special thanks to him. We actually owe him more. "singam" Prakash was posing with all the graduation awards evoking laughter around. Trust me! We miss all those fun times we spent the whole week. We all returned back with heavy hearts after the whole week. Even I postponed my travel once to be with them. Now getting back to the normal life, makes me feel nostalgic. At times we need a special boost up at every quarters of our life like this. Though it was short, was a memorable one.

My First Australian Interview:

This was one of the blogs I was yearning to pen for long. But finally today was the day which met my utter desires. My previous blog about moving to Melbourne was justified by this blog today. My first Australian interview at Melbourne was not much of hype but I was bit excited about getting through it. Though this position was totally different from the technical stuff I gained from the universities. My interview was on for about an hour which comprised of 5 -6 questions which focussed on my previous customer service experience. I knew I would get through it easily. And finally I received the call for confirmation. My training was for 4 days and it was fun nothing much to add. Knowing about the company's offers and way to speak to customers were the main highlights. My first day was very smooth. The authentication systems awed me. Each consultant were given a fobe key which has a 6 digit number running in it randomly. It changes each minute and we should pop the digits when it changes. This was for security purposes.

A week passed and I found myself comfy in dealing with the atmosphere friendly people. If I had issues I had people who would come to my rescue. They are called SMEs. Quite number of them.I could see Indian guys doing well in the role of SMEs and Team Leaders. Sometimes I do encounter "respectful" customers who have the "F" word coming out 8 of 10 words. I learnt to be patient and my temper was tested couple of times. My accent being asian is different for the Aussies and gradually I developed to speak English in a way they could not ask, "I'm Sorry!" or "Pardon me". Hope to stick on to the job till a right one strikes my way. Its been just 2 weeks and I think I feel a bit bored about doing the same job again. But I had to gain some experience too. Hoping for the best in the near future.