Greetings!!

Settling down in this new town is taking longer than expected, but the excitement is still there and the ways of life in Australia still amazes me. I am liking it so far. Things here are so organized and there are rules and regulations for every little thing which a good amount of people follow - be it a little social etiquette or a government policy.

Today J hunted down a mallu store on the other side of town and we decided to have a drive down there and shop for some Kerala stuff ( 50 % of which are coconut related products :-P ). Anyway we finally reach there and the owner himself is at the cashiers and is a mallu himself ( no surprises there ). So we say hello.. and he shoots right away -

1.
1. Are you on a PR ? ( whatever happened to “how are you doing” or “good after noon” )

2.
2. Is your wife a nurse? (huh?? where did that come from ? )

I was all taken aback but J seemed pretty cool as she is already used to all these questions.. So I guess that’s the way mallus introduce each other.. So my introduction from now on is going to be “Hi I am so and so I don’t have a PR and my wife isn’t a nurse” :-P. Jokes apart – mallu store was a relief for us as we can now we can prepare mallu eshtyle food at home :)))))))))))).

Hopefully we find a place to move into by next week and settle in and still have some beans left in the bank :-P. Australia is an expensive place.

Got a pre paid Virgin Mobile connection and found the instructions pretty intimidating .. J So I thought I will share it on the blog.

J

Love Aaj Kal

Haven’t blogged for ages as I was busy getting an extreme makeover - new life partner, new job profile and on top of that transfer to a new location.

In the modern world falling in love over the internet is considered quite common but I never thought it would happen to me. We had met once a year ago under our parents arranged “supervision” but nothing fruitful came of it as we both were pretty much busy with our lives, she more so as she had enrolled for a second masters and had a year to go. Nine months passed before we exchanged out first email and then there was no looking back (100 emails a day and gazillion text messages and phone calls and facebooking). Finally after two months of online courtship she said “yes”. And we decided to get married the coming month.

Marriage was a quite one with only us, our parents, her brother and her cousin. Yes the guest list was kept to a minimum to avoid unwanted hassles of inviting the most distant of relatives and them ending up upset as we didn’t chase up our visit with a phone call the day before marriage to invite them again.. People in Kerala will know exactly what I am talking about. Most relatives consider a marriage as a perfect foundation to start a family feud. Anyway let me not get into that. Marriage went off super cool at Mookambika temple and then a drive back to our home town on Trichur. In fourteen days we visited all of our relatives and 12 temples and were all set to leave Kerala.

Flew to Dubai and then next two weeks were spent me showing off Dubai to her as this was like my home town – she wasn’t that impressed L Quite understandable considering the fact that she spent the last two years in Australia which is a very beautiful place I have to say. Tax free money and the option to fly down to Kerala often over a weekend didn’t appeal to her much. Oh well...

So I accepted a job offer to move to Brisbane and settle down in Oz with a laid back office job so that we could spend time together. My visa came through and decided to leave for OZ almost immediately. So I packed my bags – which were just my clothes and sports accessories. And here I am in Brisbane with my wife J, trying to settle down in a new place.

For the first time in my life I am going to be paying taxes and mobile bills and house rent as it was all taken care of by my firm while in Dubai. But within days of landing here in Australia I have completely fallen in love with this place. I have never been this excited in my life as I am at this moment. Tomorrow is my first day at my new office and I am looking forward to life in Brisbane.

I love life.