I met a former colleague & friend this evening. It was purely by chance that we met, both of us having decided on our own to go to the Abad Food Court in Bay Pride mall to get a burger, fries and pepsi each. Chance meeting – in my case because my lunch sucked and after eating it I was still hungry and was craving for a burger. So after work I took the bus to Menaka and got down there at around 6:15pm and went to Bay Pride and strolled in and using my card bought a classic chicken with fries and a pepsi. I sat down and dug in as soon as my order got ready and I went to get my tray from the counter at Mary Browns. In a few minutes a familiar face came and joined me.

His name is Prince (can’t remember his last name) and we worked together in Aspin Wall back in 2003 for a little over 7 months. After that he has worked for a couple of HR Sourcing companies and now he is a working for the Indian branch of a US based company that deals in ERP, SAP and stuff like that which I don’t have much information about. Ok so, back in 2oo3 he has told us that he was planning to go to the US along with his brother. His mother & father had migrated to the US a couple of years earlier and his maternal uncles were already based in the US, both engineers and they had gone around 25-30 years back. With her brothers being well settled, having gained citizenship there, Prince’s mom was being badgered by them to join them in the US along with her family. Since her husband had a really good job in India they did not want to leave for many years but once their sons both finished college they decided to take the plunge and migrate. Unfortunately this was just before September 2001! Yeah and immigration for their sons became a big headache.

Prince and his brother have been trying for many years to go to the US and it is finally happening. This May their mother had applied for and received citizenship. Yay for her! The dad will apply soon as well. So now, all the paper work is done and things are cleared for a go. Prince & his brother will both be leaving for Chicago in 2 weeks. And Prince is also luckier since he gets to work for the same company that he is currently working for. I think he said that the main office is in Seattle but he will work out of Chicago for a while, working from home for the time being. His brother will have to start searching & applying once they reach there. But still, its awesome for them. I’m happy, jealous ofcourse and envious but still happy for them. All the success, is my wish for the two of them.