Onsite trip - for dummies

An unofficial guide for Onsite travel:
Like most of the Indian IT coolies, I too dreamed about coming to onsite and get salary in usd. After 5 years, this dream has become true. Its been 2 months in US. Some of the myths which I had before coming here was totally broken. Many new surprises awaited for me.
I'm sharing some tips, which may be use full for the first time travellers


1. Pressure Cooker : Before packing the pressure cooker, check with people with whom you will stay. Avoiding a pressure cooker can save 2-3 kg.
2. Blankets : If you are traveling during a summer time, you don't have to carry a blanket. This can save you upto 2 kg. (I traveled during peak summer time and I still carried a 2.5 kg raymonds woolen blanket :( )
3.Most of the Us cities have Indian store. Avoid bringing rice, dhal and masala powders. Most of the Indian brands are available in US (MDH, Sakthi, Aachi, MTR etc). If you are bringing spices from India then pls avoid "Kasakasa"
4.Have at least 20 pairs of inner wear. This is very important.
5.Get a decent sun glass. In Us, you have to spent a minimum of 100$ to get a decent sunglass.
6. Don't carry more than 2 pairs of shoes.
7.When Collecting the forex, make sure that you get some bills with lower denomination (5 and 10$)
8. Don't apply for SSN Immediately. Apply for SSN after a week or 10 days.
9. Open a bank account as soon as possible.
10. Veekam, Maanam,Soodu, Sornai ellathaium Indiala vachitu vanthuranum..
11.Open a NRE/NRO account before leaving India.
12. Make sure that you file your IT returns for the previous financial year.
13. Get used to toilet papers.
14. 90% of the american food have vitamin G - Grease.. You have to be very careful with your food. You get mostly greasy food. Either you have to work out heavily or make sure that you control the intake of fat.
15. When traveling, try to avoid the rest rooms in plane. Even the best airlines rest room would be dirty.
16. Apply for a state id and driving license

Life in America : Week #3

Life is becoming too tough. Several unexpected things happened in a very short time. Over the weekend, I stayed back in the house. Sunday thought of exploring DC. But due to rain the entire plan got scrapped. Almost after 7 years once again I started to cook.
Last wednesday, I attended Blackberry DC Developer day. Both the technology what they discussed and the food what they serverd were "Greek" and "Latin" to me. For the first time, I had a American lunch :) . Got a blackberry bold 9700. My first Non-Nokia cell phone in my life.

Work is getting pretty hectic. Expecting tough days ahead..

Life in America - week #1

7 days ago I landed in Dulles International Airport. My first overseas trip. With lot of excitement and anxiety I came down to DC. This trip can change my life. I know the ground reality before starting this journey. Things are not going to easy. Trying hard to make things work fine.

When I was in India, I had feeling that I'm obese. Now, I don't have that feeling. I can see too many xxl sized people around me. DC is a very costly place to live. Every day I have to spend around 20$ for my transportation and for my lunch. When I convert this into Indian Rupees, it comes to 900Rs. 4$ to use the washing machine and dryer (Enna kodumai saravanan ithu :( ). Hope after another 51 weeks I will return to India.