My first day in US

CB arrived in US two weeks after our first anniversary. I worked for a software firm in India, so I knew the pitfalls of arriving in US with work visa. If  the  US placement is through a consulting firm, you need to share the accommodation with others for first few weeks (or for months for many friends who were not able to get a job within couple of weeks).  And then you can be posted anywhere depending on the clients requests. This works out fine for bachelor’s guys /girls but not for the married/family people. I wanted CB to settle down in his job coz having me with him meant he will have to consider lot of option before accepting a new job. I decided to join him after six months. Meanwhile, I resigned from my job, vacated our first home and moved back with my parents/in-laws for those six months.

 I landed in US on a cold winter night of February, a week before CB’s birthday.  CB relocated to that city just two months before my arrival. He never bothered to buy a car or get a driver’s license. Well having had a car since childhood he never bothered to learn car driving or never used his dad’s car. He made very conscious effort to hide his status and used to commute to college by bus.

 After arriving at the airport, I was searching for him and never recognized him until he came few yards from me. The six-foot tall slim husband I knew six months back had gained tones of weight, had a big belly and his face was twice as big it used to be.  After the initial bear hugs followed by flowers, teddy bear and box of my favorite chocolates we decided to hire the cab from airport.  The cabs are usually outside the airport complex and when we arrived there was no single cab in view. I have never seen a desolate airport like that till today. And Wichita is home to all big air craft companies like Boeing, Cessna and Lear jet.

 We waited for more than 30 minutes outside the cold, dark area for cab arrivals because getting inside airport complex meant we might miss the occasional cab which came to drop passengers. After half an hour we called the cab service to pick us and the cab arrived after 45 minutes. I was numb due to freezing temperature  in spite wearing two jackets.

We arrived at our apartment after what seemed to be an endless drive from airport. Thanks to a sensible husband our apartment was fully furnished.  The warm bath I took after two days of travel and two hours of waiting on the cold cab shelter felt luxurious .

I found the reason behind his weight gain. Our kitchen cabinet had plenty of gallon size ice cream buckets with Indian groceries. He was a kid in candy land surviving solely on chicken/cheese pizza, Fried chicken and gallons of ice cream.

The husband, who never made a cup of tea six month back, had cooked a sumptuous dinner spread with my favorite dishes.

 This is one of  the happiest memories of my life - my first day in US.