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MY STAY IN GREECE
It was evening 8 O Clock ,when I got a call from my recruiter in UK,that he has got a contract for me ,but not in Turkey in GREECE.
Then after applying for VISA and getting it ,I was trying to get a Laptop ,I bought a second hand Laptop from Manoj my friend ,my guide and my guru,I got tickets and was flying abroad for the first time in my life.
It was a extremely thrilling experience for me, and for my family as I am the first person to travel abroad.I took a Lufthansa flight ,and the sheer luzury in flight was so exciting for me.
As I fly over INDIA ,Pakistan and other countries,I use to look down and wonder ,when we look from here all look so alike .As I landed in Frankfurt Airport ,I was so stunned to see an entire city in Airport and the clean environment ,finally I made into the flight to Athens.
Athens ,wow ,the name itself was so fascinating and thrilling,I was looking down ,it was all white buildings ,and a lot of sea ,it looked so wide and I prayed to GOD for giving me this Opurtunity to travel to this beautiful Country,the language was so rhythmic and sounded strange .
The Imigration person doesnot know much English ,but was polite and after the procedures,I called my new Boss ,ANGELIS GEORGE, when I called him he recognized me that I was coming ,but he didnot expect me so soon, So anyway he gave me the office address.Then I was informed by my higher ups to go to Italy Milan to support for the y2k support ,so I went to Milan and worked there for almost a month .Then I came back to Athens.
I started to Work for NOKIA GREECE,based in Athens.It was a fruitful and very rich experience professional I got there.
In the due course of my Stay in GREECE,I meet wonderful friends and great people.
One of struggles I had when I came to Greece ., was that I couldnot estimate the cost of living and spent all of the 1000 usd in 2 weeks time ,for hotels ,taxi etc .,and was running very short of money.
It was a huge change from the comfortable job with TATA ,and now struggling for basic necessities in Life.
In this distress time I went to the Roman Catholic Church and was sitting on the steps ,just pondering as to what I would do ,that is when I meet ROHAN PIERIS,he is from Sri lanka ,looking at me he started a conversation and then invited me for a cup of coffee ,very soon we became friends and shared our problems ,he became like a brother to me.
Rohan is a wonderful christian ,and interraction with him gave me a great insight into Catholism ,it is so wonderful to find a brother in christ in a far of land .
In NOKIA GREECE another Indian came ,his name is LUV KHER, he helped me a lot ,I borrowed some money and slowly I adjusted to the new world and environment .,soon my salary came and I was more responsible in financial management.Luv also helped professionally in day to day job also .I learned a lot from him.Even now I am in touch with Luv .
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Every Sunday I use to go to one new church ,during one of these visits to different churchs ,I meet with another great friend of mine PERVEEZ BHATTI,he is a Christian from Pakistan ,I was so surprised to find a christian from Pakistan ,because as an Indian we viewed Pakistan as only a Islamic country ,and I was pleasantly surprised with level of commitment and god fearing Perveez is .,he is a good believer and a great christian ,we shared our thoughts and remembered in our prayers .When I went to India I told all my relatives about perveez and all were very happy to hear about Perveez .
Rohan helped me to get a house on rent in Kolanaki ,one of nicest places in Athens , he helped me to cook ,he thought me how to cook , When I dwelt with rohan over his family and my family issues ,I was so surprised to find the similarities in our culture ,though we are from different countries.Most of my weekends I used to spend with rohan.
For sometime I also stayed in Rohan's sisters house as paying guest ,they are such a nice people .,myself and Rohan went to their Landlady's house in a resort sort of area near sea.Then rohan used to take me to their sri lankan friends ,it was such fun people out there.Rohan is like my family member ,all my family in India knows about rohan ,every time we talk about greece ,we remember rohan .,My wife though she didnt meet him,treats him as her brother.
Now myself being lucky enough to stay in Greece ,I went on a tour of the country side ,I visited NAFPOLI it is the old Greek capital ,there I witnessed old black buildings ,standing proud and as a witness to the presecution that the early Christians went through. Then I visted the CORITHIN ,the church of corthinians as in Bible ,I visited the Archo polis where Paul preached .,I visted the HERCULES fort ruins .I visited THESELONIKI ,the church of THESELONIANS as in bible ,I visted Patra and witnessed St Andrew's grave .Also I visited the old Olympic stadium .
All this added a great view of the Christian world ,myself being a christian it is indeed a great priviledge to witness all this.
Professionaly I grew immensely I commissioned the new MSCi and done upgrades to M10 and given helpdesk support ,all this added great knowledge and experience to me.
Especially to deal with customers cutting across cultural differences.
Greece in my view is also like India ,old and a long history oriented country ,Basically Greeks main economy is tourism and there a lot of tourists ,especially from Europe ,all the island trips are very famous.
Easter and good Friday is like a national festival ,the whole country is moved ,the procession is one fantastic experience ,with ministers and government officials all taking part.
Democracy is very strong ,,and the electioneering is quite matured and the tension that greeks go through and suspense of results and the celebrations of results by greeks is really nice.
It is a fun place ,when i was travelling to Taiwan,i had to stop in Singapore for transit and then as i was waiting ,i heard some greek words ,i was so thrilled to hear a group of people speaking,i went accross and said KAL MERA (good morning) :)),I shall cherish my stay in Greece for a long time.
I can go on and on and on ..............
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