Journey to Australia : The Beginning

I'm kicking off my series, which shares my experience in making once in a life time decision. Please note that this is my journey. you are free to criticise and I would be happy to understand your views on this. Feel free to comment.

In this post, I'll be briefly jotting down the points that made me decide that it's time to move on. I won't go into intricate details, but will make sure that I paint a good picture of why I(or lot of people out there) tend to do this.

It all started in 2016. I did not realise that it had started, but looking back I can firmly say that it was the beginning. I was the kind of person who had no intentions to leave India. Anitha(my partner) being a person rooted to Kerala, and especially the cuisine - was a big reason for that. I remember my relatives asking me why I wasn't trying for opportunities abroad. My answer was - I'm not interested. When I met my professor Dr. Sudheep in 2015, he casually mentioned that he was proud that I was a person who had clear insights of what and where my future lies. This had reaffirmed my decisions and thoughts.

But then what changed? In 2016, Anitha joined Beckman Coulter, and I joined Applied Materials. Both of us got a huge pay raise, and our quality of life started improving drastically. As a first step, we decided to cut-short our treacherous journey through the infamous Bangalore traffic. Within 5 kms radius to Anitha's and my office, we found a perfect place at Marathahalli - Purva Fountain Square. We were paying huge rent, wow-ing friends and family. But we had the money, and it was time we upped our style, so why not? But the story would change soon.

While we enjoyed the time within the gated colony, the world outside remained the same. Same traffic, same pollution(or worse) and same quality of life. Anitha's office was 4 kms away, but she took an hour of stressful journey to get there(even though she tried Ola/Uber every day!). I stopped taking my car out as it exponentially increased my travel time. This started to stir my thoughts. In future, I might buy a Jaguar, but where do I drive it? What's next for us? If we start a family, what is the state of education in Bangalore? - Pathetic was the only word. People back home, or young folks at my office don't understand the term Quality of  Life. I don't blame them. Bangalore might be a huge upgrade from wherever we were brought up. But the current Bangalore is a ticking bomb - be it real estate, pollution - smoke, water, noise, waste, traffic, amenities, infrastructure, education, you name it. In short, I wasn't seeing a future in that city. And that's the best I could get in India.

Late in 2016, we received a final push which made me seriously question What's my future here in Bangalore?. So then the question was - What next? Thanks to Anitha's excellent Girl Power gang - Nanda, Kavitha and Archana, Australia came up. Canada was the next option which is easy to migrate, but both of us aren't big fans of the cold weather. Yes, yes, I know what you are thinking, why not USA? United States is very volatile, there was no guarantee whether you'd be kicked out from the country, and then there was Trump as well. It's difficult to get in as well.

After some thought, we rounded up Australia and made the call to a Visa agent - visasavenue in December 2016.

Read all the posts related to my Journey to Australia -

1. The Beginning
2. Road to get a Visa
3. Cracking PTE
4. Visa granted, now what?
5. Job Hunt Part -1 
6. Time to Fly!
7. Arrival
8. Job Hunt Part - 2
9. Job Hunt Part - 3