Part 1 - First day in Chennai

    Today is February 2nd (Sunday) 2025, and it’s officially Day 84 since I landed in Chennai. Today, while having "Lemon rice" as breakfast at my PG’s mess, I had a sudden thought—why not blog about my experience? Maybe years later, I’ll read this and laugh (or cry) at how clueless I was.

I want to document everything from the start, so this might take a while. Consider this Part 1. 

Buckle up!

The Journey Begins

My adventure started on November 10th. As a fresher, I was thrilled about my job at a multinational company and excited to step into corporate life. But what made this even more special? I’m the first engineer in my family. Actually, scratch that—I’m the first graduate in my family. So, yeah, you can imagine the happiness (and pressure). Graduating with an 8.8 CGPA and landing an on-campus placement was a huge win. Honestly, as I write this, I feel grateful and pretty proud of myself. Go me!

Now, traveling from Nanded to Chennai wasn’t a simple "hop on, hop off" situation. There’s only one direct train on Mondays (because why make life easy?), so I had to take a detour through Hyderabad. From there, I boarded the Chennai Superfast Express—which, let’s be real, wasn’t exactly "superfast." My total travel time? 12 hours from Hyderabad to Chennai, 20 hours in total. I was so overwhelmed by everything that I even wrote a poem during the journey. 

Fursaton ko bandh k, khwahishon ko sath le,
Locking away my leisure, carrying my dreams along,

Main parinda udd chala, main parinda udd chala,
Like a bird, I took flight, like a bird, I took flight.

Duaen ab bhi sath hain, akelepan ki rah me,
Prayers still walk beside me, on this lonely path,

To kyu na ho ye dil raza, main parinda udd chala,
So why shouldn’t my heart be content, like a bird, I took flight.

Nayi naukri, naya sheher, naya tajurba har peher,
A new job, a new city, a new experience every hour,

Yahi josh k sath me, main parinda udd chala..
With the same passion in my heart, like a bird, I took flight.

Rota raha, hasta raha, har ehsas likhta raha,
I wept, I laughed, I penned every feeling,

Ke har ghutan ko maar k,
For I conquered every suffocation,

Main parinda udd chala, main parinda udd chala..
Like a bird, I took flight, like a bird, I took flight.

Welcome to Humidity

I arrived at the Chennai central railway station at 6 AM, and within five minutes, I realized something—Chennai is HUMID. I was sweating just by existing. Standing still? Sweating. Breathing? Sweating. I knew Chennai was hot, but this was next-level.

I was dragging along a large trolley bag, a backpack, and a gym bag, basically my entire life packed in three bags. I booked a cab to my PG, which was referred to me by my college classmate, Ujwal.

On the way, I had a jaw-dropping moment. For the first time in my life, I saw the sea and a beach—Marina Beach. Later, I got to know that it's Asia's largest beach. The sun was literally rising from within the water. I had planned to visit the Konkan beaches with my friends, but fate had other ideas—my first beach experience was with a cab driver who didn’t understand a word I said. Iconic.

The Language Barrier Hits

The cab dropped me at my PG at 8 AM. There was an Anna sitting in the kitchen, looking like he owned the place. I confidently walked up to him and said I had a booking. He nodded like he totally understood me and then hit me with:

"Indi ille, no Indi, wonly Tamil."

I swear, I giggled inside. I had seen this in movies, but now, here I was—experiencing a full-blown language barrier for the first time.

At this point, I had two options:

  1. Struggle to explain myself in broken English.
  2. Use the universal language—hand gestures.

I went with option 2 and asked, "Manager office?" while dramatically doing the gesture equivalent to the expression 'Where?'. He got the idea and sent me to the manager.

The manager handed me my room key, told me to have breakfast at the mess, and asked Anna to drop me at my building. Breakfast was Pongal and Vada—which is when I discovered that I do NOT like Pongal. Great start to my food struggles.


This is the mess.

The Death-Defying Ride

Now comes the highlight.

Anna’s ride? A miracle on wheels. It was an Activa that looked like it had survived multiple apocalypses and was still going.

Since my massive trolley bag wouldn’t fit in front, I had to balance my life’s belongings while sitting behind him. One hand gripping his big belly (don’t judge, survival instincts kicked in), the other desperately holding onto my bag and dragging it by its tiny wheels. Oh, and the road? There was no road. It was a trail.

By the time we reached my building, my right hand was dead. I legit felt like I had done an intense gym session. The pain lasted two days.

Settling In

The room was empty when I arrived (thankfully, because I looked half dead). It was a three-sharing non-AC room with a bunk bed, and my designated spot was the upper bunk.

I had no clue who my roommates were. Would I have to speak in English? Would they be weird? Would they steal my food? So many questions, zero answers.

I took a shower and collapsed on my bed.

Homesickness Hits Hard

I had been at home for six months before moving here. You’d think that was enough time to mentally prepare—but no, nothing prepared me for how much I’d miss home, how much I'd miss my college friends.

I woke up at 1 PM, already feeling lost. The hours dragged. I felt lonely.

So, like any self-respecting adult, I called my Ammi.

I lied and told her everything was fine. In reality? I was freaking out. She cried on the call. And guess what? I had zero idea how to console her. If anything, I’m terrible at comforting people.

After the call ended, I just sat there, staring at the ceiling. Then, tears started rolling down. Not the loud, dramatic sobbing—just the quiet, helpless kind of crying. The kind where you realize and it hits you that:

  • You’re alone in a new city, a thousand kilometers away from home.
  • You won't be able to visit home until you're training is finished.
  • You'll miss your favorite cousin's wedding.
  • You have no family here.
  • No friends (yet).
  • No clue what comes next.

It was rough.

Finding Familiar Faces

Later in the evening, I met Raj. We had chatted online the day before since we had the same joining date. He’s from Bhopal, and fun fact—I was the one who referred him to this PG.

We talked for 10–15 minutes. I came back to my building, and then I met Aditya and Tushar—both from my college, also joining the same company on the same date. We did discuss on WhatsApp about PGs before coming to Chennai, but never met in real life.

Dinner was in another building (3.5 minutes away, yes, I timed it). While eating, I met two more guys from my college.

They asked which room I was in. I casually said "204."

Turns out, they were my roommates—Sanket and Siddharth. What a coincidence!!!

Finally, some relief! Roommates from my own college. They had already joined in July, so they spilled all the insider details—how the company works, training tips, and, most importantly, hacks to leave office early.

The Beginning of a New Gang

By the end of the day, I had found my people—Raj, Aditya, and Tushar. The people to share a cab on the onboarding day. We shared cabs, talked nonsense, and unknowingly formed a gang.

Corporate life was about to begin. I was excited.

(End of Part 1.)

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