Chapter 21: Surprises & Confessions

I got my visa and I’m flying to Toronto, Canada by the first week of January 2012, I quit my job, I started to write a new script for a documentary film, I nearly loved a girl. What a way to start a new post?!

I waited almost a year for this to happen. I started my ‘study abroad’ plan somewhere before May 2010. It was a wonderful experience, to say the least. It offered me a lot of things, things ranging from frustration to friendship. I chose to divert from Mechanical engineering to Filmmaking. I now know that it is not an easy task at all. To quench my travel thirst I planned for my higher studies abroad and to fulfill my passion, I chose filmmaking. The application process took me to New York, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Australia, Canada and mainly New Zealand. I made a lot of friends in New Zealand, including the staffs of my film school. I’m so unfortunate as I couldn’t make it to the beautiful village of Taradale. My NZ visa application got rejected as I had applied for a film making course in spite of having a degree in Mechanical Engineering. But Canada is so generous to accept me! I’m getting ready for a fierce winter and lot of wilderness. So I started my purchase today. I bought some winter clothes like jerkins, woolen jackets, some branded casual shirts and jeans, winter gloves etc. I’m slowly getting ready to move out of my homeland, out of my beautiful country. Hardly one month to go! I’m going to miss almost everything, everything from family, friends, Pani Poori, Idly sambar, first day first show of a commercial movie to lone mountains of Guduvanchery.
But I know one thing. I can’t stay away from this place for a long time.

I worked as a Research Analyst in a corporate company called Connectivity Data Systems. I only worked there for three months but I’ve grown closer to that place because of my friends and the stress-free work environment. It is a startup company and has a lot of opportunities, offers a good pay and paves way for your career growth. I had to quit because of the ‘study abroad’ plan. Otherwise I would have stayed there for a longer period of time and enjoyed the fifteen minutes break, midnight cab ride, time with my friends and lots of beautiful girls.

As I quit my job, I had literally no work to do, not even a house hold work. I was so bored. I decided to roam around my city in a rainy afternoon. I went to the beach, some shopping malls, a war cemetery, an old museum, central station and at last Coyembedu Bus Terminus. That day showed me the beauty of my city from the point of an outsider. I really enjoyed each and every moment of my short travel. That’s the day in which I decided to make a documentary film about the magnificent city of Chennai. Chennai is my home for four years and this is the least I could do. I’m in the process of writing the script. I decided to feature a Chinese restaurant called China Palace in my movie. After a very kind and long request, the owner finally allowed to record few seconds inside the place and as a bonus, he also agreed to speak in that video about the restaurant and its origin.

I'm not going to say much about it, but finally, about the girl I said, Love is not the right word here, an emotional attachment or perhaps a sense of admiration. I really (I mean really really) like her. But one fine morning she made me realize that I’m just a stranger. I never expressed my feelings to her and I’m never going to express it forever. It stays with me as a secret. It is best for both of us, especially for her.

Chapter 9: Nice, Nicer and Nicest

A most important thing to consider for becoming a traveler is to have friends around the world. I consider myself as a budding traveler. Even though I've visited only a few places in India and my journey to New Zealand would be my first foreign trip, I'd like to consider myself as traveler. One day, am sure that I'd finish the globe and I'm planning to write a book about it. I'm now in my first step for achieving that, 'Developing my circle of friends around the globe'. I could now say that I'm doing an 'okay' job as I have some handful of trustworthy friends around the globe. This chapter is dedicated to such friends who're in the various parts of this planet.



First, let me start from the point where it all began. 'New York Film Academy'. I found N.Y.F.A community page in Facebook which helped me to find two great friends. 'AMRITA' and ALAIN SINGAYE'. Alain Singaye is an aspiring and talented actor who lives in Los Angeles. He studied his acting course in N.Y.F.A. I found his profile in the community page and gave him friend request explaining about my situation and query about N.Y.F.A. He was so a nice man that he explained to me about the current situation in L.A and about the life in N.Y.F.A. From then on, I've been in constant touch with him through frequent chats and messages. He really helped me to make a decision about N.Y.F.A. I've seen his 'acting show reel' once, and it was awesome. I'm sure that he'd make it big.


ALAIN SINGAYE

I could say that 'Amrita' is one of my best friend and more like a sister. She gave me a friend request after seeing my profile in N.Y.F.A community page thinking that am going to join N.Y.F.A. She had the same plan. Amrita is an Indian who's living in Florida. I guess we all know about what it takes for an Indian woman to live alone in the mighty U.S. It takes a lot of courage and determination. Amrita has it all. She have lots of dreams and loads of talents and extraordinary gift of being so nice and facing the problem with a cool mind state. This is Amrita as far as I know. We used to chat every day, discussing our problems and experiences. It was so easy to get along with her as both of us shared similar tastes. I must really thank N.Y.F.A community page to help me finding someone so important in my life. I just have one thing to say to her "I'm sure, you'd go places with your talents, sis"


'CUTE' HAE IN

Another important person in my life is my cute friend 'Hae In' from Korea. We became friends through the 'OMEGLE' website. We shared our Facebook profiles. From that time she's been my good and trust worthy friend with whom I could share any secret. She had a good accent of English unlike many Koreans. Everyday we'd have long conversations about our day to day life which created a bond. She's a close friend to my sister too. I can't forget the cute little gift she sent to my home on my birthday. She was so happy to receive my flowers in turn. Now we find very little time to chat as she moved to Hostel. But that didn't affect the bond between us.

 When I was searching for some film institutions in New Zealand, I found SUSAN BUTLER's profile in 'SOUTH SEAS FILM AND TELEVISION SCHOOL' community page. Susan Butler is one of the nicest friends I have. Susan and I shared a common goal of joining a well reputed film institute in New Zealand. Susan is from Australia and she is going to move to New Zealand by the end of this year. I'm so eager to meet her as she was my first and best NZ mate.


TALENTED 'RAJNEEL SINGH'

At first, I didn't know that my friendship with 'RAJNEEL SINGH' is so valuable. I found his profile in 'NZ film commission's community page. I gave him request to get cleared on some doubts about NZ film industry. I must say that Rajneel is the most tolerant man in this planet. He answered each and every question of mine without leaving a tiniest detail. Usually my questions would be of two lines in size. His answers would be like in 'twenty lines'. Rajneel is an Indo-New zealander ho's currently living in Auckland. I'm sure that I'd meet him in Auckland. One day, I clicked the link of a short film in Rajneel's profile. 'BLANK SPACES' is it's name. I'm not exaggerating here. But it is one of the best short film I've seen. I mean, really THE BEST. Only a true passionate traveler could enjoy the happiness of that film's protagonist. To my shock, the film ended with a credit 'A FILM BY RAJNEEL SINGH'. I didn't know how to react. I realized that for the past full month I've been talking to him by using the words like 'Dude, Man etc.' without knowing that he's a highly talented film maker. That film won him, a second prize in 'NATIONAL SHORT FILM COMPETITION'.



Now, to add another diamond to his crown, his another short film 'BIG BAD WOLVES' is going to be screened in 'INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL' which is going to be held in France. He's now in his trip to France to present his short film. Now he's working on his first feature called 'SEIZURE'. It would probably be released by the month of June '2012'. I'm sure that it would be a grand success. One thing I've been meaning to say to him "Without your guidance and patient answers I would be still searching for universities in a different part of the world. Thanks a lot man, I owe you big time"



These are some of my important, nice and trust worthy friends who're living in various places around this planet. There are lot more unmentioned. Namely 'Ferrie Lin from Taiwan', 'Lea Schimt' from Germany, 'Idibun' from Nigeria, 'Maria' from Iceland, 'Hamina' from Romania. I just wanna tell one thing to you guys "We're doing great as friends irrespective of our race, places of origin and natives. Thanks for being my friends"