The interior of the house was coated with the trim white paint, including the door, cabinets and the mantel. Every room was finished with the white crown moulding. The flooring consisted of matching hard wood, made up of pine and oak wood. Ceramic tiles were used in the kitchen, making it different from the remaining rooms. A staircase in the main hall led to the two small bed rooms in the upper floor. The master bedroom was built, beside the main hall in the lower floor.
Catherine had few minutes of break inside the house, and they together walked towards the private kitchen.
Jennifer saw inside the private kitchen, workers filling the boxes with cakes and few more were left to finish the job.
“Packaging is almost complete, let us go and arrange the boxes inside the van to take them to Edison,” Catherine said. “Let us take these boxes to the garage and keep inside the van,” she instructed to one of the workers.
Coleman’s always kept themselves busy in the pastry business and Catherine Coleman was the main driving force to run the business and had motivated others to work for them.
Jennifer looked at the boxes filled with the Bakery products and said, “Mom, you have prepared a lot this time”.
“Yes, we have orders from corporate offices” Catherine Coleman replied while worker kept the boxes inside the van.
Coleman’s had always got orders from corporate offices, which in turn gave them to their employees and customers. The orders were high during the holiday seasons, especially during the Christmas time and Catherine Coleman always hired few more people to assist her in making delivery to the customers.
“Will James be back by evening, Mom?” Jennifer asked while she looked at the worker keeping the boxes inside the van.
“James will not return until midnight,” Catherine replied.
“Okay, let me go and hand them over these boxes,” Jennifer said. She saw the boxes being carried outside the kitchen towards the garage.
“I have informed Wyatt about your arrival within the next half hour and he called me up an hour ago mentioning the urgency of the delivery,” Catherine said.
Wyatt was caretaker of the Coleman’s pastry business and he had worked for them faithfully for the past seven years. He was responsible for the customer care at the outlet and dispatching the required packages to the needy customers. James assisted him when he had free time.
“All right honey, and let’s go,” Catherine said and started walking towards the van, after all boxes were kept inside the vehicle.
Both had a look at the boxes once and made sure they were kept properly.
“Okay, don’t delay in handing them over to Wyatt,” Catherine said.
“All right Mom, I’ll go straight to the outlet and hand them over”.
Jennifer started the van, making sure everything was all right and drove to the gates of the Coleman’s private home.
Chapter 3 Heathrow Airport
“There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.” – Charles Dudley Warner
Niranjan climbed the staircase attached to the plane with co-passengers. An air hostess greeted the incoming passengers with a broad smile on her face. Two more crew members of the plane directed the passengers towards their seats inside. The passengers sat in their place after keeping the bags inside the luggage cabin located above their seats.
Niranjan walked inside the plane and searched for his seat. He found it with some efforts as it was deep inside. He kept his bags in the luggage cabin and sat in the window side seat. He looked outside the window and saw the airport workers busy loading and unloading the cargo boxes from the plane. He pulled out a health and fitness magazine from the front pouch and flipped it over. Soon after, he saw a person with glasses on his square shaped face standing beside his seat. He kept his bags in the cabin and sat primly straight in the aisle seat. Niranjan saw remaining passengers entering inside and locating their seats.
He heard an announcement from the flight attendant informing that the plane would take off in few minutes. He saw a video being played on the large screen kept in front of the passengers. The video instructed the passengers about the seat belts and the emergency exits. The final announcement was made informing that the plane would take off in few minutes.
Niranjan heard the high pitched plane engine noise, after the plane moved towards the runway. He was little frightened when the plane took off. He heard a noise of chainsaw coming from the plane engines. He observed the small metallic parts on the wing of the plane moving up and down when the flight curved in the sky while gaining the altitude.
Niranjan continued reading the health magazine and he saw his co-passenger beside him staring at it for few minutes.
“It’s about cholesterol control and heart disease,” Niranjan said.
The co-passenger gazed at him and said, “Many news articles about cholesterol these days”.
“Yeah, I like this one; author has given useful tips in this to control it,” Niranjan said.
“Cholesterol is becoming common among the youngsters these days”.
“I think it is because of their sedentary lifestyle and food habits,” Niranjan said.
“That’s correct. My company, Siemens, has come out with the innovative diagnostic products in this field. I think the technology plays its vital role in fighting against such diseases”.
“Wow, that’s great. I think Siemens develops diversified products in different areas of life. Are you with Siemens Medical and Healthcare division?” Niranjan asked.
“Yes, you are correct. I work for Siemens at New Jersey as a Senior Design Analyst”.
“Wow that’s good to know. I work for Summit Software as a Software Engineer,” Niranjan said.
While they were busy speaking with each other, an air hostess served passengers with beverages and snacks. Niranjan asked for a white wine and had it along with his co-passenger. He enjoyed watching the Titanic movie with him.
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When the plane approached London, an announcement was made which informed passengers to tighten the seat belts. It also said the plane would land in the Heathrow airport very shortly.
Niranjan walked towards the exit along with the other passengers, when the plane landed. He had to wait for four hours in the airport before continuing his journey to New Jersey.
Niranjan glanced at the computer screens and noted the terminal number of the next scheduled flight. It was terminal number five and he walked towards it.
He roamed around the beautiful airport terminal. Airport had a huge space for the shopping and recreation purposes. He spent good time walking around the shopping outlets. Niranjan saw shopping outlets of famous brands such as Gucci, Prada, and Hermes with the variety of products in them.
Extensive foliage added additional beauty to the airport terminal, and it was well lit with lights. Niranjan felt amused by walking inside the open air garden, having different types of plants with enough foliage.
He reached to the terminal five, and boarded the next plane after producing his boarding pass, and continued his journey to New Jersey.
*********
Niranjan loo
ked down the plane to see the city of Newark while the plane started circling around the city. The flight was not given permission to land due to the busy runways and it circled around the city for about twenty minutes.
He felt amused when plane tilted to an angular position while it hovered in the sky. He looked down at the neatly built houses, and the cars slowly moving on the streets.
The flight was finally given permission to land and Niranjan felt excited when it landed on the run way. He felt relieved when the plane landed, which ended his long journey to the USA.
Niranjan spent one hour inside the airport to get the custom clearance and collect his luggage. He walked towards the exit and looked for Venkatesh.
Venkatesh was a senior colleague of Niranjan and had been staying in the USA for the last three years. Niranjan worked with Venkatesh in one of the projects back in India before Venkatesh left for the USA. He had completed his period of stay in the USA and going back to India shortly.
He saw Venkatesh wearing a light blue t-shirt and a black jean. He waved his hands towards Niranjan with a broad smile on his face.
“Welcome to New Jersey,” Venkatesh said. He helped Niranjan with his luggage.
“Thank you, the journey was little longer than I thought it would be, though I enjoyed it,” Niranjan said. He looked very exhausted.
Niranjan walked to parking place along with Venkatesh. He got surprised to see the huge parking area adjoining the airport. Venkatesh clicked the remote of his blue Toyota car.
“Wow, you have a Toyota Corolla. I like its colour,” Niranjan said. He sat beside Venkatesh in the car.
“It is a fairly used car and I had a good deal. It had less mileage when I bought it two years ago. I will return it to the dealer when I leave to India this month”.
“How much did you pay for it?” Niranjan asked while he wore the seat belts.
“Well, I had paid eight thousand dollars at that time. He is paying back half of it when I sell him back to him,” Venkatesh said. He pulled his car out of the parking slot.
“Is your travel to India got confirmed?” Niranjan asked.
“Yes, I am leaving by end of this month,” Venkatesh said.
Venkatesh steered his car towards the exit of the airport parking area. Niranjan saw two signboards in front of him, with Route One and NJTP written on them with a pointed arrow mark.
“We will drive on New Jersey Turn Pike to reach Princeton instead of Route One to avoid the traffic signals,” Venkatesh said turning the car towards the NJTP highway.
Niranjan saw a total of three lanes on the NJTP in each direction, with cars speeding up to 65-70 miles per hour. For every mile, there was a speed limit signboard which mentioned 65 miles per hour, alerting the traveller to maintain their speed. Exits on the expressway enabled traveller to come out of the NJTP and connect to the smaller country roads to reach their destination.
Green exit sign boards could be seen at frequent intervals on the express way to indicate traveller where they are. Exits were properly numbered in an increasing or decreasing order depending on the direction of travel. There were considerable number of vehicles travelling on the NJTP and some were changing the lanes to pass the cars in front of them. It was surprising for Niranjan to see several cars speeding on this expressway without the interruption of traffic signals and taking exits at their destination.
After travelling for about half an hour, Niranjan noticed a sign board ‘Princeton, exit 8A, 2 miles’ written on it. He observed Venkatesh changing the lane to the right most one to make an exit out of the NJTP.
Venkatesh drove towards a country road after exiting the NJTP, and drove further for few more minutes to enter into the Deer Creek Apartment premises at Princeton, New Jersey.
Chapter 4 Deer Creek Apartment
Where we love is home – home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts – Oliver Wendell Holmes
The Deer Creek Apartment was partitioned into many blocks, and each block contained eight houses in it. Every block and homes inside the block were numbered in a logical order to locate them easily. The apartment contained beautiful gardens with well-manicured grass lawns around, and provided a soothing look to the observer. A private road with two lanes inside the apartment premises ran till the tail end of the apartment on the other side, and cars entered and left the premises through it.
Venkatesh had rented a single bed room house, located in the first floor of the H block. The house faced the front side to the block with a parking space in front of it. The private road inside the apartment ran in front of the parking space, around fifty feet away from the ‘H’ block. An American Holly bush, four feet high, was the barrier between the parking space and the private road. A swimming pool and a laundry room were located on the other side of the private road and were visible from the balcony of the house.
Niranjan stepped out of the car when Venkatesh parked it in the parking area, and went to the rear end of it to collect his luggage.
“The apartment premises are very beautiful and well maintained,” Niranjan said. He lifted his luggage from the trunk of the car and put it on the ground.
“Yes, I chose the house facing the front to have the scenic beauty of the apartment premises,” Venkatesh said. Niranjan followed him to the open entrance leading to the H block.
He climbed the wooden staircase attached to the outside wall of the house to reach the first floor. He entered into the house when Venkatesh pushed open the door.
He saw the well decorated interior of the main hall while Venkatesh switched on the lamp and slid open the glass door to the balcony. Niranjan breathed fresh air which entered inside the room from the outside through the balcony.
“Wow, it is quite spacious and well finished. I like the flooring, it is as smooth as silk,” Niranjan said while he stared at the floor mat.
“You are right, it is soft,” Venkatesh said with a complimentary tone.
Niranjan tiptoed towards the balcony, and glanced at the car parking space in front of the house. Many cars were parked in the parking space, while a car was seen moving along the private road. Venkatesh sat on a metallic chair kept in front of the small table and Niranjan made himself comfortable on another chair opposite to him.
“It is a beautiful view from the balcony, and quite relaxing place in the evening time,” Niranjan said.
“Yes, I agree with you. I feel lucky to have a front facing house,” Venkatesh said.
Niranjan noticed white halogen lamps mounted on the lamp posts across the private road which illuminated the entire apartment premises during the night.
“How is the apartment’s maintenance support? Are they responsive to the tenant’s grievances?” Niranjan asked.
“Yeah, they are quick in responding to the customer’s complaints. Twenty-four hours maintenance support is provided by the rental office and it is located in the apartment premises”.
Niranjan posed several questions to understand more about the life style in the USA and Venkatesh answered his queries with much patience. During the dinner time, Venkatesh ordered a pizza over the phone, and brought two bottles of Heineken from the kitchen.
“Wow, cold beer in such a pleasant weather. I am lucky to have your company,” Niranjan said.
>
Both enjoyed their food and spent good time speaking with each other in the open space of the balcony. It was very late in the night when they finally decided to rest.
Niranjan was immersed in deep thoughts while he lay on the bed.
Life style in here is totally different compared to the Indian life style, and is very comfortable. The effort Americans have put to build the country is laudable. They have maintained cleanliness everywhere. The traffic rules are strictly followed.
His eyes slowly closed when sleep took over his consciousness, and he entered into the deep sleep after the midnight.
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Niranjan dressed himself in the morning and decided to go with Venkatesh to his office, the Summit Software Solutions.
“I will take you to the Summit office today and introduce you to Vivek. The office is on the way to General Electric and I would like to spend few minutes with Vivek,” Venkatesh said. Vivek was General Manager at Summit Software of the USA operations. He managed the client placement activities, and took care of employees who came from India.
“All right,” Niranjan said while he wore shoes to go to the office.
Niranjan followed Venkatesh and climbed down the wooden staircase and reached the parking area. He made himself comfortable inside the car while Venkatesh drove it out of the parking space.
“Let’s collect an extra house key for you,” Venkatesh said while they reached near the rental office within the apartment premises. He parked the car at a nearby parking slot.
Niranjan noticed several flowered plants around the rental office with full bloom which added more attraction to the ambience. He followed Venkatesh and entered into the main hall. An American middle aged lady was seated at the corner of the main hall, and she was going through the apartment layout map.
“Good Morning, How can I help you today?” she asked while she gazed at Venkatesh.
“Good Morning Tracy, we need an extra key to my house”, Venkatesh said.
“Please tell me your house number,” Tracy said, while she stood up.
“It's H-975,” Venkatesh said.
Tracy walked inside briskly to get a spare key. Niranjan noticed the office interiors which were similar to the interiors of the house which Venkatesh had rented. He saw the flower pots with well-groomed plants inside them, kept on a small wooden table at each of the corners. Interior walls were coated with white paint, providing fresh look to the visitor.