Beautiful Clouds

It all started a decade before. I was checking which were the best countries in the world for expats to live, study, work & enjoy. Here & There, a country named Taiwan popped up. I wanted to collect firsthand information. The only people in the world who responds properly to emails were the Professors. So, I started writing emails to the top 5 universities in Taiwan.

Coming from an Indian background, at that point-in-time (2015) where accessing emails in my village Nallavur was quite difficult. I had to go to the rooftop at night so that the internet traffic would be less to write/reply to the e-mails. Nearby people would think that I was doing some kind of strange/crazy activities which I would always do. Listen to the story with this context.

The guy, it’s me, got a very positive and favourable response. With much curiosity, I applied to many universities and rejected. Then I wrote all those English Exams & Application Essays. The tough part was the LOR where I needed to tell everything and convince people to get the LOR stuff done. Then also rejected. Finally, one fine day, I was selected to NTU without a Scholarship and to NCCU with Scholarship and many other universities. That was a tough decision-making process for me. Everyone advised me to opt for NCCU and after deep thinking, I chose to study at NTU which later turned-out to be one of the best decisions of my life. I received GMBA Assistantship support for 2 years which eventually pushed me into the working atmosphere/tax paying community along with my educational curriculum.

First-time flight, a lady sitting beside me laughed and supported me to fasten my seat-belt. Air India took me to Singapore where I exchanged Indian Rupees and had a wonderful meal and then to Taiwan. I gave Indian Rupees at the Currency Conversion Centre in Taiwan, and they didn’t accept.  Oh my God, not knowing anyone apart from Christy Chiu, the GMBA program manager, tired-hungry-village boy was roaming the entire Airport and finally took a seat to relax. Then I tried to withdraw money from the ATM. It was not coming and a sweet lady voice was telling something which I couldn’t comprehend. But my HDFC bank called to my Airtel number +919787874727 in International Roaming, stating that someone was using my ATM card in China. Then I told it’s me in Taiwan Airport and I need money. Then they told me to activate International Access. Somehow, I connected to Airport Wireless- Fidelity and then did it. I saw the four children with the globe – a 1000 dollar bill. Then I need the Subscriber Identity Module – SIM. I went to Chunghwa Telecom and gave my mobile and that fellow gave me a number 905974280, put it in the mobile, activated everything – such a wonderful customer-care executive/salesperson. I was impressed.

Then, I started watching everyone coming & going. Finally met a few Indian faces in Taiwan and they told me to take the MRT, but what was MRT? They said that they were going to Hsinchu and a German guy was going to Taipei Main Station. Then the German Guy became the Travel God Hermes. He took me to GongGuan. In GongGuan I was roaming for one hour checking for NTU without knowing that I was standing in NTU. Finally, I found COM-2 Building. With a lot of luggage, I could not move any further. Though the people didn’t understand my English accent, they were so generous to buy me a coffee at 7Eleven and I paid the bill. Then equipped with caffeine, my brain activated. Went to Men’s Dormitory 8 and told that I was Gopal Karunanithi and they said “Get Out”. Then I showed them all the documents, and they said Ge pei. I said Gopal. They said Ge Pei. Confusion, confusion.

Gopal – Get Out

Ge pei - Get In

Getting-in was more important and so I agreed that I was that so called Ge Pei without even knowing that it was my Chinese name. Wow, I had got a room with bunk-bed. Went to the washroom, hot water shower, Awesome.

The story ends here with a special sequel which has memories from my Tourism Internship at Hualien, Summer Programs at Hong Kong, Consulting Programs in South Korea & Taiwan, Interview/Working experience with Taiwanese companies and many more.

Today,

Taiwan – 13 counties, 6 special municipalities, 3 cities. I travelled almost everywhere.

I had also been to Hong Kong, Macao, South Korea, Italy, France, Switzerland, Singapore, Thailand, UAE.

Transit Countries: Brunei, Malaysia, Germany.

Now, I am working as a Senior Business Analyst in Chennai for Robotic Process Automation with Document Understanding Framework of UiPath. Also, I am planning to start my own Travel & Tourism company after a few years of working. So, friends, if you are planning to Travel to India, then you need to come to my company first. My company name is “Nephele International Tourism” Don’t worry, I won’t charge much, maybe the cost of 4 Starbucks Coffee/Ikari Coffee. That’s it.

The village guy who doesn’t know how to take a flight in 2017 understood the entire globe of 262 world entities with 175 tripoints within a span of 3 years. All because of the training & learning, I got from Global MBA - Professors, Peers, Coordinators – Yvonne, Rita.