The Inevitable Travel

I had asked to be placed onsite when my first employer had asked me to join back. There was an ulterior motive to it though.

The first time I was offered an onsite posting was when I had joined back office after a serious bout of illness. In my first meeting with members of the onsite team after joining back, the Sr. PM onsite seemed thrilled, her excitement seemed palpable and for reasons I got to know soon. She popped up the question "Welcome aboard Vrinda. When are u travelling to US? You need to work from onsite." Boy o Boy. Did I get nervous or what?? I had put the speaker phone on mute and exclaimed to my boss and my colleague, who were moderating this "Introduction" call - "Go onsite?? What!!?? No way!"
My boss was kind. She attributed it to me being back from my illness, hospital and stuff. I did the same.

Months passed by. I was managing another project. I had also been thinking of moving out of my current work place. My boss had resigned and I had a new boss. This time around I was the moderator of an "Introduction" call to introduce my new boss to the client. My client wanted to meet us - we were invited to travel to Finland. My new boss said - "But of course, me, Vrinda and the Business Head will travel. We can decide on the dates." I put in my papers. It was attributed to my getting a "good" offer. I attributed it to that too.

I joined my 2nd place of work - another city but within India. My ex-employers got in touch with me. They wanted me to join back. I said "I would only want onsite work." They didnt offer me that. They attributed my not joining them back to thier refusal of an onsite offer. I did the same.

Work was madly hectic at my new work place. I knew I had to move if I wanted a work life balance. And I moved again. 3rd place in one year. It was going to spoil my CV!! Another city still in India. My 2nd place of work contacted me and asked me if I would be interested in a job onsite. They were certain I would take it. In a knee-jerk reaction, I replied "No". There were no more attributions to make. I was firm and clear.

My work place offered onsite placements - not once but thrice over. I steadfastly refused. And then came a situation when travel looked unavoidable.

The ineveitable had to happen. It happened. This I attributed to fate.