My First Job - Nostalgia - 7 - Thank You All !!

As I move ahead, I would like to express 2 things -

1. My sincere apologies to all those whom I have hurt, if any. Trust me, my intensions are very clean.
2. My heart-felt thanks to all those who contributed to my considerably successful career in this company. Starting with the security staff till my managers, account managers, tech architects, peers, friends n all, every one have been part of my memories associated with my first job.

I am indebted to you all… Thanks a ton..!!!

My First Job - Nostalgia - 6 - Final Military Experience

Well before I close these chapters, I need to say about my second and final project, lets say - Military project (just that I don't want to get into any trouble by letting out the name).


I have a lot to say about this project, hence let me put across those in the point format (this is one my favorite way of putting down issues). Below were the things I learnt in this project - 

• Technically - I was supposed to excel in this field - being from a technical practice.
• Time management
• Value of doing things right the very first time - the amount of time, it would save. ( It doesn't mean I did every thing right the first time.. but I learnt the value)
• Working under pressure - This was not new to me, but here I got a better outlook towards handling things efficiently.
• Looking at things from a business perspective, working from the customer point of view.
• How can a simple task be complicated and finally buy time to solve the complexity.
• Working smart v/s Working hard.
• Putting up a tough stance, when you are sure that it is in the welfare of the project, irrespective of the person - Live the gut feeling.
• Convince yourself, before convincing others.

Having said all these, this project literally took my innocence away I had before, and matured me to handle tough situations. This was one project, where everyone (from top to the bottom of hierarchy) was a product of situation and most of them were understandably helpless. If there were anyone who could do something, they were the developers - hats off to their spirits. 

At a personal level, everything in this project has been a learning experience, starting from time when my manager used to call me to find out where I was, without realizing that I was standing just behind him, till the time when people appreciated good work. I have always tried to make work merrier and enjoyable. I take pride in most of the things I have tried to achieve.

In spite of all the tough aspects, there was no loss of fun here too. Frankly, this project was a kind of Tamilian's society - almost everyone conversed in Tamil and I was dumb initially but slowly started to understand and also speak some Tamil- though very bad. I have lost count of the times I have tried to pull Raji's leg. The vice-versa is also true. The number of Cadbury's Temptations that Raji owes me is infinite. The mimicking of Nandini had been a challenge to many, but I succeeded. Our pizza boy also gave considerable entertainment during night-outs and so on. The time when Sampath and myself tried to write an Ext JS code by just doing copy-paste, and later on realized that nothing works, the days when our boys gang were complaining for lack of inspiration with-in the project and were forced to search outside - all added to the fun quotient. Innumerable fun moments with Balaji, Sai, Muzzamil, Jerome, Sandhosh, Nandini, Ameena, Sampath, Dhivia, Saranya, Swagath, MM, Ravi, Vinod.. so on and so forth (Nobody is intentionally left out - Thanks to my bad memory) are all to be cherished. Our project trip was one big bang event - all thanks to the team spirit.


The patience of Arun, the discussions with Bagewadi, arguments with BA's, toughness of Raghavan, tracking by Shakeel and Gnana, fun-attitude of Arvind, and off-course the memorable mails from all the higher-ups (both appreciation and tracking) made this project experience an unforgettable one. 

My First Job - Nostalgia - 5 - Learning Unlimited

As I talk about my student life - work life continuum, I must attribute this to all my teachers (here - my heads and leads who constantly contributed by teaching me). I must be more than lucky to have worked under people like Elvyn, Anand, Rupam, Sara, Bala, Subbu, Arun, Bagewadi, Subash and so on..  
During SWAT activity, I still remember Rupam laying out a plan at morning 4:30 am about the activities that had to be carried out the following day, when I was actually thinking about when I would sleep (I was just 3 months in to my job). Those days were all the more exiting, because all of us worked as a team and counter-acting each other's work would always result in the best outcome.


I still remember the day when I just rushed into Elvyn's cabin and sat for more than 3 hours to learn UML - and he was kind enough to teach most of them that was required for me to start with my design work. The days when Anand corrected me for some of my silly mistakes - shared thoughts of better development, the days when Sara and Bala gave moral support during tough times shows the nature of people present there, irrespective of the positions they were in.

My First Job - Nostalgia - 4 - Fun Unlimited

My mom has been telling, all through these 2 and half years of my career, that she hardly found me like a working person - she still found a student in me. My life was as lively as it used to be during my college days, inspite of the innumerable night outs in my very first project. All thanks to the group of my close friends whom I found in this company.


This is also one of the reasons as to why I am indebted to my first job - it gave me such wonderful peers and friends, who made my days merrier and more memorable with each passing day. I still remember the days when the six of us - Archana (again she was my classmate, but we hardly knew each other until we met here), Sripad, Mahalakshmi, Gayathri, Swathi and myself used to play chit games after lunch - we used to literally shout, as though we were in some playground and there was a serious game going on :)


Believe me the 5th floor where my project team was present and working was the most rocking floor in the entire building, or should I say may be in the whole company. Even at 3 am, it was the hub of activities and there was fun unlimited. Every one including my manager Ashwath, had a gala time even during night outs. The days when Santhosh, Mahesh, Soumya, Sripad, myself all laughed at each other mimicking activities, which even to this day is unforgettable.


Days when Archana used to argue for all the silly reasons available, days when we had lunch outside almost every alternate week( when we felt like bunking the dabbawallas lunch ), the innumerable escapades to the chat shop (where the chat walla would get tired taking our orders), days when we were looking at each others face, just for the reason that we had no better work.. all  added life into my days.

My First Job - Nostalgia - 3 - Companion

One person really needs to be mentioned here, who undoubtedly spent the maximum time at office with me and vice-versa - Swathi. She has been my class-mate (even though I came to know her well only at a later part of my Engineering), my project-mate, finally my colleague. For what so ever reasons, or may be just a matter of co-incidence, from the time we joined the company till the time she left, we were part of the same practice, same projects, same cubicle (except for a few months), worked under the same managers,etc. In-fact we even worked on the same computer, for almost a month, and that was the best part of our co-ordination, if one would handle the mouse, the other used to work on the keyboard. I still remember the days, when Subbu (my practice head) used to tell others that, if work is given to both of us, it would be completed at a faster pace than, if it was split between us and given individually.


Later, she went on with her plans of marriage and also changed the job for reasons of her own. However we both cherish the time spent together and the work we did. We did differ in many ways, but the strength was in our arguing, which always resulted in the best outcome.


She would definitely be a part of my memorable journey in my first job. Thanks for being there..!!!

My First Job - Nostalgia - 2 - Induction/Training

Induction and Trainings - 


The next one month was full of induction and job specific training. I, along with a few others were taken into the DB practice of Architecture Group. The training was pretty cool. The two people - Ameena and Subbu who taught us Java and DB made an unforgettable impression. Both need to be appreciated for their hold on the language (software related).  But again, there was one another exam, which was hyped that if we did not get a certain cut-off, we would no longer continue to be in the organisation. But having graduated from VTU, all such threats seemed so empty and it hardly got me tensed. 

My First Job - Nostalgia - 1 - First Day

"Love your job - not your company" - Well this has been said by one of the IT czars. Trust me I may not love my company but I am thankful to the company for recruiting me and putting me with a bunch of few people who have made my notice period (the period between the time you give your resignation letter and the time you are kicked out of your office - for me it's 1 month) even more miserable, thanks to the impressions ,they have made on my life. Every day has now become a nostalgic drive for office.


My first day in office - 


It was 25th of June, 2007 - I got the news of my aunt's expiration at 2:30 am. Being an intense man, I had to rush to the hospital to have a final look at the body. I rushed, just to realize that they had already kept the body in the cold storage and would not release until the final payment is done. That procedure would take some more time and would take around 9:30 - 10 am to get the body released. I couldn't have afforded to wait so long, as I had to report to my office by 8 am. Even after driving at dying speeds, I went to office by 8:45 am.


There were hardly anyone at the reception - as they had taken all of them (I mean who were to join with me) to the 6th floor Training Room. I somehow managed to get the temporary badge and went to the Training Room. I knocked the door and tried to search atleast some known faces among approx 125 faces. I had just made it on time to fill up some entry forms. Finally I found few of my classmates, but most of them were in a state of shock, thanks to my not-so-logical decision of joining this company even after having offers from 2 other better companies (atleast based on generic scales). I could hardly speak with my friends until we got a break. My brain was trying to fill my forms correctly but my heart was constantly reminding me of my aunt's death and some sort of an internal conflict had already started. That was because, it was second such incident where some one from my family expired on a day which was supposedly an important day in my life. This had brought my nerve cells to observe that anything good that happens to me would happen at the cost of someone else's life. Somehow I managed to talk to my friends during the break and get myself comfortable.


Well this day didn't end with just this much. Adding insult to injury was the counselling sessions which I had after the day long induction (most of which was senseless for me at that point of time), from parents of some of my friends at evening 7 pm on the foot path of my office. I was in-fact confused, who is counselling whom - my mind was in a totally bad state, understandably.


Later on, I again drove to my uncle's place just to realize that people were still in the state of trauma. 


My first day at office was truly memorable, but for all the wrong reasons.I hardly slept that night.