Friday, December 19, 2008

It's time to bid Good Bye! :-(

This 31st of December is gonna be a special day...I think I will remember it forever.

No..not because this would be an end to this year, but that would be my last day in my existing orgainzation. I have resigned from Satyam and am moving on to a new role in a different organization. I had joined Satyam on '27th Dec 2004' with a group of 130 other associates who were recruited through off campus interviews from various parts of the country. I remember it very clearly..It is one of my favourite days of my life :)...I think I was the Happiest person on earth on that day! :) We were told that there would be a bond period of 2 years after we join Satyam and we will have to stick to this organization for that time. But we did not know then that there will be a more stronger bond of emotional fibers, friendship strands; laced with onsite opportunity which would be strong enough to tie me to this organization for another two years even after the bond period was over.

Most of my friends have moved out of this organization. May be there are still 10-15 left of those 130 batchmates; but I don't know the left ones very well. But I know many people here now, who are not from my batch and there are many people who know me. There is this comfort zone with all your managers and their managers that lets you feel great! I know whom to put in cc in case my work gets stuck somewhere ;) There is some extra respect that you get automatically from people around you, even when you are meeting them for the first time. There are situations when you don't need to introduce yourself to strangers and there are these times when people themselves come to meet you and take advice for issues that they are facing in their project. There are fellowmates who see your ID card and say with exclamation "Kab join kiya tha yaar!! Mera id to tumse bahut aage hai" :) Yes that does make you feel old sometimes... :D

But I still feel that it would have been harder to leave Satyam after 2 years than it is now. When you see your friends moving to greater heights with higher pay cheques... you get that feeling of moving on. After all emotions can't fill your stomach at the end of the day...But I can't imagine the feeling of handing over my Id Card to the security personnel at the end of my last day. That card has been my identity for the last four years...I think it will feel like parting with a small portion of self...parting with your corporate image that you have developed over the last few years in this company.

What about the F.R.I.E.N.D.S that won't be there in the new organization? It would take some time before you can casually ping on official messengers and say "Coffee? :)" It would take some time for you to develop enough rapport with people to let them know you would be coming late to office today and if they can manage with work till then. And who can guarantee if I can get good friends in new organization?? It would take some time for me to be enough comfortable to drag one of my colleagues to cafeteria even if he already had his lunch! It would take a lot of time to.... actually a lots of things! :(

I wish there was an option to move all of your friends with you to your new organization! We can name this concept as 'CMS - Corporate Mass Switching!' ;-) I am still not sure if I would be continuing in the same city or would I be joining in another city. Just in case I need to move from Hyderabad, that would further add to this list of "It would take a lot of time to.." Still some more days to think about all this before I actually start experiencing it..Lets see...The countdown has begun...

Thursday, December 11, 2008

OMG! Its my B'day tomorrow! :)

I was sitting in Gurudwara when my cell phone buzzed. It was Ramindar veer from Soch group calling me and he had Jasprit veer in conference%2C who was speaking every alternative line in the conversation and I was totally confused for who was there on the other end! ;) It took me some time before I was confident that it was Ramindar veer...and also Jasprit veer :-D.
It was 8th Dec and it was a holiday next day for Bakreed in most of the MNCs including Oracle and Microsoft. So the Soch group which has majority of Oracle members was planning for something...atleast that is what I had thought initially...but I was soon to be proved wrong. :-O
Veere kal da ki program Hai?
Kuch khaas nahi ji...mera taan working hai kal…Satyam vich taan chhutti nahin hai
Koi na....svere milde haan kal…nitnem de paath layi..dasso je possible hai taan...
Haan Haan sure....Main aa jaunga.
Pakka aaoge na...Eh na hoye tussi aao na?
Nahin ji..Saturday vi aanda haan.....kal vi aaunga..othon hi office nikal jaunga main
Program kithe karna hai
Khalsa House vich hi...Jithe tuhanu theek lagge...Main ki kavan..Dekh lo jiven tuhanu theek lagge..Agge vi tussi hi plan karde ho :)

These many questions and specially a conference call from two veers together was enough to give me a hint that something was cooking...but may be my sense of smell isn’t that good to judge what was that! ;) These guys have always been the best in doing whatever they do...From arranging Bharbat Pheri to Nitnem Path or Kirtan at someone’s house. Why did they need me for fixing a program and why this sure shot confirmation for my presence?? After disconnecting the call I was pondering on all these doubts when suddenly I realized...next day was 9th Dec ‘My Birthday’ and I had completely forgotten about it! :-)
I had to literally beg Hardeep (my new roomie) to accompany me to Khalsa House (Soch House) as his office is exactly at the opposite corner of the city from the Khalsa House. But he had to listen to me ;) after all I was the B’day boy! :-) We reached Khalsa House at 5:30 AM. After being greeted with Fateh and birthday wishes we started with the Nitnem Path. Normal Saturday routine...Japji Sahib, Jaap Sahib, Tvaprasad Savayiye, Chaupayi Sahib and Anand Sahib. Just that we didn’t do Asa ki vaar today but recited Kirtan.
Thanks to Jasprit veer for reciting ‘Poota Mata ki Asis’

ਪੂਤਾ ਮਾਤਾ ਕੀ ਆਸੀਸ ॥
O son, this is your mother's hope and prayer,
ਨਿਮਖ ਨ ਬਿਸਰਉ ਤੁਮ੍ਹ੍ਹ ਕਉ ਹਰਿ ਹਰਿ ਸਦਾ ਭਜਹੁ ਜਗਦੀਸ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
that you may never forget the Lord, Har, Har, even for an instant. May you ever vibrate upon the Lord of the Universe. 1Pause
My mother always reads out this Shabad to me on my birthday and it felt good to listen to it again even though I was away from my home :)

After the Kirtan we had langar. Saag!!! I don’t know after how many days I was having it! and it was mouth watering..just awesome! To all the great compliments which we passed on to Jasprit veer, he just answered it with “Nahin ji..This is just begineer’s luck!!” I am pretty sure he can never do anything wrong ever....He just seems to be blessed...I don’t think I should describe him much here for it would more of resemble a holy figure on earth :) but yes I admire him and respect him a lot for his knowledge in Sikhism and the way he is out there for all of us to guide us in all things.
Back to langar: Saag, Maa di daal (Black Daal) Roti and at the end was Cake!! The surprises that I had got till then were already too much for me to handle and here was another one! Cake was the least thing I was expecting in the Khalsa House. I know it must be eggless but still...I was just surprised and speechless! :-)
I was there till noon after which I moved to office. Though I did not want much publicity of my B’day in office but it seems like everybody had vowed to give me surprises. It was 7:30 PM when I was standing in Cafeteria surrounded by a team of around 50 associates who were wishing me Happy Birthday! And the credit for the second cake and celebration goes to Vamsi Krishna Vangala, Srinivas Chaitanya and Gunti...Thanks a ton guys! :) You made my day!!
I’ve turned 26...but I don’t think I have ever celebrated such a grand Birthday! I was not thinking about any celebration...In fact I was so occupied in my normal routine that on 8th it took me some time to realize that its my Birdthay tomorrow! Never ever have so many people gathered together in early hours and prayed for me..Never ever has anybody got up for me at 2:30 AM or before to prepare langar for 15 guys. I am still not sure if Ramindar veer and Jasprit veer woke up at 2:30 or even before that to make all the arrangements. And I don’t think anybody has tried to persuade me to celebrate my birthday in office as was done this year by Vamsi! This year there seems to be a almost a rain of good people around me :) I have been lucky in terms of real good friends...I think ‘thanks’ would be an inappropriate word to use here...As Ramindar says..How can you equate the love of your younger brothers with a single word which was was gifted to us by Britishers?? And I dont have any answer for him :) That is why I have not yet replied to his scrap in orkut...and I dont think I will ever have an answer…