Times have changed, So have I...

On our way back from the Bangalore International Airport earlier this week, we happened to share our taxi with a girl. She was a trainee at Microsoft, headed towards her office at 9.30 pm of that Monday evening. She kinda changed my perspective towards the kids of this generation...who I hitherto believed were reckless, confused and with a devil-may-care kinda attitude written all over their faces. She was someone who takes life so seriously, may be a little more than required...she was so grounded, so real...in short so me.

Memories...I am so amazed by their capability of popping out of no where and take you back...back by may be 7 years(Hell!!! Am I really that old now !!!), when I believed I knew life so well. I believed I knew what I was doing, I believed I could make things happen, give my life whatever direction I wished.

Given a chance, I would like to meet the old me, and could give her a lesson or two on how to relax and let things take their own course. Worrying about them doesn't solve your problems. And yes, I must ask her to make some boyfriends ;)

PS : I am gonna pretend I didn't write the last line if Db happens to read this (which he certainly would)

New tales to tell...

New Job...new place...new people.

I kinda like this place.

Its a small place, less than a hundred people. But the office is quite cozy. They have almost unlimited Internet here. There are mostly no restrictions.

The team, while still hiring, as of now are more women. I am almost the youngest here, since all other women except me are mother to at least two kids. So, there is an overall good flexibility in terms of work timings. We are also expecting a work from home facility soon.

I am working for a very reputed client and the work though hasn't started in full swing, prima facie looks quite good. In addition to technologies that I already know, we are learning a couple of new ones. Here is what I made in the 1st week as a part of my learning.

On the flip side, there is a hell lot of visibility here. I am not sure if they appreciate you for good work, but you are sure to get caught if you are not working.

The no. of leave is quite less here and the no. of public holidays are only 8.

And, I hate the Access cards...they look so SARKAARI...

Sad it is, but they are not a complete deal breakers.

I always wanted to be reserve at office, but could never succeed with it. This time it looks possible. Contrary to what I was with my previous organizations, I am easily the least talkative person here. I find it strange at times that I have now become a good listener, while I hear other women talking about their kids, ranting about their in laws and sharing the daily nok-jhoks with their husbands. There are times I see everyone talking and I am just quietly listening. So unlike me !!!

2011 was a lazy year for me. For almost the entire year I had no work. So I have just lost the habit of working. Its a little difficult now to cope up with other hardworking people around. But I believe I should be able to come up to that level, since as of now I enjoy what I am doing, and how I am doing it.

Moving on...

Last day at office.

Too soon…is it not!!!
Actually I quit almost immediately after I joined…5 months to be precise. But without getting into specifics, I hated the project the moment I joined. I hated everything about the project…the work, the processes, the windowless wooden chamber, the no-internet-no-central-AC -no-extension kinda security paranoia…I hated it all. Yet with all my endeavors and some support from others, I managed to get the central AC in the project. But the project left a lot to be desired, since work was utter crap and it didn’t add even a miniscule value to my resume.
I also missed not updating this space quite often because I was denied any internet. It has nothing to do about pursuing my writing skills (or the utter lack of it), I just missed writing to my space.

While serving my notice period in the last month, I have grown a bigger disliking for the company as well, which hitherto I believed to be good barring this one project. A CMM Level 5 company as they call themselves, the processes, the recruiters, the HR are just pathetic…and I am glad that I am leaving.

There have been people here who can’t stop congratulating me on being able to make out of it. This kinda reinforces your belief in your decision, makes you feel yes, I did the right thing. Yet, I didn’t want my release to be as ugly as it has eventually turned out to be.

Yes, I wanted a release from the project, day one I knew this project is gonna screw my career and I did whatever it takes to get the situation favorable to me. But I didn’t wish the managers to have such a tough time. How I wish they had given me a release when I asked for it. It would certainly have been easy on all of us.

Well…I am happy that in this very short span of time I managed to make a lot of good friends. Something makes me feel that my team mates really like me and are gonna miss me for sure. And of course, there have been enough “Thank you’s” coming my way for the AC that I managed to install in the project.

This company sure was a mistake, but I am happy I had the enough courage to correct it. I am sure some people in this company are going to remember me for a long time for all the wrong reasons, and I hope some are going to remember me for the right ones.

I hope to have a long liaison with the company that I am moving on to now.