The High Five !

July 26, 1999 – This was the day when I joined my first company after graduation and on Monday, July 26, 2004, I would be completing 5 years in the same organization! 5 years have passed by in a flash!

Till 5 years back, my entire life was confined to a limited area around my house at Coimbatore. My schooling and graduation was done at institutions very close to my house. On July 23rd, 1999 when I was leaving the Coimbatore railway juntion in Sabari Express to join this Organization, my father had remarked to my sister, “His independent journey in life is finally starting!”. I am not sure how far I have traveled in this journey and am not going to do an analysis of the same right now!

On the first day at office, one of the first things that impressed me was the reception! There were various clocks that displayed the times of India, Netherlands, etc. On the left side was a small room with a large coffee vending machine. On the right was a conference room where you could see “executives” discussing various strategies! It must have been one of the many boring meetings that I am used to nowadays, but the impression was great. To top it all was the receptionist who seemed to be in total control of the proceedings in that room. This multi national company impressed me!

Trainings were more painful. It started sharp at 0830 hrs and the trainers were busier trying to scare the shit out of us than to make us feel more comfortable. There were only 2 systems outside the training room that had Internet connection and these systems were in great demand during the tea breaks! Finally it was the day when we were allotted our departments or areas of work, and I was among the “elite” gang to be put into the E-Enterprise division. This was a new division and it was in great demand then! From the next day onwards we were in separate training and this was the best part of training. We had total Internet connectivity, were dumped into some “junkyard” kind of room where we made the most of the opportunity and surfed through whatever the Internet could offer us and kept tracking the happenings around the world. It was a hectic period then and the company was not doing well. Our stocks were going down in NASDAQ while those of all other companies were shooting up the sky! From around 20 dollars per share we saw it go down the $1 mark! Many people were also leaving the organization, but I decided to stay put. “I was in the most sought after department. There must be something in it!” I don’t want to validate this thinking now, but that was the basic thinking that made me stay put in this organization during the crisis. The organization has since been moving slowly and steadily up the curve after a series of acquisitions and restructuring and this was a great learning experience.

10 years back if I had remarked to someone that I have completed 5 years in the same organization, people would have just shrugged it out and probably would have commented that I have a long way to go! 20 years in the same organization was the criteria when you can start even talking about how long you have been in the same organization. During the dot com boom, the same discussion would have made people look at me with disdain. They would have commented “5 years!!!! That is a long time to be in the same organization!”. People would have also wondered if there were something wrong in me that made me “stick” to the same organization! However in today’s time 5 years is something that would give you some decent respect in the industry! At least in this respect, I have caught up with the times!

Let me go back to the journey 5 years back to Hyderabad. At that time, I don’t think I even imagined that I would stay in this organization for 5 years. My aim was to get 2 years experience and then move to a place closer to my family. Bangalore was the place that I was aiming for. But as I completed 2 years in the organization, I had an excusing of staying here for some more time due to the dot com burst! This was more like a moving target, from 2 years it shifted to 3, then 4 years and finally 5 years! I think now I have given up! No more targets, take it as it comes and make decision based on the current circumstances. That makes it more realistic! :)

When we joined 5 years back there were 40 members in our batch. This figure has come down drastically and now only 11 members are left! Every year we celebrate the completion of 1 more year in this organization. Last year we celebrated the occasion at Mount Opera water theme park. However I have wondered if this was really an occasion for celebration. Anyhow you just need to have an excuse for having fun and I don’t mind that! This year though there are no celebrations. People have become busier to find time for an outing. Probably they have better things in life. However I feel this year was the right time for a bash as it is a significant milestone and also because we are getting our gratuity and a gift voucher worth Rs.10000. That was more than a reason for celebration.

On Monday when we would be moving to our sixth year in office, there is nothing much to expect out of the day except for the customary email from the management thanking and congratulating us for blah blah blah reasons! Else it would be business as usual
! ;-)

To end this blog, let me pen down the top 10 memorable events that have dotted my life as far as association with this organization is concerned. These are events that I feel would be worth remembering or at least worth enough not to be forgotten! As any countdown would do it, I will list it down starting from the bottom.

10.  One month of Internet “exposure” at the main building junk room.
We were left to ourselves for around 1 month in a “junk” room and during this period we knew how to use the Internet, what are its pitfalls and pluses and what are the main resources, etc. This was a fun filled period and something that we still keep talking about.

9. Kingfisher Corporate 5-a-side Football Tournament
2002 for us was the year of football! We used to play every weekend at the Gymkhana grounds here in Hyderabad. Finally when the tournament was announced, 2 teams from our organization took part. It was the first time 2 teams were taking part in that tournament from the same organization. In that regard we were trendsetters. I was part of the B team which met the A team in quarterfinals. Finally a team went on to win the finals against Wipro in a thriller! It was pleasing to see all the hard work paying off finally. I enjoyed it!

8. Preparation for Bali Trail
This was a quiz event that my friend and I had organized in the organization. I was involved in preparing the presentation. The preparation and effort reminded me of the college days and was similar to the effort that I had put for Nexus ’99.

7. Trip to Mahabaleshwar
In 2001, we organized a trip to Mahabaleshwar from the organization. The place and the trip was great! I especially loved the stay at Panchgani and the table top, as well as the strawberry ice creams at Mahabaleswar.

6. Weekend Fever – Movie and Dinner @ Café BaharFor around 1 year or more (2002 – 03) I had a great time with our gang of friends, who were also colleagues. Every weekend you could spot us at either Sangeet or Skyline and this was usually followed or preceded by dinner at Café Bahar or Paradise. Chicken Biriyani and Tandoori Chicken were our favorites! Now however this has stopped as some of them have left the organization and city and others have become busier! Weekends were never boring!

5. Trip to DenmarkThis was my first trip outside India. I had to make the trip alone and was totally ignorant of the practices and procedures that one has to follow during such trips. I still remember the way I used to observe other passengers as to how they were using the controls (for lights, push back, food tray, etc). Somehow I managed to go and come back without any issues!

4. Approval engine
This was my first major activity for a product. I had to redesign and modify most of the portions of this engine and I really enjoyed doing it.

3. Trip to Spain
Boy…what a trip it was! Read the initial blogs to get a better idea. This was the best trip that I had and enjoyed it to the maximum extent without getting bogged down by constraints.

2. Losing my passportThis one is totally contrary to trip to Spain. During the trip to Netherlands in 2002, I lost my passport and had really tough and anxious moments there and thereafter.

1. Product 2.1 Architecture
The best moment in the 5-year span is obviously the effort spent in designing and developing the product 2.1. Product 1.0 did not come out all that well and I wanted to address the shortcoming that caused Product 1.0 to fail. When I look back now, I feel great about the way I had approached to 2.1. It may not be the best, but definitely it was lot better and I think I did a good job there!

On this note, it is time for me to sign off and have a good sleep. Tomorrow marks the dawn of another year in this organization. With each year comes new hopes, new dreams and new events that can be blogged ! ;))