Life takes a dramatic turn at this point – I’ll be staying in Ahmedabad for the next 18 months in NIRMA’s hostel for completing a full-time MBA residential post graduate programme. The date is June 18 2008, the time 10 am and the venue is NIRMA Hostel B (I realized by this time that B stands for Boys Hostel).
I reach the hostel first and meet the Warden who gives the room keys to me saying that my future roommate is already in and then he gives me his cell number to contact him. I call up this new roommate of mine named AC and he comes downstairs in a few minutes. I see this guy for the first time and try to gauge the guy’s body language, the way he speaks, etc. I realized that he is definitely Punjabi from the entire interaction. At that time, I had made a first impression of the guy but he proved it wrong during the next 2 years that we spent together at NIRMA.
I went upstairs and checked my room – Room No 401 and quickly kept my bags to rush for the registration programme in the college premises. The campus was impressive and well spread out, nicely planned to say at that time. I reached the college building in 5 minutes and then found my way to Room T1.
I see future fellow batchmates along with their parents busy in filling up forms, getting documents sorted out, DDs are kept ready and then interacting with the college admin staff in order to get registered for the course. I meet a couple of boys who overhear me talking with my Mom in Marathi and they come up and introduce themselves to me. Few of them I remember are KG (Czar), HK (Czar) and KJ (Bison).
After the registration, I proceed to the Kalupur Bank within the campus to open an account there – the purpose being to have close, quick access to money on an urgent basis. I see AC over there and when we opened our bank accounts, we got consecutive account numbers. Nothing magical as such about it, but found it worth mentioning here.
The next 2 days were all about orientation and some activities in order to get the group of students interact with each other so that they build contacts over the next 2 years and maintain them in the future.
Hostel life was something new to me but it was exciting for the same reason. I had 2 nice neighbours who were jovial by nature and made great friends later on – one of them is from Mumbai, AS and the other one I started called Babu Moshai in the initial 2-3 days named AR. This AR was so naughty that one day, as I was walking towards the hostel from the college, I took the usual short cut of passing in front of Hostel G and this AR started teasing me that I purposely took this route. The next day I change my route but was surprised to see AR take that old route himself. What a smart, cunning guy – don’t mind the compliment AR.
Then there is DT in Room 410, HG and KG (Czars) in Room 408, HK in Room 409, PD in Room 407, AG in Room 405, HR (should I call him HR or CG – you guys decide) in Room 404. Then there was DS in Room 406 who used to pass by every now and then, sing at the top of his voice and crack such crisp dialogues with ease that made everyone smile. The overall wing on this end of the 4th floor, I would say, was really great company to have around.
I have taken just a few names from our wing right now as I remember talking and interacting with these people more often in my initial days there. So, one plea to their roomies is that please do not feel ignored – I appreciate each one of you and your presence.
Apart from the wing, there were more people – of which I would especially mention the following: PS (or Bade Bhaiya as I used to call him), SG (Arre, Arre, Arre), VPG (every living being in NIRMA knows this guy – a menace), HG (still don’t know why people called him KT), SG and JM (2 Don Boscoites that I met at NIRMA).
The first Sunday came and a group of us students decided to spend the evening out – doing some shopping, eating dinner out and having some nice time talking with each other, knowing each other, etc. The following people were together on that Sunday: AC (roomie), PS (Bade Bhaiya), SG (fellow Boscoite), EP, SS (Golu) and from the girls end, there were PA and ST. All of us went to a place called Reliance Iskcon Mall by a rickshaw which was called Chakda (the name derives from the capacity of passengers that it is supposed to carry – six). However, these usually carried 12 people easily when going to and fro on the SG highway. We first did some shopping at the malls there in Iskcon area (I knew it by that name during that time) and then we were joined by RV and VS (two localites – the short and long of it). RV took all of us to an open-air restaurant named Millenium which was famous for its non-veg food then. All of us sat for dinner and some talking together by joining 3 tables. When the food came, especially Tandoori Chicken, it made the girls feel uncomfortable with the aroma of the dish (I would say aroma, not smell – being a non-veg foodie). We made arrangement for seating for the people who are pure veg at a distance from the non-veg foodies. The food was nice and filling – we had a good time talking too with each other, knowing about each other and our lives back at our own homes, our backgrounds, etc. After some more talking and interacting with each other, we made our way back to NIRMA Hostel. Again in a Chakda but this time with more people. We requested the Chakda driver to please park the rickshaw right in front of the Hostels so that we can avoid the walk to the Hostels from the Main Gate – at that time, this walk looked quite long, tiresome in Ahmedabad’s day climate.
From Monday, regular lectures and the proper week of classes was going to start. Mondays are formal wear days – so wearing a tie is compulsory. I didn’t know how to prepare a tie but I had got them ready made by my younger brother before I left for Ahmedabad from Mumbai. The morning experience was a unique one for me with sharing the bathrooms and washrooms with fellow students – interacting with them while brushing teeth or shaving the moustache and beard. Then came the time to go for breakfast in the Mess which was located nearby – the food at that time was of nice quality and taste as compared to the overall taste for the entire next 18 months.
I conclude the post now having remembered as much as I can. The next post covers the trimesters and projects that fall in due course along with the experience of working in teams for the project work, assignments come, hostel nights start rocking, birthdays come and music around in the hostel. Some interaction with seniors as well as with faculties too. I know that I would miss something or the other in my post because there’s a lot to cover. Also, I feel I may not be able to give justice to each one of the 119 students by mentioning them all in my posts. But a sincere request to all of you not to feel bad about it. I’ll try and cover as much as possible with as many people that I interacted. As usually, I look forward for you all to kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write it in my next post.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Decision Point - MBA or Onshore
Back to India from a 6-month stay in US, I realized the humidity of Mumbai can be quite killing, especially since I landed up in the middle of May (summer peaks here). Life started back on track with old friends and relatives reunited after this gap. Office was as usual and a party was due from me to my team. We went to Lotus Suites in Andheri for the lunch treat. I had kept a French beard at that time and was looking very weird (when I look back at those days in my snaps now). The party went nice and people enjoyed having a good time together, gulping down food and chatting with each other. Lots of snaps were clicked from the new Canon SD700 IS digital camera that I had brought which was being tried on by my team mates.
Career-wise, I shifted back to the Development Team of our project when I returned offshore. The Production Support Team whom I led from onshore didn’t like this move but it was not in my hands. The shift plan had already been laid out before I was to return. Work began slowly at offshore, gradually picking up the pace. There were new people in the team with whom I had started working. So, it was exciting to learn about new people and the way they work.
Most of the new team members were very enthusiastic and keen to learn, to grow and become experienced in the system. But there was this one girl who gave all of us a tough time to manage. Very aggressive and not ready to consider the other person’s viewpoint, it became difficult for me to manage her even though if I was a Tech Lead at offshore.
Not ready to budge from her position, I had to escalate her way of working with my seniors. They tried to explain as much as possible to her but she countered them by getting aggressive in her tone with them too. Finally, it was not too long before she was about to be thrown out from the company. But she made a choice before it could happen and resigned on her own. It was a nightmarish duration for me – the psychological effect was way too much. I guess this is what you call “Experience” – when you meet and interact with all kinds of people – like all the colours of a rainbow.
As the dates for submitting the application form for CAT came close, my mind hovered around the idea of going in for a preparation for CAT and do an MBA this time around. I started preparing as much as I could after office hours and on weekends.
SG realized that I was preparing for CAT and wanted to retain me in the team. So, out came the offer – another onshore experience this time, but a longer one. I sign a bond; stay on for a year at onshore and return back offshore to stay for another year. Earn US dollars and INR salary both – then go for an executive MBA for 1 year or give GMAT and get into ASU, Phoenix.
Believe it or not, this entire idea was communicated to me by SG as he looked to convince me that giving CAT and settling in for a non-IIM college was not worth it. But, I was adamant and I gave myself an optimistic chance of making it in either any IIM or a worthy college.
The next few weeks were all about CAT preparation at home, discussion sessions with SG on the offer and work as usual with the team. All these discussions with SG were starting to play on my mind now. I considered 2 options in front of me now – that would shape my career, my destiny and most importantly – my future life.
The decision had to be taken and it was going to be a tough one. Life is never easy and decisions are not made so quickly. I gave it quite some thought - what should I do, what if I do this and not that, what would be the consequences, etc. One thing that I decided was that whatever decision I take, I will stand by it and I will never regret not taking the other option. I have to move ahead in life without dwelling on the past.
Finally, I made my choice – I scored a decent enough score in CAT – got a call from IIM-K and NIRMA University (IMNU). The IIM-K GD and PI experience was difficult yet a learning one. I thought the day could have been better – it all depended on how I performed on that day. So, let me not make too much out of it – even if I get selected or not.
I travelled to Ahmedabad with my mother for the IMNU GD-PI session. The GD went better than that of IIM-K and during the PI, I was mostly asked about my work experience and onshore exposure. I thought I fare better in the PI and had a chance of getting selected.
Ahmedabad city was similar to Mumbai city (especially near the Railway station). The areas of Kalupur and Mohammad Ali Road looked like cousins of each other. The city surprised me with the first sight of yellow-and-green auto rickshaws. Then, the climate was pleasant during the month of March 2008 when I went there for the GD-PI call.
May 2008 came and I received a notification that I got selected in IMNU for the MBA Full time program. The time came when I was again going to move out of my comfort zone, that is Mumbai. Ahmedabad was calling and Syntel was to move on from my life. I communicated this to SG but he was not happy with my decision. I convinced him that I had to move on and do my MBA now. I resigned in May 2008 at the month-end with SG and most of the team members still being reluctant to let me go.
The farewell was a sad occasion for me as well – I had spent more than 2.5 years with the project. GMAPS application was trickling down in all my veins, it had become a part of my blood, I would say. But life is changing each day – nothing remains the same, you move on in life, people move on and new people soon enter in your life.
I conclude the post now having remembered as much as I can. The next post brings me to Ahmedabad and the start of my MBA life in IMNU, the first time that I spend in a Hostel and meeting new friends who will impact my life in the future. If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything in this post, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write it in my next post.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
Career-wise, I shifted back to the Development Team of our project when I returned offshore. The Production Support Team whom I led from onshore didn’t like this move but it was not in my hands. The shift plan had already been laid out before I was to return. Work began slowly at offshore, gradually picking up the pace. There were new people in the team with whom I had started working. So, it was exciting to learn about new people and the way they work.
Most of the new team members were very enthusiastic and keen to learn, to grow and become experienced in the system. But there was this one girl who gave all of us a tough time to manage. Very aggressive and not ready to consider the other person’s viewpoint, it became difficult for me to manage her even though if I was a Tech Lead at offshore.
Not ready to budge from her position, I had to escalate her way of working with my seniors. They tried to explain as much as possible to her but she countered them by getting aggressive in her tone with them too. Finally, it was not too long before she was about to be thrown out from the company. But she made a choice before it could happen and resigned on her own. It was a nightmarish duration for me – the psychological effect was way too much. I guess this is what you call “Experience” – when you meet and interact with all kinds of people – like all the colours of a rainbow.
As the dates for submitting the application form for CAT came close, my mind hovered around the idea of going in for a preparation for CAT and do an MBA this time around. I started preparing as much as I could after office hours and on weekends.
SG realized that I was preparing for CAT and wanted to retain me in the team. So, out came the offer – another onshore experience this time, but a longer one. I sign a bond; stay on for a year at onshore and return back offshore to stay for another year. Earn US dollars and INR salary both – then go for an executive MBA for 1 year or give GMAT and get into ASU, Phoenix.
Believe it or not, this entire idea was communicated to me by SG as he looked to convince me that giving CAT and settling in for a non-IIM college was not worth it. But, I was adamant and I gave myself an optimistic chance of making it in either any IIM or a worthy college.
The next few weeks were all about CAT preparation at home, discussion sessions with SG on the offer and work as usual with the team. All these discussions with SG were starting to play on my mind now. I considered 2 options in front of me now – that would shape my career, my destiny and most importantly – my future life.
The decision had to be taken and it was going to be a tough one. Life is never easy and decisions are not made so quickly. I gave it quite some thought - what should I do, what if I do this and not that, what would be the consequences, etc. One thing that I decided was that whatever decision I take, I will stand by it and I will never regret not taking the other option. I have to move ahead in life without dwelling on the past.
Finally, I made my choice – I scored a decent enough score in CAT – got a call from IIM-K and NIRMA University (IMNU). The IIM-K GD and PI experience was difficult yet a learning one. I thought the day could have been better – it all depended on how I performed on that day. So, let me not make too much out of it – even if I get selected or not.
I travelled to Ahmedabad with my mother for the IMNU GD-PI session. The GD went better than that of IIM-K and during the PI, I was mostly asked about my work experience and onshore exposure. I thought I fare better in the PI and had a chance of getting selected.
Ahmedabad city was similar to Mumbai city (especially near the Railway station). The areas of Kalupur and Mohammad Ali Road looked like cousins of each other. The city surprised me with the first sight of yellow-and-green auto rickshaws. Then, the climate was pleasant during the month of March 2008 when I went there for the GD-PI call.
May 2008 came and I received a notification that I got selected in IMNU for the MBA Full time program. The time came when I was again going to move out of my comfort zone, that is Mumbai. Ahmedabad was calling and Syntel was to move on from my life. I communicated this to SG but he was not happy with my decision. I convinced him that I had to move on and do my MBA now. I resigned in May 2008 at the month-end with SG and most of the team members still being reluctant to let me go.
The farewell was a sad occasion for me as well – I had spent more than 2.5 years with the project. GMAPS application was trickling down in all my veins, it had become a part of my blood, I would say. But life is changing each day – nothing remains the same, you move on in life, people move on and new people soon enter in your life.
I conclude the post now having remembered as much as I can. The next post brings me to Ahmedabad and the start of my MBA life in IMNU, the first time that I spend in a Hostel and meeting new friends who will impact my life in the future. If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything in this post, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write it in my next post.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Back to Swades
As said earlier, here’s the second post for the month of July – made it just on the month end. It’s getting difficult to recall past memories now, especially when you face so many new experiences recently. But I will try my best and put down as much as I can recall in this post. This post will cover the last few days I spent in US and the return journey back to India.
The latter half of my life in US was spent in what we called GMAPS House. SK, SM and I started living in a 2 BHK apartment which became a “Home Away from Home” for the 3 of us. Later, AV joined us and we 4 spent many memorable days in there. Life was going on well with no tensions and we were living together with a smile on our faces. Sometimes, I did miss my family and friends who were there in India but I occasionally made it a point that I would talk to them.
VP came to Phoenix and finally after so many month of working together (though on phone), we finally came face-to-face with each other. I always had this impression on hearing her voice that she would be intelligent and wise. When I saw her, I was surprised to see her look much younger than what I expected her to be. She looked shorter and like a kid – maybe my imagination of her was totally opposite like I expected a much elder woman when I thought of VP.
After she came, there were lots of fun filled evenings going on with SK, her, AV and rest of us. We were a team and united – it showed by the gesture PK made by inviting all of us to his place for a get-together and dinner. It was a second family to me and I felt really lucky to have been working with such great people. I owe them a lot.
Time passes by and it never stops for any one. Same is the case with me – 6 months passed by at onshore and I never realized it. The time came when I was about to leave for offshore. This is a time when I had mixed emotions in my mind – sad to leave this new-found family out here in US and happy to go back to my motherland, to my parents and friends out there in India. I promised myself that tears would not roll down my eyes when I leave from here but it was bound to happen – I knew this already in my mind.
Shopping time came in and I started to buy stuff which I had discussed with my family and friends that I would bring them from US. Packing time was at leisure when I started the packing slowly but surely – few minutes each day in the last week.
The day arrived when I was to board the flight to London from Phoenix and then go to Mumbai. As was the case when I came here, it was a BA flight all the way till Mumbai – the flight leaving from Phoenix in the evening. I spent the last day in office working little, taking photos of clients and my team members with me – to capture the memories of the workplace that I learnt in. For the last 2-3 days, I had that intuition that VP was not feeling well. She had a tradition that any one of us who stayed at onsite was supposed to be coming at her place for dinner which she used to prepare all by herself. I could have done the dinner at her place, but I realized that her health wasn’t fully well and I got busy in my packing and other work routine. I just wanted her to get well and take care of herself. She had been a great influence in my life and I always wish well for her.
VD came to drop me in his car at the Sky Harbor International Airport, Phoenix – along with him came SK and AV. It was an emotional drive back to the airport for me as I quietly remembered all those memories and fun filled moments I spent with these people. At the terminal, I gave a rich, creamy STARBUCKS treat to all of them and we spent some time talking, joking and having a nice, last time together before I depart towards the gate.
I proceeded towards the departure gate after bidding farewell to my friends. The flight was going to be a long one and again I was alone travelling back to London. I gave one final phone call to SK and talked to him, AV before I went for the security check – as I spoke with them, tears did eventually roll down my eyes. They assured me that they will also miss me and that I should come back to them soon. I somehow knew in my mind that Phoenix would not in m future plans any sooner.
The flight was very nice and by now I had the experience of flying – having been around in US too on flights. I reached London in the afternoon around lunch time – again on Terminal 4. This time, I made sure I had proper food (even though it was not Indian food) so that I’m not hungry again during the afternoon and early evening. The flight from London to Mumbai was going to depart at night and I had to spend 9 hours at the terminal.
A thought crossed my mind if I should get a transit visa to roam around London since the wait time was more than 6 hours – but then I realized that Heathrow Airport may not be close to the city of London and let’s instead rest for the next flight.
In the evening, I had an early dinner/snack at the terminal itself before I proceeded to my flight’s gate with no hurry at all. I had enough time to reach to the gate and I was going through some photos that I took at the Terminal 4 during the day. The afternoon again was gloomy, dark as if London’s climate never changed from the last time when I was there at this terminal.
The flight from London to Mumbai started at night and was expected to reach Mumbai in the morning at around 11:30 IST – it was a Thursday, if I remember well. My parents were going to come at the airport to receive me – and my Aunt also came as she had done during my flight to Phoenix in November 2006. My flight reached Mumbai in time and once I landed in India (especially in Mumbai), I realized how humid it can get for a person who comes to Mumbai. I patiently walked through the baggage unloading process and other customs formalities. Once I came out of the terminal, I saw Dad somewhere in the crowd and waved to him. I walked out and reached a vacant place where Dad came and embraced me, welcoming me back. We proceeded towards a jeep that Dad had brought and there I met my Mom and Aunt.
Usually, my Mom does not show much emotion but that day, she had tears in her eyes when she saw me and she quickly hugged me – she was happy to see me back and proud that at such an age, I stayed away from her and everyone else and became independent. I had learnt how to live on my own and for my parents, they felt that I had grown up in life now that I can take care of myself.
I met Aunt and took her blessings. We then loaded the bags in the jeep and drove back home. All the roads, people and places looked so new to me even though I had come back to my own city. When I reached home, the place itself looked so small as I had been staying in a 2 BHK in US for all that time. My brother came home later as he had gone for his examination at that time.
I was going to join office back on Monday only and so I had the long weekend that I had hoped for. Much needed rest after coming back home and having lived an entire new chapter in your own life.
I end the post now having recalled as much as I could. The next post will not cover much detail about my Syntel work back at offshore and I would wrap it at the point when I resign in order to go for my MBA at Nirma University, Ahmedabad. If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything in this post, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write it in my next post.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
The latter half of my life in US was spent in what we called GMAPS House. SK, SM and I started living in a 2 BHK apartment which became a “Home Away from Home” for the 3 of us. Later, AV joined us and we 4 spent many memorable days in there. Life was going on well with no tensions and we were living together with a smile on our faces. Sometimes, I did miss my family and friends who were there in India but I occasionally made it a point that I would talk to them.
VP came to Phoenix and finally after so many month of working together (though on phone), we finally came face-to-face with each other. I always had this impression on hearing her voice that she would be intelligent and wise. When I saw her, I was surprised to see her look much younger than what I expected her to be. She looked shorter and like a kid – maybe my imagination of her was totally opposite like I expected a much elder woman when I thought of VP.
After she came, there were lots of fun filled evenings going on with SK, her, AV and rest of us. We were a team and united – it showed by the gesture PK made by inviting all of us to his place for a get-together and dinner. It was a second family to me and I felt really lucky to have been working with such great people. I owe them a lot.
Time passes by and it never stops for any one. Same is the case with me – 6 months passed by at onshore and I never realized it. The time came when I was about to leave for offshore. This is a time when I had mixed emotions in my mind – sad to leave this new-found family out here in US and happy to go back to my motherland, to my parents and friends out there in India. I promised myself that tears would not roll down my eyes when I leave from here but it was bound to happen – I knew this already in my mind.
Shopping time came in and I started to buy stuff which I had discussed with my family and friends that I would bring them from US. Packing time was at leisure when I started the packing slowly but surely – few minutes each day in the last week.
The day arrived when I was to board the flight to London from Phoenix and then go to Mumbai. As was the case when I came here, it was a BA flight all the way till Mumbai – the flight leaving from Phoenix in the evening. I spent the last day in office working little, taking photos of clients and my team members with me – to capture the memories of the workplace that I learnt in. For the last 2-3 days, I had that intuition that VP was not feeling well. She had a tradition that any one of us who stayed at onsite was supposed to be coming at her place for dinner which she used to prepare all by herself. I could have done the dinner at her place, but I realized that her health wasn’t fully well and I got busy in my packing and other work routine. I just wanted her to get well and take care of herself. She had been a great influence in my life and I always wish well for her.
VD came to drop me in his car at the Sky Harbor International Airport, Phoenix – along with him came SK and AV. It was an emotional drive back to the airport for me as I quietly remembered all those memories and fun filled moments I spent with these people. At the terminal, I gave a rich, creamy STARBUCKS treat to all of them and we spent some time talking, joking and having a nice, last time together before I depart towards the gate.
I proceeded towards the departure gate after bidding farewell to my friends. The flight was going to be a long one and again I was alone travelling back to London. I gave one final phone call to SK and talked to him, AV before I went for the security check – as I spoke with them, tears did eventually roll down my eyes. They assured me that they will also miss me and that I should come back to them soon. I somehow knew in my mind that Phoenix would not in m future plans any sooner.
The flight was very nice and by now I had the experience of flying – having been around in US too on flights. I reached London in the afternoon around lunch time – again on Terminal 4. This time, I made sure I had proper food (even though it was not Indian food) so that I’m not hungry again during the afternoon and early evening. The flight from London to Mumbai was going to depart at night and I had to spend 9 hours at the terminal.
A thought crossed my mind if I should get a transit visa to roam around London since the wait time was more than 6 hours – but then I realized that Heathrow Airport may not be close to the city of London and let’s instead rest for the next flight.
In the evening, I had an early dinner/snack at the terminal itself before I proceeded to my flight’s gate with no hurry at all. I had enough time to reach to the gate and I was going through some photos that I took at the Terminal 4 during the day. The afternoon again was gloomy, dark as if London’s climate never changed from the last time when I was there at this terminal.
The flight from London to Mumbai started at night and was expected to reach Mumbai in the morning at around 11:30 IST – it was a Thursday, if I remember well. My parents were going to come at the airport to receive me – and my Aunt also came as she had done during my flight to Phoenix in November 2006. My flight reached Mumbai in time and once I landed in India (especially in Mumbai), I realized how humid it can get for a person who comes to Mumbai. I patiently walked through the baggage unloading process and other customs formalities. Once I came out of the terminal, I saw Dad somewhere in the crowd and waved to him. I walked out and reached a vacant place where Dad came and embraced me, welcoming me back. We proceeded towards a jeep that Dad had brought and there I met my Mom and Aunt.
Usually, my Mom does not show much emotion but that day, she had tears in her eyes when she saw me and she quickly hugged me – she was happy to see me back and proud that at such an age, I stayed away from her and everyone else and became independent. I had learnt how to live on my own and for my parents, they felt that I had grown up in life now that I can take care of myself.
I met Aunt and took her blessings. We then loaded the bags in the jeep and drove back home. All the roads, people and places looked so new to me even though I had come back to my own city. When I reached home, the place itself looked so small as I had been staying in a 2 BHK in US for all that time. My brother came home later as he had gone for his examination at that time.
I was going to join office back on Monday only and so I had the long weekend that I had hoped for. Much needed rest after coming back home and having lived an entire new chapter in your own life.
I end the post now having recalled as much as I could. The next post will not cover much detail about my Syntel work back at offshore and I would wrap it at the point when I resign in order to go for my MBA at Nirma University, Ahmedabad. If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything in this post, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write it in my next post.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Half a Year in US
First of all, apologies to everyone for not having posted an entry in the month of June. Just could not find time for it and hence I have thought of entering 2 posts for the month of July. The last post described the days before I was to leave for onsite and how I went through the deputation process and then flight travel.
Now, I start with the work life when being in front of the client as privileged as American Express. The entire complex of buildings and infrastructure at American Express was commendable. Work life was located in a shared cubicle with few Syntel colleagues from other teams and some other vendors’ work partners like IBM. PK’s cubicle was straight in front of our cubicle and so he was easily accessible. SK and I used to walk from Pillars to Sonterra in the cold mornings so that we go to office with PK in his car. When coming back, we used to alternate between various people for going back home (yes, that was our kind of home now for us).
The first week was a short one as I landed in US during the week which had a 4 day long Thanksgiving weekend. I didn’t know much about Thanksgiving celebrated in US but out here it was a big deal. People shopped like crazy during this time as they could things for a really less price – it was the season of Megadiscounts and Rebates. This concept fascinated me a lot and I had a unique experience of shopping for Thanksgiving. Although I was not keen to do any shopping for myself, but I survived the night without sleeping for more than 2 hours so that we could maintain our position in a long queue outside a superstore chain. I saw people standing in a queue for the entire night, say from midnight to 5 am when the store used to open especially during Thanksgiving. I saw people shopping like crazy, waiting in the cold night outside and bringing their comforters, coffee mugs, some of them even carrying a tent to sleep on the pavement outside the store.
American clients were a delight to work with – professional yet approachable and friendly. They lived a work life where they worked simply 8 hours a day. – either 7 to 3 or 9 to 5. I learnt a lot about how they look at things with a different perspective. They balance their work life well and it is nice to see that. We wish we could manage this in our lives too – its not difficult, just that we do not stop a moment and look on what’s going on in our life.
Work was going good with regular meetings with clients in which we reported the status of our work in the week. Knowledge was abundantly available when interacting with clients, PK and VD. These guys had spent many years learning the business and were masters in their own. SK was the guy with whom I shared many light-hearted, funny moments. We had developed a nice friendship during my entire time out there.
Grocery shopping was something I learnt from the nearby FRY’s Supermarket. Weekly shopping for us roomies ran into a bill of $100 each week. But the layout and design of the supermarket was so beautiful that shopping was actually enjoyable even for guys.
Circumstances in your life make you who you are. They say life is the greatest teacher of them all. I learnt the art of cooking when I was in US – yes I would call it an “Art” rather than “Science” as I thoroughly enjoyed cooking food – for me as well as for roomies, friends, etc. Prior to living in US, I knew only how to make tea but here I learned to cook food like Vegetables, Chicken, Prawns, Rice, Dal, etc. We never made Chapatis but instead used a substitute named Tortillas which were similar.
The greatest compliment I got for my cooking skills did come from SK himself. I had prepared Aloo Mutter and after eating it, SK told me that today this Aloo Mutter reminded him of his mother’s cooking. What music to my ears – when a close friend says this, that you could remind him of his mother through preparing food for him, that sums it up. A defining moment in my life captured here! Thank you SK.
We travelled a lot during my 6 months there. Places included Sedona, Las Vegas, Flagstaff, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Apache Trail, Fountain Hills, Lake Pleasant and Phoenix Zoo – to name a few. SK was with me on almost all of these trips and we clicked photos like anything. I had bought a new Canon digital camera and I was in awe of it – constantly using it for any trivial scene or place to capture it. Sedona was a beautiful, colorful place to have a nice weekend. Las Vegas is America’s playground and I’m quite sure all you people know what kind of experiences you can get there. Flagstaff is where I tried my hand at Skiing and it was a tiring, yet enjoyable experience. Los Angeles was simply amazing with trips to Universal Studios and other places – easily one of my highlights. Washington DC was a very cool place with plenty of greenery around and Baltimore Harbor and Maryland Science Centre were really cool places to hang out. Apache Trail was a Roadies kind of experience with it being a really perilous road to travel and yet enjoy the scenery and the valley around. Phoenix Zoo was a long 1-day experience but really nice to see the wildlife around – impressively maintained by Phoenix City as compared to our Mumbai’s Byculla Zoo.
I made new friends there and had fond memories of sharing some cherished moments with them. Quite a rewarding experience. I met new people with whom we had our differences (SK and I) but we learnt from this experience too on how to handle such situations.
In January 2007, we both setup our new home which we called GMAPS House along with a third team mates named SM. It was a 2 BHK in Pillars and 1 more team mate named AV was expected to join us soon. The process of buying things for your new place and making it look like home is another experience which I would not have learnt if I had stayed in India during that time period. This place had a special place in my heart as I now knew what it is like to create your own home, put each thing in its right place and look at the final product and be proud of how you made your home.
I end the post now having recalled as much as I could. The next post will touch upon my last few days in US and the return journey to our beloved motherland India. If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything in this post, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write it in my next post.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
Now, I start with the work life when being in front of the client as privileged as American Express. The entire complex of buildings and infrastructure at American Express was commendable. Work life was located in a shared cubicle with few Syntel colleagues from other teams and some other vendors’ work partners like IBM. PK’s cubicle was straight in front of our cubicle and so he was easily accessible. SK and I used to walk from Pillars to Sonterra in the cold mornings so that we go to office with PK in his car. When coming back, we used to alternate between various people for going back home (yes, that was our kind of home now for us).
The first week was a short one as I landed in US during the week which had a 4 day long Thanksgiving weekend. I didn’t know much about Thanksgiving celebrated in US but out here it was a big deal. People shopped like crazy during this time as they could things for a really less price – it was the season of Megadiscounts and Rebates. This concept fascinated me a lot and I had a unique experience of shopping for Thanksgiving. Although I was not keen to do any shopping for myself, but I survived the night without sleeping for more than 2 hours so that we could maintain our position in a long queue outside a superstore chain. I saw people standing in a queue for the entire night, say from midnight to 5 am when the store used to open especially during Thanksgiving. I saw people shopping like crazy, waiting in the cold night outside and bringing their comforters, coffee mugs, some of them even carrying a tent to sleep on the pavement outside the store.
American clients were a delight to work with – professional yet approachable and friendly. They lived a work life where they worked simply 8 hours a day. – either 7 to 3 or 9 to 5. I learnt a lot about how they look at things with a different perspective. They balance their work life well and it is nice to see that. We wish we could manage this in our lives too – its not difficult, just that we do not stop a moment and look on what’s going on in our life.
Work was going good with regular meetings with clients in which we reported the status of our work in the week. Knowledge was abundantly available when interacting with clients, PK and VD. These guys had spent many years learning the business and were masters in their own. SK was the guy with whom I shared many light-hearted, funny moments. We had developed a nice friendship during my entire time out there.
Grocery shopping was something I learnt from the nearby FRY’s Supermarket. Weekly shopping for us roomies ran into a bill of $100 each week. But the layout and design of the supermarket was so beautiful that shopping was actually enjoyable even for guys.
Circumstances in your life make you who you are. They say life is the greatest teacher of them all. I learnt the art of cooking when I was in US – yes I would call it an “Art” rather than “Science” as I thoroughly enjoyed cooking food – for me as well as for roomies, friends, etc. Prior to living in US, I knew only how to make tea but here I learned to cook food like Vegetables, Chicken, Prawns, Rice, Dal, etc. We never made Chapatis but instead used a substitute named Tortillas which were similar.
The greatest compliment I got for my cooking skills did come from SK himself. I had prepared Aloo Mutter and after eating it, SK told me that today this Aloo Mutter reminded him of his mother’s cooking. What music to my ears – when a close friend says this, that you could remind him of his mother through preparing food for him, that sums it up. A defining moment in my life captured here! Thank you SK.
We travelled a lot during my 6 months there. Places included Sedona, Las Vegas, Flagstaff, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Apache Trail, Fountain Hills, Lake Pleasant and Phoenix Zoo – to name a few. SK was with me on almost all of these trips and we clicked photos like anything. I had bought a new Canon digital camera and I was in awe of it – constantly using it for any trivial scene or place to capture it. Sedona was a beautiful, colorful place to have a nice weekend. Las Vegas is America’s playground and I’m quite sure all you people know what kind of experiences you can get there. Flagstaff is where I tried my hand at Skiing and it was a tiring, yet enjoyable experience. Los Angeles was simply amazing with trips to Universal Studios and other places – easily one of my highlights. Washington DC was a very cool place with plenty of greenery around and Baltimore Harbor and Maryland Science Centre were really cool places to hang out. Apache Trail was a Roadies kind of experience with it being a really perilous road to travel and yet enjoy the scenery and the valley around. Phoenix Zoo was a long 1-day experience but really nice to see the wildlife around – impressively maintained by Phoenix City as compared to our Mumbai’s Byculla Zoo.
I made new friends there and had fond memories of sharing some cherished moments with them. Quite a rewarding experience. I met new people with whom we had our differences (SK and I) but we learnt from this experience too on how to handle such situations.
In January 2007, we both setup our new home which we called GMAPS House along with a third team mates named SM. It was a 2 BHK in Pillars and 1 more team mate named AV was expected to join us soon. The process of buying things for your new place and making it look like home is another experience which I would not have learnt if I had stayed in India during that time period. This place had a special place in my heart as I now knew what it is like to create your own home, put each thing in its right place and look at the final product and be proud of how you made your home.
I end the post now having recalled as much as I could. The next post will touch upon my last few days in US and the return journey to our beloved motherland India. If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything in this post, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write it in my next post.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Living the American Dream my way
Having brought the story till the point where I just entered the room that I was going to stay in for those 4-5 months in Phoenix, now I tell you in short about the guys with whom I shared the room. Then I give you a brief account of my first day in office and how I perceived the standard of living of Americans and my fellow onsite Indians was. Then I describe some routine stuff which we used to do as part of living there which was different for me as compared to India. I conclude the post by telling you about the work environment and the people out there.
When I joined in that room (the number was 3107, if I remember), I was the 7th guy to live in a 2 BHK apartment. Legally, only 5 people are allowed in US in a 2 BHK, but we are Indians who love to adjust for each other’s comfort. Well, being the additional guy didn’t help as there used to be a morning queue for the 2 washrooms (it had shower too, so once a guy went in, it was booked for him only). I decided to get up earlier than most of the guys so that I could get some leisure time for all the necessary stuff to be done in the morning, he he he…
Out of the 7 people, 3 belonged to a project team that worked next to our team in the Mumbai office and were also our upstream, 2 belonged to another team that worked at the same unit in the Mumbai office and the remaining 2 guys were SK and me from the same team yet working on different projects. SK and I had a great friendship developing in these initial days. However, bonding with the other 3 or 4 people out of the remaining 5 was going to be tough, considering their attitude and how they looked towards me as the 7th guy who was a burden on their living.
I believe that circumstances in your life bring out the best in you, no wonder they say Life is the greatest teacher of all. I learned how to cook food there out of necessity so that I do not starve. Cooking gradually became a passion for me as I felt like an artist preparing a recipe on a canvas. I loved to chop those vegetables, onions, etc fine and dice them, slice them fine so that they cook well and retain their flavor. Occasionally, we also prepared non-veg food in addition of veg food, this was yummy because the chicken was already cut into pieces, cleaned and kept packed, so preparing it took less time than all the veggies cutting and the end product was lip smacking. There was a washing machine, semi-automatic with a separate dryer unit attached – so, after the clothes had been washed and rinsed, we had to remove them from that unit and put them into the dryer. There was an ironing board kept by these guys, so in the mornings before leaving for office, we used to quickly iron the shirt and trouser.
After having taken the bath, the day began with a morning cereal breakfast – there was this POST brand Honey Crunchy Oats based cereal which I used to dip in hot milk and have as my breakfast – it was quite filling to keep your stomach till lunch and had minimum calories. We used to pack up the last night’s remaining dinner for lunch to take into office in plastic containers so that we could proper food, thereby avoiding the cafeteria in the American Express office. We used to hitch a ride to office with some team’s project lead or manager, sometimes with PK our project manager so that we could avoid taking the public transportation in the form of a bus (there were no trains in Phoenix). After coming back from office in the evening, we used to have some or the other snacks like pizza, sometimes from McDs, KFC or Taco Bell, some ready made stuff like baked items, etc, etc… Between 9 pm to midnight local time, we had our daily conference (offshore) calls, sometimes these stretched beyond midnight for some of us. Dinner was prepared depending on whose turn it was on that day in the kitchen – some of us started very late while I started early. So, our dinner times varied from anything between 10 pm till 1 am local time. Evenings were also filled with occasional movie watching on our laptops, going to the gym, swimming in temperature controlled pools, shopping in the nearby supermarket FRYs, playing volleyball, etc. We used to sleep in a comforter which was like a blanket for 1 guy which he can wrap around his body and sleep into it. We did not have any beds and so we slept in the comforter over the nicely laid out thick carpet.
SK and I used to walk in the morning towards PK’s house for hitching a ride to the office. That walk in the cold mornings used to be something, especially when you exhale icy breaths. The roads in Phoenix were quite impressive as was expected in most of the USA. But one thing that amazed me was the lack of traffic in Phoenix. Roads were clear and the windows of the car had to be kept closed as the normal speed on that road to the office was 45 mph which was roughly 70 kmph. But we already travelled +10 mph than this. I saw these huge American Express buildings which had a huge parking lot in front of them with such a large area. Our workplace was in building number 1. The architecture was impressive, well built areas within the buildings, nice, elegant conference rooms and the cubicles had ample space to keep your stuff. Really wonderful place to have for your work environment. There was no swipe card stuff as they never kept any track of how many hours you work like what we have in Syntel’s Mumbai office. Working at client site like American Express’ offices is a privilege, I would say.
On the first day in office, I carried the sweets that I brought from India. PK introduced me to some client directors, VPs, managers of Syntel, etc as we distributed the sweets. The EM of our Syntel portfolio liked the sugar-free kesar kaju katlis that I brought, so much that he asked me to give the address of the sweet shop from where I brought them so that he could tell his counterpart at offshore to tell other guys coming onsite to bring that sweet only from the same place. A moment of pride followed for me when PK introduced me to some senior people over there as the ‘Pillar of GMAPS’. It surely is a great feeling to hear such words from your boss, but it also gives you an idea of the kind of expectations that you have on your shoulders and the responsibility that you need to show. The day at work was short for me, PK and SK as PK took me to the bank in the afternoon to open my bank accounts. SK pointed out that he also wanted to open the same for me as he would get $25 free in his account for my referral, which would now of course go to PK. I got $50 in my account for opening a new one at the Bank of America (BOA). The BOA people were so pleasant and interacted quite politely with us, as compared to what I saw in India at that time – a world of difference it made to a customer like us.
I was bit surprised that day to leave the office as early as 3 pm but I learned that it was no big deal here, as long as the work is done. Americans worked for 8 hours as they were paid to do so for that much time and behaved professionally as much as possible. Whereas at offshore, we used to slog it out for 10, 12 or more hours regularly without ever thinking what impact it made on our non-work life. I was very happy to see a welcome change in lifestyle in US for me as we were in office regularly from 9 am to 5 pm. Very rarely did we wait beyond 6:30 pm local time. Since we left on the right time, we had things to do in the evenings and relax as much as we could.
The shopping experience in the adjacent supermarket was another sea change from what I had in India. It was a very well-built, spacious and ideal shopping experience in the FRYs supermarket. We did our weekly grocery and other supplies shopping from there. I was having this different experience of purchasing weekly grocery stuff from there of the amounts like around or over $100 (which amounted to around Rupees 4600 for 1 week of shopping). Although in those days, I was not a great fan of cheese, but I saw a cheese counter which had over 150 types of cheese spread out nicely over the huge tower like counter. Gosh, how much cheese Americans ate – same goes for the beef, pork, soft drinks, etc. People did not believe in drinking water, it seemed. There was a water vending machine just outside, on the main entrance on the supermarket – from where we used to buy drinking water, the rate being 25 cents for 1 gallon (3.78 liters) of water or $1.25 for 5 gallons.
The apartment complex that we stayed was named PILLARS, some of the Syntel onshore people stayed in this entire complex which had many short-storeyed buildings. There were other two such complexes nearby where the other Syntel onshore people stayed, namely SONTERRA and SADDLEBACK. The neighborhood had a Wal-Mart, a McD, a Taco Bell, FRYs, BOA, Chevron gas stations and Home Depot, to name a few.
At the workplace, people were so nice-natured, for example once when going into the elevator, a lady politely asked me and helped me reach the floor I was going to, I acknowledged her with a thanks. I was amazed to see such noble character among these people, and I wonder why some of us Indians don’t learn some things from them instead of criticizing their culture and pointing to them that they need to learn from us always.
Even when you cross any side-road walking, they are so polite that they stop the car at a safe distance in front of you and let you cross first instead of the Indian way where you honk a lot and even drag the car near the person walking so that he/she runs away as quick as they can from the road. Yes, there is absolutely rare honking there on the roads – in fact, honking is considered to be rude unless necessary on a freeway where you block the traffic behind you by going slow in a fast lane. I’m not claiming in any way that Americans are superior to us but there are always certain things in each culture that we need to appreciate and adopt. We are citizens of the world first, then of our respective countries.
Will take a break here and continue with some incidents during my stay there in the next post as life teaches me important lessons and the boy in me grows up on his own, then how SK and me develop our friendship and things turn around in January 2007.
If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything in this post, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write it in my next post.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
When I joined in that room (the number was 3107, if I remember), I was the 7th guy to live in a 2 BHK apartment. Legally, only 5 people are allowed in US in a 2 BHK, but we are Indians who love to adjust for each other’s comfort. Well, being the additional guy didn’t help as there used to be a morning queue for the 2 washrooms (it had shower too, so once a guy went in, it was booked for him only). I decided to get up earlier than most of the guys so that I could get some leisure time for all the necessary stuff to be done in the morning, he he he…
Out of the 7 people, 3 belonged to a project team that worked next to our team in the Mumbai office and were also our upstream, 2 belonged to another team that worked at the same unit in the Mumbai office and the remaining 2 guys were SK and me from the same team yet working on different projects. SK and I had a great friendship developing in these initial days. However, bonding with the other 3 or 4 people out of the remaining 5 was going to be tough, considering their attitude and how they looked towards me as the 7th guy who was a burden on their living.
I believe that circumstances in your life bring out the best in you, no wonder they say Life is the greatest teacher of all. I learned how to cook food there out of necessity so that I do not starve. Cooking gradually became a passion for me as I felt like an artist preparing a recipe on a canvas. I loved to chop those vegetables, onions, etc fine and dice them, slice them fine so that they cook well and retain their flavor. Occasionally, we also prepared non-veg food in addition of veg food, this was yummy because the chicken was already cut into pieces, cleaned and kept packed, so preparing it took less time than all the veggies cutting and the end product was lip smacking. There was a washing machine, semi-automatic with a separate dryer unit attached – so, after the clothes had been washed and rinsed, we had to remove them from that unit and put them into the dryer. There was an ironing board kept by these guys, so in the mornings before leaving for office, we used to quickly iron the shirt and trouser.
After having taken the bath, the day began with a morning cereal breakfast – there was this POST brand Honey Crunchy Oats based cereal which I used to dip in hot milk and have as my breakfast – it was quite filling to keep your stomach till lunch and had minimum calories. We used to pack up the last night’s remaining dinner for lunch to take into office in plastic containers so that we could proper food, thereby avoiding the cafeteria in the American Express office. We used to hitch a ride to office with some team’s project lead or manager, sometimes with PK our project manager so that we could avoid taking the public transportation in the form of a bus (there were no trains in Phoenix). After coming back from office in the evening, we used to have some or the other snacks like pizza, sometimes from McDs, KFC or Taco Bell, some ready made stuff like baked items, etc, etc… Between 9 pm to midnight local time, we had our daily conference (offshore) calls, sometimes these stretched beyond midnight for some of us. Dinner was prepared depending on whose turn it was on that day in the kitchen – some of us started very late while I started early. So, our dinner times varied from anything between 10 pm till 1 am local time. Evenings were also filled with occasional movie watching on our laptops, going to the gym, swimming in temperature controlled pools, shopping in the nearby supermarket FRYs, playing volleyball, etc. We used to sleep in a comforter which was like a blanket for 1 guy which he can wrap around his body and sleep into it. We did not have any beds and so we slept in the comforter over the nicely laid out thick carpet.
SK and I used to walk in the morning towards PK’s house for hitching a ride to the office. That walk in the cold mornings used to be something, especially when you exhale icy breaths. The roads in Phoenix were quite impressive as was expected in most of the USA. But one thing that amazed me was the lack of traffic in Phoenix. Roads were clear and the windows of the car had to be kept closed as the normal speed on that road to the office was 45 mph which was roughly 70 kmph. But we already travelled +10 mph than this. I saw these huge American Express buildings which had a huge parking lot in front of them with such a large area. Our workplace was in building number 1. The architecture was impressive, well built areas within the buildings, nice, elegant conference rooms and the cubicles had ample space to keep your stuff. Really wonderful place to have for your work environment. There was no swipe card stuff as they never kept any track of how many hours you work like what we have in Syntel’s Mumbai office. Working at client site like American Express’ offices is a privilege, I would say.
On the first day in office, I carried the sweets that I brought from India. PK introduced me to some client directors, VPs, managers of Syntel, etc as we distributed the sweets. The EM of our Syntel portfolio liked the sugar-free kesar kaju katlis that I brought, so much that he asked me to give the address of the sweet shop from where I brought them so that he could tell his counterpart at offshore to tell other guys coming onsite to bring that sweet only from the same place. A moment of pride followed for me when PK introduced me to some senior people over there as the ‘Pillar of GMAPS’. It surely is a great feeling to hear such words from your boss, but it also gives you an idea of the kind of expectations that you have on your shoulders and the responsibility that you need to show. The day at work was short for me, PK and SK as PK took me to the bank in the afternoon to open my bank accounts. SK pointed out that he also wanted to open the same for me as he would get $25 free in his account for my referral, which would now of course go to PK. I got $50 in my account for opening a new one at the Bank of America (BOA). The BOA people were so pleasant and interacted quite politely with us, as compared to what I saw in India at that time – a world of difference it made to a customer like us.
I was bit surprised that day to leave the office as early as 3 pm but I learned that it was no big deal here, as long as the work is done. Americans worked for 8 hours as they were paid to do so for that much time and behaved professionally as much as possible. Whereas at offshore, we used to slog it out for 10, 12 or more hours regularly without ever thinking what impact it made on our non-work life. I was very happy to see a welcome change in lifestyle in US for me as we were in office regularly from 9 am to 5 pm. Very rarely did we wait beyond 6:30 pm local time. Since we left on the right time, we had things to do in the evenings and relax as much as we could.
The shopping experience in the adjacent supermarket was another sea change from what I had in India. It was a very well-built, spacious and ideal shopping experience in the FRYs supermarket. We did our weekly grocery and other supplies shopping from there. I was having this different experience of purchasing weekly grocery stuff from there of the amounts like around or over $100 (which amounted to around Rupees 4600 for 1 week of shopping). Although in those days, I was not a great fan of cheese, but I saw a cheese counter which had over 150 types of cheese spread out nicely over the huge tower like counter. Gosh, how much cheese Americans ate – same goes for the beef, pork, soft drinks, etc. People did not believe in drinking water, it seemed. There was a water vending machine just outside, on the main entrance on the supermarket – from where we used to buy drinking water, the rate being 25 cents for 1 gallon (3.78 liters) of water or $1.25 for 5 gallons.
The apartment complex that we stayed was named PILLARS, some of the Syntel onshore people stayed in this entire complex which had many short-storeyed buildings. There were other two such complexes nearby where the other Syntel onshore people stayed, namely SONTERRA and SADDLEBACK. The neighborhood had a Wal-Mart, a McD, a Taco Bell, FRYs, BOA, Chevron gas stations and Home Depot, to name a few.
At the workplace, people were so nice-natured, for example once when going into the elevator, a lady politely asked me and helped me reach the floor I was going to, I acknowledged her with a thanks. I was amazed to see such noble character among these people, and I wonder why some of us Indians don’t learn some things from them instead of criticizing their culture and pointing to them that they need to learn from us always.
Even when you cross any side-road walking, they are so polite that they stop the car at a safe distance in front of you and let you cross first instead of the Indian way where you honk a lot and even drag the car near the person walking so that he/she runs away as quick as they can from the road. Yes, there is absolutely rare honking there on the roads – in fact, honking is considered to be rude unless necessary on a freeway where you block the traffic behind you by going slow in a fast lane. I’m not claiming in any way that Americans are superior to us but there are always certain things in each culture that we need to appreciate and adopt. We are citizens of the world first, then of our respective countries.
Will take a break here and continue with some incidents during my stay there in the next post as life teaches me important lessons and the boy in me grows up on his own, then how SK and me develop our friendship and things turn around in January 2007.
If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything in this post, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write it in my next post.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
Friday, April 16, 2010
I Believe I Can Fly
After having told you about the days before I was to leave for onsite in US, I now cover few days of my life where I tell you how an employee undergoes the deputation process typically in the IT industry and then my first-time travel in a flight – that too one of them being a long one.
After having cleared the interview at the US Consulate, I got a L1 Blanket visa stamped on my passport. My project manager SG started the deputation process soon and there was an instruction sheet provided to me which detailed each and every step that I had to complete – by looking at this sheet, I wondered about this deputation as being some work in a Government office where you had to get so many permissions and forms filled up. But I was told that deputation on L1 visa was some kind of transfer for which these formalities were required since it was similar to me leaving Syntel India Ltd and joining the parent company Syntel in US for that much period. On the company’s intranet, when filling up a form, I filled up the duration as 4 months and then submitted it. I still have the acknowledgement number on my cell phone which I had received then under the name of ODM form number – saved it for my memory in case it was required later on in those days.
Then, when submitting travel arrangement plans and for flight details, SG sat next to me and modified the return date such that my onsite period now extended to 5 months instead of the earlier 4 months. I was surprised and asked SG why the extension and discrepancy with the earlier form but SG convinced me that it’s not a problem and its fine – besides, 1 more month at onsite would not harm me. So, there I was – initially planned for onsite work of 4 months which now became 5 months. SG even booked Aisle seats for me instead of my preference of Window seats saying it was better there. When your boss says something is better, how can you argue when he has been there, done that and you haven’t? Also, the food preference he selected was VEG saying that there was no guarantee of what exactly would be served under NON-VEG.
My travel plan was simpler as compared to the others who went onsite during that time period. People usually took 3 flights to go to onsite in US – from Indian location to some intermediate European location, then from that European location to some other US location and then finally to their designated onsite location.
But for me, I had 2 flights only – both of them being British Airways flights (BA). I was excited about travelling by BA at that time as I considered it as a quite nice airline. These days, the condition is the opposite for BA. My flight was from Mumbai to London starting at 2:50 am in Mumbai and arriving at 6:00 am in London. Afterwards, I had to spend almost 7.5 hours in London as my next flight was going to depart at 1:30 pm from London and reach Phoenix in the evening at 6:30 pm.
I was checking the baggage weight limits and restrictions on the number of bags for Cargo and for Cabin on BA’s website. Plus, earlier in that time period, there had been a terrorist attack plotted on Heathrow Airport which was unsuccessful as explosives had been seized by the authorities and these were in liquid form. So, afterwards, there was a clear ban on liquid form contents in your baggage. No gels, shampoos, sprays, creams – nothing. It did not concern much for me as I was anyways not going to carry any of these but I heard that the women travelers were quite annoyed by this ban during that time.
Regarding the weight limits also, there was confusion as SG addressed me and told me it was 18 kg per cargo bag. I tried to find it on the BA website but could not locate it. I asked people but no help. So, I told my parents to get cargo bags accordingly – not too bulky. Later on, I realized my mistake when I was in Phoenix that the weight limit was not 18 kg, but 32 kg. I was angry on knowing this yet helpless as by now, it was too late to do anything about my bags.
When the deputation process started, I was busy in getting clearance from various departments like Finance, Library, GFT, Payroll, Admin, HR, etc. This was a time-consuming task and it usually starts either on the same day when you are supposed to travel or 1 day earlier. So, you have to literally go all around the different places where these departments are located and wait for them to sign and clear you. It can be quite time consuming and frustrating at times as people are either busy in their work or absent from their seat at that same time when you enter. Then, there is a guy who comes during the late afternoon time who gives you some advance foreign currency (in my case, US Dollars) as compensation for first 15 days travel and accommodation assistance. Getting to meet this guy is also a tricky thing as you need to keep a track of when exactly he comes to the office.
Then, there is a counseling session on a 1-to-1 basis with someone in the HR-ODC department (if I remember the name right). They counsel you on how to take care when travelling, what documents are needed to be carried, etc. I had a shorter version of this discussion as it was at such a time when I was in a hurry to leave office and go home to prepare for my flight on that same night. It was around 6:30 pm on the same day that I saw for barely 5 minutes and listened to the lady who was counseling. I got the US Dollars by 5:30 pm. My final clearance came from HR at around 7:30 pm on the same day and here I was – my 7:30 pm Dadar bus missed on the day when I was supposed to go onsite by the flight at around 3 am that night, tired at the end of a working day (it was a Monday night) and having to go myself now to Andheri railway station and reach home in time.
Exhausted and dragging my feet to my home, I reached there at around 9:10 pm. By then, my Mom had packed 95% of my stuff in the bags and only few documents were pending which I was having with me whose photocopies I had taken when on my way to home. So, when I reached home, I freshened up first and had a peaceful dinner. Then, my Mom briefed me about what all contents were there in each bag so that I know exactly what thing is where. I had carried sweets in the bags which I had to distribute to my onshore project manager PK and client directors, Syntel directors and others out there. Then, I filled up my documents’ folder and finalized my bags. I was ready to leave by 11 pm. My aunt (Dad’s elder sister) had come to accompany us to the airport. So, it was my parents, my aunt and my younger brother who came to the airport.
We reached the airport by 11:50 pm, nearly 3 hours from the scheduled departure time of my flight. At that time, I failed to understand why do people come so soon for a flight and why does it take 2 hours or more for people to go through the airport clearance procedure and finally end up in their flight. Can’t this entire process be made faster so that people can come 1 hour earlier and have a relaxed clearance process. I did not ponder much over this as I had to fetch a trolley soon and get my luggage onto it.
First time I was travelling by flight and so, I did not know anything on how to proceed and what all needs to be done. My aunt had told me some things due to her son and daughter having travelled a lot internationally, so that was little helpful. But I also kept on asking the airport employees around in Marathi. I got a lot of useful information from them having shown them I’m a Maharashtrian, this works in your favor in Mumbai when you have to talk to these guys, or the traffic cops, he he he…
Having collected my boarding pass and my cargo luggage dispatched by BA people, I was going for clearance of cabin luggage. My cabin bag was having right dimensions and almost fit in. So, there wasn’t any problem there. My parents, aunt and brother by then had taken some tickets which enabled them to enter the airport terminal and see me from a fixed area. I was not aware of this as I proceeded to the Immigration counter. Here too, my Marathi helped me as the Immigration officer asked only a few routine questions before clearing me. I had to then proceed to one level downstairs for security clearance which was the last thing to be done before boarding the flight.
At that time, I was not aware that once you get security clearance, you cannot go upstairs and meet your family members. So, after having my security clearance, when I asked those people, they told me that if I go back upstairs, I will have to do another clearance. I was bit disappointed as I could not say a final word of goodbye to my family members in person. So, when I saw a PCO there, I immediately called them and told them about the situation and told them to go back home now as it was too late being already 1:15 am. They left having wished me on the phone and so, I was there now – in the waiting lounge with still over 90 minutes to go for my flight.
The time spent in the waiting lounge was boring as I was yawning and keeping my eye on the clock in between to ensure I did not fall asleep. There was an announcement that the flight was delayed by ½ hour and so, the departure time was now 3:20 am. Oh God, what a time to leave Mumbai – in the middle of my dreamy sleep at such an unearthly time like 3:20 am. The boarding call for the flight came at 2:45 am and I proceeded towards the flight. I came inside the flight through a tunnel and reached my seat soon. After having kept my cabin bag above in the compartment, I sat down looking around and observing the people. After some time, I buckled my seat belt and experienced the moment of a lifetime when our flight started the TAKEOFF. It was a nervous yet exciting experience for me as I felt the flight going off in the sky at an incline. Amazing feeling!
I could see the Mumbai streetlights down there from whatever view I got of the window. An Indian student was seated next to me who later introduced himself; he was going to UK for further studies. I had a brief talk with him few times during the entire flight.
The Mumbai-London flight takes around 8 or 8.5 hours and you see a lot of Indians on this flight, which is the first visible proof for me that UK is swarmed with lots of Asians by now. Breakfast came at around 4:15 am and I was not in a mood to have it, but still ate something brought as I had heard about the diet that these airlines designed for the travelers according to the flight schedule so that the travelers feel fresh and their jet lag gets minimized. The flight was nice where I had got some periods of sleep, interlaced with watching some movie on the screen in front of me, reading some magazines, eating whatever food was brought.
I reached London early morning and it was a dull morning with not much sunlight. I had heard that this is typical climate in London on many days of the year plus I was traveling in November. I came out of the flight and straight onto Terminal 4 of Heathrow Airport. It was huge and attractive with so many bright-lighted shops, a mix of people walking around and nicely built good-looking interiors. First time in my life I was out of India and saw this amazing, dazzling terminal. How come we didn’t have such wonderful terminals in India at that time?
I had to spend half the day on the Terminal as my next BA flight to Phoenix was in the afternoon. So, I thought of resting in the nice, comfortable Multi-Faith prayer room which was a nice waiting lounge too. I called up my home in Mumbai and told them I had reached London and my flight was hassle-free. For calling them and spending some amount on the Terminal, I converted 10 US Dollars at the American Express counter (nice coincidence of my client itself here) and received 3.33 Sterling Pounds. I slept for few hours nicely on the cozy seats and afterwards, when I woke up, I was feeling bit hungry and so walked around to see if I can buy something lighter to eat like snacks. It was very hard to find something of this sort as most of the restaurants there served full traditional, British breakfast of bacon and eggs, which I was not too keen on having. Luckily, after some time, I found a small store where I brought a large bottle of water, a packet of ‘Rock Salt Potato Chips’ and 2 tubes of Polo for spending the entire remaining amount, including the change in pennies.
Around 1 pm, the boarding call came for my flight on the same terminal and I proceeded towards the gate. The London-Phoenix flight takes 12 hours or so and obviously you don’t see much Asians around, forget any large number of Europeans travelling to Phoenix when there are places like New York, Los Angeles to tour.
This was a much longer flight and it had a few empty seats as compared to the fully booked Mumbai-London flight. I watched a few movies which I had missed out from the early school days and during my college days or times at Syntel. In between, I slept whenever I felt the need to take a break and rest. I had the proper food which came without wasting much and so my diet on the flight was going perfectly as planned. The flight being longer and no one to talk to, I was getting little bored at the end of the flight. At that time, every one of us received a form which we had to fill up as we were going to enter into US territory which requires us to mention some details on yourself, your luggage, etc.
On landing in Phoenix in the evening at around 6:30 pm on Tuesday, I came out on the Terminal and walked around to get my luggage and complete the clearance. Phoenix was my Port of Entry (POE) in US and so, there is a I-94 slip that you have to get done at the POE which describes the entry date, duration for which you can legally stay in the US, etc.
After getting into the terminal, I looked out for a phone booth to call up VD, one of my project managers who was onsite and was accompanying the boss, PK to pick me up at the airport. Phoenix’s airport was worth of praise for a city of its magnitude – the name being Sky Harbor International Airport. I found a phone booth, just as I was about to dial the number, someone tapped my shoulder from behind. I turned back and was surprised to see VD behind me. PK was standing a little farther behind VD. Both of them welcomed me to Phoenix and they carried along my cargo bags. I followed them to an elevator and then into a parking lot where PK opened his car trunk and we loaded my bags into it. VD and PK took the front seats while I was sitting in the back seat. It was already sunset and it was getting dark. PK drove the car swiftly and they both asked me about my journey and if I had any jet lag.
To my amazement, I didn’t have any jet lag despite spending around 20-22 hours in air in those 2 flights. I have been surprised till date on how I did not have any jet lag at that time when I had heard that it was so common for people to get jet lag.
After discussing few, general travel related things with VD and PK and in between observing the nice roads and smaller buildings around, we reached a society (they call it as Apartment in US) which had around 30 buildings, each having 1 or some of 2 floors plus a ground floor). PK stopped the car in front of one of the buildings and we unloaded my bags. VD climbed up the stairs which was like a ladder, carrying one bag and rang a doorbell. I followed PK as each one of us carried one bag. I entered a room where there were few guys staying whom I had seen in the Mumbai office in Syntel, they belonged to different teams from ours. I saw a familiar face, SK who was from my team and he had already been to Phoenix from the past 3 weeks. They welcomed me in the room and I sat down on the couch, drinking a glassful of cold water. I was glad to see that atleast SK was living in this room – one familiar face is better to live with than none. Little did I know that over time, my friendship with SK would grow so strong that I would cherish it till date.
I end the post now having recollected as much as I could. The next post will cover my initial days in the American Express office in Phoenix, life in US on how its hell lot of different from that in India, how I met new people and gauged their nature and how to be more responsible when working at onsite.
If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything in this post, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write it in my next post.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
After having cleared the interview at the US Consulate, I got a L1 Blanket visa stamped on my passport. My project manager SG started the deputation process soon and there was an instruction sheet provided to me which detailed each and every step that I had to complete – by looking at this sheet, I wondered about this deputation as being some work in a Government office where you had to get so many permissions and forms filled up. But I was told that deputation on L1 visa was some kind of transfer for which these formalities were required since it was similar to me leaving Syntel India Ltd and joining the parent company Syntel in US for that much period. On the company’s intranet, when filling up a form, I filled up the duration as 4 months and then submitted it. I still have the acknowledgement number on my cell phone which I had received then under the name of ODM form number – saved it for my memory in case it was required later on in those days.
Then, when submitting travel arrangement plans and for flight details, SG sat next to me and modified the return date such that my onsite period now extended to 5 months instead of the earlier 4 months. I was surprised and asked SG why the extension and discrepancy with the earlier form but SG convinced me that it’s not a problem and its fine – besides, 1 more month at onsite would not harm me. So, there I was – initially planned for onsite work of 4 months which now became 5 months. SG even booked Aisle seats for me instead of my preference of Window seats saying it was better there. When your boss says something is better, how can you argue when he has been there, done that and you haven’t? Also, the food preference he selected was VEG saying that there was no guarantee of what exactly would be served under NON-VEG.
My travel plan was simpler as compared to the others who went onsite during that time period. People usually took 3 flights to go to onsite in US – from Indian location to some intermediate European location, then from that European location to some other US location and then finally to their designated onsite location.
But for me, I had 2 flights only – both of them being British Airways flights (BA). I was excited about travelling by BA at that time as I considered it as a quite nice airline. These days, the condition is the opposite for BA. My flight was from Mumbai to London starting at 2:50 am in Mumbai and arriving at 6:00 am in London. Afterwards, I had to spend almost 7.5 hours in London as my next flight was going to depart at 1:30 pm from London and reach Phoenix in the evening at 6:30 pm.
I was checking the baggage weight limits and restrictions on the number of bags for Cargo and for Cabin on BA’s website. Plus, earlier in that time period, there had been a terrorist attack plotted on Heathrow Airport which was unsuccessful as explosives had been seized by the authorities and these were in liquid form. So, afterwards, there was a clear ban on liquid form contents in your baggage. No gels, shampoos, sprays, creams – nothing. It did not concern much for me as I was anyways not going to carry any of these but I heard that the women travelers were quite annoyed by this ban during that time.
Regarding the weight limits also, there was confusion as SG addressed me and told me it was 18 kg per cargo bag. I tried to find it on the BA website but could not locate it. I asked people but no help. So, I told my parents to get cargo bags accordingly – not too bulky. Later on, I realized my mistake when I was in Phoenix that the weight limit was not 18 kg, but 32 kg. I was angry on knowing this yet helpless as by now, it was too late to do anything about my bags.
When the deputation process started, I was busy in getting clearance from various departments like Finance, Library, GFT, Payroll, Admin, HR, etc. This was a time-consuming task and it usually starts either on the same day when you are supposed to travel or 1 day earlier. So, you have to literally go all around the different places where these departments are located and wait for them to sign and clear you. It can be quite time consuming and frustrating at times as people are either busy in their work or absent from their seat at that same time when you enter. Then, there is a guy who comes during the late afternoon time who gives you some advance foreign currency (in my case, US Dollars) as compensation for first 15 days travel and accommodation assistance. Getting to meet this guy is also a tricky thing as you need to keep a track of when exactly he comes to the office.
Then, there is a counseling session on a 1-to-1 basis with someone in the HR-ODC department (if I remember the name right). They counsel you on how to take care when travelling, what documents are needed to be carried, etc. I had a shorter version of this discussion as it was at such a time when I was in a hurry to leave office and go home to prepare for my flight on that same night. It was around 6:30 pm on the same day that I saw for barely 5 minutes and listened to the lady who was counseling. I got the US Dollars by 5:30 pm. My final clearance came from HR at around 7:30 pm on the same day and here I was – my 7:30 pm Dadar bus missed on the day when I was supposed to go onsite by the flight at around 3 am that night, tired at the end of a working day (it was a Monday night) and having to go myself now to Andheri railway station and reach home in time.
Exhausted and dragging my feet to my home, I reached there at around 9:10 pm. By then, my Mom had packed 95% of my stuff in the bags and only few documents were pending which I was having with me whose photocopies I had taken when on my way to home. So, when I reached home, I freshened up first and had a peaceful dinner. Then, my Mom briefed me about what all contents were there in each bag so that I know exactly what thing is where. I had carried sweets in the bags which I had to distribute to my onshore project manager PK and client directors, Syntel directors and others out there. Then, I filled up my documents’ folder and finalized my bags. I was ready to leave by 11 pm. My aunt (Dad’s elder sister) had come to accompany us to the airport. So, it was my parents, my aunt and my younger brother who came to the airport.
We reached the airport by 11:50 pm, nearly 3 hours from the scheduled departure time of my flight. At that time, I failed to understand why do people come so soon for a flight and why does it take 2 hours or more for people to go through the airport clearance procedure and finally end up in their flight. Can’t this entire process be made faster so that people can come 1 hour earlier and have a relaxed clearance process. I did not ponder much over this as I had to fetch a trolley soon and get my luggage onto it.
First time I was travelling by flight and so, I did not know anything on how to proceed and what all needs to be done. My aunt had told me some things due to her son and daughter having travelled a lot internationally, so that was little helpful. But I also kept on asking the airport employees around in Marathi. I got a lot of useful information from them having shown them I’m a Maharashtrian, this works in your favor in Mumbai when you have to talk to these guys, or the traffic cops, he he he…
Having collected my boarding pass and my cargo luggage dispatched by BA people, I was going for clearance of cabin luggage. My cabin bag was having right dimensions and almost fit in. So, there wasn’t any problem there. My parents, aunt and brother by then had taken some tickets which enabled them to enter the airport terminal and see me from a fixed area. I was not aware of this as I proceeded to the Immigration counter. Here too, my Marathi helped me as the Immigration officer asked only a few routine questions before clearing me. I had to then proceed to one level downstairs for security clearance which was the last thing to be done before boarding the flight.
At that time, I was not aware that once you get security clearance, you cannot go upstairs and meet your family members. So, after having my security clearance, when I asked those people, they told me that if I go back upstairs, I will have to do another clearance. I was bit disappointed as I could not say a final word of goodbye to my family members in person. So, when I saw a PCO there, I immediately called them and told them about the situation and told them to go back home now as it was too late being already 1:15 am. They left having wished me on the phone and so, I was there now – in the waiting lounge with still over 90 minutes to go for my flight.
The time spent in the waiting lounge was boring as I was yawning and keeping my eye on the clock in between to ensure I did not fall asleep. There was an announcement that the flight was delayed by ½ hour and so, the departure time was now 3:20 am. Oh God, what a time to leave Mumbai – in the middle of my dreamy sleep at such an unearthly time like 3:20 am. The boarding call for the flight came at 2:45 am and I proceeded towards the flight. I came inside the flight through a tunnel and reached my seat soon. After having kept my cabin bag above in the compartment, I sat down looking around and observing the people. After some time, I buckled my seat belt and experienced the moment of a lifetime when our flight started the TAKEOFF. It was a nervous yet exciting experience for me as I felt the flight going off in the sky at an incline. Amazing feeling!
I could see the Mumbai streetlights down there from whatever view I got of the window. An Indian student was seated next to me who later introduced himself; he was going to UK for further studies. I had a brief talk with him few times during the entire flight.
The Mumbai-London flight takes around 8 or 8.5 hours and you see a lot of Indians on this flight, which is the first visible proof for me that UK is swarmed with lots of Asians by now. Breakfast came at around 4:15 am and I was not in a mood to have it, but still ate something brought as I had heard about the diet that these airlines designed for the travelers according to the flight schedule so that the travelers feel fresh and their jet lag gets minimized. The flight was nice where I had got some periods of sleep, interlaced with watching some movie on the screen in front of me, reading some magazines, eating whatever food was brought.
I reached London early morning and it was a dull morning with not much sunlight. I had heard that this is typical climate in London on many days of the year plus I was traveling in November. I came out of the flight and straight onto Terminal 4 of Heathrow Airport. It was huge and attractive with so many bright-lighted shops, a mix of people walking around and nicely built good-looking interiors. First time in my life I was out of India and saw this amazing, dazzling terminal. How come we didn’t have such wonderful terminals in India at that time?
I had to spend half the day on the Terminal as my next BA flight to Phoenix was in the afternoon. So, I thought of resting in the nice, comfortable Multi-Faith prayer room which was a nice waiting lounge too. I called up my home in Mumbai and told them I had reached London and my flight was hassle-free. For calling them and spending some amount on the Terminal, I converted 10 US Dollars at the American Express counter (nice coincidence of my client itself here) and received 3.33 Sterling Pounds. I slept for few hours nicely on the cozy seats and afterwards, when I woke up, I was feeling bit hungry and so walked around to see if I can buy something lighter to eat like snacks. It was very hard to find something of this sort as most of the restaurants there served full traditional, British breakfast of bacon and eggs, which I was not too keen on having. Luckily, after some time, I found a small store where I brought a large bottle of water, a packet of ‘Rock Salt Potato Chips’ and 2 tubes of Polo for spending the entire remaining amount, including the change in pennies.
Around 1 pm, the boarding call came for my flight on the same terminal and I proceeded towards the gate. The London-Phoenix flight takes 12 hours or so and obviously you don’t see much Asians around, forget any large number of Europeans travelling to Phoenix when there are places like New York, Los Angeles to tour.
This was a much longer flight and it had a few empty seats as compared to the fully booked Mumbai-London flight. I watched a few movies which I had missed out from the early school days and during my college days or times at Syntel. In between, I slept whenever I felt the need to take a break and rest. I had the proper food which came without wasting much and so my diet on the flight was going perfectly as planned. The flight being longer and no one to talk to, I was getting little bored at the end of the flight. At that time, every one of us received a form which we had to fill up as we were going to enter into US territory which requires us to mention some details on yourself, your luggage, etc.
On landing in Phoenix in the evening at around 6:30 pm on Tuesday, I came out on the Terminal and walked around to get my luggage and complete the clearance. Phoenix was my Port of Entry (POE) in US and so, there is a I-94 slip that you have to get done at the POE which describes the entry date, duration for which you can legally stay in the US, etc.
After getting into the terminal, I looked out for a phone booth to call up VD, one of my project managers who was onsite and was accompanying the boss, PK to pick me up at the airport. Phoenix’s airport was worth of praise for a city of its magnitude – the name being Sky Harbor International Airport. I found a phone booth, just as I was about to dial the number, someone tapped my shoulder from behind. I turned back and was surprised to see VD behind me. PK was standing a little farther behind VD. Both of them welcomed me to Phoenix and they carried along my cargo bags. I followed them to an elevator and then into a parking lot where PK opened his car trunk and we loaded my bags into it. VD and PK took the front seats while I was sitting in the back seat. It was already sunset and it was getting dark. PK drove the car swiftly and they both asked me about my journey and if I had any jet lag.
To my amazement, I didn’t have any jet lag despite spending around 20-22 hours in air in those 2 flights. I have been surprised till date on how I did not have any jet lag at that time when I had heard that it was so common for people to get jet lag.
After discussing few, general travel related things with VD and PK and in between observing the nice roads and smaller buildings around, we reached a society (they call it as Apartment in US) which had around 30 buildings, each having 1 or some of 2 floors plus a ground floor). PK stopped the car in front of one of the buildings and we unloaded my bags. VD climbed up the stairs which was like a ladder, carrying one bag and rang a doorbell. I followed PK as each one of us carried one bag. I entered a room where there were few guys staying whom I had seen in the Mumbai office in Syntel, they belonged to different teams from ours. I saw a familiar face, SK who was from my team and he had already been to Phoenix from the past 3 weeks. They welcomed me in the room and I sat down on the couch, drinking a glassful of cold water. I was glad to see that atleast SK was living in this room – one familiar face is better to live with than none. Little did I know that over time, my friendship with SK would grow so strong that I would cherish it till date.
I end the post now having recollected as much as I could. The next post will cover my initial days in the American Express office in Phoenix, life in US on how its hell lot of different from that in India, how I met new people and gauged their nature and how to be more responsible when working at onsite.
If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything in this post, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write it in my next post.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Syntel or CAT 06
The time period for this post starts from June 2006 and covers November 2006, the month in which I had to make a tough decision regarding my future career – on one hand, there was a great opportunity that was available rarely and on the other hand, there was a beginning towards achieving a goal in future education. Will talk more about this dilemma in the latter part of this post.
In June 2006, life had by then settled in the IT industry and Syntel in particular. Our schedule was more or less fixed with regular office-home travel and weekdays filled with conference calls, emails, etc. Weekends were about resting at home and going out with friends to play football, cricket, watch movies, etc.
FD was working hard and I could see it by the long hours he was putting in. Some days, FD worked for full nights too and left early morning at 6 am. I was going quite well with my project too and often finished the work at hand without staying full night at office. So, that was an experience that I kind of missed out – of staying back in office for the entire night with colleagues and at certain moments, freaking out too.
HIRST project prepared me adequately and appropriately to learn more about the system in place and how each part contributed to the whole. I was beginning to take control and master the system. I knew it was a daunting task but I was up for it. The project was expected to complete somewhere in June or July and we were busy wrapping up things.
VSP’s support from onshore was constantly available in psychological terms. She was working double surely that we were in a comfortable position and in a cordial relation with the clients.
A new team member who later on became a good friend came into my life, his name being HP in the blog. He was working on another project whose team was located in Unit 96 (where we had our training – right next to my training classroom). He used to travel by the Dadar bus and I used to catch up with him when I went by the same bus. He is a totally fun guy to be with – cracks a lot of PJs and can be lively when it comes to pulling legs of someone. He is technically intelligent and has command over the programming parts and technical skills. He likes to keep himself updated and constantly learns new ways of doing things. I’m still in touch with the guy and we are friends till date.
Now came the surprise for FD and me which SG threw suddenly at us – he called us in his cubicle one fine day. We both thought it had to do with some regular work and probably we had to report it to him. But then he opened a new avenue for us by saying that he was going to apply to the HR department for our Visas for going onsite. It struck us like lightning – we never expected this to come so soon. I mean, it was barely 6 months that we were on the project. It is unbelievable to hear that you are getting such a great opportunity to enhance your career at such an early stage. Onsite is something like Mecca or Vaishnodevi for guys like us who have joined few months back. And here was a chance to go for it – achieve something big in life.
While this news broke in front of us, after the initial euphoria came the dilemma for me when I got back my train of thoughts back in line. I had applied for giving CAT 06 examination for getting admission to Post Graduate Program in Master of Business Administration (MBA) either from IIMs or CAT score considering colleges. My mindset was towards studying for CAT 06 exam and get a good enough score to earn a GD/PI call from the colleges that I apply for. Ever since I graduated as a Computer Engineer, I wanted to go for a MBA – something which crossed my mind since school days.
There was an aptitude test conducted in school (when I was in 9th standard) for helping us know our suitable career fields. The result for me (in the year 1998 when I took this test) came and I got 2 career fields as being suitable for me:
1. Engineering
2. Management
I had already completed my BE and now I wanted to do MBA to fulfill this dream.
So, here was a dilemma – whether I should go onsite or stay back in India to do MBA. This dilemma haunted me right from that day in June 2006 until November 2006 when I finally made a choice and decided not to look back and regret.
I communicated with SG about my dilemma and here started an interesting phenomenon which I may call ‘mind games’ but I will never consider these ‘mind games’ in a negative sense as SG and me had our own stake into it, which is perfectly valid to protect.
SG, being my boss and the project manager, was right in his approach as he insisted that I go for the onshore option. Today, I can say that had I been in his place, I would have done the same – that is, retain a valuable resource. SG was doing his MBA Part Time from a reputed Institute in Mumbai. I caught this point and told him that if he was doing MBA, then why shouldn’t I do a MBA too? Each point led to another point and we both had a friendly yet thought provoking discussion over the next 6 months whenever we engaged in this discussion of going onsite. Today, when I look back, I‘d say that these discussions are part and parcel of your work experience and it is always good to communicate openly with your boss and share your thoughts.
About the application for Business Visa (as it is called B1 Visa), which was made by SG for FD and me in June 2006, it did not go much further as the people in the ODC (if I remember the name right) department told that in order to be eligible for going onsite, we both were lacking enough number of months of experience.
At that time, the norm for going onsite was:
1. For candidate having educational qualification as either Computer Engineering or IT Engineering, you had to work for a minimum for 1 year
2. For candidate having educational qualification as any other than Computer Engineering or IT Engineering, you had to work for a minimum for 1.5 years or in some cases 2 years
FD and I had not yet completed the minimum 1 year needed. So, there was no question of applying for our visa before October 2006. But SG kept trying during that period, due to some circumstances and the response from the ODC was the same.
I was preparing for CAT 06 as much as I could but my work schedule didn’t allow me to spend much time for studying. Many CAT candidates study regularly for 4-6 hours while I was getting barely 1 hour regularly to study. The discussions with SG were going on during this period. So, there was a build-up of more difficulty with each passing day on which choice I should go for.
Finally when we completed 1 year in Syntel (still not 1 year on the project or in the team), SG applied for my visa. FD had opted out as he decided to go for further studies in USA and had applied to many universities out there. I was happy for him. About myself, I was still undecided on whether I should go onsite or not.
One day, SG told me that I needed to increase my work experience artificially so that my total work experience along with the one in this team would sum up to 1 year. So, I arranged for the same by procuring a work experience certificate. I knew that this was not legal but I still went for it as I felt I deserved an onsite call because of my hard work and that my lack of adequate work experience should not be a hindrance to it as I believed in myself that I was capable enough to handle the onsite work. I backed myself to perform well if the visa was granted.
So, that was my decision – to go for the onsite option, however I gave CAT 06 just as timepass (it was on November 19 2006). That day, I went to the CAT 06 exam without any anxiety in my mind as by that time, everything was solved.
The visa was granted – I had gone to the US Consulate for the visa interview 2 weeks before CAT 06 exam. The interview went well and I was confident in answering the queries. I went through the entire, long process of deputation at Syntel which was filled up with paperwork of all kinds, petitions, forms, applications, etc. Till date, I have maintained a file of all those documents and records which I filed for the visa.
The visa which I got stamped for was a L1 Blanket visa (it is an intra-company employee transfer and a work permit) and the duration of the visa was for 4 years (that is, until November 2009). It was the first L1 Blanket visa in recent times in our team as B1 was more popular then. I guess VSP had a L1 Blanket visa when she went onsite. It wasn’t even 10 months on the team that I had completed and here I was – ready to go onsite with a L1 visa stamped.
CAT 06 was on November 19 2006 and my flight to Phoenix, Arizona, USA was right on the next day that is November 20 2006. So, naturally with everything taken care of for going onsite by the day I gave CAT 06 exam, I was tension-free and went into the exam with a peaceful mind – thinking it was a practice exam.
I had made a choice to forego MBA for the time being and decided to go onsite, get some really valuable experience on my Resume. SG had influenced my decision but I never complain of it – it was in our best interest at that time. I decided that I will not look back on this decision in life and regret it. Life is full of such moments where we will have to sacrifice one path and take up the second path. Life is a great teacher and taking difficult decisions is part of it. I learnt it through the first dilemma that I had during this time period of my life.
I end the post now having recollected as much as I could. The next post will cover my travel to USA and the initial days out there where I made new friends, learnt new skills – professional and personal (this is really going to be one hell of a post for me to write considering I have so much in my mind to write about it).
If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything in this post, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write it in my next post.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
In June 2006, life had by then settled in the IT industry and Syntel in particular. Our schedule was more or less fixed with regular office-home travel and weekdays filled with conference calls, emails, etc. Weekends were about resting at home and going out with friends to play football, cricket, watch movies, etc.
FD was working hard and I could see it by the long hours he was putting in. Some days, FD worked for full nights too and left early morning at 6 am. I was going quite well with my project too and often finished the work at hand without staying full night at office. So, that was an experience that I kind of missed out – of staying back in office for the entire night with colleagues and at certain moments, freaking out too.
HIRST project prepared me adequately and appropriately to learn more about the system in place and how each part contributed to the whole. I was beginning to take control and master the system. I knew it was a daunting task but I was up for it. The project was expected to complete somewhere in June or July and we were busy wrapping up things.
VSP’s support from onshore was constantly available in psychological terms. She was working double surely that we were in a comfortable position and in a cordial relation with the clients.
A new team member who later on became a good friend came into my life, his name being HP in the blog. He was working on another project whose team was located in Unit 96 (where we had our training – right next to my training classroom). He used to travel by the Dadar bus and I used to catch up with him when I went by the same bus. He is a totally fun guy to be with – cracks a lot of PJs and can be lively when it comes to pulling legs of someone. He is technically intelligent and has command over the programming parts and technical skills. He likes to keep himself updated and constantly learns new ways of doing things. I’m still in touch with the guy and we are friends till date.
Now came the surprise for FD and me which SG threw suddenly at us – he called us in his cubicle one fine day. We both thought it had to do with some regular work and probably we had to report it to him. But then he opened a new avenue for us by saying that he was going to apply to the HR department for our Visas for going onsite. It struck us like lightning – we never expected this to come so soon. I mean, it was barely 6 months that we were on the project. It is unbelievable to hear that you are getting such a great opportunity to enhance your career at such an early stage. Onsite is something like Mecca or Vaishnodevi for guys like us who have joined few months back. And here was a chance to go for it – achieve something big in life.
While this news broke in front of us, after the initial euphoria came the dilemma for me when I got back my train of thoughts back in line. I had applied for giving CAT 06 examination for getting admission to Post Graduate Program in Master of Business Administration (MBA) either from IIMs or CAT score considering colleges. My mindset was towards studying for CAT 06 exam and get a good enough score to earn a GD/PI call from the colleges that I apply for. Ever since I graduated as a Computer Engineer, I wanted to go for a MBA – something which crossed my mind since school days.
There was an aptitude test conducted in school (when I was in 9th standard) for helping us know our suitable career fields. The result for me (in the year 1998 when I took this test) came and I got 2 career fields as being suitable for me:
1. Engineering
2. Management
I had already completed my BE and now I wanted to do MBA to fulfill this dream.
So, here was a dilemma – whether I should go onsite or stay back in India to do MBA. This dilemma haunted me right from that day in June 2006 until November 2006 when I finally made a choice and decided not to look back and regret.
I communicated with SG about my dilemma and here started an interesting phenomenon which I may call ‘mind games’ but I will never consider these ‘mind games’ in a negative sense as SG and me had our own stake into it, which is perfectly valid to protect.
SG, being my boss and the project manager, was right in his approach as he insisted that I go for the onshore option. Today, I can say that had I been in his place, I would have done the same – that is, retain a valuable resource. SG was doing his MBA Part Time from a reputed Institute in Mumbai. I caught this point and told him that if he was doing MBA, then why shouldn’t I do a MBA too? Each point led to another point and we both had a friendly yet thought provoking discussion over the next 6 months whenever we engaged in this discussion of going onsite. Today, when I look back, I‘d say that these discussions are part and parcel of your work experience and it is always good to communicate openly with your boss and share your thoughts.
About the application for Business Visa (as it is called B1 Visa), which was made by SG for FD and me in June 2006, it did not go much further as the people in the ODC (if I remember the name right) department told that in order to be eligible for going onsite, we both were lacking enough number of months of experience.
At that time, the norm for going onsite was:
1. For candidate having educational qualification as either Computer Engineering or IT Engineering, you had to work for a minimum for 1 year
2. For candidate having educational qualification as any other than Computer Engineering or IT Engineering, you had to work for a minimum for 1.5 years or in some cases 2 years
FD and I had not yet completed the minimum 1 year needed. So, there was no question of applying for our visa before October 2006. But SG kept trying during that period, due to some circumstances and the response from the ODC was the same.
I was preparing for CAT 06 as much as I could but my work schedule didn’t allow me to spend much time for studying. Many CAT candidates study regularly for 4-6 hours while I was getting barely 1 hour regularly to study. The discussions with SG were going on during this period. So, there was a build-up of more difficulty with each passing day on which choice I should go for.
Finally when we completed 1 year in Syntel (still not 1 year on the project or in the team), SG applied for my visa. FD had opted out as he decided to go for further studies in USA and had applied to many universities out there. I was happy for him. About myself, I was still undecided on whether I should go onsite or not.
One day, SG told me that I needed to increase my work experience artificially so that my total work experience along with the one in this team would sum up to 1 year. So, I arranged for the same by procuring a work experience certificate. I knew that this was not legal but I still went for it as I felt I deserved an onsite call because of my hard work and that my lack of adequate work experience should not be a hindrance to it as I believed in myself that I was capable enough to handle the onsite work. I backed myself to perform well if the visa was granted.
So, that was my decision – to go for the onsite option, however I gave CAT 06 just as timepass (it was on November 19 2006). That day, I went to the CAT 06 exam without any anxiety in my mind as by that time, everything was solved.
The visa was granted – I had gone to the US Consulate for the visa interview 2 weeks before CAT 06 exam. The interview went well and I was confident in answering the queries. I went through the entire, long process of deputation at Syntel which was filled up with paperwork of all kinds, petitions, forms, applications, etc. Till date, I have maintained a file of all those documents and records which I filed for the visa.
The visa which I got stamped for was a L1 Blanket visa (it is an intra-company employee transfer and a work permit) and the duration of the visa was for 4 years (that is, until November 2009). It was the first L1 Blanket visa in recent times in our team as B1 was more popular then. I guess VSP had a L1 Blanket visa when she went onsite. It wasn’t even 10 months on the team that I had completed and here I was – ready to go onsite with a L1 visa stamped.
CAT 06 was on November 19 2006 and my flight to Phoenix, Arizona, USA was right on the next day that is November 20 2006. So, naturally with everything taken care of for going onsite by the day I gave CAT 06 exam, I was tension-free and went into the exam with a peaceful mind – thinking it was a practice exam.
I had made a choice to forego MBA for the time being and decided to go onsite, get some really valuable experience on my Resume. SG had influenced my decision but I never complain of it – it was in our best interest at that time. I decided that I will not look back on this decision in life and regret it. Life is full of such moments where we will have to sacrifice one path and take up the second path. Life is a great teacher and taking difficult decisions is part of it. I learnt it through the first dilemma that I had during this time period of my life.
I end the post now having recollected as much as I could. The next post will cover my travel to USA and the initial days out there where I made new friends, learnt new skills – professional and personal (this is really going to be one hell of a post for me to write considering I have so much in my mind to write about it).
If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything in this post, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write it in my next post.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
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