Having started the discussion on the training days at Syntel, I would be telling you some incidents or events during my Mainframe training program that still remain etched in my memory. The training went on smoothly each day – with the regular routine of starting at 9 am, followed by lectures all day with an occasional practical session being thrown in for us to get our hands dirty on the CA simulator of the IBM Mainframe. Tea / coffee breaks were looked forward to by most of us (not particularly by me as I was not so crazy about them) but it was a welcome break from the theory lectures on JCL, COBOL in the chilled, air-conditioned classrooms that we had. The day ended at 5 pm and we eagerly waited to get out of the premises and either head home or go out somewhere to have fun with newly made friends.
Training days were all about Mauj-Masti too as our little group of VESIT people had been formed with a few others and we were constantly having fun without sacrificing on the learning in the training. November was the month of gelling with the new people, making friends, hanging out with them for lunch and finding out what they like and dislike – even if it meant friends of the opposite gender. Not that I was shy of the girls in our training batch but I was hesitant to be too friendly or comfortable with anyone, as initially my mind kept me reminding that it was going to be a two-month journey with most of them.
Birthdays started coming in with the routine wishing and singing the infamous birthday song for the fortunate one – but it was such a boring phenomenon that I thought that we should use this birthday occasion to break the ice amongst all of us. I planned to do something different for my birthday which was going to be in the middle of our training.
Even during the training sessions, we used to play Flash games like the now-famous Copter game which I have noticed employees of so many companies playing that I can tell with some evidence that it’s the most common Flash game to have being played in offices around. Then, there was the miniature Golf version which was fun to be played as a 2-player game – me and my friend (the one about whom I told you in my earlier post – who I met on the first day) – we competed so fiercely that we forgot that our original lecture was going on with the instructor inside. Them, there was a game meant strictly for boys named LP Challenge (read LP as London Pilsner, guys who drink should know what I’m talking about by now) and the objective of the game was to collect as many LP bottles as possible that were flying down from the sky into your crate – the more you collect, the more you strip an accompanying Playboy model whose picture was kept right next to the gaming area in the Flash game – this game was so popular among guys that they used to literally slog it out for LP beer bottles. The height of popularity of this game was see when I saw few guys breaking records in this game and fully stripping all the available 3 Playboy models and then going to the far extent of taking a screen shot of the 3 Playboy models to immortalize their achievement. This was seen as the pinnacle of success achieved for any Flash game ever in our training. And, it was our guys’ ability to keep things within us so as not to let any of the girls in the batch know about our achievements – cause stripping 3 Playboy models by collecting dozens of LP beer bottles in a crate is not something worth proclaiming when projecting a Mr. Nice Guy kind-of image.
The first time we got something to feast on, when there was a birthday of one of the colleagues in training, was plenty of Gulab Jamuns. Marks started trickling in occasionally for each quiz and I was doing well by scoring consistently above all the others, when looked at cumulative scores. It was not that my intentions were to score more than others, but I wanted to stay above that 60% barrier and improve on my own previous score, if possible.
As I told you in the previous post, there was this Marathi girl who used to travel with me in the train. Now, we were into December and by now, we had been good friends, travelling often together and constantly having some or the other discussion. One day, she asked me what colour I liked and things like these, etc. I was bit surprised but still answered to the extent possible. Some other day, she asked me what kind of clothes did I like to wear and I was again amazed to know why all of a sudden she’s asking me all this, but I still did answer as much as possible. Spending those brief moments with friends either in the Syntel bus or with her in the train are so special that you still remember them vividly.
Now came my birthday in that year – December 16 2005 – and I had planned to give the entire training batch a lunch party at one of the hotels inside SEEPZ. I had set aside a budget for the party. When I went inside the classroom at 9 am, I was pleasantly surprised to see a birthday cake waiting for me to cut and the entire class was looking at me, smiling as they saw my surprised look. They started singing the Happy Birthday song for me as I stood in disbelief, staring at them and the wonderful cake that they had brought – it was a great moment to relive. Once I cut the cake, I offered it to each of them – receiving plenty of wishes, hugs and handshakes in return.
Then came the greatest surprise – a surprise gift handed over to me by that girl – and I opened it to see a black and blue combination, Adidas T-shirt inside which was really nice. It was then that I figured it out that she had been getting information from me for so many days about my likes, dislikes, clothes I wear, etc for choosing a birthday gift. Such a long planning and I was amazed to know how easily girls can fool guys without the guys even realizing it. I still have that T-shirt with me and as I write this post right now, I’m actually wearing this same T-shirt. What a co-incidence!
For lunch, all of the 24 training batch people went to ICH (referenced in my previous post) and had a sumptuous meal. It was the first time ever that someone in our training batch had ever invited the entire batch for party for a birthday. I was the trend-setter for the lunch party in our training batch and then, many more lunch parties followed. It was a great occasion for the entire batch to get together outside the classroom and interact.
The training was going to end with a group project (actually termed a case study) which was supposed to be executed and inspected by the training-in-charge (the strict guy who taught us JCL, COBOL, etc). This project was all-important to each one of us and we had been working hard to implement a flawless case study. There was this one group consisting of all girls – who used to sit on the first bench in every training class throughout the entire 2-month period – they were facing many errors and issues while working on their case study. They were working hard on it, still facing some issues and they were frustrated to the extent that they had started believing that there was a ghost in the PC in which they were running their source code as it was behaving inconsistently and was not responsive at times. Some of us decided to play a prank on this troubled group and it was on the second-last day of the submission of the case study that we decided to swap the PC CPU on which their source code was residing with another CPU which was not used by any of the other groups. We swapped the CPUs late that night and left at 9:30 pm by boarding the last Syntel buses – we also had finalized our own case studies by that day. I was not directly involved in this prank but I was an eyewitness to the prank being played and I decided to stay mum, as suggested by my friends. They had thought that they would disclose about the prank to this girl-group on the next morning after some minutes of them trying to search for their case study source code and becoming worried. It was supposed to be a friendly prank and we had no intention of causing anyone any harm with respect to their marks.
The next morning, the girl-group arrived earlier than the others, as usual. They were frantically searching for the case study inside the PC and were shocked to see it disappeared. I came inside later on with the Marathi girl who was with me in the train. She was also a part of this group. I realized that the prank was on and the group was already worried. I went to my place and sat there quietly, looking at my own case study and checking things. My friends who had played the prank were already seated and were smiling and softly giggling as the troubled group was in panic mode. One of the girls in that group was a girl who didn’t like pranks at all and she was not too open-minded at that time. She was the kind of girl that you would not want to mess with but still my friends had taken the risk as they had kind-of a score to settle with her, although n a friendly way. She saw them giggling behind and came to the conclusion that my friends were the ones who would have definitely played this prank. She warned them that she was going to complain this to the training-in-charge and stood up to leave the classroom and go to the staff room to complain. My friends admitted to playing the prank and told her that it was purely done in a friendly manner and with no malicious intentions but she wasn’t ready to listen to them. Some of her group members include the girl with whom I travelled in train, tried to calm her down and told her to take the entire episode in a lighter spirit. Finally, after some convincing, she was pacified ad she didn’t complain. The funny thing about the episode for me was that none of the girls ever thought I had been an eyewitness to this prank. They thought I was clean. Feels safe when you have a nice reputation, right?
This was the prank which I still remember and which brings a smile to my face till date. After the training ended, on the last day, our ranks, percentages were declared. I stood first in our training batch and I was glad to have exceeded my original expectations of staying above 60%. My college friend, a Catholic, stood second in rank and I was happy for him too. There was a prize distribution ceremony in which the top 3 rankers were awarded books on contemporary topics like DB2, etc. I was given the DB2 book authored by CJ Date – a deserving award at that time.
Finally, the time came for declaration of what projects and in what locations were we going to be allocated as our training came to an end. It happened on the same day as the final results and awards ceremony. I was fortunate and deservingly got a place to work for the biggest client of Syntel, that is American Express and my location was going to be in Mumbai – Unit 89 itself (on the second floor in the other wing of the same building SDF 3 in which our training had taken place). All the others also got the locations that they preferred, with projects ranging from clients like American Express, Allstate, etc. Since it was a Friday on which this was declared, we had to report on the coming Monday to our various contact persons on these projects.
On the day that our training was going to end, the guys celebrated by opening a bottle of Feni brought from Goa and started drinking it inside the training room itself before any instructor could catch them. It was one of our training batch friends who was from Goa had gone to his home for New Year’s Eve and had returned with a bottle of Feni as a gift to the guys. That room was then filled with the fragrance of Feni all over and then we had to quickly wrap up the Feni program before it was too late. One of the craziest things to do when at the workplace surely!
Many of us had been selected for American Express but it was only me and my friend (the guy who I became friends with on the first day of our training, who was the one reading the newspaper) who were selected into the same project team. It was sheer destiny as he told me often, "Rohan, I had told you in advance that you and I would go in the same team." Lucky chap, I wonder, to get his forecasting 100% correct. It was a start of another journey with him on this new project in American Express that we both were looking forward to.
The date that we reported for the first time on our project was January 09, 2006. My friend, as I will refer to him as FD henceforth and I were going to work on a live project for the first time in our lives – there was plenty of anxiety and excitement in our minds.
Will take a break here and start the project life in the next post as life takes yet another exciting turn for me and thus begins a new chapter in my life named GMAPS, little of which did I realize that this GMAPS would stay on with me and in my memories for the rest of my life.
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, December 30, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
Mainframe Training Starts
In my previous post, I brought you all until the point where I enter Syntel’s premises in the Unit 96 in SDF III in SEEPZ. The date is October 27, 2005 and the occasion is the commencement of training on Mainframe technology for a period of 2 months. The training program was named ITP-Mainframes in Syntel with ITP standing for Induction Training Program. I went into the training room, Room 1. On entering the room, I saw few trainees already seated inside and waiting for a Syntel person to brief us. The room had around 7-8 desks, each desk could accommodate 3 people. So, I expected the batch size to be maximum 24. I sat on the last bench and looked around.
A guy was sitting next to me, he was reading a newspaper. He was wearing glasses but looked calm, confident and seemed to have a nice, pleasant personality. I looked at him and asked about any news in today’s paper. And then started an introduction. He was from a reputed Government engineering college in the Western Suburbs and had done BE in IT. We gelled so quickly and that was the start of a much memorable and cherished friendship. I didn’t realize that a small initiative taken then to speak with him would one day lead to a close friendship later on in life. Lucky to have a great friend in this guy! If he would be reading this, I’m sure he would realize it that it is about him only that I’m discussing here.
Introductions followed on with other trainees as well as time flew by. The first day was relatively lighter on the gray matter inside our heads as it was more about knowing what life at Syntel is, getting some formalities done like opening salary bank accounts and trivial things needed to gear us up for the next 2 months of our training.
We formed our group of friends in the training time with about 8-10 people together. But these groups were not too rigid as we 24 students of the training batch gelled together more as 1 single unit or team as training progressed, especially after the soft skills session on 2 days later on in the training program.
There were some characters in the training batch – a smoking Bengali dude who seemed chilled out, a Indori guy (yes people, there were Indore guys here also ), Marathi manoos from Pune, a bubbly Mallu girl from Mumbai whom we all addressed as Panchali later on with 5 Pandavas of our batch already ready for impressing her, a cute, tall Marathi girl who travelled by in the same train as me, a Mumbai Gujju who was a die-hard Man Utd fan and many more others. Each one of us had a unique ability to involve people together and have fun. Training days were seriously the honeymoon period before the actual joining into the live project started.
The training-in-charge or the faculty, as we now call, was a strict yet knowledgeable guy who was a Parsi in his mid-40s, I think. He was very good at teaching Mainframe technologies like JCL, COBOL, CICS, etc. Plus, there was another faculty who was also teaching us some of these concepts but this other Parsi guy was brilliant. We had periodical quizzes or tests that kept us on our toes. We needed to achieve a minimum of 60% in the training period to be eligible for joining a live project in the company later on. That target of 60% kept me also on my toes as I did well in all the periodical quizzes, tests and other evaluation components.
Mainframe was a new world for a guy like me who had studied open systems and technologies like C, C++, JAVA and UNIX. I was initially apprehensive about transitioning to the world of Mainframes but I had talked about it with my brother-in-law who was working in the same domain and was located onshore in US for around 5-6 years at that time. He assured me of the importance and demand that Mainframe professionals had in the job market. After listening to his well-sound advice, my anxieties were no longer present and I was confident that I would welcome the world of Mainframes in my life with an open mind and learn as much as I can. And I did receive the fruits of it later on – which I will cover more about, in my next post.
This was also the time when my beverage habits changed – relax people, I’m talking about tea and coffee. Prior to my training period, I had 1 cup of tea in the morning at home and 1 in the evening at home. But during my training period, I got used to around 3-4 cups of either tea or coffee that were served to us during the training time of 9 am to 5 pm. At that time, I didn’t mind it as everyone was having the drinks then.
There were 2 canteen type restaurants within the SEEPZ premises which we frequented during the training period – Kay Dee’s and Indian Coffee House (ICH). The food was subsidized due to the location being inside a SEZ, I guess but the quality was nice for that kind of price. Other avenues for having lunch or breakfast, snacks, juices were the canteens of other companies in different buildings inside SEEPZ such as Patni, TCS. Also, there was a better restaurant named Heaven’s inside SEEPZ which had nice food as well. This restaurant had an AC version named Ozone on the first floor of their building and that was the premium slot inside SEEPZ that one could have food in.
SEEPZ was lined up with lots of trees inside and there were many buildings inside – some housing IT companies, some having diamond merchants, some were manufacturing units, etc.
After the training ended at 5 pm, there were Syntel buses leaving for different points in the city and suburbs at 5:30 pm. I took the Andheri bus at 5:30 pm which takes one near the railway station. It was at this time that I came to know that people at Syntel rarely left at 5:30 pm as this time was considered early to leave by many projects. The next round of buses left at 7:30 pm and this slot was the one which carried most of the employees of Syntel working on live projects. The final round of buses left at 9:30 pm and there were many people still travelling at this late time as work was always in excess supply at many projects in Syntel.
Little did I realize that it would be the training period only when I would leave at 5:30 pm with a nice mood and after joining my project, even seeing the sun shining at 5:30 pm would be considered so rare or fortunate by me as I would regularly leave at either 7:30 pm or 9:30 pm in the dark.
The best part of the day was definitely the travel in the train every morning as I synchronized my timing with my friend who came from the southernmost part of the city by the fast train. She also travelled in the first class Gents compartment as I did and that was sheer co-incidence that we met in the train after training had started. We both used to talk a lot and pull each other’s leg by constantly kidding and having some fun talking. Gradually, we became very nice friends and as I said, this was the best time of my day during the training period (of course, the learning on Mainframes was also good from a focus on studying). From our regular meetings, it turned out that she too was a Maharashtrian. We did talk later on in Marathi too. It was so nice a time that I can still remember those days – some memories are meant to last for long.
I’ll cut short the post now, as I plan to elaborate some incidents of my training period that still are fresh in my mind. More would follow on this “Honeymoon Period” as I’ve look back on this thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding experience.
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!
A guy was sitting next to me, he was reading a newspaper. He was wearing glasses but looked calm, confident and seemed to have a nice, pleasant personality. I looked at him and asked about any news in today’s paper. And then started an introduction. He was from a reputed Government engineering college in the Western Suburbs and had done BE in IT. We gelled so quickly and that was the start of a much memorable and cherished friendship. I didn’t realize that a small initiative taken then to speak with him would one day lead to a close friendship later on in life. Lucky to have a great friend in this guy! If he would be reading this, I’m sure he would realize it that it is about him only that I’m discussing here.
Introductions followed on with other trainees as well as time flew by. The first day was relatively lighter on the gray matter inside our heads as it was more about knowing what life at Syntel is, getting some formalities done like opening salary bank accounts and trivial things needed to gear us up for the next 2 months of our training.
We formed our group of friends in the training time with about 8-10 people together. But these groups were not too rigid as we 24 students of the training batch gelled together more as 1 single unit or team as training progressed, especially after the soft skills session on 2 days later on in the training program.
There were some characters in the training batch – a smoking Bengali dude who seemed chilled out, a Indori guy (yes people, there were Indore guys here also ), Marathi manoos from Pune, a bubbly Mallu girl from Mumbai whom we all addressed as Panchali later on with 5 Pandavas of our batch already ready for impressing her, a cute, tall Marathi girl who travelled by in the same train as me, a Mumbai Gujju who was a die-hard Man Utd fan and many more others. Each one of us had a unique ability to involve people together and have fun. Training days were seriously the honeymoon period before the actual joining into the live project started.
The training-in-charge or the faculty, as we now call, was a strict yet knowledgeable guy who was a Parsi in his mid-40s, I think. He was very good at teaching Mainframe technologies like JCL, COBOL, CICS, etc. Plus, there was another faculty who was also teaching us some of these concepts but this other Parsi guy was brilliant. We had periodical quizzes or tests that kept us on our toes. We needed to achieve a minimum of 60% in the training period to be eligible for joining a live project in the company later on. That target of 60% kept me also on my toes as I did well in all the periodical quizzes, tests and other evaluation components.
Mainframe was a new world for a guy like me who had studied open systems and technologies like C, C++, JAVA and UNIX. I was initially apprehensive about transitioning to the world of Mainframes but I had talked about it with my brother-in-law who was working in the same domain and was located onshore in US for around 5-6 years at that time. He assured me of the importance and demand that Mainframe professionals had in the job market. After listening to his well-sound advice, my anxieties were no longer present and I was confident that I would welcome the world of Mainframes in my life with an open mind and learn as much as I can. And I did receive the fruits of it later on – which I will cover more about, in my next post.
This was also the time when my beverage habits changed – relax people, I’m talking about tea and coffee. Prior to my training period, I had 1 cup of tea in the morning at home and 1 in the evening at home. But during my training period, I got used to around 3-4 cups of either tea or coffee that were served to us during the training time of 9 am to 5 pm. At that time, I didn’t mind it as everyone was having the drinks then.
There were 2 canteen type restaurants within the SEEPZ premises which we frequented during the training period – Kay Dee’s and Indian Coffee House (ICH). The food was subsidized due to the location being inside a SEZ, I guess but the quality was nice for that kind of price. Other avenues for having lunch or breakfast, snacks, juices were the canteens of other companies in different buildings inside SEEPZ such as Patni, TCS. Also, there was a better restaurant named Heaven’s inside SEEPZ which had nice food as well. This restaurant had an AC version named Ozone on the first floor of their building and that was the premium slot inside SEEPZ that one could have food in.
SEEPZ was lined up with lots of trees inside and there were many buildings inside – some housing IT companies, some having diamond merchants, some were manufacturing units, etc.
After the training ended at 5 pm, there were Syntel buses leaving for different points in the city and suburbs at 5:30 pm. I took the Andheri bus at 5:30 pm which takes one near the railway station. It was at this time that I came to know that people at Syntel rarely left at 5:30 pm as this time was considered early to leave by many projects. The next round of buses left at 7:30 pm and this slot was the one which carried most of the employees of Syntel working on live projects. The final round of buses left at 9:30 pm and there were many people still travelling at this late time as work was always in excess supply at many projects in Syntel.
Little did I realize that it would be the training period only when I would leave at 5:30 pm with a nice mood and after joining my project, even seeing the sun shining at 5:30 pm would be considered so rare or fortunate by me as I would regularly leave at either 7:30 pm or 9:30 pm in the dark.
The best part of the day was definitely the travel in the train every morning as I synchronized my timing with my friend who came from the southernmost part of the city by the fast train. She also travelled in the first class Gents compartment as I did and that was sheer co-incidence that we met in the train after training had started. We both used to talk a lot and pull each other’s leg by constantly kidding and having some fun talking. Gradually, we became very nice friends and as I said, this was the best time of my day during the training period (of course, the learning on Mainframes was also good from a focus on studying). From our regular meetings, it turned out that she too was a Maharashtrian. We did talk later on in Marathi too. It was so nice a time that I can still remember those days – some memories are meant to last for long.
I’ll cut short the post now, as I plan to elaborate some incidents of my training period that still are fresh in my mind. More would follow on this “Honeymoon Period” as I’ve look back on this thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding experience.
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!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Call from Syntel
After a detailed description of what my days during Engineering were like, it’s time to move ahead. First of all, I’m wrapping up my engineering college days by giving an official record of how I fared in the final year – getting a distinction for the first time in those four grueling years. Feels good to put it on my CV, to mention it to people, just like getting honoured for the efforts that you have put in all throughout the year.
After completing my Engineering degree in July 2005, now there were two options in front of me – either to prepare for CAT 05 or to join Syntel whenever they call. My parents did speak to me and suggested about going for the former, but I stuck to my decision of waiting for Syntel. I was looking forward to getting some work experience, to earn money on my own and was not particularly interested in studying right now for CAT as I had just come out of the war-like engineering days.
Time passed by and with each week, I was having plenty of fun, doing timepass, enjoying life to the fullest. Of course, I was waiting for the call from Syntel too, in the background. The first training batch started in SEEPZ (for those not familiar with Mumbai, SEEPZ is a SEZ in Andheri East, Mumbai where IT companies, diamond merchants, etc are located). At the same time, all campus recruits of Syntel came together on a YAHOO group having a common group page, email id, etc. We received regular updates on whatever was happening in the Induction Training Programme (ITP) in Syntel. It was a new kind of experience for me to learn about such things from this YAHOO Group technique, I thought in those days about it as just some new technique. I became aware of a lot of things like how the experiences of the first training batch were like, about the facilities given to them by Syntel, about the mysterious world of Mainframes, etc. It was getting exciting for me when I read more and more about it and I was waiting eagerly for my call. Of course, I preferred getting a call in Mumbai so that I would not have to go to another town for a period as short as 2 months of training.
Months passed by and now it was October 2005 already but still no call from Syntel. My Dad was reminding me of my decision of not going for CAT and he remarked that instead of doing the timepass that I was doing, I could have prepared for CAT. I knew he was right in his own way but I didn’t care much now as there was no going back from here – I stood firm by my decision of waiting for Syntel. The only concern was when would the elusive call for training come; I desperately hoped to get into Mumbai for the training.
Finally, I got a call a few days before October 18, 2005 as on that day there was a training batch to be starting in Pune, in the new Global Development Centre (GDC) of Syntel. Initially, I was happy to hear about the call. But then, I was slightly disappointed to know the batch was going to start in Pune. I asked them if they had any batch starting soon in Mumbai and this was out of sheer hope as well as some desperation to stay in Mumbai. They told me that they would let me know soon.
Luckily, I got a call again from Syntel after a few days on October 24, 2005 and this time, I was fortunate as the new training batch was going to start in Mumbai on October 27, 2005. I agreed to join them as soon as I heard about the training batch in Mumbai. Afterwards, I came to know that this was the last training batch to have training in Mumbai. Damn, I was so lucky!
Finally, it was on October 27, 2005 that I joined Syntel. I was to report on the Main Gate of SEEPZ at 8:30 in the morning. I prepared early as I had never been to that area before and I made sure I reached in time there. As soon as I reached the main gate, I contacted a friend of mine who also got a call from Syntel for the same training batch. She met me near the main gate; she was studying in the same class as mine during Engineering (that is, Computer Engineering). At the main gate, I met another 2 friends from my college – both of them were each other’s classmates (doing Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering). So, from our college, we 4 joined Syntel in the same training batch. We proceeded inside SEEPZ once a SYNTEL clerk came to visit us and he had brought our visitor gate passes in order to allow our entry into SEEPZ, which was a semi-government SEZ and so to get into the huge premises of SEEPZ, one needs a gate pass. We walked together through the vicinity and after around 20 minutes or so, we reached a building named SDF 3 (SDF means Standard Design Factory – simply put, it’s just a building where companies can lease office space in terms of a ‘UNIT’). Syntel was located in Units 89 and 96 in this SDF 3 building.
I’ll cut short the post now, as I enter inside this building and through the elevator, I reach Unit 96 on the third floor where the trainees are brought on the first day. The training classrooms are also located in this Unit 96. Each moment of my Syntel training batch experience will come in front of you but in my next post. Of course, there are plenty of things that I’ve not mentioned here. But what’s the fun in telling each thing right away? I term this time of my life as a part of my “Golden Period” as I’ve looked back and seen that it has been an enjoyable and rewarding experience.
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 completing my Engineering degree in July 2005, now there were two options in front of me – either to prepare for CAT 05 or to join Syntel whenever they call. My parents did speak to me and suggested about going for the former, but I stuck to my decision of waiting for Syntel. I was looking forward to getting some work experience, to earn money on my own and was not particularly interested in studying right now for CAT as I had just come out of the war-like engineering days.
Time passed by and with each week, I was having plenty of fun, doing timepass, enjoying life to the fullest. Of course, I was waiting for the call from Syntel too, in the background. The first training batch started in SEEPZ (for those not familiar with Mumbai, SEEPZ is a SEZ in Andheri East, Mumbai where IT companies, diamond merchants, etc are located). At the same time, all campus recruits of Syntel came together on a YAHOO group having a common group page, email id, etc. We received regular updates on whatever was happening in the Induction Training Programme (ITP) in Syntel. It was a new kind of experience for me to learn about such things from this YAHOO Group technique, I thought in those days about it as just some new technique. I became aware of a lot of things like how the experiences of the first training batch were like, about the facilities given to them by Syntel, about the mysterious world of Mainframes, etc. It was getting exciting for me when I read more and more about it and I was waiting eagerly for my call. Of course, I preferred getting a call in Mumbai so that I would not have to go to another town for a period as short as 2 months of training.
Months passed by and now it was October 2005 already but still no call from Syntel. My Dad was reminding me of my decision of not going for CAT and he remarked that instead of doing the timepass that I was doing, I could have prepared for CAT. I knew he was right in his own way but I didn’t care much now as there was no going back from here – I stood firm by my decision of waiting for Syntel. The only concern was when would the elusive call for training come; I desperately hoped to get into Mumbai for the training.
Finally, I got a call a few days before October 18, 2005 as on that day there was a training batch to be starting in Pune, in the new Global Development Centre (GDC) of Syntel. Initially, I was happy to hear about the call. But then, I was slightly disappointed to know the batch was going to start in Pune. I asked them if they had any batch starting soon in Mumbai and this was out of sheer hope as well as some desperation to stay in Mumbai. They told me that they would let me know soon.
Luckily, I got a call again from Syntel after a few days on October 24, 2005 and this time, I was fortunate as the new training batch was going to start in Mumbai on October 27, 2005. I agreed to join them as soon as I heard about the training batch in Mumbai. Afterwards, I came to know that this was the last training batch to have training in Mumbai. Damn, I was so lucky!
Finally, it was on October 27, 2005 that I joined Syntel. I was to report on the Main Gate of SEEPZ at 8:30 in the morning. I prepared early as I had never been to that area before and I made sure I reached in time there. As soon as I reached the main gate, I contacted a friend of mine who also got a call from Syntel for the same training batch. She met me near the main gate; she was studying in the same class as mine during Engineering (that is, Computer Engineering). At the main gate, I met another 2 friends from my college – both of them were each other’s classmates (doing Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering). So, from our college, we 4 joined Syntel in the same training batch. We proceeded inside SEEPZ once a SYNTEL clerk came to visit us and he had brought our visitor gate passes in order to allow our entry into SEEPZ, which was a semi-government SEZ and so to get into the huge premises of SEEPZ, one needs a gate pass. We walked together through the vicinity and after around 20 minutes or so, we reached a building named SDF 3 (SDF means Standard Design Factory – simply put, it’s just a building where companies can lease office space in terms of a ‘UNIT’). Syntel was located in Units 89 and 96 in this SDF 3 building.
I’ll cut short the post now, as I enter inside this building and through the elevator, I reach Unit 96 on the third floor where the trainees are brought on the first day. The training classrooms are also located in this Unit 96. Each moment of my Syntel training batch experience will come in front of you but in my next post. Of course, there are plenty of things that I’ve not mentioned here. But what’s the fun in telling each thing right away? I term this time of my life as a part of my “Golden Period” as I’ve looked back and seen that it has been an enjoyable and rewarding experience.
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!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
The Engineering Era
First of all, I would like to thank all those people who met me and told how much they like reading what I write in my own words, even though it’s detailed. This is exactly the kind of inspiration that one needs to push beyond what has been achieved till date. This post now brings to the forefront the next phase in my life as I battle it out in the war fields of Bachelor of Engineering from Mumbai University for a long, drawn period of 4 years. There’s a reason for terming this period of my life as a warfront as you would notice it as I go along taking you on this journey with me in this post.
After completing HSC from Ruia College and that too, with a vocational subject like Computer Science, I was prepared both physically and mentally for the gruesome admission procedure for getting into Engineering stream. I’d heard stories of long, tiring queues of wanna-be engineers, their parents at VJTI College which was the centralized admission venue in those days for all Engineering colleges in Mumbai. I’d heard of how tough the competition was in getting into an Engineering college in Mumbai and that too for the specialization you chose. Many students had to give up hopes of getting into a college inside the city and had to instead travel miles outside the city for graduate education. PCM marks was the most important criteria which decided if you would make it like those few fortunate people who’d get into a nice, reputed city-based Engineering college or like those many, many more students who either ended up getting into far-flung colleges or dropped the idea of going for Engineering altogether.
I had 3-4 colleges in my mind which I was keeping as options for getting into. Obviously, my first choice of specialization had to be Computer Engineering (as I credit this to my love affair with Computers). Getting a good score in PCM and overall 92.50% in HSC helped me in slogging it out for not more than 2 rounds of the admission process. However, I made the first important choice in my education at this juncture – Electronics Engineering at VJTI, Matunga versus Computer Engineering at VESIT, Chembur.
Throughout my life until now, my education was 14 years in Matunga itself and VJTI seemed to be a natural extension if I wished to complete my education from Kindergarten to being a Graduate within the boundaries of Matunga itself. But, I wanted the stream of Computer Engineering and VESIT seemed more promising in terms of increasing reputation, a good passing percentage of its students and my parents also had heard somewhat of its strict discipline that was maintained by the college. Not that I was indisciplined, but I chose VESIT for Computer Engineering and also to get out of Matunga for the first time as a part of my education.
Let me first give you a short background of the way Mumbai University has designed the BE Courses. The degree duration is 4 years consisting of 8 semesters. Diploma students can join the course in the third semester. The first and the fourth year exams are held by the Mumbai University, while the rest are held by the college. Students have to work on a group project in the final year which is treated on par with the other subjects. Final year students have to choose 1 elective subject per semester. All subjects are common and compulsory for the first year students. Placements happen in the college around the sixth semester. ATKT system is present in Mumbai University for those who struggle with the pace of the academics and score less than what is required – passing mark being 40% in each paper.
The first semester started in August 2001 – with me meeting lots of new friends, teachers and admin staff, etc. The college was like jail when it came to discipline – very strict in all aspects. You cannot enter late, you cannot leave early, you have to do this and that in the prescribed manner, you have to maintain discipline at all times and so on and on and on. I can go on and on and on telling so many things that the Code of Conduct itself will require a separate post.
For me, I would say that the first year in Engineering is like being drugged and then you are given a Formula 1 car to drive without any prior training. Life runs so fast and you are feeling hazy, dizzy and don’t know what’s going on around you. You try to pick up your senses, try to get into the groove of things and keep your mind in the right place – all at the same time. It’s like stupor.
Some of the subjects that made students tremble with anxiety were Mechanics, BEE and Engineering Drawing (although not as deadly as the first 2).
I was making friends and discovering them as and when we all spent time together – this was important for me to know these people well since I would be spending my next 4 years with them in college and I wouldn’t want to misjudge someone.
The first semester sped through so fast that by the time I was back to my senses, the second semester was already more than halfway over. By the end of the first year, we found out how grueling and tough the next few years would be.
Extra-curricular activities and sports were present but there wasn’t any time to get involved in them in the first year. The first year was more about discovering the entire environment around me.
The second year was the one when we became seniors and that’s when life started shining a bit. We were prepared better for the onslaught of the coming academic year and we knew how to go about it.
For me, it was also a learning experience and out of the first year, I had grown more strong and resilient to the tough academic schedule.
Now, comes into play the so-called romantic angle which always started with a friendship. There were few diploma students who joined our Computer Engineering batch. Our group welcomed these few students and soon we made friends with each one of them. There was this girl who stayed very close from where I lived. She was one of those Diploma students who joined our batch. Soon, we became friends from being just acquaintances earlier.
I used to travel by train from Matunga to Kurla and then took a bus or rickshaw from Kurla station to my college. This was my routine in the entire first year.
Afterwards, in the second year, I started travelling using another route in addition to this one – direct bus from the Highway from Matunga to Chembur. Normally, I used to travel alone by train. Now, by this second route of a direct bus, I had this girl as company from the bus stop in Matunga until college.
Many of my friends saw this change in my travel mode and found it as a good fodder for them to feed on and cook up a story of how Rohan has changed for her. Then came the leg pulling as was expected.
From what was started as a friendship, these friends’ leg pulling actually turned out positive in the sense that it brought me closer to this girl. I had some feelings for her but I never could confess it to anyone. I just thought of her as a close friend and never told her about what I felt. My close friends understood that something was bound to happen between the both of us. They started making situations which brought me and her close. Gradually, things turned out the way they wanted as we started enjoying each other’s company – be it a normal day, college festivals, sports day, college canteen, college computer lab practicals, etc. Everywhere, we used to sit together and people started giving us our private space. We were together as a couple even when at picnics and long trips with all our college friends – be it Lonavala, Khandala, Goa, etc.
Things could have gone ahead with her but did not go, as some traditions and customs came in the way. She was a Jain and I was a true foodie when it came to non-veg food. Also, her family wouldn’t accept me due to this as well as due to the fact that I’m not from the same caste as her. Plus, they wanted her to get married within 1 or 2 years after Engineering.
We realized that things would not work out between us and we mutually decided to separate. We remained friends of course after that but the closeness was lost.
The entire episode with her was running in the background of the entire second year and the fifth semester. During the sixth semester, I was again so-called single. Now came the most important time in my Engineering education – Campus Placements were going to start. Thank God that I was now focused at the right time.
The Placement procedure is similar to how all of us pretty much know by now. Once you get selected by a company, you are out of the placement procedure. So, in a way, it’s a gamble that you have to take when you decide to appear for a company for placement.
The first company that came for campus placement at VESIT was Syntel, an IT company. At that time, I had heard that this company was black listed in India. God knows what that meant, but I didn’t care much about this fact and I decided to sit for the placement procedure.
The first round was an aptitude test in which only 18 students go through of the roughly 110 students who appeared for it. The final round was personal interviews, in which 11 students got selected and hence got an offer in Syntel. I was one of them. The interview lasted for 5 minutes in my case in which I was asked about my computer acads, my project idea for final year, how would I go about doing it, my clarity of thoughts, etc. Overall, it was a nice experience and I immediately called up my parents and told them about the good news.
After the placement, I was tension-free and focused back on my studies, co-curricular activities, extra-curricular activities, etc. Before the placements, in the second year of my Engineering, I wrote a technical paper and presented it too in college (along with a couple of my friends – who were absolutely brilliant in studies; now they work in Google and Microsoft, respectively after having topped in college and then done post-graduation from IIT, Mumbai). Our technical paper on “Steganography and Digital Watermarking” won many awards. It was an enriching and a very much exhilarating experience for me to have done something like this for the first time in my life.
Now came the second romantic angle in Engineering – which started at the end of the sixth semester and lasted until completion of the final year. This girl was there from the first year itself and we knew each other as friends, although we never were closer before. But, my early placement and the preceding fame from other activities like acads, the paper presentation, the victories in sports, etc. made me more popular among students of our batch as well as the other batches. She started talking to me more often and I was looking forward to meeting her often too. Gradually, we started getting closer through the common friends that we had. Then followed outings like movies, parties, discos, treks, etc. She was lively and always had some event planned where I was already made a part in her scheme of things. In her case, I also had the chance to visit her home, meet her family and interact with them, which could not happen in the case of my former flame. This girl with whom I was hanging around now-a-days was much active and we enjoyed each other’s company so much that we were quite inseparable. My close friends didn’t like the fact that I was going around steady with her in the presence of my former flame who still hadn’t got over me. But I was too engrossed in all the things – ranging from studies, other curricular activities, family commitments back at home and now my current girlfriend. It’s not like I completely ignored my earlier girlfriend but I was not getting enough time for even being with her as a friend.
Things progressed nicely with my current girlfriend – with both of us pretty happy in having plenty of time spent together – be it in college, out of college or even at her home. The final year started and now came the time for doing the project. We chose CRM as the theme for the final year project and started with the idea of developing a CRM software in Java for a firm which manufactured mobile phones. We believed in the huge business potential that CRM as a concept had, at that time in 2005 and we supported our opinion of the mobile phone market growing exponentially in size every year in India.
The mentor-cum-faculty guide was helpful in developing the ideas and in understanding how CRM would work. She was one of the few really good faculties that were up-to-date with the latest business trends in the corporate world.
The electives in the final year made life heaven as well as hell – but I won’t elaborate more on this aspect in this post. It needs a separate post in order to give it justice. It’s a really funny episode and it would promptly bring out the mismanagement within the ranks of Mumbai University, at least in those days.
Overall, I would say that the 4 years in Engineering were tiring, yet exciting. The things I learnt from all the academic aspects as well as in managing my time, relationships with faculty, friends and extra activities will help in future certainly. The discipline in the initial two years or so instilled in us worked wonders as it helped me in coping up the gruesome schedule.
Cupid struck twice in these 4 years and I would still say that these 4 years were quite wonderful. Both of the girls were pretty, loving, caring and nice human beings too and I thoroughly enjoyed those wonderful, cosy, romantic moments with them. Still can remember certain situations and incidents vividly. Luckily for them, as of today, both of them are married and well settled in Mumbai. I have lost out contact with one of them (the Jain girlfriend) as it’s been some time since we last saw each other. The Parsi girlfriend does still meet me whenever I’m in Mumbai and I find it nice to meet her like a friend.
I’ll cut short the post now, as I’ve got the idea by now that this post has been really long. Of course, there are plenty of things that I’ve not mentioned here. But you cannot really condense your 4 years in 4-5 pages on a Word document in one go, right? I’ll bring about more, other aspects of this time period to the forefront in my later posts. Right now, I’ll bring you all upto the point in my life where I’ve just completed my Computer Engineering degree from the reputed Mumbai University and I now await a call for Syntel, asking me to join them at some location for working with them as a software trainee.
If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything pertaining to my engineering college life which I can cover in later posts, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write that too.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
After completing HSC from Ruia College and that too, with a vocational subject like Computer Science, I was prepared both physically and mentally for the gruesome admission procedure for getting into Engineering stream. I’d heard stories of long, tiring queues of wanna-be engineers, their parents at VJTI College which was the centralized admission venue in those days for all Engineering colleges in Mumbai. I’d heard of how tough the competition was in getting into an Engineering college in Mumbai and that too for the specialization you chose. Many students had to give up hopes of getting into a college inside the city and had to instead travel miles outside the city for graduate education. PCM marks was the most important criteria which decided if you would make it like those few fortunate people who’d get into a nice, reputed city-based Engineering college or like those many, many more students who either ended up getting into far-flung colleges or dropped the idea of going for Engineering altogether.
I had 3-4 colleges in my mind which I was keeping as options for getting into. Obviously, my first choice of specialization had to be Computer Engineering (as I credit this to my love affair with Computers). Getting a good score in PCM and overall 92.50% in HSC helped me in slogging it out for not more than 2 rounds of the admission process. However, I made the first important choice in my education at this juncture – Electronics Engineering at VJTI, Matunga versus Computer Engineering at VESIT, Chembur.
Throughout my life until now, my education was 14 years in Matunga itself and VJTI seemed to be a natural extension if I wished to complete my education from Kindergarten to being a Graduate within the boundaries of Matunga itself. But, I wanted the stream of Computer Engineering and VESIT seemed more promising in terms of increasing reputation, a good passing percentage of its students and my parents also had heard somewhat of its strict discipline that was maintained by the college. Not that I was indisciplined, but I chose VESIT for Computer Engineering and also to get out of Matunga for the first time as a part of my education.
Let me first give you a short background of the way Mumbai University has designed the BE Courses. The degree duration is 4 years consisting of 8 semesters. Diploma students can join the course in the third semester. The first and the fourth year exams are held by the Mumbai University, while the rest are held by the college. Students have to work on a group project in the final year which is treated on par with the other subjects. Final year students have to choose 1 elective subject per semester. All subjects are common and compulsory for the first year students. Placements happen in the college around the sixth semester. ATKT system is present in Mumbai University for those who struggle with the pace of the academics and score less than what is required – passing mark being 40% in each paper.
The first semester started in August 2001 – with me meeting lots of new friends, teachers and admin staff, etc. The college was like jail when it came to discipline – very strict in all aspects. You cannot enter late, you cannot leave early, you have to do this and that in the prescribed manner, you have to maintain discipline at all times and so on and on and on. I can go on and on and on telling so many things that the Code of Conduct itself will require a separate post.
For me, I would say that the first year in Engineering is like being drugged and then you are given a Formula 1 car to drive without any prior training. Life runs so fast and you are feeling hazy, dizzy and don’t know what’s going on around you. You try to pick up your senses, try to get into the groove of things and keep your mind in the right place – all at the same time. It’s like stupor.
Some of the subjects that made students tremble with anxiety were Mechanics, BEE and Engineering Drawing (although not as deadly as the first 2).
I was making friends and discovering them as and when we all spent time together – this was important for me to know these people well since I would be spending my next 4 years with them in college and I wouldn’t want to misjudge someone.
The first semester sped through so fast that by the time I was back to my senses, the second semester was already more than halfway over. By the end of the first year, we found out how grueling and tough the next few years would be.
Extra-curricular activities and sports were present but there wasn’t any time to get involved in them in the first year. The first year was more about discovering the entire environment around me.
The second year was the one when we became seniors and that’s when life started shining a bit. We were prepared better for the onslaught of the coming academic year and we knew how to go about it.
For me, it was also a learning experience and out of the first year, I had grown more strong and resilient to the tough academic schedule.
Now, comes into play the so-called romantic angle which always started with a friendship. There were few diploma students who joined our Computer Engineering batch. Our group welcomed these few students and soon we made friends with each one of them. There was this girl who stayed very close from where I lived. She was one of those Diploma students who joined our batch. Soon, we became friends from being just acquaintances earlier.
I used to travel by train from Matunga to Kurla and then took a bus or rickshaw from Kurla station to my college. This was my routine in the entire first year.
Afterwards, in the second year, I started travelling using another route in addition to this one – direct bus from the Highway from Matunga to Chembur. Normally, I used to travel alone by train. Now, by this second route of a direct bus, I had this girl as company from the bus stop in Matunga until college.
Many of my friends saw this change in my travel mode and found it as a good fodder for them to feed on and cook up a story of how Rohan has changed for her. Then came the leg pulling as was expected.
From what was started as a friendship, these friends’ leg pulling actually turned out positive in the sense that it brought me closer to this girl. I had some feelings for her but I never could confess it to anyone. I just thought of her as a close friend and never told her about what I felt. My close friends understood that something was bound to happen between the both of us. They started making situations which brought me and her close. Gradually, things turned out the way they wanted as we started enjoying each other’s company – be it a normal day, college festivals, sports day, college canteen, college computer lab practicals, etc. Everywhere, we used to sit together and people started giving us our private space. We were together as a couple even when at picnics and long trips with all our college friends – be it Lonavala, Khandala, Goa, etc.
Things could have gone ahead with her but did not go, as some traditions and customs came in the way. She was a Jain and I was a true foodie when it came to non-veg food. Also, her family wouldn’t accept me due to this as well as due to the fact that I’m not from the same caste as her. Plus, they wanted her to get married within 1 or 2 years after Engineering.
We realized that things would not work out between us and we mutually decided to separate. We remained friends of course after that but the closeness was lost.
The entire episode with her was running in the background of the entire second year and the fifth semester. During the sixth semester, I was again so-called single. Now came the most important time in my Engineering education – Campus Placements were going to start. Thank God that I was now focused at the right time.
The Placement procedure is similar to how all of us pretty much know by now. Once you get selected by a company, you are out of the placement procedure. So, in a way, it’s a gamble that you have to take when you decide to appear for a company for placement.
The first company that came for campus placement at VESIT was Syntel, an IT company. At that time, I had heard that this company was black listed in India. God knows what that meant, but I didn’t care much about this fact and I decided to sit for the placement procedure.
The first round was an aptitude test in which only 18 students go through of the roughly 110 students who appeared for it. The final round was personal interviews, in which 11 students got selected and hence got an offer in Syntel. I was one of them. The interview lasted for 5 minutes in my case in which I was asked about my computer acads, my project idea for final year, how would I go about doing it, my clarity of thoughts, etc. Overall, it was a nice experience and I immediately called up my parents and told them about the good news.
After the placement, I was tension-free and focused back on my studies, co-curricular activities, extra-curricular activities, etc. Before the placements, in the second year of my Engineering, I wrote a technical paper and presented it too in college (along with a couple of my friends – who were absolutely brilliant in studies; now they work in Google and Microsoft, respectively after having topped in college and then done post-graduation from IIT, Mumbai). Our technical paper on “Steganography and Digital Watermarking” won many awards. It was an enriching and a very much exhilarating experience for me to have done something like this for the first time in my life.
Now came the second romantic angle in Engineering – which started at the end of the sixth semester and lasted until completion of the final year. This girl was there from the first year itself and we knew each other as friends, although we never were closer before. But, my early placement and the preceding fame from other activities like acads, the paper presentation, the victories in sports, etc. made me more popular among students of our batch as well as the other batches. She started talking to me more often and I was looking forward to meeting her often too. Gradually, we started getting closer through the common friends that we had. Then followed outings like movies, parties, discos, treks, etc. She was lively and always had some event planned where I was already made a part in her scheme of things. In her case, I also had the chance to visit her home, meet her family and interact with them, which could not happen in the case of my former flame. This girl with whom I was hanging around now-a-days was much active and we enjoyed each other’s company so much that we were quite inseparable. My close friends didn’t like the fact that I was going around steady with her in the presence of my former flame who still hadn’t got over me. But I was too engrossed in all the things – ranging from studies, other curricular activities, family commitments back at home and now my current girlfriend. It’s not like I completely ignored my earlier girlfriend but I was not getting enough time for even being with her as a friend.
Things progressed nicely with my current girlfriend – with both of us pretty happy in having plenty of time spent together – be it in college, out of college or even at her home. The final year started and now came the time for doing the project. We chose CRM as the theme for the final year project and started with the idea of developing a CRM software in Java for a firm which manufactured mobile phones. We believed in the huge business potential that CRM as a concept had, at that time in 2005 and we supported our opinion of the mobile phone market growing exponentially in size every year in India.
The mentor-cum-faculty guide was helpful in developing the ideas and in understanding how CRM would work. She was one of the few really good faculties that were up-to-date with the latest business trends in the corporate world.
The electives in the final year made life heaven as well as hell – but I won’t elaborate more on this aspect in this post. It needs a separate post in order to give it justice. It’s a really funny episode and it would promptly bring out the mismanagement within the ranks of Mumbai University, at least in those days.
Overall, I would say that the 4 years in Engineering were tiring, yet exciting. The things I learnt from all the academic aspects as well as in managing my time, relationships with faculty, friends and extra activities will help in future certainly. The discipline in the initial two years or so instilled in us worked wonders as it helped me in coping up the gruesome schedule.
Cupid struck twice in these 4 years and I would still say that these 4 years were quite wonderful. Both of the girls were pretty, loving, caring and nice human beings too and I thoroughly enjoyed those wonderful, cosy, romantic moments with them. Still can remember certain situations and incidents vividly. Luckily for them, as of today, both of them are married and well settled in Mumbai. I have lost out contact with one of them (the Jain girlfriend) as it’s been some time since we last saw each other. The Parsi girlfriend does still meet me whenever I’m in Mumbai and I find it nice to meet her like a friend.
I’ll cut short the post now, as I’ve got the idea by now that this post has been really long. Of course, there are plenty of things that I’ve not mentioned here. But you cannot really condense your 4 years in 4-5 pages on a Word document in one go, right? I’ll bring about more, other aspects of this time period to the forefront in my later posts. Right now, I’ll bring you all upto the point in my life where I’ve just completed my Computer Engineering degree from the reputed Mumbai University and I now await a call for Syntel, asking me to join them at some location for working with them as a software trainee.
If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything pertaining to my engineering college life which I can cover in later posts, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write that too.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Junior college days
Hello friends…This post now takes you to the next phase in my life as I show you a new dimension in my life from the various other facets that surround me. How strange it is to write back on your own life in the written form when you know that there are certain things which cannot be explained by writing them out, but clearly you got to feel them and experience them as they are cherished later on – also, this experience throws up many answers for what I did in those days and what I didn’t do…
So, in a way, I would strongly recommend you to read these posts but not make any impression or judgment of what I am and what I have done. Some things cannot be solved easily, they remain complicated and as a result, mysterious.
So, in a way, by giving a kind of a disclaimer initially here, I begin my new post by telling you how I spent the next 2 years in my junior college – Ruia College, Mumbai – one of the top colleges that you can get admission into, after your school. Getting there was itself a matter of pride and a feeling of success crept upon each student as they cut through the competition and made it to that college.
Of course, in those days, competition was in terms of who would get admission in Ruia or Ruparel College – as these were the top 2 Institutes in the heart of Mumbai city.
Getting 86.67% in SSC helped me in joining Ruia College – that too, for a vocational course on ‘Computer Science’.
Let me tell you first something about my long-standing affair with computers – the first time that we met was when I was the third standard and MS-DOS, LOGO were the first so-called technologies that we learnt in those days. Seven years of affair in school with the PC was good enough an attraction to go for this vocational course. I was hell bent on getting that course as I saw myself doing well with computers. We didn’t have any computer at home in those days and so, it was the computer lab at school or in my junior college where our love affair blossomed (talking of course, about the PC).
The 2 years at Ruia College were remarkable – a sudden transition from spending 12 years of education in a boys’ school to joining a college which had 70% girl students. YES, such a huge difference.
The initial few months were a nightmare with so many girls all around. I was repenting that why so many girls are here??? God, please help me. I used to run away if a girl came nearby and even before she started to talk. Studies were going on great and I was doing well in exams, as usual. But there was this so-many-girls syndrome that I was facing. Not that the girls are going to scare me but when I look back and reflect on my past, especially these days, I laugh a lot to know that I was behaving like that too.
There was this one girl whom I liked and had a crush on. We knew each other earlier, before college started. She thought “kaisa ladka hai, baat bhi nahi karta hai, yeh toh bahut bhaav khaata hai”. I managed to explain to her before those 2 years ended that I was simply shy and scared to talk. She laughed at this and thought I was kinda cute.
Later on, I started talking with her and then her friends but I used to talk very limited – rarely uttering some words. My friends saw this and these guys then started teasing me – as what happens each time a guy talks with a girl – the other guys simply pull the guy’s leg.
The height of teasing came in later during the month of December where the college had organized an event – name??? ROSE DAY… I had pre-decided that I won’t even step out of my house that day and go to college or else, I’m dead. I knew my friends would be waiting for me. But, as it turned out, they came to my home and took me along despite me making false excuses of being sick. My Mom told them that I was well and nothing’s happened to my health and so, I was caught.
They took me to college and as expected, took me to the grand concert in college which was going on. All my friends started dancing and enjoying while I was watching them and trying to pacify them by quietly stepping out of the crowd and looking at them dance. It’s not that I don’t like to dance but in those days, the typical dance that we did ever was in Ganapati celebrations.
Then, they saw that girl and her friends. My friends came to me and insisted that I have to give the girl a rose. I told “No way boss….are you crazy? I’m not doing anything like that or else, I’ll get slapped”. They didn’t hear anything that I had to offer and were simply adamant. I somehow got rid of them temporarily by telling them I’m going to the washroom. I went to a friend’s place instead (he lived in front of the college) and I was hiding there. As my friends found out that I was missing, they started to call each other in their network to find me. They got the news where I was hiding and they told that friend to bring me back to college. He made sure I came back to college with him.
Then, they handed over a rose to me and told me to get ready as she and her friends were coming out from the auditorium towards the garden area where people were meeting each other for giving roses. They themselves then were hiding in other places and watching what I’m doing. I was so nervous. I could see her coming and when I saw that her friends are also coming with her, I turned back and signaled to my friends that it’s not possible that I can give. Her friends were along with her (all of them were girls – her friends). But they were not listening to any excuses now.
Finally, I took a deep breath, prayed to God and took the first step (literally, the leg going forward was so difficult – I was like almost a statue). I walked and she and her gang were coming in my direction. I stopped her by calling out her name. I put forward my hand and gave her the rose. She stopped for a second and thought. I was sure that I would get slapped and was getting mentally prepared for a tight slap on my cheek.
However, to my surprise, she accepted the rose, smiled (a wonderful, beautiful smile) and said “Thank you Rohan”. Her other friends (girls) were looking at me, giggling and whispering something in the background. But all that didn’t matter in those few moments. I was looking straight into her eyes and was literally standing there as still and cold as a statue.
She asked me if I could join her for the concert in the playground and I nodded my head in the affirmative.
Later on, I spent time with her and her friends as we enjoyed the concert and my friends then came in and joined the group. All of my friends were winking at me and giving me that kind of an expression that I was feeling embarrassed. But when I think about this incident today, I cannot stop laughing on myself to realize how shy and timid I was then.
Later on, after that day, she accompanied me to all college events and that was the start of the first relationship that I had – struck by Mr. Cupid’s so-called blessed arrow. After that event, the rest of my junior college life was great. All-round activities were going on - be it exams, movies with friends, going out with her, events at college, partying, playing sports, etc.
Time passed by at a fast pace and at the end of 2 years, I can conclude that these were the years that sparked off the previously unknown abilities that I had within. I surprised myself by being able to come up with so many new things that I hadn’t ever thought of, in my school life. Junior college days were full of excitement, fun and plenty of happiness – spent together with great friends.
Finally, it was time to bid adieu to Ruia and move ahead to the next phase of my life – an Engineering College awaiting me to spend my life’s next 4 years in there.
Gradually, I lost touch with this girl after junior college as we got admission into separate colleges and then our lives that were intertwined earlier, now became separate. We stayed in touch for few months initially but then we got busy in our own schedules. After engineering, I came to know she had gone to US for doing her MS and since then, I was very rarely in touch through email. But then, even that stopped. She’s in my past now although we shared many wonderful moments together, worth remembering even till date. However, I was over the entire episode a long time back and of course, the next phase in my life made up for many more exciting days which were coming up in the future.
Getting back to the moment where I was leaving Ruia. As I moved out of junior college, I looked forward to what life had in store for me at that time as I took the first step into the long, gruesome journey of 4 full years in the infamous and harsh world of Engineering Colleges – where I had heard that people get grilled and only after going through the harsh, rough and tough times – does one become what it takes to be a guy with a B.E degree from Mumbai University.
Concluding the post now at this important juncture. Putting down all the memories together and that too the junior college days isn’t easy as how I’ve realized by now. If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything pertaining to my junior college life which I could have covered in this post, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write that too.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
So, in a way, I would strongly recommend you to read these posts but not make any impression or judgment of what I am and what I have done. Some things cannot be solved easily, they remain complicated and as a result, mysterious.
So, in a way, by giving a kind of a disclaimer initially here, I begin my new post by telling you how I spent the next 2 years in my junior college – Ruia College, Mumbai – one of the top colleges that you can get admission into, after your school. Getting there was itself a matter of pride and a feeling of success crept upon each student as they cut through the competition and made it to that college.
Of course, in those days, competition was in terms of who would get admission in Ruia or Ruparel College – as these were the top 2 Institutes in the heart of Mumbai city.
Getting 86.67% in SSC helped me in joining Ruia College – that too, for a vocational course on ‘Computer Science’.
Let me tell you first something about my long-standing affair with computers – the first time that we met was when I was the third standard and MS-DOS, LOGO were the first so-called technologies that we learnt in those days. Seven years of affair in school with the PC was good enough an attraction to go for this vocational course. I was hell bent on getting that course as I saw myself doing well with computers. We didn’t have any computer at home in those days and so, it was the computer lab at school or in my junior college where our love affair blossomed (talking of course, about the PC).
The 2 years at Ruia College were remarkable – a sudden transition from spending 12 years of education in a boys’ school to joining a college which had 70% girl students. YES, such a huge difference.
The initial few months were a nightmare with so many girls all around. I was repenting that why so many girls are here??? God, please help me. I used to run away if a girl came nearby and even before she started to talk. Studies were going on great and I was doing well in exams, as usual. But there was this so-many-girls syndrome that I was facing. Not that the girls are going to scare me but when I look back and reflect on my past, especially these days, I laugh a lot to know that I was behaving like that too.
There was this one girl whom I liked and had a crush on. We knew each other earlier, before college started. She thought “kaisa ladka hai, baat bhi nahi karta hai, yeh toh bahut bhaav khaata hai”. I managed to explain to her before those 2 years ended that I was simply shy and scared to talk. She laughed at this and thought I was kinda cute.
Later on, I started talking with her and then her friends but I used to talk very limited – rarely uttering some words. My friends saw this and these guys then started teasing me – as what happens each time a guy talks with a girl – the other guys simply pull the guy’s leg.
The height of teasing came in later during the month of December where the college had organized an event – name??? ROSE DAY… I had pre-decided that I won’t even step out of my house that day and go to college or else, I’m dead. I knew my friends would be waiting for me. But, as it turned out, they came to my home and took me along despite me making false excuses of being sick. My Mom told them that I was well and nothing’s happened to my health and so, I was caught.
They took me to college and as expected, took me to the grand concert in college which was going on. All my friends started dancing and enjoying while I was watching them and trying to pacify them by quietly stepping out of the crowd and looking at them dance. It’s not that I don’t like to dance but in those days, the typical dance that we did ever was in Ganapati celebrations.
Then, they saw that girl and her friends. My friends came to me and insisted that I have to give the girl a rose. I told “No way boss….are you crazy? I’m not doing anything like that or else, I’ll get slapped”. They didn’t hear anything that I had to offer and were simply adamant. I somehow got rid of them temporarily by telling them I’m going to the washroom. I went to a friend’s place instead (he lived in front of the college) and I was hiding there. As my friends found out that I was missing, they started to call each other in their network to find me. They got the news where I was hiding and they told that friend to bring me back to college. He made sure I came back to college with him.
Then, they handed over a rose to me and told me to get ready as she and her friends were coming out from the auditorium towards the garden area where people were meeting each other for giving roses. They themselves then were hiding in other places and watching what I’m doing. I was so nervous. I could see her coming and when I saw that her friends are also coming with her, I turned back and signaled to my friends that it’s not possible that I can give. Her friends were along with her (all of them were girls – her friends). But they were not listening to any excuses now.
Finally, I took a deep breath, prayed to God and took the first step (literally, the leg going forward was so difficult – I was like almost a statue). I walked and she and her gang were coming in my direction. I stopped her by calling out her name. I put forward my hand and gave her the rose. She stopped for a second and thought. I was sure that I would get slapped and was getting mentally prepared for a tight slap on my cheek.
However, to my surprise, she accepted the rose, smiled (a wonderful, beautiful smile) and said “Thank you Rohan”. Her other friends (girls) were looking at me, giggling and whispering something in the background. But all that didn’t matter in those few moments. I was looking straight into her eyes and was literally standing there as still and cold as a statue.
She asked me if I could join her for the concert in the playground and I nodded my head in the affirmative.
Later on, I spent time with her and her friends as we enjoyed the concert and my friends then came in and joined the group. All of my friends were winking at me and giving me that kind of an expression that I was feeling embarrassed. But when I think about this incident today, I cannot stop laughing on myself to realize how shy and timid I was then.
Later on, after that day, she accompanied me to all college events and that was the start of the first relationship that I had – struck by Mr. Cupid’s so-called blessed arrow. After that event, the rest of my junior college life was great. All-round activities were going on - be it exams, movies with friends, going out with her, events at college, partying, playing sports, etc.
Time passed by at a fast pace and at the end of 2 years, I can conclude that these were the years that sparked off the previously unknown abilities that I had within. I surprised myself by being able to come up with so many new things that I hadn’t ever thought of, in my school life. Junior college days were full of excitement, fun and plenty of happiness – spent together with great friends.
Finally, it was time to bid adieu to Ruia and move ahead to the next phase of my life – an Engineering College awaiting me to spend my life’s next 4 years in there.
Gradually, I lost touch with this girl after junior college as we got admission into separate colleges and then our lives that were intertwined earlier, now became separate. We stayed in touch for few months initially but then we got busy in our own schedules. After engineering, I came to know she had gone to US for doing her MS and since then, I was very rarely in touch through email. But then, even that stopped. She’s in my past now although we shared many wonderful moments together, worth remembering even till date. However, I was over the entire episode a long time back and of course, the next phase in my life made up for many more exciting days which were coming up in the future.
Getting back to the moment where I was leaving Ruia. As I moved out of junior college, I looked forward to what life had in store for me at that time as I took the first step into the long, gruesome journey of 4 full years in the infamous and harsh world of Engineering Colleges – where I had heard that people get grilled and only after going through the harsh, rough and tough times – does one become what it takes to be a guy with a B.E degree from Mumbai University.
Concluding the post now at this important juncture. Putting down all the memories together and that too the junior college days isn’t easy as how I’ve realized by now. If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything pertaining to my junior college life which I could have covered in this post, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write that too.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Childhood Days
Don't know if its the right way to say but I have to admit that I had a childhood filled in with some interesting incidents as those years passed by. My Dad is the eldest son in the family and he has 3 elder sisters. He also has 2 younger brothers. So, when I was born, I was the first in the next generation of the Naik family.
Naturally, being the first member of the new generation has its advantages as I found out. Everyone was so happy and that translated into some amount of pampering.
Although my parents made sure that it doesn’t get to my head by disciplining me from the right age, as I reflect back and wonder how beneficial was their decision at that point in time.
Being the eldest one in the new generation of our family also has its responsibilities and I wouldn’t call them as disadvantages or pain points, but it is more like you have to keep that extra caution to be followed whenever you speak or act in a situation.
Getting back to my childhood, in the early years of my nursery, kindergarten and primary school, we had a joint family system in place. So, it was always a filled up environment with plenty of hustle bustle going on in the house. Birthdays, weekends, occasions, religious ceremonies, etc were all organized at our home, as it was located right in the middle of the city and was convenient for everyone else to travel and reach there. So, from childhood days itself, I was used to seeing lots of family members around, interacting with each other and coming together to celebrate each occasion.
Regarding the building that I stayed in, I’ve to admit it that it is the best possible place that I could have been living in. The entire shape and structure of the building was such that interaction with friends, neighbours, etc had become kind of a norm. Also, we had 2 playgrounds within the area of the building where all friends used to gather to play many different sports – cricket, football and only the big boys in those days used to play volleyball. The smaller kids like us had to be content with playing cricket and football. But it was still fun.
Few highlights of the year where all friends used to gather and celebrate were birthdays, New Year Eve, festivals like Holi, Kite flying, Diwali, Dahi Handi and the main event of course has to be Ganesh Chaturthi.
Birthdays in those times were typical – we used to contribute some amount (those days, it was Rs 5 or Rs 10 maximum which was enough) for the birthday boy / girl, few of us went to the nearby gift shops to buy the birthday gift and a big sized chocolate, all of us then used to dress up neatly and go to the birthday boy’s / girl’s house, the typical menu was potato chips, birthday cake, samosas or potato vadas, small chocolates like Melody or Eclairs and farsan or chivda. Before feasting on this, we used to sing the Happy Birthday song and clap, the birthday boy / girl cuts the cake, the photo session starts with a Kodak camera in those days having the standard 36 photo roll and then the fun with either some song being played on the Audio Cassette Player. No CDs or DVDs in those days dude, forget mp3.
New Year party was similar to the birthday celebrations except that an additional feature was a Quiz that was being conducted by your truly as the Quiz master. I was the brightest kid in the entire building when it came to General Knowledge and Quizzes. Well, the brightest category can be applied to some other areas too. But I won’t disclose them right away. Wait and watch as the suspense unfolds.
Holi was celebrated early in the morning with all friends already having brought new pichkaris and colours, water balloons, etc in order to be equipped for the so-called warfare among boys and girls on Holi (Rang Panchami). Diwali celebration was mainly firecrackers as we shopped each year at the famous Essabhai Fireworks Shop at Bhendi Bazar (Masjid Bunder in Mumbai). Early morning shopping at 7 am for firecrackers is one of the strange things I’ve done in Mumbai. Also, carrying the entire big box on my lap as I used to sit on the backseat on the scooter for around 30 minutes as Dad drove back home. Such memories will always be cherished whenever I look back…what all we used to do for celebrating.
Well, I can go on and on about the occasions in my building but I feel that will take a new post itself. So, I’m cutting short about it now.
As for my studies, I was doing well and scoring good marks in those days. Mom never had to worry about my studies, according to what she said in the past, what she says still in the present.
The best school in the world, Don Bosco High School, was where I did my schooling for 12 years including kindergarten. Studying into a boys’ school had its pros and cons…hope u got my point here itself and I am glad that I need not elaborate further on it. But even though this entire experience made me shy when taking with girls of my age, I was comfortable talking and interacting with my cousin sisters. Obvious, as they used to visit our home every weekend and stay during their vacations.
I never opted to become the class monitor (CR kinda position in those days) as the person should wear tie in school and I was not knowing how to wear a tie. So, I used to avoid from being a monitor in class.
I had a crush on one school teacher and it was so silly when I look back now at it. Those days, I used to help her out in her work whenever she asked. In her class, I used to answer the subject questions she asked. Organizing certain debates and elocutions was what I was looking forward to, since these events involved her.
My school is the best because in those years, it was a rare thing for a school to ban homework for students. Plus, they promoted all-round development of kids - not just studies but sports, debates, elocutions, social work, etc.
Then, in those days, we used to carry bicycles when we were promoted to 8th standard. During the lunch break, we used to visit the 2 nearby girls' schools and do some bird watching, waving to the girls as we used to sit on our cycles and flaunt the fact that we own bicycles which was pretty much impressive in those days. Then, the security guards for the girls' schools used to chase us and we had to escape from there. But we never admitted defeat and we repeated this adventure again and again. Finally, during the vacations, these girls used to visit the nearby gardens and then we used to play cricket there so that they can notice us and talk to us. Attempts were successful and some of us got the fruits of patience in those days.
Now for some serious stuff. I had few trysts with the Hospitals in my childhood. First was a hernia operation when I was an infant, second was a neck operation when I was in the 4th standard and finally was an unfortunate accident when I was in the 7th standard. The accident on July 5, 1995 changed my life. I was coming back from school, walking down a busy road. Suddenly, a taxi (cab) came from behind at a crossing and the driver tried to turn quickly to the left. I was unaware that this guy was coming from behind as he didn’t even honk. He hit my right leg and I collapsed on the road. People rushed in and tried to make me stand on my feet. But I could see my leg broken and it was a fracture. The pain was unbearable and I could not even stand up properly. I could see the bone that came out due to the hit. After a nervous and panic filled 2 hours, I was operated upon and when I came back to my senses, I already had a plaster around my right leg and it was night time. I felt so weird and miserable that tears rolled down my eyes as I saw my family in front, all looking at me. I was confined to bed rest for the next 6 months and after a period of almost 7-8 months, I was back to normal. But the accident caused a lot of frustration and trauma for me. I still remember each minute of that incident even though it has been 14 years since that ill-fated day.
Enough of the sad part for now.
Well, to sum up, I had a very nice childhood and I must say that I’m indeed very lucky to have got such wonderful and loving parents and family members.
Pichle janam mein zaroor kuch punya kiya hoga maine, jo aise log mile.
Concluding the post now. Gathering all my thoughts together and that too for the childhood times isn’t easy as I’ve found out now. If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything pertaining to childhood in this post, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I cover it.
Signing off now. See ya, folks!
Naturally, being the first member of the new generation has its advantages as I found out. Everyone was so happy and that translated into some amount of pampering.
Although my parents made sure that it doesn’t get to my head by disciplining me from the right age, as I reflect back and wonder how beneficial was their decision at that point in time.
Being the eldest one in the new generation of our family also has its responsibilities and I wouldn’t call them as disadvantages or pain points, but it is more like you have to keep that extra caution to be followed whenever you speak or act in a situation.
Getting back to my childhood, in the early years of my nursery, kindergarten and primary school, we had a joint family system in place. So, it was always a filled up environment with plenty of hustle bustle going on in the house. Birthdays, weekends, occasions, religious ceremonies, etc were all organized at our home, as it was located right in the middle of the city and was convenient for everyone else to travel and reach there. So, from childhood days itself, I was used to seeing lots of family members around, interacting with each other and coming together to celebrate each occasion.
Regarding the building that I stayed in, I’ve to admit it that it is the best possible place that I could have been living in. The entire shape and structure of the building was such that interaction with friends, neighbours, etc had become kind of a norm. Also, we had 2 playgrounds within the area of the building where all friends used to gather to play many different sports – cricket, football and only the big boys in those days used to play volleyball. The smaller kids like us had to be content with playing cricket and football. But it was still fun.
Few highlights of the year where all friends used to gather and celebrate were birthdays, New Year Eve, festivals like Holi, Kite flying, Diwali, Dahi Handi and the main event of course has to be Ganesh Chaturthi.
Birthdays in those times were typical – we used to contribute some amount (those days, it was Rs 5 or Rs 10 maximum which was enough) for the birthday boy / girl, few of us went to the nearby gift shops to buy the birthday gift and a big sized chocolate, all of us then used to dress up neatly and go to the birthday boy’s / girl’s house, the typical menu was potato chips, birthday cake, samosas or potato vadas, small chocolates like Melody or Eclairs and farsan or chivda. Before feasting on this, we used to sing the Happy Birthday song and clap, the birthday boy / girl cuts the cake, the photo session starts with a Kodak camera in those days having the standard 36 photo roll and then the fun with either some song being played on the Audio Cassette Player. No CDs or DVDs in those days dude, forget mp3.
New Year party was similar to the birthday celebrations except that an additional feature was a Quiz that was being conducted by your truly as the Quiz master. I was the brightest kid in the entire building when it came to General Knowledge and Quizzes. Well, the brightest category can be applied to some other areas too. But I won’t disclose them right away. Wait and watch as the suspense unfolds.
Holi was celebrated early in the morning with all friends already having brought new pichkaris and colours, water balloons, etc in order to be equipped for the so-called warfare among boys and girls on Holi (Rang Panchami). Diwali celebration was mainly firecrackers as we shopped each year at the famous Essabhai Fireworks Shop at Bhendi Bazar (Masjid Bunder in Mumbai). Early morning shopping at 7 am for firecrackers is one of the strange things I’ve done in Mumbai. Also, carrying the entire big box on my lap as I used to sit on the backseat on the scooter for around 30 minutes as Dad drove back home. Such memories will always be cherished whenever I look back…what all we used to do for celebrating.
Well, I can go on and on about the occasions in my building but I feel that will take a new post itself. So, I’m cutting short about it now.
As for my studies, I was doing well and scoring good marks in those days. Mom never had to worry about my studies, according to what she said in the past, what she says still in the present.
The best school in the world, Don Bosco High School, was where I did my schooling for 12 years including kindergarten. Studying into a boys’ school had its pros and cons…hope u got my point here itself and I am glad that I need not elaborate further on it. But even though this entire experience made me shy when taking with girls of my age, I was comfortable talking and interacting with my cousin sisters. Obvious, as they used to visit our home every weekend and stay during their vacations.
I never opted to become the class monitor (CR kinda position in those days) as the person should wear tie in school and I was not knowing how to wear a tie. So, I used to avoid from being a monitor in class.
I had a crush on one school teacher and it was so silly when I look back now at it. Those days, I used to help her out in her work whenever she asked. In her class, I used to answer the subject questions she asked. Organizing certain debates and elocutions was what I was looking forward to, since these events involved her.
My school is the best because in those years, it was a rare thing for a school to ban homework for students. Plus, they promoted all-round development of kids - not just studies but sports, debates, elocutions, social work, etc.
Then, in those days, we used to carry bicycles when we were promoted to 8th standard. During the lunch break, we used to visit the 2 nearby girls' schools and do some bird watching, waving to the girls as we used to sit on our cycles and flaunt the fact that we own bicycles which was pretty much impressive in those days. Then, the security guards for the girls' schools used to chase us and we had to escape from there. But we never admitted defeat and we repeated this adventure again and again. Finally, during the vacations, these girls used to visit the nearby gardens and then we used to play cricket there so that they can notice us and talk to us. Attempts were successful and some of us got the fruits of patience in those days.
Now for some serious stuff. I had few trysts with the Hospitals in my childhood. First was a hernia operation when I was an infant, second was a neck operation when I was in the 4th standard and finally was an unfortunate accident when I was in the 7th standard. The accident on July 5, 1995 changed my life. I was coming back from school, walking down a busy road. Suddenly, a taxi (cab) came from behind at a crossing and the driver tried to turn quickly to the left. I was unaware that this guy was coming from behind as he didn’t even honk. He hit my right leg and I collapsed on the road. People rushed in and tried to make me stand on my feet. But I could see my leg broken and it was a fracture. The pain was unbearable and I could not even stand up properly. I could see the bone that came out due to the hit. After a nervous and panic filled 2 hours, I was operated upon and when I came back to my senses, I already had a plaster around my right leg and it was night time. I felt so weird and miserable that tears rolled down my eyes as I saw my family in front, all looking at me. I was confined to bed rest for the next 6 months and after a period of almost 7-8 months, I was back to normal. But the accident caused a lot of frustration and trauma for me. I still remember each minute of that incident even though it has been 14 years since that ill-fated day.
Enough of the sad part for now.
Well, to sum up, I had a very nice childhood and I must say that I’m indeed very lucky to have got such wonderful and loving parents and family members.
Pichle janam mein zaroor kuch punya kiya hoga maine, jo aise log mile.
Concluding the post now. Gathering all my thoughts together and that too for the childhood times isn’t easy as I’ve found out now. If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything pertaining to childhood in this post, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I cover it.
Signing off now. See ya, folks!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Know Your Host
Now is the time to move ahead of the ‘Soft Opening’ post. Before I begin sharing my life and the experiences that have made it up, let me thank those people who read the previous post and took their time off to write a comment on the same. Appreciate your generous response, friends! That’s exactly the kind of support I’m looking forward to, as I write more and more.
Rather than start with some incident or moment that have taken place in my life, I’d begin with a background of myself, telling you all who am I, where am I from, what do I do, what have I done and other stuff. That’s the reason why I give this post a title of ‘Know Your Host’.
By now, it should be obvious to you all but as a formal start, let me say that my name is Rohan Naik. Now don’t get confused with the surname – its Naik, not Nayak – well, I’ve been made a South Indian (Nayak) by many people due to this confusion. To clarify then, I tell them that I’m a Maharashtrian and that the right surname is Naik. It’s not that I mind it but better tell people the real name so that an imaginary guy named Rohan Nayak doesn’t get created.
I was born Sagittarian on December 16, 1983 (a Friday) in the afternoon at around 1:45 or 1:50 pm. Don’t worry about the detail that I’ve given out here regarding my birth. There’s a reason for mentioning each detail in that line and that will become more clear as I go ahead.
I live in Matunga and am a true Mumbaikar. Proud to be one. Love this city, it’s the best in the world, according to me.
Don Bosco is the institution that I can never forget in my life. It is my school – the best school that I can ever think of – considering the years in which I did my schooling (from 1987 to 1999). This school is way ahead of the other schools, when I look back in time and notice certain things.
After spending 12 years in a boys’ school, comes the time in my life where I join a junior college that’s famous for having girls as a majority. The college??? Ruia College, of course. 2 years of life at Ruia College were unique in one sense that we boys were a minority as the college had 70% students of the opposite gender. I studied Computer Science instead of Biology and that meant the only language course that I would study was English.
Getting a Bachelor’s Degree from the infamous Mumbai University wasn’t easy. To make matters worse, the college I opted for was Vivekananda College in Chembur (popularly known as VESIT – the full form being Vivekananda Education Society’s Institute of Technology). I say worse not because I think my decision was bad to join this college, but because of the discipline (almost jail like) that we went through during the first 2 years. But overall, I would say I opted for a good choice – in the end, I got enough learning from this institution.
More details on each of these educational phases would follow in subsequent posts.
But for now, let me keep the door open for you all by giving these short notes above as trailers. Rather, each phase of my life that I describe here would be like a trailer or an episode. I’ll cover more on them later.
When I was in VESIT in the third year of Computer Engineering, I was selected through campus placement in an IT company called Syntel. I spent 2 years, 7 months and 5 days in Syntel and can proudly say that my first company was a dream company to work for. Great stories to follow on this front but not now.
After Syntel, I got selected in IMNU (also known as Institute of Management, NIRMA University) for doing a full-time MBA programme. I’ve completed 1 year out of the 2 year course, did my summer internship at an IT company called Omnitech and have come back to college for the final year of MBA programme.
That’s my academic and professional life – described as a trailer of a movie and at a fast pace. But, the real movie is still left, my dear friends.
Now, let’s move on towards my personal life.
The people who know me since my childhood days will vouch for claiming that I am a shy and reserved guy. I don’t disagree with them but I can say that I’ve so-called improved and become more open as life has emerged. I’m somewhat lazy but that’s more when doing things I don’t like much. Whereas I’m really up for it when something excites me and I feel like doing the same.
I have been performing well in academics and to an extent good enough in sports. Friends and acquaintances do say that I am intelligent and humble. I agree with them to an extent but I’ve always underestimated my capabilities – that has been the case with me always.
I’ve never expected too much from myself which is why I don’t get disappointed. Rather, my friends have had much larger expectations from me regarding academics and some other things. I’ve shared the same thought when interacting with some of them clearly mentioning about how I think about myself and my abilities and they seem amused when I tell them the same.
I can analyze things, situations and problems well – that’s been one really great feedback I’ve received every time – about my analytical skills. About people skills, I feel that I need to learn as this is something which is never ending and cannot be stopped from learning. You meet different types of people often and learn from every experience.
Regarding helping out, people around me say I’m helpful and that’s one really positive thing which I would like to keep hearing. It feels nice to bring a smile to someone’s face. That’s one funda of my life – I find my happiness in others’ happiness. I like to see people smile and be happy – it makes the world a nicer place to live in.
Interacting with girls has been a roller coaster ride, from being in a boys’ school to the current day – so many different stories and of course, when it comes to girls, there is also a moral of the story for each one. More to continue on the same in latter posts – it’s a long version.
What more can I write??? I’m unable to come up with more but maybe you people can help me. I’m most welcome to know what you found missing in this post and what would you like me to post out here in relation to my so-called ‘Introduction’.
Do keep writing in your suggestions, looking forward to receiving the same. Until then, see ya folks!
Rather than start with some incident or moment that have taken place in my life, I’d begin with a background of myself, telling you all who am I, where am I from, what do I do, what have I done and other stuff. That’s the reason why I give this post a title of ‘Know Your Host’.
By now, it should be obvious to you all but as a formal start, let me say that my name is Rohan Naik. Now don’t get confused with the surname – its Naik, not Nayak – well, I’ve been made a South Indian (Nayak) by many people due to this confusion. To clarify then, I tell them that I’m a Maharashtrian and that the right surname is Naik. It’s not that I mind it but better tell people the real name so that an imaginary guy named Rohan Nayak doesn’t get created.
I was born Sagittarian on December 16, 1983 (a Friday) in the afternoon at around 1:45 or 1:50 pm. Don’t worry about the detail that I’ve given out here regarding my birth. There’s a reason for mentioning each detail in that line and that will become more clear as I go ahead.
I live in Matunga and am a true Mumbaikar. Proud to be one. Love this city, it’s the best in the world, according to me.
Don Bosco is the institution that I can never forget in my life. It is my school – the best school that I can ever think of – considering the years in which I did my schooling (from 1987 to 1999). This school is way ahead of the other schools, when I look back in time and notice certain things.
After spending 12 years in a boys’ school, comes the time in my life where I join a junior college that’s famous for having girls as a majority. The college??? Ruia College, of course. 2 years of life at Ruia College were unique in one sense that we boys were a minority as the college had 70% students of the opposite gender. I studied Computer Science instead of Biology and that meant the only language course that I would study was English.
Getting a Bachelor’s Degree from the infamous Mumbai University wasn’t easy. To make matters worse, the college I opted for was Vivekananda College in Chembur (popularly known as VESIT – the full form being Vivekananda Education Society’s Institute of Technology). I say worse not because I think my decision was bad to join this college, but because of the discipline (almost jail like) that we went through during the first 2 years. But overall, I would say I opted for a good choice – in the end, I got enough learning from this institution.
More details on each of these educational phases would follow in subsequent posts.
But for now, let me keep the door open for you all by giving these short notes above as trailers. Rather, each phase of my life that I describe here would be like a trailer or an episode. I’ll cover more on them later.
When I was in VESIT in the third year of Computer Engineering, I was selected through campus placement in an IT company called Syntel. I spent 2 years, 7 months and 5 days in Syntel and can proudly say that my first company was a dream company to work for. Great stories to follow on this front but not now.
After Syntel, I got selected in IMNU (also known as Institute of Management, NIRMA University) for doing a full-time MBA programme. I’ve completed 1 year out of the 2 year course, did my summer internship at an IT company called Omnitech and have come back to college for the final year of MBA programme.
That’s my academic and professional life – described as a trailer of a movie and at a fast pace. But, the real movie is still left, my dear friends.
Now, let’s move on towards my personal life.
The people who know me since my childhood days will vouch for claiming that I am a shy and reserved guy. I don’t disagree with them but I can say that I’ve so-called improved and become more open as life has emerged. I’m somewhat lazy but that’s more when doing things I don’t like much. Whereas I’m really up for it when something excites me and I feel like doing the same.
I have been performing well in academics and to an extent good enough in sports. Friends and acquaintances do say that I am intelligent and humble. I agree with them to an extent but I’ve always underestimated my capabilities – that has been the case with me always.
I’ve never expected too much from myself which is why I don’t get disappointed. Rather, my friends have had much larger expectations from me regarding academics and some other things. I’ve shared the same thought when interacting with some of them clearly mentioning about how I think about myself and my abilities and they seem amused when I tell them the same.
I can analyze things, situations and problems well – that’s been one really great feedback I’ve received every time – about my analytical skills. About people skills, I feel that I need to learn as this is something which is never ending and cannot be stopped from learning. You meet different types of people often and learn from every experience.
Regarding helping out, people around me say I’m helpful and that’s one really positive thing which I would like to keep hearing. It feels nice to bring a smile to someone’s face. That’s one funda of my life – I find my happiness in others’ happiness. I like to see people smile and be happy – it makes the world a nicer place to live in.
Interacting with girls has been a roller coaster ride, from being in a boys’ school to the current day – so many different stories and of course, when it comes to girls, there is also a moral of the story for each one. More to continue on the same in latter posts – it’s a long version.
What more can I write??? I’m unable to come up with more but maybe you people can help me. I’m most welcome to know what you found missing in this post and what would you like me to post out here in relation to my so-called ‘Introduction’.
Do keep writing in your suggestions, looking forward to receiving the same. Until then, see ya folks!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Soft Opening
Hi Folks,
I've been contemplating since many months on this.
Was wondering if I should start my blog or not. Many questions came up in my mind - Why, How, When, Where - but somehow I felt that I've not been listening carefully.
Not listening to whom??? To the many people who insisted me to write. Write what?Write about myself, my life, experiences, those moments, the world that we live in.
They always encouraged me by saying that I write well and I write long enough that if I wanted to do so, I could write a book some day itself.
This entry is dedicated for those people who always believed in me that I can write well and for those who thought I made a difference to their lives. Hope, it was a positive difference.
I'll be soon starting to write more and more on this blog. However, I'm new to this world of blogging.
So, I thought let's experiment with the first entry. I remember a scene from the movie 'Ocean's 13' where the Bank Hotel has a "soft opening" on schedule. The 2 words clicked in my mind and so was born the title of this first entry. I feel that this title fits the occasion perfectly. Also, the content I write in here is more like a "soft opening".
I hope that the people who read the entries in my blog will excuse me if I do not write well. Yes, I've decided to open the book of my life and let people see what's happening in the universe surrounding this 25 year old guy.
Until my next post, as I always say to my friends, who say Bye Bye when leaving, I sign off by saying the same what I say to them as well:
" Never say Bye. Always say 'See Ya'. "
Here's Ronnie signing off... See Ya Folks !
I've been contemplating since many months on this.
Was wondering if I should start my blog or not. Many questions came up in my mind - Why, How, When, Where - but somehow I felt that I've not been listening carefully.
Not listening to whom??? To the many people who insisted me to write. Write what?Write about myself, my life, experiences, those moments, the world that we live in.
They always encouraged me by saying that I write well and I write long enough that if I wanted to do so, I could write a book some day itself.
This entry is dedicated for those people who always believed in me that I can write well and for those who thought I made a difference to their lives. Hope, it was a positive difference.
I'll be soon starting to write more and more on this blog. However, I'm new to this world of blogging.
So, I thought let's experiment with the first entry. I remember a scene from the movie 'Ocean's 13' where the Bank Hotel has a "soft opening" on schedule. The 2 words clicked in my mind and so was born the title of this first entry. I feel that this title fits the occasion perfectly. Also, the content I write in here is more like a "soft opening".
I hope that the people who read the entries in my blog will excuse me if I do not write well. Yes, I've decided to open the book of my life and let people see what's happening in the universe surrounding this 25 year old guy.
Until my next post, as I always say to my friends, who say Bye Bye when leaving, I sign off by saying the same what I say to them as well:
" Never say Bye. Always say 'See Ya'. "
Here's Ronnie signing off... See Ya Folks !
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