The date is January 9, 2006. The time is 9:00 am. The place is Unit 89, SDF III, SEEPZ. My companion is FD (refer to my previous post).
We are introduced to a guy. He met us in the pantry of Unit 89 and we do a brief handshake and ‘Hi, Hello’ type of introduction. He escorted us along the office premises, not too far, as the team is based right next to the pantry in the first row of cubicles. He called a few team members to meet us and for a brief introduction. Among the people who came to meet us, there were 4 guys and 1 girl. I was surprised to know that this team had only 6 people when we both joined. After an introduction, we came to know that our project manager (PM) named SG was not in office that day due to some health issue. So, that was confirmed – 1 PM and 6 people. About onshore team, he told us that there was 1 PM named PK and 3 others named VP (a girl), VD and TN (2 guys). That meant – a total team size of just 11 people when FD and I joined.
On the first day itself, we both used our PM’s desktop as us reading some Web links and documents – they were not that much related to the actual project, as I faintly remember. We were bit bored after some time as we had just finished a 2-month training and didn’t want to read more. Time passed by and when lunch started, we both joined our other training batch mates who were working in Unit 89 in other AMEX projects. Post-lunch sessions at work can be quite heavy on you, if you have a proper lunch. My friend realized this soon. I was used to staying fresh after lunch – never had the habit of sleeping in the afternoon – so, it wasn’t much of a problem for me.
Post-lunch, we were getting acquainted with the Mainframe environment there as it was different from the CA simulator that we were used to during training. Two guys taught us some things on Mainframe use – who were named PP and NC – each of them having an exactly opposite personality and approach towards work. That day, for the first time, FD and I saw the screen of what they called Mainframe or ISPF (don’t ask me the full form now, even though I can tell you about it, it’s hard to explain why it’s called so). This screen is a full black screen (straight from the early days of mainframes in the 1950s or 1960s) and having green font (light green but bold, strong, highlighted, contrasting on the black background).
Then, telling you about PP, I felt that he was a guy who knew a lot of things about the mainframe technical things as well as about the project and its internal workings, the systems. The only thing that disturbed me about PP was that he was bit frustrated with his work life and kind of always criticized the way things went on there. I told myself to keep a distance from him enough for getting comfortable when it came to work but not much of a close bond like friendship. Then, there was the second guy, NC who was friendly but strange (if I may say by my first impression). He was bit chilled out and knew some things about the project but slightly less about the mainframe use. He was a Uttar Pradesh guy but had been living in Tamil Nadu for so long that he knew Tamil very well and he always used to call PP and the other guys with a word called MACHI or MACHA. In my initial days, I never knew what it meant but then he told me about it later on and we shared a hearty laugh about it - me, FD and NC.
Apart from PP and NC, there were 2 other guys who did not stick around for many days with us and switched to some other firm soon. The girl was named PS and she was very reserved when it came to interacting with newcomers in the team like FD and me. She became friendly as time passed on and later on interacted enough with FD and me to have become one of my friends till date.
Now that I’ve given an idea of my team members, a special mention comes up about my PM named SG. Luckily, he was a Maharashtrian which meant that at times, we could engage freely in Marathi conversations when faced with any issues or even in informal discussions. He is a smart, pleasant, knowledgeable and hardworking person – I had heard stories about how he had worked and toiled hard to get to the position that he was in at that time. Interactions with him increased more and more as we became more involved in the project.
VD was present on the onshore team at that time and we barely interacted with him in our initial days other than hearing his voice on the phone on few occasions. I had heard that he was the coolest guy to have around as he was clever, smart and very approachable – friendly to all. TN who was also on the onshore team barely interacted with us at that time but we had heard that he was a genius when it came to just about anything concerning work.
The onshore PM was the master of all – PK. Don’t get amused by the initials (it’s a sheer co-incidence). He was there for almost 10 years in Syntel, out of which he was the PM onshore for about 5 years. He was the Grand Wizard when it came to getting work from the American Express clients and was having a healthy and praiseworthy influence on clients. He was like how you have one of those great batsmen who could bring the crowds to their feet with their game – he was that good. In fact, good is an understatement. I was always wishing to meet him some day – either at offshore or at onshore. That made my determination to work harder to create a nice image of myself in his view.
Finally, as they call “Always save the best for the last”. The 1 person who has had a major influence on my life (be it GMAPS or anything else) – the 1 person who has left a mark on my thought process – the 1 person who has groomed me during Syntel – the 1 person who made my day just by hearing to that person’s voice on phone – the 1 person who was a role model for me and with whom I had an amazing bond which simply cannot be named in any way. Yes my friends, I am still talking about only 1 person who meant the most to me during those days – and it’s not anything like love, friendship, work colleague, associate, guru, philosopher, etc. Till this day, if you tell me to put 1 name to what I think that person is to me, I would still have no words to tell you.
Her name in this blog is VP.
She is the smartest girl that I had seen in my life at that time – absolutely brilliant, intelligent, pleasant personality, easy to get along with, talkative, sweet and a perfectionist (but not harsh at all). She was the one with whom I was working from my initial days in GMAPS. She was at onshore and I had a daily call with her for communicating about the work for the day, reporting the status of the project, monitoring the project schedule and much more work. As time passed, we did engage in talking about things other than work too – but only after work was discussed thoroughly. She was having a sweet and velvety voice like chocolate. It was warm and flowing like hot chocolate and everyone seemed to relax when she had something to say. At times, her voice was melodious and enchanting; refreshing as a warm summer breeze. I can describe her voice so much because I have heard her a lot on phone rather than meeting her in person (which happened very, very late and I’ll tell about it in my further posts). The first full scale project that I worked in GMAPS was with her as the onshore contact. So, she was the one with whom I had worked the longest when in Syntel and all these conditions and circumstances obviously made this bond a special one.
I was glad to know, that few months before, VP got married to the guy she loved. Feel really nice to know she's got a great married life ahead of her.
I end the post now having given you people an introduction of my world when it started in January 2006 – the world of GMAPS. As I said, my companion was FD with whom I had been together since training days and I was glad to have a close friend like him together with me during the initial tough times that we faced at work. It really helps to have a friend hang around with you at such times. Time to move to the next post where I would then describe how I worked on the first project in GMAPS, some more interactions with SG, NC and of course my friend FD and it won’t be complete until I talk about VSP. It would cover a period from January 2006 to June 2006 as during June, certain things came into the picture, from which the journey took a new turn.
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!
