The time period for this post starts from June 2006 and covers November 2006, the month in which I had to make a tough decision regarding my future career – on one hand, there was a great opportunity that was available rarely and on the other hand, there was a beginning towards achieving a goal in future education. Will talk more about this dilemma in the latter part of this post.
In June 2006, life had by then settled in the IT industry and Syntel in particular. Our schedule was more or less fixed with regular office-home travel and weekdays filled with conference calls, emails, etc. Weekends were about resting at home and going out with friends to play football, cricket, watch movies, etc.
FD was working hard and I could see it by the long hours he was putting in. Some days, FD worked for full nights too and left early morning at 6 am. I was going quite well with my project too and often finished the work at hand without staying full night at office. So, that was an experience that I kind of missed out – of staying back in office for the entire night with colleagues and at certain moments, freaking out too.
HIRST project prepared me adequately and appropriately to learn more about the system in place and how each part contributed to the whole. I was beginning to take control and master the system. I knew it was a daunting task but I was up for it. The project was expected to complete somewhere in June or July and we were busy wrapping up things.
VSP’s support from onshore was constantly available in psychological terms. She was working double surely that we were in a comfortable position and in a cordial relation with the clients.
A new team member who later on became a good friend came into my life, his name being HP in the blog. He was working on another project whose team was located in Unit 96 (where we had our training – right next to my training classroom). He used to travel by the Dadar bus and I used to catch up with him when I went by the same bus. He is a totally fun guy to be with – cracks a lot of PJs and can be lively when it comes to pulling legs of someone. He is technically intelligent and has command over the programming parts and technical skills. He likes to keep himself updated and constantly learns new ways of doing things. I’m still in touch with the guy and we are friends till date.
Now came the surprise for FD and me which SG threw suddenly at us – he called us in his cubicle one fine day. We both thought it had to do with some regular work and probably we had to report it to him. But then he opened a new avenue for us by saying that he was going to apply to the HR department for our Visas for going onsite. It struck us like lightning – we never expected this to come so soon. I mean, it was barely 6 months that we were on the project. It is unbelievable to hear that you are getting such a great opportunity to enhance your career at such an early stage. Onsite is something like Mecca or Vaishnodevi for guys like us who have joined few months back. And here was a chance to go for it – achieve something big in life.
While this news broke in front of us, after the initial euphoria came the dilemma for me when I got back my train of thoughts back in line. I had applied for giving CAT 06 examination for getting admission to Post Graduate Program in Master of Business Administration (MBA) either from IIMs or CAT score considering colleges. My mindset was towards studying for CAT 06 exam and get a good enough score to earn a GD/PI call from the colleges that I apply for. Ever since I graduated as a Computer Engineer, I wanted to go for a MBA – something which crossed my mind since school days.
There was an aptitude test conducted in school (when I was in 9th standard) for helping us know our suitable career fields. The result for me (in the year 1998 when I took this test) came and I got 2 career fields as being suitable for me:
1. Engineering
2. Management
I had already completed my BE and now I wanted to do MBA to fulfill this dream.
So, here was a dilemma – whether I should go onsite or stay back in India to do MBA. This dilemma haunted me right from that day in June 2006 until November 2006 when I finally made a choice and decided not to look back and regret.
I communicated with SG about my dilemma and here started an interesting phenomenon which I may call ‘mind games’ but I will never consider these ‘mind games’ in a negative sense as SG and me had our own stake into it, which is perfectly valid to protect.
SG, being my boss and the project manager, was right in his approach as he insisted that I go for the onshore option. Today, I can say that had I been in his place, I would have done the same – that is, retain a valuable resource. SG was doing his MBA Part Time from a reputed Institute in Mumbai. I caught this point and told him that if he was doing MBA, then why shouldn’t I do a MBA too? Each point led to another point and we both had a friendly yet thought provoking discussion over the next 6 months whenever we engaged in this discussion of going onsite. Today, when I look back, I‘d say that these discussions are part and parcel of your work experience and it is always good to communicate openly with your boss and share your thoughts.
About the application for Business Visa (as it is called B1 Visa), which was made by SG for FD and me in June 2006, it did not go much further as the people in the ODC (if I remember the name right) department told that in order to be eligible for going onsite, we both were lacking enough number of months of experience.
At that time, the norm for going onsite was:
1. For candidate having educational qualification as either Computer Engineering or IT Engineering, you had to work for a minimum for 1 year
2. For candidate having educational qualification as any other than Computer Engineering or IT Engineering, you had to work for a minimum for 1.5 years or in some cases 2 years
FD and I had not yet completed the minimum 1 year needed. So, there was no question of applying for our visa before October 2006. But SG kept trying during that period, due to some circumstances and the response from the ODC was the same.
I was preparing for CAT 06 as much as I could but my work schedule didn’t allow me to spend much time for studying. Many CAT candidates study regularly for 4-6 hours while I was getting barely 1 hour regularly to study. The discussions with SG were going on during this period. So, there was a build-up of more difficulty with each passing day on which choice I should go for.
Finally when we completed 1 year in Syntel (still not 1 year on the project or in the team), SG applied for my visa. FD had opted out as he decided to go for further studies in USA and had applied to many universities out there. I was happy for him. About myself, I was still undecided on whether I should go onsite or not.
One day, SG told me that I needed to increase my work experience artificially so that my total work experience along with the one in this team would sum up to 1 year. So, I arranged for the same by procuring a work experience certificate. I knew that this was not legal but I still went for it as I felt I deserved an onsite call because of my hard work and that my lack of adequate work experience should not be a hindrance to it as I believed in myself that I was capable enough to handle the onsite work. I backed myself to perform well if the visa was granted.
So, that was my decision – to go for the onsite option, however I gave CAT 06 just as timepass (it was on November 19 2006). That day, I went to the CAT 06 exam without any anxiety in my mind as by that time, everything was solved.
The visa was granted – I had gone to the US Consulate for the visa interview 2 weeks before CAT 06 exam. The interview went well and I was confident in answering the queries. I went through the entire, long process of deputation at Syntel which was filled up with paperwork of all kinds, petitions, forms, applications, etc. Till date, I have maintained a file of all those documents and records which I filed for the visa.
The visa which I got stamped for was a L1 Blanket visa (it is an intra-company employee transfer and a work permit) and the duration of the visa was for 4 years (that is, until November 2009). It was the first L1 Blanket visa in recent times in our team as B1 was more popular then. I guess VSP had a L1 Blanket visa when she went onsite. It wasn’t even 10 months on the team that I had completed and here I was – ready to go onsite with a L1 visa stamped.
CAT 06 was on November 19 2006 and my flight to Phoenix, Arizona, USA was right on the next day that is November 20 2006. So, naturally with everything taken care of for going onsite by the day I gave CAT 06 exam, I was tension-free and went into the exam with a peaceful mind – thinking it was a practice exam.
I had made a choice to forego MBA for the time being and decided to go onsite, get some really valuable experience on my Resume. SG had influenced my decision but I never complain of it – it was in our best interest at that time. I decided that I will not look back on this decision in life and regret it. Life is full of such moments where we will have to sacrifice one path and take up the second path. Life is a great teacher and taking difficult decisions is part of it. I learnt it through the first dilemma that I had during this time period of my life.
I end the post now having recollected as much as I could. The next post will cover my travel to USA and the initial days out there where I made new friends, learnt new skills – professional and personal (this is really going to be one hell of a post for me to write considering I have so much in my mind to write about it).
If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything in this post, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write it in my next post.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
First Six Months in GMAPS
After having introduced to you my team, I now give you an insight into the first six months of my actual work experience, starting as an ‘Analyst Programmer’.
Everyday travel went on usual – getting up almost at the same time, leaving home almost at the same time, reaching office almost at the same time but never leaving office at any regular time.
Don’t be surprised – this is what everyone expects in the life of a person who starts in the IT industry: work, work and work – be it 8, 10 or 12 hours, sometimes even more.
FD and I were going quite well along in the initial days in the project – learning and adapting quickly. We were assigned to different projects within GMAPS with FD getting some other work and some routine stuff coming in from impact requests of an upstream team, etc. I really don’t remember much of his initial work now but he was always occupied.
We often left office together – be it the 7:30 pm bus or the late 9:30 pm bus. Travelling back in these timings was painful for the mind more than the body as we were exhausted mentally by the work done in the day. People said initial days would be tough and yes, this was the live-in experience – saying it is much, much easier than experiencing it, people.
I was primarily assigned to a project named HIRST (don’t ask me anything more about it, as it is something internal to AMEX) – mentioning it here purely for referencing as a name. This project was expected to complete somewhere in the summer season and so, I was going to work on it full-time. Any additional work that came to me was also unofficially taken up in my job description (actually, there was no job description for a starter; the more you take up and deliver with quality, the more you learn and make a name for yourself). So, I was having my hands full but I loved the work which is why I never got bored with the project.
For project HIRST, the onshore contact was VSP. She was so intelligent that even before I could ask any question to her about this project (or the system in general), she would know what concerns I had and she replied with her answers or views on it. It was always tough when it came to working with VSP because she was on this higher level of knowledge which you have to reach and sustain. Tough but worth a challenge! She was very helpful to me and she explained to me in finer detail, knowing very well that I needed some time to raise my level, to come up to speed. Her support encouraged me to put in that extra effort needed. I was also learning this new system (new for me) called GMAPS which had many batch jobs (mainframe jobs) interconnected with each other, each job processing some part of the overall business flow. ROC, SOC, MNA, PNL, LTP, ECR – God knows how many sub-systems existed in the web of jobs.
The most vital documentation in those days which was handy to me was a job flow diagram prepared by VD. It was so instrumental in building my knowledge that I kept it with me until my last day in Syntel. I made sure that I would share it with each new person on the team to help that person realize the amount of intricacy that our system has – thus ensuring that person’s commitment and respect towards the system. GMAPS became like a temple of knowledge for me – one time, I was so much involved in it that one of our team mates said “Rohan lives, eats and breathes GMAPS”.
Conference calls happened occasionally with the onshore team, in which we had to report whatever work has been going on – primarily to PK who kept a keen eye on proceedings in the teams (he was always in the thick of action). I learnt many new things here such as speaking etiquettes on the conference call, how to dial in and how to conduct an effective conference call with the help of some moderator.
Project HIRST was going on fine with some changes here and there to the daily work, sometimes to the requirements – nothing dramatic if I remember it right now. Change is inevitable in the IT industry and managing this change is the key to success – as I learned this from VSP, PK and SG.
SG was always there in the middle of all team meetings at offshore and was constantly keeping an eye on how FD and I are performing. After all, he is the boss and he has to report to his boss too. But he was never too strict and rather he was helpful, jovial and constantly motivating us.
2 people in the team moved on to other avenues in their careers. Interactions continued with NC and PP as they became friendlier and started guiding us in whatever smaller ways that they could. But the major role in grooming me was coming “across the seven seas, from the other corner of the Earth” (VSP straight from Phoenix, Arizona, USA).
Very few team parties happened – mostly because of some occasions – either someone left the team, when PS got married, etc. There was hardly time from work to go and hang out together, have fun. Even if there was time, it never came across any of our minds to chill out and have a ball – we just wanted to rest, have a sound sleep at home and come back the next day to office.
My personal life was changed now with very less time devoted to family and friends on weekdays, if ever. Weekends were much better as I rarely had to go to office on the weekend; this was one of the good parts in our team which was lacking in other teams.
As time progressed by, the regular onshore call with VSP was one thing that I looked forward to – not only because she would tell me about the work for that day and discuss the project, but also because we both had started talking in general too like how was she doing out there, she asked me about the people I knew, I asked her what she did in her free time after work, etc. I remember that one particular day when I was talking on the phone with VSP for around 1 hour or more. Suddenly SG came behind and patted me on my back, I looked back in surprise but before I could say anything, he signed to me to carry on – the smiling expression clearly saying “Lage Raho Guru”. It was such a hilarious incident. After that call, when I looked at SG throughtout that day, he was constantly smiling at me and I was surprised that here is a boss who is so fun-loving that even he has started pulling my leg now.
Project HIRST made sure that I analyzed few streams of jobs right from the upstream team’s input coming into our system right upto the jobs which provide final output either in DB2 tables or on the front-end application designed in VB.
Speaking of front-end, I now remember that we regularly consulted a guy named MK for any front-end issues. I don’t remember now whether he was originally in our team or not but he was very helpful when it came to anything related to front-end. He was close to NC and they regularly sat together, joking around between themselves. This guy was really knowledgeable when it came to his domain and at that time, had got some certification from Microsoft (don’t remember exact details of this). But, to sum it up, he was a constant source of assistance to our team. Sorry for missing out on this guy in the previous post.
Six months flew quickly with FD and me learning each day about the system – analyzing many jobs, flows and programs. We were gathering useful knowledge and by the end of these six months, we had commanded some respect and acknowledgement from our team mates (offshore as well as onshore). Trust me, being recognized for your efforts works wonders for your motivation (I’d only heard about this in books but experienced it firsthand that day) – so what if the appreciation is a brief line or two in an e-mail or a word or two on the conference / onshore individual call.
I end the post now having recollected as much as I could from these six months. I won’t go too much in detail about the HIRST project as I feel it is inappropriate to discuss it in a blog. Time to move on to the next post where the first surprise for FD and me is awaiting from SG and then a dilemma begins in my mind on my future career path. It would cover a period from June to November 2006 as it is during the month of November 2006 that a HUGE, MAJOR TURNAROUND point comes straight ahead in my life. My life takes a surprising direction that I had never anticipated would come so soon.
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!
Everyday travel went on usual – getting up almost at the same time, leaving home almost at the same time, reaching office almost at the same time but never leaving office at any regular time.
Don’t be surprised – this is what everyone expects in the life of a person who starts in the IT industry: work, work and work – be it 8, 10 or 12 hours, sometimes even more.
FD and I were going quite well along in the initial days in the project – learning and adapting quickly. We were assigned to different projects within GMAPS with FD getting some other work and some routine stuff coming in from impact requests of an upstream team, etc. I really don’t remember much of his initial work now but he was always occupied.
We often left office together – be it the 7:30 pm bus or the late 9:30 pm bus. Travelling back in these timings was painful for the mind more than the body as we were exhausted mentally by the work done in the day. People said initial days would be tough and yes, this was the live-in experience – saying it is much, much easier than experiencing it, people.
I was primarily assigned to a project named HIRST (don’t ask me anything more about it, as it is something internal to AMEX) – mentioning it here purely for referencing as a name. This project was expected to complete somewhere in the summer season and so, I was going to work on it full-time. Any additional work that came to me was also unofficially taken up in my job description (actually, there was no job description for a starter; the more you take up and deliver with quality, the more you learn and make a name for yourself). So, I was having my hands full but I loved the work which is why I never got bored with the project.
For project HIRST, the onshore contact was VSP. She was so intelligent that even before I could ask any question to her about this project (or the system in general), she would know what concerns I had and she replied with her answers or views on it. It was always tough when it came to working with VSP because she was on this higher level of knowledge which you have to reach and sustain. Tough but worth a challenge! She was very helpful to me and she explained to me in finer detail, knowing very well that I needed some time to raise my level, to come up to speed. Her support encouraged me to put in that extra effort needed. I was also learning this new system (new for me) called GMAPS which had many batch jobs (mainframe jobs) interconnected with each other, each job processing some part of the overall business flow. ROC, SOC, MNA, PNL, LTP, ECR – God knows how many sub-systems existed in the web of jobs.
The most vital documentation in those days which was handy to me was a job flow diagram prepared by VD. It was so instrumental in building my knowledge that I kept it with me until my last day in Syntel. I made sure that I would share it with each new person on the team to help that person realize the amount of intricacy that our system has – thus ensuring that person’s commitment and respect towards the system. GMAPS became like a temple of knowledge for me – one time, I was so much involved in it that one of our team mates said “Rohan lives, eats and breathes GMAPS”.
Conference calls happened occasionally with the onshore team, in which we had to report whatever work has been going on – primarily to PK who kept a keen eye on proceedings in the teams (he was always in the thick of action). I learnt many new things here such as speaking etiquettes on the conference call, how to dial in and how to conduct an effective conference call with the help of some moderator.
Project HIRST was going on fine with some changes here and there to the daily work, sometimes to the requirements – nothing dramatic if I remember it right now. Change is inevitable in the IT industry and managing this change is the key to success – as I learned this from VSP, PK and SG.
SG was always there in the middle of all team meetings at offshore and was constantly keeping an eye on how FD and I are performing. After all, he is the boss and he has to report to his boss too. But he was never too strict and rather he was helpful, jovial and constantly motivating us.
2 people in the team moved on to other avenues in their careers. Interactions continued with NC and PP as they became friendlier and started guiding us in whatever smaller ways that they could. But the major role in grooming me was coming “across the seven seas, from the other corner of the Earth” (VSP straight from Phoenix, Arizona, USA).
Very few team parties happened – mostly because of some occasions – either someone left the team, when PS got married, etc. There was hardly time from work to go and hang out together, have fun. Even if there was time, it never came across any of our minds to chill out and have a ball – we just wanted to rest, have a sound sleep at home and come back the next day to office.
My personal life was changed now with very less time devoted to family and friends on weekdays, if ever. Weekends were much better as I rarely had to go to office on the weekend; this was one of the good parts in our team which was lacking in other teams.
As time progressed by, the regular onshore call with VSP was one thing that I looked forward to – not only because she would tell me about the work for that day and discuss the project, but also because we both had started talking in general too like how was she doing out there, she asked me about the people I knew, I asked her what she did in her free time after work, etc. I remember that one particular day when I was talking on the phone with VSP for around 1 hour or more. Suddenly SG came behind and patted me on my back, I looked back in surprise but before I could say anything, he signed to me to carry on – the smiling expression clearly saying “Lage Raho Guru”. It was such a hilarious incident. After that call, when I looked at SG throughtout that day, he was constantly smiling at me and I was surprised that here is a boss who is so fun-loving that even he has started pulling my leg now.
Project HIRST made sure that I analyzed few streams of jobs right from the upstream team’s input coming into our system right upto the jobs which provide final output either in DB2 tables or on the front-end application designed in VB.
Speaking of front-end, I now remember that we regularly consulted a guy named MK for any front-end issues. I don’t remember now whether he was originally in our team or not but he was very helpful when it came to anything related to front-end. He was close to NC and they regularly sat together, joking around between themselves. This guy was really knowledgeable when it came to his domain and at that time, had got some certification from Microsoft (don’t remember exact details of this). But, to sum it up, he was a constant source of assistance to our team. Sorry for missing out on this guy in the previous post.
Six months flew quickly with FD and me learning each day about the system – analyzing many jobs, flows and programs. We were gathering useful knowledge and by the end of these six months, we had commanded some respect and acknowledgement from our team mates (offshore as well as onshore). Trust me, being recognized for your efforts works wonders for your motivation (I’d only heard about this in books but experienced it firsthand that day) – so what if the appreciation is a brief line or two in an e-mail or a word or two on the conference / onshore individual call.
I end the post now having recollected as much as I could from these six months. I won’t go too much in detail about the HIRST project as I feel it is inappropriate to discuss it in a blog. Time to move on to the next post where the first surprise for FD and me is awaiting from SG and then a dilemma begins in my mind on my future career path. It would cover a period from June to November 2006 as it is during the month of November 2006 that a HUGE, MAJOR TURNAROUND point comes straight ahead in my life. My life takes a surprising direction that I had never anticipated would come so soon.
If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything in this post, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write it in my next post.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
Friday, January 29, 2010
GMAPS Begins
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!
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!
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Fun in Training Days
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!
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!
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!
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