The Day has come !!!!!

The day has come!!!

I looked back to what I was doing exactly one year before. Got up at 6 am, finished all my chores in a mixed mood of confidence and apprehension, willingness and anxiety, and wore a new formal dress I brought just two days before, and at 7.15 am, took my files and walked up to Rajeshwari Theatre, Airport Road, Bangalore. Vinai was waiting for me, and we waited for Ananth and Balaji. They came exactly 10 minutes later, and we took an auto to the Grand Ashok.

And when I came back in the evening, all the apprehension and anxiety doubled, but I was happy. I was happy to see myself holding a goodie bag with IBM in bold letters on it. I was happy that I was holding a green IBM employee temporary ID card. I was happy that I now had a salary account in one of India’s best banks. I was happy and tensed at the same time, that I was to work in one of the world’s best companies.

And almost like a flash of a second, when I come back to the present, here I am, sitting at home, tapping the keys of an IBM thinkpad, preparing to write about one of the best days of my life. For the past one year, I have traveled life at a speed of 12 months per month. It just feels like it’s a month in IBM, but my calendar disproves me.

When I count my chickens now, I have a pretty good number. IBM has taught me much. It has taught me what school failed to teach, what college failed to teach, what parents failed to teach. It has taught me to live on my own. Living on your own is one of the best boons you could ever get, and IBM has given me the best among the lot.

I don’t know if any other company would have given me what I have got here. Above all, it has given me very very good friends. I have to mention a few names here. Siva, Balaji, Venkat, Srikanth, Aravind, Shekhar, Swathi, Deepika, Shwetha, Raji, Anusha, Sushruth, Pallavi, Sandeep, Cyril, Arokia among others. I’ll never forget the days I met these people, nor I’ll forget these people for life.

I came to Bangalore with a very depressed mood. Chennai was a bit too harsh on me (not only the heat, but also a few people). Bangalore, as always, made me cool again. IBM, adding to it, made me realize what I am really capable of. I never thought I’d be able to manage the pressure and tension that amounts up working in an application like EUAM. But, IBM made it happen. I had always dreamt of a job as a teacher, like Kamal Hassan in Nammavar, or a director like himself. But IBM told me I can work in software too, that too telecom, that too AT&T, and that too, a billing application, and that too EUAM!!!!

Seriously, I’m enjoying life here now. Bachelor life, month – end crunches, friends with whom you can share everything from money to wrath, getting up late in the morning, going to office without timings like an executive director, staying back in office late nights and fighting among applications to avoid a TR, ordering food at office every night and having a great dinner, occasional cigarettes downstairs, once-a-month party with closest buddies, long telephone chats with friends, mounting up tension when we hit an escalation or a hot Severity 1 bug in UAT, Ken’s calls, IST calls, Pradeep Ganesan’s TRs and Murugesh’s habitual file-processing-only-at-night (Ha! Ha! Ha!, I’m just kidding), not-a-high salary, but pals around to manage money, and above all Swathi, Balaji, Siva,Venkat, Srikanth, Aravind, Sushruth and the one and only manager Veda around, I must say, I’m enjoying it. I’m enjoying life, I’m enjoying AT&T, I’m enjoying IBM.


Thanks everyone, without you, life wouldn’t have been life.

P.S: I have more to tell about AT&T and my friends there, and I’ll do that on December 6th.