The Hillside Villa !!

That was a lifetime opportunity to see that hill very closely by sitting at the window seat. But I could not say NO when she came and asked me for my seat. Now we are sitting near the window, inside the house, on that hill !!!

GOING DOWN THE MEMORY LANES

           Well, this was my first journey out of south india. So I was little tensed and also as excited about the same. My first step in Maharashtra was into a hotel in the early morning when I came to join my company. I thought having a coffee would be better. The first sip of the drink and I did not like it at all. The coffee was tasting like a sweet hot water with little amount of coffee fragrance. Then came the waiter with the bill reading Rs.30/-. For a moment I was shocked and confirmed that it is not the famous coffee shop “CCD” from my state. They say god beginning is half done. But what about this?. Anyhow the welcome drink was not impressive. Then only I was thinking about the consequences of staying in this state for next one year or so.

          The next thing which welcomed me into the city was a series of autos. There were hundreds of auto drivers standing near the bus door not even allowing us to get down. I almost ran away from the bus and stood in the end of the road. One driver came to me asking “tumhi kudhe(Where do u wanna go)”. As I know a little Marathi, I told him the name of the place which I had written in a slip because remembering the names of the places here is not an easy task! He took me into the proper road telling that he is not like the others who might cheat people. Self appreciation is such a thing which makes us to doubt somebody. But I did not think a lot as I was sleepy. He was explaining about the city and the places in and around. The meter was running like anything but it did not matter as he demanded me some fixed money and I gave it without wanting to create a tension in the morning. He went away telling me “Welcome to Pune” and wishing me the luck. For a moment he seemed to be a nice person.

          The most boring days of my life, our first two days of introduction to the company happened in a very nice place between the sahyadri hills here our company is situated (If someone is frustrated by the workload, he can go for a trek also). There was no one, no familiar faces; neither of them was speaking in my comfortable language. The first day and many of them were so excited to have joined the company. Some of them had come without any other option. Couple of them had no goals at all. and we were given a bundle of papers in which we wrote the details of ours again and again, and a hundred signatures. Before putting every signature I was thinking why am I here. !!.There was someone who told me after the first day that he got to know himself very better. The first day only I made a lots of friends, with whom I made fun of the lady who was speaking constantly from morning to evening on our second day.

           That was lunch time and all of us went with some employee to the food court. The first thing I noticed about the Maharashtra food was, in most of the places neither the north Indian nor the south Indian cuisine is good. The breakfast culture is completely different from what we have in our place, like our evening snacks is known as the morning food here! Sounds crazy but I should not say this is bad. Anyway the lunch was bad and it will be the same everyday with daal and roti all the time. 

          I should not forget to mention about the buses in this city. On the first day, when I just entered the city I was stunned to see a bus which reminded of 1970’s era where there were a couple of buses running with people acquiring all the parts of it. The evergreen Volvo buses of Bangalore flashed across my mind at once. The second day I actually stepped into a bus asking the conductor. He was in no mood to answer my question and told yes for everything I asked. And the bell tied to the bus to stop is a very funny thing to notice. And the bus will not stop in any of the stops for more than 10 seconds if there are a couple of persons or a big gang of people. Overall the system is the worst I can say.

          It would be wrong if I do not mention about our training which is the reason why I am here. In the initial days almost all of us were sincere, attending session on time, concentrating, wearing formal dress everyday. Slowly or u can say very soon the formals changed to jeans and the arrival time got postponed by an hour and sometimes more. One eye was on the board where the trainer was trying to fill something in our head and the other was on the computer screen not to mention chatting and facebooking or live streaming the match if there was any. The free food provided by the training centre was awesome in the beginning but soon after e liked nothing but the salad. The case studies sessions were interesting in the beginning because of the so called enthusiasm to do new things for some of them. As days go on those sessions were more enthu but discussions about everything under the sun and downloading the stuff from the internet at greatest speeds. The friendship and the understanding between all the colleagues was awesome and we did a trekking or two in between and lending a helping hand whenever wanted. I cannot forget the many fundas we discovered in DC sitting with the friends in the cloudy evenings. Then there was the drama of the exam at the end with everyone coming up with a rumour everyday. The exam was the same as the internals we had in the colleges. Overall we were not at all feeling like we were working for a company barring some 3-4 cards and a couple of registration and entering our attendance by ourselves (even proxy was allowed..ssssshhhh.. ). 

          The only person with whom I am conversing in Kannada frequently is my roommate. The weekend breaks were leading us to MG Road or FC road most of the times and having food outside to get rid of the special and sometimes meaningless food provided to us by the dabbawala. I had a big blast doing a big trip of two weeks visiting my all my friends and relatives.

          In this span of three months I have learnt to live staying away from my close friends, I have missed the idly sambar, dosa and my beautiful village, I have started cooking. Everything is an experience in life. I was very enthu about visiting and staying in Pune but the motherland has its own beauty and it has no ords to explain. but I am happy that I am living in a relatively good city, if not I would have been somewhere else (refer my last post).

Life changes within a click. Within a second a birth or death occurs. Within no time a common becomes a star. The change is the necessary thing in the world. Someone rightly said “Be the change u want to see in the world”. Adapting to any conditions is the most important thing in the world. If something is not going well, turn it around in your way such that the world follows the same rule set by you. This is what I have experienced in the last three months.

          I am writing this post just because I am not finding any other options to pass time because it is almost a month I am sitting at home without a project and getting the money for it. Hopefully I will write one more post about the initial days of project soon.

AM I UNLUCKY? ?;-)

PART 1

The fun was never ending until I(We rather) shocked everyone with having a very bad underwater experience. Yeah!!I fell into water. It was the class trip to Madikeri some 4 months back. It was a nice evening and we had lunch at evening  4.30 I believe!!After having lunch, as usual we planned to have fun playing inside water. The water in dubare was not clean though but we did not care. To beat the heat, we had no options left. Though I did not know swimming, I got a Joshhh to get inside the water since I thought it was the better option to stand outside and click the photos J so I got down into water, the level was not very high though at the beginning. So I walked forward till the water came to my neck level. There I did the biggest mistake!! Asked my idiot friend Kulfi if the level is same throughout, and he told yes. I believed because he was still upside only though he s very chotu compared to me . I took one step and god!! I was inside the water. 

                It seemed like I am saying a goodbye to all of u. Remembered my mom, my dad, mr.god, my friends, my childhood, almost all the life came in front of my eyes within a second.(This maybe the better way to remember everything which you have forgotten). Well, I came and saw the outside world thrice before going completely inside the water. Someone was screaming my name, someone was trying to pull me, somebody tried to push me though it was not intentional. Finally I grabbed one hand and came out of the water myself. Well I cannot say I was completely unlucky because I got the experience of the last moments of the life. It may help me in future. 

PART 2

It was after my reading holidays, we decided to come to Mysore in bike for the first time. The owner of the bike, Mr. Madhusoodan, one of my closest pals, was sitting behind me. It was between Puttur and Sullia.. The road was free of traffic. But the traffic did not mean only the vehicles at that time. I realized it only when we encountered with a crazy bull at the steep turning. Disk break did not work. We were doing disco on the road within a second. Lol!! Anyway with a very minor scratch on the hand, it was happy ending. But unlucky bike, brand new and got the first scratch in my hands!! 

PART 3

This is related completely to my career and interviews. First of all I got into IBM  GBS on Jan 18^th with full josh of the brand name. But later repented like anything to be a mass company piece with the well known ECE, again a brand name. 

                The careernet, the well known consultancy had conducted a pep test some months back. Because of that I visited Bangalore as many number of times as I had come in my lifetime. First in queue was CGI. Though I was not at all interested to attend, I came because of a function to attend. They conducted three rounds and told I was done with only two rounds. Third round was like a sleeping pill. The interviewer was walking out once in ten minutes and finally I was informed to leave without the offer, got the travelling expenses though, that too for Rajahamsa bus. It was midnight 1’o clock when we reached Mysore.

                The next in queue was the well known Texas Instruments. The call had come only to me and the topper of the class Mr.Abhi, microchipian Jand it was only for the written test that day. We went to Bangalore in 6.45 train and stepped in the city at 10.15 exact. The chapathi’s from abhi’s house were the only thing in our stomach. Since the reporting time was 11, we catched a volo bus to electronic city which cost us Rs.45/- each, 3 rupees more than what we had paid for coming all the way from Mysore to Bangalore. I was one among the six candidates who had come to write the testJ The test was quite easy since we had forgotten almost all the concepts. But almost all the aspirants were telling the same, I thought there might be a little chance of getting through. But till date, I did not get the call or mail J

                The next thing was ISRO, which was a well planned Bangalore trip with my Mangalore friend Deepak(bundle) batta and the new friend with my own name.  The written round had almost all questions from antennas text book, which we could not figure out in our course only. Then it lead to the roaming in Mantri mall and attending friend’s reception.

                Ittiam,the well known DSP company had called for the interview. First time in my life, got up at 3.30 A.M. to catch the 4.30 Mangalore train. Madhu, Anjan  and Adiga accompanied me. The written test was quite easy and we played TT and carrom. Almost all were telling they have left hope but it was sure everyone must have had a little hope inside their mind. Finally it was the time to announce the list of those who got shortlisted for the interview. Jesus!!My name was there as the second person out of six! We were served a lunch for free.  It tasted good but we were not bothered about the taste at that time since we were not informed that the interview will be on the same day. Anyway, I was waiting outside the interview hall with my close friend Sandy with Anjan getting drilled inside for about 45 min!! It was my turn later. The interview went well according to me. But their opinions did not match mine. So it was again a NO.

                The Chinese company Huawei Technologies was the fifth off campus turn for me just 20 days back. The guy who interviewed me did not know a single word in E&C. He told it openly and asked a series of C programs and a couple of Puzzles. In between he forgot some two puzzles in the middle J Finally after giving a good impression, I was told to leave for the day. So one more down.!!

                This is the most recent and happened on very unlucky day. The meaning of the phrase in bold letters will be known in Part 4. The Samsung people had called for recruitment through elitmus. The venue was Oxford college near electronic city.  I went alone and found all north Indian faces with holding big epics of software engineering and discussing seriously. This made me to think whether to write or not!! Finally I found a bunch of friends from our college. The written rounds were easy as usual but it was again just not my day.!!

PART 4

                This is probably the most disappointing moment in my life. This was the day I could not make it into Samsung and while coming back, I had the horrible experience of loosing my Brand new cell phone, just 4 months old L I tried to catch the bus within a moment I came to know but who will listen to me!! And its BangaloreJ Here you can hardly find the things which you lost. I lost all the 400 odd contacts which I had, moreover the so many pics which were the symbols of the sweet memories.

                Anyway all these happened in one semester that too within 4 months!! In between I have enjoyed a lot, gained a lot. But if we loose something, we will remember it forever and I guess it teaches a lesson to us. I have learnt a lot. And also I am not telling that I am the only person with problems. Well, I am going to book my flight tickets to Kolkota tomorrow. Hope I will cancel it soon.