Thank You, 2015!

Yet another 6 month period without a post on my blog, yet another resolve to update it more often and yet another promise to myself to be more active - in all aspects of life!

2015 was bad and good in a lot of ways. It started with a party with few friends, catching up with more friends and then it was back to the usual mess at workplace. Birthdays are no longer special but the one in 2015 was memorable for the wrong reasons - I got rejected at an interview on that very day and the  confidence of finding a better job in a better company took a dent. I can't remember what I prayed for on that day but I'm sure I've got more than that.

A week after getting rejected by HSBC came a 48 hour phase where I got interviewed and selected at my present workplace, Wells Fargo. It provided the much needed peace of mind at workplace. Things kept improving from there and I got the kind of work environment and colleagues I had always wanted.

Once professional aspect was taken care of, I could commit fully to marriage and as things turned out, I got married six months into my new job! The fact that I met my life partner online goes nicely with the way I like to handle my day to day transactions - online as much as possible!

A month into marriage:

Unique life event that it is, marriage deserves a special mention here. Both of us were unsure of marrying each other initially and we took a long time (reluctantly) making up our minds. I had never sat down and made a list of the qualities I wanted in my life partner so there was no "checklist" to fit her into. I said yes because she came across as a person with a clear heart and I strongly believe that is the most important thing in a life partner.

The excitement on both sides in the months leading up to  2nd December was infectious and when I headed home on 27th November on a 2 week break, I had no idea what to expect. I had decided to let things flow as they were meant to and at the end of it, everything went well and I now have another family. Friends keep asking me "How's married life?" and I have nothing but "better" as an answer.

It's always great to have someone to talk to at home, once you return after a day's work. The efforts she's taking to handle all the extra responsibilities is overwhelming. I've never been too expressive about my feelings and it works to my demerit here, as  I might end up appearing disinterested or unappreciative of her. I hope it all settles down with time, as we understand each other better. My primary concern after marriage was to make things comfortable for her here in Hyderabad. I had already shifted to our new flat and had the bare minimum stuff one would need. Once we returned from marriage, things like refrigerator, washing machine and basic furniture got added and now it looks like the flat belongs to a family.

On a personal front, I find myself to be more efficient after marriage, primarily because she's taken care of so many things at home. I have now decided to pursue my freelancer career with more seriousness and things have started well there. My dad's transfer cum promotion (and his acceptance) to Kolkata was a bit of a dampener in 2015, as he immediately faced health issues. Now that my mother has joined him there, I'm sure things will improve once they settle down.

Here's wishing everyone a happy new year. May our 2016 be better than 2015!

Redemption

It's funny - the occasions on which I get reminded to update my blog when other people mention theirs. Still, a quarterly update doesn't sound bad enough, considering the delays in the past.

A number of positives have happened since the last update, i.e. March 17th. My last 48-hr Delhi dash eventually got (over)loaded with Cricket. It was an absolute pleasure to turn up for the Annual Xavier's vs. Michael's cricket match on 22nd March. After having failed to win it on two previous occasions, it was satisfying to win the shield and turn in a Man of The Match performance at the IIT Delhi grounds. Sharing a few happy memories from the game here for my non existent readers and the future me:

Back to Hyderabad and that was when I put one final thrust into my job hunt. It had been a good 6 months of feeling like a square peg in a round hole at my previous employer's office and I was determined to redeem myself before I allowed my CV and intelligence to worsen any further. Got rejected by HSBC on my birthday but barely a week after that, things turned for good and by 15th April, I had an offer for a role and company I had been trying for since the final sem of my MBA - March 2014! Incidentally, I had just had my last (of a long series) of heated arguments with my 

then manager barely 48 hrs before putting my papers in.

I've never been the one to pick fight with someone (esp. in the professional world) but then, I've never taken a backward step either when people try to mess around. Professional, cultured managers (all employees, for that matter) have the courtesy and ability to diffuse tension through a calm dialogue but when someone tries to stamp his authority over you by raising his voice, it is only just to talk back and match his tone. That was one moment from my short 4-yr professional career that I'd put down as "most satisfying".
Keeping the grievances aside, I'm absolutely loving my time at the new job that I have. Colleagues here were generous enough to give a clear cut outline about the assignments lined up to me and allayed all my concerns. This is the kind of role I was looking forward to when I opted out of my MBA placements and decided to find something on my own in Hyderabad and it feels like the moment of redemption has finally arrived. Finding decent company for lunch in office is the only problem that has persisted from my previous job but that has more to do with my reluctance to be part of large groups (and end up wasting time) than anything else. Hopefully it won't be long before I find it.

As an icing on the cake, I got in touch with the people who coordinate cricket and chess in my new office so co-curricular activities should get rolling soon.

Now that things are moving on the right track (touchwood), it's about time I started working on my cooking. I never felt the need to learn it in a decade of staying away from home but when you mess up cooking rice (yes, plain, uncomplicated RICE!), a SWOT analysis is mandatory. Hoping to post improved news really soon!

Fun weekend ahead

Having spent the best part of the past decade away from my family members, the thought of spending time with them after months is all that is required to cheer me up. The period from 2005 to 2012 was distributed across Manipal, Mysore and Hyderabad - with a semi annual trip to home being my only solace.

Enjoyable as the engineering days in Manipal were, having a month long semester break was enough to recharge my batteries for the next semester. Fast forward to 2009 when I moved to Mysore to join Infosys for a 6 month training - there was no question of getting a week off in that period and the initial plan of sneaking in a short trip to Delhi before reporting to my Hyderabad posting didn't materialize, as it would have robbed me of the "travel reimbursement" worth Rs. 2000 (Yes, 2000 were more valuable in those days!).

For the next 3 years spending a week at home every 4-6 months was the norm. And now, I've to compress that weekly time off into a weekend. Websites like these do make house hunting easier in a new city but then, nothing like home!

Though any day off at home, away from the usual office chaos is wonderful, here's my description of what my ideal day at home is like:

The drawing room is my ideal spot, as it provides the perfect balance. A sofa to sit/stretch on, a TV right in front and a center table to place my legs and/or laptop on. All the auxiliaries such as charging point for laptop and mobile are within an arm's distance. It sets things up ideally to follow sport, have conversation with family members, play with my little nephew and keep an eye on the main door. To add to it, it is conveniently close to the kitchen which makes it easier for the screams for food be heard and acknowledged. Menu is already decided and the odd trip to the market to get raw materials for it is a small price to pay for the eventual outcome.

Typically, the day starts at around 9 am when all the family members have been awake for a while and I get the occasional luxury of sleeping till late. Newspapers have been placed at their usual place and that is one time I really feel like reading newspapers (can't explain how much I miss Hindustan Times here in Hyderabad). As the clock inches towards 10:30, my mother's patience starts running out and the initial requests to freshen up eventually turn into an order. Those are the times an otherwise punctual person like me loves to alter his eating habits at and enjoys the silence in the absence of continuous phone calls, e - mails and meetings.

The short, 2 day Delhi trip planned coming weekend promises to bring about more of such moments. And yes, throw in a bit of cricket on Saturday/Sunday morning and things cannot get better!

E - Commerce: What's the limit?

Looking at the way e-commerce has invaded our lives, you often sit back and wonder what the limit is? Is it all a short lived boom, the peak before a threatening low? Or is it just the tip of the iceberg? A small step towards a world of endless possibilities?

I still remember placing my first order online. It was the year 2010 and the order was for a non expensive book (prior to that I was the beneficiary of a free copy of Chetan Bhagat's Revolution 2020 - but that shouldn't count). Since then, the trust has grown and till now I've bought pen drives, shoes, t shirts, travel bags and what not. I went the extra mile two years back when I "tried" a website for the first time by ordering a Nexus 4 (and trusting them to deliver it all the way to Delhi from Dayton, Ohio) in March 2013. 

Yes, it took me few more months to convince my father that these e-commerce websites are not planning to run away with money paid in advance and by now I think he is also fairly convinced about them being genuine. 

Having influenced the way we buy books, headphones, pen drives, cameras, television sets, accessories, clothing, insurance, clothing, food, etc, e-commerce has found a way to break the real estate entry barrier too. In the past decade I've stayed in 5 different cities and it has involved considerable online search for accommodation. A number of sites started offering real estate search as an "add on" but housing.com seems to be the first one determined to make real estate search its core competency. For someone like me, accommodation is more than just a place to sleep. Hence, having a look at the place I am going to consider living at is of utmost importance. This is where housing website comes in handy, as you get to have a look at the pictures of the room along with other details. Nothing like going all the way to see a flat based on a post on some website - only to find it nothing more than a dustbin. 

If I give out the impression of being too choosy, picture this:

I moved into a flat one fine Sunday evening and left it voluntarily by Wednesday. The reason: filth! It's perfectly OK to move into your room and find stuff lying here and there - left behind by the previous occupant. As I would anyways have done, I decided to clean it up myself and that is when the decision to move out asap was rooted. There was no broom in the house! I went the extra mile (literally, as the nearest shop selling broom was a km away) to get a broom and clean up the room. Next day, I came to know that contrary to what I was told (maid is on leave), there was no maid! Apparently, the maid who "used to come once" had taken a break a month back (I totally understood why) and never returned. And, not surprisingly, none of the inmates considered talking to another one. The knowledge that one person couldn't recall the other person's name (and that the latch to the main door had been broken ages ago without being considered worth getting repaired) shut off whatever room I had for adjustment and here I am - in a hygienic flat with a maid, kitchen and a door knob that works!

If you want to finish, START!

As usual, the harder you try to update your blog, the more difficult it becomes to actually do it. It has been quite a journey - since the latter half of 2014 and it continues being so. Once you leave a "safe" job and decide to pursue MBA, you do not want to be in a situation where your course has ended, you are unemployed. That was never the plan. Yet, as it turned out - that was precisely the situation I was in. Yes, it had a lot to do with me being "too choosy" for the next job but then, the decision to ignore a number of companies visiting the campus had been based on what I wanted from my future job.

Come August 2014 and I was ready with my bags to play out the script I had written two years back - to return to Hyderabad and work. However, it came with a small twist in the tale - there was no job!

From then to now, I am six months into a job position that I wanted. The phase wasn't easy but then, easy and success don't get along well. Optimism has been one trait that stood out during this period. There were weeks of lull, a few interviews here and there and those unbearable "we'll get back to you" responses from HR representatives. Finally, it all got settled within 48 hours and it reinstated my belief in the age old adage "when it's your time, it's your time". 

Getting a job brought with it another set of headaches - rather pleasant ones - of relocating and house hunting. This housing website did help out a lot but then, no website can guarantee you the behavior of your prospective flatmates. For someone who is used to staying in a safe, hygienic, non "typical bachelor" environment, it is a bit too much to take if the flat you shift into is devoid of the services of a broom (and consequently a maid) and a latch on the main entrance! To add to my bewilderment, one of the inmates had a tough time recalling the name of the other one (this, after spending an year in the same flat). That was the time when I decided to end my 50 hour ordeal in that flat and moved to where I'm residing now. A flat which has a latch on the main door and where people do not fail in recalling the names of other flatmates. 

Life has kept improving in the past 6 months - bit by bit - one thing at a time. I am not entirely where I wanted but I'm getting there. After all, I'd have happily taken this position in June 2014. Hopefully the next update would be once I get there.

GATI Scamsters: Stay away from them!

One fine day, I decided to initiate the long overdue task of getting my bike transported from Delhi to Hyderabad. I (unfortunately) decided to inquire the "Big Player" of the market, i.e. GATI. It all went fine, they stated a few things up front which were:

1. You need to get the bike packed. We do not provide any packing service.
2. Pick up will be scheduled between 12 pm and 4 pm, Monday to Saturday.
3. A few documents such as the RC copy, insurance copy and ID proof copy.
4. Leave the handle lock open and empty the petrol tank.

It all seemed pretty standard to me so I went ahead and booked the pick up for Saturday, 25th October, 2014 and relaxed, hoping that they stick to their commitment of delivering it within 4 days (excluding the pick up date) to Hyderabad.

Till 25th Oct noon, i.e. a few hours earlier, I got absolutely no confirmation from their side and got suspicious so decided to prod them about what the exact status was. That is when I got to know the real story.

12:20 pm: Their executive tells me that the pick up will not happen today (despite it being "confirmed" the previous day) and that it can be done on Monday.

I was OK with that but then decided to make sure everything else was right about the deal so prodded the executive about the details of the person who would come to pick up, etc.

12:35 pm:

My parents (in Delhi, the pick up point) get a call from GATI saying that the pick up cannot be scheduled before Monday and they are provided some Pappinder's number - the person in charge of the pick up.

12:50 pm: A female calls up my parents from the no 8130195141 and tells them that "as your packing is not professional, you need to get it re-packed by "our" packer." And that wasn't enough - they were asked to get the bike delivered to Dwarka Sector 28 (GATI's warehouse). Else, provide the keys to their agent who would ride it all the way to Dwarka, get it packed and loaded.

This really was the tipping point. I decided to call up Ms. Neelam on the mentioned number and find out what really was going on.

Her initial "suggestion" was that she'll send over someone to pick up the bike and the person would drive it all the way to Dwarka (carefully tagging the line that if the keys get misplaced in the transit, Gati would not bear any responsibility). On being asked why wasn't it possible for them to do a normal pick up through a truck (as is so often the case), she said the policemen harass them if they carry bikes in trucks. This seemed bizzare to me, esp when a neighbour of mine had got his bike picked by Gati at his doorsteps last month. On further questioning, she said they do not have the trucks available for pick up every day hence they have to find other ways to get the bike.

My patience gave up at this point and I did not feel like trusting such a company with my bike. There is always a chance of them damaging the bike and then refusing to own up to it. Now I would rather wait for some more time and get my bike here by train, the next time I plan a trip home. I have done this once and it worked perfectly fine!

Still... figuring life out!

Giving up on a chance to play cricket, to attend a blogger's meet would be so uncharacteristic of me but that's exactly what I ended up doing today, primarily to shrug off yesterday's disappointment that emanated after losing out in the second round of the IIT Delhi Chess tourney. The even was fun as usual, didn't win any prize (as usual) and didn't try for it either!

Ever since I opted for Science in my +2, I've primarily been surrounded by people from the following professions:

School friends - Most of them have gone on to become engineers
Manipal engg college friends - right guess... Engineers
3 yr stint in Infosys - Engineers
2 yr MBA stint (currently on) - you guessed it right again - FULL OF ENGINEERS, as that's the qualifying criteria!

So, the purpose of attending such meets is to meet different people, from various professions and exchange ideas and I'm happy to have met people from Army, a research student, a media person who ALSO felt bored of her job and started travelling like a freak, etc etc.

Tomorrow, it'll hopefully be back to cricket and the following week would be spent in presentations, lectures, case studies and financial statement analysis. All charged up to take it - bring it on!

Stupidly lonely

Time and again, you feel yourself standing at the crossroads, feeling absolutely clueless. You haven't been betrayed by anyone, nobody has broken your heart, there's no romantic angle in the most distant of horizons and your social life is as normal as it has ever been. Yet, there's this sinking feeling threatening to break you down into bits and devour you completely. Lucky Ali's "anjaani raahon mein" and other similar songs start making more sense now and you start flipping through decade old song collection to excavate out songs of similar mood.

Despite being a mid 80s born I refuse to accept it as a mid life crisis and I dismiss the "get married" suggestion equally strongly. No health problems, no angry girlfriend, no sexually transmitted disease.. NOTHING! Probably this is the point when you feel like writing might help you out, as it has traditionally been an outlet to your feelings. A quick self examination on the mental level tells me that I'm of a sound mental condition and have plenty on my plate to even think about doing something non productive. But then, there are times when you end up doing the most unlikeliest of things at the most unexpected time. Its past midnight now and tomorrow I'm supposed to deliver a presentation, thoroughly read a case study which would enable me don the devil's hat and grill the presenters, complete a long pending article and carry on with the "fundamental analysis" tutorial that I started studying few hours ago. But here I am - making a long pending addition to my blog. Any apparent solution for this helpless situation (or can someone please state the problem for me)? May be talking to an old friend would help, but I already did that half a day today on our whatsapp group!

Oh, human nature, when'll we be able to completely decipher you?

Plenty on my plate - Loving the chaotic life!

Having completed two semesters of MBA, its that time of the year when everyone goes in different directions for internships. Internships mean different things to different people. Having been through the grind during my engineering I have realized that you can either choose to be completely ignorant to it and do it for formality's sake (and regret later) or you can show over-enthusiasm and bug your mentors to the point of irritating them. To be honest, I never believed there's so much to be done that you spent 10 hours in office for two months to get the best out of it.

The way I chose to look at it is, know your project well, get in touch with the right people who'd tell you the why and how of your project but then, keep some of that enthusiasm in reserve and spend it for other things in life. For me, its a 2 month period where you have time to explore what interests you, figure out what would differentiate you from the rest of the pack two months down the line and do stuff that you have never done in the past but always wanted to do, due to whatever reason.

I got myself admitted to swimming sessions even before I started my internship. There's a new found interest in data analytics which has urged me to explore the area. There's an opportunity to rekindle that ethical hacker inside me who got into a few college websites all those years ago and of course, read!

There are a few things that I've been lazy to do in the past. To cite an example, there was Adhaar card registration going on right inside my office building in August 2012, when my parents were there in Hyderabad and I took them around the Infosys campus. I still can't believe that the Adhaar officials had set up their enrollment centre in our office for about two months and I never bothered walking up to them! Now that everyone around me has got their cards, I finally went to my IDBI Bank branch today in Malviya Nagar and got myself enrolled. I also got my DL address changed and the next job on the agenda is to get my Andhra registered bike re-registered here in Delhi, for which I was asked to produce about 12 documents!

My freelance writing career is going on well, with the latest of my projects coming in the area that I love, i.e. network security. There's this Project X that I've been wanting to work on for ages but for various reasons (mainly laziness) it keeps getting postponed. There are a couple of examinations to be taken by mid July and yes, Cricket is going on!

I've been through this phase earlier and I'm sure I'll handle things just fine, like I have done in the past. Wish me luck!

Chess after 15 months!

The sports fest of college, Aarohan 2013, gave me an opportunity to flex my brain muscles once again, more than an year after I represented Infosys Hyderabad in January 2012 and finished the tourney as the player of the tournament. I had my reservations initially as there was no prize to be won this time around unlike the last time but then decided to give it a go as it's come to a point where intra college prizes have failed to matter. In a 32 player event it was a knock out format and I won all five of my games to win the title.Attaching a snapshot from the layer stages of the game for reference. Happy :)

P.s: trying blogger app for the first time from my nexus and it looks good.

Nexus 4 in my hands: Go to hell you arrogant, overcharging online dealers!

About 3 and a half days after unwrapping its packet, I can safely believe that the courier packet that I opened on the 16th of March was indeed for real. After a 3 - month long, useless wait for the device to be launched in India and after seeing one deadline after the other go by on saholic.com, the thing my convinced me about LG's reluctance to officially launch LG E960 to India was the fact that it launched Optimus G here for over 30k, which was an obvious indication that they're not going to shoot themselves in the foot by launching a similar spec phone for two-thirds the price.

The real hunt started in the first week of March and a friend in the US obliged by ordering it for me in the Play Store there. The next problem was to get it shipped to India, as Google doesn't ship its products out of the country. I started with an intensive search for it and at last, I stumbled upon the way that the online dealers like firangibhai and those on ebay are using to sell the same product at a premium. I couldn't believe that even after paying a double digit percentage of the phone's cost for shipping, I easily saved a considerable amount for the 16GB version. It's not a bad business idea, I tell you, but that is a thought for some other day. If you look at the entire thing rationally, it would suggest my craziness levels, as after all, I've just paid for a phone and got it. But then, getting it imported from thousands of miles away, expecting it to reach me with no damage at all and risking a substantial five figure amount was a first for me and I'm glad that it came off well. It gives me the guts to try out even more Google products in the future, if India continues to be ignored by them.

The most expensive handset bought by me till date has not disappointed me at all since its arrival. There is lots of technical stuff written about it on the internet so I won't get into that. However, what would make you take notice is the speed with which it operates. Add to it the seemingly unending 2GB RAM that allows you to add as many apps as you want, and you have just about the perfect phone. You'll never know what a "pure android experience" means unless you try it out. I got a first hand account of the software upgrades when I connected the phone to my home's wi-fi network. It shipped with Jelly Bean 4.1 and as soon as it got connected to the internet, it prompted for an upgrade to 4.2.2 and it finished up in no time at all. Compare it to the other Android manufacturers, with whom you have to wait for them to release the upgrades which typically runs into months. Samsung has even been notorious enough not to release an upgrade at all for Indian devices.

The battery did worry me a bit but once you turn on the power saver mode and switch off those needless, battery consuming screensavers(Google wants to call it Daydream) it would be sufficient to last one full day of office, which is what smartphones do these days. All in all, a much better choice than that cheap looking, plasticky Samsung Galaxy S3 or Grand. I HOPE the next Nexus devices(expected to be announced in May) comes to India at an equivalent price and put the overpriced iDevices in place.

Exam Bloopers...

Writing examinations after you have worked for a good 3 years (that too in the IT industry that is notorious for converting energetic college graduates into lazy, code-stealing couch potatoes) can be quite a task. I discovered it over the past 5 days, as I tried to negotiate my way through a barrage of 1 - hr MBA papers.

One good thing about the MBA course is that there are only 2 or 3 papers that are not related at all to the current affairs. One of the very few good habits I had developed post my graduation was to stay abreast with the current affairs, be it via reading newspapers (Infosys bench time has a lot to contribute towards this) or by following the debates on NDTV or Times Now. So, I have pretty much become a jack of all trades when it comes to current affairs. Secondly, having worked for a considerable duration in a highly organized private company gives you a fair idea about the way management issues are handled. To sum up, out of the 8 first sem papers, there were 3 papers I had no idea about, prior to joining the course and my aim was to concentrate on those. To add to these, I have become a surprisingly attentive student here, taking giant strides from my last or second last row seeking school/college days to settle in in the second row regularly here, which virtually leaves me with no option but to concentrate, not a bad thing to happen!

The 8 - ppr, 5 - day long ordeal unfolded on Monday, with the Management Concepts and Applications paper the first in line. As the name suggests one could ramble on and on about what are the tasks of a manager, how he handles stuff and get away with it, which is exactly what I did. The  normal exam time table had scheduled 2 papers for us each on Tuesday , Wednesday and Thursday, one from 10 am and the other from 2 pm. Given that we're less than two months into the course, the syllabus was pretty manageable and my strategy was to study for the second paper in the 3 hour gap. Tuesday and Wednesday passed off fairly well with this strategy.

Come 11:15 am on Thursday, when I was sitting in a friend's room (after having fared fairly well in the accounts paper which ended at 11 am), planning to study 150 odd slides with him for the next paper which was completely theory based and the kind of lecturer we had for that paper blitzed through them @ 5 slides per minute, which made it impossible for even an attentive mortal like me to grasp anything. As I was getting comfortable, he broke the silence of the room, saying, "Let's make it fast, we've hardly got 10 minutes".

Have you freaking lost it? - was what I screamed mentally.

"What do you plan to do for the rest of the 165 minutes after that?" - is what I actually asked him.

His reply would have made any decent student freeze, but not me, thanks to the highs and lows (mostly lows) of my Electrical Engineering course, where I had even gone to write paper A thinking that paper B was scheduled then!

His next words were, "Today's time table says that there will be just half an hour's break between the papers, in case you haven't noticed... and we've already spent 20 minutes of that".

From my end, THAT WAS IT!!! I didn't even bother looking at the uncountable slides that contained answers to the questions I was about to encounter in the next hour. How the paper went would be a moot question now. However, there came a point in the examination when I could hear people discussing answers and I could not even relate them to the questions!

One Final Time - My Last Words to Infy

It's been more than a month since I parted ways with Infosys Ltd after a near 3-yr journey and totally unexpectedly, I'm still receiving compliments for the last day mail that I dropped to let the concerned people know about it. Although I planned to dedicate an entire blog post to that topic, elaborating upon the exact reasons behind my decision (which will eventually be published), I would like to share the mail with my almost non existent reader base. So, here it goes : 

For every dream that’s born, There’s a dream that dies

For every Hello you say, there’s a sad goodbye

After having seen the past 2 years and 10 months zoom by in the rearview mirror, here I make an impossible, last-gasp attempt to sum up my journey from e-joining to e-separation, which started on 14^th September 2009 and is all set to end today, as I go out seeking a Nitrous boost for my career and “running a marathon” doesn’t exactly feature in my priority list. I’ve got enough material to publish a book and I’m trying my best to keep it short but then, if you have got this mail there would be something you would be interested in reading, so please bear with me, one last time J

Mysore time, as most of you would agree (I know a few who won’t), rates right at the top and its incredibility defies narration. It was the perfect passage from college corridors to the cubicles. Trying to convert the waywardness of a fresh engineering graduate into the mannerisms of a professional in that environment was an experience to be cherished for a lifetime.

Hyderabad was my destination after training and this is where I got to know the inside picture. The words here are too precious to be wasted on the names behind the following incidents so I’d restrict myself to a couple of incidents. When you approach your SPM for a genuine query and he “ misses your mail” once and then promises to “get back to you” after being reminded repeatedly and finally turns a deaf ear for more than 4 months, you do lose trust and respect. The foundation for separation had been laid at that time itself and then when I saw myself at the wrong end of a couple of more logic-defying, random verdicts, the difficult decision of leaving your first company after a good 3 years got easier. At the same time, it gave me inspiration, that when people like THOSE can reach the positions they have now, a lot of us have bright futures. However, glad to have worked under people like Calvin (MS Account) and Mani (BMW account), who were understanding and accommodating enough.

I have always been a sports buff and prior to joining Infosys, I had made the best of friends either on a cricket field or across a chess board and I’m really proud to say that joining Infosys Hyderabad didn’t change that one bit, so here are separate sections dedicated to both the groups:

Infosys Hyderabad Cricket Team: You are the bunch of people who have been my family away from home. The best thing about sportsmen is that they always have mutual respect for each other and gel well with their teammates, irrespective of the talent they have. You guys are true testimony to that. I could completely be myself in your company. The cricket ground is the place where I could shout at someone one day and then forget everything and team up with the same person the next day, as there was a game of cricket to be won! The best thing about this group is that in the past 2.5 years, the entire crop has been replaced and yet the new guys who come in are equally passionate about the game and meet the high standards that had been set previously. I started out as an unknown entity on 4^th June, 2010 in iHCL and I ended up as a player for the Organizers’ team for P3L2 on 5^th July, 2012. Thanks to you guys that today, whenever I walk to the cricket ground in the evenings, I always find company, be it over a cup of tea, analyzing someone’s game, doing the rounds around the ground or just sitting idle!

Infosys Hyderabad Chess Team: Your unending passion for the game ignited the almost-dead interest in Chess in me and I’m thankful to you for that. I still rem the first day when San.Two (commonly Santosh J) replied to my post on sports BB, where I was trying to find out Chess enthusiasts here. I never knew the association would lead me to the best player award in the Corporate Tournament in 2 years’ time! We started out 2 years ago, when all but 1 of us were unmarried and we used to tease him when he refused to stay back past 7 or 8. Now, I’m glad to say that I’m the only bachelor who survived the tough test of times over the past two years and pull your legs on the same topic. On a serious note, you guys have done a great job for the game here and the ITsAP Title is down to your hard work. Please note that I would be waiting for the trophy post the award function and I’m burdening you with the responsibility of sending it to me J.

A big thanks to Amiteshwar Sir, Jit Sir, Amitabha Sir and Shobana for promoting sports in Hyd DC. It is the most active DC and it was a pleasure and honour to be a part of the sports community here. Not to forget the facilities, security and the housekeeping people. You are the unsung heroes of this campus and your commitment to work, despite it going unnoticed most of the time, is something to look up to.

There are a lot of you who don’t fall under either of these groups but are no less important. Thanks a lot for your time (on and off Infy Communicator J ) and friendship, which, I’m sure, will last forever. And of course, how can I forget the Public Folders? Be it the repeated, heated and (sometimes) pointless debates, the faster-than-google responses to my queries, the super quick response in buying/selling things and the SWOT analysis of a particular vendor’s menu, you guys always keep it going and ensure we don’t have to venture out of our cubicles to have fun.  There’s nothing good about this goodbye but then, a goodbye isn’t painful until you’re never going to say Hello again, and I’m looking forward to the time when our paths cross again. These addresses (Jasmine – 97, L&T Serene County;  G-01, Sri Sai Rithvik Enclave, Whitefields; 201, Shilpa Nest, Shilpa Park and 303, Sai Priya Residency, Whitefields) as well as their occupants would be very special and the time spent there is priceless. I dare you guys to release any of the videos that were shot!!!

Jayant Shekhar

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Marching On...

On a fine evening of 3^rd May, 2012 (exactly 4 months ago), I was leaning back at my 1^st floor located office desk of building no. 4, Infosys Hyderabad STP Campus, where I shared space with 15000 more employees. My eyes were staring exactly opposite to the screen, at the pleasant emptiness created by the clear blue skies which appeared black through the dark glassed window.  For those who have known me in office, it was an uncommon sight on two counts. First, I was almost NEVER found at my desk in the 5 pm – 7 pm interval. Cricket ground, gymnasium and the New Food Court (NFC) used to be the top 3 bets if one of my friends had to place one on finding me in that period. Secondly, those who have worked with me would know that I have never been the person to stop and think like that on work related issues, no matter how critical the problem.

“So, leaving the company?” – came a voice that brought me back from the skies. It came from a senior colleague, whom I shared the floor with. E – separation was probably one of the most frequently used applications of the Infosys intranet in Q1, FY ’13 and I was adding to the usage. For the uninitiated, it is an online, automated application using which Infosys employees who want to part ways with the company initiate their notice period.

“Yes, time to go”. I uttered, punctuating it with one of my most genuinely fake smiles to give the impression of being very casual about it. However, it was not the case and I was still in two minds, which is why, despite having filled out the form, I hadn’t clicked on the “Initiate” button.

In order to avoid further conversation, I rotated my chair 180 degrees to face my workstation, trying my best to look busy.  It all sounds so very fancy, when you go out and announce to your colleagues that you are leaving the company but arriving at the decision is by no means easy. In my case, it was going to be all the more difficult, as I was not going to join a top notch MBA college, for which you don’t have to think twice. I had to choose between two courses, one of which was an MBA in Power Management from NPTI Faridabad, a college generally unheard of, however famous it might be in the Power Sector. Second, and more glamourous, choice would have been to opt for SP Jain’s executive MBA program (PGCIM), which offered a one year course, with six months to be spent in SPJAIN Mumbai and IESEG, France each.

My CAT 2010 score of 96.98 %ile had ignited hopes of a better score in myself as well as amongst my family members and friends, who were all the more surprised when I managed to underperform to on my way to scoring 89 %ile in CAT 2011. Though my options were limited, a decision had to be made, as I could not have continued in the company. The reasons were many but the most dominant one was that I was not enjoying it any more, all those hours spent in playing Cricket and Chess during office hours notwithstanding. I am a month into my course now and have already been quizzed about 50 times about “Why did you leave Infy?” – a question which probably requires another blog post.

Looking back at things has never been my nature and now that I am a month into the course, I do not dislike it. I have put in conscious efforts of maintaining a low profile and cutting down on the distractions and have been successful to a great extent. Infosys and Hyderabad days are being missed and they will always be. However, this has been a change that I genuinely sought for some time now. This gives me enough spare time in a day to pursue things that I always wanted to. The greatest incentive is that I have my weekends all to myself, in which I can go home and relax, play with my  18 month old nephew, spend time with my family and come back refreshed on Monday morning to take up the challenges of the next five days.

A chapter about to end, another one about to start

It's been more than 2 years when I reluctantly came to Hyderabad, as this was where I got posted to after my 6 month training in Infosys Mysore, which were outright heavenly, to say the least! There was reluctance, there was apprehension and there was excitement in my steps as I moved around the Hyderabad airport, trying to recall the terms my long time college friend Sagar (who was one of the two college friends I knew here) had told me the previous night. I scraped around for "AeroExpress" and bought a ticket for "Hi-Tech City" (What a Loser Name - was my first thought about it!!!) and reached the place in 45 minutes. Sagar had come at the bus stop with Anubhav and within half an hour, I was with them at their flat, sharing my experiences of the Mysore training days and, since it was Anubhav and Sagar throwing questions at me, the typical "How many girls" and "what happened to so and so girl" were natural.

Someone has probably fast forwarded the past two years that were eventful in many ways. Projects were taken up and completed and each passing day made me question myself, "Do you really see yourself doing this for the next 5 years". The initial answer was "No" and it remained the same even though one project was completed after the other. After a certain point, the decision to go for MBA was made and that was the time real fun began. Once you give two hoots to your appraisal/growth/skill set (and other such nonsense), you can really ENJOY and that's what I decided to do.

A glimpse into Infosys Hyderabad campus - Glory Days!

The fact that despite being a part of 4 different projects none of my friends belong to any of those teams speaks volumes about how much I cared for them. The icing on the cake is the fact that I once got a feedback that I don't "gel well enough" with my team. Normally I am not the one to isolate myself but then when you are in a group of  10 people, 9 of whom prefer chit chatting in their own language, you can't help yourself from avoiding them for the rest of your lives.

Anyways, that left plenty of room for friendships to be formed via sports and that is how the friend circle got formed here. Nothing better than having like minded, unselfish, helpful friends in a new city.
 The joy for CRICKET was rediscovered, friendships were formed on and around the Infosys Hyd Cricket Ground, the realization struck that I am not a technical guy and won't want to continue in the IT field, etc, etc. 2 years is a long time and all of a sudden, people who formed my "core group" here in Hyderabad have gone different ways. Now they are working out of different cities, different countries, different companies and some have gone back to colleges to give the finishing touch to their career, i.e. to take the inevitable "MBA" plunge. I am no exception and two months down the line, I would also have joined the MBA bandwagon.
Don't know what the future holds but I'll have to do it all over again, i.e. moving to an alien city, carving my own niche, forging my own social circle and yeah... there's an MBA degree to be completed and a job to be found. Exciting two years ahead in Faridabad!

Last 5 months... it's been quite a trip

5 months back, had someone asked me the last preferred time for blogging, I would have said "Friday Night" before the person could bat an eyelid. Yet, that's precisely what I'm doing now. Life is a lot different and organized now than what it used to be. Things that have changed between then and now go beyond the last digit of the "yyyy" part of the date, things which I wanted to eke out in this blog but they never got beyond the "drafts" section. Friends have switched jobs, moved out of the city, a new one has come in, old friendship has been revived, gymming has become a religion, egos have clashed, cricket matches have been lost, my nephew has got cuter and naughtier, an almost-certain transfer to mysore has been defied, a chess championship has been won both as an individual and as a team, I've moved into a new project and yeah, the BIGGEST news is that the much feared CAT-astrophe HAS eventually happened. Not that I expected to top this time but then, I'm sure it would have come down to "those 3-4 questions" which, if solved quicker, would have been the difference between an 88.61 %ile and the one on the right side of 96, the one that I had last year! In a way, it has sorted out a few things. In the past few months I've got a new reason to stay here in Hyderabad and keep pressing. Work or no work, office never drew more than "just enough" attention from me. But now, having been working for 2.5 years, the thought of taking a 2-yr break for "possibly" a better job wasn't exciting me enough and thankfully, I got a CAT score that has really sorted things out.. talk about being an optimist!!!

2012 started off with a completely unplanned trip to Pune. Being a VERY organized person when it comes to my travel dates, I still can't believe that I decided to catch the 9 p.m. bus to Pune (for a 3 day trip) at 7 p.m, DURING a game of Chess! As I've discovered in the past, such unplanned trips often turn out to be the best ones an this one went exactly that road. The trip did little to change my perception that Pune is a GREAT weekend getaway but settling there, specially in the IT industry, is a STRICT no-no (hence it joins Bangalore in my list of "Cities I'd NEVER want to settle in"). It was my 4th visit to Infosys Pune since completing my Mysore training, spread over a period of nearly 2 years - and the observation that couldn't escape my eyes was the continuous decrease in the no. of known faces you bump into in the food courts there. Nontheless, it was great to catch up with whoever is left. 

Closer home, the weekend right after returning from Pune was occupied by the Inter Corporate Chess tournament, hosted by Infosys. It was open to more than 60 IT/ITES companies in Hyderabad. Last year I could not participate despite being selected for the team, as it clashed with my leaves. However, lightning missed striking twice very narrowly this time, as the tourney fell on the weekend sandwiched between the Pune-trip weekend and the one on which my family visited here. I've never been in favour of playing more than one serious game of Chess in a day but as has become a norm now, we had to play 7 games over a 2-day period. Considering it was a corporate tournament, you get some very good players who make you think so hard that at the end of the day your mind completely goes blank. Day 1 turned out relatively easy for me, as the opponents from D.E. Shaw and HSBC blundered once each, which was enough for me to mount an attack and then there was no looking back. Day 2 was the real challenge, in which we were required to play 4 games. I got a walkover in the first one, as my opponent was too lazy to come at 9 a.m. on a Sunday.  The next game(Round 5) would rate pretty close to one of my best defensive games, in which, despite trailing by quite a bit throughout the game, I made quick enough moves to leave my opponent short of time and claim a win. The Swiss League format is such that if you keep winning, your opponents for the next draw keep getting tougher. Round 6 was a bit of an exception, in which I went for the good old english opening with black which confused my opponent. Round 7, the last of the lot, turned out to be thrilling, as I was again trailing all the time but somehow kept fighting. In the end, my time did run out but I had made my move which would have caused my opponent a forced mate in the next move. Since I didn't have enough time, the points were shared and I ended up as the only unbeaten player with 6.5/7 points, which was not bad at all. My teammates Vishal, Parthipan, Rohit and Rizwan also fared great in their games, which ensured we won the tournament by a distance. Beating Sanjay Saxena was the best moment for me, as he was one trouble maker who was accusing Infosys of cheating in "every tournament in the past". He did end up as the 2nd best player though. 

Ok, enough of Chess bragging now. Bhaiya-Bhabhi's visit to Hyderabad last weekend came at the perfect time. Having the excuse of guiding them through the city, I also explored a few places I had never been to, including the Golconda Fort, Zoo, Charminar and revised the places such as Lumbini Park and Eat - Street. They were tiring-but-enjoyable 3 days and am looking forward to my next Delhi trip in mid Feb to join my family in celebrating nephew dearest's 1st birthday :-)

The 2 non-manipal people out of 4 have moved out of our beloved 4 BHK abode and guess what... 2 manipal people have joined in. Things couldn't have been more perfectly timed. Not that Nitin and Deepak were any trouble, but now, the 4 of us - Sagar, Anubhav, Vinit and myself are from the same college, same batch and our flat still has a car and a bike :). 

All in all, Hyderabad hasn't been a bad place to stay, after all. A city where I am at my office desk within 10 minutes of starting from home, a city where I've made a lot of good friends on my own and have the company of few of the old timers and a city I ddin't initially want to come to! Yet, there seems to be some void... that one missing piece that'll complete the picture. What is it? Even I don't know for sure!

That Talismanic Jinxer!

It was exactly a week ago that Anubhav, the only friend of my engineering group left here in Hyderabad, responded with the question, "WHAT??? YOU also feel sick?" to my initial statement after returning from office, which was, "I'm feeling a bit weak and feverish".
The fact was that I had resumed office on Monday, 7th Nov, after a rejuvenating 11-day Diwali (and CAT exam) break at home. For a good part of past 4 months I had one injury or the other which prevented me from gymming, playing cricket and tennis, running, etc (pretty much everything physical). On top of that I preferred to save my energy for my supposed CAT preparation session, which was supposed to take place every night (why it never actually happened is a story for another day).
So, the point is, once i returned, I was fully fit, had got CAT out of the way with an average, accuracy-dependent performance and was raring to go. Monday started with a little gymming and running around the cricket ground of office, Tuesday got more intense and on Friday I went full throttle, starting my evening with cricket practice at 5 pm and ending it with Tennis at 8:30, sandwiching running and gym between the two. Add to that riding home in a sweat-drenched sleeveless, with that poetic "wind-blowing-in-my-face expression" and you have all the ingredients for falling sick.
Anubhav has known me since the time we first met in train while going for our Manipal counselling and truth be told, I've probably never fallen sick since that day in May, 2005(TOUCHWOOD). And, given that he has a good memory (He still remembers the release dates of all the movies that released in the year 2000-2001!!!) his question wasn't random. However, one main reason has been the fact that the day I stepped out of home for joining my engineering college 2147 km away, I was conscious of my health and made sure that nothing goes wrong. Being bed-ridden with your family all around you feels bad enough so I didn't want to experience that with no one around. Thankfully, I made friends that would last this lifetime in that journey (which was supposed to take 36 hours but ended up taking 60, thanks to Mumbai floods!) but still, I hope you got my point.
Fast forwarding to that eventful Friday: When my ability to fall sick was doubted, I uttered a few curses, drank a glassful of hot water and retired to bed, hoping I don't wake up with a temperature on the wrong side of 100 Farenheit. I didn't.I thanked The Almighty and started aggressive planning for the 2-day weekend. But probably I had thanked God too early. I noticed a small lump on my left thigh and ignored it, choosing to go out shopping instead. The next day it had taken the shape of an inflammation and its head had changed colours from red to white. Still, it was small enough to force me into bothering. By Sunday evening it had started spreading and I decided to go for my typical "all or nothing" method, in which I turn to my ever so reliable after shave lotion to burn the acne into extinction. Stubborn as it was, it refused to just die down and had grown to challenging proportions by the next (Monday) morning. Since then, I've been on a dose of pain-killers followed by antacids followed by anti biotics.Needless to say, I've not been able to walk without pain this whole week, leave alone sports and gym. Can't put to words how frustrating it is to turn up at the Cricket Ground in office at 5 pm and watch the team practice. Thankfully there has been some improvement in the past 24 hours and as of now, I'm targeting the Sunday 2 pm practice session. Fingers crossed...

2011 Round - Up

To say that the blog isn’t getting updated often enough would be cliché to say the least, but who cares? As long as you have the will and drive to write, time will follow. To blame it on office work or the looming CAT exam would be the fashionable vindication I would have used had it not been my own blog. Thus, despite the office, sports and non-existent CAT preparations, pure, unadulterated, untainted and utter LAZINESS would be the reason, as usual.

Bulk of 2011 has whizzed past already and before I realize, whatever little is left of it will follow suit. “Reflection” would possibly be too divergent a word from my character, as I’m not too fond of looking over my shoulder. Still, never a bad time to do a reality check and see how the year affected you.

The last year ended on a high. In college days, Goa trip was too frequent for people from Manipal but as a student you’re always trying to limit your expenses. It was after one of such trips in 2008 that five of us, i.e. myself, Sagar, Anubhav, APS and Omveer (the Jaat ;) ) had decided that once we start earning, we’ll celebrate a New Year in Goa, the perfect time for witnessing peak crowds. Given that we were spread across three cities, the planning started in September itself and to our credit, things went off well and barring a couple of hiccups, we had a great time.

Return to Hyderabad ticked off the countdown for CAT results, something that I wasn’t too keen about, given my lack of preparation for it.  12^th Jan was the day CAT-2010 results were declared and more than my own score, I was happier for Sagar’s score of 99.73 %ile, which got him calls from all the IIMs and eventually, it translated into final calls from Bangalore and later, Ahmedabad. APS came in from Bangalore to join in the celebrations as well. My own score was not much of a consequence for me, as I was not willing to get started with my MBA without working for two years and secondly, I had underperformed in my book, as I had left a few questions without even reading them. A score of 96.98 gave me the confidence that it wasn’t beyond me to score better.

The month of February was the best of the lot, as we welcomed a baby boy to our family. My nephew was born on 18^th of February and that explains why I’ve visited home 4 times this year, massively contrasting the usual 2 trips a year regime that I had followed right from my engineering days.

May-June brought with itself the time that I live for in Infosys, the annual cricket tournament. 2010 was my debut year and I was little known then but thanks to my man of the match performance on debut, I was a better known name this year and as a result, was promoted to Tier 1 from Tier 3 J. I was on leave for the period leading up to the start of the tourney and that was the reason I was dropped from the starting 11 in our first game itself! Its never easy to sit out of a game of cricket and though you have to keep a brave face and keep smiling, it is impossible to do if you know that you are better than quite a few people who are on the ground. I took it on the chin and earned my place back from the second game onwards. What followed was a string of good performances by my team, which ensured that we finished at the third spot. I was famous for shouting at my captain and vice captains during a game, as I didn’t agree to their on-field decisions, which cost us the game and a place in the Finals, which doesn’t come on a platter every day. After shouting at him on and off the field, I didn’t even bother shaking hands after the game. Thankfully, I sorted myself out during the weekend and we played as a team  in the 3^rd place playoff on Monday. More than the cricket, it was the friendships that I formed during the tournament which I cherish, as you don’t meet like-minded people with common interests and apt sense of humor every day.

In July the trials were held for the inter DC Cricket tourney in Mysore and as my luck would have it, I injured my shoulder on the very first day of practice, which meant I wasn’t able to rotate my arm for about two months. Nevertheless, I did travel to Mysore with the team. We crashed out of the tournament in the semis, losing to the eventual champions, Mysore! If you’ve joined Infosys as a fresher and got trained in Mysore, you develop a soft spot for the place so honestly, I didn’t feel too bad about losing to them.  Secondly, it gave me a chance to go to Mysore Campus again and re-live the memories of my training days. I tried my best to do it but the fact is that Mysore isn’t the same without those colored tags, those assignments and unending module tests.

October brought along the annual sports fest of Infosys Hyderabad – Hydrenaline 2011. Though cricket will start off later this month, all the other games are over by now and I captained my MFG team again in my second love – Chess. We had a first round exit last year and it was personally very disappointing, as I did win 2 out of my 3 games last year but sadly, the teammates couldn’t earn even half a point from their 6 games. This time I was more careful with the trials and it paid off. We finished the tourney in the 3^rd spot which was quite an achievement, given that we had been seeded 7^th in the 14-team event.

Another memory of October would be the fact that I got courteously scolded by one good looking female for offering her a chocolate for her birthday. Can’t really recall the last time such treatment was meted out to me, so I’d like to think of it as a lesson in “When not to offer a chocolate to a girl”.

It was nice to spend Diwali with family after years and then take the CAT exam a week after it. Though the exam went OK, it missed getting into the “excellent” category by just 3 or 4 questions and I just can’t overstate the importance of it. Still, hopes are high and 11^th January will be the Judgement Day.

The best part is that now I can look forward to go back to office and relax, spend time with friends, hopefully add a new friend to the list, play cricket AND, BLOG MORE OFTEN. Fingers crossed about the last one though!

Cricket, Work, Problems, Friends, Fun, Goodbyes - LIFE

Even though the lazy Jayant has dominated Blogger Jayant for the past few months (or rather years) but thankfully, once in a blue moon, on occasions like this, the Blogger Jayant comes up trumps and hence, this blog gets updated. There was a time when I used to refer to my earlier post while writing a new one (because I never forgot what I blogged about previously, like I have now! ). Anyways, my last update was somewhere in December 2009, which would be roughly within a month from attending Vishal's marriage and then taking the CAT exam. It's not that I've won The Nobel Prize or something in the time between then and now but yes, there have been a few good updates.
There was the long-planned Goa Trip with my college friends which was truly amazing and a nice time to get together for friends. Really hope that everyone takes out 3-4 days like these for each other, out of an otherwise packed 365 days of the year. About ten days after the trip ended, I was in for a surprise. After a casual preparation, scoring a percentile of 96.98 in CAT made me feel that after all, I can fight for the top 1 percentile next year around, which, I believe, is what you should target if you start off with something, be it exam, sports, anything. Hence, I would like to believe that this year I will actually go at it real hard and get something more than a "decent" score out of it. However, the things to follow in this post would heavily bet against it.
February is normally considered the spring season and my bhaiya-bhabhi were blessed with a baby boy, who's growing cuter and naughtier by the day, which is making my stay away from home all the more difficult. It has been the happiest news on family front for quite some time, especially after we lost Nanaji and Dadima in the past two years. He's gone a long way in helping Mummy and Papa cope up with the losses.
Sagar conquering his dream by getting into IIM-A has been the biggest news of the year outside my family and we all were so happy for him. He thoroughly earned his place and it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. APS came to Hyderabad for a weekend to join in the fun and we surely had a good time, but we still missed Jaat.

The glue that kept me in Infy Hyd for so long

Then came the much awaited annual Cricket Tournament of Infosys Hyderabad, which was this year named as P3L, i.e. Pearl and Prakriti Premier League. (Pearl and Prakriti are the name of the 2 development centres Infy has here in Hyderabad). Thanks to my one-hit wonder performance from last year's tournament, I was promoted to "Tier 1" in the auctions. I got picked up by a team called The Aryans and incidentally, its the same team against which we lost our game last year and ultimately it cost us a place in the next round. A few players were still there from the last year but mostly it was a fresh squad. I was made to sit out of the first game itself. I was in no way thrilled about it and that confirmed my suspicion that since it was a team chosen by guys from Andhra, regionalism will prevail. However, I got my chance in the next game and  played every game thereafter. We finished 3rd in a 20-team tourney which was a good achievement. The highlight for me was bowling the last over in the quarter finals when the opponents, Gangstars, needed only 7 to win and containing them for 5 runs, which secured a win by 1 run for us! More than the game, it was the friends that I made during P3L which I am thankful to and really hope it continues.
Looking ahead, there's a lot on my platter right now. For a start, I'll be travelling with the Infosys Hyderabad Cricket Team to Mysore for a tournament and I'm really looking forward to it. A trip to Mysore, 18 months after completing the training will really be nostalgic and when I go with a group like this, it surely will be fun. It's about time I tightened up with my MBA preparation and of late, I've been bitten by the GMAT bug as well, so really hope to put in the tough miles during the next 6 months.

The Flat Disaster

Having been an extremely active non-blogger for the past 6 months has left me with a lot of self-invented,nonsensical ideas and what better place to get rid of them than the blog. Its not that there's been nothing to share about in the past 6 months; in fact, its quite the opposite so I'll try to break down the time period chronologically. Taking a cue from the now-behind-bars-but-still-adored-by-me famous Mr. Julian Assange, I intend to release the cables(read blog posts) one by one over the next few days/weeks/months/years so as to keep my non existent readerbase on their toes.

 Ever since we moved into a real cheap 2 BHK with pathetic surroundings in the month of March (due to lack of options and mostly due to the fact that it was close to my friends' home), we had been on the lookout for a better home and we didn't mind paying that extra bit for that. Then, one fine day while I was on bench and lucky to have got hold of a system here in Infosys Hyderabad kiosk, I read an advertisement which said a certain gentleman was looking for 2 people to share a 3 BHK flat. 8 hours later we were at the flat and beat our nearest competitor by about 5 steps in handing over the advance(It was in 5-figures, in case anyone was curious to  know) to one Saurabh (whom we had met barely 15 mins ago and who, as you would have guessed, was going to be our new flatmate). Thus, we sealed the deal for our new home and were elated. The new flat, despite costing us about 63% more than the current one (blame my hopeless CAT preparation for reporting the figure in percentage... more on how my CAT preparation started and ended well before the actual exam(which, by the way, I eventually took) will follow later), had its benefits:

1. It was closer to the office, which means we saved Rs. 5 per trip and Rs. 10 in total (for my fellow college/office/flat/bench - mate Sagar it meant saving Rs. 20 per day, given his swipe-in -> breakfast -> come home -> sleep whole day at home -> dinner @ office -> swipe-out time table).
2. It was at a walkable distance from the famous and highly unhygienic Kothaguda junction, where we were so used to feast ourselves on probably the filthiest paani puri in Hyderabad which I don't know how still tasted great.
3. My friends' home was still walkable(if you can walk about 1.5 kms without ending up rolling around on the roadside gasping for water and breath, in no particular order)
4. Reason 2 was too tempting.
5. The surroundings were far better and it came across as an excellent strategical outpost from where to lauch the long awaited "mission-girlfriend-hunt", which had been pushed to the backburner during the past week and "mission-flat-hunt" had taken over.

So, the deal was struck some 20 days in advance and we were all set to move in from the 1st of August. Moving into a new city, playing cricket for a month in office, getting a good flat, being put on bench for a seemingly indefinite period, it made me believe that nothing could go wrong in life. There was no communication at all between us and our new flat mate for the next 20 days or so, as he was busy with his Investment Banking work and I was busy.... well... technically I didn't have any work but then, why disclose all your cards up front? I was busy pretending that I was not such a useless person in office and actually it was the office work which kept me from calling/visiting him to pay the remainder of the amount.

Sunday, 1st August, 11:00 am: I was offloading the tempo containing our beloved TV, Refrigerator, tables, chairs, etc from the tempo into the lift of Bhavya Shanti Sadan, our new home. Ten minutes later, I was shaking hands with Saurabh, who was welcoming us into the new house, which, at that instant, also contained 4 other people.

Saurabh: "Man, you sure you people are bachelors? Mast samaan-vamaan lekar aa gaye tum log to!"

Jayant: (trying to act cool and unpertrubed at the sight of 4 unexpected people in the flat) "Yeah, what can we do? We're so addicted to Sports and Beer. Hence the TV and refrigerator respectively"

(laughter all around, even from those 4 unwanted people who were sitting too far to hear the conversation)

After exchanging the usual pleasantaries and enquiring about when exactly did the ex-occupant intended to clear up the mess he had left in the flat, if at all, we were on our way back in the same luggage tempo.

"God, this flat has brought about good omen from the heavens. We've started saving from the first day itself", I murmured to Sagar and Anubhav, who had come up to help with the luggage transportation.
Same day, 08:00 pm: We were at Shilpa Park, home to Sagar,Anubhav,Vinit and Urvi (and also to us on weekends) playing our newly purchased ultra-modern 6-player LUDO when my cell displayed,

Saurabh Flatmate
Calling...

Jayant: "Hello Saurabh, what's up?"

Saurabh: "Yaar, there's a bad news. Owner called me right now and we have to vacate the flat by 1st September."

Jayant: "But... how can he? We've just moved in..."

Saurabh: "Sorry man, we had an agreement of a month's notice from either party and he's sticking to it."

Well, that pretty  much concludes the flat-hunt part of the story. There are more disasters to follow and if I manage to retain the enthusiasm, they will be out shortly.