Havent we always been taught that there are always only 2 solutions to any and every question in the world? One Right and the other Wrong!!?? Well that is how i have been judging every question in life till now! For me everything is either right or wrong, i have never been able to judge anything as anything in between the right or the wrong. Viewing everything as a simple play of black or white is what i have practiced...i have never been able to view world as a shade of grey. It is usually hard for me to think that there can be more to judging situations in life. If there was something that was not right...it was always wrong for me. Recently while taking one of the mandatory trainings for Accenture new joinees i learnt about the right vs right situation. The whole training talks about how diplomatic resources have to be to survive in the corporate world and one of the most important aspect which rules diplomacy is not judging every situation as having a right vs wrong solution. We are constantly learning something or the other in this world and being someone involved in the IT industry i guess we learn pretty more volume of things at a faster rate. When i was leaving HCL i thought i have had alot of experiences both inside India as well as outside India and was well versed to face the IT world. But i guess theres a vast ocean waiting to be conquered and thats so vast in myriad directions that its not easy to conquer it with just a 5 yr experience here...i am here for more time now and am just hoping that i learn enough to survive the right way. :)
Traversing in the grand ocean of IT, we often have to take decisions which might not be the ones which make us very comfortable, but we have feeble chances of escaping them. Going thru the exit process @ hcl i never really did realise that it will ever come true that i am out of HCL. Since the time i came back from US and had put my papers with this company, i just felt the whole exit process to be more of a struggle rather than an official process. First when i was still giving resigning HCL second thoughts owing to the L1 visa that i was holding, i did not get any positive response from the HCL team. When i asked them if they could provide me a transfer to Bangalore they said no there are no projects available and we cannot transfer you there without any projects. Then when i asked them if they could provide me some UK project as i was interested in Onsite and wanted to be in a UK based project as my husband keeps travelling to UK, they said no right now we dont have any openings! After trying almost everything possible on my hands i put down my papers. Even then when i wanted to exit sooner by buying out the notice period they simply denied saying its out of policies now. I wrote numerous mails to managers i did not even know, explaining my situation to them but they just never responded. Finally after the long 2 month wait of the notice period when i came back to Chennai for my final formalities, they wanted to retain me!!?? The HRs woke up from their deep sleep just then as if the numerous calls i had made through out my notice period were non existant. The exit HR asked me one day before my LWD (Last Working Day) what actually my problem was and what the HR team could do to retain me!! I explained them why i had insisted on a transfer to Bangalore so much and why i had asked for UK based projects etc etc. Finally the HR was not ready to sign the no dues, rather she told me to meet her the next day and she said she can definitely provide me something promising by the end of the day. She asked me to give her a call by evening. I was kind of happy but i had made up my mind on joining Accenture which had already offered me a better CTC package and a job in Bangalore. But still i was expectant of something good coming up. Next day (which was my LWD) the HR said that they have a long term role coming up for UK and they can definitely refer me for that given the good feedback i had from my previous managers. They also said that i would have to wait for abt a month for that oppurtunity to come my way! But by then my bitter end of endurance had already shown up and i just decided to get my No Dues signed and collect my Resignation Acceptance Letter that day.
I couldnt believe i was actually sad at leaving HCL. It was a simple organization with some really stringent and unproffessional people i have seen in my life. But somehow workwise i was never lagging when i was with HCL. I always had challenging work and best of all...it gave me my one year in NY which was the BEST part of my proffessional carreer. Even while waiting in the montieth Rd Office which was the same office where i had attended an induction 2.5 yrs back, i somehow felt the comfort level which i am not sure if i will ever feel in Accenture. I knew a lot of people in HCL and somehow i was quite popular as well and i liked that feeling of being Ms. Popular! I liked the simple work environment where all people were bothered about was work!! It was boring when i was working there as the glamour quotient of the work place was way below zero and there was all work and no fun! But somehow me and some like minded teammates had found ways to find our own fun and relaxation times even in that busy and demanding work schedules. I cant believe i am saying this but i really wish i can relive my times in HCL. I am definitely gonna miss this one!
Has anyone heard of or watched an old movie called "The American Ninja". While flipping channels recently on the tv i got hooked to watching this movie and couldnt help but laugh at myself for having watched this one!! It felt like i was watching an old rajnikant or danny denzongpa movie.. :)
May be this one would have been a hit when it was released but watching something so meagre from hollywood was not very convincing for me. Right from the plot of the movie to the very way the cast depicted the scenes, everything was like a hindi movie dubbed in english!! Theres not much to write about the movie as such...might have been a very old one!! Googling about the movie gave me the info that the movie was released way back in 1985, but is it really so earthly for a 1985 movie!? I still cant digest something of "THIS" level from Hollywood. Having spent a good one year in the US and watching some real spectacular stuff, i still cant believe that the movie was a Hollywood Hit ever!!
Richard Gere and Julia Roberts...i guess one of the on screen couples i have raved the most. They just seem to have such great chemistry that you dont feel its a fictional story you are watching on screen, rather they make it feel like a real one you are witnessing in front of you. I Love Julia Roberts for the way she flaunts her skills easily and naturally on screen...and Richard Gere is one of the few actors in hollywood whom i consider HOT. I love watching this couple on screen. Pretty Woman is one movie i have never been able to watch completely but always caught glimpses here and there. I was happy to watch it on Star yesternight but again unfortunately i watched only the last half of it. One sweet movie with a strange storyline but some sweet moments. I love the way Vivian (Julia) effortlessly puts her Knight fairytale in front of Edward (Richard) cuz while every girl has some or the other fairytale about her prince charming she just spends the most of her life trying to convince herself that fairytales never happen in real life. I feel this part as a sweet one where she snuggles herself upto a sleeping Edward and thinks deeply about how much she likes this guy she is cuddling upto and finally says I Love You. I like alot of scenes from the movie and especially like this one where Vivian is ready to leave him and carries all the dresses she had bought in the last couple of days and though she doesnt want to leave she just says give me my money i am leaving. The way Edward just throws the money on the bed and doesnt even look back at her and the way she walks out of the door. This scene is a typical example of how a woman and man in a relationship, even though they are fond of each other, are just not ready to give up their ego. This is exactly the same thing that sometimes intensifies and corrodes alot of relationships. The way Vivian just looks at the money and doesnt even think of picking it i feel shows the true nature of how much a woman wants to be felt wanted even when she knows she is wanted. I cant stop myself from humming Bryan Adam's few lines... When you love a Woman, you tell her that she is really wanted. When you love a woman you tell her that she is the one. Cuz she needs somebody to tell her taht its gonna last forever.
Pretty Woman is one sweet movie with some sweet moments and some really touching ones. I will always rave Richard and Julia on screen, they make an awesome pair.
20th day of June, 2005. One of the most memorable days of my Life!! This was the blessed day when i joined the IT industry through an elite company called Satyam Computer Services. Turning back the pages of the calender takes me back to that happy day when i was taking my first steps to enter a new world, the real practical world. It meant a change in my lifestyle, in my priorities, in my understanding of the issues in life and most importantly in my mindset.
As i flip through the yellow bruised pages of my memory book, i can just not neglect the fact how elated i was on that day! I was starting a new life, a new change in everything i guess. I can never forget how excited i was, it felt as if i could have challenged the whole world for anything. The whole 10 hour long induction at the CC (Convention Center) of STC (Satyam Technology Center) i guess gave me a new confidence in myself. Something i had almost lost staying in Sathyabama for 4 years i guess!! I was so proud of myself. Little did i know at that time what all challenges the IT life was gonna throw at me since that blessed day! the whole 90 day ELTP program at STC was like an extended picnic. Making new friends, learning new stuff, experiencing things in life which i hadnt in my college days cuz now i had the money to do it, I was on the road to becoming independent and more mature and i was really enjoying it. After the ELTP program got over, it was the usual race for getting into a good project for a good client etc etc. Though i managed to get a good project i was not very happy with going back to Chennai for the project. I was excited as i was gonna work for MARS chocolates!! My project days in MARS were again a joy ride of new things and new experiences. After working on VAX/VMS i was working on .NET for Pedigree. I dint mind whetever i was working on cuz i was absolutely enjoying being part of real projects and learning new things. The whole 2.8 yrs that i spent in Satyam was a memorable one and even on the last day when i was writing the goodbye mail i just couldnt call it a reality! I was sad at leaving Satyam but quite as much excited at my new experiences in my new company HCL. After joining HCL though i did not have any excitement left as there was no time for that!! I had a boring induction compared to the exciting one at Satyam. I was greeted by boring HRs compared to the smart and stylish ones at Satyam. I came to know some of the most stupid policies of HCL which were actually understood basics in Satyam!! Anyways i dont have much to complain about my work in HCL cuz i was never "FREE" in HCL. I had an amazing learning experience as much as technology is concerned cuz i was always learning something new! And most importantly HCL gave me my blessed 1 year at US, which i am really happy about!! I have put my papers with HCL and am waiting for them to approve the same so that i can join my new company which i am really excited about! The whole 2.3 years in HCL have taught me alot more about my work than what i learnt in Satyam and i am happy about it. I guess hcl has made me more experienced and mature both technology wise and also in a way to deal with people at professional front!
When i was graduating from my college as a Computer Science Engineer, i hated being called a software engineer, and i never imagined i would survive in this industry for anything more than a couple of years! I tried everything possible to come out of it. I wanted to write a GRE, i wrote GMAT and scored well enough to get admits from 3-4 good univs in the US, i wrote CAT and scored decent enough to secure interview calls from some decent enough colleges if not the IIMs...i posted my resume for non technical positions whenever possible...i just did everything possible in the last 5 years only to realise that whatever has to happen will happen no matter what you do or what you dont do!! When i think of my 5 years struggle thru IT industry, i cant say i am unhappy now...but i can definitely say that it has taught me grave realities of the REAL world which i doubt if i would have learnt being somewhere else. I can stil not say that i love my work, but right now i think i know my work! I dont know how work or life will be in my new company, but i am happy that i am atleast excited to face it. I have given half a decade of my life to this industry and gained thru it, and i am sure i am prepared to face it for a longer time now!!
