Journey to Chennai ...

Continuation to how i got into infy....

Well... where do i start from... lets see... just a quick recap like our hindi sitcoms ...

I went to baroda for infosys interview... got selected... asked to be reported at chennai... first time to leave my family...

recap over...

so, my dad with help from my mama (who had contacts in indian railways) to get me tickets to chennai in Navjeevan Express (the only train between chennai and ahmedabad directly)... I still remeber that they got tickets which were to make me land in chennai 2 days earlier than the joining date i.e. 3rd October. So, I were to reach on 1st October. With some more settings I was able to get accomodation in gujarati samaj located at Broadway, Chennai...

So, I started on 29th September at 9:30 pm from Ahmedabad. All my family members dad, mom, my sisters, brother, mama, bua, uncle, my best friends Naman and Narendra... were there to bid adieu to me. First time ever I was going to leave gujarat and go outside. I remember I took blessing from my dad by touching his feets... a belief which I still follow. I believe that whatever I am today is because of him. I can go on elaborating on that but I do not want to digress. There would be a separate blog dedicated to him. Love you dad...

I started the journey on a sad note... with small invisible tear droplets coming from eyes... my heart was very heavy... as if some tons and kilos of heavy stuff is kept on it...

Train soon reached baroda and I jumped out to meet one more best friend of mine... Rachit... had a quick hug with him and good bye... again the same heaviness engulfed me... I was not able to recover for some days... time and again the faces of my beloved family and friends... the stolen moments with them... were flying through my head like a film trailer... their face seemed so near to me that I will go and touch them...yet so far...

Traveling hasn't been my habit... so I soon fell ill in the 2nd class sleeper... I got fever... so I took some tablets... the journey was 36 hours... so it was going to take quite some time for me to reach chennai...

I tried to put my thoughts on a book (do not remember which one...) but failed miserably... I was simply not able to concentrate... the separation was taking its toll on me...

It was not that I was travelling to chennai for the first time... I had been there to give my interview in IIT chennai for MS in computers... I had seen very good part of chennai at that time... as from Airport to IIT Chennai the campus is roads are good and the locality is very posh... so to me chennai was like a clean and honest city... though this impression was going to break shortly when I was to land and go through the experiences... which probably lot of hindi speaking junta would have gone through...

as soon as the train was going to arrive in chennai... my clean city was turning out to be quite dirty... like every city has suburbs which are filthy and dirty... chennai too had its fair share i would say... my train was going through one such suburb and then I realised... sir... welcome to reality... your destiny or destination... chennai has arrived!!!!

ps: coming in this series... my first few experiences in chennai...

No Strings Attached !!!!

How about a life with no strings attached... no need to make money... no need to report statuses... no need to fullfill your desires... no need to find defects... no need to fix them... no need to succumb to client demands... no need for building applications... no need to improve performance... no need to improve UI... no need to write SRS... no need to review SRS... no need to work life a mule... no need to spend long hours in night in office... no need to send emails to offshore team... no need to spend weekends in office... no need to attend calls in the night...no need to think like software professional...no need act like one... no need to relate to people... no obligations... no responsibilities... no attachments... no worries about money...

just you, yourself and the way god want to guide you with the strings which he uses to controls the world... may be some day... may be some day...

Dark Side...

Every body has a dark side (liked this dialogue in the movie "Company")... I agree to it cent percent... I have a dark side too... Lot of you won't agree to this though... But does me or my darker side care about it... nah....

How does my darker side look... It is pretty dark I would say...Can I share it??? Well... here is where my good side assumes the role of the janitor and does not allow the dark side within me to come out in open from any of the gates...and by god it has played this roles extremely well... It is extremely powerful, it can cut wings of the dark side...it can send that dark side far into the abyss...it can suppress the dark side... but still it is not that much powerful that it can annihilate it completely...exterminate my dark side from its root... I think I would prefer it to continue to play the same role of sentry for some time... I am still hopeful that I will conjure up enough strength to completely sink that dark side or totally eradicate it from me... probably I will become a sadhu and go to himalayas :-)...

The very thought of my dark side coming out and assuming control over me is so scary that it sends shivers through my spine... but I wonder whether the darker side of others too be able to accost it in a friendly way???

I will surely note about it when the beast comes out... till then let the beast rest in peace or piece... which ever way....

By Heart...

In the training today, the trainer said "I am not good at remembering definitions by heart"...

I was not able to understand why it is called "by heart". I strongly believe this is a gross mistake on the part of the english speaking world. It should be termed as "by brain" or "by mind". As far as my fertile mind recalls it is your mind which retains all the information which is gathered from your child hood.

I bet if you take your heart out and ask it to speak...will it??? For that matter even your brain won't as it will require a mouth :-)...

If there exists (I am not sure about it...) or in future a technology comes up which can extract information from your organs then probably the dictionaries across the world will change this... even in schools they will start teaching "Please repeat it by your mind!!!" or "learn by mind"...what you say???

ps: just thought will put some light stuff too :-)...

Sadness...

Some times I wonder, why do people hate being sad or looking at some body who is sad? Can we not accept sadness being one of those ebbs which comes along with tides of life? If we can accept sea shores to recede back after deluge, why not sadness... I keep on pondering about this many time.

There host of reason for being sad
1. Loss of a loved one... believe me it is one of toughest one to handle... their sweet memories will linger with you till you meet your own end.
2. Loss of job
3. Failure in exam...
4. Not able to make to your favorite university/school...

and the list goes on and on.....

The best way to stay away from sadness is not get too much emotional about anything. I know it is difficult, I have been through that... till date I am not able to make myself immune to emotions. I also become sad and feel like staying alone in my room for hours...days... or may be months.

What should you do when you see somebody sad??? Try to cheer them up??? Try to share their burden (being philanthrophists??? I too am culprit of doing this)... I will agree to a certain extent that these are good ways to make some body come out of sadness for a moment... but they will again relapse in their sadness... will it be forever??? I do not think so...

I would suggest to leave them alone with their sadness... let them recover by themselves... let them recover their strength... the strength to fight and come out of the hang over and face the world in its eternity!!!

Does it help being sad??? I feel yes...though people might differ on this... I feel that sadness brings down your brain impulses and soothes your agitated mind!!!

Let me be sad for some time...

How I got into Infy ...

Those days I was preparing for CAT (entrance exam for prestigous management institutes of India). One of my friend told me that Infosys is going to conduct interview for recruiting graduate fresh out of college. The interview was supposed to be in Baroda, 200 kms. from my place Gandhinagar (Capital of Gujarat, India). I thought I will try my luck and in that way I can visit my friend's house in Baroda.

So, we (Japan, Mauktik and I) took a train to Baroda in the early morning around 6:00am and we were in Baroda at 8:00am. On the Baroda station we met one of our college mate, Fatima if I recollect. She too willingly accepted invitation from Mauktik to stay in his out. So off we went to Mauktik's house from the station. The written test was at 4:00pm in the evening so we had some time to do prepration. Our preparation material included some books from Sakuntla devi and one english author whose name I am not able to recollect. We cracked some of the puzzles without help and some with hints/peeking at answers. Mauktik's mom gave us a good lunch which we had along with our brain teasers. It was in no time we realised that it was 1:30. Another 2 odd hours remaining for the test. Around 2:00pm we started for MSU campus where our written test was to be conducted.

We reached the place in autorikshaw without much ado (unlike other part of India). We searched for the room and finally found it from one of notice boards. There were some 400 odd people who had gathered. All were anxious to get through the test. There were couple of known faces in the gathering. And there were some whom I had seen the first time. Later on, three of these faces were to become my room mate in chennai. More of that in my next posting.

The test was conducted in two class room with old style benches were you can hardly get in. Some how we all sat there for around 1 hour after which some HR folks (as young as we were) came and gave papers to us. Since I was preparing for CAT, I felt that the play ground was quite familiar. The only difference was we were to give step by step how we arrived at the result.

Around 6:00pm or so the test got over and all of us returned our sheet for evaluation. They anounced that results should be out in another 1 hour. So, we had around 1 hour to roam round the MSU campus. At 8:00pm after one hour delay the results were anounced. To my bad luck none of my friend's name was there in the short list else it would have been a different story. I was asked to come for interview the next day as it too late. My time for interview was 10:30am.

I think the blog is becoming too big.. may be i should cut short.

I went to the interview. He asked me some couple of puzzles which yours truly was able to solve with left hand (no i am not left hander :-)). One question I liked the most was how many moves can be played in the first step in chess? Being a fairly knowledgable in chess I was able to give it correctly... Others please help yourself...

During the interview I made a grave mistake which I will never ever forget in my life. He asked me do I have locational preference. I being a moron blurted out "No locational prefrences!!". I still do not recall why the heck did I made such statement. I could have opted for Pune. But no I had to say "No locational prefrences!!"... what the...

After interview I was back in gandhingar studying for CAT in the same good old library.

One evening my father came to library (I thought he came to see if I am really studying or not...:-)). He came to my desk and took me out. I thought something serious thing has happened. Then he pulled out a telegram notifying that I have been selected by Infosys and would be required to report at Infosys Chennai on October 3rd, 2000 (how can I forget this date!!!). My salary was around INR 16,000/per month. I said I will have to think. I had decided after coming out of college I would not do a job if my salary was not INR 10,000/per month. The salary was meeting the criteria... The only problem was I had to leave my family for first time ever in my life... It was going to be difficult...

But I was ready for my destiny .....



Coming up next: My chennai trip...

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I tried the following link before putting this blog and guess what I got "404 Error". To avoid that I am putting this in the blog. But rest assured I will be adding a lot to them.

http://mehulrajput.blogspot.com