Golden 18 months Comes to an End

My association with Aricent has come to an end. It has left only sweet memories and sometimes I just wonder was it really to necessary to break this tie up. Let me just recall this glorious period and see what all I went through.
The start happened on 30'th June, 2009. In spite of the rumors of late joining, Aricent was second only to TCS in giving the joining date for our campus. This was a welcome respite for all of us who were to join as we were getting bored of doing nothing at home for the last 2 months. The three months training period was an extension of college life with two major exceptions. The guys were not that close as in college and the girls were not that far as in our college. There was healthy interaction.
The best part were the non technical sessions. It was great fun to participate in the activities scheduled for such sessions. In business acumen session the instructor gave us a psychometric test. Based on the score he gave his verdict that I was not for engineering but I was made for business. But the drama he created in saying these words was spell bounding. Acting as if he is greatly shocked to see the disparity between the score I got in his psychometric test and my academic background.
The technical sessions were cakewalk for any CS background engineer. It was all practical for the theoretical knowledged mugged up in the college. I wished this all should have been in the curricullum. Anyways since the work pressure was really absent so it gave a lot of time to me to enjoy the NCR. I used to goto malls and shopping complexes religiously almost every day. And the hot Delhi girls were icing on the cake. It was too much for a small town boy like me. But gradually I was getting used to it. Saturdays and Sundays were generally spent at few of my relatives' house. There were quite a few of them.
Finally the fun filled Delhi era was over. Next to Bangalore in subsequent posts.

Why Should one work in a Service Company

Finally I have reached the last week of my notice period. First I should define the notice period for people who might not be from private sector or who are still student. This is the period between the day you notify of your resignation to your current employer and the day you are actually leave the company. This is very crucial period for you and you get a chance to think and rethink your decision. And if by any chance you revert your decision then its a jackpot for your current employer. In this period you go through several meetings with your L1 manager, L2 manager, HR people and they all try to convince you that this is the best place for you to work and you should appreciate the fact that the company has really worked hard to build your career as well. These all persuasions are elements of this period. I also faced these things and during the course of this period I was made aware of the benefits of working in a service company and that brings me to the topic of the post.
In a service company you get a variety of fields projects to work upon. You have much more options available with you and you can actually try them out and see what suits you the best. You want to be a developer or a consultant or anything else. After working for a period in a project you can switch to other project and if you are not feeling comfortable in your current project. In case of my current employer this minimum period fixed was of eighteen months and there were many examples where people changed their projects according to their liking. A vast number of opportunities used be available there at intra net where I could browse and see the requirement, talk to the manager and apply to that project. In product company you don't get this flexibility. You are associated with a product and you survive with it. You will be working on release after release with a little bit of added functionality on the same product.
Second argument, in service company you are more of a team player and you lead a team much sooner than in a product company where you are more of a individual player. This is truth. One of my friend, who was in the team with the starting of the project, was a able to play a crucial role in hiring other team members and that also just with an experience of one year. He has got much more responsibility than any other of my classmates working with product companies. One year into my project, I'm also training freshers in my team. You get ample opportunities to display your leadership skills. There is something called "ambassador to your college" concept in my current employer. I'm one of them. So, I regularly interact with students of my college and tell them about the company and industry general and believe it really feels good to address a set of people.
Third argument, since this is a service company and your client can be in any part of the world so you get much more onsite opportunities than a product company. In product companies mostly marketting team keeps travelling round the world. But in this case testers, developers all for various reason, knowledge transfer or deployment, get chance to visit onsite locations.
These all were favourable points kept for service companies. Just wanted to share with you all ...

Finally, I cut the cake.

I'm on this earth for the last 24 years 5 months. But I didn't get a chance to cut a cake till last Friday. Last Friday there was target completion celebration for our team and my manager asked me to cut the cake. I was highly obliged be this gesture of my manager. He has always been so kind to me.

Blood Donation

First of all i would give sincere gratitude to my friends for their appreciation of my newly found addiction of blog writing activity. I find the same iginition in them also and hope they will also fell prey to this addiction.

This sunday my incessant desire to do some noble job took shape when i got the opportunity to donate blood. This always been my principle, since I'm not that affluent I can help others only through my body and ideas but not with nest egg of my family. It was a time rise from those small altruistic deeds.

Just with the thought of donating blood my ecstacy knew no bound. I was on seventh heaven when my freind informed me that I really have got a chance to proove myself. But at the same time I became dubious whether the guy genuiningly needs my blood. So the family members of the pateint had to face my silly questions. Hope they didn't irritate them much. I also asked them to show the patient. He was 27 year old guy, crouched in his green bed. The colour itself spells the condition of a patient. He had been operated in Mumbai and was suffering from extreme weakness and needed blood for three consecutive days. I was to be his saviour for one day.

I went to blood bank. After initial check up I was asked to lie down. Needle was pierced in to my viens and I was asked to pump out blood. The whole process just took two minutes. But it wasn't as comfortable as I had assumed. As soon as I left the bed, everything was completly dark. I was about to faint. So i had to lie down on that green bed once again. I realised that sleak, alender figure is not everything you desire. At times some weight is essential to fullfill your passion. I was allright after 10 mins.

This was my experience. The feeling of ecstacy overwhelmed me. I have also become life saviour. Its an achievement for me. This was to feed my inner conscience. You feel even greater when you find others jittery, jim-jamed even with this white knuckled thought of blood donation. This was indeed an arduous act at least considering the fact that I haven't done anything greater than this. I experienced a bit of pride and greatness which mothers must be feeling who are the reason for genesis of life. A sense of responsbility engulfs you. You stop those damaging activities that might affect the reciepant of your blood.

Its a life time experience and everyone must give it a try and have a feeling of a knight in shining armour.

Elwyn Broooks White

"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."

Self Criticism

Like a general novice writer my thoughts are not organised.I always deviate from the main topic. Also, I don't have agility to embellish my manuscript. So, most of you would find it oscitant. I also lack aplomb of stage. Those punctilious eyes, searching for even smallest errors, scare me. You must be thinking that my opprobrium is rather harsh and the guy is frustrated with his weaknesses. But i admit that you all are corrct. But I find ways to convince myself that I'm not that bad.
In case of my inability to perform on stage I say to myself that I can't rape the audience as others do. One of my good freind remarked me "why do you contempt yourself?" but i just can't stop this. "The Almighty" had created this being similar to extremly
powerfull Herculese, He-man, other successfull orators and conqueres of public attention. But I have ruined his creation. I have created many mental blockages for myself. I can't do this, I can't do that.
All the motivational books like "How to think big", "Monk who sold his Ferrari" have been written for people like me. But they don't appeal to me. I'm vexed with people's obsession to etch their name on each mile stone they pass by. They take extreme pleasure in observing the road passing at great pace in their rear view mirror. My views are a bit different. I just want to live my life in a very poised manner, enjoying whatever "The Almighty" keeps in my way. Those books confuse me. They ask to achieve both success and mental
peace. For me these are two poles. I can't have both. Either I can run to fullfill my dreams or can sit calmly and relish the creations of "The Almighty".

My request to anyone who comes across this post. Please help me out of this
confused state....

My First Blog

After having ambivalent feeling for more than two years, I gave the writer within a final call and decided to pen down my thoughts.
I got inspiration from my friends who are regular to this space and use it effectively for epressing their thoughts.But the biggest doubt i had was tht who is going to read my blogs.
But the benefits associated with this activity overtook this underlying problem.After having cultivated the habit of reading in myself in these two years,it was essential to pour out somewhere this gained knowledge . And these blogs are the best place to express my views as for now I can't sit with pen and dairy in my hand. The time spent on internet has almost crippled me. Now I've started forgetting hoe to write with pen.My fingers now know only how to type,not how to hold pen and paper.
I would try to be regular to this space and this is not like new year resolution as its for my own personal development.
Hope I've not irritated you,the readers most probably one or at max two. But that isn't going to affect me. Because I've stopped seeing my reflection in others eyes. I'm not a prisoner of past but architect of my future.