Excrepts-1
September 08'2005:
Its 00:00 midnight and I am sitting in 9313 Down Indore-Patna express. Every minute reduces the distance between me and my home. The train is running on the flat terrain between Jhansi and Kanpur, progressively approaching my penultimate destination viz. Lucknow.
The Bihari couple next to me is restless. While the husband has finally found the sleep, wife is still trying to placate the whining kid in her lap. The kid has a unique problem:she cant sleep with lights off. So all people around her are shuffling on their berths,trying to get that elusive sleep. The fellow in middle berth has a towel spread on his eyes to create a semblance of darkness around his eyes, the fellow facing him is lying prostate, his face buried in the hard berth and the fifth person, that is me,has already given up. I have left my seat to occupy a side berth next to window,some distance down the aisle.
I look out of the broad grilled window into the rapidly moving cheerless dark terrain. The sky is starless, with dark clouds covering the moon. I observe the fast moving shadow of my coach that tears through bushes and tress, it effortlessly wades through rivers and jumps across stones.I marvel and wonder:"What if everything were really so omnipotent..what if I could get those days back....".I drift into the memories of this day, 2 years ago...
Chapter 01
The journey begins
Bangalore,September 08,2003:
I was late for office..it'll leave a very bad impression if I'm late for work on the very first day. My thoughts goaded me to run and huffing and panting I finally reached the office door. "Get out", I heared a stiff command. I ignored it..but it was for me and I got to know that when the caller caught me by scruff and physically prevented me from entering. "But Sir..its exactly 10:00AM", I mumbled, but Azim Premji, a stickler for discipline would have none of it. "On first day, you should be 5 minutes early". I was thrown out and suddenly the chime of Wipro clock took a strange tone..it was something familiar and it soon mingled with the characterstic playful ringtone of my cell phone. Rubbing my eyes, I woke up to find the phone ringing ever more loudly, demanding immediate attention. I heaved a sigh of relief and took up the call. I somehow knew who is it and my suspicion was confirmed when I saw the number. I spent the next 10 minutes on phone.
It was a bright summer morning in Bangalore. The mellow sunlight spread its wings to welcome denizens into the new day. The road leading to BTM Layout, Stage II was filled with early morning joggers. The broad boulevard had bungalows on both sides,interspersed with verdant greenery. A little further, the road narrowed down until finally it was no longer broad or tree lined, it wasn't even tarred. Here it branched out into numerous alleys, each one named as a unique "Cross" by prefixing the word cross with the number of that alley. On either side of the alley and on the untarred main road loomed houses,tall and lanky,built vertically rather than horizontally, euphemistically called "appartments".
Decked up in a stiff new shirt and matching trousers I emerged out of one such building. The college folder tucked tightly in my arms,I moved towards "BTM Junction" to get a bus that would take me to Wipro office at Sarjapur Road. The folder contained my most valuable possessions: my class Xth marksheet, my class XII marksheet and my degree, in short it contained the crux of everything I had done to this date. It also conatined the joining docket for Wipro...something I had received after a long wait, after many frustrating days spent in hopelessness and despair. Today I had finally travelled the Fifteen Hundred odd Kilometers from my home to enter this much heared of land of opportunities:Bangalore. The string of my thoughts was rudely broken with a melee of sounds. I was standing on the BTM crossroads, a bewildered witness to the frantic Bangalore traffic.
The automated signal light went red and I crossed the road to reach the other end. Standing there I tried to figure out the bus that would take me to Wipro office. The traffic seemed to move in a never ending ceaseless flow of stream. In vain I tried to figure out a city bus. Almost every bus that looked liked the one was marked with "Infosys". One, two, three..I finally lost the count and concluded that in morning city buses are booked by Infosys. Then there were cars and buses, vans and mini-buses. All big names were here: Wipro, Mico-Bosch, GE, MindTree, Satyam....all seats packed with rows of engineers,some of them sleeping, some reading newspaper, some browsing through JAVA and C books...everybody flaunting the company tag around the neck.I stood there, mesimerised by the sheer number of companies having their abode here. Very soon I'll be joining these guys. This thought filled me with pride and satisfaction. At last my hard work in college was coming to some avail.
Suddenly I remembered the task at hand. I looked at my wrist-watch and found to my trepidition that the time was 9:00AM. Just one hour remained and I was yet to start towards my destination! I somehow managed to learn the bus number that would take me there. After changing the bus twice and an approx. 2Km walk, I finally reached a stop 1 km ahead of Sarjapur Office. Tired but determined not to spend any more money, I decided to walk back. Thus another 1 Km walk took me to Sarjapur Road office of Wipro. I silently started my walk on the road leading to main gate.
I stood in the Wipro Campus. Last one hour had passed in the frenzy of completing the joining formalities and meeting prospective colleagues.I had met fifteen of them. One was from IIT Kanpur,some from RECs and others were from colleges which I had never heared of before.I was relishing the beauty of manicured gardens, azure blue swimming pool, tastefully decorated lobbies,the smart and dainty receptionist and the glass and marble wonder that the wipro building was.I wondered about the future before us, I marvelled who among us will carve a niche here and who all will be lost into oblivion. Suddenly I heared my name being called from the lobby and I knew that it was my turn. I ambled inside, donned a neck-tie and got myself photographed. Within next 5 minutes I had around me that blue-ribboned tag,embossed with the words "Wipro Technologes" and having my plastic-smile adorned face peeping out of it. I knew my corporate journey had begun.
Its 00:00 midnight and I am sitting in 9313 Down Indore-Patna express. Every minute reduces the distance between me and my home. The train is running on the flat terrain between Jhansi and Kanpur, progressively approaching my penultimate destination viz. Lucknow.
The Bihari couple next to me is restless. While the husband has finally found the sleep, wife is still trying to placate the whining kid in her lap. The kid has a unique problem:she cant sleep with lights off. So all people around her are shuffling on their berths,trying to get that elusive sleep. The fellow in middle berth has a towel spread on his eyes to create a semblance of darkness around his eyes, the fellow facing him is lying prostate, his face buried in the hard berth and the fifth person, that is me,has already given up. I have left my seat to occupy a side berth next to window,some distance down the aisle.
I look out of the broad grilled window into the rapidly moving cheerless dark terrain. The sky is starless, with dark clouds covering the moon. I observe the fast moving shadow of my coach that tears through bushes and tress, it effortlessly wades through rivers and jumps across stones.I marvel and wonder:"What if everything were really so omnipotent..what if I could get those days back....".I drift into the memories of this day, 2 years ago...
Chapter 01
The journey begins
Bangalore,September 08,2003:
I was late for office..it'll leave a very bad impression if I'm late for work on the very first day. My thoughts goaded me to run and huffing and panting I finally reached the office door. "Get out", I heared a stiff command. I ignored it..but it was for me and I got to know that when the caller caught me by scruff and physically prevented me from entering. "But Sir..its exactly 10:00AM", I mumbled, but Azim Premji, a stickler for discipline would have none of it. "On first day, you should be 5 minutes early". I was thrown out and suddenly the chime of Wipro clock took a strange tone..it was something familiar and it soon mingled with the characterstic playful ringtone of my cell phone. Rubbing my eyes, I woke up to find the phone ringing ever more loudly, demanding immediate attention. I heaved a sigh of relief and took up the call. I somehow knew who is it and my suspicion was confirmed when I saw the number. I spent the next 10 minutes on phone.
It was a bright summer morning in Bangalore. The mellow sunlight spread its wings to welcome denizens into the new day. The road leading to BTM Layout, Stage II was filled with early morning joggers. The broad boulevard had bungalows on both sides,interspersed with verdant greenery. A little further, the road narrowed down until finally it was no longer broad or tree lined, it wasn't even tarred. Here it branched out into numerous alleys, each one named as a unique "Cross" by prefixing the word cross with the number of that alley. On either side of the alley and on the untarred main road loomed houses,tall and lanky,built vertically rather than horizontally, euphemistically called "appartments".
Decked up in a stiff new shirt and matching trousers I emerged out of one such building. The college folder tucked tightly in my arms,I moved towards "BTM Junction" to get a bus that would take me to Wipro office at Sarjapur Road. The folder contained my most valuable possessions: my class Xth marksheet, my class XII marksheet and my degree, in short it contained the crux of everything I had done to this date. It also conatined the joining docket for Wipro...something I had received after a long wait, after many frustrating days spent in hopelessness and despair. Today I had finally travelled the Fifteen Hundred odd Kilometers from my home to enter this much heared of land of opportunities:Bangalore. The string of my thoughts was rudely broken with a melee of sounds. I was standing on the BTM crossroads, a bewildered witness to the frantic Bangalore traffic.
The automated signal light went red and I crossed the road to reach the other end. Standing there I tried to figure out the bus that would take me to Wipro office. The traffic seemed to move in a never ending ceaseless flow of stream. In vain I tried to figure out a city bus. Almost every bus that looked liked the one was marked with "Infosys". One, two, three..I finally lost the count and concluded that in morning city buses are booked by Infosys. Then there were cars and buses, vans and mini-buses. All big names were here: Wipro, Mico-Bosch, GE, MindTree, Satyam....all seats packed with rows of engineers,some of them sleeping, some reading newspaper, some browsing through JAVA and C books...everybody flaunting the company tag around the neck.I stood there, mesimerised by the sheer number of companies having their abode here. Very soon I'll be joining these guys. This thought filled me with pride and satisfaction. At last my hard work in college was coming to some avail.
Suddenly I remembered the task at hand. I looked at my wrist-watch and found to my trepidition that the time was 9:00AM. Just one hour remained and I was yet to start towards my destination! I somehow managed to learn the bus number that would take me there. After changing the bus twice and an approx. 2Km walk, I finally reached a stop 1 km ahead of Sarjapur Office. Tired but determined not to spend any more money, I decided to walk back. Thus another 1 Km walk took me to Sarjapur Road office of Wipro. I silently started my walk on the road leading to main gate.
I stood in the Wipro Campus. Last one hour had passed in the frenzy of completing the joining formalities and meeting prospective colleagues.I had met fifteen of them. One was from IIT Kanpur,some from RECs and others were from colleges which I had never heared of before.I was relishing the beauty of manicured gardens, azure blue swimming pool, tastefully decorated lobbies,the smart and dainty receptionist and the glass and marble wonder that the wipro building was.I wondered about the future before us, I marvelled who among us will carve a niche here and who all will be lost into oblivion. Suddenly I heared my name being called from the lobby and I knew that it was my turn. I ambled inside, donned a neck-tie and got myself photographed. Within next 5 minutes I had around me that blue-ribboned tag,embossed with the words "Wipro Technologes" and having my plastic-smile adorned face peeping out of it. I knew my corporate journey had begun.
posted by Techie Author at 12:04 PM
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