Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Mahabalipuram

I have a bad news… I have to shift my work location from one office at Sholinganallur to another one (well, at Sholinganallur)… But I soooo don’t want to shift. This office is close to the bus/auto stand than the other one and I have just made some really good friends with the pantry/cleaning staff. Another shift, another routine of making new friends, another new system and desk – it is going to be tough. But as most of you are going to say, “Change is the essence of life”; anything and everything has to change some day or the other. I am someone who is open to change and pretty adaptive; but I prefer staying in one place to keep shifting like a nomad – specially to a place which is less accessible from the main road.

In other news, I, Sabal and Rejith had gone to Mahabalipuram last Sunday afternoon and had a whale of a time there. The pictures are up on my Orkut/FB profile. Do check them out if you have the time and patience! And after seeing the pictures, I am sure you would admit that I am stuck in a wrong job and ‘Modeling’ (not the modeling in IT terms) is what I should be doing. ;-) For people who disagree, I would like to inform you that you are eligible for the quota for the visually-challenged.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Of Hari Sadu and the rest of us...

2 years of working in the IT industry has taught me a lot of things, besides writing really confusing emails, even more confusing self-appraisals (which I like to call self-aapu), where to keep my mouth shut (yes, I do that sometimes) and some stuff like that. But more than all these, I have learnt to observe people – you do not have much choice when you are on bench for almost a year before you get your first ever project. But hey, I am not complaining. I, in fact, liked the observing part so much so that I wish I was on bench and there was no recession ;-)

There are different types of people in the IT world. There are a few similarities – they all have the dog band (company ID card) around their necks, they all wear formal clothes (although a lot of them look funny in them), they all are good at staring at their computer screens (work or no work) and they all are in the process of losing their sense of humor (if you didn’t at least smile to yourself until this point of the post, I bet you are a part of the great Indian IT field).

And yet, there are so many different kinds of IT professionals.

The “Visionaries”: These are the ones that always think, feel and breathe their projects. You can usually find them sitting at their desk with their heads so close to the computer screen that you think he/she has a romantic affair with the monitor. At the cafeteria, they tend to sit alone, have lunch (while replying to business emails through their blackberries/laptops) and leave - all without attracting much attention from anyone nearby. Chances are these people were toppers in their colleges. Chances are they are already/soon-to-become project managers, who expect/would expect their subordinates to be like them too. They are well on their ways to become “Hari Sadu”s (for people who don’t know Hari Sadu, you are already becoming one. So please watch more TV and catch the naukri.com advertisement or at least google ‘Hari Sadu ad’)

The “Friends”:
These are the people who like to spend time with their friends so much so that that is probably the only reason they come to office. They do complete their work on time and efficiently so (although they seem to hardly do any work from the outside), but would rather hang out with friends after work hours than romance their computer screens like the Hari Sadu’s. They are very good team players and make friends with everyone around them very easily. At the cafeteria, these people make the largest group, taking a lunch break of over 2 hours and a tea break of 45mins (twice a day). Chances are these people were the most popular guys/girls in their college. And there are lesser chances of them becoming project managers; although they could consider taking up a job at the Human Resources.

The “Snails”: These are the kind of people who are extremely hard-working and sincere in their efforts. In fact, they work as if the company’s profit depends on just what they do, but are not fast/ efficient enough in their work. They also, like the Visionaries spend very little time at the cafeteria and slog for long hours and still end up working during the weekends. They were probably not very bright students in their colleges either. Neither do they make good team players as their speed slows down the team. Tough luck, people!

The “Kids”: The freshers. They are just out of college; they think their managers are “cool” people (oh puhleeeze); they think their company is the best (oh puhleeeze, again); they are hyper-active and enthusiastic; they are generally found lunching/taking a break with their college-mates (who are still in the same location) and sending Good Morning, Good Afternoon and Good Evening and other equally dumb forward mails and make complete use of the internal email portal. They are forever online on the internal communicator and have at least 3-4 chat windows open – in short, they are still kids and think IT life is actually like how they show it in the movies. They have a long way to go before their eyes open up to face reality.

The “Players”: These are the ones who are eternally on the bench. Your truly was a part of this group until April 2008. But then, I had to start working (big sigh…) Anyways, the only things that interest this group are blogging, surfing the net pointlessly and downloading small flash games (remember Copter, Bow and Arrow, Beat Him, Sudoku and the rest). I can hear a lot of you saying that this is exactly what I still do at work, but hey I am in a project now and there are no complaints on me (really, ask my PM)…

I am sure there is the whole “Others” category – people who don’t fit into any of these or are a part of more than one category. But this has been a long post already and I should probably save my words for a next one.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Update

It has been a really long time since I wrote something in this space. It was simply because nothing was “happening” in my life. I simply had nothing to tell the world because I have been away – away from this world, at heaven. Yes, I had taken a week-long break from work to be with my family at a time when they needed me by their side. Also got to meet Yals and Shivasu – we hung out at a place Ammar had suggested (Man, Am I getting in touch with my college mates or what!!!)

Coimbatore was a beauty. She is still the same laid back, small, enchanting city but is getting closer and closer to heart with each passing day and I miss her so much now (Love and distance between yourself and your beloved is always inversely proportional). The hills surrounding the city, the sweet Siruvani water, the friendly people (my regular auto-driver anna asked me to eat well and take care of myself after he dropped me at the Railway Station) – huh, I just can’t get enough of it. But hey, I am back to Chennai and guess what, Chennai has gotten herself a nice weather too – not too hot, not much rain and plenty of wind – Chennai has never been this perfect!

As for work, it is going great guns (I don’t know if I have the rights to say this after being absent for a week while my team mate had to manage all the work alone), but work is going rather well. My last night at Chennai before I went to Coimbatore was spent at the hospital – yours truly was down with “Acute Gastroenteritis”/ gotten food poisoning or something – which meant 2 days of Rasam saadham and Thayir saadham even when I was at Coimbatore.

My house at Chennai has only 3 of us living there now (A got transferred to Hyderabad) and will not return and we are confused as to whether we should shift to a PG Accommodation or to a cheaper, smaller house or to add more roomies in the same house. As they say, time will tell and I hope it does soon…

Monday, July 6, 2009

Shop shop shop...

It is not until you are at work, with nothing much to do (apart from staring at the monitor for endless hours and tweeting and reading 5 newspapers everyday) that you tend to remember that it has been quite some time since you last updated your blog. So here I am, in the morning shift, half-asleep (which accounts for all the junk I write, I write only junk, but whatever) and hungry and frustrated (about not having anything to do).

My last post about how my friends were all going to moving away and the need to find another apartment has started becoming reality. One of them has traveled to California for a 3 month assignment (which may get extended) there. Before we know, a couple others would be married and my life isn’t moving an inch forward (in either direction)… People who follow me on twitter/on my gtalk list/on orkut/on facebook must have noticed the weird status messages hinting upon some serious, irrevocable depression.

It was mainly due to the feeling that my life is standing still and I have nothing that is a wee bit challenging or exciting about it. I wake up, get ready, come to work, and sit through the day (without much to do) go back home, eat, and sleep. Seriously, how long can you go on like this? There is a whole lot of time I spend thinking what I should do next – as in which newspaper to read first, when to go for a tea break, what to tweet – I mean, if you don’t have anything to share what do you blog/tweet about?

I should say I am feeling much better now. Last week, I was so de-motivated by the whole I-have-nothing-worthwhile-to-do feeling that I didn’t even cut my nails. I know it sounds like a really bad excuse to be dirty and disgusting, but you have to be there to know how it feels. A couple of days of "intense" shopping with my friend (who went on-site) and a whole lot of assuring and supportive words from friends kept me going. And by weekend, a new set of clothes and a pair of shoes that I shopped for got be back on track.

Shopping works even when words, hugs and kindness fail!!!