This would be a long article. After giving my final engineering
exam on April 30th 2009, I was idle and had plenty of time at my
disposal till the date of joining for my first job – Feb 22nd, 2010.
My activities during this time were:
- Eating
- Sleeping
- Watching
movies in theatres (probably 2 or 3 movies every month)
- Roam
around aimlessly and return home late nights. (They were just casual walks to home
from DSNR after a movie or just sit in kothapet and gossip about movies or
other stuff. But this seems extra ordinary now)
- Giving
send off to all my friends who travelled to USA for higher studies.
This should be the most unproductive period of my life and
also a phase where I had nothing to worry – nothing to study and I had a job at hand but still nothing to work. After initial days of concerns about my job
training, I did not even give a thought about it in the later days.
------------ X ------------
Don’t know why but I wanted to do all the packing and go
to Mysore – all myself. I did not want anyone else to be involved. My sister
supported me in doing this when my parents wanted to help me with the packing.
I carefully made a list of things I should carry with me
and pasted on my wardrobe so that I track everything. I packed everything in my
bag and 2 suitcases.
My father booked a KSRTC Volvo bus ticket from MGBS to
Mysore (probably starts at 6.15 PM from Hyderabad and reaches Mysore at 7.15 AM
the next day) and was adamant to travel with me but I strongly insisted that I
would go alone. My parents were furious at times for my stubbornness to travel
alone but I ignored it.
Watched leader movie in Cinemax Banjara Hills on 19th
Feb 2010 and my travel to Mysore was on 20th Feb 2010. As per our family
customs and traditions, you are not supposed to go out or eat outside food when
you have a travel plan. So got an earful from my father. I remember taking
around 3000 rupees from my parents for my travel to mysore.
------------ X ------------
20th Feb, 2010
Obviously they were at the bus terminal to see me off. As
soon as I boarded the bus, my mother and sister began to cry. I was clueless
why they were crying – I am just going to another city in the same country. The bus started. I was by a window seat and as
usual, I was staring blankly at the people and the vehicles passing by. When
the bus stopped for a break, I ate the sandwiches (hope I remember they were
sandwiches stuffed with aloo) packed by my mother and then called them. My
sister told me that father also cried when they reached home and it was
emotional to hear that).
21st Feb, 2010: Into a different world
-- The bus reached Mysore at around 7.15 AM and I took an
auto (guess it was a fare of 160 or 170) to Mysore training campus.
-- Reached the campus at around 8 AM by which lot of new
joiners like me were waiting in a line to report and join the training campus.
-- I still remember the horror feeling I experienced when
I realized that I left one of the mandatory joining documents at home – Medical
certificate.
-- I tensely asked one of the trainees there if this was
okay. He assured me that its okay and I would have sufficient time to submit
it.
-- At the main entrance, I was asked to show my ID proof
and offer letter and I was allowed inside the huge campus through a huge
building – GEC II.
-- Boarded a golf cart with other trainees with our
luggage truck following us.
-- B93/117 -
building number and room allotted to me.
-- The room itself is a 3 star level – LCD TV, nice bed
with table & lamp beside it, flask, milk, coffee powders etc, a huge
wardrobe with a safety locker, a nice restroom, landline phone, a big and small
table with a chair – the best thing is that I would be alone in such a room for nearly 6
months.
-- By the time I took a bath and came out of the room, it
was nearly 11.30 AM.
-- I called my parents and blurted out the news of the need
for medical certificate. I got a good dose and even my sister got a good dose
(ha ha ha) (A different thread is that they shipped the document to me over
night and it reached me 2 days later. Parents will do anything for their children!)
-- Since I was the only one selected by this company from
my college, I was standing at my room door and watching other roaming around.
-- One of them asked me if I was not unpacking my stuff. I
thought its not needed as I would anyway be eliminated from this rigorous training
program in about 1 or 2 months. (I must confess I am a pessimist and have least expectations of anything).
-- I remember
having veg biryani for lunch and came back to room.
-- Roamed inside the campus and got a feel of
things present.
The training campus was vibrant and was full of diverse
trainees from all around the country.
22nd Feb 2010 and beyond:
The first one week was induction program in a huge auditorium with nearly 1000 trainees in our batch. We were given ID cards,
system allocation, bank account, study material etc etc. After that, a hectic routine
started – classes – exams – classes – exams – classes and in between movies on
the weekend inside the campus. After every exam, I used to see happy faces, sad
faces, crying faces etc etc.
Of course, I flunked the very first exam – C and Data structures
and cried a lot alone in my room since this was the first ever failure (all the training exams
were objective except 2 practicals and I was pretty weak at objective exams)
but somehow gathered myself (with tips from my friend). Carefully studied and cracked
all the exams (a negative marking for a wrong answer also). It’s a mandate that
out of CGPA score of 5, 4 is the minimum score for passing the training exams
collectively. I remember getting 4.54.
Lots of memories in the campus – studying all weekdays, watching
movies every weekend, sometimes bowling, eating different types of food in the
7 food courts, laundry every 2 weeks, going to Mysore city for food at RRR,
late night ice creams in the campus, the joy of getting the first salary – 13000, trip to Banglore
with wallet full of cash, going to an old temple near the training campus (esp before big modules), my
trip back to Hyderabad for a weekend after the first major module, my sickness
for 2 weeks after that, and finally the dreaded final and toughest module, 1
month of mock project and my family visit to the training campus at the end of
my training period, getting posted back to Hyderbad for my first project, late night campus tour alone capturing photos in a drizzle and
then a new life starts after the journey back to hyd.
Every memory is so fresh.
జీవితం బాగుంది.
జీవితం
అంటేనే
బాగుంటుంది.
ఒక
వేళ
బాలేకపోయినా,
అది
జీవితం
కాబట్టి బాగుండి తీరుతుంది.
