The Season - Episode 1

The following was posted in my "Pasture of Lunacy" blog on Aug 11th, 2010. More than 2 years later, I have had someone asking me, what happens after this episode. And so, I've started on episode 2. Just thought I would re-post the original here, with a few changes here and there (given in italics) for you people to read through. Expect the next post in a week.

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The way my final year at college shaped up would be of the range of the final Harry Potter book. But what made it even better than that was the way I got my job. The whole drama, stretching over a year can be compared to a comedy TV series or a year at some league for a club or a feel-good movie.

The initial setbacks, the incessant heart breaks, the half time reprieve, the loss of everything you wanted, the never say lost attitude, which was later found out to be plain ego (this being the part where the obvious truth hits you in the face just before you do the right thing), the last fight, the unbelievable luck, the happy ending. It had it all.

Maybe that’s why I decided to call it ‘The Season’. How over the course of twelve months I found out a lot of things the hard way, only to realize that I had learnt these lessons long back. Normally, you would put the moral at the end of the story, but I’m going to give it right now.

Never have an ego bigger than your shadow at noon.

How this is applicable in my life, as I’m sure it’ll be in yours, will be described below. I’m going to describe my final year in the way a manager would file his monthly reports for his football team. Hope you have fun reading it.

Pre-Season

The pre-season was pretty much a local affair. Before I go into the details, let me give you an idea of how things were. Since joining CET, my parents wanted me to keep up a ‘decent’ 8 pointer by the time I passed out. It’s not that I didn’t try. I did what I thought would be enough in the first year. Sadly, the University wanted more. And my seniors were at hand to give me this ‘valuable’ advice,

      •     It’s practically impossible to get an 8 pointer average after getting 7.5 for the first year.

      •     If you can maintain a 7.5 average, you’ll get a decent enough job.

I decided that instead of trying to do something ‘impossible’, I should better find ways to use my time at college so that I’ll have all the fun I could have there. (By the way, this is for the lazy ones among you. There are people who got an 8 pointer average after getting in the 7’s in first year, and there are people who scored a big job, even with a just above 7 average).

Luckily the ‘extra-curricular’ activities that I decided to take part in didn’t ruin me. It actually helped me in having a commendable resume by the time companies came. But it was also the basic reason for the swelling of my ego bubble.

First of all, there was the choice of career that was made by two kinds of people – the pure hearts and the self-conscious fools. The difference was in the ken of the two kinds. The pure hearts knew where they were going and what they were going to do, and most of them ended up reaching there; while the self-conscious fools thought they knew where they wanted to go and what they wanted to do, but ended up choosing and doing what they got. 

Broadly speaking there were four types of jobs on offer,

1. Core Engineering Jobs. (CGPA > 8)

2. Management Jobs. (CGPA > 7.5)

3. Embedded Systems Jobs (CGPA > 7.5)

4. Software Jobs (CGPA > 6.5)

And my order of choice was Embedded, Software, Management and Core.

Embedded first, cos I had done my fair share of robotics. We went with what looked like a scrap heap of a robot, unashamedly exhibited it at different fests, rode our luck, won a few, lost many, but still loved every bit of it.

Software second cos I've always had a knack for computers and programming. My dad brought our first computer when I was in 4th, and taught me the wonders of programming in the teen years. I've to thank him for the skills I've learned in using computers, and in programming.

Management third, cos I was remotely interested in doing an MBA at that time, and cos CORE had to come fourth.

Core takes up the last position cos I was itching to say goodbye to the subjects I was busily studying for the last three years.

Anyways, let me talk more about the job scenario. Recession was at its best during June 2009. You couldn’t ask for a worse time to look for a job. And here we were, about 500 students sitting inside the college (see, I didn’t use the word ‘class’, but the word ‘college’ ;) ), hoping someone would come, call us up and give us a job with a fat paycheck, like we used to dream about when we joined the college.

So, with a difficult environment, a bleak chance at any dream job, but with a puffed opinion of myself, I did my pre-season preparations. I went around asking seniors for ‘advice’ (I never learnt to stop doing that. :D ) And that’s when I found my first love. A 5 lakh a year worth payday, located at Bangalore, great working atmosphere, wonderful work in the field of my second choice. Words used to flow in torrents when DSK (deepak sasikumar) described his company. He hadn’t even joined then and he was having a jolly time thinking of going there. It got all those juniors who listened to him, to make THOUGHTWORKS their dream company. But before I go into the tryst I had with TW (that’s what we called it), we’ve to go through the month of July. And man was it a month to remember.

July

Sometime in the middle of July, when we were just back after another university, we started hearing rumors of it. IOC was coming to campus, 7.8L CTC, government job to top off everything great and nice about it. And, dispelling the rumors it did come. That’s when the season started for us, CET 2010. Ten people each from Electrical, Mechanical and Civil were called up based on CGPA to attend a direct interview. On the date of the interview, we had actually planned an Industrial Visit (a real one to NTPC). But since many of my friends were in the top 10, I decided to go with them later. I was planning to go to college and support them for their first interview, but I ended up playing cricket the whole day. But in the evening, I heard the happy news.

Four people from Electrical became the lucky ones to get a job first. And it included my project mate. I was happy as I could be. But that was not for long.

When I told at home about them getting the job, my parents were giving me another perspective. What if I had actually studied and got an 8 point average. I could have at least attended the interview, and maybe come home saying “I got a job.”

They didn’t actually hate me. But they hated the way I wasted my chances in life. And seeing them sad made me wish I had done things differently. Sadly, there’s always a time for everything. And now wasn’t the best time.

And with August showing no companies coming our way, we were left to our own thoughts and devices. I was preparing, for my dream company, TW which came soon enough.

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Thoughtworks came and went. So did L&T, IBM, Bosch, CTS, Deloitte, TCS, Mahindra, et al. I ended up in GS Engineering and Construction. It is where I'm still now, and I'm loving it

Sorry Shaktiman

Well, it happened.. I've finally gone mad thinking about what to do with my life..


One year into my job, I was convinced that I liked working better than studying.. So out went the norm option among my mates of going for MTech, MBA or MS.. You can't blame me.. I had such a hard time studying for BTech, that just the thought of taking up a book makes me drowsy. It's true, literally.. I took up my 1st year basic electrical text last week to "brush up" on my basics, and I was asleep within 10 mins..I had the same problem when I was in college, except for the days before exams, when the tension wouldn't let me sleep..


So, with the option of higher studies out of the way, I put in every effort I could into my job, hoping that that is the way my life is going to get better.. (In case you didn't notice till now, my life sucks.)


Well, long story short.. That didn't work out either.. Let's just say that my company and I have different views on what a "deserving reward" for work is..


And that brings us to the elephant in the room, who we have been conveniently ignoring in spite of its repeated stomps.. But I think I'll ignore it again and just move on..

Well, the whole point of all this rambling is that, it's a Sunday on yet another weekend.. I'm still cooped up in my room, lying awkwardly on my bed.. I'm down in the dumps for things I know I shouldn't care about.. And to avoid a repeat of last weeks breakdown, I'm planning on starting a new hobby.. To do the one thing I think most people would agree I do good.. A thing, for which, the expectations of the world and mine are the same.. The fact that I can write/blog averagely good enough.. Maybe even slightly better.. (Okay.. I confess.. I stole that line from somewhere)

So, I've decided to bring back to life my other blog (yeah, I've many), http://thedailylore.blogspot.in/... or as it is not-so-famously known as "bits and pieces of my day".. From now on, whenever I feel like killing myself or something there about, I'm just gonna write something, and put it up there.. I know you would be looking down upon me like dollar on rupee, but the thing is you are all I have.. And you are the only one who takes time to hear me out..

And, oh yeah.. about the title.. That's something which just popped up into my head then.. Not connected in any way to anything I said over here..

By the way, I gotta go.. The elephant seems to be really pissed off.. I need to feed it something to keep it quiet.. So bye for now, and watch out for me on the daily lore..

AWKWARD

Now, who among us have been lucky enough to get through a day without a single awkward moment?? It's an essential part of your daily life, which rears its unwelcome head in a variety of ways, and mostly, when you think things couldn't get any worse..

So, here's three of the more awkward moments I've been through or have heard of.. Hope you take in both the humor and the lessons from them..

1) The Metro Incident

There is (or was) a Malayali Restaurant in Dwaraka, some 15 km from Delhi. And in the first year of my "vanavasam" (the 14 years of forest exile, which was given to Rama) at Delhi, I would make the 2 hour journey from my place in Gurgaon to that place. And the incident that I'm talking about on the very first journey I made over there.

I was in the Noida-Dwaraka Line of the New Delhi Metro Rail, travelling in it for the first time. With my two best buddies, and a friend of one of them as our guide, we were undertaking the last lap of our journey to eat morsel after morsel of that sweet homely food.

But fate was against us. It had to make the last lap as tough as possible, and so we had to adjust ourselves in a tightly packed coach. We had already traveled 1 hour on another metro, standing throughout that journey. So, we ended up cursing our luck for putting us through this ordeal for another hour.

What we didn't know was that the lady luck had other plans for us. At some stop, I don't remember which, almost the entire train got out. But then again, only one seat opened up near where we stood. You had to be quick enough to claim that, but I did eventually manage to fend off the vested interest of my friends in that seat, and made it my own.

And just as I got settled in my seat, in walks one of the most beautiful creatures I have ever seen in my life. And, then again, as my luck would have it, she stood in one corner, such that I couldn't see her as I was vertically challenged right then. But my three friends, who were not so challenged, had full, unrestricted view to that angel of eternal beauty.

This was the cue for me to try and get up. Since I had made quite a scene of getting the seat, I couldn't just let the seat go, without arising suspicions from my fellow travelers (ya, I'm that paranoid/crazy). So, I had to give up the seat for one of these three monkeys, and make myself out to be the good guy here. But my friends had lost all interest in the seat, and were adamant that I should enjoy the seat for myself, while they enjoyed something entirely else.

I looked around the metro for any other sort of reason to get up. "Where were the senior citizens, pregnant ladies or women with babies in their hand, when you need one??" was the marquee running through my mind.

Still undeterred, I repeated my pleas to my friends to take the seat, and give me the chance to watch her. It fell on deaf ears, and stone-cold hearts.

Time passed, and another metro stop came up. One gentleman who was standing near us, came up to us as he was leaving and said, "Ningalkku onnu avanae nilkkan samathikyam aayirunu." (You could have let him stand up)

That's right. I was making all those requests to my friends in Malayalam (so that the gal wouldn't understand), and this Malayali gentleman was happily lapping up the sight of my plight, and put an end to my misery with this above dialogue.

Later, we came to know that Dwaraka and Noida had a substantially large Malayali population, and hence, the metro line between them was a danger zone for us.

Needless to say, we never talk when we get in the Noida-Dwaraka line. Sign language works just fine, and without all these awkward moments.

Side note : Irrespective of that humiliating incident, the food was heavenly, and my appetite did justice to what was served.

2) The HOUSE-FUL phenomenan

First, a little bit of trivia. If you spend about 10-15 minutes everyday at the office in the bathroom, by the end of the year, you would have had about 7-8 working days worth of personal time at office, which no one can hold you accountable for.. Smart, ain't it??

Well, let me start the story by saying that this happened to a friend. I swear, it was not me.

The thing is, this friend of mine at office, Mr.A, has a very weak digestive system. This essentially means that he'll be seen running to the bathroom almost every other hour.

The layout of our bathrooms is that there are three toilets on one side, and urinals on the other.

Well, this incident happened before I came to know about his "disease".

I was freshening up one afternoon, when in walks Mr.A. He's apparently in great hurry, and moves to door A, and tries to open it. Closed.

A little tensed, he moves to door B. Also closed.

Now, it was the make or break moment. He casts a loose glance at me to see if I was noticing. I was actually enjoying the bathroom version of that game show, where you choose doors.

Mr.A walks up to door C, keeps his hand on the lever, and turns it. No luck, it was closed as well.

He then turns around, gives me this half sheepish, half ashamed kind of smile, and runs out of the bathroom.

The next I heard was that he was seen in the next floor's bathroom. :D

3) Employee of the Month

Well, I got one more story about Mr.A. And I guess you would have guessed what has happened from the title and his "disease". Well, I ain't gonna explain. This is not an engineering college for me to spoon feed you everything. This is my blog, and if you can't get an idea of what happened, well, ask me. I'll write about it sometime else.

It's 1.30am, and I guess I should head off to my dream land, where there are no awkward moments.

P.S. I'm writing something (or anything for that matter) after some 6 months. If you have had it in you to read it till here, I thank you for humoring me. Thanks a lot matey.. :)

This season so far..

I fell in love with Arsenal through FIFA 2004.. But I started following them only for the last 3 years.. And have been a die-hard fan of Arsenal for the past year or so.. So much so that Arsenal is the only thing I search more on than, well.. you know.. ;)

So, after this 4-0 at San Siro, I felt I should discuss my views on this season.. In case you only watched last night's match this season, go through the main points of our season in this brief summary..

The Begining..

We buy Gervinho & OX.. AW is criticized for bringing OX..
We lose 2 matches in 4.. Sell Fab, Nasri..We get "humiliated" 8-2 at OT, playing a second string team (not for any reason of ours) against the League champions & CL finalists..
Media, and subsequently, inspired fans want Wenger's head..
He brings in last second signings - "panic buys"...

**Nobody seems to remember us beating Udenise in a critical tie, getting into CL for this year..

Next 3 matches

We still lose two.. Panic buys are blamed, so is AW..
"Relegation Battle for Arsenal" reads the papers..

From Oct to Dec 31st

Nobody notices the march of the Gunners from 17th in the table to 4th..
AW said somewhere in between this crisis, "Lets' see where we are at the end of the year.. Then judge our season.."
And his loyal cadres made his words come true..

January

We lose all the games except the crucial FA Cup tie, which we win, courtesy TH14 (more like TH12).. Everybody questioned AW for bringing him back.. But the King erased all doubts with his first shot..

** Nobody questioned Sir Alex for bringning in Scholes..

And at the end of January, we were in a battle for 4th with Chelsea, Newcastle, and Liverpool..
Again, Media, and subsequently, inspired fans want Wenger's head..

** The OX doesnt seem to be such a bad idea now for both media & fans..

February

We win 7-1.. AW and players are praised by the Media, and the fans..
We win 2-1 on a pitch, which seemingly was dug up, a day before.. Again, praise..

We lose 4-0 on a similar clay court, miles away from home 3 days later.. Its all AW's fault all over again..

Now, Next game.. the FA Cup tie with Sunderland..

We win.. Praise.. We lose.. Crisis..


My thoughts..

I have always felt, and this claim will be supported by many fellow gooners, that Arsenal is at the end of a media rebuff.. Anything we do is looked under a microscope; we can never be without a crisis..

eg : When we won 7-1, the best win of the season, with goals shared all round; Marca comes & says RvP said he wants to go to Real.. Even though RvP denied it on twitter, it was enough to ruin the week for us..

Fans believe whatever media throws at them.. When the next bit of "news" is a tweet button away, I want you to believe in this team, not the media.. It might be technically less efficient than the teams before, but they want to win, and win at Arsenal..

And I want you to support AW.. Of the panic buys, Arteta is in the top 5 passers in the game in Europe, Mert is a slow genius, Santos is Clichy 2.0, Gervinho is Nasri 2.0 and Ox is Walcott 2.0.. If that aint enough, there's Campbell who people say are Henry 2.0..

IF you still say AW is poor, its only cos you cant see the big picture.. AW started a journey with us gooners.. A dream to take Arsenal to the top of the footballing elites.. He cut down on his spending, built a stadium, developed talents, but kept his hope on a boy, who grew home sick.. And when that boy went home, his dreams were crushed, for no fault of his own..

I agree that he has made mistakes.. Park, for eg.. But he is a gooner like us, and wants only the best for this club.. Only thing is he's thinking long term, and we are seeing short term..

Pep is seen as the man who changed Barca into this world class team.. But it was the foresight of many before him, which left him with this talented pool of players, playing with a similar philosophy.. Please dont underestimate Wenger's foresight..

In short, all I want to tell you people is never lose hope in Arsenal or Arsene, cos of what media says.. When AW says its over, it's over.. Until then, be a true gooner and support your team..

IN ARSENE WE TRUST

one call

** Warning: This story has a sad ending. So, if you are a weakheart like me, I would request you to not proceed further. It has taken me two weeks of preparation to just right this **

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“So, you phone can make outgoing calls.” She said as she answered the phone, after what seemed to an eternity of ringing. But I was cautious as not to impose my urgency as I started chatting with her.

“Well, you are the one who always asks me to do something different.”

“Oh. So, is this call because you have finally decided to heed my words??”

“Let’s not get into that.”

“You never want to listen to what I want to say. Well, leave it then. So, why did you call? There must be some reason.”

“Nope, nothing. I just felt like talking to you, and ask about how things are over there.””

“It’s the same as it was when I called you this morning. Everyone’s good.”

“Well, that’s great. I hope it continues to be same.”

“Why the sudden urge to ask such questions and make such philosophical comments?”

“Nothing at all. It was just conversation filler.”

“Hmmm.”

“Well, I got some work to do. Talk to you later.”

“Ok bye. Don’t work too much. Take care of your health.”

Stifling an ironic smile, I replied “Always. Love ya. Bye.”

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After cutting the call, I laid down on my bed. The same bed, where it happened a few minutes before. I had thought that wasting a Saturday at home would be the better option, instead of going to the mall with friends, while my roomies went for their weekly Saturday overtime. But it all went wrong when I felt a bite on my ankle and a sharp pain searing up through my legs.

As we hadn’t had time to buy cots since moving into this flat some 5 months before, we have our mattresses on the floor. And somehow or the other, a snake had found its way into my room, and it bit me as I lay there enjoying a movie.

My knee jerk action was enough for it to slither away into the hole from which it came, but it had done its damage. I called the security of my flat, and asked him to send help, someone to carry me away.

I didn’t know what to do, after I made that call. I was thinking of why the snake bit me, how it got in, and how the hell a snake was able to make its way up to the 9th floor of this building. But it all seemed trivial now. I just accepted the fact that I might be on the verge of death, and if I had to do something, what would it be.

Her face was the only thing that came to me. That’s why I made that last call. And now as I lay there, I decided to send a message to her as well.

I can now hear the security outside my house. Oh Shit!! I had left it locked. How will he be able to get in? I can’t get up in this condition. I just can’t feel my legs. And I’m feeling drowsy.

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And as the thuds and kicks on the door grew louder, Arjun looked up. All he was able to see was the blurred vision of the family enjoying a picnic on the laptop screen. As he slowly drifted into unconsciousness, he thought to himself, “I wonder if they will live happily ever after. I hope they will”

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Beep. Beep.

Some 2000 miles away, Kavita picked up her phone. She read the message, and called out to her husband.

“Hear what your engineer son has to say. ‘I love you Mom and Dad. You have always done the best for me. And tell, Karan to study and to be able enough to support you people.’ First a call, and now this. Something is definitely wrong with that boy today.”