Wall Street...

Memory Lane,
We're here again,
Back to the days,
And I'll remember them always,
So much has changed,
Now it feels like yesterday I went away.

Two years. Almost to the day. What a journey it has been. Two years ago, June 30, 2004, the first time I moved out of my house in Bombay. It was time for the baby to leave the nest. Time for studying was over. The working boy was revealed to the world. That day, two years ago, I flew to Trivandrum for my training period with the company I still work for. And now indulge me as I take a trip down memory lane.

The day began with a flight from Bombay to Trivandrum, in the land of the gods (as Kerala touts itself in the ad campaigns). The flight journey was rather interesting as there I met a friend of mine, who later became my room-mate for the next 2 months. The one and a half hour flight was quite peaceful, except, maybe for the food that was served and the occasional turbulence encountered. The flight was accentuated by the maneuvers the pilot made the airbus endure as we approached Trivandrum. To get the correct approach on the runway, the plane does a sharp turn, very close to sea level. As the plane turned, I would say the wings made an angle of 30 degrees with the ground over what I later learned was Kovalam Beach.

On landing at TVM, my friend (J) and I discovered that we were to be in the same lodge for the duration of our training. We immediately decided to be roomies. We headed out to the lodge (Safire), near the railway station, and found ourselves a room. We had got ourselves a 3 bed room. Out the two of us went scouting for a 3^rd roomie. There we met Prima! (yup that’s what we still call him). He agreed to join us. As we sat in our room, we got our first taste of the Kerala monsoon. The windows being a little cracked, one bed started to get wet.

That’s where all the fun started. We moved into another room, a sort of outhouse. Hereafter, we were known as the cottagewallas :-) This room, however, had no power points, making charging our cell phones rather difficult. Slightly frustrated by the quality of accommodation provided by such a large organization, J and I decided to try for a change in lodges. The only way we could see something like that happening was through a petition.

That’s how we got the name, petition boys! We gathered all the tenants of the lodge to our cottage, and discussed the issues we each had about the accommodation. Most supported us. One girl in particular (RA) tried to convince us otherwise. She eventually bowed down to peer pressure! That signed the petition!

So ended day 0 for the working boy.

As for day 1, I just discovered an essay we were made to write during training describing our experiences on day 1. I will quote it below:

The day had finally arrived. After twenty-one long years, it was the day I finally began to work. Here I was, at Trivandrum, on the first day of July in the year 2004, brimming with anticipation at joining (name of company).

The day began well. The bus came right on time, to pick my colleagues and I from our lodge. During the half hour bus journey that ensued, all of us sat quietly, wondering what the day held for us.

We reached office at about eight’ o’clock and were quickly ushered into the auditorium for our first day briefing. This induction was scheduled for nine a.m. but in our nervousness, none of us remembered to have breakfast.

As we waited, the clock continued to tick away and soon it was ten in the morning. We began to wonder about the nature of the company, and how such a famous company could be so relaxed about their own punctuality.

In answer to our thoughts, one of the HR officers (SR) made a grand entrance into the auditorium. We were instructed on how to fill up the service agreement, a document we all called ‘the bond.’ This was followed by a briefing on what the training would entail.

The second briefing really made me nervous, as it was purely computer science based, and I was a telecommunications student. This meant that I would really have to burn the candle to be at par with my colleagues. Lost in my thoughts, I completely missed the announcement for lunch.

When I finally did reach the canteen, it was packed like a can of sardines. There was no room to stand. Suddenly, I lost all my appetite!

The afternoon inductions were quite boring, and had it not been for the finance induction, I would have had a nice nap.

The day dragged on as we waited for our personnel files to be collected. Finally at seven in the evening, we were asked to disperse and head back to our lodge the personnel files still not accepted.

It had been a long and tiring day, and I quickly fell asleep as soon as I had reached the lodge.

This was my first day as T-21, aka Primajhol. Those days I will never forget, and am glad I had the opportunity to make such good friends. Two years and still the memory remains.

Fortune, fame
Mirror vain
Gone insane...
But the memory remains

posted by zoxcleb @ 08:04