One year of idleness

Its almost a year since i wrote my last blog and when i mentioned in my previous blog that i didnt knew when i will be able to blog in never thought it will be this delayed.If anyone thinks its bcoz of the hectic first year mba life naaaahh!!!!! as my title shows it was nothing but my idle side of brain at work..

Well looking back it was one great last year with me finally cherishing my dream of being in an MBA class which had its share of happiness,anxiety,sadness and STRESS!!!yeah thaz one word without which first year MBA life wud be incomplete.This year also showed me that i am not finance material with all the excels figures of cash flows,IRR,NPV giving me a hard time.

About the land of philippines jst one word beaches,beaches and more beaches.Infact we were struggling to find a place to during breaks other than beaches.But the beaches there are too good esp the ones at borocay.Well hoping to explore more of the same as second year shd be comparitvely lighter with the profs getting new first yead students as "bakaras".Also the place where our campus is located called as metro manila i felt was good as any other cities in developed nations.One thing i found diff was the way the malls are interconnected here.You get into one mall and u may cover almost all the other big malls in the city without getting onto the road again.Rest of the philippines from watever i explored its too crowded just like india as density of population is very high here also.and yeah the government there not really sure i shd call them govt as they hardly do tat.a fully corrupt one thanks to which i cud get a close view of a military coup, huge rally which united all sects of ppl.Military coup happened very close to our campus with the dissident military team using a hotel near our campus as their hideout.Extra spice was added to my stay there with earthquakes and typhoons also promplty visiting us.

Want to write more abt the campus life but my idle side of brain is catching up with me.I badly wanted to blog in this break of summer internship and am happy tat i cud scribble something with a day remaining for me to fly back to philippines for the second year.

4 years @ Infosys

Four years never knew how those flew by!! Right now just gathering my thoughts as an Ex-Infoscion those four years really was a crucial phase in my life. Starting from a novice young fresh pass out from college to a Well polished IT professional phew that was a long journey!!!

I still remember the day when I got the mail from Recruitment@infosys.com saying that I am selected and I need to report at the Chennai DC on April 21 2003. We were a batch of 90 with majority of the junta being from Tamilnadu. I could see the sparkle of hope and expectation in each one’s eyes or was it the tension thinking about the tough training schedule waiting for us?

My stint with Infy started with the ICE breaking session by HR folks which was followed by signing of lot of docs, opening of bank account etc. Everyone got a PC partner (with whom we were supposed to share the computer for entire training) and I was lucky to get a nice gal from Chennai and the gal unlucky as she was destined to suffer being my pc partner for next 3.5 months.

Training phase just flew by with all the quizzes, Section tests, Generic Compres, Projects, etc etc. We had formed a notorious Mallu group within training batch and made sure that we never missed out on fun in this hectic training schedule. Things like needing 65 plus in all quizzes, Submission of projects on time, Passing the Compre never really affected us. We had tonnes of fun roaming around at Sathyam Multiplexes, Spencer Plaza, Baesant nagar beach, late night 28 games, fantabulous birthday celebration using the Vellacherry mud water and Rotten tomatoes from nearby market, etc. Also stay at Vellacherry was an humbling experience for me. No water supply, regular power cuts, flooded roads through which we had to wade through in full executive dress, getting water from a nearby well for daily activities (cant really say daily bcoz of lack of water we made some daily activities once in 3 days and all).By gods grace I cleared the training without any major mishaps and got my posting at Mangalore DC. My training story wouldn’t be complete without mentioning what the evaluator told me after seeing my code during final compre exam. It still echoes in my ear”This is the best code I have seen so far today”. I have only god to thank for that. If he had compiled the code that day oh my god maybe I wudnt even have written this blog!!!!

Next destination was Mangalore. The only idea I had about the same was as the land of UDUPI Hotels and Mangala Devi temple. Infact before getting my posting I never knew Infy had a DC over there. The dc was small compared to other infy dc but this was a great place to work!!! I think all the Minfoscions will vow for that. The bonding among peers, the HR activites/events were just too good!! Never really got the impression that I was working here it was like just hanging around with a lot of friends. Hats off MINFY.YOU ROCK!!! Oh I think I just got carried away and digressed from the topic. So here I am at Minfy and my first project was the BENCH yes 1 month of paid vacation .Then came the project named Anthem(never knew that time this would be the only project I would work in infy). Here also I had a jolly good time as the project was a kewl one which didn’t need any night outs or extra hours of effort. I could see my roomies/trainee batch Mates struggling with night outs and all. Since the project was not hectic I could find a lot of free time for org wide activities which was great fun!! The fashion shows, the Dumb charades, Anatkshiri, Team outing, Water raftings are all now fond memories of good old days. One fine day my project manager called me and asked if I am ready to fly to US for onsite assignment for this project. So with that ended my first phase at INFY.

Next destination US. The dreamland of majority of India IT engineers. I have to say I never really liked the same. Of course this is the place to be in if you want to earn some quick moolah enjoying all comforts of life. The lack of social life and the too formal way of life might have been the deterrents. But during my short stay of 1.5 years I made sure that I covered all the imp tourist places starting from Newyork the city in the east coast to Los Angels the city in the west coast. Onsite was a great experience because of the client exposure we had and it helped me grow and mature as a professional.The production support was fun with the beeper going off at odd hours in the night and we fixing up the issue in half sleep. God knows what happened to all those claims I fixed poor patients .Some of the memories for me from US trip are Getting my first car,”TO GO” lunchs from subway,view from top of empire state building, trip to LA to be with my bro,IHL day celebrations at office, learning to cook my first Omelet and graduating to an expert cook, First snowfall etc. One of the biggest challenges of my professional life happened during my stay here when the whole of ANTHEM systems crashed because of an hardware failure and our batch jobs was delayed by 3 days. Infosys as a team did a commendable job that time which drew in words of appreciation from even CEO of wellpoint (as by that time anthem was acquired by the same).All this time I was still nurturing my dream of going for an MBA and decided by sept that I need to go back to India to pursue my dreamz.

So next destination was back to India to join the team back in mangalore. Things had changed quite a lot and it was an entirely new team here with majority of junta from fairer sex. But the new team also was great fun to be with, even though the time I spend there was less as we had plans of transitioning the project to other DC .I was contemplating a transfer to tvm dc as I got reject from ISB for which I had come from US so that I can be at home and give another shot next year. Then BOOM!!!IHL DM :” Aravind can you go to china we are transitioning the project to china DC”.I decided to take the same as that will be a great resume add for me when I apply to colleges.

Next destination China! The land of Great wall and noodles. I was never circumspect about my visit even though all the people who came to know abt my trip to china had just stories of Chinese cusines. The trip though a short one for just three months was an unque experience and I can vow that I cherished every moment of the same .I found the same much more enjoyable than my US visit maybe because of the attitude of the very friendly Chinese people or the gang we had over there in china. True to my records I made sure that three months in china was well utilized Shanghai, Guilin, Bejing being some of the imp places I visited. Work wise china was kewl as we it was just KT sessions to the team identified over there. Shanghai is truly an amazing place u name it and u have it there in shanghai.The extensive metro service, maglev train,museums,6 lane highways, Oriental tower, Bund to mention just a few of the attractions in shanghai. During my stint here I had applied to Asian institute of management and by gods grace got the admit for the same with a joining date of july 23rd.As pursuing an MBA was always clear cut for me putting down my papers was not a difficult decision.

I decided to quit infy by june 6th and take a break of about 1.5 months before I fly to manila to live my dreams. So here I am today enjoying my break and long stay at home after about 4 years of hard(ly) work.

All I can say today is I had some great positive experiences of working with a bunch of good people. It has been a wonderful experience both personally and professionally for me at Infosys.Thanks to all those who groomed me in the technical and professional mores and made me capable enough to pursue my own ambitions and dreams.

Days are going by,with hardly a week left of this comfortable stay at home. I don’t even know when I will be able to blog again!!

Antamsys Project Outing

Finally ANATMSYS team was able to do something different than just going out for DINNER parties and what a trip it was!!!! It was a trip that “CARRIED” away many a team members....in all respects.

The trip to Siddapur (Water Rafting Spot) started at sharp 7.00 IST plus 45 minutes, since G pai never gave us a sniff as to where he was till then.

In the bus, initially guys were a bit sleepy and a few managed to steal some quick nap also. But when the bus stopped over for breakfast everyone was quick to get up esp ANJANA who remained consistent through out the trip with her AMAZING skill of getting up whenever we had a break for food. After the breakfast we went to a nearby temple called "KALLUGANAPATHI" and after offering our prayers there, esp RAMC since he lost faith in THIRUPATHI, we continued to the adventure spot.

We reached there by 11:30 and the instructors were already waiting for us. Then began the real fun!!

We put on all the protective gear first(as HALE safety week is going on) which made us look like gladiators with life jackets and helmets. Our instructor made us stand in a single line la military style for some basic instruction after that it was ACTION time. Each person was compulsorily asked to float in water so that we get confidence in life jackets even though we had other plans of testing the same with our very own QA team (Sreelatha) here. This was followed by mock kayaking sessions.

After all this it was each team for their own, even though the instructors followed us in three separate Kayaks. The intial problems we faced while mock session seems to have gone for a toss and every team was finding it easy to give proper direction with all the seven kayaks going thrgh first three falls smoothly with out any “FALLS”. Then came the instruction from them saying next is the big one make sure your KAYAKS are straight when u reach the fall and not parallel of which it seems me and siva managed to hear only the second part as we promptly reached the same parallely and "Splash" we were there in the stream all upside down. Though we managed to hold on the boat the stream was strong enough to carry us forward thanks to instructor (I wanted to name my life savior but naming him will create unnecessary confusion J ) who threw us a rope and LA BOLLYWOOD Style me and siva were pulled to safety.

Seems we were inspiration for others as this was just the beginning with QA-Rams team and deepthi, sreelatha also getting a taste of water soon. But in case of deepthi and sreelatha i think they stayed underwater for considerable time with TIMES OF INDIA reporting today that water level of the river had gone by a few cms. Then came the QA-RAMS who were first toppled over in one of the falls and in the second case they got stuck in between rocks yeah thaz right RAMC could be stopped by a stone. The others who were "UNFORTUNATE" as not to get a taste of water; the instructor made sure that they were drenched using his oars for splashing water esp taking a liking to PR-AD-EEP maybe he came to know that he takes bath once in few months.

With a few more splashes we reached the destination thus ending our Kayaking experience which lasted for about 1.5 Hrs. But this was not the end of day for us. After a light lunch we went to see a SCENIC spot specialty of which is in RKS words-"its a very SCENIC one". No one had any idea even RK i think as to trek wud be this tough as it took some 40 mins to reach the top with track being too steep. On reaching the top-it was more of FINALLY than “Ah, fresh air and clear skies!!” as everyone was too exhausted to enjoy the same.

We started back at abt 7 and after a small sleeping session to reboost our energy we started the SOLO singing session with URS TRULEY and Siva getting all the claps for our beautiful voice. Soon, by 7 PM IST (Indian Stretchable Time), the stretch factor being around 120 minutes, we reached Hotel- MAHARAJAH where we had our dinner and bid each other good bye with memories of a great day left behind.

Flight Ordeal From Shanghai

Think u having a bad day!!!Read this…

Disclaimer: It’s a pretty long one read at leisure.

Just thought about sharing my return trip adventure from shanghai to Trivandrum. This was the WORST flight experience till date believe me I had quite a few before also like waiting for 13 hrs for a 1.5 hr flight and all.

Everything was fine until I cleared the security check at the shanghai airport after saying bye bye to my gang there. The flight was supposed to be at gate 34 as per the ticket but on reaching the same I found tat they have changed the same to gate no 26 and as luck wud have it 26 and 34 are two opposite ends of the terminal.

So on route my journey from 34 to 26 I thought let me have some snacks as it will take about 1.5 hrs more to get dinner overboard and decided to use the vending machine nearby. Put in a 10 RMB note and pressed for my favorite Cheetos and promptly got the cash balance back, but where are the cheetos???Seems the cheetos didn’t like me and was half stuck inside. A lot of pushing and prodding from a lot of helpful chinki junta proved in vain and cheetos just dint come out. By tat time I had lost my appetite and decided to wait till onboard dinner. Bingo then came the announcement “Flight blah blah to Mumbai is delayed by one hour “.To the credit of AIR INDIA we were delayed exactly by one hour and were air borne sharp 11 PM.

After a heavy dinner (Seeing veg biriyani after a long time ;)) to my surprise I went to deep sleep. It was to my surprise as usually I don’t get good sleep in journeys. In retrospect I feel god was making me get ready for the next day ordeal. Didnt even know when the flight reached Bangkok and when I opened my eyes we were in Delhi and cabin crew was serving breakfast. A look at the watch I was a happy man as we have covered for quite a bit of lost time and I looked all set to get the connecting flight from Mumbai. Had my breakfast and promptly went back to sleep.

Woke up after about 1.5 hrs and Lo! I am still in Delhi. For a moment I thought my slumber had violated Einstein’s law and I made time wait for me which was soon corrected by the announcement from captain saying tat we are number 5 in the queue and should be air borne in another 15 mins. This made the sleeping mathematician in me work..Calculating the speed of aircraft, taxing time during take off and landing, time fro getting my baggage, immigration clearance, gettting to domestic from international etc etc. I being the eternal optimist thought I will still make it with 20 mins to spare.

After about 1 hour 45 mins I cud see Mumbai below me but no announcement from captain to cabin crew to remain seated as thet usual norm.Kahani Mein Akala twist we crossed Mumbai airport and now we are above Arabian sea.TING! Announcement came we are having some heavy air traffic and so will have to go around in circles till we get clearance from ground. I would have enjoyed the flight over marine drive if I was not time crunched!!

We landed after a 15 mins delay and I still had 45 mins left for my connecting flight. Immigration was done pretty quickly as no other international flight had arrived for the day. Still having hopes of getting the connecting flight I ran to collect my baggage from the belt. I waited, waited and waited finally got the same and the reason for those three "waited" is bcoz I checked in from shanghai my bags were pushed to the last.
After clearing customs I was all set to rush to domestic terminal with 20 mins left. The only hope for me now was if the connecting flight is delayed .With names of all Hindu gods I know I reached the place from where FREE bus service is there to domestic terminal. So wat do u guys think now.I got the bus and flight was delayed and I lived happily thereafter :). No my dear friends this was just like EKTA production kahani Mein Twist Hi Twist Hein.

On reaching the gate from where we need to board the bus I was stopped by a security guard asking me for my tickets and verifying my bags for security seal. Never got the reason why he was checking for the same as all passengers are IN TRANSIT and anyway on reaching domestic airport they will have to go through security check again. Anyway I was a bit lucky here and he asked me to go ahead and wait for the bus. By this time the scheduled departure time of my connecting flight was long over. With nothing to lose and nothing to do but wait for the bus I went back to see what is happening at the gate with our security valla who is doing his duty so diligently.

Overheard there:
Security: ”Y are u trying to fool me showing two days back boarding ticket to me”.
Passenger”Sir in America the time is one day behind us thaz y”.
Security”I don’t know all this please don’t put me in trouble get a taxi and go to airport”

Finally the bus arrived and there were only two passengers who were there to go to the domestic terminal. Then came the bombshell from the driver we will wait till we get enough passengers before we start from there .All my pleas of me having a flight, went to deaf ears. I reached the domestic terminal after another 30 mins and was told that the INDIAN airlines booking office was right there. But as I expected the check in counter was not there but on the third floor. As luck (eh?can I use tat for me after all tat happnd) cud have it I met an INDIAN official there who told that my flight is delayed by 1.5 hrs and new departure time is 1:30 pm. It was already 1' O clock by tat time.

I ran with my trolley of bags to the lift only to see a bunch of grumpy passengers leaving saying tat lift is not working. I needed to check in as soon as possible and didn’t have time to carry my entire luggage till the third floor. Decided to take the risk of leaving my check in bag there and ran with my cabin bag and laptop to the counter. The lady at the counter greeted me with a warm smile and told me tat all the papers for this flight are sent. I told my whole Dukh Bari Kahani and got an assurance from her to try if there is any possibility to accomodate me. She went to the gate to check the same and meantime asked me to get my check in bag. Thanks to a nice gentleman from kingfisher airlines I could carry the big bag all the way up there. The job was not made easy bcoz of the fact tat I was jst recuperating from a shoulder dislocation.

The thought of being in the plane and reaching home time for lunch made me squeeze last ounce of energy and push myself. But the lady at the counter came back saying nothing can be done as the gates are closed. All my pleas went unnoticed thanks to the excellent customer service that she was taught .Sorry cant say it went unnoticed for everything she had one answer:”Contact duty manager”. Seeing that I cant get anything out of her I decided to try my luck at the duty managers cabin. There was long queue in front of the same which made me reconsider my decision and instead I got the ticket validated by one of the staff members so that I can use the same again for next one year.

My next thought was to somehow get another ticket on the same day to Trivandrum and came to know that AIR DECCAN has one to Trivandrum 8 30 in the night. But air deccan operates from terminal 2 and I am currently in terminal one. On giving a call from here they told they have 3 more tickets left on the same. Blocked the same and rushed to the terminal 2 with the help of an auto for which the driver started at 170 bucks and finally was ready for 40 bucks(hmm hardly 5 mins trip.how true time is money!!!).

I didnt have enough money with me but again "luckily" had some dollars which were converted to get the air deccan tickets. The cheapest airliner in Indian skies costed me a kewl 5300 as it was last min booking. After getting the tickets I was all set for taking a much needed rest and was roaming around the terminal looking for a place to rest my bumps.

FLASH!!Am I SEEING it correctly or it it because I am all stressed out. The flight status screen showing ”IC167(MY Flight) security check in progress” Estimated departure time 2:30!!!!!My immediate reaction was to go back and bash up the lady at the counter.

But I didnt have the energy coupled with the the fact tat I already have got another tickets made me resign myself to my fate. If you think that was the end of the story its not ;I am sure if EKTA is reading this she will stop bringing in all those twists in her productions as she would have got up fed up with my twists(taste of her own medicine ;).

The icing on the cake or rather on the pudding, considering my state of mind ,was when the Deccan flight was delayed by 3 hours and I was also asked to pay over weight fees of 1000 bucks as weight limitation is same for even transit passengers.

Finally I reached home 4 AM Saturday morning much to the relief of my parents who were expecting me from 2 PM Friday afternoon.

Looking back the only good thing about the ordeal was it strengthened my weak shoulder muscles :)

PS: I have complained the same to Indian officials yet to hear back anything.