It was during the middle of March in Gurgaon. Winter has just wrapped its shift and Summer just checked in. It was a Saturday I guess, routine housekeeping day. Cleaning, washing, and then do nothing with ever playing ZOOM Music TV. Those are days when I 'just started' to think Hindi as second language after English. Most Hindi words started appearing more familiar and understandable mostly by context rather than each word. Amidst this routine and as a surprise, there was an unexpected incoming call (calls to me are very rare considering the fact the I'm least mobile lover and I choose to decide when to take up mobile rather than mobile dictating me to take it up) at very odd time, around 9AM. Kareem, an independent HR consultant, from Chennai was on the line. Since this call came just couple of days after I changed my Naukri status as looking for job change, I was prepared and started the conversation. He mentioned company as Satyam and they are looking for developers.
Swiftly in couple of days, I got first level interview call successfully done over the phone with some named Mahesh and Senthil. Even now, I was in understanding that I would be joining Satyam, a great company with great integrity(it was then in 2007, before Ramalinga Raju's letter episode) and was excited to work in a public listed company for first time. Then a shocker was thrown, a potentially end game. I was asked to visit a Delhi office for video conference interview ASAP. Fact was and is, I hate traveling to new place without a very detailed cost and effort analysis. I usually try to find answers for What are the different transport mediums available? Favorably can it be reached by walk? What are the risk probability of conductor wala/taxi wala/rickshaw wala charging me extra by taking advantage of my language problem? What I can do if I miss last available transport medium? What I can do to avoid this travel? After considering Gurgaon's notorious cab wala, poorest ever seen public transport, and alien people around, decided to skip the interview and okay to purge the interest working with Satyam. Conveyed the same.
Soon, not sure due to what star formation, just in couple of days I got into situation to travel to home via Chennai. This time I called Kareem and got the interview scheduled at Chennai and this time while saying the address the cat was out. Yes, Kareem asked me to visit Sify. Amused and disappointed, was checking about Sify profile on net and kind of settled down after knowing even Sify also is a listed company, that too in United States of America, my dreamland. I had mad liking to stock market when I was in college and no money on hand. I followed Hang Seng(HSI) index closely every day, since that was the only index BBC tracked in Asia during 2000. After having money in hand, luckily I didn't have same mad liking for stock. That saved a lot.
By the time I was in Chennai for interview, couple of weeks gone and now I'm at government office kind of structure. Its called as Elnet Software City. Completed the second level successfully with some named Raj(the first person I met at Sify and didn't know then that I will work with him till last day last hour for all FIVE years in Sify) and done with the formalities of HR and the joining date has come very soon.
The beginning of Life at Sify was great. Not for reasons of huge money or great facilities or closer to home or native language or same skinned people, but because of great people with some of cool characters/attitude I have ever come across. Probably for first time in the job, I felt a real homecoming in a company. That might well be a clear case for spending 5 colorful years at Sify.
Here comes the real faces of the beautiful minds I spend time with. The first batch, I will not say team here since in most cases we never worked in single team but we were together not by design but by liking to each other for one or other reason. These are great set of people. Let me intro them from L to R:
- Dhanaprabha, a great soul and cool mind. Never tired to fight with. Shared same cubicle row.
- Myself(on back of Dhana)
- Vasanth, the trip to erode for his marriage is memorable and I still remember superb marriage dinner. A great mokkai creator.
- Senthil, He is the guy who interviewed me over the call. That was the first and last time he asked me questions. Since then for almost 3yrs, it was me asking him tons of question.
- Siva, a techie.
- Suresh, my saviour from boring times. A dependable person to make mokkai. Never fights back, never questions. Great soul.
- Satya, cool guy. Joined Sify little later than me but at the end of my term at Sify, he own a home in Chennai. Not sure how he earned more than me, probably from in-laws I guess. :)
- Abdul, my another savior from boring times. Excellent human being but he is extreme in communication. Never attends my call. Fortunately for me and unfortunately for him, till the time he left Sify, we worked together in same team for all the different projects. Tons of time has been killed along with him.
- Logesh, a techie. I strongly believe he has traveled for long distance than Astronaut Armstrong. He travels everyday some 4hours between office and home.
- and Sunil, quiet guy.
While joining Sify, I was weighing just 60.
New people, from L to R,
- Myself,
- Hari, quiet and content guy. Makes quiet mokkai.
- Abdul, he don't have interest in astronomy, but sometimes acts weird by staring strangely at different angles).
- Rajagopal, interesting guy. Very matured. Shared some good mokkai. Got chance to met him after he left Sify. He is as ever.
- Sundara Chandran, quiet and nice guy. World missed him so early. All of sudden, came his passing away news. It was great time with him. Believe, wherever he is, he will and should be happy.
The days of original Elnet Canteen is unforgettable. Now it has been given to some big commercial outlet but when I joined, it was run by a private individual and it was like typical college hostel canteen. Simple, poor menu, bad taste, cheap price but was very fun due to less restriction like outside food can be brought and taken inside. Almost 3 years, we had lunch together, picking girls for fun - decent fun - very decent fun I promise, post lunch we hangout around bike stand again for picking girls for fun - again decent fun - very decent fun I swear to god.
- Venki, manager, cool guy. Though never worked as team but had as many arguments as if a team. Always remember the sign he put for my BITS MS application when my reporting manager was away and I had to courier it on the day itself.
- Karthikeyan, amazingly quiet guy. Calm guy beyond my imagination. Have always asked him tips to keep quiet, he never replied even that question. I think that itself is a tip to be quiet which I never can follow. He made good fortune from his Puducherry in-laws. Thats one fact he agreed explicitly.
- Bharath, fantastic personality and my reporting manager for almost a year. Learned what preserverance means from him.
- Krishnaraj, great techie and cool guy. Makes mokkai often and makes the place around him fun.
- Kuppuraj, Excellent mokkai cooker and serves it deliciously. Got introduction to him lately, but after that no turning back. Often there is accusation that I make technology backed mokkai and reached only A class people, but this guy makes mokkai that can reach B and C class audience very well. Nice guy. I'm debted to him for a garlic breadstick. I hope to return it back ASAP.
- Rajasekar, the great. Maintains his cool attitude come what difficult work may be. :) He troubles me many times but a nice guy.
- Pachai, on left with red zebra crossing tee, cool guy with strong liking to samiyars. After the nityananda episode, he appears to changed but not very sure :)
- Sathish, next to Pachai in dark orange tee, he shared my native place. Extreme personality.
- and finally Josh, on bottom right in dark red shirt, very fun loving and easy goer. I still remember, in this fungama event, he won prize in one of the tough competition, karla kattai event. Proved a strong guy.
- Tamilselvan, What a guy. Maintains his composure no matter what pressure its. Quiet mokkai maker.
- Krishna, Sathish, wrote about them.
- Dineshkumar, a techie.
- Pachai, this pose happened before nityananda episode but still not sure why we went into hiding.
- Jude, an easy goer.
- Kuppu, Josh, wrote about them.
- Mahalingam, time spend was small but still memorable.
- Ms. PK, talented techie, but very angry women for good cause. She sometimes plots how to kill the non-vegetarians, so far not successful.
- Ms. AK, spent most of the time thinking what todo with the computer Sify gave. Later she realized buying property in Chennai is costly affair, she went to create uncontrollable number of property file for Java programs. Nice way to overcome a problem you see.
- Ms. CK, frequent Saudi traveler. I leave the rest for guessing.
- and then its Ms R., Ms. ., Ms DP.
- Tamil, Kuppu, Pachai wrote about them. Mr. Veera, nice guy.
- Suresh, Java developer.
- Shareif, train companion. Thankful for bearing the brunt alone.
- Ajay, young guy.
- Vijay, vellore guy. Taken fun lightly.
- and finally the groom Selva, fun loving. My next seat colleague, spent most of the time at office thinking how to change his computer login username.
- Yamini - very strong and cool attitude.
- Deepa, techie and fun loving. Makes good mokkai.
- Kousalya, terror :). Only second women in my core team.
- Janani, big quiet mokkai maker. now a noisy home maker in Atlanta. Vidya, great techie and on top of the job.
- Kannan, great manager.
- Jayesh, techie and quiet mokkai maker. Thinker and it may appear to be sleeping.
- Pachai, Tamil, Kuppu, Abdul, wrote about them.
- Raghav, at extreme right, fun loving guy. Disappeared from the world from the moment he left Sify.
- Prakash, reminds yahoo smiley.
- Kuppu, we know.
- Sadha, the java crorepati. After Java creator James Gosling, he is the one who made most money from Java. :)
- Venkat, dedicated programmer for UK. for whole country. :)
- Pachai, we know.
- Karthik, my reporting manager till the last minute. Very straightforward. Goes by heart.
- Prabhu, great human being and trying to be excellant developer. A great mokkai cooker.
- On middle row, from L to R, Ms. , Ms. Ash., Ms. , Ms. , Ms. Vidya.
- Sitting, from L to R, Meenakshi, quiet and composed.
- And rest are terror.
New people, just names, Java Venkat, Senthil, Selva, Jayagopal, Ravi and Santhosh.
fun time at Karaikudi.
fun time at Basera, ECR. New names, Anil.
Public mokkai making during the Valentines day competition. Won second prize. Official recognization for mokkai.
The dream come true, during US visit.
Some fierce competition. Intense dance and dialogues. Won second prize. new people, Jude Sekar, Rajesh, Ramki - blasting techie.
Having great time at Kodaikanal.
Regret the best chance to kill that guy.
The only picture of Mahesh, my first reporting manager.
Then finally came the conclusion,
From entry to exit, Raj. Thanks.
The great core team.
The bell rang loud and clear for one last time and that's it. It was colorful and thoroughly joyful ~5 years. Thanks everyone.
Jan 1, 2012
Atlanta
