My Story of Joining GLT

Here I would like to share my memories of the those 3 days, which proved to be a turning point in my life. I really, really thank GOD for making it happen.
This is how the story unfolds.

14th July 2006 (T minus 1 Day)

Noon Time (The Phone rings):

I was hanging out with S at the ABC in search of few books. I was then thinking of giving SCJP exam. As, I had just finished giving my final practical exams, and, with no placements I had no other idea of what to do next. My brother was then doing a Kerala outing with his friends.

Suddenly the phone rang and I could see my Mom's call flashing on the sceen (ofcourse it was S's cell as I didn't a cell then). I called my mom back, and it was then she told me about my brother's friend who had called up informing about the Walk-In which was about to happen the other day. The word Walk-In sent in cold shiver to my brain, as I was afraid to see large number of guys hanging out at one place for a job.
Finally, I bought a book for the certification (which I havent opened yet till date) said goodbye to S and went home.

Evening Time (You have got a mail):

Till this time I wasn't sure about going for the Walk-In, and it was then my brother called from Kerala and asked me to go and attend the walkin (I was always scared of my brother). I called up that friend (Subbu) who forwarded me a mail with necessary details about the time and place.
I was shocked to see that the rounds would start by 7 in the morning and it was somewhere in SB Road and as usual I didn't knew the place.
Finally I slept for the day and cursing that I would have to get up very early the next day.
15th July 2006 (T Day)

Early Morning (Morning Panic):

Got up very early in the morning somewhere around 4 and hurriedly got freshed up and was ready to leave by 5, to catch the first local. Got down at the Shivajinagar station and somehow managed to reach the place by 6:15. I was amazed, because I couldn't see many people out there, I waited for another 20-25 minutes but still there weren't many people waiting outside.
Actually this made me happy, as I thought there would be very few people to compete with.
So at 6:45 I thought of going in and it was then my jaws dropped open. There were hundereds of people waiting inside a very big hall. After 7 the HR guys asked all the people to move out and asked us to come in patiently for the aptitude test. Suddenly I could feel the rush of hundereds of people and I started panicking.

Late Morning (Survival of the fittest):

Thank God I was very fit in those days (I still am ;-) ) and it helped me to push people and move ahead, otherwise I would have never made it till the gate. It was then I saw a girl getting squeezed in the crowd and I helped her move ahead making way for her. This was noticed by the security guard, and he, pulled me in too, and finally I managed to get in where the HR guys were collecting the resume.

Afternoon (Pay Back Time)

I couldn't managed to sit in the first round of aptitude and was kept waiting for more than a hour for the first batch to get over. It was then I realized that a reference was must inorder to appear for the aptitude and it was then I came across very weird people, who just refused to share there reference's. Finally it was pay back time and the girl whom I had helped to get in, gave me a refernce, a name of a person whom I didn't knew and gave me an 8 digit employee number of the person.

Late Afternoon (The Stress)

After the aptitude we were again kept waiting for another hour for the results to be out. They started calling the names and asked them to go to the other room. I was praying and wanted them to call out my name, but GOD had other plans, and they didn't called out my name.
I was stressed out as I thought I didn't made it and was thinking what am I going to do next.
But then striked the other plan of GOD, the guys who were still waiting in the room were selected. And I just couldn't beleive myself. I had felt two complete opposite reaction of myself in just a matter of few seconds.

Evening (Walk in the Park)

I was then called for the technical interview, again almost after waiting for another hour. Thanks for the Linux project which I did in the final year, made my interview very easy. Because Linux is one such subject, in which very few people have got knowledge about. Then, there was HR interview again after an hour wait. These interview were just a like a walk in the park. And later we were asked to to fill a form giving our contact details. And I left for the day, pretty much relaxed without realising what's stored in for me for tomorrow.

16th July (T plus 1 Day)

Whole Morning (Quiet Morning)

It was a Sunday morning, so I got up a bit late, and the first thought which came to me was about the interview which happened a day before. I was not sure what to expect, I was completely blank and tried to keep myself calm. So, I spent the whole morning quietly watching TV, with one ear on the phone wondering,
whether would it ring today with a good news.

Afternoon 3:10pm (Phone Rings Again)

Yes I do remember the exact time when the phone ringed. I was watching something on the TV. My heart skipped a beat as I attended the call. The same lady called me, who had taken my HR interview. She gave me the good news about me getting selected for GLT and asked me to reach office by 4:00 pm to collect the offer letter.
I hate repeating this sentence, but can't help. Even here I didn't knew in which of Pune does Kalyani Nagar comes. I rang N, one of my collage friend and he dropped me at GLT and left with my bike.

Evening (Feeling of happiness)

I walked in the office building feeling lost, but definately with a sense of happiness bursting inside me. It was the most happiest moment in my life till date. My first walkin and then collecting my offer letter. My joy knew no bounds. I was ecstatic.
There we were instructed about the technology we would be working on. It was the one which I had never heard of, and we were asked to join GLT on the next day. But that didn't mattered me.
I was on Cloud number 9 and felt so happy.

I don't think I can ever forget those 3 days of my life. It just changed my life and I am really happy that it happened.

Standing Over

What a tiring weekend had been this till now and when I am tired I like listening to some good songs which have some heavy beats in them, and the one I am listening to is the Theme song of Blue at a high volume. It feels as if it is takes me to a trance mode where I enjoy myself a lot, with my mind relaxing to the music.

This is when, I tend to think about myself and the people around me, and how our life's interact with each others and we carry on with our day to day things. Each people stand at different places, some being very good and dear friends, with some we hold grudges and their are few others whom we don't bother.

The people I hate the most are the ones who always try to Stand Over on their sub-ordinates. We can see these type creatures everywhere, and my office is no exception. And these people make it worse when they call their so called heroic act (cowardliness, for me) as professionalism. I see few of my colleagues who are always being walked over by their seniors and they just don't retaliate.
I remember one golden rule of street fight and I guess it applies everywhere, rule being "Never go onto your back foot, and if you ever go, then hit back real hard". I feel, the moment you let somebody stand over you, it is the same moment you show your greatest weakness.

I would like to keep this short, as I don't want to loose my trance state of my mind as I still want to enjoy some more music. I just want to urge my friends, guys don't let ever anybody to stand over you. One should always fight back, no matter if you fall, you can always stand up and learn, and that is the only way to go ahead.

Cheers!!
Anup

City and Town

It feels to be good back to the place where I actually belong, and that is Pune. After two weeks of holidays in my native place in Kannur (a district in Kerala), I realized how much a Punekar I have become, and how much I miss the Pune City. It doesn't mean that I don't like my native place, place where I was born, I like it very much, and the main reason for it, which I believe, is because the place is not a city yet, its just a small town like place. A place where the roads are narrow, a place where you won't find much traffic, not much people with high fashionable branded clothes.

Pune is a place which have always changed with time, and it has always amazed me. The first time I was away from Pune for long, was in 2006 when I had gone to London. Pune did changed in those 6 months, and now I always sense that change happening in the city and I also sense that change creeping into me, which a city does to its own people. But to my amazement, my native place haven't changed, it still looks the same to me. the only change happened are the number of houses which are being bought up people with their hard earned money from the Middle East countries.

I do believe in the changes which a city does to its people, and I have seen that. The people in the city are always busy and does not find time for any body else. The eyes of majority of the people speak the same language, and it tells us that I does not care for anybody else. But you won't find this in a village or in a small town like Kannur (my native). Their eyes are different and they speak a different language, a language which is spoken by majority of the people. Their willingness to help others. I have felt it and can relate it with an example, the way the conductors behave in the buses. It is because of their simple eyes, I guess, I remember the face of every conductors I have in the last 2 weeks, and I dont remember the face of the conductor of the bus in which I traveled from Panvel to Pune. But with said so, I agree by the saying "All five fingers are not same".

But still I love Pune, the Pune city, because the person I have become today is because of the city, but with my roots still finding its way to Kannur. As a person, I would like to keep on changing with the pace of the Pune city and would like my eyes to speak the language of Kannur.

Anup

Anup - Served Fresh and Hot

Another lazy Sunday is passing by, but the good thing is I happened to eat few 'modaks' as it's Ganesh Chaturti today. Though I am writing this a bit late, but still I would like to call this as my Birthday Post. I just tend to write few things about myself here.

-> My name Anup and my nick name is......don't have any, anyways my name is just a 4 letter word so why short it further.
->I couldn't pronounce 'R' when I was a child. So I would say 'car' as 'cal', this is not all, I had my own list of funny words, like 'bashashe' for 'namaste', 'eehhh' for 'food'. Really don't have any idea from where these words came to me.
-> I have been wearing specks since my 3rd Standard. It started as -0.25 but now its -5.75 and -6.00. Damn I am virtually blind without my specks.
-> First thing one would notice about me is the scarcity of hair in my head. And I hate when people point out saying this, as if I don't know about that. People don't you have anything else to look at.
-> I had my first email account when I was in my third year engg. I couldn't think of any good name, so I named it 'brave_anup' and it went through in the first go.
-> There was a guy in my 12th tutions who taught me how to sign. The way he signed for me looked really good, but when I started adapting it, it started to look pathetic. Still I use the same signature.
-> I was very proud of my muscles during engg. because I did worked very hard for that. But it's all gone now, and its been almost 8-10 months I haven't gone to gym.
-> I enjoy reading, and have been reading a lot since last 6 months. I have also started to love Malayalam and Tamil songs, I should thank Bala for that.
-> I did my schooling from IGHS and would not like to remember those days. I am in contact with few friends, but still I would not like to remember those days.
-> I did my 11th and 12th Science from SMV college and would also like to forget those 2 years. I avoid having communication with those friends.
-> I did my engineering in Computers from DYPIET and those 4 years just flew by. If given a chance I would like to re-live those 4 years. Those were the best days of my entire educational life. I had great friends and I am in touch with most of them.
-> Now I am work with the World's Local Bank and thats HSBC, as a SSE. My interview is not less than a story.
-> I just cannot imagine myself without my office friends. I have been started enjoying life only with them. And we are a big group.
-> My mom and nani are the like icons for me, people can learn from them how to live a life even when you are surrounded my difficulties.
-> And last but not the least, I believe in the 'Power of Dreams'.

Wishing myself a belated Happy Birthday again.

Anup

My Silver Jubilee

Its been few weeks I haven't written anything and that is because I was expecting (yeah exactly EXCEPTING) to write my 25th blog on my 25th birthday and what better would it be than to write about myself.

But, I have been typically myself and didn't posted anything, and by the way I celebrated my 25th birthday on 18th of August, so here I am writing this post but not about myself.

The day didn't started off very well, I had to push my bike a lot as it was punctured and damn it costed me 120 bucks for many other reasons. Then the whole morning I felt like sleeping, so in the office I was nagging NS (yeah she is the tester of one of the project and damn I dont know much about that project), then I didn't had my lunch as I went on to see my new house (yes guys my new house,and I know I haven't talked about it yet, but may be next time in detail) then kept myself focused completely in work.

And now as I am writing this, I am few pegs down, had my dinner, and these guys are making a lot of hulla hops over here, specially BS and MM. This is the second consecutive Friday where I am doing my night out, but I won't like to stress myself, as I need to go to office tomorrow and complete some of my work.

But people I promise to post my incomplete blog may be by early next week, serving me hot and fresh.

Tada to all for now.

Anup

Happy Friendship Day

This first Sunday of August, well it was since I guess Thursday, people started forwarding the friendship mails, and I was like what happened to these people, why all of a sudden all of them are forwarding the mails. Then what, Google zindabaad, then it striked me, ohhh....its Friendship Day this Sunday.
Well its also the first Sunday of my birthday month, this month I will be completing my Silver Jubilee, GOD, really can't believe that I am 25 year old.

Well, its a very normal Sunday for me, got up late, watched TV, read, listened to music. Friendship Day didn't bring anything new to this Sunday, except the number of forwarded messages which kept on coming in my cell. I even don't know whether all of you read the forwarded messages, and does it really mean anything to you all. But yeah, I like when anybody messages me, it at-least shows that the person remembers you and still treats you as a friend.
Small things like this doesn't seem to be important but they really do matter in life. sometimes a simple 'Hi' over a phone conveys a lot a thing and it does not cost you a fortune to say it over a phone. So, going forward I have thought to keep in touch with all my good friends. It's not like we have forgotten them but we just tend to ignore to contact them, the reasons may be many, but we must overcome the reasons and be in touch.

I would like wish all my friends(the school friends, college friends, the office team mates and all the other Long Lost Friends) a Very Happy Friendship Day. I would to end by saying "never hesitate to start a new connection but always keep the old connection going"

These are my School Friends.



Well, this is the perfect pic which can describe all of our college mates, isn't this funny.



These are my team mates, with whom I have enjoyed a lot in last 2 years.



Cheers,
Anup

Hyderabadi Weekend

The week didn't started the way I wanted to, but, it had ended in the best way I could have ever thought. The new week bought fever to me, and had to take a day off, and this damped my mood of writing this post. Now, feeling much better specially after playing badminton last evening (I have been mentioning about my badminton since last few posts, isn't it) and TT today. The F/E always reject whatever we say and unnecessarily we have to look into unwanted things, and in this way, most of day have been consumed. But whenever RK saw me, I was never on my Green Screen, damn his timing.

MM was finally able to recover the deleted pics from his camera and uploaded it. It felt so good. This guy deleted all the pics which were taken in Hyderabad. Here it comes, YES, I had been to Hyderabad last week. The City of Pearls, City of the Nizam's, City of Biryani and whole lot of stuff which it has.

Now along with that I would like say, which I had observed in the city, few things which I didn't expected.
First would be definately it's traffic. I always thought, Pune have got the worst traffic, but I was amazed to see that people can drive much worse than that. It seemed people enjoyed breaking the traffic rules, they won't bother to give indicators before they take the turn and the cab (which we had booked for a day) gave us a real roller coster ride on the roads, which was buzzing with traffic.

Second would be girls. Yeah you read it correctly. The city lacks girls. During my 3 days of stay I couldn't find a single beautiful girl out there. Girls don't you people exist there, what I saw were either small girls or children with their mommies, no teenage girls were hanging out anywhere. Damn, no good girls to look out for in the city, is image I have carried along with me.






The weekend was perfect, we couldn't even realize and three days just flew by, and we were back in the office on Monday morning. The Film Studio, Fort, Parks and all were just spectacular. The food which were served were just utterly utterly delicious, all those vada's, bhondas and do I need to tell about the Biryani's.




Hope, to have many more such amazing weekends.

Cheers,
Anup