Farewell Mail by Manoj

It's an emotional day today as one of our Gang member, Manoj, is leaving today.
Manoj, also referred as Mamachan aka Devil aka Over aka Mr Philosopher aka Mr Defence and list will go on. He has been one of the most prominent character of our GANG and will be missed deeply.

Below is the farewell mail sent out by him to all.

Subject : Last of my memorable days in HSBC

Hello Everyone,

Today is last of my memorable days in HSBC and like the old English proverb says -All good things must come to an end. It's been a pleasure meeting you all and I thank god for such an wonderful opportunity. For the past few days, I have been doing some retrospection to understand the gravity of my decision and which I would like to share with you all.

10 Reasons why I still don't want to go.

1 ) Magnanimous Managers : I know a simple thank you would never be suffice for nurturing and mentoring me into the person I am today. You inspired me to never give up and stood beside me whenever I committed blunders, while at the same time appreciating and celebrating with me my success. I got to learn a lot, especially how a good manager should be, and I am pretty sure that if destiny permits me a opportunity to work again for you, I don't have to think twice before accepting it. But alas I don't have anything to give back except my simple and humble Thank you.

2) Ingenious and amiable Colleagues : You guys have been simply awesome. In the past 3 years that I have been here, I know that if it were not for you guys I would not have accomplished so much. Every time when I have approached you with a knotty problem, you have put in all your effort to find a solution though sometimes you yourself would be neck deep in work. I appreciate the favors that you have bestowed upon me all through this period and I sincerely hope that in future I get colleagues at least 10% good as you guys.

3) Understanding Client : There is a general saying in IT consulting that it's impossible to get a good client and a good manager together, but I guess I was among the lucky few to get both. Thanks a lot for appreciating my work, for keeping realistic expectations and for the infinitude amount of help in my work. Also, I am sorry for any shortcomings in my work and for sending you bulky emails.

4) Courteous acquaintance's in GLT: Though most of the time we have interacted only with a hello and a smile or may be sometimes a small discussions at the tea stall or lift, but even these small interactions gave me immense pleasure. I hope I catch up with you again sometime in the journey called LIFE.

5) My Cubicle mates: I know I am a very noisy person and it can be quite disturbing sometimes, but you guys never complained and took it silently. Thanks a lot for putting up with me and for the "Good mornings" every morning, and I am pretty sure going to miss them.

6) Extra curricular activities : These events were certainly the mood boosters and I am proud to have been part of such initiatives whether it may be sports, in which we won the first RBS cricket tournament and conducted the inter team volley ball tournament, or the mega CSR event, in which we won the 1st and the 2nd prize for collecting lot's of money for CSR activities. Thanks a lot for including me and for the memorable moments.

7) Table Tennis Arena and Friends: Thanks a lot guys for the wonderful time and for advising me on my TT skills. It was a jolly good ride and the best place in HSBC GLT to relax after work and to meet new and interesting people.

8) Lavish Parties and trips : The first thing that comes to my mind when I recollect the memories of my past office parties and trips is "Wow was it real or fantasy". One more luck I have is that most of my team members are party freaks and so every one makes sure we have a hell of a time. So more than the food, the drinks and the DJ, I guess it was my team that made these events special.

9)My First Company: No one can forget anything that he gets for the first time in life, whether it may be his first bike, first girl friend or first job. And so I am pretty emotional about this , but you are already acquaint with that feeling right!

10) Immediate Friends : I know you guys are going to hit me hard for putting you at the bottom of the list, but irrespective of where I put you, you all are going to remain closest to my heart now and forever. During my tenure in HSBC, I have spent more time with you guys than with myself. I am going to treasure all the very moments I spent with you guys especially all the Friday night parties, team and dinner time discussions and ofcourse the jokes that we cracked on eachother.What more should I say, I guess Emily Dickinson's quote " Saying nothing...sometimes says the most." says it all.


Why am I going ?

Life has given me a small window of opportunity to realize my dream and, if I don't take it now may be someday I will turn 80 and will have to ask myself the question - What If ? .

I will be pursuing my Masters in Business administration at Great Lakes Institute of Management in Mahabalipuram (Chennai), India for the next 1 year.If possible, I would like to add you all to my Orkut or Facebook friends or acquintance list or alternatively you could use my personal email address - manojmakkatt@gmail.com.



Last but not the least......

Good morning, and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night! - The Truman Show


À bientôt (See you soon),
Manoj MAMACHAN


P.S : I won't say goodbye my friend. For you and I shall meet again.

-Anup

What a Year !!!!!!!!

What.......a year it had been. It started of with me, B and AT enjoying the fireworks at the London eye on a chilled weather. The 14 minutes of spectacular fireworks. And for a fact not many might have noticed this, but the clock was put behind by 60 seconds at the midnight and we noticed that, at the Big Ben.
I went on to spend the first 4 months of the year in London and enjoyed the stay to the fullest, specially the Snow Fall. Playing all over the snow with  bare hands, making snow fall, also using the snow of the balcony as our natural freezer; it was simply amazing.

After coming back to Pune, I just had a gala time with colleagues and used to party ever now and then. There were many events, the birthdays, the promotions (yes, I was promoted in April) and all other for just no reason. Then came the Hyderabad trip, where we went to KD's place. This was the first time, I had gone out with my friends outside Pune.

Then, my Big B came here for his visa stampings during Diwali. I had my house warming at that time. But the stealer of his Pune visit was something else which I will be posting at some other time ;).

The year ended with me piercing my ear, it was a shocker for my mom. And on the last day, my collage friends made my day. It was just a perfect end for the year. I met with most them almost after 2 years.

Its been 1 year since I have started blogging and I am really happy with it, that I am still continuing it. I have also started reading after a gap of few years and I am really enjoying it. I have read many book this year and just finished with 'The Winner Stands Alone' yesterday (the review I would give in goodreads.com). I have also been listening to a lot of Malayalam and Tamil songs. I would definitely take this on to the next year as well. Also, I have came up with few resolutions and would hope to follow it.

All in all, this year had bought me a lot high in many ways but there were few downs as well, which I would like to forget it. But yeah, I have learned couple of things from those lows.
But I am really glad that I have managed to reconnect with few of my very very old friends and I am also happy that my bonding with many of my office friends have become more stronger. And it is my friends and my family which helps us to keep going.

So a Very Happy New Year to my Mom, dad and to my Big B. And the same to my friends B, RK, KD, MM, GTM, Sam, Mahi, Ronny, VM then to my School friends Raki, Sandy, Rip, Vic, Reems, Mallya and last but not the least to my engg gang Jay, Joshi, Yaddu, Pappu, Sammy, Karwa, Mickey and Amol.

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

A Weekend to Lonavala!!!

Another weekend flew by, and it's Monday again. But the weekend wasn't bad, it was a bit happeningnThough it didn't started the way I wanted to, but still everything fit into place very nicely.

The weekend happened to be long weekend only for me, as I was bedridden, because of some junk food which I had in my office canteen. I had my evening snacks on Thrusday and went home, but during my entire ride my stomach was grumbling. Even after that I went on to go and play badminton. That made me complete sick. It was planned that we would be going to Lonavala on Saturday, and I really didn't wanted to miss the trip. So, I did what I can do best, I didn't go to office on Friday and took a complete rest. Watched an old Malayalam movie in the morning, then went on to read 'Not without my Daughter' (it's an amazing biography about a woman and her daughter who are trying to escape from Iran). Meanwhile Gautam confirmed the timings for Saturday.

Saturday started of really well, though I had an upset stomach but it didn't dampened me. I was on time at the pick up spot, and we began our drive to Lonavala.


The scenic beauty was amazing, all the mountains were lush green, and covered by clouds and it was raining consistently to add on to the beauty of the weather. As we were heading towards the Tiger Waterfall, the fogs became more dense, with just about 5-10 meters visibility, and we were thoroughly enjoying, the music playing in the vehicle was adding some spice to the jovial mood we were in.



As were heading towards the waterfall, we could just hear the music which water was creating but were not able to see the waterfall because of the fog. The pressure was really good and to add on, the water was chilled. We got ourselves soaked in the water for more than hour or two.Then we moved on to the BhushiDam, but didn't enjoyed that place as it was very crowded as if a procession was in place. It was late noon, and we all were started to get hungry, thanks to all the 'masti' which we did.

Now to find a place for a good decent lunch for 14 guys and on a weekend in Lonavala, itself is a task. But we finally managed to find place in RamaKrishna. To the amazement KV paid for the lunch.

We all bought some Chikkis and left the place, I reached back home by 6:30, took some rest and again went to play badminton at night, and had a good game. Meanwhile, S called up regularly the whole day.

Sunday was a lazy one, exactly the way how I wanted to. Got up early, downloaded few songs, did some chatting with bhai, read the book, watched TV, then again chatted, TV, book etc..etc..

I am excited for the coming week, that's because I will be completing my 3 years in HSBC, so looking forward for the same.

Cheers,
Anup

School Days:- Yaadein Tazaa Ho Gayi

In my last post I did mentioned about the School reunion, yes, finally it happened on Sunday. Excitement was really gripping, as I would be seeing few of them after 9 years.
So, in this post I would be talking about those who made it on Sunday.

The funniest part over here is, we 15 people are very much in Pune, but never thought to meet in this last 9 years. People in small groups always used to meet up either in Pimpri or FC Road.
Latish had initially planned for this reunion almost a year back but it never happened, and now this happened exactly when he is not around here, he is in Dubai working in some Shipping company. He came to our class in 9th Standard. He was the most 'tapori' kind of a boy in our class. But he is very kind hearted. And moreover he looks like a typical South-Indian guy with nice mustache, leaving behind all the 'taproiness' which he had.

I will start with the people as and when I did meet them on Sunday.

Rakesh, he is one guy with whom I have spent my whole childhood, We have grown up together in the same locality. Now he did his Hotel Management and is working in a firm in Pune, which has to do something with the Sales stuff. We have always bee in touch.

Reema, I remember her from my first standard. She is a sweet, good looking and a big time chatter-box. She always used to compete with me in studies. She was (and is) the most active girl I have ever seen in my life. She did her MCoM and is now pursuing her MBA from Symbiosis.

Sandeep, or commonly called as Sandy. He is quite but gets very hyper when somebody provokes him. And Rakesh is really good at this. He has now opened is own frim which outsources work from some of his US clients, and his approach is really impressive. Hope his does really well.

Ripin, this guy came to our class in eighth standard. He did his hotel management and did his training in US if I am not wrong. Now he is back in Pune and don't know what is he doing, because he didn't waited for long as he had some work.

Ramya, now this news about her came as a shocker, Latish got engaged to her. Nobody from our group could believe it. She was the most silent and lovable girl in our class. And I am really happy for both of them.

Vaibhav, he was the Joker of our class. Complete fun loving boy, and would always try to make others laugh with his instant one liners. Now, he work with some firm and also have his own PC hardware shop.

Shailesh, the image which I carried for him before we met on Sunday was the same one when we were in school. But, he is the one who have changed the most. He looks like a definite politician and he is really trying to get into the same, with the help from his family members. Sounds impressive isn't it.

Bhasker, he was one of the most simple and innocent guy of our class. He would not even utter a word like 'kuthe' (Dog in Hindi). He is still the same and is working with one of the leading Mechanical Company.

Rita and Gita, these were the two girls who always used to hang out together. Rita was the steady performer in the class and the most reliable one when it come to home work and craft. Gita, would always try to match Rita's steps. Now, both of them work with an IT firm in Pune.

Rajeev/Sameer, now these guys were not from our class, they were from the other division. But I know Sameer very well, he was with us in our tuitions in 10th, but, with Rajeev, its only Hi-Bye kind of a relationship. We never had an actual conversation in school and I am pretty OK with it and that's because I never appreciated the attitude which he carried.

Vicky, now he was the one who arrived late among the boys, and he is the one who got married first among our boys. Yes, he lost his bachelor hood. He is doing good and is also working with an IT-security firm, if I am not wrong.

This is all about the 14 people who made it on Sunday. We all had a great time together, recollecting many of the mischievous we all did and were still doing some pranks in the hotel.
At times it felt we all are still the same. But as we say, 'Everything does not change, but, somethings do'.

I wish we have more of such kind of reunions in the near future.

To Adi Sir

Days are flying by, and here comes another weekend, and as usual I don't have much to do except that we some 15 people from our School (that is the 2000 batch pass-out) are planned to meet, but will have to wait and see how many are going to come. So, rest of the time I will do my best by just lazing around in the house.

This weekend started by reading a blog of Aditya Sir, where he have narrated his past 5 years by Walking down the rain. And it really feels good to know that people don't forget you despite being just met twice or thrice.
He was my savior during the last year of my engineering, where me and my group were struggling to complete the project work. It's because of his effort we managed to submit my project on time along with a sponsorship certificate and scored good healthy marks.

I just met him twice or thrice during that, and that was it and it's been three years now.
I used to thank him occasionally for all the help he have done, but I am not thanking him now, as I know he won't like it. I remember the exacts word he said to me while we were chatting 'If you want to thank me, then help somebody when they need it the most'. I still remember those, and the same he has narrated in his blog.

But if I won't thank him here, it would be just not fair enough from my part and thats the only smallest thing which I can do. So Aditya Sir, I sincerely want to give you a BIG THANK YOU for everything, and also for still remembering me, and including me as a chapter of your life.

-Anup

Friends - Long Lost One

When ever we say FRIEND our mind instantly run over and try to collect the names of all the good friends we are in touch with. But how often do we think of those people who were our friends at some point of time.

These Friends may be those of our school days, or guys from our old neighbourhood, or from collage or from some other place. But they are all now Long Lost Friends.

The chain of friendship changes, it always does, it happened to me and and I guess it happens with everybbody. Its like when we are in school, we feel that, the entire class is my friend and we may neverloose them, but when we step out of school, we tend to make new friends in colleage and slowly down the line we stop thinking of the school friends and this cycle goes on and on. Same happens when we get into a job and keep switching them, we always have a big list of Long Lost Friends.

If we go through our memories we may definately find many moments of our life where we must have had fun, had fight, had done weird things with these friends but now still they are Long Lost Friends.

And in the long run, we are only left with few handfull of friends, whom we say they are our best buddies and try to forget our Long Lost Friends.

This post of mine I would dedicate to all my Neighbourhood friends, my School friends, my Junior colleage friends, my Engg friends and to all those friends who were part of my life at some moment but now who are my Long Lost Friends.........

My First Memories.........

Here I would like to put down my first childhood memories of my life......

My First School : IGHS (Indira Gandhi High School)

My First Teacher : Viju Miss (Thats how we used to call her)

My First Friend : Rakesh Nair (yeah...mallu bonding haha)

My First Fight : First Standard. It was with one guy called Pillay and I almost drowned him in a tank.

My First Punishment : First Standard, was told stand o the bench and hold my tongue. (enjoyed those punishments)

My First Movie : This has to be Jurassic Park in Standard Third, it was with the entire class.

My First Cooking : Standard sixth, we (we were 5 of them) made Alloo ki sabji and chapatti were made by an aunty where we were cooking.

My First Teacher I Liked : Vijayanthi Miss, she was my second standard class-teacher.

My First Cricket Match : I was 12 at that time, I even bowled one over with 2 wickets.

My First Picnic : It was Ajanta/Ellora in my third standard.

My First Prize : I stood first in the class for the annual exams. This, I suppose was in my First Standard

My First Stage Perofrmance : This was during the annual school functions and I was in Senior KG, I still have the photo.

I guess these are the best few First Childhood Memories I have.