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.

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.

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

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

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.