Farewell...from my Bangalore friends

Its a bit ironical in the manner i ended my previous post and the manner i am writing this one.I have just returned from a "surprise" farewell given by my "elite close group" of friends i made in Bangalore.It began on an expected very lite raillery but ended on an unexpected heavy one.The bantering commenced as it had to, but took a bit serious turn by the end of the dinner when everything became sorta....something i am really bad at.


after it became all final that i wud be moving back to delhi very soon, the close grp started a mail thread about organising the surprise party(read treat) of which i came to know very soon, thanks to one of the members(and FYI..guys speak!!).A long discussion went on about whether whose treat was it, about the people, timings and place.It was proposed to be my treat for i was to return home in few days, but with the fairer sex on my side, i had little to worry about.They nicely took care that it turned out to be a farewell to me instead of a treat from me.so after long hectic discussions, the date and place was finalised for the "surprise" party. the whole process deserves a mention but may be not now.

the dinner began with the recollection of the past memories of one year with an intention to bring out some open secrets.It started with a demand for a farewell speech from me, which i resisted and tried to avoid till my last slice of parantha. i was told to tell abt how i felt about the guys individually...and to give the whole process a momentum, they began by how they felt about me.and then came my turn... i knew i am bad at these things...cant say all those senti much-much...always end up saying something wrong...which hurts the other person...but with everyone pressurizing, i caved in...they wanted to make me feel comfortable!!!!

Recollecting from the past, sometimes people blow minor things out of proportion to the point of embarrassment without realizing its consequences, that u start feeling as to why were u even a part of it altogether.it starts with pretty much good intentional humor on you which even u dont mind and enjoy with them but is stretched so much like a rubber band that it breaks, in the end hurting the people involved and i have already been party to this twice.why has it to be like that? why dont people understand that humor and sarcastic fun is always accepted and enjoyed but overdose of anything is bad for health.just because u think u are good at some satirical fun,which u may be not, u open the pandora's box..and still keep on continuing on that without caring about the end results.


i usually dont have a really "close" grp of frens. one, especially if she is a gal, needs to have at least one thing spl to be in that grp...and to ask me what that something spl about that person is...its a heinous crime u have committed....for it is impossible for me to express that in words...and in the process i end up saying something which shudnt have been said..the real thing remains buried...it always will be...

And the story was repeated again today.


the things mentioned above might be very obscure to understand but this is the only place that i can vent them out, i dont have to face anyone here...i dont have to answer anyone here...i dont have to see the expressions i would have to if i say that on face...its my space...i own it.


Generally, i think i am pretty good at reading countenances but i really wish I was wrong when i read those faces before leaving the place.

1 year at Cisco....

so finally last month i somehow completed my one year at Cisco. I have mixed feelings about my "work experience" in the past one year. this being my first job, i dont have much to compare with,except with my friends in different companies especially in Delhi.

The journey started with a 15 day accommodation on company's expenditures in a 3 star hotel suite along with a fantastic group. I would say that would be my best days in Bangalore till date.Made a whole lot of new friends, and learnt a lot about some whom i already knew before coming here.Got the first hand experience of how disastrous it is to be in company of notorious friends when in inebriated state and little consciousness..Though i enjoyed every moment..every drunken line said..."tu to mera bhai hai...saale wo teri bhabhi hai..." and the best one..."saala aaj se daaru band".

so the job started with orientation about the company work and policies in different star hotels.The food there sucked big time...after all door ke dhol sirf suhane hi hote hai...all other seemed pretty nice all that month..but now with rare parties and offsites, i can certainly say..bakre ko halal karne se pehle khilaya pilaya jaata hai.. ;) (Yahan to khana bhi barbaad tha..). The two types of trainings we had, had minimal learning and maximum fun... The seriousness could be gauged by the fact that people were watching obscene content even while the class was on.Infact, even today when my mentor asks me about what we were taught in the trainings, he would just get a deadpan expression from me...hopeless fellow...wondering what... had i even attended a training session also!!!Then there were some other "incidents" also during that time(making me infamous among the new hires) which do not deserve space here.

the actual work started after one month of training got over and we got to know about our managers and mentors. I had a change of 3 managers in a single day before evrything was finalised. The first meeting with my manager scared me off completely.First his vry serious looks with no smiles on the face and then with all his interview type questions in introduction....please let me go, i have to play!!...i started wondering about the veracity of statements people make about their bosses.But after knowing him for an year now, I can certainly say, he would be among the best in disguising people, though the real picture would be out there in a few days(ePM results awaited!!)... To quote a friend when he first met his manager: Yaar, he is awesome, really cool...i am going to have a great time now..awesome team, awesome work and now awesome manager.... and today he would be he most cribbing person about his work and manager among the new hires..looking to change team/company at the first opportunity he gets.

even the first meeting with my mentor was daunting.he handed me over 200 pages of documents to read over the weekend about some hardware i was to work on. Over this, he told me about the hard time the new hires generally have in the first year at Cisco, even working on weekends..delineating a very gloomy image for me.the day ended with we people playing some
carrom(finally, i got to play!!) and making some noises in the otherwise silent office, me sucking at the game..my worst show at carrom!!!

So I went through some of the pages over the weekend with no idea of what i was reading when on Monday my mentor again stumped me. He asked me to go through some quizzes and stuff..and then came the diaster...my first victim..The laptop fell from my desk and the screen was damaged...and i was found running here-there looking for some solution..some escape..wtf...will i get a new laptop..was all that on my mind!!Fortunately, everything fell in place...I got a new laptop within 2 days but made a decent dent in my BU's cofers... and i was ready to select some other targets....had already been bestowed with the "compliment: "mere hath tikte nhi hai...".

Soon I was getting used to the work environment...going thru the code with mentor's help...understaning the hardware architectures...solving customer issues..sometimes eluding my mentor with the alibi that i was not in the city and sometimes really coming to office on weekends.He would scan the code in seconds and ask me if we were going right....i wud just be humming "yes" at his every call...how would i know if we are going right...i would be left in no man's land when he would ask me to execute what he had said..i just had to run back to him with the question,"What and where do we have to make the change finally???"Now it was his time to show a deadpan face...


Speaking about the work culture here, I am definitely sure, you wouldnt find one better anywhere else.complete freedom to work anywhere, to speak out any of your grudges in front of seniors.."quite informal" environment...and many others say it all. Compare this to companies my friends are in where in you are allowed maximum 1 hr for lunch and even your entries are logged...

Though the initial six months were complete cribbing for me..so much that i had even scared people coming to Bangalore..reasons including the disatrous food(cant compromise over that)...the "frugal nature" of the company...but majorly due to factors external to cisco.But with all this in stride now i completely enjoy my stay here...the best part has been the birthday bumps..i have been giving some severe kicks to people who know me even remotely...noone forgets to call me during the bumps session but now i realise that very soon my ass would be on fire...for all those will be ready to avenge those hard hits.I know how i saved myself last year...

The maximum time of a software engineer goes in checking mails and sending forwards and i am no different...i get tons of fwded mails from my friends in/out cisco...Infact, the majority of mailbox space is filled up with those fwded mails than "important" mails..over this the Outlook has a poor searching algo...!!You see people getting senti over trivial issues..screwing someone just asking links for free hindi songs(that poor chap..would never ask again anything!!)...then clamoring over ethical and piracy issues and what more...no matter if they themselves be using pirated versions...you are simply horrified over stand people can take to convert even silly banter to sensitive issues...On the lighter side you see people going gaga over any gal, even little cute or pretty they see in the office...they change their timing of work, of play(yes, now they get time for this also!!), even for drinking a cup of coffee...they make funny jokes which she wud consider silly and has to bear...they try their level best to be even a driver for them...no wonder how busy a software engineer is...!!


Anyways...it is great feeling to complete one year at job...must have done something good to be still there...the whole team is asking for a treat...but then i have someone in my team to take care of this also...

One year away from home has finally passed quite slowly and there would be lot many stories to tell about my stay here..but maybe sometime later..this post is getting too big...The work and efficiency improves sporadically(only when my manager starts threatening me..!!!) though it would still not be a surprise if you find me napping in my cube in a proper sarkari fashion with legs on the table...

I am loving it..!!!

Terrorists and the Indian resilency

Headlines in various newspapers screamed:

Bangalore Bombed...
Bangalore,Ahmedabad..Who'sNext?

At one end we are celebrating our new iconic status in the world arena and at the other we are impotent enough even to protect the basic fundamental right of a human being-The Right to Live....

The frequency of striking at will is increasing at a pretty decent rate.Also is the fact that the terrorists are freely choosing the targets to strike,beginning with Kashmir, followed by Delhi and Mumbai and now the Tier-II cities too are now open to them....These guys seem to celebrate Diwali multiple times a year....at their own wish...

speaking of stats, the casualties were in hundreds with around 60 of them parted from their families for ever.Surat was lucky enough to get away with 26 live bombs defused, not a single of them going off...The Indian Mujhahideen claiming responsibility for all and warning of more such acts.


The modern terrorists have been improvising with great consistency and have been regularly beating the expectations of the security forces.with improvised devices, improved communication systems and networks and with highly skilled "recruits", the organisations hiring them are on a roll.add to this fact that they consider India to be a soft/impotent state...in other words..an empty vessel making just too much noise....and our hollow claims of being on the verge of superpower. Such has been the audacity of these organisations, that they now send emails beforehand informing of the blasts and mentioning the reasons along.Except in ’Bollywood masala movies’ Indian intelligence has rarely unearthed any of the terrorist plans. We get clueless after the attack and even fail to get hold of those who are sending emails before the attacks.


They have shown considerable dexterity and astuteness in selecting the target cities.the low intensity blasts in Bangalore show that the motive was just to create panic in the Indian minds, to create a pyschological fear in the minds of IT companies here and to strike the backbone of the economy. Ahmedabad was chosen to avenge the Godhra pogrom.The chosen areas of Ahmedabad were the places where the Muslims were the most affected.Then came Surat, the diamond polishing hub of India.All the bombs in Surat were found near the diamond industry -2 stolen Wagon Rs laden with bombs and 27kg of nuts/bolts--- macabre to even imagine the cataclysm had even one of the cars went off...How much are we prepared for this???


So what has been the government doing all along while these guys are having fun and making mockery in their own way??..Ah!!I think its a little busy..busy in securing votebanks of the minority communities in the next election...Probably that is why, we still have punishments awarded to the terrorists to be executed...Yes, I am speaking about the hanging of Afsal Guru. Are we waiting for another hijacking to take place so that this time some other Minister escorts him safely to the hijackers.i guess Shivraj Patil would be the best suited to do a Jaswant Singh next time this happens.The government gives a derisory argument in favour of dilly-dallying the issue:More than 15 petitons are currently pending before the MHA and it processes the applications in first come first serve...What a crap..!!!..are other crimes committed by those 15 people in line awarded capital punishment on par with terrorism??...These same so-called intelligentsia which was on the verge of being wiped out on Dec 13 2001, today does not even have time to pay homage to the martyrs in that attack...seem busy scheduling their next foreign trip !!!


We lack a political will, a political consensus on the issue of terrorism.These guys can have a discussion only after they get some free time from fighting amongst themselves...Even after the blasts, we continue to see the blamegame among the politicans...a preposterous and outrageous allegation goes as:"...the ruling UPA government had a conspiratorial hand in the blasts to divert attention from the allegations of bribery as well as to gain Muslim votes..." Please Take a break..!!

Every politician expresses "shock" after the blast,I wonder shock over what???As if they dint know it was coming!!! Everytime we are hit, we run crying to the US or the UN blaming the "foreign powers", censuring our neighbours for few days till the hoopla settles down and soon we are back to our normal business..forgetting everything..forgetting that such a thing ever happened...What a resilency the Indian people have..I have become a fan of it!!! I was ashamed to hear the innane platitudes from the mouth of our spineless PM about not bowing to terrorism & maintaining peace.Listen to our honourable Home Minister after every blast..I bet you, there will not be single word out of its place...its exactly the same what he would have said the previous time. To summarise:"The Indian people cannot tolerate such violent acts of terrorism any more(someone please explain me this line..).this was an act of desperation and these terrorists wont succeed in their disastrous acts.I praise the resilency of the Indian people(in other words..their short memory!!)".Compensations are announced along with the news of the blasts...I wonder, it would not be too long when we see the announcements even before the blasts occur... the resilent nation moves on..to get prepared for the next wake up call...

With every blast the question arises: How long will we be continue to bear this violence..and so comes the answer:Ohh yea, we can take one more in our stride...

I feel tht time has come to realise the importance of an Indian life now.. on one hand i can see Israel showing its clear determination to root out terror when just 3 of its soldiers are captured, here we hv 200 innocent civillians dying n no one even bothering to even think of taking an action..Our neighbouring state sends its condolences after the blasts n the time may not be far off when we receive such condolences in advance, just before the incidents even happen.I wont support all US policies against war on terror, but point worth taking a note is tht no terror incident happened in US after 9/11. Someone said

'Khasma shobti us bhujang ko
jiske paas garal ho
uska kya jo vishrahit,
vineet or saral ho'

( Forgiveness can be shown by only those snakes which have venom & can bite. Those who are weak dont deserve to give forgiveness to anyone)

So rather than mouthing innane platitudes about restraint, criticism & looking towards other nations for help. probably the time has come for indians to take charge of their own destiny.

I will end with what my room mate consistently sings at the end of every movie he sees: "Bharat mata ki Jai".