Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Thanks !!

Hi all..

Juz check out the previous post

Today[1st June 2006] is my Last Day in Verizon, and am making this post from my System which i wont be using in few more minutes.. am trying not to make this post too sentimental..

Yeah.. am leaving Verizon, as i got another offer.. and ther are times when u think u got a happy news, u wll also end up gettin another sad one.. Both of them come together tats Life, and we cant do anything abt tat..

I would like to share only one thing..
Yesterday[31st May 2006] is one of the most memorable day in my Life..

Its around 4 45, wen i was asked to come to the cafteria in the 2nd floor.. i saw a bunch of around 50 ppl standing, around a big cake in the middle with 2 gift packs.. all the leads from the modules in my Proj.. and the director himself was waiting ther... I was wordless.. and stood stunnd.. lookin at them..

Those ppl have put their efforts for around a weeks time, and made tat moment rememberable.. those 2 framed slam sheets with several cute stars/pics ornamenting tat frame.. and above the gr8 words of all my friends and leads... no words wer coming out of my mouth... i stood amidst them..

I would like to thank all of them for their love/carin..
This blog space s ther for us in Keep in touch..


:(
CIAO

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

@ Verizon !! [Part III]

Hi all..
Juz check out the previous post

It was in the Viceroy Building i spent most of my time in VZ..
Initially we dint like our new places in the new building, as we thought there s no much freedom, compared to our prev work place where only freshers crowded the environment and no tortures frm higher officials.. :) But as the days started rolling.. we got used to tat environment.. we started loving tat place.. :)

A gang of 7 ppl.. Sam, Prathiba, Marina, Asheed, Arjun, Ramu.. We spent our times together during break times, lunch time [we used to chat like anything n laughin.. teasin each other.. makin fun..].. and the evening tea time [ wen Sam or Prat, atleast one of them wll show their geth before joinin us.. tellin they hv wrk.. ha ha ha..].. Watching Cricket matches in the Cafeteria TV.. :) It was all fun time..

I remember a day, wen we all teased Prathiba.. and she started crying.. I realized tat she s a very sensitive girl.. but we never stopped teasing her frm then on.. Bullying her increased wen the days moved on.. and we [Me and Motta] juz enjoyed making fun out of her.. Apart from being sensitive, she is very emotional and kind towards her friends circle.. It was she, who made me to start writing blogs.. And most of our team-mates started the same, apart frm doing vetti-chats in SameTime, Bloggin is another good time-passing rite..

It was on 23rd December, my birthday, and these ppl gave me an excellent shirt as a gift.. and it was selected by Prathiba.. She herself, asked everybody to comment on the shirt and felt happy inside at everyones comment.. The childishness inside her was the main reason, tat she got a seperate place in everybody's mind in our gang.. :)

Teasing dint stop with Prathiba alone.. it continued to Arjun being teased with a diff Proj girl's', Sam being teased with an unimaginable figure, Marina havin her own Vector List [ I shudnt write it though, she got married now.. But she s such a cool person, who takes things so easy..]

But with Sam, the things are diff.. We wont escape very easily from her, if we caught hold in her hands.. Watever in her hands [ rasam, juice, milk.. anything] will juz fly to the other side... n Arjun is the person, who adds fuel.. by makin Sam more vulnerable.. ha ha ha.. But she s not tat alone.. She can read minds.. She can easily get into the inner of other ppl.. She has a pretty clear mind set, she s so cool, confident.. Her words n speech can easily make u forgot abt ur worries.. in a second flash.. :)

Later 3 ppl joined our Viceroy Gang.. Ramkumar, Raja and Mercy.. We enjoyed the treat times, tat we spent with the ppl given by Remo and Ramkumar..

The worst day fr me in Viceroy/VZ.. It was a Saturday, and am not with these ppl.. am with my roommates, Santhosh and Venkates.. they are from different Projects.. and we juz came to company for browsing n other things.. Santhosh was browsing in the kiosk.. It was me and Venkates standing at the entrance of our Floor, before a Poster having the Logo of the Proj tat we wer workin on.. I was carrying my Nokia 6600, and i juz thought of having a Snap infront of tat Poster.. [We dont know abt certain things in advance, tat its wrong.. we shudnt take Snaps inside the company premises and so on.. ]

Am Standing, juz before the Poster, on top of me s the rotatin Camera controlled from the Security room at the ground floor [which i never knew at tat time].. n I havnt seen it rotatin b4 tat day.. I thought tat lightin is not tat gud, so juz tryin out certain switches near the entrance, and Suddenly the Camera in the roof starting rotating.. We dint realize tat its being controlled frm downstairs and the Security person are watching us wat doing.. and wer again floppin the switches so tat its stops rotating.. but it dint.. But I finally asked him to take the Snap.. And he s done with tat.. I saw the Rotatin Camera being stopped at a position and juz zoomin in Venkates.. I was feelin numb, and then only we started realizin something bad is gonna happen..

We called Santhosh, and started to get away from ther, we dint take the lift, and we went to the 2nd floor Cafeteria.. wen a Security Gaurd starting rushing towards us.. He was confirming wether we wer ppl there in the 3rd floor few min back.. We wer unable to say anything except nodding [ afterall they hv zoomed in to such an extent and recorded the entire drama...wat else can be done..] The Security was explaining abt the Rules and Regulations and then asking who took the Snap, Venkates volunteerd... [He dint luk at me for the first quest, as i luk like a pazham n a paavam guy.. he he he] but wen the question changed to whose Cell Phone is tat.. I was literally screwd up by that Guy.. He asked my name and then my EmployeeId.. I answered silently.. he wanted to confirm and juz caught hold of the Id card hangin out of my neck [after tat i used to keep tat in my pocket itself..:)] and asked me to Delete those Snaps immediately.. and he left the place.. I was feelin numb for the whole night... :(

But wen i explained the story to my gang ppl.. they started laughin and enjoyin the scenes.. Arjun in particular... :)

The days in Viceroy started rolling, wen i faced many good/happy moments and occasions.. and the sad ones too.. Several ppl stood besides me, consoling and advicing me at most of the occasions tat followed on.. We wer announced the date for moving to the new Building Olympia..

But the day, which was supposed to be my Last Day.. I wasnt ther, and many ppl dint know the real reason for tat too.. It all made me feel sensitive tat something is gonna happen..

So, wat happend after coming to Olympia.. in the next post..:)
CIAO

Sunday, May 28, 2006

@ Verizon !! [Part II]

Hi all..

Juz check out the previous post

In the previous post, I was writing about my initial days of Life in VZ... and was writing about my Trainin Period.. which is the best period which i had in VZ..

Final days in Trainin Period.. we came to know tat we have to move to the Alpha building [in Tnagar] where our systems have been configured and we have to start working on our Sample App.. And am not that much worried abt tat as its juz a Sample App.. tat we thought is not a big thing [in the beginning...]

The initial days in Alpha.. With ppl configuring their systems, installin reqd softwares... and getting used to the Local Chat..[ We used IBM's Sametime.. (I stil love this, for the reason tat it s only recreation we had at the times we r idle.. as we had internet restrictions, we cant anyway keep spending the time in browsing.. vetti sites..) ] and if ther s any possibility tat i can take the Chat transripts outside, then i wll feel in heaven.. but those Chats wll remain in my mind though.. and abt Mails i hv to say one thing, during my initial days i never opened any forwards, and i deleted them immediately.. Later i came to know, checkin forwards was one of the most important job tat every S/W Engineer will be doing in his career.. and i too changed myself.. :)

As a bunch of around 20 ppl, we went for break time, lunch n snacks times.. n we rocked tat place.. wen we wer given instructions abt the Sample App, i saw the nervousness in those faces grewing up.. they hv cleverly planned and made out the task..

We wer a group of 30 freshers in our project [considering the root node].. and on tat day morning we all assembled in a conference room.. and we all wer asked to pick up a lot, hmm.. it was to group our 30 members gang into 15-15.. Team A and Team B wer the names given by them.. the ppl who wer standin next to each other holdin their hands wer asked to stand facing each other in the appropriate gangs.. and the rivalry started [though not with all of us, atleast with some of us]

I was in Team B, and i volunteered to represent my Team.. If the other team goes to the conference room, we also rushed to some other, whether we r discussing abt proj or juz passin time.. it wll always happen.. And i remember, wen our Team booked a Conference Room from morning to evening, so tat they wont get into.. ha ha ha..

It was the high time, in our learning things n takin up things.. as we started tat proj from the scrap and did everything on our own.. the thing which added fuel to the fire, is the news tat we hv to show Demo to our Exec Director who is visiting India, and he will decide which Team's worker is good and tat one will be moved into Production.. and we hv to finish tat in 2 weeks time..

Hmmm.. its obvious after this news, that the ppl from both the Teams starting working like anything.. I remember that day, when i came to office at morning 6 30 wen no one was there in the entire floor and i only left around 2 30 at night.. It was the same with every others.. The other team members also put up gr8 effort, and we obviously copied each other in certain functionalities, we dont wanna miss out anythin.. and obviously there are spies in both the teams..

We njoyed a lot during Stats Meeting, which happens everyday at around 3 30 in the evening.. Tech Lead will be askin wen the things wll get over, so tat we can start testing.. and ppl start gigglin from both the sides.. both the sides, say some stupid things n we somehow escaped from those Status Meetings.. It was the time for us to get relaxed a bit..

And the final day has arrived, at the end of those hard 15 days.. We all wer nervous and keepin our fingers crossed.. at first Team A showed their Demo to the Exec Director, it was all Ok.. as they hv put their hard work in those 2 weeks time.. Next came our turn, and I started showing the Demo.. The Exec Director was impressed at the first shot and he commented the way this page s organized itself gets more points.. and the ppl in our team started praising Marina [Hw can i forget?] for her UI Design... and she finally got into the Usability Team.. And our Demo was over, they wer all very much excited abt our work and its quality which was completely in juz 15 days.. We wer all very happy tat our Team had done its best..

I was nearing my final days at the Alpha Building, i wanted to shift to the Viceroy Building [which is juz opposit to our house, and which takes me only a 2 min walk to get into my cabin frm my house..:)]

From those 30 ppl gang.. our group got reduced to a 7 member gang..
Rest of the koothu made in Viceroy in the next post..

CIAO

Saturday, May 27, 2006

@ Verizon !! [Part I]

Hi all..

Am in my final days @ Verizon, so juz thought of remembering back the path tat i hv made in VZ and in this blog am gonna write about my experiences, evergreen memories in.. Verizon..

Yeah, it was on 22nd June 2005, wen i entered into tat gr8 hall in GRT Grand days, Chennai.. for the induction programme of my first company, VZ.. Anything which happens first in ur Life, wll always be in ur mind till the end.. Nothing else can override it.. :)

If am correct, i think there were around some 250 ppl in tat hall.. Was initially nervous and surprised abt the crowd.. But its always cool if u r amidst a big bunch of ppl.. u wll always feel better.. So, i thought i can collect more number of pals.. and it happend too..

Those starting 1 week, wer really very very coool.. with tat GRT Lunch, Break time [especially] and I loved tat Communication Courses tat took place in tat Shelter Beach Resort in the ECR Road.. It was so exciting with that new set of ppl, doing some funny-cool team building tasks.. I still remember that way Vascoth build tat Tower, designing smartly n built with those vermicellies, fruits, nuts, gems.. n things..

It was the final day of those General Training courses, wen we wer sorted out for the Projects.. I saw those expectations and other things that sparkled among several faces over there.. I myself got a bit nervous.. wen my name was announced under the Proj IOBI/WEB...

We wil be having some 40 days of training in the respective places.. hr was announcing.. and for our grup which had some 30 ppl.. we r supposed to take training in OOAD, HTML, JavaScript, .NET.. and the training took place in Hotel Shelter Resort, Mylapore..

This period is the most rememberal for me in VZ.. The quality of the Training was at the top.. it was Venkat Krishnan, who inspired me lot... in his spontaneous answers to the questions and the way he explains the things r superb.. Let it be on one side.. I was one amongst those who made use of the "net send" command to a greater extent.. n i enjoyed those days like anything..

We used to change our Host Name daily, and start sending messages thru net send.. the ulitmate thing tat happend was the Cows and Bulls game tat we played in net send.. I myself started for one four letter word.. and i remember arjun confusing others by sending stupid guesses.. and clues.. which conflict my clues..

The travel in 5B bus, the evening time spent in the Library kiosk in Viceroy Building [as we stayed juz opposit to the Company Building].. during the Training Period wer memorable..

It was during our Trainin Period, we had our Family Day function n we wer very excited abt tat.. It was in Chennai Trade Centre, a crowd of around 3000 ppl.. the employees and their family members.. And the Host was none other than the Mirchi Suchi.. I was like enjoyin the day with the drums by Shiva mani.. except tat the food was not tat gud.. And finally the function ended with ppl dancin around like anything to the most favourite songs tat wer played.. i still enjoy the way Seshadri danced in the crowd.. ha ha ha..

Continue in my next post
CIAO

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Software Engineers Vs Politicians

Hi all..

I hav come out of writing something personal.. And In this blog am gonna discuss abt some general topic, which still is much more related to ppl amongst our community..

In wat all disciplines, Software Engineers and Politicians hv certain things in common..

Income
  • Both the profession have the gr8 gift of making up a large income, that one cant make it tat easily in any other profession..
  • The Only diff is tat most/some of them give their blood to hold the $bones$ being thrown frm foreign countries.. But the politcians suck the blood frm the local ppl and make out their money..
  • Though, the income they get in their hands does matter rite..

Shift
  • People in both of these professions barely need shift, as the time goes on..
  • Yeah, we cant see a person stayin in a single company for a long time, or a person sticking to a single Party for a long time..
  • But once they join a new company/party 'coz of the gr8 offers that the destination provides.. they used to talk bad of their sources and start talking gr88 abt their destinations...
  • I wll give my blood/soul for the party.. This party is my Life.. I wll work for it till the end of my Life.. [On the other side] This is a gr88, cooool company man.. I get this much in hand.. They are working in the topmost technologies.. I have got the most challenging work.. Wat else do I need.. blah blah..
  • [.. So not much differences in the dialogues too.. :)]
  • Only the ppl at the higher levels [Exec Directors and Party Presidents] in both the professions stick themselves to their places.. as they hav no other go.. and also they think they hav attained their peak position and the topmost level in making out money

No Self Satisfaction
  • The dialogues made by those ppl in both the domains, vanishes when the time moves on..
  • They wll come to know, tat this party/company is not much gr8 or watever so.. than the previous one... and start thinkin abt jumping again...

Finally Start You Own
  • So.. When wll this hoppin stops..
  • Finally, The ppl in Politics end up in Starting their Own New Party.. Ha ha ha.. n Earn to the max
  • The ppl in S/W industry end up in starting their Own New Company..

Failures and Success depends on the person alone and not on anything else..

CIAO

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Trip to the God's own Country...

Hi all...
Meeting u all again after a long time.. but in a really happy and somewhat tensed mood.. Life seems to b somewat better from the last few months.. In this post am gonna write about the joyous moment that i had during the last weekend, when i went to Kerala.. :)

It was friday evening, and only 3 of us ( from my company) wer in a mood to have a great weekend ahead, as we r on the way to Kerala for some dual purpose.... yeah, we have to attend one of our colleague's marriage there, but apart from that its the time, when the people all over Kerala gather to this place [Thrissur], to see n enjoy the Pooram festival which wll be takin place in a traditional and auspicious manner and once in a year...

As my colleague is from Thrissur, we dint worry abt the stay and food... as we can nalla motta adichfy that already motta..

It was almost time for the train, and i was little bit tensed whether i wll catch it or not, at tat time i recieved a call and some good/gr8 news, of some sort which i havent heard from the Final Days of my 3rd year College Life.. that made me feel good.. and started briskly for the trip... [Will blog abt this seperately... ;)]

Guruvayur
We reached Thrissur and had a warm welcome from the motta's family members, his amme and chechi [mom and sister] and i hv to write a lot about his sister's cute,kutti, vaal payyan.. Keshu..

Then we planned to go to Guruvayur, which is very near to their place.. went there in train.. some half an hour journey.. loved to watch those coconut trees along the sides... and after reachin there.. we wer supposed to be wearing a moond[dhoti] alone, and nothing in the top.. wat to do, i dont like these sort of restrictions but heard ppl saying.. We are nothin in front of God.. So we hv to... Then we had a nice dharsanam..

Thrissur Pooram
Ok lemme start describing abt this traditional festival, which happens in a year..
There are two Amman's in the Thrissur town and a Sivan temple in the center.. all these together form a circular area exactly at the centre of the Town..

The two amman temples are Thiruvambaadi and Paramekkavu.. and the Sivan is Vadakkunaathar... The traditional story goes like, these two ammans wanted to marry Sivan, so they started fighting infront of the Sivan temple, and they finally returned after samadhaanam...

So, hw is this story being depicted every year... Tats the gr8 thing that happens.. there are 16 elephants from each of the amman's side.. [ total of 32] each of them decorated with the traditional ornaments in their head and neck.. and the middle one of each 16 has the amman representing in its head..

And ther are 3 ppl standing on the top of each elephants having the traditional umbrella and visiri.. [ and they used to change these traditional umbrella, a minimum of some 45 sets from each side.. and this is called Kodamaatam ], and they other two standing on top of the elephants, have to rise up and down in some unique style the visiri's they r having all thru the day, i can imagine hw stressed they might be, but in their face i can see only happiness and they might hv felt they r doing for God.. :)

And I loved the music that was played.. it was coool.. and i keep on humming the same for hours.. on the final day the two elephants representing the goddess alone meet right in front of the sivan temple.. bow to each other and leave... :) was really nice to see those things.. :)

And the main part of this festival is the Vedikkat [fireworks] more than 40 lakhs will be spent for this thing, but this ther was a tragedy in one of the places where some half of the fireworks are placed got blasted and some ppl died.. so it was cancelld...

But we felt ok, as the other traditional things went on smoothly..

Keshu - the vaal payyan
Keshu, is goin to his 2nd standard, but his cute english tat he used to talk with us [as he doesnt know tamil, and we dont know malayalam] and the wordings he used to yell at us.. "You are a mandhaboodhi, You are a chaanagam" [ meaning dumbhead and cow dung resp.. ;-) ] I donno he found abt me.. But i juzzzz enjoyed...

As we planned not to take him to Pooram, coz of the crowd and things.. he took our camera and mobiles and kept them hidden.. though had tensions at the last moments.. i juzzz enjoyed tat too.. but felt bad, wen his mom scolded for tat.. and he started crying.. so bad..

But, we wanted to hav a good time with him in a good place.. as he s all alon durin his summer holidays, so we took him to a dam [Peechi dam] on the final day.. we walked deep into the forests and we njoyed like anything...

The Food
We really enjoyed all the food, that we prepared for us.. motta's mom and sister took so much effort and they kept on preparin items and served us.. really cool things, most of them cooked in coconut oil.. and kuzha puttu, aapam, prawn fry [ juz made me to remember the prawn fryof kumarakom restaurant], chicken curry, chicken stew,full fish fry [ tat we really coool], boiled bananas [i hvnt heard b4], that typical gundu gundu rice[ only had it on first day, later they had the ponni rice for us]... and the typical jeeraga boiled water..

Colleagues's marriage

It was at somewhat faraway distance from Thrissur, in a place called Kothamangalam, and we had to travel in two buses for abt 2 and half hours.. but i was lookin along the sides while travelling, but i cudnt see any unoccupied places like the ones tat i used to see during my journey in tamil nadu [ yeah, Kerala is supposed to hv highes population density.. so it has to be like tat.. ;)].. We reached a Church, it was a Christian marriage, i hvnt seen any before, so it was a little different to watch.. I can understand wat was goin is the Mass.. but along with the mass the father used to say the names of the bride and groom and some sentences following in malayalam but with the same accent that even ourside fathers used to utter.... so can understand to some extent wat is going on.. they exchanged rings.. and finally for the awaited pandhi, but tat was little different too.. enjoyed tat.. returned back.. :)


Ok makkalae.. I think am writing toooo much.. but still i feel i missed out lot of things.. but enough for this.. tata..

See u all in next post..
Bye..