why there aren't frequent updates here...

Remember the last episode of the sitcom F.R.I.E.N.D.S?
The one that made you feel extremely sad.. even depressed? The one where all of them leave to different places?
What happens after that? the show ends. There's no more story.. They weren't together and the stories of their individual lives wouldn't be much of a story anyways.

I sumhow couldn't help thinking about this when people asked me why there aren't frequent updates in Life @ IBM. We aren't together, the people that constituted life at IBM are not together at IBM anymore.


Of course we keep in touch, on phone, chatting on sametime (though very rarely), we meet sometimes. maybe once or twice a month, go out for a trip every 4-5 months perhaps...
But that's more of life at banglore rather than life at IBM. The purpose I started this blog ,(to capture my moments at IBM) stands defeated. Coz Neha,Reena,Ramana, Anil,Ezzy, Abhiram,Gousie, Chaitu and Santosh aren't a part of my life at IBM.
Though all of us are still IBMers, ( except Neha), since we're all working in different parts of the city,it doesn't feel like that at all. That's wht keeps me away from updating this blog..

Sure, I know what's happening.. Ezzy is finally out of his boring account and into Vodafone with an almost tyrannical manager.. It's fun to listen to Ezzy grumbling abt him using all the foul words he's ever learnt..
Santosh is into Vodafone account too.. no grumbling there though.. The ATnT folks are busy as ever.. Chaitu 's that way too he says..

That leaves me as the only one who isn't too busy to talk..My work doesn't have involve so much pressure.. The rest are .. well.. "busy".. I have never hated that word as much as I do now.. but then.. that's the way it is...

These are the little pieces of info I know abt the others' lives at IBM.. Should I start writing abt my life at IBM in detail now??

maybe.. maybe not

a few more happenings..

A long gap, loads of happenings….Kinda hafta keep track right?

As mentioned earlier, Neha’s at US. She’s having fun there in her “studenthood” as her Orkut profile proclaims..

And Life @ bangy is going on as usual, albeit with a few little changes.

Ramana, Anil and Abhiram were already rotting in AT&T , er.. I mean working super hard and honing their skills (Hee Hee) , almost 24*7 at office , sometimes getting a ‘leave’ on weekends.. :P
Reena ans Santosh joined the account too, to work their ,ahem!! fingers off! Call it a sardonic twist of fate or his own “dhoola” (4 d lack of a better word), Gouse also chose to join this grumbling group too. Chaitu is into a new account ‘Sprint’.. by the way, he’s bought a new bike, a hot, red CBZ Extreme.. I and Ezra continue to work (or not) in our mundane accounts almost 3-4 hrs a day.. Though my work’s getting a li’l troublesome these days with me having to put in almost 8-9 hrs on some days!!!

Abhi received a Thanks award from his delivery manager!!! For his wonderful work.. no surprises thr!! He always does a gr8 job..
Gues what guess what!! Even I received an appreciation e-card from the client!! Finallyy!! I thought this day would never come….

And others must’ve received accolades too , but this is all I know of.. will post soon if I come to know more..

Ok, brag time! The Newsletter of my account, of which I was the part since its inception has become a huge hit! I recently conducted a competition of sorts, whr we asked people to send in names for the newsletter .. I got almost 175 mails.. even from Onsite crowd… Overwhelmed!!.. Finally named it Capsule!! Gifted the best 3 name senders a copy of ‘Dilbert- how to have fun at the expense of ur co-workers’ from our account. I persuaded my account head to host a little party for that.. we got a huuuuuuge cake n stuff for it.. Ain’t I the world’s biggest money waster?? But then I think the whole concept of inventing money was to spend it right?? LOL…

K then.. post stuff later.. kinda busy today.. bbye…

Missing neha..

Well, one of the most horrible feelings of all is to miss someone.

Neha left for NIU for pursuing her MS. She’ll leave for US at the end of this month, but she’s left life-at-ibm-bangalore.

As I hugged her goodbye that day, I couldn’t help remembering everything! A lot of moments came whishing by my mind - a cornucopia of memories..

The day long induction at Le Meridien, elation on the first day at IBM, excitement at moving into the PG with her, mad,insane fun during training, sorrow when the training ended and all of us got separated, moving into the new PG as roomies, madness again..
Countless shopping sprees, Maggie, coffee… sharing secrets, bitching about some people..washing clothes.. laughter.. waiting on the terrace like idiots for some “newspaper informed” meteor show..

One whole year I’ve had her next to me in everything… d day she left banglore..it was something like losing a shadow for a while.. we’ve seen everything together.. been there for each other..

And one day, I went to the PG after work, and found the room empty.. her wardrobe door wide open.. empty!

Saw her the next day at her cousin’s place.. and it was an awesome farewell bash!!! Anil,Abhi,Rumz, Chaits Reens,Ezzy,Gousie, Santosh,Neha n me.. had loads of fun way upto 3 am. Even had a police patrol vehicle warning us to keep the noise down.. and lots of yummy food.. thanks to Neha's mom...hmmm…

Well, Neha left banglore, but we all have one year full of wonderful memories to cherish.. experiences tucked away carefully into some corner of our minds.. (in my case, captured in pages of my diary).. wonderful happy memories ..

All of us wish you a very happy studenthood Neha! Have a rocking time with all those firangi dudes.. all the best.. Needless to say, We’ll keep in touch.. Of Course!

N yeah.. keep reading this blog .. lol

7 of us went up the hill..

Seven hills… Seven people… six hours… in the rain

Here’s how it started..


11:30 pm Majestic Bus Depo,Bangalore:

I,Neha,Rumz,Neel,Abhi,Santu and Chaitu boarded the bus to Chittoor.
Reena,Ezzy and Gousie weren’t able to make it. Missed them.

Reached Chittoor in the early hours of Saturday and checked into a hotel. And before we could get a few winks of sleep, it was already time to take off again. Dawn was beautiful!!!



The Sumo started off on its 2 day long journey. We reached Kaanipaakam and had a darshan of Lord Ganesha. The temple was beautiful!

Next stop was Sri Kaalahasthi with a breakfast of this n that on the way. Took the blessings of Jal Ganesha ( a small temple which gets flooded during the rains) and entered the Kaalahasthi temple.

There was a huuuuuuuge crowd and it wud’ve taken us almost 3 hrs to get the darshan in the queue, and we didn’t have dat time. So, bribed the security guys, side-sstepped the queue and took a short-cut 2 direct darshan. ( well, it wasn’t our idea.. d security guys do it all d time.. n we did feel a li’l guilty).

Finally reached tirupati around afternoon. Zoomed up the 58 turns, round and round the hill in the Sumo and reached the top. The air itself was so pure and serene. Loved it up thr. Dumped the lugguage in the room and zoomed back down. The view on the way was breathtaking!!! We cud just stay there and stare and stare…..

And then, reached the foothill where the Mega journey up the hill on foot was about to begin..



Step 1, Step 2,Step3…

Water, mirchi bajji, buttermilk, gossip, songs on anil’s mobile..

Step 499, Step 500…

First milestone..BIG rest.. it started drizzling

Step 501,Step 502..

Gasping for breath, more frequent breaks, Waaater, more rain

Step 1000 something.. Gaaligopuram.. Interval

Sat down and had super yummy dosas!! One of the best meals ever!!
Going ahead from here was harder.., the feet were finding it harder to pull our bodies stuffed with food.

Step 2499, Step 2500
Rumz and Santosh keep going at an unbelievable pace, so agile and seemingly comfortable still

Rest of us dragging ourselves forth, and Abhiram quite comfortable with the climb, but walkin slowly for us.

Deer-park on the way.. they were sooooo cute n gorgeous



Step 3000

Me totally out of breath, feet aching inhumanly, partially blistered.. Rumz, Santu Abhi ploughing on.. Neha and Chaitu quite commendably going gud... Anil being slowed down coz of me.. :P ..I andAnil made up a silly crazy song ”mango-tangy”..

Mokaalla Parvatam.. Step something..

Supposed to be the hardest.. but wasn’t as bad as it sounded. Rain still pouring down, we making jokes n laughing..

STEP 3550..
Finally !!! The number I’d been waiting for, for almost 3 hours!! I felt like doing an African war-dance or apna hyderabadi ‘teen-maar’ in celebration, and the others looked like they felt the same.

Dinner was a blur.. reached the room, hit the bed,, BLACKOUT!

Woke up (dunno how?!?) in just 4 hours, got ready and went for Darshan. Can’t put in words, the deep feeling of contentment, devotion and happiness and thrill during those 10 seconds!!

A brief rest at the room and a long Sumo ride to Talakona Waterfalls.. A trail through the forest, nature at it’s best! And a looooong walk.. met a couple of mountain monkeys.. dunno who was scared of whom..



And then, back to Chittoor , a 2 hr wait for the bus and the long-awaited 2-day journey came to an end. The last tour with Neha before she leaves 2 US.

2 of the happiest, craziest,most wonderful days during life-at-bangalore!!

We visited a cursed land...

“Oh! So this is what early morning looks like…”
It was a rare occurrence. We were awake at 4am.

Anil,Ramana,Abhiram andChaitu arrived in the tempo traveller at around 6 after keeping us (me, Neha and Reena) waiting for half an hour..(Not their fault.. they got lost n went round the wrong streets).. We picked up Gouse and the two Deepthis and started on our way to Talakad- the cursed land!


The drive in our tempo traveler was punctuated with songs and clicking of seriously mad pics.... However, there was almost no dancing this time, except for Deepthi grooving a li’l for some song, and Abhiram, Anil and Gouse unsuccessfully trying 2 imitate my signature move. Anil wasn’t his exuberant dancing self this time and we were left wondering whether it was coz he was missing Ezra a lot, or a li’l ‘orangy’ sumthing.. :D Well, we all did miss Ezzy and Santosh..

First stop was a li’l hotel where we had a gud-enough breakfast, the only proper meal we got the whole day.
We reached Barachuki Falls sumtime during mid-morning. There were around 100 steps to descend before we reached the water. While we went down, the Sun was trying to fry us, I was trying not to slip and break my teeth, others were trying to race each other, and Neha and Chaitu were trying to click a pic of everything. Their Photo-fetish makes me believe that in their previous births, Neha was a super model and Chaits was a star photographer. But nyways, it’s thanks to these two that we have all these wonderful moments captured safely.




When we finally reached the water, we saw loads of little fishes in it and a li’l snake which caused a bit of yelling and jumping around. Round boats called “theppas” took us to the waterfall, where everyone got completely drenched while trying to keep their balance on the super-slimy rocks. Was really fun.. the water was lovely.. Splash splash splash!!!




Now came the big ordeal.. going UP those dreadful steps in the scorching sun!! was hard.. I was almost half dragged up by Rumzy. : ) After climbing up we discovered that coconut water was the best thing in this creation. The next stop was Talakadu. After a horrible lunch, we changed and charged straight into a little river (with ugly moss floating around) and had a great ball-game. After a while we cameout of the water and played sumthing similar to rugby which Abhiram had thought up. Gousie, Ramana,Reena and Abhi proved to be fantastic players.





After dark, we reached the actual cursed land of Talakadu. Started with a beautiful Shiva temple. Fom there we were led by a guide to other small temples which were buried under sand and had to be excavated by the Archaeological dept. It was dark, with only moonlight guiding us.. a jungle path with occasional eerie sounds – a perfect setting to hear the tale of an ancient Curse!

Ages ago, there was a queen who, when attacked by the king of mysore, gave a curse that the land of Talakadu would always be covered under the sand, the king would lose all his treasure, and would be left without an heir.

Nyways, the moon-lit walk on the sand in the jungle was really wonderful!!

And then we returned home, (watching a couple of mad movies on the way)..
Exhausted, but happy!

March 18th: This Day, That Year!

I spent most of yesterday's morning cursing and swearing (Lately, I have come very good at this) as I was made to sit in a training session which went over my head and more, which I can hardly relate to the work I do (Well, the work I do  these days can easily be defined by a single word 'nothing' :D ). Exhausted with all that 'knowledge-sharing', I reach my desk to find six-seven mails remainding me of 'March 18th - A special day in our life'. Oh yeah, this was 'the day' two year ago that gave us the tag - IBMer. The day (two days actually) changed things for most of us (for better, I tempted to say, but may be not). I wish all of us many more such days (days that carry such proud moments) in the future!!

Ciao,

Ezra.

And yeah, here's what Manasa had to say about 'this day that year' (She asked me post it and not to mention that she wrote it in half-hour's time. Has a knack for this, doest she?): 

Two years have passed,

Yet I can still see,

The turmoil of two days 

And their glory

Feverish excitement, bated breath,

Nervous smiles and  furtive glances;

The last minute prep,

We could take no chances.

The triumphs of day one

And slight foreboding too;

A few hurdles we’d crossed

But some more were due.

The never-ending wait.

Bad food, hot sun!

GD and interviews

Phone calls and fun.

The final burst of excitement 

To hear our names there

Yells of delight, hugs

Proud madness everywhere!!

And for me,

It was the most wonderful day

When I boarded the Big Blue

And the journey’s been wonderful

Because of  all of YOU

Counting Thursdays...

Every Thursday at IBM, we clock the hours we’ve put in at work.
The time we were in (never honestly), the no of hours we’ve worked (sumtimes honestly) and what we’ve worked on (heights of imagination here)

Every Thursday, I realize another week has passed at IBM. Another of the many weeks. Nothing special about it. Many have passed, many more to come. Just a another week, just another Thursday.

No. of hours actually worked……. God knows! ( a few may be)

Information overload?…………….Yes

Stuff learnt…………………………loads

When will it be used?....................... maybe tomorrow, maybe never..

Improvements?..................................uh-ummm

Degradations?......................................No, no no

Goof-ups?..............................................of course yes

‘I’m proud of myself’ moments?............. a few..

Added business value?.............................. ha ha ha

Every Thursday, I ask myself the same questions, get the same answers. Solid consistency. It’s as if life had become a count of Thursdays.

But wait, why am I thinking of Thursdays? Today is Wednesday!
Wednesdays are fine. But Monday, I tell you, is the most detestable day of the week. Everyone hates it! But it still comes shamelessly every week, after the darling Sunday.
Someone coined the term ‘Monday blues’ to represent the fact that everyone is gloomy on a Monday. But I just don’t understand why do ppl have to associate such a beautiful colour with gloom. No! I call it ‘Monday Grays’.. dull and boring!

I feel like starting my annoying chant-

‘I.. hate mon-days.. I hate mon-days..
Dirty nasty stupid days..
Coming after Sundays
Oh- so boring Mondays!!
“
I wish I could tell u the tune too.. but no… Make up your own!!!..

Tuesdays are fine,somehow. Thursdays are well.. Thursdays!
I love Fridays! Coz they bring the weekend with them. The weekend starts in my head around 5 on Fridays. Fridays are good.

Now that I think of it, I wonder how the people in AT&T account at IBM feel about these days. They go 2 work on weekends too. So I guess they don’t hate their Mondays, don’t love their Fridays.. it’s a li’l sad.. I hope they at least like what they do..

Nyways, things at my account are fast changing. Lots of new developments shaping up. Things promise to exciting in the future.. almost to the point of dangerous…

So let’s c how things turn out.

Maybe there’ll be more to the Thursdays in future..

Achievements!!!

Things keep happening at IBM, but then I’m not able 2 document all of them. However, I shall be posting from time to time.

Let me start by listing out the achievements made by our people..

Abhiram, the coder, has created a Simulator, which gives a GUI for the RSA which can be used even if the RSA isn’t installed in the system (abhi, sorry if I’m wrong, but that’s what I understood).. I think he’s gonna be the first one among us to get promoted! 

Ramana has been appreciated by a client for his work.. She’s put it in writing, so ppl, remember 2 take an appraisal party frm him, coz he’s surely gonna get one!

Anil’s being made to attend training which is meant for managers, where he was apparently asked to give work to ELTPs (ha ha ha!) That shows what confidence his manager has in his capabilities and expertise. (Don’t laugh ppl, I’m not kidding!)

Ezra has also been appreciated by his Team Lead.. (again, in writing (I think), so party no.2 coming up!).

Neha battled with a lot of issues, in totally unknown environment and resolved all of them successfully, emerging victorious.

Amit, has ben working really hard, in conditions of extreme pressure and has achieved a utilization of above 140!

My achievement is that I managed to NOT get fired, inspite of some database disasters and minor server mishaps.. Hey n by the way, after all the drama, my team lead told me those stupid databases were not important!! Should I sue IBM for giving me mental trauma over useless databases?? Let me know what u think!!

I vaguely heard something about Chaitu solving some probs at work, but am not really clear abt it.

Gouse’s achievements? Well… ummmm… actually…. u know… ahhh… mmm… well…

Reena and Santosh are valiantly battling on with boredom and uselessness.. and the fact that their immense potential is not being tapped properly! Don’t worry guys, u’ll do gr8 things, we know.. Reena has created some impressive excel sheets though!


So kudos to all out achievements, good work people.. lets all have a bigg party to celebrate all of this,, wat say?

post-lunch session of "madness" by EZRA R BATHINI!!

Madness at Mysore 2

'...I figure life's a gift and I don't intend on wasting it...' -- Jack of Titanic!

Jack had nothing to do with 'Post lunch : Madness at Mysore' but then, I had previously decided I'd use his quote whenever I write something! Now me writing 'here' is something like Cyrus Sahukar playing Ishant Awasthi!! (As for those of you who dont watch Mtv, he actually did and the show was rightly called 'Bechaare Zameen Par'!). But poor Manasa needed a proof!..
Read On...

We started for the Mysore Palace after lunching at an infamous restaurant, which we later understood was famous for 'serving' best vegitarian food!! The Palace was very picturesque with its beautiful domes and equally beautiful visitors!
A huge elephant's head with heavy tusks hanging from the wall welcomed us into the palace (hardly a warm welcome!) but the palace was all grand with its delicate wood carvings, graceful chandeliers, decorative stained glass ceilings, ornmentals,
paintings, portraits...
Halfway into the palace, Ghouse Started wondering (and reasoning) if kings who lived there played Cricket (?!)... and Deepthi Started counting no. of mirrors in the palace(poor thing!). Santosh, more interested in the monetary value of the things
around!..Manasa reading evrything she could find below those Pictures....Neha wanting to 'click' everything... Chaitu
topping her from doing so... (Thank God, they dint allow cams inside...I could imagine Ghouse and me cursing for hours!). Anil slowly slipped into Jodha-Akbar mood (understandably!). Reena..No, she was just smiling at everything!!

We then moved to the Palace's family museum with more pictures of the Royal kin, history of Mysore Dasara,collections of costumes and jewellery. Ghouse by now established that the kings played (or liked playing) cricket.[info : The present scion of the Mysore royal family His Highness Some Raja Wodeyar is actually the president of KSCA and was watching the rain soaked 4th onedayer in Bangalore while we were happily touring his home!!]. The museum also had some fine examples of family hunting talents and ofcourse the Royal Armory.


Outside the museum, we were greeted again by elephants obviously giving rides to people. Time now for a 'Haathi n Chiti' oke...nevermind!...read on... Its natural that people get excited about animals such as Elephants... but funny when it came
from Manasa..Now she wanted to 'touch' the Elephant (Ele, in short) there...despite Ghouse's warning(Now, this warning's actually a shout 'No, Manasa!'.... people around stared at us!)... Ok now the plan was simple, you give give the Ele a coin (It uses its trunk to take), it passes the coin to its master and then gently places its trunk on your head..(as if blessing you!). We raked our pockets for a coin and found one.. Manasa was supposed to give the coin but mind you she was too brave for this..So Santosh did the honours... the Ele passed on the coin and lowerd its trunk to 'bless' Santosh... Now its our brave Manasa's turn, the Ele lowerd its trunk but couldnt find the head...the mighty beast tried again... lowered and lowerd its trunk... to the poor ele's trouble our M was duckin low... Now, imagine Glen McGrath trying to pat on Sachin Tendulkar's head (who was ducking)!.. the Ele somehow managed to touch Manasa's head.

We joined the others and it took us some time to really get out of the palace (Reason?.. the Cams are out again!). Ghouse and
decided to sanctify the walls of the Grand Palace before we started for our next stop.... the Chamundi Hill(s).
The said hill was famous for being a sort of vantage point...from where you can look at entire Mysore City... the sight would be beautiful, I was told, especially with all the lights On!... Now as we set out, Reena was guiding me...,"on your left"...

"On your right,now"... "No, there!". and finaly we saw it.. the illuminated mysore with Palace at its centre... wonderful sight again but then it dint last long... thanks to our driver (He's not driving the tempo...but a Chevrolet at some
Motorally!!).. On top of the hill was a temple... and also darkness (pun intended!).. The darkness did not dampen the spirits.. Chaitu's still taking pictures!!... [Quick question, what if this Chaitu was asked to play football?... He'd be kicking?.. No he'd be Clicking!!(haha... bad joke?!... Ok, One for the Over!)]...

Well we soon stared our journey back home.. Obviously tired, everyone fell asleep except for me, Anil and ofcourse Deepthi... She was showing us her infy pics (five times each!!...) For a momemt i wanted to accidently drop that camera!! [D-joke coming up, start laughing, Anil: Are Yu Fine? Deepthi: entha kattali (fine)??..
Bored, Anil decided to wake everyone up... music started and with it Anil and his moves!!.. what followed next was, as Manasa would write, 'lots of dancing and singing', even Neha and Manasa (Not very surprisingly!..hehe).... Everyone's high and happy when suddenly mummy Neha realised that something was 'wrong'... and ordered everyone to sit quitely!!...[Quick question again : What if Neha was asked to play football...No, She'd be Kicking really!!]

Back in the tempo, everyone obliged not knowing what was happening!!... Now the wisest of the group, me and Anil knew what was the 'wrong'!... It was Gatorade... yes, harmless Orange drink, mixed with a little of 'nothing' (Shaken, Not Stirred!..
007 sytle!)... The 'madness' was instilled by the day!...not by the 'not-so-vile' drink!... but then Anil's wild moves and my cricket-commentary-influenced speech on 'Avnanna... Kaadanna...' exaggerated the idea!! Everyone had only one thing on mind for the rest of the road.. food!!... After a make-shift dinner(its already late for food in Bangalore... we could only manage to get some cakes!!) and Anil taking the respo of dropping people!!... Me and Ghouse ran to our place just in time to see
unusually healthy looking Munaf Patel save the rain marred 4th onedayer!...

Sanity Returned!

"EZ"

madness at mysore!!

Here’s the story of another rocking “weekend at bang’lore”
At Mysore rather, coz dat’s where we went…

After 2 dozen e-mails, about 4 dozen phone calls, 49 cancellations and 50 confirmations, finally a party of 9 set out for Mysore on a cold November morning. Me,Neha,Reena,Deepthi,Anil,Chaitu,Santosh,Gouse and Ezra… Abhiram, Ramana,Amit and Valli couldn’t make it. (we missed u guys!!)

Before I begin, I’d like to acknowledge Neha’s cam n our brilliant photographers, splly Santosh n Chaitu for the pics used in this post.


The madness began at around 5am with a frantic attempt at getting ready in the dark as there was no power. We set out at around 6, in a comfy tempo traveller ,in really high spirits with awesome songs blaring in the background. Everything from dostana to kailash kher. Anil, Gouse n Ez were specially overcome with emotion at the song “teri diwani” , wonder why….. they were singing at the top of their voices n swinging 2 d beat.. was a funny sight!



After a quick breakfast of ‘rock-vadas’ and triangular idlis, the first stop was a scenic spot on the way to Ranganathaswamy temple. Lush green fields, a cool breeze and a heavenly climate. A totally picturesque, rustic, rural atmosphere. I, Neha,Santosh and Chaitu took a short bullock-cart ride while the others walked into a field wading through slushy mud (you can see them posing as scare-crows in the pic ;) )






Next stop was the beautiful Ranganathaswamy temple. Even the serenity of the age-old temple and the tranquil ambience cudn’t make Anil less crazy (see d pic) and the rest of us, less “click-crazy”…every li’l thing had to b photographed. Meanwhile ez n gousie went for horse-rides. Dunno y they felt like it, coz the horses were really smelly! Nyways, after the darshan, we saw the spot where the mighty warrior Tippu Sultan was found dead (in 1799 AD)……thr’s a small memorial built thr.



From there we went to Sangamam, the place where 3 rivers meet. On the way, there was lots of dancing and singing, even Ezra and Gouse(surprisingly!).. According to our very wise Anil, one of the rivers was “Godavari”!!!!! (in Karnataka??) he was kidding of course.. Well, none of us knew which 3 and nyways, who cares? We had a ride in one of those round boats. It was therauptic, floating away on the water.. a wonderful feeling like being detached from the world.. it was a short ride, but was good enough. Reminded me a lot of Hogenekkal!




We then headed to Balmuri waterfalls, which according to me was the highlight of the whole trip. There’s something about the combination of water and rocks, which can turn anybody into completely crazy freaks! The guys were even more excited coz they’d just seen some really cute babes there..lolzz… Water fights, yelling, slipping on the rocks, screaming and mastiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! We splashed about for around 2 hrs.. and there we saw a spectacular display of swimming by our ace-swimmer Reena, who swam for 40 seconds
NON-STOP! ;) ha ha..
As we came out of the water, we were exhausted n cold, hungry, but happy. Had a good lunch at a restaurant whose name I obviously forgot.

Well, for the post-lunch session and a special feature “D-jokes” and more pics, wait for the next post!

Cheerio!

can't think of a title 2 this one..

Well, it’s really been a long time n ppl are clamoring for my updates.
Neha left a comment askin 4 updates.

What she said : ” a blog’s supposed to have updates”
What I interpreted : “ Manasa, we’re really missing ur blogs. Reading them kind of makes my day. Do post some updates. Plzzzzz” ;)

A few days back Ezra said dat too. Don remember what he said but sumhow I made myself believe that ppl r really interested in wat I post!!
Hey by the way, did I give an intro to Ezra in my blog? Well since I’m too lazy 2 go back n read it, I’ll just give it again.

Ezra Raj Bathini, alias raju garu, alias EZ (some funny name he gave himself.. in an attempt 2 sound cool? Dunno ;D) .. is a nice friendly guy with a fantastic sense of humour. No dull moments when he’s around!

3 new characters have entered the life-at-ibm-b. Got trained at Chennai n r here to make this blog more interesting.

Reena! A totally quirky,bindaas character. Whenever I’m with her, I always find her and myself laughing like maniacs, for no apparent reason.

Santosh, an equally fun-loving, quirky guy.. the kind of guy who can call u up in the middle of the night, chat abt this n that for almost 2 HOURS n then say “hey by the way, did I disturb u?”

Anitha- in contrast, is a li’l quiet.


As to how work is gng on at ibm-b, each of us is faring differently. Some are sick of work, some r sick of havin no work, a few are over-worked n a few r getting bored..
Typical software scenario.. deadlines, meetings, goof-ups, reviews…all kinds of
Naansense..

Speakin of work, I’ve an advice 2 give u ppl! Read the book the Dilbert Principle. It’s an awesome, super-funny book by Scott Adams who apparently hates all kinds of work. He criticizes all the jobs possible. Specially management related jobs get the brunt of his comical whip-lashing.

A few glimpses of the buk:



 The Dilbert Principle: The most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage – MANAGEMENT
( hence it isn’t strange that most of us r planning 2 do an MBA..;) )

 Remember the Total Work Equation:
Real Work + Appearance of Work = Total Work
Try to keep your total work at a constant level but do not increase your real work.

 There are three types of employees:
1. Those who work hard regardless of compensation (Idiots)
2. Those who avoid work, thus appearing lazy (Idiots)
3. Those who avoid work while somehow appearing to be productive (Contented Employees)


This book might de-motivate u a lottt.. but what the heck, it sure is a fun read!
Njoy! Cheerio!

the exaaaaaaaaaaamm!!

No matter how old you are, no matter what u r doing, exam time is always horrible, Always! Specially if it’s an exam u’ve been dreading for over an year.

IBM is a great company to work for, but it kinda scores low on job guarantee. And since we were placed in our 3rd yr of engineering, we’d spent over an yr hearing horrible rumours and advice from all over the world “ start looking for another job!” ;) . this paranoia reached gigantic proportions when a 1000 or so IBMERs were kicked out last yr after an exam!!
so we were worried about being kicked out even before we joined .. lolz doesn’t make sense, but that’s how it was…

Funny part is, we were tensed and all that but never actually did anything about it. No preparation whatsoever.. spent the 2 months of training completely loafing around. At least Neha and Gouse would agree with me. The AT&T batch would claim that they’ve been working hard..blah blah blah..

Nyways, whatever, the D-Day was 8th of September, which came after a week of cramming, guessing who set the paper, catching hold of every scrap available with us about Java, stupid jokes and hell a lot of rumours.. coz failing the exam meant being chucked out of IBM!! The exam was at our beloved Manyata. 60 minutes of brilliant guesswork (the paper was of the multiple choice type) and it was all over!

That’s how life at ibm-b almost came to an end, but did not

Everything amounted to the one sentence which came in an e-mail a week later …

“Congratulations! You have Successfully Completed the Evaluation!!”

how things got better..

Next day was equally horrid…. Bad bad bad! Just sat at a desk having nothing to do and no one to talk to. Amit turned up the next day, he was also into our account but we were in different applications.

During the initial days of training, we had a 2 day session called ‘college to corporate’. Back then it was just another boring session, but the actual transition from college to corporate happened during the first week after training. We realized we had to snap out of it and accept the fact that we had to grow up and adapt to the “work culture” now.

And work culture is sumthing like this:

 realizing the fact that everybody will be busy all the time!
 Learning everything by yourself
 Attending loads of meetings without having a clue about what’s happening. ( I tried to hang on to every word in the first few meetings, but now I just let my mind go on its wandering sprees!)
 Sametime connect ( IBM’s internal chat) which was overused during the training days, now lies silently in the corner of the desktop, waiting in vain for a double click..

But after a few days, it all gets better. Once the work actually starts, it feels great! Yeah we do miss each other and life ain’t one big party anymore, but still.. thr’s sumthing really gud about being busy. Sumthing gud about working in a team, meeting deadlines, figuring out stuff we don’t know.. something gud about belonging to IBM ,being an IBMER.. and of course something really really gud about seeing our bank accounts getting credited every month!


And a few days back, all of this almost came to an END!! (or so we thought)
Wanna know how?
Wait for the next post!!!!.

Life after training..

Hm…

U remember me sayin dat training period was just like college?.. well, the period when training ends and u get deployed into a project is like exam time! As nasty as that!

After a grand farewell party at a swanky cool hotel, we were asked to report at our respective locations. I,Gouse and Valli had to go to the office at SA, Neha , Ezra , Raju Renjith and Vivek at EGL, and the rest of the gang happily stayed back at Manyata ( lucky them!!)

8th August was the day I stepped into Subramanya Arcade(SA). I’ll always remember it as a really horrible day. Entered the building at around 9.30. Met 2 other people, Rajitha and Rajesh who also were joining the same day. We were supposed to somebody( no names plz). So I called him up after reaching the office. Guess what response I get.. “uh-hello?” ( a very sleepy voice). I tell my whole Ram kahaani- I’m manasa, came here for…. Blah blah… Sleepy silence …….and then “ what day is it??”.. I was like, what??? “Am I speaking to Mr.xyz?” . He said “umm..yeaaah, but I’m on vacation”.
Me: “now what am I supposed to do??????”. “ go report to Mr.abc… but not this early.. go at 11.30”.

So roamed around till 11 and then entered the office. It was horrible!! SA is the oldest IBM office and looks exactly like dat. No, no cobwebs or layers of dust n all, but still, this place has a kind of gloomy, oldy-oldy air abt it. Dunno, it was that place , or the fact dat I was goin to work here, away from frm all my frnz.. but something inside me broke down. I went crazy and the only thing on my mind was that I have to get out of here!!! Now!!!

So rushed out around 5 or so, and went straight to Manyata( the old office whr we had training) … it was soo good, u kno… like returning Home aftr being lost in a horrible desert! ( I kno.. u’ll think I’m being melodramatic, but then, u didn’t face it, so u wudn’t inderstand!!!) Met Rumz and Chaitu there, told them how horrible that place was… in full, exaggerated detail…. felt a li’l better.

That was my first day at SA. Things turned out to b a lot better after that, but that story’s for the next post. Bbye…

End of Days..

It ended in a party thrown at an extravagant, seven star hotel, but it ended!! one of the most wonderful phases of my life.

After the training we had a mega boring 3 day session abt our business unit, but we treasured every moment of it... coz it was the last time all of us wud b together..

Last few moments of carefree comfort, of fun, of adolescence, maybe??

from the next day we actually entered adulthood. Boring, responsible,"have to work now" adulthood. from now on there's going to be nobody 4 u all the time. U'll have 2 take care of urself, be responsible, take ur own decisions. U know ur frnz r now gonna b busy all the time, and u might be too.. thr's sumthing more important than all that u held dear..

all this came crashing on my head during that party and made me feel really lonely and depressed!

But then ofcourse, everything has something gud in it.. and i'm always trying 2 look at the silver lining.. and I know my frnz.. none of us is really thaaaaat hard working, so i guess we willl find time 2 b happy , mad n crazy like always!!!!! (Touch Wood!)

adios!

The Project

After the training we were given this project to c how much we have (or haven't) learnt..

It was 2 create an online bus reservation system in FIVE days (yeah right!!)
And we kind of did dat... well, almost did it or watever..

I was in a team wid Raju (the team lead), Rumz, Mrudula,Swetha and Satish.
It was during this time i figured out how interesting Java is, and how little i actually knew back then.. Now i'm quite gud at it, or so i'd like to think.. well anyways, we worked quite hard.. coming 2 office even on a Sunday!

our proj had a fancy look to it.. we had a pic of a bus and the seats changed from green 2 red wen someone reserved it n stuff.. but d guy who came 2 inspect it didnt even glance at it (HOW MEAN!!!).. instead he just focused on the parts we messed up.. typical!

but nyways, had fun during d proj!! some very funny moments.. which im not going 2 put up coz of the reasons mentioned in the previous post!!

I'm going 2 close it down..

Umm there’s a lott to write about, but I’m not going to…

Reasons???

1. training’s ended and I’m sad abt it
2. I haven’t found a single comment in the recent posts and I’m pissed off!!

I just wanted to shut down the blog, more 4 d first reason than the second, but then I believe that everything has to end properly… so I’m going 2 give my blog a decent burial!!

As I promised..

Weekends at bangy…

Are pretty much fun… we checked out the malls, caught some movies, went to ISKCON temple, other shopping places..

The best weekend was at HOGENAKKAL, a place near the Tamil Nadu border. Beautiful sceneries on the way, lots of greenery, complete serenity, and yeah loads of fun!!

I, Neha,Neel(I call Anil that),Rumz,Abhi,Chaitu, Hulk(Gouse calls Amit that), Gouse, Ezra.. 9 ppl who went click-crazy (300+ photos) ; floated away in the water for 2 hrs enjoying the awesome views of the valley, got drenched in waterfalls, splashed about like manics in the water…. Hmmm.. one of the best days at bangy!

continuing..

And the training went on...

Learnt Java amid coffee breaks, Gmail,Orkut, and days passed by happily among friends. I realized why everybody kept talkin abt how gr8 training period is for every new employee.. And since some of us weren't a part of the AT&T team, also called the Biskeet batch( long story.. will tell u later), life was easy.. had time to watch movies in the evenings..

Remeber the Bumble bee I mentioned? For a week or so, he made sure we left immediately after our training ended, so we missed out on many cool movies. Now this character Bee, reminds me of the Hogwarts caretaker Filch from Harry Potter, only he isn't ugly and smelly. Looks like an alien, never smiles, has a funny accent, and has the amazing ability to look scary (his eyes) and funny at the same time.

Speaking of Harry Potter, we also have Hermione Granger, I mean a guy Raju, who's like Hermione Granger.. studious, answers all the questions in class, brilliant programmer,a little bossy, teacher's pet.

Hey, didnt mention Mohua Dey, our trainer, right? A brilliant,sweet lady who knows almost everything about Java. She made sure all of us learnt stuff she taught.


k, the posts's getting too long, so me ending it..

coming up in next posts...

-> weekends at Bangalore
-> Chandu Lal, the gr8 performer
->THE PROJECT!!!

Little Things...

little things..

As we go about our lives, either making things happen or just letting life take its own course or whichever way we choose to live, there are

many little things that matter.

Little things that make us smile, make us happy, give that warm feeling and make life so worth living. Things like a memory from the old times,

a sudden phone call from a forgotten friend, a hug from a buddy, an unexpected gift...There have been many such sweet, special moments here at IBM in these two months. Sudden giggles, impromptu smiles,sometimes even mad

laughter.. Moments without which life wud have been just a boring,jingle-jangle routine.

terraces...
I've always loved terraces, being on top of the world in an open expanse, staring up at the sky..
One of the trainig days was really tiring. Some really freaky java program which we were supposed 2 do and which of course didnt work, and we

Ctrl+c ctrl+v 'ed anyways.. I,Neha n Rumz went to the terrace of Ibm for the first time that day. Nice cool breeze, chattin with frnz wiht a

cup of noodles in hand..... Heaven!!


How long has it been since u've floated paper boats in puddles of water? years? a decade? I n Neha did that a week ago. It had rained horribly

and there were puddles of rain all over. So two IT professionals, in the vicinity of the IBM campus were floating paper boats (made outta IBM

notebooks) in rain water puddles!! And it was so much fun!!


For a whole week, we stayed back late in the office, till almost 9 pm. naah, not working, we watched Dashavtaram, kismet connection( a totallly useless movie.. Thank God I didnt waste my "hard-earned ;)" money on it), 1408...

Watching people falling asleep during during training(ok,ok i wont mention names!), copying assignments when the trainer's not watching, giving embarassed grins when caught orkutting, laughing like maniacs when someone falls off the chair or deletes their assignmnt( which they've worked on for ages) by mistake and frets abt it.... Having birthday parties in the food court and splatter cake all over the b'day baby's face......so on.. see? I told you training life ain't much different from college life!!

Hey but dont think we're all just whiling away our time here!! We learntn loads during the training. We even went 2 d office on a Sunday and worked the whole day on a project. (NO NO, our team lead's not a monster, we really needed to work that day).. and yeah the project itself had many little moments of fun..


And there have been loads of moments, and there will be many more which continue to make 'life at IBM-bangalore' so very special!!!!

another month has passed away!!!!!!

hmmmmmmmm

just a while ago i was writing about how i spent the fisrt one

month as an IBMer and yestday marked the end of the second month.

I intended to post about all that's happening. 2 months have

passed and i'm still writing about the initail days. now either

i'm a very slow blogger or the time really flies...

well whatever..

the initial few days were amazing as i've already mentioned. A

li'l bit of learning, ceaseless surfing and chatting and loads of

fun. We IBMers have this gr8 instant messaging service called

sametime, and we make the most of it. the emoticons collection is

awesome and is different in every system. It was gr8 fun

exploring all of them. But the best use of ST is during the

'test' time.how? i'm not telling!

And after that came the big bang! our class was being broken

up!.. As in, we were being put into different classes. Judai! we

were separated and put into different competencies.

I got Java! i was really glad coz i'm quite fond of it.only

neha, I and gouse were in java2. A whole load of strangers were

streaming into our class. I was lookingaround for familiar faces

when Ramana walked in.Ramana(Rumz) a very good friend of mine, is

a bindaas fun-loving, gud-to-be with guy.And there was Chaitu

too.


I keep meeting the others, Teja,Vivek,Renjith,Srirag and others

during coffee breaks, though.




And then... TRAINING started. Had a string of sessions of which

even a word didnt really register. U kno wat, during this

training i hardly found any difference between going 2 work and

going 2 college, except for the fact that i cudn't bunk when i

wanted and that at the end of the month, my bank account got

credited!!

After some boring, some interesting, some useless sessions actual

Java started and we all saw the monstrous side of Java. It is

huuuuuuuuge... and the learning process is going on..