My greatest gift from Hyderabad

While I was leaving Hyderabad, someone had the guts to point out that I am too much glued to the present. He told that I need to forget things and move on. Let me tell as candidly as I can – I think you are wrong. I can never forget Hyderabad. I have earned something more then money here. I have earned friends. Each of my friends is worth more than a Billion dollar in cash. In the next few lines I attempt to describe a few of my dearest friends. These friends have had a tremendous impact on me as a person.

Amol is the nearest person I have seen to a perfect person. He has so much patience that I would be a hundred times better person even if I had a quarter of his patience. He dribbles very easily between a Project engineer par excellence, a hard nosed professional and a great friend. He is also the most frequent visitor to my Blog. His encouragement and support is something I will not trade for a bank full of money. Words are not sufficient to describe a friend like him.

Bhavnesh is a person I can go to ask for advices. He has seen the ugliest face of life and emerged victorious. He is less of a friend and more like a big brother for me. Nobody can match his Will power, tenacity and straight forwardness. I have immense respect for him as a person. I sometimes feel lucky to have found a friend like Bhavnesh.

Basava is the Tiger of my group. Always enthusiastic and passionate in what ever he does. His fighting spirit and never say die attitude catches up with you like an epidemic. If at any point of time you are low, sad or need a kick – meet Basava. Simple, your problem is resolved. I would not have come out of a very tragic phase of my life if it were not for Basava.

Feras is the Einstein among our friends. It has been more then a year since he left Nokia Hyderabad. Till today people swear by his name. He is a through gentleman who also knows how to have fun. A full page would be insufficient if I start writing about things I have learnt from Feras.

Nikhil is the person with the softest of hears and the best of manners. HE connects with people so well that I sometimes feel he is either a magician or a charmer. A very tough minded professional – He is the most brilliant transmission engineer I have come across. He is such a good listener that I sometimes pity him. He had the bad luck of listening to my non stop talk marathons, without even complaining once. A lot of credit for my professional success goes to Nikhil.

I can go on and on. But the friendship that I have shared with these few peoples is so deep that I am at loss of words. These people have had tremendous impact on me as a person as well as on my character. Their friendship is the greatest gift I take from Hyderabad.

Adieu - Hyderabad

I have now left Hyderabad. These few words fill my heart with sorrow as well as excitement. It has been four days since I bid farewell to Hyderabad – I am still not able to understand how I am feeling.

Now as I sit here in my home in Belgaum and think about Hyderabad, I feel happy beyond measure. What makes it even more memorable is the type of sendoff I got. Every person I met in the last few days seemed to be sad that I am leaving. Entire office came together to get a wonderful gift for me. Venkat was kind enough to make a painting himself and give me as a sendoff gift (it took him one week to make that painting). I felt great joy when Amol remembered that I simply love to own a Swiss knife and purchased one for me. My roommates too brought an expensive, stylish and a portable USB drive. Silly as it might seem now, the married people in our office brought me lunch for the entire last week of my stay. It was their way of telling me – We will miss you.

It is not the number of gifts, nature of gifts or the price of the gift that mattered. It is the love, care, and friendship that they have for me that made my heart choke. No doubt, I cried along with the closest of my friends when I left Hyderabad. I will never ever forget my stay in Hyderabad.

Cherished moments...

After my first day in Hyderabad on 1st April, 2005 (a detailed account of which I have given in my previous post) I was convinced that my stay in Hyderabad will be adventurous. For once, I was correct. Can you see the happy face of the pig in dirty mud in the attached picture? I have been happier then that pig :-)

Someone has said that your entire life can be broken down into few moments of joy, happiness, sadness and grief. These moments define the essence of your life. I agree with it. In this post of mine, I have made a feeble attempt to capture some of the interesting/happy moments I have had in Hyderabad. I am sure these moments will stay on with me long after I have left Hyderabad. These moments will always make me laugh, cry, sad and happy.

The most cherished moments that I take from Hyderabad are the small get together I used to have with my friends. These evenings spent with Feras, Nikhil, Amol, Bhavnesh and praveen are no less then a treasure. We used to talk about Life, Girls, latest movies, songs, food, Einstein, office politics, plans to screw our bosses, Newton’s laws, past adventures, latest weight reduction techniques, Ram leela etc. In short we used to talk about anything and everything on the face of this earth. Of course I was the one who always talked the most. Friends - I will miss you and also miss our small get togethers.

There is one particular Black dog in our colony that seems to simply love me (I am sure Amol will be laughing even as he reads these lines). This black shows me soo much affection that I have now become a laughing stock among friends. Whenever this dog sees me, it will not miss an opportunity to run as fast as it can and collide with me. It takes particular care that I will not notice it coming. I still remember the night it sneaked up into my compound and was sleeping. It being a black dog, I could not even see it in the dark. I closed the gate behind me. When the black dog smelled me, it came running at full speed to collide with me. The only problem is that in the dark, it found the gate instead of me. The dog fell unconscious in front of me!!!!!!! Later it limped away. Black dog - I will miss your collision and theatrics.

I generally am not very good at dressing up. Not to mention I am very passable guy when it comes to looks. This have very often put me in funny/embarrassing situation. I remember once going to Hyderabad central and glancing over Nike shoes. A smartly dressed guy came walking to me and asked - "What's the rate of this shoe"!!! How very silly of him. Then there was a situation where I was waiting for my friends with tickets in my hands in front of a theater. One moron came to me and asked - "Bahiya, balcony ticket kitne mein diya?” Dude, does a genius like me look like a black ticket seller to you? My friends and I have always had good laugh over these situations. Fellow Hyderabadies - I will miss the misjudgment that you did going by my looks.

I particularly liked the time that I have spent with Amol in Pizza hut. Those visits use to be extremely philosophical and fun. A lot of my major decisions I have made in office life have been taken over a slice of pizza with Amol. Those days I have not eaten a pizza, I have savored slices of happiness. Amol - I will miss the time spent with you in Pizza hut.

Officially I have seen a lot of success in Hyderabad. I have made quick and efficient progress from a fresher to a back bone resource in Nokia - Hyderabad. I have won various accolades and appreciation from various people. But, all these things simply pale in comparison to the affection of my my friends. The support, joy, fun and understanding they have given to an eccentric guy like me are unbelievable. Not to mention the patience they have to listen to my endless gibberish.

For me these are not just cherished moments of Hyderabad - these are my little drops of Joy.

Robbed!!!!

As I said in my last post - I have just a few more days of stay left in Hyderabad. Before leaving this place, I wanted to pen down something about Hyderabad. And what's best way to do it apart from blogging about some of my Good and not so good experiances in Hyderabad?

Let me first start with a not so good incident. It is a story about how I lost 17,000 rupees in just one day. That day is one of the saddest day in my life. It is also the happiest day of my life. This is a true story and it has happened to me. But before going into the details, I would first go into a flash back and set the stage for the Grand finale.

I had finished my engineering from a small and sleepy town - Belgaum. Like everyone I too dreamed of making it big in the Mecca for engineers - Bangalore. I dreamed of becoming a software engineer par excellence. When I went to Bangalore, the scene was very different. I say thousands and thousands of engineers fighting for jobs. Each and everyone of them seemed cleaverer and better equiped then me. I might have dropped my resume in more then 100 companies. I gave interview in a dozen componies. I did not get selected anywhere. I began to feel the heat of reality.

Then it came, almost like a flash. While I was roaming in the streets of Bangalore searching for a job, I got a call from a friend saying that there are interviews going on in spice. I was pessimistic about this. I still went on for the interview. I beat about 100 odd people who had come for the interview and got the job!!!! God!!! that was the happiest day of my life. Fame - here comes Susheel.

But there was a small clinch in the grand plan. I was not taken in as a software engineer. I was selected as an inplementation engineer. My work, among other things involved - Climbing telecom towers for installing antenna, carrying the toolkit around the town for my seniors, pulling the rope with all my strength to mount the antenna, sweeping the shelter after all the work has been completed etc. In short I was supposed to do the closest thing an engineer can do to be become a labarour. Heck!!!! this was not why I came to Bangalore all the way from Belgaum. I am a distinction holder in engineering, I deserved better. Ohh come on!!! even my professors in colledge said that I was one of the brightest guys they have come across. I am not supposed to do this!!!! But I had seen the struggle for getting a job. I knew real life and dream are two different and disjoint things. I accepted the job and worked with my mind, body and soul - literally.

It had been alomost 10 months since I had began working in spice. I had even started to think like a labarour. I literally sweated to earn each and every rupee. Then, through a friend (Neelesh) of mine, I got a call for an interview in Hutch - HYDERABAD. I was extremly exited about joing a compony like hutch. After all this was an oppertunity for me to work as an Engineer. I was on cloud nine. I could not wait until I give my interview. Being a very innocent boy, I went ahead and told my seniors about the interview call I had got. I had thought they will be very happy for me. I was wrong. When my seniors came to know I am going for an interview - all hell broke loose.

My seniors began to give me more physcial work. They unnecessarly increased my work load. They perticularly took care that I will work more on the day I was supposed to leave for Hyderabad. It was like - I am having my bus at 9:00 pm in the night and I am working like a mad horse till 8 'O clock in the evening. I was made to travel to different places. I was asked to mount two different antenna's on the tower and made to walk around with the tool kit (which was about 15 Kgs). Naturally, when I got into the bus I was tired and as soon as I sat in the bus I slept like a child.

Back then, I had a tendency to trust anyone and everyone. Blame it on either me being born and bought up in a small town of people who could be trusted or my carelessness. While I was fast asleep, without me knowing, somebody in the bus picked my purse. I used to keep my ATM card in purse. It might seem rediculous now, but I had also scribbled my password in a small telephone directory that i used to carry around and that too was stolen. The thought that someone could pick my purse and use my ATM card just did not pass my mind. A thing like that never happened in Belgaum. It could never happen like that anywhere in the world.

The morning when I touched down Hyderabad, I casually searched for my purse so that I could have a hot cup of tea. It was my big day and in two hours time I had my interview. Just imagine the shock I got when i discovered that my purse was missing!!! Just imagine what would happen to you if - you are in a new place, you do not know the local lingo, you purse has just been stolen, you dont even have a rupee to call up someone and ask for help and to top all that - you have an interview of your lifetime in another two hours. I was nuts. My mind became blank for a few seconds. My body was numb for a few minutes. Words are not enough to express what I was feeling at that time. It felt as if I was falling in a bottomless pit.

I somehow convinced a local shopkeeper that I am an engineer who has come here for an interview - and borrowed 2 rupees from him. I called up a colledge friend (Anil reddy) of mine and told him my situation. I requested him to come and help me out. He was my guardian angel that day. He came to me as fast as he could. He gave back the the 2 rupees to shopkeeper and thanked him. He then took me over to his room and asked me to freshen up. He then took me on his bike and rode me to Hutch office as fast as he could. He wished me luck and said he was confident that I would be selected. I reached Hutch office exactly at 9:00 - dot on time for my interview.

In the meantime I had regained my composure. I had the sense enough to call up ICICI bank and enquire about my account balance. I was again shell shocked to know that my balance was now 200 rupees. Somebody had drawn all the cash from my account. Somedody had stolen 17,000 rupees from my account. Only I know how hard I had struggled to earn those 17,000 rupees. I know how it feels like when somebody walks away with your money because of YOUR carelesness. Less then 5 minutes after I came to know about the money I had lost - I was called in for the interview.

Till this day I do not know how I cleared that interview. A thousand and one questions were running in my mind. I was crying inside. But somehow I cleared the interview. Even to this day my interviewers (Thomas sir and Narayana sir) say that I was brillent when answering the questions. After I cleared the tech interview I was sent over to the VP of Hutch Andhra Pradesh. He asked me some very routine questions about myself. He later said that he could see the passion I had towerds work. The interview went on soo well that I cleared all the rounds in a single day. By the end of the day, I had my offer letter in my hand as - Transmission planning enginneer. My first big dream had been achived.

Later in the day, I went to the hutch HR and told her my predictament. She (sabita Nanaiah)was kind enough to lend me the money I required to catch a bus back home. I booked my tickets back to Bangalore on that day itself. I did not sleep the entire night. I still remember clutching 200 Rs tighly in my pocket, least somebody steals it.

Thus ended my first day in Hyderabad. I lost a bundel of cash in the morning and was on my way back as an engineer in hutch by the evening. Hyderabad - You have thought me great many lessons. :-)