NSA ....and friends...

...all this happened 2-3 years back during the period of 2004-2005. i decided to write about my friends and associations i had during this period after seeing a post from one of my friend, http://www.scribd.com/doc/122368/CellarStone-buddies this link realy moved my genrally cold heart to write about my memories..and relationships we had...

initally when i joined this company i started hanging out with few cool guys in the company....vijay, raghav, jenser...so we were the happiest person's on that company, most of the co-staff usually found us in the mornings with hangovers...since we were performing well nobody had any complaints though....

later moved to a mansion near my office, as my senior was going on a long leave and i was in infra support. so this place was called NSA mansion....later this became the hub of master brains in that company...few of the master brains

Kamal- he was an aspiring and budding e-marketing professional, who later learned the tricks of the trade fast....and had high influence in marketing the product the developers made. smart guy and very popular amongst girl....great player of all games he was right there in top and this guy is very compassionate towards needy people....he tried his best to teach me e-marketing...but i never learned

Karthik- fresh out of college and new to chennai as well, he learned a lot from us..bike,drinks, smoking..and he listened to all our great blunt stories eagerly without getting bored...he had come from one fo the top colleges in TN and nobody can question his talent and passion for work..one good thing he learned from me was reading books and novels...i was involved in a bike accident with him...no injuries to anybody thank god...

Maneesh -he is most senior person in our group but again a close friend...he is from varanasi and the difference in culture and language made us more closer...for 2 years every evening he had given us papayaa....this guy is fond of fruits, specialy papayyaa..again a smart and clever person..he is fond of movies...and most of the movie shows we went were for him.....

Enos- the abdul kalam of our company, our company CEO realy liked tis guy very much for his work, he developed a product out of nowhere and became famous....he is known for working only on nights....coming to office on casuals.... and for fighting with program managers...he is again close to me...we went to church together...along with 2 more guys me and enos recieved value award in our first year in company..

events that i remeber now...

As it is known kamal is famous amongst girls, one fine day one girls car broke down and she called kamal to help...but since we were close friends and wherever we went we went in groups..and whatever we had we shared...we all went to drop her safely at her house....

our trip to hogganekal....everybody had a nice bath on the falls, except for me and karthik all other guys were topless..to the discomfort of these guys our managing director forwarded all the pictures to the entire office in india and us...there were secret comments from girls....

weekends were usually shopping and eating out....what followed was usualy fights for sharing the budget..even if it fell 1-2 rs short there would be hours of fights to settle it...

the way a senior PM reacted after he lost to me in tabletennis semifinal before an assembled office...he just throwed the bat angrily at the table and went off....no handshakes...nobody were able to react at that moment...nobody even clapped for my win...

we slept on conference rooms, due to a bit of workload and mostly due to hot summer...office was like home....enos and karthik even had thier pilows and bedspread in office...
we drank once in office terrace..had few rounds and again worked...
we had regular session in our rooms, most of our discussion were like board of directors discussion, and few gossip sessions as well...

those days will never come again......evrybody's paths changed drastically in these 3 years...there is one secret wish i have now..would we ever be able to work together again in a same office....even if we did, we would never be able to spend time like we did before....miss you guys....

..games

..another weekend, another Saturday and well i seem to spend most of time time alone at my place these days...no more Friday night parties, no more Saturday morning hangovers, and no more pirated DVD movies to watch... on the other end work at office just seem to move along fine, no pressure, no late night work, no weekend scheduled works..but one thing that is interesting in office is i am completely into an technical environment that is very much demanding and new to me.

i have started playing table tennis in office, there are 2 games which have fascinated me a lot football and table tennis....i had played football in my school days, coming from a school that encouraged sports, we played the game with lot of pride and of course many injuries in leg and once in head ...well one thing i can still remember is once me and my friends had a game with the seniors, we were studying std 7...those guys were actually professionally trained by the sports trainer. we did lost the game that day but most people who saw the game and even the seniors saw that we were pretty good and attacking in the game. after that when i moved to a new school in chennai there was literally not much games i played and once i remember we played and it was one sided in which i scored close to 4 goals....

i was performing very poorly in other sports though...cricket..can remember just swinging the bat wildly and managing single digit scores...missing easy high catches...volleyball very famous in my school in chennai...not upto the level again..just managing to serve into the court..that was the big achievement.

it was in one of my earlier companies that people taught me tabletennis..and within a short period i caught up the game fast and i was right there in top4 by the end of the year..we played a lot of indoor games during this period carrom, chess and tabletennis ...sports festival happened every year and i managed to beat few big guys in TT..even the guys who taught me and finally lost in the final..after this i became popular guys tried their best to beat me....they liked my serve and everybody was imitating my serve. so what is that special in my game i defeated so many experienced guys...i was very strong in forehand cross court..bit weak in backhand..and i moved so fast and was hitting most of the shots across the table with high speed...i guess its the speed....Guys here in my new company seem to play lot of spin and these guys are too good in backhand also...have marked few guys to knock them........sport it is...

Saturday...afternoon 3 pm, boring and watching a movie....possibly next week i might go on a tour to god's own country..

....lent

.....had an important assignment and i was travelling on the evening of new year, i was happy that i was not made to travel out of station on the month of december, so we were a litlle happy family and celebrated christmas and new year together after a very long time..

the assignment went well, as usual there was pressure from my manager and my client. 3-4 more days left to finish my task. So it was one day like this that i was stuck in one issue to solve and working late night...around 10.45 got a call from my brother...well the tone said it all, it was not a good news. my dad was hospitalised for fracturing a bone near his hip. being a physio himself my brother did analysed the situation very well and made arrangements in a hospital that he had worked 2 years back..this is the second time that my dad was involved in a serious situation, the first one was even worse, and in both the occasions, both me and my brother were not around..

..next day i realised that i was not able to concentrate on my work anymore..well my manager and client were sympathetic enough to release me and major part of my work in this assignment was also over..well 3-4 days from then i was travelling on air,road and rail.....once standing 6 hours in a train all the way from chennai to trichy, i was travelling from one city to other and arranging logistic support for my dad treatment and getting few formalities done in my dad office...meanwhile my brother flew back to his place..and my dad was recovering fast..

now lent days have started....days starting from ash wednesday till easter are called lent days..there would be forty days during this period when most christians go on fasting and prayer...and i would as always would not take any non-vegetarian food during this period....most churches preach these principles during this period

prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial...

2007 ...as it happened

1. January and February .....though we didn't feel it while we were doing it....when we think now, i can say that we worked like anything and put in lots of efforts in this period..department restructure, peoplesoft migration and new portal upgradation are three things that i remember...

two more things which i would like to keep remembering happened during this period....most of my friends still tease me about this..first one.....my project director called me on one weekend ..Saturday late evening and asked me "which server were you working today" .....he had assumed that i had worked on a server today and there was a server crash because of that...that was like hitting flat in your face.....
next one ....hmmm really proud of this one .....my PD this time had few good words for me and my junior especially after we had slogged for an important activity...he wrote that was "dedication to the core and it was beyond his expectation"....so this was the period when i was called 'dedication to the core' by my colleagues....though most people wouldn't have agreed ..especially my own manager....


2. march and April........travelled to mumbai as my junior was getting relieved and i was asked to support mumbai region...had nice time without doing any work or taking transition from him in mumbai...roamed all over mumbai for 3 days.....

pity... i can also remember that during this period India lost in cricket world cup...can see many of my friends with broken heart....

4. may and June.......... during this period me and my office friends travelled all over south tamil nadu (what else to do..particularly when most of us didn't get opportunity to travel overseas...)...

trip will be in memories for most of us...we travelled in big groups and had blast and fun...yercaud, salem, devakottai, trichy......and then relatively small group went to allepy, ernakkulam, kottayam...

5. July and august.........couldn't remember doing any work during this period...sort of siting in bench....can remember there was a server crash once...and there was high stress cause of that....nothing else....and appraisal happened..

went on a small trip to thekkadi, theni, surli falls......with my parents

6. September and October.....after effects of appraisal, i had started looking out for other opportunites and had put in my papers by august end.....
took time off and spent some time with my parents and relatives.....

7. November and December....new company, new roles, new challenges.....i was sent to an important assignment in my new company....very tough especially since i was new and i was trying myself to prove my abilities....November month, high stress and pressure

December....festival time and not much work in office...Christmas with my family...flat decoration and furnishing..

to summarise.............

the year 2007, January, February and November has been very hectic in profession....

there were lot of trips and spent a lot of time with friends and families....that is good....

no major achievements or recognitions this year....though i got a promotion..glory be to god....a promotion and ace award (2006) at my first year in this company...

job change....hard and tough challenges in profession....also i did realised that i was missing my friends a lot ....and i still miss them....though i was always a guy who is not much attached to relations, emotions and feelings......so i had changed in character..

just a week left in 2007........hope to be a better person in 2008...yes i would definetly..

....and christmas message

...so he is back with us, yes my elder brother..he is just 15 months older to me and he is back after more than 2 years since he left india...felt good as i stood in the airport waiting for him, couldnt see any change in him as he walked out from the lounge...ok.. he is kind of pet to most of my relatives here in my native...and already many relatives were calling me in my mobile at midnight to reach him..very optimistic, religious, casual, very tough, very ambitious and i had learnt the importance of upholding values in life from him.....though i cant ever be as ambitious and tough like him.

already he has left to my native and i can imagine the kind of reception he gets from my relations there.. everybody is very fond of him, and I should admit that i would never get that kind of reception anytime from them...

what else, not much work in office, and yet to make friends here at my work place.....usually very slow starter in making friends. i was involved in whole lot of purchase for my house last week....now my Christmas tree has got some additional decorations .....choclate hangings, teddy bear, choclate santa....and whole lot of choclate decorations..

month of December is always special for all Christians...as people try to share their happiness and joy around...remembering Christ...

do you know immediately after Jesus was born in Bethlehem ..the first message about his birth was delivered to Shepperd's....an angel of the lord came before them and told them where exactly they would be able to find him.....specific instructions were given to them about the place and child.... amazing isn't it ...the message was not sent to any high priest, or religious leaders or kings....and sheperds were the first to visit the new born king.... remeber in all manger decorations in christian houses you will see sheperds standing around new born baby....and i like this particular sheperd statue carrying a lamb in his shoulder....


While shepherds watched
Their flocks by night
All seated on the ground
The angel of the Lord came down
And glory shone around

"Fear not," he said,
For mighty dread
Had seized their troubled minds
"Glad tidings of great joy I bring
To you and all mankind,

well i have got few stuffs in my fridge to finish before my parents come and see it ............and i have to do it without my usual company....and this one is imported...couldnt make what is it ..right ..thats good...