Migration of the Tamilan: Curse of the Pune

There were days where I dreamt of going outside my hometown. Until my first job (21 years), I have not visited any cities other than my own hometown. I don’t know the reason – but I just dreamt of living in a different city other than my hometown. Chennai was the first one outside my hometown. After Chennai, my dreams started going bigger. That’s exactly how I ended in Pune. Now, these (current) are the days where I dream of going back to my hometown. It atleast took me 2 years to realize why people say “Home sweet home”. It’s been more than 2 years since I started to struggle to find a way for home.

My training in Infosys started at Mysore. A place where almost every infoscions wants to be forever – I can say proudly. Every one of them will have the memories of Mysore. With those, when we heard about our Pune postings, I was somewhat happy. My dreams of exploring India (ok, living in a different city) started to take a picture. It was 1^st of August 2007 when I reached Pune. I remember when I reached Chennai during 2004, it was raining. It happened in Pune as well. When I reached Pune, it was raining all along until we took a taxi and reached our hotel rooms. I should say I was in immediate love with Pune.

Bench days were awesome, but then some of you might remember my passport struggling. Because of the offer letter from Infosys, I missed the police verification and then I had to struggle more than 3 years to get my passport. But, that was my only worry in Pune. My first and only project in Infosys was Level3 Communications. Wonderful project I must say. I had the wonderful team which somewhat kept me going when sometime I felt like I’m in an alien world. I had been under some of the great leaders in Infosys and also, worst. When the best left and the worst came, I started looking for transfer. Transfer, in this world of Infosys, is impossible – they said. That’s nonsense!

Being a stupid, I always said nothing is impossible. So I tried and tried and tried – only to get tired. Now, after being in Pune for more than 4 years, first time, I felt – the one who said “Transfer is impossible” made sense. It is indeed, impossible to get a transfer to Chennai. When my manager said that an official transfer to Chennai is impossible, I thought of going through the personal transfer. So, I contacted a HR person and per him, although there are 5 options to submit a personal transfer, I can use only one out of 3. The reasons on the personal transfer were: “Health – Self”, “Health – Parents”, “Marriage”, “Other Reason” and “Personal Reason”. The last two options were ruled out by the HR and he said that I should choose any one of the first 3.

I’m healthy; I don’t have any health issues other than some frequent headaches. That rules out the first option. I’m still single, so that rules out the 3^rd option. I’m left with the last choice – Health – Parents. My parents are above 60 years of age and are diabetic patients. I thought submitting a doctor certificate would help me. So, I asked them to contact our family doctor and ask him to give me a certificate. I got it and when I uploaded that in the personal transfer request, I got it rejected saying I need to submit more supporting documents. They would not be able to precede that with just a certificate from doctor. Ok, that made sense. I then asked my parents to send me their prescriptions and other medical bills and other records which a normal diabetic patient would have.

I submitted those – as soon as I received them from my parents. Now, the next problem came. The HR who was responsible for my personal transfer went on leave. I do not know the process of how a personal transfer request work, but it took me 1 ½ weeks to change another HR’s name on that request. The new HR said that he’d talk to the Infosys doctors and would let me know. When he finished checking, he said the same thing – upload more medical ‘records’. Now, I seriously doubted if my understanding of English got worse! I forgot what’s a medical ‘report’ or ‘record’.

Without doubt, I figured that they are not going to give me a transfer. Whatever the document that I’m going to upload, they are going to still need more and more documents. I even uploaded my parent’s Voter ID card – just to let them know that they are above 60 years of age. I’m sure that whatever the document that I uploaded had enough ‘record’ to prove that they are diabetic patients. A person who’s in a HR position or a person who’s a Doctor should have enough education to understand this simple fact – they are old and diabetics. Yet, the policies! Or, should I say Politics?

With utter frustration, I’m writing this. This is in fact, not at all a frustration when compared to the first a letter I typed (when I was still in the project) to upload in the transfer portal! Here’s what it is:


I need a transfer. Why? I need a transfer because, I don’t like Pune. I need a transfer because, I don’t want to stay away from my family, who’s desperately in need of a support. I need a transfer because, I don’t speak Hindi. I need a transfer because, I’m overloaded. I need a transfer because, there’s no one here who can understand me. There are still some poor souls back home, they’ll understand me.

Why the hell are you writing this? I’m writing this because, I need to upload a document in my personal transfer request. I’m writing this because, I don’t have any ‘valid’ reason that ‘I’ think the organization will accept for a transfer. I’m writing this because, I’m frustrated. I’m writing this because, I’m not so good at oral communication and ‘I’ believe I’m good with the written communication.

Where do you need a transfer? One and the only place – Chennai.

Well, it’s been 4 years since I have come to Pune. It’s been 4 years since I joined Infosys. It’s been 4 years since I joined the project “Level3”. It’s been 4 years since I’m happy.

Frustrating work. Alright. We have a project party guys. Yea! At last! There you go. Now, you go to the project party where you are the only fellow who does not know Hindi. People who accompany you always speak in Hindi. Isn’t that so nice to hear? Wow, what a language this Hindi is! It’s all you talk about!

How did you manage to stay in Pune this long? If you can stay in Pune for 4 years, why not 4 more years? Oh. That’s the question I don’t know the answer yet. I don’t know how I managed these 4 years.

Is your career important or your personal transfer important? Your growth will be affected if you get a transfer. Oh, is it? I’m not a tall guy, yet, I don’t want any more growth. I’ve grown enough and I know what is important.

What are you going to do if they deny you a transfer? Very simple question. I wish I expect such simple questions on my next interview.

I know I need more guts to upload these kind of documents in the portal. But, who knows – I might get one very soon!