Back on Track

When I started to write back in 2011 when one of my best buddies was getting married, I swore that I'd be writing atleast one entry in a month. I'd been out of my game for about two months and now all of a sudden, I was totally free. I thought of writing again. Well, things been a little messy with Polaris after I joined this May and I'd been struggling to find a way out. Unlike the other time when I faced the same crisis, where I ended up taking drastic decisions, I was patient this time (and I could not believe it!) and it paid off well (at least, so far!).


I'm back to my career track and it's been just a little over a week. What we, in IT industry call this time as "Honeymoon period" (Time you joined a project until you start working). I've had a lot of time to kill and lots of doodling in my diary. When I joined Cognizant two days after I left Polaris and on the way to the induction, I thought of meeting new friends again. I made some good pals in Polaris (Induction and in the project) and I thought of doing the same here. Unlike Polaris where the induction program was for 3 days, Cognizant had only one day. I was completely soaked in the rain before entering into the MEPZ and was literally shivering during the one-half of the induction! The time was to short to make any friends and most of my batch mates were either sent to Thoraipakkam or Pallikaranai.


Well, the good thing is that all my room mates (except Rajesh) are from Cognizant and two of'em are from Siruseri where I'm posted. Good to have their company. My team in Cognizant got introduced and it looks like lots of fun going on there! Hanging on to make some good friends now. In the mean time, I've seen some good movies like The Green Mile, Rango and some good series like Game of Thrones and completed The X-Files. Once again, the lizard inside my brain tells me that something is going to happen during December and it won't be like what we expect (Like Earthquake, Tsunami or Volcano). Something man-made is going to come and haunt us back! Fasten your seat-belts, just less than two months to go!

Starting a new chapter in my life - hope to come here often!

Mixed Feelings

He is the first friend that I made in Infosys. An enthusiastic, a caring but sometimes a little stupid - that's all he is. A part of me always thought he's  lying when he said that he's going to Canada very soon, about a couple of months ago. Well, he did not lie and infact, he is in Canada now. He's Shyam - one of my best buddies that I made in Infosys. He was my room mate in Pune as well as in Chennai. The room's never the same without him! When we went to the airport to send him off, I thought I saw some tears (Well, Rajesh also told me so), but not sure if he cried because of leaving us or because of leaving his love/family behind.

When we were in the airport, apart from sending off Shyam, we noticed a couple of other things. A scene in the Tamil movie "Unnale Unnale" where the heroine gets a 'spiritual' and emotional sendoff from her family, we saw one similar there on the airport - except that was a guy. Ofcourse, it was funny and Rajesh kept saying that until we came back to the room. The other one was an elderly couple who were there to send off their granddaughter. The tears that were shed by those elderly couple made my heart heavy. They were waving goodbye to the granddaughter even after she was out of their sight. How alone are we going to be in the world!

Well, Saturday early morning was Shyam's flight, so we had to send him off on the Friday night. Saturday was off for all of us in the room and Karthic suggested that we go see The Dark Knight Rises. I've already seen the movie - but all Christopher Nolan's movies are worth watching more than once (Well, some of them had to be watched more than once to get the real story). So, I decided to join them. It was booked for the evening show and we were too much preoccupied watching The Dark Knight (in my laptop), we forgot the time. It was already 5:30 and the show was at 6:15. We'll need atleast of 30 minutes to travel and none of us were ready!

So, a quick face-wash/bath were done in a hurry and we started our bikes. As if it was waiting for that to happen, the sky started pouring down herself! I've always felt good when it's raining when I'm riding. So was the case with Karthic, so we started and the others stayed. We went there on time and it was about 10 minutes after the movie started the other joined us! It was one hell of an experience - riding while it's raining (that too in Chennai after very very long time! The last time I did in Chennai was by 2006 when Vettaiyadu Vilayadu movie was released and it was a rainy bike trip to Mayajal!)! Ofcourse, I had a lot of those in Pune! Good old days!

Dedicating this Post to Shyam Nainamalai. Wish you best of luck buddy! Hope you're doing good (whatever, that you're doing there)! Miss ya!

Kettal Kedaikkum!

Despite all the advice from my friends – I decided to join NIIT to take a career jump once again. As expected, it was a tragedy and I ended up paying 25K (as a first installment) and they never scheduled a class for me. I still remember the date on which I paid the amount - 3rd of April 2012. The course was supposed to be 3 months (or even less) and until 15th of May, I did not receive a single call from NIIT about the class schedule. When I enquired about the course (MCITP), during my admission, the sales head told me that the classes are starting the next day (4th of April). And up until 15th May, the class was never scheduled. I believe I was the only person who chose the MCITP course and no one else!

                So, after paying the money, it's my responsibility to ask for a class and almost every day from the day I paid the money, I called NIIT and every time I received the same response – the classes will be starting from this weekend sir. The weekend never came for them! Soon, I got a job on the same profile that I was working earlier and decided to give up the course. Now started the real pain. I walked into the NIIT office and told them that you guys are never going to schedule a class for me – I'd like to quit. They tried to trick me once, but since I was strong, they decided it'd be better if we leave this guy or something like that!

                On the first day, when I said that I'm requesting a refund from them, they said “Refunds are processed at the end of every month sir – your refund will be given by the first week of June”. From that time on, I'd been struggling to get the money back from them. Every time when I call for the refund, they said that the refund is being processed and requested to give a week's time. June 5th, a Tuesday, when I walked in to enquire about my refund, they requested me to write a letter to the NIIT Center head so that the refund may be initiated (I was puzzled as why this was not told to me when I said I want my money back!). So after that they said that it'd take a week's time to process and give my money back.

                Weeks came and went and I never received a call from NIIT. Until 4th of July, I was very patient and was frustrated when they said that your refund was not processed by this month and will be processed only by July month end. That's when I decided to reach out to a society that's been nothing but helpful in Facebook – “Kettal Kedaikkum”. When I posted my situation in Facebook Kettal Kedaikkum, I received a response from the founder, Mr. Sureka Sundar that he'll help solve the problem for me. Following that week, I walked into the NIIT Adyar  and called Sureka Sundar and asked him to talk to the Sales head and the Center head.

                I could observe the change in the faces of the center and sales head's as they were talking to Sureka. Until that moment, the promise from NIIT was that they'd not be able to give the full amount that I paid (an amount of Rs. 6000 to 8000 will be deducted for the Book charges) and that only the reduced money will be given. After they talked to Sureka, they told me that full amount will be settled to me. The whole refund processing took them less than two weeks and I received the full amount that I paid in cheque. When Sureka talked to them on what will happen when they failed to refund me in Legal Terms, I could see that they were terrified.

                What Sureka told them was the rights I have over the NIIT failing to provide a refund. That, if I buy a product and never use it, I have the rights to get a refund (full amount) upon return. Even I didn't know these until then. I'm sure the NIIT guys over there may be well aware of that! For a 3 month duration course, no class was scheduled for over a month and they still said that the full money will not be refunded. After Sureka's interference – I 'asked' and I 'got it'.

                I'm writing this article to create a basic awareness. When you keep quiet, people step on you and go forward. When you ask, you'll get it. This is the motto of the Facebook group “Kettal Kedaikkum” (You'll get it when you ask). It is your rights that you are demanding and not someone else. I'd have certainly got the money from NIIT had I not been to Kettal Kedaikkum – the difference here is the time and quality. I may have received the money only by the end of August or even September – also, not the one which I paid in full – only  the deducted money. Don't give away your rights – fight for it. “Kettal Kedaikkum” is a group that helps you fight.

Religious Rally

As soon as I joined Polaris, I knew there's going to be a trip to Srikalahasthi. Because, a batch mate of me was from that very town. What I didn't expect was it happened in a month's period. When my batch mate Bhargav (the Srikalahasthi native) and another, Mathen who has a SWIFT DZIRE decided to visit the temples in and around Kalahasthi, I decided to join them on a religious rally. Friday, 22nd of June, we started our journey towards Kalahasthi after office hours. We had a little snacks in Chennai, gave our car a little drink and soon we were on the highway, hit 100 KM/h in no time. A little music inside excited us and we reached Kalahasthi at around 9 in the evening. Bhargav's family welcomed us and treated us as if we were also their son. Warm hospitality and an A/C room to sleep - well, I couldn't get up earlier in the next morning!

Mode of Transport

Saturday Morning - we took bath and skipped breakfast as it's a kind of custom to go to temple with an empty belly. We had some pooja arranged for one of our friends - Mathen (For Rahu and Kethu - specially done here in SriKalahasthi) and it took about an hour to finish the pooja. We finished seeing Mr. Kalahastheeswarar (Vayu Lingam) and his wife Gnanaparasunambika Devi a little while later. Kalahasthi is known for one of the Panchaboootha Sthalam (Vayu) and for the famous devotee Mr. Kannappan (Hope you all know the Kannappan story). I didn't take any snaps there as I consider it an offensive to take snaps of the Gods (Well, they don't allow you as well). So, you're not going to witness snaps of Gods, but just a religious rally.




As soon as we were out of Kalahasthi temple, our next plan was the Sahasralingam temple - less than 10 kilometers from SriKalahasthi. I also happened to know the name definition of SriKalahasthi - the serious devotees of Lord Shiva Sri (Spider), Kala (Snake) and Hasthi (Elephant) at the neighborhood. My sincere thanks to Bhargav and his family for the arrangements made inside the temple which reduced a lot of time waiting in the queue. It'd have taken atleast 6 to 8 hours if we'd not had their help! So, Sahasralingam - well, as the name suggests, the lingam at this temple has 1000 lingams carved on it. When Bhargav said that it's on a hill, I imagined it to be a little like Chathuragiri and Sabarimalai. It was not as such!

The Sahasralingam temple

Before heading towards the Sahasralingam temple, we took a room at a lodge near the temple as it's a kind of custom that after finishing a pooja, one should directly go home. If that's not a case - you should not stay at a friend's home. Otherwise, the effects of the pooja that you did would go to the home on which you're staying. So, as per Bhargav family's advice, we took a room. Had a little nap after the Dharshan (ofcourse, after meals) and by this time, we made a new buddy - Bhargav's brother-in-law Lokesh came along. Funny in nature, we liked in immediately. After our formal introduction, we took our cameras and headed towards the Sahasralingam temple. As opposing to the great crowd at Srikalahasthi, I didn't even find a single guy who came there for worship.




The place was great, the temple situated at the top of a small hill. It was nothing like I imagined, a small hill and at the top, you can see the God. All that goes up were the stairs (My old enemy - Stairs - as said by the "Po" in Kungfu Panda). It was kind of an exercise for us after a heavy meals and we even had vendors selling 'butter milk' at one top. The temple was blocked by another small hill - we had to climb up, down and then up to see the Sahasralingam. The path was clear and good, we took some snaps there!

 Bhargav and his Brother-in-law - Lokesh

Polaris Batch mates - (From left) Mathen, me and Bhargav.

We reached the temple just before the closing time and finished our worship. Took some snaps while we came back and a lots of chats. On the way, we visited another temple - Sri Dhakshina Kalikadevi temple. Bhargav told us that it's a very powerful goddess. We took some more snaps and headed towards the lodge. On the way, we found a Mutt (or Madam) and the doom of the building was a giant Shivalingam. It was late and so, the snap wasn't a great one. We also visited another temple which is just near a park (it was closed). When we reached back at the lodge, it was late and we slept almost immediately.

 At the top of the world!

 Sun's Rays or God's Grace?

The next day's plan was supposed to be the Thada falls - just at the border of Tamil Nadu and Andra Pradesh, but considering the advice from our friend Bhargav we decided against at it. They said that the place has become dangerous for the visitors - robbing and mugging happens quite often there. So it was decided that we go for the Thalakkona falls which was 60 kilometers from Srikalahasthi as told by Lokesh, his brother-in-law. As we were tired, we were pretty late to wake up in the morning and it was a little past 11 when we started towards the Thalakkona falls. We have to go via Thirupathi to go there and when we passed Thiruppathi after about 45 minutes - Mathen asked Lokesh how many more kilometers from here? That's when Lokesh said that the falls is 60 kilometers from Thirupathi and not from Kalahasthi.




It was already late and so, we decided to skip Thalakkona and head back to Thirupathi (lower Thirupathi or Alamelu Mangapuram). Fate, already decided that this was a religious rally and no falls to interrupt! On the way, we went to the Chandragiri fort - the one used by Srikrishna Devarayar for 'relaxation'. It was an old one and just had two buildings Raja mahal and Rani mahal. Rani mahal was pretty much empty while Raja Mahal was converted to a little museum. Photography was prohibited inside the museum, so we could just take snaps outside. The headless rows of Gods (or probably Buddhas - couldn't remember) stay opposite of the Raja Mahal where all the old statues of Gods and old weapons used by the Old Indian people were kept.

It was a little past 2 when we decided to head back towards the lower Thirupathi and on the way, we had a heavy 'Andra' meals. We reached Alamelu Mangapuram at around 3:30 and when we came back after the Darshan, we were delighted both physically and spiritually. The 'rich ghee' laddu was the reason for the physical delightfulness! We thanked another relation of Bhargav for the help provided here and headed back towards Kalahasthi. It was about 5:30 when we started to leave Lower Thirupathi and it started to rain! The cool climate and a spiritual enlightenment - oh we had a good time!

We reached Kalahasthi late in the evening and it was hard to say good bye to Bhargav's family. We headed back towards Chennai after having a little snacks and we know it was a memorable trip. All the other thing that we had in mind was the Thada and Thalakkona falls. We made a good friend during this trip and decided to come back soon for the missed adventure. Wait for it!

:-(

I had a topic in mind to write, but unfortunately, I fell ill. Will come back soon!

I'm Back!

Gone are the days, when I was unemployed. But then, it was something that I wanted. I’d say that I’m glad that those dark days are behind me now. I was almost out of patience when it was about 5 months since I left Infosys. I even joined a course and almost start a new career once again! It was all for the best – I’m back. It was a normal day, I was at home – watching series and laughing (yes, I was unemployed, but I never stopped watching series – I had no other ways of passing time). Since I had all the time in the world, I used to check my gmail all the time. Then came an email from my buddy Shyam for whom an interview schedule for Polaris was sent. He sent that to me and I sent my updated resume to that particular consultancy (Thanks, Shyam!). I’d say that I never expected the consultancy to call me and schedule an interview because I received a lot of calls from a lot of consultancies for the same Polaris profile and everyone said that they’ll schedule an interview and never did.


It was a surprise for me when I got a call at around 8PM on a Monday night when I was spending some ‘quality’ time with my roomies Rajesh and Karthic at the Chennai Marina Beach. It was from the consultancy to which I sent the resume earlier that day. They wanted a confirmation to be available for a face to face interview on the following Saturday. I said yes and I did not receive any confirmation email. I thought this is another consultancy who just forgot to send me an interview schedule and I was back to watching series and to be in a stressed condition. Out of the blue, they called me back on Friday of the same week and sent me a confirmation email. I should say I was surprised. And, I also did prepare a little for the interview on the next day. By that time, I had lost a lot of confidence.


The interview was scheduled on Navalur Polaris. It was a sunny day and I didn’t sleep well (well, I used to be unemployed, so I start to sleep at around 2 in the morning and get up at around 10 or 11 in the morning. So, sleeping at 1 AM and waking at 6 AM on that day was not that good for me). I reached on time and the interview was conducted at the food court. The AC was on and a fan was also nearby me and I had to wait for about an hour to be interviewed. I started to feel sleepy and occasionally I’d check my email on the mobile and tried my best to stay awake. Finally it was my turn and surprisingly, I gained confidence as soon as I answered my first question. It was a very good set of questions and I didn’t know I could answer them earlier! May be, it was because of the fact that out of 10 interviews that I attended, 9 of them were a profile change.


So, I cleared the interview, got a confirmation that I got selected and I was happy. I’d say that the time I spent between the day I got selected and the day I started attending my Induction classes at Polaris were the longest week that I ever passed. In the meanwhile, I lost my first android (Sony Ericsson Xperia X8) and I got a new tablet (Pantel – T-PAD IS701R). I loved that X8 very much because it was my first android and I had made a lot of customization (Thanks to Rajesh here – he inspired me to do so)! I had to get a new mobile and after careful consideration, I decided to buy Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo or Neo V. But then, I didn’t have a lot of money after spending 5 months of unemployment. In the end, it was a ‘strong’ battery Samsung Hero (Duos) that I bought!


I’m writing this after about 2 weeks of something-good-happening-again-week. Always writing makes me happy and today I was way too happy. A record breaking stuff happened today at our weekly cricket – it was a guy who scored 7 sixes in an over (one no ball)! You don’t get to see that too often! The earlier record was 5 sixes in an over by the same guy (ofcourse, a different bowler). Also, a miracle happened today – the three loses by RR, KXIP and RCB made a clear path for the CSKs to make it to the playoffs, 5 times in a row. Thanks to Deccan Chargers once again! You’ve got to feel for Dale Steyn – the one of only 2 performers in Deccan Chargers along with Shikar Dhawan. Except for the one IPL (#2) where they won – they ended up in the last almost all the other seasons!

The 2 Awesome days with the Old Scorpions

It has been quite sometime since I saw them. The old Scorpions Venki and Ranga had to come to Chennai for some reason and they decided to come to Velachery where the other Scorpions Vignesh, Shyam and me are. When Vignesh told me that they're coming here this Saturday, I didn't know that I'm going to have an awesome 2 days. It was indeed one of the great times I had in this life time. Nothing so special - what we did was what we were good at - cricket. They came on Saturday, late at around 12 in the noon. When we were busy planning what to do - either to go to a movie or to go to some nice place in Chennai. Shyam was on an early morning shift, so he joined us late at around 3 in the evening and when he arrived home, we were still deciding whether to go to a water sport theme park that was opened recently in Poonamalli or just to go to the beach. Ofcourse, we had plans for the night!




As soon as Shyam entered, he decided we play cricket - just like the old times. It seemed to be a good idea, but rather one unlikely because we normally play cricket on Sundays only. The other guys around our area didn't know that they are in for a surprise and Shyam made some calls and fixed the match. It was just like the old times, Venki brought his buddy Gopi as well and they mingled into the group very well. We were indeed surprised by the number of people turned on for the match and it was fun to be playing with and against the fellow scorpions. The insults (the one where Venki got out off Gopi) the surprises when Vignesh took catches and some usual's where I always get hit by the ball.




Vignesh told some lies to his family and brought his car for us to go to a friend of his's place. Being a family man is not always great, pff! We took a long ride there with all the jokes cracked and catching ups. Night rides and a special place to hang out - made our day! We had a great time there, the one was very special. We got up early in the morning and headed back to Velachery and continued to play some cricket. The time between after match and lunch was the relaxing - we just slept, coz we had a lot of time to talk the other night than to sleep! Vignesh had arranged a very special lunch at his home and invited us all there. Shyam, once again, had an early morning shift and joined us directly for the lunch.




It was a great lunch - Thanks Vignesh! We were at Vignesh's home for about an hour after the lunch and the time that we spent there was awesome! Vignesh's 7 month old son was so cute! For some reason, he kept on staring at me (well, he didn't smile at me, but something on my face felt so curious for him!!)! While Shyam's new toy that he brought for Vignesh's son kept him busy, we again had some nice talks and the evening time once again, went on  cricket. We missed all our fellow scorpions today! When Rajesh, not a fellow Scorpion, but a mutual friend (err... our room mate in Pune) for us joined us after the match, I felt like I was back in Pune in my room!




The time that we spent together was magic and we have plans for some more like this!