Scribblings

Scribblings of a lazy blogger.......

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Back home and for good!!!

It seems as if it was just a while ago. But it has been three years and more since I had gone to Mumbai. I feel I was a kid then. I can still imagine myself looking out of the cab window at the city that was to be my home for sometime. It was November 2004.

Being in the last year college I thought I would write my final semester exams without a job.But by God's grace I had got placed in this huge software company on April 1st. Don't know whether it was coincidence or Murphy's Law playing games with me. I had never wanted to be a software engineer but there I was, joining a software company against my wishes simply because I had no other option.

After a frustating wait for three months I joined this company and I had been posted in Mumbai after a couple of months training. I wouldn't call it training, because all we had was fun and a lot of timepass. I joined this project which was located in the heart of the city (Mumbai) and my office was at client site. Being a software engineer and being a trainee at that, I was earning a measly income and could afford a flat only in the suburbs. So had to travel the ghostly trains of Mumbai. I got a first class pass thinking that I would be able to travel at liesure. But much to my disappointment the first class was equally packed. My friend once remarked that the difference in travelling first class and second was that, you travel smelling sweat in Second class but in First class you can travel smelling a mixture of Body sprays. However gross it may sound, that was reality.

The first couple of years passed in bitching 'Bombay', making new friends, falling ill, going to new places, feeling homesick, enjoying independance, missing festivals at home, spending hours and hours in office not knowing whether it was a Saturday or a Sunday or a Monday.

I had a tough time at my job. I knew nothing of software but was put in front of the client to develop software. I had to learn the nitty gritties of software, learn new things, handle people, and think that the Boss was God. I learnt from everything and everyone. I was desparate to prove myself. To prove that I was good enough in whatever I do. (Am still trying though :)) I once was on the verge of crying that my code wasn't working!!! Now when I look back I feel like laughing!!

Then I moved to another office in Bombay. Not Bombay actually. Thane. (There is an anecdote about the travel to Thane from Bombay. They say that it took one hour to travel the distance in 1857 and after 150 years it takes the same time!!!!!!) Work was good there. Met interesting people. Talked to more interesting ones on the phone at Client site. I travelled to Amsterdam on work and saw foreign land for the first time. Life was good.

Fell in love with a girl, (the thing I thought would never happen) and convinced parents that a long distance relationship would work. (She lived in Chennai and then later in Bangalore, while I was in Mumbai and Amsterdam) Got engaged to her and decided to return to base. I shifted jobs and here I am "Bored at office" working on a Saturday simply because it is not a holiday.

Its nice to be back home, going in the same train as I did when I was in college. Eating the roasted groundnut from the vendor on the train (you may wonder, but a very close friend of mine can take a lecture on how to eat the roasted groundnut), watching auto-drivers haggle on the amount the passengers need to pay, flyovers getting constructed on practically every road possible, seeing the temples with their colourful gopurams, seeing girls wearing malligapoo (jasmine) to office!!, looking at the bike-riders hurling abuses at each other for not riding properly (though none of them ride properly) , seeing dad getting worried that I am 10 minutes late and eating mom-made idlies and so many things that fills the heart with warmth and the sense of belonging.

Its great to be back home. As namma thalaivar (our boss) has sung, "Sorgame endralum athu namma oora pola varuma!!!!" (Even if it is heaven will it be like our hometown!!!)