Tag: Bangalore

Life in Bangalore after IIT Guwahati

Bangalore, Bangalore, Bangalore !!!

This was what everyone wished for in their final year at IIT Guwahati. Everyone wanted to get a job in one of the multinational firms in Bangalore and like everyone else, this was what I longed for and got too! After a long wait for my joining letter,  I was finally asked to join my present employer on 21st June, 2007 and if I can recall correctly, it was on 19th June, 2007 that I landed in Bangalore.

First trip to Bangalore (2002):
It wasn’t for the first time, that I was visiting Bangalore. I came to Bangalore way back in 2002 for an NDA (National Defence Academy) SSB Interview. That trip was my first trip outside Lucknow (my hometown) and it proved to be a disaster for many reasons:

  • I wasn’t selected in the Indian army.
  • I watched 4 movies in a span of 7 days here in Bangalore. ‘Lagaan’ and ‘Gadar’ were watched back to back on the very first day in Bangalore followed by another one starring Amitabh Bachaan, Manoj Bajpai and Raveena Tandon (I can’t recall its name). Must be wondering how watching movies could have made this trip a disaster. Wait, read on to know about my last movie on that trip.
  •  On the last day, I was already out of the NDA campus roaming on the streets at around 04:00 PM, when I cared to take a look at my train ticket back to Lucknow. The train was scheduled for 08:00 PM . So at 05:00 PM, since I had a lot of time at hand,  I wondered why not watch another movie, probably an english one, at one of the theaters near the railway station. It was ‘The tailor of panama ‘ that I chose to watch. The movie, starring Pierce Brosnan,  was as good as expected. It was about 07:00 PM when I came out of the movie hall. I rushed to the station and sat there awaiting the train’s arrival.  I continued to wait for the train, but till 08:00 PM, neither could I see any rush on the platform nor were there any announcements for that train. I called back home to my father to check if there were some changes in the train schedule. He asked me “Why are you out of the train ? You must be at Hyderabad station right now, isn’t it ?” Foxed on hearing what he was saying, I told him “I am still in Bangalore waiting for the train, but there is no announcements or anything what so ever.”  I had begun to sense that I’d committed some blunder. After the conversation with my father, I realized that the train was at 05:00 PM (the time i decided to watch a movie) and not 08:00 PM. I just put down the receiver and started looking at the ticket for that magical 08:00 PM, how could I mis-read such a thing, and I realized that the train ticket was booked at 08:00 PM in Lucknow, and that was what I interpreted as the train departure timing. Hell of a mistake!
  • But that disaster trip was not going to end here. The ticket stubs of the movies I watched during my stay at Bangalore  were all there in my back pocket. I reached home and my father got hold of those movie tickets. Thats when the real drama started, I was beaten to pieces.

First few days on my second trip:
Anyways, I expected a lot better experience in Bangalore this time. Hotel Orchid Harsha, was where we were supposed to stay for the initial 15 days. All the expenses were managed by the company so we all spent like a millionaire at Harsha. There were atleast 8-10 friends and colleagues present for dinner at the hotel room. 😉 I will say that those 15 days were one of the best here at Bangalore till date, when we lived life King size.

Dull, boring and Monotonous life:
However, once we were all engaged into our professional lifes, we could hardly find time for regular bakarchodi sessions we used to have back in college. It was more of a dull, boring and monotonous life for us all here. Also few of our friends found girl friends for themselves which didn’t help any further (less people = less bakarchodi). 😛 At times, a long drive on bikes with friend (Tau, a huge enthusiast for such long drives, owns a Karizma and 2 accidents till date did not lessen his spirits. Infact he’s looking forward to Hayabussa!) was another thing we tried, but our laziness and eagerness to sit in one position 😛 killed the interest in those long drive trips. Every friday, rock music and drinks at Purple Haze was the only joy we used to have then. Back in college, I used to think that we were not addicted to alcohol and that we used to drink for fun. But after coming to Bangalore I realized that we all had become addicted to beer and hard drinks at some level or the other.

No Rock band for me:
I came to Bangalore with high expectations of forming a new rock band. However it is really disappointing that I couldn’t find a band till now. All the bands from where I got invitation to play were either 20-25 Km from my house or they were not according to my taste or they were just on the starting to play rock music. Involvement with my website ‘Altertunes.com’ also didn’t leave me enough time to play my guitar at home.

Work @ Office:
I was probably looking for a different domain in my first job. Business intelligence was probably not the thing for me. (Though the field is great with some great scope ahead in the market) .Knowledge gained while developing my website eventually helped me in cracking Yahoo! . I just hope it will be great fun at Yahoo. Looking forward to working there !

Colleagues @ Office:
One of the things to cheer about is the team and colleague I got to work with at Oracle. Mahesh, Eshwar, Prashanth, Karthik, Vinnet Jain (mantri), Yasser, Vineet Alagh, Ankur and Avisek (Dada), everyone just made sure that I had a rocking and comfortable time at Oracle. Be it the moon walks in the lift by Ankur Jain, Finance funde by Dada or mimicry by mantri, it was fun all the way. The managers had an inspirational presence in the office, seeing them handle and managing thing was a great learning experience in itself. Kumar, Bala, Vishy and Michelle all were inspirational and joy to work with. Overall, I must say that I couldn’t have asked for a better work culture in my first job.

To be continued ….



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Life in Bangalore after IIT Guwahati

Bangalore, Bangalore, Bangalore !!!

This was what everyone wished for in their final year at IIT Guwahati. Everyone wanted to get a job in one of the multinational firms in Bangalore and like everyone else, this was what I longed for and got too! After a long wait for my joining letter,  I was finally asked to join my present employer on 21st June, 2007 and if I can recall correctly, it was on 19th June, 2007 that I landed in Bangalore.

First trip to Bangalore (2002):
It wasn’t for the first time, that I was visiting Bangalore. I came to Bangalore way back in 2002 for an NDA (National Defence Academy) SSB Interview. That trip was my first trip outside Lucknow (my hometown) and it proved to be a disaster for many reasons:

  • I wasn’t selected in the Indian army.
  • I watched 4 movies in a span of 7 days here in Bangalore. ‘Lagaan’ and ‘Gadar’ were watched back to back on the very first day in Bangalore followed by another one starring Amitabh Bachaan, Manoj Bajpai and Raveena Tandon (I can’t recall its name). Must be wondering how watching movies could have made this trip a disaster. Wait, read on to know about my last movie on that trip.
  •  On the last day, I was already out of the NDA campus roaming on the streets at around 04:00 PM, when I cared to take a look at my train ticket back to Lucknow. The train was scheduled for 08:00 PM . So at 05:00 PM, since I had a lot of time at hand,  I wondered why not watch another movie, probably an english one, at one of the theaters near the railway station. It was ‘The tailor of panama ‘ that I chose to watch. The movie, starring Pierce Brosnan,  was as good as expected. It was about 07:00 PM when I came out of the movie hall. I rushed to the station and sat there awaiting the train’s arrival.  I continued to wait for the train, but till 08:00 PM, neither could I see any rush on the platform nor were there any announcements for that train. I called back home to my father to check if there were some changes in the train schedule. He asked me “Why are you out of the train ? You must be at Hyderabad station right now, isn’t it ?” Foxed on hearing what he was saying, I told him “I am still in Bangalore waiting for the train, but there is no announcements or anything what so ever.”  I had begun to sense that I’d committed some blunder. After the conversation with my father, I realized that the train was at 05:00 PM (the time i decided to watch a movie) and not 08:00 PM. I just put down the receiver and started looking at the ticket for that magical 08:00 PM, how could I mis-read such a thing, and I realized that the train ticket was booked at 08:00 PM in Lucknow, and that was what I interpreted as the train departure timing. Hell of a mistake!
  • But that disaster trip was not going to end here. The ticket stubs of the movies I watched during my stay at Bangalore  were all there in my back pocket. I reached home and my father got hold of those movie tickets. Thats when the real drama started, I was beaten to pieces.

First few days on my second trip:
Anyways, I expected a lot better experience in Bangalore this time. Hotel Orchid Harsha, was where we were supposed to stay for the initial 15 days. All the expenses were managed by the company so we all spent like a millionaire at Harsha. There were atleast 8-10 friends and colleagues present for dinner at the hotel room. 😉 I will say that those 15 days were one of the best here at Bangalore till date, when we lived life King size.

Dull, boring and Monotonous life:
However, once we were all engaged into our professional lifes, we could hardly find time for regular bakarchodi sessions we used to have back in college. It was more of a dull, boring and monotonous life for us all here. Also few of our friends found girl friends for themselves which didn’t help any further (less people = less bakarchodi). 😛 At times, a long drive on bikes with friend (Tau, a huge enthusiast for such long drives, owns a Karizma and 2 accidents till date did not lessen his spirits. Infact he’s looking forward to Hayabussa!) was another thing we tried, but our laziness and eagerness to sit in one position 😛 killed the interest in those long drive trips. Every friday, rock music and drinks at Purple Haze was the only joy we used to have then. Back in college, I used to think that we were not addicted to alcohol and that we used to drink for fun. But after coming to Bangalore I realized that we all had become addicted to beer and hard drinks at some level or the other.

No Rock band for me:
I came to Bangalore with high expectations of forming a new rock band. However it is really disappointing that I couldn’t find a band till now. All the bands from where I got invitation to play were either 20-25 Km from my house or they were not according to my taste or they were just on the starting to play rock music. Involvement with my website ‘Altertunes.com’ also didn’t leave me enough time to play my guitar at home.

Work @ Office:
I was probably looking for a different domain in my first job. Business intelligence was probably not the thing for me. (Though the field is great with some great scope ahead in the market) .Knowledge gained while developing my website eventually helped me in cracking Yahoo! . I just hope it will be great fun at Yahoo. Looking forward to working there !

Colleagues @ Office:
One of the things to cheer about is the team and colleague I got to work with at Oracle. Mahesh, Eshwar, Prashanth, Karthik, Vinnet Jain (mantri), Yasser, Vineet Alagh, Ankur and Avisek (Dada), everyone just made sure that I had a rocking and comfortable time at Oracle. Be it the moon walks in the lift by Ankur Jain, Finance funde by Dada or mimicry by mantri, it was fun all the way. The managers had an inspirational presence in the office, seeing them handle and managing thing was a great learning experience in itself. Kumar, Bala, Vishy and Michelle all were inspirational and joy to work with. Overall, I must say that I couldn’t have asked for a better work culture in my first job.

To be continued ….