Memorable Days at Pune

 Finally I have decided to blog about my days at Pune.Actually I never had a thought to write about this,but my friend Amirtha Deepan’s post about Pune in his blog, only inspired me to do so.But I am planning to write a lengthy post,so b prepared for it.

Note : The pic,which can be seen above,was not taken in Pune,but it was taken in Goa :D.

Let me give a brief intro about the pre-Pune scenario,that took place in Chennai.Let me not get deep into what has happened in Cognizant,as many who read this will be knowing it.After lots and lots of argument,finally we left to Pune.I was not at all happy to leave Chennai,but still my inner conscience said “Everything happens for a reason”,so I was not so upset or sad either.It was Deepan who was really very happy to go to Pune,because he had a belief that girls in Pune will look so good  and Anand Kumar too was in a similar state of mind like me.Since I was going to stay outside for such a long period for the first time,I got lot of calls from my friends and relatives,with their best wishes.Some of my friends and some relatives, came to airport to give a send off.At that time in airport I happened to see some politicians in airport and I told about them to my friends(for which they appreciated me  :D).Then we went inside.

It was the first time we were travelling in flight.But,honestly speaking I was not much excited.Anand was bowled over by the beauty of an air-hostess and he kept on dreaming about her.Now you don’t think I didn’t see her,even I liked her  and thank God Deepan didn’t see them properly :P.After that we landed in Pune and we were picked up by the cab arranged by the company and were taken to guest house.The rooms alloted for us were just too good and thank God,there was a tv in every room and more importantly one common system with internet facility.

Our office was at ICC Trade Towers,in Senapathi Bapat Road.For the first 2 weeks we had long working hours (from evening 4.30 to night 9.30,i.e., 5 hrs :D).There we met some Tamil guys(Sriram,Chidambaram,Arun Vikram) and we felt relaxed(ada erkanave konjam adimaigal vandhuttanga :D).To be frank,within office premises,there was no discrimination at all.Right from a PAT to a manager,everyone treated us nicely. There was no space for South Indian-North Indian bias and all.There were many PATs and just-now promoted PAs.They made us feel comfortable and the very first week we went for an outing to Mahabaleshwar,which was a memorable outing.

Be it in terms of room or team,Anand and Deepan were together and I remained isolated.They 2 were room-mates and they worked in migration team,while I had a separate room and I was in export team. But I enjoyed working in export team than them :D.It was mainly because of my friend Rakesh Upadhye.He was also PAT at that time and he was roped into the project right from beginning.So he was more or less like a TL and he always made me to come in morning shifts(7.30-3.30).But for some 5 or 6 days,I never stayed in office for more than 8 hrs.And after I joined the export team,we didn’t have any complicated issues too.So we always enjoyed.

Though I was in a separate room,I used to spend most of the time in their room only.Though I had a tv in my room,I will keep MGR songs in Anand’s room and enjoy there :D.For me it was enjoyment,but,for them it was a torture :P.Only once I kept all old songs from all Tamil Channels for some 2-3 hrs in my room to irritate my room mate(a hindiwala :D),since he tortured me one day by watching some hindi reality show(which is an utter crap :@).

99% of the cab drivers will speak in Hindi or Marathi only and they don’t know much of English.I never had a problem in talking to them in Hindi.But I had a different problem,most of the weekends I will be having off(leave) and these guys(Anand and Deepan) will be having shift.But the cab drivers will always call my mobile only. Lot of times,I thought of getting up at early morning around 11 or 11.30 AM,but these cab drivers woke me up at 7 or 8 itself.Atleast these guys were in the same guest house with me, but sometimes the cab drivers called my mobile to pick up people from other guest house too.My number has become like a customer care :D.

Another funny event in office means a mail with the subject,”Sweets @ my desk”.If we get this mail,we 3,the other Chennai guys and Rakesh,Rishab,Pallavi etc., will go to the desk,irrespective of whether we know them or not and will take sweets.Once when I took the sweets and congratulated a person for his b’day,the guy was looking worried(I took 3 sweets :D) and I caught his mind voice “u idiots,u have emptied the entire sweet-box,now what will I give to my girl-friend :@” 

Deepan was desperate to visit Goa  and he pestured us a lot and took lot of steps to arrange the trip and finally we too went to Goa.Arun Vikram too joined us.So we 4 went.I didn’t enjoy much in Goa  but we had entertainment in a different form.It was our car driver.While starting from Pune,he asked me a question,”have u ever visited Goa?” - I should have guessed the entire scenario at that time itself. That fellow don’t know the route to Goa and the worst part is,he was more like a beginner in car driving(goyyala unakkellam evan da license kuduthaan :@).Once I asked for the route,they told to take the 3rd left from the next circle,but this fellow will drive the car twice or thrice around the circle and he will get confused to take which left.Once he said,”this route will take us to Kohlapur(the one which v r supposed to take),but I wont go in this,I will take the shortcut,but I don’t know the route” - I became angry and told him to take up the route which he knew.We can write a separate blog post itself about this Goa trip and more importantly this driver.If my friend Deepan is reading this post,this is for him: “I didn’t write many things” :D.Others don’t bother about this statement :P.

Another important place which I visited means,Shirdi.It was simply awesome and SaiBaba(Shirdi SaiBaba) was kind enough to give his Darshan to me.Chidambaram alone accompanied me to Shirdi. The only regret is I couldn’t go to Mumbai.I couldn’t make proper plans to visit Mumbai :-(.

Another important date is December 3rd.We celebrated our Amirtha Deepan’s b’day in his room and had fun in teasing him as usual :D.Our friend Aravindraj gave the best b’day gift to Deepan(a beautiful SMS comprising of all bad words :D).

And finally we got a breather.A mail from our manager to be in Chennai on Jan 1st,2011.When I said that am going to return,my parents and my sister were so happy and my sister even bunked her college to welcome me(may be,she found a reason to bunk :D).And some of my good friends were also, very happy for this.My friend Gokul(college mate) even went to the extent of fixing a program in besant nagar beach.Some other good friends replied me like this :

“happy to hear this,treat machi”,”awesome buddy,waiting for u”,”thala vaa new yearku kalakkidlam”, “hereafter team-outings will be there”.

Now you don’t think am a very good person,I got other replies too like this,when I sent,”I am coming back to Chennai on 26th Dec” :D.

“Oh my God,what’s wrong with Cognizant?”,”machi 2 maasama nimmathiya irunthen da,pls reconsider da,dhayavu senju vandhudaatha”,”ayyo nee thirumba varriya?,7 and half start aaguthunnu josiyakaaran sonnathu seri thaan pola”…

Like this so many msgs :D.They were not kidding,they meant what they said :P.These good people said this to me straight away and someother good people didn’t tell any such dialogues :D(but I can catch the mindvoice of them :P).Don’t know how many were really worried that I came back :P,but I am happy to make a comeback :D.

On a serious note,but for expenses and food,Pune is an awesome place to live.Everything was very costly.We were not ok with the food items available.We still remember a only shop,where we had sambars without sweet,but food was comparitively good in our Eminent Guest house.And the people over there,served quite well to us.Once we asked for break-fast,but we were about to leave as the cab came and the break-fast was little late,but the cook pleaded us to have atleast some idlies.Then I called the cab driver and asked him to wait for 5 mins and we had the break-fast and went.

The only issue that almost tortured us was,the question of our return.Because if not that time,then it wouldn’t have been possible for us to come-back for atleast 2 yrs.By God’s grace everything was fine.And I had a nice learning experience in Pune,may be not in terms of understanding any technology,but in terms of understanding people.I learnt a lot in terms of that.The culture there,people’s mentality,people’s lifestyle etc.

Like this we were really happy to be in Pune(atleast I was happy).It was really happy to spend time with Anand and Deepan there.With nice friends,we can survive anywhere :-).

That’s all about our days at Pune.