Hexaware days - 1 :))))))

I am sure most of you would have guessed after reading the title of this post how I feel when I think of the days I spent at Hexaware (my second employer, after Symphony Services).

I spent two years at Hexaware (exactly 2 years and 1 day - 07-Feb-05 to 08-Feb-07). The decision to join Hexaware was taken pretty quickly, and I shifted from Blore to Madras over the weekend before joining Hexaware.

On the first day, I went to HT 1 (aka Hexaware Towers 1, you know like one of those WTC Twin Towers) to complete the joining formalities. I remember it was this person named Swaminathan who helped me with the forms et al. I had gone there with my dad for he had to sign as the surety on my bond of two years (Now you know why I stayed there that loooooooooooooooong ). While I was filling- up the forms, I noticed there was this rather pretty girl, in a nice yellow cotton salwar, who was also joining the same day. Going by her relaxed appearance (not that I was tense) and noticing that she had not brought her dad or someone to sign as the surety, I thought she must be a lateral- hire (thereby no bond, no tag-along-dad). Added to this was the fact that, while I was pestering Swaminathan with a volley of questions (poor fella, wonder if he ever regretted his job just bcos of that one fateful day) , particularly pertaining to the bond (characteristic of the ever-sceptical me), she seemed to fill up the forms as though all this was routine work for her, as if this was her N-th job, as if she could leave this job too the very next day, as if Hexaware was no big-deal etc etc etc. Hmmm........So many thoughts in a matter of seconds.

Fine. I then finished with the forms and submitted them to Swaminathan and was waiting for him to tell me where to go when he said 'Prasad, I guess you have been to HT2 (see, didn't I say Twin towers???), so could you take her also with you? She is also a fresher joining today'. Bummer!!!!!! My potti (Tamil for box) was off!!!! I thought it was better to ask for info than tiring the *logician* within me. So, on the way to the second tower, I got to know her name, the college she graduated from, her major, and as customary, was asked the same questions by her and gave her the required data. By the time this exhange ended, we reached HT2.

Once there, Praks (aka Prakash, our VP) welcomed us and asked one of the team members to introduce us to the others. I remember very well, it was Ramya (from the LH TKT team) who introduced us to the people of our DU (the USAS team) and the first thing that almost everyone asked her that day was 'Oh! Idu daana anda Bangalore-lerndu vandu sera irunda..... ?' (Is he the one who was supposed to come and join us from Bangalore?) and I would help them complete the sentence saying, ' Oh yeah yeah....'.

I was taken around and introduced to the Superb Gomu, the Xcargo * brats * (no offence guys, this was the exact word Ramya used to describe them), the smiling Hema (who was my manager during my full tenure at Hexaware), the LH Inventory team, the LH Mozaik team, the Aircare (= Ever-hard-working = Ever-compelled-to-work-hard) team, the Genius Shiva etc etc etc. Of course, Praks was always with one team or the other cracking jokes and moving about as yet another team member rather than a VP (This is something that I admire in him a lot, it always made all of us working under him, feel at ease. To sample his sense of humour: Once he had asked all the DU members to give him our feedback about him. And I guess someone had written that he favours girls as opposed to guys. His reply was *As for all of those who feel I move closer with girls, you should be happy that the same is not happening with respect to guys* - and that sent me LOL LOL LOL).

To be continued........

Good blog

I am thankful to the person who conceived this concept of blogging. Tis a wonderful way to vent your feelings....

Who is a good teacher?

As promised, here I am, starting to write about teachers.
Now the first question: Who is a good teacher? I have had kind teachers, caring teachers, friendly teachers, helpful teachers, strict teachers, stong-in-their-subject teachers, dreadful teachers, ok-ok teachers and also some absolutely-good-for-nothing teachers etc etc. But good teachers? Who would fit in there? That made me ask myself: what would I consider as the eligility criteria for accepting someone as a good teacher?

I read a small story yesterday that one of my cousins had forwarded, about a teacher who plays an important part in transforming the life of one of her students. It's like the boy is actually a good student initially, but his mother's death slowly makes him a recluse. He loses all his friends and gradually becomes detached, involving himself very less in what goes on around him. The teacher who does not know the boy's sad story, treats him with marked indifference, until one day, when she happens to read his previous class reports, from which she gets to know that the boy's performance has been deteriorating gradually over the years. This puts the teacher to shame over her own attitude towards him and thereby marks a turning point in the way she treats the young boy. She starts caring for him just like any other child and slowly the boy in back on track. And the rest is history.

Now, what struck me most about this story was: Why did the teacher feel ashamed about the way she treated the child? She could've just got to know the story and moved on. Maybe could have put in some extra effort to help the boy with his lessons, some extra classes etc. But would that've helped him? Yes, a little. But it was her sense of shame that made her treat the boy very differently from the following day. Yes, her inner conscience had pricked her so much that she resolved to do everything within her means to help the poor child. This is what is the most important quality of a teacher, in my opinion: To accept responsibility and make amends for his/ her mistakes.

Actually this is not just for teachers, but for every human being. It's just that they assume more significance for a teacher. Teaching Physics or Chemistry or English or Science comes next. What values are they imparting to their students is what is more important.

To talk about my teachers, frankly, I have had lots of good things (non-academic) to learn from my school teachers. Good habits, kindness, love etc. Basically these happened in the primary classes. I have also had a few teachers who were very good at their subject and who made us love their classes. As would be the case with many amongst you who are reading this, the academic knowledge that I gained is not of much use to me now. But my values are engraved in me. I am thankful I have that all today.

So, now with all that blah-blah-blah-ing over, I will start writing about my teachers soon.

Got it!! I am going to write about my teachers!!!

To all people who are reading this: Thanks for having faith in me and coming back to see if I have actually posted anything of value here. I hope you will not be disappointed.
My last post ended at the point where I was thinking what to write about. I have decided now. I am going to write about teachers: A little in general and my teachers in particular. Don't consider this as bragging, but truly, I have always been the apple of the eye of most of my teachers. In fact, some of you who are reading this could be my school or college mates and bear testimony to this (Which would read as follows when paraphrased: You are hereby requested by yours truly to post your comments to the effect that my claim stands corroborated, and yes, many thanks in advance).

Okay, now that I have said what I have said above, you must have guessed that I will have lots to write about my teachers. Good! So I will start writing about my teachers who have taught me various subjects at various stages of my life, in various classes, in various schools (Not many, only 2) etc. etc. I will try to make a list (dunno if that will be exhaustive) of at least my favourite teachers and pen down (or rather HTML-ise or whatever xxML-ise) my thoughts, opinions and experiences here, for you to read. I will start with my teachers at my first school, OLN - Our Lady's Nursery, then fly over to Boston school (which is, ironically, in Nandanam, Madras) and then try to time-ship you to Kanchipuram, where I did my engineering from. I am sure this journey is going to be a very long one and I am sincerely hoping to complete it successfully. Of course, I will digress now and then from the chain to write about something else, but I will surely try to come back, because I don't want to keep you waiting for long (I can hear you say 'Keep dreaming', but then what are we without a dream?).

Fine then. It's 9.30 at night here in Sydney and have to go home and make some dinner for me. So see you soon. Bbye and take care.

PS: If you were expecting to read something about my teachers in this post itself, please, FYI read the title of this post again. It says Got it!! I am going to write about my teachers!!! This is in the future tense. So, leave now and please come back later.

What should I write about first???

Now that I created my own blog, the next logical thought was what to write about first? I come from a South Indian Tamil Brahmin family and as is the custom with many Indian families, I thought I should give my blog a devotional/ spiritual start, but then, that would sound very stereotyped. So, what then? Should I write about my life? You know, like giving an intro about me, my family, my background, that kinda thing. But then I wondered how many people will be interested in reading something like that (In fact, I wondered how interested I myself would be in giving all that data and history....). So dropped that. Then, Friends/ Friendship? Some thoughts about society? Public manners? India's political situation (huh!!)? Music? Bombay Jayashree? What??? Then it struck me. Why not actually capitalise on my confused state and make this my first post? Yes, that's it.
So, that's what you are reading now. So, while you read this, hopefully I should come up with something to write about. Bbye for now.

Welcome to my blog!!!!

Hi everyone, this is my first attempt at blogging. I was actually inspired to create one after visiting my friend Priya's blog. Dunno how frequently I can write something in here, but hope I will somehow find time to do so. Anyway, here I am, welcoming you all very warmly and thanking you also for coming here.
Happy reading (if there's something, I mean)!!!!