Now, it was time to get to know the people who joined with me, people who were my batchmates, people with whom I could and would be relating to the most during my time at Hexaware, people whom I could rely upon a lot, whom I could trust, people who would be source of most of my laughter and amusement at work, and finally, people who would be my friends, for a lifetime, hopefully.
So me and that yellow salwar (btw, her name is Reshma), were then introduced to Hari (aka Hariharan Sathyamurthy), Sriram (aka Sriram Sankaran) and Geetha (aka P B Geetha). After the formal introductions, the three of them were assigned the task of transferring their knowledge of FORTRAN to us (since they joined one week before us). And thus started my entry into this ancient world of USAS (Unisys Standard Airline Software). Slowly we were then introduced to DMS, FCSS, CGO, CTC, FDC etc etc. I was allocated to the X-Cargo project and was also given an initial assignment which I completed coding, but never got to test, as I was re-allocated to another project, the Cathay Pacific migration project, to which I remained allocated since then.
Cathay Pacific (CX) was, in short, hell and fun. Hell - the work; Fun - the team. While I was extremely disappointed at the nature of the work that this project expected from me, I felt, He had more than made up for that by giving me a bunch of wonderful friends. Except for Sriram (LH Cargo) and Reshma (LH Reservations), the remaining four of us (Oh, I didn't tell you about Madhavi; She joined the day after I did and so was technically, OUR batch :) ) were allocated to CX. The four of us were joined a couple of months later by 5 more freshers (Karthik, Yogeesh, Rajani, Akila and Shwetha). So, there we were, 9 of us, in one single project, left to fend for ourselves. Our juniors joined us in about 4-5 months time and there were 5-6 of them. Together, we had a great time, having LOTS and LOTS of fun at each other's expense. We loathed the work, but were able to show tolerance, owing to the fact, that we still had great fun at times.
Over the next two years, the words that were most frequently used in our team were CCF, elements, files, GEN, Re-GEN, GEN coordinator, CCF/NEW, aplCCFS file (that was my province btw), migration, re-migration, compilation, absolutes, aborts, bookings, allotments, not-replicable (which was of course our primary excuse for not fixing an issue), and a slew of transaction and program names, many of which we never got to explore completely.
The other interesting (at least for me) aspect, about working on USAS was that if you were looking to use a particular function while coding, but were not sure of the syntax, all that you had to do was search through the system (using a command called @IACULL - I think it stands for Interactive Culling), and you'd be sure to find another program which used that particular function. So all that you had to do was copy and paste. Given almost everyone in my team was fresh from college, reliance on @IACULL became a saviour. And given the age of the system, there was no dearth of sources from which we could copy. In fact I have caught myself copying from programs that I myself had written. So much for originality at work!
While the nature of the work presented a lot of challenges, the prime one being the fatigue from doing the same type of task for what seemed like eternity, our major respite was escaping for coffee breaks to the cafeteria, particularly at certain times of the day when we knew it was most likely to be quite empty, and so, quiet. In fact the work used to be so tiresome that we would not even want to talk to each other during the break. We just had to site there, sometimes for up to 30-40 mins, to let all that ennui drain out, and let our batteries get completely discharged of USAS charges...Hmmm, so much for an energising coffee break eh?
Another way in which we reinvigorated ourselves was by having a little post-lunch chat, back at our desks. I would always pull my chair up to the centre of a 4-person bay, and start spinning around in it, while we all took turns to mercilessly tease one another. In fact, you'd sometimes get burnt by a sharp quip from someone from whom you'd least expect it. Yes, the rotating chair had the power to bring out hidden talents from even the innermost crevices of our brain folds. And of course, those were indeed memorable moments, filled with unlimited laughter! In fact, to this day, I always say that I've laughed so much in those two years working at Hexware, that I can confidently say that I have more than made up for all the lost moments in life when I did not laugh, as well as for all the moments in the future when I may not laugh.
Unisys and USAS were my gurus into the world of air cargo operational systems, and the air freight world in general. Over the course of those two years at Hexaware, I picked up a decent level of functional knowledge, which largely helped in my getting the next role at TCS, where I would spend the next almost 10 years. But then, that's another blog story....or ten.
