Time Please!

Running around and trying to catch the other guy, I had been trying to catch him for the last 10 minutes! He just kept running around the tree, the other kids sitting on the ground for lunch and evaded me. Finally I tricked him into making a wrong decision and finally got next to him and he said

Time please

and put his hand on top of his head! Drat, now I had to chase someone else! School was a lot of fun especially during lunch break, we used to eat real quick and run around in the dusty playground sometimes unintentionally kicking up mud that landed on someone’s tiffin box. It was all fun except when you were IT and had to catch people to well not be IT!

I’ve been a believer of being on time every time, exceptions include getting back home and coming down for dinner on time! I’ve always made sure that when I am meeting up with one person or a bunch of friends I’d never have to make them wait for me. Well that obsession has led to a situation where I’d never have to NOT wait for my gang to arrive. Not only friends, but this is the same at work too, people hardly honor being on time with respect. On the big picture, we Indians can consider ourselves of just doing what time standard we follow, IST better known as Indian Stretchable Time. Movies or lunches, parties or brunches the only thing common in all of them is the people coming in late.

Not too long ago, i had won 2 passes to an EDM concert in Bangalore, I took along a friend of mine who is a metal head [Don’t abuse me yet, he actually likes EDM now! ]. The concert was to begin at 11 AM, and given my idea of being on time we left early and the bloody traffic was missing! We reached a full 30 minutes ahead of schedule! We waited until 11, went towards the entry gate only to be sent back! Seriously? Finally we roamed around the barren land, found a huge palatial house, just to kill time we also asked the security guard who the house belongs to and details like how many people lived there! The guard actually gave us all the info, afterall he sits alone all day and finally someone spoke to him, he was quite happy to give us the information! We then headed back to the concert ground and at 12 30 they let us in! Empty ground, Pepsi atom how much worse could life get! The Dj’s had begun to spin their magic and slowly the crowd grew. It was almost like Bangalore knew this would not start on time! I had a good feeling about that too, but well just wanted to be on time!

Garuda mall, Inox, how do I count the number of hours i’ve waited here for my friends to arrive! I am running out of memory in my head to count any more, we did not have credit cards or debit cards back then and had to buy tickets from the counter on the day of the movie. Those were simpler times, things changed after 2011. Tickets were 100 bucks on weekends, queues were huge, everyone bought tickets at the venue. For a 10 AM movie, I used to reach by 9:30 and stand in the queue that opens at 9:45, my friends who were supposed to be there by 9:30 somehow managed to think 2 minutes after 9:30 is 9:55. Everytime I call them,

2 minutes macha, I’m at the parking lot

2 minutes macha, I’m at the signal opposite the mall

2 minutes macha, I’m almost outisde the mall

The 2 minutes in mars would finally end after I bought the ticket, at times it makes me wonder if they took advantage of me! Those thoughts got quashed when we met out for lunch or a movie for which we had pre booked the tickets, they still came late! 2 minutes has always been a variable constant, yes a variable constant. It depends on the weather, his time reading capabilities, his neighbours and the other people on the road going late to their destination. People have tried using statistics to build a predictive model to predict a persons arrival based on the mentioned factors but then they realised they missed out another factor, randomness of the person itself! They threw away their ideas and let life go on. Inox at Garuda decided to help people like me and they have put a bench outside to sit and wait for the fashionably lazy ones!

This once happened to me, I have this friend of mine, typical conversations with her when she is late are like this

Me: Its 15 minutes past the time you were supposed to be here

Friend: Yeah? I thought I said I would reach 30 minutes from now? Din’t I?

Me: Nope, you sent me a message saying 9

Friend: Oh yeah? Sorry, I might have typed it by mistake

Over time i’ve gotten so used to this, I just take a book along or download stuff to read on my phone and then leave home! Wait there peacefully reading whatever i’ve got with me. There were days when I used to get irritated by this, but now I think i’d miss not waiting for people if they started coming on time!

How we read time!

My article from Microsoft newsletter

Microsoft a dream destination for many engineering students, but realizable only to a select few was kind enough to give me a sneak peek into the world of sophisticated yet fun software development. Two months that remain and will always be the most cherished period of anyone who has been an intern at Microsoft can be described in 3 words, Play Work Freak-out.

 

For most of us it was the first time we ventured out of the house to live away, boy was the change so easy to accept. Making new friends from around the country was a real different feeling and experience. Not to mention the exchange of ideas on so many different topics from gaming to geek talk, the whole concept clicked so well. From a bunch of UG students that joined 2 months ago we leave as semi-professionals that have lived the best of both worlds over the first half of the year.

 

Interning at Microsoft Corporation has been an enjoyable experience from the first moment we entered office to get our temporary ID’s. The rapport that the FT shares with the interns who they just got to know is unbelievably comforting. Not to mention their readiness to play different sports with the interns. The environment was always so lively at work. It had the perfect blend of relaxation and fun. Work used to happen at its own good pace while the fun factor was never let to drop with constant visits to the Foosball table, pool table and TT. From amateurs to pretty good players at the end of the intern stint in each of the above mentioned was only possible by the regular practice that we got every time we took a break from work. The facility in the campus is nothing short of awesome. Beautiful sports facilities both indoor and outdoor, the Tennis court and Basketball court are up to the mark and provide amazing playing experience, not to forget the huge football field and the amazing lighting to facilitate evening games. Well maintained and well used, Microsoft gave me the perfect opportunity to develop as a sportsperson and programmer. The food is something that I was really worried about when I first came to Hyderabad but as it turns out the cafeterias have superb food at such affordable prices hence rendering the food problem non-existent. The pantry is one of the greatest installations I must say, few yards away from the cubicles; it was a quick source of refreshments.

 

The lack of timings I felt would actually never make me work, but as it turns out I was wrong. I actually made myself pretty regular at everything I did and maintained a healthy plan for everyday right from waking up early, having my daily dose of physical exercises to working when it mattered and developing my outdoor sports skills. This place made me learn that with Flexibility we assume automatic responsibility. The freedom at Microsoft is something almost every individual working in any other company would crave for. The trust that the company shows on its employees is actually an incentive for us to hold their trust in us and not violate the very few rules that are laid on us. Rules that are the bare minimum for any organization to function.

 

The fun did not stop inside the office, it just continued till late night every day invariably. The location of the guesthouse was so perfect that we were well connected to almost every part of the city, with just a bus to reach them quick. Weekends are actually a bit damp until afternoon when the outside fun begins again. Not going to office on weekends actually made a huge void in our schedule, no we’re not workaholics; the office has its own fun things to offer. It’s funny when people say they miss office, but it’s a fact when you are an intern at MSIT.

 

Overall the best experience that I have had till date and probably the best for a long time to come, a period that will remain engraved in my thoughts forever. The place to work is Microsoft, undoubtedly the best in the industry in terms of productivity and employee satisfaction.

 

College: Junior to Senior

Junior to Senior in 3 years, hmm is the change drastic? Hell yeah it is! At least for me I’ve barely noticed time move but the changes around me remind me of the way a belly dancer changes the position of her belly in like within a second or two during a performance! OK that was just a small try at making a funny statement. I have learnt a lot of things ever since i moved from school to college and frankly I am surprised at the number of things I’ve had misconceptions about. Starting from the way a college is to the way people in a college are! Anyway for every junior who is going to join my college or any other I have 4 things for them to watch out for:

1. Do not believe seniors when they say ” OH GPA ? who cares, its useless. Trust me you need that to prove to the world you are good, personally GPA is just another floating point number that deserves to be in the trash can but sigh Indian Education System.

2. Do not get into bad terms with the security guard of the college, especially if it is a strict college, there will be a day when you are 2 seconds late and the guard will ask you to get lost. You don’t have to hug him everyday! lol. Just avoid arguments for the greater good of life.

3. Don’t hope for anything from the institution, every college claims to have its own edge over every other college and we as students are never going to appreciate them for anything they say, like ever! We just want the world to be perfect, who you kidding!

4. OK I know i’m a culprit now, never completely believe what your seniors say about the college, be it good or bad they always tend to exaggerate. I’ve done it, haha.

Anyway always keep in mind these golden rules, small things learnt now will go a long way in your hard 4 years of college! One thing that i learnt in college is, the friends you make on the first day of college may not be the ones you end up with 2 or 3 semesters down the line but at the end of 4 years you will more often than not be best buds with the first friend if yours that you met at college. You make friends you lose friends, you make enemies you lose enemies but over time college actually matures you so much that you see everyone as the same. You don’t want to hold a grudge or leave a pending favor when you part ways, you never know if you are ever going to meet people from your college ever again.

College is one of those places where you will complain about everything, but this will stop the day you realize it’s your last year there. Memories associated with the place tend to bind your heart to believing that you are going to miss this place that helped you waste your time for the last 3 years. Imagine sitting around gaining no knowledge elsewhere? Wouldn’t it be boring? Plus your parents wouldn’t approve of that, they like paying loads of cash so that you waste your time properly with a thousand other similar thinking teenagers in a huge building that has some lame color all over it.

All said and done, college is a place of socializing , agreed there are better ways, but come on lets not bitch about this place at least for a bit! You meet new people, you develop new ideas, you get marks once in a while just to break the rut of scoring a 0 in your exams, you make connections with people, sometime life changing. Your perspective of the world changes, college prepares you to face the evil world that lies outside the barbed wire protected boundaries of the college!

I am in my final year of college and every time I see pictures of my former years I cant stop smiling and think of the beautiful times that i went through. I will definitely miss it. College you have been good to me 🙂

Cheers

Microsoft : The start of my career

On the 26th of January, 2011 I was put to my first ever litmus test, the time had come for me to prove or disprove the things believed about me. Little did i expect out of the trip i made to Ettimadai where preliminary written rounds for Microsoft internship were to be held. 25th night with hardly any hope I set forth towards the destination Reached pretty early next morning and hardly even had rest before I had to rush to the test room where we would be writing out aptitude papers. Was done with the test in roughly around 30 minutes and also saw a classmate follow suit. Was pretty happy that I had some company, had absolutely no hope of a good outcome after the way I had attempted the questions, but whatever happened after that was a fairy tale to say the least.

The results of the 30 people who cleared the interview was put out late the same day, around 7:00 pm. My heart probably did a round trip to the moon when I heard I had made through to the next round with 4 other people from my campus. It was time to chill out and start preparing for the next day’s interviews, but who was I trying to kid, i din’t prepare one bit. Had a good talk with my room mate for the evening and retired at around 11:00 pm that night. The next day was going to be a huge test for me, little did I know what was in store for me.

I was so unprepared for the interviews, I had not packed formals to wear for them. Borrowed shoes, pant and a belt (which i lost and had to pay the friend i borrowed from) from everyone around and got dressed up, at least just enough. Anyway got the clothes settled and managed a shoe and ran to the placement center. Ettimadai is such a hot place!!!! Not nice when you are wearing formals.

Had a written round which I was pretty confident I would clear, and so it happened, next we had to wait till our interviewers got ready to grill us. Had 2 rounds of technical interviews and one HR interview and then had to wait with 3 other future colleagues as it stands now for the result. Finally we were all called to one of those huge meeting rooms and when they announced all of us were selected for internships my joy new no bounds. I called up every family member and told them the news and frankly they were surprised that I achieved this. Anyway the road ahead from there was smooth with no speed breakers to screw with my rhythm.

 

Life is awesome 🙂