Infosys@Chandigarh!

People say that college life is the best time of your life.. you better enjoy that time... well... my college life was ok.. i think... but the time that i enjoyed the most was at infosys@chandigarh... I joined infy on the December 26... it was pretty cold that day... me and my family reached chandigarh on Decmber 24th, my dad was working with an MNC that had a guest house in chandigarh... for 2 days, we ate nice food, enjoyed site seeing at chandigarh... even celebrated christmas eve there... i tell you, dilli di sardi is nothing in comparision to chandigarh's.

Anyways, 1st day at infosys was real fine... a bunch of 250 fresh graduates together under one room... u can imagine the kind of fun... :) we were made to stay at a hotel in pankula (sad part, boys and girls' hotels were separate)... my roomie was from pune... she was shorter than me... so she let me have the entire hangers wala area of the almirah... god!!! it was such a good feeling...

in infosys, we were made to undergo extensive training for 4 months, 1st two months were general training, and the next two were stream specific... they followed modular fashion of training... we would be taught something for a week, then we would have a test, that would generally fall on a monday... chandigarh is a 6 hours drive from delhi, so i had to come home every weekend (ma's food and washing of clothes was essential) + who studies at home... i never did... most of my frenz warned me of the consequences of failing an exam... passing marks were 75 ( i think, im not sure that i remember it well) failing would lead to being chucked out from the company... but i thankfully i never flunked!!!

i made frenz there... female frenz... its funny... this was the 1st time i was getting along with gurls... i stood up and fought for my class when 70 percent of us failed in our 1st test (most of us passed on re-eval)... i went out with frenz for late-night parties... i studied late night... i sang truly madly deeply in front of 50 people... i helped madhur in getting an answer right (this is very imporatnt, cuz he used to consider me a dodo before that)... i drove back ajit's car cuz he was too drunk and puking all the way... in short... i had the loveliest time of my life... i thank all the people who made infy @ chandigard so good!!!

The Interview

It was my second interview ever... The first one was with HP (Hewlett Packard) not Hindustan Petroleum... campus interview... i cleared that one... went to b'lore... din't like.. came back... stayed home for 3 months... was super inconfident for my second interview... why? Cuz i had lost touch with my studies... and 3 months of nagging had made me feel suicidal and worthless!!!

Nevertheless, I had one thing that was making me confident... I had cleared the infosys paper that 1 of my brilliant cousins and 1 of my friend were not able to! So, i knew that i was above them... I especially bought and wore an orange suit... why?? cuz I thought that orange was my lucky colour... I tied my hair nice and proper, wore lenses, blah blah!!! The interview was scheduled to start at 12: 30... i reached the premise at 11:30... I was a little confident but high on energy.. time passed by... the clock went from 1, to 2 to 3... my turn had not come as yet. :( + i was hungry + a couple of people asked me if i had solved some puzzle book... what the hell... i din't know that infy asked us to solve puzzles!

Then i heard my name, I pulled up my sox (not literally), put on a bright smile and entered the room... Good afternoon, i said to the two middle aged gentlemen, they gave me a stern look and said, it seems somebody has had a good day! Anyways, tell us something about yourself... your strenghts, your weaknesses... wow... this one was easy... i sailed through... then they asked which is your favourite subject, i said VLSI, then they said what do you think you're the weakest at... i said GK... (I mean, I seriously suck at it)... then they said... you will need to face your fear... tell us... what is the name of the president of india... wow maan... i knew this one... the only problem is I f****** could not remember his name... or was it his or her name... uuummm.... i said... i know this one... they said...ok... go ahead... so i took a deep breath... and said... i am awefully nervous.... to this they said, you look pretty confident... i said... well its this guy who has pretty long hair and does not believe in short cuts... they were amazed at my answer and started laughing... i laughed along.... they said... ok next question... and i suddenly thumped the table and said its APJ Abdul Kalam.... yeah maan... i was delighted!! i got a Gk question right for god's sake...

Next question... who is the FM.... I said thaz P. Chidambaram... this one came right out when they asked... next question... who is the the PM... oh shucks maan... again... i knew this one, but whaz with the damn name... I suddenly found that I had one hand up on my head, as if i were holding a tennis ball right there, and i said, its the sardaar ji... they said... do you know the name??? I again thumped the table and said Manmohan singh.... i dont understand whats it between me and the table, i have the answers when i bang the darn thing.

Then they pointed towards my watch, i was wearing a fastrack watch, i still have it... they said... what is that? i said its a watch... ok, what shape is it? I said it looks like a triangle to me... they said, im talking to an engineer, why dont you tell me what shape is in technical terms... i stared at my watch for a good 1 minute, and said it pretty much looks triangular to me... both my interviewers looked at each other and sighed... then they said, should we thump the table for you? I said, why? Is my answer wrong... they said, try thumping the table, so i did... oh yeah! it is a parabola not a triangle... i think.... that table was very helpful to me that day.

Then they said, what is that you're wearing in your ears... i said its an earring... what earring... they are pearls... they said its looking nice, where did you buy it from (Oh! so he wanted a pair for his wife or what)... i replied... well, my mum bought it, its actually my ma's.... he said, ok, lemme rephrase the question, where do you get pearls from? i said... this one, i think is from hyderabad... i mean hyderabadi pearls are really famous... i suddenly saw an excitement build in their faces... 1 of them said... no dear... where are they made?? or actually mined?? Which mountain do we get them from? do we find them in the northern regions or the southern regions?? I was actually falling for it... My mind was doing a full swing... where are they mined from??? which moutains??? then it suddenly struck me... diamonds are mined... so maybe pearls are mined too... but where???

I could not remember... I was about to give up... Then thanks to my love for cartoons, i suddenly remembered something... i very gently said, I really respect your knowledge, but im not sure if pearls are mined at all... they asked, why do you say so?? I said, i have never seen extraction of pearls, but i have seen many a times in the cartoons that in the oceans, there are shells (i made a air filled horizontal namaskar) and when the shells open up ( i slowly opened up my namaskar to make an almost 90 degree) you can find the pearl in there... they said, thaz bullcrap ( i am pretty sure thaz not the word they used, but for simplicity, we will take it as is) pearls are mined just like diamonds from a specific mountaineous region... i said, you could be a 100 percent right, but cartoons are an indirect way of imparting knowledge to the children, hence, i am pretty sure that the pearls are found in the oceans...

They both looked at each other and started laughing hysterically, then they turned to me and one of them said, geeta, betay, we've never had such a fun filled interview before.... you really made us laugh, all the best for your future!!! (All the best for your future.... they had rejected me... o no!!! i consoled myself) I said, so may i leave for the day... they said, no, wait outside... i said ok, got up from my chair, turned around, opened the door, turned around to face them, said thank you, have a great day! they smiled back, and said you too! i quietly moved out of the room and closed the door behind me... then there was another chit chat where i discussed with others how their interview went, and was amazed to find out that people were given puzzles to solve and asked all sorts of technical questions!!! (a le! so they never wanted to hire me... they din't ask me even 1 technical question).. anyways, we had another round with the hr, who just asked us if we will have a problem if we were to be transfered any place else, i said no! (as if they were going to hire me anyways)

i cried back the entire way... + i hadn't eaten all day, so my stomach was hurting and grumbling!!! i felt like a complete waste... full day lost!!! anyways... 2 weeks passed by... and the result was out... wait a minute... my name was there... i wanted to scream with joy... but i could not believe my eyes... i switched off the computer, turned it on again, asked my ma to see my result... my joining date was Decmeber 26 at infosys, chandigarh.... hahahaha!!!! i could not and still cannot believe i made it through infosys with an interview like that!!!

Rakhi... Raksha Bandhan... not Rakhi Sawant!

India is a country known for its diverse and rich culture. We have multiple festivals to celebrate our rich culture. One such festival is rakhi. Day after tomorow is rakhi and it reminds me of all the joys that rakhi brings. Rakhi comes in various sizes and colours, my cousin brother was so fond of the big rakhis when younger, that i still punish him for the same.... :)

It is a festival which is given a lot of importance especially in schools... from our second grade to our seventh grade, rakhi is looked upto with anticipation from girls and boys alike... from seventh grade plus, it is looked upto with horror, espically from the boys, many even absent themselves from school... or come up with excuses such as, I have plenty of sisters of my own, i need no more!!!

Here, i am reminded of a particular rakhi celebration at my school, i think we were in the fifth grade... i think i only had 1 rakhi left, when girls came bubbling with joy... when i asked, what happened... i was told that Ayan Ghosh had given them a lovely pair of earrings each... Suddenly, I felt my body afloat and floating towards Ayan... i happily did the tika and tied the rakhi... then i forwarded my hand... and to my ill luck... Ayan was left with no earrings... :( he did promise me a pair the next day... but he just forgot.. Ayan, i still am waiting for that earring! :P

There is this particular boy, Vipul Gupta... i tied him a rakhi every year... I still remember, in the eighth grade, when all boys were scared of the rakhi... he specially came to my class to get the rakhi tied... that was really sweet... i will never forget it all my life. That's when i realised, rakhi is not a festival for minting money or getting B.E.A.Utiful gifts, it is a festival when people promise to take care of each other!!! Though on the contrary, it is a nice way of minting money!!!

Friends Forever!

As today is world's frenz day, I would love to write a post on the topic...

They say you keep your true fren till the end of time... but in this fast paced life, we make frenz, we swear by them, we swear on them, we even swear we'd kill them... then we do the worst, we use them to go up in the ladder and never look back... our frenz give us everything we need, and once we have sucked each drop of their blood, and they have nothing else left off them, we leave them cuz frenz are to be taken for granted...

no... m not writing this, cuz i have been taken for granted... i am amongst those people, who take others for granted!!! and i have made this mistake not once but twice... i have taken two of my very best frenz for granted... why??? cuz thaz wot most people do... today... i just wanna take this oppourtunity to appologize... guys, im never gonna take you for granted ever again!!! i would love to abide by the saying, and keep you guys till eternity!!!

Frenz are the angels in devils' disguise exclusive for us. Angelic because they always want our best... and they are disguised as devils because good is nice, but bad is sexy... and we all opt for sexy between the nice or sexy!

P.S. My exclusive Devil, I will always love you! (not in the 377 way)... and i wanna keep you forever as my bestest (if that is a word) fren!! ;P

Mistakes we Make...

Right from school, we heard... Learn from the mistakes of others... I always wanted to know why? I always wondered why should i learn from other's mistakes? Thanks to the Indian culture, I never got the reason!!! Its funny, cuz mistakes are so interesting... they give us so many lessons!!! But, for all of you who are still wondering why we should learn from the mistakes of others?? It is because life is too short, you don't have enough time to make all the mistakes yourself... :)

Mistakes are things we all do... sometimes we do them on purpose!!! i made a lot myself... but, when i joined infosys, one of my SPM's in chennai gave me a super nice perspective towards making mistakes... He said, make mistakes, but do not repeat them, make bigger mistakes!!! so thaz what ive been doing all my life... i made mistakes, and kept the intensity growing each time!!!

Now, i have reached a point where I have lost count for the mistakes i have made... no... i did not get sloshed... nor did i do drugs... nor i did i end up at the wrong place at the wrong time... these are not really mistakes... These are things people do to look cool... they do it to fit in!!! i dont believe in the concept of fitting in... i believe we all have a place set for ourselves, we will fit into the right place eventually!

The point is, there is no harm in making mistakes... you just need to learn how to undo them... the human species is filled with an emotion called forgiveness... Just give it a try!!! We are like clay, sculptured by our own mistakes... we can be redone as soon as we realise that we made one!