Hi All,

I don’t know whether you all are aware. For those who are not, let me tell you that today is my last working day

in Tech Mahindra. Some people have felt that I don’t talk much or don’t socialize. So I thought I would just

share some memorable moments I had in Tech Mahindra with you people in writing at least. I have had some

real good and some bad times here. I would cherish all this and more while I leave. But I’ll definitely miss my

team.

It has been quite a long time here. From the ITP training in Chennai to Antillia Development and Design in

Mumbai. Pretty much a long journey, though times seems to fly fast. It has been 2 whole years after joining

Tech Mahindra. The Initial Training Program was a fantastic experience. I never thought professional training

would be so much of fun. Probably my ITP mates and the staff made it fun. I really enjoyed it and even made

great friends. It is from there that I learnt that hard work and dedication helps you achieve what you want.

Even though every one in the ITP batch was from different colleges, the class had a great aura; a fun

element; a college away from college. Daily bike ride from our appartment to training centre, attending classes

even when we were completely drenched in the rain, weekly exams, all crash courses then the superb

behavioral training and finally the accent training. All so quickly completed in a period of 3 months. The daily

veg sandwiches, in the hope of controlling blood cholesterol. And how I struggled to score thinking that I would

get posted in the place I desired if I did well(which never happened J). The ESG head, though very strict at

times, was really a sweet person, who along with his team kept following up for project allocations, when some

of us didn’t get allocated. The days which I got a feeling “Oh! This is what you call being on bench.”. Some of

our friends were lucky enough to leave a few days earlier than us.

But that didn’t last long. The postings came all of a sudden and the ESG tried getting us tickets, but could

make it only for sleeper class in trains. Then came the long, scary but funny train journey. Scary and funny,

both because of the special community of people who appeared at times, with a special “hand clapping”

gesture. The “Hijada” community kept coming in for their days collection. That was when we kept running to

the train toilets to hide away from the “Hijada/Hijara” who kept threatening that they would show us something

that we hadn’t seen till then. I do remember some guys and girls giving large denominations of notes to the

special people to escape from their threatening act. And then after some hide and seek we finally reached

Mumbai. We thought Mumbai was this special community’s head quarters.

But things weren’t the same here in Mumbai after reaching Dadar station. A bus took us to a 4 star hotel near

in Saki Naka. We hadn’t even started working for the company but we were put up at a 4 star hotel. But then,

the rooms booked for us weren’t empty and we rested in a conference room. And got our rooms only the next

morning. We thought it was for free. But we ended up paying INR 16k as room rent for 4 days(we had just 4

days to find new homes), which could be reimbursed provided we hadn’t reimbursed anything in Chennai. Sad

for some people who couldn’t reimburse, they never got the moneyJ(I’m among those poor few). We laughed it

off, since nothing could be done about it. Strange expensive hospitality we got here.

The house hunt was truly challenging. I guess project work is much more easy here in Mumbai. Huge

brokerage and a lot of negotiations, finally found a place to stay, after paying a huge sum as an initial deposit.

Again taking loan from parents, too bad the company has no provision for interest free loans in such cases

unlike companies like Wipro, even after so many years. Thank God our parents were kind and yea, rich too.

Then the project, the first mentor, the first assignment, great learning. The managers, the team leaders, the

team members, the new faces to me who were actually old faces in the project. Then began another roller

coaster ride. Full of problem solving, filling the gaps in component design by exploring in and out of Geneva

tables, writing pl/sql procedures, packages, Unix shell scripts, search for OCI (which we realized almost no one

in tech m was good at it), Pro C. Then started sleepless nights, over night and back to back working days,

toiling on weekends also. But we always made the deliveries on time with minimal defects on E2E. It was

difficult to make things happen, but it is here that I learnt that you can make apparently impossible things

The last mail I sent from Tech Mahindra..

happen, even if everything goes against you, by just sacrificing a little more of your time and that there is

really nothing that’s impossible. Then not to forget our tiny celebration committee and the small celebrations,

experimenting new flavors of cakes for every new occasion, buying the right gifts and posing for memorable

momentsJ. Then suddenly a break from this schedule came as a temporary transfer to Pune.

In Pune was the beginning of the Colocation experience. Ultimate team work, exemplary co-operation between

vendors and teams from different vendors, diplomatic arguments, daily defect calls, playing tennis with

defects, the funny blame games, tracking and monitoring defects and sending out reports when requested,

client parties where the client sits and boozes with you and yes most importantly really nice friends there in

Colocation. That was where I learnt that team work can be really beautiful if everyone is ready to contribute

and be a part of the team, without boundaries or discrimination based on companies. It was a true learning

experience. But yes there was no escape from the little bit of our usual development work from there also. Oh!

Forgot to mention, the tummy Punjabi chulha paranthas, only those working in Pune Gigaspace would know

that lovely place where you get delicious food. I almost had my lunch everyday from there.

After a short span of approximately 4 months there in COLO, I got back to my base location and again

continued the same old story. And in the mean while came in some awards and appreciation. Thanks to all the

opportunities that I got during my work here. Then a small IDU picnic after such a long time (probably 18

months of no outing), loaded with fun, Thanks to our HR, we finally made it. Then one day, after contemplating

a lot, I felt, I should change my routine and get back to school and add a little more value to myself.

This is just a beginning of a new chapter, the continuation of an old journey, in pursuit of the better.

I’ve met and interacted with several people during my tenure here. The brief description of my journey so far,

would become really huge if I listed all the names. It is rightly said, that in the story of life, your character

meets and interacts with several other characters, who either stay with you or move in different directions. But

their roles in your life whether significant or not, every character has something new to teach you. That’s very

true, everyone I’ve worked with has taught me something new. Like how to be sweet to others even when

others are not, how to be shrewd, how to talk, how to shout out issues, how to be assertive, how to code

better, how to handle stress, how to answer questions, how not to spend unnecessarily, how to motivate

yourself even when you are in the deepest of troubles and much more. I’ve been molded into a better being

after my stay here. I’m really grateful to all of you for that. And yes not to forget the tremendous amount of

support I’ve received from my managers, senior managers, team leads and team members. I never thought I

would have a friendly environment here, but I’m really glad to say, I never felt difficult to approach anyone

here. You all have been so amiable and kind enough to help me in some way or the other. I’ve really felt that

my stay here was worth while.

I will definitely not forget the lessons learnt. I truly enjoyed working with you all and will remember all of you till

the end. And I hope my tiny little contributions here will be of some help.

I sincerely apologize in case I’ve hurt anyone of you, at any point of time. Arguments and debates are one of

the best ways to learn new things. I just hope I haven’t argued too much.:)

The world has become very small due to the technological revolution. I’m on Orkut, Facebook, Linkedin and

Flicker. You just have to search my name on those networks. Since my name is pretty unique so you’ll find me

easily. So no excuses at all for not keeping in touch.:)

I thank God for giving me the opportunity to be here with you and work here in the team that has been

continuously awarded and praised as the best team: ANTILLIA. What ever I’ve been able to learn from here, is

because I’ve been a part of this team. And of course the ITP helped me refresh what I had almost forgotten

after college.

Its pretty hard for me to say good bye, so I would part now, by just telling, see you all again someday.

Yours sincerely

Eakan Gopalakrishnan

Posted 17th August 2010 by Eakan Gopalakrishnan

Labels: india, IT companies, outsourcing industry, tech mahindra

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Nirav March 15, 2011 at 3:05 PM

Really awesome and informative for freshers like me.... thanks

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