Monday, October 26, 2009

Adios ... !!

Lump in the throat? Not entirely ... but it feels odd leaving such a nice company ... I know we always bicker about lots of stuff in life ... the place we work at is at the receiving end most of the times ... but at the bottom of your heart I have always felt that the freedom and atmosphere at AT has been out of the top draw ... I will miss AT and ATians ... you guys rock ...

I remember my joining day. Drenched and just out of college. My previous company (I was an intern) had given be the most demoralising sendoff ... partly due to my own misgivings ...

I remember the disappointment of knowing that Sonal (my manager whom I had to report to) is actually a guy ... :(

But Sonal is one of the most influential people I have met in life. A manager at office but a friend at heart. I have never ever felt that gap with him. His PJs have been bettered by Sabhtarsha and myself and we both get even dirtier looks than we used to give Sonal earlier :)

There have been several others (in fact everyone here knows the entire company) whom I have had a great time with ... Sabhtarsha has now become more of a pest than a pain :P ... Avdhoot, Amit, Rahul, Gaji, Vijay, Ajay, Vineet, Pushkar, Charuta, Zarin, Khyati, Manish, Mohsin, MJ, Basu, Ghos, Nitin, Sandip, Vinayak and I am sure there are many more ... I have had a blast guys ...

Not to mention that people who have already left AT ... Ashvin, Vivek, Ganesh, Manikant, Rajat, Alok, Deepa, Amit, Debu, Nishith, Rohit ... everyone was a joy to be around ...

Some of the things that I will always remember:
  • Maggi at my desk
  • TT (it was better post 7 pm and on weekends)
  • rides to Good Luck, Santosh bakery, Ganesh Bhel, PD, etc.
  • leg-pulling sessions (some people were always the target)
  • meeting to decide lunch/dinner/breakfast venues
  • night outs (called fire-fighting sessions :P)
  • those amazing weekly calls (thanx to Manish) :P
and many more ...

I am going to miss AT ... but something new awaits ... dekhte hai usmein kitna mazaa hai ...

till then ... Adios AT ... Cheers ... !!

Thursday, October 01, 2009

WFH ... WTF ... !!

What prompted me to write about this?

Well, I am working from home (it took me a long time to realise that WFH actually means working from home) and suddenly it feels like its not that big a deal afterall ... I mean I was looking forward to it with bated breath coz I have heard such a lot of stuff about this phenomenon that it excited me a great deal ...

I do agree that WFH has perks and it should be experienced at some point in time ... but I found myself missing office while at home ...

The boon ...
I dont have to have a bath to start working ... this is like ... VOILA ... :)
Due to this ... I can get up just around 10-15 minutes before I intend to start working ...
I get home made sizzling hot food ... for breakfast, lunch and snacks ... peace ...
I get to play carrom with Dad ... 
No meetings ... yaay ... ;)
I dont need to login to Moneycontrol ... CNBC is so much better ...

The bane ...
The biggest drawback is that I miss the office atmosphere ... there are not a lot of people to pull their leg ;)
I miss the sweets that people bring almost every morning ...
VPN makes the intranet all the more slow to traverse ... dratch ... :(
No free telephone calls ... not that I make a lot of them but still ...
No group discussion on the stock market state for the day ... this is a killer ...
Those TT sessions ... :(
The umpteen rides to PD, KNP, Good Luck or Santosh Bakery ... this is quite a lot I am talking about food wise ... I mean Anda rice, Vada Pav, Anna ki Chaay, Basundi Chaay, Limbu Sarbat, hot Veg Puffs, Vaati Cakes and the all time favorite Bun Maska ...

I am sure there is lot more to this than I have realised in my first 2 hours of WFH ...

and I still maintain ... idling in office is much better than working from home ... so much for the experience ... 

Cheers ... !!