Author: SK

i like to go on long walks. with a friend, if one is available; but mostly alone. it’s typically a nice relaxing experience. gives me the chance to sometimes stop by and just observe life. gives me the chance to give some work to my legs. the chance to just daydream about whatever i want to, or whoever i want to, and make myself feel hapy. a chance to taste some roadside food. sometimes, a chance to get runover and get killed.

interestingly, while in Bangalore I prefer to walk around the residential localities of the south (Jayanagar, Banashankari, etc.) and find the business district too noisy and “trafficky”, in bombay i prefer to walk around the business area in the south and loathe walking around Bandra where i live! wonder why. probably it’s because the south has these old buildings with amazing architecture and stuff. probably because the area i live in has this huge bunch of old identical apartment blocks, which are hardly inspiring. probably because the south has more eatouts. anyways, this evening once again i’ll be taking the train journey due south, in order to go for a walk!

in this respect, the other city i’ve spent some time in of late – London – is simply amazing for walking. the entire city. not just parts of it. and the people respond to it by walking as much as possible – people don’t use their cars too much in there.

I made the measurement today. don’t ask me how.

we are good friends.

i’m currently working out of a client site. and the client being a large organization means there are a number of websites which are blocked from here. some of them being

yahoo mail
gmail (thankfully they haven’t blocked google 😉 )
hotmail
orkut!
cricinfo!!

first time i’m seeing cricinfo being blocked! interesting stuff…

I?ve started my first proper client engagement today. Will be here for seven months or so. And we have a policy that we literally sit with a member of a client team, and the guy I was supposed to be with has disappeared, so I?m jobless now!

Unlike my summers, one nice thing here is that breakfast and coffee are brought to the table. We?ve to go out to the canteen for lunch, but the lunch is really good so it?s ok. And unfortunately I?m yet to get net access, so writing this down in my laptop. Will be transferring this to my blog once I get connected.

This is an old economy company, and most of the client team members are in their 40s or 50s. Some interesting stuff during the introductions earlier this morning. The way we introduced ourselves was markedly different. Our team members all introduced ourselves by first name. in fact some even shortened them ? Siddhartha became Sid and Rangarajan became Ranga. And those people simply refused to disclose their first names, introducing themselves as ?Chauhan? or ?Sharma? or whatever!

In fact, I had a look at some documentation regarding the project also. That too referred to our people as ?Ranga?, ?Sid?, etc. while those guys were all identified by their last names!

By the way, people here call me Karthik. Though I?m not sure that?ll last too long since there are two seniors from IIMB here and they know me only as ?wimpy?!

A large part of the last week was spent orienting myself at Goa. Given the off-season, our firm managed to find a set of honeymoon cottages at a good rate, and with team-building measures being an objective of the exercise, we had to share rooms.

I was lucky to get a ?normal?, though remote, room. A couple of friends were put up in a room with a view. A view of the bathroom I mean. There was a window between the room and the loo, which could be opened only from outside! And provided a strategic view of the bath-tub and the pot. Truly confidence-building measures!

Nice resort, amazing food, the constant sound of waves crashing against the sands, a swimming pool, bikini babes.. and we were attending classes. Classes on making powerpoints, writing reports and on professional ethics. And on Friday night we are invited to a party where the bosses get us drunk, and early on Saturday morning we had to make a case presentation! A true test of spirit.
After the case presentation, there was a session on ?useful tips?. Some stuff I found nice:
1. You are going to work hard for your jobs. You are young. You will be paid well. We encourage you to spend and lead a good life. Trust us, you?ll regret it later if you generally try to save!
2. Life will be tough, and there might be some stress. Your IIM friends may not hold on forever. The most important thing for you would be to build strong relationships and a strong support system within the firm.
3. This profession is a marathon, not a sprint. Remember that and ensure you don?t burn yourself out.
Outside of the session, a senior manager said ?Karthik, I?m not sure you can hold on for four-five years as a bachelor given the vagaries of this profession?. Wonder what he meant. Guess I might figure out in a couple of years.
Best part of the training, though was this game of beach volleyball, at the end of which I had figured out that for the last couple of hours I had ordered around this above mentioned senior manager, and he had faithfully followed what I had said, knowing that I was boss on the court. Felt really good!

M called me at 10:30 this morning and asked me about the status of the work he had given me yesterday. “I’ve done this this this googling boss; haven’t got data on that that that. Can you suggest some sources?”

M: I don’t need much info on that that that. this this this should be fine. Also find me some data on somethignelse somethignelse.

Me: OK. i’ll get back to you in an hour.

M: Just mail all these by 2. i have a meeting at 4.

Me: yes boss.

In the middle of the conversation, the lights had gone out of our lives. Another short call later, I figure out my building is on fire! So we leave everything (our most invaluable laptops included) and run for our lives.

There is a huge crowd gathered outside. The whole office is on the road. Frantic phone calls are made to make sure everyone from our office is safe. Soon the red guys arrive and the fire is out. We aren’t allowed to enter the building though. Our laptops are inside.

I’m worried about my work. The first deadline I had to meet in this job, and something had to happen. We’re all tensed up. An ice-cream at the nearby Baskin Robbins (the guy must’ve blessed the fire; he would’ve never made so much business no a normal day) and then we find that the building will be closed for the rest of the day.

I call M and he knows the bombay office had caught fire. He says “at least tell me this and this”. These guys want to go for movie. Half an hour to go for the movie to start. I head off in search of a cyber cafe.

Don’t know why, but Bombay doesn’t have the same density of cyber cafes as Bangalore. Had to walk for half an hour around Bandra to find one. Arrive there sweating. 45 mins of quick work means I have re-googled all of this this this and sent it to M. and I have time to catch the second half of Pink Panther.

The cinema “hall” is as big as my bedroom in my Bangalore house. five rows of seats. Probably the smallest I had ever seen. Regretted not carrying my camera. Coming back, movie done, we head back to office to see if situation has improved. Now they’re letting in people escorted by security to collect belongings (they think we are all vandals). Laptop comes out. Off to a nearby restaurant for an average and quick lunch. Tea at friend’s place and back in hotel at 7!!!

Yeah, I had a day off today , but i hope i don’t ahve to work on the weekend to make up. And I’ll be startin on my first lnog-term project on Monday. Still, feels good coming back early. Nothing to do though, so i come to the nearby cyber cafe and blog!

This is probably my worst written post ever but when you have the cyber cafe’s clock ticking you can’t expect too much good work.