Be thankful for what you have

Jan 10, 2010

As I hung up my phone, after one particularly long and boring conference call with Offshore development team regarding 'Open Issues', I was thinking what the hell am I even doing here? I should be out of this place and hang out on a permanent vacation to a sunny island with blonde girls.

5 Minutes later, I was sending an email to my College group popularising my blog (yes, cheap publicity, but I will not give up till I get 500 followers for this crap lol) old memories kept flooding back. Since I wasted my time in my 12th, I didn't get the college of my preference and the one I studied in, did not have a campus interview. Which basically meant that I had to do my own job search.

After College, I spent 3 months wasting around looking for excuses to postpone my job hunt. Finally it came to pass that I had run out of all excuses and finally packed my bags to the nearest metropolitan city, Chennai. I rented a single room apartment and subscribed for Hindu paper with a special emphasis on Wednesday edition of  'Opportunities'. I was particular about call center interviews because I was fairly confident of landing a Call center job with my English proficiency. We were extra careful about Technical interviews because the Multi national companies had a 6 month clause, that if you were rejected, you can't appear for 6 more months with the same company.

For about a month, I attended numerous call center interviews. I cleared most of the interviews and rejected almost all of them because of the pay package. I was offered somewhere between 2000 to 3500 Rupees for a month, which roughly converts to 77 dollars a month. I kept telling myself that I was worth more and I should wait for bigger fishes to fry.

One particularly harsh and hot September morning in Chennai, I had been to Kilpauk, Chennai, waiting outside Dasaprakash hotel to catch a bus after the interview. Same story, decided not to go for it because of the salary. As usual, I had a white shirt, black pant, tucked in, well polished black shoes, tie in my pocket, and a big file of certificates. It was the classic 'I'm in dire need of a job, will wash cars for money' attire and I guess it showed.

I and my friend Karthick, were watching a lady selling Fresh coconuts for the heat. She'd peel the coconut, make a small hole and pour out the coconut water in a cup and then split open the coconut and scrape the tender insides and give in a plate to customers. She was charging 6 Rupees for one coconut per customer. We were deliberating between ourselves if we should go for one each and then decided that we shouldn't be too greedy and settled for splitting one coconut within ourselves.

She motioned us to wait for a while and when the customer crowd was away, she gave us one and charged 4 Rupees and said she understood. We drank and ate, thanked the lady and boarded the bus and came back to the room. I think I broke down and cried that day. Either that, or I felt extremely bad about the job situation. I made a resolution that I'm agreeing to the next job that I get.

And I did. The next week, I attended a call center interview with Sutherland Technologies, as a Tech Rep for Sony products. I got the job, and took it without a second thought.

I switched jobs to Cognizant and came here to US, but I'll never forget that day when a coconut seller made me feel about my job. I learnt more from her in 2 minutes than I did from most of my college lecturers. I'm glad that I have this job. I thank the Good Lord for giving me the platform to stand on this and write this blog.

Plans for tomorrow

Convince myself to go to office in the morning. Working is not injurious to health. I'll not lose my patience at work and vow to keep a smiling face and put up a brave front. Play FIFA 10 after coming home and watching 'The taking of Pelham 123'.

Youtube link of the day

Watch this in Youtube

 I love the 80's. I should have been 20 when it was the 80's.

P.S I have an amazon widget now, and I have big plans for the widget. If you buy something from Amazon, please go through my blog. This is a trial run for a month and depending on the results, I'll share my plans with you all.