Chennai Diaries - Part 1

I kept being lazy, delaying it and postponing it. The fact that I didn’t write for so long has as much to do with my lack of will, as it has to do with the circumstances. But eventually, I sit today – alone – in Chennai, and have decided to reduce the backlog of ideas, if not purge them altogether. So, here is Chennai Diaries – Part 1.

As and when I got informed that I have been posted in Chennai, and I updated it on Facebook & Twitter, I realized that my friends and family were much more worried and terrified than I was. I got a lot of sympathy calls and messages – “Oh! Chennai?? Poor guy!” As a consequence, I came here with a lot of preconceived notions. Negative ones.

First realization dawned when I actually reached Infosys, Mahindra City development center. And it was – “Dude, We’ve been duped!!” It’s not even in Chennai. Not even in district Chennai. It’s in Kancheepuram and is 60 kms from Chennai. Assholes. Luckily, I found myself a good flat in the VILLAGE. Office time so far has been like a vacation. I feel like I am going to a resort. With no work, no work AT ALL, the only hard work I do there is 10 laps of swimming and 3-4 games of pool! And don’t you judge me.

Shakespeare said in Merchant of Venice that a horse is very excited for its first race. Then slowly, the excitement fades away. For the first few days, I was pro-active. After all, the leadership training at Mysore had supposedly trained us to take actions, not to wait for things to happen. So, I went to HR, DU head, PM but finally came to the conclusion that I was on bench. As one last desperate measure, I sent a direct mail to the head of DU.

Me: “Sir, I have no work. Please give me some work.”

His reply: “I see no issues here! Please wait for further instructions.”

Since then, my schedule is breakfast -> lunch -> sleep in the dormitory -> snooker -> swimming ->dinner!

Ironically, Infosys and Accenture came to my college for placements during the same time and one of my juniors called me and asked, “Sir, suna hai Infy mein kaam bahut hai? Accenture chala jaon kya?” I once read whenever you talk over the phone – smile as the listener can hear the smile through your voice. I bet, he would have heard a burst of laughter!

Too much about work!! Let me tell you about other things. Chennai, the nearest metro to where I live, has been an experience in itself.

Positives –

1) Cheap Movie tickets.

Negatives –

1) Great weather. You live here for a year and you can survive anywhere in the world.

       2) Auto drivers will screw you, screw you bad.

     3)Tamil ( All due respect to the culture and language, its lot tougher than being in Hyderabad or Bangalore)

      4)Food = Rice. 

      5) More Rice.

Jokes apart, it’s not that bad! People are simple, good and helping. City is relatively clean. There are problems – but then we are not in Utopia. Overall, it has been a mixed bag. I have started to look at the positives. Because I am smart, yes, but also because 2000 kms from home, In Chennai, it makes more sense to count your blessings. If you start doing otherwise, you’re fucked! Trust me!

I’d conclude by saying what my dear friend, Abhinav Harsh (who has two months extra Chennai experience), told me before I came here. “Jab Chennai aaoge, ya toh frustrate hi ho jaoge ya fir sahi mein koi bada kaam kar doge!". Lets see. Ciao.