3 The Peppy Y-PEP Diaries

“Life is nothing but creating a collage of memories”. These lovely words by Mr. Prakash Rohera, an eminent speaker at Yes Professional Entrepreneurship Programme, (Y-PEP) 2016, drove me down the memory lane. From a small closed world of mine, I have come light years away to a 180-degrees-different-world. As the phrase hit me, it triggered a trail of picture memories on my retina and an inadvertently created gantt chart in my head with events and timeline as its axis overpowered my imagination.

May 2, 2016 : The D-Day

My destiny had brought me to the land of dreams which I had once admired as a child. Mixed emotions viz curiousity , anxiety, expectations went heywire like  construction debris in my head while my taxi ran on Bandra-Worli sea link enroute hotel hilltop. I, very seldom, feel like this. When I stepped into the hotel, there was  plenty to please the eye (welcome standees) and entice the palate. I loved to gorge on unheard-of-gourmet-dishes. And the icing on the cake was- it’s just opposite to the sea face...just a ten minutes of walk on the sea face and all fatigue would vanish into the blissful surrounding. The waves lashing against the shore would send vibes of joy into me.

Two weeks of perfectly excuted induction with power-packed sessions had so much to offer. Every day had its own excitement. Despite heavy dosage of information that knocked over our minds, we came out fully rejuvenated every evening. Indeed, it’s a lifetime experience that will definitely find place in my gantt chart. Many firsts in my life have come just in these fifteen days. I have ticked all the boxes including Design Thinking workshop at Indian School of Design and Innovation, Watching ‘The Crocodile in the Yangtze’, Meditation session, Zumba Fitness Training, Walkathon at Worli sea face, Go-karting, Cricket, Bowling, Video making and Drum Cafe session.

 I feel too ecstatic to be a part of the proud-clan Yes Bank. I feel I am standing in the orchard of opportunities but can’t wait for the fruit to fall, so I am eagar to climb.

Your sight might catch hurried and harried people all the time but that’s what imbibes life into Yes Bank. Doesn’t it simply feel gratifying when the Chief Learning Officer, Mr. Warren Patrick, walks upto your desk and asks ,”Ashima, Did you get walkathon pics? Take my number, I will share the pics “?  Isn’t it heartening when Boss, Mr. Paresh Gandhi, President and Head,Rewards talks to you about bringing six-sigma to HR on your day1? This place is a connected little hamlet.

I will always remember the Group President, Human Capital Management, Mr. Deodutta Kurane’s closing address at Y-PEP induction. “You are family now and I reserve both a right and a duty to guide you. Remember humility is the key to success”, said he and then with an impint glint in his eyes he uttered, “India Bole Yes” and made us shout  in chorus after him.

They say the smallest of gestures have the potential to create the greatest impacts. Watching my parents brimming with pride, seeing their own dreams taking shape, unwrapping the gift pack received from Yes Bank  and reading the letter adrressed to ‘Mr and Mrs Sharma’ from Group President-HCM, was ,indeed, a visual treat.

In a nutshell, Y-PEP program has my 5-star rating. Thank you Yes Bank for being such a gracious host and treating us so royally. Thank you for giving us memories to cherish for a lifetime. Thankyou for bringing to us a plethora of friends. I shall be grateful, indeed.

Lo and Behold, the journey has already begun.

India Bole Yes!

2 My days with Akzo !!!

In the end we always remember the beginning.

I vividly remember the day of my summer placement interview with the AkzoNobel’s representative at campus. She had a quick look on my CV, placed it aside, asked me in a comforting tone, “Tell me something you want me to know about you, that is not written here”.

“I can speak Tamil..Naan nalla Tamil pesuven”…

My words were out even before I realized it! Turned out that I was selected.

April 13, 2015

Seniors’ dose of gyan on dos and don’ts , the curiosity of meeting new people, anxiety  of expectations, potential questions and all such thoughts were swarming in my mind like a pack of bees gone haywire, while I was en-route AkzoNobel’s  Gurgaon Office. As my taxi moved on Delhi-Gurgaon highway, I could see the numerous skyscrapers rising from the earth. I wondered which wonderland I was wandering in. And then a left turn brought me to my destination- Buliding 5A, DLF Cybercity. As I entered the office on the twentieth floor, my eyes were wide open in delight, enjoying the sight of red, blue, green, violet, yellow, orange-playing vibrantly in different combinations on walls, glass doors, notice boards, cubicles, cafeteria…everywhere. The Dulux paints productline cans arranged aesthetically, greeted me.

Day 1 ended with knowledge sessions about the processes, businesses of the company. A loud silence ran through the room when the Head of HR, Mr. Gaurav Gupta, addressed twenty of us in a potent voice. His words penetrated deep inside me and I felt a strange happiness and bliss in being associated with Akzo. In the first week, I felt, I was no less than a CEO. I had driver to pick me up and drop at the guest house, comfortable room at guest house, hot-served meals and what not!

I was lucky to have been mentored by Mr. Shantanu Roy, a man with a wide experience across spectrum of industries. I could hardly find any blank cell in his outlook calendar. Despite heavily loaded schedule, he would stay back to listen to me patiently. It was really heartening when Mr. Shantanu and Mr. Atanu Dutta Chaudhary (Talent Acquisition Team) would ask for my opinions on important matters. Though, initially, it was a bit strenuous to catch hold of super busy people in office to gather insights, I realized patience is bitter but it bears sweet fruits. My first board room experience was classic when I was introduced to the entire brigade of HR by the Head of HR. And as if the chance to witness great minds making strategic decisions was not enough, he then asked me what my opinion was!

Initially I started reporting whatever minor progress I was able to visualize in my project (Design and development of tools for optimization of Talent Acquisition Process) to Shantanu and Atanu. After a week, with some imaginary structure, I could show something significant in an excel sheet, which grabbed their attention and mercury level of my motivation rose significantly. I started with one project and eventually the number of deliverables evolved to four. Owing to my Infosys experience and analytics course at SCMHRD, I could plan and visualize my deliverables systematically.

The fun side of my two month stint deserves a mention too, the frequent coffee, TT matches and the chole-kulche-lunch with co-interns. In the evenings, Shantanu offered me his snack Tiffin and I could never say no and would grab the box immediately! I would try hard to resist but the mere sight of homemade snacks would incite tides of saliva inside my mouth. Many more events made my journey worth remembering – environment-day-quiz, Town hall with Global CEO Ton Büchner and employee-of-the-month felicitation ceremony.

June 9th, 2015

Finally the D-day came. I donned my best blue shirt while presenting to the Head of HR. I realized, the fruits of hard work laid not just in the appreciation, but also in all that I had learnt. My insights were valued. I felt summer internship offered me a good chance to hone my skills and explore my varied career interests.

In the end, I would suggest future summer interns to treat internship as an opportunity to learn and network rather than a source of pre-placement opportunity, or else they will not have fun doing it. And who knows, at the end, an offer might come too!

0 THE Emotional Reunion

(Just found this piece of text that was penned long ago, hidden in some folder in my D drive)

2nd June, 2014   

1823 hours

“Golgappe!!” Sam uttered. Just with the mention of the word, tides of saliva began to rise inside my mouth. Fifteen minutes earlier, I had blissfully accepted my friend Sam’s invitation to roam around ‘The United States Of Pimple’ (read Pimple Saudagar, Pimple Nilakh and PimpleGaurav). I wondered which wonderland I was wandering in.  I could see numerous skyscrapers rising from the earth. And I had never thought, one left turn on the road could bring me to ‘love of my life – THE GOLGAPPE’.

The booth hoarding read ‘Ganesha Special Panipuri’ . I was too ecstatic about the crispy little balls. My eyes were wide open in delight, enjoying the sight of the ‘bhaiya’ taking out panipuri, cracking open it, stuffing it with spicy mashed potatoes, tamarind chutney and finally adding a hint of mint. The small waves of the spicy water lashing against the walls of the container sent vibes of joy into me.

And then came the moment when I finally had my first ever ‘golgappa’ in Pune. Having been in Chennai for 2.5 years, I had missed the taste. It was an emotional reunion of Ashima and the heavenly ‘Golgappa’.

“Madam, Ek aur plate?”(Madam , One more plate needed??). The words penetrated deep into me and I just could not say NO.

I had had eighteen ‘Golgappe’ back to back and we disappeared in streets in search of some other shanty, as soon as Sam realized that people were staring at me as if I were some nincompoop Neanderthal from some barbaric civilization.

P.S. ‘Golgappe’ and ‘Panipuri’ are interchangeable terms. I am mentioning it because I don’t want MNS to stand against my this post and say I have erupted their version of Panipuri J

0 The Uncanny Thought

Am I the only one? Hope I am not!

I wonder if people belonging to my age group (especially ladies)…are also moved by an ‘uncanny thought’ whenever they browse through facebook.

I don’t know how do I say it…but It’s raining weddings: P Almost every week I see wedding pictures of at least two of my Facebook friends, in various kaleidoscopic combinations, hanging on their facebook walls. After a minute of curiosity about who is marrying whom, these pictures often trigger ‘the uncanny thought’ in my mind and that moment it seems like a huge black hole is expanding around me and I, in its center, am sinking down in it.

One part of my brain nods to the passing thought that says, “Marriage is still a distant destination, come on! You are still a kid”, the same moment the other part shouts, “Shut up, idiot, you must now start thinking of being center figure in pictures, such as these”. Whenever the thought crosses my mind, an air of uneasiness disturbs me…and this uneasiness has become my nagging companion ever since I heard my parents discussing about my marriage.

Having hit an age which my family, correction –my extended clan, thinks is appropriate to begin groom hunt, I am advancing closer to the stage what they call- ‘to be married’.  The signs have already started emerging with my relatives asking me about it. Having not found my ‘Prince Charles’ on my own, I have landed in a situation where my parents, relatives, family friends, sibling have decided to take it into their own hands to find me a perfect husband. Doesn’t it sound ‘uncanny’, in today’s world, to marry a total stranger? Many questions pop out of my imagination like dragons...and I silently battle them.

I noticed my Dad registering information when a family friend narrated the success story of finding a ‘good’ bride for his son from shaadi.com, an online matrimony portal. Now this really annoys me, I wish such a thing should be publicly declared an outlaw. In a culture like ours, where institution of marriage is believed to be a long term relationship, for life, we simply can’t experiment to choose the better half- to-be by a mouse click.  A few days back, I received a post on WhatsApp which talked about a matrimony portal named “IIM-IIT matrimony”. I understand it’s a convention in our society that intellectual level (or education level) of the two individuals should match, but isn’t it the height of nonsense to make it the sole criterion to marry. Some Uncles and Aunts  who have ventured into providing voluntary groom/bride finding services, really irk me.Heck ! I was talking to a friend about her wedding and prospective husband. She told the account of how they selected the ‘perfect groom’ for her. For a moment I thought, if they have started opening up outlets with prospective grooms/brides from different regions, different heights, different sectors of work, different languages & whatever!! Can you imagine someone asking you “Ma’am what kind of groom would you like to have. You can choose from our different packs supreme, deluxe, super-deluxe….whatever!!!.” Anyway, I concluded, though our friends & relatives mean good for us, it complicates things all the more.

It’s been ten years now, ever since I left my home for higher studies and career. I think, I have moved into a different social milieu from my parents, so it would be pretty difficult for them to find someone I would have independently chosen, but I have gotten tired of fighting the ‘dragons’(read uncanny thoughts), now.

I am neither a big fan of arranged marriage (for they are too loaded on guy’s side) nor love marriage (for my parents might not approve of the person because of something like caste, culture, home town…whatever).  Seeing the paucity of time, finding ‘Prince Charles’ on my own is a herculean and risky task as I am looking for a Mahatma-Gandhi-Profile, as my friends call it. If I apply a filter query on the database of men on earth(filters being nationality, education, religion, caste, culture, hometown, job, frequency of consuming alcohol, affinity for cigarettes,  nature, appearance, height, weight, family background…and what not!!), I will be left with a very little sample space to choose from(probably less than 0.05% of the database).  So I have given in to allowing them to start the groom hunt. It is really comforting that my parents are actually pretty nice about this, taking each other’s opinions as well as of friends and well-wishers and not to mention my own.

I must admit, mere imagination of life being turned upside down with the strangest kind of uncertainty, coerced me to delay the process of finding ‘the perfect husband’. But now, holding the dragons tied, seems very difficult. Marriage means change. It means new people, new life style, new patterns. For a girl who lives in this age it’d be all the more difficult. The change is inevitable but I wish it can be delayed or comes subtly.Well, ‘Hope’ is the hope I have, Hoping that my life will not change irreversibly, hoping that I will still follow my dreams, hoping to never stop being the daughter my parents know me to be, hoping that destiny takes serendipitous turn, hoping  clouds of uncertainties stop hovering.

Finally, amidst apprehension, uncertainty, fun of discussing unknown people's qualifications, fury of wasting time, I adjudge, marriage is a hard nut to crack. Society surely does blow up the things and make it all difficult to get along. So I have decided, Henceforth, I will smile hard on the so-called concerned uncles & aunties and also on my so-happily married friends and stay cool and of course will keep writing :)

0 The Indelible Imprints

In the end, we always remember the beginning.

On 3rd June, 2014, while entering the auditorium of SCMHRD for induction ceremony, I was taken down the memory lane to the day when I had envisaged the arduous journey towards a ‘good b-school’, when I undertook the first step towards the destination, when I believed I could achieve it.

The memories of the day, when I made my first trip to Career Launcher Tambaram with a notebook and a pen in my hand, flashed through my mind .I had landed all alone in Chennai, knew nobody, lonely, not-so-confident, naive but with a dream in my eyes. As I came in, a compassionate, yet strong voice came from the chair, “Hi! Come. sit!”. That was the time when I had the first ever glimpse of the man, who I would admire for a life time. Praveen Sir. He spoke from his chair the words that left an indelible mark on my mind : “You give me commitment, hardwork, sincerity and I will give you converts.”. Since that day, I never looked back and he fulfilled his promise. I converted 4 out of 5 b-school interviews that I attended.

Ajay Zener Sir, in his inimitable way, has taught us so much about life. Labelling him as a teacher par excellence, would not be doing enough justice because his contributions went far beyond academics. We were fortunate to have lessons that necessarily can’t be measured. Thanks to Jayanth Sir for the power packed sessions during the GD-PI season. Special thanks to Santosh Karnananda for his invaluable inputs

 Access to an elite brain bank with its vault full of life time experiences, has definitely played a major role in transformation from naive kids(term coined by Natarajan) to mature individuals. After one unsuccessful attempt, it was Ajay sir, who imbibed confidence, instilled energy to stand again and not to settle for anything less than aspired for. I thank heavens for bringing me to you. Career Launcher Tamabaram has given me memories to cherish for life and a plethora of friends whose unending bonhomie has always been a positive force. I shall be grateful to you all, indeed. 

2 I too had a dream

I too had a love story, complete yet incomplete. It was love- at-first-sight. It is still fresh in my mind as if it happened yesterday and the happy memories still flash on my retina and I feel a sense of DEJA-VU. With the setting sun, amidst the freezing cold, temperature vacillating between 0 to 5 degrees Celsius and dense fog, we encountered each other for the first time in an apparel store at 06:07 pm 16^th Dec 2010 at sector 17 Chandigarh.  I stood immobile, so was ‘he’. Reflected from ‘him’, a gush of cold air touched my face and I knew being with ‘him’ meant everything to me.  ‘He’ was still looking at me from the glass window. I knew we both would look adorable together and mere imagination of pleasant future would widen my lips into a gummy smile. Every time I would visit sector 17, I would find ‘him’ there staring at me from the same glass window.

I had accepted that my dream would remain a dream. But they say,’ When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it’. My father noticed me stealing glances at ‘him’.  My overwhelming emotions said everything. In the next four days I had to leave for Infosys Mysore. So I decided not to hide. Dad asked me, “Do you like ‘him’?” I was awe-stuck for a moment. My heart was beating faster than it ever had. He held my hand and took me near ‘him’. For the first ever time, I had had such a closer look at love-of-my-life : THE OVERCOAT, the impeccable Black Leather ,super soft, zipped Calvin Klein woolen overcoat with mao-collar. I donned ‘it’ with tears and remained in ‘his’ arms for next two hours. My father had to part with a dowry of Rs7000 to make love-of-my-life lawfully mine. IT WAS MINE; MY DREAM WAS NO MORE A DREAM.

Then came the day of separation. We met for one last time on 23^rd Jan 2011. The chasm of separation has inflicted a wound, which finds no cure but REUNION J I wish to meet ‘him’ soon and this time not to depart before we enjoy each others’ company fully (read long winter season).

FINGERS CROSSED!

I have had a dream, realized yet unrealizedJ.

2 A moment of literal joy :)

Losing anything is nagging…awful…gruesome or what so ever adjective you can relate it with; (be it as small as a mouse or as big as a house, be it a key , diary, sanity, ipod etc.) And the feeling haunts to the worst when you lose something you stake your life on….and you put all possible efforts to get that. And then you blame ‘jinx’ or ‘Bad luck’ for it.

But you know sometimes(only sometimes), right things happen at right time, right place to make you realize…(you will know shortly).

Last Wednesday, I was sitting at a corner table in food court and seriously cogitating upon the events that happened in my life. A million thoughts were swarming in my mind like a pack of bees whose beehive has been disturbed. I struggled to rein them. I wanted to shout at the thoughts telling them to stop, but they would refuse. I felt it was always the ‘LUCK FACTOR’ that defeated me. Feelings were powerful and logic was crushed under their weight.

When I was a child, a conviction crawled into my tender mind that I was ‘Not-so-lucky’. And I could make up a hundred good reasons to prove that. (Funniest one being whenever…whenever I played ‘Raja-Vazeer-Chor-Sipahi’, a game wherein we pick paper chits, 90% of the times I would be the ‘chor’ i.e. getting a zero..:) ).I need one full page to describe those ‘good’ reasons. So why to increase work for your eyes. So many times, I would try to negate such thoughts but eventual events would strengthen my conviction. Though I never discussed it with anyone but the inner war between me and me was never inactive.

Again all this was creeping in my mind when I was in the food court thinking about the recent mayhem caused by the alleged bad luck. I was too besotted with my own thoughts to notice even a firm masculine voice. “Hey Ashima !...Thank You! You are so lucky for me!. Ashima whenever I see you something  good awaits me. Last week I met you twice and after meeting you, on both the occasions I received good news.” Actually he has made it to two very good colleges that offer MBA.

“You said ‘LU..CC…KK..YY’ ?” , my words were out even before I realized it!                                                                          

The guy wore a weird visage and said, “Ya I did!”.

As I heard him, a smile had begun to widen on my crestfallen face. Though I know I had no role to play in his success but still I felt as if I was freed from some heavy burden I carried since time immemorial. I felt as light as a feather. (I may sound insane, please bear with me.  )

I felt a plethora of emotions that I had no name to give. It was first time in ages that I was told such words. So the right thing happened at right time.

So now I sit here staring at my paper thinking what else to write to render this piece a conclusion. This post is still in its skeletal form. But I still feel fully content to leave it incomplete.

Its completeness can be felt by the (Un)Lucky ones. 