It was kinda like I had unintentionally decided to take some rest after almost 16 years of educational toil. Not that I was tired of it all or that I am not going to adopt an educational life ever again. It was just that break that one takes without any hassles or income losses. From 2006 July to November…

During these holidays I did a lot of things that I would cherish for life. Among these would be my brother’s wedding, volunteering for Imagine Cup 2006, watching every Hindi or English movie that had a minimum 3 star rating on Times, the hyderabad Student Partner Meet, working for Zealous Solutions, job hunting, playing cricket, attending functions and tellin people that I am happily sitting at home without a job. I didnt regret that one bit. I didnt have to lie to my conscience. The jobs that I would love to do never camy by, the companies that I aspire for didnt have any openings. I would not like to join a pathetic company just for the sake of the society’s pressure. So I had to cook up a reason to quell the rumour hungry people around me and my mom’s visible uneasiness – the CAT was a reason enough.

After I rejected my campus recruitment offer from India’s largest software company, TCS due to various reasons including a two year bond, relocation to another corner of the country (which meant leaving Bangalore, the IT Hub of India and my dream city!!) and if this was not sufficient, a very small & insufficient pay packet that would leave me worrying about making ends meet, I started my job search spree.

After tons of applications, hundreds of mails with resume attachements, bothering dozens of known people for referrals, a few hoax interview calls along came a few opportunities that would raise my eyebrow. Microsoft GDCI Hyderabad had called for freshers. We all applied at a portal that allowed us to specify only our marks and nothing more. We pleaded and begged the people we knew at MS to atleast ensure that our resume gets shortlisted for the test and the interview procedure. But what happened later left me high and dry and very very angry as they had not even called me in for the test despite me being a student ambassador and also meeting all the criteria for the same. I was so upset about this that I decided I would not participate in any Microsoft venture in the future as a promotional clown. But yes, I will still remain as dedicated to the community as I always was. But I will evangelize against Microsoft’s selfish promotional gimmicks to use innocent minds to do their advertisement work. I will use the community against them. The Microsoft’s Student Partner Program and the MVP Program are all shit filled initatives by this company to spread their name. Beware Microsoft! I am here…

But things moved on. My close friend got a call for the same test and cleared the entire process. She is now working at Microsoft GDCI Hyderabad. Sometimes I feel that it was for good only that I didnt get called for that test. Heaven knows how much I would have regretted leaving Bangalore for a silly job had I been selected. Soon after there was a walk in at Sapient Corp Pvt. Ltd.. As I found out that most people working here were happy with their jobs and happy working for the company. I too liked their selection procedure and the way they treated me with respect. One does need respect, be it in anything. That is why one would readily pay 150 bucks for a movie at PVR and not even 50 at Kamakya. Respect is everything, and often determines who we are and also what choices we make.

And as one would expect I gave my best at the test and the interview. I was selected and they soon released the news that we should be joining on 6th November. It came as a huge jolt. I was finally going to join, going to be just another IT guy in a small company down the road, I was finally going to work. So started my final run of holidays. I had to enjoy the last few days of life in the way I wanted to. Movies, hanging out at coffee bars, eating out and the works.

Now at the end of it I wonder how four months went by. But never do I regret it. I could not have asked for anything better than what I did in these holidays. It gave me a lot of time to realise myself, be a total introvert, speaking to myself asking what I really wanted to see myself as so on and so forth. Chats with Chaitanyesh, Manoj Ganapathy of CTS, Pradiptha and Vineeth Gupta of Microsoft as well as Deepak, Jadeja, Sheeba and Reza helped me answer some of these questions. I may not have the perfect answer right now, but atleast I am confident I am heading in the right direction.