Here’s the thing about Pune - it’s not Mumbai. Just as no other place besides Mumbai is. Therefore, traveling from home to office does not always have to take one and a half hours. So I need not have left my place at 8:00 to reach the office at 9:30. That was my first lesson. Since I reached at 8:20, I had plenty of time to think about it.
But even though Pune is not Mumbai, software companies in Pune are like software companies in Mumbai. All conference rooms are set to sub-arctic temperatures, all coffee machines dish out bad coffee, guys will not make eye contact when you talk to them, girls will look away immediately, and the HR will provide you insufficient information. And the systems department. Oh, the systems department! Do all systems departments across the globe hold hands and sing ‘We are the world’? They should. They share an oneness that rates ye up there with self-actualization. It’s touching, really, after you’ve got over the Stepford Wives resemblance.
Then there’s the matter of stationery. In software companies, stationery is dispensed by people adept at face reading. They look at the visage, deduce if this person can be short changed and hand out stationery accordingly. That is why, the guy who joined with me got a notepad with paper he could use to write an invitation to the Queen (no, not Freddie Mercury, and no, not because he’s dead.) And I got one that seemed to have wrestled with a dog. Somewhere above my brows, on my rather narrow forehead, the word ‘Sucker’ stands emblazoned.
Also, new joinees usually have to wait in glass cubicles, while the other employees walk past and cast curious glances. Sometimes, they stop a moment, perhaps squint a little and move on. ‘See Exhibit A’, their expression seems to say. That’s what comes out of bunking biology, I suppose. You wind up as a specimen yourself.
So, my first day at the new job and these were my lessons thus far. And I haven’t even started on the documents I have to study. Now, that’s another thing with the induction period in software companies - you can never tell who’s learning what.
But even though Pune is not Mumbai, software companies in Pune are like software companies in Mumbai. All conference rooms are set to sub-arctic temperatures, all coffee machines dish out bad coffee, guys will not make eye contact when you talk to them, girls will look away immediately, and the HR will provide you insufficient information. And the systems department. Oh, the systems department! Do all systems departments across the globe hold hands and sing ‘We are the world’? They should. They share an oneness that rates ye up there with self-actualization. It’s touching, really, after you’ve got over the Stepford Wives resemblance.
Then there’s the matter of stationery. In software companies, stationery is dispensed by people adept at face reading. They look at the visage, deduce if this person can be short changed and hand out stationery accordingly. That is why, the guy who joined with me got a notepad with paper he could use to write an invitation to the Queen (no, not Freddie Mercury, and no, not because he’s dead.) And I got one that seemed to have wrestled with a dog. Somewhere above my brows, on my rather narrow forehead, the word ‘Sucker’ stands emblazoned.
Also, new joinees usually have to wait in glass cubicles, while the other employees walk past and cast curious glances. Sometimes, they stop a moment, perhaps squint a little and move on. ‘See Exhibit A’, their expression seems to say. That’s what comes out of bunking biology, I suppose. You wind up as a specimen yourself.
So, my first day at the new job and these were my lessons thus far. And I haven’t even started on the documents I have to study. Now, that’s another thing with the induction period in software companies - you can never tell who’s learning what.
Comments
What do youmean convert coworkers into Rob Zombies and..err, what are Rob Zombies? as for pirated software treatment, i mean...i am not software. please understand.
:-D
Hi Hemant,
Yes. It will take me time to get used to Pune. But I'm sure it'll be pleasant. How are ya doing?
So do the systems chap there wear porridge color shirts too? and is the ceiling there black too :-)?
The ceilings are cream. That's the first thing I noticed when I got here. The HR must have thought that I'm so happy to be in this new place that I look up to the heavens to thank the stars or something! Great!
Hi Khakra,
Hey! No offense taken! An intense rock star, huh? And I'm a catalyst for getting someone there. Hmm, I can live with that. :-)
My level of 'oomph and sophistication'?!?! Have you forgotten me already or what?!
And Gajendra who?