New City, New Career

When some people, starts their success story like, “I came to this city Ten rupees in my pocket……” Now I feel I too would say the same after few years. Now it is too early to comment because I just 4 years old to Hyderabad. Four years back, I had no clue about Hyderabad other than my new company ‘GECIS’ and my college mate Rohit who is for HSBC.

My fortune was changed over a phone call on 19 or 20th of December that disturbed my afternoon nap. It was from two managers named Girish and Shankar. When they said they are from GECIS, I recollected my memory and came to know, I attended their written test three or months back. Then I had about 20-30 minutes of telephonic interview, testing my accounting skills from my basics to the end. Lucky for me, I was preparing for my M. Com exams (in fact I was sleeping above accounting book) books was very handy for me. As questions were shooted, I rolled pages of Accountancy text and managed to come up with right answers. After few minutes after interview, I got call from HR that you are selected and please join by 23rd of December. First I thought of joining first week of January, later I negotiated with HR and fixed my Joining date as 26th December. After hearing the news about my selection, I was overjoyed to work with a company like GE, but the other hand, I need to relocate to Hyderabad soon.

It was around 2-3 hours discussion with family members about my relocation. Many of my friends suggested not to move, rather than to look at Bangalore or Chennai. At last I decided to move to Hyderabad with one new hope and to meet my good old friend Rohit.

It was Vacation time and there was only one train that was connected Kerala and Hyderabad. Since it was three or four days to go, Waiting list touched the limits. On the other hand, I didn’t get my reliving letter from my old company back in Bangalore. Then I decided to break my journey by Palakkad to Bangalore to Hyderabad. So that I can collect letter from Bangalore and continue my journey to Hyderabad. Then I worked out with different trains that connect Hyderabad and connection train or bus from Palakkad. Then I worked and came out with one weekly train- Mysore to Jaipur that runs through Bangalore and Hyderabad on Friday of 23rd December on 12pm. I managed to get one Third A/C ticket out of seven tickets to spare with 3 days to go for travel.

At last, I decided to travel on 22nd of December 2005, from Palakkad to Bangalore- 8:00Pm KSRTC Volvo, so that I could catch train which is scheduled to start from 10am on Friday. Journey was peaceful, had a nice sleep, when I woke up 5AM, so found myself in midst of heavy traffic Jam on the outskirts of Bangalore. My heart beat increased because, I had to go to my old office and need to collect my letter.

After saying final words to my colleagues, I reached station with 20 minutes to spare for train to arrive. I couldn’t the train journey which I always do. Many thoughts came to my mind, like going back to Bangalore and look to other good company so that I can stay close to my home town. But I managed to get through that sorrow, tried to stop such thinking by sleeping or talking with co- passengers. I slept a lot in evening because train is scheduled to reach Secendrabad on midnight of 12am.

Around 11:30pm, it was winter time and chill air was blowing, I peeped out of door, to have a first sight of my place, where destiny is written. Train was slowly moving through one of MMTS railway station on the outskirts of city. At last by 12am, I reached Secendrabad Railway station. I called up GE travel desk for a cab to my guest house. After few minutes, cab reached station to pick me up. As soon as I sat on my cab, driver said, “saab mein aapko jungle le jaa raha hoon”. I was shocked for a moment because my friend told me that company guest house is near to office, and it is residential colony. But later came to know that the guest house already full need to go other guest house which is almost 15 kms from city, surrounded by rocky hills and small pond and few houses were around two to three kilometers away

Later on day, I made friends with couple of other friends, who came to join on Monday. We were around eight people, with new hopes joined company on Monday of 26th December 2005. Thus I became one among those 10,000 in Genpact (Previously called Gecis) family. I joined as Process Associate which is an entry level in this company. Now I have completed four years with Genpact. I feel there are lots of changes personally & professionally. There were some bad moments in daily work and at the same time some of the nice moments overcome those bad days. There were situations which made me to think of looking for greener pastures. As long as you compromise with failures, you can’t shake hands with success. I think I got good guidance and support from my supervisors, which made me deliver things and could darely expose to the challenges.

Now time has arrived to shift gears in my corporate life. I am waiting for my promotion letter to become Management Trainee. The position which every Process Associate like to reach when he/she joins Genpact. I understand this is very small milestone in my career map as compared to success stories of people who has earned over the years in this company. I hope I can be an example for many young people who joining the company. It takes first six months to know the company and six months to know your work. It all depends upon how you take your work- as a challenge, or way to make money, or as learning. I would like to end by famous words by Jack Welch, CEO of GE, “Control your destiny or someone will…”

How I enjoyed movies

Undoubtedly craze for movies and stardom is far more in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu as compared to Bollywood and Hollywood. Though Tollywood and Kollywood are close cousins, whatever hit movie released in either language will be dubbed or remade within months. I still wonder how telugu people interestingly watching a tamil movie in dubbed version. Though I am not a movie buff, once the craze of the Andhra people pulled me to watch a telugu movie.
In Initial days in Hyderabad, I couldn’t tolerate some of the rap & hip hop telugu songs. After few months, I am used to these songs because I felt these telugu songs are far better than those Himesh’s howling. I used to get same cab driver who used to put same movie song everyday. Gradually I started liking the song. I used to hum the song at work though don’t know the wordings. One day I asked the cab driver about the movie. He said, “Pokiri sir… nice movie… 100 days….” There is a theatre near to my house which I hardly noticed. One day I asked one of the shop keepers about the movie running that theatre. He was thrilled and said, “saar… Pokiri….” I and my room mate too took a chance and immediately entered into the theatre to watch the movie. The movie already crossed 100 days and my house being in outskirts, not much crowd attracted the theatre. We already missed 20 minutes of the movie. Why story is important for people who don’t know language? We managed to get two tickets and I asked one guy who was standing at the entrance to collect tickets. I indicated towards the hero and heroine and asked… “What’s their name?” He wondered as if we were from other continent. Obviously Mahesh Babu (hero) is one of the leading super stars in Telugu industry and heroine Ileana is heartthrob heroine for young generations.

The hall was filled with aroma of ghutka and cigarette. We managed to find a good seat in a corner of the hall. Behind our seat were few people who looked like laborers chewing ghukta and blowing whistle at punch dialogues. Soon a hit foot tapping song came. I saw many people gathered in front of the screen dancing and bowling whistles from all sides. I wondered how the ambience would be at the first day…… After the movie, though I didn’t understand the movie, I too became one of the fan of Mahesh Babu . Next day when I was narrating the incident to my colleague, he said, he is member of Mahesh Babu Fan’s association. I watched the movie at least 4 times in different occasions in bits and pieces to know the full story.

After few months, I got a pass for spiderman. I was bit disappointed that my friend didn’t get pass for the movie coz he answered one of the question wrongly. We decided that we will watch the movie some other time and we decided to sell Rs.170 ticket to someone. We were waiting to watch “phir hera pehri” which was also released around the same time. We reached the theatre early morning so that we can sell out the ticket and get a ticket for “phir hera pheri”. The people who came for movie where either couples or with families. We had a hard time to sell this pass (selling ticket in black @ Imax)… that the thing we need atlast…. At last we managed to find group of friends who were missing one of their tickets. We sold them the tickets and bought two tickets for Hera Pheri. My friend still says, “hum hera pheri karke…hera pehri dekh liya…” 

Indian Bouncers!!!!!

Few weeks back, during India- Australia ODI series at Mohali; I was betting on Sachin that he will not score his 17,000 runs at Mohali. Neither had he scored attained that feet on that night nor he reached half century. Result was India went down in one more match.

After playing over for two decades, I am not recommending him to be match winner for every match. But at least this is the time selectors need to raise their eyebrows and need to understand a correct replacement for this legend in coming years. Last year around this time, Men in blue were dominating by winning first T-20 world cup and an ODI series win in Australia and in Sri Lanka. At that time, new trend developed in the team – ‘Youngistan’. Though everyone welcomed the selector’s approach and indeed Youngistan shed their blood out with fearless batting, fielding techniques. Who won’t appreciate those young caps if they defeat mighty Australians in their den?

Out of the 15 member team who flew to Australia, very few could make impress the selectors with their consistent performance. Isanth Sharma once had a good pace and swing is lacking his pace. Rohit Sharma who was said to be potential 3^rd down batsman is still searching his place in final XI. Another fast bowler Sreesanth is either in the beds with injuries or finding himself dancing around in stages. Other players who emerged out were Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina. Former proved himself to be opener in both forms with his back to back centuries in Test and ODIs. The later though had good innings under his belly, he stills need to frame an innings on his own.

The selectors had this youth policy in past as well. In the year 2000, Players like Yuvraj Singh, Mohd Kaif, Ratinder Singh Sodhi were introduced to International Circuit when they won Under 19 world cup. Yuvraj Singh and Kaif won the selector’s choice, when they pulled up Natwest Series. Kaif did once again when he scored match winning maiden century during 2003 world cup. Those were their 20^th or 30 ODI internationals. The current players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Isanth Sharma, Sreesanth; though they have enough matches to their credit, they still couldn’t show up their consistent performance.

The youth policy has really appreciable but the same time; selectors have to see the vintage players in the team. Though Rahul Dravid had decent Champions Trophy, was removed out ODI against Australia. I don’t understand how a player like Virat Kohli who has played just 10 odd games can compensate a player who has played more than 200 games and scored more than 10,000 runs. I feel the poor middle order could be cause of the loosing ODI series Australia. Fast bowler Ashish Nehra who too had decent Champions trophy and ODI series was left out for test series against Sri Lanka. It’s evident that selector’s theory would be” If you are playing good- you are out because we need to give chance to other players”. “If you are playing bad- We still see some potential in that guy… we need to give one more chance”.

Earlier selectors kept Ranji Trophy (Test Match) or Duleep Trophy as a base for selecting a player for an India XI. Now that IPL has emerged, many players were tested on their performance through T-20 game. The test match happens to be three day or five day. It gives much analysis of a player’s patience and shot selections. So to some extent, selectors could gauge his performance with ODI format. After winning T-20 world cup and money pumped in to IPL, it looks like the selectors are keener on watching “see the ball- hit the ball” contest than watching 5 day game. Moreover it gave selectors more options on selecting players for series. One of the famous cricketer has quoted, “If you compare T-20 with fashion, I would say it as bikini cricket”.

Now that India will be hosting one more ICC world cup in next 15 months, selectors will be facing a tough call to select final 15 members who will be dressed blue shirt. There is a clear message to the young turks that the consistent performance is more important that winning a match for India.

ONE SOUL DIFFERENT NAMES!!!

Before writing this blog, I opened up a small notepad to note down how many nicknames, I got in my last 20 years of my life. There are some nicknames, still I wonder, how it came or what made them to call these names. I could remember 10 names in last few years. Some names really weird which really makes me angry young man.

As per our custom, first child gets name of paternal grandfather or grandmother, so my elder brother fulfilled that ritual by taking my grandfather’s name. But my parents went little further and decided to keep my maternal grandfather’s name for me which is Narayanan (Maybe, in those days itself, my parents knew that in married life husband and wife share equal responsibilities….J). It didn’t stop there. During the time of namakarma, some one suggested Lakshminarayanan (still searching for that personL). Thus that became my official name as per the records. I got another name “Manjunath” as pet name to be called at home. This is after Lord Manjunatha (shiva) of Dharmastala.

The first nickname I could remember from day one in school to last day of my tenth standard is “Lakshmi” (short form of Lakshminarayanan). This was the weirdest name I ever got and I hate this name down to earth. I changed schools in between, but this name remained the same. One of the worst part is, any new teachers call up my name and look at girl’s row.

The other name Manjunath became “Manju”. I came to know that this is a girl’s name when the same name is shared by one of my cousin. I didn’t have much problem with this name as this name was within my relatives circle and other close family friends. But this name gets true recognition, whenever I visit my uncle’s place in Mangalore. Everyone in neighborhood calls “Manjunathaa…” I felt odd when they add extra “thaa” in the end. Later when I was employed in Bangalore, there was a young office boy whose name is Manjunath, but people call him Manju. I was only person who call him Manjunath and he comes up to me with a big smile on his face.

Other name I could recognize is “Narada”. This name was not very famous among my friends. But I liked the the name very much. This is when I was studying in fifth or sixth standard where we had a chapter “Dhruva charita” and I had to play role of Narada. The play was messed up in between by cross dialogues and my teacher interfered and called me, “Hi Naradaa… stop…stop..” Students started laughing and thus became my nickname. During the same time, I got one more nick name, which continued for two academic years, until I leave that school in between the terms. The name is “Thayir” which means curd. Some of my intelligent and creative friends kept short form TVS (Thayir Vada Sambar). This may be because; I use to carry curd rice or sambar for lunch. Funny thing is the new pupil who joined next academic year, who don’t know the full form of TVS started calling me TVS and thus it became “brand” name for me in the class. But unfortunately in the middle of my nineth standard, I had to leave the school and joined new school. Since I joined late, I was too busy in running through the portions and by the time, I became familiar with the students the academic year got over. On tenth all my old friends of old school joined in my school but I didn’t get any new names as my friend’s circle was limited. But the name “Lakshmi” ruled the roost.

As I entered into college, my name remained the same, but I started saying Narayanan to my new friends. Thus the name Narayanan became quite famous within my friends group. Eventhough some of my old classmates were with me calling me Lakshmi, the name didn’t get much recognition. Apart from that, there were some changes in my appearances like holy ash on forehead and half sleeve shirt or T-shirt, so some friends started calling saami, pattare or Iyer (famous nick names for Brahmins in Kerala). Some of my friends use those when they are angry with me and some use these to get their home work done or need any other help. I never felt bad on these names, because I managed well to rid off my old brand name “Lakshmi”.

After my graduation, when I joined the company, my user ID and e-mail id started with first part of second name and second name being my father’s name which is “Radhakrishnan”, my ID became “Radhakl” and (first time I felt like… “ohh god.. first it was Lakshmi and now it is Radha L). First few days, it looked very strange, later when I used with this name. Moreover many people in my floor were known in their user IDs than their original name. Sometimes new people or any IT people come up to me saying, “Hi Radhakrishnaa…” or “Hi RKji.”(with respect). But when I had my client introduction, my clients took almost ten minutes pronounce my long name. They suggested any alternate name. I was thinking for a name, my manager jumped up with a name “Lucky” (Lakshminarayan). Currently that is the nick name running around me. Moreover the name became so lucky that, I started getting appreciations for my workJ and promotion as well. So there is nothing offensive against this name.


These are some of my famous nicknames, I could remember. As I said earlier, the weirdest name, I could remember is “Lakshmi”. But nowadays there are few friends, who call me by that name, since they are very close friends, I never take it seriously and it is just like another name for me. I still think of those days, how I fight with my friends and argue with my parents to change my name.

Which nickname you like? Please feel free to post your comment.