Happy Birthday

I take this opportunity to wish my dear friends on their birthdays.

1) Mahesh Ramani: I wish my friend, who turned 28 today, a very happy birthday. Wish that he steps into the next phase of life - Life post Marriage by Feb 23, 2011.

Happy Birthday, buddy! May all your wishes come true.

2) Shahul Hameed: Wishing this genius friend of mine a very happy birthday. He celebrated his 27th birthday on February 15th, 2010. Sorry for not wishing you on your birthday pal! May this birthday be followed by many more happy ones to come.
May god bless you and your family.

3) Thulasi: She is a cousin and very good friend of mine. I wish this cute, grown up, kid (Oxymoron)a very happy birthday! May the forthcoming years bring you peace, prosperity, and happiness dear.

Silence and Realization

"Speech is Silver, Silence is Golden".
Unlike most proverbs this one stands true to this day. Sometimes, silence is golden, perhaps Platinum. Silence is a language in itself. It can convey anger, frustration, loneliness, hatred, and what not. I learned this the hard way.

When I sit at home and recollect my experiences with my past friends, I realized that I had completely failed to understand what their silence meant.

In one of my previous organizations (elearning companies), I made some very good friends such as A,Sjna, H, and Snch. Since I was very young at that time, I never knew the proper way to conduct myself in a professional atmosphere. Morever, in a desperate attempt to prove myself, I ended up doing things which hurt many of my friends unintentionally.

To their credit, none of them made a fuss of things until the situation went out of control. Even then, all of them were SILENT about it. Very Silent. I didn't realize that their silence was directed to admonish my ways. Alas, I realized it too late.

The next instance came in the very next company that I joined. Life was going smooth till the fifth month. I had made considerable number of friends by then, two of them being my 'best friends'. Our company participated in a rowing competition. The competition required us to take part in early morning training sessions which meant that all of us had to start from our homes as early as 5:30 in the morning.

In spite of being a lazy bird, I joined the rowing team just because two of my best friends were also participating. After two great months of fun and frolic, we beat our opponents and won the regatta. Alas, after the competition, our friendship was never the same. Both my friends started distancing away slowly. I heard that one of them had invited almost every other friend in the group for a party at her house. To top it, none of them even mentioned about it. I failed to understand that I was not required anymore. To add insult to injury, on the day when we won the coveted trophy, there was a photo session of which I was not a part. Nobody cared to inform me either. All this considering that I was the one of those few who practiced regularly and cheered our team to the hilt. One of my 'friends' conveniently took this perfect opportunity to become the darling of our group. From then onwards, I became a total stranger to that friend. She was the attention-grabber of our concern for a while. All I could do was just smile and get back to work. Because I realized that real friends are hard to find.

What the heck? Even the girl whom I used to love, remained silent when I proposed. But at least, her silence was most meaningful.

Sometimes, it pays to listen to your brain rather than your heart.

How strange is life?
You ignore your friends who stay with you in times of need, but strive to be with those who don't care.

You try to gain the respect of people whom you shouldn't be even caring about.

How do you feel when your "friends" try to ignore you silently rather than just ask you to leave them alone?

Well, I may never know the answers to these questions.

After learning some valuable lessons over the years, I have decided that from now onwards, I should never expect anything from my peers or colleagues. And, I shall not speak much too. I have spoken enough.

To all my good friends who supported me and loved me knowing WHAT I AM: Thank you!

To all those people who were once my friends: Thanks for the memories! May we never cross paths again! God bless you all.

The End of a Chapter, the Beginning of A NEW One!!!!

August 8th, 2008 marked an end of a chapter in my book called life. I was relieved from EK, my former family (organization) and on August 11th, 2008, a new chapter in my life began, I joined my current Organization, Sify, on August 11th, 2008. On my first day,I finished my joining formalities at Tidel Park. The joining formalities hardly took 3 hours in total. After completing it, I had lunch at the Sangeetha outlet in the Food Court at Tidel. As I came out of Tidel, I remembered that I had to visit the IGNOU regional center located at Taramani, 3 kms away from Tidel, to enquire about the status of my MBA entrance exam hall ticket (It was supposed to reach me by 8th, August).

As the bus frequency along the IT Highway was very low, I decided to walk all the way. As I walked along the road, it struck me that infact it was at this sameTidel Park that I had completed my joining formalities 3 years ago when I was with Sutherland. As I thought of my first job, many memories of the past flashed through my mind. It just dawned to me that I had QUIT EK. No more jolly tea-chat sessions with Sai, Sivan, Deepak, Jayanth, and Nagaraj. No more Cricket nets sessions, no more tea-kadai mokkai sessions at the Guindy teashop, no more Cricket discussions. For a moment, it dawned to me that things had happened too fast for me to even feel or think about it. I had spent 20 months with EK, made so many good friends, had so many great moments there, but within one month, I had said goodbye!

I came to the Nandanam office on August 12th. I got a system at 12 pm, started blogging right away. I was a bit apprehensive on how my new organization would treat me. I was feeling lonely for quite sometime before I saw my old friends Karkuzhali, Devi, and Harishankar. Meeting them made me feel better. Plus, my lead ID introduced me to my team members; all the people seemed to be very jovial and relaxed. I was given a warm welcome and within fifteen days of my joining, I have started feeling that this place would be like my second home and provide me immense knowledge and many good moments. Hope the forthcoming months prove me right!!!!!

A Friend Called HARI....

A person called Hari:
I have made many friends in my life. It seemed to be a strange co-incidence that i always seemed to find a friend called Hari in each place i went.
Here are the list of Hari's that i have met in my life till now:

Sree Harendra Kumar- A person who was my classmate in Tenth class. He still continues to be one of my best pals. I always remember his funny exploits during the cricket matches that we played at the Marina. He calls himself an allrounder(I really doubt that). He bowls so slow sometimes that the batsman nearly yawns off :-)). Sorry Hari, this is the general opinion of batsman who have faced you.

Hariprasad Rao: This guy was not a best friend of mine. He was a humorous guy, also a prankster in class. He was my classmate in the 11th and 12th Standard. I don't have much to say about him except that we were sitting in the same bench during our Eleventh standard and making fun of our teacher Mohanadas.

Hari: I don't remember his full name. I used to call him 'Hari anna'. He was a year senior to me in College. He was the person who introduced me to the Rotaract club and was most influential in making me the Joint Secretary of our college Rotaract club. He was an easygoing person, average at studies, but extremely good at extra-curricular activities. I last saw him in 2005. He along with the other seniors Bharat, Kishore, and Nanda were the terrific four in our department. These four were labelled as rowdies by our lecturers, but in fact, they were very good at studies too.

Hariram: This Hari was one of my best pals in college. He was my collegemate in B.sc. He along with Vishnu, Nilesh, Prasanna, and others formed a formidable gang. Hari was a creative person, seldom interested in studies, but always pretended to be. He wrote many stories and poems during his pasttime. His best talent lied in doing creative work. I always remember those days when all of my college mates used to barge into his room, keep our valuables and start off to roam around the college. We used his room as our restplace. Thanks for letting us to use your room Hari boy!!!!

Harishankar: This Hari is a former colleague of mine. We both met at Expertus. He is a die-hard Cinema fan, loves to watch movies especially Classic movies, is supposedly a fan of Sonali Bendre(I am not sure about this, i saw her photo in his mobile). He is also a great ID, bubbling with creativity. He was the one, along with Abhi and Sanjana, who taught me about the realities of the corporate world.


Last but not least, Harikumar: He is my colleague at EK. Initially i knew him as just another ID in EK, but when we started working together, i got to know him well, he is one of those people who want to live life to the fullest. He is an atheist, a strict 9-6 worker, lazybone, easygoing person, likes to call himself as the emperor of the Universe and sometimes the most difficult person in the world to argue with. He considers himself as the GREATEST HYPOCRITE of all time. He also considers himself as crazy(Which i think is true, he almost drives people insane).

But at heart, this guy is cool, genuine, unorthodox,easygoing, and food loving person.

One usefull message

I have received many messages in my mobile phone, most of them are useless forward messages that are sent to me by my friends. I usually delete messages in my inbox so that it doesn't keep displaying the message "INBOX FULL". Today, as usual, i took my mobile today and unlocked it just to see that my inbox was full again. I had to delete a few messages and was looking at all the messages trying to find the ones that i could delete immediately.
Just then, i happened to see a message from a very dear friend.

This message was a very old one, it was sent to me in August 11th, 2007. But somehow, i had not deleted it since it was sent by one of my best friends. This was a reply to a message Where i had said, "When you build a team to win, look for people who hate to lose". She had sent a reply which not only shook me, but made me think over my attitude.

The message goes like this :
"In my 23 years of lifetime, i've never seen a person who loves to lose! When you build a team to win, look for people who would be humble enough to sacrifice personal fame and work for a higher purpose... Because victory is like a butterfly, if you chase it, it will run away. Wait with perseverance, it'll come to you".

Note to my friend: Dear Nandy! Thanks for your advice! Although i knew the message was just a reply with pun intended, it changed my attitude totally. Maybe, when i prepare a team for a purpose, i'll definitely keep your advice in mind. Thanks Nandy!