The Professional begining ....

When we are in school, or in college, we are always in a hurry to grow up. The world beckons us to come out and spread our wings and reach for newer horizons. In many cases its also about independence.

I was no different, end of college neared and i started sitting for campus interviews. Soon enough, i was graciously offered a job in a pretty big and decent organization, and yes maybe that sense of gratitude that i have is the only thing which has still kept me there (although i keep cribbing about the work and the people).

I still remember the day i got the offer through mail, i think more than me my parents were more relived and happy. There were two reasons to the happiness, one being that i had a job and two being that finally finally i was going away from the house where i had caused enough chaos for 21 years of my life and peace would prevail once more.

I set off to Bhubaneshwar for my training, and was there for three months. I had a nice set off friends there, and did everything but train. Soon the time had come to move on, and all of us parted to different locations. I caught the Chennai mail in the wee hours of the morning and landed up at Central station amidst the "Auto Thugs". Autowalla's are generally thieves, but these guys were a level above, they were bandits. This was the first place where the guy wanted 600 bucks to go 20 kms by Auto, and surprisingly the auto was not even made of gold.

A fine start you might say, but believe me its just about getting settled in. These were minor hiccups in the process. For me i have adjusted all my life, and i adjusted again and was pretty much comfortable in no time. Once work started, i soon found many like minded people and maybe the silver period of my life started. It was hard toil and harder fun which kept me and the others going. People talk about teamwork in a project, i saw a brotherhood at work.

On weekends, we would simply either crash at my place and see psychotic movies and drink and dope and make merry and relive our dreams, or we would just go to this place called "Star Rock" and listen to some really great music and have a few drinks and then come back to my place and see psychotic movies, listen to some more psychotic music, dope and make merry and relived our dreams which were always so close and yet just beyond the touch of the finger tips.

A real weekday and a virtual hallucinating weekend encompassed my life for 2 years in Chennai, and i lived. I really lived after a long time. Then one by one people started leaving either for foreign lands or to other jobs or to other places in India, and soon it was a handful left, but although we lost many, we still had their memories, their wishes their thoughts and we continued the same way.

One day it was my turn. When i came to Chennai i never knew that if i had to leave it, i would feel bad, but i did. From that time on, i realized a vital truth of life, its not about where you are, its about who you are with that matters.

But time does not stop and nor does tide, and i moved to Portland OR. I took with me umpteenth memories and friends for a lifetime maybe more, but i do not believe in rebirth so that's not a viable thought.

Even today when we brothers speak, it is with the same camaraderie and feeling that we used to do when we were together. Distance had played its game, but we were winners.


Dedicated to my borthers whom i met in Bhubaneshwar and Chennai