Of This and That

28 th August 1995, a thin, tall, hesitant, individual had joined one of the upcoming IT companies in the Silicon Valley of India. Thin and tall, because that’s how the individual was built, as are most fresh graduates, stepping out of college. Hesitant, because he had no idea what to expect, this being the first job. At the back of the mind, first day of college was coming up again and again and that meant being scared of seniors and ragging. As he slowly ventured into the company premise, he was impressed with the office building, nice and clean, shining floors, security guards, immaculately dressed, standing at the gate etc. The office bus had dropped bus full of employees, including this individual, at the company gate, ahead of time and hence there were not many people to be seen. The receptionist was also yet to arrive. Watching his each step, he slowly moved towards a room besides the reception, having seen some people inside. In a barely audible voice, he asked, “Excuse m...

What started a long long time ago… on a nice Monday morning of August 28 th , 1995 @ Electronics City Bangalore, is finally coming to an end today on May 19 th 2014 @ Hinjewadi Pune. Almost 19 years, with Infosys (missed reaching the 20 year milestone!). While it seems like a lifetime, it really wasn’t. When I think back, I can still clearly recall the Monday morning when my uncle had come to drop me to the Koramangala Infosys Office and I had taken a bus from there to the Electronic City campus. I had walked cautiously into what was then just the building 9 and 10 (Heritage building) of the current Infosys City, Bengaluru. I walked to where some HR folks were sitting and told them that I was to join from this day and they greeted me with a warm smile and pointed me to a room where many others like me, freshers, were sitting to complete the joining in formalities.   For some reason I had expected this to be similar to college’s first day experience: ragging. But then realized ...

When my 11 years old daughter was doing her English letter writing homework, I got to explaining to her that we used to write inland letters (recall those 35 paise blue papers , which later became 50 paise and were probably around 75 paise or Rs 1 when I eventually stopped using them) and that it used to typically take 3-4 days for it to reach its destination. The receiving person may or may not reply immediately, so it was easily at least 10-15 days or even a month before we would get to hear from the other side. She asked innocently “Papa, why didn’t you just send them an email or if it was urgent why not just call them on their mobile phone?” It is difficult for my daughter to imagine a life without these technologies and devices and I could not help but smile. It also took me back many many years and comparisons with our lives today just started to happen. In comparison to today, those days seem so simple and relaxed. I capture here a few of those thoughts. Inland letters...