Birthday,Party and induction !

If the title hints at the presence of magnetic induction , then NO! WOOF! Don't get scared ! Well, as the title indicates , I want to put down my wonderful experiences I have had over the past few days ,starting with my birthday and going right up till what happened today ! 2nd July, 22 years ago ,I entered this big,wide world.This year,this day, 10 mins before my birthday,one of my several rakhi sisters,Lakshmi Menon(Nonem) called me up to wish and I being the not-so-proud-to-be-of brother,TOLD(not even asked!) her to call up 10 mins later ! And 10 mins later,i heard a tring-tring and there was her call ! Soon,some more friends called up to make me feel special!!
I had already decided that I would watch the much anticipated football semifinal match between Champions Brazil and the "oldies" France.So, sat at half past 12, thinking on one side about why some of my friends hadn't wished me as yet and on the other hand,looking out for a splendid football match!! As people always say, "Too many expectations aren't good !!" and that is what exactly happened.The match was a damp squib as France dominated the over confident and listless Brazil from start to finish.With thoughts of "Why the hell did i have to stay up for this CRAP on my birthday???", I went to sleep!
Well,birthdays are always nice coz' you get to speak to many friends of yours as they wish you. The morning was spent talking to many of my friends while, in the afternoon,Narayan of the "Rebel Narayan joined Ittiam" fame came home and made me feel special.Also, I would want to mention Lalitha here,coz' she wrote a small poem for me!! As the day went on, the Cisco party which was being organised in the posh Le Meridien had got me excited.Before that got started,I paid a visit to my cousins and grand parents that was overdue .Something even more than overdue !
When 5pm finally came,many of us were already there and the party kicked off at 6 ! And what a party it was ! With a few exciting games,performance by the Cisco band and rock-your-body-while-the-DJ-plays music, it was a really cool party ! I suck at dancing but we(some of us who don't have that dancing bone in us) used the opportunity to jump awkwardly around on the dance floor !! But WHO CARES ???!!! It was a great experience !!! Tired and exhausted, I came back home and simply "crashed" after thanking zillion people on Orkut for their wishes!
July 3 - 1st day of work !!!!!!!!!!! New day, new life, new challenges !!! Was a bit nervous,coz' it was the 1st time i was working !! I am aware of the repititions,but you see, I was excited !! The 1st 2 days were what they called the Induction program .
The venue was Hotel Chancery on Residency road. As I travelled on the same roads that I used to take to travel to my schools(for 14 years !!),lot of sweet memories came rushing to my memory !!
The ground rules were laid down for the induction program - No one is supposed to come late for any lecture , Cell phones must be either switched off or must be on silent and there was supposed to be a dialogue and not a monologue - failing which, the guilty would sing! (of all things ! ) Well , as major "gyaan" was given to us by "total level" speakers, whose speeches ranged from the absolutely fantastic to just about "ok", I became aware of the fact that I had joined a SUPER Company - CISCO SYSTEMS !!!
Speeches apart, there were many funny incidents which I shall jot down,coz' I dont want people who will risk reading my blog to sleep in between, like I did during some of the speeches!
1. There was this "funda" that people had to mingle(as all people from the same college,obviously sat together) and this turned to be a fun event as we had to sit with different people and each table had to come up with a name and one person from the team was supposed to introduce others in the team, with a leading adjective starting with the same letter as the beginning of the name.This was hilarious, as there was Silent Sundaresh, Noble Nikhil , Marauding Madhu ,Passionate Piyush and what not!!
2. There was this incident when the whole concept of "working-from-home" became a joke !! This presenter asked, "What will you do if there is violence near your place?" The text book answer which someone said being ,"We will work from home",incited a "You have already been spoilt" response from the speaker.But the better part was yet to come . Super Soumik( that was the adjective associated with his name) said , "We will take part in the violence" ! The audience was in splits. The speaker then said to Aruna , "You look like a I-work-hard girl,what will you do if there is fire ?" (he meant fire at the work place) . She religiously said , " Fire at work place or ...." (People are already laughing non stop) when the HR herself added, looking at the confusion that prevailed, "Ya,she was working from home!!"
3.Well,I would want to add one of my worst pjs ever to this great list. We had a tea break,and Siddharth from Pesit comes to me and says ,"Are you having coffee or tea". I respond : " I am not having 'coffee or tea',I am having coffee" !! YUCK !
4. Well, I almost forgot.On the 1st day of induction, 4 people got caught for coming late and then they sang ! I was like -COME ON !!! I couldn't believe what was happening ! But the trick worked, coz' people were before time for the next lecture. Since, everyone was there, the HR,seemingly thrilled that her trick had worked, asked if anyone sings in the group. Someone shouted my name and I ended up singing the old Kishore Kumar classic , "Aane waala Pal" . This was on the 1st day. The 2nd day was better. Some guys knew they were coming late .Hence, they came ready with a song of their own ! The lyrics were really funny and everyone ended up having a good laugh !
Jokes apart, the 2 day induction program was nice and gave us a good introduction of what CISCO is and what we can expect. As I conclude this, I am just thinking of how tomorrow's training in the main Cisco building (Divyashree Chambers) is going to be ! Adieu .