ONE YEAR!

17 November 2008 - was a bright Monday morning!! I was sooo excited

from the night before, that I couldn't sleep all night. I was on a conference call with my friends till about 3-4 in the morning [ which was a usual thing for me .. ] and then laid on my bed awake till my alarm at 6:40 a.m started playing my favorite song.

 I woke up, got dressed and left home on my "Activa"  zooming into the cold gusts of wind on a Cold but bright Bangalore Morning. 

I reached on-time. Nervous, with butterflies in my stomach, but a BIG SMILE on my face I entered the premises and saw a big board on the wall. IBM India Pvt. Ltd. My first day at work was this very day last year. 

IBM has been a wonderful journey and the last one year has been superlative - well obviously rite? who wouldn't like a job where we got paid for the first two months just to introduce ourselves to each other n have fun?? :)!! That's what we did!

We were called "Vitality Hires" - and I personally had no idea how that would impact my stay here, but in those initial days, it was considered something really special.

It was very unusual, the experiences we had, during our training days. We had an Outward - bound learning and team-building stints at PEGASUS. 20 people of which almost everyone was new to each other were sent to a 2 day camp were there were loads of tasks, planning and Bonding that happened!

And post that we had 6 months of rigorous training on all the services, service product lines, brands, sub brands in IBM. We met leaders of IBM not only from India, but also leaders from Asia and Australia. From Servers to Software, From Applications to services we were shown a view of IBM which included  everything but still wasn't enough.

I think the best part of the whole journey was the friends we made. We have a kind of connect with each other which is in-explainable!! I love them to bits and today when all of us are distributed across the country, I miss the presence of each and everyone who isn't with me in Mumbai. And for those who're here - my life here has been wonderful mainly mainly because of them!!!

Those funny/crazy outings in Bangalore, the tea-breaks and lunch breaks in office, cribbing about staying late inside office and staying out for looong hours after office, the "booze" parties, the "only girls" parties, the birthday surprises, the fights, the arguments, the hugs every morning and every evening, the looong conversations by the 6th floor window, the pictures we clicked without any rhyme or reason, the stay-overs(for me), the bike rides, the skits, the videos, the "presentations", victory, failure, bliss, disappointment, the "Sametime" conversations.... Every single thing in that happened during those days - I miss them!! But I am glad I got to do all these things!!

It doesn't seem like a long time, when, I think of all the things that has happened this year on a personal and a career front. Well this was the only year I had a career - so... :) Thank you IBM! for everything, but most importantly for the friends it gave me!!

Love you guys Loads!!!!!