A post for a specific date. This day is a very significant and special day in life. Precisely, it is a day on which my life took a relatively different path. In 2004, I was not selected, after the technical interview round, in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) On-Campus recruitment on 31 May 2004. I was frustrated. Next On-Campus recruitment was as on 7th June for Infosys for which I and my friends relentlessly prepared in college hostel and in Kanmani’s terrace. But suddenly we had another On-Campus by TATA ELXSI on 4th June. It was touted that the selection was more demanding technically than other companies. In fact we had both technical test and aptitude test. I was not very optimistic about entering into further rounds. As I targeted Infosys, I didn’t carry any dress nor shoes with me. I was among 15-20 candidates selected for the interview. And I was the only person from Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department. I rushed to the college hostel. Sivakrishna gave me his orange coloured shirt and cream coloured pant and a red neck-tie. I wore Kumaran’s shoes for the interview. I am grateful to them because they didn’t give me a chance to panic. It was Vasanth, from Electronics Communication Engineering Department, who first attended the interview. After he came out, Meenakshi Pavithra went in. We heard from Vasanth that he was selected for TATA ELXSI. Vasanth helped us with his interview experience. After Meenakshi Pavithra came out, it was my turn to get in. Fortunately barring two or three questions, which I answered well, I was asked what Vasanth was asked. I am not sure whether I was very confident that I would get selected. But I was confident that I didn’t perform bad. Incidentally I cleared it. Now it was my turn for HR Interview. I was asked very few questions. The interviewer asked me, how would your parents feel about getting a job. I said my mother and other in family would definitely feel very happy and her load would come down. He said, then go and tell your Mom you have got a job. My joy knew bounds. To be honest, I didn’t have to knock any doors for a recommendation. That was the greatest relief and pride I could give to my mother and granny. My very close friend, class mate, bench mate, tuition mates, Rajiv Reddy, in his Passion bike, came from hospital. He gave me his mobile (a novelty in those days) to call up to my mother. I called and said her “Vela kedachuruchu maa” (I got a job Mom). I felt a crack in her tears. Nevertheless it spoke thousand words. Only then I realised that I have done justice to 14 years of toil that my mom had done. And everyone in my family were very very happy that night. Looking back now, getting into TATA ELXSI certainly was a different path when compared with that of my close friends. Most of them were in TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL. And they are purely consultancy services and non-telecom. Though I didn’t knew in the days of my college, they had more chances of going to a onsite etc. But TATA ELXSI was more a telecom company and predominantly off-shore works. Hence my dreams of USA onsite just didn’t happen so far. However, in a less populated milieu, I made very good number of life long friends.
I travelled to New Delhi in July 2008. I explored North India. I used to travel in office bus from C2B Janakpuri to my office at Gurgaon. But for one year, though I came across everyone in the bus, I have hardly spoken to them. It was only in August-September 2009 time frame, I noticed that a girl in my bus was wearing a thin yellow thread (we call it nonbu saradu) around neck. This is thread is common in South India, among Brahmins. I was curious to know from which place she belonged to. Incidentally I sat in the same row in the same row she sat. I asked her, are you somewhere from South India. She said me, yes, native of Tamil Nadu. Do you know Thamizh. Yes. OMG.. One whole year I have gone in that bus without speaking to this person who is a Tamilian. And I was curious to know the name. Her name is SS. SS is my Egyptian lotus and that is how I will mention her in all my blogs. It was roughly around that time time, even much earlier, I had met Nagamani. I used to discuss with him and with Vasanth about her. When she walked into my life, I really felt a new breeze in my life. Irrespective other not so happy things that were happening in my life, I was happy and I was really looking for every moment with her in the bus. Literally only for those one hour in the morning and one-and-half hour in the evening, I went to office. I generally take a seat in 3rd or 4th row when the bus starts at Plot 16. I don’t give the seat to anyone except my Egyptian lotus. With few weeks, people stopped asking me and gave me that row completely. She used to come and sit with me. I wanted her attention on me. I used to think, what to discuss with her today. That is how every day went. I used to discuss lots of things, I used to share with her my hobbies, my travel experiences, my Tamil knowledge, songs, movies, Bharathiyar songs etc. Things were going great. Very slowly, I felt a special liking for her. I was quick to acknowledge that it is love. Pure love. Vasanth and Nagamani were quick to recognize that change. Vasanth didn’t took much time to confront me to confirm that. I started expressing my feelings in words, in short poems but not to her. Day by day my poetic prowess increased and I wrote many many poems about her. I don’t know how to express that feeling. To genuinely love a person is something very special and to feel it all the time is fabulous. I loved her too much and parallelly my friendship with her grew very well. I used to take some snacks (such as Kai murukku with me) and give her. On request, one day she brought me Gajar Halwa prepared by her mom. I had most of it and shared with my granny. That time, there was Kamali Maami in Janakpuri. I asked her, if she knew a person XYZ working in LnT. She said yeah I knew them and they are Iyengars. Maami was inquisitive but somehow my managed to make her believe that it was not that person I was looking for. But my granny knew that there was fire at my side. One late evening, I took my granny to the C2B Janakpuri park. I was keeping my head on her lap in the bench and admitted to her that I am in love with a girl SS. My granny was quite happy about it. She was particularly happy with the way I admitted it to her. She asked me, whether it was the girl who brought me Gajar Halwa and is she anyway connected to the XYZ working in LnT. I said yes.
I was thinking how to propose to her. I was caught up with the regular friendship block. What if she doesn’t accept. Will she cut my relationship. I decided to propose her. It was July 7 2010. It is known as Tanabata day in Japan. But I didn’t propose her on that day. But it was really a great day for me. (I have written about that in this post). I was caught up with the friendship block. I went to Madurai for my friend Vivek’s marriage on August 22nd. I had some amount of time for me to think more on it and more or less on my train journey from Madurai to Villupuram I gathered the courage and decided to propose her. When I went to my college mate Senthil’s marriage, my friends were quick to notice to the beaming glow in my face. But when I returned to New Delhi, incidentally the tentative trip to South Korea in October 2010 got pre-poned for me since my manager Deepak Gupta was particular to push me as I haven’t been to onsite before. I had to travel in first or second week of September. I felt I have very less time to propose. I was feeling running short of time. It was on August 30 2010, I went to Plot 418, called up her from the ground floor. She came down. I said I want to tell you one thing. And I took her near reception. I want to be for you, will you be mine. Her response was “loosu maadiri pesaandinga (don’t talk like a crack) rajesh ennakku andha maadiri(I don’t have any such) intentions illa I am sorry. We will stop here itself”. That was her response. We discussed for about 10 minutes and I left the place with my heads down. After that we hardly spoke 4-5 times. Each time I started the topic, understandably, she was not interested in it. I travelled to South Korea on 6th September. But till my return in November mid, all my thoughts were only on her. I couldn’t think anything but her. I felt I shouldn’t have done it without getting the confidence that she also likes me. I felt I have really hurt her feelings and the trust. Honestly I proposed very naively and could have handled the situation little better. But on my return in mid November 2010, I quickly understood that things hasn’t even turned normal. I was supposed to travel to South Korea again, but this time for 6-9 months. My travel was tentatively scheduled in 3rd week of January 2011. The last I spoke to her in person was on 14th January 2011. Her response much more strong. I left a deep scare and I quickly and heartily felt to apologize for my actions. I apologized to her and she said let us go in our own paths and not worry about this. I traveled to Korea on 16th January. I found on February that she was not on OCS. Quickly, I confirmed that she has quit Aricent. And it was sheer grace of God that I got to know on February 28th itself that she had joined in Bangalore. I called upon her to her mobile. She disconnected the call twice. Third time a gentlemen attended the phone. To confirm if I had dialed a wrong number I dialed once again to be attend by a gentlemen. After which I couldn’t reach her over phone. Once I returned from Korea in April 2011, for various reasons I took a transfer to Aricent Bangalore. After which only in 2012, I, thrice, visited to Manyatta tech Park to meet her. But couldn’t come across her. L It is more than 2.5 years now since I have last met her. I have archived numerous poems that I have written for her in my Egyptian lotus blog. And more than 2 years of poems are yet to be updated to the blog which are waiting for proof reading.
As Steve Job’s once mentioned, I too don’t know how the dots got connected and we don't know that dots existed to be connected. But it got connected for the good. Today 4th June is her birthday. I wish her a very very happy birthday. May god bless her. To be loved by the same person you love is incredible. I wish that incredible happens soon to me and everyone in this world.
I travelled to New Delhi in July 2008. I explored North India. I used to travel in office bus from C2B Janakpuri to my office at Gurgaon. But for one year, though I came across everyone in the bus, I have hardly spoken to them. It was only in August-September 2009 time frame, I noticed that a girl in my bus was wearing a thin yellow thread (we call it nonbu saradu) around neck. This is thread is common in South India, among Brahmins. I was curious to know from which place she belonged to. Incidentally I sat in the same row in the same row she sat. I asked her, are you somewhere from South India. She said me, yes, native of Tamil Nadu. Do you know Thamizh. Yes. OMG.. One whole year I have gone in that bus without speaking to this person who is a Tamilian. And I was curious to know the name. Her name is SS. SS is my Egyptian lotus and that is how I will mention her in all my blogs. It was roughly around that time time, even much earlier, I had met Nagamani. I used to discuss with him and with Vasanth about her. When she walked into my life, I really felt a new breeze in my life. Irrespective other not so happy things that were happening in my life, I was happy and I was really looking for every moment with her in the bus. Literally only for those one hour in the morning and one-and-half hour in the evening, I went to office. I generally take a seat in 3rd or 4th row when the bus starts at Plot 16. I don’t give the seat to anyone except my Egyptian lotus. With few weeks, people stopped asking me and gave me that row completely. She used to come and sit with me. I wanted her attention on me. I used to think, what to discuss with her today. That is how every day went. I used to discuss lots of things, I used to share with her my hobbies, my travel experiences, my Tamil knowledge, songs, movies, Bharathiyar songs etc. Things were going great. Very slowly, I felt a special liking for her. I was quick to acknowledge that it is love. Pure love. Vasanth and Nagamani were quick to recognize that change. Vasanth didn’t took much time to confront me to confirm that. I started expressing my feelings in words, in short poems but not to her. Day by day my poetic prowess increased and I wrote many many poems about her. I don’t know how to express that feeling. To genuinely love a person is something very special and to feel it all the time is fabulous. I loved her too much and parallelly my friendship with her grew very well. I used to take some snacks (such as Kai murukku with me) and give her. On request, one day she brought me Gajar Halwa prepared by her mom. I had most of it and shared with my granny. That time, there was Kamali Maami in Janakpuri. I asked her, if she knew a person XYZ working in LnT. She said yeah I knew them and they are Iyengars. Maami was inquisitive but somehow my managed to make her believe that it was not that person I was looking for. But my granny knew that there was fire at my side. One late evening, I took my granny to the C2B Janakpuri park. I was keeping my head on her lap in the bench and admitted to her that I am in love with a girl SS. My granny was quite happy about it. She was particularly happy with the way I admitted it to her. She asked me, whether it was the girl who brought me Gajar Halwa and is she anyway connected to the XYZ working in LnT. I said yes.
I was thinking how to propose to her. I was caught up with the regular friendship block. What if she doesn’t accept. Will she cut my relationship. I decided to propose her. It was July 7 2010. It is known as Tanabata day in Japan. But I didn’t propose her on that day. But it was really a great day for me. (I have written about that in this post). I was caught up with the friendship block. I went to Madurai for my friend Vivek’s marriage on August 22nd. I had some amount of time for me to think more on it and more or less on my train journey from Madurai to Villupuram I gathered the courage and decided to propose her. When I went to my college mate Senthil’s marriage, my friends were quick to notice to the beaming glow in my face. But when I returned to New Delhi, incidentally the tentative trip to South Korea in October 2010 got pre-poned for me since my manager Deepak Gupta was particular to push me as I haven’t been to onsite before. I had to travel in first or second week of September. I felt I have very less time to propose. I was feeling running short of time. It was on August 30 2010, I went to Plot 418, called up her from the ground floor. She came down. I said I want to tell you one thing. And I took her near reception. I want to be for you, will you be mine. Her response was “loosu maadiri pesaandinga (don’t talk like a crack) rajesh ennakku andha maadiri(I don’t have any such) intentions illa I am sorry. We will stop here itself”. That was her response. We discussed for about 10 minutes and I left the place with my heads down. After that we hardly spoke 4-5 times. Each time I started the topic, understandably, she was not interested in it. I travelled to South Korea on 6th September. But till my return in November mid, all my thoughts were only on her. I couldn’t think anything but her. I felt I shouldn’t have done it without getting the confidence that she also likes me. I felt I have really hurt her feelings and the trust. Honestly I proposed very naively and could have handled the situation little better. But on my return in mid November 2010, I quickly understood that things hasn’t even turned normal. I was supposed to travel to South Korea again, but this time for 6-9 months. My travel was tentatively scheduled in 3rd week of January 2011. The last I spoke to her in person was on 14th January 2011. Her response much more strong. I left a deep scare and I quickly and heartily felt to apologize for my actions. I apologized to her and she said let us go in our own paths and not worry about this. I traveled to Korea on 16th January. I found on February that she was not on OCS. Quickly, I confirmed that she has quit Aricent. And it was sheer grace of God that I got to know on February 28th itself that she had joined in Bangalore. I called upon her to her mobile. She disconnected the call twice. Third time a gentlemen attended the phone. To confirm if I had dialed a wrong number I dialed once again to be attend by a gentlemen. After which I couldn’t reach her over phone. Once I returned from Korea in April 2011, for various reasons I took a transfer to Aricent Bangalore. After which only in 2012, I, thrice, visited to Manyatta tech Park to meet her. But couldn’t come across her. L It is more than 2.5 years now since I have last met her. I have archived numerous poems that I have written for her in my Egyptian lotus blog. And more than 2 years of poems are yet to be updated to the blog which are waiting for proof reading.
As Steve Job’s once mentioned, I too don’t know how the dots got connected and we don't know that dots existed to be connected. But it got connected for the good. Today 4th June is her birthday. I wish her a very very happy birthday. May god bless her. To be loved by the same person you love is incredible. I wish that incredible happens soon to me and everyone in this world.
அப்படி எதுக்கு உன்னை காதலிச்சேன்
இப்படி உன்ன பத்தி சிந்திப்பதற்கு
என்ன பாத்து ஒரு நொடி
நீ சிரிச்சா போதும்
ஒரு வாரம் முழுக்க
அதை நெனெச்சு இருப்பேன்
இரவுல கனவுல நீ வந்தா போதும்
அடுத்த இரண்டு நாள்
முக பிரகாசமா சிரிச்சின்னு இருப்பேன்
உன்னோடு இல்லாம நான்
எதுக்கு இந்த வாழ்க்கைய
அர்த்தமற்று வாழறன்
வித விதமா ஜிமிக்கி போட்டு
காலுக்கு வெள்ளி கொலுசு போட்டு
தல நிறைய பூ வெச்சு
நீ ஒம்போது கஜ மடிசார் கட்டி
நான் மயில் கண் வேஷ்டி கட்டி
பாலும் பழமும் உண்டு
பாவைகள் பாடல் பாட
ஊஞ்சலிலே நாம் ஆட
கெட்டி மேளம் இடி முழங்க
அட்சதை மழை பொழிய
கல்யாணம் பண்ணிக்கலாம் வெண்கமலமே
காலப்போக்கில் நம்
முக சுருக்கத்தில்
மெல்லிய அழகு கண்டு
கண்விழி வழி காதல் மாறி
புன்னகை பூமலரில்
காதல் செய்வோம்
பவழமல்லி பூத்துருச்சு
மல காத்து வீசிரிச்சு
மழைமேகம் கொட்டிரிச்சு
மழை பெஞ்ச மண்வாசம் அமிங்கிரிச்சு
ராசா ஏக்கம் குறையலையே
ஆனா மங்கை மனம் மாறலையே
Meaning: Never praise your talents
