Five years on

Five years ago, on a rainy Friday afternoon, I was just coming out of an internet café in Thiruvella when the mobile rang. There had been no new mail in my inbox, so I wasn’t really expecting a phone call from Bangalore. The interesting thing about a CUSAT M.Tech is that you get to spend one full year doing research, either in academia or in industry. The dot-com gloom had lifted and after five years of classrooms, I couldn’t wait to get into a cubicle. So I answer the phone, wishing that it would be an interview invite.

The lady on the other end introduced herself as a HR person from Motorola. Asked if I could be in Bangalore by Monday. Motorola office, C.V. Raman Nagar. At nine in the morning. To join.

Wait…What! Join! No interview? I was confused, not sure if this was for real. Even after I got an email a few hours later with joining instructions, I wasn’t really convinced.

Sunday evening, I packed my trusty old travel bag and took a bus to Bangalore. Monday morning, Motorola office. Few of my classmates were already in the lobby. Sometime later, we got our joining letters. There was a collective sigh of relief. We were now officially in the corporate world. By lunch time, we were introduced to the hiring manager, who bought us lunch. And then we spent the rest of the day exploring the coffee machine.

That was my first day at work. It was a strange feeling. The thought of earning a salary. Of free coffee and urinals that flushed automatically. A feeling of having arrived and yet not having reached.

As I look back at the last five years, I can’t help but be grateful, for the opportunity to touch a million lives, for the excitement of a product release, for friendships that will last a lifetime, for hope and despair, for success and failure alike, for every single day of this exciting journey. Hallelujah!