How do you say goodbye ?

My goodbye to Oliver is what I will remember forever. I had to decide on letting him go or die a painful death. I remember standing alone and praying to God to let me take the most painful decision. Oliver was all I had at that moment. He was the only reason I was still holding on to a city I desperately wanted to be in.

But I could not be there forever, I had to return to CBE and he was not wanted in Coimbatore and he knew it. It was as if he knew the turmoil I was in. It was as if he was letting me out of my turmoil by taking himself out of my life. All those days when he was puking himself out he used to look at me apologetically for messing the house. These thoughts went through my head as I prayed for forgiveness for any wrong that I might have done to him. He enriched my life by being there. His unconditional love was what made me realize that money, looks and religion were all silly man made barriers in life. I asked the doctor for a few minutes to be alone with Oliver. The doctor knew my need. He had been the witness to our bonding for the last week. He left me alone and I hugged Oliver for five minutes and I knew he had to be put to sleep before he would go into a massive cardiac convulsion. I did not want to see him in pain and asked for the lethal injection. Oliver kept staring at me till his life went out. I can never forget that. A goodbye which almost killed me.
I thank God for being able to say Goodbye. Goodbye is a sad word. More so when you are not prepared to let go. Unsaid goodbyes are worse. You always cling on even when you know it is over.

Demything the myth.

Here are 18 harsh truths about corporate life nobody will ever tell you. by Ankush Bahuguna: 
1. The more efficient you are at your work, the more you will be burdened with it.
2. Nobody cares about your individual progress in the corporate world. All that matters is what you contribute to the company.
3. There will come a time when you will take up a job just for the money and nothing else.
4. Desk jobs kill creativity.
5. Very often, you will be held accountable for tasks that weren’t even your responsibility in the first place.
6. You will be dealing with a dozen tasks other than what you were initially hired for. Your scope of work will only keep increasing.
7. You will be constantly made to believe you need the company more than it needs you, and that, is not always true.
8. Meetings are a waste of time. Always. Nothing good has ever come out of them, really. Most people aren’t listening, and the ones talking are far away from reality.
9. If you’re sluggish, you’ll be ridiculed by your boss. If you’re proactive, you’ll be hated by your colleagues.
10. Your needs as an employee would go completely ignored, sometimes. You won’t get what you really deserve until you raise your voice and put your foot down.
11. You will be made to work with uninspired people and it will be the most difficult task ever. Your team-mates would neither be of any help, nor would they make it possible for you to take everything in your own hands, and it will kill your passion.
12. People around will constantly pull you down with their cynicism solely because they hate your guts.
13. Nobody is going to appreciate you staying in extra hours every single day but the one time you leave a little early, hell will break loose.
14. Whichever new initiatives you volunteer for, become your responsibility.
15. The HR Department is useless, wherever you go.

16. Office politics is definitely not a myth.

17. But meritocracy is. There will be times when undeserving people will get credit for the work you do, simply because they are higher up on the corporate ladder.
18. Half of your time will be spent in sending out unnecessary mails that will never even be read to countless people who want to feel important before you can actually start working. And more often than not, you will end up doing everything yourself.

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My story starts......

The IT world used to fascinate me when I was on the outside. But the five years that I inside threw all my fascination out. Even though I was treated fairly well because of "God Knows the reasons" I could see through their thin veil of hypocrisy. All the above mentioned and more are true. If only people were given the flexibility and their own working hours more work will get done. But, no, there are higher-ups with giant-sized egos to be placated. Balderdash is what I will say at the end of the day. Sincere workers are not tolerated. Only ego feeders (Chamchas) will get a raise. Plastic HRs who go about with a smiling "I am so sorry, I do not know that" ( 'that' is company policies, ethics etc)  are the ones who are in demand. Not the sincere ones who really care about the welfare of the employees. (They are so emotional and not professional! ) CEOs, who are away and conveniently ignorant of most of the happenings going on in their companies do not realize that all activity and hunky-dory scenes happen just before or during their visit. Yuck. I will never again look at the IT world the way I used to look at it. I never used to stand any of their nonsense and I am sure they were happy to see me go. But I am happy to say I worked under my terms and I would not compromise. Working hard meant being emotional vs being professional. It resulted in making me a professional. Start believing that you are working hard while enjoying yourself in the cafeteria. That was what I saw most people do. Nonsense! Amen.

But, it was in this backdrop that I met some wonderful people with whom I will remain friends forever.  I remember many people fondly who were always there to help me out when the need arose.