THE END - AND A NEW BEGINNING

On 8-Jun-12, it was my last day in a company that I worked for 11.5 years. Personally, the duration means little to me. My father worked for around 30 years as a scientist in a cotton related laboratory ; my maternal uncle has also worked for a comparable duration in a private organization and my brother has completed more than 20 years working for a private airlines organization overseas. In comparison, 11.5 years is little to talk about !

However, there are two factors that change the situation, now. First, the generation gap : my father and uncle belong to a generation where opportunities and options were few. In today's world, particularly in cities, the options for a graduate are many. Engineering and medicine were the major streams open to students until the '90s. Now, an enthusiastic student can take up animation, finance or dabble in electronic media if s/ he chooses to. I am sure there are other options also, like opportunities in the retail sector. Second, people are far more driven now: a good pay check and possessing a car and house by the time one completes 30 are taken as a "given". In terms of career too, people expect growth and learning opportunities. So, job hopping is the norm rather than the exception.

In this situation, completion of 3 years or 5 years itself is considered as a remarkable achievement, particularly in an IT related job. I am not sure whether this is good for the industry, though ! I have been rather laid back in that respect : my own ambition in life has been to contribute sincerely to whatever responsibility I take up and at the end of the day, have a good night's sleep ! I suppose quite a few of my peers would consider this lack of goals and ambition with dismay ! All I can say is that each person has his own values and hence, style of working. One value that I cherish is to be true to myself. I am not bothered by job titles or hierarchies. As a result, I suppose that I can be considered as somebody with little ambition : to an extent, the criticism is justified. I purchased a car after I turned 30 (after much persuasion by my family!) and I have an apartment to call my own, only now at the ripe old age of 37 ! I was reasonably contented in my job.

This changed in the beginning of 2012 when I got a chance to take up a quality assurance management position in the aerospace domain. At that point I had completed 11 years and since an opportunity presented itself, I had to make a decision. How does one walk away from 11 mostly happy years ?! In my case, I consulted my family and a few close friends. I was in a famous organization and had to step into an organization that is little known outside its domain. My family advised caution ; my friends told me that if I felt I had to make a change, this was the right decision. So, finally it came to me. Do I go in for the "unknown angel" or the "known devil" ?! If I continued, I would be in a new type of role in a new group. If I moved, it would be a similar new-ish role in a different domain. I also would get the chance to establish processes and I could say "I did that". This was an important factor in making my decision, as also the learning that a new domain opened up. There is an increase in my compensation package, but that is a minor factor when it came to making my decision.

I decided to take up the option and informed my manager. I had to serve out a three month relieving period, which was a double edged sword. On the one hand there was a question of prolonged waiting to take on a new job and on the other hand, the three months helped me mentally adjust. I gradually switched myself off during the three months.

Even as I followed well established routines, I did it with a sense of "This is temporary !" Slowly, word got around of my resignation and the first response I got was typically "Why?", followed by "How long have you been here?". Those were natural questions and I answered them as best as I could.

When the duration of the 3 months notice period began, it seemed to loom large. As time passed, the last week approached rapidly. After 11 years, I felt I owed a big thank you to my peers and colleagues in the quality engineering function. On the Tuesday of my last week, I invited my group for lunch. The good news was that more than 20 people came, including three of my managers and close friends within the team. I have worked with different managers but I will always look upon one of them, in particular, as my role model. Since I don't like to mention names in my blog, he will be unnamed, but if I have earned some respect, I would attribute a lot of the credit to this person. He was there and also our group leader, a lady with exceptional decision making ability. I am glad that I had organized lunch. It served my purpose to indicate my gratitude to my team. I moved around speaking to them and took photos as mementos.

On one of the last few days, I went in my motor bike to work. As I drove on Hebbal flyover, I looked at the lake knowing I would not be feeling the wind rush past me for some time in the near future at least. These were the times when I felt a little emotional, though it appears laughable now : "last bike trip", "last post lunch walk", "last team meeting", etc. are not events that I ought to have been conscious of ; yet, I was aware of these in the back of my mind. I have driven to work in my car and on my bike quite often and taken the company bus for most of the time. I had never travelled by BMTC.

My last day dawned just like any other day. I decided to come by bus and walk some of the distance back on that day. On the morning of Friday, 8-Jun-12, I caught a bus to Silk Board at 7:45 - and encountered a bad traffic jam just after the Jayadeva Hospital flyover. It was past 8:50 when I reached Silk Board. By the time I got onto another bus and reached work after another bad traffic jam near Total Mall, it was close to 10:30 ! I had a meeting at 10 and so I called up my colleague explaining the situation. We started late but he was merciful to me : we ended on time !

Suddenly it felt that the remaining time would be inadequate to complete all the formalities ! I had to send out a "bye bye" mail, surrender the cupboard keys, give the laptop .... could it be done ?! Of course, it was, but it took the proverbial last minute to complete it. I ate the last lunch with a couple of close friends. I sent the "bye bye" mail after lunch, which I had composed at home and sent to my official email ID. Now I thought I had included all people, but I did miss quite a lot of people. Some of them have got in touch via a social networking site, so I am glad I will get to know what they are up to ! It appears that I have been forgiven for missing people.

There was a farewell party arranged in the late afternoon. To my surprise, my team members had taken the time and the effort to make up a booklet filled with quotations from peers and even ex-team members who left the company. They had collated various photos also and filled the booklet with these photos and quotations.

I knew that I would be asked to make a speech. My main objective in the speech was again to thank the team and the manager I respected. Mentally, I must have thought of at least 100 different ways of making my speech ! When the time came for me to talk, all those rehearsals were wasted. As I look back now, there were at least a few points which I wanted to cover, which I missed ; so much for preparation ! Still, I think my message of thanks went out to my friends and colleagues. There were cakes to go along with the speech and I ate a slice. I got a jumbo greeting card and a bouquet of flowers. There were a lot of "Best of luck" wishes.

Finally, I collected my relieving letter and sat down for a brief conversation with a friend, thankful to sit. This was my "last cup of tea" and he presented me a book. I have received three other books from senior colleagues in another group that I was associated with. I took the 4 books, the booklet, the card and the bouquet and set for a walk towards home. I am reading one of the books currently.

It had rained a little. My work place was 21 km away and I could cover only part of the distance on foot. I set out and took the service road on the Outer Ring Road. There is nothing like a walk for one to get a sense of a place ! Though I had travelled on the road for years, there were surprises : the service road was dug up at one place and I had to step on an unstable tile that served as a bridge, with a wide sewer flowing 20 feet below me ! Then, there was a tea stall for truck drivers. Of course, the dominating feature was the number of trucks parked. There must have been at least 80 to 100 trucks that I saw on the service road where I walked slowly.

At home, my family knows I like to walk. In 1996, I used to walk around 4 km to work, one way, for around 6 to 9 months. Then in my second job, once, I walked from Hoody to M. G. Road, around 12 k.m. away. However, on 8-Jun, I felt my leg twinge as early as near the sewer, around 2 k.m. from my workplace. I ignored the twinge and kept walking.

Cars, private taxis and buses sped past me on the Outer Ring Road. Thankfully, none of them stopped : I wanted to walk for some distance at least. I called my wife when I reached Hebbala. I had walked around 4.5 k.m. and the twinge in my feet continued to be tolerable. I walked along Bellary Road, towards Mekhri Circle. Again, I noticed how Hebbala was actually a small village. There were traces of the village in the shops below the fly over. Compared to the Ring Road, the number of people on the road was huge and observing them as I walked kept me busy. There is a temple complex below the fly over and I inwardly prayed for the best for myself in the new job, as I passed it.

Periodically, I kept moving the bouquet from hand to hand and also peered back to check that the greeting card was in my bag. After I crossed Mekhri Circle, I decided I had enough and started searching for an auto rickshaw. I got one on Palace Cross Road. I had walked 8.8 k.m. that evening. I sat in the auto and rested my weary legs, thankful that an eventful day was over. However, I was mistaken.

Being 185 cm tall, I had stretched my legs so that I was sitting almost diagonally in the auto. Suddenly, a shooting pain went through my legs ! On a few occasions, I have left pain like this when I was asleep, but the last such incident was several years ago. I had cramps, with the pain being terrible. I berated myself to try out such a long walk. As I tried to move my legs, the changed position only made the pain worse ! Negative thoughts rushed into my head as I thought I have to call my wife and ask her to help me in to my house : I did not think I could walk independently ! I kept changing my position, struggled with the pain and eventually discovered that if I massaged my feet, it helped.

That calmed me down. I put my bag to the side and rubbed my legs. The cramps subsided a little. Looking back, I think I had moved a lot during the day, wishing people, completing formalities, etc. I must have sat for perhaps an hour during the afternoon, including my last tea. I had eaten little and then I had walked 9 k.m. Probably, my feet muscles were unprepared for such adventures on that day ! On Bull Temple Road, the auto rickshaw driver announced that the cable was cut. To my fortune, he stopped near a bus stop. I paid him and settled myself in the empty bus stop. The driver pushed the auto and even as I was looking around, he had disappeared ! It appears that he did not want to go to my area.

Any way, this was also good. In the bus stop, I gently moved my legs front and back, which I could freely do. I felt better. I stood up, limped a little and sat down and massaged my feet and calf muscles. I stood up and this time I was able to walk a couple of steps. I repeated my exercises until I was much improved, though there was still a feeling of pain. I got another auto a few minutes later and by 8 p.m., I was home.

Relating my experience of the day to my wife and mother made me live the day again. Both of them eagerly read the booklet and the bouquet stayed in our living room for a few days. I am sure my wife was surprised that I actually managed to get some work done and earn the respect of my colleagues in between my long coffee breaks and post lunch walks :-) ! I also went through the booklet in detail : my colleagues have been extravagantly generous in their praises about my contribution. I will cherish the booklet for the kind words in it.

On Monday, I started my new job, with my legs back to normal. The work excites me : the initial few days have been long, but I have begun to understand the projects and the way of working. I got my email ID within a day and received my visiting cards soon also. There will be a lot more to learn about the aerospace domain, apply my experience in quality management and set up processes and the structures linked to the processes. At this point in my career, I agree with the Roman philosopher Seneca (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/seneca/#LifWor has information on Seneca) who has said : "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."