Another week and it will be 9 months since I changed my job. Being a part of the exodus that happened last year, I hopped from one end of the automotive industry to the other in the hope of finding greener pastures at the OEM: An odyssey from Bosch India Ltd to General Motors Technical Centre - India.
Bosch being an integral part of the entire automotive spectrum, one cannot really be in the automotive field and not cross paths with it every now and then. I have visited Bosch mutiple times as a customer. Yesterday also I was at Bosch and while waiting for our tests to happen I was chatting up with old colleagues. One among them had resigned and it was his last day. The others were making fun of him and pulling his leg in general. I non challantly joined in and had my share of laughs. He was trying to be a good sport and brushed away the casual pokes the the 'boys' were giving him, probably for the last time as a gang. He was all smiles about the whole thing, but I could see that it was actually hurting him. Probably I was the only one there who could really relate to what he was going though.
I still remember the day I was relieved. My resignation letter was not processed till the last minute hoping that I may reconsider my decision in the light of the new options that I was showered with. So on the last day while I was bidding good byes to colleagues and friends all over the company, I was also running around for paper work and formalities, getting clearances from many depts, attending multiple levels of exit interviews, returning calls of my dept guys who were waiting for a small send off party. Probably it was one of the busiest day of my life as an employee there. I hardly had time to breathe till I was done with everything and walked out of the premises late in the evening, loaded with my personal belongings. As I started walking away towards the parking lot with a heavy heart I was disturbed by mom calling me to find out if everything is ok. Answering in affirmative I told her that I'll be lil late and switched off my phone. I wanted a few minutes with myself in peace. I was sitting on the pavement of the bus bay and blankly staring the building, reminiscing the last 5 years. About 10 mins later I was startled by the parking lot attendent who had come to find out if everything was alright with me. I was surprised to find that my eyes were moist with tears and my 'I'm ok' to the parking attendant was in a completely crakling voice. I had laughed at my foolishness and gone home.
Even after such a long time when I go into the premises, many people, young and old still know me. It's always a pleasure to run into people who smile warmly in vague recognition. Many would have forgotten my name, but they will stop to chat a bit. I always hide the customer badge in my pocket and that adds to the fun. I have a sense of belonging there. It feels like home. Every tree and every corner has a memory associated to it. Every other person that I see will be an acquaintance. The genuine smiles and the occassional hugs that I get are priceless. Being a prankster that I was, someone will recall something that I had done to them and we laugh our hearts out. There was this time when I had put a transparent tape on the mouthpiece of the entire team's telephones during lunch break and I would call them up one by one and complain about not being able to hear their voice. They tried to get back at me with the same trick, but I had picked the call on speaker phone :) It's a whole lot of memories that come back.
Somewhere in the transtition I seem to have split into two. Physically I'm at GM, but my heart is still at Bosch. As people keep changing I'm sure things will change and it's a matter of time that I'll just be another customer (Kasht-se-mar). But as of today I'm still Ajit Borkar.
Cheers!
PS: A dear friend of mine told me that too many blanks in one's writing signifies hazy thoughts and confusion. It doesn't talk much about one's writing skills. In an earnest attempt to avoid it, no more ...... unless it's expected. ಸಂK: If you are reading this - Thanks for the advice. ;)
4 comments:
Good one.I can understand your feelings to certain extent.Thanks to resignations of all the people who were close to me !!
May be one day i will also write an article "ನೆನಪಿನ ಅಂಗಳದಿಂದ..."
:)It might be a lot easier for you than it was for us. Most of the gang is already out. It's the ppl that makes things memorable. Buildings and structures are just silent witness to it.
I shall wait for your ನೆನಪಿನ ಅಂಗಳದಿಂದ...
Very well written....I really appreciate a guy who is man enough to admit he had tears in his eyes…not too many people I know do that…
well...tears are tears, be it a man or a woman. It's a perfectly normal emotion. Not admitting to it like trying to fool oneself!
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