A Decade gone bye

A Decade gone bye

    While rounding up my daily activities for the night, I happened to nonchalantly look at the phone screen and notice the date - 27^th March 2019. For a moment, I continued to stare at the screen, my hands continuing the task on their own, while my mind flew back in time – 10 years back to be precise – and with a jolt, I realised it was during this exact same week, back in the year 2009, I was in training at my first job.

   Oh my goodness! It has been 10 years?! How cool is that?

   I say I deserve a pat on the back and to treat myself to some sweets. However, I am instantly reminded by my paunch, glaringly I imagine with two dark red eyes, to avoid unwanted calories or otherwise it will inflate even more. The audacity of it! In 2009, it would not have dared to do something like this. But, then again, it never even existed back then.

   The two years of junior college were pure torture. Due to an early admission in school, I appeared for my boards at the age of 17 itself. Those two years, I was constantly reminded that I must immediately start working as soon as I finish HSC. I had no choice whatsoever.

   See, the thing is, it was a norm back in those days. “One must start working and look for jobs post 12^th” – a law that most Indian middle-class households abide by to show how hardworking their kids are. My parents were immensely influenced by the other Christian family in the gully, for those two brothers started working post their 12^th and like every other Indian kid, I too, sadly, was not immune to the ‘log kyakahenge’ attitude that had taken control of my dad’s mind.

    What sealed the deal was my step-brother coming home post his 10^th and finding a job at a consultancy firm immediately, while I struggled to find one, due to my baby face or weak personality. I must confess, I dreaded his return from the start as I knew the expectations would rocket sky high. Not helping matters further was my brother’s manly looks and his charming personality.

    

    Without further ado, he set me up for interviews at various call centres – Intelenet, 3, Ocwen, E-funds, Silgates etc. And by set-up, I mean, falsifying my age to create fake documents and show I was 18 years old and therefore, eligible for work as per the pesky Indian laws.

    

    I want to explain in graphic detail what happened at each of these interviews (or more like prison interrogation) but the wounds are still fresh from the mauling I got at each one of them that I would rather mention it here in brief - it was as sweet as a bitter gourd.

    Silgates was the only place, where I had managed to clear the interview and got selected. I remember feeling so ecstatic, I was literally skipping, hopping down the steps with the offer letter in my hand. I was wearing the formals my attya had gifted me for my 17^th birthday. Back home, my dad was finally relieved, my siblings were happy and everything was at peace.

    I was selected for a US-based process, which required me to work a graveyard shift from 01:30 am to 09:30 am from Monday to Saturday, with Sundays off. This would later change to 02:30 am to 10:30 am during daylight savings from October to March.

    Now, the salary offered by Silgates included allowances for meal and travel that were deductible from the total salary. Therefore, I used to travel on my own from home to get one thousand more and use only half of the meal vouchers to add half of the allowance more to my salary.

    Honestly speaking, I have no clue how I survived those 14 months at Silgates. I had no idea what a hell-hole this company was, before joining. Don’t get me wrong, I was grateful for having landed a job in the first place. But Silgates is a company that would suck the life out of you, not caring if you lived or died. And frankly, beggars can’t be choosers.

    I would leave my home around 12:00 am, walk up to S.V. Road, wait for the workers BEST bus that would pass around 12:10 am, take a 5 rupees ticket and get down at Andheri station in west. Then, take the public bridge, cross into the east side and then walk all the way up to Baba house near W.E.H. It would roughly take me 30 minutes to walk, so I would spend the time listening to the radio on my Nokia flip phone. One of the songs from that time ‘Pehli Baar Mohabbat’ happens to be in my playlist to this date. (Note: Metro work was just beginning during the same time).

   Silgates did not even have a proper canteen. I would get a 20-minute break at 04:00 am, in which I had to finish eating quickly and not exceed my break by even a second. I guess my habit of wolfing down food in minutes stems from these days. The other 10-minute break around 08:30 am was considered a luxury and was given only if we had managed to make 2 sales for the day. Some days, I would just give up and skip the break as the stone cold coffee was not worth struggling for throughout the 8 hrs.

    The situation became worse during the daylight savings period. As my shift began during 02:30 am, I had to wait one-hour-and-half outside (remember, I used to reach work by 01:00 am). Like many of my fellow colleagues, I used to sit on the stairs outside, often dozing and almost in a stupor before the shift even began. The work became unbearable during this period. There was a day, when I was awake the whole evening and was so scared thinking about the shift ahead, I asked my dad to get me a red bull can, drank it and walked all the way from home till office, along with the crowds heading to Siddhivinayak temple, just so I could stay active at work.

    To make matters even worse, Silgates required us to compensate for the annual Christmas leaves from 23^rd December till 02^nd January by having us work every alternate Sunday from October till December. Imagine, working for 13 days non-stop, just for that one Sunday off in between. I had forgotten what life I had or how valuable that one Sunday off was. Normally, I used to reach home by 11:30 am and then immediately go to sleep, getting up only for lunch. But during those days, I don’t even remember anything happening around me at all. This situation improved considerably, when my dad finally bought me a two-wheeler in January.

      You may wonder, why I did not quit, despite all this. For starters, I was still a 17 year old legally and also, I needed the one-year experience as a Sales executive on my resume.

      Most importantly, it was the company of my friends that made working here enjoyable.

      The people I met here, the friends I made are some of the people, whom I have made a point to stay in touch after all these years. Parikshit for one, is one of my closest friends I now have. Every Wednesday, after our shift ended, Parikshit and I would head to the Mahim church together and pray for 10 minutes. During outages, some colleagues and I would play the game Name-Place-Animal-Thing. We would joke so much, making fun of racist customers, crack jokes at each other’s expense Indeed! I had a tough time and seriously considered not quitting in June 2010 because my friends were still working here. Parikshit’s advice to me was the only thing that convinced me to quit Silgates and join 3.

     Those 14-months have now recessed in some dark corner of my mind. Even while writing this, I had to dig deep and try hard to remember some snippets of time spent back then.

    And then, I joined 3 global services.

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    It is a funny story how I got selected for 3. I had originally gone to the consultancy to appear for an interview for TCS, which I had cleared, got selected and was just waiting for the HR to come in and handover my offer letter. While waiting, the guy told me to try for 3 – his logic: you are already selected for TCS, why not try 3? If you are not selected, you still have one offer at your hand.

    

    I felt a little apprehensive. I had tried and failed twice before to clear the interview at 3. This was my 3^rd time. But since there was no fear of losing now, I went in, full of confidence and gave the interview. At one point, during the telephonic conversation, I even cracked a joke and dared to laugh as well.

    To my utter surprise and disbelief, I was selected.

    I cleared the interview on 2^nd June 2010 and got the offer letter the next day.

   The shift of 2^nd June at Silgates was perhaps the most liberating one ever. I did not care if I made a sale or not as I had already planned to abscond from there after taking my salary, afraid that they might block it if they got a wind of me joining somewhere else. I was too excited thinking about my new organization and mind you, 3 was one of the elitist organizations in the market then. Joining them felt such a huge achievement.

    The very first day of induction, 14^th June 2010 felt surreal. I could see why the name of 3 demanded such awe and respect in the call centre world. Now, this was a proper organization that one could work for. Massive operation floors and an equally massive cafeteria, I was impressed at the start. To top this off, I got a pleasant surprise the next day when I was informed that I was selected for a back-office process, which required NO CALLS, had a fixed shift timing from 05:00 am to 02:00 pm, and with fixed weekend offs!

COPS Admin Team

    
     Truly, joining 3 has been one of the most magical moments of my life, so far.

     From 2010 till now, I have experienced so many highs-and-lows in my life. I completed my graduation via distance learning while working simultaneously, making me the first person in my family, up to that point, to be a graduate.

    

     My COPS Admin team (my department in 3) was there for me, at one of the darkest moments of my life. When my dad passed away in 2012, my team members, not my childhood friends, held me up and got me through that dark phase. Nilesh, Pradip, Lariza, Avon and all of my colleagues turned up for the funeral; Nilesh even going to the extent of handing me money to handle all the expenses and tagging with me, along with Avon, to help me arrange everything. To think off, there I was a 20-year old dealing with such a tragedy,but was only able to move on because of my team, who surrounded and lifted me, when I needed the most.

    

     I was in COPS for 5 years from 2010 till 2015, until I got promoted and moved on to a different department. Those 5 years are filled with countless memories, moments of pure joy and laughter at work. We would have fun activities every Friday, where we would just abandon work and play games, once even playing hide-and-seek during a power outage for 2 hours! We banded together as a team, participated in each other’s religious festivals, life events as well as become a part of each other’s extended families. The highlight was the year 2013, when we went on two back-to-back outings – first to Goa in June 2013 and then Igapturi in July 2013. Till this day, I fondly look back at those pictures and reminisce of the times spent together.   

   Over the last 10 years, I have gone from having a head full of thick hair to almost on the verge of becoming bald, witnessed my siblings complete their studies and find jobs eventually, went from being thin to becoming overweight to eventually leaning down, took up writing, painting as hobbies – so many momentous occasions passing away as time continued to move on.

   The point of this post?

   Honestly, I am unable to lay a finger on it.

   Why did I decide to write about it?

   I thought it was a pretty cool way to reflect back on the decade gone by; capture about them somewhere, until time erodes these memories away from my mind.

   What will the other person get from reading this?

   I don’t know. Maybe, they would be thankful for not having joined a company like Silgates or perhaps, they too would look back and see how far they have come. 

   What did you achieve by reading about the past?

   I felt grateful and thankful to the heavens, for being able to work and support myself & my family.

  (Unfortunately, I do not have any pics from 2009, this is the oldest I have from 2011)