GOD rescued me. I did not see him but heard his voice.

This is one of the real incidents which happened recently and appalled me. I get dreaded whenever I think of it. Here is what happened. I got a chance to visit a place called Portsmouth in UK as part of my official trip. The place is approx 40 miles from London. The assignment was close to 3 months. Hence my company arranged for a duplex apartment in a place called Southsea for me instead of a typical B&B (Bed and breakfast). The apartment was too comfy for a single person. It had a Bedroom with attached bath and a Kitchen. The 2 rooms were separated. The serviced apartment had 4 such duplex apartments and I was the only person who was staying there. The apartment was opened to me by the property owner and he briefed me about the room heaters, cooking ranges etc. He said that he does not stay here and stays couple of streets away from the street where my apartment was located. He handed over the keys and wished me to have a pleasant stay there and left the place. I just had a look at the surroundings and could notice that there were very few houses nearby. I was so tired that day and had a very deep slumber.

I woke up so early 5 AM (BST) which is 9:30 IST. I had a cup of tea and completed my morning routines and got dressed up to start for the work. I had a hard copy of a map to reach my office and had all the bus routes printed. I pulled out the map which would take me to the nearest bus stop. I walked by following the instructions in the Map. I reached the bust stop and saw the time table which was fixed in the bus stop. There were no direct buses to Fareham(The place where my company is located). I had to get a bus to City centre and from City center to Fareham I had to catch another bus. There were frequent buses from Southsea to City centre. However the frequency of buses from City center to Fareham was less. The bus timings were so accurate that when the clock struck 8:16 AM the bus was in the bus stop. The people boarded into the bus in a Queue. I had to get a pass for the next 3 months for the route. It was around 60 pounds (4,800 INR). The journey was so pleasant which was topped up by the English weather. The max temperature was close to 14 deg cel and during the nights it would be close to 8-9 degrees. I reached office at 9:30 AM and started back to home by 5 PM. I reached city centre by 5:45 PM and it was getting dusk. I spotted a Tesco shop in the city centre and had a huge list of items to buy for cooking. I bought all the vegetables, milk, bread and poultry. I reached the apartment by 6:50 PM. The moment I came in front of the apartment the lights were on. It was something new to me. I was bit scared at that time. The entire place was too dark and calm and suddenly lights glow. I took 2 steps back the lights were off again 2 steps forward the lights were on. Oh my god I was horrified. Then I realized that it was an automatic light which has some sensing mechanism. Almost all the houses in that street had this mechanism. So the guys after reading this blog don’t be scared when you visit UK for the first time.

I opened the door and my god the entire house was too dark. No lights were illuminated and I managed to get some light from my mobile phone. I saw some switches and randomly switched on some switches and could see some lights were turned on. The light was enough to climb the stairs to reach my duplex apartment which was on the first floor. The stairs were made of wood and my own footsteps scared me. I opened my room and went inside and switched on the lights and got freshened up. I went to the dining room and Kitchen. I watched television for sometime and started to get myself prepared for cooking dinner. I was all alone in the apartment and I locked the Kitchen from inside and started to cook. It took 1 hr for me to cook some rice and vegetables. I had my dinner after some time and watched TV for quite sometime. I started to yawn and thought of going to bed. I switched off the TV and inserted the keys into the keyhole of the door which was locked and god you won’t believe the door was not opening. I was trying to twist the keys in all directions and its not opening. The horrendous situation any one could experience on the first day in a new country, place. I was all alone in the apartment no one has occupied the apartment so that I can give a shout. I tried to open the windows and could notice a house 100 mtrs away. Again I need to shout for help to catch someone’s attention. The moment I opened the windows it was freezing cold wind which was gushed inside. My god I closed the door again and unfortunately I did not even have my mobile phone with me. It was on the other room. I was filled with apprehension. Don’t know what to do. Thought for a while and my gut feeling said that the only way I would get out is someone who daily cleans the apartment should open the door for me. But don’t know when he comes daily. What will happen to me till then? What will happen if the room service operated twice in a week? All these questions made me frenzy.

With some hope again I started to open the doors with the key but no luck. Suddenly I heard some footsteps in the stairs. God I was so afraid thinking who it might me. I was trying to open the doors suddenly the footsteps stopped. My heartbeat was 100+ per minute. I heard a very soft and matured voice.. “May I help you.. Are you in some sort of trouble” I narrated the whole story and the man replied “Don’t worry? I will help you. I will go and get the property owner and send him here right away”. I said “Thanks a lot Gentleman”. I again heard the foot steps hopefully he was climbing down the stairs. I again sat on the sofa and started to think whether the gentlemen would take the pain to rescue me. I was so frightened. After 20 mins I again heard the footsteps. I ran towards the door and took my ears close to the door. I heard the voice of the property owner and he said that “Don’t worry gentleman, I will open the door for you.” He had brought the bunch of duplicate keys which, he was trying one by one. Finally the doors opened and I took a deep breath. I thanked him a lot and he also apologized to me since he did not tell me about this fault with the weird lock the previous day. He said that he would fix the issue the next day.

The strange thing was there were no traces of the man who helped me in calling the property owner. Who was that? Was that God? I closed my eyes and prayed god and thanked him. I guess everyone would have experienced such similar incidents. So the moral is don’t ever lock yourself in a room where you are alone. In that case always carry a mobile phone which is charged completely. :-)

I put down my papers, My Company takes the stick

I would dedicate this blog to be an eye-opener for most of the companies, Supervisors, HR managers who turn freaky when their most loyal or senior employees put down their papers.

It has been quite a while since I am in the IT industry and I have been experiencing this outlandish attitude of the IT companies when their key employees resign. I recently joined an MNC and I had an opportunity to debate on this topic and most of the guys agreed with my title of the blog. Here goes what we discussed, how your previous companies behaved with you after you resigned. The entire guys were scratchy when they expressed their experiences with their previous companies. One guy lamented his story that his immediate supervisor went demented and had a weird behavior with him during his notice period. I often wonder why the supervisors set bad examples to their team. In my entire career I had met only a single manager who was trying to retain me in the company. However, when he realized that the new job would give me plenty of growth and opportunities which lacked in the present company he did not want to see himself as a road block for my success. He was also keen to embrace me if I would like to join the company back in the future. There are only a very few professional guys who are like this. I guess the reason why the supervisors get paranoiac is only because they are so covetous about the growth his subordinate gets which he his deprived off. An IT law should be enforced to demote or sack such supervisors who harass the employees who are serving their notice period. Such supervisors are definitely going to bring a disgrace to the entire company. However certain times things go the other way also the guy serving the notice period will be cheeky and tries to do something stupid which would make his boss wild.

Another gentleman had to share his deplorable story about his experience in one of the companies who boasts to be the best work place. The company made him to walk the doorsteps to the HR office thrice and finally gave him the work experience certificates. Each time they had some goofy excuses like no ink/cartridge in the printer, the HR VP is out office etc. Guys our laws are so sapless that we cannot sue such companies for causing mental distress to the employee.

Only the companies who really have a bad name in the industry, who are in lack of good resources and cannot retain its employees will have nefarious schemes like 1 Year commitment bonds, 6 month commitment bond before they fly to onsite, non issuance of relieving letters etc... All this stupid schemes are going to keep good resources stay away from them. Only the dead weights would settle in such companies. There are very few companies who do not bother about the relieving letters from previous organizations and recruits the real techies.

Those who have read this article kindly share your experiences and comments.

Be a Roman in Rome..

This is a famous proverb which many of us follow outside our country. But we forget the proverb in our own country. Recently I was roaming through one of the malls in Chennai along with my friends. We were fagged up and thought of getting freshened up by having some food or beverages in one of the shops in the food court. As usual my friend started to pull my wallet out for the refreshment. I walked towards a juice counter and was having a look at the menu of juices. I could notice that an old man was enquiring about the ingredients of a juice to the vendor. The vendor was very much a local guy from Chennai. I could notice it easily by seeing some of his characteristics. However he pretended to be an English man. The scornful shopkeeper replied back to the old man in English which was so pathetic. He himself made lot of grammatical mistakes. He was pretending to be smart in front of a group of lassies who were in the queue. I was sure that the old man did not understand the shopkeeper and quietly walked away with his juice. I was perturbed after seeing that. Immediately I rushed towards him and tried to speak in Malayalam (Another popular south Indian Language). The shopkeeper had no clues of what I was saying and he spoke to me in Tamil. I said I know only the language I spoke. I repeated the same conversations for a while and I had a good time teasing him. Finally I spoke in Tamil to him and could teach him a lesson. I said to him to speak only the language which the customer speaks. The same thing happens in most of the places in Metropolitan cities. It is fine to converse in English to those who are new to a city or place in India who don’t know the regional language.

This also happens with most of the guys who returns from US or UK after 2 or 3 months. They try to imitate the British or US accent which would be too pathetic to listen or follow. A guy who is settled in US or UK for 5-6 years will definitely get an American or Brit accent which is obvious. But the former would look too insane. Some people like this make a mockery out of themselves by doing such things to the society.

Those who have read this blog kindly speak in your mother tongue or regional language. We are not going to loose anything out of this. Communication is something which needs to be clear and effective at the end of the day.