First job

The day finally arrived.. Joining date of Tata Elxsi Limited. July 18th it. It was kind of difficult to get up so early after a long gap but managed (thanks to alarm and snooze). I had requested my friend SA to take me in their car on first day. My brother was kind enough to get up at 7 even during his holidays and drop me till SA's house. Another friends from Information Science ABS also joined us. My friend's mom offered me breakfast but i denied it!
We started around 7 40. First of all, i was feeling proud that i'll be joining for work just after engineering without much gap. Also i considered myself lucky to have got offer letter and joining date so early during the time of economic crisis or mini recession. While i was thinking all these, i got a call from my friend AS. She said she was joining Tata Elxsi too. I was a bit surprised as she had made up her mind not to join. As all these things happened, i could see traffic jam near KR Puram. My heart started pounding. I didnt want to be late on the first day of work! The slow moving traffic was very irritataing. I started looking at my watch every one minute. Then slowly the congestion started clearing. But the time had already crossed 9. As we were going, i saw hotel Zuri and shouted "the office is somewhere here". We saw "TATA ELXSI LIMITED" written in some shade of blue which looked very nice.    
We got down near gate 3. The security ppl guided us to the place where the joining formalities was supposed to take place. They led us to a building opposite to the main campus. As we entered we could see a long queue. As the queue moved, we had a look at other students (or freshers!). I got my documents verified and went to the room allotted to me. Around 10, the HR ppl came and allotted us our employee numbers. Then they started giving forms. Joining form, PF form, gratuity form, transportation form etc etc.  One after the other we filled so many forms. The HR ppl guided us in filling them up. Tata Elxsi was kind enough to serve us free lunch on first day! Around 5 30, the day was done. We didnt do anything much, other than just filling up forms. My friend SA's brother had come to pick us up. Somehow first day was done without much running around in search of buses thanks to SA and family.
Next day we had to go by bus. SA, ABS and myself decided to meet up and go by volvo bus from Banashankari big bazaar stop. We got bus around 7 15AM. But we reached office at 9 25! Again we were lucky not to get blasted by anyone. The second day was again filling up few more forms. But it was on the second day that we came to know that the food coupon is 45Rs for 1 meal! It was for unlimited buffet meals. There was no choice as no items were available separately. But the taste of the meals was not bad. It was worth it. Also cut fresh fruits were sold in cafeteria for 20Rs per bowl.
The second day's process ended and we had got our bus passes. All of us were in different routes. I entered my bus. 4 ppl who were sitting inside gave me a strange look. I entered silently and sat in last but one seat. The bus had almost 10-11 ppl when it started. Someone offered me plain cake, biscuits. I was feeling weird as i was the only fresher. After sometime i spoke to one of them and asked where the bus will exactly stop during mornings. I was sad about the fact that i have to walk atleast for 10 minutes everyday from my house to bus stop!
The third day i stood at the bus stop at 7 35AM. The bus which was supposed to come at 7 45, came at 7 55! I spoke to the lady who took bus from my stop. Was surprised to know that she is friend of my cousin who left Tata Elxsi  last month. The sessions on third day were boring again. We were made to see around 4-5 videos pertaining Tata values, history, etc. Then there was a HR presentation. The day got over and i was happy that the next 2 days were holidays!!!
 The training sessions started from Monday. It was only on Tuesday that we bus mates got to know each other. There were 7 freshers in my bus out of which 2 were from my college EC dept, other 2 from my training batch. I spoke to them. Later, bus seniors introduced themselves. The best part was playing Dumb charades with the bus mates. Seniors started and everyone in the bus participated (except driver!). It was so much fun and made my mind light. Only then i got to know how techies bust stress!!!!!

Beauty of the north: Day 2 Delhi rounds

After a decent start to our trip, we had reserved June 24th  for Delhi local sight seeing. Our basic intention was to cover all major places which was possible within 8 hours coz we hired an innova which charged us 2000Rs for 8 hours. We were wondering if this was more but i knew the rates in Bangalore which was 1500 for 8 hours. So we were somewhat convinced. We booked the Innova through the hotel where we were staying. Exactly at 9 15 i got a call to my room from the reception asking if we were ready as the Innova had arrived. I said it'll take another 10 minutes as my friends were not yet ready. I could sense urgency in receptionist's voice. Even before i could ask him about it he said "पार्किंग  का  दिक्कत  है , तोडा जल्दी कीजिये ". At 9 30 we all were at the reception and paid Rs1000 advance. The receptionist introduced us to the driver whose name Raju.

First we asked him to take us to a very important place. Hotel Kamat. We were more than happy to see a Karnataka restaurant in New Delhi. We had our breakfast there. The taste didn't match up to the Kamats of south India but it wasnt bad too. We bought 2 mineral water bottles at this place. Then straight away we went to India gate which was just 5 kms from Kamat hotel. The roads leading to India gate were amazing. Our driver took a drive around India gate and stopped at a particular point. We got down and asked him where the entrance ticket need to be taken. When he said entrance is free, i was amazed. Being south Indians we are used to pay entrance fee even at a small park! Then we had a long walk in the sun. For the first time in the trip i used my shades and cap here. Some of my friends who didnt have cap bought it here for 40 Rs (not sure if it was worth it but it was definitely worth coz of the sun!). We clicked pictures. We observed that the names of the jawans were imprinted on the bricks beautifully. And a few local photographers were irritating us by asking if we needed some clicks.

2 of my friends were already tired. They went and stood below a tree. I could see them eating candy ice cream. Then even we went there. The other 2 also took candy ice but i was in no mood for ice cream. We bought 2 bottles of mineral water here again. Next we went to Qutub Minar which was around half hour drive from India gate. Here we had to buy entrance ticket. As bags were not allowed inside, we had to go back to our car and keep our bags inside it. We saw the Qutub Minar and the fort around it. 2 of my friends were behind a foreigner who apparently asked them how to spell "Qutub Minar"! I saw one hot foreign girl in blue and managed to take a snap of her (not 'with' her)!! :P

We finished Qutub by 12 30. Our energy was getting low. Then our driver took us to a handicrafts exhibition which according to him was compulsory visit for all tourists as per Delhi govt rules. Initially we were reluctant but when we saw that whole exhibition was air conditioned, we decided to step in! We spent some 15 minutes seeing the variety of bedsheets and razais. We came out by making full use of AC and no profit to the exhibition sales! Next place was Lotus temple. 2 of my friends decided not to come inside it as they were too tired. 3 of us went. There was a long queue. Not for the entrance but to keep our footwear! We struggled while standing in queue for 15 minutes in hot sun directly above our head. At one point we were about to give up but somehow motivated ourselves. Later we were allowed to go inside the building in a systematic way and sit inside for few minutes to do meditation. We went inside and just saw the building structure (No mood for meditation as we were scared we'll sleep off!) But the ambiance was really good inside if someone really wanted to do meditation. Then we came back to parking lot and saw tender coconuts there. We all bought one each for 30 Rs (yes, its 30 Rs!).

By this time, only 10% of our energy was remaining! We wanted to have lunch badly. We asked our driver to stop at any 'pure veg' restaurant. But our driver said  its difficult to find a pure veg restaurant here. We had to go till Raj Ghat to get a proper restaurant. But we were not ready to wait. One of my friends took out her cell and started searching on GPS maps for nearest hotels. We found Haldirams somewhere nearby. But our driver was not ready to take us there as we had entered a ring road and had to travel around 6 kms to take a U turn. We tried to force him to take us back but he was reluctant. As we were arguing with him, we already came to Raj Ghat. The restaurant there was pathetic. We just took plain rice and curds. I got blasted by one of my friends for getting a north Indian Thali for the driver who was so adament in not taking us back to Haldirams! We took 2 mineral water bottles here. We hardly ate anything. Half the rice we took was wasted.
Then we entered Raj Ghat which looked more or less like a park. We had option of keeping our footwear either in a paid counter or free counter. We chose the free one. The path towards Gandhiji's samadhi place was covered with carpets as the floor was hot enough to roast a dosa. We went near the place, spent some 5 minutes there and came back to shoe stand. While we were walking back I could hear something strange. Someone called me and asked "ನೀವು ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದವರ?" We were all excited to meet someone from Karnataka in Delhi. We spoke to that person for 5 minutes and left Raj Ghat.

The next place we were supposed to visit was Red fort. But our energy level was too low to roam around Delhi by this time. And we were not satisfied with our lunch too. Unfortunately we had stop our Delhi rounds by 3PM. So we asked him to take us back to Karol Bagh. We had seen one Mcdonalds the previous day in the same area. We went there and filled our stomach properly. We bought 4 mineral water bottles before we went back to our room!
It was 4PM when we went back, an hour early than we expected. We relaxed for 3 hours in the room. Later we went out to Karol Bagh for shopping. The street was crowded. We just checked out stuff, bought few things. The streets didnt have many girls so it was kind of boring for me ;) Later we went to a restaurant called "Suruchi" for dinner. For the first time we took a cycle rickshaw to reach the restaurant. We took some 10 minutes to decide if we have to take Rajasthani or Punjabi thali! Later we settled for Punjabi. The taste was good just that we didnt know the names of the new food cuisines which they served. The taste was worth the price Rs 290 for 1 thali but not sure if we utilized it properly!! 
Next we went back to our room. It was time for our finance management. We sorted out the bills and cash spent by each one of us that day. The amazing part about settling bills was we didnt spare even a single paisa. If we had to pay Rs 2 to someone, we actually paid it! 
Yet another day ended. It was tiring but i was satisfied that we covered few places atleast. But our package from Panicker travels was yet to start the next day morning at 6. So we decided to sleep soon. Ive enclosed the cash spent by me on day1 and day 2 below! :P 


Day1: 23rd June: Taxi Rs 480, Dinner Rs 167, Mineral water bottle Rs12 Total: Rs 659
Day2: 24th June: Breakfast Rs 60, Mineral water Rs 20, Tender coconut Rs 36, Qutub Minar entrance Rs 10, Lunch Rs 70, Purse for my mom Rs 300, Rickshaw Rs 15, Dinner Rs 295, Taxi 600, Misc 60. Total Rs    1266 
Mineral water bottle count: 8

Beauty of the north: Day 1 (June 23rd)

I was fast asleep when the air hostess asked me to fasten the seat belt. The plane was getting ready for landing. It was New Delhi- The capital city of India. I just peeped out of the window. I could see small buildings getting bigger and bigger as the plane moved. From the other side, my friend shouted "hey look, its the lotus temple!!" I tried to sneak but realised my seat belt was on. Then i was trying to find some monument through the window on my side. Just in time, I saw Qutub Minar. I was too excited and showed it to my fellow mate who was sitting right next to me. As the plane landed, we could see the huge Delhi airport with so many flights standing on every corner possible.
We got down and waited for the baggage. Then we went to the counter which read prepaid taxi. I took the initiative and enquired. The person in the counter said "Innova yeha nahi milega. Doosri couter pe jao" We went to the next counter which was a private company called "carz on rent". I asked for an innova to Karol Bagh where our hotel was booked. The lady in the counter was fair, spoke good english and politely asked us to wait  for 5 minutes as the innova was on another duty. She gave us the reciept and car number.  Later she gave me a call and asked us to go near the neem tree on the extreme left of taxi area to find the car. As soon as we stepped out we could already feel the Delhi heat. It was around 7 15PM and the sunlight was very significant. The hot air just wiped our face. We were amazed to see such bright sunlight even at 7 15PM, quite expected from people of Bangalore who are visiting Delhi for the first time. 
We sat in the innova which was well furnished. AC was working fine and our luggage was tied on the top. The driver was a good hearted person. He started telling stories about the kind of passengers he usually sees and other stuffs about Delhi. As he spoke, we also started seeing admiring Delhi. The roads were big, not much traffic, neatly maintained. Then we started comparing Delhi with Bangalore. I personally felt Bangalore isnt far behind Delhi, very soon it'll catch up with it. 

Then we entered Karol Bagh. It was a crowded area just like K R Market of Bangalore but a neater version of it. We showed the address of the hotel to the driver. He took turn in some small road which was enough only for our vehicle. But there were swarms of cycle rickshaws coming from the opposite side. I expected our driver to give few 'gaalis' to the rickshaw drivers who didn't follow decipline but i was surprised to see nothing of that sort happened! Everybody was calm and cool. After searching for few minutes, we finally found the hotel. Its name was 'Swaran Palace'. The reception looked decent. My friend and I decided to have a look at the rooms once before we check in. And thank god we did it. The state of the rooms was pathetic. They were small and dirty. Even scarier was the sofa which was torn at many places with sponge lying here n there!
Then we went to the Panicker Travels office seeking some help regarding accommodation. They showed us a hotel. It was called 'Hotel Benz International'. The rooms were clean and the AC was working fine. We gave our ID cards and booked room for 2 days. It was 10PM by the time we checked into the room and settled. Later we went to a restaurant called 'Shuddh'. It was crowded and we had no place to sit. Then we decided to take food parceled to our room. We took 5 north Indian thalis with vegetable manchrian.  The taste was really nice. 
By the time we finished lunch, we were tired and drowsy. This was the first day of our 14 day long trip. The enthu was high. First day was good but the coming days were even better.