Travelling abroad !!

My first travel abroad ! This mail was written to my friends and family 3 weeks after my stay in Finland.

Hi buddies,


How r u ppl doing!!!

I m doing fine here at Helsinki... Awesome place to work at...

My workplace is just like the GOOGLE office, the one you must seen on net... its almost similar to that... with all luxury and comforts, one would doubt whether it’s a theme park or an office.

Climate is good here 15 - 20 deg in the day time and sun sets strictly after 23:00 hrs... till then you won’t find artificial lights... Finnish citizen are good, pölite, calm and very understanding. They walk a lot, rather taking a train or bus. This is what i felt in the past few days in Finland... Every house here you ll find a bicycle and car; even I have one, I ll come back to my bicycle later.



Pollutionless city, water is pure crystal clear, sloppy roads, lots of white gals and guys always wearing a smile with them are the greatest assets of this city. The city is well know for its lakes and more over this city is known as costliest place in world. Added to that, it one of coldest capital in the Europe. Local ppl here say that temperature drops to -30 deg in the winter. Thank god its summer here.



At the office, Emplyoees are very professional and most of them are external people means you will find people from TCS Accenture Seimens Wipro and many others companies with whome Nokia have contracts. Lots of Indians at my office, every 8 th person is an Indian here. Finnish, Japanese, French, Swedish ppl, are also among us. I happen to speak with a Japanese lady, I just said one word ‘ hajimemashite’, she was very happy to hear an Indian speaking japenese, but she didn’t know that I know only hajimemashite word in japenese. She was expecting me to talk more in japenese but unfortunately I didn’t kno any!!! Later we had a long chat with her and her colleagues and our Indian gang.



Here I stay in a hotel called Privatel, an individual room. My PM and few of my colleagues also stay’s in this hotel. A well furnished room with a TV, fridge, Bed, 3 Owens for cooking and all cookery items available. Staying in a top floor allows me to see the city, and gr8 view to watch from the balcony.



Hotel provides morning breakfast, which is almost like a heavy lunch, with corn flakes, breads of different varities which I m seeing it for the first tym, butter cheese strawberry jam, oats, ground nuts jower mix, chocolate chips, salads, lettuce, bull,s eye(omelette), egg pudding, fish, mixed fruits chopped, juices of all fruits, milk, yoghurt, apples and bananas (I take them to office). This is what I have in the morning breakfast apart from these Pork beef and Ham (many varieties) Is also available which I never tried. Hope your stomachs are burning… hahahahaha...



I prepare my lunch in my room itself and carry it over to the office, come back to room and prepare dinner combining with other mates; the ultimate one. Cooking for 2 hrs and eating in 3 mins is what v call dinner. I ve got a bicycle from the hotel which is free to all hotel guest. I didn’t get a chance to ride it, have plans to go out this weekend and explore the streets of Helsinki.



Cost of living is too tooo tooooo high when compared to any other place. Everything is costly here. Still managing to live… I travel in train to office. My office hours are 9 – 6 but many times stay back till 8 also… My work is not that hard or difficult, I just manage to complete my task at the end of the day. Most of the time form a gang and chat with all unwanted issues put mokkais, laugh for silly thing… instant clarification of any doubts from nets, it may be searching for political issue or a movie matter, or who is who, where is this place!! Where to hang out in weekends… “ Hey we do work also”… Have plans to do Motta also, here at Finland… will send you the pics when I do so…



Sweden!!! the neighbouring country. When I came here, I never thought I ll step into another country also… As I had Schegen visa, I had a chance to visit Sweden without any difficulty. The day when I arrived here I was told about the plan to Sweden in coming weekend and the ticket was booked for me also. It was almost cheap, when compared to India cost wise, the cost was 50€ which comes around 2500 – 3000 rs. We booked a Cruise Ship (Silja Line, the name of the Ship) to Stockholm, the Sweden capital.



We all just waited for the weekend to come, 12 of us and 4 others from a different project. We left office Friday afternoon and went to harbour, it was a giant ship and that was the first time for me traveling in a ship, I felt a bit nervous when I looked in to the sea towards which the ship will sail all the way… but I was cool with all my team mates with me. All made me feel comfy and we boarded the ship. It was the first time for all 16 of us and we were wondering here and there in the ship with loads of excitement. Capturing pictures, making noises, every one noticed us… The ship was so huge that it accomated more than 5000 passengers, with long corridors, many shops and supermarket and high class . It had 13 floors in it. The top floor was open air and we could see the ship sailing over the sea. That was a great experience. The travel time from Helsinki to Stockholm was 15 hrs. We spended the time shoping in the tax free shops, playing games, pokers, gambling and night was the best part.. The ship had a disco and a night club… saw lots of ppl dancing and having fun with the music. It was rocking. The whole team was in the disco for 6 hrs till morning 4 am we were in the disco dancing… the crowd was making a huge noice and we made fun of each other and had gr8 tym.



We slept at 4 30 and th time we waked up we saw felt 0 disturbance or jerks. The ship reached Stockholm and everyone realized it very late. Every one was damm tried. Then we manage to come out of the ship started walking towards the exit of the harbour. We were address less at Stockholm. We don’t know were to go. We were dependent on one guy who promised us to guide us to the city, but unfortunately he didn’t turn up at the last minute. Then it was almost 11 and we some how manage to take a train and reach the city downtown.



Communication was not at all a problem here. We just had time to visit the main part of the city, palace, museum, had lunch at an Indian restaurant, and we met with a tragedy. It was 3 pm and our ship which will leave Stockholm to Helsinki was at 5 pm and we were in a place which was 20 mins from the harbour. So ppl who planned to leave to harbour left (8 ppl) and other 8 wished to come by bus, we just separated ourselves, after having another look into the city, we thought we would make up @ 5 but we were wrong, we 8 (including me) reached harbour at 4 30 and we went to a wrong destination were the ship was not present. It was a long harbour and we were lost. Around 4 45 we could see the ship which was about to depart in few minutes and our mates were inside the ship. We didn’t have phone for communication. We ran and reached Silja line port at exactly 5 pm and we were stopped by the officers and they said we are not supposed to board the ship here after. We sat in the nearby chair and saw the ship moving inch by inch from the shore. It was a bad moment and everyone was tensed. It was Saturday evening and the next ship was on the next day evening same time. We had plans to take rest on Sunday and then go to office on Monday. But for us it was another day in Sweden. Gals almost cried, but one among us co ordinated there after and cheered up everyone, and I was fully excited, never bothered about missing the ship, wanted to explore Stockholm fully. I was helping others to settle down and look for other options. The disappointing thing was we missed other 8. The next half an hour we were gossipping about how all this happen. Then we stayed in harbour for next 3 hrs and booked the ticket for the next ship free of cost, as we were Nokia employees. Harbour official were very polite and helped in finding a hotel. Then we booked a hotel for the night stay and later we all had dinner and we (except gals) were preparing for the night outs… roaming in the streets of Stockholm was just awesome and superb… As the sunlight was thr till 11 pm we were able to see many buildings palaces, back waters, bridges, and walk around the city corners. As it was a weekend there were many ppl in the roads till 3 am… we came back to our rooms and slept and woke up and all of us started to go around the city in a Sunday. We visited the Musuem and the palace and traveled many other places in the city. This time we came back to harbour at the right time and we boarded the ship without any problems.



On our way back to Helsinki, we found ourselves a bit tired and we had less energy to roam about in the ship, I just did some shopping and just sat in the top floor enjoying the each and every moment remembering what had happened and typing all this craps…… we came back with all sweet memories in our minds and this day will always be remembered in my dairy



We reached Helsinki Monday morning and rushed to the office and fortunately our PM understands the situation and without any problem we continued our work…



I still haven t got a connection for communication. Once I get that I ll let ppl know.



And guys how r u doing!! Miss you ppl a lot here… it was nice to speak with few guys…



Will send you photos in my next mail…



Take care buddies…

Keep in touch in orkut/mail and by what ever mean possible…

Tata

Have you heard ? - TCS pays salary for fun !!! -- It's ILP dude

tic tic toe... tic tic toe.... tic tic toe...

26th DEC 2005 09:00 Am @ Chennai central railway station, standing on foot board of Coromandal Express, waving my hands for a long goodbye to my parents...

Its time to ILP

Life has taken me to a new directions after I stepped into my first job in IT. Campus interviews, written tests, HR interview, results, offer letter, new faces, TCS vadapalani office, joining letter and here I m in Bhubaneswar to witness what TCS gonna provide me for my rest of my IT career... Well... it all started of with a paid holidays.. ha ha ha..

back to 26th Dec 2005; almost 30% of the train population was filled with TCS budding software engineers, the train all travelling to Bhubaneswar (BBSR)... Though I already have some friends from my college travelling along with me and some whom I knew,  I still started making my intro to every single person who looked very serious from their face, travelling alone, although I misjudged a few :) but got to know almost many of them by the time I reached BBSR... The whole train journey was completely filled with excitement new people and making new friends..

27th Dec 2005: reached BBSR.... A new dawn, a new place... We took and auto to Patalia where we got our accomodation... day to rest and make ourselves fresh and look out where our friends got their accomodation... To my surprise, I found were many other buddies who already arrived a day before from every corner of the country...

28th Dec 2005: Unforgettable events

The first day, Morning bath (whether to bath or not to bath), "machi water is very cold"

Hey how to wear the tie…

My dress… "Is this dress matching?" Pity on Niranjan (CR B29), no dress to wear… this guy coolly brought the suitcase from Chennai keeping the keys at home and realized when he stepped in BBSR…

My files… My documents… "Alas!!! I didn't sign here", "should I carry this document", "My passport", "Where did I keep my mark sheets", all sought of tensions…

Gather some friends to have breakfast… "Machi udupi… No… Subham…" and atlast went to Canteen…

Abdul Kalam visit to KIIT… everyone was eager to see this great personality…

Entered IBAT, "hey this is Allahabad bank", No da this is only TCS… (Some hindi guys) "yeh kya TCS office hain kya… itna Chota"

(tamil guys) "cha rombo chinada iruke"

Entered Audi… Gangs formed slowly… Lectures from Suman, summit ,Vijay and Asit pradan started… very eagerly watched and got bored as usual… batches formed …

CR selection… will never forget B27 CR selection…

Lunch… (None knew food could be an all time problem)

"No place to sit"

"No taste"

"No juices"

"Only all new faces"

Back to audi… Got a thread and ID card, which was misunderstood as tag… Weared the tag and walked briskly on the roads of Patia…

Vijay's dialogue, "please fill ur address correctly", "please put ur signature here"… bla bla bla….

Vending machines at terrace…

Evening walk, back to Villa and Apartments (Finding short cuts to go to villa)

The day when we all first met? Not knowing each other… Not wanting to know… Not even a smile… Then we started with a blank smile. Then we started with (in Tamil) vanga, solunga (with a respect tone), ponga… then became va, solu, po… Then we addressed with dai, da, di, machi and all!!! Had a fun and memorable time with my batch mates(B28), had masti with roommates Mohamed Suja and Niranjan… My gang and all other staff… A new innings of my life was shaping up as I was undergoing my ILP at BBSR...

Some memorable moments
 
Tera suroor song

Get togethers

Picnic to Konark Puri and Beach

Big bazaar

Singing songs in the bus, we traveled

Reliance GSM connection.

It took a long time to spell "Hajimemashite"…

The song that was played for written communication… some sha la la la wo oo wo ooo

ICICI bank

KIIT hospital where our buddies were admitted during malaria

Udupi's Shubham and madhuban… never go to canteen

Chilka lake

Camera cell phone (that you can misuse at ur will) to capture all the happy moments (Guys.... plz donn let ur imaginations take wings!!)

Udaygiri caves

Kolkata bazaar

Rang de basanti

Pongal celebration

Together to temple on top of the hill.

Playing in KIIT campus

The auto's bargain.

Cricket.

Projects (only reason to enter gals VILLA)…

Laptops

Evening walk to villa from IBAT with most friendly and lovable person

Late night project discussion (Kadalai)

The foggy day… I was blind the whole morning

Attendence sheet

Feedback forms

Books

"Notepad over"… "CRRRRRRRRR please get me notepads" I could still hear the sound

Star of the day.

Its 5'o' Clock… sir plz stop the class

Antakshari

Debates

Birthday parties late night…

Hot water issue

New year celebrations

Midterm exams

Group study

Open book test

Gracia, vijay, sumit, suman, tarun,Chitanand, Nanda, karthik, meera, sudipto Sailesh, Preet...

Japanese with Ashish

Anupam's, "Think man Think", inspired many.

Jayanthi's  her attitude….. aarrgghhhhh!!!!

End term exams

Asit Pradhan's Accident… Always remembered

Farewell day left tears in our eyes.

And now it's been a year in TCS, few early confirmations, few onsite, many having training abroad and in India also… Congrats to all… Shared our days, hours, minutes and seconds together. We made castles with our thoughts, moved mountain with our dreams… Today I wanna tell you how much u mean to me… hand in hand we move the immobile… "Long live our friendship"

Life becomes so easy at work when you have wonderful Colleagues around you. Thanks to my friends and colleagues in ILP who had helped me a lot during those days and it was really a growing experience for me. I hope to carry this rich experience with me in all my future endeavors. I pray for all ur life engagements current and future, let  with the grace of god...U all shine with flying colors in every thing u all take up.

Wishing all of you a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2007!

Dream your dreams and put your foot on the path to fulfilling your dreams. Do not hang back. Go ahead and try. If you succeed, brilliant. If you only get part way there, you will have the satisfaction of knowing you tried, you gave it your best shot.