As I stated in previous travel posts, after leaving Cognizant, Bangalore, I decided to join Accure Inc. as a Senior Software Engineer. There were many reasons for the move, one of the most important one related to keeping an eye on the BIG PICTURE – preparing myself for the USA journey.
By this time, I had secured admission in a couple US universities. The first one was UConn and the second one being LSU ( Insider story, for LSU, I had to crack their interview, which was my first every SKYPE INTERVIEW – good old days).
Obviously, I did not tell about these US plans to anyone at Accure. I think, I am coming across a little bit selfish here, but I think, it was necessary for me to stick to my ultimate goal rather than thinking about the short term growth. Because no one knew why I was joining Accure, everyone questioned me about my choices as to why I am leaving a big organization like Cognizant and joining a startup. My apologies to everyone for that.
Now, getting back to the first day. I distinctly remember myself and my group were really excited for this. I was the first one leaving Cognizant from the group, so everyone wanted to see my reaction and feedback. I have had established myself quite nicely at Cognizant , so it was like getting out of my comfort zone to start the process again.
This process seems more fun than it actually is. Well, there are both UPs and DOWNs of this process, so we must respect the process and *hope* for the good end and obviously, work hard enough to gain that good result.
I woke up this day feeling quite refreshed. During this time, my girlfriend and I were in a long distance relationship, so it was hard for both of us to share that bond that we used when we were together. I called her in the morning, did normal chitchat and then continued prepping for the first day. As soon as I was ready, I asked my roommate to click a few pictures of me so that I can keep this in memory.
You can see me below, looking all fresh for the first day at work. I also got many question regarding me joining Accure the very next day. One simple reason for that – MONEY. I wanted to save as much as I can before I head to US. This way, there would have been less burden on my parents, financially.
After this photo session was over, I took either an Ola or an Uber to work. If would have to take the public transport, it meant changing two buses with a considerable walking between two bus stops, which, I wanted to avoid. You know, Bangalore things!
When I arrived at work, it was business as usual for everyone’s first day. I was introduced around the entire company, which was roughly 10-15 people, so I memorized their names sooner than I expected. I got a loner laptop to do some “work” on my first day, which was to read and research about “Apache Kafka”. For people in Big Data world, Kafka acts like a magic and works as a real time message exchange platform.
Technical jargons aside, I think, I got what I wanted on the first day and that was to work in Big Data field. Before I knew it, it was time for lunch, so I tagged along with some of my *new* colleagues and for the first time, I was having lunch on the streets of Bangalore, which was a little weird for me, but I went ahead with that.
Every time, I had doubts about me joining Accure, I just reminded myself that I was there for a short time, before I head to US and live my dream life.
I don’t exactly remember how the rest of the day transpired, but I think, it went well, because, I remember talking to my friends and family in a positive tone.
After a couple days, I received my official laptop and was elated. Here’s the selfie from that day.
It’s funny how long I have come in the last five years. Old memories are golden, though!
Cheers to some more memories.
stochasticity 