August 7th

 What is that one sentence..

"It feels like a dream come true."

I met my senior director for a coffee day before yesterday who was my manager then and I can proudly claim that she handpicked me. The way she walked me through all those years and how she rectified me on not to take anything for a personal obligation rather a win-win and how she convinced me it actually is.. but I know deep down that I'm forever indebted. 🙏🙏🙏 

I take it as my privilege to be interviewed by one of the beasts I have ever seen in the entire industry. Yes our org has captured him and planted him. He only asked me one imp. question, 'How does DNS work ?' even though I had less than two years of experience, coming from a web application background and being trained by the best of best I answered it to the best of my knowledge. He replied 'that's correct but..', he slowly dragged a piece of paper from his desk and took out his pen to draw the entire architecture. He started explaining step by step but very precisely. He did not even turn the paper in my direction just continued explaining the concept by touching each layer of OSI. And said 'moving on..' continued and asked something related to tcpdump and packets. My head was already clouded with all of that concepts he explained but yes I answered that second question too, i would say I tried my best because I vaguely remembered the concept. And then he started talking about why this company, why a metropolitan city and why this job and all of that usual chores. (No, he is a principal member, a respected peer, a goto advisor and most importantly a good friend now so I have gained that to say this 😀)  And then..after that came the actual blow, now tell me 'How does DNS work?'. Well, let's just thank God because I answered that repeated question using his piece of paper. 🙏🙏🙏 And till date, "That attitude wouldn't bring up your infra and no matter whichever level you reach out to, it will happen only through me..so ease it" is still my favorite, not just mine but I think to everyone who still reach out to him even after he was bagged away by well yeah his mentor and yet again my final round interviewer and our from Kerala but doesnt know the language SVP 🙏🙏🙏 'yes definitely not sir but more importantly not chettan too, so go by my name', the youngest person in our org🫡😀

And my first day, August 7th, 2014 my manager asked me to reach office by 9 am, 7th floor of IBC, this location is now demolished I think. I was welcomed to an entire vacant floor but to a fully loaded pantry (all to myself, think about it). For the first 1 and half hours, I self toured the entire space, checked out every empty cubicle to decide which one should be mine.. and when the person whom I was delegated to arrived, he greeted me saying 'oh you opened the floor today, congrats for taking the key on your first day. So what task should I assign you today.. I have an openstack training to attend too. Do you know openstack?" 

"No idea"

"Ahh then let's learn together"

Then came the tsunami..and it still goes on till date. On the cutting edge is not just an expression but on living in terms with for some people. But thank you God🙏🙏🙏

Being handed over to one of the best human beings I know in this entire world is sometimes Universe's way of telling you that you are being taken care of. I speak very less when I'm too emotional so I might fail in expressing it all in the exact words. But THANK YOU🙏🙏🙏 for every single day of managing and even at times micro managing which is certainly not your favorite thing to do, taking ownership, reaching out to my peers proactively by guessing I might need a break, for always thinking for my best, for carrying my best interest for me, all the advices, all the criticisms, all the brain storming, all the plans for me, all the owning up ( Im really sorry 🙏), all the countless chances and still, still having confidence in me.. If I could do justice to your faith and confidence in me, I know that's more than enough. My manager, my brother, my peer, my confidante, my friend.

And every single person of my extended family, last 10 years was quite a ride which I would cherish forever, on and on 😊✌️ 

Thank You God 🙏