Brand New Day

A few people were wondering about why there was such a long gap between my previous two posts, Koval-ummm and Kanyakumari. Well, the thing is, I have gotten a job! The timings are from 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM. So all this while, my entire system has had to rearrange itself and get used to waking up at 6:00 AM in the morning, every single day! Thank God I get the weekends to myself. But all I do on weekends is to sleep, sleep, and then sleep some more! :D

And that is the reason why I could not blog as much as I wanted to. Now I’m somewhat used to this new routine.

During the last few weeks of my post-grad course I was quite worried about what I was gonna do once the final exams were over. I thought that I’d most probably be sitting at home twiddling my thumbs. So I decided to put up my resume online. And then one day I got a call from this company, asking me to come down for an interview. So I wrote my last exam on 16^th May and went for the interview on 17^th May, and got selected after a short test and an interview. To say that I was euphoric would be an understatement!! I just couldn’t wait to get home and tell my Mother!

As most people know, I have done Clinical Psychology. My current job profile is slightly different. The company where I work is all about Usability. We make websites and other electronic gadgets user-friendly. So at first I wasn’t sure what exactly I would be doing here.

I’ve completed exactly seven weeks at work now, six of which were spent in training. And they have been wonderful weeks! We are a bunch of 14 trainees. As a part of our introduction at the office, we were asked to put up a play. So we put up this silly play, which was about usability in a very filmy context! We were sure we’d be booed off the stage, but thankfully most of the people were laughing really hard! I played (very reluctantly, I might add!) the role of a law enforcement agent who was a cross between a Charlie’s Angel type and a bumbling havaldar! The best part of this experience was when my role ended! LOL!!

After the play was over, there was this big jam session, where our CEO played the guitar, and a bunch of other people began banging on drums, dholaks and other beatable instruments! I too got a chance to play a drum. The noise levels were really, really high, but it was just sooooooo much fun!!! And I must add that our CEO has to be the coolest of all! He’s terrific!

Last Thursday was our certification test, which all of us were quite tense and nervous about, as the passing grade was 70%. I hardly ever externalize my stress, but it eats me up from the inside, and I keep on picturing the worst-case scenarios over and over again! But, we passed! And now I’m even more ecstatic!

These past seven weeks have made me realize something. I was unhappy for the past two year. There! I’ve said it! I never thought I would be able to admit this to myself! Back then it was a sort of self-preservation thing, I suppose. If I’d admitted to myself that I was unhappy, then I would really have been unable to be even a tiny bit happy!

And a lot of the happiness in my life has got to do with my fellow trainees. At last I have found people who I can relate to, who share the same brand of humour as mine! The girls in my college were quite nice, funny even, but it was rather hard to connect with any of them, save one-two.

It’s a different story at work. I’m grinning like an idiot most of the time, so much so, that I catch myself grinning even while walking or sitting in the train on my way to work or going back home! I’m not even the angry lout that I’m most mornings! I’m not a morning person, you see, and am pissed off in general, whenever I have to wake up early!

One time last week, I was going back home by train, and I kept recalling this really funny incident in which this guy at work was imitating someone (and doing a brilliant job of it!). I found it really hard to stop myself from bursting out laughing. So I tried to just look out the window and smother the laughter by pressing my hand down on my mouth, but a few giggles escaped along with a lot of shoulder shrugs!!!

I thought to myself that I was glad that there weren’t too many people in the compartment at that moment. But then I happened to look at this girl sitting before me, who was looking at me with some alarm! She started giving me strange looks, and having decided that it wasn’t safe to sit anywhere close to me, picked up her bag and sat at the other end!! :))

I’m actually laughing out loud (and scaring my grandma in the process!) while recalling this incident!

I feel so blessed! Blessed to have landed this job, but most of all to meet such wonderful people!

Now I just hope that I will continue having fun even after I’m assigned to a project…