My College days - 4th year

Prologue

Note: Before reading this blog, you must go through this one My College days -3rd year

Story!

I am now in my Final Year of engineering course. In our class everyone is big now and so we have less number of subjects and so more time for case studys & projects. We are supposed to submit a term paper by the end of our first semester and  a project work is awaiting for the next semester. All this is to be done as a team and not in single. So our class is divided into teams  and because of this only our class boys and girls got some interaction. Here is my team with whom I should work further.

Y3CS265 - Sandeep Kolli

Y3CS279 - Sowjanya Tadepalli

Y3CS285 - Sruthi Chandaluru

Y3CS319 - Sneha Jain

Team mentor would be VKR - Vuyyuru Krishna Reddy

A list of topics were kept at our notice board and we need to choose one for our case study. We opted for "Image Compression Techniques". Every week we need to give a presentation on how much we proceeded on the case study.

All this would happen only with the help of  internet and so I convinced my parents to get a computer and net connection at home.We used Google search to collect the information and yahoo chat will help to do the work as a team. The day before to give the presentation I used to prepare the slides, when i get any doubt I used to check with Sandeep. After completing the presentation I used to take a deep breath and circulate the same to everyone in the team. Next day I will explain the slides to the team at lunch session. Before that Sneha would check with me weather I had completed the ppt and used to assure me not to worry on how the presentation would happen that day. Every one in the class used to wait for Sneha's turn to come to give the presentation. She used to make a lot of comedy on the dais.

We are done with the term paper. Completed the formatting as per the mail sent by our HOD( SV ). We ordered it for printing and book is ready. We need to get it signed by our HOD now. Some print mistake on the book cover which we noticed only before entering HOD's room. He completed our VIVA and about to sign the book. Oh my god tiger SV noticed that mistake on the cover. He shouted us but gave us one day time to get it corrected. Finally Term paper was submitted successfully under the supervision of VKR by our team though some confusion has happened at last moment. 

Internet at home should be utilized well by students, but that rarely happens as students like to chat and spend lot of time on networking websites. Same happened with me too. I already had a job in my hand and so two horns already on my head always saying enjoy now, enough of studies. I started spending lot of time on Orkut. 15K were my scraps count. Special one's like 1000th, 5000th, 10000th were done by Swathi. Sometimes me and swathi use to chat in orkut instead of yahoo to increase our scrap count. Because of Orkut & Yahoo I was able to make some friends in boys also. We are in scraps mania while many of my classmates are busy preparing for GRE/GATE. That year Chandana, Sujana and Swathi had presented me a hand made greeting card which resembles my orkut profile. It was very beautifully done and still it is safe with me now. 

My mom was vexed up with my internet usage. She gave me two options;

One - preparing for GRE and go for higher studies

Two - Getting married after my fourth year.

First I felt option '1' is better, but god GRE preparation means I have to by-heart a book full of meanings. I got the GRE book. On day one I learned my first 100 meanings. Day two I need to start from 101 but I forgot all the day one's learning. I then decided option '2' is better and gave-up my GRE studies. From then I used to admire Usha's brain for remembering so many meanings.

Added to internet addiction, I had Sony Ericsson W550i mobile in my hand which was a gift from my parents. It was like "a coconut in a monkeys hand". I loved listening songs and even singing them too. I used to download latest songs into my mobile and enjoy the music when ever free time in the classroom also. I also had an experience where I was caught by a lecturer in the class for listening to songs during his lecture. Still our batch of seven enjoyed the same way as in third year. Bunking classes & going to movies on the release date are the additional things we had learned this year.   

Our final year project time has come now. Me and Sandeep went to Vision technologies to get some project ideas. We selected our project to be as JAVA IDE. We will get the project kit also if we pay 6000 bugs. It contains every thing Abstract, Documentation, Flow-charts, Use case diagrams, Test cases, Code...etc. I improvised this kit a lot. I completely scraped the code given and started developing it my-self as I had good interest on coding. All Diagrams, test cases were re-done according to my new code. It came out quite well than the one provided by Vision. Sandeep used to help me in reviewing my work and other things as he is not much interested in the coding stuff. We need to give weekly presentations here also. I tried involving Sowjanya and Sneha also where ever possible. Finally we are done with and submitted our project successfully. This time our HOD was VKR. Every thing went on smoothly this time.

I sold out my improvised project kit for 3000 bucks at Vision. They did not agree to pay more than that because the whole idea of JAVA IDE belongs to them. Ok I am convinced. But after all this process Sandeep owed me 500 bucks and Swathi is the witness. So dear Y3CS batch if any one helps me getting that 500 will get half of the share :-).

Regards

Sruthi

Epilogue

Farewell day was the most memorable day. Every one attended in a traditional wear ofcourse for boys itz not possible. Sujana received MISS CSE title. Lecturers and juniors organised the event very well. Every thing I remembered during my college days makes me happy except that, the time wasted by me on Orkut. I could have utilized that time in a better way. 

Relationship

Every relationship has to end at some point. Some would be there for us till our death, but some want to drop in middle. So there is no point in worrying about people who want to go away from you. It is a pain some times but if the relation has to break-up there let it go.

Found out some good tips here on how to overcome the pain
http://justamotheroftwo.blogspot.in/2012/09/five-rules-to-get-over-someone.html

A small artist in me :-)

Pencil sketch done by me on a book few months back! Attaching a snap of it.

I am satisfied with the outcome; but can be made much better.

                                                                 

Hard Days @ WIN Tech! Trying to make them well

Prologue
All this narration is related to my experience at an MNC where I joined as a fresher. I mentioned the name here as WIN Tech instead of the original name.

Real Story

2008; Those were my days at Chennai. I went there to start my career as a project engineer at WIN Tech  after completing my intense training program of 3 months at Bangalore. Training days were the best in my total journey with WIN Tech . It was training on SAP ABAP with a class room strength of 40 people. We all were reporting to a tough guy but our class mentor Sagar was quite cool person. There was also a test to judge on how well we followed the program. Only people who scored more than 70% are going to continue with WIN Tech  further. I am quite confident that I will do the test and also did it. We were soon given our posting locations after we are done with our test.

Not sure about others but I was shocked to see my posting location as Chennai. Me and my husband(working at Freescale, Bangalore) were so upset as we had started our journey as a cute little family in Bangalore. We started doing attempts from our side to face the situation. We both together drafted a mail to my manager requesting for a change in my posting location as Bangalore and awaiting for a positive reply. I was asked to meet him personally at his desk. I made all the courage and went to meet him. Sarika his assistant asked me to wait for a couple of minutes at the conference room. Next she arranged a conference call with him and the summary of this call was "corporate people should be ready to work at any place and marriage is a mean reason to ask for a transfer". He also added that he was not staying with his family who were in Kerala and also did not request for any transfer. Oh god what the hell ! Just because he doesn't stay with his family he is asking me to do the same? I did not request for any thing big! I am just a trainee and asked for my posting location to be in Bangalore and it has a valid reason. It is just some excel work for him and he could even ask Sarika to do that. But he was so stubborn to reject.

Now I have no other option left over except to leave Siva and go report at Chennai. Either my parents or in-laws,me or my husband were not happy. All the reporting details were clearly mailed by Sarika. My friends Swathi and Chandana were already there at Chennai and so no accommodation problem. They promised my husband on that and to take care of me well. With their help I was able to reach to office first day on time.

At office I was happy to see some of my friends whom I know them at training and we all have to report to Krishna to proceed further. Here again his assistant Vidya spoke to us. She briefed us on the bench training program which we will be going through for 2 months and we are going to meet Krishna only tomorrow because he was busy that day. She took our details and entered them into an excel sheet. She allocated a desk and a system to each of us and said that we can leave for the day as there is no work and also it is our first day.

Every one was surprised to here the word "training" again as we expected that we will be allocated into some project. Bench training program was introduced only with our batch and it is only for candidates posted to Chennai and not for all. After reaching home I discussed all my day's experience with Siva on phone.

Next day we had a small meeting with Krishna in a conference room. He is a giant personality and his furious voice was an added bonus to him as any one would fear speaking before him. He spoke like a head master and we all gazed at his speech without even turning our heads. At last he asked if we have any concerns, and we could do nothing but nod our heads. I wanted to say I have one i.e. getting my posting location changed. But I could hardly speak anything. Everyone are waiting to take a deep breath after he leaves the room. But before leaving he inquired 

"Who is Sruthi Chandaluru"

My heart started beating fast. Why he was asking about me? I raised my hand like a child. He sharply looked into my eyes and asked me 

"So you were the one who was asking for a transfer"

Me: Yes. 

Krishna: See Sruthi a fresher getting a good project at Bangalore is quiet hard. I will check if they are any. 

Me: OK.

Krishna: It will help you if you stay in Chennai at-least for an year and then think of Bangalore.

He left the room giving me a dirty look. I had a couple of questions in my mind running. 

How it will help me if I stay here in Chennai? What about my friends who directly got posted to Bangalore?

Is he ready to give me a transfer or he wants me to wait for one year?

One year is a huge time for me and Siva. Every day me and Siva used to have a long conversation on phone once we reached home. When in office the calls used to be short.

We were soon involved into this bench training program. Our ODC is quite huge with lot of project teams, all under supervision of Krishna. We had a pantry just a few steps away from our ODC. Krishna had a manager cabin in our ODC. He walks through the whole ODC with tak tak footsteps to reach his cabin. Someone who is alert would mention about his arrival and every one would maintain pin-drop silence then.  Once he settles in his cabin then we can hear buzzing again.

We were given 10 assignments and a schedule sheet in which each assignment had a deadline date and to whom we have to submit for review. Added to this we need to submit a weekly development report. Every thing was strictly supervised by the bench training program head. By the end of this program we came to know a lot about Krishna. He is a tamil person and loves to be in the company of people from Kerala. He loves to be in Chennai & hates people who ask for a transfer from Chennai. So he hated me as well. But he did not get a chance to screw me as I did my assignments well and got a good feedback from the training program head.

We all were now allocated to projects. Every one except me were allocated to an upgrade project and it is being supervised by Krishna and they are going to work in the same ODC. I was allocated a bank project which is located in a separate block. I felt he kept me away as he hated me. My new ODC is quiet comfortable as there is no person here who is like a boss but my transfer approval authority was still in the hands of Krishna. Only thing I did not like here in my new project was 50% I need to work as a developer and 50% for PMO job(excel work). I used to jump to Bangalore when weekend arrives and come back to Chennai on weekdays for my boring work at  WIN Tech. This kind of shift system is quite hard to manage, and one gets to know about it only when experienced. Hoping no one should face such one especially when newly married. 

8 months were over in Chennai now and still Krishna did not find a project for me in Bangalore. I went to meet him and asked about my transfer request status. I got the same old reply no vacancy in Bangalore. He offered me a chocolate when I am leaving his cabin. He wanted me to take this chocolate and keep my mouth shut for few more months?

1 month later with a big tragedy in my life where I escalated the issue and then I got my transfer approval from Krishna. I am happy that I will be back with Siva again. I went to his cabin again to thank for this but he shouted at me  "Get out and I am busy now". Oh god how on earth he can shout at a co-employee like this though he is a manager. I felt very bad about  him and WIN Tech then.

I returned to Bangalore and I am on bench now, Krishna tried to influence me here also by making sure that I don't get any project. What is he expecting? an apology? but why should I, it was him who screwed my life. One day I felt I have to stop all this and called him to ask for an apology. Before that I mailed him and he asked me to call. On call.
Me:  "I am Sruthi calling from Bangalore".
Krishna: "Who ? Who? I did not hear it properly"
Me: "I am Sruthi, I mailed you a few minutes back"
Krishna: "Oh it is Sruthi Chandaluru?" (he remembered my full name)
Me: "Yes. I am on bench right now and called you if you can do some help"
Krishna: "OK".
Call over. In the next few minutes a mail popped up. I was put into a project. I think he took my call as an apology and his ego was satisfied.

Form then I did not see back again. All my managers here in Bangalore are sweet. May be they are normal and seemed sweet because I am comparing them with Krishna. I also received an achievement award within my practice for my performance. One minute I felt like showing it to Krishna and tell him even if you screwed me I was able to get the award.

Finally my hard days were over. I felt so good to be at WIN Tech till the date I resigned.

Regards 

Sruthi

Epilogue
Every one would get a question "Why you did not quit the company?"
I signed a bond with the company for 18 months on a huge amount. By the time the bond expired all my hard days were over:-; 

My College days - 3rd year

Prologue
In 2005-2006

Story begins here!
Me persuing my bachelor degree just because I have to and there is no particualr goal behind it. I am in my 3rd year and I am an above average student in the class, with a good tinch of analytical thinking. I loved to write huge lines of code in 'c' language, so taught of becoming a SW engineer and opted for a computer course degree. I always felt happy as I am in the right course and it is according to my interest and also dreamt of a job which has work I like to do.

Sorry till now i did not mention my name, so my name is "Sruthi". I have parents who love me lot and also a sister who got married when i am a kid. My parents are with age old ideas as with any other parents. They do love me more if i dont have a boyfriend(winking my eye) and that is what I understood by the way they have dealt with my sister when she was doing her degree. And sure, I don't have any friends in boys as of now. My schooling was done in a missionary girls high school and that also could be one reason.

What all I do is rush up to college in the morning, have some good time with my batch, listen to the lectures even if boring or interesting and come back home, do home work if any or spend with my best-friend Swathi. All the day she was with me in college, even though we used to meet in our respected houses to spend more time. It would be mostly in her house. I did not maintain any other contacts with old school friends. To brief i am an introvert and some one has to push me back to spend some time for social events.

Wondering why people give any homework at a bachelor degree college? One reason should be that,  our college is a bit of reputed one and wants to be in the race  by hook or crook. Not only thats the reason, I had an age old Maths proffessor who likes me becasue I write my notes perfectly. I also like and respect him a lot. He used to give me extra work so that I could do well in my exams. I am one of the special noted student for him and so special homework.

And thanks to our college as it is ragging free, this is one of the reason for my parents opted this college. By the time we take some breath internals would come up, not much preparation required but students hate them because we have to face them as an exam and the marks would be counted for externals. Also these externals come so early without any studying in all the six months time and so mostly my external exams end up without any sleep. I will have sound sleep for long hours after all these exams are done so as to fill up my sleepless nights.

And time to introduce my gang with whom I hangover with at college. Bharathi, Chandana, Neharika, Sujana, Usha and Swathi as i said already. So a batch of 7 and we are given a title "7 wonders". No idea who gave it  but we accepted it as is. We used to have good fun and enjoy a lot.
Discuss study topics,
exchange lunch boxes,
attend each other birthdays, plan for surprise gifts,
take tips from super seniors regarding campus interviews,
go for a volleyball practice as Chandana and Neharika are good palyers,
sit in the lawns of our college when there are no classes spending some time with mango trees,
Usha some times goes mad with her GRE planning,
Singing sessions, anthyakshari...etc
and not much of gossiping as we are a good bunch of students.

In the same prototype my third year second semester was also done. But this time it was quite different at the end of sem as it was time for campus interviews. First company to visit was CTS and most of the cream were recruited and in our batch 5 of them got placement. To some of my lecturers and some of the co-students surprise I did not even got through the entrance test. Initially there was no guilt in me for not doing it but, one after one asking with wonder why I was not able to make it had induced some guilt. Me and Sujana in our batch are yet to get a job, and so we had strongly decided to make it up for the next company and we had done it. It was WIPRO's golden chance to get in both of us, CTS missed us was our feeling.

Meet you people again with final year matters which are quite more intersting.
My College days - 4th Year

Regards
Sruthi

Epilogue
I tried to make up things here in a humorous way and this is not to offend any one