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:-;