And they started forming a coherent paragraph....

------ I DEDICATE THIS BLOG TO THE SPIRIT OF MY WOWAUS TEAM ------

(For someone who did not have the luxury of working in a team, for someone who had started his professional career with an organization where every individual had to handle responsibility independently, the concept of a team was limited to just those management books that describe a team in those cliche words. And I was not really sure if they were actually right. I often wondered - is working in a Team like how it is described in those text books or is there something more to it. And the questions that often used to bother me are: if it is so well defined then why is it that we often struggle to form great teams? What is it that differentiates a great team from a not so great one? Is a great team formed or is a great team made?)

"Maxu tumhara team kaisa hain"?

.... Maxu often used to reply to the above question in discrete sentences every now and then. They did not make a lot of sense to me except for the fact that I knew he used to work in a Team that consists of some interesting personalities.

"Mere team mein ek lady hain jo bahut acha gatee hain, ideal Manager for you - the Jhankar Jt Sec from BITS! She is a trained singer. She has two really cute daughters, humare parties mein to wah dono hi sabke center of attraction hain".

(My cell rang at around 9:30 pm) "Hello, am I talking to Samar?" (Yes, Samar here). "Hey Samar, this is Neelesh here from i2. I work with Saurav. I am not able to get through his number. Guess his cell is having some issues. So he gave me your number before leaving. Could I talk to him if he is around?" (Sure, I will give it to him in a sec. Maxuuuu.... tumhara phone). Maxu had just reached home and was changing in his room. He spoke to this person, dressed up again and went off!!!!. Next day I asked him what had happened, who was Neelesh. "Neelesh mera manager hain. Lekin unhe manager kehna nehin chahiye. He is so helpful and understanding, kabhi lagta hi nehin ki apne Manager se baat kar raha huin. And he is so dedicated". (I interrupted: matlab tum jab ghar aa gaye tab bhi wah office mein hi the). "Haan, he works really late till the complete work is done".

"Samar, humare project ke jo PM hain na, tum unse milna.... I am sure you will be good friend of this guy if you join our team.... he has done his Bachellors from US, joined i2 there and then moved to India.... he is so energetic.... and he is so young and has reached such a high position at such an early age".

"Mere team mein ek lady hain, she is married" (I interrupted: maxu tumhe shadisudha ladkiyon ke baare mein nehin pooch raha huin.... ) he continues.... "Arrey sunona.... even though she is married and has a kid, uski enthu level hum sabke enthu level se jyada hain.... humare team mein sabse jyada enthu usiki hain."

"Mere Team mein ek ladka hain jise tum dekhoge to pata chalega.... bilkul pakka bihari hain.... kisise nehin darrta.... healthy, hatta-katta bilkul.... he sings really well though he is not trained.... normally humare party mein wahin wah lady singer ke saath gaata hain (and some more which is censored!!!!)"

"Samar tum us ladki ko jaante ho jo college mein Arshad ke saath ghumtee rehtee thee Dopy (Department of Photography that is famous for everything but photography!!!!) ke kaam mein? She is very fundoo pata hain.... kaam bilkul jaldi jaldi samaz jaatee hain.... aur baatein karne mein bhi wah sabse aage.... humare team mein Manish, main aur wah - hum teen BITSian hain.... tum aaoge to we will be four of us"

"Mere Team mein ek intern hain" (I interrupted - banda ya bandi?) he continues.... "ladki baba.... wah humse badee hain, lekin wah Masters karne ke baad final sem internship kar rahee hain, isiliye abhi bhi student hi hain.... kaam karne mein bahut achee hain, sincere and dedicated.... jaldi samaz jaatee hain.... lekin agar tum use dekhoge to bologe ki wah shayad class twelvth mein padhtee hain!!!!"

"Tumhara dost to apne team mein cha gaya hain.... wah team ka akela QA hain.... he handles the full project, QA se lekar Release Management tak.... wah raat bhar baitha rehta hain office mein aur humare liye issues nikalta rehta hain.... bahut dedication hain usmein" (I added: obviously, dost kiska hain!!!!)

"Samar mere team mein ek bong hain, he is from IIT-Kharagpur. Bahut fundoo hain, lekin bahut alag bhi hain! Kabhi kabhi wah kuch to fundoo philosophical world mein chala jata hain and then everything he says is OHT (over head transmission)"

"Samar tumhare saath aur do log bhi shayad join karne wale hain. Dono development ke liye hain."

I said, "maxu tum join karne ki baat kar rahe ho, yaha pe mera interview bhi nehin hua hain". Maxu replies, "arrey ho jaayega tumhara, aajtak kabhi bhi tumne interview clear nehin kiya hain kya. Don't worry tum impress kar doge interview mein. I will tell you some basic things that we work on and based on that tum thoda sa padh lena".

As usual, as I always do in most interviews, I didn't prepare anything!!!! And we discussed about flood issues in Assam, Terrorism, manufacturing processes at Ingersoll Rand instead of QA processes, Software development life cycle, Java, XMLs in the interview! (what else can they do when a guy simply says he does not know anything about software!!!!). And to my utter surprise, when I went into the cabin of this seemingly Big Boss (they introduced him to me as Guna) he told me, "both seema and rubesh have told me many good things about you. We have decided to make you an offer. Tomorrow there will be some HR formalities. Looking at your academic records I want you to do much more than QA. I expect from you as much dedication as Manish's, if not more....".

I joined i2 on 21st June, 2004 and all of the above discrete lines from Maxu together started froming a coherent paragraph!

Though this blog is not intended to be limited with topics only related to my Team, this blog surely has been inspired by my urge to give my experiences at i2 a written format. Anant and Aarti's last few days' "hukum" to complete this task soon have added the much needed fuel to initiate it. I DEDICATE THIS BLOG TO THE SPIRIT OF MY WOWAUS TEAM. As we proceed in different directions in search of our personal ambitions, the memories of my WOWAUS days will be there with me, inspiring me, to form another WOWAUS Team someday.... somewhere!!!! I sincerely hope we all converge somewhere soon!

I will be posting some of the funniest moments of our WOWAUS days (though the next one will be MY version of introduction of each of the members of my Team - including some new ones whom Maxu did not know) on this blog in the next few days.

So keep visiting!!!!

iNsEcTiCiDe007