December at Ahmedabad

6 am.Alarm ringing,but unlike most of the times,I dont snooze it.Why? Because,its my roomie's bloody cell thats ringing.Covering my ears with the pillow,I try to go to sleep,but soon I realize that today is my 'First Day at the Office'.Quickly I get up,and start getting ready.Meanwhile,Mr.Cisco too is busy getting ready for his 1st day at the office.Combed our hair to perfection,polished our shoes as clear as a mirror,tied the perfect tie-knot,prayed to the Gods,took our folders and we were off to the office.If life had background music,surely "Aakhon mein sapne liye,gharse hum chal toh diye" would have been the apt song.

Dressed and raring to go,we made our way downstairs,waiting for the others.Alongside were 200-odd people,with the same nervousness on their faces and the same list of documents in their hands.As the others came,we left for the a memorable,yet terrifying experience of our lives.The 10 minute walk seemed like an eternity,with mind wandering away into thoughts of cubicles,projects,deadlines,team members,etc.Finally reaching the building,we were directed towards the cafeteria,where oddly enough,the ever hungry yours truly didn't even look around for food.Shaky hands kept on checking the documents every couple of minutes,as if they were going to vanish in the thin air.The chitter-chatter of the 200 nervous people amplified through the cafeteria,eventually inviting the security guard to intervene.Don't know if it were my anxiousness or the noise around,but i all i could make out was snap,blah blah,bang,blah,snap,pointing towards one end,blah blah and suddenly there was a pin drop silence.The ephemeral silence ended as soon the guard made his way out of the cafeteria,as people resumed to their chitter-chatter.Eventually,we were told to make way to the auditorium.

There is something about auditoriums that always make me feel sleepy.Nothing different was this situation,and so I tried to find a seat at the back rows but being a 'late latif' didn't do me any good.All the preceding seats were occupied as well.During this row scanning process,certain vacant seats in the middle were occupied as well,and the only vacant seats left were the first and the second rows.With no other option left,I went and sat at the seat which seemed relatively farthest from the speaker.Soon all the higher authorities came and gave us an introduction about themselves and the organization after which we were off for lunch.Post lunch,we gathered again in the auditorium, completing the document formalities and called it a day at around 6.30.

2^nd day began in pretty much the same fashion.Sleepy from the oil-laden food I had for lunch, I made my way to the auditorium .This time though we were gonna be told our batches.Being an introvert,I wanted someone from the 10 odd people I was acquainted with in the 2 days,to be a part of my batch.One by one,names were being announced.As Mr.Cisco’s name was announced,i crossed my fingers for my name to be a part of the batch as well.Sadly though,I wasn’t a part of the 1^st batch.Zaina !

Then came the names of people from the 2^nd batch.4-5 names were called,after which I heard my name,and I rose from my half sleepy state and I started noticing the people who were there with me.Soon the list of 40 people was over and as I looked around,none of them were of my acquaintance.Hell,more than 80% of them,I was seeing for the first time.I couldn’t help but bombard a series of swears(in my head) at the person responsible for making these batches.Rubbing salt to the wound was the fact that all of my friends had atleast 1 person of their acquaintance with them.

Still upset with the batch allocation,I made my way back to the hostel,asking people,”Hi,u from A-44?” Dinner was over,and we headed back to the hostel.Met K-pill on the way,cribbed in front of him too about the allocation.K-pill with his ever smiling face told me,”Arre,A-44 na.Yeh bhi A-44 mein hai”,and I met Mukesh Uncle,who also was the CR of our batch.Wow ! My first friend from the batch.Happy I was returning to my room,where I was stopped and invited to Room 201(miss that place),to play the game of Mafia(miss that too!). Ecstatic,I RSVP’d a confirmation.

As I made my way to the room filled with 15 unknown people,playing an unknown game was no different what my situation would have the next day at office,except that the number of people was going to be more.In a way,this was kind of a trailer.Though the trailer seemed like the trailer for Paranormal Activity,a few minutes into it,I turned into an Adam Sandler flick.Soon,I was acquainted to everyone present there,and got a hang of the game as well.1-2 rounds in,double entendres made its entrance and introvert-ism took a back seat,as we laughed and cracked jokes.What started off as a crappy day,turned into quite at eventful one.I returned to room a content person and called it a day.

1^st day with the batch.Nervous,I made my way the classroom,as I searched for a familiar/friendly/beautiful face,with a vacant seat besides.Since many had already utilized the output from the above search function,there were barely any places left.I made my way to one of them,and introduced myself to the person next to me,Danny Boy a.k.a. The-man-with-the-golden-voice.As the first session began,our facilitators made us introduce the person sitting next to us,along with his/her favourite food.So ,we got down to work,and to my amazement,Danny Boy was a meat lover like me :).Having introduced my newest buddy,’Sorpotel Danny’ to everyone,I geared up for the next activity. Made quite a few friends by the end of it too,and soon I wished for more of these activities.By the end of it,almost everyone knew everyone.The technical sessions began later,though I’d rather not talk about them.

Next few days were pretty much the same,with an entertaining non-technical session,and 3 technical sessions per day,and mafia in room 201 at the end of the day.Singing,dancing,laughing,coding we made a week into training.Soon tests were announced and sooner tests were conducted as well :P

Finally,the day I was looking forward to since the past 2 months had arrived.As my roommates got ready to give me a sore ass,i prepared myself by tying a pillow to my ass,a method which was used by my roomie,when we gave him a sore ass some days back.As the clock struck 12,phones calls,messages kept coming in,as my roomies waited eagerly for me to hang up,so as to begin the ass whopping.Next day,we headed to the office,as we had an exam the next the.Still,I got a nice surprise birthday celebration amidst the preparation :).

Post test,we were divided into groups for case study.Though was friends with just Danny Boy,soon gelled with the rest of group members as well.Case study was probably the best part the entire first phase,as Petrol Pump and me kept on bugging Danny Boy with our endless pjs.It was during this time that RP and me started our double meaning talks as well.Soon BP joined us as well.With our terrific trio of brothers in place,all that was missing to complete the picture was Mumma.Having recruited her,we went our in search of our dad.Soon Mumma became Mother Ahmedabad,as everyone addressed her as Mumma,with a new brother/sister being added to our family everyday.With project work aside,RP,BP and me kept on making more and more senseless double entendre,from almost every word that ‘came’ from people.

As the year drew towards an end,we had a small celebration organized by our employer.Music,food,fashion show,and a hell lot of a dance as we bid adieu to the year that was,a day before the actual new year(the only sad part about the ‘New Year’ celebration).Though we had a little celebration of our own on 31^st night,as well went all over  the hostel rooms,wishing everyone,playing music,dancing and as always,at the end of everything,headed to room no.201 for Mafia :) .