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Part 5: The Last Days in Chennai – results, farewells and reflections

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Before diving into this final chapter, I want to take a moment to appreciate something I rarely acknowledge—my own consistency. When I started documenting my journey in Chennai, I didn’t expect to stick with it for this long. But here we are, at the last blog of this series. Through all the ups and downs, I kept writing, capturing the smallest moments, the biggest lessons, and everything in between. Looking back, I realize how much these blogs have helped me preserve memories I might have otherwise forgotten. So, here’s to the last one—one final glimpse into this unforgettable journey. So we were waiting for the results, and man, they were really testing our patience. There was nothing to do all day except wait, and I don't like wasting time at all. So, I decided to make good use of it—learning new things, revising core concepts of networking and OS, and exploring advanced SQL. I kept myself busy, completed 2-3 courses on human psychology on Udemy (now that I have free access to ev...
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Part 4 - Chennai Diaries: The Final Phase and Fun

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 As the new year began, my full-month salary got credited to my account. I was so happy! I gifted something to each of my family members and treated myself to two watches—a Wrogn and a Casio. And a watch case to keep them all together. Yeah, I love watches. Here's my collection. In the first week of January, Amjad vacated the room, leaving just Pravin and me as roommates. The Final Phase of Training The last phase of our training began. Two cohorts were merged, and we were assigned a spacious classroom. Now, our strength was 34 people. The schedule was simple—our trainer would teach for 2.5 hours, and after that, the rest of the day was ours. New classroom, new people sitting beside me. But I made sure my neighbors were Waris, Ali, and Subhashish. From now on, we sat together throughout the training. The classroom had a mic and a speaker, so we turned it into our personal karaoke setup. Everyone tried singing, and then they asked me to show my ramp walk. Of course, I delivered. One...
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Part 3 - Milestones & Memories: The Journey Through Training

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First Salary & Giving Back My first salary was credited. It wasn’t a full-month salary—just for 20 days—but it was still my first. Telling my parents about it made me feel proud. I bought a box of sweets for every close relative, gifted a high-quality wallet to my father with a note that said, "Abbu, you’ll always be my hero," and offered something to the teacher who had taught me the fundamentals of my religion, proper Quran recitation, and its correct pronunciation—for free. Shraddha’s Birthday & The Laptop Bag Run On December 3rd, we went to claim the laptop bag offered by the company. Since it had to be collected from a different office, six of us took an auto-rickshaw during lunch break. That’s when we found out—it was Shraddha’s birthday! So, while returning after collecting the bags, we stopped by a bakery, got a cake, and celebrated. Even the auto driver got a piece. Shifting Rooms – Goodbye 204, Hello 107 On December 7th, I changed my room. The window in 204...
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Part 2 - The Corporate Life Begins

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November 12, 2024 – The Onboarding Day The big day had arrived. The first step into corporate life. The first job. The first paycheck incoming. Everything was set—except my formal clothes. See, I had ironed them before packing, but thanks to the oh-so-gentle handling of my luggage during the journey, my clothes looked like they had been through a wrestling match. No big deal, I thought. I'll just iron them in the morning. Then Chennai decided to welcome me with a thunderstorm. Heavy rain. No electricity. No iron. No crisp formals. I had two options— Wear my wrinkled shirt and look like I just rolled out of bed. Wear a polo T-shirt and pretend I made a conscious fashion choice. I went with option two. We—me, Raj, Tushar, and Aditya—booked a cab and reached the company campus, and guess what? Everyone was wearing formal shirts. I, on the other hand, looked like I had just walked in from a casual weekend brunch. Awkward. HRs verified our original documents to process our RFID-enabled...
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Part 1 - First day in Chennai

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     Today is February 2nd (Sunday) 2025, and it’s officially Day 84  since I landed in Chennai. Today, while having "Lemon rice" as breakfast at my PG’s mess, I had a sudden thought—why not blog about my experience? Maybe years later, I’ll read this and laugh (or cry) at how clueless I was. I want to document everything from the start, so this might take a while. Consider this Part 1.  Buckle up! The Journey Begins My adventure started on November 10th . As a fresher, I was thrilled about my job at a multinational company and excited to step into corporate life. But what made this even more special? I’m the first engineer in my family. Actually, scratch that—I’m the first graduate in my family. So, yeah, you can imagine the happiness (and pressure). Graduating with an 8.8 CGPA and landing an on-campus placement was a huge win. Honestly, as I write this, I feel grateful and pretty proud of myself.  Go me! Now, traveling from Nanded to Chennai wasn’t a ...
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My PRK Journey: The Ride to Clear Vision

After wearing glasses since the 4th grade, I finally decided to get PRK (Photorefractive Keratectomy). LASIK? Not for me. The idea of a flap on my cornea that could come loose if I ever got a head injury wasn’t something I was willing to risk. From the beginning, PRK seemed like the more "rough and tough" option. Longer recovery, sure, but without the whole flap issue. So, here’s how it went down. Spoiler: it was a bumpy ride.   [The password for all medical reports is: P1691783 ] The Surgery Day: Quick but Terrifying The surgery itself was fast, maybe 10 minutes, but it felt like an eternity. You know that feeling when someone’s working on your eyes, and you’re just lying there, trying not to think about it? Yeah, that was me. Once they were done, they checked my eyes , they put bandage lenses in my eyes, handed me a bag of eye drops, and sent me home. The first few hours were fine, almost suspiciously fine. Then the real fun began. The First 48 Hours: Welcome to Pain Town L...
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