Happy Birthday Yahoo!
So Yahoo! turned 14 on Sunday (1st March). We cut an awesome cake today at the Mumbai office; too little for all of us at the Andheri dugout but it was bloody delicious! =D
I love long weekends. Getting a Friday or a Monday off is the bestest thing about work (yeah, that's the best thing). So I was taking a look at my leave calendar for the year and check this out - 2009 has 7 long weekends! Just look at the number of holidays this year that fall on Fridays or Mondays. I'm so thankful that I get public holidays off now, unlike previously at Directi.
An in line with my tradition of making everything corny, guess what's the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this.
Yaahoooo! :)Here's a glimpse into my new workplace. This is one of Yahoo! India's offices in Lower Parel, Mumbai. Nice, cosy place. Not huge - only about 70 people working out of this place, including me. I've heard that we might be moving out of this place to another, larger facility in Bandra-Kurla Complex, which will consolidate the teams at both Mumbai offices. That'll be a huge relief to me since it should cut down my travel time by a good 40 minutes. Let's see about that.
Today is my first day at Yahoo! India. Mixed emotions, to be honest. While I came here with no excitement, but a lot of anxiety, I was feeling good once I actually got there. Sitting in the waiting/meeting room while the documentation was completed, I was really looking forward to seeing my new workstation and getting started on whatever it is that I'm going to do here. But what a dampener that turned out to be. From 10:30 am to 3:30 pm, I was literally sitting by myself and waiting around. Nothing to do. Nothing damnit! Half the time I spent in the waiting room and the other half at an empty workstation that was assigned to me. The whole while I was waiting for my laptop to be given to me, but apparently there were some issues configuring my ID on the internal access server. 3:30 pm I was finally given a temp laptop so I could just surf around a little. That's really where I'm sitting and writing this post. What's a guy to do?!
Anyway, despite all this my first look here has been positive. The people seem to be nice but the general atmosphere doesn't seem to be as warm as it was at Directi; it's much more formal here. Then again, I've hardly spent any time here; I hope to change that opinion pretty soon.
I learn that there's been an internal restructuring here a week or two back so I'm now reporting to someone other than who I was told previously. To be completely honest, I'm now not even totally sure of my role here but I'm guessing (/hoping) it's going to be better than I thought (touch wood).
Friday was one of the most difficult days of my life. And it all started after it was over.
It was my last day working at Directi. Somehow, I did not do any real 'work'; I just didn't have the time for it. As soon as I got to office, I started on all the HR formalities and then went for a late lunch. And then I finally had the fun air-hockey session that I'd been wanting to do ever since I joined Directi in May of 2006. The internal and external 'farewell' mails took a bloody long while - one of the most difficult things I've done. And then it was time to go for my manager's Engagement & Sangeet ceremony.
Half way through the function after around midnight, when all my friends were dancing their asses off, I was suddenly hit by the dark cloud of sadness. I just wanted to get out of there and get back to office. I was desperate to leave right then! Didn't happen. People stuck around, I stuck around, we all ate, talked, waited and then finally left. Got back to office at around 2 and was sitting, sulking with my head hanging low, not talking to anyone. I really couldn't believe that this was it. I was living the past few days and enjoying everything like it was the last day of my life. Friday night I actually realized how the last day of my life would feel. I just did not want to leave. It sucked - BIG time!
I finally got done copying my personal data, and after a short session of consoling my weeping friend Su, I shut down my computer at 5:30 am. So I can visualize the place well when nostalgia strikes tomorrow, I took one final tour of the office. It was difficult - like a terminally ill kid feels when he's walking away from the one last wish of his life that had just come true. As I was telling people, even though I left a big piece of my heart back at Directi, the heart still grew immensely heavier as I walked away from there. I wish I could cry, because I really wanted to weep that night (day).
Geez. Last days suck.
Hi, I'm Aviraj. Community Evangelist for Posterous.
I am also:
A dreamer
An aspiring visionary
A tech junkie
An amateur photographer
A Ferrari nut
A Posterous fanboy
This is where I collect my thoughts. And a few other things.
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