Souvenir from 2022 | Things that keep me reminding 2022

Everyone is sharing their memories from 2022 on social handles and I too want to do the same, but I don’t believe the pictures can speak more than my words or myself, narrating the story.?

Let me break down my story into the mini-stories?

• It was too heavy to handle
• I was in the place I was dreamt off
• Finding yourself
• Went to Network but came back with friends
• I found someone, who was my reflection
• Lessons from my past thought by my reflection
• One bad thing

It was too heavy to?handle

It was the peak time in the project I’m working on. I was in the new module of the project, and it was a learning stage. I had proved as I can handle new things and learning or upskilling was my key skill. I was sent to a team to learn and work on a module requiring knowledge of Mulesoft and integration testing, which was completely new for me, but somehow managed to understand and moved ahead. The hurdle was getting ready for me with the change in leadership on both sides of the project. I mean at the client side and also at our QA team side. The First 3 months of the year went in a cycle of learning, working, making mistakes, taking responsibility, and correcting them. At one point, I was been only one in a team, I mean I was the team. I was already on the edge to be mad, but glad my friend saved me. We both were been friends since we joined the TCS. She joined our team with their teammate, and I got a good lead ahead of me. By the last quarter of this year, we successfully completed release 1 of our project. I have to be grateful for them.?

Is it boring? Yeah, that’s why I haven’t explained more here. The best parts are coming up….

I was in the place I was dreamt?off

I was called to Work from Office. June 21, was my first day at the office. On the first day 4 members, on the second day with 5, and for 2 weeks only 6 members including me. It started haunting me and gradually it became my sweet spot. Gradually everyone started coming to the office, every day we explore new places in the office, new things to use, and new ways of enjoyment. It’s been 6 months since going to the office, started with colleagues now going to the office for working with friends. Till we have seen birthdays, farewells, sweets from home town, sharing food around PGs or prepared from them and sharing our stories, we are been good friends now. Office politics is not yet come into the picture.?

It is not unplanned, in 2019 only I had plans to go to the office and I had a dream of an office. The YouTube series TVF Cubicles, Office Chukiyagiri, What’s your Status and many others have influenced me to work at the office. But out of a nutshell, I on-boarded and started my career in Work from Home. Now am living my dreams and day by day it’s getting more interesting to work at the office than at home. You know, the office bag I carry was bought on February 2020, after getting an offer letter from TCS in January.?

I sit in the middle of ODC, I’m the one who is a friend to all the teams, and I’m the disturbance in the office. The best place to hang out and relax or talk to each other and spend leisure is my cubicle. Cubicle # 15 is one spot for everyone to meet around and enjoy leisure.?

Finding yourself

In June, I started living in Bangalore. PG life, PG food, double sharing room with Bihar roommate who speaks Hindi (I was very bad at Hindi at that time), surrounded with the strangers speaking Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Bhojpuri, and some I didn’t even understand. I saw people working in different domains, organizations, and WFH & WFO. One worst things I did is asked them about the experience and listened to their mid-life crisis. Their mid-life crisis made me feel so bad about myself and many things came to my mind. What am doing? where am I now? where do I stand in this competitive market? what does all success need? what am offering??

Now I am clear. I am not supposed to think all these things at this age?;P?

Went to Network but came back with?friends

3 places where I went to meet the people to collect the professional network but came back with making their friends.?

1. Office: After watching my web series on office, I was literally afraid of being in the trap of office politics. But glad, it turned into the office in Erkenci Kus, it is friendly and the reason is “No one stays back at the office or people. After 5:30 PM they all fall back to their rooms and connect with their people.”?
2. PG/ Hostel: I am in the PG where my friend from school stays, so it was not difficult to connect with new people. Am now a friend or a group mate in the group of Jawari boys. I mean North Karnataka people. I’m learning many things from them and many of you might have seen my stories on Instagram, and how am enjoying them.?
3. Meetups: There are many special moments in the meetups I went to and the groups I met. Meetup has been a great place for me to have a special moment of the year. I have mentioned about in the next sections.

I found someone, who was my reflection

It might be around March or April, I got a mail from Adobe Behance as because of not being active on my account, it may be deactivated. I created that account when I had an interest in UI/UX at the time of my 2nd year of graduation. I logged into my account and activated the account to keep it active. Then I started browsing the projects posted by creators and designers around the world. After 5 minutes of scrolling around, I found an account with UI prototypes added that were too good and I saw the Indian name of the author, for my surprise I knew that person, as she was from the same batch where we on-boarded to TCS and we both were in same WhatsApp group made for Kannada folks. I knew her for more than a year but never had a conversation with her. I browsed other projects too and I have a bad habit, to appreciate or blame on the face. I wanted to appreciate so I liked the project and directly slid it into WhatsApp, texted her, and told that what I saw and how good it was. Thereafter I just moved ahead with my work without knowing that we had started conversations with each other every day. She use to share her artwork I use to appreciate it, sometimes I use to share my work, experiences, and interests with her. I became her fan, absolutely a fan. She use to give suggestions and I use to acknowledge everything. It went straight for some months, this was out of my plans for 2022. Out of nowhere she came and became my habit, unknowingly I started liking her. Till then I was also not aware that am Sapiosexual. She introduced me to a platform named ADPList, where we can get free mentorship from industry experts. I booked a session and I got a lot of insights, it was a great help for me at that moment. Still, I use to join some group mentorships and get insights regarding my career and aspiring domain. Another unusual thing I did was I started UI designing and prototyping on Figma. I was introduced to Figma by Dhanil, my batch TD at the time of ILP at TCS. Thereafter I didn’t get the inspiration to use or learn more. Now she became the reason to explore Figma and I have done some projects also. You might be seeing them on LinkedIn. What fascinated me about her is that she is determined and focused. I haven’t seen her going out of the plan she laid, stepping back from what she wants to do, always being ambitious, never settling attitude. This made me feel like I’m looking at myself. But she was far better than me, I was possessing just 10% of her. From a stranger to a fan, a fan to a friend, and so on. In August, I got a chance to meet her at an event. It was one of the best moments of this year. It was a crowded event, with strangers all around, my extrovertism was waiting for this environment for a long time, and she was showing up in front of me. In the event, we were been together and where she goes, if I’m not there with her, still I use to observe her wherever she goes. She was elegant in between the crowd and shining in white. Best time, best place, best moments. By the time I had given her the hint that I started liking her, she hadn’t noticed it seriously. Now we are not talking to each as much as we were before, and I don’t want to say why.?

One bad?thing

We met again at my office. She was been for an event at my office. We met in person, I showed her my table and escorted her around the office. It was rainy and riding her scooter was awesome. On the second day of the same event, she came to the office and she got felicitated for her best work on her project. It was a happy moment for both of us. After the event, she came out with her colleague, he was annoying to me. Don’t judge me suddenly, listen to the next part. He was a little flirty, he tried to cross the line, again and again, I don’t like people who cross professional distances and disturb the cultural or ethical beliefs of someone, talk stereotypical statements, and try to be cool for no reason. We both were in the library and he started talking rubbish about the books, trying to flirt with her on the topic of feeling cold. He was trying to come close to her or whenever we both were walking he wants to come in between or on another side. It was literally annoying for me. The people who work with me or in my close circle always say that I don’t fake my facial expression. I felt anger, disgust, and annoyance many a time, but she and he might have noticed or not. That one thing, I controlled to do and regret is Slapping him or punching him with all my strength. Break his tooth or twist his hand. But what came up to my mind to control myself is, today I can do anything to him at my place but tomorrow morning she has to sit in the same office he works, they are teammates so they have to work together. I can’t be with her all the time, but he can take revenge on her because of me. I never wanted her to suffer and I don’t want to be the reason. Leaving him that day was a bad thing I did and I regret it. Without a second thought, I should have done what I wanted to do.?

Lessons from my past thought by my reflection

I wanted to share with you, but NO. It is all on myself, so I will work on it and the results you have to gauge it guys. I know you will wish me good luck.?

This was my year and I am carrying these memories for life. This story is incomplete, because, in the book of 100 pages, it is just 1 page. Many more to come up.?

Wishing you all a Happy New Year! Have a great year?ahead!!