A post I had written offline.. got saved and shunted into an obscure folder during the last re-installation of Windows, suddenly discovered 5 mins ago and therein posted albeit out of turn (and date) to its rightful place. Feels good to blog again! :)
As I started handing over all the long term assignments in my hand to the manager, I began to realise that I was not at all comfortable with the fact that all my hard work was gonna be in the hands of a person, who, in my opinion is completely incapable of the task. But I had made my choice and I would stick to it.
In between, I made a successful visit to Dehradun, 10 days ahead of my move to scout out possible residences and select one for moving in. Its all in the previous blog, which I won't repeat. So on the 23rd, I shed my last links to Development Alternatives and for the briefest moment in time, felt free, with nothing on my mind, no work, worries, schedules, deadlines nothing. For the briefest of moments. Coz after that started my next mission, moving lock, stock and barrel to Dehradun. The house was selected, the land lord informed and advance paid. Now it was upto me to gather my things and move it all.
In what would seem like justification of one's actions, I kept finding reasons why I was leaving behind the apparently great life I had and moving on. The job was great, but I was no longer needed there, the skills I had were no longer needed and the ones that were needed from here onward in the project, I did not have. I had lost the spark that had kept me going all the year round, my workwas sure to suffer... and therefore the project. Secondly, I have always been a technical person, working with the industrial sector, and i was working in the development sector for the past one year. this did not bode well, my collective experience of 4 years was going to waste. CII oferred me the opportunity to get out of the development sector before I became useless to the industrial sector and lost all chnce of working as a technical person again. That was why I was leaving. What would my wife do in Shimla after she finished her PhD next year? She would be forced to be a housewife for lack of suitable career options in her field in Shimla or take up a job elsewhere like Chandigarh or similar place and then meet once or twice a month, tht wouldn't e much of a marriage would it? That was why I was leaving! Dehradun would offer my wife many more career opportunities than Shimla. Although I ws thinking about moving out of Shimla sometime next year, CII's offer came in slightly ahead of my schedule. I decided to take it. The cold in Shimla was driving me nuts frankly, although I was enjoying it, I was simply not adapted to this level of cold, being from the tropics, comparatively, Dehradun has a climate much closer to Pune. Thats why I was leaving!
After a considerably long gestation period, my appointment to CII (Confederation of Indian Industries) finally came through on the 18th of September 2010. It was a fine birthday present although rather surprising, as I had given up all hopes of the opportunity materializing. I was told initially that my offer letter would be dispatched on the 20th, but it again took almost 10 days. I finally received the scanned copy on the 30th of September and on the 1st of October I resigned. The manager was initially quite taken aback. he felt I was quitting because of him. Our relationship hasn't exactly been cordial since he joined up. But that is besides the point. I had taken a leave of absence on 30th September 2010, to sit down and think about what I was going to do, About whether my decision was correct. A lot of stuff went into the reasons why I should stay with Development Alternatives, equal was the number that went into why I should join CII. But the one that tipped the scales in favour of CII, was unfortunately the manager at Shimla. Given the option, he did not exactly make a reason to stay. Maybe he wanted me out of the picture, but I know that Development Alternatives will be poorer for my exit.
So, I resigned, finished all formalities by the 20th and 23rd was my last day at work. Although I was required to give a full months notice period, I gave only 3 weeks time. The reason being, I needed to join CII by the first of November and I needed some time to shift to my new place of work; Dehradun.
Interestingly, when I was initially interviewed by CII, I was given the impression that of the three possible locations of Chandigarh, Dehradun and Delhi, where positions were vacant, I would mostly likely be placed in Chandigarh itself. And that was fine with me, Shimla would have been only 100 kms away, and I could visit my friends anytime I wanted. But to my surprise, when the offer letter arrived, I was posted to Dehradun. Of course, I have no issues as to my posting, but it kinda derailed my mindset a bit, initially. All in all, Dehradun is better place than Chandigarh, not as costly and quieter I presumed.
As I started handing over all the long term assignments in my hand to the manager, I began to realise that I was not at all comfortable with the fact that all my hard work was gonna be in the hands of a person, who, in my opinion is completely incapable of the task. But I had made my choice and I would stick to it.
In between, I made a successful visit to Dehradun, 10 days ahead of my move to scout out possible residences and select one for moving in. Its all in the previous blog, which I won't repeat. So on the 23rd, I shed my last links to Development Alternatives and for the briefest moment in time, felt free, with nothing on my mind, no work, worries, schedules, deadlines nothing. For the briefest of moments. Coz after that started my next mission, moving lock, stock and barrel to Dehradun. The house was selected, the land lord informed and advance paid. Now it was upto me to gather my things and move it all.
Now the problem lay in the fact that the move was going to be from one state to another, as a result, the local pickup truck owners were refusing to even consider as they did not have permits for entering uttarakhand. So in the week before the final move, I had contacted some professional packers and movers. Turned out thier services would have cost me a trifling Rs. 18000 for a relocation of 2b0 Kms. Back to the drawing board, I finally convinced one guy for a reasonable sum of Rs. 6000.00. Considering the distance of 280 Kms x 2 560 @ 10 Rs per Kms (which is the standard rate for hire) the total came to 5600.00 so it was reasonable. I made sure that the permits, passes etc required will be the headache / responsibility of the movers since I was paying them 400.00 extra.
It was settled, I was relieved, I had been packing stuff in bits and pieces over the past 2 weeks and it had all come down to a total of 23 different boxes of various sizes and shapes including the washing machine, almirah, bed and two suitcases full of clothes. the bedding and linen i stuffed into the compartment within the bed. My other stuff like books, kitchen, water filter, etc was packed in boxes sourced from the local grocery stores.
Time to digress again from the topic at hand. About the boxes.. I requested a local grocery store owner to save some of the larger boxes / cartons in which stuff such as chips / biscuits etc is shipped. He wouldn't agree due to the space constraints, I managed to convince his son to flatten out the boxes and store them temporarily for a day or two, I would come to get them guaranteed. When I went back to the shop 2 days later I was kinda skeptical about the boxes being there at the shop, and time was running out for me, I had to finish my packing and fast. to my utter surprise, there was a bunch of flattened boxes of various sizes right from cartons of biscuits to packs of frooti all tied up and waiting for me to pick them. Graciously I accepted the boxes and arrived home with around 10 Kgs of corrugated packing material.
The next day when i set about resetting the flattened boxes to their intended shapes, I realised tpo my horror that the numbskulls at the grocery store had opened the boxes literally mauling them with blades and had cut most of them along a single side to flatten them out, making the box unusable. Such a waste, I wonder why people forget that every object can be used at least twice if note more before throwing it into the garbage. No doubt the grocery store would sell these boxes to a rag picker to be recylced, but why tear them up and destroy any chance of them being used anything but as scrap!
Back to the narration at hand, finally got all the boxes I would need and then began the daunting task of packing everything I have collected over the past few years as a bachelor and then some.Even managed to recover some of the desecrated (sic) boxes with some tape. First went in all the stuff from the kitchen, except for a few cups / glasses / plates to be packe at the last moment. It it was the turn of the clothes that I could do without and the list goes on. I am sure reades are not intereted in the little detaisl such as where my undies went,or how I stored my Star Trek DVD. :). Finally the day of the great transfer of material dawned. Everything was set. I woke up at 6 to make sure all the last bits of clothing, books etc was packed so that I would be ready when the pickup truck arrived at 0930 Hrs IST.
A new adventure was looking at me in the face as I sat in my balcony, savouring my last cup of coffee as a resident of Shimla. Depp inside I was sorry I was leaving, Shimla had been good to me in the past 1 year, my health had improved considerably and I was feeling fitter than ever before, the people were gentle and friendly, not only in Shimla but almost all over Himachal barring a few urban areas. The food was good, got to move around a lot, got a lot of respect from everyone I met including the government officials who saw my profession as one of great importance. And sitting there I remembered the Frank Sinatra song 'A very good year'. It was a very good year it went.... and it had beena very good year. My colleagues were great young people to work with all full of energy and inspiration, raring to go, my employers were good honest people, working for a noble cause, treated me well, paid me well.... then why was I leaving? Why was I throwing it all away? What ade me give up a seemingly great life and opt for a change? I sat thinking.
In what would seem like justification of one's actions, I kept finding reasons why I was leaving behind the apparently great life I had and moving on. The job was great, but I was no longer needed there, the skills I had were no longer needed and the ones that were needed from here onward in the project, I did not have. I had lost the spark that had kept me going all the year round, my workwas sure to suffer... and therefore the project. Secondly, I have always been a technical person, working with the industrial sector, and i was working in the development sector for the past one year. this did not bode well, my collective experience of 4 years was going to waste. CII oferred me the opportunity to get out of the development sector before I became useless to the industrial sector and lost all chnce of working as a technical person again. That was why I was leaving. What would my wife do in Shimla after she finished her PhD next year? She would be forced to be a housewife for lack of suitable career options in her field in Shimla or take up a job elsewhere like Chandigarh or similar place and then meet once or twice a month, tht wouldn't e much of a marriage would it? That was why I was leaving! Dehradun would offer my wife many more career opportunities than Shimla. Although I ws thinking about moving out of Shimla sometime next year, CII's offer came in slightly ahead of my schedule. I decided to take it. The cold in Shimla was driving me nuts frankly, although I was enjoying it, I was simply not adapted to this level of cold, being from the tropics, comparatively, Dehradun has a climate much closer to Pune. Thats why I was leaving!
Well, As I sat there sipping coffee, only one thing came to mind.... CII and Dehradun had better be worth it!
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