Vodafone Egypt Migration.

I was working with a product called uOne with Rajesh Roy. I and Rajesh were working on a migration tool which could migrate user data to LDAP and IMAP. One day he called me to a meeting room where we were joined with our Project Manager Asit Mishra. They explained me about the migration process and that there is a migration going to happen in Egypt for Vodafone. They said it was one prestigious migration for India because this could fetch us lot more migration. I was happy to hear about it, but was also wondering why they are telling me all this and that too to me alone. Then Asit said we are planning to send you along with Rajesh for this migration. I was happy and said ok. Now they both of them started to explain lot of things and asked me about my convenience in travelling and all the regular stuff. Everything went well. At this time, Rajesh asked me if my Passport is in Bangalore or if it is at my home. To this I said “I do not have a passport”. It was not there in the wildest dreams of both of them that they were talking to a person for so long who do not have a passport. I could see the facial expression of both those people who were talking to me for so long about the assignment. To which I continued, “But I could make one”.

I went back to Alappuzha taking leave for a week’s time and applied for passport in Tatkal and brought it in a week’s time. My passport was sent for visa stamping and got it stamped.

This was my first ever travel in a flight. I along with Rajesh got a flight to Bombay. From there we need to catch a flight to Dubai and to Dubai to Cairo, the final destination. We reached Mumbai Domestic Airport. We collected all our baggage and went to the International airport. The airport is an old one, which looked more like a bus stand.

We were standing in the queue and when it reached Rajesh’s turn they said, your “immigration clearance not required” is not crossed in the passport so you need to do that before going. There it was a situation and I thought we of coming out of the queue. All of a sudden, Rajesh Said, “ Alright, I will do this and follow you later, You carry on.” I was surprised, I know only half of the tool the rest of the half is managed by Rajesh, what if he does not come? . But he looked very confident. I got the flight. And reached Dubai and from there to Cairo. Customs checked all my bag and once I came out, there was a person standing with a placard with my name. I reached him, and said that I am Jomon from Logica. This man was in his fifties. He said, “ My neme iss Abedulle, I em uor darivar”. I said, “Alright you take me to the hotel now”. To which he continued, “Uorr Boss want me tu teke you tu offece”. I did not knew who my boss is there, all these information is with Rajesh. I did not wanted to argue, I noded my head and sat inside the car. He took me to Egypt’s Telecom center. It is around 50 acers of land with a building in the center. All the four walls around the compound was 15 feet tall and there were Soldiers with gun near the gate and on the watch towers. I met a person called Khaliq. He was the delivery manager of the project. I found one more person called David. There was nothing much to do that day, But the biggest stone thrown on my head was also on the same day. Rajesh called me over the phone, which was given to me from office and said that he is not coming. And he is going back to Bangalore and help me from Bangalore.

Another challenge was that there was no internet connection. The only way to talk was to make phone call. We kept on calling I Rajesh and Govind Pande from US. For Govind also it was a challenging project because it was he who decided to give the migration to Indian engineers. My phone bill was 40’000 rupees when I came back. Hureen, the admin manager called Rajesh and asked if he really need this phone.

I was there in Egypt for 33 days most of the days Rajesh stayed back in office till 12.00 am. and sometimes 1:00 am to help me. The migration was completed successfully and I came back. It was a great experience in my life. There were times when I stayed awake for 38 hours when the migration was happening. There were many issues in between but nothing bothered us, mean time I also mastered Rajesh’s part of migration, with his help and did that also.

Believe in the company

When I joined Logica, I joined along with other 130 graduates. Since it was a bulk recruitment Logica gave equal salary to everyone in the batch. Soon after the training, I got a job in GTBPC. For a product called uOne. At this time Prabodh Sirur who was with GTBPC was chosen as compensation review head. And this was the time of compensation review. One fine day there was a mail from Sushil Tayal the HR director notifying about the compensation review. In the email it was also mentioned that the people who joined after October 25, are not eligible for the appraisal. This was a sad news for us because. All of us joined on Oct 27th and 29th. Our salary was comparatively very low and if there is no appraisal happened that year we had to work in the company for another one year with the same salary, which was a real challenge for us. We had five batches, UNICORN, ANTS,CYBORGS, LOGIBEANS and NETACERS. One Unix batch, two java batch and two Microsoft technology batch. We were all in dilemma. We representatives from each batch go together to discuss on what to do. I and Pratik Roy from Unicorn, Vinup and Sachin from Ants, Dinesh from netacers and someone from cyborgue. We finally came to a conclusion that we need to talk to Prabodh about our concern.

We send him a mail and requested for an appointment. He immediately agreed and agreed to meet us in a meeting room the same day. We discussed with him about our concern. He told lot of things and at last he said. I cannot commit on anything as the decisions are already taken by the HR director, you believe in the company and the company will take care of you. We were not satisfied with the answers which he has given. But all of us, the representatives of each batch took the word very seriously, at least I took it seriously and convinced my colleagues with what he said “Believe in the company”. After a month it was the appraisal and there was an equal salary hike to everyone in the batch. From then whenever I think about the salary, I remember what he said. “Believe in the company”. Even after years in the company when we batch mates meet and if the topic turns to appraisal, we still say “believe in the company”. And still doing it.

Claire's Prayer

My eighteen months old child is going to a child care center called Juzzkids near electronic city, as both her parents are working. I am sure that she is losing a lot as a child, while my mother was always with me until I went to school after I turned five. Claire is a fast learner and observers everything happening around her. A few days ago we saw her standing keeping her hands clasped under her chin and saying something. We did not care about this initially. But when this happened again. We tried to understand what she was doing. From her school we came to know that they pray before going to sleep. And this is what she was doing at home. While praying they insist every one to stand. Next day at home we were all laying on the bed getting ready to sleep. Just to tease my child I said “Prayers”. She suddenly got up, stood on her feet and clasped her palms and started to chant. Suddenly she noticed that I was still laying on the bed. This was something against the rule for her. She stopped and looked at me embarrassingly. She waved her head sidewise and continually said “Enni, Enni…” (Enikku, Enthiri ) which means get up. I got up and sat on the bed. And acted as if I too was praying. She was not satisfied. She stopped for a while and started saying the same again. I tried to kneel down. She kept on rolling her head and asking me to get up until I got up completely on my feet. Without saying anything she started chanting her prayers. Once she finished, she lay down to sleep.

A simple thing taught in school, if can influence an eighteen month old child, what are the possibility of a school.

Turn off the engine” at the signals

We eight employees from Logica with the permission of Bangalore Police reached MG road on 5th Jun. It was the world Environment Day. We stood at the signal. When the signal turned red, we walked around the vehicles displaying a placard which read “Turn off the engine” . 30 % of the people were already doing it. 5% of them told us, sorry if I switch it off, it might not start. But the rest of the 65% of the people turned off the engine and gave a smile back. Many of them rolled down the window glass and said thanks. Most of them showed thumps up. Some of them took pictures. And a few congratulated and asked the details.

According to the local seller on the signal, normally it was hard to go in-between the vehicles because of the smoke and the sound and Today it is good. He said normally he gets tired and take rest after an hours business. But today even after 2 hours of selling he did not take any break.

There was a local news channel who came across and talked to us on the initiative. I was also called from Radio One and made me the warrior of Environments day.

To my right it is Santhosh, left Vinutha Abdul, Venu, Bhupinder, Sachindra, and Thilak, And Swami took this picture.

Long serving award

It was a Saturday. We got up from the bed a little late as it’s a holiday. I was in the couch with my child and my wife got me a cup of tea. The calling bell rang, and my wife attended the door. We thought that it would be our servant maid. To our surprise. There is a delivery boy holding bouquet of fresh flowers. He asked are you Ahilaa. When she said yes, He said, Madam this is from Wipro, as you have completed five years today in Wipro. He congratulated her and gave the bouquet to her. We felt very happy and she felt very important. It was a pleasant surprise.


Next Monday she send ma a mail which was send to her from HR department, congratulating her for completing five years. The letter also offered her a complimentary holiday package along with the family. In the evening of the same day she returned from office with a gift packet. She said it is given to her at office by her manager for the successful completion of five years. It had a leather pen stand a leather card holder and a leather photo frame. On all of it is embedded “Welcome to Club 5 , Wipro”.

Tuesday she got a mail asking for a new photograph, once she send it to them she got a mail asking her to collect her new ID card from the security. When she went to collect it, she was again greeted by the securities for he 5 year completion. They gave her the new ID card and a red color tag. While joining Wipro everyone gets a blue tag, after 5 years they get red tag and after 10 they get green tag.

It’s a great feeling to be recognized for the loyalty of the person who stays in the company for long. These are not expensive but for the employee and there family it’s a great feeling.

Nandakumar Kirupanandam

It is hard to find good leaders in the corporate word. It is only managers all around. Even if you see leader in the office, he would be leading a team as part of his job. And the real end factor of the Job is to have one nice profit building group. But I have seen a nice leader after long. He is one simple leader who get's involved in all the activities, even the simplest of all the activities in Syntillations. People love him for many reasons. One is the simplicity he has got and then it is the belief that he keeps towards himself, to the nation, to those who work with him.
He've been the president of Syntillations where I am one of the SIG(Special Interest Group Adminis). Any of the activity Syntillations is doing, he is a part of it. He also tries to keep the people together. Without any dispute.