Of Broken Dreams and Realizations.

Let’s rewind back one year. I am living my last few days of my college life, and as everyone knows, those days can be pretty hard. You have to bid goodbye to your friends, leave your room and hostel where you have made countless memories. You have to pay your canteen bill as well. Overall those are troubled times, both emotionally and financially.

However there is one thing that makes you genuinely feel excited about leaving your college and joining a company; When you get placed, you think about it, you dream about it, you make plans what to do with it. Any guesses? Yes, I am talking about money! You tell yourself , Finally Independence in life. Imagine having no food at midnight, and you scrounging the whole hostel trying to find something to eat, with money, I will have a fridge full of food. Imagine having to save a whole month of your pocket money to buy a birthday gift for your girlfriend, with money, I can gift whatever and whenever you want! I’ll travel, buy my dream bike, wear “Suits” inspired branded clothes.

A still from Suits

So with my expectations set, I reached Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India and my company had provided with accommodation in a swanky hotel, and that evening, when in the room alone, I happily thought to myself, finally all those years when my mom and dad kept on forcing me to study and saying “Son, study now, later your life will be set”. I said to myself , “Aklank, finally the later has arrived, my life is set”.

Naive I was to think so.The next morning, as soon as I set my foot out of hotel, I faced a humongous task. It was my first Monday in Bangalore and in front of my was a 8-lane monster, with no traffic lights, and drivers not caring an inch about your safety. I am talking about “Outer Ring Road”. Ladies and Gentlemen, crossing that road safely that day was one of the biggest achievements of my life.

Outer Ring Road Traffic

Fast forward to today, and It’s Monday again. Now I cross the Outer Ring Road like a hot knife through butter. It’s a new week and I am in my zone, this week would be mine, I say to myself. I have a smug smile on my face. I enter my office and find my colleagues, and we started making small chat. One had just returned from a vacation from Europe and another bought Royal Enfield Thunderbird on weekend. After exchanging quick pleasantries, I quickly rushed back to my cubicle and thought to myself, what happened to my travel plan, I was still planning it. What happened to my dream bike plan? Maybe the bike got stuck in traffic and haven’t reached. And with these questions, I went into a deep thinking mode, and came up with this understanding. The first year hasn’t exactly gone to plan, but it has set it up such that I would be able to achieve my goals next year and why? Because of corporate lessons I have learnt in my first year. Let me list them out.

1. Talk like you’re overworked and act like you’re overworked! :- Because as soon as your colleagues find out that you are free, your manager would ask you to help in other projects, and come next day, you would be working on two projects, letting go of your free time.
2. Have a girlfriend or a wife :- If you are a bachelor, you are expected NOT to have a life outside office. You are expected to work late nights and weekends. If you are married then good for you, if you are not and you are single, please let your team know that you have a girlfriend(Even if that girlfriend is imaginary). So the next time you have to take leave, your pool of excuses would never dry up.
3. Want to know your team mates? :- To truly know your office colleagues, go to an office party and get drunk and stay till the end. That’s when the true color starts to show up. Your VP will be dancing, doing Naagin Dance, and will invite you to go up on stage. In order to impress you will go a step further, you’ll go on your knees and become a literal snake with doing Naagin Dance. That’s when you and VP will become the best of buddies. Oh and what happens in the office party should stay in office party only.
4. Keep your personal and professional life different. :- There is a distinction between your friends and colleagues, if you don’t want your dirty laundry spilled in office, you would be wise to keep that distinction the way it is.
5. Family comes first :- Everything else is replaceable. Your job can get changed, you can be fired. For everyone else, you will be disposable, only your family will stand with you through thick and thin. For them you are indispensable.
6. Work-Life Balance :- “Work to live and not live to work”. If you want to happier than 99% percent of people who are working in the industry, you need a proper work life balance. As soon as you step out of office, close your laptop and forget about the work until next time you open your laptop. Do something different that what you do on weekdays on weekends. You’ll find yourself much more satisfied.

This year has been like a tremendous roller coaster ride for me.Corporate life dazzles you and pisses you off in equal measure, okay maybe more of the latter. I just hope to enjoy the ride, take stops in between, and ask my manager for a raise! It’s a year now!!!

Disclaimer :- All the views shared here are funny, please don’t be offended. Not all experiences are mine. Some are what I learned from observing as well. l