The way I see things..
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
The Return to (New) Bombay
A few posts ago (here) I wrote that I was to come to Bombay, to work as a Patent Analyst in a company called Pangea3. That was more than a year ago.
Things have changed since then, and for a large part of last year things were going monotonically downhill. Recent developments have been positive, but I have learned to be cautious now.
Basically, this is what happened. After delaying my joining for 2.5 months, Pangea3 did finally take me in. But then, one month later, it laid off almost the entire batch of new entrants to the company, ostensibly because of the recession. I then interned for a company called Omega Analytics for a month, after which I decided to spend December in IITM in order to re-apply to recruiting companies. I found myself a company that does not pay great, but does work on a very interesting problem - Education. I recently joined work, and for that reason, I am back in Mumbai.
I wouldn't have felt the loss of the job so keenly had I not enjoyed my stay at Mumbai so much. I found that I was amongst very nice people, and the freedom that the distance from parental control + the availability of money afforded was quite addictive. In that one month, I visited all the cave systems in Mumbai, and also traveled to the older areas of Mumbai - places like Charni Road which are so characteristic of bombay. Work was okay too - I believe I learned quite a bit, though I stayed only for a month.
Losing this job put me completely off the track. What was I to do? I busied myself into some sort of activism in Bangalore - fighting against a road-widening project that threatens to leave Bangalore a denuded desert and does nothing to solve the problem of congestion.
Now I again have a job, which is really comforting. And yet, I am still somewhat unsure of myself. Something seemed to be missing.
I realized that there was some unfinished business in Andheri, where I stayed when I was working for Pangea3. Today, I went there, just to see the office and the guest house I was staying at. I felt that this might help me put the past behind me. I didn't do anything dramatic. I wanted to throw a stone at the Pangea3 office, but I didn't. (Talking of which, do companies like Pangea3 want to enact the 'those who live in a glass house' in such a literary way?)
I don't know how I feel about Pangea3. They did nothing illegal. The contract clearly states that during the probation period one could be removed for any reason. But I still felt like I had been mistreated and perhaps even cheated.
Pangea3 had advertised a CTC package of 7.5 lakhs - but one lakh of that turned out to be a four-year deferred bonus. There was some degree of falsehood in that. And then, they said that the reason for the delay was the lack of training staff - which was hard to believe. In retrospect, it is obvious that they were delaying recruitment because they didn't have enough projects to keep their existing employees busy.
I sometimes feel it would have been kinder for them to tell us initially that they weren't going to be able to hire us. Hiring without being sure of their requirements showed carelessness in dealing with other people's careers.
In any case, seeing the office and the guest house (and Mahakali Caves) again made me realize that I no longer feel strongly about Pangea3. I am sure this is partly because I now have a job to look forward to, and also partly because I have some very good memories of my stint at Pangea3. I do not acquit Pangea3 of wrongdoing, but I think I have dwelt sufficiently on it. I am letting it go.
In some ways, I am lucky that I got my second job also in Mumbai. There seems to be some sense of justice to it. It also puts me very close to a person I have long wanted to learn music from - that is an added advantage.
I still don't know what to think of my new job. For some reason, I can't bring myself to build castles in the air like the last time around - which might be both a good thing and a bad thing. Time will tell. Posted by KRC. | Permalink | 7 Comments | Buzz It! | Links to this post
A few posts ago (here) I wrote that I was to come to Bombay, to work as a Patent Analyst in a company called Pangea3. That was more than a year ago.
Things have changed since then, and for a large part of last year things were going monotonically downhill. Recent developments have been positive, but I have learned to be cautious now.
Basically, this is what happened. After delaying my joining for 2.5 months, Pangea3 did finally take me in. But then, one month later, it laid off almost the entire batch of new entrants to the company, ostensibly because of the recession. I then interned for a company called Omega Analytics for a month, after which I decided to spend December in IITM in order to re-apply to recruiting companies. I found myself a company that does not pay great, but does work on a very interesting problem - Education. I recently joined work, and for that reason, I am back in Mumbai.
I wouldn't have felt the loss of the job so keenly had I not enjoyed my stay at Mumbai so much. I found that I was amongst very nice people, and the freedom that the distance from parental control + the availability of money afforded was quite addictive. In that one month, I visited all the cave systems in Mumbai, and also traveled to the older areas of Mumbai - places like Charni Road which are so characteristic of bombay. Work was okay too - I believe I learned quite a bit, though I stayed only for a month.
Losing this job put me completely off the track. What was I to do? I busied myself into some sort of activism in Bangalore - fighting against a road-widening project that threatens to leave Bangalore a denuded desert and does nothing to solve the problem of congestion.
Now I again have a job, which is really comforting. And yet, I am still somewhat unsure of myself. Something seemed to be missing.
I realized that there was some unfinished business in Andheri, where I stayed when I was working for Pangea3. Today, I went there, just to see the office and the guest house I was staying at. I felt that this might help me put the past behind me. I didn't do anything dramatic. I wanted to throw a stone at the Pangea3 office, but I didn't. (Talking of which, do companies like Pangea3 want to enact the 'those who live in a glass house' in such a literary way?)
I don't know how I feel about Pangea3. They did nothing illegal. The contract clearly states that during the probation period one could be removed for any reason. But I still felt like I had been mistreated and perhaps even cheated.
Pangea3 had advertised a CTC package of 7.5 lakhs - but one lakh of that turned out to be a four-year deferred bonus. There was some degree of falsehood in that. And then, they said that the reason for the delay was the lack of training staff - which was hard to believe. In retrospect, it is obvious that they were delaying recruitment because they didn't have enough projects to keep their existing employees busy.
I sometimes feel it would have been kinder for them to tell us initially that they weren't going to be able to hire us. Hiring without being sure of their requirements showed carelessness in dealing with other people's careers.
In any case, seeing the office and the guest house (and Mahakali Caves) again made me realize that I no longer feel strongly about Pangea3. I am sure this is partly because I now have a job to look forward to, and also partly because I have some very good memories of my stint at Pangea3. I do not acquit Pangea3 of wrongdoing, but I think I have dwelt sufficiently on it. I am letting it go.
In some ways, I am lucky that I got my second job also in Mumbai. There seems to be some sense of justice to it. It also puts me very close to a person I have long wanted to learn music from - that is an added advantage.
I still don't know what to think of my new job. For some reason, I can't bring myself to build castles in the air like the last time around - which might be both a good thing and a bad thing. Time will tell. Posted by KRC. | Permalink | 7 Comments | Buzz It! | Links to this post
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