First of all F. in the title stands for frivolous, nothing else, so I would appreciate if people do not get ideas. I am tired of writing 'that' word again and again - a bit like Agatha Christie must have felt about Hercule Poirot. She created him in a moment of and then did not know what to do with him later!
Well, back to the subject. The year was 2003 and the month of December (9 years - am I old!). Our training at Satyam Hyderabad (awesome campus made with all the money Raju ghatolafied) had just got over and I was supposed to start work at Chennai. My sister and brother in law were coming to India on a visit. I, of course, did not have any vacation days AT ALL since I had just finished my training. What did I do?
I booked my ticket to Jamshedpur instead of Chennai and told no one. Went with the rest of my gang to Secunderabad station said bye to everybody and told them my train was from another platform later on (I had made sure to look up details for train to Chennai). Went out and doubled back and kept my fingers crossed so that no stragglers would notice me and would not think about it if they did. Got into the train for Jamshedpur. After I reached Jamshedpur, I just emailed the HR at Chennai that I was down with something so would check in later. Did not inform the people at Hyderabad at all. Called up my cousin to get a medical certificate done from our brother in law who is a doctor in our hometown in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh. He got it done and couriered it to me. Had fun for 2 and a half weeks going around the country with my sis and BIL. Returned to Chennai, told the HR that I had been suffering from whatever disease was mentioned in the medical certificate (I do not think they asked for it). Told me colleagues that I became sick on last day so I went home instead of coming to Chennai. Of course, I did not get paid for the 2.5 weeks but I got the vacation.
That month my salary was 5000 Rs. It wasn't much to begin with and I lost a lot due to my leave without pay but I was happy I spent so much time with my sis instead of the 1-2 rushed days planned earlier. One day, I went down to get photocopy my payslip for getting a phone connection. I got a peek at the document the guy just ahead of me at the machine was copying. It was his payslip and he had got 55k for that month. I was AGHAST. I could not imagine earning so much in a month. I kept looking at the 5k on my payslip and was not even able to start visioning it turning into 55k. I was in a daze for a couple of days. I related the incident in DETAIL to all my fellow freshers at the coffee machine (half of our time was spent there).
I somehow remembered that incident when I looked at my first payslip at Cognizant when I joined there after my MBA and 55k seemed almost laughable. I thought of all the money in my account currently and remembered our broke days in Chennai when we solely relied on our credit cards to get us through the last week of every month.
I never ever again took off work without caring for my responsibilities there. I was never able to recapture the happiness I had in Chennai. But I can definitely vouch for the saying that 'Money cannot buy you happiness but lets you be unhappy in nice places' and boy do I love this kind of unhappiness!
Well, back to the subject. The year was 2003 and the month of December (9 years - am I old!). Our training at Satyam Hyderabad (awesome campus made with all the money Raju ghatolafied) had just got over and I was supposed to start work at Chennai. My sister and brother in law were coming to India on a visit. I, of course, did not have any vacation days AT ALL since I had just finished my training. What did I do?
I booked my ticket to Jamshedpur instead of Chennai and told no one. Went with the rest of my gang to Secunderabad station said bye to everybody and told them my train was from another platform later on (I had made sure to look up details for train to Chennai). Went out and doubled back and kept my fingers crossed so that no stragglers would notice me and would not think about it if they did. Got into the train for Jamshedpur. After I reached Jamshedpur, I just emailed the HR at Chennai that I was down with something so would check in later. Did not inform the people at Hyderabad at all. Called up my cousin to get a medical certificate done from our brother in law who is a doctor in our hometown in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh. He got it done and couriered it to me. Had fun for 2 and a half weeks going around the country with my sis and BIL. Returned to Chennai, told the HR that I had been suffering from whatever disease was mentioned in the medical certificate (I do not think they asked for it). Told me colleagues that I became sick on last day so I went home instead of coming to Chennai. Of course, I did not get paid for the 2.5 weeks but I got the vacation.
That month my salary was 5000 Rs. It wasn't much to begin with and I lost a lot due to my leave without pay but I was happy I spent so much time with my sis instead of the 1-2 rushed days planned earlier. One day, I went down to get photocopy my payslip for getting a phone connection. I got a peek at the document the guy just ahead of me at the machine was copying. It was his payslip and he had got 55k for that month. I was AGHAST. I could not imagine earning so much in a month. I kept looking at the 5k on my payslip and was not even able to start visioning it turning into 55k. I was in a daze for a couple of days. I related the incident in DETAIL to all my fellow freshers at the coffee machine (half of our time was spent there).
I somehow remembered that incident when I looked at my first payslip at Cognizant when I joined there after my MBA and 55k seemed almost laughable. I thought of all the money in my account currently and remembered our broke days in Chennai when we solely relied on our credit cards to get us through the last week of every month.
I never ever again took off work without caring for my responsibilities there. I was never able to recapture the happiness I had in Chennai. But I can definitely vouch for the saying that 'Money cannot buy you happiness but lets you be unhappy in nice places' and boy do I love this kind of unhappiness!
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