I took a deep breath as I sat at the steps which approached the Juliana canal - clear water with a few ducks floating here and there. This is the canal which separates the Dutch and Belgium. Am not a great history/geography buff, and for the same reason do not want to indulge in those details. So I was at this place called Stein, Urmond about 200kms to the South of Amsterdam. I can see many of you think how lucky I must be to visit the so called 'Sin City'. Yes, I do consider myself very lucky to have come such a long way - as the title reads.
Pondering over my thoughts on how I ended up in this place - It's fascinating as to how quickly the course of one's life can change. I don't know how many of you have even heard about the place called Ambikapuram or the district it belongs to - Palakkad . Ah! The names itself brings a big smile to my face. I guess many of you have not heard about Stein either and hence the start and end point of this journey are more or less alien.
I, Lakshmi C A S - A great number of people would really wonder, what the three initials stand for, when they hear it for the first time. The more curious ones find out when I say it with a mixture of smile and pride, CHANDRASEKHARAPURAM APPADODHARANA SUBBA LAKSHMI. (Phew! Wish MS Word provided a spell check on that one!!!). I guess it would be better to elaborate on my name and the mayhem associated with it, on another post .
Venkateshwara Colony, Ambikapuram P O, Palakkad, Kerela, India... This was my hub for a span of almost 24years. You could actually say it is a village,though not set like one. Most of the people there used to be in a village at some point of their time and hence their attitude remain so. Almost an all Brahmin colony, the mamis and mamas there are very orthodox, following our culture to their maximum. Girls never seen to wear a jeans/T-Shirt,faces never made up and mamis wearing nothing other than saree; them wearing churidar was considered a great transition.
I moved to this colony when I was around 5 years and there were hardly 5 or 6 houses there. Presently the number is 75. Quite a number,right? Growing up so, made me familiar with each and every person there till date. Till date..Yes.. that date was till I was a day scholar.
20 years of being home and then one fine day I found myself in Amrita Institute, Ettimadai, Coimbatore. Quite a magnificent campus - set at the foot of a beautiful mountain. If you look at it from a distance you can see it is shaped as an elephant.That was my first step out of my home town,first feelings of home sickness, first stay at hostel, first classes with boys and the list goes on. I had my all-time best buddy, MP, with me. She is one in a million.. Be it, sleeping in class or ogling at guys or window shopping or 'combined study' or travelling around.. she was there with me.. Ok.. am not here to say how great my college life was..(at least not for now!! ;)) It's nothing new.. Everyone love their college days.
As is the dream of every student now, so had I - get placed from campus, join a software company and work my way to independence. Mind you, it was just a dream for me - an impossible dream - or so I thought!!
And on June 2nd 2004, I was there waiting in line for Wipro's interview. It is at these moments that I get all positive - don't misunderstand, not about getting the job. I make up a mindset of 'what if I don't get the job' - and all possible options open up in front of me - "This is just the first company, plenty other companies will come in. If not software, I can always take a career as a teacher" etc etc. The end result was someone was shouting out 'Subbalakshmi' and no one was responding. I looked up and thought 'Oh! That's me!' One of the many instances of stir due to my name.I was never used to being called Subbalakshmi!!
2004 December 21st, I was in the Sarjapur Rd(Bangalore) Office of Wipro to join as an intern for 6 months as part of my MCA. On October 10th 2005 I was officially an employee of Wipro Technologies. It was a feeling of pride, happiness and what not!!!!
There was this huge crowd outside the office and a big 'pandal'(a temporary shelter - shamiana) - It was almost like waiting to go in for a temple festival. So many students(professionals-to-be), from different colleges, different states, different languages waiting to be inducted!!! Even as I stepped outside Wipro, the majority of people I met in Bangalore were almost the same as me. And this is when you tend to realize that you are just part of a huge crowd - no special person -just a common species of software engineer found almost everywhere - As my people back home say - If you trip and fall, you will land on a software engineer!!!!
Life in Bangalore was quite something. When I quit the job I just had my last month's salary in my bank account -Thus was my life!!! But, how much ever charming, fancy, fun filled the life there was, I couldn't stay away from home for more than 3 weeks or a month. It was like recharging batteries - visit home and come back and I am filled with renewed energy.
(From Bangalore to US.. To be continued...)
Pondering over my thoughts on how I ended up in this place - It's fascinating as to how quickly the course of one's life can change. I don't know how many of you have even heard about the place called Ambikapuram or the district it belongs to - Palakkad . Ah! The names itself brings a big smile to my face. I guess many of you have not heard about Stein either and hence the start and end point of this journey are more or less alien.
I, Lakshmi C A S - A great number of people would really wonder, what the three initials stand for, when they hear it for the first time. The more curious ones find out when I say it with a mixture of smile and pride, CHANDRASEKHARAPURAM APPADODHARANA SUBBA LAKSHMI. (Phew! Wish MS Word provided a spell check on that one!!!). I guess it would be better to elaborate on my name and the mayhem associated with it, on another post .
Venkateshwara Colony, Ambikapuram P O, Palakkad, Kerela, India... This was my hub for a span of almost 24years. You could actually say it is a village,though not set like one. Most of the people there used to be in a village at some point of their time and hence their attitude remain so. Almost an all Brahmin colony, the mamis and mamas there are very orthodox, following our culture to their maximum. Girls never seen to wear a jeans/T-Shirt,faces never made up and mamis wearing nothing other than saree; them wearing churidar was considered a great transition.
I moved to this colony when I was around 5 years and there were hardly 5 or 6 houses there. Presently the number is 75. Quite a number,right? Growing up so, made me familiar with each and every person there till date. Till date..Yes.. that date was till I was a day scholar.
20 years of being home and then one fine day I found myself in Amrita Institute, Ettimadai, Coimbatore. Quite a magnificent campus - set at the foot of a beautiful mountain. If you look at it from a distance you can see it is shaped as an elephant.That was my first step out of my home town,first feelings of home sickness, first stay at hostel, first classes with boys and the list goes on. I had my all-time best buddy, MP, with me. She is one in a million.. Be it, sleeping in class or ogling at guys or window shopping or 'combined study' or travelling around.. she was there with me.. Ok.. am not here to say how great my college life was..(at least not for now!! ;)) It's nothing new.. Everyone love their college days.
As is the dream of every student now, so had I - get placed from campus, join a software company and work my way to independence. Mind you, it was just a dream for me - an impossible dream - or so I thought!!
And on June 2nd 2004, I was there waiting in line for Wipro's interview. It is at these moments that I get all positive - don't misunderstand, not about getting the job. I make up a mindset of 'what if I don't get the job' - and all possible options open up in front of me - "This is just the first company, plenty other companies will come in. If not software, I can always take a career as a teacher" etc etc. The end result was someone was shouting out 'Subbalakshmi' and no one was responding. I looked up and thought 'Oh! That's me!' One of the many instances of stir due to my name.I was never used to being called Subbalakshmi!!
2004 December 21st, I was in the Sarjapur Rd(Bangalore) Office of Wipro to join as an intern for 6 months as part of my MCA. On October 10th 2005 I was officially an employee of Wipro Technologies. It was a feeling of pride, happiness and what not!!!!
There was this huge crowd outside the office and a big 'pandal'(a temporary shelter - shamiana) - It was almost like waiting to go in for a temple festival. So many students(professionals-to-be), from different colleges, different states, different languages waiting to be inducted!!! Even as I stepped outside Wipro, the majority of people I met in Bangalore were almost the same as me. And this is when you tend to realize that you are just part of a huge crowd - no special person -just a common species of software engineer found almost everywhere - As my people back home say - If you trip and fall, you will land on a software engineer!!!!
Life in Bangalore was quite something. When I quit the job I just had my last month's salary in my bank account -Thus was my life!!! But, how much ever charming, fancy, fun filled the life there was, I couldn't stay away from home for more than 3 weeks or a month. It was like recharging batteries - visit home and come back and I am filled with renewed energy.
(From Bangalore to US.. To be continued...)
3 comments:
ambikapurathil irundhu autobiography by Appadodharana's aafspring ;)
Hi Kavitha,
I guess you should have started blogging long time back! Amazing language, I must say :) Great going...ungaloda first blog ae bayangara impressive. Waiting to read "Ambikapuram to Amsterdam II" (b'lore to US to Amsterdam).. :)
Great going lakshmi...really enjoyed itt...
Eagerly waiting for ur next blog!!!!!!
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