My Summer Sojourn at Google

Well, I started off my winter semester at IIT looking for an internship. I wanted to do something productive in my summers, and was very keen on an internship. I applied at a lot of places, interviewed for a lot, even gave tests at far off offices like Gurgaon (Frankly, Gurgaon may be the closest place when it comes to a late night eating binge, or sight-seeing at the malls, but come on, for an internship test???)

Well, Google was one of the companies I had applied to, but to no avail. Then I get a call one day from their HR person, Mr X. Lets refer to all Google personnel as variables, for fear of violating the bulky 15 page Non Disclosure Agreement I signed. Frankly I didn’t even go through the entire document, and don’t know what all was mentioned there, maybe they required me to keep shut that I ever interned at Google, which means this article should never ever go to anyone close to Google, I request all of you. So, back on track, Mr X asked me to be ready for two back to back telephonic interviews to which I readily agreed. So, I gave the interviews, screwed them up a little, but finally made it through, and got sent my tickets by Mr Y, an accomplice of Mr X. So, there I was, all set to fly off to Bengaluru, for my summer internship with Google. I met a bunch of IITians at the airport, whom I came to know were going to Google only. Good to have company upfront. Well, we reached Bengaluru, and were escorted to a guest house allotted to us by Google for the duration of our internship. So, no house hunting, no haggling with brokers, I was beginning to love this company already.

We reported next day for the beginning of our internships, where we were assigned temporary RFID badges, and then subjected to two full days of mindless form signing, and orientation videos. The form signing was the worse, I could have signed my will somewhere in the middle of those forms and I would not have known. Anyways, I was then introduced to my mentor and manager, the person I was supposed to work under, under whose tutelage my summer was to be spent etc. etc., you get the idea. We discussed a bit on our project, which for the scope of this article is classified, and lets just assume I did something really fancy there, and the next big thing Google does, well it was my project. Sounds cool. :D

Well, leave aside the work, which was very interesting to say the least, even for lethargic logs like us from IIT (just kidding), well, we did spend a LOT of our time in office, so you must get the idea. But no, we did not break the rules and work overtime. It was mostly the other stuff. Stuff like the bottomless supply of Real juices you could glug down at your will, or the Pringles boxes kept at every nook and corner for you to gorge upon. Plus, fruits and corn flakes for the health conscious, and Maggi (Yes, Nescafe lovers) for the ones in the mood of a snack at anytime of the day. We got to know that Larry and Sergei (for the uninitiated, they are the people who started Google in their own garage, quite literally) had an ideology that the employees must be fed well, irrespective of all else. All hail Larry and Sergei!!!!!

Plus there was always pool and foosball. I had played a little foosball before, and due to the overload of friends, was always fascinated by the game. Well, we interns, all novices to the game, played a little bit of foosball, got bored, and then turned our attentions to pool. To our credit, we did get good at pool, and not to sound arrogant, but did defeat a few Google regulars in their own playfield. Foosball deserves special mention, because before Google, I never knew foosball could be that fast. I mean, we saw a few Googlers play foosball, and my god they were playing at the rate of machs, if not ‘c’. I could not see the ball half of the time. A few of us did try to play with them, but we were as much a spectator while holding one of the lines, as we were sitting on the fence and watching. We always reacted a second too late, and either a goal had been scored, or the ball had been cleared by a teammate (thankfully) and we were on the attack. All I did in the initial few games was cheer.

The Google food deserves special mention, as all those who know us would see the change in our waistlines :D. The food was amazing, both in variety and quality, especially if you consider people like us, who had (or at least are expected) to eat mess food every day.

The Googlers were amazing. If you were awestruck by their intellect, you were also left amazed by the unique ways they had fun. I saw a bunch of them playing AOE on a Friday afternoon, shouting on the top of their voices, and forgot the difference between the office and hostel momentarily. There are exercise balls scattered all around, and bean bags too. Another way of chilling out, which we were soon to emulate, was to watch movies in Google, on huge 50 inch plasmas put up in conference rooms. Sitting on a beanbag, Pringles in one hand, coke in the other, and watching a movie on a wide screen, well, very few things beat that.

We also got taken out on a few outings; there was a bowling excursion, followed by dinner at a flashy restaurant. Amazing fun. They sure know how to have fun. We realized one and all, why Google is called the fun place to work at, and quite truly the best place to work at too.

The place has a feel to it, which is lively, vibrant and campus like, be it the interiors, or the multicolored beanbags, or the people sitting in front of 30” screens watching YouTube, its lively. People work for fun, and have fun as part of their work, which is probably why Google is leapfrogging everybody in sight.
An experience I will always cherish, and a place I definitely would want to be a part of. I have had that sentiment repeated to me by several of my friends who have been to Google before, and I can now identify with it quite well.

Advice

New look, new feel,
newer is my life.
I try to make my world as new,
but same remains my strife.

I try to kill my demons,
I tyr to slay them all.
To banish my sorrows, my tears,
to crush them, and stand tall.

I am told to think positive,
to stay happy, think well.
To come out, enjoy life,
not to crib and stay in a shell.

I know all this, I'm sorry
but I dont need advice.
If you can be an ear, be one,
dont give me a bunch of lies.

Whatever is said, whatever is done,
whatever happens in this life of mine.
I take responsibility for it,
even if I screw up, its fine.

Leave me alone, if you want to,
I'm sure I'll scrape through.
I'll manage climbing out of the hole,
I'll work out something to do.

But if you wanna help, then be there,
don't float around and call.
Don't give me words,hollow and baseless,
if you cant company me for the fall.

I have lots of advices, thank you
I know the must and should.
I am pretty clear about all this,
am not sure whether I could.

Help me if you must,
for I really need it.
Don't leave it all on me,
for I'll do what I see fit.

Enough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They say I dont talk,
They say I dont say.
They say I dont welcome,
and each goes their own way.

I dont talk often,
neither do I talk much.
But its not new, its old, ancient,
I have always been such.

I love to listen, love to help,
love to hear and console.
Love to sort all your problems,
love to lighten your soul.

I would try to hide,
try to run and not return.
would not talk what saddens me,
and leave my insides to burn.

They say I deserve better,
they say I'm there for you.
My sorrows,I can share,
but dear friends, where are you???

Ill not crib and cry,
nor will rivers flow from my eyes.
I will not proclaim myself mournful,
will hide it if I can, with lies.

The more I feel sorrow,
The more I push you away.
The more away you go,
more sorrow makes its way.

Its never easy to mourn,
not easy at all to share.
Not easy to lend your shoulder,
and impossible to always be there.

Everyone is very busy,
all have work to do.
But is it just me, or is it true,
the busiest of all is you.

No matter how hard I shout,
no matter how hard I try.
You wont leave all your work for me,
you wont come to stop me cry.

And what hurts me more, if possible,
is the casualness you show.
That you feel the change is ok,
its going with the flow.

I'm sorry to say, sorry to admit,
sorry to mourn, sorry to cry.
Sorry for making all rude jibes,
sorry to run my eyes dry.

But I have had enough,
have seen and heard and said.
Have tried all I can do,
to keep it all unsaid.

Thats where I end it,
thats where I have lost.
Thats where theres no more,
its over, whatever the cost.

Foreigner

I have been here long enough,longer than I now realize.I just came back from France as you would have read in the last post. Well, I had a great time in those 6 months,ans ironically,that was when I wasnt there,on a vacation.But still,I had a 'foreign' trip.Cool, isnt it?Atleast I went out,travelled,had fun,isnt it??But these six months have been a revelation.Just six months,and I have realized how foreign I am now.But I learned to survive,survive without those who care about you,and those who make you do things you do,just with a few guys you barely know to call them friends straightaway,and who are as listless as you are at this sudden influx of loneliness.Finally, all you have is you,and that is when you know you are in a place you don belong to.But a simple question,Is that condition necessary and sufficient??As in,am I right to then say that one who feels this way anywhere,simply put,'doesnt belong','doesnt fit',is a foreigner?I wish to differ,but cant,and its not completely due to the fact that I have defined 'foreign' here myself,in part yes,but not completely.If that is so,maybe I am a foreigner,no less than I was in France,maybe even more,because atleast I knew it was no use expecting anything from the French.And now that I see it,I turned into a foreigner much before I left for France.You can never define certain things,except that it pains you to see that they exist.People you care about being too busy for you,waiting alone for someone to be free to have a chat with,being left out as non existant out of certain conversations,and the like.One tends to get itchy,dizzy,tense or irritated.I am all 4 of them.You somehow lose your ability to conduct a meaningful interesting conversation due to their lack in the past,but ironically,you grow outof a need for them.One starts living alone,closed and scared.You cant blame someone for not giving you time now,can you???I mean,all things apart,you dont own them.They got far more important things in life than talking to a lonely chap like you.You see 3 party talks turning to dialogues without you,you see phone calls turning to sms' turning to scraps and finally getting lost somewhere in the wide world.You never got them,and thats not because of the zillion bugs flaoting around in the cyberosphere,that was because they were never sent.And the worst part about this is,you dont want pity.You tell this to anyone and you get the 'poor chap' look,with pity in the eyes,they say how sorry they are because you are lonely,but hey got work to do,and you,sitting idle with nothing to do expect them to be with you,talking to you round the clock.You gone crazy??Who's got time?You got tons to do,but you sit alone thinking,brooding over your misery,and finally trying to fit in.But then you are those many months out of sync with no information,to laugh on derived and related puns or snide remarks etc,because you werent there,and you dont know.Maybe thats the time you should realize that no matter what you say or do,you are a foreigner,and that not only because you went out of the country, you went out of their lives and minds too.You got to accept your fate in this 'foreign' land,and it tears me in parts,and yet I do.

I am back,quite literally.

Hi guys,well sorry for the huge gap.actually have been busy.and this blog had been on the drafts for a long time.meant to publish it a lot early,but ok,never

mind.there you go.
I am back,back from France,back from what I thought were aong the best dix months of my life.But did it live upto the propaganda,the hype it had?The aura and

euphoria it had enfused my mind with whenever I thought of it??I dont know,neither I would answer that,because asking the question in itself is the answer to

a lot of things.So where does it leave me then?Back where I started six months ago?Or am I a cliched 'saner,better' human being???The break came at a real

crucial time in my life.At a time when I had to move out, I was crying out for a change in perspective,,not just environment, but people too.I was demanding

a lot from my life,getiing very few. It had to change, I thank God it did.Not being qualified earlier was a disappointment,being selected an elation.More of

a dream come true,because this was one thing I really wanted.But the question again, was it worth it???And here by worth I dont mean stuff like travelling,

broadening my horizons and like.That is to be said at interviews.I talk about worth in my life.Was it?I think it was.Distances make relationships grow

fonder,it also helps understand relations better.I learnt that.Got to know strangers,understood friends better,saw them from an external detached point of

view.Lifes full of surprises,I sure as hell got my lot this time around.It was good,it was bad.Funny,hilarious,sad,angering,irritating,these 6 months were

all this and more.Made some special friends.Those I hope would hold now for life.The travel was awesome.'C'etait bien', as the French would call it.
So a little bit of thankyous.
Thanks all of you,
Viv for his one liners,and the wonderful 'What is love' jim carrey expression,

PP for his below the waist jokes,and the special movie you made,

Shaani,for the 'Banta hi nahi hai' bit, for her alter ego 'Superjain',and for the sharp shrill 'Uthoooooooooooooooooooooooooo',

Kwaty for the one sentence of the day,

Senti for the 'chakapa',and endless streams of things unmentionable here,

Karan for the gay spirit :P,and his now famous stud act,

Patti for the don carnash impression,and the DJing he did on our Skype conferences,

Shelly for the gibberish she spoke most of the time,and the shrill shriek we didnt
have the misfortune of encountering,

Manu for his 'uptight English',and the various Adult jokes,

Medury for his movie recommendations,and for his extremely forgetful self,
and last of all me,coz I made good use of it.

Guys, You are the best.Thanks a lot.

Sorry for the inactivity

well guys,however few you are who take up te courage to come over to my blog, I would jus like to tell you that I have not been in a bad mood for some time now so ,no more poems,not right now atleast.Well maybe a few fun ones,but lets see.Me working on an entry,actually one came in my mind last night itself,so will probably publish one soon.
till then,take care
live life dont spend it
and keep smiling people.

Friends

Walking alone is hard to imagine,
so is living all alone.
One needs company,one needs friends,
its impossible to live on one's own.

Friends help you smile and laugh,
they let you shed your tears too.
In torrid times,friends are much better help,
than sulking alone,listening to blue.

They make life worthwhile,make you live,
without them theres nothing left at all.
One may have seen ups and downs in life,
but nothings compared to this fall.

But sometimes it hurts a lot,
to have friends and still miss them.
To try to let your friends be alone,
to get them out of your system.

They soon become a habit,
its too hard to give up then.
To find solace without friends,
one holds a paper and a pen.

I expect a lot from my friends,
sorry but thats part of me.
I think this is one part which,
many of my friends forgot to foresee.

Coz now I have people,
too busy,friends they no longer are.
But its nothing serious they have done,
me not putting them behind a bar.

I too would get busy,
I would have no time soon.
and then they would know how it is,
to be in the noght with no moon.

No light to guide you,
no one holds your hands.
You play along all alone,
where sometimes you played in bands.

I am not upset with them,
they got better things to do.
why would someone wipe my tears,
when in the morning they mix up with dew.

They are busy wih better things,
with better people,better works.
And this way they get better things,
better bonuses and perks.

Me just a static entity,
will be where I always was.
A tiny little mouse,scared to death,
about to be taken by life's claws.

The only thing that hurts me,
is that suddenly I am all alone.
As if the idea bulb to do something,
at the same time on all friends head,it shone.

Everyones got busy at once,
or maybe I am more free.
Everyone is busy plucking fruits,
while I wait at the base of the tree.


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Sorry,but as it seems,the post is incomplete,and didnt quite have the courage to complete it.so that is why you see this as you do.enjoy