We Are Family

“Har floor kuch kehta hai, ke isme kaun rehta hai”

* This post was written in September 2016. There have been many hierarchical transitions then.

I am talking about the home of Systems Family, IT floor (KTS5). It consists of 100+ unique members. Let’s start off...

The first member is Ganesha whose desk is right at the entrance. We always take his blessings and start the day.

The next member is General Manager. He is our leader, Head of the family. He has information about every little to big thing going on in the family: who’s working on what, what workshops are we attending, etc. And he is friendly to talk with.

The next are the Chief Managers (M4s):

One of the M4’s is a real “Disco Dancer”; who will not only dance himself but also make his team and eventually the whole floor dance. Being a part of his team is like a treat. You have to sing or dance or do mimicry or do at least something during the team dinners. “Just sitting on the chairs is strictly not allowed”. Once for the Planning Meet, we had a dance sequence choreographed by him. We had to shoot for the same on 8^th floor balcony in the April sun. He wants things so perfect; the more mistakes we did the more re-takes. At the end we got a Maaza treat at Naveena. Rockstar Programmers do remember that “We are star programmers, We are always creative & innovative,….” 

The next M4 won the award of “Shor on the Floor” during Diwali Celebrations. It’s indeed true because his voice reaches clearly every corner of the floor though he is at center stage, the MDM area. He is always the first M4 for organizing team dinners and he is the only one follows the dress codes seriously for the Floor Celebrations: red & white. HANA is in his blood.

The next M4 is very soft spoken, calm person. He supervises over all the Internet Security aspects; keeps us updated with the latest stuff on Information Security through his blogs.

The next M4 is a father figure for all the programmers. He is the one responsible for bringing in unique programmers from different campuses year after year. You can ask any silly to serious question to him; can discuss about work to personal life. He has got an elephant memory; he remembers everyone’s DOBs and also DOJs and also knows who our BFFs are. 

The next is “Jhakaas” M4. He is happy go lucky, neither himself takes tension nor gives it to his team members. He keeps on incrementing the numbers in the Go-Live mails; adding feathers to his hat; giving ROTS to his programmers. He always talks of Work Life Balance and really wants us to implement the same. For lunch, he will catch one of his reportees. He has got a unique Dabang style.

Then we have all the Senior Managers (M5s), owners of the Work-streams (work-streams or work extreme!) The lady M5 is always clear and to the point in discussions (koi doubt mat rakhna). There is an M5 who keeps on asking questions. Though the Qs are relevant, we programmers are unable to answer. Another one is famous for the Christmas cakes and pastries. Then there is a car pooling M5 group. In movies we have a character who says, “Mona darling, sona kaha hai”. Here we have one M5 who says, “Dear Programmer, Go-Live mail kaha hai”. We also have the Emperor of Mobile applications. The latest addition to this group is the CRM king.

The next members are Managers (M6s). Some of them are never on their desk; they are either in meeting rooms or at their reportee’s desk. These people get all the requirements from Business and forward those to programmers. The one thing for which they want quick answers is: “Tell the timelines for the project”, “In how many days you will be able to complete?”, “When can we give it for UAT?”. I wish they would be that quick in Approvals! May be the mail notification packets are lost in transit. So we have to inform them, “I have raised a CR/SR/PCR; kindly approve the same” 

Then we have Management Trainees (MTs) from IITs and IIMs. They get added to above list after a year. Then we have the Executives. These are the folks who are promoted from Solution Lead level after they work on assigned projects for three to four months span followed by Exec presentations and interviews. The Exec interview is the hottest topic discussed on the floor.

The next members are Solution Leads (Auto Solution Leads: who are promoted from P/PA to P/SL after two/three years) and Programmer Analysts (now, who have to go through the Promotion process; they cannot be Auto Solution Leads). All these have joined from colleges and institutes through Campus Placements. All have to fill those PFMS forms and go through the Mid-term and End-term reviews; update projects in ALM and solve Elixir tickets. They have to do multitasking: Developments, Enhancements, Support, Explorations, Find solutions, Think different, etc. Most of these make the HR Officer run behind them for documents.

To start with, there is a CSK (Chennai Super Kings) group which consists of all the programmers who come from the campus in Tamil Nadu. We have got Anna’s (seniors) and Tambi’s (juniors). Maximum of them are fitness freaks, motivated by AB (no, it’s not Amitabh Bachchan). Even if they cannot speak Hindi, they do understand it very well. We have a chef too. There are groups based on technologies: Portal developers, ABAPers, BPM developers, etc. There was a COE (Center of Excellence) team as well. There is a Basis team, consist of all Engineers. They like to play with paper balls; goal is to throw those in the dustbins. Then there is APla group (a mix of boys and girls; juniors n seniors) and Gang of Girls (six different personalities). There is Rockstar Programmer group, I mentioned in the starting. There are 5G CDACians; each batch consists of extraordinary personalities.

There are not just coders and decoders; there are dancers, singers, comedians, mimicry artists, bloggers, photographers, solo travelers, hikers, creative heads, etc. Like Mumbai has CST, System has CSB. There is one PS and four SPs (before & after). PS is the source for all the celebrations and happening moments on the floor. We have got a lot of BFFs who have lunch together, coffee together and a lot of things together; true Jai-Veeru dosti I should say. There are some who do not talk at all; there are some who keep on talking and talking. There are many chocolate-chors and voracious cake eaters. 

There are early birds and night owls. Some are before timers (those who reach office before 08:30), some are on-timers (those who swipe between 08:30 and 10:00), some are last-minute on timers (who swipe between 10:00 and 10:01). Also in the evening, there are before timers (the one-hour early cases), exact on-timers (who leave at 5 sharp, when they swipe the floor realizes that its 5pm), on-timers (who leave between 5.30 and 6.30) and over-timers (who leave after 7pm, means it can be 8 or sometimes 9 and beyond; those who have pizza-party).

The next members are Project Trainees (PT) who does six months internship here, as a part of their last semester projects. Once their project submissions are done, they join the above lot.

The next members are the Security and House-keeping folks. They remind us if we forget to Swipe-Out. They keep the floor up-to-date. All glass doors are so clean that you feel like those do not exist unless you dash against one. They help us decorate the floor during celebrations; bring chocolates and farewell snacks. They are very much available to provide service during over-night upgrades. They provide coffee and chai during the meetings and training sessions to wake-up the sleepy souls. If you forget a face-wash in the washroom or tiffin in the pantry, they will bring it to your desk. They actually do a lot for us.

So this is our Systems Family in the World of Colours and we are proud to be a part of it.