Farewell Letter

Dear Jerry Mouse,

"Some people can touch your life for a brief moment, but will leave an imprint for a lifetime."

The period of three years cannot be a brief one right! But it was a memorable one. It all started over a cup of cappuchino and a glass of water; such coincidental timings. We were lucky to have the same bosses and same users over a period of time. And this would have continued even further if you have not thought of bigger opportunities. I am so happy you took this decision. No one wants to die doing the same work over and over; neither you nor me. What if I end up coming where you are right now! Don't get scared there are no such plans as of now. But you can't predict the future!

We both got handover of applications using technologies which always talked to each other. And the series of Workflow designs in the meeting rooms covered with 0s and 1s and the desk discussions continued till evening 7pm. This was during the initial year. I even made you work from home last year and be available on WhatsApp (you convinced me to install it) till midnight. So sorry for that! Being Rock-star Programmers we did have fun, but we also got the escalation burn. I still remember the M5 escalation which made us fight for the first time.

The phone calls started with either "Sunn, Sunna, Khandala Plant chalte hai kya? (Plant visit literally went on toss!)" Or "Maate, ...". When you came to my desk, you always kept on disturbing things like removing the nameplate pins, playing with the calendar, joking on the tag (You Rock means you are a stone!), giving autographs on my notebook and at the end forgetting your specs here. The talks were formal and informal, about projects, office talks (I know I am in a bubble and now you are not there to update me, so I get the news late), high jump talks about the seventh floor and one fire brigade incident, etc. Your desk will always have two Tupperware bottles filled with aqua-guard water! You always got to know it’s me when your chair was pushed; also you got the issue intensity based on how forcefully did I push the chair. And your neighbors got to view the Tom and Jerry show free! Free! Free! 

We had those late lunches, due credit to me, you have to eat Onion Uttapam. The auto-rides were fun: searching the Archies and visiting the call center. How I caught you writing a Thank You card, I still remember the reaction as if you were writing a love letter! And you caught me eating chocolates alone. How I pulled your leg by talks on Secret Santa! Talking about our users what should I say now! We were Tom and Jerry then handling and balancing all doing jugaad (sometimes). Now my situation is of Alice in Wonderland surrounded by all the Mad Hatters! You and only you can get the context of this line.

Concluding with a thank you note. Thank you for my birthday cake! Thank you for adjusting your timetable with my exam schedule and supporting during my absence. The way you motivated and gave all the best for exams is unique. "Most of the students fail in this subject!” I then used to study that subject more so that I should not fail.  I never thought that one day I will have to arrange a farewell for you. I was doing all the preparations and my mind was making a missing list. Things I miss since the day you left: the Skype ping "Phone plz"; call from 7504; hearing my complete name atleast once in whole day; latest news; late evening WhatsApp chat; talking to my Spec-tacular friend, etc.

It was not the same bosses, same users, same applications that connected us! I got a lifetime friend! How was I going to say all this on your farewell! I left because I could no longer hold the water in my eyes. Saying goodbye is not so easy actually!

From,

Tom Cat