LOST IN TRANSLATION

1st November 2007, 10:00 PM

I landed up in Chennai to find myself surrounded by a myriad of auto rickshaw drivers haggling me hard to hire them. One of them won the battle, it was raining cats and dogs and the driver were in no mood to compromise on their speed. I gripped my hand in fear and the only thing on my mind was to reach my destination intact. This started when on the 31st of July 2007 I received a mail saying that my joining date for Cognizant is 5th November and the place is Chennai. From that time I have been haunted by a dream that was coming true right now. Man, Welcome to Chennai.

5th November 2007, 8:00 AM, Tidel Park

An alien soul was sitting at the far end corner of a gigantic hall watching young technocrats from all parts of the country as they occupied their seats. He was feeling both proud and apprehensive to be a part of such a big Organization. Everything was so well organized that it seemed to be in stark contrast with his carefree college days. One question was bothering his mind, is he going to be lost in such a big crowd or pave his own way to recognition. He was brought out of his thoughts by an elbow hitting him softly and the person next to him saying “hey introduce yourself man”. He shook hands and said “I’m Akhil and you ??????”.

15th February 2008, ASV Suntech Park

The last day of my three and a half months long training. What a period that was, the time spent with trainees of different culture and background exhilarated and more importantly taught me to be a part of a team. But the part which I was scared the most about had arrived .I was allocated to an account named METLIFE. METLIFE? What does that stand for, nobody knew, we were aware of big names such as CCC or TRAVELLERS but not METLIFE. Well since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything I thought.

18th February 2008, NAVALUR

I was sitting in a conference room with some of my training batch mates waiting for someone to help us out with all the questions which we had in our mind. Then started a series of conference room meetings, knowledge transition sessions and time was flying. I was assigned to a team and a mentor was assigned to me. All this while I had been worried that whether I will be able to cope with the language factor but the fact was I was doing just fine.

Present day, NAVALUR

I am absorbed beautifully in such a large account. My desktop is still flaunting the CTS logo with Fortune 500 and the champagne bottle. Indeed it’s like passion for making a difference here in Cognizant. I can see the faces of people from my cubicle delving hard into their machines. People used to call me paranoid for I thought I would be lost in translation but today I can proudly tell them that I am born in translation.