Where do I start? Like all things have a beginning lets begin from there.. :)
I was bored of the job I had with TCS as a Tester and wanted some change in life. I appeared for numerous tests for Management Institutes and was finally deemed fit to join SMHRD in Pune for an MBA in HR. I was thrilled to bits. Firstly, I had a connection with Pune going back to my earliest childhood memories. My father had studied at AFMC there and was posted in Pune. My mother and me and had been with him for sometime. Secondly, I loved Pune. But, you can never reckon with Him. He had other plans.. And simultaneously I landed a job with a Public Sector Bank, State Bank of Travancore to be precise.. I was to join as a Prbationary Officer with a designation of Assistant Manager. After a lot of discussion, frantic and sensible ones, I took the call on joining the State Bank of Travancore family on the fateful day of 16th June 2012.
I would not go into the details of what followed and would rush to the portion I want to talk about.. Our batch of 400 probationers were told to report to Head Office at Trivandrum with instructions of taking enough luggage so that we could immediately join our place of posting which we would be informed as soon as joining formalities were over. I tugged along 2 suitcases along with a very worried father only to be posted back to Kolkata in a week's time. I stayed in Kolkata for a year, my training for the first year spread over 2 different branches in Kolkata. And then, came the dreaded final posting. I was posted to a branch called, P & SB Branch, Tripunithura. Tripunithura is a temple town, just on the outskirts of the biggest city in Kerala, Ernakulam (or Kochi).
So after a set of teary goodbyes, I was travelling to an unknown city all alone for the first time. I was travelling to a city where I knew no one and where no one spoke my language. Worse, very few spoke Hindi and their language had no similarity either to my language or to Hindi.. I did not want to think to far ahead and just wanted to take it one step at a time.. Only bright spot was that I had a friend waiting to pick me up at the airport once I landed..
Cochin International Airport at Nedumbassery is a cute airport.. But I could not help feeling that Kerala was a place where you went for Holidaying and not to work for 3 straight years! My dear friend kept his word and was there at the airport to relieve me of my misery and provide some company on the way to the hotel.. It would be the first working Monday in Kerala for most of our batchmates the next day and we couldnt think how the experience would be for us..
