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| Let there be ROCK� V. G. Jaishankar (the college buddy who introduced me to Rock) meanwhile had his own success stories with a job at the Times Of India, and had also formed a rock outfit called Pythagoras and the Right Angles (the name coined by Sainath, a Podarite whose radical thinking would eventually gift him a job as a creative director in a big ad agency). Jai had formed the idea of a band with fellow Chemburite Ram Sampath, a keyboard wiz-kid. He had also managed to rope in Harish Subramaniam (currently in USofA) who introduced him to his guru Sarosh Izedyar, a budding but incredibly talented young guitarist. They got Savio on bass and Prateek Gupta on drums. Ram left to pursue solo careers, Prateek was asked to go after he expressed a strange desire for not learning to be more creative. Savio was sacked after prioritized parties over rehearsals. Shyamsunder, a mridungam player par excellence, who initially was a replacement for Ram on the keyboards, went on to drums, after Jude came in. Meanwhile I had become good friends with Sarosh, whose guitar playing can easily be underlined as the best playing I have ever heard till date. He was also my teacher for a certain period wherein he convinced me to take on the role of the band's bass player. And so here I am now - the bass guitarist of an Indian rock outfit whose current line-up features Jai & Sarosh as the veterans with Anurag on the lead and rhythm guitars and Mukul on drums. Anurag, the kid in the band, working for MTV currently, has music in his blood with his father an exceptional sitar virtuoso and an exponent of Hindustani classical sangeet. Anurag as a rhythm and lead guitarist never misses out on opportunities to work out solos on his own and give Sarosh a rest. Mukul is learning music from Pandit Suresh Talwarkar, who is incidentally also the guru for world renowned percussionist Trilok Gurtu. Mukul's entry point marks the band's best lineup ever and his thundering solos followed by Sarosh's solos provide icing on the cake to Jai's extraordinary power-driven no-falsetto vocals. We change lives�? My career at Aptech Dadar was scaling heights in parallel when the organization decided to make me a lab instructor first and in three months made me a full fledged faculty. I started to love teaching, and would get a thrill out of explaining things in a way the dumbest student in my class could relate to. My motive to help anyone and everyone would sometimes become a shunning factor among fellow faculties who would mistake this deed as a risk to their own job. As time would have it, Aptech Dadar closed down due to lack of funds and we weren't paid our salaries (the management still owes me Rs.18900/-). Aptech Limited took over, and I was among the lucky handful to get the job. I was soon transferred to Asset, Vile Parle, where I met Swati, a voracious reader and a woman with a gift of teaching, who apart from teaching me C++, taught me to teach. My other colleagues at Asset were Arun, Sanket, Nilesh, Priya, Munaf, Seema and above all the duo Ritu & Madhavi - girls whom I knew from the times of Aptech Dadar days, and girls who would be friends for life. I was also very fortunate to have Mr. Matthew as my Centre Manager, the most unique boss one would ever find. Matthew sent me to Bangalore for getting trained in Net.Commerce, an IBM product - a couple of training sessions which would change my career forever. The training was the most miserable training that I had ever attended and I had to sign a bond with Aptech for that. Matthew helped me out of the misery by setting me up for an interview with Mr. Amit Dalmia, a graduate from Wharton and student at Asset that time, a man with a vision and a 'prodigy' as he rightly calls himself. Amit would not like it if I fail to mention the fact about him being a die-hard Amitabh Bachchan fan. Well I am also one of his fans and any moviegoer during our times wouldn't deny liking that man. Beginning of a new dawn� Amit had set up a software company and called me for a technical interview at his residence to be conducted by his partner in business Mr. Ashok Hegde - a thorough professional and a genius of a person with years of software development experience. My interview was cool though for many obvious reasons I had my heart in my mouth. My reasons for taking up this new job were simple - change from teaching to development being the primary, but what impressed me most was the visiting card that Amit and Ashok had designed - it had a touch of class. Secondly I went wild over Amit's CD collection with Led Zeppelin and The Who amongst the other CDs lying on the table. I expressed my appreciation when Ashok corrected me saying that they belong to him. I would always love to work under someone who shares similar music preferences. I cleared the interview and was given an offer - simply irresistible - and so joining them as the first programmer, I am currently working in this company we call inteliNET software pvt. ltd., and am proud of every cherishing moment I have spent with my colleagues here. |
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