You would know who I am and if you don't, maybe I would like to keep it that way ;-) no hard feelings!
I am a Technical Writer (Instructional Designer, glorified clerk, . . . ) and this is my tribute to NIIT, my current employer (will name them after I get a new job!), the people I met in the course of my professional life ...
I have always felt that my career has been a story straight out of a Soap Opera. No, not the KKK variety but more like Dilbert meets Calvin meets Garfield meets Dennis meets Sasumaa meets evil Kansa Mama .....
As the famous song says - Let's start at the very beginning ... a very good place to start ..
Let's go back in time .....
In the mid 1990s there were no call centers in India. You had to EARN a credit card, Maruti 800 was a sign of affluence ;-)
No major MNCs that would have given a college graduate / undergrad a second look. Working in an AC office, commuting in AC fleet cabs, IMs, gmail accounts, VPN connections, laptops, ... oh man! this was all happening in the US most certainly not in Delhi.
Then there was NIIT that was a BIG name then. If you were a college graduate and didn't also have a Diploma from Aptech, NIIT, STG, ... the neighborhood computer training "institute" you really were quite pathetic!
Wondering why I choose NIIT as a theme for my blog? The reason for that is, NIIT is REALLY where I made some best friends for life, continued having fun while getting paid, got a passport, traveled overseas, learnt (oh well if not that at least polished!) the skills that I have and need as a Technical Writer.
By the way, technical writing is also something that I was blissfully unaware of at that time (1998 in case you forgot ;-D).
I have met so many weird, stupid, pathetic, funny, crazy, .... (totally out of adjectives) people in the course of my career that I had to share them with you in this blog :-) People who drove me to tears of happiness, sorrow, mirth, depression ... There is a theory that you see your own reflection in the people you meet. And I am not like anyone else I know!!!
Ok rule 1 of TW - who is the TARGET AUDIENCE?
I really am writing this for myself! And also some of my friends lived that part of my life with me, and other exNIITians.
All those clichés about NIIT are quite true -
- You can leave NIIT but NIIT will always remain within you
- NIIT is not a job, it's a religion (People in the D 190 basement would recall this one)
- NIITians have a superiority complex (We do. Live with it.)
Will tell you more as we go along ....
DISCLAIMER - All incidents and stories narrated in this blog are real and happened. Any resemblance to fiction is PURELY COINCIDENTAL. All opinions in here are MINE and I am VERY opinionated and if you disagree, too bad, you can't comment and you can only whine and feel bad about it :-)
I write as I think and I think without a spellchecker so please indulge me.
Some names will be true and some won't; just to keep things interesting!
My journey from the harward (ok Happy Harvard) comma to geeky engineers who can't write love letters! Using MS Paint to fudge graphics, FrameMaker, Vista, Info Mapping ... oh man! I sure have had a long tenure at NIIT!!
So, let the journey unfold ...
