4 weeks up

After nearly a month of the new place, I am feeling kinda settled in. Now u'd wonder what does kinda mean .... Here goes, in no particular order.

I now have an I-card. Unlike other things, this took time here. They are switching from one type of security to another or some such. So, all that I, and all of us "new joinees", had were plain WHITE access cards. How non-fun. I asked for one and the team admin got one made for me. She, I guess, took pity on me and was so pleased to see such a conscientious employee (*batting eyelids*).

I have a picture and to my horror I look so much worse than what I am! I am the before of a fair-n-lovely ad, with Godrej hair dye black, and my pale rust lipstick now looks as if I just returned from a vampire feast!!!

I still have to look up the online directory for the most commonly used phone numbers. In fact I really have no idea what is the outside number/extension for the phone that occupies the second-most prime part of my work station (the IBM comp. being the first. I inherited a really kewl machine from the guy that left here and moved on to greener pastures.)

I recognize the guy who is paged every HOUR! He is the 2rd or was it the 5th employee that this comp hired sooo many years ago!!! He is one of those middle-aged, VERY competent looking, super sincere, sweet guy - he stands outside at 8:30 overseeing the arrival of all the cabs/buses/what nots.

Then he is always someone around EVERYONE and always has a cheery good morning for you. Holds the door for you and is really a reassuring presence.

I have a workstation that was earlier the printer/copier location, but thanks to the ever-increasing need for space, this got converted to a work-station! They have another building coming up, and if the Indian roads/fly-overs were made at this rate, we'd be a better country.

I am officially in the learning mode. It's a very structured place but the content and everything with no real application gets to me.

I have MBOs! Thank you very much :-) My yakking skills will be tested and put to good use in the form of audio!!!

I can't understand most of the work-related conversations I overhear around my work station. The people in my vicinity are of the verification (QA) species and they are also slaying real and imaginary dragons. So cute...

I have to learn a new domain - it is like a new language. It's alternately fun, frustrating, boring, scary, ... and then some more.

I can now find my way to the "old" building and actually find people in finance, HR, meeting rooms named after rivers (narmada, godawari, ...) and school houses (unnati, pragati, ...)!!!

I got my first paycheck yipppeee!!! I filled out the PF xfer form (finally!).

Filling forms is such an ordeal for me! I can never NOT make a mistake esp. in the address area where there is a grib of empty boxes and you actually have to count and fill backwards!

Bleah ...