True joy of commitment

I still remember my first day in VMS CDN, when I joined as a fresher, oblivious of corporate life and responsibilities. Yet I had a belief that I am on my way to acquainting knowledge and new friends.

First steps

It felt great to be out of the college cocoon and to work on a real project. I was excited about working on a really interesting concept of data delivery and services.  The fact that I could learn how the giant World Wide Web and its services work made me more excited about VMS. Still I had a concern about working with new people, getting acquainted to corporate processes and all those thoughts that haunt every fresher.

Auld langsyne

The first few days at VMS CDN are really memorable. It was a detrimental phase which changed the way we lived. Days were no more defined by lectures and breaks, instead we started getting used to several coding and process related tools. Enthusiasm was high among the team members, everyone was eager to make a head start with VMS. From managers to Technical lead and SSEs to freshers, everyone felt a sense of commitment towards the team.  Mentoring plans were framed to initiate knowledge transfer among the team members. It was great to see how availing the team members were when it came to helping each other with knowledge and competency improvement. The company of such dedicated and adjuvant team mates contributed towards the building of a warm team atmosphere.  At the same time there was a surge of motivation among the team members to contribute their best, which in turn encouraged other member to do their best for the team too.

Magic of working together

Just like everyone else, I hate solitude and love to be accompanied. Thanks to Agile, it helped to keep solitude aloof through “Pair programming”.  Being an Agile team, pair programming was put through in VMS. This really worked wonders for the deliverable as well as for the team members. With pair programming there was no room for un-clarified assumptions and knowledge gap. It was planned that freshers would be paired up with the senior members of the team so as to familiarize the fresh members of the process, the domain knowledge and all the strings that come attached.  It was only through pair programming that we could gain more knowledge about the domain, listen to expert advice, learn from each other’s experiences and gain hands on knowledge on the tools that help in crafting high quality deliverable  Apart from improving the team competency and deliverable quality, pair programming helped sew up a strong bond among the team members, who now started spending the most time with each other. This thrashed up all communication gaps and crafted a strong team.

Yes you can!

Doesn't it feel good when your team shows belief in you and stays by your side during every phase that you go through? Such was the feel that the VMS members had for each other. It was great to see the way senior members vested their faith on fresh talent, encouraged them so as to bring out the best.  Contributions and innovations like CI compliance melioration, CI effectiveness were all the result of support and encouragement provided to the stakeholders. Effort and dedication never went unperceived. Team members were awarded and recognized for their achievements through several means including iteration level awards and honor boards thereby building up the team morale.

Coalesce of Work and frolic

As we know “All work and no play does make a team dull”, play and work were blended together in VMS. Dart, Carom and many more games were brought in to enlighten the team. These games had a refreshing effect on the team. Amidst strenuous discussions on efficient algorithm design and developments, a small game helped refresh ones thoughts and come up with better solutions with ease. Moreover amiability and cohesion among the team increased many folds through these games.

Scope for competency improvement

There were ample opportunities to improve ones competency through the numerous trainings that were organized. Knowledge sharing sessions on the project proved beneficial to understand the real time usage of the developed products.  The CI issues found and resolved by the team were also sent across so as to help others resolve the same with ease.

Happy to help!

It is worth mentioning that the helping tendency of the team members has contributed to the team’s achievement as a whole. No matter what the situation, one could always seek help from the team members.  The generous attitude of people to spend time on solving each other’s issues and clarifying doubts, even amidst hectic release schedules is admirable. Harmonious relation and interaction between the test team and the development team resulted in high quality deliverables.

Nostalgic School Days!

Schooling seems the most difficult phase as a kid but as we grow up, we wake up to the realization that those were the most effortless days in one's life. One's schooling plays a detrimental role in molding their attitude. For most of you schooling would be the most carefree phase. I always cherish my schooling memories as those were the days when I did every silly thing that came to my mind.

I was lucky to be in the same school for over ten years and hence school was my second home. Knowing almost all your school mates and teachers personally makes you feel at home. Being one of the most notorious kids and yet being loved for your notorious acts makes you feel gratified towards the people around you. It was during those days that I found my best friends for life. Friends with whom I grew up, who were partners in all the silly crimes I committed and who were always there for me to rely upon.

Our school was really liberal and hence was very notorious too. With less of punishments and more of fun,we could learn things the fun way. Thanks to our teachers who made learning fun by coming up with all innovative ways to impart knowledge. There was less of reading and more of listening. English classes were the best for each of us used to feel bad when it ended and that was the only class for which we used to wait with super excitement. Writing surprise articles, playing skits, listening and comprehending to tapes and even recording our own radio show were some of the things we used to in our English classes. The thought of those things excites me to relive all those days again. There used to be group article and debating contests during English classes where we used to feel the spirit as we had to compete against the haughty boys of our class. Despite all those tiffs there was great unity when we had to compete against other classes. All the plans and plots that were done to ensure that just our class wins were awesome.

Troubling class mates, teachers and even principal of our school made those days much more exciting. Things never took the serious turn as even the school administration was quite happy go lucky. Most of the times even they used to have fun in all our notorious acts and ended up just warning us with a sweet smile. Over the years, the experience we had was priceless. Learning things the fun way and being full of the joys of spring was just amazing. The friends I made those days are my best friends for life. Knowing one another for more than a decade, growing up together, committing all silly crimes and having similar interests builds the strongest bonds.  Those were the days. Full of fun, frolic and education, those days make us feel nostalgic forever.

Expressions

Expressions are magical
But never just surreal.

You get what you see
and reflect what you feel.

Ever sheer with lucidity,
yet at times shoddy.

There is smoke,
There is mirror.

Its what you perceive
and its what you give!