A memoir of Lisboa - toast to friendship!! - Part 2

Life is a series of 'Hellos' & 'Goodbyes' but in the end they say, what matters are the memories that we capture in our hearts and this blog is a testimonial of the days we all spent together in Portugal.

Lets start from where we had left in part 1, where we were all trying to have work and fun together and a visit to Cintra was one such Selfie affair. The team was expanding and we had Natascha come to Portugal. We met in person, this gem of a person full of life. We had Marina join us and I think there were discussions, talks, arguments on designs and lot of things going around - People around the office really felt we made a lot of noise😈😈.

As our teams were gearing up, we were eagerly waiting for one the team members - Neha. Our days were full of tremendous pressure where we were constantly working to make the solutions update to date in our pre-live and live environment - not using the IT jargons for all the readers out there. 

The music in our ears was only full of chaos at the moment and we all trying to work together to meet the goal and trying to calm ourselves. 

If solution worked well, the other would say mend me now as I found the bugs- huh! The Leobond knows that this is a normal IT life which we all live but the rush in our adrenalins at these times never change as its human nature that at the end we all want things to work and never fail because of the hard work and the sincerity we put into something.

Out of all the uncertainities, the fear of not meeting the data needs and Go-live getting on hold is the worst and the days looked gloomy always. Amongst all this chaos, it was time for the last team member in our army to arrive and our team was comeplete with Neha's arrival. I want to mention about Shristi, who is from Pune and in a different team but was in Portugal, so we had a new friend in addition to all the people we were meeting - Destiny also has surprises for us in store!

We saw positive rays of hope, as time was flying and the approvals falling in place which were making us digest the anxiety each one of us had but in the midst of all this chaos there was one person who was leaving us and the project and trust me the decision was equally challenging for her but life does give us choices and so we should grab it when it comes.

As the days went by, it was the time to say goodbye by one of the backbones of the crew members.Our hearts were full of emotions and the chapters of life had lot of pages of memories with selfies all over and courtsey Aravind, we still have them.

It was overwhelming for all of us but c'est la vie and with a heavy heart, we again pulled up our socks to get back on our journey. The weather also started to change and Diwali was round the corner and the project was going live just after that. With all this happening, we had one more crew member leaving, this time of 'Queen of Talent' as we all call her. At one point of time, we know we are all professionals but at the same time, we are humans, so with a mixed feeling we were all moving on.

We were slogging and finally the Go- decision was given and all our efforts were appreciated and 

D-day was final making our hearts beat faster!!

It was not the 1st time that Nishant and I were not together during Diwali but usually it used to be with close friends and family and this time it would be at the airport. Diwali didnt look like one and when you miss a flight not because of any fault of yours , you tend to be pissed and it was 27th Oct when Aravind and I spent the day at the airport while on our way to Bucharest. It was the final count down and the days were never that busy while the nights were dining together with folks all over the globe, different cultures but very grounded.

I kept saying to myself , hopefully this should be the last week where we will have sleepless nights and things may slow down as the last 3 months were crazy. Finally on the night of 31st, we were all awake ensuring that the operational and logistics pre-requisites are all met and worked the night till 4 am to make every single thing in place and Finally on 1st Nov at 9:00 AM, we had our moments that we were waiting and slogging for months. My heart was relaxed and had a smile and in the noon, the Leobond took a short walk in the winters of Romania and had a huge sigh of relief.

The leobond was back to Lisbon after a week and we had celebrations with hypercare for a month and folks in the office.

I was happy when I was visited by Nishant and had my share of enjoyment in the whole journey with my friends all around.

Christmas was approaching and our time to leave the country was also nearing. It was also the moment to say adieu to our buddy from Germany. Before that we planned for a great trip to Algarve and capture the beauty and enjoyment in our eyes and all the fun.

It was time for all of us to leave in sequence, Anna, Natascha and then us and with a heavy heart we all were bidding byes to each other and promising to meet each other in future. While the Leobond pens down the details, the memories flash infront of my eyes and makes my heart heavy so here's a toast to the friendship we all have and till me meet again, let the memories in our heart be cherished for ever.

With all these moments and Christmas markets open all over, we had a wonderful last night in Lisbon and enjoying the laughter, smiles and making memories, we cam back to India in December and rejoiced with our family and friends.

Leobond believes in friendship and survives on it I think nothing better than ending the blog with my favourite quote below. Till we meet again Friends, cheers to each one of us😃😃

Interviews - Yayyy or NAAAhhh

 Don't be scared, I am not going to bore you with the title or even talk about the process but we will ponder a bit around the emotions it triggers in all of us - the hope , the despair, the anxiety and others.

Oh, btw, Happy New year - 2021 as the Leobond today takes you through a topic which you all are familiar with, so why not share an interesting incident around it here?

Situations can drive you with immense anxiety at time. So, lets start from the beginning where you are actually looking for change? or let me take a step back, are we always looking for change?

In my opinion, my not, there is no harm in exploring opportunities that come our way and we are all human, so progressive nature is in our DNA. I would agree that the pace might be subtle or rigorous depending upon how  we are doing in our current organizations?

Now, what I wanted to discuss with you was on the emotions it drives. Well it will also differ from person to person and the need of the hour. What matters the most if how to react!! 

I am sure most of you will agree with the Leobond that in our initial days of career since the interviews are more related to our specific work and due to our age groups, we usually tend to have fears, apprehensions which we mostly are unable to express but reflects very much of us during the interview.

That one person - Interviewer becomes GODDD of the moment. S/He might even not remember what they ask but those 30 mins to an hour are MOMENTS that change our LIVES.... 😏😋

With passing years, comes stability in our roles and growth but does the fear still remain? Well, this will again vary from person to person and situation but this never stops us from thinking BIG! 

Our human nature never teaches us to accept rejections positively though I have personally seen people behave saintly in this area as well. What do you say, are people really so cool😈? I will let you all think and smile for a moment.

See we all know that if we get through the interviews, we have Happy moments mostly but what astonishes me are REJECTIONS and a topping on it are the reasons provided. My experience on this is not too great and I like all of you, I am no saint trust me and rejections do affect me 💥💥.

The hilarious part are the reasons which can truly make you laugh at times. This is where I have few examples to share:

1. In 30 mins of an interview , the God here knows that you will not be able to handle the pressure of the job - is there a scale to measure that🙉. You never asked me that👿👿

                2. Oh, your skills match the requirement, but this is a high profile role, so sorry - Really and                        what on earth made you think i cant handle high profile, huh.

               3. Not to forget, no matter how much we talk about gender diversity but at the higher levels,                       you can catch and sense the tone of the rejection message.

Well, there are thousands of such examples that we all can quote and laugh about but the bottom line is stop, lets get real with real reasons and give people a morale booster to improve. 

If you have any such funny, overwhelming, anxiety full, nasty or sober reaction, please share and make the readers laugh and smile.