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😃😃