Memories of my first job come rushing back to me. I remember our sparkling fifth-floor Satyam office on Raj Bhavan Road. It was one of the leading software development (IT) organizations in the southern metropolis of Hyderabad. That’s how it was known back in the day.
Even today, I still vividly remember my long tenure with Satyam, from the first round of job interviews to my farewell to the company in the mid-2000s. As a full-fledged IT professional from this point onwards, my first-hand experience at this software company became so indelibly memorable, and I've to say quite exceptional — and I don't say that lightly, that I keep remembering it year after year.
The following is a brief, anecdotal personal account of this remarkable era that I've been fortunate to witness and be a part of.
Mandeep’s camaraderie
Mandeep had it in him to be of a comedic disposition, a figure of fun, and a knack for gonzo premises. In those delightfully blessed days of pre-apocalyptic human society, this smart-alecky avatar could effortlessly induce a bellyache of laughter — that never seemed to subside while bringing the house down with his great humour and starting over again! Full lot-pot.
At Satyam Computers, where employees were called associates, Mandeep would make cutesy lines made up on the spur of the moment and deliver them with such uber precision that only he could manage. His comic timing was quick and sharp, better than most others who couldn't match up to his unique sense of humour. He made full use of his art form of nicknaming people to try to make some light-hearted wisecracks while we worked in our cubicle.
Devi, our pleasantly plump male co-worker from the finance department, would get his name Devi turned into "Sexy Devi", almost overnight! "Truck Driver Suraj" was the cheeky moniker given to his FD colleague Suresh! Suresh and Devi would routinely drop by our cubicle to chat or consult on some point, while Mandeep and I would invent nicknames and make hilarious comments on different things. They would burst out laughing at the jokes. They were a good sport. Before long, Shiv was going to become a "Joey"! Our crooked manager GG would get mercilessly cauterized with a “Chicha” label! The label stuck like an industrial-grade goo... err... glue! Of course, GG had no idea we mocked him behind his back by calling him Chicha! That little discretion prevented a lot of skin from being canned. Take that, Chicha garu.
Mandeep’s camaraderie
Mandeep had it in him to be of a comedic disposition, a figure of fun, and a knack for gonzo premises. In those delightfully blessed days of pre-apocalyptic human society, this smart-alecky avatar could effortlessly induce a bellyache of laughter — that never seemed to subside while bringing the house down with his great humour and starting over again! Full lot-pot.
At Satyam Computers, where employees were called associates, Mandeep would make cutesy lines made up on the spur of the moment and deliver them with such uber precision that only he could manage. His comic timing was quick and sharp, better than most others who couldn't match up to his unique sense of humour. He made full use of his art form of nicknaming people to try to make some light-hearted wisecracks while we worked in our cubicle.
Devi, our pleasantly plump male co-worker from the finance department, would get his name Devi turned into "Sexy Devi", almost overnight! "Truck Driver Suraj" was the cheeky moniker given to his FD colleague Suresh! Suresh and Devi would routinely drop by our cubicle to chat or consult on some point, while Mandeep and I would invent nicknames and make hilarious comments on different things. They would burst out laughing at the jokes. They were a good sport. Before long, Shiv was going to become a "Joey"! Our crooked manager GG would get mercilessly cauterized with a “Chicha” label! The label stuck like an industrial-grade goo... err... glue! Of course, GG had no idea we mocked him behind his back by calling him Chicha! That little discretion prevented a lot of skin from being canned. Take that, Chicha garu.
Silly but casually brilliant Hinglish puns humorously put would evoke rollicking laughter, making you go full lot-pot, rolling in the aisles, laughing. Why so much bonhomie? Because he had a talent for being funny, as gifted as they come, with a sense of humour that is in step with the times. He knew how to be hilarious whenever needed, which brightened the working mood at the office every day. Being funny was his method of getting in the spirit of making fun — while we worked in our enlarged shared cubicle with two other fundamentally unfunny associates who were not as funny as Mandeep could get, but they laughed nonetheless right out loud.
Doraemon-faced Mandeep’s tongue-in-cheek innuendoes sometimes hit below the belt or sometimes hit hard in the face, depending on how you interpret what you hear from this irrepressible multiloquent talker. Even amusing remonstrations, if need be, are freely utilized, not to mention he purposely masquerades as the proverbial court jester if you like, making laugh-out-loud bawdy jokes on the insanity of the day: The quirks and idiosyncrasies of life that can make you giggle, chuckle or chortle or all at the same time. That was his style as he worked in the cubicle with his cheerful, out-of-control cul-de-sacs squirming like jellies in his tightly turbaned head that sounded better than mere show-put-up of tomfoolery — if not just plain boyish gush.
To be a part of his light-hearted, humorous business was an enjoyable feast that made everyone laugh. This hearty, perfectly ordinary Punjabi man’s sense of romp is genuinely bonkers. To be decently (sometimes viciously) humorous while seriously doing office work mandates a funny bone in you, and this man had it in him in real spirit. No wonder he has a knack for prefiguring things before he gets up and about cracking jokes, providing impromptu comic relief at a workplace where everyone must work stiffly (because of GG!).
Our evil boss, who went by the name of GG, like an alien Xenomorph gnashing its teeth to pronounce his name, plopped himself down on a swivel chair in the wood-and-glass cabin on the fifth-floor of the West Wing, darting like a deadly dragon breathing hellish blaze of fire. Off and on, he would summon Mandeep or me, or both of us together into his cabin, which was, fortunately, quite a distance from our blissfully peaceful 5th-floor cubicle of the East Wing, to pose queries, solicit suggestions, or fish for ideas or solutions to the problems only we could help decode for this uncrowned King of... Timbuktoo. Or to take the piss out of us right from the word go! Yeah, Chicha was that bad!
There were good days, there were bad ones, and all others in between at the office, but we knew that was part and parcel of any professional environment, so we took it all in our stride. (GG gives you a Lovecraftian hell, a deeply fucked up way of communicating with his subordinates. His way of dealing with things was outright rude).
Speaking from the point of view of trying to be a little funny here, I’d say Mandeep is a one-time wonder the City of Pearls will ever have!
As things were back then, in the late 1990s, beginning in 1998 and continuing afterward, the time we spent there was of great value to us, and it was the happiest period of our lives. Days like the ones we spent in Satyam never came again.
+~+~+~+
Doraemon-faced Mandeep’s tongue-in-cheek innuendoes sometimes hit below the belt or sometimes hit hard in the face, depending on how you interpret what you hear from this irrepressible multiloquent talker. Even amusing remonstrations, if need be, are freely utilized, not to mention he purposely masquerades as the proverbial court jester if you like, making laugh-out-loud bawdy jokes on the insanity of the day: The quirks and idiosyncrasies of life that can make you giggle, chuckle or chortle or all at the same time. That was his style as he worked in the cubicle with his cheerful, out-of-control cul-de-sacs squirming like jellies in his tightly turbaned head that sounded better than mere show-put-up of tomfoolery — if not just plain boyish gush.
To be a part of his light-hearted, humorous business was an enjoyable feast that made everyone laugh. This hearty, perfectly ordinary Punjabi man’s sense of romp is genuinely bonkers. To be decently (sometimes viciously) humorous while seriously doing office work mandates a funny bone in you, and this man had it in him in real spirit. No wonder he has a knack for prefiguring things before he gets up and about cracking jokes, providing impromptu comic relief at a workplace where everyone must work stiffly (because of GG!).
Our evil boss, who went by the name of GG, like an alien Xenomorph gnashing its teeth to pronounce his name, plopped himself down on a swivel chair in the wood-and-glass cabin on the fifth-floor of the West Wing, darting like a deadly dragon breathing hellish blaze of fire. Off and on, he would summon Mandeep or me, or both of us together into his cabin, which was, fortunately, quite a distance from our blissfully peaceful 5th-floor cubicle of the East Wing, to pose queries, solicit suggestions, or fish for ideas or solutions to the problems only we could help decode for this uncrowned King of... Timbuktoo. Or to take the piss out of us right from the word go! Yeah, Chicha was that bad!
+~+~+~+
There were good days, there were bad ones, and all others in between at the office, but we knew that was part and parcel of any professional environment, so we took it all in our stride. (GG gives you a Lovecraftian hell, a deeply fucked up way of communicating with his subordinates. His way of dealing with things was outright rude).
Speaking from the point of view of trying to be a little funny here, I’d say Mandeep is a one-time wonder the City of Pearls will ever have!
As things were back then, in the late 1990s, beginning in 1998 and continuing afterward, the time we spent there was of great value to us, and it was the happiest period of our lives. Days like the ones we spent in Satyam never came again.
(To be continued...)
By Arindam Moulick
By Arindam Moulick
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