and SO it begins

Ive borrowed the title from a friend of mine who happens to be going through the same training stint as me. My corporate journey has begun…armed with a piece of hard paper that says that ive been conferred a degree from what is probably one of the best B-Schools in India ive set out to do almost every B-School grad does…make money.

We’ve been carted off to disparate locations across the country for what is called a Sales Officer (SO) stint. So from the cosy environs of the head office we have all headed off to places far and wide in the country including Bhilai, Ujjain, Patna, Rohtak, Lucknow (thats where I am)…to name a few.Im still not sure of where im going to stay initially in Lucknow. I knew I was supposed to be prepared for ambiguity but then… The thing is at my firm the Hr/Admin people (if available at a location) are supposed to handle such logistics regarding stay. However, the HR contact in Lucknow has been very happy to pass on the entire task to my already over burdened Sales Manager who after this last minute directive is frantically trying to find a decent accommodation for me which would also come at a price that i am entitled to…all this amidst handling one of the biggest and fastest growing mobile phone markets in the country.

A friend of mine arranged for his friend to go through the trouble of recieveing me and dropping me at the hotel. “”Misra told me you are not good at Hindi”, he says…as a reaction to which I start conversing only in Hindi to display my speaking skills of what is the national language. All ambiguities of initial stay done…I decide to take things in my own hands and go about searching for accommodation on the very first day of work and get lucky in landing a furnished annexe at a walking distance from my office.

Im all set now I think and head off into the city of nawabs in the weekend to try and explore the various places and happening place (if any) over here. The best things for me about Lucknow are the multiplexes it has. Atleast I’m much better off than a lot of my counterparts in this regard. I have some place to go and pass the time over the weekends. Food and local transport is pretty convenient here as well. Now for those who have stayed south of Madhya Pradesh all their life and despite having traveled extensively across India I would like to mention a few things about Uttar Pradesh (much of this is common to Bihar as well, only in much worse magnitude). Almost every third house in Lucknow and second family in U.P will have a set of rifles/revolvers/arms and ammunition/weapons call it what you may. Living up to the image of U.P in Omkara and movies of the past which featured dacoits on horses with rilfes on their backs, you would find lots of Motor cycles with the pillion riders brandishing a rifle or two. “Lucknow is a nice place. Just don’t get into any uneceessary squabbles and look the other way and you will be fine” is what my soft spoken Manager had to say to me. My mother has been worried about the Manjunath (May his soul rest in peace) incident repeating with me given my hot blooded nature. But then seeing the sheer volume of rifles here I think better sense would easily prevail over me (frankly, this country aint worth dying for).