I can’t believe that I am leaving my first company (not considering my first 7 months job at a BPO). It has been 4 years 6 months and 11 days I have worked in Sonata Software, and all these days has been wonderful. I have grown from a kid to adult here, or we can say from an ETG (Engineering Trainee Graduate) to JMA.
It was Oct 2004 when I came to Hyderabad in the search of Job. It was so annoying when I was not getting call for interviews even though I had fair performance in my Engineering and 10th and 10+2. To get some pocket-money I started giving interviews in BPOs which was rather easy to give. In January 2005 I got a job in Hyderabad based BPO as Technical Support executive. In the mean time I was taking training on all sorts of technologies at the hub of training center of Hyderabad, Ameerpet. From January to September I had finished C, C++, Java, Unix, Linux Administration, Windows Administration and CCNA and well the irony is I don’t work on any of these. Those were hard days.
The Sonata story started when I got an Aptitude test call letter from Sonata, thanks to freshersworld.com. Sonata had just started in Hyderabad. It was 10 mins and fifty question simple aptitude test. And I guess I did some 41 or 42. But we had to wait about a week time to get results. After 1 week gave C, C++ and english written test. Again wait and wait for results. Then again after 1 week gave the GD. I prepared for GD while taking training for combined defence service. I knew it will be a fish market, and I was ready for it. We were put to our board room by Shivaji and Karthika, and at the moment they said START all started shouting. I remember Prassanna and myself were were active in the whole discussion. I thought I have done well but you never know. We were told in 2 days we will be told our results. But after about 5 days I guess I didnt get any news. I was soo frustrated anyway finally I got a call that I need to come for the final interview. That day saw a lot of people already waiting, from which some are my best buddies now. I remember Joshi, Chandu, Suri already waiting. I was scheduled as one of the last one. We all were sitting at our training room and I was sitting at the back (back bencher) noticing all. Then suddenly a girl came I knew she must have been late. She just started asking to all and whoever was coming back from interview about what they are asking etc etc. I am a bit shy person but I was trying to listen what they are saying to this girl. My turn was next and she was only girl left for interview after me. I saw to her face and she had this pleasent smile in her face. I didnt talk though and I entered the other training room where Ramesh Menon and Sivaji were ready to disect me. The interview went well and I answered almost all they asked including the puzzules and programs they asked me to write. It was like Sonata was my destiny. After the interview I had this happy feeling coming from inside of my body. That state is hard to explain. Anyway that girl was still sitting waiting when will I come back. I had an conversion with her for the first time and I said best of luck to her, anyway I wanted to go out and went out in a hurry. This girl Mythili is now one of the best friends I have from Sonata. I had to wait again for more 1 week I guess when suddenly when I was feeling bore doing the BPO work of chatting with their customers. I was happy more than anyone in the world. But the wait time was just killing me. And I just ran away from that BPO after getting my August 2005 salary 
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The day was 8th September 2005, it was my first day at Sonata. Saw some known faces from the interview time and some new faces. We were first ETG batch from Hyderabad. IT companies are lot different to BPOs. It is lot quieter and people are comparatively older . Our batch had all kind of people. My desk partner Chandu was my mate for all that training period. Check out his piece of writing here. He is an intelligent fellow, we used to solve problems together. Rajat Khattar was one of north indian from our batch. He is from Rohtak, he had this peculiar way of introducing himself, as Rohtak is not that known city of India, he used to say Mallika Sherawat is also from the same place. Then people used to say OOOh is it!. A stand up comedian and a fearless Haryanavi or Punjabi!. His partner Mr. Vamsi, the slimmest person of our batch 
. A kind hearted and caring person. Pradeep Naidu, he was one of person who was selected with me and Mythili to be trained in Microsoft technologies but he did same as I did with my BPO company. He left Sonata and joined another company without informing anyone. Surendernadh or better Suri has this special way of walking like as if some Maharaja is walking. Wearing his special cap he looked different. One of our good friend. Krishna Hemanth or Krishna was one of the ambitious and intelligent fellow. Then Hemanth Kumar Gajulapalli, his height is lesser than all of us but a full package, a good cricketer and used to produce jokes which he himself was unknown, kind of situational jokes. Srinivas Yadav, he was joker (pls take it positively ) of our batch, a jolly person and easy to get along. Vijay Kumar Naga I call him Naga, he always has bag full of PJs (poor Jokes), has uncontrollable laugh and very good friend of mine, we used to hang out in Sonata till the day I left. Deepak Gupta or better Logic Gupta, he got his name as he solved a difficult question in our training days. One of the first person to leave Sonata. Kamalakannan Elengovan (may be I am wrong in spelling him) or Kamal the only Tamilian of our batch. A hard working and intelligent person. He could not speak ‘h’, instead he used to pronounce ‘g’ for example my name Mohan was Mogan, Mahita was Magita etc. We enjoyed his company all along those training days. Azhar bhai was one of the mysterious person of our batch. He never get along with any of us and used to come on his special scooter which he never parked in our office. Sreekar Joshi or Joshi is one of gentleman we had. A person whom we can alway rely upon. Now comes ladies of our batch. Prasanna the first person who was known to me before joining. We first met during GD and them during interview. Now a well settled US citizen from Sonata . Saraswati who I thought was very shy but she isnt anymore. And she looks quite different nowadays, a successful and is having good career in Sonata. Tanuja, I dont know much about her, and in those training days I was confused as who is Mahita and who is Tanuja. Archana Prasad or Arch is one of good english speaking lady from Kerela (I think Mallus are born intelligent). Seshu who was lovingly called Seshu Akka (didi), I think she is now a US citizen, she left Sonata after her sudden marriage. Mythili (Manee) my dear and dear friend, we both worked almost all those days in Sonata. Miss u Maneeee. Shinymol or Shiny, I know she will kill me as I added “mol” along with Shiny. A unpredictable girl and I used to think a lot before talking to her. Always unsure what her reaction will be . I dont know if she has been successful in omitting “mol” from her name officially. Mahita or Mahi (I never called her with this name) but Mythili used to. She has this nice smile. We had training and induction for 2 months. All my fellow ETGs who all joined with me will be in my memories always. Most of them have left sonata and few of them are still here. I think in some days there will only be one or two left fromm whole 24 people batch. Ohhh I left Santosh, he joined us from Maples ESM after a fews days of our training was over, now enjoying in Blore in a different company.
Cutting short…..So what have I gained in this four and half years? Well a lot of weight for sure. I am not that proud of my career here and may be that’s the reason I am leaving. I will always be thankful to Sonata for giving me a break and my career a good start. People are very friendly here and all the people I have worked with were helpful and very nice.
I am going to Bhubaneswar in few days for the obvious reason. Although I am native of Odisha but I have become more of a Hyderabadi. I will always miss Hyderabad….I am going for my own good and lets see what happens next……….
(wanted to write more….may be I will update later)
