Memories from Aztecsoft :)

Today is my last working day at Aztecsoft. Thought of sharing some of my sweet memories from Aztecsoft. The place where I took my first step in my career as a "Project Trainee".

First few days, after the induction programs we, around 20-25 people, were given training (for 1 month) on Java. It was much of a college environment that a software company. :) Enjoyed like anything. During the last week of training, we were asked to do a project. It was about an "Online Treasure Hunt". We were asked to keep it a secret. Nobody outside the room should know what we are doing. It was fun. The most unforgettable thing is "OnDemandAPI". :)) This is the name of the class, that connects to the database and retrieve values. Whenever we need some information from Database, we will ask the people implementing this, "Hei, can you create a method called this that takes these as parameters and returns this?" We didn't think about whether a similar method exists or not. Just do it. Nice experience. Now it sounds funny.

The next interesting event is my allocation to a project. All my batch mates were getting allocated to different projects. Very few people were left. "Mera number kab aayega" (When is my turn) kind of expectation.

Then WE THREE were called. Who are we??

Rohit (My linux guru), Siva and Mani (me). In the training period, we know each other. Thatz all. Our Manager (Ramesh) called us. My inspiration. I never expected a manager to be like him. He is very talented, polite and always provides advices whenever we needed it. Our meeting was to give an overview of what we'll be doing.

We entered his cabin. There was one more person with him. Prabin. Another inspiration. He will always tell us, you guys got a very good opportunity which others wont get. Make use of this. You have to do this, do that. Sometimes, he will sit with us, do night outs before releases. These two people did quite a bit of work in shaping us up.

We had our introductions. Then Ramesh told us that we'll be working on PostgreSQL. This is the first time I heard that word POSTGRESQL. I didn't know whether i heard it correctly as it didn't meant anything for me. Then he said, "This world might not be as sexy as the java world. But you can learn a lot". The same words he used. After this meeting, I came out and asked Rohit and he told me what PostgreSQL is.

Another event is Allocation of machines. Rohit is a bit senior to us as he did his academic project there itself. Since he is passionate on Linux, he told Ramesh that we all need complete Linux boxes with no windows in it. He wanted us to explore the power of Linux. Siva too had some hands on experience on a Linux desktop. I never had. I was scolding Rohit like anything. The only commands I knew, when I got a machine, were, "ls", "pwd", "cd" and nothing else. I didn't even know how to open a terminal to execute these commands. :)) I was very embarrassed. I will always ask Siva for commands and how to open this and that. Since Rohit is the the main cause for all my sufferings, I avoided asking him. Later I thought of taking revenge on Rohit and bugged him for all "how to do". If he got fed up with my questions, I'll tell him, "I could have been well with a windows box. You selected linux. Teach me." We were asked to sit a separate cabin. Only we three. Sometimes, Siva will play a single song for a whole day. Me and Rohit will get sick of that song and scold him like anything. But he wont listen to us. Will continue. :)

As days passed, I got to know about Rohit and realized that he is really a nice person and he is now one of the best friends I have. I'll frequently start arguments (a trick to learn more about linux) with him saying Windows is good. You cannot do this in Linux. Then he will tell me, this is how to do that in linux. Now I feel more comfortable in Linux than Windows.

We three became good friends. Sometimes, 2 of us will form a team and start ragging the other. We'll behave like elementary school boys. Literally pulling the other's chairs and falling down on the floor, shouting... People have asked us many times whether we three are school/college mates. We'll tell them that "No... We three are from different places. We met only in Aztec." Really a wonderful period in my life.

Siva was not much into java. He was doing some work in C, and me and Rohit were working in Java. Days passed. Our team expanded. We got a new Lead. Anoop. He has given us some work to do. Which we couldn't finish. We could not finish another work that was given before he was introduced to us. So we thought, if we didn't do this, he will think that we people are not good. We are not doing anything properly. So me and Rohit decided to do a nightout and finished the work. Then next day Anoop came and he appreciated us for completing it. As we came to know more about Anoop, we felt that we had wrong assumptions on him. (We should not have done that night out ;)) He is very very friendly. He never talked to us like a Lead. He never maintained a distance between us. Always talk as a friend. He is one of the persons who will frequently give his comments on me. "You have this good quality. Improve it. These are your -ve points. You have to do this to overcome that". Really a nice person.

One person I have to mention here is, Vaidhy. I have already mentioned his name in one of my blogs. He is a geek. Whatever technical problems you give him, he will come up with a simple working solution. He is another role model of mine.

Then I got a project in which we had to work at the client location. While doing this project I got another good friend. Sumit. Nice person. He is senior to me. Always we'll have discussions like "this is what we should do to solve this problem". We have learned a looooot from each other. The winner is obviously me (haa haa) :). I have learned a lot more from him than he did from me. Not only technical stuff but also other things like how to interact with clients, and other personal qualities like the way we talk and do things.

We were accompanied with one more girl, Veena. She is very sincere in her work. That building had 8 floors. She will never use elevators to go between the floors until and unless any of the employees from the client location accompanies. :) Me and Sumit never used stairs :). Anoop was leading our team. He will tell us "Learn from her. You lazy guys". Work(This word is hidden from our present and future managers) / Walk like her.

After a few other projects, comes my last project. We were 5 people in this project. Me, Sumit, Rajasekar, Daya and Ashwini.
Rajasekar is the guy I interviewed and selected. But when selecting, I didn't had much hopes on him. I thought he wont work very hard. But on working with him for a couple of projects, I realized I have selected a right person.
This is the first project in which we are working with Daya and Ashwini. These two girls are really good and they work like anything.

Me and Sumit took the advantage of being seniors. We will find architects, talk to them, design and distribute the work. (I am honest. We DID take up some important modules of the project and finished those modules. I am making it clear that we WORKED). We learned a lot in this project.

Sweet memories... Will definitely miss Aztec.