2019 - New Home, Promotion and …
Everyone was getting married
The year began with my friends getting married and finished the same way. Gagan got married, Karan and Bikram got married on the same day, Anuj got married, and Karanvinder got married.
One week after Karan’s wedding, which I couldn’t go to, Gagan got married. I don’t have a good reason for this, and I’ll be honest about it: I was afraid to tell my boss about the 21 days of WFH. His wife, who has been with him for a long time and is also my good friend, never misses an opportunity to tell me of this.
In a South Indian wedding, Anuj also married his longtime girlfriend. All of his friends were there, so it was a lot of fun.
Karanvinder is also married to the person he has been with for years. I’ll take the credit for sharing their contact information since I was the one friend they both had in common. Other than that, it was all their work. Getting to see them get married was a dream come true. Both of them are people I’ve known for a long time, which means they’ll be in my life for a long time to come.
Gagan+1, Anuj+1, and I (minus my +1) went to Diljit’s show in Bengaluru at the end of the year. Had fun and danced the whole night.
The good thing for me was that I was still third-wheeling all my friends, which wasn’t the problem I made, Duh.
Family
The year began with happy news: my cousin in Mumbai gave birth to a newborn boy. Another member of his dream team. I went to see him in March to celebrate his elder son’s birthday, which was near mine. The finest aspect of this trip was that my maternal grandmother was also there to see him. She flew in from Chandigarh for this birthday celebration. She has raised all of us - her children (obviously) and then her children’s children.
My mother was looking for a marriage partner for me while I was looking for a girlfriend. She would pause occasionally when I told her about the girl I was seeing at the time. She wanted me to discover myself, but I was not fortunate enough!
A new place to live
Everyone who used to hang out on the rooftop had moved on to other things and now only met there on weekends. If a friend hadn’t been moving out, I probably still would have stayed. It’s a hassle to look for a rental in Bengaluru. A good apartment will cost you a month’s rent in broker fees, and the landlord will want for six months’ worth of rent in a security deposit. It was a huge time saver to move into a place where I already knew the prior tenants.
This new location was convenient to both Gagan’s (he relocated again after getting married) and Anuj’s residences. I was now living within walking distance. It was a peaceful area to live in.
My new place was quite spacious, with its own living room, patio, kitchen, and separate bedroom. I bought a Queen-sized bed with an exceptionally comfortable mattress, a three-seater sofa, and a shoe rack because I was so enthusiastic about the new arrangement. The sofa I spent a small fortune on is as comfortable today as it was when I bought it.
First International trip
Who else but Lovish would have made the perfect vacation partner in Thailand? The first time any of us visited Goa was together, too. The vacation went more smoothly than anticipated because to Lovish’s meticulous planning. I’ll never forget the cold Chang beer, the arena-sized party clubs blasting Punjabi music, the 7-11 convenience stores, and the roadside food and cocktail tuck shops.
Promotion and other career events
We kicked off the new year with a trip to Goa after the BBD event. It was enjoyable with fellow workers. Since the resort was so distant from the exciting parts of town, I mostly stayed there to eat, drink, and sleep.
The office was as hectic as ever with the constant stream of new feature development, optimization of old functions, and analysis with product managers. If you want a promotion, which was also not guaranteed, you’ll just have to keep going through the endless churn.
Flipkart’s review cycles occurred twice yearly, in July (midyear) and December (whole organization review). The majority of employees merely skated by the midyear evaluation. Those that were promoted were the only ones who were evaluated. When a promotion became available, it was given to the employee who had been in their position the longest. Work quality, communication abilities, documentation, and positive peer reviews were somewhat relevant but not crucial.
During the mid-review, I was fortunate enough to be promoted. The full review takes two months, and although you may find out your new level and salary in October, it won’t actually take effect until November. I’m glad I asked for and received the raise in salary. My interview was for a ‘UI 2’ position exactly 1.5 years ago, and now I hold that role.
BBD happened again, It was business as usual for me. I rewarded myself with an iPad and Bose headphones once I got the prize.
I was putting in a lot of hard work and also interviewing with other great organizations. When I was getting close to a promotion at FK, I cracked a Gojek and considered joining it. I had my first interview with Uber that same year, and I remember being both nervous and well-prepared. I had scanned all of the questions that had been asked in previous interviews on Glassdoor and given my best go at answering them. The day came when I had to go through three rounds of interviews: machine coding, data structure and algorithms, and management. It was the identical machine code question I had rehearsed, but my enthusiasm and nerves prevented me from answering it when it mattered most. This is the hardest part of the interview process for me so far. I sobbed my way home, feeling like a total failure.
I also interviewed with Microsoft at the year’s conclusion, making it through all five rounds in a single day. After a long day of interviews, HR called me while I was at lunch to tell me that I had been rejected. The most blatant failure was in DS/Algo.
The incident
Back in late November, I attended Karanvinder’s wedding. One Friday night after the wedding, Lovish, Harshil, and I went to the rooftop bar where we often held parties. That night, my buddy Dharamveer was performing with his band. Whiskey, tunes, and conversation were at an all-time high. After Dharamveer’s performance, he stuck around to continue the celebration. We had a round of drinks as the night was winding down. Both Lovish and Harshil drank their cocktails, but I was able to leave mine after just one taste because of how sweet it was. This is the only change it wrought that evening.
We called it a night, and Harshil had reserved a cab, so we headed down while Lovish settled the bill and said his goodbyes. Harshil had reserved two cabs and was attempting to cancel one of them as they arrived. Lovish followed Harshil home, sitting on the stairs to collect his breath and enjoy the moment. He almost fell asleep there, and I had to carry him to the car. I drove his car to his house and assisted him in getting out. He fell while taking the stairs as I was parking the car on the veranda. That night knocked the life out of me. In an emergency, we went to the hospital.
While Lovish had to take time away from his normal routine to see various doctors after his fall, I traveled back to Bengaluru and got back to work. Since I was unable to do anything from Bengaluru, I only called to see how he was doing.
Life as usual
The year did not end well on the romantic front, though; the girl I was seeing at the time was rebounding, and she abruptly cut me out of the conversation because, supposedly, I was being too direct. I went back to try to recheck, but this time I was not fortunate.
I went to the gym every morning and dragged Anuj along with me. I’d get up at 6:30 in order to be at his house when he woke up at 7, and then I’d be out of there by 7:15.
Because I was also persistent in my poor diet and beer consumption, my efforts to get in shape and gain muscle were not yielding very fruitful results.
Who am I?
- Less Depressed
- Friends to Married Friends
- Promoted at Flipkart
- Mostly regular to Gym but not much impact
- Work work work
- First international trip
- Afford my wishes