It isn’t often that it happens. The odds of yours truly spending two days absent from the blogosphere are the same as that of PotUS bombing the right nation. Either ways, I kind of hibernated for a bit, after an all-hands meeting at the Pune office before we kicked off for what I’d been gearing up for. Oh, do allow me to digress for a bit as I wonder why it’s called all-hands when indeed all-limbs, rears and other vital organs also made it with the rest of the frame. Anyhow, we were moving out, and a 44-seater Volvo beckoned us before driving up to the Fariyas Resort at Lonavala.
Yippe-yip-yeah. STC had started, finally.
For those out there scratching their brains and rears figuring out what in Haysoos’ name STC is and why it gets to go on my blog, heck, I’m a PSG bloke and the STC is like a once-in-a-year event where I get to meet other PSG folks and chat. The STC is actually a Summer Technical Conference, but like most events in India, things get delayed so we conveniently rechristened it Spring Technical Conference, although I’m tempted to call it Summer after all with the blazing sun in Lonavala. For the record, the blasted TIBCO jackets we got at the end didn’t exactly do much to cool things down.
Right, so we went off a tangent again. So, um, yeah, STC. ‘Twas fun, serious fun (if that means anything), especially the team building sessions by the HR consultants, and those silly little games that (damn-me) suddenly made shitloads of sense.
The most interesting part of the STC was a session by the Director of Sinhgad Institute of Management, Dr. George Judah, we figured out a lot of things we knew but perhaps still needed to be told. On the importance of the right-brain left-brain getting together, on how you treat people the way they want to be treated, on random yet focused stuff like not allowing things to affect you, etc. Being optimistic, and stuff around that. I’m probably downplaying it but it was a motivational talk and a half, and thanks to Parag who arranged it for us, it really did make a lot of sense, except the stroking but. When he first went, you ought to stroke your loved ones a bit more, I was like - hello? - until he mercifully clarified that ’stroke’ in the context hadn’t had much to do with sexuality. Like a verbal ‘I love you’ stroke, and so forth. Imagine calling up my girl and telling her, ’sweetheart, I wanna stroke you’. That’d be like Armageddon 2008.
So Dr. Judah is a fun guy, vocal, emotive and absurdly funny. The guy doesn’t tickle your funny bone, no-siree, he crushes it and shatters it to bits with his lovely little ‘Mrs. Judah’ jokes that are hilarious to hear. If you bump into him during your morning walk around the society he stays in, do drop in a hello or two, I’m sure you’ll get home smiling for the rest of your day. Oh, and he’s vegetarian and an ex-combat pilot, so think twice before you offer him a fried sausage unless you want a MiG’s missile up your rear.
And the biggest take-away from the STC? I’d love to be all pompous - modesty be damned - and say that it was the award, the ‘Best Team Player’ award, that PSG India gave me. Apparently the guys who picked me overlooked my rebellious attitude and affinity to the back-bench. Or I’m doing a good job of hiding it all from them. And if they read this, rest assured I ain’t getting ‘Best Team Player’ 2008-09 ;-)
No, the biggest take-away was the networking. And I don’t mean the women, there really weren’t any at the resort we were staying that’ll make my head turn twice (or for that matter, once) save a firang mom who looked like she smoked enough to give the Fariyas chimney a complex. No, not the women. I met up with the PSG folks and I can finally say that I ‘know’ them all. Which is cool, you know, considering I’ve been banished from the clan for a year. Also met up with an old colleague from the Bombay office and someone I’d never heard of before from the US who’s now in Bombay, and they’re both the kind of people I love to work with - sensible, smart, fun, and most important of all, zero attitude.
Ah, fuck it, who am I kidding anyway? It was the blasted award that I liked the best about the STC. Okay, was kidding.
Well, that’s that for now. Anyone who missed me while I was away, save your tears, I’m back. For those who didn’t, go blow yourself (up), and I’m back anyway.
Until next time, see you around folks.
- Sandy
P.S. I came absurdly close to being officially gang-raped by my team on Thursday night. I mean physically. I luckily escaped with minor injuries, seven bruises, a messed up t-shirt, a messed-up pair of jeans and a few minutes of my life I’d do well to forget. Worse, there’s a photograph of the aforementioned attempt at intercourse that made it to - you guessed right - my own bloody presentation. So much for corporate stringency, and guess what, I’m loving it :-)
