When I came to Chennai (from Mumbai) in November 2006, I was totally lost. The cultural shock was striking. Having worked in Mumbai for three months (at Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Co. Ltd.) , prior to which I did my Engineering dissertation at IIT(Mumbai) for a year (during which I was constantly shuttling between Goa and Mumbai), I was very much in tune with the Mumbaiya lifestyle, the fast life, the quick nap, the quick break, the no-walk-only-run type life! And boy it was fun. That city sure does teach one to live!
But Chennai was different.... a little laid back as compared to Mumbai. But people are a lot less agitated and on the run here. I'd say more calm and composed,....atleast most of the times :) Ofcourse, outside the city it's a different story. On reaching Chennai, initially it was a struggle staying with friends as L&T does not provide engineers with accomodation. But that phase passed on quickly and I settled in with some colleagues.
Today when I look back, I remember the intense periods of work and time-management I had to do on the job, the nice, relaxed tea/coffee breaks I took with my colleagues, the trips and outings I went on with my friends, the knowledge I gained about business development, and so much more. With respect to my job, I worked in the Ports Development team. We bid for port projects around the country so that L&T can develop them into world class facilities. Well, I don't want to go too deep into my work and make this post a boring one, but I'd like to mention the some aspects of the work I did. Along with my team (we were 5), we looked at greenfield as well as brownfield port projects; identified potential with respect to the commercial, technical and financial feasibility of the project, and then went about making master plans on how to develop the project on the technical infrastructure side, commercial side and financial side to make the project a reality. During my time, we managed to capture two such projects for L&T along the west coast of India, one in Gujarat and one in Maharashtra totally worth over 2000 crore rupees. Overall, it was an exciting job, but not yet satisfying. I personally took joy in keeping my team abreast with the latest state of art in port technologies - I introduced my team to floating breakwaters and hollow berthing structures for employing in our ports.
On the social side, I had a great time networking with people of different backgrounds. My colleagues and friends were a good mix of people. Made some really close friends. (Would have liked to name a few, but that wouldn't do justice to all the others.) My roomies were a good crowd of goofers and we enjoyed ourselves wherever we went.
Apart from work and socialising, I started an inhouse monthly health magazine in my office. It has reached its third successive month now!
One thing I regret not being able to do was utilise my mechanical engineering knowledge/skills on my job. Since I was working for the construction division of L&T, that desire couldn't be fulfilled. I made up for that lack of techno-saavy work by reading technical articles, writing technical papers and keeping up to date with engineering trends and Energy Technology (a topic of great interest to me).
It is sad to leave a nice place where work was challenging, but I'm glad I'm leaving L&T to work at a place much more in tune to be interests and sensibilities.
But Chennai was different.... a little laid back as compared to Mumbai. But people are a lot less agitated and on the run here. I'd say more calm and composed,....atleast most of the times :) Ofcourse, outside the city it's a different story. On reaching Chennai, initially it was a struggle staying with friends as L&T does not provide engineers with accomodation. But that phase passed on quickly and I settled in with some colleagues.
Today when I look back, I remember the intense periods of work and time-management I had to do on the job, the nice, relaxed tea/coffee breaks I took with my colleagues, the trips and outings I went on with my friends, the knowledge I gained about business development, and so much more. With respect to my job, I worked in the Ports Development team. We bid for port projects around the country so that L&T can develop them into world class facilities. Well, I don't want to go too deep into my work and make this post a boring one, but I'd like to mention the some aspects of the work I did. Along with my team (we were 5), we looked at greenfield as well as brownfield port projects; identified potential with respect to the commercial, technical and financial feasibility of the project, and then went about making master plans on how to develop the project on the technical infrastructure side, commercial side and financial side to make the project a reality. During my time, we managed to capture two such projects for L&T along the west coast of India, one in Gujarat and one in Maharashtra totally worth over 2000 crore rupees. Overall, it was an exciting job, but not yet satisfying. I personally took joy in keeping my team abreast with the latest state of art in port technologies - I introduced my team to floating breakwaters and hollow berthing structures for employing in our ports.
On the social side, I had a great time networking with people of different backgrounds. My colleagues and friends were a good mix of people. Made some really close friends. (Would have liked to name a few, but that wouldn't do justice to all the others.) My roomies were a good crowd of goofers and we enjoyed ourselves wherever we went.
Apart from work and socialising, I started an inhouse monthly health magazine in my office. It has reached its third successive month now!
One thing I regret not being able to do was utilise my mechanical engineering knowledge/skills on my job. Since I was working for the construction division of L&T, that desire couldn't be fulfilled. I made up for that lack of techno-saavy work by reading technical articles, writing technical papers and keeping up to date with engineering trends and Energy Technology (a topic of great interest to me).
It is sad to leave a nice place where work was challenging, but I'm glad I'm leaving L&T to work at a place much more in tune to be interests and sensibilities.
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