Coming back to Life
// May 7th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Experience, General, Personal, Work
It is only when you lose something that you realize its importance. -(1)
No wait, this post is in general. Not contextual, like you‘re thinking.
This is the first weekend since my internship began. It is 2 am now and I am still wide awake chilling out. But never have I rejoiced being free to relax all through the night so much. After being deprived of it all through the week, I can relate a whole new joy to it today. All this life, I have slept through daylight and woken up at night. Insomniac by choice and then by habit. The average time I slept in my hostel has always been 4-5 am… pretty late by the standards of humanity and slightly late by IIT standards. This is not really an option now. No wonder I am thanking god its Friday. Weekends have never been this important before.
Early to bed and early to rise. No other option. Compromise. Internships are pretty awesome means to align yourself with the world. Firstly in terms of routine. Secondly, in terms of thought. My first week at Morgan Stanley has just ended. So I thought I would key down some of my thoughts about the same. Firstly, I now know why this organization is known for what it does. Yes, I have worked with other firms in the past. But I can certainly see the difference.
The infrastructure for everything is superb. Be it emails, IM, calls, conferencing, or anything you might think up of. Without these, it is impossible to think of development teams of 4-5 people working together on an agile development paradigm when all of them are dispersed all over the globe ! (NY, London, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Pune etc. all in one team of 5-6 !). If there are problems, they get solved within a working day! There are always people to help you. There is always a way to get through problems in the most organized and efficient fashion. Resources are plentiful and are actually used.
The second most important detail? The work cult here. There is no fixed time. You can drop by and work almost anytime. But the level of self-motivation and dedication that can be witnessed in the work that people do here is something I can only idolize. I have developed a whole new understanding of what it means to work in a firm with a flat-structure. The environment is extremely friendly.
Experiencing all of this and more actually reminds me of the Rocket Singh funda: Businesses do not run on profit, but on building relationships. And relationships are built with integrity, trust and mutual respect. This now reminds me again, of the first line I wrote – (1)…
So for now, as the week has gone by, I am feeling very good about staying awake so late. It has a whole new meaning today just because I have been deprived of it. But thinking of it from a neutral perspective, is it something which is good or bad? I think I am really happy with my new routine and would be glad to pursue it further. Just because you get used to something… doesn’t make it absolutely right. A good choice is both objective and rational. But it should not be biased by immediate experience. Only then is it the right decision. So its time for a change now. This in turn, reminds me of these words from one of the greatest songs ever
Lost in thought and lost in time.
While the seeds of life, and the seeds of change were planted.
Outside the rain fell dark and slow.
While I pondered on this dangerous but irresistible pastime.I took a heavenly ride through our silence…
I knew the moment had arrived…
For killing the past and coming back to life…
Twish
PS: Remember when I said this post wasn’t about it. It actually is about more that what you think.
