Thursday, April 4, 2024

On my last day, my Cisco team gave me treat.

The Ineligible Millionaire: “Learning about a boy who was so under-confident, who didn’t know how to speak English properly but honed his skills and became a millionaire is surely an inspirational read. I think a large part of the audience will be able to relate to it, be it students, young professionals or mid-senior level professionals. There is a bit for everyone. And, what I really loved about this book is it doesn’t preach you anything as such in the direct narrative instead there are so many underlying messages which are enough to motivate you.” – BooksAmaze
Tohfaa Shaaadi Ka: “Such a poetic summary of their beautiful step towards their new life. How amazing it is when your loved one writes every beautiful moment in poetry and dedicates it to you. It was more like cherishing every moment of their beautiful life.” – Preethika P, Goodreads
The Ineligible Millionaire: “Arjun’s character is somebody that you grow fond of as a reader because Arjun is literally the humblest guy in the world, somebody who works really hard, somebody who is trying his best to deal with all the distress in his life. Still, life keeps throwing curve balls at him while he tries to dodge them. He keeps getting hit by them, but he doesn’t stop, and that makes his character extremely inspiring. This is the kind of book that gives out the message that good things are just around the corner and you just have to keep going.” – Saumya’s Bookstation

It was year 2017 and I was working at Cisco office, San Jose on payroll of HCL Americas. There were all Indian people in my team. My manager, my teammates, and some people from other teams as well. On my last day, my manager came to my desk and helped me understand the process. No one in my team was aware about my last day there as I was moving back to India. Everyone was surprised to hear this news looked at me - are you serious? why you hide this from everyone of us? At this point, my manager calmed them down saying, he is going for something good. So everyone thought that it is about marriage (which was not true as nothing was finalized at marriage front) and the next question was when will you come back? I said, 'I don't know as I'm moving for uncertain period.' 

It was hardly 3-4 months and everyone was like a family. I felt embarrassed that I didn't tell anyone. I had my personal reasons and professional as well not to share as my employer was still doing a few things that were in middle and my reporting manager at Cisco had to confirm about my last working day.

After a few here and there discussion, my reporting manager left. Time was 11am. At 11:30am, my team members told me that they are going out for lunch and I have to join them. I agreed. We went out, had wonderful lunch, captured photos, talked about each other and many more. When time came for payment, I pulled out my credit card, all of them said, 'we are Indian so it is our duty to give treat so do not worry. Neither you have to pay nor you have to split bills as people do here.' 

I recalled my 2 incidents in Los Angeles where I was invited for lunch but had to pay my bills [Split bill]. There I felt that we as Indians never do split if we're inviting someone for lunch/dinner/breakfast.