A decade since I started my career!

Today marks the tenth anniversary of starting my career. Exactly ten years back, on June 14 2004, I, along with few of my schoolmates joined Infosys Bangalore for undergoing training. Ten years later, I am again working in Bangalore!

It has been a long time since my initial days in Bangalore. A very eventful journey of ten years, though not necessarily the most smoothest. But definitely with a lot of learnings. The three most important advices that I can give to people starting off with their careers are:

1. Plan your life: Don't get carried away with your day-to-day life. Try to lead a planned life. Once in a while, look back at what you have achieved. Ask yourself whether this is in-line with you want? And then look forward and think about what you want to do in the years ahead of you and whether you are in the right path. You need not have lofty goals, but you definitely should ask yourself this one question - Few years down the line, if I look back, what could probably be the thing that I would regret the most? Not travelling? Not starting my own venture? Working all the time? And that would help you answer what you want to do today.
2. Take risks: Advance into unknown forays, but do it with careful thinking and feedback. Be risk aware, but not risk averse. There might be a possibility of failure but that shouldn't stop you from trying. Shit happens all the time. My first startup was a fiasco. I got rejects from all the universities that I had applied to for MS, in spite of having a pretty good GRE score. I was asked to leave an organization with absolutely no fore-notice. But all through this, I finally realized, that what is more important than being successful, is to be resilient.
3. Take care of your health: Last but not the least, take care of your health. It is not for no reason that people say - "Health is wealth". I ignored it back then and today it is too late. There isn't a day when I am not in pain (some days it is less, some days it is more). I see a lot of people in their late-twenties and early thirties facing back problems, most of them who like me took their health for granted and abused their body. So, if you are not eating right or not exercising or smoking or drinking, then it probably is high time you start doing the right thing.

Today, I feel truly nostalgic. Some things that I still remember vividly from those 3 months stay in Bangalore:

• A 5 km walk on the first day
• Shared two rooms in a PG with six of my schoolmates
• A snacks shop in front of our PG, where they used to make hot jilebi and samosa. We were pretty regular visitors there.
• One of my roommates, Kishore, who was so scared of dogs, that he used to keep track of the movement of each and every one of them in our colony, including those which had an illicit relationship
• An incident where I got confused and made everyone deboard the bus that was returning home, a couple of stops before the destined stop. And I was severely chastised for this. The very next day, someone from the group did the same mistake and I didn't leave a stone unturned in returning the favour ;)
• Making a very good Tamilian friend "Shobia" with whom I still continue to be in touch

To all my colleagues and ex-colleagues, some of you with whom I am in touch, and some of you with whom I am no longer in touch, no matter where you are and what you are doing, I wish you all success and a blessed life.