People says “First” always has a special charm and a special place
in your heart. Be it the first job, first child, first prized procession, first
car, so on…and maybe first love too ;). Mangalore did give me a lot of ‘first’
experiences, many of them being pleasant ones. So let me jot down few of the
firsts here.
First Boss –
After all I landed in Mangalore as part of my
first job. So I meet by first boss finally. He was a mallu and I thought that’s
a good thing to have, I can speak in Malayalam with him, catch up informally
and naturally he might feel a favoritism towards me. However to my surprise, I
didn’t get much opportunities to speak to him in Malayalam except for 2-3 times
in a span of 1.5 years I worked with him. Our interactions were strictly formal and never ever I felt
he showing any favoritism towards me or even other mallus. However later when I traveled onsite, he
too had traveled to the same location for another project and he seemed to
have opened up and more casual. But today, when I look back at some of the
interactions I had with him back then, I understand the value of it, how he
helped me and the team for their good. Today, I can undoubtedly and confidently say,
he is the BEST BOSS I had so far.
First Colleagues –
The first project did get me introduced to a
new set of colleagues. Some with similar experience level as me and some
much senior to me. People from difference places, background and all different kind
of people. At first you feel quite intimidated to interact with them, but
gradually you become comfortable with their kind and friendly
approach. Fortunately, I still see and interact with some of these 'first' set even today
and some of them are good friends and one became my BESTIE ;)
First Long Drive –
I took my car to Mangalore in the year 2005 from Trivandrum. It was dark green Maruti 800. Later people used to
identify me referring to my car, maybe the color did the trick ;) My father and
myself started from Trivandrum one
day, via Ranni to meet a relative who wasn’t keeping well and halted at my
native (Thuruthicadu). The next day we started early morning and the plan was
to reach Mangalore by dusk. This was my first drive from one end to the other
end of Kerala passing through many towns for the first time ever. Here is a
lighter moment that happened during that drive. I was supposed to pick up my
roommate from Kannur on the way. While I was near his place, I called him to get directions. Unfortunately, there
was police checking and they did see me on the phone and asked me to stop and
obviously my father was not happy with what I have done and he did voice his
displeasure to me. So I stopped and went to the police with the documents. They
started questioning me, telling me what I did wrong and asking me to take the
car and come to the police station. I was all worried and scared, wondering
what to do. Then my father intervened and told the police that he too was
advising me on not using the phone while driving and started yelling at me in
front of them. I am like “C’mon you need to be on my side and save me/us from
the police” and just dumbstruck there. On seeing all these father-son moments,
I think even the police guys got confused and they felt it was better to leave
it between the father and son and asked us to leave with just a warning :). I
still wonder to this day, what made my father yell at me that day in front of
them. Was that part of his plan to save us out ;) I have never asked him, and
may never want to. He might have forgotten as well :)
There are are many more 'firsts', will talk about them another day :)
