Tech-lit-ical Diaries #2

Posted on 04 Aug 2016 09:09 in Shimbi Insights
by Tisha John

An aspiring entrepreneur, Mr Atul explained to me how he balanced out his work and personal life- on a 50-50 scale where both work and personal lives were allotted their time.

There are a lot of things you and I take for granted in this world. If you just told yourself under breath “uffo! Here she goes on a cliched lecture on taking nature, water, resources blah blah for granted..” Save your breath! I assure you, I did not imply any of the above, and what I did, we will come across in a few paragraphs. Patience my friend, patience.

 

My second interview with a ShimBi Labs employee was assigned with Mr Atul Kawade, Sr. Android Developer. Forgive my illiteracy when I tried to connect Mr Atul’s post with the only Android I knew- Android smartphones! So I guess I conjured him to be a serious guy with glasses working furiously and passionately for us lot- the Android lovers lot. Now, not only am I illiterate when it comes to technology but here I am flaunting it on a software company's blog (all sorts of folks out there in this world I tell you!). 

 

To be brutally honest, my first and only doubt, when I was assigned the second interview, was how I would go about pronouncing his surname (me being a Lit. student ego hit hard). So I tried ‘Ka-Waada-de’. Nope. Tried ‘kaw-dey’. Still nope. Settled for ‘Mr. Atul K. Oh doesn't giggle, the minute Mr Atul attended my call I blurted out “Hello Mr Atul Ka-waa-dey”! Yes, have your giggle now. (Atul sir, my sincere apologies)

 

He seemed like a vibrant personality over the phone. Not to mention friendly with truckloads of patience- you'll know soon why.

 

Mr Atul Kawade is a native of Pune, who completed his Bachelors from the same place. A newbie to ShimBi Labs, he joined the company in 2013. Obviously, I wanted to know what was his interests apart from technology. Dead end. He eagerly admitted to being “a technology oriented person”. This was his passion and despite being slightly disappointed at not finding a hidden book worm or a singer etc., I smiled invisible on the other side of the phone- here is yet another person at ShimBi Labs who works for what he loves. If any of you wish to dig dirt on him let me let you in on the secret dancer he had been all through school and college life, not to mention his constant love for good music. He also told me that he is a bathroom singer. “Why sir? Is this modesty or do you fear I will put these to print?” was my instant question to him. He brushed me off with a witty and honest reply: Nope, I had recorded myself and so I have heard how I sound. Hence the statement. Period. Period. Period.

 

There are a lot of things you and I take for granted in this world. The network was one among them. The interview was just warming up when the drama started. I was forced to cut the call and try again owing to poor network reception but little did I know what would follow. Yes, you guessed it right. The next 10 minutes went by with both of us trying to connect the phone calls. I feared I had run jh is patience over but to my surprise he met the situation with ample patience. After minutes of trying and with at least 50 “hello”s that went unheard, we decide to postpone the interview. Well, I guess everyone wants a role, and Mr Network wanted no less. Dear Shakespeare, I believed you when you wrote, “all the world’s a stage and all the men are actors…”, But now I have proven you wrong- it's not just the men, the even network wants a drama! For all you superstitious lot out there, the interview was initially scheduled for 06/06/2016. Boo!

 

Come 7th June and I took my phone, sat it down and gave a lecture about its behaviour from yesterday and dialled Mr Atul’s number muttering to my phone “don't do that to me now again, OK? Like please okay?”. My prayers were heard, and the rest of the interview went smooth.

 

Delving deeper into the Sr. Android Developer at ShimBi Labs, he spoke of his mother and sister, the latter currently enrolled as a masters student in Mathematics. I instantly raised my eyebrows for it took me all the prayers I knew to pass my class 12 math paper and here we have people willingly taking up Math!

 

As much as Mr Atul would protest and shake his head at my notoriety, let me explain how he came into ShimBi Labs in the following way:

 

It was all through his final year project guide, Mr Rahul Naik. The whole thing sounded like a sweet, arranged marriage so let me request the liberty to narrate it thus- Mr Atul, along with three other of his colleagues were introduced to Mr Siddharth and ShimBi Labs via Mr Naik, who was a friend of Siddharth. Following the three months trainee period, all four of them were selected and today Mr Atul is a mentor to 3 other interns, himself being trained under Mr Kailash whom he fondly calls “the software genius”. 

 

Be it in the tech field or another, a beginner always steps into a new job with lots of doubts and apprehensions. Mr Atul expressed how worried he was to come out of his cocoon into the real world. He said he practically had no idea how a software firm worked and functioned, but ShimBi Labs eased it out to him with the assigned mentor and sufficient gardens from others as well. There was an infectious earnestness in his sound when he spoke of how he longed to bring up ShimBi Labs to greater heights as part of the panel. As much as they thought they were lucky to have Siddharth, he in turn and ShimBi Labs too is lucky to have such dedicated employees working with and for them.

 

An aspiring entrepreneur, Mr Atul explained to me how he balanced out his work and personal life- on a 50-50 scale where both work and personal lives were allotted their time and neither interceded into the other’s space. Mr Atul also described to me how a typical day started at ShimBi Labs - 8 am, they map out a work plan for the day and work towards it. The senior-junior hierarchy failed to be present at ShimBi Labs, and one was open to ask doubts, suggestions, ideas, etc. This left me wondering who I would have been had my school math teachers were thus. Umm, lady Einstein?!!

 

Beneath the calmness he spoke with, I sensed a content he felt at ShimBi Labs, which was reflected in the grade of satisfaction he gave ShimBi Labs - a solid 9/10.  Each interview with the ShimBi Labs employees leaves me assured of the blissfulness of their work and the strong team they are. 

 

Gracias, hasta pronto!



About the author

Tisha John  
A Masters student in English at the University of Hyderabad, I would love to explore new vistas of learning and writing.



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