There are millions around the globe and at least a few hundreds we meet each day, or have known all our lives. Yet hardly known. The watchman, that colleague, your acquaintance at the grocers, etc. We know them, everyday for a couple of minutes and that's that. Do you know more about those techs who make your software social life easier? I guess this was the question Siddharth wanted to get answered.
Continuing my saga of interviews with ShimBi Labs’ employees, my next interview was scheduled with Ms. Rakhi Gaud, Sr. Software Engineer on the 23rd of June, 2016 at 1 pm. All that Antim allotted to me was her name and designation. 25 minutes into the interview and I knew a different person, which I will try to reflect in this blog.
A native of Maharashtra itself, Ms. Rakhi completed her Post Graduation in Computer Science and joined ShimBi Labs in 2012 after a brief period of working as an intern in another firm. Behind the frames of a software engineer, she is passionate about dancing, or to quote her, “anything that comes under dancing”. She sounded like a very peppy person to me with her bold “yeps” and “okays” and the minute she confessed to being a dancer, I held up my green flag of friendship I wave to people who ace at things I have a special talent to be hopeless at ( yes, technology is accurately one among the list :/ )
I asked her, if ShimBi Labs were to conduct in some way a cultural party of sorts, they can count on your performance and she answered me with a laugh ( I have no idea what laughs mean these days but they used to mean good things back when I was a kid!). In addition to being a well versed dancer, Ms. Rakhi also love to draw up mehendi designs and this ( ofcourse as would be the case of one with a DSLR) drew her into a wanted zone I'm guessing! There were two moments when Rakhi ma'am reminded me of my childhood and one was this. I sucked at mehendi designing and all I remember doing in the name of mehendi designing was conjuring up bubbles! I'm sure, with due thought you must've figured how I came to drop the ‘passion’. Cooking is another field Ms. Rakhi love to explore and excel in.
As have been observed with all the previous employers I was lucky to interview at ShimBi Labs, Rakhi ma'am too came with a prominent love for the tech side (which ofcourse I hope to understand in the next 50 years). Recounting her initial days at ShimBi Labs, she spoke of how she had wanted to apply for Android Developer but the post available at ShimBi Labs was that of PHP developer. As I'm sure Siddharth is known for his pleasant surprises, he took her by surprise when he told her she could work on Android as well. Ever since her beginnings at ShimBi Labs to this day, it had been a happy walk and the best thing she told me about working at ShimBi Labs was the zero politics that happened there. This was coupled with the receptiveness from all and to all in the office. As had been in my previous interviews, Kailash sir came in. She too was mentored under him and as everyone else, she too had only praises to speak. I asked her if I supposed ShimBi Labs to be Bollywood, then in a very abridged manner, wouldn't Kailash sir be the SRK there- “oh yes! Yes !”, she quipped amidst her laughs which was probably at my childish and comparison!
We would all have our best moments in life, one that we would take to grave. For Rakhi ma'am, it was back in 7th grade when she received the Ideal Student Award. This was the second phase where she took me to my childhood. 7th grade, little me in pleats and my grey uniform frock receiving my overall excellence scholarship award. I asked her immediately: did your mother’s eyes well up with tears when you gave her your certificate? I'm sure you know what was the answer. It might be an old memory, but one that'd never fade away for her.
Being the youngest in her family, she was outrageously pampered all through her childhood though, as she did share, she was also the victim of everyone's chiding! It sure did surprise me when she told me she had wanted to become a doctor. How did that dream change to this dream?? A computer holds the blame/ praise. It was during her college period that she owned her first computer and she naturally developed a curiosity towards the ingenious machine- a curiosity that has resulted in this blog today.
Let me now confess I had an ulterior motive every time I referred to Rakhi ma'am as ‘Ms. Rakhi’. Yes, her parents are on the search for a groom and naturally our talk shifted into the same. Upon being quizzed about what all she seek in her partner, she gave me a couple of them and one of them was to marry a tall guy. This drew my curiosity to her height which was 5’6”. Here, I drew back that green friendship flag I had waved to her. I am 5’1”.
For reasons genuinely notorious, I too have plans to have a tall partner. My calculations revolve around the hope that if I marry a tall guy I would beget tall children. This ofcourse made my friends ask the next question:” you want a tall guy? Why? You wanna look like you are from Lilliput???!”
In addition to having a boastable height, Rakhi ma'am looks for a partner who is simple, well educated, kind, caring, understanding and preferably not from an IT field, which would only harness a stress filled life as is opined by Ms. Rakhi (Siddharth, forgive me if all this suddenly sound like a matrimonial blog!).
I know I flaunt my lameness shamelessly in my blogs and if this blog seems to resonate that even more I pin the blame on that weird, nagging cold that has been pulling at my scarce reservoir of patience and good sense since yesterday.
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I wish the best- in work, marriage and life - all together for Rakhi ma'am, and this is me sneezing away till the next blog!