kartik kannan's space on the web

Neccesity is the mother of all inventions...


I find it somewhat strange that from the time I landed in my college to do a 4 year sentence term in computer science engineering ,I never seemed to have a special interest factor in doing programming and work in an IT company.As time passed by I realized that my interests of event managaement,writing articles/blogs..would not land me in a high paying job,so as the routine was in my family I became the 5th software engineer churned out of the engineering colleges under Madras University...and opted to apply for jobs in the software sector ..as the norm was with engineering grads graduating with a major's in computer Science.

I somehow managed to sustain all interest in preparing for the IT companies entrance tests,clearing them with elan..and even showing promise to the interviewer that coding has a major chance of being my next best hobby.I was fairly confident that I could manage in this coding world which honestly I never imagined ..i would be ..while I was in college.

Then Infy happened and the first few weeks of training made me feel on cloud 9 ..but soon I realized that unless coding was a major enthu facor ...I would find really tough to be the best amongst my peers in my training batch. Coding to others was a way of life..wheras for me ..it was another LIFE totally which ..i just switched into (better said as Logged into ) in the morning and logged off in the evening (actually nights ) ... So even though I did my job of learning mainframes ,AS 400 ..internally I wasnt really motivated to do what i was doing...and soon things went from bad to worse..as I hardly was able to manage with this stuff...of coding applications as it restricted my creative instincts ..and I certainly wasnt enjoying that.But ..could I complain ....as I was working for one of the best companies ..for which only 1 % of the applicants get selected ....so how could I quit such a well paying safe job...

I ignored my inner instincts to try out sometyhing else ...as I did not have the guts to quit Infy and kept saying to myself "I love my job" and went on with coding ...and debugging programs for a rather demanding client 10000 miles across the seven seas. Even though I was able to leave by 7 or 8 pm and not really put in regular late nights ...I realized that I actually dont seem to put in those late hours simply because I was not in anyway motivated ....... to the extent that there were times ..that I used to feel drowsy...and sick ... and over a period of time ...I was cribbing to my inner coterie of friends that I really dont seem to "enjoy" my job as others do... and was often left wondering ..why the heck am i not able to drive ...an extra ounce of enthu into me.

I thought I was suffereing from some kind of a mental problem..and decided to consult a doc's help..and most of the doc's who heard my case..asked me the same blunt question ..."DO U ENJOY UR JOB " ..for which i didnt honestly have an answer ..as I didnt know whether my job was actually the barrier to my motivation...

Then as in a movie .... where the evil things end and good precedes over evil ... a climactic ending occured on November 27th .when I happened to meet Satya and Kiruba from Sulekha.com at the bloggers meet and in a just abouut a week ... I had an interview and instantly received an offer from Sulekha for leading the blogs and groups section...

I was pinching myself ..whether this could be true ..as this job's role had all that I could dream of...event management,framing ad copies, reading blogs,writing some ,manqging discussion forums, reading various different news papers,framing advertising and marketing strategies for tie up's......... BUT

THE BIG QUESTION WAS ...........COULD I QUIT MY "secure " job at Infy and move over to a relatively small company (as in www.sulekha.com ). I gave myself a night in solitude to decide whether to move over ... and the best way to do that was spend an entire train journey from egmore ...to tambaram and back.....along the suburban railways and spend the evening at Marina beach for a couple of hours .. before breaking the news at home ... that I had decided to follow my heart ...and get into something where working...as in blogging was a way of life .... and not W O R K ....to me

Hell broke loose ....as my parents seemed to be totally against me moving there ..but after loads of discussion and drama sense prevailed from my relatives side..who reluctantly agreed to my decesion .....and I put in my papers and was releived rather quickly as I happened to be on Bench at that time .

Now ..life is cool ...Ya i do have steep targets to meet..and am really busy here ..but i enjoy the work that I am doing ...and am able to really feel a sense of satisfaction ..and no more am i cribbing to my friends about how miserable I feel ..every time they pop up the the rather familar question "How's Life " . It's still early days ..at Sulekha ...but I kinda get the feeling that this is the ideal platform for me to launch my creative skills .

So ...that's life as of now... feel a lot better at sulekha ..but would love to get back into Infy in a much higher managerial role ...in a few years time ...

So as the post's heading would convey "Neccesity is the mother of all inventions... "..my neccesity to doing what my heart says .....is what made me invent or plant the thought in my mind whether sulekha..would have any position open ....for some one like me ..and bingo ....they did ...