Memoirs of ILP @ Trivandrum : Before the journey

There is a strange hidden beauty in life. Whenever we have a memorable phase in life, its effect & impression on our minds & hearts becomes more deeper as time passes.One of the most awesome phase of my life was my Initial Learning Programme (ILP) at Trivandrum. The ILP is nothing but the baby steps one takes before entering the great organisation of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)--Naam toh suna hoga ! 

I was having mixed feelings to get Trivandrum as  my ILP location. Happy because I had always wanted to experience Kerala & this was my opportunity. Sad because most of my close friends got Hyderabad as their ILP location. Wearing my thinking hat, i pondered whether this ILP could be my road towards self exploration.

1st October was fast approaching & so was my shopping, packing, eating delicacies, getting pampered by near and dear ones. Being the only child of my parents, the thought of staying away from them was killing me. I remember how I used to hug them , go through the old family photos, roam on my terrace, play with spoty & make her sit on my lap for a long time realising that I wont get these moments after few weeks. 

It was a mini Kal Ho Naa Ho movie for me. I realised that indeed we take for granted a lot of things in life & when the race against time begins, we feel we should have spent a little more time on this & that. Unfortunately my grandfather had an accident that time & seeing him in pain made me very weak emotionally. All my relatives were visiting us that time wishing for dadu's speedy recovery on one hand & extending their best wishes to me for my new phase of life.

TCS requires a lot of documents during joining & I remember my father's smile shuttling between his office at Bhubaneshwar to Orissa High Court to Gazzetted Officers to checking for dadu's plaster & medicines with the local pharmacist. There is a line from a TV show called Parvarish which says parents do what not for their children unconditionally and this we should always keep in our mind. Baba is a strict disciplinarian & one of his principles is to get up early. During this phase I saw him being liberal with me on this.He was far more patient with me. Maybe in this leniency he was hiding his pain.

My mom made all my favourite dishes inspite of being in so much stress. I remember her hugging me when I used to be in bed in the morning, her fasts & special pujas for my well being.& last but not the least my dadu.Being away from him pained me the most. He is suffering from Parkinson's syndrome which runs in our family. I remember him wiping my tears & kissing my forehead when I was hugging him after his plaster.

My heart goes out to my uncles, aunts, neighbors & friends who took the effort of meeting me & showering me with love & gifts :P So with all this I was on my way to the airport. I met  my friends who were coming with me to Trivandrum. Seeing them brought in me a thrill to go. We discussed about our documents with each other. As most of us were unfamiliar with flights we discussed about the process of boarding :P

All this while my parents had tearful eyes. I went to them & hugged them. There are some embraces which make you warm no matter what. Assuring them that I would do my best I moved towards check in.All our parents were waving to us till our final boarding from the airport lounge.

We boarded the flight & it took off to Trivandrum. Later my mom said that after we boarded, all the parents went to the window on the first floor of Bbsr airport to catch a glimpse of our flight. With tearful eyes all of them had a similar feeling in their hearts " Our little birds are now going to fly away from our nests"