January 28, 2013 | By: Vidyanath Aarvi

Me - My Office - Hyderabad

That was Oct 28, 2010 - It was my first day at my first office. I stepped into the office with an excitement, anxiety, curiosity to experience a new world - the Corporate life. All the new joiners were ordered to assemble at Gurukul (our biggest conference hall). We introduced ourselves with each other and we're now officially called colleagues. We chit-chatted as usual which we inherited from engineering.

Later for a week, we had the same routine and boring classroom lectures - How to be in office? How to behave in office? What to do? What not to do? Blah Blah Blah. Some of our so called colleagues are into their usual routines - sleeping, but I ignored those lectures and passed time by looking at a pretty face who was in her cabin which was visible quite opposite to the window, where I had seated.

After a week of terrible orientation programme, we had to go an institute for our corporate training. There started my mechanical life... getting up early, be ready as a professional as the CEO of a company. Got into the bus towards Kukatpally with a formal shirt neatly tucked in, which is a long 30 kms from my sweet home. Traveling in Hyderabad's crowded buses is no different from being in hell. It's as hell that I had to buy a bike within a month. By the time I reached my destination, I looked like Raj Kapoor in Mera joota hai japani, with my shirt tucked out and my black shoes turned white..:-)

My new life was fantastic in the beginning; it was neat, clean, and cool. Later on, having little food made me feel heavy (felt like I returned from Biryani competition). Having little food became trendy.

Life was running fantastic in the beginning of my corporate odyssey. I wasn't accustomed to the corporate environment till 3 months. I started to hangout with friends on every weekend and was introduced to the major time passer - shopping malls, resorts, etc...

I usually go to office before the sunrise and return in the late evenings. I felt my life was screwed up, multiple thoughts were running in my head, I realized I'm had to work for paychecks. I wanted to do something more in my career to achieve greater heights. MTech, MS, MBA, or PhD, or venture into some business.