Beyond Comparison

“We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun. But the hills that we climbed were just seasons out of time”---

Tucked away from the swanky high-rises, multinational big shots and snazzy décor in a dingy lane stood this ‘infamous’ 8 storeyed pink colored building in Sector 5---Well a year back sitting on the third floor of this building all we could dream of was a job, a fat pay package, a brand name and desperation to move out of the mess. After a year as I look back, when I'm settled, I'm happy with my job, I have found new colleagues and friends …the pink colored building, the unpaved road and its people still haunt me----

Compare Infobase----it was my second job---a new designation---"knowledge executive" they called me –I’m not sure what knowledge I had or what knowledge they inferred but its true Compare taught me some important lessons of my life-

Endless bitching sessions, suggestions, pranks, numerous ups and downs, copy paste issues, salary hitches and between all this I found them...Do I mean colleagues?

My job was to write travel articles ...all about the journey--- where to go, what to do and how to reach--- but my life was not restricted to these travelogues…My life was with them….We spent endless hours…Hours iced with gossips, hours of struggle, hours of doing nothing---
We shared our lunch, our thoughts, and our dreams. Be it the end of the day aloorchop or the after-lunch orange sticks, life had a different flavor---may be a different color--Did you say ‘lavender’?

Job hunting was a part of our weekly schedule--- we went for interviews together, applied to different organizations with the only hope of getting a job. Numerous resumes, job portals, interesting HR calls and interviews--- and finally the lucky few moving out leaving the rest—But the rest never gave up!

I still don’t have a clue what binds me to that place. I wanted to leave it desperately but on my last day I realized it was really difficult to come out of the Compare cocoon. What was so interesting about Compare? My team? My friends? The morning breakfast queue? My salty lunch? The frequent and much awaited power-cuts? or the “meet your new friends” episode? Can’t single out one thing----

The evenings at Compare ended with an interesting shuttle ride. When the rest of the world packed in that crowded shuttle with glum faces carried on with their dumb monotonous ordeal---We were different! We shared office gossips, eavesdropped into strange conversations and laughed aloud to our way home.

Yes it all started with that pink colored building, with Compare and with all you guys. I still remember my last day as I walked out of the building--- I was sure Palla will again be late the next morning, Maddy would happily log in others and Sup will be taking home the pending work or ‘patas’ as we called it----

I’m writing this after 8 months---Its been 8 months I have left Compare--- Compare does not exist physically between ‘us’ anymore. The connection is not there. But today I realize the bond is still there, the lavender colors are still fresh.

Here’s to all the pseudo-names, all the ‘LS –HS-MS’ people, the interesting HR, the salary issues, ‘polka dots’, our wallpapers, the messy track changes, budding love stories, the 10 page targets and so many more things----Without you my journey would have never been so interesting and so ‘in-comparable’!!!