Happily Back....

Yup I got back and yes happily which I thought wont happen this time, thanks to all the problems, issues that did come up all this while in the entire tour. It was a long and relatively tough tour. Since the very first day of its starting, the ride was a little bumpy  but thanks to the wishes of all who wished me luck, I was able to manage the program well and make it come to an end with a smile on everyone's face which the only thing that I feel must be there as a result of the program.

So as I said , since the very first day only the ride wasn't so cool and easy. I started as like always from my home in the bus. As I was not going to catch any flights for the first program and it was happening in Gurgaon only so I thought I shall be at the guest house a little early and will catch some time to sleep and study, not knowing that it wont happen. Well I did catch the bus on time so I thought everything will be fine only. Every thing was fine too till half an hour since the start when the driver informed that out of one side's two tyres , one is punctured. Well not a good sign , I said to my self but not to worry much. It was a just a puncture and will be taken care very soon, either they will make the puncture done or they will replace the damaged tyre with a good one, so not to panic now only. And as thought , the driver did pull the bus near to a tyre shop and told all that it will be fixed very soon. Well not a very big deal so I said to myself it will be fine. And it did get fine after some time too when we were told that tyre is fine now. So we were back in the business again and started. It must be about 15 minutes only since we started and the same tyre got busted again. I don't remember it ever did happen to me and the same was told to me by the driver and conductor also that they never did experience the same ever. Anyways by that time I was sure that this trip is going to be a bumpy ride and the same will happen with my program also. The search for a shop with tyre repair started and to every one's amazement, we landed up at 3 shops just to know that the first didn't have the mechanic, second didn't have a proper person to deal with , third was not having a jack to lift up the bus. GREAT! At last at the fourth one , we were able to get the repair done and started again. In all this we lost about 2 hours and that means that I was supposed to reach Delhi by 5pm, I got over there at 8pm. I called up my cab driver and then started for guest house. It was about 10pm when I got over there and decided to sleep after dinner for the next day which was supposed to be the most controversial program that I ever did.

The next day I was picked up by my consultant from sales to go over the client's place. On the way, we did talk about couple of things that were going to be the problematic in the program and I told him about couple of points which I had in my mind. The very first point was the installation set up which was still pending and according to the client, I should be the one who should come and do it. It never happens actually but still we agreed and decided that we will go to the place early and than will start it. Only when we got there, we came to know that the manager who was supposed to assist us in getting into the premises and lets us have a technical assistance , he didn't show up and to make things worst, he switched off his cell phone too. I was told that he switches off his cell after office. I was so much upset hearing this. I hate those people who think that they are the only ones with life and they are the only ones who are busy,if some one is calling them, messaging them, they are not bothered and will reply when they want. The other person is not a fool or mad to call you! But seems its not some thing so simple to understand by some people. Anyways despite being so much upset, there was nothing we could do and I sat with my sales guy in the waiting room. The manager came at about 9am( one hour late from the time that he gave to us) and than we went inside. He took us to the room where we were supposed to start the program and we were shocked to see that it was filled with a lot of crap ,ladders, paint, broken furniture. He himself didn't know what happened and he told us to have a seat and he will do some thing about it. Well what we could say or do so we did take our seats again. Finally after about half an hour, we were told that the room is ready and we can come in. By that time, the audience also started coming in. At about 9.35am which is my scheduled time normally, we finally started. At that time, the tech manager asked to settle down some things that he thought were necessary to make the program go smooth. This was pretty bizarre as the points that he arose , they were never discussed with me neither by him nor by my sales team and more over my sales team also had no idea from where at the last moment those points actually came up. And as I am very much stubborn in my schedules and things that I shall do so I told that it wont be possible that I shall change anything in my program or in the content at all. So this created a lot of mess and finally it happened that me, my sales manager, my sales consultant and delivery manager had to do a conference  call to decide upon things. In any point , I was not wrong anywhere so I got full support from my manager. So finally having a word with my team, me and the sales guy had a talk with the client's technical manager and than we started at about 12.30pm. And this was the first day itself. Not a very good start. Did I tell you that the installation  for which I came up early in the morning was not even started yet and the machine on which it was supposed to be done was a mere desktop machine with 2gig RAM and we were told that this would hold 8 databases accessed by 14 people who will not use it but will crush it with our performance degradation testing scripts. Not to worry was said to me,well I am not worried , its you who will be after some time, I said to myself and finally we started, actually! One thing I must mention that the guys in the audience were really nice and good. Some really stood out like the one I had couple of good talks and also we went for lunch together on the last 2 days, Suman Shekhar.Extremely knowledgeable guy, very energetic and very funny indeed. Finally we finished the entire week long program with a good note. All the guys gave great support to me and for which I am really thankful to them. We ended with a good note and I hope the guys did find the program productive.

From there, I had to fly to Banglore for another program which was starting on the next day when I finished my Gurgaon program. The flight got delayed and with that I landed up at Banglore at about 12am , about one hour late from the original time. Again the same things happened in that program. Some how , the setup was done for a different program and about that , we came to know only about 30 minutes prior to start the program. Great! Some how we pulled the first day and the installation was redone in the evening for the next 3 days. Installation team did work pretty hard till late in the night. We did finish up the program on time and the guys were happy. I hope it went well but cant be sure at the moment as I yet have to look at the official feedback.

So finally after a grueling tour, I got back yesterday. I wanted to tell you all this last night only but I was so much tired. So I just went to sleep. I shall be leaving soon and this time it will be much more tough as in the next program, the number of days are equal to the number of modules. I shall let you know what it is in the upcoming post. I may go for a hair cut today as I need some change. So see you later!