9 years is not a very short period is a human being's life, considering the average life span of man of these times. He was so worried about his fate of not having a kid for 9 years. Another thing was, he was working with different companies in or around Ernakulam for the last few years, at the same time his wife has been working in a school at Shornur (Palakkad) as teacher for the last several years. The distance between these two places really made travelling a part of their lives. It was recently only that he bought a new flat in a little remote area in Ernakulam. The person I am talking about is the project manager of the company I am currently associated with.
Basically he is a nice person to work and interact with. We might have that feeling like he is a person from the north (mainly Malabar) part of Kerala because the specialties with their interactions are well known. (I didn't mean that people from the south are very bad, but there are some significant differences among people from these different parts of Kerala). His proper place is Manjery in Malappuram and teacher (his wife) is from Thalassery in Kannur. Their ancestors are said to have migrated to the north years back, but he and teacher are born and brought up in Malabar.
He joined our company in August 2007. I have been working closely with him since that time which helped me build a personal relationship with him. By now, it is like he calls me for any help or support he needs personally, because most of his family members are in Malabar or outside Kerala or India and what he has here is the people in his friends circle. I think it is quite natural to see people from the northern part of Kerala making friends in any place they go because of the openness of their mind and dealings and the transparency they keep in their relationships. May be, it is from the environment from where they are getting all the training to build such a helping mentality and open-minded attitude.
Why I wrote this post right now about him is mainly because, couple days back he was blessed with a baby boy! Alhamdulillah - all praises are due to ALLAH, The Almighty alone. I was on leave that day when he went to Thalassery as he got some urgent call. The very next day morning on 06.02.2009 at 7:54am I think, I received an sms from him saying "We are blessed with a baby boy ...". I was so happy to hear that news. May be, I was among those very few whom he sent an sms in the first few hours itself, he later told me.
I remember, during one of the "Power" tea breaks, he told me that those were times when man becomes helpless because we cannot take any ultimate decision or do anything to beget a child on our own, until The Almighty Lord of the heavens and the earth decides it for us.
Those must be moments of immeasurable joy for him and teacher because The Almighty was answering their need, may be as a gift for their love and sharing as a single soul. I could not call him back at that time, but he called me the next day or day after that while he was driving to Manjery, to his home. Talked to him for a few minutes and he sounded to me very happy, satisfied and cool. Let him celebrate those valuable moments.
It was the next Wednesday that he came to office after 2-3 days leave. He came to office with a packet of Laddu to share his happiness with all of us in our office. Later he gave all of us a wonderful lunch. He seemed happy and satisfied to have The Almighty provided them with something for which two hearts and their families were thirsting for. Today, 16.02.2009, he showed and sent us the snaps of his chotta bacha, who according to him mostly sleeps during the day, but wakes up at night obviously keep his mother from not going to sleep. :) Mostly, it is the mother who sacrifices her interests when it comes to the needs of her children. I remember one of the sayings of our beloved Prophet Muhammad(May the peace and mercy of ALLAH, The Almighty be upon him),
Narrated Abu Huraira (May ALLAH be pleased with him) - a companion of The Prophet(May the peace and mercy of ALLAH be upon him),
A man came to Allah's Apostle and said, "O Allah's Apostle! Who is more entitled to be treated with the best companionship by me?" The Prophet said, "Your mother." The man said. "Who is next?" The Prophet said, "Your mother." The man further said, "Who is next?" The Prophet said, "Your mother." The man asked for the fourth time, "Who is next?" The Prophet said, "Your father. " - Translation of Sahih Bukhari (Volume 8, Book 73, Number 2) [This book is considered by Muslims to be the most authentic after Holy Qur’an].
When I talked to him the day he was back in office or after that, I think I could witness the kind of relief and relaxation he was enjoying in the innermost corners of his heart. After all, normally face is a mirror of the heart!
I wish him, teacher and the new born sweet baby(they call him ’Appu’) all the very best on my, my family's and the entire human race's behalf. May ALLAH, The Almighty bless this family throughout their lives in order to find the best and straight forward path in this life and guide them here for a better hereafter...
It was like saying good bye to a dear one... it was like weeping when we were saying bye to Kelly, our onsite counterpart.
You know, my team had been working with the same client from the US for the last almost 2 years. Initially it was a team of 4 part time testers, but gradually grew to a team of 3 full time testers in addition to the members in the software development team (dev team size was 8). It was totally a different experience for all of us because the application was being developed for an entirely new domain and business. It was really an interesting one. :)
The first sound we heard from our client side was that of the COO. He was a friendly person and each of us introduced ourselves to him. He gave us an overview of the application they were developing. It was a relatively small application at that time with some solid plans for the future. The software development process was initially like the typical waterfall model.
Soon they sent us the requirements document based on which we need to prepare test cases for system testing. Everything went as planned and we had frequent meetings to make sure that we are meeting the timelines. Initially I was part time as I was working with some other company. We had to work overtime in the beginning so as to make sure that our client is happy with the kind of service we provide them. Being an onsite-offshore model (working from geographically distant places as a team), it was critical that we are communicating the status of the activities that were going on at our end. Client communication part was taken up and executed by our MD and what my team need to do is finish all the activities in time.
(not complete yet…)
