It was only Yesterday but 25 years ago

19-June-2020

Nostalgic, Oh Yes ... 25 years, that's quite a milestone achieved. I still recall that first day of my professional journey on 19th June 1995, fresh from the academic institution to the corporate world, full of anxiety & fear for something unknown and at the same time being so happy to finally start working in corporate, that too it was one of those highly ranked placements from campus. All these seem to be the memories of yesterday, but 25 years have gone by so quickly. Along with my college-mate Avijit Das from Bengal Engineering College (BE College, Shibpur which became BESU and now the first IIEST of India), joined the prestigious Tata Group, the then Tata Unisys Limited (renamed as Tata Infotech Limited and later merged with TCS). So many memories, wish we can return to those days all over again.

All these years were indeed a memorable journey, lived only in few places : Kolkata - Jamshedpur - Detroit - Chicago - Austin - Bangalore; Travelled many more places in India, so many cities in North America (covering 40+ states) and a few places in Asia & Europe; Worked with so many talented & wonderful people, represented big employers like Tata Group, EMC, Dell, L&T Infotech and now Mamsys.

Also, just realized that I had witnessed some major organizational changes/mergers apart from the huge technological & industrial transformation.

• During my college days, Bengal Engineering College (popularly known as BE College) became a deemed university with the name BESU (Bengal Engineering & Science University), which later became IIEST.
• During my first job, Tata Unisys Limited became Tata Infotech Limited when Tata Sons took over Unisys share in 1996. After 10 years Tata infotech merged with TCS in 2006.
• EMC days, went through the historic experience of the biggest ever tech merger with Dell, becoming Dell Technologies (our group became Dell EMC).
• LTI days - although my journey with LTI was much shorter compared to 11+ years with Tata group and 12+ years with Dell EMC, but during this time LTI took over Mindtree though it was not a merger and no change in our life.

We all have witnessed many more mergers or acquisitions in the industry in these years, few major ones which might have been related to my journey (directly related professionally or personally) are Compaq & Digital, HP & Compaq, Oracle & SUN, EMC & Legato, EMC & Data Domain, Chase & Bank One, Brocade & McData, Symantec & Veritas, Capgemini & AXA etc.

The transformation in our professional & personal life is also phenomenal, it's not only technology but also how evolving technology has changed our day to day life, the common activities & feelings... can't imagine doing something today that we did 25 years back & vice versa.... a classic example being one large bank was running it's entire teller operations for their city main branch on a 20 MB Hard drive when I was supporting them in my initial days, now we have 32GB/64GB in our phone so easily. The Digitization has changed our entire lifestyle, that might have been started with Internet, followed by Telecom revolution, going through Digital revolution and now heading towards AI/ML, AR/VR/MR and IoT. One thing that we have all understood is that "Change is the only Constant" aspect in our life.

Anyway, coming back to my journey, I am grateful to countless number of great personalities, colleagues, customers, mentors and friends who helped me in this journey both in India and in United States, making it so enjoyable & memorable. If I even try to name a few, this page will overflow, so please allow me to convey my sincere "THANKS" to all who made this journey possible; who helped, supported, trained, mentored, guided and worked along with me & in my team all these years. Special thanks to my dear friends & family members who tolerated me and sacrificed so much on the way, and of course the biggest support from my Mom and Dad, my parents-in-law, my elder sister, and my life partner Nabanita & my twin-powerhouses Raima and Rounak.

Now I am at a point in life where at times, I think about how many more years I need to continue this, it may be at least another 8-10 years, seeking all your blessings and wishes to carry on for those many years, which is seriously quite a tough journey ahead. Hopefully will reach there someday & cherish the journey looking back. The motto must be; always look forward with a positive mindset taking the experience & memories from the Past, but don't forget to live & enjoy the Present :).

Thanks everyone, Take care and stay blessed...