About the Author: Gouree Deshpande/ Manjarekar was campus recruited in Mindtree consultancy and Cognizant. She worked for Mindtree for a few months. She now runs an institute "Gurukul centre for learning". She also runs a NGO "Joy Bank".

It’s a short story about 2 friends, How their life changes after recession. Today every other engineer wants to enter IT. But it’s a trend which youngsters are following. Not knowing much what they want out of their life. Rather taken away with the glamorous job. This is two part story and here is part one:

Tsunami “RECESSION”!!

Ram and Denver (names changed) stood together at a corner of the giant sized Multistoried office. Gazing at each other. Faces full of question marks?????? What next?? Where to go??? Future seemed to be blank, just like they had nothing left in this world. “Why the hell is it me Den??? How am I going to tell this to Ria?” Denver had no answer though. He kept staring at the building. Denver and Ram were the victims of the so called Tsunami “RECESSION”!! Both were left jobless along with 50 other people from different departments. “Is this the right way Den??? I never thought it could be me. There are scores of people in Gsm then why only do we need to suffer? “. Gsm (name changed) is the company where den and ram work or rather worked!! “Shut up ram. Please don’t panic. Let’s go back home and think over the situation”.
Both Ram and Denver were clueless of the incident till this morning. It just happened that, they tried to insert their Id cards and The system refused to recognize their ids. Possibly their names and ids were already been deleted from the company’s databases. Doors were not going to open. They were confused and thought it’s just a system problem. They ran to the administrator and to their horror they were now no more a part of GSM info systems. They left the building in disgust.
“I don’t feel like going back home den. Can I come to you room?” “Of course Ram “. “I can’t face Ria. I just promised her to buy a new flat on our anniversary...”
“Just Relax Ram, This is not the end of everything. We must move on. I am sure ria will handle it... She is a brave girl “
“I know... But she left her job just because I wanted to continue working in Bangalore and her company did not give her a transfer from Pune to Bangalore. Just see!!! Neither she nor I have a job in hand now… I feel guilty as heck”
While driving back to Den’s room they just recollect back their college days. Both were college mates studying in an engineering college at Mysore. Ram was from a town named Kaivara. Denver was a typical high class Banda from Mysore. Both were the best of friends. Their wavelengths matched and thoughts blended perfectly. Ram was very studious always trying to save his pocket money, concentrate on studies and score well in exams. Den however was not hardworking infact he hardly worked. Happy go lucky creature and enjoyed playing pranks… Den busy with his dozen girl friends hardly got any time for studying!!! Ram was always there to guide Den during exams. Help him with his assignments and project work... 3 Years passed by and finally campus recruitment process started. GSM was their dream company. Preparations and more preparations. Aptitude books, grammar books and what not. Den too made a point to study hard for campus. Now or never!! They tried to digest each and every word from the books. Of course their hard work paid. Both were selected in GSM. Not to mention their happiness was beyond description.
Ram’s parents were overjoyed with his success. Sweets were distributed to everyone in Kaivara. First person in their family was about to enter the IT world. It was no doubt commendable. His sincerity and struggle was appreciated. Den’s celebration was a bit different, party in one of the costliest resorts with lots of stuff to eat and drink.
“Ram, we have reached.Dont think much. Everything will be fine”
“hmm.Hope so”
Den’s flat- completely messy place. “Tea??” asked den
“Give me anything. Poison is fine too”.
“For god’s sake ram don’t behave like a kid. Think with a cold head. You have the potential to get any other job, much better than GSM dammed”
“It’s easy to say Den. You don’t bother but I do. It won’t matter even if you don’t have a job left. But it does matter for me. You don’t have any responsibilities. My parents, my wife are completely dependent on me. It hurts den. I loved this company, thought it was my second family, worked day and night. Not fair den not at all…”
“I can understand dude. Just chill. Sip your tea, You will feel better.”
…..To be Continued

To make someone else happy is the best one can do.
I had posted about Joy Bank on this blog, and many of my readers have joined the joy bank. When I posted the story there were about 28 members and now the number just touched 40.
Gouree Deshapnde’s Joy bank has just accomplished their first task for spreading happiness.
The Joy bank members went to the Shantai Vrdushram in the evening at 5pm, they had planned it in the morning but as all the Grandpas and Grandmas were taken to KLE for a health check up, they went to see them in the evening.
There was enormous joy on those old faces when they saw the members come. The manager Mr.Nagesh Cougule welcomed the members and familiarized them with the whole ashram.
The actual program was commenced with a prayer to the Almighty and a small introduction of the Joy bank was given to the inmates with the names who all donated for the event. Food was given to the cooking staff and the members then handed over the shirts and saris to the inmates.
It was 7.30pm and the members of the joy bank decided to take leave of the ashram.
As Gouree told this blog, “Our heart was full of delight when we saw the happiness in their eyes, Let us all pray God to make our hands so strong that we can reach all the needy who need us always...”
May God Bless you all.