My journey - Part 4 - The first job!

After the depressing interviews, I finally had something to do. It wasn’t an actual job, but well…. I was the ‘wedding planner’ for my sister.  Most responsibilities were on my head considering the fact that I was “free”, if you know what I mean.

I also decided that since this was going to be a huge event for us, I should give it my best shot. And you know what, although all the running around was tiresome, I was more than happy to give my sister, Priya, a marriage, free of any stress (for her) and screw ups! I was always the organized kind, and sorta like being like that; so I managed everything from the food menu, the saree/dress pickups to anything as small as safety pins. I can say I did well, coz my parents had a hard time running around for my marriage…hehe... (I did as much as I could though!)

So after my successful stint as a wedding planner, I still didn’t have a real job.  (I’ve no idea why I didn’t think of being a professional wedding planner or get into event management…anyways…) I thought I would take up a short-term course on .NET and I did. It was a 3 months course and it did pay off! Soon after its completion, I got a call from a friend, Praveen who informed me about an opening at Cyberhills, a Korean gaming company based in Govandi, Mumbai. They were looking out for Web developers. I went for the interview. The office premise as such was one of the 3BHK flats in a grand towered building. However, I was never the one to judge it by its premises. After the brief interview, I was hired! Yay!!!

I started work and on the first day, I was given some web layouts with the liberty to change anything, the colors or designs as per my need as they knew I was good at judging art. (I had even showed them few things I drew at the time of the interview…umm…yes, I can do a decent job at that :D) Soon it was time for tea break. We were just a bunch of 8 people if I recall correctly.  On alternate basis, one person prepared the tea in the kitchen for the rest of us. I used to get away with the excuse on not knowing how to prepare tea and then one fine day my friend Lux aka Lakshmi taught me! :P Our tea breaks lasted for about half an hour and then we resumed work.

For lunch, it was necessary that we all gathered at the hall, which also acted as our conference room and reception. It was a great place to interact and sometimes trigger debates on professionally unrelated stuff, usually God! If there are no topics for debate, then we used to hang out at the garden downstairs.

After a grand 1 hour lunch, we went back to our desks and double clicked on the NFS icon and Vrooom!! A LAN game! Yeah baby!  Our game sessions lasted for about half an hour or 1 depending on the actual work we had at hand.

At around 4.30pm, we had our second tea break. Sometimes we craved for good ol’ maggi noodles instead of just biscuits. It sure was a great life. We were all given great workstations, headphones, speakers and webcam as well J

Besides the entertaining office lifestyle, my work also took an interesting turn. With a week of my joining, there was an urgent requirement for a J2ME programmer.  Instead of hunting for a new programmer, which was going to cost them time, they asked me and I said yes.  For a month or so, I was working on the game called “Patbingsu”. Patbingsu is actually a popular dessert in Korea and the game was for the Korean market. The game itself was on somewhat similar lines to ‘Lemonade Tycoon’ and also featured few minigames. It was a sweet colorful project.  When the project was at its final stages, another requirement opened up!

My boss wanted to create a mobile RPG similar to Neverwinter Nights. And they were looking out for a game designer/story writer. He had talked to my friend Praveen who besides being the lead developer was also the manager. Praveen suggested that they should try me out first as he knew I used to write fanfictions and was a RPG fan.

Soon enough, Patbingsu was taken care of by a lead programmer from Korea and I was supposed to come up with a storyline and had to follow the D&D manuals. I almost cried when I found the manuals in my hand.  Tears of joy! J

I gave birth to my very first official game story and it was sent to the Korean office for approval. And the green signal was given! Ta-da, I became a game designer! ;) The next two months I was literally living with the D&D manuals and the word document. I was thoroughly enjoying myself! However, it didn’t last for long… 

to be contd…

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You can find the whole series here: My journey

My journey - Part 3 - From the first disaster to the next

After a successful completion of a mobile chat application program, which our team lovingly called as ‘Me2U’, and with a first class in the final year, I thought It would be easy to get a good job. But fate willed otherwise!

I was enrolled for the aptitude test for Patni, one of the reputed software firms. When I arrived at the mentioned venue on the said date, I saw about hundreds and thousands of jobless people. Thankyou! That was very encouraging! Bah.

Mustering up some confidence from what was left I entered the building. Soon there was a pre-placement talk; and all candidates were sent to different rooms as per their enrollment numbers.

A bell rang and the test papers were distributed. Although I do not recall the actual question, the first one that caught my attention was on similar lines to this:

Directions(Q. 6-10): Below is given a passage followed by several possible inference which can be drawn from the facts stated in the passage. You have to examine each inference separately in the context of the passage and decide upon its degree of truth or falsity.

Mark answer 1): if the inference is “definitely true”, i.e. it properly follows from the statement of facts given.

Mark answer 2): if the inference is “probably true” though not “definitely true.” in the light of the facts given.

Mark answer 3): if the data are inadequate, i.e. from the facts given you cannot say whether the inference is likely to be true or false.

Mark answer 4): if the inference is “probably false” though not “definitely false” in the light of the facts given.

Mark answer 5): if the inference is “definitely false”, i.e. it cannot possibly be drawn from the facts given or it contradicts the given facts.


Passage: Efficiency of capital has long been an area of neglect and remains so. This aspect is underscored in the eleventh plan draft, ironically in its demand for the rate of investment being raised to 35.1% of GDP from 29.1% in 2004-2005. The irony lies in the fact that the planning commission has consistently relied on the Incremental Capital Output Ratio (ICOR) as tool of expediency rather than one designed to promote efficiency. Yet, the ratio conceptually seeks to get the most out of the capital stock that is existing and is being added. The ratio now is 3.7, i.e. the capital needed for an output of 3.7 times. If the effective ratio is brought down during 2007-2012, then it would be possible to achieve a GDP growth value of 8.9% over the period with a lesser level of investment than 35.1%. Nobody doubts that capital formation is critical to a higher rate of growth in GDP, but efficiency lies not so much on the capital stock as its utilization.

6. The present rate of investment is around 30% of GDP.

7. Higher the capital output ratio, higher is growth of GDP.

8. When the rate of investment increases the capital output ratio also increases.

9. Efficiency of capital largely depends upon capital stock.

10. The issue of efficiency of capital is now assuming adequate importance from the Government of India.

WTF! How does THAT test my programming efficiency??? (Maybe when my heartbeat rate was lower, this would’ve made sense… but it didn’t then! ok..so i get lost here even now!)

However, when I turned the sheets, I was a little relieved. There was a verbal section, analytical section and quanta section.The verbal section was alright. The analytical section was fun but time consuming and by the time I hit maths, it was time up!

Hey! I had no clue how to multiply 1553283 with 343434 any faster than the traditional method since I was not allowed a calculator! And why not!! What’s with the no calculator allowed crap!! Come on, use the technology to advance!!!

I really don’t understand why the MBA kinda entrance tests are made mandatory for software programmers. Maybe I’m the only one seeing it as a problem. I was least prepared for this. Might as well have gone for some MBA entrance test coaching classes!

Putting on a face of rejection, I walked away from there. Ya, duh! Obviously I wasn’t selected!

I had some kind of personal hatred towards these kind of aptitude tests which also meant all the mighty software companies were ruled out for me!

Soon I got a job interview with a mobile company which I would not like to name here. I had a terrible experience there. The interviewer was a sexist! 

He just wouldn’t believe that I had actually coded in my final year project. He went on to say that we might have bought the project and stuck our names to it! With a calm attitude, I argued with him, made him understand my part of the code, the architecture, how we preferred using canvas over forms to give a better feel etc, but no!

He then said that the other two guys in my team would’ve done the coding and I pretty much did nothing. My frustration meter was begin to move to the higher side. Somehow maintaining my temper, I asked him, “Then how did I clear your technical round? I had to write code samples and answer the other questions too. So passing by fluke is out of question. Don’t you think?” For which he said that I might have cheated by trying to lure the supervisor! GRRRRR! 

Then he said he will ask me a technical question. I asked him to go ahead.

Can you believe what he asked me? He pointed to a random location on the screen of a mobile device and asked me to tell its coordinates!

My answer: I snatched my resume from his hand, took my file, gave him an evil glance and walked out of the room.

I might’ve totally done it differently today; probably even smashed his face! xD

After these disasters, life took a different turn…

to be contd…

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You can find the whole series here: My journey

My journey - Part 2 - Unexpected turn of events

One day, my dad bought home a handheld console (a game boy clone*) from the nearby town, which mostly played tetris, and some tennis etc. It was awesome. I was so possessive about it that I carried it almost everywhere.

*The only things available in the market in the town side were the clones. No one there knew what or who a Nintendo was! Plus it wasn’t like we could’ve afforded the real one IAC.

Then when we moved to Ahmedabad, in Gujarat, I pretty much had this dead handheld and nothing else… However my social activities and outdoor games improved. I didn’t feel like I was missing much.

Then, post my tenth standard, we had to move again to Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra and making new friends was a pain… Loneliness overcame and then comes my dad to the rescue with a NES clone! Mario, Duck Hunt, Tank and more of the same games in different repeated variations termed as 1000 games in one cartridge!

But, I loved it, it was like a family entertainment. My mom too enjoyed it. Tank Level Editor was great fun! But how long could the clones last! They succumbed to wear and tear, thanks to me though.

And then it was the dawn of the PC era (for me). I really wanted one. Most of my friends in junior college had one. My dad was trying hard to see if the budget fitted. We had loans and other things to deal with. I didn’t pressurize him either. I sorta figured out that the finances weren’t that great. And trust me, most parents in India don’t think part time jobs for their college kids is a good idea. So, that was ruled out!

After few months of saving and after another little loan, my dad did come home one day with a PC for me! Oh boy, tears of happiness ran down my cheeks that day! The love of my life had walked in that day (year 1999-2000)

Until then, my computer access was restricted to my school, dad's office and few friends' places.

My best friend, Abhishek (Abhi) was the one who introduced me totally to the world of videogames. He is the one responsible for where I’m today. He gets the credit to turn a simple village girl into a gamer J

He walked home one day with his Age of Empires II game CD. He taught me how to play and soon enough I got really good at it and addicted too!

Roadrash, NFS, Quake, UT, Warcraft 3 and more followed one after the other.

By then I was into engineering college and another one of my best friends, Rohan (Ro) joined me and Abhi in our gaming endeavors. We ended up heading to a cybercafé and played  the AOE II deathmatch! I kicked their ass ofc. :D Persians FTW! 

Even during college festivals, we three were mostly found organizing video game competitions. I was the only regular girl to play games there. I do remember there was one more girl. She was good but she seldom came. I for one never bothered about the number of guys there. I joined Quake LAN matches, kicked some ass, got my ass kicked by some experts too. Helluva fun!

We continued this habit of deathmatch for quite some time. All three of us were in love with AOE! Then one fateful day the owner of the cybercafé handed out some free distribution samples of a game called ‘Ragnarok’ the first MMORPG to come to India (officially).

Obviously, it needed internet connection and I didn’t have one. I didn’t mention that before did I? Ya, it’s not that easy. Money matters!

My friend Ro was the first one to check out the game and then he sorta like it. Then Abhi joined him. I couldn’t without the internet. Whenever I went to Abhi ‘s place, I played the game and I enjoyed it. MMO’s are fun for more reasons than one. I desperately wanted an internet connection. So, pestered my dad! Poor thing did get me one. He figured that I don’t ask a lot of things anyways.

And then the crazy MMORPG addiction began, the uncontrollable urge to excel! I was out there to prove god knows what! Hardly anyone thought I was girl, as usual I was being treated as a cross-dresser till Ro & Abhi got protective about me. :P

After a lot of leveling up, one day I met another girl in the game, yes a girl IRL. And soon enough we found that there were some more girls in the game. There was an all girls meet and we all went for it! It was awesome :D

Even when my final semester kicked in, I played the game and made sure I was there for my guild during the WOE (War of Emperium)! My mom was so worried that I was gonna flunk the exams. But hey! I passed my final year with a firstclass in hand and played more.

Now I was one of the job hunters!

to be contd…

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You can find the whole series here: My journey

My journey - Part 1 - I was different

I thought my love for gaming began during my junior college days, but today I realize that the seeds were sown much before!


Hailing from an orthodox middle-class Tamil Brahmin family in a small village of Kerala in India, n I never imagined that I would be game designer some day. That was a profession unheard of. It still isn’t that popular in India.


July 18 of 1984 saw Beverly Lynn Burns become the first woman Boeing 747 captain in the world.
(Ya, the fact is ripped off Wikipedia! :P)


She made a difference! When she was celebrating there, in another corner of the world, I was born! :D
(Did that make an impact? No..? *sigh* I thought it sounded so cool!)
.
(Plz ignore the fact that it was also the day the ‘San Ysidro McDonald's massacre’ took place… Let’s look into the good things here… Maybe my violent streak is because of that…:-S)


Studies came easy to me atleast till college ;). Classical music and dance was spread across my family and as per tradition, I learnt a bit of all! Temples and prayers were like food and water. Girls’ dresses were restricted to uniforms, long skirts-blouses, sarees, half-sarees, churidhars (which too came in later)! 
No kidding. It was a small village with elderly people still binded to old traditions, values and superstitions.

In midst of such an orthodox society, my broad-minded dad gets me a jeans and tee from town side! I was damn excited and I couldn’t wait to wear it! So wearing my new jeans and tee, I stepped out of my home and all the village kids including my friends were surprised rather shocked. It was a rare sight back then. I carried it out with confidence. I felt different, I felt I broke a stupid rule, I loved it!

Then it was time to show it off at school and similar reactions there too! It probably sounds stupid now, but it was a big deal then!

Back in school, computer lab sessions were my favourite. Once taught I could remember the procedure forever. During free periods, I would take few friends and head to the computer lab and start playing games.
Little did I realize that the future was calling out to me! :)

to be contd…

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You can find the whole series here: My journey