Goodbyes are hard to say. The heart still hopes that in this small world, our paths shall again cross.
My voyage ran aground into one of those moments today - sabiokap's last day in Yahoo! Bangalore. He's been the joker in our pack, inventor of crazy games and a very good friend. We all were nightbirds who used to hangout together and in general formed the resident population of the office nearly 24x7. Sitting up in the balcony at 2 AM in the morning was actually fun when everybody thought there was a point to working hard & long - and we liked it.
But more than just at work, he's been someone for me to lean on when my life was shaky. When I was penniless and homeless after booking my LCA 07 tickets, I crashed out in his guest room for four months. I managed to get out of that financial hole thanks to premshree spotting me some dough and accomodation at Hell's Kitchen (that's what we call sabiokap's place, for good reason).
There was a certain bit of company ethos that is oozing out slowly to various other places these days. The day (or well night) of the workaholic hacker is gone, obsoleted by the eary morning meetings. The concept of working with each other replaced by working as team, under the bidding of a manager. The days don't pass so easily and to pour the company into a new mould needs a cultural genoicide of sorts. But well, the good thing is that I was here for those good old days - work hard, play harder and don't care what else happens.
I don't hold any grudges against anyone, but all this takes away the thing I loved about this company - interesting people and good friends. For whatever reasons, good or bad, people I like working with are leaving, those with attitude, talent and a sense of humour. All I can do is wish them Godspeed.
That's how it ends, not with a bang but a whimper.
--philosophy:
The ability to bear with calmness the misfortunes of our friends.