Exactly, two years ago, in the February of 2024, two major assignments came my way. I was assigned to an onsite project in Pune, and I was assigned into a matrimonial relationship. Initially I was excited for both, however very soon one of the assignments started to haunt my waking world. Through the ordeal, I learned an important lesson. I learned that humans are inventive creatures; we have the power of imagination and ingenuity through which we have the power to change what we do not like.
I don’t dislike my marital assignment; I just hate being in Pune.

Salutation:

27 February 2024 was the day I came to Pune for the very first time in my life. I went to Hinjewadi in the morning to report and then during afternoon I was travelling to Yerawada from Hinjewadi along with a colleague from Solapur, to collect my laptop. In between our journey, near Manapa, I saw Mula Mutha river. I have always been good with geography, and I was trained in geology in my college, hence I know a river when I see one. After seeing Mula Mutha river, I exclaimed, “Wow a river!” to which my colleague answered, “Nala hai re!” I knew he was joking about the river being a drainage due to its terrible situation, yet that was the cream of my stay in Pune. Over the course of a year, I tried making Pune my home, yet it was of no use. If I took public transport, my head would hurt due to jumping buses on the crumbling roads. If I drove a rental scotty, I would get sudden terrible jerks due to the same roads. If I walk, I am constantly worried that something is going to hit me on the narrow roads or something might fall from the metro construction site. My fears are not irrational, I have seen people dying in the narrow road due to half constructed metro pillars and moving construction vehicles.
I am so much terrified of Pune that I actually loved being in Bengaluru, and I want to go back there. It’s as if making Hitler the chief guest because he is better than the Devil.
I also feel guilty staying in Pune, because my kind, the IT service personals, are the reason, a beautiful city situated on one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world is a living hell.

Since I failed to adjust to Pune, I did the next best thing, that is to get work from home and go back home. I availed work from home from an organization, my client, which has a very strict work from office policy, which is 3 days in office week per week while only two weeks of continuous work from home in a year. Out of last 2 years, I have stayed in Pune, only for 8 months including this month. When I look back, even I am surprised at the data. I realized the power of human ingenuity and persuasion. I would just think of the reason why it was important to get work from home approval, I would practice asking for approval and then I would execute with 100 percent strike rate. I never failed in availing work from home. I am again going back to Ranchi. coming Monday.

While work from home is a lifeline to survive, it is not enough to grow, hence when I completed my minimum serving period for change in project assignment, I asked for what I truly deserve, I asked for a project change, and guess what, I didn’t get it. Instead, I got a subtle blackmail that my annual appraisal will be affected if I keep asking for what I deserve.

Did the blackmailing deter me? Off course it did, I need good rating to get the next assignment however it didn’t crush my will and once the ratings were locked, I ran away to Bengaluru, and guess what, that didn’t work out either. I am still here, but I did get to stay in Bengaluru for 4 weeks which was enough to prove that I am not crazy for seeking a way out of Pune.
And the silver lining to this fiasco was that I have a last working day in my current assignment and hence in a couple of months, I will be (fingers crossed) Pune free.

This whole comical saga was a blessing in disguise for me. It worked to increase my confidence in my ability to influence my life and reaffirms that our human brain is mighty powerful, it is full of ideas to change our situation. I now believe that there is no such thing as being helpless, if we want a change, it is within us to make that happen. What also helped we was my work ethics; people trusted me to complete my work unsupervised. I am also very good at making one to one relation, since I have very good relationship with my managers, there was no repercussion for my bold move. Yet the major credit goes to my will power, the will to affect my situation and not feal helpless.

Dear audience, if you ever feel helpless, maybe because you have been single for a very long time or been in a dead relationship forever. Maybe it’s the job where you are vegetating or that home you always wanted to buy but couldn’t, just close your eyes and repeat, you are not helpless, tap into your will power and believe that you have the power to change.