Along the Way

Close to the heels of Five Point Someone come this book that go a step further in the 3 youths and 1 girl scenario- what do software engineers whose grades are always rock bottom do when they get a job in the company that hires everyone who attends the interview- TCS.

I really thought this book will be a poor copy of Five Point Someone but it is not. It is actually interesting and one can identify with the story, as all of us have been newcomers in the industry at one point. Being a newcomer, we are often ignored and given odd tasks, low grade projects and more often than not, end up being labeled as upstarts or abrasive or what not, until we reach a stage where we can be called experienced and therefore have a value attached on our heads.

Venkat, Raj and Adi are close friends whose grades are in the lower quartile. Venkat popularly known as VSAT, the join of the abbreviations of his 4 word long name, is in love with the Coorgi Anjali . Srila is the friend in the equation and all of them manage to find a job in TCS and are doing various projects in the first year. Their first years seems to be entirely composed of trying very hard to get a good credit in their project so that they could be rated exceeds expectations in their appraisal, managing the boss and failing pathetically and trying to strike the right chord with HR but goofing it up badly.

However VSAT and team also manage to do a lot in the first year- get a referral posting for his barber's son Swamy in TCS, carry along with his romance with Anjali, going to USA on client project and running a parallel secret innovation project which finally earns them a positive feedback from the big bosses.

However, the most critical challenge is yet to be won- convincing Anjali's trivia crazy retired Colonel father.

Will VSAT pass this final test?

The book is peppered with humour, which are extremely relevant and recognizable in an office context. Each situation that VSAT encounters with respect to the boss has a parallel drawn in his mind using popular dialogues from the Godfather which I thought was funny and quite innovative.

The author also keeps working out the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Boss or the book that his boss is supposed to write- Managing the Mani Way Axiom no#, in his mind making it a hilarious read.