Is that a Compliment ?

I interviewed this fellow few months back and he joined my office last week. He sits a few cubicles away from mine, but he can clearly see me and what I am doing. Today it happened that we both were the only two folks in the office at 8 in the morning. I don't know that he is also from Chennai and speaks tamil, all of a sudden my mobile phone ringed my fav song "Karikaalan Kaala Pola ..." and I picked it up and spoke for while in my mother tongue and cut the line. Satish being Satish, did not initiate the first conversation as I generally don't talk much to strangers unless they come and talk to me, may be its in my gene and I am not able to change that character of mine. He came to my desk and asked "You were the one you interviewed me rite ?" and I said "yes ..."

On seeing me, he was not able to judge either my role or my experience or my age, probably he got confused. I don’t have anything to talk to him, so I did not initiate any further conversation, and he started "Are you also a tamilian ?", I said "Yes", he was recruited as a "Software Engineer" and he was curious to know what I am and what's my role, but he did not ask, he then continued to tell me his experience in his previous company and he was leading some 10 odd people and he was the "All in all Azhaguraaja" in that company and he has seen many challenges in his "6" years of experience and when he finished his line he said "May be you too will see such challenges as you gain more experience in this industry" and I was like "Oh, ok, ya I will ... thanks". I felt that he had something in his mind and he has not finished with me yet, before that thought in me dissolved he started "In my previous company, only senior people will take interviews and it looks like in it's not like that". I said "May be ... but here in our company it’s not like that"

He was visibly curious and I could see that in his eyes and as we all know "Curiosity Kills the Cat", he said "When I was like you, fresh joining from the college, I used to work 20 hours a day to develop my skill and you should also practice such hard work to come up in IT career", I was not sure how to react to this, should I be happy that he is not able to sense my age or should I be sad that he is not believing that I am an "Architect", in any case, I liked this conversation, so I allowed him to talk and see how far he is going. I nodded my head like a typical fresher who always gives you a confused look and continued to do what I was doing. He asked what I am doing, and see if he can help me, I said I am trying to get few metrics out of few system monitors and immediately he jumped into action and taught me how to take those metrics out (!!!$$$$), and I patiently observed that and once he took those metrics out, I said "Thanks ..." and he was like, "If you have any technical queries, don’t hesitate to come and ask me and don't be afraid that I am a senior and all ... ok ??", once again "yours truly" nodded his head and continued working.

Afternoon I had a management meeting with the "Solutions Management Group" to discuss few architectural changes to an upcoming product, I came out of the meeting and took my seat and continued to work, that same person who is currently jobless and project less, dragged a chair next to me and started watching what I am doing, I actually cannot work when someone stares at me or my monitor, so I turned back and asked "Do you need anything ?" and he said "No, nothing, I just want to see what you are working and how you are working", I was like "Oh ok ... and said, I am doing some small stuff and it may not require a "senior" like him to jump in, I was actually troubleshooting a complex memory leak issue by monitoring umpteen number of screens and tools, and I don’t want to end this game so soon as I still wanted to project that I am a fresher to him. I then asked him if he can help me out in monitoring the "Network Packets" that are sent across the wire, he said, there is no way to do that as it needs lots of skill and tools, I was like "Whattttttttttttttttttttt???" and said, "I can do that with ease ... and it’s surprising that you don't know that" and he has to maintain his senior role naa, he said "I am not saying that it is totally impossible, I was telling that, it will be a difficult for a new comer like you to do"

I seriously did not realize that my close hair cut will make me look so young ;)) though I was happy that I am still maintaining my "youth" image and not showing my real age out, I was worried with the fact that, how many more years I should deal with such situations and people assuming me to be a fresher :(. Around evening one of my other colleague broke the glass by screaming on top of his voice from his seat as "Architecttt" and this fellow was shocked to hear that, it looks like he has inquired that guy about me and he came running to me and apologized that he never imagined that I can be someone with 13 yrs of exp, as I don’t look like an old person. The point here is, this incident made me feel so happy that, I am still youthful ... I wanted to blow this trumpet here in my blog and hence done. BTW - That guy has just 4 yrs of experience :)