When Girija changed my life

Present day context: a poem from Girija

It was a wow moment to get up to.

This poem from her was on my phone when I got up day before yesterday, 27th morning.....and ofcourse it brought a smile, a deep down one....hard to even go down to how deep. Even if parts of it, like she said 'are brutally honest".

And as I started to write now, my thoughts started to go back, old memories got evoked, and a whole story came alive.

The poem itself is one I so cherish, and to preserve for posterity where better than here :)

Girija, what touched me is just how well you get me.......and what I admire is how beautifully you put it.....the nice parts, and the tough parts.

Thanks for being that friend who's always there, in moods which are joyous, which are reticent, which are questioning, which are confused and even those that are disastrous.

I'll never forget the day, all of fifteen years back, when I came to your house in JNIDB unannounced and said  "take off today, you can't go to work today, please, I need you", and despite it being a tough day for you, you took off...you went for one meeting, cancelled the rest, and stayed back. 

That day was momentous. The Google in the poem, rather in my life, would not have happened had it not been for you that day.

Let me tell the story:

I'd quit IDBI after thirteen years of service and been a stay home mom for five years. Sure I did farming and salsa and painting and carnatic sangeetham and bharatnatyam even......and all that was nice. But that fateful day, I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said I was at my nadir. I was in pain and drowning. And she held that space.

Through talking to her, I reached this space of  'I think I want to go back to work, any job, I don't care about salary, I don't even care what kind of work, yes, I think I want to restart'

And what do I hear....... "apply to google".

Even through my tears I could only laugh.  Here I was, talking of any any job, and she talks of the one company that's known to be the most difficult in the world to get into. I thought she was bonkers.

But no, she was serious. She started to write out a resume, and I was like "chi girija, that doesn't even sound like me". And she's like "just shut up, either you write it, or you let me write it". 

Finally, she let me write four lines of the cover letter, but everything else was her. And before I knew it, the application was done.

Three months of uncertainty, one exam with 99.6 % as bar and four crazy interviews later............I walked through the portals of Google :)

Girija, for the poem, for that day, and for all that you've been and are..... 🙏