Thank you Deepak!

This post is inspired by Amar's post here...

Amar is my friend and batch mate at Great Lakes...he has an aura about him that is a little difficult to place - no airs, humble, playfully chiding and at times, displaying a childish nature that belies his age.

Well, this post is about my mentor at Intel, Deepak. Thanks in large part to him, my 33 months at Intel from July 2007 until April 2010 were the best months of my life and am not exaggerating at all. I am extremely glad that we still stay in touch.

Deepak is the epitome of charm, a humble, helpful and caring nature. His manner of working, interpersonal skills, ability to strike working relationships across teams in no time, manage stakeholders - all of this have given me numerous lessons and here, during this PGPM program, hardly any day passes by without me remembering him and thinking, how his behavior still has a great deal of impact and influence on me.

Never once has he told me "You should do this only in this manner"/"You must complete this within this hour"/"Stay back and complete this testing"/"Don't take up that additional assignment as it is not related to your project". The freedom that he gave to a fresher like me is, in retrospect, a huge reason for my happiness.

Those numerous hours of working together, time spent in the smoking zone, chatting about everything under the sun including the prettiest girls, the latest books and the most scenic tourist spots - if I say that, he personally took a deep interest in my learning and development and did everything in his capacity towards that, it would be a fitting tribute to his interpersonal skills. I owe my technical and process skills as well as my immense confidence at work to him. Courses here talk about idealized influence and individulized attention under the head -transformational leadership. Well, words remain words - a little lofty, a touch verbose and well-nigh idealistic. But I have the pleasure of having seen them in action...

I learnt a lot of things from him - seeing things in perspective, the philosphy of "If you see a white crow, you should not be surprised", (which I am tempted to term as an axiom), the importance of making people happy and good about what they do and more than anything else, to thank them for what they have done...

Deepak, I would always remain indebted to you, whichever offer I take up at the end of this program and wherever I work. Thank You!