Sithu started working.
Starting from the may 8th a team including 5
others were put on a training process of one month and later on one of the
girls resigned due to her further studies and two more from another training
batch was transferred to our team and all together there were 7 of us. Four
girls; me, Dilsha, Dulanjalee, Shazna and three guys; Shehan, Nilanga and
Sadiq.
The training was conducted by a trainer called Nathan, (this
is how he spells it. But if you pronounce it correctly, it should be Nethan.)
:P
Nathan is a very smart, small made guy of 25years who became
so close to all of us within a very short period. My first memory of Nathan is
on the second day of training, when we were waiting in the lobby, a small cute
looking guy entered the facility and his PAC didn’t work He entered it again
and again it didn’t work. I remember him going here and there giving all these
looks and all and after some time we were taken inside for training and there
this guy was, and he was introduced as the trainer for us and I was like “OMG!
This small guy is our trainer!” but later on, I don’t have words to say how
glad we were that after all, this small
guy was our trainer.
At first we knew that he was disappointed and all about us
as we didn’t ask questions or anything as he says but on the third day Nimal,
another trainer came in and asked us several questions and I guess we all did
well with them. And once Nathan entered he asked what Nimal asked and we said
this and that and he asked “were y’all be able to answer any?” and we were like
“yeah we answered them all” and he was like “wow!”
One of us said “you can pull your collars up” and he smiled
and said “no I’ll just keep my collars in the way they are!” :P
In here I must mention that he has a got a wonderful smile. When
he starts laughing, he laughs and laughs like a small kid and he looks really
cute while his eyes become small and teary. ^_^
And his eyes of course had caught everyone’s attention; they
were big, shiny and were out lined with a dark eye line and looked similar to
those of Sangakkar, the cricketer :D :P
Anyway, before any of us were so close, there was a birthday
of one of our team members, dilsha. By then, neither all of the team members
nor Nathan was close with one another and the guys and girls even ate
separately at the lunch time. Anyway we were sitting in the mini board room
after the lunch and Nathan peeped in and called shehan out. Shehan returned
after sometime while we all were wondering what’s going on. When we asked him
he just said it’s just to evaluate the training with a funny smile and we knew
something is wrong. In the next minute Nathan peeped in and called me out and I
was terrified.
He was waiting for me in the lobby and asked me to have seat
next to him and started talking in low voice.
“So how are you sithu?”
(Me- not having a clue) “Err... doing good?”
“Okay..How was the training so far?”
“Uhh. Good?”
“You find any areas difficult to understand?”
“Err..no?”
Making eyes small, “Sure right?”
“Y..Yeah!”
“Okay, do you know why I called you here?”
(After a minute) “uhh..to tell this?!”
He smiled with that pretty smile of him. “Do you know today
is a birthday of a friend of your team?”
I was like what???
“Err.. yeah!”
He looked surprised. “You knew and you didn’t tell
anyone!!?”
“we knew.. I mean, the girls knew, I dunno about the guys..”
Then he told me that they give this birthday surprise as a
tradition and asked me to collect money while dilsha was called out in a way
that she doesn’t get to know about it.
He ended up the conversation saying that “so I called you to
tell this!” :P :D
Then dilsha was called out and he kept her out along time so
that we had enough time to collect money and all. Then he came in and talked to
us, got the money and while going out he opened the door half and said in a way
that dilsha who was outside hears “so okay, likewise I’ll let you know the date
of the exam!” and we all were laughing saying “yeah sure!”
The exam! Yeah right! Lol :P :P
By around 3pm Nimal suddenly entered and told that we can go
to HR and have our PACs and suddenly asked “who’s Dilsha?”
We were like iyyo what the hell are you doing while Dilsha
raised her hand shocked. Then Nimal calmly pointed another girl and asked “then
what’s her name?”
We were laughing down aloud within and just answered
dulanjalee and Nimal nodded and went out. Nathan looked at us and said laughing
“I guess they have changed your names in the PAC!” :P
After a couple of more minutes the whole production entered with
a cake with lighted candles and a gift singing happy birthday! Dilsha was dead
shocked. Later she said how scared she was when they suddenly entered.
There only we got to know that Nathan is a vege like me and
anyway it went well and he allowed us to finish the cake in the board room with
the promise that no one gets to know and that we wont spill anything anywhere.
(Hope no one else in the company will be reading this :P ;) )
So anyway he was a sweet guy! ^_^
That’s how the team and Nathan got close and within few days
we started cracking jokes on each other. He shared his stories with us and ours
with him. It was so damn fun that the day went too fast and even in the bus I
recall the things that happened and they made me laugh. And after awhile I
become aware that I’m laughing alone and people are staring at me! :D
Once for a pity issue
in Nathan’s own words I got into one of my terrible moods. One thing about my
moods is that no matter how clear I am about how silly and nuts the way I
behave I just can’t help it, no matter how much I want. As usual Nathan was
asking us if we were clear about the things he was teaching.
“Sithu?” He asked and I just murmured “yeah” in the dumbest
tone possible.
“What’s wrong?” He asked raising his eyebrows and I just
said “nothing’s wrong” with an obviously fake smile.
He waited awhile and nodded saying okay and carried on with
the session. After some more time he again said “I’m pretty sure that something
is wrong, did you guys fight while I was out side?”
Actually we didn’t fight! I have just felt bad suddenly for
some stupid reasons and was unable to help it. Nathan looked disappointed after
that as he didn’t get a proper reason, he called Shehan out suddenly but I
don’t think he found a fair enough answer. He didn’t crack any jokes, just kept
on teaching. At the end of the day he asked us to work as a team and told that
as there are many other trainers we can go and talk to them if we are having
any issues and if we are not comfortable with him. He said that while smiling
but we knew that he was feeling bad. We went out from the training room and my
friends wanted to go to the wash room. I told them I’ll wait down for them but they
forcefully dragged me into the lift. While waiting outside for my friends I
suddenly got a feeling that I should really go and talk to him as he must be
feeling bad and thinking bad about all of us.
My friends were relieved to hear that and we all went down
again, Nathan was still there and he smiled seeing us.
I went forward and asked the stupidest thing I could have
ever asked to start a conversation, “Uhh..Can I…have a word??”
Nathan raised his eyebrows and smiled “A word?!! Uh..Yeah sure!”
It was dead hard at the beginning but once I started talking
I told him everything I was feeling and the ‘pity’ reasons for my mood. I also
told him that it has got nothing to do with our team spirit and asked him to
just ignore that and not to feel bad as I really can’t help my moods. He
listened very well with out interrupting and kept on smiling the whole time and
once I was done he talked to me, made my mind, fixed my mood and I can’t say
how better I felt. See, talking always helps you out. When we stepped out from
there I was totally done and out with my mood. I was so relieved and thankful
that I even wanted to send him a text saying THANK YOU but then felt like it might
look absurd and changed my mind! :P
Even when he was giving us the exam marks one by one
personally he told me never to give that face
at him again and to talk to him when ever I have any issues without keeping
them within.
He told me to keep in mind that wherever I go there will be
helping hands and therefore I don’t have to worry. He told me that I can take
leadership and not to hesitate or leave chances due to ‘pity’ issues.. But I
didn’t tell him how sick and fed up I was in taking leadership due to all the
hard time I had back at school due to ‘taking leadership’! (Out of the track.
Nvm :D )
Anyway, everyday of the training carried something to laugh,
learn and remember. All of us were saying how good it would be if the training
session could goes on like this and I’m pretty sure that this would be the most
memorable and fun filed time that I’ll have in my career life in this company.
But unfortunately we got to know that this nice time is
gonna end too soon and we’ll be deployed to the production while Nathan will
carry on with the training. Damn..We are gonna miss him so badly! Only because
he was a wonderful trainer with an unbelievable degree of patience and was just
like one of us; a friend, a brother and someone you can trust with anything. We
felt protective when he was around and I still wonder how we are gonna manage
in the production without him.
He told me that once we are deployed we should be able to
work with anything that we were given with total confidence only because we are
his trainees and we are his
responsibility. And yeah, so we’ll do our best out there and make him proud, at
least we’ll try. But I really thought that he could be our immediate
supervisor, things would have been much familiar and easy if that could have
been done than having to deal with people who are completely different and
unknown. L
And anyway, I’m really really
thankful for him for all the support and knowledge that we were given for all
this time, for being there for us at all times and specially for having the HIGH patience to bear up with us! :D (No matter what and what crazy things we did, he would just nod and say "we'll see!!" :P)
Anyway...Everything you did meant a LOT to all of us Nathan and all 7 of
us liked you, loved you and are gonna miss you so badly!
We know that you are a busy guy and that you’ll be having so
many other training batches in the future, but if you dare to forget this 26th batch,….grrr….well, seriously you’ll
see!!!??? :P :P
