(kick)Starting Maruti

While one does not usually kickstart a car (it is either cranked or self-started), I still would use the word "kickstart" here, not because I am actually going to kick a car, but because it is the kickstart of my professional career, with Maruti Udyog Limited.

Maruti Udyog Limited had a very early joining date for its Graduate Engineer Trainees, and this meant that I did not get much time to relax ("maarofy peace" as some would say). It was practically college to factory.

The joining process on Thursday, June 1st, 2006, was a mellow affair. A final medical checkup followed by filing of pre-filled forms, and filling and filing of some new one, and getting that green uniform. After that, it was just lounging around in a huge seminar room till 5:30 in the evening when we could finally go back.

The second day was worse still, with identity card formalities completed quickly in the morning, we were left to get bored to death in the same seminar hall again. Lucky that crosswords, sudokus, jumbles and stuff in various newspapers came to our rescue.

Things finally got into overdrive on the third day, with addresses to the GET's by the MD, the Joint MD's and the HR head. Thus began the week-long orientation program, comprised of interaction sessions with various senior executives of the company telling about the various divisions and departments of the company.

The plant visits were held on the two penultimate days of the orientation programme, and they were good. Seeing a car being made on a 66 stage assembly line is a bliss for a car geek. However, the last day of the orientation process was as bad as the second day on the job, maybe even worse. Just one interaction session was planned, and that too at 4 in the afternoon. This meant another day of lounging around, and to top it, the seminar hall was also not free for three hours after lunch.

Anyway, after the 4 PM session on Quality Assurance and Inspection, we were finally given our training rotation schedule, and come Monday, 12th June, I will be down on the production line, making(???) cars for real. Lets see how many I break...