Memoirs of ONMS Saga (Part 1)

It was a late chilly night of Mumbai weather that the phone started ringing. Was just out of the Nortel Labs and was with our beloved Manpower Allocation Task Committee for a new project. Well - late nights was never a problem those days. The call was from NJ from the Onsite Project Leader. They were looking for folks and it seemed that the profile matched. Thus came through the opportunity to join ONMS. The folks making the call were Venkatesh and Vandana....call it coincidence or karma ...both were ex-Nortel blood :-)

The instruction were handed over to touch base with one 'Badami' to get the induction documents for ONMS project. Now, being a northy (north indian), it was very very difficult to make out if Badami was a he or she. Initial requests for the induction documents were replied as 'could not be send as they were confidential'. What - are we into rocket science project ?

Thus was the first introduction to Group-4 (no no ..not the Security company) ... these were the Group-4 of ONMS - Rammohan Mylavaram, Badami Nagaraj, Murali Malepati and Yugandhar Sarraju. The Group-4 was the first team to reach ONMS Onsite after the 2V's (Venkatesh and Vandana). Rumour has it that a caravan of Tata Sumo's (heard it from Group 4) had come to the Airport to drop of Murali. Hey ! but the weight limits is only 32+32+12 Kgs of baggage !

Then more instructions came through....another team of ONMS folks were to fly out via Mumbai (then it was called Bombay). I was to meet then and fly out with them. This team was flying in from Bangalore and Hyderabad. Well, had not met any of them - the only details I had was 'names' - that's all !

Thus started the process of visa processing, travel formalities with daily trips to Nariman Point - Air India Building, where our HQ of Visa and Travel are located. Finally on the day, when I was collected my Ticket and Passport - overheard another person enquiring about Lucent ONMS. Hmmm...introduced myself and the other person turned out to be Rajeshwar Boinapally (flying in from Hyderabad for ONMS). Hence, met the first ONMS member F2F. It was the year 2001. The Partha-Rajeshwar saga will go on for the next 8 yr(s) in ONMS......

On the day of departure, my Mumbai roomies saw me off at the Airport. There the plan was to see if I could meet any of the other ONMS folks before checking in. Had met only Rajeshwar till them....The lo-and-behold, saw a big fella tugging at equally bulky suitcases. Had a look at the address sticker on his suitcases....and thus met Prasad Govenkar. The others came too...Gopi Manginani, Ramana Kotapalli, Rajeshwar, Praveen KN. Rumour has it that Praveen (heard it from Group 4) that was garlanded at Bangalore Airport and had even given a 'speech' at the Airport. Now that's we call a grand send-off.

We did reach JFK on time ...and the grand limo's picked us up at the Airport. Rajeshwar showed us the Twin Tower's (from the Limo, as we drove across to NJ from NY) - and we planned to visit it some day. Unfortunately, 48 hrs after that the Twin Towers were no more.We checked into the hotel - Extended Stay America, Red Bank on Saturday, Sep-9-2001. The next day (Sunday), more ONMS Members came through - Surya Kodukulla (intra-USA relocation) and Bhavana Shinde (from Bangalore). Thus the Group-8 was formed :-)

Thus started the ONMS core project ...and our relationship with ONMS (an equivalent Offshore team was also formed, but a few months from now). Not to mention the mark of Lucent Technologies (and Bell Lab Innovations) that greeted us at the Holmdel Office at NJ (we were operating for some months from Red Hill, NJ). The First Transistor was made by Lucent Technologies....and thus it stood a reminder for generations to come on the company that triggered the Electronics revolution.

Thus started the Office work, the late nights (we did not have laptops that time), the training, the induction and the package of challenges that comes when a new product/project is outsourced. Some of the Group 4,8 - we assigned to core development, some to testing and some as System Engineers. The initial days were tough....but there are always 'the' weekends to wind down.

I remember (watching from our kitchen window)Group-4 marching out of their apartment with 4-extra large Tiffin carriers for Lunch. The Enterprise - Coke (red) and Pespi (blue) Ford Escort's parked next to each other in the parking lot - the Coke Escort belonged to Ram, Murali, Bandami and Yugandhar. The Pepsi Escort belongedto Prasad Govenkar, Surya (had a US license but never drove a car - I wonder !!), Partha, Gopi and Praveen.

Also remember, the days when we used to wait in the Parking lot for Praveen and Gopi to meet us for the car pool. Praveen (and mind it...it was repeated every day morning) would step out of the apartment - with a coffee mug in hand, show us his other hand - in other words telling us to wait, and disappear back into the Apartment.

And later will come Gopi - running with a pan/saucepan in his hand and having his breakfast in the car as we drove to Office. Many a times ...there was also a pressure cooker (nope...no thoughts...this is a actual pressure cooker folks !! No guesses !! ) in the car trunk. This started the Eatontown saga....was to go on for another 5-6 yr(s) on rotation as ONMS folks took turns in renewing the Eatontown lease albeit for different apartments....

To be continued.......