The Name is R. Vivek Shanmugam. To know more about my name, go ahead and read the entire post (at your own risk)!

Before we go into all this, let us first see what is the naming convention in Tamil Nadu (the State in India where i hail from). Many Tamils use a “Vilasam”. That gives the initials (a syllable in Tamil) of the person’s paternal ancestors up to, say, seven generations. This keeps every one readily identifiable. For example, in a reasonably sized community Mu. Ko. Ka. Mu. Tha. Er. Ganesh would be the cousin of Mu. Ko. Ka. Mu. Tha. Ka. Ganesh. This form of naming is not used anymore. We just have one initial and that is of the Father. But, when we are at a traditional celebration or function in our Ancestral Temples, they still use this format followed by Chettiar (the Caste Name) to officially call out the Person.

When the initial is expanded it refers to the name of the father, and not the person bearing the name. So the final name in the sequence is the actual given name of the individual and first name stands for the father. For example, C. V. Raman (who won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the Raman effect) was from Tiruchirappalli, a town in South India. His full name is Chandrashekhara Venkata Raman (C. V. Raman); Raman is the given name of the nobel laureate, and Chandrashekharan is his father’s name. Raman is not the family name of the nobel laureate, as many in Europe and the US mistakenly believe.

Usually the father’s initial is used with the given name. This Initial is expanded and used only in legal documents such as passports, court proceedings and wills. For more details, check this wiki article.

In some parts of Tamil Nadu, we have the habit of naming the first two male children after the Grandfathers and the female children after the Grandmother. So, i am named after my Grandfather. And as you have read about the concept of initials, i was also given the initial of my Dad i.e. R. And so my official name is R. Shanmugam. This is what they entered while registering me in the School. My mom named me Vivek and everyone in the family, the relatives and those who know me in any way other than School call me Vivek.

Now, what does my name mean? The Name Vivek is quite common all over India. It has its origin in Sanskrit and it means  Wisdom or the Power to discern between Right and Wrong. I could also have been named after Swami Vivekananda. Shanmugam is one of the many Names of Lord Murugan, in South India. This name is common only to the Tamil Speaking population of India. Many Tamils will have the name or the variations of the name of this God, like for example Karthik, Saravan, etc.

So two common names make a unique name! I know it must have been too confusing to understand this post. I apologize! The Conclusion here is that I prefer my name to be “R. Vivek Shanmugam” and that is the reason for naming my website this way. You can call me by whatever name you feel comfortable with.

Yea!!!!!! I got my TOEFL Scores…

And this Excitement is coz i was expecting some horrible scores in 90s or something like that, but Thank God that didnt happen…

Especially after finishing the Test i was very disappointed with the way i did the Speaking Part of the Test… I was completely unprepared for the test at that time. I didnt take any mock tests. Coz everything happened suddenly.

I booked for the test jus before a week. The Test was scheduled for 24th August 2008. No seats in Chennai, so i booked the Test in Trichy. And since i was working at Suth i didnt even get time to study! I bunked! Office took a Pallavan Express Train to Trichy the day before the exam. Ma brother came to pick me up and we went to our Athai’s Home. The next day i went to the Testing Centre well ahead of the scheduled time. Started the Test. I was confident at the beginning of the Test, i.e. during the Reading and Listening Part. Then came the Speaking Part… I did it… But not well enough to get a good score. After finishing the speaking part i wished i could have prepared somewhat better. Then came the writing part, i did okay in it. And when i left the centre, i was very disappointed with myself. I even thought of giving the test again. Anyway katham katham! Cant change whatever has happened. Enna thaan Nadakum Nadakatume! (Sema dialog. I like this dialog very much!) I then took a bus and came back to chennai!

Like i said, i was not happy with my performance. I had a fear that i would get very less marks. But deep inside, i wished i get some good score, something decent enough. I entirely forgot about TOEFL and was lazing around the house when mom called me and said its been long enough since you gave TOEFL. Go check your scores. Well, i said okay and I opened up the TOEFL Site and was surprised to see that the scores were available. I immediately clicked on “Show Scores” and lo… I got 111…! Surprising… Really Surprising!

29 in Reading and Listening… 30 in writing… 23 in Speaking…

The least in Speaking (I knew that before! )

A 111 out of 120 i believe is a decent enough score… But, i really dont know how much TOEFL Scores Universities Expect and why they need these scores for! If you know, do share it with me!

After Clearing the MSV, we then went on to do our PnP Training. Thats the Product and Process Training for DELL! We were put into Printers 4 in 1 batch! This training was for 22days!

4 in 1 Printers deals with DELL Branded Printers, Projectors, Axims, TVs and MP3 Players! We had a Process Trainer and a Professional Skills Trainer! We had this training from 4pm to 12am! This Shift was kinda cool! The initial few days were very Boring! But later on it picked up speed and the entire training was over in No Time!

We were taught how to use DELL tools to retrieve customer information, enter data, notes for each call! There were so many tools to use in each call! And the skills like Empathy, Rapport Building, etc with the Customers while on a call! At the end of this training we practiced Mock Calls! After the Training we had to undergo ACP on the Floor with Quality Control People. Our Office was in DLF IT Park! So, after finishing the training we went there to give our ACP!

We were introduced to our TL’s! who had some 36 odd months of experience at Sutherland! Only after when i started working, I noticed that many guys say that they have so and so many months of experience in the industry! Till then, I had only heard people say their experience in years! There’s this Guy, Vijendran aka Gaja who works with us. He has a total 4 yrs experience! He had worked in Call Centres like Accenture, Barkleys, and 5-6 other Big Names(i dont remember the names!), his max stay in a company being 10-11 odd months! Thats the Trend! My Dad had experience in Banking for 25 odd years! And it was the Same ol’ Bank for all those years! But, it was then! And thats Past! Things change! The trends different now! Who knows, maybe in the future, everyone will say i have so and so many hours of experience in the industry!

Well, coming back to ACP… After finishing the PnP training we then came to DLF Sutherland and had to take an ACP(i think its, Accurate Call Profiling) Test! I somehow managed to clear it! And so we successfully moved on to the the next step! And that was directly into production floor! We were gonna take calls from the day after!!!

My prev blog “The Versant Experience” had the maximum number of views for quite sometime! So, encouraged from the positive response, am writing more about my training!

I forgot to tell you about the Panel Interview (Comm Check) conducted by a H(aitch)R named TONY, before The Versant Test! And the funny incidents related to that! The HR tests our communication and shortlists us thru’ a Mock Call.

For many the HR Tony didnt look like a HR! He was a very Modest Guy! And since everyone said that the comm check is very difficult etcetera etcetera and after hearing the name Tony, we were expecting a lot frm that comm check! Something like… a foreigner sitting on the other side of the table looking at us mockingly and speaking in an unintelligible English!

So one by one everyone went in and came out of the cabin in which he conducted the interview. As i said b4 that we were expecting something and found something else inside the cabin, it was quite fun that day! When Aiyaz went in, he misunderstood the name and called the HR as Hi Tommy!!! lolz Nishant went in to attend the comm check. He’s a cut and right guy, always speaks like a military man. So he was nicknamed military during our comm training. He went in and started speaking to Tony as always, like a military man(also his rate of speech was high) Tony asked Nishant to drink some water and relax. Nishant replied back, “No!!! I don’t want water now!!!” Tony was taken aback by his bossy nature. And so he threw him out! Sathya went in next, and found that a man was sitting there in a t-shirt jean and who didnt look like a HR. So, she started searching the room and tried opening another room which had the entrance thru’ this cabin. But that was locked. She came back to that man and asked him, “i am supposed to go thru’ my comm check with a HR named Tony in this cabin, when’ll he come?!!” He replied back,”I am the HR and I am Tony!!!”

According to me, Tony was quite friendly and spoke well… And after clearing this we took the Versant test. You can read abt it in my blog “The Versant Experience”

After clearning the versant we were inducted into the company. They gave us the Permanent ID card, opened the ICICI Bank account, Pan Card for those who didnt have one, another Offer Letter etc

The we had the Tech Training. It was for 6 days. And our timings were from 12am to 8am! The Graveyard Shift! Our Trainer was Vengat and his classes were never boring. Yep! The way he pokes fun on everyone in class keeps the training sessions alive! And the AC, always in 16degrees(he never alows us to switch it off or increase the temp) during night! It was very difficult for us last row guys to sleep!

We learnt quite a lot abt the computer Hardware, Windows XP and Vista OS, etc… After the 6 days of training we had to attend the MSV test. MSV is Minimum Skill Verification!

It was a 60 minutes test. And many of us finished that in 5-10 minutes! I got 88% in that! Then we had a 1week break during we just went there to mark our attendance.

Now we are in the Process Training. We were put into Printers 4 in 1 batch! This training is for 22days! I was disappointed initially bcoz i was expecting that they would put me in Desktop or Laptop!

I had joined Sutherland recently. They put me in the DELL Process. We were given a 15 Day Comm Training, after which, we were to be shortlisted based on our performance in Two Tests.
1.Comm Check (a mock call and a one on one interview)
2.Versant Test
For the uninitiated, Versant is an automated test of spoken English. It evaluates the ability to understand, be understood and general English language proficiency.

This Monday i gave my Versant Test. I had been to Tirupati the previous day. I had very little sleep coz we had returned only by midnight. I woke up late and started to get ready in a hurry, when I got a call frm Sakthivel, my frnd in Sutherland who came with me in the same cab. He told me that my name was not in the list that day and that the cab driver refused to come to my place. So perfect in cancelling the cab(coz our 15 days of training was over), did they show this sincerity while providing us cab for the first time!~! Anyways, i had more time now. I can relax and eat properly.
I then took my Bike and went on to pick up ma frnd Sripadharajan. We reached the Perungudi Office on time. We were asked to wait in the Conference room. Then, the H(aitch)R Sangeetha came and we practised the pronounciation with her.

The first one to give the Versant Test was Krithika (She’s the one who’s very much into this Accent and Pronounciation thing, in my class. In Velammal language, Topppperrrrr! ) She cleared the Test with 64points.

Actually we were told that we had to be loud and clear so that the machine can understand us properly. Since girls usually have a low pitched voice, they were asked to be a bit louder than normal. So, Swapna, the next girl who went in, started screaming! She got too much excited and worried about the whole thing, which made her shout! Poor Girl! She got only 42 and failed in the Test. 60 out of 80, was what one had to get to clear Versant.

It was almost 1pm and so we were asked to have our lunch. I too was getting excited and wanted to get done with it. Ah, How I hate Exams! So, myself and Pawan went in as soon as we finished our lunch.

I went into the Versant Test Room… There was a Telephone and a Headphone. The Lady in-charge dialled the ordinate system and put me on line.

Voice over the Phone(VoP): Thank you for calling the Ordinate testing system.

Me: {My Pleasure!!!} ( (Ma heart started beating faster! I dont know why, whenever i go for an Interview or an Exam it happens like that)

VoP: Please enter your Test Identification Number on the telephone keypad.

Me: Dialled my Versant TIN(Test Identifaication Number) – 12345678

VoP: Now, please say your name.

Me: {Ah, My Name! Now wat was that!} Shanmugam

VoP: Now, please follow the instructions for Parts A through E.

Me: {Ok Ok! I’ll Try to!}

And then, I gave the Test! Part A was Reading. Part B – Repeat. Part C – One Word Answers. Part D – Sentence Builds. Part E – Open Questions.

I actually didnt listen to the voice properly. {I was thinking how loud i was? After giving a wrong answer for a question, i would remember its correct answer after sometime! And when i am thinking abt the correct answer, i would miss the next question! And like this my concentration was not at all on the voice most of the time! I had done better than this in all my practise files!}

And i finished the Test. Pawan also came out at the same time. We waited for the Results.

The other guys who were waiting for their turn asked me what were the Questions. I didnt remember any questions! Only one Question that i remembered was this one in Part C! VoP: To chill it, what do you add to water? Me: Sugar. (But, said that with perfect accent and pronounciation! lolz!) Its always like that… As soon as i come out of the Exam Hall, i would forget everything! Absolutely Everything!

And soon the Lady in-charge saw ma results in the ordinate website and told me that i had scored 71!

71! :O That was a Surprise!

But whatever, i dont care. We guys have finished engineering, without even once worrying about the percentage et al, ithenna jujuppi matter!!! The Only thing that Matters is whether you are IN or OUT!

And thankfully, am IN! One Month Salary vaangama poratha illa!

I’m at home since then… Havent got my Tech Training scheduled yet!