The Oath Ceremony

Last week, two tech writers joined our team - a senior writer and a lead writer. The senior writer, Jeevan, was indeed looking tensed when he came to each of our bays to meet the team mates. Finally he was all set to be a part of the team. First day went so. But the second day had something special in store for him.

4pm - The technical documentation team (excluding the two new joinees) receives a mail asking to be gathered at the training room. On reaching there, we were told about a prank being played on Jeevan. Though it has never happened in the history of Sasken, Jeevan will be told that all new joinees will have to take an oath on joining the team, infront of the rest of the team members. We all agreed in readily and was all set to be a part of the prank.

Jeevan was called in to the room and informed by our Project Manager that all new joinees at Sasken have to read out the Sasken oath at the oath ceremony. He was a bit puzzled but gave in. He took the oath, stood in front of the team, and started reading it loud. We couldn't control our laughter on seeing the guy being made the 'bakra'.

The oath went something like this - "I, Jeevan Narayan, solemnly affirm to abide by the rules of Sasken Networks and the Government of Karnataka (God knows why the govt. of Karnataka). I will not steal the office stationery, misbehave with colleagues, watch offensive videos, access prohibited websites, ... " The whole team was in laughter. Though uncomfortable with this peculiar oath, he continued reading it, he had no other option.

Only when he read the final sentence was that he understood that it was all a prank - "I swear to treat the whole team with icecreams." He looked at all of us and joined in the laughter. Now it was his turn to treat us with icecreams which he swore. This time he got tensed thinking do I really have to buy icecreams for this 53 member team. Infact, icecreams were already waiting us in the next room. The PM had ordered icecreams for all. Thus we welcomed our senior writer into the team. The lead writer was saved... ;-)