I still have this vividly in memory about Eric. I am one of those several many blessed and lucky people to have worked alongside Eric. We all know Eric had this very goofy and blunt way of communicating. My first memory of Eric was him summoning me in his cube for some code review. He clearly had an eagle eye for details. His ways came around as intially confrontational, but very quickly and I mean in like 5 mins, you realized this man meant well, real well. He cared and he cared very deeply about what he did and the people that joined along in common pursuits. That particular conversation took its turns discussing several technical nuances which I'll skip over here, but in the end what stood out for me was his unrelenting ways to bring the best out of somebody. Then you move to phase 2, and you learn to translate some of his blunt moment-of-truth "Why did you do this, this is so dumb?" to "I know you are capable of something much better, what was stopping you?" and immediately followed with offering help and guidance. Several of us have learned to appreciate Eric's unique ways. So much so that at one point I started jotting down the things I'd often over hear him say during phone calls and cube discussions. I had in fact sent those to him last August and Eric had a small moment to chuckle at his own production. Here's few "Mudamaisms"...
From: Mudama, Eric
Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2017 4:18 PM
Subject: RE: Mudamaisms from 2012: Light humor
lol
hope you're doing well too =P
From: Sivakumar, Aravind
Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2017 5:17 PM
Subject: Mudamaisms from 2012: Light humor
Hi Eric,
How is it going? J
I was sifting through my old archives and ran into this file. The file is named “Mudamaisms.txt” and dated 9/6/2012. Just for entertainment, I jotted down the things I heard you say very often when I was one cube across from you.
You can laugh all you want, but the problem still exists.
What do you want?
I am not buying this BS.
Don't trust a guy with an excel sheet.
Where is the changeset in Jira?
Lets step back and get some perspective.
If we are willing to accept that then we are fine.
You there! Come here for a sec.
Why don't you drag your lazy a** to there and not complain?
Haha!
Best/Aravind
Eric, we will all miss you dearly. Attempting to say it in your own unimitable style, sorry to break the news to you “You left this earth too soon, that’s BS bro”. I know you have just embarked on a journey far beyond, a journey in which several of us would be privileged to cross paths again. Off you go.