It’s been almost a year now, but the memories are still fresh. Memories of good times are like wine, they better with time, they become more intoxicating and powerful, enough to make us travel back in time to those hey days. The details may get blurred but we tend to recall exact emotions that we felt then.
Such were the days of my training at Infosys Technologies, held in Mysore.
I was at perigee of my confidence ,( due to terrible times at my previous job) , I had no idea what to expect , having heard claims of my friends that they were harassed and thoroughly exploited during their training, I was very skeptical of my chances. Only one thing drove me, that it can’t be as bad as my previous stint.
The entry was dramatic and it kind of blew my breath away, being whisked away in a golf cart all I could think was WOWWW.
Enormous campus, shining glass façade buildings and spick and span boulevards that seemed to stretch for miles in every direction. The thing that really struck out was enormous glass golf ball building which I latter came to know was the multiplex.
I was put up at hostel room which was comparable to a 4 star hotel’s room. I perpetually had Colgate smile on my face for first few days, I couldn’t believe my luck , few days back I was toiling in miasma of shop floor , now I was in midst of surfeit luxury.
Eventually the training began, it was preceded by string of ILI (Infosys Leadership Institute) sessions, these sessions were fun and served as ice breaker among group of strangers who were to become training mates. We were made to do silly tasks to improve team spirit among us. I thoroughly enjoyed these.
The technical training which had halo of being extra tough started on daunting note. Modules, assignments, module tests, compre were the four words that were most talked about.
Eventually late night patrolling of GEC became an innate trait of everyone. Since we had GEC (Global education Center) at our disposal 24 hrs we began to procrastinate work, leaving more and more work to be done after midnight.
I was amazed at the facility, with which I understood the concepts of training and the fact I didn’t struggle as much I thought I would.
So I shifted my attention to ECC (Employee Care Center) and I would not be overstating when I say I over exploited the facilities there. When I had state of art GYM , swimming pool , steam bath , squash courts , tennis courts etc etc at my doorstep , I didn’t see any reason to hold myself back ,not even stern warning from my physiotherapist ,who would have killed me if he knew what all I was doing then; and I unleashed my self on these.
During the training another major foible, in myself was addressed automatically, the inability to accost girls. I thought with four years in Mechanical engineering and six months on shop floor, I would have to use sign language to communicate with the fairer sex. But I was lucky enough to meet some very understanding girls with whom I did manage to communicate in normal colloquial languages, and made friendships that I hope will last for lifetime.
As it is quite obvious that no matter how luxurious your surrounding’s are you will be happy only if you get good company. I did get that and time spend with my friends during training , was truly memorable , be it be during group studies cramming our head with last minute knowledge , or during project work , or while playing or partying (DJ nights were instant hits) , every moment was enjoyable and worthy to be cherished.
Some of the best memories that keep brimming in my memory are:
1. Coming back late in the night around 4 am listening to “I walk alone” on my cell, it gave me Goosebumps all over my body.
2. Discussing ghost stories with my friends till late in night.
3. Having fruitless philosophical discussions with Bhavna, in which I was comprehensively beaten.
4. Coming to room late in night struggling to find way through myriads of sprinklers, which had the knack of going on when I was coming back.
5. Fights with Arpita over silliest of reasons.
6. Seeing back to back movies in Multiplex.
7. Breaking our heads just days before compre.
8. Cycling around the campus late in the night.
9. Lying in the swimming pool late in the evening and bask in the view of fully lit GEC.
10. Trying to understand musical concepts from Sughosh and teach him Mainframes, believe me both were next to impossible tasks.
11. Lolling around in front of Loyal World (Super Market inside the campus).
12. Occasional jaunts to Ambrish Dabha, on weekends.
But every good thing has to end, so did the training, the glare of Mysore DC blinded me so much that I choose Mysore as my first option, although I got Bangalore. Same golf cart carried me and my luggage out, but this time my heart carried more luggage than my bags.
Most of my good friends went to other DC’s.
The abrupt end left a void that I am still struggling to fill. And on the anniversary of what I called a sudden death, I crave for those days when we earned while we learned and led mostly carefree lives only compre and module tests playing the spoilsport.
There are new demons now namely traffic, production issues and compensation reviews, to make our lives interesting. Life would be surely dull without any challenges!!!
