Cyriac George

MyDC – the place where, my life took a different direction, the place where i became a MAN…

I went to Infy Mysore Campus, called as My DC (Mysore Development Center) for training, 2 years back. MyDC is really a place to be. Once you enter it, its like you are touring a foreign nation. The standards and the facilities you get there are over par with any other institution in the world, which earned it the deserving title; “best training campus in the world”. MyDC has (now) two GECs(Global Education Center) where the actual training happens. GEC1 was huge in its time, and is only dwarfed by GEC2 which came quite recently. Both the GECs combined can accomodate 25,000 trainees at any single point of time, ya you read it right, at the same time. I cant even describe the facilities available in GEC2 because that will be like a dedicated post for itself. The interiors of GEC2 is like that of a palace, thanks to Infy’s spending nature on infrastructure, which is why employees pockets are always light .

Enough of GEC, lets move on to other places in Mysore campus. Next comes ECC (Employee Care Center). Now this again is a huge building which hosts the following facilities.

1. Super Market
2. Indigonation Store
3. Book Store
4. Saloon for gents and ladies
5. Doctor & Clinic
6. ICICI Bank
7. Laundromat
8. Table Tennis
9. Gym
10. Steam & Sauna
11. Bowling Alley
12. Badminton Court
13. Pool & Snooker
14. Carrom
15. Music Room
16. Aerobics  Room
17. Squash Court
18. Six out door Clay Tennis Courts
19. Out door Basket Ball court
20. Out door Valley Ball court
21. Open air Swimming Pool

Phew that was long isnt it .Well ECC is truly a place where all trainees yearn to be but not always cant be. I myself was not even able to go to ECC even to buy the basic stuff like toothpaste, soap for quite some time due to the rigorous training.

The training they give there actually grills employees, it tests your ability to grasp too many things in the shortest time possible. In Mysore my days where a minimum 15 hours long, ya 15 hours of study in a day. Classes used to start at 9 and due to the tiredness from the previous day, will be late to wake up as usual and hence will miss breakfast most of the times and in addition, going to class from hostel is like a 2km walk, which is mostly covered by running, as late entry in class is not an option. Then we have the normal class till evening and after that its either assignment or studying for next days exam. Exams there are like university exams, each and every exam is important, you have to score a consistent top score to save your job. Second class is not an option there, First Class is the minimum pass mark, so you can imagine the effort which needs to be put. I have wondered many times, if i had put the same effort during engineering, i would be some where else.

Accomodation: When i was doing my engineering somebody told me about Infy hostel and its facilities. Its like a 3 star hotel room. You have AC, LCD TV, 24 hours hot & cold water, kettle, iron box, electronic locker, house keeping staff to clean your room and what not. But only when my training started i realized these are something which i wont be able to use anytime, because after a loong 15 hr study, you wont have the energy to watch TV and in the morning your priority will be to get ready and get to GEC and not to do anything else. So yes its a really (damn) good stay, but you wont be able to enjoy it beyond a certain limit. Infy hostels are said to be the largest of anything of that sort in the world. It has 100+ hostel buildings, which can accommodate all the above said 25,000 trainees in single and double bed rooms.

WTH, from what you have told me till now, MyDC sounds like a horrible place, i think you told me that its a “place to be” so whats up with all these hardships ? My dear friend, hardships will be there always, if you are able to manage your time well, you can squeeze in some fun and for others we have Multiplex. Its the most favourite place of many folks. Infy screens 2 movies (1 hindi and 1 english) every weekend and the best part is, an employee can watch any no.of shows for free, just that he/she has to wait in a que and take ticket himself/herself. Now when i say “que”, it can be really long, as long as 2 hours waiting for a decent flick and even more for hits. But people still waits (even i have done) because that is some experience you dont want to miss. After all waiting in que is not such a bad thing to do. You have a  comfortable lawn and stone pavements everywhere and if you have the right gang or friends, you wont even know how 2 hours flew away.

Apart from this what else do you have in Mysore? In the initial days i used to go out to the city with my friends and later i brought my bike from my home to MyDC and there after it was total fun. Me and my best friend used to go to all sorts of places in and around Mysore. We have gone to Chamundi Hills, Sreerangapatnam, Brindavan Gardens, Mysore Palace, Zoo, and numerous other places. We even went to Blore and Coorg. Waiting and watching for the Mysore Palace lighting fr0m Chamundi Hills is one of the “memorable” thing we have done in Mysore. Had i not met my “best friend” there Mysore wouldnt be a major turning point in my life, let alone that, Mysore would be as good as hell to me.

Thanks to all these, I had the “best of the bestest” time of my life in Mysore. I would give anything to get that time back.

6 months of rigorous training (woahh 6 months!!! it was that long???never realized it before) and finally i was all set for posting and thats when management decided that we will have to go to Hyderabad for another training. I didnt have much of a choice other than going there. So i went to Hyd…(story continues)

So there goes the Mysore chapter. how was it, kewl exciting, total bore boooooo, ya whatever,….let me know. do share it down here….