Cyriac George

It was really hard for me to part with my friend in Mysore but sooner or later we had to do that. So i reached Hyderabad, got a room in the hostel and was all set for the new training.

Previously,

Chapter 1 : MyDC

Booom….disaster strikes. On the very first day we (the new batch) landed in Hyd DC, a fire broke out in one of the server rooms. Many development projects were critically affected by it. So they had to transfer all the folks in that floor to our training labs, which means no training for us. It was quite a deserving break for us. After the rigorous grilling for 6 months in Mysore, a month of no work/training  is not a bad idea. I even took all the leaves i accumulated in Mysore and used it to go to home and thats when i flew in a plane for the first time 

That day morning i called up my parents, told that everything’s going as usual, had food; no class; in room; watching tv. Bought tickets from travel desk after breakfast; Post lunch left the DC to airport; Took flight in the evening; Reached Cochin in 1.5 hours and finally reached home at 7:30PM or so. My parents where so dumbstruck thinking whats happening, didnt we talk to this guy in the morning and he was in Hyd at that time, how the hell is he here now  ? Lols.

Anyways lets go back to Hyd. The training was delivered in B12 (Building 12) and guess where we were staying? On the 5th floor of the same building, how cool that can be ? Ground floor consists of training labs and rest 4 floors were for guests; 1st floor for VIPs,2nd and 3rd floor for ladies,4th and 5th for guys. All this means, i didnt had to wake up before 8:30 to attend our class at 9. In that 30 minutes, i did all my morning chores, went to FC and had breakfast and then came to class on time.

Classes in Hyd was really a joke. None of us knew what the topic was, nobody had proper access to the actual servers where a fully functional product is running. So we were kind of beating around the bush with some PPTs all the day. Exams were conducted in such a lazy way that, if you didnt copy, then thats a crime.

Hyd DC as such is nothing compared to MyDC, so am not gonna describe anything about that.

Night life in Hyd city is comparatively better compared to Mysore. The best thing or the best experience i would take away from Hyd is the “IMAX experience”. I was lucky enough to watch Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince in IMAX. Wow what a hall, no words to describe it. Its the largest hall i have ever watched in and the sound experience there is undescribable. Right now i just wish that i was in Hyd when Avatar was released (Dear Readers, i drafted this post last year, hence the releasing time of Avatar is “right now”, kindly excuse).

Other than the usual outings to malls and few spots i didnt have much of an experience in Hyd. Soon the training was over and so once again it was time for me to get posted (ho finally). Folks were tensed on knowing their posting location and people were running here and there almost loosing all their nuts, and me? I dont know, for some reason i was very relaxed and was watching TV in my room. May be i just didnt care where i was getting posted to. Finally the postings came and i was posted to Chennai.

I had an option to opt for Pune DC which at that time was more attractive (partly because of Chennai’s weather and because Pune seemed to offer a better career path). But i chose to stay in Chennai as i can be with my family as and when they need me, after all am here all because of them only. This decision turned out to be good later (that part of the story will be unraveled in Chapter 3), which yet again proved to me the validity of my working principle of life.

Everything happens for good and a reason

So next stop Chennai…(continued)

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….

A big sorry to all you my fav readers. I have cheated all of you  Yes i made a promise, well two promises, which i couldnt deliver.

Well, they say, third time is a charm 

I promise that I will be regular from now onwards. An update a week is guaranteed. If I do not deliver this, then pls pls pls feel free me to bash me anyway you feel seem comfortable.

Ok now that i have done my apologies and new promises, let me tell you what’s gonna happen. Am gonna start that series which i had promised,err…,close to an year back , starting tonight.

So wait and see…

PS: what do you think? will i keep my promise (at least this time)? share your thoughts below…