Wednesday, October 18, 2006

The Gr8 Infy Training days…

Today is the right day to talk about Infy training because two years ago, on the very same day, I joined Infy. Yes I joined infy on October 18, 2004. We had two batches of trainees, one for computer background employees (short cycle) and one for non computer background employees (long cycle). Being IT student I was in short cycle. Ok let me cut the crap and tell you about training days.

On 17th I reached the Infosys Mysore Campus. It was a unique experience. That was the first time I was staying away (more than 1000 kilometers away!!!) from home moreover it was my first job so my heart was filled with special feeling “wo kahte hai na ankho mai arman aur dil mai kuchh karne ki tamanna, kuchh aisa hi”.

Okay coming on the track on the very first day I met Manish Negi and Aldrin Davis at main gate. At the gate one sumo was waiting for us, as soon as we finished security checks it took us to reception block where we did some more formalities and I got a key for room number 1817. Negi got room number 1818. That sumo took us to our block (block number 18). That night we spent in some formal interaction, understanding map of the campus (an unsuccessful try I must say, it took 3 days for me to remember all the roads inside the campus) and more over I was wondering why I was alone in that room? Why no roommate?

So 17th was over and it was 18th morning, got up early and got ready with properly ironed shirt and tie (job ka first day hai bhai, izzat ka saval hai). After asking some two three guys and two three security men we reached to our auditorium. First day was awful, had to do a lot of formalities, like documents verification and bank accounts and then had some induction sessions and all. Finally first day @ MyDC was about to over and on the way back I met a guy, Praveen Jain. He was looking very hi-fi guy with his Nokia 6600 in hand, we started talking and finally I came to know he also had the key of room no 1817, which means he was my room mate. We entered into the room and started talking about life, college and all possible tings on the world, yeah it was our first meeting but Jain was so cool to talk with… We some how finished our chatting session at 1.30 in the night and went to bed.

On 19th I introduced Jain to our neighbors (Negi and Aldrin). Jain, being very enthusiastic (wish I could write all those @#!@! words instead of enthusiastic) got an idea of organizing a trip so that we could get introduced to our training chicks. On the very same day he wrote a note on a piece of paper and circulated it to the entire trainees.

It was like

Hi Friends,

I am planning to organize a trip, so that we all can get a chance to meet everyone and know about them.

If you are interested the please write your name and phone number below.

Wow, in the first round we got around 70-80 response. We have got the name and numbers of all good looking people. Moreover Jain was happy because he got such a big number and some reasons to talk to gals. We thought it was going gr8, but from the next day onwards we started getting NO from many people. Jain started calling to each an every gal, n some boys also ;), to convince him/her for the trip (thanks to free intercom facility). Finally on the day of trip we were only 12. I would like to thank all those people for making that trip so memorable. You all know why right? And yeah that trip gave me two very good friends, Anup and Kamal.

Anyway let me talk about our actual training. According to training plan we had to go through some ILI (Infosys Leadership Institute) trainings for soft skill development. Thanks to those ice breaking sessions and team building exercises, I got some friends like Abhishek Kakkar, Fareena, Saurabh, Chanchal, Banani, Batra, Divya, Kanu, Shreelakshmi, Amey, Amit, Gopi, Gaurav, Anupreet, Arka, Sandya, Parul and many more… We used to do a lot of skits in those ILI trainings, I can’t forget that Bank wala skit where I was playing a role for bhukhkhad (one who use to keep on eating) bank manager and then other skit where Kakkar had played a role for Saree vendor. It was a gr8 fun ya. And that “Sholay” wala skit was also amazing. I must appreciate ILI for those wonderful trainings; it was indeed a team building exercise.

With all such fun we completed our ILI training and started technical training. Then it was the EID time. We asked Fareena to treat us (so that we could get introduced to her roommate Deepti, and neighbors – Pragya and Nandini). Kakkar some how convinced her and she gave us a dinner treat. We got introduced to all three gals now. And according to our master plan we expanded our group.

During the technical training we tried to enjoy fully. I can’t forget those Coffee breaks when we used to rush towards coffee vending machine. I can’t forget those late night stay in LAB some times for study and mostly for fun. Everyday we used to decide that “okay today I will go to lab and study, I will not do anything else” but we used to end up in sitting 2-3 hours in pantry or watching some movie in lab. Don’t tell anyone but yeah watching movie was strictly prohibited in lab but we somehow manage to do that. We also used to play some games in training. Playing NFS on network was such a gr8 experience. Thanks to NFS champs Dhanil, Barni, Arka and many more. According to our sitting arrangement I was surrounded by some fundu ppls. On my one side I had Dinesh Sharma, technically very sound, very matured and a very sensible guy, and other side I had Dhanil, a sporty person, very lively guy. We enjoyed a lot during our training time. We used to chat a lot using “NET SEND” command and using some VB applications for the same, as during training we didn’t have access to internet or internal messengers. But we used to get some solutions for both of them. Also we used to sleep during our lab/training time. Man I can’t forget those module tests and those weekend masti in lab.

It was for the day time now after office hours also we had a lot of things do in campus. Apart from playing TT, cycling, roaming around in the beautiful campus we enjoyed our hostel life fully. Our hostel rooms were like some Five-start hotel only. We had TV, AC, housekeeping facility and all other required facility in our hostel.

Let me share some experiences with you.

Gal’s Hostel

My hostel block was just 100m away from gal’s hostel block (no 17). And the location of my room was so good that we could see almost every thing those rooms. But unfortunately gals used to put down curtains every day and every night, it ruined most of over chances. We used to hate gals putting curtains the whole day. But every night me and Jain used to have a look at that hostel, hmmm first floor 3rd room from left, the light is on, that means some one is still awake, yooo hi… Jain used to tell “Patel count kar ye room ka number konsa hai” (yeah we have a complaint against Hostel architecture; all the blocks has different structure and different numbering mechanism.) Being good at numbers I used to calculate the number perfectly ;) And then trin trin, Hello Madamjee, it’s Praveen Jain here, I was just wondering how come you are still awake? And then blah blah and more blah… Yeah I am still surprising how gals used to talk with him.

Pranks

Jain was very famous for his pranks. He used to call someone and say “Hello this is Mr X from facilities; I think you have asked for cloth stand (or something else) could you please come out of your room and check whether is there?”

He used to set morning alarm on maximum volume in somebody’s TV, and then next morning everybody a big blast…These are some of those very simple pranks, rest of them I can’t mention here. Many nights I (Negi, Aldrin and many others) have spent without sleeping because of Jain. Every hostel room had an electric cattle and milk, coffee, tea bags, so we had a habit of making tea at late night. Jain used to call Negi to come our room and ask him to prepare tea for him and poor Negi, he didn’t have any other option than preparing tea for him. The list is too long and I can’t describe each an every thing here. But let me quickly remind you some of those,

“Roost is a secrete of my energy” was our famous slogan. (yeah read it right, it’s roost and not boost)

Reason : Roost is a name of a restaurant in Mysore and it was the nearest boozing point. :)

Number 116 had special importance to each and every trainee.

Reason : It was the only city bus which used to come to Infy campus at that time.

I can’t forge those late night cloth washing sessions, those small get-togethers, those B’day celebrations,

For a change sometimes we used to study also. It was college like atmosphere, but everything was in fast forward mode. 4 years of college = 2 months of training. Another difference was we were being paid for studying here ;)

As every good thing has an end (good or bad), our story also came to an end. Finally the day of Posting came and we got our respective posting.

Negi, Jain, Kamal, Aldrin, Deepti got Bangalore.

Myself, Batra, Banani, Kakkar got Mysore. (Then Kakkar moved to Pune)

Pragya got Pune.

Nanadini got Chennai

Fareena got Hydrabad and so on…

On the last day of our stay in Mysore we had a confession night, we had a session till 2.30 in front of one of the food courts. We shared our first impression and current impression of every one. It was a gr8 session.

HUH I never though it will be such a big post!!! But I think it’s not only my story, after reading everyone who has gone through training in infy will feel that it’s his/her story only. Just the names will be different.

I know you are getting bored now… sorry can’t help ;)

Anyway let me stop here…

Chao!!!

Click here to refresh your Mysore memories

http://my-click-o-mania.blogspot.com/2006/07/infosys-mysore-3.html

http://my-click-o-mania.blogspot.com/2006/07/infosys-mysore-2.html

http://my-click-o-mania.blogspot.com/2006/07/infosys-mysore-1.html


BTW this was our most favorite slide during training time



Thursday, October 12, 2006

No Smoking

No Smoking!!!

Yeah that’s the theme for today’s post.

You might have seen different signboards for the same but how about this?


Some days back I happened to go to Bangalore to some of my friend’s place and I got this at his place.

You might be thinking what is special about it????

Now have a look at this


Yeah it’s made up of empty navy cut cigarette boxes. And not collected ones; that fellow smoked that many cigarettes to create this poster.

Man I can’t believe this!!!

Monday, October 02, 2006

Mysore Dasara

Mysore Dasara is a Royal Festival Celebrating victory of Truth over Evil. Legend has it that the Goddess Chamundeeswari or Durga slew the demon Mahishasuran on Vijayadashami day. Dasara is a 10-day festival in the region culminating on Vijayadashami or tenth day. The day marks the successful conclusion of the preceding nine days. Vijayadashami is also a day of victory of the King and his subjects, be it in a battle or day-to-day governance.

The preceding nine days of Navarathri have celebrations starting only after six days. The sixth day is in honour of goddess Saraswathi. Eight day is dedicated to Durga and Ninth day is for Lakshmi, goddess of wealth. On tenth day a grand spectacular Procession is held which starts from Mysore Palace and ends in Bannimantap.
(Courtesy: http://www.mysoredasara.com/)

Being a Dasara weekend, there was a festive feeling in the air in the entire city. We also planned manything and yeah did a lot of masti during this weekend. We went to the famous Mysore Palace, Flower show, Yuva Dasara festivals and Mysore race course (yeah first time we went for Derbey). Okay I know you are feeling joelous, don’t worry I won’t write much about it. Click the following links and check out Mysore Dasara photos.

http://my-click-o-mania.blogspot.com/

Happy Dasara / VijayaDashmi / Durgapuja
May God Bless you!!!