Various incidents come to my mind as I think of Mysore – funny, tragic, happy, sad. All these handed me a mixed bag of feelings as I left the campus on 29thJanuary. One moment I was happy to have passed the rigorous training, another moment relieved to get out of Mysore finally, another moment excited with anticipation of staying in Pune where at least the food would be good and another moment sad to leave behind the beautiful campus and all the friends that I had made there.
I remember the day we had loaded our luggage into the cab at the gate of the campus and laid eyes upon our hostel block for the first time. There were two Hyderabadi girls with me in the cab, Pinks and Reddy. We had helped each other lug our bags up the two floors of our block as we were on the same floor. How much we had found the absence of a lift in the building an absolute frustration!
It felt so strange the day I was leaving that the same two girls had helped me lug my bags down now and that I was not going to see them again for a very long time now. I hope I do get to meet them again. Then we will go for the rock climbing that we had missed there.
We IC people (Sammy, Aries-storm, Skullz , Pandu and me) would hang out together there. Somehow the CE/IT guys also came along with us. We were the proud members of the Papa Pandu Club, created in honour of our prestigious friend, Pandu! Our Club would convene every Friday for an ice cream party. After the CE/IT guys left, the Club gathering did not remain so frequent or regular. But once we are together again, it will rise again to its former glory!
In fact, I met many of my own college mates for the first time here itself. Our paths had never crossed in college but here we became familiar with each other.
In class too, there were some cool people I got to meet. And on meeting some people I felt I should have met them before. Particularly this girl from Bangalore. It was strange how much our tastes matched. Both of us read a lot and read similar kinds of books. We could go on talking about books alone for a long time.
The campus itself is amazing. First of all, it’s huge! Huge as in gigantic! And every bit of its hugeness is felt when one has to run from the hostel to the classroom in GEC I or II with just minutes left before the class starts! Of course cycles are provided but somehow they are never available when you need them most. And only the most desperate will even try the lone cycle standing at the cycle stand. 99% chances are that the cycle is not in a working condition.
When not in a hurry, we do have time to marvel at the grandeur of the campus. Greenery everywhere, the campus is a delight. Every major building is an architectural wonder. The multiplex is like a huge bee hive. It is dome shaped and supported entirely by beams. But then we were more interested in the multiplex because we could watch movies every weekend there for free! What long queues there would be for the tickets… sometimes even as early as 7am! My friends stopped trying to wake me up for these morning shows after the first couple of times!
There was one SDB (Software Development Block) that was inspired from origami. It had strange protruding angles and mirrored walls. The GEC-I had a strong Greek architectural influence. How many times I have heard people curse the long flight of stairs before the building! But the grandest of all buildings was the GEC II. A combination of the Roman Colloseum and colonial architecture created a large and majestic structure. We felt lucky to have our classes in such anedifice! There was a musical fountain in front where we could sit during the evenings after class to refresh ourselves.
Our hostels were also wonderful. It had all facilities of hot water in the mornings, AC, TV, unlimited supply of tea and coffee sachets. And the best of all was the housekeeping services. I would wake up every day, get ready and leave my room a complete mess, not even bothering to make my bed. And everything would be cleaned up and set up properly by the time I came back! It was nothing less than pampering!
But however much I may praise the campus, I won’t be able to manage a single commendable word for the food there. It was not just the adjustment to the south Indian taste. The quality itself was terrible. The first day, all us IC people tried a few varieties of dosas that included the strange “Pizza Dosa”!There was no concept of vegetables and whatever was made had a bucketful of water in each plate. It was hard to decide whether the sabji was made for eating or for drinking! A person could bathe in the amount of water they put in the sabjis! And the rotis! For some reason they believed in not cooking the rotis completely. Just looking at the menu every day would make me lose my appetite. In such a situation, Domino’s pizza became a regular for us. And it was not a problem of just the campus caterers. There were very few restaurants where we could say the food was okay. We felt as though the training was not just for software knowledge but also for developing survival instincts in the absence of good food!
The training was in fact not just for software proficiency. We were also trained to maintain the “brand value” of the company. The dress code policy was very strict and we could be fined a grand amount of Rs. 200 for not following the dress code accurately. I myself had to pay the fine in the first few weeks for not wearing the proper shoes. I had worn open-toed shoes with western formal dress which we are not supposed to. And the lengths we went to just to escape the fine! Sammy had once come to class without wearing any socks at all. Apparently he had washed all his socks the previous night and they hadn’t dried yet. So there he was sitting in class with his shoes removed and in sockless feet because the leather was biting him. He had to run to the super market in the first break to buy socks!
After some time though, we would start getting homesick. Fortunately, we got enough opportunities to go home during the training. The only problem was that the actual journey itself. Going from Mysore to Bangalore took nearly 3 hours or more by bus. And the Bangalore-Ahmedabad flight would be early morning 6 am or so. That meant we had to leave the evening before and find a way to spend the night in Bangalore and then catch the morning flight. For some reason, most of such trips of mine have always been eventful.
On the first trip back to Mysore from Bangalore, I was stuck at the airport with Sud with rain pouring down in heaps! We actually stood for nearly two hours with a handmade board looking for people to share a taxi with us to Mysore!
And the memory of the second trip to Bangalore still resounds in my mind! Reaching there at nearly midnight to catch an early morning flight again with Sud (somehow he always gets stuck into my troubles!), an autowala tried to loot us by using a sleight of hand. Fortunately we caught him and an argument ensued, threatening to turn ugly at any instant. Sud took a hit and gave some. But we were lucky to have escaped so lightly!
But however much we may grumble about our stay in Mysore, we can never forget the hours spent in playing Counter Strike illegally over LAN instead of studying. Or the dozens of birthday parties celebrated every night at the stroke of midnight at Oasis foodcourt. Or the late night hungers that drove us to CCD’s coffees and dry sandwiches.
To all the friends I made in Mysore… And to all those who I may never meet again… Thank you for giving me the experience of my life! Hope we all find ourselves in such awesome places
and among such great people ahead in life too!
Good Luck J
