Blogchatter Book Review - "Incredible India Bucket List" by Aditya Sathe

 I came across this book through the Blogchatter Ebook Carnival and am glad that I got an opportunity to read it. 

Early in the book, the author, Aditya Sathe speaks about the greatness of our country and I couldn't agree more. India is indeed a nation full of rich and varied heritage. There are marvelous places in our country that are not so well known but deserve a wider reach. With the global COVID pandemic situation, we are all locked in our homes and this further deters any travel plans for the near future. Luckily, for all book lovers, the best way to travel places is through books, and the book, "Incredible India Bucket List" is an honest attempt to take us through 26 amazing places in our country. 

What's covered in this book?

This book takes us through 26 fabulous places in India and has detailed information on each place along with pictures. The author talks about the origin of the place, the history behind it, and tales related to the place. On the whole, the book takes us on a wonderful tour across India.

What I liked about the book?

I like the fact that all the details listed in this book are so well-researched. Each chapter in this book speaks about a place and you can get all possible information related to it, such as why the place got its name, mythological references, etc. For example, Warangal is my birthplace and I've been to Warangal Fort many a time but I never knew most of the things covered in that chapter. The bonus is the well-captured pictures all presented at the right places. 

I also like the variety of places chosen in this book. In a secular country like ours, it's very easy to find places of worship everywhere and it would be easy to write about them. But, the author chose interesting places of history such as India Gate, Jallianwala Bagh, Rashtrapathi Bhavan, etc.

On the whole, I really enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to all travel and history lovers out there. Can't wait to read more content from the author.

I thank Blogchatter for creating this amazing carnival where we get to read a variety of books from all over our country and beyond.

Note: This review is part of the Blogchatter Ebook Carnival challenge. #BlogchatterEbookCarnival #Blogchatter #BookReview

Blogchatter Book Review: Patna 80020 by Daisy Bala

 I came across this amazing book through the Blogchatter Ebook Carnival and am glad that I got an opportunity to read it.

Plot: This book explores the dynamics of an upper middle class family based in Patna. The family consists of a father, mother, their 3 daughters and a son. The first two daughters are of marriageable age and the parents, especially the mother is anxious to get them married soon. The elder daughter needs time to get married and you’ll know why when you read the book. The younger daughter can’t wait to get married. The third daughter is a dynamic person and she has very unique characteristics, she’s my favorite character. The son is young, pampered and is a pro of poor jokes. Read on to know how the family fares in complicated and normal situations in their lives. 

What I liked in the book: As soon as I started reading the book, I was immediately drawn into its world. The story is so realistic that despite the fact that it’s based in Patna, every family in India can relate to it. The plot flows very easily and I love the way the story begins with a normal day in the family’s life to a complicated situation to a conflict point to an expected yet well-written ending. I especially liked simple things such as what was being cooked for breakfast/lunch, clothes that they wore and details of the clinic, etc. 

The characters in the story are interesting and they have a nice depth to them. I also liked the mention of dowry and the pressure that the families of a girl child go through in most parts of India. All this is handled very well in the book. 

Overall this is a short and lovely read which definitely has the potential for a sequel. 

What can be improved: For me, the frequent Hindi dialogues were distracting. But, they did highlight the  authenticity of the plot since it’s based in Patna. 

Note: This review is part of the Blogchatter Ebook Carnival challenge. #BlogchatterEbookCarnival #Blogchatter #BookReview

"Zoom Out" - Infosys, Mysore Diaries - #BlogChatterA2Z

 After the class photo, the three of us stayed at the GEC2 building for a while. Neither of us said anything. Then we started walking back to the hostel. 

That night, everyone at our dinner table was silent. We wanted the night to pass quickly so that we could get our placement results the following day. After dinner, a few people went out for long walks. I wanted to be alone for a while. I wanted to make up my mind in case I was posted to the Bangalore location. So, I instructed my friends not to wake me up until the results are out. I was planning on sleeping until someone calls me with the results. 

After going back to the hostel, I looked at my luxury hostel room and felt pride. I’ve made it so far! Wish I got posted to Hyderabad, it would make life so much easier. “Greed has no limits”, I scolded myself. Finally, I put on TV, watched it for a while, and slept early without calling my parents. I sent them a message saying that I’d call them with the results tomorrow. 

In the morning I woke up to a phone call. 

“Results will be out anytime soon”, Arjun said. 

“I know that Arjun. Are they out yet?”, I asked with my teeth clenched. 

“Sorry for disturbing you”, he said and hung up immediately.

I was furious. I looked at the watch, it was 8 AM. Without a second thought, I fell asleep.

Within 10 minutes, my phone chimed. It was a message. 

“Sorry. I guess Arjun disturbed your sleep”, it was Anusha.

I woke up and sat on my bed. How did Anusha know about Arjun’s call?

I called her up. 

“Are you all together?”, I asked her.

“Yes, we woke up early and decided to meet for an early breakfast.”, she said.

“Is Myra around?”, I asked her.

“No, she’s also in her room. Only 6 of us are here at Arena. Join us if you want”, she said and hung up.

Suddenly, a new feeling dawned on me. I realized that after a few days, we could no longer meet whenever we wanted to. We couldn’t barge into our friends’ hostel rooms, we couldn’t borrow each other’s clothes, we couldn’t make breakfast using kettle water, nor could we pack for vacations together. As Arjun said, there was no point fussing over something we did not have control over. I sent a message to Myra asking her to wake up. I got ready as quickly as I could, walked to Myra’s door, and knocked it. She opened the door. She wore the top that we’d gifted her for her birthday. 

“It’s for good luck”, she said.

In about 30 minutes, we reached the Arena food court and approached our friends. In some time, more people joined us. We ordered unlimited snacks, teas, and coffees.  Yes, we all wanted to wait together.

Finally, someone said, “The results are out.” And we all rushed to our classroom. With trembling hands, I switched on the computer and opened my email. There was an email with the subject: “Placement Results”. I opened it quickly and skimmed the content. I saw the words “Hyderabad” and I relaxed. I read the email now, more carefully. 

“…….Your posting location is Hyderabad STP…..”. My heart took a giant leap. Still silent, I looked at Anusha, Swati, and Rishi. She was in disbelief.

“Hyderabad”, she mouthed without smiling. When I enquired about Rishi and Swati, she nodded as if saying “Hyderabad”. I then looked at Arjun and Myra. They were seated in front of me. I was most scared to ask them. Their results would affect me as much as they’d affect them.

I kept looking at them as if saying “Palat palat” (DDLJ style). Arjun was the first to turn around. He gave me a thumbs up and mouthed Hyderabad. I did the same. I then pointed at Myra. We both looked at Myra. She turned around, she had a strained expression and said “Hyderabad”. I gave a sigh of relief and immediately walked towards her. 

“Chetan got Bangalore”, she said and turned towards the screen. She continued looking at his email. I did not know what to say and patted her back. Arjun stood with us silently. 

*

The morning passed by quickly, meeting people and congratulating one another. In the afternoon, we decided to go to Mysore town and shop for gifts for our families and friends. Almost everybody was headed to the saree stores for buying “Mysore silk sarees”. I bought two silk sarees, for my mom and aunt. I had just finished paying for them when I saw someone lurking around. I knew who it was even without seeing them. I collected my purchases and walked towards a corner.

“Chetan”, I said.

“Hi Priya. I saw you and had expected Myra around.”, he said.

“No, she’s not here. She’s in the adjacent store”, I said. 

“Thank God. “, he said. He had a saree in his hand. 

“This is for Myra. It’s a secret.”, he said. I smiled and walked out of the store. Myra was shopping for Chetan in the adjacent store. 

“So, there’s a future”, Arjun said.

I jumped in fear. 

“I did not see you there. You shouldn’t sneak up on people like this.”, I scolded and then added, “Yes, I do see a future.”

*

In the night, we all had dinner at our favorite food court on the campus, “Fiesta”. We then went for a long walk on the campus. It was 3 AM when we walked back to our hostels. The next day, we woke up early and had breakfast at “Oasis”. I then asked Anusha and Rishi if they could meet me for coffee. Myra was meeting Chetan. Arjun was meeting his hostel friends.

Anusha, Rishi, and I had coffee. While Anusha and I were feeling sad, Rishi was highly practical and said, “Oh! Stop feeling bad. We’re all going to work on the same campus in Hyderabad”. We ignored him completely and continued with our “we’ll miss campus” talk. 

After lunch, we headed to the ECC office to complete all formalities and hand over our id tags (orange color). We were all given black tags which in Infosys terms meant “Infoscions”, and not trainees anymore. We took extreme pride at this moment and took umpteen pictures on the campus with black tags. 

Myra, Arjun, and I then walked to the Multiplex, ECC building, swimming pool, bowling alley, and Loyal World. From there, we took bicycles and went to the GEC1, GEC2, and Gazebo. We then walked to the cricket ground and finally Arena. 

“Let’s have ‘Kaapi Nirvana’ one last time here”, I said and they laughed. 

There were so many memories attached to the campus. 

                                        *

For dinner, all our college friends headed to “The Golden Grass” restaurant and had a sumptuous dinner. Everybody from our college got placed in Hyderabad, we were all very happy and started discussing job prospects in Hyderabad. 

After dinner, we walked on the campus for a very long time. If we were tired, we did not complain. Around 12, we walked to the GEC2. Almost everybody on the campus gathered there. There was no celebration as such but at 12, we all shouted “Happy New Year” in unison. We walked back to our rooms in some time and retired to bed. We had to catch a flight from Bangalore the following morning and we had to leave the campus by 7 AM. At 6:20 AM, we all gathered in front of our hostels with our luggage. A few golf carts were insight. Chetan and Suraj were in one of those carts. They were traveling with us to Bangalore, their families stayed in Bangalore. We got onto the golf cart, placed all our luggage, and started to the main gate. On our way to the main gate, I could see the whole campus zooming out of view. Tears were rolling down my cheeks and after a while, I couldn’t see anything. Myra patted me. She was weeping too. I heard a sniff from Arjun. We got down the golf cart, placed our luggage in the minibus. Most of our college friends were in the same state as us. Finally, it was time to leave. Everybody was looking at the gates for one last time. But in my case, I couldn’t get myself to look at the campus. 

If I’d look at it another time, I’d never be able to leave it. 

                                                                                       - The End - 

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.

"Yearbook" - Infosys, Mysore Diaries - #BlogChatterA2Z

After the Christmas celebrations, we lazed on the campus with nothing much to do. For the first time, we had no work to finish because we’d already completed working on the project. We had the final demo in two days. Our placement letters would be out on the day after the project demos and we could stay for 2 or 3 days on the campus with approval. With New Year around the corner, we wanted to stay on the campus on the 31^st night and start back to Hyderabad on Jan 1^st. We’d all decided to first visit our hometown no matter what location we’d be posted to. 

With our time officially ending on the Mysore campus, we had varied emotions. The Infosys management was clever in disclosing our posting locations at the last minute. This kept us all occupied with the dilemma about our posting locations rather than the thoughts of missing the campus. 

Unlike most of us, Myra also had something else to worry about – it was Chetan. Chetan had listed his primary job location as Bangalore, the second being Chennai. Myra’s choices were like all of ours – Hyderabad and Bangalore in that order. Much as they both wanted to continue their relationship, neither of them was ready to compromise on their job location. So, they both spent a lot of time, discussing and figuring out what to do. This meant I spent more time with Arjun, Anusha, Swati, Rishi, and occasionally the rest of our college friends.

After all the short, hectic trips, we all decided to take it easy and spend more time on the campus. Irrespective of our job locations, we all knew that it was inevitable that we were leaving the Mysore campus. We visited our favorite places on the campus multiple times and eat to our heart’s content. 

Finally, it was the day of project demos. Our team met early in the classroom and got everything ready. Other teams were also getting their projects ready for demo. At around 9:30 AM, the instructor came in with some paperwork. He started calling out teams one after the other. The demo was quite simple – we did not present to the whole class, rather the instructor approached the team and we gave him a demo.

Soon, it was our turn and the instructor approached us. He asked us about the project, its technical stack, a few use cases, and the implementation of various modules. We’d all prepared on various sections and answered him accordingly. After Myra’s demo of a module, the instructor noted something on his notepad and said, “Very good. Nice implementation and good documentation. Congratulations.”

We were all elated and thanked the instructor. Although we’d finished our project early, we were still tentative that morning and his remarks made us very happy. We high-fived one another and left the classroom. 

“We’ve officially completed our training. Now, all we have left to do is to get a class photo for the yearbook”, I said to Myra and Arjun.

“Why are you calling it a yearbook? It’s so high-school-like. We don’t get a book, we only get the class photo in front of the GEC2 building”, Arjun scolded.

“It will be yearbook to me. I almost feel as if we’ve completed college. I’ve learned much more here than I’ve ever learned in our four years of engineering.”, I said.

“True! Yearbook sounds apt to me”, Myra smiled at me. 

“Aren’t you guys worried about our job locations?”, I asked.

“We should never worry about something that we don’t have control over. The placement is done on a random basis and we can do nothing about it”, Arjun said.

“Agreed”, Myra replied. 

We walked around for a while when my phone alarm rang.

“Time for yearbook photo”, I said.

We walked towards the GEC2 building. About 200 of our classmates were near the building. The photographer was ready with his camera setup. He asked us all to stand on the stairs in front of GEC2 and we all did. He took various snaps and gave us a thumbs up. 

“Yayyyyyy”, everybody shouted.

“See, this feels like college graduation”, I said to Arjun to which he nodded.

Soon, people started dissembling. However, the three of us did not. We could not. It was undoubtedly the best graduation of our lives and we wanted to savor every minute……

-- To be continued

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.

"XMAS" - Infosys, Mysore Diaries - #BlogChatterA2Z

 After the Wayanad trip, we started working on the project diligently. We were almost done with the implementation and were integrating the modules. There were 4 days left for the demo. 

“On the whole, the project is working okay.”, Myra said after doing the first round of testing.

“Let’s do a few rounds of testing. We should follow a schedule for testing the project. Let’s aim to finish testing by tomorrow. We can simultaneously fix the bugs found during testing”, Swati said. 

Arjun and I started creating a schedule in an excel sheet. 

“By the way, what are the plans for Christmas? It’s in 2 days and we have a holiday.”, Anusha asked. Rishi and she were making suggestions to the schedule. 

 “There’s a famous church in Mysore, I don’t remember the name of it. It is one of the tallest churches in Asia. Let’s go to it”, I suggested. Having read books like “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels and Demons” by Dan Brown, I was a fan of churches and their architecture. 

“But it’ll be busy on Christmas”, Rishi said.

“Maybe we can go after the morning prayer. I am sure they’ll not close the church very soon on Christmas day”, I insisted.

Everybody agreed to the plan. 

“Let’s also ask our college friends. They can join us if interested”, Myra suggested. We sent an email to our college friends and resumed testing our project.

The next day was also spent testing the project and fixing the bugs. The documentation was also ready. We had officially finished the project. We zipped our project files and uploaded them to Google Drive just to make sure we don’t lose any data.

*

On Dec 25^th, around 16 of us gathered at the main gate of the campus. 

“Merry Christmas”, we all greeted each other.

We then boarded the local bus to CBS (Central Bus Station), Mysore. 

We hired several autos to “St. Philomena’s Church”. The church was a few minutes away from the bus station. 

We got into the auto and were all cramped up. Myra, Swati, Anusha, and I adjusted behind while Arjun sat with the driver. 

“So Priya, tell me about this church”, Myra asked. 

“It’s a Catholic church. It is one of the tallest churches in Asia and also the second-largest in the continent. Its inspired by a famous church in Europe.”, I said.

“Is the place busy today?”, Arjun asked the driver in broken Kannada. 

“Very busy, you should wait for your turn. You can buy candles outside”, the driver spoke in Telugu which surprised us.

“Most of Kannadigas can speak Telugu”, he said. 

Soon, he stopped in front of the Church. All our friends from college started getting down the autos.

“How tall”, someone exclaimed. 

A tall building was in front of us. It had a gothic-style architecture and some patterns in white etched on its surface. We had to strain our necks to look at the cross which was in red color. It indeed was an architectural marvel and looked like a European church. We walked towards it fascinated. 

There were many people surrounding it. We walked towards the entrance when we saw a large group of people headed in a direction. We followed them and saw a white statue of St. Joseph holding baby Jesus and the statue read “Spouse of blessed Virgin Mary”. 

We then walked around the church and came across a white statue of a woman.  The statue read “St.Philomena, Virgin & Martyr”. “Sad but beautiful”, I said. 

We then walked towards the church gate’s entrance and bought some candles. On entering the magnificent church, we were surprised to see that the floor plan resembled a cross. The altar that lay in front of us was high, enormous, and was shaped like a cone. Large statues of Jesus and angels adorned the hall. There were flowers all over the altar and we were spellbound by the Christmas decoration. 

We were in a queue to reach the altar and looked around the hall. The large hall was full of benches and could seat more than 500 people. There were stained glass windows depicting scenes from the birth of Christ, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension of Christ. It was a spectacular church. 

In a few minutes, we reached the altar and lighted candles. On our way back, we sat on the benches and were taking in our surroundings. A few people passing us wished us “Merry Christmas” and we wished them back. 

We came out of the church and walked around the church once again, admiring it. We then stepped out of the church and headed back to the campus to have the Christmas special lunch in the Fiesta food court.

On our way back, I was reliving my moments in the church and remained silent throughout our journey. It was such an honor to visit the church on Christmas Day…. 

-- To be continued

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.

"Wayanad" - Infosys, Mysore Diaries - #BlogChatterA2Z

 The project that we had started working on was in full swing. We had 10 days to finish the project and our motto was to try and finish it within a week so that we could relax later. After all, we were nearing our time on the campus. 

We had started working on the project on Tuesday. By the end of Tuesday, we were ready with the analysis. On Wednesday, we started working in groups of 2 on the design document. Anusha and I started working together on some use cases of flowchart diagrams. Though we would waste time once in a while, we were good when it came to completing the task on time. By the end of Wednesday, our whole group got substantial work done. 

During dinner, Anusha said, “We only have 2 more weekends on the campus. How about we go on a trip to Kerala? ”

“Nice idea. But will we get reservations now?”, I asked.

“Of course. Some of my friends from other colleges have recently been to Wayanad in Kerala. They gave great reviews”, she said.

Everybody agreed to this. The best part of this trip was having information on travel, hotel, and itinerary. We just had to make reservations.

On Friday night, the 6 of us along with Chetan, Suraj some other friends of Arjun all started to Wayanad in a 20-seater vehicle. We sang songs during the journey. After a good 6-7 hours, we reached a beautiful resort called the Sunrise Valley resort. The resort had small cottages, a swimming pool, a basketball area, and separate fire pits for each cottage. It was dark by the time we reached it and a few fire pits were lit. The whole area had a serene vibe to it. 

“Let’s spend some time in the resort too. It’s beautiful”, Chetan said.

We went to our cottages. Each cottage could accommodate 6-7 people. All the girls chose a cottage and entered it, the room was spacious and had bunker beds. I chose the topmost berth. We got freshened and headed to the dining section for dinner. The boys also joined us and we had dinner. We were 10 in number and it was nice to relax and have good food. The unique dish on the menu was the pineapple pickle. It was tangy and sweet. After a nice meal, we all retired to bed. We wanted to try the firepit on the following day.

The next day we woke up early, had filter coffee and breakfast (idli), and headed out to visit the Meenmutty waterfalls. This involved a short trek where we had to descend a hill to enjoy the waterfalls. 

“After the Scandagiri Hills trek, this seems quite simple”, Arjun boasted to his friends. They haven’t been to the Scandagiri hill trek.

The waterfall was lovely, we tried being adventurous and enjoyed the falls thoroughly. The magic was in the air which helped us dry our clothes very quickly.

“Let’s go back to the resort and take a shower. We’ll head out to other places after lunch”, Rishi said.

After enjoying waterfalls and the trek, we all went back to the resort, took shower. For lunch, we wanted to eat authentic Kerala food and went to a Dhaba like place which served meals. The food was great, everything had coconut in it. After a leisure lunch, we visited the coffee and tea plantations in the surrounding area. 

At night, we went back to the resort and asked our host to fire the firepits near our cottage. We had dinner at the resort in the same dining area as the day before and after dinner, headed to the firepit area. Around the fire were a seating area and low benches. After a day full of activity, it was nice to sit around it.

After a while, we played music. Soon, the boys started dancing. Arjun danced to the Dabang title song and he had great moves. Soon everybody joined Arjun and we did a mini-flash mob to the Dabang title track. We danced to some other great party numbers as well. After a few hours of dancing and fun, we all retired to bed. 

The next morning, we all woke up with great excitement to visit the Edakkal caves. Also, we were leaving after the caves and we had to check out from the hotel as well. We packed everything, checked out and bid farewell to the lovely hosts. 

We then started to the Edakkal caves. These were supposed to be natural caves representing the prehistoric settlement from 6000 BC.

We reached the caves and were not surprised to see the queue. We joined the queue which was leading a trail of steps down the sea level. We got down the steps and entered the caves.

It was ice cold and the whole area had strong earthy and moldy scents. A tour guide was talking about the history of the caves back to the Stone age and explained some of the carvings on the walls. The carvings were of men, animals, and man-made instruments. 

There was a possibility of connection to the Indus valley civilization. Also, the Edakkal caves were not technically caves, but rather a cleft, rift, or rock shelter caused by a piece of rock splitting away from the main body. 

After a good tour of the caves, we took the stairs and went back to our mini-van. We had a sumptuous meal in a restaurant nearby and went back to the campus. On our way back, we continued talking about the caves. Caves with history are quite intriguing.

But after going back to the campus, all we could talk about was the most intriguing part of the Wayanad trip. And it was Arjun dance moves to the Dabang title track….

-- To be continued

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.

"Vista Food Court" - Infosys, Mysore Diaries - #BlogChatterA2Z

 After our hurried trip to Udipi, we came back to the campus on Sunday night. 

“For the first time, I feel relaxed coming back to the campus on a Sunday night. We have no important classes tomorrow nor an upcoming test. Feels great”, I said.

“Same here”, Myra replied, “I can finally spend some quality time with Chetan”

“Spend all the time while you can. We have about 14 days left on the campus. “, Arjun replied.

Myra looked taken aback and worried, “You’re right. Let me call Chetan right away “

Arjun and I looked at each other. We sped up so that Myra could talk to him in private.

“Lucky fellow”, Arjun said.

“Who?”, I asked

“Of course, Chetan”, he replied.

“Do you like her?”, I asked without thinking.

“She’s a good friend. Nothing more. I did get a little upset when she started dating Chetan and that did confuse me. But would I ask her out? No. I cannot spoil what we have by asking either of you out.”, he said. I was surprised that he’d given such a long explanation without any prompting. 

“Nice thinking. But didn’t you like anybody in these 6 months?”, I asked. Arjun smiled. 

“Come on, you must’ve liked someone. I had a crush on Gaurav. Myra dated Chetan. “, I chided him.

“It's a secret.”, he smiled mischievously. 

I was annoyed and did not prompt him anymore. 

“Priya, where do you think we’ll be posted?”, he asked me after a minute.

“Hopefully, Hyderabad. We listed Hyderabad and Bangalore as our preferences, right?”, I said in a worried tone.

That was the only worry remaining: our posting location. 

“We’ll have to wait a week”, Arjun said.

“Yes”, without realizing it, we had reached our hostel. Myra was far behind us. 

“Let’s meet tomorrow? She seems to be busy.”, Arjun said.

“Sure! Good night, take care”, I replied.

I always felt nice talking to Arjun, he was a friend in a true sense. No judgements, no complications, just a friend with whom you can have both simple and deep conversations. 

                                                                                               *

The next morning, we had a short session about projects. The instructor gave us an overview of what they’d be expecting from a typical project.

“You have about 10 days to complete the project. You are all expected to work in teams. Each team can have about 5 members but that’s flexible. We have a list of projects and you can choose one. If you have ideas of your own, please talk to me.”, he said. I mentally chose my team members.

“Each team has to work on all steps of a typical SDLC (Software Development life cycle) which include: Requirements gathering, Analysis, Design, and Implementation. You have to submit deliverables for each step of the SDLC. For e.g., for the “Design” phase, you’ll have to submit a high-level and low-level design document. I’ll share a document with all the details. Your project is deemed to be complete when you submit all the required documents. Also, on the tenth day, you are supposed to give a demo of your project. You can now form groups and you are welcome to work with your groups in this classroom”, he concluded.

Anusha, Rishi, Swati, and I gave one another a thumbs up. 

I could see Myra and Arjun walking towards us. 

“Let’s check with the instructor. We’ll be a team of 6”, Arjun said.

“You are smart”, Rishi said to Arjun. 

“Of course, anybody could guess our group members”, he said.

“Let’s go”, Myra said. We walked towards the instructor.

“So quick?”, the instructor said, looking at the 6 of us.

“Sir. Can our group have 6 members?”, Myra asked.

“Sure. Would you like to register your group?”, he asked us to which we agreed. We finished the registration and came out of the class.

“We have 10 days to finish the project starting from tomorrow. So today, we are officially free. What shall we do?”, I asked our group, coming out of the class.

“Let’s explore the campus. We haven’t been at all the places on the campus”, Rishi said.

“Nice idea. Let’s make a list of the places that we haven’t explored on the campus.“, Swati said.

We went to the Magna food court and came up with a list. 

“Let’s visit the place where the word “INFOSYS” has been formed from a cluster of buildings. We can see this from the aerial view of the campus”, Myra suggested.

We all agreed, had a quick lunch, and started to the place. This was located far deeper inside the campus. It was nice that we had lunch before walking to this place. After a while, we reached the location and could see the buildings. They were just normal buildings and did not look as if they were intentionally placed to form the word “INFOSYS”.

“This is clever”, I said.

“But disappointing. It’s just some buildings.”, Anusha said.

“Fortunately, there’s a beautiful food court nearby. It’s called Vista and it’s not operational all the time. It’s mostly for the ICICI employees working on the campus”, Rishi said.

“Have you been here before”, Swati asked him.

“No, but Manish told me about it.”, he replied.

Arjun pointed to a sign. It said “Vista food court” and had directions to reach it.

We walked towards the food court. We reached a clearing and on crossing it, there was a beautiful building which was surrounded by greenery. It had an open layout and a large shed-like roof. The words “Vista food court” were etched on the top of the door. 

We took the few stairs in front of it and walked inside. The food court was large and spacious. We looked around –there were a few stalls but there weren’t any vendors. 

“Guess, it’s not operational”, Myra said.

We stayed there for a few minutes walking around out the spacious hall.

“Time to go, not much to explore”, I said and we all walked out of the food court.

It was a beautiful food court but wish some stalls were operational. 

“Okay, next location: Mythri food court”, Anusha said and we all started walking towards it…..

-- To be continued

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.