Infosys, Mysore - "A" - Arena

Here's my first post in the #BlogchatterA2Z challenge. 

Please read my theme reveal post before reading the blog:

https://padminichilappagari.blogspot.com/2021/04/blogchattera2z-a2z-blogging-challenge.html

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“Let’s go to Arena?”, Myra asked. 

“What is that?”, I replied. 

“You’ll see”, she said.

Arenas, in general, remind us of big gatherings and I expected it to be a cricket ground. 

By the way, let me introduce myself. I am Priya and I am a trainee at Infosys, Mysore. For all the college hires of Infosys, it is mandatory to be trained at Mysore for a few months before being posted at a job location. Working for Infosys has always been my dream and it was even more special to have my two close friends from college, Myra & Arjun by my side. 

Okay, where were we? Aaah, yes. It was our first day on campus. We had just checked in to our allotted rooms in hostels and wanted to explore the area, maybe get some lunch. We started from our buildings and were almost panting by the time we reached the cricket ground (supposedly, Arena) that was 30 mins away.  

“Wow, Arena looks great”, I said looking at the cricket ground. 

Arjun shook his head and pointed me to a huge building. 

“OMG, what’s this place !! ”, I said, entering the building. The sheer size of the hall inside the building was intimidating.

“Arena’s a multilevel food court”, Arjun replied. 

True to his word, Arena was an open food court that could seat over 1000 people at a time and had many food stalls. I spotted Cafe Coffee Day right away. Options for breakfast, lunch, dessert, juice, tea, coffee were umpteen; you name it, you’d find it. Now, we were posed with a problem - Where do we start? What would you choose to eat in such a place!

“Biryani is supposedly popular here”, Myra helped.

“Okay, let’s have Biryani then”. 

We picked our order and chose a place overviewing the amphitheater. The biryani was indeed good, but it was not the food we were interested in. We couldn’t stop gaping at our surroundings - we could see the cricket ground as well. Arena was located cleverly between the ground and the magnificent amphitheater which made it an ideal location to hang out after a match or concert. With perfect ventilation, a nice view, and a sparse crowd, we were completely amazed by this place. Arjun was also pleased with the beautiful women around us and for a short while, he became the human version of a table fan, on swing mode. 

"Hey, there”, someone called. I looked away from “Juice Junction”. Two strangers were at our table. They introduced themselves as Chetan and Suraj. The guy named Chetan, specifically asked Myra: “We are in the same induction class as you three. Today, there’s a concert in the amphitheater. Care to join us? “, he said, pointing at the amphitheater. 

I was not surprised by this invitation, Myra got asked out a lot. I turned around to get a better look at Chetan - you could call him handsome but he had a steady gaze that made me uncomfortable. I immediately looked at Arjun who confirmed this. 

“Sorry, we have plans”, Myra said instantly. She must have felt it too.

“Come on, you’ll miss the concert, we don’t have another one in weeks. ”, he persisted. 

We politely refused and before they got chairs to join us at the table, we took our leave. 

“Too bad that we had to leave soon, I wanted to try the Juice Junction.”, I said.

“We have 6 more months to explore this place. Moreover, we don’t want to go to concerts with complete strangers on our very first day here”, Myra said, to which we agreed and started walking back. I suddenly had an inkling and looked back. Chetan was staring at us from the first floor of Arena. His expression was very intense and he had the same steady gaze as before. I increased my pace and did not turn back….

--To be continued

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge