In my opinion..: The Infosys, Mysore Diaries: "Dev Square" : #BlogChatterA2Z

Infosys training includes 6 days of induction, 3 months of Generics training, and 3 more months of Stream training. We were just done with our “honeymoon phase” (induction) and gearing up for the Generics training, which focused on the fundamental concepts of Software Development such as C language, Database systems, etc.

“The upcoming classes need focus and punctuality. Please reach the class early tomorrow.”, Arjun warned us during dinner on Sunday night, the night before the training.

“Are you worried about the two of us or just Priya?”, Myra teased to which Arjun and I glared at her. “You guys hold a record for breaking up after 1 date. Plus, you’re not awkward at all.”, she continued.

Before she could tease us further, we started walking out of the Oasis food court and headed towards the hostel area. Pretending to go out on a date with Arjun in order to plan Myra’s birthday was a bad idea!! After coming back from our “supposed” date, Myra was unbearable. Arjun, who couldn’t stand her teasing anymore, broke out and told her that we are not dating anymore. This led to more teasing and I suspected that it would go on for 2 more weeks, until her birthday. I resolved not to pay any attention to it but get ready for tomorrow’s session.

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The Generics training would take place in GEC - 1 (Global Education Center). We reached the building 20 minutes early and located our classroom. Our classroom was a large circular room with multiple rows of seating and looked like a mini auditorium. A center stage had a mike and a large projector screen.

Arjun was waving to us from the first row.

“Imagine your luck to be seated in the very first row”, I laughed.

For some reason, Arjun was still pointing us to the first row. We walked towards the first row, my heart skipped a beat. It was my employee id number on the placard.

“Oh, God! First row, first seat”, I said. I looked around, Anusha, our college friend was seated next to me. The entire row was filled with people from our college. We all exchanged hellos.

“I think you are seated in the last row.”, Anusha said to Myra's questioning glance.

“What!!! Yay!!”, Myra exclaimed and left.

The instructor entered the class at 8.59 AM and quickly introduced the attendance process. It was similar to entering OTP from your personal mobile, but you've to do it from your allotted computer. This system was very clever; there was no scope of marking fake attendance for your friends.

The instructor then introduced himself and turned on the projector.

“Excuse me, Sir”, someone said.

The entire class of 80 students looked at the door. It was Chetan and Suraj! I wanted to turn back and look at Myra but the instructor was right in front of me.

“Please come back for the next class”, he said.

“Sir, we had no idea that we’re not allowed into the building without ID cards, we forgot them in our hostel rooms.”, Chetan pleaded.

“Am sorry, come back for the next class. Now, enjoy a nice tea in the food court”, the instructor replied.

“Sorry sir”, they said and continued standing outside the class.

I felt bad for them.

The instructor started the class as though nothing happened. He introduced the course and the course agenda.

“You’ll have a theory, practical sessions and after the course ends, you’ll have to take a test. If your test scores and GPA are not good enough, you’ll be sent home.”, he said.

There was a collective sigh from the class.

“Dev Square”, he emphasized, “is going to decide the future of your training. It is a tool used for taking tests and will also report your scores. Now, let’s take a sample test.”, he said and came over to my computer.

“Now, what’s your name?”, he asked me.

“Priya”, I replied.

“Okay, Priya, why don’t you open the “Dev Square” application, it should be on your desktop.?”, he said.

“Okay good. Now, select a sample test. Click on “Basics of C”, “easy” level. Enter 5 for the number of questions. “, he directed.

A multiple-choice question was displayed on my screen.

“Now, enter your answer for it”, he continued. All the trainees around me leaned closer to me. This is why I hated sitting in the first row.

I entered an answer for it.

“Are you sure?”, he asked me. I nodded and clicked on next. A true or false question was displayed. This was getting to my nerves.

Somehow, I finished the rest of the test. The screen said “Finish and Submit”,

“Now, here comes the fun part.”, the instructor said.

I clicked on the Finish button. “Calculating Scores”, the screen said.

My heart started beating loudly. I could see people from the next 2-3 rows peeping at my screen, some people from the adjacent rows had actually come down to my place.

“80%”, the screen displayed. I just stared, I did not know if this was a good score or not.

“Passed”, the instructor declared. I sighed relief, the rest of the class started talking.

“But one more question and you’d have failed.”, he said.

I did not respond. The instructor went back to the dais and addressed the class.

“Focus on the course, practice examples and you’ll not have to worry about Dev Square”, he concluded the class. It was break time and people broke into chatter.

My heart was still beating fast. I hated Dev Square, it looked like a regular application but it definitely brought chills down my spine. I also hated sitting in the first row. To add to this, I saw Chetan and Suraj entering the classroom. I pretended not to look at them. They crossed me and walked towards the end of the class.

“Are you tensed?”, Anusha asked me.

“Yes, a little”, I replied and turned back to look at Myra, I wanted to go out for a break.

Chetan was seated next to Myra and looked like they were engrossed in a deep conversation !!!