"Scandagiri Hills" - Infosys, Mysore Diaries - #BlogChatterA2Z

 The next week passed by very quickly, we were all working hard for the JPA module. By Friday afternoon, we finished our exam and were all extremely exhausted. 

Myra, Arjun, and I met our college friends for lunch. Everybody seemed exhausted and hungry. After a few minutes of silence and frantic eating, people started talking. Manish who was kind of the leader of the boys said, “All we need is a good break. It’s been a while since we all went out on a trip. Let’s go a trip”, he said.

Myra and I looked at each other, we haven’t told anybody about our Coorg trip. We remained silent, Arjun who was sitting opposite us did not say anything too. 

“Let’s go to Coorg”, Teju said. 

My heart sank. 

“No”, Anusha said instinctively. Anusha and Swati also came to Coorg with us but they were sitting far away and we couldn’t communicate with them. I panicked, what if she blurts out about our trip.

Maybe, it’s not a big deal if we tell them about our Coorg trip. But we’ve kept it as a secret for so long and also lied about it for so long. Telling them about our trip now seemed like a bad idea. I cursed our stupid idea of keeping it a secret.  

 “Why not, it’s a beautiful place?”, Teju asked. Arjun was about to say something when Rishi interrupted.

“Coorg is more of a scenic place. Why don’t we go on a trek? It’ll be a nice adventure for a group of 20”, he said. Two or more people nodded. 

Soon, more people were warming up to this idea and I felt relieved.

“Where’s the trek?”, I asked.

“Near Bangalore. It’s called Scandagiri Hills, and it's famous for trekking and sightseeing. Its surrounded by the famous Nandi Hills. The specialty of Scandagiri Hills is that the hilltop is very close to the clouds. Once you reach the top, you’d actually be standing inside the clouds.”, he said.

“How long is the trek?”, Manish asked Rishi.

“About 4 – 5 hours, we can go for either sunrise trek in the morning or for sunset trek in the night. You’ll actually be near the stars at night but getting back might be tricky.”, he said.

We were all fascinated by this idea and decided to go on a morning trek. Our plan was to hire a mini-bus from our campus, start at 7PM that evening to Bangalore airport, halt at the Bangalore airport for a few hours and reach Scandagiri Hills by 4 AM. The entire trek would take about 4 hours, so we would reach the hilltop by sunrise. We would come back from the trek by 9/10 AM, have brunch and reach the campus by Saturday evening. We planned it such that we had enough time for rest.

“Get extra layers”, Manish said as we all started leaving from lunch.

We went back to our hostel rooms and I started packing clothes for the trek. I never went on a trek before and going on a trek with 20 people seemed exciting. 

At around 7PM, we all boarded the min-bus and reached the Bangalore airport. We stayed there for a while and started to Scandagiri Hills at around 2 AM. We were all sleepy but full of anticipation. We reached the hills at 3:30 AM. The hills were so high that I had to strain my neck to look at the hilltop. Would I be able to do it was my question? 

A person, supposedly guide walked towards us and we booked him for his guidance. There was nobody in the vicinity but the guide assured us that soon there’ll be a lot of people trekking the hills. Without further ado, the guide started walking along a pathway and we followed him. That path seemed straight forward with only a couple of stones on the way. I wondered if the trek would be as simple throughout. That’s when the guide started climbing the hill on all fours. Some of us stopped walking. 

“Should we actually climb the hill on all fours?”, someone said.

“Yes, seems like it”, Arjun replied.

“But it's so steep”, they said to which no one replied.

We had signed up for this, we had no other option than to do it. Soon, one after the other, we all started climbing the mountain. We slowed down at times but I could say that we were at a moderate pace. Halfway through, someone who was ahead of us shouted, “Don’t look down”.

We all looked down and I literally reeled. At that point, I realized what fear of heights feels like. I’d never been at such a height before and that’s probably the reason for my late realization. I found a lot of people experiencing the same. My mind completely blanked out but the logical side of me said – “You’ve no other option than to climb. Just keep going and don’t look down. Also, you’re not the first person who’d done this”

 Without a second thought and before my mind could trick me, I started climbing at a faster pace. I did not look back even though people from behind tried speaking to me. When we halted for rest, I only looked upwards. Finally, before I knew it we were on the top of the hill. 

Everybody started shouting on successfully having reached the hilltop and I joined them. And then, I looked around. It was breathtaking! We were actually in a cloud – it was misty all around and slightly raining too. 

I was still taking all this in when someone pointed to the sky. The sun was shining orange and seemed very close. It was magical. Even the most avid photographers took a while to take out their cameras.

 

Once the surprise set in, we started going around and exploring the place. The surroundings were spectacular, we got the best view of the Nandi hills. It is then that we realized how cold it was, nice that we wore all the extra layers. 

The cherry on the top was the tea, maggi vendors, and a clean restroom. We all had Maggi and tea and spent a while walking around. That’s when one of us spotted a temple, it was Lord shiva’s – I had expected this, there had to be a temple here. We went in one after the other and had a quick darshan.

After spending a good 1 hour there, it was time to go down. I don’t want to go into the details of our return trip but it was very strenuous to climb down the extremely steep hill. But we were still in the aw of what we saw upstairs and hardly any of us complained. Soon, we were down the hill and looked up feeling proud of our trek. 

After coming back to the campus, while limping back to our hostel, I still had a smile on my face. This would remain one of the best experiences of my life.

-- To be continued

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.

"Romance in the Air" - Infosys, Mysore Diaries - #BlogChatterA2Z

 Planning a trip to Coorg at the last minute was a challenge but keeping it a secret after coming back was a bigger challenge. Myra was facing the brunt of it as she did not inform Chetan about the trip. He kept pestering her about why she hadn’t met him over the weekend and she was dodging his questions. 

Not informing Chetan about the trip seemed a little unusual to me but I did not question her. I knew that she’d tell me if she wanted to. Soon enough, she knocked on my door one day and said to me, “How do I tell Chetan that I need space sometimes?”

I processed this for a few seconds.

“As far as I know, honesty is the best way to go. Just tell him, he’ll understand. “, I said.

“It’s not easy, Priya”, she said.

“I know, but it’s not right to avoid him and not tell him the truth. This will only affect your relationship. Moreover, you both don’t spend as much time as before because he’s not our classmate anymore.”, I told her.

Myra looked anxious. 

“You’re right. I’ve been hurting him a lot lately, I need to make it up to him. Maybe I’ll plan something special for him this Friday.”, she said.

On Thursday, she sent Arjun and me an email that said, 

“Hey guys, am planning a surprise dinner date with Chetan. I looked up some restaurants on the campus and looks like the Floating restaurant is pretty famous. Do you guys want to check out the place tonight?”

Before I could reply to the email, Arjun replied, “YES!!!!!”

I smiled and replied, “Sure, what time?”

*

At about 6:40 PM, the three of us started to the famous Floating restaurant. I haven’t heard much about it except that it was surrounded by a pool. It was rumored to be the most beautiful restaurant on the campus. 

“The restaurant is supposed to look splendid at night”, Myra said with anticipation. 

“Can’t wait to see it”, I replied. 

“There you go”, Arjun said, pointing to a sign that said, “Floating restaurant”.

There was a 2 storied building in front of us. Frankly speaking, it did not look great, there was a lawn in front of the building and we crossed it and entered the building. On entering the building, there was a narrow walkway. Myra pointed to the walkway. It led to a wide pergola-like room. 

All of this was normal but the fascinating part of the whole restaurant was that it was located on a pond! We stood on the walkway and looked at the pond – it had large, beautiful fish in it. The whole place looked spectacular and well-lit. 

 “Woah!! This is the most romantic place I’ve ever seen.”, Arjun said.

“It’s the perfect place for a date”, I said and looked at Myra.

Her eyes were wide and brimming with happiness. I was very happy for her. 

I was looking around the whole place and I spotted a corner. It had a creeper plant surrounding the chairs and also had the best view of the water. 

A couple was sitting there, they were holding hands and seemed to be in a different world. It was too intimate, I looked away. 

“I’ll make a reservation”, Myra said. 

“Wait a second”, I said and looked back at that corner. I knew that I might be disturbing the couple but Myra was making a reservation.

 “Myra, you guys should sit there”, I said, pointing to that corner.

“Woah! Perfect!”, she said and suddenly turned away. Guess the couple was looking at us.

She nudged us and we walked away hastily. Myra made a reservation at the reception and we left the restaurant.

On our way back, my mind kept revisiting that corner. It was such a beautiful place and was tailor-made for romance. How nice would it be to go on a date there! After going back to the hostel, I switched on the TV and started switching channels. The song, “Kaate nahin kat te” from the movie, Mr.India was on. I smiled to myself and watched the song. Sometimes, all you need is a beautiful location and a lovely song to feel romance all around you….

-- To be continued

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.

"Quiet escape to Coorg" - Infosys, Mysore Diaries - #BlogChatterA2Z

 After successful completion of the “POJO” module, we were all getting ready to leave the classroom when Arjun signaled Myra and me to stay back. We were curious to know why. 

After everybody left the classroom, Arjun said to us, “The next module starts on Monday and we have this weekend off. Let’s plan something for the weekend? We can do some research here, book tickets, and then leave for the day. Don’t want too many people joining us in case we don’t get tickets.”

“Good idea. How about we visit a tourist location nearby? “, I said immediately.

“Let’s check for some places nearby”, Myra said and switched on her computer. In about a minute, we had a list on the internet and one of the places suggested was Coorg. I’d heard a lot about this place through my grandfather and I was excited to visit this place. Myra and Arjun were okay with Coorg and we started reading more about this place. 

Suddenly Anusha entered our classroom and I shouted without thinking, “We are going to Coorg”. 

Arjun looked furious. He had a thing about going on trips with too many girls and all the chatter.

“Oh really. Can I join?”, Anusha said. 

“Sure”, Myra replied ignoring Arjun.

She joined us and we started looking at tickets, hotel, travel, etc. We were lucky to find tickets at the last minute. But it was just for 5 people. 

“Should we book?”, I asked them.

“Can we ask Swati? I always hang out with her.”, Anusha asked. 

“Okay, but please don’t tell anybody else. We don’t have tickets and it’ll be rude to deny.”, I said. 

We booked the tickets and made all the reservations. That afternoon during lunch, when college friends were discussing plans for the weekend, we stayed mum. We had booked a mini-van and were to leave that evening. 

At about 6PM, we were in the mini-van having spent the entire afternoon dodging people, calls, and questions. 

Finally, when the car left the campus, all the girls shrieked in relief. Arjun, who sat beside the driver, hushed us and seemed extremely irritated. 

                                                                                    *

In about 3 hours or so, we reached a hotel in Madikeri, a place in Coorg, and halted for the night.

The next morning, we woke up early to visit a place called “Raja’s Seat”, which was predominantly a garden with beautiful flowering plants but also had a breathtaking view. This garden was supposedly the favorite place to relax and rejuvenate for the Kings who ruled Coorg. 

Watching the sunrise from this place was so special and we all enjoyed the peace and calm of the place. 

After a quick breakfast on the way, we visited the Madikeri Fort which was built in the seventeenth century by a local ruler and later captured and restructured by Tipu Sultan. The fort had an old-world charm to it and we all admired the simplicity of the place.

We then had a hurried lunch and started to a place called Namdroling Monastery (also known as the golden temple), located about an hour away. We were most interested in visiting this place because of its popular Tibetan Buddhist architecture. 

On entering the huge entrance that had Dalai Lama’s portrait on it, there was a lot of open space and greenery around. A huge temple stood in front of us. 

We saw monks in traditional attire, entering the temple. We followed them, entered the large temple, and were surprised by the high ceilings and huge Buddha statues. The Buddha statues were gold in color and the artwork was very detailed. The whole place was glowing because of all the colors. 

We stayed a few minutes within the temple and headed out. We sat for a few minutes outside the temple, the whole place had serene vibes to it and we were awestruck by the architecture of the place. 

We left the place in some time and went back to our hotel. After a good night’s rest, the next day morning, we visited Talakaveri. This place was the source of the Kaveri river and a small tank had been erected at the origin. The place also had a famous temple dedicated to Goddess Kaveramma. 

After checking out the tank and visiting the temple, we quickly visited the coffee plantations of Coorg. The place had acres and acres of green meadows full of coffee, tea, and spice plantations.  We had Coorg special coffee there which was amazing and also took many pictures in the meadows. 

It was almost 3 PM, we had a late lunch and started back to the campus. 

This was a hurried trip but it was definitely a success with such last-minute planning. We sure had big smiles on our way back. 

-- To be continued

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.

"POJO Module" - Infosys, Mysore Diaries - #BlogChatterA2Z

 After a day of rest and peace, I went back to training with a positive mind. The instructor, Gaurav noticed me but did not ask why I hadn’t returned to the class yesterday. Halfway through the class, when we were all working on a problem, he came to my place casually and said, “Hope you’re feeling okay”. 

I nodded and did not say anything. Having nothing else to say, he walked back to the deice awkwardly.

“Guess he realized that he was very rude yesterday”, Anusha said. 

“I don’t care anymore”, I said. Rishi listened to our conversation and gave me a thumbs up. 

*

The week passed by quickly and soon it was time for the Comprehensive exam (called “compri” exam). The Compre exam was like a half-yearly exam and it was a big deal. Trainees who cleared the compri exam and had a certain GPA were promoted to “Stream training”, the streams being either “Java”, “Dotnet”, “Finacle”, etc.  Not clearing the compri exam meant going home without a job. 

The exam itself was rumored to be straight forward than all the module tests so far. But we would have questions from all the modules covered so far and this required a lot of revision. Weeks passed by quickly with a lot of studying in the GEC1 building and we would go home late around 11 PM. 

Finally, the day of the exam came by and the atmosphere was quite tense. I looked at the questions, they were not so tough. Soon enough, I finished the exam and nervously clicked on “Finish”. The Devsquare application displayed, “Calculating results” and in a few seconds, displayed my score. I had passed the exam and also had the required GPA to continue stream training. I gave a sigh of relief. I then looked around and saw people finishing their exams and checking scores. Soon it was all over. All my friends have passed the exam with flying colors. 

We had all officially completed the first half of the training and were now ready for the next half, “Stream training”.

*

“Hope we all get selected for the same stream. Else, we’ll have to go to different classes and our timings will also vary. How does the stream placement happen?”, Myra said. 

“People are selected for streams randomly. It’s like a lottery system”, Arjun said.

This random placement method seemed fair looking at a high-level view but what if we get selected for a stream that we are not interested in? For example, I was okay with either Java or Dotnet stream but was dead against being placed in the Finacle stream. It involved training of a product called Finacle. Why would anyone be interested in being training for an exclusive product instead of a broader subject like Java? I tutted loudly.

“When can we expect our placement emails?”, I asked them.

“Anytime today”, Myra said.

I hung up the call, it was a group call. It was Saturday and we were all resting in the hostel after all the preparation for the Compri test. I resumed the movie on TV and in some time, I got a call from Anusha.

“People are getting their placement emails. Let’s head to the classroom”, she said in an urgent tone. We could not access Infosys email from mobile phones. I called up Myra, Arjun and got ready in a minute. We all met in front of our building and without speaking, we started jogging to the training center. 

*

“JAVA”, I exclaimed. 

“Me too”, Anusha replied. I looked at Arjun, “Java”, he mouthed. I gave him a thumbs up and turned back to look at Myra. 

“Java”, she said, her eyes were wide. I felt elated. But for some reason, Myra did not look as happy as we did. I immediately went to her place and she pointed at Chetan’s screen. 

“Dotnet”, it said. I felt bad for them but did not know what to say. I did not like Chetan much but I had gotten used to him and he was a part of our group now. I gently patted Myra and went back to my place. I knew they needed space. 

*

Soon, it was Monday and the first day of Stream training. Our training center was going to be the magnificent GEC2. I entered our classroom and to my pleasant surprise, my place was no longer in the first row. Anusha, Rishi, Swati, and I were in the middle rows. Myra and Arjun sat one row ahead of us. 

The instructor entered the class and gave an introduction to stream training in JAVA. 

“POJO”, he said, “is the most important module and it covers a major percentile of your GPA”.

I opened the training material and looked at the module, “POJO”. “POJO” stands for “Plain Old Java Objects”. The module seemed very intense with many slides and never-ending practice session examples. 

“The POJO module covers the fundamentals of JAVA. If you pay attention to this module, I can guarantee you success in-stream training”, he concluded.

I decided to take this course very seriously. I knew how GPA worked. I had a bitter experience with the course RDBMS in “Generics Training”, it had badly impacted my overall GPA. 

The instructor looked at our grave faces and said,

“Chill guys. Don’t worry now. POJO is the second module. The first module of stream training is very simple”, he said.

                                        *

The first module got finished in 3-4 days and before we knew it, training for the POJO module began. I don’t want to go into the details but the 1 week of POJO training went by with a lot of focus. We all worked very hard the entire week. On the day of the POJO – exam, I finished the test and when the Dev Square application displayed “Passed” along with my score, I felt extremely relieved and happy.

-- To be continued

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.

"Oasis" - Infosys, Mysore Diaries - #BlogChatterA2Z

The day after the long walk, I got out of my bed with great difficulty and somehow managed to go to class. 

Myra had asked me on the way to class, “What? How come you were out until 3:30 AM? Are you mad?”

It still did not make sense that I spent so much time with Anusha and Rishi but when it gave me happiness, why question? 

I sat in my place when Rishi came running into the class. He did not look sleep-deprived like me. I looked at Anusha, she did not look sleepy at all. How come I was the only one who looked as if I hadn’t slept for a thousand years! 

Also, I’d expected awkwardness between us three after last night’s long walk but I did not even feel an ounce of it anymore. Maybe that’s how friendships are born, unexpected and deep.

Gaurav, our instructor took attendance and started the session. I once again got “Good luck” emails from Myra and Arjun. Somehow, I was not interested in Gaurav like before, I think my fondness for him lasted for about a week. Guess that’s why they call these short-lived feelings “crush” and nothing serious. On the other hand, the word “Love” sounds so serious, it has a different feel to it too. I was thinking along the same lines when Anusha nudged me. Gaurav had stopped the class was looking at me gravely. I panicked and looked around. The whole class was silent. 

“Yes, ma'am. Does my class sound like a lullaby to you?”, he said.

I was shocked at his rudeness. I couldn’t believe Gaurav could be so stern!

“No sir”, I stumbled. 

“I expect my students to be attentive in class. Can you please go out, have some tea and come back when you’re ready?”, he said.

“Sorry Sir, I am always attentive in classes. I am not feeling well today.”, I said. I felt quite indignant, this happened for the first time. What’s the big deal?

“Which is why am suggesting you to come back when you’re ready.”, he insisted. At this point, I felt insulted and left the classroom without speaking another word. I was able to feel all eyes in the classroom following me. 

So much for having a crush on him all these days! I was angry, humiliated, and sleepy. Instead of waiting there for 10 minutes and go back to the class, I started walking very fast and did not stop. I'd decided to skip the class and go straight to my room. I knew this was reckless but I did not care. I was getting messages to my phone but I did not check them. After walking for 15 minutes or so, I reached my hostel. I was surprised to reach it so quickly, it usually took 20-25 minutes. 

However, on reaching the hostel, I did not feel like going to the room and walked towards the Oasis food court. I wanted to gather my thoughts, have some tea or coffee, and then go back to the hostel room. 

The Oasis food court was a 5-10-minute walk from our hostel. On seeing the umbrella-shaped familiar food court, I felt better. The food court was large and spacious and had a lot of ventilation due to the umbrella-like canopy. 

 Also, this was home – we came to this food court at least once a day either for lunch or dinner! I stepped inside it and choose a table. I looked around, the food court which was always buzzing with trainees had almost nobody around.

I checked if Café Coffee Day was open and walked towards it, ordered a Cappuccino, and went back to my table. I checked my phone – there were messages from Myra and Arjun, they were worried about me. 

In about 5 minutes, I picked up my order and had a sip of the coffee. I felt alive. With each sip, I felt much better, and by the time I finished the whole cup, I had a slightly positive outlook on what happened. This is what coffee does to me.  

I started sending a text to Myra and Arjun when I suddenly got Anusha’s call. It must be break time.

“Where are you?”, she asked.

“Oasis”, I said. 

“She’s at Oasis”, she said to someone and hung up the call. I was puzzled. In about 5 minutes, I was just about to leave the food court when I saw Myra, Arjun, Anusha, and Rishi walking towards me! I was shell-shocked. They had bunked the class for me and I was touched by their gesture. Tears began welling up in my eyes. One look at me and they seemed to understand. 

 “I’ll get some coffee, am sleepy”, Arjun said in a pretentiously normal tone and walked towards Coffee Day.

“I’ll help him with the order”, Myra said and followed Arjun. 

“I am very sleepy, so I’ll help them”, Anusha said, feeling stupid of her lame excuse. 

I laughed. Soon, Rishi also left on the pretext of helping them.

I wiped my tears and gave a happy sigh. 

When they came back with coffees, everything was back to normal and we all spoke as if nothing has happened. Since that day, the Oasis food court grew closer to my heart.

-- To be continued

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.

"Night strolls & New friends" - Infosys, Mysore Diaries - #BlogChatterA2Z

 After our tip-off on “Enthiran” movie tickets, we became quite popular amongst our college friends. They thanked us profusely and invited us to dinner the following day, which was Sunday. 

“The Golden Grass restaurant is located right outside the campus. Let’s be there by 7PM”, Manish said. He was the leader of the boys and usually planned everything.

Myra, Arjun, and I had plans of going to the Golden Grass the following week but we were happy to go with a larger group and agreed to the plan.

The next day at about 6:20 PM, around 15 of us gathered in front of our hostel to go to the restaurant. We walked to the main gate and reached the restaurant by 7PM. 

The restaurant had a beautiful entrance and on entering it, it had large open grounds like a resort and had small huts, one each for a dinner party.

Looking at the long queue, we were glad to have a reservation and were shown to our hut very soon. It was beautiful inside. About 2-3 tables were joined and we all took our seats. We ordered almost every appetizer that was on the menu and ordered biryani for the main course. It felt nice to spend time with our college friends. Soon, the appetizers came by and they were delicious. The food had a very dhaba-like flavor to it just like the hotel. The main course was very good and so were the deserts. After a scrumptious meal, we paid the bill and started to the hotel.

We were all walking towards our hostel and almost reached it when Anusha said, “Does anyone want to come for a night stroll?”

It was around 10PM and sounded like a bad idea, the next day being Monday. However, I could not say “no” the idea of going for a night stroll in such a beautiful campus. 

“I’ll join you, but let’s come back soon”, I said.

Nobody else wanted to join us and they all went back to the hostel. We were just about to start when Rishi, who sat beside Anusha joined us. 

Anusha and I looked in surprise to see who joined us. We were both a little wary of him because he was quite observant and teased us quite often.

“Can I join you?”, Rishi said in apprehension.

“Of course”, I said.

 “Which path shall we take?”, he added.

“Let’s just explore”, Anusha said.

The three of us started walking and initially spoke about the classes and lectures. 

Rishi then said to us, “How come we never met in college?”. This led to a discussion on our college days.  We spoke about our classmates, seniors, all the ragging, friends, crushes, love stories, and so on. We just went on and on and on. We did not care how far we were going because we knew that we were safe on this well-lit campus. I kept checking my watch from time to time at first. After a point when it crossed midnight, I stopped checking time. I just wanted our conversation to go on and only stop when we’d finally shared everything that we wanted to. 

After a while, my eyes felt heavy and right on cue, Anusha said, “Let’s go back?”. I checked the time, it was 3:30 AM. Luckily, we were not very far from the hostel and within 10 minutes, we reached it. 

There was an awkward silence before we left. I looked at Anusha and Rishi: never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that I’d do this with them. Within a few hours, we bonded so much that the three of us knew one another like old friends. I knew they were thinking the same. We finally said “bye” and left. On reaching my room, I closed the door and thought, “How come I never met them in college ?”….

-- To be continued

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.