Mysore DC- The Place to Be

"Did you find your room?"
"Yes, Appa."
"Do you think you can come out to meet me in ten minutes?"
"um....i'm not sure...This whole place is a maze...i don't think i'll find the way out in.."
"Okay, then, i'll see you next time. I've gotta head fot the bus stand."
"um...Okay."
"You alright, right?"
"Yep. Bye!"

With a telephonic bye, i was stranded in Mysore. No, Mysore DC- the place to be.

Finally, after all that waiting , i got my call letter and on the 23rd of July (yeah, just a week before my B'day) here i was ,in Mysore.

The place looked as if it didn't belong to the usual India that we see outside its gates. Spick and span roads meandered through lush greenery where architectural masterpieces mushroomed. Everything i saw was different. Magneficient.

The hostel room was more like a hotel room, complete with A/C, TV, coffee table, two huge wardrobes and anything else a fresh trainee would need. You could mess up the room however you pleased, but it would always be made for you. They simply pampered us with facilities over there.

Do you want to play, at Mysore DC, you had cricket fiels, football fields, basket ball courts, badmiton courts, squash courts, table tennis boards, lawn tennis courts, swimming pool, a complete gym, aerobics classes, yoga, snookers, rock climbing, bowling alley...you name it, it was all here.

The DC was also armed with 7 food courts which housed a variety of counters which served a multitude of dishes that promised to satisfy any palate. All at a subsidized rate.

It was one awesome place- If you had the time for it! At Infosys. you learn. Learn as in educatge yourself, books, tests etc...that happens a lot. That happens quite consistently and strenuously that you'll be amazed at yourself. Even people who never bothered to learn in schools or colleges would find themselves at war with sleep struggling to finish assignments and learn more- For the TPI.

The TPI , or Training Period Incentive is that wonderfull extra 5000 that they promised if we get straight A's for all the tests and assignments conducted(which eventually nobody got but everyone struggled for).

For the first time in my life, i compromised my 8 hours of sleep. There was no way one could get that with all those assignments and tests and the Compre...oh my God, the Compre!

I ceased to see daylight for most of my stay in the DC and familiarized myself with the nightlab- the wonderful long hall with lots of computers where you stayed up after 11pm to learn (and slept off uncontrollably despite the security guard's scolds in kannada...)

Mysore seems to be ages away now.

A lot happened in the short span of 11 weeks.A hectic, busy and wonderful 2.5 months.

Of the 30 people in our batch, 13 turned out to be Malayalees. The whole batch was a mad lot. Fun was never ending.

Mentioning class would never be complete without naming Lijasa and Deepasa- my group mates. These guys changed me from "Do-not-disturb-me- while-learning" types to almost a normal human collage going spirit.

I guess the very first thing i've said to Deepn was to stop playing music while i did my assignments as it disturbed me. But now, i love working working with music. Especially Mombasa.

Both the 'Asas made my class time so much fun. I've never been scolded by any teacher in my entire student life for disturbing the class in any manner. At Mysore, we were always caught for talking, giggling, and other class time "no-no"s.

Fruit Ninja became my addiction during this period. How i would battle hard with Lijasa to win the highest! (I still win, btw. Except maybe the zen mode :P)

A lot of good times happened here, Purple haze, Onam, My b'day, Krupa's B'day, little outings, night time singing, all time madness, sometimes lonliness, no time to call home...

I really wish i'd started writing my diary in Mysore. It would have been the first pages of a wonderful new chapter in my life. Mysore DC- The Place to be.

Missing Home :(

I miss home.  ‘Home’ as in Room #623, Girls’ hostel, Symbiosis knowledge village, Lavale. Lovely Lovely Lavale. Two years back around this time I must’ve started my SIMC days. Anxious, hopeful, happy and content. I just got my dream. And I just wish it was still going on.

That place was truly heaven on earth.  Monsoon brought the hills alive, colouring it green and the air cool and misty. Also with the little insects of vibrant colours, the frogs that came inside the hostel to eat them, followed by the snakes who came in to fulfil their role in the food cycle...

Getting drenched, getting sick, ending up wrapped in a blanket on bed, timely checks by friends, going to the campus doctor, getting pissed coz he prescribes only one single pill for all known diseases...Gosh...I am beginning to miss even the stuff I thought I hated there...

I’ll miss the creaky cycles sans bells, pedals, breaks and the way in which someone else would race past me to grab the one last cycle on the stand when I’m in a hurry to reach class.

I’ll miss getting ready long time before the bus timings and hurrying any poor soul that chooses to come along with me so that we get seats to sit for the 40 minute journey downhill to the city.

Dear mess, I know I’ve talked shit about you endless times, complaining, whining and hating coming into you for food (especially lunch) but, please accept my apologies. I don’t mind if there is no aloo in my aloo paratha, I don’t mind having roti and dal all day every day, I just wish I had more days to spend there, eating whatever you had to offer me. I’ll miss my 8 sachet coffee. I’ll miss that wonderful feel when I see veg burger and omelette, my favourite breakfast combo. I’ll miss having gulab jamun from both the floors, having both paneer and chicken on the non veg days in the same way and I will seriously miss getting in happily at the sight of hot tomato soup on a cold rainy day.

 Thrissur now RMCO and I tried it. Big, huge treadmills they have. But nothing beats walking down the hill in the evening with music in my ears.  I know the hairpin bends by the trees and plants I see. I used to know the exact locations of appoppan thadi plants and when the pods are about to burst. My white fluffs. I’ve never blown so many appoppan thadis, to my heart’s content. I dearly miss you my long curvy path.

The helipad, I loved for the view. But the amphi...you know why I love you don’t you? On cold starry nights, to sit on the topmost steps and see both the city lights and star lights is one mesmerizing sight. One has to be there to know the feel. And you have another special reason...just like the fourth tree.

The canteen with its chit-money, the Delhi chat and its chicken chilly cheese roll-my comfort food, the store stacked with noodles of all brands, the ice-cream shop, the coffee shop with its cold coffee strong, Peach iced tea and sour plain mosambi I just loved...

And that ledge from which I lost my phone, the other one on which we used to sit late night, the one near the frog pond, the frog pond itself. Phew! So many many memories have this place given me.

And people. I’ve met all kinds of people in this small place. I don’t boast of making oodles of friends, but I have a handful, and they are true. And when it comes to people, this place has gifted me with someone I never never expected (More on that later).

I can’t wait to go back there, even if it is just to collect my mark list, or convocation, or alumni meet. I just have to go back. For that place has made me feel so much more home than anywhere else and it is the one place where I have been so totally free.

I am glad I went to SIMC. Those of you who has never been a part of it- Oh you poor poor things! You’ve missed the most awesomest campus in the country- and the one college in which you could enjoy  it fully.

The Girl who was never 'caned'

By the time you're in Class 8,if you are a 90s kid, you'd have been 'caned' at some point of time in school. That scary feel which comes when you have to open your palms wide for the brutal stick to fall on it, is something we must all have gone through. But not Serah. She had never been caned.

Pious Sir walked into 8B that day with his tattered old map. And tattered old map always held a cane within. So when he stated calling out roll numbers that day (he never called kids by names, only numbers.), there was that usual nervousness in the class.

Anjo ,Shreshta & I held our breath, crossed our fingers and prayed that our numbers wouldnt be called. God answered our prayers and called Serah instead. The poor thing stood up and tried answering ,but somehow words didnt make sense.

Usually ,Anjo would whisper or scribble the answers on the table for me & Shreshta , but as Serah was one row behind us, that couldnt work. I tried opening my notebook for her to peek, but i guess my wonderful handwriting looked like a bunch of squiggles to her. She was still stammering.

Well, his patience was running out and he walked forth towards Serah, asking her to extend her hand. But Serah had no intentions to taste the cane, so, surprising the whole class, she started running away from him!

Now that was something we had never seen, and never expected to, in Class 8.

'Stop running and show your hand ,or I'll hit you wherever I can reach!' he threatened

'No, No, Sir! Don't beat me! I'll write imposition! As many times as you say!'

The cat and mouse game inside class couldnt go on forever, so Pious Sir gave up and gave her a tonne of imposition to write. We all had a jolly good laugh and were happy that we lost quite a few minutes from the dreaded 45 minutes of history. And the girl who was never caned, remained uncaned.

May be the way i've written this won't make things seem as lively as it actually was. But way back in 2003,when this happened in a morning history class, it was one of the hilarious things that ever happened. :)