Hi Folks!
INFOSYS. This is a name we grow up with. It is synonymous with growth, prosperity and jobs in India. Its probably associated with geeks and outsourcing abroad. We love you. We hate you. But we can never ignore you. Be it the allegations of hurting national sentiments by our noble (???) Narayan Murthy (founder and chief mentor of Infosys, or the company constantly out-doing itself in breaking records for highest number of recruits in a day , or just the plain old market capitalization of the company touching Rs 100,000 Crores (trillion)..
But I m not going to talk about these things (just now ;-) ). I know of other things too. Coz I work in Infosys Technologies Limited.
Now you might be wondering that I might begin to speak about the oft-spoken-about topic. The awesome infrastructure inside the high walls of every Infosys campus in India and abroad which are religiously guarded by overpriced guards with state-of-the-art “bug” sweepers and sniper sentry-posts. You know, those lush green football and cricket fields which host several international matches on a regular basis, or the wonderful facilities like Tennis/Basketball/Badminton/TT (ping-pong) courts or just the pleasure of walking through acres and acres of lush green vegetation amidst which one finds steel, concrete and glass behemoths housing thousands of extreme power packed workstations which would put many gaming PCs to shame. Probably some other time.
Today I m going to tell you about my aching legs and hands!
You see, there s a method to all my ranting and raving. My company (the campus which I work in particular) has invoked words of appreciation from the President of the country, admiration and regard from the Chairman of NASDAQ and the Finance Minister of India alike, even tears of pride from my mom the first time she saw it. And what’s the first and the best thing they notice and appreciate??? The beautiful and spotless landscape that is the Infosys Software Development Center, Mysore campus!
I bring to your attention and elaborate on one word that you have probably overlooked in the previous paragraph. SPOTLESS. Yes, every Infosys campus in the world can be made into an illustration of personal hygiene and care is taken to keep it that way, painstakingly so; thus offering a stark contrast to the general callousness towards cleanliness in India.
But this state of beauty comes at a price. Hordes of people work like zealots and clean every part of the campus, and this I speak literally. There’s no place which in the 320 acres of land in the Mysore center that the “Facilities” Department of the company doesn’t reach out to. When I sometimes work 18 hours a day, I sit at my cubicle and look at the people scurrying about late into the night collecting trash, arranging bric-a-brac items, scrubbing the floors and I wonder how people become such workaholics!!!
A good friend of mine told me that he had left his bike in the parking lot while he visited his native town for about 3 weeks. When he returned to office, contrary to his expectations of dirt and grime, he found his bike squeaky clean. The legendary Facilities people had cleaned his bike simply because it didn’t belong to the otherwise spotless parking lot! But few days back, my astonishment reached its peak and I stood there, stupefied, watching in amazement as two people stood on a mantel, assiduously cleaning the leaves of a tree!!! So it didn’t astound me too much, when I saw the bitumen paved tar road inside the campus, not only being swept but actually CLEANED with detergent!!!
This probably wouldn’t have caught my eye had it not been for the fact that as I was riding my bike today, immersed as I was in my thoughts about how to fudge a report about the various defects that have been injected by me in the code, I realized, albeit too late, that my bike had gone horribly out of my control and that I was about to fall. As I was falling, in those few milliseconds, I contemplated about my driving skills when the sharp odor of phenyl hit my nose and amidst shock and resignation, found out the reason for my bike slipping horrendously out of control. Who on God’s green earth washes a road with detergent?!?!?
I vowed to find answers to these apparently non-rhetorical questions later and decided to dedicate my energies towards slowing down the skidding bike and my legs along with it! My legs and hands were burning with the scratches I had amassed as I got up. I couldn’t bear to look at my bike with its handle twisted in a fiendish way. Meanwhile some people had gathered and were helping me out, as I looked around furtively towards the nearest escape in embarrassment, meanwhile thanking them profusely.
At last, I went to the clinic in the campus itself and found out to my fortune that my injuries were few and minor. I would later find out that my bike was also easily fixed. So, I realized, All’s well that ends well. Tell that to my aching back and itching legs…
PS : Such incidents were reported to the concerned authorities eventually. Few days later, as I passed by, I saw a board that read “GO SLOW. MEN AT WORK” put up at places where these regular “maintenance” activities were going on.
INFOSYS. This is a name we grow up with. It is synonymous with growth, prosperity and jobs in India. Its probably associated with geeks and outsourcing abroad. We love you. We hate you. But we can never ignore you. Be it the allegations of hurting national sentiments by our noble (???) Narayan Murthy (founder and chief mentor of Infosys, or the company constantly out-doing itself in breaking records for highest number of recruits in a day , or just the plain old market capitalization of the company touching Rs 100,000 Crores (trillion)..
But I m not going to talk about these things (just now ;-) ). I know of other things too. Coz I work in Infosys Technologies Limited.
Now you might be wondering that I might begin to speak about the oft-spoken-about topic. The awesome infrastructure inside the high walls of every Infosys campus in India and abroad which are religiously guarded by overpriced guards with state-of-the-art “bug” sweepers and sniper sentry-posts. You know, those lush green football and cricket fields which host several international matches on a regular basis, or the wonderful facilities like Tennis/Basketball/Badminton/TT (ping-pong) courts or just the pleasure of walking through acres and acres of lush green vegetation amidst which one finds steel, concrete and glass behemoths housing thousands of extreme power packed workstations which would put many gaming PCs to shame. Probably some other time.
Today I m going to tell you about my aching legs and hands!
You see, there s a method to all my ranting and raving. My company (the campus which I work in particular) has invoked words of appreciation from the President of the country, admiration and regard from the Chairman of NASDAQ and the Finance Minister of India alike, even tears of pride from my mom the first time she saw it. And what’s the first and the best thing they notice and appreciate??? The beautiful and spotless landscape that is the Infosys Software Development Center, Mysore campus!
I bring to your attention and elaborate on one word that you have probably overlooked in the previous paragraph. SPOTLESS. Yes, every Infosys campus in the world can be made into an illustration of personal hygiene and care is taken to keep it that way, painstakingly so; thus offering a stark contrast to the general callousness towards cleanliness in India.
But this state of beauty comes at a price. Hordes of people work like zealots and clean every part of the campus, and this I speak literally. There’s no place which in the 320 acres of land in the Mysore center that the “Facilities” Department of the company doesn’t reach out to. When I sometimes work 18 hours a day, I sit at my cubicle and look at the people scurrying about late into the night collecting trash, arranging bric-a-brac items, scrubbing the floors and I wonder how people become such workaholics!!!
A good friend of mine told me that he had left his bike in the parking lot while he visited his native town for about 3 weeks. When he returned to office, contrary to his expectations of dirt and grime, he found his bike squeaky clean. The legendary Facilities people had cleaned his bike simply because it didn’t belong to the otherwise spotless parking lot! But few days back, my astonishment reached its peak and I stood there, stupefied, watching in amazement as two people stood on a mantel, assiduously cleaning the leaves of a tree!!! So it didn’t astound me too much, when I saw the bitumen paved tar road inside the campus, not only being swept but actually CLEANED with detergent!!!
This probably wouldn’t have caught my eye had it not been for the fact that as I was riding my bike today, immersed as I was in my thoughts about how to fudge a report about the various defects that have been injected by me in the code, I realized, albeit too late, that my bike had gone horribly out of my control and that I was about to fall. As I was falling, in those few milliseconds, I contemplated about my driving skills when the sharp odor of phenyl hit my nose and amidst shock and resignation, found out the reason for my bike slipping horrendously out of control. Who on God’s green earth washes a road with detergent?!?!?
I vowed to find answers to these apparently non-rhetorical questions later and decided to dedicate my energies towards slowing down the skidding bike and my legs along with it! My legs and hands were burning with the scratches I had amassed as I got up. I couldn’t bear to look at my bike with its handle twisted in a fiendish way. Meanwhile some people had gathered and were helping me out, as I looked around furtively towards the nearest escape in embarrassment, meanwhile thanking them profusely.
At last, I went to the clinic in the campus itself and found out to my fortune that my injuries were few and minor. I would later find out that my bike was also easily fixed. So, I realized, All’s well that ends well. Tell that to my aching back and itching legs…
PS : Such incidents were reported to the concerned authorities eventually. Few days later, as I passed by, I saw a board that read “GO SLOW. MEN AT WORK” put up at places where these regular “maintenance” activities were going on.
Great solution Geniuses!!! In the past 2 months itself, the body count has reached 30. Who s next???
