Cricket, Work, Problems, Friends, Fun, Goodbyes - LIFE

Even though the lazy Jayant has dominated Blogger Jayant for the past few months (or rather years) but thankfully, once in a blue moon, on occasions like this, the Blogger Jayant comes up trumps and hence, this blog gets updated. There was a time when I used to refer to my earlier post while writing a new one (because I never forgot what I blogged about previously, like I have now! ). Anyways, my last update was somewhere in December 2009, which would be roughly within a month from attending Vishal's marriage and then taking the CAT exam. It's not that I've won The Nobel Prize or something in the time between then and now but yes, there have been a few good updates.
There was the long-planned Goa Trip with my college friends which was truly amazing and a nice time to get together for friends. Really hope that everyone takes out 3-4 days like these for each other, out of an otherwise packed 365 days of the year. About ten days after the trip ended, I was in for a surprise. After a casual preparation, scoring a percentile of 96.98 in CAT made me feel that after all, I can fight for the top 1 percentile next year around, which, I believe, is what you should target if you start off with something, be it exam, sports, anything. Hence, I would like to believe that this year I will actually go at it real hard and get something more than a "decent" score out of it. However, the things to follow in this post would heavily bet against it.
February is normally considered the spring season and my bhaiya-bhabhi were blessed with a baby boy, who's growing cuter and naughtier by the day, which is making my stay away from home all the more difficult. It has been the happiest news on family front for quite some time, especially after we lost Nanaji and Dadima in the past two years. He's gone a long way in helping Mummy and Papa cope up with the losses.
Sagar conquering his dream by getting into IIM-A has been the biggest news of the year outside my family and we all were so happy for him. He thoroughly earned his place and it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. APS came to Hyderabad for a weekend to join in the fun and we surely had a good time, but we still missed Jaat.

The glue that kept me in Infy Hyd for so long

Then came the much awaited annual Cricket Tournament of Infosys Hyderabad, which was this year named as P3L, i.e. Pearl and Prakriti Premier League. (Pearl and Prakriti are the name of the 2 development centres Infy has here in Hyderabad). Thanks to my one-hit wonder performance from last year's tournament, I was promoted to "Tier 1" in the auctions. I got picked up by a team called The Aryans and incidentally, its the same team against which we lost our game last year and ultimately it cost us a place in the next round. A few players were still there from the last year but mostly it was a fresh squad. I was made to sit out of the first game itself. I was in no way thrilled about it and that confirmed my suspicion that since it was a team chosen by guys from Andhra, regionalism will prevail. However, I got my chance in the next game and  played every game thereafter. We finished 3rd in a 20-team tourney which was a good achievement. The highlight for me was bowling the last over in the quarter finals when the opponents, Gangstars, needed only 7 to win and containing them for 5 runs, which secured a win by 1 run for us! More than the game, it was the friends that I made during P3L which I am thankful to and really hope it continues.
Looking ahead, there's a lot on my platter right now. For a start, I'll be travelling with the Infosys Hyderabad Cricket Team to Mysore for a tournament and I'm really looking forward to it. A trip to Mysore, 18 months after completing the training will really be nostalgic and when I go with a group like this, it surely will be fun. It's about time I tightened up with my MBA preparation and of late, I've been bitten by the GMAT bug as well, so really hope to put in the tough miles during the next 6 months.

Leisure @ Infosys Mysore

One of the reasons I started blogging was that it provided an outlet for my rants and ramblings. And, more than 3 years later, not much has changed today. The best part is that I would completely forget/ignore blogger for a few days, weeks or even months but then I keep returning eventually.

Life has become regularised post 13/09/2009, i.e. the day I stepped into the Infosys Mysore Campus. I've always been a person who wants to do a lot of things apart from what I am supposed to do. Most people would agree that this is a good attitude to have, as it gives you a chance to explore yourself, see what you are capable of doing and how well you can do certain things. Being away from home helps in this regard, as you have the free time completely for yourself. It might sound unpleasant but then, it is a fact. When you're at home, you have responsibilities(which, by the way, I carry out very well). Still, there's a sense of laziness that I so badly wanted to overcome and what better place for it than Infosys, which provides you an opportunity to support yourself financially and devote time to the extra curriculars.

Oscar, an intern from Colombia in the Infy Mysore campus

A peep into the kind of rooms Infosys Mysore provides you during training

Despite all the talk that Infosys training is tough, one doesn't get the time to enjoy the world class facilities we have here in the campus and all the related nonsense, I can proudly announce that in the three months that I've been here, I've reduced my "to-read" list to a large extent. It started with Lance Armstrong's "It's Not About The Bike". If you're alien to the name of the author or the book, it's about a cyclist who overcame testicular cancer to win the most physically challenging sport, the Tour de France and is an idol for the cancer patients today. You need to go through a few pages of the book, in case you feel short of inspiration. The second book was Chetan Bhagat's "2-States". It was a pleasant surprise to see Chetan Bhagat come out of the Call Centre and recitify The Three Mistakes of His Life. 2-States definitely ranks besides Five Point Someone and by this time I really am wondering what can be the reason behind the title of all of his books starting with a number.
The third one, which I'll complete shortly, has really given me the confidence that I can actually get a book published some day. It is a sweet love story but then there's nothing in it that commands respect. I have this writing bug in my stomach since eternity and in fact, a friend of mine got a bit irritated by my philosophical response to the communicable stupidity called "Love" and she suggested I write a book! Not sure what her intentions were but then I definitely wanted to do this all the while, as I genuinely beleive that my till-date life has got all the ingredients required to occupy the 250 odd pages of a book.

The fact that few of my college friends joined the training a month before I did helped a great deal, as you have a ready source of information to address your usual queries. Apart from them, I ran into Oscar, a happy go lucky guy from Colombia, who taught me a few words of Spanish and I was surprised to know that he already knew basic Hindi!

Moving on, I can proudly announce that I've started hitting the gym since the past week or so and it really is going good. I actually look forward to my next gym session the moment I step out of it. Not that I'm expanding exponentially as the days are passing by. I am pretty much in shape (which, by the looks of it, will turn into ROUND if I don't put a check on it) but it is more of a preventive measure to counter two health related problems at one go. The first one's obesity and the second one, well... I like to keep it to myself to avoid any unwanted sympathy( and NO.. IT'S NOT AIDS!!).

There are lots of places to explore around Mysore and I'm pretty sure I'll find out the time for them in the coming 3 months or so. As of now, Bangalore is the best option because it is a place you can always go to irrespective of whether your friends want to come or not. Cricket used to be the topmost leisure activity for us when we came to Infy but nowadays its become almsot impossible to play, given the crowd that throngs the cricket ground. And, in any case, gym is a much better alternative for burning fat.. isn't it? And, add ot that the two chess boards that are there in the Employee Care Centre(ECC) where I go after my exhausting gym sessions to find some exercise for my brains. Either the chess standards at Infosys is too bad or I am yet to see the best players here. Whatever be the reason, the fact remains that I've not found any opponent till date who can give me a scare or last more than 25 moves. This surely is a pleasant change from Delhi, where you had to earn each and every win, even during the weekend club games!

If you really want to kill time and money here in Infosys Mysore, going to the Mysore City and exploring the dine-out options seems the be the popular choice here. I do like to eat out once in a while but not like those carbohydrate-crazy souls who would pay Rs. 100 in covneyance for a Rs. 150 dinner! Devraj Road is the shopping hub here, where you have all the popular brands spread across a one km stretch.

All this said, I hope the second half of the training passes by as smoothly as the first one and I avoid the close shaves that I had with a couple of module tests.