Epoch

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.

H. W. Longfellow

The following events took place between 12^th Feb 2008 and 12^th Feb, 2009

February ’08

• Infosys recruitment drive at MMEC, Mullana. I got selected by my dream company. How? Check this out.
• Immediately after the selection, I head off to Lucknow for my cousin’s marriage.
• Within one week of the placement drive, “Trojans” was born. Nishant and I founded the society for the students of computers department.

March ’08

• Literati ’08 held at NIT Kurukshetra. One event Junkyard Wars caught my fancy. It would not be until November that I would be able to realize my dream. Read my exploits by clicking here.
• My love story took a nosedive. Read about it here.

April ’08

• ISTE organized Synergy – 2K8. Five events in the space of three days. Encoding, Paper presentation, quiz, Big Fight and Webhunt. I paid my tribute to those crazy, whacky net puzzles like Klueless with my own Webhunt. Click here for details.
• Won first prize in Trojan Hunt, Nishant’s rendition of NIT’s webhunt. I would not have participated if it had not felt like a challenge from him to me. He’s good! He managed to bag second in my WebHunt. Quite a few eyebrows were raised but both of us knew the truth. We had not cheated. Our consciences were clear and that’s what mattered the most.

May ’08

• A major fiasco – the closing ceremony of Trojans. Somehow, the show fell to pieces. Oh well, the less the said the better.
• ISTE’s end of the year party at our favourite dhaba. I raised a toast to four very special seniors; Aashish Aggarwal, Varun Soni, Vikas Goyal and Sandeep Dhiman. If it had not been for them, I would still be just an unknown face in the crowd at MMEC.

June ’08

• The semester papers started after preparatory holidays that lasted for almost a month. Life was hell in the scorching summer.

July ’08

• I took my tiffin-box of a PC to Chandigarh and got it upgraded. Wrote as many articles as possible for my blog. No, I’m not going to place links to all of them. If you are interested, look them up in my blog.
• My love story found a new chapter. Unfortunately, the sequel had an even more agonizing ending. Damn!

August ’08

• Found my lost groove with the help and support of a great friend, Prashant Diggi. Playing Pro Evolution Soccer 6 at his home brought back my touch on the real ground. I have no explanations for it. Playing football on the PC improved my game on the ground too. Magic!

September ’08

• My final year at MMEC begins. ISTE has a new President. And all hell breaks loose.
• Abhivyakti-2008, our college fest taught me a valuable lesson. Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer. Every night during the fest was like an audition straight out of Roadies.

October ’08

• Symptoms of imbecility were being shown by the President of ISTE. I was confused, nervous and unsure.
• Infosys Campus Connect (Soft Skills training) was held in our college. Fortunately, it managed to bring me back from the dead.

November ’08

• ISTE Week was organized and we went where no MMECian had gone before. Six events in the span of 4 days. The events themselves had never been conducted in our college before. Reverse coding, Half-A-Minute, Turncoat, Youth Parliament, Big Fight and my favourite: Techyard. The mini fest got rave reviews and woke up the college management. And I had regained my confidence. The details are all placed here.

December ’08

• Exam time again! 9 more papers and I would earn the title of Engineer.
• Presentation – the only thing I contributed to my team’s minor project. Heck, I had been too busy pondering over what I could do that I actually did nothing. Embarrassing; but I had learnt another lesson.

January ’09

• Watched ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. I just can’t understand these self-professed protectors of Indian culture. Great Indian Hypocrisy! My sister has already copyrighted the title so I can’t write anything else about it (Do I even need to?). I’ll place the link to her blog as soon as she publishes it.

February ’09

• The Final Frontier! Last semester at Mullana. I’ve written a lot about my college. Check out the stuff here and here. Love it or hate it, its my college anyway!
• Infosys; after a gap of exactly 365 days; sent us our joining letters. Its official, I’m an Infoscion! Absolute bliss!

The preceding events happened between 12th Feb, 2008 (The date I was selected by Infosys) and 11^th Feb, 2009 (the date I got my offer-cum-joining letter)

Mullana

If the colleges were better, if they really had it, you would need to get the police at the gates to keep order in the inrushing multitude. See in college how we thwart the natural love of learning by leaving the natural method of teaching what each wishes to learn, and insisting that you shall learn what you have no taste or capacity for. The college, which should be a place of delightful labour, is made odious and unhealthy, and the young men are tempted to frivolous amusements to rally their jaded spirits. I would have the studies elective. Scholarship is to be created not by compulsion, but by awakening a pure interest in knowledge. The wise instructor accomplishes this by opening to his pupils precisely the attractions the study has for himself. The marking is a system for schools, not for the college; for boys, not for men; and it is an ungracious work to put on a professor. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

You know you are in MMEC when:

• Girls are reprimanded for wearing jeans and tops.
• Hostlers can not enter their rooms during college timings.
• The only way to bunk classes is by going to the library.
• Heavy metal/ Death metal/Hard rock/English has has got only one name – Linkin Park
• The snide comment “99% of the girls are beautiful, rest are in my college” actually depicts the truth.

Powered by Intellect, Driven by Values

9 am IST
I was sitting in yet another boring substitute lecture. Our regular teacher had his MTech exams so we were left in the safe hands of another. First lecture of the day and I was already counting sheep.

9:30 am IST
As soon as the first lecture was over, I ran out to get a breath of fresh air. That’s when I bumped into Aashish. Aashish (sir) is in final year. He was the new President of ISTE. (Check out the article on Akhil Sir for more information about this notorious society). It turned out that he was looking for me since 9am. Too bad he didn’t check room 125. I could have given my left hand to bunk that lecture!!
Anyways, he took me to Mr. Manjeet Singh Ladhar (Introducing….the Training & Placement Officer of MMEC, hereon referred to as the TPO).

9:40 am IST
It turned out that an important official from Infy was coming to our college to give a small presentation about the company. The TPO wanted me to take care of the management. According to him, I had volunteered. In fact, I had…sort of. You don’t go out saying NO to your TPO. Refusing your TPO is like Bungee Jumping without a rope! So I took the responsibility for making announcements in all the classes and other menial jobs like checking out the equipment in the Seminar Hall, arranging the mikes and stuff.

10 am IST
Things had turned out great! After making the announcements in all the classes alongwith a friend, I headed towards the Seminar Hall. Four of my friends had volunteered to check out the equipment, the same way I had volunteered. By the time I entered the Seminar Hall, the TPO had begun a preliminary session telling the students how they should behave yati yati yata. He’s a good person at heart, I will probably write about him someday.

10:50 am IST
HE entered the Seminar Hall. Mr. Sudhir Mishra, HR Department, Infosys.
I can never forget him for the simple reason that he looked just like one of us. About 25 years of age, a smile on his clean-shaven youthful face. That’s when I realized the gravity of the situation. A person from Infy was in our college because he saw enough potential here to actually adjust his schedule and come to our out-of-the-way location. Amazing!

11:00 am IST
Powered by Intellect, Driven by Values
For those of you who don’t know, its the motto of Infy. Somehow, when I first saw the words on the projection screen, it struck a deeper chord. Ethics and Brains, the two things I value the most in a friend. Every word uttered by Mr. Mishra made me even more impressed by the company. Humbe beginnings in the minds of four friends, over twenty years in the unforgiving IT industry and now one of the most sought after company of our times, he gave me every reason why I should join the Infy family.

11:40 am IST
Mr. Sudhir was showing a powerpoint presentation. He focused on one word, “OPEN DOOR”. He asked us what it meant. I said that it meant that anyone could approach their seniors anytime whenever faced with difficulty. Suddenly, his eyes lit up. “How do you know? Do you have a brother or sister working in Infy?”, he asked. If only I had not been taken in by the moment I would have replied,”No sir, no one in my relations works in Infy. But I want to!”

I wondered whether anyone else felt as passionate as I did when the presentation concluded. There was only one thing in my mind. If there was any company in the world for which I would dedicate my lifetime, it was Infosys. And still is!
Placement interviews start one week from now. And I have just one goal in mind, To become an Infoscion.