Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
FICITIONAL REALITY @ILP,HYDERABAD
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Again, like always it's been a LONG time since I've made a new post here. Now that I'm here in Hyderabad and have joined TCS finally, I can find sometime for these things again.Few days before 20th June kept me real busy in packing stuff and arranging the documents that would be needed. The train was from Bhopal on 20th and we reached Secunderabad on 21st morning. We took a taxi to the Hotel Siddhartha where were accommodation was made by TCS and we were told the hotel where we'll be staying is old Hyderabad. Hotel Siddhartha, no doubt is good. We have a TV in the room, the room gets cleaned everyday, anytime room service for water or any problem, a newspaper everyday and so much more. While I was expecting some shopping malls and a good area to roam around when I spoke to my friend in Hyderabad, the hotel we're staying in and the area near by is good. 3 star, and the services are good. The only problem here is food. South Indian food is cheaper, and good North Indian food is kind of costly. We had one South Indian thali on 20th, though it was good at how diet should be but in my opinion it was lacking taste. I didn't at all like the 'rasam' and 'curry' or whatever it's called. The hunt for North Indian food then, was on. We had dinner at the hotel we're staying in on the same day and it was good.The next day we had to get up early for TCS. Full 8 hours in the Audi, it was supposed to be the orientation for us. We also had the welcome lunch that day which was free. That day we also got this feel of the place Cyberabad because the bus took us from the hotel from this route. But the bus goes through a new route now, some Banjara Hills route I suppose. The next day we had verification of the documents they asked for and bank account opening. The lunch this time again was good but one needs to pay for the lunch. It's very much affordable considering the South Indian food one generally gets here. It's Rs. 23 for lunch here in CMC, TCS training centre. Tea and coffee are free and one can have them anytime during the break. I'm mentioning all this for those who are to join TCS. Some days before I was searching the same on google blog search and I could hardly find one post that was related to the training in Hyderbad. Regarding food, a good north Indian thali here will cost no less than 30 at this place, this is sure. And those who're from south will find no problem with food at all.We have alternate Saturdays as off. You need to wear business formals for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thrusday and one can wear business casuals on Friday and Saturday. The CMC center is good. I have so many pics to send home and put 'em up here on the blog but the PC I'm sitting on is old, has 98 and has problem with the USB port.In all it's very much like a paid vacation. The only thing is that we have to pay for food. And paying is not a problem; it's been 4 days we're like on north-indian food hunt. We hope to find a permanent place soon. We have the plans for visiting Charminar and near by places today. It's really fun right now. The classes for the training start from Monday. So we have two days to visit a few fmous places in Hyderabad.I think I'll end this post now. I know it's not like on good and arranged post but bear with me. The system I'm sitting on is one from the early-man era. Excuse me for the mistakes or typos because the keyboard sucks even more.
2
I've been able to blog a bit since last few days from Hyderabad but I haven't been able to check other blogs, even those of my blog friends. Sorry for the same. I'm going to do it next time I get a free session in lab, or whenever I don't feel like having lunch.Life here is good and the TCS' ILP programme is just awesome. Unlike the training at other places, which focus only on the core technical part, it focuses more on communication skills, etiquette, and grooming and similar aspects too. We regularly have presentations, role-plays, speeches, and written exercises. The good thing being that it's all dynamic with a team change for every activity. That has, in very few days, made the class very interactive. I've lately realized the difference between learning and training. After every presentation or role-play or any activity we people gather and share views on each one of us as a team, that is evaluate each other. Also recently, we've received our stream will be working on (projects) for the next few days. It's UNIX and C++. Also the foreign language facilitated to us is Japanese. Recently we visited TCS' Deccan Park campus for some knowledge transfer about the systems in TCS. Deccan Park is one beautiful TCS campus with a good cafeteria, conference halla, gym, cubicles, and probably so much more that I couldn't see or know of.Also we'll soon be asked about the preferences of where one wants to get allocated to. Though still confused, the blurry image in my mind speaks of Pune, Hyderabad and Delhi.I've missed my lunch and am here in the lab to update my blog and read others. I should better be ending this and moving on for I have an LS session in 15 minutes from now.
Again, like always it's been a LONG time since I've made a new post here. Now that I'm here in Hyderabad and have joined TCS finally, I can find sometime for these things again.Few days before 20th June kept me real busy in packing stuff and arranging the documents that would be needed. The train was from Bhopal on 20th and we reached Secunderabad on 21st morning. We took a taxi to the Hotel Siddhartha where were accommodation was made by TCS and we were told the hotel where we'll be staying is old Hyderabad. Hotel Siddhartha, no doubt is good. We have a TV in the room, the room gets cleaned everyday, anytime room service for water or any problem, a newspaper everyday and so much more. While I was expecting some shopping malls and a good area to roam around when I spoke to my friend in Hyderabad, the hotel we're staying in and the area near by is good. 3 star, and the services are good. The only problem here is food. South Indian food is cheaper, and good North Indian food is kind of costly. We had one South Indian thali on 20th, though it was good at how diet should be but in my opinion it was lacking taste. I didn't at all like the 'rasam' and 'curry' or whatever it's called. The hunt for North Indian food then, was on. We had dinner at the hotel we're staying in on the same day and it was good.The next day we had to get up early for TCS. Full 8 hours in the Audi, it was supposed to be the orientation for us. We also had the welcome lunch that day which was free. That day we also got this feel of the place Cyberabad because the bus took us from the hotel from this route. But the bus goes through a new route now, some Banjara Hills route I suppose. The next day we had verification of the documents they asked for and bank account opening. The lunch this time again was good but one needs to pay for the lunch. It's very much affordable considering the South Indian food one generally gets here. It's Rs. 23 for lunch here in CMC, TCS training centre. Tea and coffee are free and one can have them anytime during the break. I'm mentioning all this for those who are to join TCS. Some days before I was searching the same on google blog search and I could hardly find one post that was related to the training in Hyderbad. Regarding food, a good north Indian thali here will cost no less than 30 at this place, this is sure. And those who're from south will find no problem with food at all.We have alternate Saturdays as off. You need to wear business formals for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thrusday and one can wear business casuals on Friday and Saturday. The CMC center is good. I have so many pics to send home and put 'em up here on the blog but the PC I'm sitting on is old, has 98 and has problem with the USB port.In all it's very much like a paid vacation. The only thing is that we have to pay for food. And paying is not a problem; it's been 4 days we're like on north-indian food hunt. We hope to find a permanent place soon. We have the plans for visiting Charminar and near by places today. It's really fun right now. The classes for the training start from Monday. So we have two days to visit a few fmous places in Hyderabad.I think I'll end this post now. I know it's not like on good and arranged post but bear with me. The system I'm sitting on is one from the early-man era. Excuse me for the mistakes or typos because the keyboard sucks even more.
2
I've been able to blog a bit since last few days from Hyderabad but I haven't been able to check other blogs, even those of my blog friends. Sorry for the same. I'm going to do it next time I get a free session in lab, or whenever I don't feel like having lunch.Life here is good and the TCS' ILP programme is just awesome. Unlike the training at other places, which focus only on the core technical part, it focuses more on communication skills, etiquette, and grooming and similar aspects too. We regularly have presentations, role-plays, speeches, and written exercises. The good thing being that it's all dynamic with a team change for every activity. That has, in very few days, made the class very interactive. I've lately realized the difference between learning and training. After every presentation or role-play or any activity we people gather and share views on each one of us as a team, that is evaluate each other. Also recently, we've received our stream will be working on (projects) for the next few days. It's UNIX and C++. Also the foreign language facilitated to us is Japanese. Recently we visited TCS' Deccan Park campus for some knowledge transfer about the systems in TCS. Deccan Park is one beautiful TCS campus with a good cafeteria, conference halla, gym, cubicles, and probably so much more that I couldn't see or know of.Also we'll soon be asked about the preferences of where one wants to get allocated to. Though still confused, the blurry image in my mind speaks of Pune, Hyderabad and Delhi.I've missed my lunch and am here in the lab to update my blog and read others. I should better be ending this and moving on for I have an LS session in 15 minutes from now.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
SCREAM'S TESTI ON ILP,COIAMBATORE
Long time ago, I started my journey with TCS. ILP at Coimbatore was different.The energy, the passion and the anthem, "hum honge kamyaab" have since then become the defining piece of my personality. And add to that the flavour of the empathy and compassion that we shared made it a perfect melody and an experience of lifetime.
The better was yet to come. Landed at Kolkata and got into one of the most royal accommodation available. Kolkata started with a sweetness at CCD which never died.
First year at Kolkata was just one word, ‘fun’. Whether it was the numerous Birthday parties and Marriage parties and “for nothing” parties or the fun at the 7 storey building, each moment used to surprise me and ask what better you could have asked for. Add to that all the movies at City center and I defined what is fun.
Was that the best? No, like my name, my life was just getting better with time! My second year gave me everything I could have asked for. From the teammates who will easily be there in my best friends’ list to a manager who was a great mentor capable of extracting the best out of me, from the ever dynamic City centre to James tea shop, from long walks in the sun to VP to the long nights with my desktop in my air-conditioned room. Everything worked in my favour. And I busted all the myths which haunted the sector5.
Today I have got what all I could have asked for in my three years of stay at Kolkata. The tight knit friend circle. The Bengali. The cricket. The Thursday movies. The Java. The bench (;-)). The long sleeps. I could not have written a story so full of single emotion and still so enjoyable and memorable.
Very deservingly, I have completed the full circle with my last assignment which was the ILP. If there was any stone unturned, I got the chance to see under them and study myself. Like a rear-view mirror, it helped me to go ahead in the right direction while correcting myself with the mistakes I had made behind.
These three years have taught me the essence of ‘life’ and how to enjoy it. It has taught me how to be a professional and a person and enjoy both the roles simultaneously.
The foundation has been set. And my fortune has made sure that it is as solid as it can be.
The better was yet to come. Landed at Kolkata and got into one of the most royal accommodation available. Kolkata started with a sweetness at CCD which never died.
First year at Kolkata was just one word, ‘fun’. Whether it was the numerous Birthday parties and Marriage parties and “for nothing” parties or the fun at the 7 storey building, each moment used to surprise me and ask what better you could have asked for. Add to that all the movies at City center and I defined what is fun.
Was that the best? No, like my name, my life was just getting better with time! My second year gave me everything I could have asked for. From the teammates who will easily be there in my best friends’ list to a manager who was a great mentor capable of extracting the best out of me, from the ever dynamic City centre to James tea shop, from long walks in the sun to VP to the long nights with my desktop in my air-conditioned room. Everything worked in my favour. And I busted all the myths which haunted the sector5.
Today I have got what all I could have asked for in my three years of stay at Kolkata. The tight knit friend circle. The Bengali. The cricket. The Thursday movies. The Java. The bench (;-)). The long sleeps. I could not have written a story so full of single emotion and still so enjoyable and memorable.
Very deservingly, I have completed the full circle with my last assignment which was the ILP. If there was any stone unturned, I got the chance to see under them and study myself. Like a rear-view mirror, it helped me to go ahead in the right direction while correcting myself with the mistakes I had made behind.
These three years have taught me the essence of ‘life’ and how to enjoy it. It has taught me how to be a professional and a person and enjoy both the roles simultaneously.
The foundation has been set. And my fortune has made sure that it is as solid as it can be.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
TECCHO EXPERIENCE @ ILP,TRIVANDRUM
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this is an ilp experience from one of my friends thought it would be helpful written in his own wordsBefore I elaborate on life at TCS - I would like tell you all (I still seriously doubt how many people would actually be reading this!!) that I worked in TCS for less than a month, so you may be right when you think that I have no right to talk about my association with TCS considering the very little amount of time I spent in TCS - but still, I feel sharing my experiences with you all would surely help you. And before you also begin to wonder why I left TCS - it's nothing personal - I quit TCS because I am going for higher studies. For most of you (I really don't know how many!), TCS must be the first company on campus and most of you had to stick to TCS coz your college did not allow multiple placements. Sometimes, I feel India is not a democracy yet!! And folks I belong to the same category - first company TCS and no multiple placements.
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It was nothing less than a shock that I got when I got an email from TCS on May 5, 2006 - I was asked to report for the ILP on May 25 at Trivandrum. It was at a time when none of my friends, or me was expecting it - I was actually looking forward to a long vacation till September - but all dreams were shattered. We had no idea about the documents that were required, no availability in direct trains from Visakhapatnam to Trivandrum - in fact, we were not at all prepared to go for the ILP. One of my friends got his posting at Bhubaneswar and my other two friends got it at Trivandrum - both of them backed out - one got it postponed and the other was going for his MS. That left ME alone. After a hectic last minute packing, I was off to Trivandrum on 22nd May - in a journey that would not allow me to sleep because I had to change two more trains. The journey to Trivandrum could only be worse if not worst. I missed my second train - waited for four hours in the morning from 2 to 6 in the railway station. I reached Chennai on 23rd and had to wait in the railway station for another 4 hours for my next train to Trivandrum. Travelling on long train journeys - that too alone, with no one to give you company - sometimes makes you go mad and it was madness that I endured until the morning of 24th May, when I woke up in the train to look at the beauty of God's own country - Kerala. It was raining heavily and being a first timer to Kerala - I fell in love with the greenery and blue back waters at first sight. It was so serene and peaceful and for the first time since I started to Trivandrum - I felt happy to be coming to TCS.
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Thiruvananthapuram or Trivandrum was quite unlike many cities that I have been to. People in this place don't mind rains - even if it rains throughout the year. 100% literacy rate in Kerala means that everyone knows how to read and write Malayalam - and all of them can put in their signature. The auto rickshaws charge for both to and fro - if you travel from A to B, then you need to pay double the amount given on the meter, so if you want to come back from B to A - you need not pay anything more. The buses have no numbers and everything everywhere is written only in Malayalam. Everyone in Trivandrum knew about Techno Park - that's where TCS is situated, and I later realized that Techno Park is the only place famous in Trivandrum apart from the beaches. I was asked to report at the TCS Executive Hostel which is about 18 km from the railway station - and when I reached Kenton Leisure (that's the actual name of the executive hostel), the place was teeming with people. I was allotted Room No. 318 (I don't know why I'm going into the tiniest of details!!) and my room mate was Sridhar - he was from GCT, Coimbatore - but in an hour I had to change my room because Sridhar's friend Mohanbabu from GCT wanted to be in room 318 - so I had to move into 319. And my room mate was missing - I could only find his baggage in the room - he had apparently gone out. Now, one small clarification - you cannot change rooms at will in the hostel - it so happened that myself, Sridhar and Mohanbabu were in the same batch.
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TCS Executive Hostel has around 150 rooms - each room is furnished with 2 beds, 2 study tables, a cupboard for 2 people, a dressing table, 1 plug point for mobile phone charging and an attached bathroom - believe me, the accommodation can't get better than this. The hostel has two outdoor shuttle courts, a gym (not many facilities in the gym though), a recreation room with a TV, carom board and Table Tennis table, a common TV for each floor and a restaurant that can seat around 200 people at a time. Each floor gets three newspapers - The Hindu, The Indian Express and ET. There is also a browsing center which charges Rs. 25 for an hour of browsing (half the computers don't work most of the time though), a small utility shop for buying things like from pencils to badminton racquets, two STD booths and a laundry service (called Al-Khobar Laundry service; charges are exorbitant - Rs. 13/- for a pair of shirt and trousers - washing and pressing). The only bad thing about the hostel is the restaurant - the food served is not great - and the fact that the hostel is located in a village and there are few places to go to around the hostel - you do have a number of small restaurants outside the hostel at walk able distance - recommended ones are Hotel Chennai and Veg World. The hostel rent is Rs. 110 per day, so you need to pay Rs. 3300 every month from your HRA. Techno Park is about 1 km from the executive hostel and TCS is about 2 km from the hostel. Techno Park also has other companies like US Technologies, IBS and many unheard ones. Techno park has other things too - it has a hospital called Ojus, a State Bank of India branch, a SBI ATM, a small departmental store, a place for junk food, a courier office, a dress showroom, an internet browsing center - these are the things that I can remember
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Day 1 at Trivandrum went on well, slept a lot to gain on all the sleep i had lost. The next day - May 25, 2006 was my first day at TCS - we were provided with vans and buses to reach TCS - the transport cost is Rs. 17 per day (to and fro) - which is to be paid at the end of the month from your Vehicle Allowance. First day at work - in part II..........First day at work TCS ILP center at Trivandrum was just like how it was in the pics I had seen. We went inside and there were around 300 guys and girls - all of them trying to have a glance at a notice board kept at the entrance. The schedule for the day was put up - I was in batch T08; our batch numbers were already told to us at the hostel reception when we checked in. There were 8 batches - T02 to T09 and batches T02 to T05 were asked to gather in an auditorium and the remaining batches from T06 to T09 were asked to gather in a class room - shouldn't be complaining but already a discrimination - T02 to T05 were the CS/IT ppl and the remaining were the non CS ppl. So around 150 of us gathered in the classroom alloted to the four batches. The schedule for the first day was induction - from the admin, HR, MATC, ILP and finance (I don't remember exactly - forgive me for my poor memory) - after breakfast. TCS canteen is run by a private contractor. Let me tell you that the food is bad - but quite cheap; you get -Bread and butter (two slices of bread and butter @ Rs. 6/-), Bread and jam (same price as above), Vada (Rs. 2/- each), Idli (Rs. 2/- each), Puri (a plate @ Rs. 10/-), Dosa (Rs. 9/- a plate), Milk (a glass @ Rs. 10/-), and some more stuff - some days there is channa batura, some other days there are other dishes as well. TCS gives free tea/coffee coupons - which can be used any time of the day - mind you, you cannot exchange the coupons for milk or any other beverage (some of my friends tried doing it ;))
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The daily schedule will have 4 slots with 2 tea/coffee breaks and 1 lunch break and it may typically be like this 9 to 11 - A Slot 11 to 11.30 - Break 11.30 to 1.15 - B Slot 1.15 to 2.00 - Lunch 2.00 to 3.30 - C Slot 3.30 to 4.00 - Break 4.00 to 5.30 - D Slot 5.30 to 5.45 - Submission of feedback forms/meetings The timings could vary but not a lot - it may be around 15 minutes either way. Each batch has two coordinators - one technical and one life skills coordinator (will tell you about technical and life skills later). Our technical coordinator was Koshy and for life skills it was Nisha Dev (the faculty insist that we call them by their first name :) - no more Sir/Madam formalities). So, after breakfast, we proceeded to our induction sessions. Let me tell you what Induction actually is - it is nothing but a formal welcome by all the departments of TCS - the admin induction was by Col. Nair, who is the admin incharge of TCS, Trivadrum. He's a very lively and jovial chap - he welcomed us to TCS, Trivandrum and then he went on to talk about the rules and regulations to be followed in the hostel as well as work - like for example he said, guys ought to be back in the hostel by 10 pm and girls ought to be back by 9 pm. And also that, no guy must be found in a girl's room and vice versa. The admin department handles things like accomodation, transport, food in the TCS canteen and so on. And then we had the other inductions - by HR, by MATC - which is Manpower Allocation Task Committee who handle our allocations after training (it was by a female named Sheena - she's one ruthless lady - the first thing she told us was that WE WOULD NOT BE ALLOCATED TO PLACES NEAR OUR HOME TOWN for our project - so you know her character now).
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ILP induction was by Mr. Koshy Vaidyan (who later became Koshy - our technical coord.) - he told us about the ILP in general. Let me digress to tell you in detail about the ILP at TCS. From this year on, i.e from 2006, the ILP pattern has been changed - it is for 50 days for all branches (earlier CS ppl had ILP for 33 days and non CS for 44 days) - now mind you - 50 days means 50 working days - which would mean that the ILP is for 63 days (9 weeks), coz we would get around 12 or 13 holidays (Sundays and alternate Saturdays - TCS works on alternate Saturdays). So, this 50 day ILP schedule is broken up into two phases - 1. Induction 2. Integration The Induction is the same for all the batches - it basically deals with the fundamentals of software engineering and other courses. Here is the unofficial TCS schedule for Induction phase - Induction phase 25 days ------------------------------------------------------ HR Induction } LS Induction } Admin Induction } Finance Induction } 2 days IS Induction } MATC Induction } Library Induction } Technical Process Models 4 slots Requirements Analysis 5 slots Design 5 slots Testing and Debugging 5 slots Good Programming Skills 3 slots UNIX and C 4 slots Data structures and Algorithms } 3 slots Programming Techniques } Operating Systems 3 slots Life Skills Oral and Written Communication 11 slots Professional Grooming and Etiquette 6 slots Business Orientation 10 slots Systems Thinking 3 slots Ultimatix and IPMS 1 slots TBEM 2 slots IQMS 3 slots ISecurity 2 slots Business Continuity Planning 1 slots ------------------------------------------------------- The integration phase is also called the project specific training - about which I shall tell you later
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At the end of the first day, I could make the following observations - 1. You should be proud to be a part of TCS and generally as a part of the TATA brand - because that's the aim of the first day's induction schedule. 2. TCS has an ERP tool called Ultimatix which can be accessed at https://www.ultimatix.net - you cannot do anything with it now though if you are not yet a TCS employee. Ultimatix is the ultimate ERP tool - it is through Ultimatix that you will have to claim your reimbursements, apply for leave, view your paycheck, fill in your time sheets (this is after training i.e during your project after allocation). 3. TCS also has a global helpdesk through which you send all your requests - like activating your TCS mail ID, or reporting some problems with the computers and so on. 4. You cannot access public email clients like yahoo, gmail, rediff, hotmail and even sites like orkut and many others from any computer in TCS - they are all blocked by the server. The first day at TCS ended - it was a stress to the mind - listening to the history of the TATA group and that of TCS - during every induction made us feel bored to hell. Overall, it was a good day - my first day @ TCS - came to know a lot of things. The next day, we had our documentation scheduled - which is the verification of certificates and collection of the service agreement among others.
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Day 2 @ TCS First day at TCS ended with us knowing more about our batchmates - there were lots of colleges from Andhra Pradesh like Andhra University, JNTU Kakinada, SVU, GITAM (that's my coll) , GVP, GNITS, Srinidhi, SRKR, NBK - looked like 50% of the guys and girls selected from Andhra Pradesh were there. The other colleges were VNIT Nagpur and GCT Coimbatore - the VNITians were the most enthusiastic lot and GCTians were equally lively. There were also some MCA ppl from Indore. So basically, it was a cultural mix - everyone was eager to know everyone else - I remember the names of all my T08 batchmates (partly because I was the ILP CR). That brings me to the topic of CRs or Class Representatives. You may think that ILP is like school - believe me, when you go to your ILP, you will surely find out that ILP is like going 'Back to School'. There are 4 CRs selected for each batch - 1 for HR related issues, 1 for the Library, 1 for the IS (which is Infrastructure Services - they handle issues related to the computers in the lab, network connectivity, login problems etc.), and 1 for the ILP program (I was ILP CR for T08 :) ). At the end of day 1, we had with us a notepad, a Reynolds Bold blue ball point pen (forgive me for the intricate details), a temporary ID card and a personal file given to all of us by TCS. New notepads are given every 15 days. The important thing is the Personal File. The personal file is what you need to submit to TCS by the end of the second day. The photocopies of all your certificates (attested copies only - you can get attestation done at the SBI branch of Technopark), your offer letter, your joining letter (photocopies without attestation will suffice) and a copy of your passport (in case you have one) - these are the documents that have to be attached to the personal file. The file also has a lot of documents - which you need to fill in - some of the documents I remember are
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1. Profile - details about you, your educational qualifications and so on. 2. Nomination for Super Annuity (this is for nominating someone - mostly your parents, to get compensation in case of your untimely death - don't worry - that will not happen). 3. Nomination for Provident Fund (for this and for Super Annuation - you need to mention the name of the nominees, their date of birth and the percentage of nomination - for example, if I want to nominate my mom and dad - then I may give 50% to my mom and 50% to my dad as percentage of nomination - so the point is decide beforehand the percentage of nomination and also know the Date of Birth (as in records) of your nominees.) 4. Passport Details 5. Non Disclosure Agreement - which says that you should not divulge any information about TCS. (which is exactly what I am doing now :D ) 6. A document which you need to sign saying that you have no conflict of interest with TCS - if you have any, you can mention it (I don't think any of us did). There are some more documents - I don't remember exactly. There are a lot of signatures required - you also need signatures from two witnesses who can be any of your friends at TCS. And make sure you have sufficient number of passport photographs - you will be needing them. The schedule for day 2 was a movie (that's right - a movie whose title I have forgotten - it is a biography of Jamshedji Tata - a 1 hour movie - most of the guys slept throught the movie), the documentation (this is different from the personal file), library induction, finance induction and bank account opening
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After the movie and the break, we had our documentation. This is where TCS collects your service agreement, your surety verification form and verifies all your certificates - actually all your certificates from class X to your Course Completion cert. of engineering/Provisional Certificate are verified, but to make matters easy, the HRs asked us to show the originals of the last semester we finished - in our case, the 8th semester marksheet - they just look at it and give it to you back. Other documents verified are the - 1. Birth Certificate - lot's of queries here - you cannot show your class X certificate as DOB certificate. TCS is asking for your original birth certificate issued by the municipal corporation of the city of your birth. If your name is missing (which is my case too) or if your birth certificate is in your mother tongue - then I suggest you to go to a notary or a lawyer, get an affidavit stating your date of birth, your parents' name and the place of your birth. It should not cost more than Rs. 80. 2. Course completion certificate or Provisional Certificate. Just make sure that you have all marksheets from Class X onwards. If you have any doubts on filling up the service agreement, you can find this information useful - http://www.careers.tcs.com/GuideStamp.doc The documentation was completed in express time - the HRs were very efficient. Following the documentation, we had the library induction. Now some details about the library
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TCS library is cool - you get 4 copies of 8 different newspapers, and of course there are a lot of books - mostly technical though. Everyone is given a copy of Software Engineering by Pankaj Jalote which can be kept by us until the end of the training. Other than this, we get handouts for each technical course - the courses which I mentioned in Part II - it is the duty of the library CR to collect the handouts before each course starts. Now you can issue three more books from the library - 1 technical, 1 non technical - which means wither fiction/non-fiction novel and 1 foreign language book (which you won't be taking in the first 25 days coz foreign language is a part of the integration phase). Now, one very important thing is the non technical book. You have to present a book review at the end of the Oral and Written Communication course. So it's better you issue a good non technical book - i.e a novel from the library on the second day itself - so that you don't lose out on the good books. It's important because Reviews need to be presented on books taken only from the library. The finance induction was boring - the person dealing it Mr. Matthew told us many things other than the salary and whether there was any hike. He told us a few important things though. You need to get a PAN card within 60 days of joining TCS - otherwise you need to pay a penalty of Rs. 10,000. But worry not, TCS has a contract with an agency - you just need to fill a form and pay Rs. 72/- and submit it to the finance department - all this will be taken care of by your HR CR. If you already have a PAN card, then there is no reason to worry.
this is an ilp experience from one of my friends thought it would be helpful written in his own wordsBefore I elaborate on life at TCS - I would like tell you all (I still seriously doubt how many people would actually be reading this!!) that I worked in TCS for less than a month, so you may be right when you think that I have no right to talk about my association with TCS considering the very little amount of time I spent in TCS - but still, I feel sharing my experiences with you all would surely help you. And before you also begin to wonder why I left TCS - it's nothing personal - I quit TCS because I am going for higher studies. For most of you (I really don't know how many!), TCS must be the first company on campus and most of you had to stick to TCS coz your college did not allow multiple placements. Sometimes, I feel India is not a democracy yet!! And folks I belong to the same category - first company TCS and no multiple placements.
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It was nothing less than a shock that I got when I got an email from TCS on May 5, 2006 - I was asked to report for the ILP on May 25 at Trivandrum. It was at a time when none of my friends, or me was expecting it - I was actually looking forward to a long vacation till September - but all dreams were shattered. We had no idea about the documents that were required, no availability in direct trains from Visakhapatnam to Trivandrum - in fact, we were not at all prepared to go for the ILP. One of my friends got his posting at Bhubaneswar and my other two friends got it at Trivandrum - both of them backed out - one got it postponed and the other was going for his MS. That left ME alone. After a hectic last minute packing, I was off to Trivandrum on 22nd May - in a journey that would not allow me to sleep because I had to change two more trains. The journey to Trivandrum could only be worse if not worst. I missed my second train - waited for four hours in the morning from 2 to 6 in the railway station. I reached Chennai on 23rd and had to wait in the railway station for another 4 hours for my next train to Trivandrum. Travelling on long train journeys - that too alone, with no one to give you company - sometimes makes you go mad and it was madness that I endured until the morning of 24th May, when I woke up in the train to look at the beauty of God's own country - Kerala. It was raining heavily and being a first timer to Kerala - I fell in love with the greenery and blue back waters at first sight. It was so serene and peaceful and for the first time since I started to Trivandrum - I felt happy to be coming to TCS.
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Thiruvananthapuram or Trivandrum was quite unlike many cities that I have been to. People in this place don't mind rains - even if it rains throughout the year. 100% literacy rate in Kerala means that everyone knows how to read and write Malayalam - and all of them can put in their signature. The auto rickshaws charge for both to and fro - if you travel from A to B, then you need to pay double the amount given on the meter, so if you want to come back from B to A - you need not pay anything more. The buses have no numbers and everything everywhere is written only in Malayalam. Everyone in Trivandrum knew about Techno Park - that's where TCS is situated, and I later realized that Techno Park is the only place famous in Trivandrum apart from the beaches. I was asked to report at the TCS Executive Hostel which is about 18 km from the railway station - and when I reached Kenton Leisure (that's the actual name of the executive hostel), the place was teeming with people. I was allotted Room No. 318 (I don't know why I'm going into the tiniest of details!!) and my room mate was Sridhar - he was from GCT, Coimbatore - but in an hour I had to change my room because Sridhar's friend Mohanbabu from GCT wanted to be in room 318 - so I had to move into 319. And my room mate was missing - I could only find his baggage in the room - he had apparently gone out. Now, one small clarification - you cannot change rooms at will in the hostel - it so happened that myself, Sridhar and Mohanbabu were in the same batch.
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TCS Executive Hostel has around 150 rooms - each room is furnished with 2 beds, 2 study tables, a cupboard for 2 people, a dressing table, 1 plug point for mobile phone charging and an attached bathroom - believe me, the accommodation can't get better than this. The hostel has two outdoor shuttle courts, a gym (not many facilities in the gym though), a recreation room with a TV, carom board and Table Tennis table, a common TV for each floor and a restaurant that can seat around 200 people at a time. Each floor gets three newspapers - The Hindu, The Indian Express and ET. There is also a browsing center which charges Rs. 25 for an hour of browsing (half the computers don't work most of the time though), a small utility shop for buying things like from pencils to badminton racquets, two STD booths and a laundry service (called Al-Khobar Laundry service; charges are exorbitant - Rs. 13/- for a pair of shirt and trousers - washing and pressing). The only bad thing about the hostel is the restaurant - the food served is not great - and the fact that the hostel is located in a village and there are few places to go to around the hostel - you do have a number of small restaurants outside the hostel at walk able distance - recommended ones are Hotel Chennai and Veg World. The hostel rent is Rs. 110 per day, so you need to pay Rs. 3300 every month from your HRA. Techno Park is about 1 km from the executive hostel and TCS is about 2 km from the hostel. Techno Park also has other companies like US Technologies, IBS and many unheard ones. Techno park has other things too - it has a hospital called Ojus, a State Bank of India branch, a SBI ATM, a small departmental store, a place for junk food, a courier office, a dress showroom, an internet browsing center - these are the things that I can remember
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Day 1 at Trivandrum went on well, slept a lot to gain on all the sleep i had lost. The next day - May 25, 2006 was my first day at TCS - we were provided with vans and buses to reach TCS - the transport cost is Rs. 17 per day (to and fro) - which is to be paid at the end of the month from your Vehicle Allowance. First day at work - in part II..........First day at work TCS ILP center at Trivandrum was just like how it was in the pics I had seen. We went inside and there were around 300 guys and girls - all of them trying to have a glance at a notice board kept at the entrance. The schedule for the day was put up - I was in batch T08; our batch numbers were already told to us at the hostel reception when we checked in. There were 8 batches - T02 to T09 and batches T02 to T05 were asked to gather in an auditorium and the remaining batches from T06 to T09 were asked to gather in a class room - shouldn't be complaining but already a discrimination - T02 to T05 were the CS/IT ppl and the remaining were the non CS ppl. So around 150 of us gathered in the classroom alloted to the four batches. The schedule for the first day was induction - from the admin, HR, MATC, ILP and finance (I don't remember exactly - forgive me for my poor memory) - after breakfast. TCS canteen is run by a private contractor. Let me tell you that the food is bad - but quite cheap; you get -Bread and butter (two slices of bread and butter @ Rs. 6/-), Bread and jam (same price as above), Vada (Rs. 2/- each), Idli (Rs. 2/- each), Puri (a plate @ Rs. 10/-), Dosa (Rs. 9/- a plate), Milk (a glass @ Rs. 10/-), and some more stuff - some days there is channa batura, some other days there are other dishes as well. TCS gives free tea/coffee coupons - which can be used any time of the day - mind you, you cannot exchange the coupons for milk or any other beverage (some of my friends tried doing it ;))
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The daily schedule will have 4 slots with 2 tea/coffee breaks and 1 lunch break and it may typically be like this 9 to 11 - A Slot 11 to 11.30 - Break 11.30 to 1.15 - B Slot 1.15 to 2.00 - Lunch 2.00 to 3.30 - C Slot 3.30 to 4.00 - Break 4.00 to 5.30 - D Slot 5.30 to 5.45 - Submission of feedback forms/meetings The timings could vary but not a lot - it may be around 15 minutes either way. Each batch has two coordinators - one technical and one life skills coordinator (will tell you about technical and life skills later). Our technical coordinator was Koshy and for life skills it was Nisha Dev (the faculty insist that we call them by their first name :) - no more Sir/Madam formalities). So, after breakfast, we proceeded to our induction sessions. Let me tell you what Induction actually is - it is nothing but a formal welcome by all the departments of TCS - the admin induction was by Col. Nair, who is the admin incharge of TCS, Trivadrum. He's a very lively and jovial chap - he welcomed us to TCS, Trivandrum and then he went on to talk about the rules and regulations to be followed in the hostel as well as work - like for example he said, guys ought to be back in the hostel by 10 pm and girls ought to be back by 9 pm. And also that, no guy must be found in a girl's room and vice versa. The admin department handles things like accomodation, transport, food in the TCS canteen and so on. And then we had the other inductions - by HR, by MATC - which is Manpower Allocation Task Committee who handle our allocations after training (it was by a female named Sheena - she's one ruthless lady - the first thing she told us was that WE WOULD NOT BE ALLOCATED TO PLACES NEAR OUR HOME TOWN for our project - so you know her character now).
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ILP induction was by Mr. Koshy Vaidyan (who later became Koshy - our technical coord.) - he told us about the ILP in general. Let me digress to tell you in detail about the ILP at TCS. From this year on, i.e from 2006, the ILP pattern has been changed - it is for 50 days for all branches (earlier CS ppl had ILP for 33 days and non CS for 44 days) - now mind you - 50 days means 50 working days - which would mean that the ILP is for 63 days (9 weeks), coz we would get around 12 or 13 holidays (Sundays and alternate Saturdays - TCS works on alternate Saturdays). So, this 50 day ILP schedule is broken up into two phases - 1. Induction 2. Integration The Induction is the same for all the batches - it basically deals with the fundamentals of software engineering and other courses. Here is the unofficial TCS schedule for Induction phase - Induction phase 25 days ------------------------------------------------------ HR Induction } LS Induction } Admin Induction } Finance Induction } 2 days IS Induction } MATC Induction } Library Induction } Technical Process Models 4 slots Requirements Analysis 5 slots Design 5 slots Testing and Debugging 5 slots Good Programming Skills 3 slots UNIX and C 4 slots Data structures and Algorithms } 3 slots Programming Techniques } Operating Systems 3 slots Life Skills Oral and Written Communication 11 slots Professional Grooming and Etiquette 6 slots Business Orientation 10 slots Systems Thinking 3 slots Ultimatix and IPMS 1 slots TBEM 2 slots IQMS 3 slots ISecurity 2 slots Business Continuity Planning 1 slots ------------------------------------------------------- The integration phase is also called the project specific training - about which I shall tell you later
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At the end of the first day, I could make the following observations - 1. You should be proud to be a part of TCS and generally as a part of the TATA brand - because that's the aim of the first day's induction schedule. 2. TCS has an ERP tool called Ultimatix which can be accessed at https://www.ultimatix.net - you cannot do anything with it now though if you are not yet a TCS employee. Ultimatix is the ultimate ERP tool - it is through Ultimatix that you will have to claim your reimbursements, apply for leave, view your paycheck, fill in your time sheets (this is after training i.e during your project after allocation). 3. TCS also has a global helpdesk through which you send all your requests - like activating your TCS mail ID, or reporting some problems with the computers and so on. 4. You cannot access public email clients like yahoo, gmail, rediff, hotmail and even sites like orkut and many others from any computer in TCS - they are all blocked by the server. The first day at TCS ended - it was a stress to the mind - listening to the history of the TATA group and that of TCS - during every induction made us feel bored to hell. Overall, it was a good day - my first day @ TCS - came to know a lot of things. The next day, we had our documentation scheduled - which is the verification of certificates and collection of the service agreement among others.
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Day 2 @ TCS First day at TCS ended with us knowing more about our batchmates - there were lots of colleges from Andhra Pradesh like Andhra University, JNTU Kakinada, SVU, GITAM (that's my coll) , GVP, GNITS, Srinidhi, SRKR, NBK - looked like 50% of the guys and girls selected from Andhra Pradesh were there. The other colleges were VNIT Nagpur and GCT Coimbatore - the VNITians were the most enthusiastic lot and GCTians were equally lively. There were also some MCA ppl from Indore. So basically, it was a cultural mix - everyone was eager to know everyone else - I remember the names of all my T08 batchmates (partly because I was the ILP CR). That brings me to the topic of CRs or Class Representatives. You may think that ILP is like school - believe me, when you go to your ILP, you will surely find out that ILP is like going 'Back to School'. There are 4 CRs selected for each batch - 1 for HR related issues, 1 for the Library, 1 for the IS (which is Infrastructure Services - they handle issues related to the computers in the lab, network connectivity, login problems etc.), and 1 for the ILP program (I was ILP CR for T08 :) ). At the end of day 1, we had with us a notepad, a Reynolds Bold blue ball point pen (forgive me for the intricate details), a temporary ID card and a personal file given to all of us by TCS. New notepads are given every 15 days. The important thing is the Personal File. The personal file is what you need to submit to TCS by the end of the second day. The photocopies of all your certificates (attested copies only - you can get attestation done at the SBI branch of Technopark), your offer letter, your joining letter (photocopies without attestation will suffice) and a copy of your passport (in case you have one) - these are the documents that have to be attached to the personal file. The file also has a lot of documents - which you need to fill in - some of the documents I remember are
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1. Profile - details about you, your educational qualifications and so on. 2. Nomination for Super Annuity (this is for nominating someone - mostly your parents, to get compensation in case of your untimely death - don't worry - that will not happen). 3. Nomination for Provident Fund (for this and for Super Annuation - you need to mention the name of the nominees, their date of birth and the percentage of nomination - for example, if I want to nominate my mom and dad - then I may give 50% to my mom and 50% to my dad as percentage of nomination - so the point is decide beforehand the percentage of nomination and also know the Date of Birth (as in records) of your nominees.) 4. Passport Details 5. Non Disclosure Agreement - which says that you should not divulge any information about TCS. (which is exactly what I am doing now :D ) 6. A document which you need to sign saying that you have no conflict of interest with TCS - if you have any, you can mention it (I don't think any of us did). There are some more documents - I don't remember exactly. There are a lot of signatures required - you also need signatures from two witnesses who can be any of your friends at TCS. And make sure you have sufficient number of passport photographs - you will be needing them. The schedule for day 2 was a movie (that's right - a movie whose title I have forgotten - it is a biography of Jamshedji Tata - a 1 hour movie - most of the guys slept throught the movie), the documentation (this is different from the personal file), library induction, finance induction and bank account opening
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After the movie and the break, we had our documentation. This is where TCS collects your service agreement, your surety verification form and verifies all your certificates - actually all your certificates from class X to your Course Completion cert. of engineering/Provisional Certificate are verified, but to make matters easy, the HRs asked us to show the originals of the last semester we finished - in our case, the 8th semester marksheet - they just look at it and give it to you back. Other documents verified are the - 1. Birth Certificate - lot's of queries here - you cannot show your class X certificate as DOB certificate. TCS is asking for your original birth certificate issued by the municipal corporation of the city of your birth. If your name is missing (which is my case too) or if your birth certificate is in your mother tongue - then I suggest you to go to a notary or a lawyer, get an affidavit stating your date of birth, your parents' name and the place of your birth. It should not cost more than Rs. 80. 2. Course completion certificate or Provisional Certificate. Just make sure that you have all marksheets from Class X onwards. If you have any doubts on filling up the service agreement, you can find this information useful - http://www.careers.tcs.com/GuideStamp.doc The documentation was completed in express time - the HRs were very efficient. Following the documentation, we had the library induction. Now some details about the library
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TCS library is cool - you get 4 copies of 8 different newspapers, and of course there are a lot of books - mostly technical though. Everyone is given a copy of Software Engineering by Pankaj Jalote which can be kept by us until the end of the training. Other than this, we get handouts for each technical course - the courses which I mentioned in Part II - it is the duty of the library CR to collect the handouts before each course starts. Now you can issue three more books from the library - 1 technical, 1 non technical - which means wither fiction/non-fiction novel and 1 foreign language book (which you won't be taking in the first 25 days coz foreign language is a part of the integration phase). Now, one very important thing is the non technical book. You have to present a book review at the end of the Oral and Written Communication course. So it's better you issue a good non technical book - i.e a novel from the library on the second day itself - so that you don't lose out on the good books. It's important because Reviews need to be presented on books taken only from the library. The finance induction was boring - the person dealing it Mr. Matthew told us many things other than the salary and whether there was any hike. He told us a few important things though. You need to get a PAN card within 60 days of joining TCS - otherwise you need to pay a penalty of Rs. 10,000. But worry not, TCS has a contract with an agency - you just need to fill a form and pay Rs. 72/- and submit it to the finance department - all this will be taken care of by your HR CR. If you already have a PAN card, then there is no reason to worry.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
RAHUL'S EXPERIENCE @ ILP,PUNE
LIFE@ILP,PUNE
From day two onwards we all were put into different groups and the list was posted on the wall entering the training room. First of all i checked whether me, Sudip, Sunita and monalisa in one group or not. Sudip is in Group 4. Sunita is in group 5. I am in Group 10. and yes monalisa is also in Group 10. God is Great. i thought the coming 44 days are going to be awesome with me and monalisa in one group. The Time table fo group 10 was designed taking into consideration of my sleep. Its because all the morning sessions before lunch were on technical subjects and the afternoon sessions were on soft skills, foreign languages, games. So as usual i used to complete my sleep during morning sessions and fully active during afternoon sessions partly because of the mam who taught us German Language. Man. She is hot!!!!!! really hot!!!!!!. After the sessions are over, we used to come back at 8 PM in the evening. But the bad thing was we were given loads of assignments which needs to be completed by tomorrow morning. But the good thing was the assignments were assigned to a group. In my group there were two south indian girls and one guy from aligarh muslim university. All of us were damn serious about the project except me. Now the good thing was we all had to meet somewhere in the night and complete the assignments. Friends don't take it otherwise. One southindian girl named Divya was the leader of our group. i used to call him PL(Project Leader) and i was the loser in that group. Divya never counted me while distributing the tasks but she was not angry though. I was the most happening guy in the group when the topic of discussion was anything apart from studies. Divya used to tell us to reach their flat by sharp 9:30 PM. I said " Divya,U imagine, after a long day's work we come to room at 8PM. Then for relaxation and dinner only one and half hours. That's not fair. Let's schedule the meeting at 10:30". This used to be my punchline everyday during the training. and in reply she used to say the same thing i.e. " Com'on Rahul, We have a lot of things to do. Other groups are pretty much ahead of us. We need to work hard. So 9:30 means 9:30. Be punctual Rahul. OK?". i thought she is the real project leader material. TCS needs associates like her not like me who completes half of his sleep during morning sessions. But even after repeated warnings of divya i used to be fast asleep by the time Divya called. and the following scene used to happen everyday.After having dialled for 4-5 times i will pick up the phone saying " hey Divya, i am coming. There is a huge crowd at siyaram. completed my dinner, will be there in 10 mins". She said " Now don't tell lies Rahul, i had seen u come out of Siyaram at 8:45. I know u must be sleeping at room. Com'on come soon. We are already late.". "Ok, Ok coming Divya" i said. " So there you are Mr. Rahul. 30 mins late". I said " Sorry guys, won't happen again" . Divya said " Rahul, today you have to draw the Entity Relationship Diagram for the Customer Relationship branch of the bank". i said " Divya!! have you got something to eat?" Divya replied "Rahul, By the way you are coming from Siyaram right?" ." No, i had been to Siyaram two long hours back." i said. Divya said " Ok i have got banana chips.
From day two onwards we all were put into different groups and the list was posted on the wall entering the training room. First of all i checked whether me, Sudip, Sunita and monalisa in one group or not. Sudip is in Group 4. Sunita is in group 5. I am in Group 10. and yes monalisa is also in Group 10. God is Great. i thought the coming 44 days are going to be awesome with me and monalisa in one group. The Time table fo group 10 was designed taking into consideration of my sleep. Its because all the morning sessions before lunch were on technical subjects and the afternoon sessions were on soft skills, foreign languages, games. So as usual i used to complete my sleep during morning sessions and fully active during afternoon sessions partly because of the mam who taught us German Language. Man. She is hot!!!!!! really hot!!!!!!. After the sessions are over, we used to come back at 8 PM in the evening. But the bad thing was we were given loads of assignments which needs to be completed by tomorrow morning. But the good thing was the assignments were assigned to a group. In my group there were two south indian girls and one guy from aligarh muslim university. All of us were damn serious about the project except me. Now the good thing was we all had to meet somewhere in the night and complete the assignments. Friends don't take it otherwise. One southindian girl named Divya was the leader of our group. i used to call him PL(Project Leader) and i was the loser in that group. Divya never counted me while distributing the tasks but she was not angry though. I was the most happening guy in the group when the topic of discussion was anything apart from studies. Divya used to tell us to reach their flat by sharp 9:30 PM. I said " Divya,U imagine, after a long day's work we come to room at 8PM. Then for relaxation and dinner only one and half hours. That's not fair. Let's schedule the meeting at 10:30". This used to be my punchline everyday during the training. and in reply she used to say the same thing i.e. " Com'on Rahul, We have a lot of things to do. Other groups are pretty much ahead of us. We need to work hard. So 9:30 means 9:30. Be punctual Rahul. OK?". i thought she is the real project leader material. TCS needs associates like her not like me who completes half of his sleep during morning sessions. But even after repeated warnings of divya i used to be fast asleep by the time Divya called. and the following scene used to happen everyday.After having dialled for 4-5 times i will pick up the phone saying " hey Divya, i am coming. There is a huge crowd at siyaram. completed my dinner, will be there in 10 mins". She said " Now don't tell lies Rahul, i had seen u come out of Siyaram at 8:45. I know u must be sleeping at room. Com'on come soon. We are already late.". "Ok, Ok coming Divya" i said. " So there you are Mr. Rahul. 30 mins late". I said " Sorry guys, won't happen again" . Divya said " Rahul, today you have to draw the Entity Relationship Diagram for the Customer Relationship branch of the bank". i said " Divya!! have you got something to eat?" Divya replied "Rahul, By the way you are coming from Siyaram right?" ." No, i had been to Siyaram two long hours back." i said. Divya said " Ok i have got banana chips.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
RAHUL'S EXPEREINCE @ ILP,PUNE
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DAY 1
"Rahul!!! Rahul!!!! Get up Man. Today is the first day of our Professional career and you dog still sleeping. Its 7:30 now. The Buses have already come and will leave by sharp 8 O' clock" said Sudip. Oh......damn. It's only 7:30 right!!!!!. " Yes but It's not college Rahul" Said Sudip. This is the first time i realized that those four percious golden years of my life are gone and this is pune where we have come to get up at 7:30 and reach to the bus by 8 and go to training centre by 9 sharp. " Hey...don't forget to wear formal dresses with a tie" said Sudip. What!!!! Formal dresses. But i don't have any. "Rahul, have you come for training or tracking?" said Sudip. Shit Man...but they should have told us beforehand. So that we could have come prepared. "By the way it was written in one of the documents of training Kit which was given to us One month back. But u are so busy with your stuff, u don't have time to go through the Kit at all" said Sudip. Ok, listen, you can use my formal shirt and trouser but only for today. Ok? Go and buy some formal dresses today evening. By the way do you know how to knot a tie?. "No..I don't know" said I. He said "Ok. give it to me i will make the knot. By the way you want single knot or double knot?". I said " Com' on sudip, when i don't have formal wears, how can you imagine that i will have a tie?". Sudip Said " What?? good....very good.....you don't have a tie too.Good you are such an ass hole.. see....its already 7:50. You can use my tie but only for today. Mind it"So there we are. Only 5 mins late in reaching the TCS bus. The bus is around 90% full. Rest all buses are gone. Thank god. Finally we could manage to get the last bus. " We are late because of you fool" said Sudip. Cool Man!!! Why are you so serious!!! What will happen....Worst case we might have to bunk our first day in TCS. No big Deal..... Said I. Sudip said "This is not college Rahul". That is the second time i realized that we can't bunk in training even for a single day else that will cause a loss of one day's salary. " See... because of you all the bus is full. Only the last row is empty" said Sudip. Its Ok. yaar. Anyways i was always a back bencher in college. So who cares if the same thing continues in TCS also!!! So finally we reached at CMC campus Pune. For all TCS trainees the CMC conducts the training program. We all were shown the door to a seminar hall. Its cool man. Thank god the A/C is on. i finally found a corner seat so that i can rest myself against the wall while sitting or rather sleeping. There he is the ILP Co-ordinator at the dais. " Dear all Associates, Welcome to Tata Family. A very warm welcome to Tata Consultancy Services. I am the Co-ordinator of this ILP pune branch.You are going to spend the next 44 days here in pune. Here you will be taught the various stages of software engineering and apart from that soft skills, foreign lanugages, team work, ethics everything. i hope you have a pleasant stay in Pune" and the speech continued for the next 10-15 mins. Naturally i was not interested in learning a bit of speech. i just wanted to sleep as sudip woke me up early in the morning as 7:30 is early morning in my dictionary.At the end of the speech he came to the real point i.e. the breakfast is arranged outside the seminar hall and we are given 30 mins to have it and come back so that he can proceed with the joining formalities. We all came back and stuck to our seat. That awesome breakfast gave fuel to my sleeps. With the proceeding of the joining formalities my casual sleep proceeded to deep sleep." Rahul, Rahul...... Wake up Man!! How many hours more would you sleep?" said Sudip. " Ahhhh......i was in deep sleep. i saw my watch its 12:30 that means the morning breakfast fuelled my sleep for 2 hr 30 mins. by the way it was a nice breakfast and that to free of cost." Yes you finally woke up for another free lunch....you fatso" Sudip. By the way have you got the habit of waking people when they are deep asleep or does tcs pay you more salary for that? Ok tell me what happened till now?. " The Delivery Centre Head of Pune branch had come. She gave an awesome speech. You know TCS is the largest software compnay in ASIA!!!!" Sudip said. I thought thank god i was sleeeping by that time else i had to bear all the torture for 2 and half hours. " OK. Let's go for lunch and don't dare to sleep in the afternoon. The co-ordinatior said we will have to fill up some forms and we will be given ID cards. ok its lunch time, again lunch is free Yepeee.... Thank god the afternoon was not that boring. We saw some cool videos made by some TCS associates about the Working culture in TCS. And at the end of the day again Coffee. God i can't forget the food stuffs whatever might happen. By 7 O' clock in evening we all were into nyati tower where accomodation was being provided for the next 44 days. The first day in TCS is over and perhaps we earned 500 Indian Rupees by the end of the day. Now for dinner there are two options. Either you go to the nearby Siyaram restaurant or you can order for dabba. Sudip said " i will have dabba in home". But i was in no mood to eat those vegeterian dabba food on the first day of TCS and that to when there is a near by restaurant. Fortunately the person who sat beside me in the bus while coming to nyati towers had already had a deal with me for going together to the restaurant. i told Sudip " Sudip, you have your dinner here. i am going to the restaurant. From tomorrow i will join with you". Actually that tomorrow never came. The whole 44 days i ate dinner in Siyaram only.Me and Ankit (the person who sat besides me in the bus) went to Siyaram exactly at 9:00 PM. We were hoping for a cool dinner but when we reached Siyaram the scene was totally different. Siyaram was totally full and a huge crowd waiting outside for their turn. .I asked " Ankit, Does Siyaram offers dinner Free like today's breakfast and lunch?". It was such a huge crowd that almost all the trainees have come here for dinner except Sudip. He is the only potential customer of the Dabbawala. We were totally frustrated whether we both will get a half pice of roti or not.But as they say " Always be optimistic. Whatever happens happens for good". Sunita and Monalisa were also waiting there for dinner. Sunita saw me and flagged her hand towards me. Cool. its good when a beautiful girl calls you to accompany her in such a huge crowd although she was from my college but who else knows. " Hi Sunita. Hi Monalisa. Meet Ankit. Both of you are also waiting for dinner". " Yes. since last half an hour. But you see Rahul such a huge crowd". By that time my mind was somewhere else. yes !!! it was around Monalisa. She is really beautiful Man. and might be since i did not have a single affair in college. Forget about affairs, i hardly used to talk to girls except those who were in my Lab project group. "Come on!! Ask ask something Monalisa " was the voice coming somewhere from my brain. " So how was your day?" asked Monalisa. Yepee...Finally she spoke to me. i answered " Well, Struggled a lot". " Struggled!!!! today!! how?" asked Monalisa. Welled struggled to keep my eyes open but totally in vain. But Yes during afternoon i was bit of successful. " He...ehe hee." Both of them smiled. Monalisa is really cute when she smiles. I said " See the struggle is not complete yet. We need to succeed else we wont be able to get dinner today." Hahahaa.....hahaa.......laughed we all four. " Ok. now we are four. you all wait here. i am going inside and will ask manager to arrange a table for four." I said. Then i went inside. The manager was really busy in managing tables and all these people are bugging him like anything. I went to the manager." Manager!!! i need a table of four." Manager said " Sir, its really crowded and people are waiting. i am noting down your name and will tell u once your turn comes." I went close to the manager and said in his ear " Listen, you ask my name earlier and a good tip is waiting for you and i am waiting outside. don't forget". He replied " I will try sir." Then i came outside the restaurant. Sunita asked " What happened!!is any table available? what the manager said?". I said " Yes it will take only 5-10 mins". After 5 mins the Manager shouted " Rahul!! Table for four". Ok. Let's go. Our table is ready. By that time Monalisa was shocked. After we settled down on our table, Monalisa asked " How come the manager called for your name when people before us are still waiting?"." Because the Manager recognised the rising star of TCS" I replied. " Hmm.....Rising Star.....Who was sleeping the whole day and rose only in the evening" Said Monalisa. Haa..aahhahaa...........we all laughed. We had a nice dinner. The service was good, might be because of the tip which i had promised earlier. And after dinner i was deadly begging for the bed and this schedule continued for the next 44 days of my stay in pune.
DAY 1
"Rahul!!! Rahul!!!! Get up Man. Today is the first day of our Professional career and you dog still sleeping. Its 7:30 now. The Buses have already come and will leave by sharp 8 O' clock" said Sudip. Oh......damn. It's only 7:30 right!!!!!. " Yes but It's not college Rahul" Said Sudip. This is the first time i realized that those four percious golden years of my life are gone and this is pune where we have come to get up at 7:30 and reach to the bus by 8 and go to training centre by 9 sharp. " Hey...don't forget to wear formal dresses with a tie" said Sudip. What!!!! Formal dresses. But i don't have any. "Rahul, have you come for training or tracking?" said Sudip. Shit Man...but they should have told us beforehand. So that we could have come prepared. "By the way it was written in one of the documents of training Kit which was given to us One month back. But u are so busy with your stuff, u don't have time to go through the Kit at all" said Sudip. Ok, listen, you can use my formal shirt and trouser but only for today. Ok? Go and buy some formal dresses today evening. By the way do you know how to knot a tie?. "No..I don't know" said I. He said "Ok. give it to me i will make the knot. By the way you want single knot or double knot?". I said " Com' on sudip, when i don't have formal wears, how can you imagine that i will have a tie?". Sudip Said " What?? good....very good.....you don't have a tie too.Good you are such an ass hole.. see....its already 7:50. You can use my tie but only for today. Mind it"So there we are. Only 5 mins late in reaching the TCS bus. The bus is around 90% full. Rest all buses are gone. Thank god. Finally we could manage to get the last bus. " We are late because of you fool" said Sudip. Cool Man!!! Why are you so serious!!! What will happen....Worst case we might have to bunk our first day in TCS. No big Deal..... Said I. Sudip said "This is not college Rahul". That is the second time i realized that we can't bunk in training even for a single day else that will cause a loss of one day's salary. " See... because of you all the bus is full. Only the last row is empty" said Sudip. Its Ok. yaar. Anyways i was always a back bencher in college. So who cares if the same thing continues in TCS also!!! So finally we reached at CMC campus Pune. For all TCS trainees the CMC conducts the training program. We all were shown the door to a seminar hall. Its cool man. Thank god the A/C is on. i finally found a corner seat so that i can rest myself against the wall while sitting or rather sleeping. There he is the ILP Co-ordinator at the dais. " Dear all Associates, Welcome to Tata Family. A very warm welcome to Tata Consultancy Services. I am the Co-ordinator of this ILP pune branch.You are going to spend the next 44 days here in pune. Here you will be taught the various stages of software engineering and apart from that soft skills, foreign lanugages, team work, ethics everything. i hope you have a pleasant stay in Pune" and the speech continued for the next 10-15 mins. Naturally i was not interested in learning a bit of speech. i just wanted to sleep as sudip woke me up early in the morning as 7:30 is early morning in my dictionary.At the end of the speech he came to the real point i.e. the breakfast is arranged outside the seminar hall and we are given 30 mins to have it and come back so that he can proceed with the joining formalities. We all came back and stuck to our seat. That awesome breakfast gave fuel to my sleeps. With the proceeding of the joining formalities my casual sleep proceeded to deep sleep." Rahul, Rahul...... Wake up Man!! How many hours more would you sleep?" said Sudip. " Ahhhh......i was in deep sleep. i saw my watch its 12:30 that means the morning breakfast fuelled my sleep for 2 hr 30 mins. by the way it was a nice breakfast and that to free of cost." Yes you finally woke up for another free lunch....you fatso" Sudip. By the way have you got the habit of waking people when they are deep asleep or does tcs pay you more salary for that? Ok tell me what happened till now?. " The Delivery Centre Head of Pune branch had come. She gave an awesome speech. You know TCS is the largest software compnay in ASIA!!!!" Sudip said. I thought thank god i was sleeeping by that time else i had to bear all the torture for 2 and half hours. " OK. Let's go for lunch and don't dare to sleep in the afternoon. The co-ordinatior said we will have to fill up some forms and we will be given ID cards. ok its lunch time, again lunch is free Yepeee.... Thank god the afternoon was not that boring. We saw some cool videos made by some TCS associates about the Working culture in TCS. And at the end of the day again Coffee. God i can't forget the food stuffs whatever might happen. By 7 O' clock in evening we all were into nyati tower where accomodation was being provided for the next 44 days. The first day in TCS is over and perhaps we earned 500 Indian Rupees by the end of the day. Now for dinner there are two options. Either you go to the nearby Siyaram restaurant or you can order for dabba. Sudip said " i will have dabba in home". But i was in no mood to eat those vegeterian dabba food on the first day of TCS and that to when there is a near by restaurant. Fortunately the person who sat beside me in the bus while coming to nyati towers had already had a deal with me for going together to the restaurant. i told Sudip " Sudip, you have your dinner here. i am going to the restaurant. From tomorrow i will join with you". Actually that tomorrow never came. The whole 44 days i ate dinner in Siyaram only.Me and Ankit (the person who sat besides me in the bus) went to Siyaram exactly at 9:00 PM. We were hoping for a cool dinner but when we reached Siyaram the scene was totally different. Siyaram was totally full and a huge crowd waiting outside for their turn. .I asked " Ankit, Does Siyaram offers dinner Free like today's breakfast and lunch?". It was such a huge crowd that almost all the trainees have come here for dinner except Sudip. He is the only potential customer of the Dabbawala. We were totally frustrated whether we both will get a half pice of roti or not.But as they say " Always be optimistic. Whatever happens happens for good". Sunita and Monalisa were also waiting there for dinner. Sunita saw me and flagged her hand towards me. Cool. its good when a beautiful girl calls you to accompany her in such a huge crowd although she was from my college but who else knows. " Hi Sunita. Hi Monalisa. Meet Ankit. Both of you are also waiting for dinner". " Yes. since last half an hour. But you see Rahul such a huge crowd". By that time my mind was somewhere else. yes !!! it was around Monalisa. She is really beautiful Man. and might be since i did not have a single affair in college. Forget about affairs, i hardly used to talk to girls except those who were in my Lab project group. "Come on!! Ask ask something Monalisa " was the voice coming somewhere from my brain. " So how was your day?" asked Monalisa. Yepee...Finally she spoke to me. i answered " Well, Struggled a lot". " Struggled!!!! today!! how?" asked Monalisa. Welled struggled to keep my eyes open but totally in vain. But Yes during afternoon i was bit of successful. " He...ehe hee." Both of them smiled. Monalisa is really cute when she smiles. I said " See the struggle is not complete yet. We need to succeed else we wont be able to get dinner today." Hahahaa.....hahaa.......laughed we all four. " Ok. now we are four. you all wait here. i am going inside and will ask manager to arrange a table for four." I said. Then i went inside. The manager was really busy in managing tables and all these people are bugging him like anything. I went to the manager." Manager!!! i need a table of four." Manager said " Sir, its really crowded and people are waiting. i am noting down your name and will tell u once your turn comes." I went close to the manager and said in his ear " Listen, you ask my name earlier and a good tip is waiting for you and i am waiting outside. don't forget". He replied " I will try sir." Then i came outside the restaurant. Sunita asked " What happened!!is any table available? what the manager said?". I said " Yes it will take only 5-10 mins". After 5 mins the Manager shouted " Rahul!! Table for four". Ok. Let's go. Our table is ready. By that time Monalisa was shocked. After we settled down on our table, Monalisa asked " How come the manager called for your name when people before us are still waiting?"." Because the Manager recognised the rising star of TCS" I replied. " Hmm.....Rising Star.....Who was sleeping the whole day and rose only in the evening" Said Monalisa. Haa..aahhahaa...........we all laughed. We had a nice dinner. The service was good, might be because of the tip which i had promised earlier. And after dinner i was deadly begging for the bed and this schedule continued for the next 44 days of my stay in pune.
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