Tourists of the Home land !!!!!!!

Such was the awe with which We were gazing at the beauty of our own campus today.

Infosys campus here is one of those biggest campuses around and it would never be required for one to travel from corner to other. Being in the same building that had ATM'S, Travels, Accounts, Finance and Food court next to the building, there has hardly been a necessity to go down to the other end of the campus, where a lot of developments were happening of late.

Today, I for some reason felt like going over to a new Food court at the other side that was started just a few months back and My colleagues accepted it momentarily.
Thus, We strolled towards the new food court there. On our way, My tech lead talked of seeing a stall in open space in that area, some time back, where people were having coffee. One of us had replied It was the CCD. My lead very shockingly replied "What has the CCD(Computer communication department of Infy) got to do with coffee." Well, Didn't his reply trigger a spontaneous outburst of Laughter, that took a while to stop. The reason was that CCD that we referred was "Cafe Coffee day". Yeah, That's the way we call it here....

A small deviation in here. I must say about my coffee drinking habit here. For a person who never touched Coffee for 20 yrs since birth, Coffee is now a part of day to day life. Yeah, Thanks to My team guys, I changed myself(still not sure whether for the Gud or Bad). Invariably,on most days, the lunch ends with a cup of Cappuccino( at the CCD stall closer to our building). We had even become such distinguished customers there that the sales Guy there used to provide me Cappuccino with Honey at no extra cost. I for sure was having a nice time.

Back to the topic on which this article is centered, We had reached the new food court. The variety of dishes in the thali was nothing different from what most of the other food courts serve. But, the quality of the dishes remained to be seen. The restaurant had a very unique architecture and semblance and I was told that it was a revolving Restaurant. Meaning, the roof can actually revolve. There were a series of steel girders and pillars erected from the ground to support the roof. It was not functional atleast for now. I am not sure if they are surely gonna make it a reality in the future. If that be the case, it will be yet another feather on the cap of Infosys, the tourist destination. It already is a place that's becoming a must see for all those visiting Bangalore. Surprisingly, The Development centre in Mysore is even better. It surely is a living heaven. Just wondering, if this is any trick for Employee retention, thereby lessening the Attrition :-) (Attrition is quite a strong word in corporate circles. There is a school of thought that firmly believes that the Quality of a company is not made up it's client base or quality of products, but by the Attrition ratio that prevails there.)

The Food fortunately was tastier and We found it much better than what we have been consuming for months now. At the back of our mind, We certainly knew that this was just an ephemeral delectation. Its such a common phenomenon when staying away from home. No food satiates our taste/Requirements in the longer run :-). The biryani was just too gud. My liking for Papads is so much that some 100 guys like me can actually empty the papads for the day in all the food courts. Though, I would initially bring that many papads, it will not even remain for a few seconds on my plate after I take it to the table. My colleagues will feed on most of them, leaving very few for me. That they don't even care to take papads, hoping that I will bring as many, is enuf evidence to how big a papad crisis I would be creating for all those hapless ones having late lunch :-):-). The sweet was "semiya payasam" and a few raised eyebrows over calling everything payasam down south and called that vermicelli. I was quick to add that it was "Payasam made of vermicelli". I had to convince them that Payasam was just a generic term and there are a variety of dimensions to the same dish based on it's ingredients. What prompted this question from one of my colleagues was that a sweet in liquid form was served yesterday as Onam special dish and was termed "Payasam". That today's vermicelli sweet(as he called it) was more of a semi solid paste caused aspersions over what is the true form of Payasam. Hmm, Now, I am confused too. what should be the true form?? To me whatever be it, it's just fine until it tastes good.

But, What we liked most about this Restaurant was that it was not one of those congested food courts of Infy. It was a food court devoid of queues and space constraint. And it had far more sophisticated tables and chairs, resembling the ones at posh Restaurants in heart of the city. We left the food court after having food, quite satisfied with the overall experience. Then, our attention diverted towards the basement of the same building. From outside, it looked like as though it was a sophisticated version of a tunnel, probably leading to Infy's BPO office 10kms away :-). We decided to explore it further. After all, We knew it would take months for us to come through that side anytime again :-). The Basement had a series of shop like demarcations. Airtel office, ICICI bank, Hair n beauty care saloon, all being part of it. The Beauty saloon is one of the latest additions to Infosys havens. The parlor was open and none in there except for a house keeping staff. We just peeped in to see what was all in there, in the parlor. Just as we were gazing at the interiors and equipments there, the house keeping lady told us, the parlor was a ladies one . Gawddd, Thank God nobody noticed us there. The parlor actually did have a board stating it was for Women, which we had overlooked. We were still having a college like experience in corporate :-).

After we got out of that, a huge Pyramid shaped building attracted our attention. It was the Infosys media centre. It had a small waterbed on both sides of the pathway leading to the entrance of the building. Water was seeping through small pores on the walls of the water bed to a gutter below, giving a feel of walking through a small time cascade on both sides. The Media centre was again empty except for a security Guy. The way we were gazing at it was such that the security guy came and told us that outsiders were not supposed to enter into the building :-). A strange question to a group of guys, among whom none was less than 2 yrs old in the company. But, that s the way we went about our exploration :-).

Our next destination was the CCD that I talked off in the beginning. Just like any other day, this day cannot end without a cup of coffee. It was just that it was a different CCD centre inside the campus. The seating arrangement here again was quite similar to the CCD's anywhere in blr city. The place was also a free smoking zone and it was just the right place for people who smoked. We could also spot a lot of chinkees there. A few new Foreign beauties just for a change, as compared to those that We get to see every other day ;) .

Thereafter, We proceeded towards our building to continue with the days' work and had realized that the walk worked out to be a gud work out in the end.

Thus came to an end, a lunch break that lasted close to 2 hours, and one that could cost Infy a few dollars in it's billing amount, ofcourse if we were to record it in our status reports. After all, there is a provision for it :-)