DAY 3 OF ILP

Argh, a morning slot for the rest of the ILP means that my batch has to wake up at 5:30 am everyday:( Rushed through morning activities and got to the TCS bus on time at 6:20 a.m with roomie. My roomie is a great guy called Anur who loves programming in Java.
  There were five slots today. One was an introduction to mainframes. Two were interactive BizSkill classes(skits and pair-speaking). There was a lab session where the batch was supposed to learn how to use Ultimatix, which is the TCS software containing all your professional information and updates, such as salary, banking and timesheets.  The HR guy said that it would be fixed in 3 days. I also got myself an attendance file for the batch ; not sure why it is needed ...
  I missed the bus to the hostel, so I wandered around the technopark area with some friends, found that the autos charge Rs140 for a 10km journey though one guy was willing to go for as less as Rs.100(sarcasm). I got a KTC bus which took me home in 15 mins for Rs.7. I must say that Trivandrum is such a beautiful city, like an enormous million acre univ campus.
   Now I have to decide what to do for the next three days which are holidays(Onam + Weekend).

On the whole today was kind of boring because of the 2 hour lab session being totally useless and learning facilitators being generally late for instructions.

Day Two of ILP :

Didn't have to wake up early in the morning! Left for Technopark campus at 9:30 a.m. nicely outfitted in formal shirt, trouser, tie, socks and shoes ...
 The whole day went in documentation and information about why TATA is the best company from various experienced people in TCS such as managers and technical guys.
  A whole lot of information about TCS corporate strategy, their strengths and financial clout was provided ...  and also about corporate secrecy and security .... the guys at TCS really believe that the only way forward is to engage in a whole lot of processes. Some inspirational videos about the "TATA Code of Conduct" were also shown and I too felt that they were good things to adopt in one's professional as well as social life - Leading Change, Integrity, Respect for the Individual, Excellence, Learning and Sharing.
  Then there were brilliant Onam celebrations in the evening, with professional Kerala traditional fusion dancers making a colourful and energetic performance ... it was really remarkable to see the sher-shikari dance and bharatnatyam-kathakali-kuchipidi-etc. south indian mix dance by performers.
  After these things, we were shown some videos about managing health in an IT organization like TCS, avoiding slips, falls and MSDs (LOL).
  Finally there was a test at 8:30 in the night (:-O), where the batch was tested on Database,MySQL, Unix, Java and OOP concepts; the questions were  about predicting the output of some program, choosing the right command for an output and some textbook stuff from CS.
  Finally we got our postings and streams ... I was posted to Mumbai with the MainFrame stream! Pretty happy about that coz  I love large compters!!!

And so another eventful day comes to an end!

Starting of TCS ILP !!!

Checked into TCS ILP hostel today. Double room seems to be kind of small but is manageable ... guess trainees aren't given 5-star treatment ...

Awaiting the starting of training the next day and preparing how much ever as possible from the pre-ILP material.

The area of Trivandrum in which I am staying (Ulloor Junction) has lots of background noise due to extensive construction work, but it is muted since my room is a bit away from the road. Wonder how others are managing in a noisy environment ...
  On a positive note, there are lots of shops and eateries as well ...

  Weather is excellent, neither too hot, nor too cold, just a constant 28 degrees.
Did a lot of shopping today as well so that living condition is good. I am still waiting for my roomie to arrive (hope he is good !)

  Another complaint is that internet connectivity is not provided; considering that we are just about dependent on the internet for information, that's a bummer ...
However, no internet bill on the bright side ! So I am posting this using my TATA Photon connection from Mumbai, great that it works all over India!

Hope there are no power cuts, haven't asked around about that ....
K, later !