ILP experience -1

I was fortunate enough to undergo the TCS ILP (Initial Learning Programme) Trivandrum(TVM henceforth), at one of the countries best training centres, apart from the usual technical training ,there were lots of other insight of life which I came across.

I want to share with you all my experience I had during the ILP. Well , to start with the train journey , There was another guy from Bangalore ,native of Assam, in my compartment whom I hardly spoke to ,Little did I know, we were destined to be room mates at the Hostel.I had a very awkward feelin on the first day, the guy whom I treated as a stranger was my room mate !!!

The sultry weather of TVM , had got us and we started sweating hell, as if this wasn’t enough the size of the room was a big shock , felt like squeezed in a cage. But thought it was my fate and lets not complain, I’ve come here to have some good time and thus let go the cribbing.

Now comes the bouncer, Kerala is a state which claims its 100% literate, that’s true, but in local language only and with not many people being literate in English and hindi as Bangalore.

So you can imagine the case when I went outside to just have a look of the city , as I can term it “Lost in Translation” was the perfect one. My major concern was how shall I communicate ..?How do I tell what I would like to order at the hotel, how do I say I need a particular style of haircut to the barber, how do ask for routes…? Probably, the instinctive sign language was the only help…In 21st century and communication thru sign language , what a mode of communication !!!

Comin to food, food was definitely a concern, cause I was a total foodie and the existing language problem . So a new place , new people and a new phase of life, and a first time hostel life. The hostel life teaches you a lot in terms of managing time,to understand value of money , to understand to restrain yourself from unwanted rumours etc. You got all freedom ,and sure do have lots of fun. As this was my first stay as a hostelite, I thoroughly enjoyed it .

Then came the day of reckoning, First day at TCS. At a professional Learning Centre herein referred as ILP .After listening to all the induction programmes, I felt proud to be a part of an international organization, and felt nice, when the term software professional was attached to our name, it felt like I was a responsible person and have some responsibilities towards my company and had to behave in a formal manner .

The TCS Trivandrum ILP, is a very beatiful building, located at the Techno Park ,surrounded by lush greenery .A NH 47 seperates the Techno Park and the sea !!! . Marvellous view . From the 5th floor one could see the beautiful sea and the lush greenery.In terms of beauty , I really can say, Kerala is God's Own country. 800 TCS Trainees at this ILP includin some 20 odd from UK and equal number from Hungary and Japan, and all well dressed and really gives u a nice feeling . The faculty is really good (except for most of the men faculty ).All the courses are taught with the ppt slides and videos .

The boring part of the ILP is the Software courses, is that they are complete theoretical and college type teaching , but in between the course we have to enact a play , solve case studies and have games related to subject . Teams are made and there is good competion between them.

The French classes were real fun, with lots of funny pronouciations and had to try to talk as much French as possible . We also had games related to subject and have to perform a drama or sing a group song (french one).Well my team in French subject was known by Champagne , a city in France famous for Wine. The French drama was such a terror among us, that rumours of the drama getting postponed had begun to spread the day prior to the exam.People trying to cram all their dialogues , with funny pronunciations, was surely a sight to see.

The personal Grooming classes taught us cross cultural aspects, handshakes, body languages , dining manners etc.We even had demo classes on how to have handling the cutlery, sip wine etc with food being served!!!. So these were about the initial days at the ILP.

An usual day would be to get up at 7 am, get ready by 8 ,borrowing ties from other colleagues which match our trousers, last moment ironing and finally into the “Dakota express” at 8:10 .A 20 minute drive saw us into the ILP.The breakfast and the lunch were cheap and the food was pretty good, so I really made the most of it. Being a complete foodie,I througly enjoyed the 3 glass of milk, 2 corn flakes bowls , 2 omlets and idli , vada as my breakfast menu .Hmmm..I was a perfectly fuelled machine , the classes began, with some sleep inducers in between and some wacky ones in the end…

At the end of the day, the tired souls retired back to the same”Dakota express”, to be bac in 30 mins, the next thing to do was which hotel shall we choose to have dinner .Probably we have chosen so many combinations in checking out each one of them, turning ourselves into a scape goat every time. At the hostel, it was all fun after retiring back from the ILP, chatting, till midnight and some guys preferring to do the same at the girls quarters!!Numerous pranks ,like bursting of crackers at midnight, missed calls to new numbers with prank messages, continuous assignments kept us busy always .Stress and fun, was it all !!!.

In my next article I shall write about the weekend trips, crush at ILP,dance parties, birthday celebrations, project submissions and the tearful farewell day at the ILP.