Good Times..

'The word "Bench" in indian software services lingo refer's to a person's state while waiting for a client project. For all practical purposes, during this period the employee has to come to office by the last available bus, have as many tea's as possible from the dreadful vending machine , unleash creativity in the form of mail chain's, and enter into the most bizzare discussions on the bulletin board that would put Freud to shame. All this while waiting for the clock to strike five so that he can catch the first available bus back home.

But, for a small gang of guys and girls in the infy december 2000 batch, the word "bench" took on a different meaning. Outside the heritage block ( infosys's first building, in the e-city campus in Bangalore), there is a basketball court next to which there were two "Benches" painted in dull green. Most of the gang's "bench" period in infy used to be spent on these benches, talking about anything under the sun.

The first character, Jop's "The Islander" as he used to be called in our team actually came from Vypin Island near Cochin. Jops is a hard core mechanical engineer and would have been happy on a ship sailing around the world, stopping at exotic port's and having a nice time. He ends up in infy due to certain heart related, 'reasons' which will be disclosed later. He has made one important discovery on the bench .. Jops is a Catholic and is not new to the church heirarchy and the politics that go on behind the scenes.. when topics on the bench drift in that direction, he would invariably say "Man, all these priests are con artists. Look at the amount of money they make!!." ..... Plop !! .. Jops can feel a warm fluid slowly seeping into his shirt.. Everyone looks up and sees a crow sitting on the tree looking at Jops and i dont know if crows can technically smile but it sure looked as though it were smiling. over a period of time, the crow keeps up its attacks and somehow seems to have an affinity for Jops.. in the end it suddenly strikes Jops.. He had crow shit on his shirt, whenever he used to curse the catholic church .. Jops is like .. " Dude the crow must be catholic !!" .. We got convinced that the crow was sent by powers unknown to us and decided not to comment on the catholic church when the crow was around ..


The second character - Vattu ... literally means "Crazy" in Mallu .. and thea fact that she used to be called that in college too reinforced our belief that she needs to go to the shrink .. A very bubbly person.. she would say "Hi Bhaiyya how are you !!" to everyone in infy from the security at the gate to Narayana murthy .. Our first day in infy was actually in Reddy building's koramangala. We were all wondering how we are going to pass all the exams in infy training. The opening statement from our batch owner was clear " In college you paid to study .. here we pay you to study .. so take it damn seriously " .. But Vattu is oblivious to all this and is wondering where all the handsome hunks she had heard ,about, were .. By lunch she is totally frustrated..She tells me and Jop's..

Vattu:" Yaar , what a shame .. Not a single good looking guy in our batch.. I am depressed" ..
Me: .. "What are you talking about. What about all these guys standing here"
Vattu: "Who ?? Where ??"
Me :"Well, Me and Jops .. for example "
Vattu: [girlie giggle ] Jops looks too babyfaced and you are black..
Me : I thought the "D" in TDH stands for "Dark"
Vattu:[Sarcasm] the color of coal is not "Dark" .. its called "Black". and Black men cannot be trusted.. They are always up to some evil. See hindi movies for proof. 90 % of the rapists are black.
Me: You are calling me a rapist now !! ??
Vattu: No, absolutely not. Its just that you have a higher probability of becoming one ..:-)
Me: Holy $#^%$$#

That moment i decided to marry this girl and eventually i did.. She still doesnt like black men though .. she just moved me to the "Not so black to be considered a rapist" category.

Vattu and Me ..






















The next character on the bench is Bins ... my friend since school days, is a very lively character and makes the gang complete. She also chips in on the bench with her views.. she is the only one who had some work during those times though .. Bin's is thin as a pencil and we used to feel she could potentially be blown away in a strong wind.. Bin's and Vattu also used to be members of the famed BTM Gang.. A gang of around 50 guys and gals who used to stay in the BTM area.. Bin's and vattu were our bridge to the rest of the batch , and used to keep us updated ( without our choice :-) ) on all the latest relationship's, breakup's hot gossips etc etc..
I remember one incident where Jop's inadvertently makes a statement that actually blow's the whole gang away, but i really cant pen it down here. Gang members would remember for sure :-) ..


Next is Ikkaa .. the "perfect" man ... every day at least once he asks Jop's

Ikka: " Dont i have the perfect height 5 ft 11' ??"
Jops: "Yes"
Ikka: " Dont i have the perfect weight ??"
Jops: "Yes"
Ikka: " Dont i have the perfect hair"
Jops: "Yes"
Ikka: " Dont i have the perfect mooch"
Jops: "Well .. ahem .. Yes"
Ikka:"Then why dont I have a girlfriend where all other A$$#@!#$ out there have !! "

Ikka is perfect in the way he walks, talks, deals etc etc .. and the situation described above changed with time and he used to hang around "St John's" quite a lot ;-). Since he is married now, i shall not comment further on his girlfriends.. ;-) .. but we had real good times together..Especially in our trip to Shivanasamudram and Thalakkad.. Vattu still has a crush for him i think.. She used to call him "Ikkaaa .. Biwi ye ittittu poyoo ".. whenever he used to leave us and go.. also she still likes his driving to mine.. Fate has it that he is my neighbour in bangalore now.. :-) .."

Ikkaa for you ..