Life wouldn’t have been the same!!!

I had not put any effort or whatsoever to get a seat into engineering. I had no hopes at all. I had scored an average (if I may call it) 69% in the Board and a ranking of 18027 in my entrance. With this kind of results you actually have to stop dreaming and try to get what is within your reach. I was just 18 Years old and hardly had any worries about the future. I had enquired in a college from where I can pursue a Bachelors degree in Science. It was not such a bad course to join, I know many great people who have done wonders after getting this degree. But still at the back of my mind (you can read it as my parents mind), I (they) wanted me to get an engineering seat.
The counseling for the seat selection was still 20 days ahead and in the meantime I was all by myself. That night I finished my dinner and was watching some serial (Saas-Bahu types :) ) on TV. At 10:45PM suddenly one of my uncle from Bangalore calls me up and informs that there is some seats for people who are from GSB(Gowda Saraswath Brahmin’s) in Canara engineering college and one of our relatives had the counseling that day and had got the seat. He also said that there were still some seats left, and I better go there and enquire personally the next day itself, so that I may have a chance and might get the seat too. My cousin advised me to take the required certificates, Marks sheets and the photographs which would be required. Within 15mins I took out all my marks sheets and certificates etc and was ready to go. I called up my cousin in Mangalore at night and informed him that I will be reaching the next day morning by 9 in the morning.
I got up at 5:00 am and left to Mangalore. Reached Mangalore at around 9:30. Had my breakfast and started to CHS association to find out about the seats available. To my surprise there were quite a number of seats available for all the branches. I was told that I can select the branch, pay the token advance amount of 20k and confirm my seat. I called up my father and told him the situation, as my cousin who was working in a bank, he made quick arrangement for the money (from his own pocket :) ) and the next morning I was back at CHS association to complete the formalities and confirm the seat. I came back home the next day still not able to digest the fact that I had actually got a seat in an engineering college.
The problem started when I started thinking how good the college is. When I started going through the prospectus, I came to know that the college was 2 years old and mine will be the 3rd batch. All sort of confusion started creeping in, but I guess this was what I deserved or rather, did I? :) Who cares… when I think now about those few days which changed my future, I am really thankful to everyone who were involved directly or indirectly in those few days. :) :) :)

Today wherever I am, whatever I am and whatever I will be in the future is just bcoz of those few people who made such a difference in my life.

College that changed “me”...

Canara Engineering College, Bantwal. – I owe a lot to this college. I will not forget the moments I spent here, I still recall each n every event that made my life better and some moments which could have been better. Below I am just recalling those wonderful days and some of the events which changed me.

September 21^st 2003: I am getting ready to leave my house to pursue my Engineering degree. My parents are uncertain abt my life. I myself not sure what is in store for me. Holding a suitcase and a bag in my hand I left my home after praying to god and taking my parents blessings. Alone, started my journey towards an uncertain world.

I Reached “MY” college around noon. I entered thru the hostel gates looking at the hostel, Just then aditya and his father got down along with me and we started walking down the road as I started speaking to them. Came to know that he had already got the room booked and had found a roomie. Somehow a thought started running in my mind, who will be my roomie n more importantly where will be my room. As I entered the hostel block, I had to go and meet “PD” - our hostel warden. He gave me a form to fill and asked me to select a room and he gave a list of rooms which were still unoccupied. I went around searching a room which I thought was suitable for me. Met another Batch-mate none other than our own Abhay manjeshwar with his family trying to select a room. Finally I selected room no- 202.

I was cleaning my room I saw a boy passing in front of my room. I called him and introduced myself to him. He introduced himself as Umesh Kamath. Then I met Sadanand Kamath his roomie, Akshay Aithal his college classmate. All 3 from Thirthahalli. I also met Shivprasad, Akshay`s roomie. Then I had this privilege to meet Pradeep Shenoy and his roomie Vaman Nayak. Felt good that most of them were speaking Konkani – My mother tongue. The day passed well, we all speaking with each other and thinking abt the ways to escape fro getting ragged. We all went together to the mess which looked like a heaven for me. People won’t believe it, but that day I had the dinner which tasted very good. As the day ended and I was sleeping on my bed lot of things going in my mind. First time away from my house, away from my parents, away from my place, far off, came to do my bachelors in a college which was in a jungle to be precise. :) Somehow I felt a little uncomfortable thinking all this but still I slept nicely on the new “kurl-on” bed.

September 22^nd 2003: The orientation program: I got up early, went on to brush my teeth wishing Good morning to few who were awake. Had a nice bath and was getting ready and then there was a knock at the door. I opened it n there he stood along with his brother, Subramanya T M my roomie :) both were extremely tired and by the time I went to pradeep`s room and was back, they had locked the door from inside and were sleeping. I tried my best to wake them up but was successful only after 10 mins when my roomie came and opened the door for me.

We all went to the mess had our breakfast and then started walking towards our college to attend the orientation program in the seminar hall. We had each member of the management speaking about the glory of “Canara institutions”. :) Though we were just the 3^rd batch of this engineering college we were made to feel that we had done the right thing by choosing the college. And to put it in a better way I did not have any other better choice than Canara Engineering College for the 18027 ranking I had scored in the entrance exam.

After the round of introductions and speeches and the welcoming from the seniors we had some snacks to eat and we were shown our way to the classrooms.

From there we all were taken for a trip showing us all the labs etc. After this, we were free for the rest of the day.As i was coming back from the college towards the hostel I could see someone waving the hand out of the ambassador car and trying to call me. I couldn’t recognize who it was as I did not know anyone. Suddenly the car stopped and two people got down and came towards me. Suddenly I remembered it was Abhay`s parents whom I had met the previous day. His “mother” couldn’t control the tears in her eyes, somehow controlling herself, she told me to take care of her child and to be good to him. I agreed and told them there was no need for them to worry about anything. I remembered my mother and I had tears in my eyes as I thought of her. I walked back to my room, with all mixed feelings. Another day passed, met few more people from my batch and some people from the seniors. Got to know more about my new roomie. That’s it for the second day.

September 23^rd 2003: First day of college: The “classes” were supposed to begin on this day. After the breakfast we were off towards the college building. I saw so many people around, some getting late for the classes were running; these were basically our seniors, and some speaking to each-other in a carefree way most of these belonging to our batch :)

I reached my classroom. Our class had the door from the back and I had to walk towards the front of the class. A new beginning and I wanted to sit in the first bench :) I still remember many in the class turning and looking at me as I walked towards the front and this was obvious because of the way I looked. A dark guy with grey hairs and a laptop bag in the hand looked more like the lecturer than a student. :) But then I knew pradeep and vaman in the class. Pradeep was sitting in the first bench and I sat beside him. We were supposed to have the class at 9 in the morning, but we were free for the first hour. I thought in my mind that I indeed had entered engineering. I just turned around and started introducing myself to people seated behind me, Just then a guy gets up, goes straight back, closes the door comes to the front of the class and starts “ hi Friends, We have to be together for the next four years, so lets introduce ourselves and get familiar to each other. Let me start – I am Ashwin Shenoy, I studied in Canara institution my whole life right from 1^st STD to 2^nd P U C and now again joined Canara. I am from Mangalore itself”. I saw some people quietly getting up from their places and walking out of the class. I also wanted to do the same thing as I was afraid of facing the crowd, but then gathered some courage to sit where I was, admiring the way ashwin had taken this initiative. Frankly, I don’t remember many people in between who came and introduced themselves because I was trying to think what will I say when my turn comes. I wanted to appreciate ashwin for what he was doing, but then I was too scared. :) My turn, I went up looked at everyone staring at me :( I was nervous like anything, but I had to say something so I started “Hi friends, this is Devidas S Maller from beautiful place of coorg district, Madikeri, I studied throughout my life in madikeri itself right from 1^st STD to 2^nd PUC” … No reaction from anyone, I continued “thank you” and I ran back to my seat. :) Then some more people came gave their intro, went back. Each one coming up saying their name, where they studied and the place they belong to. I don’t remember anybody else, but then how can I ignore this girl. Bhavya bekal comes up from her seat and starts “First of all, I thank ashwin for taking this initiative and introducing the whole class. I am Bhavya Bekal from Mangalore. I studied in Canara P U College, Nice to meet you all”. And all the while I was thinking “SHIT” I had to say this before her. :( Another few more intros and then we had some few mins free before the start of our class. I don’t remember who came for the class. Guess it was upadyaya sir for Physics. The usual classes were started, again with intros before the start of each subject. Another beautiful day had passed, met more people from our batch, also almost the whole 2^nd floor in the hostel. Met people in the neighboring room, room no -201, both mallus. – Vipin nair and vibin o Balakrishnan from kerala. :) This was the first 3 days of my unforgettable 4 years.

Its 5 years since all this has happened. Time really flies; it brings along with it some beautiful moments, some sad moments some mixed moments. All these moments were in my engineering life. This was just the sweet introduction that I experienced.

One year up and Still going strong.... :)

This was written keeping in my mind the ppl in our training batch...

23rd July 2007- One year since…
A day when I had to change myself from student life, the fun I had, the freedom I had, –To- something which is called “The Corporate Life”. I was joining “Infosys Technologies Limited”. But something different was in store for me and my batch. It was like we had changed our college and have joined a new one, where we all were new. The new ‘Toughest’ semester had begun with our new ‘Principal’ I mean the “HR” introducing us and making us aware of the new rules and regulations of the “College” and courses etc...

The first one week was great, we just had the induction sessions from morning till evening and then I and my roomie went on the cycle exploring the wonderful Blore DC. The way the first week had gone by, we had this thought that Professional life is so easy. But the Real courses started from the 2nd week. We had to undergo ‘Regression’ sessions on all the subjects which we had during our engineering, what we had studied in 4 years (A repeat for the people who had done engineering in Computers and for others it was new subjects), was covered well and finished within 2 months. We had the regular module tests and then the compre exam. I remember the day when we had our compre Hands On (Practical’s basically) which will be cherished throughout my life. Naah!!!! Don’t get me wrong here… I remember that day not because of the exam but that day it was Kailash Kher at the infy campus who was simply Rocking. Though we had our important exam on Monday (Compre exam), we had no choice but to forget everything and enjoy the show. The best part was, I and some of my friends got a chance to meet him, speak to him and take pic`s with him. Hmmmm … we had got a motivation to study well for the exam, though I don’t want to tell how well the exam went on… :P

We were expecting our main stream which would decide our future at Infosys and elsewhere. i.e., which platform we all will be trained. Everybody was expecting the stream to be either Java, Dot Net, but the best news came to us that we will be trained in “Mainframes”. Though I had not expected anything like java or dot net, I was scared, the only reason being that I had only heard about mainframes 2 or 3 times in my engineering. :) Nothing more nothing less… :) We were lucky to have the best trainers for this course, I would thank each of them … I know I used to think “Y these people are giving us such tough times” But today after one year I can just thank them because those tough times have made our life easy now … The training was indeed a wonderful, unforgettable, included fun, enjoyment, tough times etc... I have had this opportunity of meeting some of the best people, made some best friends, friends for Life… Also I thank the almighty for giving me the strength to complete it successfully.

We all were shifted to different DC`s after our training, I was lucky to get into Mysore DC. Like the first week of induction, here too I had this opportunity of exploring the Mysore DC… Not for one week but for “5 Full months”. :P :P It really took me 5 months to explore it… n god had given me all the time in the world… I was on “Bench” for 5 months. It was a gr8 time… I almost loved being a “Software Engineer” :) But every good thing has an end... and so did my bench... I was shifted to “IVS”(Testing projects) from “BCMD”(development projects) two months back...now I am enjoying the “Testing” times... :) Hope I have some “Development” in my life soon :P .

My heartfelt thanks to each one of those who has made my life easy... Wishing everyone a great success and a wonderful life filled with happiness and fun…. Enjoy. Keep smiling and Keep in touch… Cheers.

P.S: I did not get time to cover everything what I thought… wanted to write more… May be some other time... :)

2 Years back !!

Dated : 5th June 2008.

Two Years Back – 5th June 2006.

A Dream company for most people in India, A Company where every software engineer dreams to be in. Yes, “Infosys Technologies Limited” had come for the campus placements to our college “Canara Engineering College, Mangalore”.

With not much of a hope I gave the written test as I had done for a few other companies. Then the results :) :) the most awaited part and believe it or not, out of 450 odd people from 7 engineering colleges in the region, only 35 got shortlisted .HR told it was an Average performance from all. The names were called one after the other which included students from other colleges and then the names from our college. 34 names were already called and then the 35th name …”Devidas S Maller”. Yes mine was the last name in the list. God!! , how lucky I was :):) but wait, I had to clear one more round.

My interview was at around 5.30 in the evening which went on well, this was the case in other companies also but none of them called my name in the final list. We all gathered in a room where the names of the people who were finally selected were to be announced. When I heard my name between all the others I felt I was the luckiest person in the whole world. I, for a moment, closed my eyes thanked GOD one more time and then there was hugging each other, congratulating each other .The Best Moment Of MY life. :):)

Another interesting thing was that I had not told my parents that I had a campus interview that day, I had to call them up to inform about my selection. I tried calling my home again and again but no one would pick the call. I was waiting to inform my parents first, before I could spread the news to my other friends and relatives. Somehow I was feeling very bad that I had not told my parents that I had the campus interview, but a deep sense of satisfaction was there within me because for all the previous companies I had informed them but only to disappoint them at the end of the day.

But today was different, again I called up home. It was 9.30 pm. My mother picked the call. I just had to tell her the news but before that I had to ask her where she was from evening. And the answer was “Temple”, it was then I realized why I was selected today and not any other day. Then I told her the news and all I could hear was my mother screaming with happiness and telling my dad about the news. :) :) I guess this was the moment for which I was waiting for a long time. I was happier for the reason that I made my parents happy , I had tears in my eyes, may be for the first time, these tears had come out, because of joy and happiness.

One Year Back – 5th June 2007.

We had our last day of engineering. We had our project lab which was scheduled from 8.00 am to 11.00 am. But the sad part was it went on till 2.00pm, the reason being our project was not up to the mark. But I did not mind the delay or the scolding’s from the external because this was the last day of the wonderful four years of my life. This day was one of the worst days in my engineering life. Just as my group came out of the lab, we were thinking whatever happened had happened; we just have to enjoy the rest of the day. We were exhausted as we did not sleep the night before, and had to take rest but there was no sleep in my eyes.

After lunch we went to the hostel and explained the horrible experience we had in the lab. After that I went to the college cyber. As I was thinking this was one of those days which had nothing good for me, I opened my mailbox to see a mail from, yes “Infosys Technologies Limited” asking me to join the company for the training from 23rd July 2007.

Same day one year ago Infosys made be the happiest person, one year later again I was happy because of Infosys. :) :) Today it is not those happy days because I miss my college, my friends and all the fun I had. :( :( Hope to get some good news from Infosys by the End of Day. :) :)

Year-2006. Best Year Of My Life.

In three words the year 2006 is Unforgettable,Unbelievable and Eventful.
The year started off with my 5th semester B.E exams wherein for the first time in my life i had studied something even before the exams(during the revision holiday). This was only because of the fear i had after i had an lucky escape in the 4th sem microprossesor paper which i cleared in re-vals. The 35 was nothing less than a 100 for me!!!
The exams went pretty well with only 2 subjects which were very tough by the look of it. Then i had a great time with Infosys Campus Connect program and also "Kriya" which actually changed my views on everything and changed the way i think.Though the first two days were boring with tech stuff, it got better with the Personality development things ,english , group discussions and what i think as "The Values Of Life" and prabdeep with his story of motivation bought tears in my eyes.
Then the cricket matches started and this was the time when i played my BEST.(I Guess ;)) I was getting 2 wickets in every match and also i scored 57 in one of the match. But the Best was when i scored 99 n remained not out which helped our team to win the match. Though we got into the finals we couldnt become the Champs Unfortunately.
Soon our 5th semester results were out which i passed with an unexpected First class with Distinction.!!!
Between all this was the campus placements. I was eligible for 7 companies, and had cleared the first round in 5 of them , had made to the techinical round in 4 and HR in 3.!!! But finally i got lucky and got selected for "Infosys" on june 5th . I think this was and till date is the Happiest and the most memorable day of My Life. Soon the 6th semester exams were done and i managed to get a decent 67% which was less but i think thats what i deserved for the effort i put in.
Dont know how the time had passed by, we were in the final year of our course and everyone would say only one thing " enjoy as much as possible this year. You wont get these days back ". and sure enough when i sit back n think of those days now i feel i should have enjoyed a little more then!! :p


Elections were conducted as every year for the students union and i Became the Students union President winning the elections with a handsome 36-9.!! This was indeed one of those gr8 moments in my life. Though i had a tough time being the President i was very lucky to have had some of the best "FRIENDS" who helped me in all my good and most importantly so called Bad times.
This was the year 2006 which bought me lot of luck , Fame and Name . I just wish i get more of such great years in my life which will prove to be fruitful and eventful filled with happiness , joy and Success......