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| A view of TRDDC |
Ok, so for those who don’t know I’ve been at Pune for the last few days, doing a summer internship at TRDDC. Thats Tata Research Development and Design Centre, a division of TCS.
I’ve got lots to write about: Pune Chics (Hrushi and co were’nt kidding when they said Pune chics are hot!), the nice family I stayed with for the first few days, finding accomodation, blah blah blah.. but right now let me just restrict myself to TRDDC.
WARNING: Ranting, Ranting, Ranting.
In brief: I hate it here.
My Project
Ok, I can’t divulge much of this – I don’t want to break any clause of the four-page confidentiality agreement that I signed before joining here.
But I can assure you that it has nothing to do with Theoretical Computer Science.
Restrictions
Firstly, gmail, orkut etc are blocked. Of course – tech savvy as people here are supposed to be, we use other ways to access these sites. But still restrictions give a bad impression.
The first day I came here, I came in baggy cargos and shirt – typical of me. Second day, t-shirt and jeans. Third day t-shirt and jeans. Through these three days I see everybody wearing formals, and think to myself what a bunch of losers these people are.
Later, I was spotted by some high-profile guy (Brigadier, thats what some of my friends told me he’s called) and asked me whether I’ve seen anybody with jeans and t-shirt in the office, and asked me to maintain office decorum. Formals. Jeans and casuals only on Fridays. Kinda reminds me of the uniformed days of school. A roomie – a guy from IBM – claimed that at his place the minimal restrictions were there are they were not even followed.
So guess what I’ve worn today: Jeans and the same (unwashed, unironed) shirt that I wore on Day 1.
After all, rules are meant to be broken.
Its also interesting to note the computer usage policy that I have to accept before I use my assigned computer. It asserts TCS’s right to monitor everything I’m doing on my comp. And in fact they can do it – we’ve seen them remotely controlling some of the comps.
So guess where I am writing all this from? ;)
I have signed in for 2.5 months… Hmm… heh heh heh … *villaneous laugh* more on this a few weeks from now :D
My new room: Good night, sleep tight don’t let the bed-bugs bite
So after staying three days at Poumai’s place, I moved into my new room for the next 2.5 months.
About 15 minutes and 7 rupees bus ride from TRDDC, and at 2200 p.m. this place sucks. For the next two weeks we (ah, introducing Anurag – an IITM metallurgy guy, so we will be roomies throughout this internship – we are working on different projects though) have been asked to stay in a four bed dormitory, after which we’ll be shifted to a perhaps better room for two.
This place has got a bathroom whose taps don’t work (the one which works works at a slow pace), a drain thats clogged. Downstairs they’ve kept corporation water in bottles in an ancient fridge that stinks (and has got a HUGE bag of dogs meat – meat for dogs – stuffed into the freezer non-auto-defrosting), and which people drink.
For the next two weeks, I and Anurag have been given a single cupboard. Well its got two halves to it, one half is sealed. So lets say we’ve got half a cupboard.
The story behind the other sealed half is interesting and has been passed down the generations of various occupants of the room. Apparently a girl staying in this room commited suicide by jumping down the building a few years back. All her stuff is in this cupboard. Sealed. Ah, I can feel shivers up my spine.
Finally, I slept at 5 in the morning today. Bed bugs. I wouldn’t have slept by then too if not for Odomos. EDIT: The bed-bugs problem has become quite severe, and its just not my bed, there are other infested rooms too. The landlord has agreed to pesticide the bed, but I really wonder how helpful that would be in the long run.
Long live Pune. Long live TRDDC. Short live my stay here!
