Mr Nagarajan Srinivasan (I shall take the liberty of calling him Snags, thats how he popularly known in Infy, plus I think it also sounds cool !!) Snags wanted to get his leadership team at Infy on the walking tour so we exchanged a couple of mails back and forth to decide the date and in between he suggested if I would be interested in coming down to the Infy Campus to talk about my experience with Royal Mysore Walks, They had their Leadership meet coming up and he extended the invite. You know for me if its Talking then there is no Stopping ! So gladly I accepted. The Walking tour also happened for their small group. Great audience to be doing such tours for. Well read, well traveled folks who have this strong love for the city !!

The date of the talk arrived and there I was at the gates. Now anybody who has been to the Infy Mysore Campus will tell you about the kind of security cover it has got, No!! not the Group 4 kind of joke that passes for security, In wake of latest terrorist threats Infy has armed CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) personnels guarding their campus, There is a “Quick Action Unit” too (Don’t know how exactly they act though) stationed out there. Trivia ! Infosys is the first corporate organisation in India to get CISF cover !! Anyways considering yours truly is not a terrorist getting past the rings of security was not too much trouble.

The Infy Mysore Campus has always been a kind of a crystal maze to me (the couple of times I have been there before) But thanks to my friends there this time, I got to the building I had to get to without much trouble.Here I met with Ms Soumya (who happened to be a alum from my college,SJCE) ,who took me to Snags chamber.A very unassuming personality who would put you at ease. The three of us headed for lunch to this restaurant called Rajadhani, Places like these are generously sprinkled in Malls all over but to expect something like this in your office food court must surely be soothing. After a sumptuous meal where the waiter in a traditional attire forces you to have more like you are one of the members of his family I hope do people get back to work after lunch here !!

Snags had given me this option of touring the campus post lunch, either by Walk or on a Buggy! No points for guessing what I chose !! Hopped on to the buggy with Soumya who is this pro at doing these campus tour and she was very polite in letting me know that,”The Buggy is used only when they have a client visit or important guests. Even the top bosses don’t get to use it in the campus” So she said I was privileged !!  It sure felt good but it also made me realize that with a Kurta you are undressed for the occasion!! I was from this  Gandhian Era when everybody else on campus was ‘tie’d up, in spite of the heat !! Anyways off we were on the tour. The shapes of the buildings unique stretching towards weird (for this common man), The running tracks, 7   food courts, The Global Education center, which makes you feel you are in Rome !! The sports complex, the series of Tennis, Badminton,Squash Courts, Rooms for Yoga, Aerobic, Super Market, Mini Hospital, Banks, Manicured lawns all over the place. In short you could say that they have whatever a man (even a woman for that matter) could ever need. But wait, they didn’t sell beer !! They also have this magnificent Multiplex which on the outsidelooks like a Cactus !! Soumya declared that this is better than the PVR multiplexes (Trivia !! PVR stands for Priya Village Roadies,A joint venture between the owners of the Priya Cinema hall in Delhi and Village Roadshows,the austrailian production firm, the folks behind the movie Matrix !! ) Anyways I thought she was kidding but when inside you are proved wrong. A 1000 seater big screen place was where the much coveted TED Conference took place last November.

Since the Mysore campus is their central training facility. The campus has approx 13,000 beds, The capacity to accommodate the highest number of people in a single complex in whole world !! Snags tells me that The Venetian in Vegas comes 2nd with 7,000 odd rooms , The MGM Grand again in Vegas with 6800 odd rooms comes 3rd !! Now this one place where Mysore beats Vegas huh ! and like Soumya quips, “If ever the software industry collapses, Infy can turn this facility into a world class resort !!” I’m sure their code will run the slot machine if that happens!  The hostel accommodation is spread across their sprawling campus and it almost never ends. At the end of the tour my respect for the facilities team increased who are always on their toes to keep the campus in shape and for Soumya who in spite of doing this tour for the nth time was so full of enthusiasm !!

I can already hear most you saying, I must be a great campus and all that but but whats the big deal !! Well, I too have seen my share of world class facilities but thinking of it some 30 odd years ago, A time when our Mulayams and Lalus were calling for a ban on computers in India because they thought it would take away employment, A bunch of guys from middle class backgrounds in the 20s decided to give up their cushy jobs to pursue their dreams and in the process they built a World Class Corporation !! Yes the Big two tech companies in India are TCS and Wipro, not taking anything away from them. The former always had the Tatas behind them and Western Indian Oil Products had made its money in the FMCG sector before entering the IT space !! Talk to most entrepreneurs today and they’ll tell you that they look up to Infy story for inspiration. Doubt the Infy founder had somebody to look up to in our country back then ! Which is why their story is so commendable. Back in Snags cabin, waiting for him to finish his work, got this thought, here is a person who is the Associate Vice President of the company today and The Head of this sprawling campus which trains 25,000 people each year !! But 19 yrs ago right out of college he joined Infy as a Software Engineer, when it still wasn’t a flashy company and climbed up the ladder to the position he is in today !! Its people like him who probably truly represent the Indian IT success story! And you ask him how ? His modest reply “I was at the right place at the right time” then you couple that with his  smartness and shrewdness and you’ll know why he got there so soon !!

Went for the talk which was their Leadership meet for Project Managers and above, Great audience to get across to. It was about “Converting your passion to Entrepreneurship” It was about my short journey so far of trying to club my interests and making a living out of it, with the challenges faced. It was close to an hour. After the talk over coffee I was still curious how would a one man venture addressing the leadership team of a billion dollar company help ? for which Snags replied “We would want our team to think like entrepreneurs not expecting all the decision to come from the top” He was right , Ownership makes all the difference. Something the Japanese Auto companies did very well and the American Auto giants didn’t !!

Here I was to to share my experience so that they could get a different perspective and probably learn from it but in the end I it was a great learning experience for me personally !! Happens so often than not that you get back more than what you could give… Aint it

n hey by the way.. Snags is a SJCE alum too !! I’m so proud of my alma mater I tell you

PS: Here I’m not trying to change anybody’s mindset on Infy !! Because even now I know i will have my friends complaining over minor issues in the company, I too did not appear for the Infy campus interview in college because back then I thought they were too big !! now I feel every entrepreneur should read the Infy story, It sure is a very humbling experience !!

Saragur is about 70 kms and from Mysore towards the forests in Kabini. It was a group of around 25, for most of them it was their first time in India, And driving by the Indian country side definitely throws up a lot of interesting sights. Shared a few Mysore stories, Be the Tipu’s connection with NASA or the Spy Princess Noor Inayat Khan’s roots in the city but what ends up being your favorite sight would be the numerous cows on Indian roods. Why the holy cow is so revered in this country and the multifarious uses of its products. One can probably spend all day understanding the Cow and still not be done with it.

The NGO that we were visiting was Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM). Started in 1984 by a group of Doctors from Mysore Medical College, who after being inspired by Swami Vivekananda’s teaching went on to move to the tribal area in this region to serve them. It highly inspiring how they have been successful in transforming the community there. Over the 25 years of SVYM’s existence they have set up specialty hospital there and also schools for tribal children. As they put it “Good health is just the entry point into the Society, Then education was required and later self sustenance ” Something which they have wonderfully demonstrated  by also setting up community driven initiatives for self sustenance.

The doctors took the teams around on a guided tour first of the Hospital built mostly with money from donations. They explained how small changes had been made to suit the local conditions. Once done with the hospital we were nexttaken to what I call “The Toilet showroom”. It was place where they had different basic models of the Indian style of lavatory so that they could demostrate to the tribals the inportance of sanitation and hygene. Since most infection are caused by the lack of it. Since most of the local still defecate in the open, the focus was on getting these people to use these lavatories at home . There was also a board having the split up of costs to set up a lavatory, like raw materials, labor etc. If the person could supply any of this on his own then the cost of it was struck down. It was a classic example of how to get an idea working and also how well the doctors learnt from their experiences and kept evolving.

Later visited the school, where kids seemed really happy being there. Use of computers was stressed with the school have a full fledge computer lab with internet connection which was very impressive. We also did a tour for their organic farm, It was to see how small changes farming practice can make so much of difference. There were fresh oranges, sweet strawberries all waiting to be tasted. The smell of freshness that one gets in the middle of a farm can be intoxicating.

It was great to see doctors from a premier medical college in India who could have made millions in any corner of the world but chose to made a difference to people. Great show to their hard work, dedication and service. Recognized by numerous awards.  Like TED says, It was definitely a tour of Ideas worth spreading !!