“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose

A time to be born, and a time to die…

A time to weep, and a time to laugh,

A time to mourn, and a time to dance.”

                                                                                            -------Bible:Ecclesiastes

Xperience Cognizant 2012 was our time, and undoubtedly one of our best times! The idea of bringing together an entire youth brigade, each a shining star in his or her own right, and shaping them up as the brand ambassadors of Cognizant Technology Solutions in their own college campuses was an idea conceived only last year, and carried on to chart new territories this year as well.

We first got an inkling of the grand experience of the 3 day national conclave from our previous year’s campus ambassadors about 6 months back. Before we embarked on our journey, they had already shared with us the valuable information, memorable details and the tales of madness and mischief managed within the short, but very eventful span of 3 days. Hence, we could only be eager and in excited anticipation of our own time in Chennai as well! The selection process began just about a few weeks prior, and was a rigorous affair. After all, choosing just two ambassadors among the huge pool of talent, from the best colleges, was probably a Herculean task assigned upon the HR teams from the cities of Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Madurai and Bhopal, the cities in turn acting as centres for candidates from nearby regions too.

Needless to say, the few days of waiting seemed like a decade….before finally the day arrived when we could bundle up our luggage and land up at the airport, at the crack of dawn, all set to have a blast!

The eastern region team from Kolkata gelled well enough to delve into the group spirit right from the very beginning. Led on by the Cognizant HR threesome, Arya sir, Arnab sir and Sibaji sir, we had no trouble getting on board our Indigo flight, and also none getting to know our team members from other colleges. Friendships emerged and soon a vibrant and very animated party of college kids were on their way to the heart of Tamil Nadu, to get a taste of the young and dynamic spirit that is an integral part of Cognizant.

The Kamraj international airport greeted us after a smooth flight over the sparkling Bay of Bengal and we disembarked to a dry and sunny Chennai, where a luxury bus waited to take us to our destination. Although none of us had slept right the previous night, we were still an energetic bunch, ready to head straight to the Cognizant office campus, where the conclave events were planned out for the day. Once there, we hurriedly registered ourselves and collected our bags and dress code tees in order to join all the other teams. The day began with an insightful speech and interactive session by Sowri Santhakrishnan, who gave us an interesting glimpse into the world of brilliant and evolving technologies involving mobility solutions, and what was being planned to implement them in the future. Questions started flowing and young minds opened up to absorb the world of knowledge on offer, from smartphones to cloud computing, and also raised some crucial points regarding the feasibility of employing new technologies. This was followed by another enlightening address by Sukumar, Head of Research and Innovation at Cognizant, about the Cognizant spirit of embracing the rapid progressions taking place in the field of information technology. Ramkumar, SVP, further enthralled the audience with his assertive vision and insight, speaking on Cognizant’s differentiators, taking care to eloquently answer every thought-provoking question coming at him from the attentive audience.

After lunch in the spacious office dining hall, the teams reassembled in the seminar hall to engage in some unique and exciting games lined up for them. The dose of fun started when the members from different teams were jumbled up and assigned hilarious tasks to perform, and this exercise succeeded immensely in acting as ice-breakers among the different groups.  Leaders of the 4 teams had to collect everything from chewed gum to torn socks and run helter-skelter to score points!

Afterwards, three long-term cognizant employees took it to themselves to be bombarded by bounds-free questions by inquisitive minds, regarding the perturbing situations, work-life balance, pressure and fun at work, long commutes, and even the social activities encouraged by Cognizant.

Evening was no time to relax and with very good reason! Having finished with the office sessions, the students were taken to the open-air theatre space to have group photos clicked, and were randomly divided into teams for a presentation and skit round. Topics were assigned, and we had to get busy immediately, brainstorming for innovative ideas to bring to the stage, after we got back to the hotel,

Just about an hour of freshening up was given, following which all of us were made  to gather at the banquet hall of our hotel to quickly assemble our ideas. Numbers were allotted for a sequence, and each of the teams racked their brains within a restricted time, to actually come up with some admirable performances. It was then that we really started to soak in the fun of meeting and working with aware and imaginative minds, all the while cumulating the essential nuances of teamwork.

The grueling day would have had us exhausted, but in no way could we miss the best reward of the day….an enlivening western dance performance by Cognizant employees’ dance group, and afterwards an open-to-dance stage enticing us to let loose to the groovy music spun by the invited DJs! We danced well into the night, shaking a leg with almost with anyone who came our way!

But we had to drag our tired bodies into our rooms and quell all the excitement of party in order to be able to be up next morning by the compelling tone of the wake-up call at 7 am. Day 2 was planned out at the Cognizant academy at Siruseri, where the training of fresher recruits, as well as many other kinds of learning are arranged. There, the head of the academy, Saransh, gave us a vivid picture of the method of education followed at the academy, and cleared the doubts of questioning minds, as to what are the requirements and advantages of the structured yet flexible system. Chief architect GTO, Mr. Balaji Sethuraman, then talked about the technologies that are changing lives every instant---including even the NFC technology used by Cognizant to register students for the event. The Q&A sessions continued with four employees who had just completed training at the academy, with whom students could freely interact and ask constructive questions. These sessions were then followed by a quiz, where a few college teams qualified to be up on stage for a challenging series of questions. The audience too, participated actively to win goodies, and a lot of energy and laughter was shared during the entire event.

The second day was far from over though. A beautiful resort, Temple bay, awaited us in the evening, where yet another round of on-stage activity was planned. This time again, teams were formed, and topics discussed over the bus ride itself. Preparation time was again severely limited, and we surprised ourselves yet again by handling the onslaught with élan! Teams came up with novel ideas of presentation, making use of props and charts to accompany speeches. We sure had a lot to say, as we jostled for our turns to speak!! The stage was again thrown open for dance and later a sumptuous buffet dinner followed. The hectic day ended with casual late night chat sessions back at the hotel, and we had no qualms staying up till 3 am to let no moment of potential fun go to waste!!

The last day of our stay in Chennai was by no means relaxed, with a visit to the beach and then a beautiful village-museum called Dakshin Chitra all lined up. A host of games lay in wait for us, spiced up with engrossing stories about the cultural traditions of South India, at every step of the way. Sirisha, a beautiful dancer, left us enraptured with her renditions of the stories in dance form. Teams went clue-hunting and engaged in a variety of mind-boggling fun games. Everything from pot-breaking to weird fashion parades made sure we had all deeply imbibed the spirit of teaming up and working together to accomplish each task with verve.

The 3 days thus converged to an end. The Kolkata team wrapped up and left for the hotel, heading out to the airport at around 5 for our flight homewards. All of us cherished every moment left of the meet and reminisced on all the happenings of the last 3 action-packed days of enjoyment coupled with phenomenal learning. Goodbyes were tough, the idea of having to settle back down to regular life left us rather disconsolate. However, all good things don’t have to end at a point, because we will surely continue to have the delightful memories tucked away to bring back  in melancholic times, and rely on the friendships made to last a very long while!