Ok ok, thats the training batch ID to which I belonged T34. No there were not 34 of us from whichever end or middle you might count. I was off to the other end of India for the training and thats why missing from Mouthshut. The company has blocked mouthshut and the executive hostel where we stayed had no wi-fi so after a long break of 19 days am back to civilisation.

From initial furtive steps to Charlie's Angels, Chomu and Douglas (more on it later), it was a joyride. All 47 of us strangers gelled together in a way no one expected, least of all us!

The company drilled its structure right into our brains. The incessant lectures caused enough pain that most of us would have preferred a drilling machine!

One of the major aims of the company is an attempt to get non-linear growth
Sumeet, Amber, Ashwini and me are talking over dinner

Amber: The company is planning for non-linear growth
Sumeet: Yeah and Swati and Ashwini are living it......she eats little and expands a lot, he eats a lot and expands very little!

Our training was directed by a balding 40 something man, Mahesh Chadha. He had more enthusiasm for our training than all 40 of us combined! He would thrust the mike into our faces to force us to ask questions. And even then if we didnt oblige, he would hinself ask questions! The standard qauestions were:

How is the world on that side? (especially to those based in UK and US)
How many people work with you? How many Indians? How many foreigners??

Such deep and analytical questions left us in splits....

There were many video conferences and telephone conferences. By the end of first week itself we were thoroughly bored. During one such session with Richard Stryker,
the entire lot was bored to the extent that even Chomu was on the brink of yawning. As Chomu enthused us to ask questions, Gautum got up from the corner of the room and with all seriousness he could muster leaned on the desk and spoke into the phone to Richard Stryker .."Hello Douglas.." (!!!).

The uncrowned PJ king from one the colleges Suchet was in full form on the last night of our stay. Some of the gems from his collection:

Why is it that all the saints are able to resist so many things? Why do they have such high resistance?
Answer: What is the unit of resistance?? O(h)m!!

Suchet: Ropan Bhattacharya is my guru from the time I met him
We: why?
Suchet: In Mahabharat all the gurus were known as Dronacharya, Kripacharya...Ropan is already Bhattacharya!!