Xperience Cognizant 2012 was like a dream for me. We were told by our maam that cognizant was looking for campus ambassadors from our college. At that time I had no idea about Xperience Cognizant or for the matter of fact that I would have to go to Chennai to attend it. I just thought that it would be a good experience to at least try for it and even if I get selected I would be able to conduct something in my college. So there I was filling the form and submitting to the respective professor. The next thing I know I was shortlisted for a telephonic interview. It went well. I was at least happy knowing the fact that I had given an interview, be it a telephonic one. The next day, to my surprise, I came to know that I was selected as one of the campus ambassadors in my college. My happiness knew no bounds. It just felt so good to get selected. Still I had no idea about XPC. The first time I came to know about XPC was when I was asked to meet the SPOC with Cognizant of our college. She was the one who told me that I would be representing my college in an event named Xperience Cognizant. It was a short and sweet proud moment for me.
The whole XPC experience for going to be a lot of first’s for me. I was a bit scared as well as excited. I met all the other campus ambassadors from Pune region (plus there were two from NIT Raipur) at the Pune Airport. And the journey began. My first flight journey turned out to be quite good and it went uneventful to my relief (coz my friends had all put bets on me puking the first time). We landed at the Chennai Airport and along with the Bangalore team we were taken to the MEPZ facility of Cognizant. One look at the campus and I was awestruck. It was the first time I was inside an IT company. I just looked around and thought to myself in two three years I might be in one of such campus. The campus was huge and beautiful. Immediately we were given the t-shirts that we were supposed to wear for the three day event and ushered into the conference hall. The first day was all about introducing all of us to what was Xperience Cognizant all going to be about. Sowri Santhakrishnan gave an insight to what technology hold for us in the future. Then we were addressed by Sukumar who talked about how Cognizant kept pace with all the rapid progression in modern technology. All of us were just glued to whatever they were saying. And typical of today’s generation we were filled with questions, rather overflowing with it. And I must congratulate all the speakers for answering all of them patiently. And then it was time for one of the many sumptuous meals. Then after lunch we were made divided into groups and made to play a game which was rather a master stroke by the HR team as they were well aware of the sleep syndrome. The whole activity personified the word fun. All of us thoroughly enjoyed it. After that we were taken to the Hotel where we were supposed to be staying for the three days but not before we were given topics on which we had to develop role plays that evening. Everybody freshened up quickly and got down to the hall where the evening party was. All the teams performed remarkably. The effort was even more noteworthy given the fact that all of us hardly time to know each other’s name. Then came the most fun part of all the three days. The gates of the dance floor opened. All of us danced in our own unique way. The day ended with gossip with other ambassador which was fun.
The second day we were taken to the Siruseri facility of Cognizant. It is home to the Cognizant Academy. It is the place where all the entire fresher’s are trained once they get placed here. Saransh cleared all doubts in our minds regarding what training is all about. Mr. Balaji Sethuram talked about the top five technologies that would be shaping our future. Then there was the Q & A session where all our questions were aptly answered by the speakers. After lunch a quiz was held which tested us and our knowledge and common sense. In the evening we were taken to Temple Bay where there was another team building activity. We all were divided into teams and asked to give a presentation on one of the four case studies given to us. Again each of the team performed remarkably. The night in one way or other way marked the end of XPC with all the group photos and certificated being given to all the participants. The night again belonged to chit-chatting with fellow ambassadors.
The third day brought about a whole new experience. No more an office environment to experience in the morning. We were taken to “DakshinaChitra”. The time we spent there truly lived the term- knowledge with fun. There were so many cool activities that we were given to do plus were enlightened about some less-known facts about the culture in South India. That place was real fun and I would my friends to go there if they ever plan on visiting Chennai. Then it was time for some of the guys to leave as they had a flight to catch. We, the Pune team, were luckier on the other hand as we were the last ones scheduled to fly out of Chennai. We planned on going to the beach. And after that we went to the airport and boarded our flight rather dejectedly.
It is rightly said that good things never last. Neither did this. But the whole experience will be in our hearts forever. I would really like to thank Natasha Gupta and Deepak Ramakrishnan for doing such a efficient job of managing all of it. This is something I will cherish for the rest of my life. The three day conclave was something which opened many new horizons for me. I lived it, loved it, experienced it. Xpc was fun. Xpc was a dream. Xpc was educative. Xpc was so much more…..
Signing off,
Shashank Pal.
