Living Diversity

By Reita Hutagalung, Global MBA student 2013-2013, Indonesia

Having a class at ESSEC where, with 21 people, you meet 14 different nationalities is awesome. At Infosys, however, we found diversity in an even bigger scale.  Infosys has more than 100 interns of many different nationalities, although many study in the main countries where Infosys has a strong presence. We found out that a batch of new interns comes almost every two weeks, making our network of friends from all over the world even bigger. This is something that we, the Indian Team, really enjoy!

On the first weekend, we went on an excursion to Angsana Resort. It was a nicely laid out resort with greenery and sport facilities. We started by having a very nice breakfast in the garden, where my first exposure to tanning started. After that, we started our activities: cricket training, rope in the air challenges, and paint ball. Everyone dispersed according to their interests and, as for me, I wanted to learn how to hit a cricket ball.  We started taking turns training to hit the ball thrown by a machine. At first tried to hold the stick like a baseball bat, but that didn’t work at all. Then I was advised to hit it from the bottom upwards. Ah, then I started to be able to hit them! The rope challenges were also fun, and they brought back memories of Saint Cyr. Although they were not positioned high in the air, on one of the main hurdles was to pull yourself up while maintaining balance. Thanks to Leo, who was not so much of a supporter, I got stuck there for quite some time because of losing concentration. Paintball was not really my cup of tea because it’s painful, so after that we just played some more cricket.

The outing’s theme was getting to know more people during the activities. The day was quite relaxed and after lunch we were free to use the resort’s sport facilities. We tried tennis, squash, ping pong, the swimming pool, and even the trampoline. After exhausting ourselves with those activities, the day came to an end with watching a cultural event: Indian Dance. The dancers performed the dances that tell stories of Khrisna, Rama, and Shinta. Beautifully and elegantly performed, they closed each dance with an explanation of several steps and movements of the dance. The taste of Indian culture that the dance gave us was great and made us wanted to explore more. Diversity is to be cherished; and diversity is to be respected. It’s what makes life interesting and beautiful!

See photos and video from Bangalore: Little Fun Facts of Bangalore