Notes on the Infosys Campus

Starfleet Academy exists, and it is located in Mysore.

No joke. Between the hyper-modern buildings and the strangely anachronistic and geographically displaced Vatican replica and Italian villa, the campus is a vision of prosperity plunked down in the middle of anything but.

Same goes for the 10,000 interns here: diversity is welcomed, ideas and perspectives are openly discussed, and everyone walks around with a communicator. There's no smoking, drinking, gambling, playing loud music or walking on the grass. And yes, there are uniforms: black pants and light shirts for the men, saris for the women. I don't think it's policy as much as culture, but the result is visually arresting, especially when the day begins and ends.

There are other uniforms as well. A small army of mowers, planters, sweepers, insect wranglers, sidewalk polishers and topiary psychologists maintains an eden-level ecosphere, while countless facilities and commissary personnel provide three hots and a cot to the thousands of people here.

There's also a literal small army. Vehicles are swept for undercarriage bombs and all luggage is x-rayed on the way in. Bands of armed guards--weapons out--patrol every street and building. Outdoor hall monitors in blue and white nurse-like uniforms stand every two hundred yards, waiting for someone to spit out their gum or make a rude gesture. And captains, commanders and generalissimo-types survey their domain. No pictures, please.

Also, no maps. TED had provided every guest a campus map to help them get around, but it was deemed a security risk and they were confiscated. The result is several thousand attendees all walking around asking each other where lunch is. Amusing, but possibly less than efficient.

I asked why this was--I ended up having dinner with one of Infosys's founder's sons. Simple, he said: Infosys is an island in India, and it's in the news a lot, which makes it a target. We tend to think of terrorism in large-scale, thousands-of-casualty terms. Here, smaller devices like car bombs are the norm, and it only takes one for everyone to have a very bad day.

But no one seems to mind the security. Or the 10-foot wall topped with razor wire that surrounds them. Or that there's no easy way into the city (more on this later). They're just happy to be here.
This, by the way, is what rush hour looks like.