Those were days!

Those were days,
when break time and lunch hours were the most awaited periods in school years! The day's discussions would start of with "did you watch 'Giant Robot' yesterday, i missed Captain Vyom, How was it?" if i even think of those days, i feel elated at one side while at the same time i miss 'em a lot! During the pre college school years too, though there was the "public exam" fever amidst us, we took time off to play during class hours and used to go to inter school fests and competitions.I had the habit of penning down a few lines everyday in my personal diary, a habit which has almost become obsolete nowadays. More the ease and use of technology, more we tend to forget certain habits. During college, apart from having wasted four precious years, i don't seem to have done something useful or gained any significant knowledge, even in my specialisation.

off the track, i was amazed to see Azim Premji holding 20K shares of TCS. The biggies would do anything to acquire more money. moreover, he holds shares of a company which is being regarded as one of the main competitors of the company he runs! Azim was also recently in news when he recommended increased taxing of IT professionals as he felt they were "well-paid." The irony was that, in his very own company, Entry level professionals get paid lesser than the Industry average, but are extracted more work than anywhere else. The business magnets have also started behaving like Politicians, expressing statements which are abstract or make no sense. Azim's remark on professional tax would fit in this category.

Why Ashrama?

Ashrama is a name which signifies peace, spirituality and prosperity. In yesteryears, i mean thousands of years ago, sages lived in Ashrams where they taught young people the art of life and also traditional education under the name Gurukulam. The name Ashram revives the thought of a place which is serene, spiritual and lets one think peacefully. It's even comparable to an abode of the super power, generally referred to as God. I am a staunch believer of the supreme power God and an anti-atheist. Those who say God doesn't exist have that rational thinking only because of God. They will immediately say "Show me God..", the least that could never be done. A very fine example was given by one of my friends Gopal during a discussion about God. He said "As a child, we have been amazed to see a motorbike or a car go around. we never knew that there was a person driving it. as we grow up, we get to handle the automobiles and can drive them. and still as we grow into an automobile specialist, we know the ins and outs of a vehicle and we can build vehicles that run around." So, it all takes some time to realise the values of any object and it would still take more time to undertsand the supremo called God. Time does matter!!! coming back to the thoughts on Ashrams, the ashrams we hear of nowadays are ashrams run by thugs and unholy self-proclaimed "samiyars" who run the ashram merely for money and fame. I wish we had old age style ashrams!

More on QLC...

A few lines from an interesting article on Quarter Life Crisis-
They call it the "quarter-life crisis." It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are a lot of things about yourself that you didn't know and may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two but then get hot and scared because you barely know where you are now.
You look at your job. It is not even close to what you thought you would be doing, or maybe you are looking for one and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and are scared.
Doesn't this truly resonate with what we think?
This is what i always think - why don't people get to do the work they "aim" to or atleast they "wish" or "like" to. It is said that we have to chase such work but the work we like to do will not come to us and ask us to "do" it! I have always wanted to interact a lot with people, sell concepts, spaces and products. I like travelling too. But i never get to do them in my present job! Enough has been said about "Like the work you have got." How can one simply like a job where knowledge gained by the end of the day or at least learnings that we use from past experiences is "nil". In a so called "software company" in India, all that remains in the end of the day are tonnes of documents, ppts and excel sheets. HR Managers talk tirelessly about attrition rates and job hopping professionals but i wonder if they have done a little introspection on why this was happening! They should know the realities of techies' working atmosphere.
The IT industry in India runs over the following two parallel tracks:
1) The notion that Indians are excellent software programmers and
2) Indians will work day and night including weekends if paid a little more.
The second idea is taken for granted given the mindset of an "average" Indian. But, i seriously doubt the first notion, after having spent more than an year in an Indian s/w services company. It may collapse any time and put the train in danger. Little can i understand, how american companies who offshore work to Indian s/w services companies, are ready to pay those millions for a low quality work (YES, the quality of work is low here, let me explain down the lane...) that they get in return. Quality of work lies in the product that we deliver, but not in the documents that go along with the product. Our managers here tend to give utmost importance to a document or a presentation but when it comes to a code deliverable, they have little time to go through it, given their "competence" in doing so. Indian software companies need Technical Managers rather than managers who come up through the "experience" chain or who has done a certificate course in Project Management. I often come across managers who use the words "Road Map, Proactive, Ground Work, Priorities etc" too often (without any need to use them) that i tend to hate these words nowadays.
Atanu Dey, an economist has written an article on why India can never be an IT super power. It's available here.
The only reason i am happy about the Industry is that many young passouts and professionals are getting jobs which otherwise they wouldn't if the industry is not experiencing this "tremendous" growth.
Another reason why the americans are outsourcing could be this: what if we venture into High Technology R&D and come up with World Class products in Chip Design, Telecom etc. Then, the US would loose its numero uno position among the technology nations. (would this ever happen? :) ).
moreover, a few facts as to why India can never be an IT superpower. Indian s/w exports in 2003-04 were aound $12 billion whereas the total exports of Microsoft alone (one of the big s/w companies in the US), was much more than that of the whole India. Take china, where the domestic s/w consumption was worth around $ 30 billions (My GOD!). China is doing great in manufacturing too that the Government wants to slow the growth of the country. Much has already been said about the technological prowess of Japan, automobile competence of Germany etc. Finland has also been emerging fast as a Techie nation, why not when it's home to Nokia, which connects more people on Earth than it's nearest competitor. When so many countries are fast revving up their technological competency, can we, a poor nation of kinky billion people ever come up the tech ladder? It's a serious question which needs a multi dimensional introspection. First there are so many mouths to feed rather than teaching their fingers to handle mouse and key boards.
We need to do a serious multi dimensional soul searching to answer the question "Is India an IT super power?" In my view, in a decade or so, say in 2015, there could be very little to boast of india as an IT super power, as, I hope, by then, International biggies would have acquired many Indian companies or Indian bigges will merge with IT services giants like the big blue, accenture etc. So, what can we do, that makes us specialists in that job and lets us command the world??

The "whys, whats and hows?" of life

Each day is passing on like a jiffy. Everday i wish to list out what i "unlearnt" and what i "learnt" that day but not a day have i been able to jolt them down. but, recently, i have taken part in quite a few discussions with some of my friends on the intriguing questions in life like "Where is God?, What after death?, Why should men or How should men live?" etc. The whole purpose of discussions boiled down to a simple point - "The purpose of our life." Today morning, i had a discussion with one of my colleagues, Gopal, a very learned person who is a member of the ISKCON group. They (the ISKCONers) have crystal clear replies to many of common men's questions. Though many are axioms (which don't have a proof but are taken for granted), they furnish lucid explanations and examples which convince a common man. Why do these questions come for us during the post teen youth period? and has it got anything to do with Quarter Life Crisis?